Let's say you're making a golden age superheroes campaign.

What kind of elements would you want the setting to have? What would you consider to be the important things for maintaining emulation of genre?

What kind of Golden Age Supers do you really want to see? The real Golden Age, as it was and not as we remember it, full of insane crap and extreme violence and prejudices of all kinds, and superheroes that aren't usually heroic as we think of them now? Like, almost pulp?
Or the Golden Age as seen through the length of the Silver, like later stories about the JSA or the All-Star Squadron comic?

Or more modern takes on the genre, post-silver age stuff?  Stuff with more of a "realist" modern lens and a psychological drama bent? Watchmen? The Golden Age? The Sandman comics?

What stuff in general would you absolutely put into your campaign?

RPGPundit

If I were doing Golden Age, I'd nix the prejudices a bit. Tempered by wisdom of Solomon or something. I'd still include some of the violence, and especially the wonders of science and magic that got lost in the post-Iron whatever age by many comics. (Silver Age had a lot of it, buy it trickled away in the 70's and was gone by the late 80's)

Something was lost in the wonder of other worlds, and times, comics became mired in the "gritty now" and less about the strange explorations of the world, universe, mind, etc.

It's interesting it lasted so long but I'd like to go back to that. Good guys are good, but not perfectly polite deputized Silver Age figures. No they're still people with (usually) human outlooks.

Mind you I loved Marvel of the 70's-80's and am fond of some of the stuff DC was doing now (with the lamented new Blue Beetle, and pre-Blackest Night Green Lanterns)

I'm not sure what age that be.

Astro City is my favorite these days though I pick up collections everywhere.

I miss the wonder of thousands of aliens to meet, magical realms that invaded, strange science that was good and useful, and black and terrible, but never as twisted as the crimes we see on the pages now. Terrible, but still within the fantastic.

It is not the splendor of the single age, but the glory moments of them all.
The defeats, and triumphs.


Then there is always the  wonders of Dr. Velocity.


He's glorious and totally anachronistic. Because I can do so with H&S2E

cool,man,how can i create a golden age supers campaign?

When you're talking Golden Age, that actually covers a few different genres.  There's the super powerful and super moral characters like Superman and Captain Marvel (now Shazam) and then there's the low powered heroes like The Shadow, Batman, The Green Hornet, and The Phantom. 

Personally, I liked the low power stuff a lot better.  Mostly ordinary men with some kinds of minor edge cleaning up a film nior nightmare with grit and smarts.  For me, one of the things about these comics that always stood out was the cars.  Sure they had hideouts but it was always a garage too where they would have one or more modified cars.  Car chases were always a staple of these stories.  Aside from that, the other thing I remember is a lot of following bad guys, surveillance, and talking to informants. Now that I think about it, they were a lot more like detective stories where the main character had some minor power than super hero stories of the Silver Age.

Quote from: Ratguy on August 09, 2023, 03:42:16 PM
cool,man,how can i create a golden age supers campaign?

IMHO? Golden Age Champions

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/257097/The-Golden-Age-of-Champions-3rd-Edition

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/207079/Golden-Age-Champions-4th-edition

Add a small adventure to begin your campaign
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/257100/The-Island-of-Dr-Destroyer-1st-Edition?src=also_purchased

It doesn't count unless you can have a cartoonishly stereotypical minority character as a sidekick.



Why did you mind go to a black guy? I meant a comic-relief Irishman, you must just be a racist.

Quote from: Grognard GM on August 09, 2023, 04:13:46 PM
It doesn't count unless you can have a cartoonishly stereotypical minority character as a sidekick.



Why did you mind go to a black guy? I meant a comic-relief Irishman, you must just be a racist.

I, sir, find great fault with your logic!  Robin wasn't Irish.

Edit:  my @$^*ing fat fingers

Quote from: BadApple on August 09, 2023, 04:26:08 PM
Edit:  my @$^*ing fat fingers

Typical Irishman.

Quote from: Grognard GM on August 09, 2023, 08:42:44 PM

Quote from: BadApple on August 09, 2023, 04:26:08 PM
Edit:  my @$^*ing fat fingers

Typical Irishman.

...and not a drop of Irish blood in me. 

I would want to have the game keep the idea that there are at least three paths to becoming a superhero.

Being born to it. (Superman and Wonder Woman)
Being interventioned into it (Shazaam and Captain America)
Being invented into it (Batman)

and I guess a fourth
Being side-kicked into it (Robin)

Quote from: Tod13 on August 10, 2023, 09:45:47 AM
I would want to have the game keep the idea that there are at least three paths to becoming a superhero.

Being born to it. (Superman and Wonder Woman)
Being interventioned into it (Shazaam and Captain America)
Being invented into it (Batman)

and I guess a fourth
Being side-kicked into it (Robin)

Wow,that is so cool
Give me more examples.

Quote from: Ratguy on August 10, 2023, 10:40:18 AM

Quote from: Tod13 on August 10, 2023, 09:45:47 AM
I would want to have the game keep the idea that there are at least three paths to becoming a superhero.

Being born to it. (Superman and Wonder Woman)
Being interventioned into it (Shazaam and Captain America)
Being invented into it (Batman)

and I guess a fourth
Being side-kicked into it (Robin)

Wow,that is so cool
Give me more examples.

Try this one for size, pay close attention to archetypes.

https://www.d20herosrd.com/

If you like that one then you might be interested in buying this one:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/172576/Guardians

Would 1980's X-men by Chris Clairmont and John Byrne be considered golden age?

Quote from: Svenhelgrim on August 10, 2023, 12:21:55 PM
Would 1980's X-men by Chris Clairmont and John Byrne be considered golden age?

I used Wikipedia, which defines it as before Fantastic Four #1 (1960s).

Quote from: Svenhelgrim on August 10, 2023, 12:21:55 PM
Would 1980's X-men by Chris Clairmont and John Byrne be considered golden age?

While those are great no, the Golden Age has a definitive time period.

    Golden Age: 1938 (first appearance of Superman) to 1954 (introduction of the Comics Code)
    Silver Age: 1956 to early 1970s.
    Bronze Age: 1970s to 1986.
    Modern Age:1986 until today.

Edited to add:

We're now in a transition period, what with the mainstream American Comic Book Industry self destroying. The guys driving the renewal cxall it the Iron Age, they're trying to return to a more Pulp + Golden Age style of writting.