KawangaKid

I think you could also look at some changes to the mystical world, like The Pit in McLaren Park might be closed by now, or transformed into something else. https://sfrecpark.org/716/McLaren-Park

Lone Wolf has its own RPG now! Didn't Fighting Fantasy also have one? Happy to see Fighting Fantasy getting another property.

That’s true! And Planetary was going to create this rich backstory for its universe as well… and then it got merged mid-story.

Charlton Comics (though they forgot about Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt apparently and let him lapse), Fawcett for the Marvel family, Milestone Comics, and now these guys. Hope they do more with them!

Thank you! I am trying to share my thought processes because I have benefited from other GMs from other gamers sharing theirs. Every table and every GM is different, but it helps to see what others have done before. Barking Alien (on my blog roll) has also done interesting DC alterverse campaigns, and I’m back reading those now. Seth Skorkowsky explaining on his YouTube channel how he changes certain adventures also spurred me to try converting adventures from genre to genre. THUNDER agents rights are apparently a touchy subject. Failure to follow IP protocols in early issues put all characters into public domain, apparently. But someone still owns the rights I guess. Maybe the newer (Ish) character designs are an attempt to trademark again.

There used to be FASERIP to Champions conversions… and I think there are FASERIP stats for the WWII marvel heroes online. I recall a Dragon Magazine supplement about it too.

07 - https://armchairgamer.blogspot.com/2023/05/champions-one-earth-storylines-02.html [ Storylines 02 ] More storylines, like the nation of Krakoa (cribbed from Powers of X / House of X) 08 - https://armchairgamer.blogspot.com/2023/06/champions-one-earth-adventure-sources-01.html [ Adventures 01 ] Where I get my adventure ideas and plots, esp. for investigative adventures.

I don't recommend doing so in the case of Fate Points. FATE uses FATE Points in an economy. You can earn Fate Points by agreeing to (or self-penalizing your character) with an aspect disadvantage for the scene; You can spend Fate Points for a specific set of bonuses or meta effects. FATE points are supposed to grow and ebb in the span of a game. And I think it gets reset to the base at the start of the next adventure or session. This is very different from earning XP.

While there is truth to that, as stated by someone who a friend introduced to the Hero System & Champions in the post-2000s, "sure some powers are broken, or can be broken in combo with others -- but it also tells you which powers and advantages and limitations are broken." He was, of course, referring to the magnifying glass and stop sign labels in the rulebooks. Something that I had not considered, as most other rule sets don't highlight these...

06 - https://armchairgamer.blogspot.com/2023/05/champions-one-earth-resonant-storylines.html [ Storylines 01 ] In which I start listing out the storylines that become part of the history of Champions: One Earth.

I watched the Tom Hanks one years ago...

Watched MONUMENTS MEN, and enjoyed it. Now looking at a re-watch of the Batman: Brave & the Bold series.

Well, regarding them, I'm making Power Girl the carrier of the lineage after WWII Superman (as per the original Earth 2). But I am also familiar with the actual history of how Power Girl's chest was originally depicted, and how it -- er -- grew in the telling over the years.

Ah, I didn't know that. I thought it was more of a static setting (just recently updated) with a really impressive Wold Newton-ish timeline. I really enjoyed the idea of the ubertimeline from dawn of time to far future, with different ages of heroes. I really wish it had found more purchase in the 5th edition. I also wish that the streamlined version of Champions (Fuzion) had been a bit more polished and accepted. Will share some other items of interest as I get further in my campaign. 01 - https://armchairgamer.blogspot.com/2023/03/champions-one-earth.html [ FIRST POST ] 02 - https://armchairgamer.blogspot.com/2023/05/champions-one-earth-broad-strokes.html [ BROAD STROKES of the CAMPAIGN ] 03 - https://armchairgamer.blogspot.com/2023/05/champions-one-earth-bayport-megacity.html [ SETTING: BAYPORT MEGACITY ] 04 - https://armchairgamer.blogspot.com/2023/05/champions-one-earth-player-characters.html [ CHARACTERS: Part 1 ] 05 - https://armchairgamer.blogspot.com/2023/05/champions-one-earth-player-characters_14.html [ CHARACTERS: Part 2 ]

