Pulpify Champions

[Dead guy on tab]

Hello,

I am currently running a Silver Age Champions campaign. Right now the characters have gone back in time (Wings of the Valkyrie) to 1931. I am thinking of bringing a pulp feel to the next part of the adventure. How would you convert 4 color champions characters to a pulp hero setting? I have some ideas since I ran a JI Champions campaign once. I'm just curious how people would go about modifying characters/setting to increase pulp feel.

[assault]

Re: Pulpify Champions

 

Hello,

I am currently running a Silver Age Champions campaign. Right now the characters have gone back in time (Wings of the Valkyrie) to 1931. I am thinking of bringing a pulp feel to the next part of the adventure. How would you convert 4 color champions characters to a pulp hero setting? I have some ideas since I ran a JI Champions campaign once. I'm just curious how people would go about modifying characters/setting to increase pulp feel.

 

First, Wings of the Valkyrie is very railroad-y. If the players insist on jumping the tracks, it can kill a campaign!

 

That aside...

 

Generally speaking, early Golden Age characters are pretty indistinguishable from Pulp characters. That gives you some material to work with.

 

A lot of Golden Age villains work perfectly well in a Pulp setting. The ones that don't are often the ones added in the last few decades, rather than the real ones. That should give you lots of stuff to work with, from Gangsters to Aliens, and everything in between.

 

Supervillain teams, however, probably aren't appropriate, unless they are time travellers too. You could, however, have Bad Guys that have competent lieutenants and lots of minions, some of which could be monsters. There is plenty of scope for giving the PCs a good fight.

 

Since it's a period setting, use period details! If you are following the Wings of the Valkyrie plot, have a Zeppelin pass over. If the PCs go to the US, have them hear FDR on the radio. If you are really keen, let them see that Giant Ape on the Empire State Building! (Check for anachronisms, though - check when FDR became President, and when the Empire State Building was built, before you start doing things like this. The players probably wouldn't notice, but don't take the risk of being caught out!)

 

I wouldn't bother converting the PCs themselves. Any NPC heroes would be standard Pulpish types, with a power level sufficient to ensure they don't get wildly overshadowed.

[lapsedgamer]

Re: Pulpify Champions

 

I'm guessing that you aren't powering your PCs down to Pulp level, so you are going to need some powerful adversaries.

 

Isn't it possible for them to meet a young Dr. Destroyer when he working for the Nazis? That might be interesting. You could have him using some early versions of Destroyer tech and commanding some SS assets. It might be interesting if they didn't figure out excatly who he is until late in the adventure, sort of an "AH HA" moment.

 

Cateran is also around at that point and might make an interesting walk on player. This is before the war, so she can fit just about any role you want. Maybe she's working for the British government, but her goals are in conflict with the PCs.

 

Anubis or Slug might work for an occult plot. Think of the movie The Mummy or Call of Cthulu. Just add dark cultists and hybrid creatures and you have a scenario.

 

I think it would be intersting to play the differences between people from the Silver Age--I'm assumning circa 1970s--when thrust back into the 1930s. Good luck and let us know how it turned out.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Pulpify Champions

 

If you wish, you can remind the PCs that they don't want to do anything publicly or they risk disrupting the timeline of history. If they don't think of keeping a low profile (perhaps by dressing for the period or disguising their costumes), you might introduce an NPC (Captain Chronos?) who reminds them of the possible consequences. Fortunately, in 1930 trench coats and fedoras are actually fashionable.

 

When I sent our Champions team (along with most of the University of Montana at Butte campus) back to the late Cretaceous, the toughest challenge for the team wasn't beating dinosaurs or getting everyone back to 2005, it was doing all that without letting any of the students or faculty know MidGuard was even there.)

[Dead guy on tab]

Re: Pulpify Champions

 

First, Wings of the Valkyrie is very railroad-y. If the players insist on jumping the tracks, it can kill a campaign!

 

That aside...

 

Generally speaking, early Golden Age characters are pretty indistinguishable from Pulp characters. That gives you some material to work with.

 

A lot of Golden Age villains work perfectly well in a Pulp setting. The ones that don't are often the ones added in the last few decades, rather than the real ones. That should give you lots of stuff to work with, from Gangsters to Aliens, and everything in between.

 

Supervillain teams, however, probably aren't appropriate, unless they are time travellers too. You could, however, have Bad Guys that have competent lieutenants and lots of minions, some of which could be monsters. There is plenty of scope for giving the PCs a good fight.

 

Since it's a period setting, use period details! If you are following the Wings of the Valkyrie plot, have a Zeppelin pass over. If the PCs go to the US, have them hear FDR on the radio. If you are really keen, let them see that Giant Ape on the Empire State Building! (Check for anachronisms, though - check when FDR became President, and when the Empire State Building was built, before you start doing things like this. The players probably wouldn't notice, but don't take the risk of being caught out!)

 

I wouldn't bother converting the PCs themselves. Any NPC heroes would be standard Pulpish types, with a power level sufficient to ensure they don't get wildly overshadowed.

 

Actually I haven't had the problem with them jumping hte tracks. I don't really see Wings of the Valkyrie as railroady - as a GM you just have to be prepared for the campaign to go in a completely different direction, but I figure that's fair - if the stakes are high, the consequences are high. My players couldn't wait to get back to fix the past - they didn't seem to like the alternate future even more than I expected. I will probably revive the Wings thread when I finish my alternate history (sort of a Man in the High Castle sort of world). I was actually disappointed the players didn't hang around in the modern day longer.