The Team "Vibe"

[Hermit]

What feel or flavor to most of your PC teams have? There are probably too many options and variations to list, but you know what I mean. Some have the "Best of the Best, Elite Protectors of all mankind" thing going on (Sort of J.L.). While others are hated and persecuted by those they would protect. A few are a business (heroes for hire, capes for cash?:)). Some are Family (In the cases of folks like the F.F, litterally). There are the protectors of a city, not as glorified, but beloved locally and perhaps closer to the people. That sort of thing. There's even the Teen hero hang out.


Any particular "vibe" you end up with more often, and what sort do you like most? or hate most. I'm curious.

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by Hermit
What feel or flavor to most of your PC teams have? There are probably too many options and variations to list, but you know what I mean. Some have the "Best of the Best, Elite Protectors of all mankind" thing going on (Sort of J.L.). While others are hated and persecuted by those they would protect. A few are a business (heroes for hire, capes for cash?:)). Some are Family (In the cases of folks like the F.F, litterally). There are the protectors of a city, not as glorified, but beloved locally and perhaps closer to the people. That sort of thing. There's even the Teen hero hang out.


Any particular "vibe" you end up with more often, and what sort do you like most? or hate most. I'm curious.


I'll do thise by Group
* Force (our first team back in the early 80's): Boy's Club with Guns.
* The Highwaymen (our longest running campaign): A huge extended family.
* Onslaught: Bickering Siblings
* Purge: A Military Unit
* Still Un-named Team (aka The Soveriegn Order of Haven Sentinels): Businessmen with Guns... ah... we come full circle.

[Patriot]

Weve only had one team for the last 12 years,weve gone through phases:
started as a Jla type team
shifted to a bunch of vigilantes
and them shifted back

[ProfessorM@ss]

As I mentioned in another thread, I've often run gov't-based teams in my current campaign world. It makes sense; would the gov't really let a bunch of superpowered yoyos run around? I've always found it doubtful.

Since my game world is bordering on cyberpunk/uplift technology, we also have some elements of those genres. I have, for example, played Shadowrun-style groups of criminals, and even more interesting, we had a brief campaign with a corporate watchdog group. That was fun; taking down the Man!

--->M@ss

[Hermit]

How could I forget the government groups? Thanks for reminding me of that option. Played it myself a few times.

"We're from the government, we're here to help."

:D

[bcholmes]

Originally posted by Hermit
What feel or flavor to most of your PC teams have?

"We're Canada's greatest super heroes!"

"No, you're the heroes who work for the government."

Imagine Team Ambush Bug

[EternityShard]

Originally posted by MisterVimes
* Still Un-named Team (aka The Soveriegn Order of Haven Sentinels): Businessmen with Guns... ah... we come full circle.

Businessmen with guns?

Most of us tried to talk to Snow-dude, it was just the Kid-In-Armor who started the fight.

IIRC, Wreckers attacked us first, Ninjas attacked us first, Interchange started that battle. Snow-Dude was the first time we threw the first punch, and only because of the Kid.

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by EternityShard
Businessmen with guns?

Most of us tried to talk to Snow-dude, it was just the Kid-In-Armor who started the fight.

IIRC, Wreckers attacked us first, Ninjas attacked us first, Interchange started that battle. Snow-Dude was the first time we threw the first punch, and only because of the Kid.

I merely meant that the team is very mature and businesslike... You guys haven't been together long enough to establish more rapport. Though you and the homeless Hero were getting quite chummy... I liked that.

[Tom McCarthy]

I would characterize my current players as five guys with Looking For Adventure mindset (hm, 5 headlines to choose from; let's investigate this one), and one who wants the team to become a covert ops strike force with a national security focus, including a branch of superagents and a team of intelligence analysts serving them.

Most of the team wants a return matchup with Foxbat. The other guy wants to know if shifts in the GNP of Luxembourg might be signalling weapons stockpiling by ARGENT. Very schizophrenic.

[ProfessorM@ss]

Originally posted by bcholmes
"We're Canada's greatest super heroes!"

"No, you're the heroes who work for the government."

