Champions in 3-D Plus

[Hermit]

I don't know how many of you recall the old 4th Edition book, "Champions in 3-D"? It had some good atlernate dimensions to throw your players into, and some good (I thought) scenerio ideas. Briefer mentions were made of yet more options ("Mad Viking World") and there was even a handy dandy set of charts for randomly rolling up your own.

 

Anyone have any more they've made up and used to good effect, or made but never got to try out?

 

Here's some I thought of I don't recall in the supplement...

 

• Facist World- Inspired by the recent "A Better Wolrd" Episode on the JL Animated series, the PCs do not face their criminal opposites but rather their facist ones, who've taken over "for the greater good" using harsh methods
  
• Animalmorphed World/Earth C- In honor of "Captain Carot and his Amazing Zoo Crew" everyone here is a cartoon like animal. PCs may not be amused by their counterparts.
  
• Gender Bender Wolrd- The PCs find a world where people have the opposite genders from the ones they know, "Yo, Thunderer, your counterparter here is like a total babe!" "Don't be sick, and don't even think about it."
  
• Panel World- This universe is one giant comicbook, but the participants KNOW it. Think She-Hulk when the 4th wall was gone. PCs will have to adjust to comercial ads in the middle of their fightscenes.
  
• Villain's ideal- Be it a robot only world run by Mechanon, or a place where Bulldozer is emulated by men, adored by women... this one can be either played for laughs, or deadly danger.
  

 

Then, of course, there's XXX world, but... well, no decent Hero would go there!

[JmOz]

I remember Champs 3-D (Love the book)

 

Also one idea is Flip world. All the F/X's are just mixed up (The PA Character uses an enchanted suit of Plate Mail, while the worlds Wizard Supreme is a Scientific Genius who does not know any magic)

[Sketchpad]

I always liked the "Mirror Universe" idea, but I made mine more like JLA: Earth-2. The heroes' alternate selves discovered the mainstream world and decided to invade, causing ALL sorts of confusion

 

For new ideas:

How about TV Land? Ever seen Plesantville? Now the heroes find themselves trying to maintain an ultra-mundane life while finding a way out.

Another good source for other-worldly adventure is the Micronauts You get shrunk to sub-atmoic proportions and find that the world that you know is made up of even greater worlds ... all within a speck of dust

[Lightray]

heh. I’m actually in the middle of running a 4-parter of alternate timelines. Four of the heroes are popping through different alternate timelines, meeting alternate versions of their teammates and enemies (though not of themselves; they have no alternate versions and that’s why they’re the ones going through this).

 

First up was “Roman Worldâ€, with modern-day Roman empire. The players caught on quick: bas relief on the St. Louis Arch, greco-roman revival architecture, autochariots and ornithopters... They found that superhumans fought in arenas for the entertainment of the populace, and they joined up with the Cruciferians against the Praetorians. Alas, when they went to fight in the arena to rescue captive Cruciferian superhumans, the players KO’d the opposition before I could get my speech + PRE attack out (the Praetorian leader was an alternate version of another of their characters, so they feared him).

 

Now they’re in “Ch’in Worldâ€, and everybody’s kung-fu fightin’! They’ve hooked up with the hidden Shaolin Temple to fight the oppressive Xian Immortals.

 

Next after that will be “Nazi Worldâ€, and then post-apocalyptic “Soviet Worldâ€. fun times.

 

And the best part of all this? Pounding on the players with the more annoying powers of some of their characters (Flash attacks for everyone!). Plus, it’s sooo easy to find new villains -- I just take the HeroDesigner files and tweak them.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: Champions in 3-D Plus

 

Originally posted by Hermit

I don't know how many of you recall the old 4th Edition book, "Champions in 3-D"? It had some good atlernate dimensions to throw your players into, and some good (I thought) scenerio ideas. Briefer mentions were made of yet more options ("Mad Viking World") and there was even a handy dandy set of charts for randomly rolling up your own.

