Syn Sheets

Ever since man has been capable of hitting other man with a rock, the world has been divided with power, between those who have it and those who do not. On this world, more than on ours, this division is more important than any other. Some secure power with the right mechanical gadgets and the years of study necessary to build them. Others seek out power at the bottom of a chemical vat, with the handshake of some otherworldly evil, or in the bite of a genetically unstable exotic pet. A few with enough money or federal funding simply strap six tons of bulletproof power over their chest and call it a day. All of these people, designated by their power, are known as Supers. Some are heroes. Some are villains. Universally, they're all pretty dramatic.

We (That means you!) will be playing Supers brought together by luck, or rather, by being down on theirs. All of our characters, at least for those introduced early enough to be responding to this interest check, should be answering a call in the papers for Superheroes Level 4 and below -- a rare prospect in today's Super world of glitz and glam -- to join a revived Super group that has been retired since the 90's. Whether they are trying to relive their glory days, trying to seek vengeance, or are just superpowered and interested in the concept of sharing subsidized rent 10 ways, the players will all be members of the newly-reformed Justice Squad.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxThe Villain's International League of Evildoing

The Villain's International League of Evil, more commonly abbreviated simply as The League, was founded in 1953 as The Brotherhood of Evildoing, though this was changed to "The League of Evildoing" in 1967 in the infamous "Electricia v. Brotherhood of Evildoing" case, and once more to the current name in 1971 as part of a rebranding effort. It is essentially a global trade union for villains, serving as the authority over every facet of supervillainy, be it dealing with a villain’s legal recourse, supplying henchmen, screening offensive alter-egos and gimmicks, creating suitable nemesis pairings for heroes, and so on. The League’s rulebook is bound in human flesh, and is extensive, strict, and notoriously bulletproof -- There are no loopholes to be exploited, or any matter it does not cover in great detail. The League’s legal team is one of the best in the world, and when matters can no longer be settled in courtrooms, they rely on their equally-skilled assassins.
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The Super world is much like our own, but with superheroes. History is identical to ours up until 1948, the year Trent Harks discovered the Girdle of Zeus and became Captain Titan. Since then, societal shifts have been the same as our universe, though they have also been reflected by Supers. The first Supers in the late 40's and 50's were largely tools of patriotic American propaganda, who donned golden age costumes and battled campy villains such as "Yellow Peril" and "Captain Catastrophe". Crimefighting Supers were officially regulated in 1952 with the founding of the Department of Regulated Crimefighters. A year later, a criminal Super known as Black Mask founded the Brotherhood of Evildoing in order to similarly organize villainy, though theirs is at a unionized level. Since then, the two regulatory organizations have worked within an alliance of sort, right down to their similarly-organized rulebooks.

As a result of the race to create nuclear-powered Supers in the 40s and 50s, many heroes of the golden age -- Comrade Red, Atomic Man, and the Nuclear Family, in particular -- died of radiation cancer in the early 60's. Along with the controversial use of Supers in Vietnam and society embracing pacifism as a whole, the role of Supers shifted to fighting (or abetting) low-scale crimes such as drug trafficking and extortion rather than aiding international conflicts. Heroes like Groovemaster and

The Villain's International League of Evil, more commonly abbreviated simply as The League, was founded in 1953 as The Brotherhood of Evildoing, though this was changed to "The League of Evildoing" in 1967 in the infamous "Electricia v. Brotherhood of Evildoing" case, and once more to the current name in 1971 as part of a rebranding effort. It is essentially a global trade union for villains, serving as the authority over every facet of supervillainy, be it dealing with a villain’s legal recourse, supplying henchmen, screening offensive alter-egos and gimmicks, creating suitable nemesis pairings for heroes, and so on. The League’s rulebook is bound in human flesh, and is extensive, strict, and notoriously bulletproof -- There are no loopholes to be exploited, or any matter it does not cover in great detail. The League’s legal team is one of the best in the world, and when matters can no longer be settled in courtrooms, they rely on their equally-skilled assassins.

VILE employees -- entirely separate from villains -- are somewhere between Imperial Stormtroopers and the DMV. They handle the massive amount of paperwork generated by the League, as well as public relations and administration. They are all identical, wearing black uniforms likened to pajamas and plastic skull masks resembling their logo, which has a considerably thin mouth grate, muffling their speech at all times and making it impossible for employees to take lunch breaks. The League is led by its founder, the aging and increasingly senile Black Phantom. His current decline in health and subsequent need for replacement is an unspoken issue and the subject of constant gossip within the League, as there is no known replacement lined up.

The Department of Hero Regulation

The Department of Hero Regulation is a federally owned bureau of management for heroes, founded in 1944 after the infamous Mighty Man Incident, wherein Sam J. Reynolds, AKA Mighty Man, was found guilty of Destruction of Property by a prosecutor seeking payment for a barn damaged by Mighty Man's flight. After breaking the handcuffs he was placed in, Mighty Man incinerated the courthouse with his heat-vision and flew to Nicaragua, where he remains in hiding to this day. The proceeding national outcry lead to the DHR's establishment, and federal funding for devices and training to handle Supers. Due to the passive role heroes take defending themselves from villains, the DHR has significantly fewer rules than their counterpart organization, though this is not to say that the rules are not enforced as strictly as VILE’s. Most of the DHR’S rules focus on acceptable levels of force and permitted scenarios for the escalation of conflict -- As an organization, the DHR is more focused on capturing unregistered heroes and villains and threats to global safety. They typically only involve themselves in the affairs of higher level villains, such as those capable of purchasing nuclear weapons or summoning world-devouring creatures. They are also in charge of assigning appropriate “Units”, which are essentially sets of preapproved dynamics such as “Lone Hero”, “Hero Family” or “Hero/Sidekick”. When a single man in a cave applies for a young, spandex-wrapped male sidekick, it is the DHR's screenings they have to pass. When Super families routinely risk their child's safety crawling into tombs to press secret buttons, it is the DHR who investigates. When a hero breaks the rules, it is the DHR who hunts them down.

The first Supers predated the concept of Supering entirely, ranging from early masked vigilantes to well-known eccentrics of the time. The first heroes rose up during the turbulence of the Roaring Twenties, mostly private investigators, conscripted government agents, and travelling lawmen. This saturation of government-appointed heroes grandfathered into the DHR after its formation lead to an early-established culture of deference to the government and its law within the hero community. Similarly, the earliest villains were mostly German royalty driven to bankruptcy by World War I, fostering a culture of greed and self-serving within their own ranks.
CaliforniaState Biologist

VILE Nota Res Mala Optima

DHR Vince In Malum Bono
