nexus Posted July 13, 2005 Report Share Posted July 13, 2005 Similar to FIfth Edition TAS, but with the cartoon like aspects dropped. The game is dark, violent and gritty even though it includes powers. The character are generally more vigilante in outlook and method, but with a few street level idealists. Powers are more subdued than full blown Champions though. Metahumans are a threat to the police and on a small unit level at their most powerful but won't be taking over the world or anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted July 13, 2005 Report Share Posted July 13, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? That's one of my default settings. Another is almost the same, but high powered. Optimistic Iron Age Champions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted July 13, 2005 Report Share Posted July 13, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? Sounds real simular to what I call "street level champions".....gritty urban crime drama with super powers, low powererd super powers....I tried to run a senario of this at Dundracon though and it was terrible...the players really didn't seem to "get " it...so I'm guessing its fairly "rare". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted July 14, 2005 Report Share Posted July 14, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? Yes, a few of our games go the route of Dark and Gritty. In fact one of our Campaign worlds has both the Superheroes and the Street Justice level in it. the Darker level includes powers, sometimes as much power as the Champions game only the story lines are much darker and tend to be more violent in scope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spence Posted July 14, 2005 Report Share Posted July 14, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? Like the other's said up thread, it is my favorite setting and power level. It is hard to run these days (or the last 10 years or so for that matter) because like pinecone mentioned most people don't get it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ura-Maru Posted July 14, 2005 Report Share Posted July 14, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? I'm very suprised there's not an 'offical' suplement for it, actually. Was a reasonably (very, if you include the whole 'weapon x' kind of thing) popular comic genre around about the time I stopped reading comics, is what most good 'superpowered' movies have ended up being, and is the more or less default state for quite a bit of popular superhero-like manga. Except that, now that 'Dark Champions' means The Executioner, we'll have to come up with a new name for it. --- "And that's when I shot him, Your Honor." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edsel Posted July 14, 2005 Report Share Posted July 14, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? Our Dark Champions campaigns often feature heroic (non-superpowered) characters. Our most sucessful campaign was a non-superpowered one. It was very gritty and very realistic. We actually upped the leathality of the firearms. Over a long spanning campaign 2 or 3 player characters were actually killed. There were themes that were R-rated at times and possibly even worse. In the Hudson City Blues thread of this forum you can find a link to the webpage about that campaign. Regular, four-color, Champions games are probably number three in our frequency of play. We play Fantasy Hero and Dark Champions more often (toss-up between the two). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle A. Posted July 15, 2005 Report Share Posted July 15, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? Thats the default way my FTF group plays champions. I've never encountered people who don't get it, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted July 15, 2005 Report Share Posted July 15, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? Well...they were using pregens a group of super normals and true supers, two of them go off to do suveilance on a "meet" between Viper and the Triads who are moving in. One is a typical Vigilante with equipment he paid for plus some monster hunting gear and spells, the other a psychic with very good martial arts and good gunfighting ability. The psychic spots a Viper sniper team setting up on a nearby roof top.....so they abandon the suvail and go sniper hunting, they discove the team they spotted is part of a 6 man counter sniper team and that Viper snipers use high caliber rifles with armor peircing bullets.....they've blown the chance to find out whats going on, provoked a unplanned and unessisary gunfight and now are driving around china town with no idea how to stop Oracle (the psychic) from bleeding to death....emergency rooms report gun shot wounds and Oracle has a secret ID (being a powered character)...I could go on but at every step they did not act like low powered crime fighters they acted like silver age cape wearers...it was like seeing the keystone cops with automatic weapons and super powers...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted July 16, 2005 Report Share Posted July 16, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? Similar to FIfth Edition TAS' date=' but with the cartoon like aspects dropped. The game is dark, violent and gritty even though it includes powers. The character are generally more vigilante in outlook and method, but with a few street level idealists. Powers are more subdued than full blown Champions though. Metahumans are a threat to the police and on a small unit level at their most powerful but won't be taking over the world or anything.[/quote']Whle it's still early, that's the way our new DC campaign seems to be shaping up. Low-powered supers fighting street gangs, Organized Crime, and low-powered villains. Our team's "brick" has a 20 PD; our "martial artist/Batman clone" has a DEX of 20 and SPD of 4. Well trained and/or armed normals are a threat (as I intend to fully demonstrate next week in our next DC game). We figure that any single PC in our main Champions team MidGuard (which takes place in the same universe) could whip all all three of our Dark Champions characters at once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted July 16, 2005 Report Share Posted July 16, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? Dang...sounds good...I don't supose I could handle the commute though....good luck with the new game.