How would you pull a 'Gath' in your Campaign?

[Hermit]

Kulan Gath twice altered modern Manhatten in the MU to look like something out of Conan.

The New Warriors had to deal with a female Sphinx who made the world pagan Egyptian ableit still modern.

Morgan Le Fey made a Arthurian world and the Altered Avengers had to stop her.

And in the CU, we have an evil Aztec god who wants to reform the world (or at least large sections of it) back to the days of blood sacrifice. There's a jade mirror that was constructed to warp the world to ancient (and I suspect mystical) China and broken, but might be remade, or replaced.

In my own games using New Constantinople, one has to wonder if any Greek god will decide to claim the city and alter it entirely and that might make a good (if predictable storyline).

Still, I wondered, if you were going to 'Gath' your own superhero game setting, be it city or world wide, what ancient or fantasy culture motiff would you do it in? Who would you have as the perpetrator behind it?


Yes, I'm looking for folks to possibly rip off one day :)




I'm putting the obligatory poll up :) but much prefer responses for ideas

[John Desmarais]

Still, I wondered, if you were going to 'Gath' your own superhero game setting, be it city or world wide, what ancient or fantasy culture motif would you do it in? Who would you have as the perpetrator behind it?


If using the Champions Universe as my setting I'd probably Takofanes (Kal-Turak) and then use one of the published Fantasy Hero settings for the motif (most likely Turakian Age as Kal-Turak is quite powerful then).

Outside of that I'd have to look at the villains that existed in the campaign and just left one of them be the inspiration.

[bigdamnhero]

Oooo...so many possibilities, so little time! (My players are about to hate you, BTW!) :sneaky:

Edit: I voted for Aztec, Viking, Greece +/or Egypt; definitely something Old World & mythic. (Rome's been done IMO.)

[csyphrett]

I have done this with a guy named Kaison Malus. Imagine a big castle springing up in the middle of Downtown. I am about to do it again with his children.
CES

[Lord Liaden]

I actually did this in my last campaign, a result of the efforts of Takofanes. My rationalization for all his apparently random attacks over the years since he first appeared was that they weren't random at all. They were harvesting souls and infusing the land with magic to prepare for a great ritual to transform the world into an analog of the Turakian Age, with Tak himself once again the ruler and at his full power level from ancient times.

My PCs were rushing to confront Takofanes and thus near to him when he completed the ritual, and so were the only ones to remember the world the way it used to be. People acknowledged Takofanes as ruler in much the same way that Americans acknowledge George Bush as president; someone they don't actually interact with and who has little impact on their daily lives. (No direct comparison between Tak and Bush implied.) ;) Washington had been reshaped to resemble the Archlich's ancient northern fortress from TA, which the heroes had to penetrate to find the means to reverse the spells.

What disconcerted the PCs (in a fun way for the players, as I'd hoped) was that while their abilities were mostly intact, they had been changed to their closest TA analogues. For example, the team gadgeteer was now a Dwarf and the SFX of his equipment was now period weapons and artifacts; while the mentalist found herself in the body of a Migdalar.

[Lord Liaden]

Oooo...so many possibilities, so little time! (My players are about to hate you, BTW!) :sneaky:

Edit: I voted for Aztec, Viking, Greece +/or Egypt; definitely something Old World & mythic. (Rome's been done IMO.)

I came very close to the Aztec thing years ago, when a major villain in my campaign was an ancient vampire/sorceror masquerading as the death-god Mictlantecuhtli. He was working to overthrow the Mexican government, then sacrifice some of Mexico's millions to return the country to its pre-Columbian state, with himself elevated to the status of living god. The PCs stopped him, but given the cruel and bloodthirsty nature of the Aztec regime in particular, that development could have caused serious problems for Mexico's neighbor to the north, particularly if they were armed with magic.

