After the end of the Second World War, the United Nations founded the secret organization called the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, or S.H.I.E.L.D. for short. Unknown to the public, their task was to ensure that the United States and the Soviet Union would not utterly destroy themselves and everyone else on the planet. This job description included keeping an eye on any progress of enhanced humans on either side of the curtain. Once the Iron Curtain fell, it seemed as if S.H.I.E.L.D. had lost its purpose. However, since mutants and other superhumans alike were starting to increase in number, this secret spy organization found a new purpose. To make sure that they didn't destroy the world, too.
With S.H.I.E.L.D. working under the radar of the general population, most people did not believe that superhumans existed, even though reports of them started to pop up at an ever increasing rate. However, things changed when the first mutants came to light. People were confused on how to react: should they treat them like a minority group or regulate them like weapons of mass destruction. However, after a hard-fought bill was pushed through Congress and a monumental decision was made in the Supreme Court, mutants were finally recognized as a group that could not be discriminated against, just like race and sexuality. However, this was not quite enough because opinions never change over night and this newly created "protected identity" was still feared those bigots. When non-mutant superhumans started putting on their capes and fighting crime, people started to wander whether there should even be a distinguish between the two groups.
One such hero was Robert Reynolds, a.k.a. the Sentry. Although his past was shrouded in mystery, the Sentry's popularity with the general population began to soar as he made his debut on the superhero scene. However, he had a dead secret: an alternate persona dubbed 'The Void' that was the hero's repressed personality. One day, this 'Void' persona arose and threatened the destruction of New York City. At this time of crisis, the Earth's Mightiest Heroes, who would later be known as the Avengers, formed a temporary alliance and took on this unknown danger. The battle was long and hard, but after hours of intense fighting, the heroes emerged victorious. Once they discovered that the 'Void' was actually the Sentry, the heroes quickly covered it up, hoping that it would not taint their own reputation. Instead, the heroes gave Reynolds a funeral worthy of any hero. While the general public mourned for the death of the 'true' hero, the Avengers continued on, knowing that if the truth came out that the result would not be pretty.
This is the Dawn of Marvels, a sandbox style roleplay where you as the players help forge the landscape of this universe's Earth. The goal of this game is to provide an opportunity to all the players to cooperatively tell stories about our favorite Marvel Super-Heroes and Villains. This world is like a fresh clump of clay, ready for the artist to freely sculpt it into whatever his or her creative heart desires. Just like back in 2000 when Marvel launched its Ultimate Universe, you have the license to reimagine your character(s), picking and choosing your favorite bits and pieces from the decades worth of Marvel lore (mainstream, Ultimate, MCU, cartoons, etc.), or even adding your own flare to it!
You can imagine this as a massive "What If?" scenario. Are you interested in seeing how the world would change if Captain America did not become preserved in ice and instead had a "normal" life after WWII? Go for it! Do you want find out what would happen if someone other than Thor would wield his mighty hammer? You can do that! Are you obsessed with a obscure character and want to bring him to the forefront of the action? There is a place here for you! Together, we can make an interesting world where our characters can act out the stories we want to tell.
Below is a tl;dr version of the introduction above.
1) The appearance of superheroes should be like the graph of f(x) = ex. Should be small early on but it quickly skyrockets in the modern age.
2) Mutants have finally received equal rights under the law. However, there is still concern in both mutant and human camps. Regular people are still worried about how mutant powers might be used irresponsibly, while mutants, although technically protected under the law, fear that the safeguards that the laws give them are not enough to fend off the anti-mutant bigots.
3) S.H.I.E.L.D. was created as a secret spy organization at the beginning of the Cold War to ensure that the Soviet Union not somehow get an upper hand in technology, including the ability to create superhumans. Although the general public is not aware of their activities (or existence), the superheroes and villains of this world would be more acquainted with them because of S.H.E.I.L.D.'s interest in them.
4) On that faithful day, the world's mightiest heroes joined forces when the Void personality surfaced in the hero named Sentry, a superhuman who has recently become one of the most recognized and celebrated heroes in the United States. After a hard fought victory against Sentry's Void persona, this team became known as the Avengers. The secret that the Sentry and the Void are one and the same is still kept as a secret...
If you are interested, please leave a note and mention which character(s) you wish to play as. I look forward to hearing from you all.
Character Sheet template:
Player Name: Alias: Your character's superhero/villain name Real Name: Your character's real name Moral Alignment (Hero, Villain, Walking the Line): Affiliation (what group/team/organization, if any, is your character affiliated with?): Character Origin & Backstory: Powers and Abilities (What can your character do? What can't they do?): Sample Story Arcs: Give 2-3 ideas on where you want to go with your character. Rules: In this section, please acknowledge that you have read the rules. Sample Post (This is used as an introduction to your writing – try to keep it to around three paragraphs or more and try to include dialogue):
@DedonusAw man, I did think the concept was interesting but I always feel like trying to post in advanced would frazzle my brain. ^^; That and the ideas that immediately popped into my head are probably already taken anyways or aren't really workable, unfortunately.
@DedonusAw man, I did think the concept was interesting but I always feel like trying to post in advanced would frazzle my brain. ^^; That and the ideas that immediately popped into my head are probably already taken anyways or aren't really workable, unfortunately.
It's just a word, Rin! This is the least advanced game around. Trust me, Drew is a regular contributor in the RP. ;)
@Rin: I would much rather have someone who can consistently put up smaller posts rather than wait on someone an entire month to write a novella. I have been roleplaying with these guys (and girls) for some time now and we're a pretty relaxed group. If you are fine with high-causal, then you don't have anything to worry about.
I'd be curious to join in as Spider-Man. Specifically, I've been re-reading some of my old comics and i'm tempted to have a somewhat competant stab at the Clone Saga. Essentially, this is the rough idea that I have for it now:
* Judas Traveller is a magic wielder as well as scientist. During the war, he attempted on many occasions to try and provide the Allies with more successes like Captain America. By '43, he had had no luck at all, but due to his powers, had been drafted into the Howling Commandos, a squad of super-powered beings under Sgt Fury. After the war, Traveller began to blame himself for the 6 million dead Jews, stating that if he had just been more persistent, more determined, then he could have perfected the formula and those people may have lived. Traveller disappeared after the War. * Cut forwards to 4 years before present day. Traveller, upon reading about the war-crimes in the middle-east begins to set up his Super-Soldier formula again, this time with the intention of creating an army of Super-Powered individuals under his command, designed to perform the duties that S.H.I.E.L.D. is too buried under Bureaucracy to do anything about. He sets about gathering DNA samples of multiple Super-powered beings, including his old Squad-mates that are still alive (Wolverine, Omega-Red, Captain America, ETC.) * Traveller's earliest experiments were with Spider-Man, as the young man had proven interesting when he had helped bring down Sentry. Kidnapping Spider-Man, he held Spidey in his lab for the best part of a month whilst he ran experiments on him before wiping his mind and sending him back. Traveller uses the date and creates Kaine, but unfortunately, finds that Kaine is mentally unstable. Unable to control him, Kaine almost kills Traveller in his escape from his lab. Traveller goes to his old Sgt and tells Fury about his plan and the rogue Kaine. In the meantime, Kaine is on the streets, laying low and trying to figure out what he is. Hunted by S.H.I.E.L.D., Kaine runs into MJ, who mistakes him for Peter. This is when she finds out everything about Peter. She agree's to hide him if he agree's to calm down and tell her everything. * Traveller works together with S.H.I.E.L.D., using his last favour from Fury to help put Kaine under wraps. Whilst Fury tries to track down Kaine, he forbids Traveller from creating any more clones. Traveller lies, managing to use an illusion spell on Fury to convince him that he never left the Helicarrier at any point, in the meantime, creating Spidercide using a combination of Peter and Omega-Red's body. Spidercide is a hulking monstrosity built to track-down his failed clones. * As all of this is going on, Peter meets Kaine in MJ's basement and the 3 have a talk. Things seem to be going well until S.H.I.E.L.D. bust down the door. Kaine flips his shit and takes out most of the agents, damn-near killing one of them, but is stopped by Peter. The two have a short battle before Spidercide is dropped on the situation and the two are forced to work together to overcome the monster. Traveller attempts to aid Spidercide, but is killed (Seemingly) by Kaine. Peter disowns the clone, telling him that there is no way that a murderer like Kaine could ever be one of his clones. Kaine leaves quietly. Spidercide, in the meantime is found by Kingpin, who uses the beast to lead him to Traveller's laboratory. * Cut to modern day, Spider-Man is one of the more respected of New York's Superheroes. Kaine is working as a hitman and is on top of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Most wanted. When Kingpin got his hands on Spider-Man's DNA, he used it to create an extraordinarily powerful drug that is known as "Redback" which gives the user Spider-senses for about 10 minutes, augmenting their reality. Spidercide is also working as Kingpin's bodyguard and top goon.
