Heroes game

[XLS]

Thanks for the tips. I've never really done a "sandbox" type adventure before, so I'll look into it more.

As for Paragons-- I may try to get it, as it may offer some tips.

Still working on fleshing out a few plot points before I announce the game...

[poodle]

I think because of the pace of PbP it supports sandbox style games a little better. Another way to do it might be random powers. After all a cheerleader with regeneration!!! Who would have thought it? A watchmaker becoming a hero killer? I think players get a bit grumpy when they have to do that although it does mean they have to make a believable character first and can't create a synergy. e.g. I am a burglar who has miraculously developed concealment and insubstantial

[XLS]

I think because of the pace of PbP it supports sandbox style games a little better. Another way to do it might be random powers. After all a cheerleader with regeneration!!! Who would have thought it? A watchmaker becoming a hero killer? I think players get a bit grumpy when they have to do that although it does mean they have to make a believable character first and can't create a synergy. e.g. I am a burglar who has miraculously developed concealment and insubstantial

Well, I definitely won't want PCs to do that and wouldn't be interested in picking someone who's just in it to game the system (a mind-reading poker player, or a boxer with minor invulnerability, etc.). And while I've said "sandbox" I would still like to guide the game somewhat. That is, much like the TV show, there will be plot themes that intersect the lives of the PCs. Ideally, they'll follow those leads to come to some sort of climactic conclusion and then they move on-- only to become unwittingly immersed in yet another plot. I invoked the TV show 24 earlier as a model. Poor old Jack Bauer is continually running into grand schemes season after season even when they start rather harmlessly. Of course, Jack was a secret agent and so it was natural for him to confront assassination attempts, bomb plots, weapons smuggling, etc. For PCs who are-- on the surface-- more ordinary, it will take a bit more work on my part. But that's the fun of being a GM!

[XLS]

So to have a workable plot I need to set up some structure with NPCs and their motivations. The world will resemble in most ways our own; this just makes life easier on everyone. Instead of dealing with made-up histories and personalities, you can be sure that whatever you know about the earth's history and geography applies. Thus, there was a President Lincoln and a Civil War in the United States. There was Hitler and World War II. Cars and phones and computers and their histories are just as you'd read about in a book (or on wikipedia). 9/11 happened. Italy won the World Cup in 2006, etc., etc.

That said, because this is a world with super powers, there are a few things that differ from our own (sadly) power-less world.

Some things I need to address:

Origins
Nefarious cabal
Government involvement
Ex-government agent (powered and good/neutral) now on the run
Powered criminal #1
Powered criminal #2
Powered criminal family
Unscrupulous politician

As I think of more NPCs and plot hooks, I'll add them here. Links explaining more of the above will flesh things out more.

[XLS]

Origins
One thing that I probably won't delve much into is origins. My historical outline has that "über humans" (often disparagingly called "Yoo-hoos" by certain government factions) emerged in the late 1950's. I really like this idea by imfarias-- I might tweak it some, but it's an easy enough plot point to call this "inter-dimensional" the Rosewell incident in 1947, and so people exposed to it-- mostly children-- manifested new powers as a result of problems with the "infinite improbability drive" about a decade later.

This number would be low-- and thanks to [Insert name of a particular NPC, to be fleshed out later], a good number of the early ones formed a secret society to monitor just what was going on with these über humans-- and perhaps use some of their powers (e.g. precognition) to get quite rich.

Über humans tended to have über human children, though thanks to the original malfunctions of the dimensional space ship's drive systems, über humans have shown up in subsequent generations, up until the present.

As I noted, this is all just back story. As far as the PCs are concerned, they have discovered at some point in their past (last week? 5 years ago? 15 years ago?) that they have special powers. It's likely that no one else knows that they're powered, and moreover, it's likely that they think they're the only such people on earth (though, part of a PC's personality/back story may be to find others like her or him...).

[poodle]

there needs to be some unifying event otherwise it is either too random or too contrived. The whole 'we're all at school together' scenario. This could be dreams of a horrific future, witnessing an 'unexplainable' event/crime/cover-up or whatever. To avoid players making the invulnerable heavy weight boxer or ex-military invisible sniper, have them all make their characters first and then give them powers. You could be daring and go the whole random powers thing but give every player several choices or someone will get the lame power and have a sulk. "fear me, I can summon butterflies".

If you don't care then maybe you could have everyone make PL 6 non-powered characters and then you give them x ammount of points to put towards their powers.

[XLS]

there needs to be some unifying event otherwise it is either too random or too contrived. The whole 'we're all at school together' scenario. This could be dreams of a horrific future, witnessing an 'unexplainable' event/crime/cover-up or whatever.

Hmmm. I'll have to think on this. I was sort of hoping to avoid a "singular event" as a starting point. But you have brought up the point that I do need a starting point event to get things going.

