[DNAwesome] Setting so far...

[dindenver]

Hi!
  I really am looking to brainstorm this out a bit (I have some criteria, but other than that, its all flexible). Here is where I am starting from:
  You play a character that wants to make a difference. For whatever reason, your character has super-human powers (Probably has to do with cosmic rays). And they have decided to step up and make a difference.
  There has always been heroes like you. People know about it and accept it as true.
  This is a alternate earth, much like our own. But some people have super powers. Most people still live their lives the way they do here, today. Even though someone might swoop in to save them, people still look both ways before crossing the street. Because, your chance of being personally rescued by a super-powered human is the same as the chance you would have a conversation with an American Idol.
  But for every shining star, there is a shadow cast that cannot be denied. Super Villains keep the world in balance and all of them pursue their own twisted agenda.
  So, your character battle evil to save the world, marshaling their powers and allies to overcome the efforts of super-powered villains.

Design goals:
- Encourages Stepping up to make a difference
- Encourages public persona (no alter-egos)
- Encourages public knowledge of super-powered humans
- Encourage life as usual in a modern earth-like world
- No conspiracy of shadows
- No government super soldier programs
- No aliens
- No hereditary powers

  So, what do you think?
Dave M

[whiteknife]

Sounds to me like you're going for the classic comics approach. I'm not referring to any particular era (I get the golden age and silver age and stuff confused all the time so i won't even bother) but more the feel of "you're a hero. People are OK with that and you're not part of a super hero "community", you're just a guy who can shoot lasers and you want to help people out."

While I'm not exactly sure if that's what you were going for, I think that that approach would be interesting, definitely a departure from the super hero comics of today, which are all about every point you listed. In any case, the main thing to think about here is how to bring interesting challenges to the heroes. The thing about conspiracies, legacies, aliens, and government super soldiers is that they provide convenient sources for different enemies that are all linked. Pulling out random super villains every time would work (hell, it worked in comics for years and years and still does today) but it doesn't exactly make for a good "campaign game". So you could try making the game more "pick-up" sort of isolated adventures thing the default. This would make the random villain every time thing more reconcilable and wouldn't prevent recurring foes, while also granted you advantages of a pick p game like ease of playing when people don't show and other stuff.

Well, you can feel free to do that if you want, or if I was off base then just ignore me. Anyways, I wish you luck with the game, it sounds like it'll be a fun one. It helps that you picked a damn sweet name for the game too. The one thing i always wished I could do was come up with catchy names for stuff, and you seem to have that gift. 

[dindenver]

WK,
  Thanks for checking it out. That was sort of the direction I was going. I think I'll drop plot hooks to account for people's favorite buggaboo (Super soldier programs and what not), but that is not what the game is about.
  I guess I just want to get away from capes, secret identities, etc. The idea is to try and make these characters more sympathetic. I mean if you could fly, would you put on tights and keep a secret identity? We can relate to these characters in the same way you can relate to Hercules, but not as a real person, right?
  In fact, I think the societal norm I want to introduce to the setting is good guys wear street clothes and use their real names, super villains wear tights and have snazzy Super Villain names (Like "The Inferno").
  As to Villain-of-the-week, I feel like the easiest inspiration is, if you could melt tanks with your eye lasers, what would you do with that power? For the socially acceptable answer, make heroes, for the wicked ideas, make super villains, no?
  That is an over-simplification, but that's the idea, does that make sense, is it inspiring or do you think I need to inject more conflict/action into the pre-existing setting?

[chronoplasm]

While street clothes may be more practical for fights than capes and tights, I think if I were a super-hero I'd rather go into battles a little more equipped.
Assuming that my character isn't already bullet-proof I would want him to keep a bullet-proof vest or something in the trunk of his car.
If my character had super-speed or flight, I'd probably want him to have some kind of face guard so he doesn't get bugs in his eyes. A motor-cycle helmet would suffice.

I know you said that there wouldn't be "shadow-conspiracies", but can groups of super-villains still band together into "Legion of Doom" type alliances?
Theres this comic book series I've been trying to write called "Captain Hollywood vs. Black-Market Productions" where a group of super-villains get together and make snuff films. Theres one guy called The Cameraman, one guy called The Editor, one guy called Lights, a few others, and the leader calls himself The Director.
Would I be able to have groups of villains like that in your setting?

[dindenver]

Chrono,
  That's my point exactly. As soon as you start think, how would you do it, what would you do, the game takes on a totally different dimension, right?
  So, street clothes might be an exaggeration, but the idea is solid, no spandex and capes (unless your character is into that).
  Of course you can create groups of heroes and/or villains. But the idea is that they are not secretly running everything at the start of the campaign. In other words, the game is not about fighting in the shadows, with no one knowing how hard you are trying to make their lives safer and/or better. So, even if there was a shadow conspiracy out there. You characters' jobs would be to expose ti and/or overthrow it before it made the world a terrible place to live, right?
  In essence, the Legion of Doom style super villain team is the ultimate bad guys in this setting. They run around in tights, hiding their identity, they want to secretly rule the world while bullying the people who live on it and they are super powered to boot.

[dindenver]

Chrono,
  Regarding your Super Villains for your Comic Book, shear awesome!
  And I can't imagine how you couldn't make them. I guess the point of what I am trying to say is that, this is not a game about guys slinking in the shadows, never recognized for their good or evil, right? So, in this case, your Villains are actually perfect, because, they want the whole world to see how evil they are right (or they wouldn't film it, right)?

[chronoplasm]

Ah! I think I get it.
Can I have super-powered characters fighting against more "mundane" types of enemies?

