Hey all.
Life has been rough on me this month and it doesn't look to be letting up anytime soon.
To make ends meet I've been taking all available work, which pretty much means I've been working between six and seven days a week, sometimes for 8-10 hours. While that may not seem like a lot to some, I spend most of it either walking or otherwise on my feet. It's not so much mentally exhausting as physically exhausting, which in the end can be mentally exhausting.
So I'm feeling a bit unstrung.
In an attempt to 're-string', I checked out this
It made me smile.
And than I find out I've been approved to run 'The Muppet Show' at NerdNYC's RECESS.
Things are looking up.
Now rest...
AD
Barking Alien
Monday, May 30, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
The New Champions - Who's Who Part I
Here's a look at what we have for the 'Official Handbook of Champions Earth Alpha Delta-1' (such as it is) so far. I haven't included actual write-ups yet as I want to rework the numbers and for display purposes I am looking toward getting the much recommended Hero Designer, if only to double check my math and because the print out is clean and clear.
Let's start with our...HEROES
More specifically the Player Characters...
Night Knight
The most polished and experienced hero among the PC's has been active for a few months now. The initial character concept was, "What if the Batman character DID have superpowers." This eventually evolved into a super-soldier hero with gadgets, detective skills, low level super strength, speed, endurance, agility and heightened senses (sight and hearing). Since his hearing is especially acute, he is especially vulnerable to sound based attacks.
Here's the twist...
In his secret identity, Night Knight is a cop and an army reserve member. Apparently PRIMUS (the underhanded SHIELD of our game) gave his unit a super soldier serum disguised as standard shots, vitamins and rations. The formula remains dormant however until an 'activator' serum is injected into the individual.
Through a higher ranking fellow cop and reservist who has a few ex-PRIMUS friends (this guy is both a Contact and a DNPC for you Champions fans), Night Knight learns about the project and that he has the super soldier serum in him. He proceeds to bust a bunch of hoods trafficking a street drug version of the serum, called Cyberline. Modified a bit, this activates his heightened abilities but causes him to crash something awful after twenty-four hours.
Now Night Knight has to...um...confiscate, try to synthesize or otherwise obtain (often illegally) the activator or Cyberline in order to stay super and fight crime. It's quite the moral quandary but the player is eager to hook up with the established NPC heroes in hopes that they have easier access to the super juice.
In addition to physical abilities, martial arts (Aikido), detective skills, etc., Night Knight uses knock out gas and smoke screen grenades, a tricked out motorcycle, grapnel gun and line and body armor. His armor and his bike both have the ability to cloak with a camouflage field (think Predator) and become completely silent. He loves to drop sleep gas and swing or drive away going, "Night niigghht..."
Since his own morality is a bit gray, Night Knight doesn't take the hard line approach of a Batman. He will sometimes try to negotiate or even work with a villain who doesn't appear to be straight up crazy or evil. He has his limits but so far he's a bit more flexible in his thinking than I anticipated.
Night Knight is an African American male in his early thirties, about 6 ft., 240 lbs. His outfit looks light a cross between Marvel's Night Thrasher (especially this redesign by artist Corey Walker) and Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe.
'J'
Without a code name or costume of any kind, 'J' is by far the least typical of the supers in attitude and style. He comes off as just batshit crazy to be honest. The player is one of my best and his idea is that a lot of what 'J' does is for show but he's also a character with the mindset of, "I have superpowers. I can do whatever I want. I just happen to want to fight crime." Lucky us.
'J' has the power to absorb any form of energy and convert it into any other form of energy and then release it. For example he can absorb a sonic blast and release electricity or suck the heat from a fireplace and shoot kinetic force.
Most often he releases energy blasts but he has various effects he can pull off that do other things like create a force field, manipulate the energy, recover/recharge, etc. To supplement this power (since he needs to absorb before he can do anything at all), 'J' has taken to...'indefinitely borrowing' weapons and equipment from crooks and cops alike (in the latter case a bunch of cops got blasted fighting a villain and 'J' helped himself to some of the gear in their cars after moving them to safety).
