Campaign created Monday, August 18, 2008 07:03:12 PM by secretID

Dr. Destroyer and Gravitar...Viper and Demon...If they exist, the world will soon learn it; if they don't exist, they soon may. Normal humanity will try to keep up, but they won't be able to do it alone. The world will need champions.

Setting
The world is much like the world of 2008 we know, but great changes have recently begun. In what may be only a coincidence, in recent times a few exceptional individuals have begun to make fantastic leaps in science, a few others have developed superhuman powers by accident or mutation, and some ancient powers have begun to resurface.

Though there has been a small amount of confirmed superhuman activity, the general public is still getting used to the idea. However, some forward thinkers, governmental and private, have begun to organize and to prepare for a world with superhumans.

In Champions terms, this is the present day Champions universe, with the major exception that the first superhumans appeared only a few years ago. Feel free to use any origin that makes sense in the Champions universe, except those depending upon public superheroes or villains, UNTIL, etc.

Tone and Style
Bronze Age, with a bit more realism. The heroes are heroic, and they almost always stave off disaster, but sometimes they make mistakes, and sometimes bad things happen to good people and innocents.

The heroes are among the first few superhumans known to the world. If they don't avoid it, they will be very famous, at least at first. Because there are very few superhuman threats as of now, the world can probably survive without them, but they will likely play key roles.

The nature of the characters will to some degree determine the specific enemies and activities, but I'm going to lean towards pretty standard superheroing.

Character Builds
Bear with me - it's not as complicated as is seems.

Build points. A total of 350 points max, including 150 from disadvantages, but with the following twists.
1) May spend 300 character points in any way.
2) May spend up to 40 additional character points on powers, skills, etc. that don't normally affect combat (e.g., INT, COM, n-ray vision, swimming, shadowing, or vehicle, but not PRE, HTH, flight, combat skill levels, or combat sense). For every point spent in this way, must take an equal number of points in "real" disadvantages (see below).
3) May spend up to 10 additional character points on "flavor" skills, perks, and talents (e.g., obscure or near-useless knowledge skill, perfect pitch, musical skill).
4) Must take 80 points of "real" disadvantages. Must take an additional 30 points that can be "real" or "flavor." May take another 40 maximum in "real" disadvantages to pay for the non-combat character points.

"Real" disads are those that make the character's life "significantly" more difficult, rather than just providing boundaries for roleplaying. Most non-psychological disads qualify. Many psychological advantages do, including, e.g., code vs. killing and honesty.

"Flavor" disadvantages include things like "emotionally withdrawn," and "speaks with a lisp," but also hunteds who are "watching," "color-blind," and many others. Use your best judgment; feel free to run some by me.

In sum, it's 200 + 150 max, with up to 40/40 of it optional. If you use the full 350, at least 10 positive points must be "flavor," 40 more positive must be non-combat, and at least 120 of the disads must "real."

You may want to look here for the Hero Designer prefabs for the many, many disadvantages in Jack Butler's "The Master List of Limitations":
http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51300&highlight=master&page=3

Point limitations. Each character may exceed the limit in any one of these for his/her schtick, but keep it reasonable. A 12 SPD speedster or a 60 DEF brick is probably OK, but a 30d6 energy blast is probably not.
SPD 7
CV 11
DC 12
DEF/rDEF 30/15

Team size and balance.We have 5 solid, active players, and I'm looking for one more. The player should know the rules at least pretty well, and should be able to consistently respond to posts w/in 24 hours.

Right now we have:
- a Professor turned Norse hammer-wielding flying brick with weather powers
- a very durable robot with a big gun
- a semi-amnesiac late teen teleportation specialist with NND ranged attacks
- a working-class biker with super speed
- a grumpy and reluctantly heroic mystic.

House Rules
Power frameworks. No categorical prohibition on "special powers" in frameworks. However, you can't normally have two slots in an MP that the PC couldn't otherwise use simultaneously (e.g., flying and tunneling, micro sight and just about anything else). EC powers must all cost END per phase or per turn. EC must have tight themes, and MPs somewhat less so.

Variable power pools. You can use the alternate rule some people use under which the control cost, instead of being ½ of the pool points, is set by the player, and determines the maximum active points of any power in the pool. See the fifth post in this thread:
http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18702&highlight=vpp

One nice thing about that system is that it allows you to make a pool in which you only use one power at a time, which is the way many pools should work, IMO. Ask me if you need more explanation. If you're going to do that, let me know and I'll tell you how to enter it in Hero Designer.

There are various house rules unrelated to character creation posted in the Campaign Messages section.

Feel free to ask me about anything else.

Thanks for reading and applying!

Through mid-2004	As far as general public knows, events as in real world.
Late 2004	Reports begin of Nightwind fighting street crime in NYC and Straight Arrow doing the same in Baltimore.
February 2005	Robotic toy soldiers rob bank in Chicago.
April 2005	Nightwing and Straight Arrow work together to foil robbery of engineering firm in Philadelphia by an organization called "Viper." All of those captured die in custody.
May 2005	Dallas hedge fund is wiped out in a massive cyber theft. Without showing his face, "Cybermind" takes credit.
August 2005	SWAT team captures a lunatic calling himself "Foxbat" in his attempt to "steal the Empire State Building." Foxbat escapes before trial.
September 2005	A few journalists report that a "rocket man" dubbed "Steel Wolf" partially foiled an attempt to steal nuclear technology in Russia. The Russian government denies the theft and the intervention.
February 2006	Reports surface of a battle in India between two powerful mystics; the general public dismisses the reports.
August 8, 2006	All doubt about the existence of superhumans is erased when, on the same day, a superhumanly strong giant calling himself "Durak" robs a bank in Poland, and the supervillainess "Black Diamond" does the same in Atlanta.
December 2006	Los Angeles police capture and severely injure (in that order) a super-speedster named "Slick."
May 2007	In Detroit, the first confirmed superhuman hero, Kinetik, stops the supervillain Lodestone after when an attempted robbery turns into a hostage situation.
August 2007	Professor Erik Johnson reidentifies himself as "Magni," becomes moderate celebrity and minor subject of worship.
May 2008	Charles Boulder quietly announces his newfound psionic abilities to the academic world.
October 2008	Reports begin to surface of sightings of a huge, four-armed ?Monster of the Shenandoah.?
December 2008	Shugoshin makes his first public appearance, intervening in another Viper attack on a tech firm, this time in San Fransisco.
Early 2009	Various accounts of superhuman activity emerge from different parts of the world, most of them of questionable reliability. The waters are muddied by false reports stemming from the global excitement and anxiety over the existence of superhumans and cover-ups by governments interested in covertly putting discovered superhumans to their uses. Technology begins noticeably to diverge from what we know in our world, in myriad but relatively subtle ways, in weaponry and other areas. The impact is not immediately felt.
January 2009	Armored superhero Defender very publicly arrives, helping to rescue hundreds after an emergency plane landing in the Hudson River.
February 2009	The New Knights of the Round Table intervene in an assault on the British Museum by Dark Seraph. The villain escapes. It is unclear what his goal was, and whether he achieved it.
March 2009	Magni relocates to Washington, D.C., and becomes a full celebrity superhero, and a focal point of the public?s feelings and perceptions of superhumans.
May 2009	The United Nations sponsors a study into paranormals and superhumans, let by Dr. Yvetter Ste. Germaine.