Champions Rises

[Stanley Teriaca]

5 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

 

Well its a very successful system so I would like to take as many ideas that worked for them and make them work for us.  Plus, playing into expectations of players is valuable, it makes them more comfortable with what you present.

Ok. Not complaining too much. How do Pathfinder Adventure Paths go anyways?

[Christopher R Taylor]

I was hoping someone who has played Pathfinder could fill in the blanks.  Maybe I should get one and see what its laid out like and how they built it.

[Sketchpad]

The adventure paths are kind of a neat way of running a campaign. Normally, they start with a free, downloadable player's guide. This gives the basics on the campaign, along with guidelines for heroes/characters, and any important beats needed during character creation. The paths themselves work kind of like chapters in a book. Some give some space to run something between (like a single adventure, or some of their organized play stuff), but each adds a bit to the story. Each adventure within the path advances the heroes along until the end (where the heroes are a fairly high level). Most are themed somewhat, with past ones being about building a kingdom, venturing through a haunted dungeon, or exploring a region of the world. Overall, it's a fun idea. 

[Steve]

It sounds like a section of this should be the background, likely Millenium City, so some sections of that sourcebook would be good to have here. Just enough to bring the city more alive.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Most are themed somewhat, with past ones being about building a kingdom, venturing through a haunted dungeon, or exploring a region of the world. Overall, it's a fun idea. 

 

Do they print the adventures in the guide or do you have to buy them separately?

[Sketchpad]

22 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Most are themed somewhat, with past ones being about building a kingdom, venturing through a haunted dungeon, or exploring a region of the world. Overall, it's a fun idea. 

 

Do they print the adventures in the guide or do you have to buy them separately?

 

The Player Guide is just a freebie to set up and support the adventures, which you either buy singularly, or in a collected edition. 

[Stanley Teriaca]

@Christopher R Taylor, my sister would love it if you PM me.

 

As for the copying of Pathfinder's paths...sounds like multiple books with a plan...and a pain to keep everything straight unless the entier thing is authored by one person.

 

And we are expecting potential GMs to divide there money over time instead of buying the entire adventure at once. It is something Hero Games has never done before. I'm a bit no opinion either way about it myself.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah the project already expects that the GM will have bought Champions Complete, which isn't too much to expect (I mean you want to run the game) but as I see it, we're faced with two choices:

 

1) print the adventures all in the Rising product in whatever format (such as a separate Adventures booklet), which pumps up the page count and cost of the entire project.  But its more convenient for the GM to have it all at once.

2) print the adventures separately as individual products, maybe $4.99 each, and increase expense and trouble.  But its also sales of adventures separately as individual products even if someone doesn't pick up Champions Rises.

 

I think a D&D type product can get away with this better because its such a bigger and more well known property, and people are willing to lay out the money to get what they want.  But maybe that carries through to other games as well.  Would you be willing to pay, say, 75 bucks to get Champions Complete, Champions Rises, and like 8 adventures?  What is the limit, especially in this economy?

 

I am inclined toward option 2 for several reasons, but I don't honestly know what is wisest and the best approach for the business.

[Christougher]

8 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

2) print the adventures separately as individual products, maybe $4.99 each, and increase expense and trouble.  But its also sales of adventures separately as individual products even if someone doesn't pick up Champions Rises.

I'm with this one too.  Considering they turned individual D&D modules into books larger than the core books, selling an eight adventure chain book for $40 seems like a winner.

[Christougher]

For the Players' section/chapter: basic character building.

 

Start with your (disads)complications.  Many superheroes are known more for this than anything else.  Define who you are, what you believe in.  These are the adventure hooks your GM uses to get you involved in the adventure, to make it personal to you.  What is your name, your personality, your costume, your reason for being a hero?

 

I have a bucket method I've suggested for brand new players to build characters from.  Ten buckets of points to give you a rough start to your build.  Give each bucket a number of points, and a label of what you want to build from it. 

Super strength, super speed, some other superior characteristic...bucket. 

One bucket for the "extra" characteristics to round out the rest of your stats.

A bucket for your offensive capabilities.  Another for your defenses.  Want to be really powerful at one or the other?  More points in the bucket.

