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There are literally dozens of roleplaying games based
on licensed properties. From no less than three
versions of the DC Universe. (Mayfair 1st edition in
the early eighties, serious rule revisions in 1986-87,
and West End Games version in the late nineties and
early 2000s.) There were a few Marvel games as well.
Those are the series I"m going to focus because this
is a comics fanzine.
Today we're going to focus on The DC Universe. When
continuity has changed (with some characters several
times) and zillions of Elseworlds it is easy for the
gamemaster to say "I don't want to deal with all this,
we're setting this game on Earth-P." While there can
be some fun games using this method, a skilled GM will
still attempt to follow some version of canon as
closely as possible.
There are two methods to doing this. The
one we will focus on this month is what I call
"filling in the missing time." And there is plenty
of it. Here are my top five favorite ideas some of
which I have actually run.
- The Age of the Manhunters: Before there were
Green Lanterns, before there was human life on this
planet, the Guardians of the Universe created robot
sentries known as the Manhunters. There are two of this
type of campaign. During their early centuries the
Manhunters were known as agents of peace. The players
are rookie agents of the Oan Manhunter Corps.
- The opposite road is to tell the tale of the fall of
the Manhunters. It's been a vague blank spot in the
DC Universe. Once the Manhunters went rogue what
stopped them? Was it the first Green Lanterns? Was
it a small group of super powered beings from various
planets joined together for the common good? What
about all the innocent people the Manhunters pursued?
- The possibilities here are endless.
- Earth (1950-1956): On any DC Earth this timeframe
has been largely ignored. Chase and Suicide Squad
(the 80s run) covered it briefly by saying there were
small tight knit metahuman and non-metahuman teams
running around covertly. Villains like Vandal Savage
and Ultrahumanite did not go dormant during this time
period. Other super villains popped up as well.
- To me, this isn't the most interesting part of it.
After what happened to the JSA any such super human
group would be in just as much danger on the home
front. They'd have to face such threats as McCarthy,
Cohn and fellow costume wearing crime fighter J. Edgar
Hoover.
- The types of motivations for heroes to still operate
under these conditions could make for some interesting
roleplaying. You might have one or two stragglers
from the World War II era who actually want to root
out communists. You might have characters whose
secret identities are beatniks, scientists,
intellectuals or other sort of minority that might be
under investigation by the FBI or the House of Un-American
Activities Committee. Things if our characters
Discovered, could put team unity in jeopardy as much as
the planet.
- Then on the international front you have a still
fairly occupied Japan, the Russians trying to get
nuclear technology, The Korean War, The Cold War and
plenty of other sources for your heroes busy with bad
guys.
- This setting proves to be the ultimate place where
proving ones character's best way to fight for truth
and justice might not behind a cape and cowl. A time
when there is "The American Way" and the right way and
the two don't necessarily coincide.
- The Forgotten Heroes - Near the end of
Resurrection Man it was made clear that the Forgotten
Heroes did not disband after Crisis on Infinite
Earths. They became a loose knit organization of
second and third string heroes. It became sort of a
poor man's Justice League. They operated secretly and
kept an extremely low profile. It's part of how they
did the job. If people knew they were out there
the villains could plan for their arrival. Of
course, Cave Carson kept the "secret" purpose of
waiting for Immortal Man's return to take out Vandal
Savage hidden from most of the members.
- But who were the other members? He mentioned they
had dozens of members but all we ever saw were Carson,
Animal Man, The Ray and a few survivors from
Bloodlines. If they'd let Bloodlines characters in, I'm
betting anyone could join. (Aside from maybe G'nort.)
This version did disband at the end of Resurrection
Man. If you need a new benefactor you'd need someone
else familiar with the super communities.
- Comedy Calvacade - The original Mayfair DC
Heroes had things they called genre rules. They
enable you to change how certain properties for damage
worked for the tone of the game. One of the genre
rules was for comedy where no amount of damage was
lethal.
- Many people don't know that DC has a long history of
funny books. From the funny animal books like Fox and
Crow of the forties and fifties, to Sugar and Spike,
Stanley and His Monster, the solo stories of Mister
Mxyzptlk, Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew,
Blue Devil and my personal favorite, Ambush Bug. Face
it, GMs have things to do other than plan their weekly
torture experiments for their players.
- Where has all the fun gone? Using this method you can
literally plot together and see what sticks. One week
they could babysit a bunch of precocious trouble
making infants and the next week fight a killer sock.
For a real challenge have them have a fight with the
Inferior Five to determine who pays for the pizza this
week. A really brave GM can even put his money where
his mouth is and have the outcome affect who really
pays for the food. Before running this type of game,
I'd suggest reading some trades of these funny books.
Or cruise cheap boxes at local comic shows and big
cons. Or petition DC to reprint them. (Vext
forever!)
- Space (2216-2945): According to the pre
three boot Legion continuity the 23rd century were
troubling times on Earth. Environmental conditions
became so harsh it led to an era known only as
"The Great Disaster." Human colonists on other
planets had to do extreme genetic engineering to
themselves to survive. (Or may The Dominators did
it... or was it Valor?) The point is, there were
planets with lots of political intrigue and
backstabbing of neighbors.
- So what brought these planets from annihilating each
other during the seven hundred years between the start
of colonization to the beginnings of the United
Planets? I don't know-- but it would be awesome to find
out.
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