Dark Champions Campaigns

[Killer Shrike]

With the release of DC coming on us soon, and with some of us looking at the playtest version currently, I thought it might be interesting to start a thread on specifically Dark Champions campaigns some of us have run in the past, and some of the elements that made them memorable.

So how 'bout it?

[Killer Shrike]

Ill lead off.

All of my Champions campaigns are a bit Dark by most folks reckoning, but not too long ago (2 or 3 years ago) I ran a specifically Dark Champions game.

It was a cyberpunk/metahuman meld, 250 points, high lethality game. The original PC's were all metahumans that had been developed by a typically unscrupulous megacorp, and were busted loose by accident during a competeing corporation-sponsored raid carried out by a mercenary company.

The PC's were rescued, but basically had to earn their keep and thus took to trying to start up as a cyberpunk style runner team.


The PCs were Fortress (FF/Super Strength), Wyatt (Laser Emission), Triage (sympathetic healer/regenerator), Farad (energy form/electrical), and Ghost (Mind Controller/Mental Invis). Farad got killed and was replaced by Doc Sparx, a cyborg inventor with a Gadget Pool.


Some of the notable enemies faced included several cyborgs, the most powerful of which were a full conversion mini-gun toting borg called the Swede, some other metahumans, the most memorable of which were probably Callidus a time manipulating metahuman and Lasher a hyper-reflexes scrapper type with a nasty NND Does Body nueral whip and some other weapons.


America didnt exist as such anymore, having collapsed into a dystopic megacorp controlled rigid anarchy. Typical cyberpunk spin. Cops are a contracted company, the only real law is might = right, and it's not what you can do, it's what you can get away with. There was no real seperation between Canada, US, and Mexico anymore; you just eventually reached a point where the urban sprawl stopped and nobody really cared what happend much beyond that.


The campaign was a lot of fun while it lasted, mixing elements of superheroes and cyberpunk.

[Killer Shrike]

Guess Im the only GM to ever run a DC campaign? Apparantly?

[Mark Taylor]

Guess Im the only GM to ever run a DC campaign? Apparantly?

Well I intend to run one in the future. Does that count?

[Killer Shrike]

Well I intend to run one in the future. Does that count?
Sure. Give up the skinny.

[Eosin]

I think KS is already aware of the last DC game I was in :king:

I am looking forward to the new game and even have my character built for it but I will let Eddie toot his own horn when it comes to describing the setting and game. :cheers:

[Killer Shrike]

I think KS is already aware of the last DC game I was in :king:

I am looking forward to the new game and even have my character built for it but I will let Eddie toot his own horn when it comes to describing the setting and game. :cheers:
You mean http://www.killershrike.com/theomegateam ? :D

[Mark Taylor]

Actually this is a campaign idea I've had for quite a while, and just recently reading the description of the forthcoming Hudson City I realised that would be the almost perfect setting in which to run it. I don't want to give too much away in case any of my future players read it (well I've been introducing two groups of players to HERO System just lately. Hey guys, STOP READING NOW ;)) but basically the PCs would be a group of 'exceptionally talented' individuals (perhaps one might be a psychic, another a legendary former homicide cop, another a highly successful vigilante, and so forth) who are called in by the police department to help them solve a series of freakish and bizarre murders they are unable to find any leads for. The investigation draws the PCs into the criminal underworld, where eventually they discover that the source of the murders is even more bizarre than the killings themselves - it is rooted in a malign supernatural force - and stopping them isn't going to be anything as simple as merely catching and arresting the perpetrator...

[Korvar]

I was kinda sorta running a street-level idealistic campaign. But it kinda petered out... my spare time is, well, less than it used to be.

[Resartus]

I'm converting Gurps Black Ops to Hero and Dark Champions will be a big help. I really like what I've seen in the playtest, I can't wait to get my hands on a hardcopy.

Black Ops is sort of "Weird" Spec Ops setting in the same way that Deadlands is "Wierd" wild west. The setting is a little bit MIB, a lot of special operations, a little supernatural, and definitely over the top cinematic fun. The starting characters will probably be 500 pts in a heroic style campaign (long skill lists).

I'll be adding my own stuff to it as well. I've got an old campaign that I ran years ago that had a very similar background so I'm merging them together and converting them to Hero/Dark Champions. I'm very happy with it so far, the supernatural abilities are much easier to model in Hero than they were in Gurps. I'll post some more details after the game starts, I don't want any of my players to see what their in for before things get rolling.

[zornwil]

Uh, sorry, KS, should have put the thread I just posted here, just saw this as I am catching up as I go...

[RDU Neil]

This was my thread, before there was a Dark Champions forum. It was a dramatic experiment that worked really well as a story telling vehicle, but the game fell apart due to group dynamics issues. Folks seemed to enjoy reading about it, though...

Secret Worlds, it was called. Maybe I'll return to this, someday, it died pre-maturely.

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12191&highlight=Secret+Worlds

[Greatwyrm]

I'm hoping to run a game similar to the Dark*Matter setting for TSR's old Alternity system. I'm trying to find ways to integrate it with some events from a Spycraft game I ran about a year ago, too. Maybe even have the group run into some of their old characters, who don't realize the "supernatural" department even exists in their organization.

