Steve

Combining a PRE attack with a long activation time is an interesting idea.

I don't recall if I mentioned this before... When watching Sailor Moon, I realized that in anime one can haymaker magic. Sailor Moon doesn't actually seem to do this with the activation sequence for her smash-the-daemon Heart Staff attack -- it could just be that it takes Extra Time to activate -- but it reminded me of Lina Inverse in some episodes of the Slayers that I saw many years ago. When Lina casts her Dragon Slave spell, she can sometimes do an extra-long "I pledge myself to the darkness" incantation to upgrade it to an extra-super-kaboomy Giga Slave blast!
 
So Moonray's enemy Princess Shadira will have this. When she needs to make her Dark Sorcery extra powerful, she intones something like, "Eternal Night, who was here before all things and shall endure after their end, I have given myself to you! Now give yourself to me!! Baleful Black Bolt!!!" And since it sucks to go through all this and miss 'cause the delayed segment gives opponents a chance to Dodge, she has Skill Levels just with Haymakered spells. And maybe a special Presence Attack while Darkness boils around her and an updraft of magic lifts and waves her hair, so everybody stands and gapes like idiots instead of sucker punching her before she can cast the spell...
 
Dean Shomshak

I almost always end up coming back to Champions.  I have run other games, Castles and Crusades, Amazing Adventures, BASH and many others but I eventually end up going back to my first love. 
 
It wasn't my first RPG, Holmes D&D was that, or my first Superhero RPG, Villains and Vigilantes was that but I still end up getting Champions because it is the only crunchy game that I comfortable with.  Running the game just feels like putting on a pair of comfortable shoes.

It's certainly been a very eventful evening at the Kintargo Opera House, what with Lord-Mayor Barzillai Thrune's attempt to murder hundreds of civilians and blame the Ghosts of Kintargo. To our profound relief, we've actually managed to kill most of the devils he was going to use, and the civilians trying to flee can all turn around and watch as we finish off the ones we now outnumber. Although it's probably just as well we're all still in our Masquerade costumes - we don't want to make it TOO easy for the authorities to hunt us down when they inevitably retaliate.
 
The Bone Devil dives to the relative safety of the floor, despite the fact it’s crawling with highly motivated adventurers - and cops Ankylosaur To The Face AGAIN as the dinosaur cosplays as Anguirus. Ayva makes a mental note for the future opera’s stage directions, to suitably represent a Bone Devil’s head getting exploded like a watermelon and its remains crashing into the orchestra pit. For that matter the small part of Terzo’s brain that wasn’t preoccupied by terror and the fact he nearly just died in the last five minutes is certainly complaining that the opera about the rebellion needs some original arias, not whatever old ones he came up with on the fly. Obviously, the opera will have to have Nox as the main character. An entire (completely fictional) redemption arc, invented scenes between her and Thrune, and dramatic reveals. Plus half of it is already set at the opera house.
 
Terzo: I imagine the authorities in Cheliax will be rather confused as they study the libretto. I look forward to it being banned - Just means more sales elsewhere. Might need to consult a cleric of Sarenrae to make the character redemption believable.
 
Painted Nox finishes off the intoxicated Dotarri.
 
Dotarri: Is that Nox? She looks …. Attractive?
Painted Nox: *poleaxe*
Dotarri: ****!
 
Rajira slashes up the already dazed, prone and bleeding Erinyes, and adds a few more Status Effects to give her a Very Bad Day. Chough ensures it’s the devil’s last day by tearing her open like a cheap dog toy and wearing her lungs as a hat. 
 
Looking around we discover to our surprise that we’re all still alive, albeit rather battered. Ayva is in the odd position of wanting to hug the ball of fire, but then Shimza’s healing flames are rather odd. At least that, and the flying ankylosaur, will ensure some rumours that the Ghosts of Kintargo have a dragon on their side. It’s true, too, although Vendelfek is hardly as deadly as the rapidly spinning Ornithischian.
 
We have Painted Nox carry ‘Thrune’s’ body to the Opera House doors, after Terzo hurriedly feeds her speech based on the final scene of The Red Tyrant. He’ll have to rewrite that for his eventual opera about recent events in Kintargo - he doesn’t want to be accused of plagiarism.
 
Rajira uses the window we threw the real Nox through to sing her aria from Huntress of Heroes, a piece she was due to perform prior to Thrune closing the opera house (and, additionally, petrified Shensen, star of Kintargo opera). Her roll comes out to 41. It’s quite possibly the most sublime performance the Opera House has ever seen. Everybody within earshot, probably including some of the Dotarri, are now dedicated to the rebellion. As news spreads, we’ll have well over 10% of Kintargo on our side.
 
