Superb City - A Superhero Setting

[brian 333]

Once the Superb Textile Manufacturing Company dominated the economy of the small mountain village whose proximity to the flowing water of Prospector's Creek and to the North-South Sun-Coast Railway allowed it to flourish in the years before the electrification of the rural west coast. In time, the dam on Prospector's Creek was improved and electric generators replaced the old water-wheels which cranked the machines of the mill. But larger, more modern mills soon relegated Superb to custom orders and soon even that source of income dried up. The mill closed its doors in the 1970's and Superb was well on its way to becoming a ghost town.

In the 1980s, Winston Raliegh, sole heir to the Superb fortune and owner of much of the real estate in the tiny valley, was elected mayor and he kept his promise to make Superb into a modern city. His first accomplishment was controversial; he sold his hydroeldctric plant, (but not the land beneath its holding pond,) to the city, which he then used to guarantee set rates for electrical power to companies which entered into ten-year agreements with the city.

Mayor Raliegh then set about modernizing the city's school system specifically to teach skills the new companies looked for in new hires. In 1996 BioCorp moved in and began construction of the now prosperous little city's first skyscraper, the 15 story Omniplex. It was intended to be a multi-use facility for shopping, housing, and entertainment for the projected 300 BioCorp employees who would work there, but BioCorp exploded onto the world market with its Gene-Targeted Therapies. Not only was the Omniplex overcrowded by Biocorp, but they expanded by building two more towers, each the tallest in the city at the time, and by building several manufacturing facilities.

By 2010 a dozen other large corporations were vying for space along Skyview Ridge while families filled in the slopes leading down from Superb to Seaview, a small coastal village which grew from a clifftop boardwalk and amusement park into a tourist attraction in its own right, serving the daily entertainment needs of Superb and its suburbs as well as being the annual vacation destination for many families of the Central Valleys region of the West Coast.

The old mill still stands in the center of the city. It's now a museum, with its former retention pond vastly reduced in size and the surrounding area converted to use as a public park. A statue of Mayor Winston Raliegh was erected in 1998, a year after the mayor's death in office.

Among the preserved older buildings, such as the quaint City Courthouse and Jail, modern concrete and glass buildings sprout. Historic preservation is a relatively new, and haphazardly applied, concept. While government and legal offices tend to cluster around the old town, the action is on Skyview Ridge, where the ground allows skyscrapers to be built. Modern businesses cluster among the skyscrapers which follow the ridge along almost one third of the city's circumference.

While downslope of Skyview the many suburbs grew to fill every relatively flat space between the city and the coastal cliffs, to the east, even within the margins of the city, more rural lifestyles dominate. Small farms remain, some transformed into rural estates for the corporate elite, mere minutes from downtown. East of the city and farther uphill into the valleys of the Coastal Range farming has made a comeback supplying fresh, organic, and exotic vegetables to meet the demands of the modern city's inhabitants, but here and there along the old narrow-gauge railroad track sheep and goat farms that once fed raw material to the Superb Textile Mill still survive.

The Sun Coast Railway still operates, but only a few miles of the Seaview Railway remain, mostly in the mountainous eastern valley region, where it has served as a tourist destination of dubious profitability, kept running as a hobby by some older valley residents. The Coastal Highway crosses the Prospector's Creek Reservoir about twelve feet above the water's surface when the reservoir is full. The dam cannot be seen from the bridge, which has a span of only about 200 feet, so it is unimpressive to the sightseer, who follows the north-south corridor of homogenized food and fuel retailers and automobile dealerships, seeing little of the city save its glowing lights which illuminate the humid, coastal nights.

In the adjacent valley to the south, twelve miles from the center of Superb, is the Harmon Regional Airport. The village of San Pallides was unable to transition from a minor farming market hub on a train's regular water stop into a viable modern concern. When the offer came they sold the village and the surrounding land to create the new airport whose taxiway was once a busy farm road.

Between the airport and the city is the Monorail Cab System. It was built by an enthuisastic young financier who managed to gain corridors in the Skyview region of the city, but began to run into obstructionism in attempts to build into the east. Less than one third of the proposed system was built before the complex web of debts fell apart insuring the young entrepreneur would be hauled off to jail. The city was left in posession of the system which is the major means of public transportation in the Skyview area. It calls a suspended sphere of one to four person occupancy to a station where the passengers board and are fed onto the main throughway rail until they are routed along side tracks to their destination. Thick concrete pedastals about twenty feet high support bridges of girders which hold the monorail, allowing the cars to fly over ground traffic.

