Supers: Campaign Starter Ideas? - Page 2

Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2 · 09-29-2010, 12:32 PM

A choice between "have the BBEG sneering and taunting" or "have the BBEG pretend to be an ally"?

Do both!

The real BBEG is among Our Heroes, pretending to be as confused as themselves. Meanwhile, his Trusted Lieutenant is in the fancy robes with the big shoulders projected as a hologram, taunting Our Heroes. (Or maybe the BBEG can be in two places at once somehow, or is an illusion caster ... you get the idea.)

Kalzazz · 09-29-2010, 12:38 PM

There needs to be tank police. Nothing says overly Authoritarian law and order like a M1 Abrams with a lightbar

vitruvian · 09-29-2010, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redpikemen

The "world" is a modified timeline of our own; it's 2013, the US has three wars going - one in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran - and the President (think a Bush like character) created an executive order saying that war time presidents can run without term limits - so this is his fourth consecutive term.

Did he get the 22nd Amendment repealed? If not, there's probably a significant resistance movement, including each and every member of the armed services that takes his or her oath of enlistment seriously...

redpikemen · 09-29-2010, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vitruvian

Did he get the 22nd Amendment repealed? If not, there's probably a significant resistance movement, including each and every member of the armed services that takes his or her oath of enlistment seriously...

That's a really good point! It makes sense that some parts of the military would want nothing to do with this - it really lends the mantra "You're either with us or against us!" something more, doesn't it? I'll have to make sure to weave this into the storyline.

On another note, a friend of mine suggested today that the dead woman in the hotel room could be a senator's daughter who may have known the location of the girl The Bad Guy is looking for, and she died due to a botched mind reading attempt. I thought this was a neat idea - any takes off from that one?

Territan · 09-30-2010, 03:04 AM

Okay, the idea is to maximize stress to induce the expression of latent powers, yes? And there will likely be more than one cell phone in the group. Picture this:

They "wake up," see what "they" have done, and after a few minutes of investigating one of their phones ring. The voice on the other end seems to know the character, asks where he is, what he's doing, and how "that special business" from last night went. It may come out that they're in trouble, and that voice will lend assistance.

A few minutes later, another voice calls up another person, asking where the character is and telling him he's (or her she's) late for work. If it gets out that the situation's gone bad, that voice will offer different advice.

Whichever advice they take, it rarely seems to go well, and they end up in more and greater trouble as time progresses. One voice gives bum advice, then the other does, then the first, etc.

If the bad guy wants to induce stress, he can probably do it better by applying tension in multiple directions. Both of the callers are aligned with the mind controller (possibly even without knowing it), and set up to give the characters mostly bad advice, give or take a nugget of good advice to maintain trust and keep them just out of trouble enough that they don't get taken out. The idea is to maintain a rolling boil, not to burn them.

Someone could call the hotel room offering lurid, taunting threats and appraising them of the dangers on the way, but that doesn't necessarily have to be the mind controller. It could be one of his henchfolk or puppets, and the big bad could be one of those "concerned friends" making maintenance calls and staying closer to the group to monitor everyone's progress.

vitruvian · 09-30-2010, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redpikemen

That's a really good point! It makes sense that some parts of the military would want nothing to do with this - it really lends the mantra "You're either with us or against us!" something more, doesn't it? I'll have to make sure to weave this into the storyline.

Well, I'm speaking pretty specifically of the first part of the oath of enlistment, which goes, "I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;". The next part does speak of following orders of the President and other superior officers according to the UCMJ, but still, given that most of the ex-military folks I work with every day take the idea of honor very seriously and that technically it would be incumbent of any person who took this oath to oppose something so blatantly unconstitutional....

Of course, that's to the extent that the rank and file actually knew the document they'd taken an oath to defend well enough to realize it, or that it was clear that Article II couldn't trump Amendments.

JakeEscherRoels · 02-17-2011, 11:09 AM

The stress in multiple directions is always the way to go. Nothing makes players freak out more than having something unexpected happen. Having elements of the PCs "everyday" life come into effect is key. They have to remember they are real people and aren't supposed to be "heroes". I really like the personal phone call idea. Maybe give the most honest and law abiding one the phone call about taking care of that "special business." Maybe they have missed calls and voice mails from a parent or spouse.

The PCs should be apprehensive of help from anyone who knows what's happened. Even Neo didn't fully trust Morpheus at first. Personally, I think leaving it ambiguous is the way to go. If the PCs aren't sure whether they should trust this ally, they will go warily, cause drama between the ones who are more trusting vs the others etc. PC arguments are fun!

It may be interesting to exclude 1 PC from the "you wake up..." mystery and put them in the role of investigation. Especially if they are law abiding etc. and especially if they are an ally of at least one PC already.

Gef · 02-18-2011, 12:06 AM

If your players can handle it, shuffle their powers. Powers are't personal any more than height: You don't get to choose them, you just get to choose what you do with 'em. I'm usually the guy arguing for reasonable point caps, but 50 points seems awfully low for a speedster.

