Closing the Rift

[Adventus]

Warning long explanation ahead!

 

In my high-powered champiions campaign, superpowers are made possible by a tear in space/time, a rift. This rift alters reality, making superpowers possible. Now, there are places where reality is weak and transdimensional energy leaks thru sometimes. This is what allowed low powered supers before the opening of the rift in the mid 80's. Now due to the presence of the rift those areas are no longer weak. The rift was caused by a military experiment to make power armor that would use a nuclear explosion as a power source. It worked in all of the trials. So they had a big showing for a bunch of Military brass. WHen they set the bomb of the soldiers in the armor were controlling the energy from the bomb preventing it from affecting the people sitting just a few hundred feet away. Then something went wrong. It is unsure if one of the suits failed or the bomb was more powerful than expected or even if one of the soldiers just panicked. Whatever happened, the soldiers lost control of the explosion and started to be destroyed in the explosion. One of the soldiers,as it turns out, had a latent mutant ablility to do exactly what the suits were designed to do. TYhe explosion and the stress of the situation caused his powers to manifest in a big way. To save the people at the showing, he tore a rift in time and space and sent them into other dimensions. this caused him to be turned into energy. He needed a energy field, like a force field to avoid dissipitating. He has spent the last 20 years figuring out how to close the rift. Along the way he bonded with a liquid metal robot. this caused an interesting side effect, their mind(s) were expanded. This caused them to move several levels above normal supers, i.e he/they become a deity. This happened aboout 5 years ago. They have figured out how to repair the tear. They have brought all of the surviving peopl;e back from the worlds the went to to survive. Now it is time to close the rift.

 

What I need is ideas on what effect this will have on the world.

 

I have few already.

 

1. 99% of all supers with powers instead of items will lose their powers.

2. those supers with powers that allow them to travel interdimensionally will not lose their powers. Such as my character Pyhrus. He is a living gateway between our world and the elemental planes. This will amke them hunted because former supers who are near these beings will find their powers working again, for a while at least

3. most supertech will slowly break down as the person who built it will no longer understand how it works.

4. gadget toting heroes will become more prevalent.

5 many now powerless supers will volunteer for radical experiments to try to get their powers back. They will DIE. .

6. the public will be upset that their SuperHeroes have abandoned them.

[OddHat]

1) You'll have to talk this over with your players; they might love it, or they might get very angry to see the GM's PC keep his powers while their characters lose their own. It can work, but clear that with the players first (or give them an in-game way to keep their powers).

 

2) Now would be a perfect time for a good old-fashioned alien invasion.

[Adventus]

Actually, I was just using my character as an example. every player has at least 1 character that will get to keep their powers. Also the other players sometime gm in my world, so That is when I play my characters. Other than that, they are just background and backup for the players.

[Asperion]

There are two different ways that I would handle this situation as a GM. The first would be to make is so that everyone looses their powers unles the powers were based on normal tech regardless of the nature of the powers. THis way no one would b e able to claim that so-and-so was able to maintain his powers so he should be able to as well. It is also a great way to pull in the reigns on a campaign that is getting to be too powerful to handle most challenges (such as being able to slap around Mechanon like a rag doll). The other way would be to make this even cause a type or radiation accident. Any super that was feeding off the rift suddenly finds out that any ability that he possessed would suddenly start acting strange, if at all. For a time the entire supers community would be in chaos as everyone figures out how their new abillities work. Allow the PCs to recreate their characters under the new set of rules. They could be fighting this adventure's villain and uber-brick trys to pound him when he discovers that the punch went through the villain, doing the same damage that it normally does. Personally I prefer the latter method since it will (at least for a while) put some unexpected spice into the campaign as everyone figures out how their new set of powers work.

[ChuckB]

If I were a player in the game , I'd be annoyed with this direction , but then again , I've never been a fan of the "all powers come from one source" angle anyways.

 

It's an unnecessary plot-direction that will have too many ramifications on the PC's and how the characters see themselves.

[Adventus]

I need to clarify something. This event is not being played out. It is just backstory for a new campaign called Mirrorview, which starts several years later. I was looking for ideas on how this would affect the world. I have discussed this with my players already and they are cool with it. In fact, one the players vehemently said his character is retired and will not be part of the new campaign. He will be making a new character for the campaign. The new campaign will be, most likely, starting around xmas this year. I will be posting more details of this new campaign for people to approve or tear apart. Either way, I will find stuff to use in my world. The reason for this change is that the campaign has just gotten to powerful and unweildy. I also would like to take the game in a new direction. I will not be having an alien invasion as I have recently had one led by Dr. D himself. He ws getting his revenge on one of the players.

[GenreFiend]

Have you ever read

 

The DC "Elseworlds" limited series (two or three issues, I can't remember exactly) "Act of God?" It deals with all the super-powered heroes and villains of ther DC Universe loosing their powers. Of course, all the high-tech stuff still works (at least for a while), and guys like Batman and Green Arrow become even more prominent. One thing I really liked, though, (and this might be an ideqa for your campaign) is that formerly-powered heroes begin training under Batman, so that they can continue doing what they do even without their powers.

[Adventus]

Yes, I have read that series. And I do plan on having some of that happen. The main difference is that the supers powers start acting up and not working before the rift even closes. So, they will have warning that something is wrong before they lose their powers.

[peterbilt]

I am one of the players in this world and have no problems with what the GM has decided to do. It is simply a new adventure for the characters to explore. They have to deal with being normal again for a while and may not like it but life is seldom fair to everyone. Currently I have about seven PC's that I can choose to play in this system and only 2 will be unaffected completely. Besides, it is only a game and you have to be able to expand your imagination to understand new concepts or you just stagnate and creatively.

[Asperion]

If I were one of these supers in that realm I would at first be surprised that my powers had failed me but as time went on, I would look for ways to make lemonade from this terrible lemon. I would have developed contacts in several useful locations such as the government, the underground, organized crime, etc in addition to various skills that would not have changed with the loss of my powers. The fact that I am fighting crime would not have changed, only the methods that I use. As a result instead of going up to Dr. D and pummeling him in the face, I would start thinking and using known weakness against him combined with making him come to me for a change and taking on the gauntlet that I had devised so that when he does get to me he will be relatively weak and much easier to take out. When it comes to patroling for the muggers and low-lifes out there, I would start using more standard tech to assist me and make up for the loss of my powers. As an aside, crime fighters never truely retire, they will remember the time that they were the big hero and idol of millions and if they do not get back into action, the inaction will prove to be their most powerful opponent that will eventually kill them.