And a dump of my notes. Feedback is appreciated.
Superhero plot outline, and whatever notes may come.
Basic story of book 1 is to introduce the superworld, by throwing the hero into it, and having him try to adapt. The overarcing story is that the world is headed for disaster as the extradimensional source of power for the supers is drifting closer and will result in them destroying the world in myriad ways. Book #1 only hints at the disaster in the form of the mad scientist opening holes to other realities, trying to get out. Book #2 will have a well-intentioned serial killer trying to slay all the superheroes to stave off the impending disaster. Book #3 will have the actual disaster, but the critical events will take place when the lower-powered/ranked heroes get the mostly-suicide mission to save the universe from the outside. The hero's ability to emulate, reflect, and deny superpowers is revealed to be the only real shot at saving this world. He'll choose to go back to his native reality after having basically doomed the supers to a steady decline into normality... if they survive not having super-powered immune systems while their universe is being moved.
Of course, this incident is going to leave the hero with rather godlike power, and he's going to take over the world. Should be a good tyrant for future novels.
The Hero, as yet unnamed, is a Temp. He needs to be charismatic, manipulative, and a little devious... but he's going to be hideously ignorant. Consider springing several traps on him as he counts on something normal that's not so in a world of supers. His number one redeeming flaw at present is loyalty. He may not always do what is right, but he'll always do right by a friend, and put his ass on the line for any of them.
Claudia Bowman, credit Tia for the name. Not a big-league hero. She's not strong enough, fast enough, or smart enough. But she does have excellent aim, and a beneficial partnership with the prozac egghead.
Prozac Egghead, temporary name. Claudia's her best friend. She takes drugs to keep her mad scientist nature from megalomania. She's a bit unique among the "reformed" mad scientists, as she largely prefers the drugged existance, working almost like a tactical supercomputer... to being the woman who killed and/or wounded her friends and family with an as-yet undescribed incident. Being a useful robot helping a friend to save lives beats feeling the crushing guilt every time she thinks about building something.
Mad Scientist: Escaping. Man, all I have for this guy is the motivation to escape the universe. Shit. I want to hunt him down by his parts acquisitions, but won't be very successful until he grabs the alien spacecraft's engine. But it occurs to me, he might run up his credit to the limit because he knows he's not coming back.
The Weatherman; A world of superpowers would be able to control many things, and make businesses of them. Weather control isn't great for most super-fights. But the farming and city-conditioning benefits would be incredible. A hundred would do for most of the planet. A corporation would be quite natural. The Weatherman would be the CEO. One part Vader, one part Luthor. Atmospheric control would include the air you breathe. So not someone you want to piss off. We'll need a way to piss him off... not too hard, but it'll depend on why we'd need the key players to bother him. Have the first book's extradimensional portals involve atmospheric phenomenon.
Crocolicious; The sewers end up with a few flushed bio-engineered wormy things that produce super-drugs. The temporary kind that offers very short-term gain, addiction, and hideous side-effects. But that make sense if you're trying to defend your home turf against low-level super-gangs. The croc will probably be bio-engineered himself, and he'll have an assortment of symbiotes in him. He'll have short bursts of superspeed, strength, and possibly other abilities, but being a sentient 8' lizard is going to be striking. His personality will be based on the most successful form of human life he witnesses. Pimps. Looking ridiculously blinged out softens a bit of the fear of his alien smile. He probably isn't subject to laws, due to being non-human. And probably an endangered species. Walks semi-erect, actually leaning pretty heavily on the cane. This isn't a matter of weakness, just that even as an altered croc, he's got millions of years of evolution backing a mode of transit crawling on his stomach. Crocs don't normally have an option to rear up.
