Coming soon to the Playground - the GUARD

[doc]

Those of you who know me know I run a campaign on the Palladium chatrooms known as the GUARD, about a UN-based group of superheroes that merges a lot of my favorite elements of modern geopolitics, history, (Real life is way weirder than anything in the comics, folks), the superhero genre and a bit of satire of all of those things.

And now, I'm bringing it to PBP.

This will not be a spinoff - this starts on Day 1, so all the continuity you'll need to know shall be provided for you. However, if you want to see some of the ideas (...spoilers, probably), well, you can go take a look

THE GUARD BOARD

A few notes:

1) Mega-Heroes are allowed and so are most immortals! The only categories that are banned are Godlings, Demigods, Avatars of Gods, etc. I'm also not a huge fan of the Gesalt Category but if you have a good pitch I'll listen.
2) First come first serve when it comes to nations: While I'll allow 1-2 characters to be from the same nation, a little variety is appreciated. So is doing your homework. And so is finding ways to subvert and flip common stereotypes and tropes. You are going to find a lot of that in this game.
3) Yes, by the nature of this game we will be dealing with politics; I have my leanings, so do you. I do try to take into consideration different points of view and will try to respect yours if we come to loggerheads.
4) I expect to begin the campaign mid-October or so, so get your PCs to me. I already have three interested players, but I'm always interested in hearing from others
5) If you'd like to use some of the NPCs from the chat game as your PC (see the threads in the GUARD board), contact me and we'll see what we can work out. Some of them I reserve for myself, and others I'm very open to handing over - many of them are already rolled up and ready to go.

Cheers.

[doc]

Oh, and I forgot to add:

6) The Characters MUST be 19 years of age or older. Preferably in their mid 20s.

[dakota]

Doc already knows, but make it official that I'm in

[doc]

OK, so I'm getting a lot of PMs and I think I need to set a few things straight:

1) ABSOLUTELY NO TEENAGERS. A UN-affiliated group is not about to be promoting the equivalent of child soldiers. In point of fact, it probably for the best that all PCs are in their early 20s minimum and known in some way.

2) Aliens, Mutant Animals, and AIs are going to be tough sells; what is the host country's views on human rights and who should have them? This can be a question and a story hook - in fact one of the NPCs is an alien, but he was raised on Earth, so there's that.

3) The PC is sponsored by their home nation's government. Now, this isn't as limiting as you might think; maybe your PC is there for propaganda purposes, maybe they are patriots spying on UN and global activities, or maybe they are a pain-in-the-neck vigilante that the government really wants to ship out of the country and out of their national spotlight....

4) My sincere suggestion is for to rethink any national stereotype PC designs. Oh, you have a Japanese super-samurai or an English hero who has powers based in Arthurian lore? Well, Arthurian lore is actually largely French in origin, so you might want a new twist there.

More importantly, EXPAND YOUR THOUGHTS on how you see the world.

You think badass super-soldier and you think of US Marines or Navy SEALs or SAS? Well, I'm convinced Nepal might have something to say about that.

And I know a few of you are thinking of Chris Kyle, the "Greatest sniper in American Military History". And yes, it's true, because they add the qualifier "American Military".
Meet the White Death.

And for all that "Tony Stark built this in a cave, out of a box of scraps", well, just a couple examples here of real life versions:

Dude built his own bionic arms.

And here's a kid who built a windmill using public library information and junk in Malawi.

Just extrapolate ideas like this into a world of superheroes and trust me, there will be plenty of ideas.

[Mierin]

Just to make it official, I'm in as well.

[doc]

Board is set up with a bunch of "in-world" information for your review and to help with PC design.

[alyfox]

Sent you a PM, Doc

[revan]

How many players are playing now? if its not to many, id be interested in joining.

I don't have a concept yet but i have a few ideas in my head running around. Hopefully i can get one down in time to join if possible.

[doc]

Right now I've got 5 potentials, which isn't too many - send me a PM on your ideas.

[doc]

Right now I'm expecting to start Nov. 1, waiting on a few more players to finalized their PCs.

[doc]