Reign of Steel / Supers Game

[Boomerang]

I pulled out my old copy of Reign of Steel the other day and was reminded of how awesome it is. The setting is a little more bleak than I would like so I was thinking of making the PCs superhuman so they have a good chance of survival and help rebuild civilisation. Not over the top supers like superman, more like Spider-Man power level.

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on combining the two?

[whswhs]

Are the supers (a) robots themselves (like Cameron in The Sarah Connor Chronicles), (b) humans enhanced by robotic experiments, or (c) random supers who were around before the robots took over and whose powers helped them survive? Or even some of all three?

(Personally I really love Cameron; I though she was one of Glau's most brilliantly acted roles.)

[christ0pher]

An Age of Ultron scenario, maybe, set in a world with active hero Supers like the IST setting. One of the hero gadgeteers could be responsible for creating the first AI, Overmind, then things play out like the normal Reign of Steel setting, whittling down the human/superhuman population with disease and eventual nukes. Then jump ahead 20-30 years and the PC's can be sons and daughters of the original Supers.

[Boomerang]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Are the supers (a) robots themselves (like Cameron in The Sarah Connor Chronicles), (b) humans enhanced by robotic experiments, or (c) random supers who were around before the robots took over and whose powers helped them survive? Or even some of all three?

(Personally I really love Cameron; I though she was one of Glau's most brilliantly acted roles.)

Option c)

The PCs are supers with an origin that is independent of the robots. Although I do like the idea of the rise of the robots being caused by one super intelligent super villain. Hmm...

[Jasonft]

Two questions: How far into the Rise of the Zone Minds is the setting, and what point level are you talking about?

[Boomerang]

Originally Posted by Jasonft

Two questions: How far into the Rise of the Zone Minds is the setting, and what point level are you talking about?

The year would be around 2080, so the old human infrastructure would be gone and small pockets of human civilisation are reforming.

Point value would be 500 points with 50 points in disadvantages.

[Anthony]

Hm. This is very different from the idea behind my Reign of Men of Steel campaign... ;)

[fchase8]

In Reign of Steel, there was the idea of Brisbane AI's experiments on humans creating supers. Another idea was the genetic creations of AIs in Caracas and New Dehli.

By 2080, the humans at the former American base on the moon could have been awakened and created a new generation of super-humans.

A rogue AI could be the one who is building in Antarctica, and by 2080 who knows what could have been created? Maybe it was an AI with Nazi ideology, 'New Swabia' and all that, creating übermenschen - now the Nazis are the good guys...

A number of the AIs in Reign of Steel are obsessed with aliens. What if an alien race discovered computer-dominated Earth, but wanted to help the biological residents? An alien race could have had a bad experience with computer intelligence, like in the Uplift series.

The destruction of the environment, plus all of the nuclear waste and fallout around, could spark rapid genetic mutation.

All of the death caused by The Final War could have caused some sort of 'psychic feedback' that creates psychics and/or magic (basic idea behind Rifts RPG).

Cross-dimensional heroes from alternate earth(s).


(I recently dusted off my old copy of Reign of Steel...)

[Jasonft]

This could be a seriously fun campaign depending on how powerful the Zone Minds are at this point. 500 points teams can be capable of quite a lot if people build their characters correctly.

Bad news if the enemy gets ahold of supers. Think XMen with exploding collars backed by Terminators.

The group better have some damn good Gadgeteers and hackers. Kinda wish I could play in it now.

[Boomerang]

Originally Posted by fchase8

A number of the AIs in Reign of Steel are obsessed with aliens. What if an alien race discovered computer-dominated Earth, but wanted to help the biological residents? An alien race could have had a bad experience with computer intelligence, like in the Uplift series.

I really like this idea!