Retcon the CU

[Dominique]

Okay folks, if you were running the show, what changes would you make to the "official" history of the CU?

[Starlord]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

I'm sure everyone could make minor changes here and there. The major changes I'd make is to take out the whole 'magic is the cause of superpowers' thing. It's just too wonky for me. Also, the fact that all supers are gone in 15 years kinda puts a damper on long lasting story arcs.

[MitchellS]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

The CU history seems to be pretty standard for most comic book worlds. There's not much I would change outside of wishing there were far more details available to us about it. Waiting for CU material to come out is an arduous process [only 4 books next year ].

 

The magic source doesn't bother me because every superhero world has a similar type of catalyst as to why it is different from the real world. It doesn't matter whether it's magic, or a white event, or a singularity, or Tunguska. Every game uses something.

 

As far as it all ending in 2020, that does not bother me either because once each campaign starts in the CU the campaign deviates from the CU baseliine, in essence creating alternate dimensions. What happens in the future of CU-DOJ has little bearing on what will happen in CU-MitchellS.

[CBikle]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the "official" CU. I'd also do away with the whole magic-based rationale for supers.

 

 

 

I would have kept DEMON's original high tech/occult hybrid angle. Thought it made them interesting; now they just seem like a generic satanic cult.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

Kill the magic based rationale.

 

The lich is nowhere near the threat his is - he doesn't kill tens or hunderds of supers when he shows up.

 

Destroyer never got Detroit, so no millenium city.

 

Basically any point in the CU history where heroes died by the handful aren't there. Or if they are, it isn't a recurrring villian (like the Lich or Destroyer) it is some cosmic entity that never shows up again because he is defeated.

[Starlord]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

As far as it all ending in 2020' date=' that does not bother me either because once each campaign starts in the CU the campaign deviates from the CU baseliine, in essence creating alternate dimensions. What happens in the future of CU-DOJ has little bearing on what will happen in CU-MitchellS.[/quote']

 

 

Uhhh, obviously every campaign will change. The point of the thread is too tell us how you'd change it.

[Hermit]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

I actually like most of the CU, but I'd probably bring some of the more iron age "Killer" villains down a notch.

 

I'd nix the Registration act, save as a possible looming threat for GMs to use as a story hook.

 

I'd expand Nighthawk's origin so his reasons for fighting crime were clearer.

 

Not crazy about the magic waning and waxing being so intimately tied to the reason for superpowers coming about. I might go with alien intervention instead , sure, it's been done before (Wildcards etc) but with the Malvans and Mandaarians in the setting, I can see some fun interaction between a race that saw Earth as merely some mudball outpost to wage war on the Elder Wyrm from, and the more enlightened but less militarily powerful race seeking to guide covertly from the scenes.

 

There would be more female super heroes and villains wearing fishnets, then someone would point this out to me and i'd defensively claim I was corrupted by Black Canary and Zatanna at an impressionable age.

[McCoy]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

I'm sure everyone could make minor changes here and there. The major changes I'd make is to take out the whole 'magic is the cause of superpowers' thing. It's just too wonky for me.

 

The magic source doesn't bother me because every superhero world has a similar type of catalyst as to why it is different from the real world. It doesn't matter whether it's magic' date=' or a white event, or a singularity, or Tunguska. Every game uses something. [/quote']

Agree with Jeff T., respectfuly disagree with MitchellS. In my game world there is no single source for superpowers. In my world magic works, unpredictablly; aliens visit and sometime drop advanced tech; green glowing metiorites that started falling to Earth in 1920 sometimes can be used to give people super powers; and some people are just motivated to move themselves farther to the right of the bell curve that most people. No single source.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

I'd nix the Registration act, save as a possible looming threat for GMs to use as a story hook.

 

I'd expand Nighthawk's origin so his reasons for fighting crime were clearer.

 

 

Yeah, I'd nix that too. I didn't think of it, because I hate it so much, it is blocked from my mind.

