High-powered and Cosmic Gaming advice

[Darren Watts]

Hey all! I've started working on my next supplement, "Galactic Champions," which is a bit of a hybrid book- a setting (the 31st Century, when superheroing returns to the Hero Universe), an enemies book (there'll be 30-40 assorted villains and rivals, as well as the new Champions themselves and a handful of allies), and a subgenre book (the setting itself will also be an example of what 5th Ed. calls "Very-High Powered," (say, 400+200) with notes on running it a step below and above on the scale.)

 

It's the last part I'd like to open a discussion about here. I'll be writing a chapter of advice on playing and GM-ing extremely-powerful, galaxy-spanning superheroes, and while I think I have a few good ideas I'd like to solicit some advice from Herodom Assembled. If you've had experience running extended campaigns at this sort of power level, what advice would you have for GMs (primarily) and players? Any pitfalls to avoid in plotting? How do you make sure your players are sufficiently realized and individualized at this scale? How do you keep your stories fresh and not just "Cosmic Alien X has come to conquer the Earth again, ho-hum?" How do you keep normal-level npcs from being overshadowed? Et cetera. Let's chat- thanks! dw

[Lord Liaden]

First, let me say that I am really, really looking forward to this supplement. I've always been really fond of the "cosmic" comic genre, and I'd love to see who and what the "big players" in the CU will be.

 

On the specific issue you raise, it's a tricky line to walk. By definition heroes of this time deal, at least as a group, with truly epic threats to planets, galaxies, even universes. Of course, as you point out , even that kind of menace becomes ho-hum if overused. Most such comics series will vary that kind of story with individual adventures for smaller stakes, but that's much harder to do in a group gaming environment.

 

My first suggestion would be to remember the personal dimension of the characters: their interactions, their relationships, their past histories. Save time to roleplay these quieter moments, which can often be just as dramatic to character development as the big slugfests, if not moreso.

 

Bring in adventures where the point isn't just to destroy the menace. These can include exploring newly-discovered worlds or dimensions (often accessible through the advanced technology or great powers of the heroes), or convincing "cosmic entities" who are beyond combatting that a certain action they're taking will be detrimental. These things can involve quests or metaphysical journeys which require the heroes to use their non-combat skills, not to mention native smarts.

 

Try not to make the PCs the only heroes or forces available to deal with serious matters - otherwise the players will be concerned about dealing with less epic stuff when all heck may break loose on Alpha Centauri at any time. The player characters can still be the most important heroes, but they shouldn't be made to feel like they have to guard the universe every minute.

 

Hope that made sense. If it did I'll try to think of more.

[Gary]

In high powered campaigns, be prepared for everybody to have damage reduction. Damage reduction is much better than regular defenses when dealing with high attack levels.

[pinecone]

I only ran one "Uber" game ,it was Thor at around 1200 points and a galaxy spanning viking long ship full of 600-700 point asgardians (Thor was a PC) I found that at that level Role-playing came into the fore in terms of ingroup interactions after all when you can conquer a planet on your own your feelings Really matter... I'd suggest a whole section on "Blue booking" ala Strike force, in D&D (Herasy!) I kept high levels entertained with politics and diplomacy...I'd imagion that it would work on a Gr**n Lanturn as well....

[Talon]

I don't have much experience at this level, but I have a bit.

 

Point-wise, the comment about Damage Reduction also applies to a number of other power. As point totals increase, the relative cost of "fixed cost" powers decreases: Clairsentience, Invisibility, Desolidification, Darkness (sort of), Damage Reduction, Life Support, etc. Players who are min-maxing can easily pick these powers up and have a field day. Of course, min-maxing in general will have a larger effect, as the efficiency gap will be that much higher (i.e., a player who is 10% more efficient than the rest of the group will have 60 more points instead of 35).

 

I think that stressing even more than usual the concept of designing for fun and roleplay is the most important thing. A 600-point rollplay campaign gets really ugly really fast.

