GestaltBennie

Champions Christmas Scenarios

Here, in the spirit of might plot seeds and Villainy Amok, are some Christmas scenario hooks for Champions games. Feel free to add or modify!

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1. Oh No Christmas Tree!: Saturnalius, the dark spirit of Yule, plans to "take back" the spirit of the season from modern religions *and* commerce by filling it with fear and dread. To this end, working his vile-magicks, he's enchanted random Christmas trees at various tree farms to come to life and eat people. Can you find a way to detect which trees have been contaminated and purge them of their evil taint?

2. No Christmas For You: Billionaire (and self-proclaimed Christmas-hater), Milo Sarner, has bought an orphanage and plans to show his contempt for the season by shutting it down on Christmas eve. He boasts the only thing that will change his mind is if he were visited by three spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future – and they managed to do a better job on him than they did on that wimp, Scrooge.

Use your powers to imitate A Christmas Carol and give it to this modern day uber-Ebenezer.

3. New Messiah For Old: A demon prince villain informs the heroes that he intends to recast Christmas in his image by having a virgin give birth to *his* son in a backdrop of war and misery and claw his way to the throne of the world –and he's inviting you to a "dark manger" to pay tribute to his newborn son.

Why would the demon prince invite you, of all people, to visit his son? Is this son irredeemably evil? Will he need to be destroyed? Or can (with the assistance of the heroes) the spirit of Christmas redeem even a mocking demon's spawn?

4. Island of Misfit Toymakers: On an island in the east Pacific, a magic spell allows a dark toy factory to operate full time –by enslaving child laborers and forcing them to work around the clock without eating or sleeping or any sort of a break. More and more children are being pressed into service, to produce Hex Box 360s and other "hot" toys for the world's toy markets.

Santa Claus comes to you with a letter from one of the workers, cursing Christmas. Santa says he's forbidden to take direct action against any toy manufacturer, but he wants you to go to the island, break the spell, free the children, and redeem the name of Christmas. Can you?

5. Learning Curve: Chim Chimiri, the life-sized champanzee doll, includes a learning algorithm to help it modify its behavior, Unfortunately, it's learning too well, and its teachers are cranky, spoiled, argumentative kids on the days following Christmas, who are inadvertently teaching it bad manners and destructive habits. After awhile, Chim-Chimiri dolls have picked up so many nasty habits that they begin attacking their owners (and generally wreaking havoc). A supervillain toymaker (use one who's appropriate to your world) offers to use his skills to help you stop the rampage, but can he be trusted?

6. The Christmas Gift: An orphan child's magical Christmas wish is that the dead should live again on Christmas, and they do! Unfortunately, it's not just his dead parents –it's everyone who ever died in the campaign city since its founding, which includes criminals, maniacs, and deceased supervillains. Worse, the dead realize they're only back for one day, so they know they've only got 24 hours to cause trouble, and they're going to make the worst of them. Fortunately, you've got the city's deceased superheroes on your side.

7. A Slaying Song Tonight: What do you get when you've got a serial killer who dresses like Santa, drives a sleigh of reindeer, and kills people by running them over with razor sharp sled blades? A Christmas foe for Dark Champions, of course.

8. Merry Christmas, My Enemy!: One of the more honorable of your enemies, believing you're going to be alone this Christmas, invites you to a neutral country (i.e. where he can't be deported) to spend time together for Christmas. He promises a good Christmas dinner and the exchange of (non-lethal) gifts. Dare you trust him? Can even a supervillain celebrate the holy day in the spirit of the season?

9. Not Walking In A Winter Wonderland: A week before Christmas, a weather-controlling supervillain has managed to create a killer blizzard over much of the region, bringing the area to an effective standstill. He promises to leave the storm in place until New Years, and wants a billion dollars in exchange for allowing Christmas to happen. Can he be stopped before he stops Christmas?

