This setting is one I'm running for a group of friends, cleaned up as a Micro-Setting for use on the CBG. This was an email sent to the players of the 3rd edition Mutants and Masterminds game, and while I did my best to change the language to make it less email-y and more setting-y, I'm sure I missed some spots '" and liberal use of Ctrl+F and replace probably means there's some weird things here and there. Also, it's somewhat intended to illustrate what I mean by a Micro-Setting. Hope you enjoy, and as always, questions and comments immensely appreciated.
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center]Setting[/center]Everything in these sections contains information you'd get by taking 10 in an untrained check to get information about whatever is included '" in other words, the information that pretty much anyone that pays the slightest bit of attention would know.
A Somewhat Brief History of the World (NOTE: History is not my subject. This section is vague because I don't know the best of the details '" as part of the whole organic Post Human thing, I'd love help with either the stuff written here or suggestions for what was going on elsewhere on Earth.)
The Earth of this Post Human is not the Earth we all know and quasi-love, owing it's differences to a little quirk of physics that completely reshaped history followed by a much larger quirk of physics that reshaped reality.
The first quirk of physics comes down to how atomic fusion and fission work. I've done the science and it's really boring, but a universe where the kind of fission we use to power nuclear reactors and nuclear bombs didn't work except on much larger scales of matter than it does in reality would not be that different than ours. The basic jist of the science is that, in Post Human, you could make a nuclear bomb '" if you had the resources to make one half the size of the moon.
This fundamentally altered the development of the world post-World War II. Japan surrendered to the US, but did so under much more favorable conditions. The USSR and USA were still the two major powers on the globe, and the Cold War happened mostly like it did in reality '" the exception being that the money that would have gone into WMD research instead went into a number of different technologies. Various land wars and escalating tensions between the two nations that happened in reality happened here as well...with the exception of the problem of oil. By the late 1970's, our dependence on oil was hitting us hard, and to secure these supplies what was thought to be another little-land war in Iran quickly escalated into full on World War 3, this time between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. It lasted for a total of 3 years, and during it a few significant events occurred.
See, right before WWIII kicked off, the American Southeast got hit by a hurricane that would make the later Katrina look like a sneeze in comparison. Started on the Florida coast and ripped the entire region a new one, spreading all the way to Texas. The government was slow to respond, less from any malice and more from the beginnings of a new World War and unpreparedness for a disaster of this magnitude. Of course, those excuses didn't hold much water for people that lost homes and family members. Senator Richard Andrade of Mississippi begin making stirrings of frustration with the North, and when instead of rerouting supplies to assist them we threw them into yet another land war in Asia, the South said enough.
'You have proven you cannot, should not, and will not govern here any longer.' That phrase kickstarted the second American Civil War, a theater of World War III. The Independent States of America were quick to seek Soviet aid and the Soviets, glad to have a chance to knock America out of the fight, had no problem with supplying them with what they could spare '" which wasn't much, mind you, but was enough. Meanwhile, in Canada, Quebec had a similar uprising. Seeing a chance for independence among the chaos, a number of nationalists groups in the USSR rose up '" most notably Chechnya, which was supported by various NATO members. The Basque rose up in France, which forced them out, and really WWIII never actually ended - all sides just had to pull out to deal with problems at home, and by the time they did it was too late to hold on to the rebellious territories. By the time the fallout was done, a number of new nations had sprung up, and the Geo-political map of the world was redrawn.
Locations of Note
This list obviously isn't everything global '" I'm just putting ones that either are important to the backdrop or that I expect you to be visiting in the near future. More will be added as time goes on '" and ff you have suggestions for things to add, please do.
Kentucky'" America's Kashmir. One of the major sticking points of the Second American Civil War was Kentucky. The state was 50/50 split between going with the Independents and staying in the Union, and though it did end up staying, a lot of the locals aren't happy about that. Skirmishes arise there on a regular basis, sometimes spilling over into neighboring states. The Kentucky Liberation Front, based in the western part of the state has waged a small terror campaign across the country since after the Civil War ended, focusing most of their out of state efforts on the nearest major cities '" especially Saint Louis and Chicago. The KLF, not Al-Queda, was behind the 9/11/2001 destruction of the Empire State Building.
