Steve

Less, in fact.  Software engineers would be like wizards isolated in their towers, conducting bizarre rituals and never interacting with the real world.  Whereas cloud engineers would be hedge wizards, knowing a hodgepodge of random spells that actually get things done.

Seeing this make the rounds on FB...

An update on Strike Force Organizations. I have emailed Jason and we are in discussion. I have asked him about either including Cult of the Beast, Carousel (et al), Wanderers, and Yooso, or creating a second book. I have been given the OK to create a stand-alone Aaron Allston's Martial Arts Styles as a Surbrook Press PDF product.

One way to spice up solo play is to run a monster vs. monster combat. In my campaign, rocs and griffons are natural enemies, so when they meet they fight to the death. I just ran a such a battle. The roc was winning for most of the fight, but the griffon got in a few good hits afterwards, and won initiative in the last round. I allowed the roc a dying blow, and the griffon survived with 2 hit points remaining.

And what a slog it was to grind two or three dungeons to earn enough coin to raise a dead companion, after dragging him halfway across the know lands...
 
Uphill....
 
In the snow....
 
 
 
So you generally looted his corpse while he rolled up a new guy.
 
And Iron Array.
 
And no Feats every time you gained a handful of EPs
 
 
And starting out at level 1.
 
Or zero.
 
 

Yes, old school D&D, where characters' lives were nasty, brutish, and short. 
 
The way it should be. 

Had a villain once that had the ability to completely alter reality. He decided that the world was too bad a place and decided to transfer everything into cartoons. He managed to turn most of the city into cartoons including half the characters. Players actually enjoyed it as it was a rather serious and dangerous campaign, but when turned into a cartoon you couldn't die or kill anyone.

The 4th Edition Champions Adventure Day Of The Destroyer had a particularly grandiose--and horrifying scheme in which Doctor Destroyer announced that he would kill nine out of every ten people, stating that with the population much reduced, there would be less damage to the ecosystem and more resources available for the survivors.  Not unlike the first Kingsmen movie, in which Samuel Jackson's tech genius character wanted to use a mass mind control system to make everyone in the world beat each other to death, thus saving the planet from humanity, and the James Bond movie Moonraker, in which Hugo Drax would wipe out all humanity with some sort of biological agent, enabling him to repopulate Earth with his own race of genetically superior beings.
 
I've always figured that a mass human extinction scheme would bring much more harm to the ecosystem than help.  First, you have all those billions of corpses and no way to completely dispose of them--and as they decay they become incubators for disease organisms, which would spread unchecked through the surviving humans.  Second, there would be an explosion in the vermin population as all the rats, mice, insects and scavenger beasts would suddenly have an overabundant food supply--and as they fed, they would breed all out of proportion of their predators' abilities to keep them in check.  And once the supply of dead bodies is consumed, those vermin would then turn to the living to survive--and that includes surviving humans.
 
Hope that helps

From the February 2024 issue of Scientific American: The world uses enormous quantities of sand, construction to silicon chips. This makes illegal sand mining one of the biggest rackets in the world, far exceeding other forms of illegal mining. Since this is Scientific American, much of the concern is about the resulting environmental damage -- but the big money in sand mining can corrupt governments at every level and fund other unsavory activities. Googling "sand mafia" turns up many other articles for further research.
 
Illegal sand mining might be difficult to work into the usual urban vigilante Dark Champions game, but you might fit it into an international espionage game. Imagine a James Bond-style mastermind who uses sand mining to fund his terrorist scheme, coup plot or diabolical weapon. The death trap for captured agents should be obvious.
 
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sand-mafias-are-plundering-the-earth/
 
Dean Shomshak

Okay, so here is the latest Strike Force Organizations update.
 
It's done.
 
Okay, maybe not totally done, but ALR, Blood, and Circle are done. Total count is 72,982 words. I have taken the contents of the two Org books, added in what I could from Aaron's digital files, updated everything to 6e, and added new content and characters. I have sent an email to Jason outlining what i have done and what we may want to do next.
 
