"Like a Saturday Morning Cartoon that airs on HBO."Currently in its fifth year of operation (est. October 2007), Freedom City Play by Post is the largest and most active Mutants & Masterminds play-by-post setting on the Internet. Set in M&M's default Freedom City setting in the present day, the game has become a massive shared universe involving dozens of active, semi-active and inactive players. It's a rigorous game, one where the GMs and experienced players are unafraid to heckle Trolls and Mary Sues out of existence. Most of the staff are fans of both comics and TV Tropes, which means they expect characters to draw from the common tropes and themes of comic books.That said, they prefer to avoid certain comic book tropes. No Stripperific costumes, please, and no crazy Iron Age vigilantes. Hero(ish) PCs only, sticking to somewhere between Silver Age, Bronze Age, and Modern Age in feel, though the Refs are open to good arguments about all sorts of characters. Characters should be basically the Good Guys, and concepts should pass tests like, "Would people buy a comic book about this character?" and "Why would anyone talk to this character?" If your character would fit as a recurring character in a DCAU series, they'll probably fit in well here.Many of the tropes in the game can be found on the pages for the M&M game or the FC setting, but there are quite a few largely unique to FCPBP. Please note that only tropes related to active characters will be listed here.
Voltage has shades of this too. He's super smart and can connect to the internet directly. He uses this ability to research villains and their capabilities in order to gain an edge.
Badass Grandpa: Arrowhawk, in his 40s, is a borderline example. He's got a decade or two on the majority of his fellow PCs, physically if not mentally.
Wail is in his late 50s, having been an active superhero off and on since the 1970s.
Bat Family Crossover: The most common type of crossover story arc, given the sheer size of the site and how difficult it is to run a major story arc with dozens and dozens of players contributing.
The "Terminus Babies" (see Mutants below) are about as close as the setting comes, and they're not even official F.C. canon.
Bi the Way: FCPBP seems to get very few gay characters, but plenty of bisexuals. This is less surprising when one considers that Freedom City is a setting full of shapeshifters, immortals, and other archetypes more likely to be "open-minded."
Catalyst wears a bright yellow fitted Hazmat Suit as a costume. It's Other then a pair of goggles instead, it looks like a standard hazmat suit and has been used to pose as a faceless chemical worker or someone from the city.
Cool Van: Catalyst drives a bulletproof one that has a built in workshop, chemical lab, at least five different types of paintball guns and a coffee maker.
Crapsack World: Averted on Earth-Prime. The main universe of the Freedom City setting is an optimistic place where most people are basically good and most people love superheroes. Other dimensions, like Erde and the Terminus, on the other hand...
Crazy-Prepared: If you can think of it, Midnight probably has it in his Utility Belt, or can build it from the contents thereof.
The "Halloween Special," where the fight between Hades and Baron Samedi spilled over into massive waves of undead and cultists flocking to Freedom City.
"ArchEvil" had Doctor Archeville's Superpowered Evil Side finally take over and unleash a number of magical and scientific monstrosities in the name of "reshaping" the world.
Then there was the time the Gorgon showed up in orbit, threatening to encase the Earth in gray goo due to the taint of the Terminus.
Most recently, there was "Hot Zone," where the city came under quarantine after a villain released an airborne mutagen that resulted in most of the city developing superpowers... control not guaranteed.
Doktor Archeville is usually devoted to his work, except during Oktoberfest. That's when he returns to his homeland and goes on a nationwide bender as his Other Side is given free rein). His new relationship with Fulcrum will probably curtail that.
Fun with Acronyms: One of Doktor Archeville's robots, a Helpful Electronic Robot with Thoughts [formed] Out of Light, could be known as HERTOL. However, the robot's German designation is Nützlicher Elektronischer Roboter, mit Gedanken Aus Licht, or NERGAL.
Hollywood Voodoo: Somewhat averted. Nick Cimitiere doesn't practice voodoo, but he least knows enough about the religion that he feels comfortable taking the name of one of the Guede.
Hypocritical Heartwarming: Jack of all Blades and Jill O'Cure exchange insults almost constantly, but woe to anyone else who disparages one of the siblings in the other's presence.
Geckoman frequently narrates internally, holding conversations and even arguments with his monologue.
Insistent Terminology: Silhouette is a sneaky, black clad ambush oriented character, but she is not a ninja and she will explain in detail why she isn't one if called so out loud.
Magic Versus Science: Played straight with Doktor Archeville, who believes that all "magic" has a rational explanation (mutant powers, alien tech, or some other as-yet-unexplained "natural" phenomena, combined with "you people are gullible superstitious idiots"). Ironic, considering that Archeville's Super Intelligence is the result of being the descendant of an Eldritch Abomination. Please pass the Brain Bleach.
