Show based themes....

[i3ullseye]

Here were a few i was thinking of running. May get to a few of them, may not. but all woudl work well for lower level HERO games, which i prefer to supers.

#1- Invisible Man:

Based in the Sci-Fi series. One character becomes invisible, the others may have just typical agent powers... or even a unique power of their own. 100 to 125 points woudl be best as it woudl give them an edge on agents and thugs, but still be a skill based affair. Limit each unique power to abotu a 25 active point total, and each woudl require a restriction fo some sort.

You can expand the idea that each of the ones with abilities are ex-convicts given their freedom to be part of the program. Each woudl have a dependency to keep them loyal, per se. There were even a few other unique powers in the series itself.

Invisibility is a natch....

Minor Telepathy....

Short Duration phasing.....

Machine Telepathy.....

etc.....

one great twist was in an episode where they were investigating a murder on an Indian Reservation. It seemed like a sasquatch was doing it, but no one ever sees a sasquatch. When Darrien goes invisible, he can see the sasquatch, and it turns out his invisibility gland was likely transplanted from a sasquatch all along! hahaha.

#2 - The Chronicle /the Night Stalker

Classic idea. You are a reporter(s) working for a Enquirer type rag paper. you are investigating the 'truth' that ther people deny. Classic zombie and vampire type fare. Androids and aliens abound. Great fun for skilled normals, about the 75 point range.

nice thing about this is its episodic nature. Each week can be vastly different than the next. one can be filled with humour, and the next coudl be deadly serious. this is like Horror HERO, but with a tension release valve built in.

#3- Good vs Evil

This is the one i really wanted to run, but my group doesn't quite get the idea/ You have died.... you are not quite good enough to go to heaven, but not bad enough to go straight to hell.... so you are given an option. You are recruted by an organization known as the Corps. You are going to save souls to prove yourself and earn your salvation.

See, there are demons called morlocks... and they go about making deals with mortals. these mortals become Faustians, because they sell their soul for power, or wealth, or whatever. Your job is to stop the morlocks, for which purpose you are given a ritual dagger... the only way to killthem. and you try to get faustians to renounce their deals and save their souls.

Catch is, you are 100% normal. The others may have powers, and some coudl get pretty nasty... but you have to get it done with almsot nothing. In the series one of the agents was from the 70's, and the other from teh 80's, so characters can pull from various timeframes within reason.

Characters woudl be in the 75 to 100 point range. most Faustians would be around 100 to 125... and morlocks could be 150+.... but they have a severe weakness built in to those damn daggers.


..... just some ideas.....

[Uncle Shecky]

Originally posted by i3ullseye
Here were a few i was thinking of running. May get to a few of them, may not. but all woudl work well for lower level HERO games, which i prefer to supers.

#1- Invisible Man:

Based in the Sci-Fi series. One character becomes invisible, the others may have just typical agent powers...

I really liked that series: a nice mix of comedy, sci fi, and action. Invisibility has been done many times, but they got a lot of mileage out of the details of how the quicksilver substance worked: e.g. how he could coat other people, objects, or just part of his body with it, or use it to freeze objects to make them brittle. I think this would be an excellent basis for a low-powered supers campaign, especially if the players aren't too familiar with the show.

[Kevin Scrivner]

Here's another idea for a low-powered action-adventure campaign, sort of like "TORG" or "Sliders" with a humorous pop cultural twist. It's based on a series of fantasy novels that began with the book "Slaves of the Volcano God."

The gist is that the reason old movies were so good is that the filmmakers unknowingly tapped into dozens of alternate realities surrounding our own. The Cineverse consists of dimensions whose cultures and physical laws correspond to those of various movie genres: Westerns, musicals, '50s atomic horror, '60s beach romance, animated cartoons, gladiator, biblical epics, and so on. The hero of the book series accidentally got shunted into an alternate motion picture-type world by playing around with a vintage Captain Hero Secret Decoder Ring, a 40-year-old cereal box prize that happened to have genuine magic powers.

In the Western world, the only way to cross the prairie is to sing a Roy Rogers-variety cowboy song. Villains dare not attempt to shoot a disarmed hero with their last bullet, knowing they'll be killed by the cavalry charging over the nearest hill. In the Broadway musical world, characters can physically move only if they sing and dance; weddings and state fairs abound; and the player characters risk getting entangled in romantic affairs whether they want to or not.

