Secret/Hidden Superpower Campaign?

[Dr. Confoundo]

I'll be taking over GM duties for a bit after our current campaign finishes, and after this week's game we had a conversation about what the rest of the players wanted to see in a Superhero campaign. Since they are for the most part unfamiliar with superhero games, I gave them a list of campaign themes/ideas that they might be interested in seeing in the game (things like Legacies, Mutants, Law Enforcement, etc), and had them choose three each - together we could weave what was picked into a coherent whole.

 

Well, with the themes that were chosen, and some starter concepts on the characters involved, it looks like the campaign is going to look a whole lot like a superhero version of Feng Shui - a rag-tag band of secret defenders protecting the world (and its related dimensions and timelines) from a diverse cast of nasty alien/magical/other-dimensional/time-traveling cabals, all engaged in a hidden conflict for supremacy of the multiverse. Superpowers are below the radar for anyone who isn't engaged in the conflict directly, hand-waved away as gas-leak explosions and mass hallucinations, or swamp gas.

 

For now, the tentative characters are: a former assassin, trained by a secret psionic society, but now fighting against her mentors; a master of mystic arts, trying to make amends for a great wrong he had committed in his past; and a time-displaced gunslinger whose actions inadvertently led to his timeline being wiped out by an alien cabal, desperately searching for a way to undo the damage he caused. The team will be deploying from some type of hidden sanctum, enabling them to reach diverse locations on Earth and in the timestream, for a wide range of missions.

 

I'm going to let each of the players detail their cabal as much or as little as they want, and I'll fill in the rest of the necessary details. But for now, I've got to brainstorm a couple other factions that may or may not fit into the conflict.

 

A couple possible concepts I came up with (but which definitely need lots of fleshing out) are:

 

- Nazis. (How could I not include Nazis?) An alternate-dimensional group of Thule Society occultists sending their chosen Runekriegers (Rune-powered superwarriors) to do their bidding... potentially they could also be hiding in the Hollow Earth. Added plus: I've got a whole crew that I can crib from an old WW2 Supers campaign.

 

- Cthulhu cultists. (Similarly, how could I not include Cthulhu?) A diverse group of Dagon-worshipping Deep Ones, followers of the King in Yellow, and flesh-eating ghouls, all set on waking their chosen Elder God.

 

- Creatures of Myth. The Minotaur has spent all these centuries scheming at the center of his Labyrinth, playing an intricate game of chess with mythical monsters (now in semi-human forms) as his pawns. Anyone know which Hero System/Champions book I vaguely remember reading this in?

 

- I know that there'll be at least one mostly iconic reality conquering supervillian dictator to bring into this - like Marvel's Kang the Conqueror, or Mutants and Masterminds' Omega, but he's just vapor for now.

 

(I should also make sure to figure out what each group wants the world to look like if they win. If I don't know what specific changes they want, it'll be much harder to create adventures that they'll be backing).

 

Now I also need to go back and reread Feng Shui... not to crib things wholesale, but for thoughts on how to redefine the conflict that is being fought beneath the surface. This campaign isn't as specifically tied to Hong Kong action movies (at least, so far), so I'll need to rethink the Chi and Feng Shui of power sites stuff, even though I love those concepts in the game.

 

Any thoughts?

[Dr. Confoundo]

Oh, and another question - What Hero System resources are there for running a Hidden Powers campaign? One in which the populace at large doesn't know about people with powers? I vaguely remember reading a chapter about that kind of game somewhere, but having so many systems on my shelf, it could have been from any number of games. It would have been Fifth Ed or before, because that's when I stopped collecting the books.

[Sketchpad]

How about Nazi Cultists that have survived the decades suspended in another dimension? They've returned and are unimpressed with the outcome, so they have their own secret war that they've been conducting that runs them right into the heroes. As far as world conquering villains go, I would make them more secret. Have them have a public face, but not anything with powers. Maybe they've hired an actor or have an underling that was thought to be the main villain, but they've since died and left the REAL villain to scramble for someone else.

The Minotaur reference seems reminiscent of the Zodiac Conspiracy. As far as other books, I would recommend the Champions and Champions Powers books.

[Hermit]

 

 

 

- I know that there'll be at least one mostly iconic reality conquering supervillian dictator to bring into this - like Marvel's Kang the Conqueror, or Mutants and Masterminds' Omega, but he's just vapor for now.

 

 

 

 

 

A brief idea about this one, though it might overlap with your elder god cultists too much.

 

The Church of Divine Harmony- Our best chance for world peace comes from the stars in the form of the living goddess herself. She's called by many names: Peace Bringer, the :Sword of Serenity, and Soul-Joy just to name a few; but the most accurate translation is Divine Harmony. Even the most cynical of men have found peace in serving her after just a few moments with her. Crowds hear her words and soon become believers! All their worries, fears, and stresses are eased as she takes them into herself. She bears the burden of it, all for them, she claims. And the price is so small....free will is just another burden, after all. Sometimes her worshipers seem distracted, for a part of their mind is forever on the joy of knowing Divine Harmony, but they are joyful always. They smile when they praise her. They smile when they build for her. And they even smile when they must kill those who somehow cannot be converted. After all, those that do not convert can never know peace anyway. Better they die than live being cut off from Divine Harmony's spirit. Divine Harmony however, abhors violence save as a last resort, or so she claims. She fully intends to stop all war on Earth. True, the euphoric bliss will mean no man, woman, or child will be able to determine their own destiny, but really, it's all for the better.

