The basic idea here is a gameplay focused RPG about superheroes in an original setting, that has an overarching plot none the less.
Character Creation
There are six main stats that determine a character's abilities.
Fighting - Your character's skill in combat. With weapons of all kinds and unarmed.
Strength - The raw power your character has access to. With both physical strength and the strength of powers that aren't physical.
Endurance - How tough your character is.
Reason - Your character's capacity for logical thought and reason, and planning.
Intuition - How observant your character is and their ability to solve problems.
Psyche - Your character's mental health and well being. Characters with high psyche can resist mental and magical attacks, and are hard to manipulate and are resistant to trauma or emotional problems.
Building your character
1. Determine backstory
Characters are divided into six classes based on how they received their powers.
Skill - Skill characters have no superhuman abilities. Everything they can do is something a normal human could theoretically do.
Mutant - Mutants get their powers from their bodies. They naturally have superhuman powers.
Tech - Heroes that get their powers from technology and depend on technology for their powers. They do not have their powers without their technology. They depend on it at all times.
Science - Characters that got their powers from a scientific experiment.
Alien - Characters that get their powers from alien materials. In this RP universe these alien materials are a specific type of materials that first appeared in the late 19th century and are known to react with organic material. This does not mean your character is an alien.
Mystic - A catch all term for any character that got their powers from any other method. Ancient energy? Mystic. Given powers by the Greek gods? Mystic. The protector of Earth from an ancient eldritch abomination? Mystic.
2. Build stats
Time to give your character stats. Each stat is on a scale from 1-60. Anything less than 20 is a weakness. 20-39 is average. 40-60 is a strength. You have 150 points to spend on each stat.
Each class has a stat bonus. They have 15 extra points to spend on that stat.
Skill - Fighting and Intuition bonus.
Mutant - Strength bonus
Science - Intuition bonus
Alien - Endurance bonus
Mystic - Psyche bonus
Tech - Reason bonus
Skill champions get two bonuses to make up for not having any powers
A skill cannot exceed 60 points, unless the class bonus is used to allow it to exceed 60 points.
3. Build powers
I'm not going to have a list of powers you can have or anything. You can have almost any power, unless it's storybreaking. There is a tier system you have to follow.
There are three types of "powers" for lack of a better term.
Powers - Actually superhuman powers. Skill characters do not have any powers.
Talents - Things normal humans can theoretically do.
Contacts - Who your character knows. Contacts can provide bonuses.
You have six points to spend on each, so eighteen points total. Skill characters cannot have powers, but they have four more points to spend on talents or contacts. So they could put four more points into talents, or four more into contacts, or two into contacts and two into talents, etc.
4. Define powers
Once you have your powers, talents, and contacts set up they need to be defined.
Do your powers come from your body or from equipment? This applies to all classes. For example a tech hero like Iron Man would get his powers from equipment because he can take off his suit. But a tech hero like Cyborg would get his powers from his body because he can't remove his cybernetics, so for all intents and purposes his powers come from his body.
Your character also needs a real weakness. A real weakness, not something lame.
Finally when all this is done, you have the option to "purchase" additional powers, talents, or contacts by sacrificing some of your stats. You don't have to do this.
5. Other Stuff
At this point all the stuff that affects gameplay has been defined. Now you just come up with things like your character's name, gender, theme song, etc. There are a few other things though that don't affect gameplay much but do affect the story.
Secret Identity - Does your character have a secret identity or not?
UPDATE 7-21
Popularity - How popular your character is
All character start out with low popularity. As your character performs actions your popularity will rise. As you become more popular you can potentially gain access to new contacts.
Popularity mainly affects how NPCs react to you. From civilians, to the government, to other superheroes their interactions with you depend on your popularity. There are four ranks.
Friendly - The character will actively help you.
Neutral - The character doesn't know you, but has heard of you. Neutral characters can be persuaded to help.
Unfriendly - Complete strangers or people you've wronged. Unfriendly characters are difficult to persuade.
Hostile - The character is actively trying to bash your brains in for whatever reason.
