History TabletopGame / Champions

* DeliberatelyDistressedDamsel: Princess is a supervillain (given a very loose definition of 'villain') who subconsciously does this to herself. She is romance junkie who has fixated on superheroes as the modern version of a KnightInShiningArmor. Her uncontrolled powers keep placing her in bizarre and dangerous situations which force superheroes to come and rescue her.

* DenserAndWackier: There were several villains created specifically to let the GM inject some whimsy into their campaign that's been too dark and scary for a while, like Foxbat, a parody of over-the-top comic book characters. There was also C.L.O.W.N., a whole team of villains who are superhuman ''pranksters'' rather than menaces. They cause a lot of chaos, but it's all carefully designed to be non-lethal, and they never steal anything that has sentimental value to the owner.

** Subverted with the villain Anubis, who's actually an agent of Set. As well as the actual Hades in the 4E book with sheets for the Greek gods, where it specifically says Hades isn't evil and isn't really interested in anything at all besides running the underworld.
** Another subversion in ''Golden Age Champions'' where we got the Doberman, a goofy dog-themed villain. Previously an incompetent tomb robber before getting trapped in an ancient temple and being resurrected after calling out to Anubis (after every other god he could think of) for salvation. Why'd Anubis, "your basically good god", do that? Well, because it means Doberman gets to live, Anubis gets a worshiper, and rookie superheroes get [[StarterVillain an easy villain to practice on]]. Everybody wins!

* EvilSorcerer: Many, many of them, from heavy hitter master villains [[{{Lich}} Takofanes the Undying Lord]], [[AlternateSelf Shadow Destroyer]] and [[YellowPeril Doctor Yin Wu]], to solo villains like [[AntiVillain Josiah Brimstone]], [[{{Druid}} Cairngorm]] and [[CainAndAbel Talisman]], by way of teams like [[ArtifactOfDoom the Crowns of Krim]] and [[EvilReactionary the Devil's Advocates]], even [[TheClan whole clans]] like the Sylvestris and Vandaleurs or entire villainous organizations such as the Circle of the Scarlet Moon and DEMON.

* KukrisAreKool: Gurkha from ''Kingdom of Champions''.

* SnakeVersusMongoose: There's a snake-themed supervillain named King Cobra, and an {{antihero}} named Mongoose (an especially flamboyant and aggressive martial artist) whose goal in life is to destroy King Cobra's organisation.
** In fifth edition the hero Nighthawk had a vendetta with perennial favorite crime cartel [=VIPER=]. After breaking off from the hero team he used to work with, he started his own called Project Mongoose that's dedicated entirely to harassing [=VIPER=].

* SuperheroSchool: Ravenswood Academy.

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

** ''Classic Enemies'' suggests this as one way of using the villain team The Conquerors, as a standard villain team if the GM needs another one, or a bunch of laughable idiots with more bad luck and ambition than competence.

** In ''Golden Age Champions'' we got the Doberman, a goofy dog-themed villain who was previously an incompetent tomb robber before getting trapped in an ancient temple and being resurrected after calling out to Anubis for salvation. Why'd Anubis, "your basically good god", do that? Well, because it means Doberman gets to live, Anubis gets a worshiper, and rookie superheroes get [[StarterVillain an easy villain to practice on]]. Everybody wins!

* NighInvulnerability: It's in there and it's best worked for Bricks, Bruisers, and Giants who all acts as both the team's [[TheBigGuy heavy hitters]] as well as the teams designated "bullet sponge" ''especially'' if they're Giants (see "Sizeshifter" below for the reason).

* NobleBigot: The Aryan from the book ''Allies'', who does honestly believe he's a member of the master race, but rather than seeing this an excuse to oppress other races he sees it as his moral imperative to protect and guide them. Hasn't kept him from being rejected for membership in every hero team out there, though. Him appearing in a campaign's meant to ask the players how they react to a fellow hero who also happens to be a sane, well-intentioned fascist.

* NotWearingTights: A few characters specifically refuse to wear costumes, like the Bastion of Budapest from ''European Enemies'' whose handlers tried to make him wear one but he hated it and they ultimately agreed to just let him wear a suit.

** One of 5th Edition's most powerful heroes is "the Drifter", who was given awesome magical powers by some bigtime cosmic being. Part of the price he pays is it's always obvious who he is, and he's had to wear the same grimy hobo clothes he was wearing at the time of getting his power.

* MagicalHomelessPerson: In ''Organization Book 3: The Blood and Dr McQuark'', Pathfinder has several Blood superpowers, including creating illusions and teleportation. After he murdered his father, he was overcome with guilt and became a homeless alcoholic wanderer known as "the meanest hobo in the universe".

* FreezeRay: The game's sourcebooks have their share of cold-wielding characters, such as Freon in ''Classic Enemies''.

* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Both Dr. Destroyer and his protege Professor Muerte are devotees of the game. In one of the later sourcebooks it's explained that Destroyer will sometimes capture a ranking master to have them play against him, and somewhat surprisingly if they play to the best of their abilities and give him a good game they're released and paid handsomely for their time, even if they win. They only meet a messy end if they lose on purpose to sate Destroyer's ego.

* DenserAndWackier: There were several villains created specifically to let the GM inject some whimsy into their campaign that's been too dark and scary for a while, like Foxbat, a parody of over-the-top comic book characters, and C.L.O.W.N., a team of villains who are superhuman ''pranksters'' rather than menaces. They cause a lot of chaos but it's all carefully designed to be non-lethal, and they never steal anything that has sentimental value to the owner.

* BewareMyStingerTail: Ankylosaur has a tail that fires grenades.

* GenderFlip: "Mystic Masters" in 4th edition introduced to Edward and Anais Vandaleur, a pair of [[BrotherSisterIncest incestuous]] evil wizards. In 5th edition they were brought back but Anais was reimagined as a man. This was apparently too squicky for most folks, so come 6th edition Anais was a woman again. They were still lovers, though.

* CityOfAdventure: Millennium City and Vibora Bay, which were written to provide premade cities for a group of player-heroes to operate out of, with a large supply of heroes, villains, and regular people and place for them to interact with. Millennium City's a high-tech city of the future suitable for most superhero campaigns, while Vibora Bay was meant for groups who'd prefer to play in a more dark, mysterious, and magical setting.

* CaptainEthnic: In some of the older sourcebooks, like ''Red Doom'', ''Enemies: The International File'', and ''European Enemies'' (especially ''European Enemies''). Some of the former include telekinetic cosmonaut Sputnik, mentalist Perestroika, the nuclear-powered battlesuit wearer Tokamak, and Soyuz Proletariatski, who can create up to ''250'' clones of himself, but has no mind of his own and can only follow orders. Other examples include Shamrock, a former IRA member whose powers include SuperStrength and preternatural luck, and whose archenemy is a leprechaun.

* CityOfAdventure: Millennium City.

* BaseballEpisode: One of the plot suggestions from the book ''Allies'': the players and one of the other hero teams from the book meet to play baseball or some other game, for anything from a simple charity outing to settle a dispute between warring alien factions.

** The Brain Trust is rather like DC's Brotherhood of Evil, being led as it is by a disembodied brain in a tank whose chief henchman is a gun-packing gorilla.

* AlienInvasion: The Gadroon and Qularr have invaded Earth several times, most recently in ''VideoGame/ChampionsOnline''.

* TheDragon:
** Gigaton and Rakshasa for Doctor Destroyer. Professor Muerte also served as this for a while.
** There's also The Dragon, which is effectively [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil The First Evil]].