Why Not Supers?

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Much as it pains me to interrupt the GI Joe love thread. It just occurred to me that Savage Worlds Necessary Evil is a pretty solid concept for a Super rpg. The PCs are villains faced with an alien invasion after all the heroes are dead. Playing villains generally comes easier to players.
 
Much as it pains me to interrupt the GI Joe love thread. It just occurred to me that Savage Worlds Necessary Evil is a pretty solid concept for a Super rpg. The PCs are villains faced with an alien invasion after all the heroes are dead. Playing villains generally comes easier to players.
My hang up with the setting is that I'd love to play an Apocalypse, or a Doctor Doom type. A villain who may or may not be redeemed, but is still going to play the Hero because Earth is HIS to conquer, not some upstart bugs from other planet.

I've pitched a similar idea in Mutants and Masterminds, where the players are like Marvel's Thunderbolts (The original team) where they're actually villains who are playing hero, but might you know, heel turn because being a hero is kinda, well, fulfilling. No bites yet.
 
I ran a game like that once. I wouldn't want to do it regularly, but it was a fun switch-up. Especially when the players still acted like villains, cackling maniacally, setting deathtraps, and monologueing
 
I think I'm odd man out though, in wanting to play low-powered games with shades of gray morality and pulp-era aesthetics. So like The Shadow and early Batman... fighting gangsters, sorcerers, mad scientists and Nazis. Like a street-level version of City of Heroes.
One of my favorite supers games was a 1e Mutants & Masterminds campaign set circa 1912-1913: my character was 'Dakota Turnbow,' a Wild West show trick shot and rider with a little Indian shamanism thrown in, who was part of a team which included a vampire, 'Baroness Blood,' an Persian 'flying swordsman,' 'Khan,' a Shadow-clone, 'The Dark,' and a sorcerer, who's name escapes me. We battled the minions of a millionaire industrialist who was trying to resurrect a mummified Ayesha in the run-up to the Great War.
 
One of my favorite supers games was a 1e Mutants & Masterminds campaign set circa 1912-1913: my character was 'Dakota Turnbow,' a Wild West show trick shot and rider with a little Indian shamanism thrown in, who was part of a team which included a vampire, 'Baroness Blood,' an Persian 'flying swordsman,' 'Khan,' a Shadow-clone, 'The Dark,' and a sorcerer, who's name escapes me. We battled the minions of a millionaire industrialist who was trying to resurrect a mummified Ayesha in the run-up to the Great War.
..why wouldn't you want to meet Ayesha in person:shock:?
 
One of my favorite supers games was a 1e Mutants & Masterminds campaign set circa 1912-1913: my character was 'Dakota Turnbow,' a Wild West show trick shot and rider with a little Indian shamanism thrown in, who was part of a team which included a vampire, 'Baroness Blood,' an Persian 'flying swordsman,' 'Khan,' a Shadow-clone, 'The Dark,' and a sorcerer, who's name escapes me. We battled the minions of a millionaire industrialist who was trying to resurrect a mummified Ayesha in the run-up to the Great War.
That sounds awesome!
 
LOL this is EXACTLY why Session 0 is so important. So Dracula looks like Bela Lugosi and not come out in a leotard and domino mask.

Setting those expectations is always crucial.


If your Dracula doesn't come out in a Leotard and domino mask, I only have to assume one is doing session zero wrong...

9781304976543.jpg
 
Leotard design is a the most important part of session zero. Who wants to spend the whole game visualizing a poorly designed leotard and getting laughed at by NPCs?
All you need is a leotard template in several body shapes and some colored pencils. . . possibly a color wheel to help with contrasting colors. :tongue:
 
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All you need is a leotard template in several body shapes and some colored pencils. . . possible a color wheel to help with contrasting colors. :tongue:
There is a whole color theory about supers costuming, that I found online. Saved for myself. It's interesting because a lot of it comes from old 4-color printing methods, but even some modern characters it makes sense for using them.
 
Wow.

This has been one of the most informative threads I've read in awhile. Even the "vigilante vs. superhero" debate was top-notch.

I always thought Frank was an anti-hero, leaning towards "law-breaking vigilante". Yeah, he isn't a classic hero, but he always fell in that "Bernard Goetz-Subway Vigilante" mode of a guy who was pushed to become who he was.

I mean, weren't all the heroes pushed to become who they are? Most were. I think maybe Castle reminds us that there are consequences to a character becoming "judge, jury and executioner" all in one sweep. Mainly that, you make enemies on all sides.

Regardless, truly great thread with informative opinions on all sides.

Thanx!
 
This leotard debate leaves me wanting a Supers "Star Children" rpg game! :grin:

(Star Children rpg is about space-faring myconids who migrate to Earth upon hearing our enlightened glam rock music, only to arrive during a future repressive totalitarian state. ... yes, it's high concept.)

PCs arrive, find a fistful of cash, and a Spirit Halloween store during its post-Halloween 75%+ closing sale (ok, and a Jo-Ann's Fabric filled with helpful grandmas). You gotta create your glamrocker superhero persona outta what's left and then go fight the MOM-ocracy -- for the music! :happy: It'll be a shopping excursion!

:hmmm: Yeah, it's gonna end as a mash-up of luchador wrestling, pop culture, and ballroom drag. It'll all end in tears.

"No, you won't fool the children of the revolution!" :music:/T-Rex plays

(:hurry: /runs back to my Disco Talislanta campaign)
 
If your Dracula doesn't come out in a Leotard and domino mask, I only have to assume one is doing session zero wrong...

9781304976543.jpg

I've been doing some cartoon designs for possible t-shirts & the like (as well as to just stay in practice) using Public Domain characters. I'm going to have to look into these guys now to see if they fell into PD. They are just so fascinatingly bad...!
 
My current game is a supers game. We’re using the playtest material for the forthcoming Galaxies in Peril game. It’s a Forged in the Dark version of Worlds in Peril.

I came up with a basic setting that the PCs are on an archipelago island nation that’s like a rogue state (think Madripoor from X-Men), and the PCs are kind of outlaw heroes.

It’s the first super hero game we’ve played in a really long time and I have to say that the system really works. I wasn’t sure if it would. We were always big fans of the TSR Marvel game, which was really codified. But the more narrative approach of rhe Forged in the Dark system works really well.
 
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