the best DC Elseworlds?

[Demongg]

So.... what if you were to GM or Play in a new DCA campaign.
What if it were to be based on any one of the DC Elseworld stories/settings?
What if the campaign's goal was to use the story to make a fully fleshed out setting for your group?

Which Elseworld setting would you most want to see as a campaign?
Why? What's cool about it?
And if so... how would you "continue" the setting of the story to set up a space for the PLAYERS of the campaign to get involved in?
What would the Players BE in the setting? What roles would they fill? Would you have them play DC characters or original characters? What would you change about the original story for your campaign?


I have a few that I'm very interested in exploring. I'd love to hear your ideas...

[Mr_Raven]

ThrillKIller

one of the best stories I have ever read , pick it up (and art by Bereton, whose work I love)


and I guess you could say any previous LSH continuity is elseworlds , as they dont know what the hell there doing!

[Demongg]

ThrillKIller
one of the best stories I have ever read , pick it up (and art by Bereton, whose work I love)

HEY!
I was just looking at "JSA Seven Caskets" as a potential "Elseworld".

I don't know anything about "THRILLKILLER"... what's it about? Why's it cool? What would the campaign with it be??

[dirkgentry2000]

So.... what if you were to GM or Play in a new DCA campaign.
What if it were to be based on any one of the DC Elseworld stories/settings?
What if the campaign's goal was to use the story to make a fully fleshed out setting for your group?

Which Elseworld setting would you most want to see as a campaign?
Why? What's cool about it?
And if so... how would you "continue" the setting of the story to set up a space for the PLAYERS of the campaign to get involved in?
What would the Players BE in the setting? What roles would they fill? Would you have them play DC characters or original characters? What would you change about the original story for your campaign?


I have a few that I'm very interested in exploring. I'd love to hear your ideas...

I'm most partial to Red Son myself. Not sure it has a lot of playability value as written beyond: "Everyone fight Soviet Superman!"

You could alter it though -- perhaps with General Zod enlarging the denizens of the bottled city of Kandor and allying with the US. Setting up a super-powered Cold War conflict...which might open all kinds of morally ambigious covert ops missions for super-powered operatives on both sides. That could be fun..

[King Snarf]

It's probably not playable in the LEAST, but I was always partial to World's Funnest, where Mxy and Bat-Mite try to kill each other all across the multiverse.

[Demongg]

I'm most partial to Red Son myself. Not sure it has a lot of playability value as written beyond: "Everyone fight Soviet Superman!"

You could alter it though -- perhaps with General Zod enlarging the denizens of the bottled city of Kandor and allying with the US. Setting up a super-powered Cold War conflict...which might open all kinds of morally ambigious covert ops missions for super-powered operatives on both sides. That could be fun..

Very cool. Red Son is on my "list" to check out. I read it a long time ago... You may be right about not being sure if it could have more playability beyond Superman's arc.
However, one of the main points for thinking on this direction IS to alter, change, add, create onto the existing Elseworlds setting that you choose.

Many of the Elseworlds settings ARE singular and wrapped up in a neat short story anywhere from 1 issue to a handful. So nearly all of them will need some big lateral creativity to make "work" for creating a neat setting that's open and available to your PCs and at the same time continues the flavor of the Elseworld story used. Either advancing the storyline (my best option) or playing IN the timeline set in the story or prior.

That's why I'm thinking about it.
Have a framework to use with "familiar" characters that I can "feel" like I have the ability to alter without messing too much with established continuity that would make some canon people cringe.

-kev-

[Demongg]

Here are my favorite Elseworlds that might be ripe for fun!.....



- Gotham By Gaslight (AWESOME... but I've done Victorian to death)

- Dark Knight Returns (could be awesome fun, in a dark game following this classic, loads of classic legacy hero/villain options)

- Batman Year 100 (2039, the mask and symbol of the long forgotten Batman... another dark setting to reimagine heroes in - similar to Dark Knight, an Outsiders group would be fun)

- Superman Red Son (this might be interesting... a weird "Brave New World")

- JLA Seven Caskets (a weird Lovecraftian vision of the JLA by the dude who does Nocturnals! weird/creepy/cool!)

