A Modified Champions Universe

[Duke Bushido]

On February 19, 2019 at 1:35 PM, PamelaIsley said:

So stealing from Killer Shrike, here are my proposed setting parameters.  I tried to keep it simple (I originally went through all the active members of Sentinel, Capital Patrol, and Justice Squadron, but how often will that actually come up?), but it's still longer than Killer Shrike's.  I couldn't decide on whether the campaign would be centered on 300 point or 400 point 6E heroes, so I just wrote it up as though either could be used.  This is very much a draft.

 

The Bluebird Champions Universe (BCU)

A Modified Champions Universe Setting

 

Main Differences from 6E Champions Universe

 

1. Magic is not the source of all superpowers.  Superpowers come from a variety of means, and supermagic is just one possible origin for superhumans.

2. Ignore all published dates in the 5E and 6E Champions Universe.  Unless a specific date is given in the BCU, all events simply occur in the past.

3. There have been no extradimensional or alien invasions of the Earth.  Very few people on Earth believe in the existence of extraterrestrials.  Superheroes and villains with alien origins exist, but the public either does not believe their origin stories or is unaware of them.

4. Other dimensions exist, but there are no known interdimensional empires or states.  Dimensions exist primarily as the domain of entities such as demons, Lovecraftian monsters, or unknown forms of energy.  There is very little extradimensional travel, even by these other entities, without elaborate summoning rituals.

5. UNTIL, PRIMUS, and similar organizations do not exist.  Governments monitor superhuman activity, but regular defense and law enforcement agencies are responsible for dealing with any threats.

6. Superheroes and supervillains cancel each other out in a geopolitical sense.  Governments and militaries are far more powerful than even the combined might of all superhumans, so superhumans are not a factor in global political maneuverings.  No government maintains a large superhero team to supplement its military forces.

7. Supertechnology has not really spread enough to have any effect on the world’s technological level.  Virtually all villainous henchmen use real world guns, not blasters.

8. Superhumans were largely inactive during the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.  The modern era of superhumans began with the appearance of Vanguard about 12 years before the Battle of Detroit.  This coincided with the rise of Dr. Destroyer and Takofanes.

9. The Battle of Detroit happened eight years ago.  The battle seriously weakened the superhero community, causing most teams to slowly disband and many solo heroes to retire (if they weren’t killed in the fighting).  For unexplained reasons, many of the villains active during this time also faded away.

10. The new era of superheroes began with the founding of the Champions a “year or so” before the present year. Almost all villain origins should be considered to start within a few years of this event, unless there is a strong thematic reason to have them active in the earlier modern era.  (The purpose of this is to keep villain ages somewhat realistic.)

11. Although in decline, the Sentinels and Justice Squadron (called Justice in the BCU) are still active, although they are rapidly being eclipsed in prominence by the Champions.

12. The following master villains from 6E Volume 1 do not exist in the BCU: Istvatha V’han, Shadow Destroyer, Shadow Queen, Skarn, Tezcatlipoca, Tyrannon, and Doctor Yin Wu.

13. The following master villains were “finally” defeated around the time of the Battle of Detroit, and are not active: Dr. Destroyer and Takofanes.

14. The following villain teams from 6E Volume 2 do not exist in the BCU: Red Guard and Tiger Squad.

 

Typical Hero Rules

 

1. Typical "new" heroes are created either as low powered (300 point / 60 matching complications) or standard (400 point / 75 matching complications) characters.

2. No character may have more than one characteristic above 20 without a strong thematic reason (no randomly high dexterities or constitutions, as is common in published material).  If someone has a Dexterity above 20 or an intelligence above 20 for example, there needs to be a reason they are one of the world’s greatest athletes or one of the most brilliant humans to ever live.

3. In general, active points are capped at either 60 points (low-powered heroes) or 75 points (standard), with possible exceptions for an individual power.  DCs should be capped around 12. Villains and NPC heroes will be adjusted to compensate for this, as needed.

4. Non-speedsters should not have a SPD above 6.

5. Extradimensional origins should be avoided.

 

 

 

Wow.

