The year is 1968 and we are in the midst of a newly charged era of vigilantism and superheroism.
Inspired by Captain America’s efforts in WW2 and an informal guild of domestic heroes known as the Justice Society of America, the 1960s has found itself in a highly charged period of time. Conjoined with social justice reforms, the shadow of the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam, and the always sliding door of a cultural drift. Richard Nixon is aiming to be the Republican nominee, while Robert F. Kennedy leads the way for the Democrats. Debates about the “place” of superheroes have come up across many modes, though the ever increasing threats of a biological, supernatural, and extranormal nature seem to be growing today.
A new movement led by Charles Xavier with the discovery of an “x-gene” has sparked controversial discussions. In Europe, three small Eastern European countries have pushed back the Soviet Union despite insurmountable odds. A new Captain America tries to find a solution to the Vietnam problem while following their orders from SHIELD, a newly minted organization dedicated to stomping out the return of HYDRA. These are just some of the things that have taken the world by storm.
1968 is a collaborative semi-linear sandbox RP that utilizes creative interpretations of canon characters from DC and Marvel Comics.
The main flavor of 1968 is in its name which indicates when and where the roleplay itself takes place. Primarily, the goal is celebrating the Silver and Bronze Age of Comic Books but looking with a modern perspective as we tell assorted stories that share a universe. Unlike a conventional narrative-based RP, as a sandbox it focuses on what one can create independently. Some players may be more keen on interacting with each other more actively than others. This game’s predecessors included talented solo writers and reactive role-players alike.
The canvas of 1968 is blank, with very little pre-ordained outside of it being set beginning on the first day in a fictionalized version of the year 1968, basic events that are central to the foundation of the universe and how characters fit, and designing the spirit of things. Characters can be any parent or legacy character from DC or Marvel Comics as well as any of their imprints. It should also be kept in mind that the GM team will constantly be considering semi-linear events and sub-narratives that players can engage with, but generally the tools to the DC and Marvel universe are given to you. It’s all on you and your initiative and desire.
The Setting
The idea of the ‘superhero’ is a modern convention.
And for the last twenty-six years it has been something of a popular convention. From the exaggerated accounts of Captain Steve Rogers of the US Army overseas as Captain America to the tales of Opal City’s enigmatic Starman against mad scientists who wished to harm America at its most vulnerable. They were not the first nor the last of their kind. In 1942, the world was changing in many ways and it was through them that the public found a fondness for the supernatural and astonishing. For many heroes, they were the first they heard of. The advance of science seemed to be a cascading window.
After the war, Starman would go on to create the Justice Society of America when The Ultra Humanite conspired to destroy Washington DC and take his place as the ruler of the entire planet. This event in 1953 would begin part of an expanding era of superheroism; the era of the cape and cowl.
In the years that followed many scientists began to study superpowers and where they come from. Beyond the idea of aliens or scientific accidents, it soon became apparent that a percentage of heroes could say that it was entire natural. Charles Xavier, a Professor of Genetics at Oxford University, soon pens papers detailing an inherent gene of extranormal peculiarities. The Metagene. Sarcastically differed to as the “x gene” after Xavier, it set the course for discourse regarding metabiology from that point forward. It would be later be used as a driving force to wedge division between the unpowered general public and superheroes. Though, as long as Starman did great things most people seemed to care little.
The arrival of a fringe group called The Purifiers changed discourse. Initially called the “KKK for superheroes” by The Gotham Gazette, The Purifiers organized themselves as a conscious group against people they called mutants. Unfortunately, as more accidents regarding untrained metahumans kept happening in quick succession the public soon bought into the narrative. By the time the 1960’s rolled around America was on the verge of a cultural powder keg as women’s liberation, the civil rights movement, and the youth counterculture put what was normal into question. This may have been all manageable in theory, but with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, it appeared everything was ready to collapse.
It’s been a few years since that fateful day. More heroes have appeared, metahuman accidents keep escalating relatively peaceful communities, and the War for Vietnam keeps getting worse. Anti-Mutant sentiment seems to be at an all-time high and things just keep getting rougher. The members of the JSA seem to not even be enough to turn things around. There’s talk of metahuman registration by members of Congress. Even with a new Captain America hunting down the remnants of HYDRA doesn’t seem to give people enough hope. This is all without mentioning that the supervillains seem to be changing from eccentric mad scientists and abominations to something more human and terrifying.
But it is as the youth culture says… the times are a’ changing.
Timeline
To be periodically edited and kept up to date following character sheet acceptances that determine the lore beyond the above.
March 12th, 1945: Captain America defeats the Red Skull but is lost in the process; several months later World War II finally ends.
January 20th, 1953: The Ultra-Humanite hatches a plan to take out the sitting United State's government to take power during the inaugaration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He is humiliated and stopped by Starman and his Justice Society of America.
June 20th, 1955: Dr. Arthur Light forms the Injustice Society as a response to Ted Knight’s JSA and hatches a plan to embarrass them for years to come. By the end of the decade he would be placed in Belle Reve Penitentiary indefinitely when his schemes were finally put to an end.
October 11th, 1958: Sergeant William Stryker organizes a group of anti-metahuman extremists that come to be known as The Purifiers.
November 22, 1963: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated by a unknown assailant. Information would later come to the new president that HYDRA were responsible. This would lead to the creation of a new secret government initiative known as S.H.I.E.L.D.
January 1st, 1968: Present Date.
Expectations
"Advanced roleplaying should focus on developing interesting and complex characters that become part of plot-lines which catch the imagination and inspire the writer behind them to exercise creativity. It is mature, humorous, imaginative, tragic, terrifying, passionate, and rife with descriptive language and characters with real personality and relatable cares. Quality posting is far better than needless novels, yet one should never neglect detail when one feels the need. However, while word and paragraph requirements ought to be unnecessary, single paragraphs cannot contain enough detail to suffice."
Generally, the idea here is a simplified version of any sort of rules since we are “veteran” members of RPG and we pretty much know the big rules — follow the host site’s rules, communicate, collaborate, and don’t be antagonistic towards others. CS reviews aren’t going to be very strict, but to have a reference sheet is important. It doesn’t have to be extremely detailed; you could use bullet points to sum it up or just use brevity to get to the bulk of posting and telling the stories you want to tell. Legacy rules still apply for the most part, but if a parent character is absent just communicate what you want to do and let’s work together to make it happen.
Some things to consider:
You may choose any character appearing in the continuities that envelope certain frames of DC or Marvel Comics. You can include aspects of the Bruce Timm continuity, Wildstorm, the Cinematic Universe(s), and so forth. Characters from Dark Horse, Image, IDW, and Archie are not acceptable.
Travel involving time, dimensional multiverses, or any other concepts would be on a GM-approved basis.
Please do not kill player-created characters or important NPC’s unless given the go-ahead to do so or are within your right to.
Do not impose on arcs without asking for permission; don’t jump into a scene for the sake of interaction, your characters should have sufficient reasoning to want to be in a cooperative scene. That said, do be courteous and respectful about approaching or possibly interfering in character arcs. While this is more a suggestion then a rule, we should be courteous to those who are planning arcs. Communication is the key. Also, don't shut people out for interaction either. Don't just hoard toys.
Respect the GM staff and their authority.
Be creative.
Notes are an optional and malleable part of your CS’s – just because someone has plans for Harvey Dent as the Batman player does not mean I can’t retrofit those plans to accommodate your interest in playing that character or characters related to them. Notes should be used as guides and pre-cautionary plans or pre-established lore points and do not mean to rule the role-play by disallowing concepts. Again, communicate.
Legacies (NPCs, sidekicks, rogues) fall under the jurisdiction of the hero they are traditionally designed around. If you want to play The Joker, The Batman player has to be okay with it and your information should never contradict what they have written in their CS. This one is malleable, but again, communicate.
No post should be made that contradicts the host website's rules, so keep those in mind.
Activity will be left vague as social obligations such as employment, academics, and so forth take precedent over a shared hobby. But we should at least have a post for every fifteen to thirty days. Obligations will be reminded by the staff, but this is a low stress endeavor so we shouldn't feel the need to make extreme demands regarding this.
Character Sheet
Your character sheet should include details such as the character’s name, age, location, a character synopsis, your intentions of conceptualization, key notes to take into consideration, and either a sample post or references of your posting ability.
I do not care what it looks like as long as I can read it. However, if you want brownie points I do have this CS Code for my own peruse shown below. Be sure to only post proposals in the OOC until they are accepted. In a hider.
[center][b][h1][color=colorofyourchoice]C H A R A C T E R N A M E[/color][/h1][/b][b]Character's Real Name[/b], Age (b. 19XX) [b][sub]Based in _____, __________[/sub][/b] [color=gray][sub]Active since approximately _____[/sub][/color]
[img]characterimagelink[/img][/center] [INDENT][h3]Character Concept[/h3][hr.] [color=999999][i]Write your character synopsis here[/i][/color]
[center][youtube]youtube of your choice/moodmusic[/youtube][/center] Detail your concept/goals/etc here.
[h3]Key Notes[/h3][hr.] List important notes, dates/events, characters, and other things central to your character. Be as thorough as you want or need to.
[h3]References / Sample Post[/h3][hr.] [indent][indent]Write your Sample Post or List of Hyperlinked References here. [/indent][/indent]
[/INDENT]
Be sure to change the hr. BBcode to hr so you don't have code errors. I will approve character sheets prior to the IC launch after they are finished after a 20 hour window. But you can assume until there's a opening post that the IC is not open.
As a final note I will be accepting no more than two active character applications per player.
Discord Server
As detailed below, here is the discord information regarding the RP:
Alright, everyone.
Bounce and Hound think we should have a central Discord so I've added a #1968 channel to my personal discord. You can join it here and once I assign the right role you should be able to find said channel in the "active roleplays" section. Let me know if there are any issues.
Orson Randall, Older than Dirt (b. 1890 - kept young by the chi of Shou-Lao the Undying) Protector of K'un L'un (No longer recognized, assumed dead) Adventurer, Former WWI soldier
"Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres. There is music in the midst of desolation And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young, Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow. They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted, They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn..."
- From 'For the Fallen', by Laurence Binyon
Character Concept
In the late nineteenth century, revolutionary scientist/mechanical genius Phineas Randall, deemed to circumnavigate the world in his colossal airship. With an incredible stroke of fate, Phineas crashed into the mythical heavenly city of K'un L'un during the brief window where it aligned with our dimension on Earth.
Healers did their best to save the life of Phineas wife, at that time eight months pregnant, but were only able to save the child. Their new son, Orson.
Phineas was brought before the Yu-Ti, the Dragon Kings and the Gods of K'un L'un as they demanded an explanation for his desecration of the Holy City and asked what he could offer in recompense. Presumably unable to pay, Phineas was put to work.
Meanwhile, the son, Orson was left to roam the streets, the outsider often getting picked on by local children. Until Lei Kung the Thunderer saw potential in the young boy. His spirit was strong. He had become hardened to their bullying. The Thunderer took Orson Randall into his tutelage. He began on his path to find The Way.
So much so, that when the Heavenly City next reunited with the Earthly plane he chose to stay in K'un L'un of his own volition. All he knew was there.
Over the next cycle his mastery of the martial arts slowly became more refined. He was a naturally spirited fighter, but was more of a blunt implement than most. As many young students of K'un L'un would learn to counter with flow, Orson would find a way to persevere through spite and grit. He seldom met a challenge he couldn't bear down on and break face first, and in those instances where he did, he was generally resourceful enough to shift marginally and just change the point of attack. For that had always been enough.
So much so, that Orson Randall had been able to sweep through the field in K'un L'un's tournament for the right to face Shou-Lao the Undying. A fight that would bring the young man face to face with a real dragon; a being of fire, fang, myth and magic.
Still the young man was able to best this challenge, and in doing so, would plunge his hands in the dragon's heart and become the next IRON FIST - PROTECTOR OF K'UN L'UN. For whatever that would mean. The city was an oasis hanging between dimensional planes, aside from the occasional attack from H'ylthri, which generally even the farmers could make short work of themselves.
The time had come, once again, for K'un L'un to realign itself with the Earth. This time Orson would be sent out into the world, to round out his learning. A twenty year old child, left to discover the world beyond the walls.
Orson had an adventurous spirit, and managed to find others of a similar mind. They formed the Confederates of the Curious, and would travel the world in Phineas Randall's airship doing many great things.
But then, one day, the 28th of June, 1914, a bullet stopped the clockwork mechanics of the world.
Gavrilo Princeps shot the Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
In a month to the day Austro-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
In four more days Germany declares war with Russia.
In two more days Germany declares war on France.
Less than forty-eight hours later Britain declares war on Germany.
And a man born off world, for violence, jumps into the fray. His will, as with his fists, like unto a thing of iron!
But iron, whilst strong, can be brittle... and for as strong and imposing a force of will Orson possessed, even those closest to him could see that he'd never mastered the flexibility. The flow. For proper balance.
And so, when the mechanist's son entered the meatgrinder of the trenches in The Great War, he snapped under the sheer weight of death and darkness of man's violence unto man.
