Uh, hi ^_^;

Welcome to Cygan and Juan's Superhero RP!

This RP is set in a superhero universe, as you can probably guess by the fact that it's our Superhero RP. It's... an idealistic RP; it slides closer to Silver Age comics than Dark Age comics. So... if you're looking for something GRIMDARK or angsty, please look elsewhere. This one will probably flow... more along the lines of, say, Kingdom Come than One More Day.

Essentially... The conflict of this story revolves around the recent introduction of a law, called the Super Registration Act 2012.

This law was introduced after a battle between two Supers- The Sentinel Striker and Ragnarok- severely damaged the infrastructure of New Terrin, which was previously the shining hub of America, resulting in hundreds of billions worth of dollars in property damage, hundreds of civilian deaths and dealing a huge blow to America's economy.

The introduction of this law has led to a decisive split between the Supers. The pro-registration side, who feel that the government is right in wanting to hold the Supers responsible for their actions, have decided to take action against the anti-registration side, who feel that they do not want the government to be able to control every aspect of their lives.

However, all is not as it seems. A third force is at work, manipulating everyone to its' own ends. And when its' plans achieve fruition... The entire world's fate may lay in your hands.

---

Details of the world itself. Probably a good idea to read first.

First half of the very brief synopsis of recent history.

Second half of the very brief synopsis of recent history.

---

Okay. So. Sign up details.

Basically, you're going to sign up as a superhero. I don't want any real heavyweights- for example, Cyclops would be fine, as would Wolverine, but nobody in the leagues of, say, Superman or the Flash.

Magic isn't exactly a possibility here. We are flexible, though- if you have a idea for a unique, hard to explain power, feel free to hit Juan or I up with a PM to see if it would be acceptable.

Regular superhero abilities- Flight, Super-strength, Super-speed, etc, are assured, as long as they're not overboard.

You should set out your application something like this:

Codename: Slipstream

Civilian Name: Classified (Level Three Authorization)

Powers:

• Enhanced Speed [Reaction Time and Mental Processes sped up similarly] – 30 times regular speed (General walking speed 90 Mp H, general running speed 460 Mp H, highest recorded sprinting speed 668 Mp H)
• Enhanced Strength [Psychokinetic Field] – Physical strength 3 times regular strength(Able to deadlift 800 pounds)
• Enhanced Physical Durability [Psychokinetic Field] – Able to shrug off small arms fire with extensive bruising
• Enhanced Healing [Innate Speedster Trait] – Able to heal a broken arm in two days.

Rank: B *

^{Juan and I will assign you your rank, based upon your powers.}

Status: Under Government Payroll *

^{Under Government Payroll for a pro-registration character; Wanted for an anti-registration character.}

Recommendations for Takedown: Make the field difficult to traverse, automatic fire, cal for high-speed backup. *

^{Again, Juan and I will fill this in.}

.

Appearance: A dark-skinned girl, looking to be approximately twenty-three years old. She wears tight silver and blue clothes, and her black hair is cut short.

Age: 27 to regular people, 810 to herself.

.

Backstory: (Not to be revealed to you guys ;) )

---

So... Yeah.

If you need any further explanations for anything, ask Juan Carlos or I.

Anyway, it's 3:30 AM. I'll take a look at this thread when I wake up.

(Yes, Juan Carlos is the other GM here.)

Discussion thread here.

edited 17th May '11 8:28:12 AM by CyganAngel

There are too many toasters in my chimney!

Hmm...will I be able to handle GM'ing two RPs and playing in a third? Hell yeah.

So we're looking for an reconstructionist-type superhero, right? Gimme some time to think up a viable concept.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Yeah, think Kingdom Come if you will.

this article is also useful to understand the setting we are going for

edited 2nd May '11 11:13:36 AM by juancarlos

"My life is my own" | If you want to contact me privately, please ask first on the forum.

Codename: Doppler.
Civilian name: unknown.
Powers: EM wavelength manipulation. In a limited radius (maximum reported two meters) around him, Doppler has the ability to detect and shift the direction and frequency of background electromagnetic radiation, from radio waves to visible light to high-energy gamma rays. The range of the affected radiation depends on a number of factors—at full power he can provide illumination at a range of several kilometers, though normally he is more limited than that. Over a long period, Doppler has discovered a large variety of uses for this capability. He is enrolling in physics classes to learn about more possible uses. This is not limited to line-of-sight, though proper shielding (i.e., heavy radiation shielding) can attenuate it.

