"The world has always had superhuman and heroic beings. Working behind the scenes to either benefit or enslave and destroy mankind. Some in history have gone on to become legends, but it was only during the years before the second world war when things started picking up for the Super Humans. The fact is that most of them are results of a dormant gene that either activates at or sometime before puberty or by accident or deliberation. Others who lack the genetic structure of their scientific counterparts have supernatural or magical origins to their abilities and others who have neither of these things, make do with what items manpower and tech they can lay their hands on. The rest are either beings from another world or from realms thought to be merely legends. The world was a dark place in the 1930s before the heroes first became public knowledge. In the United States the great depression had caused illegal activity amongst gangs and petty crooks to sky rocket. mothers in many American towns and cites were afraid of taking their children to school in the morning, out of fear of them getting shot up in a gang fight or drive by shooting. Crime was rising on what seemed to be an almost daily basis. Needless to say that all changed in 1938 when the first ever costumed heroes came into the limelight. These men were armed with simple fighting skills and simple, yet interesting weapons. Before long however, more powerful and colourful heroes began to leap, fly, run, etc out of the shadows and into headlines and the hearts of the American people. Many wore bright and gaudy costumes, some wore capes, many wore masks while others didn't. But each one had the same goal at heart. To keep America safe. It seemed that every 2 weeks or so, 5 or more costumed adventurers were making their spectacular débuts. Every one of them with a unique look and even more unique powers. No one knew who would be appearing next or what abilities they might have.
With the rise of these more...noble men and women came, unfortunately, the openness of their more evil counterparts. Be they home grown, from foreign lands, (particularly Europe at the time) or even from outer space, be they powered or non powered, These ''Villains'' spread evil and invited mayhem and fear throughout the country and the world for many different reasons. And there, as always, were the heroes. Ready to take them on and defend their homeland for the greater good. And every time they were defeated the bitterness within them grew stronger, inspiring more menacing and sordid acts of evil which in turn would also be put to an end and so forth.
Then, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour. Then, America found that the war they had tried so hard to stay out of was on their doorstep. Then, the rules changed.
January 3rd, 1942. Over 4 years since the costumed heroes first appeared. And now, America is at war with the Axis nations. Patriotism is on the rise, yet so is racism and prejudice. War bonds and taxes are in fashion, pro american movies, songs and radio shows flood the media and thousands of Japanese Americans are being forced to leave their homes for government internment camps. It's a mixed up time. A combination of darkness and light, with the capes and costumes stuck slap dab in the middle. Some have retired their persona's to serve in the war effort. Others have actually taken theirs into army and government service and many more new faces are rising out of the shadow of war, to do what they can on the home front. Despite this, many of the originals are still working alongside these fresh faces, doing whatever they can to combat the usual threats. And the villains? Well, some continue in their old ways. Some have outright betrayed their own country to work for the Fuhrer. And so the rest of the world watches on. fearful on the inside, but never daring to show it, as The Greatest Generation fights on. The only question now is, where do you stand?"
So yeah, in case you were wondering by this lengthy introduction, this is a superhero RPG in the same vein as current games such as nitemare shape's Create-A-Hero RPG and Maximum Comics: Dawn of Justice by Gowi. Like CAH RPG it's an original hero game and like MC: DOJ it's a period piece. In it, you can create your own hero and base them either off existing images or make your own look for them, with whatever power sets you wish (no godmodding/OPing though). The year, as stated is 1942, in January. America has just entered the war and many costumed heroes, colourful and dark alike, are having to chose sides while trying to balance their own ideals. America is in the best state it's been in since before the depression, but there are less glamorous sides of the war effort such as the aforementioned blind prejudice and racism against the Japanese/racial minorities and the internment of Japanese-Americans during that time. In this RPG between doing the usual crime/axis bashing, we'll also be developing characters, having fun and interesting moments, building relationships and exploring the positive and negative sides of wartime Americana. You can chose any number of archetypes, (as long as they fit the period of course) have your own graphics if you want and if this thing gets going, we'll try to have events based on what the players want to see from one, trying to accommodate everyone while doing so. (maybe your character could be in the HUAC trials someday. ;) ) Anyway, feel free to tell me what you think and lets see if this works. If there are any additional details you'd like to discuss, feel free to bring them up. Thank you for reading. ^^
(there are many other tags i wanted to add such as Small Group, Fantasy, Romance and Slice of Life since I want to cover all those other things, but since i can only have five tags I'll just say that those things are part of the game regardless. :) )
