CHAMPIONS

One of my favorite role-playing games of all time is Champions: The Super-hero Role-Playing Game. When I studied at Serra High School, a Champions character sheet was the first character sheet that I saw someone ELSE holding and filling out. Tim McGinnis in Spanish Class under Mr. Gunter Greszig was filling out a character sheet and casually mentioned that it was for an RPG.

(Nowadays, RPG can mean Computer RPG, Table-Top RPG, Massively Multi-Player RPG. But back then there was just one type of RPG. The pencil-and-paper, table-top kind. Back to your regularly scheduled blog.)

I uttered the phrase that is uttered by many folks who know a little, but not a lot, about RPGs: "You mean like Dungeons & Dragons?"

He winced and said, "Something like that. You play superheroes in this one."

Because of Tim and my own dogged persistence, I managed to find the time and location of the Friday Night Beresford Recreational Center group involved in wargames and role-playing games called Creative Imaginations. I fell in with a group that played Paranoia & Traveller, but never really saw Tim there.

Curiously enough, several years later I began playing Champions with the group he claimed to be a part of. They disowned him on the spot.

Still, Tim helped open the door to years of fun, lots of self-introspection, and a nice bunch of friends. Thanks Tim, wherever you may be.