[M&M] Against the Dying of the Light (Eldritch Sci fi Horror Superheroes) M and M 3E

[Judgement of God]

Game Name Against the Dying of the Light (Eldricht Sci fi Horror Superheroes) M&M3E

Game System Mutants and Masterminds

Theme Superheroes in a sci fi lovecraftian setting, defending what remains of civilization with limited recources.

Flavour Humanity on the brink; making hard choices, issues like humanity losing its soul to preserve it's existence

Plot Summary “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.” -Nietzsche History:   We had become the Children of the sun, the rising stars, the galactic empire of tomorrow. Our heroes had scoured the dark corners of the earth, done battle with the villains in our midst, and emerged unquestionably victorious. With an unprecedented level of international cooperation among the world’s meta-human protectors, humanity prospered, an age of peace and trust. This golden age of superheroes, capes and all, was made a golden one for humanity as well when Dr. Universe, a genius in the fields of both science and magic, along with a special team of Esoteric and Technological experts, were able to make the first recorded mixture of Arcane and mundane science, the Aeon Generators, clean, and leagues of magnitude more potent than any other source of power; Within a few years fossil fuels became a rare and scoffed at anochrism, and, more importantly, the first propulsion drives utilizing the Aeon energy would allow humanity to fix the problems of resources and overpopulation through interstellar colonization. As we expanded out into the stars, Dr. Universe, one of the most powerful beings alive on earth, after creating the Aeon technology, created a gigantic, official organization of philanthropic metahumans of the world, the sons of prometheus, who, like the heroic god of greek myth, swore to bring light to the human race as a whole, no matter the cost to themselves. Because of them, our first interactions with local alien life and ecosystems were both responsible and peaceful, and that the Benefits of the new flows of wealth would not be monopolized by Imperialistic Governments or greedy mega-corporation; for the first time in centuries, the standard of living in most of the world was somewhat in line with places like Europe and the United states. For a half a century, this went on; children were born, raised, and grew into retirement a multi-planet collective of nations that boasted health, wealth, and nearly universal plurality, tolerance, and goodwill. Some of that generation are still alive today, but few can bear to think of how much we’ve lost. Dr. Universe and his team, a few decades later, all of them getting rather too old for the whole cape thing, many of them retired, began to worry if the Aeon drive had been a pandora’s box. The technology had stopped humanities destruction of their own planet, and facilities such a huge reduction in the suffering of the have-nots (indeed, there were very, very few who did not have at least a middle class lifestyle now, with automation of many manual labour jobs). But they knew from the beginning that the Aeon drive drew from powers that men may not have been meant to dabble with, and that now that the world knew the potential of the Arcane, study of it would just out of control. Worst of all, the greatest magic wielders, organizations such as the Druid circles, the Fae courts, and the three councils of ancient mages, a secret to even most metahumans, incensed at the mass production of such a powerful magic artifact as the Aeon drive, refused to aid the children of prometheus in their struggle to stabilize the powers they had summoned, threatening war if such information was stolen. Thus despite the heroes’ best efforts to control the development and production of Aeon technology, it became far too large in industry for them to be able to effectively monitor, and a corporate group of arcanists and scientists, trying to make a superior version of the Aeon generator, tapped into a power of another reality, a reality beyond sanity and the laws of physics,where Ancient forces of entropy, destruction, and madness were awoken, and turned their gaze towards us; the old orders noticed, but, in their hubris, thought they could wait to stop it in order to teach humanity a lesson about flying too close too the sun. The tendrils of these dark powers began to reach into the minds of the psychologically vulnerable laying the seeds of their intrusion into our plane of existence, but the heroes, and all of humanity, for that matter, failed to notice it, for our first galactic war was upon us. The Ithaliad confederation, ancient, psychically powerful amphibian aliens of great technological prowess, had watched us grow at first with disdain, than consternation, and, finally, some measure of fear. They were ahead of us, yes, but the rate at which we were colonizing and terraforming new worlds was incredible to them, not to mention our rate of advancement. Too used to being the sole real power in the galaxy, they decided to introduce themselves by savagely assaulting our young space polity, choosing to remain unknown to us by creating a new race of sentient being for the express purpose of fighting us, with a fake history, fictional homeworld, and the best part, due to their mental programming skills, not even the proxies themselves would know it. They were called the Nazzadi; made from a base of human DNA, with keeping our basic form (albeit more lithe