Steve

Just as it says in the title.
 
Take the concept of Pointless Champions (As per the Article: Pointless Champions.  )  And apply it to you game.  
 
How would you make it work?

Actually, The Legion fits very well with the typical teen hero campaign if you discount the Kryptonians and Daxamites. 
 
They each had a single power, there's plenty of teen angst and romance and while they had less adult supervision, they were more integrated with law enforcement in the form of the Science Police and the United Federation of Planets.

" You cannot stop me! "
" You know where every bad guy who ever said that to us is? "
" At large? "

Deadeye, an undead detective, when the target of a PC's sarcastic comment: "Ha! You kill me... Oh, wait..."
 
Bronze Knight, a Captain America paragon type: "Being super doesn't make us better than anyone else. Just bigger."
 
Slammer, a brick whose father is a famous lawyer, when disparagingly compared to his sire by a villain: "My Dad fights injustice too, with great words. Here's my approach."
 
Facade, a fantasy illusionist wizard, confronting an evil warlord: "You make the world a Hell for your victims. Let me show you Hell."
 
As the god Apollo in the Champions Universe, when a PC called him just a figment of people's imagination (I had this one ready): "Indeed? And what were you before your parents rutted together? A streak of slime? And what tiny fraction of my lifetime ago was that, exactly?"

I played Gaze in Winterhawk's Vegas campaign on Hero Central years ago. Gaze was kind of 'what if Batman had mind control?' experiment, mind you, with ethical restraints (of course, he didn't always TELL the villains of his ethical restraints and cultivated a fearsome rep when he could). At one game, Gaze got to 'question' a villain who was operating a killer robot from what said scumball thought was a safe location. The rest of the villain's team was out there, lives were endangered, that sort of thing.
 
Gaze's line was: "You lay stripped bare of your illusion of supremacy, vulnerable, helpless... and yet, there is so much more I can take from you. Your mind, your knowledge of things technical, I can make you FEAR machinery as much as you fear the light, you cowardly wretch, you miserable quivering pile of refuse. I will ask this and you will answer, do not make me go into the pathetic pit of your mind and take it from you, and do not," He rears his open palm ready to strike while holding up the 'Annihilator' with the other hand, "make me sully my hands on you. Where are the other members of the Shift? What are their plans? Answer, before I get upset and... get creative."
 

Back a couple of decades ago, I had a neo-Confederate group try to start a second US Civil War.  At that time it seemed far-fetched.

There’s actually a 4th Edition Dark Champions villain with this sort of ability. As I recall, it’s invisibility versus all senses and is always on. Her crimes are drastic attempts to be noticed.

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 a relief, Hell's Rebels Season Four didn't end on a cliffhanger and actually got renewed. (sorry for the very long but unavoidable gap since the last session) 
 
When last we met, Barzillai Thrune's fascist state was being rapidly unravelled by a coalition of artists, intellectuals, and sexual deviants. In particular the Skinsaw Cultists that Thrune imported are being demoralised and in some cases caramelised by our ambush inside Hocus' Phantasmogorium, and they're attempting to get behind us to counterattack. They don't know the building and its secret passages as well as we do. 
 
They also don't know that Civilla has Arcane Locked the front and side doors.
 
Rajira: We don’t want any of them escaping after all.
 
Rajira: So, Civilla, how does this ‘Hungry Earth’ work?
Civilla: Indiscriminately, as far as I know.
 
SOMEBODY on the other side of the next wall knows about the secret doors, and is loudly abusing the rest of the cultists, as we get into position to ambush them again. 
 
GM: I don’t think any of them have even SEEN you yet.
 
Mahat throws the door open and everybody who can throws AoE spells into the room, regardless of any works of art or furnishings still left from the original business.
 
Shimza: FIREBALL
Ayva: Those belong in a museum. 🙁
Rajira: This isn’t a museum, it's a tourist trap.
Civilla: FIREBALL
Ayva: Would a third fireball be a bit much?
Rajira: I don’t think so.
Ayva: FIREBALL. The solution to many problems.
 
Mahat can see the Skinsaw leader - she’s a beautiful humanoid with spider legs behind her.
 
