BrianHERO
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HERO: The Past Is Present
The year is 1970.
The American psyche is beaten, battered, tired, and fed up. These days, there are almost constant protests, riots, sit-ins, walk-outs, strikes, and marches.
The love-fest is over. Everyone has a cause now. The average man and woman are standing up for themselves.
No one looks up to superheroes anymore. Superheroes couldn't reach Hitler to stop the Holocaust; superheroes let their guard down at Kennedy's assassination; some say supers actually fueled the Democratic National Convention riots in Chicago 1968.
Kennedy's dream of landing on the moon showed what normal people can still do. They can be heroes themselves. Some people still appreciate the great sacrifices and accomplishments of the supers who fought so bravely in WWII, but the courage of the ordinary men who had only a helmet and rifle as their special abilities were even more recognized. Though even that has faded.
Crime didn't go away; in fact it's worse now than ever before. But superheroes don't get the credit for stopping it and get all of the blame for letting it continue.
World War II was called "The War to End All Wars". But it seems like it only started more wars. Super-tech in warfare was banned by the Geneva Convention after the Nazis made such dramatic and horrifying use of it during the war, but conventional warfare still works. The Korean War seemed a justified but costly stalemate. The Vietnam War is already beginning to stagnate. Border wars and ethnic conflicts have erupted in places around the globe that Americans had never even heard of before.
Many superheroes have simply retired and faded out of memory. Some still continue the noble fight, whether in public or in secret, but most have found other lives. Those who display amazing powers are recruited by the defense industry or other booming private sectors such as computers, pharmaceuticals, and bio-engineering.
But the public has trouble trusting superheroes now, after one of the finest, Alexandra Falls' own Dynamo, began to succumb to that which sets apart the true heroes -- in a desperate attempt to overwhelm and control the growing mobs and gangs, he started to kill. Bit by bit, Dynamo went on a rampage through the underworld, turning completely rogue on his former teammates of Danger Squad. Once they even tried to stop him by force, and Dynamo was so far gone that he accidentally killed Thunder Girl, Danger Squad's youngest superhero. The incident sent him over the edge into madness and he left a path of mindless destruction as he vanished. To this day, no one knows what happened to him.
Your team managed to stay together through all of this, doing what you could while reaping little benefit. Society just seemed to care less and less.
After one last incredible world-spanning mission to save humanity from the sole remaining true global supervillain, Doctor Artifex, most of the team hung up the costumes. The loss of two team members during the hard-fought battles weighed heavily on some; for the rest, it was simply time to move on. A few heroes stayed on, struggling to do right by the world even when it wanted otherwise, but it wasn't long before the team was well and truly history.
Since about 1900, it's been well-documented that only about 1 in 200,000 people develop some superhuman ability, accounting for everything from genetic mutation to chemical accident to unlocking the mind and body's vast potential. But something new is happening. In the past few months, seemingly thousands of former street thugs and gang members are turning up with wild new superhuman powers. City after city is being terrorized by these new superpowered thugs, and none moreso than our very own metropolis of Alexandra Falls.
Some of these new supervillains appear to have very similar powers to some villains you fought dating back to World War II, but those supers were defeated, stripped of their powers, locked away in The Vault, or killed in combat. Others of the thugs are turning up equipped with brand new super-tech devices, some copied from old Third Reich terror weapons, and some brand new inventions. The source is as yet unknown.
An all-out assault is beginning, an invasion from within by a leaderless army of unknown size and unknown power.
The military is fully deployed. New recruits are signing up or being drafted and going overseas to war. The National Guard is minimal and can only do so much against this new kind of threat. Public support is against both the government and those with superpowers.
Who will fight on the front lines of this new war -- the war to preserve society itself?
Our Heroes
 Danger Squad logo (as designed by deceased team leader Hyperion) |
Velocity Homeland: Alexandra Falls, USA |
Tank Boy/Think Tank Homeland: Alexandra Falls, USA |
Julius Wolf Homeland: tbd |
| Dragon Homeland: New England |
American Shield Homeland: tbd |
Episodes
Journals: tbd
Who's Who
A roster of the most well-known or most influential people.
