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Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH

Re: Astro City: How to get the feel of the series in Champions? Yes. In fact, I'm not quite sure how it would be handled. Could you expand a little on what you have in mind?

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH Another plot arc: "The Biggest Geek in Littleton" - introducing Rex Reuther. Rex, of course, is such an obvious Lex Luthor homage that I should be able to scam the players with ease. In fact, he might even be a contender for being a PC. After all, Wonder Boy will need some other PCs to interact with in the 30s, and how many other potential superheroes are there in Littleton?

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH Hmm. I've been reluctant to be too detailed in my timeline writing. In fact, I've got a Temporal Anomaly (read Crisis!) in 1986 that appears to have messed up history in a major way. Even people's memories appear to have been affected! Think about it: what if some people remember fighting in a war and other people denied it ever happened? Post-1986 history is more reliable, though. And yes, I do kind of know what really happened. But I'm not telling.

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH I like the name Captain Wonder, and will use it. Of course, Wonder Boy is actually a place-holder. I envisage that there will be a PC filling that legendary inspiration role, and I will leave a lot of the details up to the player. As far as it goes, though, I see him as being 15 in 1930, and disappearing during the Temporal Anomaly in 1986. The date is a Crisis homage, of course. I'm not going to have an explicit Supergirl homage, but I am going to have a plot arc called: "Who is Mystery Girl?" That's an old Legion theme which dates back to the Sixties. It was also used post-Crisis in the "Who is Sensor Girl?" plotline. Of course, depending on the player, it might end up as "Who is Mystery Lad?", but hey. I have a couple of other plot arcs and scenarios named, but not yet detailed. So far I have: "The Derringer Gang" aka "Fast Cars and BARs" (as in Browning Automatic Rifles) "Little Hideout on the Prairie" (return of the Derringer gang) "Krypto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore" I'll add more as I think of them.

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH Actually, I did know that there had been a published Wonder Boy, but I decided that he was so obscure that it didn't matter. And then I promptly forgot all about him. And someone else remembered. I guess he wasn't obscure enough. I won't be including characters from outside the Superboy/Superman/LSH mythos, except maybe some Batman mythos characters. Not all such characters will make an appearance, and those I do introduce will all be homages. I will be making no attempt to follow any continuity except my own.

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH Well... it is a homage universe, so there is wriggle room if I want it. I would like to have a Krypto homage, if only for the "Krypto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore" jokes. Other super-pets are entirely possible.

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH While recognising that this thread is a bit of a monologue, here is some more stuff, for those who are interested. I've decided to drop the "Supergirl", 1950s sub-setting. It just makes life too complicated. From now on, it's a strictly 30s and 2006 thing. I've decided to officially give it the name I wanted to from the very beginning. Welcome to: "Wonder Boy and the Superhero Club". "Wonder Boy" is obvious enough. There are published characters called Wonder Man, Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl, but no Wonder Boy. It could be a bit tricky when Wonder Boy grows up, but eliminating the 1950s slot means that I don't really have to worry about it, except, as a historical footnote. Yes, he probably did become Wonder Man. Eh. The name "Superhero Club" is from the cover of the LSH's first appearance, where Superboy was all stressed out about them not allowing him to join their club. http://superman.ws/tales2/lsh/ There is also a sign saying "Super Hero Club" on their clubhouse. This is on the same page as a reference to the "Legion of Super-Heroes". I'm quite happy to use the less common reference as an in-joke.

Re: Silliy Silver Age Villian I'd be careful with the "commissioned by Darkseid". It just reeks of retcon. Mind you, it does make the character funnier...

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH Oh yeah. If it's Silver Age and cheesy, it's in. While this is a homage universe, and I'm playing fast and loose with continuity, anything neat and/or funny is probably in. Broadly speaking, I am drawing on LSH, Superboy and Superman continuity, up until about 1970 or so, and with a preference for earlier material. I'll use other stuff if I think it is interesting. I am not using anything from Marvel, or even non-Superman DC continuity, apart, perhaps, from pre-1964 Batman.