JakeEscherRoels · 02-25-2011, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gef

If your players can handle it, shuffle their powers. Powers are't personal any more than height: You don't get to choose them, you just get to choose what you do with 'em. I'm usually the guy arguing for reasonable point caps, but 50 points seems awfully low for a speedster.

50 points is more than I gave my teenage supers. With some number work you can make someone pretty damn powerful for 50 points. Especially with extra effort etc.

Jeffr0 · 02-25-2011, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redpikemen

What are your thoughts? Should The Bad Guy be pretend to be nice, or leer at them and coerce them through force to be his pawns? Any ideas on anything written here are more than welcome - thank you again!

See John Byrne's Next Men... the character "Control".

Plan 6 story arcs for the campaign:

1: Gain Powers & meet Control
2-4: Have 3 different adventures with Control guiding and training you
5-6: Realize that Control is either the Big Bad or... if he's Good... is actually inadvertantly causing the Big Bad to win big time!

Something like that....

09-29-2010, 12:32 PM	#11
Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2 Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: The deep dark haunted woods	Re: Supers: Campaign Starter Ideas? A choice between "have the BBEG sneering and taunting" or "have the BBEG pretend to be an ally"? Do both! The real BBEG is among Our Heroes, pretending to be as confused as themselves. Meanwhile, his Trusted Lieutenant is in the fancy robes with the big shoulders projected as a hologram, taunting Our Heroes. (Or maybe the BBEG can be in two places at once somehow, or is an illusion caster ... you get the idea.) __________________ "When you talk about damage radius, even atomic weapons pale before that of an unfettered idiot in a position of power." - Sam Starfall from the webcomic Freefall

09-29-2010, 12:38 PM	#12
Kalzazz Join Date: Feb 2009	Re: Supers: Campaign Starter Ideas? There needs to be tank police. Nothing says overly Authoritarian law and order like a M1 Abrams with a lightbar

09-30-2010, 03:04 AM	#15
Territan Join Date: Sep 2004	Re: Supers: Campaign Starter Ideas? Okay, the idea is to maximize stress to induce the expression of latent powers, yes? And there will likely be more than one cell phone in the group. Picture this: They "wake up," see what "they" have done, and after a few minutes of investigating one of their phones ring. The voice on the other end seems to know the character, asks where he is, what he's doing, and how "that special business" from last night went. It may come out that they're in trouble, and that voice will lend assistance. A few minutes later, another voice calls up another person, asking where the character is and telling him he's (or her she's) late for work. If it gets out that the situation's gone bad, that voice will offer different advice. Whichever advice they take, it rarely seems to go well, and they end up in more and greater trouble as time progresses. One voice gives bum advice, then the other does, then the first, etc. If the bad guy wants to induce stress, he can probably do it better by applying tension in multiple directions. Both of the callers are aligned with the mind controller (possibly even without knowing it), and set up to give the characters mostly bad advice, give or take a nugget of good advice to maintain trust and keep them just out of trouble enough that they don't get taken out. The idea is to maintain a rolling boil, not to burn them. Someone could call the hotel room offering lurid, taunting threats and appraising them of the dangers on the way, but that doesn't necessarily have to be the mind controller. It could be one of his henchfolk or puppets, and the big bad could be one of those "concerned friends" making maintenance calls and staying closer to the group to monitor everyone's progress.

02-17-2011, 11:09 AM	#17
JakeEscherRoels Join Date: Sep 2010	Re: Supers: Campaign Starter Ideas? The stress in multiple directions is always the way to go. Nothing makes players freak out more than having something unexpected happen. Having elements of the PCs "everyday" life come into effect is key. They have to remember they are real people and aren't supposed to be "heroes". I really like the personal phone call idea. Maybe give the most honest and law abiding one the phone call about taking care of that "special business." Maybe they have missed calls and voice mails from a parent or spouse. The PCs should be apprehensive of help from anyone who knows what's happened. Even Neo didn't fully trust Morpheus at first. Personally, I think leaving it ambiguous is the way to go. If the PCs aren't sure whether they should trust this ally, they will go warily, cause drama between the ones who are more trusting vs the others etc. PC arguments are fun! It may be interesting to exclude 1 PC from the "you wake up..." mystery and put them in the role of investigation. Especially if they are law abiding etc. and especially if they are an ally of at least one PC already. Last edited by JakeEscherRoels; 02-17-2011 at 01:00 PM. Reason: addendum

02-18-2011, 12:06 AM	#18
Gef Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Yucca Valley, CA	Re: Supers: Campaign Starter Ideas? If your players can handle it, shuffle their powers. Powers are't personal any more than height: You don't get to choose them, you just get to choose what you do with 'em. I'm usually the guy arguing for reasonable point caps, but 50 points seems awfully low for a speedster. Last edited by Gef; 02-18-2011 at 12:10 AM.