Steve

Actually, a campaign set in the days after she is gone could be very interesting. If there is a struggle for power, PCs could become quite important, what with Tyrannon and other multiversal threats pressing on the borders of the empire and all the internal chaos that would be going on.
 
Yet, she is a time traveller. I can’t recall, do her powers render her always unique? Or might temporal echoes of her exist even after her supposed death?

First off I think it's cute you think "we" ever believed in American Exceptionalism or Whig History.  Everyone is 20 once and middle-aged eventually.  I remember the early 2000s as when my country lost it's collective mind after being attacked, invaded Iraq... because, openly setup a surveillance state, and told everyone to keep shopping lest the terrorists win.  Don't presume that no one caught the hypocrisy or that everyone expected Afghanistan to go well.  Lots of folks doubted we would do any better than any of the other Great Powers that were going to "fix" them.
Thing of it is, I had a lot of discussions with my elders about how this was in no way new.  Idealism breaks down once the world steadfastly refuses to be horrified by what horrifies you, the same crimes keep getting committed, and no one goes to jail.
 
We had a discussion on this forum a couple years ago that overlapped this: "Can Heroes be proactive?"  The discussion was about if it was possible for heros to just go out and root out the things that were bad instead of just waiting for crime to happen & reacting too it.   I remember that discussion vividly because for me it happened against the backdrop of the George Floyd Riots.  I remember replying to that thread while the Daunte Wright protests were happening.  The thing we kept coming back too was: What were the heroes going to do to "make it right"?  Beat up the protesters?  Beat up the "bad" cops?  (how could they tell which ones those were?, all of them?).  Does punishing crime just hold up corrupt systems?  Does tearing down those systems create anarchy?  Basically, Superheroics breaks down when presented with an even cursory examination of the actual complexity of the world.  Batman & Superman have the advantage of an author who makes sure their heroics work in the context of their worlds and they never beat the crap out of an innocent person.
 
A big part of the appeal of 4 color comics is that there are good guys and bad guys and you don't really need to worry about if General Zod has a point.  Our actual world never gives us that kind of clarity.
 
So, to return to your query: Is Istvatha V'han our lord and savior?  Maybe? The Book of the Empress talks big about how she likes to make everyone happy so they they don't force her to obliterate them, but lets assume she actually makes everyone happy.  How?  The books talks about improving technology but also keeping out of local moral and religious affairs.  So abortion, human rights, religious freedom, etc would explicitly be exactly the same under her regime.  I'm sure food and security would solve a lot of the problems of the world but how are they given?  Airdrop?  Welfare State?  The book doesn't say. 
 
Are we better off under the Empress?  I imagine the TVs are higher-res, the internet is faster, and no one is hungry... but then what?  Is that all there is?  Do we all get more meaningful jobs?  Or are a bunch of us still going to be manning the drive through for not enough money?  Is there a new way to be that makes us all better people or do the taxes just go somewhere else and our lives are basically the same?  Under the current system in much of the world there is at least a fiction that we can find ways to better our positions in life.  Under the Empress is our cage just gilded to a higher degree but the choices are no different?

Mighty GI Joe Young

Catherine and Peter were great, but Ivan was terrible.

having the compilation CD havaiable has been a really good thing, but not everybody likes PDF, thankfully it didnt take much convincing to get Marc to put the PDF collection on CD
 

You need to think about the future of cloning and how this would affect this.
 
You could have clones that are made with devices that allow one to enter into the clone to operate it as if it were a computer avatar only better.  You could have real life Doom games where death and pain are experienced first hand complete with respawning points after one "Dies!"

Like new Shimmer, which is both a floor wax AND a dessert topping, Ghostbusters managed to be both wacky comedy AND supernatural horror.  A truly incredible achievement.
 
Bairtd Searles, the movie and TV reviewer for Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction when it came out, compared the initial "play the supernatural for laughs" to the frothy fantasies of Thorne Smith, sliding seamlessly to something worthy of H. P. Lovecraft. He was gobsmacked.
 
