So much for my idea of just revisiting old settings and not making new ones.....
Be thbat as it may, for some reaosn my brain has a hankering for another superhero rpg. Dunno why. Probably because I like the genre.
System: Amber, modified a bit. So, yeah, diceless. The way a superhero rpg should be, imho.
Actual Game: Depends. I have a few ideas kicking around in my head.
1) Aliens. Yep, a group of aliens of different species on a colony ship that gets attacked by Big Evil Guys and crashes. PCs then hav eto find out what world they're on, learn the language, survive, and deal with more ET jokes than should be possible.
2) A 4-colour world. Lots and lots of superhumans, from way back when to present. Take everything from gorillas to aliens to lava men and go hog-wild with comics physics and mentality.
3) Cold War spies. Created by some Secret Means, and sent to stop the Communists (Or Capitalists, if we make 'em Russian). More super-spies than heroes.
4) Odd Ones Out. Same world as #2, more or less, but the PCs are the dorks, the ones with the mostly useless powers or horribly unlucky and the like. Very Mystery Men, really. Could be done. Could be fun. Probably best as a short game though.
Variants on the above are possible. I'm more partial to #1 and #3 just because making an entire superhero universe and world is very, very time consuming.
Any other ideas/thoughts'd be appreciated.
I like idea #2, it sounds cool... kinda like that one game uh... city of heros.
ReplyDeleteYeah, 2 essentially is City of Heroes.
ReplyDeleteI'm very strongly liking 1. I like the flexibility, and it lowers the GM workload, so everyone wins.
Heh. 2 is vbasucallly any superhuman universe, really.
ReplyDeleteI DO think it could be done, and well, but as I pointed out developing any entire universe like that would take a LOT of time. Even doing it a la First Generation of Superhumans takes work, and depends on how many exist, how far into comic book reality it goes and so on. Going all the way would be fun, but comic book reaity and game reality never mesh (PC power levels being the biggest issue, I think).
I am partial to #3, though, just because the idea is just fun, but it would be rather research-heavy.
Is why #1 was idea #1, since it's the easiest to pull off. And playing aliens is always fun, or can be at least. Of course, there would be metagaming of shapeshifting and knowing languages, I imagine, but if not taken to extremes - or taken the other way to extremes (such as a PC who simply could not survive earth atmosphere or would die from eating British cuisine) - it could work.
Aliens used in anything but sci-fi always deters me... some might argue that superhero is sci-fi but I think different. If you made idea #1 it would be more like an outsiders game as opposed to a super hero game. If you want to do super hero i'd go with #2 which is the only super-hero game that you have not done... #3 isn't a super hero game either, so pretty much the super hero like choices we would have are odd ones out (Hubris and aftermath pretty much summed up in 2 words, yes it's been over done IMO) and 4 color. IF you wanted to do an alien game it would be interesting, but it would NOT be a superhero game, it would be an outsiders game... the spy one would be a spy game, which we have done in a few ua games.
ReplyDeleteWell, a game can have superhumans without being, strictly speaking, a normal superhero game. Godlike is probably the best example, but really what separates the superhero genre from others is attitude, as much as powers. You can have unique powers no one else does and not be a superhero.
ReplyDeleteSome of being a hero is genre, some of it is the powers, and the rest is how it gets played. To me it's more dealing with ideals than anything else, and self sacrifice, that makes the superhero genre (and game).
Having said that, aliens are a BIG part of any 4-colour superhero world :) I.e. Skrulls, Superman, and whatnot.
Hell, superman IS idea #1 (as the Martian Manhunter, to better effect), but taken at very superficial levels. I'd say that someone cannot have a superhero game without aliens in it, of one kind or another, and try and get 4-colour fun (and cheeziness, like Magma Men and the like :).
Will post clarificatons in another new topic.