Mahat: Well that's OK, I’m a snake man myself. You’re something, but I really don’t care what. Hey people, Spider Person!
 
After the explosions a significant proportion of the next room is glowing a dull red.
 
Ayva: We’ll consider that difficult ground, shall we?
 
The surviving latecomers from the first room take note of the repeated KABOOMS, reconsider some of their life choices, and instead look for somewhere to hide. The Spiderwoman seems to have avoided most of the conflagration, however. She attempts to Web Mahat, which at least is thematically appropriate. Rajira attempts to Fly behind her, and gets bitten. Despite her species' naturally toxic nature, she is Poisoned, and now has all the mental acuity of a poisonous mushroom.  Bertuscio doesn’t achieve much either. Terzo attempts a Blistering Invective to set the Spiderwoman on fire.
 
Terzo: Could you do us all a small favour and JUST DIE? *Intimidate check fails* I don’t think she’s going to oblige us.
 
GM: The Spiderwoman attempts a ‘if I’m going down I’m going to take you down with me’ and is now realising she cannot, in fact, take you down with her.
 
Rajira starts shaking off the venom while her cousin starts cutting off all extraneous limbs off the Spiderwoman.
 
Rajira OoC: A Restoration would be appreciated right now.
Civilla OoC: Shimza has a few bottles of Cleric in a Can.
Rajira OoC: Useful when we don’t have a cleric in the party.
Civilla OoC: Better! They don’t complain, b***h, or demand a tithe.
 
Bertuscio and Terzo get repeatedly referred to  as Bert and Ernie. Which is less than ideal since Bertuscio skill with a whip now get him pictured as Bert in a Gimp suit.
 
Terzo's player: Thank you SO much for that.
Ayva's player: Now you know what it's like living in my head.
 
Mahat and Bertuscio hunt down the cultists that think they can hide.
 
Mahat: Did you HAVE to get their blood all over me?
Ayva OoC: ‘Only when it’s funny’
Rajira OoC: Which is itself amusing because Mahat has no sense of humour.
 
Of course, there’s still half the museum to scour clean of murder-cultists. And we have no idea if they’re using the underground monastery for their own foul purposes.
 

Another thing to consider. Sometimes the players suggest things during table talk that turn out to be much better than what the GM had planned, so don’t be shy about stealing their ideas if they’re good ones.
 
I’m wondering now if the Progenitors had a hand in crafting Faerie. It would be wild if they were somehow its architects and now reside deep within it conducting experiments there as a form of test bed before trying things in the universe. The Dragon chained in humanity’s collective subconscious could be a fallen Progenitor.

Another thing to consider. Sometimes the players suggest things during table talk that turn out to be much better than what the GM had planned, so don’t be shy about stealing their ideas if they’re good ones.
 
I’m wondering now if the Progenitors had a hand in crafting Faerie. It would be wild if they were somehow its architects and now reside deep within it conducting experiments there as a form of test bed before trying things in the universe. The Dragon chained in humanity’s collective subconscious could be a fallen Progenitor.

It is not up to entertainment - and one based around entirely fictional realms, to boot - to coddle the impressionable and educate the ignorant; that is why parents and schools exist. Escapism makes for poor tuition. A person who cannot differentiate between goblins and real-life breathing and bleeding human beings is saddled with a problem that goes beyond the scope of a rectangular piece of wood adorned with countless Cheeto stains.
 
From attempting to placate the fundamentally religious to quelling the fundamentally sensitive, D&D kowtowing has never been a net positive.

I once played in a campaign where this was the initial session. Bonus points to VIPER in that the big event at the restaurant was the official reception for us being welcomed as the new hero team for the city. I felt that was bold.
 
After the session, the GM told us they'd brought along a weapon specifically calibrated to target our brick's weakness, but because he kept trying and failing to break through the hatches in the flying ship, giving up and moving on to the next one, the crew spent the entire fight laboriously hauling the weapon from hatch to hatch, only to set it up and hear that he'd switched hatches again. They were quite put out. 
 
