Roleplayer #21, August 1990

#
Super System Switching

##
Converting The Hero System to GURPS

by David Ellis Dickerson

Just because you've changed your campaign to GURPS Supers doesn't mean you have to throw out all the Champions materials you've been using all these years. In fact, you can go out and buy more! Both systems use character points, disadvantages, and 3d6 rolls -- an ideal situation for those who'd like to see Doctor Destroyer's island taken down by the IST. In fact, with the release of Champions, Fourth Edition, you can translate any Hero System game (Star Hero, Justice, Inc., et al.) to GURPS. All it takes is a bit of number-juggling:

## Characteristics

Whittling down the Hero System's 14 characteristics into GURPS' four basic attributes means ignoring most of them. Here's what you need:
Strength. Very strong characters will not be able to lift as much in the more "realistic" GURPS world as they used to, but they'll do more hand-to-hand damage than their energy-blasting equivalents. Translate as follows: A Hero System STR of 40 to 5 gives a GURPS ST of 8 + (Hero System STR/5).
A Hero System STR of 6 to 12 is the same in GURPS.
A Hero System STR of 13 to 30 gives a GURPS ST of 5 + (Hero System STR/2).
A Hero System STR of 31 or more gives a GURPS ST of Hero System STR-10, plus the Enhanced Strength Advantage. Intelligence. GURPS IQ = 8 + (Hero System INT/5).
Dexterity. GURPS DX =9 + (Hero System DEX/5).
Health. GURPS HT = 8 + (Hero System CON/S).
Speed. Figure normally, as for GURPS; don't use Hero System SPD. However, for every point of Champions SPD over 7, give the character one level of the GURPS Supers Increased Speed Advantage.
Hits. No character may have fewer GURPS Hits than he has Hero System BODY. In case of a discrepancy, buy the character extra GURPS Hits in order to equal the character's original Hero BODY. This is done according to GURPS Supers, at 8 pts. per HT. (Example: A Champions character with 28 CON and 25 BODY would normally have HT 14, but must have HT 25 because of his BODY. So the player buys an extra 11 HT, spending 88 points, and his character now has HT 14/25.)
Note: These calculations assume that your Hero System campaign involves superheroes, since this seems most likely. For a "standard heroic" campaign of 75 points or less, change all (Attribute/5) calculations to (Attribute/3). So a Hero System secret agent with INT 25 would have a GURPS IQ of 16 (8 + 25/3), not IQ 13 (8 + 25/5).