This was the man who would return to K'un L'un as the dimensional planes shifted. A man who trudged a different walk and smelled richly of drink and the poppy. Drenched in the desire to forget. A born and trained fighter who had seen too much fighting.
But he must fight. For now has come the Tournament of the Heavenly Cities! The contest which determines the divine mechanics of the Heavenly cities and their intersection with the Mortal plane!
But he has seen too much violence, too much fighting. And so the Iron Fist of K'un L'un refuses.
However, refusal is not an option. The Immortal weapons of the seven cities are sent to bring forth the Iron Fist of K'un L'un and force his participation...
But then tragedy.
Orson Randall, sharpening rapidly out of an opium-induced haze from the surprise attack on his person and the chi of Shou-Lao ever-flowing through his chakras, inadvertently killed the Immortal Weapon of K'un-Zi!
Such a crime could only have one sentence, but when Lei Kung the Thunderer was sent for the execution he found himself unable to kill the drunk, drug-addled wretch which Orson Randall had become. He went back and told the Yu-Ti and the leadership of the Heavenly cities it was done. That Orson Randall, once the Champion of K'un L'un was gone and would not be back.
With K'un-Zi left without a champion the tournament was delayed until K'un Zi could produce a new one. K'un L'un was left without dimensional cycling back to Earth until such allowances could be made to restore K'un-Zi's honour.
Orson Randall was indeed gone. He had fled with the Book of the Iron Fist. In his drug-addled state he foolishly believed this theft could prevent the cycle of violence that was the legacy of the Iron Fist from coming to pass. Of course it could not, it was just a book. A text made of dragon scale and "Immortal ink". The egg still in the tomb of Shou-Lao the Undying remained and continued to gestate.
Orson looked to keep himself hidden. For whilst K'un L'un would not be in the celestial clockwork, he was hated by ALL of the seven cities. He kept himself sedated and withdrawn in a series of opium dens throughout the Orient, lest any sense the mystical presence of the chi of Shou-Lao the Undying.
He dreamed away the Second World War, a Civil War and afterwards the First Five Year Plan of the Maoists. As China implemented a Great Leap Forward the dragon within stirred in a way it hadn't in years.
Orson Randall awoke to a new nightmare.
The chi of Shao-Lao the Undying broke his slumber, he sensed a new dragon had been born.
But that shouldn't be possible unless...
The Heavenly Cities were once again realigning with the Earth for their Tournament.
But that would be none of Orson's concern, except...
This new Chinese leader, this Chairman Mao. He had been destroying Buddhist temples, and monuments of various faiths all across their lands, which they considered to include from the Pacific, across the Mekong to Tibet. The CCP had heard legend from monks who spoke of an Immortal Heavenly city which would breach this plane of reality periodically.
But he was just one man, and this was an army, and he'd seen such violence already.
But just as always the words and wisdom of Lei Kung the Thunderer would ring in his ears and he knew he couldn't turn his back on his people, the Heavenly Cities and their ways.
This is one man's path to inner and outer peace.
The Way of the Iron Fist.
Key Notes
Roughly 1890
Orson Randall is born through mystical means in K'un L'un after his father's accident.
1900
Orson Randall turns down the opportunity to escape this strange world as the dimensional planes first realign.
1908
A young Orson Randall wins the tournament for the right to face Shou-Lao the Undying. Defeats the Dragon. Becomes Iron Fist of K'un L'un.
1910
Orson Randall is sent out into the world, to further round out his experience and learning on Earth as the dimensional planes once again realign.
1910-1914
Time spent Adventuring. Confederates of the Curious.
Mid-1914
World War I kicks off.
Late-1914
Orson Randall enlists in World War I for Her Majesty's Army.
1918
Conclusion of World War I
1920
Orson Randall returns to K'un L'un as the dimensional planes realign with Earth.
1921
Communist Party of China founded.
1927-1937
Chinese Civil War - First Phase.
1939-1945
World War II. Orson Randall not present, spent most of his days in various opium dens.
1945-1949
Chinese Civil War - Second Phase. Republic of China driven out to Taiwan.
1951
The Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet is signed by representatives of the 14th Dalai Lama and the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China. The situation surrounding which this document was signed will not be described here...
1958-1962
The Great Leap Forward (the Second Five Year Plan) is implemented by the CCP.
1959
1959 Tibetan Uprising quashed. A rebellion broke out as rumours abound regarding plans to arrest the Dalai Lama. 87,000 Tibetans killed. 2,000 Chinese killed squashing the Rebellion. The Dalai Lama managed to flee to northern India. The aftermath saw thousands of monks arrested and or executed, and monasteries and temples looted or destroyed.
1966
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is launched by Chairman Mao Tse Tung of the Chinese Communist Party. Between August and November 1966, eight rallies are held before over 12 million people, in which Lin Biao called for the 'Destruction of the Four Olds' (namely customs, culture, habits and ideas), in the resulting revolutionary fever Red Guards destroyed, laid siege to the Temple of Confucius in Shandong as well as other significant tombs and artefacts. Libraries full of historical and foreign texts were destroyed, books burned, statues vandalised. Temples, churches, mosques, monasteries, and yes, even cemeteries were closed down, often looted or destroyed. Many members of the clergy were arrested and sent to camps, Tibetan Buddhists were made to watch, and often forced to contribute, to the destruction of their monasteries at gunpoint.
TBD
TBD
References / Sample Post
Of course I believe in fate. How could I not?
It’s too early, Feng would send me home. My money’s good, but not so good he’s willing to risk his best customer.
I’m tinkering mindlessly in the shadows in the hovel my good money rent’s for me when I’m not chasing the dragon. To hide from the other people of the Dragon.
Scraps come together as my father taught me. The reason why it works long seems to have passed, the knowledge only survived by the fact that I know that it does work.
The potato bristles with static, before some vague chatter hums, vibrating through the metal that’s stuck within. I adjust the nails trying to clear the quiet voices from the crackle. I suspect I hear English…
Potato foxhole radio. I used to make them all the time back in the Somme. Why? I couldn’t tell you for sure.
I suspect it might have something to do with what flows through me having an interest with the interconnectivity of the world beyond. The world and the Chi of Shou-Lao the Undying work in mysterious ways.
A young child stumbles in through the open door, curious by the murmurings.
It’s unusual for any signs or sounds of life to come from this place, I suppose. It’s long since become only a place for respite whilst I run from it.
I nudge the potato radio over to the small boy to sate his curiosity. Which of course has the opposite effect. Out here such a thing would raise more questions than it answers. I look for my shirt and stagger to my feet, my head rolls, until I centre my discombobulated chi to clear it. The boy tests the device tapping one of the nails.
‘Let him go, Orson.’ I think to myself. Let him figure out its mysteries for himself.
He looks up at me wide-eyed, as if looking for an explanation, and I smile. I can feel it. Gods, has it been THAT long since this face creased up naturally for reasons other than the steel breeze?
I take the radio from him and start to adjust the nails, I close my eyes and reach out with what a little of what resides within…
…and the voices come back. Clearer now, that it’s been better tuned. I snort half a chuckle and hand it back, before ruffling the hair on the boy’s hands. He eagerly takes it and carefully puts it in the floor to listens to the strange sounds the potato has tapped into.
I put my boots back on and get up to leave. There’s nothing worth stealing in the small hovel. You get robbed once whilst black out, you learn to better secure your valuables somewhere you don’t lay your head. And it’s mutually known by the locals that the strange white stranger dope fiend doesn’t keep anything in his place.
For a few seconds I briefly think to myself “I wonder where it’s picking up the frequency from.” As I pass a handful of men wearing a similar colour green to myself, with a dash of red round the collar – more of Mao’s omnipresent Red Guards, still they’re none of my concern. They give me a glance and I recognise a slur, before laughter, but I’m more than happy to let them walk on.
But then the god awful wail…
Not the wail of a baby. And not the wail of the child at my place, if that’s what you’re worried about… but the terrible wail of some kind of electronic instrument.
And whilst I don’t recognise what it is exactly, I know what’s about to happen.
I sigh with a growl, turn and start staggering back. Feng and the poppy will have to wait.
I have to introduce some people to another dragon...
Still working out the kinks of my notes, but pretty set.
B A T G I R L
Barbara Gordon, 14-16 (b. 1952-54) Vigilante based in Gotham City, New Jersey Active since approximately Summer 1967
Character Concept
Last year, Barbara Gordon was at the top of the world.
A child prodigy who was taking the world of gymnastics by storm, the Gotham native was already being talked up as a potential olympic level athlete before she even hit puberty proper. She always hated it. She was good at it. It was fun. But that’s the thing about Barbara Gordon; once she feels something isn’t interesting or fun, she’s not going to be forced to do it. Her father tried to understand why she wanted to quit. Her mother yelled at her. Her closest friends found it bizarre.
Her parents complained that she had lost her inspiration, but that wasn’t true. There was someone who inspired her.
“The Caped Crusader.”
The Caped Crusader. The Bat of Gotham. The Dark Knight. Gotham’s very own vigilante, using his smarts and fists to fix what was rotten at the core of Gotham. The Falcones. The Maronis. Crazy people. Lunatics who wanted to kidnap people and sacrifice them to their fake gods. Gosh, that was a close one. Though she had to admit, it was pretty far out to see the vigilante in person. She’s been fascinated with vigilantism ever since. Inspired. The thing her parents said she couldn’t be. In an era where things seemed to be getting worse; people pushing against pretty radical stuff out of fear and cowardice. “Mutants”, Women’s Liberation, Civil Rights, Rock & Roll. She felt a kinship with fighting that kind of thing. She did hate bullies. The Justice Society was on the cusp of something great and so was Batman. She didn’t care if grown-ups thought they should be all unmasked. They were doing the right thing.
And so would she.
Essentially this is Barbara Gordon… Year Zero… in 1967-68? Roughly. Errors will be made. Fun will be had.
Largely independent of the Batman writer, though at some point he’s going to need to teach Barbara some new things. Probably on weekends. That aside, the idea here is to tell serialized pulp stories that you might not find in the modern DCU due to how advanced technology is and how it creates threats in said stories. Ultimately I have in mind to touch themes of the 60’s Women’s Liberation movement, the cultural drift due to the new generation and its counterculture, and the tension between mutants by extremists. All while Barbara stumbles around and gets her ass kicked. Hopefully, she’ll not be too incompetent.
Some storyline pitches to consider:
The Purifiers rounding up accused mutants and trying to execute them in Robinson Park, because of course it’s Robinson Park.
A film production of Dread Castle halts around Old Gotham when two cast members turn up dead. Whispers of the production being cursed happen. Babs investigates!
Potential crossover with the one and only Boy Wonder, though how does he stand up against the newly minted Batgirl? Will she be lectured about endangering her life? Probably!
Possibly some drama at Agatha Wayne’s Finishing School for Young Girls, a prepatory academy that Barbara goes to.
Key Notes
Listed below will be my scratchpad for all events, key definitions, and ongoing/potential arcs that I’ll involve myself with through this character.
The first notation of most importance is the family dynamic of the Gordon family in this universe. Jim is the newly minted Police Commissioner of the GCPD, formerly having served as the Captain of Gotham’s central precinct and Barbara’s mother serves as a Professor of foreign languages at Kane College, Gotham’s central university that is as old as it is prestigious. As mentioned in the character concept section, Barbara was a talented gymnast that was projected to be an Olympic-level talent before she quit abruptly in the previous summer. She’s highly gifted beyond this and her scholarship to Agatha Wayne’s Finishing School for Young Girls is certainly in danger with her out of the gymnastics program. This has put stress on Barbara, but her mother has pulled what little influence she has a College Professor to keep her in school in spite of her decision to quit gymnastics.
In the recent weeks, Barbara has been moonlighting as a vigilante; inspired by the Justice Society and more specifically, Batman. She has met Batman, but she hasn’t met Batman. There’s also the matter of her older brother, who is a current patient at the Arkham Behavioral Rehabilitation Center. More on that later, but it’s important.
Barbara’s skills beyond being an Olympic-level gymnast also are to facilitate her intelligence. In conventional DC stories Barbara is described as a computer expert, but in 1968 computers are not a thing a middle class girl from south Gotham has access to. So her intelligence is portrayed here in more practical ways; in how she can memorize things quickly and adeptly like foreign languages, in being savvy with the science of chemistry, critical thinking, and mechanical engineering. She is not a trained fighter yet, so all of her fighting skill is currently reactive, though she does pick up things she sees well.
So enough to really be true to the character but without going too hard into “she is good at everything, okay” territory.
With that out of the way I can explain some characters of note, events of importance, and other such things.
Characters of Note
Captain James Gordon
Her father, newly minted as the next Police Commissioner for Gotham City.
James “Jimmy” Gordon, Jr
Barbara’s older brother, constantly struggling with mental lapses and ‘mania’ who Babs is quite close too despite his peculiarities. As a ward of Arkham, he finally appears to be getting the mental help he needs… or is he?
