Tips on running a superhero campaign

[Herobizkit]

I am looking to start up a superhero campaign set in rougly modern times, something along the lines of a Justice League/Unlimited-esque tech level.

I haven't decieded on the system I'm using yet, but it's mostly irrelevant for what I need to know. It's been far too long since I've run a superhero campaign, and I can't quite figure out how to duplicate the right "feel".

The hero is going to be an angel-like hero that has a lot in common with Superman (but less invincible). I'm contemplating doing something like a "vampire menace", basically like your run-of-the-mill zombie infestation but vampires. This wouldn't be the crux of the campaign, more like a mini-series.

I guess I'm being too vague, but I want to know what concepts, opponents, themes, or any kind of input as to how to create a superhero world that is somewhere in between Four-color and Dark Superheroes.

too tired...

 

[Agent Oracle]

1. Mutants and Masterminds is your FRIEND

 

[Drowbane]

2): Mutant & Masterminds is your friend!

3): Don't sweat the small stuff and feel free to play up the Super aspects of the characters, be they Heroes or Villains. PC wants to pick up a car and launch it at the villain? Don't feel compelled to look at charts to see whether he is actually strong enough to do it (works as long as the PC might be able to do it)

4): Don't be afraid to yoink villains straight out of your favorite comic.

5): I find it helpful to create several groups of villains that I might want to use sometime before I even know what my players are making.

6): When the PCs give you lemons... make lemonade! Players love it when you actually use villains from their backstories, moreso I think in Supers than in something such as D&D.

 

[arwink]

Without knowing which system your using, it's hard to be anything but general. As a short-list, I'd go with:

1) Things only ever happen at night.

2) It's always raining. Or, at least, it's always raining when the players come accross the big fight scene.

3) The heroes are often flawed or cursed in some way. The only thing seperating them from their enemies is an intangible line that they refuse to cross.

4) Traditionally, four-colour super-heroes don't fare so well against magical opponents unless their powers are magical in nature. This makes the mystic threats scary, even against seemingly invulnerable types such as Superman.

5) Remember to increase the number of vampire's slowly, and try to find a new take on the old vampire myths. I'd start with a single vampire on a killing spree, let the players capture/kill him, then go home to celebrate. In a session or two I'd introduce a series of killings with the same motifs, so they can go kill off the creatures they think are the original vampire's children. The fight is tougher, but they go home victorious and safe in the knowledge that they've double-checked every victim that was bitten by the current scourge.

That's when I'd hit them with the swarm of blood-drainin undead, and the plot would shift to the mysterious disease set loose in the city by an evil corporation.

 

[Piratecat]

7. Mutants and Masterminds is your friend.

8. I structure games like comic books, including possible cliff-hangers, dramatic entrances on the last "page" by another even tougher villain. I describe things in terms of comic panels and pages and art -- I try to be very, very visual when describing action.

9. Unless a hero is brand new, I give each hero a pre-defined Rogue's Gallery of villains who hate them.

 

[arwink]

Oh, and yes, Mutants and Masterminds is your friend.

 

[Aristeas]

10) Mutants and Masterminds is your friend.

11) Really pay attention to party balance. In D&D it's not a disaster if the party is four fighters and a wizard. If the party is four Batmans and a Hulk, then the Batmans all tread on each others toes during investigation-type scenes, because each of them is expecting to be the most hardcore super-detective in the world, and the Hulk get sulky because they never let him smash anything.

12) The question of how all these people got together matters more in a supers game. In D&D, you can get away with having everyone meet in a tavern and join up for XP and profit. Supers generally don't have much of a profit motive, and while they may all team up to fight Dr. Maniac, once he's back in jail they need a reason not to drift apart. Plus, any long-term team of superheroes is a serious force to be reckoned with- every two-bit schemer with an agenda will want to coopt them, destroy them, hire them, or break them up. If they don't have a solid team purpose of their own, the lack of it really shows.

13) With a party full of supers, anything goes. They're an amazingly powerful force and they should feel like it. Don't be afraid to let them make major changes in the game world. If they want to evacuate New York City, dam the Missippi river, bring down the United Nations, or steal every ounce of plutonium on the planet, let them go for it, and if they do a convincing job, let them succeed. Then have the world, and particularly other supers, react accordingly.

 

[Eosin the Red]

Arron Allaston wrote a great Hero book on the tenants of running a Superhero game thatis useful regardless of system.

CHAMPIONS
Champions is back! This latest edition explores the superhero genre more thoroughly than ever before, delving into all the subjects you need to know about to create incredible characters and campaigns. It includes:

- a complete review of the superhero genre, from the earliest Golden Age comics to today's cutting-edge graphic novels, with guidelines and suggestions for simulating the eras and features of the genre using the HERO System rules.

Another book that has been praised to the high halls of valhalla was written by Scott Bennie.

Villainy Amok
Among the thousands of adventures Champions GMs run, a few favorite types — classics from the worlds of comic books and the movies — stand out. They get run in nearly every campaign, and sometimes multiple times within a single campaign. But if you don't watch out, these beloved classics can become stale and routine.

Enter Villainy Amok! This book looks at several of the most exciting "classic" types of scenarios and provides suggestions, options, and resources for using them in your campaign. That way you can keep them fresh and exciting even after repeated use.

These two books are pretty much indispensible no matter what system you use. Mutants and Masterminds and Hero are the two big guns on the block and they share a lot of design philosophy (Steve Kenson used to do Hero before he designed M&M, so no big surprize there).

 

[Endur]

14) I agree with the others that you should be open-minded on what the PCs can accomplish with their powers. When in doubt, let the PCs do it.

15) If you want something even simpler than Mutants and Masterminds, you could use the actual Justice League by using the wizkids HeroClix figures and the built in combat system. The HeroClix figures handle Hero vs. Hero/Villian fights and Hero vs. Thug pretty well. Heroclix does not handle non-combat powers or Hero vs. disaster so you would have to do that sort of thing off the cuff.

 

[Eccles]

16) DC Heroes (later Blood of Heroes) would like to be your friend, but it's out of print.

17) If you're confident, throw plot hooks at the players. You don't need to know what you plan to do with them. I just started a campaign with one character married with kids, one with no idea where his powers came from, etc.

18) Recurring villains. Players hate them. In a good way.