I mentioned this briefly in another thread.

Like, on Sundays, there's kind of a dead-spot on evening TV right before I go to bed, so lately I've let the kids watch whatever. Lately (for weeks now, actually) it has been Power Rangers.

Now, the Power Rangers are kinda dopey, at least how I remembered the first season or two of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers which I used to watch in Lubbock. The costumes range from Sid & Marty Kroft silly to stunningly awesome. The acting is kinda faked up, and the stories are kinda the same. It always seems to end with the bad guy growing super-huge, the power rangers jump into their giant robot, they battle, and that's it.

Well, as it turns out, not every season was like that first season. I really got into the episodes of Wild Force where this one ki-rin-esque villainess (Toxica, played by the beautiful Sonja Kwok) has her horn stolen by another even worse bad guy, and is helped by her rogue-friend Jindrax. There's a season of Power Rangers Galaxy where a bad guy turns good and joins the team, there's all kinds of classic comic book stuff in there, in later seasons.

So I thought, since I'm playing right now (and not DMing anything seriously) I might put together a superhero campaign, but kinda in the style of this "Sentai" genre. I have also been really impressed with Transformers and wanted to work that in (this seems like a perfect match, really), as well as something futuristic from a pair of movies I saw: AI, and I, Robot.


So that's my cookbook so far:

Power Rangers
Transformers (the movie)
A.I.
I, Robot.

...and somehow come out with a superhero campaign.

All original content but still using the Earth as a setting.

The easy way is the best way for me. Since I am already using a pastiche of futuristic action movies and since it isn't quite clear wtf is going on in the Power Rangers I will just a vaguely undefined "future" Earth timeline. Not too far in the future (not the 30th century), but far enough. I, Robot takes place in 2035. A.I. takes place in an undefined future where ecological disaster has destroyed New York (and Venice). I want something in between, but maybe closer to A.I. in terms of technology.

So for the year I will throw in an homage to that briefly weird period in Marvel and set everything in 2099.

Androids are constant companions to people, and robotics play an important role in society. There are robot (or android) firefighters, construction workers, and safety workers.

But now I also want to bring in aliens.

Aliens are where most super powers come from, and also where most villains are going to come from. I need to figure out a way to get that in there. The acronym I had come up with was originally something like "Super Sentai Alien Rangers Force" so it has to have aliens.

Getting Aliens and Alien Technology Spread All Over The Earth

I was watching the original War of the Worlds (George Pal version), when I had this idea. What happens next, after the aliens are all defeated? Their war machines and stuff are laying around everywhere... much of the population has been destroyed and there has been an ecological collapse in certain places.

Well that fits in with my A.I. idea. The tech for the robots and androids and the tech "leapfrog" that allows a few earth people to become superheroes in 2099 has to come from abandoned alien technology that just happens to be scattered all over the earth.

So let's say there was an alien invasion- a failed one. And not only is there alien technology laying around all over the places, there are also a few die-hard alien warlords holding out in certain places. And Ben 10-style (another influence!) there might be a bunch of "allied" aliens who showed up to help earth, or even act as mercenaries for the invaders. Some of these guys may also be hanging around.

With alien technology and robotics we open up several courses for superheroic characters:


Power Descriptors:
alien
alien-enhanced human
mutant (affected by mutagenic alien superweapons)
cyborg
android

and of course we still have our "natural" highly trained humans, supersoldiers, and gadgeteers, perhaps boosted up even further by using alien technology in their gadgets.

Some aliens are stranded. Some aliens are here to help (like the Transformers, kinda).

The alien invasion could have laid waste to formerly populated areas- and left behind strange beasts and monsters.. or even killer robots. We could have New York in ruins, or underwater, and have Baltimore and DC suddenly more prominent (haha).

So we have to work this alien invasion into the timeline somehow.

What's left out? Magic. I think we cover everything but magic.. yet magic plays a prominent role in Power Rangers from time to time so I don't want to negate it. I just need a way to work that in.

Team Details
One of the cool things about Power Rangers (and the various Sentai genre Spin-offs, from TMNT to Voltron to Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go, to  Battle of the Planets or whatever) is that you have characters as part of a team. Each member of the team has a unique color.

I think this is usually because each team member has an almost identical costume. So we need to know Donatello has the purple mask and Leonardo has the blue one or whatever.