## Normal Advantages

GURPS Advantages correspond to Hero System Talents and Perks. Many are very easy to translate, because they have the same or similar names in both systems (Example: Hero Absolute Time Sense is GURPS Absolute Timing; Hero Bump of Direction is GURPS Absolute Direction). There are no GURPS parallels for the Talents of Cramming, Defense Maneuver, Find Weakness, Light-sleep, Simulate Death, Speed Reading, and Universal Translator. Nor are there parallels to the Perks Favors, Vehicles and Bases. Other abilities are explained below.
Acute Vision or Hearing. A +1 is a +1 in both systems. If a character has +3 Enhanced Hearing in Hero, he has +3 Acute Hearing in GURPS.
Appearance. A Hero character with a COM of 14 to 16 is Attractive. COM of 18 to 24 is Handsome/Beautiful. COM of 26 or more is Very Handsome/Very Beautiful, and every full ten points of COM beyond 28 gives the character one automatic level of Charisma.
Charisma. Every full ten points of PRE above 10 gives the character one level of GURPS Charisma.
Combat Sense. This Hero System ability has no real parallel in GURPS, but Combat Reflexes comes closest. Either substitute the one for the other, or ignore Combat Sense, and give Combat Reflexes only to characters with an INT of 13 and a military background (whether as mercenary, martial artist, or spy). Scientists in armor are out of luck.
Danger Sense. Characters with this Talent in Hero will have the same Advantage in GURPS, at their IQ level. It cannot be used to detect danger beyond the character's immediate person.
Fringe Benefits. Look at a Hero character's Fringe Benefits to determine if they have GURPS Clerical Investment, Legal Enforcement Powers, or Status.
High Pain Threshold. If the character has a CON of 20 or more (28 or more for superheroes), or an EGO of 15 or better, he has this Advantage.
Language Talent. A character with Linguist in Hero is considered to have 3 levels of Language Talent.
Luck. Translate as follows: 1D6 Hero System luck = 15 points of GURPS Luck.
2D6 Hero System luck = 30 points of GURPS Extraordinary Luck.
3D6 Hero System luck = 60 points of GURPS Ridiculous Luck (SU9).
4D6 Hero System luck = 100 points of GURPS Super Luck.
5D6 Hero System luck = GURPS Super Luck, plus Normal Luck.
6D6 Hero System luck = GURPS Super Luck, plus Extraordinary Luck.
7D6 Hero System luck = GURPS Super Luck, plus Ridiculous Luck. Money. See Wealth.
Night Vision. In most cases, characters who have Ultraviolet Vision in Hero have Night Vision in GURPS. The only exceptions to this are technological/armored characters whose UV Vision should be bought as Spectrum Vision with the Limitation: Only Sees Ultraviolet (-6 levels).
Perfect Pitch. Perfect Pitch gives +1 Musical Ability.
Strong Will. If a character has an EGO higher than his INT, he has Strong Will +1, with an additional +1 for every full four points of EGO higher than INT.
Wealth. Translate as follows: Hero System "Destitute" = GURPS "Dead Broke."
Hero System "Poor" = GURPS "Poor."
Hero System "Middle Class" = GURPS "Average" or "Comfortable."*
Hero System "Comfortable" = GURPS "Wealthy."
Hero System "Wealthy" = GURPS "Very Wealthy."
Hero System "Filthy Rich" = GURPS "Filthy Rich." *Middle Class characters tend to be Average, but use your judgment. If the Hero character has Middle Class Money, but High Society Skill, he should be Comfortable. Middle Class super characters who got their powers through mutation or accident should be Average, while those with expensive gadgets or other inventions should be Comfortable.

## Disadvantages

Most Disadvantages are straightforward and easy to translate between systems. Overconfidence remains Overconfidence. Phobias remain Phobias. Hatreds become Intolerances. Dependent NPCs become appropriate Dependents, and Hunteds become Enemies. However, there are a few differences worth noting:
Frequency. Subtract 2 from all Hero frequencies of occurrence to find their GURPS equivalents. So if a Hunted is listed as 14 or less, it's a 12 or less Enemy in GURPS.
Code Against Killing. If you're translating to a GURPS Supers campaign which is using the optional Stun rules, this Hero Psychological Limitation is 15 points of GURPS Pacifism. In a normal GURPS campaign, make this Won't Harm Innocents. All superhero characters should add the GURPS Supers Disadvantage: Hero's Code Of Honor.
Appearance. Any character with COM under 8 is Unattractive. Characters who have Distinctive Looks which cause extreme bad reactions are treated as follows: Distinctive Looks 8- is Ugly; Distinctive Looks 11- is Hideous; and Distinctive Looks 14- becomes a new Disadvantage: Inhumanly Hideous, giving a -6 reaction and worth 25 points.
Berserk. Only give the GURPS Berserk Disadvantage to Hero characters who have Berserk in Combat or When Wounded at a minimum of 11 or less. All other Berserks should be paid off with other GURPS Disadvantages (e.g., Berserk When Friends Hurt might be bought as Sense of Duty to Friends; Berserk When Insulted might translate as Jealousy, Intolerance, or Bad Temper). Enraged characters are good candidates for Bad Temper.
Primitive. Characters with the Physical Limitation Unfamiliar With Earth Culture might be able to buy Primitive, at the GM's discretion.
Unluckiness. 2D6 Unluck is GURPS Unluckiness. 3D6 Unluck is GURPS Supers Cursed. 4D6 is 20 points of GURPS Supers Jinxed, with an extra level of Jinxed for every extra die of Unluck. 1D6 Unluck should be ignored.
Weak Will. A character has one level of Weak Will for every two full points of EGO under 10. Note that this is calculated differently from Strong Will.
Don't worry if characters don't have enough Disadvantages; just give them appropriate Experience Bonuses. Note that some characters -- especially those with lots of Hunteds -- will turn out to have more than 100 points in Disadvantages, and may quite possibly be less than 500-point-base characters! Only Hero characters in a GURPS world should be able to get away with this.

