Where have you drawn inspiration from?

[Tech]

For Champions episodes, where and what have you drawn inspiration from to create episodes? It can come from the oddest places and spur of the moment. If you say 'comic books', specify which one(s). Likewise, if you say movies/tv shows, say which ones?

 

I will attempt to list some of where I have drawn inspiration from for my own episodes, but it by no stretch of the imagination complete. Get ready because I'm sure you'll be surprised for some of them. In no particular order...

 

Neverwinter Nights rpg game
oldies (music) ex: (You've Got) The Magic Touch by the Platters

instrumental music: (MANY) example- Chase by Giorgio Moroder

Charlie Brown Christmas

Charlie Brown Easter

Carmen Sandiego

Star Wars

Transformers (cartoon)

Frozen 1 & 2 movies

The Little Mermaid movie/series

Tangled Movie/Series

Sailor Moon

Kingdom Hearts games

Jem (cartoon)

My Life as a Teen-age Robot

The Incredibles movies 1 & 2

Thundercats

Tiny Toon Adventures

 

I'm sure I could probably list more but this gives you a small list. Let's hear yours.

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by Tech

[Christopher R Taylor]

Where have you drawn inspiration from?

 

Yes.

[Lord Liaden]

I've always been a four-color comics fan, specifically Bronze Age, so I've drawn mostly from mainstream comics of that stripe, DC and Marvel. Given the nature of RPG game tables I look to team books: Avengers, Justice League, Fantastic Four, Teen Titans, X-Men, Legion of Superheroes, et al. Animated series based on those have sometimes sparked ideas, although they tend to be derivative from what was done in print. But comics draw their own inspiration from just about every other form of fiction, so my reading of fantasy, science-fiction, pulp, gothic horror, mythology, and so on, often filters into my games.

 

The Champions game line has been very helpful to me, because a number of those books break down and spell out the common plots, themes, and tropes of the genre. The first edition of Aaron Allston's Strike Force was revelatory for me, as for so many other of the "first generation" gamers. I was also very fond of, and miss, all the "plot seeds" that were included for nearly all published characters under Champions Fifth Edition. They often gave me ideas I would likely not have thought of on my own, and inspired me to extrapolate from them.

 

I have a mind that likes to look for potential connections between elements in a fictional setting, even where none were intended, but could logically fit. Often seeing random A, I'm struck with how it could fit together with Random B, so I take flight from there.   That's one reason I like the Champions Universe so much. It's so deep and diverse, but assembled with an overview to make it internally consistent and coherent. So my obsessive little brain is always pulling out threads and tying them together. 😈

[Duke Bushido]

Dude (the gender-neutral one that my generation picked up and I failed to outgrow); I _wish_ I knew how to answer this.  So far, I am with Taylor:  "yes."    

 

 

I...  I dont know what to tell you.  I just sort of throw some things on the table in the first couple of sessions; whatever piques the player'a curiosity, I run with.  When the game bogs down or they show signs of losing interest, I make hard turn and see what happens.

 

I start with an investigation of a robbery of a museum by costumed villains who have recently been seen scoping out an observatory, and we end up in an abandoned silver mine where an ancient Aztec God is being stylistically summoned by masked luchadores.   Then dog-sized robots are terrorizing the city, ripping up sidewalks and taking up soil samples then disappearing down the storm drains which leads to very disoriented clones showing up to their doppleganger's jobs- even when their dopplegangers are there, which just kind of naturally leads to hibiscus plants spitting incendiary seed pods because the local gymnasium is a front for an area-old breeding program attempting to selectively breed immortals, but only because a mastemind villain my players killed in the '80s is involved.  Of course, no one knows that until  the boring stone stolen from the Neanderthal tool display at the museum is found hanging from the branches of the Christmas tree that was wreaking havoc downtown, and suddenly one of the heroes finds a flyer for an old fish cannery in a hobo camp full of zombies and remembers the old cannery is now some zany new-age cult and decides the party needs to investigate their church and learns there may be a connection to the abandoned submarine base out in the lake, and now it is time,to tie everything together, somehow, because someone has discovered the hypo recorder and is steadily screaming to his fellow players "Do _not_ put me in the comfy chair!"

 

 

yeah.  Not kidding.  That's how it goes, almost every time.  But I can't tell you how it happened, or where it came from; just that it's a lot of fun.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh dear!

 

I left out the bit where to clones started exploding.

