PamelaIsley

I was trying to create a 6E spellcaster and looking through my DnD books for example spells , when I came across one I had nearly forgotten: Trap the Soul. Basically, the spell causes someone's body to disappear and their soul to be stuck in a gem, until the gem is broken. Here is info: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/trapTheSoul.htm I'm guessing this is a pretty straightforward Transform power in Hero, built almost exactly like a Petrification transform. So it might look like: Transformation (Severe Transform 4d6 (Human Into Gem, Application of Similar Power) (60 Active Points); Limited Target ([Limited]; Humans; -1/2)); 40 point cost.

It's basically supposed to be this power from Champions Power upscaled slightly. The idea is to affect movement. Change Environment (create ice sheet), -4 to DEX Rolls to move on, Area Of Effect (Surface 16m radius; +1), Personal Immunity (+¼) (27 Active Points); Can Only Be Applied To Horizontal Surfaces (e.g., the ground and floors; -0). Total cost: 27 points. I can write it like this in Hero Designer (and add the personal immunity since it makes sense): Ice Sheet: Change Environment (-5 to Characteristic Roll or Skill Roll), Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4), Personal Immunity (+1/4), Area Of Effect (32m Radius; +1) (37 Active Points); Unified Power (-1/4) Looking more into the Rec and END, she could probably get by with 10/70 with no loss of efficiency, which would free up 5+3 points for something else.

There's a reason I made her OCV and DCV 9 and her speed 6 when I first built her when 6th first came out. I can't remember now. When I tweaked her recently, I didn't even look at those. She's a bit higher than my other 400 point builds (which I will post as the days go on). From what I remember, your OCV/DCV/SPD are very campaign dependent. You need to be in line with other PCs (so you aren't standing around or hitting too rarely). So I'm not wedded to any of these. The REC and END just make sense to me. They are sooooo cheap compared to anything else. Why ever run out of END? The overall skill boost was definitely a suggestion when 6th came out. Someone pointed out that I spent my skill points too inefficiently and that was a better value so I completely redid it.

Most of the stuff about Wendy, Denise, and Gravitar was written when Defender's look was much more like Iron Man.

She's the Champions housekeeper in MC in the 5E and 6E versions, I think. She and the liaison pose the most interesting questions about who knows who Defender is.

I completely agree with you. It has always seemed to me that keeping things secret from people that close to him is likely to cause him more angst than it's worth. It's also weird that Defender keeps it from his family, but shares it with his housekeeper.

