I've mentioned it in a few other threads, and gotten some positive comments on it, so here it is, along with some house rules, etc. Mainly, I'm just too lazy to edit the points-only stuff out. Obviously the details won't work for everyone or every campaign. We're still pretty much running along on 4th Ed Champs, so some of the bits in the skill section may look odd. Start of a completely new universe, looking to get as much input/work from the players as possible.
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Jim’s New Champions Campaign
Looking to start a new, Avengers/lower level JLA campaign. Will mostly be a new universe, though may have some elements from earlier games, depending on what the players want. How many points is mostly up to you, as described below. You can end up with a lot of points – hopefully you’ll be able to do a character you couldn’t find the points for before, something you’ve wanted to try. Or a new idea, that’s cool too!
Even if VANGUARD keeps going at our regular games, I’d like to use this as another option for if not everyone can make it, and for off-week games with 2-4 people.
HOW MANY POINTS DO I GET?
150 Base
+up to 150 Disadvantages (more on disads elsewhere)
Other things that get you points, if you get them to me at least one month before the game starts:
+25 Character sheet in readable, easily understandable format with costs, limits, etc clearly understandable. Info on any DNPC’s (don’t need full character sheet, but name, personality/description/etc.)
+50 Character picture(s)
+50 Character origin. At least roughly a page, can be more. Given that some characters are likely fairly experienced, some info on prior exploits is good.
+25 Miniature. As close as you can get it.
So, 450pts so far just for your character themselves. Enough for a pretty powerful, rounded super. But wait, you can get more!
+50 Villain. Could be a personal nemesis, or someone more general. Roughly the same points level your PC ends up at, though can be more depending on the villain. Need character sheet, picture, rough origin, and a few example plot ideas using the villain.
+50 Another villain
+50 Other background development. Another organization – villain team, hero team, evil organization, high tech research place (like STAR Labs in DC) etc that could play a useful part in the game. Some level of detail – for example, if a superteam, names/basic personalities / backgrounds / pictures / powers / goals. Research place, names/descriptions of key researchers, types of things they do, map of main facility.
Doesn’t have to be an organization, but something “extra” that would add to the game. For example, if you’re playing Thor, info on the current state of Asgard, etc.
+50 Another piece of background
+100 Above and beyond. Excessive contributions beyond what listed above. For example, providing six fully developed villains. Working out two villain teams, a hero team, a psionic cult, alien empire X, and Earth in the 31st Century.
So, up to 750 points total possible. And some stuff’s free! Read on, true believers!
FREE? WHAT’S THE CATCH?
OK, so there’s a catch. The catch is, you need to make the stuff for gameplay. Most of the things I’m thinking of are mainly just places for games to happen or ways to get there, so I don’t really want people to have to pay for them – bases, vehicles, etc. On the other hand, you won’t be strafing people with the Quinjets – they’re there to get you from point A to point B.
So – if someone wants to draw up a game-scale HQ for use, you can have it free. If you want fancy transport, draw it up so we can put it on a map in play, and it’s free. Oh – and the team needs an acceptable name for this, so things can be appropriately called/labeled – like the “Justifiers’ Moon Base”. Free stuff goes for both team and individual, if appropriate IE the Justifiers have their moon base, their New York Mansion base, and a small fleet of Quadjets. Cattleman (because criminals fear bats, spiders, owls, pumpkins, and cattle stampedes) has his own Cattle Car, his Cattle Boat, and his Cattle Cave complete with Cattle Crime Computer.
Oh, and you’ll get a basic team communicator free too, probably in the form of a communi-card.
WHAT IF I DON’T NEED ALL THOSE POINTS?
If the character you want to play doesn’t need all the points you’ve garnered, that’s OK. You can save them for future use – rapid advancement, fill a gap you didn’t think about, radiation accident down the road, etc. So, if you want to play the person who just got their powers recently and is still learning how to use them, this could be a good way to do it. Also look at finding other uses for powers, other effects you might want (like Thing buying an Area Affect attack to represent his ‘clobbering’ a whole group of people).
WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR.
You guys are going to have a lot of possible points to use. Even if you don’t throw anything extra in other than your own character/pic/origin you’ll have 450pts. If you go all-out and load me down with cool stuff to use in the game, you can have up to 750pts. You can make some pretty kick-butt heroes with that (for example, Firewing comes in at 691pts)! You also shouldn’t have to scrimp and point-shave much, if at all.
I’m looking for an Avengers/JLA type group that can handle being the world’s greatest. Villain teams, Dr. Destroyer-types, countries, alien armadas – all should think twice before crossing your path. You don’t have to be incredibly powerful, but should be capable. It’s going to be a large team when everyone’s there – 6+ heroes. Not everyone needs to be able to punch out Grond, as long as you have uses – teleporting bystanders out of the way, whatever. Sure, Teleport Man may not be able to dish out much damage, but can YOU move ten people from Earth to the Moon in a single heartbeat? I also expect to run smaller sessions when not everyone can make it, with 2-4 characters, and also expect that the team will be split up from time to time.
With all these points, I’d like to see characters with some variety and depth to their abilities, instead of just “our regular characters, doubled”. So, some limits to use as guidelines:
*SPEED: 5-6 for most supers, 7 for superduper martial artist types, 8+reserved for speedsters.
*DEX: 20-27 for most, 28-35 for super enhanced martial artist types.
*OCVs/DCVs: 16 should be the extremely high end for these, after levels, and I would expect most lower.
*Damage/Defenses: I’m kind of up in the air about this one, and will leave it in your hands. Keep in mind you will get what you give. I’d rather see people with some damage reduction or extra STUN rather than being invulnerable tanks.
*Movement: In order to keep things manageable on the table, I’d like to see combat full moves capped at 30”, with most folks lower. Non-combat, feel free to move at ridiculous speeds if you want.
*Overall – keep in mind the overall character – if you’re high defenses and damage, you probably shouldn’t be at the top of the Speed/OCV/Movement areas also, for example. Everything of course subject to GM approval.
I’m looking for characters that are HEROES. If the character you envision would rather lie, cheat, make the cops’ lives difficult, etc instead of going out and saving the city – change the character or come up with a different one. They need to be able to function as part of the team. You will all be powerful and capable, but you joined together for good reasons – there are threats even you can’t handle alone, and you probably even like the other team members, and may have even worked with them in the past if you are both experienced.
The group will in general have good relations with the authorities/govt. If a PC is wealthy, they will likely fund the group through a separate trust ala Tony Stark/Avengers. If no one fits the bill, then an NPC patron will be developed.
I’m planning on this being pretty much a new Universe, not part of the Vanguard game world. I’d like to see new characters instead of rehashed characters that were played for a long time, or up-gunned older characters. If you want to rework someone you only got to play a couple of sessions, fine, but I don’t really want to see Triton, Lady Liberty, and Relayer (for example) running around.
I’m going with a default of modern day, USA/New York City as the main starting point. You’ll wind up going around the world, back and forth through time, to the stars, across dimensions, etc., but NYC is where the Batmobile gets its oil changed. However, that’s just the default – if the players want to base in another city, or even make up our own “Metropolis”, etc. I’m fine with that. And if someone strongly wants to live far away from the main city, that can work too as long as you can get to the HQ fast enough and have a good reason to team up with the others/bother to make the trip on a regular basis.
HOUSE RULES, OTHER STUFF TO KEEP IN MIND MAKING CHARACTERS
*Vulnerabilities will mostly apply AFTER defenses (at least for STUN). Vulns are nasty enough as is, and in a high-dice situation, could quickly get ridiculous. There may sometimes be “leak-through” damage when I feel it is appropriate.
*Surprise attacks will work the same way – generally doubled AFTER defenses applied.
*Killing attacks – if the target’s resistant defense is at least twice the BODY rolled, the attack can do no STUN either, regardless of the Stun Mod rolled. So, if a 4d6 Energy KA rolls 14 Body and 70 Stun, but the target has 28 resistant ED, the attack will not do any damage.