and agile on average), but with skin as black as night, fiery crimson eyes, and nearly translucent white hair. Fully believing themselves to be the last of a proud warrior people who had been victims of genocide at the hands of humans, a fleet of righteous vengeance, they attacked our outlying colonies with ruthless efficiency, supported by their own Supers, specifically designed to be able to defeat our own, and given horrific memories of fictional human atrocities by their hidden masters in order to make them willing to die in order to do so. The Nazzadi war, as it would be called at the time, was a truly tragic affair, extremely bloody for both sides, and by the time they got to earth, the nazzadi had begun to use more and more women and children in the war effort, convinced they had no choice. Despite a great feeling of resentment among the few surviving metahumans, Dr. Universe was able to unite them on a quest to prove to the nazzadi that the humans had done them no wrong, and they were going to die in vain, when peace could be achieved; even after that proof was acquired, the Earth alliance, now hyper militant after many years of war, was seriously considering not accepting the ashamed surrender of the horrified nazzadi army, and their annihilation as a species was being seriously discussed in the halls of power. The Nazzadi, for their part, an honor bound society that had found it was living a lie, marveled in disbelief about how their whole race could come out of apparently nowhere with fake memories, and many committed suicide out of guilt for their actions in the war. Afraid that their homeworlds would be found, now that the nazzadi and the humans knew the truth, and afraid to let the human rebuild, the Iliads chose then to attack the earth from the hidden positions, assaulting it with overwhelming force and superior technology, vowing to enslave humanity for its pretentiousness, and to destroy the nazzadi for their failure.Though this was a bad thing overall, it expedited the human-nazzadi peace process through the power of mutually assured destruction at the hands of a mutual threat. Mechs, tanks, and powerful mages, and flying demi-gods battled across the world, a losing battle, but a truly awe inspiring one. The war was easily in the hands of the Ithaliads, of great number and amazing technology, but it was now the Eldritch powers from the reality beyond chose to reveal themselves; in devastated, occupied regions of earth, madness and zealotry suddenly broke out among the now enslaved humans of the region, and with dark ritual and blood sacrifice, they were able to open wide the small hole in the fabric of our reality left by the Aeon technology and the ancient Ithaliads, wise in their own sinister way, knew what was coming for them, and were so terrified of it, that they dedicated most of their forces to stopping it, allowing a massive counter offensive from the remaining superheroes and conventional forces of the Human-Nazzadi alliance, taking back much lost territory. But soon, they to would know why the powerful aliens were so full of fear. The devastation wrought on the Ithaliad invasion force was apocalyptic, their occupied territory the beachhead for the end of times, brutally beaten by an Elder evil far older and stronger than they; Ironically, it was their presence in the path of unstoppable destruction that gave the alliance time to, finally, summon the aid of the Oldest and strongest denizens of the world, Druids bound to the very spirit of life itself, Mages who remembered the days of antiquity, even a few stray pagan Gods and angels,who had hitherto remained, as always, cold and neutral...for not even they could hide for long from what was about to befall reality as we know it. Backed by Gods, monsters, and legends, the remaining humans and nazzadi waged a terrible, sanity breaking three way battle with the Eldritch powers from beyond and the Ithaliad aliens. In the ensuing war, despite all odds, through the sacrifice of over three quarters of their military force, culminating with a forlorn hope consisting of many of the last metahumans, mages and old gods, led by Dr Universe, putting their entire soul into a single reality warping attack against the main conduits to the eldritch realm, sacrificing his very being., the hole was closed, and the Aliens forces were beaten….but of these days, one thing can be said; before the war, there were 40 billion humans spread across a dozen worlds, but after, now in these dark times, we struggle to even hold onto a piece of one world, now alien to us, warped by darkness, with only 4 billion remaining, supplemented, with, ironically, the billion or so remaining nazzadi. Today:   The game is set on Earth centuries into the future, after the world has been ravaged by an unprecedented number of natural disasters, two alien, and one occult invasion. The untold devastation has wiped out nearly 90% of the world’s population; those that remain would refer to these years as the Breaking of the World. We shall begin in the year 30 A.A.. – 30 years after the last War (A.A standing for Aeon age). The Earth that remains is a dark and alien landscape compared to what it was before; repeated volcanic eruptions have choked the atmosphere with ash, and the polluted jet stream – now known as the Dread Winds – makes conventional flight impossible, and confound any attempt for humanity to again take to the stars. The geology of the Earth is forever changed, now cracked and