 

Offtopic: I think this will be popular enough that it would be advisable to split the enemies section into a separate book and use the extra space to further describe the galaxy. Galaxies are pretty big after all.

[Darren Watts]

Originally posted by Talon

 

Offtopic: I think this will be popular enough that it would be advisable to split the enemies section into a separate book and use the extra space to further describe the galaxy. Galaxies are pretty big after all.

 

I'll hop back in to the general topic in a bit, but I wanted to address this point- since Galactic Champions takes place after the "Terran Empire" and "Galactic Federation" Star Hero settings, we don't think an entire book devoted to the setting is necessary. A, the galaxy hasn't changed so much that we'd have a hundred pages worth of stuff, and B, if the book is popular we hope a beneficial side effect for the company would be to drive the comparatively weaker sales of Star Hero's supplements. After all, not only are we money-grubbing scum, but Terran Empire is a really frickin' good book and not enough people know it.

 

The setting info in GalChamps will cover all of the high points of the various Star Hero timelines, concentrating on stuff relevant to the superheroes of the 31st Century (like the Mandaarian Flight and the Xenovore War) and include quick summaries of the important alien races. But people wanting more detail on, say, the Thorgons after they meet a Thorgon baddie will be directed to TE. dw

[JeffreyWKramer]

I think one thing to cover is that some character concepts become increasingly powerful, to the point of possible imbalance, at high levels. Some examples:

 

Foci-based characters - powered-armor guys, weaponeers, etc. - end up having a lot more effective points than their peers. This is true at any point level, but becomes more pronounced and obvious at high-point levels. Having a guy in a 350-pt campaign with 300 points of powers costing 200 points due to the wonder of OIF -1/2 is tough... having the equivalent in a 800-point campaign, in which a guy gets 900 of value for 600 points becomes amazingly tough. This even starts becoming a problem at the lower-cost -1/4 "Hero ID Only" Limitation level when point values rise.

 

Certain sorts of special attacks - Mental and Drain, for example - can either a) become overwhelming, because the differential between a mentalist/powerleech's available points for high-power attacks and the amount of EGO/Power Defense most characters will buy (or should have, by reasonable character concepts) becomes quite high, or become pointless, because everyone has tons of points to spend and thus tosses a bunch into things like Power Defense, Mental Defense and Lack of Weakness. In the case of , NND attacks start to become worthless too, though AVLD may still have some value.

 

Certain sorts of character concepts max out or become mutated at certain point levels. When everyone has tons of points to spend on SPD/DEX, speedsters become less special (you can't add SPD 15 to the SPD chart). Martial artists become a lot less impressive when everyone is throwing around huge AoE attacks and such, and their alternative (buying tons of extra DC) starts to become ridiculous ("Aikido Boy just kicked a hole through the starship." )

 

Given enough points, the characters can start to become capable of some of the really obscene feats from comics. It doesn't cost that much for the speedster to buy an Area of Effect, Autofire, Double-Penetrating hand-to-hand attack that allows him to run around and punch everyone on the battlefield 5 times in a phase - the kind of thing you wonder why Flash doesn't use to end every fight before it really gets going in the comics. You can mimic Dr. Strange/Dr.Fate characters very well at the 600+ point level, by using VPPs. All of a sudden, Extradimensional Movement, AoE, Usable as Attack, Ranged isnt unaffordable.

 

Speaking of VPPs, at high point costs, *many* characters are going to want to represent their versatile power-sets via VPP, and they have the points available to do it at impressive power levels. This allows for all sorts of combinations of Powers, special effects and Advantages. Susceptibilities and Vulnerabilities start to become incredibly dangerous if all the character's foes can toss in a "Variable Special Effects" attack at will from their VPP. Combine high points, VPP and some of the special attack powers and things can really get dangerous - the Variable Effects Advantages for Adjustment Powers, for example, become killers. "Okay, this phase Draino uses his VPP to target all Mental Powers with his 4d6 Ranged Drain, Recover 5 points per month."

