After "The Watchmen" *Watchmen spoilers ahead*

[General Disarray]

For about the past year or so I have been trying to put together a world for my M&M group to play in and for the same amount of time I have been running into probably one of my longest running cases of writers block, but finally, and idea has graced my impoverished mind. Ever since I read the greatest story ever told I have been fascinated by the world Alan Moore pieced together and have wanted to explore it from a gaming perspective. My first attempt ended in failure when I realized (my players made me realize) I was limiting them to much in character creation. I have revisited the concept finally with a differant angle, What if the climax of "THe Watchmen" ended up causing a great deal more problems that it solved? My basic idea is that I want super powerd individuals to start appearing en masse shortly after the "aliens" death. Some powered individuals will spring up because of a driect result of the psychich shockwave while other will spring up through more typical means. I am also working with an idea where Dr. Manhattan WASN'T the first super human in fact their was another being who appeared in the 1940's and whose knowledge of nuclear research helped bring WWII to its explosive finalle... I expect for their to many posts to come as I ellaborate more on this idea to so keep your eyes peeled for updates because this is definately a work in progress

[Demongg]

Ever since I read the greatest story ever told I have been fascinated by the world Alan Moore pieced together and have wanted to explore it from a gaming perspective. My first attempt ended in failure when I realized (my players made me realize) I was limiting them to much in character creation. I have revisited the concept finally with a differant angle, What if the climax of "THe Watchmen" ended up causing a great deal more problems that it solved? My basic idea is that I want super powerd individuals to start appearing en masse shortly after the "aliens" death. Some powered individuals will spring up because of a driect result of the psychich shockwave while other will spring up through more typical means.

I really liked the idea of this.
If we looked around we might be able to find some of my old old posts in these forums about the idea for a post-Watchmen game setting.

I have lots of background material for the Watchmen setting from when I was thinking about it, such as a timeline and other good stuff.

maybe I'll dig it out if you're interested.

-kev-

[General Disarray]

Cool beans man!! Would you happen to have access to or knowledge of the "Watchmen" source book? I have always wanted to see the information in that.

[Kit]

Interesting.
I'd think that adding more superpowered individuals would take it away from the source material and it wouldnt really be WATCHMEN anymore.

[Demongg]

Cool beans man!! Would you happen to have access to or knowledge of the "Watchmen" source book? I have always wanted to see the information in that.

I sure do.
The DC rpg version right?
I also have the two modules produced for Watchmen.
They're both set in the past of the setting.

the sourcebook is little more than the info gathered from the comics, but it's all together in "police file" format. Duotone printed - no color.

I'm oblivious to DC stats, so it helps in power ideas but not direct conversion for me...

Interesting.
I'd think that adding more superpowered individuals would take it away from the source material and it wouldnt really be WATCHMEN anymore.

true.
my plans were to do a low level "Daredevil" style campaign of heroes. With Training and relatively realistic Tech being the Power Sources.

I also talked about trying to mimic the "timeliness" of the Watchmen comic by taking big topics in the news today and looking at them with similar context for what Watchmen did in the 80s.

I'm not too news/political in mindset, so it'd be a research role for me - but could be fun doing something with the ugly greys that politics, terrorism and other countries views of America are today.


My idea was based around "Watchmen 20 years later"...

Any thoughts on the main topics of such a project in today's world to match a similar vibe as the original Watchmen?

-kev-

[General Disarray]

You do bring up a good point Kit, but thats also why it has been taking such a long time to put this thing together. I know that if I don't do it just right it is going to end up being just another game of M&M but with a "Stock" background. I want the game to thought provoking but still have action and all that other stuff in it too. "Watchmen" studied the validity of masked heroes in a "real" world and how their presence changed everything. I seek to create a "what if" type of scenario that basically studies what would happen if super-powered humand started appearing en masse. In a sense it will be similar to X-men but parahumans aren't on every street block in every city, every where. In my mind I could see the US and other countries reacting very quickly to this new development. Instead of the constant power struggles in X-men over what we should do with mutants and the moral questions, it's going to be very clear cut. Governments would seek to use these individuals, for whatever reason. Another differance is that super-powered criminals would outnumber super-powered heroes. Unlike X-men whre most mutants were portrayed as good if oppressed humans where some just snapped under the pressure and lashed out against an ignorant humanity, human nature will take its course. Humans endowed with such powers would realisticly use them for ill purposes. That doesn't mean everyone is going to be a super criminal like those portrayed normally in the comics, indeed it would be very rare for super-powered criminals to last long in the real world as it would be very common for them to be killed by the government, police, other super-powered humans, or captured and sentenced to death. A cliche, but good, example would be that of a bullied high schooler who possesed psychic powers and one day goes on a killing spree wiping out half the high school only to get gunned down by the police or some other similar fate. The world would be a grim place for super-powered individuals indeed.

[Blackhawk]

I think there is a perfect reason to introduce people with real powers into the Watchmen universe...

Spoilers for Watchmen ahead just in case you missed the thread title...

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Dr. Manhattan creates them.

Remember how it ends. He wants to study life, and he says he thinks he'll start by creating some. Well, why not start with what you know?

When you are the only superpowered person in the world, it's hard to study how your presence affects others. By definition, you are too involved. So create other superpowered people and study their affect on human life.

Some people he might truly create, but others he would want to study in similar conditions to what occured to him, powers granted through an "accident."

