Steve

And, we have Steve's new character, Baretta Colt. A Professional of the Survivor variety, this once seemingly helpless cheerleader was the last survivor of several monster related events. Setting aside her former cush existence as eye candy, she has gotten hard and trained herself Sarah Conner style to contend with the ugly truths of the world. Now she wields her gun enthusiast dead father's customized Colt 1911's against the forces of evil...all while rocking a halter top and pony tail. 
 

 

You can list the real point cost in the Cost field and Hero Designer will total up the cost for you. Yes, there is some cognitive dissonance seeing dollar signs in front of the numbers, but you can learn to ignore it or if you're really upset by it, build an export format to remove it.
 

Well, my new character looks like it has been approved after some diligent editing work by our hard-working GM to fit the campaign.

It was great fun for the session and half I could be there. I hope my submitted character meets with approval for this weekend's session.

Eh, don't be too sure about that. IIRC the Nazis were willing to declare the Japanese were honorary Aryans. They were... intellectually flexible that way. (It's easier when your ideology is nonsense to begin with.) So Baron Nihil might be willing to work with Joseph Otanga on a strictly business basis, for the moment. Otanga is an African, but he's an African with power and the right sort of homicidally ruthless attitude. Maybe there's some Aryan blood up the family tree. Or maybe his transformation to superbeing made him Aryan, and -- him being a shapeshifter and all -- some day he'll see the light and assume his new, true form as a blonde white man! (Which is not within Otanga's power set but, well, Nazi crazin ess.)
 
The situation would certainly be unstable, though.
 
Dean Shomshak

Menton would almost certainly attempt to mentally control some or all of his "colleagues," and few of the villains listed above have enough mental resources to resist him. No other master villain would join him out of fear of being taken over. However, in the past I did propose such an alliance being formed by Menton, which you can read about here: Birth of RAVEN. But that would require Menton, and most other Champions master villains, to be played as more sane and balanced than they're usually described.
 
Out of official Champions Universe canon, the likeliest person to form such a group would be Holocaust. Per his history in Champions Villains Volume One he often hires mercenary supervillains to help him with various schemes, since he lacks a steady support organization. In fact, "In 2006 Holocaust briefly put together a team of villains he called “the Alliance” to fight the Champions. Members included Ankylosaur, the Basilisk, Esper, Fenris, Frag, Freakshow, Leviathan, Lodestone, Ogre, Riptide, Tesseract, and Thunderbolt II. Their scheme didn’t work out, but he remains on good terms with all of them." (CV 1 p. 49) Other villains he's described as working with in the past, and continues to cooperate with, include Cybermind, Gargantua, Gravitar, Kinematik, Mechassassin, the Steel Commando, and Stormfront, as well as the villain teams, the Crimelords and the Ultimates.
 
(Although honestly, with his Personality description emphasizing his arrogance, thin skin, quick temper, lack of restraint, and penchant for killing people who so much as annoy him, I'm amazed so many villains are willing to work for him again. Maybe he particularly respects other powerful people.)
 

A CU Legion of Doom?
 
I think a pretty scary one could be put together pretty quickly by using some of the Master Villains like the following:
 
Baron Nihil
Gravitar
Interface
Invictus
Joseph Otanga
Menton
The Shadow Queen
The Warlord
Doctor Yin Wu
 
I think they could be willing to set aside their egos long enough to work together, if they saw the benefits of being a team. I could even see some of them having a more cordial relationship with each other, such as The Shadow Queen and Invictus or Gravitar and Menton.
 
I left out those with Megalomania or Casual Killer psychs. I just don't see them working very well with others.
 
 

A CU Legion of Doom?
 
I think a pretty scary one could be put together pretty quickly by using some of the Master Villains like the following:
 
Baron Nihil
Gravitar
Interface
Invictus
Joseph Otanga
Menton
The Shadow Queen
The Warlord
Doctor Yin Wu
 
I think they could be willing to set aside their egos long enough to work together, if they saw the benefits of being a team. I could even see some of them having a more cordial relationship with each other, such as The Shadow Queen and Invictus or Gravitar and Menton.
 
I left out those with Megalomania or Casual Killer psychs. I just don't see them working very well with others.
 
 

This was sent to me by a player who then had the audacity to ask "we're not that bad, are we?" 
 

 
https://i.redd.it/35w2wbpo57v21.png
 
Didn't want to do a hot link on someone else's bandwidth, so you'll have to go check it out. 

I set up sections on the Equipment tab for things like Contacts, since Resource Point-bought Contacts are not actually part of the main sheet's accounting.