[Lightray]

With lots of points to spend, characters tend to get a lot of "back-up" powers. Everyone starts to look the same, after a while.

 

It is important to enforce character niches. If there is a speedster, no other character should rival the speedster in SPD. If there is a brick, the brick should have the highest STR. Usually, though, the character niches can be much more specialized -- the light energy projector should have no rivals in flashes and flash defense, but there might be some other energy projectors with different secondary powers.

 

Another thing to enforce chacter niches: more compound powers and advantages. The light energy projector can have flash-RKA combinations, whereas the fire energy projector can have armor piercing RKAs.

 

If you DO enforce character niches, though, AND stick to active point and/or DC caps, then it's quite possible to mix character point levels in adventures. There's no worry that low point villains will be disintegrated by the high point characters' attacks (or vice-versa). That makes it possible to run adventures where the cosmic-level superheroes have to deal with street-level problems. Always a good change of pace.

 

And I'm actually running a campaign "troupe-style", where each player has multiple characters each at different point levels (300 pt & 600 pt so far, 900 pt to come). They or I can choose which character is most appropriate to the adventure, and I only have to make minimal adjustments (add or drop a villain here or there, or have the villains choose different tactics). I'm finding this would be an excellent method for a "Legion"-style cosmic game, where you have the likes of Mon-El and Sun Boy alongside Matter-Eater Lad and Night Lass.

[Fedifensor]

You may want to address is combat length and defenses. The default attacks and defenses indicated by 5th edition HERO for superheroes leads to short fights, decided in a few blows. Sounds great, right? Well, if I'm playing in an epic-scale game, I want longer combats, where the villains have to work hard to take me down.

 

Also, when you get to huge VPP's, you may want to require heroes to define their powers in advance. This doesn't mean writing every single combo up, but every power should be listed by the player. Thus you may have Magic Blast (10-20d6 EB, special effect chosen at time of casting) and other powers so the player doesn't spend an hour defining what their cosmic VPP will be this phase.

[JeffreyWKramer]

Originally posted by Fedifensor

Also, when you get to huge VPP's, you may want to require heroes to define their powers in advance. This doesn't mean writing every single combo up, but every power should be listed by the player. Thus you may have Magic Blast (10-20d6 EB, special effect chosen at time of casting) and other powers so the player doesn't spend an hour defining what their cosmic VPP will be this phase.

 

This should be done for *any* VPP, IMHO. Figuring out VPP allocation in the middle of the game can show things down worse than anything this side of waiting for a multiclassed cleric/wizard in DnD to figure out which darn spell he's gonna cast this round.

[JmOz]

Not much experience here,

 

But I would highly recomend a Limitation cap on any power (-1/2 sounds about right). With a rememberance that F/X is king.

 

For instance: Norse Viking Hammer Guy has a Hammer that gives him his powers, well how often does he actualy loose it, is it really a OAF, or is it in truth a OIHID or OIF?

[Tom McCarthy]

Crosspost

 

I look to the JLA, JSA, LSH, Avengers, and the like for plotlines.

 

1) Time travel / save the timeline. Typically includes a time travelling villain or extradimensional conqueror (then its save reality).

 

2) Invasion / conquest. Typically aliens or alien empires, but may include extra-dimensional entities or a country capable of fielding super-powered troops or a comparable powered team.

 

3) The threat from beyond. This means a magical threat against a team with no mage, or an alien threat against a team with no easy space travel.

 

4) The enemy is us. A schism in the team (mind control, disguise and infiltration, madness, philosophical differences, evil doppelgangers, betrayal) pits one player against another.

 

5) Nemeses. The team of opposite numbers; whether evil duplicates from another dimension, or just a villain with the same/mirror origin as the hero.

 

6) The threat you can't punch. Occasionally a child or the like, but more often political harassment or media manipulation.

 

7) Flex your muscles. Gladiatorial combat against the galaxy's best.