 

OOh, yes, Champs 3-D. I have *got* to get another copy of that sometime. My own faves were Horror World (got especially fun when the heroes find the Anopheles apearing in *their* world) and Nazi World (faced Nazi-fied versions of some of the heroes).

 

Anyone have any more they've made up and used to good effect, or made but never got to try out?

 

I seem to recall a 'furry world' based on some now long-forgotten comic...

 

Here's some I thought of I don't recall in the supplement...

 

[*]Animalmorphed World/Earth C- In honor of "Captain Carot and his Amazing Zoo Crew" everyone here is a cartoon like animal. PCs may not be amused by their counterparts.

 

Heh -- Fenris would love that one.

 

[*]Gender Bender Wolrd- The PCs find a world where people have the opposite genders from the ones they know, "Yo, Thunderer, your counterparter here is like a total babe!" "Don't be sick, and don't even think about it."

 

Heh, this sounds like it has good potential for some truly evil GM tricks...

[Battlestaff]

Champions 3D

 

I loved that book. I've always been a fan of alternate history writings, and this allowed that interest to come into play.

 

As a point of fact, that book also provided the inspiration for a campaign I'm planning, invovling the slow decay of the walls separating realities. Should be lots of fun. After doing research on various websites and various stories, I've come up with a fair number of alternate worlds, all of which are on my computer at home, not here at work. Several are from the book, but some were based on ideas presented in various stories.

 

What are you planning to do for Soviet world? What's the breakpoint?

[Lord Liaden]

Champions in 3-D was a favorite 4E book of mine. The Dreamzone was the dimension that I used the most often - with its ability to reshape itself according to the imagination of beings in it, it could be something different each time. There were two scenarios that the players found particularly entertaining. One involved trying to retrieve Foxbat from the Dreamzone. The players found themselves wandering "Foxbatopia," with monuments to Foxbat everywhere, nonstop parades in his honor, every man and woman named "Freddy," and dopplegangers of the female PCs as his love-slaves (who gave him a thorough thumping when they finally caught him).

 

The second scenario was the result of Dr. Destroyer being cast into another dimension at the climax of an adventure. After experiencing a period of nightmares starring Dr. D the PCs were contacted for help by the Bogeyman! Destroyer had ended up in the Dreamzone, enslaved the Dreamshadows, reshaped the dimension into a totalitarian nightmare, and was working to open a rift into the waking world to lead his new legions in conquest.

[Lightray]

Originally posted by Battlestaff

What are you planning to do for Soviet world? What's the breakpoint?

All of the change points involve some campaign-specific history (much of which the players don't know about, yet). That allowed me to justify the ridiculous premise of the modern Roman empire, for example.

 

On "Nazi World" no one hindered the proto-superhumans during WWII, which gave the Nazis an extra edge, and prevented their scientists from defecting to the West. So the Nazis got the a-bomb (and used it).

 

One slight tweak led to "Soviet World": the Soviets got superhumans that enabled the Soviets rather than the West to overrun Nazi Germany first. So the Soviets got the a-bomb while the US still didn't.

 

Instead of the Nazis using the a-bomb during WWII, the Soviets used the a-bomb during the Cold War (think: Cuban Missile Crisis gone all wrong). They nuked the US until parts glowed, causing a nuclear winter. USSR collapses, US is wintery nuclear wasteland. Post-apocalyptic fun! With breadlines and occasional Red Army parades.

[Mark Rand]

I had the book, but I don't anymore.

I like to use a mage's house as a headquarters, and always add gates to alternate realities. Some lead to whole universes and some to pocket universes.

One pocket universe is an unoccupied chapel and the rooms behind it.

[Scott Heine]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

Destroyer had ended up in the Dreamzone, enslaved the Dreamshadows, reshaped the dimension into a totalitarian nightmare, and was working to open a rift into the waking world to lead his new legions in conquest.

