So Overwatch has finally persuaded me to run a superhero campaign (which will be in style of the game).
Thing is, I have no clue what the characters will do beyond "missions in which they fight the bad guys". How do I get some roleplaying situations in there?
Any tips or ideas for superhero campaigns?
Overwatch & Superhero campaign thread.
>>47892522
What kind of power levels are you looking at?
Settingwise, what are you thinking?
>>47892551
I was thinking a little bit more powerful than street level, but nowhere near four-colour. Definitely able to geek a few mooks singlehandedly, but not "take-over-the-world" poewrful. Think Spiderman.
I was going to use the game's settting, with the Omnic Crisis and everything. Basically robot invaders everywhere, and a couple unrelated missions here and there.
>>47892616
I'd suggest taking a look at some cape storylines. How expansive do you want them to be?
Have you seen the animated shorts?
>>47892522
For the purposes of actually being superheroes, only a portion of the characters in Overwatch actually possess superpowers. The rest is all science magic.
Do you want to run your campaign with actual superpowers or this A.C. Clarke -style indistguishable super stuff?
>>47892522
Watch the animated shorts to get some better ideas.
>>47892756
I was thinking along the lines of a bunch of missions strung together with a storyline in between. Mostly about saving the world stuff and all that
>>47892798
Both
>>47892952
Have you seen the Overwatch Shorts?
One big thing to keep in mind is that the headline characters in Overwatch tend to have very grand goals in mind, for good or ill. Winston wants to bring about great scientific advancements; Mei wants to save the planet itself; Zenyatta wants to bring unity to humans and omnics; god knows what Reaper and Widowmaker are up to, but they apparently need the backing of a whole multinational terror group to do it. Even if their powers are street-level, their goals are not. So encourage your players to set a grand goal for their character and always work towards it.
Also, don't present missions as missions, but as situations. To take an example from the game: emboldened by the murder of an omnic spiritual leader, a group of British citizens have constructed an EMP device and plan to set it off in the omnic shantytown in King's Row. Rather than asking, "How will you stop them," or, "How will you help them," just ask, "What will you do with this information?"
>>47893019
Yes, but they are mostly fighting
Terrifying thing: The Omnic Crisis used Bastions as footsoldiers, with literal thousands of them on the front lines.
Think about the problems one of them gives a team that isn't ready for it. Now think about 20 of them.
>>47893572
Now consider that there is no given reason besides game mechanics that they couldn't just switch to tank mode any time they wanted.
>>47893726
Tank Mode was introduced really late in the development process, and if you look at Bastion, its parts for turret and recon mode are fully integrated, but its tank mode parts just come out of nowhere, so I'd make tank mode a feature unique to the Bastion with the bird, not all of them.
XCOM + Overwatch = ???
>>47894363
Good tsatse.
Take a look at well written Saturday morning cartoons.
Wakfu, Mystery Inc., Spiderman Unlimited, Avatar, Young Justice. A theme that's pretty consistent is an overarching plot that's procedurally advanced between "one shots." Every session, the players should save the day, while the BBEG's evil plan moves forward a step.
>>47892522
Soldier 76 and Symmetra's shorts both taking place in Brazil and having similar crisis yet different approaches could make for a good example of what you're interested in? Symmetra's a politician and 76 is just a crazy old vigilante but both work toward the "fuck favelas" goal. maybe that'll help you think of stuff?
>>47894562
Symmetra has a short?
>>47894658
Comic.
>>47894686
Ah. Thanks.
>>47892798
I think quite a few of them are functionally superhuman, no?
Tracer can teleport and manipulate time.
Morrison is Captain America.
Reaper is Captain Latin America with spoopy ghost powers (probably nanomachine cloud stuff).
Zenyatta is a robot with legit force powers due to being super spiritual.
Bastion is a robot.
Widowmaker appears to have enhanced reflexes, agility, strength, etc.
Hanzo can summon a spirit dragon.
Genji can summon a spirit dragon and is a cybutt.
Winston is a huge ape with inexplicable Hulk rage.
Zarya has the ability to appeal to tumblr while being super super racist.
>>47893122
Widowmaker is just Talon's pet agent. As far as we know she has no goals beyond completing the missions she's assigned. She's the Winter Soldier: femme fatale edition.
>>47894562
Soldier 76's short took place in Mexico.
>>47895044
Reaper is a cloud of Nanomachines possessing different bodies. It's implied that Mercy accidentally turned Gabriel Reyes into what he is.
Current DM is doing something kind of similar, though hasn't been brave enough to say it's Overwatch inspired. Basically a wing of the UN is dedicated to dealing with setting problems, and employs super individuals including villains who they will grant temporary amnesty to as long as they work for the branch. You can come and go as freely as you please though, but it is a pretty cushy position to have.
He created some setting-level threats as well as has some of us players as villains. So we can either pose threats to one another or team up to deal with something bigger.
It's actually quite interesting in that regard where he has each half of the party competing for public and political favor. The heroes are all about justice and following the rules but are bogged down by all the bureaucracy, where us villains are about getting the job done and trying to act as a deterrent against future problems but are bogged down by laws. At least that's the general idea, as we compete, and depending on public and political favor based on our actions, determines who has more sway in the branch and how things will go. If they can maintain hero favor, then things will be more to their liking, if we can increase villain favor then things will go our way.
Maybe in that regard it's more like XCOM but for super people and not just aliens, rather than a typical branch of the UN. Either way though, it's been surprisingly fun so far, and the DM welcomes our input for things to happen both for our characters and the branch, as well as the setting proper. So far, a few players have created or prompted larger setting threats, which may or may not have been related to their characters.
