Champions Worldwide game

[grandmastergm]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm going to run a Champions game over at Origins this year.  I was going to set it in a non-USA setting, and I think that given the popularity of Black Panther that I should set the game in Africa.

 

I'm not sure who I want to throw up for the game.  Let me know which villain I should throw at the PCs.

 

The PCs will be:

 

Ma'at: Avatar of an Egyptian goddess

Gazelle: A South African policeman with speedster powers

Ogun: A Nigerian engineer with metal control powers

TBD: I need a superhero concept and name

Pridemaster: A Kenyan vigilante with the power of the lion

White Rhino: reluctant Ugandan hero with the power of the rhino

[Hermit]

Ooo I need to think on this. My first thought was the Warlord, but Otanga is more Africa-centric

[Lord Liaden]

That sounds like a good game idea to me.

 

Personally I would go with Joseph Otanga. The others on your list have been done a lot, while Otanga is something different, and with a style that's more distinctively "African" than the rest. The extent of his criminal activities is international enough to draw heroic intervention from across the Atlantic. OTOH there would be good setting-based reasons to bring in any of the first four as complicating factors.

 

There are also elements related to Otanga, his country of Lugendu, and CU Africa, described in various books, which you might not have picked up on, which could add to your game. If you'd like some input on any of the above mentioned points, send me a private message.

[grandmastergm]

41 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

That sounds like a good game idea to me.

 

Personally I would go with Joseph Otanga. The others on your list have been done a lot, while Otanga is something different, and with a style that's more distinctively "African" than the rest. The extent of his criminal activities is international enough to draw heroic intervention from across the Atlantic. OTOH there would be good setting-based reasons to bring in any of the first four as complicating factors.

 

There are also elements related to Otanga, his country of Lugendu, and CU Africa, described in various books, which you might not have picked up on, which could add to your game. If you'd like some input on any of the above mentioned points, send me a private message.

 

I did do a game with Otanga as a villain 5 years ago, but I wouldn't mind having him as the main villain again. 

 

Do you have any recommendations for the 6th hero option?

[Lord Liaden]

Could you please clarify what you mean by, "6th hero option?"

[death tribble]

Joseph can play the face of a kind man and also the soul of a monster. He is the right person for this

[Cassandra]

Africa could become a VIPER stronghold as in S.M. Stirling's Draka series.

[Lord Liaden]

That's certainly what VIPER wants. Because their world headquarters is in West Africa, VIPER views the continent as their rightful territory, and Joseph Otanga as a rival for dominance of it. Otanga's forces and VIPER's have clashed several times.

[grandmastergm]

2 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Could you please clarify what you mean by, "6th hero option?"

 

Sure, I have 5 hero options listed.  I need one more.

 

Ma'at: Avatar of an Egyptian goddess

Gazelle: A South African policeman with speedster powers

Ogun: A Nigerian engineer with metal control powers

TBD: I need a superhero concept and name

Pridemaster: A Kenyan vigilante with the power of the lion

White Rhino: reluctant Ugandan hero with the power of the rhino

[Steve]

21 minutes ago, grandmastergm said:

 

Sure, I have 5 hero options listed.  I need one more.

 

Ma'at: Avatar of an Egyptian goddess

Gazelle: A South African policeman with speedster powers

Ogun: A Nigerian engineer with metal control powers

TBD: I need a superhero concept and name

Pridemaster: A Kenyan vigilante with the power of the lion

White Rhino: reluctant Ugandan hero with the power of the rhino

 

I’d suggest another female character: Jungle Girl.

[Lord Liaden]

Ah, of course. Sorry I missed that.

 

If you're using White Rhino, Ironhorn is also possible. Despite being a racist and Marxist revolutionary, Ironhorn is described as genuinely caring about downtrodden blacks in Africa, and wanting to help them.

 

Champions Universe p. 80 names a few other superheroes of Africa. The Egyptian hero Pharos is described as "an energy projector-brick." There's another South African hero called Blaze who like Gazelle is "relatively young and inexperienced," with no other details given (but his/her powers aren't hard to guess). The Boer, called South Africa's greatest hero, retired after the fall of the apartheid regime, but might be lured back to activity if the need is great enough.

 

In 2006 UNTIL beat Joseph Otanga to a large chunk of kelvarite from a meteor shower. What wasn't known at the time is that same shower scattered bits of kelvarite over half of Africa. New heroes, or villains, could have been produced by that, including ones to augment the forces of any other factions in Africa.

[Lord Liaden]

GMGM, do you have an idea of your preferred plot, or do you/will you want suggestions for that as well?

[csyphrett]

N'longa from Solomon Kane could be a template for shamans for your game. He has ghost and dream powers as well as the staff of Solomon that allows him to kill eldritch abominations.

CES 

[mallet]

Maybe for the undecided character you could make them from the USA or Europe. They are in Africa for a vacation and get caught up in the adventure. Depending on how good your players end up being it could add a little culture clash and “fish out of water” element to the adventure. 

[Lord Liaden]

6 hours ago, Steve said:

 

I’d suggest another female character: Jungle Girl.

 

Actually, that's not without CU precedent. Darren Watts's recent Golden Age Champions writes up Tyanna the Jungle Girl, chief of the isolationist Owatu tribe in what is now Gabon. In the late 1930s and early '40s she adventured with several heroes in Africa and the United States. Tyanna's grandson is chief of the Owatu today.

 

Tyanna in her youth was an exceptional athlete and fighter, and like many in her family line could telepathically communicate with and call to her the beasts of the jungle. (All animals were friendly to her and disposed to follow her instructions, but she didn't actually compel them to obey.) GAC doesn't name the current chief, nor state whether or not he has the same abilities as his grandmother. However, it would not be unreasonable (and well within genre convention) for him to have a daughter who is the spitting image of Tyanna, even sharing her name.

 

While Tyanna's concept does overlap somewhat with Pridemaster whom grandmastergm has already said he wants to use, she is from an African country not yet represented on his team.

[L0rd_Magg0t]

How about a Jane Goodall like character that summons apes?

 

[Darren Watts]

4 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

Actually, that's not without CU precedent. Darren Watts's recent Golden Age Champions writes up Tyanna the Jungle Girl, chief of the isolationist Owatu tribe in what is now Gabon. In the late 1930s and early '40s she adventured with several heroes in Africa and the United States. Tyanna's grandson is chief of the Owatu today.

 

Tyanna in her youth was an exceptional athlete and fighter, and like many in her family line could telepathically communicate with and call to her the beasts of the jungle. (All animals were friendly to her and disposed to follow her instructions, but she didn't actually compel them to obey.) GAC doesn't name the current chief, nor state whether or not he has the same abilities as his grandmother. However, it would not be unreasonable (and well within genre convention) for him to have a daughter who is the spitting image of Tyanna, even sharing her name.

 

While Tyanna's concept does overlap somewhat with Pridemaster whom grandmastergm has already said he wants to use, she is from an African country not yet represented on his team.

A friend of mine played her daughter in one of my Silver Age games, and she worked great. dw

[Lord Liaden]

If you want to evoke the feel of Africa from the Black Panther movie, IMHO using Egyptian heroes or villains could be problematic. Although physically part of Africa, Egypt is geopolitically and socially more integrated with the Middle East. The culture in Black Panther is much more representative of sub-Saharan Africa.

[Lord Liaden]

1 hour ago, L0rd_Magg0t said:

How about a Jane Goodall like character that summons apes?

 

 

Ooh, that reminds me... how about a character who actually is an ape?

 

Not yet discovered by humanity is the Kingdom of the Apes, a civilization of mutated intelligent gorillas abiding in underground caverns in Africa. In 1796 a radioactive meteorite landed in the Congo, its rays bestowing intelligence and ability to speak upon a small tribe of gorillas. The apes relocated to the caverns to avoid humans, and began to build their own civilization. Under the leadership of their "nigh-immortal, superhumanly-strong" King Simianus, today they number nearly 2,000 and have progressed to agriculture, mining, and smelting iron for tools and weapons. The apes hate and fear humans, but as humans have encroached closer to the entrance to their caverns, and population pressure forces the apes to the surface more often, they fear discovery and conflict are inevitable. (The Kingdom of the Apes is mentioned in Champions Universe, and described at greater length in Champions Universe: News Of The World.)

[assault]

14 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Despite being a racist and Marxist revolutionary,

 

"Oh dear lordy."

