blumberg@ihuxw.UUCP (Marc R Blumberg) (12/02/83)
This is to broadcast my interest in superhero roleplaying games. I have previously been a player in a (now defunct) V & V campaign, and have been running a very successful Champions campaign for the last year and a half. I would appreciate any advice/comments/correspondence from any other superhero gamers out there, regardless of game system used. Marc Blumberg Western Electric Naperville, IL
rigney@uokvax.UUCP (12/08/83)
#R:ihuxw:-60600:uokvax:2400018:000:95 uokvax!rigney Dec 6 12:50:00 1983 OK, here are some comments from a Champions GM, in three parts. Carl ..!ctvax!uokvax!rigney
rigney@uokvax.UUCP (12/08/83)
#R:ihuxw:-60600:uokvax:2400019:000:2615
uokvax!rigney Dec 6 12:51:00 1983
If you've been successfully running Champions for a
year, I'm not sure my advice can help, but I'll give it
anyway. Details provided on request.
I've run Champions for 2.5 years, and currently have 3-5
players with 70 characters between them, 100 more from
printed sources, 120 from other campaigns, 200 of my own
design, and about 100 more on the drawing board, in varying
stages of completion. I'm a comics fan, but my players
aren't.
1) The most important thing is to read comics, and learn
from them. A world of Superheroes has more differences than
just the presence of people with superhuman powers; for
example, coincidence and irony play a larger role. If your
players read comics too; even better. Even if they don't
(mine don't), they should have that spirit.
2) Get the characters involved, make them care. Make the
players care, too. This is true in all RPGs, but especially
in SHRPGs, because motivation is so important. If the
players don't care whether innocent bystanders get wasted or
not, a lot of flavor is lost. This doesn't mean you can't
run heroes that don't care about civilian casualties, but
it's generally more fun for the players to (willingly)
operate under the constraints of The Heroic Code.
All this applies even more so to DNPCs. A DNPC should
never be taken for the points, and you should use every
trick you can to tie the Hero more strongly to his DNPC (For
those unfamiliar with Champions, DNPC is a Dependent Non-
player character, some acquaintaince or friend of the hero
that gets involved, such as Aunt May, Gwen Stacy, or Lois
Lane). Especially fun is a competent DNPC with
overconfidence, that keeps overextending their abilities.
I've seen players groan in horror as their character's
Beloved sandbags the Villian from behind just before he zaps
the hero. Of course, the Villian isn't hurt by the puny
attack, just distracted and annoyed, which hardly bodes well
for the Beloved.
3) Make the normals vulnerable. In Champions, you can do
this by reducing the BODY of normals (and most agents) from
10 to 5. This gives heroes much less margin for error in
their attacks, and usually results in their having to pull
attacks severely, often enough to not be able to take the
agent out on the first shot. Also, it makes bystanders much
more fragile, nearly insuring their death from straying
blasts, falling rubble, etc., if the hero doesn't intervene.
It also allows pistols to have a chance of killing with a
single shot.rigney@uokvax.UUCP (12/08/83)
#R:ihuxw:-60600:uokvax:2400020:000:3484
uokvax!rigney Dec 6 12:51:00 1983
>This is a continuation of the remarks in the last response.
4) Consider and apply the effects of superpowers on the
outside world. Wars, Laws, Espionage (national &
industrial), Industry (munitions) Politics, and especially
News. The more detail and thought given to the logical
effects, the better.
5) Weave a tangled web. Foreshadow later events, even if
you're not sure what the events will be. Throw in subplots.
Use events from the murky past as causes for current events.
The more tangled, the better, as long as you can keep
everything straight and the players aren't overwhelmed.
This is particularly good when hidden Masterminds are
manipulating events to their advantage. The larger and older
your campaign, the better this will work.
6) Require pictures. With the aid of character outlines
even the least artistically talented can produce pleasing
results, and pictures of heroes and villians add immensely
to the enjoyment. If you're lucky enough to have a artistic
player with some free time, (s)he might do sketches of the
major scenes, or even an ocassional informal comic.
7) Give the major villians style. Some badguys are losers,
just fodder for the heros' egos; I use ENEMIES I & II for
these. But there should be some villians that the players
have to pull together and execute perfect teamwork to have
any chance of defeating. Examples are Magneto and Dr. Doom.
An example from my campaign would be Quadros, which has
a reputation for infallibility so great that the players
despair at the very name. Quadros isn't overly powerful,
just 4 (maybe 5) 250 point villians, who can casually wreck
a dozen unorganized 200 point heroes with teamwork and
planning.
At the other extreme of style, the players' favorite
foe was Ratman, with his ratility belt and insane giggle.
