A campaign book for Champions: the Super Role-Playing Game and other Hero System games, including the new Hero System 5th Edition
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
Gold Rush Games Stock #HG423
From the Back Cover
Crime Has New Enemies, and They're Called... Dark Champions: Heroes of Vengeance
This is the ultimate source book for the twilight world of vigilante superheroes who walk the line between justice and vengeance! Experience gritty, intense adventures that bring you new shades of four-color action in the tradition of your favorite hard-hitting superhero comics. Dark Champions creates a new universe of super excitement for you to explore - or a new dimension of roleplaying for your existing Champions campaign!
Dark Champions is jam-packed with rules and information for both players and GMs. Here's some of what you get:
Players: This is an incredible sourcebook for any streetwise superhero. It's the ideal way to give more oomph to your detective, martial artist or vigilante. Surprise your friends and amaze the villains! Extensive new weapons list for modern weapons. New variations on Character Disadvantages. Extensive writeups on Skills, Talents, and Perks, new & old. New suggestions and variations on Powers, Limitations & Advantages. New gun design rules. New combat modifiers and maneuvers.
GMs: If you've been looking for a way to do something new with Champions, look no more! Thrust existing heroes into dangerous new situations or create a whole new campaign that explores the raw-edged realism of street-level adventures. Dark Champions gives you everything you need! New campaign styles and backgrounds, at several power levels. New weapons, gadgets, equipment and vehicles. New organizations included: Yakuza, Tongs, the Mob, and more. New scenarios - including a skyscraper full of adventures! Useful for any modern or near-future campaign.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Modern Action Gaming at its best,
By
This review is from: Dark Champions (Paperback)
The Upside:
Dark Champions is the genre book for Modern Action, Street Supers, Vigilante and associated genres. Mostly it concentrates on Modern Action and other modern genres. Chapter One - The Dark Champions Genre. The chapter starts out with a discussion on exactly what Dark Champions covers. It goes over subgenres, metagenres and elements that make up most Dark Champions games. Starting with the typical street vigilante style game, and covering all the way to games that include fantastic elements such as Monster Hunter campaigns. While short, it covers a lot of ground and does a good job of explaining the basic elements that make up a Dark Champions game. Chapter Two - Character Creation. This is the longest chapter in the book, and goes into the details of creating a character to play in a Dark Champions game. Part One covers the basics of creation going over backgrounds, personalities, and archetypes. You get a good range of advice on building the person you're going to play, including advice on how to play against type and combine various elements of each section. Once you know who you are and where you came from it's time to get down to the business of spending character points. Part Two is Package Deals, covering suggestions for a range of characters and their associated skills and abilities. Twenty-Three Package deals are provided. There are five Criminal Packages, four Espionage Packages, five Law Enforcement Packages, six Military Packages, and three Miscellaneous Packages. Also included in this section is information on Intelligence Agencies around the world, how they operate and names they use for various sections, which is an immense help to give spies and intelligence agents the right flavor. The Packages fit well with most character levels, and cover from cinematic to realistic versions of various occupations likely to be played. The characteristics section comes with good advice on how to create a spread of characteristics amongst a group of characters, especially with the standard Heroic Normal Characteristic Maxima in place. It also has advice on how to selectively alter those Maxima to create even more diversity amongst the group. Skills covers some specific uses in a Dark Champions game. There's advice on using skills while injured, or on broken equipment, as well as expanded modifier tables for many skills. The other piece of useful information is the Gunsmithing Modifiers table, with time increments to use the skill. Two new elements are introduced, the first is the Parachuting Skill and the second the Expert Skill Enhancer. Perks provides a number of useful Fringe Benefits for modern gaming. They are Rank Benefits for several organizations and sectors: Business, Criminal, Espionage, Government, Law Enforcement, and Military (broken down by branch of US Military). Also included is a new Perk called Improved Equipment Availability, for use with the Resource Points covered later in the chapter. Seven new Talents are introduced. Combat Shooting and Combat-Ready both cover actions one takes in combat. Crippling Blow and Deadly Blow are two talents designed to cause even more pain or damage to a target. Evasive is for those characters that are especially good at not getting hit. Hotshot Pilot is for anyone especially good at flying. Rapid Healing is appropriate for more cinematic games. One new Optional Power is introduced to the game, Piercing. This is a special Power that works in conjunction with Attack Powers to reduce defenses. One new Power Advantage is also introduced, Semi-Armor Piercing, a reduced form of the standard Armor Piercing Advantage. Disadvantages covers the most appropriate disadvantages for a Dark Champions game. As well as ways of using Advantages that aren't normally associated with this genre, such as Vulnerability. Super-Skills are a new element introduced in this genre book. Super-Skills are a form of pseudo-power for Heroic characters. They are mostly designed for cinematic type games, though a few are appropriate for more realistic games. They are built like normal Powers, but almost always with many more Limitations than standard Champions level Powers. The last section of