Champions Universe: Character studies

[Boll Weevil]

I am a big fan of the Champions Universe. My campaign world has taken place in the CU since the beginning (with some minor fitting of course). In the vein of the WWYCD and Campaign:XXX threads, I would like to pick the collective brains of Herodome Assembled to explore some of our favorite CU characters further. Start a new thread entitled: "CU Character Study #X: character name."

 

We can discuss how you've used the character, your favorite illustration(s), changes you've made to fit them into your campaigns etc. I've read the user-submitted "from little plot seeds mighty games..." threads and I think these threads could be a lot of fun!

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

Okay, I'll bite. I've always loved the idea of Philadelphia's Liberty League, just because they're established as Mechanon's main adversaries. What that means to me is that if the Champions are the proxies for your players' team, the Liberty League is the other guys, and the basic meaning of this plot point is that "it's not all about you." I mean, it is the players' campaign, and mostly everything is going to be about them, because that makes it fun. but this one thing, it's not. About them, I mean.

 

That said, rather than fleshing out the Liberty League (accomplished in The Book of the Machine, anyway), I am going off on a tangent and talking about San Francisco's "eccentric but powerful supermage," Eldritch, a character referenced in Champions: News of the World and Until: Defenders of Freedom, but never given a writeup. I am fixated on the image of a straitlaced character from the Liberty League milieu complaining that the last time he was in Eldritch's place, the only things in his refrigerator were "coleslaw and acid," and that there was no way that he was letting his daughter stay there.

 

The line is from an old Doonesbury cartoon, and it informs my mental image of Eldritch. Apologies to the person who created Eldritch who may have a very different idea of the character, but I am darned well going to use it some day, somehow.

[Sketchpad]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

Sounds like a good idea BW ... I look forward to seeing some of the discussions

[Cygnia]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

Okay, I'll bite. I've always loved the idea of Philadelphia's Liberty League, just because they're established as Mechanon's main adversaries. What that means to me is that if the Champions are the proxies for your players' team, the Liberty League is the other guys, and the basic meaning of this plot point is that "it's not all about you." I mean, it is the players' campaign, and mostly everything is going to be about them, because that makes it fun. but this one thing, it's not. About them, I mean.

 

That said, rather than fleshing out the Liberty League (accomplished in The Book of the Machine, anyway), I am going off on a tangent and talking about San Francisco's "eccentric but powerful supermage," Eldritch, a character referenced in Champions: News of the World and Until: Defenders of Freedom, but never given a writeup. I am fixated on the image of a straitlaced character from the Liberty League milieu complaining that the last time he was in Eldritch's place, the only things in his refrigerator were "coleslaw and acid," and that there was no way that he was letting his daughter stay there.

 

The line is from an old Doonesbury cartoon, and it informs my mental image of Eldritch. Apologies to the person who created Eldritch who may have a very different idea of the character, but I am darned well going to use it some day, somehow.

 

Now I've got this image of Eldritch talking to his plants and feeding them scrambled eggs like Zonker back in the 70's.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

So I posted above without reading Boll Weevil's instructions to the end, and I am a bad person. That said, I'm not sure that the character studylets that I have to supply will support an entire thread, so I'm just going to do it again so as not to leave this thread lying fallow.

Ravenspeaker

 

As many of you know, Abbotsford's own Scott Bennie published a magnificent supplement extending the Champions Universe to Canada, Champions of the North. In it, he wrote up or re-conceived some Canadian heroes, at least in part to give exotic Canadian locales a resident NPC hero or two. Every attempt was made to make them iconic. Toronto's Star*Force, for example, sucked. Vancouver was defended by a solo hero, Ravenspeaker. You may have been bludgeoned with Vancouver associations with orcas and spirit bears and the like, but the truth is that this city's mascot is, and can only be, Raven.

