Feeling Super Enough?

[subplotkudzu]

Another game likely to be on next year's prospectus is a high end supers game, one in which I make use of all of my various theories like gestalt personalities, niche protection pricing, and most importantly League style play. The goal is to get something that feels like Grant Morrison's JLA, preferably in a world built from the ground up in collaboration with the players - something League style play should make easier. 

First, the concern: all of the games next year have to be wholly episodic, but Morrison would spend 2-5 issues on each story, giving us at least one twist at the issue's end or a bunch of issues of build up. I'm not sure how well these two will match. 

Second, the observation: one of the goals of this is to give all of the heroes major heroic moments dealing with big threats. Given the character's power level (and the source material) the ability to beat up the threat isn't enough - the fun of play has to come from out thinking, out maneuvering and minimizing the threat. So how best to give everyone major heroic moments in that? One idea that's beginning to form is a half collaborative play style, where the players are able to suggest side effects of the threats that their heroes are well suited to deal with. 

For example: "a planet-sized super-prison is bearing down on Earth. The teams big guns are flying off to do an initial recon but let's have a quick round table of what everyone else is doing"

Atlantean: "Well, a mass that big will be causing tidal disruptions. I'll be leading the evacuation of low lying Crescent City, using my control of water to generate counter-tsunami against the tides."

Card Carrying Member of the Wheelchair Bound Genius Society: "I'll be interfacing with the world's television networks to locate any evidence of organized criminal response to the problem; maybe there's someone on Earth who's prepared for this thing coming and I can spot them."

Grimouir: "This new visible object in the sky must have played havoc with the astrological wards that protect reality. The first creatures appear over Massachusetts, of course. bursting out of the ground in Salem. I'll be binding them with bell, book and candle."

Atlantean: "Any chance of some cultists with the Innsmouth look? I could help you out with a little deep one crossover action."

CCMWBGS: "I can coordinate that, if you guys wat to interface through my neural network."

And so on. All of this has little to do with the "Riot On Sysiphus III" plot, but it does capture the incredibly hectic, multi-pronged nature of the threats that the JLA faced.

Can anyone with more Indy games experience than I have point me in the direction of things like this that others have experimented with, or care to offer advice.

Comments

[ladegard.livejournal.com]

I'll back all of these and toss in that there is a Supers flavor of Wushu that might bear looking at.

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

Yes, it very well might. Thanks.

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

Bear in mind I don't intend to use the same system for the "non spotlight heroes" as I do for the main story. The non-spotlight heroes will be diceless exercises in over the top coolness, designed so I don't have to try to maintain the hyperkinetic action between multiple groups in a 6 hour, one story per session game. If the players figure a way to make the non-spotlight stuff tie into their eventual solution then we'll shift to the actual mechanics. I don't know what those mechanics will be yet, but they will have low impact design principles so I'm not handicapping the people with lesser system knowledge either in creation or play (in other words, HERO is out, as are most other traditional point systems). T&J is a strong contender, but I'm still mulling.

I also don't intend to hand over the GM reins during this - a difference between troupe and league style play. League style is mostly to get the players to do work in setting the depth and tone of the world. MY GM screen! Mine! Back you savages!