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COLLABORATIVE WORLDBUILDING MEME
COLLABORATIVE
WORLDBUILDING MEME
While the mods are committed to providing a variety of fun, engaging mod-run events in the context of a mod-guided metaplot, Meta Heroes operated on the ethic that DWRP is at its best when players are given the freedom to run wild and contribute meaningfully to the setting. Given that Meta Heroes offers players a substantial sandbox with lots of freedom, the setting will always grow and evolve with the playerbase.
This collaborative worldbuilding meme will be a recurring spot for players to share the toys they've developed — giving other players more to work with and reference, as well as helping the mods keep track of that information. Over time, the mods intend to add businesses and the like to the LOCATIONS page based on what players develop. The goal behind this is to make all of the information as easy to access as possible.
Below are a list of possible contributions and suggested forms to reply to this meme with. Please feel free to brainstorm ideas that aren't fully developed in the comments of this post! Players can also do this kind of brainstorming at our static OOC DISCUSSION AND PLOTTING post outside of the usual meme hours.
Guidelines
01. Be sensitive to the way players are impacted by real events. Do not reference real people or real events. Do not fictionalize real people or real tragedies. If necessary, the mods will veto any suggestions that cause concern from other players. 02. Collaborate with one another on these ideas. 03. Avoid duplications.
City Locations
Each city in Meta Heroes is designed to reflect its own flavor/subgenre, both in homage to the wide array of comics subgenres and out of respect to the fact that the playerbase loves a wide variety of plot types. To that end, players are invited to develop locations, community practices, and other setting elements to help personalize the cities to your needs. Below is a little reminder of the overall vibe for each of our locations:
LITTLE LOVE is a slow-paced, rural farming town that also features a number of manufacturing plants. Its “supervillains” are largely the products of wayward alien technology or kids who got carried away with their newfound powers. Think Smallville.For each of these cities, players can contribute things like native NPC businesses, parks, cultural events, and geographic features (think bridges, statues, and art installations). Please use the form below to share setting elements of this kind:
CENTRAL CITY is a midwestern city to all things grimdark and urban noir. Organized and violent crime runs rampant. This is where you’d most likely find your Falcone families, your Jokers, and your Kingpins. In addition, this is the most politically active of the cities. You'll also find the people who don't get their own hands dirty, like Lex Luthor, preferring to move behind the scenes.
SUNSET FALLS is a mid-sized suburb in the West, full of magic, mystery, and dimensional weirdness. Think of it as Sunnydale meets Mystic Falls. Hell can't wait to swallow this shithole, err, whole. This is where you’d get your Enchantresses, your Klarion the Witchboys, and your hoards of vampires.
EXCELSIOR CITY is the coastal tech capital of the United States on this Earth! Think Eureka. Disillusioned scientists, angry ex-partners, and technology just plain going wrong! You’d find your Man-Bats, Green Goblins, and Paste Pot Petes here.
Businesses
All players are welcome to have their characters set up IC businesses, charities and organizations, provided they could realistically do so with the resources at their disposal. To start a PC-run business, please fill out a PLOT REQUEST for approval. (Note: this post has been recently updated!)
Already approved businesses and locations can be posted here to share with other players for their use in threads using the form below. Players can also use this form to establish an NPC-run business that characters frequent, including US-based mega-corporations that are antagonistic, friendly, or anywhere in-between.
Minor NPCs
Players are invited to design heroic and villainous NPCs for use in small-scale plots and to populate cities. These can be allies or enemies, developed within or across guilds. The guidelines below are not strict! They’re merely suggestions as to what players can expect for the day to day.
WHAT CAN WE DO WITH THESE MINOR NPCS?
Players can freely use player-created minor NPCs in logs and plots. Please be courteous with other people's toys; it's not a good idea to kill a minor NPC made by or frequently used by someone else without talking to them or pitching an idea inmetaooc first. These are intended to flesh out the setting and give superpowered characters something more specific to fight against.
