Why Champions?
When working on City of Heroes, interviewers asked me time and time again, “what comics were your biggest inspirations?” While I certainly rattled off a few titles, I also added something else that they didn’t expect: a paper and pencil RPG called Champions. In 1981, I first uncovered Champions in a local hobby shop where RPGs were stuffed into dusty cubby holes. I had been reading comics for several years and had played Dungeons and Dragons. A combination of super heroes and RPGs! Sold!
The biggest hook was, of course, character creation. Using the unique point system, I could create just about any super power I could imagine. To be honest, I carried around a pad of paper, a Champions rulebook and a calculator just about everywhere I went. More than a few of my Champions characters found their way into City of Heroes. I played quite a bit of Champions over the years and religiously bought every supplement (a habit I still have!).
As time passed, the thrill of Champions became not only its rules system, but also the rich background that developed. I loved the feel of VIPER. The evil machinations of Mechanon. The vile power of Doctor Destroyer. The zaniness of Foxbat. Every Champions product seemed to build more and more of a history that I could latch onto. Every year brought changes to the Champions that I knew and loved; Detroit was destroyed. Millennium City was built. New heroes appeared to take up the task. What was once just a RPG became a full fledged narrative not unlike comic books themselves.
After City of Heroes/Villains, Cryptic decided to produce a next generation superhero game. We learned a lot from our first products and we wanted to put that into practice. Now that Cryptic is in a position to do something even more unique and exciting, I stood up and said, “Let’s do Champions.” Just as Marvel and DC dominate the superhero comic market, Champions has withstood all challengers in the RPG arena. It was one of my first true gaming passions and remains a strong influence even today.
We now have the opportunity to utilize the rich Champions mythology to the fullest and especially focus on what makes Champions so different. The big comic book companies embrace icons that are fairly static; most of them never really change or even age. But Champions is really an epic about superhumans over the decades. Heroes grow old, die. Villains are defeated once and for all. Cities are destroyed. Random organizations come and go. There is real change that we can really communicate in an online game.
What about the rules system? We are using the ultra flexible HERO System as an inspiration rather than a strict guideline. One of our mottos for Champions Online is “total customization” and you’ll see that in many of the elements we adopt from the Champions pen-and-paper game. We don’t want to shoehorn a system that isn’t made for video games into a MMORPG, but we also know how great the HERO System can be. In the coming months, we’ll reveal more and more about this motto – as well as a couple of others. We want Champions Online to be of the first next generation MMORPG’s and the finest comic book hero game on the market.
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