Realistic or Modern A Will, A Way [Information Thread]

[Birdsie]

Information Thread

This thread contains key information to the setting. Posting in it is allowed only with permission.

 

[Birdsie]

Local Capes & People of Interest

Emergency Parahuman Response, Bridgemore Department

Spoiler

Head Office

Director Victor Schuurman​

Deputy Director Andrew Stark, EPR Hero Tactical & Field Oversight​

​

Cpt. McNessa, EPR Tactical & Operations​

Graduated EPR team leader, oversees EPR teams, their transportation & equipment.​

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Vasser, PR and Liaison​

Branding, public management, spin, interactions with government, media, public.​

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Sheldon, Accounting​

Fund management and fundraising.​

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Dr. Seidel, Testing, research, analysis​

Powers research, countermeasure development, tinker device transportation, CSI.​

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Greene, Informations​

Information management & gathering.​

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Campbell, Headquarters​

Construction, food, sleeping areas, supply, garage.​

Heroes

Spoiler

[Global]
Scion - a mysterious golden man who appeared in the eighties and has been saving people from accidents and natural disasters all over the world. Seems to have much more than one power.
Legend - a powerful flier with an extremely powerful ability to generate a massive amount of diverse lasers, curving, thermal, kinetic, and more.
Alexandria - a flier with a nearly-indestructible personal forcefield, brute and thinker powers.
Eidolon - the strongest trump on the planet, who cycles between several abilities at once and quickly grows veteran at them.
Mr. Worldwide - the strongest teleporter capable of appearing anywhere on the planet he desires.
Chief Director Costa-Brown - the woman in charge of all EPR operations.

[Local]
Neighborhood Paladins
???

Endbringers

Spoiler

The Endbringers are a group of mysterious creatures that appeared out of nowhere at around the same time that powers started appearing, and since then, their ranks have been expanding over time.

The Endbringers make coordinated attacks on cities all across the world, with visible patterns. They seem to only attack large cities with populations of humans rather than rural areas, and they are never seen attacking together. In addition, Endbringer attacks only occur once every month to a few months. All global hero organizations gather in any city where the Endbringer Alert goes off and try to hold them off and beat them back in ginormous battles. Villains tend to make alliances with hero organizations when an Endbringer Attack is incoming; irrespective of previous grudges, as it is a fight for the very survival of mankind.

Listed in the order they appeared in.

Behemoth - a gigantic dynakinetic monster with one red glowing eye; has the appearance of a slightly anthropomorphic bear built out of solid and jagged obsidian and rock. Anyone that gets within the range of several meters is instantly obliterated unless they possess some kind of special forcefield ability; can get past the Manton Limit to some extent. Behemoth is a dynakinetic, capable of generating numerous Blaster effects with Shaker-esque range, starting with tame things like fire and lighting, and ending with particle radiation and plasma. In addition, his skin's outer layer is tougher than most metals and it only hardens as you go deeper.
Leviathan - a water monster, smaller than Behemoth but still the size of a house. Can manipulate water on a macro scale, creating tidal waves whose surface pressure and velocity make them as hard as concrete during impact. Less bulky and durable than Behemoth, but you still need a lot of damage potential to do anything to it. Has slight 'pseudo-speedster' powers that allow him to move at high speeds when submerged in water, and he leaves behind an afterimage of water as strong as his tidal waves.
Simiurgh - a flying Endbringer in the shape of a naked woman with numerous wings surrounding her body and allowing her for flight; she uses two of them as makeshift clothing, ostensibly to retain modesty. She isn't as much 'raw power' as her older brothers, but the aftermath of her fights are far more destructive. The Simiurgh releases psychic waves that return back to her in a form of 'psychic echolocation.' As she does so, she maps the brains of anyone within range and can subtly manipulate them over time, and even turn people insane. In addition, she has telekinetic powers and Trump qualities that allow her to gain the abilities of any Thinker and Tinker cape in the range of her psychic sonar by piggybacking on their brains. She can use her telekinesis to rip apart technology near herself and construct devices in mid-air for self-defense.