This all applies to positive popularity. Negative popularity can also be achieved. Actions that are heroic will gain popularity points, but actions that are violent, selfish, brutal, or evil will cause you to lose popularity. Negative popularity from losing points is not the same as low popularity from not doing anything. I keep track of popularity points lost.
When you have negative popularity you can only interact with NPCs in two ways. Either the NPC hates you, or they are afraid of you. If afraid of you they can be bullied into certain interactions, but otherwise they will not help you.
For an NPC to be bullied into an action your interests have to align. For example say your character has negative popularity and you want info on a criminal from a police officer. The officer can be intimidated into giving up the info, because he's afraid of you and wants to see the criminal brought down. The officer cannot be persuaded to kill fellow officers however, because this is against his interests, no matter how afraid of you he is. Thus negative popularity can still be used to interact with NPCs.
Popularity is only increased or decreased when the action can be known to the public. Killing a villain in the middle of nowhere won't increase your popularity unless you can prove it happened.
Plot points - In my admittedly biased opinion, the best idea I've created for this RP.
Let's face it, 99% of action stories wouldn't work without two things. Plot armor and coincidence. Without those things Luke never could have blown up the Death Star, John McClane would be dead, and Katniss would be some dirt farmer. Superhero stories especially depend on plot armor and coincidence. They need them. Of course this RP is a homage to superhero stories.
Thus come plot points. Literally an in game representation of plot armor and coincidence, that allow the story to progress in ways that superhero stories usually progress. Bear with me here.
Plot points are similar to popularity points in that they are gained by getting off your ass and doing things. By proving that your character matters enough to be blessed with the magic of plot armor. Unlike popularity plot points are gained by doing actions that affect the story. Popularity points are about making your character more famous in universe, but plot points are earned by moving the story along regardless of whether anyone in universe knew about it or not.
Plot points can be spent in three ways.
Plot points can be spent to further the story along. Were you ever watching a movie where the hero was only able to thrawrt the villain's plan because of some ridiculous coincidence? Well in this RP if you are ever stumped or out of things to do, you can spend plot points to have this kind of coincidence happen to you. Your character will inexplicably learn or find something that lets the plot get going again. Thus your character can gain an advantage over in universe characters by knowing something or finding something they don't have access to.
Plot points can also be added onto rolls to help you with normal actions. Say you were fighting a villain and your attack isn't going to do much damage. With plot points though you can spend plot points to add onto a roll. Thus with plot points you can nerf that villain. Worf effect anyone? This can apply to any roll. For example if your character fails an intuition check and thus doesn't find a vital clue, plot points can be used to add onto the roll so that your character can potentially find the object.
Finally plot points can be used to do impossible actions. Actions that I would otherwise not even let you roll for. As long as it's somewhat plausible for your character to perform the action, you can potentially accomplish the action. For example say a villain is trying to escape. Normally I might not let you stop the villain because escaping is what they do, but if you spend plot points you can potentially stop the villain and radically change the plot, and I will have no choice but to let you. This is by far the most expensive use of plot points though.
Plot points don't come easy. You have to contribute to the story for the story to contribute to you. It's up to the players to decide when to use plot points. I won't point out to you that your character could be using plot points in a situation.
UPDATE - This may be the last edit before the OOC goes up, but again I could really use some feedback.
Action in the RP is divided into turns. Turns consist of three things.
Free actions. Talking to people so long as nothing physical happens, moving around, etc. These actions don't cost anything.
Set up actions. These are actions that set up an action you roll for. They do not need a roll. For example your character positions themselves to get the drop on an enemy. Your character searches for a clue. Your character prepares to attack an enemy. All set up actions. Taking a set up action sets you up for the action part of your turn.
Actions. These are things you have to roll for. Basically anything with any real effect on the RP, except talking. Your turn ends when the roll ends.
A turn only matters when something that requires a roll is happening. If your character is just hanging around talking to people or wandering around then the turn system doesn't apply.
You can take as many turns as you want, limited by how often you post. Keep in mind that posting a lot in any one situation may not be the best idea. The more rolls you take, the higher the chance you could get a really bad one right?