Imagine Team Ambush Bug

Amusingly enough, one of the first teams in my campaign setting was Canada's greatest superheroes, as well as the world's.

Of course, Canada is also a world superpower in my setting. Hee! Imagine how much historical justification that took!

--->M@ss

[Lord Liaden]

Originally posted by ProfessorM@ss
Amusingly enough, one of the first teams in my campaign setting was Canada's greatest superheroes, as well as the world's.

Of course, Canada is also a world superpower in my setting. Hee! Imagine how much historical justification that took!

--->M@ss

You mean we're not!?! :eek: :(

[bcholmes]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden
You mean we're not!?! :eek: :(

Whatever you do, don't tell Borealis.

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by bcholmes
Whatever you do, don't tell Borealis.

or Lorne Michaels

[Hermit]

Canada is a super power, they just hide it. They control a good chunk of the world's comedians and comedy writers. They've laced the US (Particularly the New York and L.A. areas) with them, and if we EVER make an agressive move against them....ZING.

Ouch. Our ego will get such a drubbing from barbed wits we'll be forced to flee in terror!

;)

Hmmm... maybe that's a nother type of team... (No, not the comedy writing super heroes) , but patriotic ones who are not necessarily sponsored by the govt. More likely in the golden age, but it could still work.

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by Hermit
Canada is a super power, they just hide it. They control a good chunk of the world's comedians and comedy writers. They've laced the US (Particularly the New York and L.A. areas) with them, and if we EVER make an agressive move against them....ZING.

Ouch. Our ego will get such a drubbing from barbed wits we'll be forced to flee in terror!

;)

Hmmm... maybe that's a nother type of team... (No, not the comedy writing super heroes) , but patriotic ones who are not necessarily sponsored by the govt. More likely in the golden age, but it could still work.

And they are lead by Alex Trebec, who is just too smart for his own darned good.

And their Police ARE the Army... it's a ninja-secret-police-state... and those darned mounties are sooooo friendly. WHATEVER could they be up to?

[Hermit]

Originally posted by MisterVimes
And they are lead by Alex Trebec, who is just too smart for his own darned good.

And their Police ARE the Army... it's a ninja-secret-police-state... and those darned mounties are sooooo friendly. WHATEVER could they be up to?
Also, remember, from a Marvelesque P.O.V., there are 26 letters in the alphabet. We can have weapons A though Z... pardon me, Zed, pulling covert ops EVERYWHERE.

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by Hermit
Also, remember, from a Marvelesque P.O.V., there are 26 letters in the alphabet. We can have weapons A though Z... pardon me, Zed, pulling covert ops EVERYWHERE.

I don't think I'd be very afraid of a guy named Weapon Zed who said "Eh" a lot... :confused:

[Hermit]

Ok, I'm feeling guilt. Here I am picking on Canada (a bit), and I LIKE Canada. Nice guys, good neighbors, beautiful land and I loved some of the Alpha Flight I read in the 80s. :)

So, as pennance, I will reveal this... ah, rather dubious honor that someone has bestowed on my own region...

http://www.geocities.com/thesonsofthesouth/

Some Team themes should never be touched

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by Hermit
Ok, I'm feeling guilt. Here I am picking on Canada (a bit), and I LIKE Canada. Nice guys, good neighbors, beautiful land and I loved some of the Alpha Flight I read in the 80s. :)

So, as pennance, I will reveal this... ah, rather dubious honor that someone has bestowed on my own region...

http://www.geocities.com/thesonsofthesouth/

Some Team themes should never be touched

WOW... Nice Double-Wide!:D

And I concur... Canada, beautiful land, friendly people, cool flaq, good beer, they got that whole Canadian Bacon thing going on... BIG THUMBS UP for Canada

[misterdeath]

Originally posted by Hermit
Ok, I'm feeling guilt. Here I am picking on Canada (a bit), and I LIKE Canada. Nice guys, good neighbors, beautiful land and I loved some of the Alpha Flight I read in the 80s. :)

So, as pennance, I will reveal this... ah, rather dubious honor that someone has bestowed on my own region...

http://www.geocities.com/thesonsofthesouth/

Some Team themes should never be touched

Volunteer. [snicker].

