The (name) School for Gifted Children is a (completely secret/ quietly concealed/ out in the open) school for young persons with amazing powers, commonly called Mutants. The school aims to (bring mutants and humanity together peacefully/ teach mutants to survive/ create a bond of mutant “brotherhood” for the future).

Humanity fears Mutants. They have existed (for a long time/ only a generation/ for a few short years). The strongest reactions have involved (paranoia/ hostility /violent assaults/ fearmongering). While the debate has raged on (many/ several/ only one/ no) (politician(s)/ organizations) has(ve) risen to take the lead on the issue.

The school itself is a (small facility/ lies on a modest estate/ sprawls across a large campus). Parents are (fully aware of/ have an inkling about /have been brainwashed concerning) the school’s purpose. Instruction focuses on (students’ talents/ making them well-rounded persons/ balancing powers and real world knowledge).

The staff itself (has a few Mutants/ strikes a balance between Mutants and Humans/ is almost entirely Mutant). Instructors on staff with powers (avoid any kind of/ get caught up in/ secretly engage in/ openly carry out) superheroics.

• Government Registration: Many have called for a central database of all mutants. Others have gone further and suggested mutants be marked and labelled.
• Kidnaping for Experimentation: Several organizations want mutant bodies, some for nefarious weapon programs and others to serve a Transhumanist agenda.
• Mutant Militant Organization Rivalry: Another organization exists either in direct conflict or carrying out a more extreme version of the school’s agenda.
• Student Dissatisfaction: Just because you're a mutant you don't have to attend the school. The staff have to balance drills and student body buy-in.
• Instructors with Agendas: Some instructors live to teach, while others have political agendas and perspectives they work quietly to spread.
• Alien Intervention: For some reason alien empires keep getting caught up in mutant affairs. That can seriously impact syllabi.
• Parental Annoyance: Students have parents and parents have desires and ambitions for their children. While some have disowned their offspring, others argue about grades, teacher recommendations, and future placement opportunities.
• Vigilante Activities: Some mutants fight for justice, and they may be sneaking out to do it. That can bring unwanted attention.
• Mutants Social Unrest: In some areas mutants have been shut into closed communities. Tensions there can spill over.
• Budgeting for Repairs: Repairing the Danger Room after a particularly nasty fracas isn’t cheap.
• Hormones and Energy Blasts: These are teenagers with powers like telekinesis, fire control, and invisibility. What happens when you jam them together in a single place?
• Mutant Plague: A virus, perhaps artificial, perhaps not, has begun to spread in the general mutant community.
• Mutant Conversion Therapy: Rumors have come of a “cure” for mutantkind. It may be a trap or it may be a means to eliminate the mutant threat permanently.
• Temporal Changes: Mutants have a habit of getting into temporal mishaps. This can create changes to reality only some people recall.
• Educational Certification: It’s still a school. If anyone wants their degree recognized or credits transferred, it needs accreditation.
• Secret Agency Infiltrators and Recruiters: Those in the know eagerly place moles, double-agents, and the brainwashed on site for future plans.
• Staff & Students with Evil Relatives: An unusual number of mutants have siblings, parents, or cousins who turn out to be super-villains.

• Counselors Office
• Instructors Wing
• Danger Room
• Headmistress’ Chambers
• Subterranean Aircraft Hanger
• Front Hallway Crossroads
• Baseball Diamond
• Off-Limits Woods
• Down by the Lake
• Teachers’ Garage
• Research Laboratories
• Medical Room Closet
• Secret Mutant Detector Facilities
• Student Rec Room
• Dining Hall
• Isolation & Containment Chambers
• Garden Maze

• Former Villainess Turned Teacher
• Student with Monstrous Appearance
• Warrior with a Haunted Secret Weapon Past
• Uptight First Graduate of the School
• Shared Mind Collective
• Alien Transfer
• Devoutly Religious Instructor
• Disgruntled Star Pupil Returning to Teach
• Resurrected Clone Fiancé of the Vice Principal
• Imaginary Concept Turned Human
• Reprogrammed Anti-Mutant Killer Robot
• Alternate Timeline Survivor
• Excitable Superheroic Groupie
• Reluctant Student with Deadly Powers
• Pupil with Anti-Mutant Family Ties
• Non-Mutant Butler
• Depowered Superhero

