Humanity has been afflicted with a rare disease and one that affects everyone on the planet Earth for some odd reason that does not have super powers. Everyone who had super powers has lost them and everyone who does not have powers has gained meta human or mutant abilities for their own use. Villainy has increased and the formerly super powered Justice League has been forced into retirement by new and more dangerous villains along with their old rogues gallery. Who will save the planet from darkness? Elemental weapons have suddenly surfaced on the planet in museums along with strange suits of battle armor from the ancient past but they look so advanced they are futuristic.
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Here's an idea that's been bouncing around in my head for a while:
The Henchmen Diaries
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The Basics
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Since the 1940s when the age of the superhuman began with the 'birth' of Mister Magnificent mankind has looked to its gifted members with a mixture of awe, wonder, and fear. It is the latter sentiment more than anything that categorizes their reactions to those most odious and frightful of superhumans: the Supervillains. Ruthless, powerful, theatrical, and in a way of their own, majestic. This story is not about them. This is about the little people that serve them. This is a story about the Henchmen.
When the Polar-Man disappeared he left a vacuum of power that the Orange Star and the Syndicate both moved to fill up. Caught in the crossfire of this new war and hounded as ever by the world's superheroes the Polar-Man's Huskarls hold up in fortresses and citadels across the planet. In one citadel in Australia a small group of Huskarls come under fire from both rival factions. The Huskarls retreat deeper into the citadel, into the off-limits zone that the Polar-Man forbade them to enter.
They are followed by the Dao who in turn are followed by the Blackguards. Before a battle can break out they henchmen are surprised by the voice of the Polar-Man, a voice revealed to be from a prerecorded message discussing a mysterious unnamed object (or possibly person, its not clear) of interest hidden in one of his many fortresses that must under all circumstances be kept safe from the Orange Star and from the Syndicate. He punctuates the message with a warning that the citadel is about to self destruct.
After narrowly escaping the explosion the henchmen, tantalized by the notion of some secret hidden wonder strike an uneasy truce and agree to work together to find the secret, even if that means taking on the world.
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The Factions
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The Syndicate
Headquarters: Based out of the stygian Club Hades in downtown Atlanta, Georgia the Syndicate's operations cover virtually all organized crime in North America.
Power Base: If a stolen diamond gets fenced in St Paul or if a greedy drug pusher gets bludgeoned on a street corner in Tijuana odds are the Syndicate had a hand in it. Though power is concentrated in North America the Syndicate is also quite strong in Europe and South America. Interpol estimates as many as twenty-seven known supervillains are employed by the Syndicate and many more are likely affiliated.
Leadership: Marcellus Prince AKA: Demon AKA: Big Daddy D (Level 4 superhuman)
Henchmen: In addition to untold numbers of 'street-agents' (common criminals, thugs, and lowlifes in the Syndicate's employ) the Syndicate also employ a standing army of close to 10,000 'Blackguards'. These Henchmen wear a standard uniform that consists of a black tuque on their heads, sunglasses, black leather gloves, black jeans, black Kevlar vests over short-sleeved dark gray undershirts, belts made of brushed steel, and black combat boots.
Equipment: What the Blackguards' armories lack in sophistication they more than make up for in firepower. Assault rifles, sub-machine guns, light machine guns, automatic shotguns, RPGs, C4, anti-aircraft rocket launchers, and military-grade sharpshooter rifles line the walls of their weapons depots.
The Orange Star
Headquarters: The heavily guarded (and highly secretive) Taiyuan Compound in the city of Taiyuan in the Shanxi Province of the People's Republic of China.
Power Base: East Asia is where their center of power is located but their influence extends throughout the continent and beyond across the Pacific to California and across the expanse of Russia to Northern Europe and the Balkans. Recently they have become a power in West Africa, providing relief aid while simultaneously smuggling in weapons to feed conflicts as well as taking over the blood diamond industry.
Leadership: A council of five supervillains who sit at an orange surfaced table shaped like a pentagram, these supervillains' names are Tempest (Level 3 superhuman), Rancor (Level 2 superhuman), Hellion (Level 2 superhuman), Huotai;i (Level 3 superhuman), and Blazer (Level 3 superhuman)
Henchmen: Orange Star henchmen are known as Dao, Chinese for 'knives' due to the long combat knives they wear on sheaths attached to their shoulder sashes (or alternatively referred to disparagingly by other Henchmen and by Superheroes as 'the Safety Patrol' because of the safety-orange sashes and berets they wear). Along with their sashes and berets the rest of their uniform consists of a military-styled olive-drab jumpsuit with black gloves and black combat boots.
Equipment: Along with the ubiquitous knives the Orange Star equips its henchmen with assault rifles like QBZ-95s, M-16s, AK-101s (and AK-107s), and sub-machine guns like MP-5s, P-90s, Uzis, and Skorpion vz. 61s. Supplementing their more conventional weaponry some Dāo possess miniature wrist mounted flame-throwers with short ranges of a dozen yards.
The New Order
Headquarters: (Formerly) The Polar-Man's Fortress in the Arctic Circle.
Power Base: At the height of his power the Polar-Man controlled nearly every supervillain on Earth and had his hands in almost all the world's crime. Now with his disappearance the once mighty New Order has lost most of its supervillain muscle and all of its organization and is consequentially falling apart due to infighting between powerful Lieutenants and predation from the other two rival factions as well as the efforts of superheroes the world over.
Leadership: (Formerly) The Polar-Man (Level 4 superhuman)
Henchmen: The Huskarls were once fearsome shock troopers feared even by supervillains but now that the Polar-Man has disappeared they've lost most of their nerve and are no longer receiving dynamic leadership. Huskarls wear white duralex full-body suits much like the one the Polar-Man wore but without the cape and without the many high tech features his suit boasts. Their heads are covered by white duralex cowls and their eyes obscured by green goggles. On their chests is the symbol of the Polar-Man, a black circle with two black dots (with the upper dot bolded) representing the Earth and its poles. When they joined the Polar-Man's ranks they were all given an injection of a serum (an altered version of the very same serum that gave the Polar-Man his powers) that for a time increased their physical attributes to superhuman levels. Within weeks the serum's effects wore off and like junkies they craved for more. The Polar-Man had used the serum as a means to ensure loyalty by getting his henchmen addicted to it. To save them from the painful withdrawals the Polar-Man started to hand out serum patches which appeased the Huskarls' need for the serum and more importantly kept them coming back for more.
Equipment: Perhaps the best equipped of all henchmen, the Huskarls carry highly accurate and reliable custom made 5.56 mm assault rifles with selective rates of fire and scopes linked directly via computerized cameras to the goggles the henchmen wear. In addition they also carry a standard arsenal of six stun grenades and a disk-shaped shield generator that once planted on the ground activates a force shield in the shape of a four by four meter bubble that lasts for close to a minute before being forced to recharge. These force shields can block out small arms fire and low-grade explosions but do not prevent low velocity intrusion (such as a person walking through them). Perhaps their greatest accouterments are the serum patches attached to their necks that feed them a slow dose of a potent addictive serum that grants them temporary bursts of superhuman strength and speed. Unfortunately serum patches carry a very limited reserve of serum and as such must be used only to curb severe withdrawal symptoms or in ties of great need.
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Basically this RP will focus on you, the Henchmen. Henchmen aren't particularly strong, powerful, charismatic, or (let's face it) bright, but they're still people and they still have a role to play in the pageantry of supervillainy.
Character Sheets will be as follows:
Name: (your character's real birth name, nick-name and/or Henchman Number is optional)
Nationality: (Where was he/she born? Language isn't as much of an issue since translator earbuds are standard issue for all henchmen)
Age: (Be realistic, no supervillain is going to hire a 10 year old girl...well some might, but trust me, you wouldn't want to work for them)
Gender: (Surprisingly enough, most supervillains are equal opportunity hirers)
Physical Description: (What do you look like underneath your uniform?)
Equipment: (In addition to your pick of standard equipment (depending on organization) what extra toys do you have? Please be reasonable)
Organization: (Which type of Henchmen are you?)
Motivations: (What caused you to become a Henchman?)
Personality: (Arguably the most important dimension)
Backstory: (What was your character doing before the RP began?)
Other: (Anything else of interest)
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Any takers?
Before I go into detail on this idea I had would anybody be interested in collectively RPing as a character of a multi-spacial existence (in other words a character who exists in multiple locations across space and whose forms operate on a conscious level simultaneously) at all? The basic idea is that he is on a quest of sorts that encompasses all of these different locations and requires a sort of mutual effort and dependent rate of success among each location at a consistent level of timing to ultimately progress through the quest. A given player would RP as an individual form of this multi-spacial character, where the idea is that the individual form would be aware and naturally wouldn't conflict with the thoughts of the other forms of the character, but at the same time would not necessarily have to act in constant reference of the thoughts of the other forms, to enable a seamless RPG experience. Players would all take it in turns to operate in a given time frame in a predetermined order (this order would change among different time frames), and each player would ultimately act in a way that determines certain conditions and guidelines for every player that follows him in the order of turns (The GM would also play a part in setting the scene and determining conditions and guidelines for players to follow). The character will be created by the GM and all players will have to do their best to follow the predetermined personality and underlying motivations of the character. Players can alternatively play a part in this RPG as a seperate character altogether that would help/hinder this character on his quest. Anyways... anybody interested?
Or, alternatively...
Id : Ego : Super-Ego
Based on Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche, three players collectively role play as a single character, each as one of the three parts of the Psychic apparatus: the Id, Ego, and Super-Ego.
The Id is essentially driven purely in the moment by the basic desire of pleasure and the avoidance of pain.
The Super-Ego is essentially driven by the desire to fit into society.
The Ego is essentially driven by the desire to please The Id's drive while at the same time understanding the necessity to satisfy the desires of the Super-Ego to achieve long term benefit.
The players in charge of The Id and Super-Ego will voice their desires in the given situations that the character faces while the player in charge of The Ego will act upon a balance of the two using the following system:
20 points will be assigned to The Id and Super-Ego constructs during character creation, with a minimum of four points for each. These will be used over four different actions and then replenished for the next set of actions in the same original proportion. Each action will require the expenditure of 5 points, and the player in charge of The Ego will have to act in accordance with The Id : Super-Ego ratio of points. In other words five points spent in accordance with a single construct will have to follow the exact desires of that construct, while a balance will lean in the direction of a single construct while taking into account the desires of the other, to varying extents.
Character Creation:
The three players will be collectively involved in the creation of the given character.
The player in charge of The Id will assign values and abilities for all battle related characteristics.
The player in charge of The Super-Ego will assign values and abilities for all non-battle related characteristics.
The player in charge of The Ego will determine the name and appearance of the character, as well as his/her background and The Id : Super-Ego ratio of points (the latter two will have to be made in relation with one another, i.e. someone who heavily favors the Id construct will not be of a very calm, measured, patient nature and it would be wrong if his background info were to reflect such an idea).
I can't exactly put it in words but hosted is where the creator is more in control of everything. Like the Project Cronus one is more hosted than unhosted since you are given a character and not allowed to give them their own powerset or alter it. It takes a lot more for one to get passed in the hosted section as well.
Unhosted games are really a structured form of collaborative fan fiction- there may be guidance and there may be rules (especially on limit of what you can choose to be), but no-one is in charge and the tale flows as it may, subject to community guidelines within the game.
Hosted games are the traditional form of tabletop RPing- one person )generally) takes the role of RUNNING the story- the game world, the people the players meet, the events that happen and ultimately the main thrust of the story. He is Hosting the game in the same way someone might host a party- he/she has the last stand on everything. The players are taking a role within that world and react as need be. Hosted games are generally the ones associated with strict rules and dice rolling etc, though that's not a literal necessity.
lol but it seems like a lot of the people in the Unhosted section DEPEND on people to tell them what to do. That's why I find it odd that the Hosted section is dead and yet most people in the Unhosted section follow by the plot and do what they are told. It seems like they just feel morally better knowing that they are following rules in a rule-less place.