2022 Campaign in a Month Challenge: The city of Haven

 

I tried this self-created challenge and didn't complete this last year, but here's oping 2022 will be better. The intent is to make up one character a day for February, some heroes, some villains, to populate a campaign world using Villains & Vigilantes 2.1 with as much randomness as possible. Last year I tired for 4 heroes with 6 member rogues galleries, but this year I'm going for 7 heroes with 3 member rogues galleries. I'm also using more an Avengers model where 2 of the heroes will appear solely in the team adventure book (and hence their villains are team villains), 4 of them are other team members who have their own comics, and the final will be an outside hero who sometimes teams up with them.

Rather than giving each their own base city, these heroes are all sharing the same city, Haven, which is a synecdoche/amalgamation of Connecticut. Several key elements of Connecticut are being smooshed (that's a technical game design term) into this altered version of New Haven. It has

1)      A famed Ivy League university, best known for its law and medical schools.

a.       That university contains one of the best-known secret societies for the 1% (Skull & Bones)

2)      Enormous wealth disparities (rich should have places in city and country).

3)      Tourist trade driven by a historical district and nearby living history site (Mystic).

4)      Solid presence in the military/aerospace industry (Sikorsky and Pratt & Whitney).

5)      Solid presence in aquatic research/navy submarines (Trident submarine)

6)      Links to the 19th century/civil war/old west (Twain/ Stowe/Colt Firearms),

7)      Links to colonial/revolutionary war period where we were con men.

8)      A pair of well-established Native American casinos.

9)      Periods of wildly corrupt governance (governors and mayors going to prison levels)

10   Parts of the city hollowed out by white flight; abandoned industry sites.

11   The original off-Broadway sites for experimental theater/stage actor stars.

12   Devil's Hopyard/Devil's Den and other

This 12 bullet points should give me enough to build both characters and neighborhoods in the theater.

I'm also going to be recycling some things I've used before, such an Infantino's Syndrome, a neurological complex that makes one act like a Flash rogues gallery member, and twisted mirror versions of the heroes as their rogues' gallery. I'm trying hard to not come in with preconceptions to the characters before the dice hit the table.

OK. Buckle up, true believers!