creating a golden age supers campaign

[batguy]

How can i create a golden age supers campaign?

[Christopher R Taylor]

The best thing to do is read a lot of pulp and golden age comic stories, so you get a feel for the time period, the culture, the language, the setting, etc.  Stuff like telephones being relatively new, and smoking being more common.  The Golden Age Champions book has a lot of tips and information along these lines as well.  There are certain repeated themes in golden age comics, but mostly the setting and time period is a very important part of the game.  if you just go in thinking modern behaviors and ideals, then its not going to feel like a Golden Age campaign.

[unclevlad]

Huh...I was gonna say something about the smoking rate but...look here.  

 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/261576/cigarette-consumption-per-adult-in-the-us/

 

The MASSIVE jump is...WW II related.  IIRC cigs were in ration boxes.  So if you're setting in 1940, it is higher, but not wildly so.  1950, it's everywhere.

 

That said, a key setting difference is that smoking was allowed almost anywhere, and exlcusions would be for clear-cut reasons.  Smoking-caused fires, and fire deaths, not unheard of.  Pipes were far, far more common;  most of the best brands were still putting out VERY good stuff, and even store-branded pipes from places like Wilke, were very good quality.  

 

In general, much of what would be unacceptable behavior now, was tolerated.  Stumbling drunk would more likely get someone to get you a cab home;  slightly unsteady, OTOH, would probably just pass almost unnoticed, almost certainly unremarked.  Adults marry...or they're considered a bit peculiar, as in...unpopular, or hiding something unpleasant.  Before WW II in particular, the man works, the wife stays at home, raising the kids.  Communications are really limited.  Even when I was a kid in the mid 60s, free phone calls were *sharply* limited...maybe 10, 15 mile radius.  It wasn't even everyone in the area code...it was a handful of the 3 digit prefixes.  That's IT.  Long distance rates?

 

And note, that's mid 50's dollars.  Inflation calculator says, $2 in 1955 would be about $23 today.  For 3 minutes...off peak at that!  (Cell phone minutes had that initially too...nights and weekends were cheaper for some time.)

 

Radio rules;  TVs are, I'm pretty sure, CRAZY expensive, and reception was hit or miss...also true even into the 60s and early 70s, to some degree.  Movies are the dominant form of entertainment, outside the home.  The studio system is still firmly entrenched, so the big actors are making lots of films.  Restaurants?  Fast food was around, but I believe mostly in the suburbs.  In cities...automats and diners.  

 

People didn't travel as much, or as far.  This also meant neighborhood ties tended to be stronger;  you'd see the same people a lot more often, when many more people lived near their work.  

 

Note that at the start, even Superman dealt with gangsters and the like, and not overly powerful.  Many of the heroes of that period are brawler types;  Batman's a brainy brawler who's also rich.  Some are...well, barely better than Normal Characteristic Maxes, but not all of em.  And there's a general ramp-up in power as the Silver Age emerges, when the characters are MUCH!!!! more powerful.  (I remember a Silver Age Superman, making a comment about flying through the heart of a nova.  OK, so, the knowledge of science is also REALLY sparse in this period.  College attendance is much lower.  High school is more often the max, with vocational education often after that.  
https://www.statista.com/statistics/183995/us-college-enrollment-and-projections-in-public-and-private-institutions/

 

Another point...infectious disease is still a huge concern.  Polio vaccine, mid 50s.  Measles, 1963;  mumps, 1967, and rubella, 1969.  Mumps was *usually* minor, but could be extremely serious...and was very contagious.  All of em were VERY dangerous collectively.  Schools had nurses because they were needed. 

 

Social standards...the movies adopted the very repressive Hays Code due to backlash from the moralists of the day.  (Remember, this is not that long after Prohibition.)  That was mid 30s.  Similar complaints about the comcs, altho the CCA wasn't passed until the 50s.  The period was still, I think, largely much like Victorian/Edwardian England...bland and staid on the surface and in public, but far more wanton in private, or in the imagination.  Take a look at both mens' and womens' bathing attire from the period, for example.  

[assault]

I did a bit of stuff with the Golden Age about 15-20 years ago.

 

Golden Age superheroes were very cookie cutter. After noticing this, I created a template that included the common features of most Golden Age heroes, allowing me to really churn out the write-ups.

If I get around to it, I will post it here. It's on my old computer, so I can't just grab it. In any case, it was based on 250 point 5e characters, and would take a bit of modification for 6e and another point total.

Briefly though, I went with 20 Str, 20 Dex, 20 Con and 5 Spd as the baseline. About 100 points of characteristics, 125 of powers and 25 points of skills. Modify from there. Fairly low powered, but everyone was more or less the same. Naturally, these were starting versions of the characters.

[dmjalund]

People wore hats a lot

[batguy]

3 hours ago, assault said:

I did a bit of stuff with the Golden Age about 15-20 years ago.

 

Golden Age superheroes were very cookie cutter. After noticing this, I created a template that included the common features of most Golden Age heroes, allowing me to really churn out the write-ups.

If I get around to it, I will post it here. It's on my old computer, so I can't just grab it. In any case, it was based on 250 point 5e characters, and would take a bit of modification for 6e and another point total.

Briefly though, I went with 20 Str, 20 Dex, 20 Con and 5 Spd as the baseline. About 100 points of characteristics, 125 of powers and 25 points of skills. Modify from there. Fairly low powered, but everyone was more or less the same. Naturally, these were starting versions of the characters.

cool,man,let's see it!

 

wow,that is so cool,let's see it

[Doc Democracy]

14 hours ago, batguy said:

How can i create a golden age supers campaign?

Read the Golden Age Champions sourcebook.  It's entire purpose is to help you create a golden age campaign.

[Hugh Neilson]

6 hours ago, assault said:

I did a bit of stuff with the Golden Age about 15-20 years ago.

 

Golden Age superheroes were very cookie cutter. After noticing this, I created a template that included the common features of most Golden Age heroes, allowing me to really churn out the write-ups.

If I get around to it, I will post it here. It's on my old computer, so I can't just grab it. In any case, it was based on 250 point 5e characters, and would take a bit of modification for 6e and another point total.

Briefly though, I went with 20 Str, 20 Dex, 20 Con and 5 Spd as the baseline. About 100 points of characteristics, 125 of powers and 25 points of skills. Modify from there. Fairly low powered, but everyone was more or less the same. Naturally, these were starting versions of the characters.

 

You could drop SPD to 4 if most opponents are thugs and gangsters anyway (and if "Super" opponents are comparable).  15 - 20 STR and some brawling/boxing martial arts to get into the 6-8 DC realm would cover most Golden Age Supers.

 

The real issue may be the power disparity.  Lots of brawlers, many with one or two gimmicks (Sandman's Gas Gun; Shining Knight's winged horse; Hawkman's wings) but a few virtually omnipotent characters (the Spectre; Dr. Fate; Superman). For true GA (and SA), the heroes weren't overly challenged by combat - opponents were hard to locate and pin down, or were one-trick ponies, so once the hero figured out how they were avoiding detection/eluding capture or determined the workaround to their one trick, a punch in the jaw ended the adventure.  Even more so for the true super-powered characters like Superman, Namor, Human Torch, Spectre, etc.

 

That would not sit well with a lot of gamers, so many GA games really take their inspiration from Bronze Age stories set in the GA, like All-Star Squadron and Invaders, with Supers level opponents.

[Hugh Neilson]

Oh, some other big ones for true GA (much once WW II starts):

Government and authority are solid and trustworthy. That goes for police, military - all civil authority. Any who are not are foreign infiltrators, and they are extremely rare. Those foreign governments of enemy powers, though, are vile and evil, and that permeates down to virtually everyone fighting on the Other Side.

 

The Supers are on the home front by whatever contrivance is necessary (Supes was locked out of service because, when he tried to enlist, he accidentally read the eye chart in the next room due to his X-Ray vision, and was 4F for lousy eyesight). The REAL heroes are the soldiers fighting overseas, and the Supers can never overshadow that.

 

Remember that the USSR is on our side - Uncle Joe (Stalin) is a standup guy that you'd be happy to see your daughter date!

Edited August 10, 2023 by Hugh Neilson

[unclevlad]

True about the war.  The US is largely isolationist, not wanting to get involved in The European Problem...then Pearl Harbor happened.  If you remember the early response to 9/11...holy time warp Batman, that was 22 years ago!!!  It was shock, and anger.  The move against the Taliban, tho, had almost no loud detractors.  That's the response to Pearl Harbor, as well.  Despite wartime privations...rationing of many things.  War bonds were big.  The soldiers were selfless heroes;  I don't remember if casualty counts were reported much, but if they were, it would've been with the "these brave boys gave their all for us."  TOTALLY a tone of heroic sacrifice.  

 

Foreign infiltrators were actually rare...but in the culture, they were on every corner.  That's a big distinction to draw.  In 1942, for example, Universal started bringing out a small series of Sherlock Holmes stories, where the plot, by and large, was based on Doyle...but set during the war.  The first 3 all feature Nazi villains, altho according to the summaries on Wikipedia, the rest in that series didn't.

 

I don't recall how the Soviets were portrayed, but found this:
/https://journal.centruldedic.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Andrei-Cojoc_2013-1.pdf

 

A big point the article makes, is the degree to which the US government directly interfered to steer the narrative...with support from Soviet officials in DC.  It's interesting to note that this collaboration was a BIG point of contention in the 50s, when HUAC persecuted Hollywood pretty mercilessly.

 

Oh, one other point to remember.  One of the big black marks in US history...the seriously illegal detention of American citizens of Japanese descent.  It's fear-driven...but it also shows what the government COULD do back then.  Bucking government was almost inconceivable...in itself, possibly still a remnant of the Civil War.  This arguably started change first with Korea...the coverage, I believe, showed the more brutal side of war...and then with the HUAC abuses.  

