Millennium City Free Press

[Hermit]

Too Many Heroes?

November 9, 2003

 

By Dallas Kingsly

 

 

Eat your heart out New York. With no less than four confirmed super hero teams, the Big Apple has been long considered the dominant city when it comes to super hero population. Chicago and San Francisco have been the long term contenders, but suddenly there's a new kid in town gaining fast. The latest public reports released from the Department of Superhuman and Paranormal Affairs indicate that Millennium City may soon take top spot in sheer number of super heroes even if not organized teams.

 

The Champions first come to mind when most think of the City of the Future. They've been here pretty much since the name change, and let's face it, have already been through more in their first few years than some teams have been through in a decade. With such high profile heroes as Sapphire among their ranks, they never fail to get noticed. To their credit, they're good neighbors, seeming ready and eager to comply with the city's wishes and help out any chance they get. Oh sure, there are complaints about Ironclad leaving dents in the pavement, but already his contributions have made up for that in most folks opinions.

 

Nor are the Champions alone. Numerous solo heroes have always been here. Something of the spirit of old Detroit makes for rugged hard workers even among our costumed population. You won't catch the likes of Kinetik slouching, and even the corporate hero Binary, or the immensely comercial (but still popular) Cavalier take time to help the "little guys" out daily it seems. Some theorize that for every hero we see publically, there's one working in the shadows to protect us. That is an annoying thought for reporters like me who would love to scoop any crime fighters, but likely a comforting one for most walking alone at night.

 

Now the MC-8, who were mostly among those 'solo heroes' have pretty much taken the niche of 'Non-team team' , gathering at least twice on record to save the day. With Steadfast's charity causes, and Commando Rubberbando's participation in civil rights marches; it's pretty clear they aren't fading from the limelight any time soon either. Just how organized that group will eventually get is unknown, but already there are rumors that different companies are hoping to be the first to publish an "MC-8" comic book.

 

Not bad for a city beaten down in 92' and reforged anew only recently in the last decade or so, eh? It makes a Lennie proud.

 

Of course, after the initial "We rock" moment, a Lennie also has to pause and think to himself, Is this a GOOD thing?

 

When the latest 50 foot tall menace is testing our archetictural structures in its rampage, and neo-godlings in spandex hurl their own equivilents of thunderbolts at it in an effort to stop said menace- well, it's the common working joe (and jane) who has to deal with the fall out. What's more, heroes and villains seem to attract each other. In fact, another theory is villains actually out number the heroes on a scale of 3 to 2. Reasons vary from the sociological to the metaphysical, and I won't get into them here. The point is, somedays it seems you can't look up in this town without getting a glimpse of a costumed savior or neer do well.

 

Property damage moments are rarer than you'd think, thanks chiefly to a tendency by some super heroes to "take it outside" (or to a clearer area), but it can still add up. If not for the caps on "Super human" insurance in this town, one shudders to think where the rates would be. In the last year alone, over 23 injuries and one death could be attributed to falling debris and other fall out. This has caused some officials and special interest groups to demand greater restrictions and accountability for super humans in Millennium City, but dissenters point out that many of these people were the ones pursuing the super battles to "get a closer look", despite the obvious danger. Besides, they continue, many superheroes choose not to comply with the registration act, so how could anyone possibly enforce more restrictions without driving away our best defense against the villains?

 

Mayor Biselle, when asked about super heroes, particularly the ones who do not register, had this to say, "Like many, I have my doubts... and I will give the benifet of that doubt to these well known mysterymen and women until they have proven to no longer be a benifet themselves."

 

The city council may not agree with him. Already proposals and counter proposals are being brought to the table to vote on, regarding how much leeway should be granted to our staunch defenders in their zeal to defend us. Now's the time for every Lennie to make his or her voice known on these issues.

 

For myself, well, I think Super Humans are the Millennium City equivilent of L.A. earthquakes. They're dangerous, they're powerful, and you never know when they're going to hit. They're also a fact of life. Tieing the hands of super heroes will do nothing to restrict or hold back the villains they oppose. Pouring more tax dollars into enforcement of such isn't going to help do anything but drive some of our protectors away. Perhaps council member Lena Schroeder's proposal to set up a Superbattle aid and relief program would be a more productive and less antagonistic use of those funds.

 

As annoying as they can be sometimes, as frightening as they sometimes seem, and despite the fact we tell dirty jokes about them around the water cooler; the super heroes of Millennium City have given their support to us again and again. I think it's time we returned the favor.

[Hermit]

Okay, back to reality

 

 

Has anyone ever written up a "In Character" (even if the character is an NPC reporter) article like this to spice up the feel of a campaign? I'm thinking of using this, handing it out, that sort of thing, to let my players know public opinion of their PCs. After all, there's nothing preventing Nightbringer from getting a cup of coffee and the local paper to see how things are going.

 

Good idea, or waste of time?

 

(It was kind of fun to do here, but that's neither here nor there)

[TheEmerged]

Good idea. I find articles like this help to provide background information that wouldn't otherwise come up in a sessions.

[lemming]

When Sam Bell ran his Legion style game, we'd get a newspaper at the beginning of the game. I'll see if I got any on hand...

*lemming scurries off to the file room*

[Mark Rand]

Nice idea. I'll use it, too.

[lemming]

Sam did lots of stuff like this for all his games. These are taken from file sources, so they're not in any sort of order and are maybe 1/10 of the ones done for the campaign.

 

Originally done by Sam Bell for his 2995 game

 

SEX SCANDAL ROCKS TAVITAN PARLIMENT, 4TH TIME THIS YEAR.

SHE LOOKED OLD ENOUGH TO ME CRIED STUNNED MINISTER.

Chmurr Wrouu, senior Minis ter from the conservative Nrurm district was arrested yesterday by police investigating a noise complaint that lead them to the Ministers capital apartment.

