History TabletopGame / Champions

** A common complaint against 5E and FRED was that, because of the way the point-costs of most powers worked, Bricks could be made much more efficient at what they did, much more cheaply, only having to pump strength (one point per level, assuming you weren't forced to take a disadvantage restricting you to human norms, and then still only double that after 20) and buy a couple defense powers (defense powers being, as a rule, cheaper than attack powers), thus tipping this argument heavily toward the Caveman end. And that's not even taking into account the fact that Bricks don't have to contend with the range modifier.

* {{Gamemaster}}: TropeNamer.

* HitPoints - Most characters in the HERO System have two kinds of hit points: STUN, and BODY. When you run out of STUN, you're knocked out. When you run out of BODY, you are dying. Automoatons can be built with the "has no STUN" power, which means they cannot be knocked out, only killed. In both cases, having 1 point left means you're just fine.

In addition to spearheading support for an entire genre, ''Champions'' has also been influential as the first and most well-developed [[TabletopGames Tabletop Game]] to use [[PointBuy point-based character creation]], allowing players to precisely define their characters using a budget of points which were spent on powers and attributes whose costs were play-balanced against each other. It specifically introduced the concept of acquiring character ''flaws'' in order to gain extra points. It was also the second RPG to do away with [[CharacterClass character classes]] (after ''[=DragonQuest=]''), and was the ''first'' RPG to do away with [[Character Level character levels]]. These innovations heralded what is sometimes called the Second Generation of RPG design; few modern roleplaying games rely solely on random character generation (Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games specifically credits ''Champions'' for shaping and guiding his thoughts when he began developing ''{{GURPS}}''). ''Champions'' itself went on to become the skeleton to ''two'' other universal systems by the end of the 1990s: the HeroSystem, and Fuzion.

In addition to spearheading support for an entire genre, ''Champions'' has also been influential as the first and most well-developed [[TabletopGames Tabletop Game]] to use [[PointBuy point-based character creation]], allowing players to precisely define their characters using a budget of points which were spent on powers and attributes whose costs were play-balanced against each other. It specifically introduced the concept of acquiring character ''flaws'' in order to gain extra points. These innovations heralded what is sometimes called the Second Generation of RPG design; few modern roleplaying games rely solely on random character generation (Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games specifically credits ''Champions'' for shaping and guiding his thoughts when he began developing ''{{GURPS}}''). ''Champions'' itself went on to become the skeleton to ''two'' other universal systems by the end of the 1990s: the HeroSystem, and Fuzion.

** Meteor Man is the Green Lantern, both in terms of powers, elements of his origin and being a "Legacy" character. The Russian villain Cosmo shares some similarities with Guy Gardner.

** While he has a very different origin, Amphibian has similar powers and costume to Aquaman.
** Eurostar were once described as "Evil X-Men" due to several mutant members; Durak (Colossus), Mentalla (Jean Grey) and Bora (Storm)

** Doctor Destroyer is Doctor Doom, only without any mystic elements or sense of honor, and with his origin story switched to 'ex-Nazi mad scientist'.
** Defender is Iron Man, or at least Iron Man before he was an alcoholic Jerkarse
** Nighthawk is Batman, only without a reasonable motivation
*** The first edition of ''Champions II'' gave the Destroyermobile as an example for its vehicle rules; it was driven by "the Darkknight Destroyer".

** Grond is the Abomination or perhaps the Hulk

* OmnicidalManiac - Mechanon, who wants to destroy all organic life. [[spoiler:Not that he's a jerk about it, it's just what his programming says to do.]]

** [[spoiler:Doctor Destroyer's magic-using counterpart from another reality has arrived. Cryptic's idea of him already looked like DrFate...]]

* KlingonPromnotion: Often used to move up in rank in the VIPER organization.

** A number of other old characters were killed off for real in a self-admitted housecleaning, such as most of the old villain group Deathstroke

The intellectual property rights to the ''Champions'' setting are now held by Cryptic Studios, the original developers of the {{MMORPG}} ''CityOfHeroes''. They bought the setting outright rather than licensing it, and it is now used as the setting of their new game, ''ChampionsOnline''. The IP is licensed back to the original developers (who still own the underlying Hero System) for the pen-and-paper game.

* AlienInvasion - The Gadroon and Qualaar have invaded earth several times, most recently in ''ChampionsOnline''

** In a more bizzare example, when Hero Games and Eclipse Comics, then publisher of a licensed Champions comic, parted ways, Eclipse retained a number of the Champions characters; however, many of them were renamed: Marksman became Huntsman, Rose became Psyche, Foxbat became the Flying Fox, Pulsar became Power Pulse and later Impulse, and Mechanon became the somewhat un-threatening Meka. Professor Muerte is still Professor Muerte.

* PsychicPowers: Mental Attack, Mind Control, Mind Scan (the ability to locate a specific mind in a wide area), Telepathy, Mental Illusions, and Mind Link (a cheap version of Telepathy that two people have to purchase as a set).

* PsychicBlockDefense

*** Sixth edition is often called Fifth Revised EDition, just so you can call it FRED.
**** That's actually not right. Fifth Edition Revised has the same relationship to 5E as 3.5 DnD to 3rd Edition, that is, being a rules revamp, but not quite major enough to be considered an edition change. There is now actually a 6th Edition, which we can, alas, not call FRED.

Also, in 2008, Hero Games brought out a licensed supplement for the PS238 setting. It contains a simplified version of the Hero System rules for players just starting to use Hero System, [[YourMileageMayVary since it is a lot more complex than other systems.]]

* LexLuthorSecurity: In the course of the original comic mini series, Foxbat, the goofball villain who thinks he lives in a comic book, is able to sashay into both the home of a veteran mage hero and the headquarters of a major hero team with ease.

* GenreLaunch: If you're one of those gamers who prefer PointBuy systems to dice-rolling character creation, you'd better be thanking ''Champions'', because it created the genre.