>>47895134
Yeah, I figured the Mercy thing.
I didn't know he was a bodysnatcher though. I assumed he was constantly breaking down and rebuilding his own body (this being why he regains health from kills - he literally uses whatever raw materials are around to patch himself up).
>>47895267
The body snatcher thing is my theory because it seems to make more sense than him stuffing other organs into himself.
Also, the ending bit from Recall had him flying around as a cloud.
Reaper is super edgy becausehe's actually Reyes's teenage son trying to avenge his father using his gear and tech he was given by Talon.
>>47895044
Reminder that in a setting of super powered and super scienced people, Road Hog is completely mundane and normal and gets by with the best of them by being a fat fuck.
>>47895355
Maybe he was mutated by austradiaton.
>>47895355
Have you see his face under that mask? He looks like an actual pig.
Pretty sure he's some weird irradiated mutant.
>>47895400
I know people in real life who look like actual pigs.
>>47895392
Possible but we'd need to see some solid proof.
>>47895400
Does this look like the body of a mutant?
>>47892522
>>47892616
I like the idea, scifi superheros with somewhat rational/tech-based backgrounds for having their powers! Sounds neat, and your power level seems well balanced too.
>>47895355
Roadhog is at the upper ends of Human size and strength and then tips it over the top by huffing super gas.
>>47895643
That's not gas, it's paint.
>>47895392
He could also just be 'straylian. I mean, think how bad it is now.
Now imagine how bad it is after a near world-destroying roborebellion.
>>47895264
I fucking love the UN. Not in real life so much, but in fiction the UN is a fucking spectacular organization for stuff like this because there's so many words that begin "UN-" that you can pretty much set the tone of the campaign by picking a fitting backronym.
Going for a light, optimisitic campaign? You work for the United Nations International Treaty Enforcement office, or UNITE.
Dark and Gritty? Try United Nations Tribunal on International Law, or UNTIL.
Are they the villain? You clearly work for someone else -try NATO- but the bad people are probably in the United Nations DEpartment of Military Intelligence and National Enforcement, or UNDERMINE.
Just something to keep in mind.
Pic Related: Average UNITE agent.
>>47892522
You could use the DCAU as guidance. Start with fun and relatively straightforward adventures that also establish your cast, then slowly start to delve into the politics of where the team's orders come from and how much oversight the people should have over them, have good guys make some honest mistakes that turn into nastiness and suspicion, then have a big cathartic battle with an unambiguous bad guy right at the end.
Then, if the campaign runs longer than you thought it would, have a rambling story arc that goes nowhere and features gorilla/human romance.
>>47895044
Mcree is a cyborg cowboy
Junkrat/Roadhog are just criminals but the only "evil" thing they have about them is they hate the roboniggers
Mercy is a mad scientist
>>47895793
Also, they have a careless disregard for human life.
>>47895044
>Zarya has the ability to appeal to everyone while being super super stronk.
http://img14.deviantart.net/5dc5/i/2016/148/9/b/overwatch_s_zarya_nsfw_by_pixiepowderpuff-da3xo5l.png
>>47895819
Not nearly muscular enough on the torso and legs.
>>47895813
I mean they arent THAT bad in this regard
>>47895926
Well, they're more comedic than anything.
Looking at the comics, you see how legitimate the struggles every other character has are but Roadhog and Junkrat are just insane and played for humor.
>>47895968
Wasnt there entire comic trying to be legit? Only in some sick twisted way since they were psyched to kill some ominics only the CEO double crosses them and them being the psychopaths they are leave him hanging while having planted a bomb in his building.
I'd say there intentions are good joining overwatch and shit butits just they are fucking crazy
>>47895044
Pretty sure that all the magic and shit is just nanomachines.
>>47895793
>>47895044
Reinhardt is a Knight in power armor.
D. Va is a Gamer girl in a mech suit.
Lucio is a DJ with hover skates.
Symmetra is an Autistic Dancer with super-advanced technology.Dem thighs.
Pharah is Egyptian Samus.
>>47896019
If you took it seriously, that's probably what you'd get out of it. But the dialogue isn't really supposed to be serious. However, they aren't really portrayed all that well either.
>>47896078
Reaper is just a walking parody.
His kit is literally
*teleports behind you*
*pulls out dual shotguns*
Nothing personel kid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOVdNpdhSiQ
>>47896078
Reinhardt's a long-lived veteran of combat in power armor.
DVa has a great deal of experience fighting mecha kaiju that kept on assaulting Korea's coast.
Lucio's tech comes from his time as a vigilante and is shit that he looted from Vishkar Corp, the same people who employ...
Symmetra, whose autism is a key part of what allows her to use Vishkar tech to create shit out of hard light.
And Pharah has some top of the line military training and equipment.
>>47896150
I was exaggerating.
But Reinhardt is better described as a Knight. That's literally his whole thing. Symmetra honestly just has OCD like Monk.
>>47895301
have you read his backstory? areas attacked by the reaper are littered with corpses that appear prematurely aged or "drained" somehow. he's not a body snatcher, he's "stealing their souls" with nanomachinemagic
>>47895898
she's 6'5", she's be almost 400lb if she had "bodybuilder" proportions.
>>47895678
Don't tell him that
>>47896183
Nah, she's got some pretty intense autismal shit going on. Comic confirms it.
And Reinhardt might be a little senile.
>>47896297
I'm basing it on the comic. She acts similarly to Monk.
