So Overwatch has finally persuaded me to run a superhero campaign (which will be in style of the game).
Thing is, I have no clue what the characters will do beyond "missions in which they fight the bad guys". How do I get some roleplaying situations in there?
I was thinking a little bit more powerful than street level, but nowhere near four-colour. Definitely able to geek a few mooks singlehandedly, but not "take-over-the-world" poewrful. Think Spiderman.
I was going to use the game's settting, with the Omnic Crisis and everything. Basically robot invaders everywhere, and a couple unrelated missions here and there.
Andrew Taylor
I'd suggest taking a look at some cape storylines. How expansive do you want them to be?
Have you seen the animated shorts?
Michael Powell
For the purposes of actually being superheroes, only a portion of the characters in Overwatch actually possess superpowers. The rest is all science magic.
Do you want to run your campaign with actual superpowers or this A.C. Clarke -style indistguishable super stuff?
Blake Evans
Watch the animated shorts to get some better ideas.
Wyatt Roberts
I was thinking along the lines of a bunch of missions strung together with a storyline in between. Mostly about saving the world stuff and all that
Both
William Collins
Have you seen the Overwatch Shorts?
Leo Harris
One big thing to keep in mind is that the headline characters in Overwatch tend to have very grand goals in mind, for good or ill. Winston wants to bring about great scientific advancements; Mei wants to save the planet itself; Zenyatta wants to bring unity to humans and omnics; god knows what Reaper and Widowmaker are up to, but they apparently need the backing of a whole multinational terror group to do it. Even if their powers are street-level, their goals are not. So encourage your players to set a grand goal for their character and always work towards it.
Also, don't present missions as missions, but as situations. To take an example from the game: emboldened by the murder of an omnic spiritual leader, a group of British citizens have constructed an EMP device and plan to set it off in the omnic shantytown in King's Row. Rather than asking, "How will you stop them," or, "How will you help them," just ask, "What will you do with this information?"
Dylan Bennett
Yes, but they are mostly fighting
Andrew Hill
Terrifying thing: The Omnic Crisis used Bastions as footsoldiers, with literal thousands of them on the front lines.
Think about the problems one of them gives a team that isn't ready for it. Now think about 20 of them.
Joseph Johnson
Now consider that there is no given reason besides game mechanics that they couldn't just switch to tank mode any time they wanted.
Ian Ward
Tank Mode was introduced really late in the development process, and if you look at Bastion, its parts for turret and recon mode are fully integrated, but its tank mode parts just come out of nowhere, so I'd make tank mode a feature unique to the Bastion with the bird, not all of them.
Nathan Murphy
XCOM + Overwatch = ???
Carter Gomez
Good tsatse.
Kevin Collins
Take a look at well written Saturday morning cartoons.
Wakfu, Mystery Inc., Spiderman Unlimited, Avatar, Young Justice. A theme that's pretty consistent is an overarching plot that's procedurally advanced between "one shots." Every session, the players should save the day, while the BBEG's evil plan moves forward a step.
Sebastian Anderson
Soldier 76 and Symmetra's shorts both taking place in Brazil and having similar crisis yet different approaches could make for a good example of what you're interested in? Symmetra's a politician and 76 is just a crazy old vigilante but both work toward the "fuck favelas" goal. maybe that'll help you think of stuff?
Nathan Bailey
Symmetra has a short?
Luke Gonzalez
Comic.
Lincoln Watson
Ah. Thanks.
Bentley Sullivan
I think quite a few of them are functionally superhuman, no?
Tracer can teleport and manipulate time. Morrison is Captain America. Reaper is Captain Latin America with spoopy ghost powers (probably nanomachine cloud stuff). Zenyatta is a robot with legit force powers due to being super spiritual. Bastion is a robot. Widowmaker appears to have enhanced reflexes, agility, strength, etc. Hanzo can summon a spirit dragon. Genji can summon a spirit dragon and is a cybutt. Winston is a huge ape with inexplicable Hulk rage. Zarya has the ability to appeal to tumblr while being super super racist.
Jason Scott
Widowmaker is just Talon's pet agent. As far as we know she has no goals beyond completing the missions she's assigned. She's the Winter Soldier: femme fatale edition.
Brayden Parker
Soldier 76's short took place in Mexico.
