A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

[clsage]

I'm getting ready to start running a Champions campaign shortly and, since

about half of the players are totally unfamiliar with the system, I'll be generating

the characters (tho' I'll be reserving some points for the players to 'tweak'

the characters at the first meeting). And after some consideration I've

decided to just have all the PC's be nearby to a 'lab accident' which will

trigger (or cause, depending on your viewpoint) the various uber-abilities

in question. Cheesy ? Yeah, probably. But well within the semi-Silver Age

ethos I intend to have the campaign follow.

 

My question to the assembled throng is: Have those of you who GM ever

done something similar and if so how did it turn out for you ? Did the players

feel 'railroaded' about their backstories ?

 

BTW, I have gotten input from some of the players as to specific 'types'

they would like to play so I'm not totally shooting in the dark....

 

-Carl-

[nexus]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

Unfortunately. I haven't done it. I've wanted to but the players have always opted for more diverse origins.

[rjcurrie]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

It really depends on the players and what they are told going into it.

 

I'm thinking of two campaigns that I played in at roughly the same time in the late 80s or early 90s with largely the same pool of players.

 

Campaign A was a Wild Cards-like game where something (most likely a virus of some sort) suddenly caused many people in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario to develop superpowers. As specified by the GM, we were playing ourselves (with the exception of a couple of players who decided to play fictional KW citizens) and we gave him a rough write-up of what we would like our superpowered selves to be like. The GM then rewrote them (as agreed) to fit with how the virus worked, including a few surprises, but never showed us the sheets. Actually, it was quickly determined that people seemed to have developed powers based on things they were thinking about and since those of us playing ourselves had been preparing characters for the GM's campaign, we ended up powers like those we were thinking about for our characters, so we had some idea of what we likely could do. It was a campaign that was about discovering powers and dealing with the changes in the world brought about by super powers. There were no complaints and no one felt railroaded into the origin.

 

Campaign B was a more standard bronze age type game. The GM simply told us to write up our characters, so that's what we did. He then rewrote the characters to his own liking, gave them back to us, and started the campaign with the common origin story for the characters. Most of us did not like the rewriting of our characters and being railroaded into the common origin, because that was not how we had envisioned our characters. Of course, the point quickly became moot because the campaign did not last long due to the GM moving away.

 

Basically, if everybody knows what they're getting into from the beginning, I think it can work. If it is forced upon them, unexpectedly, I suspect it won't.

[clsage]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

It really depends on the players and what they are told going into it.

Basically, if everybody knows what they're getting into from the beginning, I think it can work. If it is forced upon them, unexpectedly, I suspect it won't.

 

Well, since the group has had some issues getting a quorum together and

since there are several players who are totally unfamiliar with the Hero

system it has been tacitly agreed (via emails and such) that I, as GM, will

work up the characters, taking into account requests from some of the

players as to the type of powers/etc that they will have (eg: one player

has asked for a 'Booster Gold type' another for a 'Mystic energy projector',

etc...). And I'll build the characters as much to those requests as possible,

given point limits and such. So it's not as if I'll be taking someones worked

out character and reshaping it. So hopefully that issue won't rear its' head.

And I'll be holding back some points for the players to use to 'fix things to

their liking' when we finally get together for the first face to face session.

 

-Carl-

[rjcurrie]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

I'd just advise making sure that their origins aren't part of what they're thinking of when they're thinking of the type of characters they want. Let them know ahead of time that their origin story is part of what will be played out.

[Blue Jogger]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

Well, here's one that I played in that had a common origin for the entire universe.

 

There is an alien virus that is transmitted through bodily fluids and when that person experiences a near-death experience, the virus kicks in and tries to save that person giving them superpowers.

 

By the strangest of chances, two of the characters had similar near-death experiences. One had her brake cut and drove off a cliff, she gain invulnerability just seconds before the car impacted and exploded.

 

The other, mine, was thrown out of an airplane, on the way down, developed flight and super-strength (touch based telekinesis).

 

Even with that much in common, the characters had completely different backstories (she was a stunt double with a military background, I was a mob accountant who lost everything in the dot com collapse), different powers, and even different outlook on life (my character had a strange sort of empathy that made him a super boyscout, while she had been trained to kill).