[Edsel]

Since this is a thread dealing with DC campaigns. And since my old Omega Team campaign has been mentioned already. And since Eosin aluded to the next campaign I am working on. I thought I go ahead and post the Intro that I sent to my players the other day for my future Conclave Campaign. This intro is a little heavy into the supernatural but I am still fleshing this out, particularly the happenings from World War I onward. Also note that this intro borrows from the anime Hellsing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

The world of the Conclave is not present day earth. The Conclave world is a parallel in which various monsters (vampires, werewolves, etc.) really do exist. It is also a world in which the Vatican, the Church of England and other religious groups take a much more active hand in world events. For instance the Vatican is rumored to have its tactical anti-terrorist team. Most technology is the same as today but some higher tech stuff also exists.

The Conclave is a secret organization devoted to counter-terrorism, anti-crime (usually of the organized and international variety) and paranormal intervention. The Conclave grew from a gang of vigilantes (the Battery Boys) that operated in turn-of-the-century New York. The purpose of the original gang was to protect innocents from the excesses of the powerful gangs that dominated New York City during this era. By chance the activities of this group came to the attention of Theodore Roosevelt, who was at that time the head of the NYC Police Commission. Commissioner Roosevelt covertly supported the group in their activities. In return they assisted Roosevelt in rooting out criminal activity that the corruption-riddled NYPD could not touch.

When Teddy became the governor of New York he continued to support the group whose scope became statewide. Once he became President in 1901 he enlisted the aid of his new friend and former western lawman Bat Masterson to give the group some strong leadership. Masterson had just moved to NYC and had taken a job as a sports columnist; his press access and celebrity status was an added boon. Though the group still operated primarily in New York they now roamed nationwide when the President called. It was at about this time that group had their first encounter with a vampire.

Roosevelt and Masterson were horrified to learn of the existence of this creature. If vampires were not myths, what other legendary horrors might lurk in the shadows of America's bustling cities? Fortunately this vampire was slain by the group and its true nature was covered up. As far as the world was concerned, Andrew Haswell Green (the vampire) was slain by a deranged Negro on November 11, 1903.

During one of Masterson's visits to the White House it was agreed by the two friends to seek outside help. They quietly contacted Cardinal John Murphy Farley the Catholic Archbishop of NY and the Reverend Robert Jenkins Nevin, an influential Episcopalian priest and former army major who was an acquaintance of Roosevelt. These people put Roosevelt's organization in contact with the Catholic Church's secret Section 13, the Iscariot Organization and the Church of England's Hellsing Organization, the Royal Order of Protestant Knights. A secret meeting was arranged for January 15, 1904.

During the meeting it quickly became apparent that the Iscariot Organization and the Hellsing Organization were not on very good terms with each other, in fact they nearly came to blows at the start of the meeting. Once peace was established Sir James Alexander Hellsing and Father Julius Caballero confirmed that various creatures of the night were not myth, they were real dangers that had to be combated. Iscariot had secretly been combating these creatures in the US for decades and, to a much lesser extent, so had the Hellsing Organization. Iscariot was definitely the more powerful organization and roamed across the world wherever Catholics were present. The Hellsing Organization was much smaller and mainly confined itself to the UK. In fact a treaty, that was more like a non-aggression pact, dictated that Iscariot could not operate within Protest England and likewise Hellsing would stay out of Catholic Europe. The two organizations had similar goals but their religious differences precluded their working together for these aims. In the end Hellsing was more willing to share information than the Vatican's Section 13.

From this meeting a new organization was founded and it was agreed that it would handle happenings inside the US. This new organization would be called the Conclave since its inception was a product of the conclave of churches held this night. To this day the Conclave has had a more open relationship with Hellsing than it has with Iscariot. Iscariot seems to view itself as the rightful authority for the entire Christian world. The US government would secretly fund the Conclave. The Vatican was unwilling to support a new organization that they felt was not necessary and Hellsing was too strapped for cash to offer anything but advice and information.

The original Battery Boys formed the nucleus of the Conclave. The group continued their covert crime fighting for the US government under President Roosevelt. In 1905 Bat Masterson was appointed US Deputy Marshal for the southern district of NY. This new position assisted in granting the secret organization legitimacy as the rest of the membership was secretly deputized as well.

It was decided that since, werewolves and the like were thankfully rare, the organization's continued crime fighting would help keep the agent's skills sharp. Besides their original purpose was still valuable and needed when "untouchable" criminals arose. By the time Teddy Roosevelt left office the Conclave was established as the first of the US's black ops groups.

With the outbreak of World War I the Conclave was called upon to perform another function for America. German saboteurs attempted to infiltrate into the United States during the war and the Conclave proved to be the organization that was best suited to battle this new threat. In a country unprepared for war, the operatives of the Conclave were a godsend. Before the close of the war the Conclave was used outside the US for the first time in several raids on hidden German bases in the south Pacific.

