29th Feb, 2012 in the Champions Universe

[assault]

Well, the bad news about Hero Games probably means that any official account of what happens when a certain Master Plan comes to fruition will come from Champions Online rather than from a printed product.

 

Still, it's near enough now that GMs using the CU might be thinking about how to deal with it, particularly if they will be playing on or around the day.

 

So, the question is: how would you deal with it if you were hypothetically running a game where it occurs?

 

Obviously there is lots of spoiler potential here, so be a bit careful. Players in games that could be affected might want to avoid this thread.

 

Obviously the Master Plan won't succeed, but how would you see it being foiled? What changes, if any, would you make to the CU in its aftermath? Which characters would you write out? What elements would you introduce? What would the fall out be in general?

 

I don't have any firm ideas myself - that's why I'm asking.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: 29th Feb, 2012 in the Champions Universe

 

 

There's a basic scenario, "Demon 3000," laid out at the end of Demon: Servants of Darkness. There's plot threads that lead from Bromion's Millworks to Babylon, but the key points are the Trismegistrus Council's raid on the Thirteenth Floor and resulting capture of the Liber Terribilis, and the Descending Hierarchy's subversion of Dyer vander Bleek, who serves as an unwitting suicide bomber at Luther Black's last working. Blown up, Black's soul is sucked into a returning Sharma Gorak, who takes over Black's role and rebuilds Demon.

 

This is okay as far as it goes, but DSD is a pretty bleak book, and I've always felt particularly badly for the characters Devil Dog and Jack Fool, who are oddly linked by the dog theme. The pulp-era hero Jack Fool, having thwarted Luther Black the first time they met, falls to him the second time in a trap. That's just cold, and Black actually boasts that he got Jack Fool because he has no dog to guide him. Jack Fool becomes a member of the Inverted Trinity, with access to the Thirteenth Floor, and Luther Black earns some serious karma. In narrative fiction, you just don't gloat over a fallen foe and offer that kind of hostage to fate.

 

Meanwhile, Devil Dog is a demon soul in a human body, that of the Chicago superhero Junkyard Dog, fell in battle in a hell dimension giving the Peacekeepers a chance to escape and seal a Hellgate behind them. It's almost like I've heard that plot somewhere before. So, two things: Junkyard Dog deserves better, and, throw on the emergency brakes here, why are the infernal powers giving Luther Black a superhero as a hostess gift while preparing to blow him up with a suicide bomb?

 

So, if I were to run the 29/02/12 plot, I'd hang it on these guys. First, Devil Dog's soul has to be fetched back from Hell. I would suggest using the plot MacGuffin of the Soul Gem for this. Second, Jack Fool has to be subverted. Third, someone's got to raid the Thirteenth Floor. This would definitely be Professor Paradigm's kind of caper, if anyone is interested in using the Paradigm Pirates. Imagine the Thirteenth Floor, an otherworldly Las Vegas hotel tower, rising out of the blasted scenery of an alternate-reality Vegas, when, suddenly, out of the darkness looms the Crimson Permanent Assurance Building. Avast, Qliphotic swabbies, prepare to be boarded! Or some ninjas could invade the Thirteenth Floor from within. Or both!

 

This, of course, sets up the final confrontation at Mexico City. The heroes pressing, the forces of DEMON mobilised, Luther Black desperately carrying out his ritual, the final betrayal as Jack Fool reveals himself, turning on The Edomite and unleashing the human bomb that is Dyler vander Bleek.

 

Then, judging by many of the players I've known, someone assumes the powers of Shuma Gorak and takes over the world in the name of the Kings of Edom.

 

[assault]

Re: 29th Feb, 2012 in the Champions Universe

 

There's a basic scenario' date=' "Demon 3000," laid out at the end of [i']Demon: Servants of Darkness[/i].

 

It's pretty good, but it's driven by NPCs. Building the PCs into it is obviously possible, but takes a bit of work. I guess that's what this thread is meant to explore.

 

This is okay as far as it goes, but DSD is a pretty bleak book, and I've always felt particularly badly for the characters Devil Dog and Jack Fool, ... In narrative fiction, you just don't gloat over a fallen foe and offer that kind of hostage to fate ... So, if I were to run the 29/02/12 plot, I'd hang it on these guys.

 

Agreed. Good plot hooks, and quite appropriate in terms of narrative causality.

 

Then, judging by many of the players I've known, someone assumes the powers of Shuma Gorak and takes over the world in the name of the Kings of Edom.

 

Then

the Shadow Destroyer

steps up to take his turn.

 

Why else have a spare master villain waiting in the wings?

