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Lore Questions for Steve
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I occasionally run into people who ask me about Champions lore, and there's a lot of areas where I don't have definitive answers, This thread is for posing lore related questions to Steve, in order to get the word from Steve,
First up: is it legal to clone a human being? Not to *be* a clone, but to be a scientist performing a cloning experiment or procedure?
First up: is it legal to clone a human being? Not to *be* a clone, but to be a scientist performing a cloning experiment or procedure?
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In the PnP setting, are there any traffic laws for flying people? Some sort of 'always pass on the right', or guidelines prefered altitudes of operation. As a winged flier, I know I'm fairly vissible at rooftop hight, but when I fly down as street level I'm always concerned I'm gonna get hit by a bus while zipping across an intersection or startle some poor motorist into swerving off of the roadway. At higher altitudes I'd like to take precautions against becoming the 'mother of all birdstrikes' when a jet comes blasting through at 500+ mph.
Assuming you wanted to establish something for your campaign, or that your campaign setting featured enormous numbers of superheroes (as in Top Ten), I'd imagine that laws regulating flying would derive partly from traffic laws (which we're all familiar with), and partly from air traffic control laws (which we're not). It's probably safe enough to "wing it' (ha, ha) by requiring commuting flyers to maintain a certain minimum altitude, to stick to established flight lanes, and to use traffic regs for things like passing.
I solved it by creating a system in my city to address it. There are a number of floating beacons like ocean buoys that are placed throughout the city, establishing flight and no-flight zones. They are all controlled from a centralized location known as The Lighthouse. The beacons are called Pings, and they can target a laser visual and audio beam at people flying into a no-flight zone, designed to be annoying and provide information that the zone is off limits. It also provides early warning of flying objects in airspace, and The Lighthouse routes all air traffic information through it's system so that it can cross-check against known flights.
I also ruled that in the Champions Universe, all aircraft are required to be built with GPS equipment, which Lighthouse also has access to.
The system was placed into the sky with help from Defender, and was mostly intended to prevent catastrophic disasters. Most fliers will fly at relatively slow speeds or make quick flights in reasonably low altitude. The system is designed to provide rapid response for supersonic flight, where a collision with a commercial vehicle could cause significant loss of life. In this case, the Pings will attempt to increase the output of it's systems to dissuade the supersonic flying object. They basically do a reasonable level Flash attack against sight and hearing, and can do a much smaller level energy blast. They are designed to be sublethal to a standard human, with the assumption that you might be dealing with a regular joe who just happens to be able to fly very fast.
DoD (Department of Defense) or DOSPA (Department of Superhuman and Paranormal Affairs)?
What kind of powers do Kinetik and Microman have?
I ask because I often/almost always take out of set powers on my characters and I use the explanation that they were taught by the champions e.g. my beastial supernatural was given an energy shield + laser knight gadget by Defender for distinguished service.
Microman we've never created a character sheet for. He has a bunch of shrinking-related powers for himself, and also some ability to shrink other people as an attack.
I know it's a very specific question, it's something character related I'm doing, so I don't want to contradict official lore.
i wish to know who Iron Crown Enterprises and Hero Games are. who invented Rolemaster, Hero System, Fantasy Hero and Champions. What is the realtion between Hero Games and I.C.E.
Does I.C.E. exist anymore. i see Hero Games seems to still exist. are they the people from I.C.E. or has the name been bought and taken up by Cryptic Studios and now Atari.
Which company created Champions-The New Millennium using the Fuzion System?
My questions lead to copyright and trademark rules as i have a personal interest in both champions and rolemaster and wish to know what the situation is before i can proceed.
If you could give me a full summary of the history since the creation of MERP onwards on who is who and who did what and where things stand today. then i'd be very appreciative. I know a rolemaster 'standar system' came out a few years back. but neglected to see who created it i was too busy being disgusted with its contents.
thank you for your time and patience
Hero Games
Iron Crown Enterprises (I.C.E.)
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The Rolemaster entry seems less helpful.
However, on the DriveThroughRPG site a company called Guild Companion Publications is producing Rolemaster material ...
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or you could try the I.C.E. website ...
my future searches lie with ICE and west end games.
The only relationship between Hero and ICE is that back in the late Eighties through the mid-Nineties, the two had a business arrangement where ICE took care of the publishing and other aspects of Hero Games books. That relationship was terminated around 1996 or so (I don't remember the exact year).
