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Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks

It’s old had that a supers RPG will only be as good as the villains are bad. Without a good antagonist it can be very hard to get any kind of comic book feeling, much less to keep the players interested. It is with the intention of giving you dozens of villains of variety and interest that Hero Games released Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks. This book is chock full of villains, plot seeds, nefarious devices, and full Hero 5th stats. If you need a good villain, or just need a good set of stats, you’ll do right to pick this book up.

The Book

Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks is a 238 page softbound, with color cover and black and white interior. A full 5 of those pages are given over to “notes” space – blank pages where you can write notes about the book, apparently. The rest of the book, however, is cram packed with information – so crammed, in fact, that layout sometimes suffers for it.

The art in Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks passes my “gamability in RPG art” test. This means that the pictures of the characters are good enough that I can show them to the PCs to let them have a good idea of what the NPC looks like, as well as their general style and idiom. Beyond that, however, it does not go. Every bit of art is acceptable, but there wasn’t a single bit that leapt of the page at me or gave me jealous twinges from wishing I’d drawn it.

The Substance

With just short of 100 villians, flunkies, thieves, and nasties CKC is a hefty volume of rogues ready to be hurled at the mighty fists of your Champions heroes. The book is divided into three main sections. The first of these is a section on Master Villains, huge scale bad asses who are able to single handedly shred most PC teams. Each of the six master villains has extensive history, personality, and motivation write ups as well as having more information given for their followers, organization, equipment, and affiliated supers. Dr. Destroyer’s section, for example, takes up 13 pages and includes stats for his sub-supers, his combat agents, his robots, his multipowers, and the mecha army he’s building. All of the master villains are well done, stated high enough to be dangerous but with enough weaknesses that careful and smart heroes could still bring them down at the end of a long and challenging campaign.

The second section details five villain teams, comprised of members who are slightly weaker to slightly more powerful than the average PC hero. These groups not only have individual histories, tactics, and gear for each villain, but also have extensive write ups on their group history, group goals and tactics, and joint possessions like headquarters and vehicles. Not every member of every team is given equal time, nor do any of them get the detail of the master villains, but what they lack in individuality they make up in team cool.

The third major section details individual villains, and is the most hit and miss of the chapters. Because the villains are all over the chart in terms of power, motivations, background, and cheese there are some real big winners and a couple of duds to be found. Of course, which are the winners and which the duds will depend on your preference in character types (I, for example, think that just about every Fantastic Four villain is lame beyond comprehension – but I know that many people feel the same about the Hulk villains that I love) so I won’t go naming names. All in all some of the best material in the book is in this section, but so is all of the worst.

Finally the book finishes out with several pages of Master Reference tables that let you quickly choose which villains you need for a scenario and give you a rough idea of their stats and capabilities. I did not find the stat summery table enough to run the villains in game, but it was enough to let me eyeball things for quick rulings or to get an idea of their capabilities before game. We’re also given a short chapter on customizing villains to your campaign, and then a good index followed by several blank pages with the header “CKC Notes.”

The Good

It would be possible for a book of NPCs to have 100 very similar NPCs, whether the similarity is in scale, tone, or theme. Such a book would suck. CKC does very well on that front, and avoids the suck trap of villain sameness all together. While not every single character in the book is a stand out individual, there are enough different types and enough different personalities that we get a real rogues gallery and not just the same villain in a different costume. One of the nifty little bits that gave a lot of flavor both to the book and to the individual characters was the use of little sidebar “sound bites” in which various personalities from the Champions universe talked about each other in TV and radio interviews. Because this technique was not over used it worked nicely at drawing out the rivalries and personalities that exist in and between the characters in the book.

Similarly, CKC does a very good job of providing plot seeds and campaign advice for GMs using the villains from the book. There are plotseed sidebars on just about every page, in addition to the seeds in the villains write up. We also get a short chapter devoted to modifying and retooling the characters to fit various campaign styles. Add to this tables that list all the types of powers that various villains have, and the book becomes a very usable tool for GMs looking to set up a game based around a villain (and aren’t many superhero games set up just that way?).

Finally, I’ll give the now standard and obligatory praise to the index. Like all Hero products I’ve reviewed to date, the index in CKC is far superior to that of most RPG products today. Though it isn’t quite the monster that Hero 5th’s index was, it still gives you everything you need in a clean and organized manner.

