As I prepare to continue our Traveller campaign, I am also gearing up for a side or 'back-up' campaign of Champions. I will be using Champions 6th Edition for the first time ever and I am a little unsure about how this will turn out since our last Champions campaign started out AWE-to-the-SOME and ended with a whimper.
Part of the reason the last Champions game went south toward the end was because of the player dynamic we had and my getting so tired and fed up with them that I dropped the ball and let them get away with crap just to get it over with. That is a damn shame. I am ashamed. That campaign world, that universe deserved better. They, the PCs, deserved to die and I was too afraid of hurt feelings to kill them. I am not normally like that but I began to realize that they (the players) just weren't on the level of my older groups. They couldn't handle it. It I went all out and did what I can do, what I should have done, we'd have been making up new PC's every three weeks (and it was a weekly game).
This current group, well, I have high hopes but I am also committed to not being a pansy. If these guys screw up, they buy the farm, no ifs ands or buts. At the same time, knowing what I know now and having some of the previous game's players joining in here, I am setting my sights on a less deadly game overall.
William's Champions World (Champions Earth Wilco Charlie-1 and my variant of it, Champions Earth Alpha Delta-1) was a deadlier, more brutal place. The villains were out to accomplish their goals, willing to kill each other in the process and the heroes were largely viewed as annoying speed bumps that periodically got in their way and slowed them down.
This new setting, which is largely based on an old Villains & Vigilantes campaign of mine, is far more Silver Age DC with Bronze Age Marvel undertones. There is angst and melodrama and the occaisional Gwen Stacy being tossed off a bridge but the villains are a bit more, mmm, 'Comic Book-y' overall. Quirky power or gizmo baddies are numerous, with a good number of smart, mid-level villains, followed by a few of your master villains and then the rare but astonishing cosmic nemesis.
I will have more to say on both this and my Traveller campaign very soon. Until then, enjoy the weekend and good gaming to one and all.
AD
Barking Alien
I wish I could play in the game you described. I have a rough time getting enough players even to play a one-off, much less a campaign.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like fun. I'll be watching to see what you think of 6th.
ReplyDelete"They, the PCs, deserved to die and I was too afraid of hurt feelings to kill them. I am not normally like that..."
Oh c'mon I know you have it in ... just reach deep down ... I believe in you! You mentioned before you don;t use a screen so you don't even have to worry about fudging the roll! It's Ok for the badguy to push his STR with his HKA ... really ... they'll learn to be more careful AND to take higher resistant defenses next time!
"they'll learn to be more careful..."
DeleteIf only they would without it taking an hour. *Face palm*
I bet you and I would get along just fine at the superhero gaming table.
ReplyDeleteOr murder each other, as we both seem to take our roles as Aaron Allston's classic "Genre Fiends" VERY SERIOUSLY.
Oh indeed. I do so love genre.
DeleteThanks for the writeups! :)
ReplyDelete