Don't forget a bucket for movement.  Can't forget one for skills.

Is there something that your character is known for? Their niche, their calling card, their signature ability?  There's a bucket for that.

Save a bucket for the "candy", the little cool things you might want but overlook or leave out if you overfill the previous buckets.

Now you've got buckets of points, and an idea what to spend them on.  Crack open the book, and see what those points will buy/build you!

[Christougher]

Hero is sorely lacking an introduction to the that anyone can pick up and learn to play, without any previous knowledge.  One thing that the medieval fantasy juggernaut did right in its early days, was to include that in the start of the players' book.  A self-guided introduction and Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style presentation of rules and concepts in bite size pieces.

 

I have the start of one I've been working on.  The new player finds a meteorite in the forst during their nature walk, allowing them to choose and test their powers before facing off against real danger.

 

[Stanley Teriaca]

Well...what we could do...

 

Book 1) Champions Rises Player's Book.

Reprint the MC7 as example characters and advice on character creation. Recommend Heroes In A Hurry book as an option. Do an overview of what might be needed in the adventure.

 

Book 2) Champions Rises Cast Of Characters.

A GM book full of NPC stats of characters needed for the campaign. If we can't print everyone, we can tell GMs where to find the writeup and what to do if you can't find it (don't own the book...)

 

Book 3) Champions Rises: The Fire And Beyond.

The adventure book itself, covering the apartment fire starting adventure and the first few adventures after that, including the investigation of the fire. Note: we don't actually have to start this way...the name is pending since we are doing this via group

 

Book 4 on) The rest of the adventures till we reach our goal.

 

Book X) Champions Rises. The complete adventure all in one book.

Edited April 21 by Stanley Teriaca

[Christopher R Taylor]

I like that layout, the campaign book would have GM tips and suggestions, and the player book would have lots of tips on how to play Champions and be a superhero in a game as opposed to an "adventurer"

[Stanley Teriaca]

1 hour ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

I like that layout, the campaign book would have GM tips and suggestions, and the player book would have lots of tips on how to play Champions and be a superhero in a game as opposed to an "adventurer"

I guess we can include that in the Cast book also. Note: the Cast book contains stats for anyone who would be used all adventure. Temporary character stats would be in the adventure they appear in.

 

So, how many of them will be original characters, and how many will be from VV 2 and VV 3?

 

If we need a fake mastermind my vote is for Mastadon (a rework on European Enimies Mammoth, done more for comedy than anything else...not that he is directly funny).

 

He also can work as a red herring, to make players think he is the big mastermind, then when he is captured the plan actually continues...

Edited April 21 by Stanley Teriaca

[Christopher R Taylor]

I figure it this way

 

A player book would have the breakdown on how to build a character in Hero, using a few prebuilds as examples, info on role playing a superhero as opposed to a marauding adventurer that kills and loots, keeping the tone and feel of the comic book origins consistent (although these days, what does that even mean?), how to create a character story and background that fits the game and builds a character, etc.

 

The GM Book would be the adventure breakdowns and tips on running superheroic games, maintaining tone, enforcing genre, encouraging role playing as superheroes, etc.  There would be the full story arc, drop-in short adventures that could be used for a variety of character stories (DNPCs, hunteds, etc), and the way to mix in other adventures in between so its not just the main story, if the GM so desires.

 

Then we need a character book with the NPCs necessary to fill in between the main adventures and to act as a supporting cast (the butler, or whatever).  Most of the NPCs would be either detailed in the adventures or pointed to in the villain books.

 

Individual adventures built up and sold separately would be pretty easy to do, shouldn't be more than 25 pages per.  Put out like 10 or 15 of them and you have a nice solid support base for Champions as well as ones to draw from for runs like this.  But they aren't Adventure Paths they should be like, Limited Series or something comics-related.

[Stanley Teriaca]

Ok. What is the plot plan? What is the main plan for the adventure?

 

Some in between adventure ideas...

 

1) Rich eccentric gets some mail order superpowers and kidnaps someone to attract superheroes to test his powers. Note: he will not knowenly put his captive in danger but he is still new to being a supervillain and will drop everything to save his own victim if she is in danger.