Tiffany Fox
The odd girl out at Agatha Wayne’s Finishing School for Girls, Tiffany has been subject to cruel behavior by the elite of the school. Barbara and Tiffany seem to be close friends and they share an affinity for women’s liberation and the cultural revolution happening around them. She is the eldest daughter of Lucius Fox.
Jason Bard
Her father’s former partner at the GCPD during his years as a detective who has since moved on to working as a Private Detective after being dissatisfied with work as a cop. Barbara considers him a mentor, but also an informant and useful resource.
Notable Events and Lore
TBD
Ongoing & Upcoming Arcs
The Terror
Katherine Webb, a former leading actress in 1950’s Noir films, has finally broken through with her first project in the director’s chair. A horror film based loosely on Basil Karlo’s cult classic, Webb has run into a snag when shooting her picture in Gotham City. Two crew members have turned up dead and in grisly circumstances. Could the picture be cursed? The ever intrepid Barbara Gordon takes matters into her own hands in investigating claims of a mysterious figure stalking the shadows of the set.
References / Sample Post
Gotham City, New Jersey, United States “I Can See For Miles”
I’ve never liked Arkham.
Whenever we’d pass by when I was a kid it just felt rotten. This was back when it was still an asylum. They called it a home, but it was an asylum. Nothing good has ever happened in an asylum. Just ask Rosemary Kennedy.
I guess they call it a center now. Rehabilitation Center. I suppose it sounds real nice, but I still can’t shake this feeling about it. Arkham still feels, well, off. The air tastes sour and the wind smells rotten. My dad says it’s my imagination. There’s nothing wrong with Arkham. It’s not a reassurance I can get behind. I’m fourteen years old, not an idiot. Arkham might have a nice name now, but it is still very much an asylum.
I hate it.
“Scowling is unbecoming of girls your age.” My mother reminds me as my dad puts his hand on my shoulder. “He’s going to be okay. These are doctors.”
The professor and the commissioner. My parents. Smart as they are, they are really good at missing the point. I still can’t believe my dad used to be a detective if he thinks this place is going to help Jimmy. Jimmy’s sick, but isolating him with a bunch of crazies and white walls is only going to make him worse. I wish they’d see that. The only way he gets better is at home being reminded he’s not broken and the voices aren’t real. How much time are they going to put aside for him? To drive out here and see him every week? They’re busy with their jobs as is. Dad just got the big promotion. Mom got her tenure. I barely even see them and I’m the ‘normal’ one. I bite my lip, thinking of the thought. I’m already creating double standards. I’m being stupid. If they can’t see him at home they certainly, of course, won’t be able to see him here.
I sigh.
“Babs, you should look at the bright side of things.” Jimmy spoke up, laughing as he did so, “You won’t have to worry about me anymore.”
“You know I’m never going to stop, right?” I respond, as peppy as I can manage. “I’m gonna visit every time I can.”
“You better bring some cool stories. I have a feeling I’m going to be pretty bored here.”
Miles Morales, 15 (b. 1952) Based in Harlem, New York City Active since approximately...a few hours from now
Character Concept
Miles Morales is a child who is the face of the changing America in the 1960s. Born to a Puerto Rican immigrant mother and an African American father, his existence is a sign to the ruling class that slowly but surely, America is becoming a new country. Growing up in such turbulent times, Miles still retains the optimism of his teenage years, and believes all the strife he sees will lead to a better country in the end. Still, he sees the strains that such times have on his family, with his mother, Rio Morales, seen as little more than hired help at her job and his father, Lincoln Davis, seen with suspicion in his own community for becoming a police officer. Nowhere is the tension more obvious than between Lincoln and his brother Aaron, who sees his brother's profession as the ultimate betrayal to their people.
His great intellect and aptitude for chemistry has landed him a spot at Manhattan Visions Academy, a new school created by philanthropist and Industrialist Harold Osborn, CEO of Oscorp Industries and son of the former mob boss known only as "the Goblin". Osborn's goal is to show there is a future in integrating schools, and as a private academy, Visions can do just that. There has been a backlash to the school, and white enrollment is much lower than expected. Still, Osborn presses on, hoping to rehabilitate his family name and using his father's ill gotten gains for good. Though his intentions are good, his naivety on goings on at his own company may prove to be his downfall.
At Visions, Miles has met his friends Ganke, the son of Korean immigrants, and Phineas, a Jewish boy born to parents who escaped Nazi Germany. Together, they believe they're unstoppable. The trio love science fiction, fantasy, and tinkering in Phineas' dad's workshop. Also at Visions is Gwen Stacy, the daughter of Captain George Stacy, Lincoln's boss.
The stage is set. With America as a powder keg ready to blow, Miles will learn what it takes to be a hero, and will do his best to protect the city of New York from tearing itself apart.
Miles is not a character I initially found very compelling. The initial Bendis run was just too similar to Peter, in my opinion, and did little to differentiate itself outside of some interesting new abilities for Spider-Man. But since the Spider-verse movie and the PlayStation Video Games, I think Miles has really come into his own as a character. He's the perfect Spider-Man for the setting, being a multiracial character at a time when life was full of strife and upheaval. The rich story telling of a kid struggling to be a hero for a city, even for those that would hate him if they saw his face, is interesting and could lead a lot of places. I'd also love to explore a similar mentor situation like we saw in Spider-verse, but with a Peter Parker that is more legend than anything.
Through his group of friends and family, integral parts of all SPider-Man stories, I'd like to explore how the turbulent times affect different races, genders, and age groups differently.
Key Notes
Rio Morales - Miles's mother and a chambermaid at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. She immigrated to New York with her parents in the early 40s from Puerto Rico. She is a loving, doting mother, though struggles with her long work hours and often worries for her son's safety.
Lincoln Davis - Miles's father and a Harlem police officer. Lincoln served with distinction in Vietnam, and when he returned saw an opportunity to further his family's acceptance into society by joining the newly integrated Harlem police force. Davis is a staunch believer in a united America, and Doctor King's dream. Still, judgement from his community, some of whom see his profession as a betrayal, weighs on him.
Aaron Davis - Miles's uncle and a bar tender at Harlem bar. Also a Vietnam vet, Aaron did not escape the terrible conflict unscathed. He is missing the lower half of his right leg and part of his left hand. His experience in Vietnam radicalized him, and he is a devote follower of Malcom X's teachings.
Ganke Lee - Miles's best friend and the son of Korean immigrants. He is also a student at Visions Academy.
Phineas Einstein - Another friend of Miles's at Visions, Phineas is a Jewish American boy and a whiz with mechanical design.
Gwendolyn Stacy - One of the few white, protestant students at Visions, Gwen is the daughter of Cpatain George Stacy, Lincoln's boss.
Peter Parker/The Spider - A WWII era vigilante with power similar to Miles, Peter has become a recluse, walling himself off from his wife and daughter.
Mary Jane Watson - Peter's estranged wife and reporter for the Daily Bugle.
May "Mayday" Parker - A New York comic book artist who publishes fictionalized accounts of her father's exploits as the Spider. Though she resents her father for being distant, she respects his crimefighting career.
J Jonah Jameson - While no fan of vigilantism, the Irish American Jameson knows that not long ago his people were discriminated against. In turn, the editor of the Daily Bugle is a staunch supporter of Civil Rights.
Adrian "The Vulture" Toombs - One of Norman Osborn's former lieutenants, the aging Toombs still has a large slice of New York's underworld in his proverbial talons.
Otto Octavius - A former Nazi scientist who assisted on NASA's rocket programs after the fall of the Third Reich. Believed to be rehabilitated, Octavius is now the lead researcher for Oscorp. Though he has a good public image, he is secretly a monster obsessed with genetics.
References / Sample Post
Monday. January 1, 1968The cold winter air whips around me as I stand in the alley behind my apartment building, my breath emanating like a puff of smoke with each exhale. What brought me out here after three days of fever and night sweats I'm still not sure. But after I had a book stick to my hands at school for a good hour and a half this morning it has me thinking that the spider that bit me wasn't just any spider, and the "flu" I had wasn't a flu at all.
Approaching the wall in front of me, I look around to make sure no one is watching. If what I think is about to happen actually happens, the last thing I need is someone yelling about a black boy who's a mutant up and down the street. I've got enough problems as is. Don't need the Purifiers showing up in Harlem looking for me.
Tentatively, I place my right hand on the wall, before the left, then my left foot. Closing my eyes and hoping for the best, I take my right foot off the ground. Cracking my eyes open, I see the foot sitting a few inches off the ground, and my other limbs sticking to the wall without a problem.
"Holy shit," the amazed chuckle escapes my lips.
I take a few more tentative...steps, I guess, up the wall, and before long I'm slinking past the second floor windows of the building. I can smell Mrs. Collier's oxtail simmering from here, and my stomach rumbles. But I'm too engrossed in what's happening to worry about dinner right now. I'm climbing up a wall. I'm climbing up a wall with no help, just bare hands and sneakers. It's the most incredible feeling I've ever had.
Before long I'm on the roof of my building, overlooking Harlem. The sea of lights spreads out around me, and I realize that nothing is ever going to be the same again. Whether I like it or not, I've stepped into something heavy, and I'm going to have a bigger target on my back than I already do if I use these gifts the way others do.
But as fireworks start to go off in the neighborhood, leftovers from the night before, I have to wonder if I can afford not to go through with the far out plan rattling around in my brain.
Thursday. December 28, 1967The gleaming white interior of the Oscorp Research labs causes my jaw to drop. I've been to the Plaza, where Mom works, but not even that place is as sparkling clean as the lab. Plus the Plaza might have the best bars and restaurants in town, but it doesn't have a new prototype nuclear reactor that could help usher in a new age of American energy independence. That's way more boss than Trader Vic's.
"Man, are you seeing this?" Ganke Lee, my best friend, bounds up and slaps me on the shoulder. He may be more excited than I even am. "This is some Manhattan Project stuff! NASA level!"
"Bro, quit geeking out," I laugh as I notice Gwen Stacy roll her eyes at Ganke. "You're gonna get us in trouble."
"This is even cooler than NASA," Phineas Einstein, no relation, adds. "This is Starship Enterprise level."
I can't stifle a chuckle as the two of them begin to imitate Sulu and Spock, though Ganke has always struck me as more of a Scotty than Sulu.
Before I can plead for the knuckleheads to calm down, a man on a platform above us clears his throat, drawing our attention. I look up to see Harold Osborn, CEO of Oscorp and the benefactor for our school, Visions Academy. He's dressed in a sharp, navy suit, and his dark hair is slicked back. If he wasn't so generous, he'd be uncle Aaron's very definition of "The Man", not that his generosity would sway Aaron Davis's mistrust of Osborn's kind.
He smiles welcomingly, "I'm so glad so many of Visions' finest decided to come on this trip. I know it's your Christmas break, but this is the slow time at the lab and I wanted to make sure you all got to see the amazing work we have going on here. So, I won't take much of your time, and I'll hand it over to the real genius behind Oscorp, Doctor Otto Octavius!"
A murmur goes through the students. Octavius is a genius, and a famous one to boot. He defected from the Nazis before the end of the war, and has worked on NASA's rocket program before coming to Oscorp. That we were going to get a lecture from him was legitimately exciting.
The man who wheels out next to Osborn isn't what I expect, however. Octavius is wheel-chair bound and scrawny. He looks more like something out of a comic book than a real person, with a bowl of greasy brown hair hanging over his lab goggles. He smiles down at us with a crooked, ugly looking grin, "Hello. Velcome to Oscorp Labs...I can see some of zhe...future geniuses of our country have come to grace us vith a visit."
I've heard that tone before. Sneering condescension of a white man insulted that some colored kids were allowed into his place. Octavius may be a genius, but he ain't no progressive, that's for sure. I try to hold back a sour look, but out of the corner of my eye I can see that Ganke couldn't do the same.
"You are here for a tour of our new reactor," Otto continues motioning towards a door to our right. "If you vould please go through zhere. I vill show you the future of American superiority."
Charles Xavier, 40 (b. 1928); Scott Summers, 26 (b. 1942); Logan, Unknown (b. approx. 19th century); Ororo Munroe, 32 (b 1936); Piotr "Peter" Rasputin , 22 (b. 1946); Kitty Pryde 20 (b. 1948); Kurt Wagner 18 (b. 1950) A vigilante team based out of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in Salem Center, New York The team and school were both founded officially '63, though there was a roster active less than a decade before that
Character Concept
It was February 3rd, 1953 when a nihilistic death cult attempted to end all life on earth. The Acolytes, as they called themselves, seized the U.S military base Cape Citadel, pointing its nuclear arsenal at Moscow, London and Washington, D.C. They broadcasted their manifesto to the world over hijacked radio waves.
They broadcasted their manifesto to the world over the radio, declaring the ‘human project’ a failure and calling for the next stage in evolution to rise up out of the ashes of nuclear hellfire. All attempts to stop them were met with violent reprisal.
Until the X-Men arrived.
A group of teenage heroes in black and yellow beat the extremists black and blue, halting the launch of their missiles and vanishing just as quickly as they had arrived. Though the Acolytes had failed at their ultimate goal, the damage had been done- the fear of Metahumans had been seeded in the populace before they even knew the meaning of that word.
