Tales from Night City
Night City was a Champions PBEM game I ran during the mid-1990s (1993-1997, give or take a bit). I ran a few PBEM games before it, and numerous PBEM games since then, but Night City holds a special place in my heart. It was one of the first superhero PBEM games I ever ran, and although I made many mistakes, I think it went really well despite my inexperience. Enormous thanks are due to the remarkable players who did me the honor of allowing me to GM for them.
The game archives below are not entirely complete: I ran some preliminary games sessions prior to the official start of the game, and the game continued past the point of the most recent archive I could find. I should also warn you that, like all good role-playing games, these game posts were written as part of a game, rather than part of a work of narrative fiction. The needs of a PBEM and the needs of narrative fiction are significantly different, and attempting to make one fit the format or style of the other will only result in something which is neither a good game nor good fiction (there are far too many examples which prove this, unfortunately). That being said, maybe you will find it entertaining, or perhaps useful.
Night City: Index
- Introductory Files (none larger than 16k)
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Game Archives (all are about 60k)
- Setting the Stage
- The Funeral
- The Meeting
- The Prison Break
- Prison Mayhem
- Hangin' With Grendel
- Things Get Worse
- Trouble at Vanguard
- The Fiendish Miles Needleman
- Enter Oberon
- Vanguard Saves the Day
- Vanguard vs. Lt. Nichols
- Secrets Revealed
- Enter Mesmeron
- Introducing Arachne
- The Fall of Brightstar
- Medical Trouble
- Death and the Maiden
- Those Damn Robots
- Bloody Lawyers
- Vanguard In Turmoil
- Vanguard vs. Black Bolt
- Vanguard Victorious!
House Rules
These house rules date from the early years of Champions. I actually had a few more house rules I and my gaming buddies used for face-to-face games in those days, but those, like most of these, have since been adopted into Hero System or have been made unnecessary by virtue of other changes to the game system. The one remaining, inexplicable flaw in Hero System is the Killing Attack game mechanic, so that house rule is still valid -- and still in use at our gaming table.
I have a couple of "house rules" you may as well be aware of, even though they may not come up in the game. I suggest everyone adopt these as house rules in their face-to-face Champions games:
1) If someone wants to stop someone from Teleporting, they use Supress. Intervening barriers -- Hardened or not -- have no effect on Teleport unless the Teleporter takes a Limitation on her Power to that effect (like a Teleporter who turns to photons not being able to go through opaque materials: -1/4). A Sticky Entangle either keeps the Teleporter from Teleporting or else it goes along with them, depending on special effects. If the Teleporter can take extra mass with her, she can take the Entangle along, regardless. There's no need (or reason) to buy Teleport with Armor Piercing -- Teleport isn't an attack.
2) There are no Killing Attacks, per se. The lottery effect of rolling Body and a Stun Multiplier is absurd. When you buy an Energy Blast, it can be Stun Only, Normal, or Killing (player's choice). No cost is associated with this choice: it all balances out. Anyone who has a Killing Attack on their character has each Killing die replaced with three EB(Killing) dice. Obviously, the Advantage "+1 Stun" has no meaning: any points spent on it will be absorbed into the power.
3) You don't need to know whether or not an attack is Area Effect to Dive For Cover. You want to DFC, roll the dice and risk being caught with your pants down (and blowing your Phase) if you fail. Dodge is safer, but not as good as a sucessful DFC. It all balances out, and you don't have to be psychic.