 

Villain can be persuaded to quit if talked to.

 

2) The Bank Robert. Some brick villains steal a bank building. Up to the GM if they get all the cash inside or not (the safe Maybe in the basement and this might be left behind...nobody has ever accused bricks for being smart).

[Christopher R Taylor]

OK here is what I culled from the various adventures in magazines etc that I own, the ones I thought would work well updated to 6th:

 

THE MECHANON GAMBIT

Pulsar attempts to steal an uncompleted extra body for Mechanon.  Mechanon’s body is in an assembly lab located under one of the runways of a municipal airport.  Pulsar causes a diversion to give his henchmen time to uncover the lab and grab the body.  Pulsar has equipment to cover the whole airport with thick fog as cover.  But, other villains have heard about the body and are coming to get it, too.

 

WHAT ROUGH BEAST

An old Genocide base called Omega Compound was a research center, but has been abandoned and forgotten.  Dr Magnus MacBeth was researching radiation and mutations, hoping to find a final solution to eliminate mutants.  Experimenting on live animals, they were close to a solution when things went horribly wrong.  A hideously mutated beast received an excessive dose of radiation after being given the catalyst and broke free, slaughtering everything in the base.  Then, the computers sealed the base trapping the creatures within.  A small UNTIL Task Force located the base and then the beast found them

 

RAID ON BLACKGULCH

The villain Phosgene hates the US military and is determined to steal and destroy chemical weapons stores.  The environment of the battles is dangerous and unstable

 

A MATTER OF THE HEART

The PCs are tracking down an organ meant to be transplanted into a very ill child.  A blizzard and search complicates matters as Genocide also is after the heart.

 

INVASION OF THE GWEENIES

Goofball aliens invade to turn the earth into an amusement park.  The heroes must figure out a way to defeat them and stop the resettlement of all humans, and chase the Gweenies off

 

UNEARTHED MECHANA

A series of mysterious thefts has plagued the city, and while at least one of the PCs is being interviewed on national TV, deadly toys on the set begin to attack  the panel and audience.  The FBI suggests that these toys appear to be the work of the supervillain Black Harlequin.  Tracking down the factory, a worse threat arises to face the PCs, a powerful servant of Mechanon named Mechana is activated in the assembly chamber.

 

VANISHED!

DEMON has misplaced one of their teleport pads, and wants it back or destroyed.  In the lab where the pad is being stored and studied, people keep disappearing.  A demon is concealed in a clock and comes out at night to attack and capture people.

 

A SERPENT IN OUR MIDST

VIPER has come up with a virus designed to hypnotise and take control of a subject.  This is an add-on to other scenarios, a twist that shows up to complicate matters.

 

MONSTER

An object taken into the trophy room or lab of a base activates, creating a monster that attacks them in their own base.  Also another possible add-on to another scenario

 

SOFT TARGETS

A criminal robbed an armored car for millions, and hid it where an orphanage was later built while he was in Stronghold.  His cell mate is a radical anti-government type that learned of the money, got out, and now is both after the cash and out to Make A Statement.

 

DEATHTRAP

An add-on to other scenarios, in which each PC is placed in a death trap that they have to defeat or escape.

 

YOUR HOROSCOPE FOR: SCORPIO: Giant scorpions terrorize the city, but who is the all-American couple that keeps turning up along with them?

 

AND THERE WAS BLOOD EVERYWHERE!:  A giant blur on the satellite photo of Africa leads to unthinkable horrors for your Champions team.

TSUNAMI: This Champions adventure sets your heroes against a group of villains planning to destroy the city in a gigantic wave. 

MURDER ON MONSTER ISLAND : Giant monsters of the world have been shipped off to Monster Island, under the supervision of Bureau 17.  But something has gone wrong...

 

Now, some of these are obviously better as drop-ins in between adventures or add-ons to an existing adventure to complicate matters.  But my vague concept for now is that Mechanon has been severely damaged in a fight (superheroes, Dr Destroyer, whatever) and is trying to rebuild its mind and chassis.  So its seeking parts, allies, and locations while also running fragments of schemes it came up with, but not very well done or connected because of its damage.