Normals
 |  |  |  |
Active Heroes
- Beacon: she can project beams of light of any color across great distances.
- Black Hole: a man who can shrink to microscopic size and project an intense gravitational field.
- Dr. Thermite: he has the ability to suddenly and violently increase the temperature of anything he touches.
- Kid Zip: a man with super-swift reaction speed. Attempted to change his hero name to Accelero when he grew up, but everyone still calls him Kid Zip.
Europe
- The Raven Brigade: Europe's premier superhero team, backed by Interpol:
- Asteri: Asteri from Greece, "Star", she can produce bursts of starlight
- Chevalier, le: The Cavalier, from France, rider of his jetcycle and team leader
- Forza: Italy's hero known as Force, creates invisible walls and shapes of energy
- Punkt: Punkt, a.k.a. Point, from Germany, packs a punch when she launches herself at amazing speed
- Sir Galahad: Britain's top defender, wielding magical armor and magical sword
Eastern Bloc
- Belya Auri: a.k.a. North Wind, she can summon icy blasts.
- Crux: can swap the places of any two objects or beings he can see
- Proletarian, the: The premier Soviet super, he is amazingly strong.
Inactive Heroes
- Amazon, the: she possesses superhuman strength and toughness. Retired.
- Andros: "the ultimate man", a man of outstanding agility and physical beauty. MIA in Vietnam.
- Captain Comet: he can turn his body into a ball of fire and fly at great speeds. Injured and retired.
- Danger Squad: the most successful hero team in Alexandra Falls until their retirement
- Dynamo: he possessed the power to build up kinetic energy and spin himself or others very rapidly. Wherabouts unknown.
- Hyperion: former leader of Danger Squad, he could summon and project intense heat. Killed in the capture of Dr. Artifex.
- Jammer & Ultracar: Jammer, a.k.a. Quentin Michaels, a superhumanly clever gearhead, and his handmade vehicle Ultracar (pictured in street driving mode with all devices hidden). Retired, whereabouts unknown.
- Ms. Max: a woman who could grow fifty feet tall. Turned to stone during the capture of Dr. Artifex.
- Thunder Girl: (pictured as if she were alive today) she had the ability to produce deafening thunderclaps. Killed by Dynamo.
- Dexter: a man with amazing reflexes and skills of physical manipulation. Said to have instigated the 1968 Chicago riots with an amazingly well-placed thrown Molotov cocktail. Served one year in prison, current location unknown.
- Miss Evergreen: she can command and control any plant. Currently working in biotech.
- Positron: he has the ability to glue any two objects or creatures together. Last known working in defense systems research.
- Professor Liberty: led the Super Squad in WWII, he possesses superhuman intellect and amazing skills of invention. In an old age home.
- Wildman, the: a barely-controlled ferocious beast man, always on the edge of the law. Currently in The Vault.
Third Reich Ubermenschen
Hitler's army of superpowers, defeated by the Allied Super Squad.
- Grendel: a vicious, twisted creature with deadly teeth and claws
- Jotun: Jotun, "Giant", able to grow as tall as a building
- Nachtflug: Nachtflug, a.k.a. Night Flight, who could fly on patterns of force
- Oberststahl: Oberststahl, a.k.a. Colonel Steel, who could turn his body into solid metal
- Schreckmacher, der: Der Schreckmacher, the Frightmaker, who can control the clouds of gas created from his tanks of chemicals
- Schwartzenritter, das: The Black Knight, master tactician and leader
- Spinne, die: Die Spinne, or The Spider, a blind but very capable super-acrobat
- Valkyrie, die: Die Valkyrie, one maiden who could become three, all masters with weapons
- U-Mann, der: Der Ungeseht-Mann (The Unseen Man), can teleport and turn invisible
- Wunderkind: a.k.a. Wonder Kid, a Hitler Youth supergenius with technology
Active Villains
- Bridge: he can create a mystical bridge over short distances to pass over or through any matter.
