Iron Age NPC help requested

[nexus]

I’m currently setting up a new superhero campaign, an Iron age type setting where superheroes are as much media stars and celebrities are heroes and villains. The basic premise is that superhuman powers originated from various super soldier experiments during World War 2 and a few older sources. Dr Moreau and Jekyll actually existed as did other literary figures (think League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) as exceptional normals. Superhumans were first employed covertly during various wars and conflicts, some went renegade, some retired or the technology or just the genetic material leaked into the general population, even experiments considered failures producing “mutant” children a generation later. There have been waves of superhuman activity since the end of World war 2 as highly covert military and governmental operatives with peaks in the 60s (especially among the counter culture), early 80s (social climbers, celebrities and products of the “me” decade) and now the late 90s and early 21st century, high profile, often corporate sponsored or government agents, criminals and politically motivated terrorists/activists. Alien life exists and humanity shares the planet with other intelligent races but this is largely kept away form the general public.

Unfortunately, I’m in a slump creatively right now and NPC concepts just aren’t coming. If anyone has idea for some good IA type NPCs, heroic, villainous or otherwise and feels like sharing I’d really appreciate it.

[Gemphyre]

I’m currently setting up a new superhero campaign, an Iron age type setting where superheroes are as much media stars and celebrities are heroes and villains. The basic premise is that superhuman powers originated from various super soldier experiments during World War 2 and a few older sources. Dr Moreau and Jekyll actually existed as did other literary figures (think League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) as exceptional normals. Superhumans were first employed covertly during various wars and conflicts, some went renegade, some retired or the technology or just the genetic material leaked into the general population, even experiments considered failures producing “mutant” children a generation later. There have been waves of superhuman activity since the end of World war 2 as highly covert military and governmental operatives with peaks in the 60s (especially among the counter culture), early 80s (social climbers, celebrities and products of the “me” decade) and now the late 90s and early 21st century, high profile, often corporate sponsored or government agents, criminals and politically motivated terrorists/activists. Alien life exists and humanity shares the planet with other intelligent races but this is largely kept away form the general public.

Unfortunately, I’m in a slump creatively right now and NPC concepts just aren’t coming. If anyone has idea for some good IA type NPCs, heroic, villainous or otherwise and feels like sharing I’d really appreciate it.

I am assuming that you are not talking about personal NPCs for the heros/villians, but rather background NPCs for the campaign.

How about some of these:
Police Chief
Commonly encountered police officers (specific persons)
Mayor
Fanboy/fangirl
Local Drug/crime lords
Reporters/News Anchors
Paparazzi
Police Liaison
Some local "nobility" (people of wealth and power)
If near military base, significant officers or appropriate service
Local FBI/MIB/government agents (Small set of specific people)
Neighbors
Classmates, either current or former
Teachers, either current or former
Major local scientists, museum curators, and professors
Lawyers

My best advice is to create the people that you need when you think you will need them. Don't worry about creating everyone at once.

Gemphyre

[nexus]

I was more looking for superpowered concepts, heroes, villains, inbetween. Running dry at the moment.

[lapsedgamer]

Have thought of basing your NPCs on real life celebrities and psuedo celebrities, The Paris Hilton as a supervillain thread has some great thoughts on that type of thing.

Along the same lines, how about a low level Superman clone who behaves like the worst of the worst of professional sports. You know. He has massive ego, and is more concerned with his endorsements than heroism. The kind of guy who punches his coach, spits on fans and refers to himself in the third person at press conferences. You would say he was a waste, but the problem is he is actually good at heroing when he gets around to it. As a place holder, I'll call him Maximus.

Or... A female super who is always followed around by cameras for a reality TV approach. She has like six or seven of these automated drone cameras that fly, roll and climb around to get footage. they are semi-automous and have a lot of survival programming and defenses to keep from getting destroyed. She still goes through a bunch of them. At times, they actually go up to people to secure consent for their images as comic relief. The heroine has a standard set of martial artist powers/weapon master powers and is very telegenic, a real sex symbol type. Her name is Idol. If she gets killed in the line of duty or quits they have a big nationwide contest to find her replacement.

["V"]

Out of interest, have you read Grant Morrison's "Zenith"? A very similar starting point in that following supersoldier research by the UK in World War 2 a small number of the 'next generation' of supers were born. The German supersoldiers were genetically perfect bodies used as hosts by Lovecraftian nasties... Most of the British supers turned 'counter culture' in the 60s and refused to work for the establishment with some vanishing and others losing their powers (ostensibly, in fact they just hid them).

