Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

[ParitySoul]

I'm curious how you have handled the media in previous games in relation to your hero characters. What has happened when secret identies have been broken? What about interviews? What about fans?

 

Do you have a positive outlook, or has the media been a bane. I'm doing research. Thanks for the post in my SuperHero Day question.

[Chimpira]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

In one of my past games I had a player (Black Zero) reveal his secret identity on national television. The problem was that he did not bother to tell his government sponsored super agent wife that he was going to do that. Their apartment was surrounded by the media. When Black Zero came home they got into one hell of an argument and she flew out of the apartment at top speed. He, immediately telported her back to continue the argument ( not thinking about her velocity) and she crashed through their apartment wall and fell the four stories down into the crowd of reporters. The reporters got footage of her unconscious body and of Black Zero looking down from the hole in the apartment. Needless to say, it was one heck of a night for the evening news.

[OddHat]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

Flesh Gordon has been nude on national television more than once. Never hurt his career.

 

When GMing, I tend to go the Aberrant Route; the media treats Supers the same way they treat Athletes and Movie Stars. Secret IDs are not taken at all seriously by the media, and paparazzi are always trying to break them. Supers with a public presence have Public IDs; allowing the media to interview you will blow your Secret ID in a few months at most.

 

A more Silver Age game should have a much "nicer" media.

[ParitySoul]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

A more Silver Age game should have a much "nicer" media.

 

But have you ever gone away from the Silver Age model? What about say Dark Champion characters where secrecy is VERY important.

[Blue]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

I had a PC in the last campaign blow her secret ID. I didn't make it an issue really, though I should have. I just embargoed 1pt of exp per game until the (then) 5pt difference between the Public and Secret IDs was paid off. In game they just carried on and seized the moment to change to a costume with no mask.

 

As for how I would play it now; I actually have an NPC reporter written up for this coming game, who used to be a big national reporter, relegated to working for the local rag (the Oracle). So she's got great skills and killer instincts and a drive to prove that she's still got it. I foresee characters really hating her if they don't take the time out to do interviews and such to assuage her.

[OddHat]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

But have you ever gone away from the Silver Age model? What about say Dark Champion characters where secrecy is VERY important.

 

As I said above, in most of my campaigns the media works in the same way as the real world media. Secret Identities are blown within a week if the media ties you down for an interview, and if you're a public figure you're either lionized or demonized, often in the same week. Think Kobe Bryant or John Kerry; this week you're a hero, next week a chump, no secrets at all. If you want to avoid that, you never stick around for interviews.

[ParitySoul]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

Okay. That's with interviews. What about a camera hound, etc. What play examples do you have?

[Bunyip]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

I probably played both angles. Robyn Hood's secret ID was blown inside a week when her ex-husband recognised her on TV (not a big ask, given that none of the Crown Agents wears a mask) and sold a rather lurid (and almost entirely bogus) kiss-and-tell story to the Sun (Britain's top-ranked tabloid).

 

MC Sonik technically had a secret ID, but since he used it as a tag before he became a meta, there are a lot of people in the Brixton / Peckham area who know who he is, many of whom do not play well with others. London Pryde's ID was also technically secret, but since he used his real surname, Tony was more or less sure that it'd come out eventually, among his ex-Army colleagues if nobody else. (Especially once he and Robyn became an established couple. I always thought of them as Steed and Mrs Peel somehow...)

[Hermit]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

I tend to play the media up more as a nuiscance than a true threat. A few are actually competent and more likely to be helpful to the heroes. Probably not realistic, but that's one of those 'silver touches' I put in.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

Current campaign I'm in ( my first ), I'm Public ID ( its tough for a clearly-metallic android to maintain a Secret ID ). In fact, only one person in the group has an actual Secret ID ( Starguard's doesn't count, as its both nearly transparent and lacking in a real private life ).

[JeffreyWKramer]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

I use the media in lots of ways in campaigns. Often it's a source of information - heroes find things out through what they read/see in the media. Sometimes they *are* the information, for good or bad. One can use media portrayals to reward good actions (good press) or to discourage poor choices (bad press), or one can use media portrayals to drive a plot (if the heroes are getting bad press, is there a reason? Something to investigate...). One hero in a past campaign took "Hunted By ", sort of like Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson. He got more than his points worth, and later said "Next time I'll just take "Hunted by Satan and Jehovah", because they'll be lots less relentless and annoying.

 

In my old Street Hero, the behind-the-scenes kingpin of a lot of the big happenings in the campaign was a multi-millionnaire who owned (directly or via proxies/influence) much of the local media... sort of a cross between Morgan Edge (from the pre-CRISIS Superman books) and Rupert Murdoch. His degree of influence and his level of resources made him a dangerous foe for the heroes, even though any of them could have punched him out in combat without even trying hard.

 

I'm really impressed by how well the media presence is integrated into some of the 5E Hero setting stuff - particularly the MILLENNIUM CITY sourcebook. I've played around with bits of that in my campaign thus far, and definitely plan to do more with it. Starguard has found out how media reports can feed a frenzy, and due to the wonders of live reporting, Horus-Re's fight with Firewing was seen worldwide.

