Interest Check/Gathering: Superhero/Villain gaming (MUL)

Started by Kolbrandr, August 10, 2008, 02:36:27 AM

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Kolbrandr

So, I figured I'd try marking this out specifically and see what results.

Basically, I'd like to get in some supers gaming, it can be difficult to find, but I've noted that various people scattered across here have noted related interests, so, may as well try my luck.

Some things:

1) Really not inclined to freeform. My ideal would be the use of M&M 2E, I'm.. okay.. with Champions, I can make do with various other systems, but really, I'd prefer some kind of system in place.

2) Right now what I'd mostly like to do is info gather on people who would like to get a supers game going. What kinds of characters would you want to play? What sort of campaign arcs? How many players? Scales of power? What would you like to explore/deal with thematically and otherwise? What kind of setting are you interested in? What kind of tags would you want to see on the thread? I'm thinking, if I can't play, offer to run, but I'd like to get an impression of the spread of tastes of a potential group before pitching a campaign.

3) If nothing else, consider this a thread for posting ideas for supers characters, whether player or npc that you'd like to see in action, and who knows, maybe someone will take you up on. I'll post a few examples myself initially.

Kolbrandr

#1
Well.. did note I'd post up some characters of my own I'd like to play/see in play, soo..

Name: Beaumayn
Real Name: Gareth Somerset
Age: 19

Young and only son of the well heeled and well bred, coming into his early teens in the onset of the war. And manages to actually exemplify good breeding, as opposed to the worse aspects of his class. It has a side issue of him burning to join the war, as he watches people go off to fight and die, only he faces the problems of being underage, and high enough up in his social strata that even if he could, it's not exactly like he'd be on the front lines, as far as parental string pulling.

What's a boy to do? Well, run away and scam about his age and name, is what a boy's to do.

In retrospect, all things considered, it felt a little too easy, like something wanted things that way. It wasn't that he was broken or horrified by war, it was even something he took to, like it felt almost innate. And his resolve simply became grimly tempered and dedicated, as far as the things he saw. And then the withdrawal to Dunkirk.

Where there would be some later debate as to what exactly happened, but most people like to believe the youth's story (and the War Ministry enjoyed promoting it) Where dying on a field as the price of covering a withdrawal of his own, he saw a vision of what he swears was the Grail's maiden, bearing the cup itself, telling him his family's pedigree was more impressive than they knew. That it traced back to Arthur's table, and Gareth Beaumayn.  That he bore the table's legacy, and had shown worthiness to bear their collected strength. And with the grail, she anointed him with it.

And he rose up, faster, stronger, smarter, fearless. That innate feeling magnified beyond him. He rallied men around him and seemed to be ranging everywhere (though the chaos of battle tends to lead to /some/ exaggeration) Victory at Dunkirk was impossible, but the efforts of a young man helped engender a miracle to armed forces that faced annhiliation. Both the evacuation, and the youth himself were called the Miracle of Dunkirk, though he himself clarified that given his lineage, he prefered the name Beaumayn. Given the vast skill with hand and weaponry he now showed, and how hard he could hit, no one exactly complained or thought it innacurate.

It certainly beat the name the American press gave him when they noticed his youth, and not a wisdom beyond years that, powers aside, had kept him in fighting service.

Still, as the war went on, the Americans did /eventually/ stop calling him Kid Galahad.

For he was as the boy king of the Allied war front, man and superman alike ceding their trust and faith to him, he was the Table’s promise, collected in a single youth, and though promise, and trust and faith were heavy burdens, he strove to bear and be worthy of them.

It was a gift after all, a nation’s hope. The honour of it removing the hesitance of regret at a lack of anything resembling a normal life, a lack, as the force of his personality grew, of people who related to him without an element of deference. It was alright that he was feeling the isolation of an archetype, for it was needed.

And as he took up the brunt of facing the darkest nightmares the Nazi regime could call up from pits of infernal sorcery, to maddened scientific experiments, to impossibly vile combinations of the two.

It seemed.. right to him, at the very end of things. As the Thule society’s hidden bunker tumbled down onto his head in the war’s final days. That he should bring it down, laying himself low even as he destroyed with it the eldritch horror that would have turned the war’s tide back in the favour of hell. It was how a knight should die. It was how a king should die.

Only.. he didn’t.