Rogues

Spoiler

Rogues are those who utilize their abilities for business, personal, societal or neutral reasons and those who strive not to use their abilities at all. Most work day jobs, and some make money using their powers. Rogues who sign up with the EPR and stay out of trouble can receive a stipend, and - depending on the department - some protection. Encouraging the existence of rogues was part of the next phase of the EPR's plans to integrate parahumans, after establishing heroes as relatable celebrities.

[Local]
Thinker Tank - a number of thinkers whose identities are protected. In exchange for helping in data gathering, they receive a payment from the EPR. They have helped crack down on criminal operations in the past.
Panacea - a Striker with the ability to modify organisms on touch, up to and including healing damage and even permanent injuries or diseases such as cancer. She makes regular visits to the local hospitals and offers aid to injured heroes. She can't use these powers on herself.

Independents

Spoiler

Independents or Corporate Heroes are heroes who either work alone or in a team not led by the EPR, but who have signed in and provided details on their power and therefore are legally permitted to operate as heroes on their own. Due to a bill that was passed in the past, they are allowed to collect items, such as money, from the wallets of apprehended criminals to sustain themselves. Corporate heroes often form teams and are supported and funded by a corporation or by the public.

[Local]
Shroud - an independent hero who operated solo for the last four years, mostly dealt with non-powered criminals. Noted to be abrasive, cynical, extremely rude, aggressive, cocksure and combative; sees everything as a challenge, but ultimately he's one of the good guys even if he's not nice about it. Striker power involves changing how friction applies to cloth. Costume is a layered cloak with several trailing bits. Seen shouting down someone on video who called him "ribbons." Violent tendencies and brutal applications but has never downright killed anyone, explains that he's 'just cleaning up the filth on the streets.'
Pyre - a heroine who operated solo for the last eleven months. Has a Brute/Shaker power which allows her to draw strength and eventually gain invulnerability as nearby objects burn. Costume is mostly black non-flammable leather clothing and a motorbike helmet. Surprisingly nice and polite, but enjoys fighting. Shockingly, not a pyromaniac.
Avenger - if Shroud is 10 out of 100 on the violence scale, then Avenger is a straight hundred. Shaker power allows him to inflict an amount of pain roughly twice as strong to the one he is feeling upon any and all enemies within line of sight. Despite a weak power, he is a menace, as he is a trained martial artist and uses firearms. Typical method is to go in guns-and-explosives blazing in any place there's crime, collateral damage be damned. Has a take-no-shit attitude, vindictive, hateful. A bigger threat than half of the villains in the city, to be honest. Wanted for thousands of dollars worth of property damage, countless cases of unlawful parahuman assault & murder w/ power, and other crimes; his record book is the length of a novel. The edgiest guy you've seen, trust me.

[Team: Neighborhood Paladins]
Storm Knight - team leader and tinker whose specialty lies in modular pieces that, when put together, create a suit of power armor. Provides equipment for the rest of his team and is willing to work with the EPR. Responsible and very cognizant.
Fortress - capable of creating defensive fortifications using shapeable forcefields, and can improve these fortifications once they reach a certain level of complexity, adding turrets or even minion soldiers made from pure forcefield. Fortifications have a limit on how many add-ons they can have. Brave and wanting to do more than just set up defenses.
Chariot - speedster who can move at up to five times the speed of a normal human, but has to trade it with the inversely proportional ability to interact with the world; her punches become as weak as those of a ten-year-old. In addition, running is not maneuverable. Happy with her position on the team.
Phosphorus - Blaster power allows him to create a burning shower of sparks which combust on contact with any surface and slowly burn through objects that normally shouldn't be flammable. These flames can be willed to disappear instantly.
Maiden - heroine with Master-based seduction powers, that can temporarily make anyone love her to the point of them losing all logical reasoning. Not as effeminate or seductive as one would suspect. Used to be a solo hero called 'Sweetheart' for two months before joining.
Panacea [See Rogues] - Panacea is considered a part of the team, but she doesn't participate in combat.

