[RPG]: Dark Champions, reviewed by jushin53 (5/5)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10759.phtml

David Martin's Summary:

A great book matured to an essential book

Go to the full review for more information.

Post originally by arcady at 2004-11-22 13:57:34
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It's almost as short as the back cover blurb on the book.

You don't need to write a mini novel like I do in my reviews, but give us a little more detail please. A little more analysis.

Post originally by Gene Ha at 2004-11-22 17:32:53
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Seconded.

The core of your recommendation was the "super-skills" section. Why is it such an improvement over the generic Hero skill system? How does it work? For those who don't play Champions, what are its assumptions?

I am an old hand at Champions, and I don't know what to make of your review. I know you like DC, but not why.

Post originally by Lord Mhoram at 2004-11-23 12:02:26
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I'm not the reviewer, but as I love the "superskills" I'll explain those.

They are powers bought with a special effect of exceptional skill with something. The classic "vanishing Teleport" was one such.

Retrocognitive clairsentience, with extra time, based on a crimilisitics or a deduction roll - mimicing a near Holmesian ability to look at clues and know exactly what happened.

Low levels of telepathy based on per rolls or dedction -- using interrogation techiniques that give you the answer even in he doesn't say it, due to body language.

That sort of thing.

It's basically using the HERO powers system to give a non-superpowered campaign useful or just plain "cool" skill stunts.

Post originally by Xotl at 2004-11-23 13:36:12
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My review of Dark Champions is in the queue, and is specifically addressed to players who have the old edition and are wondering if they need the new book. Hopefully it will answer your questions; I go into some detail on super-skills there. Essentially they're neato abilities that stay within the human realm, albeit a cinematic one.

Post originally by arcady at 2004-11-27 14:05:18
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My review is already up. It didn't address players of the old game so much, but it did try to break down what the book entailed. I think I was coming from a focus of "can this become my Modern genre RPG?"

I drew a yes to that question, and then tried to say why, and what factors that would get in my way if I made that choice (ie: what I saw as the weakpoints, so I would know what, as a GM, I would need to be aware of).

Thinking on it now, without my rview in front of me, I think the biggest weakpoints weren't in the game, but the presentation. What bothered me most was the lack of illustrations or descriptions to the guns. I and most people I've known have zero gun culture exposure, so it was just meaningless numbers and a lot of very confusing pages.

Beyond that, the book is so well done that I can't see entertaining another option at present - a competing publisher would have to really wow me to get me to put them on the 'eye-level shelf' of my collection in place of this book.