How do you play your HU world?

[Al Blotto]

I'm in quite a few games so I'll spell them all out.

1. The game in set in the Marvel Universe and we are all teenaged mutants. We were gathered together by a tragedy to defend the world from the coming of a giant threat. We're not persecuted and are currently working with S.H.I.E.L.D. to take down a group of superpowered terrorists. We are based in a fictional city in southern California. There aren't other heroes in our city.

2. This game takes place in Century Station in 2042. All of the teams from the sourcebook are active so there are plenty of other heroes in the city. We were a random group of Legionnaires who all ended up trying to contain the damage from a prison break-out. We ran in to CHIMERA and ended up as a team of Cavaliers.

3. The third is modern times in Columbus, OH. A weight-lifting expo that has become popular among supers has us all gathered. An infamous super-villain has just struck and we've got to stop him. Lots of super heroes all over the world and in different cities but there is a law that makes wearing a mask while "committing a crime" doubly illegal. So heroes are underground.

[gaby]

My world is a bit mix between 3 and 4.

the world of my game was BtS until 1978,where a wandering spacial radiation source sweeps through the solar system,part of the Earth is bathed inradiation that effectively dramatically reduces the lifespan of all humans exposed and renders them all sterile(It have not effect on Animals and plants)The other parts of the World are non completely unaffected it have active the mutant gene.
With the Radiation was a Electro-magnetic wave,making all electronic systems went down and Nuclear weapons inpotent,all the Technology in the exposed zone needs to be rebuild.

the Exposed zone go,s from the jordan/Iraq,s border to the East Coast of Vietnam.

the First Mutants are born a year after this.

Ther is some Discrimination agaist obvious mutants.

[Glistam]

My game is set in Philadelpha, PA and the heroes there are the only group in the city; the world itself has a good number of heroes in groups protecting other cities. There are villain groups too and the some global hero groups a la the JLU.

[csyphrett]

I have done all of these at one point or another.
CES

[Steeler49er]

EvEnt...
Day of hope...

One game is a cross over between HUL & Robotech (well, at least a little) Called EvEnt. In it, the SDC-1/Alien Space Ship-1 (AKA: EVA in this series) had a disruption in it's fold drive as it entered the pull of the moon in 1999. It emergancy folded <for Unknown reasons> away before detection. 9years later on March 28th of 2008, it re-emerged (popping back) but to close to Earths Atmosphere. When it did, the fold drive exploded, sending out a Hereto unknown energy disruption across across the earth and Knocking out All electricity & communications world wide.

As with the Original Macross/Robotech story line, its entery into And though the atmosphere caused world wide, though, not as severe, damage to many nations as it's thermalkinetic shock wave passed over head. The damage was far more limited than in canon as the "EVA" (as the Japanies called it) came in , because the angle and trajectory was differant (Butterfly Effect and all). It still landed in the Pacific, but this time it landed closer to South America, and Near the Island of "Fatu Hiva" in the French Polynesian "Marquesas Islands" chain, which would later be Misspronounced (thanxs to the japanies inability to sound sound out Europian words properly) like "Ma-ru-qu-ra-so" or, Marukuraso Island (later マクロス).

The impact was hard and destroyed all but Fatu Hiva, leaving It the resting ground of the SDF-1 (EVA-1, or Angel-1/エンジェル-1). It was deep off shore but the tsunami was so devistaing that it would head out in a wave towards every Pacific coastal nation and whipe them out. As people all over the world started getting their power back, word of the empending doom started to spread...slowly! The wave was traveling at well over Mach one (700 Mph) and would hit Hawaii in 3hrs., Mexico in 4hrs, and the US and Peru in 5½hrs. The rest of the world would have to wait it's turn.

As the world braced, rumors of Strange events began trickeling in... Mostly dismissed at first, but than as the near 1000ft wave hit Hawaii and word was it Disappeared! followed by a MASSIVE explosion that destroyed the incomming wave near Mexico, and the wave simply "Turning to Ice starting out near La Trampa Peru and then moving up and down the coast-line, followed by the 500 wave simply "Stopping" 400 ft off shore from Imperial Beach San Diego. It was then and ONLY THEN that the world held it's collective breath and watched as a single surfer dude stood there on that beach with his hands outstretch, seemingly holding the Titanic sized wave at bay!

This was the beginning.

[gaby]

here is part 2



In the 10 years after the Exposed Technology advanced,pollution have decrease,oil depences also decrease.
Government in the non-exposed zone,have done experiments,the first sccessful U.S super-soldiers,stop a group of Expored Radicals from seting off bomb in New York in 1984.

By 1987 some super-powered criminals and masked Vigilantes revealed themsleves.

the first generation of mutants start to Manifested ther powers in 1991.

I am planing more info.

