Inspired by Majestic's recounting of the epic adventures of his game, I will attempt to do likewise.

It'll take some time.

In the meantime, here's the game site which has it all in long hand:

http://vanguardhq.blogspot.com/

Enjoy

Latest issue is loaded on the site!

Doc-trr Foom:

I've got some GM-in' questions for you, cuz it seems like you've been at this for a long time.

How do you manage so many players--especially in a pbem setting? There have to be times when they all want to do different things?

What do you do in the middle of a battle when some of the team is beaten to a pulp and everyone else is still up? It looks like new issues come out about twice a month. If characters are unconscious do their players have to simply sit out for several weeks until the battle's over? (This is one instance when 10 minutes of tabletop waitin' could translate into a month pbem.)

Do you have all the heroes strike at once, then have all the villains attack (with one side getting initiative at a time)--like the Marvel Supes game from the 1980s? Or do you honor the standard initiative rules? If it's the latter, what happens if the villains actions might affect what a hero would do by the time his declared action goes down?

Specifics:

The players have been beyond manageable. I think they get it's supposed to be a team book. If they have different ideas about how to proceed during an adventure, they settle it in character and get a consensus, or split up. If they split up I run them seperately. I had one player apart from the the rest of the team for almost a year of real time. It was fun.

And between each mega-story arc I have a small period of downtime where the players can investigate things they are personally interested in, which becomes an incubator for new story arc ideas and a chance for them to be independent.

If a player gets knocked out, they sit tight until combat ends. Most combats don't go too long; it is pbem. But if it does go on, and a PC or NPC doesn't try to wake them up, I could do something with them on the side: a delirious dream sequence that occurs during unconsciousness, playing out stuff that occurred in their distant past, working on future ideas for inventions, or they can heckle/help the waking PCs, ooc. On the other hand, some players don't mind the break from the game to work on real life stuff.

I modify the standard initiative rules. Each "issue," or game turn, represents half a combat turn, more or less. Everyone gets one action (ie: move and/or attack) in initiative order. Super-speedsters may get two. This dampens the extremes of high-initiative and low-initiative PCs, which I like. It also avoids a long list of actions that are more likely to be irrelevant by the time they get to enact them, because the chessboard has moved.

In terms of keeping their one action relevant, the PCs:
a) give lots of if/then statements
b) tell me what the most imprtant thing is to them in the combat (get the macguffin, save the bystander, evade, fight a baddie, deactivate the bomb, etc.) that way even if the specific baddie they wanted to slug is already unconscious I can move down the list to the next best thing for their character. This requires me to help them in good faith when required, and for them to trust me.
c) In some cases, I'll write them on the side and say, your first choice won't happen, what's your second?
d) In some extreme cases, let them decide next issue, saying they held their acton.

It's not perfect, but I can't fit face to face gaming into my schedule. Some players are old friends from high school days, when the campaign began, and are likewise strapped for time.
Almost everyone has come to the game with a fun attitude and we do our best to try to make it work.

Hope that helps.

Hi,
The Fated weakness was cooked up entirely by that player. As was Blue Comet, who wanted me to command aspects of his past via his Amnesia weakness; the villain past was something out of that player's history in the campaign and was his idea.

To maintain power balance, and avoid the usual Agility arms race,  I have asked players to modify characters, or rejected character concepts entirely.
On the other hand, if a charcter ended up too weak on the sheet, I've tried to build them up more. This helps prevent some characters always being unconscious, as per your previous email.

Either way, all sheets are approved by the PCs at the end of the creation process.

I tried secret Weaknesses in the game to create (hopefully) fun, entertaining challenges. Sometimes the PCs embrace them and the characters develop in unexpected ways. I've had them backfire too. In the case of the latter, I tried to negate or undo the Weakness asap.

If you have a magician idea, send it in! We don't have a sorceror type. We have 8 players now, but I do keep a waiting list.

Here's how I usually ask people to submit an idea, before we get into sheets and numbers:

I need a sentence or two on each of the following:

1) Character Idea, Origin and Name
Characters can be anything, except for the mysteriously missing heroes of the Freedom Force. All characters will begin at first level. Include his Secret Origin: how he got his powers and what made him want to use them for truth, justice and the american way!