Villains

Spoiler

Villains are parahumans who utilize their powers in crime, organized, violent, or otherwise. Depending on the threat they represent, they may be sent away to the Baumann Containment Centre, also known as the Birdcage, or a kill order may be legally placed upon them.

[National]
Nilbog - a Master villain who took over the town of Ellisburg and is considered an S-Class Threat; he received a kill order long ago. Due to his powers, the EPR had to wall off the entire area, which is kept under strict surveillance. Bombing the areas of Ellisburg does not work to get rid of the threat.
Slaughterhouse Nine - a group of nine super villains whose numbers rotate as the weaker members die. Every member is a psychopathic mass murderer and serial killer, with a kill order on their heads. Considered an S-Class Threat.

[Local]
Avenger - if Shroud is 10 out of 100 on the violence scale, then Avenger is a straight hundred. Shaker power allows him to inflict an amount of pain roughly twice as strong to the one he is feeling upon any and all enemies within line of sight. Despite a weak power, he is a menace, as he is a trained martial artist and uses firearms. Typical method is to go in guns-and-explosives blazing in any place there's crime, collateral damage be damned. Has a take-no-shit attitude, vindictive, hateful. A bigger threat than half of the villains in the city, to be honest. Wanted for thousands of dollars worth of property damage, countless cases of unlawful parahuman assault & murder w/ power, and other crimes; his record book is the length of a novel. The edgiest guy you've seen, trust me.
Marquis [Apprehended] - a superpowered serial killer, whose Changer ability allows him to create weapons out of bone in his own arms. A cultured man, hiding a psychotic inside. After murdering Iron Rain, he gave himself over to the EPR and was sent to the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center; some theorize he did it willingly to avoid retribution from the Empire Eighty-Eight.
Coil - a supervillain who leads groups of private mercenaries but doesn't ostensibly control any territory. Not much is known about his power, only that it's related to 'probability manipulation.' Most other villains are wary of him, and in turn, he shows no fear.
Patch - a serial killer has been hunting down local Tinkers and already claimed two lives. Seeing as the equipment of his victims was always stripped away from their corpses, it is suspected he stole them for his own use. Powers unknown suspected Tinker. Preliminarily classified as Tinker ? and given codename "Patch."

[Videogame Junkies]
Leet & Uber - a duo of Tinker and Thinker. Leet can build virtually any tinkertech device, but the more he dabbled in the area of said device, the bigger the chance it malfunctions. Uber can perform any action with precision, but lacks the aptitude for things (ie: can perform martial arts recovery or kick, but lacks the physical strength or mindset a typical martial artist would have.) They change the themes of their costumes every now and then, mimicking characters from various video games, then they live stream their villainy with several hours of delay. They make more money from the live streams than actual robberies and such.
Player One - has the ability to manifest a single power or weapon of a character in a videogame, but he must have a container with information from that videogame on himself and sacrifice it and all data on it to use said power. It has a time limit dependent on the intensity of the power. Is friends with Game Over, but they work separately.
Game Over - yet another videogame-themed villain; how original. Game Over has the ability to create minions that are identical to characters from videogames, though he has to play them for the minions to get more power and strength. He can't have more than three at a time. Is friends with Player One, but they work separately.