Decades later, an excavation unearthed his perfectly preserved form, the warping arcane energies unleashed in the bunker’s destruction having somehow kept him alive.

And after everything was verified and the youth recovered, at first it was a celebration. He had been a hero after all, a legend. But as the fanfare died down… he was ultimately a 19 year old young man in a world well past his own. It wasn’t that the technology was jarring to a person that had dealt with insane Nazi superscience, but.. the culture seemed all wrong. And he was exasperated by England’s lesser place in the world. And even various of its general policies, and those of other nations besides. And he was surprisingly disinclined to become some sort of mouthpiece of approval for the current administration. It was bad enough that he was an outspoken, eloquent young man that people listened to. It was worse as far as the legal wrangling over it having turned out that while he slept, his family otherwise died off. His lands had been sold off to government favourites and corporate figures. World War? He could handle. The political strife over the pettiest of causes? It wore at his soul.

He was all too eager to accept what was presented as “The United Kingdom offering its finest hero to be a champion at large to the world, as he had been so many years ago.” And since then he has wandered, fighting evil where he comes across it, being called up by secret agencies run by spymasters unaging since the war to solve their crises for them, trying to inspire who he can, how he can, taking in the new face of the world.

And just sometimes, he wonders if when Arthur himself returns, as legends say he one day must, he too will end up as miserable as Gareth. For while human race remain a fine people, and worth fighting for, it may be that the race has just passed him by.

Josietta

I am not yet approved but this does have my interest. I'll keep a watch on it.

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                                 O.Os   / A.As / Ideas 
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Le RandomBloke

Once I know more about the plot and/or actual game world I might want to get involved!

"Give me all your true hate and I’ll translate it in our bed into never seen passion."

Kolbrandr

#4
Quote from: RandomBloke on August 12, 2008, 03:52:16 AM
Once I know more about the plot and/or actual game world I might want to get involved!

Well, as no one yet seems to want to so much run a game as play (*snaps fingers, sighs*), part of my thing before pitching something to GM was to get a sense of what people would hope to see done within the genre.


Kolbrandr

And in my ongoing "examples of characters.."

This one's vastly more high concept and power than the Knight-relic of WWII, to note:

He had been different, in the time before, and though he remembered it well, it felt as if it was not simply a lifetime ago, but a lifetime lived by someone else completely. He had been a nightmare then, born from dreams of terror and fury, of looming dread. A tangible monster in the days when it was natural for such things to be, a darkly glorious example of his kind. Strong, fast and fierce, wise and cunning and keen. Insightful, that he might draw out greater horror from those subjected to him in the dreamscape, by knowing them to greater depth. He danced with a terrible grace to the appreciation of lords of fear and the unspeakable powers they held dominion with.

But he was wise. And he was cunning. And he was keen. And he was insightful. It set him as a breed apart from his more workaday fellows, and it would undo him. For he was curious. It was the screaming, really. Sometimes it wouldn’t just be to plead to him, sometimes it wouldn’t just be the pure, wordless, soundless wail that drove to terrified frenzy in a need to make some noise, any noise (oh, what high art). Help me, they would cry to… something. Save me. Please. Intellectually he knew they were calling to.. a friend, a parent, a hero, a god. But he couldn’t possibly work that effectively into his twisted art unless he could understand the feeling itself they were trying to reach for, cloak themselves in, protect themselves from him with. The underlying power they seemed to feel this friend, this hero, this parent, this god would have. Once he understood it, he could make it his, even make it another implement of his performance. Though his fellows praised him now, oh how they would praise him then, for such a triumph.

And so he pulled at the edges of dreaming pleas now and then in his ruinous dances. A piece here and there was all he could grab of a sensation they could not quite reach. But soon enough he had gathered sufficiently to weave into a greater whole, to behold what had been outside his grasp and comprehension, and… oh. Oh, how could no one have ever told him of this. Radiance and wonder, glory and courage and love. And hope! Hope! It blazed, but it did not consume. It invigorated, but not by causing suffering in another to enjoy. It was not that he had been unaware of these ideas, it was simply… he had never felt them himself, never considered them truly possible, never regarded them as embodied as that which he could actually feel himself. Oh how could he have been so cruel, to deny anyone this feeling. How could he have thought himself beautiful. He had to choose then, but truthfully it was no real choice at all. He embraced what he had wrought, and he was changed.