The Bad

CKC suffers in layout. Some characters start with a write up, then have stats. Others have stats followed by a write up. This occasionally makes it hard to find specific information when flipping through the book because once you hit a characters section you’re never quite sure if you need to go backwards or forwards to find the bit that you need. It isn’t a large problem, but it is an annoying one because, so far as I can tell, there is no good reason for it.

Also the massive writeups and stat sheets for many of the characters sprawl over multiple pages. This can make it very difficult to keep track of everything when using the book in game. Dr. Destroyer, for example, takes up 4 pages, which results in a lot of flipping during play. As a result, I’ve found that I often make crib sheets of villain’s stats, something short enough that I don’t have to flip about during game. While that might be inevitable, it remains annoying. A slightly denser spread and a different font could have made the characters more playable right out of the book, which would have increased its value as a tool for use in actual play by a great deal.

The Ugly

Notes pages. Big blank pages in which we are, apparently, to write notes. Now, I know that this is an issue with the way books are printed, and that some people might actually like writing in their gaming books. I however, have never known such a person and can only look at those 5 blank pages and think that some of the layout cramming could have been alleviated had those pages been filled with text. Really, 5 blank pages is quite annoying. Scrawling my own sloppy writing across them would just be ugly and ruinous to the condition of the book.

The End

For having dozens of villains, plot hooks, gadgets, and organizations Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks gets a 4 in substance. For having an occasionally uneven layout that doesn’t always facilitate easy use in game, merely passable art, and “notes” pages it gets a 2 in style. If you are not a Hero player you will not want this book, as unlike Champions and Champions universe it does not contain enough non-Hero info to make it worth while. However, this is a good book if you need villains and stats for your Champions game, and most Champions GMs will be very happy if they pick it up.

Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks
Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks Playtest Review by Brand Robins on 16/01/03 Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 4 (Meaty) Chock full of villians for your Champions game, CKC is full of good information but the organization is slightly lacking. Product: Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks Author: Steven S. Long Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Hero Games Line: Champions Cost: $24.99 Page count: 238 Year published: 2002 ISBN: 1-58366-006-2 SKU: DOJHERO202 Comp copy?: yes Playtest Review by Brand Robins on 16/01/03 Genre tags: Modern day Superhero	*Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks* It’s old had that a supers RPG will only be as good as the villains are bad. Without a good antagonist it can be very hard to get any kind of comic book feeling, much less to keep the players interested. It is with the intention of giving you dozens of villains of variety and interest that Hero Games released Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks. This book is chock full of villains, plot seeds, nefarious devices, and full Hero 5th stats. If you need a good villain, or just need a good set of stats, you’ll do right to pick this book up. *The Book* Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks is a 238 page softbound, with color cover and black and white interior. A full 5 of those pages are given over to “notes” space – blank pages where you can write notes about the book, apparently. The rest of the book, however, is cram packed with information – so crammed, in fact, that layout sometimes suffers for it. The art in Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks passes my “gamability in RPG art” test. This means that the pictures of the characters are good enough that I can show them to the PCs to let them have a good idea of what the NPC looks like, as well as their general style and idiom. Beyond that, however, it does not go. Every bit of art is acceptable, but there wasn’t a single bit that leapt of the page at me or gave me jealous twinges from wishing I’d drawn it. *The Substance* With just short of 100 villians, flunkies, thieves, and nasties CKC is a hefty volume of rogues ready to be hurled at the mighty fists of your Champions heroes. The book is divided into three main sections. The first of these is a section on Master Villains, huge scale bad asses who are able to single handedly shred most PC teams. Each of the six master villains has extensive history, personality, and motivation write ups as well as having more information given for their followers, organization, equipment, and affiliated supers. Dr. Destroyer’s section, for example, takes up 13 pages and includes stats for his sub-supers, his combat agents, his robots, his multipowers, and the mecha army he’s building. All of the master villains are well done, stated high enough to be dangerous but with enough weaknesses that careful and smart heroes could still bring them down at the end of a long and challenging campaign. The second section details five villain teams, comprised of members who are slightly weaker to slightly more powerful than the average PC hero. These groups not only have individual histories, tactics, and gear for each villain, but also have extensive write ups on their group history, group goals and tactics, and joint possessions like headquarters and vehicles. Not every member of every team is given equal time, nor do any of them get the detail of the master villains, but what they lack in individuality they make up in team cool. The third major section details individual villains, and is the most hit and miss of the chapters. Because the villains are all over the chart in terms of power, motivations, background, and cheese there are some real big winners and a couple of duds to be found. Of course, which are the winners and which the duds will depend on your preference in character types (I, for example, think that just about every Fantastic Four villain is lame beyond comprehension – but I know that many people feel the same about the Hulk villains that I love) so I won’t go naming names. All in all some of the best material in the book is in this section, but so is all of the worst. Finally the book finishes out with several pages of Master Reference tables that let you quickly choose which villains you need for a scenario and give you a rough idea of their stats and capabilities. I did not find the stat summery table enough to run the villains in game, but it was enough to let me eyeball things for quick rulings or to get an idea of their capabilities before game. We’re also given a short chapter on customizing villains to your campaign, and then a good index followed by several blank pages with the header “CKC Notes.” *The Good* It would be possible for a book of NPCs to have 100 very similar NPCs, whether the similarity is in scale, tone, or theme. Such a book would suck. CKC does very well on that front, and avoids the suck trap of villain sameness all together. While not every single character in the book is a stand out individual, there are enough different types and enough different personalities that we get a real rogues gallery and not just the same villain in a different costume. One of the nifty little bits that gave a lot of flavor both to the book and to the individual characters was the use of little sidebar “sound bites” in which various personalities from the Champions universe talked about each other in TV and radio interviews. Because this technique was not over used it worked nicely at drawing out the rivalries and personalities that exist in and between the characters in the book. Similarly, CKC does a very good job of providing plot seeds and campaign advice for GMs using the villains from the book. There are plotseed sidebars on just about every page, in addition to the seeds in the villains write up. We also get a short chapter devoted to modifying and retooling the characters to fit various campaign styles. Add to this tables that list all the types of powers that various villains have, and the book becomes a very usable tool for GMs looking to set up a game based around a villain (and aren’t many superhero games set up just that way?). Finally, I’ll give the now standard and obligatory praise to the index. Like all Hero products I’ve reviewed to date, the index in CKC is far superior to that of most RPG products today. Though it isn’t quite the monster that Hero 5th’s index was, it still gives you everything you need in a clean and organized manner. *The Bad* CKC suffers in layout. Some characters start with a write up, then have stats. Others have stats followed by a write up. This occasionally makes it hard to find specific information when flipping through the book because once you hit a characters section you’re never quite sure if you need to go backwards or forwards to find the bit that you need. It isn’t a large problem, but it is an annoying one because, so far as I can tell, there is no good reason for it. Also the massive writeups and stat sheets for many of the characters sprawl over multiple pages. This can make it very difficult to keep track of everything when using the book in game. Dr. Destroyer, for example, takes up 4 pages, which results in a lot of flipping during play. As a result, I’ve found that I often make crib sheets of villain’s stats, something short enough that I don’t have to flip about during game. While that might be inevitable, it remains annoying. A slightly denser spread and a different font could have made the characters more playable right out of the book, which would have increased its value as a tool for use in actual play by a great deal. *The Ugly* Notes pages. Big blank pages in which we are, apparently, to write notes. Now, I know that this is an issue with the way books are printed, and that some people might actually like writing in their gaming books. I however, have never known such a person and can only look at those 5 blank pages and think that some of the layout cramming could have been alleviated had those pages been filled with text. Really, 5 blank pages is quite annoying. Scrawling my own sloppy writing across them would just be ugly and ruinous to the condition of the book. *The End* For having dozens of villains, plot hooks, gadgets, and organizations Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks gets a 4 in substance. For having an occasionally uneven layout that doesn’t always facilitate easy use in game, merely passable art, and “notes” pages it gets a 2 in style. If you are not a Hero player you will not want this book, as unlike Champions and Champions universe it does not contain enough non-Hero info to make it worth while. However, this is a good book if you need villains and stats for your Champions game, and most Champions GMs will be very happy if they pick it up.