Do you use the official Champions Universe?

[nexus]

1. Yes
2 Yes, but there issome big variation
3. No, but I use characters, organizations, etc from the official Champs U liberally.
4. No, my setting is entirely homegrown.

[JeffreyWKramer]

2.5 - I use the general setting, but with some major variations, but I homebrew a lot of things, too.

[jackalope]

I do use the official Champions Universe with three very signifigant changes, and a host of other smaller changes.

1 - The event that triggered the rise of superhumans was the crash landing of an alien starship powered by a quantum flux engine. This crash occured in the Tunguska region of the Soviet Union in 1908. The vast majority of mutants still come from the northeastern hemisphere, and the first Western superheroes were "mystery men" who developed "strange powers" while travelling in the East. I made this change because the official story was, no offense to anyone involved, stupid.

2 - The event referred to as "The Battle of Detroit" is now referred to as "The Battle In Seattle", as it happened in Seattle, not Detroit. When reconstructed, the new city was called Jet City, not Millenium City. The automated cars have also been replaced with a giant mag-lev airport that launches airplanes into the sky. I made the first change because I live in Seattle, and don't know jack about Detroit. I made the second change because Seattle is famous for Boeing and our jets, whereas Detroit is famous for the Big Three and their cars.

3 - The Champions are the premier superteam of Jet City (and the world, since Dr. Destroyer killed most of the premiere heroes in the BiS), but their membership consists of Rocketman II, Nebula, Aresenal, Blink Dog, the Fremont Troll, Washi, and Champion Girl. Defender and friends do not exist, unless I choose to retcon them into existence at some later point.

There's some other, minor, alterations:

1 - The "gods of myth" were, for the most part, a race of aliens who call themselves the Commisee Va. They are originally from Mars, so technically they are Martians. The title means "Surviving Ones" and refers to their status as the last remaining survivors of the war that destroyed Mars. They are immortal. They still live on the dark side of the moon. They are basically the Inhumans with a bit of a Martian Manhunter influence. They do not participate in human affairs as a general rule, but players can choose to play them.

2 - DEMON was formed from the remains of the Thule Society, a cabal of evil sorcerors who backed the Third Reich. VIPER also formed from remains of the Nazi SS, and most of the topmost tier of VIPER leadership is (very old) Nazis.

3 - PRIMUS barely exists as an agency, and has shut down operations almost everywhere. It's destined for total phase-out by 2008, to be completely replaced by UNTIL. There's only room for one SHIELD in my world, and UNTIL is way more SHIELD-like than PRIMUS.

I'd go on, but I'm sure you're bored by now.

[jackalope]

The campaign I'm currently writing for fun also involves Tunguska (don't they all?). In 1908 the meteor which hit Tunguska sent radioactive particles into the atmosphere. The particles were later super-charged when the Earth passed through the tail of Halley's Comet in 1910. This led to mutations in many of the births which took place thereafter.

I read an article about Ultimate Nightmare (which was about to be released at the time, and involves Tunguskga) the day I sat down to write the time-line, and I find Tunguska fascinating. Very weird. That's why it ended up in there. Of course, i went with the more conspiratorial/alien fanatic explanation of "It was a spaceship!" rather than the more probable comet/meteroite theory.

[Richard Logue]

I don't use the CU. I have my own home-grown millieu but I've opened it up to ideas and suggestions from my players and others. And I have many characters that are homages to various DC and Marvel characters.

I also snag an idea or character concept from the CU here and there. For instance, I use Los Asesinos in my world. But they are greatly redesigned and updated for 5th Edition. And I'm also considering doing something with CLOWN, but they have to be made more serious and much more sinister.

My world has a much stronger mystical baseline than normal worlds, I suppose. Meanwhile, I haven't "used" Tunguska at all yet. Haven't even made any considerations on it.

Richard

[Blue]

#3. I steal what I want and incorporate it into my own world.

[SirViss]

I'm fairly new to GMing (in my first REAL campaign) so I am using the official CU. That doesn't mean that I won't change a few things that I disagree with, but I would rather avoid the problems of coming up with a full campaign world until I get more experience.

[OddHat]

My campaign:
3. I have a very detailed time line and world history which I change around from time to time, and which steals my favorite bits from a long list of authors, including Farmer, Heinlein, and Zelazny. However, I fit many CU organizations and NPCs into my world; it saves me time.

My wife's games:
All are almost straight CU with only the smallest changes to suit her tastes.