10. The Kid Who Collected... Your Secrets?!!: On Christmas, a dying kid's wish is to meet his favorite superhero and find out what he's really like. However when the PCs reveal their secrets to the dying tyke, they discover too late that it was really a plot by the kid's greedy parents to exploit their son's illness and coerce the PCs to confess their secret identities on tape (which they intend to sell for millions to the tabloids!) Is there any lower form of life on the planet… and how do you protect your identity?

Also (for a blast from the past):

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25014&highlight=Christmas

And Merry Christmas! :-)

Re: Sun Koh, the Nazi Doc Savage. Character and links.

Fair enough' date=' but remember that the date under discussion is 1935. The Nazi party was foul, and hints of what they would do were available, but a German patriot at that time could have kept himself from seeing some of those hints. Even more so if he spends most of his time dealing with threats to Germany outside of the country. Makes for a more challenging story. However, YMMV.[/quote']

 

I'm sure there are other examples, but look at Max Schmeling as a model for how an intelligent German who thought the Nazis were loons but nonetheless managed to be seduced into playing along with their agenda (at least until he lost to Louis and his propaganda value evaporated).

 

He need not be the only model, but it was hard to fight a force like the Nazis during their ascendency, even for intelligent people with strong moral character.

Re: Sun Koh, the Nazi Doc Savage. Character and links.

Okay. So this Aryan dishrag lands in '32? Looks like Billy's going to have to have be taking some more vitamins to get ready for this clown. :-)

Re: Billy Deighton

The first half of Friday's adventure has been added to the fists.pdf at the start of the thread. The new material is Chapter Nine, starting on page 61 and going to page 66.

Re: The Fires of War Sourebook

Recently posted press release:

Source:

http://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=19540&mode=thread&order=0

White Silver Publishing, Inc. Signs Blackwyrm Games, Inc. White Silver Publishing is pleased to announce that they have signed a publishing deal with BlackWyrm Games, Inc. This company has produced

outstanding product supplements for the Mutants and Masterminds system and the new Mutant and Masterminds 2nd edition, and other products with the newly acclaimed Hero System RPG line. More details will come within the following weeks. Be sure to come here for news developments and information regarding these exciting lines. You can also visit there website here, and a link to their website will be positioned in our games section website page.

"We are extremely happy to have Blackwyrm Games, Inc. on board with us. After talking with many people at this years past cons it was a win win situation to have Blackwyrm on board with us, and thankfully that has come to fruition and our future looks even more promising. The people behind Blackwyrm are some outstanding people who want nothing but the best product out to the public, and they take great pride in their work. With many conversations with numerous people at the cons there was nothing but specific praise about their products and the dedication to the material they produce. We look forward to having a great and profitable future with Blackwyrm Games"

John Prescott - President, White Silver Publishing

Re: [Creative] Need help!

The gypsy curse that birthed werewolves was sealed in the blood of the First Vampire. When every vampire in the world is dertroyed, the curse will be broken and all werewolves will be free!

Or something like that.

Re: Why we shouldn't worry about 2020

You're right, he doesn't.

 

Lord Liaden, I'm sorry if I came off as sarcastic.

Well, I an't speak for LL, but I'm glad to hear it.

Gestalt Bennie, you're right that the timeline nonsense is easy to ignore. What puzzles me is

 

1. why doesn't everyone just ignore it? I didn't start this thread after all. and

 

2. why does it exist in the first place?

 

Although I think we may have settled the latter. And I will concede that a system like Hero is LIKE the comic book business in a way few other things are; in that ANYTHING can happen in a comic book, and ANYTHING can happen in a Hero game.

I suspect most people do ignore the bits they don't like. As for why timelines exist in RPGs; I'd blame Tolkien; LOTR's appendices is a blueprint for detailing a fantasy world that's been eagerly adopted and refined by the industry, and the centerpiece of the appendices is a big honking timeline. So timelines are almost hardwired into any sort of world creation, which becomes apparent when looking at the background of any fantasy world, or any original superhero world (look at Abberant or any online game example).