The interesting thing is that this is only one out of an infinite number of things Dr. Manhattan is doing simultaneously. Why are so many "alien" races humanoid? Because Dr. Manhattan started with what he knew.

[Setothes]

my plans were to do a low level "Daredevil" style campaign of heroes. With Training and relatively realistic Tech being the Power Sources.

I also talked about trying to mimic the "timeliness" of the Watchmen comic by taking big topics in the news today and looking at them with similar context for what Watchmen did in the 80s.

There could well be alternate 'origin' types based on the characters that inspired them.

I could easily see a foundation / 'cult' based on the works and philosophies of Ozymandius, devoted to achieving 100% of a persons potential, and unlocking all sorts of training related near-superhuman levels of ability through intensive training and exercise, as well as rigorous study and self-discipline.

A seedier group of ruthless vigilantes could be a Rorsarch-version of the 'Sons of the Bat' from The Dark Knight book. Thugs with an agenda, using that agenda to justify their own taste for brutality, or perhaps claiming that the truly 'good' man will do whatever he must to protect humanity, even if it means that he must allow himself to be feared as a ruthless criminal himself, since his mission is more important to him than his PR or other peoples 'rules' of polite conduct.

A group inspired by Nite-Owl could be a more philosophical (and less organized) group, using technological advances brought about by the cutting edges of technology left behind when Dr Manhatten left the planet, and scrounged from his laboratories and 'reverse engineered' by his lab assistants.

A feminist group inspired by Silk Spectre (and, ironically, *nothing* like her), could be the middle ground between the factions, in some places almost as violent as the Inkblots, in others the ineffectual debating society / coffee klatsch of those who follow Nite-Owl's path.

And finally, that Spoilery bit you mentioned could throw a spanner in the works, as actual *super-powered* heroes begin to appear, with some of them exhibiting odd, perhaps even 'alien' traits.


For the concept of Ozy's plan not working, it seems to me that the bit that would make it all fall down is the publication of the item in the last frame. To otherwise have it fall down ill serves the character of Ozymandius, IMO. I think it works for him to have utterly succeeded, since he obviously spent some time on this plan, only to have this one detail create an undercurrent of suspicion, perhaps exacerbated by one of his employees engaging in some sort of ham-handed coverup attempt to discredit the rag that publishes this story (said employee having no idea that there is a germ of truth to it, and that Ozymandius would rather not have it look like there is by beeing seen to over-react to it, as this man does). He's got a small force of PR flaks and lawyers and what not that would work to utterly demolish the paper that starts this ball rolling, which would create the impression in the conspiracy-minded that Ozy has something to hide, or is somehow scared by the information being published, which only will prompt more people to see what it is and give it more weight than they normally would.

Nothing more a person likes to see is someone higher up on the ladder falling down... Celebrity is its own kind of hell, and the cleaner Ozy looks, the harder some people will look for dirt.

[Demongg]

Dr. Manhattan creates them.

Remember how it ends. He wants to study life, and he says he thinks he'll start by creating some. Well, why not start with what you know?.

wow... great idea.
-kev-

[Webhead]

Dr. Manhattan creates them.

Remember how it ends. He wants to study life, and he says he thinks he'll start by creating some. Well, why not start with what you know?.

wow... great idea.
-kev-

Could make a lot of sense. It's a decent way to explain things within the context of what has already been shown to exist in the Watchmen "universe" (I would personally treat Dr. Manhattan as the proverbial [appropriate enough] watch maker, who builds the watch, winds it and then leaves it alone).

Veidt's plot at the end could also be the spawning point for a "different" world. It killed millions, but maybe the few who survived...

[Setothes]

Veidt's plot at the end could also be the spawning point for a "different" world. It killed millions, but maybe the few who survived...

Ooh, good point. Psi origins become an option here too.

[Webhead]

Personally, I think introducing "powers" to Watchmen dulls the punch a bit and definately changes the mood. Still, the aforementioned options can still lead to some interesting games.

[The Trapster]

Personally, I think introducing "powers" to Watchmen dulls the punch a bit and definately changes the mood. Still, the aforementioned options can still lead to some interesting games.

Maybe only the Villains should have powers in the Post-series world?

The heroes are the people who fight the powered beings. It could be that there are only a finite number of them.
Leading to a new paridigm shift when the last is killed, but the new sciences allow... ?

[General Disarray]

I like the Dr. Manhattan idea alot, but I don't know if it will fit in with what I want my storyline to develope into. So far I have decided that the only means of getting super powers in this "what if" is through the influence of the "Alien" and through a serum that the government has been working on (similar to the stuff the gave Captain America his enhanced abilities) with more possibly to come. Since one of my PC's had expressed interest in playing Spider-Man if I were to run another game, I have been considering that Oscorp (or something similar) is responsible for the drug's creation, thus letting it be a bit more accesible for character origins. I have also been thinking seriously about having my PC's base their character around any super-powered character they might like and making their Watchman "double" considering that is how Alan Moore created his characters. So the guy who wants to be Spider-Man would make his Watchman doppleganger. On a another topic I don't want to make "Watchman 2" I just want to make a "what if" kind of scenario that will have little interaction with the book asides from maybe Viedt getting involved.

[ShadeMoon]

Personally, I think introducing "powers" to Watchmen dulls the punch a bit and definately changes the mood. Still, the aforementioned options can still lead to some interesting games.

I have to agree with Webhead. I like the idea of the "cults" following the traditions of the Watchmen character much better. I think one of the factors that made the series so great was the lack of "super" characters. (with one obvious exception)