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

[roguerouge]

Hostages. Have the government be forcing them to work special ops. As the PCs rise in level, they start figuring out how to research where their loved ones are being held on the sly. Then, make it so that they need each other to do the rescues and that they need each other to get some pay back. Then, once all that is done... they can create a Brave New World together or apart or have their actions create one for them.

Very rail-roady, but it might work for a set of players that like revenge scenarios against Rat Bastard DM set-ups.

 

[Protagonist]

depending on the size of your pc base, maybe the group of them together can produce something miraculous and world-changing ...

captain planet!

 

[Wolfwood2]

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.

You could make it their problem and tell them to come up with a reason they're all working together. I think players understand that you're not going to run a separate game for each PC. You could just provide an IC introduction and then tell them out of game that their PCs better darn well decide to work together.

 

[Stormborn]

The retrovirus contains fragments of these anceint entities. The PCs are all infected with pieces of the same being. It doesnt think like us. They do not have a collective consciousness or anything, but they feel like they should work together. At first they don't know why, or come up with thier own rationalizations, and later when they start asking "why am I doing this" they find they simply can't leave. They get on each other's nerves, they develop bonds and conflicts, but are compeled to stay in touch with each other, to work togther to occasionally do inexplicable things. They are addicted to one another's presence, or at the very least communication. Addicted in the sense that they have developed a biochemical dependence on each other. The part of them that is the ancient entity resonates with the pieces of itself in the others, making them sick or confused if they part company for long periods of time. Increasingly shorter periods of time.

The entity has some ancient grudges, instictual likes and dislikes, that puts the PCs in conflict with other similarly infected groups. At some point they should find a fully intigrated group, one that does think and act with a single mind. They come into contact with others that they feel they should like, or get along with, but for some reason keep rubbing each other the wrong way. Some people that they don't like, or wouldn't, they feel compleled to help.

Explain to the players that there is a story reason for them to work together, or at least feel like they should, that will occasionally involve you telling them how they react to certain things, perhaps allowing some kind of Will save or similar mechanism if they try to fight it or go against the group or their instincts. React to the player's natural interaction to perhaps explain sub functions of the entitiy, its need to belong/to fight/to think rationally/etc.

Now, this may get a little horrific and may be an altogether different direction that you meant to go, but I think it would be very intersting to see it play out, and fun for the players to find out whats happening to them as it goes along.

 

[Ruined]

I always wanted to do something like this for a hero game, but the execution is tricky. Since you have a hand in how the heroes get their powers, maybe use some of the 'Hand of Fate' tricks that pull the PCs together in the same spot with a forced revelation of their powers. "Ah look, you all wind up in this loft in NYC."

I was using a government project that genetically modified the PCs before birth, but the project was canned and abandoned. The PCs were drawn there and then they have both the mystery of finding out the common history of their powers plus the shared goal of running from the government that wants to capture and examine them.

The Rising Stars comic by J.Michael Stracynski could be a great inspiration if you haven't read it.

Also, bear in mind that one of the strengths of first-season Heroes was the interaction of characters in pairs or occasionally trios. The finale was really the only time that you had a full compliment of pivotal characters. Unless you're a fan of lone wolf style characters, that rarely happens in group oriented games.

Good luck!

 

[Ydars]

I think the idea of a retrovirus is interesting and you can use the fact it is a virus to keep everyone together.

I would make the retrovirus have the following properties;

1) fatal to humans if not treated.

2) sensitive to a form of radiation known as Theta rays.

3) semi-sentient (though the PCs will not realise this for a long time).

I would start this campaign with the premise that the PCs have superpowers granted by the virus but that they have to return to a home-base every night for theta ray treatment or else they risk the virus a) infecting other humans and b) killing the PCs.

Now here is the thing that keeps the PCs together; the scientist who discovers the virus builds them a base that is fitted with theta ray emitters. The PCs have to sleep here to get 8 hours treatment (while they sleep) or else they will begin to experience nasty symptoms. I would make the base mobile; perhaps on a largish yacht and explain that this is so that the theta rays don't affect anyone else in the vicinity since such radiation is normally harmful to humans. Now the base can move with the campaign and you have an excuse to put the PCs in hazard.

For a campaign arc, I would do the following; the PCs enemy is their own unconscious mind directed by the retrovirus. The virus has evolved to spread and taps into the host mind, but can only gain control when they are asleep. The retrovirus then uses the host's mind to create a semi-sentient energy beast that acts to destroy those who oppose the virus and its spread. However, it can't harm the base because the base is emitting lots of theta radiation that would destroy the beast in an instant.

I would play this as if there is someone else "a mastermind", also with super-powers, stalking the party and trying to kill or hinderthem. For example, the scientist who helped them build the base is killed and several random people infected. Since these people have no theta treatment they will slowly go mad and infect other people and their super-powers will make them a menace. So you could have the PCs trying to track down and defeat these rogue super-monsters as the first part of your arc.

Yet the PCs own minds will oppose them when they are asleep. You could also have an archeologist who discovers mysterious tablets that relate the fall of the last civilisation infected by this virus. The virus does not want its secrets uncovered and so instinctively it reacts to destroy this man before he can decode the tablets. So now the PCs are trying to protect this man, but from themselves.................

If played right, you could keep the PCs guessing for a long time, as long as you keep them distracted with the consequences of their own unconscious actions. Most of the time, you should just hint that strange things are happening around the world that look like natural disasters etc

Atmosphere is obviously key to this type of campaign.

 

[RangerWickett]

Some great ideas here. I'll say more when it's not 3 in the morning.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

One thought is to give the PCs a common "benefactor," in that this is someone who can provide a certain benefit that the individual PC wants, but only by doing things for this benefactor. A good example of this kind of set-up would be the current Thunderbolts line-up in the Marvel Universe as run by Norman Osborn. It's pretty much a bunch of loner-type PCs that are working together for various reasons, some noble (honestly seeking to redemption), some not (one member simply doing this so they get a couple days a month to do whatever they want unsupervised and without legal ramifications). The PCs don't have to like the guy, but so long as he comes through on his end of the 'bargain' on a fairly routine basis, it might be in the PCs interest to play along.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

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...

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

 

[Mallus]

But I'm trying to think up reasons for them to work together.

Here's what I would do: give the players the basic set-up, let them create as diverse a group of characters as they want, and then make it their job to create --and maintain-- the reason they all work together. The aggregate intelligence and creativity of your players probably exceeds you're own, so use it!

(sorry if this is more meta than you were looking for, but I swear it's sound advice)