gaming ideas: looking ahead

[whswhs]

One of my thoughts for my next cycle of roleplaying campaigns came to me out of the blue earlier this year: using Arkham, Massachusetts as the setting for a campaign of Golden Age superheroes in the style of the Justice Society of America (at least two of whose original members, the Atom and the Flash, started their careers as college students).

Comments

[history_monk]

That all sounds pretty sound. If you aren't charging points for mundane equipment, keeping it somewhat proportionate to characters' wealth and using the Optional Money System (as it was called in Hero 6th Edition) might be a good idea.

[whswhs]

That certainly is an approach I would prefer. But neither my copy of the Basic Rulebook nor my fourth edition rules seems to define how much weapons and such cost in dollars. Is there a source for that information? Or is it something where I'd need to come up with costs?

Of course, Call of Cthulhu provides various costs for equipment, and that might be a tolerable approximation. What do you think?

[history_monk]

Using CoC prices seems like a viable approach.

[whswhs]

Well, I've worked out that "divide money by 20" gives a tolerable approximation to 1920s prices. So I can go with that, I think. I'll have to look at Call of Cthulhu to see if it has more detailed rules on money; Hero System is sketchy at best.

[selenite]

What are you contemplating as the villains of the game? Puritan and/or heretic themed super-individuals? Or the classic CoC cults and esoteric powers?

[whswhs]

Neither one. Gangsters, mad scientists, and the occasional super gone bad. Though I suppose I might fit in some evil sorcerers. I want the feel of late 30s/early 40s superheroes.

[selenite]

I can see a lot of fun chasing Prohibition gangsters in a seaport.

[whswhs]

Yes. The Arkham sourcebook goes into detail on how distilled spirits are carried from outside the 12 mile limit to a dock in Arkham.