Real-World Overlay Campaign [M&M]

[Sir_Elderberry]

My group is switching to M&M soon, from D&D 4e (although some of us have 3.5 experience, easing our transition) for various reasons. I'll be DMing most of the time, and thought I'd try my hand at my own setting (all of my self-written D&D play has been one-session adventures). One of the things I thought I might try was setting the campaign in the "real world"--but modified for supers. Note that I don't just mean a standard comic book universe. For example, my group lives in and around Tulsa, OK. Adventure seeds would direct them to Tulsa landmarks (or personal landmarks). Mayor Bartlett might call them in to deal with threats. I'd stick to real-ish geography.

All of it, however, is run through a filter. So, for instance, the gaming shop we all go to is on 71st and Mingo and is called Wizard's Asylum. In my campaign, then, 71st and Mingo will house a super-mental-hospital, whose first charge was in fact a wizard.

Does this sound cool/interesting, or would the realism wankery just add a lot of unappreciated work for the GM? Has anyone tried paralleling the real world to this degree? (I read the first few pages of this forum and didn't see any threads that seemed to be about this, so my apologies if I should have resurrected an earlier thread.)

[Ellisande]

I recall hearing about a Shadowrun campaign that did this--they'd play an adventure in their own city, then go visit each of the places their characters had gone. It sounded really cool, but I've not tried it myself.

Personally, if I were doing it, I'd make everything magical a "secret", so the superficial appearance of everything is the same as in reality. The Wizard's Asylum looks like a gaming store, but the locals whisper about weird happenings at night...

[Sir_Elderberry]

Ah, there's a variant I hadn't considered, as far as having a Masquerade goes. I'll definitely consider it.

[Thinker]

It might lead to a better sense of immersion. The setting is a real place. The players know the area, they care about the area, and it could feel like this stuff really happens when no one is looking. On the flip side, if you misremember a location one of them might call you on it and you would have to explain that it is different here, which breaks the illusion. Personally I prefer to play in the real world (or a fictional approximation), but with locations where people in the group haven't lived. It gives better artistic license in my opinion.