The setting of my current campaign (Agents of PRIMUS) is mostly based upon the Champions Universe as presented using the 5th and 6th Editions of the Hero System rules with several caveats:
Every superhuman that existed in the world from 1938 up through the present has utilized some form of magic as their power source, either by gaining inherent abilities or through using a magical artifact or relic of some sort. While some individuals such as Doctor Destroyer and Mechanon appear to be utilizing advanced technology in their activities, their technology cannot be replicated or even explained by modern science. An example of this is where several components recovered from a very early version of Mechanon were later dismantled and analyzed, and microscopic runes were found etched throughout their interiors, runes originating from no known language, leading experts to speculate that Mechanon is some sort of mechanized golem rather than a product of advanced technology. Superhumans have emerged in cycles that last roughly twelve years each with only a few continuing in their activities past the time their original cycle ended (1938-1949, 1950-1961, 1962-1973, 1974-1985, 1986-1997, 1998-2009 and the current one that began in 2010). In the past, “waves” of heightened activity were followed by “troughs” that produced notably less superhuman goings-on, so the time periods of 1938-1949 and 1962-1973 were wave cycles and the years 1950-1961 and 1974-1985 were trough cycles. Although there are a few noteworthy exceptions such as the lengthy career of Doctor Destroyer, most Champions Universe heroes and villains should be considered as having appeared during the current cycle mixed with a few legacies remaining from the previous one, despite their published histories going back much further. Due to the PCs traveling back in time to 1908 after their visit to 1938, they warned the Archmage of that time, Bohdan Stanislavski, about the circumstances of his upcoming death and thus prevented it from ever happening. His ongoing presence in the world somehow altered the mystical energies which Erich Hessler and his Nazi cohorts tapped into with their working on May 1st, 1938, ushering in the Superhuman Age. The Archmage’s presence changed that event, altering future destinies by eliminating from existence those superhumans without a magical/mystical origin, and revising others into more magical origins. As a direct result of the PCs time traveling to 1938 and destroying Luther Black at that time, DEMON dwindled and effectively vanished. While a few scattered remnants of it still cling to existence, it is not a significant threat to the world today. At the beginning of the 1962-1973 cycle, a rare planetary conjunction occurred from February 4th-6th 1962, and the so-called Aquarian Age began on Earth. Denizens of Faerie began arriving by the thousands as part of an Earth-conquering scheme by the Shadow Queen, Brangomar. After the conjunction was over and the Shadow Queen defeated and driven back to her dark kingdom in Faerie, a horde of Fae beings were left behind, unable to return home. The members of this vast melange composed of pawns of the Shadow Queen’s machinations were eventually settled into various enclaves on Earth, one of the largest of them located in North Las Vegas, now known as Neverland. The Shadow Queen remains an ever-present threat and has returned numerous times since then. UNTIL never came into being in the 1960s to provide a worldwide answer to the many facets of superhuman crime. In its place, PRIMUS and other elite national police forces were formed, maintaining treaties with each other outside the purview of the UN, and these agreements eventually coalesced into an arm of INTERPOL specializing in the Superhuman World. The VIPER organization announced its existence in late 1962 with a series of attacks and assassinations, then went quiet for several years. It emerged again in 1968 and has been fairly active ever since, eventually becoming the primary enemy of PRIMUS and its peers in other nations. Pulson Crystals, which makes up the cores of modern-day blasters, were first utilized in the 1960s by the forces of VIPER. Thanks to the efforts of Cortez Heavy Industries (a business belonging to one PCs family), the blasters now being wielded by elite law enforcement agencies such as PRIMUS were reverse-engineered from captured VIPER weaponry, making C.H.I. the pre-eminent high-tech weapons manufacturer of the 20th Century. During the aftermath of the worldwide war against Istvatha V’han, Empress of a Billion Dimensions, Doctor Destroyer emerged from obscurity and, with his chief henchman Menton’s aid, took over the island nation of Cuba following the leveling of Havana when one of the Empress’s warships exploded in a nuclear fireball right overhead (due to PC actions). Thanks to Menton’s psychic abilities, Doctor Destroyer has since purged Cuba’s remaining leadership of anyone who would dare oppose him. He then put the mentalist to work ruthlessly rooting out corruption from all levels of government. Since their takeover, a truly astonishing transformation of Cuba (now renamed to Destruga) has taken place; its standard of living rising with amazing rapidity to rival some of the most advanced nations. Part of this is due to Destruga welcoming any superhumans willing to accept Doctor Destroyer's leadership, which has other nations and groups like Eurostar concerned. Stories have also begun leaking out that Menton is utilizing the former membership of PSI as the core of his secret police as he continues his pogrom versus the rapidly dwindling number of dissidents against Doctor Destroyer’s rule. The U.S. Presidential election in 2016 elevated David Sutherland (once known as Invictus in the Superhuman World) to that office, causing a major upset to the political order. He later added Mason Cortez (Valiant, the former leader of the PCs team) to his cabinet as his Secretary of Superhuman Affairs, Mason's nomination sailing through the Senate due to his popularity as a hero of V'han War among other things. The two maintain a cordial working relationship, although it seems that life as a bureaucrat is stifling Mason’s spirit due to his love of action. There are persistent rumors that he is satisfying such needs as best he can by living vicariously through his mind link with a duplicate of his, a vigilante battling against the forces of Hudson City’s underworld.  After the events of the last campaign, the galaxy at large is now aware of Earth, which had previously been kept hidden from them by Tateklys, the Malvan entrepreneur who still runs his superhuman gladiatorial arena on the Moon. It is unknown at this time how he accomplished this feat or what deals he has made in order to remain unmolested. At the conclusion of the last campaign, the PC team (now effectively disbanded as the team’s members each went their separate ways) won possession of a Malvan Worldship that is currently in orbit roughly 32 AUs from the Sun within the outer Solar System, leaving Valiant and his permanently separated duplicate Dread as the only ones to speak for the team. The Worldship’s tactical systems remain intact but are under the sole dominion of its AI, who remains ever-vigilant against any efforts to suborn it. While the UN is currently engaged in a quite spirited, ongoing debate concerning how best to administer such a treasure trove, the AI has been allowing a few individuals and some small groups from Earth as well as various alien civilizations to take up residence there for its own, enigmatic reasons, forming the core of a new society within the bowels of the Worldship and its plentiful wonders.