- Daybreak: always seen with his sister Nightfall, he projects intense flashes of heat and light.
- John Doe: a man with the ability to blend into any crowd. Not pictured.
- Ms. Doubt: she can make people change their decisions.
- Menagerie: a girl who can summon and command animals
- Nightfall: always seen with her brother Daybreak, she projects clouds of impenetrable darkness.
- Nine Gods, the: a recently-formed team of young superpowered criminals, renamed and rethemed.
- Acropolis: he can grow and turn his body to stone.
- Artemis: team leader, superhuman crack shot with her specialized bow and arrows. Formerly Crackshot.
- Eris: see Inactive Villains.
- Gorgon: he has the strange power of paralyzing gaze. Rumored but unseen as yet.
- Hephaestus: master weaponsmaker of the team. Rumored but unseen as yet.
- Hermes: arguably the fastest man on Earth. Formerly Zoom.
- Nemesis: claiming to enact "righteous vengeance", he has the ability to duplicate any powers near him and use them against their possessor. Formerly Judgment.
- Poseidon: he has power over and command of large bodies of water and can grow and shape his own body while in water. Formerly The Waterboy.
- Thanatos: a mysterious figure who can apparently kill with a touch.
- Pinball: she bounces off of consecutive surfaces to build up power.
- Squealer, the: he can project intense and disabling blasts of sound. Rumored but unseen as yet.
Inactive Villains
- Crows: a mysterious figure who can seemingly disperse his body into a murder of crows. Whereabouts unknown.
- Dr. Artifex: the last global supervillain, he can manipulate genetic codes. In the Vault.
- Eris: a strangely beautiful woman with the ability to imbue any object with such desirability that others will fight over it. The only member of The Nine Gods ever captured, currently in The Vault.
- Madame Medusa: one of Dr. Artifex's most powerful henchmen, she could turn living beings to crystalline silica. Killed in the capture of Dr. Artifex.
- Molto Calan: Italian master weaponsmith, can form machinery with his bare hands. Fled the scene of Dr. Artifex's capture, whereabouts unknown.
- Triad: can split his body into three beings -- one of metal, one of plasma, one of crystal. In the Vault.
- Vanisher, the: can turn himself and any object invisible. Vanished.
Setting Details
Where Are We?
Alexandra Falls is located on the central west coast of the Narragansett Bay in the state of Rhode Island, United States of America. The city itself is home to about 600,000 residents, and the entire metropolitan area numbers around 2 million.
Past History
Current theory holds that beings with superpowers have been among us all the time. The compacting of society and the stresses of modern life may have aggravated the phenomena that cause superpowers to emerge, or perhaps there are just more people now, but for some reason more and more have been appearing.
After the R-101 disaster, British dreams of dirigible fleets providing luxurious air travel were scrapped, but in 1937, the German zeppelin Hindenburg became the first airship to cross the Atlantic. As it landed in New Jersey, an errant spark caught fire inside the ship, and it was only the swift reaction of the British superhero known as Sir Sleet, who was a passenger on the flight, that prevented the ship from bursting into flames.
After the Hindenburg's successful voyage, airship designs were corrected to prevent any future possible disasters. Airship fleets -- pardon the pun -- ballooned, and soon competitive carriers spread service networks across the USA and mainland Europe, and monthly Atlantic crossings between Brest, France and Alexandra Falls, Rhode Island became a regular sight from 1937 to 1940.
World War 2
When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, all of Europe was on notice. When Germany invaded France in 1940, blowing their way through the Maginot Line with massive rail guns, bomber support, and a squadron of some of the most powerful superbeings ever seen, the entire world picked a side. Japan and Italy advanced on British and French colonies with their own armies and supersoldiers -- Il Duce's infamous Maestro Division of super-capable engineers, and Japan's Strikeforce Kidokami ("Mobile Gods").
When Hitler invaded Russia, the first sleeping giant was awakened. Since the rise of the USSR, the Soviets had been feverishly researching the causes of superpowers and how to increase the odds of their occurrence. The German armies weren't ready for the fury of the one called Tatar, or "Blizzard". The ensuing savage winter bogged down the invading army for months.