In a later session, we were raiding a VIPER base in South America, and they had lined the entire wall of the base with this same weapon, only to have him simply leap over the wall before they even realized he was there. This had the effect of making him enemy #1 for the entire organization. They were gonna tag him with a 'zero-zone projector' if it was the last thing they did, dagnabbit!

I tend to agree. I know there's been a lot of comments to the effect that Spidey's initial villains were a pack of losers, but they were pretty typical for the time. They tried to get Big Wheel and Stilt-man over, too. If you want to talk about a world-class hero having trouble dealing with an otherwise-ordinary dude with a gimmicked weapon, can I interest you in the Flash v. Captain Cold? Or Captain Boomerang? And it wasn't uncommon for writers to... adjust... the power level of villains and heroes for the sake of drama. I seem to remember hearing that one of the lesser bones of contention between Stan Lee and Jack Kirby was that Stan would take Dr. Doom, a villain intended to fight Thor, the Silver Surfer or the Fantastic Four on equal terms, and have him job out to whichever new scrub he wanted to hype that week. 
 
Also, I don't think "Teen Champion" vs. "Regular Superhero" is really a lens that can be boiled down solely to power-level. I feel like I could make a much stronger case for the core five original X-Men being Teen Champions than Spider-man. They lived in a school, had romantic entanglements with one another, and hung out at the local malt shop. Even their villains tended to come from within their own social circle of fellow mutants, and having a limited social circle is a pretty teenage theme. Sure, Peter was a student, but he also had a grown-up job in a professional field. He fought gangsters and assassins. He never had trouble getting to places outside of his neighborhood, or had to worry much about a curfew. He graduated from high school and went to college fairly quickly. He hung out with the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and Captain America.
 
Tony Stark had to fit in his crimefighting around board meetings, Peter Parker had to fit his in around his class schedule, but if you made Peter 10 years older and gave him a job at Oscorp, his stories wouldn't really change much. When I hear "Teen Champions" I think "characters whose costumed career & social life both revolve around teen issues and concerns". To me, the occasional story beats where him being a teenager came up at all always felt more like secondary elements within the larger complications of his secret identity and down-trodden everyman-ness, rather than core themes that were uniquely difficult for him because he was a teenager. I'm talking about in aggregate, mind you. I can think of a few stories where him being a teenager mattered. His origin, for one, obviously. But overall, he moved in the same circles as Daredevil, and had pretty similar stories and struggles. 
 
Edited to add: Naturally, minutes after posting the above, I thought of a better way of expressing the point I was trying to make:
 
To me, Spider-man feels like an ordinary starting super-hero who is a teenager, rather than a character designed to be played in a campaign within the 'Teen Champions' subgenre. 
 
Now, you could make a case that Spider-man's popularity led Marvel and later DC to create many more teenaged superheroes, and that the Teen Champions campaign subgenre is based on those heroes, and thus Spider-man was Patient Zero for Teen Champions. I would agree with that. But teen superheroes weren't really a thing prior to Spider-man. There were teen sidekicks, certainly. But a hero who was still an adolescent who fought crime and had adventures independent of any other team or character? I can't say definitively that Spider-man was the first without doing more research than I have time for at 1:00 PM on a work day, but he was definitely the biggest. 

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.

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 was always intrigued by the contrast between Conan and Howard's other barbarian-turned-king, Kull. They both come from similar backgrounds, with comparable physical stature and prowess. But Conan is resolutely focused on the practical concerns of survival and profit. He wants to enjoy life to the fullest, and rarely gave thought to life's meaning. But Kull was the opposite. He thought about and discussed deep questions of philosophy and theology. As a king Kull would sometimes agonize over the morality of his decisions, over the "right" thing to do for his subjects. He was also less of a loner than Conan, having a small circle of trusted comrades and advisors.
 
Conan may be the archetype of the fantasy barbarian, but Kull shows that Howard didn't consider depth and complexity to be antithetical to that archetype. Then again, Howard wrote more about Conan than Kull, and the former is the more popular character. I guess there's a strong appeal to the straightforward, easy to understand protagonist, with an attitude of (as Roy Thomas once wrote for comic-book Conan), "Gird my loins, draw my sword, and roll the dice!"

