Champions

A classless, point-built superhero TTRPG for groups that want exact power engineering, tactical fights, and long-running comic-book campaigns rather than fast pickup supers play.

At-a-glance

Point-built superheroes • HERO 6 / Champions Complete • 3-5 players + Game Master • Free tutorial plus paid core books • Best for long campaigns and exact power design

Genres:
Superheroes
Mechanics:
Campaign Character Customization Classless Tactical Combat Team-Based
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Champions

Champions remains one of the clearest recommendations for groups who want superhero characters to feel engineered rather than loosely sketched. It is strongest when players want to build exact powers, defenses, movement tricks, and team roles, then watch those designs matter in long-running comic-book campaigns where tactical choices and scenario pressure both count.

It is a weaker fit if your table wants fast pickup play, light prep, or a supers game where powers stay mostly fictional and the rules stay out of the way. Champions asks the group to care about build craft, campaign limits, and fight procedure. If that sounds like work instead of fun, a looser or more emotionally focused superhero TTRPG will usually land better.

What the game is

Champions is Hero Games' long-running superhero TTRPG, originally created by George MacDonald and Steve Peterson. It started as a superhero game first and only later spun outward into the broader HERO System family, which is part of why the line still feels so specific even when people also talk about HERO as a generic engine.

In practice, Champions is a classless, point-built supers toolkit. You do not pick a narrow class package and fill in a few powers afterward. You decide what the hero actually does, buy the effects that make that concept work, then tune the character until the mechanics match the comic-book identity you want at the table.

Publication history and editions

Champions first appeared in 1981 and went through multiple editions during the 1980s before the rules branch that became the standalone HERO System emerged around the fourth edition era. Public reference coverage and Hero Games' own archive pages align on the big beats: first edition in 1981, second in 1982, third in 1984, fourth in 1989, fifth in 2002, and the current sixth-edition Champions core book in 2010.

For a practical 2026 buyer, the important distinction is not just sixth edition versus earlier editions. It is full Champions: The Super Roleplaying Game versus Champions Complete. Hero Games still sells both through the current sixth-edition line, but Complete is the more concise stand-alone on-ramp while the 2010 core book remains the more expansive genre treatment.

Product line and what you need to play

The cleanest current starting point is Champions Complete. Hero Games describes it as a 240-page stand-alone book containing everything necessary to play Champions with no other book required, which matches its long reputation as the easier way into the line than the larger sixth-edition hardcover.

The other practical onboarding tool is Champions Begins, a free tutorial adventure that Hero Games says is designed to teach both Game Masters and players how to play. It includes pregenerated characters, a five-part introductory scenario, and Hero Designer files, which makes it unusually useful for a crunchy game that otherwise asks a lot from first-time builders.

If your group already knows it wants the fuller genre treatment, move up to Champions: The Super Roleplaying Game. It is better for GMs who want more campaign material, more explicit superhero support, and a broader sense of how Hero Games expects the line to run beyond the stripped-down Complete volume.

Major supplements, settings, and support

The official Champions category and the wider HERO System 6th Edition archive make the line's shape clear: the game is still commercially supported as a living archive with current core entry points and a deep backlist of superhero books, villain material, campaign books, and older edition supplements.

That archive-heavy model matters for table fit. Champions is not the kind of line where most groups buy a single book and ignore the rest forever. It rewards GMs who are willing to pull from the existing shelf, whether that means genre guidance from the main core, extra characters and templates, or older scenario material that can be repurposed once the table understands the system's assumptions.

Digital tools and community support

Champions has one of the more tangible digital helpers among older crunchy TTRPGs because Hero Games still supports Hero Designer, and the free Champions Begins package explicitly includes Hero Designer files for its pregenerated cast. That does not turn the game into a low-friction digital-first experience, but it does meaningfully reduce the bookkeeping burden for groups who would rather not hand-build every stat block from scratch.

Digital support here is more about character construction and reference handling than about a polished official VTT pipeline. That is enough to matter, because the hardest part of Champions for many groups is not finding a place to roll dice online. It is getting character builds, power writeups, and recurring NPCs into a form the group can actually manage week after week.

Core rules and play structure

Champions runs on the HERO System's point-buy chassis, where characters purchase characteristics, skills, defenses, movement, and powers directly instead of advancing through classes. Powers are built from general effects plus advantages and limitations, so the system can represent a remarkable range of comic-book ideas without needing a bespoke subsystem for each one.

At the table, that means the rules care about how a power works, how often a character acts, how much endurance an effect costs, and how well an attack gets through a target's defenses. Combat is detailed enough that tactical choices, build assumptions, and team coordination all matter, but it is still built for superhero fiction rather than military simulation for its own sake.

Characters, roles, and advancement

Champions is classless in the strong sense. You are not choosing from a fixed supers roster and then optimizing within a lane. Brick, blaster, martial artist, armored inventor, speedster, psychic, cosmic energy being, gadgeteer, or odd hybrid concepts can all be expressed in the same framework if the campaign limits are clear.

