I’ve had an idea in my head for an interesting Superhero campaign. Pieces have been assembling over a few years, and I think I have enough together to actually make a campaign out of it.
I’m really proud of this idea, actually, and I’m mentally calling it my Journeyman’s Piece. If I build it properly, I won’t have to rely on campaign level improv to make the campaign work and instead can make something really solid.
The premise is simple. The party is a group of nerds who pissed off Bat-Mite and have been given the “opportunity” to prove that they can be better than Batman. The party’s characters are then isekai’d into a version of Gotham City where they are now the children of the Wayne Family, who are just now returning from their sojourn around the world, and, unbeknownst to the city, ready to bring peace, order, and justice to the city.
That’s the premise. But what does the game actually look like?
First, after going through my shelf of superhero games, I settled on using Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying system (BRP). Out of all the games I know, BRP has the best mechanics for people growing into their skills. Also, since all of Chaosium’s games use the same core system, I can pull useful mechanics from any of them. I’ll be running Age of Vikings at Free RPG Day, and there’s some really neat things they have going on with that system. Things I can use for a Batman campaign.
Second, the grittiness of the campaign is going to reflect the player’s actions. If they kill the Joker, for instance, then Poison Ivy’s next scheme is not “Steal a million dollars” its “Kill a million people.” I had an idea that the strangeness of the campaign, meaning metahuman powers and magic, etc, was based on some of the player’s actions, but I decided to not do that for now. Added complexity that would make it harder to explain to people why Clayface is just an actor, and why Poison Ivy isn’t green. I’ll need to pick the strangeness level for some of the characters myself, but that’s less work than designing all of the villains at all strangeness levels.
Third, the players are going to actually investigate. This isn’t going to be a campaign where I plant clues directly in front of players and expect them to follow the plot. The story isn’t a simple episode of chasing the villain of the week. I don’t have solid numbers yet, but there’ll be something like 60 crimes happening across the city each night in the session. Some of these are just various gangs and crooks looking to make a buck. Some of them are going to be the various supervillains building towards schemes. Trying to decide what to stop and where to apply effort is going to be an important aspect for the players.
But on my side, I need to find ways to empower the players to succeed. The Bat Computer is part of that, where any detail, connection, or datum the players may wish should be at the GM’s fingertips to hand over a summary. That’s going to be a really tricky part of the prep.
I do want my players to succeed, and to have fun being Bat-People. I want them to feel that proper degree of awesome. Batman is a ninja. My players need to be able to vanish, appear from nowhere, to be the night itself. Batman is a detective. My players need to be able to feel like no clue is left unturned then they but gaze at a crime scene. Will being the best of the best be enough? I think that is the question.
So much work
This is one of those campaigns that I could probably run a session with a week of lead time, no matter how much I have prepared. But with the preparations I want to do, the more time the better. Here’s a few things I’ve thought of that I have to have ready or build:
- Skills and Stats. As much as I’m using BRP as my core engine, it’s not a complete system. It’s a chassis that I can bolt whatever on to, so I have to decide what I want to connect. Is “Science” enough of a skill? Or should it be “Botany, Chemistry, Genetics, etc?” A lot of small questions to refine the system.
- Tech advancement system. All of the items in the game, basically. How far can we push cape technology? How far can you throw a batarang?
- Relationship/Connection system. Can I incentivize players to date Catwoman or Vicki Vale? Will Bruce Wayne become friends with Harvey Dent even when we know what he could become?
- Maps. Loads and loads of maps. City map is going to get a ton of use, obviously, but having things like a few various warehouses, streets scenes, alley ways and rooftops, sewers, etc. There’s a lot of stages that exist in the city and they don’t all need to be unique, but there should be some options.
- Villains. There’s something like 20 named villains that I need to have a small story arc for. Nothing super elaborate for most of them. But for someone like the Riddler, I need to have a thematic crime AND riddles to leave or give ahead of time
- Gangs of Gotham. One of the things I noticed the ’66 Batman did is it had a bunch of small gangs who could act as henchmen to the various supercrooks. Each of them has 3-7 members that share a gimmick, and I need to figure out how to track each gang, its members, and what they’re looking to do any given night.
- Social Scene. I don’t want the party to just be Batman, I think they also need to be Bruce Wayne. Or at least have the option. So rich people parties and galas.
- The Mafia Connection. My idea of Gotham has a few mob families that are controlling a lot of things and occasionally working together. These are the people who would get together and hire the Joker, if they felt that was a thing that needed to happen. They should be a big part of the city and really the key villain in my mind, as much as they don’t really fit the cover of a comic book very well.
As part of my preparation, I’m planning to read a LOT of Batman comics. I’ve found an app to help me keep track of what TPBs I’ve read, and I’m tapping into my awesome local library system to get a bunch of books. I have no real clue what I’m looking for. Each one I read fills my well, gives me ideas on how certain characters interact, how things work in the city, and gives me small details- names of gangs and locations, ideas of the history and how things look, what people think… even knowing what doesn’t land in my ideas is helpful. For instance, I know I’m not going to have a bunch of people idolizing the Joker. The Joker hasn’t become massive yet in my setting.
So yeah! Exciting project. A big project. I have a few players soft committed, which helps me stay on track. I have no idea what all needs done, so let’s randomly say I’m at 2% progress. So far to go, but we have a heading.