New York?

theravenforce

I was wondering if there were any heroes or villains that were based in New York or would operate in New York?

This can be individuals or teams for the heroes. As for the villains...if certain individuals do exist, please post as much information as possible.

(If there aren't really any heroes or villains who operate in NY...just let me know.)

I'm planning another write up which includes VIPER, a nemesis, my character and another players character.

Thanks in advance.

bulgarex

In fact New York City has perhaps the liveliest superhuman community of any city in the world. It's home to three superhero teams. Two of them, the Justice Squadron and the Sentinels, are among the longest-established and most respected teams. The third is a less formal assemblage of youthful heroes calling themselves Nova. There are also numerous solo heroes, including Electrotitan, the Brooklyn Avenger, Shadowman, and Magneton.

New York is the site of UNTIL's World Headquarters, beneath the United Nations complex (and its official superhero team, UNITY, is based nearby). Other organizations which regularly interact with superheroes have their headquarters or major offices in the area, including PRIMUS, l'Institut Thoth, Angelstone Laboratories, the Goodman Institute, Executive Control Solutions, and Bastion Alpha Security.

On the villain side, VIPER and DEMON have no fewer than three bases each operating in the greater New York City area. Because of its wealth and prominence, New York attracts many super criminals, both American and foreign. Most major official Champions supervillains and villain teams have been active in the city at one time or another.

theravenforce

bulgarex wrote: »

In fact New York City has perhaps the liveliest superhuman community of any city in the world. It's home to three superhero teams. Two of them, the Justice Squadron and the Sentinels, are among the longest-established and most respected teams. The third is a less formal assemblage of youthful heroes calling themselves Nova. There are also numerous solo heroes, including Electrotitan, the Brooklyn Avenger, Shadowman, and Magneton.

New York is the site of UNTIL's World Headquarters, beneath the United Nations complex (and its official superhero team, UNITY, is based nearby). Other organizations which regularly interact with superheroes have their headquarters or major offices in the area, including PRIMUS, l'Institut Thoth, Angelstone Laboratories, the Goodman Institute, Executive Control Solutions, and Bastion Alpha Security.

On the villain side, VIPER and DEMON have no fewer than three bases each operating in the greater New York City area. Because of its wealth and prominence, New York attracts many super criminals, both American and foreign. Most major official Champions supervillains and villain teams have been active in the city at one time or another.

This is pretty much what I was hoping for, thank you very much!

I do have another question though...what can you tell me about Blink & Superstar (Justice Squadron)?

bulgarex

Quite a bit, actually, within the bounds of fair use of the IP. The lineups for both the JS and the Sentinels were fully written up (for Fifth Edition HERO System) in Champions Universe: News Of The World.

Both heroes are mutants, and both are graduates of Ravenswood Academy, the setting's school for young supers outside Millennium City. Craig Nguyen (Blink) is one of the world's most accomplished and versatile teleporters, both of himself and other people/objects. He's the son of former UNTIL agents who instilled their values in him, and he applied to the Justice Squadron after graduating Ravenswood. He's also pretty tech-savvy, although no super-genius.

Gary Stratton (Superstar) was a troubled young man who went on a robbery spree when his great powers of cosmic energy projection manifested. He was caught and spent three years in Stronghold. While there Rowan, the founder of Ravenswood, convinced him to enroll after he was released. Those experiences turned his life around, and now he spends much time working with young people to help them avoid his mistakes. After a few years of solo heroing he was recruited into the Justice Squadron.

bulgarex

I forgot to add one other datum about New York City. As in Millennium City, the FBI has stationed a pair of super-powered agents in New York: Tarantula, a martial artist, and Firebrand, a fire-projector.

bulgarex

New York City plays a significant role in Champions Universe history as well. For example, it was the site of the first attack by the "War of the Worlds" aliens in 1938, which led to the creation of the world's first superhero team, the Defenders of Justice. Dr. Destroyer field-tested his prototype powered armor there in 1966, fighting and defeating the Sentinels under the code-name of "the Golden Gladiator." One of the Slug's first major schemes, in 1979, nearly succeeded in transforming everyone in NYC into Elder Worms. Several now world-famous superheroes started their careers in New York, including Vanguard (the setting's Superman analogue), the Drifter, and Defender.

jonandre1

Most villains in the Champions universe aren't given a specific locale, and that makes it easier to tailor them to your game. You may set your campaign in New York... or you may set it in Chicago. Or Los Angeles. Or your hometown. Or you may be jet-setting heroes who handle crises on the global (or even cosmic) scale.

Of course there are some (like Eurostar) who seem to be located primarily on one continent or another... and of course there are specific locale books like Champions of the North, that detail villains specific to one region. That's why I said most villains. Like the ones in the Villains books.

But who's to say that, with pressure getting to them in their home locations, these villains didn't decide to head to <INSERT CAMPAIGN LOCATION HERE> for hopefully easier pickings? Happens all the time in comics. I'm minded of an episode of Static Shock where the Joker came to Dakota City to get away from Batman... only to run into Static (who was working with Batman, who had tracked his nemesis to Static's home town).

theravenforce

Thanks again for the requested information and more!

I originally assumed from what I was able to find on my own that Superstar was a female hero, so I'm glad I've found out otherwise before writing him incorrectly.

I generally like to do good reading on characters if I intend to write them...like I did for Bulldozer

What books are available which detail heroes in a similar fashion to how the Master Villains, Solo Villains and Villain Teams books appear to present information?

bulgarex

theravenforce wrote: »

What books are available which detail heroes in a similar fashion to how the Master Villains, Solo Villains and Villain Teams books appear to present information?

That's a little trickier. There's much less demand for information about NPC heroes in most games (PnP or MMO) than there is for villains, since PCs expect to be the stars, and need a constant stream of villains to fight. Hence there are no dedicated hero compilations for the current official CU. There are most definitely write-ups around, but they're scattered among multiple books.

For the most recent (Sixth) edition of Champions, the book Champions Universe includes a few notable solo heroes, as well as write-ups for the Champions in their more "experienced" incarnations, after years of adventuring. The Champions genre book stats the Champions as they were at the beginning of their careers, and provides their detailed backgrounds and descriptions. All other extant books with detailed hero descriptions are for the Fifth Edition of the PnP game, but use practically the same world background.

Of those, probably the most concentrated source is Champions Universe: News Of The World, which was written as an update to the timeline from Champions Universe Fifth Edition. The hero write-ups take up less than half of the book, though. Champions Of The North details some heroes as well as villains native to Canada, while Champions Worldwide provides a sampling of the same from each of several regions of the globe. A few heroes and villains based in Millennium City and Vibora Bay get that treatment in the source books for those cities. However, some of the villains from those Fifth Edition books were reprinted in the recent Champions Villains trilogy.

It really comes down to what information you want, and whether it would be worth it to you to buy the book(s) that contain it.

bulgarex

jonandre1 wrote: »

But who's to say that, with pressure getting to them in their home locations, these villains didn't decide to head to <INSERT CAMPAIGN LOCATION HERE> for hopefully easier pickings? Happens all the time in comics. I'm minded of an episode of Static Shock where the Joker came to Dakota City to get away from Batman... only to run into Static (who was working with Batman, who had tracked his nemesis to Static's home town).

For that matter, how many real-world professional criminals spend their whole careers in one town? Unless you have some sort of established power base in a particular city, you'll want to move around to avoid local law enforcement zeroing in on you.