Which is why I've been working recently on my own superhero campaign setting. It's nothing flashy—I don't have maps drawn up for anything—but I've enjoyed working on it. It's been a project to keep my mind active during periods of downtime that would otherwise see me obsessively checking my email, RSS feeds, and Kickstarter project pages. (More on Kickstarter later. ;) )
The basic premise of Caldera is that it happens in our current world. Well, our current world if we'd had super-powered people running around, causing and preventing crime and world-destroying schemes. You see, the Tunguska Event of 1908 introduced exotic matter and radiation to our little blue planet, creating the possibility of superhuman capabilities in the human race. But it wasn't until nuclear weapons testing during World War II that these abilities manifested in obviously superhuman ways. And so our world became the world of the comic books, with caped and masked vigilantes saving the world from their villainous rivals.
This became the new status quo, with the governments of the world only stepping in where they deemed it absolutely necessary. (You don't want to irritate a woman who can vaporize your capital city with a glance, right?) Then, Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980. The earthquakes and geologic shifting that occurred altered something in the geothermic layout of the Yellowstone Caldera, causing the magma plume that had powered the national park's spectacular geysers to cool. Without the heat and magma activity to hold up the surrounding land, the caldera collapsed on itself, spewing forth the water that had been trapped in its subterranean piping. A new drainage basin was formed, with a large percentage of the region's runoff and precipitation gathering in the new lake. Within a few months, the city of Casper, Wyoming, had been flooded, forcing most of the residents to either flee or live in the shantytown on the southeastern border of the lake.
As if these catastrophic events weren't enough, a super-flu virus began infecting vast swaths of people all over the world. Since the first confirmed cases were identified near the newly collapsed caldera, the disease was named Yellowstone Fever. Even the previously impervious super-humans were infected by the disease. Millions died around the globe, and no treatment could be found to stop its spread. Even odder, the super-humans who survived the disease found their powers completely stripped away. Within the disease's short run, from 1980 to 1983, every super-powered individual in the world was either killed or rendered powerless. Only those heroes and villains who relied on their advanced technology or trained skills were left to keep or destroy the peace. And in those early years of coping with the worldwide loss, there was precious little peace to affect.
But as is usual, the world kept spinning on. Life returned to a semi-normal state, and the worldwide community came back to their alliances and rivalries, their attempts to just get by. Vast deposits of precious and semi-precious metals were found on the floor of Caldera Lake, and the town of Casper was rebuilt. Rising from the sodden flood plains of Yellowstone, the new city was dubbed Caldera, and it quickly became the new center of mining and manufacturing in North America. A new gold rush began, drawing people from all over the world to this formerly small city in Wyoming.
And then, beginning in the early 90s, new super-humans began to appear. While there were some industrial accidents and radioactive experiments involved, the large majority of them were simply born. But they were born from those who had been infected with Yellowstone Fever during their childhoods and young teenage years. The powers these new supers exhibited sometimes came in strange or unexpected combinations, and there were more than a few growing pains as these super-powered children grew into their abilities. But with much of the Old Guard out of commission, who will guide this new generation of heroes and villains?
And that, my friends, is Caldera in a nutshell. As I said, I'm still working out many of the particulars, and I'm not even completely sure that I want the city of Caldera to be just a supers setting. We'll just have to see where things go from here.
If you have any comments or thoughts, please feel free to submit them below.
The ideas and concepts in this article are © 2012 Josh Leavitt.
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