These ‘X-Men’ were the protege of one Dr. Charles Xavier, the brilliant Oxford professor and geneticist that discovered the ‘Metagene’ and led much of the academic discussion involving the so-called mutants. He’d be outed as a mutant himself in ‘58 and subsequently lost his professorship at the university. He’d disappear from the public eye alongside his five ‘adoptive children’; but the work had to continue. Anonymous, thankless and distrusted by the people they protected, the X-Men would operate from the shadows for several more years, battling villainous mutants, bigoted radicals and more mundane threats all the while.
It was December 24th, 1962 when all that changed. Jean Grey, the team's telepathic wonder known as Marvel Girl, responded to a 9-1-1 call alone. She was met by Mastermind, the twisted serial murderer that had been rampaging across the Midwestern United States, tormenting his victims with horrific psychic illusions. Jean endured for as long as she could, but it wasn't enough. The man left her to die on the pavement and escaped into the night before the rest of the team could get there in time.
The team buried her at the mansion on Christmas day.
They didn't last much longer after that. Bobby Drake, the Iceman, was the first to part ways with the X-Men, heading to Detroit where his uncle ran an auto shop. Hank "The Beast" McCoy stuck around long enough to help Charles set up the chemistry lab at what would become the School for Gifted Youngsters before leaving for college, hoping to finish his doctorate in biophysics. The Avenging Angel, Warren Worthington, was the last to leave. He was broken up about it until the day Scott Summers started talking about putting together another team...then he punched Scott in the nose and took off to continue his career as a vigilante solo.
It was May 8th, 1965 when Charles founded Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. On the same day, he christened the X-Men, declaring them to be a public-facing force for good. They would protect the next generation of mutants, snuff out evil wherever they found it and fight for their shared dream of a better, more equal world.
Its been a long time since my last run at the X-Men and honestly I couldn't pick a better game for it. The '68 setting gives me a ton of material to work with that doesn't exist in most modern games- the Cold War and the civil rights movement in particular offer up a lotta great themes I can build off of. The X-Men came out of this era for a reason, after all.
My goal for the team this time 'round is to learn hard into the characters, the school and collaborating with other players. I'll be putting much less of a focus on complex plotting and arcs, which tends to drag down my posting frequency as I struggle to juggle a bunch of story threads behind the scenes. I want to make something I can work without stressing too much, in all honesty.
Key Notes
Just a place to put ideas and shit.
Characters of Note
Professor Charles Xavier Charles was born into a wealthy family in Upstate New York, inheriting their property and a great deal of wealth when he was just a young man. He was a brilliant mind even from a young age, attending Oxford when most boys his age were in high school. Charles pioneered the study of mutant genetics, discovering and coining the 'Metagene.' He was outed as a mutant himself by his colleagues and lost his professorship as a result. Charles went on to found the X-Men with his young ward, Scott Summers, and the rest is history.
Scott Summers Scott's parents were killed in a plane crash when he was very young, and he spent much of his adolescence bouncing between orphanages and foster homes. Charles adopted him when he was just fifteen. Scott was the first of many in the odd little family that would go on to become the X-Men. They were heroes- inspired by the Justice Society- fighting for a more equitable world. It wouldn't last. A mission went wrong and Jean Grey, the girl Scott loved, lost her life, and the team broke apart. Summers stuck with Xavier despite it all, founding the school with him and convincing Charles to give the X-Men a second chance. Scott's led the new team since and though there's been no shortage of troubles, he's still hopeful.
Logan Logan is a man out of time. He came to Xavier a drifter; a broken man without any memories before he awoke in a shallow grave a few months prior. Charles has spent a few hours every day helping to restore Logan's memories, but its been a difficult, painful process for both of them. Even after five years he only has fragments of his past, some from many centuries ago, and he still doesn't understand who he is...not really. His gratitude to Xavier keeps him around the school despite himself.
Ororo Munroe Ororo was born in Kenya, immigrating with her family to America when she very young. She spent much of her life living in Charlotte, North Carolina, working as a journalist and civil rights organizer in that community. She'd put down roots there, meeting a man with whom she'd have a daughter; they were engaged and had plans to marry, but it'd never come to be. A group of Purifiers cornered her fiancé when he was alone and threatened to kill his family if he didn't pack up and leave town immediately. She never even got the chance to say goodbye. Ororo would soon choose to take her daughter, Kymera, and leave as well, hoping to find somewhere safe to raise her. She showed up on the doorstep to Xavier's school on the first day of enrollment.
Piotr "Peter" Rasputin Piotr and his two other siblings grew up on a collectivized farm in the heart of the Soviet Union. All three of them were revealed to have mutant abilities, and all three of them were scooped up by the government to serve its interests. Piotr would join the Party-backed Winter Guard, Russia's equivalent to the Justice Society of America. He'd serve alongside the Crimson Dynamo, Ursa Major and others for a number of years before- supposedly- the Colossus was lost in the Sokovian Civil War. Piotr wouldn't be seen again until his first appearance alongside the new X-Men.
Kitty Pryde For the first leg of her life Kitty Pryde was a perfectly ordinary girl with a perfectly ordinary life: she did well enough in school, went to synagogue every week, would hang loose with her pals at the mall every weekend. It wasn't until she became a teenager that everything started to change- now she was getting taller, her friends were getting acne, and Kitty could walk through walls. Everyone knew what it meant to be a mutant. There were PSAs about them hiding in your communities playing every day; if the neighbor you didn't like wasn't a communist, they were certainly a mutant. So Kitty did her best to keep it a secret and go on with her life, but it wasn't easy. Her grades were slipping, her friends were getting suspicious, and her parents worried incessantly. The stress built and built and built until one day she'd finally had enough and snapped in the middle of class, using her powers in front of everyone. Her family started to search for 'experts' that could help Kitty with her 'condition,' and it was Dr. Xavier that showed up at their door.
Kurt Wagner Kurt Wagner nearly killed his mother during childbirth, and the midwife lifted up a baby with yellow eyes and blue fur. The neighbors in their tiny German village were quick to descend on his father's house, demanding the demonic child be killed, and that the Wagners pay for whatever sin had caused them to be cursed so. The priest decided Kurt ought to be tossed into the river to be scattered on the rocks; the boy's parents were quick to agree. Its a wonder Kurt survived the experience. He was carried along by the water until he was rescued by a stranger, who took pity on his hideous form and raised him until he was old enough to care for himself. Many years would go by with Kurt drifting across Europe, begging and stealing to survive. It was only by happenstance that he ran into an abusive circus master that took Kurt into his freakshow and brought him to America. He'd be trapped there until the X-Men arrived to see him freed, offering him a place he could finally call home.
Kymera Munroe Kymera Munroe is the twelve year old daughter of Ororo and her former fiancé, Luke Charles. Her powers have yet to manifest. Leader of 'Team Anti-Team Cannon.'
Sam Guthrie The hotheaded leader of the so-called 'Team Cannon,' Sam Guthrie is a young teenage mutant with the ability to launch himself like a projectile at high speeds. Goes by the alias Cannonball.
Rahne Sinclair Rahne is a socially anxious, selectively mute mutant with the power to shapechange into a wolf. Called 'Wolfsbane' by her classmates. Part of 'Team Anti-Team Cannon.'
Roberto Da Costa Roberto is a Brazilian mutant able to manifest the power of the sun, though he has little control over his newfound abilities. Best friend of Sam Guthrie and member of 'Team Cannon.'
To Be Introduced
To Be Revealed
Notable Events and Lore To Be Revealed
Ongoing & Upcoming Arcs
The Demon of Japan
An enigmatic enemy from Logan's past attacks!
References / Sample Post
Here's the first mini-arc I wrote for the X-Men the last time I gave them a spin. I think they're pretty up to snuff, all things considered, and I'm confident I can bring a similar level to quality in writing their successors.
Shang-Chi, 27 (b. 1940) Vigilante based in Manhattan's Chinatown, New York City Active since approximately this morning
Character Concept
Write your character synopsis here
I'm not going to lie to you gang, if you're expecting some sort of serious look at the plights of Chinese immigrants in the aftermath of the Hart-Celler Act or the Great Leap Forward and all of that, you're looking at the wrong person. I am not familiar enough with those topics to even attempt to portray them with anything resembling legitimacy. What I am familiar with though, is corny Kung Fu movies. While, yes, the Kung Fu Boom is a few years away from reaching the same pop cultural zenith secret agents are currently going through, martial arts are cool as hell regardless of the decade and you can't tell me otherwise.
In short, this is basically going to be a love letter to Bruce Lee shenanigans. Menacing crime lords. Nunchaku. Motherfuckers with claws. The works. I cannot stress enough that if I am wildly missing the intended tone for this, you've got to let me know.
Key Notes
Grandma Wang The eponymous owner and proprietor of Grandma Wang's Bakery in Chinatown and Shang-Chi's current employer following his supposed death and subsequent escape to America. Although she acts as a pillar of the local community, or perhaps because of it, Grandma Wang has recently found herself the target of local thugs. Although loyal to her employees, she worries that her new hire's sudden involvement will only cause more problems as time goes on.
Leiko Wu
Misty Knight and Colleen Wing
Jimmy Woo
Shen Kuei, the Cat A secret agent of the People's Republic of China and Shang-Chi's greatest rival in the days when he still served the Si-Fan.
The Immortal Fu Manchu, Grandmaster of the Si-Fan F
Moving Shadow
Fah Lo Suee, the Cursed Lotus
The Mandarin TBD
The Hand TBD
Like, all the assassins, man We comin' for you, R'as, Shiva, etc.
Egg Fu Oh you thought this was a game but all the Emperor's men can't put this fucker back together again.
Clark Kent, Age 55 (b. 1913) Based in Metropolis, Delaware Active since approximately 1938
Character Concept
Raised by loving parents in an idyllic small rural town in the rolling hills of Kansas, Clark Kent was a kind and gentle soul, who had the strength of a giant before he was in grammar school. Fearing what might happen to the boy if his immense powers were made public before he knew what to do with them, the wise Jonathan Kent and his caring wife Martha instilled in their son a moral compass as strong and unstoppable as his muscles, and an understanding of why he needed to keep his gifts a secret until he was old enough to use them with a purpose.
As a teenager, Clark learned the truth behind these gifts: he wasn't born in Smallville, but came crashing down in a rocket ship from another world. He had been sent to Earth for a reason, but neither he nor his parents could puzzle out what that reason was. When a tornado came tearing through Smallville not long after his eighteenth birthday, Clark saw and heard the good people of his home town calling out for help, and in that moment he realized what his purpose would be. He leapt into action, zipping folks from danger to safety faster than the eye could blink, and battled the twister head-on like a figure out of a tall tale. Clark Kent fought the forces of nature itself, and by all accounts, he won.
In the aftermath, Clark decided it would be best if he lay low for a while, and packed his bags. Taking a pair of suitcases with him-- one containing his regular clothes and necessities, the other containing the mysterious blue costume and red boots and cape that had been found in his rocket ship as a baby, Clark hitchhiked his way across America for seven years, helping out where he could and then vanishing before folks could ask too many questions. Finally, he found himself on the East Coast, in the hustle and bustle of Metropolis, where he was forced to step in on an armed robbery carried out by the notorious gangster Bruno Mannheim. Deciding to don his colorful otherworldly costume as a form of disguise, Clark was able to act out in the open for the first time, dispatching the criminals with ease. The S-like symbol on the front of his outfit drew the attention of the press as much as his fantastic abilities, and the intrepid reporter Lois Lane would christen the mysterious strongman "Superman."
For the next few years, Superman found a home in Metropolis, toppling criminal syndicates and foiling mad bombers while his alter-ego, the mild-mannered Clark Kent, found work as a reporter for the Daily Planet. In the city streets, he would battle with the Ultra-Humanite, the Bulleteers, the Arctic Giant, and the man who would become his lifelong nemesis, the dastardly mad scientist Lex Luthor. In the newsroom, Clark would find an equally devious and diabolical rival in Lois Lane, who would often find herself mooning over Superman while dismissing Clark as a milquetoast and a yokel. Over time, however, the two would warm up to each other, and begin a budding romance just before the United States entered the Second World War.
