Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

[phoenix240]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

The worst kind of People with Powers game is the political strawman game. "Let's all fight the New Hitler of the week!"

 

That's why my character would end up in the pub. It beats disagreeing with the GM in a world where he sets the rules. And my character's actions would be entirely on the "white" side of "black and white" - he'd be using his powers to help people, not hurt them.

 

That's not always as simple as it seems nor does everyone even want to play a character that aspires to Paladin like "good" all the time. But you seem to have had some very bad experiences with this style of game but its not universal. I don't know it falls under "political strawman" in your opinion, but so far the PCs have taken a vested interest in very "real world" political affairs. In the game I'm playing in: Seeds of Change our character are so powerful we're basically nations unto ourselves and can have an impact on the world stage at that level if we want so dealing with the politics and ramifications of our actions has been pretty interesting.

[Clonus]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

I ran a game, "Troubleshooters" where only one character wore a costume and they used their problems as heros for hire. I also tried the "Asylum" campaign where where the characters were (officially) mental patients who have psionic powers, but basically still would have been superheroes. I never tried a villain campaign or one which had no goal.

[Orion]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

My two longest running characters never had costumes, although pretty much everyone else in the campaign did. It just never made sense for them to have a costume given their background and interests, and so they normally wore jeans, sweater, leather jacket, etc. In general, I'm perfectly happy running or playing a no capes / no codename type world, as I see both as uninteresting. I don't care if they are present, but they do nothing for me.

 

In one campaign world I am currently working on, metahumans have only been around about 10 years, and there are maybe 150 worldwide. Early on, no one used costumes or code names. The % using them has slowly increased through time, so that about half the heroes have costumes, and about 75% of the villains now. While people with powers isn't the goal, it would be very easy to implement if wanted by players. The assumed game structure will be somewhere between Buffy and Stargate, but with metahumans. Although it is a somewhat dystopic world, where business runs everything and personal freedoms are less than what we have now, that doesn't have to be a big part of the game.

 

In the second campaign, there are no costumes or code names at all, and people with powers is the goal. Not only that, but it is assumed that every character is morally ambiguous. There is black and white in the world, but all the main characters and NPC are gray. It's not about saving the world or fighting bad guys, but using your powers (all magically based) to advance whatever your goals may be. In some cases, that is destroying demons and devils, but in others it is about money, power, or sex. Some people know there is magic in the world, but it's not widespread knowledge, and most want to keep it that way. Very open-ended, free-form, and driven by player actions. And while I love the idea of this campaign, I admit that I have never met players that could do well in it. At this point in time, I've decided that it's something for me to tinker with and maybe writer little stories about, but not use in actual play.

[sinanju]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

One of my favorite characters, Iron Maiden, wears a costume. But it's a costume I created keeping in mind that she was a) not wealthy, not connected to anyone who could provide her with rubber science superfabric, and c) refused to wear spandex or similar materials (even if she could get it), and d) had to assemble it herself.

 

It consists of an ordinary tank top, tights/leggings, leather miniskirt, leather boots, gloves, coachman's cloak, and a mask of the "cloth tied around the eyes with eyeholes in it" sort. All in black. All of it, except the cloak (and the mask, but she can make that herself) are articles of clothing owned by millions of women all over America. If/when her costume gets trashed, or when simply buying backup articles, buying these things piecemeal will raise no eyebrows. The cloak is a little harder to come by, but still obtainable without compromising her identity with a little thought. It's the sort of costume a real person with powers could assemble without too much difficulty.

[Bloodstone]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

My game is based around the premise (more of the secret agents with powers style), but we cheat a little.

 

The players get to travel to two other parallel worlds where posthumans exist openly (Red Earth and War World)

 

Earth Prime, the world the PC's come from, is the only one with an active posthuman breeding population, but they keep them hidden and controlled. It's kind of like a forest preserve that way. One of the first pandimensional organizations the players met, DELPHI, is there to protect the flatscans and manage the posthumans.

 

Mind you, a lot of posthumans end up leaving or getting deported to one of the other two worlds anyhow. They can't deal with their old lives or living the lie. So yes, there is a time when the PC's wear street clothes and maintain the strict illusion of normalacy and there are times when they are decked out in spandex and brawling through futuristic cities while dodging flying cars.

[phoenix240]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

My game is based around the premise (more of the secret agents with powers style), but we cheat a little.

 

The players get to travel to two other parallel worlds where posthumans exist openly (Red Earth and War World)

 

Earth Prime, the world the PC's come from, is the only one with an active posthuman breeding population, but they keep them hidden and controlled. It's kind of like a forest preserve that way. One of the first pandimensional organizations the players met, DELPHI, is there to protect the flatscans and manage the posthumans.