As to the question of "why should we have one unified world from prehistory to cosmic future"; we have similar examples in comics. Marvel's tapped into their distant past on a number of occasions (the Spider-Man/Red Sonja Marvel-Team-up is probably my favorite example), while periods of superhuman activity reemerging after a long dormancy figureshighly in both of the major comics' continuites (LSH in DC, Guardians of the Galaxy in Marvel), so extending the standard timeline from pre-history into Galactic Champions makes sense if you're trying to emulate that feel.

Re: Why we shouldn't worry about 2020

You know, my Justice INC character, Diana McCloud, is the grandmother of my Champions character Stormwalker. Funny thing. We did that (thinks) 20 years ago, long before DOJ made up this default timeline. Guess we didn't need it for that either, eh? It seemed to work for the characters and games involved, so we did it.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

I don't need a default timeline to ride a palindromedary

Nor do you need to complain or worry about something that's so easy to ignore. Or to be so sanctimonious when you're doing it.

LL doesn't deserve the sarcasm. Back off.

Re: Why we shouldn't worry about 2020

The Meta-verse setting doesn't bother me for most of the reasons Lord Liaden stated above. Thanks to Alien Wars and Terran Empire [as well as the upcoming Worlds of Empire] I've a bevy of alien templates I can use to make super-aliens for a Champions game. Takofanes gives the PCs access to multiple historic eras [Turakian and Valdorian] and storylines involving the character. All of those thing can only add to a Champions campaign; they take nothing away from the idea of what your CU game can be.

Yep. As I've mentioned before, I really enjoyed delving into VIPER's CU roots in CotS. To me, the original VIPER setup ("we'rea bunch of industrialists sitting around in some committee to talk about taking over the world") doesn't hold a candle to a multi-generational saga of snake cults, barbarian warriors, treacherous pulp villains, secret societies, and a giant amoral snake. The more cool events that are available to use as chargen hooks, the better, and that's the strength of a unified timeline.

Re: Digital Hero Materials in your Champions Campaigns

I like to write about one adventure for them each year. The nice thing about having a relatively small venue like DH is that you can experiment a bit and still get published.

I love most of the features, especially "You Gotta Have Character"

Re: Why we shouldn't worry about 2020

Our of curiosity, if you had to guess, how much time would you give the current incarnation before it runs out of steam and goes the way of previous editions?

 

I'm hoping there's at least another good five years or so in it; I want to see if anything is ever done involving the Hzeel Invasion, among other things.

At the current rate of releases, 5-10 years.

Re: Why we shouldn't worry about 2020

Bah' date=' humbug. I think it would be much better to have CLOWN back; Black Harlequin is the mistake. YOMV, BISW. [/quote']

 

CLOWN's about as funny as a rubber crutch. If you find rubber crutches funny, you'll find CLOWN funny. :-)

 

It's a perennial argument. As written, I don't see them as particularly plausible or funny, however I've seen a lot of good fixes for CLOWN and good advice for using them. Still not my cup of tea, though.

Re: Why we shouldn't worry about 2020

I've been playing Champions for 24 years.

My experience leads me to believe that a new version of the CU will be released sometime within the next 15 years that will change the date or nullify that part of the timeline.

I just hope it doesn't make the mistake of reintroducing CLOWN. Otherwise, no worries. :-)

Re: Billy Deighton

Hey again' date=' I am just wondering, I have found one gamer who has Fridays free, and who is a lot more reliable than most we know, he (and possibly his brother) would like to join in, could I bring them about today if they can?[/color']

Let me know soon guys!

Go ahead and bring them. Tonight's session is a special "flashback" session, where we'll have an "untold adventure" that occurred right after the Yin Trading Company adventure, we may have to stretch continuity a bit to fit it in. (This is to allow Chiba Bob to have a bit of a break and let him play for a session.) To save time, I'll make about five pregen PCs and let them choose which ones they like.

Next Friday, if Chiba Bob is ready, we'll resume our normal campaign at the cliffhanger, and if the players are willing, they can generate permanent characters at that session (or continue with the pregens if they like them and Chiba Bob approves of them).

