Dark Champions Advice

[Syberdwarf2]

I need some help with my DC campaign. It's pretty much a one-on-one thing. Having looked through my copy of Dark Champions, I'm trying to decide on which adventure to run.

What would you do? Run Harpcor Towers, The Bogeyman, or a scenario featuring Card Shark?

[Rage]

bogey man baby!

[Patriot]

opinion

 

IMO,

 

If your champaign has a Bat-man type pc, go with the Card-sharks

they are a great opponent if ran correctly

 

 

another thing

 

watch CSI it will give you great ideas for murders to investigate,and other odds and ends

[Syberdwarf2]

Thanx guys for the response. The PC actually is a catwoman "rip-off", so I can definately see the Card Shark scenario potential. However, I need some more experience under my belt as a GM. Furthermore, since this will be my wife's first game ever, I decided to go with The Bogeyman. It has a straight-forward plot that's very nice for an introduction. It also reduces paperwork for me.

I'll probably pull the Harpcor Towers scenario 'Sniper!' next, followed by the scenarion for the Terrorist attack. Then I can introduce Card Shark. I was also thinking; assuming all goes well, that VIPER should maybe make an apperance early on. It'd be a low-level start-up nest designed for street-level. Imagine Card Shark's dismay (and the PCs) when VIPER seems to be disappearing and noone knows why.....

[RDU Neil]

A little idea...

 

If you are planning the adventures as you stated, it might be fun to link them, but very subtly at first. Have your wife's PC get information from an unknown source, or a police contact... but have it be information that would not be easy to get... but it's helpful in handling Bogeyman... maybe she gets some blueprints of Harpcorp to help her with the Sniper... whatever.

 

Then... after these are done... have her find out that Cardshark was behind the info... using her to help clean up his competition, or some other sinister plot. This makes the introduction of Cardshark "personal" to the PC, rather than just another organization. It also helps set that classic theme of many a Dark Champions game... conspiracy and lies. "Games of deceit and death" as Shang Chi used to say.

 

This really works if you wife's character is a vigilante killer type. Then she'll find that she has killed for the badguys and you can wrestle with moral dilemmas. If she's a "tie 'em up and leave 'em for the cops" type, it will just be frustrating, but still gets the blood going to take out Cardshark.

 

Let us know how it goes. I love Dark Champions. My favorite subgenre, really.

[Agent333]

Syberdwarf2, you know your wife better than we do naturally, but having done an RPG with my own wife I can give one hint that may help. Buld up the personal relationships between her character and her helpful NPCs. Have them socialize, talk and share their life stories with her character. My wife eats that stuff up! And, nothing beats the day she finds out that the guy her PC is really sweet on is the same guy that's been manipulating her from the shadows for the last 6 games. You may not get any that night, but the look on her face is worth it.

[Syberdwarf2]

Originally posted by Agent333

Syberdwarf2, you know your wife better than we do naturally, but having done an RPG with my own wife I can give one hint that may help. Buld up the personal relationships between her character and her helpful NPCs. Have them socialize, talk and share their life stories with her character. My wife eats that stuff up! And, nothing beats the day she finds out that the guy her PC is really sweet on is the same guy that's been manipulating her from the shadows for the last 6 games. You may not get any that night, but the look on her face is worth it.

 

I was actually thinking of using the NPCs she knows personally in that way. This also works well with the Bogeyman adventure. You see, her PCs boyfriend (her idea, not mine) is a cardiologist...

[Pol Rua]

Harpcor Towers is also a good 'beat the security and sneak in' mission.

If your wife's character is not as larcenous as Catwoman, it may be a 'steal this item for me, and I give you (or your DNPC) the antidote.

Stealth missions rock, and if you can find a copy of the old 'Sound The Alarm' articles - originally from early issues of AC, reprinted in one of the Almanacs - you're cooking with gas.

Besides, sneaky characters ALWAYS like to pull one over on cops/building security etc... whether its Catwoman, Irma Vep or Modesty Blaise...they love it when security look like stumbling eedjits.

 

Personally, I'd hold off on Boogeyman. It's pretty intense, and you may wanna introduce some of the suspects/victims/supporting cast in earlier adventures to make it all a bit more impactful when they are endangered, die, revealed as a murderer.

 

If you wanna use Card Shark early on, have him as a shadowy manipulator in the background... kinda like the way the writers of 'Angel' were using Wolfram and Hart earlier on...

 

 

____________________________________________

Pol.

(Four more makes a dime!)

[Syberdwarf2]

Originally posted by Pol Rua

Harpcor Towers is also a good 'beat the security and sneak in' mission.

If your wife's character is not as larcenous as Catwoman, it may be a 'steal this item for me, and I give you (or your DNPC) the antidote.

Stealth missions rock, and if you can find a copy of the old 'Sound The Alarm' articles - originally from early issues of AC, reprinted in one of the Almanacs - you're cooking with gas.

Besides, sneaky characters ALWAYS like to pull one over on cops/building security etc... whether its Catwoman, Irma Vep or Modesty Blaise...they love it when security look like stumbling eedjits.

 

Personally, I'd hold off on Boogeyman. It's pretty intense, and you may wanna introduce some of the suspects/victims/supporting cast in earlier adventures to make it all a bit more impactful when they are endangered, die, revealed as a murderer.

 

If you wanna use Card Shark early on, have him as a shadowy manipulator in the background... kinda like the way the writers of 'Angel' were using Wolfram and Hart earlier on...

 

 

____________________________________________

Pol.

(Four more makes a dime!)

 

Here's what I have so far for her campaign.

 

1. Harpcor Towers: Sniper!--this works really well because her character is an investment banker. Probably has an office there.

 

2. Boogeyman: murder #1-- Actually plan to break this up over the course of the campaign. It works well for two reasons. One; because her DNPC sister is in ICU (coma) from a brutal sexual assault. (again, ny wife's idea, not mine). Two, because the state university and surrounding area on the north side of town have had media-hyped murders, rapes, et cetera for the last couple years so it helps add a dose of 'scary reality'.

 

3.VIPER.--Okay, most people I know wouldn't want to use VIPER in a DC campaign (if at all, but what can I say-they're a classic). They'll of course be played down to 'street level' but will be used as a Real Threat. This will probably start as a VIPER recruitment for a new Nest with support from the Charleston, SC or Atlanta, GA Nests. Our Hero recieves an anonymous tip (from Card Shark) about their activities.

 

4. Card Shark--'Ante Up. round one: one pair'.

 

5. Boogeyman: murder #2

 

That's it so far. I'm not sure if I want to plan it out any farther than that. I should probably wait and see how things go with the PC first. Lemme know what you think. Any ideas, comments, suggestions or advice would be appreciated.