He overdoes this last bit a tad. After taking a riot shotgun, a rifle, ammo, a bullet proof vest and a few other items, the third hero in our group remarked, "You think you got enough?" Many of the NPC authorities, including other heroes, are not sure what to make of 'J' and whose side he's really on.
'J' is a 6' 4", 260 lbs. light skinned Jamaican male in his late twenties or early thirties. He mostly wears black hooded sweatshirts, black cargo pants and a motorcycle helmet he obtained to try and hide his identity.
Marcus
Like 'J', Marcus hasn't been doing this superhero thing long. We considered establishing his first outing in our second issue/session was his first public appearance.
Undecided as to a superhero name, Marcus does have a costume, albeit as homebrewed one. According to the player, his character's sister designs costumes for TV shows and movies and so designed his outfit. It was his grandmother (whom he lives with) who sewed it for him. It was a reoccurring gag on how homespun the costume looked and how his grandma would yell, "Didn't I tell you not to get plasma burns on your costume boy? You know how hard it is to get those out!"
Marcus' powers are fun. He has telekinesis with no real range. That is, he needs to touch things to lift them telekinetically. The resulting tactile telekinesis (similar to Conner Kent/Superboy in modern DC Comics) gives people the impression he's a Superman like powerhouse when in truth it's all psychic powers. He can lift and hurl himself telekinetically (Superspeed and Superleap), create a skin tight TK Shield (Invulnerability) and with a larger than normal expenditure of Endurance, lift himself into the air with his TK (Flight).
Marcus is also African American, about 5' 10", roughly 220-240 (hadn't decided) and in his late twenties (youngest character in the group). His costume is, as noted, bargain basement but resembles a variant of the classic paragon look of Superman with Icon, the Superman of Milestone Comics.
So far that's all I have as far as players and information. We've only had two sessions so far. Actually, the session recaps themselves will give you a bit more insight into these guys than straight forward descriptions will I'll wager.
A forth player is coming in for our next session. He describes his character as 'Green Lantern like'. Not sure what that means yet but I look forward to finding out.
Look for NPC heroes and then villains, coming soon to the Barking Alien blog nearest you.
AD
Barking Alien
Let's start with our...HEROES
More specifically the Player Characters...
Night Knight
The most polished and experienced hero among the PC's has been active for a few months now. The initial character concept was, "What if the Batman character DID have superpowers." This eventually evolved into a super-soldier hero with gadgets, detective skills, low level super strength, speed, endurance, agility and heightened senses (sight and hearing). Since his hearing is especially acute, he is especially vulnerable to sound based attacks.
Here's the twist...
In his secret identity, Night Knight is a cop and an army reserve member. Apparently PRIMUS (the underhanded SHIELD of our game) gave his unit a super soldier serum disguised as standard shots, vitamins and rations. The formula remains dormant however until an 'activator' serum is injected into the individual.
Through a higher ranking fellow cop and reservist who has a few ex-PRIMUS friends (this guy is both a Contact and a DNPC for you Champions fans), Night Knight learns about the project and that he has the super soldier serum in him. He proceeds to bust a bunch of hoods trafficking a street drug version of the serum, called Cyberline. Modified a bit, this activates his heightened abilities but causes him to crash something awful after twenty-four hours.
Now Night Knight has to...um...confiscate, try to synthesize or otherwise obtain (often illegally) the activator or Cyberline in order to stay super and fight crime. It's quite the moral quandary but the player is eager to hook up with the established NPC heroes in hopes that they have easier access to the super juice.
In addition to physical abilities, martial arts (Aikido), detective skills, etc., Night Knight uses knock out gas and smoke screen grenades, a tricked out motorcycle, grapnel gun and line and body armor. His armor and his bike both have the ability to cloak with a camouflage field (think Predator) and become completely silent. He loves to drop sleep gas and swing or drive away going, "Night niigghht..."
Since his own morality is a bit gray, Night Knight doesn't take the hard line approach of a Batman. He will sometimes try to negotiate or even work with a villain who doesn't appear to be straight up crazy or evil. He has his limits but so far he's a bit more flexible in his thinking than I anticipated.
Night Knight is an African American male in his early thirties, about 6 ft., 240 lbs. His outfit looks light a cross between Marvel's Night Thrasher (especially this redesign by artist Corey Walker) and Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe.