• Expel students caught using their powers to cheat?
• A new student has powers that shut down his classmates abilities. Leave them in normal classes or isolate them from the others?
• Let the students participate in a shared prom with local schools?
• A new mutant-only drug is making the rounds. Conduct an undercover investigation locate the culprits?
• A student has started a movement praising the ideals of a radical mutant supervillain. Ban such talk from the school?
• A popular Southern instructor has been fraternizing with students. Expel him from the grounds?
• Put a stop to students secretly training with the more lethal aspects of their powers?
• Some object to the presence of non-Mutants. Only allow mutants on campus?
• Have students battle one another to increase their skills?
• Encourage more parental participation at the school?
• Openly endorse mutant superheroics?
• Move the school to a recently seized mutant-only region?
• Lock away a student discovered to be a younger (clone/dimensional alternate/de-aged/amnesiac) version of an arch-villain?
• Openly campaign against new Mutant Registration legislation?

Over the past couple of years Art Lyon and I have been working on several new pitches. Collaborating with Art has been a pleasure. We've developed some interesting concepts and gone down some blind alleys. We spent some time thinking what might work for DC's nu52 universe. We decided to play around with Warlord, a character who fits with our shared love of pulp fantasy and swords & sorcery. The pitch itself didn't get anywhere, but I thought people might enjoy taking a look at it. I may steal the premise for a campaign.  

In particular we owe a debt to Trey Causey and his blog From the Sorcerer's Skull. His "Warlord Wednesday" series is a must read for fans of the character. We wrote several versions of the pitch (full plot synopsis, character profiles, one-page). Below is the draft of a mid-sized version. 

A pitch we (me, Art Lyon, and Gene Ha) did for DC several years ago. We had some interest, but the timetable they asked about was crazy (they wanted it in before the new Batman film a few months away). It doesn't work with the new status quo in the DC Universe, but I think it remains cool concept. I'd love to make it a backstory for a superhero campaign. 
IN BRIEF

THE UN-HIDDEN SCROLLS
I declared it samurai week for myself, so here's a reading list of books I've found useful for doing samurai games. I've avoided film and vgs because I'll cover that elsewhere. Feel free to suggest more.

COMICS
Usagi Yojimbo
Stan Sakai: 26 collected volumes; 144 issues
This series is a pleasure to read. Stan Sakai puts a huge amount of research and creativity into every story. The various anthologies offer an easy way to pick up these issues, but individual floppies include Sakai’s comments on characters, situations, and background. The longer story arcs (like Grasscutter) show complex plots which GMs could adapt. It also offers insight into daily life and particular crafts (such as the issue which involved kite-making). Despite the “ronin” centered stories, it remains useful for all kinds of samurai games.

Lone Wolf and Cub
Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima: Twenty-eight volumes
Strangely the comic that doesn’t feature talking rabbits is the less realistic one. Lone Wolf never stops going to 11. Despite a focus ninjas and ninja-like assassins, it remains compelling. L5R’s Kolat seem closer to the assassins in this series than to conventional ninjas. LW&C has visuals, enemies, and situations which ought to inspire. Take a look at some of the crazy combat situations and complications they throw in. Think about how you might model those in a game. The series does slow down from time to time to present a look at life in this period, but that’s fairly rare. Better in manga form than any of the movies or TV shows.

Satsuma Gishiden
Hiroshi Hirata: Three volumes
This epic can be a mess at times. I slows down into some seriously long info dump sequences. But in some ways that makes it perfect for a samurai GM. I’d call this a combination military & action manga.

Ooku: the Inner Chambers
Fumi Yoshinaga: Six volumes (more coming)
I don’t know how to describe this, except that its nothing like the comics mentioned above. Instead of swords and blood, it focuses on court and manners. It is a manga deeply involved with politics- conventional and gender. It presents an alternate historical Japan where a plague has been killing off the males of the country. Those losses have required changes in the structure and society, not least of which is the existence of a female shogun. The manga revolves around life in the court and the tensions and infighting gripping those who serve it.

