All New, All Different Champions

Are you ready to meet...

 

 

Equilibrium (Jeff)

Self-proclaimed keeper of the 'Cosmic Balance', Equilibrium is a half-Chinese/half-Japanese man in his thirties who possesses the ability to redirect violent actions back against whomever originated them, or simply dissipate the action back into the universal Karma.

 

Equilibrium is a master of numerous martial disciplines and possesses a 'Cosmic Awareness' that often grants him cryptic insight into the goings on of the universe. At the same time, he is not above using modern body armor and equipment should the need arise.

 

A philosopher, martial artist and inquisitive mind with few rivals, Equilibrium's ultimate goal is to achieve oneness with the universe such that he may teach a different, non-violent way of being to the rest of humanity.

 

 

The Grey Flame (Andy)

The ghost of an actor who died trying to save immigrants from a burning tenement in 1927, the entity now known as The Grey Flame was, for many years, thought to be an urban legend. Originally referred to as, 'The Man in Grey', the ghost received his current name from one of the few remaining members of the Silver Age Champions who thought The Grey Flame was a hero recruited to join the team.

 

In addition to being able to pass through solid objects, Grey Flame is invisible, flies and can release blasts of colorless, supernatural fire. He must be wary of church bells and salt, as the former can cause him pain and anguish, while both can disrupt his abilities.

 

 

IMPACT (Dave)

A fourteen year old boy with the power to transform into an 8 ft. tall, hulking wrestler (he resembles 'The Ultimate Warrior') with superpowers. The transformation is accompanied by theme music, a light show and an increase in the volume of his voice.

 

In addition to great strength, speed and stamina, Impact has a movable force field that rebounds kinetic energy with a powerful counter-force. The powers were granted to him when he found what appears to a Championship Wrestling belt. Now, the belt only works for him and he can not seem to be rid of it if he wanted to. Which he doesn't. 

 

 

Master Builder (Will)

Formerly the British Superhero 'The Land Lord' (the third in a legacy), Master Builder was more interested in showmanship and popularity than actually fighting crime. During the last altercation of his short career, the family heirloom that granted him his powers was broken.

 

Disowned by his family and banished from his home, Master Builder set out to make a new name for himself in the USA using the new powers he developed after exposure to the shattered magical crown. He hopes he can impress his family and show them he has what it takes to be a true hero.

 

Master Builder is essentially a man made of concrete. He can shape and 'sculpt' himself into various forms, stretch, absorb rock, cement and similar materials, increase his density and strength and manipulate rock to form various objects.

 

 

N*Gage (Ray)

A humanoid robot (but not an Android. It looks very obviously robotic) invented by Project: UNITY member Professor N (Ray's character from our previous campaign) before he departed this reality to explore Dimension N.

 

Powered by the amazing N*Drive (drawing N*Ergy directly from Dimension N), N*Gage can fire N*Ergy Blasts, appear to walk on air, create a wireless link into the Internet and various communication systems and is in the process of inventing remotely operated robot helpers of his own.

 

N*Gage appeared to be somewhat unfinished or perhaps a work in progress. Just as he is tinking with creating new mechanical minions for himself, so also is he modifying is own design to better serve his purposes.

 

 

Phalanx (Hans)

Female former member of PRIMUS, garbed in American patriotic motif armor and carrying a shield (closer to Captain America's original WW II shield. A heater-shaped design). No-nonsense military type, strategy and tactics minded, and the team's de facto field commander and coordinator.

 

Phalanx's power is to psionically create weapons out of psychic energy. She declares the weapon she wants to manifest (to help her focus), and then wills a wispy field of blue-white light into being that resembles a sword, handgun, grenade launcher or whathaveyou.The bullets, grenades or other effects of these weapons are psychic attacks, no physical ones.

 

(Hans is the one moving, so we decided that Phalanx's job  following the first adventure, will be to remain at the Champions HQ and coordinate the team's efforts. Imagine Martian Manhunter in the Justice League Unlimited animated series).  

 

 

Silent Justice (Eric)

Silent Justice and Equilibrium trained together as children at a secret Taoist temple hidden in the mountains of Taiwan. They met again much later in life and joined forces just prior to joining up with new Champions.

