by Damren » Sun Sep 30, 2012 12:18 am
'Interesting' can be very subjective. I play a DC Adventures game far from Earth in a fairly heavy Sci-Fi setting that still has a healthy dose of Mysticism on the side for the magic-lovers. A lot of what I do involves constructing the base-line stories and having the group tackle them in whatever way they see fit. When needed, I nudge a little, but they usually get the gist.
Because most of my group members are avid comic book readers, I took them off Earth to make it more interesting. I also tweak the stories and opponents towards the player character's backgrounds, strengths and weaknesses. I also throw them curve balls that have little to do with foes & more with how the universe works. For example; one mystic has the power to bring back the dead ... he's discovering that isn't as easy as it looks and that 'other' spirits will try to 'hitch rides' back to the mortal world. He's also the character that's killed the most people so far (two, both of which he brought back).
I will typically take examples from the existing DC books and the Mutants and Mastermind books and tweak them towards my needs. Some of the heroes/villains are 'familiar' - because I'm interested in keeping the DC Flavor, even if we're not on Earth - and some are different (A nearby planet of evolved Dinosaurs once had designs on the player's world, an Oan treaty was put in place after the brief war).
The most interesting characters/opponents I think you can make are those that have relevance and connections to the heroes. Sure, throw in a few standard bad guys & monsters here & there, but the long term foes should be relevant. One of my PC's, Ultra, is a clone of a missing hero (essentially, he's this worlds Superboy) who is believed to have been killed by the evil Mad Scientist Dr Min'Ess (think Luthor, but with a thirst for Immortality, female, and an expert in medical/biological sciences), although the body has never been found. In their first encounter, she told him he was defective, shot him in the head and left him for dead. When he survived that (his powers have evolved somewhat) she took an 'interest' in him, and now thinks he may be a key to immortality that was denied her by the Guardians of Oa (she's an off-shoot of the Maltusian Diaspora).
This Sector's Rookie Green Lantern recently discovered the existence of a Magical Parody of a Green Lantern (a Squirrel, called a Green Acorn) created by a Mystical god to defend his people (a planet of Squirrels), but the GA was a bit reckless (many trees damaged or lost) that the god restricted his power to weakness against Wood. They had a blast interacting with the NPC who would grow tree constructs to snare criminals, encase them in giant acorn shells and occassionally construct winged predators to attack foes.
Min'Ess has already appeared a second time & escaped after getting the samples she wanted. He really hates her now. But, the Eld family (essentially, the Superman Family) has begun to accept him as a member and given Ultra (at last) a stronger connection than just the super hero team. He ended up having to fight other clones of himself and others, but those clones were programmed with weaknesses designed to allow Min'Ess to destroy them. As an 'Alpha' he doesn't seem to have a programmed weakness, but it's been implied that there may be others like him.
Hopefully, the rambling example(s) help. Ultimately, I would say see what your heroes are like, see what your players are interested in doing, then build the villains, supporting characters and general pace and feel of the game around that. I've already got a Facebook page up for mine, with a timeline, lexicon, NPC list, numerous pic's & the wall gives a spot to chat, leave clues & ideas or just post game related trivia (new products, etc.).
Last edited by
Damren on Sun Sep 30, 2012 3:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