Lois jumped on the chance to cover the action as a war correspondent, while the Army came calling for the aid of Superman. While the idea of being a 'super-soldier' didn't sit well with him, he couldn't allow the likes of Hitler to get away with the crimes against humanity he was committing, and for a time, Superman would fight alongside Captain America and other costumed 'mystery men' in the war against the Axis Powers. However, his contributions to cracking Fortress Europe were limited, as the Third Reich had gotten a hold of a deadly new weapon: Kryptonite, the one substance on Earth that could harm the Man of Steel, and something previously only in the possession of his old arch-enemy Lex Luthor. Indeed, the Fuhrer had conscripted Luthor's help in keeping Superman out of the war, and had put the madman in charge of creating all manner of technological horrors for the Germans....until the US Army captured Luthor and put him to work for themselves. Not long afterwards, Superman would hang his head in shame when US bombers unleashed two of Luthor's doomsday weapons on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the federal government would give the arch-villain a full pardon in honor of his hand in winning the war.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Superman withdrew from the political and military arena, staying hands-off during the rise of the Soviet Union and the escalation of the Cold War. This was easier than one might expect, as no shortage of increasingly dangerous enemies came out of the woodwork to keep the Man of Tomorrow busy. The alien super-computer Brainiac threatened the Earth time and time again, as did the Kryptonian dictator General Zod, the multi-dimensional trickster Mxyzptlk, and Superman's warped duplicate Bizarro. As many of these battles saw Superman travel up into space and gain more and more direct exposure to Earth's yellow sun, his powers would grow exponentially. Whereas the Superman of 1942 had to strain to lift a Nazi tank over his head, the Superman of 1962 could easily move the mass of the moon itself-- something he did more than once, in fact. Unfortunately, even with his astonishing increase of power, he could not be everywhere at once, as the world learned the hard way in November of 1963, while Superman was battling with the spectres of the Phantom Zone, a lone gunman shot down the President of the United States.
The past five years have been difficult for Clark, still trying to put on a brave face and show the virtues of Truth, Justice, and the American Way while America seems ready to tear itself apart. Moreover, well into his fifties, he is starting to feel his age. He can still move mountains and shrug off the effects of an atom bomb, but not without aches and pains afterward. He is still faster than any speeding bullet, but his lap times around the world aren't what they were even just a few years ago. And while his wife Lois is still the radiant beauty she always was, he can't help but get self-conscious about the patches of gray in his own hair when he looks in the mirror.
Still, Clark has never been one to sulk, and there's always work to be done. With a world going crazy and the people needing something to look up to, it's starting to look an awful lot like a job for Superman.
I've played lots of variations on the Big Blue Boy Scout before, from his early days to his later years, and plenty of "year whatever" present-day version where he's in his prime. However, I've never really had the chance to play him in an era where he's most at home: the Silver Age. When I told our illustrious GM I wanted to go Silver Age, he said "within reason." To which I had to respond, "you and I know damn well that the phrases '1960s Superman' and 'within reason' are mutually exclusive."
That said, this is a Superman that's been on the job for thirty years, and unlike the pseudo-immortal version we're used to, he's aging like everyone else. Clark is still powerful beyond belief, but he's starting to sag in places, his hair's going gray, and his tights don't fit quite as well as they used to. As the threats he faces are getting crazier and crazier, he's finding it harder to keep up.
Granted, I have no intention of doing a "sad old man goes on one last mission and passes on the torch to his conveniently diverse replacement" story; if I'm putting on the cape, I'm in it to win it. But it does give an opportunity to play around with the age-old icon of the American Way in one of the most tumultuous times in the country's history, and explore how being a bastion of hope and optimism works out in a world turning cynical and sour. While also still slugging it out with Bizarro and riddling his way out of the Fifth Dimension and whatnot.
Key Notes
1913: A mysterious rocket ship lands in a field outside of Smallville, Kansas. Jonathan and Martha Kent find a baby boy inside and adopt him, naming him Clark.
1931: Clark uses his powers in plain view for the first time, saving Smallville from a deadly tornado. Afterwards, Clark leaves Smallville, and spends most of the Depression years hitchhiking across America.
1938: Clark Kent arrives in Metropolis, and foils an armed robbery by Bruno Mannheim. The press (namely Lois Lane) dubs him "Superman"
1940: Superman has his first battle with Lex Luthor, and is nearly killed by a nefarious trap which exposes him to Kryptonite for the first time.
1942: Superman enlists in the U.S. Army, fighting in both the European and Pacific theaters, as well as participating in a pro-US propaganda campaign that would age very poorly and tarnish his reputation in later years. Later that same year, the Third Reich acquires the help of Lex Luthor to create anti-Superman weapons for the Wehrmacht.
1944: Superman has his first encounter with the truly bizarre, as he is tormented by a seemingly magical imp called Mr. Mxyztplk. More bent on mischief and annoyance than destruction or conquest, Mxyzptlk repeatedly interferes with Superman's efforts-- both against common criminals and on the war front-- by altering the fabric of reality, turning people into animals and warping time and space, until Superman wins his game of wits by tricking the imp into saying his own name backwards.
1945: The US Army captures Lex Luthor, and puts him to work on the Manhattan Project in exchange for a full pardon. A few months later, Luthor's fusion bombs would be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war, Luthor would ostensibly reform and found the engineering conglomerate Lex-Co.
1947: A flying saucer crashes outside of Roswell, New Mexico, and it is recovered by the US Air Force. They discover the remains of an alien artificial intelligence from a long-lost planet called Colu.
1948: After ten years of newsroom bickering, which turned to playful banter, then romantic flirtation, Clark Kent and Lois Lane marry.
1951: Superman battles an enormous super-powered ape called Titano, whose eyes emit beams with radiation similar to deadly Kryptonite. After the beast is subdued and taken safely away from the city, Clark Kent and Lois Lane investigate and find the poor ape's condition was the result of experiments conducted at Lex-Co labs. While Luthor is able to avoid any criminal charges, it is proof enough for Clark that his old nemesis isn't as reformed as he claims.
1955: The mischievous Mr. Mxyzptlk returns with another series of insane challenges and tricks for the Man of Steel. While Superman is able to restore reality to almost its original form, he is also left with a super-powered dog he names Krypto.
1956: Mxyzptlk returns again, unleashing a plague of extra-dimensional 'Bizarro matter' on the Earth. While Superman is able to keep the plague from destroying the world, the Bizarro matter still manages to create a warped, cube-shaped copy of Earth, complete with billions of Bizarro people, and worst of all, its own Bizarro Superman.
1958: The Pentagon finally activates the salvaged alien supercomputer recovered from the Roswell saucer, now reverse-engineered into a powerful computer network they call "Brainiac." However, the Coluan AI is far more advanced than they had bargained, and Brainiac almost immediately turns hostile, taking control of the US and USSR's nuclear arsenals, until Superman intervenes. Soon after, Brainiac creates a powerful physical body for itself and reconstructs its crashed spaceship, and repeatedly attempts to destroy Earth, being thwarted by Superman each time.
1962: Superman discovers he is not the last of his people, as Earth is contacted from another dimension by a trio of Kryptonians led by the enigmatic General Zod. They claim that they are trapped in a parallel universe called the Phantom Zone, and provide instructions with a device to free them. When they are set free, however, Zod and company reveal that they had been war criminals on their home world, and plan to conquer Earth. Superman tries to fight them alone, but is defeated. In desperation, he turns to Lex Luthor for help, and together the two arch enemies defeat Zod and his followers, sending them back to the Phantom Zone. However, at the last moment, Luthor betrays Superman and traps him in the Phantom Zone as well.
1963: After a year trapped in the ethereal void, Superman finally escapes the Phantom Zone. Sadly, he is unable to do so until several days after the assassination of President Kennedy.
1965: Another rocket ship from Krypton lands on Earth. This ship contains Clark's long-lost cousin Kara Zor-El, who begins fighting crime and saving lives alongside him as Supergirl.
Lois Lane Kent: Clark's former rival, best friend, and loving wife. Still a firecracker, still unafraid to question the powers that be and call out injustice where she sees it.
Jimmy Olsen: Clark's protégé at the Daily Planet, an excitable young photographer who is obsessed with keeping up with the latest trends. Often gets embroiled in Superman's adventures, and occasionally turns into a giant turtle or has to eat a billion hamburgers or the like.
Perry White: The Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Planet, a cantankerous old lion of the newsroom whose unshakable integrity makes up for his blustering.
Kara Kent/Kara Zor-El: Clark's cousin, sent to Earth from Krypton to look after young Kal-El but delayed several years by cosmic mishap. Upbeat and full of energy, she has taken to heroism like a duck to water.
Jon and Martha Kent: Clark's parents, now in their twilight years. Earnest, salt-of-the-Earth folk who always have a story and a moral to go with it.
Professor Emil Hamilton: One of the lead scientists at STAR Labs, and Superman's go-to for questions of advanced super-science.
Lex Luthor: Superman's arch-rival for nearly three decades, a notorious super-criminal given legitimacy by the military-industrial complex. Calculating and manipulative, he has engineered a massive corporate empire with the secret goal of undermining and destroying Superman once and for all.
Brainiac: An advanced alien supercomputer from the lost planet of Colu, Brainiac sees Earth as merely a specimen in its cruel experiments. Armed with technology thousands of years ahead of mankind, Brainiac's sinister machinations have threatened the world time and time again.
Mr. Mxyzptlk: A cosmically-powerful imp from the Fifth Dimension, Mxyzptlk doesn't care for money or power or taking over the world-- he only cares about annoying Superman for his own amusement. Able to warp reality in whatever way he sees fit, the malevolent trickster continually puts the Man of Steel through increasingly absurd trials and traps, with humanity's survival being the only prize for winning his games.
General Zod: A conquering dictator from Superman's home world of Krypton, Zod was brought low by Kal-El's father, the brilliant scientist Jor-El. Now exposed to the yellow sun and given the same incredible powers as the Man of Steel, Zod and his followers will stop at nothing to get their revenge on the son of Jor-El, and rebuild their own fanatical vision of Krypton on the ashes of the Earth.
Bizarro: A misshapen double made of toxic 'Bizarro matter' from the dimensional Underverse, the Bizarro Superman is an infinitely powerful monster with a mind of pure chaos. Sometimes he is a playful pest, more of an annoyance than a threat, and sometimes he is a rampaging apocalyptic beast. Perhaps the most unsettling thing about Bizarro is that he is never the same type of bizarre twice.
Minor Villains: Metallo: John Corben, a notorious criminal with a Kryptonite-powered battlesuit made by Lex-Co. Parasite: Rudy Jones, a lowlife turned meta-vampire with a touch that can drain even Superman of his powers. Livewire: Leslie Willis, a brash counter-culture activist with immense electrical powers and an intense hatred of superheroes. Toyman: Winslow Schott, a mad inventor with a penchant for deadly toys and lethal playhouses, who frequently targets the children of Metropolis. Prankster: Oswald Loomis, a washed-up kids' show host who has found new fame by working as a "professional distraction" for Metropolis's villains.
References / Sample Post
"Clark? Is everything all right in there, honey?"
I've been staring at my reflection in the bathroom mirror for well over a minute. At the patches of gray at my temples. At the paunch that's developing where my rippling abdominals used to be. At the creases in my face. Frown lines.
I can watch atoms divide, hear clouds scrape together, smell the trees half a state away. And yet somehow this all seemed to sneak up on me.
"I'm....I'm fine, Lois," I say to her as she steps inside to do her necessaries. Her own hair is taking on a sheen of silver, but she's still the picture of beauty even after twenty years together.
"No, you're not," she says. "You're sulking. Which means either you think something's your fault, or you think you're helpless to do something else. So which is it, Smallville?"
I let out a weak chuckle at how well she knows me, then sigh.
"Yesterday afternoon," I start, "The fight with Toyman. When his giant bouncing ball tried to flatten city hall, I caught it, and....I felt my back pop. It wasn't all that heavy, a couple hundred-thousand tons at the most. I've lifted that weight and more every day since '38, never had any problems with it before. But this time...."
"It's okay, Clark," she says as she puts a hand on my shoulder. "Everyone has an off day. Even Superman, from time to time."
"It wasn't just that," I shake my head. "I'm slowing down, Lois, I'm....I'm not the man I used to be."
"Are you still there when people need you?"
"....well, yes, but--"
"Do you still want to do the right thing when nobody else will?"
"Lois, I--"
"Do you still want to fight for Truth and Justice?"
"Of course, I just--"
"Then you are still the man you 'used to be,'" she says with a beaming smile. "A little gray hair doesn't change who you are, some aches and pains don't make you any less the man I fell in love with all those years ago. Maybe, you know, just....pace yourself a bit. Let Kara and some of the new kids pick up your slack."
She gives me a reassuring kiss, then pats me on the backside. "And maybe start eating some more greens. You always told me Kryptonite was your greatest weakness, but I'm starting to think it's cheesecake."
That gets me out of my malaise, and I let out a hearty laugh. It's cut short, however, when we hear the telltale rumblings of an explosion not far from our apartment.
"Well, it sounds like you're off to work again," Lois says as she walks to the mirror to brush her teeth. "Don't hurt yourself trying to prove something; just--"
But as she turns, I'm already gone. Like she said, off to work again.
Don't strain, don't overdo it. Just...pace yourself, Clark. You've got nothing to prove to anyone.
Clark Kent, Age 55 (b. 1913) Based in Metropolis, Delaware Active since approximately 1938
That said, this is a Superman that's been on the job for thirty years, and unlike the pseudo-immortal version we're used to, he's aging like everyone else. Clark is still powerful beyond belief, but he's starting to sag in places, his hair's going gray, and his tights don't fit quite as well as they used to. As the threats he faces are getting crazier and crazier, he's finding it harder to keep up.
