Common Origin?

[gamedave]

Given the premise (supers are a new phenomenon, we've all recently acquired our powers, we're all associated with Freedom City University), I think it makes sense if all of our characters share a common origin. I think a shared origin/experience would also help with group cohesion, and why a group of strangers are willing to risk their lives to work together as a super-team.

The classic would be that we were all exposed to a high-energy physics experiment gone wrong (particle collider/dark matter/multi-phasic energy/quantum technobabble/etc), in a semi-deserted school building late at night (so the PCs would be the only ones exposed - or maybe also a couple of NPCs that use their abilities for evil...).

We each could have had different reasons to have been in the area at the time - brilliant undergrad helping run the experiment, boy/girlfriend or friend of one of the students working on it, just in the wrong place at the wrong time, janitor cleaning the building, etc.

Unless, of course, that contradicts a metaplot Nick is planning.

Just a suggestion.

[cassusaevum]

That does not have any negative impact on the broader game.

There are two major research and technology companies in Freedom City: The Albright Institute and ASTRO Labs.  Astro is a sort of "Stark Enterprises" kind of thing with their hands in just about every tech-related sector.  The Albright Institute is a think-tank and "futurist" organization trying to come up with ways to "Make tomorrow, today!"  Either could have accidentally created some sort of incident.

Likewise, Freedom City University is a full-functioning research institution as well with world-renown science and engineering programs, so something could have gone awry there.

I'm also fine with "cosmic incident" as in you were all outside when some doo-dad overflew and you gained powers.

Or anything else that makes sense.

Just remember that how you guys got your powers is not the only way that powers will exist in the setting.

[cassusaevum]

Oh, I should point out that "recently" is a relative concept, here. Rumors of powers have been circulating for months. In the broader setting, there was no "flash-style" event, though.