ViceVersus wrote:Funny that you should mention Heroes, as that show pertains to what I'm gonna talk about. xD

I love superhero stuff. I really do. There's nothing more fun than having powers, and running around and doing stuff. However, you might lose your audience (and, in turn, your players!) fairly quickly if you're not grounding yourself. What I mean by that is this. How do you truly regulate a world where everyone is "super"? It's that age-old quip; if everyone is super, then no one is super.

Heroes suffered from that problem. It started off as an intensely awesome show, because we could relate to the characters departing from their normal lives, the ordinary world that we all shared with them. But then by the second or third season they had god-like characters running around, basically able to do anything just because they could.

If you take the above model, that's what I'm afraid of now whenever I hear or see a superhero or fantasy roleplay happening. What are the rules of the world that I'm engaging in? What's to stop the rest of us from having powers to negate each other? Obviously we will be regulated by the GMs word itself, and restrictions on god-modding, but if one is attempting to make relatable, enjoyable characters, then having everyone above the same level of reality starts to feel a bit strained.

However, I understand that some folks don't mind that dynamic, and that's fine! When I heard the Heroes example, it just definitely made me think. If everyone's in that "special world", then it sort of loses its "specialness", don't you think?

-VV

Kestrel wrote:Superhero is a pretty broad concept. I'm not uncomfortable with the idea at all, played one or two games based on it, but tend to avoid the hero-part of everything and go for villains, anti-heroes, mercenaries or tag-a-long roles myself. I can go with heroes like batman, the Question, Gambit, Wolverine, etc. but I'm not a fan of characters like Superman and most goodie-two-shoes-moral-example-for-young-America types. So a requirement for me, in the first place, is the ability to play characters who are not totally focused on protecting all that is good by methods that are always morally just. Can I be a part of this roleplay without being driven by the desire for justice?

Time frame is an interesting one, but honestly entirely depends on how the GM uses the setting to enhance the world. You could have a really boring modern day superhero game or a very interesting sci-fi superhero game. It's all dependent on the way the setting is used. I'm not a fan of canon-RP's, if that's what you're asking time-frame wise. Much as I love certain characters, I don't want to see your friendly neighbourhood spiderman popping up in an RP I'm playing.

Kurokiku wrote:As someone who co-GMed what I would consider to be a fairly successful "superhero" roleplay, I'd say that this all starts with the character skeleton and creation process. We used a major powers/minor powers system, wherein everyone was allowed at most one of each. Major powers all had to have negative repercussions (like the telepath who was developing multiple-personality disorder or the electrokinetic who would occasionally knock herself out cold with backed-up power surges). Minor powers were just that: minor and not likely to be winning battles.

I agree that the villain has to be just as interesting and compelling as the hero, if not more so. In this particular instance, the "boss" villain was in fact a GM character, and half of the players were her underlings. No gratuitous beating of mook armies means less opportunities for outright godmodding and ridiculous antics.

Besides things like that, it is in most cases beholden to the writers and game masters to make the experience of the kind they want. If you were to create an RP about superheroes, I'd say just be direct about whether or not you want it to be more combat or character-based, or a mix. If people have that sort of information up-front, they'll know whether or not they want to join.

I think the genre as a whole has an interesting potential for exploring human psychology, myself. What do people do when confronted with things that should be impossible? How would they handle being given capacities that exceed those of their friends and family? Would they rise to the occasion, crack under the pressure, or something in between?

Of course, if you'd rather just go Silver Age and be shiny and fight for justice, that's fun sometimes, too.

ViceVersus wrote:Having powers coupled with personal flaws is interesting, as well. Imagine if someone gifted with super speed gets motion sickness, very fast. Or someone with the power of flight is afraid of heights?

I agree with Shi-Chan, the more that the power becomes a companion to who the character is rather than everything about them .. that's where you get some really interesting facets of character interaction.

TheFinalOne wrote:Someone once said : "A hero is merely a plot device. It is the Villians, the victims and the companions that make a good story".