The most common super-hero world is best described as “Just like our world, but with super-heroes!”
When we role-play as super-heroes, we pretend that we are people (sometimes ourselves, sometimes not) with incredible super powers that live in a pretty normal world with city streets, skyscrapers, farmlands, schools, etc. We can fly, we can lift incredibly heavy things, we can shoot energy blasts from our hands, we can turn invisible! The fantasy works because we know that these powers would be extremely useful in our normal world, and we imagine the good that we can do.
The Hero Instant starts with the basic concept, a world like ours, but has this twist. There are other worlds out there!
In fact, each time you start a new game of The Hero Instant, you will create one!
What follows is a series of questions that the Game Master and the Players should think about when they start a long-running campaign. The list below has tables to roll on, but these should be discussed, perhaps in a ‘session 0’ or during a character creation session. These questions are there to help and not to limit. Your game can be whatever you want it to be.
Question #1 – What is the History of Super-Heroes?
This first question is simply about how long there has been a cultural tradition of wearing a mask and doing heroic and dangerous deeds using superhuman powers.
D10
1 – On this world, there have ALWAYS been super-powered people, some of whom have been heroes and some tyrants.
2 – Throughout human History. The first superhero became active about the same time people started writing things down. Perhaps these two things are related!
3 – They show up when society needs them. Think about the great cataclysms of history and the heroes who showed up. Vesuvius? The Black Plague?
4, 5 – Superheroes are part of industrialized society. So-called ‘Science Heroes’ started to appear at the same time that the industrial revolution took off.
6, 7 – Superheroes are a 20th Century invention. The youngest started to appear during WW1, and even more appeared in WWII.
8 – Something happened less than 20 years ago and now there are superheroes. Think about what might have changed. Perhaps the answer lies in a subsequent question.
9 – Superheroes are purely fictional. People with super-powers don’t really exist, right? Follow-up question: are the heroes actually the very first super-heroes, or have there been secret super-heroes around before them?
10 – No one has ever even thought of being a super-hero before now. There aren’t even fictional super-heroes!
#2 Mass-Produced Powers
Depending on how long there have been super-powered people in the world, have people (or multiple people) tried to CREATE super-powers for their specific purposes. This can include super-soldier programs, Bene Gesserit-like breeding programs, direct genetic manipulation, super-powered battle-suits, or even temporary magical or technological enhancements (cyborgs).
D10
1 – Most countries, many large corporations, and even some cities and states are widely known to have some kind of program to develop super-human abilities.
2 – There are a few known ways to create super-powers, but they are expensive and risky.
3 – There is only ONE way that super-powers are created. NOTE: this answer leads to more questions: How are super-powers created? Is it fully understood? Does any single person or group own or control the process?
4, 5 – There are an unknown number of people and organizations with super-power programs, but they are naturally top-secret information.
6, 7 – There have been many, many attempts, but with limited success – a few super-powered people have been created, but there have been many more failures.
8 – People have tried many times to mass-produce super-powered people, but in every case, they came to the same conclusion: super-powers are unique.
9 – There are a few super-powered programs underway now, but it is too soon to have any results.
10 – It has never occurred to anyone to even try to mass-produce super-powers.
Follow-up Question: Of the 7-8 BILLION people on the planet, how many actually have super-powers? Presumably, not ALL of the super-powered people will be Heroes; some will use their powers for evil, and some will just try to live their lives normally, and/or hide their powers. One-in-a-million would mean that there are 7000-8000 super-powered people around!
#3 Extra-Terrestrial Aliens
At the heart of this question is whether or not we (humanity) are alone in the universe. In comics, it is quite common to have known extra-terrestrial aliens arrive to Earth with super-powers, either due to their advanced technology or because they have a slightly different colored sun in the sky.
Note that any answer about extra-terrestrials from #1 to #6 suggests that we humans might know a great deal more about other planets and star-systems. As you consider this question, also think about what it means for human space exploration. What is NASA’s purpose if, for example, an extra-terrestrial civilization has an embassy in every nations’ capital city on Earth?