 

We're talking widescreen action, so:

- Gods and god-like threats (Galactus, Watcher, New Gods, Crisis on Infinite Earths)

- Interstellar empires (Shi-ar empire threatened by Dark Phoenix, Kree-Skrull war)

- The android or alien with all the powers of all the heroes (Amazo, Adaptoid, Super-Skrull)

- Carnage on an unbelievable scale (Kaizen Gamora's army of super-powered shock troops on terror missions, nuclear missiles launched and must be stopped, Atlantis or aliens march on New York, rampaging Hulk)

- Histories being shaped by their actions (generational heroes that inspired them or inspired by them, sidekicks actually granted powers by them or enemies empowered by their enemies (think Loki creating Absorbing Man))

- Optionally, the team is feared by the powers that be (Authority being attacked covertly by Big Industry, governments, etc., X-men seen as public enemy, stalked by Sentinels)

 

 

 

A neat trick: Players design two characters each and give them to the GM. He hands back half of them, and says, "Pick your character. I'll use the others as villains."

 

=========================================================

 

I haven't run a really high-ended campaign, but I'm getting there (through generous XP). Some issues:

 

- the players really do win frequently or always in combat

- the PCs should be downright famous; secret ID may be hard to roleplay and positive reputation's almost required

- the GM better be good at running some large combats, because anytime agents and the like come into play, they'll be so thick on the ground you can't miss

- GMs similarly need to be able to run environmental disaster / civilian rescue quickly and cleanly. Individual forest fires will be no problem for these heroes, but the rescue effort is mindboggling when a second moon appears in orbit, or a spaceship crash lands and skids the length of California, or Atlantis or Thule rises from the ocean

- can PCs hurt spaceships or walk on stars ? For most of us, a Galactic Champion gutting a spaceship should be in genre. Spaceships in TE and STK are tough and need huge numbers of DCs to hurt.

[Lord Mhoram]

Originally posted by JeffreyWKramer

 

("Aikido Boy just kicked a hole through the starship." )

 

 

Funny you should mention that, this like this happened in the LSH. Karate Kid could kick through intertron. So given the subgenre that is really not too far out.

 

Seconding the advice of niche control. One of the cool bits that the legion had was that each hero was _very_ specific powers. A lot of high power, low versitily type stuff throughout the legion.

 

Having run a JLA esque high power game (never got to full galaxy spanning stuff) the comments above about fixed cost powers and mental powers/nnds are spot on.

 

Some other things...

The powerlevel makes for things you can't do otherwise. Use that, let the players have fun with the powerlevel. A tidal wave that they can actually stop, and earthquake you can dive to inner earth and stop. An asteriod that will destroy the earth but the heroes can through raw power shift its orbit. being able to do these sorts of things set the high powered hero apart from the average.

 

If the GM and or players are deconstructionist types, having the characters fill social niches common to comics is fairly nice - and I'm not talking power structure but social. The Patroit, the Boy Scout, the Impressive Female Hero, the Adventuring Family, the Urban Trickster, the Rich Socialite, the Detective, ect...

Realizing these niches and which characters fill them allow you to tell stories based around the archtypes as well as the specific characters.

[JeffreyWKramer]

Originally posted by Lord Mhoram

Funny you should mention that, this like this happened in the LSH. Karate Kid could kick through intertron. So given the subgenre that is really not too far out.

 

Well, I would agree there is in-comics precedent for such things. I still consider Val Armorr successfully pulling off leverage-based attacks against Kryptonians and Daxamites to be rather ridiculous, though. You can have all the knowledge in the world of Kryptonian physiology, but if you're not strong enough to impact said physiology, your knowledge shouldn't ammount to much.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Add a third, fourth, or whatever for the "niche character" bit.

 

For several years now I've been running a game set in DC's Legion of Super-Heroes universe, which takes place in the 30th/31st Centuries. *Starting* PCs are usually around 600 - 700 points, yet still tend not to be overpowering. Maybe I've just got good players, but here's some of the things I've noticed or tried to use:

 

1) Depth. A character can have a broad range of abilities without going outside their "niche". Encourage players to take lots of different powers, but just make sure they keep to their general concept. LSH example: you won't find Bouncing Boy throwing energy bolts like Sun Boy or altering atomic structures like Element Lad, yet when written to reflect his many years of experience, even the "laughable" Bouncing Boy becomes a very serious threat to any wrong-doer.