FICTION
The Tomoe Gozen Trilogy (Tomoe Gozen; The Golden Naginata; Thousand Shrine Warrior)
Jessica Amanda Salmonsen
These books do a brilliant job of mixing samurai culture, magic, and myth. This is a world where anything can happen. It draws on the legendary character of Tomoe Gozen a little but moves well past that. The books present a clash between the Shinto and Buddhist conceptions of hell and magic worth reading. Gender politics take up some space in the book, but mostly it concerns itself with a powerful heroine facing obstacles mundane and mystical.

Sano Ichiro Mysteries
Laura Joh Rowland: fifteen volumes
I’m kind of a snob when it comes to mystery fiction. More that I have a few genres I really like and most others don’t grab me. I really like historical mysteries for periods I’m interested in (like Ancient Rome). A good detective story takes you through the background and setting in depth. It offers a tour because it has to play fair with you. The Sano Ichiro mysteries take place in late 17th century Japan. And man they can be a slog to get through. I’ve read about a half-dozen of these and I don’t think I’ve ever walked away thinking: “That was a good read.” But that being said- the novels are full of plots, characters, and details worth stealing. The “Magistrate” campaign is a classic form for L5R and other samurai games. You can easily rework many of these stories for your party (assuming they haven’t read them). They helped me develop a couple of nice plot arcs for my Ryoko Owari game. Think of these like junk food and filler, but take notes while you’re reading. Another historical Japan mystery series is I.J. Parker’s Sugawara Akitada books. I’ll have to confess that I couldn’t even get through the first one. They may get better, but I haven’t yet gotten my second wind.

The Scorpion: Clan War First Scroll
Stephen D. Sullivan
I don’t like game fiction, and I got burnt in the early days by gaming novels so I’ve avoided them. However I like the L5R setting so I gave these a try. This first volume works if you’re an L5R fan. It actually manages to hit the role that the Scorpion have to serve within Rokugan. It takes a couple of liberties, but they work in the story. I enjoyed it and felt like the series has real potential. Then I read a couple more and they were really bad. In particular the second volume, The Unicorn, is absolutely terrible. But this first one is good, so that counts for something, right?

NON-FICTION
Everyday Life in Traditional Japan
Charles J. Dunn
This is a fun little book available in a couple of different printings. If you’re hunting for a good book to add details to your samurai game, start here. Dunn covers each of the different classes in depth and then spends some time looking at life in traditional Edo. Really great resource to help a GM paint a picture. You’ll probably recognize a lot of the ideas from here reworked in various games.

Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543-1879
Noel Perrin
It may seem like an off choice given that most samurai games move black-powder to the sidelines. But Perrin’s book examines the culture and control which allowed them to turn their back on a technological innovation. The author examines the stated reasons and advances a few theories about the how and why of it. The book gives insight into the power of symbols and the means by which the powerful maintain order in a society like this.

A History of Japan, 1334-1615
George Sansom
There are a number of good and solid histories of Japan. This one’s pretty classic. He gives a solid academic overview of this vital period in Japanese history. There’s more focus on events and higher level concerns (politics, wars, foreign relations) than cultural issues and details. Still it gives a good sense of the shifting nature of the samurai class and how they exerted control.

The World of the Shining Prince
Ivan Morris
This is a great cultural history, dealing with 10th-11th century Court life. It use The Tale of Genji as its centerpoint, commenting on details from it and illuminating that world. Fun and readable. You know it is a great book when you see passages from it plagiarized wholesale in various samurai rpg products.

Religion in Japanese History
Joseph Kitagawa
A little dry and academic, but covering a topic worth learning about. The first half of the book covers “religion” in the samurai period. It focuses on high level issues (doctrine, control, social movements) over what the faith looked like on the ground. Still if you’re considering having such faiths play a role in your campaign, it presents a good starting overview.

The Samurai Film: Expanded and Revised Edition
Alain Silver
This gives a great history and overview of the genre, pointing out films you may want to track down. Silver has chapters focusing on the work of Akira Kurosawa and Hideo Gosha. Other chapters examine particular genre elements and how samurai have impacted non-Japanese cinema. He also provides a decent filmography. Well-illustrated, I recommend it as a primer if you’re going to start devouring these films.