The Hero Games intellectual properties have always been, and remain, the property of Hero Games (except for the Champions IP which we sold to Cryptic); ICE doesn't own any of it. Hero Games has never owned any part of the ICE intellectual properties.
The original Fabulous Five were:
Amazing Man (Michael Renton): transmutation powers (he can convert any element into any other element). Leader of the team. Retired from heroing after son Peter born. Written up in Digital Hero #10.
Diamond (John Whitley): a brick with a rock-hard body. Joined the Sentinels after the Fab Five broke up. Was written up in Champions Universe: News Of The World some years ago.
Kid Chameleon (Allen Renton): Shapechanging powers (can assume animal forms). Killed in battle by Dr. Destroyer during Destroyer's first appearance in 1975. Written up in Digital Hero #10.
Siren (Patty Renton, nee Briggs): sonic powers; retired from heroing after son Peter born. Written up in Digital Hero #9.
Streak II (Ray Briggs): speedster (not a successor to the original Streak from the Golden Age, just the same name). I think he retired as well and ended up becoming a sportscaster or media figure of some sort (don't have time right now to dig through all the books to find the specifics). Written up in Digital Hero #9.
The Digital Hero articles have illustrations of each character as well.
Peter Renton eventually went on to become Amazing Man II.
I think that's something that's GM's discretion? Even in D&D, if it says "Always Chaotic Evil," you can make an individual character of that race/species that is Lawful Good. It's just that pretty much nobody will believe the character that they're not a bloodthirsty monster.
Champions Universe mentions;
as a british superhero.
(also, lolfilter)
i met a chaotic evil demon in AD&D as a player. he was named Matt Black. a paladin in the group converted him to lawful good and he henceforth became Matt White.
personally. i beleive that vampires are a curse. if you become one you are one in full. theres no option to be good or humanlike. you are a being of pure evil that is 100% always vulnerable to divine powers like sunlight and religious symbols and holy items. theres nothing you can do to change that. just like all drow are evil. theres no drizt clones.
Sure. Vanguard is basically our Superman analog. He has roughly the same sort of powers as Supes, though probably nothing like heat vision. I won't know until such time as we have to write him up.
There was a bit of Cryptic art somewhere, prepared for the initial "Blood Moon" event IIRC, that initially depicted Vanguard as an archer because the artists had no information about what powers he possessed. I was shown this art in draft form, along with the accompanying text, and explained the error. AFAIK things were changed to correctly reflect the lore, but it's possible something slipped through. In any event, officially speaking Vanguard is a flying brick, not an archer, regardless of what any art may show.
Offhand I can't think of any we've depicted that way, though it's certainly possible they exist. The character Josiah Brimstone (see Champions Villains, Vol. 3) implies that a "good" demon might be possible (depending on how you answer some of the metaphysical questions the character poses). The only vampire I can recall writing up for the setting is Stalker (also in CV3), who's definitely evil.
I have no doubt there are plenty of "good vampire" PCs floating around out there in Champions campaigns, though.
Steve, has anything ultra significant or notable happened in the Champions setting (As far as heroes are concerned) in the city of San Francisco in the last 28 years? Anything of a mystical nature? Any notable superheroes from or residing in the Bay area?
I really hope my questions made some sort of sense.
I've been looking in the Champions Universe book and generally speaking for these special task force squads, "each squad contains what the commander feels is the right mix of agents to get the job done" and are "recruited from all UN member nations."
UNTIL also has an official super-team, UNITY.
UNITY has six members:
- Quasar: An energy projector and manipulator and leads the team. (no entry in the official wiki, but has an interesting past, based on the blurb in the book)
- Dr. White and Dr. Black: A married couple from the United States, both versed in the practice of the Arts Arcane.
- Myrmidon: A superhumanly strong warrior from Greece.
- Psiclops: A blind mentalist from England. (not mentioned in the wiki entry for UNITY)
- El Pícaro: A teleporting swordsman from Mexico
Additionally, a former member, Mentiac, the so-called Human Computer remains available to the team for consultation.There is no specific mention of how to become affiliated or recognized by UNTIL in the book, so I would assume the applicant superhero need be of good standing in the global community and willing to respect the laws of the nation they are deployed to.
