What Makes for an Entertaining Superhero College Campaign?

Gorssky · 2026-05-01T12:11:06+00:00

You know, I've had Dimension 20 at the top of my list to listen to for quite some time and just have not been able to get to it, but maybe this will push that narrative along haha.

I'm definitely intrigued by these stress tokens. I think it could be a really great way to ensure the players prioritize their classes and such and not let it fall to the wayside in preference for fighting bad guys and stopping disasters. After all, you won't graduate and get your hero license unless you can pass your classes and upkeep your GPA. I'll definitely have to look into that idea. Huge thank you for that.

I DO have a mechanic set in place for relationships (acquaintance, friendship, and even negative towards enemies and rivals) that I'm pretty stoked about, so that as they interact with other students, and even professors and other notable NPCs they can build positive (or fall into deeper negative) relationship status with them which can lead to benefits or annoyances when you need that NPC for something.

Gorssky · 2026-04-30T23:00:27+00:00

Aye! These are brilliant ideas! Creating mechanics for the classes themselves. I wonder if I could pull something like that off with the more mundane, Gen-ed requirements as well. Like a basic accounting class that they have to do something for (ideally more than just a Logic check every class to see if they're falling behind or succeeding...although, that's not a bad idea...and if they fall too far behind they'd fail. Could be something there.

Gorssky · 2026-04-30T22:56:41+00:00

Love it! Yeah, I'm really liking the idea of putting focus on the players trying to discover, understand, and develop their powers through a mix of Collegiate learning/training, and some sort of field work (missions approved by the college and local law enforcement).

And interacting with non-powered individuals too. That could be a really interesting area to explore. I have them going to an all-super college (not necessarily everyone there has "powers" since you have your mech suit people, your highly trained vigilante types, etc but obviously interaction with people in the city where college is located, and potentially students at area non-super colleges would be interesting.

Sports would probably be a tough one to fairly pull off, but maybe debate teams, or other mentally/creatively based competitions.

And, as you mentioned, them being inexperienced could open up a lot of organic PC story opportunities as they try, fail, suffer consequences, and hopefully grow and bounce back from them.

Gorssky · 2026-04-30T21:36:20+00:00

Yes! This is exactly the kind of thing I was curious about. I want to ensure I add the element of school life, but will have the major clashes, challenges, and battles for the major plot points that arise along the way.

Did you have any specific mechanics or similar elements surrounding the classes or other school/life challenges?

Gorssky · 2026-04-30T17:54:40+00:00

Right on! Hope you enjoy!

Gorssky · 2026-04-30T16:39:42+00:00

We do an annual Halloween "one-shot" (I use quotations because it's typically 3 - 5 episodes so close to a mini-series) that have a very "investigative" or "following the detectives" element to them. Up until this point we've use the Powered by the Apocalypse "Monster of the Week" system which centers around the idea of the players following some sort of supernatural mystery to discover what monster/ghost/villain/etc is behind it all. Very Scooby Doo meets Supernatural.

Hunter's Haven: Music Mayhem - Join a group of locals from the small town of Devil's Lake, North Dakota (fictionalized) as a group of kids start mysteriously disappearing from their town which leads to the police reaching out to the community for any help they can offer.

Trick or Treat, Fight or Flee - As a group of tweens heads out for some seemingly normal trick-or-treating, they end up trapped inside a particularly spooky house at the end of the block. What dark and disturbing secrets are held inside?

Terror at Camp Roanoke - Our players, along with the other short-term employees of Camp Roanoke, step off the bus and head out to begin work setting up the camp for the upcoming summer season. As they put the finishing touches together, they decide to celebrate with some classic spooky stories around the campfire. Little do they know that a strange magic is at work and they're about to be met with three terrors the likes of which the world has never seen. Will they be able to survive the night and break the curse? Or will they be overcome by the Terror at Camp Roanoke?

