Supe it up!

[FenrisUlf]

After reading the 'Pulparize It!' thread over on the Pulp Hero forum, I wonder: how would any of you 'super-ify' a specifically non-superhuman/superhero film or TV show? Note: I'm aiming for the Silver/Bronze Age, but if you can swing it as Iron or Golden, more power to you.

I wish I had something to open up with, but right now the only films I can think of are the first Spider-Man and Hellboy. D'oh!

[dbsousa]

The American President: Michael Douglas must simultaneously woo Annette Bening, and deploy his Ninja Force against the evil plans of Professor Pygmalion.

Babe: A meteorite crashes on a small farm, giving all of the animals super intelligence and human speech.

Grizzly Man: a chilling documentary about a delusional metamorph who was killed while turned into a grizzly bear.

Taps: The government is closing the General Xavier School for Gifted Cadets. The students use their superpowers to force a standoff

[Hermit]

After reading the 'Pulparize It!' thread over on the Pulp Hero forum, I wonder: how would any of you 'super-ify' a specifically non-superhuman/superhero film or TV show? Note: I'm aiming for the Silver/Bronze Age, but if you can swing it as Iron or Golden, more power to you.


Well, you can always take personalities from characters in shows and use them as the basis for a super hero bunch period. Westerns make real easy transitions in many cases.

But more 'mainstream' shows of yesteryear might include

"Super In Cincinatti"- Mild Mannered Les Nessman must play the fool at WKRP, but unbeknownst to his cooler co-workers, he's actually Radio-Star! Behind those thick glasses dwells a brilliant engineering mind, and from such was constructed the power armor that gives him super radio powers. Little do Jennifer and Bailey know that the rugged hero they both pine for, is right behind a yellow tape line only a few feet away.

"Alpha Team" - In 1972, a group of super soldiers were sent to Stronghold for crimes they didn't commit. They promptly escaped. Today, still wanted by the government,they survive as heroes for hire. If no one else can save you, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire "Alpha Team"

"Acts of Life"- When Ms. Garret takes a job at a private school for girls, she discovers more than a few of those girls are young superhumans with no training, and little direction. While she's a normal woman, and they're mutants, mystics, and metas; she nevertheless takes them under her wing.

"The Dukes in Hazard"- Jesse Duke was once a supervillain who ran moonshine operations and engaged in a little good natured Robin Hooding. Now his entire family is under a few court restrictions. No public use of powers, which is a real pain for Bo and Luke who are just itching to strut their stuff... it seems almost all the Dukes have powers. Alas, the county has grown corrupt under VIPER nest leader and mayor Boss Hog. So the Dukes must don masks to foil the big man in white and his lackey, sherrif Roscoe P Coltrain... the hard part is making sure they have alibis when the inevitiable accusations of parole violations occur.

"Fall-Guy" Colt Severs is a mutant with the power of nigh invulnerability. So what does a guy like that do? He becomes a Stunt Man, of course. Unfortunatley, whenever you have powers, someone think you must want to be a super hero. Colt is forever dragged into adventures where someone needs a super hero... he tries explaining he's not into that... but it's so hard to say no to such pretty ladies in distress.

[OddHat]

"Fall-Guy" Colt Severs is a mutant with the power of nigh invulnerability. So what does a guy like that do? He becomes a Stunt Man, of course. Unfortunatley, whenever you have powers, someone think you must want to be a super hero. Colt is forever dragged into adventures where someone needs a super hero... he tries explaining he's not into that... but it's so hard to say no to such pretty ladies in distress.

This in particular sounds like a great campaign. :)

[Hermit]

This in particular sounds like a great campaign. :)

Kind of Wonder Man meets Blue Devil :)

[nexus]

CSI: Millennium City :The PCs are brilliant but perfectly normal police officers and detective investigating "Low end" (non costumed) crimes involving the use of metahuman powers.

