Q: What's the morality level of the campaign?
A: Primarily "shades of grey", mostly charcoal, with a bit of lighter fluid to make things interesting.
Q: What level of "realism" exists in the campaign?
A: Welcome to the real world. You break it, you buy it.
Q: How important are the PC's to the campaign world?
A: Supers are important primarily for being highly controversial. Society has mixed feelings about them, but everyone agrees they're big news. The media can't get enough of them, and fans eat up every scrap of gossip about the lives of paranormals, both public and private.
Q: How common are paranormals in this campaign?
A: About one person in 100,000 is a full-powered "super", whether hero, villain or vigilante type. So there are about 3000 total in the United States. Like most minorities, they tend to find safety in numbers, and the largest cities tend to attract most of them. Some cities are "paranormal magnets" and St. Louis is one such, with an estimated 100 supers living in the greater St. Louis metro area. (10 times the national average, per capita.)
Q: How long of a campaign do you intend to run this game for?
A: Until all the players are sick of it.
Q: Do you use Hit Locations?
A: I don't roll for random Hit Locations in combat, but I allow called shots, and combat maneuvers that target specific locations.
Q: Are there going to be mostly story arcs or mostly stand-alone episodes?
A: Mostly story arcs, although I tend to view a stand-alone episode as a story arc with an extremely short life-span.
Q: Are the adventures going to be focused mostly on character interaction, combat, investigation, or anything else (including combinations of the above?)
A: Character interaction is my favorite. Combat happens when negotiations break down. Covert investigation is what occurs when someone doesn't want you to know something, which is pretty much anything worth knowing. Don't forget good old-fashioned problem-solving type-situations.
Q: What style of game are you planning to try and run?(i.e., Teen Titans versus X-Men style)
A: I've pretty much described "Seared" Champions to the group.
Q: Is there a comic book series/graphic novel that best exemplifies the style and "feel" you are intending to reach for this campaign?
A: Watchmen is probably the strongest influence on my Champions GM-ing style, if I have any.
Q: Do you roll your dice out in the open or behind a screen?
A: Out in the open. The dice never lie. Trust the dice.
Q: How do you handle character death if it occurs?
A: With grave respect.
Q: How often do you expect characters to die?(i.e., what's the lethality level of the campaign)
A: Characters should survive right up to the point at which they do something STUPID. So if you don't want your character to die, just refrain from doing anything STUPID, and you should be just fine. Nothing is quite as lethal in this campaign as stupidity. Although really bad dice rolls are a close second....
Q: Are there any significant events in recent campaign history we should be aware of?
A: I've mentioned a couple of important dates: Vengeance Night and White Night. I'll write them up in a seperate file.
Briefly: Vengeance Night was when Death Vengeance broke out of prison. White Night marks the date when, two weeks later, after being transferred to a maximum security facility, the famous hero White Knight was killed in his cell. The following year, ground was broken on a new "ultra-max" facility to hold paranormal prisoners in East St. Louis, Illinois.
Q: What's the average tech level for the campaign?(i.e., do VIPER agents use blasters or machine guns?)
A: Off the shelf' technology is only a few years ahead of ours. The year is about 2009. ICoMP has some advanced tech, thanks to ARPA, but Second Syndicate's technology is pretty basic. Of course, many supers have advanced technology of the 'irreproduceable results' variety, but even that's limited to a level of 'hard' science fiction technology. Big rail guns are okay. Photon cannons, not so much.
Q: Are we going to use Maps and Miniatures?
A: Maps, I've got. Minis are B.Y.O.
Q: Are there any pre-existing elements from the Champions Universe or any other comic book universe that we should be aware of?
A: I try to create all original material for my game. If I use something from elsewhere, I re-work it first in order to make it fit better.
Q: Are you using any house rules we should be aware of?
A: Re-roll any dice that hit the floor. Don't make a roll unless/until I ask you to. Other than that, use the rules in the book. I might be making some changes regarding held actions, but I'm not sure yet.
Q: How do you feel about optional maneuvers such as Rapid Fire and Multiple-Power Attack?
A: I'll go over the maneuvers and make sure, but off the top of my head, I can't think of any I wouldn't allow.
Q: How does the Law react to supers?
A: The law and the government are a bit out of step with popular opinion about supers and/or paranormals. The prevailing attitude is in a grey area between rejection and acceptance; a schizophrenic position best summed up by the statement, "It's okay for supers to be super, as long as they act mundane in public." Paranormals aren't required to register their powers, and they can use their powers for their own purposes, as long as they don't break the law, or endanger the public. The kicker is "endanger the public", which is interpreted very broadly by the courts. Any super arrested for reckless behavior, whether brought to trial or not, is required to register with ICoMP, and may be monitored thereafter.
Q: What's the overall mood of the campaign?
A: Dramatic. What's important isn't so much who wins or loses The Big Fight but why they're fighting. Everybody's got a score to settle, a secret to keep, a debt to repay, or something else driving them to do all this crazy shit. In the words of Steel Claw, "When you're fighting crime alone, it's always personal."
Q: What about the overall campaign outlook for the PC's?
A: Negative. The PC's may accomplish some of their goals, if they're lucky, and they refrain from doing anything STUPID. And they may take some solace from knowing that they've set things right, but when all is said and done, the cost may be far too high. And who knows if it will really make a difference in the long run? Well... maybe.
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