• Invisibility: by shifting the light in the air around him into the UV or radio spectrum, Doppler can render himself effectively invisible to visual and infrared sensors.
• Detection: similarly, Doppler can sense infrared emissions from any radiant heat source, giving him very effective night vision. This works on other types of radiation as well; for instance, he can blast targets with radar waves as another way of see-in-the-dark, although he cannot achieve the resolution nor power of a modern synthetic-aperture radar. On the other hand he does not weigh several tons, nor does he require a powerful energy source.
• Flash-burn: Doppler can effectively blind any opponent with a dazzling burst of light, or in more violent cases inflict permanent burns with ultraviolet, infrared, or gamma radiation. The magnitude of this power depends largely on the amount of background radiation—daytime and direct exposure to sunlight gives him more to work with than nighttime. This does not have to be a fast, violent process; he can also control the emitted light into a soft glow, for example.
• Microwave Active Denial: Doppler can beam microwaves in a tight focused cone to cause an intense, painful, burning sensation in the target. The radiation is non-ionizing (hence no long-term effects) and nonlethal.
• Blast focus: a rarely-used power, Doppler can—by manipulating gamma radiation carefully—generate a directional blast wave, like a nuclear weapon in miniature, but without fallout. Since Doppler himself is vulnerable to blast effects, this power is limited in usage; he is experimenting with ways to improve its utility but is not hopeful.*
  ^{By pumping gamma radiation into the air, he energizes it into a shock wave that travels in the opposite direction to the emitted radiation—i.e., away from him. The issue now is that there's now no air around him, and the shock of the air rushing back is likely to be lethal. There are ways to cushion that effect, but they require a level of control and reflexes beyond what he possesses. There are also other workarounds—for instance, creating a blast wave with a brick wall between himself and the blast center; as long as the blast is not powerful enough to fragment the wall he should be fine.}
• Reception: Doppler can sense radio transmissions around him, their strength, and their direction. Although he can—with difficulty—decipher unscrambled analogue transmissions, he cannot listen in on encrypted digital transmissions, which unfortunately means most types of modern radio and television. He can also transmit directional signals in commonly-used radio frequencies, though only in Morse or the like.
• Radiation-burn invulnerability: as a Required Secondary Power, Doppler has the capability to shield himself from radiant heat and similar burns. This includes infrared (heat), ultraviolet (sunburn), X-ray and gamma (nuclear radiation). This ability must be consciously maintained, but with long practice he can do it more or less subconsciously. Doppler has indicated this does not apply to all types of radiation—neutron, alpha, and beta radiation still affect him, as they are particulate and not EM radiation.
• Important: Doppler has indicated he could not actually read or manipulate magnetic fields. Copyright issues aside, he does not understand Maxwell's equations and the like well enough to be able to properly affect magnetic phenomena. On the other hand, he can affect induced currents and the like via microwaves, much like placing a metal object in a microwave oven. His control over this power is crude at best.

Rank: ?
Status: registered, albeit not without a few qualms.
Takedown recommendations: several.
Age: 22. College student, working part-time.
Backstory: TBD. Nothing particularly traumatic, though.
Appearance: a rather nondescript guy with tanned skin and black hair—he has the capability to tan himself with UV light while not risking sunburn, so why not take it? Wears contact lenses more out of habit than anything else. Nerdy sense of humor—has read Discworld, the Dresden Files, and plenty of sci-fi, and will spew the quotes to prove it. Tries to keep himself fit by running while cooling himself by phase-shifting the heat his body generates into something else—just another application of his invisibility power.

Okay, I know there's some existing superhero with a similar power set, but I swear I haven't heard of them.

edited 2nd May '11 8:25:44 PM by SabresEdge

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

On the other hand he does not weigh several tons, nor does he require a powerful energy source.

Oh, you snarky little thing.

Anyway, you'll have to wait while Cygan and me decide on a rank and all that. and while I finish reading it

EDIT: Just noted that you listed yourself as wanted. This means that you don't have a rank within the Gubernamental Superhero side.

Witht hat aside, it seems your characher works, it's balanced, has weaknesses, and it's clear he can't hold himself in direct fight against, say, a bruiser type.

As there's a lot of science involved here and there could be more (Whatever facts about electro magnetism you discover along the arc) then I really recommend you keep going running each and every single idea relating to it in the Discussion thread (It may sound obvious, but you never know...)

edited 2nd May '11 1:02:59 PM by juancarlos

"My life is my own" | If you want to contact me privately, please ask first on the forum.

FUCK YES!