Logan Parker
Reaper is a cloud of Nanomachines possessing different bodies. It's implied that Mercy accidentally turned Gabriel Reyes into what he is.
Logan Gomez
Current DM is doing something kind of similar, though hasn't been brave enough to say it's Overwatch inspired. Basically a wing of the UN is dedicated to dealing with setting problems, and employs super individuals including villains who they will grant temporary amnesty to as long as they work for the branch. You can come and go as freely as you please though, but it is a pretty cushy position to have.
He created some setting-level threats as well as has some of us players as villains. So we can either pose threats to one another or team up to deal with something bigger.
It's actually quite interesting in that regard where he has each half of the party competing for public and political favor. The heroes are all about justice and following the rules but are bogged down by all the bureaucracy, where us villains are about getting the job done and trying to act as a deterrent against future problems but are bogged down by laws. At least that's the general idea, as we compete, and depending on public and political favor based on our actions, determines who has more sway in the branch and how things will go. If they can maintain hero favor, then things will be more to their liking, if we can increase villain favor then things will go our way.
Maybe in that regard it's more like XCOM but for super people and not just aliens, rather than a typical branch of the UN. Either way though, it's been surprisingly fun so far, and the DM welcomes our input for things to happen both for our characters and the branch, as well as the setting proper. So far, a few players have created or prompted larger setting threats, which may or may not have been related to their characters.
Luis Ross
Yeah, I figured the Mercy thing.
I didn't know he was a bodysnatcher though. I assumed he was constantly breaking down and rebuilding his own body (this being why he regains health from kills - he literally uses whatever raw materials are around to patch himself up).
Michael Smith
The body snatcher thing is my theory because it seems to make more sense than him stuffing other organs into himself.
Also, the ending bit from Recall had him flying around as a cloud.
Sebastian Peterson
Reaper is super edgy because he's actually Reyes's teenage son trying to avenge his father using his gear and tech he was given by Talon.
Caleb Adams
Reminder that in a setting of super powered and super scienced people, Road Hog is completely mundane and normal and gets by with the best of them by being a fat fuck.
Austin Morgan
Maybe he was mutated by austradiaton.
Brayden Campbell
Have you see his face under that mask? He looks like an actual pig.
Pretty sure he's some weird irradiated mutant.
Evan Hughes
I know people in real life who look like actual pigs.
Possible but we'd need to see some solid proof.
Isaac Lee
Does this look like the body of a mutant?
Jose Reed
I like the idea, scifi superheros with somewhat rational/tech-based backgrounds for having their powers! Sounds neat, and your power level seems well balanced too.
David Miller
Roadhog is at the upper ends of Human size and strength and then tips it over the top by huffing super gas.
Michael Wood
That's not gas, it's paint.
Justin Gomez
He could also just be 'straylian. I mean, think how bad it is now.
Now imagine how bad it is after a near world-destroying roborebellion.
Cooper Flores
I fucking love the UN. Not in real life so much, but in fiction the UN is a fucking spectacular organization for stuff like this because there's so many words that begin "UN-" that you can pretty much set the tone of the campaign by picking a fitting backronym.
Going for a light, optimisitic campaign? You work for the United Nations International Treaty Enforcement office, or UNITE.
Dark and Gritty? Try United Nations Tribunal on International Law, or UNTIL.
Are they the villain? You clearly work for someone else -try NATO- but the bad people are probably in the United Nations DEpartment of Military Intelligence and National Enforcement, or UNDERMINE.
Just something to keep in mind.
Pic Related: Average UNITE agent.
Jayden Cook
You could use the DCAU as guidance. Start with fun and relatively straightforward adventures that also establish your cast, then slowly start to delve into the politics of where the team's orders come from and how much oversight the people should have over them, have good guys make some honest mistakes that turn into nastiness and suspicion, then have a big cathartic battle with an unambiguous bad guy right at the end.
Then, if the campaign runs longer than you thought it would, have a rambling story arc that goes nowhere and features gorilla/human romance.
Tyler King
Mcree is a cyborg cowboy Junkrat/Roadhog are just criminals but the only "evil" thing they have about them is they hate the roboniggers Mercy is a mad scientist
Carson Nguyen
Also, they have a careless disregard for human life.
Looking at the comics, you see how legitimate the struggles every other character has are but Roadhog and Junkrat are just insane and played for humor.
