Build a Heroes City

If Super Heroes/Heroines & Super Villains are your game, discuss them here.

Moderators: Immortals, Supreme Beings, Old Ones

gaby
Knight
Posts: 4340
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2003 2:01 am
Location: Québec

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by gaby »

Great idea

Tell us about Arsenal,ther leader and the number of members it have?
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

Would blowing a big hole in the ground at a community college count as a major event, assuming nobody actually got hurt?

The reason I was asking is I had a character origin involving a group attempting an act of bio-terrorism, and a hero using a "nova blast" to make sure the bio weapon was completely destroyed (though that bio terrorism, even though it was stopped, might also need approval).
Image
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

The sun broke through the late spring clouds, promising a beautiful afternoon to the people of Century Station. A shaft of sunlight descended through a dusty skylight, falling like a spotlight on a man who hung limply from a pair of handcuffs suspended from a corroded copper pipe, breathing raggedly. The caressing light seemed to pick out every bruise and burn on the exposed flesh of the upper torso.

It would seem to be a simple matter for the man to slip the handcuffs off the pipes, just a few inches really is all they would need to be raised. If the man, even though he is of average size and build, were standing upright, he could simply lift his arms up and over the upturn at the end of the pipe. That was not to be, for in the corner of the room stood a broken wheelchair, a relic of the drunk driver who tore the young man’s world apart a dozen years before, parting him forever from his beloved parents and leaving the lower half of his body paralyzed.

The man’s eyes opened, eyes the color of the sky where it showed through the clouds above, they moved first to a diagram, displayed to the left as he faced, a diagram of an outdoor assembly with an X marking a spot labeled “Mayor’s Podium”. The man then turned his gaze to an illuminated timer counting down the seconds until the bomb to which it is attached explodes. Less than five minutes before all his friends were as dead as he would be, though it may take them days to realize it.

His work for the University Gazette had led him to cultivate informants in the community. Given his knowledge of Chinese, that included informant in Chinatown…not far from where the orphanage where he spent so many years lay. Indeed, it was that very proximity that caused him to learn the tongue, though the written language he still was marginally literate in. Barely 800 Kanji could he understand, of a language with more than ten times that many. Still, the note from his informant was clear enough, except one or two words, and brought him here to find out what great danger was being implied.

His first mistake was not bringing a backup, he wanted the story to be his…to show that he could do it on his own without help. It had galled him since the accident, people treating him as less than fully human…or less than adult, because of his impairment. He needed to prove he was up to doing for himself, the way an addict needed his drugs, a deep craving that struck him strait to the core.

He had done well…he had reached the rendezvous and followed the strangers to this warehouse, where he had overheard their plan to unleash a bioweapon from a device hidden in the Mayor’s podium. The bioweapon was fortunately not very communicable in it’s natural state, but would be almost universally fatal if exposure occurred. It was in trying to get out that his chair had knocked into a crate, alerting the terrorists to his presence.

Despite his training in self defense, he was overwhelmed by numbers and the confined area. When his captors had discovered he had no ability to move or feel his legs, they hung him here to torment him. Detailing their plan, in between various physical tortures, they had also set a bomb synchronized to the release timer, so that he would die exactly when the release of the weapon occurred. A bomb who’s timer read less than four minutes.

The weight of his body against the cuffs had so far prevented his escape, it had long ago restricted the blood flow to his hands, rendering them nearly as deadened as his legs. If he could get a grip with one hand and raise the other…but no, he had tried that before, the chain joining the cuffs was simply too short. He tried to slip out of the cuffs…but it was not as easy as stage magicians made it look. The dried blood on his wrists, still seeping in places, showed the effort he had made, as futile as it had proven.

Don’t give up Gregory, he told himself, surely there must be something. He set his jaw, preparing for yet another attempt to find some way to free the cuffs from the pipe…even though the captors had smashed his cell phone and left no way to alert the authorities from the building.

It almost seemed like he could see in his head the path the water pipes made from where he hung to the campus…like it was be easy to step from here to there, though ,miles lay between. Desperately he imagined himself flowing through the pipes like water…no like lightning. In that instant there was a strange crackle and a flash like electricity, followed moments later by a metallic clank as a pair of empty handcuffs hit the floor.