 

Silent Justice was born mute, but possesses telepathy and psychic senses that give him an unprecedented understanding of a field of battle or a crisis situation. He is a master of Tai'chi ch'uan and Iga Ninjitsu.

 

Perhaps his most powerful and unusual ability is the power to extend his martial arts skills through telekinesis. While he can not use his TK in the traditional way of lifting things with his mind, he can throw a punch or a kick at a target a hundred feet away or set up a defensive stance capable of deflecting bullets long before they reach him.

 

 

Vanish (Mark)

A mysterious young man with amazing powers, Vanish has the ability to dimension travel while running. What appears to others as superspeed is actually dozens to hundreds of short teleporting 'jumps' as he opens and closes gates between one spot and the next.

 

Usually the little understood concept of 'Interspace', Vanish can move incredibly quickly, straight up teleport short-to-medium distances, blur his visual image to appear invisible to make the illusion he is still where he started even though he is now right next to you. His major attack is to punch or kick into interspace gates, causing the blows to land on targets in a radius up to two hundred feet away. Finally, he can appear to walk through walls or have attacks pass through him by timing his dimensional teleports correctly.

 

Little is known about Vanish, though his powers over interspace are vaguely similar to the early Bronze Age Superhero named Vector. Vector died about 10-15 years ago saving New York from a Neutron Bomb.Is there a connection between the two beyond their powers? Only time will tell.

 

 

Stay tuned Champions fans! A full write up of the first issue is coming at you soon!

 

 

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Giant Size Super Spectacular #1

The Gamemaster and Players said, "Let There Be Supers", and there was Supers, and it was good.

This past Saturday, I ran the first session of a new campaign of the perennial favorite Superhero RPG ,Champions.

Entitled 'Champions: REBIRTH', the game is set in my personal variant of the universe created by my friend William C., which he used to run a Champions campaign that lasted from 1981-82 to 1993. This new campaign is a direct sequel to one I ran about three years ago. That one, as I've mentioned in a recent, previous post, did not end well.

This time out, we are embarking on our crusade against the forces of evil with a much larger team of Players and PCs, but without Marcus. I asked him not to come and he did not. It was the first time in 36+ years of gaming that I have ever kicked someone out of a gaming group of mine. In truth, I haven't really kicked him out of the group, just thing campaign. I haven't decided what to do about him in our Traveller game. I only knew that I didn't want or need him disrupting this Champions campaign, and I do not regret my choice of not having him there.

That said, the game went extremely well.

It was my friend Hans' last game with us as he will be moving away before months end. All hope is not lost however, as he may return if his current situation changes. I, and all of us, wish him the best and will miss him as a Player and as a friend.

As it turned out, my friend Jeff came for the game, as did his nephew Eric and Eric's friend Mark. I would later find out that for Mark (whom I did not know at all prior to Saturday), this was his first table top RPG of any kind, ever. Hooray for Champions and Superheroes as someones introduction to gaming! He was great too. Awesome character and the bane of henchmen everywhere!

So, here's the premise...

About 35 years ago, the world's premier Superhero team, The Champions, disbanded following a tragic mission that left their leader dead, one member badly injured, another unable to ever use their powers again at the risk of hurting everyone around him and one member quitting the team even before the mission took place. Public opinion turned against the Supers and they were suddenly considered more a danger to the world than a benefit.

A few years went by, and new heroes surfaced and some old ones returned, attempting with all their might and wits to gain back the public trust. After a few major public wins by a former teenage member of the Champions (now all grown up), the United Nations Tactical Intelligence League (UNTIL - Think UN sponsored SHIELD) connected with this hero and asked him to help lead Project: UNITY.

Project: UNITY was a concentrated move by UNTIL to coordinate the efforts and resources of Superheroes all across the globe. By setting up teams of Superheroes in various cities and countries around the world, the organization could respond to anything from a tidal wave to a Supervillain menace with the right people, in the right place, at the right time.

This worked well for some years and public relations efforts made the heroes of the time more popular than even their Golden Age counterparts ever were. However, as time pased, politics and a new breed of deadlier Supervillain made UNITY's leadership feel that they could use more help.

The point was hammered home when an alien invasion nearly decimated the superhuman population. Many Superheroes (and several villains) were injured, depowered and killed defending the Earth from the extraterrestrial threat.

