Golden Age Champions

[OddHat]

Sounds like a fantastic game.

I'd highly reccomend Godlike, a game setting about, well, really wussy Superheroes in WWII. I ran a campaign using elements from that book and Hero system; worked well.

Re: Power Levels. 350 points without min-maxing is not enough for Doc Savage, the Shadow, or even Superman after 1942, unless you give bases, contacts, and background skills for free. However, it's possible to build a world where 350 point versions of those characters work. I tend to do that out of habit.

My wife's Victoria Davis solo game folowed the character from her childhood in the 1930s (as an apprentice to Patricia Savage) through pre-war adventures and the early years of WWII. It rocked.

I'm trying to tell a good story about real people in impossible circumstances. I may love a genre convention (Bat Caves! Secret Bases! Henchmen! Monkeys!), but if I have to choose between running the convention straight or reworking it to fit the story, the convention gets reworked.

[ldorn]

The best way to get the speech patterns down for the period you what is to find a collection of old radio shows based around the years you want. You should find these among the audio books in places like Borders.

[Agent 13]

The best way to get the speech patterns down for the period you what is to find a collection of old radio shows based around the years you want. You should find these among the audio books in places like Borders.

Or many places on-line, including:
http://otrfan.com/
http://radiomemories.libsyn.com/

[austenandrews]

Also for dialog, movies of the period are great for sticking in your head. Watch a few before you plan a game session. You may never think to have a grown man use the word "swell," but watch Bogart say it a few times and you'll carry a different perspective into the game. Classics like Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon are brimming with good lines. When you come across one, practice it a couple of times. If Sam Spade makes you think of the line "The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter!" then you've already committed the words "crook" and "patter" to memory.

For quips and interjections, comedies are a great resource. The Vaudeville influence made snappy lines, and shocked "straight-man" responses to snappy lines, a staple of the time. Personally I like Marx Brothers and Thin Man films for catchy quips. Practice the ones that make you laugh, and you'll inadvertantly pick up some period idioms (I can't think of Groucho without hearing "How do you like that?" or Margaret Dumont's "Well, I never!"). Also check out Mae West, W.C. Fields, et al.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Those are all excellent suggestions, and I'm make sure to use some of them before I run that game next...which will likely be in 6 months or so. I'm asking now while the thoughts from having done it are fresh in my mind, so I can feel better prepared next time.

AA, did I manage to convey a better idea of what I meant when I was referring to "Golly gee whiz" stuff?

[austenandrews]

AA, did I manage to convey a better idea of what I meant when I was referring to "Golly gee whiz" stuff?

Yes, now I understand. You're talking about people's expectations, not the actual source material. The two are quite different, to a degree a lot of people probably don't realize. Many of the tropes people associate with Golden Age are actually more Silver Age in flavor. Actual supervillains weren't common until quite late in the GA, and the ridiculous excesses (death traps shaped like giant musical instruments) weren't common until the Silver Age revival of superhero titles. Likewise it was the Silver Age that took the edge off the characters, who previously emulated the pulps & serials with their casual body counts.

In some ways I am quietly amused when people snigger at genuine Golden Age tropes. When people claim, without a shred of irony, that Captain America and Bucky are less believable than a giant-breasted porn model with thong armor and a hundred-pound sword - because they show blood on the sword! - I can't help but laugh.

Not that there isn't plenty of humor to be mined from the source material, and not that I don't enjoy it (I thought that Justice League episode was a scream). But the truth is, Golden Age tropes aren't any more or less ridiculous than modern ones. The key is how you sell them. If your group doesn't enjoy implausible period tropes, make them plausible. That's what I meant earlier about the cheesy giant death ray being lethal despite being cheesy. Flamboyant does not mean impractical. (Someone once asked an old engineer from the 19th century why their cast-iron machine mounts were often so ornate. He answered, "Why not? They had to look like something.") No one questioned fighter pilots when they painted toothy faces on their planes. They were men doing a serious job, who happened to include a little flair. Modern writers have done a great job of portraying the Joker's flamboyance as the product of horrifying, murderous dementia. Look at how Batman Begins justified such silliness as a giant cape, spiky gloves and a mask with ears.