Civilla’s inhumanly sneaky homunculus Luster explores the Opera House basement while Ayva hurries off to deal with the petrified Shensen while all this is going on - the rest of us can fly off on the Ankylosaur if we have to, although that might be rather conspicuous. Luster finds a vault, and a very creepy coffin.  If we move the coffin and Shensen to the bottom of the pond in Aria Park using the grotto connecting the two, we can have one of our teams move them to one of our safehouses later. If that coffin DOES contain the vampire we speculated was feeding on Thrune, there’s quite a few precautions we’ll need to take, but we do have some options to turn it human again regardless.
 
Painted Nox returns with Thrune’s body. 
 
Painted Nox: It’s a fake.
Civilla: … it’s Cizmerkis, isn’t it.
Avya: What, really?
Terzo: I’m sorry, who’s Cizmerkis?
Civilla: …Ah… er… I’ll explain later. Business Associate.
 
There are certainly some aspects of the contract that Civilla will have to consider, if Cizmerkis actually suffered True Death. Another thing she might want to consult an actual lawyer about - preferably one of the Inevitables, immortal creatures of pure Law. If Cizmerkis was Summoned as a Greater Planar Ally and Polymorphed for this entire trap, then he’s stuck as a corpse until the spells wear off.
 
Avya: Shimza saved our lives today. Cure Moderate Wounds would not have cut it.
Civilla: I’ll say. “Where’s your healer?’ ‘Up in the rafters’ “Oh dear’ ‘Directing the Flaming Ball of Healing’ ‘ I'm sorry, what?”.
 
We’ve also earned enough XP from this evening to level up TWICE.
 
Once we get that casket somewhere safe, we unseal it - after Civilla casts Daylight. Inside is a very surprised Jilia Bainilus, and she is, indeed, a vampire. So that’s what happened to the missing former Mayor.
 
Civilla: *holds up a Elixir of True Resurrection* I have a cure.
 
Jilia seems very much in favour of that even as her new vampire abilities try to Dominate us. We seal her up again, move her out into the sunlight, open it up to burn her to dust, and pour on the potion. The restored Mayor is understandably rather annoyed with Thrune and his allies. She’s not the only one - hundreds of the most influential people in Kintargo now want Thrune’s head on a spike.
 
Rajira: They probably wanted his head on a spike already, just on general principles. Now they REALLY want it.
 

When making my second character, a "Batman with darkness powers" hero, I tossed caution to the wind and took as many hunteds that I could. Name the organization, he was hunted by them at 14-, both criminal and law enforcement! He had all the perks... a nice HQ, some cool powers, martial arts... and a secret identity. Then the GM decided that ALL of his hunteds showed up at once. Outside the HQ. Oof!

Back when figured characteristics were still part of the rules, I thought that lost BODY capped maximum STUN by however many points of BODY were lost since STUN was derived partly from BODY. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I learned that wasn’t a rule.

Good news! Jason Walters tells me he's pretty sure HERO still owns the rights to the artwork in the original CotN, and sees no reason I can't re-use it for the revised book. Woohoo! I think Greg Smith and Storn Cook did *superb* work. (Greg even contacted me to ask for further details about character appearance. Which is when I wrote him, "Make Lamplighter look like Patrick Stewart. He looks and sounds totally like Patrick Stewart.")
 
Dean Shomshak

You can of course constrain characters by origin, or you can just base your campaign on the organisations implied by your PCs.
 
Or you could just look at the characters and organisations that appeared in 1e Champions: VIPER, UNTIL, Mechanon...

Each of these provides filters you could use to re-imagine a less "busy" version of the CU.
 
X-Men is easy. It's all mutants, or nearly all. Super-tech is created by "mutant super-geniuses." It might not even be "real" technology that other people can duplicate, but just a kind of prop for channeling intrinsic powers (an idea used in the Wild Cards series, IIRC). Magic likewise. Even ostensible supernatural creatures such as demons might be psychokinetic constructs created by a particular mutant. This might not be understood by mutant-hunting groups, who would be quite indignant to be told their super-sophisticated mutant-hunting robots are actually powered by the psychic power of the scientist who builds them -- who of course doesn't know he's a mutant.
 
Fantastic Four offers a subtler filter. One of their big themes is exploration. They gained their powers from an experimental rocket flight. Many of their regular foes operate from strange or distant places -- the Mole Man in Subterranea, Galactus and the Super-Skrull from outer space, Rama-Tut/Scarlet Centurion/Kang a time traveler, Annihilus and Blastaar from the Negative Zone, and so on. An FF-inspired trim-down of the CU could similarly tie heroes and villains to Hidden Lands and Hidden Races such as Lemuria or the Empyreans, aliens, and a limited selection of other dimensions. For instance, Dr. Destroyer would have gotten his start in super-technology from a wrecked alien spaceship; his tendency to place his Bases in exotic locations such as a remote island, a hidden valley in the Himalayas, and an asteroid ties into the theme very well. Though you might prefer to have Xarriel (from Champions Beyond, IIRC) as your top villain, and draw of the aliens in that book for additional foes.
 