[znbrtn]

i have no continuous world; i usually come up with something entirely new for each campaign. i've gone from 50 years in the future, where the world is encased in a giant supershell, to present day wetworks type settings, to smack dab in the middle of the resident evil universe, and with no correllation between them.

[AlanGunhouse]

Last time I was running it was a setting fairly similar to Skraypers, where humanity was conquored by aliens and the characters were part of a resistance movement trying to overthrow the aliens. There were 2 main points of difference. One, it was based on earth and two, the Super Heroes, who had existed before the Alien Invasion, had been wiped out leaving only the villains to form the backbone of the resistance.

I suppose that qualifies an an "Other".

[kevarin]

the world we ran in there were lone superheroes and larger groups
but we were more like the b or c level group trying to fight crime and not mess up to bad
and sometimes getting in to more trouble than we could deal with

[The Beast]

The ones I've played in started out like Justice Leauge/X-Men, but end up like an episode of Venture Bros.

[Damian Magecraft]

I run multiple universes so I had to choose other (for all of the above and then some)...

Universes...
Amalgam - all Marvel and DC characters and histories exist at the same time (this has altered some team dynamics)
Legacy - Characters are the children/protege of established (now retired) Heroes
Rockers - all characters are inspired by music. (song titles, band name, etc...) (bad puns abound)
MER - stands for Meta-human Emergency Response...a special government agency made up both supers and normals that respond to emergencies.
The Hidden - similar to the show Heroes. Supers exist but keep the fact from the general public.
First Heroes - Characters are the worlds first supers. (set in modern day).
Unlimited - probably my longest running campaign...this world has seen the most upheaval...most recently it has suffered a "re-boot" of sorts...a repelled alien invasion has depleted the world of 98% of the supers...new heroes are now stepping up to fill the void.

[Prince Cherico]

Im currently setting up a call of chuthuluu
type HU game I just need to get the ok
and do some more world building
Ive already got a villan set ready to go.

[znbrtn]

Im currently setting up a call of chuthuluu
type HU game I just need to get the ok
and do some more world building
Ive already got a villan set ready to go.

color me intrigued....

[khyron1144]

I voted other. My universe is kinda like a mix of the Superman/ Bat-Man option and The Incredibles option you listed, but also different.

Somewhere I was thinking about bad guy-dominated universes. Things like Marvel's Age of Apocalypse alternate universe; DC's Crime Syndicate of AMerica Earth 3 (pre-Crisis) which was reintroduced into modern continuity in the JLA graphic novel Earth 2 written by Grant Morison; and Star Trek's Mirror Universe.

I also started thinking about 90s marketing events of the screw-over-the-popular-characters nature, like DC's Death and Return of Superman, Knightfall, and Emerald Twilight.

At some point I thought that a universe where there was something like a Death of Superman with no subsequent return, would after a while look like a villain-dominated universe simply because whoever's still there isn't going to be able to stop the villains from taking over. So, the last campaign I ran for this game was set in my hometown, and the PCs were new superheroes popping up after the takeover.

[The Artist Formerly]

Oh hell, we're all over the place.

Last game was about jet setting, super rich types who either bought their powers via technology, or had a long family history of having super powers and having used them to get rich generations ago. Big over the top JLU/Avengers kind of games. Characters dated super models, and their civilian identities routinely recived phone calls from Prime ministers and Presidents to help deal with gobal problems. Very high profile. Rock star style supers game.

Before that my players were powerful heroes battling between both heaven and hell, with just enough money to almost feed themselves and still accomplish the mission. They were powerful but their enemies were truely supernatural in nature. The boys from Arkham game.

Before that we had the players as a team of super humans working at Euroforce. Though well paid, they had to not only stop the baddies, but deal with the hodge podge of European Union politics and maintain a good public image infront of the stalkerazzi of euro trash mags. The devoted defenders game.

And before that we had the Elements game in which the group was entirely composed of mutant super humans who were struggling for equality and basic civil rights in the US. Though they were very well funded, they had to time and again jump through hoops to help guide humanity to a senisble and peaceful way of answering the mutant question. The super civil rights struggle game.

[gaby]

I like Golden age and pre WW2 for some games.

I always try matching my heroes with the Right type of Villains,so one or the other are not fighting someone who is over ther head.

Some of my heroes fight specific types of Bad Guys,The one wokring for the U.S Gov go after Nazi,s spies,others only go after the Mob or Magicial Threats.

[Prince Cherico]

Im currently setting up a call of chuthuluu
type HU game I just need to get the ok
and do some more world building
Ive already got a villan set ready to go.

color me intrigued....

Heres an excerpt from my world building
attempts.

Mark greenburg- the magic of numbers
80 AT

"For some reason since the great transport the following numbers
seem to repeat themselves, 3,4,5,7,12,13,108, and 1337.