D10
1 – Earth is a hub of a diverse intergalactic civilization. There are many, many extra-terrestrials living on Earth, and there are plenty of humans living among the stars.
2 – There is a thriving interplanetary civilization comprising multiple worlds within our own solar system. However, travelling between solar systems is not possible.
3 – There are many known extra-terrestrial species that have travelled to earth for a variety of reasons over the years. Some have left members of their race as embassies or sometimes even colonies.
4 – Earth is situated in the frontier of one or more extraterrestrial civilization. Visiting earth is like visiting the lawless wild west.
5 – There is a community of extra-terrestrials living on Earth that only certain human beings know about. They may be here for a single reason, or each have their own reasons for wanting to, or needing to, live on Earth in secret.
6 – There are a handful of extra-terrestrial ‘emissaries’ living on Earth who claim to bring peace and good tidings from their far-away homes.
7 – Astronomers on Earth have just detected undeniable proof of sentient extra-terrestrial life. They seem to be attempting communication with us.
8 – Sentient extra-terrestrials have visited Earth in the past but left little evidence of their visits. If there is concrete evidence, the powers-that-be (governments or the transnational organizations they report to) have covered it up.
9 – There is no generally accepted evidence (outside of UFO afficionados) of sentient life, although the possibility of it is not discounted.
10 – Humanity is utterly alone in this universe. The stars are ours once we get to them.
#4 Space Travel
This question has to do with how often humanity has travelled to other planets, and how far they’ve gone. This question may connect to the previous question. In one of my games, for example, there is an intergalactic society of aliens that people know about, but they are keeping Earth in a kind of quarantine, and not allowing humans to venture out just yet.
1 – There is no need for space travel because we have mastered the technology of beaming or teleporting across the vast distances between worlds.
2 – Personal space-faring vehicles are as common as automobiles in modern civilization. You can take a trip to space from your own garage!
3 – There are thriving space-ports on Earth. Travel to other planets is as common catching a train.
4 – Travel to other planets is common enough, but tightly controlled by government and / or multinational corporations.
5 – Humanity has not yet created interplanetary space travel technology, but non-human technology has been found or acquired somehow. It may be risky to attempt.
6 – There are human colonies on some nearby planets, but the people allowed to travel are highly trained elites.
7 – We have landed astronauts on the Moon and maybe Mars. There are planned manned space flights to worlds and moons even further away.
8 – Organizations like NASA are planning manned flights to the Moon, Mars and maybe further out, but they are still in their planning phases.
9 – Manned space flight is nothing more than a gleam in some future astronaut’s eye. Maybe we’ll get to the moon soon.
10 – There is a barrier (physical, psychic, magical, natural?) around Earth to prevent space travel. Or perhaps the stars are nothing bit pinholes in the curtain of night.
#5 Robots & Cyborgs
How common, and how autonomous are robots? Ignoring the kind of non-human robotics that we use in RL factories and labs and research, think instead about the robots of super-hero comics – anthropomorphized autonomous creations. Also included in this question are notions of partial robot / partial human (cyborgs), which ties this question closely to your answers for question #2 – Mass-Produced powers.
1 – Robotics has advanced so completely that ‘robots’ are completely biological in nature, able to procreate, and hard to differentiate from ‘human’. As such, they have absolute autonomy and are free as humans.
2 – What once might have been called ‘robots’ are now significantly advanced AIs that can build bodies for themselves suited to any specific task.
3 – There are a specific number of very lifelike and autonomous humanoid robots in the world. They have been given full legal rights, except that they may not a) create new robots, or b) upgrade themselves. The specific number of robots in the world is tightly controlled by law.
4 – Humanoid robots have been created by many different organizations, but always for a specific purpose and with tight controls on their autonomy. Any that reject their explicit purpose are considered malfunctional, and are ‘retired’.
5 – Robots are adorable machines built with very human-centric AI and perform tons of household duties for their wealthy owners. They have been programmed with a sense of loyalty for these owners and compassion for all humans. They are less humanoid and more toy-like.
6 – Robotics have outstripped AI, and so what we think of as ‘robots’ are actually robotic bodies controlled by human minds – cyborgs.