(and his sidekick, Raven the Girl Wonder, along with the
other members of the Society of Thanatos: Ghoul and
Darkling) He always lost, but he did it with great style,
and the issue was always in doubt - he *could've* won, he
just didn't somehow. An example:
Two heroes on a dock are holding a yacht over their
heads (for reasons we won't go into now). Ratman sneaks up
behind one with his Ratblaster, snickering softly, and taps
the unsuspecting fool on the shoulder. As he turns, Ratman
triumphantly squeaks "Byebye, superchump!" and pulls the
trigger, blowing the hero into the bay. With a funny
feeling he's forgotten something, Ratman looks up to see the
unsupported ship descending on his head!
With a frantic "Uh Oh!" he throws his cape over his
head, which does no good at all, as the boat piledrives him
through the dock into the bay. The first hero (who can
breath underwater, fortunately), then grabs the soaked
Ratman and tosses him back up, where the other hero bats him
with the boat. Exit Ratman, sailing off into the night,
where his aching body will be scooped up by the Ratmobile (a
volkswagon with whiskers and tail) and trundled back to the
Ratcave for some Rathealing.
This sort of thing *always* happened to him, but never
the same way twice, although he had a tendency towards
aerial exits. (No, Ratman doesn't fly. At least not
intentionally.) It was immense fun anticipating his defeat
each time, despite (or because of) all his clever plans and
low cunning.rigney@uokvax.UUCP (12/08/83)
#R:ihuxw:-60600:uokvax:2400021:000:2451
uokvax!rigney Dec 6 12:52:00 1983
>This is a continuation of the remarks in the last response.
8) As in the comics, no situation should be totally
hopeless, although it may seem that way to lesser mortals.
Heroes willing to take desparate chances should be rewarded,
defeatism should be curbed harshly. Likewise, tension
should be maintained. Avoid Deus Ex Machina - if the heroes
foul up they should rescue themselves. If they're inept, go
easy on them until they pull their act together, but never
just hand them the solution. Encourage creativity and
imagination; accept your villians' losses. Avoid the
adversary mode of play; it isn't you vs. them, but the
villians vs. the heroes, with you acting as referee. If the
villians aren't familiar with the heroes, don't use your
knowledge of the heroes' weaknesses.
9) Deaths should be very rare. In Champions this is seldom
a problem; in the first year of play we had only 3 deaths
(two by the same character, Fireflash). Using death too
much cheapens it and lessens its impact; it also makes the
players too cautious. One of the big advantages of SHRPG is
that beginning characters are sturdy enough to last, so they
have time to fully develop their personalities.
Likewise, resurrection should not be used lightly, if
at all. Villians disappearing in explosions, caveins, etc.
can be used freely, preferably with a tale of ingenious
escape from certain death; but even these should not be used
so often as to make the players cynical.
10) Keep the power level low enough to avoid an arms race.
I prefer a 200 point limit on characters, with careful GM
control of what's allowed in. If a character is very well
thought out and need the additional points, I allow them.
This allows a single 400-500 point Villian to work well
against 6-10 heroes. In a campaign I knew of, the average
hero was 500 points, and games degenerated entirely into
massive dice rolling - there was no chance to be clever,
because everyone's defenses were too high. The campaign
eventually blew apart under its own pressure.
Less than 200 points, and it's too hard to design
well-rounded characters. More than 300, and the characters
become too well-rounded, a character can be good at
*everything*.
I hope someone's found this useful, and not *too* long.
Any comments from other SH GMs, or comparisons to non-SH RPGS?daemon@decwrl.UUCP (12/20/83)
From: Ed Featherston HL01-1/P06 225-5241 <roll::featherston>
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Newsgroup : net.games.frp
>From : KRYPTN::TS1::BURROWS
Organization : Digital Equipment Corp.
Subject: RE: Let's see some superheroes
...
Regarding Marc Blumberg's request for other Super Hero RPGer's
advice/comments/correspondence, we had a couple of very successful campaigns
here in Maynard. There were two campaigns and three GMs. I started the whole
Shootin match, initially laid out the campaigns and did a large part of the
GMing. Two of the players shared those duties, as I found that after the birth
of my first child (the second is immanent) I hadn't the time to do a proper
job preparing every week.
Our first campaign started in a modern era with a scenario based on the
T.H.N.D.E.R. agents, because they were a group that none of the palyers were
familiar with. In my game, the powers of evil succeede in stealing the nifty
gadgets from U.N.I.C.O.R.N. that the THUNDER (to H with the periods) agents
managed to keep in the first couple of pages of issue one. UNICORN commisioned
the players to recover them. The first adventure was essentially our heroes
versus the THUNDER agents. Good won out and everything but the superspeed
suit, worn by Rusty (aka the Iron Maiden) was recovered. Rusty, her armor-clad
minions and a hireling she gave the supersuit to when she found out about the
fast aging side-effect were the next major oposition. From there the group
evolved when another GM introduced an East/West Super Hero escalation race
(the Superpower Super Power race), and a limitation treaty. The result was
the formation of the Freedom Alliance in the West and the Peoples Superhero
League in the East. (Many nations: France, China, Israel etc, had their own
national group). Both groups were equivalently equipped with satelite HQs
and gravity cars supplied by the U.N.'s UNICORN. This lasted until the
fateful trip the goup made into China to rescue one of it's members from
his father Fu Manchu. During this raid we found that Fu had kidnapped
Brezhnev, the US's Sect'y of (Defense?), and the Primier of China. One of
characters, Death's Shadow, a Spectre/Deadman sort who'd been returned
to a smbalance of life and charged to "punish the wicked" found himself
alone with the communist leaders, and killed Brezhnev. The arrival of the
rest of the party forestalled further mayhem. The PSL and the Brigade of Four
(China's group) showed up and there was a quick fight and strategic withdrawl.