In the current CU Tezcatlipoca would work extremely well as the instigator of such a scheme. Of course the god Set is also quite active in the CU, as well as the more benevolent goddess Ma'at, so the revival of ancient Egypt is a distinct possibilty, probably involving the assumed "magical" properties of major Egyptian monuments such as the Pyramids. And as Hermit points out, Dr. Yin Wu is actively seeking the Jade Mirror of Transcendence to restore imperial China with himself as Emperor, and he has the mystic cred to actually pull it off.

[BoneDaddy]

It might be fun to go Steampunk with a transformation into a Victorian Industrial setting to benefit a gothic horror of some sort. LL's abovementioned technique of converting the PC's powers into an idiomatically appropriate context sounds entertaining and less infuriating than the alternatives.

Perhaps a Ripper could yank the world into his own pocket space to replenish a population he depleted. I liked the Ravenloft setting because it provided the possibility that it could happen damn near anywhere. Steampunk seems to me to provide a good possibility for an analogue.

[Kevin Schultz]

Having never thought about it, I'd probably go for something Steampunkish, just to avoid being TOO cliche. I'd probably pull from Ben Langdon's Uberworld setting, and have a certian English uberhuman group pull a retcon to ensure that the sun never really set on the Brisish Empire...

[BoloOfEarth]

I did this in my prior campaign, changing Millennium City into an Egypt-like setting, with nuances of Stargate thrown in for fun. It all started with a theft from a museum, IIRC of a necklace similar to the one Kulan Gath used to transform Manhattan (at least in the only occurence that I read). The heroes had to fight the altered Champions and squads of PRIMUS agents, who were the honor guard and general troops for the pharaoh. Much fun.

[Springald Jack]

My top choices are Aurthrian or Ancient China because of their Super-Hero analogues. Round Table Knights and xia respectively. I might even do something crazy and switch mechanics from M&M to True20 if'n I did so...

[CrosshairCollie]

If I had the Turakian Age book, I'd probably use that.

[pinecone]

I once used a "Rome never fell" thing in a time travel senario as a "unintended outcome"....so I have a real fondness for that one....

[Amber Nytstar]

I'd go prehistoric in a manner of speaking.
In other words, I'd alter the area (city, continent, world...) to one where the dinosaurs never became extinct, but instead evolved into sentient and sapient beings.
As for the perpetrator, I'm thinking along the line of either a alien refugee who's actually feeling a bit homesick, or a villain that's been genetically engineered with prehistoric DNA.

I also voted Egypt, Mystic East, and Arabian Nights.

[Lord Liaden]

I'd go prehistoric in a manner of speaking.
In other words, I'd alter the area (city, continent, world...) to one where the dinosaurs never became extinct, but instead evolved into sentient and sapient beings.
As for the perpetrator, I'm thinking along the line of either a alien refugee who's actually feeling a bit homesick, or a villain that's been genetically engineered with prehistoric DNA.

You know, there's a villain in Champions Worldwide who would have the motivation and perhaps the means to pull something like that off: El Sauriano, a mutant with the power to assume dinosaur forms. He believes himself to somehow be related to the dinosaurs, and is obsessed with bringing them back into the modern world. He's also a very competent biologist and geneticist. I could see him creating something similar to the "Ophidian Plague" from Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth - a tailored virus that inserts dinosaur DNA into humans, creating human/dino hybrids.

[Phantom Jack]

Though I do love steampunk, I wouldn't put it in a superheroes game, except for a few characters. If I were to drastically rewrite history, though? An eerie extension of 1950s American Cleaver-Family-style suburban utopia. With true-to-form Atomic Age optimism and racism/sexism/xenophobia that's so ingrained it's almost charming. And, of course, any disruption to their stagnant tranquility is the fault of those (comparatively) foul-mouthed, grubby, and- integrated interlopers...

