Iron Age Detroit - Champions Universe

[Setherak]

Hi there. I'm getting ready for a Champions 6E campaign set in Detroit in 1988. It's meant to be the first part of a pipe dream of numerous campaigns taking place in different locations in the Champions Universe during various time periods in the Champs timeline. The plan is for each campaign to have campaign guidelines, themes etc. appropriate for the corresponding genre/sub-genre/style. As such, this first campaign in comics' Iron Age will be be heavily influenced by Dark Champions, though set at Standard to Very Powerful power levels. Depending on how things play out, we may even get to play out the Battle of Detroit in 1992. How cool would that be?

 

The classic Dark Champions adventure supplement Shadows of the City will form the backbone of the (first) main storyline, interwoven with other purchased and original storylines and subplots. I've already done a lot of work updating things and making the material my own, so I've got story pretty well covered. What I really need some help with is the setting. I was around (and running a Champions campaign) in 1988, but I've never been to Detroit, and I've been less than thrilled with the sources I've been able to find online. 

 

I've been able to find articles and photos about a few big/interesting events in the time period, but what I'd really like is material on the city itself. I'm going to need both real world and fictional meat for this campaign, which will be played on Roll20, so I hope to have lots of handouts, links and other "high production value" and atmospheric goodies. I'd really like to make the city a character in this campaign, and I want to use as much real world stuff as possible for that. I've already identified a few notable points: white flight from and general depopulation of the inner city and attempts to cut connections between the suburbs and the city, the last Grand Prix race in the city, the closure of the Detroit's Michigan Central Station, the birth of Techno (of which I know almost nothing) and it was a pretty good year for Detroit in big league sports. 

 

Of course I'm mining the Champions Universe setting book but there's not a lot about 1988 to work with there. I'm toying with the idea of resurrecting some of the forgotten heroes and villains from earlier editions of Champions, and may pick up some of the Forgotten Enemies stuff from the Hero Store to save me some work updating them. Naturally, the npc's from the supplements I'll be using will also help me people the campaign, but I'd love to breathe life into my Iron Age Detroit with actual characters, locations events and so on.

 

So, Hero Community, any Detroit natives or experts out there? Anybody with memorabilia they could scan or stories to tell? Any other, general thoughts or ideas would be great, too! 

 

Thanks,

Setherak (aka Wolfen)

[steriaca]

Well, the decline of Detroit's automobile industry gives the city a high crime rate, dirt, and such. This will eventually lead, in the real world, into the almost complete depopulation of the city (there are blocks where there is only one house still standing in current Detroit).

 

Basically the Battle of Detroit is the best thing to happen to the city.

[Lord Liaden]

33 minutes ago, steriaca said:

 

Basically the Battle of Detroit is the best thing to happen to the city.

 

Well, at least in the long term. The 60,000 dead after the Battle was a heavy price to pay.

 

Setherak, my advice to you would be to send a Private Message to Darren Watts, former President of DOJ/Hero Games, and the author of the Millennium City source book. He clearly did a lot of research on historical Detroit preparing for that book, and undoubtedly could suggest very pertinent sources for you. Darren still posts to this website semi-regularly and doesn't usually take too long to respond to PMs.

[HeroGM]

I'm getting over the term of 1988 being a time period. I need my cane.

[Scott Ruggels]

After the 1067 Ripts, Detroit kind of depopulated, due to “white flight”.  It was also captured be certain political factions, leading to Coleman Young’s nearly unending tenure as mayor. 
 

Ot Al’s had a bangin’ music scene in the 80’s with Prince, Morris Day and The Time, Kidrock, and many others. Purple Rain is a movie that would give you a glimpse into that. 

[Setherak]

Quote

I'm getting over the term of 1988 being a time period. I need my cane.

 

I feel your pain. 

 

Thanks folks. I appreciate the responses. I'll follow up on your suggestions. The music scene in particular is something I want to capture.

