Jhamin

I'm liking what I've seen skimming through it, although I think some of the reference info is a little suspect.  The floorplan for a farmhouse includes a kitchen island and two interior bathrooms, which I'm not sure is 100% period

The campaign that a I posted about here (over a year ago!?) has been running since then and I thought I would share some of the stuff that I've produced for it. As I mentioned above, it's set in 1988 in Detroit, and I did end up populating it with lots of old classic Champions NPC's, organizations, etc. It's an Iron Age campaign, however, and despite being set in the past it's obviously written for modern tastes. So while familiar faces show up, they're often grittier and darker than the original Silver/Bronze Age-ish versions. For example, many of the NPC's, especially villains, have partially or completely reworked origins. I can only swallow so many freak accidents and alien artifacts.
 
In populating and setting up my Champions Universe, I started with the 6e version of Champions Universe - that stuff is more or less "cannon." Then I pulled out all of my old books, bought a whole lot of ebooks and (of course) customized stuff to focus on my players' and player characters' interests and backgrounds. In particular, one of the PC's is a cosmic refugee who is immortal and has been living in hiding on earth for several centuries, so we've done quite a bit of back and forth on his role in and knowledge of "history."
 
The timeline that I've produced is definitely a work in progress. I've mashed together all of the versions of the Champions Universe books and tried to hammer out a single, (relatively) consistent history, and I'm still in the process of going through all of the different supplements and adventures and deciding which to incorporate, which to pass on and which to set aside for future adventures. 
 
IN: Books of the Destroyer and the Machine, the Mutant Files, San Angelo, VIPER, UNTIL, PRIMUS, DEMON, PSI, Genocide/IHA, Atlas/Prometheus, ARGENT, TERROR Inc., Doctor Yin Wu and the Red Banner, Sanctuary, Deathstroke, Villains International (picks up some of VOICE's portfolio), the Olympians, the Zodiac Conspiracy 
Adventures: reworked VIPER's Nest/Champions Begins, powered-up Shadows of the City, Future: Day of the Destroyer, Mind Games, the Great Supervillain Contest, Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth/COIL
OUT: VOICE, SAT, CLOWN, Dr. Lirby Koo (though the reworked Geodesics are in, as Payback) 
 
The Timeline (Players' version. GM's version is too messy and disorganized to share atm)
C4E Timeline.pdf
 

Those are from 1920s Germany along with the highly interesting Alraune who would make a good Poison Ivy style villainess but a century too late for BM II and III.  Doctor Mabuse was a true supervillain capable of impossible feats of disguise along with mind control and who repeatedly dies to come back in a new body.  

Black Mask II or IIi would have run into at least one villain who was fond of death traps like the classic pendulum trap or burying or immuring people alive.  This sort of thing was rather popular in the gothic fiction of the time although it survives into the present only through Edgar Allen Poes "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "Cask of Amontillado".  The old "tying someone to the railroad tracks" gimmick was a continuation of the trope, although that started in the 1860s when they had the necessary railroads.  That time frame is also when the sexy vampire was first invented with Byron-inspired Lord Ruthven in 1819, which led to Varney the Vampire in the 1840s and then Carmilla, the first sexy lesbian vampire in the 1870s.  

It occurs to me that there are a few official supervillains who are ageless, and have been active for centuries or more. While they have superhuman powers, those would have been much weaker prior to the Walpurgisnacht Working in 1938. Black Mask III could have come up against a couple of female super-thieves, the mutant Heather McGowrie also known as Cateran (Champions Villains Volume Three), and Handrel, one of the Empyreans (described but not statted in Hidden Lands.)  It could be amusing if one or both of them also encountered successive Black Masks.
 
Oh, that gives me another thought for a "giant penny" analogue. Since BM III lived in Philadelphia, one of those thieves could have stolen the Liberty Bell for a wealthy collector, swapping a copy for the real bell. Both of them could have been strong enough to physically carry away the bell. If Black Mask recovered the Liberty Bell, he might have been awarded or purchased the fake one as a souvenir.

