There was an age of superheroes and supervillains, of a thousand-thousand clashes and a thousand-thousand stories. Of all hope being lost until the cavalry came to save the day. Of overwhelming force being shattered by attacking its weak point for massive damage. Giant robots, space lasers, mecha kaiju, giant shields being erected to protect entire cities from asteroids, super-breath, super-weaving and more.
That age ended. The heroes won.
And they were crippled by that most pressing and human of questions, the one that arises when one suddenly finds that an impossible job that was expected to take forever is suddenly and comprehensively done.
"Well eff, now what do we do with ourselves?"
Once the month-long global party ended they had figured out their answer. Aliens existed (and had occasionally invaded, even). Space existed, and the hypertech to actually visit it was within the grasp of the technical geniuses of herokind. Without hordes of superpowered villains to hold them down, the hero organizations built themselves fantastically advanced spacecraft to explore the wonders of the universe, fixed as many of Earth's problems as they could in the meantime, and left.
The fact that contact with other species is entirely conducted by freelance groups of superhuman vigilantes with pure hearts and unclear goals has given the universe a slightly skewed view of humanity, but it's not like anybody can do anything about it any more.
And aside from the alien tourists who are continually disappointed that baseline humans can't bend steel beams with their minds, that's not your problem. You stayed behind.
Why?
[ ] You couldn't bear to leave your home planet behind. Too much tied you here.
(You will be a Team Player, with powers more inclined to support or cooperate with others. Your personal connections will be much more important, and you'll have more of them.)
[ ] You literally couldn't leave; humanity is your everything and you'll never leave it behind.
(You will be a Created, a being such as a Rogue Auxiliary, Culture Hero or God whose nature inextricably binds you to humankind.)
[ ] Your goals never really involved defeating villains and bringing peace to the land, it just sort of happened that heroism was the best way to get what you wanted.
(You will be an Achiever, with powers that are only sort of focused on the hero business. You can choose what your goal is, whether it is becoming the perfect organism, obtaining ultimate magical power, achieving fame as an idol or building the biggest business possible.)
[ ] You were looking forward to a quiet retirement anyway. A philanthropist is in the business of putting himself out of business and impossibly enough you did it.
(You will be an Aging Ace, a high-tier hero in your day but now past your prime. You're getting too old for this; you'll be strong, but your powers will eventually deteriorate and you'll have to figure out what to do about that.)
[ ] The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Open villainy had been defeated but in the shadows you never gave up the fight. If you were forced to be honest with yourself, you didn't know how.
(You will be a Shadow, with powers focused on concealment and intrigue. You can choose the nature of your eternal crusade.)
[ ] You are an alien tourist or from another plane of existence and your home is a different realm anyway. This is exploration!
(You will be an Outsider, with weird otherworldly strengths that may not even be slightly unusual for your species. You will, of course, get to choose where you come from.)
[ ] Nobody would take you. Your powers or personality are not the sort of thing other heroes want on a spaceship for months at a time.
(You will be a Wildcard, with either powers that are volatile or a personality that is (or both). You can choose great strengths that come with great weaknesses.)
[ ] You weren't old enough to go, or your powers hadn't come into being yet.
(You will be a Rookie, just coming into your strength. The opposite of the Ace, of course; you'll start out weak but progress more quickly.)
[ ] You couldn't. You were part of the losing side, locked up for some mild villainy. Mild! Barely anything to speak of! That Gibson practically hacked itself!
(You will be a Former(...ish) Villain. This might get wild.)
Of course, it's better that you stayed behind. Three years after the heroes all blasted off for parts unknown, the alien sun-being calling itself ZOHAR appeared and used its ridiculously overpowered lasers to zorch away the blistering array of defenses around the prisons where the supervillains were kept and set them free. With all Earth's greatest heroes gone and their organizations gutted for support personnel things are, if anything, about to be worse off than ever.
A signal has been sent, but so far nobody has come home. Given that non-hypertech communications are still speed-of-light it may well be years before somebody drops by again to check on how things are going.
It's a new age of superheroes and supervillains. And this time the aging aces, the misfits, the outsiders, the third-stringers and the rookies are going to have to save the day.
Hi, SV!
You know all those Justice League episodes where Superman was Off Doing Space Things so he couldn't swing by and punch all the problems into submission? This is a whole setting like that, except it's all the big heroes, and all the time. This is an original setting which contains a precarious minimum of actual originality, but is instead a twenty-minutes-into-the-future superhero kitchen sink. I'm hoping for some madcap four-color adventures, some silliness and references, but also for the bad guys to be human beings as well and maybe in on the joke themselves a bit, and hopefully some feelings now and then.
When it was an actual roleplay setting things got a bit nuts and may or may not have come apart at the seams a little, so this is an experiment to see if it works better with Questing. I'll be hoping for plenty of player input in both decisions and worldbuilding, and of course discussion makes the QM fuzzy. Feel free to ask ask many questions as you like.
Let's be the hero that nobody wanted or asked for or even would have called given the faintest glimmer of another choice!
Edit From the Future: On fan works! Omakes/player participation of all shapes and sizes are welcome here. If an original character you make meets with my approval they'll get added and may be interacted with in the future. Use the format listed in Dramatis Personae as a guide, plus at least a paragraph describing them, their powers or their history.
Side stories may be rewarded with Cool Stuff, Traits (both for Mothra-sensei and for NPCs), contacts or plot threads or opportunities, or the opportunity to ask me one question about the setting or characters which I will attempt to answer.
