Golden Age Characters by Darren

[MisterVimes]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

GAC addresses that problem in one way by having the plot device of the "anti-powers" field in Axis territory' date=' meaning that adventures abroad are largely limited to mystery men while the powered heroes stay home and defend the home front against saboteurs and ubermenschen. There's no requirement that GMs follow this, of course, but we've found in years of playtests it handles the disconnect very well. dw[/quote']

 

Are you going with a specific cause for the field (i.e. Spear of Destiny, Nazi Agent with a suppression field) ?

[Balabanto]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

In my home game, I addressed it by limiting the overall number of superbeings prior to the war, and having the end of the war be the trigger for more. If there's only maybe 50 to 100 guys with real powers, there's a significant issue with sending them into risky situations. Sure, they'll easily escape from most prisons, etc, but resource management (and who has how many) tends to dictate how those people are used.

 

Also, lack of transportation makes a big difference. It takes eight to ten hours to cross the Atlantic in a plane in those days. Under those conditions, intelligence operatives and spies can really put a crimp in your bonnet as far as mobilization times. When you're attacking, it's a lot harder to get to where you're going than if you're defending, and pretty much from 1942 on, the Germans were defending. If teleportation and other such abilities are rare, or come with significant hazards, then you face the prospect of always going in with your enemies alerted to your presence and having to fight your Nazi counterparts. This is all great, IF you can win, but when superheroes are a limited resource, it may be tactically safer for General Eisenhower not to field them.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

I also would like to see more GA write-up.

 

here is one more vote for more write ups

would pulp HERO villian dr fang shen work as a GAC villian

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

Are you going with a specific cause for the field (i.e. Spear of Destiny' date=' Nazi Agent with a suppression field) ?[/quote']

 

According to Champions Universe, two of the master mystics of the Axis, Der Totenkopf of Germany and Iron Father of Japan, "cast a series of interlocking spells to protect the Axis nations from Allied superbeings -- any enemy superhuman who entered Axis territory would suffer a terrible wasting sickness, first losing his powers and then falling into a lifeless coma." (CU 6E p. 11)

[MisterVimes]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

According to Champions Universe' date=' two of the master mystics of the Axis, Der Totenkopf of Germany and Iron Father of Japan, "cast a series of interlocking spells to protect the Axis nations from Allied superbeings -- any enemy superhuman who entered Axis territory would suffer a terrible wasting sickness, first losing his powers and then falling into a lifeless coma." (CU 6E p. 11)[/quote']

 

Yeah. I'm gonna have to get the 6E material. Good stuff.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

Yeah. I'm gonna have to get the 6E material. Good stuff.

 

AAMOF the identical passage appears in Champions Universe 5E p. 11. The timeline for the two editions is practically identical up until 2002, when in 5E continuity the true Doctor Destroyer announced his return.

[MisterVimes]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

AAMOF the identical passage appears in Champions Universe 5E p. 11. The timeline for the two editions is practically identical up until 2002' date=' when in 5E continuity the true Doctor Destroyer announced his return.[/quote']

 

Reading retention fails after 45

[Darren Watts]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

My current GA group is in February 1945 right now, simultaneously protecting the Big Three at Yalta and fighting Japanese monsters at Iwo Jima. The next big plot I'm throwing at them is the mission to have the mystery men half of the team steal the Spear back from Germany and destroy the anti-powers field in Europe, letting their powered allies race the Soviet supers to Berlin. We're only a few months away from converting that game to Silver Age, probably this summer sometime. I've got a second group warming up a shorter GA mini-campaign where I get to play instead of GM and the GMs will be using material from the book to playtest, starting in a couple of weeks. (I get to play Black Mask VIII for the first time as a PC, totally psyched!) dw

[Enforcer84]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

My current GA group is in February 1945 right now' date=' simultaneously protecting the Big Three at Yalta and fighting Japanese monsters at Iwo Jima. The next big plot I'm throwing at them is the mission to have the mystery men half of the team steal the Spear back from Germany and destroy the anti-powers field in Europe, letting their powered allies race the Soviet supers to Berlin. We're only a few months away from converting that game to Silver Age, probably this summer sometime. I've got a second group warming up a shorter GA mini-campaign where I get to play instead of GM and the GMs will be using material from the book to playtest, starting in a couple of weeks. (I get to play Black Mask VIII for the first time as a PC, totally psyched!) dw[/quote']

 

Adopt me. I'll move.

[assault]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

More please.

 

Personally, I go for a "supers are vanishingly rare" approach. Basically, once you leave out the various Hidden Lands, superbeings can be counted on your fingers.

 

I've toyed with the idea of them quickly ending the German-Polish War of 1939, and running a crimefighting game without the war.

 

Another thing I've thought about is how to tie Australia into the CU's Golden Age. I can't see us having many or any canonical superbeings (individual campaigns can vary, obviously), but I think there is a bit of scope for adding warfront heroes. Basically, all the pulp characters enlist in 1939, and spend the war being ace pilots and commandos.

