[Supers of some sort using M&M 3rd ed] Early planning for a game!

Solar

Hey, so I have been wanting to run a supers game for a while now. Not just because I love superheroes so goddamn much, though I do, but also because I think that the M&M 3rd ed rules ae really fantastic, I've certainly been enjoying using them a huge amount in Sakutian's excellent JLI game, and I want to use them a little myself.

There are two things, however, that need to be sorted first. I am currently in the middle of writing my dissertation (which is, amusingly enough, on 60's and 70's superhero comics, haha), and so would really want to wait until after I had finished that and handed it in before I got stuck into running a game. The hand in date is the 12th of March but I really want to finish before that, so hopefully within a fortnight or so.

The other thing is that I cannot decide what exactly I want to run! I have a few ideas for DC and Marvel games, specifically a Marvel game where the players are Avengers, an X-Men game where the players are the newest generation of mutants at the school, a superhero setting of my own and also a game which is sort of stolen from the Aberrant setting, if any of you have heard of it. I like aspects of that setting, and the themes of it, and I think I'd quite enjoy running a game which is my own alternate version of that setting could be very cool.

But when it comes down to it, there are pretty much no superhero concepts that I don't like, and I would generally be happy to do anything as long as I get a chance to really cut loose and have a lot of fun with it. Cosmic settings and high-concept themes are a personal preference, but whatever floats the boat.

The golden rule of running a game is give the players what they want (hmm, perhaps politicians should practise with a few games of DnD before they run for office...), and so I think that the best way to choose a game therefore is to ask you, the people. Ich Bin Ein Critical Failureser. So yeah, if people are interested, then post in here that you are, give your thoughts on what you want to play, and we can go that way with it! Of course, if people aren't interested that's cool too, nobody wants to run a game that people don't like to play. Generally speaking I like to run a game of about four to six players, but there is always room for flexibility, so for now rather than picking spots just letting me know your interest and ideas would be fine.

Thanks!

Sakutian

I'd love to play an Avengers game or one of the new generation ox X-Men personally. Unique universes are always fun to play around in to though. Pretty much I'd be down for any superhero game though.

Solar

Well with the Avengers (and to be honest, there are a couple of great DC games around now, and so I feel like there is mass clamouring for another one it won't be a DC game) then I would prefer for players to use existing heroes. With the X-Men, new heroes, because you are the next generation so it makes sense you would get to create that!

The setting of my own that I have in mind is kind of me taking elements from a few existing comics and RPG settings that I think would go together well, changing them around a bit, and going down that road. I wouldn't be particularly four colour though, more inspired by modern superhero stuff like the Authority (I'm not a big fan of the Authority as executed, but the style and ideas are cool), the Ultimates, Aberrant, SuperGods and so on. I'd be pretty sandbox as well I suspect, there'd be a plot but also a "you are now a very powerful being who can change the world. What do you do?" feel to it as well. Kind of transhuman-y.

Sakutian

If you go with the Avengers idea would you be doing something more classic or would the roster be more open?

X-Men make for a great setting and doing a new roster avoids the biggest problem with that team. That being that one of your players is Wolverine so the rest of you have nothing to do haha.

I had a great deal of fun running the Cost of Justice campaign on here back before Mutants and Masterminds 3rd edition came around. It'd be interesting to take up with a new universe again.

Solar

I would make it open. The Avengers I like the most are the Busiek run Avengers and the team was pretty big and diverse then. As far as the X-Men went, I was thinking more that the players would make new characters, with existing X-Men and so on hanging around the school, teaching classes and so on.

Sakutian

I'd like to play Spider-Man as an Avenger if you go that route. He's my favorite and I think I could do him justice with quips and friendly neighborhood spider-man action.

Lord Palington

I am down with Marvel or homebrew. Count me in for whatever, though reading Wolverine and the X-Men right now puts me in the mood for that game.

Solar

Haha yeah, I love Wolverine and the X-Men. I think it would definitely be along those lines if I ran an X-Men game.

Crimson King

solar i will play in your game!

i wouldn't be at all keen on playing with existing characters, though. the x-men option sounds the most appealing to me, in that it absolves you of the responsibility of having to do all the worldbuilding yourself, while still being flexible enough to allow us to get away with anything. if we are new students that's compelling as a hook while still allowing use complete freedom in character design. plus the game is called mutants and masterminds so that just seems logical. i don't know too much about the system but i'm sure i could get a hold of it somehow.

have you posted about this in graphic violence and the se++ comics thread? it seems like your target audience here is just as much people who like superhero comics as people who like roleplaying games.

Dongs Galore

It has been a long time since I played M&M but I would be hells down to take part if that would be okay

Solar

The system is pretty simply CK, it started off as a d20 derivative and thought has changed a bit since the original D20+whatever vs a DC check of some sort thing is still in there for all rolls, including damage and so on. Fortunately a M&M3E SRD has recently been put online with all the rules, powers and so on, so people can access that easily. I'll put a link in the OP, actually.

And yes, posting in the SE++ and graphic violence threads would probably be a good idea!

Bobbit

I'd be in, don't mind the setting

Lanlaorn

This sounds interesting, I'm not a big comics reading guy but I love the idea of designing a hero.

Wub

I'd be interested in playing, especially in the X-men setting or the setting of your own creation. Playing pre-existing characters just seems odd to me.

Super Namicchi

i'm not a huge marvel guy HOWEVER

avengers are pretty cool, and taking on a lesser avenger could be pretty darned cool

if you're taking open ideas, you could blend a bit of the classic universe with elements of the Ultimate universe to make your own "same but different" marvel timeline

Lord Palington

So if we roll with WatXM, who gets to play the bamfs?

piL

Making super hero characters is so fun, I can't imagine wanting to play an established character. I never looked into Aberrant, but I found this weird spiral bound full color book with a strange type of cover that was Aeon, the sequel to Aberrant. It seemed pretty neat.

Also, not totally relevant, but: someone once linked Gotham City Impostors in IRC, and I came up with an super hero game idea with the players all pretending they're other specific superheroes, eventually getting noticed by the real super heroes they're impersonating. Depending on the characters, things could go a lot of different ways with it, with the players giving the heroes bad names, becoming their own team of sidekicks, or killing off the original super heroes and taking over their identities.

Solar

ArcanisTheImpotent wrote:

i'm not a huge marvel guy HOWEVER

avengers are pretty cool, and taking on a lesser avenger could be pretty darned cool

if you're taking open ideas, you could blend a bit of the classic universe with elements of the Ultimate universe to make your own "same but different" marvel timeline

I'm not a huge fan of the Ultimate Universe with some exceptions, but you can sure that there are some things that I will be clearing up in my game to fit how I want to do things. No point in being overly tied to the setting as is, really. Apart from that though, if we do play a Marvel game it will probably fit in the Marvel Universe as is now, though for an X-Men game I'd likely change things around a bit because right now cool as the x-books are there aren't any new mutants popping up. So I'd have to obviously play with that to make it work.

LP, I think it would be really interesting to try and see someone build a character made up of multiple little dudes! Perhaps a summon effect that creates duplicates of you and is on permanently? Hmm... anyway, the bamfs will likely be in it, but as I said, I would want the players to make new mutants as the next generation, I think that would be fun.

PiL, Aberrant is a pretty cool game at superhumans which involves Novas, who are kind of like mutants in the Marvel Universe except generally more powerful and fewer in number, I think. It tries to do a less straight up superhero-y and more open look at the whole idea? Which is fine, I like both ways. I wouldn't use the setting wholesale though, just the parts I like combined with the parts I like from a few other comics all added together. The characters would play Novas though, mostly (possibly an exception or two).