Super Monster-Hunters Need Your Help!

[argent]

...so I was looking for a game idea to run this summer for my daughter and her friends. Two of them were playing sorceress characters last summer in my Champs game, and the other (non magic-using) characters dropped out, effectively ending the campaign.

 

I was thinking of doing a "Unified Theme" campaign, keeping those characters as-is but messing w/their backgrounds, and adding some other characters w/mystic or supernatural origins. But the more I thought about it, the less sure I was that I wanted to do a "Supers" campaign at all.

 

So here's what I do know:

 

The game will (probably) be set in the modern day;

 

The PC's will all be mystically/supernaturally themed (Sorcerer, "good" vampire or demon, were-____, elemental spirit, etc.)

 

Magic & Supernatural must stay secret (most people don't believe and everybody wants to keep it that way);

 

The main antagonists will be a cabal of evil sorcerers and their various minions, human and otherwise. Secondary antagonists could be regular "evil" vamps & other malign forces, and a malevolent government agency that investigates reports of the paranormal (and into whose hands the PC's definitely do NOT want to fall);

 

The PC's are not normal people, they all have "powers" of one sort or another (More like "Charmed" than "Buffy", I guess). But no tights, flying around, etc.

 

My questions:

 

Would this campaign work best as "superheroic" or "heroic"? and at what point level? Has anyone run a campaign like this before? If so, how did it turn out?

 

Are multi-powers recommended for this sort of thing, or is that too "superheroey"?

 

I like the idea of using a VPP for Sorcery, but I am leery because most of the players are not nearly as familiar w/HERO as I am. In fact, it is quite likely that I will be doing most of the actual character creation, based on the players' descriptions.

 

 

At the moment, I'm thinking a heroic campaign (w/NCM) at 150 pts +100 pts of disads, but I am open to other suggestions;

 

Summer vacation starts next week, so I've got to get things rolling!

 

 

 

BTW-Thanks to Madstone and his "The Monster Hunter and The Super Hero" thread, it helped a lot to clarify my thinking.

[Susano]

Re: Super Monster-Hunters Need Your Help!

 

Try this URL. It might have some ideas that will help you.

 

Phenomena Department

 

Or this:

 

Silent Mobius Zeta

[Snarf]

Re: Super Monster-Hunters Need Your Help!

 

I just found this the other day.

 

Super Monster Killer Squad Adventure: 1 2 3 5

[Just Joe]

Re: Super Monster-Hunters Need Your Help!

 

I have some relevant experience but am far from an authority on the subject. My initial reactions:

 

1. Heroic

 

2. 250 points sounds high, especially if you allow multipowers and/or VPP's. I'd suggest 150 or 200.

 

3. I'd probably allow multipowers, especially if you're doing the design work. I'd be reluctant to allow VPP's, but might allow them if switching points happened slowly (between sessions at least, maybe between adventures) and were restricted so that not all PC's could do the exact same things. You would probably want to have a few standard allocations of the points pre-designed.

 

4. Think about how important/useful you want guns to be. If the answer is "not very", design your monsters and villains accordingly and design the PC's to have abilities more useful than guns against most of those opponents.

 

5. As for the supernatural remaining secret, this can be hard to do in a plausible way. But your shadowy government agency is helpful in this regard. It gives the PC's an extra reason to keep a low profile, and its agents can lean on, mislead, and destroy film and video of journalists.

 

Good luck. Sounds fun!

[ioticus]

Re: Super Monster-Hunters Need Your Help!

 

Argent,

 

Wish I had you as a GM! That's exactly the kind of campaign I'd like to play in!

[OneWingedAngel]

Re: Super Monster-Hunters Need Your Help!

 

Hmm...

 

In my gaming group, this theme has actually been done several times, on several different power levels. The one that we've found that works best is what we lovingly call "Super Agents". It's essentially, the players build themselves an "agent" with no powers whatsoever, just stats, skills and perks, usually somewhere around 150pts from a 75pt base.

 

Then, after that, they get fifty (or so, depending on what you want) points of "Powers" to represent their supernatural abilities. Now, this can either be designed by the players or by the GM depending on what the GM wants to do, or whether or not the players are intimate enough with the system.