The great transport happened on happened on the 13th day of
the seventh month both of these numbers have great mystical
significance. One number is considered lucky and one unlucky.
Since the transport a grand total of 108 states have been formed
since the wars of unification and the great organisation. The war
of unification lasted a total of 1337 days, the great organisation afterwards
likewise lasted 1337 days. The number five symbolises the elements
earth, water, air, fire and void. The number three represents the sacred
trinity and 12 the tribes of isreal and the decipals. Seven is lucky and
thirdteen is unlucky and four well meaning of four seems to have
changed since the transport. Deaths from murder, suicides, and
dieases all spike on the fourth day of the fourth month. There seems
to be no explanation for this just like their is no explanation for the
growing number of madmen who seem compelled to write 1337 over
and over again, the subjects who seem to have this obsession always
seem to feel compled into killing themselves after writing down the
number four. I dont know why but since the great transport the number
four has become the grim reaper of numbers."

[gaby]

I have a what if idea for my Exposed earth,it happed in 1950.
How do you think this world would changed?

[Lord_Dalgard]

Chello!

Justice League style...hereos from around the world have come to Lone Star to protect the city, although most seem to be Texans for some reason.


Tony

[Dog_O_War]

Since my setting is a combination of the above (as I'm sure most can be qualified as), I voted other.

This pulls from a number of different genres, and exists in a made-up city in middle North America, close to the Canadian border and the Rockies in Montana. This, along with New York and Los Angeles make up the super-hero hotspots of North America.

These places have a wide variety of super-heroism, from the lowly wannabes to the mega-hero Superman types.

In this time, set slightly in the future (2015), America is more Corporate, and has pulled out of the world police business. They are head-liners in industry, technology and innovation, along with Japan, the UAE, and Mother Russia - which has only recently had the wall fall, in the year 1999 (instead of a decade earlier). A nuclear attack was sparked, but the first hero had stopped what would have been nuclear holocaust.

China is a major nationalist power, and a big sh*t disturber, as are numerous Russian paramilitary organizations. There is a distinct break-up of nations and allies - Russia and eastern Europe; The Middle-east headed by the UAE; China and other far-eastern nations, like Korea and Vietnam, but excluding Japan; the North American Union (Canada, USA, Mexico); Western Europe; the Pacific Union (including Japan, Australia, and the Philippenes area). This all is set in an idealistic world that would remind a person of the 50's. There is a modern feel to it, but people are kept in the dark and fed propaganda most of the time.
Smoking Camels is cool
Head on down to the local drive-in with your brand-new vintage Roadster!
Do you think your neighbor is a red? Report it immediately and be a hero of the nation! etc...

A theme of the game is that there are many layers of hero and villian. That you can go downtown to a registered office and get a super-heroing badge and be a registered hero. It usually doesn't pay, so not everyone with super powers gets a badge. The guy with invunerability (and nothing else) might rather be a cop than a costumed hero - and boy are there alot of costumed heroes!
There are two types of heroes - very distinctive in their styles of dress. The classics and the new-waves. These types of heroes follow how our own comic heroes turned out; the bright colours and tacky uniforms for the classics, while the new-waves have a darker more grunge or personal style of super-suit - if they have a suit at all. So far, the trend favors the classics by an 80% margin.

These heroes are often sell-outs; they turn celebrity so that they can be a full-timer. When a hero gets his badge, he can't be arrested, and is allowed to investigate crimes. They generally get a free pass on most property damage, but the expectations and areas they patrol aren't restricted. Full-timers get a sponsorship of somesort, depending on their popularity and powers; super-groups often sell out to a state, company, or organization to glean perks and benefits. Being a sell-out isn't a bad thing; it's more like being a sports player. You'll get some heroes that get their faces on cereal boxes, act in movies, are racecar drivers, etc... in addition to the corporate or organization types.

The part-timers of this universe may or may not carry a badge, depending on their views and such (vigilantes like the Punisher wouldn't for example). Some work two jobs - like Spiderman (school/work during the day, super-heroing at night). All this goes on to create a diverse network of heroes and super-powered people. Things like actors dating superheroes isn't uncommon, as people see them with the same celebrity status. Most heroes keep on the mask though to avoid poparazzi and super-villian reprocussion.

When you register to get your hero-badge, they always ask if that is the costume you'd like to be pictured in; some heroes really, reeeally wish they had a better costume - and "loss" of old ID's is common amoungst this subgroup.

This is the light-hearted and more idealistic side of the setting; there is a darker side - one that stems deep in the sins of many famous heroes. There are groups of heroes that use their celebrity status to live in excess, or to wield more power their god-like status offers them. They become this way because they are celebrity, and they are quite literally above the law. Certain covert organizations fight them, and is kind of the focus of the campaign I was running - or atleast that is what it was leading into.

In conclusion, my setting is a multi-faceted world comprising several elements in the poll selection.

