Alright, I need some help...I'm trying to think of a story for a superhero RPG. The setting's kinda important, so, let me explain... (Post is rather long, bear with me) The game takes place in Griffen City, USA (Although not explicitly stated, it's supposed to be set in southern California). Griffen City (named after it's founder, Anthony Griffen) is the only city in the US with a significantly "Super" population--about 70% pass themselves off as wither a superhero or -villian, and the majority of those have *actual* powers. The city itself is surrounded by desert and sits right on the ocean. It is VERY isolated--there are no suburban areas for >200 miles around. The only ways in are throught the airport, the long freeway that leads exclusively to the city, and the prominent seaport. At each of these three locaitons, there is a very large immigration office, which interviews EVERYONE that enters the city--the police force needs records on hand for everyone in the city, so they can know the most effective way to deal with them. For example, it is not wise to use standard bullets on someone that's invincible to them, would you? The main police force in Griffen City is the DPA: The Department of Paranormal Activites. The DPA is composed of superheroes, trying to keep all unrest more or less under control. Superheroes who are not part of the DPA are looked down on by DPA agents, and called Vigilantes. The history of Griffen City is thus: in ~1948, four of what would be called "Supervillians" arose and began to terrorize the city. Four "Superheroes" arose and fought them wherever they could. After several years of intermittent fighting, all the villians and three heroes were killed in an epic showdown, with the final superhero dying shortly thereafter, in the hospital. Other, less powerful heroes and villians were then drawn to the area, and Griffen City became a sort of haven for Supers. However, the secret hideout of the Villians was never found... Fastforward to the present day. The grandson of one of the original Villians has returned to Griffen City. Assisted by a shady orginization known only as "The Brotherhood", and a small force of elite villians, the Heir is now striving to find the Hideout and use the hidden technologies within... This is where I'm stuck. I have about five hero characters thought of (None in spandex, incidentally), but I am very unhappy with any story I can come up with. The basic idea is that one of the characters recieves a letter from the Brotherhood requesting his help, immigrates from Europe, then finds that the Brotherhood is evil and refuses to join. Another hero character I have turns out to be one of the original Heroes (the one that was supposed to have died in the hospital), a martial artist, and two DPA agents (a cowboy-type sharpshooter and an apparently mute telepath). Also: I am not happy with the characters I have, so any suggestions in that area would be helpful. However, I don't have a story worth speaking of. Besides a few disorganized plot hooks (a few of them mentioned above), I have no story at all. Could anyone give me any sort of help? Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi Brokenimage

I really like the idea of the way the Griffen City is run, with the immigration departments and all. It feels like it gives it a very realistic tone to the setting, and almost has that 'rats trapped in a cage' feeling to it. Very nice.

Quote:
Another hero character I have turns out to be one of the original Heroes (the one that was supposed to have died in the hospital)

For this character, I would be careful about how he suddenly just reappears. He would be known by every person in the city, so he would have to of been hiding very well for the entire duration of his life up to this point since the incident (maybe his power was turning invisible?). What you could do is make him a very broken man who is still trying to cope with the loss of the rest of his teammates. What no one ever found out though (and the reason for his guilt) is that in a moment of confusion, he was tricked into selling his team out, telling the Brotherhood of where they would be the night of the attack. As such, they were ambushed and killed (not before taking out three of the four members of the villians), but when he realised what he had done he killed the remaining brotherhood member while nearly destroying himself in the process. As such, he could not bear the thought of anyone thinking of him as a hero (as the entire city claims him to be and still carries on about since they don’t know the full story). The entire city is just one big reminder that he can’t escape.

Quote:
I am not happy with the characters I have, so any suggestions in that area would be helpful.

I will take a guess that the reason you are not too fond of your current characters is that the team has no background. They are just a series of cool superheros with a somewhat limited past together. I would ignore any powers they may have, and create a really dynamic history between them all. Only once you have a history between that really displays the unity they have, THEN start thinking of what powers you can give them to reflect this. Of course, you could take the direction that the team is already falling apart because they have only just been formed when the person immigrated from Europe to stop the brotherhood, but working out their powers and then why they are in the group will make for an awkward story. Lets say that the team has just been formed, and the superhero who everyone thought was dead is asked to be the team leader (dunno if the person who immigrated to the city would be a better choice or not, but it will do for just this example), by the person from Europe, and his first idea is to recruit one of his buddies that is a complete jackass. At the start, both the leader and his buddy are very unlikeable, and seem to just be mooching of the money to be used for the team. The person who immigrated into the city could be a female who is quickly getting fed up with those two , and even though she hates him, over time she actually develops a crush on him (to depart this from the usual routine, he could be twice her age so it is clear to the person reading the story that they will never get together..ever). The final person could be one DPA agent who has been assigned to watch over the team who is a life long friend of the person from Europe.

