Beginning characters in the Champions Universe are built as Standard Superheroic characters, with 400 Total Points (including 75 Matching Complications points). Other guidelines for Standard Superheroic characters generally apply. Chapter Six has more information about campaign ground rules and the like, but don’t read that section without GM’s permission.
Generally speaking, superpowers and Char- acteristics don’t have to be tightly related in the Champions Universe — superpowers often interact with human bodies and brains in very unpredictable ways. For most characters they tend to be tightly related; for example, a “brick” has high STR, CON, PD, ED, BODY, and STUN, while a “speedster” has a high DEX and SPD. But it’s by no means uncommon for a hero with any type of superpowers to have a higher than normal STR, DEX, SPD, or other Characteristics. Some scien- tists theorize that superpowers in general “ener- gize” the human body, making it function more effectively overall. The Striking Appearance Talent also occurs much more often among the super- human population than the overall population. See 6E1 48-49 for Characteristics comparison information that applies to the Champions Universe. But of course, a Champions Universe character doesn’t have to have Superhuman-range Characteristics to be considered a “superhuman.” The Superhuman label is simply a convenient one for defining a specific threshold. Being a superhuman depends primarily on having super- human abilities of some sort, or an appropriately superhuman origin for one’s Characteristics, not on crossing the “Superhuman” threshold. For example, look at Victory in the Appendix. None of her main Characteristics fall into the 31+ range for “Superhuman” in the Champions Universe, but she’s clearly superhuman — she can fly, fire energy bolts, and so forth.
SPECIES
Most characters in the Champions Universe are human. However, that’s not the only option avail- able for player characters; there are a number of lost races, alien species, and the like in the setting as well. See Chapter Four for details.
s with any Champions campaign, it’s important for a GM running a game set in the Champions Universe to under- stand how superpowers can exist, and what sources they come from, and just how many superhumans there are running around out there.
The Champions Universe is what Champions describes, on page 122, as an “unlimited source” campaign. All of the major sources of superpowers that book describes — Alien Species, Extradi- mensional Energies, Genetic Manipulation, Magic and Mysticism, Mutation, Psionic Powers, Super-Science, Supernatural Forces, and Training — exist in the Champions Universe and can give rise to superpowers. And they’re not necessarily the only sources, just the major ones; some super- humans have powers whose nature and source don’t fit neatly into one (or even several) of these categories.
Here are some examples of Champions Universe characters with each of the main sources of superpowers (see the Appendix, Champions, or
Champions Villains for their character sheets).
Alien Species: Firewing, Ironclad, Herculan, Nebula, Vibron
Extradimensional Energies: Tesseract, many energy projectors
Genetic Manipulation: Dr. Silverback, Teleios
Magic and Mysticism: Dark Seraph, DEMON Morbanes, Takofanes, Talisman, Witchcraft
Mutation: Binary Man, Brainchild, Cateran, Gravitar, Hummingbird, Sapphire
Psionic Powers: Brainchild, Mentalla, Menton, Psimon
Super-Science: Ankylosaur, Binder, Defender, the Warlord
Supernatural Forces: Morningstar, Samhain
Training: Black Mask, Green Dragon, Nightwind, Shugoshin
Similarly, Champions describes on pages 73-74 the most common “origins” for superhuman char- acters. All of those types of origins, and others, exist in the Champions Universe. Here are some examples of characters with each of the typical origins (most of these characters are described in other books):
Alien: Firewing, Ironclad, Herculan, Nebula, Vibron
Build Gadgetry: Binder, Defender, Steel Commando, Utility, the Warlord
Godly Ancestry/Bestowal: Anubis, Dark Seraph and the Crowns of Krim, DEMON Morbanes
Mental Training: Just about any superhuman with a lot of Skills
Mutant: Binary Man, Brainchild, Cateran, Gravitar, Hummingbird, Sapphire
Mystic Family/Race: the Sylvestris, the Vandaleurs
Mystical/Magical Training: Stingray, DEMON Morbanes, Takofanes, Talisman, Witchcraft
Physical Training: Black Mask, Mechassassin, Nightwind, Shugoshin, Utility
Radiation Accident: Kinetik, Tachyon, Thunder- bolt I (and II), Victory
Subject Of Experimentation: Dr. Silverback, Oculon, Pulsar, Ripper
However, this raises the question of how super- powers can exist at all. Ordinarily efforts to build powered armor fail, and people zapped by light- ning while standing in a laboratory full of strange chemicals die instead of manifesting superpowers. Yet, in the Champions Universe, some charac- ters can build super-tech devices, and some gain superpowers from things like radiation accidents.
In the Hero Universe (the “meta-setting” of which the Champions Universe is just one part), superpowers can exist because magic exists. The Hero Universe is suffused with magic. Sometimes, as in the distant past, the level of ambient magic rises to the point where virtually anyone can cast spells or control mystic forces, and the gods themselves walk the Earth. At other times, like the far future, the level of magic ebbs to such a low point that almost no one can practice it or use it,
superpowers cannot exist, and anything associated with either concept is generally regarded as super- stitious claptrap, a misunderstanding, the result of miscommunication and ignorance, or the like (in short, people come up with rational explanations for mystic phenomena and superpowers).
The level of ambient magic in the Hero Universe, and thus the Champions Universe, had remained quite low for several centuries prior to 1900. It began to rise again in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1938, it had risen to the point where RSvKg, a group of mystics working for the Nazis, were able to perform rituals that “forced” the level of ambient magic even higher in certain “directions.” Their intent was to magically propel Germany to world dominance. What actually resulted was a situation in which superpowers became possible.