In the South Pacific world, visitors to be thrown in the volcano will blissfully party with the natives all the way to the crater's rim unless they can make an EGO roll to break the spell of the native drums. In the war world, sergeants from Brooklyn are doomed if they attempt to take that hill. In the '50s horror world, men with pencil-thin mustaches are not to be trusted and bystanders will refuse to assist PCs they suspect of tampering with Things Man Was Not Meant To Know.

There's a villain from a '30s sci fi universe attempting to conquer the entire Cineverse, preferably by stealing the player-characters' decoder ring. Also, each character has one genre that suits him or her only too well. If the PC lands in that dimension, he'll have to struggle to keep from conforming to it completely. The team's beautiful but brilliant physicist could suddenly become a giggling beach bunny at the worst possible moment if she fails her saving roll. The group's clever, handsome confidence artist could suddenly be consumed with a mad desire to create an artificial man if he stumbles into the horror world. Of course, this applies to the villains, too. Vicious gangsters about to wipe out our heroes could discover that they make perfect targets for abusive rabbits in the animated world.

[BobGreenwade]

Personally, if I were to run a game based on a TV program, it would probably be Get Smart. :cool:

[MoonHunter]

Man from Atlantis: The team of the Aquatic Research Center deal with all the strangeness the GM can generate in the ocean. One or more water breathing characters are possible.

SeaLab 2020: The cartoon created a great sciencefiction world, with plenty of real science threats. This cartoon did not slip into goofy kid things, nor supernatural threats. It was good, solid, if dates, science ficiton.

Misfits of Science. 75 base with 75 disads superheroic campaign, set in the modern world.

BattleStar Galatics: A great space hero game where we can have great fighting scenes.

The Bionic Series: Another low level superhero game, with each player being an agent of the office of scientific investigation. We could have bionics, psionics, people who could learn anything, people who are invunerable, an invisible agent, and a variety of other low level powers.

Defenders of Tir-na-nog: Fantasy superheroes in a celtic setting. Despite some of its Sentai conventions, it is an interesting background.

[winterhawk]

Originally posted by i3ullseye
#2 - The Chronicle /the Night Stalker

Classic idea. You are a reporter(s) working for a Enquirer type rag paper. you are investigating the 'truth' that ther people deny.

This would be a good one...and easy adventure seeds by picking up tabloids such as Weekly World News and using actual stories for story ideas.

[Herolover]

I have been thinking an "Aqua Teen Hungerforce" campaign would be good....

[Captain Obvious]

Meatwad makes the money, see? Meatwad gets the honeys, G....

You're a sick pup, you know that, Herolover?

[Herolover]

:)
Ahh, come on. Who wouldn't want to play Master Shake?

Of course you could do a SeaLab 2021 campaign based on the movie TINFINS, with the obvious tie-in to Griselbies!

[jtelson]

What was the name of the organization that Steve Austin (The Six Million Dollar Man not the Texas Ranger) worked for? I think it was the OSI - Office of Strategic or maybe Scientific Intelligence.

[TheImperialKhan]

^^^ You're close. It was the Office of Scientific Investigation.

I know I'm gonna get blasted for this but...

Lost in Space HERO

Oh the pain, the pain :D

[BobGreenwade]

Actually, I'd consider TV shows like The Invisible Man (both the recent Sci-Fi series and the less-worthy '80s series), The Six Million Dollar Man, Misfits of Science (a highly underrated show IMO), Man From Atlantis, and similar fare to fall under the Champions umbrella. See the discussion starting on page 15 of the Champions book for more on this (though my personal name for this style is Plainclothes Champions.)

I actually would really like for Hero Games to have a locale in the new CU to exploit this style of play.

[jtelson]

You're close. It was the Office of Scientific Investigation.

Thank you - That was the next to last thing I needed.

[Jester]

What about something loosely (or closely) based on Farscape? That's one of the greatest Sci-Fi shows of ALL TIME. Any ideas?

[Cap'n D]

The Tick (cartoon)
"I say STOP your evil ways, naughty spawn!"

[Space Cadet]

One possible choice for a series-based campaign would be the
late '70s series SEARCH, especially for GMs who don't have large
groups of players to deal with. From what I can remember of the
show, each episode dealt with a single SEARCH operative being
given a mission to carry out while recieving virtually-constant
intelligence support from SEARCH HQ. The operatives themselves
were wired for both sound and video that allowed SEARCH HQ
to see and hear whatever the operative did.

Space Cadet :cool:

[Dr Rotwang!]

Uhh...Automan! Street Hawk! MacGyver!

...

...Fantasy Island?

[Space Cadet]

How about a street-level Hero campaign based on any of the
numerous cop shows of the '70s and '80s -- you know, shows
like Felony Squad, Dragnet, The Mod Squad, The Rookies, S.W.A.T. and T.J. Hooker?

Space Cadet :cool:

[Dr Rotwang!]

Ya know...for a while now, I've wanted to do a Miami Vice-style game -- very, VERY 1980s, with the pink shirts and the New Wave music and the white Ferraris and maybe even Sheena Easton.

Better yet, there's my idea for a cyberpunk/near-future game called Orbital Heat, which is about vice cops on a space station. The station being, of course, the primary gateway between Earth and its colonies, every stripe of human is passing through there -- and staying, sometimes, since it's a resort as well. And being who I am*, it'd of course be all 80's in space, with the New Wave and the maglev white Ferraris and maybe even Sheena Easton.


*If you don't know me from RPG.Net, I feel about the 1980s about the same way that the Pope feels about Catholicism, or fish feel about water.

[The Monster]

Stargate. Has everything I'd want in a Hero game:
--PCs are basically normals,
--but they get to have nice equipment,
--but the PCs own bosses can't always be trusted,
--and the bad guys get to have kewl powers (*and* kewl equipment),
--and there are a lot more bad guys than heroes,
--almost any setting or NPC culture can be justified,
--you can't always tell who the bad guys are,
--there's a Big Evil Enemy out there who will Destroy the Earth Unless the Players Save The Day (but not every adventure revolves around them).

If only I'd thought of it first...

[Gary Ciaramella]

I had an urge at one point to run a low level police game based on Hill Street Blues... would have been fun with the right players.

[Dr Rotwang!]

I keep forgetting to mention Special Unit 2 (http://http://groups.msn.com/SpecialUnit2SU2/_homepage.msnw?pgmarket=en-us)!

That's a link to an MSN group, but, uh...pickin's is slim.

This (http://http://groups.msn.com/SpecialUnit2SU2/shortstoryplotideas.msnw) section in particular is interesting -- it's plot ideas.

Hmmm...

...thinking.

[BlackSword]

I bought the Farscape RPG from AEG, then sat and watching the first season to remind myself of the series, and thought how easy it would be translate the races to Star Hero. The only thing I haven't seen explained is how fast and how the ships move between planets normally. I know the Leviathan has Starburst which allows it to move instantly between points, but the destination is not known, but how do Command Carriers and Leviathans move normally.

Reading the list I thought you should at least have a classic horror campaign based upon Saved by the Bell.

I really liked the Slave to the Volcano God idea. I don't think I have the movie knowledge to pull it off, but it sounds like a great and really fun idea for a campaign. Especially the taciturn character caught in Broadway Musical, makes me think of Pinky and the Brain the times Brain was forced to do something terribly embarassing and he would just have that glower on his face while he sung a song or something.

[Wildcat]

I once ran a game I called GateCrashers. It was based in part off of Sliders/Stargate with a bit of CyberHero, and some more (think Immortal Hero) thrown in.
It was set in the world as we know it, but with Tech having advanced about 10yrs ahead of what we have now. The Characters were all Corporate Trouble Shooters, and were sent to investigate this 'Gate' that was found.
The Idea was to have them hopping from world to world, each one being varried. I mean one could be a Ravensloft Rip off, while the next was Nazi World, and the next Spelljamers... I started them off in a 'Lost World' setting using the Old Hero suplement 'Lands of Adventure' (Or was it Lands of Mystery?) and it was to be their central point of world hopping. The game was going well as a PBEM, but real life reared it's ugly head, and it ended, before they could even get off the 1st world :-(

I still get pestered from time to time to start it up again, but I'm running a realy good Champions game right now, and just don't have the time, but it sure would be nice... ::sigh::

Anyway if anyone is interested I have a link to 90% of it posted on my site take a look and if it provides any sparks for Ideas then the game won't have died completely :-D
http://www.geocities.com/vesbin/

WC

[Wildcat]

Ooops Posted it twice ... Sorry

WC

[Space Cadet]

For a really interesting "fish-out-of-water" series-based game,
you could use the show Outlaws as a guide for such a
campaign. The show was about an outlaw gang and a former
friend-turned-lawman from the 19th Century American West
transported forward in time to the 20th Century by a lightning
bolt, and their subsequent efforts to fit in to their new time.

