06-18-2016, 11:52 AM | #11 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Capebusters -- brainstorming a single-setting game
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Most of the sovereigns were actually willing to live by standard international law. But every so often one went rogue, entering into military conflict or claiming rule of a territorial state or the like. The player characters were a NATO-assembled team of 1600-point supers whose mission was to bring rogue sovereigns under control. The rules of engagement varied, but potentially included deadly force.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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06-18-2016, 12:00 PM | #12 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: Capebusters -- brainstorming a single-setting game
Try this idea, a super that is perfectly hidden. They don't even know they're a super.
Basically they had a brutal childhood and the dissociated all of that garbage and horror into an alternate personality. Said alternate personality is hidden deeply in this person's mind. However, this alternate personality controls this individual's telepathic and illusion projection powers. The surface person is a pleasant, kindly, pillar of the community, the inner face his a sea of rage twisted into violent practical jokes. This super need not be overwhelmingly powerful to be a real threat. Subtle use of Mind Reading and Illusion Projection can be plenty deadly at low power levels. A good clue to lead the PCs might be Belle Indifference. It would fit the mental disorder.
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Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo |
06-18-2016, 03:14 PM | #13 |
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
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Re: Capebusters -- brainstorming a single-setting game
Though slightly derivative, take the idea "he is a telepath who surrounds himself with a school full of impressionable children" for bonus points most of the teachers are ex students.
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Waiting for inspiration to strike...... And spending too much time thinking about farming for RPGs Contributor to Citadel at Nordvörn |
06-18-2016, 03:30 PM | #14 |
Join Date: Sep 2011
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Re: Capebusters -- brainstorming a single-setting game
My first image on seeing the thread title was "four guys in coveralls containing supers with their proton energy packs."
With that silliness out of the way, what if the capebusters don't need kryptonite bullets to take down Superman. What if they've got a reverse-engineered Phantom Zone Projector and can just "send the capes away, to a place where they can't interact with reality anymore." You might give it the same danger as the original projector: if the prisoners cooperate and if the executioner who uses the projector gets ill enough (bed-ridden with a high fever in the original), they can telecontrol him to release them from the zone. After the first time that happens, maybe the projector can be tuned to send them to separate dimensions, so no one dimension has enough prisoners to make that possible again. |
06-18-2016, 07:03 PM | #15 |
Join Date: Feb 2014
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Re: Capebusters -- brainstorming a single-setting game
Alternate dimension detention facilities were one of the selling points for turning against the government authorized forces in the Marvel Civil War comics. Especially since the detention was indefinite, sans due process, and slightly cruel and unusual.
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06-18-2016, 07:13 PM | #16 | |
Join Date: Feb 2014
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Re: Capebusters -- brainstorming a single-setting game
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06-18-2016, 09:07 PM | #17 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Capebusters -- brainstorming a single-setting game
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When you've got a stocking capped man webbed to the wall with burglars tools and a snarky note, you've actually got a pretty good start on a circumstantial case and yes, people get convicted on circumstantial evidence. It's even easier if the situation was a mugging, a hostage taking, or a levitating of New York a mile into the air where you can expect eye-witnesses or even videorecordings of the events. Assuming this is not a setting where superpowers just turn you insane, like Steelheart, then you would probably see at least some supers being accepted into government service, although possibly most of them would end up being deployed overseas to "fight terrorism" with the remainder used to fight the biggest threats like entire teams of super-villains or Godzilla; leaving the PCs to hunt down and arrest or kill solo rogue capes before they have a chance to group together and become a more major threat. |
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06-18-2016, 10:26 PM | #18 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: Capebusters -- brainstorming a single-setting game
Oh yeah, that's not not "ripped from the headlines" connected to real world issues at all. /sarcasm.
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06-18-2016, 10:34 PM | #19 | |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: Capebusters -- brainstorming a single-setting game
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This was before I knew of The Ring or Japanese style phobias of children and long hair. I probably got the idea from Forbidden Planet fiction and personal nightmares. Many types of powers aren't obvious, so don't need mental illness to prevent users from knowing they're the source. Probability manipulators may cause injuries to those ticking them off without a clue how or why.
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Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check. |
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06-20-2016, 11:47 AM | #20 |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: Capebusters -- brainstorming a single-setting game
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 Age: 30 Attributes ST 10 [0]; DX 10 [0]; IQ 11 [20]; HT 11 [10] Secondary Characteristics HP 10; Will 12 [5]; Per 13 [10]; FP 11 Social Background Languages: Modern English (Native) [0]; Modern French (Accented) [4] TL: 8 Cultural Familiarity: 21st Century Western [0] Subtotal: 49 Advantages Attractive [4] Independent Income 5 [5] Patron (his firm; 9 or less) [10] Wealth (Comfortable) [10] Aspect 1 [4] Suggestion 1 [10] Telereceive (Shallow) 1 [9] Perks Honest Face. [1] Synchronize. [1] Skill Adaptation (Suggestion based on Will). [1] Skill Adaptation (Telereceive based on Per). [1] Subtotal: 56 Disadvantages Bully (15) [-5] Callous [-5] Enemy (Reporter, As powerful, Hunter, 9 or less) [-10] Lecherousness (12) [-15] Overconfidence [-5] Selfish [-5] Quirks Mild Alcoholism. [-1] Loves 'em and leaves 'em. [-1] Snappy dresser. [-1] Subtotal: -49 Skills Acting [IQ/A] [2] 11 Area Knowledge (Washington, D.C.) [IQ/E] [1] 11 Body Language [Per/A] [2] 13 Brawling [DX/E] [1] 10 Carousing [HT/E] [2] 12 Computer Operation/TL8 [IQ/E] [1] 11 Connoisseur (Wine) [IQ/A] [2] 11 Current Affairs (Business)/TL8 [IQ/E] [1] 11 Current Affairs (High Culture)/TL8 [IQ/E] [1] 11 Current Affairs (Politics)/TL8 [IQ/E] [1] 11 Dancing [DX/A] [2] 10 Diplomacy [IQ/H] [4] 11 Erotic Art [DX/A] [4] 11 Fast Talk [IQ/A] [2] 11 Professional Skill (Lobbyist) [IQ/A] [2] 11 Psychology [IQ/H] [2] 10 Savoir-Faire (High Society) [IQ/E] [2] 12 Sex Appeal [HT/A] [2] 11 Aspect [Will/H] [2] 11 Suggestion [Will/H] [4] 12 Telereceive [Per/H] [4] 13 Subtotal: 44 Total: 100 Equipment Smartphone Wallet, keys, et cetra Notes Henry Noonan is as big a sleazebag as his little brother Jimmy, but he's smarter, and thus more subtle about it. He makes his living as a lobbyist for a big lobby firm, and can occasionally call on his company for help. In theory, he could call on his father also, but his personal pride wouldn't let him, and a small-town judge has little influence in Washington, D.C., anyway. His Enemy is a reporter who has noticed his high success rate (specifically with people he shouldn't have been able to shift on the issues they shifted on), and is strong-willed enough to resist his powers... so far. The Enemy might be one of the PCs (adjust Henry's power level as necessary, in that case), or a friend thereof. 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.
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Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life. "The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates." -- Tacitus Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted. |
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