 

2) Skills. Emphasize Skills. Sure, they're only 3 points or so apiece, but when you take lots of them, that all begins to add up. If you think about the sort of Skills needed in a star-spanning super-hero game, it gets rather long: Knowledge skills of various planets, their histories, environment, flora & fauna, and inhabitants. More Skill Levels for key or important planets. Social customs (super-heroes often act in the capacity of diplomats or envoys) for dozens or hundreds of societies. Technical skills (if your sub-team gets stranded out back of beyond because your cruiser is shot up and none of you can FTL on their own, you'd better hope at least ONE of you can fix the thing!). Survival skills for when you ARE stranded on a strange planet.

 

3) Technology. Remember, if it can be done with super powers, chances are it can be done with 31st century tech, and that's going to be relatively COMMON tech, not just super-agencies or master villains. Example: a character who can stay invisible indefinitely with no fringe may think he's got a covert mission in the bag...but chances are there are light-bending "stealth" suits available for the right price, which means that high-security places WILL HAVE the tech to detect invisible intruders. Let's not also forget ID via bio-scan (DNA sequence, pore patterns on the skin, bio-electric aura, and so on). Being invisible to the security scanners won't help you get the door open if it takes a DNA read/match to open it. I'm not saying make powers like that useless, just don't make them a cakewalk.

 

4) When brute force won't work. Run scenarios from time to time where the PC's "niche" characters canNOT solve the problem directly with their powers...they either have to use their powers in a creative fashion, or their Skills. I'm not talking about villains that are gunning for them using their one weakness, either. Example: in one LSH story, a retired Bouncing Boy & Duo Damsel accidentally release a long-imprisoned djinn, who proceeds to run rampant and trash the other LSHers who show up to stop him. Given that he has to fulfill the wishes of the ones who released him, they plan to make him re-create his bottle and imprison him in it again. The djinn scornfully notes that they'd never be quick enough to make him do that before he managed to destroy them. In response, Duo Damsel splits and advises him that since he has to obey BOTH of her selves (since they are both her) if he refuses a wish to imprison himself again, then while he's attacking *THAT* Duo Damsel, the other one can wish him to destroy himself. So...imprisonment with a chance at release again later, or destruction? The djinn gives in, and is imprisoned once more. This is a fine example of using a widely regarded as near-useless Power in a creative fashion to stop a pretty much unstoppable foe. Another great example is when Matter-Eater Lad stopped Omega by consuming the "indestructible" Mircale Machine.

[Lightray]

Originally posted by JeffreyWKramer

Well, I would agree there is in-comics precedent for such things. I still consider Val Armorr successfully pulling off leverage-based attacks against Kryptonians and Daxamites to be rather ridiculous, though. You can have all the knowledge in the world of Kryptonian physiology, but if you're not strong enough to impact said physiology, your knowledge shouldn't ammount to much.

Karate Kid's superpower that got him into the Legion wasn't his martial arts knowledge -- it was his ability to find the weakness in anything. His martial arts knowledge, although extensive, was merely extra.

 

Which is another thing I've seen with high-point characters: those extra points get spent on back-up powers that can rival their primary focus. It's kind of the "You have what power?" syndrome. When you're the GM, you kind of expect Karate Kid to have Martial Throw. You don't expect Chameleon Boy to have Martial Throw and decide to use it on a superspeeding Daxamite.

 

In short, the GM needs to read the character sheets, know what's on them, and be ready to veto things that are outside the character's concept.

 

Speaking of the LSH, another point-sink in high-power characters is the team equipment, vehicles, and bases. They don't just have one superjet, they've got a fleet of Legion cruisers. And everyone has flight rings and enviro suits and telepathic earplugs and the like. And their base is BIG. And maybe the superteam has agents, too.