'J'
Without a code name or costume of any kind, 'J' is by far the least typical of the supers in attitude and style. He comes off as just batshit crazy to be honest. The player is one of my best and his idea is that a lot of what 'J' does is for show but he's also a character with the mindset of, "I have superpowers. I can do whatever I want. I just happen to want to fight crime." Lucky us.
'J' has the power to absorb any form of energy and convert it into any other form of energy and then release it. For example he can absorb a sonic blast and release electricity or suck the heat from a fireplace and shoot kinetic force.
Most often he releases energy blasts but he has various effects he can pull off that do other things like create a force field, manipulate the energy, recover/recharge, etc. To supplement this power (since he needs to absorb before he can do anything at all), 'J' has taken to...'indefinitely borrowing' weapons and equipment from crooks and cops alike (in the latter case a bunch of cops got blasted fighting a villain and 'J' helped himself to some of the gear in their cars after moving them to safety).
He overdoes this last bit a tad. After taking a riot shotgun, a rifle, ammo, a bullet proof vest and a few other items, the third hero in our group remarked, "You think you got enough?" Many of the NPC authorities, including other heroes, are not sure what to make of 'J' and whose side he's really on.
'J' is a 6' 4", 260 lbs. light skinned Jamaican male in his late twenties or early thirties. He mostly wears black hooded sweatshirts, black cargo pants and a motorcycle helmet he obtained to try and hide his identity.
Marcus
Like 'J', Marcus hasn't been doing this superhero thing long. We considered establishing his first outing in our second issue/session was his first public appearance.
Undecided as to a superhero name, Marcus does have a costume, albeit as homebrewed one. According to the player, his character's sister designs costumes for TV shows and movies and so designed his outfit. It was his grandmother (whom he lives with) who sewed it for him. It was a reoccurring gag on how homespun the costume looked and how his grandma would yell, "Didn't I tell you not to get plasma burns on your costume boy? You know how hard it is to get those out!"
Marcus' powers are fun. He has telekinesis with no real range. That is, he needs to touch things to lift them telekinetically. The resulting tactile telekinesis (similar to Conner Kent/Superboy in modern DC Comics) gives people the impression he's a Superman like powerhouse when in truth it's all psychic powers. He can lift and hurl himself telekinetically (Superspeed and Superleap), create a skin tight TK Shield (Invulnerability) and with a larger than normal expenditure of Endurance, lift himself into the air with his TK (Flight).
Marcus is also African American, about 5' 10", roughly 220-240 (hadn't decided) and in his late twenties (youngest character in the group). His costume is, as noted, bargain basement but resembles a variant of the classic paragon look of Superman with Icon, the Superman of Milestone Comics.
So far that's all I have as far as players and information. We've only had two sessions so far. Actually, the session recaps themselves will give you a bit more insight into these guys than straight forward descriptions will I'll wager.
A forth player is coming in for our next session. He describes his character as 'Green Lantern like'. Not sure what that means yet but I look forward to finding out.
Look for NPC heroes and then villains, coming soon to the Barking Alien blog nearest you.
AD
Barking Alien
Thursday, May 26, 2011
The New Champions - This Infinite Earth
So following my last post on the subject of my new Champions campaign, I thought I'd point out a few key points of interest that make the setting stand out.
Mutants, Gods and Aliens
Mutants are no so much hunted and feared as they are in Marvel. Honestly, the whole Anti-Mutant prejudice never made much sense to me. You're telling me you're afraid of some kid from middle America who woke up one day able make things freeze but not the scientist wealthy and intelligent enough to get himself and four friends into space on a homemade rocket and than transformed into superpowered freaks? The kid was an accident of birth. The mad scientist could do it again!
In the real world, if being a Mutant was considered such a terrible afflication, there'd be telethons, government research grants and religious organizations seeking to help though poor, unfortunate superhumans. So that's what we have.
The Scaramangler Foundation, developed by Jonathan Scaramangler and later taken over by his son Christian, helps those flying, shapeshifting, superstrong misfits who can't help themselves.
I mean, look at your average tech hero; Iron Man, Batman, Green Arrow are all rich. How about your government operatives and super-soldiers? Captain Atom, Captain America? Nice to have Uncle Sam and the American tax payer paying the bills on for your activities isn't it? But Mutants?
Sorry jack but if you're a lower income teen in Kentucky and you just sprouted antenna and crab like armored skin...well, sucks to be you! Not so on Champions Earth Alpha Delta-1. The Scaramangler Foundation has your back. College Scholarships, powers training, therapy to cope with living in a world you never made? They got it all.
Unless you're an alien. Disgusting extraterrestrial scum...
Yeah, it's the alien that has the most difficulty fitting in with society and it is they that would generate the most fear and distrust. It didn't help their cause that it was aliens who killed the senior Scaramangler.
Other than Omni, one of the world's most beloved heroes in spite of his own extrasolar origins, and my character StarGuard, there really weren't any other regular/reoccurring alien characters around (possibly as a result of the anti-alien stigma).
An interesting aside in this section is that Atlantis, normally connected to a mystical background, is part mystical and part science fiction/alien in origin. One of the nations within a nation, Lemuria I believe, is originally descended from a colony ship of aquatic aliens. Another city (Mu? need to look it up) is more in line with traditional views of Atlantis and it's people. The two city-states are often at war.
As for Gods...there really weren't too many of those either with the exception of the occasional visit from one such as Anubis (a villain in this version), a few minor Greek gods who run an international, organized crime family (cool right?) and cosmic entities of the New Gods/Thanos variety. This actually served to make Deities and Kirby characters more ominous and epic when they did show up.
Magic Vs. Science - Science Wins! (Sorta)
There were very few directly magical characters, events or effects in the original campaign and I'd always wondered why. When a magic character did show up, they'd proceed to beat the living crap out of us because, as I just noted, we had no major magic guy.
While never addressed directly in the game (I don't think), Will filled me in on his concept for the lack of magic over lunch once. According to him, everything is magic, magic is everything. The ability to comprehend and utilize Magic is rare but it didn't used to be. We used to have guys walking on water and parting seas. At one time there were wizards and dragons and faeries were up and around well into the Victorian era.
Now though, science and technology have increasingly taken over the role of fantasy and the magic is getting out of our reach. It's still there and ghosts, fae, demons and the like are just around the bend but they're wary to come out and have to deal with the particle beam rifles and giant robots. These things don't feel right to them the same way they no longer feel right to us.
The Earth's Mightest Heroes Are...British
One interesting side note that I loved was that some of the most powerful and important superheroes in the world weren't from the USA. Some were (certainly Omni, Scaramangler and Tachyon come to mind) but England seemed to be, in this reality, the home to Captain America and Superman.
The Crusader was a British Captain America type character who was actually much more a cross between Cap, Hawkeye and the DC Hero Shining Knight. Superman was a British bloke as well. The world's most powerful and most recognized hero drank his tea with milk and his beer room temperature when not stopping supervillains or diverting meteors as The UltraMarine.
Canada had this super cool retired hero called the White Wolf. When a parallel Earth version of Wolverine called Arctic Fox became stuck on our world he travelled to Canada and met the guy and his daughter. Artic Fox and the daughter developed a relationship and Fox changed his name and costume to become the second White Wolf.
Japan is obviously the go to source for Giant Monsters, as well as Giant Robots, including these cool, man-piloted mecha that were basically a cross between Gundam Mobile Suits and the Sentinels from X-Men comics.
Next Up...Who's Who in The New Champions!
AD
Barking Alien
Mutants, Gods and Aliens
Mutants are no so much hunted and feared as they are in Marvel. Honestly, the whole Anti-Mutant prejudice never made much sense to me. You're telling me you're afraid of some kid from middle America who woke up one day able make things freeze but not the scientist wealthy and intelligent enough to get himself and four friends into space on a homemade rocket and than transformed into superpowered freaks? The kid was an accident of birth. The mad scientist could do it again!
In the real world, if being a Mutant was considered such a terrible afflication, there'd be telethons, government research grants and religious organizations seeking to help though poor, unfortunate superhumans. So that's what we have.
The Scaramangler Foundation, developed by Jonathan Scaramangler and later taken over by his son Christian, helps those flying, shapeshifting, superstrong misfits who can't help themselves.
