Street Level DC/Marvel Alternate Universe Crossover

[ninjawriter]

This is an idea that I've been kicking around and I'm doing an interest check!  I've got some setting material, optional super-dooper simple mechanical rules, and other stuff.  But right now, just an interest check!

The City: Street-Level Chaos, No Capes Allowed (Unless You’re Broke and Wearing One Anyway) 

Welcome to “The City” —a gritty, rain-drenched metropolis where Gotham’s shadows and Marvel’s urban sprawl fuse into a single, sprawling playground for heroes and anti-heroes who punch, scheme, and brood *without* needing a jetpack, a magic portal, or a cosmic backstory. This is a game about the streets, the alleys, the rooftops, and the people who live (or try to survive) in them. 

Characters may be both canonical and original!

The Setting: No Skies, Just Spires and Sidewalks

• Grounded Geography: The City isn’t about flying fortresses or interdimensional rifts. It’s a labyrinth of crumbling brownstones, neon-lit dive bars, and subway tunnels where the biggest threats are bullets, betrayal, and the occasional sentient dumpster fire. Think: 
  - The Bouroughs: The Narrows, Hell’s Kitchen, Park Row, Astoria, Burnley, Bed-Stuy
  - Downtown & the Underworld: Chinatown, The Docks, The Bowery, The East End, Times Square, The Iceberg Lounge
  - Uptown & the Elite: Wayne Tower, LexCorp East, Upper East Side, Gotham Heights, City University, Hellfire Club
  - Outside the City: Blackgate Penitentiary, Arkham Asylum, Upstate, The Pine Barrens, The Cemetery, The Ruins
  
• Infrastructure of the Damned: The City’s power grid is held together by Spider-Man’s webbing and Batman’s paranoia. Public transit? A death wish. Hospitals? Overrun by patients who’ve been “accidentally” poisoned by LexCorp’s budget cuts. Even the bodegas are staffed by NPCs with tragic backstories and a vendetta against your wallet. 
  
• The Mayor’s Office: Still run by a coalition of J. Jonah Jameson (now mayor of Midtown), Mayor Quimby (on paper only), and a hologram of Lex Luthor’s ego. Their policies are as useless as a tax break for vigilantes.
  

DC vs. Marvel: Street-Level Synergy, No Cosmic Worries

• Tonal Consistency: This isn’t a place for Asgardian invasions or Justice League-level crises. The City thrives on intimate, character-driven stakes: 
  - Batman’s War on Crime clashes with Punisher’s “I’ll solve it with a grenade” philosophy. 
  - Daredevil’s courtroom drama intersects with Jessica Jones’ PI work and her landlord’s attempts to evict him for “being too red.” 
  - Nightwing’s acrobatics vs. Black Widow’s “I’ve already hacked your watch” pragmatism. 
  
• Power Balance: No flying gods. No multiverse-hopping. No symbiotes with daddy issues (looking at you, Venom). Every hero here operates within the realm of the possible: enhanced strength, stealth, martial arts, hacking, or trauma-induced insomnia. If your character can’t hitchhike on a taxi roof or duck into a bodega for cover, they don’t belong here. 
  
• Cultural Mashup: Pizza and bagels are in a feud that’s *somehow* more personal than Batman vs. Bane. Bodega cats wear tiny Bat-ears.
  

NPC Villains: The Real Threats (And They’re All Jerks)

• No Player Villains, But Plenty of Antagonists: The streets are crawling with NPC threats: 
  - Mob Bosses: Kingpin now owns half of Midtown. Penguin’s “umbrella empire” clashes with Wilson Fisk’s taxidermy hobby. 
  - Corporate Tyrants: Lex Luthor and Norman Osborn fund charities by day and poison the water supply by night. 
  - Rogue’s Gallery Alumni: Mr. Freeze robs Gotham’s power plants. The Joker’s “art collective” tags subway cars with chaos theory. 
  - Street-Level Menaces: The Hand’s NYC operations, Black Mask’s Gotham empire, and a sentient Roxxon oil spill that’s really into arson. 
  
• Gray Zone Antagonists: Not all threats wear masks. Corrupt cops, exploitative landlords, and influencer cult leaders (yes, Poison Ivy’s doing wellness retreats now) force heroes to question what “evil” even means.
  

