World In Crisis..Idea help please

[simplygnome]

Okay folks, I need a bit of advice.

 

Shortly I'll be running a tabletop Hero System game in a non-Champions super hero world.

 

The group consists of myself and six players, all of which are familiar gaming with each other. The players have a decent background of gaming experience, but sadly limited to the D20 system. None of them have experience with either the Hero System, or roleplaying in a super hero game....

 

With that said, I have been impressed so far by the character concepts and rough drafts presented to me. I have sat down with each player and constructed a well made background for each, and Im happy with how things are going....I am also helping them balance their characters, and have run into very little complaint.

 

The problem is, the world, to me, doesnt feel fleshed out enough. It doesn't feel as "alive" (superhero-wise) as I want it to. Certaintly things, are just starting, but Im not satisfied at the moment.

 

Now, I thought I covered most of my bases...Ive got the good government run corporation, CRISIS (the Center of Research, Intelligence Surveillance, and Interrogation Services), who inevitably fights against VENOM, a terrorist organization rooted in biological warfare and espionage. I've got a smattering of other super villians and minor criminals. This along with a few player made groups fleshed out in their backgrounds and such, I've been given enough sources of villany to pull from.

 

I didn't want to worry aobut creating tons of NPC heroes, although a few will be existant, so I set the world in a med to low SUPERS appearance. Currently in the nation, only one unofficial supergroup exists, consisting of three heroes located in a central city (the same starting city as the PCs). I've got a couple other supers I plan on writing up as well before the game starts....

 

The plan is that the group, for various reasons, will join up with CRISIS. Character backgrounds range from mutant, to magic, to tech, to ...a Thor-ish character (who happens to have a tiara instead of a hammer and a Suceptibility to Toxic-waste...Im in the habit of caller her SAILOR PLANET =P Every time she transforms back into human Im going to whisper "The power is YOURS" just to irk her...but thats just plain fun flavor. Im the gm, Im allowed to irk my players in subtle ways =P)

 

 

So my question to you hero boards, is why, other than my perfectionist nature, do I feel that something is lacking? What holes can you see in my world thus, and are there any other suggestions. Im sure if I could ever pinpoint the cause of my uneasy feeling, I could correct it....but I just dont see what it could possibly be.....!!!

[Mike W]

Re: World In Crisis..Idea help please

 

I think what you need to do is write a bit of a history of the world. When did powers first appear? What kind/origin? Why did various power/heroes/ villains appear? Who are the major heroes? Who are their nemesis? Do you have a lot of magic? What level of super tech? Are there mutants? Aliens? After you've taken each thing individually, you can try to put them together.

 

To take Marvel Comics, for instance, up until about WWII most "super heroes" were magic based characters(such as whoever the current Sorcerer Supreme was). A few cowboy types or masked crimefighters appeared but the max ability level would be, say The Green Hornet(yes, I know he isn't a Marvel character). A few four color super hereos/villains started to appear with WWII experiments producing Capt. America and the Red Skull. But the current age was ushered in with the FF and a few other "accidents" (Hulk, Spiderman), the rediscovery of Thor's hammer and Stephen Strange's training, the advent of mutants(X-men), and the beginnings of super technology(Pym particles, Iron Man's armor). Alien races gradually became a part of the universe as technology allowed for more exploration of other worlds(especially through the FF) and with the discovery of the eternals on Titan. These things let the rest of the universe know that the Earth was out there.

 

This is what I think is missing from your world, a coherent history. Where do the current heroes come from? What is the legacy of those who have gone before? How do they relate to each other?

[MitchellS]

Re: World In Crisis..Idea help please

 

Some of the genre standards you might want to include are the "evil" mega-corporation [LexCorp], the helpful science research facility [star Labs], the hostile race waiting in the wings [alien or mutant], lost civilizations [Atlantis], the superhuman criminal dictator who has his own country [Dr. Doom], the super-prison [belle Reve], and the secret government projects which show no regard for human life [too many to mention].

