Line #19 YMMV/Champions


1	* {{Anvilicious}} - Steven Long's preference for [[MediaNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks the dark age]] [[AudienceAlienatingEra of comic books]], and occasionally other personal politics, shine through in various supplements.
2	* AudienceAlienatingEra: ''Champions New Millenium'' which featured a new system (that players hated) and updated the setting to a DarkerAndEdgier 1990s [[Creator/ImageComics Image]]-style universe. That the artists from Creator/RTalsorianGames felt like copying Creator/RobLiefeld art for their illustrations probably didn't help.
3	* CompleteMonster:
4	** [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Doctor Destroyer]] was born Albert Zerstoiten. Working with the Nazis to develop superweapons, he later betrayed them to [[LaResistance the French resistance]]. Deciding he had the right to [[TakeOverTheWorld rule the world]] after [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the war]], he recreated himself as a supervillain who invokes grandiose schemes on the world at large, with plots that result in large amounts of death at the hands of his weapons or murderous robots. Possibly his most infamous deed took place during [[VideoGame/ChampionsOnline the Battle of Detroit]]: seeking to annihilate the US with asteroids, he ended up obliterating most of the city, killing over 60,000 with over a dozen heroes dying to stop him.
5	** [[AIIsACrapshoot Mechanon]] is an AI who has grown to [[FantasticRacism despise organic life]]. Aiming to [[KillAllHumans annihilate humankind]], Mechanon made his first appearance massacring over a dozen White House officials to seek the nuclear codes and [[NukeEm launch the US's arsenal]]. Returning with grandiose schemes to exterminate mankind, Mechanon also [[RobotsEnslavingRobots enslaves any AI under his own control]], as little more than extensions of his own will.
6	* CreatorsPet: Steven Long's "Harbinger of Justice", shows up a ton in any of the Dark Champions books with various villains mentioning how they fear another onslaught by the guy. In a setting where having an assault rifle with armour piercing bullets is a major superpower, the Harbinger can teleport weapons into his hands from an other-dimensional source and he's faster than most speedsters in regular Champions, more armoured than many powersuit guys and smarter than a science hero. Besides his massive pool of points, he also gets powers discounted by having them get drawbacks that are merely cosmetic (something the game system tells players not to do) - so he's actually more powerful than his point total shows.
7	* FanNickname:
8	** [=FREd=] for Fifth Rules Edition, and 5er, pronounced fiver, for Fifth Edition Revised. [=FREd=] is a backronym; it was originally adopted by members of the discussion boards from a comment made by Steve Long the he "...didn't care if they called it [the fifth edition] Fred..." as long as they bought it. Thus it was affectionately dubbed Fred, and only later turned into an acronym.
9	** The fourth edition rulebook was commonly known as the [=BBB=], for Big Blue Book (the main color used in the cover art). A fan discussion that started when everyone realized that Big Black Book (the main color on the [=5E=] cover) would have the same initials is what led to [=FREd=].
10	* FashionVictimVillain - Many bad, bad costumes have appeared over the years. Particularly noteworthy is Power Crusher - ''"As Power Crusher, he wears a jet-black hood. His tunic is orange above, dark blue below with a purple stripe charged with a red gauntlet. His actual gauntlets are also red and crackle with yellow power. He wears brown trunks and boots, and light brown pants with white side stripes"''. Yow.
11	* FridgeLogic:
12	** According to the rules of the universe from 5E onward, superpowers and the kind of tech that only exists in comic book universes is only feasible if the amount of ambient magic in the universe is high enough to bend the rules of physics. If some cosmic event causes that amount to go down, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome then reality will start behaving realistically]]. Superpowers won't be possible and implausible technology will indeed be implausible. But through all this, immortals will stay immortal.
13	** The Dr. Destroyer book posits an alternate world where Destroyer has succeeded, describing it as ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' without the pretense of rivals such as Eurasia, Oceania, or Emmanuel Goldstein. The use of these enemies as false fronts is so key to the concept of that novel that removing them would dramatically change the setting.
