In a previous thread (Supers Advice Anyone) I asked for advice on how to structure a superhero campaign. I got a lot of good suggestions but the real lesson I think was that you can't a supers campaign until you know who the player character supers are going to be.
So yesterday we got together, they rolled up characters, talked a bit about system and the character backgrounds. And from this discussion it suddenly became clear how to spin this.
For this game I am going to rip off from Iron Man's Armour Wars story arc. One of the player characters (a High-Tech with Amazing Reason) discovers that her technology, which she thought she had sold to the government, has been incorporated in the armour suits used by a number of different super villains. The heroes' immediate mission is to track down apprehend these super villains one by one destroy the tech. There is potentially a bigger conspiracy to uncover.
What I like about this plot is it puts the party in the driving seat. They are not waiting for a crime to react to. I can prepare a dossier on each of the super villains (with picture and a short bio) provide a few clues for each one and then let the players loose to do things in whichever way and order they choose.
I am planning to run this game in a non-canonical Marvel Universe. My players don't really know Marvel comics that well so sticking to it would be pointless. However as long as I avoid signature characters I plan to plunder the MU for ideas and visual aids.
Bearing that in mind the set of primary targets for the heroes could be.
Beetle
Scorpion
Rhino
Vulture
Eel
Going for animal theme criminals for the time being though that is not necessarily important and I might swap a couple with Stiltman and Blizzard who were in the original story. Potentially one of the above might already in prison at the start of the campaign, the examination of his powersuit being the first clue that kicks everything off.
And of course that doesn't mean that other villains, like Electro or the Sandman won't get involved, just that catching the above is the overall goal for the players.
Anyway that's a rough cut of how I am thinking of approaching this. As always comments and suggestions welcome.
I would also include contact with arms dealers: Justin Hammer, as a potential lead/foil. Along with either Ghost or Spymaster as the source of the stolen technology.
Don't forget to include NPC foils/friends--people to be involved in the non-superhero side of things. They work especially well if one of them is in a technology field that might be related to the theft--that or investigating it from a more mundane (Scientific or police) side of things.
Think Weasel... Deadpool's thech-wiz. Someone sort of slimey, generally loyal to the characters, but who may have been easy to push around -a few session into the campaign, that could plant doubt in the heroes. What if the government wasn't guilty at all? What if it was someone from the inside? I don't know, maybe it could work for a little non-fisty interaction, which can be a little hard in supers. Just a thought.
Good luck, mate. Have to love a good supers campaign.
Justin Hammer, absolutely! He just has to be the creep behind it all. Hopefully he shape into the kind of villian which the player character's know he is guilty but can't touch him until they get cast iron proof.