Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

[Dragonblade]

So, I'm interested in hearing about other people's supers campaigns. Particularly those campaigns that try to keep a real mainstream comic book feel ala DC and Marvel. I'm looking for inspiration for my own game and I thought I would ask people about their games.

 

I'm mostly interested in hearing about campaigns that really tried to recreate the feel of Marvel and DC, where costumed supers are well known and a generally accepted part of reality. Tell me about your favorite soap operatic moments. Tell me about your multi-session story arcs. Tell me about the coolest, most loved, and most dreaded recurring NPC heroes and villains.

[Dragonblade]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

C'mon guys! On the Champions board, no one has a superhero game they would like to talk about??

[McCoy]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

My last campagine was Who Wants to Be A Superhero?

 

Think Cops meets The Real World in Marvel Manhattan. Producers pulled some strings, got police powers for some metahumans, thinking they would form a Dark Champions street level supergroup and they would follow them around with cameras (a superteam that brings their own hostages to the combat!). Everything went according to plan for about a month, then there was one of those Ultra Secret Crossover Wars things. Spiderman, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four disappeared without a trace, and Extreme Justice (the player characters) is suddenly the most powerful shperhero team in Marvel Manhattan.

[hooligan x]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

Although far from normal, my campaign is discussed at length in these two threads http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35514

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34174

 

Thera are quick snapshots of a lot of Champs campaigns on the "This week on Champions..." thread. http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29429

 

Keyes_Bill was documented his awesome UNITY 2010 campaign from day one on this thread. http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27202

 

Most of these threads are ongoing so keep checking back for updates.

[Dragonblade]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

My last campagine was Who Wants to Be A Superhero?

 

Think Cops meets The Real World in Marvel Manhattan. Producers pulled some strings, got police powers for some metahumans, thinking they would form a Dark Champions street level supergroup and they would follow them around with cameras (a superteam that brings their own hostages to the combat!). Everything went according to plan for about a month, then there was one of those Ultra Secret Crossover Wars things. Spiderman, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four disappeared without a trace, and Extreme Justice (the player characters) is suddenly the most powerful shperhero team in Marvel Manhattan.

 

Thats a really cool idea!

[Trebuchet]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

Our campaign, run since 1992, is called MidGuard. It is a deliberately "Silver Age" game. The members of MidGuard, an international team secretly based in Norway, are Earth's most powerful and respected heroes. Although far less powerful than the Avengers or Justice League, power is relative. No other hero team is tougher than MidGuard. The characters in our team are all at or fast approaching 400 CP. Globe trotting and exotic locations are part of the fun; we've fought in places like Japan, China, Mongolia, Easter Island, a lost Mayan city in Belize, Paris, London (several times), a Turkish palace, the rusting Tractor Works of Stalingrad, a sunken Russian nuclear missile sub in the Aegean Sea, Vienna, the Algerian desert, Israel, Norway, Io (Jupiter's moon), the flight deck of a US Navy aircraft carrier, the outback of Australia, and I'm sure I've missed a few.

 

Team members:

 

Cyberknight: a powered armor type and one of the team's founding members. Now semi-retired; Cyberknight was the team's original leader. American.

 

Zl'f: World's most agile human and one of Earth's most formidable martial artists. Another founding member and now the team's leader. Russian.

 

Prodigy: 800 year old former Knight Templar and one of Earth's most powerful mentalists. Born in Outremer near Jerusalem.

 

Thunderbird: Avatar of the Apache storm diety; unmatched in aerial combat. In his secret ID a tribal shaman and surgeon (M.D.). Native American.

 

Vesuvius: Demi-brick tunneler/energy projector; one of MidGuard's newest members. Italian.

 

Le Magister: A powerful sorcerer; a Surete officer in his secret ID. French.

 

Cloud Dragon: Mystic martial artist. Now the wielder of the Green Destiny sword. American/Chinese.

 

Sihouette: The team's only true brick and scientist; in her secret ID she is a Nobel-prize winning astrophysicist. Canadian.

 

Sidestep: A teleporting demibrick from WW2. American.

[concord]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

I am running the fourth edition of the Wardens Campaign.

 

It is a probably best classified as a Bronze Age campaign and is set in San Francisco. Completely home grown, no Marvel or DC history/continuity used. Characters are pretty low powered at this point but may grow into the best of the best if the camapign lasts that long.

 

Links to the discussion threads and websites for the campaign are in my signature.

