End Game?

[Adminenkainen]

I've seen many discussions of how OD&D was meant to have an "end game", wherein all the high-level PCs settle down into temples, castles, or towers, raise armies, and segue into a wargaming campaign. Comic books don't have anything like that "end game", and neither does H&H.

The closest thing in comic books is when characters settle into a rut of predictable stories and, like readers, players might decide it's time to retire those Heroes. Of course, like in the comic books, maybe instead of a permanent retirement, the players should try shuffling Heroes and let someone else try to breathe freshness back into a Hero who's grown stale.

Should there be some other type of "end game" for H&H? Something more meta -- like rebooting the same Hero back to first level? (Supplement V: Big Bang suggests this...)

[order99]

The big question is this-if you're emulating the earliest Golden Age comics (where the 'rules' were still being created from scratch and cowboys rubbed shoulders with sorcerers, spies and early superheroes)what sort of Endgame did the Heroes in the comics enjoy? I suspect that the answer was usually 'none'-as long as the characters and formulae were drawing money, the characters would keep adventuring, and it would be up to the writers and editors to keep the comic fresh.

In the RPG though, I could see several possible solutions:

1) The Retcon/A New Era-advance the Timeline in the fashion of the major companies,in that Issue #1 always happened 'ten years ago'. The Golden Age gives way to Silver, the Silver Age to Iron, and still it 'happened ten years ago'...a perfect excuse to start fresh new Heroes and 're-imagine' old ones in more and different ways-it might take a very tolerant and 'meta' player to reduce a beloved Hero back to Lvl 1 though!

A possible alternative might be the Alternate Earths approach (again made popular by the 'Big Two'. Everybody starts with Lvl 1 Heroes (whether new or 'updated' versions) with the understanding that this is an Alternate Earth and that the Editor may use this as an excuse to modify and clarify backstories and history ("The Mondarian Invasion of 1937? Oh no, Dr Bollenbach was pulling your chain about that, it was a hoax he pulled to make you think all of that Mad Science of his was extraterrestrial in origin...") And of course at some point (Crossover Time!) a Jay Garrick will meet a Barry Allen, Bruce Wayne will visit his own grave and two Green Arrows will find they are political opposites...

2) Legacies/Time Marches On-the Heroes age normally, and in time they will experience the minor aches and pains of a relatively robust middle age-family, friends. research, leisure begin to beckon...perhaps the world has settled down a bit, perhaps there are fewer crises, or fewer villains. At any rate, a new crop of young, idealistic young folk have cropped up to deal with it. Time to become a parent, take your spouse on that retirement cruise you never got a chance to have. Or maybe take some of those young, inexperienced Heroes under your wing and mentor them-and that one youth right there in the middle, terrified he's going to hurt someone with his powers, unsure of himself? So much like you were? Hand him your cape, your name, a few of your (slightly obsolete) gadgets, and LOOK at the steel in his gaze as he stands up straight and swears he will honor your legacy...

Perhaps one day you will be needed again on the front lines, maybe you die in battle that day, with the sweetness of having Saved the World resting on your tongue...or maybe you just go quietly in bed one day, surrounded by family and friends, knowing you left your mark upon the world-it's been a good life.

3) Onwards and Upwards!-with the XP costs to Level pretty much doubling every time, I really don't see massive jumps in power after Lvl 10, so why not just Keep On Truckin'? Surely an Editor can keep up the challenges, maybe expand the action to other planets or dimensions? Perhaps Heroes earn full XP up until 'name' level, then have to split it after 10th? Or perhaps steal a page from AD&D 1st, and divide XP for defeated opponents by the Heroes own Level? I mean if Battlin Bill Harper (Lvl 11) gets 11 attacks against ordinary thugs and he scatters an entire Mob single-handedly without even a scratch, he shouldn't get full XP for it, although if an innocent damsel was saved he'd still get the Good Deed bonus...

BTW, i've been without the Internet for over a week, it feels SO GOOD to be reading this Forum again! I've missed you guys...

[Adminenkainen]

It's good to have you back, Order! As you may have noticed, conversation really died down around here. But we're not dead! No, not yet...

[order99]

(listens intently)

Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirrrrrp....

I wouldn't worry. NOTHING stays dead in Comics!