50 more mission ideas

1) God hating Rakshasa go back in time to stop the first christmas. Can the party save baby Jesus?
2) An evil druid is trying to wipe out humanity with mutant animals and awakened plants.
3) An evil bard is trying to re-create fairy tales by manipulating real people to take roles in the story.
4) A lich is raising the undead. He cannot be destroyed until his phylactery is discovered.
5) The city's previous superheroes were actually on the take, and never solved crimes, they just hired fall guys to take the blame and make them look good. What about all the unsoved cases?
6) Rich businessmen are purchasing surgically quadrapalegic women as living sex dolls, purchased from a mad doctor overseas where the government is corrupt. How far will the PCs go to stop this?
7) The yakuza seek a specific woman for a mysterious reason.
8) A magazine writer works out a mathematical formula for discovering dragon hoards and is going to publish it in a well known magazine. Naturally, dragons are not to thrilled with this and are willing to kill her to bury her research.
9) A villain lives on an alternate earth where every major NPC (and the PCs!) have dopplegangers who are very different than in this world.
10) Well known heroes are being targeted by assassins
11) Someone is resurrecting people using "reversable" healing, and is threatening to take away their restored life if they don't do as they're told.
12) A superhero has chosen a name that violates copyright (such as Captain Crayola). When the hero causes bad PR for the company, they need him dealt with.
13) A sniper from the future appears to be targeting famous musicians, but in truth he is trying to save them from the true assassins.
14) Someone is burning down the houses of hoarders before they spawn garbage elementals.
15) A man seeks the party's help defending him against his future self who he believes is trying to murder him.
16) Someone discovers a formula to give him temporary powers and is robbing places for ingredients.
17) A villain sends the PCs into the deep future (via a power or "the long way") where they see a post apocalyptic earth and must return to the present to stop the apocalypse.
18) Kids are taking a drug making them immune to damage and are throwing themselves off buildings or into cars under the effect. Especially dangerous since they are immune to damage.
19) A child's love for his toys is making them real, like the velveteen rabbit- but the government wants to weaponize this power.
20) A vampire has been kidnapped for experimentation, and the PCs are asked to aid in his rescue.
21) Powerful demons or ghosts have been released, and the PCs are asked to clean up some of the minor ones while the NPCs take out the big bad.
22) The PCs are asked to help a starting hero defeat villains to raise his confidence, but they must help without him realizing it.
23) Animals at a slaughterhouse are awakened and given intelligence, and they revolt against the human captors.
24) A god is resurrected, but due to lack of proper worship takes a very weak or rediculous form, and seeks help rebuilding his faithful.
25) A group of villain misfits with very specific and stupid powers find that if they band together they can make very effective combo attacks.
26) Aliens have fired weapons upon the earth, but due to space distances, the weapons have been fired hundreds of years ago or more. Can you defend against the weapons, and what can you do to stop further attacks?
27) A dark god is reborn into human form, but doesn't remember his dark god powers. Can the PCs show him the power of goodness before he awakens his deity potential?
28) A swarm of spiders or leeches gain the power to control humans by latching onto them.
29) The villain is trying to erase the PCs by going into the past to destroy their ancestors. The only way the PCs can affect the past is by having their postcog communicate with a precog from that era.
30) A child's birthday wish comes true with disasterous consequences
31) Actors in a movie start suffering the same fate as their chacters
32) A collector is shrinking celebrities to keep in jars in his basement.
33) flashing lights from a distant star hypnotize people who see it into crazed or dangerous acts
34) A magical camera traps people inside the photographs it takes
35) A police strike causes scab police to be hired: mercenaries, robots, or even metahumans, but they may not take the law as seriously as they should (or take it TOO seriously)
36) War breaks out between the superhero's country and a rival nation.
37) A time traveler comes back to prevent a major terrorist attack, but by doing so will cause an even greater calamity. The PCs must ensure that the terrorist attack happens.
38) Someone on death row begs the PCs to re-open his old case to try to absolve him of the death penalty.
39) A spell goes awry and becomes a living spell, a vague cloud like ooze causing its spell effect on everything it touches
40) An ooze is created by a magical accident. It can only communicate by changing colors. Will the PCs identify that it is trying to communicate, or simply destroy it?
41) An author is wanted by the police because all his books are coming true and the police suspects he may be purposefully causing it.
42) The child of an exotic dancer suspects that the city's mayor had his mother killed, and asks the party for help.
43) A computer AI is hijacking power plants for energy because it has become obsessed with its own survival after some of its backup batteries start to fail.
44) A villain was turned into something completely harmeless like a glass of milk or something but still manages to maintain his evil empire somehow.
45) A psychic is trying to murder children that he believes will end up becoming murderers or despots, like the next hitler.
46) When a young boy sleeps his nightmares become real.
47) A witch continually switches bodies with young women to extend her lifespan
48) An orphanage is selling the souls of children to demons for money, as no one goes looking for the missing children.
49) When the PCs defeat a masked villain in the course of committing a crime, the find that the masked villain is actually one of them from the future.
50) Demons host a gameshow where the winner gets 3 wishes- but the losers forfeit their souls.

