How much do you customize the setting?

[Alverant]

When creating a campaign for your players, do you take the content from the books wholesale or do you modify large chunks of it? I'm for whatever works for you, but I'm curious as to what changes people have made.

 

In a campaign I'm in, Dr.Destroyer dabbled in magic after his psionic experiment (menton/mentalla) vanished thanks to time traveling characters. That's just an example.

[Steve]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

Well, my Icons Universe is loosely based on the Champions Universe as a sort of "vibrational echo" of it. The 1938 birth of the Superhero Age never happened. I wanted to do a First Wave superhero campaign, so I've been tweaking the timeline and established elements of the Champions Universe.

 

VIPER and UNTIL have been in existence as opposing forces for decades in the Icons Universe, but no actual superhumans on either side and using standard guns and body armor for the most part.

[csyphrett]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

I tend to build a setting around what the players give me. I might use something as a base, but not as presented.

CES

[Querysphinx]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

I have never used an established setting in any game. Only rarely have I ever used canon characters. Of course, back when I started playing, Champions was just Champions printed in black and white Courier font and there was no CU.

[red_eagle123]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

I'm currently on my second champions campaign. My current campaign has zero influence from the printed Champions Universe. The /only/ think I've used was that there used to be a group of superheroes operating out of New York calling themselves the Champions that the PC's met briefly. Of course these particular Champions were more like a modern day boy band group, formed for media purposes than anything, and all the members of the Champions were names/powers I made up based off artwork by Storn Cook.

 

My original Champions campaign on the other hand, got tons of inspiration from the printed Champions Universe (circa early 5th edition). The PC's were C-List heroes, and I lifted villains straight from the various enemies books wholesale and threw them against the PC's. The PC's eventually wound up having numerous ties to various published groups, including becoming friendly with the Champions, and co-sharing the name Protectors with the San Francisco team (The Players independently chose that name for their group and it was only after that I discovered the published Protectors).

[Pizza Man]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

I was a player only in the 90s. In the several campaigns I was in, the players only wanted their own names, and their own cities.

The CU played no part except for the characters in the villains handbook. We never met other heroes...

 

As a GM my universe will be set in CU just for the ease of play. But I'll let the players vote on what city they want to play in.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

My Champions Universe evolves and changes based on previous campaign events and character actions.

 

The Crowns of Krim were defeated, the Crowns dispatched, and in Dark Seraph's case deceased. VIPER and the I.H.A. have gone deep underground due to the success various campaigns have had against them. VOICE of Doom is operating around the Pacific Rim and in Vancouver. UNTIL has had success and failure. A few legacy superheroes remain and only two of them are official Champions Universe characters. A Living Campaign I hope.

 

Cheers

 

QM

[Escafarc]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

I tend to import characters from the CU changed to fit my campaign. Like Dr. Destroyer has been around since the building of the pyramids and uses both high-tech and alchemy. Most of my NPCs heroes are DCU characters with different names and origins(i.e. Superman is called Templar and instead of landing in Kansas his rocketship landed in the Andes near the secret stronghold of the Knights Templar.

[Balabanto]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

I removed every element from the CU that I used and rebooted time completely when I realized it was going to throw me under the bus storyline wise and contractually. (Somewhere around the start of 5th edition) My core concepts were completely different and required a little more thought about how to get them to work. I've had to hit time with a hammer twice. I shouldn't have to do it again. If I had known it would be THIS big a problem, I never would have used anything from the CU in the first place.

 

1) Concept for Atlantis: Completely different

 

2) Concept for other ancient civilizations: Matters

 

3) Concept for the origin of humanity: Matters a LOT (See Tsunami in Digital Hero for how that functions. Read Abraxas's Background)

 

4) Africa: Completely different

 

5) Concept for the origin of super powers: See #3

 

6) Ape Conspiracy

 

7) C.A.S.H.

 

8) Player Characters matter and their actions do, too. When you've run a world for 25 years, you have to give credit where credit is due. One day, I'll get all their sheets into print as well. Shine on, my friends. You deserve it.

 

9) I haven't hammered out all the problems. Two in particular bother me, and I'm still working with Dave on what to do about those problems. Ideally, you'll get to see everything before I die. Not so ideally, I'll be crushed by my commute and die in an auto accident.

[Shadow Hawk]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

I mostly set my campaigns in Los Angeles. Since the CU was/is very thin on material about what's happening in Southern California, I used the setting as 'distant backround' while doing my own thing in LA. Yeah, sure, The Champions are in Detroit, The Protectors are in Chicago, The Justice Squadron in NYC, and The Guardians in San Fransisco, but here in LA the players are the top superteam.

[concord]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

Don't really use the CU.

 

The current Wardens campaign has drawn a lot of inspiration from comics, books and superhero RPGs just as the CU has, so there are similarities.

