Off the Shelf: Hero System 6E / Champions

When the original Marvel Superheroes went out of print, Champions saved superhero gaming for us. This was in the early 1990s, when Marvel and Star Wars were still small brands, and TSR lost the rights. We were left with a pile of Marvel gazetteers, a DC game we liked but never really played, and superheroes were changing to the Image Comics and Wildstorm style.

Marvel was dead.

Even trading cards couldn't save it.

And we were left with a few superhero games without a system. Sure, we could still run Marvel Super Heroes (MSH), but the game ran its course, and like Star Frontiers, the d100 system limited high-level play. And along came Champions.

In our home game, the Champions heroes and villains stepped all over the Marvel Universe of the 1980s. Our universes collided, and the Champions' bad guys were so much better than Marvel's. Mechanon, Dr. Destroyer, and Eurostar savaged the Avengers and X-Men simply because they were better-designed characters, not Marvel's soft, one-trick power ponies.

Champions is a professional-level superhero system designed to do anything. Unlike GURPS, which is more skill-focused, Champions focuses purely on powers and abilities, with skills as a minor part of the game. Champion is professional home audio, hi-fi gear, expensive speakers, heavy-gauge speaker wire, great amps, a powerful subwoofer, a professional mixer and receiver, and a record player with a diamond-tipped needle.

Champions felt like pro home theater gear compared to the cheap Sears hi-fi record player in a fiberboard stand with a black plastic lid and two cassette decks on top of a cheap Marvel Super Heroes AM/FM radio.

And what did we do with this system?

We converted our D&D Mystara campaign to it. Oh yes, this was good stuff; we were playing 5E in 1993. We had superpowered fantasy heroes long before many of you were born. Magic spells were multi-powers; elemental spells could summon ice creatures, and the speed chart was your bonus actions if you could afford them. The spells were good, and you could design them down to the hex pattern of the AOE. You could put magic spells in items and give them charges. Someone designed a magic mind-control helmet and made the goblins in the first cave in Keep on the Borderlands fight the other factions until they died. You still can't do this in 5E, yet we got up to all sorts of incredibly fun, silly stuff back in the 1990s.

Did the book care where the powers came from? No. If you were a mage, you had these limitations; if you were a cleric, you had those. You got more points for spells and powers. If you were a fighter, you had ability scores in the 30s and 40s, and you were a muscle-bound freak with tons of hits and skin so thick that crossbow bolts bounced off of it.

So I recently compared this system to 5E, and it is still the better game. It's dense at the start, but the complexity stays linear and flat as you go up power levels. In 5E, it just gets worse: turns drag on because nobody knows what to do, and battles become one-sided blowouts. All that indecision for a predetermined outcome.

And there are far fewer books than a 5E library.

And they do 1000 times more.

I can design any power fantasy in any genre with these books. And I am not paying game designers to do it for me and trickle out the next cool thing in a book that costs 50-80 dollars. All I need to do is learn the system, and I never need to blow money on 5E books that slow-drip options and force us to buy the book twice for the VTT version.

Champions and Hero System: you make your own balance. If you don't know the system, your character dies until you figure it out and get the next power you need to defend against whatever killed you last time. Low-powered, humans-only games are like GURPS with a very limited skill list. No superpowers; there's little reason to play, but the system is solid and still works well. As a universal resolution system, it runs fast, and it is skill-light.

And Champions characters were much better than Marvel characters. These were characters built for that high-end audio setup, far better tuned and crafted than heroes who let the spandex do their marketing. And, to be honest, you didn't care if a Champions character died; they weren't anyone, but another hero could replace them and pick up the torch. The game was dangerous because the characters were a bit generic and relied on comic-book tropes.

You could run an X-Men game where the characters regularly died and were never resurrected or retconned back to life because marketing complains and the artists don't know how to draw anyone else. We don't need the Krakoa recycling-waste-management island to bring everyone back so new writers can ruin them all.

Your characters died, and you created new ones.