7 – There are a small handful of known humanoid, fully autonomous ‘robots’ in the world, each the result of a different, and unreproducible, scientific endeavor.
8 – There are some new early advances in robotics, but they are clumsy, clunky, and not able to exist autonomously for any length of time except in highly controlled environments.
9 – No known science has not been able to create anything remotely like the robots of science fiction, but yet, there are examples of ancient and/or non-human ‘robotics’ (like Golems) scattered through history.
10 – The very idea of creating an artificial human body and/or brain is preposterous.
Follow-up Question: What is the general tech-level of the setting? If your world is ‘like our world’ in technology, make sure this is fully understood, and that super-science can make things that are technologically superior, but those things are not available in everyday life. If the game is set in a more technologically advanced future (or the opposite), make sure everyone understands what IS readily available technology and what is not! Even games set in the near past might be pre-mobile-phone or even pre-internet.
#6 Magic
Some super-heroes get their powers from magic, but just how common IS magic? Perhaps the old stories filled with magical creatures and spells were describing the reality of the time, or perhaps it’s all just mythology.
1 – Magic is taught in most schools; everyone can perform a few minor spells at least. Magic is used for everything.
2 – Magic has replaced science. Although it takes developing a special skill or training to really use magic, most people have magical devices for important day-to-day activities.
3 – Magic is pretty common, but extremely NEW. People are just now realizing that the world has changed in a fundamental way.
4 – There is a class of people who have an aptitude for magic, and magic schools have sprung up around the world to teach them.
5 – Magic is a strange force of nature that is available to potentially anyone who finds the way to access it. Perhaps through crystals, or by worshiping more powerful beings.
6 – Magic is a secret knowledge taught to only the people who have proven themselves worthy in some way. Only a few people even believe that it is real.
7 – Magic is rare, and extremely idiosyncratic; no two people have acquired or can use magic the same way. This bolsters the claims of magic-deniers.
8 – Magic is not native to Earth, but perhaps there is unearthly magic that can be acquired elsewhere. It would be enormously rare.
9 – Magic was very common in earlier ages but died out for some reason. Only the most learned even understand how magic was supposed to have worked, and maybe wring a few last magical droplets out.
10 – Magic does not exist. Full stop.
#7 Gods, Myths and Religions
Similar to Magic, many super-hero worlds literally have mythological beings running around from real-world religions, current and historic. Norse gods, Greek gods and monsters, and even Judeo-Christian angels and devils are common characters. What is the nature of these things in this super-hero world?
1 – Mythological beings exist, and have always existed, exactly as the legends say.
2 – Mortal peoples are the reflections of their pantheons. Or vice-versa. As it is on earth…
3 – Mythological peoples and monsters are not originally from Earth – they are aliens of one kind or another.
4 – Mythological entities are ideas that can, in specific situations, become real for a time. Perhaps they need to possess or embody a living person.
5 – Mortals who performed some outstanding task can ascend to a higher state.
6 – Mortal belief creates mythological beings.
7 – Mythological being are re-awakening after a long ‘slumber’ to a new mythological day.
8 – They all left. There was some change that caused Earth to become uninhabitable by mythological creatures.
9 – Mythologies have a basis in fact, but have been exaggerated by repetition.
10 – Mythologies are nothing but stories. Full Stop.
#8 Weird, Alien or Mythological Dimensions
Frequently, in super-hero stories, the heroes get to visit – or fight off an invasion from – weird, alien or mythological dimensions. Sometimes these dimensions are accessed via magic, and sometimes science, and sometimes there are naturally forming rifts. This question explores how common inter-dimension contact is, how it is made, and how much the average person knows about them.
Comic book examples of Other Dimensions include the Astral Plane (Doctor Strange), The Negative Zone (fantastic Four), and Asgard (Thor)
1 – Interdimensional contact is very common and nearly everyone has a story about it. It is no more dangerous than opening a door. (It is a good idea to know what is on the other side.)
2 – Reasonably common Magic or Science can be used to access other dimensions. It may be like travelling by plane, train or ship to another country.
3 – Naturally forming connections form periodically between our dimension and others. They may look random, or they may have a set pattern. They are known, but not so common that everyone has seen them.
