"Super" Cities- How many is too many?

[fbdaury]

How many super cities/cities of the future/metahuman hubs would you have in your game world, and why?

[Hermit]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

The only "City of the Future" I have in my CU in the United States is Millennium City. However other cities have more than one super team so could be considered Metahuman hubs.

 

I am thinking of making a fictional city in Europe with a similar feel to MC as a rival.

[Agent X]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

As many as will encompass all the good stories our group can tell or imagine.

 

Why? Why not. There are a host of "fudges" to keep the impact of so many super hubs from being overwhelming.

[John T]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

So far, only MC fits the bill, as it was the only one blasted flat in the canon CU storyline, and thus the only one that needed to be rebuilt.

 

Might do a slightly lesser rebuild for Miami, which in our campaign universe suffered a similar, but lesser, catastrophe back in '89. Corath, the self-styled "Demon King" in our campaign world, breached the barriers between this dimension and his in the middle of downtown. Not pretty.

 

John T

[Doug McCrae]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

Just one, I think. That way PCs know where to go when they want to be 'where the action is'. Why would you want more than one?

[John T]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

Just one' date=' I think. That way PCs know where to go when they want to be 'where the action is'. Why would you want more than one?[/quote']

Storyline, campaign logic, flavor, just because.

 

Why have just one? Same reasons.

 

John T

[Evil Toki]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

Storyline, campaign logic, flavor, just because.

 

Why have just one? Same reasons.

 

John T

I agree the more the merrier

[Dust Raven]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

As far a cities of the future, I use two, and don't feel the need to use more ubertech cities. I use Millennium City from CU, and I've given it a sister city, Knight City, on the west coast. The two compete to maintain the highest level of technologies in the nation/world. This keeps them more advances than the rest of the nation because they are each constantly trying to one-up the other.

 

As for superhuman hubs, I use many. Basically, there's one for each campaign I've started, or another GM has startin in my campaign world. In addition to Millennium City and Knight City (though Knight City doesn't have as many superhumans as Millennium), there's Seacouver, Edge City and New Amsterdam. Theoretically, there's also Vibora Bay, but we don't have a campaign there (yet).

[caris]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

How many super cities/cities of the future/metahuman hubs would you have in your game world' date=' and why?[/quote']

Since you asked about my campaign specifically (well, each of our own campaigns specifically), none. I don't even have MC (where I use CU characters I adjust thing appropriately). My campaign's premise doesn't allow for the presence of a "super-city." Major super hero hubs are pretty rare, too.

[Theron]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

Our Silver Age game had Fair City (the home base), Capitol City, Empire City, Bay City, Atomic City, and Darkness Falls. It worked.

[Dynamo]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

I really like super cities, so I say there's never too many as long as each has its own flavor like a real city.

 

My campaign features the following:

 

Metropolis, Delaware

The famed "City of Tomorrow" and "Home of Superman" has managed to keep up to date with every modern advance in metropolitan technology. The citizenry views itself as progressive and consistently votes in the administration and council most willing to spend the money to keep education and infrastructure top priorities. For the last ten years, Metropolis has topped the list of the Top 5 Places to Live.

 

Millenium City, Michigan

Built on the ruins of Detroit after the highly destructive battle between the Fantastic Four (Marvel Magaverse version) and a Godzilla-inspired "Extra-Dimensional Megafauna", Millenium City benefitted from the latest technologies and schools of civic design. Building from the ground up enabled Millenium City to surpass Metropolis as the most high tech city in the US.

 

Star City, California

It's not technically correct to call Star City an actual city. It's rather a successful experiment in "decivilization" that took on a life of its own. Spanning three counties on the Northern California Pacific coast, Star City consists of scores of smaller enclaves connected by ultra-fast digital communication trunks and a mag-rail transit system. Star City is considered the last remaining refuge of hippy culture.

 

Coast City, Oregon

Built on the Oregon coast by hi-tech visionaries with an eco-friendly agenda, Coast City is a paragon of ecologically integrated municipal planning. All power generation and transportation must utilize "Clean & Green" technologies, and industry operates under the close supervision of citizen oversight groups. Coast City has the highest cost-of-living in the world.