[Gang: Azn Bad Boys]
Lung - leader of the ABB, an extremely powerful Changer, Brute, and Blaster. In addition to minor Brute qualities and a pyrokinetic Blaster power that are available to him at all times, he has a Changer power that slowly mutates him as he fights, making him stronger as the fight continues, to no recorded limit thus far. During Leviathan's attack on Japan, Lung fought the Endbringer and eventually grew powerful enough to challenge it and fight it one-on-one completely on his own, much to the bewilderment of everyone watching, and to the point where he eventually scared Leviathan back into the sea. Debatably one of the Top 10 Strongest Capes on the planet. His mutations seem to change him into a white-chitin plated dragon-like creature, and he eventually gains wings that permit flight.
Oni Lee - a Mover with the ability to blink city-wide distances at a time, as long as he knows where he's going. Skilled martial artist, uses a sword in combat. Quiet and aloof, never disobeys Lung's orders.
Bakuda - a Tinker; her specialty lies purely in explosives and explosive accesories. Has been known to make some insane designs, such as bombs that could narrow space or alter time to some extent, and more.
Shinigami - a Striker with a decay-touch ability, who joined rather recently. According to reports, he is obsessed with powers and believes they are the gifts of different deities. A religious nut, to summarize.
Senshi - a Brute/Mover with enhanced mobility and strength, known to be able to topple cars and throw motorcycles. In addition, he has a minor Striker power that lets him imbue held objects with an acidic effect that makes them burn through the next matter they come in contact with. He uses this in conjunction with a sword, using it to cut people apart.

[Gang: Archer's Bridge Merchants]
Skidmark - forcefield user whose forcefield are created gradually and over time, starting at being as strong as a powerful wind and ending up strong enough to deflect oncoming cars back whever they came from. An absolute wreck of a human being who abstains from hygiene and leads the ABM.
Squealer - Tinker, specializing in vehicles. Her contraptions are jury-rigged and have a 'junkyard' aesthetic to them, often with an engine whose squeals wake up everyone in the neighborhood at night as she drives by. Psychotic and extremely cheerful, but in the wrong way; has no qualms about killing.
Mush - gathers debris and rocks from the environment, enveloping himself in an all-purpose armor. Slow process but it results in decently strong combat potential if he's allowed preparation time.
Trainwreck - Tinker whose focus lies in steam-powered and redundant devices that fell out of use long ago. His designs are surprisingly slick; his hygiene, not so much.
Scrub - has the ability to create a storm of bubble-shaped explosions over a chosen area, completely disintegrating everything that comes in contact with said bubbles. Very high attack potential and best avoided.
Shocker - a Striker with the ability to inflict lightning damage in a short area around himself. He can also charge himself with static electricity and deliver it through punches. Has a very plain personality for a power like his.

