| the Shenaniverse! |
[Nov. 28th, 2007|07:42 pm] |
I can't BELIEVE I haven't posted about this before. It's a sign of how little I was using LJ for a while there.
I have been running a superheroes game in the Tri-Stat DX system, in a world of my own devising that I have dubbed the Shenaniverse for... 6 months or longer now. Maybe 9, maybe 12.
My player base is listed below. This Sunday is the final game of the first chronicle, which will give me until May 2008 to come up with some actual plot. Up until this point, the story has been mostly fueled by moral ambiguity, the reasons for which will become obvious after you've read my player bios and my brief setting information.
The most influential of the group is Roland Ellsmere, a member of the Justicars from a parallel dimension. His organization, the afore-mentioned Justicars, was tossed from their reality during an intensive spat with their "sister" organization, the opposing Anarchists. In the Justicars' parallel Earth, fascism has dominated for centuries/millenia and what the Justicars term "Justice" is what MOST sane people of this day would term vengeance or eye-for-an-eye or some such thing. Roland is simply an old man of a strange race - what does the actual "Justice" dealing is a creature he has the ability to summon named "The Legend". The Legend is a ghost, nearly impossible to kill, summoned to any location Roland can view (hence, usually at currently-viewed crime scenes) who distributes headshots with pistols/UZIs/swords/shotguns akimbo. The Legend only kills those guilty of murder, however, his bullets passing harmlessly through innocent bystanders.
Riddari is a college student who has found the ancient armour of the greatest champion of Atlantis. It chose him to be the newest host of Machination X, that champion. It seems that Atlanteans had developed nano technology of a kind, by the functioning of his armour, but most of the details (including the fact that the armour stems from Atlantis) are a mystery currently to all, including poor John Martin, the halpless student.
Decibel, aka Tony Domo, is a music lover who one day discovered that he had an Iceman-level of control over his favourite thing, sound. He is the "goodie two-shoes" of the team, a firm believer in doing good that is not always shared by his teammates. He can, however, easily explode someone's lungs or eardrums, or knock them flying with a solid wave of sound. His goodness is from intent and his desire to be a good person.
Dr. Fubar is a physicist who one day discovered the ability to make physics obey his very whim. While it seems to be contained within "bubbles", within his bubbles the universe more or less does what he wills it to - biology is tricky but do-able, but countering actual magic while it is in operation seems impossible. One of his favourite tricks is to change a bubble's location while he is in it, allowing him to commute the team easily between their secret base and the outside world. He is currently working on a method to make an alternate dimension, essentially so he can experiment with his incredible power without the small downside of having the possibility of destroying the universe.
And finally, Silvertongue. If you are a fan of the tv show Heroes, you'll know what I mean when I say that she is Eden plus Parkman (with some TK thrown in as well). She also seems to have no compunction in using her mentalism to make certain that she always gets her way. The ultimate spoiled brat, no one can tell her to do something she doesn't want to without having their mind changed.
The world is one of my own devising. It basically arises from a conversation Roland's player and I had, about what would happen if a Communist mentalist superhero overthrew Stalin and re-instated Lenin in his place, similar to the events of Red Sun I believe (though I've never actually read that). This mentalist then (as in Red Sun, I think?) goes on to fix many of the problems of Communism. As of the current day in-game, much of the world is currently under the control of this Mentalist's Communism (though the original mentalist himself is dead of old age at this point) - the Cold War has lasted for over 50 years, and the Communists have been winning it for pretty much the entire run.
I personally don't lean towards capitalism or socialism, being something of a moderate. I know that I really enjoy the thought of a working Communism that was ACTUALLY COMMUNIST, that actually worked for the benefit of the people as a whole rather than just the elite. And, it seems just barely plausible that a devoted, superintelligent elite group of supers could make it happen.
Phew. So, there you go. I didn't want to run a "traditional" supers game, obviously - and my players pushed me even farther in that direction. I've been really enjoying running the game thus far, I just find it to be vastly draining (as I never have any idea of what I want to do until at most 36h before the game itself, usually making it up as I go along).
I'll talk about the system later. I really love Tri-Stat, as it is a simpler (and thus, for newer players, better) Champions essentially. It deserves its own post. |
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