Running a Dark Golden Age?

[Mostlyjoe]

I've been thinking about a weird little hybrid. Part Pulp Hero (since why it's here), Part Golden Age Comicbooks, and Part Dark Champions style game. I could have put this sucker on any 3 of these boards but I think the Pulp post WWI setting is key.

 

The idea is to take desidably Golden Age characters and thrust them into an ongoing cold war the Pulp era heroes have been fighting since the beginning of WWI. Basically the spy game taken to a super-science and mysticism extreme. Germany's true power after the war with the rise of the Nazi party is super-scientists that grew vengful at the fall of the old empire. Basically Victorian Era rivialries carried forward into the new century.

 

The Golden Age heroes find themselves playing a PR game against mutant monsters, ubermench, weird neo-mystisim and attrition is murderous (save for the PCs who are a bit more durable). I want to play up the slow end of the Pulp era and the more public War between the various super factions.

 

The Pulp Heroes are changing and dying off. But a possible new generation of agents and Super G-Men are about to be born. Etc. (Keying up for the 2nd Golden Age of Superscience: Post WWII heading into the 60-70's Super Spy age.)

 

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[Ranxerox]

Re: Running a Dark Golden Age?

 

I can see a Golden Age dark champions campaign working pretty well. I lot of the Golden Age books were actually pretty dark and violent; The Batman originally carried a gun, many Golden Age killed mercilessly, etc. So Golden Age and dark champions are a surprisingly good fit.

 

The whole post WW I angle confuses me a bit. Usually when someone says post WW I, I think of 1917 to 1927. The Nazis, however, didn't come to power until 1933. True this is technically still post WW I (as is today). It is just not what think of as the post World War I period. Mainly, I mention it because 1917 to 1927 seems like a fertile time for a campaign. You have Prohibition, gangsters, the roaring twenties, the lost generation, the Harlem Renaissance, and the rise of communism to play with. Unfortunately, you don't have many Nazis.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Running a Dark Golden Age?

 

I've been thinking about a weird little hybrid. Part Pulp Hero (since why it's here), Part Golden Age Comicbooks, and Part Dark Champions style game. I could have put this sucker on any 3 of these boards but I think the Pulp post WWI setting is key.

 

The idea is to take desidably Golden Age characters and thrust them into an ongoing cold war the Pulp era heroes have been fighting since the beginning of WWI. Basically the spy game taken to a super-science and mysticism extreme. Germany's true power after the war with the rise of the Nazi party is super-scientists that grew vengful at the fall of the old empire. Basically Victorian Era rivialries carried forward into the new century.

 

The Golden Age heroes find themselves playing a PR game against mutant monsters, ubermench, weird neo-mystisim and attrition is murderous (save for the PCs who are a bit more durable). I want to play up the slow end of the Pulp era and the more public War between the various super factions.

 

The Pulp Heroes are changing and dying off. But a possible new generation of agents and Super G-Men are about to be born. Etc. (Keying up for the 2nd Golden Age of Superscience: Post WWII heading into the 60-70's Super Spy age.)

 

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

very good the reptonfa has swung

[Doc Democracy]

Re: Running a Dark Golden Age?

 

You might want to take a peek at (someone else's) Day after Ragnarok. I think that what you are thinking about would be the Days before Ragnarok but it has the same kind of feel. A Golden Age Dark Champions game is probably exactly what I am playing just now though with agents rather than superheroes.

 

Doc

[dmjalund]

Re: Running a Dark Golden Age?

 

kinda circa Hercule Poirot

[Mostlyjoe]

Re: Running a Dark Golden Age?

 

I agree that the 1917 to 1927 era is great to play in, but that's the focus of the previous generation. The key to this game would be Golden Age characters as the 'new kids' learning from the pros that fought during that previous era. Now I can see a character as someone who was in their prime during that era as the 'mentor' character or the old vet coming back to duke it out. In a way this is a flipping the Golden Agers are the pros to the Silver Agers plots in comics. I'm going back a generation.

[RexMundi]

Re: Running a Dark Golden Age?

 

This actually is my current 6e campaign to a T for the most part.

 

~Rex

[Ranxerox]

Re: Running a Dark Golden Age?

 

I agree that the 1917 to 1927 era is great to play in' date=' but that's the focus of the previous generation. The key to this game would be Golden Age characters as the 'new kids' learning from the pros that fought during that previous era. Now I can see a character as someone who was in their prime during that era as the 'mentor' character or the old vet coming back to duke it out. In a way this is a flipping the Golden Agers are the pros to the Silver Agers plots in comics. I'm going back a generation.[/quote']

 

Well, when you put it that way, it sounds very cool. Good luck with it.

[RJB]

Re: Running a Dark Golden Age?

 

This isnt so far-fetched. Characters like the Shadow, the Spider, the Phantom and Mandrake the Magician could as easily been done in the 20s. Your opponents would be communists, mad scientists, renegade German monarchists, Chinese (there was a lot of predjudice against the Chinese in the pulps), and South American revolutionaries. There are two cartoons you really ought to see for inspiration if nothing else:

 

Superman- The Mad Scientist. First superman cartoon with a 'mad scientist' who bore a resemblance to Nikolai 'for the birds' Tesla.

 

Jonny Quest- The Devil's Tower. There is no reason the bad guy couldn't have been a WWI criminal instead of a WWII one.