[Gang: Empire Eighty-Eight]
Allfather [Deceased] - Allfather was the founder of the Empire Eighty-Eight and had a power to match. He had the ability to create blades and metallic weapons in midair then launch them as projectiles en masse; the mechanism was passed onto his children in various ways. He died from old age in the nineties.
Iron Rain [Deceased] - Allfather's daughter and a potential successor to the Empire Eighty-Eight, she was a stern believer in her father's ideology. Her power was the ability to create weapons and drop them from the sky, hence the name. She died at the hands of Marquis.
Kaiser - the current leader of the Empire Eighty-Eight, and seemingly less zealous than his predecessors, some even hypothesize Kaiser might not believe in fascism at all, and he just pretends to keep himself in control of the gang. Nonetheless, he is as bad as the rest of them. His power is the ability to grow metallic weapons out of the ground in range.
Purity - Kaiser's supposed wife, she has a Mover and Blaster ability that allows her to create light with kinetic properties for ranged attacks and flying. Think of a flashlight, except it punches you when it flashes. She doesn't have a known costume, as her power lets her glow to the point where looking at her is difficult. One of Kaiser's lieutenants.
Krieg - classified as a Brute, Krieg has the power to manipulate kinetic forces in a variety of ways, though it is most powerful within a certain radius of himself. Hostile forces will move slower or get disrupted/deflected by a controlled, unconscious alteration of air friction/resistance. Hostile enemies may have trouble breathing. In addition, his actions have increased results for energy involved; he can punt someone to send them flying through the wall. One of Kaiser's lieutenants.
Hookwolf - has the ability to turn into a multitude of coiling razor-sharp blades and unwind into bristling shapes and wreak havoc by moving in this form. He is difficult to hurt when using his power, as the blades are not actual parts of his body. One of Kaiser's lieutenants.
Fenja & Menja - superpowered twins with a Valkyrie theme and the ability to grow several stories in size, with proportionate strength and durability.
Night - when unobserved by anyone, Night turns into a massive monster. Her monster form has inhuman speed, strength, and durability from the nigh-invincible exterior of an amorphous "ink blot" body that is paradoxically composed of sharp edges and has many long, insect-like legs that end in claws. Fog's wife.
Fog - turns into a sentient fog that causes harms to those within it, by slowly poisoning them. Can deliver horrific internal damage should a subject inhale the mist that comprises his other form. Night's husband.
Crusader - creates ghostly projections that he can control consciously. These projections are immune to all forms of damage, but they sure well can punch you.
Alabaster - Alabaster is a young man with a 'flawless appearance.' He has unnaturally smooth and literally white skin and hair. His eyes are also completely white devoid of pupils, iris, and visible blood vessels, though this does not impede his vision. His power causes him to perfectly regenerate every 4.3 seconds, returning him to an undamaged state. Favors firearms.
Stormtiger - aerokinetic who developed several unique abilities for his powers, such as generating claws of dense air, launching condensed balls of air as explosive blasts and drawing smells to himself. He can achieve very limited flight, mostly in the form of hovering or enhanced jumping.
Cricket - two major power aspects; greatly enhanced reflexes and speed allow her to dodge attacks and she is also a powerful acoustokinetic. She can use this as a form of echolocation or even to induce strong nausea in humans.
Viktor - has a Thinker power that lets him learn the skills of anyone he spends time with. He used it to become an expert martial artist, computer hacker, and skilled in various forms of gunplay. Othala's husband.
Othala - has a Trump ability that lets her grant other people one power from a pool of several, but this can only be used on one target at a time and only one power can be granted; they range from pyrokinesis to healing and flight. Viktor's wife.
Rune - can inscribe symbols on objects with a touch which takes several seconds, but can then control the objects telekinetically with extreme precision and power.
Holocaust - a pyrokinetic with the ability to create localized fiery storms that persist for several seconds, but no more than three can exist at a time, and the storms last for several seconds and cannot be willingly dispelled. Originally a member of Gesellschaft.
Adalwolf - a Tinker whose designs incorporate a single, extremely versatile and strong power source, then spread it over every single mechanic his tinkertech employs. Has built power suits and other items. Originally a member of Gesellschaft.

Local Groups

Teams

Spoiler

Bridgemore Brigade: the newly established EPR hero team.
Neighborhood Paladins: a team themed around medieval and dark ages mythology that operated for the last two years. They've not done any major progress in that time, save for helping the general stability of the neighborhood and capturing a villain or two.

Gangs

Spoiler

ABB / Azn Bad Boys: A gang that hires exclusively to Asian immigrants who arrived in the city. It has a small amount of parahumans, but their leader, Lung, is one of the strongest capes in America, if not the world and went toe-to-toe with Leviathan at one point. They mostly operate in the northern docks.
Archer's Bridge Merchants: A gang of superpowered drug dealers, who operate in the docks and western parts of the city. Have some territorial conflict with the ABB, but only skirmishes. The merchants are a result of drug dealers and users gaining powers, forming a team, and then using those powers ensure they can get rich selling and taking drugs. As small group with smaller goals, they were never able to carve out much of a following in Bridgemore. Consequently, they did not engender respect among other cape groups in the city. Led by Skidmark.
Empire Eight-Eight: A neo-Nazi group, mostly operating in the southern parts of Bridgemore. They are working together with another neo-Nazi organization known as Gesselschaft, and exchange funds, resources, and other things. Led by Kaiser, with three main lieutenants: Purity, Krieg and Hookwolf. The gang can trace its roots back to the post-War era, when a disconcerted but anonymous believer in the Nazi agenda started it; that man would later become Allfather, a villain, and Kaiser's father. At this point, the gang's ideology has degraded and they mostly keep to it for appearance's sake and because Gesselschaft provides them with useful resources. Most likely around half of the members aren't actual Nazis but joined due to the sheer prestige of the group.
Videogame Junkies: Not an actual gang, but they have a similar theme. Bridgemore has surprisingly high amounts of videogame-themed capes, at the staggering number of four.

