A new campaign begins! CHIMERA and Champions Villains

So my last campaign never really caught fire. I didn't have a clear picture of the setting and didn't really know where the game was going to go.  I did a mini-campaign of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, which was a disaster in some interpersonal ways (though it accomplished what I selfishly needed - to learn the system well enough to write for it (woot)), and then we took two months off because we were missing some players and I needed a break. In that time, I put together a new campaign, then we sat down and made characters for it.

It's interesting what my group picks up on.  Everyone was excited by the Avengers movie this summer, and I felt it was exactly the sort of entertainment I wanted an action game to have as the center.  Yet when I tried to push them to think of their characters' backstories as "origin movies", complete with a change to their character and internal and external difficulties that were faced, the reactions ranged from meh to resistant.  "Let's just do that in the game." said one.  The problem with that approach is that we needed to have stronger character connections to keep the team together, and that only really happens with strong characterization.  My group is very creative and is "up for anything", any crazy idea Jason has, they're willing to jump in on, but it didn't really catch fire the way I hoped it would.

In order to get the game on track quickly without overwhelming them with re-learning the system in a dire situation, I used one of the villain teams from Champions Villains Vol. 2: Villain Teams.  The Brain Trust.

The Brain Trust is created by a brain in a jar, consists of a giant gorilla, a cat-girl, a ninja and a zombie. We literally are talking about every possible cliché that could exist in a comic book.  And the nice thing about the Brain Trust is that they can be anything from serious dangers to, as I used them, slightly offbeat weirdos.

Champions has been a game I've never really enjoyed.  Calculating the exact amount that a superhero can lift has always seemed pointless to a long-time comics fan who knows that everything about a character can only last until the next artist and writer and editor.  (This is also why I don't mind superhero movie reboots/reimaginings and think the worst thing about comics is a slavish adherence to the "continuous story that lasts literally forever" model.)  However, with thirty years of development behind it, Champions has created a world that's exceptionally thorough and has an enormous amount of creativity.  One of the greatest superhero supplements of all time, San Angelo, began life as a Champions supplement.  (Though its current version is much more, and will be the subject of a future tongue bath, I MEAN REVIEW, from me.)  Many other exceptionally good materials have been produced for this line over the years, and even if, like me, the whole concept of sitting down and writing not just a Champions character, but a whole Champions campaign, fills you with dread, it has some amazing stuff.

Villains Vol. 2 contains upwards of 300 individual villains, but also goes into their team resources, goals, gives a few example capers, and details their often tangled internal politics.  (But don't ask me to explain why Mind Slayer dresses like that.)

I've had a good time with Champions Online too, a MMORPG that's been free-to-play for a few years now.  It certainly made me smile when I mind-blasted some characters that I recognized from the books.

The opening scenario was a bank robbery that threatened to turn bad, as Ape-Plus and his mini-gun were in the main lobby with most of the hostages.  Fortunately they had not counted on the forces of CHIMERA arriving to save the day. I made it easy and straightfoward, and only threw in a couple of twists at the end.

Hero Games' electronic offerings are expensive, but to be honest, I feel they're of a quality that might very well justify it. They're all searchable, indexed, bookmarked, and exceptionally thorough.  

And here's some Milestones related to the Brain Trust that you might use in your game!

1 XP - When you battle, investigate or otherwise oppose the Brain Trust.

3 XP - When you wreck one of the Overbrain's laboratories or significantly drain them of important resources, including ending some of the more catastrophic plans.

10 XP - When you break up the Brain Trust team by breaking the loyalty of an underling, taking that loyalty for yourself, or turn one of the Overbrain's technologies into a new consumer good.

Unlockables:

5 XP - Overbrain's previous personality comes to the fore and provides you with some assistance in trying to defeat his own plans.

5 XP - Lynx's conscience causes her to struggle with her genetic loyalty, giving her the complication Chemically Uncertain at d8 for any Action Scene of your choice.

5 XP - The animal (or undead) side of various members of the Brain Trust begin to come to the fore.  This causes them to go off-plan and attaches the It's A Zoo In Here! Scene Distinction to the chaotic scene.

5 XP  - A member of Lynx's family begins to suspect what happened to her and comes forward with the information.

5 XP - Mr. Zombie's family recognizes him from TV and comes forward.

10 XP - Mr. Zombie turns on the Overbrain after his investigation into his life is put off one too many times.

The Arizona Initiative

Whoops - I forgot to update here with my last Cinco de Marvel setting, the Arizona Initiative.  This playset came about because I was trying to come up with a modern politically conservative superhero who wasn't a parody.  It was hard!  But I think I did it.  I also did a "How to Use" post that you can access from the top of the tumblr. Enjoy!

