Champions adventure scenes that are memorable

[Tech]

Whether being a player or being the GM, there are moments when a scene in an adventure becomes so fantastic, so memorable, that you remember it years later. In the first few years of our group playing Champions (and that's a long time ago), the heroes are escaping the villains base as it is blowing up behind them. They see a helicopter and run to it, start the engines and start flying towards a military ship. My hero is in the pilot seat.

At this point, one of the heroes calls out, "Does anyone know how to fly this thing?" Everyone says, "No."  My heroes shrugs and says, "Oh well. Live and learn. Now let's see if we can get this on that ship." All the other heroes yell in dismay and with luck, the helicopter someone lands on the ship with only some damage to the copter and no real damage to the heroes. My hero says, "See? That wasn't so bad."

 

(By the way, the scene actually set up how I would play my character from then on.)

[Hugh Neilson]

Decades later, I recall the scenario where Firewing showed up (and served mainly as a distraction).  As the team gathered their thoughts, the "Overconfident" character bellowed out "Hey FlameBrain - you and me, one on one - or are you CHICKEN?"

 

Turn 1, Phase 12, Firewing's action - the player throws his dice and says "I made my EGO roll by 3 - can I overcome my Overconfidence enough to abort to Dodge?"  He dodged.  Firewing missed.  He lasted another half a turn after PS 12.  The rest of the team had caught up with the real villains of the session.

 

How many gamers would ASK whether they are allowed to abort to Dodge, much less make an Ego roll before even considering whether their Overconfidence would allow it?  The rest of the team accomplished the scenario's objectives (which no one recalls what they were now) just in time to see Firewing take out their teammate.  "He fought with honour and valour.  Unlike most on this world."  Firewing departed.

[Tech]

I was the GM and the most recent one is the hero team is in Norway searching for a villain with a powerful artifact in the series of 3 epic episodes and they're warned by a local to watch out for any giants but "not to worry, it's only myths".  They're in the forest now and feel the ground vibrating. The vibrating stops and everyone makes a PER roll to see an entire large tree hurling through the air and now spiraling down at them. They all yell, "TREE!" and dodge, except for the brick who takes alot of damage but handles it.

At any time, if I simply say, "TREE", they know what I'm talking about.

[Jhamin]

Years ago my group played through "Pyramid in the Sky".  At one point one of the PCs is captured by Psionic Crab-Men who are fixing to invade the earth.  He is brought before their leader on the mothership.  Hero in Chains, Psionic Crab man on a throne surrounded by his Crab-Man Guards, I went full on space man spiff roleplaying the situation as the Alien Leader went on a long rant about how weak and pathetic the earth was, how futile human resistance would be, how soon the earth would be their plaything, etc. The PCs were into it.

Our strong jawed hero looked him square in the Eyestalk and declared: "You Overestimate us!"

 

The entire table rolled on ground laughing.  The Player took a good 30 seconds to realize he misspoke.  Ever since then is has been really hard for anyone in the group to really roleplay a defiant hero without anyone else mentioning the enemy overestimates them.

[Sailboat]

Long time ago I was in a super duo campaign, but we must have been difficult for our GM to balance -- I was a metamorph brick with stretching and  damage reduction,  but my partner was a martial artist with a stick.  Most foes that could challenge me were a serious threat to him. The GM struggled to pose danger to me.

 

Eventually we were at our school prom.  I was with Nadia, a sultry beauty.  The lights went out and pandemonium ensued.

 

Eventually we made our way to the outside, just in time to see Nadia being hauled into a Soviet VTOL jet fighter.  Her kidnappers escaped when we were unable to Fastball Special my martial artist partner to stop them.

 

As we watched the jet head for a Soviet jump-jet carrier off the coast, it finally dawned on my brick that the GM had at last found an appropriate rival for his staggering power.

 

Open mouthed, I turned to my friend.  "The Soviet Union stole my prom date?!?"

 

[Turned out she was descended from the Romanovs and a potential heir to the Czar's throne.]

[fdw3773]

Since my sessions have been at local game conventions that involve pre-generated DC and Marvel heroes that players select, the memorable moments come from the players themselves during the scenarios that involve crossovers between the DC and Marvel heroes in their interactions. Some notable lines from the players with one another over the years:

 

Hulk (to Iron Man after meeting Batman and Superman): "Hey, Tony, what's with these guys here? They're wearing their underwear on the OUTSIDE!"

 

Iron Man (upon meeting Huntress and later Wonder Woman): "Hey, how you doin'? I'm Tony..."

 

Batman: "I'm BAT-MANNNN!!!" Iron Man (in response): "And...?"

 

Power Girl (to Iron Man): "EYES UP HERE!!!!"

[Duke Bushido]

I have three, actually.

 

The first one is _not_ from a published adventure-- or any adventure at all, actually.  It's from those simple little comic strips in the Champions II supplement-- the ones with Foxbat and Leroy trying to get the body of Mechanon.  The ballon in front of the security camera, and the hanging up a jacket on the Mechanon "coatrack" both just kill me, even now-- what?  almost forty years later?

