Heroes of the Multiverse

[Jagged]

I am in the early stages of world building for my next campaign: Heroes of the Multiverse*

 

The conceit is that each player comes from their own reality where they are outnumbered by villains and a pan-dimensional organisation of supermen is allowing heroes from neighbouring worlds to work together.

 

So I thought I would put this out there for feedback. Suggestions welcome but bare in mind that Sean Waters will be one of the players

 

 

 

 

* To be said in a "He-Man Masters of the Universe" style voice.

[Doc Democracy]

Sean is in a dormant phase, I think we can speak freely....

[Doc Democracy]

So, been to the site. The background is interesting if the players are up for that kind of campaign.

 

The build guidelines are pretty sparse, I guess you guys are long running and have a decent understanding of base rules?

 

My question would be whether you expect the heroes to be more competent/powerful than the villains they face (to compensate for being outnumbered).

 

If I was a hero here, I would want an ability to abort to a safe place at any time, accept defeat but live another day. It can get tiring if you are running and hiding all the time, more uplifting to have some way to strike from the shadows to accomplish a task and quickly fade back into them whether things go well or badly.

 

:-)

 

Doc

[Jagged]

I did tell the players they needed to be either a competent hero and / or come up with an explanation of how they are still alive.

 

I do intend for there to be lost of villains who are mostly weaker than the heroes, with a few notable exceptions.

 

As for the players themselves, we have a long history of playing Champions (my last campaign ran for over 10 years) but we've been playing D&D for a while now. So it will take a little while to get back into things.

[Mister E]

I would set a common SPD for all PCs as a build guideline

[Durzan Malakim]

This premise reminds me of Brandon Sanderson's The Reckoners series. In that series, there's a reason power corrupts most people. Certainly you have an opportunity to create a common origin story or perhaps have players explain why they weren't corrupted. I'd also expect this multiverse to have a lot prejudice against powered-people since they are mostly villains behaving badly. I suspect there would be a strong selective-pressure for invulnerability or a high-villain mortality rate in the beginning.

[Jagged]

I would set a common SPD for all PCs as a build guideline

Our last campaign was SPD 4 apart from the speedster. It worked well but I was considering a change just for the variety. Just not sure if there is any benefit?

 

I shall await all the character concepts before deciding

[Opale]

I find the idea interesting, although some points seems difficult to settle with.

 

 For example, if all your PCs come from a different dimension from each others, how can they work well together ? Who to trust ? Who to follow, as ech of us would want to save their relatives, their own world ? 

 

And then, if they survived they would have to fight and survive in a multidimensional world that want them dead. Without a personal way to move from a place to another, how is that possible ? I suggest you take a look at the Book of the Empress for hints about cosmic dimensional threat, or Skarn the Shaper,  or Tyrannon.

 

About the character's balances, it seems you are more or so using the 5th ed power level, which means to me the SPD chart of your PCs could go from 4 to 7. But that's not enough to survive and fight in such a world you describe, even if the villains are street level. They would need "weird " science or powers, in order to escape and make a difference. And build a network of resistance.

 

Opale, who ran a V'han invasion in Galactic Champions....

[Jagged]

Thanks for the suggestion but I am going to avoid cosmic threats. I want instead to concentrate on the players' worlds and the mess that happens when the wrong people are given easy power ;-)