Looking for help w/ Team Origin Adventure

[JCR]

Greetings!

I will try and keep it concise as I can. I have been playing in the same group w/ the same characters for the past 30 points or so of exp (400 point start). We all wanted to play so we made characters, said we had been recruited by UNTIL, and just started playing as superhero group called PRISM (Paranormal Research & Investigation Supernatural Marshals; all members were magic based). Thus I had a bright idea of coming up w/ an actual scenario in which the characters actually meet, band together, and basically create PRISM by the end of it. I soon found this on the net http://trww.tripod.com/RolePlaying/ToStandTogether.htm which I though would be really cool (as bonus their group name would also become a double entendre).

Here are the problems I ran into:

1) I have never run champs before.
2) I found out the hard way, though I enjoy playing the game, I really hate running combat as a GM in champs (been playing/running other tabletop games for decades so this surprised me quite a bit).
3) I would hate to make it a flashback scenario, but every other thing I can think of brings w/ it myriad problematic plot holes that give me a headache.
4) The current characters in the game would easily defeat every one of those NPC's; even the boss at the end is not much match for the 3 of them, even the pumped up version. I have considered switching them all for some supervillians, but have no idea who would fit; as I said, I am not familiar w/ champs in the tabletop medium.
5) I have limited time during the week to try and work on this.
6) I also completely and absolutely w/o a doubt suck at maps, specially hex/grid ones.

Any and all assistance is appreciated. The more detailed you can get the better. Also, if you want I can give you details about the current characters if it helps. Have a good one!

Edit: I also bought the Sands of Time pdf in case anyone also finds a way to tie it in.

[Lord Liaden]

Will offer more advice when I have time: but do you have access to any books with collections of Champions villains, for any edition? I might suggest suitable replacement villains.

[JCR]

My regular GM has possibly every book champs ever put out, so yes. I also don't mind buying a book or two here and there (bought Fantasy Hero book + PDF a week ago).

[BoloOfEarth]

As to the flashback thing:  One year at GenCon, I played in a game where our characters (from a long-term, well-established hero team) were being interviewed for a documentary about the team's origin.  It seems to me that you could do that with this scenario -- the interviewer asking how the team first learned about the cultists - cut to that scene and play it out.  Then the interviewer asking about retrieving the other artifact pieces - cut to those scenes.  And so on.  And if it doesn't make sense for it to be a documentary, it could be something else, like the team's new base AI wanting to know how the team started out, or a new member getting briefed on the team's history, or the team's new UNTIL liaison getting briefed by the team, etc.

 

This would involve early versions of the characters, not as they currently are, so you could scale them down to the level of whatever opposition you have.  If the hero Dr. Oddity currently has a 75-point multipower of spells?  Well, it's now a 50-point multipower, with a few slots dropped completely. 

 

Having the artifact pieces being shards of a larger crystal prism, that is itself Demonicus' prison, has a nice double meaning.  (I think that's what you were alluding to about double entendre.)

 

As to maps, if you don't mind printing off a bunch of pages and taping them together: 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/105182/Toys-for-the-Sandbox-34-The-Island-Monastery?term=monastery

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/120569/Steel-Fort

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/126566/Battle-Maps-APOCALYPSE--Ancient-Military-Bunker-Set

 

I personally prefer DramaScape maps, but I didn't see a monastery or military base by them.

 

[Lord Liaden]

20 hours ago, Jayzon said:

My regular GM has possibly every book champs ever put out, so yes. I also don't mind buying a book or two here and there (bought Fantasy Hero book + PDF a week ago).

 

In that case, and if you're using Sixth Edition, I'd suggest looking at Champions Villains Volume One: Master Villains. The entry for Shadow Destroyer includes full stats for several of his "Qliphothic cultists," who should provide variety and power enough to challenge your players. Shadow D himself may very well be too powerful for them to take on directly, but you could substitute another of the mystical master villains from the book. My recommendation would be either Kigatilik or Tezcatlipoca, whose motifs and abilities fit well enough with the cultists to present a unifying style. Tez also has statted cultist followers of his own, whose distinctive style you could add to the mix if you like. All three of those villains have stronger lieutenants you could run instead of or in addition to whichever Demonicus analogue you choose.

[JCR]

All great ideas that will definitely be used indeed, thanks a mil!!!

I already made the mistake of getting them to the boss fight so I can't use the interview scenario, BUT I will be definitely be using it for a new bunch of characters in the same universe and timeline. Basically it will explain what that new group was doing and how they banded during the same time the other (current) group was dealing w/ those other menaces. I really liked it.

What I am considering to do to fix the current scenario is try to fool them into believing they have won. Then have an old npc super the group has already met (hes a magic user and certainly was going down a non-heroic path) steal to the shards from them in an attempt to siphon the power unto himself. This will have them on a mission to find and stop him. He will of course have a small team of supers hired to stop them. After they stop the supers and interrogate them they can give the location of the ritual in exchange for freedom; after all it could mean the end of the world if he suceeds. Once they arrive they find its too late and he has managed to become a boss level baddie which they need to stop.

Not the best idea, I know. One neat thing I could do as a side effect is since Talisman is dead in the group's reality (killed by super agent level heroes the group was playing previously) thanks to the "wizard" messing around w/ dimensional/astral magic I could certainly bring her back from the dead (extra powers) to antagonize the players later on.

Any more suggestions/ideas are always welcome. I will be getting a 6 week medical leave this next week thus leaving me w/ a lot of free time to craft and create something fun for the group.