I'm really excited about my upcoming super-campaign. I still don't know yet with certainty which system I will use, so this question will be non-system specific.

Some of my players (two persons with little roleplaying experience but a lot of enthusiasm) have expressed the desire to go through the "beginnings" of their characters. You know, that time where you get bitten by a radioactive spider, your ass is kicked by gamma rays or as a kid you discover you're a mutant.

It all started when I asked these two to write in concept their history and superpowers. They looked at me with surprise and said: "we don't know yet". It occurs to me that, especially with the wave of superhero films, many of those have focused on the beginnings of heroes. Spiderman and Batman come to mind, with Peter Parker going from loser to spider and Bruce Wayne redefining himself thanks to money, training and ingenuity.

I really don't know how to proceed. Obviously, I don't want, as a GM, to hold ALL the power in defining their characters. I don't want to run the risk of them getting powers/drawbacks they hate. On the other hand, they've expressed they'd like for some of it at least to be a "surprise" for lack of a better term. They want it roleplayed, they want to be immersed in the story.

I think I need to reach a happy compromise where they get surprised (cool! I get this!) but where the accidents/mutations/transformations are still a bit under their control (no, I don't want to spit toilet paper rolls at my enemy).

In previous campaigns, we've always built characters with their full superpowers right away. I'd like to hear about people who do it differently.

I've never done it differently, but in my searches for things to use in my supers campaign I found this. I haven't read all the way through it, but I've heard good things. It's written for MSH but shouldn't be incredibly hard to convert to another system.

When you click the link you may have to also click on "skip this ad" if it doesn't take you straight to the page.

Wow, they're putting you in a bit of a pickle.  I mean, they're not merely asking you to create a character that you'll be happy with, but one that they'll be happy with ... happy enough to play.  For superheroes, particularly, that's a heck of a thing to ask for.  To offset each one that catches lightning in a bottle (like Spiderman as the ultimate genuinely urban hero) there are an awful lot of superheroes who nobody ever heard of beyond their first debut, because they sounded good in theory but in practice they were just sorta ... eh.

In your place, I'd do what they're asking, but make sure that they understand how hard a thing they're asking from you, and how likely it is that at least one of the characters you think up is not going to incredibly excite them.  Ask them in advance how they think that kind of problem should be dealt with after the origin stories.

Other than that, though?  Origin stories are great.  Not only do you get to define the characters powers, you get to make sure that they have a formative experience that helps lay down some ground-level motivation forever after.  What would Spiderman be without the death of Uncle Ben, for instance?  Good stuff, and it's a great sign to see people excited to play through it!

Send them this link and tell them to pick one. Be warned though, you may get everyone wanting to be Dog Welder.

Well, if they have expressly stated that they expect you to surprise them, and they clearly promise to go along with the results, here's what I'd do.  Every player has to put some thought into their character concept and come up with -- at least -- a theme for powers or heroic identity.  "I want spider-themed powers"; "I want fire-themed powers"; "I want to be a Rastafarian superhero."  Once they've provided you with a solid theme, and perhaps a pre-heroic character history, you take over and design power packages. The campaign begins with characters possessing a few baseline power packages, and they begin to develop their characters from there, blending background with newly-discovered powers.  As the campaign progresses, they earn new power packages, most of which are probably improvements on existing packages, some of which will be all new powers or character twists.

Yeah, they've dropped rather a lot in your lap.  Make them set the theme for you, then have as much fun as you can with it.  Hopefully they'll have as much fun playing it as you did developing it.

!i!

This sounds like a good opportunity to do a Fantastic Four style origin, if'n you ask me. You can also plant some adventure seeds in it as well- For example- Roboape, Mr. Shiney, Tornada and The Adhesive Android were all experimental  subjects at DR. Nefario's secret island lab. Years ago, they escaped during a volcanic eruption. Unknown to them Dr. Nefario survived, and is seeking to recapture them at this very moment!

Quote from: Ian AbsentiaWell, if they have expressly stated that they expect you to surprise them, and they clearly promise to go along with the results, here's what I'd do.  Every player has to put some thought into their character concept and come up with -- at least -- a theme for powers or heroic identity.  "I want spider-themed powers"; "I want fire-themed powers"; "I want to be a Rastafarian superhero."  Once they've provided you with a solid theme, and perhaps a pre-heroic character history, you take over and design power packages. The campaign begins with characters possessing a few baseline power packages, and they begin to develop their characters from there, blending background with newly-discovered powers.  As the campaign progresses, they earn new power packages, most of which are probably improvements on existing packages, some of which will be all new powers or character twists.

I'm tempted to do something along those lines. I'm not sure yet how I will implement it but they should provide some input.

Thanks Ian!

Frankly, it's how most of my superhero games worked out.  Most such games have incredibly complicated character creation rules, and, since I was always the one who owned the game, I was usually the only one who had a clear idea how to create characters.  I was also almost invariably the GM.  So my mates would typically give me an idea of the character they wanted to play, then I'd work with their idea and put something on paper for them.  The Rastafarian character, for instance, wasn't a joke -- I had a player declare that he wanted a Rastafarian-themed superhero, so I sprung Rastaman on him, a super-strong hero who manifested the powers of the Lion of Judah.  He loved it.

Do you know what game you're going to use?  Some of us might have ideas on how to implement the mechanics.

!i!

[Edit: D'uh...

Quote from: Consonant DudeI still don't know yet with certainty which system I will use, so this question will be non-system specific.

Okay, let me reprhase that.  When you decide on a system, let us know -- some of us might have ideas on how to implement the mechanics. ]

Quote from: TonyLBWow, they're putting you in a bit of a pickle.  I mean, they're not merely asking you to create a character that you'll be happy with, but one that they'll be happy with ... happy enough to play.  For superheroes, particularly, that's a heck of a thing to ask for.

Yup. It's interesting that it happened with players who do not have much experience with RPGs and whose main exposition to superheroe is through major movies.

I think they're just coming off a totally different perspective from someone who is used to building a "complete" super through a typical superhero RPG. They're also used to cinema portraying origin stories as a focal point. That's their main reference to supers.

That's quite different from a guy like me. My introduction to superhero was from newstand. You had Hulk, spiderman, etc... We picked the issues and only later pieced the puzzle together as to why they had such powers.




Also, I forgot to mention but we agreed that if we go through this, all the "origin" stories will be played as one-on-one sessions, unless two players want their characters to have a tied origin.

In my last V&V game, the players played themselves with superpowers. V&V being what it is, powers were ostensibly rolled randomly, but in reality it involved some negotiation.

What they didn't know was the origin of their powers – for all they knew the powers just spontaneously occurred. But they thought, and I wanted them to think, that some common event must have triggered it.

The event was being irradiated by aliens (bio experiment). Okay, cheesy as fuck, but I got some humour (the cat got laser eyes), some mystery and a follow-up plot. The aliens returned and gathered them for dissection after we'd played a few sessions. They escaped (as assumed) and blew up the spaceship as they went, which gave me the chance to allow them to reroll powers (in the event only a few did) as they got irradiated again with mysterious alien energy.

That's something I did. We had a lot of fun with that game.

How can you not have fun when the cat gets laser eyes? Hopefully the cat was named Tinkles or something equally inane.

Quote from: James McMurrayHow can you not have fun when the cat gets laser eyes?

When it's your cat.

!i!

'Rex'. She's a surly beast.

Hmmmm... She should probably become a supersmart supervillain cat with a name like that.

But since she was just a stupid cat, ahe was restricted to toasting small birds.