A thread to discuss the broader details for the setting (both at the start and as they come up during play).

Given the slightly different direction to that which I had planned there will be separate threads for the two different series for character/team creation.

Currently I've just fixed the city name and the starting time for the game (2020's, keepin' it current); everything else is up for discussion. Specifically what we need are decisions on:

-What Makes This City Different From Every Other City:
-Words Which Describe The City:
-How Common Are Superpowered Heroes:
-How Often Do Superpowered Villains Menace The City:
-How Does The Public Feel About Powered Heroes:
-How Do The Authorities Feel About Powered Heroes:
-How Does The Media Portray Powered Heroes:
-How Often Do Superheroes Die In The Line of Duty:
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:32, Sat 13 May 2023.

-What Makes This City Different From Every Other City:
Large populations of various minority groups. While the USA is a white majority, the various other populations have made a home here, and made their area distinctive.

-Words Which Describe The City:
Diverse, liberal, major economic disparity.

-How Common Are Superpowered Heroes:
You Cross Paths From Time To Time

-How Often Do Superpowered Villains Menace The City:
They Show Up Every Few Months. While super heroes are few, the villain population is slightly larger. This includes people who are not true superpowered beings, but criminals with access to advanced tech.

-How Does The Public Feel About Powered Heroes:
Respected, But Warily. The public, having some issues with the actual police due to years of corruption and hostility often find super heroes welcoming. This can change quickly.

-How Do The Authorities Feel About Powered Heroes:
They Are Loose Cannons. The police see superheroes as criminals-vigilantes. Even if they are saving lives and helping people, they are often doing crimes in the process. The police also do not want superpowered being as police for multiple reasons. Namely 'the thin blue line' and the police unions.

-How Does The Media Portray Powered Heroes:
Centers of Controversy. There is a 'full spectrum' of coverage. Ranging from City saving heroes to violent self appointed star seekers. And of course, any hero can be fodder for the tabloids-true or not.

-How Often Do Superheroes Die In The Line of Duty:
It Happens Every Now And Then. Most heroes are strong enough to survive the tall odds against them, but once in a while one does get overwhelmed or gets a run of bad luck.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:19, Sun 14 May 2023.

-What Makes This City Different From Every Other City: Scarred by disaster. It's been less than a generation since a major natural or artificially-induced disaster of some kind. The rebuilding is mostly done, but people remember.
-Words Which Describe The City: Diverse, Dystopian, Sprawling
-How Common Are Superpowered Heroes: You Cross Paths From Time To Time. A given person may or may not have ever interacted with one directly.
-How Often Do Superpowered Villains Menace The City: They Show Up Every Few Months. There might be ongoing smaller-scale activity by local powered gang leaders or the like, but it only becomes a threat to the public in general every now and again.
-How Does The Public Feel About Powered Heroes: Respected, But Warily. On the one hand, everyone knows that these people are capable of amazing things. On the other, everyone remembers what happens when those amazing powers are turned to darker ends.
-How Do The Authorities Feel About Powered Heroes: They Are Loose Cannons. And that's at best. Leaving the legality of their actions aside, the authorities aren't happy that they rely on these outside agents to deal with problems.
-How Does The Media Portray Powered Heroes: Centers of Controversy. There are always tabloids and scandals happening. When people this powerful act, for better or worse, people take notice.
-How Often Do Superheroes Die In The Line of Duty: It Happens Every Now And Then. Maybe not every day, but heroes rarely live to die of old age.

-What Makes This City Different From Every Other City: I like Player 6's idea. To expand upon it I think it should have been a super villain induced earthquake that left a big canyon through the center of the city. It has been helpful for economically since it opened up options for deep crust mining. However the influx of workers leaves a lot of working-poor types that turn to low income housing and all the normal inner-city violence issues are magnified.

-Words Which Describe The City: I think my suggestion would add Dangerous and Overcrowded.

-How Common Are Superpowered Heroes: "You Cross Paths From Time To Time" is fine.

-How Often Do Superpowered Villains Menace The City: "They Show Up Every Few Months" is fine.

I don't tend to like middle ground options but I get why people want them for these two.

-How Does The Public Feel About Powered Heroes: "Respected, But Warily" makes sense for an area recently victim of a villain. The nature of the game doesn't really allow for the "Ok, fine, but i would rather there be no powers anywhere." option since we all got powers for different random stuff.

-How Do The Authorities Feel About Powered Heroes: "They Are Loose Cannons" or worse. I think the police and such would have a purely worse view than the public. since they have to deal with vigilante's ruining investigations and they are a lot more likely to have close friends killed by villains.


-How Does The Media Portray Powered Heroes: I think the media should be split to both extremes. Like there are probably movies about grand hero's but also bio-pics about Tigerman's fall to alcoholism and the numerous allegations against him, etc.