 

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by Duke Bushido

[Khymeria]

First I call each session an “issue” and not “episode.” Anyway, I get inspiration from comics, often team books because I have a group of players. The Defenders, Avengers, Justice League (to a lesser extent because of the high power level) in a standard game, but that would change based on the campaign. Outcasts or teen games would be different. 
 

I like to watch old crime shows from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s because it’s pretty easy to change victim and location and boom, now you have a whodunit that was pretty easy. 
 

A supers game can pull from anywhere because of the range of abilities and power level. Supers can handle a Cthulhu so bust out your Lovecraft. Digitize the heroes and put them in a video game, Tron style. Perhaps they need a Fantastic Voyage and will figure out unexpected and unintended ways to use their abilities. 

[Setherak]

Pretty much the usual suspects for me, I imagine.

 

First big inspiration for me was the Wild Cards anthology series, edited by George RR Martin. I based an entire two-year campaign on both the core conceit and the feeling of the first three books of that classic series.

The Frank Miller Daredevil run in the 80's inspired a bunch of characters and a story arc.

The X-Men's Days of Future Past inspired a mini-campaign that was ultimately too dark and depressing to continue.

I also had a more or less direct rip-off of the X-Men's Morlocks group.

 

(Wow. I'm really dating myself here, aren't I?)

 

We went down a less-traveled road in an adventure based on the Maya legends of the Hero Twins.

I also planned and started prepping a Teen Champions campaign inspired by Drew Hayes' Super Powered trilogy of novels and the My Hero Academia anime series. The Twist: It's 2050 and DEMON basically won in 2012. Doctor Destroyer, VIPER and Doctor Yin Wu rule parts of what's left of humanity, competing with one another while trying to resist the spread of the Qlipothic corruption. Ravenwood is a cut-throat academy for young supers run by Doctor Destroyer's Zerstroiten Empire. Intrigue, teen angst and time travel shenanigans follow. And then I found that none of my players were interested in revisiting High School.

Edited November 17, 2023 by Setherak

[Sketchpad]

Like LL, I tend to dive more into comics than anything, and much of it depends on the campaign I'm working on. To get a bit specific, the list I commonly give my groups is:

The Judas Contract, New Teen Titans

Dark Phoenix Saga, Uncanny X-Men

Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars

Crisis on Infinite Earths

Casting Call, Wildguard

Resurrection Day, WildCATS

Born Again, Daredevil

Fall From Grace, Daredevil

Guardian Devil, Daredevil

Longshot

Asgardian Wars, X-Men/New Mutants

The Target, Nightwing

X-cutioner's Song, X-Men

Mutant Genesis 2.0, X-Men

Kree/Skrull War, Avengers

Trial of Galactus, Fantastic Four

Man of Steel, Superman

Year One and Year Two, Batman

Year One, Nightwing

Court of Owls, Batman

There are many, MANY more. 

 

[Hermit]

 

 

 

 

I've borrowed from all sorts of sources as well. Just some of the memories off the top of my head?

I've used Artificial intelligences based on characters from favorite TV shows (Charles Emmerson Winchester of MASH makes a great snobby AI).

I've incorporated elements of the movie Sky High for my super schools. (Hardly a stretch, but a fun movie to use) and John Wyck movies inspired a collection of hotels/havens for supervillains

Literature thefts ...err homages, included the Bazaar at Deva from the MYTH books, and a necromancer working with dino bones (Thank you, Jim Butcher)

Comic books? Too numerous to mention but Strikeforce: Morituri made an impressive contribution that sticks in my memory

 

Video Games? Nothing quite like an Nazi Brick NPC breaking through walls screaming GUTTENTAG while the player who remembers old Wolfenstien games chuckles at you as the heroes/PCs get ready for a fight

[Mark Rand]

For a campaign set in Gotham City I use both Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures.  I also use Pittsburgh-area maps and photographs for buildings, universities, hospitals, and other things.

[Hugh Neilson]

On 11/16/2023 at 6:07 PM, Duke Bushido said:

Dude (the gender-neutral one that my generation picked up and I failed to outgrow); I _wish_ I knew how to answer this.  So far, I am with Taylor:  "yes."    

 

 

I...  I dont know what to tell you.  I just sort of throw some things on the table in the first couple of sessions; whatever piques the player'a curiosity, I run with.  When the game bogs down or they show signs of losing interest, I make hard turn and see what happens.

