d20 Superheroes...suggestions for setting sourcebook?

[danbuter]

As I voted "Some combination of above", here's my thought...

It should incorporate:
Modern
Grim and Gritty
and some Humor

I agree with this.

 

[Ranger REG]

I wasn't thinking of any product in particular, REG, and I don't mean to suggest that all created-for-the-RPG settings are equal. I haven't reviewed Freedom City in any detail.

Really? Because you described Freedom City to a tee, with the exception of your negative connotation.

And frankly, Freedom City might be good, but Stan & Jack did it better.

Because it's New York, home of the Avengers, Fantasic Four, Spider-Man, etc.?

I can see, however, where a blank slate [or a relativley sparse created-for-the-RPG setting] might be to other people's liking. d20 Modern seems to be adopting more of a toolkit approach, though, and I don't know if a full setting book is necessary for that.

If it's anything like Urban Arcana, it would just add props or element details (including NPCs notables) to "dress" up whatever city you choose, existing or completely homebrewed.

But if you're not using Earth as the premises of your setting, then maybe the book should suggest a campaign world in which everyone is super-powered.

 

[JPL]

Really? Because you described Freedom City to a tee, with the exception of your negative connotation..

Really. I've only thumbed through the book once, long enough to admire the art.

Of course, this minigame I'm designing for EN Publishing deals with a lot of pulp archetypes, so maybe I'm being a hypocrite...

Because it's New York, home of the Avengers, Fantasic Four, Spider-Man, etc.? ..

Because Stan and Jack [and Steve] did it right.

I grant that pastiche characters can keep the essense of the character without all the baggage they tend to accumulate...but I'm a big comic nerd, and I LIKE that baggage, and I find it a lot easier to throw people into Marvel NYC rather than educate them in the ways of a new setting.

If it's anything like Urban Arcana, it would just add props or element details (including NPCs notables) to "dress" up whatever city you choose, existing or completely homebrewed...

I think this would be a good way to go --- keep things pretty modular.

But if you're not using Earth as the premises of your setting, then maybe the book should suggest a campaign world in which everyone is super-powered.

I was thinking "Strikeforce: Morituri" would be a good one to riff on.

 

[Henry]

Because Stan and Jack [and Steve] did it right.

I grant that pastiche characters can keep the essense of the character without all the baggage they tend to accumulate...but I'm a big comic nerd, and I LIKE that baggage, and I find it a lot easier to throw people into Marvel NYC rather than educate them in the ways of a new setting.

As a GM, you can't underestimate the power of stereotypes. "Spider-man" is a stereotype, as well as a character. When someone says "Spider-man" or if you get to play "Spider-man", then the hearer immediately knows how Spider-man acts, what his big problems in life are, his depth of character, etc. (unless they're unfamiliar with western culture). In the same way that 1 picture is worth a thousand words, gaming in a setting well-known to the player is a huge time-saver and mood-setter.

 

[JPL]

As a GM, you can't underestimate the power of stereotypes. "Spider-man" is a stereotype, as well as a character. When someone says "Spider-man" or if you get to play "Spider-man", then the hearer immediately knows how Spider-man acts, what his big problems in life are, his depth of character, etc. (unless they're unfamiliar with western culture). In the same way that 1 picture is worth a thousand words, gaming in a setting well-known to the player is a huge time-saver and mood-setter.

I agree.

Here's one...A little while back, I had a semi-serious pitch for a White Wolf-style game called Hero: The Awakening.

Unbreakable meets Smallville with big scoops of Joseph Campbell.

Theme [because White Wolf games have themes]: The hero's journey.

This used to be a world of superheroes. About twenty years ago, in the midst of a great crisis, reality was rewritten, and the Heroes were removed from the continuum as if they never existed [although their memories somehow lingered, in our myths and comic books].

Now, that old reality is starting to bubble up into the new one. This all seems to have started [or accelerated] around 9/11, as if the extraordinary heroism shown by ordinary people on that day rekindled something in the human spirit. In times of extraordinary stress, ordinary men and women discover that they can fly, or are faster than a speeding bullet, or more powerful than a locomotive. The powers vary, but all of these Heroes have a side effect called the Mask, which keeps them from being recognized and clouds the memories of regular folks who observe super powers in action.

Two problems — first, other elements from the old universe are also fading in, from lost cities to alien conquerors. Second, not everyone who receives great power will accept great responsibility, and many will use these powers for selfish, even evil, purposes.