 

With only a couple of small exceptions ( _none_ of the published characters and settings exist in my games; supers first appeared the late 1800s, the first one being Jack Brass, and others following in the early 1900s, DCs capped at 10 for starting out)  and the difference in point distribution owing to different editions of the game, this is almost dead-on how all my supers campaigns start out.  Build small characters and grow them.  I can't help but like what you've done.  

 

If the two folks above hadn't quoted it, I'd have missed it entirely.

[Ninja-Bear]

When it comes to Power Origins, Chi based marial Arts seems to me the hardest to come to grips with. I always make martial artists “normal” albeit cinematic. I love martial arts. I understand Chi and how it’s portrayed in comics. And yet for me hard to envision Super Martial Artists. The best one I came up with was Mantis. Think Spider-Man but with Mantis powers and Kung Fu!

[archer]

41 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

When it comes to Power Origins, Chi based marial Arts seems to me the hardest to come to grips with. I always make martial artists “normal” albeit cinematic. I love martial arts. I understand Chi and how it’s portrayed in comics. And yet for me hard to envision Super Martial Artists. The best one I came up with was Mantis. Think Spider-Man but with Mantis powers and Kung Fu!

 

I've always thought of Chi as being a form of psionics (TK, telepathy, precog, etc.)

 

Most anything you see being attributed to Chi in the comics can be duplicated with various "mental" powers.

[Killer Shrike]

54 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

When it comes to Power Origins, Chi based marial Arts seems to me the hardest to come to grips with. I always make martial artists “normal” albeit cinematic. I love martial arts. I understand Chi and how it’s portrayed in comics. And yet for me hard to envision Super Martial Artists. The best one I came up with was Mantis. Think Spider-Man but with Mantis powers and Kung Fu!

 

I would not have expected an ursine practitioner of ninjitsu to have a problem with chi as a sfx.

 

Basically, wuxia is just chinese superheroes. It's never been a cognitive problem for me. But I grew up watching Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest films.

 

 

[Ninja-Bear]

Oh so did I KS. I actually enjoy that style and age if you will of them too. But when it comes to gaming ?‍♂️

[PamelaIsley]

9 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

 

 

 

Wow.

 

With only a couple of small exceptions ( _none_ of the published characters and settings exist in my games; supers first appeared the late 1800s, the first one being Jack Brass, and others following in the early 1900s, DCs capped at 10 for starting out)  and the difference in point distribution owing to different editions of the game, this is almost dead-on how all my supers campaigns start out.  Build small characters and grow them.  I can't help but like what you've done.  

 

If the two folks above hadn't quoted it, I'd have missed it entirely.

I put it on the front page so it wasn't buried, but I think I will put it in my signature.

[Duke Bushido]

7 hours ago, PamelaIsley said:

I put it on the front page so it wasn't buried, but I think I will put it in my signature.

 

Oh, no; I'm sorry: I wasn't trying to imply that it was buried.  I haven't had a lot of time to just browse the board the last three or four weeks, so I don't see all the threads.  The title of this one implied tweaking the published stuff.  As I don't use the published stuff, I didn't think I had anything to offer so I didn't read it.  The page count got high enough that I opted to skim it last night, curious about what sort of discussion might be going on to weigh so many pages. 

 

As I was skimming, I might have missed that had it not been quoted a couple of times. 

 

That's all. 

 

 

Duke

[Ninja-Bear]

Pamelaisley I was skimming over Champions 4th aka BBB and noticed under campaign guidelines that I think you would find interesting. Under the heading of Normal versus Paranormal, there’s a statement that if you want to keep your Parsnormals closer to Human average, you can require Characteristica Maxima.  So I take it that you are well within the spirit by the creators to mold your game to suit your vision.

[PamelaIsley]

6 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Pamelaisley I was skimming over Champions 4th aka BBB and noticed under campaign guidelines that I think you would find interesting. Under the heading of Normal versus Paranormal, there’s a statement that if you want to keep your Parsnormals closer to Human average, you can require Characteristica Maxima.  So I take it that you are well within the spirit by the creators to mold your game to suit your vision.

 

The Champions 6E book talks a lot about Characteristic Maxima, as does the 6E book.  But the Champions Universe doesn't really use it, obviously.  I would use a modified version of the rules.  I wouldn't charge extra.  I would just disallow scores over 20 without a proper thematic explanation.