 

And together, We Fought Crime.

[Psybolt]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

I have a campaign that I am running that, not only did I have a group origin, but also connected the PCs in a family group. I laid that out up front and told them which slots they could fill. Things seemed to go well.

 

One of the major factors is this: when you talk about origins, a lot of people consider the origin differently than I do. Origin is not just how they got their powers... it's how they become a hero. Spider-man got his powers by a radioactive spider bite, but his origin is the whole Uncle Ben dying and Peter could have stopped the killer-"great power etc.." stuff. So players can write up origin stories that work around how they gained their powers. They can write background histories and they can reveal how they wound up in the situation that gave them their powers. That makes better characters anyway.

[Guest Worldmaker]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

I ran a campaign once where I told the players not to come up with backgrounds for their characters at all. They all woke up naked in the back of a semi, tucked into coffin-like containers. None of them had any idea who they were, but they were very impressed that they all had powers.

 

Eventually (after nearly a year of real time play) they discovered that they were genetically engineered by Teleos. The truck they were being transported ran off a cliff; the driver and guards were killed, and the machinery keeping them asleep turned off, which is how they woke up. They got to build their identities from scratch during roleplay. It was pretty cool.

[braincraft]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

You can work it. Gen13 had a common origin. So did the Fantastic Four, and arguably, the original X-Men.

[Tungsten Shephard]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

In the game I'm running all mutants are the result of the 1918 flu pandemic. Since the flu was the result of the 1908 Tunguska explosion and an alien conspiracy mutant powers make sense.

 

Since all supers are tied into this event it was easy for players to come up with genetic backgrounds tied to their respective families. This has worked out very well for the players as it gives the following.

 

a) Reason for supers to exist in the first place. A single point of origin etc...

Conspiracy's for them to uncover and a reason why the U.S. government pushes for childhood vaccinations.

c) Allows for players to come up with a background that ties them genetically to a period of history without their backgrounds being too silly.

 

So far this has worked out great.

[Spence]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

My common way to start a group new to Champs and maybe new to supers as a RPG is to build the entire starting line-up complete. My first few sessions are tied to the campaign, but not critical to the success of the campaign. After we play the first or second session the players are free to keep, modify, redesign or create a totally new character for the amount of points. We then pick up the game as if nothing happened. This way they get to "test drive" the rules and game mechanics a bit before trying to design the actual character. Since the pre-mades are shameless copies of Heroes from comics, they are a good yard stick as well when the new player is trying to decide just how powerful powerful is.

 

In the end on a brand new campaign with players that have never played Champs before, the average is two rebuild/major mods before the PC is what they want to play. After that it is smooth and steady....

[Narratio]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

And then we have the "Challengers of the Unknown", DC's pre-eminent Agent level silver age heroes before they all got wierd abilities or rebooted. Hmmm, nobody mentioned DNAgents, Powerpack or Wilinghams's Elementals...

 

Anyway, I was in a game once which used the Chall's as thier basis. We designed Agent level characters (this was '84, so there were a lot of House rules for low level abilities in play), and then all suffered the same accident. We then chose from one of 6 prebuilt 'power pool' packages the GM had constructed. I got a sort of Elastic lad power pool, another guy got some stone abilities etc.

 

Having a common origin does give you lots of plot hooks. I'd recommend it, it gives the players a common point to begin the bonding that creates a true team.

[Karmakaze]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

I've done campaigns where I had the players write up normals, and then could either build up to a super from there or have me do it. Then the common origin can be roleplayed early in the first session. I never had any complaints. In one version, which I run at conventions, the players discover their powers in play and don't get their full sheets until later in the game.

 

I've also done the common-origin family thing. In that case, I told everyone they'd be related and then let them throw in concepts. Once we had concepts, we blocked out who sat where on the family tree and made whatever small adjustments were necessary.

[John Desmarais]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

My question to the assembled throng is: Have those of you who GM ever done something similar...

 

I've never done it for a "real" game (convention games where I pre-build all of the characters don't count) but I love the idea and, if I ever find myself with a group of players predisposed towards it I'm keen to try it.