But I want something a bit more super- maybe a bit like the X-Men. In the X-Men, everyone actually has a similar uniform but obvious different powers. I have this idea that the characters will be various alien types, maybe there will be a robot or a giant guy on the team or whatever. That color thing is cool too, though. In fact- really it seems to be a core part of the Sentai genre to get players to buy in to that part.

So I want to mandate a bit about costume and name. One the one hand, this is just a bit dictatorial, but it's part of the genre, and really I think it channels player creativity more than it shuts it off.
So as part of character generation, it is mandated that players must choose a color, precious gemstone, or metal for their characters "code name". This "color" then becomes a motif for their costume as well.

I made up a few example characters that used the name how (I think) it should be done.  

Platinum Princess
Amberwave
Indigo Wolf

What else is important to the Sentai genre?

Vehicles!

Every ranger has a vehicle. Sometimes they have multiple vehicles. Usually the vehicles all form together somehow, or they all fit into a larger vehicle (like on G-Force).

So everyone needs to buy a vehicle as part of character generation. Vehicles are kinda cheap in Mutants and Masterminds- you can get a fighter-jet or a helicopter type vehicle for around 10-15 points, or a motorcycle for a lot less.

So I want to mandate that characters buy at least one vehicle as part of their character build- a minimum of 10 points worth of vehicle.

The vehicles will all fit together somehow- perhaps in more than one way to create a larger vehicle- either a giant robot or a spaceship. I'm not sure which.

So now we are cutting into build points just a bit. That leaves a maximum of 140 for characters. There's at least one other piece of mandatory equipment I want every character to have, though...

One the name should match. That is if someone uses a color/gemstone, then everyone should use a color/gemstone. If someone uses a color/metal, every hero should use a color/metal.

You don't happen to remember Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (aka Battle of the Planets/G-Force?) Each one had a vehicle, a color, and a bird theme, the vehicles started as normal and transformed into super vehicles, and all met up in their bigger air-ship/spacecraft.

One thing to do to throw in AI/Transformers is that an alien Symbiot race, comes to earth seeking hosts--only their hosts are machines they can transform from mundane vehicles, to battle mode vehicles. This gives the PC's "normal" cars that can become powered mecha/animal mecha/supervehicles(whichever theme you want) and they can merge into one and magnify their power again (A "zord" or combiner)

The aliens are passive, directed by others since they are symbionts.


Anyway, its an idea.

Quote from: SilverlionOne the name should match. That is if someone uses a color/gemstone, then everyone should use a color/gemstone. If someone uses a color/metal, every hero should use a color/metal.

You don't happen to remember Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (aka Battle of the Planets/G-Force?) Each one had a vehicle, a color, and a bird theme, the vehicles started as normal and transformed into super vehicles, and all met up in their bigger air-ship/spacecraft.

One thing to do to throw in AI/Transformers is that an alien Symbiot race, comes to earth seeking hosts--only their hosts are machines they can transform from mundane vehicles, to battle mode vehicles. This gives the PC's "normal" cars that can become powered mecha/animal mecha/supervehicles(whichever theme you want) and they can merge into one and magnify their power again (A "zord" or combiner)

The aliens are passive, directed by others since they are symbionts.


Anyway, its an idea.

I'm ok with one guy having a color and the next guy having a metal and the next guy having a gemstone. That's kind of how the Power Rangers work-- there's always a standout like the "mysterious Mercury Ranger" or something that shows up. In the original season, it was the Green ranger (the first group didn't have a green) that showed up as the outsider. I want to accomodate all character types since there's already a couple of constraints going in.

Sounds like this could be fun. If there was an alien invasion, you should say they got their foothold in Delaware. It's a weak point from which you they could access DC, New York, Phillie, Baltimore, whatever. It would have a similar plot advantage later that you could get there from anywhere that is anywhere on the East coast and your mech battles have an interesting place to happen that won't endanger innocents every single time (because no one's going to bother to rebuild Delaware.)

Quote from: Abyssal MawSo let's say there was an alien invasion- a failed one. And not only is there alien technology laying around all over the places, there are also a few die-hard alien warlords holding out in certain places. And Ben 10-style (another influence!) there might be a bunch of "allied" aliens who showed up to help earth, or even act as mercenaries for the invaders. Some of these guys may also be hanging around.

or like AlienNation, they could be escaped slaves of the bad aliens.