>>47896269
Compared to her arms, the rest of her looks incredibly out of place.
>>47896045
I dunno man, Hanzo and Genji's thing seems like genuine magic.
And IIRC it's been stated that Zenyatta has for real enlightenment powers.
>>47896297
Reinhardt is straight up delusional. In his comic he sees a gang as a horde of armored monsters, and their flamethrower-toting leader as a dragon. He's Don Quixote.
>>47896297
Reinhardt definitely has some mild dementia going on but he's very much a Knight in battered armor.
>>47896364
not really. that's just what a very tall muscular female build looks like.
>>47896377
>I dunno man, Hanzo and Genji's thing seems like genuine magic.
>And IIRC it's been stated that Zenyatta has for real enlightenment powers.
I want to agree with you but Blizzard has gone on record saying there is no magic in the Overwatch universe.
>>47896078
And Mei is WORST GIRL
>>47896540
Maybe it's a Ki thing? Ki isn't Magic.
>>47896615
Show us on the Ragdoll where the Mei shot you with the icicle.
>>47896377
>>47896540
This seems pretty farfetched. The crap Hanzo pulls is out n' out magic. I'd say it isn't some gamechanger for there to exist magic in the world of OW, even though it's a looot more rare and unique than, say, Shadowrun, which is saturated in magic shit.
I'd say OP should go with "rare cases of mystic spoop" which would also be a nice fluff thing, the baddies might be up to something using magic or whatever. Daredevil S01, for example.
http://66.media.tumblr.com/4921a9bbd478c75f9233b35d15c63c30/tumblr_o88axnJd371tt3053o5_1280.png
>>47896730
She stood in front of me, spammed the I'm sorry line, and punched me into little bits.
>>47896635
"Unexplained phenomena", "mysticism" or plain magic. The name isn't important, just the fact that certain individuals can wield energies and powers that cannot be explained by logic or laws of nature.
>>47893122
>emboldened by the murder of an omnic spiritual leader, a group of British citizens have constructed an EMP device and plan to set it off in the omnic shantytown in King's Row
So is THAT what's happening in that map?
>>47895355
He huffs poison gas to heal, so I wouldn't say he's mundane.
>>47896974
at watchpoint gibraltar, you are either preventing the satellite that would recall the overwatch agents to active duty or you are trying to get it to the rocket so it can actualy get to orbit.
each time you sucessfuly defend, you are creating a timeline where overwatch was never called back to active duty
>>47896839
Tagging Hanzo's and Genji's shit with something else than magic is actually lamer than magic existing in the setting.
Same goes for Reaper and Zenyatta DESU. Especially Zenyatta since a robot having spiritual powers is a nice twist.
Tracer... yeah. Magic.
Everything else can be at least somehow explained with super (i.e. sufficiently advanced) science.
>>47897030
Fucking word filters. "To Be Honest."
>>47896113
That, and half the cast has in-game lines where they take the piss out of his ridiculous edgelord act.
>>47896931
I like Ki better. You have people who are capable of walking across burning coals unscathed today. Why not shooting a dragon?
>>47897030
Tracer IS super-science in the vein of Doctor Manhattan.
>>47897093
>You have people capable of breathing today, why not breathe fire?
>>47896113
When I first played Reaper and he threw away the guns as opposed to reloading I legit laughed. It's not even a bad parody.
>>47897030
I very much agree with most of that, except maybe Tracer and Reaper?
Tracer's abilities don't feel particularly magic, they might all just be some supertech prototype or whatever. And Reaper doesn't really feel like a wielder of fantastic magic either, it's more like he's possessing some alien nano- or life energy-shit or whatever? Dark necron stuff, wherever it came from.
http://67.media.tumblr.com/f497c7e5684560498a62017320ee0f09/tumblr_o739jqsor41tokdlwo4_r1_540.png
>>47897145
How many people do you know that are capable of walking across burning coals barefoot?
>>47897177
I got the spray where he just has a bunch of shotguns under his trench coat
>>47897188
Tracer is super-science yes and Reaper was covered earlier in the thread.
>>47897030
The dragon powers are likely the result of nanite-laced tattoos. The nanite swarms activate with a particular key word to form a particular function.
If Reaper's a sapient nanite swarm, this is possible too.
>>47897188
Tracer was on a ship designed to skip through time when something fucked up, and now she's chronally unstable. Winston designed her harness to keep her locked into the present and allow her to hop around.
>>47897030
>>47897188
Tracer's powers are definitely not magic.
She's a science accident. She was aboard an experimental teleporting fighter jet when it dropped out of the physical universe for too long. After that she got sliced from standard spacetime and started to flicker in and out of existence at different points in time. That glory thing she wears is something Winston designed to keep her rooted in the present and let her manipulate her personal timeline to an extent.
Reaper isn't magic either. It's heavily implied that Zeigler's nanotech turned him into what he is. He's probably a nanite swarm embedded with Reyes' consciousness.
>>47897411
>He's probably a nanite swarm embedded with Reyes' consciousness.
that would explain the outfit. it helps keep the nanites in one human shaped place
>>47897195
The Mythbusters.
>>47899139
And the endless supply of shotguns are probably made from nanites too...
Makes a lot of sense. I like it.
So Overwatch this month's "I want to run a campaign like X" game, eh?
Well at least it's a departure from Darkest Dungeon and Dark Souls type games.
>>47897301
In the animated short, they made it sound like summoning dragons was a family thing. That's magicky
https://youtu.be/oJ09xdxzIJQ
>>47899382
Literally uninspired, go away.