 

When I was a kid, and first exposed to comics, the superhero team books were always my favorite - and of those the Fantastic Four was the one I always thought had the best origin as their origin provided a reason to not just become a team, but to stay one.

[OddHat]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

The Young Titans group I GMed at Dundracon 2007, GenCon 2007, and HeroCon 2007 have a group origin story. Their thread details most of it, with a few secrets left for later use.

 

It can be a solid way to explain how and why the PCs are connected. Many classic comic book teams share a single origin as well, most notably the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, as well as the Elementals, Metal Men, various races (Inhumans, Eternals, New Gods), etc.

[Balabanto]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

Generally, I've noticed, roleplayers are too egotistical to deal with this issue well.

 

However, if you DO decide you want to do this, here's what I recommend.

 

Build the characters yourself beforehand, or write the backgrounds beforehand, but not both. This is why Oddhat's example is effective.

 

DON'T let them choose. Either let them choose the way the character got the skills and abilities, OR let them design the character after reading the background.

 

This is the biggest mistake you could POSSIBLY make. Instead, challenge their roleplaying skills and tell them how great they are as roleplayers. Feed their ego a little bit.

 

THEN, take however many characters there are and take a colored die or stone, mark it on the sheet, and let them pick from a hat. The game I run that's run this way is VERY successful.

 

Because it was D+D and not Champions, I chose to write the backgrounds. You can see how things are going over on the Paizo Boards on "The Terrible Revenge of Roungouze Haballanter" thread.

 

PS: If you do read this thread, remember that A) Ogres are Stupid and I DID ask them if they were sure.

[nexus]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

One thing I think it helps to keep in mind (and remind the players) is that the origin of power doesn't nessescarily define the character. They're free (and encouraged) to create an evocative entertaining character and they have the rest of the character's life to work with. The "origin story" is just where there powers came from, a small part of the whole

[Zed-F]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

I have another one of those 'every super has a common origin' universes, where the PCs started off as normal folks. I let them design their super-characters in advance though, and just told them they would be playing out their origins in game, so there were no surprises in that regard. I had no problems with it and neither did the players.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

I've done this twice, in fact. Not for a Champions game, but for both my Epic Fantasy setting, and my Ravenloft campaign, all characters were given restrictions by which they had to build their concepts around. For the Ravenloft campaign, as I've likely mentioned before, everyone was a "niece or nephew" of their Uncle Hammet, who was a warrior against the overwhelming darkness that exists in that setting.

 

This actually works really well for me and how I design campaigns. It brings everyone together, they can develop a shared fiction (as they tell "stories" of their growing up on the fly as they imagine their characters and the situations in which they'd be and how they'd react).

 

Don't forget, also, that there are plenty of settings that use this mechanic to drive the story; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had a single radiation accident, the Fantastic Four, all of the "Boom Babies" from Static Shock, and the game I'm playing now, Digital Devil Saga has a white event driving it forward as well.

 

So yes, it absolutely works.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

When I was stationed at Fairchild AFB in eastern Washington state, I ran a common-origin campaign that worked very well. I had the players write up themselves as 50+50 normals, with the understanding that their characters would undergo a "radiation accident" in the first session. I would assign the powers according to my understanding of the players' interests and preferences. I think I had them write down a few notes on their character sheets to this effect.

 

The game started with the PCs (as themselves) going up to a mountaintop ski area parking lot to watch a meteor shower. During the shower, one object streaked right towards the PCs and exploded. One of the PCs was struck with a fragment and the rest were dusted with debris. They rushed the injured character to the Base Hospital's emergency room. While they were sitting in the waiting room, they began manifesting their powers.

 

It was a pretty good campaign that lasted quite a while. One of the highlights of "Session One" was when the vampire-powers character started realizing what was happening to him.

[Alverant]

Re: A Common Origin Story For An Entire Team ?

 

I was a player in one of these campaigns and tried to run one myself as a teenager. What happened was that we designed competent normals complete with backgrounds and the GM gave us our powers and origin.

 

Since half of the players have no experience in Hero system, this will get them some experience with the system. And the other half can help.