Charlatan City

"People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy..." -Bruce Wayne

Nicknamed The City of Masks, Charlatan is infamous for the mass amounts of activism, corruption, and organized crime that stems from it. But, somewhere along the line--no one is quite sure exactly when, but at some point in the 21st Century, certain civilians from Charlatan City followed the example set by the legends that had been rooted in their culture. Much like the ancient greeks once had, the citizens of Charlatan emulated their heroes, and began a street-level war with an aim to purge the sin from their city.

"As a man, I'm flesh and blood, I can be ignored, I can be destroyed; but as a symbol... as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting." -Bruce Wayne

Using a combination of surprisingly accessible modern technology, soft skills, physical prowess, knowledge, blackmail, theatrical talent, deception, and genuine ferocity, the citizens of Charlatan have become masked vigilantes. The results of their actions vary greatly. Some of them have ended up dead as a result of their actions. Others have spearheaded small-scale groups of radically minded 'caped crusaders'.

"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree by the river of truth, and tell the whole world 'No, You Move'" -Steve Rogers

Their efforts have been met by various types of resistance: both Physical and Legislative. Naturally, attempts to chip away at organized crime have resulted in the use of hitmen and mafiosos to "take 'em out." Some specialized hitmen have developed to nab 'capes.' At the same time, unorganized criminals and spree killers have stepped up their game a bit to give themselves an edge. All of it escalated until the local superheroes found their dark doppelgängers: Supervillains. Like a fire, they come in many forms, both chaotic and surgical, from many backgrounds with different motivations and techniques. Admittedly, some are better than others. Some are egotistical, some are belligerent, some are greedy, and some are pathetic. Others are sympathetic.

"All the ones who think they're above the law, or outside it, or beyond it. They know all the law is good for is to keep good people in line. And they all laugh. They laugh at the law. But they don't laugh at me." -Frank Castle

Due to excessive brutality of some 'superheroes', special laws were created in order to put the 'capes' in line. Vigilantism became illegal, defined as a felonious act after the lines between hero & villain were blurred by 'anti-heroes' and reluctant supervillains. Police actively seek out the masked crimefighters as earnestly as they prey upon drug rings and with the same predictable sense of duty as they express when looking away from corruption.

"You were always an inspiration to us... It can't end like this!" -Matthew Murdock

But, there is light at the end of the tunnel. In this game, you players will undertake the role of citizens within Charlatan City and play as characters who have a dual-identity of some sort. Under no circumstances will you play as Bruce Wayne or Peter Parker, but you can play as a character who purposefully imitates them and their alter egos at my discretion. In fact, I hope you guys make some interesting 'knock-offs', though OCs without any inspiration are also acceptable.

"With great power comes great Responsibility" -Ben Parker.

Ooh, interest!

Interested

Seems amusing... :D

Potentially, I love sandboxes to play around in, and I've got plenty of characters up my sleeve.

Cool, people. A couple questions for those interested:

Unless I am mistaken, I personally saw this as a somewhat lighthearted parody role-play, a loving deconstruction of genre with some slightly more serious overtones at times. I would most certainly not mind doing a more serious one by any means, however. It is just what I understood when I read the introduction.

In terms of characters, I was thinking of making a half-serious Mysterious Stranger for hire. Mysterious unseen guy observing the other characters with his face mysteriously hidden in shadows, wearing a mysterious trench coat, mysterious shades and mysterious hat/mask. He wouldn't really have any actual goals, interfere directly with other characters, or really do anything besides standing ominously on lamp posts whenever anything interesting is happening. Who is he? Who does he work for? Nobody knows. What we do know is that he is Mysterious, with a capital M. Maybe he works for some sort of nebulous Omniscient Council of Vagueness or Evil Corporation... Maybe he's just a particularly tenacious ARA agent looking for tax evaders, or maybe he's even just some weird guy who likes to dress up in a trench coat and watch people doing things from rooftops.
Either way, what is known is that he offers his services to the highest bidder, providing top of the line pretentious needlessly ambiguous double talk and enigmatic cliché statements like "It has begun." or "Everything is going according to plan." to those willing to pay for it... Or does he?
Comes with his own ominous background music and weather effects. Internal monologues not included.