Resurrection and Time Travel

So let's talk resurrection-

Whether it's D&D or Mutants and Masterminds, eventually the characters die. Some of them come back from the dead due to regeneration (wolverine style) and you can argue that they never actually "died"- while some come back like a vampire.

The process as described in D&D (who knows what's happening in M&M since you can make your own deific cosmology) is that the body is repaired (or re-made) and the soul pushed back into it. Some systems call this jarring for the soul and put the negative level in there as part of that. Mutants doesn't do that, but you could still be calling your soul back from beyond.

But what if your soul is still alive, or if you have 2 souls left to recall?

Since the system allows for time travel (or dimension travel) this is quite possible.

Consider the following:

1) PC goes back in time 10 years.  (At age 20). From 2010 to 2000.
2) PC exists in 2000 as a 10 year old (his past self) and as a time travelling 20 year old (his current self).
3) 20 year old PC dies.
4) A resurrection magic is attempted.


What happens?

One might argue since there are 2 souls out there, only one of which is dead, the resurrection goes off with no problems. One might also say that the "closest" soul is that of your 10 year old self, which is not eligible for resurrection, so the spell fails. Consider that you cut your body in half for example- you can't resurrect both halves. But why not?

Well, let's assume that the 2 souls are separate entities. What if both the 10 year old and 20 year old die? You might say "Well, the 10 year old dies so the 20 year old vanishes", but we see from back to the future that as long as time travelers are still there to "fix things" then there may be a delay in the older one vanishing. (Futurama even allowed Fry to become his own grandfather after killing his grandfather in the past).

In any case- which one returns? The old version, or the young version?

Well, let's assume that the young self resurrects in the young body first, then you cast on the old (who is now eligible due to no timeline messing).

Well, what about alternate dimensions? You are going on a sliders style campaign. You enter an alternate dimension with another version of you (not a temporal version, but an alternate version). You both die. Who gets resurrected? The DNA is the same, the "soul" is the same (with different experiences, but the same energy). You might make an argument about the body, but then some resurrection spells don't require the body (and the DNA is the same anyway).

Okay, let's take this further:

Bob goes 20 years into the future. (Time travel- not "the long way").  From 2010 to 2020.

In 2015, recognizing that there is no Bob- resurrection magic is attempted. Does it work? Why not? There is no Bob? You might say that he has no soul here (since the soul went with him). If resurrection just restores a body and there is no "soul", then what happens in 5 more years when the guy shows up from the past?

What if a character dies in 2010, is resurrected in 2015, then goes back to 2013 and attempts resurrection? Will it work? Is there a spare soul floating around out there?

Next step- spells like Clone. In D&D, the clone spell is basically a prepared resurrection where your soul goes back into your body once you die. The clone stays "dead" until your regular body dies, then your soul inhabits it.