Japan awoke the second sleeping giant with its surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Strikeforce Kidokami provided a blanket of thick fog and an electrical storm to confuse the port watch, and bombers laid waste to almost the entire fleet. But Japan had not counted on a neutral power becoming such a mighty adversary. Along with a massive retooling of all industries into the biggest war machine ever, American scientists also developed Serum 114, which, when coupled with an intense physical and mental regimen, could produce startlingly powerful superhuman abilities in those who survived the process. These supersoldiers along with other superhumans (from both sides of the law) were drafted into the U.S. Military's Super Squads: Able Squad, Baker Squad, Charlie Squad, and Dog Squad. They did everything from front line combat to concentration camp liberation.
From that point, the war proceeded as expected: a slow slog of ebbs and flows. Italy surrendered with American troops on Rome's doorstep, but Germany and Japan fought on. Germany in particular grew even more desperate and turned to wild experimentation to construct a superweapon with which to win the war.
In March 1945, U.S. forces reached the western borders of Germany, just as U.S.S.R. forces reached the eastern border. But Hitler had already activated his secret weapon. The plan seemed to be to get it to Washington D.C. or at least New York City, but the man code-named Das Totenwellen ("death wave"), sneaking in aboard a returning Liberty Ship, only managed to make it to port at Alexandra Falls before being discovered.
He tried to continue on, but with police, militia, and a few non-war-worthy supers to do battle with him and his escorts, Das Totenwellen had no choice but to execute his reason for existence in downtown Alexandra Falls. As he stood in place, a wavefront like a sonic boom emanated from his body, ripping up concrete, smashing down buildings, and pulverizing living beings as it expanded. Within minutes, a ten-mile radius was flattened of all structures and living things. Alexandra Falls was wiped off the map.
Post-War
The ruined site of Alexandra Falls was selected as a symbol of the world rebuilding after the horrors of war. A new city was planned, better and larger than before. Newly-returned soldiers and personnel were given bonuses to settle there. The city grew again and became the largest city in New England next to Boston. Transatlantic airship lines returned their service to the area, establishing non-stop flights to Narragansett Bay Airport (NBX) and using it as a hub to serve points north, south, and west.
Recent History
With more and more superpowered criminals being captured, tried, and convicted, a new facility was needed to contain these menaces and prevent them from breaking free of custody. The EPA, in charge of monitoring superhumans and their effects on the environment, collaborated with Interpol to build The Vault. Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island was selected as it was sparsely inhabited, poor farmland, yet close to superhuman research centers in Alexandra Falls -- and also close to a high concentration of superheroes in case an emergency situation got out of hand.
- Dynamo went nuts
- Team brought down and captured Dr. Artifex
In that massive showdown outside Geneva, Hyperion, leader of Danger Squad, lost his life, struck down by one of Calan's robotic killing machines. With the team stunned and disheartened, Madame Medusa took advantage and summoned all of her power, turning the massive Ms. Max into solid stone. This drove Jammer into a rage, and he unleashed a fusillade of rockets from Ultracar's launchers so devastating that there was barely a corpse left to identify as the former Madame Medusa.
Calan panicked. In his power suit, he literally threw his erstwhile compatriot Dr. Artifex at the heroes and fled. Without his support personnel, the mad geneticist was finally brought down thanks to heroic teamwork. Even struck down, Danger Squad still managed to bring the last worldwide supercriminal to justice. Today, a memorial park stands on that spot, dedicated to all superhumans who gave their lives in war or in peace to protect others. Ms. Max still stands at the center of the park.
Dr. Artifex became the newest inhabitant of The Vault and sits there to this day.
Present Day
Today, the first jet airliners have been flying commercial service for almost fifteen years, but many still prefer the "luxury liner of the skies", the venerable and dependable airship. Jets have been optimized for business travelers and tend to carry about 100 passengers on short hops or quick non-stop intercontinental jaunts, but airships account for almost all casual air travel.