 

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Under the charismatic leadership of T'Challa the Panther, supported by an alliance of hyper-intelligent supers calling themselves the Brain Trust, Addis Ababa has become the shining jewel of Africa, and Ethiopia its bread basket. Drawing from municipal design from around the world and capitalizing on technologies provided by the Brain Trust, Addis Ababa is considered the most advanced city on Earth.

 

Doomstadt, Latveria

By dictate of President-for-Life Doctor Viktor Von Doom, no one in Latveria is homeless, hungry, or unemployed, and Doomstadt is his personal social engineering laboratory. Within the city, all labor is performed by robots, while the citizenry is "encouraged" into high tech, scientific, artistic, and athletic pursuits. Adults spend three months of every year in intensive training in their professional pursuits and one morning a week in "social instruction". Failure to score well in mandatory yearly aptitude testing results in "counselling" and potential "career reassignment". Doomstadt has the best educated population in the world, but also the most stressed.

[Guzalot]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

In my campaign there are three "super Cities", MC (of course), Hudson City (on the lower end), and New Paris for Europe. Almost every major city has a few heroes and villains, mostly on the lower end (ie Dark Champions) in my campaign. The bigger the city the more supers.

[fbdaury]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

Thanks for the responses. Reason I asked is because I'm trying to map out a game world and had planned on Two advanced "city of tomorrow" type places in the USA- Century City in California and maybe Empire City to replace New York, plus on super city in Northern Canada, in a town I used to live in, called Coast City(that's its new name, its really called Prince Rupert). I was just trying to figure out if that might stretch things a bit, having three such cities. Appreciate the input.

[Enforcer84]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

I really like super cities, so I say there's never too many as long as each has its own flavor like a real city.

 

My campaign features the following:

 

Metropolis, Delaware

The famed "City of Tomorrow" and "Home of Superman" has managed to keep up to date with every modern advance in metropolitan technology. The citizenry views itself as progressive and consistently votes in the administration and council most willing to spend the money to keep education and infrastructure top priorities. For the last ten years, Metropolis has topped the list of the Top 5 Places to Live.

 

Millenium City, Michigan

Built on the ruins of Detroit after the highly destructive battle between the Fantastic Four (Marvel Magaverse version) and a Godzilla-inspired "Extra-Dimensional Megafauna", Millenium City benefitted from the latest technologies and schools of civic design. Building from the ground up enabled Millenium City to surpass Metropolis as the most high tech city in the US.

 

Star City, California

It's not technically correct to call Star City an actual city. It's rather a successful experiment in "decivilization" that took on a life of its own. Spanning three counties on the Northern California Pacific coast, Star City consists of scores of smaller enclaves connected by ultra-fast digital communication trunks and a mag-rail transit system. Star City is considered the last remaining refuge of hippy culture.

 

Coast City, Oregon

Built on the Oregon coast by hi-tech visionaries with an eco-friendly agenda, Coast City is a paragon of ecologically integrated municipal planning. All power generation and transportation must utilize "Clean & Green" technologies, and industry operates under the close supervision of citizen oversight groups. Coast City has the highest cost-of-living in the world.

 

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Under the charismatic leadership of T'Challa the Panther, supported by an alliance of hyper-intelligent supers calling themselves the Brain Trust, Addis Ababa has become the shining jewel of Africa, and Ethiopia its bread basket. Drawing from municipal design from around the world and capitalizing on technologies provided by the Brain Trust, Addis Ababa is considered the most advanced city on Earth.

 

Doomstadt, Latveria

By dictate of President-for-Life Doctor Viktor Von Doom, no one in Latveria is homeless, hungry, or unemployed, and Doomstadt is his personal social engineering laboratory. Within the city, all labor is performed by robots, while the citizenry is "encouraged" into high tech, scientific, artistic, and athletic pursuits. Adults spend three months of every year in intensive training in their professional pursuits and one morning a week in "social instruction". Failure to score well in mandatory yearly aptitude testing results in "counselling" and potential "career reassignment". Doomstadt has the best educated population in the world, but also the most stressed.

Dynamo, your cities kick ass! I love them.