[zornwil]

Lots of great advice already here, I'm trying not to dup...

 

What comes to mind includes taking care to not overwhelm the players constantly. Yes, they have extreme power and should face hefty challenges. But every challenger, whether stealthy and smart or confrontational and brutish, should not represent a great challenge. Otherwise, they no longer feel powerful. You need to throw some "gimme" encounters at them so they can get that FEELING of having massive power. They generally won't be worth any XP, but they'll shade the campaign well.

 

Related, I feel in such situations a GM should go ahead and be willing to remind a player, "You know, your 35d6 Psycho-Whip will kill regular people, right?"

 

Also, in general, GMs should be, IMHO, more on the lookout for situations requiring "fudging", on two counts. First, with massive attacks and abilities, sometimes it just isn't necessary to go through all the details. Depending on the players, rolling a 60d6 Haymaker may not be necessary. Pay more attention to how CLEVER their solutions are and how IN-CHARACTER they are and use those parameters. Otherwise, it's too easy for the game to be a slugfest that lasts so long it actually starts boring people - that, or it's too easy for some of the brutish villains to succeed.

 

And speaking of that, resist the temptation to make the bad guys completely resistant to everything you can think of and the PCs have. Or at least curb that so it only applies to THE REALLY bad guy or two of the campaign. Although bad guys have to be extremely powerful, it's easy, as implied by earlier comments in this thread, to create villains so abusively powerful that they really aren't even fun to face - especially when the good guys throw all their NNDs and NONE of them stick! That doesn't mean to create ridiculous blind spots in the villains; rather, ensure they have their own personality foibles and either physical oddities or "niche" schticks that the players are likely to find something you can play along with.

 

Related to this last statemetn and pursuant to the second count of fudging, be loose with how powers are used. After all, it's a big campaign. Creative and innovative uses of power should go a long way, and will need to in order to differentiate characters better. So fudging, such as not requiring power skill (unless of course the character's really going to do those sorts of actions a lot) or allowing what would normally be a power misuses (an EB that in some circumstance might allow an Entangle), works well in high-powered games. This last point applies to the villains, as well; if you, the GM, think of a clever or just slightly abusive use of one of their powers in an in-combat circumstance, go for it!

[SuperPheemy]

One thing to keep in mind when working at the high-end of the game system is the dice mechanic. With large dice totals (15d6+), the vast majority of totals (around 80%+) will fall close to the mean total (meaning a total of between 3 and 4 per d6 rolled). The chances of extremely low or extremely high rolls become very remote. Game play can be speeded up by defining many of these high die rolls with a flat 3.5 per d6 rolled, bumped up or down for exceptionally high or low attack or activation rolls, or levels of luck or unluck.

[lemming]

Originally posted by SuperPheemy

One thing to keep in mind when working at the high-end of the game system is the dice mechanic. With large dice totals (15d6+), the vast majority of totals (around 80%+) will fall close to the mean total (meaning a total of between 3 and 4 per d6 rolled). The chances of extremely low or extremely high rolls become very remote. Game play can be speeded up by defining many of these high die rolls with a flat 3.5 per d6 rolled, bumped up or down for exceptionally high or low attack or activation rolls, or levels of luck or unluck.

BORING!

 

It also gets you into the, hah! I can ignore that attack, it can't hurt me.

 

You just need to learn to add up dice faster.

Group the dice by 10s. Start with pullig all the 6s & 4s, etc...

Count the number of 6s & 1s. The diff tells you how much you're up or down body.

 

Darren, sorry I haven't put in my 2 cents since I have played & run some high powered games. I think everyone has covered many of the bases though.

 

The best cosmic game I was in, was a future Legion style game. Points were not a factor. Sam Bell wrote up our characters after talking about the origins, etc... We each designed three characters, a low, a medium, and a high powered character.

