Azimer the Mad Posted July 18, 2003 Report Share Posted July 18, 2003 Hey everybody. Been lurking for awhile, but just signed up since everyone here seems cool to talk to. I'm having trouble with a phenomenon that usually doesn't pop up in the comics much. My group of 4 PCs have all gained children, whether through natural processes, adopting, or building them. There aren't many mainstream comics aside from the FF that have prominent kid characters, and I don't read any books that have multiple teenagers per family (one PC has 5!) I'm especially puzzled by what to do with one PC's children. SHe's, paradoxily, 18 years old and team leader. She's recently admitted to having a robot child on live TV. RObot as in silvery android in 16 looking body with emotional maturity level between 6-12 made from her and her boyfriend's brain patterns. I'm wondering how the media and nation would handle this. Aside from that, I'm just interested in how anyone else handles caped kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted July 18, 2003 Report Share Posted July 18, 2003 Best inspiration I've found on that subject was Marvel's MC2 line, dealing with the daughters of Spider-man and Wolverine, the son of Juggernaut, etc. But before that in my campagine Cain Marko had a son. Identifying quote: "Yes, I've only got a fraction of the power of the original Juggernaut, but do the math. What's one per cent of infinity?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Scrivner Posted July 18, 2003 Report Share Posted July 18, 2003 Children inevitably complicate your life Another good inspiration is Marvel's "Power Pack" if you can find back issues. It consisted of a brother-sister team whose members ranged from 8 or 10 to 4 or 5, elementary school kids. They had to go to school and fool Mom and Dad as well as stop that bank robbery or alien invasion. Also "Bionic Six," an 1980s TV cartoon about a superhero family. Of course, if you're rich enough or have political connections nobody seems to question the fact that you've got custody of a "youthful ward." Batman, Green Arrow, Captain America, Namor, the Human Torch all battled archfiends with school-age kids in tow. Space Ghost even had two, and the Super Friends apparently had a rotating underage contingent. Your 18-year-old team leader admitted to having a 16-looking son on national television (Oprah? Jerry Springer?)? I can hear the "kids shouldn't have kids while battling super criminals" hue and cry building in your campaign city right now! Better arrange some more interviews for her so she can explain herself, and watch out for those Department of Human Services case workers sure to be poking around the team headquarters from now on. Can you say "plot complications"? "Ms. Hero, are you providing your child with proper nutrition? We can arrange to have WIC supply you with milk and cheese for your son." "But ... he's a robot, made out of solidified brain patterns." "Ummm. Yes. We'll schedule an psychological analysis of your attitudes toward parenting later. For now, describe the other people dwelling in your household. We'll need state bureau of investigation background checks on Captain Cosmic and Technocop, just in case." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted July 18, 2003 Report Share Posted July 18, 2003 Unless robots, androids and other artificial intelligences have already gained legal status and protected rights in your campaign world, this android "child" is likely to become the center of a major custody battle. The state will want to take it away from its "parents" allegedly to provide a better home environment, more likely to study/dissect it. Whoever owned the materials from which it was created may claim it as their legitimate property, asserting that it isn't a "person" under the law and therefore subject to ownership. Depending on what you and the player of its "mother" want, this could range from tense courtroom drama to mother and child become fugitives from the authorities. As for the rest of the children, since you refer to them as "caped kids" I'm assuming that most if not all of them have superpowers. There are a couple of ways you can handle this. One is to continue to focus the campaign on the older heroes, with their offspring wanting to tag along on adventures. Their parents could take them seriously and start to train them to be future heroes, or try to restrain them from hurting themselves - which will just lead to the kids "adventuring" on their own, and getting into trouble from which their elders have to save them. Essentially you'd be roleplaying standard conflicts between protective parents and self-asserting youngsters, with the heightened stakes that super-powers would bring to the mix. The other alternative is to switch the focus of some game sessions from the adult characters to their children; let the players run the super-youngsters for a change of pace. The types of stories would be similar to those mentioned above, but this time told from the kids' perspective. In addition, you