[KillWatch]

Secret wars-ish

Mutants and superbeings are 1 in a million

They are rumors and urban legends

Still secret government agencies look into these issues, sometimes contradicting themselves, exploring or eliminating their presence.

Mutations are chaotics and unpredictable.

Mutations happen in times of stress or biological change

So powers might manifest themselves during an accident, which may or may not help

A mother might express her APS Ice during contractions and turn herself and her child into ice sculptures, killing both

A baby during development might develope APS Stone and kill the mother
All those incidents of spontaneous combustian? perhaps APS Fire or uncontrolled pyrokinesis.

Powers aren't necassarily a gift. They can be harmful. Mutations aren't perfect and have defects. A baby with three arms, genetic diseases, etc. What if you go APS for the first time and so do your lungs and you can't breathe? What if your telepathy never stops and you can't kep the voices out of your head? What if invulnerability means you can never really feel anything? What if XPS makes your muscles pop out of your skin? What if you have adhesion and XSpd and one adhesnion suddenly kicks in without warning, tearing you in half? What if shapechange made you turn into anyone you saw and couldn't turn back? What if it broke your bones to make you that person? What if advanced smell gave you mind numbing sinus infections? Advanced touch overloaded your pain receptors? etc
Superbeings are feared and hated. Innocent people have been killed for the fear of being one.

The common folk "KNOW" that one mutie can take out a whole town like an atom bomb. he kid with weird eyes who ahs x-ray vision may be shot and buried in cement to prevent radiation poisoning

Then you have those who are able to keep it under wraps and live a normal life, but can't cope with the knowing they are different and their repression. Some commit suicide, other look to chemical relief.

Still other cope and do nothig wit their powers, and may come upon a time when they let soemone get hurt or die because they didn't want to out themselves

So those who live through fetal development, birth, adolescence, puberty lynchings, suicide, familial abandonment, and loss of friends, are the lucky ones. Women have two more chances for thigns to go really wrong; monopaus and childbirth.

Growing tension between psychics who are stil human and the non human mutants is rising. The third super power, experiments, may be the upset here.

The Illuminati, Stalins monkey men, Nazi uber mensch, MK Ultra, Project Blue Book, it's all floating around for people to stumble into and then possibly learn too much

inspirations: x-files, x-men, spawn, quantum and woody, punisher, scion, cyberpunk, monty python, Aliens-Ripley clones

[KillWatch]

that depends, was are aliens covered under US law?

[KillWatch]

well now you are just getting nit picky.

If we have learned anything then from south park it's that "Oh God it's COMING RIGHT AT US!!!"

[KillWatch]

but human law doesn't make that determination between sentient and non. It's 1st 2nd 3rd degree homicide, so unless you are a human it doesn't count. Since aliens are necessarily endangered killing them would be equal to stomping on a rat. Distasteful to some (me personally) but allowable by law.

[sHaka]

I run my HU in the vein of X-Men, but the PCs work for an ultra secret British government agency running black ops, trying to foil the machinations of the insidious, diabolic (daemonic?) SABRE!

Bit of a cross between X-Men, Torchwood, 24 and Rainbow Six.

[runebeo]

We play our game a lot like how superhero movies are, where theirs very few other heroes showing up and limited amount of villains. This makes our characters stand out more as being special in their world.

[KillWatch]

too many supers is the primary reason for power creeps. If everyone has a PS of 45 then the players want a PS 50 just wipe the smug look off their faces. If it is a rare occurance to find someone with a power then the characters, as said above, do stand out more. In my world there are about 7k spread across the globe, in various states of living, denial, criminal activity, being hunted and dying

[Ninjafingers]

I don't have time to create my own world, so I just use Century Station and Grammercy Island. Why do a bunch of work when Bill did it all for me. So I guess this is Megaversal. As for the style, my group has a mysterious benefactor (retired superhero) who has gathered the team up to try and make a difference in Century Station. I tend to start small, not include a ton of stuff and have the missions (about three sessions long) build in importance.

So far they've stopped a mad scientist from unleashing a zombie apocalypse upon the city (not as major as it sounds); now they're trying to prevent the major Neo-Nazis gangs in town from organizing under one ruler - The Freak Maker in VU. Once they complete that, they'll start to get more notoriety and will probably be hunted by Sector 10 or Quarternary (whom they whipped a few weeks ago).

[slade the sniper]

Well, after 20 years in the Megaverse, I am finally playing HU. Normally I use HU and N&SS as background for the ROBOTECH/RIFTS campaign, but now I get to play a super instead of just using it as an NPC maker.

Setting is modern, and it is a BPRD (Hellboy) meets Cthulhu (Delta Green) crossbreed. We are the "new" BPRD agents.

Not much to go on, but it's all I know. The Game Mistress is keeping the cards close to her chest on this, so it should be good!

-STS