Supers vs Humans - The Challenge

[MadMacabre]

Hi guys!

 

Here is my situation. I created an alternate world for champion/Hero 5 where a great virus affected our world and killed 70% of the population (Post-Apocalyptic Super Hero Game). At the same time, a small (and I mean SMALL) number of individuals where not only immune to the virus, but were also granted superhuman powers. I want to keep the number of super humans VERY low and therefore I am looking for other antagonist then other ALTERED (as they will be called).

I want my players to feel, and realize, how special they are.

 

My players are supers that worth the basic 350pts (including drawbacks). This said, they are many times more powerful then humans, especially that they will be together as a team (4 players, so 1400pts of super). Anyone of you have nice situation/tactics that I could use to provide a nice challenge for my players, while using other things that other super NPCs?

 

I know I can focus on their dependants NPC, but this works only once or twice. After that it becomes annoying and repetitive for the players. I could also provide plots that are not resolved by combat, but hey…why all those super cool powers if they are useless. Again, this is a nice option for one or two plots, but players will quickly be bored with that.

I am looking for situations where a group of humans, with conventional equipment, could provide an interesting situation/challenge for a group of supers. Any anecdotes? Suggestions? Advices?

 

Thanks guys!

[Kristopher]

IMO, most supers should be in danger when attacked with heavy weapons...tank cannons, artillery, the GAU-8A Avenger cannon on the A-10, heavy machine guns, anti-tank missiles, etc, etc, etc...

[MadMacabre]

Very True...

 

But in a post-apocalyptic setting, those weaponry won't be very accessible to the poor humans.

 

Hehehe!

[Dog Soldier]

You've run squarely into the reason that I don't play or run post-anything worlds.

[Rage]

Originally posted by MadMacabre

Very True...

 

But in a post-apocalyptic setting, those weaponry won't be very accessible to the poor humans.

 

Hehehe!

 

What? 70% of the worlds population was killed off yet some how every known military base is fully gaurded? Man thats more suspisious than me getting super powers.

 

If parts of the military have survived they could be trying to set up a despotic govt. Instant conflict there.

 

Partisans with things like high powered crossbows, molitoff cocktails etc.

[Lord Liaden]

I agree that if anything, military-grade weapons will be even more accessible in a post-apoc world, although they'll become scarcer and less reliable over the passage of years. Groups that have access to them will probably become local power centers, and will be the most likely to have developed team tactics. And team tactics are the great equalizer between normals and supers: coordinated attacks, sniping from cover, dispersing to strike from behind and minimize losses from AoE attacks, and so on.

 

Various traps can be devised on a low-tech basis to immobilize heroes lured into them: camoflaged pits (with or without spikes at the bottom), nets or snares, quicksand, dropfalls of boulders or logs. More sophisticated traps would include pouring burning oil or gasoline on the heroes, or creating toxic gas from mixing common household solvents. If any area still has a working power plant or other current source you can set up an electrified trap. (Check out the "Living in a Dangerous World" section of FREd.)

 

Hope those help.

[astralfrontier]

If they aren't the ONLY supers in the world, then whoever else has powers is probably now setting themselves up as kings of the world, raiding military bases for weapons and such for their loyal followers, and so forth.

 

So the real enemies of the campaign are probably super-warlords. And you probably have cults of people surrounding "neutral" supers.

 

If there are no other supers, of course, then you probably screwed up. Lower the point values of your PCs.

[Argus]

Aliens, Aliens and More Aliens

 

Now that 70% of the Humans are gone it time for the Orieans to move in.

 

A.

[Dog Soldier]

Actually I don't know if 70% of the human race disappearing would really lead to a collapse. Think about it;)

[Vanguard00]

Just some ideas:

 

Situations:

 

Post apocolyptic, eh? That means hoarding. Hoarding of food, medicine, weapons, power (batteries and/or electricity).

 

* How about a disease running rampant through a known and friendly town? The supers are gonna have to quest for the medicine, and it just so happens that the only nearby hospital is held by a bunch of criminals and loons...and maybe one or two of them is a super, as well (which would be a great recurring villain once the villain escapes).

