Idea Pot

[Previsionary]

I think this is like the fourth version of the idea pot, but here we go again. Speak your minds, gangers, and let's see if it sparks any team efforts or some such. Since I'm literally sitting on a folder full of ideas I won't be getting to anytime soon, if at all, I'll start off again.
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Magneto: Rise of the Brotherhood

What if there were no X-men? What if Magneto was the only head mutant left to fight for mutant kind? When Xavier found himself struck down and betrayed by his ex-lover, Moira Mactaggert, Magneto recruits his own team of mutants and plans to make Moira and the government pay for their misdeeds.

1. The Brotherhood

Magneto recruits his first set of mutants into his team...sibling mutants Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Saving the kids from a sentinel attack in a chaotic area just outside of Wundagore, he offers them a chance at a new life...and for revenge.

2. Rescue the Toad

Quicksilver and Wanda skip a meeting with Magneto to save a mutant they saw on the street earlier. A poor orphan named Mortimer. The duo recruit Toad and have their first fight with the police who believe these kids are nothing but mutant menaces. The trio decide to stick around and fight when the government and their tanks track them down.

3. Mystery Man

"The Mastermind" was nothing more than a carnival attraction until one faithful day when he witnessed the death of a young mutant. In an effort to save himself, mastermind created an illusion of a monster to scare off a thug. Unfortunately, this outed him, and the thugs began to hunt through the city for his presence. What's a mutant to do?!

4. Blob of fury

Mastermind escapes and makes it to another carnival that is passing through town. One that just happens to hold one of the fattest mutants known to mankind, The Blob! Mastermind, using his mastery of illusions, tricks Blob into protecting him from Mr. Bigggggs, but things get out of control when sentinels track down the duo and captures them.

5. The New Recruits

Magneto catches wind of several mutants being captured and sealed off in a prison base somewhere off the coast of New York and decides to crash the party. While this may be simpler said than done, the Brotherhood discover that Moira happens to be in the area and she's formed her own team to keep Magneto at bay...the Reformers.

6. Cape Citadel

Magneto learns that Cape Citadel is one of the many military bases that plans on taking out mutant kind via destructive means and he and his brotherhood are the only ones that can stop it. With Moira and her Reformers out of battle, the base stocks up on sentinels, tanks, guards, and helicopters. No one shall pass.

7. Dark Day

Magneto and his Brotherhood are fully formed, but now they are seen as terrorist by the American government and as saviors by mutant kind. Nick Fury and SHIELD are called in to handle the threat and Magneto considers making a good thing out of a bad situation. Kidnapping America's symbol for hope shall be the perfect tool to keep America at bay.

8. Brotherhood vs. Avengers

The Avengers have heard about what Magneto did to Captain America and seek him out in his safe haven. Magneto isn't amused at all and sends his Brotherhood out to stop them. As the team battles the Avengers, Nick Fury sneaks in and places a bomb somewhere within the base and escapes with Captain America.

9. Moira returns

Moira makes an effort to speak with Magneto and lures him to Scotland under the guise of speaking about mutant relations. Magneto takes three mutants with him and heads for Moira's base. Once he lands, the team is ambushed by Sauron, soldiers, and Sentinels. The only way to stop the sentinels is to drain several generators.

10. Rural America

In the penultimate mission, Magneto decides he's been way too harsh with the non-mutant populace and decides that the brotherhood needs to set good examples of kindness. Everything from stopping fires with water to handling robberies, the Brotherhood are there to save the day.

11. Death to Mutants!

Moira won't stop and she sends the Reformers after Magneto again in the small town he was rescuing. Magneto has had enough and plans on finishing her off for good. He tells the Bhood to hold her and her reformers off as he gathers enough power to destroy her sentinels, her machinery, and all her plans.

The idea behind this ditty was to make a more heroic Eric/Magnus/Max/Magneto/Xorn/Not Xorn, but not to erase his core background. In every mod I've seen, the Bhood are the enemies, so I figured it'd be a good idea to make them the heroes for once. Too bad I didn't finish that old FF1 mod that basically had Magneto as a hero. *shrugs* As for Moira, with Xavier and the X-men pushed out of the story, I felt she was a worthy opponent (see Excalibur/Weird War III).

