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[Let's create] Mutants & Masterminds: Building a Dynasty campaign
elkatas
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Mutants & Masterminds: Building A Dynasty
I'm semi-retired from PnP RPGs due lack of time and good players on my region, but I still fiddle around with some campaign ideas. While browsing my old notes, I found notes for old Mutants & Masterminds campaign idea.
I had given the campaign prototype name "Building a Dynasty", and idea behind it was very simple. I was trying to create superhero campaign that would follow single super-hero team for 50 years. The campaign would have started from year 1960, and progressed by having single adventure per year. The idea was that adventures would refelct the actual era and trends in the real-world comics. For example, adventure set in 1962 follows tradition of Silver Age comics, while adventure set in 1994 would follow worst trends of the Iron Age comics. The important theme was to create sense of history. Characters would grow in power, gain fame and enemies, and in the end they would mightiest and most legendary superhero of all time. Some of the characters would even retire with new character inheriting their place.
In the end, "Building a Dynasty" was a far too ambitious project. But I just got silly idea. What if we, GMs of Critical Failures, would try to create campaign together? We could brainstorm ideas, create stories and villains to punch. I'm not sure how far we could go, but I'm really interested to hear ideas you guys have. To get good idea about powerlevel, characters for the campaign would start at PL 8, and grow by two levels at the end of each era. At PL 8, characters can still do pretty fantastic things, but there is also room for growth without characters being too powerful at the end.
The eras
To create common ground for the ideas, I have explained here what I mean with different eras, and what kind of stories each era would have. Iron Age isn't commonly acknowledged term, but I think that it is important to split Modern Age into two very distinct parts.
Silver Age: "Officially" Silver Age starts at 1956, but we start at 1960, year before first Fantastic Four is released. Silver Age is very light-hearted, and stories are aimed directly at the children thanks to Comics Code. There are big monsters with funny names, mad scientist with insane plans, timetravel and lots of other fun things.It is more important to write a entertaining story than try to explain things in logical manner. Still, writer should understand that things are far from the ridiculousness of the Golden Era, where Superman could shut sun down for a minute to distract bank robbers. Silver Age ends at 1970, year when first drug related stories were released.
Bronze Age: Starting During bronze age stories start to get more serious, and tackle real-life issues such as drugs, death, racial prejudice and social inequity. Still, unlike in the Iron Age, things don't go grim dark, and stories try to maintain positive attitude. In addition of being more serious, bronze age is also very conscious about current trends. During this era, it wasn't surprising that Peter Parker could go the disco, or you could spot Dazzler using rollerskates. Cold War is also popular topic in the stories with the heroes fighting against brain-washed or totally corrupt agents of Soviet Union.
Iron Age: It is hard to say exactly where Iron Age starts, but for our purposes, Iron Age starts at 1986. 1986 saw many landmark titles like Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns and Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?. The common thing between these stories is that if compared to previous stories, they are dark and grim, and try to tackle more serious issues. As the era goes forward, everything is gettinng and more grimdark, with whole thing escalating into crap made by people like McFarlane and Liefeld. The era ends in 1996, which was the year when Liefeld left Image Comics. Unlike previous eras, Iron Age is dark and cynical. Heroes are still heroes, but shit tends to hit fan more often, and collateral damage is more common. Black leather is in, and many heroes have more para-military look. Guns are also popular. The more bigger gun, the better. Hot ninja chicks are especially cool.
Modern Age: Modern age starts from 1997, and it is the era where we currently live are. Writing style tends to be more lighthearted than in iron age, and the writers are drawing influences from all past eras. There is is strong sense of history and wonder. Unlike in the Iron Age, the characters might find island populated by dinosaurs and mad scientist. But unlike in the Silver Age, this is major happening that should fill heroes with sense of wonder.
Timeline
1960: Campaign starts. For some reason, characters decide to establish one of the world's first superhero teams.
1961:
1962:
1963:
1964:
1965:
1966:
1967:
1968:
1969:
1970: Silver Age ends.
1971: Bronze Age starts. PL 10.
1972:
1973:
1974:
1975:
1976:
1977:
1978:
1979:
1980:
1981:
1982:
1983:
1984:
1985: Bronze Age ends.
1986: Iron Age starts. PL 12.
1987:
1988:
1989:
1990:
1991:
1992:
1993:
1994:
1995:
1996: Iron Age ends.
1997: Modern age starts. PL 14.
1998:
1999:
2000:
2001:
2002:
2003:
2004:
2005:
2006:
2007:
2008:
2009:
2010: The end. PL 15.
I'm semi-retired from PnP RPGs due lack of time and good players on my region, but I still fiddle around with some campaign ideas. While browsing my old notes, I found notes for old Mutants & Masterminds campaign idea.
