Best Champions City setting in Europe?

[Hermit]

Yet another poll, this one for Europe, which has way too many cool cities to limit to ten, but we're going to try. It is multiple choice, but as before, pick your top three at most, but PLEASE feel free to do some 'write ins' on top of that. Also feel free to say why. :)

My own ignorance of many fine cities may show as I went, for the most part, with some 'obvious' (to me at any rate) options.

[Enforcer84]

Three? Oops, I picked five.
London
Athens
Berlin
Paris
Rome

History, recognizable, and just itchin for a superfight!

[Half Baked]

It's a tough choice. Paris has the Louvre and Notre Dame to use as settings for battles. London is well known, great history, some great settings and is probably better known to non-Europeans through film and TV. You can have lots of fun with Victorian themes such as Jack the Ripper. Athens has the history and the Acropolis for settings. However, I plumbed for Rome. It has a greater range of settings from all periods of its history. You have the Colliseum, the forum, Trajan's column from Roman times. All the rennaisance piazzas, churches and the Vatican. There is also a smattering of Italian unification monuments, the massive white steps just up from the Spanish Steps that I can't remember the name of.

You'll never run out of interesting and well known sites to base adventures around.

[Markdoc]

I dunno. It's probably years of exposure to American comics, but I actually have difficulty imagining Superheroes in European cities. I know it makes no sense, it's just....

Breaking news from Amsterdam - Staerkmann breaks up a gang of bicycle thieves, while his sidekick Ouwinjee Lad keeps a vigilant eye out for litterers!

Still, if I had to, London definately (big, chaotic city), and maybe Rome (medium-sized, chaotic city). Paris is big, but it's like a bigger, better-planned version of Washington DC - just not somehow conducive to superheroics (at least for me).

Cheers, Mark

[AmadanNaBriona]

London and Moscow both strike me as great options, but to those I'll add write ins for Prague and Belfast, for their wealth of potential plots.
Heck... the way Prague is exploding in every direction right now puts it near the top of my settings list.

[Siberian Tiger]

London - because that's where I live !
Amsterdam - the drugs, the diamonds, the Dutch [has anyone ever created aD Dutch hero by the way]
Moscow - the Russian mafia, Soviet superhumans, missing nuclear weapons, the rise of nationalism, Checnya, the ghost of Stalin...

[Tim]

As an American, I can only go on what I know from the TV.

I voted for London. Mainly because it is one of the few cities I know about from movies and TV.

What I think makes for an interesting European campaign isn't the cites, It's all the old castles, ruins, and other locations outside of the cites that make it interesting.

[Super Squirrel]

I picked London, UK even though it wasn't what I'd pick for a city. If I did a Europe campaign, I'd want it in the UK. It would make the entire United Kingdom the "protection" area of the superhero team. As London was the only place in the UK, I voted for it.

[Hawksmoor]

The GGU has a team of European (one token American) Superteam called the Dawnstars. Currently based out of Venice Italy. The Dawnstars have a flying submersible the size of a small aircraft carrier for a base of operations (we keep it out of the harbor), and good relations with the local authorities.

Using a European locale for a team means that almost automatically international (throughout the EU) travel is on the table. Add in the languages you'll encounter, and the European necessity for polyglotism, a dusting of Eurostar and bake for 30 minutes and you have the recipe for a great game.

[Supreme Serpent]

London, 'cause it's London.

Venice, 'cause Venice is nifty.

My write-in would be for Brussels - if it was a truly "European" superteam, I would expect it to operate from there, but go all over.

[death tribble]

And yay ! I have voted on the poll only for three options as per Hermit's instructions.

But I went for the obvious ones. London, Paris and Rome.

Another choice nowadays would be St Petersburg aka Leningrad.

[Hermit]

London and Moscow both strike me as great options, but to those I'll add write ins for Prague and Belfast, for their wealth of potential plots.
Heck... the way Prague is exploding in every direction right now puts it near the top of my settings list.

