Stripping down the CU to basics

[Steve]

Like the Marvel and DC universes, the Champions Universe is a pretty busy place.

 

I’ve been doing some thinking, wondering how far to strip it down for a future campaign, to get down to the core elements.
 

For example, instead of thousands of superhumans across the globe with a multitude of origins, the pool shrinks to a few hundred or maybe less. Instead of a multitude of superteams, there are very few.

 

Instead of a multitude of alien races and invasion armadas every few years, there are only a handful of races and no mass invasions.

 

The same thing for mystic stuff. The occasional demon shows up, but not the legions of hell.

 

Bring the agent groups down in number to just maybe UNTIL and VIPER.

 

I’m pondering a more manageable variant of the CU, but don’t want to cut into the bone.

 

How much of the CU is bloat and fat that could be pulled out, but still leave the core feel of it intact?

[Lord Liaden]

TBH I don't think there's much. The Champions Universe is patterned after the Marvel and DC universes, which are grab-bags of characters and concepts drawn from nearly every source -- space opera, wild martial arts, gothic horror, cyberpunk, pulp, film noire, and folklore and mythology from around the world; as well as classic comic-book tropes like hidden superhuman races, super-sorcerers, cosmic entities, dimensional conquerors, galactic guardians; and so on. The grab-bag approach allows for a vast range of possible origins, plot lines, and styles of play. If you pare those down you diminish the possibilities. For example, if as you suggest we reduce the demons to a relative few, you pretty much have to confine yourself to one tradition. If, say, we focus on Abrahamic-tradition demons, we lose all the delicious possibilities from Oriental, African, and aboriginal American demons, to name a few.

 

On top of that, the CU is a setting that's been dealing with the reality of superhumans, aliens, monsters, mythic gods, for generations. Global politics, law, military, media, entertainment, technology, theology and philosophy have all been shaped by their presence and persistence, the public awareness that such beings exist and influence their lives. Drastically curtailing their numbers would lessen their impact on human society.

 

I also want to underline that the current Champions Universe is more coherent than those of Marvel and DC. The big comics companies grew their worlds organically, adding pieces willy-nilly as new ideas hit their creators. Despite multiple efforts at revision (which may have actually contributed to the problem), their worlds are rather chaotic and self-contradictory. The CU was built as a whole from the start, pieces assembled both initially and over subsequent years with an eye toward building on a clear solid foundation. Take out too many pieces and the whole structure becomes unsteady.

 

All that being said, I would consider some elements of the setting expendable without too great a cost. The unified Hero Universe time line reaching into the past and the future could be trimmed, particularly the future part, since by definition it hasn't happened yet.   Strictly speaking, the other official past "ages" could be excised, leaving only the modern Age of Superheroes to differentiate the CU from the real world. Each one comes at a cost though -- either losing certain things or finding alternate explanations for them. The Turakian Age is the source for Takofanes and the Crowns of Krim; the Atlantean Age is the explanation for today's underwater Atlantis and Lemuria.

 

The setting has certain redundancies which could be eliminated or conflated. There isn't a strict need for more than one super law-enforcement group. If you have UNTIL then PRIMUS isn't essential. We also don't have to have two snake-themed supervillain organizations. Either VIPER or COIL could go, or the two could be merged, although COIL is much easier to remove -- VIPER is far bigger, has a much longer history, and has been behind more significant events. One or more "hidden lands" could go. Atlantis and Lemuria both occupy the underwater civilization niche, although their styles are quite different. America doesn't need all the superhero groups listed, with several of them operating essentially the same way, just with different named members. Multiple dimensional conquerors don't necessarily have to share the same niche, i.e. Istvatha V'han, Tyrannon, and Skarn. There's some overlap in motif or motivation among official alien races. For example, both the Qularr and the Xenovores are semi-insectoid masters of biological sciences who genetically manipulate their species, although they're also quite distinctive. The various support groups for supers could be reduced, such as the Goodman Institute and Angelstone Laboratories which perform similar functions. The Trismegistus Council is just a facilitating organization for super-sorcerers to minimize their leg work.

 

Speaking of the Council, that's one example of a group in the CU that operates mostly behind the scenes and under the radar. The likes of those groups and characters could be trimmed down or out, as by their very nature they aren't visible to the general public, such as  Menton, the Circle of the Scarlet Moon, and Franklin Stone. Stone and his Advanced Concepts Industries corporation also aren't essential when other corrupt mega-corporations also exist, i.e. ARGENT and Duchess Industries.