- Batman ThrillKiller (set in the 1960s with Batgirl & Robin as Gotham's protectors...)



NOT finding alot of whole Justice League Elseworlds I liked much....

[WanderingNephilim]

I really liked Justice Riders. It was a one shot that basically put the JL back in the old west. My favorite duo, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle appear (Booster's a Maverick-style gambler and Ted is an inventor).

The post-Kingdom Come DCU could be a fun setting too.

[King Snarf]

NOT finding alot of whole Justice League Elseworlds I liked much....

What about the Magnificent Seven story from the Elseworlds Annuals. That was pretty good.

[Red Martian]

In a sense, every campaign is its own Elseworlds setting. Even the "official" DC RPG setting is an Elseworld. Elseworlds is the presentation i hoped DC Adventures would take with their campaign advice.

The "best" Elseworlds is the one where the DC characters & settings are how you've always wanted to see them. The iconic presentations are at the center of the metaphorical bell curve and we can take them as many standard deviations away as our imagination desires.

For those that prefer Marvel, substitute "What If" for Elseworlds. In a DC setting, the Phantom Stranger would make an interesting analog for Uatu in this context.

[Horsenhero]

While I think Red Martian is essentially correct, he has also artfully dodged the spirit of the question by focusing on the letter. My problem with most Elseworld's settings is they revolve the two DC characters I loathe the most Superman & Batman. I have certain Marvel characters I feel the same way about, but, since we're specifically addressing DC here...

Anyway my favorite Elseworlds Settings:

The Golden Age: A great potential campaign setting, as it nicely blends the idealism of the Gold and Silver Ages with the grit of a grimmer world. It is a fantastic metaphor for optimism versus cynicism, as well as good versus evil.

JSA: The Liberty File: Despite showcasing Bats & Supes, this Elseworlds is a good different look at some wonderful characters in a WW 2/Noir setting. With its locations and takes on the characters, it is reminiscent of Casa Blanca, with super-heroes. Lots of material to plumb.

JLA- The Nail: Probably the only JLA Elseworlds story that is translatable into a playable campaign with legs. Interesting, recognizable, but just slightly different takes on the classic JLA roster. Enough depth to go beyond the two story arcs published and into a continuing campaign.

Beyond these Kingdom Come offers a visually attractive and scarcely fleshed out setting. Of course, there are quite a few Elseworlds I haven't seen or focus on characters that get more screen time than I'm willing to tolerate already, that could probably be worked into a good framework for a campaign.

[King Snarf]

Again, if you can track them down, the Elseworlds Annuals from the 90s feature a wide array of characters. Now, granted, some of them weren't very good; the GL one where the Nazis invent power rings springs to mind, as does the Justice League one that was a (very) thinly veiled parody of the X-Men comics. Still, you had the Batman as a pirate, Kal-El as Mowgli, and Steel as a slave orchestrating an escape from a plantation, among others.

[Demongg]

Yeah, okay cool.... some folks are starta kinda getting at what I was hoping for...
I would love to know MORE though.

If you have a favorite... WHY is it your favorite? How would you translate it into a playable campaign?

The main reason I'm asking for this kind of thought is that I haven't read/seen some of these Elseworlds stories! Some of them have me intrigued and wanting to go out and FIND the comic it was in... doing more research for myself, read a cool story, get the idea of why YOU think it's cool.

One's mentioned that I'm particularly interested in:

- Justice Riders: supers and cowboys (Deadlands would be a fun campaign aid!) rocks! Is this the same thing as the "Magnificent Seven" comic mentioned?
- Batman as a pirate? hmmm... how could you make supers cool in pirate setting? I loved playing/GMing Seventh Seas, but I'm having a hard time imaging it with supers... HEY, that could be fun, using a direct port of Seventh Sea setting with the DC supers! (similar to the way Metropolis/Gotham are made up, why not the countries of Seventh Seas!)
- Kal-El as Mowgli??? what?
- JSA: The Liberty File: Casa Blanca? Neat! Lots of material to plumb? Like what??
- JLA- The Nail: Probably the only JLA Elseworlds story that is translatable into a playable campaign with legs. Interesting, recognizable, but just slightly different takes on the classic JLA roster? Really? Sounds neat.... How?
- Red Son: just what would you do after Superman?
- Thrillkill: how would this go? Would you use anything after the first story? I read that the second story with Bruce becoming Batman isn't as good...