[sinanju]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

From what little I know of the CU, I'd also ditch the "magic is the cause of superheroes" idea, as well as the notion that superheroes will disappear in the future. But since I've never run--and probably never will run--a game set in a standard pre-generated universe, the point is mostly moot.

[Guzalot]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

Along with most of the other posters here I've always hated the "magic is the basis of super powers & super science" thing. That was the first thing I discarded.

[MitchellS]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

Agree with Jeff T.' date=' respectfuly disagree with MitchellS. In my game world there is no single source for superpowers. In my world magic works, unpredictablly; aliens visit and sometime drop advanced tech; green glowing metiorites that started falling to Earth in 1920 sometimes can be used to give people super powers; and some people are just motivated to move themselves farther to the right of the bell curve that most people. No single source.[/quote']

What!?! How dare you disagree with me!!! A pox upon you and your house.

 

It honesty doesn't bother me because it's just a story-point and nothing else. It has no real meaning within the game itself. A mage cannot stop you from using your powers just because he's a mage. The whole magic thing is really just a paper tiger. It's just a way of explaining why superhumans exist and has no bearing beyond that. Would you have liked it better of DoJ had said the Gods Celestial created super-humanity? Would it have made any difference to anything? To me no.

[OddHat]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

The waning and waxing of Magic is gone in my partially CU sourced campaign, as is the idea that Supers today are more powerful than the Supers of previous generations (though they are more common). I use a mix of Alien Tech, hidden Atlantean-era technology and Wildcards style Psi-Tech for Supertech, which I re-term "Mad Science". The ultimate origins of powers are more varied and form a plot point. Super-Demographics are tweaked to give the world outside of the USA proportionate numbers of Supers, and politics worldwide are adjusted in the ways I feel they'd need to be in order to let the world keep functioning with a metahuman population.

 

So, um, it only vaguely resembles the CU, and that only to make things easier for my players.

[MitchellS]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

as is the idea that Supers today are more powerful than the Supers of previous generations (though they are more common).

Yeah, I found that to be a very strange design choice as well. I never envisioned any silver age character as being weaker then it's current counterpart; I, in fact, always envisioned the opposite. Granted I'm not talking about the heroes who grew up over the years like Spider-man or the X-Men but those 1960s and 1970s Avengers and JLA characters really kicked some serious butt. There's no one that can tell me that Kyle was always more powerful then Hal just because of the era involved.

[assault]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

Would you have liked it better of DoJ had said the Gods Celestial created super-humanity? Would it have made any difference to anything? To me no.

 

This is one of the key points in my CU. The Forerunners left Earth and the rest of the solar system littered with little enclaves of superbeings. In particular, the "Trans-Plutonian Worldlets" are the primary origin of the various "aliens" that periodically visit Earth. Furthermore, the ability of humans to exhibit mutations, or benefit from radiation accidents is probably due to Forerunner meddling.

 

So the Forerunners are probably the primary source of superpowers, but certainly aren't the only one. Nor is it especially likely that any players would ever find out that they even existed in my game. (I suppose they might if I ever thought of an appropriate plotline).

 

My super-Demographics vary radically from those of the CU, too. Supers are much rarer. Or at least they are more heavily concentrated in specific areas - the "little enclaves of superbeings" I referred to above - and rarely encountered outside them.

 

Of course, since my universe hasn't been published, I have the freedom to vary the above guidelines according to my mood.

 

That's probably the real difference between my CU and the official one!

[MitchellS]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

So the Forerunners are probably the primary source of superpowers' date=' but certainly aren't the only one. Nor is it especially likely that any players would ever find out that they even existed in my game. (I suppose they might if I ever thought of an appropriate plotline).[/quote']

Sure. As I said above, virtually every super-world uses a gimmick. The fact is that most people will never know that magic is the reason superhumans are running around in the CU either. As with your Forerunners it's just a back-story which has no significance. You might eventually run a scenario where a Forerunner shows up, and someone might run a CU aventure where some crazed villain decides to try and cap the magic pool, but for the most part that is all the magic or Forerunner theme is ever going to be used for in most people's games.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

Like so many others: ditch the "magic accounts for superpowers and supertech" idea.

