101 plots for superhero rpgs

[Bohandas]

81.) The Prohibitionist is attacking the brewery

[Jay R]

82. A giant alien starfish flies to our planet and makes three duplicates of himself in order to attempt to conquer earth.

83. A villain from the future, about to be captured by police, travels to our time to test his weapons against the heroes and determine which one is most powerful, so he can return to where he’s about to be captured and use it to defeat them. Not returning there (since he can clearly travel to any time and place in history) doesn’t occur to him.

84. A scientist builds an alien that can steal the heroes’ powers, in order to capture long-lived animals so he can concoct a longevity potion.

[They may sound silly, but they have a good track record. These are the first three Justice League stories.]

[ElFi]

85. The heroes wake up to a new day, only to find a new world where not only are they not heroes, they don't have superpowers at all. Magical meddling quickly becomes evident, but the source is less forthcoming.

86. Aliens have arrived on Earth. They're completely benign, and actually interested in forming alliances with Earth, but extremist political factions among humans don't see it that way- and are planned to disrupt the proceedings violently.

87. A brilliant scientist has made the first sentient robot, but it goes on the run when the Men in Black come calling, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

88. A twist of fate exposes the city to a crack in reality connecting to a parallel dimension where mystical legions do battle with horrifying Lovecraft-style abominations. Neither side of the conflict is particularly friendly towards Earth's population.

89. There's a deadly game going on in the bad part of town. Every week, people bet their savings on a chance for a mysterious vial that grants superpowers to the one who drinks it- but not only are the superpowers difficult to control, they're gradually killing their recipients.

90. People in the city are disappearing, apparently by alien abduction, but the government and maybe even other heroes are seemingly trying to cover it up.

91. A new drug's on the streets, and anyone who takes it morphs into a hideous and incredibly strong monster.

[Jay R]

91. A new drug's on the streets, and anyone who takes it morphs into a hideous and incredibly strong monster.

Ah. The introduction of coffee to an unsuspecting world.

[Newtonsolo313]

92. Someone has been stealing all the skin tight spandex costumes

[Archpaladin Zousha]

93. Talking dinosaurs are roaming the downtown streets attempting to sell people timeshares.

[GorinichSerpant]

94. Long spidery figures are casually popping up across the city, most people don't notice them unless someone points them out. They don't cause any trouble other than eating all the biodegradable stuff found in trash cans and creepily staring at people.

[Beleriphon]

93. Talking dinosaurs are roaming the downtown streets attempting to sell people timeshares.

95. Rex Ready appears on your doorstep and needs your help stopping Prince Wolfhead's newest scheme!

[Bohandas]

96.) Evil twins

97.) Neutral twins, who use their powers to goof around instead of trying to save or conquer the world

98.) Oprah's evil clone just gave everyone in the audience the plague

99.) Ideological war between supervillains The Robber Baron and Dr.Procrustes

[Doorhandle]

100. Dr. Malice has completed the excruciation equation, which is destroying physics as we know it! Can the heroes refute this irrefutable proof of reality's inherent irrationality, or is all hope lost?

101. You know that last villain you sent to prison? Well it turns out that was part of his plan the whole time, and now he's taken over the jail! I do hope you're up for arresting him... again.

[Stealth Marmot]

101. You know that last villain you sent to prison? Well it turns out that was part of his plan the whole time, and now he's taken over the jail! I do hope you're up for arresting him... again.

But...where do you take him when you do?

[Beleriphon]

But...where do you take him when you do?

Super-ultra-mega-jail?

[Doorhandle]

Super-ultra-mega-jail?

To hospital, with a snapped spine. Then again, If I ended up with powers i'd be a super-neutral at best...

[BarbieTheRPG]

13. Gorillas. It doesn't matter how or why. Silver Age comics had lots of gorillas.

Yeah!

10something: The heroes don't know they have superpowers. They live normal lives doing ___. Something happens nearby and they act, demonstrating superpowers and are shocked as everyone else. They are contacted by someone who knows "THE TRUTH" and they realize supers are real but brainwashed by powerful villains to think they are normals. They have to "wake-up" a few other supers and take on the BBEG.

Basically, "The Matrix" all over again.

[Beleriphon]

Yeah!

10something: The heroes don't know they have superpowers. They live normal lives doing ___. Something happens nearby and they act, demonstrating superpowers and are shocked as everyone else. They are contacted by someone who knows "THE TRUTH" and they realize supers are real but brainwashed by powerful villains to think they are normals. They have to "wake-up" a few other supers and take on the BBEG.