I mean, look at your average tech hero; Iron Man, Batman, Green Arrow are all rich. How about your government operatives and super-soldiers? Captain Atom, Captain America? Nice to have Uncle Sam and the American tax payer paying the bills on for your activities isn't it? But Mutants?
Sorry jack but if you're a lower income teen in Kentucky and you just sprouted antenna and crab like armored skin...well, sucks to be you! Not so on Champions Earth Alpha Delta-1. The Scaramangler Foundation has your back. College Scholarships, powers training, therapy to cope with living in a world you never made? They got it all.
Unless you're an alien. Disgusting extraterrestrial scum...
Yeah, it's the alien that has the most difficulty fitting in with society and it is they that would generate the most fear and distrust. It didn't help their cause that it was aliens who killed the senior Scaramangler.
Other than Omni, one of the world's most beloved heroes in spite of his own extrasolar origins, and my character StarGuard, there really weren't any other regular/reoccurring alien characters around (possibly as a result of the anti-alien stigma).
An interesting aside in this section is that Atlantis, normally connected to a mystical background, is part mystical and part science fiction/alien in origin. One of the nations within a nation, Lemuria I believe, is originally descended from a colony ship of aquatic aliens. Another city (Mu? need to look it up) is more in line with traditional views of Atlantis and it's people. The two city-states are often at war.
As for Gods...there really weren't too many of those either with the exception of the occasional visit from one such as Anubis (a villain in this version), a few minor Greek gods who run an international, organized crime family (cool right?) and cosmic entities of the New Gods/Thanos variety. This actually served to make Deities and Kirby characters more ominous and epic when they did show up.
Magic Vs. Science - Science Wins! (Sorta)
There were very few directly magical characters, events or effects in the original campaign and I'd always wondered why. When a magic character did show up, they'd proceed to beat the living crap out of us because, as I just noted, we had no major magic guy.
While never addressed directly in the game (I don't think), Will filled me in on his concept for the lack of magic over lunch once. According to him, everything is magic, magic is everything. The ability to comprehend and utilize Magic is rare but it didn't used to be. We used to have guys walking on water and parting seas. At one time there were wizards and dragons and faeries were up and around well into the Victorian era.
Now though, science and technology have increasingly taken over the role of fantasy and the magic is getting out of our reach. It's still there and ghosts, fae, demons and the like are just around the bend but they're wary to come out and have to deal with the particle beam rifles and giant robots. These things don't feel right to them the same way they no longer feel right to us.
The Earth's Mightest Heroes Are...British
One interesting side note that I loved was that some of the most powerful and important superheroes in the world weren't from the USA. Some were (certainly Omni, Scaramangler and Tachyon come to mind) but England seemed to be, in this reality, the home to Captain America and Superman.
The Crusader was a British Captain America type character who was actually much more a cross between Cap, Hawkeye and the DC Hero Shining Knight. Superman was a British bloke as well. The world's most powerful and most recognized hero drank his tea with milk and his beer room temperature when not stopping supervillains or diverting meteors as The UltraMarine.
Canada had this super cool retired hero called the White Wolf. When a parallel Earth version of Wolverine called Arctic Fox became stuck on our world he travelled to Canada and met the guy and his daughter. Artic Fox and the daughter developed a relationship and Fox changed his name and costume to become the second White Wolf.
Japan is obviously the go to source for Giant Monsters, as well as Giant Robots, including these cool, man-piloted mecha that were basically a cross between Gundam Mobile Suits and the Sentinels from X-Men comics.
Next Up...Who's Who in The New Champions!
AD
Barking Alien
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Cogs & Complexity at Lurking Rhythmically
Following a conversation we had together earlier this evening, the ever lovely Erin Palette has put up a post on rules, options and complexity in RPGs that brings up a neat way to handle such things.
I recommend checking it out and commenting/discussing it. Maybe, just maybe, future game publishers will look at the post and its comments and realize, "Hey, there may be a better way to go about this than we're used to."
One can hope.
AD
Barking Alien
I recommend checking it out and commenting/discussing it. Maybe, just maybe, future game publishers will look at the post and its comments and realize, "Hey, there may be a better way to go about this than we're used to."