[Lord Liaden]

Probably about 2.5 like Jeffrey Kramer. The broad framework of the current CU holds everything together, but I've woven in elements from 3E (and earlier), 4E, Dark Champions, New Millennium, and San Angelo. Thanks to conversion notes there are even elements from the SAS and M&M settings in there now.

Looking it over I see that there's actually little pure homebrew, but many characters, organizations etc. have minor changes, a few are majorly changed, and a few more have been created by extrapolating from references in various books.

[teh bunneh]

I have never in my entire life used a setting "out of the box." I even re-wrote dungeon modules back when I was a kid, in my 1st edition AD&D games. All the supers games I've run, I created whole-cloth with nothing from the CU or any other universe.

However, after reading the new setting and organization books, I'm seriously considering changing my policy. There's some cool stuff in there, and it might be fun to run a game in the CU. :)

Bill.
(If only I could convince my group to play a supers game!)

[Hermit]

Yes.

Then I add my own stuff, but it's more like building from the barebones provided.

[TheEmerged]

Somewhere between 1.75 and 2.5. I call it "NeoChampions" -- as in, "not exactly the Champions Universe" -- for a reason. The campaign has elements of both 4th & 5th Edition CU's, with a great deal of Aberrant terminology (although few characters), the far more realisitic treatment of a nova registration act from "Brave New World" (the game, not the novel), and more than just a few characters are one-off's from DC, Marvel, and Crossgen comics.

Take the NeoChampion Champions for example. Current membership is at 6 -- Defender, Sapphire, Ironclad, Jaguar, Solitaire, and KnightSeeker. Witchcraft and NightDuck... er, Nighthawk exist as young "sidekick" novas (ages 19 and 18) right now, and they're not on the team.

Similarly, the Protectors ("To Serve and Protect") are one of the most powerful and feared nova teams on the planet -- most of the core membership (which includes Victrix and Jo-Tan of the Freedom Squad) clock in anywhere from 850 to 1200 points.

On the other hand "UNTIL" is just the military branch of Project Utopia, whose superteam is known as Team Tomorrow and spread in branches across the planet -- with a notable exception of the US and the semi-exception of Canada (whose Sentinels -- "Champions of the North" -- are considered affiliated with T2M). There is a nova supremacy group known as the Teragen. People with superpowers are known as "novas", who are said to "erupt" when they acquire their powers. All terminology from Aberrant, if you don't recognize the names.

In addition to Millenium City and Vibora Bay (from CU), there's also a purely homebrew city named Micthendorf in North Carolina. I'm still trying to decide what to do about the fact that Black Mask 10 has been officially placed in Vibora City after I made the Black Mask legacy an important part of Michtendorf's history...

[Lord Mhoram]

I'm somewhere in the 2.5 to 3 catagory. I use a fair amount of CU timeline, and pretty much most of the orginizations and major villians, but I also have a lot of other stuff from old campaigns, and other superhero RPGs in there - so my timeline is about 30-40% CU. It is the single biggest contributor, but is not the majority.
I emphatically do not use the "supers come and supers go" thing from the CU - supers in my world date back to the late 1800s. I also have a major difference on where superpowers come from (in a very genral sense), that also explains why Earth is always being invaded (both dimensionally and mystically) that has nothing to do with the CU.

[JmOz]

3: I steel what I like, get rid of the rest, and most things get a rewrite before they are introduced in my game

[etherio]

I guess I'm about a 3.5. When my supers campaign world first got seriously started, around '90, I used a lot of characters from the sourcebooks but none of the timeline. For quite a while now, it's been pretty much homegrown. As a result, there are some long-running villains and other NPCs that came from the CU, but most of the day-to-day stuff and newer stuff comes from my melon.

[Dr.Device]

4. Strictly homegrown. I might occasionally pull the mechanics from a character I see elsewhere, but I just can't get into running someone else's setting.

I tried one campaign set in a pre-existing fictional universe, but I and my players found it unsatisfying.

[stmichaeldet]

4. Started playing Champions before there was much of a CU to speak of, and now have more than enough history to sustain me, so I've never needed to use any CU stuff.

- St. Michael

[Silbeg]

I am mostly in the "3" camp, as I have been creating a world framework since before I had CU... Pulls from a lot of sources, but has as a core feature in the US the "Federal Paranormal Control Agency" (formerly under the BATF, but now in Homeland Security). History is incomplete at this time, but paranormals started appearing in the mid-50s (which caused a panic in the McCarthy-era US, thus the agency!).

