Ebberon as a Superheroes Campaign

[R_kajdi]

Alright, this idea is coming a bit out of left field, but I think it may have some sliver of merit, so I was wondering what people thought of it:

I've heard alot of people mention that mid to high level D&D sort of pushes away from the strict old-school fantasy genre, and more towards what has been described to me as "super heroes with swords". My idea sort of expounds on this concept: What if I set out to make a campaign that plays this metaphor to the hilt, meaning that the characters may literally be superheores in their own right, with all the genre conventions that go along with it? (costumes, odd plot twists, constant character revivals, ect)

Just to increase accessibility, and to also reduce my base workload, I was planning on using a per-made setting, and then twist it to be what I was looking for. To me Ebberron seemed the logical choice, since it a) Is new, meaning there is little cruft to get in the way, b) It's relatively cosmopolitan, so that it fits the genre better than most c) I already have all three hardcovers, and d) it's been designed for the 3rd D&D, so that it fits the system very tightly.

Here's my base pitch. Note that I also cribbed some elements from Bubblegum Crisis (which is a a very superheroic anime to being with):

YK 998. Everyone thought the Treaty of Thronehold halted the creation of Warforged. They guessed wrong. From the depths of Sharn’s Cogs, countless ‘Forged crawled forth, ready to seemingly do battle with the citizens of the City of Towers. These models were unlike the ones used during the Last War—blades and hammers adorned their bodies, and they lacked the level of understanding and interaction that the normal models had. For over a week, Sharn buckled under the forced of these ‘Forged’s, nicknamed Boomers, attack. The Breland army was eventually able to clear out the upper areas of the city, but the Boomers remained intact, returning to the lower levels of the Cog to lick their wounds.

The year is now YK 1003. Sharn is rebuilt somewhat, but whole areas of the lower towers still remain decimated and uninhabited. Boomers attacks are still somewhat common, but not as deadly as during their initial appearance. A new security organization, the Advanced Defense Police, has been formed to investigate and halt Boomers activity. Still, the common citizen has seen little relief, as the Boomers continue to take their anger out on the city and its denizens. ADP has done an acceptable job of stemming the tie, but still the Boomers control the lower Cogs of the city, and all ADP investigative teams sent into the Cogs have not returned. Recently, a new group of heroes has emerged to give the citizens hope. Calling themselves the Knight Sabers, these silver clad warriors have defeated several Boomers deemed too hard to handle by the ADP. Despite being wanted vigilantes and meddlers, the average man on the street has begun to pin his hopes on the Knight Sabers’ campaign to rid the city of its Boomer problem. Several other copycat heroes have begun to sprout up in the city, being where the Knight Sabers cannot always be, doing what they are too busy to do. In recent months, the frequency of Boomer attacks has been increasing, thought the reasoning behind this. The situation is looking grim, and the fate of the city is still balanced on a knife blade. What exactly will happen is anyone’s guess, but it is almost certain that the Knight Sabers, their protégés, and the ADP will all be involved…

Any comments or suggestions? Anybody out there tried anything similar and have any advice on the subject?

Ray

 

[R_kajdi]

Not to be inconsiderate or anything, but nobody has any ideas/suggestions/comments on this concept? I guess I must have posted to the wrong forum (would house rules have been better?)

 

[JoeBlank]

I think you posted in the right forum, not sure why you have no responses yet.

The idea sounds like fun to me, both for those who like the superhero genre and the fantasy genre. Years ago I had an idea for a Champions/Fantasy Hero game where the PCs were a group of superpowered characters involved in a large-scale fight, some of them good and some not good. Something happens and they are all transported back in time, or to a fantasy world that is not quite Earth's past. In the comics, this would be a mini-series or an story arc, which is resolved with the heros finding a way back home. But the idea would be there is no way back, and the superpowered characters have to figure out how to make their way in this world.

Several character concepts came to mind that would be interesting, including a cyborg or power-suit character who would have to carefully manage his resources, having no source for new fuel, ammunition or quality repairs.