[Hermit]

*M*A*S*H* Meta Aid to the Surgical Hospitals: By mutual agreement on both sides, superhumans during the Korean war didn't engage in combat. They were allowed to be used in support postions. Join now as a group of these heroes have been drafted to assist in the saving of lives of soldiers. There is the Precog "Radar" O'Reilly who alerts the others minutes before the #$#$ hits the fan, Heat emmiting "Hotlips" Houlahan (Who keeps the patients warm at night in even freezing cold), and "Hawkeye" Pierce's super keen vision can notice even the smallest bit of Shrapnel. These Superhumans, and more, are under command of Col. Sherman T. Potter, himself once the Golden Age superhero known as "Cavalry"

EDIT: Thanks to rjcurrie for catching the typo. I suppose Calvary would be Father Mulchay's codename ;)

[rjcurrie]

... under command of Col. Sherman T. Potter, himself once the Golden Age superhero known as "Calvary".

Did you perhaps mean "Cavalry"?

[Hermit]

"Whose Crime Is It, Anyway?" A group of second and third string heroes take their own lack of cool and turn it into comedy gold by inviting the audiance along via live feed as they fight crime. Their only tactics? Making it up as they go along.

[SKJAM!]

"Super"-Friends: Six young people who hang out in a coffee shop together are all secretly super-powered heroes. Initially, none of them knows of the others' abilities, but over the course of the campaign they learn each other's secret identities and eventually become a crime-fighting team.

[Supreme Serpent]

Super and Son - Story of a superhero taking up the mantle of his retired father (his stress of heroics became too much for his heart condition), battling crime with his father's (often frustrating) advice and assistance.

Law and Order - Society is protected by two seperate, but equally important groups of heroes. The low-powered detective heroes who investigate crimes and track down villains, and the high-powered ones who go in to beat the villains up. These are their stories.

[incrdbil]

Dark Chamopions presents....Red Dawn: Faced with a Villainous takeover of their country, a handful of low powered metahuman children engage in a dark, bloody resistance movie.

Welcome Back Kotter Mr. Kotter's days as a superhero are over, but he's going to still make a difference. Going to the troubled school for young metahumans who have started down the wrong path, he tries to teach them to be more than they are. This gang of super-juvenile delinquents, called derisively the "Sweathog" is a continuation of the gang Kotter himself once was a member of before he turned to the path of the superhero.

Super Cheaters: This gang of low powered supers exposes superhumans who use their multiple identities to carry out multiple affairs.

Jeapordy: This game showpits Gadgeteers against each other, asnwering questions of incredibly difficulty in ortrder to win funding for their team of produce more gadgets. The final Jeapordy round consists of the players wagering their funds on how well they will perform in escaping a devious deathtrap.

Base Makeover: Superhero Editon This crea tkes requests from poor, struggling teams to redo their inadequate super-bases. TEach week, a deserving team is sent away on a glorius vacation to guard Stronghold, while the makeover team rebuilds their base in amazing time, turning boring danger roooms into magnificently hazardous places able to put the team in serious danger!

[incrdbil]

Haerandir just inspired me with a comment.

the Red Dawn movie above takes place in an alternate Marvel Universe. The young Supers in question were created using DNA taken from an initially unknown hero giving them lesser versions of his powers. This builds to a dramatic highligh of the move where, after taking out a Group of Soviet super agents, one of the team members stands up and cries out "Wolverines..bub!!"::snikt::

A touching moment t the end shows where the names of the young heroes were clawed into rock to denote their passing after they were overexposed due to being in too many places at once.

[Trebuchet]

Band of Brothers: Join a small band of superhumans as they land deep behind the lines of Festüng Europe on D-Day, fight through the hedges of Normandy alongside ordinary American GIs; liberate Paris, repel the savage counterattack in the Ardennes Forest by led by the fanatic Nazi supervillains Kreigsmachine and Hauptmann Deutschland; and ultimately capture Hitler's secret headquarters, the Eagle's Lair.

Based on the best selling book by Stephen Ambrose and Stan Lee.

[SKJAM!]

Battlebots: Do I really need to explain?

Remote: A brilliant detective-type superhero becomes emotionally crippled by a certain incident, the details of which are classified. Unable to leave his workshop, he is forced to hire a rookie hero with low-grade superspeed to be wired for sight and sound and be his legman. Their relationship is fractious at first, but as the rookie learns detective work, the mentor slowly begins to feel again.

[Arkham]

Footloose : A super-powered dancing martial artist comes to a small town to battle religious oppression.