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDU Neil Posted July 17, 2005 Report Share Posted July 17, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? As Oddhat said... this is my default "low level" supers type campaign. The city protectors... the crime busters... some vigilante aspects. More real world in crime and scope of villainy... but still with powers. Heck, you can have a guy with wings and laser vision... but it's Dark Champions if the tone of the game is such. Since there are many PCs with different milieu throughout my campaign... this setting is going on at the same time world threatening acts are going down and cosmic threats. I just have a level of grit to all of it. Death is important and serious... as is violence... on every level. It is just a matter of "death of a lonely person in a back alley" or "deaths of hundreds in a terrorist attack in Madrid" or "Death of the planet if the extinction event asteroid attack isn't halted." In many ways, the tone is often the same... but that really powerful characters often have less to truly threaten them (I don't throw the big nasties around very often) so they tend more toward saving others... politics and changing the world for the better, etc. Just because the world is gritty and often dark doesn't mean there isn't optimism and struggle for betterment. I was always confused by those who seemed to treat anything less than the shiniest of Silver Age as "everyone is evil and nothing good ever happens and everyone is corrupt." Because some of the cops are corrupt,doesn't mean everyone is. Because politics is nasty and corrupt, doesn't mean it isn't also necessary and effective at getting positive things done. My entire world follows the basic concepts outlined by Nexus above... just that as charcters get more and more powerful over time (the few that have survived and succeeded for years) the scope just gets bigger as well. Tone is everything... and that doesn't really change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilfred_Death Posted August 2, 2005 Report Share Posted August 2, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? Well...they were using pregens a group of super normals and true supers' date=' two of them go off to do suveilance on a "meet" between Viper and the Triads who are moving in. One is a typical Vigilante with equipment he paid for plus some monster hunting gear and spells, the other a psychic with very good martial arts and good gunfighting ability. The psychic spots a Viper sniper team setting up on a nearby roof top.....so they abandon the suvail and go sniper hunting, they discove the team they spotted is part of a 6 man counter sniper team and that Viper snipers use high caliber rifles with armor peircing bullets.....they've blown the chance to find out whats going on, provoked a unplanned and unessisary gunfight and now are driving around china town with no idea how to stop Oracle (the psychic) from bleeding to death....emergency rooms report gun shot wounds and Oracle has a secret ID (being a powered character)...I could go on but at every step they did not act like low powered crime fighters they acted like silver age cape wearers...it was like seeing the keystone cops with automatic weapons and super powers......[/quote'] What? Dark Champions Characters without a bag of field dressings? ROFL Large Calibre Armour Piercing Rounds From Sniper rifles, Yay! I remember one of the PCs putting his hand on his sword hilt whilst talking to the emissary from the Auto De Fey at the Vatican. ( No one could ever work out if he was the solution to crime or the problem ) Box Cars, "Well you have a nice hole right through that leg..." Typical Maneuver : Standing on 3rd Floor ledge, sees truck with 'goods' about to pass below.. ( No Flight Powers - they weren't allowd ) - "I do a Move Through on the roof of the truck cabin, using my Sword!"...... Then attempted a prescence attack on the surviving passenger..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted August 3, 2005 Report Share Posted August 3, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? Typical Maneuver : Standing on 3rd Floor ledge, sees truck with 'goods' about to pass below.. ( No Flight Powers - they weren't allowd ) - "I do a Move Through on the roof of the truck cabin, using my Sword!"...... Then attempted a prescence attack on the surviving passenger..... Great stuff! If my DC character had a sword, I'd be itching to try that stunt during a game ("The truck's remaining passenger needs to change his shorts."). At the very least, it will serve to inspire me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JmOz Posted August 3, 2005 Report Share Posted August 3, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? I've posted a few threads about my DC campeign, that is similar to what you are talking about Essentialy take Gotham Cripple Batman (AKA Fox) have it get worse for 6 months Have Batman (AKA Fox) recruit a team We have Lazarus, an immortal (Pistols) Foxy, think Batgirl (MP UT Belt) Brickface: An ugly Luke Cage with a tow truck (Strength 40) The Surgeon, a sniper (MP Rifle) Shinobi, a Ninja (Sword) Nameless one, a martial artist that we are working on a name for (Karate Package) The Commando, has low grade battle armor (VERY LOW GRADE, Soe protection, +10 Str, some senses, etc) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? JM, sounds like it could be a Street level game, though I'm a little concerned at the lack of guns.. You might have a little too much comic code. But it really comes down to the adventures them selves and the tone you set....Best of luck, if you get the chance keep us posted....I did make a few recomendations on Nameless ninja kitten #7 so I'm Shocked she still dosen't have a name.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JmOz Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? I make them pay points for there equipment, so that is a little bit of the reason for lack of guns But still we have Killing Attacks, and little reluctance to use them Surgeon **Rifle: Pacifier Rounds (RKA 3d6) **Rifle: AF Rounds (RKA 2d6, AF 3, +1 Stun) Lazarus **Duel Pistols (RKA 2d6, AF 2, Multi Foci) Night Angel ** Knifehand Strike (HKA 2d6/w str) Shinobi **Ninja-to (HKA 2d6 AP w/ Str & Martail Strike) **Claws (HKA 1.5d6, Pen, +1 Stun w/Str & Martial Strike) **Shurikan (RKA 1d6+1, Range based on Str, +1 Stun, AF 3) **Knifehand Strike (HKA 1.5d6) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JmOz Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? JM' date=' sounds like it could be a Street level game, though I'm a little concerned at the lack of guns.. You might have a little too much comic code. But it really comes down to the adventures them selves and the tone you set....Best of luck, if you get the chance keep us posted....I did make a few recomendations on Nameless ninja kitten #7 so I'm Shocked she still dosen't have a name..[/quote'] I have to talk to the player still, read the Fox warjournal here http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=703630#post703630 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest George Kirby Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? Sounds like what you're looking for is something along the lines of the Wild Card series of books. Supers everywhere, grit, grime, and so on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? I have to talk to the player still, read the Fox warjournal here http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=703630#post703630 Cool read...Thanx.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zed-F Posted August 8, 2005 Report Share Posted August 8, 2005 Re: Does anyone else play this style of Dark Champions? My default game is slightly higher powered and somewhat lighter in tone: low-powered (e.g. 150+100) supers in a fairly realistic and gritty setting, but with bronze age rather than iron age overtones. I could turn it into a Dark Champions style iron age game pretty easily though. Unless I were to significantly ramp up power levels, enough normals with guns will ruin your day in my game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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