Gregory wondered if he was dreaming as he found himself lying beside the water fountain in the center of campus, not five hundred feet from the graduation ceremony…but decided it could not be a dream, because in his dreams he could walk.

He shouted, but nobody heard him over the cheering and the band playing as the Mayor strode towards the podium. No…he could not let it happen…not after coming this far! He has to get up!

Suddenly, he did rise up…or rather a glowing figure rose up from him…a figure who crossed the distance to the podium in a heartbeat and shouted into the microphone, “Flee for your lives, the podium has been sabotaged, anyone who stands near in fifteen seconds will die!”

The announcement caused an uproar! As the crowd fled in panic, knocking over folding chairs, the band dropped their instruments and ran, and the mayor was hustled off by his escort, the strange figure wrapped his arms and legs around the podium and started glowing with greater intensity. Fifteen seconds later, moments before the weapon would have gone off, the glowing figure exploded, leaving a crater nearly two hundred feet across.

Strangely, Gregory Dahl, a crippled reporter for the University Gazette, was found lying beside the water fountain, unhurt, but without any sign of his wheelchair.
Image
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

Hopefully you enjoyed the origin of the Empowered Character Lumino. Of course, after that blast he can not use his Energy Doppelganger power for weeks, though his minor powers work fine (in fact, he has one more he he will discover later, while trying to get the Energy Double to appear again).
Image
User avatar
PapaMambo
Dungeon Crawler
Posts: 216
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2010 5:28 pm
Location: Winter-peg.. or Winnipeg for those not in the know..

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by PapaMambo »

Crestar wrote:January - Year 1

Theft has run rampart in the streets of the city and killings is on the rise. Recent reports from the police department have shown that the recent increase is associated to a new gang in town known as “Arsenal”. Their recent rampages are constantly making the nightly news and keeping most citizens in their homes. Mayer Redburg reaches out to a neighboring city for additional support to help the local police.

Local Heroes start to take action in the city streets and while the Mayer has constantly warned the masked vigilantes to stay away for their safety, few have heeded the warning.

Total City Population: 52,860
Major Characters: Mayer Redburg
Major Heroes / groups: N/A
Major Villians / groups:Arsenal



Might I suggest upping the population a tad? As you alluded to earlier, mega-heroes are extremely rare, but I imagine that even a handful of superheroes in a city with a population of only 52k would also be quite rare. Perhaps upping the population to something around 500k might be a tad more realistic. I live in a smallish city (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) where the population is just shy of 750k - the size of the city, as well as its population base would help with creating landmarks etc. ie - here we have 2 Universities, 1 or 2 colleges, a modest "downtown area" that is probably 25x25 blocks squared, and 3 large malls with over 100 shops in each. We have approximately 1350 police officers. (1 per every 500 people(ish) ) In a city with 50k people, you aren't likely to even have 1 University (maybe only a community college), probably 1 major mall, and a very small downtown business area - In a city the size you are proposing that would be approximately 105 cops - not a lot, especially once you start throwing heroes into the mix..

Just a thought..

I do like the idea though, and I'll try and flesh out some ideas.
"It isn't the bullet with his name on it that the professional soldier has to fear. It's all those addressed 'To Whom it May Concern'" - Anonymous
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

Gee, the population sure grew fast once the first hero showed up :D

If you prefer, I could use the Minor Hero version (I have one). He has only the Energy Doppelganger power, and that at half strength.
Image
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

Playing a group Axe? Is this a gestalt character or something else? Also, an update would be appreciated. Not sure this 6 group is better though ;)
Image
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

It has been a tough month for Gregory. It started out with having to not exactly tell the police the truth about how he happened to escape the warehouse before it blew up.

He had to explain because the remains of his wheelchair were still there, so there was no getting out of that. He could not tell them how he actually got out, well at the time he did not actually know how he got out, so that can be excused. He also could not explain why, if he had been beaten like he claimed, he had no injuries at all...at least not truthfully. If he had been able to get the energy form to appear again, he might have told them what happened, but even now, five weeks later, he has not managed to get that back.

He had found out other things though.

He now knew how he got out of the warehouse, somehow he could travel through anything conductive like electricity, though not as fast. Not that a mile in two or three seconds is exactly slow, but it was nothing like the speed of electricity, which is about half that of light. Of course, when he got where he was going he was still paralyzed from the waist down.

He knew how he healed: light makes him strong...in fact he seemed to need at least two hours of light a day or he would start to starve. Normal food just did not work for providing energy to him any more, it provided other nutrients he assumed, so he drank vitamin water and suck to provide those, but solid foods made him almost sick. When he was in the light, he healed like crazy...and felt stronger and could see more clearly. He had recently learned, on the first day he had managed to stay out in the light a full eight hours (not an easy thing to do as a student in mid winter), that doing so gave him enough energy to keep the healing all day.

He had found out one other trick, while trying to duplicate what he had done to summon the energy being. He could release his mind from his body into this floating energy eye about the size of a baseball that could fly about and find things. It was a useful thing to do while his body was resting in the light absorbing energy, and it felt good to be able to fly. He felt guilty about the time he looked into a girl's dorm room while she was changing clothes though, because he enjoyed it too much.

He had heard the mayor is trying to put together something to help deal with the rising gang violence. The powers he had were weak, but might still be useful. He would go to see Dr. Frost. First, he would try to make an appointment...
Image
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

Some pretty high powered villains there Axe.
Image
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

OOC: Axe, are you going to post some actual in character actions for your people? I was thinking I might have Gregory observing some actions, trying to learn what your people can do. I can not do that if you never say what you are doing.

BIC: Gregory has found a place in the Alphas, he is the scout. By jumping through wires and pipes he can reach any trouble area faster than anyone else in the team. Then he parks himself somewhere well lit (if possible) and sends his flying eye to scout the trouble. By the time the Blitz arrives...well if it is anywhere but close to base...he usually has some idea what the threat is and can report to the others.

He usually simply keeps watching, and takes notes which he writes up for the paper...though he has to get the articles cleared by the authorities before sending them in. He is not exactly combat oriented it seems.

Sometimes he still hears things from his contacts. He lets the team know he is investigating something and the area he will be in, and then goes out looking. Sometimes it is a human interest story or something the regular police can handle. Once in a while, he has to call for backup from the team.

He remembers his first interview with Dr. Frost. They had set up a testing area where people who wanted to help could go to show they had what it took to be useful. They kind of looked askance when he came in in his wheelchair, but he got attention when he jumped through the wiring from one side of the room to the other and then demonstrated how he healed in sunlight. The flying eye was considered interesting, but not especially useful because it left his body helpless while it was prowling about. He has been working hard to show that he is useful, despite his limitations.
Image
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

It did not take long for Gregory to hear about the dustup in the parking lot. Nobody had actually been close enough to see what exactly happened, but a slender woman tossing around a large man like he was a five pound bag of flour is going to be noticed.

Gregory interviewed people who claimed to be witnesses, quickly isolating the ones with credible stories, and located which tree the man wound up hitting. He did not have tracking skills or the like to rely on, but the excellent vision he had while in daylight let him see that there were some threads and traces of blood from where the branches scratched the thug.

He pulled out his cell phone and called in, "This is Gregory, we had a kidnapping attempt on campus. The victim sent the thug packing with either superhuman powers or masterful martial skills. I have not yet identified the victim, but if you send a CSI team to my location, we will have evidence to catch the perp...possibly from him we can ID the new super."

While waiting on the CSI team to arrive, Gregory started working on the story for the University Gazette.
Image
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

OOC: I would, as an observer, object to your posting "taken over the majority of 'legitimate business' interests" Axe. You are essentially declaring yourself winner without giving the other side a chance to respond. What you should do is post you are attempting to do so, and what means you are using to 1) discover the business fronts and 2) actually perform the takeover. Then Crestar can post what the locals are doing to defend against your actions.
Image
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

The TV station research told Gregory where she was from, it is fairly simple to look for transfer students from Allentown. Since his flying eye had arrived at the chase shortly after she did and followed her back then watched her change (it would have lost her if she had flown at full speed the whole way, but she did not and it caught up when she slowed), he now had a fair idea what she looked like (shadowing is useful, and a baseball sized sensor orb hard to spot). Once he gets the transfer list, he could look at the pictures and know which one she was. It was just a matter of time.
Image
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

Gregory had been having a bit of trouble with school, his duties to the Alphas were cutting into his study time. He was forced to take a couple of days off and buckle down for mid terms.

Possibly his not being out helping others was what did it. He suffered a nightmare, a recurrence of what happened when he first gained his powers. When he opened his eyes he discovered the glowing double standing next to him. Apparently his power to generate it was damaged by it's self destruction and took some time to heal. How long the ability had been back he did not know.

He called up Dr. Frost (who usually worked late) and excitedly informed him of this new development. Clearly more testing would be needed to discover the limits of this power.

It did occur to him that a bionic replacement of his legs might impair his double, which seemed ti be generated from his entire body. Possibly Dr. Frost could come up with a lower body exoskeleton.

In the Meantime, there were still tests to study for. He did find out his friend could fetch and carry things...before he vanished into scattered motes of light. It was plain he should not stay solid long.

It took Gregory a little bit to figure out how to summon him again (when he got to doing so), it was similar to how he summoned his flying eye, but different in that his mind did not go with it...or only a portion of it did.

That weekend, after the final midterm, he zapped to an apartment fire and sent his friend to rescue the people trapped in the upper floors. He watched with his flying eye, pleased that he could do both at the same time. There is bound to be some use for being two places at the same time, with each of him having different abilities.
Image
User avatar
GeraldClamar
D-Bee
Posts: 17
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2011 12:23 pm

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by GeraldClamar »

I do have one question: Aside from the Mega-Hero, are there any othier restrictions on hero characters that one should know about? I have one I would like to use. Plus what is this city's tech level? Is it a major city or a suburb? If it has a population of over 700,000 I would say it's a major city. Any alignment restrictions?
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

OOC: We have a player who is playing 6 villains, half of whom are immortals. I would say that kind of suggests few restrictions apply. I also have no objection to the 2 spellcasters being around...in general terms at least.

Gregory elected to return to the train station and set up a watch using his surveillance skills. Hopefully the Police would help out with a court order and possibly with placing some devices to use for later arrests. Until then, he would keep watch himself when he could.

(this place seems an obvious target for the 6...hoping to be on hand to witness the battle and learn some things about them)
Image
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

It seems a reasonable thing for them to do, but right now their greatest threat is from the Six...they need a way to draw those out more. Still, they might try that, to get some of the pressure off them.
Image
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

A destroyed asset is not useful to anyone...since the Six are mostly taking over assets that used to belong to the Arsenal, they would be causing themselves some trouble.

Addendum 1) Right now Gregory is watching and gathering information...Until something happens I will probably not be posting much in character.

Addendum 2) I did post a question about Axe's characters when he first introduced them, but did not post a STOP because I am not the one in charge of setting limits. Not to mention that I prefer asking questions to trying to dominate. I suppose questions like that one and my asking about his declaring himself successful are a version of a STOP...asking that people look and see if things make sense.
Image
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

Gregory was on his way as soon as he identified where the fight was. Passing from electric line to sub-station to other line he arrived at the scene before Bullet hit the Helicopter, and watched helplessly as it went up in a fireball.

Snapping out of his shock, Gregory let his Doppelganger emerge and told it, "Stop Bullet."

The Energy Double arced across the distance and then fired bolts of energy from it's hands, tagging the flying felon.

Gregory dragged himself to a better lit spot and then sent out his flying eye to watch the area better. He was pretty sure Bullet would prove faster than Lumino, but was almost as sure that Bullet could not harm the energy construct by physical means.
Image
User avatar
AlanGunhouse
Champion
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:55 am
Location: Fostoria, Ohio

Re: Build a Heroes City

Unread post by AlanGunhouse »

Both Gregory and Lumino observed Miss Kinetic, but seeing that she acting on the defensive, each return to what they are doing. Gregory to observing, and Lumino to attacking the threats, starting with Bullet.
Image
Post Reply

Return to “Heroes Unlimited™”