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?  :)