While I use PRIMUS, the source of Cyberline is somewhat less Iron Age dark than what was presented in the 4th edition book, or at least I think so.
 
Since I like adding some bits of Marvel and DC into my versions of the Champions Universe, the original source for Cyberline is Steve Rogers (aka Captain America). He was found frozen in the 1960s and brought back to America, but he remained comatose after he was thawed out and revived. He's been receiving regular care in a military hospital ever since, his body remaining in peak condition, seemingly ageless. Blood and tissue samples were taken from his body back in the early 1970s which formed the basis for Cyberline.
 
I hint now and then in my campaigns that someday he will wake up.

I ran a campaign based in La$ Vega$ for a lot of years. In my campaign, the stereotypical Vegas Mafia presence was basically a plainclothes VIPER nest. (The local mob boss had "done the Nest Leader a favor" and ultimately ended up running the place.) It worked quite nicely.
 
Also, I had a crooked local industrialist running a weapons R&D facility a few miles out in the desert. The heroes crossed paths with him and his organization a number of times.
 
Also, there was occasionally this bar/club/bistro a few blocks off the Strip that was connected to another dimension. (By "occasionally", I mean that it was there as often as the plot required it to be. Otherwise, it was a vacant lot.)

If you're thinking of importing elements from other Champions publications to Sin City, perhaps Valerian Scarlet's cursed nightclub, the Minefield, from Vibora Bay, would fit in, and provide a few plots.

One of the things I am importing into Las Vegas from elsewhere in the CU is the Card Shark organization. I am currently considering the Vegas group as a franchise operation from the Hudson City main group. Their gambling theme seems like a great match to Las Vegas to me.
 
Since VIPER only has a Minor Nest, this also gives me another costumed group to work with.

Wrath and Glory - Demo Game
Playing one of the Wrath and Glory 40K RPG demo games. Spoilers ahead

Sister Abigail Casserina - Sister-Hospitaller
Brother Andar - Imperial Fists Space Marine
Brother Zeriel Balor - Blood Angel Space Marine
Adept Rotus Ilus - Tech-priest
An Moet-Chandon - Inquisitorial Acolyte

Introducing the characters

GM: I’ll start with somebody who still technically human.

Brother Zeriel: I was told I needed more practise interacting with humans.
An Moet-Chandon OoC: And the Imperial Fist is sitting in the other corner of the Chapterhouse building pillow forts.

Going to a hospital to collect a team-member, injured in a previous mission. And, of course, keeping our eyes open for any signs of heresy, thoughtcrime, or impiety. Suddenly, Zombies! In hospital smocks.

An Moet-Chandon: Backsliders!

Not long after, we’re putting the last zombies down, as well as any civilians that managed to get themselves bitten. No doubt their faith was insufficient.

An Moet-Chandon: May the Emperor forgive your failings, for I cannot! *BLAM*

Adept Ilus locks the building down and starts looking through the pict-records for anybody that may have snuck out the side exits, and where the poxwalkers originated. Brother Andar heads down to supervise the the purging of the Mortuary when we find out. Moet-Chandon orders the hospital security to assemble everybody in the foyer for questioning.

Brother Zerial Balor: It’s not difficult - gather them here, or we burn the hospital to the ground. This hospital is clearly tainted.

Brother Zerial Balor: Given I’m going room to room…
Expectant Parents: What shall we name our child?
Zerial: *Kicks in door, waves chainsaw* No daemons? Right, everybody to the foyer.
Expectant Parents: *gawps* How about Dante? Or Sanguinius?
Tech-Adept Ilus: How about ‘Induced Labour?’

Brother Andar heads downstairs to purge the source of the zombies - the mortuary. Purging involves servitors with multi-meltas, who incinerate everything in the mortuary, then each other.

Moet-Chandon: Those of you who are strong in your faith are blessed this day - Him on Terra has sent his Angels of Death, and his Sisters of Battle, His Sons and Daughters, to protect the deserving. Unlike those moral failures *points to the burning pile of zombies*. But one of you has been WEAK.

One head medic, from the ward for Exotic Diseases, is absent. Nobody has seen him all day, despite him telling them he was going to a meeting. Currently, the Exotic Disease of most interest is Abycus Syndrome, where the victims babble a string of apparently random numbers. Konig’s notes reveal it may be spread by psychic infection, or direct ingestion. It apparently only affect people who are already unconscious or comatose from other injuries or disease. As if his absence wasn’t suspicious enough, Konig didn’t report the nature of the syndrome to higher authorities, but kept all the patients here for further study.

Moet-Chandon: *growls* A questioning mind betrays a treacherous soul.

GM: It is disturbing to see your friend in this state - mindless chanting a string of random integers.
Moet-Chandon: The Inquisition can’t afford to have friends!

