• Introduction & Experimentalism
• Characters & Special Circumstances
• World History, Abbreviated
• Powers

• Hello, and welcome to Fragmentation!
  
  Fragmentation is a roleplay in a modern society taking place on an alternate earth. Superpowers are real, and their users - parahumans, or "capes," as slang refers to them - walk the streets at day, night, and in between, seeking to fulfill their personal agendas. Ranging from justice and vengeance to things as primal as the desire to see people suffer; the parahuman condition offers a wide selection of diverse sociopaths and dependable heroes alike.
  
  This is a reboot of a previous superhero RP with a similar premise. Since then, I've altered things around quite a bit. Here's how this works:
  
  Experiment
  
  Natural Capes
  
  Instead of choosing their superpowers, the players will determine the character's Trigger Event. A Trigger Event is a situation where a person's frustration, stress, fear, adrenaline, or anger reach a critical mass and metaphorically explode: granting them a power as a result. What nebulous void powers come from is truly unknown and possibly best left unexplored, but that doesn't change the fact that whatever source they originate from chooses those who undergo the aforementioned process, not to mention that only a fraction of people have the potential to undergo a Trigger Event.
  
  Based on the Trigger Event, I, the GM, will then craft an appropriate, fitting power for that character. Powers will be directly tied to the Trigger Event. Physical abuse, emotional abuse, environmental rejection, long-term stressors, abstract stressors - each of these will grant a different result, which will further be molded by things like the character's personality, nature, and the details of the Trigger Event. If you want a power that is strong and works outside the rules, get creative.
  
  The system for power-crafting is meticulous with elements selectively picked from a pair of tabletop games with the most thorough rules for such systems. For every possible detail a Trigger Event can include, there is a chart detailing how the power will behave, and much more.
  
  Cauldron Capes
  
  There is another way to obtain powers. Some people, either unaware of what a Trigger Event is, or incapable of experiencing it go around looking for answers. How to get superpowers? If they are truly honest about their desire to gain powers, they are approached by an agent of a mysterious shadow organization known only as Cauldron.
  
  What price to pay for a superpower? It varies. Truth be told, Cauldron isn't interested in money and is even ready to accept favors as a payment to those who can't afford it in an old-fashioned way. Where they get their serums from is just as mysterious as natural Trigger Events. Nonetheless, Cauldron has a wide selection of vials to pick from; often, a vial family is tied around specific types of powers. This grants choice to whoever would seek out Cauldron and its vials, a choice they would otherwise not have.
  
  However, there is a price to pay for dealing with the devil. Each Cauldron vial has a low - usually lower than 10% - chance of deviancy. The results vary. Rarely, people's bodies mutate. Other times, their powers are unreliable and bizarre, having seemingly no middle setting between Off and Obliterate. Sometimes, the power is semi-sentient or interferes in their daily life. The risk exists and you have to be willing to take it in your bid for power.
  
  Or, if you prefer, you can always trade your humanity for greater power, if you don't care about it.
  
  
  ​
  
  Setting
  
  June 12th, 2019: Brockton Bay, Massachusetts
  
  Brockton Bay is a city so infamous for its cape activity and crime that people all across America - and even the world - refer to Brocktonites with a special kind of perspective. Each person living there must surely be a veteran in surviving encounters with powered villains, if they can live there on a daily basis!
  
  The truth, as it were, turns out to be far more boring and mundane.
  
  Although the gangs - especially ones governed by parahuman leaders - have been growing and even thriving that all ended when Leviathan struck in 2016. The Protectorate arrived a bit too late, and the local capes - villains and heroes alike - fell to the might of the Sea Endbringer. The city followed, almost sinking due to damage to the aquifier, but was saved before it had been too late.
  
  There has been a ceasefire present between the major groups for almost two years. Or rather, what is left of them. The ABB, the Empire 88, the Merchants, no one is making any moves because no one has the strength to. Even the local PRT force has been devastated.
  
  So now, after years of reconstruction, the city is ripe for picking. A fresh stage, rinsed in saltwater, prepared to greet new players on the chessboard.
  
  
• Fragmentation will be a RP with a mix of player and GM involvement - both sides will be capable of creating stories on both sides. A character can become a gang leader, and the GM will be there to throw an enemy or two at him, offer him allies, or give him a random encounter, but players can cooperate as well.
  
  Please, keep in mind that the character's personality, motives, and drives will be important to the RP. It also matters whether or not the characters have parahuman relatives, or if there were other people who Triggered at the same time they did. These things are very important.
  
  You may receive a power you don't like. In that event, players are allowed to veto powers for their character, but only once, and only if they hadn't posted as said character. Afterward, they are allowed to alter their Trigger Event.
• 
  
  
  ■​
  
  May 20, 1982
  
  On May twentieth, 1982, an ocean liner was crossing from Plymouth to Boston when a passenger spotted him. He was naked, his arms to his sides, his long hair blowing in the wind as he stood in the sky, nearly a hundred feet above the gently cresting waves. His skin and hair can only be described as a burnished gold. With neither body hair nor clothes to cover him, it is said, he seemed almost artificial.
  
  After a discussion including passenger and crew, the liner detoured to get closer. It was a sunny day, and passengers crowded to the railings to get a better look. As if sharing their curiosity, the figure drew closer as well. His expression was unchanging, but witnesses at the scene reported that he appeared deeply sad.
  
  'I thought he was going to crack his facade and cry any moment’, said Grace Lands, ‘But when I reached out and touched his fingertips, I was the one who burst into tears.’
  
  ‘That boat trip was a final journey for me. I had cancer, and I wasn’t brave enough to face it. Can’t believe I’m admitting this in front of a camera, but I was going back to Boston, where I was born, to end things myself. After I met him, I changed my mind. Didn’t matter anyways. I went to a doctor, and he said there was no sign I ever had the disease.'
  
  
  ■​
  
  On that fateful day, the golden man showed himself for the first time. Was he an angel? Was he God? Or something more sinister? Only months later, the first parahumans began to appear, and society was uprooted from its peace by their appearance. And in just five years, heroes and villains began to walk the streets and fight one another. This shattered any illusion of them being divine figures - they were people, flawed as people were, and with powers above human. These parahumans had to be regulated and integrated into society.
  
  In the late eighties, the Protectorate was created, its mission statement to integrate capes into society and make the public trust parahumans. To bridge the gap between the two worlds. And soon after, the Parahuman Response Teams, meant to protect people from the threat they presented, followed. These two organizations spiraled upward, seemingly leading humankind towards a golden future.
  
  But...
  
  Not all things can always go according to plan. It was December 13th 1993, when Behemoth made his first appearance. He was unlike anything that the PRT had ever seen; a monster, forty-five feet and upwards, capable of ignoring any resistances or powers, a true dynakinetic manipulating countless elemental powers, and his skin seemingly impervious to any attack. After destroying Marun Field, he dug underground and hid. He attacked again and again, at least once every few months, always targeting a big city.
  
  He was thought of as a solitary case, until Leviathan emerged not three years later in 1996, followed by the Simurgh in 2003. The Endbringers, they are now called. They appear interchangeably, attacking a city and withdrawing when driven back.
  
  And now, they lurk in the darkness, fragmenting us.
• Each parahuman's power differs. The PRT has a system of power classifications. Classifications can overlap, and have numeric ratings to judge how teams should respond:
  
  [Mover] - Has a power enhancing mobility.
  [Shaker] - Has a power with an area of effect.
  [Brute] - Has enhanced strength or durability.
  [Breaker] - Can shift into another state.
  [Master] - Can control others or create minions.
  [Tinker] - Can create or alter devices with futuris[tic technology.
  [Blaster] - Is a ranged, offensive threat.
  [Thinker] - Focuses on information gathering.
  [Striker] - Has a power that is melee-ranged or touch-based.
  [Changer] - Can alter their form or appearance.
  [Trump] - Can manipulate powers in some capacity.
  [Stranger] - Focuses on stealth or infiltration.
  
  Powers are always related to the Trigger Event, but never straightforward. Just getting stabbed in the face won't get you armor. There will always be a twist, sub-mechanics, special elements, conditions, and they will sometimes be ironic.