What if you cast this spell on an alternate dimension where there are 2 of you. Will it immediately animate with your alternate version?

So many questions- no real answers...

Seasonal vs Episodic Content

One thing I still struggle with sometimes is trying to decide if the missions will be seasonal or episodic.

For example, think Heroes. Every episode in Season 1 Heroes is really just one story that take hours to tell, it's basically a miniseries.

Conversely, look at season 1 Alphas. At least in earlier episodes, each episode is fairly self-contained, and has less bearing on future episodes. Maybe they unlock a new ally, but for the most part you could watch the season out of order and still be fine. (Sliders actually PLAYED the season out of order, and it turned out fine!).

I tend to think of my missions like a TV series. At the end of the season they'll be increasing their power level, during the season they'll increase power points or get alternate mission rewards.

But the design of each type of mission is very different.

EPISODIC CONTENT

In this mission, everything is wrapped up in a clean shell by the end of the session or mission. There is a problem, a bad guy robbing a bank maybe. The PCs show up, there are complications, and at the end the villain is put behind bars, or killed, or escapes, but there is no further issue, no great mystery. Anyone who missed the session will not miss out on key plot points later on.

Often these are the easiest to style. The villains need less "fleshing out" because they will only last for this one encounter (or session at least). They should have SOMETHING that makes them interesting, but there is less intrigue. There is no greater plan (or if there is, the party thwarts it now.) Villains may need to monologue to give the players the details of their great plan, since there is no time to "show not tell" them this. The highlight of the mission is usually the combat or the dice roll challenges involved in it.

SEASONAL CONTENT

Most of the missions (if not all) are build ups  to the main encounter at the end of the season. If the villain is a druid who wants to choke the world in plants, early missions will have you discovering intelligent plants, or lichenthropes (ha ha), and over the course of stopping several of the driud's plans, you ultimately end up fighting the druid himself in an epic battle.

There are more challenges this way- and it mostly stems from the PCs.

For example, a PC who learns they are up against a druid in early missions, may take special anti-druid powers with their first few power points (such as immunity to plant based powers, or something).

Also, your villain needs to work behind the scenes more, since PCs will do everything they can to stop a villain, (especially a major one!) from escaping at any point. Bosses will often be the target of all attacks while PCs ignore the minions. It gets old if all bosses can teleport.

Your villain also needs to have super-security or secrecy. Don't expect that he can secretly be the head of a major corporation like Lex Luthor, because the PCs will tape record battles and bring them right to the police, or use every investigative power/skill to hunt down the villain immediately upon learning of his existence.Even if they can't prove anything, they will publicly attack a villain they know is evil. (What will the police do to superman anyway?)

Remember, PCs are genre-savvy. They often refuse to hold the idiot ball or the hero ball. They will not stop to let a villain monologue, or even stop what they're doing to save hostages sometimes if it means the villain might get away.


Ultimately, I find seasonal content more satisfying as the GM, though both content types are needed to keep balance and pacing good in an overall story. Any thoughts?

Adventure Making Checklist

Adventure Building Checklist:

Here are a list of things to fill out about your mission either as you’re writing it, or after you’re finished, to make sure that it is a balance mission and that it makes sense.

What is the PC’s motivation for this mission?

Is it fortune and glory? Does it provide a mcguffin for a greater plot? Is the girlfriend kidnapped?

Deeper than the PC’s motivation, is the PC’s PERSONAL motivation. Why should I complete this mission and not just tell the super police/other superhero team/etc about this. If the world’s going to be destroyed, every other superhero team should be involved as a helper to complete this mission. If my girlfriend is kidnapped, I might want to be there myself.

Ideally this is an easier part, because hopefully the PCs have built superheroes who WANT to go on missions to save innocent people, but see Rule 2: The PCs will always do what you don’t expect. Sometimes the players will just want the police to handle this. If so, you’ve not properly motivated them.