Today the Conclave is the most secret organization in the United States. The government funds its existence covertly but fewer than a dozen people outside of the Conclave know what all its duties are. The military and many law enforcement agencies know of the Conclave's existence but it is believed by them to be a special crimes intervention unit of some sort. It is thought that the members' identities are kept secret to prevent revenge strikes or infiltration by terrorist cells and organized crime.

The Conclave basically battles three things in the world: Organized crime, International (and domestic) terrorists, and paranormal horrors. The players are members of this agency. They have access to state of the art equipment and firepower; they even have national police powers. However they must accomplish their tasks while drawing as little public attention as possible. Their true purpose and the nature of some of their enemies must remain a secret to the public as a whole.

This campaign will be based in Hudson City. I will reuse some of the stuff I created for the Omega Team and the new 5th Edition Dark Champions stuff will continue to feature the city. However the Conclave characters will see much more national, and some international travel. The organization is so secret that often their own government will be unaware of all of their activities. In addition there are other covert units with a similar charter scattered about the world and due to political and religious strife in the campaign world today's enemy may be tomorrows ally, and vise versa.

NOTE: All of the above named people (with the exception of Hellsing and Iscariot personel) are/were real people.

[Peregrine]

I'm converting Gurps Black Ops to Hero and Dark Champions will be a big help. I really like what I've seen in the playtest, I can't wait to get my hands on a hardcopy.

Black Ops is sort of "Weird" Spec Ops setting in the same way that Deadlands is "Wierd" wild west. The setting is a little bit MIB, a lot of special operations, a little supernatural, and definitely over the top cinematic fun. The starting characters will probably be 500 pts in a heroic style campaign (long skill lists).

I'll be adding my own stuff to it as well. I've got an old campaign that I ran years ago that had a very similar background so I'm merging them together and converting them to Hero/Dark Champions. I'm very happy with it so far, the supernatural abilities are much easier to model in Hero than they were in Gurps. I'll post some more details after the game starts, I don't want any of my players to see what their in for before things get rolling.
PLEASE post your details! I'm a huge fan of the GURPS Black Ops concept, and I don't have the time to convert it myself!

[El Tripon]

After a considerable amount of proding, I decided to post the synopsis I have for the game I'm currently running. It isn't quite DC, but it is a dark low-level (250 pts) super game. If any are interested in more info, I can post character backgrounds, and game quotes (collected mostly by Christoughper), and can come up with a few past adventures. Sorry for the length of the post.

Synopsis: An adult oriented (Black and White) comic set in New Orleans, Team N.O.I.R. (New Orleans Intervention and Response), is a sanctioned Superhero team. Mostly facing supernatural threats, the team has rarely faced super villains. The team has faced everything from wanna be Voodoo Queens to C’thulu. The team was created by GM Dan Nelson who ran a very dark, deadly game. He left and turned the team over to Manny Morales, who’s player character Matrix became an NPC. Manny gave the game a less deadly atmosphere and introduced a much more supernatural feel, including the introduction of the pantheons when he agreed to let Bacchus into the game as a Player Character. When Manny left for the navy, he turned the reigns over to me. I also turned my player character, Bacchus, into an NPC.. I kept the dark overtones and pantheons, and added a dark humor to the mix. This is currently the feel of team N.O.I.R.. While mostly based in New Orleans, the team has been active in Miami, Limbo, France, England, The Holy Land, and Haiti, as well as a Norwegian cruise ship. The team is really a group of super-powered partying misfits that consider each other friends rather than teammates. It was this party atmosphere that attracted the god Bacchus. The team has partied with Death, has used Charon on a regular basis for travel, and otherwise had fun with the Greek, Roman and Norse pantheons. They have also met God. (Yes THE MAN (he looks like George Burns (The Archangel Michael looks like John Travolta for some reason))).

[Maelstrom]

I've run Dark Champions, and a Cthulhoid Champions game. But even my 4-color games tend to get dark -- I think it's the nature of the players I have. One beautiful young woman (a new character) was rescued by the group from an experiment conducted by the villain, and the first words out of her mouth were, "I'm going to kill him. Anybody have a problem with that?"

I often have world-spanning conspiracies, light and dark, and the US Gov't is tied up in most of them, light and dark. Some times there's nothing scarier than an IRS auditor.

As for the 'weird' influences, I've had Nyarlehotep show up as a government 'black-ops' specialist, Yog-sothoth as a televangelist, and Cthulhu as a humanoid (but green) woman. As pets go, you can do worse than a Hound of TIndalos, depending on who you need kept out of your base.

[humantorch101]

I have run for the last 5 years or so monthly a weird conspiracy game taking lots of elements from Conspiracy X, Dark Matter and Delta Green.
I have two players who work for Aegis (secret organisation working covertly within the US goverment departments) and they have come across Alien, Greys, Atlanteans, Saurians and Mecha, stopped the Black Book (the evil bad guy organisation within the us goverment) mutating sharks (think deep blue sea on speed), opening gates to terrible cthulu like dimensions with laser technology, fighting ghosts, incarnate serial killers, and lots lots more.
They have currently been transported to a parallel world where they are trying to come to terms with a world full of zombies and are now scrambling around trying to find petrol and drinking water without becoming zombie chow.