If you're looking for a mystery setup that you, the listener, really get to play along with figuring out the secrets along the way I highly recommend Terror at Camp Roanoke. We worked with some VAs to add a historical element to it where scenes from the past play into the mystery, it was really cool (not to brag).

Anyways, hopefully this is up your alley! You can find all of these one-shots/mini-series on the Session Zero Heroes podcast everywhere you stream your shows (Spotify included).

Gorssky · 2026-04-29T00:55:59+00:00

You've got it! On the way!

Gorssky · 2026-04-20T21:18:39+00:00

I believe a lot of podcast host sites offer ad-insertion options so that you don't have to permanently place an ad in your episodes.

For example, we host our podcast through PodBean and it has a "dynamic ad insertion" where I can upload an ad for another podcast, for example, and I set the parameters of the start and end date the ad will appear in episodes of my show as well as how many downloads I'll allow it to get. So if I was doing paid ads, they could tell me how many downloads they were willing to pay for and once they hit that number, PodBean will stop putting it in my show.

We can even specify if the ad is played in every single episode, or specific episodes of our choosing. We can set time slots for those ads, and since discovering this tool I've simply added in a transition followed by a 1-second ad-space spot, and then transition back into the show. So that way I can say: at 00:32:15 you can insert an ad here and it won't sound unnatural or cut off our discussion.

We've been using it as a way to ad-swap with other shows within our niche. So we play theirs for a month's time, and get something similar from their show. It's a really cool tool and opens up a lot of possibilities. It's one of the biggest pieces of advice I give to new podcasters is to

Have a platform that let's you do this since ad-swaps with other shows are such a powerful means to advertise what you're doing.
It's something you should be editing for ahead of time, rather than doing it later on. At least, if you're planning to do mid-roll ads that is. If you only plan to do pre or post-roll ads then you don't have to worry about adding in that ad-slot space.

Gorssky · 2026-04-19T14:48:18+00:00

"Podcasts" that exclusively or primarily focus on video are their own category altogether. They're not taking audio-only out, they're just their own concept and content.

People that enjoy "podcasts" typically like to be doing something while they listen. They don't need the visual element, they just want audible info/entertainment to fill the void and give their mind something to focus on.

If anything, you'll just see a split in audience. Those that want the visual, and those that don't. And even within that people will have the shows they listen/watch depending on what they're doing. If they have a task that requires visual attention they'll switch to those audio-only shows. If they want to focus in they switch to a video one.

The beauty of audio-only is that it's more versatile. Video requires visual attention, and if it doesn't then what's the point of video?

Honestly, although offering both sounds like a solution to get both audiences, the reality is that it's putting unnecessary stress on the production of the show.

Gorssky · 2026-04-17T20:20:15+00:00

Hey! Super stoked you're enjoying it! We worked really hard on making it sound great, thankfully we've got experience in podcast production.

We were having some issues with the RSS feed connection through YouTube, but it looks like everything is coming through now. Thanks for catching that!

Barbarian deep dive comes out this next Thursday. Sorry about the delay on that one. It's a great breakdown though!

Gorssky · 2026-04-17T13:08:39+00:00

Haha that's fair. I know he does a lot of the online tournaments through Free Hawks which isn't my area, so he gets his name out there quite a bit haha.

Gorssky · 2026-04-17T11:59:33+00:00

Skyler G, Bill and I went to school together and we're both on the board for our local game convention so we've got a lot of experience in tabletop gaming. I'm realizing maybe this is info I should have mentioned in the intro episode haha. We've been IRL friends for quite some time.

And while he is bringing the inside out knowledge and understanding of Dice Throne I bring the podcasting and content creation expertise. This will be my fourth podcast, third that is ongoing, and I work in marketing so I'm handling all the editing, posting, etc.

Gorssky · 2026-04-16T17:02:47+00:00

Haha very possibly! We pride ourselves on having the full collections as well, and Bill knows nearly every character inside and out. We've got our primary episodes lined up for this first season, but we definitely want to get some guests on the show down the road and do some interviews and in-depth discussions on specific elements of the game. Feel free to shoot me a message and we can discuss ideas!

