Green Lantern Corps Game

[Mogo]

Hey everyone, I was wondering if I can get a little input from you fine Heroes and Heroines. I am in the early stages of putting together a Green Lantern Campaign for my group and I was wondering if anyone out there has run a strictly Ring Slinging game ?

Either with the wonderfully written Iconic heroes or with a gaggle of new Green Lantern the group makes by the way, either mode of input would be appreciated. Also please feel free to share ideas even if you have not run a game of this type, I always enjoy more points of views.

As some may know I am a bit of a Green Lantern fan and as such want to get it right for my group and also right for myself, if that makes sense. So thanks everyone in advance for the help.

[ursinethemadbear]

I have never run such a game, but I would say that one of your problems will be the characters all feeling the same. Some of the solution to that will have to come from player's descripotion of their constructs, but I can think of a few other options to help.

1: Make sure that the characters are well-developped outside of their rings, with a background, skills, and abilities that can all come into play.

2: If the players want to make a nonhuman Green Lantern, let them do something cool with the alien species. Maybe one species has the ability to become invisible to visible light. Maybe another species makes extensive use of cybernetics to repair damage done by the radioactive fall-out of a massive atomic war. Maybe one species uses magic instead of technology, and the Green Lantern uses the Power Ring primarily to enhance his/her existing magic powers.

3: Use stunt bonuses with the power constructs. So if the player comes up with some really awesome or cool-sounding description of the construct they are creating for some purpose, give them a +2 circumstance bonus on a roll, or raise the DC of the target's resistance roll by +2. Give a tangible bonus for your players to be creative, and the combats will be more fun.

[naturax]

I have never run such a game, but I would say that one of your problems will be the characters all feeling the same. Some of the solution to that will have to come from player's descripotion of their constructs, but I can think of a few other options to help.

1: Make sure that the characters are well-developped outside of their rings, with a background, skills, and abilities that can all come into play.

2: If the players want to make a nonhuman Green Lantern, let them do something cool with the alien species. Maybe one species has the ability to become invisible to visible light. Maybe another species makes extensive use of cybernetics to repair damage done by the radioactive fall-out of a massive atomic war. Maybe one species uses magic instead of technology, and the Green Lantern uses the Power Ring primarily to enhance his/her existing magic powers.

3: Use stunt bonuses with the power constructs. So if the player comes up with some really awesome or cool-sounding description of the construct they are creating for some purpose, give them a +2 circumstance bonus on a roll, or raise the DC of the target's resistance roll by +2. Give a tangible bonus for your players to be creative, and the combats will be more fun.

This is excellent advice for any game, ursine. Thanks for sharing!

[Mr Mole]

A Corps game is an excellent opportunity for your players to introduce a truly alien character with almost any physical form or social background. Unless you have a solid reason to prohibit a character concept, you should probably allow it and build on it.

I think boot camp with Kilowog as drill instructor would be an absolute must.

[batgar]

Good advice everyone.

Who are the villains going to be?

One of my players decided he wanted to be a rookie Green Lantern, PL 10 150 points. I worked with him in creating his character. I don't have it with me, but it worked pretty well. I kept the essential ring powers (ie space travel, life support for self) the same, but I think I could only afford Ranged Damage 10, Flight 8, and Impervious Protection 10. Something around those numbers after the rest of the character was paid for.

Biggest thing to remember if you're making Green Lanterns from scratch, don't forget that they can only use effect ranks up to their Will defense.

[Damren]

I chose to set my game in the past (about a thousand years, give or take) and placed it in a distant space sector, dividing it from modern continuity, but using a lot of the history of the Guardians to shape the Space Sector I'm designing.

Like you, I have a rookie GL who was given the option to develop his character with any of the basic powers that have appeared in GL history. He's a former assassin who has been granted a ring and a space sector that was once patrolled by a GL who would have been legendary - if he had not disappeared under mysterious circumstances. He developed the character around stealth and it's not much of a heavy hitter. He does invisibility and intangibility with limited constructs and damage capabilities. Of course, he's got flight and the standard defenses - but, has also added a teleport power. It's an interesting mix that he's still figuring out.

Side Note: I gave him the option of spending 2 points as part of his dynamic array for "Equipment Constructs" that basically give him any standard piece of equipment by using a point of his array per piece of equipment constructed. He mostly uses this in conjunction with his existing skills.

He's teamed with other heroes on a somewhat advanced world in the Sector that was known to be one of the primary worlds of the prior GL. The game is sort of a mix of Legion of Super Heroes & Green Lantern. With fairly advanced tech & a mix of alien, but dominantly humanoid races that frequent this world which sits on a busy interstellar trade route (the planet's larger moon is actually the worlds interstellar star base, with limited incursions allowed on the main planet below).

