If.....

[Michael Hopcroft]

If Terran Empire and its successor book are the future of the Champions universe, then what happened to metahumanity in the meantime? Has it died out? been driven underground? Is it possible to play a superhero in the Terran Empire setting without hopelessly breaking the system?

[Lord Liaden]

As I've understood the HERO Universe metasetting and subsequent discussions of it on the boards, the possibility of people achieving truly "superhuman abilities" of any form, including mutations, "radiation accidents", and radical techno breakthroughs, is predicated on the amount of probability-altering ambient magical energy, which tends to wax and wane periodically. A waxing period started on Earth just before WW II, but is supposed to wane again by the middle of the 21st Century. So, there are no superhumans in the HERO Universe right through the Terran Empire period. However, by the time of the Galactic Federation a millenium from now, magic will be on the rise again, allowing for the creation of Galactic Champions.

[Steve Long]

Read the introduction to Terran Empire.

[Kevin Scrivner]

So ... Champions superheroes in a time travel story arc manage to plop themselves into the Terran Empire. They are unable to return to their own world and era because there isn't enough ambient mystical energy for their powers to work (hope they weren't depending on the cosmic guy's force bubble for life support). The handsome master of disguise becomes a late-night talk show host on Cartoon Network. The mystic, refusing to accept the loss of her abilities, retires to a small colony world to start her own religion, an event which could possibly come back to bite the galaxy a century hence. The angst-ridden detective is recruited by the galactic police a la The Stainless Steel Rat. What happens to the others, especially the powered armor dude and the hero whose powers are a product of his alien physiology?

[Steve Long]

Well, the powered armor guy could get power armor appropriate for the time period, which might even be better than what he had.

The alien guy would still be the alien guy, assuming that his powers were just things his species naturally possessed. If he were a mutant or something, he'd just lose his superpowers but keep anything native to his species.

Of course, it's always possible to say, if you like, that characters traveling to TE from the past have some sort of "anti-chronal field" that preserve their powers while they're in the 2600s. It's easy enough to come up with plot devices to suit the situation, if necessary.