Champions: The Super Role-Playing Game (1989)

Champions is a superhero role playing game system. Affectionately referred to as the Big Blue Book (BBB) this book is the core rule book for the 4th edition of the game. Prior to the 4th edition the rules were spread out between five different books, which resulted in mechanics that were diffuse and inconsistent. The 4th edition was to fix both of these problems as well as combine all the rules from all the books into one cohesive whole.

The front cover artwork for all versions of the book was created by George Perez.

From the back cover, Champions contains:

• Hero System Rules. The award-winning HERO System lets you role-play any time, any place, any technology, and any power level. The unique character design rules allow you to create any character, whether he comes from a movie, a book or your own imagination. The revised HERO System is cleaner, better integrated and more streamlined than ever before.

• Champions Sourcebook. The Champions Sourcebook shows you how to use the HERO System to recreate the pulse-pounding action of comic books. It includes special sections for designing great characters and creating super scenarios. Learn to make the campaign feel like a comic book, and to keep the players entertained. 10 years of super role-playing wisdom are at your fingertips.

• Champions Campaign Book. The Campaign Book has everything necessary for instant heroics. A super team - the Champions - is set for action. A new multi-part adventure and over 20 fully-detailed villains are ready to play. There is even an introductory scenario to use if you've never played Champions before. The Campaign Book can provide hours upon hours of fun.

The deluxe edition of Champions (Product Code 451) differs from the hardcover (Product Code 400) and the softcover (Product Code 450) editions in having:

• New interior graphics and layout.

The new layout uses page borders, large gray bars for chapter headings, gray boxes that look like torn sheets of paper for tables and a serif font compared to the more plain layout of earlier editions. The Sourcebook and Campaign Book no longer have their sections starting at S1 and C1 respectively but are now numbered like the rest of the book.

The Deluxe cover, other than the obvious additions of the word "Deluxe" and the banner mentioning HeroMaker, has much more vibrant colors than the regular hardcover and softcover. In addition, a metallic sheen has been placed on various surfaces, notably Seeker's sword and Dr. Destroyer's armor.

• Rules corrections.

The rules have been updated to reflect changes that first appeared in the Hero System Rulesbook. The earlier hardcover and the softcover do not have these changes.

• An index.

The hardcover and softcover only had a comprehensive table of contents.

• Smythe-sewn hardcover binding.

The pages are laid out in signatures of 16 or 32 pages and sewn together, then glued to a backing. The text block of all the hardcovers, regardless of printing, "floats". This means the pages are attached to a backing which is then glued to the covers of the book, but not the spine. The first printing hardcover, in a cost-cutting measure omitted the sewing and glued the pages directly to the backing, similar to a softcover book. The glue used in the first printings became brittle and the pages fell out, requiring Iron Crown Enterprises to send out replacement copies with better glue to owners of the first printing that requested a replacement.

• HeroMaker Software.

The Deluxe edition includes this software to create characters with. The last 35 or so pages of the Deluxe book is the instruction manual for HeroMaker. The software requires MS-DOS to run and is no longer supported.