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Tvtyrant
2018-08-04, 06:11 PM
Posting stuff for a superhero setting here.

Currently just posting heroes as I build them. The actual world keeps getting revised, will be posting in post two.



DinoMight Top Secret File
Tim Rock(civilian)/K'vat(hero)/The Madpie(“villain”)

The superhero DinoMight is publicly known as the Lizardman K'vat. He claims to have been locked away in the late cretaceous by ash, and was uncovered by a sewage pipe layer in the 2000s. K'vat wears a wet suit and oxygen tank which he says allows him to survive in the modern low oxygen environment.

DinoMight's power is to transform into any dinosaur. His most famous forms are a T-rex, Quetzalcoatlus, Triceratops/Torosaurus, and a number of Sauropod dinosaurs when given open spaces without civilians. DinoMight transforms by emitting a black goo that morphs into the new form, and recovers from injuries sustained in dinosaur form. He is considered a Class B superhero.

Civilian claims that K'vat must have different powers then he claims due to Quetzalcoatlus not being a dinosaur are denied by K'vat. He retorts that humans don't have a full understanding of cladistics and are mistaken about the origins of Dinosaurs.

In truth DinoMight/K'vat is a fiction orchestrated by Tim Rock, a man from Delaware who gained superpowers in his teen years. Rock gained the power to summon and control Archosaurs of any type. When his power manifested Rock took on the name of Dinolord, and sought to stop a hostage situation. He released a swarm of terror birds (Titanis walleri ) into the building with orders to stop the criminals. The birds killed the hostage takers, and multiple hostages died from both gunfire and wounds inflicted by the terror birds.

Rock discovered that his control weakened the more creatures he summoned, and so he decided to maintain at most one animal which would give him total control and allow him to accurately see through its eyes and hear through its ears. Rock attempted to stop a bank robbery with a Utah Raptor, and was accidentally shot by one of the robbers from across the street.

Having realized the limits of his powers, Rock decided to create new personas that would keep him safe and allow him to protect civilians. He uses walky-talkies that he pretends are translators to effect voices. The first persona is K'vat, which is a summoned Colepiocephale wearing a costume. Rock hides in an armored vehicle nearby, and replaces the summoned Pachycephalosaur with a fighting form and then resummons the original after fighting has ceased. As Rock can see through the eyes of a summon Archosaur, he is able to maintain control at all times this way.

Rock has an alternate “villain” persona known as the Madpie. Madpie is a summoned black feathered terror bird in a magician's outfit, from which he “fires” flocks of magpies. Unlike with DinoMight, Madpie does not replace himself with the summon forms but shoots flocks out as a defense or with simple commands “Peck,” “Steal” or “Protect.” Madpie is deliberatly distinguished from DinoMight in costume, manners (faux British butler), and “goals.” Where DinoMight is a hero, Madpie steals items from both criminals and organizations, then sends “bad fakes” to the rightful owners with much public crowing about his never ending capers. The fakes are in fact the originals, but Madpie is able to talk to and join evil organizations by stealing priceless paintings and fighting with heroes.

Rock himself is considered a Class A, being much stronger then his personas. Rock as a true villain or in a warzone could unleash armies of uncontrolled Archosaurs of any type. His limit is quite high, having successfully summoned over 1,000 blackbirds and “transformed” into an 100 ton Antarctosaurus to defeat the size-shifter Betamax. Rock could certainly summon multiple large dinosaurs, but his fears of civilian casualties and his own safety have led him to restrict himself to more moderate endevours.


Michael


Michael is world famous as the only known Class S. Once labeled a supervillain, Michael is the modern example of history being written by the winner. Michael arrived in South America 10 years ago and declared himself the Archangel Michael. Possessing a nearly indestructible angelic body, complete with wings, halo and flaming sword, Michael's greatest power is the ability to summon hordes of angels capable of competeing with modern militaries. Michael's conquest of South America reached its pinnacle after seven years, when insurrectionists declaring in his favor overturned multiple governments in Europe.

Michael used this opportunity to move his center of power to the Vatican, which is now the center of the larger empire on Earth. Michael rarely takes the field personally anymore, claiming that Armageddon has begun and that the destruction of many world powers at the hands of other superpowered individuals was divine justice. Michael focuses his efforts on diplomacy and espionage, meeting with world leaders and developing his own task forces of super powered individuals. His current goal is unknown, but world conquest seems not only likely but achievable.


Hubris

Hubris was the original supervillain, labeled Class A. Hubris was one of the earliest individuals to gain superpowers, and was determined to free Quebec from Canada. Her powers made victory against almost any foe inevitable, being both completely indestructible and having the ability to swim through solid matter.