 

OK, I understand what this is referencing, but oh dear.

[grandmastergm]

11 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

Actually, that's not without CU precedent. Darren Watts's recent Golden Age Champions writes up Tyanna the Jungle Girl, chief of the isolationist Owatu tribe in what is now Gabon. In the late 1930s and early '40s she adventured with several heroes in Africa and the United States. Tyanna's grandson is chief of the Owatu today.

 

Tyanna in her youth was an exceptional athlete and fighter, and like many in her family line could telepathically communicate with and call to her the beasts of the jungle. (All animals were friendly to her and disposed to follow her instructions, but she didn't actually compel them to obey.) GAC doesn't name the current chief, nor state whether or not he has the same abilities as his grandmother. However, it would not be unreasonable (and well within genre convention) for him to have a daughter who is the spitting image of Tyanna, even sharing her name.

 

While Tyanna's concept does overlap somewhat with Pridemaster whom grandmastergm has already said he wants to use, she is from an African country not yet represented on his team.

 

Unfortunately Tyanna has basically the same abilities as Pridemaster.  I did like the idea so much that I combined the characters and gave Pridemaster (who is the daughter of the late Dedan Ouko) the name "Zuri Ouko".

 

The ape character sounds interesting, but there is already a canonical ape superhero in the Champions Universe named Dr. Silverback.  Silverback could be the 6th character, although he would need to be reduced to 500 points.

 

 

[Cassandra]

12 hours ago, L0rd_Magg0t said:

How about a Jane Goodall like character that summons apes?

 

 

She can call her empire Curious Georgia.

[Lord Liaden]

3 hours ago, grandmastergm said:

The ape character sounds interesting, but there is already a canonical ape superhero in the Champions Universe named Dr. Silverback.  Silverback could be the 6th character, although he would need to be reduced to 500 points.

 

I guess you could bring Dr. Silverback back to Africa to "discover his roots."   But the CU has more than one ape character anyway. Ape-Plus was created by the Overbrain as an "anything you can do" response to Dr. Moreau having created Silverback. There's no reason for the existence of one character of a particular concept in a world, to negate any other characters with a similar concept.

[Tom Cowan]

How about a female ape?  We are always seeing super silverback apes i.e. male apes

[Lord Liaden]

I notice that the Living Sphinx is running second in the poll. He is unquestionably a terrifying monster, great for combat encounters or a character-stalking scenario; but he lacks more complicated motivations or larger plans, so may not be the best choice for main villain in your game. But he could justifiably show up in any scenario where magic-wielding characters are in play.

 

Since Joseph Otanga has remained in front so far, I'm going to supply relevant tidbits of CU info I've gleaned from various sources which could contribute to the plot of a game. I'll put them in Spoiler tags in case any player in GMGM's game happens to read this thread.

 

 

Millennium City p. 97 notes that Otanga has invested a sizeable chunk of his ill-gotten wealth in several of the city's smaller cutting-edge tech companies, because he believes in the long-term value of tech stocks. It's unknown what he plans to do should he gain controlling interest in them; but developments with this plot point could justify drawing American heroes to Lugendu.

 

Champions Universe: News Of The World pp. 98 & 154 reveals that UNTIL has been trying to infiltrate undercover operatives into Otanga's inner circle for years, but those who got too close disappeared. Unknown to UNTIL, Otanga has brainwashed them to be loyal to him, and transformed them into "low-powered" superhumans. Given Otanga's defined transformative abilities I would expect them to be animal-men or chimerae like Otanga himself.

 

DEMON: Servants Of Darkness p. 117 mentions a Demonhame in Lugendu, under the cover of the Good Samaritan Mission. It's one of DEMON's main connections to the slave trade, by which DEMON acquires many of the sacrifices for their rituals.

VIPER: Coils Of The Serpent briefly describes Nama's tyrannical brother serpent Beda, who was slain by an unnamed hero in the antediluvian past. His legacy was so terrible that even after all these millennia, some West Africans still sacrifice to "the Mighty One" to appease him. I have to wonder if Joseph Otanga's mysterious sacrificial altar might have been dedicated to Beda; and if so, what the effect of many years of human sacrifice at the altar could have had on Beda's spirit? I daresay Nama would be interested in the outcome of that, if he should find out.