Friendly Neighborhood Hero Team is an even subtler filter, in that it doesn't have to emphasize particular origin types. Actually, there are several ways you could do this. This might be a second-tier city that's a weirdness magnet, drawing in a bit of everything, like Vibora Bay. This could conceivably develop a monster/villain-of-the-week feel a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which the local heroes must deal with the latest threat to be drawn there. Or you could play up the localism by having a cadre of equally local villains who somehow can't be kept in jail for long, the way Batman has his crew of lunatics that cycle through Arkham Asylum. Or the heroes might come from a single shared origin, or closely linked origins, the way the Flash TV series has most characters tied to the Dark Matter eruption from STAR Labs.
 
OK, that's probably more than enough for one post. I hope you find an approach that you like. I'll just add that the "magic-centric" campaigns I ran to playtest for Ultimate Supermage and Ultimate Mystic were the best Champions campaigns I ever ran. Heh, when it comes to campaign design sometimes Focus is an Advantage instead of a Limitation!
 
Dean Shomshak

The HD files bundled with the Western Hero pdf have all the vehicles listed in the book as well as many of the NPCs found in the adventures etc. 
 
The Greatest Guns Who Never Were has the HD files of various fictional characters from movies and TV shows, a free download
The Greatest Guns of History has the HD files of the various real life personalities from the old west, also a free download.  Also included is a build of all the new Western-related talents in the book.
 
*edited: the talent builds are in the Greatest Guns download, no the Western Hero download

There's still a fair bit of overlap to account for, but Champions does something of this with the set-up of the different Worlds: Superhuman, Mystic, Martial, etc. Each one could effectively be treated as its own setting, and I wonder if there might not be some advantages to treating the Champions Universe as more of a multiverse of loosely-connected settings focused on different aspects, than trying to fit everything in all at once.

Pathfinder : Chronicles  of Selversgard pt.16
 
In which the party encounter their most vicious opponent yet - small town politics
 
We never actually confirm WHY that werewolf woman in the isolated cottage was involved in giving that Hellknight unwanted body-hair. Maybe she was lonely. But the involvement of that Kyton was enough reason for us to get home as fast as possible and barricade the doors. But the next six months are uneventful, at least in terms of artistic dismemberment.
 
Eddison enjoys the peace and quiet. Arram, on the other hand, needs to make some marriage arrangements in a hurry. Apparently the apothecary was out of prophylactic tea - but then, given the epidemic that ran through the Ysoki warren, Skave was probably busy with that. Too late to save one of his infant children, alas. The new sewer system the Ysoki have installed under Selversgard should have helped to prevent a more severe outbreak, at least.
 
Galiante has arranged a two-week get-away at Shev’s hunting lodge way outside Selversgard, mostly as a break from their own kids.
 
On the other hand, yet more tunnels have been discovered under the town. They’re flooded, which is unsurprising given the local water table, but you do have to wonder exactly how much is buried under the town. Eddison hopes nobody remembers he’s an aquatic elf. The next council meeting discusses the issue, among more mundane matters. As usual, the current mayor hasn’t actually bothered to show up, but his second is up to the task. Some of the issues have been brought up at every meeting for the last five years, but that wouldn’t surprise anybody who has ever been on a committee.
 
Eddison, Miya and Arram are actually in attendance when Halvari Ajeri, the representative of the Fishermens Guild, keels over dead.  Nobody seems to be leaving the room surreptitiously. Admittedly he wasn’t a young man, but Miya notes that one of the late councilmember’s eyes has a wildly blown-out pupil. Mother Maybell diagnoses a stroke.
 
Mother Maybell: What can I say? It was his time - he’s with the Goddess now.
Miya: I take it the meeting is adjourned?
 
They fetch some linen, and Eddison transports the body on a Floating Disc. At least the funeral will be tomorrow.
 
Eddison: So we don't have to put him in the river to keep.
 
Eddison takes the opportunity to talk to the head of the Militia, who’s been pushing for an expanded militia for years. Eddison sympathises - he wants to expand the entire town. 
 
Eddison: Why not establish a Town Guard? Only a few people, but that’ll be a separate budget item!
 
Plus there’s a vacancy on the council now. There’s going to have to be an election. Of course, only current members of the council can actually approve new members. No wonder nothing significant has changed in Selversgard for the last few decades.
 
Eddison: Speaking as an elf, this is a recipe for stagnation.
 