The cost to build onto the system exceeds the current revenue to recover it. Indeed, the current segment has still not recovered its construction cost after a decade of operation, which is often cited as justification for not extending the reach of the monorail, which is so loved by the people of Skyview.

Superb's rapid growth invited a criminal element to take advantage of new opportunities, and Superb's police force has worked very hard to combat them, including the deputization of three 'Special Operatives' who are known to have super powers. They are:
e- (pronounced "ee minus") is a computer hacker who can project his mind onto the internet.
Guardian is a woman who uses powered armor to take on street level violence.
The Sentinel is an older man in fedora and trenchcoat who solves crimes from minute details

A good number of other people with powers are employed by businesses or people of means. These Supers are ignored by the officials of the city unless they begin to commit crimes. That in itself draws more Supers from regions with less tolerance for people with powers. Those who have found a new home in Superb are quick to defend their town against militant or criminal Supers, and to date there have been no convictions of Supers for damages or injuries resulting from defending the town against Supers.

Most Supers try to stay below the radar, but the local media loves to post images and video of Blaze, a Super who flies inside a ball of fire. She is reclusive and seldom flies, but when she does it is a spectacular sight.

[brian 333]

BioCorp was a failing pharmaceutical manufacturer when it was purchased by Maxine Cimarron, a young self-made financier who first focused on generic drugs and vaccines for third world countries, then expanded into health crisis response in which specialized medical teams are dispatched to disaster zones to offer access to basic medicines and those requiring refrigeration to victims until their local health care systems are restored.

A young chemist named Myron Thalmer III could see into the sub-molecular scale and observe atoms interconnecting. His thesis revising the fundamental understanding of chemestry was rejected by the doctoral board and he was left in debt with no prospects.

Maxine hired him. Using his powers to manipulate atoms, he could create medicines to target the specific DNA sequences of parasites. Biotech exploded onto the world of big business. Everyone who had made jokes about her ability and mental stability in buying BioCorp were now begging to buy shares in her expanding empire.

Maxine was known, back East, as a young broker who had leveraged a small personal fortune before investing it all in BioCorp. What few knew is that she was also a member of a criminal gang. She maintained ties with the criminal element, using their skills when needed. Even today she maintains close ties with the local mobs, buying influence and coercion as needed. She keeps herself above the dirty side of business, but on occasion she has assumed the persona of The Shark, an underworld kingpin who can outbid and outgun anyone else.

The Shark appears to work in industrial sabotage and protection. She has been known to mail critical parts of machines to their owners as notification of payments past due, but demands all hands off of businesses who promptly pay their insurance policies. Squads of enforcers in her employ dole out punishment to those who somehow offend The Shark.

[brian 333]

In the old factory-turned-museum an elderly custodian maintains the displays and keeps the place clean, and he enjoys teaching children about the old days when grade-school field trips come through. He once worked as a plant maintenance technician for Superb, and is very familiar with the machines and how they were used.

He is one of the few left in the city who saw it transition from prosperous mill town to almost deserted village to modern city. He knows a lot about the old town and region that most have forgotten or never learned. One bit of lost knowledge is how Prospector's Creek got its name.

Back in the Gold Rush era a crazy old coot mumbled his way up and down the creek looking for gold. He was murdered by robbers who ransacked his camp, but if they found any gold it was not enough for the murderers to brag about. When the factory was built a small, hand-dug mine was found under the factory location, flooded by the creek. The maps made by the prospector and a stash of hammered gold billets was found which made a small buzz in local newspapers, but it was at a time when finding gold in the West was still common enough that it wasn't more than a regional story soon forgotten.

The mine was pumped out and used for storage, then forgotten when the factory was upgraded at the turn of the century. It was rediscovered by Gus Midland, an unskilled construction worker who was hired by the mill in the early 1960s, but there was no use for the area and it was deemed unsafe. Gus turned it into his private goof-off area, and he began to teach himself mechanics, eventually earning a degree in mechanical engineering.

He was the driving force behind the cultural conservation movement at the end of the 1980s, primarily to protect his secret goof-off place which had become the secret lair of The Artificer, an unknown supergenius who makes and repairs some of the high tech gear used by supers, including Guardian's combat armor.