-How Often Do Superheroes Die In The Line of Duty: "It Happens Every Now And Then" it should definitely be on the table. But if they are rare then it's har to imagine it happens all the time.

-What Makes This City Different From Every Other City: Scarred By Disaster — Arcadia was sucked out of the normal universe into its own pocket dimension.

-Words Which Describe The City: Diverse, Rundown, Overcrowded

-How Common Are Superpowered Heroes: You Cross Paths From Time To Time.

-How Often Do Superpowered Villains Menace The City: They Show Up Every Few Months.

-How Does The Public Feel About Powered Heroes: Respected, But Warily.

-How Do The Authorities Feel About Powered Heroes: They Are Loose Cannons.

-How Does The Media Portray Powered Heroes: Centers Of Controversy.

-How Often Do Superheroes Die In The Line of Duty: It Happens Every Now And Then.

Known NPCS:

The Hero known as Liberty - Liberty is a hero who first is recorded as appearing in conflict zones and areas of human suffering in the early 1800s.  Immortalized in the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley "Ode to Liberty", which spoke of his seeing Liberty during the Spanish Revolution in 1820.  Even prior to that an individual was suspected of being active in Robespierre's Republic, as well as on the Isle of Haiti and in Shaka Zulu's national war.

Liberty always appears as a member of the affected populace in an area of strife and conflict, but has exhibited superior physical abilities, the ability to form shields of pure force, and some mental abilities that were used to protect the innocent.


In recent events, however, there have been rumors and reports that Liberty may also be manipulating incidents or innocents, and there are unconfirmed photos in recent conflicts that suggest Liberty may be colluding with the forces that maintain dirty conflict and suffering.

Since Liberty can appear as anyone of any race, gender, or ethnic group, finding the secret identity of Liberty has been impossible, and some suspect that Liberty may either be a society of individuals or a supernatural force.

I really like the idea of the post-catastrophe gaping hole in the ground which has led to both opportunity and problems.

Also a huge quarry/mine/chasm in the centre of town is great for action set pieces!

Depending on how far down that hole goes, scientists would want to study deep geology, and the military may have a presence to help keep the population safe.

Many cities have their capitol buildings in the middle of the city.  Was this the same?  Did it fall into the hole during the disaster?  Is the city government operating in a temporary location now, until something more permanent can be constructed?

Perhaps someone is building a monument to the disaster.

I like the idea that shafts and other natural features in the chasm might lead to unexpected locations.

I can also see that kind of chasm now being the poorest, most desperate slum in the city. Shantytowns lining the walls of the chasm, probably mostly built without permitting or inspection for whether they're structurally sound.

Yes, all the way this. People squatting in abandoned mine shafts, shipping container housing literally hanging from the edge.

In reply to Player 9 (S) (msg # 10):

Just the kind of run down slum which would need a plucky gang of street level supers to look out for it!

This all works out quite nicely.

Almost as if we made constructive world building choices, crazy right?

As a note, I would put forward the idea of these two being mismatched:
-How Common Are Superpowered Heroes:
-How Often Do Superpowered Villains Menace The City:

The options are basically High, Medium, Low just with fancy wording so I'm going to use that conversationally.

Basically if Villain incidents are High and Hero presence is Medium or Low it means that a significant number of the Villain attacks are dealt with by conventional law enforcement or a lot of villains get away with things until the heroes manage to get to them.

On the other end, if Heroes are way more common that super villains it probably means there is some sort of incentive for Heroes being Heroes which is interesting in it's own way.

I like the idea of a mismatch. I think probably that mismatching those would be possible even if both are in the same value. For example, in that chasm-slum area, probably going down there would not be a desirable assignment for any of the heroes who are more profit-motivated, popularity-oriented, or just prone to fall to their death if they get knocked off a ledge and drop into the abyss. Meanwhile, the chasm's draw for scientists and mining interests might mean that in the wealthier areas there are enough heroes either employed by the latter or empowered by various science and technology-related power sources that there would be relatively little activity by most of the run-of-the-mill villains. The city overall might be maintaining a tenuous balance between these, but that doesn't mean that it's homogeneously mixed.

The fact that the slum in the chasm, as described so far, would be so inherently dangerous is potentially very interesting both socioculturally and in terms of an interesting environment for scenes. You can put up all the safety nets and railings you want, but at the end of the day, you're in a poorly-engineered slum of dubiously legal construction dangling over a massive drop. Danger is almost inevitable. The people living in that area probably get over their fear of heights pretty fast just from the constant exposure.

I would imagine that there are plenty of ordinary villains, and plenty of other challenges to deal with.  This, for example, doesn't take into account the super science threats and monsters that might also occur within the gap.  And the danger of regular survival with the broken infrastructure of the city.  My guess is the street-level group will have plenty to occupy it.

