Okay… so… my last interest check was a two for one. And it doesn’t look like Superman or Ironman have enough of a fan base on the guild to get an RP going for one of their families of characters. Rather than write up whole Interest Checks and OOC’s I’m just gonna throw a few more ideas out there and see if enough people can get behind them before moving forward with developing one of them and fleshing them out. I’ve got modern day DC superheroes and Power Rangers covered in Titans Academy and Legacy of the Dragon, so whatever I do for a 3rd RP will have to scratch a different itch.
Legion of Superheroes – Three young heroes come together in the year 3000 to save the president of the United Planets and the Legion is born. When a mysterious villain kidnaps Colossal Boy and uses stolen tech from the remains of Cadmus World to clone himself a giant army, its chaos in the stars. Create your own alien superhero or recreate one from the vast Legion canon. I’d love to get a group of 6 or 7 for a stat based RP like we did with the last one…
The Fall of Metropolis – Superman and Lois are having another baby, and taking an extended vacation in the Bottled City of Kandor. While Superman is away, the remaining Super-Family as well as other heroic Metropolis residents protect the city. However, Amanda Waller and mad scientist/businessman Lex Luthor have different plans after cloning the Man of Steel for a small Super-Army. What happens when another hero is hurt by one of Waller and Luthor’s pet clones? If you guessed ‘the Fall of Metropolis’ then you might be right. Need 5-7 players for this.
Capt. America Lost – It was 1945 and the Allies just won WWII. However, Captain America was lost somewhere at sea. The remaining forces of Hydra were thought to know the location of the rocket that Cap was strapped to. It was the Invaders mission to beat it out of whoever had the information. Rework classic canon Marvel Golden Age heroes or create an original for a mission that will ultimately fail. Who lives? Who dies? Who really won the war? Need 5-7 players to really make this work.
Mean Streets of Steel City – Set in the 1930’s, this combines the era of pulp heroes with the earlier golden age comic concepts. We’ll take our heroes through a campaign against crime and take on the likes of the Copper Kids gang, murderous bootleggers, a crooked cop or two, as well as a super-powered threat based on some of the best golden age stuff out there. Use an existing canon like Doc Savage or the Green Hornet, make your own pulp or golden age hero, or put a twist on a classic [for example I thought of ‘the Scarlet Shadow’]. I had a similar RP to this pre-Guildfall that was stat based and a lot of fun. I’d love to get something like that going with as little as 3-4 additional players.
Gods ✟ Monsters – After a techno-organic virus wipes out nearly one quarter of the planet’s population Hell gets overcrowded fast. Ghosts begin to walk the Earth, and the Devil himself has come to lay claim to the surface world. When the One Above sends down the Archangel Gabriel, he’s tasked with assembling a group of monsters and men to stop Lucifer at all costs and close the gate to Hell. This is meant to be equal parts Supernatural with a dash of superheroes/anime. Werewolves, vampires, hunters, a friendly ghost, wedingos, a forest guardian, maybe a siren or banshee, possibly a priest… 5-7 players needed for this one too.
So yeah… I kinda reworked the Superman idea a little for one of the ideas, and two of the others are preferably stat based. The system is super easy and built for forum style RPs to make the combat a little more interesting. If I can get enough interest behind one of them we’ll get a CS template up and an OOC. Legion of Superheroes is something I’ve done a few times before, and a futuristic DC setting with new alien heroes is super appealing. A couple times I’ve combined it with elements from Ben10 to make something we called the 10th Legion, but Ben10 stuff lately never takes off. Mean Streets and Cap Lost both are on the list cause I’ve really been needing something tied to the Golden Age. One being street level pulp style heroes with light golden age tones and stats, the other being full on WWII superheroes vs Nazi-knock-offs… I’d be ecstatic to get either one off the ground. G✟M is something that just hit me today when thinking about how the Supernatural universe could be reworked into something more superhero or anime-like. That one could be stat based or not, I’m just game for something different. I usually build stat based arcs around a 25 enemy campaign model.
I like just about all these so I’m down for whatever but just so it’s on record, Fall of Metro is bottom of my list. I still think it’d be fun and I’ll join if that’s what we go with but I’m not voting for it if we’re going the democracy route with which game gets made.
That 1930's game sounds interesting. What is the system you're using?
I've got a super simplified system I originally used for a GLC rp. Mostly just for making fights a little more interesting. There's a link to an old rp using it in the Legion of Superheroes bit....
Name: Alias: Age: Appearance: [preferably an image] Power/Skills: [remember not to get too nuts, this is set in the 30's! LOL] Equipment: Personality: [5 words best describing your character] Brief Bio: Notes:
As far as the stats go, I'll make Level 1 stats for everyone and we can work together to change them if anything needs tweaked. If you're a super scientist you'll have a higher IQ, if you run at super speed you'll have increased speed, etc...