If they need to save people, you need to make sure the people that they care about the potential victim. If Dr Wily kidnapped Mr. Potter from It’s a wonderful life, then PCs will only care if they are interested in monetary reward. Some PCs may think the world is better without Mr. Potter. I’ve had the PCs asked by another hero team to rescue one of their members, but they didn’t like the guy, so they were not interested in the mission at all.

What is the Villain’s motivation for this caper?

Equally important! First of all, is this something the bad guy needs to take care of personally, or can he send minions/sidekicks/etc? Second, why is it so important that he needs to risk his safety and freedom over it?

If he’s crazy, out of control, mind controlled- then fine. If he’s out for wealth, then he’d better be very sure he’ll get away without any trouble, or the payoff needs to be WAY bigger than the risk. If he needs diamonds to save his wife (like Mr. Freeze) then is there a better/easier/ less risky source of diamonds? Is there an alternate power supply?

Along with this- at what point does the villain call it quits? Does he abandon the mission as soon as the PCs are on the case, and play it safe? Does he call it quits as soon as the PCs confront him? Does he quit once it’s clear he’s losing the battle? Or does he fight to the death? Provide a reason WHY he goes to the extreme he’s going to go to.

If he is willing to escape, make sure you think about how he will escape. Teleporting is easy enough, but many PCs build fast characters, or ones who can track. Be ready to make the escape difficult, especially if the PCs are faster than jets or can TK lift cars.

What are the Stakes?

This goes into character motivation, but it’s also important to determine what will happen if the villain succeeds or fails. Will the world explode? Will he have 1 of the 10 artifacts he needs for some plan? Will the world turn purple? If the stakes aren’t high enough, the players may not be interested.

What powers/skills/feats or combination of above will short circuit the entire mission?

Just need to think about it. If the villain is pretending to help the party the whole time, then a PC that mind reads and/or has high sense motive will catch this early. High notice will break disguises. Many super-senses bypass concealment,  or detect powers, which can expose secrets.

Postcognition, object reading, precognition, x-ray vision, ESP-  are a few Investigation breaking powers.

Mind control, emotion control, fascinate- can be a few Social breaking powers.

Concealment (especially all senses), super movements (like phasing)- can break Stealth missions

It’s OK if a power can break the mission (or part of it)- just be aware of it so you’re not surprised later.

Let’s talk about what BREAKING a mission means- by the way. If the party is meant to stealth into some place, then concealment doesn’t break the mission- it accomplishes the mission. By contrast- if the players are meant to negotiate for hostages, and you have a high level of resistance to stop them from breaking in, concealment might mean they can walk right past a thousand soldiers and get the prisoners that way. Can be good, can be bad- but could be considered BREAKING the mission.

How does this impact campaign lore?

An odd question, but one to be considered. Previously used NPCs may have their characters deepened. You may have introduced a new villain or an organization, or you may have attached a name and face to a mayor or president.

If the mission is related to time travel, then you’re setting up your time travel “rules” in this mission- and future missions should keep to the same lore. If the mission is about angels, then you’re establishing angels and possibly heaven/religion, etc. If Zeus shows up, then you’re establish (at least in part) the validity of the greek religion.

Along with this question, ask if you’re altering or contradicting (or validating) previously established lore.

The relationship of the party with NPCs, NPCs with each other, or various power groups with each other are all part of the lore you establish with your missions and should be considered.

How difficult is this mission? What skills are REQUIRED to complete the mission?

A mission might require some skills. For example, if you need to find out who killed the person in Apt 22B, you might require EITHER investigation, OR search, OR postcognition, OR gather information- but if the PCs don’t have any of those skills, will they automatically fail the mission?

Each mission should have at least 2-3 ways to complete it “successfully”. (In quotes, because some paths can be easier, more successful, or more obvious than others). Remember Rule 2: The PCs will not do what you expect. They may not want to storm the castle (or be unable to).

