Superhero/Sci-Fi Adventures vs. Fantasy

[Azgulor]

Thanks, folks. Several of these ideas helped make things "click" for me.

I think in the past, I expected the players to be more proactive than reactive, and built adventures around that assumption. That's fine, and works very well in Fantasy RPGs where players may have limited tools/plot-avenues to pursue.

So I think it's a matter of tweaking my detailed villains & locales rather than trying to accommodate a full-on sandbox on the scale of a modern city as I had done previously.

We'll see. I used to run Shadowrun back in the day and experience the kinds of problems that I spoke of, even when using published modules.

Rather than a rigid plot, which I wanted to avoid, I'll try to think of common "bridges" that the PCs might employ when moving between plot points and set-pieces.

Thanks!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Mass media springs to mind as a way to move PCs to where the action is.

 

[Umbran]

So I’m curious how other GMs have successfully tackled the issue of adventure writing/design & campaign planning in superhero RPGs? (although it would apply to sci-fi as well) How have you structured your adventures & campaign so that you’re not winging it all of the time but don’t force the players into a railroad just to make the plot/adventure work?

Superheros are not general sci-fi. Supers is its own genre, with it's own tropes, and plot structure conventions. "Sci-fi" is very, very broad...

I think in the past, I expected the players to be more proactive than reactive, and built adventures around that assumption.

Yeah, that's the thing - superheroes are generally not proactive. They *cannot* be. Their environment is not target-rich, like a monster-laden wilderness or dungeon. The only valid targets for superheroes are villains, and villains hide really, extraordinarily well. Finding a villain who does not want to be found is needle-in-a-haystack, finding one person among seven billion kind of thing. Superheroes only get to get a shot at a villain when the villain acts, and thus exposes himself.

So, Supers-games run rather like Hand of Evil mentioned. You pick some villains, give them motivations, figure out what their goals are, and they set about those goals. However they approach their goals, they occasionally expose themselves to heroes, who then try to run them down. Lather-rinse-repeat, throwing in the occasional hitch in the hero's personal life or powers. It is a reactive life.

When they become proactive, trying to beat evil before the evil starts, well, that's when the hero becomes the oppressive villain

This is not nearly the same as sci-fi, in general, which can lend itself to any plot or organizational style, as well as fantasy can. That's because "sci-fi" is as broad as "fantasy", while "supers" is pretty narrow. For example, Star Trek can be modeled as a sandbox - you have a bunch of planets, each with their own shtick going on, and the players wander around in their starship from place to place, doing what they think they ought at each one. Simple sandboxiness. Meanwhile, Shadowrun is typically a choice of railroads - you take your pick of jobs you can get paid for, and that job's what you're doing this week.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

When they become proactive, trying to beat evil before the evil starts, well, that's when the hero becomes the oppressive villain

A Good Man Goes To War

Armor Wars

Emerald Twilight

 

[phoamslinger]

my best supers games were always when the players couldn't build exactly what they wanted, mostly due to not fully understanding the character building mechanics. their characters had flaws and they had to work together as a team to win.

note the past tense "were".

nowadays, if I announce that I want to run a supers game, my players all go online, search the relevant sites and walk into the game in power gamer mode and any one of them is minmaxed to high heaven.

and then they work on dismembering the campaign.

 

[fireinthedust]

I've been playing DC Universe Online, and it's been blowing my mind for RPGs, especially supers.

1) Open world sandbox: fly anywhere in Metropolis or Gotham you want

2) Missions are specific to locations, and that's where the action is: hot spots where anyone can join in, and then solo instances where you fight big name villains and rescue big name heroes

3) PVP means that the two factions (hero and villain) can fight each other in open world AT ANY TIME, so truly random encounters while you're flying around between the Police station hero HQ and, say, the amusement park where joker clowns and lunatics are releasing tanks of joker gas.

4) Lots of instances you can join: PvP, or vs computer missions.

5) also group targets, like Bizarro or Solomon Grundy, who you need to team up with a pile of other heroes and take out.

6) There is a crisis, a war between the factions as well as an all-out attack on both sides by Brainiac.

7) random "thugs" you can find breaking into apartments, or muggers, so as you're flying around you could "stop crimes". Nice little touch.


In terms of running a Supers game as a sandbox, you need a map of the City, and you need locations marked out. You could use your home town, or a known city with maps, in the same way you run a game of Vampire the Masquerade (or NWoD, same thing).

Or, if you really have your heroic city set up, you could use that instead.

Then have site-specific bad guys, like the park is over run by plant creatures, or else goblins from the dark dimensions have poured through there, or Brainiac's droid army has intrusions at the following intersections.

Then design "hero dungeons", like Gorilla Grodd's laboratory, complete with ape-themed traps and guards with futuristic alien weapons. Sure, the speedster could race through, but he'd get caught in a force-bubble trap or something. The regeneration-mook could take all the damage he wants, but if he's encased in carbonite then he's finished. Whatever, when you're in the dungeon, what happens there stays there. When Grodd's defeated, you're done and can move on.

Then roll randomly when they're wandering the city from place to place: the legion of supervillains has a squad of Vs coming for them, to take out the goody-goodies!

Make up some disaster encounters: a plane is crashing, or a jumper is going to take his life. Maybe when they pass by the Bank AT EXACTLY THAT MOMENT an explosion hits and there's a bomber/thief they need to catch.

And leaving a "clue" is a great way for them to find a villain proactively. Think of it as a tip. The villains are out there, so looking forthem is kind of what "detectives" are supposed to do, right?

And if you're doing "wandering villains", then finding the bad guys and taking them down could be part of the fun.