Echo3Niner

Eagerly awaiting the next exciting instalment! 

In our fourth exciting episode -->
 
Capt. Force explains to Solar that Narrai Prime and the other planets/moons/asteroids the Narrai have colonized in their system have 24 times Earth Gravity (25Gs) - which is why the Narrai species is so heavily muscled and dense; this requires Solar to use some of her VPP to increase her density in order to survive.
 
Our heroes fly to Narrai space, and go to a mining colony where Capt. Force's original mentor in the rebellion (from his backstory) lives.  They discuss what all is going on with the pending invasion and the artifact from Coullum The First (the Narrai hero from 7500 years ago, who had the "Earth" band).  The mentor does some electronic digging, and finds that the rebel cell that operates in the Great Go-Shibbi desert on Narrai Prime, have reported a recent expansion of an archeology site, where some of the Science Caste have recently erected barriers with military support, and that they heard it has something to do with Coullum The First.
 
Our heroes travel to the desert and are surprised to find a wall erected around an area, where the sand has been excavated from; in this area are ruins from long ago, dominated by a large arena with a large statue at one end.  Solar uses her VPP enhanced senses and sees the "Earth" band in the palm of the large statue.
 
The heroes land at a large tent erected near the arena, and encounter the lead scientist of the dig.  After speaking to him for a few moments, it is clear to the heroes that he is being affected by the band.  He describes how Narrai have come from all over the system, in order to attempt to claim the band - whenever anyone sets foot in the arena, another Narrai always steps in to fight them.  The scientist is super excited to study this phenomenon and admits he hasn't really reported everything to his superiors in the Science Caste, because he wants so badly to be here to study whomever actually can claim the band.  He further explains that every time there has been a victor, but every time that victor claims the band, they have gone insane, and have had to be killed by the military.
 
As they are discussing this, 3 Narrai assault ships land outside the enclosure.  Leading a squad of heavily armed and armored troops into the enclosure is Sgt. Roc-12, one of the most highly decorated Special Forces members in the entire Narrai military.  He is clearly making his way directly to the arena; and the scientist is almost giddy with anticipation.
 
Capt. Force steps in front of Sgt. Roc-12 and asks him why he is there.  Sgt. Roc-12 explains that he is there for the band.  Capt. Force asks if he is aware there will be a fight to claim it, and Sgt. Roc-12 simply says, "Of course there will be."  Capt. Force also asks if he is aware that if he does win, he may go insane if he claims it?  Sgt. Roc-12 acts almost insulted, claiming that will of course not happen to him, once he claims it.
 
After a quick conversation, the heroes realize that it may not be a good thing either way, so Capt. Force decides to follow Sgt. Roc-12 into the arena.  As Sgt. Roc-12 enters, a random Worker Caste Narrai in the stands gets up as if he was going to enter the arena as well, but when Capt. Force enters, he simply sits back down.
 
Once Capt. Force enters, a barrier springs up, encompassing the entire floor of the arena.  Immediately Sgt. Roc-12 draws a fighting knife, and prepares to fight.  Sgt. Roc-12 tries several  times, but never lands a blow - initially Capt. Force martial throws Sgt. Roc-12 into the barrier; when that doesn't do enough to slow him down, Capt. Force then does a nerve strike, which also only slightly injures Sgt. Roc-12.  Eventually, Capt. Force has to use his "Killer Laser" punch (his highest HTH attack), which knocks Sgt. Roc-12 across the arena and into the barrier, almost knocking him out.  Capt. Force finishes him off with another nerve strike.
 
As Sgt. Roc-12 falls, the barrier comes down.  His squad moves to take him to medical, and Solar flies down to meet with Capt. Force, who has taken the band from the statue.  As they are discussing their next move, several Narrai assault ships begin arriving, and the troops that arrived with Sgt. Roc-12 appear to get radio messages, and start to secure the perimeter around the arena; apparently the Narrai military isn't so good with Capt. Force just leaving with the band...
 
Capt. Force makes the hasty decision to slap the band on his wrist...  A massive influx of Z-Rad power courses through Capt. Force's veins, and he experiences the origins of the band, and their time they were together, then the rest of the entire history of the "Earth" band, up until now.  The band makes a mental attack, however, Solar remembered to provide mental defense to Capt. Force, and because of that, he was able to survive the bands assault, and keep his sanity (barely).
 
But, before anyone can do anything, a massive ship wormholes into low orbit, launching hundreds of fighter ships.  The ship then fires a beam to the ground, and something travels down the beam, landing with such impact, that the 3 assault ships that had landed are destroyed, as are several of the military members who were nearby.
 
Once the beam stops, and the dust settles, there is a huge Narrai-like warrior standing there.  He yells above the din of destruction, "I am an Outrider, of the Black Order; The Empress demands the band, hand it over barbarians, you don't even know what you're dealing with…"
 
The Narrai military begins attacking this new fleet, while Outrider calmly stalks into the enclosure.  Capt. Force scans Outrider, and discovers he is massively powerful, and will likely be a difficult fight for both our heroes.
 
Capt. Force orders the military nearby to evacuate the enclosure, and tells Solar not to hold back.  Solar is the fastest of the three, so she flies up to Outrider.  After much discussion of various options by the players, it is decided that Solar will use her VPP to increase her density to maximum, and then put the remaining point in a straight increase to her STR; this gives her a total punch of 55D6!  Solar rolls her punch, and hits.  She then rolls her damage; doing substantial damage with the punch alone - then we calculate the knockback, in which Outrider crashes through several vehicles and other structures, before eventually hitting the enclosure wall, almost 90 yards away.  This damage results in knocking Outrider out completely!
 
