The Full Scope of ARGENT 1.0.0

As I read over my Champions official setting source books (for the "Champions Universe"), I was struck by the range of activities the criminal high-tech corporation ARGENT is involved in around the world -- how many pies it has its fingers in, and how viciously it digs into them. But from comments I've heard over the years, most Champions players who don't have those books don't fully appreciate what ARGENT is capable of, nor the range of uses it can be put to for villainous plots, as well as character origins and backstory. In part this is due to there being no source book dedicated to that malevolent corporation. Hero Games did plan to publish one, but the severe downsizing the company went through several years ago curtailed that plan for the foreseeable future. There's actually substantial information extant, but it's dispersed over more than a dozen books.

A couple of years ago I thought it might be interesting and helpful to the community to pull that info together and organize it for easy consumption in a thread on the Champions discussion forums. Whether or not one games in the Champions Universe, the corporation could easily be inserted into most superhero worlds, providing opportunities for many game sessions of villainy to oppose. It can also be an inspirational model for whatever original evil corporate foe a Game Master would like to create. That forum thread has since been archived, but recurrent interest in the subject prompted me to transcribe my compilation to PDF form and offer it here.

What follows in this document is a brief history of ARGENT; a summary of ARGENT's motivations, goals, and methods of operation; a rundown of its known organizing structure, with a little logical extrapolation based on relevant precedents; ARGENT front companies described in the books; an overview of ARGENT's extensive activities around the globe; its interactions with various superhumans and supercrime groups -- those it works with, is interested in, and its rivals and enemies; a list of official supervillains (and superheroes) who owe their superhuman abilities to ARGENT science, and how they came to be; a collection of devices commonly used by ARGENT's operatives; and a brief listing of the source books for this information. The text also frequently mentions what books specific characters and references may be found in.

EDIT: For those who'd like to view the original thread, including subsequent discussion of the ARGENT material, it can be found here.