I've been mulling over an interesting supers setting and I'd love some input from the community since I may make a game out of it. I do not need any advice on the system as I could easily obscure the mechanics, I just want advice on the setting and origin of the super characters.

These are some of the thoughts I had about creating a reason for supers to exist. For many reasons I dislike the disjointed origins of various comic settings and would rather have a cohesive idea that everyone can derive their supers from, regardless of type of super-powered character(high-tech/super training, isolated Earthbound races other than human, mutant-like types and altered humans.)

- The supers are the result of a large scale extradimensional accident.

- The supers are abductees returned to Earth.

- The supers have always existed in secret, and are the result of demigod bloodlines.

- The supers are the result of a brilliant but deranged scientist, nazi-style.

Then I also wanted to find out what people would prefer so far as setting goes. Post-Apocalyptic, Futuristic, Medieval, World War, marooned on another planet, etc.

In any event, I want to make the game flavor very cinematic yet focus on character driven stories and their relations to overall plots. While the characters can team up I wouldn't want to necessarily railroad teams, but more like solo stories in a created world. Let me know what you think!

Well, for pretty much everything but Supers, GURPS seems like a great fit. By default, Superstrength in GURPS is very weird, but it handles most of the other things you mention fairly well.

System aside, what do you think?

In reply to spectre (msg # 1):

Martian's wild card series used an alien made gene that respond to stimuli internal and external to mutate folks. If born special, you're s mutant, if a hazardous environment triggered something, you are altered, etc.

Just set the date of the virus carrying the gene back a few 10s of thousands of years and you explain secret offshoot races, pulp heroes, newer mutants, super smart techs and engineers, even folks altered in a lab by someone who may know how to recognize the X gene (which could be anyone that knows how to run a DNA test) and knows, more or less, how to stimulate it to achieve a desired result. "More or less" covers the folks that only.think they know, as well as those that actually might.

Set it back about 250 thousand years, and you could explain humanity.

I've heard of the Wild Card series and I've always appreciated the idea and that has given me some cool ideas about wanting a shared origin source. Your idea is very similar to Marvel's Celestial tinkering as well, in that our distant ancestors were visited by extraterrestrials that did some genetic engineering to include the x-gene.

I like your thoughts, but I'd like to make this a bit more original if possible.

One of my favorite supers settings was a medieval game here some years ago.  The power origins were neutral/unspecified/unknown, but those with such "gifts" had to be very careful how they used them, lest they attract the attention of the Inquisition.  So not only did players have the usual challenges fighting the bad guys, but they also had to be quite subtle in how they did so...  :)

System aside? Most of my decisions are system dependent. Especially if there's going to be combat involved. I will set fire to my beard before I do a conflict heavy freeform. If it's only about sex, that's a different story (even for supers where the heroine suddenly loses her powers when her fragile suit is torn). If there's violence, systems are crucial for my interest. Even if it's comic book violence.

Well as I said in my OP, I don't need any advice on the system, this is setting, which can be run in any system. That said, I do not plan to run it freeform, but I can obscure the mechanics of play as GM.

That was a game I ran Oakmaster. It was quite fun.
This message was last edited by the user at 20:31, Wed 16 July 2014.

That was you?  Awesome!  :)

Let me know if you ever want to bring DarkAge The Outcast back, or something like it.  I still have all the threads saved if you ever need them for reference.

More than eight years and many games later, that game setting still stands out as one of my favorites.  :D

Who knows maybe I'll go back to something akin to that if there is some interest.

Sign me up!  :D

Any ideas on a shared origin OakMaster?

What kind of game do wish for it to be?  Each of the choices come with "baggage" in that they'll subtlety guide the game style down a certain path.

Style-wise I'm looking for the game to be a character driven story, with wider implications. The characters will end up shaping the world with what they seek to do, whatever that might be. I like big over arcing baddies but I also like to cater the stories to the individuals in it. For instance each character would have an interesting arch nemesis or organization that they actively rally against. With a shared universe kind of feel to it. So even though the characters might not be teamed up at all times they will probably come together for the big baddies. While I'd like the PCs to be straight up heroes, there are some fun ways to do anti-heroes and even villainous supers in a way that makes it interesting and not just murder and mayhem.

Any setting we come up with should be able to fit those game ideas.

My thoughts for the setting are an alternate version of Earth in some way. Some of my favorite comic book story arcs were Age of Apocalypse(a post apocalyptic setting obviously), the Marvel 1602 series(medieval/victorian times), League of Extraordinary Gentlemen(re-imagined historical supers), and any stories from the old pulp style horror/scifi comics of the 60's to today which essentially ignored the comics code but had interesting but vulnerable heroes. That said I get inspiration most from Marvel comics but also from Darkhorse's imaginative stuff and Vertigo titles and I won't shy away from using Old One-styled monsters as baddies. ^_^

Note: I do not like to make my game Adult rated, maybe Mature to dissuade players that are too young to play well with others.
This message was last edited by the user at 22:15, Wed 16 July 2014.

