Your greatest Champions moment

[Dominique]

What's your greatest moment in Champions gaming? Mine happened way back in my HS gaming days. I had a PC who was leaving to go in the Marine Corps in a few months, and he wanted to go out with a bang. So I worked out a deal with him. He introduced a new character to our Champions campaign, but unknown to the rest of the PCs, he was secretly working for one of our major villains (I freely admit I stole the idea from Teen Titans - Check out the Judas Contract trades for you younger guys).

 

He played it to the hilt right up until the end. After several adventures (during which a couple of guys got pissed at him for letting several villains escape), their little group busted into the villain’s moonbase HQ, and commenced to mop the floor with his loyal henchmen. Just before they slap the power damper cuffs on him, my little plant blasts them in the back.

 

The look on their faces alone was priceless. The guy had been holding back during fights, and he finally let loose at full power, he cut right through them.

 

The heroes were eventually able to escape (I'm not a total ***), and now their former teammate was on the top of everyone’s most wanted list. After that, I assumed control of the guys new villain and played him until the game folded (most of us ended up going into various branches of the military). It was great, and it's just the kind of thing that made those old games fun. As far as I'm concerned, it was one of the highpoints of my gaming.

[HeroGM]

Re: Your greatest Chmapions moment

 

playtesting Hero5 after Champion's came out. I go in to stop a bank robbery and end up casting "change to frog" on the main baddie. Totally disrupted the GM's plans.

 

ribbit

[Enforcer84]

Re: Your greatest Chmapions moment

 

I think it was my move through on the main villain as Legend: John Westlake in Oddhat's Gen Con event this last August.

 

THough it might be the inside job that went wrong.

I was playing Psi Queen, a mentalist who essentially was a Telepathic/TK version of a Herald of Galactus. Only at this time, her powers were held in check by a powerful (and at that point unknown) Telepathic Suggestion given by her Benifactor (the alien that unlocked her powers).

Anyway, early in her career she "suited up" by surrounding herself in a blue-silver metallic skin. We were requested to be security by a powerful business conglomerate to watch a display of priceless artifacts. They had been tipped off that a robbery might happen. Psi Queen was positioned in the Manager's station with him monitoring the situation. The thieves showed up and PsiQueen's heroic compatriots went to work. Agents and supervillains were mixing it up with her fellow heroes but she had been told to protect the manger as he was a very important person.

It turns out he was also the main villain and he had set the whole thing off to steal the artifacts, make our neophyte hero team look bad, and possibly get a few of us killed in the process. The thing was; he was a powered armor villain. He had brought with him a one shot energy pulse built into his cane; shot Psi Queen, gloated, and then began to put on his armor.

The GM announced the damage from the attack (it was no knockback because the mastervillain didn't want to ruin his office, but she was knocked down) and I smiled. He hadn't achieved a ko, nor a stun. The GM had forgotten that Psi Queen's heroic ID was armored, not protected by a forcefield (which she also had, but he'd ruled that she didn't have it on) the Armor was significant enough to allow her to take the hit and still act. So the villainous mastermind went pale as she rose while he only had his armored pants on....and none of his psionic shielding...

We still giggle about that because after that incident he had to change much of the campaing. For starters that guy was no longer the main villain. He was a liuetenant. And he spent the rest of the campaign trying to avenge his humiliation by Psi Queen's mind control.

 

 

Oh, and I once got to play the traitorous "Hero" too. But in our campaign after I betrayed my friends I was given control of my "true" character, who had been a "failed" creation of the mastervillain we'd been duped by.

[Sketchpad]

Re: Your greatest Chmapions moment

 

I was playing a character called Gladiator, kind of a take on Collossus combined with a Transformer, back in HS. On one adventure, we were lurking around some caves and attacked by some vampires ... I began blasting them with my 10d6 EB when the GM asked: "What kind of energy is it?" None of us knew the system very well, so we didn't know about defining our energy. I quickly assessed the situation and said: "They're solar powered" and quickly scribbled the description on my sheet. The rule was quickly made in the group that all energy powers had to be defined

[hawkfu]

Re: Your greatest Chmapions moment

 

This is kind of bad, but I joined a group when I was 13 - they were all 16 and had been playing for a while (all of their characters had between 60-100 XP). My new guy was based on Wolverine (at 13 he was the coolest character you could want to play). Anyway, he ended up getting in to a fight with all of the other player characters at one point or another (mind controlled once - disagreement about his violent methods - just being annoying, and so on). The crazy part was that he beat each and every one of them every time he fought. They were wildly more experienced but for whatever reason I rolled like I was touched by a greater power - if I needed a 6 to hit I rolled a 5 - I rolled a 6 multiplier for my killing attack 8 times out of 10. It was crazy! And the other players were pissed! Young upstart that I was I was feeling pretty cocky about my character. To bring me down a peg or two in an adventure I knocked on the door of a potential bad guy, he kicked down the door - right on top of my character - where I stayed trapped for the entire combat.