In reply to Player 9 (S) (msg # 12):

The most common choices made (You Cross Paths From Time To Time and They Show Up Every Few Months) are both at the medium level, so there really isn't an imbalance here. Oh, and this being Sentinel Comics, it should be Max, Mid, and Min rather that High, Medium, and Low. ~_^

Correct, I was saying we should change that. Like I said initially, medium is always the boring option.

OK just finalising a draft of my character will hopefully get it posted to the gm for comment today or tomorrow

For the Bad Neighborhood:

Official Name: Parkside, but everyone calls it "Darkside."

History: The Darkside District was once a thriving community, known for its rich cultural heritage and vibrant atmosphere. However, over the years, it has experienced a steady decline due to various factors such as economic downturns, lack of job opportunities, and neglect from city authorities. As a result, the neighborhood fell into disrepair and became a hotbed for crime and illicit activities.

Primary Source of Crime in the Neighborhood: The primary source of crime in the Darkside District is organized crime syndicates. Powerful gangs have taken control of the area, engaging in activities such as drug trafficking, illegal gambling, and extortion. Their influence has spread throughout the neighborhood, instilling fear and making it difficult for law-abiding citizens to thrive.

Treatment by City Authorities: The Darkside District has long been neglected by the city authorities. Law enforcement presence is minimal, and the neighborhood is often considered low priority for resource allocation. Police response times are slow, and investigations into criminal activities in the area are often half-hearted. This lack of attention has fostered an environment where criminals operate with relative impunity.

One of the features could be:

Underground Network: Within the Darkside District, there exists an intricate underground network of hidden passages, secret hideouts, and underground markets. This network facilitates the criminal activities of the organized syndicates and provides a means of escape or concealment for those operating outside the law.

Name: The Pit

History: When the city's mine collapsed in the early 1800's, very little repairs where offered by the city itself. What they did do was build slum housing around the massive hole, which few if any improvements where accomplished over the next 200+ years.

What Is The Primary Source Of Crime In The Neighbourhood: Due to poor housing, bad schools, and little economic opportunity, organized crime pretty much runs the Pit. There is a thriving black market, which allows the most rare smuggling, illegal drugs, or depraved taste indulged. As a result, there are many tourists who come to 'slum it' at the Pit.

How Do The City's Authorities Treat The Neighbourhood:
The cops have a very hands off approach to the area. For one, no body talks to them or trusts them. Two, many cops takes bribes from the various factions who actual run the Pit. Finally, some of the gangs are well armed enough to actually kill police and then make it look like an accident.

Other Information:
Many of the Pit's people live underground, using the old mine tunnels as makeshift homes. Many of the gangs use those extensive tunnel network to avoid capture. Needless to say, many of those tunnels are very unsafe. However, there is some also very new construction for these tunnels-as if done by modern equipment. This has led to stories about mole people, lava men, and underground aliens. Which is silly...expect there have been reports of superheroes fighting creatures that may fit that description.

I'd like to abstain from contributing to the setting; there's plenty of voices as it is and I don't have any really awesome ideas to share.

Name: Elysia

History: In the mid 1800s, when mining was big and money was flowing through Arcadia, wealthy families settled in an area that came to be known as Gold Row.  A later influx of wealthy overseas money from the Mediterranian in the late 1800s lead to renaming Gold Row to Elysia, after the famed fields of the heroic fallen.  Today Elysia is a beautiful neighborhood of the Upper Class and the filthy rich, and it is a matter of note to have an estate or mansion in Elysia.

What Is The Primary Source Of Crime In The Neighbourhood: Elysia is an area where crime should be low.  When crime does happen, it is either domestic and kept private, or it involves the theft of valuables from a private collection.  It has often been suspected that some of the larger families in Elysia may have some stake in the darker business of the city, but if there is organized or white collar crime in these families, it is shielded by money and shell companies.

How Do The City's Authorities Treat The Neighbourhood:
Police report very quickly to any reports of crime in the area, but these are often kept out of the papers for fear of 'instability' or because matters are 'sensitive'.  Nuisance calls are as rapidly responded to as actual crime reports, and it's not uncommon for people to be thrown out of Elysia for being troublesome to nice people.  Few of the city administrators actually live in Elysia.

Other Information:
The Metaxas family is one of the wealthiest in Elysia, and supposedly made their money in the silks trade.  Today they have parlayed their fortune into fashion and luxury home goods.  Metaxis the company is a major brand that sells internationally.

As a note, I have been doing some digging into mining areas and where Arcadia could be.  For some reason I picture it in Michigan, across Lake Michigan on the opposite shore from Chicago, in the region between Saugatuck and South Haven.  On clear nights both cities can see the lights of the other across the great lake.



Chicago as seen from the shore of Arcadia.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:37, Tue 16 May 2023.