Chronicles of Selversgard Pt.20
 
19th of Pharast 4719
 
The eve of the Spring Equinox, when the Mayorship will be handed over from Blake to Kragor, Nothing of any note happened under his leadership, apart from the outbreak of illness that cost a number of party members their children, and the same party members having to kill their friend after he started turning into a Deep One. Not that they’ve told his widow that - she’s not likely to take the truth well. On the other hand, the new Mayor does have good news for Selversgard - the more progressive druids will allow Selvergard to expand, although one of the more conservative factions has broken with the circle entirely and is making threatening noises. The rest of the druids seem quietly pleased to see the back of them. Also, one of the ancient cisterns we cleared out has been repaired and is being refilled for the town’s use.
 
Eddison has divined something about the flooded silver mines near Selversgard, though - apparently they were deliberately flooded. And it's not at all clear why - it might have ‘a promise’ or ‘a warning’. Perhaps one of the elven druids will have more information - they might be old enough to have actually been around at the time. 
 
On the other hand, Skiri continues to miss council meetings, and hasn’t designated a proxy either. Even her family members have noticed that she’s become increasingly distant, and the Fisherman's Guild are getting a bit stroppy. Kragor has sent a few of the militia to bring her in and demand an explanation. Skiri’s reaction to THAT is a bit unexpected - she dived into the river and swam off. Eddison should probably pursue her - he is the only person in town with an actual Swim speed, for one thing, or so we thought. He’ll check that mysterious dome he found on the riverbed, first. He sees a flapping thing deep in the water, and discovers that they’re a pair of dwarf-sized pants. And sets off a trap. The harpoon is nasty enough - the poison is just rude. He swims to the surface and signals for help. 
 
Eddison: Yes, I'm actually using Snapdragon Fireworks for their intended purpose!
GM: But no-one ever does that!
 
Kernel’s player: ‘What happened?’ ‘Harpoon’ ‘What happened?’ ‘Harpoon’ ‘What happened?’ ‘Dinosaur, don’t ask.’
Eddison: Turns out Drow are into some kinky s***
 
After he explains what happened for the fifth time, Eddison suggests a plan to get past the trapped underwater door. Using Gonno and Cerberus for muscle, and animated mud as a target for the trap, we get the door forced open. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any convenient air pockets nearby. Eddison does find a peculiar corpse, however. At least it isn’t Skiri. Kernel CAN give the rest of us Water Breathing for a while, in the form of magical paintings of Merfolk’s Comb, because we probably shouldn’t leave Skiri alone in a place that is clearly pretty dangerous.
 
Gonno: At least it probably isn’t another Owlbear.
Arram: I just want to see the monk kick somebody’s head off with swim fins. 
Eddison: FLAPPITYFLAPPITY
 
The aquatic elf is also alert enough to notice a certain oiliness in the water that wasn’t there earlier. Possibly some kind of cnidarian slime. 
 
Arram: Well, I’m heading back up, I’ll come back after you’ve dealt with whatever this is. 
 
It’s a Death’s Head Jellyfish - not generally deadly, but the venom causes a facial rictus.
 
Eddison OoC: Somebody actually made Jokerfish?
 
What’s more concerning is that the nearly invisible jellyfish has clearly been strung into position across one of the tunnels. Cerebus gets out his polearm.
 
Cerebus: SCHWING
Eddison: Can you never, ever, use that word in connection with jellyfish again?
 
It’s also just as well we jammed some of the more suspicious portals open - some of them are apparently rigged to slam shut. Although that would have limited the access the Bull Sharks had to the party. Bull Sharks are notoriously dangerous, and do well in freshwater. They certainly do well at turning the unfortunate Eddison into mincemeat. Frantically working together, Gonno and Cerberus stop the elf from bleeding out, but barely. Given the sharks were using his head as a chewtoy, it’s a little surprising that he’s happy to continue with the search for Skiri.
 
Eddison: ‘Happy’ is a strong term…
 
The barricades and warning signs in the Aklo tongue are certainly a cause for concern.
 
Cerebus: Well, that’s not going to stop me, I can’t read!
Arram: ‘Cerebus, if you can read this you’re going to die’
Eddison: ‘I can’t read therefore I’ll never die!’
Arram: Well your warnings and rotting boards are no match for my poking stick.
 