 

Wow. That's really creative! Obviously I had a lot of fun with the Dreamzone, and the Bogeyman was a pretty creepy villain to play with. The thought of the Bogeyman seeking help from the heroes because Dr. D. had sent the whole dimension to hell is really scary... Neat stuff!

 

-- Scott

[Vondy]

Re: Champions in 3-D Plus

 

Originally posted by Hermit

I don't know how many of you recall the old 4th Edition book, "Champions in 3-D"?

 

SNIP SNIP

 

 

I'm still trying to forget...

[Brandi]

Re: Re: Champions in 3-D Plus

 

Originally posted by FenrisUlf

[*]Animalmorphed World/Earth C- In honor of "Captain Carot and his Amazing Zoo Crew" everyone here is a cartoon like animal. PCs may not be amused by their counterparts.

 

Heh -- Fenris would love that one.

 

I dunno-- he might find that his counterpart is a wolf with a strange obsession with the bizarre 'hairless monkeys' of legend and lore...

[Armitage]

Re: Re: Champions in 3-D Plus

 

Originally posted by FenrisUlf

[*]Gender Bender Wolrd- The PCs find a world where people have the opposite genders from the ones they know, "Yo, Thunderer, your counterparter here is like a total babe!" "Don't be sick, and don't even think about it."

 

Heh, this sounds like it has good potential for some truly evil GM tricks...

 

Especially if the GM has seen that episode of Sliders where Quinn meets a woman working on dimension travel for her government, becomes attracted to her, sleeps with her...and then discovers that she's that reality's version of himself.

[BobGreenwade]

A world I thought of at the time, inspired by Backworld, was one I called Darkworld. Here, everyone's counterpart was on the same side of the law as in the main CU, but had the opposite approach to it. The Champions were killer vigilantes, the Harbinger of Justice was an anti-lethality hero, Doctor Destroyer was a loon, and the most formidable threat to humanity was -- you guessed it -- Foxbat.

[Supreme Serpent]

I played in a game where we encountered a Gender-Bender world.

 

In my current campaign, I have an other-dimensional character (and another other-dim character in the campaign's past), and an ex-Soviet hero. Thinking about campaign ideas, I simply had to do a Soviet World encounter. Thus was born the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Realities) - cross-dimensional commie empire expanding from one earth to another...and another...and another...

[FenrisUlf]

Re: Re: Re: Champions in 3-D Plus

 

Originally posted by Brandi

I dunno-- he might find that his counterpart is a wolf with a strange obsession with the bizarre 'hairless monkeys' of legend and lore...

 

ROFL!

[FenrisUlf]

Otherworldly Superhero Campaigns

 

While we're on the topic of Champs 4-D, may I ask if anyone ever took a leaf from Ken Hite's Suppressed Transmission II and set up alternate 'hero worlds' as their main campaign, or even as a 'limited series'? Ie., the Silver Age Marvel characters in Imperial Rome or the Justice League in Renassaince Italy (with the team organized by Machiavelli, no less).

 

\

[Lightray]

Re: Otherworldly Superhero Campaigns

 

Originally posted by FenrisUlf

While we're on the topic of Champs 4-D, may I ask if anyone ever took a leaf from Ken Hite's Suppressed Transmission II and set up alternate 'hero worlds' as their main campaign, or even as a 'limited series'? Ie., the Silver Age Marvel characters in Imperial Rome

Oh, I stole from him in doing my Roman World.

 

One of the players' other characters -- a "sensory goddess" type - showed up as Crucifera, leader of the Cruciferians. She'd been crippled in the arena (for refusing to kill), and was in a wheelchair.

 

All of the Cruciferians had the "X" on their armor.

 

And the Cruciferians were misunderstood outsiders, fighting to protect other paranormals from oppression by the empire.

 

They even lived in a big villa disguised as a gladiatorial school.

 

... And no one got any of the references. Even though at least one of the players was an X-fan.

 

Gotta love Ken Hite, though.

[Crimson Arrow]

One I thought of would be a high fantasy world. DC did an Elseworlds like this some years ago (never did see the second part to it, unfortunately).

