If you happen to see this, PLEASE DON'T APPLY TO THIS GAME. At present I'm trying this concept out, to see if it's something I'd actually enjoy running.

An OOC Aside (or, A Broadside; or, The Real Reason This Is A Mature-Rated Game)

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Let's address the elephant in the room first.

The entire proposal of this campaign is obviously meant to be an allusion to the events of the Trump Administration, presenting thinly-veiled "expy" representations of real people in order to deal more objectively (or, in some cases, more idealistically) with political issues and current events, in classic comic book fashion.

This isn't a shoehorning of political beliefs into an unfit medium. Comics have always been political. One need look no further than Marvel Comics: Captain America punched Hitler in the jaw before America got into World War II (many Americans wanted nothing to do with another European war; many were even pro-Nazi!). Writer Steve Englehart intended the leader of the Secret Empire, Number 1, to be none other than then-President Richard Nixon. DC was no less shy later on; many years before 9/11 convinced Frank Miller to descend into Islamophobia and fascism, The Dark Knight Returns had unflattering things to say about Superman's role as a tool of American imperialism by the Reagan Administration.

When I came up with this campaign in 2018, I was unable to bring myself to run it, because I found the realities of living in the Trump Administration too depressing to even satirize in a game. Family and friends had voted for him and continued to support him. Entire communities I had grown up in showed themselves to value political power over compassion for the marginalized. In fact, a game where an openly corrupt, narcissistic fascist President was opposed by a secret organization of superheroes felt like a better place than the dystopia of unchecked incompetence, bigotry, and state violence we all endured. And this was before the Pandemic! My depression, outrage, anger, and despair were daily stirred up by doomscrolling on Twitter, so the last thing I wanted to do was devote my imagination to a funhouse mirror version of that world.

Now that the Trump Administration is out of office, I feel more willing to tackle this as a "what if?" alternate timeline, and to have some fun with a dystopian superhero storyline. I've always enjoyed underdog stories, and I've been a fan of freedom fighter narratives since I first saw Star Wars.

If you're reading this, there's a fair chance you're a Republican or an Ayn Rand Libertarian, and perhaps even a Trump voter. While it is not my intention with this game to go out of my way to antagonize you, neither do I plan to pull any punches in regards to my portrayal of Hieronymous King and his devotees. King is the unambiguous villain of this campaign, the Big Bad, and even though he's an already-existing character in the Freedomverse, it should be pretty clear by now what he's meant to be in this game. Any resemblance to real people living or dead is 100% intentional. So if you're still on the Trump Train, you're probably not going to find much in this game to like.

TL;DR: If you don't believe that Black Lives Matter, Trans Rights are Human Rights, Biden won the Presidential election, and white nationalists are a terrorist threat but Antifa is not, this game is not for you.

Furthermore, I'm a socialist, so my allegiance to the Democrat Party is entirely dependent upon the degree to which they support socialist policies. I have and will continue to criticize the Biden Administration with as much vociferousness as I did Trump. Blue MAGA is just Red MAGA in a rainbow ribbon and kente cloth.

This is the only time in this game I intend to discuss real-world politics in an OOC fashion. NPCs will have their own viewpoints that they'll give voice to; some will align with or resemble my own views, while some will not. I neither want nor intend for this game to be a place for OOC political rants, and I have no time for arguing with people (that's what Twitter is for). Here, I just want to run a superhero game. A game that has some relevance to the real world, but a punch-em-up MCU-style superhero game nonetheless.

So why did I spend so much time typing up all of the above? I think it's important that we're all on the same page. You don't have to agree with all of my politics, but I think it's only fair that you understand what my perspective is so you can adjust your expectations for this game appropriately.

Requests To Join

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Whew! That was exhausting, right? Okay, assuming you haven't closed your browser tab in disgust over another gol-danged SJW soyboy ruining gaming, here are some guidelines for how to apply for this game.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:06, Wed 07 Apr 2021.