I have asked about adding the Cult of the Beast, Carousel/the Reapers, and the Wanderers. I have also mentioned the Wanderers as a stand-alone product. I have also asked about releasing Aaron's suite of martial arts styles as a Surbrook Press PDF-only product.

The largest crime a villain ever attempted in play in any of my Champions campaigns was Doctor Thame's attempt to destroy the universe. There's a hypothesis in physics called the "decay of the false vacuum": in brief, that space itself has an intrinsic level of energy, but this could be lower; and if something happened to convert even the tiniest speck of the universe to this lower energy state, the rest of the universe would nigh-instantaneously drop to this lower energy level as well. This would of course destroy all matter in the current universe, as there would be entirely new laws of physics. Or none, if the new energy state was in fact zero, meaning no matter or energy at all. Thane wanted to test the hypothesis by inducing such a phase shift. He was highly confident his dimensional force field would keep him alive for at least several seconds, long enough to observe the result of the experiment if it succeeded. No, he did not have someplace else to go afterward: He fully expected success to kill him, but at least he would know. Anything for Science!
 
The PCs of Avant Guard got their first clue what Doctor Thane was attempting when their precognitive leader, Doctor Future, made a routine look into the future and saw there wasn't one. So the universe was saved, apparently at cost of the life of Doctor Thane and Doctor Future. Both were time travelers, though, so either of them might reappear in the campaign.
 
(I admit, LL's plan for Xarriel does top Doctor Thane's.)
 
Dean Shomshak

It was in a Fantasy Hero game in my homebrew setting where the heroes discovered an heir to the throne of the wicked kingdom that had plagued the land and broke in to the prison and rescued the heir. It was big stakes, one of those missions that I could make resource management a focus, as well as stealth. It wasn't the Death Star and I have had supes knock down nukes, but it seemed the biggest stakes at the table for all involved.

Mine is actually from"Traveller Hero", The party is hired to retrieve a runaway scion, along the way they find they are not the only ones looking for him. The other group is trying to kill him. Shortly after that they discover he is an Imperial prince, fifth in line to the throne. Much adventure some heartache (one of the party is lost permanently {shot out of a missile tube into a sun will do that}) they succeed. When they rendevous to hand over the princeling, the Imperial Chancellor greets him as "Your Majesty" there had been an attempted coup and the prince was the last of the Imperial line.  THe story arc took just under two years and was my second best storieline. 

Well, I've never had an opportunity to actually run it, but some years ago I did outline a plot suggested by and utilizing concepts, characters, and artifacts from the official Champions Universe. The plot revolves around Xarriel, the setting's Darkseid/Thanos analogue, and his quest for three artifacts of immense power. I would use details and hints from the published text to make Xarriel's path to each of the artifacts lead to Earth.
 
The first artifact is the Annihilation Scepter, a cosmic device of unknown origin which can trigger a "Big Crunch" event, collapsing the entire universe back into a primordial atom, preparatory to another Big Bang creating a new universe. It has the additional drawback of also annihilating its wielder in the process. The second artifact is the Kdothri Mirror, created millions of years ago by an advanced civilization using both science and magic. The Mirror can alter any object or area that is clearly and recognizably reflected on its surface, in any way its possessor can imagine. But the Mirror is enchanted so that it only remains with a person for a limited time, before translocating itself to another random location.
 
The third artifact is a Cosmic Gem, a few of which are known to exist, which is capable of channeling immense cosmic energy at its wielder's mental command. The type and magnitude of energy manifestation depends on the will and native power of the person using it. For a being like Xarriel who is already at cosmic level, a Gem's potential power is nearly infinite. (Xarriel and all these artifacts are described and game-statted in Champions Beyond, except for example powers for the Cosmic Gems, which are part of Galaxia's write-up in Champions Villains Volume Three.)
 