Essentially, I was hoping for some more Spider-Clones to pop up places and then have it turn out that Judas really had made his army, much to the dismay of Kaine, who is waging a 1-man war against his creator. I did very much like the "Who Is The Real Peter Parker" storyline, so i'm going to leave it ambiguous, with S.H.I.E.L.D. turning out to have Ben Reilly, whom they have had in their possession since the beginning of this debacle. The idea is that Judas' first forae into cloning is to use a spell to create and exact copy of Peter, but found that it was as uncontrolable as the original, so he wiped the clones mind and put it on ice until he could figure out a way to control it.
Also, if you don't mind, I'd like for, later down the road, I was hoping to bring Leopardon into this. Saying that Judas developed the magic robot as an "Anti-Giant Monster" defense weapon. Maybe with Kaine having it to begin with and later Peter capturing it. I imagine it'd get jobbed out to Thanos if we get that far XD.
@mattmanganon: Thanks for showing interest in this game. I am also planning on applying for Spider-Man and doing a Clone Saga story. I noticed in your description above that Kaine is a very prominent part of it. Would you be interested in applying for Kaine? We also have a potential player who might play an incarnation of Ultimate Spider-Woman (female clone Peter). I really don't want all that you have written to have gone to waste, so I am sure we can work something out to incorporate your ideas.
Edit: I can also PM you what I have already if you are interested.
@Dedonus Alright. It's just that I am a man that believes that if you are going to do a remake, then don't do a remake of something that was great, because we already have a great version of is being remade. All you can do is make something equally as good, ever so slightly better, or just worse. High risk for low reward. However, if you remake something that had potential, but was ultimately terrible, then you make another great story and if it doesn't work, then nobody blames you saying "Well, you took a terrible story and made something equally as bad/ever so slightly better. But you were trying to adapt that terrible thing, so what did you expect?" Low risk for high reward.
The Civil War movie was a great example. The Civil War event was possibly one of the worst of the big Marvel Events. I mean, it was truly terrible in everything that it tried. Nobody was acting in character, the story tried to have a "Nobody is in the wrong, it's all about who the reader agree's with on a moral level" message, but then they made EVERYBODY in it a morally deplorable asshole, with Tony forming Super-Villain Death-Squads to kill anyone that didn't agree with him (Not just those who were Anti-Registration. Even those who had signed, if they so much as tried to tell Tony that he may have gone a little too far, like Spider-Man, then he tried to have them killed.) whilst Steve just did the killing of those he didn't agree with, himself. Then the Movie came along and actually made the argument a sound one. Tony said "The Avengers need to be accountable for the innocent lives that we ended in the crossfire" whilst Steve said "We need to be fully autonomous so we can help as many people as we can. If we are controlled by others, then we will have to cow to their agenda's, meaning that they could force us to go somewhere we shouldn't go, or keep us out of somewhere that we are needed." Both are excellent points, and although I freely admit that it was by no means a masterpiece, I think it's undeniable that it was far superior to the Comics.
I chose the Clone Saga because it was actually where I first started collecting Spider-Man comics and I do have a soft spot for it, so I wanted to see it done justice.
