[Supers games] Gonna run one pretty soon, need advice

[Gnyahaha]

Im thinking about running an altenrate history supers game, starting with the Korean War of 1950. The idea is that the characters will be among the world's first supers, taking part in the offensive (they haven't picked sides yet, but i'm pretty sure they'll pick the US).

The game will be loosely based on the Progenitor setting book for Wild Talents, with Savage worlds supers rules, which are pretty dang awesome btw.

My question is: has anybody here ever ran a supers campaign? What should i focus on with this genre?

[hogarth]

I've played in many superhero games, but most of them have been pretty standard stuff, i.e. fighting the "villain of the week" or trying to take down some evil organization. It sounds like you have something else pretty specific in mind, though.

[angelfromanotherpin]

I've run several supers games.

'Supers' is not a genre. A good Justice League story can be Grant Morrison's JLA (well-researched high concept showing off) or Mark Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme (philosophy and soap opera), or one of the other styles that worked.

So, first, you need a more specific pitch. What's the moral tone? Where's the realism dial set? How powerful are Supers compared to conventional forces? etc.

[Gnyahaha]

So, first, you need a more specific pitch. What's the moral tone? Where's the realism dial set? How powerful are Supers compared to conventional forces? etc.

The moral tone is going to be grey, mostly. The supers will appear during the cold war and the characters are expected to play an important part in shaping the course of history.

The relism dial will be set to low, as far as I can tell. There will be normal human science up to about the 70s, when the major supergeniuses will start showing off their more powerful technologies and really change the world.

I was thinking that supers are more powerful than a squadron of men and could probably take on a tank head on, but theyd go down under superior numbers. Also, since this is an rpg, there will be no power cap, so older supers will be far more powerful than that.

[hogarth]

I have one piece of generic superhero game advice: some superpowers are really good at trivializing encounters. That might be good or bad, depending on how you look at it and what kind of game you want to run, but you should at least watch out for them.

Examples include:

• incorporealness
• teleportation or dimensional travel (esp. if usable on enemies)
• telepathy
• x-ray vision
• mind control (maybe)
• invisibility (maybe)
• powers that give you many actions (e.g. minions, self-replication, possibly superspeed)
• "I can do anything" powers (possibilities include magic, gadget-making, "the Power Cosmic", transforming one substance to another)
• very long range powers (in general)

[Josh_Kablack]

I've probably run more of Champions and the old DC Heroes than I have of D&D, and my main gaming group is currently gearing up for the second arc of the 1958 flashback storyline to the long-running (since 2008) Forefront Champions game, so to answer your first question: oh hell yes.

Moving on to the second question:

Since supers games can be highly variable in tone, scope, power level and expectation and since they tend to include at least a bit of investigative work now and then, it is of critical importance for the players to have an understanding of the game word.

I strongly encourage you to start by writing up a one page list of movers and shakers and important/fantastic locations in the world with one or two sentence summaries. For Claremont's X-Men this would include: Magneto, The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, The Morlocks, The Reavers, The Shi'ar Empire, Genosha, The Sentinels, The Mutant Registration Act, Asteroid M, The Savage Land, The Mojoverse, Muir Isle, The Brood. Yours needs to look different but make sure that this list includes antagonistic, friendly and in-between people and organizations. Make sure it includes groups and places that supers can come from (whether in an origin story or just the group they hung out with before joining the PCs) For 1950s Koren Conflict it could include stuff like Douglas Mackiernan, Syngman Rhee, Dean Acheson, MK-Ultra, Bodo League, MASH Units, US Army Advanced Training Projects, The Communist Futurians, The Beatnik Underground, etc.

Here's the key: This list isn't done yet. During the chargen session, you want each player to contribute at least one enemy evil organization / enemy superteam / archvillain. You don't need the players to fully stat them out, but you do need reasonable descriptions of powers, tactics, goals and modus operandi. The players should have some idea who all of these are. Supers games work best if the players can make educated guesses as to which villains would be behind which type of schemes.

But before that first chargen session, I strongly encourage you to write up like 6-12 different character hooks/origins and background packages that are appropriate to the setting. Stuff like this:

• Experimental Super-Soldier: You were in an army. Possibly in WWII, possibly you joined up since. You went through a crazy experiment, and in your case it worked. You have powers, and the brass puts you on posters, but otherwise you're still following orders for your country.
• Escaped Super-Soldier: You were in an army. Possibly in WWII, possibly you joined up since. You went through a crazy experiment, and it caused great devastation, the entire facility was destroyed, but thanks to your newfound powers, you survived. If they find out the process works, they'll want you back, not just to work for them again, but to try to replicate it.
• Survivor of The Jeju or Mungyeong massacre: What started as a peaceful protest turned into a massacre. Due to choice or bad luck, you were there, caught in the middle of it. The only reason you survived is because or the superpowers you discovered / stopped hiding that day. Now you have the means to fight back.
• Inheritor of a Secret Art: You are a master of Taekwondo - or Karate or Kendo learnt under the Japanese oppression, or maybe Boxing taught by the spirit of Queensbury - whatever. The point is that you can do things with your fighting art that the unenlightened consider to be superpowers. But you are going to honor your master's dying wish / show the world that you art is still relevant in a modern war.
• Covert Super Agent: You have talents, they gave you training and gadgets that most of the world doesn't know about. This conflict provides a perfect cover for your real mission of uncovering the secret of ___ / recruiting key individuals for the Project / other
• Normal Guy/Gal caught up in this: You were here on vacation / job assignment / visiting family when the war broke out and while trying to flee the city you inherited a prototype battlesuit / alien power ring / ancient magic word / etc.
• Creature out of folklore: You a Kumiho or a Chollima or a Samjoko or something similar. This war is threatening not just the mortal world, but the unseen world is well and you must do your part. Alternately, you're a human who gained the powers and but was burdened with tasks of one of these critters.

Tie in a few mechanical suggestions for each so players know what's expected.

[Juton]

One thing a MC needs to before running a supers game is read over the PC's character sheets. Seriously, in nearly any Supers game there are lots of ways a PC can break a campaign without even realizing it. Even if you don't ask for edits, just knowing what they are capable of will help you craft challenging encounters.

[kzt]

In a game where the players are supposed to essentially be in the army background and motivation are pretty important. And yes, lots of powers can break that kind of game. HERO cleverly marks the powers that are likely to be break a game, I have no idea if the one you chose has done that. But that doesn't mean that these are the only ones that can blow the game up, it means these are the powers that obviously can in almost any players hands.

You need to set the power level up front. Flying guys with forcefields that can stop heavy machine guns and have eye lasers that can destroy tanks from a few miles are one level. Is that the level you want? How much attack and defense power?

If you don't know the game system cold you need to reserve the right to retroactively disapprove stuff that a character has. Things will happen that will show a given power or combination that are massively more powerful than you ever would have thought. Equally, you need to allow players to fix the stuff with their characters that sounds cool but just sucks in play.

[Dogbert]

You're doing a war campaign so the most obvious source of inspiration is Captain America stories. What do you do with Captain America? Well, you send him to missions where the right man-sized weapon can wreak a lot of havock. Watch some war movies and ask yourself how would each scene look if Capt. America was in it

[Lago PARANOIA]

What is the source of phlebtonium for your superheroes? Do you have an 'anything goes' approach, or do you only accept superheroes of certain origins? For example:

Mutations -- can be heritable or totally random chance.
Ancient Artifacts
Artifacts
Divine Spark
Superscience -- can be replicable (theoretically) like for Captain America or it can be a random chance thing like for Reed Richards
Training -- can be universal like in One Piece or can be that only a certain segment of the population will get anything out of it like in Naruto.
Earthly Spirits

A game where superheroes only get their l33t powers from mutations and genetics can have a very different tone than one that gets their l33t powers solely through artifacts and magic.

[PoliteNewb]

If you can find it, I recommend taking a look at Godlike (a supers game set in WWII, but otherwise similar to your premise). It has a very good look at how superpowers could alter history, how to keep them from altering it to the point of unrecognizability, and at what warfare looks like with superpowers.

[Gnyahaha]

The idea is that the players get their powers from a cosmic accident, when an ambassador for a Level 4 civilisation (ominipotent powerful beings) has his ship gunned down by accident in Korea.

The ambassador gives powers to the representatives of mankind that he meets by accident as he dies. I was thinking that these powers are viral (like the idea presented in Progenitor from wild talents), meaning that the powers spread to other people if they are exposed to them.

Meaning that the players are among the first superhumans who gain these powers, but using them in the field of battle could cause some of the survivors of the onslaught gain powers as well.

I was thinking about making the players able to alter the course of human history, but I shouldn't give them too much freedom or information on the Cold War state of affairs. Though it would be fun to have them fly to Aghanistan or the Bay of Pigs and stop confrontations, or save Kennedy r whatever, I am fully aware that it will seriously derail the campaign.

[spasheridan]

I think Savage Worlds will handle the powers quite well. Powers are generally treated as spells, spells are powered by regnerating spell points. Spells are broken into tiers so you have to advance in experience before being allowed to buy the better powers, and they don't really have powers like teleport or create matter. They have powers like burrow, entangle, whirlwind, healing, magic bolts, fireball, armor, flight.

Playtest it though - exploding dice for damage rolls can really be tough on the supermans of the world.

[darkmaster]

I knows me some superhero games, and as such, my advice is to get the Mutants and Masterminds 2e core rulebook. Chapter nine (I think, I don't have my book on hand,) has info on world building, and then get the Iron Age supplement. That ought to cover you thematically, though it won’t help for rules without work.