The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

[proditor]

You may wonder why this is here and not in say NGD, but think about it....

 

No more Soviet Super Soldiers, General Winter, Captain Communism, Rocket Reds, Crimson Dynamo, Supreme Soviets, Hot foreign spies, Big Tanks or the threat of someone lobbing a nuke when things started to go bad.

 

Now my personal views on the breakup of the Union are kinda lengthy and involved and have no place in this thread. But honestly, as a GM, not having the world's biggest stick in the form of the Soviets kinda bites. They were the ultimate threat since as totally bad to the bone as Destroyer was/is, he didn't have the backing of the largest military force on the planet. There were also all those fun political entanglements with diplomatic immunity and what-not. Then there was the whole "We might be friends if our governments weren't so opposed" thing with two patriotic heroes from either side.

 

So, from a purely nostalgic POV, does anyone else miss the "Red Menace" in your superhero games? Does anything else in your world come close to equaling that void in the power structure?

[nexus]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

Look on the bright side. We have most of the middle east now...

[caris]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

Hey, we may have lost the Red Menace, but we still have the Yellow Menace.

[Lightray]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

Hey, it's not like all those Soviet supers lost all their powers when the Soviet Union fell, is it? (well, aside from the occasional Patriot-type, maybe).

 

You may not have the Soviet power structure as a monolithic opponent any more, but there's lots of adventure opportunities in finding out what all those Soviet supers are up to now. Working as mercenaries? Trying to re-create the Soviet Union? Down-on-their-luck alcoholics? Plus, who's running the old Soviet super-soldier program now? Who's got their captured alien technology? Does the new Russian government still employ a few supers, or have they all joined up with the Russian mob?

 

Still, the idea of replacing the void with China is an excellent one. China has a huge population -- and should have a correspondingly larger number of supers than America (fr'ex). China is rapidly gaining on the West in terms of economic and political clout.

 

You're not likely to have an East vs. West cold war, but it has possibilities. What if the kids in America think the wire-fu Chinese superteam is kewler than their boring American superteam? Maybe the Chinese superteam doesn't outfight your PCs, but out-publicities them?

[freakboy6117]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

and now you ahve underfunded facilities with unpaid guards watching over those superweapons. decaying derelict laboratories filled with chemicals and equipment that coudl balst teh unwary and cause straneg mutations, terrorist groups looking for an edge and unpaid scientists who helped build those super weapons willing to give them one.

corruption, organised crime, corporations run like organised crime and all sorts of other fun. motherrussia is still a hot bed

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

That's one of the reasons I introduced the USSR - The Union of Soviet Socialist Realities - into my campaign. Sovs that took over their world, and have "collectivized" several others on their way to Campaign Earth...

[Dynamo]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

That's one of the reasons I introduced the USSR - The Union of Soviet Socialist Realities - into my campaign. Sovs that took over their world' date=' and have "collectivized" several others on their way to Campaign Earth... [/quote']That sounds like fun. Consider it stolen.

[Jarekk]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

Well, aside from using a cold-war setting in your game, or re-writing history so the USSR never fell...

 

Why not have some Neo-Socialist factions, like the Neo-Nazi wackos we have nowadays? Just because Russia isn't pointing missles at the US doesn't mean some former communist patriot isn't willing to try to force Russia back into the slag it was in--and kick the US in the ribs while doing so.

 

You just have to think what you can do now, with those same people. How would they react now?

 

Here's a fun one--a hero who grew up in the cold-war era, having to work side-by-side with former enemies (heros of their own lands) to stop terrorists from shattering the peace.

 

Or, something.

 

Come to think of it, that's kinda cliche, huh?

 

Gimme a break, I'm new at this. (%)

[Doug McCrae]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

That's one of the reasons I introduced the USSR - The Union of Soviet Socialist Realities - into my campaign. Sovs that took over their world' date=' and have "collectivized" several others on their way to Campaign Earth... [/quote']Great idea

[Doug McCrae]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

Al-Qaeda occupies the same position in the American national psyche as the communists did during the Cold War. China isn't currently a threat IMO.

 

If you really like the threat of an enemy nation you could set your game during WW2 or one of the periods when the Cold War was at its hottest. Personally I don't think superheroes really need a whole country to fight. Supervillains, of any stripe, will do.

[Theron]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

That's why my campaign is set in 1985. Gotta love them godless commies.

 

- You ain't done nothin' if you ain't been called a Red TB

[Ghost who Walks]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

So' date=' from a purely nostalgic POV, does anyone else miss the "Red Menace" in your superhero games? Does anything else in your world come close to equaling that void in the power structure?[/quote']

IMC, I restored the Russian monarchy. Russia wass the first metacracy, a nation run by a superpowered family. Game wise, it happened when a group of Russian heroes encountered some aliens who wanted to invest some excess money they had on Earth.

 

Basicly, the Russians got funding, and suddenly had zero debt.

 

Most of the published super types were reinstated with the new order, and support the new system for the stability in brings. The monarchy concentrates on averting disasters, and fixing problems, then letting local and regional governments handle the situation once fixed.

 

Basicly, superhero-government.

 

To make it interesting however, I gave the soviet Union a huge psionics program (which they had IRL), which was mostly ued by Breznev to 'motivate' the populace. I also made Menton a renegade russian telepath, from the same program.