Hubris gathered a terrorist organization devoted to her as a nearly deific individual, and which included several other early super powered individuals. These carried out a number of bombings, escalating to Hubris publically murdering the Prime Minister of Canada during a television interview. Assassinations and murders were carried out against as many government officials as possible in the years that followed, and the government of Canada began to unravel.

The interference of the United States in these events led to the apocalyptic escalation of these events, as the President of the United States was eventually tracked down and killed by Hubris along with many members of the federal government. The US army reached out to the nascent super hero organizations, and launched an all out attack on Hubris' fortress in Montreal.

The Battle of Montreal saw the complete collapse of US power, as the military was defeated by Hubris' superpowered follower known known as Sleeping Beauty. His power was to force plants to grow, but he would fall into longer comas the more vegetation he created. In an instant he stretched a forest of black berry over 100 square miles over the fighting area, burying both Hubris' retreating forces and hundreds of thousands of US soldiers in a forest of lethal black berry bushes. Sleeping Beauty promptly fell into a coma from which he would never recover.

Hubris was confronted personally by a small force of heroes, led by Action Girl and Jumper. After several hours Action Girl was able to temporarily subdue Hubris, and Jumper teleported himself and Hubris somewhere into outer space. Jumper is certainly dead, while Hubris it is hoped will never return.

Tvtyrant
2018-08-04, 06:12 PM
So the basic premise of the setting is that the arrival of superpowers in the year 2020 led to the collapse of the world order. The Archangel Michael has launched Pan-Catholic Unification Wars, the supervillain Hubris destroyed the governments of the US and Canada, and most governments are either run by superpowered villains or defended by groups of state sanctioned heroes.

The current year is 2040.

What I would love is critiques of my heroes and villains, and other people to make heroes and villains to help. Weird powers, cool personalities, etc.

Quick timeline of events:
2020: Superpowers begin to appear.
2021: Action Girl becomes the hero of Seattle. Hubris begins to destroy the government of Canada.
2022: Appearance of other superheroes and local villains begins.
2025: Hubris' murder of US president and battle of Montreal. The America Wars begin.
2026: The Dream World is constructed by Hivemind. Millions of people begin to move into the Dream World to escape the collapsing America Wars.
2030: America Wars end, creation of US Remnant and Unified Western Powers.
2032: Michael the Archangel begins religious wars in South America.

Elricaltovilla
2018-08-05, 02:59 PM
Well, you've really only detailed three or four superheros (more accurately one superhero and three villains). You've also created a world where all the current major superpowers are defeated, but you haven't done a lot to detail what life is like in the world so it's difficult to give much critique of the world other than to say it seems like the villains have this all pretty well wrapped up.

I will say that the powers that you've detailed so far are fairly unusual and interesting.

brian 333
2018-08-10, 08:44 AM
There are some superhero ideas here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?553734-S-U-P-E-R-B-!-Or-trying-to-build-a-fun-and-simple-Superhero-RPG) if you want them or if you want to be inspired by them. In another thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?558516-Superb-City-A-Superhero-Setting) I wrote up a "west coast city" for my playtesting session.

Mechalich
2018-08-10, 09:21 PM
So the basic premise of the setting is that the arrival of superpowers in the year 2020 led to the collapse of the world order.

Something to keep in mind in this - and frankly any post-2000 scenarios - is that collapse of the world over in a rapid time frame will result in mass death, mass refugees, and other massive crises due to the disruption of the integrated global economic system. If strong governments are unable to sustain emergency services, hundreds of millions would die.


The Archangel Michael has launched Pan-Catholic Unification Wars, the supervillain Hubris destroyed the governments of the US and Canada, and most governments are either run by superpowered villains or defended by groups of state sanctioned heroes.

This statement suggests you are embracing the inherent grimdark potential of superhero universes. That makes for greater verisimilitude, but it can be less fun (which is why most published superhero settings avoid this). Such a world is likely to be consumed by major struggles between the most powerful and most ruthless individuals and also to suffer relatively continual crises due to the ability of rogue individuals to cause regional destabilization basically from the moment they emerge.

Essentially all power in the world belongs to a small group of people playing rocket tag - everything else gets covered in craters.

brian 333
2018-08-10, 11:56 PM
Rocket tag is an obsolete game when superheroes can punch them back into their silos.

Supply chain disruption, however, is a serious issue. Salt Lake City is probably the only municipality in the world that can survive a two-week shutdown of the transportation system. But rural folk everywhere would be fine as long as they are more than a day's walk from cities.

Even in the worst case there would be survivors, but with superheroes around, wd'd never get close to a worst case. Even supposing supervillains try to obstruct them, (which is not a good bet because villains need subjugated peoples,) the disruptions should be temporary and local.

Mechalich
2018-08-11, 01:37 AM
Rocket tag is an obsolete game when superheroes can punch them back into their silos.

