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View Full Version : Super-heroes in Miami! I Need Tips



Bluelantern
2009-10-15, 08:42 AM
I am going to DM in a super-hero tabletop game with a adventure that will be set in another dimension and I want the players to believe that is the real-world miami, I will even telling them to use google earth to guide themselves in the city.

Of course, is not actually the real miami, but essencially I want the players to believe it. At first it seems there are no supers, but they are wrong.

I mostly concerned with the potential problems of having them running around in a world where (aparently) there isn't anyone that can stop them. Plus I would rather having them to stay in the city, potentially using a bank robbery as a excuse.

The plot:

pretty much this:

The concept for my next adventure involves the players going to a world where aparently there is no supers, though is a bit more technologically advanced.

The players go there to rescue a friend (my "former" character, I am trading places with the GM), there they find him, happy, too happy and odd, he insists to make a "tour" in the dimesion to show how (his words) "Incredible great the place is" specially, he would show the players alternate versions of themselves, powerless but mostly happy.

Them, the alternates start to develop powers of they own, and hilarity Chaos starts, at first it looks like only the alternate versions of the characters have they own powers, but others start to develop powers too.

At this point they should meet a group of "spies" (probably saving them at last moment from a group of copies), they belong to the Dark Agency, they are actually formed by mimics too, but only of people who can copy memories/skills/feats. They would investigate what the hell is happening.

The truth, is that, while everyone in that world is a mimic of some sort, there aren't any other powers, so only those who have the hability to mimic traits beyong powers look like "special", in reality, the entire world has the power of mimic... they just din't have anyone to mimic. I still not quite sure how they would find out about it. The source of the mimic from both my former character and the mimics of this world is a Magical Mirror, but in this world the mirror was shattered (because someone tried to use it against God), the "dust" that was formed was able to infect all people in the world, however a degree of inteligence started to form in the "dust" when my character went to that universe, and it start to hunger for power and "wholeness", and managed to manipulate my character subconscious to be "happy" (something of Control Emotion, with Hope).

The adventure is pretty much "open", with the characters free to decide how much they would help this world, and/or just leave it to go home before they spread they powers like a virus and doom a world with no experience with actual super-beings to become infested with them.

so.... any thoughs or criticism?

Also, I was thinking in changing the plot and make "my" character to be locked in that dimension because of partial brainwashing, during the process he partially breaks free from the brainwashing-machine and seals the room he is it, because of the partial brainwashing he is unable to escape, but creates a duplicate that thinks it is the real him.

Tyrmatt
2009-10-15, 12:15 PM
If you're going to go with this being a force that permeates throughout everyone, might I suggest that the "dust" is actually of no particular alignment largely because a faceless, formless cloud of power that can turn anyone into an enemy on a par with the PCs is kinda...well unstoppable even for supers. A case of no soul to damn and no arse to kick if you get my meaning.

It's merely power and for the most part, it's pretty inert until it comes into contact with one particularly evil bastard who learns how to manipulate it to his own dark ends. He exalts in the changes of disguise and can even reshape the features of others to make them appear as others.

He starts by giving gang kids a little taste of power and then takes it away, only returning it when they pledge allegiance to him. As he builds his army of crazed youths, bent on serving him in order to keep on top of the pile, the crimes escalate as their powers do. Enter heroes.

The emphasis you've placed on the "alternate dimension" part seems to infer it's really important to this setting of yours but I'm a little confused as to why. Why not simply state this as background info and rework your character a little to fit into the space, rather than shoehorn a current city into the tiny space left around your character?

If you've got the inclination, look up lots of old minor gods and myths and whatnot and have the PCs use their own "mirror fragment" to mirror the abilities of these mythical figures as superpowers. Basically you can achieve pretty much anything by using this as a background, leaving room to level up to move onto bigger and better power sets.

E.G Mirror of Anansi, Spider-God.
As the hero begins to mirror the power of Anansi, he gains great agility and reactions. Over time, he is able to reflect the great strength of spiders, hunt like the wolf spider, hold his foes fast like the orb weaver and poison his foes like the widow.
These powers manifest as A) Great acrobatic skill and feinting ability (Anansi was a trickster god) B) Mildly enhanced speed and reaction times with powerful unarmed attacks, C) A web based holding ability and D) A poison attack.

I apologise if this seems to be going off in a totally wrong direction but I'm just unsure as to the point of the dimension hopping here, since you don't mention any system. If you want to consider it as the mimicking people come from an essentially "godless" dimension and thus have nothing to mirror until they break through to the home dimension of the players which I'm assuming is this world, where there is are a tonne of fictional and mythological figures to mimic, that would work really well I think.