Wild Cards

[Citadel]

With Author George R. R. Martin new Book “Inside Straight”. Which setting takes place in our current day and age starting our hero’s in a reality T.V. Series. It brings to life Martin old, and new characters almost in a passing of the torch kind of way. It also has the current geopolitical problems we have today. www.tor-forge.com/insidestraight As well Green Ronin Publishing of Mr. Martins world Wild Cards http://www.mutantsandmasterminds.com...ves/000486.php


I find my self in anticipation of this adaptive and dynamic world, and can’t wait to see the final product using MnM d20 ogl. As well as seeing more books to come from such a wonderful author.

[hippie_mama]

*geekgasm*

I am so excited about this...it's ridiculous. Really. OMGZ!

A few months ago, one of my gamer buddies patched together a Wildcards setting from Heroes Unlimited, and using the Morphus tables from Nightbane. We were seriously badass. It was FUN but not quite right (we had the "look" down, but it was a bit too munchkin).

I've never played MnM; i love HU far too much...but if anything would convince me to give it a shot, it's Wildcards.

(that's me shrieking like an over-excited teenage girl)

[nijineko]

i'm fond of my heroes unlimited memories. ^^ made a insanely munchkin character using the tmnt<-->hu bridge and starting with a blue whale, and dropping the size down to normal human size... talk about an excess of bio-e. and then he took an hu occ.... he was a brick type with energy control out the wazoo. i think that was the "worst" character we ever made in palladium. ^^

oh did i mention the ninjas and superspies martial arts additions?


i've managed to read through wildcards: gurps, (no sane gm would allow that ectoplasmic power without micronometer supervision-i made one villian- 1000 pointer, using that ecto power from wildcards... and the cheap blast-em power hack... now that was munchkin incarnate. the most munchkin npc i've ever seen, barring homebrew deity-level stuff), and found it quite interesting. i've always meant to get around to reading the wildcard stuff. perhaps i'll manage to now. ^^

[hippie_mama]

I never even liked superheroes until i read Wildcards. Now it's my favorite genre. The concept is really cool for gameplay, but the actual novels are even better. The character development is the best i've ever seen; i guess because they were played-out by the people who wrote them. Just my very favorite books, that's really all.

[Citadel]

I loved HU my self but I also found it alittle Munchkin like. It's one of the reasons I moved into MnM. I find it that the only limitations in the game is your self. Not to mention I still play Nightsbane, I digg all that horror supernatural goodies. I started reading Martin work, oh about six years ago and loved it. I looked around and found GURPS did some stuff for it, and was disappointed because I realy don't care for GURPS my self. I think the reason why I perfer Martins work is that every hero and villian is flawed in some way or another, I mean there alittle more beleivable if you can understand that. So no futher ado I'm glad there's a few people interested that Martins making a come back, Thanks everyone.

[Skunkape]

I never really got to like GURPS' superhero system. It does work well for low powered superheroes, but personally, I prefer more 4 color type campaigns than nitty gritty ones! Yeah, I guess you could refer to them as munchkin style games, but when you're fighting villains like Ultron or Dr. Doom, you need to be that power level.

But to each his own.

I do like the Wild Card's novels. Was such a great take on the who superhero genre that I usually incorporate some of the characters into my games.

My fav system is Champions, but I'm beginning to like MnM quite a bit too. Less math intense, which has a better appeal than Champions. Oh and you can get characters up and running faster in MnM!

[Chris House]

I am working on the world of power setting 1936
but I would much perfer the wild card setting!
so my sunday game is going to have to be reconsidered before we even start it.

[Chris House]

Thirty Minutes over Broadway The Beginning
Tuesday Sept. 17 1946 2:45
Location Manhattan NY NY

Wild Cards

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wild Cards is a science fiction and superhero anthology series set in a shared universe. The series was created by a group of New Mexico science fiction authors, and mostly edited by George R. R. Martin. There were 12 volumes published between 1987 and 1993 before it switched publishers, which released three new volumes between 1993 and 1995; a fourth appeared belatedly in 2002, and a fifth in early 2006.
While most of the books are made up of individual short stories, they generally focus around a central theme or event. There were also several longer storylines which run through several of the books. Some volumes use the format of a mosaic novel. This involved several writers writing individual story lines which were then edited together into one novel length story. Finally, some volumes are a complete novel written by a single author.
Wild Cards was inspired by superhero comics, and many of the authors play with the conventions of the medium, while some characters are based on existing heroes (for example, Jetboy was modeled on the Hillman Periodicals' character Airboy). Many of the original authors were also inspired by a long-running Albuquerque, New Mexico campaign of the role-playing game Superworld, gamemastered by George R. R. Martin, and many modeled their characters on their in-game persona. [1]
Major contributors to the series include Roger Zelazny, Lewis Shiner, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Walter Jon Williams, Leanne C. Harper, Chris Claremont, Victor Milán, John J. Miller, and Martin himself. [edit] Setting

The series relates an alternate history of the earth after World War II. In 1946 an alien virus that rewrites human DNA is accidentally unleashed in the skies over New York City. It kills 90 % of those who come into contact with it (referred to as 'drawing the Black Queen'). However, 9 % mutate into deformed creatures (known as 'Jokers') and 1 % gain superpowers (known as 'Aces'). There is also a class known as 'deuces' - Aces who have acquired useless or ridiculous powers, such as the ability to levitate up to two feet, or to grow bodily hair at will. The airborne virus eventually spreads all over the world, affecting tens of thousands.
The Wild Cards universe is distinguished from most superherocomic book fiction by several thematic elements. Early on the authors decided to pursue a more realistic, or naturalistic approach to storytelling. Few of the Ace characters in Wild Cards have secret identities, or are traditional crime-fighting superheroes in the mold of Spider-Man or Batman. Wild Cards remained set within a recognizably real world with recognizably real people and pop culture and, because of the historical setting of many of the stories, had characters who aged realistically during the course of the series. The majority of Wild Card victims live in the run-down ghetto of Jokertown, while the fortunate Aces become glamorous celebrities. In addition, Wild Cards took a more graphic approach to violence, and particularly to sex, than most superhero stories do.

[kipling]

The Mutants & Masterminds site has a little write up on how Wild Cards came to be in the first place (look for www.mutantsandmasterminds.com, the Super Vision article called something like "Wild Cards design journal #1"). It was originally a SuperWorld campaign.