The chamber beyond is mostly frozen, and there are at least 3 figures trapped in the ice. Even with the brain damage, Eddison recognises the threat as Elder Things, ancient abominations that predate even the Aboleths.
 
Eddison: We are leaving and we’re abandoning the town.
Cerebus OoC: Cthulhu Popsicles. Great…
 
At least they’re still hibernating. Unless the ice thaws. Of course most of the surviving myths about them came via the Aboleths, who had reason to be biased. 
 
Arram: Bring them out one by one and let the barbarian murder them to death.
 
We eventually decide not to invite further trouble of the eldritch (and possibly rugose) kind and continue following the left-hand wall of the labyrinth, dropping Continual Flame stones at intervals in case we need to retreat at speed. 
 
Arram OoC: I.e. Follow spelunkers around if you want free flares.
Kernel OoC: Until we come back and find them arranged into an arrow pointing in a particular direction.
Gonno: A dark hole with a sign saying ‘FREE HUGS’
 
In the next room the water is warm to the point of discomfort.
 
Gonno: I was going to say something, but if you’re that hot you have serious health problems.
 
There’s a very very deep pit, with a red glow very far down, and the occasional bubble of volcanic gas. It’s a bit concerning that there’s an open volcanic vent less than a mile from town, but a more immediate concern is the pair of Devilfish. In fact, given what Devilfish look like it’s likely the water just got a little warmer. At least the jet black ink or blood they spray means we don’t have to look at them for long - although it doesn’t seem to stop them seeing us. 
 
Cerebus: Which way did they go?
Gonno: *completely obscured in the ink cloud* That way, I think!
Cerebus: Not helpful!
Eddison: Agh! I’m not comfortable being grappled there!
 
Eddison is mangled, and Gonno is grappled, disemboweled, and poisoned. At least the devilfish are evil enough that Arram’s pyromancy is extra effective. The rest of the party are a bit alarmed by the state of their Oread friend when Gonno finally crawls out of the ink cloud.
 
Gonno: Everything… going… black.
Arram: It’s just the ink, you’ll be fine.
GM: You’re telling him that while measuring him for a pine box?
Arram: I can’t tell him that - he MAKES the pine boxes.
 
Cerebus manages to stop Gonno from bleeding to death, while Gonno stops any more of his internal organs floating away, and Eddison discovers that the pocket of volcanic gasses at the roof of the chamber might not be breathable but at least is somewhere we can swig healing potions. If we had any. We’re not adventurers. The naked elf woman in the next chamber is in a pretty rough state too - severely disfigured by her injuries. She bows to us as we clamber exhausted and battered into her chamber.
 
Elf: My Master is aware of your arrival and does not bid you welcome. But you have proven yourselves resilient in passing our defenses and are worthy of some respect.
Cerebus: I’ve had about enough of this today - where is our dwarf friend so we can go home?
Elf: The dwarf slave? My Master acknowledges your request. I will take you to the slave. If you leave with her my Master will inflict no further violence upon you. 
 
Eddison and Arram exchange a glance, and Arram incinerates the elf slave when she turns her back on us. 
 
Cerebus: *epic facepalm* Great. What’s next, an Aboleth?!
 
There’s only a few options for aquatic telepathic enslavers, so it’s not entirely surprising that the Master is an Aboleth. At least it’s surprised we killed its slave. 
 
Cerebus: I F***ING CALLED IT  *Barbarian Rage*
 
The Aboleth is bright enough to recognise that Kernel is a construct, and doesn’t bother trying to telepathically Dominate him. Eddison is not so lucky.
 
Aboleth: KILL THE NONABOLETH
 
The worst thing about that order is that it remains in effect even after Arram parboils and Cerebus eviscerates the abomination. Which is very bad news for the nearly dead Gonno, who managed to summon enough adrenaline to try and knock out the suddenly murderous acid-flinging elf. It didn’t work. Kernel’s attack at least does work, but leaves the elf also nearly dead. Although Cerebus is certainly surprised when he shakes off his Barbarian Rage and sees the situation on shore. He’s also got his own problem - the Aboleth’s slime has made him flabby, translucent, and prone to fatal dehydration.
 
