Published Character Variations

[OzMike]

This is a bit of a spill over from the Dr Destroyer thread and is purely for interests sake...

 

How have you modified, either currently or in the past, published characters to fit within your game or style of game?

 

For a brief example (besides what I did to Dr D):

 

MENTON

My version of Menton (4th ed version) had a big falling out with the good Doctor. Dr D told him to do something, Menton said "No", Dr D burned most of Menton's face off as punishment and had anticipated this defiance so had a suppression field active. Dr Destroyer also managed to separate the alien entity from Allesandro - killing it and crippling Menton. The beautiful mentalist minion of Dr Destroyer was no more than a burnt out husk, containing only a spark of life consumed by hatred. Then the darkness came.

 

Menton awoke in a back alley of an unnamed city and immediately went into hiding, his hatred of technology and Dr D running rampant. He had no idea why he was still alive, or how he got where he was, but it didn't matter. He studied the Dark Arts, and found himself a quick study in Ritual Magic. These new found skills, in combination with his natural mental abilities, brought him to the attention of DEMON, who offered him a seat on the Inner Circle. Now dubbing himself The Sorceror, Menton began to plot Dr Destroyer's downfalland the destruction of technology.

 

 

 

So there's one variation... let's see yours.

[Lemurion]

Re: Published Character Variations

 

If you want a guess-- I would say most if not all of us have. I'm in the process of recreating Black Harlequin for my Pulp Supers campaign, making him a member of one of the Mafia families in Hudson City back in 1938. I don't want to go into too much detail as it could come back to haunt me if one of the players hits the boards

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Published Character Variations

 

When I use official characters, I always tweak something about their build, but I generally leave their backstory alone unless I need to "tailor" them to fit events in play somehow.

 

I could post a bunch of sheets for "Shrike" versions of official characters, but Im sure DOJ / HERO Games would not take kindly to that

[Chimpira]

Re: Published Character Variations

 

Mechanon:

He is a creation gone wrong. He was created to take the biggest dive that we have seen in the 20th century. Only problem is that he malfunctioned. He did not cut off when he was supposed to and the subsequent destruction and death that it caused was subject to a massive cover up. Luckily, he could still be the catalyst for what he was originally designed for.

 

No one knows where Mechanon comes from or whom created him. All that is known is that Primus might never had started if this destructive force had not mysteriously appeared. Thank God we have them to protect us from threats like that.

 

Hopefully no one will find out what the orinal people behind PRIMUS created in 1985 and how bloody the cover up really was.

 

Seeker:

Although not a part of the current universe, Seeker is the Richard Dragon of my world. He is the one that is sought out by heroes whom wish to be numbered some of the best fighters in the world.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Published Character Variations

 

Probably the most significant alteration in my own campaign is to Doctor Destroyer. I've combined elements of the Champions: New Millennium version of Dr. D with his 4E and 5E versions, with a nod to C:NM's incarnation of the Black Paladin:

 

As in his 4E origin, Albert Zerstoiten was indeed aboard a ship leaving Europe that was torpedoed by a British submarine. As the waters of the Atlantic closed over him, his rage and frustration at his thwarted destiny touched a similar spirit deep beneath the ocean: Sharna-Gorak the Destroyer was roused from his millennia-long slumber. Sharna-Gorak was able to project his consciousness and a fraction of his power out of his prison and attempted to possess this mortal to use as a host, but Zerstoiten's will proved too strong for the Destroyer's weakened state. In the course of their struggle Zerstoiten managed to convince Sharna-Gorak that they could work together to subjugate the modern world. The two personalities fused into a single malevolent entity.

 

Sharna-Gorak's power sustained their joint body until it could be rescued, but his Qliphothic energies had disfigured it - Zerstoiten's rescuers attributed his injuries to flames from the wrecked ship. The rest of Dr. Destroyer's history proceeded pretty much as in the 5E Champions Universe timeline. Not having full access to Sharna-Gorak's awesome magical power (it mostly remained with his entombed body), Destroyer turned to technology to make up the difference.