Capt. Force then uses the "Earth" (solid matter) band (which has a massive VPP of 500 points, restricted to only work on solid matter), to Transform 2 meters of all the alien fighter ships, into bubble wrap...  Causing all 500 ships to crash at once.
 
With this, the massive ship beams the unconscious Outrider back aboard, and wormholes out of Narrai space.
 
Having survived the battle, the heroes grab one of the enemy pilots (a lizard like alien), and take him with them, to the capital city of Narrai Prime - there they speak to the ambassador they originally warned about the Empress' return.  After explaining that now everyone can see what the threat is, they call for a video conference with Col. Rage from Earth, and the ambassador from Lyrissi as well.  Once they have them on holo-vid, Capt. Force plays a replay of the battle to the group, then explains that everyone should now see how they need to work together.
 
Col. Rage agrees and says they will continue to prepare and keep the two bands on Earth safe.  The Lyrissi ambassador explains that they do not know where the "Air" band is...  Though they agree they will search for it.
 
The heroes discuss their next move; Capt. Force decides he wants to ask Golden Girl to accompany them back to Europa, returning the drone that was left on Earth and see if he can convince the Europaites to join cause.  They then figure they will need to follow-up with the Lyrissi, to determine what the status is of the "Air" band.
 
And that is where this exciting episode ends!
 

I voted for Wrongfully Convicted, Divinely Conscripted (Champions)- primarily because it holds the PCs accountable to being "heroes" - I like that idea...
 
I had to read your longer descriptions however, because just based on the short explanation for the vote, I would not have picked it.

In the MCU as an example, and including the Netflix series; while they often showed modern cell phones, tablets, computers, etc. (with the assumed apps as well) - and the heroes even used them (especially in the Netflix series), it never impacted the movies one way or another - they were just there, like they are in real life - and didn't change a thing.
 
That is how I handle it in my game - the tech has stayed current, but it doesn't change anything.  In fact, if you read any of the recent episodes of my game <link>, you'll note that I gave one of the heroes an "UNTIL super-phone", that works interplanetary (I didn't even attempt to explain it) - and it has only aided my game...  In the last episode in fact, they did an intergalactic video call, which I again didn't even attempt to explain....  It was cool "window dressing" though, everyone liked it...
 
I also find it interesting, the whole vigilante concept from movies/TV - it was quaint years ago - but now, with PMCs (Private Military Contractors or Companies) on every corner, and any private firm able to employ them, not to mention high-end security specialists (used to be called body guards back in the day), who specialize in "full-spectrum security" (meaning social media, hacking defense, drone defense, physical defense, etc.), not to mention all the websites that think they're making the world safer ("outing" supposed pedophiles, sexual predators, etc.); I find the concept that a "super hero" would be labeled a "vigilante" a little absurd.  I think it would be really interesting to see how the modern world would actually react; citizen arrests are still "legal"...  Mercenaries have been around since ancient times, and no one has really done anything to curb that activity, in any meaningful way ("Soldier of fortune" indeed).
 
I think the government would react more like they did in the MCU and DCEU - feeling threatened by supers, as if they were a military risk or threat to national security.  That would lead to an interesting response over time I imagine...
 

I think Aaron Alston had the "Hero net" as a concept Way back when. In my own games I expanded on the idea with the Heroic Examination, and Registration Org. (HERO) a federal agency that ran the HERO.net and maintained records on registered members. Want to join our team? Lets check Hero.net Hmmm lots of property damage, and you don't have insurance...sorry. Hero reg. allows members to have their Super ID be a legal person, so you can buy insurance, testify in costume etc....

In our fourth exciting episode -->
 
Capt. Force explains to Solar that Narrai Prime and the other planets/moons/asteroids the Narrai have colonized in their system have 24 times Earth Gravity (25Gs) - which is why the Narrai species is so heavily muscled and dense; this requires Solar to use some of her VPP to increase her density in order to survive.
 
Our heroes fly to Narrai space, and go to a mining colony where Capt. Force's original mentor in the rebellion (from his backstory) lives.  They discuss what all is going on with the pending invasion and the artifact from Coullum The First (the Narrai hero from 7500 years ago, who had the "Earth" band).  The mentor does some electronic digging, and finds that the rebel cell that operates in the Great Go-Shibbi desert on Narrai Prime, have reported a recent expansion of an archeology site, where some of the Science Caste have recently erected barriers with military support, and that they heard it has something to do with Coullum The First.
 
Our heroes travel to the desert and are surprised to find a wall erected around an area, where the sand has been excavated from; in this area are ruins from long ago, dominated by a large arena with a large statue at one end.  Solar uses her VPP enhanced senses and sees the "Earth" band in the palm of the large statue.
 
The heroes land at a large tent erected near the arena, and encounter the lead scientist of the dig.  After speaking to him for a few moments, it is clear to the heroes that he is being affected by the band.  He describes how Narrai have come from all over the system, in order to attempt to claim the band - whenever anyone sets foot in the arena, another Narrai always steps in to fight them.  The scientist is super excited to study this phenomenon and admits he hasn't really reported everything to his superiors in the Science Caste, because he wants so badly to be here to study whomever actually can claim the band.  He further explains that every time there has been a victor, but every time that victor claims the band, they have gone insane, and have had to be killed by the military.
 
As they are discussing this, 3 Narrai assault ships land outside the enclosure.  Leading a squad of heavily armed and armored troops into the enclosure is Sgt. Roc-12, one of the most highly decorated Special Forces members in the entire Narrai military.  He is clearly making his way directly to the arena; and the scientist is almost giddy with anticipation.
 
