New Campaign Prep: My thoughts so far

Icons

I'm missing me some superhero gaming. So I'm going to run something online. Here's what I know so far:

• It will be either Roll20 or Roll20+Discord for voice.
• My current plan is Thursday nights, 7:00 Eastern, except for the one night a month I have book club also on Thursdays. (This Thursday as I write this.)
• The setting will be Stark City in the present. When necessary, we'll introduce sliding timescale, but I think it will go fine. When in doubt, we'll use Chicago as the model, so there will be (for example) a Morgan Park Zoo.
• The focus of the campaign will be the city. While there will be stuff that focuses on specific neighbourhoods (for example, if a player wants to focus on his or her attempts to improve the neighbourhood), or some
• Characters will be rolled. Oh, someone can build on 45 points if they want, but the bonuses that come with a particular origin only come with a rolled character. Of course, the emphasis on rolled characters means that I have to be adjacent in some way so people don't “accidentally” roll twenty 12s in a row. I might re-think that because if you don't trust folks, why are you gaming with them? However, being able to talk through the Qualities is a big deal. Qualities inform the focus of the game, really.
• I'm not a big fan of Knacks but I'm going to allow them, with the known thing that having a knack can reduce your starting determination pool to 0; if you don't have a knack, you can't have a starting Determination less than 1.
• Pretty standard superhero thing. I'm not throwing in any twists.

Because I was listening to an interview with George MacDonald this week, the first adventure will be a bank robbery with some time-travel shenanigans mixed in. (No, the robbers themselves won't have time powers, but they'll be pointers to a time-travel thing that's probably not accessible to the PCs, and which might be an overarching big bad of the first arc...if the players are interested.

To a large extent, I don't want to plan anything without knowing who the players are.

Idea du jour: Elves

fantasy

What if the elves we see are obsessed with nature because they are urban. I mean seriously urban. They're long-lived and population pressures long ago forced them to use up their world. What we see are campers and hikers and even eco-terrorists.

Elves in Faery actually look more like punk rockers and salarymen.

This is why elves are all, “We will not help,” and against industrialization: they’re trying to preserve our world. The elves we see are the upper class, the ones who can afford to take a sojourn of a few centuries in our world.

So when your characters take a trip to Faery, they might get the technological/magical help they need, but they're traveling to the ultimate urbanized area, full of industrialization and concrete and mazes.

City names

Icons

This is a general thing, but it's for an Icons game I’m planning.

It seems to me that for a city-based superhero game you can go real or fictional. Real has the advantage that all the maps are available and the stuff is right there. Fictional has the advantage that you can include new stuff as needed and mould the city to fit your needs, your themes. And, of course, you can do both, starting with a real city and modifying it to your needs.

I am inclined to a fictional city in this case. I might change my mind; I won't be asking for players for a few days, so there's a chance for me to change. But right now, I'm thinking that I want to be able to shape it. I might use a real city as the basis but I plan on changing enough stuff that it might as well be a fictional city.

Here's what I want:

• A four-colour mood. Not necessarily Silver Age, but some goofiness might sneak in.
• A zoo (got an adventure idea that requires a zoo)
• Waterfront in case somebody comes up with an aquatic hero
• Some kind of university or lab, because we'll need some experiments.

Actually, Chicago is a good fit for what I want, although it's entirely possible to get too grim.

So I've talked myself into using Chicago.

Weird Idea O’ The Day

So driving all day does things to the brain.

I present this concept:

James Bond: The Musical

Numbers include:

• Most Famous Secret Agent (sung by Moneypenny and the chorus)
• Lethal Sidekick Even Stephen
• I'm Limestone Scaramanga (But You Can Call Me Spectre)
• Suggestive Name, I'll Turn You (On)
• I Expect You To Die
• Base Ain't So Secret On Fire

I haven't figured out what Felix's role in all of this, though.