DC Animated U Campaign?

[CrosshairCollie]

An idea that filtered through my brain at work today ... running a game set in the DC Universe, but not the comics. The *animated* universe that started with Batman: TAS, went through Superman:TAS, Static Shock, and Justice League (probably not Teen Titans, definitely not Krypto), and Batman Beyond hasn't happened yet.

 

Can anybody think of any 'genre laws' that would need to be put into place, other than the typical Superhero campaign rules regarding physics and the like, to help enforce the feel?

[Logan D]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

An idea that filtered through my brain at work today ... running a game set in the DC Universe, but not the comics. The *animated* universe that started with Batman: TAS, went through Superman:TAS, Static Shock, and Justice League (probably not Teen Titans, definitely not Krypto), and Batman Beyond hasn't happened yet.

 

Can anybody think of any 'genre laws' that would need to be put into place, other than the typical Superhero campaign rules regarding physics and the like, to help enforce the feel?

 

Genre laws?

 

Well - first off - it's definitly mostly silver age storytelling. It's a "modern" silver age with maybe just a touch of bronze. There are consequences for every action taken. But good deeds are, for the most part, rewarded the way we all wish they would be in real life.

 

Animated DCU is recognisably the 20th century. But precisely what year is never said or hinted at, and it should never be.

 

Gangsters dress like gangsters, not like sports stars. But they may be carrying uzis and glocks instead of tommyguns.

 

There was a war a generation ago, but it's never clear whether that was WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam or the Gulf War.

 

Technology never seems to quite become obsolete. There are prop planes and black and white TV alongside of computers and the internet.

 

Reporters write in notepads instead of using palm pilots. Cameras use hand held flashes.

 

But bleeding edge tech exists in equal measure. The tech base is all over the map. If it needs to exist for the story it does. But there's a lot of stylistic cues from mid-century and before.

 

Gotham is "modern gothic". Metropolis is "world of the future art deco". We don't know about other cities yet.

 

In short - never EVER say outright what the year is. It's not important. You can couch things in terms of how many years ago something happened. But never give an outright date for the year.

 

There - that ought to get the ball rolling.

[Logan D]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

Oh - thought of something else.

 

All the DC characters origins are as close to their pre-crisis versions as they can be, with only a few minor tweaks here and there. (Jonathan and Martha Kent still being alive, Wally West being the FIRST Flash instead of the second, etc...)

 

Don't know if it matter much, except as background. But thought I'd throw that one in.

[OddHat]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

Power levels are flattened out. Foes who are serious threats for any Hero are serious threats for all heroes, right down to street thugs. Despite this, the bad guys don't kill Heroes and don't win in the end.

 

Every cosmic hero is reduced to only his base power set.

 

Superman is now a complete wuss. Everyone proves how tough they are by slapping him around like a redheaded step-child. Hawk-Girl is the most powerful charater in the world. Female characters are built on 50 points more than male characters; each breast is worth an additional 25 character points.

 

There was a thread a while back posting the Animated Justice League that would be very useful for a game like this, at least as a starting point for your character designs.

[Black Rose]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

Superman is now a complete wuss. Everyone proves how tough they are by slapping him around like a redheaded step-child. Hawk-Girl is the most powerful charater in the world. Female characters are built on 50 points more than male characters; each breast is worth an additional 25 character points.

 

Oh man, you are soooo right. I can't remember the name of the episode (the one where all the villians work together under Grodd), but watching Krypton's Golden Boy get smacked around by a frickin' monkey, that was sad. On the other hand, watching him launch him twenty yards or so with a finger flick was very cool. I get the feeling that, past a certain mid-range point, all defences are Damage Reduction. Either that, or it's all Ablative; there in the beginning of the episode, but getting steadily worn away over time. Possibly Only If Aware Of Attack.

 

And you are too too right about women in the animated DCU.

[Superskrull]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

Well, I have only a few things to toss in comments about.

 

Dakota, home of Static and about a godzillion low to mid-range metahuman, seems completely late 20th century. I never saw any indications of anything earlier than 90's seeming things there. Probably stems from being such a recent city publishing-wise. I'd like a little more secondary overlap from Dakota to the greater DC:AU. I'm hoping that there will be at least some mention in the JLU series of the Bang Babies in regards to Task Force X. It'd be nice to hear Edwin Alva's name and corporation mentioned as providing research or subjects.

 

Grodd vs the Man of Steel should be a nasty fight. It always seemed to me that Grodd wasn't called Super-gorilla Grodd for no reason. He was disturbingly strong and reasonably invulnerable along with his massive psi-powers. 'Course, I don't wanna hear about him eating people either like in the current comics. I just want him talking smack about the humans and using cool hi-tech McGuffins like in the good ol days with Barry.