However, I am not beyond using any published materials as I see fit, though I also do tend to edit any character , etc., that I see fit.

[Koshka]

I'm running a Golden Age game that is starting out mostly CU. I am using a modified Hudson City as home base for my heroes, mainly because I don't feel like letting one of my players (east coast background and biggest mouth of the group) overrule me on what New York City is "really" like.

Now, whether it stays CU is up to the players. I've got one (not the one mentioned above) who doesn't have the greatest grasp on Code Versus Killing, and he's running a brick. I have a personal side bet running on how many game sessions before his character offs a normal and tries to duck the responsibility. If the rest of the players back him, the logical governmental reactions will take us out of the CU timeline pretty quickly. If they bring him in for trial, we'll see.

[Zeropoint]

I'm a 2.

I use (well, WILL use, if I can ever get my players together) the Champions universe, with San Angelo added into southern California. Now I just have to figure out why all the supervillains are migrating from Michigan to California.

Also, I reserve the right to make any additions, subtractions, or alterations as I see fit.

I, too, am not really happy with the official CU explanation for Tunguska.

Zeropoint

[Publius]

I guess I would fall into a 3.5 or so. I use a homegrown world, but I do occasionally get stuff from the CU (some villians for example when I am rushed for time and cannot develop them myself, I ahve toyed with taking VIPER or DEMON into my game world however). The main reason is that I am running a low-powered superhero game and thus Dr. Destroyer really just does not fit. My universe is very DC:TAS-like, with more subtle powers and the like.

[RobertEdwards]

The PBEM game I GM uses a homebrew setting. I try to make homages to various comics and other appropriate source material. I incorperated material friends developed.

The PCs are the big hero group in the setting, and run around Avenger level in power.

There are three fictional nations:
* Al A'Maraj (lifted from On the Edge/ Over the Edge)

* Balistan, a second world nation working to develop an
industrial base, located on islands in the Indian ocean.

* Gilderham, a postage stamp European country best
noted for heroic restance to the NAZI menace back
in World War II, and for the weird science the Royal
family has acess to.

No SHIELD / UNCLE like international police or paramilitary agency. There is a US superagency, but they're not very effective due to interagency rivalries. Most every reasonably sized nation has a national government sponsered superteam. Some are just PR or maybe disaster relief types, others are super-thugs.

A couple of more or less friendly alien fleets over head. One's a benevolent, noninterventionist, but occasionally bad tempered super-race of time travellers from the future who act as sponsors for the big PC superteam. Kind of like having the Guardians of the Galaxy move in with you. The other is a bunch of one PC's relatives who are refugees from the losing side of an ancient starwar.

There was a thriving criminal traffic in clone slaves. This was suppressed by the PCs and other heroes.

At least two demonic invasions have occured.

The children of ancient mythical beings are trying to muscle into organized crime.

Oh, and an immortal villain has spawned an eccentric family of covert superbeings. Something like Amberites meet the Adams Family meet the Wold Newton families. At least one PC is a relative that went public.

- Robert Edwards

[zornwil]

~4, it's not completely home-grown in that I use Marvel, DC, independent comics elements, but I don't use the CU whatsoever.

[phydaux]

I'm a 1 - 100% official CU.

My campaign is set in Boston, and to the best of my knowledge there is no official CU info on Boston or its heros/villans. So I get to play in the OCU with a clean slate!

[Enforcer84]

Yes.

Then I add my own stuff, but it's more like building from the barebones provided.
I'm in Hermit's camp. 1, Plus extras

[Karma]

No, but I do use characters from the books in my own universe.

[Briguy123]

The PBEM game I GM uses a homebrew setting. I try to make homages to various comics and other appropriate source material. I incorperated material friends developed.

The PCs are the big hero group in the setting, and run around Avenger level in power.

There are three fictional nations:
* Al A'Maraj (lifted from On the Edge/ Over the Edge)

* Balistan, a second world nation working to develop an
industrial base, located on islands in the Indian ocean.

* Gilderham, a postage stamp European country best
noted for heroic restance to the NAZI menace back
in World War II, and for the weird science the Royal
family has acess to.

No SHIELD / UNCLE like international police or paramilitary agency. There is a US superagency, but they're not very effective due to interagency rivalries. Most every reasonably sized nation has a national government sponsered superteam. Some are just PR or maybe disaster relief types, others are super-thugs.

