Accessory - Dragon Magazine #111.pdf - Index of

GM has to enforce motivations, especially for established DC char- You can let the players vent their spleen in space — assuming
acters. A player may appeal the ruling after the session by show- there are no inhabited planets nearby. Of course, the villains,
ing the GM and the other players a comic in which his character freed from the constraint of destroying the ecosystem which
does the sorts of thing the player was trying to have the character keeps them alive, will probably be a tad more vicious as well.
do. If the GM is convinced the character would have acted as the Developing occasional story lines or subplots in which the charplayer
wished, he should give the character an extra miscellane- acter’s powers are not (or are only marginally) useful is an addious
award when the adventure is completed. The other players tional challenge to players. Personal story lines, such as snoopy
and the GM should examine the circumstances of the action as neighbors, romantic interests, or a hostile press are well-tested
well as the action itself. Supergirl always went to great lengths methods of forcing the character to act as something other than a
avoiding the taking of life. But, when faced with the Anti-Monitor, mobile package of super powers. The only real trick to creating
a being who had murdered untold billions of people, slaughtered these stories is to make sure that the use of force is ineffective or
Super Heroes, and was about to kill Superman, Supergirl pulled actually worsens the situation, and that the players do have a
no punches. She was trying to destroy the Anti-Monitor. Unless chance for a positive outcome if they try other approaches. Give
Supergirl were in a similar situation in an adventure, she would them a chance and a reason to use non-combat powers and skills.
never kill. Reward them for being characters rather than megapowered fists.
The second problem is how to build adventures to handle An example of such a situation might be eliminating famine in a
Supergirl. If one player has Supergirl, the other player characters developing nation. Problems might include political upheaval,
have to be very powerful or they become irrelevant. With all that villainous opposition (they may prefer to use the impoverished
power floating around, how do you make adventures challenging? nation as a terrorist breeding ground), and altering the agricul-
How do you keep a game world intact when you have characters tural infrastructure so the nation’s farmers could feed the whole
whose biceps produce more energy than all the bombs dropped in country. Perhaps even the climate must be altered; now, there’s a
World War II? tough job even for Supergirl. If this project were run as a continu-
Part of the solution is to take examples from the comics. In DC ing sideshow to the more traditional adventures, the players’
comics, the more powerful characters are almost caretakers of the characters would become involved with the welfare of the people
world. They have a responsibility to prevent battle damage from they are protecting. And, after a few sessions of effort have gone
affecting the lives of innocent bystanders. If a head-on collision into building up the country, you can bet they will take a personal
between a hero and a villain produces a shockwave which starts a interest in some villain’s threat to destroy their handiwork.
tidal wave, the hero had better find a way to stop the wave before When running really powerful characters, think big. Think big
it reaches land. If the villains create a diversion which threatens in terms of the villains, and think big in the sort of constructive
innocent lives, the diversion has to be dealt with before dispatch- tasks such powerful heroes may be able to perform. The job is no
ing the villains. Now, powerful villains are even more of a threat, easy, but you are building adventures for the most powerful of the
due to the ripple effect of a confrontation. heroes. Running characters as powerful as Supergirl requires the
In the comics, the adventures will sometimes take place in space. full power of a Game Master’s abilities.
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