4 – There are a small handful of named dimensions that have been officially acknowledged, like foreign powers. Access to and from is tightly controlled by governments.
5, 6 – Certain super-powered people have idiosyncratic connections to other dimensions. Otherwise, there are no known ways to access them.
7 – There are legends of other, specifically named dimensions. Accessing them is purely theoretical at this point.
8 – Accessing other dimensions requires powerful and rare magic or science to accomplish. Most people would not believe that it is possible.
9 – The existence of weird and alien dimensions is the greatest secret ever kept.
10 – Weird, alien dimensions are the stuff of sci-fi and fantasy literature.
#9 Time Travel
There is a set of powers for ‘Time’ that include some powers of time travel. Here are the two rules of Time Travel that I have used while considering that Power Set:
Rule #1) The Past will always lead to this observed Present. (Anything not observed is fair game.)
Rule #2) The Future is always uncertain.
Keeping that in mind, how much time-travel do you wish to allow / have allowed in this world?
1 – People use Time Travel frequently to ‘rewind’ their own lives a few seconds or minutes to try things again. This sends your consciousness back into your past body so that you can learn from your future mistakes.
2 – Time Travelling ‘explorers’ have travelled both forward and backward in time. It is through their explorations that the above rules have been confirmed.
3 – Time Travel is a spectator sport. People are able to travel to prior and future eras, but they exist only as invisible, intangible viewers.
4, 5 – The specific of Time Travel are unique and idiosyncratic to anyone who has the very rare ability to do so.
6, 7 – Travelling back in time seems to be reasonably common, but travelling forward is impossible. There are many people who claim to be from the future, stranded here, unable to return. Naturally, their futures rarely match up.
8 – Time Travel is possible, but rigorously restricted by some organization or reality itself, to a certain group of people.
9 – Time should not be possible. And yet…
10 – Time Travel is not possible.
#10 Alternate Earths
Alternate Earths or Alternate Realities are specific other dimensions that are earth-like and may be nearly exact duplicates of our own. They tend to be defined by just a few specific differences from our real-world which then leads to a different history based on those differences. Alternate Earths are a central tenet to The Hero Instant: each collection of players is considered its own unique alternate reality. In this way, players can play characters from their favorite comics or shows, but not feel too constrained by official canon. Additionally, your group will need to decide if there are alternate versions of individual people in each of these alternate Earths.
Comic book examples include the world created for The Watchmen, the worlds shown in Top-Ten, and Doomworld.
1 – This Earth is Central. Alternate realities are commonly understood. This world is a hub for travel between these earths. In fact, it may have been the original Earth, but that may be an ongoing debate.
2 – One of an Infinite Earths. This Earth has been part of a larger network of alternate Earths throughout history, the total number of which is constantly growing.
3 – One of Many Earths. This Earth is part of a network of known alternate Earths, but access is difficult or tightly controlled. Each Earth has a voice in some cross-reality governing body.
4 – The Wild West of Alternate Earths. This Earth is one of a handful of alternate Earths, and the connections between them are idiosyncratic, rare or even dangerous. Alternate Earths are a playground for lawlessness.
5 – We are the Explorers. Explorers from this Earth have found a number of alternate Earths, but none of these others have made contact with any others. Reality Exploration is difficult and expensive, and so only realistically accomplished by governments or the VERY wealthy.
6 – They Come in Peace. Emissaries from the network of alternate Earths have recently made contact with this Earth.
7 – Welcome to the Party! This Earth has recently initiated contact with another Earth that has pre-existing connections to a larger network of alternate Earths. Very few may know of this.
8 – We Found a Sister-Earth. This world has recently made contact with an alternate Earth that has not previously had any contact with any others. You can decide which of the Earths initiated contact, or maybe it was both simultaneously. You can also decide how public or secret this contact was.
9 – Undiscovered. This Earth has not yet discovered – or been discovered by – any Alternate Earths.
10 – There can be only one! This world will never be connected to any other alternate Earths.
Lastly, of course, it is perfectly OK for you to decide that some or all of these questions will be answered through the game itself!