I'm new here, but this seems to be how these things are done. For a little while now, I've been running 'Third Eye Investigations', a Champions-based game that borrows from sources like :
Planetary (the Comic)
Angel (the TV show)
Witch Hunter Robin (the Anime)
Batman (the.. you know.)
The premise is, essentially, the PCs join up with 'Third Eye Investigations', a detective agency that specializes in the paranormal. They deal with magic, aliens, superbeings, the undead - you name it, they've seen it. The agency existed for ten years prior to the campaign, giving the NPCs in it time to build up a case history.
The campaign world is a smorgasbord of the paranormal, throwing in just about everything, but using similar logic to Dark Champions : The Animated Series in some respects. Teleportation, for instance, is a rare ability. If you have the power to grow fifty feet tall? There aren't any "unstable molecules" so you'd best not be modest. You don't hear the term 'superhero', and flashy costumes are pretty rare.
We have a lot of fun with the mix of characters, and some good lines arise from time to time. If folks have any interest in hearing more about it, including character write-ups, or whatever, I'd be happy to post them. To whet the appetite, here are brief overviews of the NPCs of Third Eye :
"Reach" - the field leader of the group, Reach is the most like a traditional detective. He lost an arm in an accident at a young age, and discovered that, like many, he could still feel the arm there. Unlike many, however, he can manifest his "phantom limb" as a stretchable ectoplasmic limb that can physically touch desolidified entities, wield great strength, or psychically connect him to an object to learn of that object's history.
"Scan" - the group's telepath, he spent several years prior to the start of the campaign in a catatonic state - apparently living a life through astral projection/possession on another world entirely. Since his return, he's mostly been relegated to the role of mentally shielding the team's headquarters. He has a tendency to be rather blase about everything, and always seems to be lazily sipping a cup of coffee, no matter what the situation.
"Damper" - currently off the team, as he is possessed by the spirit of an ancient sorceror. Damper is an emotional vampire - deadening the feelings of anyone around him. This led to childhood trauma for him, as his parents just couldn't bring themselves to care about him. Three aspects of his powers are : he projects a constant area-of-effect Mental Defense shield that protects anyone around him from empathy-related attacks - in effect, a 'Calm' aura; he can achieve great stealthy results because of his powers - people often notice him, but he tends to slide from their awareness as unimportant unless they're specifically looking for him; and he can focus his emotional-draining powers in an 'apathy attack' - to drain foes of the will to act. Because of his stealth power, the players refer to him as the perfect NPC - because he's one where the player tendency to forget about NPCs that are with them actually makes sense.
"Well, I have an idea."
"Oh yeah, Damper! I forgot he was here."
And then there's Arthur, AKA "Meme." Arthur's background is a bit complicated to go into for just a teaser, but in short - he is a test-tube grown clone of .. well, that would be telling. Accompanying his birth, two magical rituals were conducted. One imbued him with a great destiny, and the other bound his mind directly to the astral plane. The destiny side is complex and best left for later - the astral portion gives him the bulk of his power. He is a skill-mimic, effectively able to use a VPP to 'borrow' skills from anyone within a certain radius. (This varies by population density - too many minds create astral 'clutter' that's hard to filter through.) He's also got a danger sense (any human that is about to attack him or knows of a danger he is about to face is a potential source of information). The combination of abilities means he is the most formidable of the NPCs in combat. He's hampered by the fact that he doesn't have a lot of his own personality, and lacks creativity to properly employ some of the science skills he has access to, for invention purposes.
Whew, that was a long teaser. Any interest in hearing more? Happy to give "episode" summaries, character write-ups, the occasional funny anecdote or quote, or just more background on the campaign world itself. Whatever people want to hear.
