Campaign idea: Kirby's Fourth World homage

[assault]

I've been thinking of getting a game together for a while, but I haven't been able to think of a theme that I would be interested in for long enough. I think I may have finally come up with something suitable: a homage to Jack Kirby's Fourth World titles.

For those unaware of this fabulous work: Google it.

I think a game set in a world of Boom Tubes, Mother Boxes and Whiz Wagons has to have potential. It certainly can have epic scale villains - is there _any_ villain more epic scale than Darkseid?

It neatly straddles the border between Silver and Bronze Age, basically being "Silver Age on acid".

So, my question is: what would be involved in filing off the serial numbers and producing a homage to it?

There would definitely have to be some limits in character creation - I can't see magic origins being viable, since they clash with the Weird Science that makes the setting so, uh, funky. On the other hand, most of the other Golden and Silver Age origins should be OK.

Most of the other house rules would probably be the conventional tweaks for establishing Four-Colour physics - no Stun lottery, normal things have vulnerabilities to superpowers, etc.

The setting could be modern day - perhaps the human genome was secretly decoded in the 1970s, and covert genetic programs have been creating
"things" ever since.

There could be a bit of a gang war going on, as established gangs clash with mysterious new rivals.

And, of course, there are hints of sinister cultists pulling strings in the shadows...

So, the real question is: who can replace Darkseid and the New Gods?

[Doug McCrae]

In a way Jack Kirby's Fourth World is going 'back to basics' by being closer to mythology than most superhero stories.

Features:
1) Complete fantasy worlds - Apokolips and New Genesis - rather like Asgard or Olympus.
2) No real world science. The power sources are allegedly technology, super science and weird energy sources rather than magic, but they are completely unrealistic. Its kind of fantasy technology.
3) Strong story elements. The babies swapped at birth to uphold the truce is absolute classic. Likewise I think you want to focus on family relationships and possibly steal plots from mythology - the death/resurrection of Osiris for example.

[Blue Jogger]

So, the real question is: who can replace Darkseid and the New Gods?

I would write up the New Gods as Gen Xers, pulling from the classic archtypes from 80s movies. (Goth chick, the Cool Guy, the Outcast, the Popular Girl and the Football player)

If you watch the Teen Titans; you have Raven, Robin, Beast Boy, Starfire, and Cyborg.

[Darren Watts]

The forthcoming Champions: Hidden Lands supplement, due in early '05, will feature the Empyreans and Lemurians (among others), who are our little tribute to the New Gods and the Eternals. Last year I ran a few preliminary sessions of it with our group, a pre-Galactic Champions intro to playing 1,000-point characters, and a ball was apparently had by all. dw

[ChaosDrgn]

to paraphrase a line from a star trek book

One man's technology is another man's magics and a third man's gobble-de-gook.

The thing with Kirby is that rather it's magic or technology who cares. It works, it moves the story along and it's fun to look at with all the "kirby krackle" around it.

In the Ragnorak that came not just the Norse gods were involved. All the Earth mythologies were involved in one form or another. This massive energy instead of being destroyed or lost was converted into something..else...Now in the 21st Century a new brand of God has emerged, a mythology that's mixed all the different types as well as adapted aspects of the modern world. The Gods are trying to understand base humans while the humans are trying to cope with things that are beyond their understanding.

Magic? Technology? The Gods simply know it works and they understand it. To the humans it appears as whatever seems best at the time.

[assault]

Thanks to everyone for the ideas. Keep it up!

My current problem is power level. The source material covers a rather extreme range, from Highfather to Jimmy Olsen.

Broadly, characters seem to cluster into three groups:
Cosmic: Highfather, Orion, Lightray, Superman, Mr Miracle on a good day.
Superheroic: The Guardian, Big Barda, Mr Miracle on a bad day, minor New Gods.
Normals: Jimmy Olsen, the Newsboy Legion, "Terrible" Turpin.

You could blur the first two categories a little, by going for the lower end of cosmic power levels. You can build a workable Superman analogue on 700 points, and that would give a seriously dangerous Guardian. If you go for more points, the Guardian starts to suffer from serious bloat, while fewer points force excessively deep cuts into Superman's abilities.

But I'm inclined to go for fewer points. After all, the main thrust of the game will be the fight against Intergang and the Evil Factory, not hand to hand combat with Darkseid. So, really, it's a rather conventional campaign.

In fact, I'm not entirely sure that I really need to know about who is replacing the New Gods, at least to begin with. All I really need is details on the Good Guys, plus some info about the Intergang substitute (Viper?), and the gangs they are moving in on. And _their_ backers too, of course - a Lex Luther analogue would be useful there.

In most respects I could just lift bits from the standard CU, but I will want to make some changes. Eliminating magic is the most obvious, but I will be ignoring everything irrelevant to the campaign, effectively creating a stand-alone setting.

Now, a setting... something to replace Metropolis... I'll make a decision on this later.

[ChaosDrgn]

You may want to take a look at Galactic Champion's when it comes out. Not only does it handle the nromal "cosmic" type heroes (Legion, Avengers, etc) it also gives ideas and tips on doing Gods or other similar powered beings.