The ISA It's kind of hard not seeing the ISA's point. We abandoned them to fight a war somewhere else, and they got pissed and decided they weren't going to sit back and pay taxes to a government that didn't give two shits about them. At the same time, they did break away from America, and with the issue of Kentucky constantly arising, warfare has almost broken out between the two nations on multiple occasions. Regardless of if they were right or wrong, their presence has kept the USA in a state of constant semi-militarization since 1985. The ISA is not as strongly federally controlled as the USA '" outside of matters of military, national security, and interstate commerce (which is much better defined than the USA), the president has no power whatsoever, and Congress's power is limited as well. The various Governors are the real powers down there, and that's how they prefer it to work.
The USSR '" The Behemoth Held One of the side effects of World War III and the ISA breaking away was that the USA suddenly had a much closer to home problem to deal with, meaning the USSR could tone back their military spending '" and did so significantly. Tthe USSR is still a going concern, and they're undeniably a major global power '" though somewhat fragmented thanks to a few breakaway satellite states.
China '" The New Superpower In the real world 2011, China is damn near a Superpower regardless. In the world of Post Human, there's no near about it '" their influence globally is significant, and they influence global politics the way America and the USSR once did.
Technology
Microfusion Reactors Without nuclear power, various global forces were forced to look for alternative energy sources '" especially since global oil supplies were dwindling far more rapidly than they did in reality. The development of the Microfusion Reactor (usually shortened to MFR or MFRs) changed that entirely. About the same diameter as a hockey puck, a single MFR has enough power to run a car continuously for an entire month without needing to recharge, and is small enough that batteries of them can be used to power more advanced technology. The price tag is steep '" MFRs run anywhere from $2000 to $50000 dollars a pop, depending on its construction '" but the energy they produce is clean and renewable, and a typical car driver will not use up his MFRs power faster than it recharges. It's not something you find in the hands of the everyday consumer, but those that have the money for them are using them to create some amazing things. In addition, advancements in blue-ray, radio, laser, and wireless electrical transmission (witricity) have made cords an anachronism.
Information Technology On the information front, 2011 here looks a lot like 2011 there, with a few exceptions. Cellphones became common in the early 1980's, smartphones in the late 1990's, and tablet PCs that can connect to the cellular network ubiquitous in the early 2000's. Touchscreens are how most devices operate, and the latest revolution has been Light Projection Interfaces, called holoboards. (Think Minority Report, though on a slightly smaller scale. Not common yet, but appearing among the wealthy). AI's have advanced as well, and while none of them can display human intelligence yet, we can get ones with the relative intelligence of a particularly smart dog '" technology that is used mainly by the military.
Military Technology Weaponry and armor are where things really get interesting, in theory, but I'm drawing a blank on what I should reveal here. For now, just assume that most people use normal guns, with the occasional military-grade piece of hardware appearing on the black market or produced by a rogue scientist. Battle Armor powered by MFR-Reactors are by no means common yet, but they're not unheard of.
Transportation Oh, and since we're playing with this level of tech, feel free to build vehicles for your character if it fits. MFRs means that some pretty absurd things are possible when it comes to that. Don't worry about going a bit crazy, you have comic tech '" a motorcycle with leaping and wall-crawling, a car with concealment and a sleeping gas launcher, a double-decker bus that can fly, a fighter jet with a force-field.
Characters
What about the Supers?! Thought I forgot, didn't you? All that history is the backdrop for when things start getting even more relevant to the game. Superhumans are a fairly recent phenomena, triggered by that second physics quirk I mentioned a couple pages ago. See, in 2005 everything went blue for thirty seconds '" and by everything, I mean the entire Solar System was bathed in it. Called the Blue Event (of the same scientific naming convention that gave us the Big Bang), whatever it was seemed to be nothing more than a fairly horrifying cosmic anomaly, though plenty of people latched onto it as a sign the End Was Nigh. No one knows where it started or what caused it, but shortly thereafter reports of people with extraordinary abilities began appearing in the press.