 

I start with an investigation of a robbery of a museum by costumed villains who have recently been seen scoping out an observatory, and we end up in an abandoned silver mine where an ancient Aztec God is being stylistically summoned by masked luchadores.   Then dog-sized robots are terrorizing the city, ripping up sidewalks and taking up soil samples then disappearing down the storm drains which leads to very disoriented clones showing up to their doppleganger's jobs- even when their dopplegangers are there, which just kind of naturally leads to hibiscus plants spitting incendiary seed pods because the local gymnasium is a front for an area-old breeding program attempting to selectively breed immortals, but only because a mastemind villain my players killed in the '80s is involved.  Of course, no one knows that until  the boring stone stolen from the Neanderthal tool display at the museum is found hanging from the branches of the Christmas tree that was wreaking havoc downtown, and suddenly one of the heroes finds a flyer for an old fish cannery in a hobo camp full of zombies and remembers the old cannery is now some zany new-age cult and decides the party needs to investigate their church and learns there may be a connection to the abandoned submarine base out in the lake, and now it is time,to tie everything together, somehow, because someone has discovered the hypo recorder and is steadily screaming to his fellow players "Do _not_ put me in the comfy chair!"

 

 

yeah.  Not kidding.  That's how it goes, almost every time.  But I can't tell you how it happened, or where it came from; just that it's a lot of fun.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh dear!

 

I left out the bit where to clones started exploding.

 

 

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who found some inspiration from 1970's Defenders...

 

[Duke Bushido]

Just now, Hugh Neilson said:

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who found some inspiration from 1970's Defenders...

 

 

 

Thanks, but in all honesty, I didn't have a television until the mid-80s.  I dont think I have ever seen it.

 

 

[Hugh Neilson]

1 minute ago, Duke Bushido said:

 

 

Thanks, but in all honesty, I didn't have a television until the mid-80s.  I dont think I have ever seen it.

 

 

Comic book, Duke...and I know you don't read them, but they had an extended run at one time where trying to figure out how they got from 2 or three issues back to here was an adventure all its own!

I always liked having a couple of major scenarios going on at once, with an occasional one or two game session buried in there.

On 11/16/2023 at 7:27 PM, Khymeria said:

First I call each session an “issue” and not “episode.”

 

Back in the day, I had the series tracked, complete with occasional Annuals.

[Khymeria]

1 hour ago, Hugh Neilson said:

 

Back in the day, I had the series tracked, complete with occasional Annuals.

Me too. I use Obsidian Portal for this. It works well and is easy for new players to catch up. 

[Sailboat]

Some time back, I ran a campaign for ten years before finally resting on my laurels.

 

While moral ambiguity has its charms, most of the time I wanted the heroes to face evil that clearly needs to be stopped.  For that, history was my best source.  I have a long historical memory,  and the pages of history provide an almost limitless rogue's gallery of people who *should have been* punched. 

 

So my gallant team of meddling do-gooders faced Nazis, evil cultists, the KKK, an attempted second US Civil War, terrorism (not all of it foreign, some of it from homegrown Cold War intellectuals), conquistadors, corrupt politicians,  quasi-legal government agencies spiraling out of control , computer hacker hangs, Stalinists, and so on.

 

Another trope I played with was the reluctant/unintentional bad guy.  Standout creations in that trope:

 

* a powerful being who got swayed into villainy by peer pressure from his more nasty associates

 

* a mild-mannered congressional aide who turned into an out-of-control monster when sufficiently threatened, and apologized profusely afterwards

 

* and my personal favorite,  a young special-needs boy with game-breaking time-travel powers who was good-natured but gullible, and was repeatedly targeted by villains wanting to trick him into using his powers to aid their nefarious schemes

 

 

[Tech]

Also, we use 'E' from 'The Incredibles' movie nowadays.  She really takes care of the problem of 'where did you get your durable suit/weapons from?'

 

[death tribble]

Anything that has Superhero stuff in it.

So all the Champions supplements and modules

Mutants and Masterminds modules

Hero Unlimited supplements

Villains and Vigilantes supplements

X-Men

WildCATs

Astro City

 

Amongst other things

[HeroGM]

John Byrne and Todd Nauck

[DShomshak]

The only case where I ported a character directly from other media into my Champions game was in my early "Seattle Sentinels" campaigns, in which the heroes' police xcontact was a captain named Dietrich. He was Lieutenant Dietrich from Barney Miller, promoted and moved to the other side of the country. At least, that's how I played him.

