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Futuristic Power Doesn't Make The Hero (Superpower/Cyberpunk RP)

SirDerpingtonIV

A Campfire at the End of Time
"Hey Da?"

"Yeah, kiddo?"

"There's always gonna be heroes, right?"

"Always, kiddo. Always."


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Powers
The year is 2702, and for as long as any living person can remember, the 'Powers' have been a part of society as we've come to remake it after the great fires swept over the world. Old faiths say we came from dust, and so to it we returned, and then rose again. This time, Powers stand among us. Despite what that may make you think about that, few things have changed. On the surface, things are different, sure. Hero culture exists, with heroes, Powers and 'normal' folk, all taking a jab at it, all attempting to make their cut, and companies all have shit like 'You have the Power!' plastered on the wall of the break room, but since the world died in the fires of our own faults, we rose again from the ashes determined to do it all again.

As a lone, standing light in an ocean of sand, dust, and ruin, stands the City. As far as anyone within its walls, or close by out side them knows, it's the last one in the world, and all the rest is a barren, endless waste infested only by brigands, cannibal-tribes, and savage, backwards peoples who hate the City's people for their wealth, for being so lucky to be born here and prosper. A little thought could lead the average Joe to wonder how exactly a few handful of substinance farmers in the backreaches of the Craglands could threaten the City, but why waste the time to think about that, with all the lights, all the flashing colors, all the pleasures and pains the City has to offer you instead? We've all got a job that sucks, an appartment where the rent's too high, a failing relationship, and a brand new episode of the latest, biggest holoshow to consider in this moment? The City's a melting pot, a place where you can walk through a marketplace and hear a dozen tongues, witness the preaching of a dozen faiths, get stabbed by a dozen knives, and then end up dead to the tune of a dozen thousand dollars of medical debt. It isn't pretty or glamorous, and despite the portrayals, it rarely is for heroes either. Old comic books and kids stories tell tales of gallant heroes saving the day, living out of ordinary life, but when you're born into Contract at 'Heroes Inc.' or 'PowVac', or lead yourself to sign one, you wake up pretty quick. You either walk a tight line, serving company interests, signing autographs, smiling for cameras, and letting them put your name on everything under the sun, or you end up struggling with everyone else or worse.


Heroes exist, but they exist within the City, a place with its own rules, rules that even heroes must abide. All 'heroes', meaning those powered or otherwise pursuing abnormal 'crime fighting' actions, must be registered, and all registered heroes must be employed by a Heroes Organization or risk losing registration, and no registration, no job, no job, no money. The good guy beats the bad guy, then smiles for the camera and says the company line, otherwise, the hero isn't going to make rent. No one ever thinks about what the villain has to say, what brought them to that point, what they're going through. You thank the heroes for their service, remember to pay your subscription fee so they show up again next time to keep you from getting murdered, and go back to work. Powers exist, but the real power exists not in their hands, but in the hands of those who wear a different kind of suit. Even after the greed of the few brought the house down on themselves and everyone else, they pick up the hammers again. Just this time, they've got heroes to give them a ladder.

SETTING

This roleplay will obviously take place in The City, a futuristic environment that has emerged from the ashes of a post-apocalyptic world, and is already readily marching along to make the same mistakes. The city government exists entirely at the call and beckon of massive, corporate entities that dominate every aspect of life in the city, and every last member of the Council of Governance either has worked, is working, or will work for one of the megacorps. The city's gcentral government and its representatives, whether that be the legal system, the agencies, or whatever else, are called 'Coggies' by the populace. All of the city's opperations, from management of its infrastructure, to the working of its police department, to its education system, are privatized, and contracts for these services are sold to the highest bidding megacorp. A person born in one of the city's hospitals is 'owned' through the debt of their parents by that corporation, and spends their whole lives paying it off. Heroes are much the same, and are held in the same bonds as everyone else. People can, and very likely will live their whole lives exclusively in the little world of one megacorp, born from one of its hospitals, going to one if its schools where they learn about the glorious past of the company, and how to one day proudly serve as its employee, living in one of its appartment tower complexes, marrying in one of its sponsored churches, and being disposed of in one of its corpse disposal facilities.

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The city has no discernable location in our current world other than 'somewhere', and it is plenty diverse, although most of the present cultures have been warped by time, nuclear fallout, and the nature of the city itself. The place is built like a pyramid, both socially and physically. It is surrounded by massive walls, built in sections by competing Megacorps on public contracts, all for the purpose of 'keeping the Wasters out'. Atop the Walls is a series of highways called the 'Ring' that encircles the massive city and its twenty million residents. Far, far below, an across the bottom layer of the city, sits the Drain. The Drain is the absolute bottom, and is the collective term both for the city's ground layer, overrun by sewage and rainwater, and for the endless network of tunnels that span below the city, known as the Maze. The city's absolute poorest live in the Drain, a place untouched even by Megacorps, as a pit of human suffering and poverty that seems to exist only to give Megacorps' Charity Divisions a sob story to plaster on an advertisement, and as a source of 'Villains' to justify the existence of Heroes Organizations. Some would argue that the Drain is the only free place in the city, but to actually live down there for any stretch of time is enough to make you reconsider. It's a seedy hellscape mostly populated by those seeking a hiding spot from the long arm of corporate power, those who have hopelessly fallen from grace, or those who have lived there all their lives, the Drainers, who are viewed almost as negatively as Wasters. The higher one goes in the City, climbing up the Megatowers that reach high into the sky, the more money one sees. Most people live inside appartments within the Megatowers, entirely owned by one Megacorp or another, or within communities that cling to the supports of highways that reach throughout the city, hundreds of feet above the Drain below. At the very top, at the peaks of these megatowers, live the city's elite, in 'Crowns', collossal, town-sized mansions, the only place with a real view of the sky.

No one at all, save the few unfortunate souls down in the Drain, ever touch the actual surface of the Earth in their entire lives.

This is not a particularly pleasant or hopeful world, and all 'heroes' are corporate employees, born into their role in a neo-feudalist society, or having signed the 'Hero' contract as some misguided pursuit of justice or merely an attempt to escape horrific poverty. If you act outside that order, the 'Coggies' and their private Police goons will come down hard on you, whether you're powered or not, as it's the Corporations who give the Coggies their paycheck.

The roleplay will mostly take place within the city, but some of you may end up outside the city for one reason or another, whether that is fighting in one of several forever wars against the Wasters for the benefit of a Megacorp, or otherwise. At least to begin with, you all will be a new 'class' of employees at Heroes Inc, a subsidiary company for the larger Megacorp called Jorawa Industries, because you were born in a Jorawa hospital, and they own you. You may not have powers, but either way, you are an employee when we start. Where you end up though, is anyone's guess.

Whether it's your choice to work within the system, serving one of the Megacorps through a subsidiary 'Heroes Organization' like Heroes Inc or PowVac, or resist the system as a Rogue or Villain, is your call. I don't have too much planned except this idea, which I've wanted to get out of my head and typed out for quite a bit now. This has all been a bit rambly, but I hoped I got across what this roleplay's about, or at least the City in which it is set.

OOC
Hello! This Roleplay is a strange mix of cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic, and superhero stuff, with a variety of inspiration from various media. Superhero rp's have always been a guilty pleasure, and even now that I am older and sadder, that hasn't changed. So, here we are.

There will be a discord for OOC purposes.
 
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The idea of adding hero's to the classic cyberpunk setting is definitely an interesting twist.
 
Cant we make a hero that’s already established?
Makes me wonder if hero's just kind of pop up one day, 'hey, discovered I have powers! let me do this hero gig' or if they are also brought up/schooled until they're deemed ready to hit the streets? Do Corps have hero development programs or do they just take the final product and slap a brand name on them for RP?
Could see either working, so just wondering....
 
Makes me wonder if hero's just kind of pop up one day, 'hey, discovered I have powers! let me do this hero gig' or if they are also brought up/schooled until they're deemed ready to hit the streets? Do Corps have hero development programs or do they just take the final product and slap a brand name on them for RP?
Depends, honestly. Most heroes are born notably with powers, as technology in the 'current' era can detect abnormalities like that before the baby is even born, so you are 'born' into this for most. Some develop powers later, or have more subtle abilities, or are heroes without powers, and they typically are ran through hero development programs and special schooling and such. If you are born into it, you basically spend your entire life learning not just how to be a hero, but how to properly market yourself as a company asset, etc. You learn that as a 'late arrival' too, but it hasn't been literally your entire life. Predictably, a lot of heroes are... socially stunted when they aren't wearing the 'public appearance' mask.

So, all characters will see at least some development/training before they begin the Rp. After all if you're going to represent the company as a company-owned superhero TM, you might as well be trained to represent the company well.
 
Can heroes be of any age?
Yes and no. Player characters are 18 and up. However, the Megacorps do use children for some shit. IE publicity stunts, child actor superheroes, child superheroes, and children with superpowers for experimentation, etc. The 'classic' field work is adults only though, as children don't have enough control over their powers typically to serve the corporate good by dispatching corporate rivals and murdering people.
 
Yes and no. Player characters are 18 and up. However, the Megacorps do use children for some shit. IE publicity stunts, child actor superheroes, child superheroes, and children with superpowers for experimentation, etc. The 'classic' field work is adults only though, as children don't have enough control over their powers typically to serve the corporate good by dispatching corporate rivals and murdering people.
So we can’t make kid or teen heroes?
 
Not going to lie that sucks big time. Well that kills my idea. Maybe I’ll join I don’t know this is a bit more restrictive then I thought it was going to be.
 
This sounds interesting.

What kind of powers can we have? How powerful can we be?
 
This sounds interesting.

What kind of powers can we have? How powerful can we be?
My apologies for getting back to this so late my sleep schedule is non-existent at the moment.

So, I'd prefer you didn't go too far with your powers, as to not be overly powerful, but other than that, you're pretty free.

Banned powers do include time travel though, and I may need to ban a few more as we go, as some powers are fundamentally hostile to RP's, like time travel.


I took some time thinking it and, I'll give it a shot!
Is the discord already made? In that case, can you pass the link?
Of course! It's a bit WIP rn, but here you go.


Hey what's the character limit?
I'm thinking three.
With confidence, I can say that I can join the RP.
Lovely!
 

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