Lafcadio Hearn and Stephen Turnbull: I won’t go into this, but you’ll probably find lots by these authors- much of it highly useful. Turnbull in particular is an industry. That’s both good and bad. His stuff always has lots of great material in it, but if you read enough of him you’ll end up going over the same research several times.

As a self-promoting shout out- Diamond Comic Distributors had their Diamond Gem Awards announced and Rocketeer Adventures Vol. 1 took 2011 Anthology of the Year. I mention this, of course, because I have a story in there, so that's pretty cool. You can get the hardcover now, and it is a pretty amazing volume with a ton of great artists and writers. The boo'ks worth picking up if you enjoy pulp action and like to see how a different writers wrestle with the limitations of the eight-page tale. I've been thinking about how to handle The Rocketeer as a game, and I think pretty clearly Spirit of the Century or Adventure! is the way to go.




I'll also point out that in March the trade paper of Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring Superman comes out. That has the three issue mini-series I scripted and co-plotted for the Flashpoint event. I've had a chance to look at the book as a while and I really like it. It got some nice reviews, especially for a first book from me. The trade paper includes the World of Flashpoint books and the Booster Gold final issues tying in to the event. It comes out March 20th.

Raging Bullets has put up the podcast Gene Ha, Art Lyon and I recorded about our work on Flashpoint: Project Superman. You can hear the "behind-the-scenes" directors commentary on the making of the book. You can also hear how the three of us met through RPG gaming and how that affects our outlook on story telling.

It is Episode 274 which you can find here!

We had a great time doing this, although you can probably hear the start of my cold setting in as I'm talking. If you listen to it, I hope you enjoy it.

PUNCHING THE FUTURE
So Wednesday saw the publication of Flashpoint: Project Superman #3, finishing out the series I wrote. Gene and Art did an amazing job under a tight deadline. It looks great. The pages in a few places fell exactly as I hoped- pages 2 & 3 we set up will parallel panel design and they ended up being facing pages. I love the effect of that especially because you have a really strong set of visual and narrative contrasts working there as well. I enjoyed doing this book, which was a challenge. We were among the last of the tie-in series to wrap up. Next week the last book of the Flashpoint spine series comes out. That will finish out this event and lead into the new relaunched 52 DC books. The keys to why that relaunch happens are in the Flashpoint books, but the event itself stands as a whole.

Writing a Flashpoint tie-in book has been interesting. One the one hand you have a number of beats and plot details you’re required to hit. Those form a set of obstructions that you have to work with- some provided before the process and some during. There’s an interesting contrast in the idea of Flashpoint itself. Dan Didio as C2E2 said that they’d commonly gotten feedback that Elseworlds books were popular, but that readers wanted more depth and exploration of those worlds. Flashpoint tried to do that- offering a large scale alternate-world story, without pushing out the regular books going on at the time. In fact, I think the only one directly affected was Booster Gold, but I could be wrong. Doing such a large series in uncharted territory requires immense editorial coordination. It does offer a lot of room for depth, but at the same time you have to rein in the various books to make them work towards the central story. That’s an interesting "obstruction" requiring the writers to find a creative path around.

LIKE WRITING A FORGOTTEN REALMS ADVENTURE
There’s a couple of parallels to the art of building a superhero rpg campaign world. Certainly the kind of tinkering done in this kind of broad alternate universe looks a lot like what we do as GMs. The Flashpoint universe is a little unusual in that it is actually holding back its key premise: what’s the difference? What caused the change? OOH with most Elseworlds books we get that up front- the same with rpg supers settings that try to not just be another "Publisher Universe" (Underground, Brave New World, Lucha Libre Hero). The other issue’s about how much you use/integrate with a published setting. For example, how constrained do you as a GM feel about changing up the setting? It you hesitate on that, you could be subject to a host of choices and options you don’t like. If you want to buy in- and have players who buy into the setting because they know it- then that’s a hefty trade off. You’re effectively playing in someone else's sandbox. With a good group, they may be willing to follow you down that road, but I’ve seen players in the past with an attachment to the setting. Not that they would critique every little decision you make as a GM- but rather as the setting spin further away from what they saw as the core strengths of the setting, they’d become irritated.