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH Ah yes. Someone noticed the elephant in the room. I was wondering when that would happen. In fact there were precisely none of either during the period I am working with. Colossal Boy's Jewishness was a late addition, while the first Black character, Tyroc, wasn't introduced until the 70s. And, yes, Karate Kid was a white guy. I've been giving this topic a bit of thought. Since my LSH equivalent are intended to be PCs, I'm not going to stress about the point as far as they are concerned. More generally, I think that the easiest way to deal with questions of racism and so on in this setting would be to ignore them. Yes, the 30s and 50s sub-settings exhibit the same patterns shown in the real world. Yes, The Future is a whole lot more integrated. Yes, characters who time travel will notice the difference. But there is no particular need to make a song and dance act about it. It's not relevant to the focus and style of the game. If anybody asks, I would have an answer, but if nobody does, I won't tell them about it. While this may seem a little inadequate, this is a setting for a game, not a historical text or political tract. Yes, there are elements of parody, but they aren't the core of the matter either. I don't know. Any thoughts and suggestions, about this or anything else, are, of course, welcome.

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH This is just a random thought, but I am considering eliminating WWII from the alternate timeline. Basically it would start, but would end after a couple of days or weeks. It is possible that the PCs may have something to do with that. Of course, the ramifications of such a radical change could be a bit mind-boggling. Still, it wouldn't necessarily make much difference in the short-term. Basically, the world carries on with the pre-War status quo in the 30s era. It would be more noticeable in the 50s era, if I use it, but by "The Future" the world will be so changed anyway that it wouldn't matter. I suppose I could assume that the 50s look a lot like the late 30s. Depending on the PCs actions, a fair slab of Europe (not just Spain and Portugal) may be under fascist or quasi-fascist governments. There wouldn't be an Eastern bloc - just the Soviet Union. The Baltic states would be independent, and Germany would have its pre-war borders, possibly including Austria. Czechoslovakia may or may not exist. In the rest of the world, the European colonial empires would be healthier than they were in our timeline. They would still be under challenge, but the rate of decolonisation would have been slowed. I suspect that if I would set the 50s sub-setting in the early, rather than late 50s, so the Civil Rights movement wouldn't be a factor in the US. Nor, I think, would McCarthyism, which was largely a consequence of the outcome of the War. "Routine" anti-Communism would exist, of course. Oh yes, and Adlai Stevenson would become US President in 1952. The first American Astro-men would land on the Moon during his second term. And the rest is history...

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH Something of the sort mightn't be a bad idea. At the very least I will have some periods of time being easier to access than others. The only thing that bugs me about having a portal is the fact that it coincidentally links two periods that happen to have superheroes. I guess that that isn't the biggest coincidence in a superhero world, and I shouldn't stress about something so unimportant when I'm accepting so many other equally unlikely things. Incidentally, I'm also considering having a Supergirl homage in the setting as well, so there will be a third historical period as well, probably in the 50s. Of course, I shouldn't get too excited by these heroic homages, since they are really only place-holders for the PCs. The actual separation of the timelines isn't actually a major drama, now that I think of it. No radical shift is required. All that I really need to do is allow all the mad and eccentric science that goes on in a superheroic setting to actually have a cumulative effect over seventy or so years. The key period would probably be the 60s, after the colonisation of the Moon begins. To quote that invaluable historical resource, The Simpsons: "By 1964, experts say man will have established twelve colonies on the moon, ideal for family vacations." "The moon belongs to America, and anxiously awaits the arrival of our astro-men. Will you be among them?" Quotes from: http://www.snpp.com/episodes/4F21 Of course, none of this would have happened if Adlai Stevenson hadn't been elected President. In reality, of course, early space travel is a natural outcome of having Superman type characters hanging around, as well as the occasional alien invasion and so on.

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH While I was fiddling around some more with this idea, I checked the good old faithful "Superman through the Ages" site, and ran into something I hadn't bothered to look at before - the first appearance of Superboy! It starts here: http://superman.ws/tales3/birthOfSuperboy/?page=1 The fourth and fifth pages are particularly relevant http://superman.ws/tales3/birthOfSuperboy/?page=4 That's a nice limited power version of Superboy there. Like the Action #1 version of Superman, only even lamer. Anyone for Pre-Teen Champions?