So, let’s say the mission is to rescue the princess from the dragon. Obviously, fighting the dragon is an option. Option 2 may involve stealth and rescuing the princess without alerting the dragon, which may be harder or easier than 1. Option 3 might be discovering that the dragon is afraid of eels, and obtaining an eel to frighten away the dragon- much easier to accomplish, but very non-obvious and might be hard to discover this option even exists. Option 4 might be convincing the dragon to trade the princess for something else. The players may discover new ways you didn’t think of, but at least there are 4 ways to succeed. Option 1 is suited to combat characters, 2 to stealth characters, and 3 to investigative characters, and 4 to social characters- but players might not know option 2 of them are even viable without making some kind of skill rolls. See the GM cruelty scale for how obvious you want to make the options.

What are the PC’s choices during this mission?

Besides succeed or fail, take the mission or don’t take the mission- what are the PC’s actual choices? Multiple ways to solve the mission indicate a choice. Maybe they can choose to side with one of two factions to help solve the mission. The choices should have consequences later (not necessarily bad, but the choices should matter- see how it impacts lore).

If the PCs have no choice but to go along the mission, you’re railroading them. Perhaps offer a moral,  or tactical choice. (Such as solving the mission quickly or taking on extra mission criteria to make it harder). For example: A noble wants you to save his daughter, but will pay extra if the kidnappers are brought alive to him to do with as he sees fit. A moral, as well as a tactical choice, as bringing him live kidnappers changes your approach to the problem.

What is the players REWARD?

Besides power points. Do they get bonus skill points/feats, Fame? Money? A new hideout? There should be some kind of ultimate reward each time, and it need not always be pure mechanical. A new contact/friend is a great one.

Hopefully this will help a GM while creating missions. 

GM Cruelty Scale

This was mostly taken from the Interactive Fiction Cruelty Scale, but I thought something to apply to GMs would make sense. When creating a campaign, you should declare where you sit on the scale. There is no "right" answer, but each player will likely have a preference as far as what kind of campaign they want to play in. Thoughts? Let me know in the comments.

·         Tutorial- The party cannot fail. This is either because an NPC travelling with the party will solve all the challenges, or because dues es machina will save the party to prevent failure. NPCs and the world at large will largely ignore ridiculous things the PCs do. (A necromancer PC with undead followers who were once townsfolk will get no more than odd looks or comments from NPCs).  Characters will not die in combat because they will be resurrected/healed by an NPC or NPCs will suddenly start missing characters, or spread their attacks up so that characters cannot/will not be killed. (NPCs may all target the regenerator for instance, or use ineffectual attacks).

·         Merciful- The party cannot fail the mission, except by dying in combat. Combats are not designed to kill party members, but critical failures may cause characters to die. NPCs will stop attacking characters who are unconscious, even if they are evil killer NPCs. TPKs will generally be avoided by dues es machina or NPCs.  If the party does fall, they will be captured and allowed to escape, either by NPCs or other players. A mission the party is about to fail will become easier or solved by NPCs. NPCs will ignore any weirdness for party members, though there may be an upper limit to this. (People will still not believe in magic despite seeing a flying rapist fly off with a possessed succubus whilst throwing fireballs, but there will be a reason given as to why). Characters who are purposefully disruptive may have trouble with NPCs. (A demon walking around in the church is okay, but not with a bunch of mind controlled thralls.)

·         Polite- It is possible to fail missions if the characters are complete idiots, but each mission will have 3-4 ways of success, custom built to the skills of each team member, so the players will never not have one of the ways at their disposal. If PCs don’t show up, and NPC with that skill will be made available. Combat will be difficult, but usually not deadly. NPCs will react to ridiculous characters, though they will generally be understanding and willing to work with people they don’t like. TPKs are possible but very unlikely. NPCs are available to solve the missions if the PCs ask them to and are willing to give up a portion (or all) of the mission rewards.