Now, my example may be very bad, but it might show that a good reason for why the team is together and how they react to each other is much more important that their powers. After going trough the example above, the leader could be an invisibility guy to reflect he just wants to hide from the world, the girl from Europe could be very nimble but very strong (she could say that supers of in Europe are very different from the ones over here), the leaders buddy could probably be bumped off and replaced with a better member, and the DPA agent has no powers at all, but is still great at what he does (he could be kind of like a ‘wishful thinker’ that he has always been the protector of the girl from Europe)

I dunno if this will be much help. I was kinda in a rush when I typed this, and the more I re-read it the worse it seems [grin]

One of the things you must have in a story is conflict. You've outlined several areas of conflict; the question is which one(s) to use. Once you have a good conflict, your characters will fit themselves into it.

The obvious primary conflict is between superheroes and supervillains, but you've explained that a climactic battle happened several years ago. Apparently the DPA has managed to keep the city calm since then; at least open warfare hasn't broken out. Maybe no one villain has had enough personal power or charisma to cause problems.

The obvious secondary conflicts are between superheroes and between supervillains. The DPA has managed to put aside (most of) their differences to work together and keep the villains under control. Fine, unless the villains form their own DPA.... And there must be points of friction between the DPA and the vigilantes.

All that leads to another potential conflict. The DPA, representing law and order, could begin abusing its authority. Remember that power is not inherently good or evil but depends on the person using it. If the DPA, for instance, started arresting people who questioned its decisions, who would the people turn to? That could lead to an interesting situation: vigilantes and villains forced to cooperate, possibly finding that they have more in common than they thought.

The other side of the coin: the DPA becomes useless, possibly sabotaged by a supervillain who puts Kryptonite in their coffee. The vigilantes have to put down the attempted takeover that follows.

Other conflicts that could force different groups to work together: a natural disaster, an invasion from space, an experiment gone wrong--all classic comic-book plots.

And what if the supers of Griffen City decide that they're the rightful rulers of Earth? Who would stop them?


Some other points to consider: what's the basis of the economy in Griffen City? Tourism? Hiring out supers with specific useful powers? Research and development?

Is there a political system outside the DPA? What kind of system? Is there discrimination against nonsupers?

What roles do the nonsupers play? Why do they live there? What kind of culture do they have? What's their life expectancy? Is there a lot of immigration?

What sort of game are you planning? Does it lean toward fighting or story development, or is it a combination of both? That will affect the complexity of the story you tell.

Whoo...first chance to post in a while...

Answering CyberAngel's Questions, starting from the top...

Quote: Original post by CyberAngel
And what if the supers of Griffen City decide that they're the rightful rulers of Earth? Who would stop them?

I've been working on this Griffen City idea for a while (the story was originally the basis for a failed story forum I used to run), and I omitted several other ideas I had for the sake of brevity in my original post.
To answer your question, there's a battalion of hyper-elite, psuedo-super troops in a hidden base outside Griffen City. They have all been given a top secret drug that hightens their mental awareness, essentiallly giving them the ability to sense the presence and, to a limited ability, the intentions of others. The itself drug is called Inaw, standing for INcreased AWareness, and is supplied solely by the federal government. It is very addicting, and the withdrawal symptoms include a slow and painful death, so the government basicaly has a gaurentee of their loyalty.

their telepathic-like abilites, along with their almost-invincible armor and their wide range of weaponry, makes them very formidable enemies. they have been trained exclusively to fight in Griffen City, and have all the Immigration records instantly accesible iside their helmets, so they know the best way to deal with anyone they are fighting.

In case of a "Disturbance" (e.g., rioting, Super-led Revolution, etc.) these troops are deployed with instructions to take the city, decalre martial law, and restore order.

I didn't mention these guys in my original post because I wasn't planning on using them in the game. But they're there.

Quote: Original post by CyberAngelSome other points to consider: what's the basis of the economy in Griffen City? Tourism? Hiring out supers with specific useful powers? Research and development?

I guess a mixture of international trade and tourism--to be honest, I haven't really thought about it. Griffen City has a large seaport, so that could be used for importing all sorts of stuff from overseas, and then transported to the rest of the country via the highway or airport. Also, it sits on the ocea, with really nice beaches, so that should attract all sorts of tourists (Not to mention that Griffen has that whole superhero thing going ^-^).

Quote: Original post by CyberAngelIs there a political system outside the DPA? What kind of system? Is there discrimination against nonsupers?