[Lord Liaden]

Now that we have the Tuala Morn setting book, perhaps the British Isles could be converted to that proto-Celtic era. The perpetrator? Samhain, who originated with the Tualans. Let the change be unstable, so that the land is constantly shifting in and out of Tualan mode at random, and you'll generate plenty of fear among the populace for Samhain to feed on. And that demon may regain more of his ancient powers and status, making him an even more formidable opponent for the PCs.

[Lord Liaden]

This could be an interesting variation on the Arthurian motif: the Black Paladin creates an "anti-Camelot," with himself as king and various evil mystical and armored villains as his Round Table.

Weldun came up with a similar concept and roster for his campaign, although without "pulling a Gath:" http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43720

[Matt Frisbee]

Can you say 'Ragnarok'? The end has come, children -- choose a side and fight!

Matt "Cry-Havoc" Frisbee

[Major Tom]

A GM with access to Raymond E. Feist's novels set in the world of Midkemia
could conceivably come up with a universe-hopping magical villain from that
universe, who arrives on Earth and eventually decides to create his home-
world on Earth a la Kulan Gath. There's even a race of serpent people
in the books that could easily be subsituted for VIPER (who in the books have
been responsible for instigating several wars and at least one attempt at using
a biological weapon of mass destruction, all for the purpose of bringing their
"goddesss" back to rule over the world).


Major Tom :eg:

[Lord Liaden]

Oh lord, I just thought of a deliciously terrifying CU-based concept for this, and the best part is that it already has great precedent behind it. Two words:

THE SLUG!

[wrestlinggeek]

So many to choose from! If I was actually running a game right now, I would probably use the Tarot Emperor (an ancient, powerful immortal who was once worshipped as a god and has spent centuries trying to get that back). The time-period would be pre-history, before Atlantis sank. Mixture of high magic and high technology, with one god-king in charge of everything. As for method, I'm thinking some powerful magic ritual which the PCs would get a chance to stop before it was completed. But if they fail, they would at least be close enough that they would still remember the world "as it should be."

[OddHat]

I'd use my Imperium Romanum (http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53054) setting, with North America transformed into the Medowlands, a colonial/wild west setting where the far North is held by the Dene (the First Nations), the East Coast has been partially colonized by the Rus Khaganate (a mix of Germans, Finns, Russians and Mongols) and the Imperium (a Roman Empire that never fell), the West Coast has been partially colonized by Shen Zhou (China and East Asia), the Mid-West is held by many loosely affiliated tribal peoples called the Dene-sen by outsiders (the Native American Nations), and most of Central and South America is a Hell on Earth under the reign of the Totun Blood Kings.

As to who, I'd introduce a plot by the Devil's Advocates to finally make a break from being occult has-beens and never-weres to the first ranks of the mystic world by drawing on the power of Hell Stones. I'd also make it clear to the player characters that this re-creation of the world wasn't a simple transformation or overlay; by introducing the Hell Stones, all of history had been changed back at least 20,000 years. If the Devil's Advocates were responsible for wiping out the very existence of billions of people by re-creating the world in this way, then the player characters would in turn take that same responsibility by restoring the world as it would have been without the Hell Stones.

Then, after seeing where they went with that, I'd give them a Heroic out, because the Superhero stories I like are about solvable problems. Probably I'd introduce some ideas from the Feng Shui setting, and a reality war would become a feature of the campaign.

[transmetahuman]

I chose mythic greece and arabian nights/persian, just because I'm most familiar with those cultures (not saying much, though; it'd definitely be research time). But the more I think about it, the more I like the arabian nights version. No particular villain in mind, but a powerful djinn recently found and released, serving a disgruntled normal, should work fine.

Tech largely replaced with "magitech" (planes --> flying carpets, etc.), the characters social relationships & class structure altered, a decadent feel overall with the rich and famous as pampered nobles, harems and silk and tons of ubiquitous magic... I think it'd be cool for a mid-length scenario.

[Tom]

Hmmm, I'm having enough fun with Greek gods at the moment, thank you.. ;)

Though Greece would give Sylph a chance to really come into her own, or at least take center stage for a while...