So, anyone else got anything? Also, a sidenote, why was the mod review thread never relaunched after one of those FR crashes?

[DrMike2000]

An old idea of mine:

Law and Order from Freedom Force - where does the other one go when they switch?

The Precinct is a cosmic other-dimensional copshop where the partners in tag-team supercop duos hang out. Where our Earth has Law and Order, other worlds are the beats for Truth and Justice, Hope and Glory, Punishment and Redemption and other such odd couples.

A series of brutal gangland killings in our world lead the rest of FF to believe that Law is responsible. Has she finally gone too far? Does Order trust his cosmically ordained partner or his crimefighting buddies? Could one of the more extreme other dimensional supercops managed to tap into the link between Law and Order and switch with them into our world?

Missions would include Law and Order vs Freedom Force, and Law and Order together for the first time as they both enter the Precinct, while "simultaneously" (ie a two-parter) Freedom Force battle the rogue Supercop who's stranded them both there.

[wickerman]

I was batting around an idea with teaming up various members of freedom force for mini mods.

One of the ideas was the return of Pan where he was able to mind control the female members of the force and bring them to his own dimension.  Once there, Blackbird, Alchemiss, Law and Eve (and Genie and tricolour I guess - I conceived it before FFVTTR)  While they fight their way out of Pan;s realm, the guys are left trying to open a portal between worlds at the right time to allow them back. 

Some others:

- Ant and Iron Ox investigate rumors that the Shadow is back.  They delve deep under patriot City only to find that Shadow and her disfigured Darkmen have tried to build a society there but instead have accidentally awakened a long buried race of Subterranean monsters and are slowly but surely losing the fight to contain them.  Shadow fears that if these creatures reach the surface, she and her Darkmen will be blamed and hunted for it.  Ant as serious reservations about helping out his old boss, but ultimately has no choice. 

- Alchemiss is contacted by a man who claims Man Bot's brother is alive and he needs a medical procedure to go on living.  Unfortunately, only a blood relative can donate the tissue required to save him and Man-Bot is the only known living relation.  Minute Man sympathizes but, as leader of the team, forbids Alchemiss from risking her life trying to contact the exiled Man Bot.  Alchemiss pursues the idea anyway, and when Sea Urchin and Man-o-War discover her plans, she convinces them to aid her in finding a way to reach the celestial clock...

- Minuteman and Liberty Lad discover that an old military buddy of Frank Styles' is implicated in a  plot to sell U.S. secrets to terrorists.  Minute Man refuses to believe it, so Liberty Lad and Mentor set out to discover the truth.  Unfortunately, all evidence points to the decorated war hero being a traitor.  They investigation leads them into conflict with a rogue faction of the U.S. military and possibly with the loyal to a fault Minute Man as well.  Is Minute Man's old pal a traitor or is an old foe playing games with Freedom Force?

[Gremlin]

An old idea of mine:

Law and Order from Freedom Force - where does the other one go when they switch?

The Precinct is a cosmic other-dimensional copshop where the partners in tag-team supercop duos hang out. Where our Earth has Law and Order, other worlds are the beats for Truth and Justice, Hope and Glory, Punishment and Redemption and other such odd couples.

A series of brutal gangland killings in our world lead the rest of FF to believe that Law is responsible. Has she finally gone too far? Does Order trust his cosmically ordained partner or his crimefighting buddies? Could one of the more extreme other dimensional supercops managed to tap into the link between Law and Order and switch with them into our world?

Missions would include Law and Order vs Freedom Force, and Law and Order together for the first time as they both enter the Precinct, while "simultaneously" (ie a two-parter) Freedom Force battle the rogue Supercop who's stranded them both there.

I remember you talking about this before. It's a cool idea. I remember there were those twins who appeared to be one guy who never got tired or hurt, and they would just switch out every day. That was an awesome character. Characters? I dunno.

[BentonGrey]

That's an awesome idea Dr. Mike....so when are you coming back to FF to do it ?  So what kind of powers would these groups have?

Wickerman, those sound pretty good.  I would love to see more adventures with the FF team.  One of these days I may have to do a team up adventure with The Bard and The Rogue...

[DrMike2000]

I love the potential dynamic between Ant, Shadow and Iron Ox.