Non-Idle Rich: Eve Kurosawa would have kept the Rich Idiot with No Day Job persona if she hadn't been forceably unmasked on live television. She's embraced her public identity since then.
Geckoman is nowhere near as absent-minded as he acts.
Dead Head plays up the stereotypes associated with both zombies and Southern accents to hide the fact that he's just as limber and intelligent as any living human, if not more so.
[[Averted Trope Averted]] with Arrowhawk and Gossamer, who are both scientists in their secret identities, yet, unusually for superheroes, have a realistic level of specialty in their chosen disciplines.
Same with Catalyst whose entire arsenal is built around chemical expertise.
One Steve Limit: Averted. Avenger's real name is Jack, which is also what most people shorten Jack of all Blades to. Luckily, they're pretty difficult to confuse in-person.
The arrival of Jack's time-displaced son, Jack Jr. (A.K.A. Ouroboros), has pretty well killed off this trope at FCPBP once and for all.
Shout Out: Chris Kenzie (Geckoman) and Liz Lawlett (Spellbound) are deliberate references to another character whose mythos loves Alliterative Names. (Pay attention to the initials...) His origin story also involves a rocket crashing into a field, and he wears a large yellow letter on his costume.
Nichtuberall, Archeville's secret retreat in the Mars/Jupiter asteroid belt.
The Speechless: When Sage's Psychic Powers first manifested, during a gymnastics competition, the trauma of linking with every mind in the room rendered her permanently mute. However, her Telepathysubverts this trope rather than playing it straight.
Statuesque Stunner: Female PCs at FCPBP tend toward the petite more often than not. At 8 feet tall, Fulcrum is a notable exception.
Steven Ulysses Perhero: Nick Cimitiere's civilian ID is Eric LaCroix... and Baron Cimitiere and Baron LaCroix are both ghede, or death gods, in voudon.
Doktor Archeville's father, his father's father, and so on, back over a dozen generations, have all shown some degree of superhuman ability and madness, thanks to their "heritage".
Crow's mother, the Morrigan (also known as the Irish goddess of death) was hoping for this when she slept with his father, the famous hero Red Hand. It didn't work.
The Liberty League (JSA, The Invaders)). Made up of either the heirs to Golden Age legacies or characters who were actually there for the Golden Age.
The Knights of Freedom (Outsiders). IC, The Knights were intended to be this sort of group - a "gray ops" team, less concerned with public relations than the Freedom League and dealing with cases beneath their notice. OOC, they were an excuse for a group of players who liked each other in Real Life to play together. Unfortunately, while the team was a very effective investigative and fighting force, it was also a volatile mix of Capes and Cowls that eventually collapsed under the weight of their own differences. However, the former members still come to each other's aid regularly.
Young Freedom (Comicbook/Teen Titans, X-Men). Most of the teenage superheroes belong to this team, rather than the canon Claremont Academy superteam, the Next-Gen. In fact, YF usually has the largest roster of any active super team at FCPBP.
Dead Head's on both sides of this. When he and Wander finally met, some heroes showed concern for him over the beating he was taking, but others did nothing, knowing that even if she did manage to 'kill' him, he'd eventually reanimate.
What the Hell, Hero?: The Moderators would prefer that any player think twice before writing their character as taking an action which would invoke this trope. Please do not list specific examples here.
Our Gargoyles Rock: Custos, Etain's friend and occasional ride (cause she can't fly), is a sixteen foot tall gargoyle. He is made completely out of stone, very intimidating, but also like the original intent of gargoyles a guardian against evil supernatural beings. In truth he a conciousness of the original gargoyles who can travel and inhabit the bodies of any of the local ones, he was inactive for centuries because no one ever thought or remembered to ask gargoyles to help with their original purpose.
Our Zombies Are Different: Dead Head did not lose any of his intelligence, nor does he crave brains. He can animate corpses as mindless, non-hungry zombies...usually.
Arrowhawk is a good example, standing up to Malice's firepower, continuing to fight Lugat Vorkolaka after getting impaled with his sword, and surviving the blast from an exploding ammunition dump at point blank range by hunkering down in an elevator.
All There in the Manual: Green Ronin has published over a dozen supplements with information about the Freedom City setting, and most of the active players have read ALL OF THEM.
Anthology Comic: What the site would be, if it were an actual comic imprint. The Moderators encourage players to run their characters as if they were the protagonists of a monthly superhero comic book. One of the first questions in the auditing process for a new PC is "Why would someone buy a comic about them?"
Canon Immigrant: Several characters played at FCPBP were created for and/or played in other games over the years, especially the site administrator's signature character, Doktor Archeville.