Bluebird v.2 Total: 400 STR 13, 12-, 2½ D6, 150 DEX 18, 13- CON 18, 13- INT 18, 13- EGO 13, 12- PRE 18, 13-, 3 1/2 d6 OCV 9 DCV 9 OMCV 3 DMCV 3 SPD 6 PD 8 ED 8 REC 10 END 80 BODY 10 STUN 40 Total Cost: 186 Skills & Talents Overall Skill Level +1 (12) Acrobatics 13- (3) Deduction 13- (3) Inventor 13- (3) Language (French, Fluent) (2) Scientist (3) SS: Biology 15- (4) SS: Biochemistry 14- (3) SS: Chemistry 14- (3) High Society 13- (3) Stealth 13- (3) Eidetic Memory (5) Striking Appearance (Attractive, 2d6) (6) Environmental Movement, Ice (2) Total Cost: 55 Powers Ice Multipowers (75 points reserve, Unified -1/4); 60 Ice Blast (Blast 12d6, Half End, +1/4); 6f Ice Bonds (Entangle, 7d6, 7 PD / 7 ED, Vulnerable to Fire and Heat, -1); 3f Ice Cone (Blast 10d6, Cone +1/2, No Range -1/2); 4f Ice Blast II (Blast 10d6, No End +1/2); 6f Hail Storm (Blast 6d6, Area Of Effect (16m Radius; +¾), Indirect (Source Point is always from above target +1/4, Half End +1/4); 5f Killing Ice Blast (RKA 4d6, ED); 5f Ice Sheet: Change Environment (-5 to Characteristic Roll or Skill Roll), Red End(1/2 END; +1/4), Personal Immunity +1/4, Area Of Effect (32m Radius; +1) (37 Active Points); 3f Ice Wall (Barrier, 10m long, 4m high, 1/2m thick, 15 Body, 10 PD / 10 ED, Configurable +1/4, Ablative -1/2, Vulnerable to Fire and Heat, -1); 3f Ice Shield (Resistant Protection, 10 PD / 10 ED, Costs End -1/2, Unified, -1/4) PLUS (Resistant Protection, 10 PD / 10 ED, Costs End -1/2, Ablative -1/2, Unified -1/4); 30 Flight (30M, Unified -1/4); 24 Life Support (Immunity to Intense Cold, Longevity:2); 4 Mask Goggles (Sight Group Flash Defense 9d6, Focus (OIF) -1/2); (6) Total Cost: 159 Matching Complications Secret Identity (April Isley, Frequent, Major) 15 points Vulnerability (Fire, 1.5 Body Damage, Common) 10 points Psychological Limitation (Overconfidence, Very Common, Moderate) 15 points Distinctive Feature (Mutant, Not Concealable, Always Noticed, Only Detectable with Unusual Sense) 15 points Hunted (Viper, More Powerful, NCI, Imprison/Kill) 20 points Total: 75 points Background: The sole daughter of a wealthy couple from New England, April Isley was a precocious child that spent her summers in France and her winters in Aspen. Treated to the best of everything and blessed with extraordinary good looks as she matured, April graduated with honors from Millennium City University. She became a research assistant in the school’s biology program and worked with the brilliant, but unstable Dr. Maxima de Winter. De Winter was convinced that she could unlock the secrets of immortality by slowing down a person’s metabolism. Her research was condemned by her peers and even scoffed at by her skeptical assistant. As a result, de Winter ultimately decided to test her experimental procedure on April. The injections de Winter gave April either mutated the young woman or awakened a latent mutation, because they certainly changed Isley into something new. April began to shoot streams of ice when she awoke while de Winter was conducting tests. This complication frightened de Winter, who fled, taking all of her notes with her and destroying most evidence of the procedure. April thought about going to the authorities but decided to conceal the results. She didn’t want to be seen as a “freak” by her peers and scientists. Eventually April realized that the transformation might be a blessing. The more she learned about her powers, the more impressed she became. Not only could she probably make an entire scientific career out of studying her own body, she realized she might be one of the most powerful superhumans in the city. As a means of testing her powers, she designed a costume and began to call herself Bluebird. Her first forays into crimefighting involved simply thwarting street thugs and the occasional robbery, but her increasing confidence led to her challenging the schemes of a local VIPER nest. Bluebird finds herself at a crossroads. Very protective of her secret identity, she is wary of working too closely with other superheroes, but she finds herself having to admit that might be necessary to further explore the bounds of her powers safely. Personality: Prior to her transformation, Bluebird was a fairly vain, confident, and cold person, capable of being charming, but usually not bothering to make the effort. If anything, the manifestation of her powers has only made her a bit icier. Her own ideas about personal conduct would probably preclude her from ever being a supervillainess, but April lacks the self-sacrificing personality that characterizes many heroes. Although not a leader, she is not a particularly effective follower and her cooperation with other heroes has not been very successful. April has always been hyper-competitive and refuses to believe that she is second best in anything. This makes her a somewhat pouty loser on the few occasions she is beaten, and it also makes her more than a little cutthroat about everything from school performance, to research grants, or even just games of chess or cards. Bluebird likes to believe that she will do whatever it takes to stop a villain or crime, but it remains to be seen whether this would ever rise to using lethal force. Her overconfidence and her desire to always appear to be in the right probably would make her think very seriously before crossing over into outright vigilantism. Powers: Bluebird depends primarily on her ability to project blasts of ice. She is capable of creating ice blasts than can be lethal, freeze a target in place, or affect a wide, cone-shaped area. She also has the ability to create an ice shield for additional protection, freeze the ground to create a slippery sheet of ice, and erect ice barriers. Bluebird’s low body temperature grants her immunity to intense cold and her slowed metabolism has granted her a degree of longevity, something she has only been able to confirm in theory. Also, for reasons she hasn’t quite been able to explain, the experiment that mutated Bluebird also granted her the ability to fly. She has yet to discover any limits on this ability, but it ultimately inspired her bird-themed motif. Appearance: April Isley is an attractive young woman in her early 20s with an eye-catching figure, bright blue eyes, and very light blonde hair that she usually wears pulled back in a ponytail. Since the manifestation of her powers, her skin tone remains pale and very cold to the touch year round. As Bluebird, April wears a light blue costume that appears as a long sleeved minidress with a white belt. The outfit is accented by a white scalloped cape, white heeled boots, and long white gloves. Her mask is blue, with white panes that do not reveal her eyes. While Bluebird, April also uses her powers to make her hair appear white. Bluebirdv2.hdc

