While invisibility is out of the range, super disguise could work. Or you could use smokescreens, in combination with perfect memory, mutant sonar or crude infravision. Other criminal classics are knockout gas, drilling engines(get to the vault straight with a burrower), grapple shooters(see Batman essentials), glue/net guns, hallucinogen gas. Gadget cars can be helpful as well, cars that can flat out outmaneuver police vehicles, eject oil slicks and caltrops, or turbocharge. Guns can be made with trick ammo, like specially made glass rifle rounds filled with sleep gas, exploding ammo.
Electromagnets were around long before then as well, wikipedia puts the discovery in the 1820s.
super disguise...I am not sure as to how this would work, as part of the premise is that the criminals start wearing disguises(I.E. costumes) and taking on alternate personas. it's a thought though. burrowing engine...now that has some possibilties. does anyone know when the first boring machines were invented? I know that we use them now, and I think they used them on the chunnle, so if it was not too far beyond the thirties, then definitly. exploding ammo is also a pretty neat idea, though I saw an episode of Mythbusters that makes me think glass bullets wouldn't work. still neat trick. mutant sonar and such like owuld not be available until after world war two. as there are no powers until the Nazis invent them. at least that is where the current paradigm is leaning.
Add to this, the underground syndicates can afford research better than the legitimate people can, with the rise in crime, the brilliant poor, who can see they'd either be robbed of their discoveries anyway, or work for the crimelords. Especially if it weren't for their brainwork, their family would have to slog like everyone else. The same thing keeps the geniuses from selling out, their family are vulnerable to the various mobs, and while they might be too rare to risk in a firefight, the family members of the various supergeniuses would be valuable pawns in power plays. One genius can be beholden to multiple organisations, and obligated to provide a regular tithe of toys to each. Thats of course, excepting a few who use their inventions to gain power in the mob, ending in high places, these are likely those with few ties to manipulate, or simply evil enough not to care, their opposite number don capes and masks to try to make a dent in crime.
not a bad concept, similar to where I was thinking as well. of course how would this change the nature of organized crime?
A hivemind? That has potential, with the various animals serving as appendages of the gestalt entity. Just keep it's desires simple, and it seeks to expand it's territory, and defend itself. Explosive growth takes energy though, and the Congo must obtain the supplies from outside, with absorbed poachers and other people who were inside when it awakened serving as it's eyes and hands in the outside world. Somewhere inside though, is the heart and source of it's power, some device or another.
I was thinking less a hive mind and more an awakening of the jungle as a sort of uncaring dark god. the animals are all fine, and people can live there, they just have to pay tribute to the jungle. it protects them, and they serve it. though there will definitly be aspects of a hive mind there, I am currently leaning toward something more alien, darker, and more intelligent. something with a strange unfathomable purpose.
Added suggestion on this aspect, instead of preventing 9/11 and other disasters(natural or otherwise) outright, have it be a literal war between superpowered good guys and bad. A few slip past in their covert duels, and sometimes the defense fails, but that is the plight of heroes, ever to react, and ever outnumbered. Instead of just a plane crashing into the WTC for example, have an aerial battle between two supers happening in the background, first intended to distract the Good super and then to prevent him from stopping the impact, on the plane, mind controlled civilians, possibly augmented by a minor metahuman of their own(incredible resilience makes a good power for the metahuman crew on the planes, or the ability to transform into something else), and the objective is a top secret device hidden in the complex, with top of the line security(which isn't proof against a freaking jet impact anyway).
Tsunamis, volcanoes, quakes, hurricanes, all can be tied to metahuman struggles easily, though at least some should be kept natural.
that's an interesting take on the matter, requires more thought. also it is well outside of my thoughts at this moment. right now I am focusing on the first costumed villains. I have made some decisions on the matter though. the first was a mail truck robbery 1921. The criminal was named George "Dutch" Anderson(though in my world no one knows his name). he wore a costume and disguised himself and his men in gaudy costumes. they got away with $2.4 million in cash, bonds, and jewelry. this was noted in the news, but soon forgotten. later a young man named John Dillinger decided this was a great scam, and he became the "first" costumed villain. he committed many bank robberies and funneled a good portion of the money back into his enterprise, buying or building better cars, guns, and other equipment. the press loves the angle and soon others start following Dillinger's lead. I still haven't thought of a good name yet for him, or for the true first villain.
I have thought along those lines as well. we have already established(loosely) that WW II ended differently with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Berlin, and the Nazi Ubermenschen.
I would like to see major changes, however I also want a fair amount of realism. mainly, at this point, I am working on this campaign as an excersise. I may run it one day, but right now it's just the fun of seeing where an idea takes me.
as to the Batman statement, how would Batman change the world? I am curious as I tried to think of a way he could and still be Batman, and I could not.
could you give a reason for these incidents please? it seems plausible, I just can't see why the middle east would be friendly to us, unless the cold war didn't happen...but then why wouldn't it. also if there was no cold war then there would be no Vietnam for America. the french would still own it ad the rebels in the hills would be a damnable nuisance. so that's an idea. but why wouldn't the Russians be a threat after the war? I guess they could have been thoroughly demolished by the German war machine and it takes them a decade or so to catch back up to where they need to be. hippies are easier to deal with I agree...
this is an awesome idea, but it is a bit outside the existing structure, as Germany has the big super-weapon(until the A-bomb that is). so that there would be no alliance to stop Russia. now if the Ubermenschen manage to damage Russia enough, we could end up in a very different post war situation. also there will be no West/East Berlin problem, as Berlin is gone.
Edit: It's all a question of whether you want to have an alt. reality game or a Alt. explanation for reality game
explain please, I have no idea what the difference is, or indeed what the terms mean in context.
thank you very much for your responses, they are very much helping me flesh out the concept better. look forward to continued discussion on the subject in the future.