The Team "Vibe"

[Enforcer84]

our teams usually look something like a police academy movie.

 

its sad really.

[Mutant for Hire]

Originally posted by Enforcer84

our teams usually look something like a police academy movie.

 

its sad really.

 

I trust you've seen the movie "Mystery Men". If not, you need to rent and see it immediately.

[red_eagle123]

Team Vibe

 

The team vibe the Protectors of Milwaukee give off can best be summed up as Corporate Lackeys. They have their own PR dept., their own advertising agency, and they are at the beck and call of their sponsoring corporation.

[mangahunterd]

Does taking bets on how many phases it takes for the mentalist to get KO'ed count as a vibe??

If not then the closest thing I can think of for our team would be mercenaries, except we don't get paid....

Wait there is something wrong with that statement....

[lemming]

For the campaign I'm running, I'm not sure how to put the vibe of the team.

 

Now for Wilson's game: The vibe is paranioa. Distrust of the goverment and be scared of what some of your teammates are up to in their spare time.

[Marchwarden]

Re: The Team "Vibe"

 

Originally posted by Hermit

What feel or flavor to most of your PC teams have? There are probably too many options and variations to list, but you know what I mean. Some have the "Best of the Best, Elite Protectors of all mankind" thing going on (Sort of J.L.). While others are hated and persecuted by those they would protect. A few are a business (heroes for hire, capes for cash?). Some are Family (In the cases of folks like the F.F, litterally). There are the protectors of a city, not as glorified, but beloved locally and perhaps closer to the people. That sort of thing. There's even the Teen hero hang out.

 

 

Any particular "vibe" you end up with more often, and what sort do you like most? or hate most. I'm curious.

 

Well, the "Champions 2018" campaign is mainly in the spirit of "earnest young heroes rekindling the flame". It's fairly four-colour and light in tone.

 

On the other hand, the "Starfall" mini-campaign is far grimmer. Four individuals, who had all lost friends and loved ones to the depradations of Eurostar, met to forge a lethal pact of vengeance. It's dark Champions with the sole aim of systematically hunting and eliminating a team of murderous super-terrorists. So far, the score is 2-0 in favor of the PCs, with no civilian deaths (OK, some "innocent" VIPER folks got pinned for Ultrasonique, but VIPER garners little sympathy).

[Doug McCrae]

I'll list all the superhero games I've played in, not just Champions, to see if a pattern can be determined.

 

1) Britain (and the world's) greatest (and only) superheroes - named Britannia's Fire by the press. The fact that we were all only 15 years old and attended the same school in our secret IDs was irrelevant. It was V&V. The PCs were either square-jawed heroes or merry quipsters however the world we were in was rather dark, with government conspiracy and betrayal lurking behind the fights. In the end we were all killed by a nuclear bomb dropped on us by the government. Bleak, huh? I guess that's the 80s for you.

 

2) Our second set of V&V PCs were never played but had a very definite tone - comedy - which we all just seemed to hit upon. They included Moonman, who got his powers from eating Moon cheese, and Crazy Kung Fu Robot (the name says it all, really).

 

3) A dark future where VIPER have formed a world government. Campaign was set in Las Vegas. PCs were a mix of out-and-out supervillains working for cash or out of fear of VIPER and real superheroes fighting for good. Weird mix. The supervillains were probably much more in line with what the GM intended though.

 

4) A mix of fairly typical superheroes reminiscent of the New X-Men in tone and more comic characters. The GM for these campaigns (in which I first created Dog Girl) was totally incapable of building serious villains. Example: Flora Man. He flew through the air on a large piece of toast.

 

5) Force Manhattan - greatest heroes of the Silver Age, analogous to the Avengers. Most of the players, including myself, probably didn't get the tone of our characters quite right, but it remains the best role-playing campaign I've ever been in.

 

6) Conspiracy X-Files/Twin Peaks low-powered non-costumed superheroes, created by alien experiments on humans.

 

7) Overwatch UK. Set in the same universe as (5) above. Back to being Britain's greatest superheroes though we were small fry in the wider world of heroes and just part of the American-dominated Overwatch organisation. The PCs managed to some extent to have a distinctively British character. One was a nobleman (you always seem to get one of those in every British team).

 

8) Britain's greatest superheroes again. In this game there were supposed to be many American superheroes but our status compared to them was rather unclear. Chris Claremont's X-Men was a major influence on the GM. There was a British flavour to this team too. A nobleman (again) - a heroic swashbuckler patriotic type, a Celtic nature spirit and a bunch of mutant cyborg time-travelling aliens - the X-Men influence showing here, I think.

 

 

You know the only pattern I can see, apart from a preponderance of being Britain's Greatest Superheroes, is that in the earlier games there is more of a divegence between the GM's vision and the player's. I think we've all just got better at roleplaying over time.

 

BTW, Big Willy, who also posts on these boards, was the GM for games 3, 5, 6 and 7.