Well, the Fifth Edition of Champions Universe did detail, and provide a character sheet for, John Ward, the very first Black Mask who fought in America's revolutionary war, so it might be nice to have some mementos from him preserved by the Ward family. Black Mask I carried a rapier, a whip, and a pair of customized matchlock pistols. I'm thinking the pistols would make a particularly nice trophy. Or, since Ward worked alongside many American heroes of the war (although they never knew his true identity), he might have been given a gift of thanks, such as a silver trophy crafted by Paul Revere.
 
During the American Civil War the fourth Black Mask, Matthew Ward, fought on the Union side, often against a similar masked combatant for the Confederates, the Grey Ghost; although their clashes were never conclusive. Matthew might have picked up a piece of the Grey Ghost's costume, such as a hat, and kept it out of respect for his foe.
 
The origin of the current official Champions villain, the vampire called Stalker (Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains) is that he was "turned" in 1878 by a vamp named Carraway, an enemy of Black Mask VI, as one of a pack Carraway created to attack Black Mask. Stalker escaped being staked and burned by Black Mask like Carraway and the rest of the pack. Perhaps Marvin Carr kept some reminder of Carraway, e.g. the stake he used on him, or even his fangs pulled from his skull before the rest of his body was burned. (That last might be potentially dangerous, as it's possible Carraway could be regenerated even from such a small body part.)

I think it was a PC trying something silly & his GM went along with it part of the way.  If we are assuming Iron Man 3 was a Champions Session, "House Party Protocol" was Stark's player being cute and trying to make an army out of his backup suits/extra foci and some inventor rolls.  His GM let him get away with it once but declared that they all came apart if they took any damage or failed a dex roll.  He was then informed he wasn't allowed to do that anymore.
 
In later movies, he actually bought the Iron Legion as followers but they were usurped by Ultron.  He then appeared to give up on armies of troopers and went nanotech, AKA he re-spent his points and rolled the followers (along with a bunch of XP) into buying off his Foci limits entirely.  It looked like he had OIHID during Infinity Wars (He had to activate his chest unit, which Endgame showed us was removable) but by Endgame he didn't seem to have any limits at all anymore on using his Nanites.

You know, on the very rare occasion that I use Foxbat (it isn't that I dislike the character; I actually,use him more than any other published character.  I think since 1e, I have used him five or six times!)
.
Anyway- I stick with the whole goofball non-lethal angle, but he _is_ terrifyingly effective: his capers (though screwy and bizarre) _work_, and very rarely is there a hitch.  His eventual downfall usually is not related to his ability to create and exexute a plan, but is a reault of his sheer audacity.
 
Just as an example, last halloween in the youth group game, he was masquerading as John the Good Reverend Smith and doing a simple fleecing from the pulpit of his new Church of Believers Don't Die.
 
It was working, and revenue was quickly growing as the crowds were gettinf larger and larger.
 
The tip off dor moat people that something was wrong here was t hat he was wearing his will suit and salt-and-pepper wig over his Foxbat costume, to the point of havibg tailored slits to allow the pointy bits of his gloves and boots to not get bunched up inside the sleeves and pants legs.
 
That, and he spray painted Leroy's exoskeleton and oitched him as The Golden Man, agent of the Almighty on Earth, but to save money on studio photography, he had run to Kinkos and gotten one of Leroy's wanted posters blown up to banner-size and hung it behind the pulpit.
 
And the sacrements consisted of microwave chicken nuggets and Sunny D.
 
But it all _worked_, and flawlessly.  Right up until one od the heroes decided to try the new church that was taking the town by storm....
 
 
 
 

I think it was a PC trying something silly & his GM went along with it part of the way.  If we are assuming Iron Man 3 was a Champions Session, "House Party Protocol" was Stark's player being cute and trying to make an army out of his backup suits/extra foci and some inventor rolls.  His GM let him get away with it once but declared that they all came apart if they took any damage or failed a dex roll.  He was then informed he wasn't allowed to do that anymore.
 
In later movies, he actually bought the Iron Legion as followers but they were usurped by Ultron.  He then appeared to give up on armies of troopers and went nanotech, AKA he re-spent his points and rolled the followers (along with a bunch of XP) into buying off his Foci limits entirely.  It looked like he had OIHID during Infinity Wars (He had to activate his chest unit, which Endgame showed us was removable) but by Endgame he didn't seem to have any limits at all anymore on using his Nanites.