>>47899139
But how can the outfit keep them in if it's also made of them?
>>47899545
I don't know, bullshit nano science
>>47899518
>Literally uninspired
Like making campaigns based on flavor-of-the-month video games?
>>47900788
>flavor-of-the-month
Not in the Porn world. That's been going on for ages.
>>47896414
I do hope you're saying that it's the non-arms that look like a muscular female build, because tumblrdyke has pretty clearly always been a MtF with that chin and those arms. That is simply not how a woman's arms develop muscle.
>>47901144
Steroids. Russia would totally juice up its soldiers.
>>47901144
They're all cartoons, man. They're based on TF2. Nobody's muscles work that way.
>>47896615
That's an awful strange way to spell Pharah.
>>47901476
PharahXMercy OTP
>>47894836
Junkrat, Roadhog, Mcree, Pharah, Torbjorn, and Reinhardt also have a comic on that note. Pharah is about national defense against an old super computer/weapon, Tor's after one of his designs being used for foul purposes, Junkrat and Roadhog get a job, Reinhardt fights crime, and Mcree ends up on a train at the wrong time.
>>47901737
I just read through all of them. They're surprisingly well done. I want them to do some kind of series that actually progresses the plot.
>>47901784
There's some shorts that have some plot stuff in them, like Tracer trying to stop Widowmaker from killing Zenyatta's brother.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyBUMabtslI
>>47892522
Here's a general tip on how to run this game
>>47901824
Yeah, I've seen all of those. It's just that, all these are setting up for the big conflict. Will we ever see it? All the battle that happen in the game are non-canon.
>>47901824
Jesus, does anyone else absolutely HATE all the bright, bubbly, fagtastic personalities everyone has in this game?
>Widowmaker wastes Ghandi-Bot
>Tracer: "WOI WOOD YOO DOO DAT!?"
BECAUSE SHE'S AN EVIL ASSASSIN, YOU ACTUAL FUCKING AUTIST, DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THE CORE CONCEPT THERE?
>>47901945
Sounds like your the Austist who can't into fun
>>47901945
I think Tracer just might be legitimately retarded
>>47902069
I think they're all actually retarded. Is there an in-lore explanation for respawning? Are they clones? Decay over generations could be an interesting answer.
>>47902069
Or she doesn't understand what anyone would gain by killing Mondatta.
>>47902107
No it wouldn't. That dumb answer has been used for a billion questions.
>>47902107
>in-lore explanation for multiplayer gameplay mechanics
Yes, I'd like an explanation for why the UNSC sent all those Master Chiefs to fight over those two bases in the middle of a box canyon
>>47902107
Mercy developed nanotech that is capable of bringing back a person from a lot of shit that modern medical tech can't. Reaper is just straight up Deadpool tier hard to kill due to some procedure Mercy performed on him after fishing him out of the smoking rubble that used to be Overwatch HQ.
>>47902137
>why did the UNSC sent all those Master Chiefs to fight over those two bases in the middle of a box canyon?
We need to get to the bottom of this! We need to break the conditioning! What is the UNSC trying to hide???
>>47901945
Honestly, that was the dumbest part of that short. Hero is the best one.
>>47902107
The battles that happen in game are explicitly non-canon.
>>47902137
>Watch the movies
>The characters in them have shit aim
>they can't land a single shot to save their lives
Erm...
They need to add an Evil Omnic character. Maybe some kind of super punchy guy.
>>47902330
Which characters are you talking about? Because I distinctly remember Widowmaker killing those security detail guys and 76 wasting all those gangbangers.
>>47902330
Well, at least it's like Overwatch.
>>47902137
>>47902232
Wasn't the UNSC, it was project Freelancer.
![25833a6296[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/QKmfpLD.jpg "25833a6296[1].jpg")
>>47901945
>BECAUSE SHE'S AN EVIL ASSASSIN
But evil assassins tend to have an actual motive, be it as an ideal or maybe just for shekels. I mean, as a neutral third party who doesn't keep up with any of this shit because Overwatch looks like TF2 with waifus, *I* certainly don't know what her motive is, so I can't help but be curious too.
Maybe she's against racemixing.
>>47902430
Everyone I know thought the implied robosexual was creepy.
>>47902430
HOW CAN HUMANS EVEN COMPETE?
>>47902355
All of them. Tracer, Reaper, and Widowmaker.
When it comes to main characters they lose all their abilities to aim.
>>47902430
The entire point of Tracer asking why she did that was to show that no one knows why Widowmaker is doing what she does. It is supposed to make her mysterious.
>>47902462
It's already begun
>>47892522
there's lot of stuff you can do besides fighting dudes but it all how you want to take the game
you can have them build there base up or there rep
they can have personal missions so try to accomplish while a bunch of bad guys randomly show up
they can be researching things to help develop technology
they could know about a vague sinister plot and work on stopping it
they could be general protectors escorting important people arround
>>47902518
To be fair, hitting a moving target is pretty hard. The exception is Winston because he's huge.
Did you see the original announcement trailer?
>>47902530
it winds up being incredibly weak, though.
She's basically just a blank slate who kills because she was brainwashed to do so. She at least looked interesting in the trailer, but put it together with the backstory stuff we know now and it turns out she's way less cool and interesting.
>>47902430
This was the worst short
Dragons and Hero were much better.
I hope Junkrat/Roadhog get one next
>>47902588
but you can read "why did talon order you to do that?" from that as well
no one knows what talon is up to right now and that's scary
>>47902588
It is supposed to set things up for videos later on, whether we get those and they are well(passable) written remain to be seen.