 

Hawkfu

[OneWingedAngel]

Re: Your greatest Chmapions moment

 

I had a long-standing VPP Telemechanic named Arch.

 

One of the other PCs had some five hunteds on his character, all on an 8-. As it just so happened, the GM started rolling dice, and all five showed up. At once.

 

Combat Ensued. Myself and another PC were inside a bank dealing with one villain, while the other three PCs were outside dealing with the other four. Through four turns of combat, I finished off the villain inside, after he'd KOed the other PC. I walk outside the bank, to find myself facing off with the four other villains. They'd taken the entire party.

 

They bantered at me, demanding my surrender. I don't remember what exactly was said, but I basically told them where to stick it, and whipped out the VPP. Four shots fired. Four villains down. 1. 2. 3. 4.

 

I picked up my friends and walked away.

[Manic Typist]

Re: Your greatest Chmapions moment

 

Quick question: As a GM, how often do should I roll hunteds on my players? Sure, I can use them whenever I want to further the storyline, but to keep things spiced up, I feel I should allow the possibility of it being random (after all, not everything is related to everything. Sometimes there ARE conincidences. Really, really badly timed ones, like yours OneWingedAngel. Although I think it is pretty funny.)

 

Also, my Latin is rusty. What does your sig mean?

[assault]

Re: Your greatest Chmapions moment

 

Quick question: As a GM' date=' how often do should I roll hunteds on my players? [/quote']

 

Once a scenario, while you are planning it. Unless you have other plans for who is involved in the scenario.

 

Hunteds aren't wandering monsters. Instead, they are the Magnetos, Doctor Dooms and Lex Luthers of your campaign - the recurring villains. In fact, to a large degree they determine the flavour of the campaign, making it important that they should match what you and the players want the campaign to be like.

 

Hint: don't allow Hunteds at more than 8- unless you want the game to feel like a war between the PCs and their Hunteds. Alternatively, allow "Rogues' Gallery" Hunteds, where the probability of the Hunted turning up is split between a number of characters.

 

E.g.: Whizkid has a Hunted: Rogues' Gallery on 8-. On a successful roll, one of the members of his Rogues' Gallery will appear in the scenario. Select which one by rolling on the following table:

1-2. Hyper-Ape.

3. Chilly Man.

4. Spin Doctor.

etc...

 

Doing this will reduce the frequency with which each individual villain turns up down to a manageable level.

 

Another case where high frequency Hunteds are OK is when they are actually Watcheds. They then become part of the campaign's flavour, rather than a pain in the neck.

 

Note that some campaigns should actually have a "war" flavour. An X-Men style game would work well like this.

 

Always vet your PCs' Hunteds carefully. They are important to your campaign. But at the same time, don't get too tight about them, since they are also a way by which your players can help shape the campaign world. You need to negotiate this stuff carefully, so all of you are happy.

 

Boring Hunteds are a pain in the neck. Good Hunteds can be an important part of a good campaign.

[OneWingedAngel]

Re: Your greatest Chmapions moment

 

 

Also, my Latin is rusty. What does your sig mean?

 

"I have a catapult. Give me all of your money or I will fling an enormous rock at your head."

[Hermit]

Re: Your greatest Chmapions moment

 

My first champions characters was a telekenetic. His greatest moment had to be hurling Doctor Destroyer's most powerful blast right back at him with Missile Reflection. Turned the tide... Yay!

 

Sometimes it is the simple pleasures in life that stick with you.

[Pogo]

Re: Your greatest Chmapions moment

 

In a campaign I ran several years ago, one character (call him Eagle, 'casue I don't remember his name) played a beserker type, with many powers dependent on "must taste blood." They get into a fight with some mentalist types.

 

Eagle: I bite my tongue.

Me: You feel wetness, but you don't taste anything.

Eagle: WTF?

Me: Flash versus taste.

Eagle: Quick, get me a bowtie!

 

Eagle performed very heroically despite being ~100 points lower than anyone else. He never did get the bowtie though.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Your greatest Chmapions moment

 

The one that always stays with me was a mini-campaign revolving around an invasion of Earth by spaceborn "Lovecraftian" aliens who were simultaneously attempting to free their extra-dimensional kin imprisoned by ancient powers eons ago. The GM ended up weaving elements from most of the Champions books published to that point that referred to such beings. Our group was an ad-hoc assemblage of the most powerful heroes who had been published for Champions - I got to play my favorite character, Nuada of the Silver Hand from Kingdom of Champions.

 

The climax of the series had two major battles occurring simultaneously: one group of us assaulted the space invaders' mothership, while the other attempted to prevent the opening of a gate to the prison dimension. The action shifted from one to the other each Turn. Nuada was in the battle at the gate, and at one point had to hold off both War and Death of the Horsemen (Wrath of the Seven Horsemen) until the rest of the heroes could bug out. Nuada Teleported away moments before the other team brought the mothership crashing down on top of the gate, burying it forever.