Basically, "The Matrix" all over again.

That's way to much fun. Especially if it all ends with it was all a dream.

103. The subterranean Badger-king has breached the surface in downtown! Can you stop the Badger-king and his army of badger-men from conquering the surface world?

[Bohandas]

104.) Martian gangsters

105.) The mafia is going to fix the olympics

106.) Nazi zombies

107.) Confederate zombies

108.) People are being replaced by mutant cabbages that can assume human shape

[GorinichSerpant]

109. Your good intentioned but poorly named friend Murder Hawk needs help getting accepted by the public and/or local superhero league as a good guy. He refuses to change his name to something less evil sounding.

[Doorhandle]

[They may sound silly, but they have a good track record. These are the first three Justice League stories.]

Well, great artists steal. And while i'm stealing ideas from the Arkham series...

110. Due to desperation in the wake of super-crime, and the intense cost of gentrifying the shady city streets, an entire city block has been walled off and made a dumping ground for supervillains, where they'll hopefully kill each-other and/or be forgotten. It's clear something worse than an abysmal disregard for human rights is going on here, as demonstrated by the political prisoners dumped in the block on trumped-up charges... including your secret identities.

111. 8 assassins have been given a million-dollar contract to kill you, after you foiled the villain's plans for the last time! Can you survive this gauntlet of killers?

112. It turns out those assassins were not sent by the local crime boss, but by an outsider who's usurped his identity. Team up with him so he can get his life back and cancel the bounty on you!

113. In a final twist, the villain of 112 has wired a hostage to an electric chair, and set a similar monitor on his most powerful minions. If the minions are knocked out, the hostage will die, and the villain will prove a point on the fragility of human life. If you kill the minions, they'll die, and he'll prove a point about the fragility of human morality. If you don't fight back, YOU will die, and the villain will comment on the fragility of the human psyche. How to solve this conundrum?

114. Every super villain you've ever beat up joins together and forms an army in order to finally conquer the city once and for all.

115. One of those villains is a former friend, who you thought was dead... instead, they were driven to mad hatred of you, being forgotten and tortured all this time. Can you cure their madness, or at least survive it?

And now, to steal from another source!

116. An experimental teleporter turns out to send its cargo directly through hell. Now the demons have hijacked the teleport lab and are wreaking havoc! Without your aid, mankind is doomed!

117. As a follow-up to the above; the demons were looting mechanical parts, human souls and experimental data in order to make a teleporter of their own. It's time to get in your own teleporter, and storm hell before they can mount a full-scale incursion onto our fragile mortal world.

118. One of your loved ones has been stolen by a demon in the aftermath of the above incursions. In the spirit of Orpheus, you've set out to reclaim them, and Hell help any demon in your way because Heaven won't!

119. The ghost of a supervillain is enlisting your help in reaching the afterlife: Heaven won't take him, and Hell's afraid he'll take over. Perhaps another theology can help?

120. A noble superhero friend of yours is enlisting your aid in a ...personal problem. You see, he sold his soul for superpowers, and even a lifetime of good deeds is not enough to let him renge on the deal. Do you take the direct route by attempting to beat Satan's head in, or the even more dangerous route of trying to bluff the father of lies?

and finally:

121. Vincent Van Gouhgn Mad has been stealing famous artworks from the world over, and stashing them within the living painting that is his secret lair. Can you find him before he completes his masterpiece, "shattered history and broken dreams?"

[Knaight]

109. Your good intentioned but poorly named friend Murder Hawk needs help getting accepted by the public and/or local superhero league as a good guy. He refuses to change his name to something less evil sounding.

122. A villain by the name of Death Falcon has been stalking the streets. Help Murder Hawk with his PR campaign that shows that they're two different people who shouldn't be conflated.

[SomeNerd]

106.) Nazi zombies

107.) Confederate zombies

123. Open warfare between Nazi zombies (animated by a virus) and Confederate zombies (Led by the necromancer ghost of Robert E. Lee)

124. The annual villain convention is in town... and they've hired the heroes as security. The convention is actually somewhat important, since it's how the villains self-regulate, and make sure nobody does something stupid like trying to destroy the world. Do you play along, or sabotage things and hope that doing so doesn't open things up for the real crazies? Either way, other heroes are going to be attacking... and it'd probably be bad for PR if you're seen defending the villains.

