A thought about ARGENT

[Lord Liaden]

The "Best Champions Product" thread had reminded me of the first edition of the VIPER sourcebook, to me one of the best developed and most useful of the 4E books; but of course with the new VIPER a great deal of that book is no longer germain. Then it occurred to me that much of how the old VIPER was structured would serve as a good model for using ARGENT in a Champions Universe campaign: the corporation-like divisions, the Advisory Council resembling a board of directors, the selling of local franchises and advanced technology to criminals, the emphasis on cutting-edge research and development. Even the ultimate leadership of the old VIPER would be very appropriate to a corporate-inspired, high-tech based crime cartel.

The franchises would be less like terrorist cells, and more vendors of ARGENT tech to other criminal and terrorist groups, receiving a commission on each sale. The franchises could also be laboratories using ARGENT resources to research new technology, turning over the fruits of their research to ARGENT in exchange for a percentage of the profits.

Just thought I'd throw that at the wall and see if it sticks. :) Any other thoughts?

[Hermit]

Well, I don't have the latest VIPER book yet (Though I hear great things) so I can't really compare yet.... but if the 5th Ed is more terrorist like, making ARGENT more business like is definitely a good way to make the two stand out from each other.

[TheEmerged]

Personally I'm modelling the VIPER / ARGENT / IHA balance sortof on Starcraft -- with VIPER as the Zerg, ARGENT as the Protoss, and the IHA as the Terrans. That's an oversimplification, obviously, but so far it's working.