The Council can be divided more or less into two factions, traditionalists and progressives. Gelvert  (usually represented by his son Gelbert), the late Helvari Ajeri, and Killane Shellsdotter are solidly traditionalist and see little advantage in changing a winning formula. Blake and Kregor both want to see more manufacturing and artificing come to Selversgard, enabling the sale of more finished goods and not just raw lumber, and they have the support of Vandruber and the Eastlake Company. Kregor also wants to upgrade his men's kit - get proper longbows and better armour, maybe even some of those newfangled gunpowder weapons, but he never gets the budget. Knobroc, when present, tends to side with them, but he was elected to counter the Fishermen’s Guild. Silas of the Green has surprised a few people by supporting some of the progressive proposals, though never when it comes to the possibility of expanding the town.
 
Helvari’s son Aldo naturally assumes he’ll inherit the position as guildmaster and councilmember. He’s a good man in an emergency, but when given the luxury of time tends to agree with whoever talked to him last. But Skiri Olafsdottir, head of Olaf and Family Boatwrights, also put her hand up, and has significant support. She’s certainly more determined than Aldo.
 
Miya: Willing to compromise, but would prefer not to.
 
Miya’s husband Falx is not on the council already, and this situation has him quite excited. And the Ysoki warren approaches Shev and Skave - they want representation on the council too.
 
Shev: Once I stop laughing I’m going to introduce you to our cousin the healer, because there’s clearly something wrong with you.
Ysoki: But you’ve dealt with the council before?
Shev: And look how quickly they accepted the proposal I leave town. I recommend our cousin Romilda - she actually lives in town and is less likely to blow the place up.
 
And then Arram receives a delegation too - Roger, Knobroc and Sennsa-Auel the elven madam - they want more representation for small businesses. Roger, in fact, is willing to stand down if Arram will take his place. They might not OBJECT to the Fisherman’s Guild having a voice of the council - they just hope it’s not Aldo.
 
Knobroc: Although there have been some grumblings about your relationship with one of your students.
Arram: A FORMER student. A fair proportion of the town are my former students by now.
Knobroc: Fair point.
Arram: … I’m going to have THREE jobs and a new kid.
 
His religious education classes have some objectors too.
 
Arram OoC: I took a freaking level in Religion for those classes! They’re just looking for something to complain about.
Miya: ‘Gods exist. Thus endeth the lesson’
 
But then being an atheist in Golarion is a losing proposition, unless your position is that the gods neither require nor deserve your worship. You might fit in in the nation of Rahadoum, though - they banned all religion. 
 
Arram canvases some of the other business owners, such as Gonno. He assures the Oread that since the council only meets monthly, and he won’t be Mayor for at least 5 years, he can handle the double-duty as schoolmaster. He also asks how Gonno’s children are doing - which, if the carpenter was more talkative, would lead to hours of happy boasting. Clearly his daughter is going to be a carpenter - look at how much hammer damage she’s done to the wall. Arram makes his excuses, and is sent on his way with a cold beer and goat cheese. He gets more refreshments at Miya and Falx’s place, while talking with them and the forestry rep Blake, but as he is heading to the Warren doubles over with agonizing gut cramps. Miya and Falx are suddenly taken ill as well. The three reach Mother Maybell’s place at the same time, seeking medical aid. She diagnoses poison. 
 
Arram: Thought so. (OOC: That’s usually why I need to make mysterious CON saves.)
 
Blake is not at home. Hopefully he hasn’t keeled over somewhere. Kragor and the militia find him, eventually, between two of the houses. Alive, but not well. It seems certain the poison was in the bottle of wine they shared. None of the servants recall even serving wine. 
 
Arram: Genuine Magnimaran Leaded Wine.
Miya: Extra sweet.
 
Skave analyzes the residue - it’s a mineral poison, usually used as a slow poison. The four victims just got an acute dose of arsenic. He prepares antidotes, while Arram checks on the other candidates. Skiri is busy at work on a Pinnace.
 
Shev OoC: It’s the finest Pinnace I’ve ever seen. Huge.
Skave’s player: You’re doing that deliberately.
 
Skiri Olafsdottir: Poison? I didn’t think the politics around here was THAT bad.
Arram: Honestly, neither did I.
 
She’s already worked through lunch, and nobody has left a plate of food anywhere for her to snack on. Arram moves on to check on Aldo. He’s out on the river.
 
Miya: A perfect alibi.
 
Skiri is certainly a more popular candidate than Aldo, although Aldo does have more influence. But Arram has made more impact on town, and influential friends besides. So it’ll be the boatwright and the teacher assuming places on the council. It’s ironic that Arram has always thought himself a conservative figure, but he might be responsible for some real change in Selversgard.
 
Skave: I buy Arram a bottle of wine to congratulate him and to apologise for all the times I’ve set him on fire.
Miya: He was just poisoned by a bottle of wine.
Skave: I checked it first!
 
Eddison has business for the new council - he requires permission for a new inn in town.
 