Cerebus OoC: Tell me the Aboleth was swimming over a giant pile of gold and treasure at least?
GM: No.
Cerebus: Gods DAMMIT
 
Skiri is in the next chamber, being tortured by a giant jellyfish, but not objecting. Given the absolutely incapacitating pain the tentacles inflict while Arram and Cerebus try to get her free, that’s pretty amazing. The jellyfish probably explains the injuries on the incinerated elf. There’s also a goblin, but it has the same flabby look as Cerebus now possesses, and is promptly dispatched anyway. Skiri keeps trying to return to her own torture, and has to be bound. There’s also a naked, blindfolded boy polishing various items in the Aboleth’s treasure chamber.
 
Cerebus: Oh great, the Aboleth was a wierdo.
Kernel: We already have three people to carry back to the surface, we’ll come back for him later. 
 
At least we’ll have a rough idea how long Aboleth Domination lasts - we just have to wait until Eddison stops trying to kill us. 
 
GM: Yeah. FIFTEEN DAYS from now.
 
Cerebus’ transformation is pretty inconvenient too. 
 
Cerebus: I have a suspicion I’ll want to wallow in mud when I get back.
Arram: Yeah, that’ll probably work, for a while.
Gonno OoC: SEA-PIG BORN
 
The blindfolded boy is not merely blindfolded, he’s had his eyes gouged out. And he seems mildly distressed to learn that the elf and the goblin and The Master are gone.
 
Boy: That is everybody I know.
 
At least he doesn’t object to being brought to the surface, in the absence of any orders to the contrary. He’s going to need a lot of deprogramming, and some serious healing. 
 
Cerebus: Let’s not do this again for another year.
 
Everybody in Selversgard is keen to learn why Eddison is tied up. 
 
Arram: There was a f***ing Aboleth in the bottom of the river.
Townsfolk: What’s an aboleth?
Arram: They caused Earthfall.
Eddison *mumbling through his gag*: Well, an argument between them and some serpentfolk caused Earthfall.
Cerebus: Can somebody get this kid some pants? And a Regenerate spell?
Gonno: You haven’t even asked him his name yet.
 

(Sorry for the lack of posts - between the 5 weeks interstate and overseas, and coming home to 12-13hr shifts in 43C heat (109F), we haven't had as many sessions as we'd like, and that's not counting some of the computer issues. Still, I got 21K photos on the trip and roughly 1000 species, so that's nice)
 
Selversgard pt.19
 
 
The village of Selversgard continues to expand, at least in population - the actual physical footprint of the town and attached farmland is still constrained by the agreement with the local druids. Silas of the Green, their representative on the town council, has been asked to negotiate for an expansion of the town limits. So we don’t see much of him lately. Skiri Olafsdottir has been spending a lot more time on the river than doing the job she was actually elected for. And Knobroc the gnome is leaving town too - he finds it too boring. Which, to be fair, is a very real health concern for gnomes.
 
Eddison: Yeah, stay colourful.
 
Miya has a problem too - her husband Falx Vandruber has disappeared. Vanished entirely, despite his escort. 
 
Eddison: So the Fey got him. And there’s no way to get him back.
Arram: No no, it’s all ghosts and werewolves this side of the river.
 
Gonno, Arram, Eddison, and Djeketh head off to find the missing miller. Still, at least we have a few newcomers to town to help with the search, such as the merc from around Magnimar-way who decided to retire and become a farmer away from the big city (and who keeps gets thrown into s*** every few months despite Cerebus' protestations...). 
 
Cerberus the Skinwalker Ragebred Standard Barbarian’s player: Well, Mostly a grumpy old Curmudgeon who always refers to himself in the third person and is surprisingly handy with an axe. (I.. uhh.. May just shave off the source character's opinion of women off the sheet though. I'd prefer him to survive character creation and not get murdered by Miya.)
Arram OoC: Back to having a second human-looking character in the party, now I'll look less like some kind of minder when we meet new people.
 
At least, he’s human-looking when he isn’t going full Earth-pig Born.
 