Time marched on and new heroes appeared to fill in the ranks, but numbers were still light and many of these heroes were young and reckless or poorly trained. The remaining old guard took the rookies under their collective wing. Once its team had reestablished itself, and the cities of the world healed a bit from the 'Invasion: Earth' War, UNITY pushed forth the idea of a separate alliance of heroes who were capable of handling major threats without being bogged down by the red tape that sometimes hindered UNTIL's heroes.

A new, dedicated, but independent team that could act with more freedom was what was needed. They envisioned a team that was supported by UNTIL, PRIMUS (the United States SHIELD, which is not especially warm toward Superheroes) and other government and law enforcement agencies, but unlike UNITY, was free to do its own thing.

Now, five years after the alien invasion, an all new, all different team of Champions has been formed. True to their namesake, this brave and bold group of heroes is driven to win out over the forces of evil, and champion the cause of peace, justice and freedom!

Next up...Meet the New Champions!

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Barking Alien

Not So Super

What a day.

I just discovered that one of my players, and a good friend of mine, is leaving NYC, moving away as early as the 20th of this month.

He is not only a key figure in our Traveller game, but his character for tomorrow's Champions game is one of my favorites of the bunch.

To top it off, I think I want to finally, once and for all, boot Marcus.

I spent the better part of the day, on and off, arguing with him as one of the other players noted a great idea for our new Champions game, I sent it out to everyone and only he returned a negative comment. Did I mention there will be 9 players tomorrow, not including myself as GM. So out of 10 gamers, 1 didn't like the idea. Who didn't like it? Marcus of course.

Why? Probably because he didn't come up with it. It was an idea by another player and he doesn't want another player speaking for him or telling him what's what. Maybe it was because the idea was logical and cool and fit the genre. Marcus hates that kind of stuff. Maybe it's because Marcus just enjoy being contrary.

I pick D.


D)  ALL OF THE ABOVE


So I may be down two of my regulars come next month. That stinks the big stinky stink.

Hopefully some of the new additions will stay on.

Grumble. Got to get ready for tomorrow.

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Barking Alien

Art by Andreas Englund

Just Super

Lately, there's been a whole lot of Supers going on.

 

A Justice League commission by the incomparable Kevin Macguire

Some time ago, I got in on a weekly Google Hangouts campaign of Kapow!, a free Superhero RPG, with the game's designer and creator, Joshua Macy. It's a fun, relatively easy to grasp game with simple and neat mechanics that fit the genre and work well for gaming over the internet.

Every two weeks or so, my friend Dan runs his homebrew Superhero game that is less a traditional RPG and more of an improv, storytelling exercise, but loads and loads of fun. We play different characters every session, chosen from whatever Heroclix minis Dan happens to own. One week we might be members of the Justice League battling the Secret Society of Supervillains, while the next we're duking it out with Sentinels as the original X-Men.

Finally, I am about to embark on a new Champions campaign beginning this Saturday, May 3rd.

Entitled 'Champions: REBIRTH', the new story returns to the world I used in my last Champions campaign, which was created by my good friend Will and used for his nearly 10 year long campaign (which ended in 1993).

Now the last big Champions campaign I ran, well, didn't turn out so good. It started awesome, got even more awesome, and then suffered a change in player schedules and the addition of two new players who sort of jived with the game and sort of didn't. There was also Marcus, one of my players who for the life of me I am not sure why I don't kick his butt out of the group. He just makes my job as GM so much harder than it has to be.

That is a discussion for another time. *Sigh*

Yeah, there is a major Superhero vibe going on round the Doghouse of Solitude these days and it's unlikely to ebb any time soon.

Let's see where it takes us...

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Barking Alien

Campaigns A-To-Z: Alphabet Soup

Fail. You lose. No stuffed unicorn for you. Thank you for playing.

Yep, failed another A-To-Z Challenge. I sometimes wonder why I start these? April is always a terrible month for me and I rarely have the time to devote to my blog as it is.

Sigh.

Oh well, maybe next year (See? What the hell is wrong with me?!).

On another, somewhat related note...

I won't be doing a Muppet Madness Month next month like I originally announced. Themed months are not feasible for the time being, especially ones where I'd want to put the maximum effort I could into them. My maximum effort lately just doesn't amount to that much effort it seems.

Back to talking about whatever the heck comes to mind.

See you in May.

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Barking Alien