One can hope.
AD
Barking Alien
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
The New Champions - Issue #0
I successfully ran a second session of Champions 4th Edition with the same Player Characters so I can officially declare my new campaign is a go! In addition, the second session saw a third player enter the fray and a fourth looks to be joining us next time.
I can't tell you how excited I am. Well, I guess I can actually...I'm really freakin' excited. The second session built on the first as the personalities and view points of the characters were explored, superpowered combat and mayhem ensued and loose ends unravelled and got even looser.
I'm going to be doing session recaps soon but first I wanted to give a little background information on the setting so that some of the events make sense based on the context.
A Return to 'The Age of Champions'
As I've mentioned before, my new Champions campaign is set in roughly the same campaign universe as that developed by my friend Will for his long running (1981-1992) Champions campaign entitled 'The Age of Champions'. I say roughly because I am taking some liberties with the setting. First and foremost, my campaign begins about 6 months after the last time I played in Will's game but I am saying those events are in line with the present not my last chronological game session (which would be 1989 I think).
I was only a part of his campaign from 1985 to 1989 and as such, a lot happened after I left (I didn't actually leave. I went to college here in New York but Will and several of the other players all ended up going to different universities and having different work schedules). I feel that the time frame I've chosen is perfect because I remember it well and it was a very dramatic turning point in the campaign. More on that in a moment.
'The Age of Champions' is a catch-all title covering Will's entire campaign, which at various points focused on different eras of social, political and economic history that were reflected in the comic books of the time. So within the universe, characters (PC and NPC alike) will actually say the words 'Golden Age' and 'Silver Age' when referring to particular periods.
The first games he ran were set in a sort of late Silver Age. The Golden Age was referrenced often and seen/played out in flashbacks from what I understand. The Silver Age ends on a very sour note, ushering in the Iron Age, also called 'The Age of Chaos'. This latter era is the timeframe in which I participated.
I haven't decided what to call the new age we are gaming in other than the Modern Age right now but I'm considering New Golden Age or New Heroic Age (a referrence to post-Civil War/Secret Invasion Marvel Comics).
The Setting
Our story is set on Champions Earth Alpha Delta-1. For those unfamiliar with Champions 'canon', alternate Earths in Champions are often referred to by the preeminent super team of the world. Will further defined their designations with the classic numbers familiar to DC Comics (and now Marvel) readers and Greek or other letters for noting the GM's initials or other little codes. For example, Marvel's Earth-616 (the primary setting of most Marvel Comics titles) would be 'Avengers Earth-1'. If I ran a campaign set on that Earth, my campaign would be Avengers Earth Alpha Delta (Adam Dickstein - AD) -1. Will's version of his campaign universe is Champions Earth Wilco Charlie 1.
The Story
Following the heroes' triumph in thwarting an alien invasion, my alien hero StarGuard, having defended the Earth and the lost prince of my people's stellar rival (the hero called Omni), returned to his planet to rejoin his extraterrestrial teammates and oversee the peace talks between Omni's species and his own.
Many heroes (and villains who had lent a hand) were injured, some were killed and some simply retired, having had enough of the superhero lifestyle after losing loved ones in the battle for Terra.
This is essentially how our new campaign begins. Unlike Marvel and DC, the world of Champions Earth Alpha Delta-1 is a bit light on superpeople. There are approximately 150 active Superheroes in the United States as of the beginning of the game and about three times as many villains. The entire world probably has only 500-550 supers...maybe.
The PCs are new heroes who've popped up in the aftermath of the failed invasion. Many have sketchy origins, either unknown to them, being kept secret by them or related to one or more government super-soldier production projects (to swell the ranks of the just who desperately need it). This last bit creates an interesting background of distrust with the government and lends a conspiracy theory feel to things.
The Tone
The tone of the campaign would seem to be a mix of modernized Silver Age ideas and Marvel's Ultimates line or DC's Wildstorm. Villains aren't playing around. They're not (at least not all of them) stupid. Combat is brutal. The generally 4 Color comic atmosphere of most of my Superhero campaigns has gone and found itself one of those new 96 colors crayon boxes. Between the white hats and black hats are a million shades of grey.
