Realistic or Modern Aegis: A Superhero Reboot

[welian]

Sniffing out interest for a slightly-futuristic superhero RP, specifically, a reboot of my Aegis/Commonwealth setting. The prior roleplay was a school setting, but right now I'm more interested in following adult characters around.

Tentative plot:

Commonwealth - the government department dedicated to monitoring supers - keeps a top-secret database of citizens who are known to have extraordinary abilities, or superpowers. These people are graded on a scale from E to SS and assigned codenames. At times, Commonwealth may reach out to select persons to "request" their "assistance" with a task. Refusal is not recommended.

There's a few people who disagree with this idea, of course. A mysterious hacker who goes by Warlock recently linked highly sensitive documents regarding an "Artemis Project". They say it could be the end of humanity. Most people think whoever this Warlock person is, they're just fear-mongering, maybe even putting files up for ransom.

Who is Warlock? How exactly is Commonwealth benefitting from tracking us at all hours of day? And what is this Artemis Project, anyways...?

 

[welian]

Ten viewers in fifteen minutes.

 

[Naril]

I’ll express some interest - but I’ll certainly have questions about the world once there’s a little more worldbuilding to read!

 

[Damafaud]

2019 Weli: FREE FROM AEGIS EVERMORE

2022 Weli: Wait I change my mind-

I'm in :p

 

[Kkushmar]

ooo I might be interested, been craving a superhero roleplay for a long time. Would need to know a bit more about the world.
They're assigned codenames, are they also made to wear costumes/uniforms to match these codenames when they are called upon? (in a classic superhero fashion)

 

[welian]

ooo I might be interested, been craving a superhero roleplay for a long time. Would need to know a bit more about the world.
They're assigned codenames, are they also made to wear costumes/uniforms to match these codenames when they are called upon? (in a classic superhero fashion)

I don't have my old documents on hand, but I'm happy to answer these couple of questions.

For context, this setting should be considered as an alternate timeline of Earth where superpowers first developed in cavemen and inspired the folklore behind saints, shamans, heroes, monsters, etc.

TLDR: Codenames required for valid professional hero work, costumes are not.

Becoming a professional hero is a bureaucratic process, the original story had a lot of allegories to gun control in the way that X-Men has a lot of allegories to racism. There's a lot of ideas here that you may recognize from One-Punch Man or My Hero Academia.

Codenames are usually voluntarily applied for, it's a whole process that involves cross-checking a database to make sure that similar codenames aren't operating too close to you, or haven't been active in a few years. They can also be assigned to a very important person or target by the government.

For example, if someone in Arizona used the codename Firehawk, then there might be a second Firehawk in, say, Illinois. But a second firebird themed hero in Arizona would have to pick a different name, like Phoenix (and then potentially be sued by the city for copyright infringement).

Costumes are recommended, not required. Some people are self-conscious about dressing up, others see it as a necessary workplace uniform, something along the lines of PPE (personal protective equipment). Hell, in this setting, there may be OSHA regulations that accommodate or work around supers.

If you do choose to wear a costume, you'll want something sturdy and practical - there are multiple Youtube compilations in this setting of heroes suffering from costume malfunctions. Our deepest sympathies to Lady Bicep.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Part of my bookmarks are gone, but I found the RP manual doc

Is this gonna be a school thing like the old one too or are we going for an approach more like EP 6 was going to be?

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Found the actual Manual thread!
Warning for broken code, RIP divs

 

[welian]

Necessity4Fun Not a school setting this time! I'm currently debating on whether or not to have the RP set prior to Aegis, where the students' parents may have active heroes, or have it set after Aegis, so that returning players can age up their students if they'd like.

 

[The Suspicious Eye]

I'm hopping back into RpN and I would love to join this welian

 

[welian]

Hell yeah! Running this is going to be delayed a bit though, I dislocated one of my toes while power-walking to the toilet. Very on-brand for me, tbh.

 

[The Suspicious Eye]

Hell yeah! Running this is going to be delayed a bit though, I dislocated one of my toes while power-walking to the toilet. Very on-brand for me, tbh.

Oof totally understandable. Heal up. I hope you feel better soon.

 

[welian]

I’ll express some interest - but I’ll certainly have questions about the world once there’s a little more worldbuilding to read!

Do you prefer world building delivered in a post, or in a Google Doc?

 

[Mamori23]

Hey! I'd love join in! Can also get the google doc for this world here? Like to overview and get some questions in before fully settling as I love to get into a superhero setting.

 

[Naril]

Do you prefer world building delivered in a post, or in a Google Doc?

A post is entirely fine with me.

 

[NiftyNat]

Imma express my interest for now and would be super keen to join.

 

[welian]

Here's an abridged version of the World Setting document, with school-specific content removed.

