Power Company or JLA: Which is your campaign?

[RDU Neil]

I'm not asking this a "matter of taste" or to indicate that someone is "ripping off" these comics in particular, but...

In the DC Universe, the JLA is the prominent group. It is comprised of the seven or eight of the MOST POWERFUL charcters in that Universe. Their adventures are almost uniformly comsic, and they truly do amazing, impossible, and totally over the top things, every issue. They are like reading modern myths, where the characters are icons and the stories are fables.

Power Company, OTOH, is a group of metahumans... some heroes, some not so... but all much more human. Their battles are on a more human scale, vs. opponents that, while dangerous, are not gods and living embodiments of thought, or whatever. The deal with police and politics and making a living... they don't save the earth very often, having a more local impact... etc. The characters are humans, with extra powers, but often limited, far from "godlike."

Personally, I really enjoy Power Company, and it feels much more like most Champions campaigns I've ever seen. Every character strikes me as a playable PC type, whereas, I can't imagine playing in a JLA campaign, where PCs have the power to pull the Moon around with giant chains, and goofy $#!t like that. I'd bet that I'm right in saying most Champions campaigns ARE more Power Company, than JLA...

... but maybe I'm wrong.

I'm interested in how you might classify your Champions experience... JLA or Power Company. Has anyone out there ever ran a successful, lasting JLA level campaign? (Again, I think the JLA are on a scale much higher than even the JSA as currently written, or the Avengers or any Marvel group. Heck, even the power level of the Authority was tempered with severe repercussions for the planet and themselves. The JLA talk to God and recreate the universe on a regular basis, and the world in general doesn't even shrug.)



Anyway... what do you all think?

[Derek Hiemforth]

Just to be contrary, I'm going to say, "Neither one."

I think my current Champions campaign is more like The Titans. Although none of the PCs are former sidekicks or anything, they're about the same age as the Titans, and fill about the same niche. They're powerful and well-respected heroes, but not world-shakers like the JLA.

[Hermit]

I'm not familar with the Power Company, but from what you say, I'd have to say my groups also fall somewhere in between. They don't neglect street crime, but some adventures get positively surreal and they have talked to gods.

I hope to do a JL Level campaign soon. I had one years ago that had a good run, an international team of supers. I am thinking of recreating it, this time with UNITY as the background. Except I'm not a big fan of UNTIL.

[RDU Neil]

Originally posted by Derek Hiemforth
Just to be contrary, I'm going to say, "Neither one."

I think my current Champions campaign is more like The Titans. Although none of the PCs are former sidekicks or anything, they're about the same age as the Titans, and fill about the same niche. They're powerful and well-respected heroes, but not world-shakers like the JLA.

Actually, I'd say the Titans, at least the good Titans of years ago, are Power Company level. The latest Titans, now thankfully caput, were just horribly written, but at the beginning of the series were very "local level" and not world shaking in their adventures.

The JLA, OTOH, has ridiculous adventures like "Atom shrinks down to a size so small he is eye balling a plank length black hole, yet can somehow still use a radio to communicate with Batman... and defeats the black hole by singing a song. (See recent issue, number 77 I believe.)

The JLA is THAT kind of wild... and Power Company... or the Titans... have a more "realistic" (and I use that term VERY loosely) scope.

[ProfessorM@ss]

Originally posted by RDU Neil
Anyway... what do you all think?

My group is, like most, somewhere in-between. They started out as a black ops team (think 'Team 7' from WildStorm), and are slowly morphing into a genuine superhero team.

The trick with JLA-style teams, in my opinion, is to give them threats that can't be solved with power alone. The Ra's Al Ghul run in JLA ('Tower of Babel') was a perfect example: they couldn't talk to each other, and the villain knew all their weaknesses.

Put innocents in jeopardy! Force the heroes to choose between fighting the Big Baddie or helping out an auto accident. Give them moral decisions: face them with the byproduct of their constant battling of villains. How do they react when the guy who got hit by a chunk of brick from their latest brawl shows up?

The Fantastic Four used to have tons of fun with this...the FF goes bankrupt! The FF gets sued! Some kid lights himself on fire because he wants to be the Human Torch!

The problem with campaigns run along the lines of JLA or The Authority is that they forget the human quotient, methinks.

--->M@ss

[Blue]

Definitely P.C. (though I'm just going by your description). My players are starting level, and evan at that I shorted them a few points to make them more uniform in power level.

My opinion is that in Champions eventually everyone becomes the JLA; They need some in-game history first.

[Acroyear]

I'd say we're on the JLA side of being in the middle. For the most part, the day to day crime isn't something we deal with (we might smack a mugger on the way to fight Bolar or something if he's right there in front of us).

[RDU Neil]

Originally posted by ProfessorM@ss
My group is, like most, somewhere in-between. They started out as a black ops team (think 'Team 7' from WildStorm), and are slowly morphing into a genuine superhero team.

The trick with JLA-style teams, in my opinion, is to give them threats that can't be solved with power alone. The Ra's Al Ghul run in JLA ('Tower of Babel') was a perfect example: they couldn't talk to each other, and the villain knew all their weaknesses.