I'll try to get something up today. Not set on my idea yet but I've got some time today to mull it over. At the moment I'm thinking about doing a mostly dimwitted, former thug who had some experimental procedure to put a radio receiver in his head that allows him to communicate with a retro-sentient super computor. Might scrap that and go to more classic gumshoe/man of mystery type route with my character but right now I'm just spit ballin'.
I'm going with more of a feral man like classic Tarzan, but it's an original character loosely based on Animal from the Muppets. Formerly a jazz drummer from the 1920's, captured and tortured by mad scientists, he mostly hangs out around the edge of town in the forests surrounding the city.
My idea is a dude with indestructible arms. He's a highschool teacher who could beat the biggest dude in school in a fist fight... And he would too, if he could get away with it.
Name: Isaiah Elphicke Alias: The Man-Machine Age: 25 Appearance:
Power/Skills: Powers: Super Dense skin and bones that can ward off all but Lightning and exploding mortar shells, speed to outrace an express engine, strength to throw Boulders like basketballs, bend steel with his bare hands and lift up a fully loaded trolley, legs that can hurtle a 30 story building and leap one 1/5 of a mile at a time. Enhanced Hearing, Smell, Sight, Taste and Touch, Lungs capable of holding air without breathing for no less than 5 hours and filtering out certain low-level poisons and an inbuilt danger sense in his brain. Skills: Marksmanship, Disguise, Enhanced Memory, hand-to-hand combat.
Equipment: Costume, belt with various compartments for maps, pills, food, evidence, etc.
Brief Bio: By the early years of the 20th Century, Dr. Beauregard Elphicke was one of the leading Radiobiologists in The United States. His study of Radiation Therapy, in particular, his frequent experiments in increasing the effectiveness of Radium Bath treatments, had earned him a great deal of admiration and respect in the Scientific community of Steel City, of which he was a native. Elphicke was a wise man, however. By the year 1905, he had theorized that the power of the atom would bring either untold glory or unspeakable horrors upon the human race. It was the ethical duty of those with knowledge of the effects of Radium to steer humanity toward the latter.
To this end, by 1910, The Doctor had come up with what he believed to be a sound theory. That Radium Water, when combined with certain levels of Radio and Ultraviolet rays, combined with a High Protein and Carbohydrate Diet, would not only restore even the sickest person to health but then bring them beyond the current peak of human perfection and evolution. Radiation was the key to this weird, evolutionary theory. And so it was in the June of 1911, that Dr. Elphicke would, while taking a late night drive on the rural outskirts of Steel City, come across his perfect test subject for his endeavor. A test subject that would also prove to be, his greatest joy and gift to all.
This test subject was heard crying in an overgrown blueberry Bush outside a derelict farm. Upon exiting his Car, Elphicke would find a sickly, emaciated, one-year-old baby boy. Practically a Skeleton. Alive, but barely so. Upon taking the infant home, Elphicke would put his theory into practice, simply to save the child's life. Over the course of 4 and a half months, the child recovered and was restored to full health and yet, the Radium Baths and the diet persisted. During this time, Dr. Elphicke and his wife, Lindsay, had adopted the boy as their own son, soon christening him "Isaiah."
Two years went by. By the time Isaiah was 3 years of age, the effects of his father's Radium baths had begun to reach their full potential. The boy's unintentional feats of strength, speed and senses amazed his parents and yet, nevertheless, were a source of concern for them. Both feared that, should his great physical facilities ever be revealed, Isaiah would be persecuted for them. As a result, Isaiah's parents encouraged him from that point on, to try and keep his powers a secret from the rest of the world, informing him, when he was old enough, that only when the time was right should he reveal his full potential and even then, only for the good of his fellow man.
And so, per his parents' wishes, Isaiah did his best to conceal his Radium-Born abilities from his fellow man. Sadly, these efforts proved damaging to the boy throughout his childhood. Feeling as if he lived in a world made of Papier-mâché, he became withdrawn and isolated and was soon labeled as a social outcast. During his 3rd to 6th-grade years however, Isaiah's status as an outcast and loner led him to develop a social circle with other children of the same label and, given his own strength and ability over the bullies that relentlessly tormented them, he was compelled, by moral choice, to defend his peers from harm.
After an accidentally strong kick during one such confrontation in his 2nd year of Junior High, leading to one bully ending up with a broken leg and Isaiah with a two-weeks suspension and a trip over his Mother's lap, the youth tried his best to stay out of trouble. With help from his father, he was able to control his great strength, honing and refining each punch and kick to perfection during his free time. By the time he returned back to School, Isaiah was almost entirely in control of his strength, his speed and his jumps.
Time moved once more and throughout his teenage years, Isaiah became more popular and likable due to his kind and helpful nature. Every so often however, in particular during physical education and sports, a burst of power would display itself and while in high school, his games teacher encouraged him to hone his seemingly godsent prowess through the world of professional sporting. But it wasn't long before Isaiah realized just how much of an unfair advantage he had over his peers. Suppressing his skills on the field only helped to make him feel repressed, withdrawn and abnormal, leading him to drop out of sports altogether.