[Alverant]

Re: 29th Feb, 2012 in the Champions Universe

 

From what I understand from 5th edition is that there's nothing keeping a GM from pushing the date back 4 or 8 years.

 

That being said, I think the resolution printed in the books works out pretty well in an epic scale. The only problem is that by and large, the PCs can't do anything to make it better. This is a master plan by a master planner with nigh-ultimate stakes (Destroyer just wants to conquer, Demon wants to destroy). The world SHOULD come close to annihilation and there SHOULD be fallout and deaths of heroes. If a GM wants to have his players to be part of it, they should be ready for some big-time consequences including a PC death.

[assault]

Re: 29th Feb, 2012 in the Champions Universe

 

The only problem is that by and large' date=' the PCs can't do anything to make it better. This is a master plan by a master planner with nigh-ultimate stakes (Destroyer just wants to conquer, Demon wants to destroy). The world SHOULD come close to annihilation and there SHOULD be fallout and deaths of heroes.[/quote']

 

And the PCs SHOULD be the ones who stop it, because everyone else are NPCs and made of cardboard.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: 29th Feb, 2012 in the Champions Universe

 

 

Perhaps the Edomite's quest for the Holy Grail to restore his crippled body would be one way to involve PC heroes in his grand plot. If Luther Black determines one or more PCs has the proper qualities to enable them to find the Grail, he may trick them into a quest to do so -- perhaps infecting an NPC with a physical corruption similar to his own, while leaving hints that only the Grail can reverse it. Stealing the Holy Grail from them after they find it could lead the PCs to pursue the Edomite and arrive in time to thwart his summoning of the Kings of Edom.

 

Personally I would like as much as possible of DEMON beyond the Edomite to survive the conclusion of Luther Black's plan. DEMON is like an occult VIPER; there's so much there to use in games as recurring foes, it would be a shame to wholly dismantle it just because the Edomite himself is defeated. If it were up to me, I would have the Black Shepherd survive Luther Black's fall. If Aganju Lambo was freed of the Edomite's control and regained mastery of his own body, he would have all the knowledge and powers necessary to take over the organization, recruit new Inner Circle members and Morbanes to replace any fallen during the Edomite's attempted apotheosis, and so on. The present Inner Circle and Morbanes are already all used to dealing with the Black Shepherd as representative of DEMON's highest leaders.

 

[Lord Liaden]

Re: 29th Feb, 2012 in the Champions Universe

 

I don't play Champions Online, so can't speak to developments there; but I got the impression that events in their Demonflame adventure pack have affected the Edomite and the course of his original plan as described in D:SOD. Would anyone who's run that AP on CO care to Spoiler it for us?

[itsalwayssunny]

Re: 29th Feb, 2012 in the Champions Universe

 

I only have Champions editions 2 through 4 and Hero System 5th edition plus the Bestiary, so I gotta ask...

 

...what in the world are you talking about? Is this something from the Champions video game?

 

--Kap

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: 29th Feb, 2012 in the Champions Universe

 

I only have Champions editions 2 through 4 and Hero System 5th edition plus the Bestiary, so I gotta ask...

 

...what in the world are you talking about? Is this something from the Champions video game?

 

--Kap

 

It's DEMON's Master Plan (or at least one member thereof's Master Plan) that is supposed to come to a head on Feb 29, 2012. It's detailed (logically enough) in the DEMON sourcebook for 5e.

[Matt the Bruins]

Re: 29th Feb, 2012 in the Champions Universe

 

Perhaps the Edomite's quest for the Holy Grail to restore his crippled body would be one way to involve PC heroes in his grand plot. If Luther Black determines one or more PCs has the proper qualities to enable them to find the Grail' date=' he may trick them into a quest to do so -- perhaps infecting an NPC with a physical corruption similar to his own, while leaving hints that only the Grail can reverse it. Stealing the Holy Grail from them after they find it could lead the PCs to pursue the Edomite and arrive in time to thwart his summoning of the Kings of Edom.

[/quote']

 

If I were to run the big 2/29/2012 scenario (unlikely; I've run the Horror World chapter of Champions 3-D and find its Lovecraftian doomsday scenario vastly preferable to the deck-stacked-against-the-PCs "Look how EVIL we are, kids! BOO!" approach of DEMON and the later Shadow Destroyer adjunct),

I'd be inclined to use the above plot for the adventure hook with a hidden escape hatch should the players fail to stop Black's plans on their own. What happens to a man who's dedicated his entire unnaturally long life to evil and is currently channeling the darkest of forces when he drinks from the Holy Grail? (Here's a hint: think Walter Donovan in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.)