New campaign and looking for advice/assistance

[l337d09]

ok to get started this is our second week into the actual campaign after months (yes you read that correctly) of character building. This will be my first campaign and I am hitting a lot of unexpected hiccups I was hoping to get some advice on how to be a better gm for my party.

ok a little about the campaign this is set in a world loosely based off of Heroes. not as in batman and superman but as in the show that had Hiro Nakamura and hayden pannetierre. Anyways so far I have 4 PC's one is a shapeshifter. Me and him have worked out a point cost to alter his "morph" skill to not include conservation of mass but to only be able to turn into animals of bear size and under.
Then there's an ex-military (think the movie RED) agent who can change his molecules to either be super Hard/Dense or permeable.
Then we have an actress/model who has telekinetic/mind reading abilities but thats not all she also has a split personality who is really a sleeper agent working for the government.
and last but not least we have a 20 year old college student who wants to be the next avatar (the martial artist not the blue people).

so far in the campaign the actress changed into her split personality and started beating up an innocent npc just because she thought he had valuable information for her mission. while in game two their first taste combat began with the actress attacking the same npc (in a completely different situation mind you) and then the ex-military attacking her (trying to protect a civilian) leaving the shapeshifter to fend for himself against the two giant rats that they had obviously noticed before.

all that drama aside I'm not to sure on how to go with this campaign from here really. I have laid down a few hints as to the main point of the quest. The actresses father is in the black ops, code name red eagle, and has been captured by "the company" the shapeshifter is a bio-geneticist at "the company" the ex-military was red eagles old partner. and the avatar guy was just witness to the giant rat fight(he'll join the game next session). oh also "the company" in this game is responsible for everyone getting superpowers and their pollution of toxic waste also resulted in some mutation of the wildllife in certain areas. such as the encounter they just had with the giant rats in present day new york.

well i hope thats enough information to go on to help me. theres no specific question just hoping for tips suggestions and ideas from experienced and noob gm's alike to help a first timer out. thx in advance ^_^

[Refplace]

Generally I dont lead my players around, though a Supers genre its more likely then most. What I do is incorporate their back story into the campaign as numerous plot hooks. I also set a rough timeline and make things happen based on that and prior events such as what they have done or are doing.
I also have multiple plots and one or more meta plots or arching storylines.
there are typically hints and small parts of those long term plots that occur through out the campaign.
It helps a lot if you know your players as well.
Here are some things from a Supers game I ran that lasted about 2 years.
Powers came from multiple sources but there was one triggering event in the 60s that really brought them out and they increased in scale and frequency over time. I had two players who liked to figure things out so that was set up for them to work on if they wanted to. I wasn't easy and they did not work on it all the time but eventually they got there.
Most countries had a registration act or military Supers and there were consequences for how the government and the public reacted to heros who registered or not.
The heroes needed a job and income so the job brought up some adventures.
After the first game or two the heroes formed a team and people reacted to that team. They made enemies and allies.
I tossed in some stuff to showcase individuals and powers but I also let the players direct their own lives and sometimes their own actions or goals created the adventure. Most of my players were very active so they did a lot on their own and much of my stuff involved reacting to them.
The main trick I had to learn was pacing to keep the investigator and puzzle solvers satisfied while not letting the combat types get bored.
Also keeping the mage/gadgeteer in line and not building too much stuff that short circuited everyone else.

[Opellulo]

I played a similiar campaign some time ago; it then evolved on a "Superscale Morality Dilemmas" Authority-style, it was quite fun.

IMHO the characters seems a little too wide-spread, you need something to tie them up: being captured by "the Company" is a bit cliched but always working adding revenge as common denominator; or you could introduce a third super party that could work as advisor, enemy... or both.

Usually if you create a believable enemies the players and the characters start to work together, so the most important setting questions are: What are the company goals? They wante to create Supers, are they an accident or a side effect for something else? They want to control them, mantain the secrecy or they want to take all the media lights? The mutation are under control or are the expanding at a rate the company cannot contaim them? Other countries Goverments are accomplices or enemies? There are other companies? and so on...

Another good point is to insist on characters families and relatives: they know supers exists? Are they shocked, exalted or scared? can they become company targets?

And last but not least, what's the meaning of supers in your setting? Are they just minority anomalies or are they spreading? Is this the birth of a new human specie?

Excalation is another thing that works wondefully in Supers campaigns: first save yourself, then you family, then your city, then the World. it follows the characters "discovering of the powers" and grants new tougher challenges, but could easily slips out of hand if not carefully crafted.

Just remember where "Heroes" failed: not providing a clear goal and challenge; after the first season (where all the plot is stealed from Watchmen) is goes shambling then and now without much purpose. Just avoid it in your campaing and everything should go fine.