White Lightnin. [bwahahahahahahaha]

Thanks Hermit, needed that.

All they need's a "Wildcat" and they're all set.

D

[MilkmanDan]

Originally posted by MisterVimes
I don't think I'd be very afraid of a guy named Weapon Zed who said "Eh" a lot... :confused:

*snikt*

"Look out! He's got claws!"
"No wait, they're made out of bacon!"

[Lord Liaden]

Originally posted by Squid
*snikt*

"Look out! He's got claws!"
"No wait, they're made out of bacon!"

Haven't you heard? Cholestorol kills.;)

Thanks for (at least some) nice words about Canada. We don't mind the ribbing, though; to tell you the truth, we don't take ourselves too seriously, either. Which is exactly why we've cornered the market on comedians.

Besides, we've already had our revenge on America. We gave you... WILLIAM SHATNER!:p

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden
Haven't you heard? Cholestorol kills.;)

Thanks for (at least some) nice words about Canada. We don't mind the ribbing, though; to tell you the truth, we don't take ourselves too seriously, either. Which is exactly why we've cornered the market on comedians.

Besides, we've already had our revenge on America. We gave you... WILLIAM SHATNER!:p

I personally LOVE Canada... who else is america going to smoke behind the School with and talk bad about Mexico?
:D

[Tamashii2000]

Heh.. Canada is cool.

You know.. This thread has made me relize, My super team doesn't have a 'vibe'

Gotta do something about that.
:mad:

[st barbara]

"Team vibe "! Hmm. The team that "St Barbara" belongs to (and nominally leads on occasions, badly) "Team Zenith 3" seems to have a "vibe" somewhat like an ox that has just been hit with a mallet ! I probably shouldn't be even mentioning this on a forum to which the other players don't (in general) subscribe but yesterdays little debacle in which we suddenly got swapped across dimensions (again !) and had to play evil analogs of our characters was an absolute disaster ! To make matters worse our referee has so altered (the term "bastardized' comes to mind) the system that I can no longer recognise it as being a derivative of the "Champions" system ! I don't like playing villains, I am not good at it and I am very close to simply walking away from the campaign at this minute. To make matters worse our referee decreed that the one power that "St Barbara" has that might have enabled me to NOT take part in this debacle (Her E D M)was stripped away, for the sake of the scenario ! To say that I am dissapointed with what has happenned is an understatement !

[Enforcer84]

our teams usually look something like a police academy movie.

its sad really.:)

[Mutant for Hire]

Originally posted by Enforcer84
our teams usually look something like a police academy movie.

its sad really.:)

I trust you've seen the movie "Mystery Men". If not, you need to rent and see it immediately.

[red_eagle123]

The team vibe the Protectors of Milwaukee give off can best be summed up as Corporate Lackeys. They have their own PR dept., their own advertising agency, and they are at the beck and call of their sponsoring corporation.

[mangahunterd]

Does taking bets on how many phases it takes for the mentalist to get KO'ed count as a vibe??
If not then the closest thing I can think of for our team would be mercenaries, except we don't get paid....
Wait there is something wrong with that statement....

[lemming]

For the campaign I'm running, I'm not sure how to put the vibe of the team.

Now for Wilson's game: The vibe is paranioa. Distrust of the goverment and be scared of what some of your teammates are up to in their spare time. :eek:

[Marchwarden]

Originally posted by Hermit
What feel or flavor to most of your PC teams have? There are probably too many options and variations to list, but you know what I mean. Some have the "Best of the Best, Elite Protectors of all mankind" thing going on (Sort of J.L.). While others are hated and persecuted by those they would protect. A few are a business (heroes for hire, capes for cash?:)). Some are Family (In the cases of folks like the F.F, litterally). There are the protectors of a city, not as glorified, but beloved locally and perhaps closer to the people. That sort of thing. There's even the Teen hero hang out.


Any particular "vibe" you end up with more often, and what sort do you like most? or hate most. I'm curious.