Thus far they have faced a team of rogue cyborgs known as Rakers - in my game, the Raker virus was a major challenge to the old GL and the "World Guard" (basically the JLA for this planet) that changed organic matter into machine life. The Rakers would evolve in complex and often disasterous ways (think Techno Zombies), manifesting advanced powers and weaponry based on the cybernetic technology. Most Rakers went insane and had to be put down, but once a "cure" was created, the infective & transformative powers of the Rake Virus were neutralized. The "cure" however, didn't reverse the contagion, so many were left with mechanical parts - some powerful, some benign. A number of heroes on the planet derive their powers from the Raker cyber-tech, including some in the current team.

They have faced a shadow mage and his adepts, who were discovered to be street kids that were bonded with shadow energy. The primary two, Shadow Mass & Dead Girl, were "defeated" - but, their "Master" escaped. Come to find out that Shadow Mass is possessed by some type of Shadow Demon (many of which appeared in this story arc) and Dead Girl is a Mystic with shadow-based powers who is 13 years old, has no life signs and doesn't appear to age.

After that, they helped recover the Pamordian Ambassador (the Pamord are basically advanced reptiles - think dinosaurs evolving enough to obtain space travel). The Pamordians had a war with the Therrans (basically, the world's inhabitants) centuries ago, which was resolved by the Guardians and policed by the former GL, Mez-An Tor. The new ambassadors ship was assaulted in orbit. While the World Guard went to defend the ship in space, ground-based heroes were tasked with recovering life pods that had been jettisoned during the fight. And, of course, our team got the hot one. Pamordian terrorists (who believe this world to be theirs by right), hired supervillains (Screech, Echoe & Tempest) and the mysterious Quark (able to shrink himself, others & stuff) who was hired as a security guard by the Ambassador and was basically hiding out with him in (essentially) a termite mound while waiting for rescue.

Last arc, the team is kidnapped and taken to a "fantasy" world in search of the Endless King, where they meet the Green Acorn (a squirel-like 'magical' Green Lantern of unknown origin - basically, I'm plot seeding), who the group like so much that they made up his oath:

Through darkest oak and brightest pine,
I shall protect these nuts of mine.
Let those who worship an evil shrine,
Beware my nuts, it's acorn time!
-glarf, the green acorn of quadrant seven

His weakness is wood, by the way. It was yellow, until a "little misunderstanding" happened in one of the great forest cities of quadrant seven. Then, his master, Mentor (actually a god of his world & former "foe" of Mez-An Tor), decided the world would be a lot safer if Glarf was unable to easily mow down 1,000 foot tall trees.

The arc had a lot of humor, but got serious when the team discovered they were "captured" in a world of illusion - freed themselves to discover the world was real, but over run by the Dragon Queen - and worked to free the Endless King and reunite him with his Emerald Sword (a gift from Mez-An Tor) which also used mystical green energy to power spell-like affects.

We won't do our next arc until after winter break. I haven't totally decided on what the challenges will be. Each group member has several characters and they get to pick one at the start of the adventure. Sometimes they have a clue as to what will be going on & sometimes they don't.

I like being able to function outside the normal DC Continuity, but I still use lots of DC story elements. For instance; I have a hero known as Apex that is bascially the 'Superman' of the World Guard, only his powers are psionically-based and hereditary from an ancient StarShip Captain who died from radiation poisoning (but not before producing heirs).

Mez-An Tor is loosly modeled after the 'Annointed One' from JLA - Obsidian Age, using a "what if" members of that race appeared in multiple places in the DC Universe? He was found by the GL before him & groomed to take over the job. He has been the GL for centuries and then vanished, his damaged ring returning to Oa with no intact data files, his battery has still not been found.

The world, Marahkor, is basically a colony world being 'terraformed' by the Therrans, who fled their homeworld at sub-light speeds in response to an approaching black hole. Most of their nearly dead craft (5/7) were found drifting in space by Mez-An Tor, and were brought to this world - which was granted by the Guardians - where they prospered (more of less).

The GL weakness is still yellow. The other colors exist (the Mystic they fought was also able to cast a 'Fear' spell which created a yellow construct of a sword-wielding "Death" figure from one characters home culture) and I'm planning on a Rage encounter at some point in the future. I still plan on inserting notables like Mogo (when appropriate), and some of the race-types common to the modern GLC, but am mostly focused on what happens within the sector - those battles, politics and intrigues - as opposed to the universe-shattering plots that keep popping up in the modern stories.

[Mogo]

I have never run such a game, but I would say that one of your problems will be the characters all feeling the same. Some of the solution to that will have to come from player's descripotion of their constructs, but I can think of a few other options to help.

1: Make sure that the characters are well-developped outside of their rings, with a background, skills, and abilities that can all come into play.