• RP will take place in the USA, in the year 2045 (Probably Baltimore or DC)
• Superpowers have existed since pre-history, and it's assumed that folklore was inspired by super-powered people in the past
  • ~10% of humans have the carrier gene for powers
  • Powers are activated by a combination of luck, genetics, hormones, and strong emotions. Most people, if they get powers, get them during puberty, pregnancy, or after an intense incident (car crash, winning the lottery, etc.)
  • Santa Claus is canonically one of the most powerful superheroes in the world, he died in a B-plot but he's better now (a world without Santa is not worth living for tbh).
• The Civil Rights movement had a super-rights movement within it, with supers asking for better public accommodations.
• As a result, Commonwealth was founding in the 1980s as sort of a union for superheroes.
• ~90s introduces the "blue card" system which permits professional vigilantes so long as they work for Commonwealth under an extended contract.
• Great Recession happens, the Commonwealth president Errol King approves a series of ethically dubious research projects to persuade the feds to give him more money. It does not go well.
  • 2018: VP of Commonwealth leaves along with a bunch of employees, and the CW office is ransacked by a terrorist group that lets loose a test subject who goes on a rampage. The whole thing is very image for CW, which leads to them nearly getting shut down. Errol is murdered and no one is sad about it.
• 2020: SIPLA or "Super Identification and Limiter Protocol Act" is passed by Congress, which forces all superpowered individuals to be on a federal database and have to wear power limiters in public.
• 2040: Previous RP takes place, following students in a superpower training school that's being targeted by an anti-super eugenics cult called The Knights of Raguel.
• 2045: Current RP takes place, will follow a group of heroes investigating the hacker known as Warlock.

 

[Mamori23]

Oh, I love everything that is describe here! I'll have my head in order for followup questions, but for now what are the power limitions like? How insane can we go with things? What would you like for the characters searching for Warlock to be like? Is this like covert op mission?

 

[welian]

Oh, I love everything that is describe here! I'll have my head in order for followup questions, but for now what are the power limitions like? How insane can we go with things? What would you like for the characters searching for Warlock to be like? Is this like covert op mission?

Re: power limitations

There are some restricted powers in the setting: resurrection, necromancy, altering reality or time, and altering other players' powers. They're all off limits because of godmodding issues and/or because I want parma-death to be a reasonable consequence in this setting.

The character profile followed a 1-2-3 rule for superpowers - you pick one main power, up to two supporting abilities, and explain at least three limitations to your power. As an example, my student character's main power was telepathy. He had one supporting power, dream-sharing. He had four weaknesses - he needed line of sight, the mental signal dropped significantly with distance, he couldn't turn off his telepathy at will, and he was not able to hide his mental presence.

As far insanity goes, we've had some really weird powers in the past! What you can get away with depends on your ability to explain the powers, having reasonable limits and boundaries for the power, and being a good sport about RP balance. When in doubt, I'd prefer to err on the side of simplicity though.

Re: mission

Iiiii haven't got a lot of details for you yet, unfortunately. What I do know is that my ideal group of characters would be professional heroes backed by Commonwealth, and/or people who have been impacted by Warlock's hacking, and/or people who work with/support Warlock.

 

[AtlannianSpy]

I'd be interested, I remember seeing the original Aegis but it being too far alonng to really jump on board.

 

[welian]

I'd be interested, I remember seeing the original Aegis but it being too far alonng to really jump on board.

I remember you!

 

[AtlannianSpy]

yeah I've ducked into a few other interest checks and stuff since I think, though I'm not sure if any of those ever actually got fully off the ground.

 

[Mamori23]

Re: power limitations

There are some restricted powers in the setting: resurrection, necromancy, altering reality or time, and altering other players' powers. They're all off limits because of godmodding issues and/or because I want parma-death to be a reasonable consequence in this setting.

The character profile followed a 1-2-3 rule for superpowers - you pick one main power, up to two supporting abilities, and explain at least three limitations to your power. As an example, my student character's main power was telepathy. He had one supporting power, dream-sharing. He had four weaknesses - he needed line of sight, the mental signal dropped significantly with distance, he couldn't turn off his telepathy at will, and he was not able to hide his mental presence.

As far insanity goes, we've had some really weird powers in the past! What you can get away with depends on your ability to explain the powers, having reasonable limits and boundaries for the power, and being a good sport about RP balance. When in doubt, I'd prefer to err on the side of simplicity though.

Re: mission

Iiiii haven't got a lot of details for you yet, unfortunately. What I do know is that my ideal group of characters would be professional heroes backed by Commonwealth, and/or people who have been impacted by Warlock's hacking, and/or people who work with/support Warlock.

Awesome, thanks for answering! Lot to think over my head, looking forward to joining if possible!

 

[welian]

Awesome, thanks for answering! Lot to think over my head, looking forward to joining if possible!

Hell yeah! Also keep in mind that there's no rule against duplicate powers between players - I find that even if two characters seem to have the same power on paper, the amazing role-players on this site always find a way to differentiate the way powers are used.

 

[Naril]

Do you have a character sheet to hand? I'd like to start thinking about a character, but I don't want to give you a bunch of detail you don't want. :3