Superheroes rpg`s. Tips for the gm and players!

ninjazombie42
edited October 2013 in General Archive
I wanted to start a thread on the topic of supers campaigns and how to run them! Anyone have any valuable insight on the subject? Thanks:)

Comments

  • bluesguy
    bluesguy
    Posts: 127
    I have run superhero campaigns a number of times. Because my fantasy campaigns tend to be very serious and deadly I tend to move the other direction with Superhero Campaigns. I go with Silver Age style characters and plots. The good guys are good (80 to 90% of the time) and the bad guys are bad (sometimes thru no fault of their own). I also tend to run the campaign in an episodic fashion. So each story only loosely fits with the one that preceded it and the one that follows only loosely follows it.

    I tend to mix up the adventures. Sometimes they players face a single mastermind/supervillain - a'la Dr. Doom or Magneto. Sometimes they deal with evil agencies - Hydra. And other times it is supervillain teams like the Wreaking Crew. Some adventures are lighthearted - French mercenary villain and his crew trying to steal the pirate treasure from a local museum. The villain would have gotten away but he decided he needed to steal a kiss from the two female superheros :-). And other times very serious - demonic creature trying to bring back to life a long dead evil 'demi-god'.

    Hope that helps
  • ninjazombie42
    Posts: 57
    Cool! Thanks:)

    How do you structure these episodes(read sessions)?
  • Joedylan2000
    Joedylan2000
    Posts: 21
    I played and GMed a few supers games ( DC heros, Aberrant, Neccessery Evil among others ) and there a couple of things I would say to watch out for from the GMs chair, having encountered them repeatedly (in other games as well, but especialy supers) myself.

    "Angel summoner and BMX bandit ":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFuMpYTyRjw syndrome. Where one or more players feel totaly overshadowed or irrelevent becuase of there choice of powers. This happens in some game systems more so than others. The cures are some judiciouse plot writing if it happens and possibly a little advice at character gen to nip it in the bud.

    *Challenge one, kill the rest syndrome* The fact is there will often be situations where to challenge one character will require circumstances that can massacar the rest of the team. Again some systems lend themselves more to this than others. But given that some one nearly always wants to be ' the toughest' or the 'fastest' when they play supers it does seem to crop up alot. This is just something you need to keep an eye on, be aware of and plan for. Used correctly it is an oportunity for certain characters to take a step up to the spotlight. ( Only Magnaman can resist this radiation!)but you need tothink about it when you wish to challenge and engage the whole team.
  • ninjazombie42
    Posts: 57
    Thanks:) I`ll keep that in mind! I don`t care much about power-balance, but more about narrative balance, like in FATE. I`ll use Truth & Justice and the PDQ-system, a very rules-light, but "rules-interesting" system. How do you run a supers game, from a session and story-perspective?
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