Lucas Reyes
Wasnt there entire comic trying to be legit? Only in some sick twisted way since they were psyched to kill some ominics only the CEO double crosses them and them being the psychopaths they are leave him hanging while having planted a bomb in his building.
I'd say there intentions are good joining overwatch and shit butits just they are fucking crazy
Anthony Hernandez
Pretty sure that all the magic and shit is just nanomachines.
Isaac Bennett
Reinhardt is a Knight in power armor. D. Va is a Gamer girl in a mech suit. Lucio is a DJ with hover skates. Symmetra is an Autistic Dancer with super-advanced technology. Dem thighs. Pharah is Egyptian Samus.
If you took it seriously, that's probably what you'd get out of it. But the dialogue isn't really supposed to be serious. However, they aren't really portrayed all that well either.
Connor Ward
Reaper is just a walking parody.
His kit is literally
*teleports behind you* *pulls out dual shotguns* Nothing personel kid
Reinhardt's a long-lived veteran of combat in power armor. DVa has a great deal of experience fighting mecha kaiju that kept on assaulting Korea's coast. Lucio's tech comes from his time as a vigilante and is shit that he looted from Vishkar Corp, the same people who employ... Symmetra, whose autism is a key part of what allows her to use Vishkar tech to create shit out of hard light. And Pharah has some top of the line military training and equipment.
Wyatt White
I was exaggerating.
But Reinhardt is better described as a Knight. That's literally his whole thing. Symmetra honestly just has OCD like Monk.
Joseph Davis
have you read his backstory? areas attacked by the reaper are littered with corpses that appear prematurely aged or "drained" somehow. he's not a body snatcher, he's "stealing their souls" with nanomachinemagic
Hunter Stewart
she's 6'5", she's be almost 400lb if she had "bodybuilder" proportions.
Jaxson Robinson
Don't tell him that
Xavier Moore
Nah, she's got some pretty intense autismal shit going on. Comic confirms it.
And Reinhardt might be a little senile.
Aaron Cook
I'm basing it on the comic. She acts similarly to Monk.
Andrew Gomez
Compared to her arms, the rest of her looks incredibly out of place.
Luis Phillips
I dunno man, Hanzo and Genji's thing seems like genuine magic.
And IIRC it's been stated that Zenyatta has for real enlightenment powers.
Reinhardt is straight up delusional. In his comic he sees a gang as a horde of armored monsters, and their flamethrower-toting leader as a dragon. He's Don Quixote.
Eli Cruz
Reinhardt definitely has some mild dementia going on but he's very much a Knight in battered armor.
Connor Green
not really. that's just what a very tall muscular female build looks like.
James Perry
>I dunno man, Hanzo and Genji's thing seems like genuine magic. >And IIRC it's been stated that Zenyatta has for real enlightenment powers. I want to agree with you but Blizzard has gone on record saying there is no magic in the Overwatch universe.
Hudson James
And Mei is WORST GIRL
Nathaniel White
Maybe it's a Ki thing? Ki isn't Magic.
Christopher Ortiz
Show us on the Ragdoll where the Mei shot you with the icicle.
Noah Gray
This seems pretty farfetched. The crap Hanzo pulls is out n' out magic. I'd say it isn't some gamechanger for there to exist magic in the world of OW, even though it's a looot more rare and unique than, say, Shadowrun, which is saturated in magic shit.
I'd say OP should go with "rare cases of mystic spoop" which would also be a nice fluff thing, the baddies might be up to something using magic or whatever. Daredevil S01, for example.
She stood in front of me, spammed the I'm sorry line, and punched me into little bits.
Jaxon Rodriguez
"Unexplained phenomena", "mysticism" or plain magic. The name isn't important, just the fact that certain individuals can wield energies and powers that cannot be explained by logic or laws of nature.
Easton Bennett
>emboldened by the murder of an omnic spiritual leader, a group of British citizens have constructed an EMP device and plan to set it off in the omnic shantytown in King's Row
So is THAT what's happening in that map?
Owen Wilson
He huffs poison gas to heal, so I wouldn't say he's mundane.
Ethan Murphy
at watchpoint gibraltar, you are either preventing the satellite that would recall the overwatch agents to active duty or you are trying to get it to the rocket so it can actualy get to orbit.
each time you sucessfuly defend, you are creating a timeline where overwatch was never called back to active duty
Chase Richardson
Tagging Hanzo's and Genji's shit with something else than magic is actually lamer than magic existing in the setting.