## Normal Skills

Many skills have the same names in both systems. If a Hero character has Forensics-13, buy him GURPS Forensics at whatever point cost it will take to give him the same 13 or less roll. The more useful skills (Acrobatics, Climbing, Disguise, Security Systems and Stealth) are assumed to be bought at a minimum of DX or IQ level, even if the rolls on the character sheet are lower.
Some further notes:
Martial Arts. This becomes Karate, Aikido, Judo, or Brawling (for Dirty Infighting or Boxing) bought at DX level unless the character is clearly a "cinematic" martial arts character (i.e., superhero-level with no super powers and a name like Gold Dragon or Crimson Samurai). If this is the case, give the character his martial art at DX +3 (rounded down to the nearest full multiple of three), the Trained by a Master Advantage, and the skill Mental Strength, if he has Ego Defense or an Ego of at least 18, and Breaking Blow, if he has Find Weakness. The GM may then allow the character to choose any one of the Cinematic Martial Arts skills for every five points of his INT, rounded off. Breaking Blow and/or Mental Strength count against this maximum. All of these skills are bought at DX or IQ level.
Find Weakness. Only exists for super martial artists. Ignore it or see above.
Skill Levels. For every full +2 Levels a Hero character has with a skill or Super-skill, his skill roll is increased by one in GURPS. Characters with Group Levels should buy up each individual affected skill. Overall Levels do not exist.
Swinging. This is a new GURPS Supers Movement Super-Advantage. A character with this ability must buy the Physical Hard skill Swinging, to determine his skill at completing sudden turns or catching himself (or others) from falls. This Advantage costs 25 points, and usually has a Gadget Limitation. The character may swing from building to building at twice his Move in a relatively straight line, a long as he doesn't swing too high, and as long as there are buildings (or other structures) high enough and close together enough to swing from! The swing line may also be used to grab things in or out of combat, at a range of 2 x Move in hexes.

## Powers

(Note: Since Powers do not generally exist outside the Champions world, all the following rules use the term Champions instead of Hero System.)
In Champions (and also in Fantasy Hero spells), there is no distinction between Super Advantages and Super-Skills, so this is where translation can be tricky. In general, keep the following rules in mind when turning Champions Powers into GURPS Supers Advantages and
Skills:
Offense. Offensive powers such as Energy Blast, Darkness, Flash, etc. have one level of GURPS Power for every five Active Points (i.e., before Advantages and Limitations) in Champions. So a Champions character who has 45 Active Points of Darkness (even though it has the Focus and Charges Limitations) would have the Darkness Super-skill at Power 9 (with appropriate Gadget and Limited Use Limitations) in GURPS. This means that most Champions Energy Blasts will be reduced to half power in GURPS -- a Champions 10D6 Electrical Attack becomes 5d of GURPS Lightning.
Defense. Since attacks are weaker, so are defenses. Halve all Champions resistant defenses, and quarter all non-resistant defenses, to get GURPS DR. Figure the totals for PD and ED separately, and buy as much "universal" DR as the lower of the two. Then, if PD is higher, buy each higher point of DR as resistant to Physical Crushing, Cutting, and Impaling Damage (cost: 12 points/level). If ED is higher, it should be bought as DR resistant to generic Energy damage (cost: 4 points) and to any other types of Energy damage which seem appropriate. (Cost for all forms of Energy is 27 points/level, which seems ridiculously expensive, but that is the way the system works.) Round off fractions.
Passive Defense is figured differently. A character gets one point of Passive Defense for every full 2.5 points of "universal" DR derived from the Armor Power or an armor suit. Force fields and most padded suits (i.e., those without resistant defense) provide no Passive Defense.
Example: The Fuchsia Flare has a natural PD and ED of 15, and a +12 ED, +18 PD Force Field, for a total of 27 ED, 33 PD, of which 12 ED and 18 PD are resistant. The resistant defenses give 6 Energy DR and 9 Physical DR, and the non-resistant defenses add (15/4=3.75, rounded off) 4 DR to each. This makes a total of 10 "Energy" DR and 13 "Physical" DR. This means the character has 10 DR against all attacks (50 points), plus 3 DR against all Physical Crushing, Cutting, and Impaling attacks (36 points). The character has no PD, because Force Field and natural defenses don't provide any.
Movement. This is easy. One inch of Champions movement is one GURPS yard per second. Just buy as much Flight and Super Flight (or what have you) in GURPS as you need to approximate Champions inches. If you can't be exact, then make the character faster than he technically merits; Champions characters are woefully slow, compared to most of the heroes in the comics. If the character has increased his noncombat move, then use the noncombat movement to determine GURPS movement.
Endurance. Almost everything costs Endurance in Champions; almost nothing costs Fatigue in GURPS. Champions characters who move to a GURPS world will be delighted to find that they can blast away all day without worries, and depressed when they realize they've spent a lot of points on a useless Advantage! All Reduced Endurance Cost advantages and END Batteries have no effect. However, Egoists and characters with Costs END or Increased END Cost will have to pay Fatigue on those super-powers. Egoists use normal GURPS rules. Other characters pay one GURPS Fatigue for every two full Champions END Cost.

