In the year 2220 the world is a grim and dark place, filled with crime-riddled urban sprawl and barren wasteland, swamped with pollution. What's left of the U.S. government is ineffective and corrupt, and the mega-corporations and criminal cartels have by and large taken its place. In the near-apocalyptic aftermath of WW3, global climate change, and economic collapse, technology has advanced to heights unimaginable to those of the past, but the knowledge of its manufacture remains in the hands of a mysterious few.
Little over forty years ago, a blindingly bright light hit worldwide and in its glow, the first supers emerged. In the confusion that followed, many tried to use their powers for good, but many more used them to further their own ends and for years, anarchy reigned. In time, society recovered and in the interest of preserving order, the government established the Meta Reform Initiative, (MRI), a federal agency dedicated to gathering supers, training them, equipping them, and enlisting their aid in quelling the wave of crime and terrorism, ostensibly to prevent another bright war, but in reality, to keep supers under surveillance and control.
At the moment, there are three super classifications, Villians are supers that use their powers to defy the law for personal profit or philosophy, Heroes are supers that have joined the MRI and use their powers to enforce the law and stop rogue Metas with a minimum of collateral damage, and Vigilantes are supers that have taken the law into their own hands, and dole out their own, often brutal version of justice on the streets.
You are a teenager in the USA's northeastern mega-metropolitan sprawl's slums, and only yesterday, you manifested superpowers of your own. Whether you embrace Villiany, Heroism, Vigilantism, or go Rogue is up to you but remember, the world is a dangerous place, and your survival isn't guaranteed.
We're going to be using the Worm web-serial's power system in an alt-future earth. If you haven't read the web-serial, I'd recommend it, but it's not a requirement to participate at all.
The gist of Worm's power system is that a person's powers awaken during a Trigger Event, a tramautic catastrophe that might've killed them if they hadn't Triggered. The circumstances of a super's Trigger define the nature of their power, for example, a drowning man might Trigger and gain the power to control water, shapeshift into a form that can survive in water, or teleport to the surface of any liquid at will. There's twelve classifications, and we're going to be using each. Here's a list, ripped straight from the fandom wiki.
Mover: Has a power enhancing mobility.
Shaker: Has a power with an area of effect.
Brute: Has enhanced strength or durability
Breaker: Can shift into another state.
Master: Can control others or create minions.
Tinker: Can create or alter devices with futuristic technology.
Blaster: Is a ranged, offensive threat.
Thinker: Focuses on information gathering.
Striker: Has a power that is melee-ranged or touch-based.
Changer: Can alter their form or appearance.
Trump: Can manipulate powers in some capacity.
Stranger:: Focuses on stealth or infiltration.
I'm sure you're smart enough to grasp the implications. What we're going to be doing for character creation is randomly selecting which of the twelve categories your character falls under by rolling a 1d30 on the makeshift chart below.
1-2: Mover
3-4: Shaker
5-6: Brute
7-8: Breaker
9-10: Master
11-12: Tinker
13-14: Blaster
15-16: Thinker
17-18: Striker
19-20: Changer
21-22: Trump
23-24: Stranger
25-26: Two powers, roll 1d12
27-28: Three powers, roll 1d12
29-30: Four powers, roll 1d12
1: Mover
2: Shaker
3: Brute
4: Breaker
5: Master
6: Tinker
7: Blaster
8: Thinker
9: Striker
10: Changer
11: Trump
12: Stranger
Once we've got the results, you get to decide what power your character has and then we'll collaborate to figure out their Trigger Event and how it's influenced their power. If you rolled 25-30, you don't have two, three, or four separate powers, instead, you have two, three, or four powers that fit together. For example, a Changer+Trump might be able to alter their form to take on part of another super's power, or a Mover+Tinker might have an extremely specialty in personal transportation technology.
Make sense? I hope so. The combat system is simpler, we'll be using Dorf Fort's chunky salsa damage and rolling 1d20 to determine the success of attacks and defense. If you want to participate, all you have to do is submit a character sheet using the template below.
Name: (You shouldn't need my help to figure this one out)
Age: 16-21
Appearance: (A sentence or two is fine, this is mostly fluff, no cybernetics)
Personality: (Three words describing your character's personality, i.e, Optimistic, Stubborn, etc.)
Background: (This is optional, but I'd appreciate a sentence or two on how your character's life was prior to their Trigger Event)
Name: Orion Schulz
Age: 18
Appearance: A tall yet bulky frame of a man, has short-cropped ginger hair and a beard gruff alongside it. He has drawn-out yet staring hazel eyes with a shade to them, and stands at a height of 6’4.
Personality: Reserved, Headstrong, Amiable
Background: Life was usually going good for Orion in the slums, it was the only environment he ever knew and had the mentors such as his parents and others to teach him how to survive here. However, even though he is a lone wolf now and by himself, he became part of the wrong crowd in the slums who tested his skill and finesse to the limits, resulting in a scarring failure on his side.
Power Classification: Changer
Power Description: Orion can shift both of his arms into spiky, strong, and precise obsidian-black tentacles which can function without his brain's input, and do the same to his legs, splitting them into four resilient tentacles with a heightened climbing, grappling, and striking ability. And then, assuming consciousness, shift them back.
Name: Ethan Summers
Age: 21
Appearance: A thin young man standing at roughly 6'5" with yellowish brown eyes and dark brown hair. He has black spots under his eyes like he didn't sleep well enough, though they don't seem to go away.
Personality: Quiet and respectful most times, He isn't afraid to go the extra mile for others, though he is rather meek when faced with someone who appears to have authority.
Background: Being homeschooled from the age of nine, Ethan was prone to bouncing around when he came of age to move out. He struggled to hold a steady job after turning twenty, and often times ended up volunteering at his local fire department and EMS when he wasn't being a store clerk. As such, he was on-call frequently for emergencies, and learned how to properly care for others during times of crisis.
Power Classification: Master
Power Description: Ethan's words have a hypnotic effect, and at a moment's notice he can induce someone to do as he commands, but his vocal power works only so long as the target doesn't realize they're being influenced.
Name: Jocko Nix
Age: 20
Appearance: 5 foot 9, stocky, with a glistening shaved head, dark skin and gregarious features.
Personality: A very middle of the road sort of person, Nix prefers to find compromises that suit everybody as opposed to taking hardline stances. Always polite, as much as he can be. Wanting to help other people in his life while also desiring to stamp out his own identity and sense of being.
Background: Born into a large family, Jocko often wondered who he was as an individual. When around others he felt in the background, and when by himself he felt like a camera, simply watching the world pass around him. With no real sense of purpose or impetus, he decided to apply for an entry level position in one of those big megacorps that everyone knows about but can't really tell what they do. See what goes from there.
Power Classification: Tinker
Power Description: Jocko's Specialty lies in Information Acquisition and Adaption, and he's able to build technology that hyper-efficiently gathers information and can then adapt in real-time to environmental stimuli.
Name: Lilly Sharpe
Age: 17
Appearance: Lilly is quite short standing around at around 4’10, she has a very thin build and looks slightly malnourished. Her black hair has been roughly cut short and her eyes are a bright green. She has a number of scars across her body.
Personality: Angry. Protective. Unyielding.
Background: Lilly never had a happy life, she was abandoned at a very young age and forced to survive by herself. She just managed to scrape by begging and stealing for her food, but it was never enough to be satisfied. As she grew up she realised that she could never survive on her own, so she joined a gang for protection. It wasn't easy and she didn't like some of the things she was forced to do but she began to make a family for herself, she even managed to reach a position of respect within their hierarchy.
Power Classification: Brute
Power Description: Lilly's power feeds on the pain she suffers, and her strength and durability scale exponentially with the agony and damage she endures, allowing her to punch above her weight and then some.
Name: Jackie Lexis
Age: 16
Appearance: A slum boy, gaunt and skinny from malnutrition. At 5'6, Jackie adorns himself in his best clothes, rags of colorful cloth in the loose form of a shirt and a skirt, and make-shift jewelry made from scrap metal and shards of colored glass.
Personality: Greedy, Naive, Curious
Background: Raised in the slums, Jackie first memories were of his Amie's Gang, a group of orphans the older boy Amie corrals, having them pan-handle and search through the garbage dumps for valuables to sell off. In the decrepit undercity, Jackie tries to find beauty where ever he can. Even if it comes from a tin can of glass that makes a pretty noise when he shakes it.
Power Classification: Striker, Changer, and Brute
Power Description: Jackie is able to manifest a faint energy field which allows him to nigh-instantly form inorganic materials into makeshift weapons and armor plating, integrate inanimate objects into his body to augment his own abilities, and with focus, release energy blasts devastating to inorganic materials but concussive to organics, and expand the field to rapidly corrode inorganic materials beside his own equipment and augmentations.
Name: Seth Vimes
Age: 20
Appearance: Wiry, about average height, has a perpetual flat expression on his face. Tends to wear muted colors. Seems to fade into the background when there's other people around. Red hair, pale skin, grey eyes. Usually has earbuds in his ears.
Personality: Introverted, helpful, steady
Background: Seth has spent most of his life not being noticed. He'd wander around from place to place, picking up odd jobs for whoever needed stuff done, not drawing much attention to himself. Occasionally, while people were talking about an issue, he'd pipe up with some new perspective, everyone would be startled, think on it, and decide it was helpful, and then forget about him and his contribution within the week. This was fine. If anyone had ever asked his opinion, he'd have given it, but nobody had, and that was ok.
Power Classification: Trump
Power Description: Seth can effectively cancel the powers of any supers within ten meters (or thirty feet) of himself, and while the effect is generally instant, it ceases almost as quickly once a super leaves his Trump radius. Somewhat more permanently, if Seth manages to lay his hands on a super, he can strip them of their powers and leave them completely normal for as long as he desires, but there's a catch. He can only strip one super of their powers at a time, and while he's using this part of his power, he's unable to activate his radius.
Name: Mark Malarky
Age: 17?
Appearance: Mark is a short, stocky male of european ancestry. His hair is grey, with but a few strands of brown betraying it's original color. His face is weathered from hours of exposure, thick with lines that serve to contrast his brilliant forest green eyes.
Personality: Reserved, Calculating, Deceptive
Background: Mark claims that he was an orphan, snatched up off the streets by a local villian to serve as his slave. At the age of eleven he was rescued and returned to standard education. He claims to have lived a normal live since then, although little inconsistencies pop up when people notice that, for example, there are no records of him in any of the educational institutions he claims to have attended. Not to mention him appearing about thirty years older then he claims to be.
Power Classification: Brute
Power Description: Mark grows more durable when he perceives blood, and the durability increases exponentially with the amount of blood his senses perceive, a drop of blood is enough to make his skin half as hard as leather, thirty people's worth leaves him nigh invulnerable. The fresher the blood, the stronger the effect, and once it leaves his perception, his durability fades as quickly as it came.
Name: ... I don't remember. Oh shit.
Age: Young, I guess. Not sure exactly how old. Maybe there's a wallet in my pocket... yup, wallet, but no ID. Blast.
Appearance: Young male. Dressed in tattered black hoodie, tattered jeans. Cracked sunglasses. Large black backpack containing MREs, water, medical supplies, two changes of clothes, handgun... and there's probably more underneath all that.
Personality: Obsessive(Preparedness), Paranoid, Cunning.
Backstory: Huh? What's this? A note? "Dear future self. Don't look back. Don't go back. Don't even think about it. Don't chase your past. It's not worth it. Sincerely, your past self. P.S: If you do make the mistake of delving into your past, please be prepared first. At least five times as prepared as you think you need to be. Antiprecog is a must. Otherwise, you won't stand a chance."
Power Classification: Mover, Breaker, Thinker
Power Description: John is able to shift into a digital form and nigh-instantly combine with any vehicle that can be driven, gaining control over the vehicle's motor functions, the capacity to make on-the-fly modifications, and innately comprehend everything there is to know about the vehicle he's merged with.
Name: Ademar Velibor
Age: 20
Appearance: Wiry thin, and tall. Ademar is of a mixed descent, with elements of Middle Eastern, Chinese and Caucasian Descent. He'd be the one who would be in the middle of the pack at boot camp.
Personality: Business orientated, Strong-Willed, Calculating.
Background: Enlisted to the US Military at 18, Washed out due to a trumped up drug charge. Made some bad decisions, and ended up in a bad place, probably a militant cult working the job for cash. You know how it goes after.
Power Classification: Shaker
Power Description: Ademar is able to manipulate the movement of photons over an area several hundred feet wide, which primarily extends to the control of light, shifting to pitch darkness or blinding light in seconds, and with more difficulty, varying degrees of dim-or-brightness. He can also change color, though the effect only lasts as long as he's focusing, and applies to vast swathes over several feet at a time, not allowing for much precision, if any.
Name: Anne Rowe
Age: 21
Appearance: A short, leanly muscular woman with blonde hair. Tends to dress in simple, military style. Wears sunglasses whenever she can get away with it. Self-satisfied smirks and unflappable demeanor, broken by outbursts of anger and violence with little warning.
Personality: Pragmatic, cynical, acerbic; trusts in authority, seeks approval, insecure under an indifferent exterior.
Background: A military brat turned Air Force pilot, Anne struggled with institutional sexism and the heavy burden of her family's expectations throughout her short-lived career. Her own issues reached their peak in a mental breakdown that led to a quick discharge and the end of her career: fertile ground for a trigger event.
Power Classification: Striker, Blaster
Power Description: Anna can control air pressure in a small area and fire bursts of pressurized air at near-bullet speeds, much more dangerously at close range, but surprisingly effective at long-range distances.
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Topic: Near Future Street-Level Super (6/6) (OOC Thread) (Read 6009 times)