Yes, there is another political system. Griffen City operates just like any other large (American) city, with a city council/mayor and all that bureaucracy junk. No, there isn't any discrimination against non-supers...everyone, when not outright doing hero stuff (e.g., saving the city, or trying to destroy it) pretty much has the attitude of "Live and Let Live".

Quote: Original post by CyberAngelWhat roles do the nonsupers play? Why do they live there? What kind of culture do they have? What's their life expectancy? Is there a lot of immigration?

In Griffen City, the Supers need a day job, just like everyone else. The DPA will pay limited bounties to Vigilantes who take down bad guys, but, otherwise, there really isn't a source of income to be had by being a superhero. So, Supers and Nonsupers work side-by-side.
Nonsupers live there because they can make money, and there are jobs to be had (On that note, supers live there more as a matter of tradition--I hate to draw this comparison, but it would be like chineese people living in Chinatowns). They live just about as long as everyone else (except when they get caught in some evil plot or other). There is not a huge amount of Nonsuper immigration, but it's there.

Quote: Original post by CyberAngelWhat sort of game are you planning? Does it lean toward fighting or story development, or is it a combination of both? That will affect the complexity of the story you tell.

I was going to have an even mix of fighting and story development. That said, I want to have a deep story, one that will draw in the player and get him interesred (this is a reason why Final Fantasy 6j was one of my favorite games of all time--the story).
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I've been thinking about Boolean's suggestions about the Old Hero character.
What I'm thinking is tahat, during the Final Battle between the original HEroes and Villians, he was somehow incapacitated (knocked out, tied up, something like that), and was unable to help as the battle was fought. After his team was killed, he managed to get free of whatever was holding him back, and managed to defeat the remaining Villian(s), possible with a Vash the Stampede-esque show of power that he has no control over (like that one episode where he blew up the city using his arm cannon).
However, the guilt of having failed his team led him to fake his own death and take a low-profile job as a warehouse owner or something to hide from the world. He returns to help out the players because he sees this as an oppurtunity to reedeem his past actions.

(I would post more in-depth, but the bell just rang...)

More questions. Please understand that I'm not trying to tear down your ideas, I'm trying to strengthen them by pointing out (what appear to me as) the holes.

The presence of the secret super-soldiers opens another can of worms. Do they work for the city government or the federal government? If the city, why not integrate them with the DPA as a deterrent (without publicizing the terminally addictive Inaw, of course)? Who would make the decision to deploy them, and how do you make sure that that person wouldn't use them for personal ambition? The political system becomes important here because, with so much power available, there have to be powerful checks and balances. A person in a position of authority, even a nonsuper, working against your characters, gives your players a villain, a mystery, and a sense of public duty all at once. Just a suggestion.

If the federal government, it seems there's much more paranoia involved than implied by your first post: they mean to keep the supers in Griffen City, so it may be a prison rather than a place where supers "just happen" to congregate. In that case, the government (or all governments) would watch for supers whose powers are manifesting and send them to Griffen City. There should be some reason for so many supers to wind up there.

A possible subplot: some Inaw makes it into the city and gets sold as super-crank. Those "users" will cause a lot of trouble before the supply runs out. Also, it should make players wonder where the stuff came from. Or maybe you should save the super-soldiers for the sequel....

The tourism angle does sound better if the supers are the main attraction, like the stars in Hollywood, e.g. "Get your picture taken with Granite Man" or "Maps to the Superheroes' homes." Also like Hollywood, they could make movies and TV shows with superhero stars providing their own special effects, or reality shows featuring the most popular (or most repulsive) supers. How is Brad Pitt going to compete against a guy who's good-looking *and* can wrap up crooks in a steel rail? So you have people clamoring to visit the city, others wanting to live there and break into show biz. And supers would want to go there as well, which gives a reason for so many to be there. To the public at large, then, superpowers mean entertainment, not a battle of good vs. evil.

Turning to characters, I'll call your original superhero (the one thought dead) the Unknown Soldier, just to have a name. Uh, I was going to start with a suggestion, but if the DPA knows who everyone is and what powers they have, how has this guy stayed hidden for 57 years? Now the suggestion, which may take care of the question: begin the game with a prelude set in 1948, where the player controls the original superheroes. You could even treat that segment as a sort of "Training Room" or tutorial. The final battle takes place. The only survivor is Unknown Soldier. Pan in on his face; then it changes (very slightly) into the face of his grandson, and we're in the present. Unknown Soldier hasn't disappeared, except from the public eye.

