Quote from: RPGPundit;576206One thing that adds a powerful sense of connection to the game is if you create the sense of a very busy and real world.  In my legion campaign, I had the legion of superheroes of course (which are like 40 heroes right there) and a shitload of associated characters, allies, science police, politicians, scientists, family members, and of course villains. It makes the characters feel connected to a real and changing world.

In the Golden Age campaign, there's all the new masked men popping up, some of whom the PCs have so far only read about in the papers and others that they end up meeting.  Its much cooler if they meet Dr. Mid-nite or Zatarra after having heard of them already, rather than out of the blue; or if they hear about what the JSA is doing and compare it to their own team's exploits.  Plus each PC has their own personal contacts: one of them (Lady Lightning) works closely with NYPD chief Valentine, has a boyfriend (her boss at the forensic lab), and has made a contact in the form of a hardnosed private eye named Slam Bradley. Another (The Patriot) works at the OSS (a government anti-spy agency), and has a boss there, as well as chatting it up with the secretary.  Another (The Fireman) is connected to the NYFD and has made contacts with a number of hobos living in Central Park.  Yet another (Prometheus) owns a newspaper in his secret identity and has made connections with the paper's editor and reporters.

RPGPundit

I concur with all this.  A plethora of NPCs also allows you to make random or not so random connections between NPCs for story purposes.

In my last Champions campaign, which lasted 4 1/2 years of continuous play, playing in a setting that had been in existence since 1st edition back in 1983, we had a zillion NPCs.  I kept an NPC encyclopedia (this was before wikis) and the document was over 80 pages single-space by the campaign's end.

One of the things 2E H&S does is ask the player to come up with three people they've important relationships with these can be friends, foils, contacts. Whatever, its just that the relationship is important enough to be on the PC sheet.

They also can act as stress triggers in 2E.

In addition to that, yes, creating a big cast helps, but you can do that easily by asking the players to help. Who do they know? Who are their friends? Who are their rivals? Who sticks in their craw? Who helps the hero (in or out of costume) feel it is all worthwhile, if any?


In addition to this, never forget that a random NPC, can become important if the player characters invest time into them.

In one game of 2E I was running, the hero group, For Justice, talked a member of LOCUST into turning the other leaf. The worst thing he'd done was help steal a few things for the organization. He's currently piloting their former WWII Axis Zeppelin.  (Modern day game, so its really old but sturdy.)


Editor Note: LOCUST is a grasshopper/locust themed science criminal organization focusing on plots to gain control over the world. They are set up in cells so that if one falls another swarm can take over.

Quote from: RPGPundit;576206One thing that adds a powerful sense of connection to the game is if you create the sense of a very busy and real world.

Superhero team comic books don't do this, though.  Aside from a small handful of supporting cast, minor/bit characters in superhero team books are created, used, and thrown away never to be seen again all the time.

Superhero team comics also don't detail The City[1] in anything like the obsessive detail that superhero RPGs do; superhero teams ponce around the entire globe, solar system, galactic sector and local dimensional fourfold crossrips. They don't stick close to home.

So, a bit of counter-advice to the OP: don't spend a lot of time on The City or every single NPC the PCs ever interact with.  Use a system or a house rule that lets you stat up NPCs quick and dirty, and send the PCs to a new exotic location every five minutes.  If the PCs really like a specific NPC or setting or location, then go back and add some more detail, but not until.  It'll save you a lot of work.


[1] "My The City."

Quote from: daniel_ream;576305Superhero team comic books don't do this, though.  Aside from a small handful of supporting cast, minor/bit characters in superhero team books are created, used, and thrown away never to be seen again all the time.

Superhero team comics also don't detail The City[1] in anything like the obsessive detail that superhero RPGs do; superhero teams ponce around the entire globe, solar system, galactic sector and local dimensional fourfold crossrips. They don't stick close to home.

So, a bit of counter-advice to the OP: don't spend a lot of time on The City or every single NPC the PCs ever interact with.  Use a system or a house rule that lets you stat up NPCs quick and dirty, and send the PCs to a new exotic location every five minutes.  If the PCs really like a specific NPC or setting or location, then go back and add some more detail, but not until.  It'll save you a lot of work.


[1] "My The City."

I'm pretty sure we're not reading the same comic books.

Quote from: drkrash;576327I'm pretty sure we're not reading the same comic books.

It varies a lot. I mean X-men during some periods had a lot of places and NPC's that turned up regularly. Same with Spider-Man, other comics especially early Silver Age and so on did detail as much.