Approach your Golden Age flavor the same way and skeptical players might view it in an entirely different light. You can lose much of the goofiness and retain the tropes.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Not that there isn't plenty of humor to be mined from the source material, and not that I don't enjoy it (I thought that Justice League episode was a scream). But the truth is, Golden Age tropes aren't any more or less ridiculous than modern ones. The key is how you sell them. If your group doesn't enjoy implausible period tropes, make them plausible. That's what I meant earlier about the cheesy giant death ray being lethal despite being cheesy. Flamboyant does not mean impractical. (Someone once asked an old engineer from the 19th century why their cast-iron machine mounts were often so ornate. He answered, "Why not? They had to look like something.") No one questioned fighter pilots when they painted toothy faces on their planes. They were men doing a serious job, who happened to include a little flair. Modern writers have done a great job of portraying the Joker's flamboyance as the product of horrifying, murderous dementia. Look at how Batman Begins justified such silliness as a giant cape, spiky gloves and a mask with ears.

Approach your Golden Age flavor the same way and skeptical players might view it in an entirely different light. You can lose much of the goofiness and retain the tropes.

Wow! Excellent post, AA! I wonder if I can rep you yet?

Edit: Yup...I can!


I think I remarked earlier that I kept some of the "goofy" dialogue, mainly from a couple of ultra-patriot types. I guess I did a good job of "selling" it as "plausible", because the player -- who'd specifically requested avoiding the "Golden Age silliness" -- took it in stride and seemed to think it was appropriate to the characters and situations. In fact, despite the propaganda-film-esque nature of the dialogue in question, she described the characters as being "very ernest" and "gung-ho" rather than "silly".

[Twilight]

Or, if your players are so inclined you can retain the goofiness and just work around it. After all just because it was goofy doesn't mean it was bad, which is not to say that AA's take on things is wrong either. Either point of view can work if that's what the players and GM want.

Me I kind of like a mixture of the two. I mean I do like the lighthearted Golden Age goofiness in moderation but I appreciate a good serious story too. A few adventures with our heroes slogging through occupied France to aid the Resistance against the Nazi hordes and Vichy French traitors can be great fun, but sooner or later I'll want some goofy stuff like Nazi werewolves or superintelligent SS gorillas to show up as well. Yes reading in Hidden Lands that Mole Men battled alongside the Nazi's brought a smile to my face from the sheer silliness of it.

No one way is the right way there's room enough for something like Dr. Anomaly's game and the likes of Professor Peril and Frau Doktor Veronica Von Frankenstein as well.

[John Desmarais]

Actual supervillains weren't common until quite late in the GA...

They became more common in "after the fact" golden-age stories (stories set in that period but written many years after). In particular, Roy Thomas introduced a slew of them in both his Invaders stories and his All-Star Squadron/Young All-Stars stories. But yes, in the comics actually published during that time costumed, super-powered villains were almsot unheard of.

[Hawksmoor]

As the Co-GM of a Golden Age game I can say that I am trying to get at the 1970s revival Golden Age rather than the true Golden Age. I want costumed villians! I want Death Traps! I want fun and seriousness!

I like Pie!

Hawksmoor

[Twilight]

As the Co-GM of a Golden Age game I can say that I am trying to get at the 1970s revival Golden Age rather than the true Golden Age. I want costumed villians! I want Death Traps! I want fun and seriousness!

I like Pie!

Hawksmoor

Your game intrigues me Hawksmoor and I wish I could join. Does it have superintelligent gorilla villains who ally with the Nazis despite being blatantly opposite the Aryan ideals the Nazis belived in?

I mean really those comic book Nazis would team up with anybody, that's part of the fun.