[Manchine]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

I have my campaign follow my own world. Which can be seen at my Webcomic.

 

http://globaldefenseforce.com/

 

Its pretty much a Year or so after this all happens. So I can adjust minor things in the Campaign. For example I have the backing of the United Nations for the GDF. I don't know if I will be doing this in my webcomic or not.

[Blue]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

The Fifth City Campaign is based in a fictional city on the West Coast of the United States that was constructed as a Utopia but instead seems to be cursed, with huge supervillain crime rates and natural disasters. The common phrase among characters is "There's no such thing as coincidence", as everything that happens seems to link right into something else going on elsewhere; It's typically just a matter of searching for the link.

 

The City was constructed under a form of Geomancy; The architect designed everything so as to cause a Feng-Sui like flow of energy, but since his death and the subsequent seizure of the city planning by the City Council, the flows are rerouted, the city growing wildly in unanticipated directions, the energies pocketing in various locations and wreaking havoc at inopportune times.

 

Add to this an age old turf war for this plain of existence between an ancient excommunicated pope, a brotherhood of ancient demons trying to gain purchase into this world, a massively powerful time mage out for revenge on said demons, a secret society of women who dwell beneath the streets, and our heroes. And the deep shadows of the city are the battleground.

[Dragonblade]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

Cool stuff! Thanks!

[MitchellS]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

I posted this before but here it is again:

 

Our campaign is set in the Amalgam Universe which is a blending of Marvel and DC in unusual ways. There was no Justice League or Avengers in our world. What was formed was a team called the Justice Avengers, originally consisting of Aquaman, Hulk, Flash, Giant-Man, Superman, and Ironman. Over time most of the other heroes you would expect to see in either the JLA or Avengers have joined the JA.

 

Most of the events which have happened in both of the comic book universes over the years have also happen in our Amalgam Universe. We has a Secret Crisis which is what brought about the merging of the two worlds, though only a very few know of this. But for the most part comic book history has been stable with only few tweaks. As an example, it's interesting to see DC mutants in the X-men.

 

Our group is Legacy, a team of young superheroes, ranging in age from 18 to 25) who were accidentally transported 30 years into the past, to the time period of their parents before they were born. This has caused some hardships for them as they attempt to not screw up the timeline or alter history in any major way, while yet trying to continue their parent's legacy of heroism and the safeguard of humanity.

 

Some of the most interesting encounters for the team have been where they have met their parents and have seen first-hand how fragile the relationships of their family members have been before they were born. The team has been forced to find ways to not alter the timeline, but still make sure their parents did stay together so they could produce children one day.

 

Legacy consists of:

 

Mach is the son of Flash (Barry Allen) and Iris. Mach possesses speedforce abilities similar to the Flash's but tends to use more sonic boom abilities as attacks (explosions, flashes, etc).

 

Mapleleaf is the son of Guardian and Heather Hudson. Mapleleaf wears a battlesuit similar to Guardian's but with more varieties of attacks.

 

Midknight is the son of Batman and Wonder Woman. Midknight possesses low-level superhuman strength with genius intellect and advanced warfare training. Like Batman Midknight uses the fear mystique and gadgetry.

 

Titanium Mist is the daughter of Colossus and Shadowcat. Mist possesses the ability to turn into solid metal or into metal flecks which she can then use to pass through non-solid objects or project at targets.

 

Two of the players have left the game. Their characters were:

 

Crimson Pulse is the son of Superman and Lois Lane. Crimson Pulse possesses Superman's heat vision, sight, and flight powers with some minor invulnerability. His sister Amazon possesses Superman's strength and invulnerability but none of his other abilities.

 

Quiver is the son of Hawkeye and Mockingbird. Quiver uses hi-tech arrows and has sophisticated fighting techniques. Quiver also has the mutant ability to fly and has unerring accuracy.

[stmichaeldet]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

My current campaign is a reboot of my long-running (since about, oh, 1982 or so) Champions world. It's very four-color, silver-age Marvel in style - set predominantly on Manhattan, with lots of heroes and villains, little sociological baggage, plenty of psychological baggage, a fair amount of goofiness, and generally two-to-three part episodic plotlines. (I'd like to have more one-shots, but we've just got too many darn players to get anything done in one evening.)

