So we finished
volume 2 of the DC Heroes campaign. Not too well since I had lost
interest in volume 2. Didn't really resolve anything but I don't care
since we're resetting. Then we went on to create characters.
Woo is once again playing Rad, the iconic hero of my universe. Looks
like most of the elements will be the same but retold in today's
timeframe. Themes I want to explore are marriage, leadership, and being
a role model.
Eric is going to play a ferret (Kiki). Riff's pet apparently, imbued
with super powers. As the original Riff's pet I can at least keep the
villains Riff built up over the course of volume 1. I can see retelling
Riff's stories through the eyes of Kiki. Some things we can explore are
responsibility, what it means to be human, and the usual "humans are
strange" when seen from an alien's eyes.
It took a while to get Donald's concept even initally worked out. Woo
came up with the great idea of an item that has Sorcery as a power,
which is much cheaper than buying Sorcery yourself. So we have a hero
with Aaron's Rod, come back from Bgztl to visit Earth. I'm going to
have more problems with this character in terms of subplots. Don't want
to overlap too much with Kiki and the magic subplots are generally too
dark. Then again what happens when a hero who Upholds Good has to deal
with the gray areas of magic? Magic is the DC Universe substitute for
technology in terms of morality plays. Magic, like technology, is
inherently neither good nor bad and its practitioners are generally
more amoral than the human norm. It'll be interesting to explore this
theme.
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Sweet is going
to play Peter Pan's spirit form. He's going to have Spirit Travel
(self-linked) and Personality Transfer. An amazing potential for abuse,
perhaps even worse than Donald's Sorcery (since the Sorcery is tied to
an item that can break down). Basically Peter can go anywhere
undetected.
I keep saying to the players: "Upholding the Good. Superman." Meaning
that they should always keep in mind that they're upholding the good,
and not only that but they're using Superman as a template of ethics
and morality. This is one reason (besides forgetting his multitude of
powers) that Superman has any sort of challenge when dealing with most
foes. He's powerful enough that he can afford to handicap himself by
sticking to ideals.
Frankly, Sweet is the only one (in the abbreviated group) whom I don't
think will be able to handle it. Woo does it naturally, Eric does it
most of the time, Donald needs to be reminded occasionally but he's
very willing to do it once it is pointed out. Heck, Sweet wants Peter
to possess people for extended periods of time. And apparently the
Uphold the Good/Superman mantra hasn't made an impact yet. I'll have to
remember to tell him more emphatically not to play Peter Pan that way.
In any case, with Peter Pan we can explore guilt, issues of privacy,
loneliness (though he insists on creating Tinker Belle, so it'll
probably end up being unrequited love or their strange friendship).
Volume 3 will be much more character driven. I want to explore some
themes and make his a special series of story arcs that I can be proud
of.
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