So, I made that timeline with 2 clear objectives. 1) Give Kaine a clear and decisive purpose. Rather than his constant flip-flopping between loving Peter and hating him and hating Ben and just all-round having no clear, decisive direction. My plan is for his direction to be to find a direction. To decide if he wants to become his own person, live as a clone of Peter, or just give in and become one of Traveller's Justice-Machine's. 2) Make Judas Traveller not a complete fucking waste of time and ink and give him an actually good fucking reason to be doing what he is doing, rather than just "Blahdy-Blah, i'm so cryptic, please analyse me." Mainly because I actually really like Judas' design.
If you don't mind, i'll probably apply for both of them. I mean, I can see someone else wanting to play Kaine, but I don't think there is anyone else wanting to play Judas, as he is a part of Spider-Man history that most people don't know of and those who do would rather just forget.
You can't take this back. Now that you've mentioned it, it must happen.
...But I get what you're saying about wanting to take a not-so-great story and make it less... Not-so-great, basically. XD Hell, one of the reasons I was thinking of using Ultimate Spider-woman was because I loved the Ultimate Clone Saga (which pretty much everyone will agree is a huge step up from the 616 version) so yeah. I'm actually interested in your ideas for Judas Traveller too, since like you said most people just like to pretend he never existed rather than working out some way to make him actually make sense (and like you said, even if he was kind of a stupid character he did have a pretty cool design).
Aaaaah I'm going to have to actually do this now. D:
Player Name: Mattmanganon Alias: Judas Traveller Real Name: N/A Moral Alignment: Walking The Line. Affiliation: Formerly US Army. Formerly Sgt Fury's Howling Commando's. Currently leading an army of Superhero clones. Character Origin & Backstory: Very little is known about Traveller's past, the first time he officially showed up was in 1919, as a medical scientist, trying to cure the German Measles epidemic. He was successful in curing his patients, although he was doing so using magic, unable to effectively come up with a medical cure. It was soon after that he was drafted by the US government and in 1923 when he was drafted to become personal Physician/Bodyguard of President Coolidge, proceeding to serve at the same post under Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt. After the success of the Captain America project, but the unfortunate assassination of Dr Erskine, Traveller was put in charge or replicating the success. When he was unsuccessful and D-Day approached, he was drafted to the front, joining the super-powered individuals under Sgt Fury, a squad that would become known as the "Howling Commando's"
During the war, the Commando's performed tasks that no other member of the armed forces could hope to achieve without massive losses, Sgt Fury leading the crack team of Captain America, James Howlette (Later becoming known as the Wolverine), a genetically augmented Soviet Supersoldier by the name of Omega Red, a sentient robot that could manipulate fire, by the name of "Human Torch", an Atlantean called "Namor" and Britain's Electrokinetic Super-Man, Union Jack. After the War, Traveller had been rather disturbed by what he had found in the German Concentration Camps. He disappeared from public view.
Over the years, Traveller made fleeting appearances, the first was in 1968 when he appeared in the My Lai region of Vietnam and slaughtered the entire US 23rd Infantry Division as they attempted to carry out a mass slaughter of civilians. According to the witnesses, he was not alone, he was aided by several beings, one of which was wearing red stripes. Coroner's reported that a number of the bodies were killed in a multitude of ways including shot, stabbed, electrocuted and several had no clear signs of death, as though they had had their lives stripped from them. Another appearance that caused quite a stir was on November 9th 1989, when he was in a video shot of the Berlin Wall being torn down.
Traveller didn't make a grand re-appearance until a year ago, when he created Kaine, a clone of Spider-Man in order to join him in his quest to protect the people of the world from mass murder. Unfortunately, Traveller was unable to control him, Kaine almost killed Traveller in his escape from his lab. Traveller then went to his old Sgt and told Fury about his plan and the rogue Kaine. Fury immediately wanted to incarcerate Traveller, but remembered from their old days that doing so would prove almost impossible and so decided to keep Traveller close to him until he could find a way to do so. Although, Traveller was playing Fury as well. Fury believed that Traveller was aboard the Helicarrier, when he was, in fact back at his lab, creating another clone by mixing Spider-Man's DNA with that of his old squad-mate, Omega Red. The resulting creation became known as Spidercide. Traveller released Spidercide onto the city to retrieve Kaine, but the creature was unsuccessful. Traveller's situation went from bad to worse, when it turned out that S.H.I.E.L.D. had tracked Spidercide back to him. His lab was invaded and he was forced to escape. One of his older experiments fell into S.H.I.E.L.D. hands ((NOTE: Contents of experiment to be decided at a later date.))