The generally well-kept smooth black tops of the United States Interstate Network led to the easy development of hovercraft-based automobiles. The miniaturized "Quantum Armature Motor" perfected by Dr. Peter Avalon allowed hundreds of tiny fans on tiny electric motors to spin at amazing speeds, rather than relying on one noisy, hard-to-control fan to provide lift. Avalon Aircars are still a luxury item only about five years on the market now, but it's not unusual to be passed by a few in the Hover Only Vehicle lane around major cities.
Not to be outdone, General Dynamics soon tossed their hat into the ring with the FV-7 Personal Flyer, a commercial modification of a military-grade personal flyer. The FV-7 is a backpack-like frame and battery holding two huge jet-caliber turbofans. It's noisy, short-ranged, and even more expensive than the Avalon Aircar, but it's perfect for the executive on the go.
 The Solaris Destiny, a typical long haul passenger airship |  The Solaris Eagle, a new model private yacht |  The Solaris SkyFreighter, a long-range cargo transport |
 The Convair 880, the most popular jetliner in the USA |  The Avro C102, popular in Europe and for short hops | |
 The 1965 Avalon Bee aerocar |  The General Dynamics FV-7 personal flyer |
Anachronisms
Due to the broad influence on superpowers in technology and research, especially genetics and micronization, some technologies exist in the game world in 1970 that didn't exist in our world in 1970.
Things that do exist in the game world that didn't in our 1970:
- floppy disks, genetically-modified food (seeds), hovercraft-based personal vehicles, microchips, personal computers (desktop sized), pocket calculators, videocassettes.
Things which do not exist yet:
- cellphones, post-it notes, laser printers, video games.
Things to keep in mind:
- ARPANet has expanded to be used by every branch of the U.S. Government and every major college and university along the east coast; expanding into usage elsewhere.
- Lexis/Nexis is in use among major law firms.
- Other connectivity is limited to hard-wired leased lines, acoustic couplers, or dedicated teletypes.
Companies in ascendance:
- IBM
Companies not in ascendance:
- Boeing (just another parts manufacturer)
Rules
We will be using the HERO System 5th Edition Revised rulebook.
House Rules
Combat Sequence
Normally, to start a combat sequence, I will roll a d12 to determine the starting segment for the first turn. If there is a surprise situation, the surpriser(s) may select the segment to start the sequence.
Catalyst
Ever since superhuman abilities have become known and to some degree understood, the cause and source of such abilities is still unknown. Why is it that one person who falls into a vat of acid develops superpowers, while another person who falls into a vat of acid just dies? Why is it that some born with generic mutations exhibit amazing powers, while others just have to live with wheelchairs? There are theories, but no one knows.
This is not yet known in the game world, but there is a formless substance in the world which I'm calling "Catalyst". Through a means as yet unknown, certain individuals can direct and transmute Catalyst into the world of matter and energy.
During play, you can gather your energies and concentrate your powers to the limits of your capacity. Whenever you roll one or more d6, you may take a Catalyst Die and roll it, then substitute it in place of any other die in your roll. You may only affect your own rolls. There is no limit to the number of Catalyst Dice you can take.
When you take a Catalyst Die, I will note it down in my secret notebook. Occasionally, as a reward for good play or heroic action, I will secretly erase a Catalyst Point.
Between sessions, I will roll 3d6 against the total number of Catalyst Points you have taken so far, as if it were a Hunted or DNPC. If I roll the total or less, the balance will shift against you, and the universe will claim back some of the energy you stole. Something will not go right for you for that session. Perhaps you'll miss an obvious clue, perhaps your Activation Rolls will be off just slightly, perhaps an enemy will somehow gain the upper hand.
Take more, and things may start to go a bit haywire with your powers -- you may develop abilities you didn't know you had, or you may put some unintended extra oomph behind it at the wrong time.
Character Creation
Note: You have certainly earned more than 25 XP, but some control and focus over your powers and skills has waned from disuse or misuse. To account for this, more XP will be earned than usual, as you regain your focus.
Vulnerabilities receive a 5 point GM bonus, since they are usually quite disabling.