'Rocket tag' is a gameplay term. Referencing supremely high lethality due to damage vastly outpacing defensive measures. Superhero settings are extremely vulnerable to becoming rocket tag if played straight, because it is highly likely that power suite A completely obliterates power suite B while being utterly vulnerable to power suite C. In many high-powered super hero systems rolling is largely to entirely extraneous.

All extant popular superhero media utilize comic-book logic and shifting power scales moment-to-moment to get around this problem (a good recent example is found in Avengers: Infinity War, in which Proxima Midnight's power is always roughly equal to whomever she's fighting, whether that's Black Widow or Scarlet Witch), but you can't do that in a game without blatantly cheating.

In terms of the supers versus the normals in a setting, you get the problem that the former are all armed with rocket launchers, while the latter have no weapons at all. This tends to render any and all setting elements that are not explicitly within the personal purview of the supers collateral damage. There is a very great danger of a superhero setting - played straight - devolving into the two most powerful people in the setting slugging it out atop the ashen wasteland that was once their world. The Superman vs. Zod battle in Man of Steel hints toward this.

brian 333
2018-08-11, 07:53 AM
...see above...

I get it. My point is that you will also have heroes protecting the masses, especially those with dependence upon technology. The Cold War, not Nuclear Armegeddon, is the model to use here. Sure, it can blow up. Heck, it should be a daily threat, but there is the probability that inflicting mass civilian casualties might unify enough heroes to take down Superman.

Villains will plot, but having the power to destroy the world doesn't mean the world has to be destroyed. It may well mean that nobody dares to try because Mutually Assured Destruction leaves no victors.



The Elemental

Marc Forester is a rather large man both in height and girth. This would appear to be his only distinguishing feature because he is otherwise plain of face and feature. What he can do, however, sets him apart.

When he wishes he can use the inert materials around him to sheathe his body and act as a living skin. Pebbles, sand, mud, water, dead leaves, smoke, air, or even fire can be used if he also incorporates a flammable material such as coal dust or petrol.

He cannot use any living materials. Trees, grass, even algae are beyond his power, but dead wood, grass clippings, and sea sludge are not.

He can use a very small quantity to cover his body, or he can cover himself in several tons of material. He cannot alter the material. For example, while he can pick the quartz grains out of sand and coat himself with them, he cannot alter them into glass.

While sheathed in the material his body cannot be harmed unless the material is first removed or can be bypassed. Sheathed in pebbles,, for example, he cannot be harmed by bullets, but bullets easily penetrate air if he has sheathed himself in it. Another benefit of sheathing himself is that the mass adds power to hs physical attacks in direct proportion to the mass he uses.

Sheathed in water he can swim as quickly and with the agility of a fish. Sheathed in air he can fly as easily as a bird. Mud, sand, and pebbles can be burrowed through slowly, but solid materials or meshes with openings to small to let his body pass through cannot be penetrated. His physical body is not altered by this power, but he can breathe through and is not harmed by the material or its effects if he is sheathed in it.

Marc is a native of South Carolina. He speaks with an Elizabethan drawl. As a child he worked on a shrimp boat, and as a youth he worked in a paper pulp mill. He is uneducated, has no political ambitions, and has never married. His parents died in an automobile accident and he has no siblings.

He hires out as a mercenary from time to time, but spends very little of the money he has earned. He owns a shrimp boat, but its captain and crew do not need his help to trawl the coastal estuaries of the Carolina coast. He lives in a modest home on the coast which is hidden in a grove of pine trees, and he has very few visitors. His associations appear to be work related rather than friendships.

Tvtyrant
2018-08-13, 01:59 AM
Something to keep in mind in this - and frankly any post-2000 scenarios - is that collapse of the world over in a rapid time frame will result in mass death, mass refugees, and other massive crises due to the disruption of the integrated global economic system. If strong governments are unable to sustain emergency services, hundreds of millions would die.



This statement suggests you are embracing the inherent grimdark potential of superhero universes. That makes for greater verisimilitude, but it can be less fun (which is why most published superhero settings avoid this). Such a world is likely to be consumed by major struggles between the most powerful and most ruthless individuals and also to suffer relatively continual crises due to the ability of rogue individuals to cause regional destabilization basically from the moment they emerge.

Essentially all power in the world belongs to a small group of people playing rocket tag - everything else gets covered in craters.

Sorry for not posting for a bit everyone, I got super busy right after posting this and haven't had a lot of time to work on settings.

That was the idea. I get annoyed with the "world is the same but with magic demigods." I wouldn't call it Grimdark, most individuals with superpowers don't want to die any more then normal people so direct conflicts between them is rare. Michael might be able to invade a heavily powered country but there is a good chance he dies in a direct confrontation with multiple Class B or Cs.

So once the initial breakdown shakes out there is a big breakdown and then order is restored with new powers. I also am avoiding nukes, in universe explanation is the launch codes were lost when the high access individuals were murdered by Hubris.