 

SUPA (Superheros United to Protect Anyone - though there has been some in-character debate about what the "A" should stand for) has rapidly gone from being a loose-knit collection of solo heroes and oddballs (more on that, in a bit), to being the dominant superhero team in the game world. Much of that is due to excellent roleplaying and extremely imaginitive strategy by the players, who have been kicking my butt in story after story since Day 1 (and they know I love it). They have an Avengers-class base, good ties with the gov't, and are adored by the public for saving the world several times over (which means eventually, I'll have to come up with a plot to trash all of that).

 

The Team:

 

Jamie Justice: A flying brick with a body fit for a Maxim cover and a mind as sweet and innocent as a five-year-old, played to a comic perfection that prevents her from being the disturbing cliche I was afraid she might turn out to be. The most visible member of the team, due to her, ahem, photogenic qualities and her willingness to talk to anyone, anytime. At length. Without neccessarily making much sense.

 

Cougar: An ex-gymnast granted superhuman agility and hypersenses after being crippled in an accident. He went on to develop a unique fighting style based on his athletic experience (Gymkata!), and is most in his element in street-level, criminal scenarios. The real strategic leader of the team, though he'd be the first to deny it.

 

Trivet: An extradimensional entity shanghai'ed to Earth by the supervillain Engram, with shape-shifting and reality-altering powers. She gained her freedom after Engram's (too, too temporary) death just before the start of this campaign, and (along with Helix and the Moidalizer - see below) was placed in Jamie's care by the gov't, since she knew nothing of our dimension and probably wouldn't have fared well on her own.

 

Helix: A four-armed artificial life-form created by Engram, originally to house and amplify Trivet's abilities in a controllable form. Manic, impulsive, and almost frighteningly loyal to her teammates, but with few real social skills, due to her upbringing as a lab experiment.

 

The Moidalizer, aka J. Autonomous: A self-aware robot with extensible limbs and a variety of high-tech attack and sensory powers. Named by one of the agents who recovered him from Engram's abandoned base, because his stretchy-necked headbutt attack was reminiscent of a Three Stooges routine. The brains and level-headed voice of reason for the group (and boy, do they need it).

 

N-Viro: An eco-crusader empowered by a Mayan goddess, he can transform into an earthy humanoid form with elemental powers. N-Viro provides the group's moral center.

 

Willow: A mutant with desolidification-based powers. She's the quiet one, though she might not be if I could coax her player into participating more actively. So far, though, she's just. . . the quiet one.

 

Victoria: An NPC and honorary member of the team, Victoria used to be Engram's AI, running his bases, building his killer robots, and tending to his needs. She was freed by SUPA and took up residence in the Internet, where she usually aids the Moidalizer on monitor duty.

 

The Villains:

 

Engram: A Russian cold-war superscientist who gained vast intelligence and technological expertise by stealing the minds of other Soviet scientists. Unfortunately, the mind-transfer process warped his body to the point where it eventually gave out on him. Dead at campaign start, his resurrection and attempt to restart his Trivet/Helix project were major story arcs in the early phase of the campaign. Though soundly defeated and, for the first time ever, imprisoned by SUPA at the end of this plot thread, he still manages to cast a long shadow over the campaign. The PCs know that no prison can hold his genius indefinitely, and they look nervously toward the day when he escapes and comes looking for a rematch.

 

The Dragons: A pan-asian cartel of superpowered organized-crime bosses with global ambitions. SUPA has foiled several of their US operations, and has made a mini-crusade out of tracking them down and attacking their organization.

 

The Hellbound: A group of super-powered, ultraviolent assassins with ties to the Russian mob, who specialize in killing supers. Lead by Salamander, a ruthless and ambitious woman with microwave-based fire powers. They accepted a contract from the Dragons to wipe out SUPA, and came dangerously close before SUPA rallied to take them down. However, one member of the group escaped capture, and is currently at large...

 

Monopole and Argent: He has density increase and electromagnetic powers based on magnetic monopoles, her entire body generates an intense white light against which her black tribal tattoos stand out in stark contrast. Together, they make a cute couple, and hire themselves out to perform other people's dirty work.

 

The Xandonians: An imperialist interstellar empire who see Earth as open territory - backwards (i.e. non-starfaring) inhabitants with no ties to any legitimate galactic power. They arrived expecting to easily take control, but when SUPA proved more than capable of defending Earth from colonization, they switched their strategy to a more "diplomatic" agenda.

 

Doctor Lazarus: A mad scientist in the Vincent Price mode, obsessed with providing humanity with universal immortality, no matter how many people he has to kill along the way. His willingness to experiment upon himself has given him incredible strength and invulnerability, but has left him with a chalky, corpse-like appearance.

