Heroic battles

[kridenow]

Hello everyone,

 

I was wondering if I could request from you all ideas about the kind of heroic battles you run in your Champions games.

I mean... the environment you are using to make the fights different, more interesting, something to remember...

 

Fighting on bridges, skyscrapers, in streets is quite regular stuff.

 

I thought asking you all since I am considering to include a pursuit in a coming game and, normaly, the ensuing fight, in the tunnels of a subway system.

The chase itself promises to be entertaining... pursuing your quarry while dodging trains and afterward, fighting.

 

So if you have fights you remember fondly because of the scenery... or ideas...

[Mindscape]

Re: Heroic battles

 

Had a group fight a bunch of villians at NASA once, they were trying to steal a part of the new rocket. I remeber this one because during the fight if the heroes weren't careful they would destroy something that would take decades and millions of dollars to replace...also one of them got knocked across the facility and into a rocket. It malfunctioned because of that and launched him into space...he didn't have an form of Life Support, so sad.

[kridenow]

Re: Heroic battles

 

I had a relatively similar idea (not the NASA thing), just pondering how delicate a fight in a museum would be. With all those unique pieces all around...

[clsage]

Re: Heroic battles

 

I had a relatively similar idea (not the NASA thing)' date=' just pondering how delicate a fight in a museum would be. With all those unique pieces all around...[/quote']

 

While I have never used it (yet ) there was a similar scenario

detailed in an early issue of the Adventurers Club magazine in the

article/module 'Terror In The Treasures'. Priceless artifacts, crowds of

bystanders, mirrored displays that might bounce energy blasts in

random directions.....Fun stuff !

 

As for a slightly more 'agent level' scenario, I was once (long, long

ago) a part of a battle on a classic wheel style space station. The dark

emptiness of space outside, potentially having to deal with changes in

gravity as we moved around the station, etc. Very enjoyable.....

 

-Carl-

[kridenow]

Re: Heroic battles

 

I've done a battle in space with gravity problems, but in Star Trek (LUG).

 

The museum idea, or anything related to "be careful what you're doing" comes from my tendencies to put players in situations where they must revise their usual combat tactics.

Now I think about it, gravity in a space station battle might provide interesting elements depending on the powers used (as opposed to a relatively hard core SciFi game like Star Trek).

 

The sea/marine environment is often something I'd like to use but fail to picture a nice enviroment... maybe a wreck... be it an old spanish galleon or a modern one.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Heroic battles

 

I've done a battle in space with gravity problems, but in Star Trek (LUG).

 

The museum idea, or anything related to "be careful what you're doing" comes from my tendencies to put players in situations where they must revise their usual combat tactics.

Now I think about it, gravity in a space station battle might provide interesting elements depending on the powers used (as opposed to a relatively hard core SciFi game like Star Trek).

 

I once conducted a super-battle aboard a huge space vessel. With metal-smashing fists and flying energy bolts involved, there were all sorts of possibilities for disrupting delicate machinery, causing outages of power for lights, gravity, or life support; causing explosive "chain reactions" or leaks of toxic or flammable substances; or puncturing bulkheads and exposing the combatants to vacuum and explosive decompression. The superheroes learned quickly that they had to be careful how and where they fought.

 

 

The sea/marine environment is often something I'd like to use but fail to picture a nice enviroment... maybe a wreck... be it an old spanish galleon or a modern one.

 

You can also go the route of films like The Abyss or Deep Blue Sea, and set the action within an extensive underwater laboratory or industrial complex.

 

Comic-book or fantasy worlds often include undersea civilizations like Atlantis or Lemuria, where all the features of fighting in an urban environment are complicated by being underwater. (The Atlantis chapter of the 5E Champs supplement Hidden Lands includes a section on underwater hazards and optional effects on combat). In fiction, hidden civilizations can also be found in huge underground caverns, where illumination, the risk of causing cave-ins, or the presence of tectonic or volcanic activity, can be constant concerns.

 

Let's not forget sending your heroes to alien "dimensions" where the ground rules may be quite different from what they're used to: "Ditkoverses" with areas of stable ground floating in a void; the fiery pits of Hell; or "chaos-zones" where the environment is constantly changing. Some of these dimensions may have different physical laws which change how the heroes' powers function. (A number of such dimensions are described in The Mystic World.)

[kridenow]

Re: Heroic battles

 

Underwater combats/pursuits sound interesting to me (diving and swimming through the place). The facility on sea floor provides a good scenery all around and a variant on the "don't punch through walls" theme.