As a reminder, guidelines for what kinds of plots require approval can be found at our newly updated PLOTTING page. Thwarting small schemes, bank robberies, and plots without civilian death or widespread destruction — as well as silly things like everyone suddenly losing their left shoe — don’t require mod approval. Players are free to reference them or run them without running them by the mods. The crux is that if person or property is going to be damaged substantially in a way that other people would notice, players should be communicating with the mod team.
WHAT IF I WANT TO APP A SHORT-TERM VILLAIN CHARACTER?
You sure can! Players have multiple options for how to execute this. One route is to submit an application for the character and include plot plans within the application. Another is to contact the mods at the MOD CONTACT page. Lastly, players could submit short-term villain requests to the PLOTTING page.
QUESTIONS
Outside of the operation of this meme, you can always ask these questions at the PLOTTING post with the subject line 'BRAINSTORMING,' or at the FAQ.
LOCATION/BUSINESS: Fix-It All-Tow
DESCRIPTION: FIX-IT ALL-TOW is a mechanic's shop located in Central City, Michigan, owned and operated by one Jorge Reyes. Unlike many of the buildings in the city, it retains much of the original structure as it had when it first opened over thirty years ago; whether this is a matter of luck, chance, or something else remains to be seen. What -is- known is that it does a good job, for the most part, at fair prices; Reyes isn't in the market to scam people, though he does have something of a gruff attitude and isn't above giving people exactly what they ask for if they piss him off.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: It's a large mechanic's shop/garage! The garage, obviously works on vehicles - but the shop does have a wide variety of items for things like RVs, boats, go-karts...
CITY: Central City
INFO POST LINK: Here!
CONTACT NAMES: ICly, the place is run by Jorge Reyes. OOCly, Toni's your contact.
HOW CAN CHARACTERS GET INVOLVED: Need things repaired? Need parts? Trying to find a Grease Monkey? Here's your spot. The place also does, in fact, hire metas!
IC INBOX: Info post works!
LOCATION: abandoned hideout in excelsior
LOCATION: Excelsior, somewhere on the outskirts
DESCRIPTION: It used to be home to many a start-up business, and so it used to be all shiny and chrome like so many other buildings in Excelsior. However, too many of the start-ups turned out to be fronts for supervillain shenanigans, and the building soon became known as the Hideout, where you could put up an underground lab and hold experiments on test subjects who may or may not have been less than willing to be there. Eventually, however, one too many failed experiments proved to be the building’s doom—what used to be a three-story Art Deco masterpiece now is a one-story (on the surface) semi-Brutalist mess, a testament to what happens if you put one too many disgruntled scientists with few moral qualms and chips on their shoulder in the same building together.
There may, or may not, still be sentient Roombas still roaming around the premises. (There totally still are. Some of them have knives attached. They act kind of like feral cats.) There is also a rather expansive network of underground labs underneath it, all of which have some kind of failed tech experiment still lurking around within.
ASSOCIATED NPCS: Currently owned by a 54yo man named Thaddeus MacDonald, who got stuck with the whole thing when the previous owners absconded and just wants to be rid of it, but the legal kerfuffle the building’s gotten tied up in has gotten very hard to sort out. Other people have been sniffing around and expressing interest in it, especially those from the Society.
LOCATION/BUSINESS: Wayne Investigations
DESCRIPTION: Wayne Investigations is a licensed and insured Central City based private investigation firm, owned by Bruce Wayne. Bruce has over a decade of experience in his own world, offering surveillance, false arrest, and missing persons cases among others.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: It's located in a shitty little brownstone in the Central City projects, where he also lives. He sleeps on the couch.
INFO POST LINK: N/A
CONTACT NAMES: Bruce Wayne
HOW CAN CHARACTERS GET INVOLVED: It can act as a base of operations for people who work with Bruce or Batman. Also, if characters have something they want looked into, want protection, need information, etc. they can come to him.
IC INBOX:
LOCATION/BUSINESSES: The Opherium
DESCRIPTION: This theatre stands as a testament to modern and asgardian aesthetics, blending them both together into one unique style. Four statues stand at the peak, representing the House of Odin; Odin, Frigga, Thor and Loki. The insides are furnished in dark prussian blues, giving it a sense of dignity. Anyone is welcome to host their own shows / dramas. The Opherium is open to all.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Link
CITY: Central City
INFO POST LINK: Link
CONTACT NAMES: Loki Odinson
HOW CAN CHARACTERS GET INVOLVED: Characters can apply for jobs and roles in future/upcoming plays and projects. They can even submit their own scripts for the theatre to perform.
IC INBOX: Link
LOCATION/BUSINESSES: WELLNESS
DESCRIPTION: WELLNESS is a rising star in both Central City and the global market for hi-tech sexual products. With a growing array of never-before-seen innovative designs and technology, WELLNESS aims to introduce endless new experiences in the pleasure landscape and facilitate its customers with the confidence to strive for a fun and fulfilled intimate lifestyle!
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: All product sales are online based. No physical stores as of yet, but they are within the business growth plan. HQ has a casual, sleek and discreet interior design with a very relaxing and minimalistic open floor plan split into sectors. It is mainly used by employees for work purposes, but they do have a nice reception area for guests.
CITY: Central City
INFO POST LINK: Here
CONTACT NAMES: Tony Stark
HOW CAN CHARACTERS GET INVOLVED: There are job openings and sponsorship deals available.
IC INBOX: Here
Super NPCs; Lord Blade & Lady Baton
ALIAS Richard & Elizabeth Becker
AGE: 40s-ish
GENDER: Male, Female
POWERSET: While both of them use the weapons in their names, said weapons are extremely versatile; the Lady tends to use hers as the pole of her sun-umbrella, for example, while the Lord keeps his in a cane when not in use. They're both extremely skilled fighters, if somewhat flashy; that said, such not only part of their 'aesthetic', but also how they distract enemies while the other moves in to double-team. They're also something of gadgeteers, but tend to more acquire others' and figure out how to incorporate such in to their own gearset as opposed to invent their own. (With suitable royalty payment, of course.)
Also, they're rich. Old money.
BACKSTORY: From a long line of noblesTM of some
irrelevantEuropean country, the Lord and Lady met while young, immediately fell in love with each other, it was a beautiful and classic romance that may or may not have already been made in to a movie because at the wedding, of all things, a supervillain tried to kidnap them for ransom! GASP. Elizabeth managed a lucky hit with her umbrella - turns out said supervillain didn't have eye protection - and was able to hold them off until help arrived. Still, it inspired the both of them to never be caught off guard again, and what's more, what if other wedding days were ruined!??So they became superheros.
MOTIVATION: Philanthropists. Stopping Supervillains from ruining others' days.
ANYTHING ELSE?: think a mix between gomez and morticia adams, the briarwoods from critrole, steampunk aesthetics, now add in SO MUCH DRAMATICS, and also a healthy dose of heroism. these two would literally destroy the world for each other, but they're instead saving it instead, mostly because if it was gone how would they enjoy a nice candlelight dinner with a romantic sunset in the background while someone plays violin?
Super NPC: Crithit
ALIAS Jakob Spencer
AGE: 20s
GENDER: Male
POWERSET: Warlock pact - NO, REALLY. Primarily just relies on supernatural luck, because anything more tends to, uh, have strings attached. Basically he can 'ask' his patron for further help but he'll be bound to accomplish some sort of task, which generally goes against what he'd prefer to do one way or another.
BACKSTORY: Once a mere tabletop gamer, Jakob at some point found a musty old book that looked GREAT for a prop for a game he was DMing. Turns out it actually was tied to a supernatural force that took offense to being just a 'prop' and decided to forcefully bind him as a lesson. At first, Jakob tried to ignore everything that came with it, other than paying a bit more respect to the tome ("no, you guys can't look through it"), but when disaster struck during a supervillain strike to his city - he found little choice but to call on his patron to keep his friends safe. Luckily, he was canny enough to ask for something he thought would be more than enough to keep him out of trouble - but already, he's got a new mission; seek the sister tome to the one he possesses!
MOTIVATION: Finding the second tome is major. Other than that, he's kind of enjoying the superpower thing? He's always considered himself neutral good, anyway.
