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With Cosmic Power…
While most superhero stories focus on saving thecity, or the world, the very universe might hang inthe balance of a Cosmic campaign. Cosmic Heroescan travel across the galaxy, move planets, andeven survive inside a black hole. The CosmicSetting actually also takes place along-side one of the other settings. The Narrator should decide if the game takes place alongside a Silver Age, IronAge, or Fantasy setting, for example. Cosmicsettings obviously have a lot in common withScience Fiction campaigns, as space travel is such amajor component.
What follows are some selections from the Cosmic setting material from BASH! Ultimate Edition. Wewould have loved to put it all in, but it’s just toobig.
Scale:
Cosmic is not only a Setting for BASH!it is also a Scale of play- naturally the CosmicScale (60+ pts) works best here! Forinformation on special rules, see “CosmicScale” below. On occasion, mere mortalsdo play pivotal roles in cosmic events, butthese cases are rare.
Who should play Cosmic?
Groupsthat want to play gods, Cosmic Beings,or their agents, in battles for the entireuniverse!
Recommended Reading & Viewing:
Marvel’s™
Silver Surfer
and
Captain Mar-Vell
and DC’s™
Green Lantern
and various
New Gods
stories are all goodexamples of Cosmic setting.
Tropes
All Powerful Beings
Cosmic campaigns are filled with entitiesthat can best be described as “CosmicBeings”. These entities are often livingembodiments of concepts such as death, life,entropy, time, space, good, evil, order, chaos, etc,as old as the universe itself. Others might better bedescribed as gods, forces of nature, or simply asaliens. Such entities are so powerful, that theNarrator should not really worry about countingthe points used to build them (or even skipbuilding the creature and simply run it as a plotdevice). Power-wise, these beings can do whateverthey want.For as powerful as they are, however, these beingsoften behave according to some strict guidelines-the more powerful the creature, the stricter therules, or more predictable the behavior. For acreature that can do anything- it is important toknow what they won’t. Here are some examples:
An Ancient Pact:
The being has made a pact,treaty, bargain, or other agreement with variousother beings which it dare not violate. It is thusprevented from directly intervening in the affairs of mortals (for good or ill), or is limited to “its side”of the universe. Often, such beings will be forcedto use go-betweens, or subtle manipulation toachieve their aims, rather than direct application of power.
Compulsion:
The being must act in a certainway and cannot help itself. Perhaps it is drivenby the basic need to sustain itself, or maybe itmust focus its attention upon a certain taskthat the universe requires. As a result, thebeing does not utilize much of its greatpower for anything other thansatisfying its own compulsion. Indeed,even getting its attention may provedifficult (and disastrous).
Limited Window:
Perhapsthe being can only use its powersin its own dimension, only usethem in a certain way, or can onlyuse its powers for a limited periodof time. Such a being might be acosmic trickster who forces Heroes tocomplete its bazaar tasks before thesand runs out of a giant hourglass, ora lord of ultimate evil that can onlyuse its powers on a mortal at theirown request.
Aloof:
The being is completelyindifferent to the affairs of “lesserbeings” and simply doesn’t want tointerfere, much as we would beindifferent to the affairs of an ant.However, if the lesser being became enough of anuisance to get the entity’s attention, it might besmote.
Saving the Universe
Just as Heroes on Earth fight to save the city frominjustice, or save the world from domination,Cosmic superheroes save many worlds, entiregalaxies, and on occasion, the universe from beingdestroyed. Doing this is more about the way inwhich the story is told than the powers of thecharacters. Instead of defusing a bomb that could
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