And so it was that he was still a presence in dreams. But one that turned back the terrors of dreamers, that guided them through them. And where he encountered his brethren as the principle hands in bringing out such fear, he drove them back too. With children particularly, for theirs were the purest, strongest of dreams, and thus with them the strongest of fears and hopes both. His heart could not bear to think of them now, suffering from the kinds of attention that were once his to inflict. And his heart needed for them to feel what he had, for everyone to feel it, even if just once. To know and be bettered.

It was not that he was in all dreams to do this. All in all he moved in just somewhat expanded portions of psyche and spirit that he had moved before. But it was enough for a story to spread in the way that stories do among children, a legend set aside with that childhood, like Peter’s Never Never land, but held all more firmly for that during. A red shield with sunburst device to draw on a bedframe just so, and a hero would come, strong and fast and fierce, wise and cunning and keen, and he would keep the terrors away, he would guide a child to overcome them at his side. And in the reds and golds of the dawn, of the fire of courage, he will arrive triumphant, strong enough to snap the jaws of dragons, brave enough to stare down armies and laugh. His wings (or cape, or long, explained to him when he asked as “badass looking”, trenchcoat and matching sunglasses) resplendent, his sword (or spear, or axe, or gun, or a bazooka, or a staff, or occasionally, soccer ball that the opposing team can never keep hold of and always finds its way into their net) unwavering and indestructible, formed of the purest dreamed hopes, his shield a bulwark through which horror cannot pass (he finds it soothing that generally speaking, a shield is almost always a shield. Though there was this one time it was a test paper with all the correct answers on it with which he held back a stream of dunce caps. Dreams, you know.)

It was not a legend that pleased his former kind, nor their immediate masters, and there was a time where they brought him low for his betrayal of his original purpose, for the reason of his making at all. They found him impossibly, frustratingly, infuriatingly willful in a realm where many contests inside the dreams of specific beings were decided by such. Driving back even more potent beings through sheer blazing force of personality. And they were sick of it.  But his defense has been a clever thing. For has he not, in his opposition, driven them to greater heights of creativity in their fear and phantasmagoria? Would they ever reach them, keep to hold to them without challenge? Without heroes, how pale and lifeless and banal would villains be. Without a reminder of hope and a better world, how could the fear of taking it away exist? (He does not mention that in his heart, this defense is a lie, however creative they get, he will simply defeat them still, that if he was one of their best, and hope bested him, they have no chance) It was an appeal to vanity and ego, and successful enough, for most creatures involved in his work are ones of vanity and ego, to demand emotion be shaped to reflect their will. For those who regardless would not bring themselves to a grudging acceptance of a point, he shrugged his shoulders before their annihilating intent and told them he did not care, that though it might sound selfish, this was his story. And that they had to accept. To bring him down now, before their collected number, would only add to that story the fate of a defiant martyr, and they had seen the power of /that/ dream. Better to fight him over time, to wear him down slowly, and degrade him back to what he should be.

And so it has been. He still walks his warder’s path, inspiring hope and strength in his wake through dreams. He is summoned and sought beyond this now and again by mystics as one of the more benign guides to the Dream Realm, or far more simply as a warrior spirit (though this last gives him some annoyance. “I am no Free Lance” he says with an archaic umbrage). And he remembers the ways of tangible shape, and there are times when he makes use of it, when what he sees as having shaped a dream being a foulness born in the waking world that must be addressed however he can, in the name of his charges. And so he does. His power and skill making for a form most potent, his strengths, qualities and shifting weapons alike made manifest. And he has taken a certain enjoyment in and of the waking world. A being who has seen and moved through the fantasies of it, to feel them real and vibrant and with passionate fire is a singularly heady sensation. He takes his due of pleasure when he chooses, but more importantly, he has taken up placing his shield over those that would be used and ruined for pleasure. For every time he has been the lone warrior pulling back with all epic drama the world from falling into the eternal grip of the King of Nightmares, he has also been the alleyway patron saint of abused and enslaved children, of prostitutes who have nothing left but the occasional tattered dream, of drug addicts needing to feel the hand they reach for to grip back and help them up.

