Cyronax
Explorer
Hi I'm planning on running a campaign inspired by the Watchmen (graphic novel/movie), some elements of the Ultimate Marvel universe, and my own somewhat satirical reimagining of the post Cold War world (as inspired by the Watchmen.
The conceit is that its 2009. The world feels like today except a little darker. Its a Distopia ... where cynicism will pervade and heroes need apply. It'll still be purposefully recognizable and approachable to my players, aside from the details I include in the write up below. WARNING - I am mildly cynical and any political bias is meant to paint all sides darkly. My inclusion of Arnold Schwarzenegger is partly an homage to The Demolition Man (the movie from the 1990's) and is not an insult or praise for the governor. The same line of thought goes for any mention of real world people ... this wasn't posted to argue about politics. I merely want to try to make an immersive campaign feel like the Watchmen did for my players -- but in a 2009 setting.
What I'd really like are additional ideas for the setting! Adventure ideas. Villain concepts. Telling me where I've jumped the shark.
I'd also really appreciate advice on what game system I should use. I am tempted to use a gutted and revised version of the Star Wars SAGA rules, since I intend to use some cybernetics and low-powered droids as villains and character options. But I don't know if it fits or not. I want to have some options for possible super-powers, but I don't know if the Force is a good option.
I have looked at the d20 Modern SRD as well, but it seems a little clunky. Basically any thoughts?
Anyway, below are my system-less setting ideas (as an expansion of the Watchmen).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Events from The Watchmen (the graphic novel - not the movie) seen as true history.
The following characters from that graphic novel still exist in the setting in 2009:
Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl 2: Still retired, but a guilt-ridden shell of a man. He lost his beloved Laurie (Silk Spectre 2) to a plane crash in 1996 and since then he's been a recluse. He has become obsessed with the moral consequences of Doomsday 1985, and he's beginning to second guess his long silence.
Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias: A gracefully aging multi-billionaire, who recently married pop star and supermodel Carla Bruni. He's given up much of the controlling interests in his business empire to look after the Adrian and Carla Veidt Foundation, a philanthropic interest that seeks to solve transnational security, environmental, and human rights issues. Some of his most prominent backers include former president Bill Clinton, George Soros, and Warren Buffet. He still has his retreat in Antarctica among other far-flung holdings. One of the few blemishes to his public reputation was the fact that he had been secretly supporting the Free Republic of South Africa with funds from his Foundation. The source of this leak was never revealed, but it is thought that whoever it was now has made a great enemy in Veidt.
Jonathan Osterman/Dr. Manhattan: A superpowered being who disappeared from Earth in the days leading up to Doomsday 1985. He's never returned. Many in the public blame him for what happened and believe that he abandoned the world in its most dire hour. His current whereabouts are not generally known to the public, but the US government, Adrian Veidt, as well as a few better informed heroes and villains are aware that Mars and at least two planets outside the solar system were seeded with new forms of life created by the erstwhile hero.
In addition, the following comic tropes will be grafted into the setting.
Tony Stark will exist in the campaign. He's currently under house serving three life sentences in Guantanamo, Cuba for the proliferation of artificial intelligence and other banned technologies. He briefly toyed with the Iron Man armor, but never went public with it. Many of his designs were proliferated via the Internet in the Stark Manifesto (pub. 1995), a technical and political treatise that kick-started the AI and cybernetic revolution in the mid-90s.
A Hulk-like character named The Behemoth will exist in the campaign. The Behemoth is a wanderer, who is fleeing several governments that want to control and/or eliminate him as a threat. He's on the Top Ten Most Wanted List, mainly for destroying much of the rebuilt downtown of New York City in 2005. His origins and current whereabouts are unknown, but the Behemoth incident was responsible the President's anemic poll numbers from the time of the attack in 2005 until the numbers rebounded following the US invasion of Mexico and Cuba in April 2008.
A Captain America-like role will also exist. This individual will be the public face to the government's sponsored 'masks' and is seen as the second coming of Edward Blake's Comedian. Whereas the Comedian was largely an informal patriotic mascot, this Captain America-like individual will be a tool of US propaganda. Though people will see him as a Steve Rogers, he'll remain a brute like his predecessor Blake. Osama bin Laden and many al Qaeda top brass were eliminated in Afghanistan in April 2002 by this hero.
Other Costumed Heroes and Villains:
The Jade Solitaire - a criminal mastermind that operates in southern China, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its not clear what the Jade Solitaire's nationality or origins are, but she supposedly got her start as a freelance assassin in the 1990s. Jade Dragon is no friend to any government and is thought to be constantly on the move. She often uses mahjong tiles as calling cards.
Politics of the world:
The Cold War ended in 1985. Richard Nixon is still viewed as one of the greatest presidents in US history (often compared to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt), though he's faulted for not preempting the threat from the Far Realm. Nonetheless, he is largely credited with securing an end to the Cold War by making peace with the USSR through 'an open yet vigilant hand and trust in the free market.'
Since 1985, the world went through the so-called 'third expansion of capitalism.' Much like our real world, relatively free markets (but not necessarily democracy) came to be the norm in all but a handful of countries (i.e. Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Syria, and a fictional totalitarian and expansionist version of Apartheid South Africa known as the Free Republic of South Africa). The term New World Order took on real meaning in the game world, and that term never fell into disuse. Its often a shorthand term used in daily life.
The USSR crumbled in 1992, leaving Russia and its former satellites to the riches and perils of crony capitalism. The 1990's were a time of relative peace and prosperity. Costumed heroes became even more unpopular following Doomsday 1985. Dr. Manhattan's retreat from his protectorship of the USA and the world in the days leading up to that event soured much of the public on gimmicky heroes.
Following Doomsday 1985 (November 2, 1985) and the final collapse of the USSR, the biggest perceived threat to the New World Order was Y2K, which was trumpeted as a possible attack by anarchist/technologist Tony Stark. He was supposedly following the paradigm laid out in the Terminator 2 movie, though Stark vehemently denied that, stating that T2 was merely a 'sign of the times' and a piece of political propaganda for 'Nixon Jr.' (his loving term for Arnold Schwarzenegger). He also denied even planning an attack, but most people discount that too. Whatever the case, since Y2K was foiled, the free flowing and free wheeling Internet was quickly brought under the heel of governments around the world. Net security is pretty good, though it often penetrated by those skilled at such things.
It wasn't until Middle Eastern terrorists successfully attacked multiple government sites in DC, the Sky Needle in Seattle, and several sites in Hollywood on September 11, 2001 that the concept of the masked hero again came into vogue. Since 2001, media-savvy President Schwarzenegger sponsored several costumed heroes and also started the ambitious War Against Evil, a generational struggle that mainly targets sponsors of drugs, global warming, proliferation of banned technologies (including artificial intelligence, cloning, weapons of mass destruction etc), and terror. As a result of these new threats, the US began to take a more active and militant stance across the world stage. It began to intervene in failed states and regions with weak central governments. These interventions were sold to the US public as a struggle against an Axis of Evil, and have included Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003, Syria in 2004, and Cuba and Mexico in 2008. Despite the massive problems these wars have brought to the United States' domestic affairs, further US military intervention in other countries is still possible.
Many experts in the US see the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a possible emerging threat to the US, partly because the Russia and China-led body keeps toying with the idea of inducting Iran and South Africa as full, voting members. Such a move could precipitate rearmament and an end to the effective the Atomic Threat Oversight Mandate (ATOM) based in Berlin.
Recent US electoral history:
1984 election -- Sen. Ted Kennedy (Mass, D) v. President Richard Nixon (R)
1988 election -- Robert Redford (D) v. Vice Pres. George HW Bush (R)
1992 election -- Gov. Bill Clinton (Ark, D) v. President George HW Bush (R)
1996 election -- President Bill Clinton (D) v. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)
2000 election -- President Bill Clinton (D) v. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (Cali, R)
2004 election -- Gov. Howard Dean (VT, D) v. President Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)
2008 election -- Sen. John Edwards (NC, D) v. President Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)
Current Government:
President Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) (just beginning his third term) - the first foreign born US president and the third to be elected to more than two terms.