[assault]

Re: Your greatest Chmapions moment

 

Nuada was in the battle at the gate' date=' and at one point had to hold off both War and Death of the Horsemen ([i']Wrath of the Seven Horsemen[/i]) until the rest of the heroes could bug out.

I can only respond to this in smilies.

 

[Trebuchet]

Re: Your greatest Champions moment

 

Mine happened with my very first Champions character, Ranger. Ranger was a very heavily defended powered armor type I played for four years; from '82 to '86. This happened near the end of his career, when he had over 120 XP.

 

Our team, the Sentinels, had tracked down a terrorist group (VIPER?) who were planning to detonate a medium-yield nuclear weapon in the center of Manhattan. During the course of the fight, the bomb accidentally was struck by an electrical attack, and the Time to Detonation timer abruptly reset to 01:00 and started counting down.

 

...59...58...57...

 

Oh s**t! Ranger grabs the bomb (he was also our team's brick) and flies out the window with it. While he's only a SPD 4, he's still the fastest flyer on our team with 25" X4 NCM, and he immediately goes to non-combat flight.

 

...55...54...53... At his maximum flight speed Ranger can fly 4 kilometers per minute, or less than 2.5 miles before detonation. I tell the GM that Ranger is heading east out to New York Harbor to get it as far away from the city as possible when it detonates.

 

The other characters and the bad guys have basically stopped fighting, because they know they'll be within the blast radius if it goes off.

 

...30...29...28...

 

Right about now Ranger passes out of the city and is flying over water towards the Atlantic.

 

...20...19...18...

 

Right about here the GM reminds me that despite Ranger's extraordinarily high defenses (62 PD/58 ED, most of it Hardened and Resistant) there is no way he'll survive being at Ground Zero when a 100 Kiloton nuke explodes in his arms. I nod as Ranger Pushes his Flight; no need to conserve the END Battery at this point.

 

...12...11...10...

 

The GM tells me it's time for Ranger to drop the bomb and escape; making it clear that with his defenses Ranger only needs to be a few hundred meters away to survive the blast. I look up and meet the GM's eyes and smile; and I see the astonishment on his face as he suddenly realizes Ranger isn't going to drop the bomb. Every second he can carry it further away from New York will save hundreds or even thousands of lives; and with Ranger's Total "Protects Innocents" no other option is possible. I didn't even have to think about; I knew that's what Ranger would do.

 

...3...2...1...click!

 

Click?

 

Seems the hit which had screwed up the timer had also damaged the bomb's firing mechanism. Or, at least, that's what the GM claimed afterward. I've never been sure if that was really true or if he was just afraid of killing my character. I've always been half certain he cheated. I honestly wouldn't have minded a bit if Ranger had died then, because it would have been a hero's death. It would have been a glorious way for a superhero to die, saving untold thousands of innocent people.

 

Figuring anything else would be anticlimactic after that, I retired Ranger shortly thereafter and started playing a ninja. (Hey, it was the 80's!)

[Trebuchet]

Re: Your greatest Chmapions moment

 

"I have a catapult. Give me all of your money or I will fling an enormous rock at your head."

Hey! That should be my sig! Give it to me or I will fling an enormous rock at your head!

[Bunyip]

Re: Your greatest Champions moment

 

Hey! That should be my sig! Give it to me or I will fling an enormous rock at your head!

 

"All your sig are belong to us."

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Your greatest Champions moment

 

As a Champions player, I'd say my greatest moments were two similar, but unrelated moments with my character Raze.

 

First moment - the team is out in space, and another character, Acoustic, has been captured by the evil alien Battacks. I manage to find him, and he's in a lab with his body on a table hooked up to various tubes and diodes, with his brain in a jar. Not having much time before enemy reinforcements arrive, I try to figure out a quick way to fix him.

 

GM: "Paramedics roll."

 

Me: "3."

 

So, I grab his brain and some fluid, slap them in, seal up the skull and we move on.

 

Second moment - we're fighting VOICE. One of the characters, an alien princess, got severely hosed by the bad guys and was at neg body. I fly over and try to help her.

 

GM: "Paramedics roll."

 

Me: "3."

 

So, I stimulate the little-known Ventoran regeneration gland, and she's stabilized.

 

Afterwards, I seriously considered buying "PS: Messiah."

[Dominique]

Re: Your greatest Champions moment

 

Figuring anything else would be anticlimactic after that' date=' I retired Ranger shortly thereafter and started playing a ninja. (Hey, it was the 80's!) [/quote']

 

What did the rest of the group do, when the bomb failed to detonate?

[Trebuchet]

Re: Your greatest Champions moment

 

What did the rest of the group do' date=' when the bomb failed to detonate?[/quote']I don't honestly recall (It was 19 years ago). I'll ask the GM for that scenario the next time I see him. He might remember.

 

I suspect something to do with changing their undergarments.