could deal with a lot of the issues of childhood and adolescence, complicated by superpowers: fitting in with the crowd (tough when you have powers and maybe a secret or public ID), young love, handling the school bully (do you pound or blast him and give away your secret?), juggling school and maybe a job with your adventuring career, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yogzilla Posted July 18, 2003 Report Share Posted July 18, 2003 I highly recommend the comic series "PS238"... http://www.ps238.com/ It's all about an elementary school for meta-prodigies; and it's an absoule gem! So far, only 2 issues, so it's easy enough to catch up. Highly recommended!! -Yogzilla Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umbra Posted July 18, 2003 Report Share Posted July 18, 2003 Ohh I love that comic!!. BTW if you get the cartoon network, they have X-evolution and are going to start showing Teen Titans this Sat. That might give you some ideas. When my character got knocked up in our Champions game our GM (who is a rl doctor) started roleplaying out the symtoms of pregnacy... Now that was interesting... Unfortunatly the game ended before the birth, but I'm sure labor would have started at the worst time possible... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleepyDrug Posted July 18, 2003 Report Share Posted July 18, 2003 Hero Alliance (innovation comics) had a great story about this where the character involved was sued by family services because her lifestyle put her child in jeopardy. Ant-Man has a similar sub-plot going in current issues of Avengers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
talisman Posted July 18, 2003 Report Share Posted July 18, 2003 I onced ran a game in golden champions for ten sessions so that I could have a kind of "history" for my modern game that the players felt some investment in. After the ten sessions, they had to write a history for their characters that brought them up to the modern day. In two cases, the players chose modern characters that were the children and grandchildren of their original characters. One of the best was the fire-elemental type character whose father had never aged and who had become like the "superman" of our game. If all else failed, Nuclon (the dad) would show up and rescue Wildfire. Although he played both characters originally, Wildfire developed quite a complex about his uber-powerful dad rescuing him. I always thought it would be fun to do the opposite, and have a PC's kid be more powerful than the PC. Those teenaged rebellion years would be very interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VictorVonDoom Posted July 18, 2003 Report Share Posted July 18, 2003 Power Pack were Superhero Children in Marvel... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhantomGM2602 Posted July 23, 2003 Report Share Posted July 23, 2003 Re: Superhero Children Originally posted by Azimer the Mad Hey everybody. Been lurking for awhile, but just signed up since everyone here seems cool to talk to. I'm having trouble with a phenomenon that usually doesn't pop up in the comics much. My group of 4 PCs have all gained children, whether through natural processes, adopting, or building them. There aren't many mainstream comics aside from the FF that have prominent kid characters, and I don't read any books that have multiple teenagers per family (one PC has 5!) I'm especially puzzled by what to do with one PC's children. SHe's, paradoxily, 18 years old and team leader. She's recently admitted to having a robot child on live TV. RObot as in silvery android in 16 looking body with emotional maturity level between 6-12 made from her and her boyfriend's brain patterns. I'm wondering how the media and nation would handle this. Aside from that, I'm just interested in how anyone else handles caped kids. Other than the comic series mentioned try out YOUNG JUSTICE sometime it stars the current teen heroes as a team fighting all kinds of bad guys. Also there's SINS OF YOUTH a mini series in which all of the adult super heroes were transformed into kids and vice versa by a extradimensional brat called Klarion the Witch Boy and a blast from a gun used by Doilby Dickles from the golden age Green Lantern comics. Read it sometime it's a Howl! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcholmes Posted July 25, 2003 Report Share Posted July 25, 2003 Re: Superhero Children Originally posted by Azimer the Mad I'm having trouble with a phenomenon that usually doesn't pop up in the comics much. My group of 4 PCs have all gained children, whether through natural processes, adopting, or building them. There aren't many mainstream comics aside from the FF that have prominent kid characters, and I don't read any books that have multiple teenagers per family (one PC has 5!) One of my favourite stories on that topic is the "First Family" storyline from Astro City. BCing you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siberian Tiger Posted July 25, 2003 Report Share Posted July 25, 2003 Another take