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Sunday, September 8, 2013

Heroes Unlimited: The Beginning of a Saga

Nate and I have pondered on a 3 part Heroes Unlimited Saga. The first part would highlight a group of heroes that were coming of age. They would sort of start out much like a minor hero or a low powered hero. Nevertheless, they would have great potential. Nate suggests that they be teenagers. Thus, they might have great power but inexperience in using that said power. However it is spun, this first part is about finding out what it means to be a hero.



The second part would be an extention of where our heroes end up pending the first part. We would either continue playing the same heroes with minor modifications, or design new characters. Regardless, our previous heroes who have "all grown up" will either be PC's or NPC's in this next installment. The focus of the second part in the saga would be we are distinguished heroes, known throughout the world. We discover a huge catastrophy and become "Earth's Only Hope". This part will focus on becoming a global level hero.



The final part in the Hero Saga, our second characters again are turned into NPC's. Our new heroes continue where we left off, discovering that the global plot has become even greater. We discover we are not alone on this floating rock, and the threats up there may decimate humanity. Thus, "we take to the stars" to unseed the greater plot and defend the Earth once more in an epic galactic struggle. The theme of this final campaign is how and when a hero becomes "Cosmic!"



Each of these campaigns would stretch for a year a piece. But they do not have to be played consecutively. Thus, my proposal would be the first installment of this saga, The Prelude of Heroes...

7 comments:

Jayson said...

When I say consecutively, I am meaning that we would not have to play them back to back. We could take a break and play a completely different campaign, then pick up on the next installment where we left off a year or two later.

Richard Craig said...

I think a part of the problem with ideas like this is they need a lot of story background to pull off effectively.

Far be it for me to completely quash the idea, however.

As an alternate suggestion, to give it some teeth:
The Event: Prior to the event, there are no super powers on earth. While there are occasional people who purport to have minor psionic or magic powers, but there is no proof.

Then something happens, people die, and suddenly there are super powered individuals in the world. This could be: an awakening (mutants), infection by biological or chemical contaminants (experiment), or even invasion (alien)

Characters would not be able to be gadget driven in any way (hardware, robot, cyborg)

In this case, we could easily run the game in the three acts you mention: Act 1, low level (start at 1 likely be at 7-8 by the end). We begin to learn how to use our powers in a world gone wild. We work to keep control and are not worried about the why's of the event.

Act 2: We finally have time to breathe. I suggest we use the same characters as the last one. This would be mid level (7-12, starts taking a long time to level in this range). We begin tracking down the source of the event. We run into recurring threats (villains we've dealt with in the past) as well as pushing forward the story some more. Who the world views the characters as being is going to be dependent upon what we did in Act 1

Act 3: Again, using the same characters would be a good idea in my book. This would be a high level campaign (12-15). It becomes quickly obvious that not everything was as it seems as threats we thought we put to rest return, as well as new threats to global peace. Our heroes will be going where the true threat is located (Alien Intelligence? Interstellar Empire?) and will seek to remove that threat once and for all.

Jayson said...

I like this suggestion, or rather your suggestion sparks an idea. Part 2 and 3 play off of the same plotline. This is impart that Part 2 was created first, and Part 3 easily built off of that idea. Part 1 was created to complete this idea of transitioning heroes. This was an original concept thought up by Nate, where there are 3 types of heroes: The City-Level Hero; The National/Global Hero; then finally, The Cosmic Hero.

I agree that Part one needs to have a world where super powers are a novelty. It wasn't till now though that I realized that the sparking of greater powers was somehow (and should be) related to the plotline of Part 2 and 3. I will start to work on that. I have a general idea, but I need to materialize it. Thus, each step in the saga will be seamless and march together in the same cadence.

Jayson said...

I am re-reading your last paragraph...somehow you have got a hold of my secret GM notes. LOL

AZ RUNE said...

Richard has some good ideas that could be quite the fun campaign.

killervp said...

So, tell me more about this game- teens as heroes is just not enough.

Jayson said...

Let me give this some more thought...maybe a years worth of thought. Like I said, Parts 2 and 3 were the one with the gritty story. Part 1 needs more though before its ready, which means Parts 2 and 3 can't be played until that is done. I know Craig has been writing a book about what he suggested. I bet if I collaborated with him I would have some ready in the 4 weeks time period. We'll see.