...Silver Age~? Kingdom Come~? Juan and Cygan~? This might be relevant to my interests! I guess I'll try and work out something then, ahah~ >.>

I wanted to play a Lawful Good-type who doesn't agree with the registration act, whether for selfish reasons or on general principle, hence the wanted status. His powers are pretty much limited to what I know (and my knowledge of physics doesn't go much beyond what a good sci-fi geek would know—I'm not a physics major).

Let's see...oh, none of the fancy laser stuff for him. Generating coherent radiation is a step or two beyond him. On the other hand, if someone points a laser at him he might be able to redirect or refocus it.

Hmm, will we have to come up with a costume?

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Sabre: Don't worry. It's all fine, as long as his motivation comes out at some point. But he's still wanted. What that entails is that you will have us on your ass. :P

You never know what you might find out, mah boi. Whether a factoid or a physics law you don't know about. Ideas abound and we encourage creativity as long as it doesn't break the game.

Costumes: I'm not sure on this one. I'd like to think that these aren't necessary for the pro-reg side as they are registered and known. For the anti-reg, I think they are mandatory, but if you feel like no tights and no capes, I won't oppose.

Sadly, I feel like if I tell you much more without Cygan's permission and input, I'd be putting myself in a hole. All I can tell you is that I approve of your character.

edited 2nd May '11 1:34:30 PM by juancarlos

"My life is my own" | If you want to contact me privately, please ask first on the forum.

Can I sign up tomorrow? Gives me more time to think about my character.

Costume, then, but no tights and definitely no capes. This guy recognizes that law enforcement will be out to get him, so he's going with what's practical (as much as possible without breaking the mood). For instance, cheap rubber-soled shoes for quiet movement and footprint camouflage (lots of people wear cheap shoes of that type); surgical gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints, maybe a Darth Vader voice modulator bought at a toystore to avoid being voice-identified. Plus, it's funnier.

Ideally, I'd have him intern at a defense contractor, so he'd have a good idea of what kind of hardware he can expect from the police, and how to avoid it. Also, it's a practical way of maximizing his own abilities. Preferably, he'd be Genre Savvy enough not to make rookie mistakes.

Ooh! Nearly forgot about another ability: short-ranged pain ray, for non-lethal takedowns. It's a natural extension of being able to control microwaves, among other types of radiation. Plus, it means that he won't have to depend on hand-to-hand fighting, though he'd probably want to learn it. Approve?

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Sure, Why Not?

We still have some things to tweak here and there, anyway.

Approve.

edited 2nd May '11 2:06:29 PM by juancarlos

"My life is my own" | If you want to contact me privately, please ask first on the forum.

This reminds me:

to the anti-reg side:

The police won't be a piece of cake, nor the other superheroes will. In this universe, heroes have already existed for a long time. Non-supers have learned tactics, science and general trickery in order to defeat common heroes.

This is essential. The moment you attack a cop, expect relentless, never-giving-up attacks.

In the case of Sabre's Edge character, he will be studied in order to find proper ways to be taken down. Like every antireg character.

TL;DR: Do not fuck with the police. It is smart and mighty and it will probably shut your shit down.

Also, most importantly, unless discussed (And something tells me you will never get it to pass) None of the heroes can't kill in any shape or form. We don't validate any Fate Worse than Death either.

"My life is my own" | If you want to contact me privately, please ask first on the forum.

I... Kinda just hammered this one out quickly, so it might be kinda rough around the edges. >.< If there's any problems with it, let me know and I'll see what I can do to fix it.

