MARVELS
Streets of New York
New York City. A glittering labyrinth of steel, glass, and shadows. The very pulse of the city beats in rhythm with millions of hopes, struggles, and secrets. Every day brings with it a new tale waiting to be written, a new twist around every corner. Here in the big city, where ordinary men and women walk in the shadow of masked giants, life is rarely as it seems, though. Beneath the lights of Broadway, where the glow of Times Square fades into the gloom of the boroughs, the city becomes something else—a battleground where power is the only language spoken.
On the streets of New York, crime doesn't just survive—it thrives.
The story of the Bronx isn't just one of history and culture, but also of power. Tombstone, one time common thug turned fledging crime boss, runs his operations out of Harlem, turning the area into a stronghold of violence and intimidation.
Brooklyn is the epicenter of dangerous ambition. Madame Masque, the deadly and calculating woman with a face of gold, proves she's not just a player, but a force of nature pulling the strings behind the scenes as the borough becomes her criminal playground.
In Queens, grittiness is the law of the land. Hammerhead, a ruthless gangster known for his unbreakable skull and even tougher demeanor, has claimed a mansion in the heart of the borough as his personal fortress from which deals can be made in blood.
Staten Island bubbles with tension. The Maggia, a collection of crime families who once thrived in Little Italy, have now taken hold on the island—turning it into a quiet nexus for smuggling, racketeering, and power plays.
Manhattan. From the bustling avenues of Midtown to the sleek corridors of Wall Street, this is where the city's heart beats strongest. At the center of it all is Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin himself, whose reach extends far beyond his imposing Tower.
In New York, every alley tells a story. Every building, every block, every dark corner has a role to play in this tale of never-ending struggle for power. Here, crime runs rampant, and the law is just another game to play.
Welcome to the real Streets of New York, where heroes fight to keep the darkness at bay, and the villains are always one step ahead.
P R E M I S E
**MARVELS: Streets of New York** is a roleplaying game based loosely in the Marvel Comics universe- specifically, in that universe’s version of New York City, and even more specifically, at the street level. The heavy-hitters of this world– the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men– are all still very much still around, battling intergalactic conquerors and supernatural terrors and unraveling global conspiracies…but that’s not where our stories take place. This game is focused on the city itself, the heroes and villains who populate it, and the conflicts, crises, mysteries, romances, power struggles, team-ups, betrayals, falls and redemptions that happen in the Big Apple.
S E T T I N G
The Marvel iteration of New York is one of the most lively cities in all of fiction, vivid and dangerous and oozing with character. And unlike the likes of Gotham City, it isn’t tied to a specific character, or even a specific mood– on any given day, you might see a rooftop duel between Daredevil and Bullseye along the blocks of Hell’s Kitchen, get caught up in some wacky hijinks with Squirrel Girl in Central Park, find a human trafficking ring shot to pulp by the Punisher in the Bronx, kick a few bucks to the Heroes for Hire to clear out a gang hideout in Harlem, and get saved from a collapsing construction site in Queens by your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, all before making it home to turn on the Yankees game and open up the latest copy of the Daily Bugle.
From a game perspective, while the Five Boroughs and their dozens of individual neighborhoods should give everyone plenty of sites to see and people to meet, keeping things contained in the city should also encourage more interaction and collaboration, since crossing from one hero’s “turf” to another is usually as simple as walking a few blocks.
C H A R A C T E R C R E A T I O N
Players can pick and play as any relatively “street-level” Marvel hero or anti-hero. By ‘street-level,’ we mean any character whose usual sphere of influence doesn’t expand outside of New York itself. Captain America might only be able to punch through a wall, but he goes on globe-trotting adventures and fights global threats all the time, so he’d likely be out. Meanwhile, someone like Jessica Jones could theoretically be a world-level hero, but she almost never operates outside the city. Given that the antagonists in this RP are going to primarily be various organized crime syndicates and the low-level villains they employ, we ask that whatever character you choose can be feasibly challenged by them, and have an active interest in taking them on.