Magos-Biologis: Even in Chaos patterns will emerge
Moet-Chandon: DO NOT PURSUE THIS LINE OF INQUIRY
Magos-Biologis: The Omnissiah asks us all to explore the paths to knowledge … *notices Moet-Chandon reaching for the grip of her Inferno Pistol* but I understand it may be unwise to do so unsupervised.

Preparing Patient Zero, a comatose Astropath, so one of the Space Marines can eat his brain and figure out what the hell is going on from the ingested memories. The Astropath is the only person to have lived this long while infected with Abycus Syndrome. It’s lucky we plug him back into life support first, as we’ll see later. There’s also a real chance that Andar will be infected by the disease to, even with his superhuman biochemistry and psychic conditioning. This is a terrible idea.

Moet-Chandon: Brother Balor! If your fellow Astartes falters, it will be up to you to Euthanize him.
Brother Zeriel: Not difficult.

Konig: Who are you! Vat are you doing in my vard!
Moet-Chandon: Medic Konig. You life is measured in minutes if you do not answer my questions, fully.
Konig: Get out of my hospital!
Brother Andar: *lifts Konig by the throat* Cease your prattling, lest I perform the Ritual of Omniphagea on you.
Konig: On whose authority!
Moet-Chandon: On the authority of the God-Emperor’s Holy Inquisition.
Konig: Oh for F***ing Spaceballs.
Moet-Chandon: I give you one last chance to answer my question. It is possible you are merely a fool. It seems likely you are a heretic. You told your colleagues you were going to a meeting. We have already interrogated them. You did not. Where, in truth, did you go?
Konig: You can’t do this!
GM: If you shoot him in the brain you won’t be able to get the information for one thing.
Moet-Chandon: *sighs, and shifts her aim to his heart* Brother Andar, you may eat his brain to retrieve the evidence we need.
Konig: Well, you can all BOW BEFORE THE DARK GODS.

He knocks us all to the ground with a telepathic attack and flees.

Magos-Biologis: Query - What JUsT HappenED+++
Moet-Chandon: You Medic-Primaris bartered his soul to daemons, and damned himself for power.
Magos-Biologis: Ah. He was a cultist. Hypothesis - Dedicated to Nurgle?
Moet-Chandon: *eyes the tech-priest suspiciously* You are just asking for in-depth interrogation, later.

It’s about this point that Adept Ilus notices what the auto-quill on the life support is actually printing out. The numbers are the Epsilon-level passcode for the city’s food silos. The only thing keeping the astropath alive were his desperate attempts to warn the authorities, by broadcasting the number via every comatose patient in the hospital. Admittedly, it did spread the Syndrome to all of the other patients, and doomed them to resurrection as zombies when they expired, but it’s the thought that counts.

So, why would the Astropath even know the silo security codes? Because Konig was planning to infect the planet’s food supply with the disease. Oh dear. Some vox-calls confirm that Konig just slaughtered his way into the building. Brother Andar goes for the straightforward response, and calls down an orbital strike on the planet’s food reserves. Which does vaporise the contaminated food and the zombies Konig hurriedly raised, but doesn’t kill Konig, who crawls out of the burning rubble and cloud of toast-smell, somewhat irate. Violence ensues, as well as opportunity for an ongoing campaign.

Pathfinder : The Mummy's Mask : Where's Hypatia When You Need Her?
Heading downriver to the Osirion equivalent of Alexandria, Tephu, so Nemat can hit the Great Library. It’s one of three cities in the estuary, but Tephu made its fortune from papyrus. Also like Alexandria, they search any visiting ships for books and scrolls they don’t already have. And we have a Handy Haversack filled to the brim with books they don’t have. Although Nemat’s diary is going to be difficult to copy, given a third of it is written with the Hidden Page spell, a third can only be read by the light of fire beetles, and it’s all written in three different dead languages.

Asrian: We look for a ferry that won’t sink halfway.
GM: So you avoid Crazy Hassan’s floating camels then ‘Very good amphibious camels!’

GM: One of the farmers has noticed his son/armhand, is asleep on the job, and is trying to shake them awake. It’s not working.
Zenobia OoC: We’ve barely left town and already someone’s dead.
Nemat: *conjures water to drop on the boy’s head*
GM: It doesn’t wake him up.
Nemat: That’s not good.
GM: And then the farmer starts falling asleep. And some of the livestock. And Zenobia.
Nemat: And that really not good. Hey! You! Stay awake!
Zenobia: *yawning toothily* Wake me up when we get to the capital *passes out*

GM: There’s definitely something casting magic on the boat, but you can’t see it.
Nemat: Damn - we can’t attack something we can’t see. Oh, wait. *casts See The Invisible*
GM: What the EFF is THAT?!

It’s some kind of nightmarish animated dream creature. Zenobia gets shaken awake, but is still very groggy.

Zenobia OoC: Apparently I’m not a morning person.
Asrian OoC: Well, we did get a lot of exercise last night.

Animated Dream Monster: You know, this isn’t working out, I’m going to go eat somebody else inst-
Nemat OoC: Except it’s not it’s turn yet.
GM: I know, that’s just what goes through it’s head before you cut it off.

The Book Inspector can barely contain his glee at the haul of books the party has brought down from Wati. Nemat is certainly going to be a welcome visiting scholar while we look up any information of the Sky Pharaoh and the Forgotten Pharaoh.