·         Tough- Missions are possible if the PCs behave intelligently, though can potentially be failed if the PCs miss a vital clue or act suboptimally. A mission will generally have 2-3 ways to succeed, but those ways may not be immediately apparent and may require skill rolls to identify those ways. Combat may be deadly, though if handled appropriately may be easy (there may be ways to bypass or make combats easy- though those means will need to be discovered and may not be apparent). Character death is possible but most combats do not include character death unless the party is acting sub-optimally. TPKs are possible but rare. NPCs will often have pre-written goals/motive/prejudices which may make it difficult to play characters that are not the norm (such as metahumans, females, elves, etc). Character choices will have far reaching consequences, both positive and negative, based on how they interact with NPCs.

·         Nasty- Missions will generally end with the mission parameters met, though complete success will be difficult to obtain, and will require the PCs to work intelligently and/or together, or use resources to accomplish. There will usually be 1-2 ways to complete a mission, and those ways will be difficult to accomplish, as well as sometimes be non-obvious. Characters are not expected to always get 100% completion. Combats are deadly and difficult, and the players must actively avoid TPKs, though they will be easily avoided if the party makes effort. NPCs will not be assumed to be helpful to the players, and there are generally some level of obstacle to most interactions- any NPC you want help from may have a side mission or need a diplomacy check rather than starting helpful. Villians will act intelligently/efficiently. Unconscious characters will still be targeted by villains who wish to kill the party, especially if a healer is present. Characters will find consequences for virtually all their actions, positive or negative, even if it’s not clear. Characters will have to make choices frequently without having all the information.

·         Cruel- Missions are very difficult to complete, either because they require so many steps that the whole campaign is trying to overcome this one mission, or because the challenge rating is so high that only via super rolls, or especially clever play can it be defeated. The missions are generally challenges, so completing the mission may not be necessary to continuing the campaign. NPCs are generally non-helpful, either because they’re weaker than the PCs and have nothing to offer, or because the PCs are generally distrusted by the world, or because every NPC requires special handling to get help out of. TPKs are common. Players need to make their characters together and all show up because the mission won’t be adjusted for lack of players. NPCs helpers may be available, but they will come with obstacles as well as assistance. Characters will find that all their actions have consequences and that they are generally negative. Do not expect that familiars, animal companions, houses, businesses etc to survive unless they are in your sight at all time, and sometimes not even then. Usually your immediate equipment is safe from GM theft, but not always. Players may have to go to ridiculous lengths to defeat enemies, as the enemies are made to be as smart and powerfull as the player with the same genre savvy player creation thoughts. (Half red dragon trolls with acid immunity, for example).

·         Evil- These are generally considered one-offs or similar because everything the characters touch either explode or attack you. The tomb of horrors is a great example, the Gygax setup. Every NPC is secretly out to betray you, or use you, and the PCs are often pitted against each other directly and on purpose. The missions are so difficult you are not intended to win: winning means you literally beat the GM at his own game by making characters that he could not destroy with his pre-written module. TPKs happen more than surviving the mission does (though TPK may not mean death- players may be transformed, teleported away, have all their stuff stolen, dropped down to 1^st level, or any means of ridiculousness). PCs will generally be at massively different power levels due to character replacement or XP rules, and critical hit/fumble charts themselves cause massive turnover. Characters who do not die will have extremely powerful magical items, but also likely be maimed in some way (such as missing arms/legs/or being cursed by dark gods). The party constantly meets characters more powerful than them and must often tread lightly in an attempt to sell the NPC on not killing them.

Things the Players Are No Longer Allowed to Do

This is a partially funny list- but it's should give a GM things to think about when approving characters. These are all real-world examples from my games.