The Ant, who's never had a girlfriend except Shadow, ends up having to re-enlist her aid, accompanied by the rather strange but ever-so-manly English strongman. Shadow needs the Ant's help, really, but would never admit it in a million years. And she can't help but wonder if the large quaintly chivalrous one would make a good mind-controlled leader for her Darkmen.

Lots of "I'm just a dorky insect guy in goggles" angst ensues..

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

One of these days I may have to do a team up adventure with The Bard and The Rogue...

Actually, I kind of figured that Bard, Jester, Rogue, and Shepherd (Mighty Mercury without Mercury, just the staff) would be in a medieval themed group together.

[BentonGrey]

I remember you talking about that Cat, and I think that could be fun.  I do have this vision of a buddy flick style adventure with the Rogue and the Bard, though....

[cmdrkoenig67]

I love all the ideas focusing on the  and  characters...I would like to see more adventures done with these folks.

Dana

[UnkoMan]

I actually had some plans for a semi-dark Blackbird story once. I had her as a sort of "I work alone" Batmany character, who would only team up with Freedom Force if it suited her. I had her fighting a few themey villains, and then coming up against her arch villain... A split personality, whose evil side grew more dominant as the moon got fuller.

[Gremlin]

Prev, I like the Brotherhood idea a lot--seeing them team up would be a really fun character exercise, not to mention cool and unique missions. I love the circus idea.

[Blkcasanova247]

I love all the ideas focusing on the  and  characters...I would like to see more adventures done with these folks.

Dana

Me too!

[BentonGrey]

I actually had some plans for a semi-dark Blackbird story once. I had her as a sort of "I work alone" Batmany character, who would only team up with Freedom Force if it suited her. I had her fighting a few themey villains, and then coming up against her arch villain... A split personality, whose evil side grew more dominant as the moon got fuller.

Ohh!  Shades of Eclipso!

[DrMike2000]

Yeah, I agree. The FF characters themselves never really did get picked up by the mod community, which was kind of a pity.

Another idea I had once and never implemented:

Freedom Force vs The Strangers

A campaign very much based on the JLA/Avengers series by Busiek and Perez, it would have featured the two teams battling for possession of various power items from the two universes. Probably under instruction from The Architect and TimeMaster to do so.

Each level would feature a one-one-one between pairups like:

King Zero (and Drummond) vs Man O War (and Sea Urchin) - who's older and grumpier?!!
The Spider vs Eve - in-fight exposition about poorly thought out bra-burning feminism vs non-violence whilst walking around dressed only in leaves!!
Jimmy Jupiter vs Supercollider - who'd win in a fight!!!??!!
The Fly vs The Ant - scored for technical expertise AND insecurity to the extent that you dress up as a bug when the big time calls
Order (and Law) vs Chaos - because the names fit!!! And there could be a cool bit with Law making Chaos feel guilty about some imagined slight (eg nicking a pencil at school) when order finds he cant hit a gas cloud.
Blackbird vs Jack of Diamonds - the ultimate jewel thief (reformed) vs the ultimate jewel!
Adam Zorn vs Microwave - two robot in search of the lost humanity they never had
MinuteMan (and Liberty lad) vs Anemone - Patriotism vs a global perspective
Iron Ox vs Ace - Old fashioned Chivalry vs The Ultimate Player

The teams have a good old pick on each other - The Strangers see FF as old-fashioned, sexist due to their predominantly male count, parochial and unwilling to change their world.
FF see the Strangers as over-steroided tyrants bent on colonising their Earth, with far too many dubious moral shades and not really heroes at all.
All very derivative of the comic series, and played for laughs half the time.

Power Objects could be The Shaping Stone, TimeMaster's Heart, stuff like that.

I could have laid this out in a number of ways, for instance:

Each level gives you the choice of two characters to play with, the computer plays the other. Sidekicks get spawned in once the levels loaded.

OR

You choose between, say Devil Doll or Alchemiss for the first mission, and that sets your alignment for the whole campaign. So its a campaign thats begging to be played twice, see if you can win as both teams. This would be better than potentially switching alignment mid-way.

And I guess a finale level where you pick four of your team armed witht he goodies you collected to fight the other team, or maybe two of each to beat up TimeMaster and some Strangers bad guys.

