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Champions Adventure Ideas

Superhero Roleplaying Game Scenario Seeds

Most Champions supplements come filled with Champions plot seeds for various villains in the Champions campaign setting, but you might want launching points for more general Champions adventure ideas. So I wanted to list a number of my favorite Champions adventure ideas from the Omega Force campaign. These superhero RPG plots betray the whimsical nature of our campaign, but all of them involved serious challenges for the team and can be tweaked for whatever type of campaign your gaming group has.

I write open-ended Champions adventures, depending on the character's ingenuity and my own judgment to come up with a suitable ending. These are shorn of their Champions stat blocks, so consider these detailed plot seeds for any superhero campaign or comic book hero setting.

Breaking the Law - The governor of the state the heroes are in suddenly bans the use of superpowers. He cites rising insurance costs and "threats to public safety". Pundits suggest this ban won't hold up in court, but for the time being, the heroes are breaking the law by fighting crime. Even investigating the governor's suspicious activity brings risks. On investigation, it's learned the governor has been replaced by a robot, and the ban is meant to clear the way for a villain's latest plot.

Not On the Guest List - The heroes are invited to a superhero convention, where one member of the team is presumably up for "Hero of the Year". (Be sure to include any rival heroes among the others up for the award.) Meanwhile, other members of the team, especially members suspicious about a set-up or ambush, notice supervillains skulking around the site of the convention. A little more investigation reveals that there's been some kind of mix-up, and there's also a supervillain convention this weekend at the same place. Looks like a major hero/villain brawl is in the making. But who's ultimately behind the mix-up?

Energy Crisis - Rolling brownouts across the state lead to the discovery that someone is siphoning energy from power grids throughout a 10-state area. The energy siphon leads 10 miles under the Earth's surface, directly at the geographic center of the 10-state area. When the heroes investigate, they learn the energy is being used to power the world's largest drill, which seeks either (a) an ancient artifact, (b) a vein of pure kelvarite, or (c) an alien-designed perpetual energy machine that was buried under the Earth countless ages ago.

Powering Up - Groups of teenagers have begun to engage in irresponsible acts in hopes of creating "mutation events", where one or more of them develop superhuman powers. This involves some combination of drinking, drugs, exposure to chemicals, radiation, or other dangerous situations (jumping off bridges, running into traffic, etc). Most these kids end up chickening out before any real damage is done, but a number have died. On interrogating several groups of survivors, the heroes learn that all have watched a little known straight-to-video film called "Nation of Mutation", which seems to be driving the teens to these self-destructive actions. Note: Have some researcher mention that 1-in-100 of these attempted power-ups is likely to gain powers.

Shadowflix - A friend of the team tries to get them to watch heretofore unknown horror flicks with names like "Don't Die in the Attic", "Space Frankenstein", "Horror of the Centipede", and "Squid's Revenge". After quizzing the friend, the heroes learn they are a member of an online movie rental service called Shadowflix, but the company's IP address doesn't appear to correspond with anything on Earth. The team eventually learns that Shadowflix is based in another dimension entirely, and the horror scenes might be "for real". What's more, investigating this illicit movie industry might force the heroes to face things like the Space Frankenstein, the Centipede, "Squid", and whatever's in the attic.

The Cattle Baron - Livestock is disappearing from nearby farms. When investigating, one of the heroes comes across a talking cow which is capable of talking intelligently about calculus, search engine optimization, and the Spanish Armada. On further questioning, the cow admits that it has escaped from the laboratory of a master of animal evolution calling himself "The Cattle Baron".

Villains Gone Wild - Torrent videos are appearing online of supervillains rampaging across America. These downloads have become quite popular with the Internet public, but nobody is sure who is filming them and why the heroes can't get to the scene of the crime early enough. At one online forum discussing the situation, some cocky poster claims the villains are doing this through "special timelapse photography" and "time displacement interfaces". But is this a real clue, or just an Internet troll stirring the pot?

Racks Restaurant - A new restaurant chain is sweeping the nation: "Racks". The eatery features racks of ribs, burgers & hot wings served by young women showing lots of legs and cleavage. The inside of the establishment is made to look like a torture chamber, complete with a medieval torture rack. Five locations have already opened citywide. But when several well-known moral authorities (priests, rabbis, PTO chairwomen) are seen enjoying themselves at the neighborhood Racks, the heroes begin to get suspicious about foul play.

Escalation - A man and woman are having a heated argument in a public location, perhaps outside a bar or restaurant. Suddenly, the two begin to fight and each of them have powers. Are they two supervillains out on a date? Two superheroes? Or is this is a sign that the city suddenly has a growing metahuman population?

Odium Corporation - After fighting a particularly well-armed criminal (hopefully a recurring villain) who normally doesn't build devices, the heroes find a catalog for an outfit calling itself the Odium Corporation. A flip-through of the catalog shows top selling products such as the Toxin Relocator, the much-feared Curse Gun, the ever-popular Gomorrah Ray, mass-produced copies of The Tormenticon, and the Mark-IV Snuff Golem. A little background work helps them learn that the Odium Corporation is either an international or interdimensional outfit. When confronting this group, they find that its current CEO is Jonathan Beast, his executive assistant is Pius Maliardo, and the man in charge of Champions-Earth Division is Nicholas Tween.