broken, existing land masses drowned in vast oceans whilst others have formed anew, created by the seismic movements of tectonic plates. Humanity clings to whatever shelter it can find, eking out an existence in pockets spread thinly across the globe. For the fortunate, entrenched behind concrete and steel in their new metropolises, the reality of their day-to-day existence has changed little from the time before. But for the rest of humanity, things couldn’t be more different. Life for the majority of people in 30 A.A. is one of survival. The world is not what it once was, with useful resources being difficult to obtain, and the hostile environment making life in the lands outside the few major cities a constant struggle. The unparalleled destruction brought about by the Breaking had lasting consequences – Cults, drawn from the increasingly hopeless and desperate masses, are again springing up to the very powers that caused part of this devastation, the Ithaliaids, the aliens who an entire generation of soldiers, meta-humans, and civilians died to defeat, may return at any time The Nazaadi, once the Ithaliads unwitting pawns, are ironically and tenuously bound to us, mistakenly given a sense of empathy by their creators, and thus, a sense of shame for the atrocities they committed while in the service of their former masters . Humanity now struggles to comprehend the eldritch energies and super tech, now that it covers the earth and is required for our survival seeing in it both ruin and salvation. Scientists will attempt to harness its energy to create wondrous new technology, whilst others will practice dark rituals and worship strange new powers, using it to alter their surroundings and themselves, bending reality to their whim. This is 30 A.A. The light is dying, but you, you misfits, you mutants, mages, and masterminds, you with the blood of Gods and normal men, you refuse to accept it. and it is for that very reason, the world needs you now more than ever. “Do not go gentle into that good night; Old age should burn and rave at the close of day Rage, rage against the dying of light!”-Dylan Thomas Character Submissions (I’m not too much of a stickler for format, but, one way or the other, you should have this information presented in a legible and organized way)   Appearance: They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I don't quite believe that as for as forum roleplaying goes; after all, if we can't paint a picture with our words, we’ll only be blandly rolling dice with a few usernames on the internet, and that is far, far below the potential I have seen fulfilled on this excellent website. Thus, you can include a pic, I might even like it, but it does not replace a written description of your character. Name: Their name, and any aliases they might have (however, Pretty much everyone has lost someone to the encroaching darkness, and the existence of magic, monsters, and meta-humans is an ever present reality denied by no sane person.) Age: Obvious, you would think Personality: Describe who they are; what motivates them? allot of the threats in this setting are more spiritual and psychological than physical, and you’ll have to make allot of hard choices...It won't be all doom and gloom, like any good story, there will be ups and downs, but make no mistake there will come a day when they can't save everyone, and every road leads to a stab in the heart. I need to know who they are, so I can become interested in how they react to those situations. Powers: its PL: 10: With Progression planned, if you survive, to world breaking power levels around 20sh; list your powers, can be in secret text if you wish. No mind reading powers, no resurrection powers, no predicting the future, and no time travel. Make the character you want to play, as optimization is way less key to me than the substance of the character, and your survival is more dependent on group cohesion and thinking outside the box; you can be a man with bullet proof skin and wolverine’s regeneration, but go into battle half-cocked, and he-who-must-not-be-named will still laugh at him and eat his soul Background: You're wide open here, as for what you can do. Gods, geniuses, soldiers, monster hunters, monsters, the guy who used to run a donut shop until the world went to hell. You're free to add organizations and events to the setting to flesh your character out world itself, so long as you don't change anything that’s already there. This IS a dark setting though, and I’m gonna tell you right off the bat that I will be shocked if everyone survives to the end, So try to keep that in mind. That doesn’t mean that everyone has to be grim and edgy, you can still be someone as good and positive as golden age superman, it just means that if you write me a super flying bagel, I’ll take it as the joke that it is (such overtly silly characters can be great, but my vision of this game and them simply don't match). Finally, I won't insult your intelligence or your creativity by limiting or trying to overgrow your background size, and I’m not the most demanding DM ever. Just keep in mind that I truly enjoyed writing what I have of the game so far, so I won't accept a barren and cliche few sentences as a character's life story, just so that I can play the game with enough players. Roleplaying example: How you see this character being played, demonstrated by some event in the character's life, either contrived or “historical” (having happened in their past, canonically) .