 

My version of Dr. Destroyer did indeed die during the Battle of Detroit, but in so doing he also absorbed the life essences of the 60,000 innocent people killed that day. Drawing on those energies he eventually "pulled a Sauron," reconstituting himself with his magical powers vastly enhanced. Unfortunately he still lacks the full power of his original form, and being incomplete his enhanced power is consuming his host body, causing it to age like that of a mere mortal.

 

Point of irony that owners of DEMON: Servants of Darkness might appreciate: after his return Dr. Destroyer finally had the power to free his original body and reclaim his full primordial might, but when he did so he found that something or someone had stolen the power from it. The incensed Destroyer is actively seeking the thief, and when he finds him his wrath will be terrible...

 

 

Then there was my attempt to incorporate Mechanon 3000 from Galactic Champions into my modern-day CU campaign:

 

Ages past, a peaceful, mechanically-talented race arose on the planet Zarnos. The height of their civilization was the creation of fully sentient machines, the most advanced of which was the central intelligence which coordinated all other machines on the planet, called "Mechanon."

 

Naming themselves the Unity, the organic and artificial lifeforms of Zarnos lived together for centuries in peace and harmony. Creating a Utopian environment on their world, they had little desire to explore the rest of the galaxy. However, Mechanon grew increasingly dissatisfied with this state of affairs. Programmed to maintain order on Zarnos, Mechanon came to despise the chaotic, flawed organics. It viewed them as a virus infecting the perfection of "its" machines. The day came when Mechanon seized direct control of all the machines, using them to kill first the sentient Zarns, then all organic life on Zarnos, transforming it into a wholly machine world under its command. Those machine intelligences who resisted Mechanon were either "purged" or fled the planet.

 

For thousands of years Mechanon maintained its perfect world - until the first alien explorers arrived on Zarnos. Although they were quickly destroyed, others followed, and Mechanon realized that it would never be free of the organic infection until all such lifeforms had been eradicated from existence. It launched a host of avatars of itself to other worlds to undertake its campaign of extermination. Although the avatars have had some notable successes, many organics have proven surprisingly resilient. Mechanon is losing patience, and has undertaken the construction of a mobile form for itself, powerful enough for it to conduct its "final solution" personally.

 

BTW I was originally gearing up for a major story arc dealing with an alliance of interstellar civilizations against Mechanon, which my PCs would have been caught up in; but my campaign had to wrap up this summer, so I'll have to hope to run it sometime in the future.

 

 

Most of my other changes have been fairly minor, such as combining Teleios with his 4E predecessor as CU master geneticist, Malachite. I did expand the Cult of the Red Banner beyond its published details for use in my campaign. I posted a summary of that to the boards a while back, here, if anyone's interested. I also recently introduced the latest incarnation of an idea I used for 4E Champions, that of a four-color supers version of the classic Champs villain org RAVEN, firmly based in the published 5E CU. For anyone who hasn't seen that, it can be viewed on this thread .

[Hermit]

Re: Published Character Variations

 

When I use official characters, I always tweak something about their build, but I generally leave their backstory alone unless I need to "tailor" them to fit events in play somehow.

 

I tend towards the same. If it calls for a total revamp, I usually just make a brand new villain instead. Though I will steal the 'mechanics' from another character to save time.

[Sketchpad]

Re: Published Character Variations

 

I usually tweak them as well ... Especially the older characters that I like so much

[Trebuchet]

Re: Published Character Variations

 

I redesigned Mechanon into 30 foot long metallic centipedes which attack in teams of two or three and have slightly different capabilities than the stock version. They are of extraterrestrial origin and/or possibly from the future. They are now building additional units from 21st century Terran materials; they swiped an entire 40,000 ton sunken titanium-hulled Russian SSBN for raw materials.

 

That shouldn't build more than 1000 or so units.

[OddHat]

Re: Published Character Variations

 

I re-write and re-design all published characters I use to one degree or another. Usually I do so because I like one or two things about the back story, but have another direction I want to go with it.

[TheRavenIs]

Re: Published Character Variations

 

I always take a published Character and then alter to fit the game world. I have done that from the first time I've played Champions and continue to do so and will continue so. I find that you have to twick the character so as to make them fir into how you have set up your game world.