 

* Those pesky militia groups were all over the place. Damned if one of 'em didn't survive, complete with batteries, generators, weapons and plenty of modern conveniences. Now they're lookin' to take over the region and they don't much care who gets in their way.

 

* How 'bout nature running wild? All those previously-domesticated dogs are a problem now that their owners are gone. The really bad thing is that they're gettin' smarter, too. Seems when they go huntin' they don't always just kill their pray. Sometimes they drag it off. Ever heard of dogs doin' that before? Me neither. It's like someone trained 'em to do it...

 

 

 

Tactics normals can use against supers:

 

* Don't bunch up. That way you avoid sweeps, area effects, etc.

 

* Coordinate attacks: two or three "normal" coordinating attacks, whether with guns, bows or fists, can do a lot of damage.

 

* Alternate attacks: just because every normal has a SPD of two and goes on phases 6 and 12 doesn't mean they can't hold their actions and alternate their attacks. If you've got four guys, have them go on phases 6, 7, 8 and 9, then do it again on 12, 1, 2 and 3. You'd be surprised what you can accomplish if you can make a super abort an action or two.

 

* Traps: never underestimate the power of a good trap. A simple deadfall, pit trap, swinging limb, whatever, can really mess with their heads, and once you start adding explosives of any kind they're in for a rough ride.

 

 

Lastly, sounds like you should check out some Gamma World source books for some good ideas. Also, David Robbins had a decent series of Post Apocalypse type books (the "Endworld" series) many years ago. They're hard to find, but eBay or something might be able to help you some.

 

 

Good luck to ya.

[Supreme Serpent]

Originally posted by Vanguard00

* How 'bout nature running wild? All those previously-domesticated dogs are a problem now that their owners are gone. The really bad thing is that they're gettin' smarter, too. Seems when they go huntin' they don't always just kill their pray. Sometimes they drag it off. Ever heard of dogs doin' that before? Me neither. It's like someone trained 'em to do it...

 

Maybe the virus crossed over into another species? A super-powered grizzly bear might give them problems...

 

In some parts of the world, a huge part of the population dying off could actually be "good" in the long-run. Europe didn't really take off until AFTER the plagues. Some overpopulated countries (India, China, etc) might turn into real world-class powerhouses, especially if the US, etc. collapes into "Road Warrior" mode. They might keep themselves together well, and start to expand, or at least send expeditions to the savage areas to scavenge nukes, etc.

[Trebuchet]

70% casualties still leaves a world population of about 1.5 billion, which was roughly the world's population in the early 19th century. America would still have 84 million inhabitants, more than we had during the Spanish-American War in 1898.

 

As for opponents, there have already been some good suggestions made. But also consider just how violent your characters are going to be willing to be when some raiders aren't hardened criminals and gangsters, but rather starving women and children raiding for food to fend off starvation. How will your heroes react when an attractive young woman offers her body in exchange for food for herself and her two children?

 

Your characters might find themselves in the role of Mad Max from the Road Warrior movies; natural leaders who must find a way to help the defenseless protect themselves. Or they might become leaders in the struggle to rebuild civilization, which might well tax their intrapersonal skills more than their superpowers.

[Battlestaff]

Look at the skills, training, and education of the people that are left. People with specialized knowledge (electrician, nuclear engineers, etc) will become all the more important because of the knowledge they possess. These people could be the center of a plot, as they seek to escape an evil dictator who forces that person to keep seized weapons operating so the evil dictator can control a population.

 

Were most of the educated elite able to hide in bunkers designed to protect them from just such a disaster? if so, they will probably move to seize power wherever they are. And they would be the kind of people that would have the skills and knowledge to use the equipment that was left behind. These would be the kind of folks who would gather together remaining military personnel and train them into effective fighting forces.

 

Did certain remote locations escape the effect of the plague? If so, they might retain enough of their infrastructure and be in a better situation than people in citites where certain key personnel (power plant employees, etc) are no longer around.

 

With all of these, you can create subtle situations to test your supers. Sure, they can fly in and destroy anyone threatening their village, but do they really want to risk destroying the necessary supplies, or the only doctor left who can find a cure for a disease that has mutated?