San Francisco's best-known super-team is the Bay Guardians, an informal collection of heroes, most of them mystics. There is also another team called the Freedom Patrol in the city.
The only mention of anything of significance in the Champions Universe book was the Guardians' conflict with the Devil's Advocates in 2005. The Demonologist decided that gaining control of the many sites of mystic significance in the Bay Area could boost his power significantly, so he set out to obtain that control through various means.
The above is all that I feel comfortable posting from the Champions Universe book, I don't want to cannibalize Hero Games' sales.
Besides the brief mention of Shade that Rabblerouser quoted, The Mystic World describes (but doesn't stat) what might be called a "neutral" vampire. The woman now called Nyssa Tarchaniotes claims to have once been a Pythoness, the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, until she was raped and "turned" by a vampire. Today she still offers prophecy to any mystic -- good, evil, or neutral -- who meets her price, which includes a pint of blood freely given. Since she doesn't kill for blood and provides a valuable service, most mystic heroes and monster-hunters leave her in peace.
As per her background in Champions Villains Vol. 3, Nebula serves a government in the Andromeda Galaxy which she refers to only as "the Republic." The corps of superpowered police officers she belongs to is called the Tel'narian Guard. The Guard have been "hardwired" through bioneural engineering to uphold the "Code of Supreme Justice" or "Supreme Code," which prescribes harsh punishments for even the most trivial offenses. Because of her conditioning Nebula believes irrefutably that she has the right and the obligation to enforce the Code, including summarily sentencing "lawbreakers," even though she's clearly far out of her jurisdiction.
Nebula's species is called the Yuun'ta, who have native energy-wielding powers which she can use in various offensive ways. Nebula wears a uniform which projects a protective force field around her and enables her to fly. Her most feared weapons are her Duress Gauntlets, which can forcibly exile her target to a hellish pocket-dimension prison called "Duress."
Nebula is described as a beautiful female humanoid, but clearly non-human. Her uniform is a black bodysuit with gold boots, belt, helmet, and gauntlets.
That's about as much info as I feel comfortable transcribing here. Don't want to impinge on Cryptic's IP.
Sorry for the delay; I've been away at Origins.
I suppose it's possible (this is a comic book universe after all!
We've never covered San Francisco in any lavish detail (we tend to avoid real-world cities, for a variety of reasons), but we have touched on occurrences in the Bay Area here and there. The bulk of the info can be found on page 72 of Champions Universe.
Briefly put, San Fran is home to two superteams, the Bay Guardians (who are currently quite active) and the Freedom Patrol (which has been on sort of a downhill slide since suffering a major defeat at the hands of ARGENT in 1999). The most notable recent superhuman event in the region that we've chronicled is a major 2005 battle between the Bay Guardians and the Devil's Advocates.
That's kind of detailed set of questions overall, so the best thing I can do is refer you to one of our books: UNTIL: Defenders Of Freedom, which describes the entire organization and is jam-packed with useful information.
Briefly put, Projects like Snakecharmer and Hermes are formed by UNTIL and staffed primarily by agents assigned to them for some reason (depending on background, training, interest in the subject matter, etc.). They don't normally have superhumans assigned to them, but sometimes do.
U: DOF (as we call the UNTIL book around here
2. Who is this gorgeous character Damoiselle Nocturne? Is there anything on the PNP front for her?
Background is pretty scanty so far, obviously ties in with Luther Black at some point and love(s)(d) him very much. Yet she was unable to intervene in Operation Demonflame or do anything to save him afterward. Gorgeous as in brilliant character idea - I mean she's just begging to be made into some kind of really nasty serial killer type with a real burning hate for our hero(s).
In the Vibora Bay source book the Trey Kings are just one of the street gangs operating in VB. The later developments you describe haven't yet appeared in any PnP game books, so I'm afraid those of us who follow those have nothing to add to help you. Perhaps Steve Long is indeed privy to more information, as whenever Hero Games updates Vibora Bay they'll likely have to be accounted for. However...
Demoiselle Nocturne is very thoroughly detailed in DEMON: Servants Of Darkness. She is a member of DEMON's Inner Circle, which most of the organization considers its leaders. Nocturne is essentially Freddy Krueger, a demon of the Dreamzone, the dimension of dreams (although she has great power in the waking world as well). DN controls the Night Terrors, monsters who haunt the dreams of DEMON's members searching for signs of betrayal.
