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Reprinted and updated to 5th edition in the new book are the following individual villains:
Demonologist, Golem, Vilsimbra, Black Fang, Hell Rider, Lamplighter, Vulshoth
This leaves some four dozen villains from Horror Enemies dropped. In their place Arcane Adversaries provides 30 other entries, all very different from what went before. For example, the team known as the Devil’s Advocates still exists, but over half its membership has been changed. The Kings of Edom, represented by Vulshoth alone in the older book, have now been expanded into a full pantheon of beings, with a write-up for a brother of Vulshoth and names for several more of his brethren. Human and monstrous servants of these beings are also provided. All this dovetails neatly into the recent DEMON book, in ways I won’t go into, for fear of issuing spoilers.
This book is also intended to work well with the Mystic World, the book for detailing the supernatural life of the Champions Universe. However, as I do not own that book, I can’t comment on how well the two blend.
Overall, the 5th edition enemies books, including Arcane Adversaries, are clearly superior to their predecessors for several reasons. Each and every villain comes with three plot seeds. If the villain has a variable power pool of some sort, sample powers are provided (this being particularly useful in this book full of mages). Each entry comes with suggestions on how to appropriately alter its power levels up or down, and lastly, each entry has suggestions on whether or not the villain would hunt PC’s, and if so, to what extent. As taking a Hunted disadvantage is such a common part of making a superhero in Champions, this in particular is very welcome.
Layout is the same as the other 5th edition Hero books, with the index being replaced by a pair of charts detailing quick psychological motivations, point totals, and brief combat stats that make running several Arcane Adversaries villains at once rather easy.
The book is divided into two parts: mystic organizations and solo villains. 2/3rds of the book is dedicated to five mystic organizations:
- The Circle Of The Scarlet Moon - The Devil’s Advocate - The Kings of Edom - The Sylvestri Clan - The Vandaleur Family -
The organizations each have their own plot seeds for the group as a whole, in addition to the individual seeds for each member presented within the book.
The Circle, to me, is perhaps the most interesting faction. They are low on raw combat power, with starting heroes able to combat them effectively. However, the Circle has a great deal of political and financial influence. It serves both as a collection of weaker villains for newbie heroes to pummel, and as a powerful consortium of subtle webweavers who constantly hatch vast, overarching plots that can easily involve the most powerful heroes. The overarching plots, however, are left for the GM to come up with, other than the seeds mentioned, which are more quick ideas than grand schemes. Four character write-ups are provided, and in addition, a statted and detailed base in present as well.
The Devil’s Advocates are a six-member group dedicated to abolishing our modern technological society and instead ushering in a Dark Renaissance where magic rules as it once did. They’re fairly simple, but I think will play well, averaging out at just over 400 points.
I hesitate to go too much into detail regarding the Kings of Edom, as they play an important role in the new DEMON source/campaign book. Essentially, they are a Lovecraftian group of alien creatures, both colossal, god-like creatures as well as monstrous minions. Though tied in to the Champions Universe through DEMON, Arcane Adversaries kindly provides an alternate route for their use if you have no wish to use DMEON, or don’t have the book. It is a nicely detailed grouping, with human servants and otherdimensional rivals: the most detailed of the groups inside.
The Sylvestri Clan is all named after Image comic artists as far as I can tell. They remind me of the Giovannis, from the Vampire RPG: a wealthy, western, patriarchal, closely-linked family of arcanes. They range from 280 to 640 points. Though the individual write-ups are well executed, this group interested me the least, mostly because of the presence of –
The Vandaleurs. Last seen in 4th edition's Mystic Masters, they are another family group of western mages. I find these much more interesting because of the touches of insanity and the fact that they’re more self-centered than evil. They are a very large family, with many non-mystic members that provide the magic-wielders with useful contacts. Their individual write-ups are I feel more creative than the Sylvestri ones, with perverse twins and an astrally-traveling jaguar. Their point scale is similar to that of the Sylvestris.
The solo villains range wildly in terms of power levels, but are evenly split between sub-350 points, the standard starting 350 point range, and substantially over 350 points (with the largest being an 1800-point evil Aztec god). The characters themselves are a mixture of the generic and the unique, though even the generic villains have something neat to them (the werewolf is also a karate master, and the black knight has a very interesting past with a timetable that motivates all his actions). One of my favourite villains from Horror Enemies, Archimago, is not present, but one of the new villains, a reluctant one named The Evil Eye, has something belonging to him, and he appears in other write-ups as well. There’s a psychic vampire that sets himself up with dictatorships and feeds off the suffering created as he ramps up secret police activities, an indiscriminate anti-magic vigilante, and a good man who uses necromancy and is thus stigmatized by an ignorant press and public (his entry contains the only real serious typo I’ve ever noticed in a Hero book, but I don’t think it’s critical).
As for the art, I found it functional, but as always, didn’t really care: art isn’t usually important to me in a game book. I don’t think it will stand out and grab anyone (though the cover is great), but it serves its purpose. Once there occurs a little art bubble, displaying a member of the Champions Universe commenting on a villain entry. I really enjoyed this sort of commentary in the UNTIL Superpowers Database, where even something as mechanical as power entries could be brought to life with a bit of it. There is plenty of room for additional art bubbles in Arcane Adversaries, and I would have like to have seen it used. Some might object to such commentary as smacking of metaplot, but at the very least it can provide flavour even to those who hate metaplots, and to those who do like that sort of thing, it can add a lot to the Champions Universe.
Ultimately I enjoyed the book. My initial fear that it would be a useless update to Horror Enemies proved unfounded; they're two very different products, and you should still keep the old book if you have it. If you want basic villains, the much more substantial Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks is what you’re looking for, but I think Arcane Adversaries will be a good complement to the multiple mystically-themed sourcebooks Hero released this year, and that GM’s who like villain books can get a fair amount of use out of it.
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