[Dynamo]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

Dynamo' date=' your cities kick ass! I love them.[/quote']**Insert sound of Dynamo's ego inflating a bit** Enough of that; it's hard enough to put this helmet on as it is.

[Evil Toki]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

**Insert sound of Dynamo's ego inflating a bit** Enough of that; it's hard enough to put this helmet on as it is.

Aren't most if not all existing cities in games or comics? Or a I missing something...

[Dynamo]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

Aren't most if not all existing cities in games or comics? Or a I missing something...

You're right. There's a reason I call my campaign setting Cannibal Comics. I'm at the top of my game when producing derivative works, and I've got no shame about it. If you steal from EVERYONE, and then make it all fit together logically, it's original all over again. (Copyright law does not necessarily agree with this opinion.)

 

The details of each city are where the originality lies. Marvel's Doomstadt is depicted as a Bavarian-ish village with Doom's castle on an overlooking hill. Boring boring boring. I replaced it with a gleaming hi-tech dytopia capable of playing on the global level. DC's Coast and Star Cities are plain old fictional cities invented as the stomping grounds for their flagship characters. When I read that Star City was on the Northern California coast, I decided to make it more appropriate to the culture I experienced when I lived there.

[TheEmerged]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

I have to confess I'm quite the cribber myself -- a good 60% of my NeoChampions campaign is borrowed from other sources. It's still close enough to Champions, but I've borrowed elements from Aberrant, Brave New World (the game, not the novel), DC, Marvel, Crossgen...

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The focus of the campaign right now has been America, so that's where I've done most of my work. The following represents what I've done work on, not necessarily an exhaustive list on "fake cities/countries".

 

Millenium City, the former Detroit

Exists pretty much as it does in 5th Edition CU, except the Millenium City 8 have not formed (primarily because I have not yet been able to purchase the Digital Hero issue with their writeups ).

 

Crescent City -- no longer applicable

I had originally planned to keep this fake city from BNW (replacing Chicago), changing its backstory to having been destroyed by Black Hole and leading to the disbanding of the Freedom Patrol (cf VOICE of Doom). I decided against it, it detracted from the Detroit/Millenium City issue.

 

Michtendorf. This fake city exists at the mouth of a river in North Carolina, and is the 3rd largest city in the USA. It is the former home of Hyperion (campaign equivalent of Superman, currently semi-retired & running Destruga/Sanctuary), and has long been the home of the Blask Mask (including #10, the current one). Michtendorf is often nicknamed the nova capital of the world because a> the first nova (Hyperion) erupted there and b> in a world where on global average 1 in 1,000,000 is a nova (although the actual ratio varies quite a bit), about 1 in 15,000 citizens of Michtendorf are novas. Micthendorf is also home to the largest population of Armenians in the world, and home to the Cherokee Indians (there is no Trail of Tears in the NeoChampion history books).

 

Cincinnati, Ohio

Not a fake city -- irony aside -- but one with a different history in NeoChampions. Home to several WW2-era vigilantes (novas have only been around since 1972), this city has faired better here than it has in real life. The fact that the Justice Battalion and PRIMUS are headquartered in the Union Terminal (which even in real life bears an uncanny resemblance to the Hall Of Justice) makes this something of a nova hotspot. The fact that the Ravagers, an up-and-coming group of anti-PRIMUS mercenaries (read: the PC's) also seem to be based in the area just makes it moreso.

 

Vibora Bay

Exists in name only right now, pending the book's release and my ability to purchase it

 

Destruga/Sanctuary

Dr. Destroyer's old base is now home to a "nova sanctuary" started and still mainlined by none other than Hyperion himself, in semi-retirement. Some novas would like to make the island a nova homeland/independent nation, but Hyperion refuses to do so. He claims to have established it so novas could be amongst their "own kind", and except for a short list of especially despised novas (such as The Disruptor, Dr. Destroyer, and similar "irredeemables") any nova is welcome here.

 

Addis Ababa, Ethopia

If the hardliners in the USA get their way and the UN gets kicked out of New York, it would almost certainly relocated here. The HQ for Project Utopia, Team Tomorrow, and UNTIL is an oasis of prosperity in an Africa that has otherwise become quite fragmented by nova elites and bush wars.