Put innocents in jeopardy! Force the heroes to choose between fighting the Big Baddie or helping out an auto accident. Give them moral decisions: face them with the byproduct of their constant battling of villains. How do they react when the guy who got hit by a chunk of brick from their latest brawl shows up?

The Fantastic Four used to have tons of fun with this...the FF goes bankrupt! The FF gets sued! Some kid lights himself on fire because he wants to be the Human Torch!

The problem with campaigns run along the lines of JLA or The Authority is that they forget the human quotient, methinks.

--->M@ss

Actually, Professor, you've just described exactly what the Power Company faces all the time. They are superteam, formed around the concept of a law firm... so dealing with law suits, commercialization, paying clients vs. pro-bono work, etc., is what the team is all about. These are human level concerns, not out of this world, "beyond human comprehension" themed stories.

I should clarfiy, that the Power Company is not a street level group. They are the power levels of the Titans or '80s X-Men, or '70s Avengers. (They are more Marvel-like than most DC groups... written by Busiek.) They don't fight thugs like Nightwing or Daredevil, for example, their current fight is against Dr. Polaris and group of villains who have been raiding scientific reasearch centers, stealing prototype equipment for some master plan. Very "Hero System/Champions" like plot, IMO.

No, they aren't "street crime" heroes, but the villains aren't apocalyptian angels, or 5th dimension imps either.

[TheEmerged]

My PC's are neither the JLA nor the Power Company. They are... The Legion of Doom. That is, they're the bad guys

Powerwise the level is closer to that of the Power Company. The PC's found out in their first adventure that even some of the second-tier good guys can take them out with a single hit or two -- which set the mood quite nicely. Now I just have to get them back to the point where they aren't terrified of the people they're supposed to be fighting...

But at least this time (unless previous villain campaigns I've run), I don't have to worry about them coming right out the door trying to take down the campaign world's big guns.

[Trebuchet]

While none of the PCs in my current game are as powerful as a typical Justice League/Avengers superhero, they occupy the same niche in the game universe. They are Earth's premier superhero team, and as such have the same kind of clout and respect. And some of the characters are quite powerful in their own right. Our powered armor guy, CyberKnight, is about equal to mid-1980s Iron Man, our mentalist, Prodigy, would be more than a match for Jean Grey (or even early Phoenix), our energy projector, Thunderbird, would be a pretty good matchup for Storm, while our fastest martial artist, my own Zl'f, would clobber most of Marvel's hand-to-hand types, although Spiderman might be tough. So we're pretty tough overall.

While I have a few higher-powered solo NPC heroes running around in the world, our team seldom if ever interacts with them. (After all, it's their comic!)

[majorvictory]

While my own descriptive preference is the Avengers, within the parameters you've set I guess my campaign would be Power Co. (with some JLA adventures thrown in). My heroes are nominally the second most powerful team on the planet. As such, they tend to deal with country-level threats. Some of the characters in the campaign have been around for 15 years, but I've found in general JLA make for a better read than adventure.

[KawangaKid]

More of Power Company. That's by design. I'm one of the few comics fans in the group, and the rationale of a centralized organization handling the assignment of metahumans to investigations and operations is a bit more plausible.

Can't always rely on "Marvel Coincidence" to take place.

[Storn]

Hell, I'm running "Checkmate". But, Neil, since you play with me. Ya probably figured that one out. They ain't even Power Company level.

Just be thankful that Im not running "Suicide Squad"... although Fury could easily fit that role! <g>.

But just to state my own preference... I like the Power Company level just fine. I would love to play in a Justice Leage level game (and I'm getting there with my Vector character), but it is a lot of work and it has such impact on the RDU. Unlike JL, which doesn't seem to have the impact on DCU that it should.

[RDU Neil]

Originally posted by majorvictory
While my own descriptive preference is the Avengers, within the parameters you've set I guess my campaign would be Power Co. (with some JLA adventures thrown in). My heroes are nominally the second most powerful team on the planet. As such, they tend to deal with country-level threats. Some of the characters in the campaign have been around for 15 years, but I've found in general JLA make for a better read than adventure.

Exactly my take, Major Victory. I enjoy reading the JLA, but I get inspired to game by reading Power Company, or the Avengers. (No matter how George Perez does it, I will not be convinced by this upcoming JLA vs Avengers comic, if the JLA doesn't just walk all over the Avengers. They are just in a completely different power level, IMO.)

[RDU Neil]

I should also state that I LOVE the Avengers. It is the one Marvel Comic I follow faithfully, through good and bad... I even have a beat up copy of #1. The Avengers, IMO, is the perfect "high level Champions" kind of superteam. (Storn, your Vector, along with Locke, Thermal, and Vengeance... are to the point where I think they could easily stand with the current Avengers. 500+ points or so, seems about right, IMO)

I just used JLA vs. Power Company, since they both exist in the same "universe" and folks around here often comment on Batman or Superman or the other "mega big gun" characters. This is panning out like I thought it would. Most games don't play in the mind bendingly over the top type, JLA level.

Some in our gaming group think Nobilis or Amber would be the way to play JLA. Forget points and dice... it's all in the concept. Not to my tastes, but could be interesting.