Apologies in advance for wall of text. Still, reading is what you signed up for, right? ;)
So Novi (TBD2) has PM'd me some. That's how I found out you guys couldn't send messages to this because it was public group. I guess that's for making announcements; I had assumed it was like always visible to anyone, players, lurkers, visitors... Now it's group 0 so you guys can post. Novi also sent me some questions to mull over, and to be efficient, I'm just going to repost those here for everyone to consider.
TBD2:
1. Established setting, or homebrew?
1a. First supers in the world, or no?
2. Do we just punch things until the problem is solved? Or does that just treat symptoms, and actually solving the problem require other skills/roleplaying? This, and others questions, is a spectrum, and will likely vary between adventures.
3. Non-superhero time. We don't have to go over what we're having for lunch every day. But how often do we have to save the day? How much does the other stuff in our lives come up? Are secret IDs and NPCs legitimate complications?
4. Politics. What kind of tolerance do people have for characters having opinions on issues? Or talking about the implications of their actions beyond just punching bad guys?
5. Government. How much does it show up, and what kind of relationship do we have with it?
6. Recurrence level of villains. Existence of enemy organizations, their size, and resilience levels. Plot sizes, campaign arcs.
7. Support operation. Base, vehicles, personnel. Self-funded, or outside backer. Character point expenditure for any of it.
Firstly, I'm going to solidly say this is a homebrew universe. Maybe you'll see characters you recognize (Doctor Destroyer is always a classic), but they'll be fully my takes on them. *insert waffle about how no good campaign can just follow a 12-step program*
Secondly, I'm going to solidly state that, regardless of how it is justified, you will have communication, a base, and a vehicle provided for, whether that be through government grants, a wealthy sponsor, one of the characters, or what have you. If a character is willing to provide one of these for the team, the free version of that service will be nerfed or unavailable; the character providing travel, basing, or communications will have to meet the level of quality I expect as a minimum, but a character providing such a service will receive extra EXP. Some of that extra EXP will be required to be spent on improving your communication, travel, or basing service for the team. Generally, communication is the simplest service to provide, with travel being medium heat, and basing being super spicy, so EXP rewards for providing the service will scale with the difficulty of provision. Let me know if there's any other critical services you think we'll need, and discussion can unfold.
You can vote on 1a simply with a yes or no.
For number 2, rate between 1-10, high numbers representing that you want roleplay and skills to be more important, low representing that you just want to punch guys.
For number 3, rate between 1-10, high numbers representing that you want more personal character development, out-of-suit and in-suit, low representing you want to have mostly team-up adventures.
For number 4, rate between 1-10, high numbers representing that you want the world to question supers actions more, and want to have adventures exploring the ideas of the morality of Supers; low representing that heroes should just get back to being heroes and not have to worry much about public scrutiny.
For number 6, rate between 1-10, high numbers representing that you want few organizations/villains that keep showing up to kill you or destroy the city or rob the bank, etc.; low numbers meaning that villains should break out after you've handled them infrequently, and that organizations should each have limited influence in any particular area, reducing your number of encounters with any particular one.
You can vote on number 5 on two scales. The first scale is a rating between 1-10, high numbers representing the government is antagonistic to supers that it doesn't specifically endorse, and that it gives those endorsements very rarely; low represents that the government is very lax towards supers, and that it's found the best way to handle superhumans is to aid, or at least not hinder, heroes and let them handle the villains and evil organizations. The second scale is a rating between 1-10, high numbers representing the government appears often, either as cameos (an FBI agent found out about a deal going on at the docks at 11:00 PM) or with full-blown SWAT or MARS squads; low numbers mean the government will directly affect events in the campaign infrequently. Representatives of the government would be more likely to appear as objects you have to protect from capture/assassination, if they do appear.
I also wanted to add two questions.
8. Do supers as a whole, and thus the campaign, tend to have more magical Special Effects, or tech/skill-based Special Effects? Rating between a 1-10, high numbers representing you want the Super World to be more focused around magic and eldritch creatures, low numbers representing that most Supers get their powers from technology, super-skills, or mutations.
9. Will the campaign stay mostly on Earth, or will there be frequent jaunts to other planets or other planes? Rating on a scale of 1-10, high number representing that you want the campaign to visit the insane vistas of other worlds more often, and that aliens and/or summons from other planes will be prevalent, low numbers representing you want Earth as the center of the universe, with less inter-planetary/inter-planar travelers.
10. What power level do we want to play with? High powered, standard, or low powered? Vote 1-5; the lower the number, the lower the power level of the PCs. 3 is 400 Points.
When voting, you should have a post with just the numbers of the questions, followed by your answers, like this:
quote:
1a. yes
2. 5
3. 5
4. 5
5. 5
6. 5, 5
8. 5
9. 5
10. 5
I'm still hoping to get at least one more player for the game, but this is so you guys can start thinking about and voting on these subjects. I want everyone to get a game they're interested in; of course, as the game master, it's ultimately up to me what elements get emphasized, but I want to take player-input on these things into account somewhat. Even if, say, we get all 1s for question 8, magic will still exist and there will be run-ins with one or two important magical supers, as well as their summons.
Also, an aside on the subject of power levels: I don't plan to use the standard system for Complication point-values. I'll discuss that a bit more when we get to character creation; after we have 4 players and every player has voted, or after this Saturday, whichever comes first, I'll post character-creation guidelines. If we get a 4th player close to the end of the deadline (Saturday) I will probably extend the deadline a day or two.
