Heroic Re-Beginnings

I mentioned a while back that I had an idea for a superhero game. To be more precise, I had an idea on how to start a superhero game.

I've ran many campaigns over the years, and I've noticed of late I like to follow a formula. I've done it the last two campaigns I've run, including the one I'm running now.

Basically, it goes like this:

1. Heroes are together.
2. Big nasty bad guy shows up, wrecks stuff, and the heroes run away.
3. Heroes go on adventures to get tougher and try to find a way to stop the bad-guy.
4. The End.

In my superhero game I ran before, it was like this. The villain, Hans Kammler showed up, was way too powerful to defeat, and then left to do his own thing. The heroes then adventured around and gained power so they could fight Kammler later in the game.

I didn't use Kammler well, and I didn't do much with him.

Thing is - the game I'm running now, Deadlands, has the same problem. I introduced the main villain in the first session, and now we're four-years into the game and I haven't used him again.

I suppose it's alright, but I definitely feel like I could do better.

I was watching Viva La Dirt League Dungeons & Dragons on YouTube. They do comedy sketches out of New Zealand that are hilarious, and they started this D&D Actual Play channel that is equally as hilarious. For what it's worth, check it out, you will laugh a lot.

In the first episode of their regular campaign, they had this character played by Adam named Baradun, the High Sorcerer. He's 20th level and a total badass at the start of the game. The other characters are all first level, so how does that work?

Well, part of the first session involved Baradun getting all his powers sucked away from him and he was reduced to a first level Sorcerer.

This got me thinking. What if I started a superhero game with the players creating their penultimate characters - the greatest heroes in the world - The Avengers/Justice League of their universe. I can open it up with them already as a team, established and known world-wide. Then, in the middle of a fight with some horrifying menace of some sort, something happens - whether it's some cosmic entity, an energy burst, a meteor-strike, or what-have-you - and strips the heroes of their powers down to their basic levels where they started off.

I thought about this and it opens itself up to a fun bit of roleplaying for the heroes - they can't let on that they're way reduced in power or there will be a long line of villains that will come seek them out for years of payback. Also they would probably want to keep a lid on it to keep general panic down to a minimum - what if big nasty bad-guy X were to show up and the pre-imminent heroes of the world are too weak or ill-prepared to handle the situation. What if Darkseid shows up when the Justice League is reduced to a small fraction of their powers?

Then what about those nosy reporters? There heroes are behaving strangely - cancelling appearances, charity races/bouts/whatever, taking new tactics, seemingly taking harder hits and staying down just a little longer than usual - enough to get an intrepid reporter to ask questions.

That was just scratching the surface of what I had in mind.

Might be a lot of fun. Maybe I'll run that someday.