Wednesday 15 June 2016

d100 Super Hero Love Life Gone Wrong



Love is thine heroes weakness

Wiked city has ben talking about roance in a gaming context here as part of a series talking about how non murder an option in fantasy games
http://udan-adan.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/romantic-fantasy-revisited-2-why-would.html

Im taking this another sillier direction inspired by silver age comic books especially Superman and wonder woman. And if you want really messy love gone wrong try Cyclops in the X-men.

Lois Lane is a greater threat than any enemy or kryptonite. She get in trouble, takes unreasonable risks, She snoops, she pries, she lies to uncover heroes secrets. She is jealous and spiteful. Superman has to go to ridiculous lengths to deceive her with robots and and friends in disguise and time travel. All this happens while poor superman is trying to solve a robbery case. She was pretty rude to Clark.

Supergirl has that thing with future Braniac and her horse Comet really a sentient telepathic immortal centaur that loves her and tries romancing her when he is ever put in human form. Comet has a thing with Lois once too. Superman keeps her in a orphanage with mousy wig and glasses for a few years early on till he lets her get adopted. Several stories imply her cousin is the only man fit for her. She even acts in disguise in part of a super mate for Superman to deter or torment Lois for some reason. There are several stories like this and some that possibly led to creating a Supergirl shortly beforehand. Supergirl wants love and approval. She wants parents, friends, a BF and Clark's approval.

Wonder Woman has Steve, a test pilot who crashes a plane probably every appearance and needs saving. He wants to marry her but she has put condition on relationship that until all injustice solved it would not be fair if she had to rush off and save world during dinner. So Steve dreams Wonder Woman will settle down to domestic bliss. Plus she wants him to like her alter ego who he ignores. He is insanely jealous and risks his life and experimental jets to spy on her and her childhood male friend Mer-Man.

Did I mention all three have merfolk Atlantean love interests. Steve and Mer-Man fight often but happily team up against a space amoeba interested in Diana.

Cyclops has it worse. All his friends, enemies and his mentor are attracted to his girl. She gets god like power but in comics a woman with ultimate power dies or leaves the Earth. Men seem to cope with godlike power better in comics unlike Pheonix, Binary, Nova. Then he marries a look alike and has a kid but things ar in trouble and she is a clone made by a supervillain to have his baby and to steal it. Everyone wants the baby. Alternate reality future children keep turning up. The dead lover returns she wasn't really dead just replaced by an alien entity.  After they get back together he feels ignored and gets seduced by a ex villains. Oh I forgot parents abducted by aliens grew up in orphanage run by supervillain. I haven't kept up but I'm pretty sure no man will ever have these problems.

The Justice League cartoon with hawkgirl, huntress and John Stewart pulled these same strings.

Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Steven Strange, Steve Rodgers all get romantic and family and friend torment but X-men get worse in Marvel. Rogue can't touch those she loves. 16  year old Cypher loves 30 ish Bettsy Braddock. etc. I think silver age DC had more gonzo love and Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Lois Lane were a bit different to more manly DC titles.

Marvel FASERIP has a contact system for relationships which is a underrated. I allow unlucky old aunts, kid brothers and pets to be opportunities to earn Karma. Similarly a contact could be a regular love interest and could earn the hero additional Karma. Other love interests can come and go. Enemies could be unwanted love interests. Drama should be as commonplace as battles in super hero comics. This table might help.

Karma 
+10 Go on a date -10 to cancel
+20 Role-playing a awesome speech to loved one
-20 Shit speech that makes everything worse
+20 Make formal declaration of love and some kind of personal contract -20 for messy break up
+40 Getting married or moving in together -40 ugly lengthy legal separation
+20 Deliberately having first baby +10 every child after -20 Finding out about surprise offspring after the fact



d10 Trouble types
1 Obsession
2 Rivals in romance
3 Family trouble
4 Ex lovers
5 Foolishness
6 Fatal Flawed
7 New blood
8 Strange mystery
9 Timeline crisis
10 Oh god no why me!