Love interest; I'm thinking of using a girl that goes to pieces, and back together again. Going to need a job for her. Croco? More likely he'd have an interest in her ability, but she'd not go for it. Hero's power could let her stay in one piece a bit better. She would make a grand assassin. Main reason for having this power is that she'd pretty well disintegrate when the power levels increase in book 3.
world details:
Moonbowl. Low to zero gee soccer. Flying and non-flying divisions. Flying can use spray-jets of compressed air to adjust momentum. Or flight. Idea is that non-supers can compete against supers on fairly equal terms. Good reactions don't necessarily come with good teamwork or quick thinking and what amounts to 3-D pool inside the table. 3-D pool with defense.
I'm figuring a reason for team diversity won't just be about maximizing the chance of a useful talent, or minimizing a detriment, in varying circumstances. Some types won't work well together. Mostly, not a lot of redundancy with psionics. If you read minds by accident, or pick up emotions, you learn to put up with it. But if you have multiple telepaths, each one picks up the others picking up other things. And you get feedback. A stubbed toe multiplied among each, bouncing pain along nerves at the speed of thought multiplied each bounce. The phenomenon will be known as Psions Friction.
Need a lot more ideas to flesh out the world, and encounters. The drug use angle gives a good distraction encounter. I'm also having the main character meet claudia through thwarting a super-speedy bank robber.
Tinfoil hats for signal attenuation. Improves the clarity of the mind-control signal.
Mad Science devices lose potency over time, reducing viability for mass-production. Leading theory suggests such artifacts utilize non-fundamental laws, which change. The runner-up theory is in favor of motion through the cosmos changing the ambiant radiation from nearby stars... this is somewhat complicated by the concept of sunspots, and the radioactive spectra of the usually unstable power sources.
Of course, it's just a bit of lampshade hanging on the usual trope of world-saving plot devices not being particularly recyclable. It would also give a very convincing reason for any tech-dependant hero to have a tech-savvy sidekick that doesn't mind rebuilding the same devices every time they lose potency or become erratic. It also foreshadows the meta-universe both the superworld and the hero's world flow through.
Also, in an RP sense, it would allow for both ritual magic-created items and mad tech to share the same core rules.
Basic story of book 1 is to introduce the superworld, by throwing the hero into it, and having him try to adapt. The overarcing story is that the world is headed for disaster as the extradimensional source of power for the supers is drifting closer and will result in them destroying the world in myriad ways. Book #1 only hints at the disaster in the form of the mad scientist opening holes to other realities, trying to get out. Book #2 will have a well-intentioned serial killer trying to slay all the superheroes to stave off the impending disaster. Book #3 will have the actual disaster, but the critical events will take place when the lower-powered/ranked heroes get the mostly-suicide mission to save the universe from the outside. The hero's ability to emulate, reflect, and deny superpowers is revealed to be the only real shot at saving this world. He'll choose to go back to his native reality after having basically doomed the supers to a steady decline into normality... if they survive not having super-powered immune systems while their universe is being moved.
Of course, this incident is going to leave the hero with rather godlike power, and he's going to take over the world. Should be a good tyrant for future novels.
The Hero, as yet unnamed, is a Temp. He needs to be charismatic, manipulative, and a little devious... but he's going to be hideously ignorant. Consider springing several traps on him as he counts on something normal that's not so in a world of supers. His number one redeeming flaw at present is loyalty. He may not always do what is right, but he'll always do right by a friend, and put his ass on the line for any of them.
Claudia Bowman, credit Tia for the name. Not a big-league hero. She's not strong enough, fast enough, or smart enough. But she does have excellent aim, and a beneficial partnership with the prozac egghead.
Prozac Egghead, temporary name. Claudia's her best friend. She takes drugs to keep her mad scientist nature from megalomania. She's a bit unique among the "reformed" mad scientists, as she largely prefers the drugged existance, working almost like a tactical supercomputer... to being the woman who killed and/or wounded her friends and family with an as-yet undescribed incident. Being a useful robot helping a friend to save lives beats feeling the crushing guilt every time she thinks about building something.