Traveller then dropped off the map again, presumably going underground, but he and Kaine are now at the top of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most wanted.
Powers and Abilities:
Vast amount of Magic power (Be it throwing fire-balls, Telekinesis, teleporting or casting illusions, Traveller's magic potential rival's, but by no means surpasses, Doctor Strange) Kestrel Transformation (Traveller is able to transform into the form of a Kestrel) Mind Reading (Has the ability to read minds, however, this power can be fooled by those who have mental training in resisting such techniques, like Nick Fury)
Sample Story Arcs:
Clone Saga (The one that commissioned as well as performed the cloning experiments.) The Ongoing Redback Epidemic (Kingpin has created a new drug by the name of "Redback" that grants the user 10 minutes of Spider-Senses. The drug is becoming an epidemic, causing mental breakdowns in people that use it for long enough, whilst granting criminals the ability to anticipate every danger to them)
Rules: There are no rules as of yet.
This is a post to use as an example for both Judas and Kaine.
Kaine stared at the warehouse, then at the letter he had received. "Come to Warehouse #8 at midnight if you want your answers." Kaine seethed silently. "Bastard..." he grunted. He then jumped down and web shot out, allowing him to swing into an open window, landing on a metal grating. He looked down into the center of the warehouse. Several large boxes moved around, a light shone down from the ceiling and that's where he was. Judas Traveller. The man that had symultaniously created and destroyed his life. "TRAVELLER!!!" Kaine roared, vaulting the catwalk and diving upon Traveller. Although, just as his foot was about to make contact, there was a puff of smoke and Kaine's Spider-Senses blared, as Kaine landed on all 4's, looking back at the smoke to see Traveller had barely moved, only now, he was stood looking back at him.
"My Child, I can understand your frustrations, but first, you must understand mine." he said, as he poofed into smoke again as Kaine sent webbing at him, before appearing on Kaine's opposite side. "I am trying to create a better world, a world that is free of massacre, where people need not live in fear that they are to be killed for no other reason than because they share the same skin colour as some criminal that they have never met before. Kaine lunged his hand out at Judas, trying to use his signature "Mark of Kaine" attack, but once again, Judas teleported. "Please, Kaine, let us talk like civilized beings." he said. Kaine stood and analysed the situation. There was no concievable way to hit Judas at the moment, as he was expecting these attacks.
"Alright, you old bastard, we'll play the game your way." Kaine said, standing at ease. Judas smiled and clapped his hands together.
"Excellent." he replied. He snapped his fingers and a table appeared in the middle of the room a hot, roast dinner on each side of the table. "Please, join me for dinner." he said, sitting down and tucking the napkin into his collar. Kaine didn't move. Judas sighed. "My dear boy, I think it's rather obvious that if this was a ploy to capture you, then I would do so and you would stand little chance to resist." Kaine moved towards the table and sat down across from him. "There we go." Kaine sat and stared at him. "You know, you can remove your mask. It's not as though you need to hide your identity." Kaine pulled the mask down, allowing his face to be free'd. Judas began to eat.
"What's your game, old man?" Kaine asked, prodding a carrot with his fork, before eating it.
"My game is freedom and security for man. Not one man, nor a group of men, but all men." he said, between mouthfuls of pea's. "You see..." he sat and chewed his food for a second to think of a way to put it to Kaine that wouldn't result in the Clone in going berserk and start attacking him. "I may be performing awful acts... But what would you have me do? I saw what happened in the Concentration camps, the 6 million that died in awful conditions, who deserved so much better, who deserved to grow old, to cradle their children or grand-children... Are you telling me that I am a monster for wanting to create a ruined life, such as yours, to help save those people."