>>47902177
That or Reaper died and his dormant abilities gained frm USA's supersoldier program went into overdrive
>>47896730
How about I show you on the map where she blocked the rest of the team from killing the enemy/getting to the payload. God I hate having that bitch as an ally.
>>47902807
Pre-fight dialogue between them confirms that he got his "nothing personnel kid" powers from something she did to him.
>>47902111
Well, maybe she was hired bi Gigarfield. He hates Mondattas.
>>47902588
Like another poster said, she's the Winter Soldier: Femme Fatale Edition.
OP, if you're still here what system are you going to use. I kinda want to do an Overwatch-esque game myself.
Honestly I kind of wish some one other than tracer was in the roboghandi short.
Would have been cool if it was Lucio or mcree.
>>47893122
Reaper's goal is to assassinate all of the former members of Overwatch.
>>47903080
Lucio would have been great.
I wonder who the next short is going to be about.
>>47903080
Yeah. I get that Tracer's the marquee character, but she just feels like a really prominent side character.
>>47903104
Doesn't he think they all tried to kill him? Also, how does Morrisson look like current day Clint Eastwood, but Mercy and Reinhardt haven't aged a day since the disbanding of Overwatch?
>>47903079
Not OP but
GURPS, Wild Talents, Mutants and Masterminds
>GURPS
Super customizable but requires advanced autism to sift through all the fucking books and rules you may want to look at to achieve the "proper" feel of your game. Probably the most work to get right
>Wild Talents
Less Avengers and more Watchmen in terms of grittiness and power level. Uses ORE which some people find a funky dice rolling system to use. Less work.
>Mutants and Masterminds
d20 in a point buy system with a focus on superheroes. Base mechanics lend it to something of a superhero cartoon show, what with how combat works and the whole Complications/Motivations thing.
I find it the simplest of the 3 systems to use.
Take your pick
>>47892522
Look up the basic synopsis of DC Universe online and use that as a base.
>>47903138
>>47903124
Old tor as a body guard also might have been cool.
>>47903145
Reinhardt has aged and, Mercy has super medical tech. Also, I'm pretty sure Jack had aged quite a bit by the time he became the Leader of Overwatch.
>>47895044
>Hanzo can summon a spirit dragon.
>Genji can summon a spirit dragon
Is there a science explanation for this or is it flat out magic?
>>47903184
Ki?
Blizzard is on record stating that Magic isn't a thing in Overwatch.
>>47896377
>Reinhardt is straight up delusional. In his comic he sees a gang as a horde of armored monsters, and their flamethrower-toting leader as a dragon. He's Don Quixote.
I took that more as symbolism than literal hallucination.
>>47903183
Reinhardt has a few more scars and a fucked eye but he looks almost the same. Also, here's what 76 looked like when he was leading Overwatch.
>>47903196
Ki is magic. Anyone who says otherwise is a faggot who thinks Japanese magic is more legitimate than any other magic.
>>47903174
But Torb hates omnics.
>>47896019
They never joined Overwatch, they're just people in the same setting. It's like how Symmetra was never part of Overwatch either.
>>47903308
This really triggers me. In the lead up to the game and everything, it seems like it's going to be about all these former members of this super group coming out of retirement or what have you, but now it seems like a majority of the characters have nothing to do with Overwatch as an organization.
>>47896351
As someone who has multiple autistic family members, she's got autism.
>>47903227
This. Even when you take him on defense on King's Row (a mission to save a bunch of omnic lives, mind you) he flat out says he doesn't consider them people.
>>47897093
>You have people who are capable of walking across burning coals unscathed today.
That's literally just a self control thing. The trick is that there is no trick to it. If you walk across coals in the same way you walk around normally, then assuming you walk like an ordinary person, you'll do fine. The issue is that the knowledge of the hot coals freaks people out so they instinctively don't walk normally.
>>47897301
On that note, has there ever been a fantasy story where it turned out the magic was nano-machines and everybody just forgot that there was super-tech until some world ending catastrophe sent everything back to the stone ages?
>>47903426
Scrapped Princess.
>>47903426
Numenera does that, sort of.
>>47903358
They do sort of address in a couple blog posts, and the whole, "The world could always use more heroes," line. The new blood like Lucio and D.Va grew up on stories of Overwatch and their exploits, and that inspired them to become heroes themselves. Kinda fitting that they'd end up on the same battlefields when Overwatch came out of hiding.
Then you've got characters like the Aussies; equally products of the world that Overwatch created, but more of their failures than their successes.
>>47899498
>Maybe because the family holds the secret to make this nanite infused tattoos. Maybe the tattoos are a family tradition, since their family was a yakuza one, and they keep it a secret to keep power, since they were, you know, yakuza. Maybe Genjis body being mostly robotic is the reason he doesn't shoots his dragons but uses them to slash at people, since he has only part of his torso and his head, his tatoos aren't complete, so his dragons are smaller than Hanzos.
>>47897030
Zenyattas arms are holograms, his flight is just a built-in jet, his orbs are drones, his heal orb uses tech similar to Mercys and his debuff orb usesthe same as the heal orb but with an inverted neutron flow. There is no magic.
>>47903426
Turn A Gundam had a setting like this except it's in the 1900s or so.
>>47903519
>Some Yakuza fucks have a secret that lets them make nano-machine tattoos that shoot dragons
>>47897195
Everyone with slight training. Thanks, Mythbusters.