2: If the players want to make a nonhuman Green Lantern, let them do something cool with the alien species. Maybe one species has the ability to become invisible to visible light. Maybe another species makes extensive use of cybernetics to repair damage done by the radioactive fall-out of a massive atomic war. Maybe one species uses magic instead of technology, and the Green Lantern uses the Power Ring primarily to enhance his/her existing magic powers.

3: Use stunt bonuses with the power constructs. So if the player comes up with some really awesome or cool-sounding description of the construct they are creating for some purpose, give them a +2 circumstance bonus on a roll, or raise the DC of the target's resistance roll by +2. Give a tangible bonus for your players to be creative, and the combats will be more fun.

I also was concerned about the sameness of the heroes in the group. I agree that in a game like this they will really have to go all out on story elements of their Green Lanterns and the imagination behind their constructs.
I plan on stressing your suggestions to them, with a bat if I have to. LoL

A Corps game is an excellent opportunity for your players to introduce a truly alien character with almost any physical form or social background. Unless you have a solid reason to prohibit a character concept, you should probably allow it and build on it.

I think boot camp with Kilowog as drill instructor would be an absolute must.

I plan on letting my group's freak flag fly concerning the races they can play. If they want to be established races fine, but I agree that this would be a great opportunity to let their creative juices flow. As for Kilowog instructing them, well I would be a fool to not do it and enjoy doing it to them.

Who are the villains going to be?

I do have a main threat for the overall campaign, but some of my players might be lurking and the discovery of this threat will be an important part of the story, so I am going to keep that on the hush for now.

Other then that, I planned on the first few games starting with training and letting the players get used to what they are. None of them have played characters with these kind of powers before. Plus immersion in the feel of the setting of the Green lantern Corps is important to me. Of course there will be sci fi action goodness through out and appearances by known enemies of the GLC, plus encounters with the other Corps as well.

I chose to set my game in the past (about a thousand years, give or take) and placed it in a distant space sector, dividing it from modern continuity, but using a lot of the history of the Guardians to shape the Space Sector I'm designing.

That setting sounded really interesting, very well done. I really liked the Raker Virus and it's consequences. That Green Acorn oath was fantastic.

[JetstreamGW]

That setting sounded really interesting, very well done. I really liked the Raker Virus and it's consequences. That Green Acorn oath was fantastic.

DC themselves actually did something kinda similar to the Green Acorn thing. It was in a "Tales of the Corps" story or whatever from... the 70s? 80s? Something like that. A Lantern goes to recruit someone on a planet where no visible light ever reaches the surface, so they are all blind, and thus have no concepts of color or light at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Gr ... ot_Lop_Fan

The lantern had some trouble describing the Corps to this guy, so he eventually changed it up from coherent LIGHT to coherent SOUND. The F-Sharp Bell!

In loudest din or hush profound
my ears hear evil's slightest sound
let those who toll out evil's knell
beware my power, the F-Sharp Bell!

[Mogo]

DC themselves actually did something kinda similar to the Green Acorn thing. It was in a "Tales of the Corps" story or whatever from... the 70s? 80s? Something like that. A Lantern goes to recruit someone on a planet where no visible light ever reaches the surface, so they are all blind, and thus have no concepts of color or light at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Gr ... ot_Lop_Fan

The lantern had some trouble describing the Corps to this guy, so he eventually changed it up from coherent LIGHT to coherent SOUND. The F-Sharp Bell!

In loudest din or hush profound
my ears hear evil's slightest sound
let those who toll out evil's knell
beware my power, the F-Sharp Bell!

Always like Rot Lop Fan. Thought it was a clever idea and showed how different and diverse space can be. He is still around to, just not in the forefront anymore. You can still see him here and there.

[Damren]

The "Green Acorn" is actually an attempt to introduce some diverse "styles" of role-play into the game, including a more humorous character and a slightly different style of magic that varies from the Shadow Mystics introduced. It's fun to protect the other players by shielding them is glowing green acorns vice force bubbles, and to attack foes with giant glowing squirrels.

As Sectors are generally patrolled by one GL (in the time period I've set the campaign to), having a group of them wasn't realistic for general play. I may, however, allow other players to "chime in" as neighboring GL's and/or trainees sent for field experience. Training was the reasoning behind "GA's" appearance, but he was actually looking for Mez-An Tor, the previous GL that was a sometime friend & sometime foe to Mentor (GA's "Guardian"). In this sector of space, a few intergalactic cultures actually spread out beyond the one sector and have the potential to involve more than one GL's territory.

