Living Superheroes World (Come join the fun and the debate)

[Phoenix]

December 24, 10:53pm, 1984.

Michelle looked out her bedroom window, peering through the falling snow that was slowly banking on the sides of the road. The light in her bedroom had been put out by her mother hours ago, else Father Christmas wouldn't come. But, with all this snow, could he make it to her house anyway?

The thought had kept her awake for hours, staring through the window at the street lamp outside. The streets of Boston had been snowed in for days now, and if there were thousands of people stuck at home for Christmas, then the North Pole's weather must be even worse.

Michelle fretted.

She checked her alarm clock, 10:55pm, still over an hour to go. On the horizon a faint green light appeared, moving across the sky. Michelle smiled, Santa could deliver presents anywhere through any weather.

The green light streaked across the sky, spreading the miracle of Christmas as it went. Michelle couldn't wait for the next morning though, desperately needing to know what ol' Saint Nick was bringing her.

Sneaking downstairs she tried to open her front door. Snow piled into the living room as she desperately stared out into the night sky, desperately wishing for the Barbie Californian Summer Playset.

The green light streaked across the sky, its green dust drifting into the snow, and into the eyes of the curious child. Michelle could feel her eyes tingle for a moment, then she walked upstairs and went to bed.

Lying there in the dark, she knew that her parents had been in the basement for hours wrapping her presents, and exactly what she was getting in the morning. She'd try to convince them that they were all a surprise, she was very good at that kind of thing...

****​

As an example of a non-specific comet-related background, the above is simply my example of how such an event could effect a young life without saying things along the lines of:

A comet came past, its radiation gave me powers.

In my view the comet/event need only be a vague event that no-one should really understand. That way its vagueness allows everyone to interpret their beginnings as they see fit.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

In my view the comet/event need only be a vague event that no one should really understand. That way its vagueness allows everyone to interpret their beginnings as they see fit.

Interesting, I like to know though. (Note: That doesn’t mean my character has a clue, that the world has one two, or if only a select few have an idea.)

The issue with the comet is that few people wouldn’t be exposed. We need something that binds the super powered humans together while at the same time separating them from the normals.

Without this strongly defined its going to become corrupted and then no one will know what's going on with it.

Note: I fully expect everyone to be able to keep OOC and IC knowledge separately.

Once we have this defined we can go with what the world as a whole believes, rather its true or not, and if there are any half baked ideas floating around from conspiracy theorist, PhDs, and others.


KO, I love your idea. but I think we should back up the appearance of the comet somewhat, say to a early 20th century doomsday (say 1910's event, pre WWI, or 1920’s post WWI event) and one that has come twice since then (late 1940's/1950’s and late 1970's/1980’s) and each time it has caused more cellular mutations.

Will the world end in when it comes late 2000’s/2010’s? Will the mutations it has caused allow for us to save ourselves? Should we save ourselves or are these changes our destiny?

 

[Phoenix]

February 8th, 2:50pm, 1939.
Hamburg, Germany.

Heinrich brushed the snow from his lab coat as he passed the soldiers that guarded the front of his office. There were more than ever now on the streets of Berlin, the Fuerer had more power than ever in Europe and the German war machine was in motion, much to the ignorance of some of the world.

After the comet passed over central Europe several months ago, Hitler had commissioned hundred of men to gather the fragments that had scattered across Germany and bring it in for testing as a potential weapon.

Placing his coat over the back of his chair, Heinrich looked into the microscope again. There was something about the rocks that were collected, something...different. Astrological charts, geological reports, medical studies and weapons program schematics were all scattered across the tables and walls of his room.

Reports had filtered in that some of the soldiers collecting the fragments were displaying strange side effects, as if they were being...altered by the comet's debris. Then why weren't others? He himself had been handling the rocks for weeks with no ill-effects, while one report placed a soldier bursting into flames at his first experiance with the rocks.

He had a theory, it was a wild one though.

Searching through his reports he found a biological analysis that suggested that the fragments were not solely geological in formation, there was speculation that there may be something biological in some of the fragments.

Of course!

Heinrich ran to the microscope, looking at the convex indentation in the fragment, then across to the medical report on the artilleryman who began displaying the ability to see through walls.

There it was, it was so simple.

Note: Profession Heinrich Shenk of the Division of Experimental Warfare for the German Army was arrested in Krakow, Poland in 1949 by a division of English soldiers. He was attached to a tree in the shattered forest outside the city, quite literally. His body had become one with a tree, each growing in unison with the other. He screamed for hours about the coming of the comet once more, and that the next time its structual integrity would break down and scatter across the earth.

