Adult Supers Thematic Question

[TheDarkness]

Terrible thread title, sorry. And it's technically game related just because it's probably going to influence theme/plot ideas for a supers game.

 

Anyway, if you're thinking more adult super hero stuff, to avoid saying "edgy" or "dark" because I think they may be self limiting in some cases, but just supers stories for adults, what do you like to see?

[Cancer]

That's a genre selection, really.  Golden Age?  Silver Age?  Iron Age?  Dystopic Big Brother-ism?  Post-Apocalyptic Dying Civilization with demons, omnicidal war machines, or whatever being the superpowered opposition?

 

An independent but perhaps equally important selection is: how silly are players allowed or expected to get?  That's a different, subtler, but still important light/dark aspect of a campaign.

 

My roots (and preferences) are in the Silver Age, and I can get pretty silly, but I don't see much of either of those any more.

 

Have you got specific campaign concepts you want reactions to or opinions about?

[Tjack]

First I think, is that for not only for the purpose of discussion but for your game itself you need to define what you mean by “adult”.

  Neither Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad were made for children but thematically and in content matter they were worlds away.

The question I keep asking in these discussions is “What are you and your players looking for in a game?”

[archer]

On 9/26/2019 at 10:49 PM, TheDarkness said:

Terrible thread title, sorry. And it's technically game related just because it's probably going to influence theme/plot ideas for a supers game.

 

Anyway, if you're thinking more adult super hero stuff, to avoid saying "edgy" or "dark" because I think they may be self limiting in some cases, but just supers stories for adults, what do you like to see?

 

I'm not really a fan of dealing with street level drugs or racking up body counts. I don't want to game out explicitly dealing with rape, rape victims, or the aftermath.

 

If you're writing a comic book, my personal preferences are no problem because there's plenty of other customers out there if you want to frequently write about such things. But if you're GMing a group of gamers and I'm one of them, you've got a huge problem if you want to include those things.

 

So I'd think the most important thing is to talk to your group and see if they have any hangups or strong preferences of subject matter to avoid.

 

Anyway...

 

When I think of stories for adults, I think of the NPC's in the stories acting like real people. People are motivated by money, fame, sex, laziness, protecting their loved ones, and increasing their status...with the occasional altruistic impulse thrown in. Yeah, you're going to run into someone who is a saint or who is absolutely incorruptible or who will do their job by the rules regardless of the personal consequences. But most people aren't heroes or highly devoted to a cause.

 

Maybe some more realistic situations in cities.

 

In most comic book superhero battles in cities, there aren't innocent bystanders in the middle of the fight. They might be pictured off to the side in small numbers but you aren't going to see sidewalks so full of people that you need to pay attention to keep from bumping into other people.

 

Try having a fight here on the crowded streets of Manhattan.

 

[Old Man]

One of my favorite issues of Batman had almost no Batman in it--it was about a severely sleep deprived Bruce Wayne screwing up Bruce Wayne's life.  He signed some Wayne Enterprises documents without reading them, set up dates with Vicky Vale and some other woman for the next night (at the same time), and did some shoddy maintenance on the Batmobile.  I never did find the next issue to find out what happened.

 

But that's an example of what I would consider more grownup themes in supers--the effect that a crimefighting career would really have on someone's life.  It's one of the reasons Spider-Man is my favorite hero.  More internal conflict, as opposed to external, even if the world hangs in the balance of the external conflict.

[csyphrett]

6 hours ago, TheDarkness said:

Terrible thread title, sorry. And it's technically game related just because it's probably going to influence theme/plot ideas for a supers game.

 

Anyway, if you're thinking more adult super hero stuff, to avoid saying "edgy" or "dark" because I think they may be self limiting in some cases, but just supers stories for adults, what do you like to see?

Astro City, PS 238,  and Lobster Johnson

CES

[TheDarkness]

Cancer and TJack,

 

Actually, in this case, I'm more interested in what others are interested in, for a change of viewpoint from my own perspectives.

 

As far as general info about the game, supers of all stripes start appearing(in small numbers) in the forties and fifties, the numbers start to become more impactful by the sixties, and the story is taking place roughly in our modern time. The city is a fictional city. Powers play out realistically to a great extent, but very few are such powerhouses that they are not terribly vulnerable without others covering their weaknesses(not because there are no powerhouses, but because there is always that area that one is vulnerable in). The center of the story will be a team, and a lot of it will be about the good parts of being a team, though plotting a story with players always requires the need to adjust for their actions in ways that let them shape the story.

 

But again, for me, I just wanted to hear what people liked and didn't like in a game where more adult themes(and decidedly less power gaming) were a focus. Not necessarily always serious, but with a healthy dose of mystery elements, the idea of consequences without making it a punishment fest for not making clear that consequences could occur, and a general focus on the characters and the story/events without it being about the character's power development first and foremost.