 

But there's this little problem. No-one hits everything out of the park, and Scott's Ravenspeaker is, well, a magic Indian. I squirmed a little in my chair when I read his character background, but the reaction in the online community (mind you, I'm gauging it from the response to Shamus Young's "Let's Play: Champions Online") were downright vitriolic.

 

There is, however, a fix. Imagine that there was a superhero who channeled Raven, the great trickster/creator of the Northwest coast Indian nations. And imagine if this Foghorn Leghorn of a hero were asked by some inquisitive nosy parker of a reporter about his origin. Of course he'd tell a story like the one that Scott Bennie reports. And of course it wouldn't be true. What would be the point of telling the true story when you could pull someone's leg, instead? Especially someone asking questions they had no business asking in the first place. More laughs for Raven when the story is passed on in all seriousness by those poor sods at Cryptic, if you ask him!

 

So who, or what, is Ravenspeaker, really? Well, start with the fact that he is reported as a Haida, from way up the coast in what used to be called the Queen Charlotte Islands, far from Vancouver's Salish country. Why a Haida? Because if you've hear of a Northwest coast Canadian Indian, you've heard of the great sculptor Bill Reid. This guy.

 

 

The great flowering of Northwest coastal art of the last two centuries is usually appreciated as an artisanal experience. The best pieces are objects made for use, even if usually highly ritualised use. Yet it would be a disservice to say that because they are useful objects, they do not have deeper meanings as external symbolic storage, as statements of how Northwestern coastal culture understands both this world and the one beyond the shimmering sky. That's why the great artisans are men (and sometimes) women of power. And the greatest, most powerful of these figures was .... Bill Reid. (He died in 1998 at the age of 78.)

 

I'm not saying that Bill Reid was Ravenspeaker. I'm saying that there's no-one else who could possibly have been Ravenspeaker. The power of Ravenspeaker does not, in Northwestern culture, belong to someone who hides his candle. It belongs for all to see, like a totem pole or a great longhouse. And as for the death, that's a trick. That's what Raven does. Trick people.

 

Now, Bill Reid is not the kind of Indian that some people like. He was mixed-blood, comfortable in the White world as an artistic entrepeneur, making money and playing games of patronage and commission instead of living off in the boonies "in touch with the land" and all of that stuff. But he does represent the future of Canadian First Nations, able to play the game alongside other races (until we can get rid of that idea, anyway), because it is no longer rigged against them.

 

So, sorry, Scott. Ravenspeaker isn't some kid from a Haida Brigadoon, he's a sly and slippery old man with connections and money, living in the shadows and perfectly comfortable mixing it up in politics and business for the good of the community. (Want to know whether Carole James will continue as Leader of the Opposition? Want to know whether Christie Clark will be the next premier? Ask Ravenspeaker, if you can find him. He's best friends with Moe Sihota and the Clarks. Of course.)

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

So, unlike the Marvel Universe, the CU appears to have seen no successful American "super-soldier" project during WWII. Admittedly, two American heroes were apparently created in labs, Comet and Achilles, both of whom died during the war. But the process that created Comet didn't actually work. He was a mutant. As for Achilles, there was something dodgy going on, and "all data ...remains highly classified." So it did work, but it didn't work? I'm confused.

 

The Not-Men

 

So this is a a little Denkshrift, and it draws together some varied inspirations that I will credit right off: Captain America; the X-Men; the guy who was, at least back in the day, DC's only "mutant," Captain Comet; and two old-timey science fiction novels, Jack Williamson's Not-Men; and James Gunn's The Immortals.

 

I could spend a great deal of time on how these inspirations all come together, but who would want to read that? What it boils down to is this: what if Achilles were another kind of mutant? Not the exciting kind with wings or optic blasts, just faster, stronger, longer lived, and, above all, smarter than regular humans. More like the original concept for Captain Comet, or, for that matter, Captain America, back before he was just the "peak of human abilities."

 

So what might an unrecognised mutant do? Gunn's Immortals is a "fix-up" of several short stories, which allows him to explore this. In the first, a young Marshall Cartwright learns that he is potentially immortal and gets away from rich people who want to exploit him. In the second, many years later, the rich people have a detective agency chasing Cartwright and his descendants. When they bring in one of those descendants, she is quickly freed by the office's janitor of twenty years, who has been Cartwright all along. Because when you're immortal, you can put twenty years of your life into building a cover.

 

Agent Brown: "Director, director, I have to speak with you!"

Director 'A': "Yes, Agent Brown?"

Brown: "You know that I'm just back from meeting with my Soviet agent in place, YURI?"

"Yes, it will be in your report, I'm sure."

"This couldn't go into my report. Sir, Assistant Director ACHILLES ...isn't a superhero."

A: "Come again?"

Brown: "The Soviets managed to recover a complete version of the Achilles formula and blood samples. Many blood samples. Undoctored blood samples. ACHILLES is some kind of mutant. Not like COMET, a kind that no-one has ever seen before. And when the Soviets tried to investigate other possible mutants of this type, they were blocked by agents from NATO countries."

A: "That's impossible. I have no agents running any such missions."

Brown: "The Soviets believe they were unsanctioned, run by a rogue operator. Sir, we have to take ACHILLES into custody."

A: "That will be rather difficult. ACHILLES disappeared yesterday, just before your flight from Geneva landed. And he seems to have been preparing for this for a very long time, because it was very smoothly done, and there is a lot of data missing. Listen, Brown: all the world needs to know is that ACHILLES died during the war, and that there were some interesting anomalies in Project ACHILLES that the DoD needs to keep secret for now. And you will report to Assistant Director Bush tomorrow. You will have unlimited resources, and one mandate: find ACHILLES, or any of the individuals mentioned in those Soviet files."

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

sounds goodto me

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

Well, the role of patriotic-symbol-superhero that the original "super soldier," Captain America, played in comics, was in the official CU largely filled by Captain Patriot, who had a non-laboratory origin. So there's less continuity pressure for a successful wartime program. Although I agree that Achilles might have an interesting backstory.

 

As for Ravenspeaker... sorry LB, but I wasn't bothered by his origin as written. In fact the idea of a "Haida Brigadoon" rather appeals to me. The impression I got was that the "vitriol" over the character from Champions Online afficionados mostly involved the disconnect between the way the character is described in COTN, and the stoic "noble Indian" portrayed in the MMO. Nonetheless, it would indeed be completely within character for Ravenspeaker to spin a yarn covering his true origin and identity.

[Boll Weevil]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

Speaking of super-soldiers in CU, I would pay good money for a Project Sunburst book.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

As there are still comatose subjects of Project Sunburst in the Vault, this is another of those cool potential character origins that the Champions Universe is littered with. Although the Zodiac Working remains my favorite.

[Boll Weevil]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

The Project Sunburst from Champions Universe (5th ed) says it took place in 1994 and the goal of the program was to measure the effects of nuclear war. I'm ok with this, I guess but nuclear war seemed to be a more common theme in the late 80's when the program was first discussed in the Enemies book(s). I think if I were to run a Project Sunburst-themed campaign I would go full-on super soldier program.

[Peregrine]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

The Project Sunburst from Champions Universe (5th ed) says it took place in 1994 and the goal of the program was to measure the effects of nuclear war. I'm ok with this' date=' I guess but nuclear war seemed to be a more common theme in the late 80's when the program was first discussed in the Enemies book(s). I think if I were to run a Project Sunburst-themed campaign I would go full-on super soldier program.[/quote']

 

Actually, Project Sunburst always reminded me more of the early nuclear tests of the 50s and 60s, and thus seemed to be very anachronistic - especially since the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty prohibited aboveground testing after the earlier tests were complete.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

could the project be refocused as a supersoldier program/

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

The Project Sunburst from Champions Universe (5th ed) says it took place in 1994 and the goal of the program was to measure the effects of nuclear war. I'm ok with this' date=' I guess but nuclear war seemed to be a more common theme in the late 80's when the program was first discussed in the Enemies book(s). I think if I were to run a Project Sunburst-themed campaign I would go full-on super soldier program.[/quote']

 

I'm afraid your information is incomplete, BW. According to CU 5E p. 40 sidebar, "Sunburst was intended to measure soldiers' resistance to the effects of nuclear war, and to create superhuman soldiers with the ability to survive a nuclear war and keep fighting." [emphasis mine] This information is essentially repeated, with some expansion, in CU 6E p. 43.