"And did you ever stop for a second to think about the lives of your soldiers?" Asked Kaine. Judas didn't look up from his food.
"Of course, but as I said, it is one life, specifically yours, vs the life of those 6 million Jews... There was 1 choice. And unfortunately, you got the short end of the stick." Kaine slammed his fist on the table.
"OF COURSE, BECAUSE IT'S SO MUCH DAMN EASIER WHEN YOU ARE THROWING AWAY SOMEONE ELSES LIFE!!!" Judas picked up the bottle of wine as it rattled and was about to fall. He then reached over and filled Kaine's glass, before filling his own.
"Don't get me wrong, I would say the same were it my life." he replied, before drinking from his glass, he dabbed up a little trickle of wine from his lips using his napkin. "And I do so, I assume that you have looked into my activities, you will know of my actions in Vietnam."
"400 dead soldiers." he said.
"In return for the lives of over 500 women and children. Oh yes, I do not regret my decision and would never choose to do otherwise, yet it was me who was branded traitor. Me who can never again return to my homeland to live and work, to have a family. Do not think that yours is the only life sacrificed in pursuit of my goals. People like to forget that with the mustache-twirling villains such as myself, our lives are the first to be sacrificed to our cause. I have loved ones, I still do, but I can never truly be with them" he said, staring at a carrot, before eating it as he finished.
"But... What of the loved ones of those soldiers?" Kaine asked. "Their mothers, fathers, wives, sons, daughters, you are destroying more lives." Judas let out an exhale as he sat up and looked Kaine in the eyes.
"Emotional distress. They will get over it." Judas said.
"Like I did." Kaine said, dropping the knife and fork on the plate and crossing his arms.
"Especially considering that the loved ones they mourn are murderers and rapists." Judas looked up at Kaine and smiled. "Do I give you the impression that I am one of their number?" Kaine merely stared daggers back. "Look. I don't expect you to accept or agree with what I have done, but I do expect you to appreciate that EVERYTHING I have done was done to assist Humanity."
"Humanity, yes, but not for the tools that you use to assist humanity." Kaine downed his drink before getting up, pulling his mask back up to cover his face and beginning to walk away.
"You barely touched your food." Judas said, staring at the still rather full plate.
"Not hungry... I think me and Pete have something to discuss." Kaine said, looking back. "And depending on how that goes, you may have to start watching your back more fervently." Judas raised his glass to Kaine.
"Just keep me in mind, please. As much as you hate me, I can't help but think of you as a sort of a son. You are always welcome at my door." he called, he waited for some kind of reply, but it didn't come. As soon as Kaine had dropped back out of the window, Kaine would hear the old man's voice shout "Until next we meet."
Also, since I hear about a possible Clone Saga. Would it be okay if I possibly be Ben Reilly. I'm not 100% saying I am, because I'm thinking of my options.
@Chaotic Chao: While I am not going to say no to this, I would also suggest that you also look at other options, too. Especially since we're really thin at Avengers.
@Chaotic ChaoYeah, um, the Spider-woman I was planning on is basically the Ultimate version who kind of sort of takes Ben's place in the Ultimate Clone Saga. ^^; I'm not saying you definitely shouldn't go for him but just bare that in mind I guess.
@Dedonus Can you look over the Judas sheet i've put up so far and tell me what you think? I think i've ironed out the stuff that directly contradicts with your stuff, except for the part where I need to add in that Jackle helped him/he helped Jackle with the experiments.
@mattmanganon: Looks good so far. Only two suggestions so far.
1) Maybe make the Sg. Fury in WWII Nick Fury's father or grandfather, like in the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes animated series. That way, it makes sense why Fury is still alive during the modern age.
2) I know one of the other players (Gowi) is making a character sheet for one of the Invaders (Ms. America) who has been teleported to the present day. While what you have so far it fine, you might have to edit it so that your two backstories are in harmony (all you would have to do it talk to him and I'm sure you both can find a compromise).