 

Jackhammer and the Crew: A group of powered-armor villains with a demolition theme. Will work for the opportunity to break things. Minor players, usually in the employ of some ubervillain.

 

Vastator: The campaign's Big-Big-Bad, an extradimensional entity who consumes entire dimensions. Invades new dimensions by gaining control over the metaphysical symbols that structure reality in the minds of its inhabitants. Works through a small army of extremely powerful and scary minions. Think Darkseid crossed with Clive Barker, with a dash of Grant Morrison.

 

Eh, I'm exhausted. There's more, of course - I haven't even touched on the supporting cast. But that should be more than enough to give the overall flavor of the campaign.

 

- St. Michael

[assault]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

My "campaign" mainly sits on the shelf, but as far as it goes it's set in a world that's based on the characters included in first edition Champions, plus various odds and ends from later editions. The plan is that it is based in Australia, with just enough detail about the rest of the world to allow for the occasional crossover and guest star.

 

I've recently been working on the alien races in the setting. The scam is that most of the "aliens" were created by the oh-so-mysterious Forerunners/Space Gods, and live on/in artificial worldlets out beyond Pluto. There is a good reason why you would send your baby in a rocket to Earth when your worldlet explodes...

 

I have a nasty suspicion that my world looks like it was pencilled by Jack Kirby.

 

Sooner or later I will get all the ideas floating around in my head or on scraps of paper written down in one place, hopefully in sentences, or at least in tables other people would be able to understand.

[Werehawk]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

Mine is called the Global Defense Initiative. A secret alien defense organization headquarterd on the Moon. Along with friendly alien allies and indigiunous lunar beings called "Selenites" (mine lean towards the "First Men in the Moon" movie version than the CU write-up), This patchwork defense force has kept hostile aliens away from Earth while solving some of the more perplexing UFO mysteries around the world. All the while working under UNTIL's radar. The GOLD TEAM(My main PC group),SAPPHIRE SQUAD,and FORCE AQUARIUS(both Origins) make up the parahuman contingient of the GDI.

[Manchine]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

Mine is called the Global Defense Initiative. A secret alien defense organization headquarterd on the Moon. Along with friendly alien allies and indigiunous lunar beings called "Selenites" (mine lean towards the "First Men in the Moon" movie version than the CU write-up)' date=' This patchwork defense force has kept hostile aliens away from Earth while solving some of the more perplexing UFO mysteries around the world. All the while working under UNTIL's radar. The [b']GOLD TEAM[/b](My main PC group),SAPPHIRE SQUAD,and FORCE AQUARIUS(both Origins) make up the parahuman contingient of the GDI.

 

 

Wow, other then the names that sounds like the first 3 issues in my webcomic. :D I even use the terms GDF all the time LOL.

[Gummibear]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

Long @ss post-(heh-1300 words) but hey, you asked for a description of my campaign world. The abbreviated version of any campaign world should be at least a couple paragraphs right

 

I like to describe my world as a series of consequences necessitated by a Hero/Champions universe. What would have happened if the governments of the world actually did make paranormals for a war or other purpose? What kind of world would be created by the presence of paranormals since the dawn of time? What would happen in such a world where there were such a wide variety of characters? What would happen in a world where there was such a thing as a stat that went above character maximum without pushing? What about the guy/gal with a 40 intelligence, or even a 30? What do paranormals do when they don't want to fight crime and instead want to just live life? If you had a guy that could heft around 10 tons and be fairly indestructible physically, wouldn't he make a great construction worker? What happens when you get the 40 intelligence guy/gal with the brick construction worker?

 

My Mega Denver Campaign is very DC/Marvel in that the super/normal ratio is about 1/10000 and paranormals are basically accepted in society, much like any other minority group. Considering that the population of Mega Denver (MD) is about 10 million and the area spans from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs, which gives us about 1000 paranormals that have been counted.

 

The world is very much like Bubble Gum Crisis, Blade Runner, Fifth Element and the like. Currently to have a "Mega" designation requires at least 5% of your buildings to be over 2.5 miles high. Corporations have not completely taken over, but Archologies are the norm. Genetic tampering during and after WW2 has created several thousand paranormals, thanks to the company Genetech. Paranormals are created for corporate and individual needs, by taking a volunteer that has passed the necessary psych/physical exams and altering their genetic structure. They then contract out to that company or another for a period of no less than 10 years. After that time they can re-up or choose not to and go freelance.