Or something.

[GogglesPizanno]

I always meant to do a small campaign (that was somewhat randomized) about El Diablo trying to go out on various dates with his various girlfriends, only every time it gets interrupted by some catastrophe, so he either has to protect his date, stop a crime and still make his dinner reservations etc... Nothing earth shattering just funny and amusing.

[BentonGrey]

Yeah, I agree. The FF characters themselves never really did get picked up by the mod community, which was kind of a pity.

Another idea I had once and never implemented:

Freedom Force vs The Strangers

.....................Dr. Mike.....you're not allowed to talk about Strangers stuff anymore....'cause every time you do I could just about weep openly because of how awesome these stories are that we aren't going to be able to play!

Seriously though, that sounds like an absolute blast....I'd be a little bit torn because I do love Freedom Force, but the Strangers would probably win out based on good 'ol Lord Chislington by himself.  That being said, you're right...I'd have to play it twice. 

[Tame Fisher]

Messing around with ezscript and some kitbashed skins, I came up with a plot focused on the Freedom Force world circa 1990. Basically, Patriot City has become an isolated utopia modeled after old-timey 50s visions of the future (big domes, flying cars, robots reminiscent of Mr. Mechanical's, but on a smaller scale), while the rest of the world is apparently an irradiated warzone.

Patriot City is patrolled and some say even controlled by Mister Liberty, the oldest and most powerful living hero who commands a shocktrooper-like police force known as the Minutemen, who bear his old mentor's colors, but lack his morals. Now nearing fifty, Nick Craft has honed his control over Energy X to perfection-- instead of charging objects with the cosmic energy, Mister Liberty's evolved abilities allow him to mimic several powers at once, and use his near-omnipotence to protect his citizens from the horrors of the outer world.

The world outside the dome has changed considerably since the Freedom Force disappeared during the nuclear wars. The fallout mutated the unprotected survivors into mutant Darkmen, while Subterrestrials rose again to reclaim entire countries in their name. Eventually, the one known as the Ant King united the various mutates and founded his kingdom of shadows in the heart of the North American continent, preparing for his inevitable strike on the last remaining human citadel.

My main narrative idea was to have a human detective kinda guy as the protagonist, maybe one of the Minutemen soldiers. He'd serve Liberty faithfully until a mission gone awry introduces him to an underground group fighting Liberty's oppression, led by El Diablo and Sea Urchin. Through them, he'd discover that Mister Liberty's energy X control had actually mutated to leech-like abilities, and the multitude of powers he had at his disposal were being siphoned out of the still-living Freedom Force members he'd captured and imprisoned in secret years ago.

From there, the trio would decide to risk venturing outside in the hopes of finding survivors to help them retake Patriot City, only to find the world wasn't an irradiated wasteland after all-- it'd reverted, in fact, to a sort of prehistoric jungle filled with mutant bugs and lizard people. Sea Urchin, drawn by some mysterious force, would lead the team through the mutant-infested lands to a lake of toxic waste. It is there they'd find Man O' War, withered and dying, and learn the truth of the outside world: during the nuclear war, he and a few members of the Freedom Force escaped Liberty Lad's treachery and survived thanks to Eve's nature-based powers.

In time, she was able to restore most of the land, but the strain left her with a terrible sickness and she soon succumbed to radiation poisoning. Further mutated by the initial fallout, The Ant found himself able to control the minds of nearly all the remaining mutants; his own mind poisoned by his lover (a disguised Shadow), Ant imprisoned the remaining Freedom Force members and declared himself King of the Earth. Man O' War is the last prisoner to die, but not before discovering Shadow's role in his teammate's betrayal..

The rest of the story would focus on reuniting the surviving members (like a crazy rusted Man-Bot or a zombie-ish Tombstone) to liberate Patriot City; the nameless soldier guy would eventually take up the mantle of Minuteman and face Mister Liberty to decide the fate of the world, etc.

[DrMike2000]

I am in awe of your ideas, Fisher.

That is an incredibly cool setup you've outlined there.

Mr Liberty leeching powers from the remaining FF-ers can't help but remind me of Earth-Man in the recent Superman and the legion of Superheroes arc in Action Comics. I love the idea of Nick Craft presiding over this kind of 50's utopia supposedly in the middle of a 2000AD style wasteland.