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH

Re: 1930s Superboy and the 21st Century LSH

I've been doing some research on Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes, and came across some interesting facts. 1. Apparently, from the late 50s to the early 70s, Superboy's stories were mostly supposedly set in the 1930s. 2. Several stories from the same period set the Legion of Superheroes in the 21st Century, rather than the 30th. This, obviously, has got me thinking... Superboy was active during the Pulp era. In particular, he was around during the time of the Public Enemies - Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde, etc. And he was living in the right place, too. "Hmm..." And the LSH live in that strange 21st Century that never quite happened. The one with flying cars and personal rocket belts. Of course, the relatively brief separation in time between the two leads to some potential problems. It's possible for characters from "the past" to still be alive in "the future". This particularly applies to Superboy/man himself. This could be minimised by making "the future" the other end of the 21st Century, but this takes away from the conceit of making the present day into "the future". There's at least one simple enough answer, though. Adding a Crisis into the timeline in the 80s would do the trick. Superman would mysteriously disappear in a period which "temporal turbulance" (or some such) makes too dangerous to explore. Of course, if I was to actually develop this line of thought into a campaign setting, I would convert all the characters into homages, so as not to make the mistake of misleading people into thinking the characters are the same as those appearing in the source material. The future conceit is the only tricky bit. Is "the future" the world as it is now, or the world as "it should have been"? The problem with the latter is the general problem of science fiction settings, with the extra difficulty of it not being a particularly logical one. Either way, it will still be 2006... --- As a result of this line of thought I've already got a nice "back of an envelope" outline of a character inspired by Star Boy. I think he could be both quite tough and fun to play. I'll have to crunch his numbers a bit more, and come up with a background that isn't completely bogus, but he has definite potential.

Re: Comics "Ages" sound bites If I was going to use the term "Dark Age", I would use if for the period in the 50s between the Golden and Silver Ages, when very little superhero stuff was being published apart from Superman (and Superboy), Batman, Wonder Woman, and the occasional backup feature. Marvel and the other (US) comic companies were mostly out of the Superhero genre. (There were sporadic exceptions). I actually like reading the stuff that came out then, though. It's interesting from a gaming perspective too. DC developed a something of a habit later in the decade of reusing plots. As a result, many well known characters have obscure precursors, which provides a useful reservoir of characters to "borrow". For example, Mon-El and Star Boy from the Legion of Superheroes had precursor characters. With very little effort such precursors can be used as a basis for an LSH homage group. You wouldn't even need to change their names, since almost nobody has ever heard of them. Seriously. How many people are familiar with Halk Kar and Mars Boy? Here are some pictures: http://members.shaw.ca/legion_of_super-heroes/alternate_legions/#Halk%20Kar

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play I had a problem with this kind of thing when I was designing my character for the This Mutant Life game. Basically, to get the powers I wanted, I had to skimp on skills. But, unfortunately, my character was supposed to be a veteran... Ultimately, I've decided to build the character with the powers I want him to have, and patch the deficiencies in his Skills and Perks with experience. If anyone asks, "he always had this stuff, but it never came up". Patching his powers would have been a lot more difficult. Although, of course, he really could use an attack that doesn't do quite so much BODY to normals... Personally, I prefer the older character to the snot-nosed punk. The biggest difficulty with actually building such characters, as I noted above, is that they have to have "complete" powersets as well as all their skills and stuff. That is, while the youngster can be defined as still exploring aspects of their powers, the older character is likely to be closer to being as powerful as they are going to get. That's a further limitation on how powerful they can be. If they are flexible in how they can use their powers, they lose raw power. If they maintain raw power, they lose flexibility. They can, of course, partly offset things by having fairly narrow powersets to begin with. If they don't have much more than attack, defence and movement powers they can spend the points other characters might put into "non-essential" powers on buying more skills. Or they can play someone like Hourman or Starman.

Re: Was watching Superman TAS and wondered about Mxyzptlk

Re: Crazy campaign ideas (Silly or serious) Actually, now that I think of it, this is spot on. There are acceptably direct equivalents of three out of four of "Cap's Kooky Quartet": Cap Whizzer (replacing Quicksilver) Miss America (replacing the Scarlet Witch) Plus Bozo (replacing Iron Man) Namor Adding the Human Torch, Toro and Bucky is no particular drama. Works for me. Especially since "Cap's Kooky Quartet" is my favourite Avengers lineup. Cap and three reformed villains, none of whom are outrageously powerful. That's my idea of a superteam. (At least the Scarlet Witch wasn't outrageously powerful then, whatever horrors have been attributed to her since).