Good write ins.

Also liked St. Petersburg from Tribble.

[Redmenace]

This is an "other". I've wanted to do a Russian team based out of one of their "Science Cities". With a Marvel comics bent one could imagine an isolated area dedicated to reproducing the Gamma and cosmic ray exposure accidents that led to the American super humans, kind of a supers specific Soviet Area 51.

[winterhawk]

I went with London, as someone stated, because its London.

And Moscow, which seems like it has a tone of potential since the government may be as crooked as VIPER :p

As a write in, how about Bern, Switzerland, which has diamonds, espionage and chocolate.

[Hawksmoor]

I went with London, as someone stated, because its London.

And Moscow, which seems like it has a tone of potential since the government may be as crooked as VIPER :p

As a write in, how about Bern, Switzerland, which has diamonds, espionage and chocolate.

MMMMM chocolate

and a heavily armed populace only beat out by Yemen in most weapons per citizen!

[Karmakaze]

I've actually used a street map of Nantes as a layout for Hellenback (http://www.hellenback.com). I did wind up straightening and lengthing a lot of the smaller roads to better represent an American city, but I liked the overall shape.

Sadly I lost my copy of the bus/monorail map for Nantes. I'd love to get another copy of that...

[Supreme Serpent]

Basing the team out of one of the tiny countries like Andorra could be interesting too. Might be willing to give the team a lot of leeway in exchange for the prestige associated with a superteam.

[ThothAmon]

Of those on the list, London and Berlin make the most sense in terms of plot potential.

London has the Stock Exchange, Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Canary Wharf (the site of the LINX transatlantic internet feeds), the various intelligence agencies and easy access to all kinds of scientific goodness at the major universities.

Berlin has the post-USSR reunification vibe, associations with WWII Nazis and the old USSR, a polyglot polysexual libertarian culture, some top class architechture, great beer/food and a whole Dark Champions gateway-to-the-Russian-Mafia vibe.

Unlisted cities that really should have been included: Geneva (banks, the UN and international neutrality) and Brussels or Luxembourg (for the EU connection).

[Captain Obvious]

However, I plumbed for Rome. It has a greater range of settings from all periods of its history. You have the Colliseum, the forum, Trajan's column from Roman times.
Aren't all times in Rome... Roman times?

[Mentor]

Midguard has had European adventures in London (twice), Oslo, Paris, Marseilles, Vienna, Volgograd (the old Stalingrad tank factory), various parts of the European countryside.

I think London and Paris were the best on the list offered.

[Cancer]

I pick Berlin, simply because I have lived there. I am a very strong advocate of "playing what you know" ... it's just so much nicer to have an intuitive feel for your setting, the atmosphere, and so on. And even if the GM is the only one who's lived in the game setting, that almost invariably translates into a more consistent and enjoyable game for everyone. Until, of course, some out-of-control player takes it into his head to trash one of the GMs' favorite real-life sites. Then you get out your Thumb of God and squash him like the insignificant bug he is as a lesson to others who may not be sufficiently reverent. :angel:

[zornwil]

Would really just depend on the campaign setting and purpose and my inclination at a given point in time.

The only European city I've set a "campaign" in has been a single session to date. I picked Nizhny Novgorod in Russia because I wanted something that fit a good-sized city with military connections in my world in Russia and wasn't one of the bigger cities everyone knows about already.

[Hermit]

Not only does London get the Olympics, it takes this poll easily!

[Hermit]

Probably because of the old Kingdom of Champions book. It's hard to fight history and tradition. :)

Yeah. Good point. Wonder what the 5th Ed version of KoC will be like?

[Ghost Archer]

No Geneva? I'll have to go with Stockholm. Nice and neutral.

