Christougher

One introductory scenario I wanted to use for Champions Begins, but ended up setting aside, was suggested by a member of the boards here whose name eludes me.  I apologize, again for having a poor memory.   It was an apartment fire, with the Heroes getting involved and meeting up by fighting the fire, saving people, etc.  I had it worked up partly, with there being various things happening in the apartments, such as a drug deal, an off the books daycare, and several elderly people who could not get out on their own.  At least one hero could easily be living in the apartment, someone might work nearby, etc.  Its a good way for a wide variety of things to take place, lots of heroism to be done, and danger while being contained and a simple event.
 
I think that would work well for a starter.  I like the idea of the bank robbery but its tough to come up with a fresh, engaging way to present a robbery that hasn't been done so much already.  I recently read a Donald Westlake book in which the main characters rob a bank by literally hauling it away: it was a bank in a trailer, while the real bank was being built.  This was the 70s so that kind of thing would happen.  They hooked the trailer up to a semi, sealed the night guards in, cut all the lines, and drove it away.  That has promise as a concept at least: what if the bad guys literally rob the bank -- the entire building?

the sections could be their own books - and even sold separately

So, a few years ago, we got together and worked on a project that eventually became Champions Begins.  This has been a very successful and well-regarded product for Hero, and as it is free, its helping a lot of people learn how to play the game.  I am particularly proud how everyone came together with suggestions, tips, ideas, editing, art, etc.
 
Well I want to do that again, but this time we're taking it a step up.  The next project will be Baby's First Campaign for Champions, a premade adventure story starting with the group gathering and ending with a big fight to stop the main bad guy.  In between will be several chained adventures and several drop-in ones, to make up a full campaign arc.  Think of it kind of as an "Adventure Path" for Champions.
 
The principle behind this is to help GMs know how to run an actual campaign and provide players with an intro to the game. I have seen many people ask how on earth to even run a game with superheroes? Almost none of the usual patterns of a D&D game seem to fit: the unclear pattern of advancement, the lack of treasure, the lack of dungeons, the modern setting, etc.  Someone (sorry I cannot recall whom) suggested the name Champions Rises for this product and I like it.
 
Here are my main concerns.  
 
First, this will necessarily be a pretty big book, its got to have a lot of stuff in it such as tips for GMing, tips for play, background for the campaign, a setting (even if very brief), all of the adventures, ideas on how to work in complications, personality, backgrounds, etc of characters into the campaign, the mindset of Champions as opposed to other RPGs (no kill and loot), and maybe even a section on how to build characters, since Champions Begins left that out.  All of that jammed in will be over 200 pages.
 
Second, there is a real need to have at least a stab at helping people build characters.  I'm fine with using fully built characters from the Champions Begins premade ones, but players will want to make their own hero at some point.  And that would necessarily include tips on what kind of characters to make or to avoid, etc.  This could be done as a separate interim book (maybe another freebie) which could follow up on Champions Begins by showing how to make a few of the prebuilt CB characters using the rules in Champions Complete.
 
Third, this would be a much more ambitious book requiring a more ambitious approach.  I'm fine with coloring and reusing old art from previous products but it would be nice to have new, hot art to put in the book as well.  And I'd like to have a really clean, high quality, exciting looking Character Sheet to use as well, something that pops and is evocative of comic books.
 
Fourth, we need adventures.  Thankfully there are a lot of them already printed and available for use in old magazines, adventure books like Champions Presents, and so on that can be mined to assemble a storyline.  And we'd need some drop-in adventures for GMs to use for special occasions such as for when a hunted shows up or a DNPC is needed to activate.  Character story kind of stuff.
 
Speaking of Character Story we'll need to identify and help the GM to use specific hero archetypes that show up: the loner, the crusader, the family man, etc.  Tropes and patterns from existing comic books and movies -- not the characters as their powers and abilities, but their personalities, tendencies, interests, etc.  Armed with those, a set of generic Character Story adventures could be created to target those and show GMs how to work that into a game.
 
Fifth I am sure you all can think of other things that we'll need, such as a setting, villains, time period, etc.
 
Champions Begins took several years to hash out and complete, so this is no hurry but it would be nice to have some discussion about it.

Humm...we obviously should start with a bank robbery. We end with a city destroying event which would require a few NPC heroes to do things which will free the our heroes to take care of the mastermind.

Gordon Lightfoot certainly did not need that song for his career. And he brought it to the families of the drowned sailors before he released it to ask for their approval. They all considered it a fitting tribute.
 
Detroit's Maritime Church rings its bell every year on the anniversary of the wreck, once for each sailor lost. Last year they added an extra stroke of the bell for Gordon Lightfoot after his passing.
 
(Sorry, that got my Canadian up a little.) 😌

R2-4Q 
 

LL doesn't drop much loot everyone, don't bother killing him.

"They're all over at <player name>'s house playing Humans and Hangovers."

I'm guessing the army, because, Colonel.

Yes, this idea can work and work well. Giving everyone a common origin, makes it simpler to weave plots together. And it makes less work for the GM on organizations.  Plus, single can still be pretty broad in scope.
 
It can also give some justification to fear by the population because these supers are different from the norm. All mages? They're after our souls! All cyborgs? They're going to turn us into spare parts! All mutants? We'll be replaced! Aliens? They'll enslave us and then eat us! It's much easier to fuel one strong conspiracy than lots of small ones.

Before I start, I should apologise, this is likely to be long and rambling. I am visiting my wife's mother, so I often lie in bed in the morning, delaying getting up and thinking.
 
Today my thinking is about HERO (recently it has all been about Baldurs Gate!).
 
HERO is a detail game and we build characters to have game effect.  It is seen as a difficult game because there is so much detail and new folk find it difficult to make effective characters.
 
I have been wondering whether that is because we start with everyman stuff and begin adding to it.
 
What if we started with a Hero?
 
If the focus was on game effect, then your standard hero would go, for example, five times a round, hit 60% of the time doing, on average, 15 STUN through defences and moves 20m.
 
You define your schtick, your attacks are because you are Strong, or because you have eye beams etc etc
 
You could then add "upgrades".  The first half dozen are "free", you could hit more people at once, move faster, have more actions, improve your defences, extend your attacks (versus different defences, more effective versus heavy armour, etc). You could add movement, add senses, add various things.
 
If you want more upgrades, you make compromises.  These can either be limiting the effectiveness of existing powers or taking on complications.
 
I wonder, perversely, if this focus on effectiveness would bring more attention to the powers rather than the mechanics. It would mean the players would have a big signpost to a standard that they deviate from rather than a base level they need to build from.
 
It would lend itself to big books of upgrades! 🙂 I can imagine the Ultimate Speedster book having lists of upgrades and compromises.
 
Obviously, those upgrades and compromises would all be coated and built (for the GM) rather than being black boxes like other games.
 
That's it.  An idea for a new way to play the build a character.  No other changes. And focussed on new players not existing experts...
 
Doc

You're killing me.  You lost half the joke.
 

Lucy, you’ve changed…here…have a snickers. Feel better? 

Which leads to a question: I am told I qualify for a number of those specific levels of Hell.  Am I doing timeshares among them?  Do I get parted out and have different segments of me in different places simultaneously?  Or something else?

That sort of thing is why they don't make flashcubes any more. 
 
Or better yet, one of those old-timey cameras where you put the flash powder in a pan loose. 
 
"Beware my doomsday device, you Gen Z slackers!  Its technology is far too outdated for you to even comprehend!"  - the Sesquicentenarian