Need Ideas and Background for a DC One-Shot

[Spideyguy]

Herodom Assembled,

 

My strong suite as a GM is being able to write well, but one my areas of improvement is my creativity. Hence, I'm enlisting your help. I'm doing a one-shot game (that could actually run a few evenings if necessary) at GenCon this year for two of my best friends. I'd really like it to turn out well, so that it's memorable for all.

 

I have some background ideas for what I'd like to do, but am hoping that you all can give me some ideas on how to make the story and background better. So here goes:

 

PCs: Probably 125-150 + 50-100 pts in disadvanges (these will be beginning Daredevil and Spidey-like characters, but no EBs, teleporting, etc.)

 

Tone: Will probably be fairly gritty and dark, set in Hudson City or a similar concrete jungle. Players will probably have Code v. Killing, but it will be fairly "bendable".

 

Opposition: Mostly "normal" goons and mooks, mixed in with the occasional highly skilled lieutenant or boss. On very rare occasions, they might meet up with someone like themselves.

 

Background: I'm picturing the world as kind of a post Kingdom Come or Dark Knight Returns. Blatant super heroes have been gone for about 75 years. When the supers first appeared in the world, they were a novelty, and they served humanity for about 15 years. However, the humans eventually became concerned about the supers' powers, and started to knowingly try and decrease their numbers.

 

Some were arrested and "vanished", others died fighting each other, and yet some were out and out elminated by the less scrupulous agencies of the world governments. Eventually, the superhumans were outlawed altogether, and the few that actually remained at large disappeared among humanity's ranks, never to don their colorful tights again.

 

As time progressed, monuments and tributes to the heroes were removed, and discussion or conversation about the past heroes became almost illegal, with normal citizens reluctant to even discuss them, at best.

 

However, now an underground movement wants to revive the superheroic movement, at least to a small degree. This group (uknown in my mind at this point) has access to the DNA of two of the former superheroes, who were actually a married couple. The hope is to infuse two individuals with this DNA, and along with a complicated scientific process, create two (lesser powered) superheroes for their cause.

 

This is where the PCs come in. I've decided that they're going to be brothers (Jack and Martin Locke), who have been very close all of their lives. However, there parents (died? disappeared?) at a very young age, and the only memories they have of their parents are vague at best, and almost non-existant at worst. I'm thinking of having the superheroes whose DNA if fueling the experiments being the brothers' parents.

 

As a twist, I'm not sure if the group that's creating the heroes is going to be an altruistic group bucking against the establishment, or a gray (or worse) group that is having the heroes serve their own ends. This could also be a great plot twist later on in the story.

 

This story won't be spandex and capes, but more of a dark champions mixed in with a little superhuman ability. Most of the PCs powers will be very subtle and mostly invisible to normal humans. Hence, there won't be any flying, teleporting, shape shifting, or the like.

 

I'd be very grateful for any help you can give me on building this up, or fleshing it out, even if it means manipulating the back story a little.

 

What do you all think?

[tkdguy]

Re: Need Ideas and Background for a DC One-Shot

 

I just posted my idea for a campaign setting. Maybe you can get some ideas from it.

[Mike W]

Re: Need Ideas and Background for a DC One-Shot

 

The former "heroes" are being kept alive in stasis tubes so that their DNA remains viable for long term production. The government is secretly altering the DNA of selected fetuses in an effort to create low grade supers(sort of like the gene doping that is being done on mice in Canada). At a certain age, the children manifest powers and are then taken themselves, brainwashed, and turned into deep cover agents. As a matter of procedure, the children are kept isolated, so anyone they develop a strong attachment to is eliminated. This way, no one misses them when they eventually disappear. In accordance with this, the children's parents were eliminated when they were old enough to be hard to adopt, all but ensuring that the kids would spend the rest of their childhood in orphanages/foster homes. The best time to take the kids would then be just after they graduate high school -when they would be forced out of the system, and when they could easily "go off to college" and disappear with no one the wiser.

[Eosin]

Re: Need Ideas and Background for a DC One-Shot

 

I'd be very grateful for any help you can give me on building this up, or fleshing it out, even if it means manipulating the back story a little.

 

What do you all think?

 

So far it looks really interesting. IMO the game is going to need to be a little focused and right now that is not what you have.

 

My Take:

Act 1 - The brothers discover thier identity.

Act 2 - The brothers investigate the "organization"

Act 3 - A huge battle with "clone-modified" humans.

Act 4 - Discovery of mom & dad's DNA at work.

Act 5 - Brothers must face a direct clone of mom & dad (basically another brother) who out powers them and has been modified. The Clone should be crazy as hell and with powers that are rapidly escalating.

[Spideyguy]

Re: Need Ideas and Background for a DC One-Shot

 

Thanks to all for the great feedback! Please keep it coming!!

[RDU Neil]

Re: Need Ideas and Background for a DC One-Shot

 

You've created a dark world... one that is likely to make any kind of constructive, find-the-best-in-people actions to fail. The only reason to have a CVK would be to avoid legal issues, but these characters are going to be legal paraiahs right from the beginning.

 

Expect a much more lethal, ugly campaign than you might have thought. 250 point characters vs. a government that has been actively suppressing heroes for decades. Kid gloves come off five seconds into the game. At that level, the characters will go down easily in any straight up fight... a couple of soldiers with automatic weapons will be deadly to them... they'll have to play this very close to the vest, very smart... so I'd expect lots of combat avoidance... sniping... sneaking... don't trust anybody... etc.

 

I guess I'm just saying be careful. I've seen GMs throw armies of agents with military grade weapons at small groups of 250 pt PCs... and not understand why the PCs get SLAUGHTERED... or the PCs begin using hard-ass, lethal tactics themselves. 250 points is barely above an agent... especially if you have to pay points for equipment/armor/weapons. If you really want these guys to be "super" at all, buck 'em up to 350 points... but still limit what kind of powers they can buy. You can then have decent Daredevil/Nightwing types that can hopefully survive the unrelenting enemy.

 

That aside... if you want them to be less desperate and more heroic... give them allies. Maybe the underground supports them on the sly... keep the allies shady and mysterious as well, but provide them safe houses, resupply, intelligence... so the players don't feel isolated.

 

If you want them to really be heroic... make the "pro-hero" movement more public... so if they take action, they get public support... have open protests. Make the idea of "wearing a costume" a form of social protest. Do the PCs then take the risk of putting on costumes? It makes them a target... but also makes them a symbol.

 

This last piece might be better in a longer running campaign... where the PCs have a chance to alter the world long term.

[CBikle]

Re: Need Ideas and Background for a DC One-Shot

 

It's also a convention game.

 

If you can, try to run it around 8:00 at night, after everyone's had dinner and is a little more settled and in a more sober mood.

 

If you run during the day, a good number of PCs will be hopped up on sugar and caffeine and lunch/dinner will be something of a distraction.

[Spideyguy]

Re: Need Ideas and Background for a DC One-Shot

 

Just to clarify:

 

This is a game for me to run, and for my two best friends to participate in, that will probably be run at a private table or in our hotel room.

 

This won't be a "Con Game", per se. Sorry for any confusion around that point.

[Spideyguy]

Re: Need Ideas and Background for a DC One-Shot

 

All,

 

There's a lot of different ways that I could go with this, and am having trouble settling on exactly how I want to put this game together. I do know that I want to the two PCs to be a "duo" in some way. Examples might include:

• Brothers
  
• Similar powers
  
• Similar weapons
  
• "Theme" team (ala Stick and Stone)
  

 

I've gotten some great feedback from the posters above, but I'm having trouble getting this game cemented in my head. Any other feedback, please???