 

Mind you, a lot of posthumans end up leaving or getting deported to one of the other two worlds anyhow. They can't deal with their old lives or living the lie. So yes, there is a time when the PC's wear street clothes and maintain the strict illusion of normalacy and there are times when they are decked out in spandex and brawling through futuristic cities while dodging flying cars.

 

Interesting compromise. Sounds like a very interesting setting

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

It occurs to me another reason I would probably have problems with a 'people with powers' game is that my favorite character types tend to be incongruous in such a game. I like artificial characters, like robots or golems, or characters who gave themselves powers intentionally, or are aliens or 'monsters' rather than lab accidents or mutants.

[phoenix240]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

It occurs to me another reason I would probably have problems with a 'people with powers' game is that my favorite character types tend to be incongruous in such a game. I like artificial characters' date=' like robots or golems, or characters who gave themselves powers intentionally, or are aliens or 'monsters' rather than lab accidents or mutants.[/quote']

 

Aliens and artitfical creations can work in People with Powers setting but they take a bit more thought or they're the focus on the game which is probably better for one on one play than a group unless you're doing a Buffy type set up with one PC as the acknowledged "main character" in a narrative sense. The robot/android/experiment could also be the creation of another PC and their powers.

[Clonus]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

Aliens and artitfical creations can work in People with Powers setting but they take a bit more thought or they're the focus on the game which is probably better for one on one play .

 

Roswell was a People with Powers setting and they had a whole team of aliens. It helped of course that they looked exactly like humans, but that was only necessary because it was also a wainscot setting. Troubleshooters was a PWP setting, but it was no secret that they existed. Spandex had just gone out of style. Asylum was a wainscot setting, because criminal and covert agencies were all out to recruit psis whether they wanted to be recruited or not.

[Christopher]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

It occurs to me another reason I would probably have problems with a 'people with powers' game is that my favorite character types tend to be incongruous in such a game. I like artificial characters' date=' like robots or golems, or characters who gave themselves powers intentionally, or are aliens or 'monsters' rather than lab accidents or mutants.[/quote']

I agree on that one. I personally also tend towards the unsusual (one common question is "could I play a demon posessed alien robot?"). Most of the "people with powers" games also tend to have only one special effect/power source. And most often it has a no-alien/no-magic/no supertech rule.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

posthumans?wainscott?

[Bloodstone]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

Interesting compromise. Sounds like a very interesting setting

 

Yeah, it's been fun

 

We hit a few stylistic stumbling blocks along the way, but we've worked past most of 'em.

[Bloodstone]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

Most of the "people with powers" games also tend to have only one special effect/power source. And most often it has a no-alien/no-magic/no supertech rule.

 

I skirt that issue via philosophy.

 

All the arcane orginazations call what the players do magic or a blessing from the heavens and all the scientific organizations refer to it as psionics or the product of an alien retrovirus or something along those lines. So while there appears to be a single primary source of powers, in the fiction the world has not decided on what that source truly is. And there are some pretty serious "proofs" offered on both sides of the debate. In fact, two of the characters have backgrounds that completely fly in the face of established scientific metafiction of the world (lets just say mad science was involved and leave it at that)

 

There's two types of super tech in the game too.

 

Advanced technology from War World, which is the result of superior availability of materials and an uncanny number of power mad super geniuses, can be picked up and used by anyone.

 

But anything really physics bending is based on a rare suite of powers known as ethermancy/psionic circuit engineering (enchanting in layman's terms).

 

A lot of these items select their operator. Thor's hammer is one example, while War World's young Warmachine equivalent fights in unpossibly advanced technological power armor that was designed by a super genius psionic engineer.

 

On the aliens front, the players aren't actually sure if there are aliens or not yet... and I'm not about to say one way or another since several of them post on these forums

[Zen Archer]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

posthumans?wainscott?

 

Wainscot: Hidden culture/society operating in the real world. Buffy's been used above, and it's a good example. So is Harry Potter.

 

Posthuman is less easy for me to explain, so I'll just post a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthuman

[wrestlinggeek]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

It's not about saving the world or fighting bad guys' date=' but using your powers (all magically based) to advance whatever your goals may be. QUOTE']

 

But what if saving the world and fighting bad guys is your goal?

[Orion]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

It's not about saving the world or fighting bad guys' date=' but using your powers (all magically based) to advance whatever your goals may be. [/quote']

 

But what if saving the world and fighting bad guys is your goal?

 

Well, if that's what they really wanted, I'd let them. More likely, it would be just one of them wanting to save the world, and the rest helping out on occasion. Or even better, the players know they are going to save the world, but the characters have no idea just what is going on until the very end.

