Preparing For Games Day

Games Day is this Saturday, and Wayne got back to me with his vote for me running Marvel Universe. I’m psyched as I’ve wanted to run this system for a while.

I’ve got very little time, so let’s cover goals. I want this game to be well written, which means fun and relevant. I also want it to be interesting. No stock characters, no clichés. I can’t remember ever seeing a supers game that took place in a rural setting, so I might just set this in Farmingham (or a similar town nearby).

I’m expecting the participants to be middle school/high school, so an episode featuring mutants should work nicely. We’ve got themes of alienation and marginalization. Junior high and high school. You’re awkward and it hurts. Then, you develop frightening abilities that empower you while notarizing your certificate that reads “I’m an outcast. Ask me how!” You have difficulty overreacting when you get your freak on, or your fancy power isn’t applicable. The latter might be more interesting. Who cares if you can fluently speak any language when the bully is shoving your own underwear down your throat. Maybe a mix of both is more interesting; some PC have typical super powers and some don’t? Will the kids who don’t have the power struggle with the kids who do, to try and stop them from misusing it? Or will they live vicariously and take revenge.

Ah, so we’ve got a theme of revenge. I hadn’t fully realized that before. Some of the kids want to be just like the popular crowd, but others want to use their super strength to break the clavicles of the popular crowd. And how gendered is that? Do girls want revenge? If so, what form does their revenge take? I’ll talk to the wife about that.

Do the sneeches without want to be like those with? Or do they want to hurt those with? Hmm, sounds like humans … do they want to be mutants? Or kill the muties? Makes me wonder if the PCs shouldn’t be humans … but that would be too far a stretch, and would change the theme to one of being happy with what you have, as it was in Marvels.