Sounds like he needs some of that Dragon chi... it's good for what ails ya!
Chi of Shou-Lao the Undying, now in 330mL, 600mL or the big 2L bottle.
For when you need more pep in your step! It'll revivify your life-force... like unto-- A thing of IRON!
# "Can't get enough of that won-der-ful Dra-gon Chiiiiiiiii!" #
Iron Fist, Shang-Chi, announced interest in Richard Dragon... everybody truly is Kung Fu Fighting...
I'm definitely ready for some kung fu antics.
Richard Dragon
45 Years Old, Born on October 1923 World-renowned Martial Arts Master and International Man of Mystery Surviving since 1941
Character Concept
The man that would be Dragon was born a boy in the British colony of Hong Kong to a family of trade moguls and diplomats. The rough streets of the Fragrant Harbour treated the young Briton worse than your average Johnny Chinaman due to his limited ability to interact with the locals, having been tutored by a private instructor in the British curriculum which purposely excluded Cantonese and Mandarin. After an alarming rise of muggings by street gangs due to strained government resources, Richard's parents had reluctantly agreed to include a self-defence instructor for their son's studies though they couldn't even find a boxer fit to tie the shoes of an upstart Blackpool pugilist.
They had to settle for an Oriental practitioner but God help them if they used the same fighting style of the ill-repute Kowloon gangsters. Searching high and low, the family had found an Okinawan karate sensei that had just arrived in the city that needed work and housing, which they could easily provide. The Japanese were generally reputed to be the most superior in matters of war among the Asian races his parents reasoned and though they could hardly communicate, the teacher-student pair clicked instantly through a mutual admiration of kicks and grapples. He started slow as a tortoise but was just as determined as the one in Aesop's fables. The next few years showed how much of a prodigy Richard truly was, exceeding in most of the metrics expected of him. He wasn't limited to drills and dummies either as he would sneak out during certain nights to get in street brawls that saw his diplomatic immunity put in to good use. While his parents disapproved, this was clearly all the fault of that damned Easterner!
For Richard though, it was basically a boyhood fantasy come true - fighting bad guys at night and being a bourgeoisie dandy by day. This idyllic dream, however, would be abruptly interrupted by the horrors of war as the Marco Polo bridge incident in the north east of China saw the Middle Kingdom be attacked by the belligerent Empire of the Rising Sun. Days after his 15th birthday, the Canton Operation had successfully given the invading Imperial soldiers a base in Guangzhou, which caused a major wave of refugees to flee to Hong Kong. Though the war was limited to China and Japan at this time, everyone could see the writing on the wall and braced themselves for the worst. Stubbornly, Richard's family had decided to stay in the city to protect their assets but they could no longer harbor the sensei that Richard had come to consider family. Hastily expelled, the Okinawan karate sensei had vanished into the night without a trace. Bitterness and anger had gripped the young Dragon's heart though he could not explain exactly why - was it because he could not save his sensei from expulsion or because he could but did nothing?
Three years later on Christmas day, Hong Kong had fallen to the Japanese Imperial Army. However, the occupying garrison soon found that the city would not be easily subjugated.
Richard had become part of an underground resistance cell that slipped into the sullied streets' shadows, hid in hollow house walls, and concealed their crews in the crevices of Canton's coves. His own reputation grew as the resistance grew bolder. Richard had dug deep into the psyche of the invaders with his brutal ambush methods which left his targets hacked to bloody bits and viscera. They began to call him a monster, a demon but his favourite was byakko - the White Tiger.
Yet, instead of giving in to fear, the Japanese occupiers simply got angrier as the attacks continued. Civilians would be publicly executed and displayed in market squares every time after the resistance struck, usually fifty for every one soldier killed. This arms race of bloodshed was horrifying but both sides stuck to their ideals - with the average citizen not being able to do anything but suffer. With no end to the brutality in sight, Richard grew weary of the extreme approaches he had initially taken and resolved to lead his small faction of fighters among the cell to more subtle subterfuge such as stealing supplies and damaging infrastructure so that retaliatory killings would be less common. Though he could not do much, what he did was done with careful precision.
Four years of senseless death would pass before peace would grace the land. Yet, it is always darkest before the dawn. Frustrated by the perceived betrayal by their civil government's surrender, the vengeful garrison soldiers took it upon themselves to do one last massacre before their surrender treaty would take effect. Three hundred villagers had been captured and taken to the Silver Mine district of Lantau island in order to be tortured and executed. Word quickly reached the resistance's ears; it was a race to rescue the soul of Hong Kong. While he himself was still adverse to direct conflict, all of Richard's comrades had thrown caution to the wind and supported a direct attack.
On a gamble, Richard had devised a plan to kidnap the commander of the garrison from his headquarters in order to force the soldiers to stand down. Well, it wasn't a plan per se as it was an impulse that he followed on a whim. To his surprise security at the headquarters was quite light due to their imminent defeat or, worse, because those soldiers were already at Lantau. Met with little resistance, Richard was quick to knockout the guards who had remained behind and hogtie the commander with the same ease as one would have when wrapping a bow around a present. As he carried him to a fishing boat in the nearby Victoria Harbor, the commander simply told him it was too late. Richard refuted, telling him that there was no way they could kill hundreds of villagers in a few hours.
"Not too late for death. Too late to reason."
Those words stay with Richard even to this day. The cold splashes of water on his hands every time he rowed the oars, the scent of fish guts tucked away in the corners of the dingy dinghy, and the racing beat of his heart. All of these he can never forget.
As he landed in Lantau's shores, a wildfire illuminated the nearby underbrush. What little light was on the island was enough to show that it truly was a massacre. Men, women, children... And his comrades and the enemy soldiers. Much to his surprise a shadowy figure with long hair had emerged from the direction of the flames, followed by a few men that he recognized as part of the resistance cell and finally around twenty civilians. That figure was undoubtedly that of their leader - the greatest fighter among their ranks - and that figure now beckoned Richard to hand over the garrison commander.
He recalls objecting to do so on that night many moons ago. He doubts his words were understood but what followed was clear to anyone as their leader got into a fighting stance. Initially reluctant to defend the man that was his enemy, Dragon was caught offguard as his opponent rushed him and knocked him down with a single open palm strike to his chest. Before he knew it, Richard would be knocked out cold as a follow-up foot stomp landed on his face.
The next time he woke up, Richard had found himself in a makeshift hospital staffed by Commonwealth soldiers. He was informed that the locals had brought his unconscious body from a drifting fishing boat out on the harbour. A broken nose, bruised ribs, malnutrition, and a whole slew of minor lacerations had plagued his body. He would spend the next two weeks in the company of the British Navy's nurse corp before reuniting with his family. Though thinner and more wrinkled, his parents were indeed as spirited as they were before the war. Their home was bombed out by air raids along with some parts of the city but they were determined to rebuild.
US president Truman's announcement of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki came as a surprise to Richard. The Japanese surely must have known that such a weapon was in development yet even in the face of total annihilation, his enemies still chose to fight to the death. Such fanaticism was the true revolutionary weapon developed in this war and there was no sealing it away.
It was now late 1945. While peace had come to Hong Kong, the Chinese civil war raged on across the border as the remnants of the Communist PLA and the Nationalist KMT battle for the future of the Middle Kingdom. A letter arrives at the Dragon estate addressed to Richard. It simply reads "Nanda Parbat" along with a set of coordinates. The letter is signed by one O-Sensei. Like his master before him, Richard Dragon disappears into the night without a trace.
It was now late 1952. The Land of the Azure Hills is bathed crimson as United Nations and Comintern forces clash in the 38th parallel for the future of the Hermit Kingdom. A Douglas C47 has landed with a batch of Commonwealth special forces on the tarmac of Daegu Gukje Gonghang military airport. Among them is a man with a fiery mane as majestic as that of the mythical phoenix's feathers. No visible rank could be seen on his person though a piece of vibrant jade could be seen hanging next to his dog tag. Immediately, he would be shipped to the front and placed under the command of Lieutenant Edmund Dorrance and his artillery corp. While his marital prowess was on limited display due to peace talks already underway, the man known as Dragon had impressed many soldiers from his first to last day. Just like the amazing Captain America before him, Dragon was quick to jump into danger and subdue his enemies with near superhuman reflexes. While he was merely one of many heroes in the front, wartime journalists attended many of his fighting exhibitions and his peers expressed to the press how amazed they were by his swiftness and skill.
A ready made celebrity by the time the war had ended, Richard Dragon entered the public consciousness as an inspiring master of the martial arts and struck big as he entered into the British and American film industries as the go to actor for the wise eastern teacher trope. With his new found fame Richard Dragon had become not only a war hero but also a sought after trainer to all those interested in - and could afford - his skills. Oddly enough, wherever the Dragon goes gangsters always seem to turn themselves in to the local police. Often with blackeyes and bruises, sometimes handcuffed to a street lamp outside the station.
As the 50s ended, he would steadily lose relevance in the public consciousness but this did not stop his true purpose. Richard Dragon's public persona was merely a cover for his activities as a largely autonomous intelligence agent under an MI6 and Republic of China joint-sponsored organization based out of Hong Kong - The Guomindang Organization for Order and Defense. Now, just as before, he travels the globe as an agent of Scotland Yard in their struggle against the changing tide of the times.
A new take on Richard Dragon that hopefully does him more justice than the New 52, this version of the character sees a young Hong Kong Briton who grew up in the tough streets of Kowloon bring his mastery of martial arts to the global stage. Richard Dragon stories are few and far between but with a late 60s setting, I intend to create new ones that are themed around the issues of decolonization and proxy wars but flaired with elements of martial arts and spy thrillers.
Key Notes
1923
Richard Dragon is born to a British family living in the colony of Hong Kong
1935
Richard's parents hire an Okinawan karate instructor to teach him self-defense.
1941
The Japanese invade Hong Kong. Richard becomes part of the underground resistance against the invaders.
1945
The war in the Pacific is over. Richard disappears without a trace from public life.
1952
Richard re-emerges as a special operations officer for the Commonwealth forces operating in Korea. Becomes an overnight celebrity due to his amazing unarmed martial skill and bravery during the war.
1959
An autobiographical movie about Richard Dragon titled "Seoul Dragon" premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, starring himself. Gaining moderate success, it is criticized for its wild depictions of Dragon's feats during the Korean War. Dragon claims that they actually had to tone down what had actually happened in the war.
Present Day
Experiencing a resurgence in popularity due to cultural adjacency with the rock and roll British Invasion, Richard begins a touring circuit for his martial arts exhibitions as a cover to bust up suspected triad cells all over the continental US.
Bak Mei The Priest - Mythical leader of a martial arts cult who may not even exist. Suspected of triggering instability across Asia, causing extreme paranoia in the CCP and newly independent nations' leadership.
The Kowloon Triad - an international Hong Kong gangster outfit operating out of the Walled City in Hong Kong and other enclaves around the world. While relatively unimportant in the grand scheme of things, their headquarters' geographical position being close to the Communist border is a possible flash point for international nuclear conflict.
Barney Ling: A Chinese-born British businessman who owns shipping lines in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Secretly, Barney is an MI6 handler for espionage operatives in the Pacific theatre. Richard usually receives directives from Barney either through obscured documents or protected communication lines.
Sir Edmund Dorrance: A semi-retired English special forces commando who had trained martial arts under Richard during and after the Korean War. While Edmund was technically once his commanding officer, they enjoy a relaxed relationship now that he believes Richard is no longer actively serving. While Edmund is unaware that Richard works as a spy for MI6, he is still eager to share military intelligence and sell military surplus equipment to him when he can.
References / Sample Post
For your consideration, DCU:Genesis - Justice For All's Animal Man
Victor C. Sage, 26-27 (b. March 15th, 1941) Vigilante based in Hub City, Illinois Active since late November 1967
Character Concept
"I wish I could say I haven't seen these things for myself, but I think I speak for all the natives of my hometown when I say this: Hub City isn't a kind place. One night, it's a soft and warm mistress, seducing you with whispers of fortune and glory right in your ear, and the next night it's a rotten bitch, robbing you of all your money and throwing you in the gutter. Life ain't easy in The Hub.
"I walk down the street and see all sorts of depravity. Cops are kicking the shit out of minorities and arresting them for having the gall to look left instead of right. Men manhandling their wives in department stores because the little ladies decided to say that maybe, just maybe, their husband shouldn't buy his sixth case of beer in the last two days and binge drink it all as soon as they get home. Promising young men being arrested for toying around with recreational substances such as pot and LSD or, worse yet, getting drafted into the increasingly meaningless War in Vietnam to fight and die for a country that couldn't give less of a shit about them. All this happening while fat, rich pricks profit off our suffering. One of these rich pricks is Hub City's delightful mayor, Wesley Fermin, who uses his power to have the corrupt cops and his lapdogs in the Gospel of Sinners keep the people down.
