Do you use characters from various editions?

[Ninja-Bear]

Hello All,

 

The title doesn’t  quite capture the question. As many of you know some of the characters have been around for many editions if not all. However what some may not realize is that a character say Cheshire Cat is not identical (even allowing for edition change) in all editions. So have any of you ran (or running) x edition but use y version of the character? (Naturally this version is conformed to the edition you are running).  I did just exactly that. I had available to me 1st ed Brick which I updated to 4th ed to run a scenario of Vipers Nest. During the game (I also used Cheshire cat) though my buddy is made a comment that Cheshire Cat is going to use his Ego Attack. 3rd ed CC has one, 4th ed doesn’t. 

[Duke Bushido]

Oddly enough, yes, and it is Cheshire Cat.

 

I have never liked any version if him except the 4e version.

 

And the only other published characters I have ever used are Foxbat and Leroy, but I stick with more or less their original appearances.

 

All that being said, I have used Cheshire Cat a grand total of five?  Six times?  since his original publication, and Foxbat has seen perhaps twice that.

 

There is a very real reason that I find NPC books a near-waste of money.  They are a zero-utility-value item for me.    I have the opposite of the popular "all the sifferent comic book company characters all at once in my universe" problem:  I find that other people's creations and preconceptions don't blend into my games well, and if I have to undertake a major re-write to make a published character work--  well, given how much I enjoy character creation for its own sake, I really would prefer to just make a character who works from the get-go.

 

 

[Sketchpad]

I used to in the pre-5th days. My 3rd and 4th ed campaigns almost exclusively used villains from the various supplements for more than a decade. 5th ed started changing that as I began using more and more of my own NPCs. Nowadays I pretty much use my own only... with some inspired by the old characters, and some that have been used in other systems for the past 30+ years.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah when I ran Champions I used a bunch of guys that are out of print or were forgotten in my campaign.  I liked a lot of those early simple builds with a deep background.  But yeah, generally I make my own, I still have 5 notebooks full of heroes, villains, NPC groups, supercops, etc.  Some are ripoffs of comic book characters I liked, some are modified versions of characters in games, mostly just stuff that was in my own superhero universe.  I had a whole world in my mind, I was gonna write and draw comics.

 

Then I found out how long it takes to draw a single page, and there's 22 in a comic book, minimum.  And I realized I didn't have the time, health, or drive to pull off even one comic a month.  I could write ten, but drawing... no way.

It took me almost a month to do the cover for The Island of Dr Destroyer, and its not even that great.

Edited July 5, 2023 by Christopher R Taylor

[Lord Liaden]

  

14 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

The title doesn’t  quite capture the question.

 

And I realized that after parsing your specific question again. Sorry for all the misinterpreted irrelevance I posted here before. 😔

 

I tend to Frankenstein characters who have appeared across multiple editions. I'll take qualities I like from Column A and from Column B, and blend them to form the version of a character I like best. Sometimes that's to conform to my preferred concept, other times it's a quick way to upgrade them via "radiation accident."

 

 

Edited July 5, 2023 by Lord Liaden

[Jason Reid]

For initial encounters with villains, I tend to use 4e builds. I love how clean and focused they tend to be. If and as those villains recur, I'll upgrade them to builds from later editions over time to teach them some new tricks.

 

I actually almost never design my own villains.

[Ninja-Bear]

No big deal @Lord Liaden. I didn’t know how to quite phrase the question. 😁 

[LoneWolf]

It depends on the significance of the villain.  If the villain is going to be a major and recurring character, I will almost always do a rewrite of the character no matter what the edition it came from.  If it is for a one shot or the villain is more of a secondary character, I don’t usually bother.   Basically, if the only thing the character is going to be used for is combat, I usually don’t put much effort into updating them other than some edition specific elements once in a while.

 

Most of my major villains are my own creation but I do use a lot of the published material to supplement it. 
 

[Tech]

NinjaB, I used villains of all different versions. I still use Wee Willie as originally created (which includes using the powers as intended in Champions 1st/2nd edition). I've used villains from Edition 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Don't use 6th edition. I adapt easily from edition to edition and the players are none the wiser. Yes, sometimes I do update a villain to a newer edition but overall, just use them as is.

[GDShore]

I used to, but I do not do Comics Code and my campaigns tend to be bloody. The bad guys seldom survived more than 2-3 episodes. Hard to reintroduced dead guys and at the time I didn't do zombies. (I do now, it allows me to assess playing characteristics and thinking styles of newbies, so as to tailor the campaign. Of the 12 groups I have run through this format only two went more than 3 episodes, 1 that morphed into a campaign that lasted 18 months) So I do not use premade bad guys [except minions] like the "Duke" I get too big a kick out of making them myself.

[Hermit]

Heck, Rosie still serves a fine cup of joe in my 6th Edition games if you know where to find her place

[Duke Bushido]

6 hours ago, Hermit said:

Heck, Rosie still serves a fine cup of joe in my 6th Edition games if you know where to find her place

 

 

Yep.

 

Still use the Roses map from my 2e set and both of the "Super Maps" from Different Worlds magazine serve as various parts of Campaign City's waterfront district.