 

You could decide there is a Teen Titans team, since Batman mentioned them to Static during a crossover episode, just de-goofy-tize them and strap on some info with their personalities being more complex than one sentence descriptions. Cyborg, Starfire, Raven & Beast Boy (that name sucks beyond suck, BTW, go back to his second name of Changeling) are perfectly workable. It also seems like you could drop in a re-tooled Speedy as we definitely have a Green Arrow around now.

[Red Knight]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

Sorry... I have to disagree with a few of the pervious statements....

 

I'm an avid watcher of Batman and Justice League and the old Superman.

 

1) Women are not more powerful than men.. they are AS powerful as men. In the DC comics Wonder Woman and Superman are the powerhouses. It is nice to see that the women can hold thier own instead of being relegated to eye candy positions.

 

2) As far as Superman being a wuss??? NOPE... In the latest episode of JLU, Superman and Doomsday are slugging it out in a volcano. One punch sents Doomsday flying through a rock wall. Again, Superman is shown to be a powerful hero but not a god. The god mentality is the reason that Superman never appealed to me. Its like... " Oh gee.. Superman stopped another natural disaster [yawn] by moving the mountain."

 

I really enjoy watching the cartoons and to be honest I'd like to play in the DCU-Cartoon world.

 

My only complaint is that John Stewart is the Green Lantern, I would have preferred to see Kyle Rayner as the Lantern or now that he's back, Hal Jordan. Yes boys and girls... Hal is back!!

John is not that imaginative with the ring... If you are animating something, you could do so much more with it. Kyle was always the more imaginative person, being an artist.

 

As far as the Teen Titans go....

The current Teen Titans cartoon is peroduced by a different compnay I believe. It is done for cutsy cartoon humor. It tackles some deeper episodes but then the Anime-Over-The-Top facial expressions and sudden bursts of emotions ruin it. Don't get me wrong, I watch the show but it is not on the same level as Batman and JLU.

 

Back to the original idea of genre rules:

The only thing that I can add is that energy weapons are used in conjunction with projectile weapons. The cops carry revolvers and automatics and then the heavier weapon of choice seems to be an energy weapon/rifle.

 

Vehicle designs run the scale from retro to cutting edge. Of course the heros always use cutting edge.

[Libra]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

Hal is Back in Black?!?(And white and green)

 

How?

[Superskrull]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

Hal is Back in Black?!?(And white and green)

 

How?

 

Well, frankly, the only place I've seen Hal animated recently was an episode of Duck Dodgers where Daffy and Hal's drycleaning got mixed up and Daffy got to run amuck with a power ring for a while. Great episode but most definitely not in any continuity, especially since Green Lambkin of Earth C- was shown in the background.

 

I do know that Hal flys planes in the DC-TAS stuff, or has at any rate. There was a shot of a jet with his name on it when they intro-ed Kyle as the Green Lantern of Earth back in a Superman TAS episode.

[BlackSword]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

Hal appeared in the Animated for about 5 seconds. During the second episode of "The Once and Future Thing." John turned into Hal, everyone looked surprised, Hal said, "Timeline problems, I'm up to speed." Hal later disappeared and John Stewart reappeared.

 

Hal is back in the comics DCU due to a six issue miniseries that ran last year.

[Red Knight]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

YUP... HAL IS BACK!!

 

Apparently the fan base wanted Hal Jordan back. They wrote a 6-issue story arc that actually was pretty good. In it, the spirit of Hal Jordan starts to fight the spirit of the Spectre.

 

Parallax was found to actually be an ancient creature that had been locked away in the Great Battery on OA. There it slowly started to corrupt the Lantren Corp. It's color was yellow and was the living embodiment of fear. The taint was the reason that the rings were ineffective against yellow. The green energy of the Corp represents Willpower. Needless to say, Hal Jordan was starting to get corrupted when the entire Coast City disaster took place. He started to gather rings which basically gave allowed the corruption to affect him faster. Then he drained the battery, in the process absorbing the Parallax entity. But not before the entity had supercharged Sinestro. Yup.. Sinestro is back as well!!

 

It actually looks like hal is going to be written well and not like the older issues.

[Redmenace]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

1.) I think most of the anachronisms are limited to Gotham which seems to perpetually have one foot stuck in the 1930-40s as that was Bruce Timm's prefernce and to better follow the Tim Burton movie.

 

 

>>>Spoiler

2.) JLU seems to be less silver age, any storyline where the Govt, or cabals within, are working against the heroes, let alone willing to assassinate Superman, is pretty tarnished silver. Batman beyond's future tense and the early days of Batman, ala Mask of the Phantasm, are plenty dark.

Spoiler end<<<

 

3.) Supe's power level, as well as anyone else's, is limited or increased according to the needs of the story and or wether or not they saw the attack coming. surprise attacks do double stun and knockback.