Yes, you could retcon with a "comic book trope" and bring popular characters back to life, but you never had to, and you didn't need to. The fallen heroes got a marble statue in the city park, and people remembered them for their sacrifices. That was a part of the fun of playing a superhero RPG; few get that these days. We are forced to play with the official characters, and they never change. Nobody dies. Nothing changes. You play with the official sock puppets, and you are allowed to be happy within IP allowances.

Champions' heroes could fall from grace, and they could fall hard. Anything could happen. Go ahead and make that choice; the next writer won't save you or reset anything. You may end up the villain. You will probably go out in a blaze of glory like James Cagney in White Heat. However you choose to fall from grace, there are no guardrails here, and there are no retcons. The danger is real, and one wrong power blast could vaporize a crowd of innocent bystanders.

Just one small mistake can start a downfall, and it takes a lot to walk the true path of a hero. You fall, and you fall hard. After the crowd destroys your statue, the city will tear it down in disgrace. That can't happen to a Marvel or DC character. They are "profitable IP" and can never change, and when they are sold to the next company, here we go again.

And you don't know how good a superhero game can be.

Hero System went from the garage today to my coffee table, and now it's heading to an upstairs shelf.

How Much Game Do I Need?

I got a shipping confirmation for the new Kobold Press crowdfunding book for ToV, and my 5E books are heading into the garage. I like ToV; this is the best version of 5E out there, but 5E is far too much game for me. I will keep it, but it is heading into the garage once it arrives.

I hate that feeling.

Sometimes I feel like selling all my 5E books would make me the happiest, and I will just stick with OSRIC and OSE and have just enough "fantasy game" for me. I don't need all the 5E structure; it is too much. The entire 5E industry overwrites and doesn't care one bit about efficiency, conciseness, or compactness; the 5E market is the "bigger SUV" market of gas-guzzlers and shelf-eaters.

For a "power-based game," a superhero game gives me much more. Sometimes I look at D&D 5E and compare it to something like Champions, and the latter is the better choice. Why am I messing around with games that sell me prebuilt superheroes (powers on a level track) who talk like they're at Ren Faire? The designers prebuild these builds at level 20 and then slowly hand you the powers over 20 levels. They make money by selling you new ones once you get bored of the old ones.

It is the difference between a deep-fried fish sandwich at a fast-food place versus knowing how to fish and prepare your own food. The fast food is worse for your health, more expensive, and never what you want. Yes, learning to cook takes longer and isn't as easy, but it is far healthier, more rewarding, and cheaper to feed yourself with all-natural shelf staples and healthy foods.

And nobody in a superhero game is redefining terms, controlling the language, or telling me where my powers come from. I do that. I swear some of these games care more about thought control than about shipping fun games. Give me a generic framework, please, and I will tell players what these things are. Or games like Vampire, where some factions have these powers and others have those powers. Thematically, yes, cool, okay, but in the end you are all superheroes with different shapes and themes. Vampire stuff affects you, werewolf stuff affects others, and we are done; please pick your superpowers now.

Are you a mage? Oh, then you have to deal with the mage disadvantages. A demon? Then holy stuff hurts you. Same powers, different shell. We are done here, and nobody is buying predesigned packages that drip powers out one at a time with an illusion of choice.

My Champions stuff fits in one box, and it is in the garage.

My 5E books are nearly 20 crates of the same size.

That one box does far more than the twenty.

And most of the power comes from one book.

Off the Shelf: Adventures Dark & Deep

I still love this alternate 1E game; it is huge, expanded, full of great stuff, and all still 100% 1E compatible. Adventures Dark & Deep is the ultimate "Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy" version of 1E, and even the monster book alone is the definitive 1E bestiary, expanded, full of fun monsters, and worth the hardcover price.

As a standalone game, few have matched its scope and depth. This is the ultimate "modern" version of 1E, and it does compare nicely to OSE Advanced Fantasy. As your "core game," you cannot go wrong here, and this is easily decades of fun. The game also has expansion books, such as the Cthulhu Mythos, and they work well as either Dark & Deep expansions or 1E expansions.