(ironically, I don't even own Champions or any related book save Gadgets and Gear, so I can't really read Hidden Lands for inspiration )

 

The "alien dimensions" was my first thought when pondering how to include new environmental challenge to my games.

However, I'm trying to fish on more "earth based" challenges. Plus, the trick of sending the characters offworld can turn into a "ok, in what funky dimension are we going to be sent this time ?"

 

Subterrean cities/exploration looked god to me at first. Until I considered that with various powers allowing to flight, teleport (I'm speaking at general level, not especially about my player group)... movement through places large enough to allow action scenes should be relatively similar to mundane conditions ones.

I guess pursuits in tunnels including siphons, the mandatory cave-ins, narrow passages and a collection of stalagmites/stalagtites can be an entertaining experience... *ponders*

[Ghost Archer]

Re: Heroic battles

 

Urban superheroes in a wilderness area. The battle on a runaway train. The battle inside an alien city ship that was hovering over San Francisco. Chasing an undead villain thru the sewers of San Francisco (tunnels are like five feet high and three feet wide, a hundred years old and made of mostly brick). Trying to escape a sinking submarine. Saving a plane load of people at 36000 feet. The battle in the Coca Cola plant. (Binder was p.o'd they changed the Coke formula while he was in Stronghold). The nuclear power plant battle with Dr D's minions. A battle in the Alameda tunnel under the San Francisco Bay. Two non-flyers battling it out in a helicopter.

 

Pretty normal stuff I guess.

[kridenow]

Re: Heroic battles

 

Several of your ideas rely on the sense of urgency or ultimate danger should the heroes fail but how does it make the fight particularly different than, say, fighting in a mall or in plan street ?

Preventing the Villain to do something awful with the nuclear plant is the goal. The plant itself is scenery. But the way the characters will handle the action scene might still be regular.

 

I'm not sure I'm clear on this...

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Heroic battles

 

Fighting during a blizzard. Debilitating cold, difficulty seeing and hearing, slippery surfaces or snowdrifts slowing down foot movement, wind deflecting some projectile weapons.

[kridenow]

Re: Heroic battles

 

Spring to my mind a more rules related question (well, even.. rules or just dramatic effect)...

Would you bother with tinkering with power effects, depending on the source and the environmental effect (if significant) ?

 

I tend to like to weave on side effects of powers, not just as collateral damage but also unexpceted effects... You know... like the old trick of the electrical power underwater...

Just curiosity...

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Heroic battles

 

Fighting inside a skyscraper and knockback is lots of fun.

 

Come to think of it I need to run more aerial battlegrounds.

 

No that I think of it, most battles are taking place of the ground.

 

Abandoned Air Port and Gas Tank Explosions

 

A few bridges...

 

Hmmm... Good thing I am not GMing currently.

 

Strangely enough in the Fantasy game I am GMing I use a lot of forests and swamps. First to ambush and then to escape. (The PCs in that one are a vengeful lot and like to kill everything. Although recently I gave them pause when they almost killed an innocent young man by mistake.)

 

 

QM

[Certified]

Re: Heroic battles

 

One that I've wanted to do for a while is a fight inside a large plane. Be it a cargo plane with the bay doors open or a passenger plane where one side gets blown out. The former provides the hazards of falling out and damaging the plane causing a crash. The latter adds the elements of pressurizing the cabin, much more restricted room to move and a lot of innocent bystanders that cannot get out of the way.

[kridenow]

Re: Heroic battles

 

Come to think of it I need to run more aerial battlegrounds.

 

A long time ago (a very long time ago), I remember running Champions and taking the phone lines in consideration for aerial pursuits in towns.

Back then it was done a bit the silly way but the idea might have been good.

 

Of course, nowadays, phone lines tend to disappear.

 

Yet, I wonder if a power station might also provide a nice environment. With all those cables and power, better to plot your course carefully...

[kridenow]

Re: Heroic battles

 

One that I've wanted to do for a while is a fight inside a large plane. Be it a cargo plane with the bay doors open or a passenger plane where one side gets blown out. The former provides the hazards of falling out and damaging the plane causing a crash. The latter adds the elements of pressurizing the cabin' date=' much more restricted room to move and a lot of innocent bystanders that cannot get out of the way.[/quote']

 

Hmm... maybe crates set loose could also provide a changing environment (now you're under cover, now you aren't, now you are, now... dodge this one !)... I'm not sure it could work for a cargo plane but for a cargo ship, it should...