Why This Game Works (And Why You’ll Regret Not Joining)

• Player-Driven Conflict: Without player villains, the focus shifts to how heroes navigate systemic rot. Allies become rivals. Mentors become liabilities. Even a casual lunch with Spider-Man might end with a bar fight over ethics. 
  
• Depth Without Bloat: The GMs have layered DC’s obsession with legacy (e.g., Red Robin’s intel network) with Marvel’s knack for relatable drama (e.g., Kamala Khan’s family vs. Gotham gangs). The result? A setting rich enough to satisfy lore nerds but flexible enough for gritty, low-stakes stories. 
  
• Visual Cohesion: The City’s aesthetic is “urban decay with a budget.” Rain-soaked alleys lit by neon signs advertising WayneTech pawn shops. A skyline where the Empire State Building’s shadow hides a Jokerized billboard. It’s a place where the line between hero and monster is blurred—just ask Blade, who’s currently suing the Gotham Gazette for labeling him a vampire.
  

Final Note: This Isn’t a Crossover Filler Episode 
The City isn’t a “what if?” party trick. It’s a fully realized sandbox where heroes grapple with the consequences of their actions. There’s no Avengers Tower to retreat to, no Watchtower orbiting Earth. Just rooftops, rain, and the knowledge that saving this place might cost you everything—including your ability to sleep through the sirens. 

 
Ready to patrol?
Bring your cape (if you can afford dry cleaning), your hoodie, your trauma, and your willingness to punch a guy named “Fish” (yes, *that* Fish) in the face. The City is waiting—and trust us, the GMs have done their homework. 

#TheCity #StreetLevelLegends #NoVillainsJustConsequences


The Boroughs: Where the Sidewalks End and the Problems Begin 

• Burnside – A neighborhood where the only thing more charred than the buildings is the social fabric. Once a working-class haven, Burnside is now a patchwork of burned-out tenements, graffiti-covered methadone clinics, and the occasional vigilante rooftop. The cops don’t patrol here anymore—they just circle the perimeter in armored vans, muttering prayers and checking their gas masks. Locals say the fires never really went out after the last gang war; they just learned to sleep with the smoke. The bodega cat wears a little scorched Batman-eared beanie and will judge you for not recycling your beer cans. 
  
• Crime Alley East – The spiritual twin of Gotham’s most infamous backstreet, but with a Brooklyn twist. Here, muggings are a cottage industry, and every alleyway has a lease agreement with some minor-league villain who uses it as a base of operations. Rent control doesn’t exist, but protection rackets do. The buildings lean in like they’re trying to eavesdrop on your moral dilemmas. It’s the kind of place where if you call 911, the dispatcher asks if you’re *sure* you want to be rescued or if you’d prefer a discount on therapy. 
  
• Williams Valley – A gentrification battleground where brownstones wear ironic Victorian accents like they’re trying to cosplay a better life. The streets are haunted by the ghosts of failed startups and exorcised by angry tenants who miss the crack epidemic because at least it had character. The local barista is actually a retired SHIELD agent who still flinches when someone says “cold brew.” The neighborhood is full of ironic beards, artisanal picket signs, and the ever-present hum of someone trying to livestream their trauma on Twitch. 
  

Bonus NPC Flavor (Because Every Neighborhood Needs a Little Hate) 

• The landlord in Burnside is a low-tier Juggernaut wannabe who literally can’t be evicted because he’s fused to the foundation. 
• In Crime Alley East, the corner bodega is run by a guy who used to be Clayface’s stunt double before he “retired” to sell Slim Jims and existential dread. 
• Williams Valley’s local coffee shop hosts open mic nights where poets rap about their student loans and Spider-Man occasionally shows up to heckle with sarcastic quips. 

 

Final Warning: Don’t Expect Yelp to Be Helpful 
The City’s tourism board tried to rebrand The Boroughs as “Emerging Urban Vibes™” but gave up after the Bat-Signal got tagged with a meme about crypto scams. These neighborhoods don’t need saving—they need revenge. Bring your hoodie, your moral ambiguity, and a crowbar.