So why play a "lesser" game like OSRIC 3? For the same reason you might prefer Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy. Some do not want all the expansion content and just want to focus on the core, basic, original game. Expansions can muddy and confuse the game, creating too many race and class options for people to sift through.

You add bard and drow options, and people flock to them. Sometimes I want players to consider only the core, original, solid options, which is what the original adventures are balanced for, and I don't want a party full of special ancestries and hybrid classes. This isn't ruling them out forever, but the choice of game says what the game will be and where the focus will be.

Someone who has played a paladin or ranger will likely choose a new expansion class. Everyone wants to play a bard. Everyone wants to play an expanded ancestry.

Sometimes a more focused game delivers a better experience. The moment you open the floodgates of 1001 ancestry and class options (and subclass options), everybody can be anything, and those classic choices disappear. I am a star centaur dark reaver warlock hexblade antipaladin! Right. No.

This is why we need generic, be-anything, do-anything superhero games. If you want to be that, go play a superhero game and have anything you want. The death of the superhero gaming genre killed fantasy gaming, and the floodgates opened, letting fantasy become a superhero game with pre-canned builds companies can sell you for quarterly profits.

OSRIC 3 is a choice. Dark & Deep is an expansion, and it is also a choice. Both are entirely compatible and deserve to live on the same shelf. For me? Less is more, and I play OSRIC, just like many play OSE Classic Fantasy.

I'll migrate to Dark & Deep if I ever get tired of the original game's options. I will probably have fun here. This is just as "correct" a choice as OSRIC, and in some cases, the better one. But as I rebuild my gaming life, I want to start simple. For me, right now, simple is OSRIC.

OSRIC: Still Holding Strong

I do not regret my decision to upgrade to OSRIC. I still love OSE and my books, and I'm getting the new edition and the Demonic Grimoire soon. I'm looking forward to those books, and OSE is still a beautifully compact, portable game. In that feeling of "the tiny capturing the infinite," OSE still can't be beaten.

But OSRIC is wonderful, and one of its best features is how it limits character options. OSE has fallen to the modern design theory of "more is better," and we have all sorts of ancestries to choose from. As a result, the default world has too many ancestries, and each one means less. No orcs, no goblins, no ogres, no fox people, and no distractions. Humans alone have enough diversity; just look at our world if you want inspiration. You could add diversity to the other ancestries, too, but don't give any of them mechanical benefits. Giving every diverse ancestry option a special trinket is silly, reductive, pointless, and overdesigned.

Plus, I want my ancestries to mean something. Be an elf or a dwarf. Pick a diverse background for them. Celebrate that ancestry. It is rich, diverse, and an amazing culture to explore.

If people want special ancestries, talk to me as the GM. This isn't a rejection of all of them, and I know people will want to play as dark elves, but that option exists in 1E material, so talk to me. The world, as it is defined, will be what is in these books.

I can always pull in Unearthed Arcana for the dark elves, or any other 1E-compatible resource. Converting from OSE is another option, but you will need to set allowed classes and level limits (OSE has these; use them as a base, get the table's agreement, compare similar level limits, and adjust). You can pull in any OSE ancestry like this, so you still have choices; the default set just resets to the original 1E game's set.

I don't want the modern World of Warcraft style world, where 1001 funny-shaped player avatars run around, and the company keeps adding new ones while watering down and ignoring what they already have. It gets to a point where new MMO character options are introduced just to pump up quarterly numbers; the new option never gets proper respect or treatment in lore, and next quarter a new one comes out, the company will ignore it and shove the old one on a shelf like a toy that never gets played with. We get the same "sales mentality" in tabletop gaming, and it ruins our worlds.

Humans, elves, dwarves, and the core ancestries are amazingly diverse. There's already more than enough here. With limited choices, my stories and worlds are much better. I have focus again. My history and world-building are clearer.

