Superheroes Vs. Villains, Issue #2: Recruiting Now And Always (Freeform)

[TheGlyphstone]

Superheroes Vs. Villains

Welcome to the world of Superheroes vs. Villains, a game and universe of metahumans and mayhem. It's a world much like our own, but with the (obvious) addition of certain individuals sporting metahuman or outright paranormal powers. They started appearing around the beginning of the 20th century, and have since become more-or-less integrated as another minority in human society, if one who might be capable of shooting eye lasers or transforming into a wombat. World governments have adapted, co-opting powerful metahumans into their service and developing secretive weapons and techniques for defeating the champions of their enemies.

Vigilantism is illegal, but any would-be do-gooder can obtain a hero license fairly easily, depending on the local laws, and aspiring heroes often form official teams to protect their town, city, or state. On the other side of the coin, there are plenty of those who would see their unusual powers turned to benefit themselves instead, whether to crush a world of impudent mundanes beneath their booted feet or simply to get really, really rich.

Bay City

The primary setting of our story, Bay City is San Francisco, San Diego, and Miami in the way that Metropolis and Gotham are New York, Boston, and Chicago - a great metropolitan city that could be any or all of them, but isn't, and at the same time is all of them combined. Since the end of World War II,  Bay City was guarded by the superhero team known as the Justicars and their leader, the mighty Paragon. The super-strong, invulnerable, flying champion of justice and his associates guarded the city from all that would do it harm, including the agents of the twin nefarious criminal syndicates known as the House of Cards headed by the malevolent super-genius Calculus, and the Shadow Guild with its conniving leader Hellion.

All of that changed, though, on the morning of what soon became known as One Bad Day. From nowhere, Bay City was driven to its knees by a massive crime wave, with shootings and robberies and random explosions pushing both the city's mundane police force and metahumans to their limits and beyond. As always, Paragon was at the forefront of the situation, hurtling from one crisis point to another without any rest or pause - until finally, he snapped. The great champion of Bay City's mind shattered, and in his madness, he became the city's worst nightmare. Hospitals demolished, prisons broken open, police and fire stations wrecked, doing damage in hours that would take years to recover from. The horror reached its peak when Paragon kidnapped a news reporter giving live coverage of the disasters, carried her to the top of the city's tallest building, and proceeded to rape her in full view of her own live feed before flying from the city and not being heard from since.

The resultant power vacuum was almost as devastating to Bay City as One Bad Day itself. A task force from the Department of Metahuman Affairs swooped in on the shattered city, occupying the Justicar Headquarter as its base of operations to hunt for the dangerous rogue Paragon. Many lesser-known champions of good traveled to Bay City or stepped up from local obscurity to fill the gap, but at the same time, a great many villains and villainesses saw an opportunity they could capitalize on, whether members of the House of Cards, the Shadow Guild, or independent operatives from parts unknown. Matters failed to improve when the international villainess and war criminal Peacemaker arrived on the scene, intent on purging Bay City of its associations with criminals and slavers one murdered corrupt official and toppled skyscraper at a time, aided by a deluded metahuman claiming to be the ancient Norse god Tyr - the two of them were defeated, but at great cost, another knife in Bay City's back.

Months passed, during which the forces of good hunted uselessly for the renegade Paragon. Villains rose and fell while Puppeteer plotted and schemed in his lair, harvesting samples of DNA from notable heroes to build his army of cloned ultimate metahumans. But the heroes were closing in on him, chasing clues and hints to work out the possible identity of the person responsible for Paragon's madness, and they set a trap baited with Blue Bird, Bay City's most powerful heroine. Puppeteer couldn't resist, and led his army to war. A great battle ensued again, legions of cloned Paragon duplicates armed with a dizzying array of grafted superpowers; heroes and villains alike joined temporary alliances to defeat the hordes, while Blue Bird and Psi confronted Puppeteer himself in a telepathic duel, ultimately overcoming the arch-villain and sealing him away in a psychic prison within Psi's mind.
(Read the dramatic writeup of the Bay City War Here: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=195183.0)

Now we call upon you, hero, heroine, villain, or villainess. The time is now, to put on your spandex, recite your magic incantation, or charge up your armored suit. SCIENCE!!! is afoot, and the walls between worlds are weakening. Good and Evil alike will be flung into the Negaverse, a mirror world where history has gone horribly wrong, there to find new allies and enemies while hoping to make their way back home.