As for OP's topic, have a BBEG. Ignore the naysayers who say bbeg is for chumps. Great change is spearheaded by one person in real life! Have one man, a veteran of the omnic crisis, devote himself and his wealth to wiping them out. He is attempting to construct a machine capable of forcing wireless access to omnics through which he can upload a kill virus/malware. In order to do it all at once he needs to set it up globally in some way, and the players are made into the strike team of a task force to stop his operations as they are uncovered. Or make them the task force itself with a couple suppoeting NPCs to stay at HQ and dig for more leads while the PCs go out and destroy the latest outpost they've found.
Meanwhile, this plan is hella expensive so he's doing shady shit to get enough money to make it happen so the players have to stop that as well, all while trying to figure out who the guy is.
>>47903426
Read some books like that once without the actual forgetting but some problems with the global AI crash everybody into a fantasy setting with the last admins with access to the AI becoming the arch mages of the setting.
Cool idea, not so good author, the books are kinda meh.
Link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Council_Wars
>>47903145
>Also, how does Morrisson look like current day Clint Eastwood, but Mercy and Reinhardt haven't aged a day since the disbanding of Overwatch?
Reinhardt did age, it's just that he was already old.
Mercy is younger than the others, she's only 37. She probably joined Overwatch when she was very young, after breezing through Swiss vocational training for doctors and then making a breakthrough early in her research.
In-game she jokingly tells Mei that she hasn't aged a day since they last met (because Mei was cryogenically frozen) to which Mei replies "Neither have you, Doctor Ziegler." Some people think this refers to her use of nanomachines to stay perpetually young, but its also possible it was an innocent compliment and Angela just aged gracefully.
>>47896019
I don't think everyone in there has joined Overwatch as much as some are Overwatch and these others get encountered and either allied with or fought against, Roadhog and Junkrat likely being the latter.
>>47903358
The game and its lore are entirely separate things.
>>47896635
Yes it is.
>>47901945
Could be that she knew her before Talon took Widowmaker and made her who she is today. Apparently they kidnapped the wife of an Overwatch member and brainwashed her so she could assassinate said member in his sleep.
>>47892522
Overwatch has lots of opportunity if you get creative.
Robot Racism
Evil Mega Corps
Empowered Gangs
Shadowy Organizations
Giant Mechs/ Rogue AI
Thefts of Powerful Artifacts
All those are in the comics and game. You could get plenty creative with stories that weave these together. You could have them fighting against a gang with powerful eqiupment, trying to find out who their leader is only to catch them too late as they steal a powerful weapon/mech and proceed to take over an unstable region or try wipe out omnic citizens.
>>47903184
I think I heard something about it a being a construct, much like in the way Symettra can make things from hard light, my guess is theirs was probably stolen by the yakuza and given to them by daddy.
>>47902461
It tested very positively amongst my peer group but we all got super into OW, especially the lore. I hope Zenyatta presides at their wedding.
>>47904553
This could work.
If Symmetra's hard-light constructs depend on her autism, maybe that's how the dragons work as well, just replace autism with HONOR.
>>47902232
THEY CAN'T HIDE THE TRUTH FROM THE PEOPLE! DON'T LET THE UN JEWLUMINATIS PULL THE WOOL OVER YOUR EYES!
https://vine.co/v/ilgMphHJaQd
>>47904495
Where to one go to get the backgroudn fluff for Overwatch neatly summarized in one place?
>>47905427The TV Tropes page
>>47904336
Pretty much like 40k.
>>47901945
>Jesus, does anyone else absolutely HATE all the bright, bubbly, fagtastic personalities everyone has in this game?
So, Tracer and Mei?
>>47903079
OP here, thinking of Savage Worlds
>>47905917
Don't hate any of it particularly. That sort of goofy characterization isn't a fit for all games but it works very well for TF2 and OW. Especially with the cartoon vibe the shorts give the game. If you want your SRS and graybrown gayman you still have plenty to choose from.
>>47892522
>Thing is, I have no clue what the characters will do beyond "missions in which they fight the bad guys".
Get raped by interdimensional baddies so that they can get impregnated with said baddies so that those baddies can be reborn as their children and rape them some more.
Furry Bondage Vore parties
Have them trick each other by leaving hints that somebody could kill all their loved ones any time
Laugh as they find out that their bodily fluids are radioactive.
Let them kill each other over shit that could be talked through
Roll on the random purple giant robot attacks table.
>>47906107
Holy fucking shit
>>47903079
Strike! is basically made for this shit.
>>47903392
>>47903227
On the robo-monastery map he straight up screams "THIS PLACE IS ALL MY WORST NIGHTMARES COMBINED, ARE YOU KIDDING MEEEE?!"
>>47903222
>Ki
>Japanese
And Ki isn't Magic retard. The main distinction being that Ki exists but Magic doesn't.
>>47903361
My cousin is Autistic. She's nowhere near that bad. If you've ever watched Monk then you'd have noticed the similarities.
>>47903361
She makes a reference to people wondering "where she fit on the spectrum," which might be a subtle reference to DSMV renaming Autism "Autism Spectrum Disorder"
>>47903222
So all life is magic? Because that's what Ki is.
>>47903222
Ki is the Energy that gives living beings life you tremendous fucking retard. There's a big fucking difference between it and Magic.
>>47906717
At the most, she has Asperger's.
>>47906838
So Ki is the Force? Welp, good to know that shooting lightning out of your fingers isn't magical.
>>47895355
>Road Hog is completely mundane and normal and gets by with the best of them by being a fat fuck.