The times where this has involved battle most vigorous have given him a cachet as superhero in both the mystical world and the wider one. He lingers inbetween dreams, to try and change things here and there within it, in the name of the people he has developed so fierce an affection for. Whether that has meant battling supervillains and occult forces, or shattering the limbs of a child abuser. He knows and remembers much from his countless time as a dreamwalker, giving him a remarkable depth of insight, though this can lead to an occasional disappointment when he recognizes a child grown up as an adult in a way he would not have preferred. And here and there, a man or woman might recall an old story from their childhood that they just.. /knew/.. but never felt a need to repeat. Draw his shield just so where you sleep, and the Crimson and Gold Knight will come, and the nightmares will run from him.

CaptainErotica

 Not sure if you have decided on a game system yet, but have you tried MURPG (Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game). It came out around 2003 or so. It is avery good game for online play since there are no dice involved. If you want to check it out I can help you out. It is pretty simple to learn and use.  I'd even be willing to help run it if need be.

  I am also interested in this, but don't really care for MnM.

Transgirlenstein

Busy with freelance writing work.  Replies slow.  Feel free to prod me. 

Formally Tripping Satyr, Tripping Snake and QueenTrippingserpent.  Often known as Trip.

Ons/Offs: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=19217.0

Seeking Games!: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=71239.0

Josietta

Im still interested but  I'm having issues understanding the MnM system. *sheepish smile* I'm trying but i guess I'm more of an on hands kinda person and need a book person to help me with it. I like MURPG but I prefer the Classic Marvel RPG (it is a percentile dice system) for most Hero System play. I think at this point I'd even go with Rifts as bulky as character creation for it is.

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                                 O.Os   / A.As / Ideas 
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Kolbrandr

#9
I own neither MURPG nor classic Marvel as far as it goes, sorry (and what I've seen of them doesn't really thrill me, to be honest).

Trinity

I'd be interested in some MnM 2E, I like PL 10 myself I don't know or won't play the other systems mentioned heh, I still have bad dreams about MURPG [shudders]. I don't really care for to grim and gritty, but depending on the story I could go that route uhm I guess just a "standard" type supers game is what I'm into. As for characters I've got lots of them but I like to try and make stuff that fits the campaign so I'd wait until something was figured out for it.

Thanks, hope I didn't sound to but-in-sky there or whatever, it's almost 5am here so hehe.

WyzardWhately

I'm interested.  I'd probably prefer a more dark/realistic, but not necessarily low-powered kind of milieu.  See any of the Stormwatch/Authority books for examples.  Kind of an Iron Age vibe.  I'm just fine with M&M, and I'd hope for a power level of at *least* 8, though I can go higher comfortably.

Josietta:  If we end up using M&M, I'd be happy to help you make your character.
Look!  I have an ons and offs list now!  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=13580.0
It's still really sketchy, though.
Here are my dice rolls: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/player/WyzardWhately/

Bayushi

I'm really looking forward to playing a good Supers/Villains game here on E.

I guess it's just kind of the way I think.... fantasizing about being a superheroine, conquered by a villain and taken against her will.  :-[

Anyways....

I don't know much about MnM or any of the other mentioned systems, although I have played RiFTS in the past.

I'd be for learning, if material is available online somewhere? What is MnM's full name, for that matter? Might and Magic? (lol)

I got into a Champions game once, which was fun while it lasted(GM got sick and had to call it off >.<).

As for scenery, dark and dramatic is fun, but low-powered is kind of.... /yawn. There does need to be a bit of a limit, however.... my thoughts on powers run more along the line of the day-to-day members of the X-Men.... strong, but not overpoweringly. This is, of course, excluding Xavier, Phoenix, and the like of the super-mutants.

Speaking of Mutants..... how would gaining one's powers play into the game/scene? Would we inherit them through supernatural means(accidental or not), and/or inherit them genetically as a mutation?

Thanks!

WyzardWhately

Akiko, I suddenly find myself inspired to want to play a villain.  :D

To answer your questions:  M&M is usually known as Mutants & Masterminds.  It's pretty remarkably simple in execution, although character generation can be a bit involved.  Not nearly as involved as Champions, though.  It's based around the D20 system, which means you'll usually be adding some number from your character sheet to a d20 roll, and comparing that to a difficulty to see if you've succeeded.  There are no hit points in the game, rather you will make Toughness saves against a damage DC calculated according to how powerful the attack is.  So, the attacker rolls to hit and, if successful, the defender rolls to resist.  If the defender fails, the consequences can range from minor bruising (and a penalty on future saves) to temporary stunning to death, depending on how much the roll failed by.  Skills are handled by rolling a d20 and adding your skill.  Most powers work on a sort of exponential curve for effects.  So, each level of Teleport might double or whatever how far you can teleport.  There are plenty of powers to create pretty much any ability you might want to have, although some are more expensive than others.

