History YMMV / Champions

* DorkAge - ''Champions New Millenium'' which featured a new system (that players hated) and updated the setting to a DarkerAndEdgier 1990s Image-style universe. That the artists from R. Talsorian Games felt like copying Creator/RobLiefeld art for their illustrations probably didn't help.

* FridgeLogic: 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, [[RealityEnsues 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.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks - Sixth Edition has seen a lot of this.
** To be more specific: 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.
** Other major changes introduced in 6th Edition include:

** 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 {{Game/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.

* FanNickname: [=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.
** 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=].

** The Dr. Destroyer book posits an alternate world where Destroyer has succeeded, describing it as 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.

* FridgeLogic: 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, then reality will start behaving realistically. Superpowers won't be possible and implausible technology will indeed be implausible. But immortals will stay immortal.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks - Sixth Edition. Dear god, Sixth Edition.

*** 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.

* DorkAge - ''Champions New Millenium'' which featured a new system (that players hated) and updated the setting to a DarkerAndEdgier 1990s Image-style universe. That the artists from R. Talsorian Games felt like copying RobLiefeld art for their illustrations probably didn't help.

* {{Anvilicious}} - Steven Long's preference for [[TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks the dark age]] [[DorkAge of comic books]], and occasionally other personal politics, shine through in various supplements.

* RunningTheAsylum - A rare positive example; a number of the current writers used to be ''Champions'' players.
** A number of the NPC heroes that have appeared in the RPG were based on player characters; Dr Silverback was Hero Games/DOJ owner Darren Watt's PC, the Harbinger of Justice was writer/owner Steve Long's.

* {{Doorstopper}} - The Fifth Edition rulebook can stop ''[[PocketProtector bullets]]''.

* {{Doorstopper}} - The Fifth Edition rulebook can stop ''[[BeyondTheImpossible bullets]]''.

** 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.

*** The replacement of Damage Reduction -- which multiplied the damage that got past your defenses by a fraction -- with a power that reduced the number of dice an attacker rolls when determining damage against you. (This power is problematic when an opponent uses an Area Effect attack, and some targets inside the Area of Effect have the power but others don't.)

*** 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.

*** Other major changes introduced in 6th Edition include: 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; 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; a more flexible but also more complicated system for constructing Enhanced Senses; the replacement of the Comeliness characteristic with a tiered set of Talents to represent good looks; and a sharp reduction in the number of points a character can gain from Disadvantages (now called Complications).

** To be more specific: 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.

*** Other major changes introduced in 6th Edition include: 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; a more flexible but also more complicated system for constructing Enhanced Senses; the replacement of the Comeliness characteristic with a tiered set of Talents to represent good looks; and a sharp reduction in the number of points a character can gain from Disadvantages (now called Complications).

** To be more specific: 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, 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.

*** Other major changes introduced in 6th Edition include: 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; a more flexible but also more complicated system for constructing Enhanced Senses; and a sharp reduction in the number of points a character can gain from Disadvantages (now called Complications).

** 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.

** And the change from 4th Edition to 5th Edition.

** YourMileageMayVary on this; some fans are ''quite'' vocal in their dislike in the character/storyline changes from 4E to 5E when Steve Long took over.