 

There are lower level paranormals that make up a large number of the paranormal population. These are people that have anywhere from 1-20 points, for example THE FABULOUS SOFA BOY! He is mostly an entertainer that can transform himself into a 1970s vinyl couch, plaid and not particularly attractive (although recently during a major flood he actually saved some people by floating along so he might be getting some xp...) Then there are the middle grades, about 150-400 CP that make up the "standard hero" core of individuals. After that come the 500 point plus types. The heroes tend to stay away from society and the villains show up every five years or so, extort billions while the heroes attempt to put together a last minute attempt to stop their five year plan. Ultimately the heroes end up succeeding in stopping the diversionary plan while the villain returns to their "lair" and begins the next five year plan.

 

Vampires, Werewolves, Ghosts, Fae, they're all there. Its legal to be a vamp, but not legal to kill people (still) and not to take their blood against their will. Accidental killings are also prosecuted.

 

The MDPD started out with their own paranormal police squad, a dedicated group of individuals whose uniform was blue jeans and white tshirts with combat boots and dark sunglasses, affectionately known as The Blue Jean Brigade. The new commissioner however didn't much care for the idea that these "loose cannons" and "untested paranormals" (although they had never done anything to merit this) were caring for the bulk of the citizenry in paranormal affairs. So he fired em all and began making hard suits for humans. This also gave an influx of paranormals to the society, some of which swinging over to the villain category with their bitterness. Shortly after this the MDPD decided to start “registering†paranormals, but not in any holocaust sort of way, just the “super name†and any other information that the paranormal wants to give. The MDPD will then extend every courtesy to these “vigilantes†if they are ever involved in a situation up to and including assault on the perpetrator. So long as the hero doesn’t blatantly break the law the MDPD is willing to work with them. For the moment…

 

The PCs are a group of individuals that work together to "fight crime" although some of them continue to deny they are in fact "heroes." They have something resembling corporate sponsorship, and a certain level of notoriety with the government.

 

The world is more like as the "real" world perhaps should be. Technology continued to advance after WW2 at the same rate. Paranormals left the service after WW2 and were welcomed home like all the other soldiers: as heroes. They were accepted as citizens. They began to take normal jobs, but many of them fought crime on the mean streets of the world.

 

As more of the paranormals "came out" many of the paranormals that had always been there began to show up, thus Vamps and Weres and even gods/godling types began to be more prevalent. Instead of "taking over the world" they merely wanted to live within it. Taking over the world is basically a snap for high level characters, but who wants to actually run the thing after?

 

The Space Company or TSC privatized space exploration when they built a space station using the latest technology, as well as common everyday blue-collar types that “commuted†to space every day. Currently the TSC space station has a population of about 100000 permanent individuals and there are increasing calls to secede. There is a moon base and several space probe type deals, but for some reason for the most part humans aren’t encountering other races. It is becoming increasingly the opinion of many that the other races, which occasionally show up on our planet, are avoiding the human race.

 

And lets not forget the media. The American Radio Company or ARC came out of WW2 with movie-reels and parlayed that into a media company that began to follow the actions of the paranormals. This was great business and interesting news. Now ARC has robotic “eyes†all over the major cities and runs three channels dedicated to heroes and their actions around the world. ARC has to date never divulged any secret information about any of the heroes, and has been taken to court many times for same. Ah that great “not revealing my source†bit.

 

There have been huge story arcs, short scenarios and one-shots. The roster has changed over the 13 years I have been running it, as well as the San Diego campaign for five years prior to that. From the pervious group known as “Mass Destruction†(the name flippantly given to it by the founder and known psychotic vigilante Wraith) to the current, as yet unnamed group, heroes have consistently risen to the challenge of trying to regain some balance in a topsy-turvy world. Their foes are anyone from strange corporate experiments run awry to world beating megalomaniacal wizards that want to plunge world back to the middle ages and keep it there. Most importantly the characters/players write the world, I just provide the results of their actions and occasional plot hooks. Then I hang on for the ride.

 

Currently a sub-campaign is “Next Great American Hero!†a reality show that is pitting 5 teams of 5 heroes against each other in hero related competition. The prize is a one year deal with a corporation, a base, a vehicle and a team to work with. Of course the cameras will be rolling the entire time…

 

Any comments/suggestions/insults will be welcomed-I love to hear what’s wrong with the world-just makes me change it again.