Capt. Force steps in front of Sgt. Roc-12 and asks him why he is there.  Sgt. Roc-12 explains that he is there for the band.  Capt. Force asks if he is aware there will be a fight to claim it, and Sgt. Roc-12 simply says, "Of course there will be."  Capt. Force also asks if he is aware that if he does win, he may go insane if he claims it?  Sgt. Roc-12 acts almost insulted, claiming that will of course not happen to him, once he claims it.
 
After a quick conversation, the heroes realize that it may not be a good thing either way, so Capt. Force decides to follow Sgt. Roc-12 into the arena.  As Sgt. Roc-12 enters, a random Worker Caste Narrai in the stands gets up as if he was going to enter the arena as well, but when Capt. Force enters, he simply sits back down.
 
Once Capt. Force enters, a barrier springs up, encompassing the entire floor of the arena.  Immediately Sgt. Roc-12 draws a fighting knife, and prepares to fight.  Sgt. Roc-12 tries several  times, but never lands a blow - initially Capt. Force martial throws Sgt. Roc-12 into the barrier; when that doesn't do enough to slow him down, Capt. Force then does a nerve strike, which also only slightly injures Sgt. Roc-12.  Eventually, Capt. Force has to use his "Killer Laser" punch (his highest HTH attack), which knocks Sgt. Roc-12 across the arena and into the barrier, almost knocking him out.  Capt. Force finishes him off with another nerve strike.
 
As Sgt. Roc-12 falls, the barrier comes down.  His squad moves to take him to medical, and Solar flies down to meet with Capt. Force, who has taken the band from the statue.  As they are discussing their next move, several Narrai assault ships begin arriving, and the troops that arrived with Sgt. Roc-12 appear to get radio messages, and start to secure the perimeter around the arena; apparently the Narrai military isn't so good with Capt. Force just leaving with the band...
 
Capt. Force makes the hasty decision to slap the band on his wrist...  A massive influx of Z-Rad power courses through Capt. Force's veins, and he experiences the origins of the band, and their time they were together, then the rest of the entire history of the "Earth" band, up until now.  The band makes a mental attack, however, Solar remembered to provide mental defense to Capt. Force, and because of that, he was able to survive the bands assault, and keep his sanity (barely).
 
But, before anyone can do anything, a massive ship wormholes into low orbit, launching hundreds of fighter ships.  The ship then fires a beam to the ground, and something travels down the beam, landing with such impact, that the 3 assault ships that had landed are destroyed, as are several of the military members who were nearby.
 
Once the beam stops, and the dust settles, there is a huge Narrai-like warrior standing there.  He yells above the din of destruction, "I am an Outrider, of the Black Order; The Empress demands the band, hand it over barbarians, you don't even know what you're dealing with…"
 
The Narrai military begins attacking this new fleet, while Outrider calmly stalks into the enclosure.  Capt. Force scans Outrider, and discovers he is massively powerful, and will likely be a difficult fight for both our heroes.
 
Capt. Force orders the military nearby to evacuate the enclosure, and tells Solar not to hold back.  Solar is the fastest of the three, so she flies up to Outrider.  After much discussion of various options by the players, it is decided that Solar will use her VPP to increase her density to maximum, and then put the remaining point in a straight increase to her STR; this gives her a total punch of 55D6!  Solar rolls her punch, and hits.  She then rolls her damage; doing substantial damage with the punch alone - then we calculate the knockback, in which Outrider crashes through several vehicles and other structures, before eventually hitting the enclosure wall, almost 90 yards away.  This damage results in knocking Outrider out completely!
 
Capt. Force then uses the "Earth" (solid matter) band (which has a massive VPP of 500 points, restricted to only work on solid matter), to Transform 2 meters of all the alien fighter ships, into bubble wrap...  Causing all 500 ships to crash at once.
 
With this, the massive ship beams the unconscious Outrider back aboard, and wormholes out of Narrai space.
 
Having survived the battle, the heroes grab one of the enemy pilots (a lizard like alien), and take him with them, to the capital city of Narrai Prime - there they speak to the ambassador they originally warned about the Empress' return.  After explaining that now everyone can see what the threat is, they call for a video conference with Col. Rage from Earth, and the ambassador from Lyrissi as well.  Once they have them on holo-vid, Capt. Force plays a replay of the battle to the group, then explains that everyone should now see how they need to work together.
 
Col. Rage agrees and says they will continue to prepare and keep the two bands on Earth safe.  The Lyrissi ambassador explains that they do not know where the "Air" band is...  Though they agree they will search for it.
 
The heroes discuss their next move; Capt. Force decides he wants to ask Golden Girl to accompany them back to Europa, returning the drone that was left on Earth and see if he can convince the Europaites to join cause.  They then figure they will need to follow-up with the Lyrissi, to determine what the status is of the "Air" band.
 
And that is where this exciting episode ends!
 

I love the concept and backstory.  The technical concept does remind me mostly of Deathlok (the OG Deathlok, from the comics).
 
As for decent concepts of point averages to use, I cobbled this list together from other threads (this info came from others), many years ago, when I was struggling with the concept of how to maintain balance in character creation; it may help:
 
I'm not sure how much is too much to post, so here's the guidelines for 6E Standard Superheroic:
 
Characteristics: 10-40
SPD: 3-10
CV: 7-13
DC: 6-14
Active Points: 40-80
Skill Points: 25-80
Skill Roll: 11-15-
Def/rDef: 20-25/12-18 
 
Short version: For standard 400-point superheroes, 6ed recommends Powers generally run from 40-80 AP; defenses should run 20-25 with 12-18 resistant, OCV & DCV should run in the 7-13 range, and typical Damage Classes should be around 6-14. These are absolutely just guidelines, not hard-and-fast rules; they don't necessarily prohibit a character with an OCV of 14 and a 15 DC attack, but they signal to both Player and GM that such a power is above the normal range and thus deserving of a closer look. Does that help?
In my experience, to get a good balance in the game, characters should meet these basic standards:
 
1) They have enough Defense + Con to take an average attack without being Stunned.  So if your average attack is 12D6 (42 Stun), 20 Def and 23 Con is about as fragile as you'd want to get.  Weaker than that and you're very vulnerable to being knocked out of the fight.
 