Same goes for Reaper and Zenyatta DESU. Especially Zenyatta since a robot having spiritual powers is a nice twist.
Tracer... yeah. Magic.
Everything else can be at least somehow explained with super (i.e. sufficiently advanced) science.
Jaxson Carter
Fucking word filters. "To Be Honest."
Sebastian Phillips
That, and half the cast has in-game lines where they take the piss out of his ridiculous edgelord act.
Sebastian Clark
I like Ki better. You have people who are capable of walking across burning coals unscathed today. Why not shooting a dragon?
Brody Garcia
Tracer IS super-science in the vein of Doctor Manhattan.
Elijah Lee
>You have people capable of breathing today, why not breathe fire?
Andrew Price
When I first played Reaper and he threw away the guns as opposed to reloading I legit laughed. It's not even a bad parody.
Connor White
I very much agree with most of that, except maybe Tracer and Reaper?
Tracer's abilities don't feel particularly magic, they might all just be some supertech prototype or whatever. And Reaper doesn't really feel like a wielder of fantastic magic either, it's more like he's possessing some alien nano- or life energy-shit or whatever? Dark necron stuff, wherever it came from. 67.media.tumblr.com/f497c7e5684560498a62017320ee0f09/tumblr_o739jqsor41tokdlwo4_r1_540.png
Hudson Howard
How many people do you know that are capable of walking across burning coals barefoot?
David Perez
I got the spray where he just has a bunch of shotguns under his trench coat
Alexander Martin
Tracer is super-science yes and Reaper was covered earlier in the thread.
Nathaniel Diaz
The dragon powers are likely the result of nanite-laced tattoos. The nanite swarms activate with a particular key word to form a particular function.
If Reaper's a sapient nanite swarm, this is possible too.
Cameron Young
Tracer was on a ship designed to skip through time when something fucked up, and now she's chronally unstable. Winston designed her harness to keep her locked into the present and allow her to hop around.
Daniel Hill
Tracer's powers are definitely not magic.
She's a science accident. She was aboard an experimental teleporting fighter jet when it dropped out of the physical universe for too long. After that she got sliced from standard spacetime and started to flicker in and out of existence at different points in time. That glory thing she wears is something Winston designed to keep her rooted in the present and let her manipulate her personal timeline to an extent.
Reaper isn't magic either. It's heavily implied that Zeigler's nanotech turned him into what he is. He's probably a nanite swarm embedded with Reyes' consciousness.
Daniel Barnes
>He's probably a nanite swarm embedded with Reyes' consciousness. that would explain the outfit. it helps keep the nanites in one human shaped place
Colton Gonzalez
The Mythbusters.
Charles Scott
And the endless supply of shotguns are probably made from nanites too...
Makes a lot of sense. I like it.
Logan Myers
So Overwatch this month's "I want to run a campaign like X" game, eh?
Well at least it's a departure from Darkest Dungeon and Dark Souls type games.
Caleb Long
In the animated short, they made it sound like summoning dragons was a family thing. That's magicky youtu.be/oJ09xdxzIJQ
Sebastian Ward
Literally uninspired, go away.
Sebastian Hill
But how can the outfit keep them in if it's also made of them?
Colton Turner
I don't know, bullshit nano science
Jackson Kelly
>Literally uninspired Like making campaigns based on flavor-of-the-month video games?
Jonathan Gutierrez
>flavor-of-the-month
Not in the Porn world. That's been going on for ages.
Henry Diaz
I do hope you're saying that it's the non-arms that look like a muscular female build, because tumblrdyke has pretty clearly always been a MtF with that chin and those arms. That is simply not how a woman's arms develop muscle.
Angel Diaz
Steroids. Russia would totally juice up its soldiers.
James Johnson
They're all cartoons, man. They're based on TF2. Nobody's muscles work that way.
Leo Carter
That's an awful strange way to spell Pharah.
Lincoln Hughes
PharahXMercy OTP
Gabriel Thompson
Junkrat, Roadhog, Mcree, Pharah, Torbjorn, and Reinhardt also have a comic on that note. Pharah is about national defense against an old super computer/weapon, Tor's after one of his designs being used for foul purposes, Junkrat and Roadhog get a job, Reinhardt fights crime, and Mcree ends up on a train at the wrong time.