Dean Shomshak

Why were there no adult supers in the city?  If teen villains start rising, would the adult supers leave the untried, untested kiddy corps to deal with them?  Not saying it's unworkable, but those are the kinds of background points I'd try to cover.
 
Setups...
--supers crop up periodically, generally just before/at puberty.  For the last several years, tho, the adults have been forced to counter an off-planet invasion.  They're not entirely gone...but they're stretched very thin.
--the event happened only a few years ago, and supers did not exist beforehand.  It ONLY affected those in puberty;  the reason for that is, of course, a hot topic for debate.  VERY!!! recent, totally unexpected development of super powers is a major theme of Wearing the Cape;  it's got some major social and political implications.

HORROR ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS - MILAN - A NIGHT AT THE OPERA

Jan 1923
 
In Which The Investigators Enjoy Opera At Its Finest And Other Mental Disturbances
 
Lt. Huxley has made his stage debut at la Scala, which is certainly something to be proud of, and a big step up from the amateur dramatics he was involved in back at school. Of course, at Greyfriars he didn’t have to contend with dangerous lunatics in the audience, or trying to smuggle an evil artifact out of the building in front of thousands of opera-goers. 
 
He also has to hold off doing anything until the next scene change - the old man with the Diva’s voice has no such reason for delay. The old woman that was with them is also on the move, but at a much slower and confused pace. The cultist and his minions hurry out of the building and around to the side door, followed by Alex, who sees the goons beat up the doorman and enter the backstage area. Both goons and doorman do seem rather off-put by the old man’s young, and female voice. Alex returns to fetch Florence. 
 
Huxley takes the first opportunity he can to grab the Torso of the Simulacrum, snap off the wooden base, and hurry for the side exits - just in time to run into the cultist and his goons. He flees upstairs, stuffing the Torso into a hiding spot and attempting to hide himself, but to no avail at least for the last bit. He is forced to topple a stack of props to slow down the pursuit. By the time Alex and Florence catch up (after recommending whiskey as a cure-all to the brutalised doorman) the Lieutenant has left quite a mess. 
 
Alex: I think we know what klutz made that.
GM: Indeed - you can see him at the end of the corridor, still dressed in sandals and loincloth, pursued by two of the goons.
Florence: Yes, that's our klutz.
 
But where can Huxley be going? 
 
Alex: Where can you go in a loincloth?
Florence: There’s clubs for that
GM: Whatever party the lead tenor has planned.
 
The two two investigators can either pursue flat out, or proceed over the pile of props at a more moderate velocity. They choose the latter.
 
Florence: A safer speed would be better in these shoes.
 
And just as well, since it gives them the opportunity to spot the Torso where Huxley hid it. They wrap it in a drape, and head upstairs to leave via the costume department’s fire escape, with the assistance of a helpful stagehand. Unfortunately they run into the old man and one of his other minions coming the other way. The older man is too preoccupied to notice what the investigators are carting, but his bodyguard is more observant. The resulting scuffle on the stairwell goes on for some time, even after the old man draws a knife and injures Alex, and even after Flo escapes with the Torso, and despite all the yelling of “Pervitito!” by Florence. 
 
Alex OoC: We always have such fun on holiday!
 
Meanwhile Huxley has escaped his pursuers and intends to change back into his day clothes, and return to where he stashed the Torso. Admittedly he’ll have to do a loop of the entire building and go up and down three different floors, but backstage la Scala is a maze. It’s also unfortunate that a furious stage director spots him and frogmarches him back to the changing rooms to get back into costume, no doubt uttering dire threats to the other spear-carriers if they let him wander off again. He does spot the older woman wandering around with an expression of deep confusion and deep concentration, but his fellow extras have orders to keep him planted where he is, even when the scuffle above the stage is clearly visible to the cast members. 
 
Florence doesn’t seem to have the Lt.’s Bump of Direction, and gets herself quite lost trying to find the costume department, and has to barricade herself into a storeroom when she’s spotted by some of the goons. By the time a badly wounded Alex finds them, and comes back with some help, the old man and the other minion have also found Florence’s hideyhole, and they’ve already shot out the lock and half bashed in the door. At least the first goon through gets himself brained with a chairleg. 
 