Well, the "Champions 2018" campaign is mainly in the spirit of "earnest young heroes rekindling the flame". It's fairly four-colour and light in tone.

On the other hand, the "Starfall" mini-campaign is far grimmer. Four individuals, who had all lost friends and loved ones to the depradations of Eurostar, met to forge a lethal pact of vengeance. It's dark Champions with the sole aim of systematically hunting and eliminating a team of murderous super-terrorists. So far, the score is 2-0 in favor of the PCs, with no civilian deaths (OK, some "innocent" VIPER folks got pinned for Ultrasonique, but VIPER garners little sympathy).

[Doug McCrae]

I'll list all the superhero games I've played in, not just Champions, to see if a pattern can be determined.

1) Britain (and the world's) greatest (and only) superheroes - named Britannia's Fire by the press. The fact that we were all only 15 years old and attended the same school in our secret IDs was irrelevant. It was V&V. The PCs were either square-jawed heroes or merry quipsters however the world we were in was rather dark, with government conspiracy and betrayal lurking behind the fights. In the end we were all killed by a nuclear bomb dropped on us by the government. Bleak, huh? I guess that's the 80s for you.

2) Our second set of V&V PCs were never played but had a very definite tone - comedy - which we all just seemed to hit upon. They included Moonman, who got his powers from eating Moon cheese, and Crazy Kung Fu Robot (the name says it all, really).

3) A dark future where VIPER have formed a world government. Campaign was set in Las Vegas. PCs were a mix of out-and-out supervillains working for cash or out of fear of VIPER and real superheroes fighting for good. Weird mix. The supervillains were probably much more in line with what the GM intended though.

4) A mix of fairly typical superheroes reminiscent of the New X-Men in tone and more comic characters. The GM for these campaigns (in which I first created Dog Girl) was totally incapable of building serious villains. Example: Flora Man. He flew through the air on a large piece of toast.

5) Force Manhattan - greatest heroes of the Silver Age, analogous to the Avengers. Most of the players, including myself, probably didn't get the tone of our characters quite right, but it remains the best role-playing campaign I've ever been in.

6) Conspiracy X-Files/Twin Peaks low-powered non-costumed superheroes, created by alien experiments on humans.

7) Overwatch UK. Set in the same universe as (5) above. Back to being Britain's greatest superheroes though we were small fry in the wider world of heroes and just part of the American-dominated Overwatch organisation. The PCs managed to some extent to have a distinctively British character. One was a nobleman (you always seem to get one of those in every British team).

8) Britain's greatest superheroes again. In this game there were supposed to be many American superheroes but our status compared to them was rather unclear. Chris Claremont's X-Men was a major influence on the GM. There was a British flavour to this team too. A nobleman (again) - a heroic swashbuckler patriotic type, a Celtic nature spirit and a bunch of mutant cyborg time-travelling aliens - the X-Men influence showing here, I think.


You know the only pattern I can see, apart from a preponderance of being Britain's Greatest Superheroes, is that in the earlier games there is more of a divegence between the GM's vision and the player's. I think we've all just got better at roleplaying over time.

BTW, Big Willy, who also posts on these boards, was the GM for games 3, 5, 6 and 7.

[Terrapin]

The Wild Rovers are sort of a superpowered hybridization of the Scooby Gang and the Order of the Phoenix. They are a roaming band of principled individuals who prefer to establish no official standing ties to organizations (governmental or otherwise), have no fixed base or home area, are pledged to fighting evil and righting wrongs and regard each other as comrades and equals.

[pinecone]

The last group was "We try hard, really...we do..."...;)

[CrosshairCollie]

our teams usually look something like a police academy movie.

its sad really.:)

I feel your pain.

In my wife's Champions game, we have:

War Wolf (me), a very straight-laced, takes-his-responsibilities seriously but isn't a complete stick-in-the-mud, feet-on-the-ground kind of robot. Also known as 'the straight man'. He's also the only member of the team with a Code Against Killing.