• Code Name: Anima
• Civilian Name: Lyna Lovejoy
• Powers: Enhanced strength, speed, durability and flight. In addition, her Dream Rod can fire out a beam of light that pacifies those struck by it by inducing feelings of bliss and contentment. However, her power level is unreliable and prone to wildly fluctuating due to the fact that she draws her power from the ambient positive emotions of those in close proximity to her. As those around her's hearts fill with hope, love, understanding and happiness, she grows more and more powerful, but if their hearts are stained with despair, hatred, anger and sadness, her power plummets to a level only just slightly above the human average. Her powers only work as long as she's holding onto the Dream Rod.
• Rank: ?
• Status: Wanted
• Recommendations for Takedown: Send in very few officers wielding energy-based suits. Isolate and draw away from potential allies. Small anti-brick weaponry acceptable. Tazers and similar equipment may be tested for effectiveness.
• Appearance: A pale girl with short brown hair and similarly coloured eyes, standing at around 4'9" and with an average build for her age, albeit slightly thinner than the norm. She generally just wears either her school uniform or something casual, skirts and t-shirts, that kind of thing. When in costume as Anima, she disguises herself by wearing a long pink wig and red contact lenses, as well as padding to make her figure look more developed in a vain attempt to make her pass as an adult. Her outfit is rather haphazard and was quite clearly made on a limited budget, consisting of a frilly pink one-piece swimsuit, a similarly frilly white skirt that reaches just a few inches above her knees and a plain white croptop underneath the swimsuit. She also wears shiny golden opera gloves and red knee-length boots. Most importantly, she carries the mysterious Dream Rod, a foot long cylinder of some unknown silverish metal topped with a glowing green orb.
• Age: 14
• Backstory: Lyna was just your average, everyday nerdy highschool girl, not a care in the world, whose only real worries in life were her grades and whether the guy she liked even noticed her or not, until one day she had an... Odd dream. She doesn't remember much of it at all, but what she does remember is someone (she's not sure who, but the voice sounded calming and pleasant) telling her to do... Something. She can't remember exactly what. When she woke up, she found herself clutching onto the Dream Rod, which seemingly just spontaneously entered existence whilst she was sleeping. She soon found out that whilst she held onto it, she had superpowers! Realising that this was, quite frankly, really neat, she did the only thing she really could: throw together a flashy costume and fight evil! Of course, she's not been at it very long at all, and really only sticks to her neighbourhood, so she hasn't seen any real action besides randoms thugs and muggers, but she has heart, and in the end that's what counts, right? As it turns out, she's somewhat anti-registration. She believes that if heroes worked for the government, they would only be assigned tasks that benefited the government itself and not the everyday people, which is something she doesn't agree with in the slightest.

edited 2nd May '11 11:24:24 PM by Moerin

YES! I'M IN! Don't start without me, I'm going to make a character like soon soon soon, gimmie a momento...

No Magic? Dang, there goes Heracles12... And I was so ramped up to test him out. No Simba so there goes the Large Ham option...

Dangit, since I put deity-derivatives under the magic section too that cuts like 40% of my characters...

edited 2nd May '11 3:32:25 PM by MousaThe14

The Blog The Art

Oh cool. A Magical Girl superhero. This will be fun!

I can just imagine: I'm skulking around the back alleys trying to make sure I'm not noticed, invisibility field active and everything, mentally reviewing all of my steps for escape and evasion—and then, to my utter disbelief, Lyna flies overhead trailing sparkles and rainbows and bellowing something about love and friendship.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Hmmm, I have never done an RP here before, and I am intrigued. Mind if a newb like me joins?

Question: When you said "None of the heroes can't kill in any shape or form", did you mean "can kill" or "can't kill"? Double negatives are confusing and all that.

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

I'm assuming he means you can't kill anyone directly, since that would go against the reconstructionist nature of the RP. Doesn't mean you can't have potentially lethal powers, just that you don't use them in that way.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Codename: Beanie Boy

Civilian Name: Paul Bonparte

Powers:

• He can transform one form of energy into another. He can take kinetics, heat, electricity, sound, and light and turn them into one another. He doesn't know it yet but if he attempted to turn anything into nuclear energy or vice versa the amount of energy in himself it would take to do it would most likely kill him. He hasn't tried simply because he doesn't like cancer. Also he can't take "potential" energy since he can't actually use an energy that doesn't exist yet.
• His powers are close range. Very close range. He can only transform energy within a foot of him. And he can't redirect energy unless he's transforming it through him directly if it's nearby it'll continue along it's original route.

Rank: B

Status: Wanted anti-registration character.

Recommendations for Takedown: Multiple Officers should engage the target at once. Use multiple forms of attack- flashbang grenades, tazers and kinetic weaponry. Take him down quickly. He's just guy in a weird costume and if he's unprompted he won't transform the energy, he can still be shot, he can still be tazed, he can still he tranquilized.

.

Appearance

Age: 26

.

Backstory: Superheroing is sort of a hobby in between getting his masters in Business. He was sort of born this way, genetic evolution it would seem. He has mostly lived his life trying to be some uber entrepreneur. He is a little spoiled, his parents are a well off French couple and while he'd prefer to do things himself, he can get virtually whatever he needs, his parents aren't strict or anything. He believes in the free market and free anything really and would prefer not to have his super-hero-ings controlled by the feds. Furthermore, he can't exactly have his future business plans be marred by the fact he's occasionally a masked vigilante.

edited 6th May '11 8:53:25 PM by MousaThe14

The Blog The Art

Alright then, here's my stab at a character.

