Unstoppable Power!
UPDATE Oct 15, 2019: Development for this game is back underway after a long hiatus! I was inspired by the game Bluebeard’s Bride to completely revise the game centered around the life of a single Hero, with all the players acting as aspects of the Hero’s humanity. I ran this game at Big Bad Con 2019 and it went great. I will be doing more playtesting in the coming months. If you are interested in playtesting contact me at info@mirthpeddlers.com
UPDATE Jan 28, 2017: The development for this game is on hiatus. I ran a number of play test sessions and while they were fun overall the game wasn’t quite working. I have some vague ideas for how to redesign the game but it is on hold.
I had a inspiration the other day that superhero games are boring as they only tell the day to day banal tales of laser beam shooting out of peoples eyes. Wouldn’t it be great to tell the full story of what having real power is like? What it’s like to be heroes like Dr Manhattan with powers so beyond mere mortals that it’s hard to relate to anyone or anything?
The game Unstoppable Power is a one-shot storygame that tells the story of normal people who gain superpowers. And how this ‘gift’ of true power transforms them until they can no longer can relate to the world or people they once knew, and likely leaving irrevocable harm in their wake.
The game mechanics are pretty honed in — simple and designed to help support the story of people facing their own Unstoppable Power. I’ve run a solo play of the game to test the system and it worked great. Next step is running real playtests which is happening soon. If you are interested in play testing Unstoppable Power you can contact me at info@mirthpeddlers.com
Here’s a quick overview summary of the story that the game told in my solo playtest…
The story started as Sonny, a retired hit man fighting to save his kidnapped boyfriend. He died in a massive gun battle yet then rose from death as a silent shadow enshrouded assassin — first taking revenge, then fighting crime mostly because he was bored. Time passed and he drifted away from all he once was transforming into a being known only as Operation Shadow by the US government. Project Shadow worked with the Pentagon and CIA to target ISIS — an operation that succeeded in destroying ISIS yet caused massive collateral damage and worldwide outrage. Shunned by a coalition of world governments, the world spanning essence of shadow known as Project Shadow to some and the Dark Djinn to others has the power to destroy entire nations. In fact it accidentally wiped Syria off the map — it was only trying to help! Feared and truly disconnected from the people of the world, it decides for esoteric reasons all it’s own to leave Earth. During a lunar eclipse, it steps to the moon and breaks off a piece the size of the Mount McKinley, then gets on and aims it at the black hole at the center of the Galaxy. A small shadowy part of it however stayed behind on Earth to possess — no possess isn’t the right word — to become one with the old boyfriend (his boyfriend?) who was all but left behind so many years ago.
There was a lot more detail I left out, but yeah that’s the kind of wow story you can tell with Unstoppable Power in only a single one-shot game!
