Mutants & Masterminds Session Ideas

[prufock]

I'm looking for session ideas for a Mutants and Masterminds campaign I intend to begin in September. I have the summer to expand my own ideas, and I figured this board could provide a wealth of creative options. Any suggestions you can give would be appreciated, whether or not I ultimately incorporate them.

Basic outline: It will be a continuous story divided into "issues," ie sessions. The overarching plot revolves around a recruitment process for the most well-known superhero group in the world, the League of Hope. Superheroes from around the globe come to compete in a set of challenges, exercises, interviews, and whatnot. They are, initially, divided into groups of 4-6 (depending on the number of players I have). The players include:
Mandy -> Plans to play a shapeshifter.
Allison -> Plans to play a telekinetic.
Robin -> Wombatman; will likely be an amalgamation of Batman- and Wolverine-like characters.
Brad -> Not sure yet, but from what I know of his style, will probably opt for a high-damage dealer.
Two other players who are unconfirmed thus far.

What sort of challenges, exercises, and interview ideas would be appropriate?

A little deeper: The PC group will have a rival group of about the same size (a range of plus or minus one member). That group will include a speedster, a battle monster, a tank, a psionic-type, and possible others (as I said, depends on the number of PCs).

The recruitment process is a front for some as-yet-undetermined shady activity on the part of the LoH, which the PCs will eventually uncover. Possibilities include covering up the suspicious death of a former member; killing off those heroes who are "eliminated" from the competition in an attempt to either a) gain their power a la Sylar from Heroes or b) eliminating the competition (the LoH is a high-profile group somewhat akin to the Fantastic Four, as opposed to a secretive group); distracting the heroes from the site of a real danger that is caused (whether accidental or not) by the LoH.
The LoH consists of a sharpshooter leader, a flier, a charming "face man," and other members I haven't decided on yet.

So, have at it! Let those creative juices flow, and know that I appreciate it.

[Xuincherguixe]

Make sure that that the villains have all read the Evil Overlord (http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html) list :P

[PnP Fan]

Something you might want to think through carefully is the idea of your high-profile LoH (a heroic group) actually being the villains. People recognize high profile heroes. Killing another super is a notoriously difficult thing. If there are a bunch of them disappearing left and right, someone is bound to have noticed (especially if they are part of some kind of competition for membership in the LoH, and they disappear after the competition, definitely attract negative attention, even if the LoH was completely legitimate).
The reason Sylar gets away with so much is because no one knows who he is. Being anonymous is his bigest strength. The LoH doesn't have that, from what you've described (everyone knows Reed Richards by site in the Marvel Universe).
Not saying don't do it, just give it some thought, because if you don't pull it off just right, you're player's disbeleif will kick in, and you don't want snarky players all evening.
You might consider embezzlement, or something subtle like that instead of outright murder.

[Green Bean]

I'd make sure that the LoH's psion has access to a Mind Control power. That way, if someone starts moving in on their turf, they could turn up the next day as a villain the LoH are 'forced to stop, for the good of the city!'. PnP is right too. Don't just have them kill people. 'Protection Money' is a very popular heroic extortion. Another thing would be to let particularly high-profile villains 'escape', so they can defeat them again to become more famous.

[Blackbird]

Maybe cause a high-collateral damage fight between some other hero/es and a high-profile villain to shame them and make the LoH look that much better when they sweep in and bag the badguy.

[Xuincherguixe]

Ooo! Another idea. You could have the players team up with some 'villains' who are only 'evil' in the sense that they are in the way of the establishments plans.

Or, you could pair them up with some legitimately evil bad guys too. Make the players wonder if they're on right side or not. Or if there even is one.

But that might be a bit much.

[Leon]

Robin -> Wombatman; will likely be an amalgamation of Batman- and Wolverine-like characters.


Make sure he sleeps a lot, digs largish holes and is capable of wrecking fences by walking though them

[Beleriphon]

My suggestion for the LoH is to take each member you plan to include and pastiche the hell out of them to either a DC or Marvel character. This way you can make it clear to the players that the Superman analogue is acting strangely, since everybody has a pretty clear concept about how Superman is supposed to behave. As a bonus this make it very easy to give your NPC group powers that are riffs on classic comic book characters.

You might also want to check the Atomic Think Tank (www.atomicthinktank.com) as its is the official M&M message board. I have my own character thread in the Roll Call section which you can feel free to pillage for NPC, or PCs, as necessary. Just let me know how they work in play. I just finished updating my take on Darth Vader at PL12 so he might make for a fun mystic swordsman type for the LoH.

[Foxtale]

One of the things that really surprised my players when I was DMing M&M was when it turned out that the NPC they'd been going to constantly for information was actually the second in command for the enemy, and had been leading them astray the entire time. They had no idea why the people they kept going to rescue ended up being dead before they got there. But in the end they solved it by purposefully tricking that NPC by giving him false information then catching him out on it. Perhaps something like this, where they have to discover the traitor or something. It's really hard to do, since any character you bring in will instantly be suspect. On the other hand, you could tell them you want to play a character as well, and just let them think you aren't playing the traitor. (Or really don't play as the traitor, but ask one of the players to be the traitor.)

