''Champions Universe'' is a supplement published by
Hero Games
Hero Games (''DOJ, Inc dba Hero Games'') is the publisher of the Hero System, a generic roleplaying rules set that can be used to simulate many different genres, and was the co-developer of the '' Fuzion'' system.
History
In 1981, George MacD ...
/
Iron Crown Enterprises
Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) is a publishing company that has produced role playing, board, miniature, and collectible card games since 1980. Many of ICE's better-known products were related to J. R. R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth, but the ''R ...
(I.C.E.) in 1992 for the superhero role-playing game ''
Champions
A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional/provincial/state, national, continental and world championships, and ...
''.
Contents
''Champions Universe'' is a 186-page softcover book written by
Monte Cook
Monte Cook (born January 29, 1968) is an American professional tabletop role-playing game designer and writer, best known for his work on ''Dungeons & Dragons''.
Role-playing industry career
Early years
Cook has been a professional game d ...
and 95 other authors, with illustrations by
Storn Cook and
Scott Heine
Scott may refer to:
Places
Canada
* Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec
* Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380
* Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Sas ...
. The book is a compilation of background information about the ''Champions'' universe. Material covered includes:
* timelines
* unusual places of the world
* brief outlines of major magicians and high technology agencies
* a summary of alien races
* the Paranormal Registration Act
* updates of the Champions super-team
* thumbnail sketches of the world's main organizations and media groups
* new villains
* a glossary of characters
An adventure scenario is also included.
Reception
Sean Holland reviewed ''Normals Unbound'' in ''
White Wolf'' #35 (March/April, 1993), rating it a 3 out of 5 and stated that "Overall the ''Champions Universe'' supplement is quite useful to a ''Champions'' gamemasters, especially ones who have not created a Champions Universe of their own."
In the September 1993 edition of ''
Dragon
A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...
'' (Issue #197),
Allen Varney
Allen Varney (born 1958) is an American writer and game designer. Varney has produced numerous books, role-playing game supplements, technical manuals, articles, reviews, columns, and stories, as well as the fantasy novel ''Cast of Fate'' ( TSR, ...
thought this book "succeeds fairly well", although he noted "shaky spelling and grammar." But Varney questioned the utility of the book: "While reading this book I kept asking, 'What does this accomplish? Who needs it?' If you already have a campaign, much of this book becomes redundant. If you can’t devise a campaign world of your own, the material here seems (a) too sketchy to help much and (b) not thought through." He concluded, "Even if you do need a pre-fab super campaign, ''Champions Universe'' won’t fill the role without other supplements to prop it up."
Reviews
*''
Pyramid
A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...
''
References
{{reflist
Alternate history role-playing games
Campaign settings
Champions (role-playing game) supplements
Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1992