Champion Characters are predominately designed by the player. In the cases where a player is unfamiliar with the game, the GM will either assist the player in making his character or either makes the character based on the information the player provides.

Characters are designed on a point system. All the characteristics, powers and skills cost points. The more points in a power the more powerful it is.

These points are balanced out by Disadvantages. These are traits that work against the character. They also cost points, but these points are subtracted from the points spent on powers.

In my own personal Champions games, new characters start out on a total of 275 points. That means the player has 275 points with which to build his character. In my games I have a loose outline on what new characters can't do with these points, but that's not important in this file.

All characters start with a certain amount of Base Points. These are the points you start out for free. In my games it's 100 points. The remaining 175 pts need to be bought back with Disadvantages.

To sum up, a new character in my Champions games starts out with a maximum of a 275 character points with 175 points in Disadvantages.

Characteristics:

Champion characters have 14 different characteristics that reflect their abilities. The first 8 characteristics are the Primary Characteristics. All Primary Characteristics have a base value of 10. The remaining 6 are the Figured Characteristics.

Strength - This represents physical might. Characters do 1d6 in punching damage for every 5pts of STR. Every 5 points of STR effectively doubles the characters strength. STR costs 1 point to increase 1 point.

Dexterity - This characteristic represents agility and quickness. In combat, the character with the highest DEX acts first. The higher the DEX rating, the more accurate characters are in attacking. DEX costs 3 points to raise it 1 point.

Constitution - This represents a characters health. High CON is important in that it figures into 4 of the Figured Characteristics and it protects against being Stunned by attacks. CON costs 2 pts to increase 1 point.

Body - This represents how much Body Damage a character can take before dying. A character is killed if his BODY reaches it's negative. A character with 10 BODY dies if damage inflicted on him reaches -10 Body. BODY costs 2 pts to increase 1 point.

Intelligence - This represents how quickly a character can understand information, not necessarily the knowledge he knows. INT costs 1 point per 1 point increase.

Ego - This represents the characters will power. EGO costs 2 pts per 1 pt increase.

Presence - This represents how impressive characters are to others. It is combination of forcefulness, leadership and charisma. PRE costs 1 pt per 1 pt.

Comeliness - This represents how physically attractive a character is. COM costs 1/2 pt per 1 point increase.

The Figured Characteristics:

Physical Defense - PD represents how physically tough a character is. Base PD is calculated by dividing STR by 5. PD can be increased by 1 point per 1 point spent.

Energy Defense - ED represents how resistant a character is to energy based attacks. Base ED is calculated by dividing CON by 5. Costs 1 point to increase 1 point.

Speed - This represents how often a character acts in combat. The range of SPD is 1-12. Formula for base SPD is 1+ (DEX/10) and is not rounded off. SPD can be increased by .1 for each 1 point spent.

Recovery - This represents how quickly a character recovers from being exhausted or knocked out. Base REC is (STR/5)+(CON/5). REC can be increased by spending 2 pts per 1 pt increase.

Endurance - This represents how long a character can expend energy. Use of powers, STR and Moving costs END. Base END is calculated by CON x2. It costs 1/2 pt to increase END by 1.

Stun - This represents how much damage a character can take before being knocked out. Base STUN is equal to BODY + (STR/2) + (CON/2). STUN can be increased on a 1 pt per 1 pt basis.

Skills:

These are abilities that the character has learned. These cover a wide range of topics, such as Acrobatics, additional languages, Sciences, Acting, etc. A skill is anything that a character can learn to do.

Most skills are based on one of the Characteristics. The base formula for most skills is 9 + the characteristic divided by 5.

For example, Acrobatics is a DEX based skill. A person with a 23 DEX would have a 14 or less Acrobatics Roll. (9 + [23/5]). When a situation where the character performs an Acrobatic maneuver, the GM will roll 3d6. If the total of his roll is equal to or less then the skill roll, then the character has made his roll and preformed the maneuver. More complex maneuvers usually require the character to roll at a minus.

All Skills cost points to purchase. The majority of skills have a base cost of 3 pts and the roll can be increased by 1 per 2 pts spent.

Perks & Talents

Next are the Perks and Talents. Perks are special things and favors the character can have and earn. They tend to change as they are used.

Talents are unique abilities that are not quite powers, nor are they that far from normal. These are unique abilities that do exist in the real world. Talents include Photographic Memory, Double Jointed, Speed Reading, and Lightning Calculator to name a few.

Powers:

Last come the Powers themselves. These are the superhuman talents and abilities so common in the comics. The point costs for these powers vary. Some generalization is possible. Most attacks give the character a 1d6 per 5 points in the power. Using the power costs 1 END per 10 points in the power.

The most important thing to understand about powers is their Special Effects. Champion's powers are generic in nature. Their Special Effects bring them to life.

A Special Effect is HOW the power LOOKS when the character is using it. The most common power in Champions is Energy Blast or EB for short. This is simply the character firing something that can harm someone at range. How it looks changes from character to character.