### Notes on the Powers

#### Body Powers

Body Of . . . Certain Elemental Control characters will have Body of Fire or Body of Ice at two levels for every five points in the value of the Elemental Control. Certain Bricks (depending on their description) will have Body of Stone, and their "universal" DR value (see Defenses) should be bought through this Super Advantage. Robots should buy Body of Metal in the same way. Depending on the description, certain types of Desolid may really be Body of Air or Body of Water with the Switchable Enhancement.
Claws. All Champions Hand-to-Hand Killing Attacks are 40-point Claws in GURPS, except for those HKAs of 1D6 + 1 or less, which are 15-point claws. Hand-to-Hand Attacks of 20 points or less are 15-point Claws in effect, while 25 points or more result in 40-point Claws.
Costume. This Advantage doesn't exist in Champions, so don't forget to buy it for characters who'll need it.
Growth. As above, this is based on final height. One 15-point level of Champions Growth is equal to one level of GURPS Growth -- it just takes longer.
Increased Density. One level of Density Increase in Champions is one level in GURPS.
Insubstantiability. Any character with Desolidification at any level has this Power, with the Switchable Enhancement. (But see Body Of. . ., above.)
Invisibility. This is almost always GURPS Invisibility with the Enhanced Vision Special Enhancement -- 60 points.
Shrinking. Give the character one level of GURPS Shrinking for every two levels in Champions, with the Special Limitation: Stops After Ten Turns (-2 levels).
Stretching. Champions characters with Shapeshift will have this Advantage, but characters with Stretching only may buy this with the Special Limitation: Stretches But Cannot Flatten (-3 levels).
Telekinesis. At lower Power levels (16 or less), Champions characters will find their telekinetic strength severely lessened. This can be a problem if Telekinesis is a character's only attack. To remedy this, double the character's Power for his Telekinesis Super-skill only. This extra Power costs 10 points per level, and will allow the character to use the Telekinesis damage ability on p.45 of GURPS Supers.
Transformation. Characters with Instant Change will have to buy this Advantage. Note that there is no GURPS parallel for ten points of Champions Instant Change.