"This isn't a problem exclusive to Hub City. This sort of crap happens all over the country: Gotham City, New York, Star City, Los Angeles. I'm just gonna say what I'm sure all my readers are thinking: these cities, many more cities and this entire country are going down the fucking drain. And I've just about had it. I want to see the proud, bright young men and women of this country rising up against our set-in-their-ways oppressors. The police, the government, the slothful rich. Fight the hell back! Make sure they see that we're fed up with their hokey-pokey bullshit and we won't take it anymore.
"How are we gonna do this? I don't got the answer to that. I'm simply asking you a question: how much longer can you sit around and watch your country be torn apart by the corrupt and the damned?"
- Excerpt from "America Is A Depraved Beast And It's Our Job To Tame It" by Victor Charles Sage, the cover story of the November 1967 issue of "Starrstruck Monthly" celebrating the magazine's first anniversary. Sage was arrested the following week for libel with his bail posted by the editor-in-chief of the magazine, Sam Starr.
I'm just gonna be honest: I love this character and it hurts me that I've never done a successful run with him in these Hype style RPs. You know what else I love? The 60s: the culture, the background of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, the music. Everything about this RP hits every single nail on the head for me and I would be doing myself a disservice by staying out of this one. But the sheer excitement I have for this RP and what will come out of it is enough that I feel I can keep up with it this go around.
As for where I'll be taking the character, I intend on exploring my own unique take on the Question amidst the 1960s; one embroiled in the counterculture movement and facing down organized crime and political corruption. Serial killers, corrupt politicians, biker gangs, cults, mobsters, petty crooks: you name it, it's on the table. And hey, maybe hunting down a Soviet spy or two.
I'm hoping to start off with some small, self contained stories before opening the door for crossovers with other players and the like. I'm down for anything and everything with anyone and everyone. Punching crooks, fighting Soviets, tackling supernatural horrors. You name it, I'm down to be there.
Key Notes
Backstory
Charles Victor Szasz was born in 1941 to a prostitute, Charlotte Szasz. His early life was rough primarily due to his family's poverty; otherwise, things weren't particularly bad, as his mother cared and provided for him as best as she could (sometimes to the expense of herself) and Charlie got decent grades in school. It all came crashing down in 1948, with the death of Charlotte at the hands of her pimp, who murdered her over two dollars and seventeen cents. Following this, Charlie was put into Charlton's Home for Problem Children, where he acted out and generally caused a commotion.
At sixteen, Charlie was kicked out of the home and left to fend for himself. He turned to crime to help feed himself: conning unaware passerby, breaking into cars to steal valuables, or even mugging people at knife point. He would have found himself going down the path of a hardened criminal if not for the intervention of one Aristotle "Tot" Rodor, a local doctor who took pity on Charlie and took him under his wing. With Tot's help, Charlie was able to graduate high school and go onto college.
In college, Charlie took on the name "Victor Sage", hoping to distance himself from his past. During his creative writing class, he met Myra Fermin, sister of aspiring politician and rumored gangster Wesley Fermin. Despite being wary of the woman due to her brother, he found himself growing closer to her, the two eventually finding themselves in a relationship. It continued after both had graduated and gone into their respective lines of work: Vic working as a journalist for The Hub City Gazette, Myra on her brother's PR team.
Vic's writing for the Hub City Gazette was short-lived, however, as he managed to pull some strings to get a particularly damning article about Wesley Fermin's campaign for mayor into the newspaper. The article slammed the elder Fermin as incompetent, corrupt, and stating that his only interest is "lining his own pockets and leaving the rest of us to rot." The article resulted in Fermin's lawyers suing the Hub City Gazette for libel, Myra leaving Vic for what she viewed as horrific lies about her brother, and Vic being fired from his job to save face.
Finding himself blacklisted from Hub City's top newspaper and unable to get a job at any of the city's other newspapers, Vic found himself freelancing for magazines in the city, hopping around from magazine to magazine just trying to scrape by. During this time, Vic found himself experimenting with drugs, starting with marijuana before moving onto LSD and occasionally dabbling in heroin or cocaine. This was the doorway to Vic into the counterculture movement, appreciating the open-mindedness and rebellion it represented.
Vic's big break came in the form of Starrstruck Monthly, a country-wide counterculture magazine owned by Hub City local Sam Starr that was comprised almost entirely of short stories and articles written by freelance writers and journalists. Writing the cover story for the November 1967 issue of the magazine, "America Is A Depraved Beast And It's Our Job To Tame It", Vic slammed the American government, organized crime, and the Vietnam War while praising the rebellious youth and drug usage. He also took this opportunity to drag his old "friend" Wesley Fermin's name through the mud once more.
Vic found himself garnering a cult following from the story, becoming a local celebrity in Hub City's counterculture scene while making himself quite a few enemies among Hub City's politicians, crooks, and police. He was arrested for libel a week after the article was published, with Sam Starr posting his bail under the condition that Vic become Starrstruck Monthly's first full-time writer. Vic agreed. Shortly after his release from jail, Vic found himself wanting to do something more to fight back against the tide of corruption he saw sweeping the nation, but he wasn't entirely sure what he could do. That answer came in the form of helping out his old friend and mentor Tot Rodor.
Tot had helped to design a bandage in the 1950s with a man named Arby Twain. The bandage, pseudoderm, was designed to be skin-like and tightly bind itself onto skin through the usage of a "bonding gas". It worked wonders... Save for the fact that the bonding gas, when introduced into the blood stream, was highly toxic. The bandage was never mass produced or sold for medical purposes... Until Twain decided to try selling it to the North Vietnamese government for a high price.
Tot wanted to stop Twain but had no idea how, and Vic decided to help him out. He couldn't blow the whistle on Twain as he doubted anything would come from it (after all, the usage of the bandage would have had a largely negative effect on North Vietnam and its forces, so why would the US Government want to stop it?), so he decided to take matters into his own hands. Having Rodor design him a mask using what little pseudoderm he still had, Vic went after Twain and took down his operation, leaving Twain bound in pseudoderm in front of the police station alongside a written confession.
Ever since that incident, Vic has taken to vigilantism, using his pseudoderm mask to go out at night to either fight street thugs, dig up dirt on the local government, or try to put a dent in the criminal dealings of the Gospel of Sinners. Over the last month and a half, he has slowly started to become an urban legend in Hub City, going by many names. No-Face. The Shape. Faceless Freak. But chief among them is one, which Vic has adopted as his own vigilante alias...
The Question.
Districts of Hub City
Hupert Square
Named for the founder of the town, Hupert Square is the primary business district of Hub City. No one goes there unless it's to go to work. Filled with office buildings, law firms, and clinics. In the center of the district is Gaston Hupert Memorial Park, a small park dedicated to the founder of Hub City, Gaston Hupert, who was killed by Native Americans not long after founding the city. A statue of Hupert laying claim to Hub City is erected in the center of the park.
Jury Street
Once a residential street officially part of Hupert Square, Jury Street has grown enough to become its own district, extending out into the city limits. Primarily composed of high end housing with mansions further out of the city, this is where most of the criminal elite and politicians in Hub City live. The size of some of the houses are only matched by the decadence of the residents.
The Wedge
Officially Meadowview Heights, a residential district of Hub City filled with townhouses, apartment complexes, and locally owned stores. The Wedge is nicknamed as such because its shape on most municipal maps is like a wedge of cheese. The district was primarily a multicultural boiling pot at the turn of the century, where all the African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, Irish Americans, and Asian Americans lived. The Wedge is the unofficial home of Hub City's counterculture movement.
Gordon's Corner
Gordon's Corner was named for Isaac Gordon, Gaston Hupert's right hand man who took over the title of the city's mayor after Hupert's death. Another residential district composed of brick tenement buildings and rundown houses, Gordon's Corner has become known as a hotbed for criminals, be they biker gangs, human traffickers, ruthless murderers, or all three. Most people stay away from Gordon's Corner out of fear for their life. A lot of the low level associates in the Gospel of Sinners live here.
Hupert River
An industrial district stretching out for a few miles beyond the city, Hupert River is named as such because of the river that flows straight through it. Composed of factories, power plants, and rail yards, not far from these factories are houses and trailer parks, home to the workers and their families. At night, it's a popular spot for criminals to conduct business. Dumping bodies into the river, drug deals, weapon trades; you name it, it's happened.
Organizations of Note
Starrstruck Monthly
Est. November 1966 A magazine founded by Sam Starr, meant to counter mostly conservative newspapers by offering a more liberal alternative with no claims of being an unbiased opinion, Starrstruck Monthly is popular around the country among members of the counterculture movement for its no-holds-barred approach to news. Its writing staff consists mostly of freelance journalists and writers with a chip on their shoulder and a lot to say about the state of the country. The magazine's main office is a convenience store turned into a studio located in The Wedge.
Gospel of Sinners
Est. July 1928 Established by Reverend Hatch and Max Bine after splitting off from the Chicago Outfit, the Gospel of Sinners is a criminal syndicate with claws embedded in the throat of Hub City and quickly extending its reach to the rest of the country. While the name implies religious convictions, the only member to share them are Hatch, who believes he is doing God's work by "filling the Earth with sin, so that He may revel in striking us all down come Judgement Day". Wesley Fermin is a member and rose to power thanks to his affiliation with them.
The Depraved MC
Est. May 1946 Founded by a group of World War II veterans that struggled to adjust back into a normal life, The Depraved is officially a motorcycle club for those who live and die on the road. In reality, it's a gang of criminals looking to leave its mark on Hub City and constantly wrestling with the Gospel of Sinners to do so. Several chapters have appeared across the states in various cities and towns.
Characters of Note
Doctor Aristotle "Tot" Rodor
47-48 (b. June 13th, 1920) Vic's closest confidant and mentor. The closest thing Vic has to a father figure, having taken the young man in and setting him on the path to college and, eventually, his career as a journalist. Inventor of pseudoderm and the gas used to apply it. Served in the US Army as a Combat Medic during World War II and opening his own clinic in Hub City after the war ended.
Samuel Strickland (AKA Sam Starr)
35-36 (b. August 23rd, 1932) The owner and editor-in-chief of Starrstruck Monthly, as well as Vic's boss and friend. Worked as an editor for various magazines across the country, making friends along the way; when the time came to establish his own monthly magazine, he used his contacts in the industry to get some articles and ensure Starrstruck Monthly would be on every newspaper stand and magazine rack in the country.
Myra Fermin
27-28 (b. February 23rd, 1940) A politician like her brother, though much less corrupt. Vic's estranged ex from college and Wesley's sister. Doesn't know of her brother's criminal affiliations and, while she loves him deeply, she finds herself growing suspicious of him with every passing day. Occasionally runs into Vic when he goes around hounding politicians for interviews, she finds herself wishing more and more to just give him that interview, if only so he'd leave her the hell alone and stop hounding her brother, too.
Wesley Fermin
37-38 (b. October 19th, 1930) The mayor of Hub City, who seized power through manipulation, blackmail, and a bit of help from the Gospel of Sinners. His affiliation with the Sinners is an open secret in Hub City; everybody knows it, no one wants to talk about it. Loves his sister Myra dearly and tries to keep her out of his criminal lifestyle. Has a vendetta against Sage both for Sage's attempts to drag his name through the mud and his past with Myra.
Reverend Josiah Hatch
69-70 (b. April 20th, 1898) A British-born man who fought in World War I on the Western Front and was sent home after being severely wounded by mortar fire, forcing him to use a cane to walk for the rest of his life. The horrors of war corrupted him and his faith in God, and he became a reverend not to atone for his past sins, but to revel in them in the belief that he is doing God's work. He made his way to America in 1924 and stayed in Chicago from that point forward, embroiling himself in the criminal underworld of Illinois. In 1928, he and some likeminded associates of the Chicago Outfit split off from the Outfit to establish their own syndicate in Hub City, the Gospel of Sinners. Hatch has ruled the underworld of the city since.
Maxwell Bine (AKA "The Banshee")
62-63 (b. December 3rd, 1905) A notorious mobster hailing from Chicago who split off from the Chicago Outfit in 1928 with Hatch to establish the Gospel of Sinners. Brutal, ruthless, and cunning, Bine is primarily a businessman whose various casinos, hotels, and restaurants throughout the States are all either financing the Sinners or acting as fronts for illegal businesses. He is looking to extend his reach to Vegas by opening a hotel casino there.
Ongoing & Upcoming Arcs
The Hub City Happening
Young girls are turning up brutally murdered in Hub City. Word on the street is that a spree killer is at large. Vic decides to investigate and finds a little more than he bargained for: a cult worshiping a demon known as "Mephisto" and run by a drugged up lunatic.
Oh Danny Boy
The Question goes after Mayor Fermin and his corrupt crew of twisted politicians, mobsters, and crooks... Which ends with him taking a bullet to the head and a dip in the icy Hupert River.
Fear And Loathing
Vic takes a trip to Las Vegas to cover the opening of a new hotel and casino, the Siren's Call. The owner: one Maxwell Bine, a mobster known across the Midwest as "The Banshee", whose opening of the Siren's Call hides a more sinister agenda...
Born To Be Wild
When The Depraved MC burn down a building in The Wedge and the police do nothing to stop them due to lack of evidence, Vic takes it upon himself to infiltrate the biker gang. Pretending to be interested in writing a piece about them for Starrstruck Monthly, Vic works subtly to take them down while actually writing up that piece to meet his deadline for next month's issue of the magazine.