Of course that is a big thing between gaming and comics and even ages of comics is that "What is important?" differs a bit.

I believe San Angelo one awards for doing the city thing for Hero/Champions.

I hear good things about Bill Coffin's Century Station, and its very detailed.

Yet people want settings often with lots of elements handled for them. (a small complaints about H&S1E was the need for more setting.) I'm writing one but its rather (hopefully) distinct, since its set in Texas...

Quote from: Silverlion;576390It varies a lot. I mean X-men during some periods had a lot of places and NPC's that turned up regularly. Same with Spider-Man, other comics especially early Silver Age and so on did detail as much.

Of course that is a big thing between gaming and comics and even ages of comics is that "What is important?" differs a bit.

I believe San Angelo one awards for doing the city thing for Hero/Champions.

I hear good things about Bill Coffin's Century Station, and its very detailed.

Yet people want settings often with lots of elements handled for them. (a small complaints about H&S1E was the need for more setting.) I'm writing one but its rather (hopefully) distinct, since its set in Texas...

I'm very sure we're not reading the same comic books.  Specifically I'm thinking of DC's Gotham and Metropolis.

JG

Quote from: James Gillen;576414I'm very sure we're not reading the same comic books.  Specifically I'm thinking of DC's Gotham and Metropolis.

JG

Exactly.  I'm thinking, for example, of Gotham and Bludhaven, which got down to the details of which crime bosses were running which neighborhoods, more than a few individual cops, some of whom gained super powers of their own, plus reporters, etc.

Daredevil's Hell's Kitchen is pretty rich too.

And I think you could multiply examples.

Quote from: drkrash;576451Daredevil's Hell's Kitchen is pretty rich too.

And I think you could multiply examples.

Well, yeah, Marvel goes into great detail with New York City, but I don't count that cause it's a real city.  

JG

Quote from: James Gillen;576414I'm very sure we're not reading the same comic books.  Specifically I'm thinking of DC's Gotham and Metropolis.

JG

Oh indeed. I wasn't saying they lack detail. I have a book that maps the entire Xavier's mansion, as well as books that detail the important areas of Marvel New York.  Spider-Man's place of business for many years had tons of NPCs, his current one. as of the last SM I read, he'd been pushed into doing science because losing credibility as a photo journalist, and that had similar details. With numerous background characters not just supervillains.

Quote from: drkrash;576327I'm pretty sure we're not reading the same comic books.

Yeah, really. Given that one of my campaigns was straight up based on one of the 10 most successful comic teams in history (the legion of super heroes), and that you can pretty much say the same about most super team titles and most of the successful non-team titles... I mean fuck, dude, CONTINUITY is such a big deal to comic fans for a reason; because they obsessively keep track of heroes, villains, allies, "civilians", etc. in the large casts.  

The JLA, JSA, Titans, Legion, X-men, Avengers, Fantastic Four, batman family, superman family, spiderman, green lantern corps, flash, and probably quite a few others I've skipped here would all tend to disagree with the idea that large casts of recurring minor-characters is something that comic titles "don't do".

RPGPundit

I will reiterate: what solo books do with their settings and supporting cast is different from what team books do with their settings and supporting cast.

Coming off of reading several decades worth of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the Justice League back issues (starting on the X-Men shortly) - I will say again with some confidence that no, team books do not give a rat's ass about setting or supporting cast continuity.  (Protip to comic book otaku: you are the only people who care about this crap.  The writers of comic books themselves think it's a stupid idea.)

In a thread a year or two ago on the Atomic Think Tank someone asked for an "official" map of Metropolis. Posters found six different versions, all different, all "official" and mostly irreconcilable.

This fetish for having all the action in a team book focus on a highly detailed single city is the sandbox grognards trying to shoehorn their favourite way of playing into a genre that doesn't do it that way.

Quote from: daniel_ream;577749In a thread a year or two ago on the Atomic Think Tank someone asked for an "official" map of Metropolis. Posters found six different versions, all different, all "official" and mostly irreconcilable.

This would be helped, if DC stopped rebooting their continuity ever 8-10 years, too.
Bruce Wayne's parents getting killed while he was an early age has stayed constant, but their murderer certainly has not.

Quote from: daniel_ream;577749(Protip to comic book otaku: you are the only people who care about this crap.  The writers of comic books themselves think it's a stupid idea.)

Until the supporting cast member they created gets jacked with, then they scream to the high heavens.