Nemat rents us a luxury suite of rooms on the outskirts of Tephu.

Zenobia: I wonder who they think will be using the double bed. I guessing that Asrian and I won’t be their first guess.

Nemat: I will nip in the bud any plan that might get me banned from the Library.

Hemeda the Librarian: Ah, yes, the Covenant of Wati - the list of books you brought down is MOST impressive. How many the Library be of assistance to your research?
Nemat: We wish to learn what we can of the Pharaoh Hakotep the First.
Hemeda: … I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of this Pharaoh.
Asrian: He’s also known as the Forgotten Pharaoh.
Nemat: We have his mask here - but be careful with it, it contains his ka.
Hemeda: I’d ask WHY you have the mask of an unknown pharaoh, but… Well. Since your donation to the catalogue is so extensive, I’ll waive the first week of fees.

The library also waive the fees of anybody seriously injured exploring The Stacks.

Nemat: At least they have a slight idea about public safety.

Although one of the scrolls we find stored up near roof level claims that the Sky Pharaoh and the Forgotten Pharaoh are the same person, which contradicts other records. Catalogue notes indicates there are related scrolls held in the library’s Inner Sanctum. We will need permission from Deka An-Keret, governor of the city, before we’ll be permitted in there. And for some reason they’re refusing requests from the library for a meeting.

Nemat: I have an idea. Let’s find the local temple of Callistria.
Asrian: We need to return that dead woman’s belongings for one thing.
Nemat: And the priests putting in a good word for us will help.

Alternatively we can get some help from one of the Ruby Prince’s favourite concubines, who is in town at the moment, and may be willing to apply some political pressure. And by a happy coincidence, she’s at the temple of Callistria today. She’s a woman of enormous appetites and passions.

Muminofrah: Oh Darlings, darlings, come in to my sanctum! You’re such wonderful specimens - so beautiful!

Muminofrah: Information on the Masked Pharoah? Well, at least he isn’t coming back from the dead and trying to take over! *chuckles with amusement*
Asrian: Yeah, about that…
Muminofrah: … I SEE. Well, I’ll definitely see about getting you permission. Come, sit with me.
Zenobia: *tenses up*
Nemat: Ah, Zenobia, I need your help - we have some shopping to do. Inks, scrolls, that sort of thing.
Zenobia: *after she’s been reluctantly dragged away* Was she hitting on my girlfriend???
Nemat: Yes.

Zenobia is going to be pretty miserable all week, because Muminofrah is going to be demanding repeat visits from Asrian, as well as services from the rest of us, in return for getting us a few day’s access to the inner library. Asrian isn’t happy about it either, but we can’t afford to offend somebody with that much political clout, who is also a devotee of the goddess of revenge.

Inside the Spiral Sanctum, the doors of which are looked behind us.

Zenobia: I assume that they give us formal warnings about open flames in here.
GM: Yes. Magical light sources only.
Zenobia: What sort of engraved curses do they have for arsonists?
Nemat: The Revenge of Nemat.
GM: And the archive has its own guardians.

As well as the Guardian in question, who has a long list of people who have broken the rules in the past, there’s another researcher in here. A hooded woman, who claims she’s seeking the legendary Uraeus ring. Nemat knows what that is, since it’s the symbol of his own god, as well a symbol of rulership. She warns us about the Invisible Stalker guarding part of the library, and goes on her way.

Zenobia: She seems nice.
Nemat: She’s also not telling the whole story. Mind you, neither were we.

The central pit of the inner library is an OSHA violation waiting to happen. And the scrolls we’re looking for aren’t where they’re supposed to be. Either stolen, or mis-shelved. Happily, it’s the latter. Apparently the Sky Pharaoh believed his country was going to be attacked by enemies that lived in the clouds, and got his defence in first, using magic belonging to an even older empire that actually had flying cities. Unfortunately, most of the details we need are fragmentary, although there’s an interesting list of his major courtiers. And a recorded confession, with more details of what happened to the Pharaoh after his death, as well as evidence that Djeret the Second, the Pharaoh’s successor, tried to bury the fact that Nethysian cultists were somehow involved in the whole debacle. Oh dear. The current governor is Nethysian.

Asrian OoC: It’s actually DJ Eret, and he was a great spinner.

No explanation of why the Sky Pharoah/Forgotten Pharaoh had his official name changed though.

And then we’re attacked by the OTHER Invisible Stalker.

Nemat: ****! I can’t do that! Not down here! … I was going to cast Blistering Invective and set it on fire.

Happily, Asrian knows the spell Glitterdust, and Nemat’s and Asrian’s critical hits keep chaining up.

Guardian: WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS IS GOING ON DOWN HERE.
Nemat: An invisible stalker attacked us.
Guardian: INVISIBLE STALKER????
Nemat: Yes, the other woman warned us about one of them, but-
Guardian: WHAT OTHER WOMAN? YOU ARE THE ONLY ONES WITH PERMISSION TO BE HERE.
All: …. Well then.