I actually prefer not knowing, unless it is something that the PC would know (or discover) IC.  If my PC doesn't know it, then why should I (the player)?  :)

Obviously a setting similar to Marvel 1602 is my first choice among those you listed.

Any preferences for game system?  MSH (like DarkAge The Outcast)?  Something else?  Or the behind-the-screen approach, where you use a system, but the players don't know which one?  :)

To me, the most critical questions for a supers setting are the relative power level of the supers, the opposition, and general motivations of the characters.  In that light, some random thoughts on your various suggestions:



This would be pretty cool if all the supers were normal folks in a setting somewhere between WWII and near future.  For whatever reason, extradimensional rifts are popping up everywhere and letting things from beyond through.  An entity of some sort grants the PCs the powers and charges them to do a job or they just get them by accident and have a natural instinct to close the rifts.

The game is bouncing around, high action, as the PCs (alone or in groups) try to keep the world from falling apart at the seams.  I like this because the opposition can be varied, but almost always non-human.  The PCs have a strong motivation in general.  Also, the power level can vary dramatically just based on how you design the foes.



This can go a few ways.  If the PCs were abducted before an apocalypse and returned after, you could get interesting stories as the PCs try to regain some of the lost glory of earth and bring together some of the survivors.  Opposition would end up being the elements, horrible mutants, and the environment itself.  I'd be mildly interested, but post-apoc always seems to focus on man's inhumanity to man more than I like.

In a more modern day setting, the opposition either ends up being other abductees or the government, neither of which really thrill me.  The same goes for futuristic and WWII.  Alien world could be interesting, but would likely end up kind of dark if the PCs didn't have a clear way to get home eventually.

You could bend the idea a bit and have the PCs not be the abductees themselves, but their descendants.  The original abductees pushed forward human development to the stars and now the descendants are leading the charge.  Elements of Aberrant seem to creep into that idea in my head.



I don't have good ideas for this one.  Modern-day, it's pretty much Scion.  On an alien planet might be interesting, but you'd have to have a good reason for a bunch of them to have been on the same ship.



You can get some of the before/after thing with a post-apoc here, too.  WWII seems the most natural, but is kind of just Captain America.

An interesting way to do this would be to combine it with the first idea.  The PCs are modern day people that get abducted by a UFO that takes them into the center of the hollow earth where Hitler has survived with his super-nazis.  The PCs get experimented on, something goes wrong, and they escape.  That'd be kind of cool.

I think one of the main selling points of a suppers game is anything goes as long as it's balanced or follows the rules. To restrict people to one sorce of supper powers just seams to take all the fun out of one of the more important aspects:

The origin story

If everyone has the same origin who is going to care there. You have taken a huge chunk of there back story out of there hands!

My suggestion is, if you want to make sure everyone has super powers from sorces that exsist in your game as aposed to them giving you a background that would be inposable for your setting, then make as many posable origins as you can. Make a HUGE list of ways that people could end up with powers in your world so they have plenty to work with and still make a one of a kind back story.

I like those ideas swordchucks, very nice ideas. My own leaning out of your ideas actually is the combination idea. Extradimensional accident happening while some abductees were removed from earth, sending the Earth into a death spin which the players get thrust back into, near future perhaps or medieval times if we get more votes for that time period.

What do we think of this idea? Or can we drill down to a specific set of setting ideas that we like better? I would really run a game of any of these ideas to be honest.

--Azraile: Good supers games have much more fun in the stories than just the origin stories. Shared origins are awesome because you have built in connections to the other characters. It's also wonderful if you like creating a cohesive universe where the plot makes sense for more than just one pc. Beyond just telling a cool story about how you got your unique powers what's next? Where do you go from there? No the hero's journey in a supers game is just that, a journey, you have to lose something and gain something. Can many people make a cool origin together?

That's what I want to do in this thread.

I think he was referring to having a single source for the powers themselves. Each super would then have their own way of discovering and growing their power, depending on which source.

Personally, I think the post apocalyptic setting is nice. The event that caused the apocalypse is the same one that seeded powers in the people.

Perhaps a magic bomb that got lost struck Earth, not only doing major damage to everything, but what remained got changed.
Think of the sergeant in Mass Effect 2 chewing out the private for shooting rounds without a target lock, because any that didn't strike the target would be lost to space till it hit something thousands of years later, except magic. "If you shoot this, then sometime, somewhere, you are f---ing up someone's day!" Well some idiot private thousands of years ago just messed up Earth.

Making it magic allows for the greatest variety of possible outcomes, leaving plenty of space for creativity in what powers were gained as well as what monsters get created.

ah, having a team with the same origin makes this make more sense then....

Just usually when people play games like that you will get all sorts of people wanting different styles of powers... usually tech, magic, meta human (generally just having some mixed blood that gives you powers), mutant, mythic creatures, and alien being the big ones. You might see some odd things pop up here and there, but I've not seen a super game that didn't have at least one magic guy, a tech guy, and a meta/mutant guy.