Codename: Fogata *

Civilian Name: Lucila "Lucy" Marcelino

Powers:

• Heat Manipulation: She can transfer heat from any one thing to any other thing in physical contact with the first thing. The process is gradual, taking a minimum of several seconds, with more needed depending on the amount of heat being transferred (up to over a minute). So she can't put out fires with this, because it would take too long. She can do this on pretty much anything within 50 or so feet of her. She cannot generate heat with this power, only move it between things.
• Heat Sense: In addition, she can sense all sources of heat (and by contrast, any areas where heat is lacking) nearby. This has the same range as her heat manipulation. While she can't distinguish very precise details with this power, the sense is good enough to know, for example, exactly how many human beings are within her range.
• Body Temperature: Finally, her power is automatically applied at all times to her own body. As a result, heat and cold do not affect her whatsoever, even up to extremes. She can never be burned, frostbitten, or suffer any other direct effects. Indirect effects (such as oxygen deprivation due to flames consuming all available air) still affect her.

Status: Wanted.

Appearance: Hispanic; medium height and slender build with brown eyes and short dark brown hair. Her "costume" is just a tank top and and khaki shorts, to allow freedom of movement without drawing attention to herself. In regards to civilian clothes, she usually just replaces the shorts with jeans.

Recommendation for Takedown: Separate and isolate from backup. Ranged suppressant fire only- do not get into melee. Heat-based weapons are approved for use. Surprise attacks from crowded areas will give an advantage.

Age: 17

Personality: Cool and collected regardless of the situation. Avoids direct confrontation whenever possible, she prefers to analyze things and work subtly. Also very sarcastic, she comes off as slightly arrogant, but tries to do the right thing.

Backstory: Child of immigrants from Mexico, who moved to Texas when she was just a toddler. She quickly learned English and now speaks it flawlessly in addition to Spanish. Her powers manifested when she was 14 (or at least, that's when she began to gain control of them). Freelanced for a while, helping people out and developing her abilities. She declined a government agency's attempt to get her to register, believing that it would make it easier for people to track her down (and thus make her "work" harder). She dropped out of high school and ran away from home shortly afterward, and has been on the run since.

I know the powers are a bit unorthodox, but I thought it would be fun to play with a power set that is of little help in direct confrontations.

edited 3rd May '11 11:31:49 AM by TotemicHero

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

...are there any people who are going as registered? I might just do it if everyone else keeps going with "wanted" heroes.

Also, start thinking about team dynamics. What are we going for—Five-Man Band plus a few, Four-Temperament Ensemble, what?

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Well, it's kind of more fun to be the rebels.

Of course, if the G Ms want a move, I can rework mine for that easily enough.

In regards to team dynamics, there are a number of tricks. I suppose it depends on the powers meshing or not (and right now, it looks like they mesh extremely well for the most part, allowing for a lot of oddball power combinations).

edited 2nd May '11 4:36:06 PM by TotemicHero

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

• We need balance. We are going for a civil war. Which means that not everybody can be "wanted".

• This post will be longer after I finish reading each and everyone's proposal. As Cygan won't be awake for some hours and I just had a nap. Sorry for the ensuing spaceyness.

@Team dynamics: We are not looking at it as a neccessity. All of the wanted characters except Sabre's seem to be on a coalition (AS he doesn't have a motivation, I don't know if he's gonna play it that way)

I want to emphasize an improtant point that I already made. Law enforcement is fully capcitated against all of you. This is the difference between most superhero universe and this one. Whther you were studied or you weren't the first with such powers, it doesn't matter. Our police corps is special and it can eliminate/arrest heroes on sight.

As for the character profiles:

all of them are approved. However we need more pro-reg characters.

As for Magic: We do encourage such a character (We have a Constantine expy between our NP Cs, so it'd be hypocritical if we didn't) however, I recommend carefulness around them

Now, you'll have to gimme another minute as I read your character profiles and create the "Takedowns"

edited 2nd May '11 4:42:35 PM by juancarlos

"My life is my own" | If you want to contact me privately, please ask first on the forum.

Hmm. I can shift to the "registered" side if I need to, although with a fair amount of Obfuscating Stupidity into the mix.

Motivation, huh? General desire to do good not good enough?

edited 2nd May '11 4:50:56 PM by SabresEdge

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

I think he means motivation for which side you're on. You yourself wrote that he was conflicted on the issue.

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)