How to Create a Champions Character

Champions was one of the first superhero role-playing games and is the flagship game of the HERO System of role-playing games. It relies on a point-based system for assigning character abilities, allowing players to custom design characters within limits set by the Game Master (GM).

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• HERO System Rulebook
• Hero Designer character creation software (optional)

1. Determine what kind of character you want to play. In a superheroic campaign, characters can be bricks (strong characters), energy projectors (shoot energy blasts), gadgeteers (use superweapons), martial artists (masters of fighting skills) and mentalists (read, control and attack minds). Some characters may mix classes, such as Superman having both super-strength and heat vision.
2. Find out from the GM how many character points you have to build your character and how they can be spent. Typically, the GM will impose a maximum number of points to spend, how many must be balanced with Disadvantages, and how powerful attacks and defenses can be.
3. Assign points to your character's Characteristics (natural attributes) according to the concept you have chosen: bricks should typically have high Strength, Physical Defense, Recovery and Stun, while martial artists should have high Dexterity and Speed, and mentalists should have high Ego and usually high Presence and Comeliness.
4. Allocate points to your character's Skills, which represent the character's knowledge or training. Most Skills can be based on a Characteristic; the more points invested in a Skill, the better the character is at it (represented by a higher maximum success roll). Some Skills, such as Breakfall or Teamwork, are more useful during combat, while other Skills, such as Inventor or Paramedic, are more useful before or after it. Some Skills, such as Martial Arts maneuvers, allow the character to fight better during combat.
5. Distribute points to Perquisites (Perks), special benefits the character enjoys, and Talents, unusual character abilities. Perks can often be eliminated in favor of role-playing, while Talents can enhance the ability to perform certain Skills, such as using the Talent Double-Jointed to improve a Contortionist Skill roll.
6. Allot points to the character's Powers according to the character conception and the intended special effect. Powers are given generic names; the special effect determines what the Power actually does: Lightbar buys either Energy Blast or Ranged Killing Attack to represent being able to throw cylindrical energy plasmas at targets, depending on how much damage he wants to do. Powers can be modified with Advantages to let them do more things (increasing the point cost), Limitations to restrict when and how they can be used (reducing the point cost), and placed in Frameworks to allow buying more Powers for fewer points.
7. Give the character a set of Disadvantages to balance the additional points spent on Skills, Perks, Talents and Powers. Disadvantages should be given based on the character conception and should help define the character, not assigned solely for the points.
8. Present your character for the GM's approval and make any changes the GM wants to fit the character into her campaign.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have difficulty grasping how to build a character for the campaign, the GM can help you by providing a sample character for you to study and play with until you grasp the basics of what she wants.
• Give your character a reasonably diverse set of Powers, Skills and Talents; a character should always be able to do something in the adventure. For example, a character whose attack Powers all derive from a tuning fork should have some Martial Arts Skills so that he can still fight when his tuning fork is taken away.
• Some campaigns use Normal Characteristic Maxima, which restricts how many points a Characteristic may be assigned. Superheroic campaigns do not usually have this restriction, unless the GM wants to impose it or the player wishes to impose it on his character.
• Because building Champions characters can be quite complex, you may want to order a copy of Hero Designer from the Hero Games website to automate the process. You can also create a spreadsheet to calculate point costs and rolls.
• Choose Limitations and Disadvantages carefully. Expect the GM to take full advantage of both of them in designing adventures to include your character.