Well, I'm inspired by having a sort of "generations" approach to these things (the two mini-series by John Byrne covering the Superman & Batman families across generations). There are generations of these heroes as the older ones retire, get lost in the Phantom Zone, are killed, time travel, and so on. I chalk up the costumes as a legacy that gets passed on, but I am trying to side-step some of the questions until the issue becomes critical to the story. In fact, I've just introduced a Golden Age Superman fighting some monsters that invaded from the Phantom Zone... There is a Superman, Thor, Batman, Captain America in this current setting, but the costumes are different and they may or may not be the same until the players interact with them. Until that time, they're free to speculate with their own preferences based on their knowledge (or lack thereof) of the comics. My early attempts at a timeline certainly gave me a headache...

I had thought it to be a combination of the Illuminati and the quintessence in DC. But okay, that would exclude Doom…

REPOSTING a portion of my Campaign Guidelines: Campaign Hook: Knight Watch Red The PCs start off as plainclothes super-heroes tasked to investigate incidents (involving locations, individuals, and artifacts) of a potentially multiversal nature. If there's potential danger, they are to secure the location, individuals, and artifacts involved, contain multiversal incidents, and protect sentients and the dominant reality. Borrowing from SlyFlourish's Six Truths approach to fantasy rpg campaigns, and applying it to my own (just enough for my players to jump onboard without having to read pages and pages of background), I came up with the following for my super-heroic campaign: The world of Knight Watch Red has a single timeline from WWII to the present involving different ages of super-heroes (from Marvel & DC). Super-heroes and super-villains tend to age normally from their first appearances, and have seen multi-generational legacies across heroic ages. Nations, corporations, and organizations recognize the threats of metahumanity based on battles of super-heroes and super-villains across history. Nations, corporations, and organizations also recognize the value of metahumanity in conflicts against attempts to conquer or destroy the Earth. Organizations like the Justice Society and Checkmate evolved from fighting crime to monitoring, regulating, and cultivating the super-human societies of Earth. Recent anomalous incidents suggest that multiversal incursions are weakening the fabric of reality, and must be contained to safeguard the timeline. The combination of these Six Truths helped me establish a familiar combined universe, yet one that was also different from the ones in the current comics -- where some heroic and villainous mantles are already on their second or third generations, while others are eternally frozen in time and still hold on to their places despite their aging compatriots. It also allowed me to briefly expound on new elements of a status quo that place Earth in a universe with aliens, but have somehow placed it in a semi-static status quo that does not have an incredibly fertile mutant population with Omega-level threats around each corner, that does not have yet another alien race invading this week / month / year, that does not have hyper-advanced technology in the hands of common folk. But more on this in another post. Of course, I added a Seventh Truth to this set, which was related to the creation of the characters themselves: 7. Each PC must be a legacy character. Whether they are related by blood to another hero or villain in the DC or Marvel universe, or they are inspired by one of them, or they have inherited artifacts, knowledge, abilities through various means, they must be tied to an existing character in these universes. The reasons for this last one were: (a) to provide me with a handle on the types of adventures that these created characters would like to engage in; and (b) to allow me to quickly and easily grasp the backstories of these characters -- including whatever time-/science-/space-bending implications their histories and powers might have. It reduced the need for long (and potentially contentious) discussions about histories, NPCs, powers, abilities, enemies and allies through broadstrokes mentions of key figures in the DC/Marvel setting (filtered through the rough timeline and current status quo in my head). Oddly enough, it also curtailed a tendency for my Champions players to come up with the wildest character concepts executed in the most-game breaking way possible -- by giving them a chance to go through favorite character concepts and legacies and an opportunity to put their own stamp on this legacy character.