Eddison: I either work at the place some people avoid because the Yellow House is next door, or the place that smells of fish guts!
 
Eddison: I want to focus on the eating side of things.
Miya: Then we come to the important question, what are you going to call it?
Eddison: …..
Gonno: Hello?
Eddison: I’m thinking!
GM: The Crickets Chirping?
Eddison: I’m sure I’ll think of something before we open.
 
If he builds it on a jetty, or incorporates a living tree into the building somehow, Eddison can avoid most of Silas the Green’s objections. Especially if we do the druids some kind of favour first. And if he leans on his charisma half the people in town will give him discounts on everything else he needs to build his new inn.
 
Eddison: I’m fabulous, just ask me.
 
But the ‘servant’ that placed the poisoned wine is never identified. And part of the Ysoki warren collapses into more of those mystery tunnels. And while scouting the riverbed after a boat collision, Eddison finds an ominous dome protruding from the mud. It once had a statue on top - that’s what the boat hit.
 
And, alas, Arram does not become a father. A sad start to his new career, and the eighth year of the campaign.

In the case of a "neighborhood" campaign, it might be better for your purpose to narrow the geographic focus of the campaign, rather than try to simplify the whole setting. Stay away from the likes of New York or Los Angeles or Chicago, in favor of a smaller city, or a suburb of a larger one, protected by local heroes.

I wholly agree that individual campaigns should focus on particular subsets of the setting, and mostly ignore the rest except for "change of pace" adventures. But I very much appreciate that the CU offers me such a vast range of possibilities to choose from. And I admire how, for the most part, all that diversity hangs together and makes sense, so that you have justification to bring those diverse elements together.
 
I love that one of UNTIL's young special agents with apparently minor psionic powers, is actually a much older and more powerful Empyrean clandestinely monitoring the agency's activities for her people. I love that the immortal sorcerer Dr. Yin Wu joined in the defense of Earth against Istvatha V'han's first invasion. And that VIPER's patron deity Nama ordered the group to attack and disrupt DEMON's terrible Demonflame ritual, that might have threatened Nama himself. And that the Greek goddess Hecate and Aztec god Tezcatlipoca teamed up to try to tear down the Ban barring mythic gods from fully manifesting on Earth. And Mechanon and Dr. Destroyer engaged in a year-long global war after Mech tried to "liberate" DD's artificially-intelligent supercomputer. And the alien Qularr attacked Earth to obtain genetic material from Earth's superhumans, because they encountered the great Silver Age superheroes, the Fabulous Five, during one of the heroes' missions in space. And that Herr Doktor Pandemonium of DEMON's Inner Circle discovered and exploited the genetic legacy that the Slug's race, the Elder Worm, left in humanity from the Worm's prehistoric era of domination of Earth.
 
The way it all weaves together is just so cool. 😎

I dare say that's what most GMs do in practice. There's too much CU to use in the average campaign; GMs must decide which sections and characters to use, and leave the rest in the background.
 
But that's how comic books operate, too. (Or did, anyway.) Take the Marvel U, for instance. The Fantastic Four have their stable of regular and semi-regular villains like Dr Doom, Galactus, the Mole Man, assorted aliens, etc. Spider-Man and Daredevil have their street-level villains, which the X-Men seldom if ever encounter because they're fighting Sentinels, other mutant factions, and such ilk. None of them are likely to fight Nightmare, Dormammu, or Dr Strange's other mystical foes. And so on.
 
Sure, change-of-pace stories happen: The X-Men go into space, Spider-Man fights a demon, or Thor fights robots. But that's the point: Change of pace. Heroes usually stick to their niches.
 
So pick what style of heroes and team you want for your campaign and pick the set of villains and background to support it. Say the rest doesn't exist or just ignore it. Like, unless you're running a Mystic Masters campaign most of the mystical side of the CU effectively shouldn't exist. Unless you really want to make anti-mutant prejudice a big part of the campaign, you can (and probably should) ignore IHA and the MInuteman robots and, conversely, Kinematik and his mutant supremacists. And unless you want to actually run an alien invasion story arc or out-to-space story arc, the alien races might as well all not exist... jnless one of your players specifically wants to play an alien character.
 
The same goes for the "thousands of supers around the world" issue. For decades, 90% of Marvel stories happened in the Greater NYC area. Heroes were more likely to visit the Kree Galaxy than, say, Nebraska. Or even major countries like India or France. DC spread things out further by at least giving different home cities to heroes, such as Metropolis, Gotham City, Star City, Central City, yadda yadda. But those heroes tended to have their own favored sets of villains, too.
 
Dean Shomshak
 
 

Vampires have accumulated so much lore (if you like it) or baggage (if you don't) that it would take at least a small supplement to do them justice -- even if you stick to pop culture "gothic" vampires. There are many others!
 