Lets say that I have a character named Al-Shaitan Al-Akbar. His backstory is that he is a djinn who was trapped for thousands of years in a magic lamp. During the war in Iraq some American soldiers found this lamp in one of Saddam Hussein's stockpiles of ancient magical artifacts. After this djinn was released from the lamp, he hung out with these soldiers for a while and soon fell in love with American culture.
Now Al-Shaitan Al-Akbar appears in the form of a red, white, and blue demon and helps the U.S.A. in the war on islamic extremism.

[dindenver]

Chrono,
  I don't see why you couldn't. Again, this is an example of a perfect character for the setting. I mean he is not hiding who he is. The point where this character idea may get weird is if he had a secret second identity of a mild-mannered accountant or something.
  And I would like to think that this idea (not liking secret identities, etc.) is rooted in a sort of common sense. I mean if you were a Djinn, thousands of years old, would you want to hide in the shadows, or proclaim your might for the world to see (especially if he were addicted to pop culture, how many YouTube videos must he have?)!
  As to mundane opponents, that is a matter of threat. If the threat from these terrorists is high enough (city wide or larger), then it scales perfectly with the character with powers and super powers. Generally, 2-3 humans have the chance to prevail (better chances with more buddies and/or more planning) against a Powered person. And they can get some help from the dice if they can pump it up to a d10 or higher. So, lets say the Terrorists have a bomb that could shut the city down, we have a small handful of guys (say three of them) and they plan it out so that it plays to their own strengths and against Al Shaitan's weaknesses. then the rolls might go like this 1d10+7 for the bad guys 1d10+11 for the good guys. Our Djinn still has an advantage, but its really up to luck at this point. And if they can pump the threat up to a National scale, then it becomes 1d20+7 vs 1d20+11. See how as the scale of the threat goes up, it introduces more chance? That is intentional, it creates a need for escalation. And if you want to avoid predictable results, you really have to pump up the threat.
  I hope this answers your questions, let me know what you think!

[chronoplasm]

It's sounding pretty good.
I like the idea of chance increasing as the threat level goes up.
I can't wait to see how this pans out.

[dindenver]

Hi!
  This is a piece I am still working on, trying to set the tone/expectations:
  Imagine, you are a normal person, living your life, just trying to fit in. But, you can't, you really are different...
  You have super powers. You've known it for your whole life, its nothing new. But you just didn't want to stick out in a crowd, until that day when Inferno threatened to melt the city with his heat ray. You knew that your Ice powers would make a difference...
  And that was the day that Steve Forester became a hero.

Steve Forester
Ice powers (Super, Power, Physical)
Total recall (Power, Mental)
Charming (Ability)
Quick (Ability)
Thorough (Ability)
Likes people
Doesn't like attention
Impulsive
Mark if the Soft touch (Mark)
Can never trust again (Weakness, Social)

Inferno
Heat ray (Super,Power, Physical)
Hot body (Power, Social)
Instinct (Ability)
Daring (Ability)
Methodical (Ability)
Manic
Narcissist
Driven
Mark of Greed (Mark)
Super predictable (Weakness, Mental)

How is being a Hero like being a rock star?
  In this setting, there are a lot of similarities:
1) They are lots of them, but you will probably never meet one
2) They both want to be known for their talents
3) They both believe in something
4) No one knows how they make their money
5) Everyone thinks they know you from your press
6) Everyone expects you to do things that they themselves would never do
7) Everyone expects you to do the things you did before
Everyone expects you to try new things and keep it original
9) You only make the news when you do something huge or something bad
  What do you think?

[chronoplasm]

So super heroes in this game are like rock stars? Neat idea. That brings up an interesting thought though.
Two words:
Super
Groupies

Dana Vamp-Star
Morale Raising powers (Super, Power, Sexual)
Blonde Bombshell (Ability)
Charming (Ability)
Likes people
Really likes super people
"Can never seem to find Mr. Right" (Weakness, Social)

Am I doing this right?

[dindenver]

Cool idea!
  You are close, chargen is here:
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=26348.0

  Actually, that is my fear. That if I pimp the rock star analogy too hard, everyone will make rock related super heroes, lol

  But as far as explaining the life of a superhero in this setting, it is spot on.
  And yes, just like rock stars, there will be people who worship these guy (including groupies). And people who hate them and blame them for every thing that is wrong with society.

[chronoplasm]

I think that last part makes for an interesting plot point.
I could certainly imagine some religious groups being opposed to super heroes.
What if Super Man is the anti-christ?

[dindenver]

Hi!
  Here is a little more, hope this helps paint the picture:
Where are all these powers coming from?
  Cosmic rays. Cosmic rays form the normal background radiation that exists everywhere on earth. A huge volume cones from the sun. However, 99 % of the high-energy particles come from the galactic core. No one knows where that other 1 % comes from. But, it is theorized that they are the source of super powers. These exotic high-energy particles could alter the DNA of whoever they strike. It is known that this phenomenon only affects young children (usually less than 3 years old) and that no one has ever been affected in the womb. In very rare cases older children manifest powers, but the oldest recorded age is of someone just attaining their powers for the first time is 12.

[Will]

Something sparked in my head when you mentioned that supertypes were celebrities but not four color costumed underwear perverts.

It has now fully formed and the image I was getting was Captain Amazing from Mystery men. He mostly wore a fairly utilitarian armor suit but with the patches of various sponsors. This opens up the whole area of PR and the heroes image. If Heroes are more like rock stars and athletes then wouldn't many turn to sponsorships, endorsements, and self marketing?