Like most point-based systems, it's somewhat prone to point-fiddling and there is plenty of room for optimization.  There are better and worse ways to accomplish any given goal, and some power concepts are difficult to build.  That said, it's overall pretty flexible and intuitive.  As for online resources...I don't think there are legally available free versions of the game.  However, I can link you to sites with a lot of character writeups, which will give you an idea of what they look like.  Also, IIRC, there's a stripped-down player's guide available that's pretty inexpensive.

I'll also extend to you the same offer I did to Josietta:  I'm more than happy to help others with character generation.  I really would like to be in a superhero game, and of course that won't work if there's no company.
Look!  I have an ons and offs list now!  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=13580.0
It's still really sketchy, though.
Here are my dice rolls: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/player/WyzardWhately/

Bayushi

Ah, okay.

Unfortunately, Green Ronin(The publisher of MnM) did not release a System Reference Document(SRD) as Wizards did for DnD.

So, yeah.... I'd need to rely on your help in character generation.

If you want a hint on what I'm looking for... then think of Marvel's Psylocke, post Shadow King.... after she switched abilities with Phoenix/Jean Grey. I've always liked the character, especially given that she's Japanese(now)(like me) with a British Accent. /drool

While I like her close-quarters fighting type character(with the added bonus of TK), I don't want to be quite as strong... unless the others end up stronger. Given this, I enjoy playing characters with weaknesses.... characters that would be seen as anything but weak.

:D

WyzardWhately

That all sounds very do-able.  Once we have a GM and a point budget and so forth, should be pretty easy.

If it matters to anyone, I'm probably going to go with a sort of avenger of the night type, with something of a brick power set.  Hunts dudes down, strong, relentless, invulnerable to conventional weaponry.  That's my current thought, at least.  This depends a lot on what the group chemistry and the world end up being.
Look!  I have an ons and offs list now!  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=13580.0
It's still really sketchy, though.
Here are my dice rolls: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/player/WyzardWhately/

Kolbrandr

#16
I suppose to mention as far as it goes, did end up finding some players to run for off of this thread, setting up a campaign with them through pm (it will eventually get posted up, just hashing out character creation and such things), it's essentially pl 16 300 point cosmic superhero space opera (think like the LOSH or Marvel's cosmic/space comics like Silver Surfer, Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, the last two Annihilation crossover events..)

I mention because it seems as though I'm the only person wanting to actually run something, and because it doesn't really mesh with the preferences being noted by people coming onto the thread at this point. And as they might be expecting me to eventually run, I wouldn't want to get their hopes up for something I won't be running.

WyzardWhately

Look!  I have an ons and offs list now!  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=13580.0
It's still really sketchy, though.
Here are my dice rolls: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/player/WyzardWhately/

Kolbrandr

*shrug* I'm happy to play if someone else comes along with the inclination to run something.

Jefepato

Quote from: Kolbrandr on September 20, 2008, 04:24:14 PM
I suppose to mention as far as it goes, did end up finding some players to run for off of this thread, setting up a campaign with them through pm (it will eventually get posted up, just hashing out character creation and such things), it's essentially pl 16 300 point cosmic superhero space opera (think like the LOSH or Marvel's cosmic/space comics like Silver Surfer, Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, the last two Annihilation crossover events..)

I mention because it seems as though I'm the only person wanting to actually run something, and because it doesn't really mesh with the preferences being noted by people coming onto the thread at this point. And as they might be expecting me to eventually run, I wouldn't want to get their hopes up for something I won't be running.

That actually sounds pretty awesome.  Do you have room for more?

Bayushi


WyzardWhately

Provided we can locate a GM.  I think that's our stumbling block at the moment.
Look!  I have an ons and offs list now!  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=13580.0
It's still really sketchy, though.
Here are my dice rolls: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/player/WyzardWhately/