New GM looking for help on story for an M&M game

[IcyToast49]

My friends and I have mostly only played DND 5e, and we wanted to expand into other systems such as call of cthulhu , shadow run, savage world etc. But we decided to start with mutants and masterminds. I'm GM-ing because I know the most about the medium (Superheroes) and was wondering how I should build the plot of the adventure that the heroes are going to embark on. The only thing that is for certain is that the pc's are going to be teenagers (9th graders, PL 8) attending an government-funded university in Colorado where they're trained by other super heroes to use their powers in in useful ways for the good of humanity (kinda like Avengers Academy).

The PC's are as follows:
Justin - Shadow Stalker (Shadow Manipulation, Shadow Portals, etc.)
Tanner - Lucky Charm (Leprechaun, I could say more but I think that sums it up)
Campbell - Undecided (basically Bouncing Boy from the Legion of Super-Heroes)
Jonah - Undecided (I truly don't know)

And I have several teacher NPC's made or thought of:

(The) Bullet - Principal
Trickshot - Math
(The) Tarantula - Biology
(The) Spark-Plug - English
(The) Sphinx - World History
Tecton - Geography
TurboSpin - Physical Education
The) Scribbler - Art
(The) Fool - Drama/Theatre
Rustbelt - Woodshop
(The) Blue Demon - Spanish
(The) Decoder- Computer Science

I was wondering how I could make the story interesting, and flesh it out with interesting side characters and villains . Because I don't really have any idea for a plot beyond like bad guy attacks the school which has been done so many times (x-men, my hero academia, avengers academy, etc.) There's also a nearby fictional town/city named Hillford, about 50-60 miles away from Denver.

[Man_Over_Game]

My friends and I have mostly only played DND 5e, and we wanted to expand into other systems such as call of cthulhu , shadow run, savage world etc. But we decided to start with mutants and masterminds. I'm GM-ing because I know the most about the medium (Superheroes) and was wondering how I should build the plot of the adventure that the heroes are going to embark on. The only thing that is for certain is that the pc's are going to be teenagers (9th graders, PL 8) attending an government-funded university in Colorado where they're trained by other super heroes to use their powers in in useful ways for the good of humanity (kinda like Avengers Academy).

The PC's are as follows:
Justin - Shadow Stalker (Shadow Manipulation, Shadow Portals, etc.)
Tanner - Lucky Charm (Leprechaun, I could say more but I think that sums it up)
Campbell - Undecided (Probably something elemental)
Jonah - Undecided (I truly don't know)

And I have several teacher NPC's made or thought of:

(The) Bullet - Principal
Trickshot - Math
(The) Tarantula - Biology
(The) Spark-Plug - English
(The) Sphinx - World History
Tecton - Geography
TurboSpin - Physical Education
The) Scribbler - Art
(The) Fool - Drama/Theatre
Rustbelt - Woodshop
(The) Blue Demon - Spanish
(The) Decoder- Computer Science

I was wondering how I could make the story interesting, and flesh it out with interesting side characters and villains . Because I don't really have any idea for a plot beyond like bad guy attacks the school which has been done so many times (x-men, my hero academia, avengers academy, etc.) There's also a nearby fictional town/city named Hillford, about 50-60 miles away from Denver.

You have a school full of supers. Pit them against each other.

Each "input" of students must learn how to work as a group, as they're given various orders throughout the day that they must find a way to fulfill, often involving other students. Maybe there's a golden egg that determines the winner at the end of the day that the group must get their hands on. Teachers occasionally take the students out on "field trips", where they assist the local town with various laborious duties (repairing buildings), threats (fires or car chases), or even mundane problems (rescuing kittens from trees).

Maybe there are "fire drills" that involve some "bad guy" (a teacher) that attacks and the students must react to the threat. With the powers of illusions, telekinetics, and reality warping, the teachers are capable of making things extremely realistic, and so the students are taught to treat every threat as real until a teacher explains to them what is fake.

The catch is, one of the teachers is causing real murders, and only telling students when the "drill" is over when it's most opportune to do so.

Some students are told others are bad guys, and vice versa, and effectively a civil war breaks out within the school. Of course, they're conditioned at this point to treat every threat as "real", and so they go ham on each other.

[Grod_The_Giant]

For a "high school superheroes" thing like this, it seems to me that you've got one of two directions you can go: you can lean into the "high school" part and center the game around the stresses and drama of being a teenager, or you can focus on the "superheroes" part and find a reason to get them out of school and into the action.

The first way is... probably not suited for m&m-- the system is great for action, but not so much for social or exploration. Something like Fate or Masks: A New Generation (which is pretty much that exact setup) would work better.

The second way... varies, based on what sort of tone you want to strike. You could go anywhere from "field internships" to "the city has been obliterated by water-Godzilla and everything is wrecked and the adult heroes are dead, go." What level of grittiness are you thinking?

Edit: the other important thing to take into account is that superheroics is an inherently reactionary genre--a threat appears, the heroes stop it, and the status quo is resumed. Mission-based or monster-of-the-week styles work well. The closest to what you're used to would probably involve the heroes investigating some hidden plot or organization.

[Beleriphon]

I think reviewing the new Wonder Twins comic is a good start (its also good). There's only four issues thus far, but the conceit is that Jan and Zan highschool students with a Justice League internship because Superman owes their father a favour. Its mostly goofy superhero stuff, but it also involves a fair bit of highschool drama shenanigans, which are usually the impetus to getting to the superhero action. A look at the slice of life style game is Naomi (a new DC title, which is really good, and doesn't actually involve any superpowers until issue 5).

A Grod mentions its important to know what kind of game you want. Do you want Archie Comics with a superhero background, or do you want X-Men where one wonders how those kids ever get a high school education with all of their adventures.

[IcyToast49]

I think reviewing the new Wonder Twins comic is a good start (its also good). There's only four issues thus far, but the conceit is that Jan and Zan highschool students with a Justice League internship because Superman owes their father a favour. Its mostly goofy superhero stuff, but it also involves a fair bit of highschool drama shenanigans, which are usually the impetus to getting to the superhero action. A look at the slice of life style game is Naomi (a new DC title, which is really good, and doesn't actually involve any superpowers until issue 5).

A Grod mentions its important to know what kind of game you want. Do you want Archie Comics with a superhero background, or do you want X-Men where one wonders how those kids ever get a high school education with all of their adventures.

Thank you for replying I probably will read those comics to get a feel for the landscape. But to answer your question, I would like it to be more like my hero academia where classes and high school drama are happening but it's inter spliced with superhero action.

[Beleriphon]

Thank you for replying I probably will read those comics to get a feel for the landscape. But to answer your question, I would like it to be more like my hero academia where classes and high school drama are happening but it's inter spliced with superhero action.

From what I understand of that series (I've never read it ever) its about rivalries, high school drama, but thrust is largely superhero stuff with high school providing the drama and character background interaction, rather than if Archie will take Veronica or Betty to the prom and his internal struggles over what to do. Instead Archie picks one of the girls to ask, and then at prom other one attacks then for being rejected, or is mind controlled, or shows up Reggie who gets into a fight with Archie.

Other things form what I see, classes are also stuff like "Learn to Rescue People from a Fire" so there's a fun scenario to go through. The character have to save a bunch of life like dummies from a real fire, like fire fighters do but they get to use their powers. Add a post "rescue" piece where the PCs get to interact with a teacher and some NPC rivals (ie. the guys that are tots obvs going to be the villains).