 

This would give them plenty of scope for interaction with US costumed supers. Basically, the flying boat picking up the team behind Japanese lines is piloted by Flight Lieutenant or Squadron Leader Whoever of the RAAF, and the "agents" they are working with are drawn from the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army (not "Royal"). (Add some Dutch personnel if you are operating in the East Indies. Maybe even a Portuguese national as well, if you are on Timor.)

 

Then, after the war, a veteran can train a young protege in survival and combat skills, creating the first of the infamous "Australian Ninjas".

[Zen Archer]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

Which gets back to the initial point. Will this be a domestic game or will the PCs go overseas and fight there? My impression is that the typical comic of the era (and most games set in the era) do the former. Certainly the initial GAC volumes stressed that approach. That said' date=' yes, there are comics ([i']Marvels[/i] for one) where the characters fight the Axis directly and there is Godlike, where the supers are just another form of soldier.

 

I think you've pretty much nailed it.

 

We've seen more of a shift in recent years towards the Marvels/Godlike approach, though. Putting it this way: Roy Thomas' Invaders series was a superhero comic set in WW2. Ed Brubaker writes war stories with superheroes.

 

You can great campaigns out of both approaches.

[Zen Archer]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

Another question is "How sanitized is the Golden Age you're creating?" Again, I don't know. If it's more 40's than 30's, you face one set of obstacles, that of "sanitizing war." If it's not as sanitized, you face a different problem of "How did Superheroes deal with the consequences of what Hitler did, and what was the end result?"

 

I am not positing any solutions here, or trying to rain on Darren's parade, but it occurs me that these issues might need to be thought about, regardless of the end result.

 

It's certainly something any GM might want to consider. The only Golden Age campaigns I ever played in were set in 1942 and 1946, so it wasn't an issue.

 

A lot of the early '40s stuff didn't shy away from death and destruction, probably because of the direct influence of the pulps. (I'm thinking in particular of the Sub Mariner flooding New York) It's certainly possible to go epic and apocalyptic in a GA game.

 

Not all that germane necessarily, but this did trigger a memory of a chilling flashback sequence in the old Ostrander/Mandrake Spectre comic, when the JSA are touring a liberated camp and then have to prevent a berzerk Spectre from rampaging across Germany.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

I vividly remember an episode of the classic Fleischer Brothers Superman animated short films during WW II, in which Superman travels undercover to Japan to conduct some heavy-duty sabotage. The image of him dragging a battleship underwater by its anchor chain was particularly impressive.

[MisterVimes]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

I think you've pretty much nailed it.

 

We've seen more of a shift in recent years towards the Marvels/Godlike approach, though. Putting it this way: Roy Thomas' Invaders series was a superhero comic set in WW2. Ed Brubaker writes war stories with superheroes.

 

You can great campaigns out of both approaches.

 

There's a bit of division even in the comics. Superman captured Hitler in 1940 and flew him to Geneva to stand trial. The Human Torch was responsible for the death of Hitler in as shown in "Young Men"#24 (and later retold over and over). Captain America, Captain Berlin, the Golden Age Daredevil, and a host of others punched the fuhrer in the face. Hawkman machine-gunned half of the Nazis in Europe. So, heroes on foreign soil was a common idea for a long time (and in the case of Superman and Captain America) sometimes predated America's involvement in the war.

 

At some point it became silly to portray Superheroes capturing Hitler and you ended up with Bucky giving Adolf "the rasberry" over the phone. It really wasn't until the 70s that we got the vision we consider canon. At Marvel Roy Thomas had the "Invaders" fight overseas, but really only against their opposite numbers in the form of Axis Supervillains. Conversely, when Roy was writing "All Star Squadron," DC introduced the Spear of Destiny as their deus ex machina to explain why the heroes didn't end the war. James Robinson's amazing "Golden Age" miniseries turned that idea on its ear by having a nazi agent (whose name escapes me) with powers that nullified other super powers.

 

Personally I like what Ed Brubaker has been doing (as Zen Archer mentioned) with "Captain America and Bucky" and his (Band of Brother-like) "All-Winners Squad - Band of Heroes"

 

Again, any of these scenarios make for a great campaign.

[MisterVimes]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

I vividly remember an episode of the classic Fleischer Brothers Superman animated short films during WW II' date=' in which Superman travels undercover to Japan to conduct some heavy-duty sabotage. The image of him dragging a battleship underwater by its anchor chain was particularly impressive.[/quote']

 

I do, however, cringe a little when I see buck toothed Japanazis. I do love that series though.