2) They have enough Defense + Stun to take 2-3 average attacks without being knocked unconscious.  So with your 12D6 (42 Stun) average, about 20 Def and 45 Stun or 25 Def and 40 Stun is about as low as you'd want to get.
 
3) You want to have some amount of resistant defense and/or special defenses (power defense, mental defense, flash defense) if those powers are going to come up with any regularity.  You do not have to have a lot of the special defenses, because those attacks are rare, but if you are going to be hit by them once a battle, or once every other battle, you should have something to ensure you are not neutered by them.  5 points of special defenses is usually enough to take the edge off.
 
4) Beware of powers that can take down an enemy in one shot.  Any type of unusual power combination (megascale teleport usable as an attack) can end up disrupting the game.  Continuous Uncontrolled NNDs and the like can be quite difficult to stop.  Anything that has more than a +1 advantage probably needs to be looked at closely -- it might be fine, it might be woefully ineffective, or it could be amazing.
 
5) Speed ranges should be within about 2 of one another.  If the campaign average is 6, then a guy with a 3 speed is going to be very bored during the game.  A guy with a 9 speed is going to make everyone else bored.
 
6) OCV/DCV more than 3 outside the average can be difficult to deal with.  If I have an OCV of 8, and the villain has a DCV of 12, it will be very difficult for me to hit him.  There are ways around this (spreading an attack, a brick throwing a car at him, etc), but it will require taking extra measures.

In our third exciting episode -->
 
Solar and Capt. Force decide they are not going to split up, even though they know that MasterMind will have time to manipulate the relic.
 
They fly to Kansas City and see 'Zerk tearing it apart!  After a few minutes strategizing, they come up with a game-plan; Capt. Force goes down and engages 'Zerk to hold him still, while Solar uses her VPP to create a Gate under him, gating him 24 klicks into space.  The plan works; while Capt. Force's move-through attack did no damage, it did get 'Zerk's attention long enough for Solar (who had held her action) to open a gate below 'Zerk and teleport him into space.
 
As the heroes started helping victims, suddenly they hear the sound of rocket thrusters and there is a loud metallic clank sound from behind them.  They turn and see a man in a suit of red and silver power battle-armor.
 
"Easy there Big-man star-field and Roman Candle…  He's one of ours." Says the man in the armor.
 
Solar and Capt. Force do not immediately react, but as they are deciding what to do, a woman with golden metallic skin also lands next to the man in the armor, and says "Silvercloud, stop being a jerk."
 
As she speaks, a gate opens behind her, and a large man in Viking armor, with a shield and sword steps through, then a woman who looks like a cross between a human female and a Jaguar, another woman in a skin-tight power suit in a lion motif, and finally an Asian man in traditional monk garb steps through the gate as it closes behind him.
 
The Golden Girl announces that they are the PeaceKeepers; a UN sponsored super-group of Earth's Greatest Heroes.  They explain that 'Zerk is a member of their team, and that Col. Rage called them after he sent our heroes to deal with 'Zerk.
 
(The PeaceKeepers are my version of The Avengers in my gameworld, but are more global:
Silver Centurion, aka Jonathon Silvercloud = Tony Stark/Forge crossover, Iron Man - from USA 'Zerk, aka Dr. Morgan Whitiker = Dr. Banner (who looks like a cross between a younger Morgan Freeman and Forest Whitiker)/Hulk - from USA Golden Girl, aka Heather Cameroon = looks like LifeGuard, but other than her nano-skin armor, is a mentalist and former SAS agent; tactical leader of the team - from Australia (Capt. America/Black Widow) Tyr = based on the Norse God, a human "God of old", who left with his other "Gods" to another planet before the transition of Earth back over the threshold, then came back to Earth to protect it once it crossed back over - from Europe The Jaguar, aka Maria de Guzman = superheroine who is a ware-jaguar - super-regen, deadly fighter (Sabretooth analog) - from Brazilian Lioness, aka Queen Ramonda = Black Panther, queen of kingdom that is the home to Z-radmium, a metal that stores and manipulates Z-rad - damage shield suit - from Africa Wuxian (Immortal Shaman) = Keeper of the Immortal Flame Ur Tsing ("Fire" band), cross between Shang Chi and Dr. Strange - from Tibet) Capt. Force and Solar take their queue to leave the recovery to the PeaceKeepers and head to MasterMind's base.
 
Before they go, Capt. Force asks Solar to use her detection again to sense the "generator" - when she does, she discovers it is no longer at the base.  The heroes decide to go ahead and go to the base, to look for clues.
 
When they arrive at Gull Island in northern Lake Michigan, Solar scans the base and they find no living beings there.  Capt. Force has her use x-ray vision to learn the layout (there are 40 floors below the surface of the island), and to look for power sources - she finds several, including one using large amounts of Z-rad.
 
The team flies down to the base, being attacked by a large swarm of armed drones; however, they are not powerful enough to stop them, so they blow through them as they approach.  The touchscreen on the door has an AI face, who tells them they are trespassing on private property and should leave before he responds with more force.  At that announcement, Capt. Force punches the doors off their hinges into the building.
 