The great thing about that genre is literally anything is possible.

rgds
Torch

[CorpCommander]

I'd love to run or be in a campaign based on Steakly's novel Vampire$.

For those not in the know, Vampire$ is about a secret organization of normals with cool gear that hunt supernatural threats. They are in part directed and financed by the Catholic Church and at one point find out there is a werewolf devision... Life span is rather short for these guys.

The vampires are smart, fast, strong and viscious so the characters have to come up with equipment ideas on dealing with them. Also, town folk tend to turn against them since no one wants knowlege of these things getting out. Picture the mayor in Jaws with a really bad mean streak and you get the picture somewhat.

A really awful movie by John Carpenter was made sort of based on the book. Ignore it. James Woods was OK as Crow but overall the story got hollywoodified. The book is suspensful, funny and well thought out.

[Worldmaker]

I'm going to be opening a call for this campaign (http://www.globalguardians.com/campaigns/bigeasy.php) shortly.

[Turin]

One campaign that I have thought about running with DC is based off the old computer game XCom. I have always thought this would be a good campaign for a modern game system, but until finding Hero System again, didn't have a good rule set to play it in.

I just started two FH campaigns so most likely I will not be able to start this anytime soon. The thought of running a Terror site in Hero System might force an unexpected end to one of the FH campaigns. ;)

If anyone has done any preliminary work on a counter alien modern Hero campaign I would be very intersted in see it.

Thanks!

[PoorWandering 1]

Many moons ago i was in a x-com based game. The GM used the origional traveller for the rules. It was a blast. We usually played multiple PC per player to offset the rather high death rate. The weapons fit with minimal changes and the skills were very easy to "de-space". It was a fun game but if you want to stay true to the game you have to have the high death rate. The alien's plasma weapons are 1 shot kills until you get the really nifty armor and by that point the Etherials are bringing out their mind control. I would recommend that the players play a game of x-com or the more recent UFO:Aftermath to get an idea of the death rates and the effects of the alies vs. human tech imbalance.
The monthly council budget meetings were a blast. The GM assigned players to be reprasentitives of the varoius funding nations while one player got to be the X-Com rep. The nation players were briefed as to how the alien threat was seen in their country, how much alien activity vs x-com activity etc. The Rio base ended up being built not to counter a alien threat but because a coalition of southern hemisphere countries demanded a greater role. The Rio base came in handy though we moved laser weapon production there after an attack on our main Hamburg production facility. At the next meeting the German rep complained about the loss of jobs but that meeting broke up when the x-com rep announced that there was a terror attack in progress in Koln 2 minites before the West German rep knew about it. It turns out that the West German Government was being infiltrated.
In short X-com RPG can be fun but you need to work to make it something other that a prettyfied minatures game

[arcady]

Having just gotten home with a copy of the book today, Dark Champions: The Animated Series looks like a fun campaign style... :p

If I can figure out how to render my 3D work with thick black outlines, I'll be set. ;)

[CorpCommander]

Having just gotten home with a copy of the book today, Dark Champions: The Animated Series looks like a fun campaign style... :p

If I can figure out how to render my 3D work with thick black outlines, I'll be set. ;)

surely someone out there sells a cel-shading filter out there somewhere. should be easy enough to purchase something! What software do you do your 3D work with?

[winterhawk]

Having just gotten home with a copy of the book today, Dark Champions: The Animated Series looks like a fun campaign style... :p

If I can figure out how to render my 3D work with thick black outlines, I'll be set. ;)

I do some work in the 'animated' style. Be happy to convert over your characters if you'd like.

[arcady]

I've thought of running a campaign where the PCs are inner city youths trying to stay alive in a world where 1/3 of the men are in prison, a growing number of the women are going that way, and most of it is on trivial trumped up drug war charges...

where mandatory sentencing laws and the police have become so over effective that the counter reaction has escalated beyond all reason, catching our kids in the crossfire.

They're walking targets for both sides, and they have to find a way to protect their ghetto from the police and the gangs, with the full understanding that the gangs originally formed in their parent's generation to do the exact same thing they wish to do now - that there is thus an easy temptation to fall from grace when you're fighting the authority.

In other words, a real-world scenerio, somewhat based on my roots and my study of criminal justice.

Maybe throw in a costumed vigilante from uptown who preys on the people he assumes are the criminal element - the innocent PCs and their friends and family.

If I can get a good plot line going for it, I might set that idea up as a campaign or mini campaign.


********************
My 3D software: I use a combination of Poser, Vue, Carrara, and of course Photoshop, Flash, and Illustrator.

My avatar is an example of my 3D work, and you can find more by clicking on the 'Art' link in my signature.

A larger gallery is at renderosity under the artist name 'arcady', but contains a number of nudes (only if you sign in do you see those) so I won't link it directly.

[Tamashii2000]

I am running a DC game based loosely off of the game Metal Gear Solid. The PC (its a solo game) is a NSA agent investigating a series of covert actions aimed at crippling the United states military complex (Destroying Goverment weapons labs, tainting the food supplies of oversea's bases, when possible actualy destroying said bases)

The 'villians' in the piece is actualy the left overs/side effects of an old 1980's soviet military program to create 'super soldiers' basicly a sentient bio-nanotechnology that has been quietly infecting parts of the russian military, KGB, plus various citizen and contacts those 2 groups have acrost the entire world. The result is a 'terrorist' organization that seems to be made up of almost a miss-mash of differnt people from all class/levels/countries.