[Dead guy on tab]

Re: Heroic battles

 

Hmm... maybe crates set loose could also provide a changing environment (now you're under cover' date=' now you aren't, now you are, now... dodge this one !)... I'm not sure it could work for a cargo plane but for a cargo ship, it should...[/quote']

 

I once ran a JI adventure where the heroes were in a plane over Europe and the bad guys boarded them from a zeppelin. As I recall, the players had a lot of fun fighting a battle on the board between the two ships (1 hex line - DON'T fall off). I think the ended up sending the master villain careening out of sight (Nobody could have survived THAT!) and half the players were clinging for dear life on top of the zeppelin.

[clsage]

Re: Heroic battles

 

I once ran a JI adventure where the heroes were in a plane over Europe and the bad guys boarded them from a zeppelin. As I recall' date=' the players had a lot of fun fighting a battle on the board between the two ships (1 hex line - DON'T fall off). I think the ended up sending the master villain careening out of sight (Nobody could have survived THAT!) and half the players were clinging for dear life on top of the zeppelin.[/quote']

 

You've reminded me of an adventure I ran that had a similar flavor:

The group (actually, just one player at the time) was travelling via dirigible

from San Francisco to New York, not knowing that a murder he had helped

capture had escaped from death row and had snuck aboard. The crazed

murderer (is there any other kind ?) soon had incapacitated the crew and

sabatoged the ship. All during an ice storm over the midwestern US. He then

held the ingenue of the piece (the murder victims niece from the original

acventure) hostage in one of the engine nacelles, taunting our hero all the

while.....

 

Good times !

 

-Carl-

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Heroic battles

 

Ran a murder mystery weekend on a millionaire's island getaway (the PC heroes, plus a team of NPC heroes and the normals running the mystery), where the NPC heroes started actually getting killed. The island was remote enough and had the requisite nasty storm so they couldn't just leave. A large house and a dozen guest bungalows, plus a boathouse and an old smuggler's/pirate's cave they found along the way. Lots of fun.

 

I wrote up a VIPER Nest where the Nest Leader (Windchill) liked it REALLY cold, so dry ice clouds covered the floor to about knee level, and everybody was in parkas and spiked boots (for walking on ice). Of course, the heroes put on spare parkas and boots to blend in. The VIPER agents had IR and radar, and the command center could pump additional dry ice clouds in to fill the hallways to about chest level. When the alarms finally went off, agents knew to kneel and disappear into the clouds and then shoot at anything still standing. Threw the heroes off as to how the agents saw through their disguises.

 

An old (4th edition) Terror Inc plot ended with the heroes attacking a huge cargo ship which had a ramp inside one hold for launching a rocket-assisted buzzbomb filled with a deadly bio-agent. Difficult environment to fight in regardless, and the bio-agent meant they couldn't just blast away haphazardly, plus the countdown added a time crunch.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Heroic battles

 

I thought asking you all since I am considering to include a pursuit in a coming game and, normaly, the ensuing fight, in the tunnels of a subway system.

The chase itself promises to be entertaining... pursuing your quarry while dodging trains and afterward, fighting.

 

Not a chase-and-fight scene, but I ran an adventure where the heroes were on the Malachite Islands, on the underground subway (tunnels were near-vaccuum, so trains between cities could go faster without air resistance). When Malachite's minions discovered the heroes were there, they just shunted the train to a side track and began venting the air from the cabin into the tunnels. Heroes had to (1) stop the air from venting, (2) figure out a way to get out of the train safely, because (3) there were innocent civilians on the train as well, then (4) make their way through the tunnels, in near vaccuum, to the next stop.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Heroic battles

 

For the ultimate in stakes, however, there is only one possible venue:

 

The Moon.

 

Nothing but the grey, cratered surface all around to get in the way of all the stops being pulled out. . . and the Earth hanging over head in the sky, like a jewel to be grasped by the victor.

[MilkmanDan]

Re: Heroic battles

 

An airport during a busy rush. You've got terminals and hangars to jump in and out of, fully-laden planes taking off and landing, fuel trucks sitting around, all sorts of people . . . good opportunities for chaos.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Heroic battles

 

A nice thing about running battles in a nuclear power plant/chemical plant/bio-laboratory, is that you have plent of opportunities for origins and/or "radiation accidents." And if it's a villain who's the victim of one of them, you have a ready-made future plot or a Hunter.