[TheDarkness]

20 hours ago, archer said:

 

I'm not really a fan of dealing with street level drugs or racking up body counts. I don't want to game out explicitly dealing with rape, rape victims, or the aftermath.

 

If you're writing a comic book, my personal preferences are no problem because there's plenty of other customers out there if you want to frequently write about such things. But if you're GMing a group of gamers and I'm one of them, you've got a huge problem if you want to include those things.

 

So I'd think the most important thing is to talk to your group and see if they have any hangups or strong preferences of subject matter to avoid.

 

Anyway...

 

When I think of stories for adults, I think of the NPC's in the stories acting like real people. People are motivated by money, fame, sex, laziness, protecting their loved ones, and increasing their status...with the occasional altruistic impulse thrown in. Yeah, you're going to run into someone who is a saint or who is absolutely incorruptible or who will do their job by the rules regardless of the personal consequences. But most people aren't heroes or highly devoted to a cause.

 

Maybe some more realistic situations in cities.

 

In most comic book superhero battles in cities, there aren't innocent bystanders in the middle of the fight. They might be pictured off to the side in small numbers but you aren't going to see sidewalks so full of people that you need to pay attention to keep from bumping into other people.

 

Try having a fight here:

In this case, there might be, for one player, some of the street level drug thing, though in a fictionalized form, but I do tend to agree that trauma is not fun and not a thing I want to run in the game, the street level drug thing has more to do a with a detective type character.

 

Kind of feeling like I'm on a good track on NPC development, I've been listening to audio books at work and writing notes at lunch on ideas they give me for characters, which, given that a lot of them are autobiographies, has really helped me flesh out some more realistic NPCs with really cool stuff who still have issues that will help keep them from taking center stage from the players.

 

As for the population/collateral issue, I got thinking about then when I was living in China, some ideas, but I'm really trying to keep a balance where, though the world interacts with the players, it's not this sort of overpowering world running the whole game because they got in a fight in the wrong place through no fault of their own, and yet, despite the fact that its obvious, the government and everyone now hate them, even though they had no choice, which seems like a popular but annoying plotline.

 

Thanks!

[TheDarkness]

19 hours ago, Old Man said:

One of my favorite issues of Batman had almost no Batman in it--it was about a severely sleep deprived Bruce Wayne screwing up Bruce Wayne's life.  He signed some Wayne Enterprises documents without reading them, set up dates with Vicky Vale and some other woman for the next night (at the same time), and did some shoddy maintenance on the Batmobile.  I never did find the next issue to find out what happened.

 

But that's an example of what I would consider more grownup themes in supers--the effect that a crimefighting career would really have on someone's life.  It's one of the reasons Spider-Man is my favorite hero.  More internal conflict, as opposed to external, even if the world hangs in the balance of the external conflict.

 

That's one of the things that is really tricky that I want to have be at the center, and balancing the group's internal conflicts and finding a shared internal conflict that helps define who they want their characters to be instead of being just a plot point that means I don't have to have them meet in a bar is something I look forward to working out with them.

 

15 hours ago, csyphrett said:

Astro City, PS 238,  and Lobster Johnson

CES

Just looked all three up, and they sound very interesting, I'll have to check them out. Thanks!

[Tjack]

    I think I’m beginning to understand what you want in the way of a discussion. So let me tell you about a campaign I played in, and somewhat co-ran.  

   In that I mean I was the best friends with the creator and GM so we spent a lot of time bouncing ideas and storylines around and when he would start getting burnt out or too busy to plot episodes I would take over running for a few weeks a time. 

    It took place in a world where paranormals and magic existed but it was unknown by the general populace until recently.  The characters were recruited to be special officers of the Massachusetts State Police.  We were basically a cross between a SWAT team and a major case squad specializing in paranormal crimes.

   After a very brief try with costumes we settled into more of an tactical gear/streetwear thing.  We looked like undercover cops ready to hit a crackhouse.  Having to work under the scrutiny of the law, the DA’s office and the press made us work harder at building cases that wouldn’t be tossed out of court, and kept down the usual Superheroic levels of destruction.   We used to love to throw around a quote from the Ghostbusters cartoon when Venkman said “We have a special way of keeping down property damage...it’s called strategy.”

   A lot of our opponents came from the Dark Champions book, but stuff from Mystic Masters and the more serious versions of Viper were still in the mix.

  It was a more difficult game to play sometimes and to run (which is why the GM switch offs were helpful) but very fun and when things got too dark we would jump to an alternate game for a while where things were a little more black and white.

  I hope this gives you at least a look at a game that had at least in my opinion a nice balance between Comics and reality.