Breakthru! Coming of Age in a Superverse
It is the Dawn of the Age of Heroes and Villains. And you are one of them.
Your breakthrough was not pleasant. You are still trying to cope with this change.
You heard there was a place for those trying to cope with their breakthrough. Its known but has not been shutdown or destroyed. You made your way there. It turned out to be a Cafe.
The alley outside smelled of fear, and you saw a girl with wings of blood approaching the door... and her wings vanished. She looked startled and steps back and they reappeared. You waited and watched her experiment. Apparently powers don't work in the immediate vicinity of the Breakthrough Cafe. As you approach you notice a small note in the window. "All are welcome. Play nice. Chill"
This is a superhero game about the people inside the powers. About coming to terms with what you can do and the trauma that revealed all of that. About talking to your peers and figuring out yourself and your place in the world.
Because Power use is suppressed in the Cafe, all active uses of powers will be handled through adjudication or short blackbox or scenes outside of gamespace. To keep play focused on interactions no complex crimes, lengthy patrols, or Battle Royales are planned.
Any conflicts will be resolved by roleplaying unless 'taken outside' to a black box with a staff expediter if there are disagreements or questions. Some characters are pre-written and customized others are co-created by the players.
Character should be designed to spill their secrets and TALK to other people. Even if you are The Night, Scourge of the City’s Thugs and street level villains.
For the richest connectivity use of the Google Mailing list, Google Drive, and Google Docs are required. The additional connections from shared background will enhance play. For example:
In-Cindi, a fire themed super-villain known for burning their way into a bank vault and taunting and fighting the police, heroes, and occasionally other villains might write: "I am looking for a Hero to be a nemesis who handed me over to the government and a sidekick I intimidated into working for me.”
Some character backgrounds may contain triggering traumas chosen by that player. We will poll the players on trigger topics as part of base casting to warn folks early.
The world is ours with the addition or powered individuals, before society has fully adjusted, and while the newly powered are using the metaphors they know for their powers.
A few years ago the world changed with sudden theft and equally sudden return of the Mona Lisa. The thief was revealed as quick talking fellow referred to as The Wolf, apparently inspired by an anime character. The vigilante who left him in the Bastille, was dubbed La Republique by the right wing press but despite an active hunt by the Surete her real identity remains unknown.
Fires in California appear to have transformed one firefighter into Pyros, the Man of Flames, who continues to do his job using his ability to control flames.
Sections of the Middle East are no longer safe to fly over as winged beings interdict civilian or military travel and are engaged in an active battle in the skies.
Madagascar suffered a sudden coup and is now known as Freeland. Despite a major blockade by ANZUS forces and a failed attempt by African Union troops to invade a high tech civilization appears to be growing there and refugees from other parts of the world are being welcomed, and in some cases apparently transported there by unknown means.
More states have recruited several powered individuals into their state law enforcement arms or their National Guard units. The Powered Guard units of LA, AZ, and MI were federalized and deployed to the Middle East. NY, MA, CA carefully recruited locally and boast almost 30 powered LEOs or support personnel.
Psychology Today published an article on Asocial Hypercognitive Syndrome profiling Dr. Horrific. Modern Psychology published an article on Comics and Media in Modern Delusional Criminals, also profiled Dr. Horrific.
Two powered jocks adopted the name The Hammer and were arrested having a fist fight in the Commons by a powered police officer now nicknamed Slowdown.
Breakthru: the sudden appearance of one's superpower. Often at a time of life or death stress. And sometimes creating the stress as the new power flares up before one has a chance to learn control.
Blue Dreams: An illegal designer drug. Blue Dreams is supposed to be an amazing erotic high.
Day 0: The theft and return of the Mona Lisa in France. The first public appearance of a powered person. The day, five years ago, when things changed. Most people didn't realize it was real until it happened near them.
Freeland: a rogue state led by powered people who overthrew the government of Madagascar and offer free citizenship to any powered person. The nations of the world are not very happy about it.
Generation P: Those having breakthrough between the onset of puberty and age 25. The interactions between their budding powers and their naturally changing body and brain chemistry almost ensure traumatic or at least very angstful young powered people.
Novastar: The living nuclear explosion. An extreme Fire based villain who is so destructive they are treated as a monster, like Gojira.
Powered Person: the polite term for someone with unusual powers to cover heros villians and those who just want to stay out of the limelight. An attempt to avoid using the trademarked term Superhero (™ Marvel and DC) after early lawsuits by Disney.
P-Testing: A genetic test to identify those who might develop powers and what sort. Federal Legislation is now proposed to enlist all who test 'Power-Positive' in the military and to make broad based testing mandatory. The media has publicized studies that the test is a scam. This has not altered government policy but the courts used it to delay action so far.
Red Dreams: urban legend, an illegal designer drug that gives you superpowers and a high.
Support The Right to Be Arms!: Bumper stickers being mailed to NRA members last month. Current court rulings suggest that either: powers are trained skills and thus not inherently controllable by government; or powers are natural weapons and thus protected by the Second Amendment.
Tidal Wave: Scourge of the Seas. Imagine Greenpeace with water based superpowers.
The Praetorians: The official US government superteam. Based in Washington D.C.
Tannhauser’s Syndrome or Asocial Hypercognitive Syndrome: Extreme brilliance combined with megalomania. A valiant effort not to make “Mad Scientist” an official diagnosis in the DSM. And how you can tell if the author of a paper feels Dr. Tannhauser is a Mad Social Scientist.
The Shield: The latest recruit to the police department’s power unit. Their partner Cuffs has a year of experience and Slowdown, the founding member is on detached duty protecting the Governor against threats.
Very Special Forces: A rumored military unit composed of the Powered.
The St. Lawrence School is a historically Parochial school and offers grades K to 12 it was separated from the Church as a separate nonprofit and is operated by St. Lawrence University, an independent college with historical ties. This provides an opportunity for internships teaching high school students there and provides some shared facilities to the university as the Chapel.
During the last School graduation before the game there was a massive fire in the chapel killing several people and injuring more.
The University has a fraternity system. Sigma Alpha are historically conservative but have recently begun recruiting STEM students, while Phi Sigma has a long history of fundraising to support charities, and Phi Omicron is the party, jock, and jerk club. They were racked by a scandal involving sexual behavior at a recent party and the death of a few club officers thereafter.
There was an attack on the newly renovated Middle Eastern Wing of the Museum months ago, several people were killed in the resulting destruction and a number of artifacts disappeared.
I don't want to take over the