No wonder I main him.
>>47906989
Considering all you need to do to shoot lightning is rub your socks against carpet, shooting lightning isn't magical at all.
And the Force isn't Magic either retard.
>>47906851
DSMV no longer recognizes Asperger's as a separate diagnosis. All of the Autism disorders are all now under the single ASD diagnosis.
>>47906989
Depending on the setting? No, it might not be.
I mean, Black Lightning in DC doesn't use magic and he shoots lightning. The number of heroes who use 'Biolightning' is kinda silly.
>>47907063
Fair enough. Does OCD fall under the spectrum as well?
>>47904495
Don't forget that Overwatch was officially disbanded and now any Overwatch activity is illegal vigilantism.
Essentially everyone is a mercenary now.
>>47906029
>that pic
People who have played that game look at me like I've grown a second head when I say that reveal didn't affect me in the slightest.
>>47907049
It is literal space magic. Literally.
I wonder what hat on ass retarded definition of magic is trying to be used here. Magic is "unexplainable shit happening." Shooting dragons out of your arm after chanting is pretty unexplainable.
>>47907049
> And the Force isn't Magic either retard.
Thank you for that concise glimpse into where this conversation is headed.
>considering how people can get persuaded to do things they didn't want to do by regular words and gestures, the jedi mind trick is totally NotMagic (tm)
>>47907092
No. OCD and it's sub-types have their own chapter in the DSMV under code 300.3. There's also a related personality disorder in another chapter, appropriately called Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder, under code 301.4.
Generally speaking, people who recognize that their obsessions and compulsions are irrational and pointless but perform them anyway to reduce their stress levels have OCD, whereas individuals who feel that their obsessions or compulsions are right and proper and a sign of desirable mental traits like responsibility or moral fiber have OCPD.
>>47897177
You can actually just melee to cancel the reload animation and the guns don't respawn as fast.
My friends and I filled the spawn room with shotguns. It was beautiful.
>>47907206
>It is literal space magic. Literally.
...you don't understand that word, do you?
>>47907398
despawn as fast*
>>47907274
Hell, that can be explained away as being psychic (which is also magic) or pheromones or hypnosis. Now that I really think about it, Light side powers can all be mimicked by a psychic. Dark side powers are straight up magic though.
And again, being psychic is magic. Even being biotic in the Mass Effect universe is space magic.
>>47907148
That's Spec Ops: The Line iirc?
I really didn't like that game. It didn't tell it's message remotely well as it tried to go 'You chose to do this' when the only other option it gave was 'Have the game stall out'. You can't poo poo on people's moral choices if they don't have moral choices.
>>47907416
>And again, being psychic is magic.
That's very much 'Depends on the setting'. What with magic and psionics being very different things in many settings.
>>47907417
Yep, it is. And I agree with you, there is no other choice except for turning off the game, which is retarded. Glad I torrented it.
>>47907417
But you could have turned off the game and stopped playing.
It's meta.
Like how your chosen undead turns completely hollow if you just stop playing Dark Souls.
>>47907404
Which one?
Literal: an actual and accurate instance of something.
Magic: an unexplainable phenomenom.
Space (adj.): having to do with outer space (noun)
The Force cannot be explained in-universe, and the universe is a space setting, therefore the Force is literally space magic.
>>47907445
It's less Meta and more lazy. You are telling people 'Yeah, go stop playing a full AAA price game that was advertised as a traditional FPS or endure repeated criticism over being a terrible person for stuff the game doesn't let you change'. It would be much less of a problem if the game was free and thus it's not 'You paid $50 for the right to be insulted'
There are plenty of much better games that try the 'Violence and non-violence' idea without making it 'The only winning move is not to play your game'
>>47907417
I actually stopped using the phosphorus when I saw the last bit of people because they were clearly noncombatants. Im not a vet or even into military shit and it was plainly obvious to me.
>>47907430
Being psychic isn't explained in hardly any setting. The ones where it is explained it is technically not magic then, but the rest it still is. Usually the distinction is just in what kind of magic it is. D&D for instance has divine magic, where it comes from the gods; arcane magic, which is manipulating reality throgh ritual; and psionic magic which is manipulating reality through your mind. Really psionic users and socerers are the same, sorcerer magic just tends to look like wizard magic.
I got into an argument with a friend about Biotics in ME and whether they are space magic or not. He said that because the setting has explanations for everything they are not. Biotics have Elerium (I think thats what its called) in their spinal fluid which allows them to create mass effect fields. I pointed out that manipulating something in your spinal fluid is ridiculous, and anyway they would run out of elerium. ME lore clearly states that elerium gets used up when it creates a mass effect, so for biotics to be flingin shit all the time theyd run out eventually. ME also ignores that guns would run out, and ignores how the relays get their elerium.
>>47907516
Oh, right. I stopped using it, and 5 minutes later when it was clear I wasn't being given a choice I shrugged and did it. After that I stopped caring about how bizarre the game was getting.
>>47907516
>ME also ignores that guns would run out
Actually, that IS covered. The rounds they fire are utterly tiny and it's the massive speed that makes them powerful. It's why overheating, not ammo, is an issue in the first game. You have (Near enough for a video game) infinite ammo due to it all being about the size of a spec of dust.
>>47907516
>Being psychic isn't explained in hardly any setting.
It's explained in a lot of them and even in ones where it's not it's not always magic. I mean, this has come up in Dr Strange. Magic and Psychic powers are not the same thing. He's kinda the expert on magic.