Comic Book Fantasy Casting: FCPBP players periodicallydiscuss which real-life actors they would cast as their character, and some even use their headshot for their "out-of-costume" character pictures.
Comic Book Limbo: The Archives sub-forum. Or more harshly, the X-Vault.
Comic Book Tropes: In a game inspired by comic books, these are not only common, but encouraged.
The Danza: Several players at FCPBP run characters whose codename and/or secret identity match their usernames - Dr_Archeville plays Doktor Archeville, Supercape plays Supercape, etc.
Demoted to Extra: This is bound to happen to most characters. Players come and go. Interest fades and revives. Real Life gets in the way sometimes.
Elites Are More Glamorous: Players who stick with a character over the long haul gain not only in-game bonuses, like power-ups or extra character slots, but also nifty titles like "Gold Status."
Fifth Week Event: Several times a year, the Moderators announce "Vignettes" - short stories about a certain topic or in a certain style. Players can write the Vignettes about their characters for extra power points.
GMPC: Technically, Any PC has the potential to become this for any given story thread. Players are allowed to GM their own threads, so the lines between "Player" and "GM" blur at FCPBP. The overall atmosphere of the game is less "competitive" and more "cooperative." However, the Moderators have the final authority over any use of, or change to, any characters or locations from the canon setting.
House Rules: FCPBP has them. They are constantly evolving. The Moderators are generally reasonable people, receptive to player input and willing to change.
Hurricane of Puns: The chatroom degenerates into this with embarassing regularity.
Long Runners: FCPBP has been online since October of 2007.
Not Wearing Tights: The Moderators specifically want to avoid this trope. This is a game about superheroes, not people-with-powers. If you don't want to play a superhero, don't join this game.
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: It has also been stated by the Moderators many times that this is the sort of character they don't want to see. This is a game about superheroes, not "people-with-powers." Think Justice League Unlimited, not Series/Heroes.
Play Every Day: This certainly isn't required, but it does help. Hitting 100 IC posts, which will gain a character the maximum power points for the month, and get the player into the 100 Club, would require an average of 3-4 posts per day. Such a posting rate would also allow the player to start earning Veteran Rewards in 6 months. But, again, players are by no means required to keep up such an insane posting rate to play at FCPBP, and most of them don't.
Retcon: Usually averted. Once a character is submitted and approved, they are a part of the FCPBP canon from that day forward.
There has been one situation where a very active and well-liked player wanted to play a Legacy Character whose Super Hero Origin story would have been incompatible with a previous player of said legacy. Since that previous player wasn't active anymore, and had hardly played the character at all, the Moderators decided to Retcon the previous character out of existence.
Ridiculously Cute Critter: Electra & AvengerAssembled's baby. They have hundreds of pictures, which they'll happily share with their fellow players.
Alderwitch and Angrydurf's toddler also fits this trope.
Talking Is a Free Action: Especially in a play-by-post game. There are no other players sitting around the table to interrupt each other, so everyone gets a chance to ham it up. However, since power points are awarded based on number of in-character posts, not the length of individual posts, most players avoid full-blown walls of text.
There Are No Girls on the Internet: Men vastly outnumber women on this site, so much so that new players are generally assumed to be male unless stated otherwise.
Cross Player: Despite the large gender gap among players, the gender ratio among characters is more or less even.
G.I.R.L.: This being The Internet, there have been a few players who were (and possibly a few that still are) doing this.
TV Tropes as a Gateway Drug: It's gotten to the point where perhaps half the player base (and one of the Refs!) has found the site through TV Tropes.
"Like a Saturday Morning Cartoon that airs on HBO."Currently in its fifth year of operation (est. October 2007), Freedom City Play by Post
is the largest and most active Mutants & Masterminds play-by-post setting on the Internet. Set in M&M's default Freedom City setting in the present day, the game has become a massive shared universe involving dozens of active, semi-active and inactive players. It's a rigorous game, one where the GMs and experienced players are unafraid to heckle Trolls and Mary Sues out of existence. Most of the staff are fans of both comics and TV Tropes, which means they expect characters to draw from the common tropes and themes of comic books.That said, they prefer to avoid certain comic book tropes. No Stripperific costumes, please, and no crazy Iron Age vigilantes. Hero(ish) PCs only, sticking to somewhere between Silver Age, Bronze Age, and Modern Age in feel, though the Refs are open to good arguments about all sorts of characters. Characters should be basically the Good Guys, and concepts should pass tests like, "Would people buy a comic book about this character?" and "Why would anyone talk to this character?" If your character would fit as a recurring character in a DCAU series, they'll probably fit in well here.Many of the tropes in the game can be found on the pages for the M&M game or the FC setting, but there are quite a few largely unique to FCPBP. Please note that only tropes related to active characters will be listed here.
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