[Mutants & Masterminds 2E] Smalltown Heroes

[Mike Taylor]

I was just flipping through my MnM game books today and a thought came to me. So many superhero comic books take place in big cities (typically variations on New York) and virtually none happen in smaller communities. Has anybody ever tried running a small town/rural based superhero campaign? Without delving into parody (i.e. no redneck stereotypes with capes), how would you approach such a game?

[TNT]

It's just that most EEEEEVIIIILLL! takes place in large cities. You do have smallville and stuff, but even then that's before he moves to a big city. That's why Im keeping my base in the middle of a council estate in Pantygurdle, big evil in little places.

[DarkPirateShea]

I was actually gonna make a comic at one point that sorta had that idea. I was gonna go with a more suburban setting instead of a city.
There were script issues though so I just scrapped it and turned it into the comic I have now (see link in signature).
I might try to take the idea up again at a later point though. It's all a matter of planning and stuff. Also a matter of finding the time.

[Mike Taylor]

It's just that most EEEEEVIIIILLL! takes place in large cities. You do have smallville and stuff, but even then that's before he moves to a big city. That's why Im keeping my base in the middle of a council estate in Pantygurdle, big evil in little places.

This still doesn't help with what I've asked. :rolleyes:

[Seolta]

I think one of the big reasons you don't see much in the way of small-town superhero stuff is the realism factor. In a small town, everyone knows everyone else and their extended family, so it's harder to keep a secret secret(something which I seem to recall having seen come up from time to time in various X-Men comics, as well), and heaven help you if you're new in town, 'cause then everyone will be in your business. With a big city, it's easier to do the secret-identity thing, because you're a very small fish in a very big lake. Though with that said, I recall one of the two mutantish PBEM games I used to play/run was in a suburban community that had a magnet school of sorts...not everyone was "special," but a significant number were, and the others were generally there due to their other talents, or because of family members.

[TNT]

Or you could do it like Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead... man I loved those films.

I mean, Hot Fuzz is a small rural village, everyone knows everyone else, but there's still a load of killings and murders. The new policeman from the big city who's just arrived has to work with an incompitant squad to sort out all the recent grisly "accidents" and find the killer.

[Leffy]

there was a story?!?! i was just going teeeheeeeheeee cute redheaded brit! cute redheaded brit! teeeheeeeheeeeheeeeee!

[sableagle]

I know a red-haired British boy who desperately needs to be kidnaadopted so he can leave his father and his father's new wife to move into a smaller place together that'll be all theirs just for the two of us (Hello, Ferret, yes that was a HINT she was dropping there) and not haunted by his mother.

It's not so much haunted as "nothing had been rearranged or redecorated in the ... erm ... twenty-some years since she died."

[TNT]

COME TO WALES! It's safer than America apparently... they say that there's a 33% chance someone will drop a bomb America in the next 10 years, while not a single bomber of any sort has been to Wales. WE scare them too much. :3

[sableagle]

Right, and the probability of you setting off a bomb in the next ten years?

[Seolta]

COME TO WALES! It's safer than America apparently... they say that there's a 33% chance someone will drop a bomb America in the next 10 years, while not a single bomber of any sort has been to Wales. WE scare them too much. :3


On the other hand, there's no law in effect says it's legal to shoot us with a bow and arrow after dark...

[CptCalico]

What's the current laws in Wales regarding sheep, anyway?

[TNT]

100%, but not in Wales silly. :rolleyes: France is my target for now.:dgrin:

And currently in Wales it is more likely you will get MUGGER by a sheep than you doing anything to it.

[sableagle]

There have been rumours for years of places up here where the sheep'll have your apple and sandwich off you if you try to picnic in the wrong place.

The biggest difference between Yorkshire and Wales, apart from Welsh, obviously, seems to be the style of sheep.

Good grief. Oklahoma State University has a page (http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/sheep/) dedicated to breeds of sheep!

[Mike Taylor]

I hate to do this but... :offtopic:

Back on Topic:

Here's some of the input I've gotten elsewhere.

RPG.net (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=373327)

and

Atomic Think Tank (http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?t=26877)

[sableagle]

Hey, sheep breeds are very relevant. You could have someone trying to rustle sheep, a weaver of magic woollen goods, someone who can communicate with animals or transform into a sheep of one particular breed ...

... Getafix's Strength Cheese, made from the milk of particular ewes ...

... undead sheep with infectious bites ...

... erm ...

... okay, yeah, back to the OP ...

[Seolta]

I hate to do this but... :offtopic:


...we have topics?

[Mike Taylor]

*sighs*

[Leffy]

you knew it was coming.

[Crazeyal]

I hate to do this but... :offtopic:

*PHWEEEET*

Illegal use of logic in a Chaos based system!

30 yard penalty!

FIRST DOWN!!!

[TNT]

ONE THOUSAND TWO THOUSAND THREE THOUSAND! HUT HUT! *runs off with the topic in tow*

[Mike Taylor]

Maybe I'm not making myself clear.

This thread was set up to actively solicit ideas from other gamers about a role-playing campaign I had in mind. There have been a few useful ideas, but mostly there's just gibberish.

Please, either post something that I might be able to use or let this thread die. :(