So actually....
I want a PITCH for any/all of these campaigns!

Secretly... I want the pitch so I can mine all your awesome ideas for my own!! heheheh (but isn't that what we're all doing here to help?)

[WanderingNephilim]

I've got a few of the Elseworld's Annuals from '94 that people keep mentioning. I'll have to go back through and re-read them before I can give you a good set-up for a campaign based off of them. However, since Justice Riders is a favorite of mine, I'll give you a pitch for it (and a brief description of the character's that appeared). By the way I don't think this is the same as the Maginficient Seven, because I don't remember that ever being mentioned in the one shot (which was written by Chuck Dixon, btw).
-----
The Justice Riders (as they are refered to by Maxwell Lord)
Diana Prince - sheriff, often called the woman wonder
Katar Johnson - the hawk shaman (does have a winged suit)
John Jones - mysterious manhunter
Kid Flash (Wally West) - fastest gun in the west, outlaw, wrongfully accused of murdering Barry Allen
Booster Gold - maverick gambler
The Beetle - radical inventor that wears antennae

Other Characters
Oberon - Diana's deputy
Guy Gardner - Pinkerton tracking Wally West
Colonel Clark Kent - Dime novel writer
Maxwell Lord - mad scientist, rail baron
Lord Havok - one of Max's steampunk creations
Felix Faust - outlaw and catalyst to the story

-----

According to the one-shot, the Justice Riders only rode together once, but what if that's not the case. The wild west is mysterious and dangerous place. It seems to be getting even more dangerous as a new gang has started consildating power. They call themselves the Apokolips Gang, led by the mysterious Boss Darkseid. Darkseid's lieutenants and his clockwork metal men (created from Maxwell Lord's blue prints) have raising all sorts of hell. One or more of the original Justice Riders decide to recreate the group and start gathering a posse to fight back.

----

I think the game works better if you keep the power level at 8 or lower. Pure skill, magic, and steampunk gadgetry are all good explanations for powers, though aliens have been shown to exist (and all probably refered to as outsiders or something like that. Deadlands would provide you with some good ideas. You can also use classic DC western heroes like Jonah Hex.

Around the time I picked up Justice Riders I also bought JLA: The Island of Dr. Moreau. Here's a brief outline, Lucas Carr is found adrift and goes with the Dr. Ivo to the island of Dr. H.I. Moreau (which by the way they should have changed his name to T.O. Moreau). Moreau was banned from England for his studies. He's created beast men (which are similiar to the League). He eventually takes his "children" to England to hunt Jack the Ripper and I'm not going to spoil the end, but let's just say it's not a happy one. While it's a bit ahead in the timeline of a typical western game (being Victorian), it could fit into a Justice Riders setting.

Added after original post:

Also, Steel Annual #1 is a good comic to tie in with Justice Riders. In it John Henry is a slave blacksmith who starts out as "friends" with his master's son, Arthur. Eventaully The friendship turns to jealousy as Arthur is taught how a southern gentleman should act and eventually catches John sleeping with a white woman that Arthur had been talking to. Arthur has John create him a suit of armor that he can wear during the Civil War. John Henry uses the suit and leads a slave rebellion and the ending is ambigous, as mentions several stories about what happened after the rebellion. I think John Henry and his family moved out west and he probably got caught up in some of the gang wars and such.

[Captain Commander]

- The Nail: Pre story. As in before the whole anti-alien action begins. Leading all the way up to the Nail with PCs as members of the League.
- Red Son: Post Superman's "defeat".
- Kingdom come: Again leading up to events. WIth PCs having central roles.


And for the life of me I can't remember the name but the one where Robin runs through a Fantasy DC land to battle against Etriggan. That would be just plain fun.