Superhero/Sci-Fi Adventures vs. Fantasy

[Azgulor]

Hi, all.

The vast majority of my time as a RPG GM has been spent running various FRPGs. I’ve utilized various adventure formats over the years, from sandbox to plot-on-rails, but my most successful adventures and campaigns have followed the format of specific NPCs & monsters for setting the stage plot-wise combined with specific locations. Everything else is fairly sandbox in nature as regardless of player age or group, players will go in unexpected directions and the vast majority of my memorable sessions allow for this kind of freedom. Plot is always there, but as framework rather than heavily rooted in scripted events.

However, I started gaming more on the sci-fi side with the Star Frontiers RPG, and always come around to needing to scratch my sci-fi, superhero, or modern RPG itch. Aside from those early Star Frontiers days, however, none of the campaigns have really had the stamina to last any significant length of time. They certainly haven’t had the longevity of my fantasy campaigns.

When dealing with the modern-times or sci-fi futures, however, the number of player options, technology available (computers, communication, transportation, etc.) exponentially increases the options available to players.

Looking at my adventures from my last sci-fi campaign, I found them to be very plot-heavy. The detailed NPCs were still there, but detailed locations/settings were largely absent.

I’m trying to ramp up a superhero campaign and I’m hoping to avoid the pitfalls of the past. My concern, however, is that comics/video games/movies that feature superheroes are all scripted start-to-end.

So I’m curious how other GMs have successfully tackled the issue of adventure writing/design & campaign planning in superhero RPGs? (although it would apply to sci-fi as well) How have you structured your adventures & campaign so that you’re not winging it all of the time but don’t force the players into a railroad just to make the plot/adventure work?

 

[DnD_Dad]

Make lots of characters and use them as NPCs. Keep you characters tasked with some sort of mission and let them do what they want.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Approach it the same way as you would a FRPG campaign, but plan to have more recurring NPCs and mooks.

While they DO accumulate enemies over time, superheroes tend to butt heads with a small core of the same guys over and over again. In sci-fi, there might only be one true enemy, a few powerful followers, and a bunch of faceless mooks.

Both genres may also feature rivals whose adversarial nature may range from romantic rival, an old childhood bully, a professional colleague with conflicting goals or someone willing to sabotage the PCs. IOW, he may be taking actions just shy of open combat. And if combat does occur, it is probably going to be non-lethal unless he is the campaign's true BBEG or a truly bitter rival. As in Shakespearean rival.


My best ever campaign- a supers game set in a Jules Verneian/HG Wellsian world- featured 2 main recurring nemeses for the party, as well as a cast of henchmen of various power. For plots, I raided Wild, Wild West, Kung Fu, Alien Nation, James Bond movies, Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion cycle, William Gibson's Difference Engine, ERB's John Carter stories and other stuff.

My players raided classic period fiction, anime, and so forth for their PC concepts.

For you, this means find some literary, movie, TV or other sources that have elements similar to the campaign you intend to run, and mine them for ideas.

As a sandbox technique, I posted the goings on of the Agency to which the PCs belonged in a memo posted on our host's corkboard...and listened very carefully to the table talk of my players. Whenever they had an idea that was better than my own, I yoinked it. My plagiarism made them feel clever like they were reading MY mind!

Communication is your friend. Use your email or some kind of Yahoo group or whatever to keep your players informed about the game world...both their actions and the stuff that happened when they were doing their heroic deeds.

 

[Desdichado]

I’m trying to ramp up a superhero campaign and I’m hoping to avoid the pitfalls of the past. My concern, however, is that comics/video games/movies that feature superheroes are all scripted start-to-end.

So are comics/video games/movies that feature fantasy characters. That's kinda the nature of comics/video games/movies/books.

So I’m curious how other GMs have successfully tackled the issue of adventure writing/design & campaign planning in superhero RPGs? (although it would apply to sci-fi as well) How have you structured your adventures & campaign so that you’re not winging it all of the time but don’t force the players into a railroad just to make the plot/adventure work?