Index Original Heroes Bluebird, Ice Energy Projector Paragon, Flying Brick Ultragirl, Flying Brick Miss Photon, Light Energy Projector and Brick Darkwing, Costumed Avenger Overpower, Electrical Energy Projector and Brick Anaea, Sword Wielding Brick Accelerate, Speedster Original Villains Poison Petal, Plant Controller Aetheria, Light Energy Projector Kinetica, Kinetic Energy and Friction Controller Daystar, Celestial Energy Projector Omega, Energy Projector Tatterdemalion, Fear Inducer Crimson Psyche, Telepth and Psionics White Hare, Gadgeteer Conversions Cavalier 6E, Powered Armor Gravitar, Gravity Manipulation Master Villain ---Original Post--- I used to have a thread of 6E builds, but it's long archived. I'd like to revive it because I've decided (against my initial inclination) to try to re-learn 6E rules and get in the habit of creating characters again. The simple fact is that I like writing out character backgrounds and creating new heroes and villains (or converting existing ones). And I think having stat blocks makes a background look complete and it helps to think out what a character can actually do. Hero, like most systems, is heavily focused on combat (and has become more so over the years), but even just knowing the relative power of combat powers helps with placing a hero or villain in the context of the Champions world. I would love to get feedback and help on these builds, so please feel free to post any critiques or corrections. The first one that I will post is my original 6E build, which is a conversion of my Champions Online character. She is obviously quite dear to me (I've have four or five copies of her near level 40 in Champions Online because I love the look and powerset so much), but if I've built her incorrectly, then I'm happy to tweak her Hero version. All of these will have been run through Hero Designer (which is just awesome), so the costs should all be correct (if not, I've made a typo here). The formatting might be inconsistent because I tend to simplify some of the Hero Designer text when I drop characters into Word and then post them here. All of my my characters use a version of the Characteristic Maxima rules from 6E and 6E Champions. If someone has a characteristic over 20, then there will be some justification (although I don't charge more). I also tend to enforce something like a 75 active point limit on characters (maybe lower for my 300 point builds) and reasonable OCV/DCV numbers. But without experience in the system, I might be getting that part wrong. If I build enough characters, I will turn this first post into an index. If not, it will just be an intro to what I intend.

Although it's not explicitly stated anywhere, I'm guessing that the Champions were required to disclose their secret identities when they joined the team. This means that Witchcraft, Nighthawk, Kinetik, and Defender all know who each other are (everyone, of course, knows who Sapphire and Ironclad are). But I have some questions about Defender, and who else knows his identity. This is caused by the complications of being a Powered Armor hero. The Champions housekeeper, Wendy Brooks, and their liaison are both mentioned in 5E and 6E writeups as reacting to Defender's handsome appearance (Wendy has a crush on him and Denise doesn't see what the big deal is). Presumably, to find Defender handsome they must be seeing him outside his powered armor. That makes sense because it is unlikely he would walk around HQ in his armor all the time. But it also means that both of them must know his secret identity because James Harmon is a very widely known individual. But the mystery goes a little deeper (primarily because Champions can't resist remarking on how attractive people find Defender). Gravitar stops attacking Seattle in exchange for a date with Defender. Is she just assuming he's good looking under his armor? Or did she know what he looked like (meaning she, too, must know he's James Harmon). If she was just guessing he was attractive, then I'm assuming she must have found out when they went out to dinner (and dancing!?). He didn't wear his armor then, right? Gravitar probably did wear her usual mask (which in superhero terms, absolutely hides her identity, something I have no issue with as it is a trope I like). Maybe Defender wears an improvised superhero mask when he's outside his armor around support staff and others that he meets with? That makes some sense. I can't imagine he shows up at meetings with the mayor or government officials in his armor (or maybe he does; it isn't as bulky looking as Warlord's or Devastator's after all). If he does do this, though, it's never really mentioned or even alluded to anywhere. What do people think?