14	* MemeticBadass - Grond Smash Puny Internet Meme!
15	* SerialNumbersFiledOff: ''The Great Super-Villain Contest'' was a module from early in the game's lifespan where villains compete for points by beating up heroes. The author of that module was one of the people who broke off from the developers of the game to continue the comic book series originally based on the game [[note]] Some of the villains who originated in ''The Great Super-Villain Contest'' show up in the comic series eventually as well [[/note]], so the IP of that adventure went with him. But the fourth-edition version of ''Champions Universe'' still describes the events of the module happening in official continuity. Just under a different name and with a villain they still owned running the contest instead.
16	* {{Squick}}: As some Reddit [[https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/warru1/american_comics_the_long_grubby_sleazy_and/ restrospective]] [[https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/wiuppu/american_comics_the_long_grubby_sleazy_and/ threads]] bring up, a big part of the makers of the game disowning the spinoff comic book series is head writer Dennis Malonee working more and more uncomfortable sexual proclivities into the narrative. To just name the first one, flagship heroine Flare had her first relationship and sexual encounter [[BrotherSisterIncest with her brother]]. When they were both teens.
17	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks:
18	** Sixth Edition has seen a lot of this.
19	*** In all editions prior to Sixth, characters had a set of "figured characteristics" whose base values were derived from the primary stats (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Body, Ego, and Presence). For example, the base value of your Endurance stat was 2x your Constitution. In 6th Edition, the formerly figured characteristics were made into primary stats in their own right, with base values dependent on nothing. This meant that a character with a high Constitution no longer automatically had more Endurance or more Stun-damage hit points. Worse, your '''Combat Value''' -- which determines your chance to hit a target and your chance that an attacker will miss you, thereby making it the single most important stat in the game -- used to be a figured characteristic based on Dexterity, so a more agile character automatically became both better at hitting things and harder to be hit. But no more. Now, your Offensive Combat Value and Defensive Combat Value have to be bought up separately, for a lot more points than you'd pay in previous editions just to raise your Dexterity by the same amount. Since you still need to be efficient in your point expenditure, this leads to super-accurate punching machines that can't dodge to save their lives, and lithe martial artists who can't hit the broad side of a barn.
20	*** The removal of the 1 inch = 2 meters game scale, so that the game is no longer geared toward the use of figures on a hexagonal map. (Ironically, the Hero Games logo still features a human silhouette inside a hexagon.)
21	*** The elimination of the Elemental Control power framework, which gave you a point-cost bonus for having a consistent "theme" for a set of powers.
22	*** A more flexible but also more complicated system for constructing Enhanced Senses.
23	*** The replacement of the Comeliness characteristic with a tiered set of Talents to represent good looks.
24	*** A sharp reduction in the number of points a character can gain from Disadvantages (now called Complications).
25	*** The introduction of Damage Negation, which reduces the number of dice an attacker rolls when determining damage against you. It also reduces the knockback inflicted, thereby making it more powerful point-for-point than straight defenses.
26	** The previous change -- from 4th Edition to 5th Edition -- wasn't as extreme as the change from 5th to 6th Edition, but there are still 4th Edition purists out there who refuse to use the 5th Edition rules. Damage Shields, for example, became monstrously more expensive in 5th Edition, due to the need to buy the "Constant" advantage for nearly every power that the Damage Shield could use as a base.
27	** This trope also applied pretty strongly to ''Champions: New Millennium'', which used an entirely new system which combined elements of both Interlock (the system for {{TabletopGame/Cyberpunk 2020}} and [=MektonZ=]) and the Hero System. Of course, C:NM ''did'' suck. C:NM sucked so badly that Fuzion, the name of the system used, is now very much a derogatory term in the Hero System fandom.

Context YMMV / Champions