 

[Birdsie]

Power Facts & Information

Power Classifications

In the interest of researching the parahuman condition, the EPR has created a set of power classifications that are being used to categorize powers for the sake of recordkeeping and security. Please, keep in mind these classifications are merely ways of understanding powers and aren't necessarily a strict definition or mechanism.

The classifications are as follows:

Spoiler

Mover: Has a power enhancing or promoting mobility.

Shaker: Has a power with an area of effect with no strict definition for "area of effect;" affects more than 'one' target.

Brute: Has enhanced durability or strength, or other strictly physical parameters that aren't Mover-related.

Breaker: Can shift into another state or alter physics in a meaningful way around them.

Master: Can control other people in various ways or create minions to serve them.

Tinker: Can create devices with futuristic or alien technology that are impossible to reverse-engineer or understand due to working around or outside the laws of physics. Their works are colloquially referred to as "tinkertech."

Blaster: Has a ranged, often but not always offensive, power.

Thinker: Focuses on enhancements to thinking and gathering information, enhanced senses or enhanced intellect. One of the more esoteric classifications.

Striker: Has a touch-based or melee-range power that doesn't involve enhanced strength or bodily parameters.

Changer: Can alter their form or appearance in various ways.

Trump: Can manipulate powers in some capacity, such as granting or nullifying powers, rarely copying or cycling between.

Stranger: Focuses on stealth and infiltration, remaining obscured and undetected.

It's possible for parahumans to have sub or hybrid power categories. For example, "Brute/Striker" means someone has a power that ties together Brute and Striker elements into one mechanic, while "Brute (Striker)" means someone has a Brute power that has a sub-application as a Striker power.

In addition to these categories, the EPR also rates powers on a scale of 1-10 to categorize how dangerous they are and how many countermeasures are required. Ratings above 10 are possible and are known as "S-Class" threats, often representing danger potentially on a national scale or simply being incredibly difficult to beat.

Manton Effect

A common mechanism in all powers is that they rarely target humans. For example, a person may have the power to cause things in their vicinity to combust spontaneously, but in many cases, human beings will be exempt from being affected by this. This mechanism has been discovered by a scientist named William Manton, and has been named after him as the Manton Effect. This does not mean, however, that a cape with the ability to fire laser beams won't be ably to fry a human with them. It is an effect that prevents powers from affecting humans by spawning directly inside their bodies.

 

[Birdsie]

System Information

Wound Stages

Power descriptions written by the GM may include effects that, for example: "Cause Stage 1 wounds." In the interest of keeping players informed what kind of wounds powers cause, the scale is presented here.

Spoiler

Stage 1: Small injuries such as bruising, cuts, or surface damage. No risk of death, small risk of infection, damage will heal on its own without inconveniencing the person.

Stage 2: Moderate injuries such as sprains, dislocations, or deeper cuts that tear muscles or continue bleeding. No risk of death, moderate risk of infection if skin is broken. Damage can heal on its own, but will take a few days to a week of inactivity to do so. It may mildly inconvenience the person.

Stage 3: Major injuries such as broken bones or ribs, organ damage or concussions, severed muscles or tendons, internal bleeding, and so on. Moderate risk of death without immediate medical attention, high risk of infection if skin is broken. These types of injuries can risk death or disability if emergency medical services are not brought in as soon as possible, and even then will take weeks or a month of inactivity to recover from.

Stage 4: Severe injuries including excessive bleeding either internal or external, unconsciousness, dismemberment, organ failure, brain damage, and so on. High risk of death without immediate medical attention, high risk of infection if skin was broken, moderate risk of permanent or lasting disability. Even with immediate emergency intervention, there is still a low risk of death from injuries of this severity. These types of injuries can take months to recover from in the best case scenarios.

Stage 5: Instant death. The person's body is fully destroyed, and likely spread over the area in several spoonfuls. If you're trying to be a hero, this isn't how you do it.