So far the PC's have yet to uncover that the badguy's are being controled by an outside force.

[Wombat]

I'm looking at restarting the Millenniums End campaign that we ran for about 5 years.
The players work as investigators for a company called Blackeagle Investigations. The company has a worldwide reputation for taking on the jobs no one else will touch and getting them done. The range of jobs is everything from basic P.I. work right up to full blown Black Op's stuff.

Only this time there will be a bit of supernatural and other wierd stuff thrown in occassionally to keep it interesting.

[Korvar]

Oh, dear. Reminds me of a campaign that I played in. "It's Millenium's End", he said. "But I've decided to use the Unknown Armies Insanity system. For, you know, becoming hardened to violence. And stuff. Just, uh, ignore the "Unnatural" section there..."

We were doing so well, up until we met Mr. Hitler's Ghost...

[Chiba Bob]

I just got my copy of Dark Campions and have started a players writeup for an Iron Age campaign. It is inspired by a couple of news paper articles and the VIPER source book. This is what I have so far:



THE SERPENT'S GATE AFFAIR

Abbotsford, a sleepy Canadian rural community located on the west coast of British Colombia and is rocked by drugs, murder and violence. Known as the bible-belt, this small city holds the title as the Murder Capital of Canada. Asian, East Indian, European, and Motorcycle gangs mostly coexist with each other peacefully. Most of the violence seems to be aimed at those independents who inevitability involve themselves in gang affairs, fail to pay their bills or just fail to show the proper respect for their power. This orderly coexistence of the various criminal organizations has lead some to believe that some other unknown organization controls and mediates all underworld operations throughout the Fraser Valley. If this Shadow Syndicate exists, they rule by proxy, using gangs and independents to do their dirty work.

There are no other superheros or other vigilante groups (as of yet) in the campaign world, there are many others who have exceptional skills, training or maybe weird powers but these people operated in the shadows for their respective organizations and governments. The player have the distinction of being the first at whatever they decide to do. The flavor of the campaign is Iron Age with the players being extraordinary people in a more "realistic" world. A vigilant's costume is based around more practical concerns (body armor) with a touch of flair for individually (the cool factor). Characters dress in red and blue spandex with a cape would be considered very strange ... if not comical. Otherwise, the campaign world is mostly identical to our own world except for the events that involve the players.

While Gun-toting vigilante groups and street justice is abhorrent to society in general. Just flashing a realistic toy gun (guns are taken very serious) is enough to have ERT (SWAT) team to come and bash in your door. Many feel that the justice system is too soft on criminals ... that the rights of the law abiding public should outweigh individual rights. It would require a series of extreme circumstances to create a costume vigilante type hero (let alone a vigilante group) and would have to keep secret identity. The local police are competent and efficient, they have no trouble in catching criminals, it is the court system that keeps them from spending time in jail (the chain of evidence is very tight). A costume vigilante in here would be viewed as a threat to the justice system (jobs could be lost), so the police would do everything in their power to catch such a vigilante. A player will have to be very careful to protect their secret identity and not leave any evidence linking them to a crime.

The method the player/players use as vigilante to fight crime is left up to them. The criminals/villains will mostly use lethal force to stop the characters. The killing or torture of characters or NPCs to achieve their goals is done when needed. They are ruthless and are motivated by money and power. Those who get in their way are not human beings but trash and are discarded freely. The misunderstood criminal ("I was abused as a child") is a rare plot in this campaign world. The real difference between a vigilante and a criminal is that the vigilante cares about their friends, family and community while the criminals only care about themselves. The tone of the campaign is that the dirt sticks to costumes, blood is bloody and revenge is sweet. It is up to the players on how each of them will act in the campaign world. Welcome to the Iron Age.

:cheers:

[Cpt.Storm]

Just started playing in a 'Wierd Conspiracy' type campaign where we all have some sort of either criminal, police, or military background but have been hand picked by the U.S. Marshall service to head up a group called S.O.G. 13 (Special Operations Group). Our mission is to investigate and eventually (or is it hopefully?) debunk cases that look supernatural or alien in origin.

For instance, our first mission was to investigate a motorcycle gang that had a leader that 'appeared' to be able to start hellacious fires with his mind. This adventure, unfortunately, got my character horribly killed but the rest of the group managed to find out that this mastermind actually had a sharp-shooter with incendiary bullets and a silencer. He was shooting the targets causing them to explode and this was coordinated with the leader raising his arms as if summoning fire. This was discovered after one of those cartridges separated my skull in half and made it appear as if the back of my head was lit on fire. Most disgusting...

I can't wait to find out what's next for us.

[Crimson King]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread - but everything here is mighty interesting (especially because I'm about to kick off my own weird conspiracy/Delta Green/Psi Powers type campaign).

Anyone else care to share what they're doing with DC now?

