It began a century ago in the wake of The Great War. While the world recovered from its devastating conflict, scientists in the United States of America made a wondrous discovery; a mutant gene present in some individuals that granted incredible, unique abilities. The American government suppressed this information while simultaneously conducting experiments on these individuals.
The fruits of their research gave birth to the Super Soldier Project and its early successes during the height of the Second World War. Decades of continued immoral experimentation run by the US military and CIA finally culminated in the early 1960s, leading to a series of Congressional inquiries, and, ultimately, the public revelation of mutant kind.
Although a massive cultural and political shift in the American landscape, humanity would face an even larger encounter with the unknown just five decades later. In 2010, sixteen cities across the globe came under siege as an invasionary force from the stars descended on Earth. The Chitauri swarm, commanded by their queen, swept across these cities with unprecedented destructive force.
The Earth's military might proved largely ineffective against the seemingly unending hordes, and complete conquest seemed in sight. Pocket conflicts began to rise, however, across the globe as mutant kind began to rise up and take a stand against the invaders. A handful of individuals wielding mighty powers followed suit in New York City, taking the fight directly to the mothership above the United Nations building. The resistance was short and brutal, but ultimately effective as the Chitauri queen was killed in battle, causing the complete disarray of the invading army.
Hundreds of thousands lost their lives in the brief forty-four hours of that first contact war. Tens of millions more were directly affected by the devastation.
From there, the world quickly changed. In America, the enhanced individuals responsible for the defeat of the alien queen were recruited by the National Security Council into a fledgling initiative to defend the United States against future assaults. SHIELD, a former spy agency mothballed in the 1980s, was resurrected for similar purposes. Calls for new weapons of mass destruction capable of fending off planetary incursions led to the formation of the Sentinel Program. And a renewed spark in super soldiers gave rise to a superhuman arms race undertaken by private corporations and industrialists.
In the immediate months following the invasion, reports of vigilantism skyrocketed. Social media became flooded with the notion of the superhero. In the twelve years since the Chitauri's onslaught, acts of powered and costumed individuals became commonplace.
The world had entered the...
This will be a Marvel comics sandbox roleplay set in a world that, until just twelve years ago, was devoid of superheroics and villainy. Something I intended to do with this that I hope sets it apart from past comic games is the use of a mini-event system. Mini-events will be semi-linear plot elements provided in the IC for players to interact with and will be accompanied by a brief OOC listing of situations that would need to be resolved in order to complete the event.
For example, a mini-event involving a bank robbery is set in New York City. The checklist provided to resolve this would likely consist of:
- Stop the bank heist.
- Apprehend the criminals.
- Safeguard the civilians inside the bank.
In this checklist, stopping the bank heist is the primary goal, with ensuring the safety of the civilians involved as a secondary goal. How players choose to complete the checklist and resolve the event is entirely up to them, however. In some cases, players may choose not to be successful in all aspects in order to hit story beats.
My goal as GM is to observe how these events are resolved, whether successfully or not, and then incorporate in future events the narrative outcomes. The idea is that these mini-events directly contribute to the roleplay narrative forming a world that very much feels alive and everchanging. I plan for these events to be regular inclusions to encourage activity and interaction, as well as to provide story elements for players who may be struggling with jumping off points for their characters.
Players will be limited to one character and canon, non-villainous POVs, though original NPCs are always encouraged. Communication and collaboration will be highly encouraged. I want this to be a game where the story is formed between myself and all players into a living, breathing narrative.
This is a character-driven game with a heavy emphasis on collaboration. While this is a sandbox game in an open world, the semi-linear elements and mini-events will be largely focused in highly populated American cities and, should we have enough cosmic players, outer space. Telling your own stories in isolated arcs is always welcome, though keep in mind these events may not cater to you if you're in a small, midwestern town with no form of transportation. While you will be free to run your own plots, ultimately it will be critical to the success of the roleplay if we don't all go into our own corners of the world and focus solely on ourselves.
Like past comic games, reinvention is also encouraged. While characters should still stay true to their general spirit, you are free to take inspiration from any Marvel comic source, whether printed, animated, or live-action. You can redesign a classic canon character's sex, origins, and even place them in the role of an entirely different hero. If you want to play a female Daredevil, go ahead. If you want to put Happy Hogan in the Iron Man suit, power to you. So long as it is consistent with the lore of this roleplay, and is a well-put-together concept, everything will be equally considered.
So, who is seeking to carve out their own chapter in the Age of Marvels?
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