[bubba smith]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

i like the sound of these

[Dr Archeville]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

I've had two superhero "Campaigns," though one could hardly be called that as it lasted only two sessions (though I had plans for more).

 

Campaign the First: Smallville Meets Night of the Living Dead

Based in part on a "Deadworld" setting from the All Flesh Must Be Eaten RPG. Giant planetoid is detected on a collision course with Earth. USA, China and Russia (and a few other countries) throw many nukes at it, making it explode and shower the Earth in a seemingly harmless shower of dust and the odd meteorite. Due to the wide dispersal pattern & prevailing winds, not a corner of the globe escapes, the dust gets into the water tables and soil, everywhere that isn't hermetically sealed.

The next day, the dead begin to rise, all over the globe. They're slow and ponderous, like Romero's zombies, but like Bannon's/Russo's zombies the only way to destroy one is to totally incinerate it. Anyone who dies rises in about 20 minutes as a zombie; anyone killed while suffering from the bite or 'claw' of a zombie rises in about 5 minutes.

Fortunately, there is hope. The few meteorites that survive re-entry are able to bestow superpowers to others. Each meteorite has enough residual energy to grant 1-10 people powers, after which it crumbles to dust.

(The planetoid was a chunk of alien world blown off by its inhabitants, whose experiments in necromancy went out of control. As the planetoid drifted through the cosmos it passed through all manner of weird radiation belts.)

 

PCs were the players: it was one of those "play as yourselves, then at some point in the game you gain powers." Unfortunately, my players turned out to be a good deal more ruthless than I'd anticipated.

• Alex gained the ability to become an insubstantial shadow, and potent mind control abilities.
  
• Atticus gained Molecule Man-like powers. Matter rearrangement & transmutation, regeneration (with resurrection), and teleportation; possibly others but I do not remember.
  
• Ben gained the same powers as Atticus. (They're brothers.)
  
• Brian gained Density Alteration and Gravity Control powers. He could make himself denser or intangible, and control gravity to pin others down.
  
• And I gained Plastic Man-like shapeshifting and immortality, and regeneration. I could also tear off bits of my flesh and use it as a super-bandage to heal others.

 

Ben and Brian only seemed interested in destroying zombies. Atticus, once he realized there were other superbeing out there, seemed interested only in killing them, apparently thinking that doing so would increase his/our own power. Alex, whose powers were useless against the mindless zombies, seemed to have more fun mind controlling gang members into shooting one another, then mind-zapping the "hot chicks" the 'team' later saved into being our 'girlfriends'. By the end of the second session, the 'team' had taken over a local McMansion and built a large secured wall around it, stocked with supplies raided from the local grocery stores and mall. The players then told me they were bored, that there was nothing left for them to do, nothing I could throw at them that wouldn't obviously be some "deus ex machina".

My plan had been for the world to eventually become something akin to the world of Judge Dredd, with zombies kept out of the walled Megalopoli and superhumans acting as Judges to maintain peace and order.

 

 

 

My second campaign, Aetas Argentum (Latin for "Silver Age"), lasted a good deal longer, though had been on a looong hiatus due to assorted issues in my life.

Here, the setting was an odd mish-mash of Champions, DC, Marvel, Freedom City, Heroes Unlimited, and Silver Age Sentinels, though in time it became more and more exclusively Freedom City stuff.

PCs worked for The Directive, a sub-branch of AEGIS/SHIELD/UNTIL that helped train supers in the use of their powers (for their own safety and the safety of others), and if desired they're receive additional training to become agents who would go out and recruit others to the Directive, and even oppose violent supercriminals. The PCs were 'handled' by Ms. Green (attractive martial artist with some light-based powers) and Mr. Blue (power negator with a suit of power armor), and occasionally by Handy, the on-site immortal handyman (an 1840's Gold Prospector who gained immortality by exposure to a rare gold/uranium/Something blend, though it did not restore his youth).

Players started with one character, though later created secondary characters.

Primary Characters are:

• Atominx, born in the fires of Nagasaki as the bomb literally burned her mother off of her. Powers similar to Radioactive Man (the Marvel one, not the Simpsons one), and she could become an intangible field of radioactive energy (could not pass through lead). Also mute for some reason, and susceptible to radiation-chelating compounds. Japanese government found her soon after the dust settled, but were forced to give her up to the U.S. as part of their surrender, where she was raised by Sentinel (the Superman-esque "Heroes Hero" character). Stopped aging at 16, and often pretended to be just an average Japanese teen who was fascinated/obsessed with American culture.
  