Of course, we know Gus is The Artificer but among those who know the name there is no face to go with it, and the simple, smiling, grey-bearded face of old Gus doesn't impress or cause anyone to wonder about the mind behind the face. However, when a new super rises up it isn't long before a tiny robot delivers what looks like an old-fashioned office intercom to them. When its single button is pressed, a mechanical voice claims to speak for The Artificer and inquires about the super's technological needs. The device negotiates payment and in a matter of time the desired mechanical item is delivered by delivery robots usually disguised as a common package delivery.

[brian 333]

Among the hot spots in Skyview where young adults gather after work are several establishments that cater to supers with varying degrees of exclusivity and anonymity.

The Neutral Ground occupies the top two floors of the Bryce Insurance Building on Skyview Ridge. It is a retro-techno dance club with multiple bars and dance floors, and includes a stage for live performances, primarily of musical and dance groups. The majority of clientelle are in their twenties. Its several balconies, along with offering fantastic views of the city, afford a place for flying supers to land.

Mistral is a lounge and restaurant which occupies a cul-de-sac on the Ridgeway Park. Surrounded by tall buildings and set in a hollow, there are no views and the windows are tastefully and conservatively draped. Pippin Sahara is the owner and hostess of the establishment and boasts that she can satisfy the culinary desires of anyone.

Joe's Diner occupies a ground floor corner of the JCN Corp. Building, just across the street from the Skyview Precinct of the Superb Police Dept. and the Public Transit Intermodal Terminal. With ample foot traffic, Joes does not need to advertise, but unsolicited grafitti artists have suggested their audience should "Eat At Joes" in locations across the region. Joe, it turns out, is Josephina Mells, formerly a Cordon Bleu chef in Metropolis, now retired and serving greasy burgers and coffee to other retirees. The seldom playing jukebox in the diner has no songs recorded after 1969. It is rumored that Joe was involved with The Sentinel back east before they came to Superb, but the only supporting evidence is The Sentinel's habitual occupancy of a stool at the counter with a view of the serving window through which he and Joe trade crude quips and jibes.

The Rugby Club located outside the campus of the Superb Technical College has no rugby team, nor do they have monitors to display ongoing rugby games. What they have is booths with red patent leather benches, a well-stocked wine cellar, and a dark, intimate atmosphere. "Chance" Ting is an older Oriental bartender who always offers his customers a chance to get their order for free or pay double with a roll of the dice. (Chance is a telekenitic, so he only loses when he wants to!) In the secret cellar of the Rugby Club is a small illicit casino which serves a limited clientelle.

Skyview Garden Club sits in a manicured garden with a patio for its patrons to enjoy Sunset Cocktails, shrimp salads, and the view west. The Garden Club is the preferred dining establishment for the city's elite. One does not simply drop by The Club on a whim, and invitations by members are rare. Memberships are purchased through charitable donations to philanthropic organizations which serve Superb. Each year a single membership is granted to the most generous doner in the city, and members usually will their memberships to their heir upon death. The Garden Club itself is not owned by the membership. Francis Gardner is the fourth generation owner of the grounds and gardens, and he is secretly the super known as Green Thumb, who can animate and control plants.

The Barn is a country and western dance hall located at the foot of Skyview Ridge at the intersection of Skyview Parkway and the Sun Coast Railroad tracks. The Barn was never used for cattle: it was a train maintenance depot which was abandoned when steam engines were replaced with diesel-electric locomotives. The owners have not let that fact interfere with their 'cowboy' decor. The Barn has two restaurants and multiple bars under their roof, which boasts more square footage of dance floor than all the rest of Superb can offer.

[brian 333]

A television public service advertisement:

(A group of kids playing in a wooded meadow.)

1st Kid: I'm bored. Let's do something fun.

2nd Kid: I know, let's build a campfire!

(The kids quickly assemble a rediculously large pile of debris, then Kid #2 flicks a lighter, and the fire quickly lights up sending smoke and sparks skyward.)

3rd Kid (panicked): Look out, the grass is catching! Put it out!

(Some kids run from the meadow while others frantically try to put out the fire.)

1st Kid: Look at that! (She points skyward, where a great big ball of fire hurtles toward them.)

(The super known as Blaze, in full burn mode, lands in the meadow, then all the fires, including her own, are instantly extinguished as if they were birthday candles being blown out.)

Blaze: What's going on here?

1st Kid: We just wanted a campfire.

Blaze: Did you call your local Forest Service Office to ask if conditions are safe?

