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Old 06-18-2016, 11:52 AM   #11
whswhs
 
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Default Re: Capebusters -- brainstorming a single-setting game

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Originally Posted by tshiggins View Post
I also remember an alternate title in which the superheroes were basically take-offs from the Justice League, but the "Superman" equivalent lost his humanity and became a nightmare. The plot was obvious -- how do people who are not Superman, take down an evil, tyrannical Superman?
This was the premise of my Sovereignty campaign. It was set in a world where the high-end supers (generally 2000 points and up) were legally sovereign states, with a citizenry of one and without territory (though their residences were legally treated as embassies). The rationale was that anyone that powerful could be a serious threat to an average nation-state, so effectively they were states.

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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Old 06-18-2016, 12:00 PM   #12
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Default 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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Old 06-18-2016, 03:14 PM   #13
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Default 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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Old 06-18-2016, 03:30 PM   #14
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Default 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.
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Old 06-18-2016, 07:03 PM   #15
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Default 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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Old 06-18-2016, 07:13 PM   #16
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Default Re: Capebusters -- brainstorming a single-setting game

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Capebusters could focus mainly on lawbreaking Capes: bank robbers, murderers, gang leaders, and so forth. For some nice grey, give the supers more laws to follow, and mix in some cases that amount to giving superman a speeding ticket. And let the supers be good guys, or at least neutrals, if they follow the law, but keep them well away from law enforcement.
And vigilantes. Spiderman, the X-Men, Bat Man, Green Arrow, etc run afoul of the law because they're not officially sanctioned law enforcement (at least starting out). And let the prosecutor's office tell the police why the criminals keep getting out of jail: "Bat Man refuses to remove his cowl and testify in court. As he is the only witness and the only source of the police's evidence against Killer Croc, we have no recourse but to drop all the charges or be laughed out of court."
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Old 06-18-2016, 09:07 PM   #17
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Default Re: Capebusters -- brainstorming a single-setting game

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And vigilantes. Spiderman, the X-Men, Bat Man, Green Arrow, etc run afoul of the law because they're not officially sanctioned law enforcement (at least starting out). And let the prosecutor's office tell the police why the criminals keep getting out of jail: "Bat Man refuses to remove his cowl and testify in court. As he is the only witness and the only source of the police's evidence against Killer Croc, we have no recourse but to drop all the charges or be laughed out of court."
Honestly if the only evidence you have the testimony of a costumed nutjob, you didn't have much of a case anyway. It's kind of like Dirty Harry being infuriated that his arrestees "get off on a technicality" (meaning the confession he extracted around the barrel of the gun in the suspects mouth was thrown out). If he'd actually been doing good police work, then he'd have more than that mumbled confession.

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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Old 06-18-2016, 10:26 PM   #18
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Default Re: Capebusters -- brainstorming a single-setting game

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Originally Posted by Culture20 View Post
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.
Oh yeah, that's not not "ripped from the headlines" connected to real world issues at all. /sarcasm.
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Old 06-18-2016, 10:34 PM   #19
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Default Re: Capebusters -- brainstorming a single-setting game

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Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
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.
...
Vaguely similar to a character I envisioned long ago. He projected a form, usually during sleep, that looked like an innocent little girl with hair covered face. But underneath that was a monstrous rotting flesh face. All his frustrations and dark desires embodied but nevertheless slightly restrained subconsiously like a physically separate cunning Hulk.

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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Old 06-20-2016, 11:47 AM   #20
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Default 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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