 

Also might still have a couple of NPCs running around in the campaign that I took from CU or C:NM where I changed the name and filed off the serial numbers.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

Since Fourth Edition I've used a modified version of the official Champions Universe. While I've pulled in elements I like from earlier editions, unrelated Champions sources, and original creations, the basic framework -- timeline, major individuals and groups, etc. -- remains largely the same. This has been even more the case since Fifth Edition and its CU designed from the start to be more internally consistent.

[Hermit]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

I tend to rip off official settings pretty shamelessly and use them for about 2/3rds the material, then mix in past settings and games, and wing it from there. Some characters get the cut, others are brought in, and so on.

[srvronsim1]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

In my campaign, I've customized it a lot. I use elements I like from the CU, Silver Age Sentinels, Freedom City, The Algernon Files and my own. My campaign has roots all the way from the Pulp Age to today...

[Nuclear Fridge]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

No Battle of Detroit. No Dr. Destroyer. The 5ER Anubis is trying to release the Serpent Queen (from Algernon Files). Malachite - not Teleios - rules Madagascar, with areas set aside for his 'Jurassic Park' reconstructions. Mechanon has just come on line and has clashed with the Tiger Squad.

 

An American/British consortium is building a launch facility in East Africa, using gravity repulsion instead of rockets. The same consortium has detected something strange buried deep in the Antarctic ice... which could be a crashed spacecraft or the slumbering remains of a Norse mythological figure.

 

And Eurostar is going to set off a nuclear device in a random European city, to prove that Fiacho isn't just a scarred, ranting nutcase - he's a nutcase willing to slaughter millions.

[clsage]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

I tend toward more of a "Wold-Newton" sort(s) of world(s) so I don't use too much of what the current CU has become. I do have some analogs to CU groups from older versions of the system: as an example, I have always seen VIPER as an analog to THRUSH from the old Man From UNCLE series. And my analog, Crimetech, uses/used that as a starting point when I came up with it circa 1984 or so. Like THRUSH, it has grandiose schemes but tends to keep a lower profile than VIPER does. Like THRUSH, it has been around in one form or another since the Victorian era. And like THRUSH, it has a "good guy" nemesis agency that fills the role of UNTIL, who always struck me as a hybrid of SHIELD, UNCLE and (from the 1970's version of Dr Who) UNIT. Of course, the "good guy" agency also handles other threats as well... I have included Project Onomatopoeia and some characters from the Firebird Press version of Golden Age Of Champions (and by extension, some of the CU reboot in Golden Age Champions (circa 4th Ed)) in my worlds history. But I also have stolen liberally from the Marvel and DC Universes for some character concepts who appear during the WW II era.

 

I'm still attempting to decide the situation regarding Detroit, since I really, really like the Millennium City concept but I'm only so-so regarding the Battle Of Detroit. Fortunately, my last group of players never asked so I let it slide. There are additional cities in the US but they are not specifically analogs to CU locales. For example, there is Mariner Bay on the FL gulf coast but it does not really fill the same role as Vibora Bay.

 

-Carl-

[lapsedgamer]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

If I do the campaign I have planned in my mind, I will use published CU material as the base, with some Mutants and Masterminds stuff I like to fill some gaps. Sometimes the Champions books hits a particular archetype just right. At other times, M&M does a better job with it. To me, I just take the Champions write-up, swap out the names and season to taste. I also tend to like a lot of the Freedom City stuff. However, I am kind of addicted to the Hero mechanics.

 

I would also strip a lot of the MMO stuff out of the current CU as written. The material is sometimes pretty good, but it feels crammed together. Monster Island and the moon are two examples. In an MMO everything needs to be simplified, with one encounter leading seamlessly into the next, so you have all these different factions hanging out within walking distance of one another. This is the video game world, and people don't question it in that context. In fact, they expect it and would be upset if it didn't work that way.

 

I don't like this for a pen and paper game. It makes willing suspension of disbelief a little hard for players. I mean VIPER, UNTIL, the Qularr, the Lemurians, Dr. Moreau, and Bureau 17 all on the same island at the same time? So to me you take that material and pick through it for the bits you like. Them you put it somewhere else in your world.

 

For example, to me the stuff about Scarlet and Golden Viper agents was nice. It sets up a very GI Joe like vibe in the VIPER organization. To me I could use those write-ups for a special ops team that could be used against heroes who are a pain and run a harder sort of agent encounter. I would put Dr. Moreau back in his original home as well.

 

As I said the moon is similarly overcrowded. If you have access to worldships, why would you have to set a permanent arena on the moon? No other reason other than that's how the MMO set it up. In my mind, the Malvan gladiators would operate out of a world ship that travels the universe looking for combatants and sending the feed back to Malva, with the best prospects going up to the big show on the home world. Sort of like AAA baseball here in the states. I imagine a combination of the plots of the movie Gladiator and that Star Trek Voyager episode where Dwayne Johnson costarred.