>>47907516
Element Zero.
And it doesn't get used up. In fact, it's mentioned that Eezo is used for drive cores, which last until the non-Eezo parts burn out. Electrical signals from a Biotic's nerves set off the small nodes of Eezo spread throughout a person's body.
It's not magic because it's Science Fiction. Genre matters.
>>47906107
Heh. I remember some of those storylines in Marvel! Some were even canon!
>>47907610
Yeah, I remember #1!
Poor, Poor Captain Marvel.
>>47907539
No no, I get the ammo. It's a block of metal which has bits carved off and fired using a mass effect field. The thermal energy generated from this get sucked into a heatsink, and "reloading" is replacing that heatsink. My point is that the mass effect field is powered by elerium, and eventually the gun will run out.
>>47907549
Again, definition of magic. Strange has categorized different types of reality manipulation, but they're both still magic.
>>47907557
It's space magic. Magic in sci-fi is space magic. How else do you explain an element being the catalyst for a reaction that produces energy but not being depleted? It breaks scientific laws in unexplainable ways, and even if characters in the unverse say "we perfectly understand how it works" (which they definitely do not in ME) it is still space magic to us, the... audience/reader/player/consumer.
>>47907829
>Again, definition of magic. Strange has categorized different types of reality manipulation, but they're both still magic.
No, they are not. By the very setting's definition, it's not magic.
>>47907829
>It breaks scientific laws in unexplainable ways, and even if characters in the unverse say "we perfectly understand how it works" (which they definitely do not in ME) it is still space magic to us, the... audience/reader/player/consumer.
So every single science fiction forever that works on science beyond our current understanding is magic? Anything sci-fi written by Charles Stross is Magic?
>>47907829
By the setting's definition, Biotics are just sufficiently advanced science.
Your argument is basically "If I don't understand it, it's magic." Which reflects poorly on your intelligence.
>>47907912
Maybe if we were talking about reality. Cause then there would actually be something to be understood.
In this instance he is correct in pointing out that it is basically a cop out in writing, though.
Unless you think the technobabble in star trek is real too...
>>47907948
It's real in the context of the show, not magic.
>>47899301
I take it when he drops the two he's using the break apart back into nanites and are reabsorbed into the main mass, right?
>>47901737
>Mcree ends up on a train at the wrong time.
After High Noon?
>>47907996
It's high noon somewhere.
>>47906293
And on the Omnic and human cohabitation map he has fucking panic attack
>>47907948
In the context of the setting, it is defined as science. Therefore, it is not magic. Watsonian vs Doylist perspectivs.
>>47907969
>>47908048
Okay, I didn't read the entire thread of discussion.
If this is a discussion of what should be considered 'actual' magic, regardless of how it is explained in-setting, I don't want anything to do with that.
>>47903184
They are japanese
>>47895793
Mercy is propably the shadiest character in overwatch.
There is something wrong about her,and the Reaper incident only confirms this
>>47896931
she actually does have limbs,it's just her model that is shit
>>47895793
>Junkrat/Roadhog are just criminals but the only "evil" thing they have about them is they hate the roboniggers
That, and Roadhog has essentially abandoned his humanity after his anti-omnic rebellion ended up turning his homeland into a nuclear wasteland.
>>47908120
I'm reading more of a "good intentions" vibe here.
>>47908156
So we can take that that she experimented on Reyes?
She really is a mad scientist
>>47908291
The way I see it is that while she was doing Search and Rescue on Overwatch HQ she found Reyes's body and used some sort of experimental nanotech to try and save him, not knowing that he was a traitor. Combine his unstable mind with being dead and the experimental nature of the nanites and you get Reaper.
>>47908291
>So we can take that that she experimented on Reyes?
He had just been blown up by Morrison, it was probably an question of "give him the nanites and risk the side effects or he dies and we never learn what happened here." She decided to risk it (I think most people would) and the results were far worse than she could have imagined.
>>47908575
Mercy is not a clever girl.
>>47908596
I don't think anyone outside the HQ knew that Reyes was a traitor. Morrison was the only other survivor and he disappeared for a bunch of years.
>>47908613
and became fucking clint eastwood with a machinegun and a bad day
not bad
>>47895739
Imagine the XP granted by surviving mutated australian wildlife.
>>47903426
Shannara Chronicles?
>>47895392
>>47895739
Roadhog and Junkrat were both mutated when they blew up omnic factory.
Also Junkrat was 5 at this point.
>>47909739
Junkrat wasn't mutated, he's just crazy. He also wasn't involved in the incident that turned Australia into a Mad Max set. He was one of the survivors/scavengers living in the now horribly irradiated outback, the radiation drove him a bit insane which is why he's so obsessed with explosives.
>>47903426
Endless Legend is literally this.
>>47903426
Early on, I thought Naruto was going to go down this path - or at the very least imply it.
It fit so well in my mind at the time. That all chakra was, especially the way it was portrayed was just nano-machines.
>>47903426
Darg Age is kinda like that.
>>47896113
>>47912733
>Jizzdragon
>>47912733
>edgelord
HA
>>47912733
>Atheismo
>Jizzdragon
>Cummies
Dark Lord Evil and Memento Morii are actually decent though.
>>47912733
>Sonichu
I'm now wondering how many of these are serious and how many are just taking the piss out of the character.
>>47912877
>Darkpikachu
>Darkluigi
>EvilJesus
>Emotions
>Literally a guy named Edgelord
Most of them are probably jokes. The game's been out for like a month, there's no way this many 14 year olds have bought it.
