I Sure Could Play some DnD

Yes, I am hard-charging through running a supers game, and it is the referee challenge I anticipated it will be. Specifically the real-world consequences of supers action in "real" world situations. It seems so effortlessly done in the comics and film because the creators have absolute control of the narrative. RPGs are not like that, on purpose, because the play is the thing and confounding one's expectations are the order of the day. For both referee and player. Responding quickly and creatively with the incredible events which supers creates is, for me, the lure of supers roleplay. 

And some days I look wistfully at my Elric! rulebook and the isolation sword and sorcery roleplay affords the busy Game Master. Fantasy is easier to run because Biden is president the action is always where the players are at. One part of the game world does not know what is happening in other parts. Except for the multi-dimensional beings pulling strings, I guess. In supers, or any other modern game, everything is connected to everything! That is harder to adjudicate. Same freedom applies to sci-fi roleplay. The sheer expanse of the natural universe is overwhelming and makes isolation of action easy to maintain. But a game set in your gritty urban city of millions, fuck, it gets weird just having the players take a car ride out of town. What does the rest of the world know of them? That is a big fucking question. A scary question. How is it well done? I still don't have good answers for this, besides looking at the current events of the day. That seems to be my current way out of not knowing what is the best, logical move of the game world to the characters actions. The real world is more weird, strange and frightening than fantasy supers world. I think I need to key on real life people and institutions which can be turned into supers caricatures. But caricatures seem lazy and abhorrent to my artistic  bent. I want something legitimate. But legitimate in an artistic sense in my terms means a lot. It means moving past tried and true and taking risks. 

I can't really explain it. But I know when it happens in game. I've delivered something on message and unexpected and dare I say cool in the game when players react in that awesome way: "Whoa!" Nothing better to my GM ears then the collective "Holy fuck" exclamation from the players at the table. If you can get any of the players in your virtual game table to stand up and start pacing and rubbing their forehead you are doing something right! 

I can recall two occasions I achieved this monumental feat. Both were fantasy games. The first time was during my play test of USR Sword & Sorcery in 2012. The players had completed their charge, escort a young prince through a dangerous city and equally dangerous mountains to a remote keep. They were escorted out of the main hall after the royal head requested they be paid for their faithful and successful service. At the gate the sergeant told the players to get the fuck out. Commoners are not getting paid, petty corruption of the simplest sort. The sergeant pocketed the purse of gold and the PCs were left outside in the cold with nothing to show for their efforts. They got pissed! It was pitch-perfect as far as any genre conceit could be and the players were not expecting this turn of events. It prompted the most awesome thing in any roleplaying game; the PCs began to bicker. As game referee this is where you get to sit back and watch the game being played completely in the hands of the PCs. I love that!

Oh, this reminds me of the third time I achieved this kind of gaming awesomeness. It was plain old DnD and it was a mexican stand-off between a vampire lord, frenzied fairy bitch, and the PCs in an enchanted and rotten tree crawling with bugs and corrupted sap dripping on their heads. The BBEG was dealing, making intriguing offers which aligned with the party's interests. When I say mexican standoff I mean it was twitchy fingers on the gun belts and the first side to blink wholesale carnage would get unleashed. There was no guarantee on who would come out on top in this confrontation. This is all theater of the mind, but I could feel the Paladin's arm shoot out in front of the frothing Cleric when he stated "He has made no move against us!" A Paladin! Asking the Cleric to step off and deal! That shit is gold. My relief was palatable, to me, when I set down the initiative die I had been rubbing briskly in my hands. 

The second time was completely unplanned. It was one of those times when you spontaneously react to the unexpected in the best possible ways. The Cleric was going down at the hands of the evil lich-lord's undead minions. It was curtains, even though the group had slain the lich-lord by a bold move of the Assassin. The Cleric proposed, in his moment of great victory and grim death, his last plea to his "god" in a very specific and  appropriate way. Highly dramatic. "Sacrifice # experience points," I responded. This shit isn't necessarily original, but timing is everything and this adjudication fell hard and hot if the collective "whooooa" around the table is to be believed.

I have yet to achieve this with my supers game. Any suggestions?