The goons also seem reluctant to open fire on the opera staff - the one with the gun even puts it away in a hurry - despite the shrieked orders from the old man. Not that he’s shrieking for long, because the old woman has caught up and launches herself at the man’s throat. Alex takes the opportunity to put the boot in - they’re probably going to have to get a new tuxedo now this one is so full of knife holes and bloodstains. 
 
Old woman: *in an old man's voice* GIVE ME BACK MY VOICE!
 
THAT gives Florence an opportunity to drop the old man in the s***.
 
Florence: He cursed her! That’s the Diva! Stregoni!
 
And since some of the opera patrons coming out of their boxes to see what all the commotion is recognise Signora Cavollaro’s jewelry, and the old man tries to defend himself with the Diva’s unmistakable voice, the growing crowd on the third floor has a excuse for some peremptory justice. Some of the staff patch up Alex and check that Florence is OK, then hurry off after the rest of the mob.
 
GM: If there’s going to be a lynching, they don’t want to miss it.
 
Not that any of this has affected the performance much - the Show Must Go On! In fact Huxley doesn’t get to make his escape until Alex comes looking for him, and the first thing he does is check Alex’s bandages. They’re a bit insulted by his dismissal of their first aid skills, even if he is the professional medic of the party. 
 
Alex: I got all my Girl Guide badges you know.
 
At least Alex got a souvenir - the old man's knife, which to Huxley's eye seems better suited to delicate work than to your average stabbing. Flo, struggling under the awkward weight of the Torso, still hasn’t found the fire escape, and ends up out on the terrace overlooking the plaza. Where every hair on the back of her neck stands up, as she’s overwhelmed by the same primal terror of a small animal that KNOWS a large predator is somewhere very close, and getting closer. She hurries back inside, badly shaken. The Torso, if anything, is getting harder to carry, in much the same way cats seemingly get heavier at will. 
 
Florence: Don’t you realise we’re trying to get you back together????
 
The statue seems to get more cooperative, and before too long she's tottering along the edge of the plaza like she’s merely twelve months pregnant.
 
Florence: Good girl. Good statue.
 
That’s where Huxley finds her, while everybody else is distracted by the police cars pulling up at the opera house. She doesn’t want to tell him what happened, because she’s still thoroughly wigged out by the fear that gripped her on the terrace. 
 
Florence: We need to get this out of sight... There’s something around.
 
Might still be, too - somebody is watching them from the balcony. Huxley doesn’t recognise them from this distance, at night, but they’re tall, slim, and have unfashionable long hair if they’re male. And they’re looking. Right. At. Florence. And. Huxley. Florence is quite glad to get back their rooms at the Galleria, bolting all the doors and windows, and dumping the Torso next to the Arm. 
 
Florence: See? See, I told you, there’s your arm. *gives the Torso a friendly pat*
 
Nonetheless, she insists they get out of Milan as soon as possible - for one thing staying literally just across the road from la Scala is asking for trouble. The trio pack up in a hurry, and intend to wait at the train station until the next Orient Express leaves for Venice - which won’t be until after lunch. At least the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits provides an excellent waiting room for passengers on their train. The Orient Express staff may well wonder if the investigators got AM and PM confused, but they're far too polite to actually say so.

Yes. Roughly about 14 to 16 years old.
Yes they do. But Mark has to choose exactly where and how. Originally all four girls were from the same dimension as Queen Nightmara, but I decided that it would work better if they came from here instead. I haven't given them civilian names yet (suggestions welcomed).
 
As for evil Luna figures, not really. Queen Nightmara contacts them through her "Eye Of Darkness" shattered Godgem and threatens them with taking away there powers if they don't do what she wants...but she is by nessisary a hands off conquer. She might give them from time to time a Nightmarian (think "youma"), but they don't usually last long.
 
Why did they join up? Hey...free superpowers and be able to do what you want with them, mostly.
 
They are told to hinder Lady Heart. They don't actually hate her...Queen Nightmara wants Lady Heart's Godgem. They suspect Sunspell has one also. They keep their eyes on other female teenage superheroes for signs of Godgem users.
 

