JimLotFP Posted March 6, 2007 Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 'allo! The idea of my upcoming HERO game is that it will be a dark, perhaps a bit dreary, mix of urban fantasy and horror and four-color superheroics. The PCs will be the first people with superpowers on Earth (... not for long, obviously...), driven to act but needing to operate in secrecy because the world at large will not accept super-beings. The game will not have a nihilistic or fatalistic tone, as frequent and total success will always be possible in any given scenario. I just like the ideas of heroes being largely on their own and I got a lot of inspiration from reading ideas intended for the Unknown Armies game, hehe. But anyway, none of the players have played HERO before. I don't think there is a problem playing the system, but character creation is indeed a complicated mess with all the options. My idea is to send a questionnaire to all the players to fill out about their character... and then I'll do the actual writeup, then we'll hash out details. Players will be able to borrow my Sidekicks (I bought four, still waiting on one more, plus I have the Big Bulletproof Book). And after a few sessions of play to see how everything really works, they'll of course be allowed to retool their characters. What I want is advice on the questionnaire. All the campaign premises should be addressed within, so I want some feedback as to how good you think the questions are, if the premise behind the campaign is clearly communicated through the questions, and especially what questions should be added! Thanks in advance... THE QUESTIONS All of the characters are going to be 17-18 year olds from outside North America who are going to study at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. These questions are to be answered from the point of view of your character before he leaves home. What country is your character from? Why does your character decide to study in the United States? What is your character going to be studying at Georgia Tech? What does your character want to do after he graduates? How is your character paying for school? What kinds of hobbies or interests does your character have? What is the most remarkable achievement in your character's life so far? What is the most traumatic experience your character's life so far? What would be the first impression a stranger has when meeting your character? What is your character's name? These questions from the point of view your character had after beginning studies but before gaining super powers - about two months' time. What does your character do when not studying? What people has your character made friends with? What is the biggest problem your character has with the American culture? These questions deal with your character discovering his super powers - out of nowhere!- and how he's adapted to them in the two months after discovering them. Why do you think your character has gained super powers? How does your character feel about being one of the first half-dozen people on Earth to ever get super powers? Describe, in one or two sentences, what your character's super powers are in general terms. Describe, in as much detail as you can stand, all the things your character has already tried with his super powers. Describe what your character's powers can't do, that one might assume they would do from the basic description you gave. Come up with a reason why it would be unthinkable for your character to tell his family about what has happened to him. How has having powers changed your character's personality or day-to-day habits? Ever since gaining powers, your character has noticed that many more "odd" things happen in his life. It might be related to gaining superpowers, or it might just be coincidences that are noticed just because your character is a bit sensitive to "unusual" happenings. They're not supernatural happenings, they're just a bit weird. Describe what some of these odd coincidences might be, and what your character thinks about them. Besides all your characters, there was one other person in "your group" who gained super powers... and he decided to act like a classic comic book super-hero, and was shot dead by frightened agents as he tried to stop a plot happening during the Governor's speech and his "abilities" became a target of public anxiety as police authorities called them new "terrorist tactics" until "official sources" "proved" the incident was simply a distraction away from the terrorist plot against the governor. Your first action as a "super team" was finding and capturing the real culprit, who had gotten away after his plan had been ruined by your friend. What did your character want to do with this criminal after he was captured? How does your character feel about the authorities assuming that super powers are a threat? What does your character do to hide the fact that he has super powers? The weird coincidences continue - your character knows he won't have the option to just ignore his super powers. How does your character feel about being forced to be "important" in the world now? What changes has he made in his daily life because of this realization? What is your character's "code name"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pschic Avenger Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 Re: Need help setting up my HERO campaign! I can see you have put alot of time into your idea.And the questions are good.I would want the players to tell you the type of Character they want to play.Also you may want to list the Powers that do not work for your setting.also i would ask what are your characters Goals for the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spidey88 Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 Re: Need help setting up my HERO campaign! That's a pretty good set of questions - the only thing that comes to mind might be to define the incident with the "dead friend/capturing the real culprit" business a little more concretely. Probably hard to do without having a better idea what your PCs are capable of; but it seems like such a significant, galvanizing event should be a little better defined before play starts. I expect how the PCs deal with this event would affect their whole worldview, at least to start - and consequently, their responses to the questions you've posted about it. My two cents - but it sounds like you've got some good ideas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 Re: Need help setting up my HERO campaign! Here's a quicky that occured to me as I was reading: Your character is presented with a situation where his or her powers seem to be totally inapplicable. How does he or she deal with this? (Looking for Power Skill, Multipowers and other frameworks, variable SFX, general player vision and character personality, etc.