Champions Universe: what to keep in my campaign?

[Steve]

For my new superhero campaign, I am using the Champions Universe as a rough framework for my world, but I am editing it heavily. I am looking for suggestions for things to include and how they could be revised to fit my modified setting.

 

For example...

 

1) There was no Golden Age of superheroes, and the whole "surge of magic in 1938" never took place. Superhumans prior to two years ago did not exist except in comic books and other fiction. But the people behind the masks could still exist. The source of superpowers in the modern world are costumes from a mysterious store called Icons that has been detailed more in other threads.

 

2) The Pulp Hero era existed, but it was more low-key. Gas guns and gadgets appropriate to the era can have existed, but they were never mass-produced. Many heroes and villains passed away during WW II, but some individuals with age-retardent abilities could be surviving.

 

3) Earlier eras of the Champions Universe are edited from history. The Turakian Age never existed, but the Valdorian Age did. Atlantis... may have existed, but it is only a legend now.

 

4) UNTIL and PRIMUS are just getting started, and they aren't as Silver Age/Bronze Age as originally presented. They aren't exactly Iron Age, but they are straddling the line between Bronze Age and Iron Age.

 

5) VIPER exists, but they haven't made the headlines before now. How should they be modified to give them a more modern twist? Maybe the sudden appearance of superhumans gave them a kick in the pants to be more open?

 

6) Millennium City exists, but Detroit wasn't hit with the Day of the Destroyer. Franklin Stone controls the largest part of the city's economy and is nigh-untouchable by the law. I was considering revising the events of 9/11 to bring about the destruction of Detroit with a suitcase nuke, but maybe I can bring Stone in as the city's economic cornerstone in another way? My intent is to present him in the same way as Lex Luthor appears in the comics nowadays, as a ruthless billionaire industrialist with a dark side hidden from the public.

 

7) Hudson City exists, but the Icon phenomenon seems to have left it mostly untouched. There are a few masked types and crazed villains, but they don't get much attention in the news beyond the city limits.

 

What else could I include and how could it be revised to fit the setting changes I've already mentioned above?

[Pizza Man]

Re: Champions Universe: what to keep in my campaign?

 

5) VIPER exists, but they haven't made the headlines before now. How should they be modified to give them a more modern twist? Maybe the sudden appearance of superhumans gave them a kick in the pants to be more open?

 

Viper is new too. Founded by some of the original criminals to enter ICONs: They all ended up with a snake motif. Needing to make payments they founded VIPER and liked it.

 

If you want a pre-existing organization, let them be a criminal organization hemmed in by mafia types. They looked to be going extinct, but ICONS gave a boost in the arm and now its Viper who calls the shots.

[Pizza Man]

Re: Champions Universe: what to keep in my campaign?

 

Atlantis is just a bunch of air filled ruins. But Nazi types found it and retreated here after WWII was lost. Now they are a thriving civilization, and do a good deal if illicit trade with dictators and South America.

 

The main city has slightly more than a million people hidden away from the world. They are planning to be "discovered" and are going to play up the lost civilization bit and be accepted into the UN. from this base, the 5th Reich will rise and once again threaten the world (of course that all a military secret and if they knew you were reading this they would kill you! Hey! Behind you! Its! Ahhhh!).

 

They all laugh at Aquaman comic books. and incidentally, they is a whipping boy named, "Namor" with webbed fingers and toes. He changes spitoons. Still he's proud and is convinced that out there somewhere in the multiverse people revere his name. Hey, is that ICONS? Never saw that store before. winged sandals, how cool is that!

[Orion]

Re: Champions Universe: what to keep in my campaign?

 

Powers first appeared in my campaign just 10 years ago, so I'm facing some of the same issues as you. I did keep the world effectively the same as ours until this point, not that it would really matter much at all for my campaign. Since yours have just started showing up, I'd have even fewer changes from our world. Make much of the world exactly the same. 9/11/01 happened, but Detroit is untouched. Anything truely out of the ordinary would have happened in the fictional campaign city.

 

My UNTIL is a paper tiger. Some bureaucrats, a few companies of standard issue infantry, and a half dozen Turtle suit clones at best. The idea was a paranormal response unit, and eventually paranormals, but no one wants the UN to have standing troops. US and Russia in particular prevent them from becoming anything effective. So, they are now changing into an information and advice source. They have the best database on paranormals, and will help anyone that asks, but can't do much more than correlate news reports and data sent to them by Interpol.

 

Viper formed after 9/11/01, when certain business types realized they could use terrorism to influence business and government. They started off hoping to change our government to something much closer to fascism, but without any race connotations, and have large businesses rule from behind the scenes. With changes in leadership, the plan now is to use paranormal terrorism to break down society, collapse the US government, and eventually rule the pieces as warlords. Card Shark is nothing more than the Dallas Viper cell gone independent.

 

PRIMUS is just getting going, and has a strong military mindset, as most active agents are former military. The control all investigations of paranormal activity, and tend to run roughshod over local law enforcement. They are at war with the paranormals, see them as terrorists, and unofficially encourage killing supervillains. There's no Stronghold yet (maybe in a couple years the tech base will be there), so keeping them in prison is problematic at best.

 

No superhero teams exist, because there just aren't enough of them around yet. This has left an opening for paranormal response units to be created. Some are official, some are mercenary. Most are only slightly better than SWAT units, but a few have advanced equipment, some of which they may have taken from villains. A few are a joke and cause more trouble than they solve.

 

You've got paranormals running around - what about magic, aliens, psionics, and creatures from other dimensions. Do they exist? If not, that tosses several organizations and classic villains right out the door. I have all, but they have little resemblance to the Champions version of them.

[Steve]

Re: Champions Universe: what to keep in my campaign?

 

Magic and psionics will be manifested by Icons-empowered superhumans, but aliens and extra-dimensional beings are not around yet. I would compare the appearance of superhumans to be like opening a hole in the laws of the universe. It will attract attention from alien races who have been monitoring Earth, and it will also draw attention from other dimensions.