There are several directions to go from there. How did that battle affect Unknown Soldier? What has he done since then? As I said before, once you have a clear-cut conflict, you'll find it much easier to define the characters taking part. And when you know what the villain(s) wants and why, you'll know why the heroes need to stop them (and why they might hesitate to).

It's OK, CyberAngel--your questions are actually helping me out!

First off, you mentioned that there's a considerable amount of paranoia on the part of the government. Think of it this way:

You are in a leadership position in the government--maybe the governor of the state, maybe the prestident--and you have a little city called Griffen on the west coast.

Out of the total population of Griffen City (a fairly large city, at that), about 35% want the world dead or under their control. These people resist most conventional weapons, are not above using terrorist tactics (biological attacks, attacking infrastructure, etc.) and have powers that you, or anyone working under you can ever hope to have.

Granted, Griffen City is fairly self regulating--another 35% of Griffen City wants the world very much free and alive--but a large portion of the so-called "Good Guys" are under government control, hence not free to do everything neccesary to keep the world safe. And, there is no absolute gaurentee that the "Good Guys" won't become "Bad Guys" at a moment's notice.

You would be paranoid too, wouldn't you?

Moving on: I think I have a definite conflict worked out, and a bare-bones plot.
The Immigrant (mentioned in an earlier post, don't have a name for her yet) recieves a letter from the Brotherhood inviting her to Griffen City, where she can excersize her telepathic abilities without fear. She unwittingly joins the Brotherhood, and has a part in some dastardly plot that the Brotherhood does. As soon as she realizes what is going on, she quits the brotherhood (under threat of death) and runs to the DPA for protection (She also meets several secondary caracters--haven't worked out who oer when yet).
The grandson of the leader of the 1948 Villians (called The Heir) is returning to Griffen City to find and open his grandfather's Hideout. The Brotherhood, who is fully in support of him, bombs or otherwise shuts down one of the immigration departments, and The Heir is able to slip through in the confusion. He manages to find the Hideout, and demonstrates the weaponry inside, and basically holds the world at ransom. The player manages to stop him before he can go through with his plans, though.

I have more details on the way--more plot, characters, etc., but I'm sorta out of time right now. I'll post later.

[Edited by - Brokenimage on April 13, 2005 9:40:52 AM]

BrokenImage wrote:
you mentioned that there's a considerable amount of paranoia on the part of the government

Another reason for asking about the political setup is to identify the people who hold power. Anyone who holds power is bound to feel threatened by others who hold power. Politicians would feel especially threatened by people with superpowers, since they have no way to counter that power themselves. Um, that's what you said, in so many words.

Another question for informational purposes: if the Immigrant can read minds, why doesn't she realize immediately that the Brotherhood is lying to her? It probably depends on the extent of her power. Can she read anything from someone's mind or only what they're thinking about at the moment? Can she prevent someone (such as a super-soldier) from reading her mind? And how does that work in game terms?

Something else that occurred to me: how does Immigration deal with supers who can fly, teleport, or astrally project? They don't necessarily cross the border.

The way I figure it, the Immigrant needs to consciously put some effort into reading minds--she doesn't just hear thoughts that everyone is thinking at the moment. She is so naive in-game that she doesn't try to read their minds until she suspects something (good point, however--I may need to re-figure her abilities or the story regarding her).

In game terms, I was thinking about her using largely mind affecting-type powers--for example, she can cast Final Fantasy-esque spells like "Berserk", "Stun", and "Confuse", and, defensively, can use an ability called "Soothe", which cures such status conditions and restores a small amount of Stamina (see this thread for clarification). She *might* also have a power that lets her sense what the enemy wants to do in the next round, increasing her defense and attack greatly, but only for the next round.

No, she can't prevent Super-Soldiers from reading her mind, but, it doesn't really matter. First, I wasn't planning on using them (In this game at least--I only mentioned them because it was brought up), and, second, Super-Soldier's abilities don't necessarily allow them to read thoughts, per se, but more sense intentions: for example, "I'm going to stop by for a burger", "I'm going to get some cash from that ATM", and, most important, "I think I'm going to beat up that really intimidating guy in black armor over there"(however, they recieve these impressions in a way closer to emotions than actual sentences--does that make sense?). Unlike the Immigrant, Super-Soldiers sense these intentions in a sort of constant stream, from everyone in the nearby area, but have been trained to pick out the important intentions from the massive babble of information. This, plus their ability to sense other conciseness nearby, make them basically un-sneak-up-on-able--in Dungeons and Dragons terms, they'd have the Rogue's ability "Uncanny Dodge Level 17", but applying only to sentient creatures.
Again, this isn't really relevant, because I wasn’t planning on using these guys.