Eddison: Wait wait, you actually want me to leave town when there’s a bunch of women that have made their intentions clear?
Arram: Eddison, Eddison, we’ve told you before, the Drow are a figment of your imagination. Either that or some Pathfinder’s horny fanfic.
 
Cerberus is an outstanding tracker, that’s for sure, at least as far as Scent goes. Despite the snow he has Falx’s trail immediately. Djeketh can follow from there - he’s an actual Ranger. It would appear he passed near the grove of that dryad we know, so we detour to ask if she saw anything. 
 
Dryad: There was a man? He certainly seemed to be driven. And there was something strange about his face.
 
Dryad: I wish you well, but I should warn you. He was heading south, and there is a nymph that lives there. She is not as kindly disposed towards humanoids as I. And nymphs can be dangerous. But if you don’t mind I shall return to my winter sleep. 
 
Some discussion of Fey taxonomy ensues - we’ve met a Nereid, but that’s not the same thing as a nymph. Nymphs are the ones that are famed for their beauty.
 
Miya: Ah right, the ones that dance with satyrs, gotcha. 
 
Falx’s trail detours around a large bramble patch, so if he IS under an enchantment the enchanter isn’t completely heartless. Jeketh finds another track - something with clawed feet like a bear, but longer and narrower. It’s a full grown owlbear. And it’s tracking Falx. At least Falx has a very good head start - maybe the owlbear will lose interest.
 
Cerberus: DOUBLETIME.
Djeketh: Medium-sized at best. I have hunted many bigger.
 
Unfortunately, trudging for hour after hour through snow isn’t exactly conducive to mental health, and exhaustion and the bleak aspect of the countryside leave us quite ill-prepared to spot two raisins on a white page. Of, for that matter, an albino owlbear’s eyes against the white-out. 
 
Miya: They’d be adorable if they werent, you know, murder machines.
 
Cerberus attempts to murder the owlbear and gets thoroughly mauled instead.
 
Arram: That’s the problem with smelling of bacon. 
GM: He has the Disadvantage ‘Delicious’.
 
Arram’s OoC: You should probably put Djeketh on the initiative tracker. Unless he’s just going to watch us get eaten, which is always an option.
Cerberus: You mean eat me.
Eddison: Well at least the rest of us can run away while it’s eating you. Remind me, who brought snowshoes? Because as per the old adage, I don’t need to outrun the owlbear. 
 
Although given we have the sorcerer on magic horse, a Monk, and wizard with Fly, it’s pretty certain which party member is going to be left behind to delay the monster further.
 
Gonno demonstrates his personal martial art style, Boot To The Head, and the owlbear goes down. The barbarian nearly suffered Critical Existence Failure, however, which is definitely going to slow our pursuit of Falx. Djeketh is quite apologetic about missing the monster, but it’s not like the rest of us saw it either - the Earthpig’s sense of smell was our only warning. 
By the time we catch up with Falx he has almost made it to the big lake far south of Selversgard. Gonno dashes ahead to tackle him before he can drown. He’s not looking too good - he eyes are migrating far apart, his skin is terribly pale, and his ears have shrunk to almost nothing. And it looks like drowning wouldn’t be a problem, since he’s also developing gills. 
 
Falx: … Gonno?
Gonno: … Sorry. I think I have the wrong guy.
Falx: I’m sorry… I have to go. Tell Miya I loved her.
 
Eddison is an aquatic elf, and hails from Magnimar as well, so he knows what’s happened to Falx. He’s turning into a Deep One and is being called home. It certainly explains some of the cards he got in his Harrow Cards reading of the situation. Miya will be doubly horrified if she learns it’s one of her Oracular Curses that triggered the transformation. Falx might have gone his entire life without changing, if he hadn’t slept with the kitsune. It certainly doesn't bode well for the children. Hopefully they’ll lean more towards their mother’s lineage than his.
 
Eddison:  If you guys don’t want to do it, I will. He’s too far gone.
Gonno: Uh…
Arram: It's like he’s developed permanent lycanthropy. If werewolves were fish.
 
At least he won’t be a threat to the village, even after he completes his transformation into Deep One. They live in the deep ocean. 
 
