Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

[Steve]

What have you found to be the best ways to get a Dark Champions team together?

 

What seemed like a good method that didn't work out in practice?

[Rapier]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

Bad: "You all walk into a bar and a mysterious cloaked stranger is sitting in the corner, and he gives you a long concerted look...."

Bad: "You all walk into a barber shop and a mysterious cloaked stranger is sitting in the corner, and he gives you a long concerted look...."

Bad: "You all walk into a used car lot and a mysterious cloaked stranger is sitting in the corner, and he gives you a long concerted look...."

 

 

The team right now are all members of the same organisation. They were teamed together by the COO because she thought they had complementary abilities (and some were known to one another). What we did was say 'at some time in the not too distant past, you were put together as a team. You've been on a few missions since then, so you are comfortable with one another.' It got over a lot of the difficulty at the beginning, because it was assumed that each character knew each other character and had likely, at some point, had their life saved by the other.

 

I'm finding that it is important before character creation to come up with a cohesive team concept. If you and the players sit down and discuss how and why they are going to form a team it takes a lot of that initial difficulty out of the way and also ensures that the characters will be a tighter fit within the team and the campaign setting.

[Checkmate]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

Rapier's way is probably the best way to do it. It's simple and players may feel railroaded, but the alternative has NEVER worked out for me. Players are WAY too unpredictable to do it any other way.

 

Something else I've done which is essentially the same thing, but feels differently from the players is write how the players got together. Write a slightly different version for each PC, as each player would remember it slightly differently and also may have gotten there in different ways. Show the PC's what you have, and ask them if anything in there bothers them or if you've had their character do something that is out of character. Let them give their input. This is a lot safer than trying to Role-Play it out, and will probably give you TONS of hooks to play off of.

[GoldenAge]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

They all could be besieged by a common enemy/organization, forced together for survival.

 

"Leave the team and you risk getting picked off!" (for now)

[Peregrine]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

Let (make) the players figure it out for themselves in a pre-game session. Start play assuming that whatever they worked out has already happened and go.

[Lonewalker]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

Our group has been playing with one another for many years. We tend to gloss over the formation of the team regardless of the genre, having characters look at one another in the first session and say, "Ah, I see you are wearing a PC T-Shirt. I instantly trust you with my life." :-)

[Susano]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

In Shadows Angelus the PCs were all members of the supernatural police department. In Kazei 5 the PCs were all members of something akin to Ghost in the Shell's Section 9, they just didn't know it.

[Spence]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

For me all the PC's always are part of the same organization. Like others have mentioned above, nothing else ever worked.

 

I never payed much mind to the whole being railroaded concept at this level of game structure.

 

An example is if you are playing a spy you are part of a spy service...that is not railroading that is world concept.

 

Essentially unless the players are some kind of independent assassin or your campaign is one on one (has only one player and one GM) they PC's will need to be part of a team. Sure they can all have hidden agendas, motivations and so on. But for a roleplaying game a certain amount of cooperative grouping is pretty essential and a game where all the players cannot trust each other or are backstabbing each other gets old real fast.

 

Dark Champs covers a lot of ground and I don't know exactly what kind of game yours is, but in my little corner of the universe making the players belong to some kind of organization, even if it is just them, is essential if you want a game that lasts more than a few session and requiring that isn't railroading at all

[Black Ops]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

I once used a Airplane crash in a remote Area.

( A looong time before Lost.)

[Rapier]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

I also ONCE did the 'you wake up in a prison cell with no memory' thing. It didn't work so well. The characters were easily frustrated and some characters fell into a 'I'm in prison so I must have done something bad, so I deserve to be here so I shall do my well-deserved time.'

[Steve]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

Let (make) the players figure it out for themselves in a pre-game session. Start play assuming that whatever they worked out has already happened and go.

 

This would work for something like a Burn Notice or Caper type of campaign. You have one character familar with one or more others, so they come together to help each other. It wouldn't be necessary for everyone to know everyone else, but they each have to know at least one other PC.

[IndianaJoe3]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

I also ONCE did the 'you wake up in a prison cell with no memory' thing. It didn't work so well. The characters were easily frustrated and some characters fell into a 'I'm in prison so I must have done something bad' date=' so I deserve to be here so I shall do my well-deserved time.'[/quote']

 

I think the, "no memories" trope would be the problem. The game could start with the characters in prison, but about to be released. They've been together in jail for a while so they trust each other. When they get out, they team up for revenge/profit/clear their names/try to keep each other straight/whatever.

