Superhero Cities: Do you need one in the core book

Silverlion · September 30, 2014, 10:31:18 PM

I am just wondering what you'd want in the core book, does it need a pre-built superhero city?

RandallS · September 30, 2014, 10:33:20 PM

When I run superhero games, the setting is normally my own city or a nearby city. Therefore, I don't need a superhero city in the core book.

Piestrio · September 30, 2014, 11:41:43 PM

I would like some locations, ideas, and whatnot I could use in my own city.

Mr. Kent · October 01, 2014, 12:32:19 AM

I'm all about randomization, so I'd prefer tables and tools for city-building.

Spinachcat · October 01, 2014, 12:35:36 AM

Depends...how prevalent are supers in the world? How much effect do they have on the day-to-day of the world? AKA, if there are supergadgeteers and superscience WTF aren't those inventions on the shelf at Walmart?

AKA, how much do supers shape normal life in your setting, other than breaking stuff?

If the existence of supers alters your world, describing one such city would be useful.

The Butcher · October 01, 2014, 12:37:04 AM

You don't "need" one any more than you need an adventure or a small stretch of setting in your core rulebook of any RPG.

But I like games that give you a solid example of "here, this is how you prep, this is what you have to stat up to get a good game going." So I'm strongly in favor of having a sample city.

Omega · October 01, 2014, 03:04:58 AM

Depends on the setting.

Is it more real world style? Then it is nice to have options for setting anywhere. And a default city to fall back on if possible.

Is it more made up? Then you can get away with setting everything in one central city for whatever reasons. Or you can go open ended.

Figure out what you want to accomplish and the scope and build off that foundation.

Ravenswing · October 01, 2014, 05:33:11 AM

Quote from: RandallS;789493When I run superhero games, the setting is normally my own city or a nearby city. Therefore, I don't need a superhero city in the core book.

+1. The only times I've run supers not out of the city of Boston have been when I was writing for DC Heroes and doing playtests.

For those who want to run out of some fictional setting, that's what standalone citybooks are for. For the many gamers who doing, we want either more meat in the corebook or a corebook smaller by the pages a sample city would take up.

daniel_ream · October 02, 2014, 04:19:59 PM

I have no use for a superhero city in an RPG unless the game is explicitly tailored for solo play. Superhero groups in comics don't hang out in their local city much, if at all. That's a solo hero book thing, and even then mostly limited to street-level heroes.

Silverlion · October 02, 2014, 07:51:12 PM

Quote from: daniel_ream;789768I have no use for a superhero city in an RPG unless the game is explicitly tailored for solo play. Superhero groups in comics don't hang out in their local city much, if at all. That's a solo hero book thing, and even then mostly limited to street-level heroes.

That's not accurate to comics much of the time: Avengers, X-men, New Warriors, and most of Marvel Universe "teams," yes the Avengers save the world and go where they are needed, but most of the time, that ends up being New York. Atlantis attacked New York. Alien Invasions repeatedly in New York: Avengers fought aliens there, X-men fought the Brood there, Fantastic Four fought the Skrulls there and so on.

The X-men regurlarly fought Sentinels in New York, they fought the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants--in New York a couple of times.

Its more accurate to say that some teams do not have a single city they return too regularly to fight evil. Many however do

Sacrificial Lamb · October 02, 2014, 08:14:20 PM

Quote from: Silverlion;789492I am just wondering what you'd want in the core book, does it need a pre-built superhero city?

A pre-built superhero city could be endlessly helpful to the GM....with description in the form of:

* maps
* sites of interest
* criminal organizations
* political figures
* random encounter tables
* historical events
* current events
* other superhero groups

That stuff can always be a good thing.

daniel_ream · October 03, 2014, 01:39:34 AM

Quote from: Silverlion;789801That's not accurate to comics much of the time

Sorry, I have 30+ years of Silver Age comics that disprove that premise. Tell me anything at all about Happy Harbour, Rhode Island. Go on. And the FF have spent more time in the Negative Zone than New York.

Quotemost of the time, that ends up being New York.

It really, really doesn't. This is pretty obvious from even a cursory reading of the book.

The notion that in group superhero books, the local city is so important as to require any level of detail simply isn't supported by Silver Age comics.

Soylent Green · October 03, 2014, 02:33:28 AM

Yancy Street. Nuff said.

Silverlion · October 03, 2014, 04:05:05 AM

Quote from: daniel_ream;789843Sorry, I have 30+ years of Silver Age comics that disprove that premise. Tell me anything at all about Happy Harbour, Rhode Island. Go on. And the FF have spent more time in the Negative Zone than New York.

Sure if you ignore about half the comics about the Avengers, X-men, New Warriors, Heroes for Hire and dozens of others. (There is more to life than the Silver Age, but even then a LOT of Silver Age titles were set in NY.)

For the record: I've spend the last few months reading back issues from the 60's to today.

danbuter · October 03, 2014, 12:35:12 PM

I'd prefer NPC villains. In any case, whenever I run a supers game these days, it will be set in Freedom City from Green Ronin.