 

Europe, General. The aftermath of the MindBender Incident had a chaotic effect on Europe, causing many small "postage stamp" countries seceding -- often with the help of nova elites (superhuman mercenaries).

 

Cuba

Castro was overthrown by a powerful nova calling himself El Junte'. Despite dozens of attempts on his life, El Junte' still rules Cuba with an iron fist -- and effective iron fist that increasingly benefits his people, but an iron fist nonetheless. El Junte' is in some ways a Doc Doom one-off...

[Evil Toki]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

Nice stuff, and I don't mind the cribbing I like it I do it myself... except I file names off and replace with my own

[Guest Worldmaker]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

Doomstadt' date=' Latveria[/b']

By dictate of President-for-Life Doctor Viktor Von Doom, no one in Latveria is homeless, hungry, or unemployed, and Doomstadt is his personal social engineering laboratory. Within the city, all labor is performed by robots, while the citizenry is "encouraged" into high tech, scientific, artistic, and athletic pursuits. Adults spend three months of every year in intensive training in their professional pursuits and one morning a week in "social instruction". Failure to score well in mandatory yearly aptitude testing results in "counselling" and potential "career reassignment". Doomstadt has the best educated population in the world, but also the most stressed.

 

 

I am so totally stealing this. I was about to post that the GGU doesn't really have any, but I just realized that the entire island of Bermuda is ripe for this sort of situation.

[Dynamo]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

I am so totally stealing this. I was about to post that the GGU doesn't really have any' date=' but I just realized that the entire island of Bermuda is ripe for this sort of situation.[/quote']Steal away, baby! The derivative works stuff is a two-way street, and I'm a firm believer in copyleft.

 

I was so stuck on hi-tech cities, that I forgot my favorite superhuman hub city: Themyscira. An Athenian-style citystate located on a magically obscured island of the same name, Themyscira is the home to immortal warrior women of superhuman physical prowess. Until the late 20th century, these amazons practiced near total isolationism, permitting only the mightiest of their number, Wonder Woman, to come and go at will. In 1989, Hippolyta, ruler of Themyscira, appeared before the UN Assembly to apply for membership. Since then, the Amazons have opened their borders to women from around the globe, especially those seeking to escape any sort of oppression or bondage, provoking frequent complaints from Islamic nations. The University of Themyscira has risen to become the world's most prestigious women's academy, and has opened remote campuses throughout the world that also accept men. Men are denied entry to Themyscira due to the nature of the island's enchantment of immortality. Any woman born on the island will not physically age past her prime, but if a man were to set foot upon the island, the enchantment would be forever lost and the women would begin to age normally. Many amazons went out into the world seeking mates after the borders were opened, and the citystate maintains a rigorous screening process to keep those pregnant with boys off the island to avoid any accidents. The first generation of children are still young, but it has been established that Amazonian physical prowess breeds true among girls, and most of the boys have evidenced similar traits to a lesser degree. Many non-Amazonian women have travelled to Themyscira to bear their baby girls, not only for the world's finest midwifery, but for the benefits of immortality for their daughters.

[dbsousa]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

Our only super city was Nueva Madrid. Aliens bombarded it from orbit the early 90's in order to get Earth to surrender. It was rebuilt after Good Guys, Incorporated (GGI) defeated the conquerors. It became the only spaceport on Earth, and the benefactor of alien technology from myriad sources.

 

On January 1st, 2001, Ba'al, the Millenium Bug, was summoned, and lived backwards in time for 1000 years. It took the combined might of a millenium of heroes (and some villains) to defeat him. In the process he altered history such that GGI did not ever exist in the 20th Century. Our game now has no publicly documented contact with aliens, and Madrid was never destroyed.

 

I wrote the Millenium Bug background when a bunch of my college friends from the early 90's moved back to my state. We started up again where we left off, with a game I called GGI: Reboot

[Dynamo]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

Our only super city was Nueva Madrid.

Nueva Madrid, huh? I've been thinking that I need another European super city, and the Progressive Socialists currently in power in Spain could use a little PR boost.