 

Dr. Silverback will be trying to get the New Sentinels as guests for his talk show, of course. Maybe that will be a good time for a "Hunteds Attack" storyline.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

Not unless you *really* want to reduce Millenium City to a smoking crater again, given our Hunteds list. . .

[Sketchpad]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

In my current campaign, the team were media darlings ... kinda like Wildguard meets the Conglomerate It's been real neat thus far ... especially since they're now recieving bad press

[The Watcher]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

Amusingly, my character has more problems with the media in his Secret ID than in his Hero ID. As Daniel Stone he's Famous and Watched By The Media, what with being a young and handsome multi-billionaire who has been involved with a few female celebreties in his personal life.

 

While as Warp he's overshadowed by his more impressive and celebrated teammates such as Horus and now Starguard. Which is fine with him. He doesn't mind fading into the background and letting someone else be the target for the spotlight. Heck, being Warp is a great way to take a break from being scrutinized by the media.

 

And while there may be a risk to his secret identity, being able to teleport, having access to holographic image inducers, and owning an android double is certainly great for minimizing it.

[ParitySoul]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

Well, a case of media and heroes in one of my games. (Aberrant at the time, but example stands.)

 

Heroes were a local police liason super team in the LA area. Doing VERY well for themselves. Cartoons, press releases, etc. Until things went bad.

 

Old time foe starts tracking them down. Gets ruthless about it. Problem for the group: They have member with loads of strength and is nigh invunerable. One glitch, temper!

 

PC's go for a dinner after mission xyz and the foe strikes. He sends in assassins with powerweapons who open up on the PC's when their defences are down. Mr. Temper gets hit and flips. Kills one of the Assassins in a most...distrubing way. The rest of the party moves out and after a very messy backally fight winds up killing more than they caught.

 

Glitch 2: Hidden cameras. The foe used the footage to ruin their 'nice' guys image and the party almost has to disabove Mr. Temper to keep their licences.

 

The story gets worse as Mr. Temper goins the Terragen and the PC's start working on a space station. But that's another story for later.

[Badger]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

The character I have used most (Superbadger) had no desire to be around media. Pretty much considered them scum. He had more respect for the villains he fought against actually.

 

Though I have always wanted create a villain that was Punxsutawney Phil (the groundhog of Feb. 2nd fame) be a supervillain (after acquiring superpowers). Somehow I've never thought he exactly liked being paraded out in the middle of winter in the cold morning when all he wanted to do was sleep. Then have about 3 zillion pictures of him taken. I always figured he was too blinded to ever actually see a shadow.

 

Perfect scenario: One Groundhog Day one too many pictures are taken and he just snaps and his powers manifest and well gets revenge on the media to make it short. Hmmmm might make a perfect Superman supervillain (provided he learns Superman is Clark Kent a REPORTER )

[JeffreyWKramer]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

Not unless you *really* want to reduce Millenium City to a smoking crater again' date=' given our Hunteds list. . .[/quote']

 

 

Well, obviously Dr. Destroyer and Takofanes might be a bit much to have crash a talk show... VIPER, on the other hand...

 

Horus-Re vs. Viperia... just consider the ratings!!

[The Watcher]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

Well, obviously Dr. Destroyer and Takofanes might be a bit much to have crash a talk show... VIPER, on the other hand...

 

Horus-Re vs. Viperia... just consider the ratings!!

I just thought of a nasty image smearing ambush:

 

Host: Horus, we've got a special guest who has something they want to say to you.

 

*Intro music plays as Viperia walks onto the stage*

 

Viperia: You've got to quit your running around with your hero friends and start supporting our kid!

 

Host: Did I just hear that right?

 

Viperia: "You sure did. Horus is my baby's daddy!"

[ParitySoul]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

Oh. So thats how Viper cloned Horus-Re. Eep.

[Chuckg]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

"I did not have sex with that woman, Tuwishande!"

[TheEmerged]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

The media and the PC's in the campaign I'm currently running have a love-hate relationship with each other. The party is on the verge of becoming media "darlings" (remember, they're villains so this would be a Jesse James or Bonnie & Clyde comparison), especially if the next session goes their way (they're appearing on "Sidekick", a super-powered "Apprentice").

 

The hate part? One of the PC's has "Reputation 14-, Extreme Reaction: one of the most hated novas in existance" on his character sheet. It's established that the campaign equivalent of Superman/Captain Marvel stated in an interview that this character was one of "less than a dozen people in history, and the only one alive today, I could justify killing." Dr. Destroyer was believed to be dead at the time that statement was made, of course... And the other PC's have since learned the hatred is at least partially personal.

[zornwil]

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction.

 

Mixed bag. J. Jonah Jameson bedevils mutants/superheroes, but is a man of his word, to a fault, and believes in some basic journalistic ethos. Lisa Walters tends to fawn over some superheroes, giving them good press. Those have been the biggest/most influential figures. And on from there, with media people also sometimes giving clues or being used to spread (dis)information.