From the in-game lore
In short, the Treys were a scrub gang, no bigger than say the purple gang in MC, but either because of Therakiel's meddling or because someone was epicly stupid in their game, they got a deal created or maybe even found a strong outlet of Qliphothic energy, the result of which was their transoformation that can be seen in Vibora Bay, similar to the UNTIL soldiers. The end result is basically it seems the Treys have given Qliphoth a giant foothold into the world.
It's worth noting that heretofore, street crime in PnP Vibora Bay wasn't quite as "supers-rich" as what's been shown in Champions Online. For example, Guy Sweetland was just a human crime boss, not a werewolf. I understand Cryptic Studios wanting more stand-up foes for PC heroes in the MMO.
I think the problem is that Vibora Bay, per the PnP, is a low magic, low powered city, designed more like a "starter" zone in an MMO more than say a major endgame area with a big apocalyptic world threat in it. Cryptic had to fudge things, basically, and with it's lore and history decided to go from there.
There are a lot of story content bits in Vibora, the bits people seem to ignore. Vladic Dracuul actually just recently came to Vibora and created a lackey to start creating the New Shadows gang.
The Dogz are because of Sweetland hooking up with some mad scientist and unlokcing the wolf gene creating genetic "werewolves" thanks to the abandoned VIPER technology left in the town.
And VIPEr cleared out of the city when signs of the apocalypse were in hgih strings. I think from a game play perspective, Cryptic understood people were tired of seeing VIPER at that point,s o decided to clear them out.
I understand there is a lot more to Vibora, maybe we will see an expansion of it someday though. Personally i would of rather seen Vibora raise the level cap, to say, 45, but that was me. Hope to see the swamp lands in the future myself.
Sigh if only I had played Champs instead of Paranoia and Call of Cthulhu - I'd have all the sourcebooks just hanging around.
Thanx again!
With the obvious exception of Therakiel and his scheme, which were already in the PnP game, I think that's largely true. It would be easy to modify Vibora Bay as detailed in the sourcebook to strict street-level supers, an urban fantasy setting, or even non-supers modern adventure.
Those are actually quite logical evolutionary developments of what was already established for VB (logical from a comic-book world perspective, that is).
Yeah, San Sebastien Swamp could make a really interesting area to develop. For my part I look forward to seeing some of the CO additions make their way into the PnP game. While they do ramp up the overt action potential, they still fit the style and atmosphere of the place.
You're welcome. And, y'know, all those sourcebooks are still available from Hero Games, and make for very interesting reading.
Obviously not all of it was destroyed since you can still see several of the bases around the city if you look.
Seconding this - I'm finding myself majorly entranced with how well put together the background is for a lot of things in individual sourcebooks, and a lot of the questions/answers in this thread are just helping that along.
...Much props to both Steve, Liaden, and everyone else for this. ob
And to keep things flowing - what is the rarity on some of the more major super-metals/alloys in the PnP? I know in-game they're generally used as Arms and Science crafting materials, but how does that reflect in the lore?
Things like Kendrium, Questonite, Kelvarite, Mechalene, Fordite, and Dragonite in particular. There's a few blurbs, but I couldn't find any that suggested rarity anywhere.
Well, of the materials you mention, AFAIK only kendrium, questionite, and kelvarite are in official PnP continuity at this point. I can't say whether the others will eventually be deemed appropriate to include. Champions Universe describes kelvarite as extra-terrestrial in origin, from only a few meteorite falls, so definitely very rare. Questionite is also explicitly called rare, with few known deposits. Professor Darryl Kendrick, inventor of kendrium, won't reveal the exact formula for his alloy, which at least implies that his manufacturing facilities must be restricted to preserve the secret.
The PnP CU does possess other "uncanny metals," such as neutronium (stronger but much denser than questionite), orichalcum (the legendary magic metal of Atlantis), and destreum (invented by Dr. Destroyer, and known to no other). All of them are explicitly or implicitly in limited supply for one reason or another. There are also a few other, more obscure exotic materials, chemicals, drugs, and so on.
May have to re-work some fiction stuff, though, as I'm pretty sure Graviton Lass can't afford even Kendrium-reinforced headgear. Even if UNTIL or her fashion designer foot the bill for it.