Some villain groups come together to share and grow their knowledge about something specific (the Devil's Advocates come to mind in the CU).

Oh, sorry. I must not have been clear. I understood exactly what you meant. What I was saying was that I agreed that many characteristics seem to be relics of earlier editions rather than what someone might use if they were designing a character from scratch for 5th or 6th edition.

It is up to every GM, of course. I just don't quite visualize Sapphire and Witchcraft being better than the world's greatest athletes. And it isn't really necessary or supported by their power sets. But despite hyping characteristic maxima rules in many places. it's obvious the CU wasn't built with it in mind. And people can have their own preferences too.

I agree that's it's just edition creep in many cases. But I would think that when doing a new edition, at least the Champions would have gotten a close look.

Nothing really under 20 bothers me that much. But there are a ton of violations of a reasonable characteristic maxima rule in the published characters (mostly villains). Just quickly thumbing through News of the World (because it is sitting next to me). Lady Blue has a 25 INT (why?), Talisman has a 21 Dex and 23 Con (better athlete than Olympians?), Warlord has a 25 Con (outside of his armor), Superstar has a 21 Dex, the Drifter has a 25 INT, Diadem has a 25 INT, Black Rose has a 25 CON, Scarlet Archer II has a 23 Dex, Nighthawk has a 25 Dex, Withcraft has a 23 Dex, Saphire is a 23 Dex and 25 Con, and so on. The biggest offenders are just casually giving out super dexterity and super intelligence, without any real justification in the character writeups. That's the kind of "inflation" I would be careful to monitor with PCs and would tweak as I used published characters in the setting.

I think most heroes and villains with alien backgrounds could be salvaged, just as long as there is plausible deniability that they actually are an alien. I think I mentioned in my first post, that the public could just treat anyone who claims to be an alien with extreme skepticism and that would solve the major first contact / everyone's lives suddenly change problem that aliens usually present. You're right, though. The key is to get rid of the constant invasions and the ongoing Star Trek-esque diplomacy.

I've never really liked the Golden Age. It's not as bad as the Silver Age, but it's just not my thing. I think I'm a "modern age" person, which probably means Iron Age without the grim vigilantism in my case.

I thought fake countries like Awad and Luganga (or Latveria in a different universe) were used to replace foreign governments. I think aliens are present so people can play out an "alien invasion" scenario. I just think the widely known existence of interstellar imperial entities (or extradimensional empires that do the same thing) that are extremely hostile to Earth and continually invade would radically change society, politics, and human behavior in a way that people flying around in capes wouldn't (but, again, everyone has a different level of suspension of disbelief). So that's one change I would absolutely make to the setting. There could be aliens, but their existence would be the subject of conspiracy theories and dismissed rumors. Same with other dimensions. Demons, evil entities, etc. might be lurking beyond the bounds of reality, but there are no massive empires constantly invading Earth.

I think they definitely made an effort to try to include everything.

For once? I didn't know we were in frequent disagreement.

I conceded that at the beginning. But I also think there's a line between a sci-fi campaign and a superheroes campaign. Aliens invading every few years, or a divided Earth that geopolitically hasn't changed much from our world, dealing constantly with alien empires as though they are just other nation states doesn't feel like the "real world" to me. Everyone has different tolerances, of course. I can tolerate superheroes and supervillains, costumes, little masks, constant break-outs, even anti-killing codes. But massive, regular invasions of Earth by extraterrestrial entities is too much for me to believe that the world would really look like anything like ours + flying people in costumes. That's the other reason I don't really like every enemy army having blaster rifles. I know why they are there (the Silver Age concept that people can be shot, but not be killed). But it's a step too far down the supertechnology route for me to keep it in a non-sci fi setting. CU does go out of its way to have every trope. I'm trying to figure out which ones can be easily excised, leave the setting intact, and satisfy my desire to have as little Silver Age influence as possible. I do like the idea of the world being closer to emerging superheroes than in its seventh decade of having them run around all the time. I just am not willing to construct a universe where the PCs (or whoever) would be the first. I don't want to throw out all the continuity in CU (I like the setting), just enough of it to keep the world "believably" like our own, with the addition of superhumans who commit crimes, fight crime, and fight each other.