The first Super Costumed Person appeared in 2007 and was a flying wiman wearing a black and white costume and calling herself The Harbringer, and perhaps unsurprisingly was not the type of person that saves school-buses of children. She carved himself a nice little nation by taking over Paraguay '" an activity that took her all of a week with her followers. While she's seemed content to sit back on his new nation for now, she inspired other super powered people to start stirring up shit across the globe. Thus far, the majority of people that dress like circus rejects and run around beating people up do so for less than moral reasons '" your characters are going to be among the first to do so with the intent of trying to help, not damage, society. Why? Well, for each individual, that's up to you.
Who are we? Your characters were normal people, and some of them still are, who for some reason decide that they want to fight against the evils of the world '" and there are plenty of those. The available origins for powers are as follows, though all fall under the broad category of Metahuman
Bluebloods, people that developed superhuman power because of the cosmic whatever that caused the Blue Event. They can do things no human has ever been able to do before, and so far no amount of science can determine how they hell they're able to do what they do and what fuels it. Bluebloods tend to have powers revolving around the manipulation of energy to some degree, though those with purely physical powers have been seen (further studies, however, have shown that their seemingly physical powers are actually the result of tactile telekinesis or other such energy projection that simulates physical powers. If you're playing a blueblood, you're working with energy, even if it doesn't look like it.) For the most part Bluebloods can fully pass as humans, though some have slight abnormal appearances '" oddly colored hair or eyes being the most common expressions of this. (Note that energy is used in this sense to refer to anything that's not psychic or physical '" probability is considered an energy for these purposes.)
Then there's the
Warped, people that got superhuman power because of the Blue Event but also got some more significant physical abnormalities than the Bluebloods. Warped tend to have raw physical powers though energy manipulation can be found among them. (Again further studies indicate that a Warped with energy power stems from a physical source '" a Warped that can project fire actually has glands that produce flammable gasses, while one that can control the emotions of people does so through the release of pheromones). It's worth noting that not all Warped look inhuman at first glance (though many do). For some, that's because they can pull the weird shit into their bodies '" For example, one won't have spines all the time, but when they want to they can grow razor sharp bones. Others looks completely human 100% of the time unless put under an x-ray or MRI. Then you find things like a binary vascular system, a uniform lung, a shorter but more efficient intestinal system, different bone structures, etc. Warped are also the most likely to have extra senses or enhancement to their senses, as well as the ability to alter their physical form in some way.
The third category are the
Psyches, people with nervous system abnormalities that grant them some degree of mental power. Psyches are the second most most rare of the people empowered by the Blue Event, and of their abilities the most common power is a degree of enhanced intelligence or an increased speed to their thought process. People actually able to pick up on others thoughts, plant thoughts in others heads, alter their perceptions, and other powers of that nature are exceedingly rare '" and are almost always coupled with some sort of mental disturbance, since you can't spend time in or playing with other people's heads without damaging your own a bit. A subset of the Psyches are Virtuosos, which are fairly common but extremely hard to notice. This group of people people underwent no physiological alterations, but suddenly gained some skill-set (Fighting ability, technological know-how, talent with a musical instrument they've never used before) as if they had practiced it their entire lives.
The final and rarest category of empowered individuals are
Mutts, people who have attributes from two of the above types. Harbringer is one such individual, having the ability to manipulate what she calls 'Void Energy' to power much of her abilities, but still having large, raven-like wings that enable her flight.
Of course, being a super hero does not require super powers. Those that have no innate power can have the following origins for their powers:
Techies rely on advanced technology, often whipped up in their basement or stolen from military bases, to preform their criminal or heroic deeds. Their ability to create technology is part of the technological advancement of the past 6 years. MFRs are the most common source of power for their devices, and many have the knowledge to fabricate their own MFRs '" useful for keeping costs down. A specialized type of Techies are known as cyborgs, people that have their devices grafted into their bodies.
Warriors fight through extensive training, making them more rare than any other origin '" the idea of a well trained warrior has been around for quite some time, but individuals willing to train to the degree to be considered Warriors are new '" some believing them to be born of the Blue Event, giving them a drive to obtain near physical perfection. Such men and women are capable of near super-powered feats, pushing their bodies to the limit and beyond. (With the lower progression table of 3e and the addition of Parry, Dodge, Fighting, Agility, and Close/Range combat, purely characters become much more appealing. The lower progression table enables Warriors to take a couple ranks in some powers to represent either specialized strikes that are designed to do more than just injure their foe or represent that their training has made them able to run faster, jump higher, heal quicker, soak harder hits, or shake off mental effects more easily.) Some use weaponry that's MFRhaic or modern, though if your character is the type to shoot people, I request that you either have improbable aiming skills that allow your to avoid killing or that you favor rubber bullets to put criminals down in a more humane way than a gaping hole in their skull.