To avoid players making the invulnerable heavy weight boxer or ex-military invisible sniper, have them all make their characters first and then give them powers. You could be daring and go the whole random powers thing but give every player several choices or someone will get the lame power and have a sulk. "fear me, I can summon butterflies".

Well, I don't want to do random, that's for sure; people should have some fun. I thought about the "make an ordinary person" but an ordinary person-- even a really exceptional person-- isn't going to be more than PL 5. I mean, think of the people in the show. Claire was just a teen-ager. Peter Petrelli was a hospice nurse.

How would it even work to do that? Like, stat out a PC at PL 4/60pp and then have an "event" and have them add powers, etc., so that they're PL 6/90 pp?

If you don't care then maybe you could have everyone make PL 6 non-powered characters and then you give them x ammount of points to put towards their powers.

Hmmm. Except, you still run into problems. Without knowing what your power is, you don't know whether to invest in melee or ranged attack. Or toughness/defense. I don't know.

I have lots to think about, to be sure.

[mrdent12]

If you want to go the event route, you can have the PC's build an 'ordinary' person with less than the full amount of PL6 pp's and than have than use the rest for after the event to add powers, new training, equipment, etc.

If you don't go with the event route and allow characters that may have had powers for a couple months or more in game time, you have to expect at least the tail end of their story to be heavily influenced by the powers. So a person may not start out as a thief, but once they get the power to go invisible and insubstantial they might take up the hobby.

The idea sounds really promising so far though and sounds like it will make an interesting game to follow once the idea is fully fleshed out.

[XLS]

If you don't go with the event route and allow characters that may have had powers for a couple months or more in game time, you have to expect at least the tail end of their story to be heavily influenced by the powers. So a person may not start out as a thief, but once they get the power to go invisible and insubstantial they might take up the hobby.

Good point. So one thing I could do is have people stat out their PL 6 PCs (i.e. normal people with one basic power) but have their powers manifest or have manifested just last week but still have a longer history of powered people so that there's still a government agency looking for them, a nefarious cabal of powered people, and various people who got their powers earlier and have taken up the "hobby" of whatever criminal activity.

Still lots of work to do in terms of ground work, but we'll see how it goes.

[XLS]

Powered criminal #1

Michael Solo was "discovered" by Section Seven-- the government agency charged with studying and managing the über human phenomenon in the United States-- in the late 90's. Early in its inception, it was determined that Seven (as it was often called) would have an easier time if it recruited über humans to work as agents alongside "normals" (non-powered humans).

As per Seven protocol, Solo was teamed with a normal agent, a woman named Leigh Evans. The two didn't get along at first, but after several years working together they developed a strong affection for one another. The two wed-- in secret, as it was against Section Seven orders-- in 2002.

Over time, their marriage become the worst-kept secret in the agency. Still, because the team had such great success in running Section Seven missions, leadership turned a blind eye to the whole matter. Eventually, the team was moved from the agency's main headquarters in New York to head a branch office in Los Angeles. There, they trained new agents and followed out with Seven's objective to dealing with the über human phenomenon.

Michael's world came crashing down, however, when his wife-- two months pregnant with their first child-- was killed in the line of duty. In early 2010 during a routine attempt to apprehend a potentially threatening über human, events turned ugly and the target became violent, using his telekentic powers to shove Leigh Evans Solo off the top of an office building. and she plunged over 30 stories to her death.

Solo used his own powers to kill the über human, but while he survived the encounter physically unharmed he was emotionally shattered. His wife and unborn child were gone, and it was all the fault of a worthless über human.

Shortly thereafter, Solo went on indefinite leave from Section Seven for personal reasons. At home with little to do, he drank and seethed at the course of events that led him to this anguish. Soon, he began trolling the streets, targeting potential über humans from what he could remember from the Section Seven files. The murders were brutal, but in Solo's mind, they were worth it. And if a civilian got in the way-- or worse, if he attacked a normal mistakenly-- so be it. Casualties were to be expected.

News agencies have started to pick up on the murders, even though Section Seven has done its best to cover up the connections. They've also brought in new agents to try and protect potential targets. Moreover, the agency has engaged in an intensive manhunt to track down Solo. Unfortunately, tracking down one of their best agents-- a man who helped design the training protocols and was intimately familiar with agency tactics-- was proving difficult, at best...

