Integrating the CU into an existing campaign

[WonderStuff]

Our gaming group loves the new products for the Hero System. We are working out ways to incorporate the Champions Universe supplement into our campaign. Here is our situation and our proposed solution. If any group has faced the same situation we'd love to hear your solution.

As you know, Champions Universe gives a wealth of information. We were trying to mesh all the new information and backgrounds into what has previously occurred in our world. Here's an example.

I ran an adventure where the Atlanteans had saved themselves before the deluge by using their advance mental powers to send their essences into a specially prepared totem. this was our world's first contact with the Atlanteans. My presentation of the Atlanteans differs greatly from the CU version of them. Mine had advanced mental powers and when modern man came in contact with this totem an Atlanteans was able to move his essence into the human and take over his body. Our dilemma was to maintain the consistency CU has to offer, at the same time allowing for creative licenses to explore new territory in a well-known genre (i.e.: Atlantis). This is compounded because the information in CU would be public knowledge. If I had run my Atlantis after the players were familiar with CU it would have been totally different. they might have gone to the Atlanteans ambassador, visited the King, had a clear idea of what their powers were, etc. It would not have been the same adventure.

So now we have two versions of the Atlanteans. What do we do? Do we change the Atlanteans in CU or reconstruct my adventure to fit the book. And how does this address the possibility that someone would want to run an adventure with some element in the book but with their own spin to them.

Here’s how we did it.

We are using the books as the official template. If any GM runs an adventure they prepare a short write up explaining anything that differs from the CU book (or other supplement). Since we have rotating GMs if another GM wants to include Atlanteans in their adventure, they would read the GM notes to see what changes are in effect.

Using my Atlantis adventure from above, we decided that since the Atlanteans broke off into different tribes, this tribe was a branch apart from the more mainstream Atlanteans and developed it's mental powers on its own. Now this is included with our World History so we can still use the CU history or my version without too much confusion. Same will be done with space aliens, hidden jungle cities, etc. Anything that differs from the books will need to be explained so as not to interfere with the CU environment.

Does anyone else have any suggestions, comments or tips?

[Blue]

A while back I bought "Dragon's Gate", the supplement for the San Angelo campaign. Now I have no use for San Angelo itself since I have an existing campaign city. But I want to incorporate some of the DG stuff into my existing city.

Problem is, there is no existing china town.

In this case however, the characters have been encountering several time travelers and three of the charcters are from out of the time line. So I'm thinking that, amusingly enough, they'll wak eup one day and the china town district will be there. No one else will know what they're talking about when they say it wasn't there yesterday.

Or better yet, I may do this in reverse: One of the NPCs will ask them where Dragon's Gate went? They, and everyone else, will have no idea what they are talking about. But an investigation will lead to a villain who tampered with the timeline and removed that entire region. The heroes will have to do something to restore it, and restore the timeline, bringing Dragon's Gate into the campaign.

So I say: World changing and Time altering events are great for incorporating new stuff.

[WonderStuff]

That's a cool idea. We were contemplating if we should have some sort of "Crisis" or "Secret War" to explain the move to Millennium City and the Champions Universe. But I like your suggestion. You got my wheels turning. hope my players aren't reading this. (Hi James)

[winterhawk]

When all the 5th edition goodies came out, we started anew and my players came up with new characters. After about a year, I started having some familiar characters show up (evil versions of the PCs, villains from the old campaign that were slightly different ala 5th Edition Grond, etc). This all led to the realization that there was a multiverse and the old campaign was Earth 4, as opposed to the current campaign's Earth 5. Right now I am running a 'Reality Storm' (I couldn't think of a better name) that has the heroes of both dimensions teaming up to save the multiverse. Its really been a blast dragging out some old villains and seeing how the players react to their old characters. Do know if that will help, but something like this give an opportunity to incorporate aspects of the old campaign into the new one. I've been playing the ghost of a NPC from the old campaign, and I've had such a good time with him, I'm going to bring him back in some form in the new campaign.

[assault]

... they'll wak eup one day and the china town district will be there. No one else will know what they're talking about when they say it wasn't there yesterday.

Or better yet, I may do this in reverse: One of the NPCs will ask them where Dragon's Gate went? ...

So I say: World changing and Time altering events are great for incorporating new stuff.

I like this, a lot. It's nicely comic-y.

DC has done some similar things with the Flash, but, unfortunately, mostly when they were retconning stories that shouldn't have been retconned, like the Flash of Two Worlds.

[Supreme Serpent]

If you're looking to incorporate a lot all at once, two basic options already mentioned above seem best.

1) CU as another multi-verse world characters can access from time-to-time, some campaigns in one world, some in another.

2) Massive world-changing event. Work out what elements from each world you want to have involved, work it out so it happens. "Crisis on Infinite Colliding Reality World Stormageddon".

Especially since you have multiple GM's and an established world, I think it would be best to keep your existing universe as-is, maybe add a few CU elements but don't violate your own established continuity. Then set up some new games in "official" CU, occaisionally have some cross-campaign Marvel/DC-style crossovers.