 

Another aspect of government power was the whole Manhattan Project.  Modern conspiracy theorists tend to argue stuff like that is still going on in secret, but they'll argue lots of absurdities.  Keeping a project of this scale and cost a secret is huge, and in itself could provide another whole, separate storyline...perhaps one not quite so benign..... Set it in Germany, or possibly Vichy France.....

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quite a few Germans were arrested and held during WWI and WWII as well, and the Wilson administration outlawed things like German language classes.  War Times sometimes things would get a bit questionable but always in the name of national security.

 

None of that showed up in comic books from the time period, but its up to you as a GM how realistic you want your setting to be.  If you want to model the comic books, then good vs evil is very clear and the government, police etc are on the side of good, unless they are clones/infiltrators/shapeshifters etc.

[assault]

8 hours ago, Hugh Neilson said:

 

You could drop SPD to 4 if most opponents are thugs and gangsters anyway (and if "Super" opponents are comparable). 

 

They're already dangerously vulnerable to thugs and gangsters. 5 Spd comes closer to giving them the capabilities they actually showed, IMHO.

[Hugh Neilson]

50 minutes ago, assault said:

 

They're already dangerously vulnerable to thugs and gangsters. 5 Spd comes closer to giving them the capabilities they actually showed, IMHO.

 

That depends on how competent you make the thugs and gangsters.  The heroes certainly got hit, but very seldom shot.  If thighs have SPD 2, then our Super can Dodge when the guns come out, then attack in the phases the thugs don't act in.  Only to fall to a blow to the head from behind - EVERYONE was KO'd by that cowardly blow from behind!

Edited August 10, 2023 by Hugh Neilson

[assault]

15 hours ago, assault said:

I did a bit of stuff with the Golden Age about 15-20 years ago.

 

Golden Age superheroes were very cookie cutter. After noticing this, I created a template that included the common features of most Golden Age heroes, allowing me to really churn out the write-ups.

If I get around to it, I will post it here. It's on my old computer, so I can't just grab it. In any case, it was based on 250 point 5e characters, and would take a bit of modification for 6e and another point total.

Briefly though, I went with 20 Str, 20 Dex, 20 Con and 5 Spd as the baseline. About 100 points of characteristics, 125 of powers and 25 points of skills. Modify from there. Fairly low powered, but everyone was more or less the same. Naturally, these were starting versions of the characters.

"I know I had it somewhere!"

I'll look again later.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Speed means more than it initially seems when you look at it.  It doesn't just mean you're fast, it means you're tactically trained.  It means you are great at using your opponent's weakenesses and failures, as represented by speed.

[Ninja-Bear]

Also you can look at Public Domain of Superheroes for inspiration. Since many of these were only one issue or two the information is limited.

[Ninja-Bear]

On 8/10/2023 at 4:05 AM, assault said:

I did a bit of stuff with the Golden Age about 15-20 years ago.

 

Golden Age superheroes were very cookie cutter. After noticing this, I created a template that included the common features of most Golden Age heroes, allowing me to really churn out the write-ups.

If I get around to it, I will post it here. It's on my old computer, so I can't just grab it. In any case, it was based on 250 point 5e characters, and would take a bit of modification for 6e and another point total.

Briefly though, I went with 20 Str, 20 Dex, 20 Con and 5 Spd as the baseline. About 100 points of characteristics, 125 of powers and 25 points of skills. Modify from there. Fairly low powered, but everyone was more or less the same. Naturally, these were starting versions of the characters.

I would live to see this too. When I mess around with PDSH, I used Skilled Normals for gansters and built Heroes from there.

[Ninja-Bear]

And Resistant Defenses of some sort even if its Heroic Luck. Golden Age have a LOT more Killing Attacks!

Edited August 12, 2023 by Ninja-Bear
Mispelling!

[Christopher R Taylor]

There are a ton of golden age era comics online available to read, the earliest Superman comics are a hoot and very informative.  Especially Captain Marvel stories are terrific fun and show a lot of how things were approached.

[unclevlad]

On 8/11/2023 at 11:09 AM, Ninja-Bear said:

And Resistant Defenses of some sort even if its Heroic Luck. Golden Age have a LOT more Killing Attacks!

 

Good point.  Guns are ubiquitous, for all the obvious reasons...norms are soft and squishy, punching someone HURTS most norms.  And you have to get Up Close and Personal to hit someone.

 

Note that many of the weapons don't have particularly high damage ratings.  A quick cross check shows that several of the Pulp Era Rifles, in the Military section (HSEG 65) can be found on Wikipedia's WW II infantry weapons used in the US.  Good enough.  They're still only 6-7 DCs.  Now, OK, the Browning M2...that's a .50 caliber, tripod mount...that's 3D killing, so 9.  

[Ninja-Bear]

@assault, what point level did you create those Golden Age Supers at? Rough answer if you can’t remember.

[assault]

250. It worked well enough for "1st issue" versions.

[batguy]

On 9/16/2023 at 4:51 PM, assault said:

250. It worked well enough for "1st issue" versions.

Cool,man,I should use any super hero rpg of my choosing.,thanks