### Defense

Champions Knockback Resistance, Lack of Weakness, Power Defense, and Flash Defense for Sense Groups besides Sight do not exist in GURPS. Mental Defense does exist, but it is only available to comic-book Martial Artists as described above under Martial Arts skill.
Absorption. One die of Champions Absorption is equal to 2 levels of generic Energy Absorption in GURPS, unless otherwise specified in the character description (e.g., an Electricity Elemental).
Damage Reduction. This doesn't exist in GURPS. Buy Invulnerability if a character has three-quarters Damage Reduction against a particular type of attack, but otherwise treat it as 5 DR per level; 10 DR if it's resistant -- but note again that this is usually bought against a specific type of energy.
Damage Resistance. At GM's option, Martial Artists and other human "normals" may not be allowed to buy DR without excellent justification (e.g., a padded suit) since "natural" DR doesn't exist in GURPS as it does in Champions.
Reflection. As for Absorption, this is generic Energy Reflection unless otherwise specified, 1d in GURPS for every 10 Active Points in Champions.

### Life Support

Most Life Support powers translate directly, using the same terms, with only two exceptions:
Amphibious. Any Champions character with 5 points in Life Support and at least 6" of Swimming is Amphibious.
Regeneration. All Regeneration is assumed to be Fast Regeneration, but Regeneration of 5 BODY or more is considered Instant Regeneration, and slower-than-normal Champions Regeneration is GURPS Supers Slow Regeneration.

### Movement

Ice Movement. Any Ice Elemental character who has a movement slot will have to buy Ice Skates. Ice Clinging and Move Through Ice probably won't be necessary for most Ice characters.
Increased Speed. See Characteristics, at the beginning of this article.
Superleap. Characters with Superleap must buy the new Movement Super Advantage "Super Jumping." It costs 20 points per level, and is only available to characters with the Enhanced Strength Advantage. Each level of Super Jumping doubles the distance a character may normally jump, according to the rules (B88). A Champions character gets one level of Super Jumping for every ten inches of Superleap.
Tunneling. A Champions character gets 40 points of Tunneling, plus 10 points for every inch of movement. Ignore DEF for purposes of this calculation.

### Senses

Detect. Any Champions character with this Power has the appropriate Power Group Detection (i.e., Detect Air for Air Elementals; Detect Powers under Alteration) or whatever is listed, if there's no Power Group Parallel, bought as if it were Psi Sense that detects something besides Psi powers. This generic Super-skill is Mental, Area, and costs 2 points per level.
Discriminatory Smell. Characters with this ability in Champions will have this new Advantage in GURPS. In GURPS, this ability costs 15 points, and allows a character to analyze and identify smells with a successful IQ roll, modified for wind, time elapsed, and other factors, as the GM rules.
Mental Awareness. This is the GURPS Psi-Sense Super-skill.
Polarized Eyes. Any character with Flash Defense: Vision Sense Group has this, in GURPS.
Sonar. Characters with Active Sonar, Radar Sense, or Spatial Awareness in Champions will have Radar Vision in GURPS. This Radar Vision starts at a radius of 10 hexes for the first 15 points and goes up 10 hexes for every additional 10 points the character has spent. So a character with Champions Spatial Awareness (35 points) would have a 20-hex radius of vision in GURPS. Note that Radar Vision is directional; if a character also has 360 Degree Sensing in Champions, give them 360-Degree vision in GURPS, and an additional 10 hexes range on their sense.
Ultravision. See Night Vision, under Normal Advantages, in this article.
X-ray Vision. This should be bought as Spectrum Vision, with the Special Limitation: Only Sees In X-Ray (-3 levels). N-ray vision should be bought as either a similarly limited Spectrum Vision, See Invisible, Radar Vision with the Sees Inside Objects Special Enhancement, or Clairvoyance.

### Special

Gadgeteer. Anyone with Gadgeteering Skill in Champions should be given this Advantage. See also Power Modifiers, below.

### Power Modifiers from Champions

Multipower. Players will have to buy every one of their Multipower slots at full cost in GURPS, and then take a Limitation on each of the powers, as appropriate: Power Doesn't Work At Full Power when X Power(s) Are On: -1 level.
Power Doesn't Work At All when X Power(s) Is/Are On: -2 levels. If the character has more than three powers with the same limitation, each of these get an additional -1 level reduction, if and only if the powers could all be used simultaneously (Force Field, Flight, X-ray Vision and Energy Blast, for example). Different types of Energy Blasts could not take this Limitation.
Power Pool. Characters with Gadgeteering Pools had better make some relatively permanent devices, because Gadgeteering is not as powerful in GURPS as it is in Champions. Similarly, characters with Magic or Cosmic Power Pools had better decide what Super-Skills they want; they buy Magic Power at a level equal to one-fifth of their Champions Power Pool, and then get as many Super-skills as they can afford! Characters with Mimic Pools should see Alteration, below.

