Ideas Are Easy

[Johan Larson]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Where would you put the PC's?

The PCs are agents of the crown, affiliated with the College of Magic. They may be mages, scholars of magic, soldiers who protect the mages, or various sorts of "fixers" the crown keeps on hand (i.e. "rogues", in FRP terms).

Their first task would be to investigate the disappearance of a major magical researcher, who was working on alternatives to death-mana, specifically pain.

The problem the PCs will run into is that magic and everyone associated with it have a really terrible reputation. Most people with clout will refuse to deal with them, and those who can't avoid it will tend to tell the PCs whatever will get them out the door quickest.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Johan Larson

The PCs are agents of the crown, affiliated with the College of Magic. They may be mages, scholars of magic, soldiers who protect the mages, or various sorts of "fixers" the crown keeps on hand (i.e. "rogues", in FRP terms).

Their first task would be to investigate the disappearance of a major magical researcher, who was working on alternatives to death-mana, specifically pain.

The problem the PCs will run into is that magic and everyone associated with it have a really terrible reputation. Most people with clout will refuse to deal with them, and those who can't avoid it will tend to tell the PCs whatever will get them out the door quickest.

I don't know that I'd want to play in that campaign. Such a dark premise is a hard sell, but could be pretty cool if well-executed.

That said, you might find the books written by C.S. Friedman helpful, especially her current series. That first book is Feast of Souls, and the second is Wings of Wrath.

In those books, magic is powered by draining life-energy. A "witch" is someone who powers magic by slowly draining away her own life force. However, those who receive proper training know how to cast outward for an external source -- essentially, the life-force of some random person to whom a "Magister" mystically connects.

These people slowly waste away, and usually die before age 40 (for a Magister who practices seldom), and death before age 25 is not uncommon.

The key thing is, only the Magisters know they fuel their spells by consuming the souls of innocents. However, because people aren't completely clueless, they somehow associate the "wasting sickness" with Magisters, but have no idea of the reasons or the mechanism involved. They only know that when lots of Magisters are around, the wasting sickness appears more frequently and assume it's a side-effect of the spell-casting.

Moreover, since the Magisters don't know the identity of their sources (and really never want to know...), they don't know how close they are to draining them out, at any particular point. So, if things are about to come off the rails, the first step is to drain down their reservoirs, so as to connect to a fresh, untapped source.

In other words, deliberately kill their current reservoir, so as to tap a new innocent.

Make that a known mechanism, in your setting, and it solidly establishes the reasons for the dismay of the populace.

[(E)]

A game in which the PC's are going to die is a given. Players can focus on role playing the deaths of the characters. GMs who have difficulty killing PC's can get it out of their system.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by (E)

A game in which the PC's are going to die is a given.

You can use it as the intro to your Wraith: the Oblivion campaign.

[David Johnston2]

Artful Dodgers: The year is 1970, a 1970 with personal computers, smart phones, car GPS and genetically modified foods in the supermarkets because it's a 1970 that has supers and Reed Richards Isn't Useless. The problem is, it's still a 1970 that has a Vietnam War and a draft, and the draft classification of a super doesn't have enough "A"s to fit on the page. And this, children is why you create secret identities as soon as you get superpowers. How else can you dodge the draft?

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Artful Dodgers: The year is 1970, a 1970 with personal computers, smart phones, car GPS and genetically modified foods in the supermarkets because it's a 1970 that has supers and Reed Richards Isn't Useless. The problem is, it's still a 1970 that has a Vietnam War and a draft, and the draft classification of a super doesn't have enough "A"s to fit on the page. And this, children is why you create secret identities as soon as you get superpowers. How else can you dodge the draft?

In this setting, the PCs could be the team of military recruitment agents sent to enforce the draft on reluctant supers. They monitor newsfeeds and police blotters for evidence of new power manifestations, they're specially equipped for this brand of investigation and for capturing and detaining draft dodgers. But how easy is it to catch a young Superboy and still win the PR battle?

ETA: Isn't this basically the Watchmen setting, with Dr Manhattan instead of Reed Richards?

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

How else can you dodge the draft?

Be female?

All the boys are in 'Nam, leaving all the supergirls to be the heros and villains on the home front.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

In this setting, the PCs could be the team of military recruitment agents sent to enforce the draft on reluctant supers. They monitor newsfeeds and police blotters for evidence of new power manifestations, they're specially equipped for this brand of investigation and for capturing and detaining draft dodgers. But how easy is it to catch a young Superboy and still win the PR battle?

ETA: Isn't this basically the Watchmen setting, with Dr Manhattan instead of Reed Richards?

The actual inspiration is Marvel's Civil War meets the Incredibles. The essential flaw with the Mutant Registration Law is that it started by violating the Second Amendment and moved on to violate the 13 Amendment. You can't actually condemn a person to lifelong government servitude because they were born with a built-in weapon without a substantial alteration to the American Constitution. But you can constitutionally register people for the draft and should there be an actual war, call them up for a limited term, provided that they fit within certain parameters.

This caused me to think of the last time American citizens were actually being drafted, which is incidentally the same time frame as that in which the Incredibles movie takes place even though because Reed Richards Isn't Useless they have cell phones and stuff.

[simply Nathan]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

How else can you dodge the draft?

"Forget your draft-dodging hippie idea. Let's go be supers fighting the Vietnam war!"

[Johan Larson]

If the supers setting is at least a little realistic, the government is going to realize that these mutants are some of their most valuable human resources, and will take measures to cultivate them. They're all getting free rides to Meta-Human Training Institutes.

It's a sweet deal, and nearly everyone takes it. But the catch is that by taking the deal you accept that you are always going to be among the first to be called up when things go wrong in a big way.