It is true that some generations of superheroes did age and retire, but the "current" generation of heroes and villains, most of whom don't have anti-aging powers, don't really match up with their ages by the time of 6E. Gravitar, for example, is said to be a "young" French woman in her 6E writeup, but she's been active since the 1990s. Dr. Destroyer is 93, and has no means to slow his aging (according to 6E). The universe sort of works if you keep everything frozen in 2000 or 2005, but a lot of the 6E descriptions no longer match up given that they didn't do very much updating from News of the World, despite the passage of more time. Also, each passing year makes the vast majority of setting information even less usable, unless you refresh the timeline in some way (or start your campaign in 2000, which becomes harder and harder to do). I just feel the whole universe needs a timeline reboot, much like DC and Marvel do. (As an aside, I'm a huge opponent of living gaming settings. I don't like the setting to evolve or change -- I hated the ideas in M&M 3E's version of Freedom City for example. The setting should evolve as the players play in it, not on its own.) Alien empires interacting with Earth in any significant way just feels very Star Trek to me. It doesn't match a "realistic" setting. Others can differ, of course, but Champions Universe has a LOT of aliens trying to take over Earth. It just stretches my ability to suspend disbelief to think that the world, geopolitically, would basically be unchanged if we're threatened with alien empires invading us every few years (either from outer space or other dimensions). I would keep those type of entities in a Star Hero campaign and let the Terran Empire deal with them. But that's just me. Edit: LL posted a lot more and I have to step away. I'm not meaning to ignore his other responses in this post.

Based on the helpful comments from others, this is the outline I've come up with: 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. ---Original Post Below -- I love the Champions Universe. I came to it after starting Champions Online and found that it was a superior version of Freedom City (from M&M) with more compelling characters and a lot more thought given to how superheroes and villains would interact with the real world (although, as I discuss below, that thought isn't always in the direction that I agree with). Traditionally, the DC Universe has been my go-to for superhero adventuring, but I've become a bit detached from it over the last five to ten years. I'm probably not going to do much PnP gaming in the near future, but as a thought exercise I wanted to continue a project I started when I first bought all my Hero/Champions products in 2009-2010. I'd like to modify the Champions Universe. Specifically, I'd like to de-Silver Age it and simplify it so that it resembles the real world a little bit more. I wanted to get people's thoughts on what aspects would need to be excised or cleaned up to make it more "realistic" (obviously a relative term in the superhero world). There are actual rule mechanic issues that would need to be addressed to make the campaign less Silver Age (most obviously the imposition of some kind of logical characteristic maxima rules on the published characters; the number of random 20+ characteristics on characters that don't have any backstory to justify it is just staggering), but I'm not really interested in that so much as adjusting the history and flavor text of the world. So what Silver Age flavor elements jump out from the setting? The first problematical element is the prevalence of vast, intergalatic empires that make regular contact with Earth, but which, for some reason, haven't really changed how humans interact with themselves or other nations. This has always bugged me. So, using the 6E Champions Universe books as a guide, I would probably remove them all. I would essentially eliminate everything in the "Beyond Earth" section starting on page 104. This doesn't mean there can't be some aliens in the universe, but they aren't going to be obvious and their existence would be more in line with X-Files than with Star Trek (no alien ambassadors, no massive invasions, and disbelief at any superheroes that claim an extraterrestrial origin). I would probably remove all references to extradimensional conquerors. Similarly to alien empires, regular contact with beings like this would probably fundamentally alter society in ways that would make the world unrecognizable. So I would cut basically everything from Realms Beyond (p. 107). This would include dimensional supervillains like Skarn and Isvatha V'han (both of which never sat right with me anyway). Again, this doesn't mean there aren't demons or other sinister threats lurking in other dimensions (like the Kings of Edom). It just means that there isn't any regular, widely-known contact with them. Dimensional portals aren't opening up every few years for vast armies to flow through to conquer the Earth. That's just a bit too "out there" for me. Those are significant changes, but probably not the most critical. A big Silver Age element of the Champions Universe is the long-time existence of superheroes and their almost commonplace existence in the world. I wonder if that should be scaled back. For example, I had considered reworking the universe's timeline to shorten the period that superheroes have been active. Maybe there were a few costumed avengers or even low-powered heroes during World War II, but they faded from existence after that. There were very few to none in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s (this spares us the Watchmen issue of why didn't superheroes win the Vietnam War or dramatically alter the Cold War). Superhumans became more common in the 1980s, when Dr. Destroyer also appeared. This period of superhuman activity culminated in the Battle of Detroit, where many were killed, leading to another lull. This opened up the opportunity for teams like the Champions to spring up, and suddenly became some of the most prominent heroes in the world. The reason I would do something like this is that it helps with the idea that many supervillains and some heroes in the Champions Universe are unrealistically old if they were operating continuously throughout the period that the Champions Universe has existed. Comics sometimes face this problem (like if Batman has been operating in Gotham for 20 years, then he, the Joker, Catwoman, etc. are really getting up there in years). Dr. Destroyer is admitted to be 93 years old in 6E Villains book one. At some point, you have to wonder how villains created during this period of Champions growth are still alive (just from old age concerns, much less constant combat with heroes and governments). If you take the period of 1950-1980 basically out of the universe, you almost allow a reset on many of the character ages, allowing them to still be in operation in 2000, 2010, or 2020 (or whatever year you want to use as a baseline). At some point, even 2000 or 2010 become long enough ago that you might need to take the 1980s or even 90s out, and set the Battle of Detroit in 2002 or something similar so you could use Destroyer, the Champions, etc. realistically. This section became a little bit of a rant, but this is a thorny issue that's always bothered me. Other Silver Age elements that might be scaled back could be the existence of things like Atlantis, Lemuria, and the Empyreans. I would probably also eliminate UNTIL because the UN simply hasn't developed in this direction in the real world. I might get rid of superhero-specific departments in the United States as well, given how hard it was post-2001 for the government to reshape its national security agencies (although, arguably, that proved it was at least possible). I would move VIPER's debut date to be more recent and maybe change it to be less HYDRA and more COBRA, particularly in terms of its supertechnology. (On supertechnology in general, I would dramatically scale back the existence and use of sci-fi type weaponry that is a Champions staple. There's no real point to having everyone use Star Wars-type blasters and it can affect many players and GMs' level of immersion.) This is way more than I intended to write to start. What other things do people think could be safely trimmed or changed to take some of the Silver Age elements out of the universe? I also want to make it clear that I'm proposing changes that suit my preferences and opinions and am not trying to tell anyone that this would be a "better" version of the CU (I think it would be but not everyone is going to agree). I am very well aware that some people really love the Silver Age and like those elements to be preserved in even modern era settings.