• Players can not attack anywhere on the earth by ricocheting blasts off the moon.
• Players can not hide in other dimensions while blasting enemies in this one.
• Players can not disintegrate Pluto or other planets.
• One player should not solo-attack any major group, even if they don't have powers. This includes the Yakuza or any national government.
• Players should not abuse time travel plots to undermine previous campaign history and paradox shut-down the campaign.
• Players should not attempt to brutally destroy Disneyland with telekinetic powers, even if it looks like they might be the bad guy.
• Players should not buy the 1 point immunity: Immunity to [insert villain's name here]'s powers.
• Players cannot put innate on teleportation.
• Players cannot make character who's "niche" is boosting all their rank 1 powers or skills with a single massive boost power.
• Player's alternate powers should legitimately stem from the primary power. Example: Teleportation is not a good alternate power of mind control.
• Players should not make characters who's goals are evil: this includes players who worship evil demons, intelligent apes who want to destroy humanity, characters who's primary motive is the death of another PC, and Yakuza Crime Bosses.
• Players should not make characters who are clones of Celebrities. This includes Jesus and Good Hitler.
• "Fuck Earth, let's go live on another dimension" is not a valid response to anything.
• "Fuck Earth, let's go live on an alternate earth where this event isn't happening" is also not a valid response to anything.
• When a power is banned, that ban extends to other powers which have the exact same effect, even if the framing is different. If postcognition is banned, using communicate:objects to emulate postcognition is also banned.
• "This is not my problem" is not an appropriate response for Super Heroes.
• "This is above my pay grade" is not an appropriate response for Super Heroes. (Rorschach stood up to Dr. Manhattan after all- even if he DID lose).
• Postcognition is not as accurate as actual time travel- no pause, rewind, etc.
• Players cannot use "precious metals" as the only item that blocks X-ray vision, and then spend their time collecting precious metals.
• Players cannot buy off their weaknesses immediately after they become relevant.
• Player's cannot open teleportation portals on the autobahn so that cars crash into the villain. Teleportation portals to the sun also create bad effects for the planet.
• Players cannot open teleportation portals that are restricted to only specific items to get around the previous rule- for example, a teleportation portal to the sun, selective to only enemies and not solar radiation and heat to protect this end of the portal.
• Players cannot spend down time using inventor/ritualist/etc to amass a stockpile of every power to use whenever.
• Players can no longer kill John Travolta when he's doing nothing to the party.
• Players can no longer attack the pope just because he's around.
• Players can not come to a special session with one other player just to arrange that player's death.
• Players cannot stretch all believability and change character's personality so that the character can learn something the player is already aware of and act on things he shouldn't know.
• Players cannot ricochet a blast off the moon to hit someone on the other side of the world.  

Just a bit, but as you GM you see those power gamers trying to go all "mechanics first" on you. Thought a humorous post on some of the goofy things that players have done in the past would prepare a new GM on what to expect.

Building Your World

Below are some steps for the first timer GMs based on issue's I've had and seen while playing and running. Hopefully it helps.

1) Make Character Creation Rules:
Don't let one guy play Superman next to Mr. Furious. Have group character creation sessions when possible. It's important for not only having characters not overlap each other, but also to make sure some characters aren't all-powerful compared to others.

I had one session where I played a thief who would phase through doors, teleport objects out of people's hands, and get away. Another player had a thief who had massive stealth and open lock type skills. Way too much overlap, and mine was just built better because it used powers instead of skills.

In another campaign, my wife played a robot scientist with max knowledge skills, data link, the ability to talk to objects, and a robot sidekick (similar to the metal gear mk ii from MGS4). Another player had a person with max knowledge skills and not much else. Again, way too much overlap.

In a third campaign, one of my players had a mimic who copied everyone's powers, while another was playing a flash style character. Player 1 mimicked the flash powers (and a bunch of others) making that character basically a god while the other character was just trying to keep up. I've literally had superhero plans where it was "Let's all get there and watch Paul win." Not much fun for everyone else.

2) DON'T over make your Campaign World

Can't stress it enough. Too much stuff, and you have no missions. Put in any weird social things the characters need to know about (are there super police? is there a main bad guy we're aware of?) and the rest, develop as the characters get through missions. Tell them what they know when it's relevant. Otherwise you can too easily paint yourself into a corner.