 

Not trusting any of its psionics, the monarchy has confined most of them to 'special towns', which are basicly internment camps. They also maintain a penal colony on Mars, for the supervillains.

[freakboy6117]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

hmm there’s a rather good superhero like comic in 2000ad along similar lines to those you described ghost called Nikolai Dante. He’s basically your classic womanizing adventuring rogue. Who is conned into getting an alien weapon system implanted in him {due to him being the bastard son of the head of the second most powerful Russian aristocratic family} the weapon crest which is a two headed eagle like tattoo contains an advanced AI which is supposed to teach him how to be a Tsar and also grants him superior healing and the ability to form any manner of melee weapon from his body. You should check it out. anyway here's a more complete account and a very complete background from the creator

[Lightray]

China isn't currently a threat IMO.

I'd agree with this, which is why I suggested China's supers might be engaging in more of a cultural or popularity struggle with the PCs. Just because they're not threats doesn't mean they can't be antagonists.

[Isaiah_26_4]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

Chello!

 

Oh, yes, I definitely miss the USSR. I have stolen plotlines from the Saint movie (with Val Kilmer) to have the heroes in my game stop a new USSR from rising. Definitely answers the question of where those Sov supers went!

 

Tony

[Agent X]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

You can always have some fictional East European State that still maintains a communist system and the Super-Commie diehards all ran in that direction.

[proditor]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

What I'm doing so far is promoting VIPER as the threat to beat and not the "Oh, lets take those losers as a hunted" they used to be way back in the day. I'm also using my all time favorite cliche, Nazis. Mengele made an immortality formula, has a base in chile, he's doing work for VIPER, etc. etc. The US Sponsored players are waiting to get the go sign for a very black-ops mission into a sovreign nation. Should be interesting.

[Mutant for Hire]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

Actually, I consider it a small loss, honestly. A lot of Soviet superheroes were ill suited for covert operations, which in practicality is the only way that Soviet superheroes could operate inside of US borders. Even then, if they're caught, it's an international incident. Remember the U2 shot down over the Soviet Union and the stink that created?

 

Terrorist supervillains work better, in my opinion. If Al-Queda sends supervillains to act inside of US borders, it works much better than superheroes (or supervillains) of some legitimate nation that the United States could bomb the crap out of or would have an international stink over them. China may send paranormals into the United States to cause trouble, but they're going to move damn carefully and preferably disguise any ties to China they have.

 

So in general I prefer terrorist networks, secret conspiracies and of course hidden cadres of Nazis and true Communists in hiding.

[Magmarock]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

China isn't currently a threat IMO.

 

 

Oh, but they could be. It's up to the GM to determine how much of a threat. Real world politics have nothing to do with the game.

 

Mags

[CorpCommander]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

I've been to the former USSR. Don't kid yourself, they are still Godless Commies. The government is repressive as ever, the thing that is missing are the cool red stars on everything and the tolerance of American Reality TV (which has done more aginast America than 60 years of Soviet produced propaganda.)

 

As for their cool superheros, hey, once a commie always a commie - old habits die hard!

[Funksaw]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

Or, you know, you could just set your games -during- the Cold War.

[nexus]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

Doesn't help much if you want to use a modern setting.

[Ghost who Walks]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

Having all those soviet superhoeroes getting invloved in policits could be fun...they could either run for office, or battle the corrupt governments.

 

 

For those of you who want commie villains running around, and don't want to make up countries...

 

North Korea is scarier than any nation Doctor Doom commands

http://www.korea-dpr.com/pmenu.htm

 

The leader of Turmenistan (ex-soviet Republic) is known for being somewhat...odd. Here is a sample of his latest project:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3554626.stm

 

Belarus has been called the last Stalinist state. Their sports minister was recently banned from going to the Olympic games.

http://www.freeserbia.net/Articles/2001/Stalinism.html

 

 

Nationalistic, economic, ethnic, and military tensions can provide plenty of plot ideas. You have an entire empire collapsing, that doesn't happen every day.

 

Terrorist enemies can be fun, but nothing beats nationalistic rivalries.

[Enforcer84]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

You could always bring them back...maybe not as communists, but as a huge, technologically advanced nationilistic rival.

[Blue]

Re: The fall of the Soviet Union sucked.

 

Russia has actually been referenced in my campaign quite a bit. There are two known factions that came out of the Soviet Union.

 

The Russian Militia, in an attempt to stymie a growing "superpowered crime element" as well as keep a leash on superpowers, founded the Blackstar Batallion. They are 5-man teams in exoskeletons that do a nice array of attacks (from subdual to kill).

 

However, they were eventually superceded by the KGB's project that became a pet of the Soviet Premiere. Поражение (Checkmate) was a project for building soviet superpowered agents.

 

Their feud was coming to a head when the USSR fell apart. The Blackstars went solo, began working as mercenaries (much the way that Soviet nuclear scientists were in demand by rogue nations after the fall). Checkmate still believe in mother Russia, but more importantly, they feel that Blackstars are an antiquated embarassment and try to eliminate them wherever found.

 

One of the PCs is a Checkmate legacy character. He got his powers there but lacks the control that they learn as agents.