[prufock]

Make sure that that the villains have all read the Evil Overlord (http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html) list :P

Oooh, nice list.

[prufock]

Something you might want to think through carefully is the idea of your high-profile LoH (a heroic group) actually being the villains. People recognize high profile heroes. Killing another super is a notoriously difficult thing. If there are a bunch of them disappearing left and right, someone is bound to have noticed (especially if they are part of some kind of competition for membership in the LoH, and they disappear after the competition, definitely attract negative attention, even if the LoH was completely legitimate).
The reason Sylar gets away with so much is because no one knows who he is. Being anonymous is his bigest strength. The LoH doesn't have that, from what you've described (everyone knows Reed Richards by site in the Marvel Universe).
Not saying don't do it, just give it some thought, because if you don't pull it off just right, you're player's disbeleif will kick in, and you don't want snarky players all evening.
You might consider embezzlement, or something subtle like that instead of outright murder.

All good points. I want something a little more dramatic than embezzlement, but something more subtle than murder (though if I do go that route, they won't be doing much of the dirty work themselves). Any ideas for what could strike that "happy medium." I'm also against the murder idea because the LoH truly are heroes.

I'm considering having the "face man/brains" of the group, who is a behind-the-scenes actor (in that he doesn't do field work) have some personal motivations. He's going to have a charm-like ability, so he'll be able to control the rest of the LoH to some degree, and they need not even be aware of his goals. Since I brought up Heroes, think of how Linderman had his own agenda, and was willing to let the city blow up to achieve it. I don't want it to be as blatant as a bomb, but maybe something political that benefits him or the LoH in general. The problem is that it also has to be something with which only superheroes could interfere successfully, otherwise the distraction of the competition is meaningless.

Examples:
A tech company is developing cybernetic law-enforcement.
An alien attack on a strategic locale (I'd like to avoid aliens, though).
A super-villain murdering key political figures that will have an impact on the LoH (like taking out politicians that might vote for laws that limit the LoH's power).

I'm still in the beginning stages, so it's a work in process. I have the whole summer to hammer out the details.

[prufock]

I'd make sure that the LoH's psion has access to a Mind Control power. That way, if someone starts moving in on their turf, they could turn up the next day as a villain the LoH are 'forced to stop, for the good of the city!'. PnP is right too. Don't just have them kill people. 'Protection Money' is a very popular heroic extortion. Another thing would be to let particularly high-profile villains 'escape', so they can defeat them again to become more famous.

The "face man" of the LoH is actually going to have some sort of charming/hypnotic/suggestion power.

[Foxtale]

A good one is that they're secretly backing criminal organisations, because without criminals there's no use for heroes.

[prufock]

Thanks guys, this is all helping. I'm starting to narrow down my focus for the plot. What I really need now, though, are some ideas for individual session tasks, challenges, etc. They are going to start out fairly simple, something the heroes can handle easily, like stopping a petty crime. The only catch is that their rival group is going to be trying to steal their collars to gain more "points" in the competition.

But I need some increasingly difficult challenges. I'm not entirely sure what power level we'll be starting at, but I'll estimate between 6 and 8, since that gives them enough power to feel "super" without making them uber. The LoH is going to be around PL 10-12, I think.

Ideas I have so far:
- taking out a villain's weapon base (I'm still working on who will be the main villain villains in the game, but I'm leaning toward common nemeses of the LoH.
- preventing a tragedy (collapsing bridge or the like).
- battling some super-villains.
- stopping other participants in the competition who have been going too far with violence. LoH has a code of honor - including not using excessive violence, not killing (the LoH has, in their long career, only been directly responsible for one death), not taking advantage of others by use of their powers, and so on.
- saving civilians from a rampaging robot.

Feel free to add to the list.

[Tallis]

-Pirates have taken over a cruise ship and are robbing the passengers
-The Mob steals a prototype powered armor meant for a police special tactics group
-After the suit is recovered and put into use, it turns out that they figured out how to take control of it remotely while they had it
-A radiation based villain is draining a nuclear power plant to increase his own power. Eventually he plans to blow it up, thinking the enegy of the explosion will give him an even bigger boost.

[prufock]

-Pirates have taken over a cruise ship and are robbing the passengers
-The Mob steals a prototype powered armor meant for a police special tactics group
-After the suit is recovered and put into use, it turns out that they figured out how to take control of it remotely while they had it
-A radiation based villain is draining a nuclear power plant to increase his own power. Eventually he plans to blow it up, thinking the enegy of the explosion will give him an even bigger boost.

These are all great. I'm definitely using 2, 3, and 4. Undecided on the pirate one, but it's a possibility. Keep 'em coming!