........

 

My suggestions would be to introduce the group as a cult/new age kind of movement that seems to rapidly be gaining converts and influence. Only when the characters investigate would they learn that "Divine Harmony" is not off this Earth. Make her a powerful mentalist with transformation, but, for some reason, have the PCs be among the only ones who seem immune, at least in the long term. This doesn't mean she's a push over. I'd also make her a brick, and how many conscious worshipers she has around her relates to her strong and invulnerable she is. If you want to start her out with more', then create a fictional country (Some Island in the Gulf of Mexico perhaps?) and have her take over it without firing a shot. Have the Church win the Nobel Peace Prize a bloodless coup that everyone there seems to love.

Maybe her powers are actually super tech based. Find and destroy the tech, and free the masses.

[Grailknight]

Urban Fantasy Hero and Monster Hunter International would probably be your best resources for a Hidden Campaign.

[kahuna's bro]

Urban Fantasy Hero and Monster Hunter International would probably be your best resources for a Hidden Campaign.

 

I agree.

champions 5th ed. had an idea about that

[Dr. Confoundo]

I've done some more work on this campaign, and we've got our characters put together.

 

Here's the one sheet that I put together for the game:

 

GATEKEEPERS

OF THE ALPHA-EARTH

 

Secret Protectors against Hidden Threats

 

This is the only real Earth; Alpha-Earth. All others are merely fun-house reflections, twisted mockeries of where we live on a daily basis. But due to the folly of science, the matrix that contains all of those myriads of worlds is unraveling, allowing the forces of those alternate realities access to Alpha-Earth. If they can establish a secret beachhead here, can they change reality enough to turn their own world into the Alpha-Earth?

 

 “What you don’t know can kill you!”

 

On September 10, 2008, the Large Hadron Collider went live, hopefully allowing scientists to answer some of the unsolved questions of physics – to learn the secrets of reality itself.

Nine days later, a short in the system caused an explosion of escaping gasses and some minor damage to the LHC. But unknown to the staff, the accident also sent ripples throughout the Earth’s vibrational field… and in some places where those ripples intersected, reality fractured.

 

Now, hidden groups of warriors travel to those fractures from alternate realities, alternate Earths. For they have learned a dangerous secret about our world – here, thought is reality. Each fracture can subtly alter the surrounding world, twisting it to bring it in line with the controller’s will. Control enough of these fractures, and they will be able to bend reality to their whim, and that new reality will cascade across the face of Alpha-Earth, changing it forever.

 

You are the last line of defense in this hidden war. Whether members of a secret society, a scholastic organization, or a religious order, your team of Gatekeepers fights against a dozen different threats to Alpha-Earth, protecting against incursions of altered reality. From Nazi Rune Mages to Evil Psychics; Ancient Chinese Wizards to Mutant Fish-Men from the Future; Robotic Killers, Alien Invaders, Demon Warriors, and a Pan-Dimensional Dictator from the dreaded Omega-Earth… all have their sights set on conquest.

 

(And that’s not even counting the factions that are native to Alpha-Earth, including a secret cabal of mythological creatures, now transformed into semi-human forms, and a brotherhood of occult masters who scheme to open the way for their Dark God.)

 

Only you can protect the Alpha-Earth from all the threats it now faces… Only the Gatekeepers can keep out the riffraff.

 

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I've got four PCs, and it's an interestingly diverse group.

 

Silhouette: A lovely young woman whose smile hides a dark secret: she was trained to be a mystic assassin by an evil cult. When she realized the evil deeds that they had planned for her, she turned traitor and now works to foil their nefarious plans. (Portrayed by Lucy Hale)

 

Quickdraw: An Old West gunslinger from an alternate Earth who won an alien device in a card game. When he was shot for cheating, the device bound itself to his nervous system, saving his life and giving him superhuman powers. Unfortunately, it also activated a beacon, bringing the alien invaders to destroy his homeworld. (Actor not yet chosen)

 

Nemean: The demi-god Hercules, forcibly ejected back to Earth after thousands of years in Olympus. But between his millennium of drunken shenanigans and his rage at being forced back to live with mortals, he's got some serious issues to work through. His biker jacket is actually the golden skin of the Nemean Lion, which helps protect him. (Portrayed by Nicholas Cage)

 

Arthur Stone: A successful stage magician and illusionist who discovered that he has actual mystical abilities in the same accident that caused the disappearance of his lovely assistant (who was actually the brains behind his whole act). (Portrayed by Pierce Brosnan)

 

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The first session was just a quick play intro for one person to get introduced to the game mechanics - discovering the real secret behind the Spanish skyscraper that has no elevators for its top 20 floors.

 

Next week we'll work on why (and how) this diverse team got together, and exactly what their mission statement is.