 

It's a good power level. Guns are still very bothersome, if they're there at all. As are small squads of agents. On the other hand, getting effects like the "Charmed" stopping time is nigh impossible, but Buffy is very doable.

[Greatwyrm]

Re: Super Monster-Hunters Need Your Help!

 

I've been in the planning stages of a similar game. I was planning to start the characters off at 75+75.

 

I liked what OneWingedAngel posted, too. If I ran it that way, I'd probably do a 100+100 game, with the limit that the characters can't start with more than 50 or 60 RP in powers. The reason I'd do it this way instead of just giving out 50 points for powers is so the characters could use some of the extra disadvantage points to come up with supernatural drawbacks that relate to their powers.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Super Monster-Hunters Need Your Help!

 

I would say to go with "heroic" level play if you want elements of horror in the game, i.e. if you want the characters to be truly frightened by the forces that oppose them. In that case I wouldn't give the players more than 100 pts. plus equipment to start, with most of their opponents built on 50-100 points more. If you want the PCs to be able to take on their foes toe-to-toe, however, I'd favor low-level superheroic, with the PCs at 250 pts. or so. "Heroic" conventions for low-level supers could work, but I'd still charge characters for equipment unless all of them can have both "standard" equipment plus spells and other special abilities. Multipowers for spells would likely give spellcasters an edge over other characters if you're running a mixed-type group.

 

I think I should put a plug in here for The Kandris Seal, a very good licensed e-book for HERO System with a campaign premise and structure very similar to what you're discussing. It would give your PCs a unifying background and objective, and ready-made opponents. The book is written to be usable for games from gritty heroic to full-scale superheroics with a few adjustments.

 

TKS is available on CD or as a download, from the Online Store here or the company's website (link below). The website provides details and samples from the book to help you decide if you're interested. Here's where you'll find it:

 

http://www.hartfeltproductions.com/tks.php

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: Super Monster-Hunters Need Your Help!

 

Your proposed campaign sounds a lot like the series concept for Gene Roddenbery's

Spectre (yes, there were apparently plans to make it into a weekly TV series,

depending on how well recieved the pilot movie was). If Spectre had become

an actual series, the focus of the show would have been on the heroes' battle

against the "Others" -- the demons, vampires, werewolves and other creatures

believed to be nothing more than legend by an unsuspecting humanity -- with

gradual revelations about the weaknesses of the Others and the "rules" by which

they must operate when in the mortal world.

 

Sounds like a campaign to me.

 

Major Tom

[Nightfly]

Re: Super Monster-Hunters Need Your Help!

 

I think I should put a plug in here for The Kandris Seal, a very good licensed e-book for HERO System with a campaign premise and structure very similar to what you're discussing. It would give your PCs a unifying background and objective, and ready-made opponents. The book is written to be usable for games from gritty heroic to full-scale superheroics with a few adjustments.

 

TKS is available on CD or as a download, from the Online Store here or the company's website (link below). The website provides details and samples from the book to help you decide if you're interested. Here's where you'll find it:

 

http://www.hartfeltproductions.com/tks.php

 

Is Kandris Seal written w/ 5th Edition rules?  Their sample .pdf seemed to indicate so, but I'm still unsure.

Thanks

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Super Monster-Hunters Need Your Help!

 

Is Kandris Seal written w/ 5th Edition rules?  Their sample .pdf seemed to indicate so, but I'm still unsure.

Thanks

 

Absolutely. The manuscript was originally written under 4E HERO, but was rewritten after 5E was published to conform to the new rules. The campaign has a few "ground rules" that are non-standard, but nothing that changes the way things are written up

[Nightfly]

Re: Super Monster-Hunters Need Your Help!

 

Thanks LL, I'll no doubt add that one to my collection now!  Especially w/ there being no DH this month

Thanks a lot

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: Super Monster-Hunters Need Your Help!

 

If you folks wouldn't mind a bit of blatantly shameless self-promotion, check

out my "Rules for surviving a Monster Movie/Campaign" thread in the NGD

forum. You just might find something funny that you might be able to use in

your own monster-hunter games.

 

Major Tom