I had given the campaign prototype name "Building a Dynasty", and idea behind it was very simple. I was trying to create superhero campaign that would follow single super-hero team for 50 years. The campaign would have started from year 1960, and progressed by having single adventure per year. The idea was that adventures would refelct the actual era and trends in the real-world comics. For example, adventure set in 1962 follows tradition of Silver Age comics, while adventure set in 1994 would follow worst trends of the Iron Age comics. The important theme was to create sense of history. Characters would grow in power, gain fame and enemies, and in the end they would mightiest and most legendary superhero of all time. Some of the characters would even retire with new character inheriting their place.
In the end, "Building a Dynasty" was a far too ambitious project. But I just got silly idea. What if we, GMs of Critical Failures, would try to create campaign together? We could brainstorm ideas, create stories and villains to punch. I'm not sure how far we could go, but I'm really interested to hear ideas you guys have. To get good idea about powerlevel, characters for the campaign would start at PL 8, and grow by two levels at the end of each era. At PL 8, characters can still do pretty fantastic things, but there is also room for growth without characters being too powerful at the end.
The eras
To create common ground for the ideas, I have explained here what I mean with different eras, and what kind of stories each era would have. Iron Age isn't commonly acknowledged term, but I think that it is important to split Modern Age into two very distinct parts.
Silver Age: "Officially" Silver Age starts at 1956, but we start at 1960, year before first Fantastic Four is released. Silver Age is very light-hearted, and stories are aimed directly at the children thanks to Comics Code. There are big monsters with funny names, mad scientist with insane plans, timetravel and lots of other fun things.It is more important to write a entertaining story than try to explain things in logical manner. Still, writer should understand that things are far from the ridiculousness of the Golden Era, where Superman could shut sun down for a minute to distract bank robbers. Silver Age ends at 1970, year when first drug related stories were released.
Bronze Age: Starting During bronze age stories start to get more serious, and tackle real-life issues such as drugs, death, racial prejudice and social inequity. Still, unlike in the Iron Age, things don't go grim dark, and stories try to maintain positive attitude. In addition of being more serious, bronze age is also very conscious about current trends. During this era, it wasn't surprising that Peter Parker could go the disco, or you could spot Dazzler using rollerskates. Cold War is also popular topic in the stories with the heroes fighting against brain-washed or totally corrupt agents of Soviet Union.
Iron Age: It is hard to say exactly where Iron Age starts, but for our purposes, Iron Age starts at 1986. 1986 saw many landmark titles like Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns and Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?. The common thing between these stories is that if compared to previous stories, they are dark and grim, and try to tackle more serious issues. As the era goes forward, everything is gettinng and more grimdark, with whole thing escalating into crap made by people like McFarlane and Liefeld. The era ends in 1996, which was the year when Liefeld left Image Comics. Unlike previous eras, Iron Age is dark and cynical. Heroes are still heroes, but shit tends to hit fan more often, and collateral damage is more common. Black leather is in, and many heroes have more para-military look. Guns are also popular. The more bigger gun, the better. Hot ninja chicks are especially cool.
Modern Age: Modern age starts from 1997, and it is the era where we currently live are. Writing style tends to be more lighthearted than in iron age, and the writers are drawing influences from all past eras. There is is strong sense of history and wonder. Unlike in the Iron Age, the characters might find island populated by dinosaurs and mad scientist. But unlike in the Silver Age, this is major happening that should fill heroes with sense of wonder.
Timeline
1960: Campaign starts. For some reason, characters decide to establish one of the world's first superhero teams.
1961:
1962:
1963:
1964:
1965:
1966:
1967:
1968:
1969:
1970: Silver Age ends.
1971: Bronze Age starts. PL 10.
1972:
1973:
1974:
1975:
1976:
1977:
1978:
1979:
1980:
1981:
1982:
1983:
1984:
1985: Bronze Age ends.
1986: Iron Age starts. PL 12.
1987:
1988:
1989:
1990:
1991:
1992:
1993:
1994:
1995:
1996: Iron Age ends.
1997: Modern age starts. PL 14.
1998:
1999:
2000:
2001:
2002:
2003:
2004:
2005:
2006:
2007:
2008:
2009:
2010: The end. PL 15.
Hypnotically inclined.
elkatas on
0
Posts
Yeah. If I remember correctly, back then I had just re-read Watchmen and first run of Noble Causes. I found Noble Causes very interesting, because it showed superhero family as a group of celebrities and huge institution that was known all around the world. I would assume that team would turn something like that in the end if it wouldn't try to avoid publicity. If they would avoid publicity, then they would be venetrated as group of semi-mystical gods that are rarely seen, but hear our prayers.