Nothing restricts characters from having powers from multiple sources '" if Spider-Man existed in Post Human, he'd be a Warped (for his physical abilities), Psyche (for his danger sense, which essentially means he's a Mutt), and a Techie for his web shooters. However, he'd likely be classified as a Warped by the media, since most of his powers are physical, the web shooters are well hidden, and his danger sense is known by few.
Why does all that matter? Part of it is reaction '" normal people are much more comfortable with Techies are Warriors, terrified of Psyches, disturbed by Warped, and a mixture of terror and awe for Bluebloods. Defining powers this way is just a way to add flavor to the Post Human '" everyone knows these slangs, and the media enjoys using them. Don't let it restrict you, just know that labels will be applied by the media and could be a source of complications for your characters.
Organizations And Individuals: These are people and groups that everyone has heard something about, and is only going to contain the basic information you'd get from asking some random guy in the street. If any of them interest you enough to want to know more, you'll have to make an appropriate Expertise (Whatever is Relevant) check. You'll note that most of these are Very Bad People(TM) - or at least questionable ones. Just making sure I drive the point home that you guys are the first of the heroes. As with locations, this is by no means a complete list, just an attempt to give a taste of what's nearby and what's going on. If you have suggestions for things to add, feel free.
The Kentucky Liberation FrontMentioned previously, the KLF is a terrorist group located in Kentucky that seeks to pull the state from the Union and into the ISA. Saint Louis and Chicago, both being so close to their base of operations, are primary targets for the KLF.
The Pantheon The Pantheon is an organization that is in all 5 North American nations (Mexico, ISA, USA, Canada, and Quebec). Powerful Bluebloods, they've set themselves up as a new religion, one that actually grants prayers in exchange for a sacrifice '" typically money, but relatively often some other service for the Pantheon. What makes the Pantheon somewhat heinous is they'll grant almost any prayer except for ones that request money (which is done, but rarely) '" but if you pray hard enough to them for your cheating Ex's death, and offered the required sacrifice, there's a good chance they'll grant it. At the same time, a prayer for the return of a kidnapped child is going to get the same attention and efficiency. How they detect prayers is the best kept secret of the organization, and finding it out would go a long way towards stopping them.
The Cult of the Gifted Run by Harbinger, The Cult of the Gifted believe that anyone empowered by the Blue Event has been divinely appointed to rule, and seek to topple human government so they can follow their divine mandate. Oddly enough, the Cult has a decent sized human following, made up of people who either buy into their doctrine or figure this way they'll be ensured a favored place when the Cult wins.
The Church of Humanity As a counterpoint to the Cult, the Church of Humanity is the premier anti-super terrorist group. Individual member's beliefs range from 'Metahumans have been given their powers by devils or demons and most be put down' all the way down to 'I just hate those damn freaks.' Regardless, they are to metahumans what the KKK was to African Americans. Their members come from all ethnicities '" after all, why does it matter if you're black or white or yellow when the guy down the street can fire lasers out of his fuckin' eyes.
Lucas Marshall A wealthy industrialist that has been at the forefront of much of the advancement of technology in the USA through his Dharma Corporation, the largest non-publically traded company on Earth. The only notable fact about the man is the amount of mystery surrounding someone of his stature '" it'd seem as if we'd know more of him, but his name and appearance are plastered everywhere '" and not a whole lot of personal information.
Specialized Weapons and Operations Resource Division The USA's new military falls under the dominion of SWORD, a division of the military that uses the best technology available. SWORD operates off of the USS Valiant, one of the world's few true Airships. While SWORD is not called in for every time someone with a power begins causing problems, they do get involved in major situations '" and often engage in full out military operations in other countries.
Just a note - the term Micro-Setting is from a different thread I posted, and while this setting is one I'm interested in everyone's thoughts on and still needs work, it was also posted as a "proof of concept" for what I meant by Micro-Setting.