On the magic side of things, I would also look at including Tim Hunter (from DC), the Scarlet Witch (Marvel), the Shadow Pact / Justice League Dark crew, and perhaps the occasional Doctor Doom…

Zatarra and Zatanna do make sense. Clea partnered with Amethyst? I think Amethyst might be more powerful that Clea, or is sometimes a force of nature than a person. The question is -- is Billy Batson still a kid by this time?

Well, I finally have been able to start (and consistently run) my Champions campaign set in a combined Marvel & DC universe. It's a superheroic campaign where DC & Marvel Universes have merged, and I'm busy coming up with rationale, pruning, and GM's fiat that justifies why the power levels are low, and why the multiple threats to Earth, The Universe, and Everything haven't emerged and haven't driven the populace insane. I'll post in the future about how I've been trying to translate all this "Session Zero" stuff for super-heroic campaigns into my own setting and universe -- and how I'm actually taking some of the adventures from other RPGs (super-heroic and non-superheroic) and translating them into my campaign's adventures. I did a lot of writing and thinking about the campaign, because I really wanted to get the types of adventures and the type of campaign clear in my head, before I started. But I also had to avoid the trap of over-prepping for the campaign, because I wanted to leave space for the characters my players build to carve out their own stories and backstories in the universe. Am also relearning building characters in HERO, and have been negotiating with my players which of our preferred versions of the rules to use, and it's mostly 5th Edition HERO with some carry-over rules from 4th. So, we shall see! I've been blogging about it here. Will share some other items of interest as I get further in my campaign. 01 - https://armchairgamer.blogspot.com/2023/03/champions-one-earth.html [ FIRST POST ] 02 - https://armchairgamer.blogspot.com/2023/05/champions-one-earth-broad-strokes.html [ BROAD STROKES of the CAMPAIGN ] 03 - https://armchairgamer.blogspot.com/2023/05/champions-one-earth-bayport-megacity.html [ SETTING: BAYPORT MEGACITY ] 04 - https://armchairgamer.blogspot.com/2023/05/champions-one-earth-player-characters.html [ CHARACTERS: Part 1 ] 05 - https://armchairgamer.blogspot.com/2023/05/champions-one-earth-player-characters_14.html [ CHARACTERS: Part 2 ]

RIP Darren Watts. Thanks for everything.

For technology (software), there's also the cost of successfully migrating to a new system. Enterprise-class systems are often customized to a business' particular needs and competitive advantages (so they're not QUITE the same as everyone else), and that migration doesn't always succeed. Failed new systems mean companies extend the life of an old system, and department heads are loathe to spearhead ANOTHER costly attempt until it's necessary, or a few years have passed. For example, a friend of mine from the Philippines worked for quite a number of years in the U.S. handling the payroll system of a certain Silicon Valley company because it was all done in FoxPro, at at time when relational databases were already standard...

22 GB file! Whew!

I played in a game we called the Black Band Brigade. Here are the three posts on my blog from years back that approximates what it was like. In essence, think of a bunch of normal folks (I'm talking 2 SPD, MAYBE 3 SPD, and normal-ish defenses, etc.) who get Power Rings. We just went Black Band because all of us wore Black Watches in real life, and the band would camouflage itself as such when in Normal ID. From the blog: "Players are asked to build PCs with Skilled Normals (50 CP, 30 pts in Complications), but will be playing characters worthy enough to play in the Standard Superheroic (400 CP, 75 pts in Complications) range. This is because the 300 CP in powers and abilities and 45 pts. In Complications will be a mandatory package assigned to all the PCs." It was fun because you got to roleplay freaking out, keeping a secret with everyone else, and trying not to get killed by a number of hunters after the black bands (think of those guys in Ben10 always after the Omnitrix -- but this was waaaaaay before Ben10) and these tended to be villains from any of the books out at the time with the numbers filed off. Being really powerful, but having only 2 or 3 SPD, made teamwork MANDATORY when going up against the 3, 4, and 5 SPD "weaker" foes who could take your head off if you didn't have your Force Field up...

Happy 40th to Champions! Here's to many more decades!