Basically, a character who's sole ability and role in the story is being mysterious and enigmatic.

I'd be interested, I'd rather have this be gritty rather than light hearted, but I'd probably join no matter where you decide to take the RP.

Let's see:

- The character I have in mind is a re-working of an old OC of mine, Basilisk. A hero in her early twenties who tries to look out for the younger heroes in her patch.

- I got a kind of gritty, realistic vibe from the intro, but not a super-serious Bale-era-Batman one. So, a sort of light-hearted gritty universe, if that makes sense ^^;

- I'm not sure where I'd like the story to go, but I've always liked the rivalries and relationships that form in this sort of story, so hopefully we'll get that sort of thing develooping as we go along.

Cryptiic said
Unless I am mistaken, I personally saw this as a somewhat lighthearted parody role-play, a loving deconstruction of genre with some slightly more serious overtones at times. I would most certainly not mind doing a more serious one by any means, however. It is just what I understood when I read the introduction.

You pretty much hit it right on the nose. This is what I was going for. I think certain aspects of 'Watchmen' would serve well to compare the tone, as would Waid's Daredevil run.

So only playing as seemingly heroic vigilantes?

kinokoko said
So only playing as seemingly heroic vigilantes?

Nah. You'd get to play as superheroes/supervillains. But rather than using superpowers or advanced technology, you're limited to modern utilities. Unlike Batman, who was inspired by the legend of the Zorro and classical literature amongst mythology and psychology, you're characters are inspired by the comic book superheroes and their mainstream appearances. You can genuinely be heroic, you just can't have a system of crime-fighting/law-breaking without the 'kinks' of superheroics/supervillainy.

A no-metas superhero RP certainly seems like an interesting game.

I'd play the crap out of this.

Among the first heroes in Charlatan was Big Brother, his name being an homage to the idea of a constantly watching entity. His sidekick(and literal sibling) was Little Brother. The mob caught up with the pair, but Big Brother helped Little Bro to escape, at the cost of his own life. Since his older brother's death, Little Brother has become angrier, more brutal, excessively self critical and bordering on self abusive. He is also tragically young at fifteen years old. His parents never knew what he and Big Bro got up to, but now only have a vague idea that he's "acting out" in the wake of his brother's death.

So that's my character idea, if it's acceptable. I love the idea, very much like Kick-Ass 2, I think.

Gisk said
Among the first heroes in Charlatan was Big Brother, his name being an homage to the idea of a constantly watching entity. His sidekick(and literal sibling) was Little Brother. The mob caught up with the pair, but Big Brother helped Little Bro to escape, at the cost of his own life. Since his older brother's death, Little Brother has become angrier, more brutal, excessively self critical and bordering on self abusive. He is also tragically young at fifteen years old. His parents never knew what he and Big Bro got up to, but now only have a vague idea that he's "acting out" in the wake of his brother's death. So that's my character idea, if it's acceptable. I love the idea, very much like Kick-Ass 2, I think.

I rather like it.

So are we waiting for more interest before this is started?

Not necessarily more interest. I just need to put together a fully fledged OOC thread that would highlight notable history within the city and express the existence of various notable locales around town. It may take up to a week at most or *crosses fingers* two days at the least.

Nightrunner said
Not necessarily more interest. I just need to put together a fully fledged OOC thread that would highlight notable history within the city and express the existence of various notable locales around town. It may take up to a week at most or *crosses fingers* two days at the least.

Thats nice to know. Thanks for the info!

Nytem4re said
Thats nice to know. Thanks for the info!

Not a problem. Thanks for the participation.