The AI defense system responds with more bullets and some laser weapons as well, but none are powerful enough to slow down our heroes.   Capt. Force asks Solar to interface with the computer system and get a schematic of the base; she does so (VPP) and they learn that the control room is on the 4th level, and the large power source is the vault.  They go to the control room first, where Solar again interfaces with the computer system, and learns that MasterMind has taken the relic to his secret base on the dark side of the moon.
 
After contacting Col. Rage and telling him what's going on, they fly to the moon and find the base.  As Col. Rage was unaware MasterMind even had a secret base there, they take picture with the UNTIL super-phone and text them to Rage.
 
Solar scans the base, and finds 6 living beings in the base.  After discussing the right way to go about infiltrating the base, they decide to have Solar desolidify and inviso, and go in to recon and see if she can find out what's going on.  She does so, passing 4 costumed villains on her way down.  When she reaches the lab, she finds MasterMind and Black Mist ending a conversation, at which point Black Mist teleports away.
 
After stepping around the corner, to an unseen location in the base, Solar contacts Capt. Force and he teleports to her location; at which point she immediately makes him invisible also.  They discuss a plan, and settle on Capt. Force flying over invisibly, and simply grabbing the relic and teleporting back to DC, to take it to Col. Rage.
 
Solar stays behind for a moment, to see the reaction; as the alarms go off and MasterMind begins to react, one of the team of The Fearsome Foursome zooms in immediately (she is obviously a speedster).  The rest arrive moments latter on the elevator.  Solar take that as her queue to leave, flying back to DC.
 
Capt. Force is reviewing the box, as he flies to the UNTIL HQ.  Inside the now open box, he finds a band with the markings of water on it.  He scans it and can tell it is immensely powerful, and something to do with the manipulation of liquid.  He and Solar arrive on the roof of UNITL and speak to Col. Rage.  Solar remembers seeing a band just like this one, on the wrist of the Asian member of the PeaceKeepers, Wuxing.  After speaking to Col. Rage for a bit, they fly out into space; where Capt. Force contemplates putting on the band.  After much discussion, where one of Solar's concerns is that activating the band may alert other cosmic entities to them, they decide he will simply stay there in space, while she goes and speaks to Wuxing, while using telepathy with Capt. Force so he can participate in the discussion.
 
Solar flies to Tibet and arrives at the monastery where Wuxing lives.  He meets her and tells her he was expecting her.  They discuss the bands, and learn that the band he has controls "fire" (plasma).  He explains that his sect has had the band since the last battle with the Empress, and they have kept it safe.  He was selected as the one; the bearer of the band, after many ordeals and trials.  He has trained his whole life to be able to bear the band.  He explains that putting it on causes a massive influx of power and can drive most people insane.  So, if there was a concern that activating the band would alert a cosmic entity, that "horse had already left the barn".  After further discussion, where Wuxing explains that Tyr was at the last great battle, the heroes decide they need to discuss this with the whole team, so they ask Wuxing to arrange a meeting of the PeaceKeepers.  He agrees and gates to gather the team, saying they will meet at Silvercloud's tower in NY.  The heroes also call Col. Rage to meet there as well.
 
When the heroes arrive, they explain everything going on, and ask Tyr to tell everyone the story of the past battle.  Tyr tells them all the story; but no one, including him believes that the Empress could come back, and even if it was possible, no one knows how they would unite the three systems peoples to prepare to oppose her.  Capt. Force asks Tyr what happened to the other bands?  Tyr explains that the "Earth" band went back to Narrai Prime with the Narrai hero who was it's wielder, and the "Air" band went back to Lyrissi 3 with it's wielder.
 
Eventually, they decide to take Golden Girl (who is a mentalist) to the Europaites.  There she convinces them to "show her" what their Oracles saw.  After some additional discussion, they return to NY, where Golden Girl projects into everyone's minds, what she saw (which is not only the preparation of the Empress' armada and legion for her return, but the fact that she populated whole planets with humans in order to study them and prepare for her next conquest).
 
Capt. Force then asks them what their plan is?  Col. Rage explains that he will work politically to try to convince the UN/earth to prepare.  The PeaceKeepers explain they will work to prepare as well.  With that, Capt. Force decides to leave the water band with Col. Rage; so Silvercloud whips up a tech-box that will contain and shield the band from "prying eyes".
 
Though all of this, Capt. Force struggled with whether or not to give the band to the Europaites - however, after learning that the original wielder of the "water" band was a Lemurian earthling; though still concerned that the Europaites would again be enslaved as no one seems to have much stake in defending them, he decided to give it to UNTIL for now; though he declared he would keep Europa as a priority in his defense of this sector of the galaxy.
 
Capt. Force and Solar decide they will go to Narrai next, to try to track down the "Earth" band - and that is where this exciting episode ends...
 

Enjoyable read so far!

It's hard for me to believe I'm saying this but come this June, our campaign will be 40 years old, along with the 40th Anniversary of the game Champions. It's actually mind-boggling to me, that any campaign could be that long. The campaign is older than my friend's marriage as well as some people in the campaign. I'm planning on buying some plastic award medals that you can put your own emblem inside of and giving them out in June. By the way, this is the same continuous campaign - never stopped or retconned. It's gone through changes over the decades and has seen players & characters come and go, but the core players are still playing some of the same characters that the campaign started with.
 
So along with saying it's been 40 years, I also want to say that it is the Champions game that is so durable and flexible that made this happen. My hat off to you, Hero Games and more specifically, to Champions.

We celebrated the 40th anniversary this weekend. I had made medals for each player. I also made one special medal (which I kept) for all the bad character concepts that have ever been made. Do you realize that's 2080 weeks for so long a campaign? Also, my brother made a video for the players to watch before the Champions episode started. The video simply ended: "Now, let the game begin!".