But if I am pulling in OSE ancestries, why not just play OSE? I enjoy OSRIC's limited options better, and I always have my OSE books should I want something special or different. OSRIC's turn structure is superior, and phased casting gives casters real choice and balance. The fighters mean something here, especially with specialization. Rogues have real meaning with their backstabs. I have to mod and house-rule the game far less to enjoy it.

If I want a tiefling or dark elf, they are always there. But they are limited, special choices, which makes them feel special and unique. The basic books are all I want or need, and there is plenty of other 1E material out there to last me a lifetime.

OSRIC. vs. BX: The Fighter

It all starts with the fighter.

If there is one reason to play OSRIC over OSE, it's the party's core: the fighter. Without a strong fighter, the entire dungeon game falls apart, and we see this today in book after book of power-game caster powers, desperate to distract players and keep the "next OP thing" on digital store shelves.

Without a strong fighter, the whole game falls apart.

And in BX, especially OSE, the fighter comes off as just a good attack, a pile of hit points, and the best armor. I have to pull in zines to give the fighter any viability. It is not enough. Sure, in a basic game, the class is fine, but it doesn't scale in power and capability as well as OSRIC. The OSE fighter starts as one thing, and never really changes or feels powerful.

OSRIC makes a very good fighter, and this one competes with Swords & Wizardry on timing alone. Where S&W focuses on damage, OSRIC focuses on combat timing and structure, making the fighter the "lord and master" of the battle.

Weapon specialization for that first-turn, first-phase attack makes the fighter the first one to act. Every other turn, they go through phases 1 and 10 twice, and as they level, it gets better and better. And they get this from level one. Heroic assault at level 2 is the "slay the room" power, which OSE is only just adding. Might blow comes into play occasionally, but it simulates the overpowering effect of higher-level fighters outmatching some foes.

Multiple attacks and initiative-phase buffs make the fighter highly desirable to play. They have not only the best defense, but also an offense that can shape the fight.

Every other class sits downstream of the fighter. You can't even begin to understand or balance thieves, magic-users, clerics, or hybrid classes unless your fighter is rock-solid and desirable to play. If you can't get the basic core martial class right, you aren't playing D&D or a dungeon game. It is superheroes with funny shapes and accents, I guess, and the designers at Wizards are falling over each other trying to give every caster Fireball and Wall of Force. They really don't know what they are doing.

OSRIC sticks with 1E and gets it right. I haven't felt this positive about fighters since D&D 4E, which had some powerful fighters and martial classes, but was saddled with terrible, card-based play. OSRIC builds fighters into the timing and structure of the combat turn, and it needs few special rules beyond this simple design. I don't need a dozen pages of subclass rules, new martial feats, or any other modern designer dongle or rules hack.

What gets me here is how deceptively simple this is, yet it works. And OSE's fighter doesn't go all the way; it sits on a too-simple structure, meant more for rules-hacking and modding. This was Gygax's criticism of BX: the entire game felt too nebulous and undefined for organized play, and too "whatever the table felt it was."

I love BX.

But Gygax was right. A little structure solves many of the fighter's problems in BX and sets up the rest of the game's classes for success.

Off the Shelf: Legend

The original Legend game by Miongoose Publishing is still in print and worth keeping. This OGL game made all its test content open under the OGL and restates the RQ2 ruleset many loved.

Yes, I get that Mythras has replaced this under a better license. But this is original source data, like an original Unix distribution, much like the first Cepheus SRD, and it forms a pillar of our hobby. And yes, Mythras is a great game (albeit with a tiny font), but Legend is a small-book game that captures my imagination more than the massive hardcovers do.

The only thing that comes close is OpenQuest, another great fork of the original RQ-style rules. Cepheus, OpenQuest, and all the other fan efforts will keep these systems playable and open long after the rights pass to someone else, and things get locked away behind website portals, subscription services, and closed gardens. These will be the last games we can truly own and share.

When companies buy up the last available IP and move to smaller IPs, it will all be locked away, and you will be forced to pay for it through a subscription model. This is already happening in Hollywood, as the franchise series we loved are being merged and bought with the goal of making us rent our happiness and memories.