Once he has all three artifacts, Xarriel's scheme is to first trigger the Annihilation Scepter. He calculates that his own power, plus that of the Cosmic Gem, will be enough to shield him from being destroyed in the collapse of the universe. He will then position the Kdothri Mirror so that the primordial atom is reflected in it. When the Big Bang occurs, Xarriel will use the Mirror to shape the growth of the resultant universe so it will be completely subject to his will, and every sapient being in it will unwaveringly obey and worship him as their one absolute God.

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.

I rewrote Nebula and Duress for one of my relatively recent Champions games. I made Nebula an Arcturan (alien race in our galaxy, notably advanced technology), who was transporting a criminal past Earth when a space-time kerflooey dragged in her spaceship and spit the criminal out of Earth. (The villain Nightfall, whose 5e character sheet I posted some time ago). Her chameleon implant was damaged in the kerflooey, so she managed human form but the colors were off. For my rewrite, I expanded her capabilities a bit -- including giving her some more Skills that would actually be useful for a cop.
 
My version of the Duress gauntlets created a pocket dimension about 100 meyters wide, a separate dimension for each prisoner. The pocket dimension has no light, air, or other matter, so unless prisoners has suitable Life Support they will of course start dying immediately -- but the field pervading the dimension makes death impossible. Prisoners experience dying in the vacuum of space, all alone in darkness, until other machines are used to pull them out. Nebula herself could not do this, a hedge against Arcturan cops being forced to release prisoners.
 
If the Proper Authorities deem a captive was not guilty of a crime, the memory of being in Duress is erased. Arcturans figure that if you don't remember the suffering, it didn't happen, so no real harm done. If the gauntlets that created each pocket universe are destroyed, well, oops, the prisoners can't be retrieved and suffer forever.
 
Dean Shomshak

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.

It has been compared to less kind things. 

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.

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.

Honestly, from my understanding, that's not far from how prisons work IRL. You can be a burglar and be in the same jail as a serial killer or spree bomber. The jail itself is supposed to be prepared with the systems and employees that it uses for containment and, hopefully, rehabilitation. 
 
Mind you, there are also different levels of prisons, ranging from Minimum to High Security. If you're a one time thief and get caught, you probably aren't going to something like Stronghold. But a career thief that can phase? Yup. He's going to the supermax.  However, villains like Eurostar I would image going to something more like an UNTIL secure facility, as they'll want to question and isolate members. 
 
In the campaign I run, there are several prisons that specialize in superhuman criminals. Each is in a remote area and have superhero staff, as well as well trained (and vetted) guards. It usually doesn't come up where the villains go unless the adventure needs the players to know. I once ran a game where a few of the players were surveying a base and a breakout happened. They ended up having to defeat one of their big-bads to restore order, and hunt down a few C-listers that made an escape. Fun stuff.

A little Babylon Five, a little Deep Space Nine, maybe a dash of Outland?
 
You know, there is a setting in the official Hero Universe centuries in the future which has a lot of potential. From Terran Empire p. 88: "After losing their homeworld in the war against the Fassai, the [humanoid] Renghadi used rubble from their planet and a nearby asteroid belt to construct Renghadi Station, the largest known space station in the Milky Way. Big enough to house all the Renghadi plus millions of transients, it's become not only a source of pride to the Renghadi, but a major Galactic trading port. Far-traveling Renghadi traders bring goods from all over the Galaxy to the shops and warehouses of Renghadi Station, and their opposite numbers from other species travel there to buy from them in one convenient location. Whatever a person wants, he can find somewhere on Renghadi Station - even if it's not entirely legal..."
 
For most of the future Hero Universe time line there are no physical "superpowers" as we commonly define them, except for some features inherent in certain alien species. Psionics, however, are not uncommon and sometimes formidable, a la B5; and augmentation through implanted "cyberware" or "bioware" is far from unknown. After the year 3000, when magic returns to the Milky Way, true superpowers become possible again in humans and most alien species.
 

Bundle of Holding is offering the “Early Champions” bundle for $14.95. 
 
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2024EarlyChamps