Apparently we need further permissions to ANOTHER locked archive here - the Dark Depository. And no doubt the Governor knows about our inquiries now…

One of the recent RPG purchases I have been reading is a superhero one called Eschaton, which proposes a world quite different from your usual superhero settings. While I would not use the game system it uses instead of Hero, it is an intriguing look at a world where superhumans suddenly appear all over the world all at once. And then one year later the campaign begins...
 
Here is an excerpt from it:
 
Eschaton is a superhero game, and almost but not quite a post-ruin game, different than many superhero games in a few very important ways. First, there are no tie-ins to any established comic universe. Eschaton can of course make heroes similar to any number of popular or established heroic figures, but that is either coincidence or a conscious choice by the wielder of an Eschaton-supplied power.
 
Second, it imagines what the ‘real’ world would be like with superpowered beings. How do you mesh a government’s need for regulation and control into a world where people can interrupt television broadcasts with their thoughts, shoot anti-tank beams from their fingertips, or pry into the mental secrets of presidents and prime ministers? The short answer as to how they handle it? Poorly.
 
Third, there is no established history of superheroes, no gradual incorporation of superpowered beings into culture and politics and law and military thought. It happens overnight, the world going from mundane to super with no warning. There is no subset of the law that deals with X-ray vision, no military planning guide for countering an attack by bulletproof mole men, no Secret Service doctrine for the best way to protect the President from invisible, psychic brain bolts. And hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are going to come into a myriad of powers more or less simultaneously, ranging from the very minor power of Sports to the extraordinarily powerful Ultras. Sane people will be driven mad, the insane will be shocked back to sanity. Good people will do the wrong things for the right reasons and bad people will do the right things for the wrong reasons.
 
It will be utter chaos on a global scale. And that’s how and when the campaign will start. Things will stabilize, eventually. But the new equilibrium will only be superficially like the old world. A casual observer might not see a lot of difference, but government, politics, religion and the notions of ‘us’ and ‘them’ will be forever altered. And underneath it all is the Revelation.
 
Everyone of significant paranormal power will have their own version of the vignette. Some will dream it, others will be awake. Some will rationalize what they see as angels, others will believe they have made a deal with the Devil. Some will see a figure straight out of a comic book or movie, others will merely mumble to themselves. But everyone who gains power will have a conversation, insight or revelation that the powers they are given are part of a larger process, by beings far beyond our limited understanding. Beings of unknown but not immediately hostile intent, for they could clearly overcome any puny resistance of Earth had they an inclination to destroy us. How we use the power we are given and what we ultimately become by using these powers are what we will be judged on. But the Eschaton give no indication of what they consider worthy of a positive judgement or negative judgment. All they imply is that in the end, one ethos will prevail, and all humanity, if not all of reality, will be judged by that outcome.
 
Whether couched in terms of space aliens or angels or devils, everyone granted great power knows that something is happening, and that someone or something is watching to see how humanity deals with their new-found power, and the implied judgement at an indeterminate time in the future. Do we have a year? A generation? A century? No one knows. This knowledge of something is known among the powered as the Revelation.
 
And then things go blank, and when a person awakes, they have power. The adventurer merely wakes with the power, though in their own mind, the type of power and way in which it manifests is based on their personality. The hard work of actually designing the powers is the job of the player. The hero merely blanks out thinking something vague like “I could be the world’s coolest ninja...” and wakes up with superlative amounts of stealth, invisibility and mastery of dozens of unusual weapons.
The key and absolute feature of the Revelation is that no one with powers can talk about it. Not with friends, family, anyone. It is a mental block that the hero or villain can barely even think about, yet is always in the back of their thoughts. It can only be referred to as “the Revelation” or “a matter of Revelation”. Among the superpowered, everyone knows what is meant, but the general public is left guessing. For their part, heroes simply have to say things like “someday you’ll understand”.
 
The Revelation is not a matter for player rulebending. It simply cannot be revealed, written, spoken, sung, danced, mentally transferred, sculpted, painted or broken into itty-bitty pieces and later assembled into a coherent whole. Heroes and villains know it, and that’s it. More than their powers, this is what separates them from mundane humanity, the knowledge and surety that they must act to mold the world according to their beliefs, even if they can never explain why.
 
And that is a key feature of an Eschaton campaign. You were given powers because you are the sort of person who feels compelled to try and make a difference with them. The Eschaton does not compel you to use your powers to try and change society. You do that all on your own. You as a player have to want your hero make a difference. Whether you choose make this difference one person, one neighborhood or one city at a time is up to you.

One of the recent RPG purchases I have been reading is a superhero one called Eschaton, which proposes a world quite different from your usual superhero settings. While I would not use the game system it uses instead of Hero, it is an intriguing look at a world where superhumans suddenly appear all over the world all at once. And then one year later the campaign begins...
 
Here is an excerpt from it:
 
Eschaton is a superhero game, and almost but not quite a post-ruin game, different than many superhero games in a few very important ways. First, there are no tie-ins to any established comic universe. Eschaton can of course make heroes similar to any number of popular or established heroic figures, but that is either coincidence or a conscious choice by the wielder of an Eschaton-supplied power.
 
Second, it imagines what the ‘real’ world would be like with superpowered beings. How do you mesh a government’s need for regulation and control into a world where people can interrupt television broadcasts with their thoughts, shoot anti-tank beams from their fingertips, or pry into the mental secrets of presidents and prime ministers? The short answer as to how they handle it? Poorly.
 
