Hugh Neilson Posted July 23, 2005 Report Share Posted July 23, 2005 Re: What do you think... The theme of the game is the exploration of the effects and consequences of the use of power' date=' so I tend to let the players go in the direction that feels right for their characters.[/quote'] With that in mind, the "rewind/fix" seems hugely inappropriate. After all, you can't explore the consequences of the use of their power if they are permitted to retroactively undo the consequences of their actions. Assuming you want to stay true to this theme, this pretty much forces playing out the world's reaction to the characters having caused this large-scale disaster, especially if the last time travel use was also to fix player character mistakes (I'm not sure whether it was). That pretty much mitigates the idesa of one person remembering - no one should forget. I would be inclined to throw a couple of reminders their way that the "friendly time traveller" probably could have helped them out here, but you guys killed him, didn't you? Another action which has some unpleasant consequences. If you want to be especially cruel (and I mean REALLY twisting the knife here), you could run a scenario where the time traveller provides some explanation (several are set out above) for still beinga live, the heros return to the time prior to dropping the supertanker, solve the problem through another means, are cheered by the adoring masses, have homours heaped upon them. And then awaken from this collective dream to find they are still on the run, hiding in a foreign country, and viewed by the entire world population as the greatest mass murderers of all time. Ideally, there is a psychic character with a reason to dislike OUr Heroes already who fed their collective dreams this scenario. Every so often, you could run another "opportunity to fix our mistake" scenario, only to have it be another dream feed, as the psychic continues to torment the heroes. Perhaps the psychic will tell them the only way these dreams will stop is if they turn themselves in and face whatever justice the world chooses to deliver. ie "You accept the punishment doled out by the proper authorities, or I'll keep delivering this private penalty, inadequate though it may be". You can even run a scenario where they get a chance to eithe rmake peace with or (more likely) destroy this tormentor, only to have it be yet another dream scenario forced upon them by the psychic him/her/itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh Neilson Posted July 23, 2005 Report Share Posted July 23, 2005 Re: What do you think... Not very heroic. Sounds like that's a pattern, doesn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinman Posted July 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2005 Re: What do you think... Sounds like that's a pattern' date=' doesn't it?[/quote'] Yep. I put a brief note about their motives here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoneDaddy Posted October 10, 2005 Report Share Posted October 10, 2005 Re: What do you think... Blame Cancer for the thread necromancy. What happened? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Waters Posted October 11, 2005 Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 Re: What do you think... For all their many and varied faults (there is not enough bandwidth to enumerate them all ) my lot would have been under the tanker trying to minimise the impact even if they know they couldn't stop it and it was going to kill them. Self righteous gits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted October 11, 2005 Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 Re: What do you think... Blame Cancer for the thread necromancy. What happened? Blame accepted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantine Posted October 11, 2005 Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 Re: What do you think... Wow. Great thread. Given the theme is exploring the consequences of using their powers, I would still do the time travel fix, but only after a couple of nasty sessions where the world basically turns on their characters. Have heroes come after them like THEY are the villians. Have contacts and even some friends want nothing to do with them anymore. And definitely, definitely, have the time travel fix cost them something. Something serious. Maybe the loss of some of their loved ones. Maybe everybody, EVERYBODY, forgets who they are. No contacts, no friends, no identity, nothing (except, as someone stated, that one supervillian who remembers, and is gonna make them pay/make sure it never happens again, love it!!!), and of course, they remember, so maybe turn some of those hunteds/watched/dnpc's into pysch lims. Don't know, but this sounds like a great campaign. Makes me wanna run some Champions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinman Posted October 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 Re: What do you think... Blame Cancer for the thread necromancy. What happened? Well, the PC's went underground and the world became decidedly nasty in how extralegal metahumans were dealt with (usually abruptly and permanently). Metahumans who weren't government agents walked very softly indeed. There were no superheroes anymore, as being labeled a public menace was usually lethal. An investigation found that the PC's, though acting without malicious intent, did act with a monumental level of negligence and disregard for public safety, though the general concensus was that the results likely wouldn't have been any different if the PC's hadn't intervened. The PC's also became the targets of several massive class-action lawsuits, and world opinion of them was decidedly poisonous. Manhattan was rebuilt and repopulated, with an emphasis on turning it into a showcase for modern high-tech urbanity. I tried to reflect some of the spirit of post-9/11 New York in the game, with the character of the city becoming stronger and deeper through the shared tragedy. The campaign was fast-forwarded about five years during all of this, just to ease the immediacy of the event and give the PC's some time for reflection. Their re-emergence onto the world stage was met with open hostility and outright violence pretty much everywhere they went, until one of them sacrificed his life to stop the destruction of St. Petersburg by a group of nuke-wielding terrorists (it was a classic grab-and-fly, and he got it out to an altitude of about 80km before it went off in his hands). After St. Petersburg they achieved the beginning of a grudging second chance, and the PC's have been working like dogs since then to regain the public trust through acts of selfless heroism, but with every three steps forward they stil take two steps back (hey, PC's are PC's). They are still wanted by the authorities on more charges than they can count, but public opinion is very slowly improving. As the PC frustration over their slow progress mounted I considered rebooting the campaign in order to lose the dark mood and start fresh, but right on the verge of doing it I changed my mind. It is a grim game right now, but if the PC's can actually redeem themselves the hard way then in the long run I think it will be a tremendously satisfying campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prestidigitator Posted October 11, 2005 Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 Re: What do you think... As the PC frustration over their slow progress mounted I considered rebooting the campaign in order to lose the dark mood and start fresh' date=' but right on the verge of doing it I changed my mind. It is a grim game right now, but if the PC's can actually redeem themselves the hard way then in the long run I think it will be a tremendously satisfying campaign.