[Terrapin]

Re: The Team "Vibe"

 

The Wild Rovers are sort of a superpowered hybridization of the Scooby Gang and the Order of the Phoenix. They are a roaming band of principled individuals who prefer to establish no official standing ties to organizations (governmental or otherwise), have no fixed base or home area, are pledged to fighting evil and righting wrongs and regard each other as comrades and equals.

[pinecone]

Re: The Team "Vibe"

 

The last group was "We try hard, really...we do..."...

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: The Team "Vibe"

 

our teams usually look something like a police academy movie.

 

its sad really.

 

I feel your pain.

 

In my wife's Champions game, we have:

 

War Wolf (me), a very straight-laced, takes-his-responsibilities seriously but isn't a complete stick-in-the-mud, feet-on-the-ground kind of robot. Also known as 'the straight man'. He's also the only member of the team with a Code Against Killing.

 

Pulse, a somewhat show-offy magnetic manipulator (originally to be a Magneto ripoff with the 'Mutant Superiority' Psych Lim, but taken as the 'strong must protect the weak, not enslave them' kind of deal) who alternates between total cowardice and swaggering machismo depending on how Segment 12 goes.

 

Wildcard, a stage magician, flamboyant to the extreme and with a 54-card Multipower (not 54 SLOTS, thank insert-diety-here), which he either has to spend a full-phase sorting through to find the card he wants, or flings randomly from the top of the deck. We have no idea what he's going to do at any given moment.

 

Avalon, a knight from the Fairy Realms who has no idea about modern technology and simply refuses to adjust to modern thinking (WW has had to rip him a new one when he uses his sword more than once).

 

Flux, whose personality and talents are an odd mix of Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent, and harnesses (as much as one can harness them) raw chaos in the form of obscene luck.

 

We're all reasonably competent and powerful (and, where he can, WW is putting together tactical maneuvers), but the personalities and styles are so disparate, it's amazing we actually get anything done.

[Trebuchet]

Re: The Team "Vibe"

 

MidGuard is our campaign's equivalent to the Justice League or Avengers, although we lack their raw power. While there are other hero teams out there, they are lower powered and lower profile. (Only one has actually made an appearance within the campaign; a US Government team called Justice Watch whose members are all US Marshals.)

 

Current membership:

 

Zl'f: World's most agile person; the team's field leader and spokesperson. She's impulsive and tends towards action rather than conversation.

 

Silhouette: Team brick and über-geek. Picture Dr. Samantha Carter (from Stargate:SG-1) with the Vision's density-controlling powers. Overly analytical at times; but never hesitates to do the right thing.

 

Cloud Dragon: 6' 7" tall Apache-Chinese man who practices an ancient style of kung fu which has many amazing powers, including teleporting and healing. The team's straight man and ninja-type.

 

Thunderbird: Avatar of the Native American weather diety; he's both a Mescalero Apache tribal shaman and a surgeon in his secret ID. Arguably the team's most powerful member.

 

Le Magister: Magic-wielding French police detective and expert on the occult; as useful for his contacts and investigative skills as for his prowess in combat.

 

Vesuvius: Hot-headed master of stone and earth; he's a demi-brick with formidable ranged attacks and can move through stone as easily as through air.

 

Prodigy: 800-year-old mentalist and a founder of the Templars. Has an absolute Code vs Killing and would always prefer to finesse his way through situations rather than fight.

 

Sidestep: Teleporting demi-brick; always the reluctant hero and a bit uncomfortable with his powers and role.

[Kirby]

Re: The Team "Vibe"

 

So, as pennance, I will reveal this... ah, rather dubious honor that someone has bestowed on my own region...

 

http://www.geocities.com/thesonsofthesouth/

 

Some Team themes should never be touched

Heh. I looked at Southern Belle's page and then heard the music. Sounds a lot like a keyboard version of the Divynal's "I thouch myself."

 

But, uh, as far as team "Vibe's" go, in an older group (back in the 250 days) our Tri-City (NYC) team was very brickish. Except for 2 people, everyone had 40+ STR. The other team (Arcadia, somewhere in Michigan) was very much a martial artist team. Again, all but 2 people had martial arts (even the "pure" mentalist had the basics). Which was pretty cool when it came time for the Tournament of the Dragon.

[zornwil]

Re: The Team "Vibe"

 

For the campaign I'm running, I'm not sure how to put the vibe of the team.

 

Now for Wilson's game: The vibe is paranioa. Distrust of the goverment and be scared of what some of your teammates are up to in their spare time.

I was commenting once that it reminds me of people at regular jobs. Most of the Justice Squad don't socialize outside of the various duties and challenges that pull them together, only Sammy really does. But as you say, there are various agendas and lone pursuits outside of the group that can come into odds; I think when you wrote that in 2003 it was at its most paranoid, and calmed down a lot after Nexus turned good and Nexus and Laughton had it out over the fallout of that. Other than that, I'd add the team vibe has been as the fastest climbing/most rapidly gaining power supers and now it's arrived at the point of being an elite team that protects the world - but very much in its own way and with sometimes-questionable means (though again, with Nexus going more towards seriouly conscientious behavior that has moderated a lot).