125. A pharmaceutical brand is secretly manufactured by a supervillain. The medicine works (including as a cure for otherwise incurable/terminal conditions), but one dose in one hundred also includes an experimental super-soldier formula.

126. A supervillain actually successfully took over a country... but is being overwhelmed by paperwork, and actively wants to be overthrown. However, he doesn't want to seem like he's giving up, since his minions rely on him, and he's actually a better ruler than the previous one.

[ImperatorV]

127 - The heroes are contacted by a young girl who is actually an artificial superhuman. She wants help finding her "father," the scientist that created her, who has disappeared. There are some signs that said scientist may be a villain - do they heroes help her? What do they do with her father when they find him? What will her reaction be?

128 - A local villain group is betrayed by one of their members, who claims he has turned over a new leaf and wants to be a hero. It seems like he beat his former teammates a little too easily though...

[Bohandas]

123. Open warfare between Nazi zombies (animated by a virus) and Confederate zombies (Led by the necromancer ghost of Robert E. Lee)

Or how ab0ut a supervillain called the Red Neckromancer

[Beleriphon]

Or how ab0ut a supervillain called the Red Neckromancer

129. The Soviet magician The Red Nekromancer is back from the dead and is hell bent on bringing his brand of undead communism to the world. Each according to their need is best when everybody is dead and nobody needs anything!

[Bohandas]

129. The Soviet magician The Red Nekromancer is back from the dead and is hell bent on bringing his brand of undead communism to the world. Each according to their need is best when everybody is dead and nobody needs anything!

Actually it was meant to be a pun on "redneck". It was meant to be an alternate suggestion for who creates the confederate zombies.

[Beleriphon]

Actually it was meant to be a pun on "redneck". It was meant to be an alternate suggestion for who creates the confederate zombies.

I got the joke. Its just too much fun to take the Red Neckromancer and turn him into the Red Nekromancer (just like Soviet Amerika) is so much fun. Plus you can have the Redneckromancer and the Red Nekromancer get into a fight about who keeps the homonym name.

[Drakeburn]

130. A couple are having a really intense fight. And to make it worse, they both have superpowers! Can the heroes save the innocent bystanders from the crossfire? And can our heroes calm the couple down before the whole city is destroyed?

131. There is a new supervillain in town! And this villain shows up to interfere with the heroes so that the bad guys can get away. How can this new villain be stopped?

132. A sentient object of power (high-tech or magical) has possessed an innocent civilian, and is now going around causing so much damage and destruction. Can the heroes stop it and set its host free?

133. The supervillain is using bees to take over the city!

[GorinichSerpant]

133. The supervillain is using bees to take over the city!

134. The bees are manipulating supervillains to take over the city.

[Bohandas]

135.) Doctor Juvenile is planning to put exlax in the water supply

136.) The Kremlin Gremlin is blackmailing heads of state

137.) A large meteor is about to hit the earth

And now, to steal from another source!

116. An experimental teleporter turns out to send its cargo directly through hell. Now the demons have hijacked the teleport lab and are wreaking havoc! Without your aid, mankind is doomed!

Half-Life, Quake, or Event Horizon?

[GorinichSerpant]

136.) The Kremlin Gremlin is blackmailing heads of state

138. The Russian government says it's willing to pay a pretty penny if you keep the Kremlin Gremlin somewhere, anywhere as long as it's not in Russia.

139. The Kremlin Gremlin is willing to cut a deal with regards to that pretty penny the Russian government offered.

140. The Kremlin Gremlin has found dirt on you personally.

141. The Kremlin Gremlin has dirt on your grandma as well.

Half-Life, Quake, or Event Horizon?

Don't forget Doom.

[Drakeburn]

142. Aliens see the superpowered humans of the earth as a potential threat, so they set out to eliminate every superhuman on the planet.

143. The circus is in town! But at the same time, there are costumed criminals committing heists around town. Who are these mysterious villains, and what is the connection between them and the circus?

144. There is a hot new energy drink in the market, and everybody seems to be buying them. But what happens when the energy drinks have a secret ingredient that triggers superhuman genes?

145. Things aren't going so well for the heroes, as one bad thing after another seems to happen to them. Looking into it, they find out that a supervillain they put behind bars has put a curse on them.
Can the heroes find a way to undo the curse?