[Hermit]

Since it seems that most of the characters from KoC made it into 5E continuity I'm guessing it will be quite similar to the 4E version. :)

Pesonally I'd rather see a 5E book along the lines of European Champions which would cover the entire Western European area [Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, etc.] giving us geographical, political, criminal, and "world" [martial world, superhero world, etc.] information about those areas. I had originally though Champions Worldwide would be that product but it now seems to be more of a world characters book.

Well, I've discovered that I enjoy Darren's characters and setting books, so I think we get more than we expect on both counts... but Western Europe is certainly large enough (and then some) to support a setting book of its own.

[Hermit]

Darren's already stated that Champions Worldwide is not a gazetteer so I'm really not expecting much world information in the book. My preference would have been 2-3 pages of country information and then 2 character write ups [1 hero, 1 villain, or any other combination]. We take what we get though. :)

Ah well, perhaps the high demand for a 5th Edition European Enemies will give us more down the line ;)

[Lord Kilsco]

I didn't see it was a multiple choice poll, thus I voted only for Berlin.

If I had been more attentive, I would have voted for :

- Berlin, because I like much Germany and particularly this city
- Paris, because it's my city, it's where I live
- London, another gigantic capital

Edit : when a City becomes a Centauri :rolleyes:

[Tim]

- Londo, another gigantic capital


I know Londo is now emporer of the Centauri Republic, but I did not know he had changed the name of the Centauri capital city to his.





:winkgrin:

[Lord Kilsco]

I know Londo is now emporer of the Centauri Republic, but I did not know he had changed the name of the Centauri capital city to his.
Ooups, I made a little mistake. I've corrected it. :)

[Tim]

Ooups, I made a little mistake. I've corrected it. :)

Now you've gone and spoiled my fun. :nya:

[fredrik_nilsson]

My picks was:

Berlin: This book would be great for Golden Age campaigns.
London: No superhero world is complete without a book on London. Nuff' said!
Stockholm: It's both the city closest to my home, and a nice city. I haven't seen much on Sweden in any non-Swedish RPGs every, so this would have been a welcome change.


Pesonally I'd rather see a 5E book along the lines of European Champions which would cover the entire Western European area [Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, etc.] giving us geographical, political, criminal, and "world" [martial world, superhero world, etc.] information about those areas.
I fully agree. Europe is almost the same size as USA, and no one would come up with the idea of doing different books for all the states. Champions Utah wouldn't top my "to buy" list.

[altamaros]

Not only does London get the Olympics, it takes this poll easily!
I support London too but not because of the Olympics: Simply in my mind London is
- Big : The biggest city in Europe Like NY in USA.
- Multicutural with ethnic districts
- historical
- financially important
- has an wonderful social life.

then Berlin for roughly the same reasons

For the third; i'm hesitating

either Paris, Rome or Madrid (speaking about that, Madrid is not included in the poll, it's a scandal !! it's truly a wonderful city ;) ).

[zornwil]

My picks was:

Berlin: This book would be great for Golden Age campaigns.
London: No superhero world is complete without a book on London. Nuff' said!
Stockholm: It's both the city closest to my home, and a nice city. I haven't seen much on Sweden in any non-Swedish RPGs every, so this would have been a welcome change.


I fully agree. Europe is almost the same size as USA, and no one would come up with the idea of doing different books for all the states. Champions Utah wouldn't top my "to buy" list.
Hmmmm, but 64 pages PDFs on each state, now that would be tasty!

[Captain Obvious]

My picks was:

Berlin: This book would be great for Golden Age campaigns.
London: No superhero world is complete without a book on London. Nuff' said!
Stockholm: It's both the city closest to my home, and a nice city. I haven't seen much on Sweden in any non-Swedish RPGs every, so this would have been a welcome change.


I fully agree. Europe is almost the same size as USA, and no one would come up with the idea of doing different books for all the states. Champions Utah wouldn't top my "to buy" list.
Damn. I guess I'll never see my Salt Lake City vigilante group, the Splatter-Day Saints, in print...