Welcome to New Cottington Sentinels, an RP where you will take on the role of one of the eponymous New Cottington Sentinels, a group of city endorsed superhuman vigilates in the imaginary city of New Cottington.
'New Cottington' is set in the fictional city of the same name that is more-or-less this universe's version of New York. Other than this one change you can assume that all technology etc. is more-or-less the same as it is today and other places still exist on the map. I have chosen to use a fictional city to allow a bit of creativity on my, and your part regarding places etc.
As for what kind of superhero you want to be, that is entirely over to you! Maybe you are an alien visitor from another galaxy, or perhaps from a hidden civilisation on our own earth? Maybe you received strange powers as some kind of government experiment or occult ritual? Maybe you are an old hand? Maybe you are a talented person, enhancing your natural skills with a bit of technology? Maybe you are a rookie learning the ropes? Maybe an old hand? Feel free to be as creative as you like!
If the RP has started, don't worry, this RP will stay open forever. If you join late I will work with you to get a logical introduction sorted!
LORE
Perhaps the superhuman beings have always been with us. There is certainly no reason to think that they haven't been, certainly there have been visitors from other civilisations, though in the modern sense, the age of the superhero was the result of 'Operation Paperclip'.
1944-45 was a time of desperation for the Third Reich, who tried all manner of outlandish plans to try to find victory out of inevitable defeat. While soldiers ran short of ammunition and tanks lay unusable due to lack of parts, the Reich's scientists remained well funded, cooking up all manner of war machine. Some, like the V-2 rocket and the Me 262, would be carefully examined and built upon by the victors. Others, like the Panzer VIII Maus and the V-3 cannon turned out to be a colossal waste of time and resources. The 'Supersoldaten' project was one which fell into the first categories.
After the fall of the Reich, NATO and the Warsaw pact, both embarked on projects to augment soldiers, deploying small units of 'supes' to trouble spots around the globe. Neither side acknowledged what they were doing, though both sides found the results impressive enough the continue investing in their programmes. Though with glasnost and the eventual fall of the Soviet Union in the early 90s, most nations abandoned their augmentation projects as an expensive folly, which created another problem... a whole lot of demobbed Supes with nothing to do. Some disappeared into society to lead normal lives. Others turned to crime. And then there were the ones who decided to put their abilities to use for the protection of others.
While Supes are far from common, New Cottington has, over the last 40 years, become something of a hotspot for superpowered crime, which led, in 2002, to the official recognition of the group known as the 'New Cottington Sentinels', who have come to be an invaluable addition to the city's law enforcement. While the city tolerates the Sentinels, and they are generally well liked, there are still plenty of detractors who view vigilante groups as a part of the problem.
The Sentinels are based out of Octagon House (not actually an octagon), a large, secluded manor house on the outskirts of town. Team members live there on and off but more importantly there is a secret training and logistics area behind the wine cellar that acts as a base. This is not known to the majority of the police force, the general public or anyone outside of the group. Only a few senior officers and the Sentinels themselves know the location of their base of operation.
CHARACTER CREATION
Your Character
I would encourage people to be as creative as they like with their characters, however, I have a few small rules around character creation that are designed to keep things balanced and fun for everyone.
- There is a points based system for character creation. You might be asked to jiggle these around a bit if I think your character is over or under powered. You have 8 points to spend.
- Do not create a character which implicitly or explicitly proves the validity of any religion or philosophy. This is so that someone can create a character who follows a different system (so no, you cannot RP as the antichrist).
- No mind control or messing with time. These are just too complicated to use in a forum RP.
- Your character is a member of the New Cottington Sentinels.
Super Powers
You have 8 points to allocate to your character. There are four Levels of power (more below). These each cost the corresponding number of points. So you could give your character two level 4 powers, 8 level 1 powers or any combination in between.
Keep. It. Simple. Stupid. While I encourage you to be as creative as you like with your powers, if I can't figure out what you are doing, then I'm not going to accept your app. Similarly if it looks like you are trying to create an inspector gadget bag of tricks to let you waltz through any scenario, I'm not going to accept it. You are going to be part of a group and scenarios will mean that you need to work together.
If you are describing general human skills, writing something broadly applicable like 'strength', 'speed', 'gymnastics', 'firearms' or 'hand to hand combat' is perfect. Though if you really want to make a narrower field, assume they are a bit better than someone who is more of a generalist.
If you are using advanced tech to augment your character, such as a super suit, please treat it exactly like you would a super power and allocate points accordingly. That being said, I do not need to know if your character has a handgun or other stuff you can go out and buy.
For a rough guide of how many points your power should be, please see my (hopefully) handy explanation below:
Level One
For human abilities (e.g. strength, firearms etc) this would cover the level a soldier might have.
For unnatural abilities or equipment this would cover situationally useful stuff. e.g. if you were a shapeshifter, this might be you can turn into a lizard... this might be helpful sometimes, but a lot of the time it won't.
If you are describing armour (either physical or part of your characters body) this should not be able to protect you from more than a single hit from a handgun.
If you are describing a power or ability that is primarily a means of escape, this should be something that allows an uninjured person to evacuate on their own.