Q&A:
Q:What system are you using?
A: SvV is entirely freeform. We have a standardized character sheet, and certain guidelines for creating characters, but there are no system mechanics or dice-rolling needed to join in.

Q: Can I play Batman/Kitty Pryde/Incredible Hulk/Blue Beetle/Deadpool?
A: No. This is an original universe, with original characters - expies or homages are fine, but not outright ports or ripoffs...if you hadn't noticed, the NPC Paragon is a thinly veiled homage to Golden Age Superman. You could, say, have a ill-tempered metahuman hero with regenerative powers who fights with metal claw-gloves, but once you give him adamantium-covered bones and call everyone 'Bub', there's a problem.

Q: What sort of power gets thrown around in SvV?
A: The intended scope of the setting's power is something above Watchmen (minus Dr. M) and closer to the early X-men comics. We have a simple, loose grading system for estimating power, which can be found in the main game forum here.

Q: Is there a plot, or is it entirely sandbox (player-driven)?
A: The game is about 2/3 sandbox, built around a GM-controlled metaplot. Players can choose to pursue metaplot events or arrange scenes between each other towards one end or another. The in-game timescale, by default, runs on what we refer to as non-specific Comic Book Time. Specific plot-critical scenes may be set to run on Structured Time, the exact RL/in-game ratio of which is variable.

Q: So how do I join?
A: My Paypal details are...j/k. Introduce yourself Here in the OOC thread, and/or post a comment Here. Take a look around, meet the existing players, decide what sort of character you want to create. From there, it'll be fairly simple.

Q:  Do you need me to play a hero/ine or a villain/ess?
A: We need you to play whatever you want to play, or both if you'd like. The current Active roster is rather Blue-heavy, but NPCs to pit against PCs are easy to supply.

[King Serperior]

*Peeks in and bookmarks*

How have I never seen this game before? 

I am extremely interested in playing a Villain/Villainess/Anti-Hero if you'll have me?  I have five or six different power ideas to pick from, some sillier than others, somewhere in a folder I saved some time ago.  I'll be happy to discuss some potential things regarding them.  I'll need some time to dig them up, but I am more than willing to have some fun   

[Green Goo Theory]

Bookmarked from my phone.  Will check in more when i get home.

[Aneveite]

I might be interested in joining this. I don't have the time to look through it right now, but I might poke at it some tonight.

[Green Goo Theory]

Home now and definitely working on a character.  Or two.  I have several but one of them definitely doesn't fit into the hero/villain archetypes (more of an anti-villain) but I do have enough pre-made to fit with a balance of one hero and one villain.  Just a matter of figuring out which one to do first. 

[TheGlyphstone]

Sounds good. That's probably a good cue to mention that our atmosphere draws heavily from the Golden/Silver Age of Comics - clean-cut lines between Good and Bad, before the grim-and-gritty pouches-and-guns antiheroes/anti-villains of the 90's and beyond. Hopefully that doesn't prove an insurmountable barrier for anyone.

[Juggtacular]

I've bookmarked this and when I'm not doped up on pain pills, I'll give it a good look and see if I can't configure one of my past characters to fit the mold.

[Green Goo Theory]

Sounds good. That's probably a good cue to mention that our atmosphere draws heavily from the Golden/Silver Age of Comics - clean-cut lines between Good and Bad, before the grim-and-gritty pouches-and-guns antiheroes/anti-villains of the 90's and beyond. Hopefully that doesn't prove an insurmountable barrier for anyone.

Nope, no barriers.  i'm not going to play the anti-villain.  Granted, my hero is dark but more n the same way as Daredevil, Ghost rider, or Batman.  But there's no question about which side he's on.