ANYTHING ELSE?: Yes, he's D20 themed.
Super[villain] NPC: The Pyreman
ALIAS Robert 'Robbie' Pentlow
AGE: 30s
GENDER: Male
POWERSET: Pyrokinesis & pyrogenesis. Starting & controlling fires.
BACKSTORY: Robbie had always had a fascination with fire, but was never necessarily malicious with it. In terms of running with the wrong crowd and making trouble, though? Yeah, plenty malicious. Eventually him and his boys ended up getting in to wrong kind of trouble, taking the wrong kind of job - cue vague shenanigans, and half of them outright dying while the other half were captured for Human Experimentation. In the following weeks, they were subject to brutal torments, but Robbie was willing to do whatever it took to get his friends out - including volunteering to cooperate if it meant his boys were spared.
Cooperation ended up getting him superpowers, and then he promptly burned his captors alive. Now, he and his crew are more-or-less mercenaries - a couple others have lesser superpowers, but he is by far the most powerful.
MOTIVATION: Keeping his 'boys' alive, and also keeping himself leader of said boys.
ANYTHING ELSE?: ok but think of if a 1950s greaser had superpowers. that's him.
Super[villain] NPC: Blight
ALIAS Erica Tanners
AGE: 30s
GENDER: Female
POWERSET: Her body PH is through the roof, comparatively; in other words, every fluid is acidic. Her saliva can melt through steel. Her kisses burn flesh. Her touch is pain.
BACKSTORY: At an early age, Erica was stolen from her parents to be used as a test subject. For years, she suffered experiment after experiment, losing the memory of her parents' faces and care. In return, bitterness and fury filled her heart, rage for those who would have done this to her. And eventually, when a superhero discovered the source of a number of missing children, herself included - she was able to escape and be reunited with her parents.
They were promptly sent to the hospital in critical condition, her tears and sobs having grievously injured them - to say nothing of her touch itself.
Something in Erica died that day. She seeks only to hurt those who would hurt others - but her worldview is warped. Excessive force and agony is all she knows, and all she cares to share.
MOTIVATION: Anyone who so much as makes a kid cry can earn her wrath. Anyone she thinks is looking at kids the wrong way better beware. And doctors? Eff doctors. She doesn't trust anyone in a white labcoat, and often attacks scientific organizations just for the hell of it.
ANYTHING ELSE?: AKA 'Envy' of the '7 Sins' supervillaingroup.
Think Sinister Six.Who are the others? Make 'em up.no subject
LOCATION: In one of the rougher areas in Central City
DESCRIPTION:
The Building
The Candy Factory Lofts is a building that has gone through several transitions since it was built in 1892. First it was an actual candy factory. After that went out of business, it became the Candy Factory Hotel, a tacky 70s love hotel with shag carpets and heart-shaped beds, as well is an assortment of themed rooms. Eventually that was converted into a cheap, dilapidated, and tacky apartment building, with many of the hotel decorations still in place.
The First floor is a dive bar called The Candy Bar. They'll take the fakest looking of IDs. Unless you're an established petty criminal or minor supervillain, it's not the kind of place to show up in costume, though, not unless you're up for a bar fight. The regulars don't like anyone that might be on the side of the law. However, they also don't want to see any hardcore criminals or dangerous supervillains either; they don't want that kind of potential heat. Anyone ranging from rough and tumble average joe to only a minor troublemaker is their preferred range.
The Rooms
Insp. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Disadvantages
Advantages
ASSOCIATED NPCS: Hank and Frank, the Landlord and the front desk/maintenance guy respectively. They're brothers. They claim they're twins.
Hank kinda looks like this:
Frank kinda looks like this:
SUPERVILLAIN NPC | THE SPYDERMAN
ALIAS The Spyderman
AGE: 32
GENDER: Male
POWERSET: No powers, just sneaky spider-themed spy gadgetry and superspy skills.