I think it was a PC trying something silly & his GM went along with it part of the way.  If we are assuming Iron Man 3 was a Champions Session, "House Party Protocol" was Stark's player being cute and trying to make an army out of his backup suits/extra foci and some inventor rolls.  His GM let him get away with it once but declared that they all came apart if they took any damage or failed a dex roll.  He was then informed he wasn't allowed to do that anymore.
 
In later movies, he actually bought the Iron Legion as followers but they were usurped by Ultron.  He then appeared to give up on armies of troopers and went nanotech, AKA he re-spent his points and rolled the followers (along with a bunch of XP) into buying off his Foci limits entirely.  It looked like he had OIHID during Infinity Wars (He had to activate his chest unit, which Endgame showed us was removable) but by Endgame he didn't seem to have any limits at all anymore on using his Nanites.

1d6 Blast, Expendable Focus (very difficult to recover; 1 Galactus)  😜

Final Fantasy 7, Baldur's Gate, Pokémon, and more and more are older than the High School kids playing D&D these days.
 
Complexity means something different to kids raised on Minecraft than it did to us who used to think Axis & Allies was complex.

We had the first meeting of the school's D&D Club today, and most of the time was spent in character creation. And yeah, it's a LOT more complex than I remember.  (Of course, I haven't played D&D since the Reagan administration. I discovered Champions 3rd Ed in college and never went back. But I digress.) 
 
So, yeah ... maybe an overly simplified version isn't necessary after all.
 
I have a copy (PDF and dead tree) of Champions Complete. I have the Champions Character Creation Cards. I looked through 'em a bit after buying them, but not having a group at the time, I didn't do anything with them. Maybe I should dig those out and see what I can come up with. I've also got the Hero Designer software, which could (theoretically) help with the logistics of character creation.
 
Hrmmm. Must ponder.

The thing that concerns me about going back to 2e or 3e is that if these high school kids end up really liking the system I hate to have them find out that they were playing a game that came out before their parents were born and having to adjust to something multiple iterations newer.
 
Take a look at Champions Begins.  It does a great job of gradually adding complexity but is using the current core system.

The thing that concerns me about going back to 2e or 3e is that if these high school kids end up really liking the system I hate to have them find out that they were playing a game that came out before their parents were born and having to adjust to something multiple iterations newer.
 
Take a look at Champions Begins.  It does a great job of gradually adding complexity but is using the current core system.

This.
Watchers of the Dragon was a pretty well regarded late 4e book (written by Steve Long), but it had all the detailed writeups, long skill lists, and 3 point powers with 6 modifiers that people rag on 5e for.
 
So it was absolutely possible to run 4e that way, it just became the "house style" once 5e dropped.  

This.
Watchers of the Dragon was a pretty well regarded late 4e book (written by Steve Long), but it had all the detailed writeups, long skill lists, and 3 point powers with 6 modifiers that people rag on 5e for.
 
So it was absolutely possible to run 4e that way, it just became the "house style" once 5e dropped.  

I run 5e with a less "granular" 4e build aesthetic.
I think 5e adds and clarifies a lot to the 4e chassis. 
It also introduced a cultural mindset of maximalist detail and granularity.
But that mindset isn't hard-coded into the rules. Its purely cultural and psychological.
Its just one way to build a game and characters.
Its the Steve way, and its 100% fine for those who prefer that style of play.
But Steve himself would tell you that you don't have to build characters his way.
And a lot of the later 5e and 6e books have a different style and sensibility.
Hero is super-flexible in all of its incarnations.
You can run pretty simple / streamlined 5e game if you go about it with some intentionality.
 

I think it was a PC trying something silly & his GM went along with it part of the way.  If we are assuming Iron Man 3 was a Champions Session, "House Party Protocol" was Stark's player being cute and trying to make an army out of his backup suits/extra foci and some inventor rolls.  His GM let him get away with it once but declared that they all came apart if they took any damage or failed a dex roll.  He was then informed he wasn't allowed to do that anymore.
 