Pulse, a somewhat show-offy magnetic manipulator (originally to be a Magneto ripoff with the 'Mutant Superiority' Psych Lim, but taken as the 'strong must protect the weak, not enslave them' kind of deal) who alternates between total cowardice and swaggering machismo depending on how Segment 12 goes.

Wildcard, a stage magician, flamboyant to the extreme and with a 54-card Multipower (not 54 SLOTS, thank insert-diety-here), which he either has to spend a full-phase sorting through to find the card he wants, or flings randomly from the top of the deck. We have no idea what he's going to do at any given moment.

Avalon, a knight from the Fairy Realms who has no idea about modern technology and simply refuses to adjust to modern thinking (WW has had to rip him a new one when he uses his sword more than once).

Flux, whose personality and talents are an odd mix of Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent, and harnesses (as much as one can harness them) raw chaos in the form of obscene luck.

We're all reasonably competent and powerful (and, where he can, WW is putting together tactical maneuvers), but the personalities and styles are so disparate, it's amazing we actually get anything done. :)

[Trebuchet]

MidGuard is our campaign's equivalent to the Justice League or Avengers, although we lack their raw power. While there are other hero teams out there, they are lower powered and lower profile. (Only one has actually made an appearance within the campaign; a US Government team called Justice Watch whose members are all US Marshals.)

Current membership:

Zl'f: World's most agile person; the team's field leader and spokesperson. She's impulsive and tends towards action rather than conversation.

Silhouette: Team brick and über-geek. Picture Dr. Samantha Carter (from Stargate:SG-1) with the Vision's density-controlling powers. Overly analytical at times; but never hesitates to do the right thing.

Cloud Dragon: 6' 7" tall Apache-Chinese man who practices an ancient style of kung fu which has many amazing powers, including teleporting and healing. The team's straight man and ninja-type.

Thunderbird: Avatar of the Native American weather diety; he's both a Mescalero Apache tribal shaman and a surgeon in his secret ID. Arguably the team's most powerful member.

Le Magister: Magic-wielding French police detective and expert on the occult; as useful for his contacts and investigative skills as for his prowess in combat.

Vesuvius: Hot-headed master of stone and earth; he's a demi-brick with formidable ranged attacks and can move through stone as easily as through air.

Prodigy: 800-year-old mentalist and a founder of the Templars. Has an absolute Code vs Killing and would always prefer to finesse his way through situations rather than fight.

Sidestep: Teleporting demi-brick; always the reluctant hero and a bit uncomfortable with his powers and role.

[Kirby]

So, as pennance, I will reveal this... ah, rather dubious honor that someone has bestowed on my own region...

http://www.geocities.com/thesonsofthesouth/

Some Team themes should never be touched
Heh. I looked at Southern Belle's page and then heard the music. Sounds a lot like a keyboard version of the Divynal's "I thouch myself." :snicker:

But, uh, as far as team "Vibe's" go, in an older group (back in the 250 days) our Tri-City (NYC) team was very brickish. Except for 2 people, everyone had 40+ STR. The other team (Arcadia, somewhere in Michigan) was very much a martial artist team. Again, all but 2 people had martial arts (even the "pure" mentalist had the basics). Which was pretty cool when it came time for the Tournament of the Dragon.

[zornwil]

For the campaign I'm running, I'm not sure how to put the vibe of the team.

Now for Wilson's game: The vibe is paranioa. Distrust of the goverment and be scared of what some of your teammates are up to in their spare time. :eek:
I was commenting once that it reminds me of people at regular jobs. Most of the Justice Squad don't socialize outside of the various duties and challenges that pull them together, only Sammy really does. But as you say, there are various agendas and lone pursuits outside of the group that can come into odds; I think when you wrote that in 2003 it was at its most paranoid, and calmed down a lot after Nexus turned good and Nexus and Laughton had it out over the fallout of that. Other than that, I'd add the team vibe has been as the fastest climbing/most rapidly gaining power supers and now it's arrived at the point of being an elite team that protects the world - but very much in its own way and with sometimes-questionable means (though again, with Nexus going more towards seriouly conscientious behavior that has moderated a lot).