For those unfamiliar with Champions PnP, will the game interface be one that is intuitive and easily understood, or will we need to read through all sorts of source material to understand how to make a character effective? (French)

Jackalope: We definitely want people to make a hero and play without any prior knowledge of the Champions RPG or the HERO System. We have a saying (well, I keep saying it) – "zero to hero in no time flat." I want people to be able to get into the game and have fun as quickly as possible.

However, we are adding lots more knobs for people to play with, as opposed to our previous titles. We do adopt a lot of the Hero Games elements in character creation, but players don't need to crunch numbers in order to make their character.

I'll elaborate a little here. In the Champions pen-and-paper RPG, one doesn't create a Fire Blast. A player instead starts with the generic Energy Blast power and then adds Power Advantages and Limitations to it. There's a ton of tweaking that could be done during this step to get a power "just right." In Champions Online, a player selects a Fire Blast with some predetermined effects. Following the familiar theme, fire has an additional DoT (damage over time) component. In the pen-and-paper RPG, a player would need to calculate that effect separately as an advantage and then calculate the new cost of the "Energy Blast." In the computer game, a player takes Fire Blast. When a player wants a more powerful Fire Blast, he'll take the next rank up in it.

But Champions Online is all about customization. So a player can take that Fire Blast and, over time, add Advantages and Limitations to it. These aren't necessarily going to be identical to the ones in the HERO System, but they'll be familiar. Some Advantages can add new damage types, increase the chance of a critical, or perhaps add some new wrinkle under particular conditions (imagine a power that does something extra but only at night …)

When I say "over time," I mean that as a character gains levels, the player will have the option to add these advantages onto his or her powers (as well as be required to add some disadvantages, too). In the Champions RPG, a player does the vast majority of this work at character creation; later changes are somewhat smaller. But in Champions Online, a character can evolve greatly over time.

But what if you're a hard core Champions RPG or Hero Games fan, or maybe just a number cruncher. Is there ever going to be an option to open up the hood and fiddle with the engine? Let's just say we totally know that some people would love to have this and we're keeping our options open. No timeline, no promises. Just keeping our options open.