Tim and Jan would probably have more fun in a 'steampunk' world or a setting that at least included alter tech than a fantasy or ancient setting -- though the opportunities for griping are better in fantasy (I'm a physicist, not a blacksmith...)

A mixture of fantasy and tech could be.. interesting.. though...

[FenrisUlf]

I'd follow Lord Liaden's plot idea and have either the Hell-Raisers or Takofanes himself restore the Turakian Age. A super-powered Turakian Age!

EDIT: Ack! I forgot about my ideas for once using Tezcatlipoca and the 'new' El Aguila. That could work great too, and if I had someone running EA as a character, it'd be the one I'd choose.

[Lord Liaden]

Egypt seems to be in the lead. That doesn't surprise me; the land of the Pharoahs has captured the imagination of Westerners for over a century.

You know, restoring ancient Egypt is just the sort of plan that Imhotep from the recent Mummy movies would try to pull off. And he could probably do it.

[Hermit]

Yeah, I'm in the minority in the Egypt interest. It doesn't intrigue me as nearly as much as some of the others. Not that it would suck mind you... depending on the GM.

The recent talk of 60s stuff does have me chuckling at the thought of the world being recreated in a particular decade's sterotypical image. The 70s, for example... Disco and World Domination, two great tastes that go great together.

[FenrisUlf]

You know, restoring ancient Egypt is just the sort of plan that Imhotep from the recent Mummy movies would try to pull off. And he could probably do it.

He actually did do that for one episode of the cartoon series based on the movies.

[Zed-F]

I've got one character (NPC) in my game that could actually pull something like that off, if he were in gestalt with a significantly large and high-tech power source... but it would be a planetary-scale AoE mental illusion. He'd use it to try to rally the population of Earth against the demonic / lovecraftian monstrosities that are in the process of beginning their invasion of the planet, probably by showing them that they can organize and rise up to fight the threat... and the consequences if they fail to do so.

Only problem -- lack of suitable equipment to do it with. His spaceship has the tech, but lacks the power. The powergrid of the US Eastern Seaboard has the power, but not the tech. And his spacecraft is currently in the hands of the Horde...

[stmichaeldet]

I think an Old West "Gathing" would be fun. It would give me an opportunity to run an homage to one of my favorite Prisoner episodes, "Living in Harmony."

[ChaosDrgn]

Kulan Gath twice altered modern Manhatten in the MU to look like something out of Conan.

Twice?

[Major Tom]

Yep. The first time was in an issue of Spider-Man (IIRC, Mary Jane was more
or less possessed by/transformed into Red Sonja in that one), and the second
time was in an issue of X-Men just prior to the arrival of Nimrod into the "main-
stream" Marvel Universe.


Major Tom :cool:

[starblaze]

There was also an Avengers story where Gath created his own ancient Aztec city in a modern day South American country.

[Hermit]

Yep. The first time was in an issue of Spider-Man (IIRC, Mary Jane was more
or less possessed by/transformed into Red Sonja in that one), and the second
time was in an issue of X-Men just prior to the arrival of Nimrod into the "main-
stream" Marvel Universe.


Major Tom :cool:

Those were the ones I remember.

[ChaosDrgn]

IIRC in the Spider-Man/Sonja storythey were in a museum that had an exhibit looking like hyboria, the city was still the same outside.

Then they did the X-Men/Avenger's storyline where Nimrod "prevented" it along with the Avenger's storyline when Busiek/Perez was working on it (v3 28-30).

For some real fun look for Exiles 55-57, the group travels to a world where Gath took over during the X-Men storyline. Broader look at what happened with some of the other heroes, not just the core X-Men/Avenger's at the time.

[David Johnston]

When I did it, I transformed the world into one in which there had been no advancements since the 1930s. The PCs were converted into Golden Age versions of their characters.