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View Full Version : PCs as Super Soldiers (Idea)



Leliel
2007-11-09, 03:15 PM
In this hypothetical campaign, the PCs are people who were unceremoniously and unwillingly kidnapped by an organization either before or directly after it's start. Once taken to their underground base, the PCs, as the title would suggest, are ruthlessly experimented on and mutated/augmented into something, shall we say, "more than human". Needless to say, they escape, and the objective of the campaign is to expose the org's deeds to the public. Now...

How would you go about creating a campaign where the PCs are effectively, escaped super soldiers? What would the main theme of the game? What powers would the players state give them? What about other super soldiers? What would the villains' ultimate objective and motivation be?

Before the answering starts, lets just say I am not a fan of the "cursed with awesome" cliché. The PCs powers would rock if it weren't for the bad guys trying to constantly track them down. Nor am I a fan of the whole "science is bad" motif. In fact, if the PCs were created by scientific means, I fully plan on viciously attacking it.

Begin!

Townopolis
2007-11-09, 03:30 PM
Well, if we were talking D&D (which I take isn't necessarily the case, since science was mentioned) I'd give the players 32 point buy and access to PC classes :smalltongue: In D&D, normal people seem best represented by 18 point buy and NPC classes, thus the higher point buy and access to much greater class abilities would easily represent super powers.

And of course, a wizard did it.

On the other hand, if we were using, say D20 modern, I'm not so sure, maybe grab the XPH and allow everyone to gestalt with a psionic class. I don't know D20 modern very well though, so I don't know how well it would mesh.

As for ebil organizations and motives. Obviously they want to engineer a race of obedient super soldiers with which they can take over the world. However, the PCs aren't obedient. This makes them enemy no. 1 since not only are they a failed experiment that must be recovered and studied (to see what went wrong), they are also capable of fighting the newer batches of super soldiers (which will be slightly weaker than the PCs, the price of engineering obedience into them), and even worse they could fall into the hands of the good guy groups and be used by the forces of good and justice.

Also, the wizard/scientist who did all the work is being held against his will, his extended family being held hostage until the work is completed. This will be used as a major plot point. Free the brain trust, stem the flow of new and improved super soldiers out to get the PCs and the world.

TheElfLord
2007-11-09, 03:42 PM
Use White Wolf's mage system. One of the default organizationsis a sciences based group.

I'm currently in a game where the PCs are sheltering escaped supersoldiers and working to end the program that created them.

Leliel
2007-11-09, 04:42 PM
Well, if we were talking D&D (which I take isn't necessarily the case, since science was mentioned) I'd give the players 32 point buy and access to PC classes :smalltongue: In D&D, normal people seem best represented by 18 point buy and NPC classes, thus the higher point buy and access to much greater class abilities would easily represent super powers.

And of course, a wizard did it.

On the other hand, if we were using, say D20 modern, I'm not so sure, maybe grab the XPH and allow everyone to gestalt with a psionic class. I don't know D20 modern very well though, so I don't know how well it would mesh.

As for ebil organizations and motives. Obviously they want to engineer a race of obedient super soldiers with which they can take over the world. However, the PCs aren't obedient. This makes them enemy no. 1 since not only are they a failed experiment that must be recovered and studied (to see what went wrong), they are also capable of fighting the newer batches of super soldiers (which will be slightly weaker than the PCs, the price of engineering obedience into them), and even worse they could fall into the hands of the good guy groups and be used by the forces of good and justice.

Also, the wizard/scientist who did all the work is being held against his will, his extended family being held hostage until the work is completed. This will be used as a major plot point. Free the brain trust, stem the flow of new and improved super soldiers out to get the PCs and the world.

Hmm...I personally am always in favor of using anti-villians myself, but other than that, good post!

Roderick_BR
2007-11-09, 05:38 PM
Hmm... ok. Some organization (yes, including degenerated wizards, clerics, and whatever you want) makes experiences with magic, technically trying to "transplant" magic from creatures to humans and demi-humans.
The PCs are kidnapped, experienced with, and them, by some deus-ex, they escape.

Now, they find they have magical powers! And they need to run away from the organization hunting them down.

Mechanics: Gestalt characters. All players are sorcerers with something else.
Best classes would be fighter, ranger, monk (yeah, the underdogs), barbarians, and rogues. Leave bards, paladins, clerics, wizards, and druids out this time. The characters can't learn metamagic feats. Let the ranger be the magic-less version from CW. Classes and PrCs that have no spellcasting progression can work too. For PrCs, assume that they work as normal for the normal class, and the sorcerer level works as normal.
Alternatively, instead of sorcerer they could have levels in some psyonic class (normal psyonic classes can't be taken as the normal class either).