And let me head off any future questions on this subject by saying that when the Heir activates the Doomsday technologies within the Hideout, he does so in a way that the Super-Soldiers cannot fight him (possibly from a cloaked airship, possibly from under the ocean, where the Hideout is located), so deploying the Super-Soldiers would be of no use.

CyberAngel wrote:
>Something else that occurred to me: how does Immigration deal with supers who >can fly, teleport, or astrally project? They don't necessarily cross the >border.

Very good question. What would work is that you need to present your ID on request to the DPA (sorta like giving the Police your License and Registration) and is required for things like applying for a job, a bank account, or renting an apartment, etc. Obviously, you need to go through Immigration to get one of these cards.

-------

More (detailed) Plot ideas:

The Immigrant (still unnamed at this point) is in her homeland, wherever that is, and receives a letter from the Brotherhood requesting her assistance in Griffen City, including a few sentences saying that, if she helps them, she will be able to use her "talents" without fear, a very strong temptation for her (In her native land, Supers are feared and/or persecuted). Included in the letter is a one-way plane ticket to Griffen City, USA. She, attracted by this offer, immediately accepts and boards the plane.

This is where the game actually starts--everything preceding this the player finds out later.

The Immigrant is met at the airport by a Brotherhood agent. She is told to leave her bags ("They will be taken care of") and is given an envelope with a hotel room key, a letter explaining a little more about the organization she has unwittingly joined, a map of Griffen City, and $100 US.

For the next couple days, she wanders around and buys the necessary equipment and supplies. She goes to the wrong part of town, and is confronted by a big, scary looking gang. She "Stuns" at least one of them, and then fights the rest--so the player is simultaneously introduced to what powers she has, and is given a battle tutorial.

That night, she is contacted, in her room, by a Brotherhood agent named Nightwing. Nightwing tells the Immigrant a little more about what she is expected to do, and gets her even more interested by saying basically, "There are people here in Griffen City who want to stop us from using our powers as we should. We must defeat these oppressors, and liberate ourselves from their oppressive yoke." The Immigrant asks who she means, but Nightwing evades the answer well enough to not give a definite answer, but does not raise suspicion.

The Immigrant is assigned a partner, who, for the moment, is called Vigilante (again, an unnamed character). He is more of a fighter, but seems to be more of a thug than anything in the Brotherhood's eyes. They go on a few quests together, and, eventually, something happens to raise the Immigrant’s suspicion. She freaks out and runs, followed by Vigilante, to the DPA for protection (as mentioned in an earlier post). There, she meets up with another PC, called Male DPA, a male DPA officer (duh). Male DPA arrogantly refuses to acknowledge that The Immigrant is in trouble, but is required by law to escort her until she believes she is no longer in danger. Female DPA, Male DPA's partner, sees him walking next to Immigrant, and freaks out--she joins the party to keep an eye on Male DPA.

Somewhere along the line, it is revealed that Vigilante, is, well, a vigilante Hero, who infiltrated into the Brotherhood organization to try and topple it. Also, the party meets up with an old man (Old Hero), who provides them some information or something. He seems friendly towards Female DPA at this time.
At some point, A DPA Office is bombed (I mentioned this earlier) and Old Hero believes that Female DPA, who turns out to be his great-niece, his nearest living relative (he has been watching her from the background--she doesn't know he exists) has been killed/maimed in the bombing, and joins to fight the Brotherhood. At this point, he reveals his identity, and swears revenge against the Brotherhood, both for the deaths of his party members and the (not really) death of his great-niece.

Old Hero eventually sacrifices himself to destroy the Doomsday technologies that the Heir has, and, along with killing/defeating him, clears his conscience of his "failure" to his comrades.

(Whew, that's a long post-- >1000 words)

Quote: Can she prevent someone (such as a super-soldier) from reading her mind? And how does that work in game terms?

wouldn't it be a nice tie in if she were the means for the "heir" to sneak on to the island? After arriving on the island he reveals the true colors of the brotherhood to the immigrant who in shock and disgust flees to the DPA for protection...leaving off where you have already built plot.

I didn't read all the answers, so if this has already been said, or the OP was in the meantime changed, feel free to ignore my opinion, in fact, feel to ignore it otherwise aswell. ^_^

I don't like it.
First it reminds me very much of 'the incredibles', not the game(never seen the game), the setting(even without the spandex, nice try), and also 'city of heroes'(now it's the game). Second, the isolation factor. They are super heroes right? The can fly/teleport/run through the desert, that immigration thing is not working for me, maybe you should refine the isolation with some sort of force field or something.
Anyway, it sounds too familiar and it doesn't fit together.