Because of the ambient magic in the Cham- pions Universe, accidents that would normally kill or maim people sometimes — very rarely, but sometimes — cause the victims to manifest
superpowers instead. It also makes genetic mutations that create superpowers possible, and allows some extremely gifted inventors to create technology the general public can’t necessarily understand, use, or reproduce. However, this has
no effect on the special effects of any given charac-
ter’s superpowers. The special effects of Defender’s powers are “super-technology,” even though it’s the ambient magic that allows him to manufacture his suit of powered armor and make it work. The special effects of Sapphire’s powers are “mutation,” even though it’s magic that made so beneficial a mutation of her genes possible. Neither char- acter registers as in any way magical — because they’re not.
True superhumans first appear in the Hero Universe — in other words, the “Champions Universe” part of that meta-setting truly begins — in 1938. (Some low-powered superhumans may have existed before then, but those incidents were isolated and short-lived, the mere precur- sors of the flood to come). Initially, the number of superhumans was relatively low — about one in ten million, at most, and much lower than that in the less advanced regions of the world.
Over time, the number of superhumans steadily increased. By the late 1960s, it had reached one in five million in the most super- populous regions of the world, and by about 1980 it was at around one in three million. As of 2010 there’s approximately one superhuman for every one million people on Earth — or about 6,000 altogether, give or take a few hundred. However, that’s not the whole story of superhuman demo- graphics. There are several other factors to consider.
SuPErHuMAn DIStrIButIon
First, there’s the distribution issue. Superhu- mans aren’t spread evenly across the globe — you cannot, simply by consulting the population data for a country or continent, accurately gauge how many superhumans exist there. For reasons no one can satisfactorily explain, superhumans are more likely to arise in certain areas — primarily those areas that are more advanced technologi- cally, politically, and culturally. In short, super- humans exist in much greater frequencies in the First World (the United States, mainly, but also places like Europe and Japan) than in Third World regions. This even holds true for mystically- powered superhumans, despite the fact that mysticism is more prevalent in the Third World than the First. In the United States, the number of superhumans in some areas is as high as one per 100,000, whereas in Africa and most of Asia, the numbers drop as low as one per ten million or even fifty million. (See accompanying text box.)
KELVARITE
In 1996, a strange meteorite of unknown origin crashed to Earth in western Kentucky. An unusu- ally large specimen, the meteorite seemed to contain common minerals and metals, but emitted an unusual glow that caused the people who found it to alert the authorities, who in turn contacted experts at various universities. The meteorite proved to be mostly made of a glowing, greenish mineral hereto- fore unknown to Earth science. Dubbed, for reasons none of the scientists can now recall, “kelvarite,” the mineral defied most standard methods of analysis.
More importantly from the perspective of the Superhuman World, kelvarite proved oddly unstable and prone to explosions — disasters which some- times imbued ordinary humans with superpowers when their bodies were bombarded with fragments of kelvarite, or absorbed intense radiation given off by the blasts. The supervillains Tachyon and Thun- derbolt II both gained their powers in this fashion; many others may have as well.
Superhumans who gain their powers from kelvarite often exhibit powers involving high STR, fast or unusual forms of movement, and greater than normal resilience — in short, super-augmentations of their ordinary human capabilities — but not always. They also tend to have various Complica- tions in common, such as Susceptibilities (either to kelvarite itself, or to earth-related powers that effect the mineral fragments in their bodies). The bizarre kelvarite radiations also tend to make them more vulnerable to various attacks and effects, including Drains and electricity.
The exact amount of kelvarite on the planet remains unknown. All that was recovered from the Kentucky meteorite is kept carefully secure by the United States government or various research universities — but other meteorites may have fallen to Earth undetected, or been brought to this world by aliens.
Theories abound as to why this state of affairs exists. Some experts claim, and not without justifi- cation, that the “radiation accidents” which create many superhumans are more likely to occur in the high-tech environments of the First World. This does not, however, wholly explain why mystic- powered superhumans abound just as much in the First World.
Other students of the subject advance more esoteric theories. For example, one school of thought claims democracy and mass media attract more of the “forces” that create superhumans by building a more open, free-thinking society. In essence, theorists adopting this view believe superhumans result somehow from the uncon- scious thoughts and feelings of people, which are better or more frequently expressed in free soci- eties. Some even claim that the existence of comic books chronicling the adventures of superheroes — a media phenomenon mostly non-existent outside the First World — acts as a “lightning rod” to attract “superhuman energies,” thus making superhumans more common in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan. But proponents of these theories cannot explain why free-thinkers in democratic societies should be any more likely to create superhumans than oppressed or impover- ished Third Worlders yearning for a better life.
Even more radical are conspiracy-oriented theories that the movers and shakers of the First World arrange for the creation of superhumans as a way of keeping the Third World relegated to
The following chart indicates the approximate prevalence of super- humans in various regions of the world as of 2010.
Region One Superhuman Per...
North America
The United States One million to 100,000 Canada One million to 200,000 Mexico Twenty to five million Central America Twenty to six million
South America Twenty to three million
Europe
British Isles One million to 750,000 Western Europe One million
Eastern Europe Two million Russia Four to three million
Africa
Saharan Africa Seven million Subsaharan Africa Fifty to ten million
Asia
The Middle East Eight million Central Asia Fifty to ten million India Twenty to ten million Southeast Asia Fifty to ten million
China Five million
Japan One million
Oceania Fifty to ten million
Australia Five million
second-class status on Earth. No solid evidence in support of this idea has ever been made public, but that hasn’t stopped a lot of people from agreeing with it.