Vice President Mike Huckabee (R) -- (elected during 2008 cycle; preceded by the two term Vice President, Archibald Theodore Roosevelt)
- Sen. Edwards was ahead in the polls for much of the campaign until he was exposed as an adulterer and a father of an illegitimate child in mid-October. The Russians intervention in Georgia in August didn't help Edwards either. President Schwarzenegger achieved a lopsided 61% to 36% victory, with Ron Paul (TX, Independent) rounding out the rest of the votes.
Culture of the world:
The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day had an even greater cultural impact in this setting than in the real world. In addition to propelling Arnold Schwarzenegger to new political heights as a 'tried and true futurist' (ie longterm thinker and protector), these movies served as clarion calls of warning for what many considered to be the 'next threat of the 1990s' after Doomsday 1985.
The Nixon Memorial (Washington, DC) and the Nixon Presidential Library and Shrine (Yorba Linda, California) are two new and oft-visited flashpoints in the setting. A villain's plot to attack one or both of these two landmarks could serve as a good adventure springboard.
Rorschach's Journal - a much vilified and derided crank article from the now shuttered New Frontiersman newspaper. It was the beginning of an expose on Doomsday 1985 and improved relations with the Russians from a wholly fringe rightwing perspective. Nonetheless, certain individuals including Tony Stark saw this as the final will and testamount of the costumed hero Rorschach. Stark mentions it prominently in his internet manifesto's foreword and from then on it became something of a rallying cry against the New World Order to costumed vigilantes during the mid-1990's and onward.
Laws Governing 'Costumed Adventuring:'
- Keene Act, 1977 - outlawed vigilantism by costumed adventurers, except for a few working in the remit of the United States government.
- Patriot Act, 2001- an omnibus-type law governing the response to the 9/11 attacks, which also refined and expanded the laws governing costumed adventurers within the United States and abroad. Made costumed adventuring wholly legal in the eyes of the United States government if done as part of the War Against Evil. Controversial; parts of the law have been struck down by the Supreme Court.
- Metahuman Protection Act, 2005 - a broad law outlawing the independent existence of meta-humans such as the Behemoth and Dr. Manhattan. Calls for tight government control and/or elimination.
The conceit is that its 2009. The world feels like today except a little darker. Its a Distopia ... where cynicism will pervade and heroes need apply. It'll still be purposefully recognizable and approachable to my players, aside from the details I include in the write up below. WARNING - I am mildly cynical and any political bias is meant to paint all sides darkly. My inclusion of Arnold Schwarzenegger is partly an homage to The Demolition Man (the movie from the 1990's) and is not an insult or praise for the governor. The same line of thought goes for any mention of real world people ... this wasn't posted to argue about politics. I merely want to try to make an immersive campaign feel like the Watchmen did for my players -- but in a 2009 setting.
What I'd really like are additional ideas for the setting! Adventure ideas. Villain concepts. Telling me where I've jumped the shark.
I'd also really appreciate advice on what game system I should use. I am tempted to use a gutted and revised version of the Star Wars SAGA rules, since I intend to use some cybernetics and low-powered droids as villains and character options. But I don't know if it fits or not. I want to have some options for possible super-powers, but I don't know if the Force is a good option.
I have looked at the d20 Modern SRD as well, but it seems a little clunky. Basically any thoughts?
Anyway, below are my system-less setting ideas (as an expansion of the Watchmen).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Events from The Watchmen (the graphic novel - not the movie) seen as true history.
The following characters from that graphic novel still exist in the setting in 2009:
Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl 2: Still retired, but a guilt-ridden shell of a man. He lost his beloved Laurie (Silk Spectre 2) to a plane crash in 1996 and since then he's been a recluse. He has become obsessed with the moral consequences of Doomsday 1985, and he's beginning to second guess his long silence.
Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias: A gracefully aging multi-billionaire, who recently married pop star and supermodel Carla Bruni. He's given up much of the controlling interests in his business empire to look after the Adrian and Carla Veidt Foundation, a philanthropic interest that seeks to solve transnational security, environmental, and human rights issues. Some of his most prominent backers include former president Bill Clinton, George Soros, and Warren Buffet. He still has his retreat in Antarctica among other far-flung holdings. One of the few blemishes to his public reputation was the fact that he had been secretly supporting the Free Republic of South Africa with funds from his Foundation. The source of this leak was never revealed, but it is thought that whoever it was now has made a great enemy in Veidt.