 

But all of the above entities carry their own unique elements, and you lose something when you cut them out of the setting. Whether what you gain is worth doing that is an individual judgement.

Edited October 4, 2023 by Lord Liaden

[DShomshak]

I dare say that's what most GMs do in practice. There's too much CU to use in the average campaign; GMs must decide which sections and characters to use, and leave the rest in the background.

 

But that's how comic books operate, too. (Or did, anyway.) Take the Marvel U, for instance. The Fantastic Four have their stable of regular and semi-regular villains like Dr Doom, Galactus, the Mole Man, assorted aliens, etc. Spider-Man and Daredevil have their street-level villains, which the X-Men seldom if ever encounter because they're fighting Sentinels, other mutant factions, and such ilk. None of them are likely to fight Nightmare, Dormammu, or Dr Strange's other mystical foes. And so on.

 

Sure, change-of-pace stories happen: The X-Men go into space, Spider-Man fights a demon, or Thor fights robots. But that's the point: Change of pace. Heroes usually stick to their niches.

 

So pick what style of heroes and team you want for your campaign and pick the set of villains and background to support it. Say the rest doesn't exist or just ignore it. Like, unless you're running a Mystic Masters campaign most of the mystical side of the CU effectively shouldn't exist. Unless you really want to make anti-mutant prejudice a big part of the campaign, you can (and probably should) ignore IHA and the MInuteman robots and, conversely, Kinematik and his mutant supremacists. And unless you want to actually run an alien invasion story arc or out-to-space story arc, the alien races might as well all not exist... jnless one of your players specifically wants to play an alien character.

 

The same goes for the "thousands of supers around the world" issue. For decades, 90% of Marvel stories happened in the Greater NYC area. Heroes were more likely to visit the Kree Galaxy than, say, Nebraska. Or even major countries like India or France. DC spread things out further by at least giving different home cities to heroes, such as Metropolis, Gotham City, Star City, Central City, yadda yadda. But those heroes tended to have their own favored sets of villains, too.

 

Dean Shomshak

 

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by DShomshak

[Lord Liaden]

I wholly agree that individual campaigns should focus on particular subsets of the setting, and mostly ignore the rest except for "change of pace" adventures. But I very much appreciate that the CU offers me such a vast range of possibilities to choose from. And I admire how, for the most part, all that diversity hangs together and makes sense, so that you have justification to bring those diverse elements together.

 

I love that one of UNTIL's young special agents with apparently minor psionic powers, is actually a much older and more powerful Empyrean clandestinely monitoring the agency's activities for her people. I love that the immortal sorcerer Dr. Yin Wu joined in the defense of Earth against Istvatha V'han's first invasion. And that VIPER's patron deity Nama ordered the group to attack and disrupt DEMON's terrible Demonflame ritual, that might have threatened Nama himself. And that the Greek goddess Hecate and Aztec god Tezcatlipoca teamed up to try to tear down the Ban barring mythic gods from fully manifesting on Earth. And Mechanon and Dr. Destroyer engaged in a year-long global war after Mech tried to "liberate" DD's artificially-intelligent supercomputer. And the alien Qularr attacked Earth to obtain genetic material from Earth's superhumans, because they encountered the great Silver Age superheroes, the Fabulous Five, during one of the heroes' missions in space. And that Herr Doktor Pandemonium of DEMON's Inner Circle discovered and exploited the genetic legacy that the Slug's race, the Elder Worm, left in humanity from the Worm's prehistoric era of domination of Earth.

 

The way it all weaves together is just so cool. 😎

Edited October 5, 2023 by Lord Liaden

[dmjalund]

2 hours ago, DShomshak said:

Heroes were more likely to visit the Kree Galaxy than, say, Nebraska

I blame the paucity of public transport in the US

[Steve]

I’ve done multiple versions of the kitchen sink CU type of campaigns, like the Avengers, but for my next one I’d like to simplify things and be more focused. I’m drawn to the friendly neighborhood superhero genre or maybe something more like the X-Men or Fantastic Four focus.

 

 

 

 

[Lord Liaden]

In the case of a "neighborhood" campaign, it might be better for your purpose to narrow the geographic focus of the campaign, rather than try to simplify the whole setting. Stay away from the likes of New York or Los Angeles or Chicago, in favor of a smaller city, or a suburb of a larger one, protected by local heroes.