In later movies, he actually bought the Iron Legion as followers but they were usurped by Ultron.  He then appeared to give up on armies of troopers and went nanotech, AKA he re-spent his points and rolled the followers (along with a bunch of XP) into buying off his Foci limits entirely.  It looked like he had OIHID during Infinity Wars (He had to activate his chest unit, which Endgame showed us was removable) but by Endgame he didn't seem to have any limits at all anymore on using his Nanites.

He takes a lot of time to say what he has to say, but his content is very interesting.
 
My understanding of this video basically boils down to: Kids are buying comics made for kids in numbers far, far larger than adults are buying comics at all.  Too bad Marvel and DC decided they don't care about kids.  A scholastic reader Miles Morales comic has 10x the sales of any of the Marvel Spiderman titles, which shows that they may well buy superhero comics but they aren't being given many reasons too.
 
The YouTuber pitches the theory that both Marvel and DC decided to "age up" with their readers starting in the 90s and abandoned the traditional kid market.  That worked for a while but now we are at a point where 30 years of kids have grown up on Manga (which has tons of adult stuff but *also* has tons of stuff for 8 year olds).  Scholastic has pulled way ahead of both DC and Marvel.  The "big two" traditional publishers don't appear in the top 5 comic book sellers in the big bookstores (which according to this video is where all the growth in comic sales is)
 
So it sounds like third party takes (Like from Scholastic) on traditional comics are the only places these characters are still showing up for actual children.  Kids in 2022 appear to be reading a lot more manga & not a lot of Spiderman.  I know my life-long comic book addiction started when I was 7 years old & if its true that kids haven't been getting into stuff like that for 20 years.. no wonder comic sales are down.  I've seen enough Manga that was pretty cool that I can easily understand how if you got into that when you were in 1st or 2nd grade you might not feel a deep need to keep up on Spiderman anymore.  My Hero Academia, Naruto, and Dragonball seem way more popular than Batman among middleschool kids I run into.

I think it was a PC trying something silly & his GM went along with it part of the way.  If we are assuming Iron Man 3 was a Champions Session, "House Party Protocol" was Stark's player being cute and trying to make an army out of his backup suits/extra foci and some inventor rolls.  His GM let him get away with it once but declared that they all came apart if they took any damage or failed a dex roll.  He was then informed he wasn't allowed to do that anymore.
 
In later movies, he actually bought the Iron Legion as followers but they were usurped by Ultron.  He then appeared to give up on armies of troopers and went nanotech, AKA he re-spent his points and rolled the followers (along with a bunch of XP) into buying off his Foci limits entirely.  It looked like he had OIHID during Infinity Wars (He had to activate his chest unit, which Endgame showed us was removable) but by Endgame he didn't seem to have any limits at all anymore on using his Nanites.

Nothing can be done until they get a new generation of writers and editors who understand the medium and the market though. Anyone who blames consumers for not buying their product should be "promoted" to a new industry with a rubberstamped exit interview.

Sorry, I stopped reading when the writer spewed "DC Comics has been in dire straits due to its SJW and woke agenda"...

I think it was a PC trying something silly & his GM went along with it part of the way.  If we are assuming Iron Man 3 was a Champions Session, "House Party Protocol" was Stark's player being cute and trying to make an army out of his backup suits/extra foci and some inventor rolls.  His GM let him get away with it once but declared that they all came apart if they took any damage or failed a dex roll.  He was then informed he wasn't allowed to do that anymore.
 
In later movies, he actually bought the Iron Legion as followers but they were usurped by Ultron.  He then appeared to give up on armies of troopers and went nanotech, AKA he re-spent his points and rolled the followers (along with a bunch of XP) into buying off his Foci limits entirely.  It looked like he had OIHID during Infinity Wars (He had to activate his chest unit, which Endgame showed us was removable) but by Endgame he didn't seem to have any limits at all anymore on using his Nanites.

This falls into "source material differs from game" territory.  One-time power stunts are common in both the comics and the movies.  Hero's use of Power Skill to simulate this hasn't been overly effective.  Duplicating the many power stunts a long-published character has demonstrated would require acceptance that pretty mush every character has a VPP for such abilities.