 

[jdrakeh]

...the sample setting I used for some of the iconic characters was a weird neo-Enlightenment fantasy London.

Providence took the opposite approach, really - rather than bringing elements of fantasy into our own history and meshing them with four-color supers, they took the idea of four-color supers and dropped it into a 'traditional' fantasy setting. Think Greyhawk with four-color superhumans, except played almost entirely 'straight' (there was very little humor in Providence).

Since then, I took this setting, and have in my own mind at least integrated it with the setting of Elements of Magic - Mythic Earth, so that fey England is a land of industrial revolution and superheroes. The setting originally was intended as "Men in Black" meet fantasy, but now the Men in Black are also keeping secret the existence of superheroes.

That has much more in common with Providence, except that it seems quite a bit darker. That said, I'd sure like to see your setting in print. Original stuff like this would bring me back into the fold as a fan of supers roleplay. I used to love supers RPGs, but I could only stomach so many 'tight spandex + big city' supers settings (all of which seem to run together after a while).

Stuff like Providence and the setting that you describe is what the supers RPG niche needs to liven it up - not yet another generic set of rules for people in tight spandex who fight crime in a New York City knock-off (we've got more than enough of those).

 

[kroh]

One of the great things that the mid to late nineties saw was a type of Ronin (tossed about by the waves) style of comic book writing and art pioneered by guys like Image and Vertigo and in some cases Dark Horse when they decided to throw out some of the tights and go a littel more gritty. Although he wore something that looked like tights, Spawn hit the scene and showed us that great heroes didn't always start that way (Cape...check...Chains...Check....HOLY FREEKIN ARSENAL...hehehe...Check). Then you had instances like the Darkness and Withcblade that showed us that you could take a cliche' and turn it into something that would capture peoples attention. Sandman, Death, EVil Ernie (heh) and the list goes on. The thing about The Superhero genre that gets people isn't so much the tights (please god some one draft a petition to loose the tights...Blob from marvel comics in skimpies...{{{shiver}}}) but the fact that cool powers and the ability to "get it done" really appeals to people. The powers thing is just a metaphore anyway. Look at Batman. That character speeks to a lot of people because he could be anyone (who throws his life aside to train as much as would be required).

If some one is going to put out a setting, it shouldn't be released as a single setting cuz then you are only covering a single facet of comics. How about an overiding setting that breaks down into several locations. And you can sell certain locations during certain times of the year. Put out the over-riding source book and then the update locations as cheap PDFs. Gotham from January to March. Metropolis from blah blah... and have different thrid party publishers do the updates. That is the great thing about different comic companies... when you got sick of Magneto trashing New York...you could always visit the Joker.

I know...pipe dream...but this is comics...anything is posible.
Regards,
Walt

 

[Stormborn]

Thinking about setting books I think there is one superhero genre that hasn't been well covered in a setting book: the cosmic heros. I am talking about a book that details major races and their empires, cosmic entities like Galactacus, ancient and not so ancient artifacts like Infinity Gems and star ships, intergalactic organizations like the Green Lantern Corps or L.E.G.I.O.N or the Dark Circle, and of course a timeline of all of those Kree/Skrull/Shiar wars and their visits to earth.

Now that kind of book I would love.

 

[WizarDru]

Quite honestly, I think d20 Superheroes is going to it's clock cleaned. M&M has been there, done that and done it well for a few years, now. They've got a lot of supplements, a solid set of rules and a broad base of fan support. ONe of my personal favorites was the DC Animated Universe conversions that someone did, converting all of the DCAU characters into M&M stats. They then started doing Marvel, as well.

I don't doubt that d20 Superheroes will succeed and be reasonably well done...but I think that most people who really wanted superhero gaming already have what they want, and WotC's effort won't be compelling enough to convince folks to go after it.

And here's another shout out for Freedom City: it's a brilliant setting book, giving you everything you need to run a game, with or without statistics. The Annual also had some really good material, especially the Claremont's School for Gifted Youngsters stuff.

 

[JPL]

Quite honestly, I think d20 Superheroes is going to it's clock cleaned.

Indeed. Although none of us have seen d20 Super Heroes yet, and although there will be no quantifiable measure of either game's objective overall quality, and although we we likely never see sales figures from a knowledgable source as to either game, I nevertheless fully expect the designers of d20 Super Heroes to commit ritual suicide sometime next summer, perhaps leaving some sort of note admitting the superiority of M&M. While it will be a tragic loss of life...when you get into game design, you know the risks involved.