*Detective Work – available as a 5pt Int-based skill. Finding clues, putting things together. Good for the more casual (read: non-Batman) detective type. Spider-Man, for example, would have Detective Work and Streetwise. Batman would have Criminology, Forensic Medicine, Streetwise, AND Detective Work.
*Sciences: How you want to portray sciences on a character depends on the character, and what you want out of it. Spider-Man would have Inventor, a good Chemistry skill, and several other basic sciences. Dr. Chlorophyll would have Inventor, Superbotany, some general Biology. Reed Richards would have “Comic Book Science”.
“Comic Book Science” costs 25pts for Int-based roll, +1 for 5pts. Nothing else, not even Overall Skill Levels, can add into this. This will allow you to do all kinds of wacky things to help move the game along.
*Teamwork: 3pt Dex-based Skill, +1 per 2pts. Used to make coordinated attacks, sometimes other uses. Works better with people you work/train with.
*Damage Reduction: For those characters that are cool, but aren’t the most DCV-laden or howitzer-resistant, you might want to get this: Damage Reduction, 50%, Physical and Energy, Resistant, only when mobile/aware of attack (-1/2), Activate 14- (-1/2) (30points).
Represents the shot luckily grazing you, rolling with the blow, etc. Good to keep characters like Scarlet Witch from getting immediately one-punched.
*Total Invulnerability: Within conception and special effects, you can buy complete and total invulnerability to one narrow type of damage. Prizm, the perfectly reflective man, could be invulnerable to light/lasers. Volcanus is immune to heat/fire. There still may be rare times when a special attack could still hurt you – Sonicman may still be affected by Dischord’s special sonic disruptor attack, as it does damage TO sound as much as WITH sound, for example. Cost is 50 points flat – no power frameworks, limits, etc.
*Hunteds: Some characters may be experienced heroes with established enemies. If you are hunted by 2-4 different villains or groups, the hunted is worth +5 points. If you have a “rogues gallery” or 5 or more, it is worth +10pts. So, Superman is Hunted by Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Bizarro, Metallo, Parasite. Since he has 6, he gets +10 pts to his “Hunted: Supervillains” value. (As Powerful, some have NCI, 8-, +rogues gallery bonus = 25pts total) Hunteds in the campaign are limited to 8-. Keep in mind that you may have lots of enemies, but how many actually come LOOKING for you to cause you trouble?
*Sidekicks: You can, if you feel it is appropriate for your character, write up a teen sidekick for your character – Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, etc. While they don’t normally adventure with you anymore (and have probably formed their own group by now) they may still get involved with your life from time-to-time. They can be bought as a DNPC (Less Powerful, 8-) for a 5pt Disadvantage. They should be built on half of your character’s total starting points – so, if you are 600pts, your sidekick would be 300pts. They should have 100pts in Disadvantages. I would need a character sheet, picture and background for them as well (though you could make one larger, joint background for both of you if you wish).
*General: Think about what you want to do for awhile, play around with different concepts. Feel free to bounce ideas around off of me or your fellow players. It’ll be awhile before I run it, so take your time. You may want to approach the numbers part of the character in an organic way- build the “starting” character, just the basics at 350-400pts. Then add 50 “experience”. Then another 50, and so on. Think of “what would they learn? What’s something interesting to add?” etc. instead of just “I am a 600pt two-dimensional powerhouse”.
OTHER THINGS I WANT
Aside from the characters themselves and other background info you come up with, I would like a list from you of what, if any, things from my old games you’d like included in the new universe, and other things/types of adventures you’d like to see.
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Originally Posted by Hermit
This game I planned on starting "in progress" with the heroes mostly being experienced with many prior adventures - like starting up a JLA or Avengers game at issue #300 instead of #1. 
(For example, one character was on a nuclear sub that went down years ago, which ended up mutating another character's group of underwater-people)
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