I could say more but I'll leave it there for now. Next up I'll tell you about the characters and the sessions themselves. Any questions or comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated.
AD
Barking Alien
I can't tell you how excited I am. Well, I guess I can actually...I'm really freakin' excited. The second session built on the first as the personalities and view points of the characters were explored, superpowered combat and mayhem ensued and loose ends unravelled and got even looser.
I'm going to be doing session recaps soon but first I wanted to give a little background information on the setting so that some of the events make sense based on the context.
A Return to 'The Age of Champions'
As I've mentioned before, my new Champions campaign is set in roughly the same campaign universe as that developed by my friend Will for his long running (1981-1992) Champions campaign entitled 'The Age of Champions'. I say roughly because I am taking some liberties with the setting. First and foremost, my campaign begins about 6 months after the last time I played in Will's game but I am saying those events are in line with the present not my last chronological game session (which would be 1989 I think).
I was only a part of his campaign from 1985 to 1989 and as such, a lot happened after I left (I didn't actually leave. I went to college here in New York but Will and several of the other players all ended up going to different universities and having different work schedules). I feel that the time frame I've chosen is perfect because I remember it well and it was a very dramatic turning point in the campaign. More on that in a moment.
'The Age of Champions' is a catch-all title covering Will's entire campaign, which at various points focused on different eras of social, political and economic history that were reflected in the comic books of the time. So within the universe, characters (PC and NPC alike) will actually say the words 'Golden Age' and 'Silver Age' when referring to particular periods.
The first games he ran were set in a sort of late Silver Age. The Golden Age was referrenced often and seen/played out in flashbacks from what I understand. The Silver Age ends on a very sour note, ushering in the Iron Age, also called 'The Age of Chaos'. This latter era is the timeframe in which I participated.
I haven't decided what to call the new age we are gaming in other than the Modern Age right now but I'm considering New Golden Age or New Heroic Age (a referrence to post-Civil War/Secret Invasion Marvel Comics).
The Setting
Our story is set on Champions Earth Alpha Delta-1. For those unfamiliar with Champions 'canon', alternate Earths in Champions are often referred to by the preeminent super team of the world. Will further defined their designations with the classic numbers familiar to DC Comics (and now Marvel) readers and Greek or other letters for noting the GM's initials or other little codes. For example, Marvel's Earth-616 (the primary setting of most Marvel Comics titles) would be 'Avengers Earth-1'. If I ran a campaign set on that Earth, my campaign would be Avengers Earth Alpha Delta (Adam Dickstein - AD) -1. Will's version of his campaign universe is Champions Earth Wilco Charlie 1.
The Story
Following the heroes' triumph in thwarting an alien invasion, my alien hero StarGuard, having defended the Earth and the lost prince of my people's stellar rival (the hero called Omni), returned to his planet to rejoin his extraterrestrial teammates and oversee the peace talks between Omni's species and his own.
Many heroes (and villains who had lent a hand) were injured, some were killed and some simply retired, having had enough of the superhero lifestyle after losing loved ones in the battle for Terra.
This is essentially how our new campaign begins. Unlike Marvel and DC, the world of Champions Earth Alpha Delta-1 is a bit light on superpeople. There are approximately 150 active Superheroes in the United States as of the beginning of the game and about three times as many villains. The entire world probably has only 500-550 supers...maybe.
The PCs are new heroes who've popped up in the aftermath of the failed invasion. Many have sketchy origins, either unknown to them, being kept secret by them or related to one or more government super-soldier production projects (to swell the ranks of the just who desperately need it). This last bit creates an interesting background of distrust with the government and lends a conspiracy theory feel to things.
The Tone
The tone of the campaign would seem to be a mix of modernized Silver Age ideas and Marvel's Ultimates line or DC's Wildstorm. Villains aren't playing around. They're not (at least not all of them) stupid. Combat is brutal. The generally 4 Color comic atmosphere of most of my Superhero campaigns has gone and found itself one of those new 96 colors crayon boxes. Between the white hats and black hats are a million shades of grey.
I could say more but I'll leave it there for now. Next up I'll tell you about the characters and the sessions themselves. Any questions or comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated.
AD
Barking Alien
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