2) Personality Type
Give me at least a phrase that describes the personality of the character.
Examples:
Class clown (Beast Boy, Spidey, or the furry blue version of The Beast)
Dark, grim avenger of the night (Batman or The Shadow)
Wise cracking, anti-authority, devil’s advocate (Hawkeye or Green Arrow)
Square-jawed defender of truth and justice (Superman, Captain America or Green Lantern)
Hyper-logical super-scientist (Mr. Fantastic or The Vision)
Brash, happy-go-lucky guy who loves being a superhero (Human Torch, The Flash)
Mysterious, metaphysical enigma (Raven, The Spectre, or The Stranger)
Hard-boiled, working stiff who does this for a job, not for fame, glory or justice (Thing, Nick Fury)

3) Secret Identity
Part of that is Name, Age (wide-eyed kid, burned out veteran, etc.) and Occupation (reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, playboy millionaire, honest cop, intrepid astronaut, scientific genius, noble doctor, hardworking boxer who never got a break, student, etc.)

4) Character Statistics
Stats are Strength, Endurance, Agility, Intelligence and Charisma. Please rank your stats in order of importance. Then, I’ll assign numbers. (Charisma means leadership, spirit, willpower, determination and self-image.)

5) Powers and Weaknesses
Please give me a rough description of what powers and weaknesses you want, and I’ll run it through the rules and turn it into a character sheet.
Playable Superheroes (as opposed to Thor or Superman) are better with less powers. This makes their abilities more special.
If you have more than one or two major superpowers, you’ll need a weakness.

Thanks.

True. You never know how people will react. In my case, the player was unhappy about it, so I began to exit the secret weakness. Then he embraced it and was emailing me every day with his ideas on how cool it would be. Then before I could use it, he was against it again. His participation in the game was a little erratic to say the least. 

Anyway, a PC can also choose to gain a weakness in the course of their history which gives them more points with which to buy new powers/skills/etc.

SuperFriend wrote on Aug 4^th, 2009 at 10:53am:


Not at all!


SuperFriend wrote on Aug 4^th, 2009 at 10:53am:


Thanks!

If he turns out to be a bad guy, it'll be awhile before I can post it.
If he turns out to be a good guy, I'll post it asap.
It ended up being a cool write up.
Stay tuned!

No problem.

Viper's player had to leave when the time demands of the game got to be too much. 

Issue 94 (The Soviet Super Soldiers!) is completed (with everyone's replies in.)

And Issue 95 (At the Temple of Terror!) has begun!

Yer campaign must be set in the Reagan era!

I realize that in a live campaign you can't post secret NPC stats, but it would be fun to see any more stats that you could post of NPCs--maybe ones that were already defeated or who died and what not. Even just partial stats of some of the foes or supporting heroes would be fun--to see what powers they have, etc. No pressure.

Yer campaign issues read a lot like fan fiction, which is a hoot, so I'm enjoyin' followin' around even w/out da stats!

Issue 98 is completed: http://vanguardhq.blogspot.com/

Our heroes find the lost synthetic superhero, Nemesis, and learn more of the fatal fate of the Freedom Force!

Earth's pre-human history is glimpsed again and our heroes face the ambush of Tyrannosaurus Maximus!

SuperFriend wrote on Oct 11^th, 2009 at 8:50pm:


No, I used your model (Ferocity affecting Level) but not the exact numbers you provided.
Thanks!

SuperFriend wrote on Oct 11^th, 2009 at 9:35pm:


Again, I'm reluctant to post sheets here since some of my players are frequent contributors to these boards.
Suffice it to say, depending on the power level of the campaign, animal Levels could equal Ferocity, Ferocity/2 or Ferocity/3.

Doctor Foom wrote on Aug 13^th, 2009 at 10:41pm:

LOL. I just got the joke--calling a cloning power "rather unique" ... very funny.

Issue 99 is up.
http://vanguardhq.blogspot.com/

Things get worse.
And Vanguard names their new HQ!

101 is up.

The heroes have uninvited company in their base.