Steve

Wasn’t it also in the bundle that was put out a while ago on bundle of holding?

Things have continued to percolate on in this campaign, and it looks like we have gotten past the midway point. A year and a half of real time since it began has gone quickly. in our last session the PCs finally managed to find the Treasure of Sindal and were in the process of sorting it. An old Hunted showed up, and they launched a high-yield nuclear torpedo from their cloaked Harrier-class vessel in true Klingon Bird of Prey style. Unfortunately, they realized too late that they would also be caught in the blast radius, forcing the pilot to high-G it out of there with only a brief window of time, like something out of the Expanse. Some commentary was exchanged before that on the foolishness of wizards landing a fireball too close to their own feet. Launching a multi-megaton nuke at too close of a range is the Traveller equivalent. Deciding to clear up some old business, they headed back to the pirate haven of Theev. One of the PCs was shocked to be given a seat at the Council of Theev instead of the group being taken out back and getting their brains blown out. The PC in question is now a bit paranoid about this setup, and has already dealt with one revenge assassination attempt by a member of the former Council member’s kin.

I suppose some of the newer spider people (Spider-Gwen and Miles Morales) are also following this path. At least they don’t seem to be starting as full-blown superheroes right out of the starting gate. Starting as lower pointed and adding xps seems to yield a more interesting build after a year or more of table play than just starting at higher points. That organic growth is also fun.

Spidey’s rogues gallery started with low-pointed builds but most of them have been saving up their XPs over the years. If you treated Spider-Man’s career as a solo Champions campaign, or maybe one where other players play the various villains and occasional team-up heroes, the internal clock in that campaign has been ticking away around 10+ years, and the external clock for several decades more. That represents a lot of table time, so even a stingy GM would have given Peter’s player (and those who keep reoccurring in his rogues gallery) hundreds of xps by now.

When Peter Parker first put on the mask, he was a kid in high school. When he was just starting out would he be considered a “Teen Champion” and built accordingly? Or was he a full superhero right out of the starting gate?

I understand. I’m just a fan of reading the quotes from @Drhoz and missed my fix. 😀 Is there a digital recorder running at the table or something? I could never remember that much table chat in my own games, even with notes.

I miss @Drhoz. It’s been too long since the last update.

I’m overwhelmed by LL’s responses, but I also worry if he’s shut down any conversation that might happen by being so thorough about Champions Earth.

As a thought experiment, what might be the effect of superhumans on the economy of the world? I was thinking about this today and thought I’d throw it out for discussion. The main comic book universes tend to try to keep their worlds relatively close to “real life” when it comes to your average person, but what if such restrictions were removed? What if the Champions Universe saw the release of tech breakthroughs by superhuman geniuses that our world can only dream of? Would it warp a campaign beyond the point of fun or believability? Energy production? Materials production? Food production? Medical treatments? Space and undersea exploration? Artificial intelligence? And the list goes on and on.

The Submariner would be similar to Magneto, in that it depends on the presentation. Sometimes a hero and sometimes a villain. I vaguely recall his more antisocial episodes had some kind of biological explanation for them offered up in a past storyline. I was really focused on the types of “villains” like Lady Blue and Foxbat, who are on that side of the fence but don’t really do anything all that bad.

To me, balance is a measure of CV (how often you can hit or be hit), damage output and soak ability, and the latter can be tweaked with extra STUN and BODY or abilities involving Absorption, Aid or Heal. If you’re hitting a lot but not doing much damage, that seems to balance with fewer but heavier hits. Hit locations affects that though, but I’m okay with a lightly damaging character hitting vital spots more often. One of the characters in my Monster Hunter 1855 game uses a rapier and doesn’t do much damage but makes up for it a bit with hit location penalty levels. There’s probably a chart floating around somewhere that looks at likelihood of hitting, damage and ability to soak damage.

One use I could foresee would be as sleeper agents. If they have programmed directives beyond hiding their true nature, reproducing and infecting more humans, quite a bit of intrigue could be built up.

The only magic systems that I’ve ever seen approach this would be Ars Magica and Mage: The Ascension.

Teleios has come up with a new experiment. A brain parasite. This body horror monster is a larval creature that enters its hosts through the nose or mouth and burrows its way to the brain without causing any significant damage to the target. Once within, it is able to fairly quickly take control of the target and maintain a high level of fidelity to the original personality. Once in control, after a day or two to settle in, it begins to spawn a few new larva in the sinus cavity. Infected beings seem to have a mild sinus condition. A small batch of them was released at a frat party at Millennium City University by one of his agents, the master of biochemistry intending to see how well they work and how quickly they can propagate through the student and faculty population, as well as into the city beyond before discovery. One intended limitation in their design is that they are unable to affect beings that are too dissimilar from standard humans, like many aliens and those with the so-called mutant or metahuman gene. Teleios did this as a safety precaution for his own well being. What might he discover with this experiment? How far might they spread?