Mad Scientist: Escaping. Man, all I have for this guy is the motivation to escape the universe. Shit. I want to hunt him down by his parts acquisitions, but won't be very successful until he grabs the alien spacecraft's engine. But it occurs to me, he might run up his credit to the limit because he knows he's not coming back.
The Weatherman; A world of superpowers would be able to control many things, and make businesses of them. Weather control isn't great for most super-fights. But the farming and city-conditioning benefits would be incredible. A hundred would do for most of the planet. A corporation would be quite natural. The Weatherman would be the CEO. One part Vader, one part Luthor. Atmospheric control would include the air you breathe. So not someone you want to piss off. We'll need a way to piss him off... not too hard, but it'll depend on why we'd need the key players to bother him. Have the first book's extradimensional portals involve atmospheric phenomenon.
Crocolicious; The sewers end up with a few flushed bio-engineered wormy things that produce super-drugs. The temporary kind that offers very short-term gain, addiction, and hideous side-effects. But that make sense if you're trying to defend your home turf against low-level super-gangs. The croc will probably be bio-engineered himself, and he'll have an assortment of symbiotes in him. He'll have short bursts of superspeed, strength, and possibly other abilities, but being a sentient 8' lizard is going to be striking. His personality will be based on the most successful form of human life he witnesses. Pimps. Looking ridiculously blinged out softens a bit of the fear of his alien smile. He probably isn't subject to laws, due to being non-human. And probably an endangered species. Walks semi-erect, actually leaning pretty heavily on the cane. This isn't a matter of weakness, just that even as an altered croc, he's got millions of years of evolution backing a mode of transit crawling on his stomach. Crocs don't normally have an option to rear up.
Love interest; I'm thinking of using a girl that goes to pieces, and back together again. Going to need a job for her. Croco? More likely he'd have an interest in her ability, but she'd not go for it. Hero's power could let her stay in one piece a bit better. She would make a grand assassin. Main reason for having this power is that she'd pretty well disintegrate when the power levels increase in book 3.
world details:
Moonbowl. Low to zero gee soccer. Flying and non-flying divisions. Flying can use spray-jets of compressed air to adjust momentum. Or flight. Idea is that non-supers can compete against supers on fairly equal terms. Good reactions don't necessarily come with good teamwork or quick thinking and what amounts to 3-D pool inside the table. 3-D pool with defense.
I'm figuring a reason for team diversity won't just be about maximizing the chance of a useful talent, or minimizing a detriment, in varying circumstances. Some types won't work well together. Mostly, not a lot of redundancy with psionics. If you read minds by accident, or pick up emotions, you learn to put up with it. But if you have multiple telepaths, each one picks up the others picking up other things. And you get feedback. A stubbed toe multiplied among each, bouncing pain along nerves at the speed of thought multiplied each bounce. The phenomenon will be known as Psions Friction.
Need a lot more ideas to flesh out the world, and encounters. The drug use angle gives a good distraction encounter. I'm also having the main character meet claudia through thwarting a super-speedy bank robber.
Tinfoil hats for signal attenuation. Improves the clarity of the mind-control signal.
Mad Science devices lose potency over time, reducing viability for mass-production. Leading theory suggests such artifacts utilize non-fundamental laws, which change. The runner-up theory is in favor of motion through the cosmos changing the ambiant radiation from nearby stars... this is somewhat complicated by the concept of sunspots, and the radioactive spectra of the usually unstable power sources.
Of course, it's just a bit of lampshade hanging on the usual trope of world-saving plot devices not being particularly recyclable. It would also give a very convincing reason for any tech-dependant hero to have a tech-savvy sidekick that doesn't mind rebuilding the same devices every time they lose potency or become erratic. It also foreshadows the meta-universe both the superworld and the hero's world flow through.
Also, in an RP sense, it would allow for both ritual magic-created items and mad tech to share the same core rules.
posted by DannyboyO1 at
10:16 PM
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