starblaze Posted February 20, 2021 Report Share Posted February 20, 2021 Yeah, like it says. Tomorrow I will have one of my wife's nurses coming over for a few hours to an RPG for the first time. She stated that she likes Superheroes so, duh, let's do Champions. So what adventure could you suggest for a newbie? Should I just do like a bank robbery? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted February 21, 2021 Report Share Posted February 21, 2021 Since this is their first rodeo with Champions, yeah just do something pretty straight forward. Some regular thugs robbing a bank, maybe a hostage stand off or something like that. If that's too easy and quick, have a couple supervillains show up at the last moment to bust up the place and steal what the robbers couldn't get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tjack Posted February 21, 2021 Report Share Posted February 21, 2021 I’ve got an old episode idea I pull out for conventions and such, it’s yours to use if you want it. It’s two combats sandwiching a detective part. It’s called Smugglers Blues. The heroes come up on a daylight bank robbery being done by what look like street people/junkie types they have powers but not good ones. The strong guy smashing the door of the vault doesn’t see the flesh coming off of his hands, the flame tosser is getting burned by his own creations and so on make them out of control and mean. If the PC’s can’t handle them have the bad guys burn out and go into cardiac arrest. When the cops come to clean up have DEA/SHIELD/UNTIL or whoever tell the players that a new cheap drug is hitting the street called “Spike” it gives not only a high but temporary powers. Viper/HYDRA/whoever is dumping their failed attempts at Super Soldier Serum on the street for quick cash and maybe taking out a hero as a bonus. Being heroes the PC’s should volunteer to help trace the supply back to the labs that are believed to be in or near the city. I generally used a small group of tent labs and barracks out side the city, (think M.A.S.H.) but an abandoned warehouse works just as well. Give the heroes the benefit of the doubt on tracing this stuff back since the villains can’t be too bright for running such a sloppy operation. And finish up with either a straight forward attack or a stealthy “let’s blow up the lab” scenario. There should be some thug/soldier types and maybe a supervillain or two for muscle. Give your players their EP’s and maybe even a contact with the local law enforcement types if they played nice with them. There’s a lot of loose threads if anyone wants to follow up on things and the bad guys all make a satisfying thump when they hit the ground. If you use it just let me know how people liked it. Just remember, “If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right.” Boll Weevil 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barton Posted February 21, 2021 Report Share Posted February 21, 2021 If doing a team of superheroes how about a good old fashioned danger room with traps, lasers, and of course robots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tjack Posted February 21, 2021 Report Share Posted February 21, 2021 1 hour ago, Barton said: If doing a team of superheroes how about a good old fashioned danger room with traps, lasers, and of course robots. That implies that their already a team or at least know each other. If the game is a team like X-Men then that’s perfect. But if the game is a group of heroes coming together for the first time it doesn’t exactly work. I’ll say yet again that the best sourcebook for new GM’s of any kind is Strike Force by Aaron Allston. It’s the chronicle of his first Champions game that ran for around a decade. It goes into how to spot the different types of players and how to make them all happy. How to deal its players who have to drop out due to the real world and when and how to change a game at its roots when the players start to outgrow it. A small investment, a great read, and you’ll go to it over and over for its good advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Bushido Posted February 21, 2021 Report Share Posted February 21, 2021 Some months ago, I posted a rather trite and cliche (sorry; I don't know how to do that little accent agu on a computer. Or how to spell it.) "intro to Champions" scenario I've used for years. It seemed to get a lot of response, and in the spirit of keeping the game alive, I gave it to the entire "fans of superhero games" community. You can sort of find it here: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted February 21, 2021 Report Share Posted February 21, 2021 For a new player in a new game, I think simple is best. You don't need the world's most bitchen introductory scenario for someone to whom it is all brand new. You don't need to reinvent the wheel if someone has just now seen a wheel for the first time. And if they've never done it before, those simple "old" scenarios can be a blast: I get to break up a bank robbery! With super powers! So cool!!! Duke Bushido 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tjack Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 On 2/20/2021 at 5:35 PM, starblaze said: Yeah, like it says. Tomorrow I will have one of my wife's nurses coming over for a few hours to an RPG for the first time. She stated that she likes Superheroes so, duh, let's do Champions. So what adventure could you suggest for a newbie? Should I just do like a bank robbery? So, what did you do, how did it go etc.? In the words of the late Ted Knight....”Well....we’re waiting!” Spence 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 On 2/20/2021 at 4:35 PM, starblaze said: Yeah, like it says. Tomorrow I will have one of my wife's nurses coming over for a few hours to an RPG for the first time. She stated that she likes Superheroes so, duh, let's do Champions. So what adventure could you suggest for a newbie? Should I just do like a bank robbery? So, how did it go? Spence 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archer Posted February 23, 2021 Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 Hope it turned out OK. Bank robbery is a classic for a reason. I'd try to explicitly NOT have hostages come into the situation. Have the customers escape in the initial chaos and the bank employees cowering in terror or filling empty bags with loot. Some players will shoot right through a hostage to reach a bad guy while others will bend over backwards to save hostages. And some players will take it personally if another player's PC shoots a hostage. You really need to have a better handle on the group dynamic before deliberately having the bad guys take hostages, in my opinion. Even if all the players are onboard with saving the hostages, it's very likely they won't have much of an idea of how to make that happen after the innocents are taken hostage. I think the ideal is to get each of the players into the rhythm of yelling their catchphrases and catching the bad guys much more than having them look at each other helplessly for extended periods of time having no idea what to do next without getting a hostage killed. If the bad guys escape the bank building, give them a get-away car/tank/airplane appropriate to the PC's ability to attempt to stop. If there's any kind of controversy, let it be about how to stop the vehicle without accidentally incinerating the money (rather than be about accidentally incinerating hostages). If it looks like the players might be willing to go in for a second session, make sure the one bad guy or goon who got away actually escaped with the contents of a safety deposit box. And that the rest of the robbery was just a cover for extracting the contents of the box and getting away with it safely. The bank manager running up and breathlessly revealing those facts just as the police are thanking the heroes for their help could set the tone for the second session. Christopher R Taylor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starblaze Posted February 23, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 The nurse had another emergency with another client so she had too much paperwork. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted February 23, 2021 Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 12 hours ago, archer said: Some players will shoot right through a hostage to reach a bad guy while others will bend over backwards to save hostages. And some players will take it personally if another player's PC shoots a hostage. You really need to have a better handle on the group dynamic before deliberately having the bad guys take hostages, in my opinion. I hope I never run into this kind of player who thinks its ok to 'shoot right through a hostage to reach a bad guy'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Bushido Posted February 23, 2021 Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 On 2/23/2021 at 8:19 AM, Tech said: I hope I never run into this kind of player who thinks its ok to 'shoot right through a hostage to reach a bad guy'. That, my friend, is one of the many reasons I like the bank robbery as a very first adventure: it gets stuff like that out in the open right off the bat. Move from there to a friendly competition between players and weed out any PVP action early on as well. No one has said it yet-and yes; it is a little more involved than just a simple scenario, but it can be broken down quite easily-- Christopher (above) has recently published a wonderful reworking of the very first published Champions adventure: the Island of Dr Destroyer. It is much more detaiked than the original, and no where near as "tactical board game" as the original. I highly recommend it even if you just want to farm it for ideas. It is without question the best version of the Champions classic adventure. Amorkca 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted February 23, 2021 Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 Starblaze, I'm sorry it didn't work out, I hope maybe you can get a game going soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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