Downtown & the Underworld: Where the City Kneels, Then Checks Its Credit Score 

• Neon Narrows – A vertical slum carved out of forgotten alleyways and expired zoning laws. The only thing taller than the scaffolding is the crime rate. Here, the light from flickering signs is the only thing keeping the shadows from completely swallowing the streets. It’s a haven for hackers, hustlers, and the occasional Black Widow impersonator running a pop-up noodle stand. The power grid is held together by webbing, wishful thinking, and one very tired-looking Spider-Woman who’s currently running for city council on a platform of “Less Looting, More Lighting.” 
  
• Burnley Row – Where the rich people pretend not to be rich while living in buildings that are basically sarcophagi with doormen. It’s all brownstone facades hiding panic rooms, rooftop yoga studios with sniper-proof glass, and private schools that teach “Criminology for Kids.” The only time a cop shows up here is when Batman accidentally crashes through a rooftop garden during a chase. The locals complain about noise, but mostly they’re just mad their therapist can’t keep up with their secrets. 
  
• Gotham Hook – The city’s literal and metaphorical shoreline. It’s a rotting dockside district where the fish smell like regret, and the seafood restaurants are all fronts for something illegal. The harbor’s polluted enough to mutate a normal man into a gilled weirdo in under an hour—which is how half the local population got started. The docks are run by a syndicate of smugglers, ex-supervillains, and one very confused Aquaman impersonator who thinks this is Atlantis. 
  
• Freak Street – The unofficial capital of mutant misfits and metahuman weirdos. If you’ve got scales, extra limbs, or a face that looks like it lost a bet with a blender, this is your block. The buildings sag under the weight of mismatched extensions added by telekinetic squatters. Rent control? More like *rage control*. The streets are lined with repurposed garbage can heaters, and every window has at least one person watching, waiting, or webbing up a new costume. It’s not a slum—it’s a *community of discomfort*. Pride parades here end in firefights. Literally. Someone always forgets to regulate their pyrokinetic float. 
  

Bonus NPC Flavor (Because Down Here, Flavor Has a Criminal Record) 

• In Neon Narrows, the local diner is run by a retired SHIELD janitor who claims he once mopped up Nick Fury’s tears. He serves waffles that could double as body armor and coffee that’s 30% caffeine, 70% trauma. 
• Burnley Row’s doorman is a cyborg ex-Enforcers henchman who now judges your outfit choices with the severity of a Parisian fashion critic. He’s got a PhD in surveillance and will not stop asking you about your “intentions” with his boss’s daughter. 
• Gotham Hook is patrolled by a semi-aquatic mob enforcer who’s part shark, part tax attorney. He bites first and fills out paperwork later. 
• On Freak Street, the neighborhood watch is a rotating crew of disfigured vigilantes who don’t wear masks—they *are* the masks. They’ll defend their block with everything they’ve got, including the occasional tentacle. 

 

Final Note: Downtown Is Down, But Not Out 
This part of the City doesn’t sparkle like the skyline. It’s stained, it’s loud, and it smells like old pizza and unresolved daddy issues. But it’s alive. And if you’re not careful, it might try to adopt you—or at least mug you, then invite you to dinner. 

#DowntownDrama #FreakStreetForever #TheCityIsNotAThemePark


Uptown: Where the Elite Sleepwalk Through Their Guilt

• Upper Gothic – The skyline’s crown jewel, if the crown was made of unpaid intern labor and stained glass that screams when it rains. This is where old money lives behind wrought iron gates, and every brownstone is a “legacy property” that’s seen more family scandals than a Netflix docuseries. The sidewalks are polished enough to reflect your self-worth, and the local bookstore is run by a guy who may or may not be Alfred’s estranged brother. The bodega cat here wears a monocle and will judge you for not tipping your barista. 
  
• Midtower District – The corporate limbo between the skyline and the gutter. Literally halfway up Wayne Tower, it’s where interns live in shoebox apartments and CEOs live in glass penthouses that double as solariums for indoor thunderstorms. The local gym has a 24-hour rage room, and the dry cleaner’s shop doubles as a costume repair hub for heroes who can’t afford downtime. The streets are clean, the people are cold, and the hot dog cart vendor is actually a LexCorp spy who’s been embedded for 17 years. He’s starting to sympathize with the hot dogs. 
  