[Kirby]

Re: World In Crisis..Idea help please

 

So my question to you hero boards' date=' is why, other than my perfectionist nature, do I feel that something is lacking? What holes can you see in my world thus, and are there any other suggestions. Im sure if I could ever [b']pinpoint[/b] the cause of my uneasy feeling, I could correct it....but I just dont see what it could possibly be.....!!!

Well, I can't say why you feel something lacking, but a suggestion might be to type up a recent "News Headlines" timeline for them. Perhaps one or two pages of recent events. Somewhere in there have hints of subplots that you'll be running. Elsewhere you can just state what Team X is doing in another city. That might at least let the players know a bit what is going on before the game starts.

[gojira]

Re: World In Crisis..Idea help please

 

Is there a reason why you are not using the standard friendly government groups like UNTIL and PRIMUS? Don't forget about METE and The Circle too (see big thread in this forum for a great New Circle write-up).

 

Here's my first real question though: Is it golden age, silver age, or bronze/iron age? That's the first thing that make me uneasy about your setting. Make sure to talk to your players and see what they want. Then back it up with some player disadvantages. Go with Psych Limitations like "Must Protect Innocents" and "Will not Kill" for golden agers, everyone should have this. For Iron Age, these same disadvantages should be discouraged.

 

Then a quick timeline, and some local color and a first adventure (brief, like a single combat and get the heroes together) will get you started.

[tgrandjean]

Re: World In Crisis..Idea help please

 

Gorillas.... and monkeys.

Everybody loves monkeys...

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: World In Crisis..Idea help please

 

Ditto on the genre concerns, especially as they haven't played supers games before. You say the characters seem good, which is reassuring. Are they familiar with the supers genre, and specifically the type of supers you want to run? Do they like that, or think "X is dumb"? A little conversation now can save you much heartbreak later on.

 

Perhaps run a shake-down session. Several purposes. One - lets players get a feel for the system. Two - lets players and you get a feel for the characters, and see what might need to be modified prior to actual campaign start. Three - lets you see playstyles and discuss things with the players prior to the real campaign. "Bob, I understand that you were concerned about Pulsar's energy blast, but using one of the bank tellers as a body shield really isn't what a superhero game should be about."

[assault]

Re: World In Crisis..Idea help please

 

Is there a reason why you are not using the standard friendly government groups like UNTIL and PRIMUS?

 

Why would he need a reason? It's his world, after all.

 

Go with Psych Limitations like "Must Protect Innocents" and "Will not Kill" for golden agers, everyone should have this. For Iron Age, these same disadvantages should be discouraged.

 

I don't see why "Must Protect Innocents" would be discouraged in an Iron Age game.

[simplygnome]

Re: World In Crisis..Idea help please

 

Thanks for the replys all...theres a lot of good ideas that made it through.

 

Mike W, you hit it fairly on the head. I had a rough sketch of the background and I was focusing a lot on the current setups (government affiliations, group alliances, subtle villian trickery) that I didn't really sit down and flesh out a full background, worldwide anyhow. Both the diety based and the magic based characters were great ideas on the players part, but they saddled me with much more work than they realized. However, I did voice my concerns earlier, and we sat and talked about it. I made a strict rule that if it didn't feel "super-heroy", I'd dissallow it, yet after talking it over, both characters came out VERY well, so I let them in....Theyre backgrounds actually helped flesh out the world a bit...I still havent looked at the origin of some of things, namely Dieties and their place in my world....

 

Gojira - I'm not using the ready made groups because I don't have enough source material to run a CHAMPIONS game, and I wanted to summon up a slightly different world....I suppose I could have just transposed the groups since the players arent familiar with Champions anyhow...But I guess I wanted a challenge.

 

I sat down with the players and explained to them that the campaign tone should be very colorful. Its very Avengers style (I would say JLA, but smaller to an infinite degree...). I want lots of diversity in character, which I have so far, and lots of heroics. I didn't have most of my players take the "Does not kill" disad...I explained to them that it will almost be required, with no character points given, as that is the type of genre I am going for. I will let those that didnt take the disad do as they might, but they know my feelings toward it and already know my wrath as a GM. In the past, I havent had a problem with these players straying too far off my laid down wishes. We've had about two years of gaming together...