[Savinien]

Love to. I'm trying (emphasis on the trying, my players aren't very active ATM), to run a Dark Champions: The Animated Series with fairly powerful Batman and Robin clones. I have a few good stories, but since I'm running it via email/post, I'm having problems telling the story.

You can read more here:
http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24102

[zornwil]

We have a DC "campaign" that hasn't gotten past the first episode. Unfortunately I screwed it up a bit; my idea was to make it entirely episodic so it wouldn't matter if people all showed up each time, but the first episode ran over a sitting and we haven't been able to get everyone back together at one time, except for one time but then we all wanted to do Justice Squad (supers) because there was a major world-event going on in that. Anyway, info on that campaign is at http://www.realschluss.org/disavowed/

[Rover]

hI aLL,


nEWBIE HERE :)

I've run and played tabletop RPG for years now and have allways been a fan of games that had a noir feel.

So I'm hoping that I chill with some like-minded spirits here.


In discussing the running of 'dark' games like Dark Champions does anyone here feel that the villians used in a tabltop game sets the tone for the campaign and even genre?

I don't know if this subject is quite on the nail for this thread. I'll be happy to open a new thread on the subject if anyone objects to this post on this thread.


Regards,

Rover.

[RDU Neil]

hI aLL,


nEWBIE HERE :)

I've run and played tabletop RPG for years now and have allways been a fan of games that had a noir feel.

So I'm hoping that I chill with some like-minded spirits here.


In discussing the running of 'dark' games like Dark Champions does anyone here feel that the villians used in a tabltop game sets the tone for the campaign and even genre?

I don't know if this subject is quite on the nail for this thread. I'll be happy to open a new thread on the subject if anyone objects to this post on this thread.


Regards,

Rover.

Welcome to the boards. While this might be grist for new thread, I'll just post my basic answer.


The villain is EVERYTHING... in a book, movie, RPG... whatever... the antagonist defines the tone and feel and theme of the story as much or even more than the protagonist.

In supers... if Joker is a madcap who ties Gordon to a big penny, that is vastly different than if Joker is firebombing a busload of cubscouts. You have two wholly different stories based on the villain interpretation.

In movies... take Die Hard as an example. Hanz Gruber is an all time great movie villain, because while murderous and despicable, his ruthless, brilliant scheming personality sets the tone and makes him so much more than just "some guy who kills people." Compare him to the villain from Die Hard 2. Who you might ask? EXACTLY. The lame "killer commando" bastard from that movie was no Hans Gruber, and eminently forgettable.

Holmes is nothing without his Moriarty.

Superman is nothing without his Lex Luthor.

In Dark Champions... tone is everything. A muderous psychopath that must be stopped is a very different adventure than stopping the gang of professional jewel theives.

Good point.

[zornwil]

Welcome Rover!

Probably a good subject for a brand new thread, but I don't have much to add beyond what RDU Neil said on the subject. I guess I would add that villains are a great way to reshape a campaign that needs fixing - changing the villain mix as discussed above changes the tone, so it can be a relatively easy way to remodel, though you do need to do something about any villains that are current and not in the vein you want.

I have found that I vary tones pretty dramatically in my game and the villains are there to prove it. There was Kingpin, modelled of course after the Marvel version, but a somewhat more bloodthirsty killer, more of a psychopath mixed with control freak. He had one of the PC's mothers killed (the PC wanted drama...) brutally. More recently the PCs have had to deal with the Martians...and although I didn't consciously build them this way, one way to think about them is they are like that race in ST:TNG that was incredibly imitative, brilliantly so, but almost retarded in terms of anything beyond pure imitation. These Martians are almost blithering idiots with some high degree of power but mostly they're just laughable. Currently they've been used in a sort of proxy war between the PCs and the mastermind evil mage Herr Kietersling, said to be Odin of mythology but if not at least certainly a powerful man of mystery.

[Rover]

Hi All,


Thanks for the feedback :)

Since there's interest in the subject I will open this subject in a new thread.


Regards,

Rover.

[Rover]

Hi All,

Off the subject of Villains for a minute...

Some years back I was playing in a few contemporary distopian SF/Horror games amd was so impressed with them that I tried to write some of my own.

During playtesting I found that simplicity in design suited the players best.
Insomuch as I limited the number of witnesses,the complexity of politics wihtin the plot and depth of the character of the NPCs.

I can't say it was easy. After one has put some energy into creating what one thinks is a brilliant piece of entertainment, it's a little galling to realise that it is far too complex and that one was being a bit of prima-donna.

So I ended up severly pruning my game and of the players that stayed(Brits tend not to complain but drop the product :) ) declared they enjoyed the new version.

The 'pruned bits' went into a notebook to used at a later date and I have held true to the primary rule of gaming since: make it fun.


Regards,

Rover.

[AmadanNaBriona]

I'd love to run or be in a campaign based on Steakly's novel Vampire$.

For those not in the know, Vampire$ is about a secret organization of normals with cool gear that hunt supernatural threats. They are in part directed and financed by the Catholic Church and at one point find out there is a werewolf devision... Life span is rather short for these guys.

