I've an idea for superhero game with communal worldbuilding and random generation elements. I really liked Ardent Debater's 'Near Future Street Level Super' game a while back, where the super type everyone was got randomly rolled. I also really like the Universe Creation idea in the Icons RPG, so...
Essentially, the game starts with the creation of the setting. I'll likely set down some general ideas and themes first, or we do that together, and maybe a time period (so we could go for Jazz Age Supers, Cold War Supers, Modern Supers, Near Future Supers, etc...). Then everyone player creates a Premier Hero, a world-class superhero at the top of the power weight class, two Champion Heroes, who are the B-level-still-powerful-best-in-their-city types, and three Street Level heroes for the city we'll actually be playing in. We also do a round of villains - not sure of the numbers there, but tied to specific heroes and the city - and some non-super supporting cast for the city. There's also Features - additional things of interest, ranging from Super Spy Organizations to Ancient Conspiracies - which will be tied to aforementioned characters and fill out the world. I tie all this together and work it into a coherent world (vetoing if necessary, but preferably not).
That may sound like a lot, but it's not that much for one player. These need not be fully finalized characters, just names, general ideas, how they fit in the world at the least, hopefully leaving room for me and other players to add to. The idea is to communally create an interesting world everyone's engaged with before we even start playing.
Now, as for who we're actually playing - it could be one of these characters, or it could be new ones with randomly generated powers like in the aforementioned game, since that was pretty fun. It could be either the general type of super or the powers in full - Icons has a system for the latter too. The PCs would start off as street level heroes in the same city, still learning the ropes, and thus no doubt needing to band together when they have to face the stronger villains there...
I'm not totally sure on the system. Mutants and Masterminds is something I'm familiar with, but Icons seems fun and fairly simple. I could also go for some kind of simple homebrew. Some kind of cannibalized unholy hybrid might also work for me. I'm thinking I might keep that 'hidden' from players unless they really wanted to understand it anyway; minmaxing and learning a system wouldn't be the point here.
Thoughts? Does that sound like fun?