Players are the villains?

[phydaux]

I'm sure this has been done to death. If so, I'm sorry.

 

Before I continue, a little background -

 

I've been playing Champs since '85. LOVE the system and the genera. I'm looking to get some players in my gaming group to play Champs for the first time.

 

I'm thinking it would be fun if I have the players make up super VILLAINS. I would have one "Master Mind" lever super villain to gather them and give them short- and long-term objectives, but more or less leave them to their own devices. As the GM, I'd run the police, the local super heros and the UNTIL Rapid Responce teams, as well as the local uber-vigalante (can you say "Harbringer of Justice?").

 

My gaming group is all mature, so the "ethical questions" of PCs stealing and killing are moot, IMO. I'm mostly thinking that, with the chaos and petty rivalry that often sinks into gaming groups, if all the players are playing villains and they all decide to have a go at each other, it would all be genera-correct and in character.

 

I'm woundering if any of you have run similar campaigns, and if so, what were the results?

[Wormhole]

Considering that there is little honnor among thieves, it may be in character (YMMV). Just don't let things get too out of hand if you can help it.

[TheEmerged]

Heck, I'm running one now! We just did the 4th scenario in Champions Battlegrounds yesterday in fact. I've run them in the past too, so I'd be glad to help. I am however short on time, so I'll start with one point I can make quickly and come back later with more.

 

Villain campaigns have a wonderful potential to be more proactive than the average hero campaign. This means you might want to strongly consider a different approach than the usual "VIPER is attacking the city! Champions Congregate!" approach.

 

What I'm doing in my current campaign is preparing "opportunity lists" for the players. They then choose one, and that's the adventure I prepare. The opportunities they DON'T follow progress without them -- usually they eventually go fallow.

 

I thought I had all four of the op lists I've made in this campaign online, but it turns out I've only got the first two. I'll link to what I have available for your to view -- be warned the first one is rather lengthy because it was also inteded to give background information.

 

 

First Op List

 

2nd Op List

[austenandrews]

I recently played in a Golden Age villain game. It went very well, as have most such games I've played in the past. In my experience, two important factors for a villain game are (a) make it a short-run, and ( don't try to make it serious. (a) helps because in short runs, the tone and fun of the game can supercede each character's personal growth. Players tend to be more interested in playing out a fun story, rather than "getting theirs." ( is almost inevitable, because players feel like they can cut loose when they're running villains. It's cathartic and laugh-inducing. A lighter tone also helps to smooth out the different "evil tolerances" between players, so that Player-ChildRipper and Player-NunTorturer don't utterly creep out Player-GentlemanThief and Player-SillyRiddles.

 

-AA

[Supreme Serpent]

I've run a short-lived one, and played in a couple of them.

 

Make up the characters with everybody together. Not the stats necessarily, but the background, personality, etc. so you can work everyone in and they will function as a team, at least most of the time.

 

(example: "Dr. Destructor" is the master villain powerarmored mad scientist. "Block" is the mutated minion who is fanatically loyal and his enforcer. "Black Adder" is the superninja that Dr. Destructor saved from certain death at the hands of VIPER, so feels honor-bound to serve him. "Firestrike" is a mutant who feels hounded by society, so enjoys working with the Doc to strike back, and get rich at the same time. Etc)

 

Having a Master Villain that they work with is good to give them direction, alternatively they could work for an NPC group like VIPER that would give them assignments. May want to consider giving the MV more points, and maybe give the group some free safehouses/bases etc.

 

Watch over character construction closely, esp. disads/personalities. If you don't want a group of DESPICABLY evil kill crazy maniacs, make sure you watch out for that and make that clear to the players. One way to influence this is to announce at the start that you plan on using these guys as NPC villains down the road in the next HERO game you run, after they've had a good bit of play time/experience.

 

Encourage villain-like behavior - give rewards for playing in genre, putting heroes in death traps, engineering things to make it more likely for heroes to get involved, etc. Talk with the players ahead of time about what you expect, and what they want out of it (good for any campaign). If you want them to have some limited successes but they fail in the big schemes, make sure they know that going in. They can have fun "inadvertantly" sabotaging their own schemes. Encourage disads like "Overconfidence", "Gloats of plans to defeated heroes", "Unluck" and such.

[lemming]

Originally posted by austenandrews

A lighter tone also helps to smooth out the different "evil tolerances" between players, so that Player-ChildRipper and Player-NunTorturer don't utterly creep out Player-GentlemanThief and Player-SillyRiddles.

I'll second that. If not you wind up with a game that will creep out others. Plus it can wind up being similar to Paranioa.

 

I was in a Danger International game where we wrote up characters for a mercenary group.

We went for the very dark tone campaign. The cop torture scene from Resevior Dogs could of been lifted from our game. (The campaign predated the film.)

What was interesting was that almost all the PCs had different plots vs. the other PCs in case of trouble. Not until the end did anyone actually move on these, since we needed each other to survive. We had pissed off a bunch of mega-corps and when the GM was going to move he just had us give him our various plans.

Out of the six PCs, three survived, one through sheer luck. My character and the leader were convinced that the other was dead (large explosions) and both went to seperate parts of the world.

[austenandrews]

Yeah, the trickiest part (assuming you want to) is keeping the players in genre. The usual player instinct is like Scott Evil: "We've captured the hero. Why not just shoot him in the head?" If you don't want that, you may want to discuss it with your players beforehand.

 

-AA

[phydaux]

Thanks for the feedback!

 

Villain campaigns have a wonderful potential to be more proactive than the average hero campaign.

 

I agree. That's why I'll be runing the "master mind" Villain. He'll give the PCs goals and objectives, but leave the planning and execution to the PCs.

 

in short runs, the tone and fun of the game can supercede each character's personal growth

 

Naw. I'm all about character development. I WANT the players to grow and change over time.

 

Player-ChildRipper and Player-NunTorturer don't utterly creep out Player-GentlemanThief and Player-SillyRiddles

 

A good character background and "origin story" goes a long way toward avoiding this. If the PC is a young single mother who took up crime to get money so her 9-year old DNPC daughter doesn't have to go without food, then that sets the tone of the campaign right there. And if one players does decide to play "Jack the Ripper" well, that's what Autofire, Penatrating RKAs are for.

 

The usual player instinct is like Scott Evil: "We've captured the hero. Why not just shoot him in the head?"

 

That's ALSO what the NPC master mind villain is for. "Don't harm him. I have plans for that one. Bwaha ha ha ha";)