The vampires are smart, fast, strong and viscious so the characters have to come up with equipment ideas on dealing with them. Also, town folk tend to turn against them since no one wants knowlege of these things getting out. Picture the mayor in Jaws with a really bad mean streak and you get the picture somewhat.

A really awful movie by John Carpenter was made sort of based on the book. Ignore it. James Woods was OK as Crow but overall the story got hollywoodified. The book is suspensful, funny and well thought out.

I have to second this post.... This is one of my all time favorite, reccomend to all my friends books. The movie really didn't do the book justice, at all.

I also like the idea of a DC X-Com game. Neat thread,all around.

[CBikle]

Never done a straight DC campaign; I've always pulled elements fromn it into my regular Champs game.

Details are vague, but I remember running a scenario with the Card Sharks working with Green Dragon and Shamrock (I think the gist of the scenario was that, to pay off a gambling debt, an R&D scientist was going to sell off top secret high-tech plans to Card Shark)- Don't remember much except a running fight in Harpscor Tower that led to a rooftop battle( I think I had Triggerhappy and his copter waiting up there to act as a getaway driver).

Another scenario involved the PCs assisting a police-orchestrated gang summit (using gangs from DC and that Champs adventure "Demons Rule")to end a bloody gang war. The Harbinger of Justice shows up with smoke/tear-gas grenades and starts picking off the gang-leaders. This starts a confused battle with some PCs knocking out gang-members while others try to grab the Harbinger.

[RDU Neil]

SNIP!

The Harbinger of Justice shows up with smoke/tear-gas grenades and starts picking off the gang-leaders. This starts a confused battle with some PCs knocking out gang-members while others try to grab the Harbinger.

And I'm assuming that all those players who sent their characters after Harbinger had to write up new characters for the next session, right? :)

[CBikle]

And I'm assuming that all those players who sent their characters after Harbinger had to write up new characters for the next session, right? :)

Nah. I ran Harbinger somewhat defensively, basically avoiding PCs when he could and just firing at gang-members whenever the opportunity arose. He knew that the PCs would be present and was relying on the smoke/tear gas, rubber bullets and tasers he had brought with him to deal with heroes and saving his lethal stuff for gang-members (or for supers he knew for sure were super-tough).

Generally, I ran HoJ as being careful not to kill innocents and that extended to cops and super-heroes as well.

In hindsight, HoJ's assault on the gang-summit did put Sgt. Addie Parsons (from Normals Unbound ) at risk. I don't remember if I took that in account or just dismissed it because I wanted a big confused firefight in a smoke-gas obscured warehouse.

[Trebuchet]

We started our first DC campaign yesterday, with two of our heroes (Artemis, a Wonder Woman knockoff with a sword, bow, and shield; and Raptor, a flying martial artist with claws) taking out 24 gang members armed with knives, guns, and clubs. I wanted to start simple because this is my first experience with a DC campaign and I wanted to see how 20 DEX/SPD 4 heroes dealt with 11 DEX/SPD 3 hoodlums (Answer: Quite well). Later on we'll move into organized crime, supernatural opponents, and low powered supervillains.

I'm running the game in Hudson City but not in the Champions Universe, so I've retconned the background so these character (plus my new Roman Catholic priest superhero, Justicar) are HC's first powered supers. There have been unpowered costumed crimefighters such as HoJ (last seen 20 years ago) in the past, but none recently until the near simultaneous appearance of our new PCs in 2006. In our campaign world superpowers first became public in 2000.

[TheQuestionMan]

Espionage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionage

Spy Fiction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy_fiction

Thriller Fiction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_fiction

Sub Genre

Action-adventure thriller


Conspiracy thriller
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_thriller

Medical thriller


Serial killer thriller


Political thriller


Military thriller


Romantic thriller


Legal thriller
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_thriller

Forensic thriller


Techno-thriller
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techno-thriller

Detective Fiction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_story

Other Gaming Links
Spycraft Links
http://www.spycraftrpg.com/links.html

Modus Operandi
http://www.modus-operandi.co.uk/

Control's Intelligence Gathering Clearinghouse
http://www.spycraft.xganon.com/

Google Directory - Games > Roleplaying > Genres > Modern and Espionage
http://www.google.com/Top/Games/Roleplaying/Genres/Modern_and_Espionage/

Cheers

QM

[Toadmaster]

Just started playing in a 'Wierd Conspiracy' type campaign where we all have some sort of either criminal, police, or military background but have been hand picked by the U.S. Marshall service to head up a group called S.O.G. 13 (Special Operations Group). Our mission is to investigate and eventually (or is it hopefully?) debunk cases that look supernatural or alien in origin.

For instance, our first mission was to investigate a motorcycle gang that had a leader that 'appeared' to be able to start hellacious fires with his mind. This adventure, unfortunately, got my character horribly killed but the rest of the group managed to find out that this mastermind actually had a sharp-shooter with incendiary bullets and a silencer. He was shooting the targets causing them to explode and this was coordinated with the leader raising his arms as if summoning fire. This was discovered after one of those cartridges separated my skull in half and made it appear as if the back of my head was lit on fire. Most disgusting...

I can't wait to find out what's next for us.