Q&A:

 

Q: Do our character know each other?

A: I personally like it when player have negotiated connection between their characters, but I, as the DM, will not force anyone to have known each other. Now, as to them know of eachother, they can if it makes sense

Q: What brings us together? where?
You shall be brought together in a large strategically placed Urban center in the beginning, which I have not finished writing about yet, and since your prioritization of where your all most needed will be nonlinear, you’ll be going to lots of locales, potentially. As for who/what brings you together, it's going to be a major plot point (Your character had to end up in this city, in the same room as the others in the team. All plans they had otherwise went down in flames, all things barring them from this path were quickly, quietly removed, suddenly, all roads, as it were, led to the same point….the more observant characters will realize quickly that it was not, could not, be an accident, and that whoever, whatever wants them on this path is not the kind of enemy you would want to have)

Q: Posting rate?
Hoping three times a week, most weeks. willing to speed it up or slow it down, if its convenient for the player base. I'm flexible, overall.

Player	Hero	Gender	Age	Powerset
Jagerblonde	Shiver	Female	27	Ice/Cold Generation
Gunnar11	Esaias	Male	12	Energy Controller?
AximusLokar	Hahn	Male	25	Blood Manipulation / Fire Generation
Fragmaster01	Pell/Kolopelli	Male	16	Morph/Karma
Sgsgsseg	Marissa Chriton	Female	Centuries	Vampire
Kanly	The Green Man	Male	unknown	Plant Manipulation/Control
Rolzup	Schism	Male	24	Gravity Controller w/ associated powers
Archeon	Eliza Summers/"The Plague Queen"	Female	39	Plague affinity
PalladiaMors	Viper/Jessica Vasquez	Female	Centuries	Vampire (Unsired)
dbaque	Zauriel	Male	Countless Aeons	Angelic Knight
GleefulNihilism	Mek'kra Jori Seska "Havoc"	Male	40sh, looks to be in his 20s	Well equiped Elite Sniper
Sageheart	Hugo Gernsback	Male	68	TK Communication
Mcderth	Dr Universe/Emrys	Male	80+	Magic/Tech

DEADINE SET TO FEB 10TH, MIDNIGHT, CALIFORNIA TIME. DUE TO THE NUMBER OF ALREADY COMPLETED/NEARLY COMPLETED APPLICATIONS, IF ALL INTERESTED PARTIES FINISH THEIR APPLICATIONS BEFORE THAT DATE, I MAY CLOSE IT SOONER.

[Archaon]

*throws confetti everywhere*

I mean... Posting interest.

[Judgement of God]

Originally Posted by Archaon

*throws confetti everywhere*

I mean... Posting interest.

Welcome aboard, Archeon, cant say I'm suprised to see you being the first responder, but its a very pleasent not-suprised

[zevonian]

As a mod, I edited your title slightly to remove that hiccup at the end of it. If you need the title amended again, feel free to PM me.

-zev

[Judgement of God]

Originally Posted by zevonian

As a mod, I edited your title slightly to remove that hiccup at the end of it. If you need the title amended again, feel free to PM me.

-zev

Thanks for catching that, Zev! your the best

[Archaon]

Originally Posted by Judgement of God

Welcome aboard, Archeon, cant say I'm suprised to see you being the first responder, but its a very pleasent not-suprised

Thanks for having me, Judgement. I have to say, I absolutely love the setting you've come up with. It's been a thrill to read. And the images really set the tone for the game. I take it that it's an idea you've been working on for a while now? Because it doesn't exactly look like something that you could just come up with in a couple of days.

On an entirely different note: I'll have to see if I can adapt my old concept to this setting you've come up with. She was initially envisioned as a bit of a white-collar worker (the kind that gets other people to do the manual labor), so that might be a bit problematic. Then again, a (former?) villain that has an affinity towards disease and plagues sounds like a perfect fit for an edgy post-apocalyptic game.

[Judgement of God]

Originally Posted by Archaon

Thanks for having me, Judgement. I have to say, I absolutely love the setting you've come up with. It's been a thrill to read. And the images really set the tone for the game. I take it that it's an idea you've been working on for a while now? Because it doesn't exactly look like something that you could just come up with in a couple of days.

On an entirely different note: I'll have to see if I can adapt my old concept to this setting you've come up with. She was initially envisioned as a bit of a white-collar worker (the kind that gets other people to do the manual labor), so that might be a bit problematic. Then again, a (former?) villain that has an affinity towards disease and plagues sounds like a perfect fit for an edgy post-apocalyptic game.

