Pentoth Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 I am creating a setting where 25 years ago an alien invasion force attacked the earth and was repelled by the collective might of the planet's super hero and villains population. Within three days of the alien withdrawal all the population with powers dies. I have chalked this up to a "gene" bomb that attacks the genes responsible for their powers killing them. 20 years later I am having a return of the heroes as the damage is now done and the supers can return. My problem is this. My intent is that ALL heroes vanish for 20 years. How do I get rid of the non powered heroes? Do I just kill them all in the final battle with the aliens??? I am not sure. Do I just say their was none? Do I say they continued briefly after and whatever it was that made them special was gone so they would. Break their hands when they threw punches/got shot more and stuff like that? What makes the most sense to everyone? I appreciate any help possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lxndr Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Please help me with new game setting Perhaps there were no non-powered heroes. This seems suggested by your gene-bomb: there's a unified origin for 'supers' and it's genetics, mutation. No tech heroes, etc. A few costumed vigilantes here and there, sure, but once all the superpowered people go away, they'll be few and far between. That said... once the super-powered heroes are gone, why wouldn't there be batman-type vigilantes in the meantime, people trying to "fill the gap" even though there's no way they could, since they have no powers. Second-raters, etc. These guys might be pretty ticked when the powers (and the superpowered people) come back, since in the 20 intervening years, they'd be the ***** of the walk, so to speak. There's nothing I can think of to stop people from trying to be heroes. Get rid of the powers, and you'll probably still have costumed vigilantes Batman-style (even if the original ones are all killed in battle, people are going to keep trying). Is there any particular reason you need them gone too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Hiemforth Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Please help me with new game setting That said... once the super-powered heroes are gone, why wouldn't there be batman-type vigilantes in the meantime, people trying to "fill the gap" even though there's no way they could, since they have no powers. Second-raters, etc. These guys might be pretty ticked when the powers (and the superpowered people) come back, since in the 20 intervening years, they'd be the ***** of the walk, so to speak. There's nothing I can think of to stop people from trying to be heroes. Get rid of the powers, and you'll probably still have costumed vigilantes Batman-style (even if the original ones are all killed in battle, people are going to keep trying). Is there any particular reason you need them gone too? Or, for a slightly less antagonistic take on this, maybe there were no non-powered vigilantes or high-tech types in the earlier era, but now, as the new era approaches, some of those types are the earliest to emerge. In other words, there was no Batman or Iron Man 20 years ago. When the superheroes died, all the caped types were gone. But recently (maybe just in the last couple of years), some Batman and Iron-Man types started filling the gap. As "true" superpowers return, they'll join the "normals" as the new heroes. This would allow the training & science archetypes to exist now without existing in the backstory, but without there necessarily being animosity between them and the supers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpira Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Please help me with new game setting Well, just off the top of my head. Get the government involved. If all the supers died and we have reason to believe that the aliens are involved, the government would go into overdrive. The only thing that worked the last time was our supers and now we are pretty much defenseless. Someone would review footage and point out that The Watchman had no poweres but he held his own and that Warmonger seems to have an advanced suit of armor but no evidence of powers at all. We need to prepare. Odds are that they did not drop the gene bomb just to be petty. We need to research the effects of the gene bomb, find out why the aliens have not immediately returned and we need to be ready to kick their butt when they return (or even send a force there to show them that they should not have us as enemies) All the capes get recruited (some refuse but I believe that the government allows heroes to operate and could find all types of info about them if they really wanted to.) They get crazy organized, anything that distracts from this project, like a crimelord whom gets his hands on a nuclear bomb, gets stepped on hard. The world is close to how we see it today. Some children believe that capes and powers were a myth propagated by the government. Uberman never really existed. Then the news has a late breaking story. It seems that a 747 was saved today by an unknown man whom seemed to have phenomenal strength and can fly under his own power. They have footage. Somewhere, a man that had devoted his life to training his mind and body to peak levels stops filling out paperwork regarding tomorrows duty rosters and looks up at his tv screen. His aide sees something on the old man's face that he had never seen before. A smile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenn Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Please help me with new game setting I see a more fundamental problem. I'm an alien invader. My alien technology is more than a match for you puny terrans. Except you have these freaky super powered parahumans which can match us and drive us away. But we have a weapon that will destroy the parahumans. So we deploy it after we leave? Or set it up, so it will go off after we leave? Maybe the extra time is needed for the weapon to be fully armed. So why don't we come back next week? Or maybe next month or next year depending on how long it takes to replenish our forces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Hiemforth Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Please help me with new game setting I see a more fundamental problem. I'm an alien invader. My alien technology is more than a match for you puny terrans. Except you have these freaky super powered parahumans which can match us and drive us away. But we have a weapon that will destroy the parahumans. So we deploy it after we leave? Or set it up, so it will go off after we leave? Maybe the extra time is needed for the weapon to be fully armed. So why don't we come back next week? Or maybe next month or next year depending on how long it takes to replenish our forces. Maybe the gene bomb wasn't deployed by the aliens, but instead was deployed by someone on Earth as a means of defeating the aliens. The fact that superhumans lost their powers was just an unanticipated side-effect... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpira Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Please help me with new game setting Pretty much my line of reasoning when I wrote 'why have the aliens not immediately returned.' But since this was probably going to be a big part of the campaign and was not mentioned I assumed that he knew the real reason behind this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoresLost Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Please help me with new game setting Maybe the gene bomb wasn't deployed by the aliens' date=' but instead was deployed by someone on Earth as a means of [b']defeating[/b] the aliens. The fact that superhumans lost their powers was just an unanticipated side-effect... OR the result of a 'Lex Luthor' type villain or group who thought of getting rid of both adversaries at once... Protecting himself/themselves and a few key hench-people from the effect of the weapon and pulling strings to gain power secretly, controlling much of business transactions, politicians and governments in the 'time without supers', and they are not happy about this sudden change... edited my supper. Thank you St Grimblefig for showing me the light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StGrimblefig Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Please help me with new game setting OR the result of a 'Lex Luthor' type villain or group who thought of getting rid of both adversaries at once... Protecting himself/themselves and a few key hench-people from the effect of the weapon and pulling strings to gain power secretly' date=' controlling much of business transactions, politicians and governments in the 'time without suppers', and they are not happy about this sudden change... [/quote'] So this weapon also destroyed all food above a certain portion size? The fiend! ('lunch-sized' meals are usually smaller than their 'supper-sized' counterparts, so in a 'time without suppers' ... ) sorry. couldn't resist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Please help me with new game setting ..Within three days of the alien withdrawal all the population with powers dies.....20 years later I am having a return of the heroes as the damage is now done and the supers can return. So, they died but now they've come back? Man, that's gonna tick off a lot of religions. Expect some folks to insist they're devils in disguise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
incrdbil Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Please help me with new game setting Well, when supervillains go away, its not that much fun being a super-hero, so even the non powered heroes faded away. You coudl say the hi-tech heroes went away because the ability to make such technology so far in advance was due to advanaced mentality that was affected by the gene bomb. There need be no hard and fast rule, or you could say to be able to craft superhero class technology, you need science skills normals just can't learn, or place an INT requirement above normal human max, and right now no one fits that bill. You maybe had a few street level vigilantes left, but they eventually gave up, or grew old and hand no successors, as their sources of helpful gadgets dried up and they had to make do with normal technology. Less bulletproof spandex means more dead street level fighters. Meanwhile, the main tech breakthroughs of the last few decades have come from the few bits of leftover 'super' technology that were able to be figured out and duplicated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alverant Posted July 1, 2006 Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 Re: Please help me with new game setting There could also be a psychological reason. After all the supers died in the attack, the idea of running around in tights didn't have as much appeal. Maybe the non-powered heroes and villains went back to a Pulp style existance of staying out of the spotlight and sticking to the shadows. I like the idea of a 3rd unknown party using the bomb if the bomb affects alien and super alike. I'm an alien, the invasion is going well. The earthers use a willingly use a weapon on us that also kills their best defenders. You know, I think we should avoid these nuts in the future and return after they've killed themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaxiMan Posted July 1, 2006 Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 Re: Please help me with new game setting Who says the aliens ever really left? Sure, most were publicly defeated and the gene bomb was their too-obvious-to-be-covered up 'final' act, but ... why couldn't there be some undercover aliens left behind to scout this difficult planet & prepare for the next wave? History could show that non-powered supers did survive for a short while, but a rash of accidents took them all out quickly. It wasn't noticeable because those few remaining heroes were tackling loads more than normal (there was a serious shortage of heroes after all). But some hard-nosed investigation and a bent for believing in conspiracies will reveal that their deaths weren't accidents at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pentoth Posted July 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 Re: Please help me with new game setting I would like to thank everyone who have answered. The aliens are not gone however people think they are. The armada will be returning to Earth however they are waiting for backup from homeworld. No one knows what happened to the supers... Not even the aliens. That's why they are standing back. Trying to study what happened. I know the real reason I just can't say because my players are known to frequent the board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Johnston Posted July 2, 2006 Report Share Posted July 2, 2006 Re: Please help me with new game setting ALL heroes vanish for 20 years. How do I get rid of the non powered heroes? Do I just kill them all in the final battle with the aliens??? I am not sure. Do I just say their was none? Do I say they continued briefly after and whatever it was that made them special was gone so they would. Break their hands when they threw punches/got shot more and stuff like that? What makes the most sense to everyone? I appreciate any help possible. You definitely should not choose the last option. That means they weren't really non-powered heroes at all. The easiest approach is to say that there just weren't any. If you don't want to close off the avenue then there are two basic kinds of powered hero. The guys who are just real good at fightin' and the guys who have magic technology that makes them the equal of a powered guy. In the modern era, guys who are just good at fighting are not so common and in an all out no-holds barred war against advanced aliens, heavy casualities are not so unreasonable and succeeding guys who are really good at fighting may not decide to put on costumes now that most of the people who used to wear them aren't there to emulate any more. As for the guys like Iron Man or Star Man, maybe their gizmos just stopped working. Or maybe they all got rounded up by a secret agency and recruited to prepare for the next invasion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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