 

As an example, one of the primary characters is a private investigator (minor brick type) that regularly bends the law to help his clients, but is also a borderline casual killer. He hates getting involved with metahumans, but keeps getting sucked into it. Then there is the shapeshifting spy type that will steal any item or data from almost anyone, as long as it pays well. For her, getting into combat means the mission totally failed. There is a telepath that cures mental problems and helps people that interests him, but also regularly controls/influences others, sometimes for personal gain. None of these would be interested in saving the world, but would act to save themselves, or to save someone of interest to them. So the private eye is investigating a series of kidnappings, and hires the spy to infiltrate the Evil Corporation. When a Bad Guy is caught, the telepath reads his mind to get all the info, then resets his mind so that he will continue to send them info after being let go. No one cares that he is bound to get caught eventually, and will die messily when he is caught. Things start to get personal, they form a team just to get to solve the problem, and end up preventing DEMON from summoning some elder demon or vampire horde. And then they go back to divorce cases, corporate espionage, and counseling sessions to pay the bills until the spy sees something she wasn't supposed to see and needs help.

[matrix3]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

I rather enjoy "people with powers" as a setting, often casting it as urban fantasy or dark champions. The latest campaign had one PC that had low grade magical powers (ala The Laundry Files), another was a minor brick after an incident in the Armed Services, and the third could talk to spirits and some invisibility. They acted as private investigators while occasionally trying to thwart the long term plans of the big bad, an ageless female super genius child of Nazi science and magic who was trying to bring over Unspeakable Things to harness for her own power.

 

They were too weak to directly fight the big bad, but they could consistently throw a wrench in the works and work to expose her schemes.

[Clonus]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

In the second campaign, there are no costumes or code names at all, and people with powers is the goal. Not only that, but it is assumed that every character is morally ambiguous. There is black and white in the world, but all the main characters and NPC are gray. It's not about saving the world or fighting bad guys, but using your powers (all magically based) to advance whatever your goals may be.

 

In short, a supervillain campaign.

[bigbywolfe]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

In the second campaign' date=' there are no costumes or code names at all, and people with powers is the goal. Not only that, but it is assumed that every character is morally ambiguous. There is black and white in the world, but all the main characters and NPC are gray. It's not about saving the world or fighting bad guys, but using your powers (all magically based) to advance whatever your goals may be.[/quote']

 

In short' date=' a supervillain campaign.[/quote']

 

That's a pretty big assumption. Especially since his very first example you ignored was:

In some cases' date=' [b']that is destroying demons and devils[/b], but in others it is about money, power, or sex.

Not being a black and white moral/4-colored game =/= villain game. Urban Fantasy, which is pretty close to "people with powers", tends to thrive on shady characters of questionable morals, yet most wouldn't call those games (or books) about villains. I've seen "good" alignment D&D parties that look more like villains (kill thing and take their stuff) than some of Champions' published villains. You can get some pretty flawed characters, sometimes even unlikable a-hole characters, without crossing into "a supervillain campaign". (Conversly, you can have a villain campaign with very simpathetic characters).

 

Some people know there is magic in the world, but it's not widespread knowledge, and most want to keep it that way. Very open-ended, free-form, and driven by player actions. And while I love the idea of this campaign, I admit that I have never met players that could do well in it. At this point in time, I've decided that it's something for me to tinker with and maybe writer little stories about, but not use in actual play

[phoenix240]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

In short' date=' a supervillain campaign.[/quote']

 

Not being black and white/Four color doesn't equate to a supervillain game.

[Orion]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

In short' date=' a supervillain campaign.[/quote']

 

Well, I would never characterize it as a supervillain campaign, although some of the characters could easily be run as a villain. If the spy manages to steal evidence of the megacorporation's polluting the river and causing mutated monsters, she on the side of angels. If she steals the blueprints to the Big Gizmo and sells them to the Russians, she's a villain. The private eye helps track down missing kids, bail jumpers, and documents cheating spouses, which are good, if not so heroic. But if he guns down several gang members while rescuing the kid (and doesn't call the authorities), or breaks into an office that may or may not have evidence he wants, there's a problem.

 

The characters have problems. That doesn't mean the campaign is about them abusing their powers or breaking the law. If they did this, then having to deal with the repercussion would certainly enter the storyline.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

i think a people with powers supervillian campain woul have the heroes in street clothes while the villia wears a disguse ala an old cliffhanger serial villian or the phoney ghost in a scooby doo cartoon

[Guest steamteck]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

I'd prefer pulp heroes with powers myself.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Does anyone ekse like People with Powers style games?

 

I'd prefer pulp heroes with powers myself.

 

thats more or less what i had in mind