I love the idea of The Ant as a crazed mutant king.

Way cool.

[President Raygun]

Great idea Tame Fisher, hope you see it through.

[Gremlin]

That is so unbelieveably awesome. I am spazzing out here. I hope that gets done!

[Tame Fisher]

I have no scripting skills, but I've got lots of free time thanks to surprise unemployment earlier this year, and doing this is as good a reason to try and learn! So far, though, I've been happy with just making crude re-skins of a wrinkly, eyeless Man O' War and blowing him up in Rumble Room chaos. 

[BentonGrey]

A fantastic idea!  Poor Nick, he gets no love.   Hey, don't worry about not having scripting skills.  I can't script to save my life, but thanks to EZScript I managed to put together three full campaigns.  EZScript is great, and the new program M25 came out with that checks your syntax as you type makes it just about fool proof...(just about, 'cause I still find ways to muck it up).  If you've got the time, there's no reason you can't do it!  The DCUG actually started because I was unemployed, after all.

[Trelau]

Wow...those ideas are so elaborate...and cool
Is there actually any chance of ever seing one of these mod being made?
I have no skill nor time (like, at all...) but I crave for new stories.

I had this big plan, I wanted to do an "extanded edition" of the two original campaigns.
The thing was, playing those games reminded me of the weekly super-hero cartoons (it had the same flavour) but I always regretted something:
unlike batman tas (the most known/reverred example i could imagine) I knew that when I beat up a major villain (pinestripe, deja vu, shadow) he wouldn't come back.
So basically I wanted to do a very batmanesque "oh no! the joker escape again!" bunch of mission to add in between the campaign-story oriented missions.
It's really just because of the cartoon that i wanted that. You know how it works. In JLU you have about one episode out of three which is used to make the story go forward, whereas the two others are fun/guest stars episode.
So i actually made a few  fun "original" to mission (don't ask for them..you REALLY don't want to "play" those):
there were an aquatic mission, where man o war and sea urchin had to investigate a spot in the ocean where a lot of ship were sunken (pirates villain, lead by a Black Manta like character...);
there were an el diablo/tombstone team-up, where they returned to el diblo's old town because a new gang had arrived and created chaos (it was cool, because tombstone was a real extremist who wanted to put everyone in jail, and el diablo was trying to explai him that he used to be like this, fighting for his territory and all...)

But my favourite were just plain "deja vu got out of jail. catch him again" or "mr mechanical build a new robot monster, stop it". It really were interlude more than mission, but I though that it would actually be enjoyable...

Ah, and origin story... I also wanted to do an "And introducing..." mission for every character as they joined the hero pool. Iron ox as the boxer first, then as a hero...same for blackbird as a thief then as a rogue vigilante...

But again: no skill, no time...

Random idea: we should start a thread/forum for actually doing what people can't do. Like, collective mod-making. A guy throw an idea in the air, a few others who like it take it from here and write the story together, then make a list of what's needed for the mod. then anyone interested in the project can contribute by doing something from the checklist when they can. i guess heavy scripting would be out of question...But we have a request thread for skin, mesh and hero files...why not for modding particular mission?

I know, probably incredibly hard to make it work since modder/mesher/skinner with actual skill don't even have time for there own project but hey, worth a shot...

[Torch]

I've got a mod in the works right now focused on the West Coast Avengers.  It will be part one of three and each mod will be a stand alone adventure.  I play (and have played) table top RPGs for years, and have many Marvel adventures.  Freedom Force is such a great and versatile game that the stories translate very well.

I hope to be done with the first mod by the end of the month.

[The Hitman]

Wow, TF... that's a really great idea!

[Cyber Burn]

This was something I had started awhile back after re-watching the Justice League cartoon with the Justice Lords. I had done a few skins for it as well. Lost it after I had to reinstall FF, and never had the energy to redo any of it. If someone likes this idea and wants to run with it, feel free.