For instance, Icicle, an ice using villainess, projects rams of ice from her hands. That's an Energy Blast with the Special Effect that's its ice.

Firewing throws bolts of fire. That too is an Energy Blast with fire as it's Special Effect.

Lazer carries around a large gun that shots a laser beam. That's also an Energy Blast.

To sum up, it's important to figure out what abilities your character wants to have and how they look when he does them.

Advantages and Limitations:

Base Powers can be altered by applying Advantages or Limitations to them.

An Advantage increases the power, such as having it affect a larger then normal area. An Advantage increases the cost of the power.

A Limitation is just the opposite. It limits the power in some manner. Lazers Energy Blast is Limited in that it comes from an object (called a Focus) and not himself. Take his gun away and he no longer has an EB. Limitations come in many different forms but the bottom line is that unless the Limitation limits the power in some manner, then it's not a limitation.

Power Frameworks:

Powers can be arranged in Power Frameworks. This lowers the costs of powers but can also limit them at times. There are three types of Frameworks.

Elemental Control or EC. A character with an EC unusually has several powers are based on a effect. Icicle has an EC. Her EC contains an Energy Blast (her ice ram), Armor (she coats herself in ice for protection), and Increased Running (she slides along on ice she projects before her). This saves Icicle some points for powers along a similar theme. Advantages and Limitations can be applied to a Framework also. However, any Advantage or Limitation will affect every power in the Framework.

Multipower. A Multipower is several powers that come from the same source. Unlike an EC, the powers in a Multipower do not have to be connected by Special Effect. There are two types of slots in a Multipower: Multi and Ultra. A Multi-slot means the power can be used at different power levels if necessary. An Ultra or Fixed slot can only be used as written.

The last Framework is called a Variable Power Pool. The Pool functions on a certain Special Effect. All the powers in the Pool must tie into that Effect or the GM won't allow it in the pool. A VPP is similar to an EC, but costs more because the powers in the Pool can be easily changed and re-arranged.

Disadvantages:

Now that you've made your character comes the time to buy back all those powers and skills with Disadvantages! Disads cover a wide range of types. They also help define a characters tendencies. The more limiting the disadvantage, the more points it will be worth.

Disads can be physical in nature (walks with a limp, blind, etc.) mental in nature (code vs. killing, won't attack women, greedy). The character can simply have a Distinctive Feature (the Hulk is large and green) or have a Reputation (cross the Punisher's path and you'll probably get shot).

The character can have a Secret Identity (virtually no one knows that Peter Parker is Spider-man) or a Public Identity (everyone knows that Reed Richards is Mister Fantastic).

The Character can have Dependencies (Aqualad needs to be in water every few hours or he'll die), Susceptibilities (Kryptonite exposure can kill Superman) or Vulnerabilities (Icicle takes increased damage from fire based attacks.)

Short guide to Champions Combat:

Champions Combat is handled in Turns. Each turn consists of 12 segments or phases. Each character can act as many times in a Turn as his Speed rating.

When a character acts is determined by a Speed Table. Characters with Speed 3 act on Phases 4, 8 and 12. Speed 6 acts on Phases 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12.

Combat begins on Phase 12. (Because this is the only phase where all characters, regardless of Speed, can act.) Combat order is determined by Dexterity ratings. The highest Dex of all the combatants goes first. Random rolls can determine who goes first in case of a tie.

Each character has a Defense and Offense Combat Value. (DCV and OCV for short.) CV's can be changed by situation and if they have certain skill levels. Base CV is equal to DEX/3.

The formula to figure out what a character needs to roll to hit another character is the Attackers OCV minus the Defenders DCV +11.

Thus a person with 8 OCV trying to hit a character with 6 DCV needs a 13 or less on a 3d6 to hit. (8-6 = 2 + 11 = 13)

Once a character hits, then he rolls the number of dice indicated by his attack. Let's say it's a 10d6 attack. This averages out to an attack that does 35 Stun and 10 Body. Stun is simply whatever the dice rolled ads up to. Body is figured out differently. For each 6 rolled the attack does 2 Body. Each 1 rolled does no Body. All other results give 1 Body.

Once the damage from the attack is figured out, the Defender applies his defenses to it. If the attack is energy in nature, then his ED is used. Otherwise PD is used.

In our example, the character has 15 PD. He then deducts 15 from the Stun and Body of the attack. That leaves 20 Stun and 0 Body. (If the defense is higher then the attack going against it then the attack does not harm the defender. In this instance it is impossible for the defender to take any Body damage from the attack.)

20 Stun goes over the defenders defenses. 20 is subtracted from his STUN rating. If this lowers it below zero, then he is unconscious.

In addition if the damage taken, after applying defenses, is greater then the characters CON, then the Character is STUNNED. This is like have the wind knocked out of you. You need a few seconds to re-gather your wits.

This damage can be recovered quickly during any of your action phase as long as you perform no action or you are not attacked.

That should give you a quick idea on how Champions works. If you are interested in learning more, then I suggest picking up the rulebook itself. It is a very versatile game system and I highly recommend it.