Jkeown Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 .. We're taking a break form FH for a bit, and decided on Champions instead of Pulp Hero! Here's the thing: they are making Competent Normals, then I'm springing their Origin on them in the first episode. A super-powered fight will spill over into their normal lives and chaos will ensue. They do not know I'm doing this. They think it's just 50 pointers in a Super-Powered World. Anyone ever done this? Should I seek professional help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 Re: I know SOMEONE has done this... Well, depends on your players. If they expect one sort of campaign and get another, they might be a bit stunned, but if you think theyre cool with that, then the idea strikes me as very in keeping with classic comic books where powers are thrust suddenly upon folks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnTaber Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 Re: I know SOMEONE has done this... I've done something kinda similar... I once started a post-holocost/sleeper/Morrow Project Heroic style game where at the end of the first session the PC get thrown through time. The campaign actually has this group of characters acting in a sort of Sliders/Time Bandits campaign. I think it flew in my case for a couple of reasons...you may want to do something similar... I let the players do slight rewrites based on the new campaign. This included changing some disads to ones that would be common to all of the players. For example, they would all get a new hunted. This allowed players to correct post-holocaust hunteds and disads with this new one. I also was nice if players had skills that may not be so useful. For example, the area knowledge guy was given the option of easing off on some of his skills. I happen to have AWESOME players and he did not take that option but I gave it. Also since my game was not changing from Heroic to Super Heroic most of the PC only slightly changes. That made things a bit easier to handle. The bulk of the points were exactly the same. I would also consider immediately discussing the situation with the players at the end of the game. Straight out ask them if this is acceptible. Some players LOVE Heroic style play but are not that into Supers. Just some thoughts...good luck...sounds fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austenandrews Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 Re: I know SOMEONE has done this... I would also consider immediately discussing the situation with the players at the end of the game. Straight out ask them if this is acceptible. Some players LOVE Heroic style play but are not that into Supers. Right. Or a player might have created a totally different character for a supers game. I often create heroic characters with the purpose in mind of exploring alternatives to combat, or disbelieving/marveling at whatever strangeness the game world provides. In the first case, being handed a bunch of powers would undermine the whole reason I chose that personality. Likewise in the second case, when strangeness appears in great quantity right off the bat, my character's schtick is pulled out from under him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdamnhero Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 Re: I know SOMEONE has done this... Actually, I did something like this just recently. Except in my case, the players knew what was coming. The PCs started out as competent normals with few-if-any combat skills. They played the first adventure as normals, and then had the Proverbial Radiation Accident that gave them all superpowers. Turned out pretty well, and the players all seemed to enjoy it. The big advantage as I see it was that it gave the players a chance to develop their “civilian†personas before they put on the capes & tights; the characters were people-who-became-superheroes, rather than superheroes-who-have-secret-identities. As I said, the players knew it was coming and had already drawn up super-powered versions of themselves. I think I’d be a little leery of just assigning superpowers to them on my own estimation. Another consideration: since your characters will be just starting out as superheroes, you may find it difficult to come up with 150-points worth of Disads. (They’re probably not Hunted by Dr. Destroyer yet!) Our solution was to write up their super-versions as low-powered 150+100 superheroes, under the premise that they were still figuring out how to use their powers. Then for the first few adventures, I handed out XP at a greatly accelerated rate and let them take points for Hunteds they developed in-game. Once they got up to the standard 200+150 level, XP and Disads were handled as normal. bigdamnhero "Life is like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put into it." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schir1964 Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 Re: I know SOMEONE has done this... .. We're taking a break form FH for a bit, and decided on Champions instead of Pulp Hero! Here's the thing: they are making Competent Normals, then I'm springing their Origin on them in the first episode. A super-powered fight will spill over into their normal lives and chaos will ensue. They do not know I'm doing this. They think it's just 50 pointers in a Super-Powered World. Anyone ever done this? Should I seek professional help? This is similar to what I call a "Genesis Scenario". I've actually created a sample "Genesis Setting" called the "Crystal Room" with which a GM can allow the normals to be changed into supers by an "event". I can email the documentation to you for your perusal and as a source of ideas. Just email me at schir1964@netzero.com if you are interested. - Christopher Mullins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh Neilson Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 Re: I know SOMEONE has done this... Another consideration: since your characters will be just starting out as superheroes' date=' you may find it difficult to come up with 150-points worth of Disads. (They’re probably not Hunted by Dr. Destroyer yet!) Our solution was to write up their super-versions as low-powered 150+100 superheroes, under the premise that they were still figuring out how to use their powers. Then for the first few adventures, I handed out XP at a greatly accelerated rate and let them take points for Hunteds they developed in-game. Once they got up to the standard 200+150 level, XP and Disads were handled as normal. [/quote'] I'd be inclined to use Mystery hunteds and have them come out in-game. Their powers may provide for some Vulnerabilities, Susceptibilities, Physical Limitations, etc. It should be practical to add disadvantages to bring them up to 150. I'd let the players have some involvement in the "power up" process, both in the nature of their powers and especially in the disadvantages added. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdamnhero Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 Re: I know SOMEONE has done this... I'd be inclined to use Mystery hunteds and have them come out in-game. Right, essentially a different way of doing the same thing. In my case, the driving force was having them start out low-powered and quickly (>_ 20 pts per session) learn how to use their powers more effectively. So initially they might just have one EB, one movement power and one FF/armor, but they soon figure out other ways to use . bigdamnhero “I've never been this near to a woman before. It makes me want to do something. I don't know what it is, but whatever it is I want to do a lot of it!†Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterBaldy Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 Re: I know SOMEONE has done this... .. We're taking a break form FH for a bit, and decided on Champions instead of Pulp Hero! Here's the thing: they are making Competent Normals, then I'm springing their Origin on them in the first episode. A super-powered fight will spill over into their normal lives and chaos will ensue. They do not know I'm doing this. They think it's just 50 pointers in a Super-Powered World. Anyone ever done this? Should I seek professional help? Fantastic Four anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
concord Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 Re: I know SOMEONE has done this... Did this back in 4th edition... took a bunch of competant normals and morphed them into low powered paranormals... they were hired to be the security team for a high tech company and got caught in a "radiation accident" during an attack on the facility... Each character was built to fulfill a roll on the team... the players were aware that their characters would change... but not how... I picked their paranormal abilities... the close combat specialist became a psuedo-brick... the ranged combat specialist an energy blaster... the investigator type gained invisibility... the jack-of-all trades gained five overall skills levels... the former paranormal who had lost his abilities regained his ability to teleport... Disads came from the disads of their employers... the company worked on the high tech superprison so it had a few paranormal enemies... The one thing that I would suggest, unless you know for sure that the players would not be upset with a campaign switcheroo, is discuss the campaign premise with the players before hand... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.