#### Advantages, Enhancements, and Limitations

Most Champions Advantages can become GURPS Enhancements quite easily; the same goes for Limitations. Invisible Power Effects is the same as No Obvious Effect. Activation Roll is the same as Fickle -- with the same probabilities, conveniently enough! In general, 1/4 is one level, 1/2 is two levels, and 1 is four levels, plus three levels for every full Champions 1 modifier beyond the first. Certain of these, however, do require additional comment.
Attack Against Limited Defense. There's no such thing in GURPS. See No Normal Defense.
Armor Piercing. Use GURPS rules. Even if a Champions character is accustomed to cutting his opponent's defenses in half with his Armor-Piercing Energy Blast, he won't be able to do this in GURPS unless his Energy Blast happens to be doubly Armor Piercing.
Based On Ego Combat Value. Since there's very little difference between Normal and Ego Combat, ignore this Advantage, and say it's a normal power with mental special effects. The GM may want to buy this power with No Obvious Effect and/or Leaves Mental Signature.
Burnout. Fickle, in GURPS, is somewhere between Activation Roll and Burnout, and as a result, Fickle replaces both of them.
Ego Power Based on CON. Again, since there's not as important a difference between Normal and Ego Combat in GURPS, the GM is encouraged to say simply that these are Psionic Attacks resisted by HT rather than IQ, at no change in cost.
Entangle Advantages and Limitations. So many of these were added in Champions III that it's beyond the scope of this article to delineate them all in GURPS terms. GMs should ignore non-standard Entangling Attacks and to play them as generic Binding Attacks where possible.
Hardened Defenses. This is a new, 3-level Enhancement to any GURPS Damage Resistance power. It may only be bought once, and reduces any Armor-Piercing attack by one level.
Increased Endurance Cost. See Endurance, under Powers, in this article.
Invisible Power Effects. Champions EGO powers are all visible. If a character with EGO powers does not have this Advantage, give him the Physical Effect Limitation.
No Normal Defense. Since there's no GURPS parallel, the GM has two options. He can make his own new Super-Skill to reflect the gas, radiation, disease, or whatever attack the power is intended to simulate. Or he can allow the Enhancement: No Defense. This is a 6-level Enhancement(!). It allows any attack to completely ignore all a target's DR and take damage straight off HT! Champions characters who have this Advantage have it bought with Only Does Fatigue/Stun Damage (-2) and Doesn't Affect Characters Who Have (some common defense, such as Life Support) -- (-1).
Penetration. Treat as Armor-Piercing or, alternately, as a two-level Armor-Piercing Attack which is completely stopped by one level of Hardened Defenses. This is a new 7-level Enhancement.
Single Target Flash. Affects Single Target is a new -3 Limitation which can be placed on any Area Effect attack to make it affect only one target, who may Dodge its effects. See also Light Powers, below.

