Welcome Archy

What is your genre(s) of interest? Influences? Movies/Books?

So, I'm pretty much open to any setting. (this might be a bad admission given the RPG system) My least favourite is 'supers', like Superman/X-men type thing. Having said that, I just kind of dislike the style of it, but can happily play games with people who are incredibly powerful. I'm not a massive Anime fan but the best parallel I could potentially give is something like Bleach/DBZ or whatever.

I would say my go-to setting is generally Fantasy but I'm pretty happy with anything up to and including Sci-fi.

I've played a lot of fantasy GURPS in the past (and DnD, of course), and Traveller in GURPs. For quite a while I used to also play a lot of World of Darkness, and quite liked the setting but just not the cynical overtones for everything.

LOTR is the best set of movies made in the last 20+ years, and absolutely my favourite. And I'e been on a bit of a slog with fantasy series of late. Stormlight, First Law, Malazan, Black Company, Faust's series.

I hope that covers it :)

Actually only 2 games active. The first 'Champions' game listed was stopped in June 2021.

In reply to cptcthulhu (msg # 245):

Yeah, I should really delete that one called Champions. Sorry.

Well, I'm getting towards a spot where I could run a game here.  As I try and brew up something I want to run, I thought I'd take a quick poll of people here and see if that gives me any ideas.

1.  How much interest do you have in a game where everyone gets powers from a single event at the begining of the game vs the typical kitchen sink team-up team?

2.  What level of episodic vs serialized are you interested in?

1) Im good with that type of game. I often run characters who do not associate their abilities with such events, though.

2) Is there a difference?

In reply to cptcthulhu (msg # 248):

Very much yes, there is a difference.  They're pretty much opposites.  Episodic is like a classic sit-com, in that there is no continuing story between episodes.  Serialized is all about the story arcs continuing between episodes and all season long.  It's a little different with gaming, but the principle is still applicable.

1. I've always thought the 'event' approach streamlines the first portions of these games, and PBP requires as much streamlining as possible.
2. I've always hoped that the character I play would appear the same regardless of the relative episodic/serialized levels involved. This is probably not what happens, but I've always hoped it would.

I very much like the idea of everyone having a common origin, gives a great reason for the PC's to work and hang together.

I tend to like serialized games with an ongoing storyline but occasional one shot episodes give nice breaks and can give an immediate sense of accomplishment or display character development.

In reply to novi (msg # 247):

I am up for just about anything as long as it's Hero System.

But I do lean towards serialized.

Alright, looks like there is strong support for common origin games, if from a small sample size.

I think I have an idea of something I'd like to run, though it still needs a lot more specific and/or proper nouns.  And it generates a few more questions I could use some external opinions on.

1.  Picking your own powers vs GM-assigned powers.  Everyone will be a human mutate from an empowering event at the beginning of the game.  And I'm weighing if and how much I dictate of your characters beyond that.  As character customization is an important aspect of Superhero games.

2.  Age of the PCs.  Some of the plots I'm considering make more sense if the characters are high schoolers or college age.

3.  How much the PCs already know each other vs how hard I have to force them together.

1. I like the idea of giving players some choice of power vs. no choice whatsoever. However if the GM has a very complete concept of a team with complimentary powers, that can work well too.

I think a hybrid of styles would work well, giving a choice of general power types/concepts maybe up to 8 choices, so there is choice and yet some GM control of what powers the characters have with an eye towards making their powers complimentary.

2. The younger the characters, the easier it is to influence them into situations that will create in-built relationships. High school kids have more legal (and often social) restrictions to deal with. I think that college-age characters have many more expectations and often responsibilities to deal with.

3. I think it would be cool for the characters to at least have common interests/environmental backgrounds/social origins. Or some combination thereof. But I would really like it if there was some (not necessarily a lot) early RP between the characters to establish their relationships.

Just my first thoughts, to get folks talking.

