Thursday, August 25, 2011

Campaign Proposal: The D Listers

At any given point in time, I have as few as three, and generally more than five, different campaign ideas running through my head. To try and stop this from interfering with my normal games that I run, I've started this series on the blog. In it, I put down the basic ideas for a campaign and release it into the wild. From there, if you see something you like, just grab it and use it. Otherwise, I may reference the post for the next game I run.

So, I'm not going to lie. This one is completely inspired by the book "Confessions of a D-List Supervillain" which is a very entertaining read and totally worth the $3 it cost to get for my kindle. That said, this isn't a straight rip, but a lot of the ideas are going to sound similar if you've read the book.

When
Time isn't as important in this, but I've always been fond of the "timeless" world idea for this kind of idea. Timeless in that you have a mix of a lot of different time pieces. The internet and cellphones are around, gangsters use tommy guns, and cars have that old world vibe to them. You can get an idea for what I mean by looking at the old Batman: The Animated Series cartoon. The idea is for a modern comic book feel, so just go with that if you need to default.

Where
Planet earth, that is all that is needed for this. It could be strangereal, or the really real world. Up to you.

What
Something has happened, something big. It's not controlled, but it has taken out, or taken control of, all of the big time heroes and villains. Anyone who you'd expect to work on the planetary scale is now working for the enemy. Mind control devices may have even grabbed control of large numbers of the citizenry. Either way, it's the darkest hour for the world, and all the people who could possibly save it are working for the wrong team.

Who
Which is where the PCs come in. They're a bunch of D-listers, heroes and villains, that for whatever reason were overlooked, immune, or just lucked out into some sort of avoidance. They're the last thing that the world has, and boy are they ever in over their heads.

Feeling
The idea is to go for a feeling of desperation, but also to keep the game full of hope. Players should have to work, and work hard, to take down some of the big leaguers, but they're also going to come into their own as the game goes on. The game will have to feel dark, because the core themes I want the characters going through are hope, resolve, and a growing sense of self-confidence.

System
Any system that does Supers could probably work, but something like Champions or Mutants and Mastermind would probably work the best, since with it you can make the characters start out at lower power levels. Other than that though, any system should work.

1 comment:

  1. I like the idea. You can't just have all the heroes go bad or the minor villains are less likely to join in. Something like alien invasion or Lovecraftian horrors would cause everyone who remained to band together.

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