• Arkham Exchange – The financial district with a psychiatric problem. It’s where the city’s elite come to trade stocks, secrets, and the occasional repressed memory. The buildings are all glass and steel with a touch of Gothic menace—because you can’t have a stock ticker without trauma. The local bar is called *The Short Squeeze* and it’s frequented by ex-villains who now work in fintech. The bodega cat here wears a tiny tie and will aggressively upsell you on artisanal tuna cans. 
  

Bonus NPC Flavor (Because Even Rich People Need a Little Weird) 

• Upper Gothic’s neighborhood watch is run by a retired Oracle who now monitors the streets via pigeon drones. She also runs a highly illegal book club that discusses Nietzsche and Batman’s emotional stuntedness. 
• In the Midtower District, the elevator operator is a former Hobgoblin henchman who now wears a bowtie and speaks only in stock market updates. He’s very proud of his new life and will not let you forget it. 
• The Arkham Exchange has a Wall Street version of Killer Croc: a half-reptilian hedge fund manager who’s currently under investigation by the SEC for insider trading *and* insider biting. 

 

Final Note: Uptown Has a View, But No Vision 
Uptown is the part of the City that still gets brunch reservations. It’s polished, it’s smug, and it still thinks “justice” is something you negotiate. But even in the glass towers, the cracks are showing—especially when a vigilante crashes through one. Bring your business casual, your bodyguard, and your therapist’s number. 

#UptownProblems #ArkhamExchangeRates #TheCityIsAlwaysWatchingYouSleep

[Ben Steele]

Certainly intrigued enough to plant a flag and read up on what else you've got to say about it.

[Outcast]

This does look intriguing!

[ninjawriter]

I added some more setting stuff in my so-called comic style!  I don't know I'm looking for zany, but I'm not against it!  I mostly was just trying to do more humor since I can be very srs.  :)

[Raku]

Would like to see if I can be involved since I want some hero action, after my Mutants and Masterminds game dies out a while ago.

[mainsnoires]

I'm planting a flag of interest for this! I'm curious to see what examples of PC you'd allow and hope this takes off.

[ninjawriter]

I'm planting a flag of interest for this! I'm curious to see what examples of PC you'd allow and hope this takes off.

Fair question!

Examples would be:

* Daredevil
* Nightwing
* Jessica Jones
* Green Arrow
* Moon Knight
* Black Canary
* Punisher
* Catwoman

Some of it is also a matter of interpretation.  Batman *can* be street-level, though, in the comics, it's been a while since that moniker would apply, what with all the dimension hopping and such.  The same is true of Spider-Man.  He *has been* street-level but not lately, either in the comics or, really, movies.  The same is true of a wide swath of characters.  For them, interpretation would be key.

Looking at character sheets, I'd ask myself questions like, "Could this character ignore the premise of the setting?"  So, if regular gangsters wouldn't be a real threat to them, they're be beyond "street-level."

[mainsnoires]

@ninjawriter 
Thanks, that clarifies it all. 

[Hatless]

I'm on the fence. The details about the stories we're writing and what we'll actually be doing would decide whether or not I jump in, but you at least have my attention.

[ninjawriter]

I'm on the fence. The details about the stories we're writing and what we'll actually be doing would decide whether or not I jump in, but you at least have my attention.

First time doing this, so I'm uncertain of how to do it, but, sure, let me get that written up and I'll post it!

[ninjawriter]

I'm working on the question and I sometimes feel a little dirty for how it goes.  But this is the site for it, amirite?

[Callie Del Noire]

kinda interested in playing Jaunt a pc I’ve played a few times. A teleporter with autobiographic recall(it’s like she can replay a scene on dvd inherhead in addition to eidetic memory.

[Kadigan]

Some interest, if my life settles. What's the rule on genderbends? 

[ninjawriter]

Some interest, if my life settles. What's the rule on genderbends?

Oh, I am indifferent to *that*.  By which I mean... Excuse my poor word choice; I mean that I don't care about the gender identity of characters, and would hope to give great freedom in reinterpretation.

And more, generally, in what is my morning!  :)

[Lyrical]

i do love a good street level hero setting. I'll plant my little flag of interest and see how this develops

[Callie Del Noire]

So a teleporter who can replay scenes not appealing?

[Mythril]

You had me at street-level.