Third, there is no established history of superheroes, no gradual incorporation of superpowered beings into culture and politics and law and military thought. It happens overnight, the world going from mundane to super with no warning. There is no subset of the law that deals with X-ray vision, no military planning guide for countering an attack by bulletproof mole men, no Secret Service doctrine for the best way to protect the President from invisible, psychic brain bolts. And hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are going to come into a myriad of powers more or less simultaneously, ranging from the very minor power of Sports to the extraordinarily powerful Ultras. Sane people will be driven mad, the insane will be shocked back to sanity. Good people will do the wrong things for the right reasons and bad people will do the right things for the wrong reasons.
 
It will be utter chaos on a global scale. And that’s how and when the campaign will start. Things will stabilize, eventually. But the new equilibrium will only be superficially like the old world. A casual observer might not see a lot of difference, but government, politics, religion and the notions of ‘us’ and ‘them’ will be forever altered. And underneath it all is the Revelation.
 
Everyone of significant paranormal power will have their own version of the vignette. Some will dream it, others will be awake. Some will rationalize what they see as angels, others will believe they have made a deal with the Devil. Some will see a figure straight out of a comic book or movie, others will merely mumble to themselves. But everyone who gains power will have a conversation, insight or revelation that the powers they are given are part of a larger process, by beings far beyond our limited understanding. Beings of unknown but not immediately hostile intent, for they could clearly overcome any puny resistance of Earth had they an inclination to destroy us. How we use the power we are given and what we ultimately become by using these powers are what we will be judged on. But the Eschaton give no indication of what they consider worthy of a positive judgement or negative judgment. All they imply is that in the end, one ethos will prevail, and all humanity, if not all of reality, will be judged by that outcome.
 
Whether couched in terms of space aliens or angels or devils, everyone granted great power knows that something is happening, and that someone or something is watching to see how humanity deals with their new-found power, and the implied judgement at an indeterminate time in the future. Do we have a year? A generation? A century? No one knows. This knowledge of something is known among the powered as the Revelation.
 
And then things go blank, and when a person awakes, they have power. The adventurer merely wakes with the power, though in their own mind, the type of power and way in which it manifests is based on their personality. The hard work of actually designing the powers is the job of the player. The hero merely blanks out thinking something vague like “I could be the world’s coolest ninja...” and wakes up with superlative amounts of stealth, invisibility and mastery of dozens of unusual weapons.
The key and absolute feature of the Revelation is that no one with powers can talk about it. Not with friends, family, anyone. It is a mental block that the hero or villain can barely even think about, yet is always in the back of their thoughts. It can only be referred to as “the Revelation” or “a matter of Revelation”. Among the superpowered, everyone knows what is meant, but the general public is left guessing. For their part, heroes simply have to say things like “someday you’ll understand”.
 
The Revelation is not a matter for player rulebending. It simply cannot be revealed, written, spoken, sung, danced, mentally transferred, sculpted, painted or broken into itty-bitty pieces and later assembled into a coherent whole. Heroes and villains know it, and that’s it. More than their powers, this is what separates them from mundane humanity, the knowledge and surety that they must act to mold the world according to their beliefs, even if they can never explain why.
 
And that is a key feature of an Eschaton campaign. You were given powers because you are the sort of person who feels compelled to try and make a difference with them. The Eschaton does not compel you to use your powers to try and change society. You do that all on your own. You as a player have to want your hero make a difference. Whether you choose make this difference one person, one neighborhood or one city at a time is up to you.

I wish to ask for a bit of tolerance up front:  While I generally try to put in as little set-up as possible (believing that if it was really noteworthy, it shouldn't need much help), but this time there will be some set-up.  Forgive me, please.
 
I had my youth group game today, though it didn't look like I would be doing much of anything ever again.  I spent the bulk of Friday in the ER and was eventually stabilized and admitted for observation.  Enough on that.
 
I have a ceremony for calling the game to order.  It started as a joke way back in the 70s, back when Bullwinkle would still pop-up in re-runs.  It also started as a joke: the group (game was D&D) had been left in an intentional cliff-hanger as the majority of us were looking at finals, cram sessions, etc, and we figured at least four weeks before we got back to the game.  Not only was it a cliffhanger, but the PCs were in far worse shape than I had anticipated them to be, in spite of copious fudging to keep them from being slaughtered.  
 
The day came that we re-convened.  Before I developed my genuine old man voice, I was a fair mimic-- not great, but fair.  However, I could _nail_ the narrator from Bullwinkle (and a few others).  The chit-chat and catching up was slowing down, and I decided to call the game to order with a bit of humor, considering as how we were all in great spirits and about to dive into a dire situation.  I broke out the Narrator voice and launched into a quote I remember from _childhood_, and don't know why:
 
"When we left our story last time, things were in _terrible_ shape!  Some of the nation's smartest geniuses were being turned into _complete_ idiots!  It was all the result of a mean little man from a _mean_ little country--"
 
[Boris voice]: Go on, say de name!"
 
[Narrator]: Boris  Badenuf.  In desperation the government sent for Bullwinkle J. Moose
 
I went on a bit further, while they were taking their seats, and trailed off while the came to order.
 