Some interesting takes on the supers genre, not least that the main character was primarily a rock star with no interest in "fighting crime" ("You want me to get my head kicked in? I'm not a boxer!") he just happened to be a ridiculously strong flying brick with powers that varied according to his biorhythms.

Other supers in the early run including a powerful mentalist now carving out a niche for himself among Mrs Thatcher's cabinet ("so-and-so is being particularly difficult Peter, perhaps you could have a word..."), an alcoholic welsh pyrokinetic and someone who was not only the usual flying brick but could also control electrical impulses in nearby wiring.

A later run used lots of much older UK comic characters who were the supers from a parallel world including characters from kids' "funny pages" (eg "Billy Whizz" a speedster character who appears in Zenith as "Jimmy Quick" whose first appearance has him running himself to a burned out charred wreck to deliver a message of doom).

["V"]

And, realising that my previous post doesn't actually answer your request...

How about a Mentalist character who is basically a one-trick pony. He has some minor mental abilities (surface mind reading etc) but his only really powerful attack is a very effective mental blast that can devastate the victim's psyche, probably permanently. Associated side effects are that he gets bleed-through of the memories of everyone he has ever used this power on and the cacophany in his head is kept at bay only by serious applications of anti-psychotic medications.

He is on the books of some organisation or other that sees him as a real tactical asset (his big power is really impressive!) and see his inevitable collapse into incoherent dysfunction as an acceptable loss.

He may see it differently of course, especially when some of the leaking memories from certain victims suggest to him that he is perhaps not being used against the evil monsters he was told were his targets. Or perhaps those nice innocent memories are being planted there by a rival psychic. Or perhaps they're his authentic memories and what he thinks is his real past actually belongs to one of his victims.

You get the idea.

[McCoy]

One early super-solder experiment seemed to have no effect, and the subject was reassigned, and offically KIA. Only after he was buried he woke up. He's now 87 years old, still looks 23. Watching family, friends, and enemies grow old and die while he remained unchanged has made him somewhat of a sociopath. Jail is no deterrant t him, he can do a nickle holding his breath, and he's already been executed twice. Life imprisonment would be just a challenging puzzle of not only how to escape, but how much he could torment the guards in the meantime.

He has no powers other than immortality and regeneration, but is well connected to the underworld and has a lot of money stashed away in long-term investments under dozens of names.

Immortality can be boreing, so he might take up bating the police or heroes as a hobby. Total sociopath to whom murder is an art form. Think of a cross between the real-life Zodiac and the Joker.

["V"]

He is a supersoldier from the future who has been sent back in time to combat the vanguard of a race of shapechanging alien invaders who infiltrated the earth during the period in which the campaign is set. His powers are straightforward Brick-Lite/Martial Artist (similar to Captain America) and since he arrived in the modern era naked he does not rely on any foci that he could not have picked up in the modern era. He has no contact with his superiors in the future (about 50 years hence, fighting a guerrilla war against the ruling caste of warrior-aliens who have subjugated humanity) except very occasionally when they manage to 'beam' a message back to him by overriding the signal on a TV or radio, for a few brief seconds during which they give him insight into appropriate targets, imminent threats and so on.

He doesn't discuss his origins with anyone from the modern world - even if they aren't shapechanging aliens themselves they may let something slip. And most people, on hearing his story, would assume he was delusional anyway.

And of course, this being an Iron Age setting, he is.

How he actually picked up his enhanced abilities is up to the GM of course but his whole backstory is either fictional and created by someone else to manipulate him (viz: Marvelman) or a delusion of his own devising.

["V"]

Hijack is a sleazeball mentalist whose existence is not even rumoured at. Physically he is unremarkable, looking like the 'before' pictures in most social makeover programs and he has a poor self image and lacks confidence in any social interaction. His powers developed during adolescence and gave him the opportunity to experience the highs and lows of social situations vicariously.

He needs to touch his targets - skin to skin contact, but even the lightest brush of a fingertip will do. At that point he can attempt to possess them mentally. His own body collapses into inert drooling stupor and he finds himself "inside" his target's body, experiencing everything they experience and able to control their actions as though they were his own. The victim is still aware of what is happening though their memories will be dissociated and vague as though remembering a previous night of heavy drinking or recreational drug use.

He spent years using his powers to control and dominate the beautiful and admired people that he envied (hated with a passion to be more precise!) and only recently realised that he could make a career out of it. He now works alongside some of the richest, most predatory paparazzi in the world taking a hefty commission for assisting them in setting up the most sensational photographs of the world's biggest celebrities.