Inevitably, Isaiah found himself back to his old school social status, with only a few friends for company. Upon deep reflection on his life and his powers, he came to view himself less as a human being and more as a kind of "Machine made of flesh." His frustration and loathing manifested as resentment towards his father for his radium experiments all those years before, blaming him for running his life, wishing that he'd been left to die in those bushes.
After High School graduation, Isaiah felt no desire to enter College. Instead, he went out into the world with the skills he had, working odd jobs to support himself. At the age of 20, he found himself a job within the ranks of the Steel City Police Department as an Officer. Usually, during his career, he would find himself stopping petty crimes, burglaries and disturbances of the peace, usually using his powers in small bursts while unseen. At first, he was content that he had found a way to use his powers of good at all, but before long, a sense of monotony and repetition overtook him. Although Isaiah was able to stop smaller, pettier evils in his position, the larger crimes of the underworld, gang violence in the streets and the corruption within the PD was always out of reach. Coupling this with his need to use his powers in the shadows made it impossible to truly use his abilities to their fullest effect. He began to wonder if, perhaps, it wasn't enough to just be a man fighting evil. Prehaps, what the city and the world needed, was a symbol of something greater. It was this realization that pushed him to make the costume.
Of course, Isaiah was aware of the growing trend of masked vigilantes that stalked the night throughout steel city. Few, if any, were superhumans and their activities made them just as much targets of the law as the criminals they hunted. Their use of handguns, their choice to mostly operate by night and their frequent use of lethal force made them both admired and feared by the populous at large. Inspired, Isaiah realized the major flaw within this newfound breed of "Hero." This being their overall secrecy and reluctance to act in the light. Most of them were symbols of fear, not hope.
Seeing an opportunity to finally put his powers to better use, Isaiah began fashioning himself a disguise, based on the then contemporary aesthetics of the Streamline Moderne style. Using leather, tights, and cotton, complete with a bright blue cape to complete this theatrical image, he created the guise that he would use as his symbol of Justice. Inspired by his own musings about himself and his status as a ''Human Machine'', he christened this new aspect of himself "The Man-Machine" as a way to keep his identity secret and completed it with a winged broach of gold-leafed tin upon his breast. Emblazoned with a capital letter M.
In the 4 years since that crucial decision, The red, brown and blue image of The Man-Machine continues to be a frequent sight in Steel City, bounding across the rooftops of the Metropolis, batting corruption and terror in his own brutish, no-nonsense but kindly and well-meaning way. Saving citizens from both fatal accidents and disasters, combatting corrupt businessmen, politicians, robbers, murderers, crooked law officials, gambling dens, fraud, war profiteers and wife beaters. The career of this Urban Overseer, often nicknamed "The Living Diamond" is still relatively new, however, and time has yet to tell whether or not it will last.
Notes: Yeah, so, as you can tell from the use of Watchmen's Captain Metropolis as an Appearance, The Man-Machine is a straight-up costumed hero. Based on Hugo Danner from the 1930 Novel ''Gladiator'' albeit with a Streamline Moderne look that, coincidentally, combines Old School pulp with traditional Golden Age Superheroics. Danner is said to have been the basis for both Superman AND Captain America. So, in the tradition of all three, I have combined elements of their origins into one.
Name: Henry Hanks Alias: Tom Fury Age: 35 Appearance: Like a younger Scott Glenn, dressed in well-used outdoor wear: duster, sturdy boots, Western hat
Power/Skills:
Capable hand-to-hand fighter Skilled outdoorsman Senses "evil" through its effect on weather phenomena (wind changing directions, ominous clouds gathering, the rain not smelling right, etc.) Has some knowledge of supernatural phenomena, creatures, spells and rituals, etc. Immune to damage from electrical effects up to and including lightning strikes
Equipment: Lightning Rod - Tom carries a special lightning rod he calls "Ol' Sally." It has the power to absorb and discharge electrical energy. If he absorbs the power of the rod, he increases his strength for a few minutes (maybe strong enough to lift the rear half of a Buick). Note that it can only absorb electricity through lightning, so when Ol' Sally runs out of charge, Tom has to go out in a storm, climb a hill, and wait. The head of it looks like this, but mounted on a five-foot staff:
Brief Bio: Tom is the latest in a long line of Tom Furys. As Henry Hanks, he was a park ranger who, upon the demise of the previous Tom Fury, was struck by lightning while trying to rescue a bear cub stuck in a tree. Upon realizing his altered nature, he did what Tom Furys do: wander the country protecting the innocent from the depredations of evil.
Notes: Tom doesn't cast spells, but occasionally he can devise a ritual or counterspell, relying on his instincts and general knowledge to do so.