Bought the book. I recommend buying it here rather than DriveThruRPG as they only have the PDF for $15, and not the package deal offered in the Hero store. There are 21 Heroic characters broke out (by my count) in the following way, in order of point totals but not how they appear in the book: 1 built on 100 + 40 Complications 1 built on 175 + 50 Complications 1 built on 175 + 50 Complications (+20 xps) 1 built on 225 + 75 Complications 1 built on 225 + 80 Complications 12 built on 275 + 100 Complications 1 built on 275 + 100 Complications (+85 xps) 1 built on 275 + 100 Complications (+250 xps) 1 built on 275 + 100 Complications (+280 xps) 1 built on 275 + 100 Complications (+525 xps) I'm still going through the builds, but they cover quite a range of types and abilities. Despite the low point total, the first character, The Muffin Man, is quite a vicious piece of work. The top-pointed one seems suitable for espionage drama, although more like a Mission Impossible movie villain than a James Bond one.

After some delays due to holidays, illnesses and personal business, we had another session of the campaign. Sam achieved the trifecta by getting bitten by a zombie, in addition to his previous bites by a vampire and werewolf. The trio intercepted a message to ‘Lord Black’ and ended up accepting a bounty from him when he confronted them the next morning. He had some Pinkerton goons with him at the time, and he was quite put out because someone burned down the eucalyptus trees he was growing to provide railroad ties for his planned railroad from Texas to California. Most of the session was spent dealing with Bella Rosa, a headless witch with a sizable collection of severed heads she can use as her own. Her favorites were kept in a closet in her room. The womanizing Cortez gets quite willingly seduced by her, and he ends up increasingly enthralled by her witchcraft. Doyle and Sam tried to figure out what to do about the creepy but beautiful witch and Doyle ended up using a quantity of dynamite to blow up her hacienda, and himself. Fortunately, he is a revenant and will eventually recover his missing BOD and regrow his lost body parts. It is uncertain if the witch survived, but there was no body found in the ruins.

What is the most grandiose crime your heroes have seen a supervillain attempt in a campaign? Take the mayor hostage? Kill the mayor? Hold an entire city hostage? Destroy an entire city? Hold the leader of a country hostage? Kill the leader of a country? Conquer a planet? Destroy a planet? Conquer a universe? Destroy a universe? I didn’t set this up as a poll because it is more of an open question with many possible variant answers.

It is an interesting thought experiment to consider a brilliant tech type reverse engineering the Duress gauntlets and creating their own prison dimension technology, and the possible ramifications. Doctor Destroyer could likely do it in a weekend or two, if he had a notion to do it. Then his enemies would have something to fear far more than death. Imagine if PRIMUS or UNTIL had such gear thanks to one of their tech geniuses. Or more frighteningly, if VIPER developed such tech.

Duress as it is described reminds me of the Phantom Zone as it was shown in the old Supergirl movie. The comic book version was more sanitized. Storing criminals in a pocket dimension is certainly a viable option in a superhero setting for dealing with the worst and most dangerous types. Using the Moon or Antarctica are other, more realistic (?) options.

Are you calling his campaign checkers? 😱

There’s a balance to be struck in how easy it is to escape. Make it too easy, and prisons get laughable. Too hard and there are no repeat visits from a supervillain. Both setups affect the setting feel. It also matters who is getting out. Scorpia escaping means people are going to die in Eurostar’s next scheme. Foxbat escaping means something silly is going to happen with his next caper. If things are on the harder side for escaping, then a mass breakout event seems like the more dramatic option. If easier, then very few get out at a time and are sent back soon after. If a mass breakout event of multiple terrorist types happens, that’s scary as they are the type to wreak havoc on a city or country. If Pulsar or Bluejay escapes, a bank or jewelry store is going to be robbed. Some villains may also be a masked identity that gets passed on to new owners. The Green Goblin is an example of this with all the different goblin types that have shown up since Norman Osborn’s first outing.

Power negators have a significant effect on the setting because the lack of them changes things quite a bit. What do the authorities do if they can’t negate powers? In regards to Stronghold, I like the idea of having multiple locations around. There could even be older versions of Stronghold that lack power negators and would have a different feel than a facility that does.

In looking at Stronghold, a grab bag mix of personalities of the superpowered, it makes me wonder if a different approach is warranted. Consider a super criminal who robs banks. While powerful, they aren’t a significant danger to society at large. I’m thinking the likes of Shrinker or Ogre. They may loot and rob, but they aren’t going to kill a bunch of people or destroy a city. Then consider the members of Eurostar. They are superpowered terrorists. They act to topple governments or hold cities hostage. Should they all go into the same prison facility? Would it be better to segregate the thieves and robbers from the really terrifying villains and put those terrorist types of villains in a deep, dark hole somewhere?

So, in this alternate CU, what might Excelsior be like? Since it’s small, it may have only one superteam or maybe a handful of friendly neighborhood superheroes. Would VIPER pay it much attention? It might make a great location for a Nest, since it would be conveniently close to Millenium City but outside it.

As it is set up now, if a character misses their second attack, it couldn’t be reset for a third try, right? I was only looking for a second try, not a string of attempts until the character runs out of END or hits, although working that way could be interesting too.