 

4.) Heroes tend towards staying reasonably like they were depicted in comics from the 50s-70s while villains can often be reinterpreted for modern tastes.

 

5.) More fun, less angst. At 20 odd minutes per episode, the pcs don't have time to talk and worry, they act or events overcome them quickly.

 

This month's Digital Hero has a brief rundown of whats specifically in Dark Champions the animated series.

[Publius]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

Superman is now a complete wuss. Everyone proves how tough they are by slapping him around like a redheaded step-child.[/Quote]I may be in the minority here, but I like the fact that they have reined in the power level somewhat. A superman that can get his hiney kicked is better than one that cannot. On the other hand, I think you are talking about the Worf-ism that has taken place with this character (i.e. giving bad guys cred for knocking Big Blue on his butt). Point taken on that.

 

Hawk-Girl is the most powerful charater in the world. Female characters are built on 50 points more than male characters; each breast is worth an additional 25 character points.

Mind Control w/ Physical Manifestation? Actually, I think I'd get some one- and no-boobed female characters in my games.

 

And Hawkgirl is cute. She has that whole Hotty Redhead Wilma Flintstone/Ariel thing going on. :wink: A touch more seriously, I love the voice, my next SO will be a Latina I think. OK, maybe just "I hope"

[JmOz]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

Here is a link to a page that has some stats for the AJLA I did a while ago

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=491489#post491489

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

As far as Superman goes, that was a screwup on the writers' part. They fell prey to the same syndrome that affected Star Trek: The Next Generation. "We need to show how badass this thing is ... let's have it lay out Worf/Superman to show that one character can't handle it alone." Towards the end of season 1, they realized just how often they'd done that and how badly they'd messed up (and George Newburn, not accustomed to doing voice work, sounded very lackluster as well), so some Internet pundits blamed it on Superman being demoralized and unsteady after the events of Legacy in Superman: TAS (when he was mind controlled into serving Darkseid).

 

And Hawkgirl's badassedness is later explained by the fact that her mace is made of Nth Metal, which is why she runs roughshod over anything using energy attacks ... and probably the fact that the writers of the show want into her pants almost as badly as they want into Batman's, apparently.

 

Titans is still produced by WB Animation, but they're intentionally doing it in a different style (both artistically and in writing) from the JLU. I'd definitely rein in the goofiness if I did use them, though my main problem is continuity (that Robin would have to be Tim Drake, as Dick Grayson is Nightwing, but ... it gets confusing). Batman DID mention the Titans in an episode of Static Shock, though, so at least *a* team of Titans exists in the DCAU. And while I, personally, don't care too much for Teen Titans (Go!), most of my players do, and I'm willing to make compromises. I mean, if I wrote out everything I didn't like, Batman wouldn't be an issue.

 

Redmenace does raise a valid point ... Season 4 of JL (or Season 2 of JLU, depending on how you prefer to say it) is a lot less shiny than previous seasons/shows. My thought was to set it sometime in mid season 2, so after a few games the PCs could deal with the events of Starcrossed, then be approached to join the JLU.

[BlackSword]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

My thought was to set it sometime in mid season 2' date=' so after a few games the PCs could deal with the events of Starcrossed, then be approached to join the JLU.[/quote']

That's a neat idea. That was my one issue with Starcrossed. It was a great story and very well done. But where were the rest of the heroes of Earth?

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

That's a neat idea. That was my one issue with Starcrossed. It was a great story and very well done. But where were the rest of the heroes of Earth?

 

I just assumed that they, too, were occupied with things (especially once it all really hit the fan), but since the JL, a team, went down to the Thanagarians, I figure the individual heroes either were taken down as well, or weren't capable of making a significant impact on the storyline.

[Marketeer]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

I just assumed that they' date=' too, were occupied with things (especially once it all really hit the fan), but since the JL, a team, went down to the Thanagarians, I figure the individual heroes either were taken down as well, or weren't capable of making a significant impact on the storyline.[/quote']

 

There is a brief mention of what happened to at least one or two individual heroes during "Starcrossed" in the Season 4 episode "Hunter's Moon".

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

Can anybody point me at any sites that have info on DC supervillains? Nothing elaborate or severely detailed, just a basic outline and (preferably, not required) pictures? Especially if it has some of the obscure/bad villains who could use a revamp (like The Ten Eyed Man!).

 

Google's giving me everything EXCEPT that when I try to search ... many thanks!

[John Desmarais]

Re: DC Animated U Campaign?

 

Can anybody point me at any sites that have info on DC supervillains? Nothing elaborate or severely detailed, just a basic outline and (preferably, not required) pictures? Especially if it has some of the obscure/bad villains who could use a revamp (like The Ten Eyed Man!).

 

Google's giving me everything EXCEPT that when I try to search ... many thanks!

 

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