 

Supreme Serpent - Thanks for the concerns as well. Two of the players are major comic geeks of days past. The only debate I have with them is that Im an old DC fan while they're Marvel kiddies... lol The others have enough Supers interest that they should fit in easily enough.

 

I took each of them aside and talked to them about their characters. They all really liked their characters, as I left the origin pretty open. Even the two martial artists felt that their characters were different enough that they didn't mind each other having a similar build, and even worked their storyline together as Rivals. I explained to the players the limitation of their characters inside the genre. Even our one "dark" skill based hero is using mostly non-lethal attacks. He has one, and its not even that strong (in some cirumstances, his Energy Blasts are more powerful due to a multi power with a x3 auto fire slot and an AP slot).

 

I DID have a problem or two at the beginning, but they were shut out almost immediately. One player I have is know to be....a bit flavorful with the adult content she puts into the game, and that started to show through in the character design (Her: "Hmmm....how about a Fertility Goddess..."... Me: "Nope, but good creative idea. It doesn't quite fit my idea for the game, but keep going...Lets think of another!" Her: "Hmmm, how about a good succubus demon..." Me: "Oops! Try again...") Eventaully, we came to a real nice character...It didn't take her too long, and we're both really happy with how the Wonderwoman/Thor/Captain Planet rip off came out. The background (on MY part) needs a bit thought though, and I'm a bit stumped, but I'll work it out before gameday.

 

However, I did already plan to use your suggestion. I was going to run the first game night, and then let them redesign their characters with me at their side, just to make sure they like how he/she plays, and to settle any balance issues.....Also this was going to be the time of discussing any concerns I had with their play styles...

 

MitchellS, I had a few of those ideas already planned, but you spotted a few more that I didnt. Three of your suggestions [the super prison, the crimial with his own continent, and the secret government projects] were also ideas on the drawing board, but nothing I was incorporating just yet. I wanted a good basis to start with before throwing too many things at them. Thanks for some of the ideas....Both the hostile race and the undiscovered civilization never crossed my mind....I have a few ideas now though, but those too will come out at a later date...

 

Thanks for the help folks. Right now Im in the middle of typing up some extended background. Possibly I'll post it in a few days to get some more feedback...Any other suggestions, however, couldn't hurt...

 

PS - Kirby .. awesome idea. In fact, I think I'll steal it! I've got several plots that would be awesome to throw in there....In fact, I might even make it a monthly event (Megatopia Monthly Review)

[gojira]

Re: World In Crisis..Idea help please

 

Gojira - I'm not using the ready made groups because I don't have enough source material to run a CHAMPIONS game' date=' and I wanted to summon up a slightly different world....I suppose I could have just transposed the groups since the players arent familiar with Champions anyhow...But I guess I wanted a challenge.[/quote']

 

No worries, of course. But if we're going to help, I needed to know a bit about why your world is the way it is.

 

I sat down with the players and explained to them that the campaign tone should be very colorful. Its very Avengers style

 

Excellent! This also greatly sets the tone of the world, which will help a lot if we need to help with anything! It sounds like you are happily writing background now, so maybe we should wait until you get that stuff done.

 

One thing I have never done but thought about is to have the players add some of the background themselves. For example, the diety based character (or her owner, I mean) could be enlisted to help write up some info about her gods, and who their adversaries and friends are. Ditto with the magic based character. Get his (?) help writing up any famous Sorcerer Supreme, lost magical worlds, Atlantis(es), ancient Egytpian magical whatnots, etc. This could lighten the load on you, broaden their character backgrounds, and give the players something fun to work on too. Just my 2 super-pennies.

[Ghost who Walks]

Re: World In Crisis..Idea help please

 

One thing I usually do when starting a campaign is spend a session running pregames.

 

Since I didn't see anyone mention it, thought I would.

 

Basicly, you just have the players play through their characters at the major turnng points in their lives. Where they went to schol, how they got into the career they chose, how they got powers, etc.

 

You take notes during it, but its pretty freeform. It allows players to develop their characters a bit, by giving them a history.

 

It also allows explanations for wierd skill and abilities players like to put on their sheets...

 

For the GM, the benefit is that it helps flush out your world a bit...the player help develop some of the recent history.