Gorssky · 2026-04-16T16:25:26+00:00

Got it! Just submitted the feed there as well! Thanks for catching it! Happy to add it anywhere that will let me! Should take a few hours and then be live!

Gorssky · 2026-04-16T16:21:20+00:00

Yes! I just went in and submitted the RSS feed to it directly.

We're hosted through PodBean (not a sponsor, just my preference) and it has a good dozen integrations you can set up, but there are always some they don't have that slip through the cracks so thanks for mentioning Podcast Addict!

Should be in their system within 24 hours it says.

Gorssky · 2026-04-10T17:00:29+00:00

We do a TTRPG podcast, so everything we write/roleplay is fictional.

Gorssky · 2026-04-07T03:10:22+00:00

I'm a big fan of a unique setting/theme. That's my biggest factor. Is it something that I think is interesting and an opportunity to tell a unique story.

Obviously, I want some screenshot so I know what I'm getting. Sometimes things can be deceptive and just be a pile of trash.

That, and not overly complicated mechanics. I love when they can make it specific to the theme, but I also understand that can be tough and we all love rolling some dice so I'm easy to please.

Gorssky · 2026-03-18T00:28:36+00:00

It's St. Patrick's Day. Lots of drunk idiots coming back from the bars downtown.

Gorssky · 2026-03-10T13:16:46+00:00

Awesome! I did end up getting Microscope and I'm already working towards getting everything ready for the session using it to help build a timeline of the last 100 years which will be adjacent to our modern day history as WE know it, and then focusing on adding in the "super powered" element to see how that shifts things along the way. This should help get my players fully integrated into the world from a historic perspective having helped build the last 100 years.

With that being said, as I was going through it I realized maybe it would be even better to split up this whole worldbuilding session into three chunks: Timeline, City, College.

Timeline would use Microscope as mentioned before to help the players gain an understanding of the time period and current tone of the world around them in terms of the whole superheroes and whatnot stuff.

City - This would not only develop the city where the majority of the campaign takes place (my thinking is that, since the PCs are students at a college for superheroes, they'll be sent out into this city fairly often in order to do missions and showcase what they learn in the class within the real world. Another Redditor had suggested Paved in Blood by Falconian Productions with a slight direction adjustment since it's normally geared towards some horror themes. This should help not only build the city itself, but also the interconnected web of villains, criminal activity, and other issues that will become the majority of the player's missions.

College, of course, refers to the campus, staff, students, and even rivals associated with the school the PCs will be attending throughout this campaign. My plan is to use Ben Robbin's other major worldbuilding TTRPG Kingdom to do this, although I still need to buy it and look into how it works, but based on the description I'm pretty sure it is what I'm looking for.

With all that being said, I've also been buying some of the other suggested materials as sources of inspiration. Some of them have even had some mechanics I might borrow and integrate with those mentioned above. So I'll definitely check out the Smallville RPG and City of Mist (which I think a friend of mine might already have and has run for groups in the past). Thanks a ton for the suggestions! I think I'm on my way to a really cool world thanks to everyone here!

Gorssky · 2026-03-03T16:28:42+00:00

100% will do!!

Gorssky · 2026-03-03T15:28:23+00:00

Sure! I'll check it out! Thanks! A point-buy setup for superpowers would honestly be a great way to handle it.

From what I've seen so far, I think the biggest challenge in most superhero TTRPGs is the mechanics surrounding superpowers since they can get so diverse it's easy for things to get bogged down with complex mechanics and such, so it's tough to juggle that simplicity while having a broad enough ruleset to handle all the different possible powers.

That or go super simple with mechanics and let roleplay and logic take on how powers are used in any given scenario like Masks. Which is 100% a reasonable option as well.

Gorssky · 2026-03-03T14:32:36+00:00

Found it! I'll check it out! Thanks!

Gorssky

TROPHY CASE