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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 5545255" data-attributes="member: 151">I'm going to assume you meant to say 'and NOT something', there.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />So, you want to do something unusual for a superhero campaign.  You'll find that a little tougher than you might think.  Superheroes have covered a pretty wide base just in the last 30 years, let alone the last 70.  However, superhero RPGs cover far less ground.  Let's look at a few options.<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Film Noir / Pulp  -  These aren't entirely the same genre, but for purposes of our argument, let's group them.  This should be a low powered setting, but it doesn't have to be.  It's grim, dirty and more like a detective story than an epic of superheroes.  Spiderman Noir is an example of low-powered...most of the heroes/villains are circus freaks and only barely superhuman.  In the other direction, we have '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incognito_(comics)" target="_blank">Incognito</a>', in which Pulp science heroes and villains do very bad things just out of the sight of normal society.  Heroes and villains are powerful, but their war is kept mostly out of sight and when that's not possible, covered up as to its severity.  Some people exist outside the two major factions, but they live a truly dangerous life.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">SPAAAAACE! /Cosmic - Superheroes here fall into the 'cosmic' category.  Two typical examples are the Legion of Superheroes, who are your textbook future/sf superheroes and Marvel's 'Cosmic' heroes, which include the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Silver Surfer.  Space heroes can just be SF with super-powers...many such characters in the genre are just aliens with racial powers.  You can see this in other such titles as L.E.G.I.O.N. or S.W.O.R.D.  Cosmic heroes are the Superhero genre's version of Epic characters.  They deal with galactic wars, cosmic entities and Very Big Threats.  Nova, Adam Warlock and anything that has Thanos or Annihilus falls into this category.  Some heroes move between the genres, such as the Green Lantern Corps.  They can just be space cops...or they can be the last defense against the invading undead hordes.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Fantasy Superheroes - Superheroes in more traditional D&D style fantasy usually eschew costumes and some genre conventions.  A better example here would come from Manga and Anime.  For grim and gritty, look to Berserk.  For comedy, look to Ruin Explorers or Sorceror Hunters.  Dozens of other variations exist.  Such characters might assume what would be genre standard names: Sir Morgan the Red Axe, for example.  Their super-powers might be from magic, ancient martial arts mastery or just being a half-dragon.  They are, for all logical purposes, superheroes.  They just don't wear spandex.  Any story you want to tell with fantasy characters will work with Fantasy superheroes.  You may make supers special characters, like the Deryni...rare beings from a dying race, hated and feared by others but blessed with unique powers.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Mythological Superheroes - Variation on the Fantasy theme.  The characters aren't like gods.  They ARE gods.  Or at least demi-gods.  The fact that so many mythical characters are used in comics should show how easy it is to reverse engineer this.  A campaign based on Marvel's Thor having adventures in Asgard would easily fit this bill, or their Hercules.  Conversely, you could do Percy Jackson, with mythological characters in modern times.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> Golden Age - Revisited - Taking a turn from James' Robinson's "Golden Age" or Darwyn Cooke's "New Frontier", make a campaign set in a previous age...but with modern sensibilities.  Does Batman kill?  Does Wonder Woman support Vietnamese rape victims?  Was Hal Jordan flying over Korea?  Making a Golden Age game that isn't the simple subtext of the original stories can recontextualize everything.  Of course, Alan Moore's 'Watchmen' does this at it's darkest and most brilliant.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> Fables - Bill Willingham's Fables is tailor-made for a Supers game.  Most of the characters are immortal beings with strange powers, hiding among us.  Many of them are easily recognized, but changed from what we know.  Little Boy Blue armed with the Vorpal Sword and the Witching Cloak fighting Baba Yaga's Knight of the Day, for example.  Following the rules of Fabletown while trying to survive in a hostile world?  Great stuff.</li> </ol></blockquote>

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