Capebusters -- brainstorming a single-setting game

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

If you want to get technical here, Odysseus (Ulysses) was actually the great-grandson of Hermes (Mercury), so not exactly 100% mortal. Most of the heroes of the Iliad weren't.

Given the habits of the Greek gods, "divinely descended" wasn't all that unusual. But Odysseus met Achilles during his visit to Hades, and Achilles hadn't been granted apotheosis or anything. So not divine enough to make a difference.

So far as we have precedents, the story of Castor and Pollux, one the son of Zeus and the other of a mortal king, sharing their divine parentage equally so that they could both become immortal suggests that 25% divine ancestry is sufficient to give you a shot. 50% seems to be clearly enough, given the cases of Asclepius, Dionysus, Heracles, and Orpheus.

[David Johnston2]

Moving it to geek chat because it's really not relevant.

[(E)]

Originally Posted by PTTG

What I'm getting here is that perhaps the events of 2018 are insufficient, but a big enough disaster will allow anything.

Perhaps they actually do gain control of the missiles? Perhaps they accidentally/intentionally launch one or several? A megadeath or two goes a long way to justifying international police powers.

Rather than (or as well as) a megadeath event what about something involving legal president and mind control.

The hedonists
A group of supers who use their abilities largely for pleasing their increasingly jaded whims and desires.
- puppetmasters (telepathic control+range) least 2, maybe more or even just one more powerful individual.
- mimic, incredibly tough and strong (etc) person who can match the appearance of anyone. The level of detail is good enough for finger prints.
- "voice" an individual who can give orders to others that they must follow. Currently in prison, has "confessed" to ordering dozens of organised crime types to perform the acts they have been convicted of.
- crowd controller, can influence the mood of a crowd. Can turn a rock concert into a riot etc. Likes playing with politics.

This group of supers are making a mockery of the legal systems of the world, aside from the "voice" no one knows what any of them look like. Defence lawyers are using them (sometimes legitimately) to get their clients declared innocent. This has reduced the efficiency of the court systems to almost breaking point.

They also have a good horror feel.

Edit
There is a megadeth metalica joke that can be made somewhere in there.

[tshiggins]

Edited to remove this post to the thread where it needs to be, now.

Sorry 'bout that.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

A low-level (but politically serious) threat from this thread. His younger brother Jimmy is the second character in the first post, but is even less of a threat, and doesn't care about politics.

Henry Noonan

[snipage]

In a Capebusters game, he's small-fry, but because of his job, politics are involved, so he's a different sort of challenge. Most useful if the PCs are just starting out, and especially if they need to have sufficient evidence before making an arrest.

A small fry, but nasty and toxic. Nicely done.

[David Johnston2]

I would incidentally let your Capebusters be 250 points. If it was good enough for Monster Hunters, it's good enough for these guys.

[Astromancer]

Try this idea, she is a young woman, (for my money she looks and sounds exactly like Elizabeth Sladen's Sarah Jane Smith back in seasons 11 through 14 on the classic Doctor Who). She has powers of Healing, Telepathy, Illusion Projection, and Ectoplasmic Projection as describe in GURPS 3rd.(She's only aware of the Healing Powers) and believes that angels are guiding her. She's sweet personable and has Charisma +10! She is basically descent, but is very unworldly and was raised in a rigidly ultra right-wing environment (in her case English UltraTory). She's kind and sweet and good hearted, but fuctionally delusional about how the world works.

She's starting a religio-political movement to fix the world. Her vision of a revived and militantly evangelical British Empire unifying the world under Christ's blessings (High Church Anglican Style) is pure hearted and noble, but liable to lead to nuclear war.

Try to contain the Chaos. She's basically the scariest possible cross between Brother Blood, Edith Keeler, Aimee Semple McPherson and Saint Francis.

[Rigil_Kent]

Love this idea. Seems like it would be an awesome campaign.

Something that might be useful - for America, anyway - is the Wearing the Cape series. The author has some really great ideas in regards to how the supers are dealt with with regards to the official government: the law-abiding ones have to be certified, license and regulated by state and local governments. They are principally used as emergency response - sort of super-powered paramedics and firemen - and only rarely have actual rumbles with villains. As I recall (and it's been a while since I read these books), a lot of the good guys are folded into the U.S. Marshals so they have wide areas of jurisdiction, but the protagonist repeatedly states "we are not the police." They might get called in by the police for assistance ... or they might not. I could totally see a Superman character fitting in there (especially with the disaster relief and emergency response) and it might even be interesting if the Organization that the PCs work for have such a character on stand-by. Sort of "Break Glass In Case of Extraterrestrial Invasion."

I think the ideal roleplaying situation here would be when the team is sent after someone who is legitimately trying to be a Good Guy (tm). Someone like Spider-Man, for example, who just wants to help people. A game like this would be less interesting if all supers were scum (e.g., "The Boys" which was referenced and was a series I really tried to like when I read it in trade but ended up hating viscerally). Like maybe the Organization keeps an eye on the Spider-Man types but drags their feet when trying to bring him in because he's just there to help ...

[chaotic-nipple]

Originally Posted by Rigil_Kent

Like maybe the Organization keeps an eye on the Spider-Man types but drags their feet when trying to bring him in because he's just there to help ...

and then one of those amateur do-gooders F@(%s up royally and gets a lot of people killed, and the PCs have to scramble to bring him in before their previous leniency results in dire professional consequences.

[(E)]

Having an absence of any technology that can "neutralize" super abilities will lead to some hard choices. Do you bring in the super knowing they cannot be contained?

What happens to them them? Chemically induced coma? Bullet? Vivisection for "research" purposes?

Do you take in the do-gooder knowing he will be disapeared?