2nd Kid: Forest Service?

Blaze: Before building a fire, you need to know that it won't get out of control. Today the Forest Service has posted an Orange Burn Warning, which means it is dry and windy enough for a small fire to easily get out of control.

3rd Kid: Like ours did...

Blaze: Exactly. Also, your fire was huge, your location was too close to dry vegetation, and you didn't have on hand the means to put it out. The first rule of campfires is not to start one unless you can put it out.

2nd Kid: We just wanted to have fun....

Blaze: Wildfires are not fun. Thousands of acres of forest burn every year due to carelessness with fire. Wildfires don't just burn trees like this one, (she pats the trunk of a small redwood,) they burn the homes of animals and people, and every year people are killed when they are trapped by wildfires.

1st Kid: We didn't know.

Blaze: Now you do. Fire is a useful tool when handled properly, but a deadly one in careless hands. Your local Kamp Kidz organization can teach you fire safety and offer opportunities and safe places to practice your fire-building skills.

3rd Kid: My cousin is a Kamp Kid.

2nd Kid: I'm sorry, Blaze. I won't start any more fires.

Blaze: At least not before learning fire safety. (The camera zooms in on Blaze's freckled face.) Never start a fire without first preparing the means to put it out, never build a fire too big to control, and never, ever, start a fire near flamable materials, like this meadow grass. Check with your Forest Service to see if the weather is suitable, check with the owner of the land to get permission, and be sure you have responsible adult supervision.

All the kids together: Thanks, Blaze!

Blaze: Fire safety is no accident! (She immolates then flies away inside her ball of fire.)

Narrator: This ad brought to you by the Forest Service, in cooperation with the Fire Safety Council and Kamp Kidz International.

[brian 333]

The Lighthouse is the nickname of the National Bank Building, the top of which is currently the highest point in the city. The Graham Contracting Building, at thirty five floors, is the tallest building, but the NBB gains a boost from the elevation of the ground upon which it stands. Its mast carries television and radio broadcast antennae, and KSPR television and radio studios are located on the lower three floors of the building.

Its name comes from the round exterior and the steel-framed dome that tops the building. Below the clear glass dome is a rooftop garden/greenhouse used by the building's occupants for breaks and recration. The exterior sheathing appears to be opaque and white, but it is actually one-way glass which is clear, (polarized to block glare,) from inside.

Russel "Truck" Coos was once a fullback on the Seaview High School Football Team, and is still remembered locally for scoring five touchdowns in the State Championship Game almost a decade ago. He is now an investigative reporter for KSPR News. His hard-hitting series on public corruption threatened to end his career when initial reports were intentionally misconstrued to implicate former Mayor Raliegh who is held as a hero by the residents of Superb.

When it was discovered that Alderman Lennar was actively working to distort the facts in order to protect his assets, and the whole scheme unraveled slowly over the next year in Truck's investigative reports. When eighteen suspects were finally formally charged, (One of whom was an attorney general of the state,) Alderman Lennar vanished along with the bulk of evidence of a huge graft and influence peddling scheme.

A "mob hit" on Truck was thwarted by The Goths, a group of black-clad social outsiders lead by a pair of supers known as Banshee, (whose scream can immobilize anyone who hears it,) and Berserker, (whose wild unarmed combat style is optimized to deal with multiple armed foes simultaneously.) The hit man, a super known as Longshot, was killed while in custody by another prisoner "because he was snoring."

Truck maintains an apartment in The Lighthouse and is known to be sympathetic to supers who have been scapegoated or driven out of other cities. What is not known is that he is also a super himself with the largely useless ability to transform himself into a cloud of fog. As fog he is unable to move other than as the winds dictate, and coastal winds are rarely blowing where he needs them to blow.

[brian 333]

This is about the extent of information generated for my first SUPERB! campaign.

The Goths were the heroes, and their players had some interesting critiques, including that the simplicity of the system prevented them from using tactics to improve their chances. They wanted rules for all kinds of things which they could then exploit.

Combat was fast and the story progressed quickly. There were no rules arguments, though we paused to check my application of them from time to time. Both players have a background in simulation gaming, and wanted a more tactically based combat system, but agreed that an attempt at creating a tactical game system would not result in a simple, fast combat system.

Feel free to make use of Superb City or any of its components even if you choose to use a game rules system other than the SUPERB! system. And feel free to post your own efforts here as well. I love being inspired by new ideas.