 

Actually' date=' Project Sunburst always reminded me more of the early nuclear tests of the 50s and 60s, and thus seemed to be very anachronistic - especially since the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty prohibited aboveground testing after the earlier tests were complete.[/quote']

 

Granted; although nowadays, with more nations possessing or developing nuclear weapons, the possibility of a more localized nuclear conflict is greater than ever. Also keep in mind that in 1994 there was considerable concern that the fragmented and unstable former Soviet Union would be unable to keep its nuclear arsenal under control, and that either one of the new national governments might use them, or that lax security would allow nuclear materials to fall into the hands of terrorists.

 

It should also be noted that the Sunburst experiment "detonated a special low-yield nuclear weapon several hundred yards away" from the test subjects; hence it may not be covered by treaty prohibitions. In any case it's something the "rogue generals" who masterminded the Project would probably be able to cover up.

[Boll Weevil]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

This thread made me pull out my old Classic Enemies. The subjects were originally Ray (but you can call him Ray Jay), Radium and Armadillo.

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

This thread made me pull out my old Classic Enemies. The subjects were originally Ray (but you can call him Ray Jay)' date=' Radium and Armadillo.[/quote']

 

I like Ray. He was the first character with stats good enough to make you go "Whoa!" That 8 SPD primarily...

[lemming]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

Will see if I can check my notes. Most of the CU wasn't used much in our games, but I did flesh out Ogre after one player listed him as a more powerful hunted. And since this was a fairly high powered campaign, the original writeup for Ogre wasn't more powerful. Plus I had to figure why he was hunting since at the time he was pretty dimwitted.

[Boll Weevil]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

Ogre's writeup in the Ultimate Brick is pretty nasty (about 395 points). Mostly brick tricks.

[lapsedgamer]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

The Project Sunburst from Champions Universe (5th ed) says it took place in 1994 and the goal of the program was to measure the effects of nuclear war. I'm ok with this' date=' I guess but nuclear war seemed to be a more common theme in the late 80's when the program was first discussed in the Enemies book(s). I think if I were to run a Project Sunburst-themed campaign I would go full-on super soldier program.[/quote']

 

Actually' date=' Project Sunburst always reminded me more of the early nuclear tests of the 50s and 60s, and thus seemed to be very anachronistic - especially since the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty prohibited aboveground testing after the earlier tests were complete.[/quote']

 

I always thought that Project Sunburst was a nod to Project Pegasus from Marvel Comics, especially that Marvel Two-in-One run from the late 70s. Great books those.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pegasus

http://www.comicvine.com/marvel-two-in-one-project-pegasus-part-one-the-inner-war/37-19649/

[lemming]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

Ogre's writeup in the Ultimate Brick is pretty nasty (about 395 points). Mostly brick tricks.

 

If I had the finances, I would pick it up during the cool sale. (if it's available...)

 

My version had a couple tricks, but this was 3e days so mainly just stronger and tougher. (1987 I think...)

[Tech]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

I like Ray. He was the first character with stats good enough to make you go "Whoa!" That 8 SPD primarily...

 

Why, I just used the Enemies book Sunburst and Ray this weekend. Yep, that 8 Speed with his damage and levels is nasty.

[Nuclear Fridge]

Re: Champions Universe: Character studies

 

Stand back and zap him with a pushed Ego Attack... failing that, just hope your Resistant PD can stand up to him...