[Scott Ruggels]

These should help. 
https://www.liquisearch.com/music_of_detroit/hardcore/1980s_-_1990s

 

https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/michigan/articles/from-motown-to-8-mile-the-music-of-detroit-michigan/
 

https://glass.hfcc.edu/2016/03-06/evolution-electronic-music-detroit
 

And my mistake, Prince was from Minneapolis. 

[Setherak]

That was helpful. Thanks, Scott!

[Setherak]

Here's the abstract for the campaign I described above, in case anybody is interested.

 

"In 2022, the shining metropolis of Millennium City stands as a beacon of determination, resilience and the power of community. Thirty years ago, the city of Detroit, Michigan stood in that same spot. But old Detroit was destroyed in the titanic clash between the most powerful supervillain who ever lived, the aptly named Doctor Destroyer, and the virtual army of heroes who stood against him. 

 

Today, Millennium City is the most technologically advanced - and many would say, most enlightened - city on Earth. It is also at the center for the superhuman community and the headquarters of many of the world's most important corporations and organizations. Millennium City is the proverbial phoenix, risen from the ashes. 

 

But that's not your city. Your city is the aged, gasping old hound that was put to sleep by the Battle of Detroit. Your city is the Detroit that grew up at the crossroads of ancient trails and far-reaching waterways, at the heart of the land that would someday be called North America. She grew up fighting for scraps as ancient peoples and mighty empires fought over her. She's been taken by one power after another for centuries, and she's been used hard until she's been all but used up.

 

Nobody's fighting over her anymore. The Arsenal of Democracy and the roaring engine of the US automobile industry is sputtering, on its last fumes. The rich and powerful climb over the less fortunate on their way out of the pit that they've dug.

But that pit is your Detroit.

 

It's the beginning of 1988 and it's the beginning of the end for Detroit. If nobody else is going to fight for this hollowed-out city of the desperate and the scavengers who feed on them, you will."

[Setherak]

The campaign that a I posted about here (over a year ago!?) has been running since then and I thought I would share some of the stuff that I've produced for it. As I mentioned above, it's set in 1988 in Detroit, and I did end up populating it with lots of old classic Champions NPC's, organizations, etc. It's an Iron Age campaign, however, and despite being set in the past it's obviously written for modern tastes. So while familiar faces show up, they're often grittier and darker than the original Silver/Bronze Age-ish versions. For example, many of the NPC's, especially villains, have partially or completely reworked origins. I can only swallow so many freak accidents and alien artifacts.

 

In populating and setting up my Champions Universe, I started with the 6e version of Champions Universe - that stuff is more or less "cannon." Then I pulled out all of my old books, bought a whole lot of ebooks and (of course) customized stuff to focus on my players' and player characters' interests and backgrounds. In particular, one of the PC's is a cosmic refugee who is immortal and has been living in hiding on earth for several centuries, so we've done quite a bit of back and forth on his role in and knowledge of "history."

 

The timeline that I've produced is definitely a work in progress. I've mashed together all of the versions of the Champions Universe books and tried to hammer out a single, (relatively) consistent history, and I'm still in the process of going through all of the different supplements and adventures and deciding which to incorporate, which to pass on and which to set aside for future adventures. 

 

IN: Books of the Destroyer and the Machine, the Mutant Files, San Angelo, VIPER, UNTIL, PRIMUS, DEMON, PSI, Genocide/IHA, Atlas/Prometheus, ARGENT, TERROR Inc., Doctor Yin Wu and the Red Banner, Sanctuary, Deathstroke, Villains International (picks up some of VOICE's portfolio), the Olympians, the Zodiac Conspiracy 

Adventures: reworked VIPER's Nest/Champions Begins, powered-up Shadows of the City, Future: Day of the Destroyer, Mind Games, the Great Supervillain Contest, Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth/COIL

OUT: VOICE, SAT, CLOWN, Dr. Lirby Koo (though the reworked Geodesics are in, as Payback) 

 

The Timeline (Players' version. GM's version is too messy and disorganized to share atm)

C4E Timeline.pdf