[Basil]

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: Four super-teams are, unbeknownst to each other, patrolling the same area when supervillain "Smiler" Grogan, finally out of jail (legally) runs his car off a cliff. The four teams swoop in to rescue him, mistake each other for supervillains, and have a short fight before realizing they're all (ostensibly) on the same side. By this time Grogan is dying, and can only rasp out a few vague clues to where he hid the loot from a lifetime of supercrime.

The heroes start talking about what to do with the money, realize their aims and methods are incompatible, and each takes off to try to get to Santa Rosita Park before the others.

Hilarity results as each group uses its fastest Movement Power (Flight, Teleport, Tunneling, Super-Vehicle, etc.) to head to Santa Rosita Park! Complications include explosions, normals needing rescue, explosions, drunken super"heroes", explosions, a British adventurer/aristocrat/gadgeteer, explosions, and more!

{See also http://www.herogames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=961993}

[BlackSword]

Con-Air - Really the same movie, except that the aircraft was holding superhuman criminals. One of them is a Hero either wrongfully convicted, or a Hero who stepped over the line and is preparing to get his life back in order. Criminals go off on their own, and a few team up for mutual support.

[The Main Man]

Superfeld - A super-team show about nothing that analyzes the common, every-day things of super-culture. Things like a villain referred to as "the close/high monologuer", or a hero that uses Super-Jerry's powers, or getting a super-vehicle with an invulnerable super-B.O.

[SKJAM!]

Gilligan's Isle: Seven ill-assorted superhumans go on what was meant to be a three-hour cruise, but a freak storm deposits them in a Bermuda Triangle-like dimensional zone. They find themselves stranded on an island along with a number of other travelers from other times and places (including an old-fashioned Soviet supervillain) and must learn to cooperate to survive and perhaps one day return to the real world.

Skipper: Grizzled nautical hero.
Gilligan: A slightly mad and very naive youth with a variable power pool that shifts at its own whim.
Ginger: Stunning Hollywood superstarlet with fire-based powers.
Professor: A gadgeteer skilled at using primitive items to make surprising sophisticated devices. Unfortunately, his skill at dimensional travel devices is not a strength.
Millionaire: Thurston Howell III has a really neat set of power armor that he bought. Too bad he didn't bring the instruction manual.
Lovey: Mrs. Howell can turn into living diamond.
Mary Ann: Farm girl with the ability to make plants grow. Well, at least they won't starve.

[TheRavenIs]

Stargate SG1: The USAir Force discovers the Stargate. Using technology and methods from the Second World War they create teams of super-soldiers to investigate the worlds on the other side of the gate and to protect the Earth

Lt. Col. Jack O’Neill, the man with superhuman luck and the ability to fast talk he’s enemies, plus near invulnerability.
Captain Samantha Carter, super-human intelligence, with expertise in all areas of science, plus super speed.
Dr. Daniel Jackson, the living translator with the ability to give all of he’s teams the ability to understand any spoken language, while he can read any language, also an archeologist and anthropologist. Has the powers of telepathy [empathy only].
Teal’c; Jaffa Superman, the warrior that Col. O’Neill convinces to join him in fighting the evil Goa’uld. All of the abilities come for ‘junior’ the young Goa'uld symboite, that all Jaffa carry.

[Arac-4105]

Lost in Space: Apollo 18 never made it home. Instead, the three astronauts were discovered/rescued by an alien species that had made its base on the dark side of the moon. The aliens' advanced medical sciences made supermen out of the astronauts. The catch? Due to the same medicine that made them supermen, they're ultimately vulnerable to Earth's 'high' gravity.

[assault]

Lost in Space:

An alternative: In the year 1997, the Robinson family takes off in the Jupiter 2, America's first colonization mission to Alpha Centauri. However, a spy for a foreign country, Dr. Zachary Doom, sneaks on board and sabotages the mission by reprogramming the ship's robot to destroy the Jupiter 2 after launch. Due to a surge in cosmic rays, unusual solar flare activity and an abnormally high neutrino count, the humans are transformed in powerful entities. Crashing back to Earth, the Robinson family soon gain the reputation of being "The World's Greatest Superhero Team!"

(This actually gives an interesting Incredibles feel, doesn't it?)