A Bad Idea

Just played another session in my Icons campaign. I should finish preparing for Carnage. I should work on Qalidar, or even finish Losing Lanterns, which is just insanely close to the end, now. And I probably will put in a bit of time on at least one of those in the next few days.

I have been captivated, though, by an idea that popped into my head earlier this week. It's the kind of plan that's almost universally derided for its imprudence and, for once, I think the universe has some really good points. It's a bad idea. A bad, bad, really not-good-at-all idea. I shouldn't even be considering it.

The thing is, I kind of think I can make it work. I've created a sprawling web of a Scrivener file where I keep moving around all these little bits of information with ever-changing tags and notes. Workable plots and themes are starting to emerge, lurching and staggering toward those tantalizing visions that drew me into this in the first place. Something is taking shape.

It's probably still a bad idea, though.

We'll see.

Superhero RPG Appendix N Blog Challenge

I came across this interesting Barking Alien challenge by way of +Lowell Francis:

I challenge you, the Superhero RPG GM, and/or player, to list between 5 and 10 Superhero comic books, and 5 to 10 Superhero live action or animated shows or films, that typify your style of Superhero RPG campaign.

Having just started a new super-hero campaign, this stuff has been on my mind quite a bit, so all right, here we go:

1. Fantastic Four - From as far back as the flea markets could provide, up through much of the Byrne era.
2. Avengers - Mostly the mid-70's through the mid-80's.
3. Rom: Spaceknight - All of it.
4. Micronauts - All of it. This and Fantastic Four were the first comic books I followed.
5. Uncanny X-Men - The Claremont/Byrne and the second Claremont/Cockrum run. I don't mean any slight to the others; this is just the bit that influenced me.
6. Nova - The original series, from the 70's, with Marv Wolfman and Sal Buscema (and later, unfortunately, Carmine Infantino).
7. Alpha Flight - Byrne through Mantlo. 

And for the shows & films... Sometimes I feel the need to justify these, so there's some blather about why I think they fit:

1. Farscape - Farscape is the gold standard for all my role-playing games, super-hero or otherwise. Its style and attitude had a huge influence on the games I run now. If you can figure out how the characters in this show, each with their own, often violently conflicting, agendas, can come together - or somehow muddle through the crisis without coming together - you can deal with any group of players. 
2. Transformers - Season 3 (the original series). 
3. Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes - (I mean the Avengers cartoon that was prematurely terminated, not the obnoxious one with the movie-based costumes and Red Skull's League of Villains Least Likely to Ever be Part of a League.) I almost hesitate to count this, because watching it feels so much like reading the comic book that I take pretty much the same inspiration from it.
4. Archer - No, seriously. While, again, not about four-color spandex super-heroes, this is another study in how wildly conflicting characters act when thrown into a dangerous situation... or an office building. And, while the comedy does often find its way into lighter moments, the way this show plays out has a lot of influence on even the more serious of my ongoing plots.
5. Aqua Teen Hunger Force - I don't know. It's really hard to find movies or shows that have anywhere near as much influence in this area as even the most cursorily-perused comic book, and it would be cheating to count something like City of Heroes as a movie or show.

Okay, your turn.