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLotFP Posted March 8, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 Re: Need help setting up my HERO campaign! I don't want to restrict any of their powers or ideas. I want them to define their powers freeform from their imagination. If somebody wants to make something beyond the pale, well, HERO is good for answering challenges. And they'll still only get the 200 + 150 to start with, hehe. Hopefully they'll get the hint that BIG AND FLASHY might be problematic, and subtle and mysterious might work better. I'll spell that out for them. But I haven't played or run HERO in over ten years and I also don't want to set arbitrary limitations... we'll all jump off the cliff of bad ideas together. As far as dealing with the capture of the "real culprit"... I want the "team" to be established before play begins (so we can get right into a real plot instead of going through the motions of "how they got together" when we already know they are together)... and by having this be a background event, their answers can indicate what tone they want to campaign to have before I plan anything so their wishes can be taken into account. If they all answer the same thing as far as how they dealt with him, that's easy. If not, well, they need to work that out amongst themselves first and then I will proceed based on the game they want and expect to be playing. I can do Mystery Men, I can do Cannibal Holocaust in tights... and anything in between. "Your character is presented with a situation where his or her powers seem to be totally inapplicable. How does he or she deal with this?" That's good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pschic Avenger Posted March 10, 2007 Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 Re: Need help setting up my HERO campaign! Looking at your last set of questions Besides all your characters, there was one other person in "your group" who gained super powers... and he decided to act like a classic comic book super-hero, and was shot dead by frightened agents as he tried to stop a plot happening during the Governor's speech and his "abilities" became a target of public anxiety as police authorities called them new "terrorist tactics" until "official sources" "proved" the incident was simply a distraction away from the terrorist plot against the governor. Your first action as a "super team" was finding and capturing the real culprit, who had gotten away after his plan had been ruined by your friend. My question would be Do the Agents still find the Characters a Threat.And does the public still have Anxieties over the Possibilities of Super Humans.But Again it sounds like you have things well planned out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLotFP Posted March 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 Re: Need help setting up my HERO campaign! My question would be Do the Agents still find the Characters a Threat.And does the public still have Anxieties over the Possibilities of Super Humans.But Again it sounds like you have things well planned out Ah, clarification needed. The government doesn't know about the remaining PCs. Of course they know that there it isn't likely that there is just ONE superpowered person in the world, but the official stance is to deny that there were ever any real ones. So real superpowers becomes the domain of "conspiracy theorists" and such, like UFOs. Because the first public experience (until it was denied) of superpowers was part of a "terrorist" action, of course they don't like it. And of course as the campaign moves along, there are going to be a ton more bad guys than good guys, so even after their existence becomes irrefutable, good luck getting the public to be OK with it. Government control and regulation and experimentation etc etc etc. The "mutant menace" of 80s X-Men and the attitudes in Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns would be my inspiration for public and official attitudes once things are exposed, although if the PCs are smart they'll get more of a Spider-Man reaction (grassroots support and recognition even if all the publicity is bad). The public admiration of the good guys found in the comics (not that I've read any new superhero stories in the past decade or so aside from Rising Stars) wouldn't happen in this world because there is no history of good guys fighting normal criminals (like early Superman, Batman, etc) or patriotic sentiment behind them (like the early Marvel heroes like Captain America) nor respected public figures who are transformed (like the Fantastic Four) in this world. I think silver-age Marvel was in some ways brilliant with this, as groups like the FF and Avengers were obviously good guys and seen as such, but from an official standpoint Spider-Man and X-Men were not so obviously different from the menaces they fought... and thus was their public image. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pschic Avenger Posted March 10, 2007 Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 Re: Need help setting up my HERO campaign! As I said it sounds like you have it well thought out and I believe you are ready to get your players involved Have Fun...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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