on the subject is Runaways from Marvel. Premise of the storyline is that a group of teenagers discover their parents are supervillains. Has only been going for 4 issues so far so should still be easily found in your local comic shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roth Posted July 26, 2003 Report Share Posted July 26, 2003 There is also the full run of the New Mutants, where most of the kids started out 17 or younger. As well Generation X. Both should give ideas on teenaged exotics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VictorVonDoom Posted July 26, 2003 Report Share Posted July 26, 2003 Any mutant power in Marvel Universe manifest itself between 12 and 14 years old ...Look at Karma: she was 14 on the ship when she gained her power. Some mutant powers are enhanced by interference: Magick power was enhanced by Belasco but as a result it starts earlier :she started younger then the rest (8-12) The powerpack children were between 10-12 hence they break the tendancy to have powers during 12-14 years old... After Xavier telling he was a mutant people send their children to his school. Maybe you need in your campaign such a school as wel to train teenagers using their powers or controlling it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oruncrest Posted July 27, 2003 Report Share Posted July 27, 2003 Originally posted by VictorVonDoom The powerpack children were between 10-12 hence they break the tendancy to have powers during 12-14 years old... Uhm, Vic, the Power kids (yes, Power is their family name) are all mutates, meaning that they all received their powers from outside influences like the fantastic Four, Spider-Man, or the Hulk (in the Power Pack's case, they were given their powers by a dying alien) as opposed to mutants, whose poewers are all genetic (like Franlin Richards/ Tattletale). Age has nothing to do with their powers. For instance, Katie Power/ Energizer was 6 years old when she got her powers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Sprigg Posted July 28, 2003 Report Share Posted July 28, 2003 Uhm, Vic, the Power kids (yes, Power is their family name) are all mutates, meaning that they all received their powers from outside influences like the fantastic Four, Spider-Man, or the Hulk (in the Power Pack's case, they were given their powers by a dying alien) as opposed to mutants, whose poewers are all genetic (like Franlin Richards/ Tattletale). Age has nothing to do with their powers. For instance, Katie Power/ Energizer was 6 years old when she got her powers. Actually, she was 5 (and remained so during the entire run of the comic). The only one who actually had a birthday (that was depicted in the comic, at least) was Julie, who turned 11 about halfway through the run. When they were first written, Alex was 12, Julie 10, Jack 8, and Katie 5. By the end of their run they had met up with (and handled) the Morlocks, Kurse, Snake Eyes, Doctor Doom (indirectly), the Hobgoblin (Alex teaming with Spider-Man), and a host of others. Franklin Richards joined the team, and there are several guest appearances throughout the run, from such notables as Spidey, the X-Men, the Avengers, the FF, the Punisher, Thor, Marrina, the New Mutants, X-Factor...a lot of people. Now, imagine a team of heroes who started out in prepubesence. Their book was first published in 1984, twenty years ago. Even in their earliest adventures, they had phenomenal power levels (Alex's gravity powers were almost equal to those of Graviton, except he had to touch things to de-grav them). Now, give that team twenty years of experience, having learned all sorts of tricks with their powers, and having dealt with a lot of cosmic crises (when they were kids!). Can you say, 'Inheritors of the Mantle of World's Greatest Team?' I knew you could. Especially with Franklin Richards on the team; it's a natural. Reed Richards found out about the team's existence in one of their last adventures, so you know they've got some impressive mentors. That they did not make an appearance in M2 (Spider-Girl, Avengers Next, etc.) is a crime. Anyway, as you can probably tell, I'm a big fan of Power Pack. I'd love to see them redone, by the right creative team. It was a fantastic concept, and one that deserves to be revisited. Glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st barbara Posted July 29, 2003 Report Share Posted July 29, 2003 What was that about "Teen Titans" "Umbra" ? This is one of the few moments when I wish i was a "Seppo" (American). Just so I could have a look at that ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnotherSkip Posted July 29, 2003 Report Share Posted July 29, 2003 Teen Titans are on Cartoon Network. Erm also Teen Titans are a DC comic about the "sidekicks" of the JLA, at least intially. They Had: Wally West (current Flash), Dick Grayson, Robin(Now Nightwing), the Young Wonder Girl.... Etc... as a way of giving them their own comic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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