Contrary to previous Ultimate/All-Star/Absolute games where players were allowed to rewrite characters as they pleased, we do ask that your iteration of a character at least remain “canon-ish,” so revisions that fundamentally change the character’s nature, interests, or general place in the setting will not be accepted. While the exact details of a character don’t need to adhere to one particular iteration, the character should still be recognizable as their canon counterparts. You are welcome to pull from the 616 or Ultimate comic books, the MCU, the various animated series, or some amalgamation of them, as long as its basis is in some version of official Marvel lore.
You are welcome to pick a member of a team that fits the setting (again, street-level with an emphasis on fighting the criminal underworld), but given the limited scope of the setting, you may only apply for a single member of that team, rather than the whole team itself. That way, multiple characters can play members of the Heroes for Hire, X-Factor Investigations, the Defenders, the Crew, etc, without one player claiming all of those characters. Again, however, it must be stated that 'premiere' teams like the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and other teams whose adventures are typically far outside the scope of the game will not be accepted, unless the character has an extensive solo run (either in comics, movies, or TV) that does fit the concept.
When it comes to characters that have an extensive ‘family’ of legacy characters, it should be understood that the “main” character of that family has been around long enough for these legacy characters to exist. For example, an application for a version of Peter Parker that’s only recently gotten his powers wouldn’t make sense if Miles Morales, Cindy Moon, and the rest of the Spider-people are swinging around. Beyond that, there is no strict hierarchy on legacy characters, though we’d prefer that players in a specific ‘family’ or team communicate with each other to hash out any details.
E V E N T S
Something’s always going down in the big city, whether you’re ready for it or not. In that spirit, the GMs will sporadically generate events that will happen in the various Boroughs. Some of these might be quick one-and-done emergencies like a runaway train or someone like Rhino going on a tear, some of them might be more involved mysteries like tracking down a serial killer, others might be long-running metaplots such as the never-ending power struggle between the city’s various crime lords. Players will be encouraged to participate in these events, but not required- if one event doesn’t spark your imagination, maybe the next one will.
To encourage activity, events will be monitored by the GMs. If a situation has been thoroughly resolved by the heroes, it will be considered complete. If an event goes too long without any activity, it may end early, and in-game consequences may arise from it (the villain gets away with a valuable piece of tech, the neighborhood is wrecked by a disaster, etc). That said, we understand that life happens, so if you jump into an event and then find out you won’t be able to participate, let us know.
O T H E R R U L E S
- Players are allowed to play one character at a time. All applications will be under a 24-hour review period by the GMs before being accepted or rejected. Multiple players are allowed to apply for the same character, as long as they post their application within 24 hours of the first player’s app, at which point the 24-hour time limit will apply to the second app.
- By applying, you agree to participate in the IC at least once every two weeks. Failure to do so without prior notice to one of the GMs will result in your character being removed from the roster without question. You may attempt to re-apply, but it's to be entirely at the GM's discretion.
- Posts should be a minimum of 3 paragraphs with at least one line of relevant dialogue, and should maintain a basic level of legibility when it comes to spelling and grammar. That said, to keep activity up and hopefully prevent burnout, we’re not going to ask for chapter-length posts, especially when it comes to character interactions and events. As a general rule, we’d prefer people putting out a few easy posts every couple of days, over one long one every couple of weeks.
- You are welcome to do whatever you wish with your own character’s NPCs (so long as they are acting in-character), but if you want to interact with another character’s NPCs, you must contact that player and get permission first. That goes double if you want another player’s PC to say or do something in your own posts.
- Content should be kept roughly PG-13. Given the grittier nature of this game compared to others, it’s understandable that mature subject matter may be covered, but we ask that things like graphic acts of violence or sex just be implied or cut away from, if not avoided altogether. When in doubt, err on the side of “would this be something I’d be okay with my parents reading?”
- All other standard Guild rules of conduct apply.
C H A R A C T E R S H E E T