[DusterBoy]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

Or they're all part of the same con team, as in Hustle, or they're all part of the same PD unit, (Robbery-Homicide, Organized Crime, etc)

[JmOz]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

My last campeigm. which was a vigilante game, the characters were all gathered together by a previous vigilante who had been injured in the line of duty

[GoldenAge]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

Rapier was actually part of a game I ran where the heroes began as unassociated individuals who had all ended up in attendance at a rally for a Senator who was running for Governor. The Senator was running on a huge equality platform for all people including the burgeoning paranormal populace of Epic City... Well, during his big speech the congregation was assaulted by the Neo-Nazi group called the New Reich. The Senator was brutally assassinated while his adult daughter watched from the stage behind him.

 

Several paranormals were in the crowd when the attack began. The bravest of them leapt to the defense of the Senator and the crowd of innocents. Though they were unable to stop the sniper who exploded the Senators skull from hundreds of meters away they were successful in defending and saving the lives of the surprised and horrified assemblage. When the smoke cleared and the casualties removed the heroes also went their own way. Unbeknownst to them, the Senator's daughter's paranormal abilities were shocked into existence by the event. In a moment of extreme stress she had psychically reached out and touched every mind in the crowd, including those of the heroes who had come to the defense of her father and the congregation.

 

A week later, still wracked with grief, the deceased Senator's daughter crafted a private plan for revenge against her father's assassins. Still possessing intimate knowledge of each "hero" that had come forward during the "Equality Speech Assassination" she sought them each out and convinced them to join her in forming a new superhero group to defend against such atrocities (subtly utilizing her new psychic powers when needed). Of course, they all agreed.

 

When vengeance was at her fingertips (the new heroes had the New Reich on the ropes) her plan was unveiled... But the lie of justice and truth she had weaved to gather her heroes had solidified into real conviction and they were able to talk her down. They chose to remain a team from there on.

[DusterBoy]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

This seems familiar, GA> Have you posted this before?

[GoldenAge]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

Yah, I'm sure I have posted a similar description, either in the Epic City thread or elsewhere (maybe even here???).

[The Suave]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

While there's nothing wrong with the old standards: "Figure out how you guys would have already known each other," or "You've been a team before/for a while, let's play," I am lucky enough to have two very good players in my current DC game. They were independent PCs which I managed to bring together and now they are a pretty tight-knit duo. It would have been pretty hard to say "you're already a group" in my case though, because one of my PCs is a genius computer hacker, and the other one is a hobo.

 

The start of a roleplaying campaign is often the hardest yet most rewarding part.

[starblaze]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

My last campeigm. which was a vigilante game' date=' the characters were all gathered together by a previous vigilante who had been injured in the line of duty[/quote']

 

I was in a Dark Champions game that was like that, the vigilante had lost both of his legs but still had money and resources at his disposal.

[GoldenAge]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

I've never had a problem when dealing with sophisticated players. They usually understand the quid pro quo relationship that exists between player and the GM as well as the characters and the adventure storyline.

[WarriorKnight]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

Our Hudson City Dark Champions game started w/each pc investigating dissaperance of locals on their own.We found out they were being taken by the Saiettas'.As we tried to save people we ran into each other decided after bairly getting out with our lives to join together.Our main group is still together,but we've had several characters leave(because the players can decide on what they want to play) new one come in.

[Checkmate]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

I also ONCE did the 'you wake up in a prison cell with no memory' thing. It didn't work so well. The characters were easily frustrated and some characters fell into a 'I'm in prison so I must have done something bad' date=' so I deserve to be here so I shall do my well-deserved time.'[/quote']

'Cause there would NEVER be crooked cops in a dark champions game...

[Manic Typist]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

'Cause there would NEVER be crooked cops in a dark champions game...

 

Or a chance you were framed, or wrongly convicted.

[Schiz02]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

I've ran something similiar to ideas mentioned.

 

The characters all have a link to an existing vigilante or member of his rogues' gallery. The vigilante goes missing and his protege brings the heroes together because of their connection.

 

(I ran this once using Dark Champions rules, though I used established characters [batman was the missing vigilante]).

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Best ways to put together a Dark Champions team?

 

I'm having this same problem right now for my upcoming Dark-ish Champs game.

 

I figure I'm going to have them all end up at a single place and just end up in the thick of things. Say, at a demonstration against mutants, or a presentation by a mutant-supporter or scientist - my campaign setting is going to focus heavily on the .Gov trying to capture and cover up supers, aliens, etc., and then the supers themselves trying to avoid, or expose, the hidden world.

 

So they'll all be at this demonstration, one of them will fail their Hunted roll, .Gov agents show up, all forced to fight... then after the fight kind of decide what they want to do. Or be saved by an NPC.

 

One thing I want to do is kind of have each character have the choice of which faction to work for, while still all working more or less together. I have my School for Mutants / X-Men faction, my Guild of Calamitous Intent bad mutants organization, the Government, the Aliens, the Old Gods, the Angels, and the Demons. Some or all of these may be at times working together or against each other. I definitely want some moral choices and character conflict, while always kind of pushing the BBEG as more of a pressing concern than the specifics of why they are doing things.