References / Sample Post
For your consideration, here are three posts I consider to be the best pieces I've written for the Question:
I believe my above character concept could also be considered a sample post as article excerpts written by Vic are something I want to incorporate into my posts going forward, so I'd like to posit that as my sample post.
Ended up scraping my original idea and came up with something a bit more interesting. [Wanted to push myself beyond street level again lol] Still need a sample post, but I'll try and get that up this weekend.
WASP
Nadia Pym, Age 16 (b. 1952) Based in The Red Room, Undisclosed Location, USSR Active since approximately 24 Hours Ago
Character Concept
In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym became a spy for the USA, using his recently developed Pym particles to sneak beyond the Iron Curtain. One such mission saw Dr. Pym trying to flip a known KGB agent known as Maria Trovaya, a known member of the Soviet's secretive Black Widow Program. The two quickly fell for each other and it was perhaps those feelings that made them sloppy. On the night that the pair was bound for Constantinople via a cargo ship in Odessa, they were caught by Red Room agents. Pym was able to make it out alive using his Ant-Man technology, but Trovaya was captured. What neither of them knew at the time was that Trovaya was pregnant.
Head researcher at the Red Room Doctor Lyudmila Antonovna Kudrin was curious to see the effects of in utero exposure to her super serum as up to this point it was believed that the serum caused complete infertility and requested that the embryo inside Trovaya be extracted before her execution for treason. In time that Embryo would grow into Nadia.
Thus, from her "birth" onward, Nadia's home was the secretive compound that the Red Room ran its operations from. From a young age two things became apparent, Nadia was gifted with both her Father's superior intellect and had trace remnants of her mother's super serum in her blood. And so, like her mother before her Nadia was to be trained in the Black Widow program.
Nadia along with twenty other orphans including one Ava Orlova - who she quickly became friends with - were posed to be the next generation of Widow agents. The thinking under Khrushchev and later Brezhnev being that a modern cohort was needed to represent a Post-Stalin USSR that could truly position itself as a global superpower against the Capitalist West. Alongside her regular combat and espionage training, Nadia's handlers sought to fine-tune her intellect with Doctor Kudrin personally taking Nadia under her wing seeing Nadia as the only one worthy to inherit her position as head of the program.
A week ago, Nadia passed her last examinations and was declared fit for active duty having been given the codename: WASP. However, when her first mission leads her on the trail of Professor Grigor Ivanovich Pchelintsov, a former Red Room scientist and an associate of her Father. The past that the Red Room desperately tried to keep from her will finally catch up. And Nadia must then face the question of where do her loyalties lay?
Generally, my plan is to mix a Cold War spy drama mixed with some more classical super-heroics. I've always liked Ant-Man as a character and he and his supporting cast tend to get underutilized at times. Our Cold War setting though allows me to hopefully fix that problem by working from the perspective of Nadia. Her whole abducted by the Red Room and raised by the Russians fitting perfectly with the setting. Allowing for the moral quandaries of such classics as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold to hopefully shine through, though admittedly tonally I'm going much more for Snake Eater or an Atomic Blonde than I am le Carré.
After Nadia defects to America in search of answers at the end of her first arc. I hope to be able to get involved with other players especially the other young superheroes out there. As I feel that Nadia's position will make an interesting fish out of water dynamic compared to the Americans she will be running into.
Key Notes
Central Cast
Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym
Nadia's father currently MIA.[Is willing to work around this if there are any Ant-Man players out there]
Janet Van Dyne
Shield Agent and Hank's on-off again girlfriend. Currently investigating into Hank's disappearance by looking into his past. This will lead her on a Collison course with the Red Room. [Once again see above notes. I'm willing to not use Janet or Hank completely if another player really needs them :3]
Maria Trovaya
Nadia's mother. A former agent of the Black Widow program. DECEASED
Doctor Lyudmila Antonovna Kudrin
The Head of the Red Room. Sees Nadia as the daughter she never had.
Ava Orlova
Another up and coming agent of the Red Room. Nadia's best friend.
Aleksey Lebedev
The original Red Guardian. Now combat instructor at the Red Room.
Yelena Belova
A Gen-1 Black Widow and Espionage instructor at the Red Room.
Professor Grigor Ivanovich Pchelintsov
A professor with ties to the Red Room and Hank Pym. Nadia's first target.
Current Plot Threads
From Russia With Love
Nadia is sent to track down Professor Grigor Ivanovich Pchelintsov, a Professor with connections to her past.
References / Sample Post
On both sides of the Iron Curtain, the Red Room is a ghost story spoken among espionage and intelligence agencies with a tone of fearful reverence. A crimson void that swallowed little girls across the world replacing them with killing machines that could be your wife, daughter, or someone you just saw on the street. The rumors surrounding the Room’s operation and training protocols that would make even Dante blush in their imaginative cruelty.
What the rumors and the reports fail to capture is the quiet. Each great staccato pulse of physical and mental violence that marked the day’s training sessions are always followed by long periods of monastic silence. After all, at its core the Red Room is a facility for espionage, and at the core of espionage was the interplay between the spy and a single emotion – anticipation. The silences at the Red Room fed on anticipation creating a miasma of perpetual anxiety that played on the unpredictable build and release of the emotion. Each silence lasting just long enough for the girls within to grow comfortable, right before the next burst of violence crashed over them. The Red Room was not supposed to be a home, a place where you got accustomed to predictive rhythms, it was a hell that you had to survive.
But for Nadia, it was the only home she had ever known. She knew nothing of the outside world and thus had no reference points to contrast the manic rhythms of the Red Room. And so, where others dreaded the waiting, Nadia was able to find solace in the silence. The periods of downtime that she was given being the only reprieve she had to work on her own projects even if that meant forgoing rest, sleep, and meals.
The latest of her projects has kept her up for the past forty-eight hours. After sparring with Captain Lebedev she found a Stock Dove in the bushes next to the dueling square. The grouchy pack of half-feral Mousers that stalked the Red Room Compound were if nothing else enthusiastic, and it appeared that one of them had tried to go after the bird. It survived, but its right wing was shredded to pieces. Nadia could not resist smuggling him back to her quarters where she named him Alyosha and began to formulate a plan.
A sleepless night “volunteering” with the quartermaster to reorganize the stock rooms provided her with enough leverage to acquire the scrap metal she needed. The next day, she purposefully took a hard hit from Ava during sparring practice and was sent to the infirmary. The infirmary nurse on schedule that day took a smoke break every hour for approximately five minutes. Five minutes was more than enough for Nadia to repurpose some abandoned medical equipment for her own use. The rest of the materials she had around her quarters. After they were all collected, Nadia looked over the small congregation of materials that she had gathered appreciatively like a shepherd over her flock. It had only taken her one sleepless night and a black eye, a small sacrifice for the chance at being able to act for a change instead of just going through the motions. All that was left was to build Alyosha a new wing.
Alyosha lay unconscious atop a sanitized metal cafeteria tray. Nadia had to guess the correct amount of sedative to give him given that the instructions that they had to memorize in their field surgery seminar did not necessarily pertain to doves. Instead, Nadia based her calculations on the average weight of a Stock Dove from an ornithology guide that they had been given in wilderness survival. Her estimates seemed to have done the trick, because the Dove was merely asleep rather than experiencing respiratory failure.
Over the next few hours Nadia fell into a fugue state. Her hands worked with scalpel, screwdriver, and sottering iron binding metal to flesh. Occasionally, she would pause waiting for sleep deprived trembles to subside before she continued to sculpt the wing. Nadia preferred the word sculptor to inventor or engineer, as the latter were both rooted in an almost academic understanding. Engineers and inventors instilled themselves with knowledge and then applied that knowledge to the problems they faced. A sculptor’s work instead was done by feel and instinct. One can learn the general characteristics of marble and how it breaks, but each block is as varied in personality as people are. Each reacts differently to the Sculptor’s touch in the way it peels, fractures, and fragments. To work on a piece of marble is to learn all over again, the same formula will not ever work more than once. As Michelangelo pulled David from marble, Nadia pulled Alyosha’s wing from the detritus that she had collected.
So engrossed was the girl in her work that she did not notice the small Dove’s breathing grow slower and slower. Such a rudimentary task as double checking that she had not overdosed her patient slipped by her. Why would she after all? She knew that her calculations had been correct. They were based on the statistic that she had remembered, from a book whose contents she could recall from memory. However, the weight of a Stock Dove in her field guide did not account for one-winged Stocked Doves.
Only after the work was done and the last binding set in place did Nadia realize Alyosha had gone cold in her hands.
“Oh.” that was all that Nadia was able to manage.
Her voice so quiet that it got swallowed by the silence around her.
A moment later a claxon roared and the sounds of feet hitting the floor as the other girls sprang out of beds. The silence was over, and Nadia was glad.
Ended up scraping my original idea and came up with something a bit more interesting. [Wanted to push myself beyond street level again lol] Still need a sample post, but I'll try and get that up this weekend.
WASP
Nadia Pym, Age 16 (b. 1952) Based in The Red Room, Undisclosed Location, USSR Active since approximately 24 Hours Ago
Character Concept
In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym became a spy for the USA, using his recently developed Pym particles to sneak beyond the Iron Curtain. One such mission saw Dr. Pym trying to flip a known KGB agent known as Maria Trovaya, a known member of the Soviet's secretive Black Widow Program. The two quickly fell for each other and it was perhaps those feelings that made them sloppy. On the night that the pair was bound for Constantinople via a cargo ship in Odessa, they were caught by Red Room agents. Pym was able make it out alive using his Ant Man technology, but Trovaya was captured. What neither of them knew at the time was that Trovaya was pregnant.
Head researcher at the Red Room Doctor Lyudmila Antonovna Kudrin was curious to see the effects of in utero exposure to her super serum as up to this point it was believed that the serum caused complete infertility and requested that the embryo inside Trovaya be extracted before her execution for treason. In time that Embryo placed inside a biological containment chamber would grow into Nadia.
Thus, from her "birth" onward, Nadia one and only home was the secretive compound that the Red Room ran its operations from. From a young age two things became apparent, Nadia was gifted with both her Father's superior intellect and had trace remnants of her mother's super serum in her blood. And so, like her mother before her Nadia was to be trained in the Black Widow program.
Nadia along with twenty other orphans including one Ava Orlova - who she quickly became friends with - were posed to be the next generation of Widow agents. The thinking under Khrushchev and later Brezhnev being that a modern cohort was needed to represent a Post-Stalin USSR that could truly position itself as a global superpower against the Capitalist West. Alongside her regular combat and espionage training, Nadia's handlers sought to fine tune her intellect with Doctor Kudrin personally taking Nadia under her wing seeing Nadia as the only one worthy to inherit her position as head of the program.
A week ago, Nadia passed her last examinations and was declared fit for active duty having been given the codename: WASP. However, when her first mission leads her on the trail of Professor Grigor Ivanovich Pchelintsov, a former Red Room scientist and an associate of her Father. The past that the Red Room desperately tried to keep from her will finally catch up. And Nadia must then face the question of where do her loyalties lay?
Generally, my plan is to mix a Cold War spy drama mixed with some more classical super heroics. I've always liked Ant-Man as a character and he and his supporting cast tend to get underutilized at times. Our Cold War setting though allows me to hopefully fix that problem by working form the prospective of Nadia. Her whole abducted by the Red Room and raised by the Russians fitting perfectly with the setting. Allowing for the moral quandaries of such classics as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold to hopefully shine through, though admittedly tonally I'm going much more for Snake Eater or an Atomic Blonde than I am le Carré.
After Nadia defects to America in search of answers at the end of her first arc. I hope to be able to get involved with other players especially the other young superheroes out there. As I feel that Nadia's position will make an interesting fish out of water dynamic compared to the Americans she will be running into.
Key Notes
Central Cast
Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym
Nadia's father currently MIA.[Is willing to work around this if there are any Ant-Man players out there]
Janet Van Dyne
Shield Agent and Hank's on-off again girlfriend. Currently investigating into Hank's disappearance by looking into his past. This will lead her on a Collison course with the Red Room. [Omnce again see above notes. I'm willing to not use Janet or Hank completely if another player really needs them :3]
Maria Trovaya
Nadia's mother. A former agent of the Black Widow program. DECEASED
Doctor Lyudmila Antonovna Kudrin
The Head of the Red Room. See's Nadia as the daughter she never had.
Ava Orlova
Another up and coming agent of the Red Room. Nadia's best friend.
Aleksey Lebedev
The original Red Guardian. Now combat instructor at the Red Room.
Yelena Belova
A Gen-1 Black Widow and Espionage instructor at the Red Room.
Professor Grigor Ivanovich Pchelintsov
A professor with ties to the Red Room and Hank Pym. Nadia's first target.
Current Plot Threads
From Russia With Love
Nadia is sent to track down Professor Grigor Ivanovich Pchelintsov, a Professor with connections to her past.
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