 

Powers largely came from being a member of an unusual species (fishperson for Aquaman, birdperson for Hawkman and Hawkgirl, the Flash was a demon, IIRC), were magical (the Green Lantern character) or were a result of training or medieval sciences (they had the Batmancer, who used chemical compounds, but pretended they were magical, rather than based on science).

 

It might be interesting for the PCs to run into themselves with different power origins, or perhaps other heroes changed in a similar way and the players are mistaken for the fantasy world counterparts.

 

Alternatively, perhaps the PCs are changed (happened to the JLA when they were sucked into the storybook universe a couple of years ago). Depending on how much work you want to do, it could be as easy as changing powered armour to magic armour or a more extensive rewrite.

[Nightfly]

What would be the chances of possibly republishing a 'Greatest Hits' of past editions [with or w/o 5E rules updated].

 

Although I'm sure the overall body of HERO products has been typically outstanding, there must've been some supplements that (at the time) sold better than others, or at least were more beloved / celebrated than others (such as this legendary 3-D book you're all praising).

 

I know I'd definitely be happy to 'catch up' on HERO's history, as I'm only familiar with 5E.  Whether it be a large book, smaller supplement, or even e-book, I know I'd eagerly buy it!

[Lord Liaden]

For the most part I wouldn't hold my breath, Nightfly. The impression I've gotten from Steve Long's comments is that DoJ is much more interested in putting out new stuff than in recycling old stuff. Part of that is due to legal issues: quite a few older characters belong to their creators rather than Hero Games, so reprinting them would be a hassle of getting permission and paying royalties. Besides, most of these older books are in circulation on eBay or among used game dealers, often for lower prices than DoJ could probably afford to publish them.

 

There may be occasional notable exceptions. For example, Steve has talked with Aaron Allston in the past about possibly offering a .pdf of AA's classic Strike Force campaign supplement. That's an unusual case since it's a highly respected book that's also rare and usually expensive when you can find it. Last I heard, though, Steve and Aaron were nowhere near serious negotiations to make it happen.

 

Mind you, quite a lot of the classic Champions material has made it into the 5E books, including many of the villains in CKC, and organizations like PRIMUS, UNTIL, VIPER and DEMON. In some cases they've been redefined, but the core of what made them interesting is intact.

[Hermit]

Well, a Variation on this is the "Kulan Gath/Morgan Le Fey" style reality re-write occaisionally done in Marvel. I recall rather fondly the Marvel Team Up comic book where Kulan Gath tries to turn the world into a modern Hyboria type setting, only to be stopped by Spidey, and Mary Jane as Red Sonja

 

This gimick came up again in X-Men, and with Morgan in Avengers, but could easily be adapted to Champions. In fact, it looks like it already has. The Champions Universe has the good Doctor Wu looking to create a reality warping mirror

[Lord Liaden]

I also recall a memorable story arc in the New Warriors in which the second Sphinx transformed the modern world into an ancient Middle East-flavored version of itself. Modern technology etc. still existed, but the Avengers included the god Horus wielding a magic ankh, and a swarthy-faced "Captain Assyria."

[zornwil]

I like Champions 3-D a lot.

 

A long time ago I did a dimension fo electronica, with a computer part where the bits were all idealized sentient or otherwise actionable objects, but also the TVLand thing someone else mentioned - the players flipped between channels with a techno-magic remote, beaming themselves from show-based reality to show-based reality. They kept running into that older guy who advertised health cereal, saying 'IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO!". As a result of their adventure, they inadvertantly released toons into the world and Toon Town became a reality.

[Hermit]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

I also recall a memorable story arc in the New Warriors in which the second Sphinx transformed the modern world into an ancient Middle East-flavored version of itself. Modern technology etc. still existed, but the Avengers included the god Horus wielding a magic ankh, and a swarthy-faced "Captain Assyria."

 

Heh, I liked that one. Though it was weird how many folks DIDN'T translate to Egyptian.