Rules-wise, is your idea just pretty much core rules, but the characters act and are treated like superheroes? Or would you incorporate and alternative rules to make them more superheroish?

 

[Henry]

First of all, This seems more a "plot development" thread than a "house rules" thread, so this is a good place for it. Second, I'd wait a day or so before saying no one has a contribution, because sometimes it can take a day or two before the whole community can get a gander at it. Bumping it once a day is cool, though.

As for the idea, I've never tried it, though it sounds like with the right group it could have merit. Are you considering running it with high-level D&D, or is it possible the Mutants and Masterminds or another Super-hero system might be a better match? It might be interesting to run around with a bunch of high-level characters named The White Knight, or Merrix, Master of Magics, though!

 

[carpedavid]

I think it's a perfectly spiffy idea, and a perfectly natural extenstion of high-level play. If you just add the idea of "celebrity" to a high-level campaign, you've pretty much got super-heroes.

I'd love to see how it plays out.

 

[Seeten]

I'd love to play Miss America, champion of the people and indestructible heroine of liberty in a new setting, so I guess it would sound good to me!

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

That sounds like lots of fun.

You should consider picking up Four-Color to Fantasy at RPGNow. Great little d20 supers book, that works for Modern and D&D.

 

[Bront]

I think this sounds like a very fun idea. Stylish, and honestly not too out there for a fantasy campaign. Fits perfectly with the pulpish feel, with a big leaning towards high adventure, of Eberron as well.

On a side note, I just started a thread looking for someone to DM an Eberron campaign in a PbP in the Talking the Talk area(here). If you want to try testing this out here in a Play by Post format, feel free to hijack that thread and I'd love to play.

 

[R_kajdi]

Well my logic was to basically take the current rules to D&D and just do a couple of quick tweeks to make it work. The idea was that the heroes were going to start at 5th level, with 32 points for stats. The whole heroing thing is just starting up in Sharn, so most people would be competent heroes, but not spectacular (that will be at the higher levels like 13-15)
The fact that by level 5-6 you are supposed to be a celebrity by some references in S:CoT helps out with the whole superhero fame & fortune thing.

Ruleswise, I was just including two rules away from the standard: reserve points (from AU) and using hero points for dramatic editing of a scene (to just happen to find a sword/wand/bow that was dropped, exactly when/where you need it) Both of these fit the genre very well, and also give the players greater control of the system (a little part of the whole collective storytelling thing)

I now just need to write up a couple of example characters to show how to bend the system to fit a concept. Here are a couple of concept characters that I came up with (feel free to add your own or comment on how I could improve these):

* Deathless - (Undying Soldier Paladin 1) In his life he was a common soldier, killed in the conflicts of the Last War. Now, ten years later, he has been recalled from his rest on the Isle of the Dead by the Eternal Court, and been given one last mission to complete before his final, long rest. Some of his memories of the world (and much of his original personality)are now gone, which may make for some interesting encounter with those he knew before
his second birth.

* Clockwork - (Warforged Artifacer 5) A mysterious defender of the people, this warforged never shows his true fac (hidden by an odd mask) while protecting Sharn from numerous Boomer attacks. What is his true identity, and why does he hide behind a mask?

The really big changes from the DM/design side of things are that there's basically no looting (equipment/wealth comes from less typical sources- think mysterious benefactors/improved contact with your god/ect) and that the encounter scheme is a bit different ( less encounters, but most are in the +0-2 CR region)

Ray

 

[JoeBlank]

This does sound fun. I like when a DM changes the entire feel of the game with very few rules changes. The pulp feel of Eberron is a great starting point for this too.

Will you be allowing classes other than core? It would be interesting to make a superhero out of the Warlock class from Complete arcane. A couple levels of sorcerer would also be a neat way to add a few superhero-like poweres to another class.

Are you enforcing the multiclassing restrictions? Might be a good idea to allow more multiclassing, so PCs can dip into classes such as sorcerer to create unique characters.