The Arizona Initiative.

Cinco de Marvel: What's So Great About SHIELD Anyway?

For Cinco de Marvel weekend, I have created five campaigns for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.  Enjoy.

What's So Great About SHIELD Anyway?

The Church Committee investigated intelligence agency
corruption in the United States in 1975.

Although we are always attracted to the superspy mythos, in the real world, intelligence organizations are often unaccountable and poorly supervised, leading to corruption and resistance to reform.  We imagine that we would be James Bonds and Nick Furies - in reality, we create Aldrich Ameses, take advantage of mentally ill informants and stumble into UN conferences with exaggerated photographs.

So let's create an adventurous way to question the superspy approach, within the context of the Marvel Universe.

Cinco de Marvel: The Montesi Files

For Cinco de Marvel, I'm creating five complete campaigns for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.

Dracula (Marvel Comics) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Montesi Files

For a considerable period in Marvel history, there were no vampires - they had all been destroyed through the use of the Montesi Formula, an occult ritual that eliminated all vampires from Earth.  The exceptions were weird hybrids or near-vampires, but true vampires like Dracula were gonesville.  These days, of course, vampires are returning, but this campaign is set during the days when no vampires walked the earth - in fact, it is set right after the Montesi Formula was used.

In the real world, the comics involving the use of the Montesi Formula were in the 1970s, and setting it then would be fine, and very stylish, but I want to urge another possibility.  The game should be set in the late 1980s, as perestroika and glasnost sweep the setting of the campaign, Eastern Europe.

Cinco de Marvel: The War At Home

For Cinco de Marvel, I am writing five full-sized campaigns for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. They can all exist inside the normal Marvel universe and they all support between 3-6 characters.

The War At Home

During World War 2, Los Angeles experienced a massive surge in population as hundreds of thousands flooded the city to work in wartime factories or the booming film industry.  African-Americans specifically emigrated in record numbers, although restrictive housing covenants kept them crammed into the increasingly segregated South Central area of the city.  While Captain America fought the Nazis and HYDRA overseas, on the home front Jewish gangster Mickey Cohen tightened his grip on organized crime throughout the city, monitoring visionary but lunatic mobster Bugsy Siegel for mafia interests back East.


The City of Los Angeles preferred a tightly controlled flow of vice, legalizing card, slot and bookmaking operations in limited areas of the city - particularly in areas dominated by African-Americans and other minorities.  They were willing to turn more control over racial minorities to organized crime in return for tax dollars.  And after the war when the wartime industries started to close up shop or return jobs to the white men they believed deserved it, times got very tight for many Angelenos.


At the same time, Los Angeles underwent a cultural renaissance, as West Coast jazz began its ascent and African-American radio began to lay the groundwork for what would become the rock and roll revolution.


The characters are crimefighters in this deeply divided time and place, championing the justice and equality America promised and fought for overseas but didn't quite bring back with it to its own shores.


If you liked L.A. Confidential or L.A. Noir but thought you might have more fun if there were with laser beams, HYDRA sleeper agents and communist robots, this is the campaign for you.

Cinco de Marvel: The Future Ain't What It Used To Be

Someone thought giant death robots were
a good way to deal with a serious social
issue. Good thinking, everyone.

For Cinco de Marvel, I am writing five full-sized campaigns for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. They can all exist inside the normal Marvel universe and they all support between 3-6 characters.

The Future Ain't What It Used To Be

Marvel has established many dire possibilities for its futures, from being conquered by the evil mutant Apocalypse, to living under the iron boot of Doctor Doom (and his many robot duplicates) to having humanity's population controlled by Sentinels.  A common plot in Marvel is that someone comes back from one of those futures (often someone we already know from the present) to warn the present of the possibility, or to prevent it happening.

Well, what exactly happens when they succeed?  They end up staying here, often becoming the worst characters in Marvel continuity. (Hi Cable. Hi Stryfe.)

The concept for this campaign is that all the characters are from one of Marvel's dark futures, and they've teamed up to make the future a better place.

Xavier's Academy Hack for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying's Random Datafile Generation

Earlier this week, Margaret Weis Productions put out their random character generation download for the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying system.  Because I'm completely addicted to random character generation and also the Xavier's Academy milieu, here's my revisions!

Welcome to Professor Xavier's Academy for Gifted Stuents.