He really doesn't. But I imagine a lot of teenagers don't

-CHAT Logs, 6/15/21-
 
Mom made this cape: So, 'Bigpikture' you're a former member of GENOCIDE? Srsly? How messed up with hate are you?
BigPikture: You're the one who chose me out a bunch of bad guys to interview, sidekick.
Mom made this cape: More because my mentor made trying to understand certain criminal mindsets a part of my training. I thought you were reformed,  But now I learn the only reason you're not still a member is because the organization is dead. You still hate mutants? Srysly? in 2021?
BigPikture: The problem is still the same, and with Genocide gone, accelerating. 
Mom made this cape: Oh no, more flying people. How will mankind survive? Jelly much?
BigPikture:  Geez kid, how old are you?
Mom made this cape: Old enough to know a Nazi.
BigPikture: Says the vigilante in training who will one day bypass laws 'for the greater good'. 
Mom made this cape: Man, if I didn't have to put up with you in order to get an extension on my patrol time, I'd exit this chat now. Fine, if it's not jealousy that fuels the hate, then what is it?
BigPikture: I'm trying to save mankind, and believe it or not, future generations of mutants too.
Mom made this cape: .... wth? How is killing mutants SAVING them?
BigPikture: How much do you know about Evolution, Genetics?
Mom made this cape: Enough to know it's natural, and inevitable.
BigPikture: Is it natural to have a species fracture at an accelerated rate? The answer is 'no', should it be so random an inconsistent ? Again, no.
Mom made this cape: It's adaptive is all...
BigPikture:  Adapting to WHAT? Tell me, what strange evolutionary need has two brothers, both mutants: one gets gills, the other sets things on fire with his mind? Where is the consistency? 
Mom made this cape:  Scientists are looking into that.
BigPikture: Yes, we are. You think we didn't have scientists in Genocide? We did look into it. What we saw was not normal mutation! It was not typical evolution. It was a genetic apocalypse brewing ready to kill billions.
Mom made this cape: You're full of #$$#. Maybe not all mutants pass on the same powers, but a lot of times its similar when it passes down at all.
BigPikture: Not as often as you would think, and believe me, we had more time to study such than 90% of folks out there. Sure, sometimes the genetics hold, and eventually some will lock down. How much do you know about human nature? Sociology, Power Dynamics?
Mom made this cape: Obviously still a student, but if this is a 'mutants are inherently driven to crime' argument, you can go #$## yourself.
BigPikture: Actually, there does seemed to be heightened aggression among mutants according to certain studies into their brain chemistry. Yes, not everyone agrees. I'd show you the study but it would be over your head. But no, let's focus on the fracturing lines, then human nature. Let's say some powers breed true. Homo homo Sapiens become a minority. Some will say it's time for Homo Divergent will rise, no big deal. But Homo Divergent is a catch all, what you'll really end up with is Home Divergent Fortis, Homo Divergent Solaris, and everyone's favorite, Homo Divergent Psychicae! You won't have 'the next step in evolution', you'll have dozens of steps, many of them mis-steps, but essentially different species! And as soon as they start competing and fearing others not in their particular evolutionary track, they'll turn on each other.
Mom made this cape:  That's crazy. They're in the same boat. They need each other.
BigPikture: Do they? Maybe the idea of a hundred people with the ability to take down a bridge with a single punch doesn't frighten you. How about mind control? Telepaths. Don't think they wouldn't click together, band together and think they were better than the OTHER Mutants divergent lines.
Mom made this cape: This is conjecture.
BigPikture: PSI.
(A pause)
BigPikture: Ah, you have heard of them, either that or you're googling fast as you can. They're supremacists as well as a criminal organization, and they don't think for one moment they'd see a standard 'brick' as an equal. They'd eventually rationalize, enslave the others. And not just them, how about Home Divergent Velox? You know, Speedsters. Everyone else would be so annoyingly slow. The only ones they could relate too would be is each other. They wouldn't see other genetic adaptations, they'd see them just like they often see you or me: tortoises acting as speedbumps on their highway.
Mom made this cape:  You don't know that's how it will go down.
BigPikture: Right, and people would never war or enslave over SKIN Color either, or Cultures, or whatever. Wake up, MMTC , Powers are ten times more reason to form rival  tribes, and tribes do not play well with each other for the same resources. GENOCIDE Kept those numbers thin, like culling rabbits that would other wise pick things clean, only on a scale beyond just devouring nature. 
Mom made this cape:  We can BE better. And fear of what might be doesn't excuse the hate. And you still don't make sense. Why just mutants? Why not the guys who had lab accidents, or aliens who visit Earth? or mystical sorts?
BigPikture: Ah, the real question. Some guy gets flight and super strength from putting Kelvarite in a blender, why isn't he a target but the mutant with super strength and flight is? Come on, Cape. You know this. Lab accidents are not as likely to carry on mutation in their genomes. Some might, but it's not nearly as great a threat. Aliens? We already have folks watching them, and the Earth Authorities and heros DO fight them, otherwise we'd be invaded a dozen times over. It's not Genocide that's hypocritical, it's supers like you who pat yourselves on the back for stopping the latest threat from outside our solar system, while shutting your eyes to the threat from our biological systems run wrong. Mystics? They appear to have their own rules that have nothing to do with genotype. Honestly, we didn't have time for the 'whataboutism' of pissants who tried to equate the few dozen lab accidents, aliens, or mythic things that might breed true compared to the hundreds of mutants that eventually would. 
Mom made this cape:  You've got an excuse for everything. If Genocide rises again, I, and others, will stop you. We'll fight for our mutant friends. Hell, we'll fight for the mutant strangers!
BigPikture: Oh god, you actually think we haven't adapted with the times already? Oh kid you have no idea how the mission carries on. Genocide is gone, but we've learned how it works now. And you can't stop what the movement to save humanity has become with a punch.
Mom made this cape:  Genocide is dead.
BigPikture: Not dead. Just evolved. You'll thank us one day, when you see for yourself we were right, if you live long enough. Later, Cape.
 
