Let's continue with the World Building, shall we? The next note is that while many campaigns will be set in a single city, there's a fun variation where you can have multiple GMs in a group, and they all run their games in a different city in the same country. So, you might have one GM running a team in New York, a second on in Miami, and a third in Washington DC. This enables characters to easily transfer between campaigns; Mega-man's secret identity is working for a newly-elected Congressman, so he leaves the New York team and joins the DC team instead, still in the same campaign world but with a different GM. Villains and organizations can be across multiple campaigns, and the GMs can come up with a common background to fill in more detail than a single GM could accomplish. This can be a great way to run a set of games, although the GMs do have to ensure they don't do anything that will disrupt the other games (the New York team tries to stop a massive flood but fails, meaning Miami is inundated...the other campaign will have some serious problems to deal with based on someone else's game, which isn't good).
Alright, so the next section is on the Superhero Rationale. Why do they do it? What pushes a person who gains (accidentally or deliberately) superhuman abilities to put on a colorful costume and fly around helping people? The answer to that question goes a long way toward helping to define the character's personality. And a team of heroes can have different reasons, but the motivation ends up in the same place: Helping other people. Maybe one hero is seeking revenge on a supervillain who harmed a loved on; another one had a wise uncle who told him that with great power comes great responsibility. And some of them are doing it because it's fun, or because it's an ego boost to be the idol of millions. We also get a paragraph on the unwritten 'hero code'. Be better than the villain; capture them, not kill them. Of course, that leaves the possibility of villains escaping (which they do with depressing frequency). However, most law enforcement and even other heroes will generally respond better to the 'good guy' persona rather than the Punisher-types.
Speaking of other heroes, it's possible that you are running a game where the PCs are the only superheroes in the world (as in the latest Fantastic Four movie, First Steps). However, if that isn't the case, then you're going to have to populate the campaign with other heroes. You can certainly use Crusader and Starburst as NPC heroes if you want, but you're probably going to need more than just the two of them. The key to using them is to not let them overshadow the PCs; having Black Widow show up to help with an investigation is great; having Thor show up and pummel the villains that the PCs aren't strong enough to fight themselves is not. Let Thor fight his own villains, and make sure that the PCs at least have a chance against the villains they fight.
Another good thing about NPC heroes is that when they are put together as a team, they can serve as an example of what the PCs should be doing. Maybe the Philadelphia Patrol have a snazzy headquarters that the PCs would like to emulate, or the Dallas Dream Team are the standard by which all others are measured. Alternatively, you can have a team made up of PC and NPC heroes. This both gives the GM a chance to get in on the action, and allows him to have some subtle input into the direction the group takes in a scenario. This has to be done carefully though, so as to not make the 'correct path' too obvious through NPC fiat.
Agents and agent groups are a staple of comics. Everyone knows Hydra's motto: Cut off one head, two more take its place. Well, they are great opponents for heroes, especially lower-powered ones. But organizations might be looking to add some super-powered muscle to deal with those pesky heroes. Agent groups are usually normal, average characters with weapons and occasional special devices. They can be given more points to make them more competent (or give them a bigger gun), but this shouldn't be overused; if agents are too tough, then what makes the supers super? The occasional 50-pt agent would be a challenge, certainly, especially if played smart by a competent DM.
Last on this page we have Supervillain Rationales. Like the heroes, the villains have a tendency to have reasons for what they are doing. These are mostly covered earlier on pages 41 and 42, but this is less about what they are doing, and more with why they are doing it. Then we get the age-old question: Why doesn't the villain just kill a captured hero instead of monologuing and deathtraps? Good question. Maybe they hate the hero so much that a quick death isn't painful enough. So, into the Death Trap they go.
This section continues on the next page; we'll get to it next time. Until then, may all your dice roll high when you need them to.
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