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Heroic Adventures, Volume 1, is the first in what promises to be a long line of adventure supplements for the Champions superhero role-playing game (the book is published by Gold Rush Games under license from Hero Games). The book is purely adventure material: there are (thankfully) no new rules and very few nonstandard rules from lesser-known Champions sourcebooks (like Horror Hero), and "San Angelo," the campaign setting for one of the adventures, is detailed only sufficiently to run that adventure (despite what the cover promises). However, this narrow scope allows Heroic Adventures to excel at what it does do: present three complete, detailed adventures than can be dropped into just about any Champions campaign (complete with suggestions on how to alter the scenarios for specific variants, such as Dark Champions, gritty street-level heroes, or super-high-tech games).

The first adventure, "Throwing Stars and Bars," is probably the best of three. It has a plotline which intersects the Confederate States of America with Japanese mysticism, something I think very few players will find old-hat (the author does take some liberties with United States history and Japanese myth, but hey, it's a comic-book).

The second adventure, "Block Party," is less of an adventure and more of a dungeon-crawl. There is a mystery to be solved, but it's fairly simple, and the meat of the adventure is simply beating up enough people until you get to the end. However, "Block Party" can be used as a jumping-off point for a wide variety of plotlines, which more than compensates for its simplistic plot and its dependence on a single McGuffin. "Block Party" also includes some of the most detailed (and interesting) character descriptions I've ever seen in a published superhero game supplement.

The last adventure, "Virtual Ice," is an adventure that hinges upon the characters' involvement in a virtual-reality game. "Virtual Ice" manages to avoid the silliness common to VR adventures (computers with magic abilities like blowing up televisions and commandeering automobiles, for example) by relying on the paradigm of text-based virtual worlds (MUDs) and adapting that experience to immersive VR. For once, the virtual-reality game setting actually makes sense, and doesn't jar wildly with common knowledge about how computers work. However, the VR setting is just the beginning of the adventure: the hook that brings the PCs into the plot.

Heroic Adventures, Volume 1, is a fun book, with a variety of plot, character, and adventure ideas. It's portable to just about any Champions campaign, and all three adventures include a wealth of long-term effects that can enrich a campaign long after the adventures themselves have been played. The book delivers what it promises: heroic adventures.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Heroic Adventures, Vol. 1
Author: Crocker, Avellone, Tong Category: game Company/Publisher: Gold Rush Games Cost: US$16.00 Page count: 96 pages Playtest Review by Brandon Blackmoor on 07/31/98. Genre tags: none	Heroic Adventures, Volume 1, is the first in what promises to be a long line of adventure supplements for the Champions superhero role-playing game (the book is published by Gold Rush Games under license from Hero Games). The book is purely adventure material: there are (thankfully) no new rules and very few nonstandard rules from lesser-known Champions sourcebooks (like Horror Hero), and "San Angelo," the campaign setting for one of the adventures, is detailed only sufficiently to run that adventure (despite what the cover promises). However, this narrow scope allows Heroic Adventures to excel at what it does do: present three complete, detailed adventures than can be dropped into just about any Champions campaign (complete with suggestions on how to alter the scenarios for specific variants, such as Dark Champions, gritty street-level heroes, or super-high-tech games). The first adventure, "Throwing Stars and Bars," is probably the best of three. It has a plotline which intersects the Confederate States of America with Japanese mysticism, something I think very few players will find old-hat (the author does take some liberties with United States history and Japanese myth, but hey, it's a comic-book). The second adventure, "Block Party," is less of an adventure and more of a dungeon-crawl. There is a mystery to be solved, but it's fairly simple, and the meat of the adventure is simply beating up enough people until you get to the end. However, "Block Party" can be used as a jumping-off point for a wide variety of plotlines, which more than compensates for its simplistic plot and its dependence on a single McGuffin. "Block Party" also includes some of the most detailed (and interesting) character descriptions I've ever seen in a published superhero game supplement. The last adventure, "Virtual Ice," is an adventure that hinges upon the characters' involvement in a virtual-reality game. "Virtual Ice" manages to avoid the silliness common to VR adventures (computers with magic abilities like blowing up televisions and commandeering automobiles, for example) by relying on the paradigm of text-based virtual worlds (MUDs) and adapting that experience to immersive VR. For once, the virtual-reality game setting actually makes sense, and doesn't jar wildly with common knowledge about how computers work. However, the VR setting is just the beginning of the adventure: the hook that brings the PCs into the plot. Heroic Adventures, Volume 1, is a fun book, with a variety of plot, character, and adventure ideas. It's portable to just about any Champions campaign, and all three adventures include a wealth of long-term effects that can enrich a campaign long after the adventures themselves have been played. The book delivers what it promises: heroic adventures. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Heroic Adventures, Vol. 1