Jonathan Osterman/Dr. Manhattan: A superpowered being who disappeared from Earth in the days leading up to Doomsday 1985. He's never returned. Many in the public blame him for what happened and believe that he abandoned the world in its most dire hour. His current whereabouts are not generally known to the public, but the US government, Adrian Veidt, as well as a few better informed heroes and villains are aware that Mars and at least two planets outside the solar system were seeded with new forms of life created by the erstwhile hero.
In addition, the following comic tropes will be grafted into the setting.
Tony Stark will exist in the campaign. He's currently under house serving three life sentences in Guantanamo, Cuba for the proliferation of artificial intelligence and other banned technologies. He briefly toyed with the Iron Man armor, but never went public with it. Many of his designs were proliferated via the Internet in the Stark Manifesto (pub. 1995), a technical and political treatise that kick-started the AI and cybernetic revolution in the mid-90s.
A Hulk-like character named The Behemoth will exist in the campaign. The Behemoth is a wanderer, who is fleeing several governments that want to control and/or eliminate him as a threat. He's on the Top Ten Most Wanted List, mainly for destroying much of the rebuilt downtown of New York City in 2005. His origins and current whereabouts are unknown, but the Behemoth incident was responsible the President's anemic poll numbers from the time of the attack in 2005 until the numbers rebounded following the US invasion of Mexico and Cuba in April 2008.
A Captain America-like role will also exist. This individual will be the public face to the government's sponsored 'masks' and is seen as the second coming of Edward Blake's Comedian. Whereas the Comedian was largely an informal patriotic mascot, this Captain America-like individual will be a tool of US propaganda. Though people will see him as a Steve Rogers, he'll remain a brute like his predecessor Blake. Osama bin Laden and many al Qaeda top brass were eliminated in Afghanistan in April 2002 by this hero.
Other Costumed Heroes and Villains:
The Jade Solitaire - a criminal mastermind that operates in southern China, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its not clear what the Jade Solitaire's nationality or origins are, but she supposedly got her start as a freelance assassin in the 1990s. Jade Dragon is no friend to any government and is thought to be constantly on the move. She often uses mahjong tiles as calling cards.
Politics of the world:
The Cold War ended in 1985. Richard Nixon is still viewed as one of the greatest presidents in US history (often compared to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt), though he's faulted for not preempting the threat from the Far Realm. Nonetheless, he is largely credited with securing an end to the Cold War by making peace with the USSR through 'an open yet vigilant hand and trust in the free market.'
Since 1985, the world went through the so-called 'third expansion of capitalism.' Much like our real world, relatively free markets (but not necessarily democracy) came to be the norm in all but a handful of countries (i.e. Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Syria, and a fictional totalitarian and expansionist version of Apartheid South Africa known as the Free Republic of South Africa). The term New World Order took on real meaning in the game world, and that term never fell into disuse. Its often a shorthand term used in daily life.
The USSR crumbled in 1992, leaving Russia and its former satellites to the riches and perils of crony capitalism. The 1990's were a time of relative peace and prosperity. Costumed heroes became even more unpopular following Doomsday 1985. Dr. Manhattan's retreat from his protectorship of the USA and the world in the days leading up to that event soured much of the public on gimmicky heroes.
Following Doomsday 1985 (November 2, 1985) and the final collapse of the USSR, the biggest perceived threat to the New World Order was Y2K, which was trumpeted as a possible attack by anarchist/technologist Tony Stark. He was supposedly following the paradigm laid out in the Terminator 2 movie, though Stark vehemently denied that, stating that T2 was merely a 'sign of the times' and a piece of political propaganda for 'Nixon Jr.' (his loving term for Arnold Schwarzenegger). He also denied even planning an attack, but most people discount that too. Whatever the case, since Y2K was foiled, the free flowing and free wheeling Internet was quickly brought under the heel of governments around the world. Net security is pretty good, though it often penetrated by those skilled at such things.
