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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DMScott" data-source="post: 1759135" data-attributes="member: 11734">Another option: in the Marvel and DC universes, one of the reasons superheroes and supervillains do all the classic comic book bits (like costumes, secret identities, having over the top villains who are associated with a particular hero they try to best, etc.) is because of tradition - super-powered types have been around since at least WWII, and the current generation is just carrying on.In a world without that tradition, supers could well do things differently. More modern takes on a superpowered world often have:- linked origins - everybody who has superpowers gets them in much the same way, rather than the zillion different power sources of Marvel and DC.- uniforms instead of costumes - those supers with distinctive costumes are often part of an organization related to their origin, and wear functional uniforms (with some armour, standard gadgetry, a similar look, etc.) rather than spandex costumes. Supers outside of those organizations often create outfits inspired by military garb.- full-time supers. Supers probably don't juggle a normal life and also crimefight; they probably conceal their identity, but any normal life they maintain is just a cover for their super activities.- competing agendas rather than heroes and villains. Both the bad guys and the good guys are pushing their own ideals, and fighting people who oppose those ideals. Which are the bad guys is determined by the nature of the agendas and the lengths to which each side will go in defense of theirs - to those caught in the crossfire, it might be hard to tell whose wearing the white hats.- conspiracies run rampant. Even though the supers are often associated with an organization, they usually can't fully trust anybody. Businesses, espionage organizations, governments, and so on all have their own agendas, and outsiders or contractors are rarely privy to what's REALLY going on.In the Champions genre book (for the Hero system, but with a lot of material that applies to any superhero RPG) campaigns that focus on these sorts of issues are called Iron Age, in contrast with the more four-colour Golden Age and Silver Age campaigns (Freedom City is pretty much a Silver Age setting). If this is the sort of game you and your players prefer, you can come up with a lot of RP material by looking at each point and fleshing it out a bit. If the PCs are an independent group of supers, various organizations will certainly be interested in them - how do they keep B.I.G. Megacorp or the FGSA (Faceless Government Security Agency) from messing around in their lives? What do they do if they find out those organizations have been manipulating them in various ways? Or if the PCs work for the FGSA, what happens when a nosy reporter starts snooping around, or they get an anonymous tip that the FGSA is not being straight with them?And so on. The roleplay elements should follow from the sort of campaign you and your players enjoy. I find the best ideas occur when the players ask the questions and the GM runs with it... that can make the PCs believe they've stumbled onto a subtle and far-reaching plot when in fact the links are only there because they speculated about them after last weeks' session.</blockquote>

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