DO SETTINGS MATTER?
In my earlier inventory of some superhero settings, I mentioned that the only one I’d actually run "as is" was Wild Cards. I do have to wonder how many gamers actually use settings, in general, and how many use superhero settings in particular? There’s a lot of material out there- but how much is really useful. I pick up setting books if they offer some interesting ideas to adapt or at the very least a cool set of bad guys. So some of the settings books I’ve bought- like Champions Universe and Paragons- really function just as an enemies book, the bestiary of the superhero world.

I'll focus on supers here for a bit, but I think the same questions can be applied to setting books in general- what are gamers getting out of those and how are they actually using them?

SETTING TYPES
I think you can break setting books and types down into three flavors: universes, premises, and specific settings. I’d say universes are what game companies try to establish for their superhero games- like META-4 for M&M, Champions Universe, Villains & Vigilantes, Golden Heroes, Superworld- all work to set a kind of big and all-encompassing world in which the stories can occur. Marvel and the DC Universe also fall into this category. They’re large- with the intent of providing a history and backstory for GMs coming in- and open enough that it excludes no story or idea. These aren’t particular useful to me and I have to wonder how useful they are to other people.

By premises I mean superhero games/sourcebooks which add an obstacle or limitation to the setting. For example, Godlike adds two- the first being the time period of the game, set in WW2 but the second being a unified "scientific" source for the powers of the supers. Other Wild Talents books do the same kind of thing- Progenitor, eCollapse, This Favored Land, Kerberos Club, GrimWar- all offer a niche superhero experience with a distinct focus. Other examples are Aberrant, Wild Cards, and Mutant City Blues. Generally I like the ideas of these, but there’s such an attraction to building one’s own super universe that I again read them for ideas to borrow.

Finally setting books in the super universe usually means city books- with these often being the cornerstone of a company setting out their universe (hence San Angelo, Emerald City, Bay City and Freedom City). Again I have to wonder how many people use superhero city sourcebooks as is. I’ve seen some interesting and distinctive ones (like Gotham and Bedlam City) but often they’ve kind of generic. I can find NPCs to borrow, but what I’d really like to see is a kind of generic sourcebooks for running city adventures for superhero games. Think of something like the great Damnation City- but for supers.

FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD?
City books do lead into one of the big considerations in running a supers game: local or global? A local game offers the advantage of a steady stable of normal NPCs and the chance to get at PCs normal lives on a regular basis. PCs can also build up a solid reputation, learn the ins and outs of the criminal society, and really develop useful resources. The disadvantage to a local game is that it does require the crime to come to the players- and when looked at in the grand scale, the city might seem like an awful place to be if these kinds of things keep happening. If players do screw up, cause problems or fail dramatically they have to really live with the consequences of their choices. A global campaign, on the other hand (or even national) offers the exotic- with new places and sites to have fights all the time. It means players can team up with and meet new heroes on a consistent basis. On the other hand, global games reduces some of the classic investigation story possibilities. It also means a smaller stable of local NPCs (perhaps base staff?). The biggest question is how the PCs get from place to place in a speedy fashion- Quinjet? Magic Gates? Teleporters?

SETTING THE SETTING
So what questions does the superhero GM or publisher have to answer? Beyond the simple premise things, which hopefully make it different from other games- a few questions have to be dealt with.
Published Heroes: Will you have existing comics heroes or villains in your world?
Unified Origin? Is there one event which caused superpowers? Is it mutation, genetic, supernatural?
Magic? Is there magic? Never underestimate the impact of that decision.
How Long? How long have powers been around? How long have superheroes been around?
Public Reaction? Hidden or Public heroes? Celebrities or Pariahs?
Tone? A really important decision to convey to your players. Try to find solid analogs to explain what you’re aiming for.
Realism? A little different from tone- the question of how realistically you’re going to treat the idea of being a hero/vigilante (i.e. will there be a Civil War?)
Established Universe? If so, can you point to a few sourcebooks (movies, comic runs, TV shows) which set out your vision?