Theme and Mood

To achieve the essence of real externality, whether of time or space or dimension, one must forget that such things as organic life, good and evil, love and hate, and all such local attributes of a negligible and temporary race called mankind, have any existence at all. Only the human scenes and characters must have human qualities. These must be handled with unsparing realism, (not catch-penny romanticism) but when we cross the line to the boundless and hideous unknown -- the shadow-haunted Outside -- we must remember to leave our humanity and terrestrialism at the threshold.
-- H.P. Lovecraft

When Robert Oppenheimer quoted the Bhagavad-Gita during the Trinity test he might have meant two things. One is the currently popular interpretation that he was filled with fear at his own powers of destruction. But the entire epic deals with how Krishna is explaining to the young prince not to show fear in the face of awful destiny. The other meaning might be accepting the responsibility of being a destroyer/warrior. This is what Bulk and Surface is about: responsibility, being a destroyer/warrior and a frightening destiny that may or may not come to pass.

Bulk and surface is indented to be a dark superhero story about deep dilemmas. Ordinary people have been given godlike powers – or rather, they have become potential weapons of mass destruction. If they make mistakes tragedy will strike, people will die and their lives may be destroyed. And they are human: they are bound to make mistakes.

The campaign is aiming for a “realistic” feeling and with a greyscale morality – no four-colour superheroes protecting democracy, the European Way of Life and the Common Market, but hardly total nihilism either. There are no X-files type conspiracies, but rather the real darkness of the eternal War on Terror. The EU bureaucracy is filled with more than enough intrigue, stupidity and contrary aims to keep everybody plotting (or struggling to get out of the ever-present politics).

I have not read Ellis’ The Authority, but it appears to touch on one important factor in how I ran the game: superpowers have consequences. And when superpowers are used on the large-scale people get killed – quite likely in huge amounts. When I ran the story the players accidentally killed (or caused the suicide, nervous breakdown or at least a major life crisis) of at least ten people in the first three games. With some ill-advised special effects they caused riots killing hundreds of people and devastating a suburb – but it was almost overlooked in the chaos of an NPC killing many thousands with nuclear blasts.

But actions have consequences. Relatives of the victims of nova powers – be they widows or children of parents now undergone religious conversions – seek to deal with their loss. The police and military will interfere, and even if they cannot beat super strength directly, they will tenaciously try to find a way. Or at least impound novas’ properties and make them real personae non grata.

Societies are trying to come to terms with the appearance of the unthinkable and radical change. Some cope, some are confused; others break down into civil wars, cults, terrorism or anomia. How can novas help, when they are as much the cause as the solution?

At first the players have to deal with the problem of handling their own powers. Then the problems of handling the powers of others – failed eruptions, mental problems, novas going into terrorism, mercenaries and high stakes politics. Is it acceptable to use one’s power for anything? And who gets to set the rules? The theme here is certainly not "power corrupts" (it has been used to death) but rather "how do you handle power?".

But as the players are getting into this they discover a threat to humanity that makes all individual, national and ideological differences moot. Suddenly the greyish darkness of Realpolitik and mental problems is confronted with absolute cosmic horror and imminent extinction. This is the horror of realizing that one is not free and powerful, but weak, controllable and in the end maybe that which one should fight.

Can novas save humanity from themselves? Can they save themselves either? Or is it better to give in and become a bringer of cosmic destruction, safe in the bosom of madness?

The cosmic horror in this setting is also a form of personal horror. When the PCs realize what they truly are, they realize that they are monsters. Many ideas from Vampire: the Masquerade can be re-used or twisted around.

As I ran the campaign the mood was moving between relatively relaxed and grim. Most of the time things were moving along smoothly. EU intrigue, novas building their lives, annoying fans and interesting scientific experiments. But from time to time the walls closed in and the world became far darker. It could be a miseruption, bad news from abroad or the spread of madness among the novas. As the campaign went on the grimness kept closing in. The world appeared to be moving towards destruction, not due to any obvious large reason but just by small steps: more and more novas misusing their powers, the loss of friends, war, revolution, worrying revelations from space. This was amplified by how many PCs began to go erratic, becoming as threatening as anything I as the GM could throw at them.

In the end the battle will be between the human and the inhuman: can the PCs save something of humanity – theirs or mankind as a whole – or will they let it be swallowed by the nova blasts