 

My first GM dumping lots of VIPER-related stuff at us, then us finally getting a look at VIPER agents with those realistically-sized-but-incredibly-goofy helmets they stole from the Spaceballs guys and all of us, to a man, declaring "Nope; not using those guys anymore" after a solid ten minutes of laughter.

 

Then the one that I actually posted about some months back in the the "Quote of the Week" thread.  From the earlier days of the youth group: there are enemy agents in a food truck.  They are armed, and the food truck has been turned over on its side by the now-incapacitated Superman analogue.  Two other supers are tied up with crowd control and run-away villains outside the truck.  The speedster realizes that she is all alone versus the the armed men in the truck but that she doesn't have the defenses to go toe-to-toe with four machine guns.  She runs down the street and back, building up her charge for her single ranged attack power (and it's a doozy.  Hard to pull off and very taxing, but extremely effective if done correctly).  She comes racing back and released her accumulated kinetic energy in a wave of destructive PD-damage, giving the truck a good crushing.  Machine gun fire from the truck-mounted weaponry tells her that the guys inside aren't ready to surrender.  She only has one more shot with that power before she will be too exhausted to move, but she runs back down the road and comes back, pushing her movement to gain an additional NCM (yeah; I will allow that from time to time) in an effort to maximize her output.  She stops hard and short and releases the kinetic energy as a visible glowing wall that streaks away from her, blasting through the truck and ripping it completely in half, metal screaming like dying banshees and it is twisted and torn in an instant, chunks of debris either flatted on impact or ripped lose and sent tumbling away.

 

"Oh!" says the player.  "Should I have gotten the bad guys out first?"

 

 

 

[HeroGM]

Jake: It's not my fault man. I was racially profiled!

Cop: Let me get this. You're a Vietnamese man racially profiled?

(Jake nods vigourously)

Cop: IN CHINATOWN????

 

[HeroGM]

10 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

I have three, actually.

 

The first one is _not_ from a published adventure-- or any adventure at all, actually.  It's from those simple little comic strips in the Champions II supplement-- the ones with Foxbat and Leroy trying to get the body of Mechanon.  The ballon in front of the security camera, and the hanging up a jacket on the Mechanon "coatrack" both just kill me, even now-- what?  almost forty years later?

 

 

 

Champions III - 1984

 

[Duke Bushido]

You didnt get the one with the balloon!   

 

 

[Terminax]

Back, I'd guess either around '89 or 90, I was part of a Champions group in Grade 9 and one of the other guys we invited to the game was a recent Iranian immigrant. Nice guy, but limited English and was still acclimating. He played a robot character named Jet who was basically a flying brick. Anyhow, we're playing and trying to stop a criminal group from robbing an armored car - nothing complicated at all. On our phases we each declare what we're doing. When it comes to his turn, our Iranian friend declares loudly and with such sincerity... "A crime is taking place. .. I CALL THE POLICE!" that we're all dumbfounded and laughing our butts off. After a couple of games, he pretty much decided the game wasn't for him and left, and Jet... well poor Jet was killed off and his body repurposed into a vehicle for one of the other team members.

[HeroGM]

42 minutes ago, Duke Bushido said:

You didnt get the one with the balloon!   

 

 

 

Because I love you all here so much💓

 

Just remember the pizza - 🍕

[archer]

The cigars in Mechanon's hands are what makes the picture for me.

[HeroGM]

28 minutes ago, archer said:

The cigars in Mechanon's hands are what makes the picture for me.

Coffee despenser

[Duke Bushido]

2 hours ago, archer said:

The cigars in Mechanon's hands are what makes the picture for me.

 

Ditto, but given what it is referencing, I felt it best not to mention that...

 

 

 

[HeroGM]

And it's also cannon as seen in Book of the Machine. Get yours now! But don't let Dr. Destroyer find out!!

[BoloOfEarth]

Way back in the first Champions campaign I played in, 1st edition rules.  Midnight was a blind brick martial artist.  60 STR, and IIRC for martial arts you paid your STR in points and got a punch for 1 1/2 x STR damage, and a kick for 2x STR damage.  And Haymaker was IIRC 1 1/2 x damage.  We were going up against a group that included a guy whose entire schtick was defense.  Basically, nothing hurt him, ever.  (He had like a 3 SPD and one attack he could use something like twice a day.)

 

The villains had taken down all the heroes except Midnight, and he's facing off against the defense guy (don't recall his name).  Midnight decides to push his STR and do a Haymaker martial kick.  Hits with no problem (defense guy had already moved that Phase and had low DCV, and was too overconfident to pull and dodge).  Midnight's player rolls 42d6.  WHAM!!!  And after flying back through a building or two, defense guy comes back out and says, "I FELT THAT!"  Yeah, we may have lost that fight, but the big bad respected Midnight enough that he allowed Midnight to date his daughter.  His reasoning was, "If he could actually hurt me, he'll be able to keep her safe."