This is an idea I had that I think would make a very amusing tabletop RPG campaign, perhaps a good way to teach players rules for a Superhero or Mecha system.
RPG setting in which Universities in MA compete for contracts to become the State of Massachusetts' official superhero.
Why Massachusetts? Because there's a lot of universities there in a relatively small area, particularly in metropolitan Boston.
The Massachusetts Intercollegiate Mecha League, also known as MIML, is an annual design competition in which teams of students and faculty complete to design a piloted or autonomous defense system for the state. The prize for best concept and demonstration receives a hefty private/public grant to implement this defense system, and the developers are sure to be snatched up for employment (or something more sinister) by the government, a corporation, or even a super-team!
Typically, the title goes back & forth between either the Harvard or MIT team. This is because Harvard just throws money at the problem, while MIT has the most extensive facilities for R&D of wacky machinery.
Unless the players have a particular fondness of the above two schools, PCs from another institution, such as BU, Brandeis, Tufts, Northeastern, UMass, Amherst, Hampshire, etc.
MIML is inspired and funded largely by Crimsonium, the original metal-suited superhero from Boston (like Iron man with a Harvard theme). Crimsonium has refined his original drone-based rescue platform into a flight suit capable of achieving supersonic speeds and high-altitude flight.
Past winning designs have included drone swarms, point-defense systems, recombining robots, submersibles, etc.
Players can be students, staff, or faculty at their school. They can be engineers, programmers, designers, artists, marketers (someone's got to give the PowerPoint!), beta-testers (aka guinea pigs), roommates, significant others, etc.
School spirit should be played up (perhaps with game mechanics?)
Crimsonium should totally show up and be pompous.
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