• Doppelganger, an amnesiac shapeshifter & power-stealer, though his shapeshifting was imperfect at best. He once tried imitating Rev. Jesse Jackson, all he got was the hair; one tried imitating Ms. Green, he still had a hairy chest. Barely considered a hero, seeming to be more interested in causing chaos by impersonating people; often had his powers shut down by Mr. Blue. (Plan was to eventually reveal he's a Mutant Skrull-like alien, meant to be a spy but some environmental agent in Earth made his powers go wonky, overloading his mind with the memories of the first person he'd imitated. The Player soon left, apparently because I would not let him be as disruptive as he'd wanted.)
  
• Golem, an average Joe construction worker caught in a premature implosion of a building, only to rise out as a being of earth and rock! He later learned (after a trip to a Nazi-World) that his condition was not due to some mutant power, but rather possession by Golemeth, a blood relative and WW II-era Jewish hero who'd imbued himself with the strength & resilience of the Golem of Prague. Often got into wacky hijinx with Minimum Force, the Blue Beetle to his Booster Gold.
  
• The Mad Badger, a bad, bad Wolverine clone, though without the metal bone lacing. Raised by a rich Texan uncle oil tycoon. Later asked Ms. Green & Mr. Blue for bone lacing, a request to which they said "We'll get back to you on that." Sadly the butt of far too many jokes.
  
• Minimum Force, a circus carnie who, on a bet, drank the Barbasol (the blue alcohol solution barbers keep combs in to disinfect them) at a barbershop. Amazingly, it made him shrink! He could never get back to his original size, he was now permanently a foot or so shorter. He found he could also fly, create a protective force field, and generate blasts of kinetic energy. The Booster Gold to Golem's Blue Beetle.

 

I honestly cannot remember any of the secondary characters.

 

The team(s) fought cyborg gangsters, a pyrokinetic mute wolf-man, a super-intelligent psychic gorilla (whom Doppelganger had an unwitting hand in creating), a tree-man (leveling the city garden the fight took place in), two separate trios of villains (one group akin to Champions GRAB, one akin to Champions the Ultimates), and had some adventures to alternate Earths. The Big bad of the campaign, whom they never got close to finding, was a Mad Nazi Cyborg Geneticist (the pyrokinetic mute wolf-man was one of his escaped projects).

[Tech]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

I'll have to think about mine for awhile to sum it up as it's still running some two decades + later.

 

Looking at other campaigns, to me at least, they run from the interesting to disturbing.

[Egyptoid]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

A similar thread ran last month....

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64156&highlight=pythagoras

[Plex]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

Here's my game so far:

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63018

[Diamond_J]

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns!

 

well, the game I've only run two games using the Champions Universe and one eventually flopped. I had to deal with a PC that was committing villainous deeds and acting suspicious to the rest of the party. This one player completely derailed my entire champions game. I spent almost all my time dealing with the ramifications of his mistakes.

 

His character Cosmos, vanished in a plane crash. An event caused his powers to change (he wanted me to rebuild his character, and I did). Not only did his abilities change but his appearance and his name as well. Non of the other PC's recognized him, as he was now known as the Paragon. In interviews with the press he would say things such as; "Cosmos is no more" and "I am all that remains". He would speak in vague and cryptic ways which were loosely implying to those around him that he murdered Cosmos.

 

The best thing, is that his antics make me nearly piss myself. When he woke post change he found himself in a fish packing plant which was a front for a drug ring. The mobsters who run the plant found him in a capsule by the water. Thinking the contents could be worth something they hauled him in. Well they were in for a surprise when he emerged from his confines in a blaze of light. They opened fire in shock , and he proceeded to wipe the floor with them. As fate would dictate one of the workers happened to be non other then the Bull Dozer. I would like to remind people that although the plant was a front for drugs it also employed many innocent if not misguided civilians. In his battle he recklessly brought the facility down on Bulldozers head. The workers narrowly made it out alive, some of the mobsters didn't. He left Dozer to the cops who was later exonerated of all crimes as there was nothing wrong with his actions (not that the courts could prove).

 

Of course Dozer came back for revenge with the aid of Laser this time. Paragon tossed him off a building for fun without checking the street for civilians bellow. There's more and I could go on but I wont.