It's tempting, given the amount of freelance work I did for White Wolf's Vampire: the Masquerade and Vampire: the Requiem, but I don't know that I will ever get a chance, for personal reasons that would take a while to explain.
 
My own favorite choice for First Vampire master villain is Kastchai (or Kostchei, Koshchei, etc) the Deathless, from Russian fairy tales. Intermediate shadowy mastermind of worldwide, behind-the-scenes power, Agrippina (look her up). But like I say... not yet, maybe not ever. CotN Resurrected will have just one general-purpose supervillain vampire.
 
ADDENDUM: I just finished my final revision of The Sylvestri Family Reunion (and it needed it). IIRC from what Jason Vester has said, it might be possible to publish it through Hall of Champions without needing an okay from Cryptic Studios. I will be looking into that possibility. That book will include a powerful specter and a vampire with a wide (probably too wide) array of powers.
 
Dean Shomshak

TBH I don't think there's much. The Champions Universe is patterned after the Marvel and DC universes, which are grab-bags of characters and concepts drawn from nearly every source -- space opera, wild martial arts, gothic horror, cyberpunk, pulp, film noire, and folklore and mythology from around the world; as well as classic comic-book tropes like hidden superhuman races, super-sorcerers, cosmic entities, dimensional conquerors, galactic guardians; and so on. The grab-bag approach allows for a vast range of possible origins, plot lines, and styles of play. If you pare those down you diminish the possibilities. For example, if as you suggest we reduce the demons to a relative few, you pretty much have to confine yourself to one tradition. If, say, we focus on Abrahamic-tradition demons, we lose all the delicious possibilities from Oriental, African, and aboriginal American demons, to name a few.
 
On top of that, the CU is a setting that's been dealing with the reality of superhumans, aliens, monsters, mythic gods, for generations. Global politics, law, military, media, entertainment, technology, theology and philosophy have all been shaped by their presence and persistence, the public awareness that such beings exist and influence their lives. Drastically curtailing their numbers would lessen their impact on human society.
 
I also want to underline that the current Champions Universe is more coherent than those of Marvel and DC. The big comics companies grew their worlds organically, adding pieces willy-nilly as new ideas hit their creators. Despite multiple efforts at revision (which may have actually contributed to the problem), their worlds are rather chaotic and self-contradictory. The CU was built as a whole from the start, pieces assembled both initially and over subsequent years with an eye toward building on a clear solid foundation. Take out too many pieces and the whole structure becomes unsteady.
 
All that being said, I would consider some elements of the setting expendable without too great a cost. The unified Hero Universe time line reaching into the past and the future could be trimmed, particularly the future part, since by definition it hasn't happened yet.   Strictly speaking, the other official past "ages" could be excised, leaving only the modern Age of Superheroes to differentiate the CU from the real world. Each one comes at a cost though -- either losing certain things or finding alternate explanations for them. The Turakian Age is the source for Takofanes and the Crowns of Krim; the Atlantean Age is the explanation for today's underwater Atlantis and Lemuria.
 
The setting has certain redundancies which could be eliminated or conflated. There isn't a strict need for more than one super law-enforcement group. If you have UNTIL then PRIMUS isn't essential. We also don't have to have two snake-themed supervillain organizations. Either VIPER or COIL could go, or the two could be merged, although COIL is much easier to remove -- VIPER is far bigger, has a much longer history, and has been behind more significant events. One or more "hidden lands" could go. Atlantis and Lemuria both occupy the underwater civilization niche, although their styles are quite different. America doesn't need all the superhero groups listed, with several of them operating essentially the same way, just with different named members. Multiple dimensional conquerors don't necessarily have to share the same niche, i.e. Istvatha V'han, Tyrannon, and Skarn. There's some overlap in motif or motivation among official alien races. For example, both the Qularr and the Xenovores are semi-insectoid masters of biological sciences who genetically manipulate their species, although they're also quite distinctive. The various support groups for supers could be reduced, such as the Goodman Institute and Angelstone Laboratories which perform similar functions. The Trismegistus Council is just a facilitating organization for super-sorcerers to minimize their leg work.
 
Speaking of the Council, that's one example of a group in the CU that operates mostly behind the scenes and under the radar. The likes of those groups and characters could be trimmed down or out, as by their very nature they aren't visible to the general public, such as  Menton, the Circle of the Scarlet Moon, and Franklin Stone. Stone and his Advanced Concepts Industries corporation also aren't essential when other corrupt mega-corporations also exist, i.e. ARGENT and Duchess Industries.
 
But all of the above entities carry their own unique elements, and you lose something when you cut them out of the setting. Whether what you gain is worth doing that is an individual judgement.

Like the Marvel and DC universes, the Champions Universe is a pretty busy place.
 
I’ve been doing some thinking, wondering how far to strip it down for a future campaign, to get down to the core elements.
 