## Super-Skills

Most of these are self-explanatory. Power is determined as suggested above under Powers, Offense, in this article. Level of Skill is DX or IQ, plus 1 for every 2 full Champions Skill Levels with a given power. If the character has several Powers from different GURPS Power Groups, he must buy each affected Power Group separately, unless the Champions powers are strung together in an energy-based Elemental Control.
Example: The supervillain Lodestone has an electrical energy blast and magnetic telekinesis. He will have to buy the Lightning Super-skill and Magnetic Telekinesis by buying Electrical and Magnetic Power separately -- which could be quite expensive -- unless they've been bought under Elemental Control: Electromagnetism. In this case, Lodestone has a brand new GURPS Supers Power Group (Electromagnetism), which costs as much as the most expensive Power Group of the two. The Super-skills are bought normally. However, his evil sidekick Phantom, who has bought Desolidification (usable on Others), Tele-kinesis, and Teleport under the Elemental Control: Ghost Powers, doesn't get the same break, since no form of energy is involved. He will have to buy the Decrease Density, Telekinesis, and Autoteleport Super-skills separately -- under the Density Control, Psychokinesis, and Teleport Power Groups, respectively.
Note that it is generally wiser to buy Force Field as DR, rather than by the Force Shield Super-skill.
Certain Super-skills and their families require further comment.
Air Powers. Champions characters with air powers frequently simulate it through Powers such as Telekinesis and Force Field (PD and ED), which are Psychokinesis Super-skills in GURPS (Telekinesis, Energy Shield, and PK Shield). Buy these Super-skills for such characters at usual Power level (see Offense, under Powers, in this article), as if they were under the Air Power Group. Don't make the character buy both Air and Psychokinesis Power. Note that buying air-powered Force Fields as Shield Super-Skills instead of using the usual DR conversion (see Defense, under Powers, in this article) will make the character's defenses slightly weaker, but it's more realistic than allowing him an alleged "wind" Force Field which can bounce howitzer shells.
Air characters' offensive powers will usually be Telekinetic -- see Telekinesis, above. If the Telekinesis is bought as Area Effect, give the character the Whirlwind super-skill at normal Power. Any Physical Blasts should be bought as Wind Blast; only buy Wind Jet if the Champions attack has the Increased Knockback Advantage.
Alteration Powers. Most Power Drains or Power Transfers can be bought as Absorb or Drain Attribute and/or Absorb Super-Skill with the Enhancements: Also Affects Switchable Super Advantages (+1 level), Takes No Time (+2) and possibly Usable At Range (+2 levels), and the Limitation: Lasts Turns, Not Days (-4 levels). Champions characters can drain from one attribute and transfer the points to another. This is neither an Enhancement nor a Limitation. Characters with Mimic Power Pools should buy lots of Absorb Attributes and Absorb Super-Skill with the above Advantages, as well as Reduced Fatigue Cost, and the Limitations: Target Keeps All His Own Attributes and Powers (-6 levels) and Can't Gain More Power Than The Target Has (-1 level).
Light Powers. Champions Flash attacks of 3D6 and under should be bought as the Flash Super-skill with the Limitation: One Hex Area Effect (minus 2 levels).
Magic Powers. Characters with Magic Power Pools and Multipowers should buy Magic Power at 20 points/level. Most other magic characters fit more easily into one of the cheaper Power Groups (Nature, Weather, et. al.) and should buy their super-skills that way, to save points.
Magnetism Powers. Buy Magnetic Telekinesis and Force Fields as given under Air Powers, above.
Teleport Powers. As noted under Telekinesis, characters with the Autoteleport super-skill will have less distance at lower levels than their Champions counterparts. To give them a break, total points spent on Combat Teleport, Non-combat Teleport, and Memorized Locations as well as Teleport distance, before dividing by 5 to find GURPS Teleport Power. Note also that there is no Dimen-sional Travel in GURPS Supers. If a Champions character has Extra-Dimensional Teleport, either ignore it or give the character the Movement power Dimensional Travel (100 points), and let the GM determine the actual rules.
Weather Powers. Champions Weather Elementals should buy the Control Weather super-skill, and certain Air Elementals should buy Control Winds as if it were an Air Power (and it should be!).
Bear in mind that Champions characters will be much weaker in GURPS. A Champions 250-point character generally runs around 350 GURPS points, and has very few skills. (But this is not always the case. Characters with lots of Life Support powers, and those with Power Pools or Multipowers, can be very expensive in GURPS Supers terms.) To challenge your GURPS supers, give your players one 500-point Champions nemesis each. And if you do plan to run Champions adventures as written, my money is on the IST over Doctor Destroyer every time!
Our thanks to Iron Crown Enterprises for granting their permission to publish this article. Hero System products are copyrighted by Iron Crown Enterprises; and Champions is a registered trademark of Iron Crown Enterprises.
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