What Makes A Successful Superhero CAMPAIGN

[overgeeked]

To the thread properly - I think world building is interesting. My most recent supers campaign was built around a single origin for all powers, which means players adding in specific power sources as a real thing rather than their character’s own internalised justification for their powers wasn’t an option. This did limit the possibility of cool, themed enemies, and in retrospect I wouldn’t have done that. The game lost a source of cool focus and variation.

Yeah, that's largely where my concern is in restricting things in a superhero game. I love the wild and gonzo Silver Age stuff so not being able to throw in literally whatever is just a non-starter for me. Subatomic worlds, alternate dimensions, bank robbers, lost civilizations, hollow Earth, sentient planets, alien invasions, hippies with love guns, mecha and kaiju, sentient shades of pink...literally anything goes.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

All the supers games I've been involved in have been the full gonzo. I'd actually like to try a more limited campaign, like an all mutants campaign, for a change of pace.

 

[overgeeked]

All the supers games I've been involved in have been the full gonzo. I'd actually like to try a more limited campaign, like an all mutants campaign, for a change of pace.

I've done that a few times. But I typically only restrict the PCs to mutants, rather than the whole setting to mutants. Love me some X-Men, so it can work a treat.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Thing is, if you look across the whole superhero comics industry, limiting a campaign to “all mutants” doesn’t necessarily stop all or even most various “cool” character types. Different writers, titles, and companies have created all kinds of mutants.

For instance, most Marvel mutants are born, but some are made. And the TMNT were definitely created. Some mutants have powers tightly written around a theme; others are a hodgepodge. Still others have a single power, but it’s so powerful and/or flexible that it’s hard to define their conceptual limitations- Scarlet Witch or Proteus, anyone?

So while you might not have an Iron Man clone in an “OnlyMutants” setting (because he’s tech based), you could definitely get close. The “cheapest” workaround would be someone whose mutant brain allows them to create ultratech.

OTOH, a mutant might have grown a beetle-like carapace (complete with wings) who can generate bioluminescence…that they can focus into destructive lasers.

 

[dbm]

To me, this is where effects-based systems really shine. You can usually build anything and cloak it in whatever description you want or need.

The question then becomes - do you want a character who can do what Iron Man can do, or do you want a character ‘like’ Iron Man which implies a stronger link in both abilities and power source?

 

[TheRottenPixie]

My most successful superhero rpg was a Marvel Multiverse game. It was a mutants game where all the players were teenagers. Prior to the game they all made the choice to flee their homes to go to Xavier’s mansion. But, they were being hunted by William Stryker and his acolyte of anti-mutant zealots.

I think what made the campaign successful was I kept the focus on my four players and let them find the moments. I also constantly kept the pressure up to make them all stressed and distrustful. And then finally I put in a lot of big set pieces with specific objectives (save hostages, stop a bomb, infiltrate a prison etc.)

I also had great players who jumped into the concept without hesitation and they played teenage superheroes great.

Obviously this might not be universal, but keeping the focus on the player heroes, applying a significant external pressure and making the action as big as possible all worked in my benefit as a GM.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

The reason I want to do an all muties campaign some day is because I want to play with all the classic mutie tropes of being outsiders. Now, I can do that in a no holds barred, any type of character you want game. But I've always been bothered by the disconnect caused by the general public hating mutants, but loving super heroes in general. How does the average punter know the difference between Cyclops and Spiderman? Why would they even draw a distinction?

I would have tech powers, but limited to real world tech (more or less.) And I would insist PCs have at least one innate, mutant power. Mutant powers wouldn't be limited, except to the AP cap that we selected for the campaign. (Which, off the top of my head, I'd put at 70AP.) This would make mutants significantly better in a fight than normies. It also gives mutants access to things like psi, teleport, and phasing that the normies just do not get.

This in turn means that when the Siblinghood of Naughty Muties does crime the only ones who can stop them are the PCs.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Siblinghood of Naughty Muties

Sounds so very Powerpuff Girls!

 

[overgeeked]

The reason I want to do an all muties campaign some day is because I want to play with all the classic mutie tropes of being outsiders. Now, I can do that in a no holds barred, any type of character you want game. But I've always been bothered by the disconnect caused by the general public hating mutants, but loving super heroes in general. How does the average punter know the difference between Cyclops and Spiderman? Why would they even draw a distinction?

I would have tech powers, but limited to real world tech (more or less.) And I would insist PCs have at least one innate, mutant power. Mutant powers wouldn't be limited, except to the AP cap that we selected for the campaign. (Which, off the top of my head, I'd put at 70AP.) This would make mutants significantly better in a fight than normies. It also gives mutants access to things like psi, teleport, and phasing that the normies just do not get.

This in turn means that when the Siblinghood of Naughty Muties does crime the only ones who can stop them are the PCs.

Wow! That's a lot.

That 70 AP in weight would be 29,514,790,517,935.30 megatons...or about 1/20 the mass of the Earth.

In distance, that's 2,235,968,978,631,460,000.00 miles. Which is double the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy.

I does sound like a fun game though.

 

[Doug McCrae]

The reason I want to do an all muties campaign some day is because I want to play with all the classic mutie tropes of being outsiders. Now, I can do that in a no holds barred, any type of character you want game. But I've always been bothered by the disconnect caused by the general public hating mutants, but loving super heroes in general. How does the average punter know the difference between Cyclops and Spiderman? Why would they even draw a distinction?

You could have a world where prejudice is directed against all superheroes, not just mutants. This is the case in Alan Moore's run on Captain Britain from the early 80s. I think these excerpts give a good sense of the way this oppression works: