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

[Herobizkit]

Never mind Captain Planet, have you been reading Freakangels by Warren Ellis?

I LOL'd at Captain Planet because a) I DID think of Captain Planet when I wrote it and b) Captain Planet is a great concept that I'd like to use for a game someday (someone with multiple Body of [Elemental Power]s).

I'm gonna read Freakangels now, though.

 

[wolff96]

If you're going with a retrovirus, I would borrow something from the "Wild Card" series that George R. R. Martin used to edit. (Bonus humor points, since that short story compilation series started from a Heroic P'n'P game).

The retrovirus was developed by the university. However, one of the researchers found out that a prime investor in the development was the military/criminal organization/space aliens whatever. He intended to take the information (and virus) public. He told some of his co-workers, destroyed vast swathes of the research information, and called a press conference. Before he could reveal the secret, he was assassinated and the virus inadvertantly released -- maybe he was carrying a sample in a test tube that got crushed when he fell.

All the PCs were (for whatever reason) around to be exposed. Maybe it happened in a museum they were visiting, maybe the scientist fled into a mall, whatever works for your players.

Of those exposed, 89% died. 10% were degenerated into the ancient creatures that could tap into the ancient power as well and went beserk. 1% survived and were empowered -- the PCs.

It lets you drop them into a 'power discovery' fight right off the bat, gives some early foes in the form of the mutants, and presents an initial mystery of "who is that guy that got murdered and what just happened". And it gives you a shadowy organization right off the bat -- I would have the assassin killed by the virus, but have some identifying mark, tattoo, or other recognizable feature.

They are the only survivors of a mass-death, which means that if the authorities aren't behind the virus, they WILL have questions. The intial backers are having trouble re-creating the formula, so they want their only successful guinea pigs. Maybe some surviving scientists want to help them. And there's always the original race that the powers came from in the first place who might have a part to play...

It also allows a nasty plot point in the future -- can the PCs cause the same type of mass-infection and death that they saw in the mall? How do they prevent another catastrophe when the shadowy group tries again?

 

[Alzrius]

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.

At the risk of being completely shameless, I wrote a prestige class for this (for 3.5 and d20 Modern) called the Powerphage. It's pretty clearly modeled directly off of Sylar and his ability to kill and steal the powers of others.

[/self-promotion]

 

[Ydars]

Need some feedback here boss (Rangerwickett)! Which of the various options on the thread are you liking/not liking or have you got enough stuff?

Happy to try and brainstorm somemore though.