@Azraile: Well you can still tie those types of characters together in a neat little bow usually. Flash inspiration for the high tech, unlocking of the brain perhaps for him and the magic guy, affecting genes in the mutant guy. The same source might affect each slightly differently, giving different powers and styles of powers.

@DarklLightHitomi: I like the Post Apocalyptic too, but I don't want it to be a completely hopeless situation. I think I would make it a world in decline, where half the world has been destroyed or affected somehow. Also, I kinda like the magic bomb idea. Maybe we can work that in somehow.
This message was last edited by the user at 05:08, Thu 17 July 2014.

But you mentioned liking a variety of protagonists along with wide implications. If you start off bleak you have all the more room to build and grow,with even relatively low power levels having vast repercussions on a remaining survivors.

A small candle shines all the brighter in the night :D

Hrmm are you thinking Super-Team or something more approaching a Sandbox? The latter being fairly difficult in a Super game traditionally.

I can do both. More like Super-Teamup with some solo side plots to help everyone have more fun.

Bleak yes, hopeless no. That provides there's something left to protect or nurture, etc.

So far this is what I'm thinking with all the input:

- Impending Apocalypse(world half destroyed or affected by the rest may be destroyed soon by an...)

- Extradimensional Accident(possibly caused by some kind of magical bomb)

- The year is 1200 AD...

In reply to spectre (msg # 23):

Would plan on having it start upon the immediate arrival of "supers"?

And right now I'm really liking it, call me a softie but I love dark setting because it means I get to try all the harder to make it brighter:)

Hmm how flexible of a system are you using,from what I've gathered it's gonna be fairly behind the scenes (which I'm ok with!) but I'm wondering if there's any concepts you want your player base to shy away from.

Also this is slightly off base but if we are going with Medieval era, I recommend undead being a symptom of the bad state the Earth is in. It's always a nice backdrop.

I just referenced this comic the other day, but did you read JMS's Rising Stars comic?  The supers in that world all were in utero when a comet appeared in the sky over a small town, and they all manifested different powers as they grew up.   Most of the story revolved around their relationships with each other and how the world responded to people with super abilities appearing.

@ZerowingR: Sure, undead can be roaming the wastelands. And yeah, my story would start with the supers appearing.

Concept wise, I don't love too many classic tropes like wolf-man, Dracula, etc. For me, original is better and depth of concept is better for story. Any concept you can come up with can be accommodated by my system.

@Mad Mick: I run a comic shop as a second job, so I've been able to check it out. It's a cool story from what I've seen. Does that strike a fancy with you? What elements could we incorporate into our scheme so far?

In the year 3000, humanity discovers an ancient alien artifact that allows for time travel.  Unfortunately, so do their foes.  By the time they fight them off, they've already sent their Doomsday weapon through the rift into Earth's past.  Because the past is changing and the future will soon be erased, the only hope that man has is to alter natives of the year 1200 and send them back to stop the Doomsday weapon before it is too late.

Or something like that.  It gives you a nice joined origin, a reason for what's going on (though the characters might know squat about it), and something specific to fight against.

Personally, I prefer a "fight to stop the end of the world" scenario over a "pick up the pieces" scenario.

If you haven't read it, I don't want to give away the ending, but it provides a nice justification for why the Specials have been granted their abilities.  It's not exactly the Celestials route, but reading through the story might provide some ideas about why characters are developing their powers and how they work together.

@Mad Mick: That sounds pretty cool. I'll have to spend some money on those. ^_^

@swordchucks: Not bad for cohesiveness and just crazy enough for a fantastic supers game. Aside from time travel, I might be able to make this even more interesting but slightly cooler.

Saving the world is better than picking up the pieces. That's why I was thinking that except for the known western world and a couple of other places in 1200AD, everything else is toasted. The stakes are higher and the world may end soon, but it's pretty dark in that way.
This message was last edited by the user at 07:12, Thu 17 July 2014.

So far I have at least three interested parties I think.

Do we have agreement on this type of setting?

I think I would need 4 players to give me enough motivation to make this happen.

Interested...

Not sure if your counting me already but I'm interested.

Cool, that's two confirmed... ^_^

Make it three...  :)

I'm provisionally interested, but there are some unanswered questions about power level and system that could be dealbreakers for me.

It looks to me like he's using MSH, which doesn't thrill me due to some of the assumptions the game mechanics make (matter creation, I'm looking at you), but is workable.

I'm using the MSH classic system with tweaks. Power level may start out a bit weak but I guarantee fast leveling.

Ah, MSH is fine with me, then.  Game balance, what game balance?  ;)

With this many posts in the thread, it should be clear by now whether or not there is sufficient interest in this idea to warrant creating a game.  Please leave further discussion for the game itself, created by spectre, and linked to in the post directly following this one.

Thank you.

Thanks BBR, I was just getting to that.

I'm setting things up right now. Here's the start:

link to another game