[/quote'] Sounds pretty awesome to me. I'd play in it, even if I had to come in and deal with the consequences of the existing PCs' actions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinman Posted October 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 Re: What do you think... Sounds pretty awesome to me. I'd play in it' date=' even if I had to come in and deal with the consequences of the existing PCs' actions. [/quote'] Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanguard00 Posted October 11, 2005 Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 Re: What do you think... Kudos to ya, tinman, for running with the campaign. It can't be easy, all things considered. That being said, maybe a bit of "Thunderbolts"-style redemption is in order. Maybe have the PCs save some government-approved heroes from some threat, earn their grudging respect (even if the actual government doesn't like 'em) and rebuild from there. Or, if possible, maybe have the government come to them for a "plausible deniability" scenario where, if they fail, so what? A bunch of renegade heroes died doing something they shouldn't have been doing. If they pull it off, however, it's a nice boost to their reputation and earns them a favor. Just some ideas to help keep ya going. Lookin' forward to seeing how things work out later on down the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinman Posted October 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 Re: What do you think... Kudos to ya, tinman, for running with the campaign. It can't be easy, all things considered. That being said, maybe a bit of "Thunderbolts"-style redemption is in order. Maybe have the PCs save some government-approved heroes from some threat, earn their grudging respect (even if the actual government doesn't like 'em) and rebuild from there. Or, if possible, maybe have the government come to them for a "plausible deniability" scenario where, if they fail, so what? A bunch of renegade heroes died doing something they shouldn't have been doing. If they pull it off, however, it's a nice boost to their reputation and earns them a favor. Just some ideas to help keep ya going. Lookin' forward to seeing how things work out later on down the road. Good stuff, I've been trying to come up with ways for them to get in good with various governments again. Of course, if public opinion rises high enough government attitudes will likely follow. Though I feel a little ghoulish doing it, I've been mining the latest run of disasters in the Southern US and in South Asia for opportunities for the PC's to shine. This is something I usually avoid in games, as it feels disrespectful to turn real suffering into entertainment, but I'm pushing the comfort envelope a little in this game already, so... I'm trying to strike a balance between giving them chances to succeed and do well and opportunities to screw it up if they aren't careful. I want the players to feel like their characters really earned redemption when (if) it comes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanguard00 Posted October 11, 2005 Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 Re: What do you think... How 'bout the earthquake in Pakistan uncovering secret hi-tech/nuclear/WMD bases? The government says to the PCs, "Hey, we can't go in there, but you can. Clear it out and we'll see about getting you back into good graces (which they may or may not do depending on the evilness of your campaign government). Screw it up and we don't know you." Use some shady government black-ops-type connections to get 'em to India or something, then send the PCs on a good ol' fashioned superhero dungeon--er, secret base crawl, complete with agents, maybe a superpowered villain or two, etc. Heck, if you read "Ultimate Nightmare" by Marvel Comics, the base could be a screwed-up lab of genetic research. Maybe the PCs get there to find crazy and deformed metahuman monsters getting ready to break out into the world once they've finished eating the soldiers the scientists who created them/kept them prisoner/tortured/tested them... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinman Posted October 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 Re: What do you think... How 'bout the earthquake in Pakistan uncovering secret hi-tech/nuclear/WMD bases? The government says to the PCs, "Hey, we can't go in there, but you can. Clear it out and we'll see about getting you back into good graces (which they may or may not do depending on the evilness of your campaign government). Screw it up and we don't know you." Use some shady government black-ops-type connections to get 'em to India or something, then send the PCs on a good ol' fashioned superhero dungeon--er, secret base crawl, complete with agents, maybe a superpowered villain or two, etc. Heck, if you read "Ultimate Nightmare" by Marvel Comics, the base could be a screwed-up lab of genetic research. Maybe the PCs get there to find crazy and deformed metahuman monsters getting ready to break out into the world once they've finished eating the soldiers the scientists who created them/kept them prisoner/tortured/tested them... No government agency in my campaign world would trust the PCs with something so sensitive, though the PCs themselves might stumble across it and try to deal with it on their own. The second option works best for that, as a while ago I had a corporation trick them into handing over DNA samples, and they've been paranoid about what they were used for ever since. As an aside, one of the concepts that the PCs seem to have the most difficulty with when they deal with governments is that when assessing a potential threat a government cannot rely on intentions, only capabilities. This has coloured their relationships with government agencies right from day one (much prior to the tanker incident) because the PCs seem to think they should always be given the benefit of the doubt and they are angered and offended when they aren't. I really need to show my players more JLU episodes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinman Posted November 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: What do you think... If anyone is interested I have a web site up for the campaign. It's pretty light on content at the moment, but I have the best intentions to fill it up with stuff in the future. Due to the jump forward the date in-game is November of 2010. http://142.165.131.108/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: What do you think... It doesn't look that light on content to me, tinman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prestidigitator Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: What do you think... If anyone is interested I have a web site up for the campaign. It's pretty light on content at the moment, but I have the best intentions to fill it up with stuff in the future. Due to the jump forward the date in-game is November of 2010. http://142.165.131.108/ I rather like the character sheets, especially the simplified one. What application(s) did you use to create them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinman Posted November 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: What do you think... I rather like the character sheets' date=' especially the simplified one. What application(s) did you use to create them?[/quote'] Openoffice. I try to keep my campaign open source Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prestidigitator Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: What do you think... Openoffice. I try to keep my campaign open source Cool. That's some nice OOffice-Fu! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinman Posted November 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Re: What do you think... Cool. That's some nice OOffice-Fu! Thanks Edit: The character drawing template came from somewhere, but I don't remember where. I'm pretty sure it was someone's game site but for the life of me I can't recall. If anyone knows who I should credit for it please let me know, I've made extensive good use of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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