Edited April 23 by Christopher R Taylor

[Stanley Teriaca]

2 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

OK here is what I culled from the various adventures in magazines etc that I own, the ones I thought would work well updated to 6th:

 

THE MECHANON GAMBIT

Pulsar attempts to steal an uncompleted extra body for Mechanon.  Mechanon’s body is in an assembly lab located under one of the runways of a municipal airport.  Pulsar causes a diversion to give his henchmen time to uncover the lab and grab the body.  Pulsar has equipment to cover the whole airport with thick fog as cover.  But, other villains have heard about the body and are coming to get it, too.

Sounds good.

2 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

 

WHAT ROUGH BEAST

An old Genocide base called Omega Compound was a research center, but has been abandoned and forgotten.  Dr Magnus MacBeth was researching radiation and mutations, hoping to find a final solution to eliminate mutants.  Experimenting on live animals, they were close to a solution when things went horribly wrong.  A hideously mutated beast received an excessive dose of radiation after being given the catalyst and broke free, slaughtering everything in the base.  Then, the computers sealed the base trapping the creatures within.  A small UNTIL Task Force located the base and then the beast found them

Again, sounds doable. There might be some damaged old Minnetman robots which still function beyond the beast. And a history lesson on what Genocide was.

2 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

 

RAID ON BLACKGULCH

The villain Phosgene hates the US military and is determined to steal and destroy chemical weapons stores.  The environment of the battles is dangerous and unstable

 

A MATTER OF THE HEART

The PCs are tracking down an organ meant to be transplanted into a very ill child.  A blizzard and search complicates matters as Genocide also is after the heart.

Has to be reconceptuised because Genocide no longer exists. While IHA functions as a similar threat, they are a secret villain. 

2 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

 

INVASION OF THE GWEENIES

Goofball aliens invade to turn the earth into an amusement park.  The heroes must figure out a way to defeat them and stop the resettlement of all humans, and chase the Gweenies off

Yas. Greenies.

2 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

 

UNEARTHED MECHANA

A series of mysterious thefts has plagued the city, and while at least one of the PCs is being interviewed on national TV, deadly toys on the set begin to attack  the panel and audience.  The FBI suggests that these toys appear to be the work of the supervillain Black Harlequin.  Tracking down the factory, a worse threat arises to face the PCs, a powerful servant of Mechanon named Mechana is activated in the assembly chamber.

 

VANISHED!

DEMON has misplaced one of their teleport pads, and wants it back or destroyed.  In the lab where the pad is being stored and studied, people keep disappearing.  A demon is concealed in a clock and comes out at night to attack and capture people.

 

A SERPENT IN OUR MIDST

VIPER has come up with a virus designed to hypnotise and take control of a subject.  This is an add-on to other scenarios, a twist that shows up to complicate matters.

 

MONSTER

An object taken into the trophy room or lab of a base activates, creating a monster that attacks them in their own base.  Also another possible add-on to another scenario

 

SOFT TARGETS

A criminal robbed an armored car for millions, and hid it where an orphanage was later built while he was in Stronghold.  His cell mate is a radical anti-government type that learned of the money, got out, and now is both after the cash and out to Make A Statement.

 

DEATHTRAP

An add-on to other scenarios, in which each PC is placed in a death trap that they have to defeat or escape.

 

YOUR HOROSCOPE FOR: SCORPIO: Giant scorpions terrorize the city, but who is the all-American couple that keeps turning up along with them?

 

AND THERE WAS BLOOD EVERYWHERE!:  A giant blur on the satellite photo of Africa leads to unthinkable horrors for your Champions team.

TSUNAMI: This Champions adventure sets your heroes against a group of villains planning to destroy the city in a gigantic wave. 

MURDER ON MONSTER ISLAND : Giant monsters of the world have been shipped off to Monster Island, under the supervision of Bureau 17.  But something has gone wrong...