 

Get rid of the "supers will go away circa 2020".

 

Get rid of the Registration Act except as something on the horizon that the PCs should start worrying about now.

 

 

I don't have any one source of superpowers in any of my campaigns...I've used pretty much every one there's ever been, at one point or another.

 

Why are there waxing and waning in the numbers and types of superhumans? Why do they become nothing but myth for centuries or milennia, and then turn out again in amazing numbers? Who knows. There are many theories, including that at certain times the collective subconcious of humanity simply cries out in so much despair that this forces the appearance of godlike power personified, giving people something to believe in again, a source of hope...but since this power is manifested through imperfect humans, some give in to the urge to use the power for evil instead. When the time of great social/historical stress has smoothed out, when tensions have eased...the collective unconcious breaths a sigh of relief, and superbeings gradulally fade away, with fewer new ones coming on the scene than there are older ones leaving, until they're just a memory again.

 

But that's never been proven, and is simply one possible explaination of many.

[Chuckg]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Dr. Anomaly again."

[Metaphysician]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Dr. Anomaly again."

 

Ditto

[MitchellS]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

Personally I like the Registration Act. It's about the only thing in the CU that isn't directly copied from the comics. Finally something that actually takes it one step farther. The precedent-setting things we should embrace as a true step forward in game universe evolution. There's too much in the CU that is just status quo, IMO.

[Chuckg]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

Personally I like the Registration Act. It's about the only thing in the CU that isn't directly copied from the comics. Finally something that actually takes it one step farther.

 

Actually, the Registration Act /was/ taken straight from the comics -- from the original "Nightmares of Future Past", back in Claremont's peak on UNCANNY X-MEN, to be precise. The diff is, the CU didn't take it quite as far as Claremont did.

[MitchellS]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

Actually' date=' the Registration Act /was/ taken straight from the comics -- from the original "Nightmares of Future Past", back in Claremont's peak on UNCANNY X-MEN, to be precise. The diff is, the CU didn't take it [i']quite as far[/i] as Claremont did.

Yes, I know it comes from the alternate reality MU. My point is that in the CU they have had a Registration Act for 20+ years but the story is that it will never pass. Now it's passed. Finally something different. There's not enough different in the CU, IMO.

[Chuckg]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

Eh, it passed in Rachel's home timeline, too. That was the entire /point/...

[assault]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

Sure. As I said above' date=' virtually every super-world uses a gimmick. The fact is that most people will never know that magic is the reason superhumans are running around in the CU either. As with your Forerunners it's just a back-story which has no significance.[/quote']

 

The other aspect of my back-story is that it's very recent. In fact, it's really more an idea for an alternative Kirby-esque setting than an integral part of my "main" world.

 

Traditionally I didn't have a back-story at all.

 

Come to think of it, while I've whiled away many hours writing timelines, I've never actually used one of those in a campaign either.

 

For what it's worth, my current timeline pretty much goes:

Way back when: Forerunners visit.

~1530s First Phantom homage begins career.

1930s First known superheroes (Phantom homage, Mandrake homage...)

~1954 Golden Age sputters out.

Probably some kind of Silver Age.

Late 70s Bronze Age starts.

80s Peak of Bronze Age.

Early 90s Bronze Age tapers off.

Early 00s Supers start to build up again.

 

Obviously it's short on details, but I've never quite been happy with any set of them that I've put together.

 

The 80s Bronze Age heyday corresponds to the last time I was regularly playing Champions, of course.

 

I gave the Bronze Age a few years before that to allow for various NPCs to establish themselves.

 

The biggest problems are that I don't really have a Silver Age, or a reason why the Bronze Age tapered off.

 

EDIT: I've never considered having a Registration Act. I have considered banning "Mutant" as an origin.

[MitchellS]

Re: Retcon the CU

 

Eh' date=' it passed in Rachel's home timeline, too. That was the entire /point/...[/quote']

And if I were playing in an alternate universe MU it would matter.