An easier route to the all teen powered city would be to state that the city had no paranormals to speak of until an origin producing event (Toxic spill, meteor impact, dimensional rift, whatever) took place at a location where a large number of teens were in attendance. (like a concert or something) and the effects were only manifesting powers to those whose biology hadn’t achieved maturity. Teens got powers, adults got cancer.
   If you want to push the whole YOLO, “live fast, die young” thing you could say that once the infected paranormal’s biology achieved maturity the cancer would begin to take hold.

The only world I've seen similar to that is Academy City in the anime universe of A Certain Scientific Railgun/Magical Index/Accelerator.
 
It's an artificial city set up by the world's clandestine magical community to monitor and develop the world's psychics and a few special mage children.
 
The world of The Irregular/Honor Student at Magic High School  is focused on the latest generation of mages in 2095 Earth. While there are a few adult powers around, the latest generation has seen the birth of Strategic Mages who are one person WMD's and the arms race developed countries  are in to train and recruit them. 
 
Crunchyroll has both series on for free(with commercials) if you're interested. 

I do think Ghostbusters is a comedy. Sure there are moments of drama and horror, and the consequences are serious; but almost everything is pushed that extra bit bigger, louder, more incongruous, until it verges on the absurd. And all the Ghostbusters say funny things, although Peter is the only character who's aware he's saying funny things. We laugh at the other characters because they're oblivious to the jokes, but we laugh with Peter because he lets us in on the joke.

Well, the Seven Horsemen were never referred to as "of the Apocalypse." Yes, they did include War, Famine, Plague, and Death, but their creator and leader was Fear, Destruction was the most powerful, and Fear's henchman Dread was an entirely different class of entity. More isn't necessarily better, but greater diversity can be a tactical advantage.
 
I've long been struck by the realization that that adventure would be easy to fit into the current official Champions Universe. Fear's power derives from a potent mystic artifact called the Worm Scepter, which he also used to grant the other Horsemen their powers. That artifact was a remnant of Lovecraftian "Old Ones" who sought to colonize the Earth. In the CU the alien Elder Worm actually did colonize and rule antidiluvian Earth. They used blended magic and science like these Old Ones, and kept slave races and engineered monsters, to which the Black Death could easily belong.

For the skill roll, I like the idea of using the god as a Contact. Narosia used this and had rules for casting, and I like the logic of it. It gives a different feel than an INT or EGO-based skill roll. Using a skill roll feels more like a wizard thing, and a Contact feels more like a cleric.

I think a Western Hero/Champions/Dark Champions crossover book of characters is a wonderful idea.
 
Publish it and take my money, please.

The Ghostbusters cartoon from the 1980s mentioned at one point that Winston's past academic experience included biblical studies. That was probably extrapolated from the Bible quotation he made during the first movie. But that likely isn't a bad skill to have under the circumstances.
 
As for Peter Venkman's academic accomplishments, I'm pretty confident he B.S.-ed his way through those degrees like he did everything else.
 

Since the school likely has delinquents, they would provide a different sort of nemesis than Cordy and her crew (who would likely never physically harm someone, just make catty remarks about them).
 
The son or niece of a teacher or the principal could be a dimwitted bully, roughing up anyone who gets in their way. This could be the Draco Malfoy sort, maybe with a couple of thugs to do the dirty work.
 
A junior or senior rebel might have a 'Fonz' vibe going for them, but not become an outright delinquent if befriended by a PC.
 
One kid might be a son/daughter of someone in the local mafia organization. While the Pittsburgh Mafia (the LaRocca crime family) died out in 2021, they could be alive and growing in a superhero universe.
 
Pittsburgh's organized crime element might have to deal with costumed busybodies that don't have overwhelming powers like those flying overhead and may just be highly-trained normals with tech assistance. What goes on in the shadows of the city would be another aspect of its costumed crimefighters, from gunslinging, murderous vigilantes to preternaturally skilled martial artists who break bones but don't kill.