[Lord Liaden]

One thing that often gets overlooked in the superhero genre is the potential use of superpowers in rescue scenarios involving natural or man-made disasters: floods, fires, earthquakes etc. Such forces can challenge even the most powerful heroes, especially when the challenge isn't to blast or smash, but to preserve and build (or rebuild). In an era where central authority is weak or nonexistent and heavy equipment is difficult to find or deploy, superpowered disaster relief would likely be even more in demand.

[The Monster]

Have the virus mutate.

Anything goes

[assault]

Originally posted by Battlestaff

Look at the skills, training, and education of the people that are left. People with specialized knowledge (electrician, nuclear engineers, etc) will become all the more important because of the knowledge they possess.

...

 

Were most of the educated elite able to hide in bunkers designed to protect them from just such a disaster? if so, they will probably move to seize power wherever they are. And they would be the kind of people that would have the skills and knowledge to use the equipment that was left behind. These would be the kind of folks who would gather together remaining military personnel and train them into effective fighting forces.

 

Did certain remote locations escape the effect of the plague? If so, they might retain enough of their infrastructure and be in a better situation than people in citites where certain key personnel (power plant employees, etc) are no longer around.

 

There's a slight problem here, and that's the concept of "the educated elite". In western societies, at least, education is pretty generalised. You could probably take out 75% of the population and still have the skills and knowledge you need to run a viable society.

 

That's not _necessarily_ true in the Third World. It may be, or it may not, depending on the particular case. On the other hand, "underdevelopment" may actually be an asset, in as far as having an economic base independent of a collapsing "world economy" means that you could possibly survive relatively intact.

 

It's quite likely that previously peripheral areas might emerge as centres of power in this kind of "new world".

 

Given the way this setting has been described, I wouldn't go with the full post-apocalyptic thing. It sounds more like a civilisation in crisis, rather than a civilisation destroyed. That is, it's Mad Max, rather than Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior). The forces of "order" are still out there, even if they are stretched.

 

Which, come to think of it, is a pretty fine setting... And, well, the Mad Max films were Australian (apart from the abomination with Tina Turner, which "never happened" as far as I am concerned).

 

The later bits of The Dark Knight Returns come fairly close to this kind of setting.

 

Alan

[Badger]

Think about it 70% of the population. India and China have billion+ people. Take away 70% they still have 300 million (or approximately the same amount #3 in poulation United States has). So I gotta say China could definitley move up (at least after cleaning up, it is gonna stink). But likely this disease could cross to other animals (at least mammals). Maybe make some animals more intelligent, super powers, etc. Lord knows what would happen if a cat gained intelligence and super powers. I know my cat thought he was king. Anyway an apocalypse would definitely make military stuff more accesible. I'd probably say the more catastrophic the more available (provided you can find it). There would also be a possibility that factories that make military weapons would still be functional and if you could find people with the expertise to work it could keep the warlords in business indefinitely (theoretically). Preferably I'd go with 90-95% of the world population getting taking out.

[Badger]

Mad Max 3 was heresy!

[Ghost who Walks]

1) Natural disasters. They include earthquakes, fires (plenty of empty buildings), and more plagues (Unburied bodies perhaps)

 

2) Religious nuts, who think God is involved somehow

 

3) Ecological nuts, who blame industrialization for the rapiud spread of the plague (planes/airports are what spread diseases today)

 

4) Aliens: The ones who caused the plague. For fun, have them cause it by accident (alien version of Columbus)

 

5) Militia groups attempting to restablish America. They do keep copies of the Constitution and have Guns...thats all you really need to start a country.

 

6) A guy driving a car. Can your heroes survive a collision with a truck?

 

7) Carriers. People infected, who did not die. Still contagious, they can spread the disease further...

 

How the plague spreads might be key. If its airborne, most major cities wil lbe gone, along with everyone in them. This will be a big blow to the Industrialized World. Rural populations may survive, and America may be fighting the Mexican Invasion...

[Thirdbase]

Originally posted by MadMacabre

Very True...

 

But in a post-apocalyptic setting, those weaponry won't be very accessible to the poor humans.

 

Hehehe!

 

I'm unsure where you are, but just about every city in the US of a decent size has a National Guard Armory, complete with at least machine guns, plus your average gun shop will probably have several high powered rifles.

 

Also anyone with a decent knowledge of chemistry would be able to a very powerful bomb, look at Oklahoma City that was Fuel Oil and fertilizer.