I'm not quite sure I'm grokking the question here, or what the problem is. What's keeping you from running the game more or less the same as you would your more successful fantasy games? All of the issues you're referring are completely unrelated to genre.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Get stuff from the news and also base your powerful NPCs on people in the news and do a "what if". (see current Batman rumor).

You also have to timeline and plot out the step the villians have to go through to do their plans.
Example:
Villian 1
- find a base
- hire henchmen or build them
- pay henchmen
---- rob banks and such, maybe make drugs, sex slaves, arms dealer, etc...
- build the death ray
- kidnap scientist that knows death ray tech
- get parts for a death ray
- test death ray
- Over-ride TV to make your demands
- etc
Villian 2
- Creation
- Goal
- steps to goal...


At any time the villian can cross path with the heroes. Meaning that the villian may have to adjust plans for the death ray or have them delayed.

 

[Azgulor]

So are comics/video games/movies that feature fantasy characters. That's kinda the nature of comics/video games/movies/books.

I'm not quite sure I'm grokking the question here, or what the problem is. What's keeping you from running the game more or less the same as you would your more successful fantasy games? All of the issues you're referring are completely unrelated to genre.

Mainly I'm talking about the detailed setting locales & set-pieces.

The reference to the scripted nature of the medium mean that in a movie/comic/game, whatever... if I want to have a car chase or a battle at a particular location, I've found it more difficult to ensure the characters arrive at that set-piece. Perhaps it's just been my players over the years, but once introduced into a modern or futuristic setting, they can think of, and have greater access to a large number of ways of approaching a problem -- enough so that detailed locales or set-pieces was often wasted effort.

In a FRPG, by contrast, the players are more limited in what resources they can bring to bear. Yes, there are similarities, but if the heroes can't fly or teleport, they HAVE to travel overland to reach the villain's inland mountain lair.

I'm not saying it can't be done, just that it's been less successful for me. Hence the request for advice from GM's that have been successful at it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

On genre convention that differs between supers and the rest is that, unless the heroes actively patrol as a group, they are not likely to be wandering around looking for the BBEG. Instead, their initial contacts with the villain's plans will be either through clues they get while mopping up some mooks- like finding evidence of a cult in a FRPG- or when they get some alert while chilling at their base. In that latter case, they're going to be going to your set piece, already in motion.

 

[Desdichado]

Mainly I'm talking about the detailed setting locales & set-pieces.

The reference to the scripted nature of the medium mean that in a movie/comic/game, whatever... if I want to have a car chase or a battle at a particular location, I've found it more difficult to ensure the characters arrive at that set-piece. Perhaps it's just been my players over the years, but once introduced into a modern or futuristic setting, they can think of, and have greater access to a large number of ways of approaching a problem -- enough so that detailed locales or set-pieces was often wasted effort.

It seems like set-piece locations are where the villains are. I'm sorry--I'd like to offer some helpful advice, but I'm still trying to get my arms around what the problem is so that I can (I do tend to run a fair bit of modern and sci-fi games, and for me this has never been more difficult than it is in fantasy). Can you give an example maybe of one that went wrong, or something?

I think that the problem might be one of approach. A set piece battle can be somewhere on the overland terrain, but if the players are flying in a plane or a speeder or are superheroes flying through the air a la Superman, they can still be attacked en route. Or, you don't plan en route set pieces. Raiders of the Lost Ark style redlines across the map from set piece to set piece, or something.

 

[fireinthedust]

supers games run differently than fantasy games. it could be similar to Epic-level D&D, but the heroes are usually one-trick ponies: spider man can do interesting things with his webs, but he always has to use them.\

I found that having the locations they need to get to be really obvious meant that they'd go towards them.

"you are in The City. The old museum is on fire and a giant ape and it's robot minions are snatching up bystanders and flying back into the fiery ruins."

Where in the city do the PCs go? Obviously the ruins, it's all they know is out there.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

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