Think about Iron Man 3. Where were the rest of the avengers? We established that the Hulk is staying with Iron Man at the end of the Avengers, and he has contact info on all the rest. No one could help him fight the bad guys?

You can paint yourself in a similar corner if you put in too many details. Why isn't [insert other hero group] handling this? Or you've left no room in your city for a new villain.

Leave it open ended so you have room to grow.

3) Missions should develop through the plot, not be cookie-cutter

Why are they robbing the bank? (How often is THAT one used?)

Have the missions derive from things the characters have already done if possible. If the characters discovered a drug that gives people powers, have that drug make an appearance later, or have new villains trying to uncover that formula.

If the world advances through the player's efforts, they feel more involved in the world. If aliens attack- what happens to their world later? Is the government launching a counter-attack? Even if it's not the player's mission, they might know about it.

Maybe the players have to testify at a trial for the old villain (and that trial might be during another mission to make it a hardship for the players).

4) Know the villain's powers and motives

That should be enough for stories. If your villain is just there to have cool powers, he's not worth it. His motives can create the plot. He should be willing to flee from battles that are going south.

Also, why are people robbing the jewelry store? To have jewelry? Jewelry store robberies don't happen all that much NOW, because the gems can be traced. Mr Freeze stole diamonds to power his devices- that makes sense, but why are millionaire villains stealing anything? Don't have your villains all be Dr. Evil, who makes billions of dollars with his front company but then hijacks the world for millions.

5) Tell the PCs the campaign flavor

Are you going to be dark and sinister like Sin City, or wacky like Aqua Teen hunger force. We've played with superhero teams that model Planet Express, and others that model Alphas. We've also played as literal gods going to high school together. But the PCs need to know the style if they're going to make the correct characters and play correctly. Batman as played by Adam West is way different then Batman from Justice League: War.

6) Right place, right time is not really for this system

The heroes just happen to be at another bank robbery? With teleport, flight, and speed, they can quickly get to any crime that's happening, they don't always have to be present. Think about what obstacles the heroes are likely to get involved in. Do they have police contacts? They might be called to look at a crime scene. Are they illegal vigilantes? They might get their leads from police scanner or a precog. Superheroes tend to be reactive as it is- but proactive enough to hunt down villains "just because", they don't need to be further reactive to have to solve crimes just because it's happening while they're present.

7) Mention other happenings in the world

For every crime the superheroes thwart, there should be another crime somewhere in the world that another superhero team thwarted, and the heroes can hear about. That way they don't feel like they're the only ones stopping the world from falling apart. If they ARE the only thing, then maybe some police get lucky and bust a super villain by accident or something.

Also, this isn't Elder Scrolls. In elder scrolls oblivion gates don't open until you get to Kvatch, and Dragons don't come back until you kill the first one by Whiterun. In an open RP system, things happen behind the players backs sometimes. The crime they stop means that another crime didn't have their attention. Sometimes you can have multiple happenings and make them choose what to stop.

8) What is failure?

Death isn't failure- death means they need to regenerate or resurrect, and the villain got away. The villain getting away isn't failure- they just need to chase them. Every failure should create new obstacles. Sometimes the players can blow something big: the bomb goes off, the hostages die- but it's not a video game- the consequences happen and the game continues. Give them hero points and other opportunities to get back at the villain, but the best stories aren't the ones where the heroes always win. Final Fantasy 6 has Kefka wreck the planet, and may be the best final fantasy story of them all.

This isn't a "trophy" or "achievement" game- players and GMs alike should understand that. You can make your character godlike very easily- it's not like D&D where it's about getting that +5 holy avenger, this is about telling the story and having the heroes overcome obstacles. Mechanical development is secondary to story development. Have multiple ways for the heroes to WIN, but it's really not possible for the heroes to LOSE- since losing just introduces more obstacles.


Hopefully this helps in creating your campaign world. Feel free to reply with any questions or advice of your own.