Help me keep the PCs in a Heroes-esque supers game working together

[RangerWickett]

I could use some brainstorming help.

I'm planning on starting up a modern supers game, but not a superhero game. Rather, I want something like, um, a well-written version of Heroes. However, I'm looking for a bevvy of ideas on how to keep the group together.

What I have planned so far is a sort of Cthulhu mythos/Grimm's fairy tales hybrid with a coating of biopunk superhumanism. Basically, each PC one way or another is exposed to a retrovirus that grants them the ability to tap into a normally dormant extradimensional energy field, which is technobabble for, "They're some of the first people with superpowers in the modern day."

But the retrovirus was adapted from (presumably) long dead creatures who possessed seemingly magical powers because they too could tap into this energy field. Some researchers at the Emory University genetics lab in Atlanta, while investigating a cryptozoological entity (i.e., that "fake bigfoot" found in Georgia last year), stumbled across a way to grant people the power to the do the same.

I have a lot of ideas for events that will crop up, but I guess what I'm lacking is a main plot arc to tie everything together. I'm thinking of having a reporter for a local indie newspaper track them each down and get them in touch with each other as part of researching an article on strange goings-on in Atlanta (and I'll have each player come up with some mildly public manifestation of their power that could attract a reporter's attention). But I'm trying to think up reasons for them to work together.

I could do the easy thing and say, "You're all already friends/coworkers/relatives," or the cliched, "The government is trying to capture you all," or "Doctor Amazing wants to train you how to use your powers so you can fight crime." But I want to have a set-up that isn't so common in comics, and that gives the PCs a chance to grate on each other and have some in-fighting. I trust my players enough that I can do this without ruining their fun, as long as I give them a common reason to work together.

 

[hopeless]

Heroesque game

What if this retrovirus only works for certain people meaning that those that do gain these abilities are being sought out by those that don;t for the purposes of finding out how they can do what they can do.

Say they've been the recipient of a flu vaccine or are merely descendants of a member of an exploration team that found your crypto creature and were unknowingly infected with the effects happening after they returned and left to live their normal lives...

Perhaps you have villainous descendants of these people who are aware of what they can do or even survivors of these creatures who are being hunted for their abilities or are seeking to gain the upper hand in their war with the virus called humanity...

Perhaps you should suggest an opening scene where your players are all present say something happens and they're forced to act or have their abilities manifest like one is locked in a burning room and teleports or phases through the door in a panic trying to escape another might be being targetted by some mysterious figure in shadow and manages to escape when he targets someone else by mistake...

How do you want to handle this campaign or game of yours do you have preconceived visions of where you want your series to lead to?

 

[Herobizkit]

Have the PC's obtain their powers,and then give each PC a "buddy". When the PC and "buddy" are in close proximity, they can augment each other's powers or generate new ones. The "buddy" can (and should be) another PC. Depending on the size of your PC base, maybe the group of them together can produce something miraculous and world-changing, or perhaps their powers don't work at ALL unless they're in close proximity to each other...

If you're going all Cthulu, perhaps each of the PC's receives their powers from an otherworld/ancient entity that inhabits their bodies. These entities could all part of the same mythos (all Asgardian or Olympian, say) and are using the PC's to do THEIR bidding. What's more, these entities are self-aware and chat regularly with each other and the PC's. (I stole the idea from the Persona series of games on the PS2)

Just imagine that, in D&D, every PC had an intelligent weapon, and each weapon was working towards a common goal... something like that.

And by the by, I completely enjoyed season 1 and 2 of Heroes... didn't see anything wrong with the writing.

 

[RangerWickett]

Did you watch Season 3?

 

[TarionzCousin]

Have the PC's obtain their powers,and then give each PC a "buddy". When the PC and "buddy" are in close proximity, they can augment each other's powers or generate new ones. The "buddy" can (and should be) another PC. Depending on the size of your PC base, maybe the group of them together can produce something miraculous and world-changing, or perhaps their powers don't work at ALL unless they're in close proximity to each other... .

Don't take their powers away. Players hate that.

Instead, give them horrible side effects if they don't work together: painful mutations, increasing chance of failure, culminating in collapsing unconscious and potentially helpless in front of the enemy combatants.

 

[Angellis_ater]

Honestly? Steal the one really good reason for sticking together Heroes produced (and yeah, the writing went haywire with Heroes - seems Kring didn't know where to go): Serial Hero-Eater. Make them targets. Fear and danger drives people to either self-implode or co-operate. It's natural.

Introduce a Sylar, one which likes a challenge. Have him devour (and I mean devour, not the fiddly crap Gabriel Gray does) a bunch of heroes and it hitting the news. Make sure his Modus Operandi is well-known (terrorizing his victims?) and start hitting the players up with "pre-meal" tactics. Perhaps your "Sylar" is tired of eating single goons and to "up his ante" he is driving them together in the hopes of producing a true challenge.

For more fun. Make him a Professor at Emory University, thus giving him knowledge of who has these potential powers. Want to make it even MORE fun? Have him appear as a mentor, someone who wants to help them as part of his research. That way, your Sylar manipulates the entire scenario for his own benefits, while giving the group reason to work together and get to know eachother.

 

[Herobizkit]

Did you watch Season 3?

Actually, I haven't. I have heard buzz that the writing in Heroes went left field. I was disappointed that Season 2 was so short, and assumed that the 'poor writing' cries were a result of that. Now I am afeared to see Season 3.

 

[am181d]

Thinking as I type...

You may want to explore separate motivations: one needs money, one craves fame, one has experienced a personal tragedy, etc. In my experience, if each character has something at stake that's rooted in their character background, it's going to provide the richest possible campaign. It also means that you have lots of different plot hooks to work together instead of just one.

If you do go that way, there is one piece of inspiration you can take from Heroes: look for ways that you can tie character back stories together in surprising ways. It doesn't have to be as simple as "they're brothers." But if one character wants revenge on a particular organization, maybe another character worked there years ago. If one character writes a column for a newspaper, maybe another reads it religiously.

Or, to put it another way, imagine that each character has a piece of paper that says "I want to do X" with a list of 5-10 steps they might take to help them achieve X. Item 3 on Player 1's list may be Item 4 on Player 4's list and Item 3 on Player 4's list may be Item 7 on Player 3's list.

Those lists could be conceptual, or you could work with players to come up with concrete lists. In my experience, modern day games need some level of pre-work along these lines, as they tend to be more open ended then fantasy quest games, but you may have something different in mind...

 

[GSHamster]

Maybe the original scientist at Emory University was very rich, and has recently passed away. In his will, because of his guilt at what he did, he bequeaths large sums of money to the subjects, but there are conditions.

Maybe this scientist was murdered, and there are indications that the murderer will come after the PCs.

Basically, you have the executors of the estate gather a variety of people who don't know each other in the same room to hear the reading of the Will. It makes how the group meets into the same vein as the rest of the story.

 

[fba827]

Kind of the idea of the reporter, but more anonymous.

They each received a letter.
It could have been threatening "Go to place X and ask around about Y or else we'll kill your family"
It could have been exposing "I know about your secret. to make sure no one else knows, go to place X and wait for instructions from a person Y (the description being that of another as-cluseless PC who is there)"
It could have seemed innocent "I heard you're an expert in your field. There is a big discovery at X, if you can meet my team there, there will be a big commision for you."
And so on...

Maybe each person got a different themed letter but they were all from the same person. But the PCs never meet the person who sent it... it remains "the mysterious organization" (until perhaps much much later)