Half-Baked RPG Idea: Your Better Halves

Here's a broad idea for a cinematic "impossible stuff happens"-type roleplaying campaign, based on a balancing trick some GMs use: When devising threats and adversaries (especially for a game with lots of options and power variability such as GURPS), a GM might run those threats in a quick mock-combat with copies of the heroes' current character sheets.

During the actual scenario, if the heroes perform a fair bit differently than that sample encounter (especially if the duplicates did better), simply have some mastermind comment on it.

"Hmm. It took you 12 seconds to dispatch the One-Ton Automaton? Our assessments using our test replicas did it in seven. Perhaps they were just luckier – although I do believe our version of Laser-Punch Man used his tactical assessment to discern more accurately where to attack . . ."

In broad strokes, I envision a situation where the heroes need to face off against these "better" versions of themselves. Not necessarily in an "evil doppelganger" way, although it's a fine variant ("We made these replicas to hone our forces against you"). However, it would be less clichéd if the opponents were more like a "team of rivals," "emotionless automatons," or the like. In other words, give the heroes something to overcome of near-exact power levels not out of a good/evil divide, but simple professional pride: "I beat the best version of 'me' you guys could come up with!"

Anyway, that's my idea; it may be half-baked, but it's still hot out of the oven . . .

-- Steven Marsh