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The teaser poster

"There is no good or evil, there is only groove"
— The original tagline

Step City is a Tegaki-e based Play-by-Post Game set in an a world not unlike our own, just much funkier. The titular city was created by the S.T.E.P project for the purpose of monitoring the effects of mega radio waves on an large population. The tests resulted in super fly dancing fiends and super powered jive soul brothers. All residents of the city developed powers commonly called Vibe that are activated through dancing and singing. Highly proficient Vibe users are called Steppers.

The city is divided into two rival major factions, the Funk Mafia and The UG. There are two smaller factions as well: Roller Banditos and Squares.

In all, Step City started in 2011, and faded out by 2014. It can be read here.


This roleplay contains examples of:

  • Absurdly Cool City: Where to start? Ridiculously cool clubs and venues around every corner. Even the infrastructure buildings will probably have a dance floor somewhere. Neon lights and graffiti everywhere.
  • Alternate Self: Players often RP alternative versions of their characters that exist in different factions than their "canon" counterparts
  • Alternate Timeline: Hand in hand with Alternate Self, there are a series of Alternate Timelines where the backstory is identical, but something has caused certain characters to join factions other than those in the established Timeline. The divergence usually occurs either during V-Day or the War of '99.
  • Applied Phlebotinum: The power source of everyone's powers, 'Vibe'
  • Dance Battler: Most of the residence of Step City are dance battlers, especially so for those who fight hand to hand. Also see Magic Dance.
  • Disco Tech: Some Vibe-powered robots, the flying jukebox/mixer. Some boom boxes, speakers, etc are capable of playing or creating music that alters Vibe abilities.
  • Dancing Is Serious Business: The Roleplay.
  • The Don: Previously Don James Cornell, and currently Don Bonita of the Funk Mafia
  • Duels Decide Everything: Any dispute can be solved by a dance battle.
  • Dress-Coded for Your Convenience: Each faction has separate styles, in addition to color coding.
  • Everything's Deader with Zombies: The Thriller Virus Halloween event essentially created Vibe-sucking zombies, turning the RP into a Zombie Apocalypse for a few months.
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: Thanks to Dr. Vendy machines, Steppers can live to dance battle another day.
  • Heart Is an Awesome Power: A lot of characters have non-combat powers such as emotional manipulation but still manage to be crazy useful.
  • Muggles: Jamdeaf characters who have no powers at all. Squares with weak or lame powers tend to be muggles compared to all the Steppers with real power.
  • Our Zombies Are Different (Type P) / Our Vampires Are Different: Those infected by the Thriller virus became something between a zombie and a vampire: Infected are initially mindless zombies that must leech vibe to satiate their hunger, but after surviving the virus long enough they regain their senses and become stronger and sharper.
  • The Power of Rock: Or funk, or rap, or other genre of choice.
  • Rule of Cool: Excuses any and all ridiculous happenings.
  • Superpower Lottery: Everything from phenomenal cosmic power to pizza making expertise
  • Unexplained Recovery: Although the Thriller Virus is a canon event and the Reset Button was never hit, anyone maimed or killed in the event returned unscathed after the cure was found.
  • Zeerust: The aesthetic of most of the advanced technology in the city.
  • Small, Secluded World: A given, since nobody can leave the island!
  • World Limited to the Plot: What happened to the outside world? ...That's not relevant right now.

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