Mercedes might have a sub-8 INT stat (perhaps EGO too) based on her description and use those saved points to invest in a 2-point or 3-point Striking Appearance.
 
Even with 25 points to spend as Normals, Cordy and her crew could have decent social skills.
 
 

Teachers deserve some mention.
 
There's a Principal mentioned but there's likely also a Vice-Principal who could be the dreaded disciplinarian of the school.
 
Cordy and her crew answer to the cheerleading coach, who may or may not be an homage of the one from Glee. The football and wrestling coaches could be out and out thugs.
 
A science teacher could be into Tesla and steampunk, and the History teacher could secretly be a witch alive since the Revolutionary War.
 
What about the student body president and his/her cohorts?

I have some strong recommendations.  
 
Use the APG's.  Specifically, for: 
Social Combat Possession Extradimensional Space The Ghostbusters will likely never have a reason to engage in physical combat with other humans.  They will need to engage with them socially for finding information, getting funding, avoiding governmental audits (IRS, EPA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission...), managing their reputations.  
 
I wouldn't try to "build the spoon" with proton packs and other equipment.  Ghostbusters are Heroic level PCs, with no special abilities of their own, so proton packs can have a basic writeup of what they do.  Drain, 1d6, all ghostly Powers, one at a time, recovers per month.  They're big and bulky and need to be recharged back at base after heavy usage (say, an hour).  The "jobber" ghosts (the one-and-done mook types, the spud, Slimer, etc.), all of their Powers are built with Unified Power, so they drop hard and fast when proton beams are applied.  If they need to recover from them, they can buy Regeneration, all ghostly Powers, one at a time, however much they need.  Any Desolidification they have automatically has proton beams as the SFX that it doesn't protect against.  The mid-range, Shubs and Zuuls, demonic dog critters, have enough Power Defense that they can ignore a proton beam, and Gozer and the Traveller are boss-level entities that need a lot of research to defeat, and likely crossing the streams.  
 
Speaking of, crossing the streams will never happen by accident; technobabble here, but basically, proton packs put out a stream of positively charged particles.  Take two magnets, try to push the positively charged (north) poles together, and what happens?  They repel one another.  Crossing the streams is something the Ghostbusters have to do on purpose, and they have to fight the packs to get them to do that.  And when they do?  Each pack provides 25 Active Points worth of a Variable Power Pool that the GM gets to use for whatever they want.  If there's an extradimensional cross-rip, they'll typically create some kind of explosion to close that.  If there's not one, then the GM gets a minimum of 50 Active Points worth of whatever.  
 

Are Cordy and the members of her crew part of the cheer squad? That is often a source of popularity. Of the trio following her, who is the "second in command" in their clique? Are the names given in order of social standing? That would make KC (Katherine) the gofer of the quartet. None of the trio of followers are probably allowed to outshine Cordelia, who might have as high as a 13 PRE and maybe a level or two of Striking Appearance to help maintain her social standing.
 
Donna sounds like a potential Cinderella sort who could clean up to be dazzling at prom.
 
Is there a Glee Club? Or is that what was meant by school choir?
 
No Science Club?
 
 

Cordelia Carpenter needs a retinue to help her rule the school with a well-manicured fist.   Two or three girls should be sufficient. They shouldn’t all be vapid little twits, and one might be dangerously smart, smart enough to crack a secret ID with enough clues.
 
Just for variety from the norm, perhaps a strong boxing team exists on campus that could provide some interesting NPCs, a break from the usual football or baseball jock sorts. They don’t all have to be bullies, but an homage to Kobra Kai might work.

I keep feeling like Thomas Avery needs a nephew (possibly with a high level of magical potential) to come live with him as his apprentice, and the boy could also start hanging around with the squad of magical girls popping up around town like Lady Heart and the Jewish Sailor V.
 
He could be a possible love interest for one or both, but then there’s also the Court of Hate who can keep trying to entice him to the Dark Side, or perhaps Queen Nightmare lusts after him. The boy could be a first-class snarker with a shadowy edge to him like a young Professor Snape, or maybe brighter with a BTVS Xander sort of nerdiness to him.