*Blushes* That means allot, coming from you I did put a good deal more effort into it than any of my other settings for games so far, and I'm glad to see it's paid off.

Anyway, the setting's been coming togeather in my head for some time now, a personal meld of many of my favorite themes from comic books, ancient mythology, and mainstream domains like Call of cthulhu, world of darkness, a couple of miniture wargames, and cthulhutech, (minus the heavy anime tones for that last one, of course. not that I dont like anime, because I've liked a few). You know, the kind of thing that your sitting there, doing something mind numbingly boring, and you end up enjoying yourself because you get lost in thought at the plot possibilities. I really wanted to put more detail in there, actuelly, but I want to leave myself and the players room to create on the fly.

For that second part:
There are still white coller people; its been 30 years since the last wave of horror, and though humanity isn't doing too hot, it still is civilized for the most part; there's a wasteland, and it is post apocylptic, but the facets of modern society like normal jobs and law and order are still solidly in place, so its completely possible for a white coller person to exist, her life just probably would look allot different than today's bussiness execs, and even from the highest skyscraper, she would have known all her life that she could never truley be safe...its a fact many people try to forget.

The Game is wide open to ex-villians; Like I said in the OP, allot of powerful beings that varied from neutral to outright malevolent ended up fighting side by side with pure-hearted superheroes and normal soldiers, because not even they could coexist or hide from that which came from beyond.

In the end, I want you to play what you want to play, within reason, and I think you already understand that

[Sageheart]

Fantastic game world you built there. Enjoyed reading it. This s a game I could roll with.

Issue is I don't have, have never played, and don't know if I can get the M and M book anytime soon. so alas I may have to watch from the sidelines.

[Judgement of God]

Originally Posted by sageheart

Fantastic game world you built there. Enjoyed reading it. This s a game I could roll with.

Issue is I don't have, have never played, and don't know if I can get the M and M book anytime soon. so alas I may have to watch from the sidelines.

Thanks!

http://www.d20herosrd.com/

If you just want to watch, for whatever reasons (like time constraints etc) I'll understand. However if you do want to play there's this splendid srd, and it has everything you need

[Hawkerra]

Might put something together... Maybe something support-oriented, rather than a brute-force concept...

[Sgsgsseg]

ABSOLUTELY posting Interest. now i just have to choose which character idea i want to be.

When do character submissions close?

[Judgement of God]

Originally Posted by Hawkerra

Might put something together... Maybe something support-oriented, rather than a brute-force concept...

It takes all kinds, hawk . Welcome aboard, if you decide to make a charecter, at any rate.

Originally Posted by Sgsgsseg

ABSOLUTELY posting Interest. now i just have to choose which character idea i want to be.

Welcome aboard, and good luck with that

as for time of closure, not sure yet. No less then two weeks from the OP, though, and maybe more if there is allot of interested parties who need the time.

[Sageheart]

Wait there is an srd with everything I need? Also liked how autocorrect tried to turn srd into the word sex. Haha.

Yes I would, have a character in mind. What's the post rate you are looking for, and due date?
Edit:
I'm thinking of a Colonel who served as a military leader during the war, and is devastated by the choices he was forced to make which only led to their destruction anyway. He's jaded, an alcoholic, and older than most.

For powers I expect to take things that improve my intelligence. He is a master tactician, very intelligent and creative. I don't expect major combat abilities thou he wouldn't be new to combat.

General idea so far.

[Judgement of God]

Originally Posted by sageheart

Wait there is an srd with everything I need? Also liked how autocorrect tried to turn srd into the word sex. Haha.

Yes I would, have a character in mind. What's the post rate you are looking for, and due date?

Excellent.

Hoping three times a week, most weeks. willing to speed it up or slow it down, if its conveniant for the player base. I'm flexible, overall. What can you pull off?

[Sageheart]

I pull off one or two long posts a week, with checking often, so can always respond if need be. I tend to do long descriptive posts. I enjoy writing a lot. Can check out from games I play in if you desire.

In terms of short posts, I can keep three a week but I much prefer doing a few long ones than many short ones. Still I can adapt. The thing I can guarantee is that I won't disappear or give up. I can bring that to the table.

Looking over the abilities I think I want to do passive nonviolent abilities like communicate. I know it could hurt the group I guess if combat heavy game. I think playing an organizer hero would be interesting.