Needless to say the USSR and China were unhappy. The FA was disbanded when
their involvement became undeniable.
The other campaign was first played on Dec, 7 1982 and took place on
another Dec 7th. It was directly based on the All Star Squadron. I built all
of the A.S.S. (some things require periods) members except the Superman, GL,
Spectre level ones, and everybody selected one rather than designing their
own. Most of the scenarios were at least partially based on the comic
adventures and some were lifted bodily. (Everyone but the GM postponed reading
the comics till after they were played out.) It was interesting to see the
similarities and difrences between the writers and the players resolutions of
the same or similar situations. I got a much more favorable reaction to
this campaign than I had expected.
So much for the history. Maybe I'll describe the characters in more
detail in a later note. I do have some thoughts and suggestions though, mostly
for people who are starting a new campaign.
(UUCP) {decvax, ucbvax, allegra}!decwrl!rhea!kryptn!ts1!burrows
(ARPA) decwrl!rhea!kryptn!ts1!burrows@Berkeley
decwrl!rhea!kryptn!ts1!burrows@SU-Shasta
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End Forwarded Messagedaemon@decwrl.UUCP (12/20/83)
From: Ed Featherston HL01-1/P06 225-5241 <roll::featherston>
Begin Forwarded Message:
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Newsgroup : net.games.frp
>From : KRYPTN::TS1::BURROWS
Organization : Digital Equipment Corp.
Subject: RE: Let's see some superheroes
A few ideas on running SHRPGs (a friend insists on pronouncing FRPG as
fur-pig, I suppose that makes these Shear-pigs in contrast?) based on our
SuperWorld campaigns, reported in an earlier message.
1) Beware of superpower escalation. You need to keep a balance between
having characters too deadly or invulnerable by being unnbalanced and
to well rounded in terms of their powers. Our second campaign was more
successful in in this regard. The characters were based on DC's All-Star
Squadron, and not nearly as powerful as the first campaign. Over-all they
were more well rounded. When unable to use their main power, any of them
could resort to throwing punches. None of them could ignore damage long
enough to pulverize the oposition, although Steel and Robotman could
take quite a lot.
2) Watch out for creating powerful Non-Player organizations that the
players can rely on for equipment/inteligence etc. A conection with gov't
can be quite useful as a source of information and missions, but you
don't really want a THUNDER-like group they can go to to re-equip all
the time, and explaning why they can't gets kind of tough. After all if
the mad Dr Dispicable is really a menace to the whole world, why are our
heroes taking him on all alone. And if their are others out to get him,
where are they, and why don't we team up. All in all I'd recommend creating
a world in which the players are some of the first superheroes, ala
Marvel in the early 60's or DC in the late 50's. you can always grow the
strong NPC groups and the player group's connections. After all, the
Avengers didn't start with gov't IDs and security clearences and everything.
Make 'em earn it. Some gov't connections can be useful to remove unwanted loot
in the form of enemy weapons out of the player's hands. I had a hard time
explaning why my character wouldn't keep the nifty blaster he took of a
fallen foe as a backup weapon. After all I knew he didn't have the hero
points to buy the gun (It was a dilly) but HE didn't.
3) Concentrate a LOT on world building. It gets tempting to turn a SHRPG
into smash and grab, or at least smash. The grabbing is best left to the
baddies. The best cure for this is a huge amount of world building. Give
'em lots of plot lines. Explore the player characters' backgrounds. If
one of them wants to be Fu Manchu's son, let him. THen embroil them in
all the Eastern intrigue they can take. if someone wants to take the
disability of being a psyhopath ala Wolverine, give him bad press, make
people mistrust him.
4) Look for players who either have a comix background or are good enough
role-players to really get into the spirit of things. They need to play
by the comics code or at least some form of Heroic Code.
Well, enough for now.
(UUCP) {decvax, ucbvax, allegra}!decwrl!rhea!kryptn!ts1!burrows
(ARPA) decwrl!rhea!kryptn!ts1!burrows@Berkeley
decwrl!rhea!kryptn!ts1!burrows@SU-Shasta
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