 

I would also suggest you read some post apocalyptic books for ideas.

[starblaze]

You have all these corpses lying around, killed by the virus, so have the virus mutate and bring reanimate them. You could have 70% of the human population become hungry little zombies. Not very dangerous on their own but very deadly en masse.

 

Although most of the heroes could probably survive combat against them they would still have to come up with a way to defeat them.

[Dog Soldier]

There's something about the game setting that's being described that disturbs me on some level. The only supers are the players and for some reason the rest of the human race cannot access any prior technology. If that's case then even such mundane weaponry as molotov cocktails might not be available. Also, what is the point for humans to fight the supers anyway? If things are that bad that just scraping up enough food to eat will be a greater concern. Again, stuff like this is why I avoid post-apocolyptic worlds like the plague.

[Houston GM]

Collapse of Society

 

Actually I don't know if 70% of the human race disappearing would really lead to a collapse.

Have you ever read Tom Clancy's "Executive Orders"? One of the threats in there is an act of bioterrorism:

 

"Worst case? Twenty million deaths. At that point, what happens is society breaks down. Doctors and nurses flee the hospitals, people lock themselves in their homes, and the epidemic burns out pretty much like the Black Death did in the fourteenth century. Human interactions cease, and because of that the disease stops spreading."

 

This may be a work of fiction, but Tom Clancy is know for doing his research.

 

This is talking about societal collapse from 20 millions deaths out of 288 million population in the U.S. 7% of the population.

 

The Black Death killed about 50% of the European population. It took 150 years for population numbers to recover.

 

-------------------------------------

 

In a post-apocolyptic world, basic survival (food, water, shelter, safety) are king. Unless the "heroes" are subsistance farmers, that means they are getting their food and water from someone else.

 

So your PCs could be bandits, stealing what they want, or they could be getting the necessities through legitimate trade.

 

What do they have to trade? Safety. They're the protectors of their village. They keep everyone safe, and they get food as payment.

 

1) Eliza Pratt's child is missing. It's their job to go find him.

 

2) Someone's rustling the cattle. Unless they're stopped (and the cows recovered), there won't be meat and milk this winter.

 

3) The next village over made a retalitory strike. They threw a diseased goat into the well. Now there's no clean drinking water. The players need to go find the equipment to set up a water purifier, and they need to do it fast.

 

-------------------------------------

 

Shrugging off gunshots is easy, but how do you keep an enemy from torching the crops? Perhaps the biggest lesson the players will need to learn is diplomacy. Talk their enemies out of attacking them before the problems even start.

[Fireg0lem]

There's the good old "secret military experiment" that got loose when the virus hit. Maybe a genetically-engineered (but not superpowered) soldier or cyborg? A killer robot? Mutated animal?

 

Another option is to include a small number of supers who are capable of investing some degree of power in normals (Marie from "Shadows of the City," an old Dark Champions supplement, is one example of this). A gadgeteer with enough followers could have a pretty strong force of super-agents at his command. This type of villain could be combined very effectively with the "religious fanatics" idea.

[MadMacabre]

Wow! Thanks a lot guys for the amazing comments! I really appreciate.

 

For the whole weapon accessibility thing, you are much right. Those will be more accessible. I totally forgot about that aspect. So I'll change that in the system.

 

A point of precision, the whole game is not totally Post-Apocalyptic. Basically, we are grossly 10 years after the genocide. So I am mostly aiming at a genre where the society is now collapsing at a dramatically high speed and the heroes have a chance to slow or stop the decline. On the other hand, there are other SUPERS in the world that will work on every side of that fragile equilibrium. So like I said, there will be other supers, but I want to present other situations to my players then conflicts with other super dudes.

 

Finally, I am sorry if I don’t go too much in details about the setting, but I know some of my players are quite curious and may be wandering around. So the setting may look fade to start with, but I’d rather keep some punch lines totally secret from my players…Hehehe!

 

Again, thanks a lot guys and don’t hesitate to give me your opinion on the do and don’ts! I have decent experience in Gming (17 years – geez I’m getting old), but this is my first try at a super hero genre (and the Hero System – can’t stand the new D20 so had to change).