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The Seeds of a Campaign Idea

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tomd1969
, Feb 3rd, '12 at 10:16 AM (297 Views)
In my previous post, I mentioned that I was working on a superhero setting. It's just a germ of an idea, really, nothing really fleshed out, but it's something that I would like to eventually hammer out into a full setting. It starts with a couple of inspirations.

Many years ago, after the success of The Watchmen, Alan Moore came up with an idea called Twilight of the Superheroes. The idea was that it would take place a couple of decades in the future of the DC Universe, after Superman and Wonder Woman had married each other and had children, and produced a sort-of feudal system separated into major and minor "houses" or clans based on the source of their power. Superman and Wonder Woman (who changed her name to Superwoman) were heads of the House of Steel. Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel, Sr, were heads of The House of Thunder, and so on. The crux of the story was based around the marriage of Superman's and Superwoman's son Superboy arranged to be married to Mary Marvel, Jr., an affair in the House of Thunder, and an alien plot to kill both the Houses of Steel and Thunder.

Now, the problem I have with this is, of course, the licensing issue: I can't use any of the IP if I plan to publish it.

But there is also the issue of the fact that Captain Marvel and Superman are essentially the same power sets (Flight, Invulnerability, Strength, Speed, or FISS) with only the window dressing being different.

But what if we could take this idea and expand on it? What if, instead of it based around DC/Warner's IP, something could be done with this core idea to make it more palatable for an RPG? Different groups can be created based on specific power sets. This idea is similar to one that is also found in World of Darkness games, such as Vampire: the Masquerade. While the core of all of the Vampire clans is the same, a Brujah vampire is different from a Ventrue, with different abilities and mind-sets.

So, first idea: The campaign takes place in the future, say 100 years in the future.

Second idea: The PCs are descendants of a core superhero group (this world's version of the Justice League or the Avengers). So, each PC would choose which super they are descended from, and that would determine their core power set (e.g. descendants of Valor would get Flight, Damage Resistance (called "Invulnerability"), and Super-Strength).

More to come.

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  1. AlHazred's Avatar
    You could fit in the core Champions Universe guys if you plan to make a Hero product. I could see it as an option in the 6th edition version of Champions Beyond, the book with all the "what-if" alternate worlds.

    Of course, one of the core cool bits about the, er, Superdammerung is that it bridges the myth-structure from the merely superhuman to the god-like; the structure of it was extremely similar to the kinds of stories told about the Aesir/Vanir. If you take away the iconic supers, I don't know if you get the same punch out of the idea.
  2. tomd1969's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by AlHazred
    You could fit in the core Champions Universe guys if you plan to make a Hero product. I could see it as an option in the 6th edition version of Champions Beyond, the book with all the "what-if" alternate worlds.Of course, one of the core cool bits about the, er, Superdammerung is that it bridges the myth-structure from the merely superhuman to the god-like; the structure of it was extremely similar to the kinds of stories told about the Aesir/Vanir. If you take away the iconic supers, I don't know if you get the same punch out of the idea.
    Talking with Darren made it clear that there were other problems with the idea, not the least of which is the problems of what kind of stories could/should/would be told in the setting. Once I figure that out, hopefully the rest of it will fall into place.

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