[GoldenAge]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

I make the world and very sparingly add Champions Universe material (if at all - right now, its only VIPER)... Take a look at the link to EPIC CITY in my sig. Theres stuff in there everyone can us in their campaigns! That's why I posted it... to share.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

I typically use the CU pretty wholesale, if I'm doing standard supers ... I add things when I create original villains, or if my players' backgrounds include new elements, obviously. Most of them are somewhat familiar with the Big Two characters, for example, so their backgrounds will sometimes ask for 'a Human Torch-like character' or 'ran afoul of someone like Lex Luthor'. I look for CU analogues if possible, and if not, I make a new one.

 

Yes, I'm horribly lazy.

[assault]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

I usually only use bits and pieces. Often not even that.

 

One exception: I've more or less designed, but not run, a setting based on the very earliest published Champions material. Basically, 1st and 2nd edition stuff. A little bit of 3rd and 4th has snuck in too. But it all hangs together according to my ideas on the matter, and has very little resemblance to what eventually emerged as the canonical (4th ed) CU, and essentially none whatsoever to the 5th/6th ed CU. Yes, many characters and some organisations exist in both, but they bear only superficial similarities to each other.

[Dr Divago]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

in my Turakian Age (fantasy) campaign some big player made huge change to the settings:

- Alarch of Aarn was secretely allied with Kal Turak killed all stormriders in Aarn, killed some important politicians, and then tried a coup d'etat. Ilurian army captured the city (now is a Thurgandia protectorate) and executed the Alarch. Well, just tried 'cause alarch fled with a bone dragon-thing into wailing wastes

- Iakta, a demon prince of deception, made the PC bring an (un)holy amulet to Volzhev, in khirkovy. This set a chain reaction of magical events (including a solar eclipse) that allowed Turakian Army to be teleported inside major khirvian cities

- war with Southern Turakia (formerly khirkovy) to restore free the khirkovy is main focus of the campaign

- i also created a new orcish "state", Three Eyes Clan, inside black forest. At the moment they are playing a crucial role in battle for Narkosk and in the future maybe this state will be a khirvian province

- other thing, hwalurulasiolar (dark elves) is no "black skinned": they are absolutely indistinguishable by "normal" elves, safe from some cultural differences, magic (they use technomanthic golem and construct powered by magical being similar to will'o'wisps) and of course habitat. Hwalurulasiolar are descendent of a 13th elven clan

 

i stop here, 'cause maybe you where talking about champions settings

but the point is: i use the book to save me from all the boring parts of inventing names, states, drawing maps, etc.

then i adapt the settings to my needs

 

for the Superheroic campaign, they are playing in Rome, my home, and thus i had to invent almost anything looking around; the plus side is they are at the moment more like misfits, so i could create "step by step" all things i need.

btw i sometime go to Conquerors Killers and Crooks for suggestion, and also pick some NPC (like utility, even if it's slightly different from the one in the book...)

[Nuclear Fridge]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

The nice thing about many of the CKC villains is that they're readily adaptable. An old joke in my first-ever Champions campaign was that I was like "I like the idea behind this published villain... but I don't like the name... and I'll have to change the background... and while I think of it, the picture has to go."

 

I've moved a few CKC 'goon-level' villains - like Lazer and Zephyr - away from the US and into Europe because they're sick of all the American hero teams ganging up on them...

[drunkonduty]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

I'm pretty lazy. I mostly use the CU stuff as published, leaving out the bits I don't like (eg. Dr. Destroyer) or want to hold off to introduce to my players as a First Encounter (eg. Ist'vatha Vhan(sp?)). I have created a couple of villain teams as well.

Certain aspects of the history of the CU, like the Turakian Age, I leave out but no-one will ever know, so not sure it even matters.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

I'm still attempting to decide the situation regarding Detroit' date=' since I really, really like the Millennium City concept but I'm only so-so regarding the Battle Of Detroit. Fortunately, my last group of players never asked so I let it slide. [/quote']

 

While I did more or less keep the events of the Battle of Detroit for my last CU-based campaign, I moved the site of Millennium City to what was Haynesville, Kansas (described in Champions Universe 5E). I'm personally uncomfortable with turning a rea-world city into a fictional one, and I liked the idea of a metropolis in America's heartland (there may have been a little Smallville influence at work). I modified the local geography to accomodate the maps details of MC, jiggered the timeline of events to allow for the growth of a big city, and changed some of the location names. Worked pretty well IMHO.

 

Mind you, given what's continued to happen to Detroit in the real world, levelling it and starting fresh looks more and more like a positive development.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

 

The nice thing about many of the CKC villains is that they're readily adaptable. An old joke in my first-ever Champions campaign was that I was like "I like the idea behind this published villain... but I don't like the name... and I'll have to change the background... and while I think of it, the picture has to go."

 

I've moved a few CKC 'goon-level' villains - like Lazer and Zephyr - away from the US and into Europe because they're sick of all the American hero teams ganging up on them...

 

 

I've found very few of the published Champions villains to be so tied to the setting that they can't be dropped into any more-or-less four-color setting with only minimal changes. Many supers gamers have adapted DC or Marvel comics characters to their campaigns, and the ones from Champs are likely even easier (not to mention already fully statted).