-END OF CHAT-
 

Um, it's Allegory; a literary device, an allegory is a narrative in which a character, place, or event is used to deliver a broader message about real-world issues and occurrences.
 
It is not intended to be a documentary or logical, realistic representation of real-world issues or occurrences.
 
It is simply designed to use the allegory to draw a parallel, in order to make a point.
 
Different writers over the 40+ years of the "anti-mutant movement" in Marvel, are by default going to be inconsistent, and change or adapt as society evolves over those 40+ years...  And will continue.
 

Um, it's Allegory; a literary device, an allegory is a narrative in which a character, place, or event is used to deliver a broader message about real-world issues and occurrences.
 
It is not intended to be a documentary or logical, realistic representation of real-world issues or occurrences.
 
It is simply designed to use the allegory to draw a parallel, in order to make a point.
 
Different writers over the 40+ years of the "anti-mutant movement" in Marvel, are by default going to be inconsistent, and change or adapt as society evolves over those 40+ years...  And will continue.
 

@Echo3Niner... if you're using Hero Designer, I would recommend snagging the Champions Powers Prefab for it. This would make it easy to just click on the powers needed and add them to the VPP.

Go into your Campaign Rules and under the Rules tab chose "Allow Cost Multipliers". Save and create a new List inside the Powers tab. On the Multiplier change it
to "0" (Zero) and add your powers. You can add your VPP slots w/o affecting the cost of your character.

Of course, you can also go crazy with odd powers, and may be doing one on the fly anyway (maybe not if the character can't easily change powers on the fly).
 
"OK, x inches Teleport, Megascale, Usable as an Attack, AoE Radius, Selective, 1 Hex Accurate (so anyone I target is still DCV 3) - grab the team and Teleport x kilometers north."
 
followed by
 
"Actually, a random direction that he just thinks is north, since we just got here and he has no way of knowing which way is north"
 
was a wonderful in-game moment for a character with the psych lim "impatient, impetuous and impulsive". 
 
One splashdown in an alternative earth body of water later, as the team floated and discussed what to do next, "I can try it again" was not well received...but it DID end the standoff while everyone stood around not knowing what to do next

First off, I use Excel for most character builds, so I won't be a very helpful HD advisor.
 
With a 240 point VPP, 120 point control cost, the character has a lot of options.
 
In addition to a list of sample powers, I'd include scaling options - e.g. this attack power uses x points per DC, so the option of shaving a few damage dice off to make room for a utility power is easier to implement.
 
I'd also include some standard configurations of the full 240 points.  This is a typical build for a day with no expectations; this configuration is "stealth mode"; this is expected all-out combat mode; travel mode.  Which ones you'd have depends a lot on the character.
 
My wife had a character for a high-power game years back who had a cosmic "attacks only" VPP with an SFX limitation.  To facilitate switching on the fly, she had a chart of "This many points per d6 [5/10/15] with this total advantages [in +1/4 increments] equals this many dice.  A list of likely attack powers and advantages was also on that page.
 
At that time, there were no multiple attacks, so no expectation of two or more attacks used together, so the pool was intended for one attack at a time.  That made the chart a very effective tool, especially as she was pretty new to Hero at the time.

From the journal of Master Gunz – American Hero
 
The year is 2030 and Earth has changed, everything has changed.
 
On December 21st, 2012 – when the Mesoamerican’s long count calendar ended, the solar system that Earth is in, passed through an area of the Milkyway galaxy which the Mesoamericans called “The Void”; an area of the Milkyway galaxy which looks like a rift, as it is devoid of many stars.  A place very important in their mythology and a place located in the plane of the galaxy.  The Mesoamerican’s put much mythological/religious significance to this event.  We now know, that there was real, scientific significance as well.
 
It had personal significance for me too, cause that’s the day I joined the US Marine Corps; I had just graduated from Boot Camp.
 
There was a bunch of crazies back just prior to 2012 that made a bunch of money talking about how the world was going to end, cause the Long Count calendar ended on that day.  Bunch of idiots.  It didn’t of course; the calendar is based on a 25,695 year processional cycle of the equinoxes through the galaxy.  This procession is broken into segments of the processional cycle, lasting just over 5100 years.  We are now in the 1st segment after a full cycle of the 25,695 years.  This is why the long count ended, because we started over on 12/22/2012.
 
But, at the end of the day, none of that really matters; what matters is what it was tracking, which is where we sit in the Milkyway.  Why?  Well, because it turns out, our little corner (solar system) of the galaxy oscillates across the galactic plane.  So, why’s that so important, I hear you asking.  Well I’m here to tell ‘ya, it’s about the most important thing we’ve ever discovered.
 
So, turns out there is a radiation that exists on one side of the galactic plane, that isn’t present on the other side.  A simple fluke of galactic geography and some event which took place in our galactic past?  Could be.  It’s been around 17 years since we crossed over and were exposed, so our scientist are still trying to figure it all out; in between figuring out what the Hell happened to those of us susceptible to this radiation, and dealing with the arrival of the aliens…  So cut ‘em a little slack, I suppose.
 