Eddison: He’s got a long swim ahead of him.
Kernel: If we’re lucky he’ll get eaten by a giant eel. 
 
Eddison: Why do I see my job in the village is going to be tracking these bloodlines? Because I’m barely into my second century.
Gonno: I’m in shock how ruthless you’re all being about it.
Eddison: He’s worm food.
Cerberus: I’m just in shock thinking ‘Miya shtupped a fish?’
Arram: OK, neither of you are telling Miya what happened to her husband.
 
Eddison again volunteers to euthanize our friend.
 
Arram: Maaaybe a death that isn’t Dissolve His Face With Acid?
 
Cerberus does the deed, but we cremate Falx’ remains rather than give him a river burial as would be more usual around Selversgard. 
 
Cerberus: I don’t want to THINK about Deep One zombies.
 
And Eddison is going to watch the other villagers very suspiciously, and wondering how many of them also have Deep One ancestry. It might even include Cerberus, since Eddison’s researches reveal he was actually adopted from around here. There might actually be other skinwalkers around here! And hopefully not skinwalker/Deep One hybrids.
 
Over the next year other tragedies strike - Gonno and his wife lose their secondborn to illness, and Arram loses his wife and child in childbirth. 
 
Arram: I seem to have the darkest fortune when it comes to family. I am down to a single sister.
Kernel: Have you checked lately?
 
 

His creations will have a permanent home in fictional character "who beats who" discussions.  Immense influence on other Manga and anime and video game creators.
Sort of a Japanese Jack Kirby but with more of a sense of fun.

I thought this would be an Internet hoax, but evidently it isn't: the creator of the immensely popular Dragonball series of manga and anime, Akira Toriyama, has passed away at the age of 68.
 
Even if the name is not familiar, gamers would have to have been living under very large rocks to be completely ignorant of Dragonball. Starting as a comical riff on the classic novel Journey to the West, it featured a strong but naive boy named Son Goku who is enlisted by a girl scientist to track down seven magical orbs which, when brought together, would summon the godlike dragon Shenron to grant the user one unconditional wish. Along the way, they encounter a string of eccentric characters and powerful adversaries like the totalitarian Red Ribbon Army, as well as a lecherous martial arts instructor who teaches Goku devastating techniques, which had him growing unimaginably powerful.
 
Fats forward thirty years. Goku has grown up, married, and sired a son, all the while remaining a big, lovable oaf. But then he learns the secret of his own past -- not only is he not really human, but he was actually sent to Earth as an infant to destroy the planet on behalf of the might Saiyan Empire. This is something Goku unconditionally rejects, choosing to protect instead of destroy and love instead of hate. This puts him in conflict with many ever-more-powerful adversaries, including the Saiyan general Vegeta who would become his great rival. A riff on a novel about the rise of Buddhism in Eastern Asia switched into a riff on the Superman mythos, spawning some of the most spectacular super-brawls ever drawn and animated.
 
Ironically, Toriyama was asked to write Dragonball because his previous series, the wacky comedy Dr. Slump, had gotten too weird in the eyes of his publisher. 
 
But his influence did not stop with manga and anime. He also had a role in the creation of such significant video games as the Dragon Quest franchise, Blue Dragon, and more. But it is Dragonball, and its enormous impact on global popular culture, that was his crowning achievement.

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.

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.

Just FYI, the official Champions Universe has its own analogue to Kraven, a member of the immortal superhuman Empyrean race named Thav, or as his people refer to him, "Hunter Thav." Thav's passion has been big-game hunting, around the globe, for centuries. But as the animals he hunted became rare and protected, he increasingly turned to human prey. The age of superhumans provides his greatest challenge ever, and he adopted the costumed identity of the Pursuer, a bounty hunter and assassin for hire, for the opportunity to hunt challenging "prey." He kills them if hired to, but the thrill of the hunt is what motivates him.
 
In addition to his standard Empyrean powers, Thav has developed enhanced senses, and is probably the most skilled tracker and stalker in the world. He's adept with many modern and antique weapons, and is an experienced brawler.
 
Hunter Thav is written up in Hidden Lands.