alt.CU - Atomic Age Supers

[Peregrine]

This is more of a campaign seed that could result in anything from "not much difference at all" to "significant and substantial differences" relative to the canonical CU.

 

Here's the seed: Instead of the Nazi mystic ritual piercing the barrier and bringing magic back into the Hero Universe, creating the CU, it was the first atomic bomb test in 1945.* Thus, supers did not appear until WWII was all but over.

 

Some changes are obvious:

 

1. No supers during the war, except for very late, too late to make a significant difference.

 

2. A closer association, in the mind of the public at least, between atomic power and supers, depending on when the first supers became public knowledge relative to when the atomic bomb became public knowledge - hence the campaign title.

 

3. Given that there is a strong association between the first supers and the end of the Pulp Era, the latter could likely extend through WWII, with pulp heroes filling the same wartime roles that supers filled in the canonical CU.

 

Possible variations:

 

1. The Nazi mystic ritual weakened the barrier, but did not break it down completely. Thus, the war could have seen pulp heroes with stronger Weird Talents fighting alongside lower powered supers - think Dark Champions: TAS in the Golden Age.

 

2. The 1945 blast wasn't strong enough to break the barrier; it took the first H-bomb in 1952 to do the job. The 1945 bomb may have weakened it (see above) or it may have had no effect. This variant could have resulted in pulp-style heroes continuing to be significant well past WWII.

 

At this point I pass this into the hands of the community here for further exploration and speculation.

 

*Props to GURPS Technomancer - while it did not directly inspire this idea, I recognized the commonality almost immediately.

[CoreBrute]

Re: alt.CU - Atomic Age Supers

 

Two points to develop here.

 

1. Since the Nazi ritual didn't destroy the wall, those that mean magic is a lot less then in the normal CU?

 

2. Due to the atom bomb creating the super heroes, that would mean Japan would link the two together. Instead of a hatred or fear of the atom bomb, they would hate/fear Super heroes. That would mean no Japanese super teams, unless they were super hunting martial artists or the like.

[Peregrine]

Re: alt.CU - Atomic Age Supers

 

Two points to develop here.

 

1. Since the Nazi ritual didn't destroy the wall, those that mean magic is a lot less then in the normal CU?

 

Not necessarily. The idea is that the A-bomb, or in variant 2, the H-bomb, breached the wall. So, no reduction in magic per se.

 

However, if you like GURPS Technomancer, you could posit that the Mystic World is more technomagically inclined than in the canonical CU. This would definitely qualify as a "significant and substantial difference".

 

2. Due to the atom bomb creating the super heroes' date=' that would mean Japan would link the two together. Instead of a hatred or fear of the atom bomb, they would hate/fear Super heroes. That would mean no Japanese super teams, unless they were super hunting martial artists or the like.[/quote']

 

Or a hatred of both, actually. This puts Japan in the position of having a national equivalent of UNTIL* - normal troops with super-tech gear - to deal with super threats. Shades of kaiju movies here...

 

*Or a heavy supporter of UNTIL, with a major UNTIL presence in Japan - and possibly heavy Japanese influence in UNTIL.

[bubba smith]

Re: alt.CU - Atomic Age Supers

 

This is more of a campaign seed that could result in anything from "not much difference at all" to "significant and substantial differences" relative to the canonical CU.

 

Here's the seed: Instead of the Nazi mystic ritual piercing the barrier and bringing magic back into the Hero Universe, creating the CU, it was the first atomic bomb test in 1945.* Thus, supers did not appear until WWII was all but over.

 

Some changes are obvious:

 

1. No supers during the war, except for very late, too late to make a significant difference.

 

2. A closer association, in the mind of the public at least, between atomic power and supers, depending on when the first supers became public knowledge relative to when the atomic bomb became public knowledge - hence the campaign title.

 

3. Given that there is a strong association between the first supers and the end of the Pulp Era, the latter could likely extend through WWII, with pulp heroes filling the same wartime roles that supers filled in the canonical CU.

 

Possible variations:

 

1. The Nazi mystic ritual weakened the barrier, but did not break it down completely. Thus, the war could have seen pulp heroes with stronger Weird Talents fighting alongside lower powered supers - think Dark Champions: TAS in the Golden Age.

 

2. The 1945 blast wasn't strong enough to break the barrier; it took the first H-bomb in 1952 to do the job. The 1945 bomb may have weakened it (see above) or it may have had no effect. This variant could have resulted in pulp-style heroes continuing to be significant well past WWII.

 

At this point I pass this into the hands of the community here for further exploration and speculation.

 

*Props to GURPS Technomancer - while it did not directly inspire this idea, I recognized the commonality almost immediately.

very good pergerinne i especially like the dark champs tas option

[HawksmoorSD]

Re: alt.CU - Atomic Age Supers

 

I really like this idea. It would be cool to work a time line off of these events. Something to think about anyways.

[Steve]

On 12/31/2008 at 4:47 PM, Peregrine said:

2. The 1945 blast wasn't strong enough to break the barrier; it took the first H-bomb in 1952 to do the job. The 1945 bomb may have weakened it (see above) or it may have had no effect. This variant could have resulted in pulp-style heroes continuing to be significant well past WWII.

 

Resurrecting an old thread in my search for Atomic Age heroics on the forums.

 

Having the Enewetak Atoll blast in 1952 (10.4 megatons) trigger the Superheroic Age gives an interesting spin on things. The Cold War had a different feel than WWII.

 

Using GURPS Technomancer as a background element to usher in superheroes instead of magic-users is definitely food for thought.

[Tjack]

   Personally, I’ve always liked the idea that the “Golden Age” (‘30’s thru WWII) was the time of pulp style “Masked Men” who had no powers except the VERY few with a slight mystic or psionic talent.  The Silver Age which begins with the end of the war and the beginning of the Atomic Age brings the rise of paranormals, aliens and super-science.

   This gives a nice style break in the eras and a way of telling different types of stories based on the game.

If a modern day team looks, is written up and acts just like a Golden Age one then what’s the difference?

[Werehawk]

21 hours ago, Steve said:

 

 

 

Having the Enewetak Atoll blast in 1952 (10.4 megatons) trigger the Superheroic Age gives an interesting spin on things. The Cold War had a different feel than WWII.

 

 

The "Tsar Bomba" that the USSR detonated in 1961 would indeed accelerate the process. Not knowing how the energy from the breech is spread out, the Soviets would have a huge advantage in creating "Parahumans" (as I call them) since it was tested in their territory while most of our tests were out in the Pacific on deserted islands (though I could be wrong my history on this subject is indeed lacking). You could set the campaign up with the west at a serious disadvantage of finding and recruiting these parahumans in order to counter the Soviet team(s) already in place. It would be similar to how the USSR was far ahead of the USA in the space race at this point in 1961.