By far my favorite setting for roleplaying is superheroes. One of the reason I think I'm having an easier time running the Buffy campaign over the World of Darkness games is that, at it's heart, Buffy is a superhero story. It's the story of a person (or people) with extraordinary powers fighting as heroes, not for personal gain or revenge...but because it's the right thing to do. There's no capes or cowls, but it's still a superhero story. I ran a Heroes Unlimited campaign that ran for over four years. I ran a GURPS campaign based on DC Comic's Checkmate series. I've run Champions and several other games that were basically games for superheroes.
One of the things I think way too many people think about the superhero genre is that characters are simplistic or that morality is black and white. Anyone who reads comics knows better than that.
So, I found this article on RPG net that's worth reading on the topic. The author sums up my feelings on the topic, " I like superheroes; because at their heart they are morally gray, at their core they are mired in human complexities, yet shine because amidst that gray, some few rise out shining, triumphant iconic beyond the dimness that surrounds them. "
Superman is my favorite superhero and it's exactly for that reason. I like that he shines so bright as some iconic beacon of goodness because I've read the stories and through them I see someone who isn't just two-dimensional "goody-goody" but someone who struggled with and struggles still with what it means to be this extremely powerful being in a world filled with lots more extremely powerful people who want to do horrible things with their powers. (Since most comic book heroes have several villians, the bad guys outnumber the good guys by a great majority in most comic book universes.)
...and how easily that level of power could corrupt. Think about it. I've always thought that I would do a lot of good if I were given Superman's powers but how long would it be before I'd decide that I could do a lot better for the world if I became its emperor? The road to hell and all that.
The fact that superheroes become these great heroes amidst all that is what attracts me to the setting. I think it's also why most of my characters always start out tragically flawed in some way. I'm trying to simulate what I like in comics.....overcoming the the darkest parts of your being to be a great hero when at your heart, you are still a human being. You are good and evil all wrapped up in one package. That's where the struggle is.
Posted by Nuadha at March 3, 2004 7:01 PMHow recent is the "moral grey" of superheroism, though? One of the reasons I stayed fairly far away from early Superman was because of that boy scout demeanor, the, "I've got the Great Responsibility part down," where I love the stories of his struggle with his power. Is that struggle really "superheroic"?
Posted by: MT Fierce at March 5, 2004 1:59 PMThe struggle is certainly superheroic, although not every superhero fan may appreciate it. Look at the early Marvel comics (particularly the early Spiderman comics) for a great example of a character struggling to deal with the responsibilities and troubles that come with great power.
I think the struggle has always been there. Having more stories that focus on the moral grey areas and conflicted heroes is a new development but the fact that you have a hero struggling to do good in an often dark world has been there since the beginning. Sometimes it was just something you had to read between the lines for.
As far as Superman goes, he wasn't the black and white character that people see him as in the beginning. He was more of the tough-guy, social crusader than the patriarchal image he developed through the fifties and sixties. However, even in the midst of the sixties camp, Superman comics dealt with Superman's survivor's guilt, his fear of being alone because he could never get close to anyone (lest they discover his secret) and many other more personal stories that most people that dismiss the "silver age" of comics overlook.
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