Looking for help on how to start a campaign

Elfman6 · #1 07-01-2012, 02:36 PM

I've had this idea bouncing around in my head for a Mutants & Masterminds 3rd edition game, but Im having trouble knowing how to start.

The setting is WWII with PL 7 characters with quite a bit of room for expansion. I know my middle for the introductory session and the 'end', but I have no idea how to start other than the characters will be working for the British (MI1c to be specific) though they will not be forced to keep that allegience. The characters themselves so far (but could change if the players find something they like better) are an immortal Spanish swordsman (a member of Ponce de Leon's crew), a Rogue clone, and a hybrid of Spider-man and Green Arrow.

The players can be quite innovative, but tend towards a kick in the door style of play.

I would describe the campaign as Silver Age with Golden Age heroes with a healthy dose of creeping grim dark.

prometheous100 · #2 07-03-2012, 11:09 AM

Maybe they've all been in isolation, being interrogated as part of an 'interview process' with their employers (or as a subversion attempt) and now they're sharing a holding cell (if they ask why, you can come up with an out of character reason like the captors are listening, hoping they'll let their guard down with each other).

Either they turn together, or escape together, or do something creative (together).

Elfman6 · #3 07-03-2012, 11:58 AM

I hadn't even considered that angle... That is actually really good. Thanks. I wonder if I could pull that off 'V for Vendetta' style to a certain degree.

prometheous100 · #4 07-03-2012, 10:08 PM

I've found that in the beginning it's best to force them together... until they develop some kind of relationship to each other, often the best move in character is to split up. Keeping them handcuffed together with an enemy they all want to kill should give them a driving purpose to keep them together until they decide in character that working together isn't that bad.

This has the advantage of "I don't know any of these people, but all of them hate our captors." Which means that if someone drops out in the early game as their escaping or being turned, you can drop someone in with "You accidentally opened all of the cell doors when you left and the other inmates are out" which means replacements can be dropped in fairly easily if they escape. If they get turned, then you can give them a 'handler' or maybe an 'observer'. It just so happens that they have to participate or somehow they get shot in the head from behind (funny how that works).

Elfman6 · #5 07-03-2012, 10:27 PM

Indeed. Writing a campaign is quite a different beast from canned adventures.

I was going to start them on British soil, but I absolutely love your suggestions more. Starting in a cramped cell, gift wrapped for the Third Reich is a much stronger lead in. It also allows me to introduce specific villains much much earlier than I anticipated.

prometheous100 · #6 07-04-2012, 02:37 PM

You could do it on British soil as well... make some throwaway villains that are trying to infiltrate the MI1c or something, or even make it the real interview process for the MI1c. If they're going to be agents of some kind I imagine there's some rather unusual interview processes or training.

Though it does tend better if the bad guys are the bad guys... some players get confused if the bad guys are the good guys who are the bad guys when the good guys go bad.

drakeborn · #7 07-04-2012, 10:00 PM

I'll be honest, after a few decades of doing this, I tend to force characters together in the beginning and beg forgiveness for any artificiality. Most players (and the GM) want to get to the story and not dwell too much on how it got started anyway.

Elfman6 · #8 07-04-2012, 10:11 PM

Very true, but one has to start somewhere and we only have so much time to game so going through a 'you all got your powers' intro is a bit time consuming since they don't know each other. The goal is to knock them on their asses. I ran Shadowrun for them and ad-libed an entire campaign with only a barebones canned outline. They still talk of all the things that I added to the adventures. I want to do that again.

RedRab · #9 07-04-2012, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elfman6

I've had this idea bouncing around in my head for a Mutants & Masterminds 3rd edition game, but Im having trouble knowing how to start.

If you want to begin the game with an in-tact team, you can. When I started my table top M&M game, we made the heroes, I told them, "You've been a superhero team for five years," and then I had them all go around the table and tell their favorite (made up on the spot) memory of each of the other heroes. It turned out to be an interesting exercise in improvisation, and now they had a shared background to call upon during the game. I even awarded HPs for working the manufactured group background into the current story.

Quarterpound · #10 07-05-2012, 12:10 AM

Something I learned a while ago, and something that definitely applies to a group of "kick-in-the-door" types, is:

"In late, out early"
Begin each scene as close to the action as possible, and leave the scene as quickly after the action is done as possible. Not only will this keep your characters entertained by spending the least amount of time doing non-kicking stuff, but it will help your game's momentum to carry forward, as less time will be spent doing behind-the-camera stuff.

If your group was made up of different kinds of players, I would keep my advice, but be sure to explain that roleplaying encounters count as "action."

For your campaign, specifically, have them kicking in the door of a German laboratory, their orders of search & destroy as far as the lovecraftian horrors and nazis are concerned.