1. There's a sort of spectrum here. At one extreme the players create everything about the character with no limits. The other extreme is a set of canned characters with GM-created history that the players can choose from. There's good and bad on both ends, and pretty much anywhere down the line. Personally, I've no preference where a game lands on the spectrum.
2. Another question where there's no right or wrong way to do it. Frankly, I prefer to avoid games focused AT a high school or college. Way too much of that back in the eighties and nineties, otherwise why make the turtles teen-aged?
3. As a GM, I abhor forcing the group together. Join one of my games with a character you describe as a 'loner, who doesn't work well with others' and it is very likely the GM ignores your character deliberately (if you've been in one of my games, you'll know why I used the word deliberately). Let the players know, up front, that they're expected to group and boot the ones that make it difficult give the difficult PC's the silent treatment.

How about a group of High Schoolers/College, kids all part of an unofficial TTRPG Club?

This gives them a common "bond", a reason to hang out together and "fight crime" as a group.  It also keeps the game from being centered at their school.  They could use their TTRPG sessions as cover for their crime-fighting activities.  One should REALLY be a healer so that wounds wouldn't give them away.

It would be difficult to explain how a PC was experimented on, to become a Super-Soldier, but not impossible.

The group Could be built around a couple of Energy projectors, a brick, a mentalist (maybe the Healer), and a Genius/Gadgeteer (think Batman or Iron Man).

The Players should stay away from non-human type Heroes like aliens, gods, and critters unless they have the ability to transform into them when necessary.

The cause of their powers and abilities could be something that they were all exposed to during a game session.  A weird prop.  Transforming energy emanating from a place they gamed at for a session or two.  An entity experimenting on "Earthers" for some reason, a reason for the existence of the Super-Soldier option.

So, I tend to flit between ideas.  While doing something Static Shock inspired still has merit, I'm not as enthused about it as I was a few weeks ago.  I'll probably revisit the idea some year, but not now.

Instead, I'm going to go with a more traditional team up concept, based on some ideas that had been percolating seperately in my head.  It will be an all female team based in Los Angeles.  Standard power level, or so.  Base and team vehicle will be provided.  Further details will be provided in the game.

My biggest issue at the moment is the team name.  The team is going to be 'the Angels', but I'm uncertain what the official name is.  I've thought up some variations, but nothing has leapt out at me.  What sounds good to people?  Does anyone else have an idea?

Angel Squad, Squadron
Angel Flight
Angel Wing
The New Angels
Angelic Sentinels

Force and Crusaders are rejected for being too militant.
Legion implies more members than I want.
The California Angels is still kinda trademarked by the baseball team.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:33, Thu 27 July 2023.

Arch Angels?
Carlie's Angels?
 maybe Angel Force?

Or some tortured phrase spelling out


A. N. G. E. L.

like Anti-crime, National Group of Elite Ladies

Saints
Spectrals
Las Fortunas
Sisters of Virtue
Danger Angels
Lovely Angels
Sister Angels
Angel Sisters (or Sistas)

Just a few off the top of my head.

Amazing Neo-human Girls for Emancipation and Liberation

no, I couldn't help myself.

Everything leads back to the preferred language origin from the West, Latin

Ordo Angelus

I appreciate the help, even if I'm not really using any of the suggestions.  It did confirm for me that I wasn't missing anything good.

In light of the fact that the Champions Universe has a bunch of organizations that may or may not be acronyms (VIPER, DEMON, PRIMUS, PSI, UNITY, ARGENT), ANGEL seems like a decent fit.

Now I just need to get the campaign brief together...

The changes to UI are grotesque. I no longer can be a member of this site.

Any one who s interested in becoming the GM, let me know.

Anything that a custom style sheet might fix?  Suggestion on the development thread?

My objection is the infernal layout, it is structural

There was a button, that allowed the old layout. I've been using that  - it appears to have changed since new years day though.

Am going to look for it again.

If you find it, let us know where it is.  I have a GM asking about it