That freedom is the line's biggest selling point and its biggest barrier. Players who love precise concept work tend to find the game unusually satisfying because they can make mechanics line up with the version of the hero in their head. Players who want a short list of finished archetypes and a fast first session often bounce off the amount of front-loaded decision-making required before play really starts.

Advancement continues the same pattern. Growth is not about unlocking the next class feature in a preset tree. It is about spending points to refine, expand, or rebalance a character concept over time, which is one reason Champions works better in campaigns than in casual one-night trials.

Signature mechanics

The signature appeal is not one flashy gimmick. It is the combined effect of classless construction, exact power modeling, endurance-aware action economy, and combat where offensive and defensive benchmarks actually shape how characters feel in play. Champions is one of the games people point to when they want superhero mechanics to describe the hero with more precision than "good at punching" or "magic user."

The cost is cognitive load. Once the table embraces the engineering side, Champions becomes very good at differentiating heroes and rewarding tactical teamwork. If the table resents that engineering work, the same mechanisms can feel like overhead standing between the group and the comic-book action it actually wanted.

What play feels like

At the table, Champions usually feels deliberate, technical, and campaign-minded. Fights have weight because builds matter, powers interact in concrete ways, and heroes can be pushed into bad situations that are not solved by vague genre confidence alone. When the system clicks, victories feel earned because the players built the tools they are using and then had to apply them well.

Outside combat, the tone depends heavily on the group. Champions can support bright four-color heroics, street-level vigilantes, cosmic teams, or even darker campaigns, but it does not impose those tones for you. The GM and players have to agree on power level, genre texture, and campaign scale up front or the system's flexibility will turn into argument instead of possibility.

Running the game

Champions asks a lot from the GM. Power limits, enemy design, scene pacing, and spotlight balance all need active judgment. The system gives you the tools to model almost anything, which means it also gives your players many ways to create something the campaign is not actually ready to support if the initial boundaries stay too loose.

The safest onboarding route is to use pregenerated or lightly customized heroes, run Champions Begins or another tightly scoped opening scenario, and keep the campaign brief until the table understands its build vocabulary. Champions improves dramatically once everyone shares expectations about what a hero in this campaign should look like.

Campaign fit

This is primarily a campaign game. You can run a one-shot, especially with prepared characters, but the system pays off most when the same team returns, powers evolve, villains recur, and build choices continue to matter after the novelty of first creation wears off.

That long-form strength is part of why Champions still matters editorially. Plenty of superhero TTRPGs can deliver one exciting issue. Fewer still support the particular pleasure of maintaining a custom-built supers team over a long arc where tactics, concept clarity, and campaign escalation all stay mechanically meaningful.

Reception and legacy

Champions has one of the strongest legacy reputations in superhero roleplaying because it helped define point-buy superhero design in the first place. Public reference coverage consistently treats it as an early landmark of the genre, and Hero Games still sells it as one of the longest-running superhero games in roleplaying history.

More current review signals are also consistent. RPGnet's review index shows strong reviews both for the 2010 sixth-edition core book and for Champions Complete. The praise pattern is familiar: players who want exact power design and durable campaign support still respect what the game can do. The recurring caveat is just as stable: character creation, rules handling, and fight management demand more effort than many modern superhero alternatives.

Where it is strongest

  • Groups that want custom superheroes built with real mechanical precision rather than broad narrative approximation.
  • Campaigns where tactical fights, team roles, and long-term character tuning should all matter.
  • Players who enjoy classless point-buy design and do not mind spending time making a concept work exactly.
  • GMs willing to set firm campaign limits and use pregenerated or preapproved material when the table is new.

Where it can frustrate groups

  • Character creation can feel like homework if the table wants instant onboarding.
  • Detailed combat is a feature here, not a small optional layer, so fights will take meaningful table time.
  • The system's flexibility can produce analysis paralysis or edge-case arguments when campaign limits are vague.
  • Groups that want a light, drama-first, or teen-emotion-first superhero game will usually find better fits elsewhere.

Content and safety notes

The baseline content profile is comic-book violence: superpowered fights, collateral damage, imprisonment, body-altering powers, secret-identity pressure, and villains whose threat can range from bank robbery to city-scale catastrophe. The game itself does not force a grim tone, but the exact content floor and ceiling depend heavily on the campaign frame the group agrees to before play.

Best starting path

Start with Champions Begins if your group needs a practical first session, then move to Champions Complete if the table wants a single-book rules purchase. Move to Champions: The Super Roleplaying Game once the group knows it wants the fuller sixth-edition treatment and broader campaign guidance.

If you are introducing brand-new players, do not start by asking everyone to build from a blank page. Start with pregens, sample powers, or tightly constrained character concepts and let the game earn the right to become more open-ended.

Research notes

Last checked: July 7, 2026.