For example, instead of thousands of superhumans across the globe with a multitude of origins, the pool shrinks to a few hundred or maybe less. Instead of a multitude of superteams, there are very few.
 
Instead of a multitude of alien races and invasion armadas every few years, there are only a handful of races and no mass invasions.
 
The same thing for mystic stuff. The occasional demon shows up, but not the legions of hell.
 
Bring the agent groups down in number to just maybe UNTIL and VIPER.
 
I’m pondering a more manageable variant of the CU, but don’t want to cut into the bone.
 
How much of the CU is bloat and fat that could be pulled out, but still leave the core feel of it intact?

I suppose relative STR might come into play. If there is 5-10 or more STR on one side, maybe the other party becomes increasingly irrelevant?

One idea for how orcs multiply I once read is due to dark sinkholes gathering evil and starting to produce them, kind of like how their production was shown in the LOTR movies. Orcs are thus a type of corruption of the land.

I would buy it, and I would find a way to use them.

Several of the 4e characters I created in Creatures of the Night: Horror Enemies were revised for later editions of Champions, ultimately making it to the Champions Villains trilogy. Most of them, however, did not. Tiger has expressed interest in updating selected characters for his Forgotten Enemies series (and used Lady Twilight with my blessing), but -- since I am still here -- I might like to do this myself. I've noodled around with Creatures of the Night Resurrected for the last several months, writing up 5e/CC versions of several characters. Before I go further, though, I have some important questions:
 
Does anybody want this? Did you ever use them, back in the day? Would you use them if they were revised?
 
Subsequent posts will discuss ways I plan to revise characters, but if they were never that useful in the first place I probably won't bother.
 
Dean Shomshak

Regardless of how the next few minutes play out, the rebellion in Kintargo is going to have to wildly revise their threat estimate of Lord-Mayor Barzillai Thrune. The trap he laid would have devastated us, even if we hadn’t shown up. But it’s equally shocking how many resources he must have expended setting this up. 
 
Consider - in the Red Corner : Dozens of heavily armed Dotarri, Half a dozen Bearded Devils, a huge Bone Devil, an Erinyes, and a Contract Devil. Each of the devils has been concealed with expensive glamours and magical items until it was time to slaughter everybody in the building.
 
In the Blue Corner - Four artists and intellectuals and a few of their friends.
 
The Ghosts of Kintargo are not people suited to mass combat. In fact, our only member suited for face-to-face combat is Rajira’s cousin Mahat, who no doubt we’ll find sitting on a pile of dead Dotarri outside, later. Rajira is pretty deft with a kukri, true, but she got most of her skill at interpersonal violence while training for the Opera.
 
At least the Contract Devil is dead, if that was indeed Cizmerkis disguised as Thrune on the stage. And the Dotarri are clearly dismayed by the apparent death of their Lord-Mayor. But we're still seriously outnumbered, some of us are already badly wounded, and the assorted Devils have clearly identified us as People That Need To Die. Unfortunately the really big Azata is really a really big Bone Devil. They can turn invisible. And Fly. As Civilla, still up in the chandelier, will shortly learn to her cost. The Azata that was already flying is actually an Erinyes, and a horribly efficient sniper. And Rajira is having really, really bad luck avoiding the Bearded Devils. And one of the latter is paying attention to Terzo again. 
 
Then Civilla drops a Chthonic Ankylosaur onto the stage.
 
Civilla: If I kept the Xill around there was a real chance somebody would get implanted with more Xill.
Ayva: The opera about these events is going to be hilarious.
 
Happily, if Terzo dashes to the front of the orchestra pit then most of the party (and the Ankylosaur) can be buffed with the spell Good Hope. Another aria arises from the chaos.
 
Ayva: I can’t WAIT to see this opera.
 
Some of our other allies - Captain Cassius Sargaeta of the Chellish Navy, his boyfriend Marquel Aulorian, and the faerie dragon Vendalfek - keep working on getting the civilians out of the building alive, without too many of them being trampled to death.
 
Up on the balcony the Painted Nox and original continue to mutually annihilate - happily our fake is smart enough to stick as close as possible to Thrune’s bodyguard, to prevent her using her own evil glaive to best effect. And the original Nox has a Baleful Gaze attack now, after tearing a pair of blinders from her eyes in a brutal display. 
 
Although that affects her own allies as well, and the Painted Nox is immune. And for that matter everybody is too busy to even notice her trying to catch their gaze. At least Shimza can do ranged healing in the form of Scorching Rays and Flaming Spheres that make people feel better (with the added bonus that the Bearded Devils pause their attacks on people that are apparently already on fire). And Civilla and Shimza can Dimension Slide to somewhere safer than the chandelier and hide in an Invisibility Sphere. And the Dire Corby we’ve been having trained by a barbarian is finally able to help in combat. She might not be optimised for Face-to-Face Combat but she’s very very good at Beak-to-Spine.
 