In a world where Lex Luthor has become President of the United States, heroes have become outlawed, and super powered criminals have become the country's law enforcement. The heroes of America have gone underground, now treated as villains by the government. President Luthor has allowed crime to increase exponentially, with normal citizens living in fear and poverty.
   It is now five years later, President Luthor has refused to allow an election to take place as long as he is in power. An imprisoned Justice Society is facing execution. Their only hope is the Freedom Initiative of America. The FIA has been striking with hit and run tactics against the government, helping the American citizens acquire food, shelter and hope.
   But now, it is time for the FIA to go public with their existance. They have no choice, the Justice Society's public execution must be stopped.

Also, I do have a plan for Luthor's Ellite. It starts with a large group of super villains, with his personal bodyguard being Deathstroke. But before a hero can even get close to Luthor's WHite House, he or she would have to get past an army of Amazo Androids, followed by Luthor's mercanary army.
   As for Superman or Batman stepping in at the onset, I imagined Luthor making changes slowly and quietly,forcing other politicians to back him, either through bribery, blackmail, or threats, not publicizing his changes until it was too late. With laws already in place, the Justice League would have engaged in treason if they attacked Luthor publicly. American citizens would not know that Luthor was doing anything wrong, until he had already completely taken over.

[USAgent]

I've got a mod in the works right now focused on the West Coast Avengers.  It will be part one of three and each mod will be a stand alone adventure.  I play (and have played) table top RPGs for years, and have many Marvel adventures.  Freedom Force is such a great and versatile game that the stories translate very well.

I hope to be done with the first mod by the end of the month.

Are you actually re-creating some old Marvel RPG modules for your mod?  I was a old Marvel RPGer myself and I always thought that they would make great mods.

[Torch]

Are you actually re-creating some old Marvel RPG modules for your mod?  I was a old Marvel RPGer myself and I always thought that they would make great mods.

Yes.  And I believe this one is turning out nicely.  I am about half-way done.  The first mission took me the most time because it was the first I had ever created.  But now that I am past the learning curve they are moving much smoother.  My plan is to finish each mission as a Skirmish in the Rumble Room, and then integrate them together via the Base screens into a single Campaign.  I will then need to go through and make sure it is polished.

I still have to work out adding ambient music in the background, and I'd like to see if I could customize the load screens (as opposed to the game showing sea urchin and her sidekick each time).  These are minor details in my opinion, and if I don't work them out in sufficient time it won't stop me from releasing it.

There isn't a big PnP RPG community in my area, and I never got a chance to play through some of these modules.  I like to GM, and being able to create a single player campaign with them is turning out to be loads of fun.

[IceStorm]

So i actually made a few  fun "original" to mission (don't ask for them..you REALLY don't want to "play" those):
there were an aquatic mission, where man o war and sea urchin had to investigate a spot in the ocean where a lot of ship were sunken (pirates villain, lead by a Black Manta like character...);
there were an el diablo/tombstone team-up, where they returned to el diblo's old town because a new gang had arrived and created chaos (it was cool, because tombstone was a real extremist who wanted to put everyone in jail, and el diablo was trying to explai him that he used to be like this, fighting for his territory and all...)

I really like this idea.
A lot of characters from the main games don't get a lot of attention because the games force you to play certain characters throughout early missions.  They're needed for plot progression, so I'm ok with that, but characters like Blackbird, Supercollider, Ox...  they just don't get as much attention all around.  Heck, I rarely use Man O'War when I play the campaign, and I think I've used Urchin once.

It might be nice to see a campaign that's more of a collection of side missions.  The things that happen when there -isn't- some Earth shaking catastrophe impending.


Edit:

Yes, I've been thread diving for old, neat stuff.

[lugaru]

!!!!! Cool ideas, just dont want to quote all of them.

I had similar ideas but you really put some thought into it. I wanted to do a 1980's Watchmen/Dark Knight style story. "Agent Liberty" was the new leader of the team with second generation heroes. The heavy hitter was a grown up Sea Urchin (I've got the skin/mesh made, half sea urchin and half baywatch).

The idea is that new teams of Goverment heroes have everything supressed and way under control, but a time traveling hero (The Anarchist, son of Alchemiss) comes back to create some chaos and overthrow the regime that will lead to a post apocalipstic future.

Also they need to perform a mission to save Minute Man, who everyone thought was dead but instead the villains running the goverment are using his blood to create new heroes to work for them.

I've got a cast of heroes and villains skinned.