[Alleyne]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

GAC addresses that problem in one way by having the plot device of the "anti-powers" field in Axis territory' date=' meaning that adventures abroad are largely limited to mystery men while the powered heroes stay home and defend the home front against saboteurs and ubermenschen. There's no requirement that GMs follow this, of course, but we've found in years of playtests it handles the disconnect very well. dw[/quote']

 

That's because we gentlemen wearing spiffy hats, dashing capes and masks--some of us with our own Detective agencies--are the ace in the hole Sherlock Holmes and the Shadow could have destroyed the third reich by sure force of will alone! Or so I like to think so:o

 

I'm hoping there will be some analogue to the Losers/ Sgt. Rock, played a game like that a while back, good times, lots of very good times.

 

But speaking of mystery men...I wonder what the Raven is up to in World War II, probably gang busting it up as genre dictate ?

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

I think you've pretty much nailed it.

 

We've seen more of a shift in recent years towards the Marvels/Godlike approach, though. Putting it this way: Roy Thomas' Invaders series was a superhero comic set in WW2. Ed Brubaker writes war stories with superheroes.

 

You can great campaigns out of both approaches.

originaly charltons JUDOMASTER was a silver age characterr operating in the pacific theater during ww2

[MisterVimes]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

I'm sure Darren is already all over this, but defining your period is going to have to be part of your setup. The transition from Pulps to Comics isn't a clear line when defining the genres. Examples:

 

• Superman first appeared in April 1938. And while he owes some parentage to Doc Savage, John Carter, Hugo Danner, and Moses, he's the iconic Superhero. He has the long underwear and he's an alien with superpowers. But there were character that were created after Superman that are pure pulp. The Crimson Avenger (a Shadow/Spider pastiche) comes to mind.
  
• Until Batman appeared in May 1939, Detective Comics was all hard-boiled detective pulp and even the Batman filled that Pulp mold until Robin appeared in 1940.
  
• Zatara was just another in a long line of Mandrake knock-offs and was pure pulp and shared the pages of "Action" #1 with Superman.
  
• Sandman was just another pulp hero in comics (albeit one with style) until 1941 when he put on the purple and gold underwear.
  

 

So, while all of these are "Golden Age," I think that turning point is 1940-1941 when Captain America and Superman start taking on Hitler. For the genre, it's the transition from the depression to the war-footing, remember that our comicbook heroes were taking on the Axis nearly two years before we went to war. As for when the Golden Age transitions to the Silver Age, I think we can tag that clean break that appeared when "Seduction of the Innocent" resulted in gutting the comic shelves 1948-50, followed by the interregnum 1950-1956, and kicking off the Silver Age around 1956 (when "Showcase" #4 appeared featuring an updated version of the Flash).

 

Just my two-cents

[Balabanto]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

Once again, I recommend Sharon Packer's "Superheroes and Superegoes, Analyzing the Minds Behind the Masks" for valuble information on comics, the war, and what it meant as regards Superheroes.

[MisterVimes]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

Once again' date=' I recommend Sharon Packer's "Superheroes and Superegoes, Analyzing the Minds Behind the Masks" for valuble information on comics, the war, and what it meant as regards Superheroes.[/quote']

 

Looks like a great find, I'll be purchasing it. Sadly it's not in any e-format.

[Balabanto]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

Sharon works with me when I need a psychiatric expert. I'll be giving her a mental workout over the next few years.

[MisterVimes]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

Sharon works with me when I need a psychiatric expert. I'll be giving her a mental workout over the next few years.

 

Heh. The tell her that I'm putting cash in her pocket.

[Matt the Bruins]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

According to Champions Universe, two of the master mystics of the Axis, Der Totenkopf of Germany and Iron Father of Japan, "cast a series of interlocking spells to protect the Axis nations from Allied superbeings -- any enemy superhuman who entered Axis territory would suffer a terrible wasting sickness, first losing his powers and then falling into a lifeless coma." (CU 6E p. 11)

 

That makes me wonder what Dr. Yin Wu was up to during the war years. Presumably he would have been on mainland China's side in that conflict, and a much bigger danger to the aforementioned enchantments than your average Allied stage magician or guy who found a magic lamp in his attic.

[bigbywolfe]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

Would Golden Age Champions be a genre book, a setting book tied to the Champions Universe, or a little of both?

[assault]

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

 

I'm hoping there will be some analogue to the Losers/ Sgt. Rock' date=' played a game like that a while back, good times, lots of very good times.[/quote']

 

This is similar to what I was suggesting with the Australian pulp heroes earlier. War front heroes can be fun.

 

Aside from the actual ground pounders, you can have fun with air aces too. Just get out some model aircraft and start making zooming sounds...

 

Your aircrews can be competent adventurers on the ground too, of course. The Blackhawks might not quite be the equals of Sgt. Rock and his men on the ground, but they can take out several times their own weight in Nazis.

 

In a conventional campaign, though, aircraft will mainly be for dropping characters into/picking them up from enemy territory. This won't generally involve neato fighters. I personally favour Catalina and/or Sunderland flying boats, because they can land on water and are tough enough to fight off enemy fighters if they have to.

 

I think I need to design an air ace. Today.