Level Two
When describing human abilities, you are about as good (as someone of your physical size etc) is ever likely to be. So if you've decided, for some completely bizarre reason, that you want to create a morbidly obese gymnast who is also a chain smoker, they're still going to have a few obstacles to overcome...
If you are describing a piece of equipment or unnatural ability it should be about as dangerous/useful as a handgun. Obviously I'm expecting your character to be able to use it better than the average guy!
Armour would be protecting you from a single hit from an assault rile or multiple handgun hits.
If your power helps you escape, you can probably evacuate yourself and others, provided you aren't injured.
Level Three
Human abilities are now at about 3x what a person is actually capable of.
Equipment or unnatural abilities are similar in danger/utility to a assault rifle.
Armour will now protect you from an armour piercing round or multiple hits from lower calibre weapons.
Escape powers mean you can probably escape on your own, even if you are seriously injured.
You might want a travel power at this point (i.e. movement stuff without great combat value) For this kind of ability (that doesn't have a combat application) you would move at about the speed of a helicopter.
Level Four
Human abilities are now at about 10x what a person is actually capable of.
Equipment or unnatural abilities are similar in danger/utility to a machine gun or other heavy weapon.
Armour will now protect you from up to three armour piercing rounds.
Escape powers mean you can probably escape on your own, even if you are seriously injured, and carry others with you.
Travel powers mean you can move at the speed of a military jet.
These levels are all a bit vague because I can't possibly think of all the powers you might think of so please don't be offended if I ask you to tweak yours a bit.
Application Form
When filling in an application form, please delete everything in parentheses.
Character App
- Code: Select all
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[size=150][b]Character Description[/b][/size]
[list][b]Name:[/b]
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Appearance:[/b] [spoiler](Feel free to describe with text or put pictures in here. If you are using a picture, personally, I find it easier to picture a character who is shown in photo/realistic drawing though I'm not going to get funny about anything else. Unless it is your personal stick-man art. I might draw the line at that.)[/spoiler]
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[hr][/hr][size=150][b]Superpowers![/b][/size]
[b]Skills and Powers[/b]: (Allocate your 8 points here. Please indicate what they are, what level they are at and -specifically- what you imagine them doing)
[hr][/hr][size=150][b]Backsotry:[/b][/size]
(How did you come to be here?)
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THE RULES
And while these seem totally self-explanatory, once in a while you get someone who really needs it spelled out:
- Decisions: My word and the word of anyone I appoint as a Co-OP is binding. If you don’t like a decision, you can, of course, ask for us to reconsider it. Once. If we made a decision you don’t like, complaining for pages and pages is not going to endear you to anyone. Not me, not the Co-OPs and not your fellow writers. On that note, I intend to run this thread as an anarcho-communist cooperative. This is an unnecessarily complicated way of saying that my word DOES NOT overrule theirs. If there is an appeal and a dispute amongst the Co-OPs we will take a vote on the matter.
- Post Quality: I don’t have a problem with short posts, I'd rather a short post than no post, but PLEASE use proper spelling (I don’t care what regional variant), grammar etc.
Ideally also try to include a 'hook' when you write a post, which is to say something that gives other people something to respond to. If your post is something along the lines of 'Bilbo Baggins stayed in his room and read a book while the world was ending', don't be surprised if nobody responds to you. - Posting Commitment: Nothing is worse than making an RP only for it to die. Please try to make at least one post every 48 hours or so. If you find yourself unable to post, please let me know in the OOC thread. If it looks like you've abandoned a character in the middle of a fight scene I might decide to kill them off if I'm feeling particularly malicious.
- Posting Speed: On the flip side, blitz posting can also be infuriating. So, especially during the important scenes, I recommend giving your fellow players a reasonable time to make a reply. We all have real lives. That being said, if someone leaves everyone waiting for over 48 hours, feel free to carry on the scene without them.
- OOC thread Manners: This rule can be summarised in four words 'Don't be a dick'. Nothing annoys me more than bad manners on an OOC thread. Swearing, passive-aggressive sniping or any other rude behaviour are not welcome on the OOC. I will warn you once. If you can’t control yourself I will ask you to remove yourself from the thread.
- IC thread Manners: Remember, we are writing a story together, not playing to win. You are all on the same side anyway. Sort of.
- Character Death: Player death is possible in this RP, though will be quite rare and easily avoidable. Please don’t write that you have killed another character unless you have OOC permission from the character's owner to do it. Beat them into a pulp or take them prisoner, but don’t kill them. Having said that, if someone does something really stupid, I reserve the right to announce your character has got themselves killed. Likewise, if someone goes inactive in the middle of a fight scene without explanation and cannot be raised, I may decide to kill their character off.
- Keep it PG13: Shouldn’t need to be telling you this really but keep the erotica and gorn off the thread. Hopefully you all know how to write forum-safe stuff. I will be extremely disappointed if the mods have to pay us a visit.
- Banning Players: I really don’t want to be doing that but reserve the right to do so if you cannot follow the (hopefully, rather simple) rules above.