"They were screeching and howling in there all night" said one neighbor. "Of course that's nothing unusual for us Tavitans."

The Minister is cur rently out on bail and could not be reached for comment. Opposition candidate Uurrow Murrw called for an immedi-

"See Scandal" pg 8

 

POWER PLANT INVESTIGATION CONTINUES

A team of Guardian Knights flew south to aid the rescue efforts at Antarctic Power Grid Fusion Station #7. GK members entered the remains of the powerplant to investi gate the unexplained explo sion there and shortly returned. When asked if they had found any clues, the humorously gruff Rok Bron Ston removed his charred and smoking hat and said "Yes."

The Hammer was a little more helpful: "We've got a pretty good idea of what the problem is, and we" re requesting that all non-rescue personnel clear the area until backup, preferably Hotshot, arrives and we get the situation under control.

See "Out of Control" pg 19.

 

CAMPAIGN BEGINS FOR 2994 ELECTIONS

The race for the position of UP Senator has begun again on Earth, with 243 candidates compet ing for just 64 seats, down from 67 two years ago due to reapportioning after the 2990 census. As is traditional, the candidates delayed anouncing their intentions to run until November 1st, giving them just two months before the January 1st election day. The only candidate to break tradi tion: Yred Ynos, the former Assisant Director of Iberia, hoped to generate interest by starting his campaign one day early, on October 31, but his plan backfired and he was boo" ed off the stage by out raged traditionalists during his first major speech.

See "Utopian Fantasy" pg 34

 

"SUPER" CRIME TOLL CONTINUES TO RISE

The Empire's assault on Carter Station dramatically demonstrated how "Super" powers have outstripped technologi cal means of control. There have always been a few individuals gifted with amazing powers, but these were more suited to parlor tricks than to swaying the galactic power balance. Even the most powerful mutants of the past, such as Quantum of the 24th century or Freedom Hawk, hero of the UP/Empire war were rare, and their power pales when compared to today's Element Master. Stuhr Bral has opened pandora's box with his technique of controlled mutation and number of known "supers" climbs every week.

See "Super" pg 5

 

WARP MONSTERS CAPTURED ON LUNA

The four survivors of the UPs first attempt to duplicate Stuhr Brahl's superbeing creator were tracked down and captured by four members of the Guardian Knights. The survivors have been identified as Xol Crang, Timm Lasky, Garon Rozek and Yngwe Areto, all of whom volunteered for the experiment. ArcAngel, Hitoe, Prime and Mr. Impervious tracked the survivors from the site of the Lunar Express derailment to the abandoned New Tycho aluminum mine. The four survivors were horribly mutated for unknown reasons and apparently driven insane. The mutations were so severe that the men were not recognizable and could only be identified by reviewing the records of the experiment and observing which test positions the survivors occupied. The warp monsters were tough enough to give even the Guardian Knights a tough time. ArcAngel received a puncture wound to her shoulder that put her in the critical ward of Lunar General Hospital, Hitoe and Prime both suffered from a number of contusions and lacerations but were released after a being bandaged up. Mr. Impervious asked for some aspirin. The mutants will be confined and studied in hopes that a way of reversing their mutations will be found.

 

HERO BASE OPENS

They've been called everything from Space Rangers to modern Argonauts, from dangerous vigilantes to Galaxy Knights but whatever they are called, Dr. Radnor's group of colorful super-troubleshooters have generated unprecedented public and media attention. This swirl of excitement now has a physical center, as the doors opened on their new base of operations in the heart of Mega-City One. The base will be home to many of these superhumans, along with their non-powered advisors and support personel.

When asked about possible safety risks the mayor's office replied "Safety? Why should we be worried? These people are here to safeguard..."

see "Clueless" pg 2

[lemming]

One thing I did for one campaign was write a diary of events as seen by the character.

 

One thing that's fun if your players are up to it is to get your players to write up adventurers from their point of view.

Takes some load off the GM and can be quite humorous.

[Kristopher]

The two good Champions GMs I've played with have used this sort of thing, and when I ran I adapted it too. It adds a lot of depth to the campaign.

[Guest Worldmaker]

I've done this thing in the past, and will do so in the future... its a great way to impart "between story" knowledge.

[BoloOfEarth]

I've done a campaign newspaper, the Hero.net Herald, for the past several years. I try to have a new one for every session (I'm successful about 3/4 of the time). It has articles recapping the prior adventure (unless it was something secret), usually an article pertaining to the current adventure, and maybe an article of two of filler, red herrings, or harbingers of things to come.

 

I'm not sure who created Heronet (a prior GM had it in his campaign, but I suspect he got it from a published source) originally. I adapted it to an online resource (database, message board, chat rooms, etc.) for superheroes, with a newspaper put out weekly. The fun thing is that the paper is delivered through some mysterious means directly to the subscriber (yes, even in secret ID, though not when others are around).

 

If these boards supported PDF files, I'd post a few. (My favorite is when Foxbat took over the Hero.net presses and put out the Foxbat Gazette, describing him being proclaimed Emperor of the World.)

 

Campaign newspapers, or even news items read to the players, can really add a lot to a game. Just be prepared for the players to jump on something that you only meant as filler...

[Hermit]

Thanks for some of Sam's snippets there, Lemming. And thanks to everyone who replied. If anyone wants to post some "Newspaper clippings" based on their own campaigns or what not, please, add on. It might inspire a plot or two for others.

 

I definitely want to get my butt in gear and make a few for my players next run.

[Gold Rush Games]

We used handouts like this for our San Angelo game. Pat (Sweeney) seemed to really enjoy creating them and tried to do one for us for every session. They were very cool and helped maintain the "feel" of San Angelo in our games.