[Patriot]

Cosmic level campaign

 

IMO,

The characters will have abilities far exceeding most campaigns, but the focus of the game shouldnt be on the 50d6 haymakers with area effect :hex on it, it should be on the story ......combat should be a rather rare happening.

You should dicusss stopping a galactic armada, with every side involved, before planning on winding up and punching holes in them all......Codes vs Killing should Cover all sentience

not just humans.

 

I would go into it a little more, but i am on a 1 hour break between shifts...

[megaplayboy]

Damage reduction should be factored into defenses as follows:

 

for half reduction, subtract 20 points from the max pd/ed as applicable.

for 75%, subtract 40 points. for 25%, subtract 10.

 

Characters should be balanced not so much in terms of conventional hero system mechanics, as in personality, power concept, niche, etc.

 

The digital hero article on "Point-less Champions" had a good point about Spotlight and Schtick management.

 

I'd like to see at least one example hero written up at the 700+ level.

Humor is a big factor in high powered games--with so much at stake most of the time, a little levity works wonders.

 

Keep the villains fairly unique, and have a lot of runs that are of epic length and scope, but with very different plots.

 

I look forward to buying two or three copies of this book for my group--I only wish the "standard" setting was one step higher;)

[Monolith]

To me the biggest factor in making interesting high-powered characters in a high-powered game is to make them unique. Don't build everyone with the same string of powers (everyone has megascale attack, and 2x AP attack, etc). Everyone shouldn't have Damage Reduction, or super-human senses. To me, the best part about buying the book will be to read about the interesting characters, and to see interesting and innovative designs. Not to just see 30 characters all with APx2, PEN x2, MegaScale energy blasts.

 

Interesting characters, and having them interact with the enviroment in interesting ways, are what makes a book a must have as opposed to a shelf warmer.

[Sketchpad]

I've ran few "cosmic" Champions campaigns throughout the years and the first thing that I looked at was comics for inspiration. For example, some good ideas for cosmic campaigns are: DC 1 Million, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinity Gauntlet, GL: Emerald Twilight, Most LSH Comics (Especially the Great Darkness Saga), various Fantastic Four stories (especially concearning Galactus), Kingdom Come, Silver Surfer (some of the older issues), New Gods (or anything with Darkseid as a leading character), Quasar had some good ideas, The Dark Pheonix saga, some of the big JLA storylines (stories with Starro, Despero and Amazo) and the FF/Superman crossover is good to look at, if nothing more than Superman becoming a herald of Big G

 

That said, I think that some conventions of the genre that should be focused on are things like mega-martial arts, massive multi-effect energy blasts, cosmic foci that have incredible powers, the use of extraordinary types of energies not used on Earth, a wide-variety of species, cosmic incarnations making appearances and two words: POWER COSMIC Having normal heroes transformed by the power of the incarnations is always fun

 

As far as what to do in a cosmic game, I know that when I ran a few we dealt with moral dillemas of things happening, as well as having HUGE forces opposing the heroes. Having a squad of Viper agents could be some opposition for normal powered heroes ... but having a squad of starships with a large destroyer would be something more fitting for the cosmic.

 

Hope this helps a bit

[Lupus]

There's also the 'War' option. PCs taking part in war actions, or, if powerful enough, doing it themselves. The how of it depends on power levels and power types. A group that's capable of flying in space (either by powers or vehicles) could take part in fleet actions. I ran a short-lived game of this type a few years back. Had the brick tearing gun turrets off capital ships, for instance.

 

Can be very important that the GM make definite decisions about what kind of game it's going to be. If the game's centered around fighting in space, then the super-martial-artist is gonna be left behind unless he spends a lotta points on getting, say, a fighter of his very own. (And that's a LOT of points.)

[Sketchpad]

Originally posted by Lupus

If the game's centered around fighting in space, then the super-martial-artist is gonna be left behind unless he spends a lotta points on getting, say, a fighter of his very own. (And that's a LOT of points.)

 

Unless he spends the points on a Transuit and a Flight Ring