History VideoGame / ChampionsOnline

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys - Dr Silverback, [[OmnidisciplinaryScientist genius scientist]], celebrity, superhero contact...and Gorilla. Not to mention [[TheSimpsons Qwyjibo]], a forty foot gorilla with flaming head and forearms, who tragically used to be a brave and self-sacrificing warrior for the heroic side of the Manimals.
** At least in his current incarnation. In his first incarnation in the Pen&Paper RPG, Qwyjibo was just another Kaiju the Qularr had set loose during their first invasion.

* StandardStatusEffects - And, at launch, only half-documented.
* [[StarshipLuxurious Submarine Luxurious]] - Averted with the ''Cherenkov'' and the ''Nautilus'', which are suitably cramped and claustrophobic. Played so straight it hurts with the ''Aegir''.
** To be fair, the ''Aegir'' is the size of a skyscraper. An we only get to see a small part of its interior.

Player attacks are designed to emulate many offensive StockSuperpowers including:

*** The Fist = [[Comicbook/ImmortalIronFist Iron Fist]]

** There's also [[YouDirtyRat Professor Ratso]], a questgiver you meet in Monster Island. He sends you out to a chemical lab owned by Moreau to gather some mutagenic chemicals so that he can start reversing Moreau's work, only for it to turn out that he wants to ''continue'' it instead. He promptly turns on you immediately after the quest has been completed, and in the quest immediately following, appropriately titled "I Smell a Rat", you have to take him down along with every one of his allies.

The intellectual property rights to the ''Champions'' setting are held by Cryptic Studios (themselves picked up by Perfect World Enterprises), the original developers of the {{MMORPG}} ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes''. They bought the setting outright rather than licensing it. The IP is licensed back to the original developers (who still own the underlying ''TabletopGame/HeroSystem'') for the ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'' pen-and-paper game.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar - One truly amazing example is Lapis Lazuli, Sapphire's EvilTwin. She has only a handfull of spoken lines... of which two contain the word "pissed", which usually gets filtered. This game manages to get crap past ''its own'' radar!
** Another less surprising example are player characters whose skin and costume are intentionally given the same color. This can lead to {{stripperific}} costumes at best, or the player of a ''too'' stripperific or fully-"nude" char getting banned at worst.
** Then there's Gravitar - A [[MostCommonSuperpower scantily-clad]] french woman with gravity powers who sometimes straight up curses in mid-fight (albeit in text only):
--> Bitch, I just broke a nail!

*** Therakiel actually does it consciously. He is making Vibora Bay a Mecca for magic users and supernatural creatures, causing the energy level in the area to rise continously in preparation for the apocalyptic final battle between heaven and hell.

* BadGuyBar - Leo's Bar, in Millennium City. You can enter in disguise and quietly speak to your contacts, or simply pick up the pool table and beat up the patrons with it.

** In Vibora Bay and the Vibora Bay Crisis; Therakiel, a half-angel half-demon who's decided to start the EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt and rule the ashes left over after the LegionsofHell face off against the forces of Heaven.

* {{Area 51}}: Located in the Southwest Desert, right near Stronghold Prison and a Qularr crash site. VIPER has a base there, and among your enemies in that zone are VIPER Conspiracists, essentially [[TheMenInBlack Men in Black]] that work for VIPER and are quite interested in shutting you down for good.

* UnwittingPawn - [[spoiler:See EvilPlan, sucker.]]

* [[FrickinLaserBeams Robot Sharks with Frickin Laser Beams]]

* [[LaserBlade Laser Blades]], [[FrickinLaserBeams Lasers]], and [[EnergyWeapon Energy Weapons]] in general.

** Foxbat is often compared to SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}} for his fourth-wall-breaking humor and lovable/laughably not-quite-evil-more-like-crazy personality, but lacks his HealingFactor, fighting skills and sociopathy and does not look one bit like him. His wacky personality predates Deadpool by a decade, though, and due to his costumes and abilities, he was seen as naughty Adam West Batman.

*** The Glacier = [[Characters/XMenTheOriginalTeam Iceman]]

*** The Mind = [[Characters/XMenTheOriginalTeam Jean Grey]]

*** The Mountain = [[ComicBook/TheThing]]

*** The Inferno = [[Characters/FantasticFour The Human Torch]]

*** The Impulse = [[Characters/FantasticFour Invisible Woman]]

*** The Mountain = [[Characters/FantasticFour The Thing]]

*** Red Dawn is [[Characters/IronMan Crimson Dynamo]].

** And the Dog Pound in Vibora Bay. It's a {{werewolf}} bar.

** VIPER is Hydra. It also resembles [[GIJoe Cobra]], but predates it. Champions, in 1981, included VIPER from the start. A year later GI Joe's newest version introduced Cobra. However, as time went on they seem to have been taking on more and more aspects of Cobra (not least with the Supreme Serpent).

*** The Icicle = Introduced as an unlockable archetype during the Winter Event is basically [[Disney/{{Frozen}} Elsa]].

* MiniBoss: In some missions the player will have to face enemies that have a health bar divided in three parts, they are not as strong as a boss, but they can represent a threat for a solitary player.

** Liberty Guard and Indy Kid are ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and Bucky.

** ''The Tank'' - The Behemoth archetype and the "Brick" sets (Might and Heavy Weapons) are mostly made for this. The Darkness set with its life draining block and the Bestial set with its passive defense ''[[HealingFactor Regeneration]]'' allow them to become 'Reg Tanks', healing faster than enemies can damage them (doesn't always work, though, especially not in PvP). The Master archetype and the Martial Arts sets, especially Unarmed, have the passive power ''Lightning Reflexes'', which can make them 'Dodge Tanks'. And asside from absorbing large amounts of damage, they all can dish out a lot too. The [[DishingOutDirt Mountain]] is something of a StoneWall, with the ability to reduce the damage output of its enemies.

* DeathRay - The fitting name of an advantage (i.e. upgrade) for the 'Experimental Blaster' power, giving it a 1% chance to one-shot enemies not labeled 'supervillain', 'legendary' or 'cosmic' (i.e. bosses). It can affect even other players in PvP.

* GlobalCurrencyException - In addition to Resources, players can earn Snakebucks (for the Snake Gulch amusement park), Acclaim (gained in PvP, used to buy items and rewards), UNITY and Nemesis Tokens (gained by completing UNITY and Nemesis missions, respectively, used for very high level, exorbitantly priced rewards), Recognition (randomly dropped by monsters of an appropriate level), Drifter Salvage (from Lockboxes), Questionite ore...there's a lot of alternate currencies, is what we're saying.

* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent - Transmitted PvP in the Bloodmoon event.

** Some players love to exploit this with the Frag Grenade power in PvP.

* PettingZooPeople - The Manimals on Monster Island, plus many players. MANY, many players.

** SniperRifle: One of the most devastating Munitions powers in the game, which can hit ForMassiveDamage from farther away than other Munitions powers. Its main flaw is that you have to charge it up all the way before it can be used, and if it's interrupted, it doesn't work and the energy you devoted to it is wasted, making it undesirable for a heated battle. Its primary use is as an alpha strike to begin a major battle, major damage during boss battles, or to drop one or more tough enemies to make things easier on the rest of your party.