Odd Champions campaigns

[Susano]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

I played in a short-lived but very fun game: near-future noir.

 

The setting was a colony world in the future that was going through a fad; it had advanced technology, but it was all disguised to look like 1930's tech. The PCs had been hired to help a young heiress prove her innocence after being charged with her husband's murder. At the end of the first adventure (where we'd cleared her but hadn't solved the crime), the PCs became an investigative agency, run by the heiress as a way to continue the search for the real killer.

 

The team included a hired killer, a professional driver, a con-man, and a psychic investigator. Lots of plot twists and turns. It was like cyberpunk without the chrome.

 

I remember watching Cowboy Bebop a few years later and getting flashbacks to the game.

 

It wasn't 1930s, it was 1960s. Remember, Eric Shepard had (until it was wrecked) a Mustang Mach I.

[Haven Walkur]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

Ok' date=' how about "How did I do that?" Champions? PCs are 25 + 25 point talented normals. Tell them if they want to try having something happen or not happen that would require super powers they can simply describe the effect and roll a dice. Depending on the dice roll (and whether the GM wants it to happen) the player now has the power...and it happens....[/quote']

 

From a player's point of view, I love this idea -- but you'd have to have a GM in whom you have a great deal of trust. Oh, and one who's prepared to do a lot of extra work in deciding how to "power up" the PCs. The players would also need to develop a very strong concept of exactly who their PCs are and what they want.

 

I'm not sure why, but I've always enjoyed both RPGs and fiction about characters discovering new and astonishing -- but somehow appropriate to them -- abilities. The big challenge, in both cases, would be making the new abilities useful in a practical way without being world-breaking (unless everyone's powers are going to be at that level), and keeping them from overwhelming the characters' concepts.

 

So no "Power to Summon Sardines, Two Times Daily", but by the same token, no "Infallible Eyebeams of Total Destruction, Usable at Will, Range: Infinite." And the abilities should be closely tailored to the characters' true wants, needs, desires (i.e. what the players want to play with these characters), even if the characters don't know it themselves.

 

And no, that doesn't require the GM to be a mind-reader, but it will require some chatting with each player beforehand about "What My Character Wants" and "What My Character Thinks He/She Wants. Perhaps a simple character questionnaire, like the one in the back of the Amber Diceless Role-Playing book, would help.

 

But all this is why I mentioned the "trust" and "extra work" issues at the beginning.

[nexus]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

From a player's point of view, I love this idea -- but you'd have to have a GM in whom you have a great deal of trust. Oh, and one who's prepared to do a lot of extra work in deciding how to "power up" the PCs. The players would also need to develop a very strong concept of exactly who their PCs are and what they want.

 

I'm not sure why, but I've always enjoyed both RPGs and fiction about characters discovering new and astonishing -- but somehow appropriate to them -- abilities. The big challenge, in both cases, would be making the new abilities useful in a practical way without being world-breaking (unless everyone's powers are going to be at that level), and keeping them from overwhelming the characters' concepts.

 

So no "Power to Summon Sardines, Two Times Daily", but by the same token, no "Infallible Eyebeams of Total Destruction, Usable at Will, Range: Infinite." And the abilities should be closely tailored to the characters' true wants, needs, desires (i.e. what the players want to play with these characters), even if the characters don't know it themselves.

 

And no, that doesn't require the GM to be a mind-reader, but it will require some chatting with each player beforehand about "What My Character Wants" and "What My Character Thinks He/She Wants. Perhaps a simple character questionnaire, like the one in the back of the Amber Diceless Role-Playing book, would help.

 

But all this is why I mentioned the "trust" and "extra work" issues at the beginning.

 

I'm runnng a game similar to that right now. The Awakening. But the powers aren't tailored for PCs. The idea is to see how relatively normal people (and their world) react to suddenly have power

 

I'm playing in one that's closer to what you describe. We picked our character's powers ourselves.

[Bloodstone]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

Money. They want a lot of the American dollars.

 

And Suicide Girls. No blondes.

 

 

[wrestlinggeek]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

 

So, what exactly is this from?

[teh bunneh]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

So' date=' what exactly is this from?[/quote']

 

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.

 

Hi-larious stuff.

[Susano]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

So' date=' what exactly is this from?[/quote']

 

Nextwave: Agents of Hate. It's hilarious.

[Doc Shocker]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

So' date=' what exactly is this from?[/quote']

 

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.

 

Hi-larious stuff.

 

Nextwave: Agents of Hate. It's hilarious.

 

 

What they said.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

My personal favorite "odd Champions" campaign concept is well outlined in Digital Hero #39: War of the Worlds Champions. Victorian British supers vs. Martian war machines -- no microbe deus ex machina here. The article provides a logical premise for the campaign, several sample NPC heroes, game stats for the Martians and their tech, and some "steampunk" inventions to use against them.

 

I still hope to run this some day.

[Egyptoid]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

umm, thanks (?) for the explico bout the dollars and blondes reference,

I was completely lost, but chalked it up to not being an anime freak.

[Susano]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

My personal favorite "odd Champions" campaign concept is well outlined in Digital Hero #39: War of the Worlds Champions. Victorian British supers vs. Martian war machines -- no microbe deus ex machina here. The article provides a logical premise for the campaign, several sample NPC heroes, game stats for the Martians and their tech, and some "steampunk" inventions to use against them.

 

I still hope to run this some day.

 

If you can make it to HeroCon (http://herocon.devermore.net/herocon.html), you can see some sessions first hand. Or, you can take a look at my WOTW Champs character, Grenadier (http://surbrook.devermore.net/original/champions/grenadier.html).

