Earth 1168 - A Little History

Well it's been a long time, but we're finally getting ready for the next installment of the Mortality Algorithm, my Champions adventure for the weekend group.

Last time before the session I sent out selections of the standard Champions Setting's history for players who didn't have access to the books.

I have since collected all that stuff in one document here.

Earth 1168 Genesis

Character creation has gone really well and without giving anything away RP-wise you guys essentially now have:

1 Brick (Melee/Brawler)
1 Controller (Supernatural/Fire)
1 Blaster (High-Tech/Energy)

Champions isn't quite as role-oriented as D&D, so it's not like you guys have to have 1 from each role/class. It seems to inspire some folks when making up their characters though so I thought I would just throw out some info on general archetypes:

• Fighter
• Brick
• Martial Artist
• ...
  
• Spellcaster
• Blaster
• Controller
• ...
  
• Defender
• Buffer
• Healer
• ...
  
• Rogue
• Gadgeteer
• Speedster
• ...
  

This stuff is all very subjective and none of it is enforced by the game mechanics, so people shouldn't get hung up on it, your team will be just fine even if you guys come up with 5 Fighters. It's more to try and give some structure because creating your character is so unstructured in Champs.

Mirrorshade

This new Sample Character Mirrorshade for my up-coming Champions Campaign Earth 1168 is a Blaster, plain and Simple.

He is only slightly more complex than Wrecking Ball, but he does show the use of a Multi-power and a variety of attacks with more interesting Advantages.

Hideous

Hideous is another sample character for my nascent Champions campaign. Hopefully it will help people see how you can use the rules to translate a concept into a character. Specifically Mike wanted to see something Blob-like.

Hideous is a 10ft tall, 1000kg monster. When irritated it can will itself to be even heavier and stronger. When it feels truly threatened it goes into "Unstoppable Mode" where it moves very slowly but almost nothing can turn it from it's path let alone harm it (it's almost like a cross between The Blob and Juggernaut).

First how to make it tall and big? Well the rules say Growth and Density Increase are for characters that change their height and weight (p. 126). To model characters that are always tall and heavy you are supposed to buy regular powers and characteristics. They give you some templates to help(pgs. 573, 336).

If you look at Hideous's sheet you will see that it is built on the combination of the Large (p. 575) and Heavy (p. 577) templates. Once I had that base I was free to add whatever I wanted knowing that he already satisfied the requirements of being 10ft tall and 1000kg. I gave him additional STR, CON, BODY, etc... I also gave him additional Knockback Resistance and Armor. All this just reflects that he is even tougher than your average 10ft, 1000kg monster. :)

The next part of my concept was that when Hideous gets mildly irritated it can will itself to be heavier and stronger. Since this IS a case of him temporarily changing his body it is a good fit for Density Increase. So I just bought him a few levels of DI basically until I was satisfied his STR would let him inflict some decent property damage.

The final part of my concept was Unstoppable Mode. In this mode Hideous can barely move, but he's also almost impossible to stop or harm. This was a little tricky, here's what I did:

1. I bought Damage Reduction (p. 143), the key power of Unstoppable Mode
2. I bought more KB Resistance and Linked (p. 299) it to DR

At this point he is super-tough, but how do I make him super-slow when he activates his DR?

3. I lowered his regular DEX, SPD and Running.
4. I bought DEX, SPD and Running as Powers (p. 139).
5. I labeled these powers as "Hideous Movement".

Then the final trick that ties it all together:

6. I added the Limitation Lockout (p. 301) to his DR. Lockout says whenever I activate DR other powers of my choosing will stop working. So on my sheet I indicate the powers that will stop working are the ones labeled "Hideous Movement". Now we have modeled our concept.

A few other things to keep in mind about this character. It's a villain. It would make a terrible PC. It's powers are too great and it's limitations are too extreme. I would reject this character from a player out of hand just based on the DR alone. So I detailed "how" I did it because I hope that's what you'll take away from this example, rather than "what" I did.

BTW the picture used in the character sheet is indeed Karkas another of Jack Kirby's creations.

The Baddest of Them All

Wrecking Ball is a sample character for my friends who are getting into Champions to take a look at. He is your basic "Brick", closer to Thor than Hulk in that he is strong and fast.

This character has all the basics covered. Good attack, good defense, solid movement, decent skills (your not gonna' get away with less than 20pts in non-combat skills). If you compare his character sheet against the tables in 5ER on p. 28, you'll see that he falls within all the ranges for a Standard Super-Heroic character. Based on the "OPTIONAL CHARACTER DESIGN GUIDELINES" table on p. 29 he is a "Characteristic Oriented Hero".