d100  Super Hero Love Gone Wrong
Could roll a d60 for more modest problems
01 Love interest obsessed with knowing everything about heroes activities
02 Love interest obsessed with knowing heroes alter ego
03 Love interest obsessed with knowing heroes past and origin
04 Love interest obsessed with marrying the hero
05 Love interest obsessed with jealousy for heroes attention
06 Love interest obsessed with following hero everywhere
07 Love interest treats hero alter ego with contempt and as unworthy of love
08 Love interest concerned they are not worthy and depressed
09 Love interest tries to protect hero and deal with hero enemies
10 Love interest exposes self to threats unreasonably expecting rescue
11 A attractive rival becomes friends with your love interest
12 Aggressive competitive romantic rival challenges you constantly
13 An old same sex friend comes out of closet and reveals love interest in you
14 Inappropriate love interest has embarrassing crush on you
15 A childhood friend turns up with secret love interest
16 A look-a-like of a lost lover appears and chemistry starts depite pain
17 A alien or otherworldly being has developed romantic interest
18 A stranger triggers dreams of being star crossed lovers in past life
19 A old friend or mentor confesses they always loved you
20 A enemy developed a crush and risks plans to be near you
21 Your love interest is possibly discovered to be a relative (or clone)
22 Family do not approve of love and want to save you
23 Discovered children from past relationship
24 Your lover has family that hate super heroes
25 Your lover has a sibling who becomes obsessed with your love
26 A family member hates the love interest and tries to sabotage love
27 A frail dependent relative occupies love interests time
28 Love interest related to a super villain
29 Love interest has criminal, political or military family ties
30 Love interest family could effect your income or popularity
31 Ex lover turns up needing help or tied to evil plot
32 Ex spouse appears on scene to confuse matters and brings up messy divorce
33 Ex lover wants relationship back desperately
34 Ex lover become tied to super villain some how
35 Ex lover desperately in some trouble and needs care and help
36 Lover or spouse back from the dead with incredible story
37 Ex spouse of some relation to currant love interest and emotionally unstable
38 Ex lover tries to cause accidents finally resorting to attempted murder
39 Ex lover appears to warn away new love interest
40 Ex lover becomes BFF with current love interest
41 Love interest takes up dangerous career
42 Love interest becomes a rising celebrity
43 Love interest attracts attentions of criminals or super villain
44 Love interest devotes life to charitable or political cause
45 Love interest being monitored by crime, conspiracy or government
46 Love interest charged with a crime
47 Love interest is threatened by someone and lives in terror
48 Love interest develops eating disorder as well as interest in quack therapies
49 Love interest deeply in debt and delusional
51 Love interest has abusive behavior possibly violent
52 Love interest becomes a drug addict or alcoholic
53 Love interest is corrupt
54 Love interest is a career undercover criminal
55 Love interest is a agent or spy
56 Love interest involved in secret high risk thrills
57 Love interest has multiple affairs
58 Love interest is shocked by event and suffers mental breakdown
59 Love interest is ill and needing difficult treatment
60 Love interest is revealed to be a bigot "but they might change!" (hero hater)
61 An attractive new interesting co worker or professional peer befriends you
62 You help stranger out who asks you out for drink or coffee
63 Attractive young person flirts with you lots
64 Attractive person needs to be rescued, promises to make it up to you
65 A celebrity admits to finding your hero ID atractive
66 Person you never consider admits awkwardly they love you
67 A attractive hero ID fan really would like to meet you
68 Meet person who is infatuated by you and is now your stalker
69 A charming sociopath serial killer worms way into your life
70 Hot mysterious person flirts, turns out later they are super criminal
71 Love interest turned into a creature
72 Love interest targeted by mysterious super assassins
73 Love interest secretly from a non human species
74 Love interest on the run from super villain or secret society or cult
75 Love interest is a living time bomb and if not contained in time is a walking disaster
76 Love interest is replaced by shapeshifter, android, alien or clone
78 Love interest is being mind controlled by someone
79 Love interest undergoes incredible image and style change over night
80 A non human entity declares you or love interest are it's chosen one
81 Clues from alternate possible parallel show you with surprising partner
82 Time travelers from oppressive alternate future are your offspring
83 Temporal assassins from possible future seek to erase you and love interest from timeline
84 New enemy from other timeline is evil version of your love interest
85 A evil version of yourself tries to replace you and steal your love interest
86 Time travelers come and give you a child you will have in future for safe keeping
87 A parallel version of your love interest seems more willing but has terrible secret
88 Love interest is a clone made by someone for a secret breeding program
89 Time traveler from future tells you to stick with current love interest no matter what
90 Time travelers appear to see if the chosen one convinced or born yet
91 Your lover didn't used to be human and came from a lab or spell
92 Your love interest is possessed by a being from another plane
93 Your love interest dies in your arms horribly thanks to a enemy
94 Your love interest carried away by mysterious enemies
95 Your love interest carried away from the earth
96 Your love interest meets and tames a powerful being, her presence keeps it under control
97 Your love interest is a super villain or changed into one or doesn't even know
98 Your love interest is a leader of a non human secretive civilization with many factions
99 Enemy made your love interest dangerous for you to touch or be near each other
100 Cosmic being tells you how your current love interest pans out will determine fate of the world

d100 Sidekick Trouble anyone?

Also reading 1960 Wonderwoman - her mom sets up party lines with amazonian time video phones with her teenage wonder girl self and her wonder tot self and they contrive plots where three versions of Dianas timeline and her mum having adventures together. Wondergirl obsessed with training by watching videos of her future self. Amazon education pretty awesome. Im kind of tempted to try some scenarios like this with players creating variant forms of characters which could lead to new characters or regular npcs. Any good hero has emanations like a Hindu god - a super hero, youthful version or sidekick, apposite gender adult and youth versions, a zombie version, a lizard version, a toon version. A gritty realistic version or a saturday morning toon with toyline version. Even your villains get spinoffs or turned into heroes. Everyone gets a car and a big weapon and possibly battlesuit. Super pets the works. More on this later.



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