Re: Champions Battleground stories

Has anyone used the locales for other scenarios or built on the scenarios from the book in interesting ways? It'd be nice to hear how GMs have gotten extra value out of this book.

Re: Billy Deighton

Chiba Bob or I will post here by Wednesday with infornation on that.

I talked to Chiba Bob. Either he'll be running Friday, or if he's not feeling up to it, I'll run a Pulp Hero scenario with our characters set the vague time frame between the end of our first adventure (escaping from the Yin Trading co.) and the beginning of our second (the business at the Morgue).

Re: Billy Deighton

Wee ^^ Cliffhangers are just lovely... we are playing this week aren't we? *nervously rubs hands together waiting to find out*

Chiba Bob or I will post here by Wednesday with infornation on that.

Re: GM's "Notebook"

If I enjoy a campaign, I'll generally take rough notes and transcribe them into fiction at some point when I have spare time.

Check out the files at the start of the Billy Deighton thread on the Pulp Hero forum for an example, though those are a little more detailed than what I usually write.

Re: Billy Deighton

I've removed the old writeups and posted a new set at the start of the file that complies with the new restructions of this board. This includes a new chapter and some minor revisions/updates to Billy's write-up.

I noted that the original Billy writeup was over 100 downloads when I removed it. Thanks to everyone who gave it a looksee, I hope it's been useful to one or two of you pulp GMs.

Re: [Fifth Ed Conversion] Villainy Unbound: Phobos and Deimos

For what it's worth' date=' I give permission to redo Hitsusatsu (including correcting his name to "Hissatsu") and Kawaii.[/quote']

 

Any remake of the characters, either from you or from a fan of the original book, would rock.

Re: 'Excellent."

I just picked up a copy of Big Finish audios (new stories with old doctors and companions, including stories for Paul McGann).

If you're a cyberman fan, try to pick up "Spare Parts" (the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa land on pre-"Tenth Planet" Mondas during the genesis of the cybermen) at all costs. One of the best Who stories ever, in any medium. I was never a fan of pre-Earthshock cybermen; I found the electronc voices in "Tomb" hard to make out. Here they're *perfect* and Davison gives an incredible performance. I hope RTD adapts this one the way he adapted "Jubilee" as "Dalek".

Re: How do you plot out your Champions Campaign?

Here's a rough breakdown (there's an essay on campaign planning in Gestalt that covers this in much greater detail).

Step 1: Come up with High Concept. (Heroes are alien refugees on earth, heroes are mob superenforcers whose boss has been wiped out and they're being hunted by other mob bosses and the FBI, etc.)

Step 2: Plot the big arc. (What's the ultimate story of the campaign and who will they face.)

Step 3: Plot an introductory arc. (What are they going to be immediately dealing with that they'll bond over).

Step 4: Brainstorm plot seeds.

Step 5: Pitch the campaign to a group of players.

Step 6: Find out what the players are going to play.

Step 7: Revise the big and introductory arc so it centers around the player's concepts. Even tweak the high concept if necessary,

Step 8: Develop plot seeds for each PC to serve as breaks in the big arc.

Re: [Fifth Ed Conversion] Villainy Unbound: Phobos and Deimos

I could do that. I'll have to wait until I get home.

Let me know if that's cool, Scott.

It's cool with me as long as it's okay with Steve Perrin; and given that Steve's encouraged the threads in the past, I can't see any problem with it.

Re: [Fifth Ed Conversion] Villainy Unbound: Phobos and Deimos

Mentallax?

Another of Kelly's. I have to track him down one of these days and ask.

I've been meaning to rework Titaness and post her to the thread. One day.

In the meantime, the Billy Deighton thread in the Pulp Hero forum has some uncanonical background on the Duchess, with more coming as soon as I get this Warcraft project off my desk.

Re: Retcon the CU

Actually, I was, um agreeing with you. This thread actually degenerated from its original purpose and I was uhm...sarcastically chastising you to show my agreement.

 

...

I need to work on it apparently.

 

Sorry Scott.

Nah. I just need to get more sleep. :-)