Eventually, this went on to become a recurring gag, particularly when they were taking too long to settle themselves or if, when we left our story last time, things really _were_ in terrible shape.  Over the next decade, it became first a tradition, then an inescapable ceremony.
Adults appreciate ceremony and group culture, no matter how odd it is:  "Hey, that's our thing!  It's what we do!"
 
Kids....   well, you know how those pre- and early teen years were: everything was awful; everything is uncool and corny (or whatever they call it now.  Is "corny" still a thing?)  About the third time I did it with the youth group, they began to groan and complain, and every week there's one or two "not this again!"  and "why do you have to do this?!"  nothing really malicious; they're just intent on letting their peers now that they are too cool to accept this crackpot ceremony. (and it doesn't matter that I can't do the voices anymore; they've never even heard of the characters. )
 
 
Flash forward forty years.  I am in a hospital bed, awaiting transfer to an observation room, with a doctor telling me "Well, Mr. Oliver, you're not dead, but we have no idea why not.  You've been stable for the last two hours, but we'd like to keep you under observation for the next 24 hours."
Well, Doc; that won't work.  My spine is busted up bad, and I have had about all of this bed it can handle.
"Can you give us twelve hours?"
[wife]: He will give you twelve hours.
[me]: Apparently I'm going to, either way.
 
skip ahead a few more hours.  My wife has called my bi-weekly group to tell them there will be no Friday night game; she has called the Youth Ministries director to let the kids know there will be no Youth Game Sunday.  (though we did have one, thanks to the miracle that left me alive).  Some hours later, I am wheeled into an observation room.  In the observation room are four of my youth group players, with a card.  I'm awake enough to appreciate this by now, and I grin and make happy noises and tell them Mr. Duke is going to be fine in a few days.
 
Well, _good_, says Colleen (Kinetica's player).
Yeah, says Everette (Magnus's player)
Yeah, Mr. Duke, I'm glad!  says Eric (Red Cloak's player).  Because when we left our story last time, things were in _terrible_ shape!
Yeah, says Everette.  Some of the nation's smartest geniuses ---
 
then all four, like they were reciting a poem-- were being turned into _complete_ idiots!  It was all the result of a mean little man---
 
 
and so on.
 
 
I'm fifty nine years old, and despite what I've thought for several decades now, I'm not done crying.
 
 
That's my quote of the week from my gaming group, and quite possibly the best one I've ever had, posted or otherwise.  I apologize for the lengthy set-up.
 
 
 
Duke
 

The Lost Legion is a nice idea, an enemy group of the Blooded's own making.
 
Since the Blooded do not breed on their own, I had a thought about how their numbers are sustained. Perhaps the spirits of individual Blooded get reincarnated into new bodies after they are beheaded, which I think is what you call the Final Death. So, if there was a maximum of, say, 10,000 Blooded in the world and 200 of them died in one year, then 200 new Blooded would very soon be born to replace them. Some centuries might have even had more reincarnations than others, which could cause Blooded society to evolve if some centuries had vast numbers of new Blooded replacing the fallen. Perhaps they could have past life memories crop up now and then. Also, if they know that death allows them to reincarnate, those who have grown tired of life could embrace Final Death as a means of clearing their memories and starting over as a new being.
 
One of the reasons I think the use of Blood abilities should be a bit more reliable (using 1/20 as the skill roll modifier on all abilities instead of 1/10 on most) is because of Breaches. Once a Breach occurs, unless they carry high-powered weaponry around with them all the time, Blood abilities would likely be needed to fight against whatever emerges, which increases the chances of causing more Breaches. This could end up in a cascade failure effect that would likely overwhelm the Blooded on scene since they are always the primary targets.
 
Regarding the Side Effect, if a Breach is a type of uncontrolled antagonistic Summon, less powerful Breaches would be less Active Points, so they would be a smaller Limitation value. Since all the abilities are built with a -1 Limitation value, they can all cause the maximum effect, even the most minor ones risking the summoning of a dragon or something equally powerful.

In George R. R. Martin's Wild Cards book series, the Luxor hotel hired desert and/or Egyptian-themed abnormals to populate the lobbies and put on a daily pageant. So if you had the head of a jackal, the head of a crocodile, the head of an ibis, etc., you could migrate to the US and always get a job at the Luxor.

I can think of four main power blocs you need to consider when inserting the Blooded into NYC: the political landscape, the unions, the police and organized crime. Each of these will be impacted to some degree or another by the presence of the Blooded.

You might consider breaking out the Regeneration and Resurrection ability into two powers, which actually totals five points cheaper than what you have.
 
Regeneration (1 BODY per 6 Hours), Can Heal Limbs (11 Active Points); Does Not Work On Fire Damage ([Common attack]; -3/4): 6 Real Points
Regeneration (1 BODY per 6 Hours), Resurrection (26 Active Points); Resurrection Only (-2), Does Not Work On Fire Damage ([Common attack]; -3/4): 7 Real Points
 
The main difference is that they won't heal limb loss until they are actually living again. Most of these savings will be eaten up by the Power skill, which seems like it should be 13 points in cost instead of 10 for Skill+5.
 
A Social Complication for a form of Secret ID seems like it should be part of the basic package, and also maybe a Watched: Other Blooded as well.