So, this radiation has many uses.  Most people are not affected by it directly.  Only like .0001% of the earth’s population is susceptible to the effects of this radiation on their genes.  So, in 2012, when we crossed the galactic plane, that was about 700,000 people on the planet earth.
 
Today we call it Sudden Unexplained Radioactive Genetic Expression, or SURGE.  .0001% of the human population of Earth have a gene, which when exposed to this radiation, expresses some sort of random mutation.  Many people have small effects, some don’t ever even notice; lucky bastards.
 
Some of us, well, some of our “random mutations” can cause Hell on Earth.
 
So think about that.  700,000 random people; in every clime and place, every culture, every socio-economic level, suddenly had powers that our ancestors called Gods.
 
Oh, did I forget to mention that?  Yeah, this happened before.  As I said, we oscillate across this plane, so using our current calendar, between 8239 and 3114 BCE we were on this side of the plane, and they had .0001% (of a much lower) population express these SURGE powers.  Turns out that’s where much of our mythology, folklore, stories and many of our religious beliefs came from…  But today, we don’t have those same quaint ideas; instead, we have Superheroes.  Of course, if you have Superheroes, it stands to reason that you also have Supervillains…
 
So, think about it again, back in 2012; .0001% of the two-bit punks, street thugs, gangbangers, organized criminals, serial killers, white-collar criminals, corporate criminals, and international criminals got juiced.  But that wasn’t the worst of it.  That was reserved for the crazy extremist of all stripes.  From Jihadist Terrorists to White-power Aryan Nation wackos, to the anti-governmental nutbirds.
 
What about that Head Hunter from Papua New Guinea, or that newly found Amazonian tribe?  Doesn't matter to you much when they stayed where they were; but, what if the Head Hunter can fly over here to hunt now?  What if the Amazonian tribesmen wasn't very well liked, and mistreated by his people, and now can run 4000 mph?
 
But, there were some of us on the other side of those tracks; local cops, Feds, and us in the military; well, .0001% of us changed too.
 
There have been a bunch who just decided not to get involved, I’d say the majority.  Might have been a good idea, if you could do it.  Cause some nations hunt us SURGE’ers down and burn us at the stake.  Other’s, they want to use us, however they can.  And many of them, want us in a lab.
 
So, from early 2013 through 2015, the human race had to recalibrate.  It wasn’t easy.  There were about 20 SURGE’ers in the US Marine Corps with me, we’ve lost almost half.  But midway through 2015, everything changed again.  Cause that’s when the alien residents of HAT-P-11B decided to open a Lorentzian Stable Transversable (LST) or Morris-Thorne Wormhole (MTW) using powerful engines that use this new (to us) radiation as the Exotic Matter to hold the wormhole open and stable.
 
Suddenly, right in the middle of all our chaos about SURGE, we found out we weren’t alone in the galaxy.  And the neighbors had stopped by for coffee and cake.  Since then, we’ve had another neighbor stop by too.  Lucky for us, both neighbors have been fairly friendly.  Cause at that time, we’d have had some major issues dealing with them if they weren’t.
 
So, after 15 years of getting used to the new neighborhood, things were going much better.  We’d all settled down about SURGE, and our visitors.  Our science and technology sectors have been going nuts figuring out what it all means; from the new radiation (known as “Z-rad” by the media), to the MTW’s the aliens use to move about our galaxy, and what the extent of us SURGE’ers abilities might be.
 
Now it’s 2030, and you had to know it; at some point the bad neighbors would show up, and the neighborhood would go to Hell.  This year, we finally noticed that some of the changes we’ve been experiencing for the last several years, on Earth and our friendly neighborhood alien’s planets too, aren’t due to Z-rad or anything random, they were early deployment of resources to help soften us up, cause this year, the Empress showed up…  And all bets are off now.

Anyone know a easy way to make a list of powers for a VPP?
 
My wife has a 240 point VPP, with 120 point Control Cost.  Per my notes from our last game, I should have taken the advice from the book and pre-made several powers, so we were not having to do so "on the fly".
 
Anyone know an easy way to make a list of powers?  I have a spreadsheet of the character sheet, which does some of the math for you, and I have Hero Designer - I thought of just expanding the power list from the spreadsheet, to take up a whole sheet of paper (though clunky), or was wondering if there was an easy way to do it in Hero Designer?  Or, if anyone else knows of another way to do it?

I actually figured out a good way - I just created a second character in Hero Designer, called Solar VPP; then just made 16 various powers of appropriate levels, then created the PDF, and only printed the second page with the powers on it - worked just fine!

I do the math/setup in Hero Designer and copy it over to a list in LibreOffice writer. I usually do powers in sets with brief descriptions, then have an a-la-carte list from cheapest powers to most expensive powers to plug and play with. Works well for me for everything from arsenals to gadgets to magic spells and cosmic power pools.
 

Gynoid
 
Paige Lari, reclusive co-founder of tech titan, Moogle, best know for its descending order of morality search result algorithm, retired in 2019 to become a superhero named after her company's popular operating system.
As Gynoid, Paige sports a custume, battlesuit, or perhaps holographic forcefield projection, of a glowing blue, idealized, statuesque female form topped with her undisguised notoriously nerdy face including her trademark rectangular reading glasses. 
In combat or emergency situations, she produces powerful blasts, fields, and persistent energy constructs that behave much like solid objects.
While her head is always visible it's actually protected by a virtually invisible fishbowl helmet or force globe.
Whatever sufficiently-advanced technology she uses seems to blur the line between energy and matter.

The thing I always find good about an "official" Marvel RPG, is that it gives you stats you can compare between their heroes, to help convert them more "officially" to Champions...  That's why I put that link in this thread.