MICHAEL SOLO
Abilities [24]
S 12 (+1)
D 14 (+2)
C 14 (+2)
I 14 (+2)
W 16 (+3)
Ch 14 (+2)

Skills [15 (60 ranks)]
Bluff 4 (+6), Computers 4 (+6), Diplomacy 5 (+7), Drive 3 (+5), Escape Artist 4 (+6), Gather Information 8 (+10), Intimidate 4 (+6), Investigate 5 (+7), Knowledge [Civics] 2 (+4), Knowledge [Tactics] 3 (+5), Languages [Spanish] 1, Notice 5 (+3), Search 6 (+8), Stealth 6 (+8)

Feats [21]
Assessment, Attack Focus (Ranged) 2, Attack Specialization (Blast), Defensive Roll 2, Dodge Focus 2, Fearless, Improved Aim, Improved Initiative 2, Martial Strike 2, Power Attack, Redirect, Sneak Attack, Taunt, Tough 2, Well-Informed

Powers [27]
Nullify 5 [All Effects at Once] (Extras: Randomize, Area [Burst], Duration [Sustained], Independent; Flaw: Range [Touch]) [25+2=27 pp]
Alternate Powers
*Blast [Supercharge] 8 (Extra: Knockback; Drawback: Reduced Range 2) [22 pp]
*Sabotage 8 (Feat: Subtle) [25 pp]

Saves [9]
Tough +6 (+4 flat-footed); Fort +6 (4+CON); Ref: +4 (2+DEX); Will: +6 (3+WIS)

Combat [24]
Attack +4 (Melee), +6 (Ranged), +8 (Blast); Defense +10 (+4 flat-footed)

24+15+21+27+9+24=120

NOTES:
Obviously, I've borrowed a lot from Heroes in working on the background of this situation. Still, I think Solo is different enough from Sylar to be fresh and interesting.
There are several plot hooks that I can use here to start things off for PCs. On the one hand, PCs may be approached by Section Seven agents to "protection"-- the PC could resist and try to get to the bottom of things, or she may go willingly, in which case she may find that her treatment is not entirely consistent with someone being 'protected'; On the other hand, PCs may be attacked by Solo himself, only to have it thwarted. Perhaps an off-duty "normal" agent stumbled across the attack and saves the PC. Or perhaps the PC is good enough to get away, and then begins to put together pieces of a larger mystery.
In terms of stats, I think he's formidable against other powered foes since he can cause them to "overcharge" and disable them. And at PL8, he should be a good match even against two PCs.
Even though I've stressed that I want there to be a less-structured environment for this game, I still want to direct things, so I'll have to make sure that things don't get too out of hand. I would also like this plot thread to lead to a larger one (e.g. something that threatens the whole city, etc.) so that even if the Solo plot is resolved (or the trail runs cold), there's something else for the PCs to focus on.

[XLS]

Ex-government agent (powered and good/neutral) now on the run

Anderson "Andy" Roads
Andy Roads grew up in the rough parts of Philadelphia in the 70's. Seeing the crime and corruption motivated him and when he was old enough, he joined Philly's finest where he served as a beat cop for almost a decade. Later, he joined the FBI. It was around this time that Roads discovered that he was different-- or, more specifically, that he could do something that normal humans just shouldn't be able to do: he could teleport at will.

It took him some time to perfect this new talent, and he took great pains to hide this ability from his coworkers and friends. He discovered, however, that it was quite helpful in nabbing criminals and solving crimes.

In 1993, he was approached by representatives of a new government agency that was being formed to study people who exhibited examples of superhuman talents. Moreover, he was surprised that these representatives knew of his power. Once a member of this Section Seven, he learned much about others like him and worked for the cause. Over time, however, he became suspicious. While he knew that the agency worked to apprehend powered criminals and law-breakers (and did so in secret, so as not to arouse alarm in the general public), he also knew that law-abiding powered people were also brought in. He was always told that it was just for study, and that eventually, these people were released and placed in special 'witness protection'-type programs where they could rejoin society, but also continued to be monitored from afar.

Yet, when Roads finally decided to secretly follow up on some of these people, he found that they didn't exist. He didn't know what was happening to them, but he suspected that it wasn't pleasant. Ultimately, Roads went AWOL from Section Seven, selling his possessions and going 'off the grid'. He now lives in hiding, always looking over his shoulder for agents coming to get him...

NOTES:
I don't need to stat out Roads, but I probably will just for fun.
Roads will act as a plot device, popping in to help lead PCs in a certain path, or provide clues or information.

[XLS]

Government involvement

In 1960, a black budget agency called Section Seven was founded to explore the recently observed phenomenon of humans gifted with seemingly superhuman abilities. The first director was Dr. Wolfram von Soden, a former German scientist who came to the United States after World War II, and after observing the phenomenon in person, he dubbed these individuals "über humans," a name that has stuck ever since.

In the early days of the program, Section Seven was charged largely with discovering the origin(s) of über humans, the variety of powers in the über human population, and their limitations. Later, as more über humans emerged, the agency expanded its mission to capture and detain potentially threatening individuals until methods to control them could be developed.

Currently, there are several Section Seven offices in the US, including in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston. These offices all operate under the guise of a fictional electronics wholesale company called Apex Electronics, the main client of which is, not coincidentally, the US government. Most of the employees of Apex are actual top secret government workers, including high level trained field operatives-- some of whom are über humans themselves. Moreover, secret levels below the Apex officies are equipped with equipment to study and hold detained über humans.

NOTES:
I have obviously borrowed heavily from Heroes here. There are numerous plot hooks to play with.