His arrest lasted for a little under an hour. He was shot at dawn. It was a mercy killing.

 

[Bront]

I'm willing to help with supervision and organization, and perhaps even site supervision. I have access to a 2.0 book if need be (And can aquire one fairly easily).

Not being a huge superhero genera guy, I'm not likely to GM, at least for a while. I may play, but I'm interested in this either way.

PART 1: Characters
I think a lower than 10 PL would be a good start for a new set of heroes, especialy if they are the first ones. an 8 PL might be a good compromise (at 120 points, though you could make it 20 points per PL, it is allowable). PL 8 allows for fairly powerful characters, but ones that are still learning their powers and how to use them.

I like KO's idea of the background, though I don't like that all supers can be directly linked to it. As long as it's not required to be powered by it, but simply related in some way (even if it was technological breakthroughs that were suddently possable, or other seemingly unrelated things).

As to why only some were affected, well, some people are more tuned into the event than others. I don't think there needs to be anything special about their circumstances (Like the X-men, they're from everywhere).

I also like the UN superleague idea as an acceptable compromise.

PART 2: GMs/Running
I don't think I can GM, as this is not my normal style of play (though I am interested in trying to play). However, I am will int to help monitor locations, or be a judge, as I can generaly be impartial on the rules, and have tried to be dedicated to improving the game as a whole (See my work in LEW).

So I volunteer to be a judge for approving proposals, adventures, monitoring adventures, and/or anything else that may be needed. I currently am only the Tavern Judge in LEW, so there will not be a huge time conflict.

PART 3: The World
I think a slightly dark "The world is sliding into the darkness" style setting would be good, and the heroes are here to stop that slide. There can be some darker sides to things, people are a bit more cynical than normal, and perhaps, even initialy, the heroes are treated with a bit of Apathy (Think "Where were you when you could have made a difference" attitude).

I think the world could eventualy regain a more positive balance though work of the heroes, but it takes time.

Just my thoughts

 

[Phoenix]

Not being a huge superhero genera guy, I'm not likely to GM, at least for a while. I may play, but I'm interested in this either way.

Just my thoughts

C'mon Bront...you're only playing a couple of games, you could sign up for a few more

 

[Bront]

C'mon Bront...you're only playing a couple of games, you could sign up for a few more

I have 2-3 more pending to start already

 

[Kylara]

Something to consider about having multiple cometery passes stretching back into the past is that it makes the characters less special, they wont be in the first 'wave' of supers. Another thing is that it takes the Campaign world much much further from a modern day world. If its the first cometery pass, then up til the moment of the pass, the world is identical to ours, making it much much easier to imagine and have a feeling for.

If its a subsequent pass of the comet, then the Campaign world and our world will have diverged much earlier, requiring much much more in the way world building, that as we can see from the goings on so far is going to be a huge and fiercely debated and highly complex discussion. Just to pick out one thing as an example: a comet shows up in 1910, so we have a bunch of supers around in world war I. Why would everything happen the same? Would the side that lost have just had less supers, or less powerful supers? Was anything changed? Would those changes have affected the causes of World War II and prevented it? Altered WW2's outcome? etc.

This is all easy stuff to settle...when there is only 1 GM, but this game world belongs to all of us, so we naturally want our opinions to get in. I think the simplest method to get around this is to make the game world our world, and just have it diverge from it shortly before the campaign is set. We avoid all the issues of needing to hash out the altered history, and everyone is on the same page about what the history of the campaign world is.

 

[LogicsFate]

One thing for people to think about before I go to bed

This needs to be simple
Players need to be able to jump in
DM's need to be able to do any type of game they desire

all with the stipulation, of course, within reason

Just so it doesn't get bogged down by debates in the beginning

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Just so it doesn't get bogged down by debates in the beginning

I see your point but I would rather see if it can work now then to put into it a lot of effort into it to only find out its not going to work or that its not going to appeal to me.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

This is all easy stuff to settle...when there is only 1 GM, but this game world belongs to all of us, so we naturally want our opinions to get in. I think the simplest method to get around this is to make the game world our world, and just have it diverge from it shortly before the campaign is set.

I don't follow you here. As in I don't have a clue as to what your trying to suggest but this "campaign" is always going to have its say over the character's history.