[Agent X]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

I have to confess I'm quite the cribber myself -- a good 60% of my NeoChampions campaign is borrowed from other sources. It's still close enough to Champions, but I've borrowed elements from Aberrant, Brave New World (the game, not the novel), DC, Marvel, Crossgen...

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The focus of the campaign right now has been America, so that's where I've done most of my work. The following represents what I've done work on, not necessarily an exhaustive list on "fake cities/countries".

 

Millenium City, the former Detroit

Exists pretty much as it does in 5th Edition CU, except the Millenium City 8 have not formed (primarily because I have not yet been able to purchase the Digital Hero issue with their writeups ).

 

Crescent City -- no longer applicable

I had originally planned to keep this fake city from BNW (replacing Chicago), changing its backstory to having been destroyed by Black Hole and leading to the disbanding of the Freedom Patrol (cf VOICE of Doom). I decided against it, it detracted from the Detroit/Millenium City issue.

 

Michtendorf. This fake city exists at the mouth of a river in North Carolina, and is the 3rd largest city in the USA. It is the former home of Hyperion (campaign equivalent of Superman, currently semi-retired & running Destruga/Sanctuary), and has long been the home of the Blask Mask (including #10, the current one). Michtendorf is often nicknamed the nova capital of the world because a> the first nova (Hyperion) erupted there and b> in a world where on global average 1 in 1,000,000 is a nova (although the actual ratio varies quite a bit), about 1 in 15,000 citizens of Michtendorf are novas. Micthendorf is also home to the largest population of Armenians in the world, and home to the Cherokee Indians (there is no Trail of Tears in the NeoChampion history books).

 

Cincinnati, Ohio

Not a fake city -- irony aside -- but one with a different history in NeoChampions. Home to several WW2-era vigilantes (novas have only been around since 1972), this city has faired better here than it has in real life. The fact that the Justice Battalion and PRIMUS are headquartered in the Union Terminal (which even in real life bears an uncanny resemblance to the Hall Of Justice) makes this something of a nova hotspot. The fact that the Ravagers, an up-and-coming group of anti-PRIMUS mercenaries (read: the PC's) also seem to be based in the area just makes it moreso.

 

Vibora Bay

Exists in name only right now, pending the book's release and my ability to purchase it

 

Destruga/Sanctuary

Dr. Destroyer's old base is now home to a "nova sanctuary" started and still mainlined by none other than Hyperion himself, in semi-retirement. Some novas would like to make the island a nova homeland/independent nation, but Hyperion refuses to do so. He claims to have established it so novas could be amongst their "own kind", and except for a short list of especially despised novas (such as The Disruptor, Dr. Destroyer, and similar "irredeemables") any nova is welcome here.

 

Addis Ababa, Ethopia

If the hardliners in the USA get their way and the UN gets kicked out of New York, it would almost certainly relocated here. The HQ for Project Utopia, Team Tomorrow, and UNTIL is an oasis of prosperity in an Africa that has otherwise become quite fragmented by nova elites and bush wars.

 

Europe, General. The aftermath of the MindBender Incident had a chaotic effect on Europe, causing many small "postage stamp" countries seceding -- often with the help of nova elites (superhuman mercenaries).

 

Cuba

Castro was overthrown by a powerful nova calling himself El Junte'. Despite dozens of attempts on his life, El Junte' still rules Cuba with an iron fist -- and effective iron fist that increasingly benefits his people, but an iron fist nonetheless. El Junte' is in some ways a Doc Doom one-off...

I have to ask. In your history, what became of Arkansas, Indian, and Oklahoma Territory. If there was no Trail of Tears for the Cherokee, were other Native Americans moved to Indian Territory or not?

[IanSokoliwski]

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many?

 

Dynamo, your idea for Doomstadt SO seriously kicks ass!

 

I'll agree, quite often Lavteria is mentioned as having one of the highest standards of living (and GNP) in the entire world (basically, it is the US, Latveria, and Wakanda, in that order I believe), and yet it is nothing but a collection of rural towns. Having at least the capitol city being a technopolis of this order works very well!