[Cloppy Clip]

There's still a fair bit of overlap to account for, but Champions does something of this with the set-up of the different Worlds: Superhuman, Mystic, Martial, etc. Each one could effectively be treated as its own setting, and I wonder if there might not be some advantages to treating the Champions Universe as more of a multiverse of loosely-connected settings focused on different aspects, than trying to fit everything in all at once.

[Pariah]

To me, the essence of the Champions Universe (as such existed when I started playing in 1987) was the villains. The ones that caught my attention and still stand out:

 

VIPER

Eurostar 

Dr. Destroyer

Foxbat!

Grond

Professor Muerte and his crew

The Geodesics (Ultraviolet, Dart, Diamond, Orb)

Mechanon

 

Yes, several of these are Marvel characters with the serial numbers filed off. But the way my GM played them made them a part of our own world. 

[Pattern Ghost]

One approach could be making an organization-focused setting, with most supers either being creations or hirelings of one of several organizations. VIPER, UNTIL, local/national authorities, your choice of martial arts/eastern mysticism based organization, your choice of magical organization/s. It's kind of logical, because you would assume that a solo act just causing chaos or robbing banks would be quickly shut down by the government. Or in this context, some organization or other. 

[DShomshak]

On 10/4/2023 at 11:55 PM, Steve said:

I’ve done multiple versions of the kitchen sink CU type of campaigns, like the Avengers, but for my next one I’d like to simplify things and be more focused. I’m drawn to the friendly neighborhood superhero genre or maybe something more like the X-Men or Fantastic Four focus.

 

Each of these provides filters you could use to re-imagine a less "busy" version of the CU.

 

X-Men is easy. It's all mutants, or nearly all. Super-tech is created by "mutant super-geniuses." It might not even be "real" technology that other people can duplicate, but just a kind of prop for channeling intrinsic powers (an idea used in the Wild Cards series, IIRC). Magic likewise. Even ostensible supernatural creatures such as demons might be psychokinetic constructs created by a particular mutant. This might not be understood by mutant-hunting groups, who would be quite indignant to be told their super-sophisticated mutant-hunting robots are actually powered by the psychic power of the scientist who builds them -- who of course doesn't know he's a mutant.

 

Fantastic Four offers a subtler filter. One of their big themes is exploration. They gained their powers from an experimental rocket flight. Many of their regular foes operate from strange or distant places -- the Mole Man in Subterranea, Galactus and the Super-Skrull from outer space, Rama-Tut/Scarlet Centurion/Kang a time traveler, Annihilus and Blastaar from the Negative Zone, and so on. An FF-inspired trim-down of the CU could similarly tie heroes and villains to Hidden Lands and Hidden Races such as Lemuria or the Empyreans, aliens, and a limited selection of other dimensions. For instance, Dr. Destroyer would have gotten his start in super-technology from a wrecked alien spaceship; his tendency to place his Bases in exotic locations such as a remote island, a hidden valley in the Himalayas, and an asteroid ties into the theme very well. Though you might prefer to have Xarriel (from Champions Beyond, IIRC) as your top villain, and draw of the aliens in that book for additional foes.

 

Friendly Neighborhood Hero Team is an even subtler filter, in that it doesn't have to emphasize particular origin types. Actually, there are several ways you could do this. This might be a second-tier city that's a weirdness magnet, drawing in a bit of everything, like Vibora Bay. This could conceivably develop a monster/villain-of-the-week feel a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which the local heroes must deal with the latest threat to be drawn there. Or you could play up the localism by having a cadre of equally local villains who somehow can't be kept in jail for long, the way Batman has his crew of lunatics that cycle through Arkham Asylum. Or the heroes might come from a single shared origin, or closely linked origins, the way the Flash TV series has most characters tied to the Dark Matter eruption from STAR Labs.

 

OK, that's probably more than enough for one post. I hope you find an approach that you like. I'll just add that the "magic-centric" campaigns I ran to playtest for Ultimate Supermage and Ultimate Mystic were the best Champions campaigns I ever ran. Heh, when it comes to campaign design sometimes Focus is an Advantage instead of a Limitation!

 

Dean Shomshak

Edited October 11, 2023 by DShomshak

[assault]

You can of course constrain characters by origin, or you can just base your campaign on the organisations implied by your PCs.

 

Or you could just look at the characters and organisations that appeared in 1e Champions: VIPER, UNTIL, Mechanon...