Superhero Verse?

[alchemyprime]

So as my Pathfinder game is on hold until my girlfriend (the party monk) is back from her summer job in September, I think my group will be playing Mutants and Masterminds.

The big question, is what universe to use?

If we go DC, we'll actually be using the modified canon from DC Nation, a web game I've been wit for about a year.
If we go Marvel, we'll be probably going Marvel Adventures in theme.
Freedom City can be fun, I will admit.
We might want a slightly darker game, going with Image and The Guardians of the Globe.
Or I could use my own world, where they can team up with my original characters and quite a few of the forgotten Public Domain ones.

Any ideas from the Playground what sounds the most fun?

[SilverSheriff]

I've been having some fun with my own Homebrew Super-verse, although it's a bit too political to be posting it here. I can say it's been fun and easy working on it though, doesn't require too much bookwork.

[Morph Bark]

I figure it is best to use things you are familiar with. In this case, both DC and Homebrew fall under that for you (if you want it darker, you can always modify those).

Out of curiosity, which "forgotten" public domain heroes would you use?

[JeminiZero]

You can also mix and match. TWO of the games I am playing now use a mixture of Marvel and DC characters. One of them had Captain America teaming up with Wonder Woman for something or other. The other has Batman and Dr Strange up against some cultists.

[dsmiles]

Well, if you use the latest version (3rd edition) DC is the expected universe (since it's called DC Adventures). I'd prefer the universe of The City, personally.

[Enix18]

Man, and I came here hoping for superhero poetry...

Joking aside, I would actually suggest that you go with your own homebrew world. Mainly, unless you want the players to feel like really little fish in an absolutely enormous pond, I would advise against using the Marvel or DC Universe. In my opinion, the characters would seem neither especially unique nor especially powerful when their world is filled with hundreds of other supers—plus, while interacting with your favorite heroes may seem like a fun idea at first, a think a more engaging campaign would need to be more focused on the characters than on the celebrity good guy of the day.

Obviously, I tend to favour a homebrewed setting where any parametre of the world can be altered to fit the exact needs of the campaign. You might find that a predefined setting is too restricting, or lacking in freshness—then again, you might not, but those are my two cents.

[Morph Bark]

Man, and I came here hoping for superhero poetry...

Joking aside, I would actually suggest that you go with your own homebrew world. Mainly, unless you want the players to feel like really little fish in an absolutely enormous pond, I would advise against using the Marvel or DC Universe. In my opinion, the characters would seem neither especially unique nor especially powerful when their world is filled with hundreds of other supers—plus, while interacting with your favorite heroes may seem like a fun idea at first, a think a more engaging campaign would need to be more focused on the characters than on the celebrity good guy of the day.

Very good points. However, if the OP's group wishes to start as 1st-level budding supers tackling smaller crimes at first, they could still just start in a canon verse, taking on stuff the "celebrity" supers don't take on because they don't notice them or they are too busy with bigger deals.

An alternative idea, if they want to interact with Batman and the like, but still make a difference and be the stars of their story, without needing to be high level, is to make it so that they were involved in the creation of a machine that could create portals to other worlds, which went awry and out of flux (perhaps even being the cause of their superpowers), making it so that they are the only ones that can go through the portals (though perhaps the people from the other side could go through as well). Basically, this would mean that they live in a canon verse, but the jobs are all taken, while there is also a homebrew verse fresh for the saving where they do most of their heroics, with occassionally a sidequest alongside canon heroes.

[The Rose Dragon]

Well, if you use the latest version (3rd edition) DC is the expected universe (since it's called DC Adventures). I'd prefer the universe of The City, personally.

DC Adventures is not 3rd Edition. It uses the same ruleset, but the 3rd Edition books have a default setting called Emerald City, across the country from Freedom City.

[J.Gellert]

I'm partial to Marvel, but if you like all of the above there's no reason why you can't mix and match...

Just insert your favorite heroes/villains/organizations from each and call the location City