Not that I'll get to use this idea any time soon

[james_davis_nicoll]

Because it looks like 4E D&D might be the next year's campaign but what would be a good quintessentially '80s name for a superhero?

The basic idea that I'm toying with is that the guy hit his PR peak around 1989 because as we know superhero rpg universes reflect the comicbooks of the time. In 1988 and 1989, wisecracking masks who enjoyed what they did but who didn't do anything unsavoury were in but by the early 1990s people wanted to hear about depressed superpowered thugs beating the crap out of other depressed superpowered thugs. Even though this guy was stilling doing what he did as competently as ever, nobody cared. Or cares. He's still sticking with his old schtick twenty years on despite the lack of acknowledgment. It's what he knows and anyway it's a lot more fun than the famous guys are having.

Comments

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

He could have a venom-spitting body-of-stone archenemy called Acid Rock!

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

He could have an entire roster of music-themed antagonists! I'm suddenly thinking about an origin event involving his band, whoever they opened for and the audience.

Of course rock being rock, a lot of the themed villains won't have made it to the 21st century.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

There's probably strong selection for stuff like CON 35, regen and +20 BODY (Only to avoid consequences of lifestyle) amongst the super-rocker crowd.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

A background character in the Wild Cards universe was a superpowered rockstar ("The Lizard King", maybe?). He eventually opted to try Tachyon's Trump cure, and was one of the people it worked on. Sadly, though he survived the initial cure, it turned out that his powers were the only thing keeping him alive with a hyper-rockstar lifestyle, and he died of that within a few years of his cure.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

It was actually the Wild Cardiverse Jim Morrison, wasn't it?

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

There was a *very* strong resemblance, but I don't think they ever made an explicit identification. IIRC, they later established that Jim Morrison was a separate person. (googles...) TLK was named "Tom Douglas".

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Oh, G-d. . . I can just see it now. A good number of the themed villains would just have given it all up. . .

"Hunh. You look familiar, somehow."

"Maybe you took my class on tax preparation at the community college?"

"No, no . . . that's not it . . . OH MY GOD! I GOT IT! Weren't you that supervillian back in the eighties?"

"Oh . . . no, no, no -- look, I was nineteen! Okay? And the judge gave me community service and expunged the records after I helped out in the Invasion from Beyond -- it's over. . . I'm a CPA now . . ."

"That's right! You were that shapeshifter -- you could turn into a swarm of birds, right? What was it that you called yourself?"

"Look, can we just get back to your taxes? I had a couple of questions on these office-related deduct. . . "

"Yeah, and you had that haircut. . ."

"Look. . . please. I was a teenager, it was the eighties . . ."

"Yeah . . . Flock of Seagulls -- that's was what you called yourself . . . "

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't the band have been able to go after him? Which just gives him another reason to want to down play his past.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

That's why modern-day vigilates like Copyleft consider him a hero.

This has happened

[(Anonymous)]

The lead singer for Killdozer eventually lost interest, wandered off, and is now a senior associate with a law firm that specializes in taxes. (Hm, he's probably made partner by now.)

Apparently people don't generally make the connection.


Doug M.

Re: This has happened

[avram]

I think there's an entire sub-genre of superhero story that descends from the bit in Watchmen where Hollis Mason (the first Night Owl) talks about running into one of his old enemies in the supermarket.

Re: This has happened

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I was in a DC campaign once where we were all former members of the Teen Team (which fell apart when one character was hurt and the Jobs Canada grant was discontinued). Some of us still did the superhero stuff but I think most of the former members went off and actually got lives.

Re: This has happened

[carloshasanax.livejournal.com]

It's better than that. He wrote up his experiences in Killdozer as the subject for his NYU law school admissions essay, and used Big Black's guitarist Santiago Durango (who had also become a lawyer) for a recommendation.

Also, the band recently got back together, until they get sick of each other again. Retirement tax law must be especially crappy in this economy.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of there being an anti-speedster around called Drag Queen, who manipulates friction (which is one of those power-sets where you wonder why they bother with the whole super-lifestyle, given how many commercial and entertainment applications there are for that ability).

I'm not too proud to steal Messner-Loebs' bit between Flash and the Pied Piper for the moment when after knowing Drag Queen for 20 years, the penny finally drops for Speed Metal.

Awesome

[(Anonymous)]

And the super thing? Maybe supering is sort of like show biz: some people have a predilection that will keep them in it, even when they have talents that could be better applied somewhere else.


Doug M.

[doc-lemming.livejournal.com]

James, we did this (in part) with the whole Teen Team adventure and the Sidekix TV show. Lemme see if I still have the notes...

Online even: http://www.geocities.com/jhmcmullen/sidekix/sidekix_intro.html

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I was just posting about that!

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

This campaign is why one of my standard models for superhero teams is rock bands.

FASS and UpStage are why my other model is amateur theater (Was it Hawkman people thought was the JLA's tenor the last time we kicked this around).

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Also, you can steal from sources like Still Crazy, The Commitments, and Tempest Tost for campaign plot ideas.

[doc-lemming.livejournal.com]

I wonder if professional sports teams might be the third model? Even if they lose money, they bring prestige to the area, there might be large supporting employment (plot bunny...save that), there could be clearly-defined roles ("We gotta have an infiltrator! All the other groups have one! You have to have someone who can get into the base without smashing it!"), there could be farm teams (move from the Podunk Blasters to the Waukegan Justice Warriors to the Chicago League of Heroes).

Although movies take a lot of people, studios don't seem like a viable model. TV stations might be.... ("I started as a little 500-watt electrical blaster and look at me now!")

Re: Yes

[keithmm.livejournal.com]

The mind-numbing powers of Muzak!
Hip-Hop, who can leap over tall buildings in a single bound!
The superstrong destroyer of infrastructure and cause of injuries, Achy Breaky!

Re: Yes

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Marvel still uses the Disco Dazzler as a viable character, right?

Re: Yes

[keithmm.livejournal.com]

She's rejoined the X-Men recently. Also does more than disco (thankfully).

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

there should be one semi-villain who just uses her power to insinuate herself into the hero's life, slowly corrupting him by giving him whatever he wants. We can call her "The Groupie".

or is that too literal?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Okay -- driving to Christmas stuff today, I was telling Lis about this whole idea.

And she came up with an old adventure that Speed Metal would have been involved in Back in the Day.

See, part one would be a murder mystery titled "The Death of Disco". Someone killed the hero Eight-Track (a low-powered speedster with extra limbs). And they had to investigate to find out why.

In part two, titled "Video Killed the Radio Star", they discover that the murderer was the cyborg BetaMax and have to take him out.