That's a very fair point. The MMO needs the villains to be a bigger part of any story because you end up basically doing nothing but fighting (there's no RP'ing of convincing Caliburn to do the right thing, for example). It helped Valerian's character out a lot, and hurt Caliburn's (although I am impressed by how much of the archmage-to-be source material they ended up keeping).

Well, the 5E Vibora Bay book says she isn't aware of her role in Therakiel's plan and underplays her compared to Caliburn. In CO, she IS Therakiel's plan and Caliburn has no "choice" to make. So Scarlet is a much bigger deal in CO than in 5E Vibora Bay. She's also portrayed radically differently. She starts CO pretending to be (and dressing like) a hero. You run missions on her behalf in the Queen City and then more when she convinces Juryrig to help her. That wouldn't happen in the 5E version of Scarlet. She's out and out a villain all the way through. And no costume is mentioned at all (she has a great look as a villain in CO). As a small aside, the CO writers did use elements of one of her plot seeds in the Vibora book. As you mentioned earlier CO changed a lot of characters (sometimes for no reason at all -- speaking of Juryrig). I would have liked to read a CU-ized version of the CO Scarlet. I think they really improved her character.

Yeah, Gravitar looks awful in the game. But her art has never been that all awe inspiring in Champions material either. She looks very little like how she is described. She's one of my favorite characters in the CU so I was buying every book that covered her at one point. I will say that I really love the 6E Villains book 1 art with her writeup. It's stylized, but at least she could pass for being as attractive as her writeup says she is, and if you squint hard enough you can almost say the colors match the description. There was a ton of backporting of CO material in the first wave of 6E stuff. Lots of events in the game are mentioned in the 6E Champions Universe book, the 6E villain books, and the Champions book. A lot of it isn't for the best, but some of it cleans the setting up a little bit. Valerian Scarlet's 5E background isn't quite as interesting as her CO role, so if they had included her in Book 3 (and I disagree with LL above about whether she should have been), I think it would have been an interesting read.