Berin Kinsman

The second part of character generation went incredibly well. It was mainly a discussion of the relationships between characters, and hammering out aspects. People started talking about the game as soon as they arrived, despite the fact that we have social time built into the schedule. I was right on about this group just needing the right game.

I put together a spreadsheet to make notes about character relationships — all of their names down the side and across the top, blacking out the cell where the character intersects with his/her self. People get along, and don’t get along, for interesting reasons. We have a doctor who tried to save the life of another character. We have a brother/sister team, and a pair who are half-siblings. We have a set of first cousins. We have employer/employee relationships. We have people who all patronize the same coffee shop. In true soap-opera fashion, everyone somehow knows and is connected to everyone else.

Group generation and detailing common back stories also generated NPCs to fill story gaps, as well as recurring locations.  We have a coffee shop, a bodega, and an office building that seemed to manifest themselves organically.

The group decided that want the game set in real-world New York, a la the Marvel Universe. Because supers all stem from some mythological lineage, tech level will stay at a real-world level, so no superscience. We decided that there’s no need for aliens or things like that, because we have mythological monsters to play with. No mutants or other origin types — all supers somehow tie into mythological figures.

While 3 of the characters are related to Greek titans, one to a Greek god, and one to a fate, it was decided that all pantheons should be present. Greek gods and titans are working together, in spite of traditional rivalries, because they’re the same pantheon; better the daughter of a titan marry a god than one of those Norse people, harrumph, is the general consensus.

Superheroes are relatively common, not that there’s a large population of them but enough to field 2 or 3 teams in a city the size of New York. They have been around long enough that no one reacts too strongly, but not long enough for the government to have established policy or written strong law about them — about 15 years. Mythological heroes have been around all along, but there’s been a sudden boom in the past two decades, and the reason for that is something the group wants to explore.

We all talked about tone, and I asked everyone to name two movies or TV shows that reflected what they were looking for from the game. The answers ranged from Blade Runner to the Tick, Desperate Housewives to The Crow, everyone agreeing on a general lighter tone with opportunities to get both very dark and very silly. Something around the tone of Firefly seems to be the sweet spot. So, there will be a lot of relationship soap opera, with a solid dose of humor and some silliness, but things can turn very serious and even at any moment. Sounds like a blast to me.

Next week we’ll finish off a few odd character and worldbuilding bits, then start actual play.