The Griefer - Is a player who plays a multiplayer video game in order to irritate and harass other players, rather than in pursuit of game objectives. The term is also used to mean a person who uses the internet to cause distress to others as a prank. Will appear in Deco City to screw with the team.

Coma Boy - One member of the team has a boy come up to them and say, "You must find the doorway. You are the key to the threshold," then promptly fall into a coma. Nothing seems to lift their coma state, and no amount of mental probing can learn what the heck the doorway or threshold is.

Discretionary Spending - After a recent incident, the governor of the state hired an alien mad scientist to build a weapon to protect the governor's mansion. But the governor just learned that the alien used state funds to build a "superluminal cannon" which is pointed at the alien scientist's homeworld. It seems spies for that planet have learned about the cannon and are likely on their way to attack the state. Removing the cannon is easier said than done, because it uses the Earth's magma core as an energy source, so simply destroying it could cause a massive chain reaction with disastrous consequences.

Comic Casanova - The multiverse's most notorious playboy comes to town hoping to charm one of the female members of the team. He's ready to turn the city on its ear to impress her, and seems to have a strange amount of friends and resources behind the effort. When the team starts to get annoyed by this subplot, the Cosmic Cassanova's jealous fiance begins sending agents to attack the newest target of his affection, while trying to abduct him to bring him back for the wedding.

Metatheist Cult - The character begin to learn about new cult activity in town. As details grow, they learn about a Metatheist Cult, where superhumans are worshipped by baseline citizens. Found in the outlying regions beyond the city, the unethical "metatheists" seem to run their religion like some kind of swanky hellfire club. All this may or may not be legal, but they heroes have to investigate (hopefully beyond their juridiction). Do they go in as baseline worshippers, or get bold and try to gain status as a metatheist icon?

Alimony - An unpowered female friend of the team's who hasn't been seen in a while suddenly shows up with amazing superpowers. She shows off these powers when mysterious individuals appear out of nowhere to murder her. Upon questioning, they learn she just got divorced from an obscure dimensional conqueror named "Aga-Memnon"--a man described "as revered as the Aga Khan and as treacherous as Agamemnon". It seems the women fulfilled some kind of cosmic prophecy for Aga-Memnon's next wife, but the marriage didn't go very well. Prodded by a slimy dimension-spanning lawywer named Dante Grice, she sued for divorce and won the case, which entitled her to half of Aga-Memnon's power. Being dubbed the "Archetype of Alimony", she has cosmic powers, but if she dies, her power reverts to her ex-husband.

The Next Planet Over - A distress signal reaches Earth, claiming that the next planet over is suffering from a xenovirus brought in by a space freighter. They ask for superhuman assistance in curing the plague. When the group appears, every adult alien has died, leaving an entire planet full of children to be raised. What's more, the children on "Planet: Orphanage" are developing powers. Note: If a dead planet is too dark for your setting, you can have the adults only appear to be dead--placed in a mass coma state while their children "evolve".

Space Crusade - An alien spacecraft appears on Earth, not to invade, but to ask Earth's superheroes to help them invade another planet. It seems a brutal dictator has overthrown a previously peaceful planet, and some space authority has called for a "Space Crusade" to free the planet. This could be a straightforward defeat-the-dictator adventure, or allow you to introduce other potential allies/opponents in the motley space alliance formed around the liberation of the planet.

Reboot Madness - Alternate versions of your heroes appear, claiming that something which happened six adventures ago caused the entire timeline to reboot. Because the heroes were the ones present at the reboot, their alternate timeline doubles are the only ones who remember the change. They call for the heroes to help them change things back, but as they start to investigate, they realize the other timeline is much darker than the one the player characters "remember". Do they help change to a darker setting, or refuse their counterparts outright. Note: You can play this straight and have the counterparts be correct, or you can have them be impostors sent by one of the team's longtime enemies.

More Champions Plot Seeds

Here are five bare-bones ideas that are always good for a subplot or full adventure, which usually fit just about any hero. These are good for putting the spotlight on the player who has complained about not getting enough camera time by giving them a little subplot or (in the last case) throwing a curve ball to powergamers and weak characters alike.

Lawsuit - Remember that battle with that random supervillain last month? Now a local citizen named Joe Stuckey is suing one of the heroes, claiming the battle caused damage to his property and lingering health problems.

Trial by Combat - One of the team members has been chosen by a random individual to take his place in a "Trial by Combat", either in an alien, transdimensional, or time-travel setting. Losing (or refusing) the duel will result in the death of the person on trial.

Mr. Irrelevant - It turns out the Oakland Raiders, desperate to turn around their franchise, drafted one of the team members with the last pick in the recent NFL Draft. Now Al Davis and cronies are trying to sign him to a lucrative contract.

Rotten Tomatoes - A thinly-veiled movie satirizing one of the characters is suddenly released, which portrays the character in the worst possible light. To make things worse, the film opens to rave reviews and large crowds.

A Day in the Life - (This is a metagaming idea based on an old comics trope.) At the start of the session, have each player pass their character sheet to the player on their left. Then announce that a blue light suddenly fills the room they are in, and their minds have been switched into the body of a teammate--the one whose character sheet they now possess.

The great thing about superhero roleplaying is that virtually any idea can be worked into the campaign. With the ability to traverse time and space, any idea you have is customizable for your games. Just remember to include a conflict with a chance at resolution, a few interesting non-player characters, and a couple of places to have a knock-down, drag-out battle.