It wasn't until Middle Eastern terrorists successfully attacked multiple government sites in DC, the Sky Needle in Seattle, and several sites in Hollywood on September 11, 2001 that the concept of the masked hero again came into vogue. Since 2001, media-savvy President Schwarzenegger sponsored several costumed heroes and also started the ambitious War Against Evil, a generational struggle that mainly targets sponsors of drugs, global warming, proliferation of banned technologies (including artificial intelligence, cloning, weapons of mass destruction etc), and terror. As a result of these new threats, the US began to take a more active and militant stance across the world stage. It began to intervene in failed states and regions with weak central governments. These interventions were sold to the US public as a struggle against an Axis of Evil, and have included Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003, Syria in 2004, and Cuba and Mexico in 2008. Despite the massive problems these wars have brought to the United States' domestic affairs, further US military intervention in other countries is still possible.
Many experts in the US see the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a possible emerging threat to the US, partly because the Russia and China-led body keeps toying with the idea of inducting Iran and South Africa as full, voting members. Such a move could precipitate rearmament and an end to the effective the Atomic Threat Oversight Mandate (ATOM) based in Berlin.
Recent US electoral history:
1984 election -- Sen. Ted Kennedy (Mass, D) v. President Richard Nixon (R)
1988 election -- Robert Redford (D) v. Vice Pres. George HW Bush (R)
1992 election -- Gov. Bill Clinton (Ark, D) v. President George HW Bush (R)
1996 election -- President Bill Clinton (D) v. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)
2000 election -- President Bill Clinton (D) v. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (Cali, R)
2004 election -- Gov. Howard Dean (VT, D) v. President Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)
2008 election -- Sen. John Edwards (NC, D) v. President Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)
Current Government:
President Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) (just beginning his third term) - the first foreign born US president and the third to be elected to more than two terms.
Vice President Mike Huckabee (R) -- (elected during 2008 cycle; preceded by the two term Vice President, Archibald Theodore Roosevelt)
- Sen. Edwards was ahead in the polls for much of the campaign until he was exposed as an adulterer and a father of an illegitimate child in mid-October. The Russians intervention in Georgia in August didn't help Edwards either. President Schwarzenegger achieved a lopsided 61% to 36% victory, with Ron Paul (TX, Independent) rounding out the rest of the votes.
Culture of the world:
The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day had an even greater cultural impact in this setting than in the real world. In addition to propelling Arnold Schwarzenegger to new political heights as a 'tried and true futurist' (ie longterm thinker and protector), these movies served as clarion calls of warning for what many considered to be the 'next threat of the 1990s' after Doomsday 1985.
The Nixon Memorial (Washington, DC) and the Nixon Presidential Library and Shrine (Yorba Linda, California) are two new and oft-visited flashpoints in the setting. A villain's plot to attack one or both of these two landmarks could serve as a good adventure springboard.
Rorschach's Journal - a much vilified and derided crank article from the now shuttered New Frontiersman newspaper. It was the beginning of an expose on Doomsday 1985 and improved relations with the Russians from a wholly fringe rightwing perspective. Nonetheless, certain individuals including Tony Stark saw this as the final will and testamount of the costumed hero Rorschach. Stark mentions it prominently in his internet manifesto's foreword and from then on it became something of a rallying cry against the New World Order to costumed vigilantes during the mid-1990's and onward.
Laws Governing 'Costumed Adventuring:'
- Keene Act, 1977 - outlawed vigilantism by costumed adventurers, except for a few working in the remit of the United States government.
- Patriot Act, 2001- an omnibus-type law governing the response to the 9/11 attacks, which also refined and expanded the laws governing costumed adventurers within the United States and abroad. Made costumed adventuring wholly legal in the eyes of the United States government if done as part of the War Against Evil. Controversial; parts of the law have been struck down by the Supreme Court.
- Metahuman Protection Act, 2005 - a broad law outlawing the independent existence of meta-humans such as the Behemoth and Dr. Manhattan. Calls for tight government control and/or elimination.
Last edited:
