Champions Begins, The writening

[Christopher R Taylor]

OK another question.  Obviously every one of these characters will have a fully built character sheet behind the scenes, even if the players at least never see the crunchy full numbered sheet.  I fully intend to release all of the Hero Designer files (incidentally, I liked Heromaker better as a name, too bad that's copyrighted for a previous program), but should we bundle the real builds in the GM book so they can see all the behind the scenes stuff or just leave that out?  

 

Pros: GMs would get to see how it all fits together in a full build, and it allows them to know how to handle things that don't come up in the tutorial rules

Cons: It would bloat the book by like 100 pages (6x each character, plus the villains)

 

I'm going with "only get the full writeups in HD format" right now, unless people argue well that we should include them.

[Jhamin]

I would *really* not add 100 pages to an intro book.  Hero already has a reputation for being overly hard to get into, a 160 page "basics" book will not help things.

I'm still not sure why each character needs 6 write-ups though?

[Christopher R Taylor]

The players have a separate book from the GM.  Each Chapter, they are given a new copy of their character, which includes the new stuff their character now has, as opposed to the previous chapter when they didn't have all their abilities.  Each chapter, their sheet has more details and abilities.  On the back of the sheet is a summary of their abilities, telling them what the new stuff does.

 

So on Chapter One, their character sheet has basically one attack, some defenses, a few stats, and a few rolls.

The next chapter, they get a new character sheet, with more abilities on it, more details.

 

Six chapters, six sheets.

[Ninja-Bear]

The 6 sheets per character? I don’t think the benefit is going to be that much. That will really present Champions as overly complex even though you didn’t mean it too. Just in each chapter list what is going to be used or added in. I think you need one sheet -no math as player characters and in the end or perhaps a link to download the actual build sheet.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quote

Just in each chapter list what is going to be used or added in.

 

I considered that, but the problem is that would take up as much space as a character sheet.  I think I can get them down to half a page each, and its hardly intimidating or excessive to go "OK this session here's the new stuff" and hand out a new sheet for each character being used.

 

Edit: visually, which is more intimidating: lots more text explaining, or bright colorful simple sheets in a packet that you get once per adventure?

[Christopher R Taylor]

Had a bit of a setback, the power went out after a brutal two-day storm and has been out until just now since very early Saturday morning.  So I haven't been able to do much beyond some character sketches.  This puts me almost a week behind schedule, unfortunately, I had hoped to get two more chapters done this week.

[Christopher R Taylor]

OK I have a question.

 

The Crusher Gang looks like its been retconned out of existence, no mention at all in 6th edition Champions Universe and no listing in the Enemies Group book.  Is there a replacement group of VIPER hating villains?  I can crank out a duplicate group (or even put the Crusher Gang back together for this one scenario) easily enough just wondered.  They feature pretty strongly in the Microfilm Madness scenario.

[steriaca]

27 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

OK I have a question.

 

The Crusher Gang looks like its been retconned out of existence, no mention at all in 6th edition Champions Universe and no listing in the Enemies Group book.  Is there a replacement group of VIPER hating villains?  I can crank out a duplicate group (or even put the Crusher Gang back together for this one scenario) easily enough just wondered.  They feature pretty strongly in the Microfilm Madness scenario.

Nope. The Crusher Gang has been whiped out of existence in 5th edition Champions and remains whiped out of existence in 6th edition. Most members became VIPER Dragon Branch members, including Occlon (sp!) getting a leadership position.

[assault]

The Crusher Gang had no specific existence in the original Microfilm Madness. Any group of villains would do.

[Christopher R Taylor]

My only concern is that every character added means more bulk (each character sheet) but I guess its unavoidable unless you want the same group showing up over and over and somehow getting away.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I'm up to rough writes on chapter 4: Combat in Christopher Park.  Its... kind of a blah scenario so I am going to try to jazz it up a little with some RPG aspects.  The base adventure is "come get the VIPER informant" but I think I am going to change things up a little and have VIPER release a prototype of the final doomsday weapon for the last chapter: a mind control device that turns all the people in the park into hostile enemies of the PCs kind of like Kingsmen.  That way the PCs have to work on how to defeat people without kiling or seriously injuring them, role playing opportunities, etc.  Its a lot more interesting than just more VIPER agents and a few supervillains.

 

That said, I do want a couple of serious opponents in the mix, since the 4th chapter introduces martial arts maneuvers and skill levels, so it will be good for them to be tried out against some bad guys -- and for bad guys to use them.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Having some fun using the "crowd goes berserk" scenario to show GMs how to encourage genre and teach how to use combat maneuvers.  This is a good chance to show that they are heroes and have a chance to be creative with abilities to stop without harming people.

[Christopher R Taylor]

OK I am putting out a call for editors, anyone who wants to help with this project, sound out right now.  I could use some people to go over what I have written so far in the very rough draft and see if there are any significant errors or things that could be written more clearly and concisely.  Please let me know here or in private as soon as possible, and only if you can get it turned around within a week or two.

[DreadDomain]

On 2/27/2021 at 4:28 AM, Christopher R Taylor said:

OK I am putting out a call for editors, anyone who wants to help with this project, sound out right now.  I could use some people to go over what I have written so far in the very rough draft and see if there are any significant errors or things that could be written more clearly and concisely.  Please let me know here or in private as soon as possible, and only if you can get it turned around within a week or two.

I am willing to give it a go. How many words are we talking about so far?

[Christopher R Taylor]

GM Book looks like about 25k words, including the adventure sections.  I'll try to post a pdf of it in a few days.

 

EDIT: Rough of the GM book is done, all I need to do now is rip out the final versions of each character and NPC to make sure I have all their abilities covered in the rules.  Once I have the Characters done I'll post the finals here in HDC format zip file for people to look over.  I've begun character sketches, but if people want to use like an online costume designer to come up with outfits, I'd welcome and appreciate it.

 

I can have that stuff up next week, along with a rough draft, barring any catastrophe

[Christopher R Taylor]

OK I hope I can get some artists on board here or at least character designs.

 

I have some characters that I could use ideas for character art for.  They're villains that show up in the third chapter (formerly Microfilm Madness, now Digital Distress).  They Crusher Gang is still the name with new membership:

 

Crusher (brick) M
Script Kitty (stolen equipment, basically armored and bits of stuff from other people like Booster Gold) F
Male Gaze (cyclops eye blast type) M
The Shrew (short, clawed scrapper) M
Shriekback (sonic blaster) M/F
Trigger Warning (gun bunny) F

 

I grabbed a couple of pieces of art from the internet for inspiration on Trigger Warning and Script Kitty:

They don't literally have to be a cat and a bunny but I do think it would be funny if Trigger Warning really was.  I can see Script Kitty with a hoodie and kitty ears, though.

[DreadDomain]

In my opinion, if the goal is to attract players to try a super-hero game, you want to stick with fairly traditional, modern, superhero art. If you verge into the anime or furries, that will send the wrong signal of what this is about or worse, it will turn people off. 

[Sketchpad]

On 3/9/2021 at 1:56 AM, DreadDomain said:

In my opinion, if the goal is to attract players to try a super-hero game, you want to stick with fairly traditional, modern, superhero art. If you verge into the anime or furries, that will send the wrong signal of what this is about or worse, it will turn people off. 

 

I've got to agree with @DreadDomain here. If this is a Champions Starter product, it should lean more to the common tropes of superheroism. The characters within should emulate characters seen in traditional superhero comics, with villains and adventures that do the same. Think more Avengers or Justice League, whether the comics of cartoons. 

[steriaca]

Trigger Warning should not be a literal gun bunny. A woman wearing a bunny style costume with lots of guns and grenades on the other hand...