Space Cadet :cool:

[Vondy]

Quincy
Mike Hammer
The Master
A-Team
BUCK ROGERS (Gil Gerard, baby)
Knight Rider
NYPD Blue
THE FALL GUY

[AnotherSkip]

Originally posted by Dr Rotwang!
...

...Fantasy Island?


Actually FI first season (NOT with Ricardo Montilban) and in wich the owner wore black.... was actually pretty good, there was inparty bet's, more supernatural events and other bits of the more fantastic

[Vondy]

Originally posted by AnotherSkip
Actually FI first season (NOT with Ricardo Montilban) and in wich the owner wore black.... was actually pretty good, there was inparty bet's, more supernatural events and other bits of the more fantastic

No Ricardo Montebaun?

BLASHPHEMER!!!!!

Do you not remember the directors cut of wrath of Khan?

Khan switches into a white suit and his companion screams:

"Look Boss! The Enterprise! The Enterprise!"

Just before Kirk blows them into the vaccuum of space.

Ricardo rocks!

[Dr Rotwang!]

Montealbán. Ricardo Montealbán.

Está en Español.

I need more ASCII codes for Spanish punctuation.

And a nap.

This is the end of Zeta Talk.

[AnotherSkip]

Okies Maybe some of you guys are old enough for this one:

the Tommorow People.

Psionicists who are realistically kids/teens trying to prepare the human race to join the psionicists in outer space....

70's britshow on Nickelodeon....

Cooler than _anything_ listed yet.

IMNSHO

:)

[MoonHunter]

I would not say that, but it is a good game background.

Oh did you see the New Version on Nick or did they also show the original series from the late 70s?

Actually checking out TV shows from other countries is a great source of material for campaigns. (That is how I found Dr. Who when visiting Canada so many years ago). Foreign show sites and fan sites can be a great inspiration.

For example, Water Rats is a great Police Drama from Australia. It would make a great game.

"Water Rats" are the police who spend their days on Sydney Harbour and get paid for it! With the backdrop of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, this show started life with a silver spoon in its mouth - or is that a silver badge? This series has all the drama of a land-based police show, with the splish-splash special effects that go with the "dangers lurking beneath the waves". "Water Rats" brings to cop shows what "Flipper" brought to animal shows - an added dimension! Add to this the already proven formula of police rescues, and you have the ingredients for success.

What comes to mind when you think of Sydney Harbour? Lazy days on the yacht? A barbecue at Mrs Macquarie’s chair? Lobster at Doyle’s or the Rocks? Catching the ferry to Manly? Yeah, yeah, it’s all beer and skittles, right? Well, not to the boys and girls of the water squad. "If it’s wet, it’s ours", they cry, and they’re not about to be fooled by all that turquoise tranquillity. For these guys the harbour is anything but - they know it’s a whirling vortex of soggy criminality, every bit as dangerous as the backstreets of King’s Cross, and maybe more so - after all, you can’t drown on a city street, can you (you may, of course, come face to face with a shark)? So next time you climb the rigging, unfurl the canvas and uncork the bubbly, spare a thought for the 70 men and women who have made the waters secure for yet another boozy sunset.

There’s certainly enough happening above and beneath the harbour to fill the production books for at least a few seasons. How many routes to a waterborne mystery can you think of? (tick, tick, tick…) Okay, there’s the high dive from the top of the Bridge; boating accidents; bodies dumped in gangland killings; bodies dumped in non-gangland killings; polluters spewing their evil garbage; oil spills from Panamanian tankers; drug smugglers from Colombia; drunken ferry captains; speeding speed boats; indecent sunbathers; theft from the wharves… you get the idea, thrills and spills galore (there’s even been a maniacal jet-skier intent on homicide whilst he’s on the jet ski!!). And there’s one thing that has to be said for water - the action can take place above and below, two worlds for the price of one. The boat rides the waves to the scene of the crime, the divers take us to the evidence below.

Get some Sidney Travel guides, put some Shrimp on the Barbie, tell everyone to put Crockadile Dundee out of their mind, and put together some 75+75 point police characters. The fun part is that you can rip of the series episode guide for scenarios, and the players will never know.

[Dr Rotwang!]

Hm. Yesterday, while cleaning the bathroom, I was somehow moved back towards my "Orbital Heat" game -- best described as "Miami Vice plus cyberpunk on a space station".


...


...hmn.