notasci
Hello darkness my old friend...
This is just me kinda testing the waters for how much interest there'd be for roleplay in a world I've been working on that I call Project Overdrive; the short, simple explanation I like to pitch it with is that it is "Mad Max meets Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, DC, and Marvel in a bar and asks if they want to hang out with George Orwell for a while," though I like to think it's more than a really weird combination of rather... unrelated styles. It's following the rise of psychic powers culminating in a century of upheaval that results in a demonic incursion of the world in the late 20th century (the world is alt. history a bit, psychic powers start arising shortly after Friedrich Nietzsche's 1883 Also Sprach Zarathustra and dramatically shape the 20th century's conflicts). Following this there has been dramatic sea level changes, as well as massive desertification and a collapse of society.
The world is largely focused on North America, which is split into four regions; the Provisional Government, the Dominion of Toron, California, and the Ravages. The Provisional Government spans from Nova Scotia to the Floridan Coast, and west to Denver at the most (a very narrow panhandle) and is based in Atlas, former Atlanta, as a contingency of the US government; the Dominion of Toron spans from the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay and is actually a collection of city states, with Toron as the most powerful of them, and is largely dominated by groups similar to mafias; California is a region dominated by the Kingdom of Francis and the Church of the Light in Sancro (Sacramento), though has dozens of regional kingdoms spanning the Pacific Northwest (with Kaskadia in the far north) to the Mojave and Baja California; the Ravages are the rest of the continent, areas that are left with too low of a population to recover and have been laid to waste by the wars. Not much is known of what lies south of the Rio Grande anymore, but there are rumors that the Yucatan Peninsula is host to a rather powerful republic still, not that contact with it is maintained too well by any of the northern governments.
In the majority of the world, people with superhuman powers are government assets. The Provisional Government requires all superhumans to report for research, the Church of Light trains espers to function as exorcists who travel about protecting people, and in Toron the mafias are usually led by very powerful individuals who maintain authority through their superpowers. Not all superhumans want to work with these organizations but most who don't are hunted down and forced to, or generally stay to themselves. Powers can vary greatly, from generic psychic/ESP abilities to specifics like kinetic energy transferal or molecular transmutation.
Of course, entertainment is a major part of culture still, and in the vast interior of the continent, in the former American Midwest, motor racing has become the prime form of it. This comes from the roving motor gangs that roamed about before the Provisional Government stepped in and took over, and has spread east all the way to the coasts. Dance halls are popular as are bars, and radio stations continue to broadcast music from before the Incursion as well as new music and live broadcasts throughout the wastes, as well as radio dramas and news. Card games are extremely popular as are sports like wresting, fencing, and small team games like tennis; due to the infrastructure and population changes, large team games like basketball, baseball, football, soccer, are far less popular than they once were.
What I'm imagining is a story set somewhere in the center of the continent, out in the Provisional Government's frontiers, allowing characters from across the regions to potentially come across each other. I am working on a really rough way to rank powers and abilities in a set of stats that really only matter for a general sense of scale (Power, Durability (staying power), Reflex (speed to use), Finesse (accuracy), and Potentiality (room for growth)) for any combat, and a ranking to determine general, overall strength. Normal humans are powerless, including above average ones; above that is superhuman where powers manifest, then metahuman where powers put them leagues above the most powerful normal human. Above that, but locked from player characters, are parahumans and suprahumans, as well as unclassified rankings that have only happened once or twice in the known history of the world. If demon player characters would be in or not is still somewhat up for question, but likely not as demons tend to have more than a single power and are inherently more powerful.
Chances are I would see what interested parties are thinking of playing before working out the specifics of the plot, but some possibilities are that it would be a border conflict with another power or even with some warlords in the Ravages, government authorities (or mafia or church authorities) coming in to find some reported superhumans for recruitment, or even rogue agents going and trying to seize power for themselves (players could do that, or stand against someone that wants to). Since it's more of a setting and base I'm more looking to see what kind of characters and stories people would be interested in as well. If you have questions feel free to ask, because I'm sure I've left some stuff out.
The world is largely focused on North America, which is split into four regions; the Provisional Government, the Dominion of Toron, California, and the Ravages. The Provisional Government spans from Nova Scotia to the Floridan Coast, and west to Denver at the most (a very narrow panhandle) and is based in Atlas, former Atlanta, as a contingency of the US government; the Dominion of Toron spans from the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay and is actually a collection of city states, with Toron as the most powerful of them, and is largely dominated by groups similar to mafias; California is a region dominated by the Kingdom of Francis and the Church of the Light in Sancro (Sacramento), though has dozens of regional kingdoms spanning the Pacific Northwest (with Kaskadia in the far north) to the Mojave and Baja California; the Ravages are the rest of the continent, areas that are left with too low of a population to recover and have been laid to waste by the wars. Not much is known of what lies south of the Rio Grande anymore, but there are rumors that the Yucatan Peninsula is host to a rather powerful republic still, not that contact with it is maintained too well by any of the northern governments.
In the majority of the world, people with superhuman powers are government assets. The Provisional Government requires all superhumans to report for research, the Church of Light trains espers to function as exorcists who travel about protecting people, and in Toron the mafias are usually led by very powerful individuals who maintain authority through their superpowers. Not all superhumans want to work with these organizations but most who don't are hunted down and forced to, or generally stay to themselves. Powers can vary greatly, from generic psychic/ESP abilities to specifics like kinetic energy transferal or molecular transmutation.
Of course, entertainment is a major part of culture still, and in the vast interior of the continent, in the former American Midwest, motor racing has become the prime form of it. This comes from the roving motor gangs that roamed about before the Provisional Government stepped in and took over, and has spread east all the way to the coasts. Dance halls are popular as are bars, and radio stations continue to broadcast music from before the Incursion as well as new music and live broadcasts throughout the wastes, as well as radio dramas and news. Card games are extremely popular as are sports like wresting, fencing, and small team games like tennis; due to the infrastructure and population changes, large team games like basketball, baseball, football, soccer, are far less popular than they once were.
What I'm imagining is a story set somewhere in the center of the continent, out in the Provisional Government's frontiers, allowing characters from across the regions to potentially come across each other. I am working on a really rough way to rank powers and abilities in a set of stats that really only matter for a general sense of scale (Power, Durability (staying power), Reflex (speed to use), Finesse (accuracy), and Potentiality (room for growth)) for any combat, and a ranking to determine general, overall strength. Normal humans are powerless, including above average ones; above that is superhuman where powers manifest, then metahuman where powers put them leagues above the most powerful normal human. Above that, but locked from player characters, are parahumans and suprahumans, as well as unclassified rankings that have only happened once or twice in the known history of the world. If demon player characters would be in or not is still somewhat up for question, but likely not as demons tend to have more than a single power and are inherently more powerful.
Chances are I would see what interested parties are thinking of playing before working out the specifics of the plot, but some possibilities are that it would be a border conflict with another power or even with some warlords in the Ravages, government authorities (or mafia or church authorities) coming in to find some reported superhumans for recruitment, or even rogue agents going and trying to seize power for themselves (players could do that, or stand against someone that wants to). Since it's more of a setting and base I'm more looking to see what kind of characters and stories people would be interested in as well. If you have questions feel free to ask, because I'm sure I've left some stuff out.
