Interest Check: Superhero RP

[Otaku-sama]

Hi all.

 

If you’d allow me to introduce myself, the short of the matter is that I used to be a regular here from 2010-2012 and I just recently rediscovered this place. I have experience playing D&D both as a player and as a DM and I wanted to try my hand with play-by-post RPing again, so I’m going to try running one myself.

 

You might have seen me poking around the forum trying to get into your RPs without reading your posts in full detail. I was hoping to get into an RP as a player, just to get a feel on how people around here do things now, but I found that the current community seems a bit...impenetrable. So, instead I’ll just wing it and hope for the best.

 

Now to get the point of the post, I currently have two ideas for an RP revolving around superheros: one a mostly original setting and another based on One Punch Man. I am a bit worried that it may fall to the wayside since the My Hero Academia RP seems to be in full swing, which is why I’m posting this poll.

 

[spoiler=Mythic Rangers: Heroes of Might and Magic (name tentative)]

[spoiler=Preamble]

The world as we know it today is mundane. Tales of magic and monsters exist in only fiction, old and new, but nothing more, or so we thought. In secret rooms in the salons of the Age of Enlightenment, occult scholars who delved too deep into ancient arcane lore threatened to bring eldritch doom upon the world if it were not for the work of other occult scholars that managed to stop them and seal away the great evil, along with all magic, hoping that it will stop anyone from bring forth such evils again. For the past 400 years, the ancient wards held fast, leading the world towards a non-magical existence. However, magic has begun to leak back into the world, its effects at first subtle, but now causing confusion among the scholars so used to a mundane world.

 

Your character is just a normal person living in the year 2023 in the city of Roanoke, Rhode Island. However, one fine New England summer day, you received a strange text from a long forgotten friend inviting you to a private party next Friday evening in the Bellarose Manor, a seaside mansion that was thought to have been uninhabited for the past 100 years, barely maintained by the city. In a moment lacking in common sense and judgement, or perhaps in a moment of morbid curiosity, you decided to accept the invitation and go to that strange manor by the sea…

My mostly original setting will be a superhero campaign that is based on fantasy and magic rather than Marvel/DC style magi-science. I originally tried to run this setting using D&D 5e, but the setting seemed to be incompatible with the system.

 

The heroes would undergo a Power Rangers style transformation sequence where they channel the power of their ancestors through a trinket from their ancestor, with powers ranging from skill with the arcane arts to the strength to stand against armies. At first, their connection with their ancestor would be weak, but as they gain experience, their connection will deepen and unlock more access to their abilities, also leading to access to some of their abilities outside of their transformation.

 

The players would create both their high school to college aged characters as well as their character’s ancestor that gives them their superhero power. The characters would be linked through a shared sense of justice and the need to help make their hometown of Roanoke a better place, as well as a Zordon-style leader who would inform them of major criminals to bring to justice and major threats to the town.

 

For the tone, it would likely be rated PG-16 as I want don't want to inhibit what happens. Expect blood, violence and occasional sexual themes. It will be mostly light hearted as the players make it, but the villains will be likely be serious. I will also add a bit of a Lovecraftian tone, with narration that might describe things is a long winded and academic fashion. As for running it, the story might be formatted in episodic format divided into slice of life parts dealing with keeping their two lives separate or mixing them, and an action focused crime fighting section.

 

[spoiler=One Punch Man: Disciples of the Strongest Hero (name tentative)]

I do not have a full story idea for this RP idea, but I found that the worldbuilding made by the anime leaves a lot of room for interpretation. After all, the city appears to be massive and divided into many sections, each with their own culture and feel. The Heroes Association is also a useful tool for uniting otherwise very different heroes, as well as adding a bit of a political aspect as heroes jockey and compete with each other for higher ranking.

 

What I have is that the player would play as newly minted heroes, who have just joined the Heroes Association. Power levels of the players will likely be capped at mid A tier, with no S tier heroes whatsoever as I feel that S-tier players will start interfering with the canon of the show.

 

I also plan on having all the players being inspired to be heroes by hearing stories online about the new breakout hero, Saitama. They will all be united in a common belief of justice and fighting crime for the sake of making the city a better place instead of for fame and admiration.

 

The only issue I see running this would be if I would base the canon of the RP on the anime or the manga, which is farther ahead. I also question what to do if the canon shifts when it the second season reveals facts that change the canon I had planned for the RP. I appreciate input in this matter.

 

As for the tone, it will match the tone of the show, which I believe is both a parody of shounen anime as well as full embracing of all shounen tropes (a pastiche?), with villains that are a bit over the top, but not to the level where S tiers and Saitama would need to get involved. It will be a story of the low tier heroes grinding to make their home a better place. If the players are to fail in defeating the villain of the week, I will likely inject one of the S-tiers to clean up, or to have Saitama destroy the villain in the typical manner, causing massive collateral damage in the process.

 

So those are my ideas, please let me know what you think of what I have and whether you'd be interested in trying me out. I'm also looking for anyone who could give me advice on what the current accepted practices and unwritten rules of this forum is so I can get up to date.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

[Yui]

I'm sorry, but giving birth to a dead tree would lead to all sorts of interviews, which I'd hate, but probably also lots of money, which I wouldn't hate. If I have to pass up on a cool RP for an easy ticket to a life of fortune, so be it.

 

That aside, I'll be watching how things develop for both of these. Might join one or the other, might not, who knows.

 

EDIT: You changed the option you funk, now this post makes no sense.

 

EDIT2: It's back. Bless.

[Otaku-sama]

Haha, sorry about that! Just had second thoughts and thought that it may have come off as unnecessarily aggressive. No need to offend a community I'm trying to befriend after all.

Yea, I just want to get involved, but all the easy paths are blocked at the moment. When the rules said you guys are a tight knit community, they meant it.

 

EDIT: There, I changed the option back so your comment makes sense again.

[👀 REP 👀]

yeah but giving birth to a dead tree would be very painful.

 

anyways the OPM concept sounds neat enough, although we'd have to see what the actual plot of the RP is. My guess would be some sort of Monster of the Week since that's kinda what the show and I think the Manga does.
As for which canon to follow, I'd probably stick to the anime if I were you, mainly because I think a lot of people have seen the anime but not read the manga or the original comic (myself included)

 

I wish you the best of luck in getting into the community, as someone who was "out of the loop" for quite a bit. It'll take some time, but you'll get the swing of things.

[Otaku-sama]

Hey thanks for your help @@Reptilious. I'm definitely leaning towards a monster of the week style of plot for both of them, which I think works well for a superhero story. Sticking to the anime canon would be easiest option as I won't need to read the whole manga, but there's still a chance of the RP canon being interfered with next year when the second season of the anime is scheduled to be released. I suppose I'll just improvise and just co-ordinate with the players to agree upon new canon.

[Otaku-sama]

Based on the results of the poll, I have decided to start working on a One Punch Man RP. It will likely feature mostly combat in a villain/monster of the week format, with a few slice-of-life segments in between fights to flesh out the social situations and the building of hero reputation.

[0PxPz0]

both sound interesting but i do have a question for the Mythic Rangers one, i've been messing around with a character concept and i find things like RPs help me better define new characters and worlds, so in the Mythic Rangers Rp would Roman/Norse/ whatever other mythology be usable for characters powers origin or does the RP it's self have an original mythos to follow (sorry if that's a bit specific considering this is just a poll)?

[Otaku-sama]

The canon of Mystic Rangers is essentially "whatever you want it to be." The players would be free to based their characters on any mythologies they wished and when they did, that particular mythology would become canon.

 

Sorry if I disappoint you with deciding to run the OPM RP instead.

[Saiba Aisu]

Otaku-samaaaa! Wow, what a blast to the past. Not sure if you remember me, but you and I actually RP'd a fair bit back in the old days. Nice to see you decided to come back to the forum. Welcome back and good luck with your RP!

[Otaku-sama]

@@Saiba Aisu Heyyyyyyy It's been too long dude! Yea, coming back has given me an entire week bathing in nostalgia! Hope you'll check my RP out!