TheRealVector

I'm in the early stages of creating a new game, with gritty street level vigilante heroes. I asked my players for background ideas that would help facilitate cooperative role-playing. To this end I required that... 1) The characters would know each other and be on friendly terms at the beginning of the game. 2) No "lone wolfs" of any type. 3) Have some reasonably "realistic" motivations to risk their lives, freedom and reputations by becoming vigilantes. The players then decided that they would all be elite ex-military men who were exposed to unknown chemicals during the early operations of the Iraq invasion. This exposure, while causing no adverse effects at the time, triggers the growth of their strange powers once back in the States many months later. Over time they contact one another and discover they all have similar problems and eventually come together in Chicago. They decide to keep their new powers a secret and, in motivations ranging from a simple strong sense of justice to a "Death Wish" like scenario, they decide to use their military knowledge and new powers to fight crime in Chicago. OK, too late to avoid all those clichés, but in 2007 what are ya going to do? Where I want to avoid further clichés is in the overall story arc. - Why were the chemicals there? - Who created them? - Was it coincidence that the characters were there to be exposed? - Does anyone else have similar powers? Who and why? - Are they being watched? Manipulated? - What does the military and the governments really know? Government conspiracies, black ops, evil corporations, etc. Who hasn't heard it all? Let me know what you think are the lamest, most overused clichés in this area. Tell me what tired ideas you wouldn't use. Since one of my players frequents these boards I can't really use any good plot ideas, I just want to get advice on the overused one so I can reverse engineer something almost original. Thanks in advance.

Re: Order of the Stick

Re: Order of the Stick I really enjoy The Order of the Stick but I have found myself rooting for the "bad guys" more and more. Then again, I'm evil

Re: Venture Brothers Hero? So how many points is Dr. Girlfriend's Distinctive Feature: Manly Voice worth? I'm thinking a lot! LOL

Re: A Thin Moral Line...? Just let off a little steam and you'll be fine.

Re: A Thin Moral Line...?

Re: Venture Brothers Hero? Can't wait to see a list of Dr. Ventures psych disadvantages. Will there be enough room?

Re: Venture Brothers Hero? These are awesome writeups. Can't wait to get home and down load them. Go Team Venture!

Re: Disturbing Character premises...

Re: Worst. Hero. Ever. Never watched the show but I think I saw a brief snippet of it once while changeing channels. All I saw was some sort of over-muscled martian dude yelling at some sort of midget. Weird.

Re: The Hero Forum's Hottest Woman in Comics. But he got a job as Cathy's (of the strip Cathy) new love interest. She ran screaming. Oh, Bloom County...good times. I vote for either Emma Frost or Clea (of Dr. Strange fame). What's with the platinum blonds when I really like redheads more?

Re: Maxim's Hottest Comic Females Dawn If you love redheads, nuff said.

Re: Are there any Champions Players in Texas? I'm in Amarillo. Sorry I'm so far away.

Re: New Avengers are very Dark Champions Can't we all just agree that mutant freaks and nutcase vigilantes should all be imprisoned or exterminated?

Re: Worst. Hero. Ever. Yes, death to Cable...then Superman.

Re: Top Eleven Adversaries of Arnold Just like I've always said about Highlander: I bet if they ever made a sequel it would seriously suck! So glad that didn't happen.

Re: Worst. Hero. Ever.

Re: Maxim's Hottest Comic Females Did we learn nothing from the "Misogyny In Role-Playing" (which quickly devolved into "misogyny in comics") thread? LOL *whoops*

Re: Top Eleven Adversaries of Arnold

Re: A Thin Moral Line...? Witches don't have real super powers though. LOL Or do they?

Re: A Thin Moral Line...? And so do ambulance chasing lawyers. There not heroes either. LOL

Re: Top Eleven Adversaries of Arnold Actually I was just at IMDB for a couple of the names on my list. I asked the question in the spirit of continued dialogue about hot actresses who look good in black leather. Even more fun than IMDB.

Re: Top Eleven Adversaries of Arnold

Re: Top Eleven Adversaries of Arnold Your so right, Catacomb. No Cohaagen or Reese? Did this guy actually watch all of Arnie's movies? My version of the list... 10. Lori - Sharon Stone (Total Recal) 9. Bennett - Vernon Wells (Commando) 8. Various Kindergarten Kids - Various (Kindergarten Cop) 7. Richter - Michael Ironside (Total Recall) 6. Thulsa Doom - James Earl Jones (Conan the Barbarian) 5. Kyle Reese - Michael Biehn (Terminator) 4. Damon Killian - Richard Dawson (The Running Man) 3. Vilos Cohaagen - Ronny Cox (Total Recal) 2. T-1000 Robert Patrick (Terminator 2) 1. Predator - Some Dude In A Suit (Predator)

Re: A Thin Moral Line...? Interesting. Perhaps there would have been some sort of "Civil War" amongst the early hereos as the society, and the law, attempted to incorporate them?