[Flames]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

My personal favorite "odd Champions" campaign concept is well outlined in Digital Hero #39: War of the Worlds Champions. Victorian British supers vs. Martian war machines -- no microbe deus ex machina here. The article provides a logical premise for the campaign, several sample NPC heroes, game stats for the Martians and their tech, and some "steampunk" inventions to use against them.

 

I still hope to run this some day.

 

A friend of mine ran it as a one-shot when an out-of-town buddy from the old group came to visit. It was an entertaining evening.

 

For an out-of-the-ordinary take on a potential Champions universe, check out J.R. DeRego's Union Dues stories over at Escape Pod. They're audio short fiction, very well done, free to download and listen to, and feature a superpowered universe that's quite a bit off from the typical four-color comics. In J.R.'s universe, about the worst thing that can happen to a person is to be born with superpowers. I'm considering running a few sessions of Champions in that universe at Gen Con maybe next year.

[Susano]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

umm, thanks (?) for the explico bout the dollars and blondes reference,

I was completely lost, but chalked it up to not being an anime freak.

 

Errr.. anime? Why would you think it was an anime reference?

[Querysphinx]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

I'm considering running (i.e. still in the setting parameters stage) a Hero Central game where superpowers are just beginning to emerge thanks to a mysterious event. The PC's are regular humans who get involved in the plot before they get their powers. The idea is to have strange things happen to interesting people and see how they adapt. Players would not design their own powers but could have input into general areas. (i.e. someone strong. Someone tough. Someone connected with technology. Someone who can fly.)

 

The campaign would also be infested with conspiracies.

[Egyptoid]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

Errr.. anime? Why would you think it was an anime reference?

 

you are Susano of Neo York, and I've read your website;

so if you're talking about something I don't recognize,

I assume its anime. no insult intended.

 

but I see on wikipedia that nextwave interfaces with Fin Fang Foom,

so it gets my vote:thumbup:

[Susano]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

you are Susano of Neo York, and I've read your website;

so if you're talking about something I don't recognize,

I assume its anime. no insult intended.

 

but I see on wikipedia that nextwave interfaces with Fin Fang Foom,

so it gets my vote:thumbup:

 

Beware... Fing Fang Foom will put you in his pants....

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

I've always been interested in trying one of the "super societies" sorts of campaigns' date=' like with everyone from Asgard or Mount Olympus. Anyone ever been in a campaign like that?[/quote']

 

I always wanted to play in Normalman's world. I used to collect the comics but no-one else in the group wanted to run that one.

 

Also a supers campain based on either The Tick or Mystery Men sounds like fun to me.

[nexus]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

How about Citizen Hero (NSFW: Language)

 

http://citizenhero.totallyrocks.us/

[tkdguy]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

I played in a short-lived but very fun game: near-future noir.

 

The setting was a colony world in the future that was going through a fad; it had advanced technology, but it was all disguised to look like 1930's tech. The PCs had been hired to help a young heiress prove her innocence after being charged with her husband's murder. At the end of the first adventure (where we'd cleared her but hadn't solved the crime), the PCs became an investigative agency, run by the heiress as a way to continue the search for the real killer.

 

The team included a hired killer, a professional driver, a con-man, and a psychic investigator. Lots of plot twists and turns. It was like cyberpunk without the chrome.

 

I remember watching Cowboy Bebop a few years later and getting flashbacks to the game.

That sounds like a lot of fun. I'd like to play in a game like that.

[CGlied]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

I always wanted to play in Normalman's world. I used to collect the comics but no-one else in the group wanted to run that one.

 

Also a supers campain based on either The Tick or Mystery Men sounds like fun to me.

 

I'm in if I can play Incoherent Kid.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

Please pardon a rather self-serving moment , but I do believe my Champions Universe-based campaign premise using The Valley Of Night is rather original. A perpetually night-shrouded hidden realm of dark magic inspired by the myths and culture of the Incas of South America, scaled to super powered opposition, and subtly working to destroy the entire world.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

Beware... Fing Fang Foom will put you in his pants....

 

Let's not start up again with Fin Fang Foom's giant radioactive dragon junk again, please!

 

 

 

 

 

Ooops.

[Doc Shocker]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

"Again"?

 

I don't think I want to know.

[bubba smith]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

nor do i

[aarontring]

Re: Odd Champions campaigns

 

This was from before HERO was a unified system, but it could easily be used: a few sessions (far too few, actually), we had a guest GM whose concept was far future. The Galactic Earth Empire had collapsed into isolated warlords and small "kingdoms" of systems. Our job (the "party") was to go to these worlds, make contact with any kind of resistance or underground, and set up contacts to whom we, secretly representing the New Earth Empire, could funnel money and weapons in hopes of overthrowing the current government for one more -- agreeable to rejoining the Empire. Very Iran-Contra meets Star Wars, sort of.

It may have had more to do with how smart and good a GM this guy was. He threw in a lot of little things, like our ship's computer calling anyone it spoke to "Dave," and the repairbots speaking in a Scots accent (to this day, I watch Farscape reruns expecting the DRDs to do the same). He was savvy enough to allow this one idiot to play a mage in space. (I'm not saying a mage in space is a bad idea; this guy was a certified, negotiate-with-the-basilisk idiot!)

And that wasn't half as fun as Crypts and Creepies, which was a completely homemade game this one guy came up with. I only played once before he went off to college, never to be heard from again, but a few snippets of "setting" have managed to stay with me. One race was called Warfs, who had a pathological hatred for all magic and anyone who would use it. Originally, they had been normal humans in service to a mage, until a magical accident left them completely without torsos. Their shoulders were right on top of their hips. Also, two of the "pieces" of money were Carbon Pieces (coals or wood chips) and Mercury Pieces, which changed size depending on temperature (I know mercury is naturally a liquid, but suspend a little disbelief with me). That last one was a particular problem in a very warm area of the dungeon we were crawling.