 

While I've read lots of comic books (mostly Bronze Age; the Iron Age '90s eventually bored me into quitting everything but Astro City), I have never ported characters directly from a comic book into my game, or copied a plot from anywhere. Types and tropes, yes, but I have tried to learn from rather than copy.

 

Like, my dimensional conqueror Skarn the Shaper happened because I knew my Dr. Strange-inspired "Keystone Konjurors" campaign needed a Big Bad filling the same role as the Dread Dormammu -- but I gave Skarn quite a different origin and personality. His home, the Congeries, is very much a "Dark Dimension" homage, though.

 

Also, I pulled various demons and other creatures from mythology and occult lore, but translating them into something gameable usually takes a fair bit of, shall we say, creative re-interpretation or extending of source material.

 

My vampires show a fair bit of resemblance to those in Vampire: the Masquerade, but that's fair because VtM draws a wide net through vampire pop culture. No background mythology about Caine (the Bible guy but spelled with a final E to be more pretentious), Antediluvians, the Great Jyhad, blah blah blah. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt and found it didn't fit.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Rich McGee]

53 minutes ago, DShomshak said:

He was Lieutenant Dietrich from Barney Miller, promoted and moved to the other side of the country. At least, that's how I played him.

You can do a lot worse than Barney Miller as a source for colorful police officers.  Wojo has been showing up regularly in my supers games for over forty years.  I don't think anyone's even noticed in the last fifteen or so.  Most of the rest of the cast have made an appearance or three as well.  Luger's the only one that's actually gotten killed outright, but he's met his end twice now.  It's almost like he's really irritating even to supervillains.  Or the GM, which is worse. 

 

It wasn't Champions, but I found myself stealing a plot from PG Wodehouse last week.  A little farce in your supers game never hurts when used in moderation.

[Christopher R Taylor]

A lot of cops have said that Barney Miller is the most realistic cop show they have ever seen, for what that's worth.

[Scott Ruggels]

I myself didn’t run Champions, but I played with a consistent group for about 4 years. We were all avid comic buyers, so a lot of inspiration came from Teen Titans (George Perez and Marv Wolfman), The X-Men (Chris Clairemont and John Byrne), and a scattering of John Byrne era Fantastic Four. There was a bit of influences from early 80s anime as well, however since all of us came out of the highschool wargaming club, the Comics Code was a loose suggestion.
 

I ran Fantasy Hero, and my influences were the Deryeni books, and other politics and violence heavy fantasy trilogies of the time. I bounced off of Tolkien, so his influence was minimal. 

[Rich McGee]

13 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

I ran Fantasy Hero, and my influences were the Deryeni books, and other politics and violence heavy fantasy trilogies of the time.

I'm still vaguely surprised the Deryni series didn't get an RPG back in the day, or at least a setting book for an existing one.  I dimly recall a couple of articles talking about adapting the setting for...maybe AD&D and The Fantasy Trip?  Beyond that there was pretty much zip, nil, and nada that I ever saw.  Maybe just ahead of its time.  It was kind of the Game of Thrones of its day in terms of subject matter and style but had nowhere near the commercial success.

 

I used Star Hero for a short campaign set in Walter Jon Willaims' Drake Maijstral setting, with a dash of Laumer's Retief thrown in for extra spice.  That was a lot of fun and nice break from two years of a dead serious Traveller mercenaries game.  For anyone who hasn't read them and likes a little farce and satire in their scifi, I heartily recommend both.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quote

It was kind of the Game of Thrones of its day in terms of subject matter and style but had nowhere near the commercial success.

 

Sadly its largely forgotten but it could be an excellent TV series, if the creators could get past the strong Christian overtones.  Kurz is still alive, so if someone were to reach her, probably a sourcebook could be written.  I am pretty sure I saw some Deryeni books written by someone other than her as well.

Edited November 24, 2023 by Christopher R Taylor

[Sketchpad]

6 hours ago, Rich McGee said:

I'm still vaguely surprised the Deryni series didn't get an RPG back in the day, or at least a setting book for an existing one. 

 

There is a Deryni RPG that uses the Fudge system. It's been around for quite some time... over a decade at least.  

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Watchmen

Marvel comics...specifically X-men/Avengers

Egyptian mythology

Dungeons and Dragons

Gatchaman