 

As for Scriptkitty, well we opened the door with Blurred Lion.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Script Kitty is a slang and derogatory term for a hacker that uses pre-built scripts and programs to work rather than doing it by hand.  I've since retired Blurred Lion because while I think the name kind of works I don't think its current enough to be fun, so in time it will get even more dumb and dated like a superhero group based on the Monkees.  So I've changed that to a lion-based scrapper wolverine replacement instead of the raptor idea I had.   But the roster needs a speedster, so I came up with Momentum.  The PC choices are now:

 

Apex (superman clone)

Avenger (captain america)

Dr Nope (spiderman)

Lionheart* (wolverine)

Momentum (flash)

Spellbinder (dr strange/mentalist)

Starblaze (energy projector)

Street Knight (batman)

Trooper (iron man)

Vulcan (thor)

 

I dropped Tank as being somewhat redundant although he could fill in as a Hulk character, maybe I should keep him.

I dropped Princess as being redundant as well and a one-note character mostly inspired by the hilarious character in the movie Zoom. 

I renamed Supernova because both DC and Marvel have one by that name and I'm trying to avoid direct copyright.  Apex is a minor marvel villain, but the concept is completely different.  Spellbinder is an obscure DC villain with completely different powers.

I want to rename Lionheart, that's just a placeholder.  Marvel renamed Captain Britain into Lionheart but it just doesn't feel right for a claw brawler.

 

Names I wanted to use but didn't because I thought maybe they go too far: King Kickass and Guns McGee (for his biceps).  Guns will get into some product some day though.

 

In fact, I stuck Guns McGee into Tanghal Towers, as a dunce low end brick (kind of like Bulldozer).

[Opal]

I feel like there was a "Red Raptor" in a Champions! product, maybe some 20 years ago? Flight via red force-field wings?

[Christopher R Taylor]

That actually sounds really familiar.

[Jhamin]

6 hours ago, Opal said:

I feel like there was a "Red Raptor" in a Champions! product, maybe some 20 years ago? Flight via red force-field wings?

 

"Challenges for Champions", P 48
Way back in 4th edition

His brother was a master criminal who was killed by fellow inmates after the PCs sent him to jail.  Now Jon Jones (No relation to the Martian Manhunter) has sold all his worldly possessions to become Red Raptor and take bloody revenge!

This guy always bothered me.  He apparently bought his super powers, which are Gravity Based, to aid in his revenge.  Which is cool and all, but his background emphasizes how ordinary he was before his brother died but still just sort of assumes buying superpowers is easy.  I'm not sure ARGENT existed at this point in the lore, but some kind of an excuse for *where* you can buy red gravity wings feels appropriate.  If the gear had been invented by his murdered brother that would have at least made sense, but it is fairly clear that isn't where they came form.
But that is me complaining about a 30+ year old book released by ICE, which owned Champions like 4 companies ago.

[Christopher R Taylor]

It kind of makes comic book sense, where outrageously advanced technology is built by some kid in his basement.  I cam climb walls, I should make web shooters!  Good thing I am an A student in my high school!

 

I preferred Booster Gold's approach though: steal fairly common tech from his time period and go back in time to get rich and famous as a superhero.

 

====================

 

OK attached is the rough draft of the current GM book.  it has a lot of gaps where art and character sheets will go, and the maps will be redone (as they are quite old having been repurposed from 1981 over the years, or just not applicable).

 

The Player Book will be shorter, more art-packed, and focused on jsut what you can do as a player rather than how things work.  THat I'll get to next.

 

WHAT I AM ASKING FOR FROM EVERYONE HERE:

 

• Artwork (villain and viper agent costume designs, incidental art, cover art)
• Editing (check for spelling and grammar, errors in layout, anything forgotten that needs to be in there, and any possible messups in rule explanation)
• Playtesters (run through the adventure in the format its done with -- as a tutorial -- ideally with new players)

 

Please if you can, give me a hand here.  The more we work together on this, the quicker it gets out there for people to use.  That means quick as you can on editing and artwork, if you can contribute.

 

Champions Begins GM Book.pdf

[Duke Bushido]

Christopher:

 

I've got the magazine in which Microfilm Madness was published.  It was originally meant to be part of the original series of Viper scenarios, and was cut for reasons that I don't think were ever made clear.

 

If you can use it, I can get the scenario.