[Note: I remember when Guy & Hal found the Lost Lanterns on Biot, the comic had some interesting descriptions of how each of them used their ring-based powers. That could be an good way to interpret the unique nature of your GL’s. Also, I’ve allowed the GL in my game to “pick & choose” powers that reflect his training and preference, so you might consider establishing a core number of points and powers & then letting the individual GL’s add to that base with whatever’s left over – pending GM approval of course.]

In addition to the Rakers, I've added a few other campaign hero-types that characters can use as templates to create from. The Halon Monks are mystics that manipulate the spiritual essence of natural forces for various effects. One player used the template to create a "Terramancer" type mystic, even adding burrowing and leaping to his power list and using "Spirituality" as a main expertise to drive the knowledge-base behind the powers.

Another is the Lightborn, a racial off-shoot of the Therran people that all possess light generating and manipulating powers at some level. They are essentially a race of "Dr. Lights" that are bound by strong cultural and familial mores (although aberrations do happen). Once feared on the home world, they have since become revered as heroes. They come across as very similar to GL's as some can create Light Constructs, fly and generate shields and blasts. They are further augmented by "Light Armor" which helps them to focus their abilities and may add a few tricks such as life-support, comms & flight for those that don't take it as an initial light power, and also have advanced light-based tech ... such as starships powered by photon singularities.

I basically didn't want to go overboard on "mutants" - but, we have a few of those as well, they're just not major players in the scheme of things. Although there is an underground market for biomorphic augmentation that uses the stolen genetic material of home world predators to alter criminals into hybrids with super powers. Also, some of the players have come up with their own alien races, including a gravity manipulating race, with a morphic exoskeleton, and one basic humanoid with blue-skin that he hasn't totally figured out the story for yet, which is odd, but we're kind of playing it off the cuff - so to speak. He wanted to be a Blue Lantern, but I shot that down due to my games time frame.

I also plan on introducing the Qadorakk (Scavengers) – A vile race from the Anti-Matter Universe that periodically shifts into the Matter Universe to scavenge resources, technology and inhabitants – who are put to work in the horrific Scarr (slave) Pits of the Qador Drift (a field of planetary remnants that span across parsecs of space in the Anti-Matter Universe). They're an original concept that I've not worked all the kinks out of yet - but, it sounded fun & more interesting than the Qwardians.

[If you haven't already, you might consider mapping out support characters - my setting calls for different Training, support & Honor Guard GL's as well as a number of on-planet support. The team functions, so far, in two major cities and the 'law' in both are a bit different from each other (sort of a Metropolis/Gotham level of difference).]

[Damren]

I know the Heroes & Villains Vol. One list the base-line powers of the GL ring, but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on what a rookie GL would look like, at minimum, after training? I know basic stat's would vary based on species, character build, etc..., and might be modified by training (Fighting & Unarmed Combat, maybe?), but what do you think minimum training would entail as far as additional dynamic array powers, skills, advantages, defenses, etc..?

[reb8er]

I plan on running a space campaign with the GBIV lanterns and other space personas. I mentioned that they could make the last Darkstar , a Batman type with a Big Ship and crew, or just a powerful person that can fly in space like Silver Surfer. They would be PL 14 with 210 points, unless the make the guy with a ship, then they would be PL 10 to 12 with 210 pts.
They added other ideas also, like one of them wants to make a living ship (not sure how we would do that one), and i really wanna keep their options open.

I am REALLY interested in the other ways the GL rings develop, like the sound one. Any other references for me to look up on that?

[jspade]

We had a lot of fun with my Star Sapphire Corps campaign – and if you're looking for opponents, I'll note that the Zamarons' original Star Sapphires have been around for billions of years, and were much more prone to being psychos than the current Corps.

I did to a writeup for a generic GL; I'll add that to my characters thread for you, Damren.

EDIT: Added here

[JetstreamGW]

We had a lot of fun with my Star Sapphire Corps campaign – and if you're looking for opponents, I'll note that the Zamarons' original Star Sapphires have been around for billions of years, and were much more prone to being psychos than the current Corps.

I did to a writeup for a generic GL; I'll add that to my characters thread for you, Damren.

EDIT: Added here

If you wanted to change it for your game, that's your business of course, but I note that his "light of will" array is too good according to the base Green Lantern rules given in the Heroes and Villains books.

Their ranks in the force manipulation array are, by RAW, limited by their Will defense. In this case no one power in that array should be higher than 9, as that is his will defense.

[jspade]

Yep, I changed it significantly. Willpower as it's presented in the comics doesn't correlate well with Will defense in M&M, to my mind; Hal Jordan gets mind controlled regularly, not breaking out until he makes a deliberate effort of will. My take is that a Green Lantern must have Fearlessness and Ultimate Will, but that his ring's array has nothing to do with his Will defense. Similarly, a Sinestro must have Ultimate Intimidation, Blue Lanterns must have Leadership, etc.