A couple of more or less friendly alien fleets over head. One's a benevolent, noninterventionist, but occasionally bad tempered super-race of time travellers from the future who act as sponsors for the big PC superteam. Kind of like having the Guardians of the Galaxy move in with you. The other is a bunch of one PC's relatives who are refugees from the losing side of an ancient starwar.

There was a thriving criminal traffic in clone slaves. This was suppressed by the PCs and other heroes.

At least two demonic invasions have occured.

The children of ancient mythical beings are trying to muscle into organized crime.

Oh, and an immortal villain has spawned an eccentric family of covert superbeings. Something like Amberites meet the Adams Family meet the Wold Newton families. At least one PC is a relative that went public.

- Robert Edwards

Robert, you've been a champions geek ever since I've known you. It's about time you started posting on these boards. :slap:

P.S. Can you guess who this is? (Hint: Fish hate me!)

[bblackmoor]

3.5) No, but I use characters, organizations, etc from the default Champions setting from time to time, with modifications of various severity.

Actually, although I assumed that someone out there must use the default Champions setting, simply by the odds, I have never played in a game group that used it, across several states and at least a dozen game groups. It'd be like playing in the Marvel or DC universes: I know that there are people who do, I'm just not one.

Actually, I'd go even further with regard to Marvel and DC: most of the game groups I have played with pillage liberally from Hero sourcebooks, but I have rarely played with a group that even borrowed characters or organizations from the actual comics. That'd be like... well, let's just say I have a negative connotation with that practice.

[zornwil]

I like the new avatar, Bblackmoor.

[bblackmoor]

I like the new avatar, Bblackmoor.

Scientastic!

[RobertEdwards]

Robert, you've been a champions geek ever since I've known you. It's about time you started posting on these boards. :slap:

P.S. Can you guess who this is? (Hint: Fish hate me!)

"Curse you Powerfist! VENGENCE SHALL BE MINE!!!!"

[Outsider]

I dont have the 5th Ed. CU sourcebook at all, but back in the 4th edition days, I didnt use the published campaign materials much at all. Maybe once or twice in really lazy weeks where I didnt properly prepare I'd lift a villain out as a one-off. I didnt incorporate them into my permanent setting, though.

[Killer Shrike]

1. Yes
2 Yes, but there issome big variation
3. No, but I use characters, organizations, etc from the official Champs U liberally.
4. No, my setting is entirely homegrown.
2

[CBikle]

Our campaign pretty much uses everything. We rotate as GMs.

The main GM's source-material and adventures are a mix of original and Champs stuff he finds on the internet, two of the other GMs create their own adventures and NPCs, another GM only uses published adventures and I tend to write my own adventures but with NPCs from all sources ranging from 3rd edition characters to San Angelo characters to ones on the internet.

So we pretty much have a mish-mash of everything.

[bblackmoor]

Our campaign pretty much uses everything. We rotate as GMs.
... So we pretty much have a mish-mash of everything.

That describes all of the groups I have ever been part of, as well. We do each have our own preferred villains and NPCs, though. For example, in my current group, Lloyd runs Viper, I run Genocide (althogh I haven't run a Genocide game in a long while -- I find a little goes a long way), and another guy runs a group of mystical villains called the Circle Of Eight.

I should resurrect Genocide.

'Genocide?' That is a name used by the ignorant and the faithless to try and undermine our mission. I work for Project Genesis. The world is flawed, and the human race has become corrupted by idolators and aberrations. But we will make a new world, a perfect world, with humanity taking its proper place as the masters of the earth in the image of God. Genocide? Far from it. We are going to save the human race. You will thank us. You just don't know it yet.

[Xotl]

I run a campy, over the top ultra-cliched game, so I only wind up borrowing those elements I feel can be easily camped up. COIL works great, but DEMON not so much (I use Cthulhu cultists in their place). The basic supervillains with strong motifs are definitely used, such as Ankylosaur, to provide generic superflunkies, but all the major villains are my own, except for Dr. Destroyer.

If I was running a less silly game, I'd definitely use the Champions Universe as is: it suits me fine.

[Dr. Evil]

No. I have my own world created back during the 3rd Ed. Some of the Champions villains are in the world, and there's Stronghold, and the organizations Primus, and UNTIL. Basically a hodge-podge of stuff we like mixed with home-brewed stuff.

[assault]

I'm one of the "the official CU is a handy source of spare parts" brigade. Option 3, in other words.