Ayva: Our Lady of Squawking Death.
 
Although she hasn’t actually dismembered anything but training dummies lately. We’ve been trying to teach her to use her rage constructively.
 
Ayva in Flashback: ‘No no, you don’t cut them in half, because that’s murder. And murder is…?’ ‘... and Murder is wrong’
Rajira in Flashback: No, murder is crows.
 
Still, the Bearded Devil that Chough lands behind is definitely going to be murdered, after she grabs each side of his head and tears him in half down the middle.
 
Chough: RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE
 
Upstairs, our Painted Nox prevents the original from using the gaze attack again. Or gazing at anything ever again, by slicing her shiny magical glaive through both Nox’s eyes. If that WAS Cizmerkis the Xill killed, then the original Nox might just have been released from her contract, and is free to flee. Not that she can see to flee. Further, since it was Civilla’s Xill that landed the killing blow, she might be able to claim Nox’s contract by Right of Conquest. 
 
Terzo OoC: You MIGHT want to consult a lawyer on that idea first.
 
It probably won’t matter anyway - Civilla shadow-conjures a Holy Javelin and runs her through - Arcane Casters are ridiculously versatile. The original Nox staggers as holy light and clarions ravage her, and gets pushed out a window to a Disney Death. Where everybody can see that there are clearly two Noxs, and this one was some kind of abomination, and our one a blazing figure of goodness.
 
Rajira’s player: Oh god, we’re conflating two great songs - Blinded By The Light and Holy Diver.
 
The Bone Devil manages to critically injure itself (possibly it was blinded by the light of the Nox Kebab) but the Erinyes mages to mortally wound Terzo even as he’s trying to assist his friends with their own injuries. It can also see straight through the Invisibility Sphere. It’s just as well Shimza has an Amulet of Life’s Breath that Civilla made for her, to keep her going beyond any normal amount of injury.  
 
Civilla: We magic-users know exactly how squishy we are. 
 
At least the burrowing Ankylosaur continues to be effective. At the very least the nearly dead Ayva can hide behind it.
 
Civilla: I brought a siege engine to a knife fight.
 
Chough is certainly going through the opposition like a Ballista, too. She nearly kills a second Devil as it’s trying to Greater Teleport out of her way. And then the Ankylosaur becomes even more like a siege weapon, because Ayva casts Fly on it (and Rajira), from where she was hiding underneath. The Bone Devil and the Erinyes certainly weren’t expecting THAT. The concussed Erinyes crashes to earth just as the Euphoric Cloud obscuring half the room disperses. 
 
Rajira yells to Terzo get in behind the Erinyes while she attacks from the front, but this nearly backfires terribly as the Bone Devil casts Hemisphere of Ice first - or attempts to. It would seem it forgot about the Ankylosaur. You’d think a Flying Chthonic Ankylosaur would be difficult to forget. The devil gets thagomized in the face. At least if it suffers True Death at the dinosaur's tailclub it won’t have to explain to anybody what happened. That would just be embarrassing.
 
Painted Nox does a Superhero Landing from the balcony (Constructs with Regeneration don’t have to worry about broken ankles) and contributes to the flanking on the Erinyes. Rajira Flies in to the attack. Chough leaps clear across the orchestra pit to contribute some properly directed violence. Ayva adds Mydriatic Spontaneity, to keep the devil’s pupils constantly dilating and contracting and leaving it half-blind and nauseated. The dottari still intoxicated by the Euphoric Cloud watch all this with fascination, swaying slightly.
 

 
Ayva OoC: I can't wait until Civilla can summon Chthonic T. Rexes. 
Terzo OoC: We’ve all seen that episode of The Goodies.
 

I wonder. If you substituted orcs for the xenovores, with the orcs suffering the same horrendous losses in population that the xenovores did, would that “natural selection” leave a less inherently hostile species? I’m not so sure. They also gleefully ate other sentient species.
 
Per my understanding of Tolkien’s writings, orcs continued in Middle Earth into the Fourth Age and were eventually hunted down to the last one.

There is an important distinction, though. The Xenovores are sapient. By the time they cross interstellar space they have advanced medical technology, which they use to genetically modify themselves to create castes suited for particular roles in their society. There's every reason to believe they could remove their dependence on eating other sapients. The fact that later generations of Xenovores overcome it through natural selection, as Dean points out above, proves that it's possible. Instead the Xenovores embrace it, glorify it, make it central to their own cultural myth of superiority. They unapologetically and enthusiastically murder untold millions. You can say that it's part of their heritage, that it's become ingrained in their civilization so that they never question it. That may be true, but the fact remains that they have a choice, and this is what they chose.