IC: Heroes, But Not In This World [Hero 6E]
I was taking ideas from my players in another Hero System game, when this concept gelled in my head all at once. It's not what they wanted to do, so I thought I'd describe it here and see what people think about it.
Initially the players will make low-powered characters; either competent Normals or skilled Heroic types, somewhere in that range. A cut above average, but not outrageously exceptional.
That being said, they would likely have their own little bits of expertise. Maybe one of them has really good reflexes. One might be really good with machines and making old tech work again. Perhaps one is really big and tough. Things like that.
The setting is a post-apocalyptic world. It originally had superheroes and super-powered villains and everything that goes with them. At some point, one of these villains made the ultimate bid: threatening to destroy the world with a doomsday weapon. As expected, superheroes turned up to oppose him.
Except they failed. The device went off, and 95% of the world population died. Not just people, but all living things. And a chunk of the rest were twisted and mutated, so the survivors had to deal with monsters as well as scarce resources. It would make the Wasteland in Fallout look like Disneyland.
The PCs in this scenario have been eking out a living for some time, banded together for survival. And not in a pretty way -- they've had to do some less-than-kind things in order to get by. Murder, certainly. Theft, sure. Raiding and banditry, very likely. It's a harsh world, and there's no room for chivalry or rigid ethics.
At some point during their scavving, the PCs stumble across an old device in a ruin. Whether by design (if they have a handyman) or accident, they reactivate it, and it opens a portal to an alternate timeline. Specifically, a timeline in which the super-villain never threatened to destroy the world. It's bright, clean, lots of people; compared to what they've been living it, paradise.
And in stepping through the portal, the PCs get changed on that end, into what they would have been. Superheroes. More importantly, they quickly learn that they are a team, and are the resident defenders of the local city-state. Big Damn Heroes, with a responsibility toward the civilians and the powers to make it happen.
That big bruiser? Suddenly much bigger and tougher. The handyman? Maybe he's built his own power armor, or a belt full of gadgets. The agile guy? Hyperkinetic martial artist. Whatever they're good at back home, they're ten times better here.
Except they can't stay forever. Maybe the portal has a built-in time limit, or their bodies are left behind and still need food and water. Plus, if anyone else finds the portal, they'll probably kill the PCs to gain control of it. They can bring stuff back to make life easier, but if they overdo it they'll give away their advantage.
A bit more long-winded than the first time I drafted this idea. But the general concept is having the PCs flip between a blasted world where they're bad guys in a world with nothing but bad guys, and a bright shiny world where they're expected to be the heroes.