BACKSTORY: Your standard run-of-the-mill tech genius, he decided inventing his own stuff wasn't paying the bills enough when compared to the superbrains in Excelsior. So what's he do? He makes himself a bunch of spy gadgets, such as a gliding cape, stun gloves, wall-walking boots, and other goodies to steal the plans of Excelsior's best and brightest scientists! Did he turn them in himself? No, he knew that he'd be caught. So he sold the plans to their competitors and let the lawyers worry about everything!
Soon the Spyderman was a mover and shaker in the field of corporate espionage. He's smart enough to stay away from pissing off governments, but who cares if a business or two goes bankrupt as long as there's another waiting to take its place?
MOTIVATION: Moneymoneymoney! Money! Also the rep as the best in the business, which is only slightly more likely than pigs flying. Then again, with Spider-Ham around, that's more likely than you think!
ANYTHING ELSE?: Something close to this.
LOCATION/BUSINESSES: ASCENDANT
DESCRIPTION: Ascendant is an inconspicuous karaoke pub located in that transitional space between the more respectable and sketchier part of Central City. It has no ties with either the Guild Alliance or The Society, marking itself as a burgeoning neutral territory. During its normal business hours, patrons can enjoy a wide variety of food, beverages and activities to entertain themselves. The outer part of the pub is an open space where people can mingle, have a meal and enjoy a quiet drink. On the second floor, pool tables, arcade machines and a stage dedicated to performances, dancing and, of course, karaoke can be found. Notably at the back of the first floor, a magically sealed door on the far right corner leads deeper within the building. It is reserved for its more private patrons. A safe place to hold contentious meetings, strike colorful deals and revel in more exclusive privileges. Business hours are always open there.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: It looks like a very old and indiscreet building on the outside, but it looks like this within.
CITY: Central City
INFO POST LINK: Here
CONTACT NAMES: Kai Parker
HOW CAN CHARACTERS GET INVOLVED: Patronage is always welcomed! Job opportunities are also available. He primarily hires the morally grey or folks who wanna earn a little extra cash under the table. Despite playing Switzerland, it's practically a merc pub.
IC INBOX: Here
SUPERVILLAIN NPC | BRICK BAT
ALIAS Brick Bat
AGE: 35
GENDER: Male
POWERSET: Throws bricks filled with poison gas at people.
BACKSTORY: Majors is nothing special. He's a career criminal who decided he needed a gimmick. Thus, the Brick Bat was born!
MOTIVATION: He's motivated solely by greed. The guy wears a Batman mask and a green business suit, he's not a deep thinker.
ANYTHING ELSE?: One and Two
SUPERVILLAIN NPC | TUBAL-CAIN
ALIAS Tubal-Cain
AGE: 57
GENDER: Female (Though Tubal-Cain is presented as a man in armor)
POWERSET: High technology. Inventor. Gadgeteer.
BACKSTORY: A former burglar, Alicia realized that she had talents that lay in other directions. In short, she wasn't very good at burglary, but she did have a knack for making tools to surpass alarms and gates. She decided that selling her gadgets, or simply renting them out, so that other people could take the risks for her would be much safer. She started small, but eventually built up quite an armory, all so that she wouldn't have to get her own hands dirty.
She's now renting low-level science gadgets and powered armor (Though nowhere near Iron Man's level) to crooks. She has higher tier goods, capable of wrecking cities if misused, in reserve for really big jobs, but only offers those option to people who have impressed her in the past. Society bylaws would frown on someone unleashing her armor's full potential and causing mass destruction, after all, so it's best for her if she keeps things locked up until someone trustworthy can afford them. Tubal-Cain also offers repair and upgrade services, provided the customers can afford his prices.
She runs a spice store in Central City in her 'real' identity, A Pinch of Gold, as an in-joke. It's a rather nice store, with a good selection of hard to find herbs and spices, but it's small and in a terrible neighborhood, so it tends to get robbed every now and then.
MOTIVATION: She'd rather enjoy it if her little spice store were more successful. As it is, she's filthy rich and knows she needs no more money to live comfortably off of for the rest of her life. Now it's about keeping up the Tubal-Cain brand, making it so that 'he' goes down in history as the best machinist the world's had to offer.
ANYTHING ELSE?: Tubal-Cain