this chapter is Resource Points. This is another new element for Heroic Games. For those times where a greater level of control over resources available to the Characters is useful the Resource Points can be handy. They work as a way for characters to equip themselves for a specific adventure, choosing appropriate gear and the like. The Contacts & Followers Points have the potential to be the one most useful, considering the source material how many contacts are seen once and never again this is a good way to simulate a rotating roster of people a Character has access to from adventure to adventure. Especially if NPCs have a habit of getting killed dramatically in your games. Chapter Three - Forensics. This is an entire chapter dedicated to gathering, identifying and using forensic data. While it is not completely comprehensive (that's beyond the scope of the book), it is more than good enough to use in a game. It covers how to use various Skills in the system for Forensics, which ones are appropriate when, which ones serve as complimentary skills, and finally a short discussion on how Powers might effect Forensic data and data gathering. If you have a game that focuses on some form a detective work this chapter is an excellent source of information. Chapter Four - Combat And Adventuring. This chapter focuses on how to treat combat in Dark Champions. The first section covers basic Hero Combat and how it's elements interact with the genre at both a Realistic and Cinematic level, providing some very good advice on how to treat certain elements and mechanics of the system to capture either feel. The next section covers Damage and how it affects the Dark Champions genre, providing both more lethal and less lethal options. One of the more interesting concepts is Adjustable Hit Locations, which can greatly increase the lethality of a game, and turn most gunfights into one-shot one-kill affairs. It also covers handling damage as Mystery Damage, which is more work for the GM, but can add tension to the game on the Players side, enhancing their sense of danger and possible immersion into the genre. Healing damage is also covered, since quick healing isn't normally available is modern genres some useful alternatives are provided to help keep the game flowing and prevent the Characters dying with the same regularity as goons. The last part of the chapter covers Gunfighting. With options for alternate range modifiers, close quarters combat blow through (thin barriers provide little protection, this is how you can handle that aspect), recoil, reloading and other factors of a firefight from realistic to cinematic. The optional rules in this chapter can help capture the feel of the gun battles you want to play out. From the quick and dirty to the feats of Hong Kong action stars, from doves flying through churches to all the other trappings you see on the big screen action thrillers. Chapter Five - Weapons. If you're looking for a comprehensive look at implementing guns in the Hero System, this chapter is it. It starts out with a sidebar discussion on how people will argue endlessly over how to model guns in any game. So inevitably people will disagree with how Dark Champions does it. What I can tell you is that the implementation is internally consistent, which means it's both playable and works well with itself, which is what you really want out of an RPG. It provides a discussion on ammunition sizes, various ammo types, and how to modify ammo, this comes with sixteen pages of Ammo Tables that list damage by type and caliber for easy reference. It also has a separate section on Shotgun ammo. Next is firearms accessories and modifications. Which covers pretty much everything you can add onto or do to a weapon. Then comes a big list of guns and their basic damage, this is another eleven pages of reference tables, grenades are included as well. The final section covers Other Weapons, just in case shooting the enemy isn't preferred. Aside from knives and clubs there is a good section on explosives. Types of explosives, how easy they are to work with, trigger methods, and all the other information you'll need to level a skyscraper or two. Non-lethal weapons also get a mention, from handcuffs to sonic weapons and all the sub dual weapons modern forces use. Chapter Six - Equipment & Gear. Next is everything else a Dark Champions character uses in their battle against the enemy. First is an important look at how to get stuff in a typical Dark Champions game, from what is appropriate for what settings to how the GM can control the game and prevent it from becoming a simple arms race. There is also a handy prices table, giving prices in suggested ranges rather than set values, after all black market conditions change for most items. Defensive Equipment is up first, with a look at various kinds of armor, and a small section with write-ups for other kinds of protective equipment and combat wear such as gas masks and holsters. Sensory Equipment covers various methods of constructing radios and communications gear in Hero, as well as five different possible ideas for encrypted communications in the Hero System. Also provided are write-ups for various kinds of sight gear (binoculars and night vision goggles to mention two), detectors (bomb detectors, drug detectors, etc), and various surveillance bugs. For games going towards Costumed Vigilantes and approaching Champions in feel there is also a section, with the single most comprehensive Utility Belt write-up I have ever seen (thirty-three... Read more ›
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Sourcebook for a Different Kind of Champions Game,
By A Customer
This review is from: Dark Champions (Paperback)
If you're tired of playing with world-saving heroes who laugh at guns, knives, and thugs, then this is the book for you. Dark Champions focuses on the everyday kind of heroes who focus on making neighborhoods safe and on street-level violence. The rules are clearly laid out and the book is well-written, conveying great flavor for a street-level game. The author, Steve Long, does a great job of making the world seem to come alive.
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