Even the defunct OGL is a path out of this corporate hellhole we all face.

If you are playing a closed-garden game, you are on the side of the media-powerhouse merger and rental model. They'll sell D&D like this for billions; prices will rise, legal threats will go out, and customers will be shoved into a portal for a monthly fee. Sorry. This is the road we are all looking at ahead of us. And once D&D is sold, other recognizable IPs and similar ones will be sold. Properties will be snatched up. There will come a time when Wall Street comes in and buys everything up like private homes, turning it all into rental properties. Some markets are so hot you probably can't find private homes anymore. 

We haven't gotten there yet in gaming, though in AAA gaming you can see the warning signs. You don't own your games. Physical media is being dropped. There will be no second-hand market anymore. They can wipe your games if you stop playing for a while or say the wrong thing online.

Again, we are a few years out from this, but you can see the warning signs in D&D with digital-only DLC and releases. Once the website shuts down, all that digital content goes poof. Gone forever. Like it never existed, and they can sell it to you again in the next edition.

The line is drawn now, at least for me.

And if you support closed-source games, you're honestly contributing to this mess and what is coming. All the closed-license games get sold. I start talking about them less and less. They're all dead ends, with no future, and really not worth my time. All of them will end up on AI and walled gardens. All of them will be state-enforced rental schemes.

I still have the open community editions of these games. I can still play them in 10 years. I can still create derivative works and self-publish.

In 10 years?

I doubt most people will even have what we have today.

There is Enough Game Here

More isn't better, and these days I will happily choose quality over quantity. I find OSRIC 3.0 far more of a game than I will ever use, and I don't lament losing copyrighted content from the original 1E books. Part of me finds it liberating; my worlds are truly my worlds now, and my creations don't include copyrighted IP. My worlds are mine, and I have enough monsters here to tell any story I want.

Since OSE is a smaller subset of this, and OSRIC is closer to 1E in spirit, this feels like home. I got the classic campaign bad guys here: dragons, demons, humanoids, giants, and all of my favorites. If I want, I have the Swords & Wizardry and Dark & Deep bestiaries close by, just in case I need an odd monster here or there.

I have been testing the rules and getting used to the combat round. The classic party of four, fighter, thief, cleric, and magic-user, is highly capable, and the martial classes shine brightly. They are tougher than I expected, taking down four 2 HD monsters in most fights and taking some damage, but they still feel capable and strong.

But the resource game is at its best. Characters get hurt and stay hurt in 1E, and there are no "cheap rests" to save you. Tabletop gaming has gotten entirely too risk-averse, and if you can't push your luck a little, that is not adventure, and there is no excitement. You take a few scrapes and bruises, and you keep going. You can't "heal your way up," and every resource gets taken down. Playing smart is conserving what you have and thinking your way around encounters. 

Creative play is cutthroat and smart play, not the "e-sport" dungeoning has become.

I don't like what modern dungeon-crawling has become. It is overly concerned with story, to the point where the story is more important than the game. It celebrates copying powers from anime and movies, and sits downstream of pop culture. It isn't itself that others copy. When D&D invented the Dark Elf mystique and culture, something that everybody copied, that was cool. When D&D is shipping "Airbender" classes, get out of here; you are being reductive and copying others.

Be the thing that others copy.

And 1E is the perfect example. A vague notion of what could have been came first with BX, and tabletop gaming peaked with 1E. Everything since has been a copy, a reductive version, or a weak attempt to recreate the original magic. 2E? Written out of fear. 3-5E? Wizards MTG-ification, card-based powers, and ultimately flawed and unsustainable card-season design theory gave us multiple incompatible versions over nearly 3 decades.

1E is the purest implementation of the idea, unburdened by decades of pop culture and fear. Nothing here is driving another book sale, and some argue that adding books to 1E makes it worse. A near-perfect game doesn't need much more, and that is freedom for me to fill in the rest with my ideas.