Background
Sometime in the 30s super-powered men and women made themselves
known. They had modest abilities, but they made themselves felt
through out the world.
During the 40s governments everywhere started to recruit powered
beings for special units. The governments all over the world ran
experiments to create these super-beings. Many service people
volunteered or were volunteered for these experiments. Many of the
most powerful beings of the era came from these experiments. Folks
like UberMan, and Major Victory came from these experiments. The war
was won with the efforts of the common soldiers, for there were always
far, far more regular army people than there ever were of the
superheroes. Also during this era many of the capes stayed home to
defend the home front.
During the 50s Britain's Grail Knight retired. Rumors started about
who the man who called himself Major Victory really was. UNTIL
received it's charter. It was a decade of recovery from the war, of
prosperity and of prejudice.
During the 60s the Promethians became the first super-team. They worked
mostly in the background so they never received much notoriety. The
Champions were in the spotlight of the media much more and received
the bulk of the attention.
The 70s and 80s were the silver age of the superhero. The public
became more used to the fact that there were beings that were much
more powerful. Many hero and villain fan clubs sprung up as the
adventures of the capes became legend.
During the 90s many of the heroic paragons showed their feet of
clay. Many of the heros of WW II showed their humanity by getting
involved with groups that were out for world domination. Many heroes
went underground during this difficult era. Some heros had become
involved with the Invisible Empire. The Guard rooted out elements of
the neo-Nazi Group The Axis from it's ranks. In 1995 the SF Bay Area
is devastated by a humongous Earthquake. The superheroes helped dig the
survivors out of the rubble and later helped rebuild much of the
damaged bridges and other infrastructure. Later the mayor of San
Francisco re-incorporates the Bay Area as one city renamed Bay City.
The Arcadian Academy opened to teach young paranormals how to deal
with their powers.
In October of 1999 a new supervillan named the Proprietor made himself
known by teaming up with Eurostar, the Assassinos and many others and
took control of the Ukraine. On Oct 22nd 1999 an international group
of superheroes joined together to defeat this menace once and for all.
Once they all arrived they found a trap. The Proprietor erected a huge
dome of energy 7 miles in Diameter around the battleground. The
energies of the dome enhanced healing making the battle much more
brutal as heros grew desperate to defeat their foe.
On January 1, 2000, The Proprietor is defeated and the energies unleashed
kill all of the heroes in the dome.
The campaign starts in January of 2001.
Powers
- Gate Keys:
This is for heros who had families that have always had
paranormal abilities.
- Alien Race #1: The Kraan:
A race that if trying to reclaim their former Glories. They
have crashed ships in to earth through out time. They are a
good source of alien super technology.
- The Wildstrike:
When the 3rd gate key's energy blanketed the earth, there were
many people effected by it's energy. Some lower power capes
found themselves suddenly the possessor of a great deal of
power. Most of those who were affected by the wildstrike had
very visible physical mutations as well.
- The New Humans:
The children of those who watched nuclear blasts and other
radiation experiments done by the government in the 50s and
60s.
- Psionics:
The world's governments during the cold war had isolated,
experimented on and trained those with mental powers.
- Hannya Island:
A Nazi island of experimentation to build "supermen". Many of
the subjects don't look too human but some of them do.
- Powered Armor:
US Government project called Operation SuperShell.
- Arcane Artists:
Wizards plain and simple. With good and evil secret societies
to hangout with.
- Cyborgs and Robots:
Alien technologies and/or secret projects by corporate America
or the Government.
- Street Mutation:
Better Living through drugs. A street drug called Mutaphine.
It gives a high and in some gives some super abilities. For
some this is only when the drug is affecting the body, for some
this is a permanent effect of the drug.
- Secret Civilizations:
Samarkan (The Savage Land) or Atlantis (various secret cities
of the remnants of this mythical nation).
- Items of Powers:
Magical artifacts.
Organizations
- Viper: Classic bad guy organization that is bent on
taking over the world.
- UNTIL: UN Paranormal Law Enforcement agency.
- The Guard: An American Version of UNTIL. They have a
rivalry with UNTIL, there isn't supposed to be any cooperation
between the agencies. There is some softening of this policy
going on. They have had has some issues though out the years
with bad apples in the agency, but they have cleaned up their
act in the last decade. They supply liaison officers to any
super team that wants any kind of government sanction.
- Odyssey Research: Your basic good guy organization that
is into delving into all things. They have had their share of
dangerous occurrences because of this. By the way, their HQ is
right down the street from where the last adventure took place
(they are located near the ruins of Sutro Baths).
- Panstar: Kind of the opposite side of the coin.
Anything that makes a profit. They love to market high tech
weapons and armor to third world countries. Nothing has ever
been proven against them, but this is kind of a common
knowledge thing.
- The Arcadian Academy: The premier training institute for
young paranormals. A place for them to learn to use their
powers for good. Run by preeminent businessman Donald
Henderson.
- The Lodge: An organization of good Wizards.
- The Brotherhood Arcane: The opposite side of the
coin. The Bad Guys. These people use magic to achieve greater
power over people.
- Atlantis Society: A secret organization of those who
want to discuss and explore mysteries of the past and future.
- The Cabal: A Mystic order run by Jonas Astaire of the
Brotherhood Arcane. They gather and worship the dark powers of
the Shadow Realm.
- Temple of Pan: An another Mystic order run by Bronwyn
Turlough of the Brotherhood Arcane. She draws her powers from
the earth and sprits of nature.
- Scions of Caine: A group of paranormals who believe that
they should be the rulers of the world... that all other
governments should just dissolve and give power to their
betters. Their membership includes: Black Diamond, Shrinker,
Esper, Leech, Vibron, Target, Avatar, Darkbold and any other
mutants that wish to join.
- The Axis: A group of mystically aligned ex-Nazis. They
are after world domination. They haven't been heard from since
their huge defeat in 1984, but who knows what they could be
doing now.
- The Wildstrike: When the Proprietor's powers blanketed
the world, many people found themselves the recipients of
strange powers, unfortunately most of them received strange
forms to go with their new powers. They gather in the newly
discovered caverns in Westbrook. There are rumors of illegal
fights between wildstrikers in the caverns. By the way, the
caverns are located due south from where the first adventure
took place.
- The Shadow Realm: The place where evil magic comes from.
All kinds of nasties live in this place, they once ruled the
earth and would love a second chance to rule it again.
- The Pit: A mystical gateway to somewhere nasty. It
seems to go on forever. Many people have tried to explore it,
but not many have ever come back. Things sometimes come out of
the pit though. It is believed to be where a ritual was
performed a few years back to summon something called the
Spyre.
- The Caverns: Talked about above briefly. There are
indications of Ancient Civilizations in the writings on the
walls. The Wildstriker squatters don't like trespassers so
there hasn't been too much study of the runes. Also those who
wander through the caverns aren't seen again. So the
Wildstrikers stay close to the core areas/caverns.
- The Panstar Facility: "We do things here that God only
dreamt about. We can do ANYTHING, if the price is right". They
have a huge South Bay campus.
- Castle Demorphant: The home of Ex-Black Paladin Mattias
Casimir. Seemly living the life of the law abiding. This
castle was imported stone by stone from Germany. Mattias has
been declared free of the Black Paladin's influence.
J. Hanju Kim <hanjujkim-at-gmail-dot-com>
Last modified: Sun Nov 10 10:06:13 2002