 

Now, some of these are obviously better as drop-ins in between adventures or add-ons to an existing adventure to complicate matters.  But my vague concept for now is that Mechanon has been severely damaged in a fight (superheroes, Dr Destroyer, whatever) and is trying to rebuild its mind and chassis.  So its seeking parts, allies, and locations while also running fragments of schemes it came up with, but not very well done or connected because of its damage.

 

[Christopher R Taylor]

Upon reconsideration, maybe Mechanon has never been around before and this is the AI's first, stumbling attempts to form its self into a body?  That feels more interesting and satisfying for a new first campaign than dropping them PCs into a 40-year campaign history where Mechanon is old hat.

[Lord Liaden]

Well, that depends on whether you want to hint to new players at the depths of Champions lore right away, or just do starting-level adventures with starting-level villains, and leave room for them to discover the wider world over time. If Mechanon is introduced as a relatively minor threat, he would be growing in power and sophistication as the players do, so they'll never see him as an epic villain. It's their history and cumulative reputations in-setting that make Mechanon, Dr. Destroyer, Takofanes, et al such intimidating presences. And it's their organizations and minions that allow you to introduce their menace without actually forcing PCs to face the master until they're strong enough.

 

Perhaps you could start with a second-tier master villain as campaign nemesis? Like the Slug, or Interface, or Kinematik? Or maybe choose a particular VIPER Nest Leader, or DEMON Morbane?

Edited April 23 by Lord Liaden

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah I am not sure what new younger players really want from a game.  Do they care about the lore or the history?  Do they want to fight the big bad guy or just take out a series of enemies?  My instinct says that gamers want to face down with the big boss.  I guess we could make up our own new big boss guy but I think fighting an active, dangerous AI would appeal to modern gamers as a worthy threat.  Especially given how meh Ultron was handled in the Avengers movie.

[Stanley Teriaca]

1 hour ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Yeah I am not sure what new younger players really want from a game.  Do they care about the lore or the history?  Do they want to fight the big bad guy or just take out a series of enemies?  My instinct says that gamers want to face down with the big boss.  I guess we could make up our own new big boss guy but I think fighting an active, dangerous AI would appeal to modern gamers as a worthy threat.  Especially given how meh Ultron was handled in the Avengers movie.

Maybe they just don't want superhero rpg.

[Lord Liaden]

2 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Yeah I am not sure what new younger players really want from a game.  Do they care about the lore or the history?  Do they want to fight the big bad guy or just take out a series of enemies?  My instinct says that gamers want to face down with the big boss.  I guess we could make up our own new big boss guy but I think fighting an active, dangerous AI would appeal to modern gamers as a worthy threat.  Especially given how meh Ultron was handled in the Avengers movie.

 

Have you looked at Syzygy, most recently in Champions Villains Volume Three? It's a robotic AI villain with some unique gimmicks, a sort of "Mechanon Lite." It has the directive to conquer the Earth, but is less powerful and has fewer resources than Mechanon. It works as a second-tier master villain with plenty of room to grow, and seeks alliance with other Terrestrial supervillains in pursuit of its goal. And its origin includes a hook that could lead to an epic scenario.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Syzygy does look good for an intermediate villain, easily tough enough to take on a team (especially if well played) and it even comes with built-in henchmen.  Not super fond of the costume, might have to adjust that slightly.  Building the scenario around it trying to build a device to help it reconstruct its memories while misleading the players to think its Mechanon is a nice twist.

 

And yeah Steriaca, I fear that the entire idea of table top role playing games is waning, let alone superheroes.  But maybe if we do this well we can generate more interest.

[Stanley Teriaca]

32 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Syzygy does look good for an intermediate villain, easily tough enough to take on a team (especially if well played) and it even comes with built-in henchmen.  Not super fond of the costume, might have to adjust that slightly.  Building the scenario around it trying to build a device to help it reconstruct its memories while misleading the players to think its Mechanon is a nice twist.

Ok. Syzygy does need more love.

32 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

And yeah Steriaca, I fear that the entire idea of table top role playing games is waning, let alone superheroes.  But maybe if we do this well we can generate more interest.

Well, we can always try. But don't get your hopes up. Be realistic. We are never going to 'save' Hero, only slow down the company's death.