Sounds alot like Bureau 13 from Tri-Tacs Stalking the night fantastic, that was a fun game, I always wanted to translate it into HERO but some how even though there were several of us playing in the Stalking tnf, and most were HERO players we never could make the jump to STNF HERO.

Tri tac still sort of exists (well they still have a website anyway) and they have many of their products as pdfs.

The Stalking the Night Fantastic stuff is here, now its listed as Bureau 13

http://members.aol.com/TRITACGAMES/Bureau13.html


Their other games might be of interest to DC gamers too.

http://members.aol.com/TRITACGAMES/

[NightStick]

KS, I'm surprised that Edsel has not updated this thread with what is going on in our DC world....
The Conclave campaign that Edsel started had a premature birth. I'm sorry to say that it was Stillborn.:mad:
On a MUCH Brighter note, Edsel has revisited Hudson City, and we have started out with MUCH lower stats.
We are 50/50 with a 5 pt posible kicker for a decked out background. :eg:
As soon as I figure out how to include a link to the active thread where this campaign is going to be played out, I will try to post it!:o

[Jkeown]

I'm about to start a DC game... and I've let a (somewhat geeky) non-gamer have a look at my notes. She said it would make a good mini- or full-run TV series in the vein of The X-Files or Millenium.

So I'm pretty happy with those notes. It does read a bit like Doom or Blood 2: The Chosen or ... Body Snatchers, but I think it will stand on its own once I get going.

We're going to start it this week.

[Stegman]

Cool.

[CandidGamera]

And this is the one I'm currently summarizing, and about to wrap up as far as playing :
http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=938148

[Killer Shrike]

KS, I'm surprised that Edsel has not updated this thread with what is going on in our DC world....
The Conclave campaign that Edsel started had a premature birth. I'm sorry to say that it was Stillborn.:mad:
On a MUCH Brighter note, Edsel has revisited Hudson City, and we have started out with MUCH lower stats.
We are 50/50 with a 5 pt posible kicker for a decked out background. :eg:
As soon as I figure out how to include a link to the active thread where this campaign is going to be played out, I will try to post it!:o
Well, tell that slacker EDSEL to stop pretending to hunt vampires and to start posting here with the skinny.

[CorPse]

Interesting reading... don't have time to put my own campaign in yet... but I wanted to bump the thread to get it back up the list...

I'll throw my hat into the ring soon...

C:sneaky:rPse

[ParagonAlpha]

My problem with the Dark Champions "genre" is that I'm a bigger fan of the 4 color superhero games. Dark Champions was a response to the infusion of Iron Age comic books and it became this monster of sociopathic, gun-totting, faux-heroes. It was something I couldn't stomach.

That being said, Dark Champions does allow the GM to create a world very much in the style of the Gotham/Bludhaven world we've seen in Batman and Nightwing, and more recently in Batman Begins. Not so much Dark as Dim.

This has got me developing a campaign set in that kind of duality, a big successful city (albeit with it's own problems) creating a shadow over a smaller, darker place, protected by very few.

Now to see how it plays out.

Peace

[CorpCommander]

In spite of the name DARK Champions I've always considered DC to be more or less compatible with Action/Adventure and suitable to doing "realistic" style games based on movies like "Wild Geese", "Hamburger Hill", "The Untouchables" as well as less realistic films such as "Leathal Weapon", "Die Hard", "Rambo (2 and 3 as 1 was very realisitc)" and anything that ever had Gov. Arnold in it.

I would love to do a Viet Nam era game - going on patrols around Chu Chi city, combatting front line NVA Units, trying to get back home in one piece and solving the mystery of how the NVA are supplying men and weapons into the interdicted city.

I would love to do a mercenary game in Central Africa, fighting warlords, getting food and medicine into famine struck areas, fighting other mercenaries...

I would love to do some Gun Fu takedown of a drug overlord, finding his secret distribution center, blowing it all to hell and shooting very big holes through his minions.

I'd love to do a game based on the latest high tech SpecOps, going in under cover of night, infiltrating enemy strong points at 1000:1 odds and setting them up for a laser guided present from Uncle Sam.

Its not for everyone but the genre has a lot of appeal to some. I'd like to clean up the crack houses and get the prostitutes off the streets in my real city. Barring an ability to do that, its at least fun to try in a game.

[Lemurion]

I'm just working on building up a Hudson City Campaign here, taking elements from Dark Champions and working towards a semi Iron-Age game without the gun-fu.

So far I have three really good character conceptions from my players (a "UN Peacekeeper" with a twist, a Native American spiritual warrior, and a Gadgeteer with a second hand store) with two more characters to come. One player started with a very cool idea, and promptly normalized it when he realized he'd be expected to follow some of the RP hooks from the concept; and I haven't had time to talk to the fifth one.

[CorpCommander]

One player started with a very cool idea, and promptly normalized it when he realized he'd be expected to follow some of the RP hooks from the concept.

What a shame. Going from concept to writeup and remaining true to the concept is all so very Heroish indeed!

[RDU Neil]

I've rebooted my Secret Worlds campaign...

Find it here...
http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=992121#post992121


Enjoy. I'll keep it going as long as I can find the time to write.