♠ Heroes Ξ Omega Squad ♣

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I'm looking to create a personalized world for a superhero roleplay! It's as simple as that. I'm hoping to find a few interested people to help out with ideas. I will just be one person in this world; I'm not creating it for myself. See, I'm good at making ideas work out; bringing together a creative process to create a single, cohesive entity. I make worlds, and I want to make a world with a bunch of other people. I'm looking for a core group of 5-6 to get the world created at first. I'm hoping to find some Adept~ level writers willing to stay loyal to the cause, but really what I'm looking for is passion brought to this world. This idea—to create a superhero roleplay with a group of others—was well-received and successful on another site, and I not only want to replicate that but actually improve on it. And, I believe the community here at Iwaku is significantly stronger than where this idea was first used.

So, right now, the general theme of this world is just "Superhero" or "Heroes" even; we can branch off from that. Should we look at DC, Marvel, Dark Horse? Or, maybe take a different approach. What kind of heroes are we looking at? What era? Do we want a period piece? I personally love the idea of a Roaring Twenties Superhero Roleplay. Will superheroes be supernatural, or scientific? Why not both? Will we put it to a vote? Will heroes be on a case-to-case basis? Will the Gods play a role in this world? If so, to what degree? There are tons of ideas to be tossed out and this is the perfect place to pitch them. All I need is one or two people to agree on a few ideas, and I'll post them as a general basis for the next people and those same people to keep adding until I have enough to bring it all together. I want this process to be fun and fair, but not for any single person to truly have control over it. I will guide it, add to it, edit it where needed, but I want every single person involved to have their own touches on this world. It may start small, but it won't stay that way for long.

Current Progress
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Group Input

Stage One The concept of Tokusatsu (Kamen Riders or Super Sentai, ie Power Rangers) style heroes alongside another hero more common in Westernized or comic-book media.

Stage Two The setting has been set for the Roaring Twenties. The group itself will blur the moral lines, ie be anti-heroes or previous criminals turned into agents in a fashion similar to the Suicide Squad from DC. Their abilities, however, will be centered around Alien Technology and possible DNA alterations, similar to the inhumans from Marvel. The Super Sentai themes will come to fruition through the group dynamics, outfits from the agency, alien technology used alongside their abilities and the general plotline.

Personal Input

Stage One I always like to make things dark, realistic and gritty, so I would love to put such a twist on Tokusatsu; I've seen it before in fan fictions, not to mention a recent Power Rangers video I've seen. The idea I really like is a set of "regular" heroes interacting with the Tokusatsu in some way, and knowing my dark tones, it could be competition, disdain, a class system, etc.

Stage Two I believe that this roleplay could easily parallel Suicide Squad, but still hold solid themes of Tokusatsu. Using other comic mediums such as Arrow and Daredevil as inspiration for a darker, more gritty world, I can piece together plotlines for an anti-hero group to follow. Common themes of Tokusatsu should be easily reimagined to fit this world, and overall, I believe the world will actually hold more attributes from the DC universe than Marvel (which I only note because I tend to be a Marvel fanboy).

Looking for

Finishing touches, inspiration and some ideas for how to bring more Tokusatsu elements into the mix. If we give them certain abilities, ie telekinesis or pyrokinesis, do we want to correlate them to certain alien artifacts? Ie, only capable of being used once activating their "suits" or whatever we decide on. Also, we need to decide on things such as suits, names, etc., or at least throw out some ideas.
 
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Are Tokusatsu-style heroes alright?
 
I'm totally up for a supers game. And I feel like toku-style heroes could totally have a place alongside more "realistic", down to earth heroes.
 
So, what we have established thus far is a desire to have Tokusatsu-style heroes, possibly alongside other heroes. I can work with that rather easily, especially given that's a relatively broad genre.

What we need is more input. More people. A few more ideas. Maybe some tones, some mediums for inspiration, or maybe the hook or change from the regular attributes of the genre.
 
I love Tokusatsu heroes and Western heroes, so whatever works for me. I just love heroes. Maybe take Tokusatsu heroes and put them in the position of a Western hero or something. Or since you said something about the Roaring Twenties throw a Sentai team into the 20s.
 
Now that's the direction I'm looking for—Super Sentai-themed heroes in the Roaring 20's positioned as if they were more western heroes.

Right now, I've got a theme. I can imagine the Roaring 20's perfectly, I can see how we could fit in Super Sentai Heroes into that world, I can even start plotting it - that's all easy.

What I want to do is add specifics where we are being general. I want some details. Are these heroes supernatural or scientific? Are they chi-wielders from an ancient civilization, members of a psuedo-League of Assassins or maybe just government agents with experiment alien tech? Those are ALL examples of what we can do here. Not only that, we've tossed around the idea of comic and "western" heroes a lot. I want to get that specific as well. What kind of heroes are we referencing? What "model" are we using to situate the Tokusatsu Heroes in?

Help me out guys, this is an interactive project!
 
IMO fitting a Super Sentai theme into the spot of a more anti-hero kind of comic book hero would be fun ala Kamen Rider replaces Wolverine.

As for what powers they use, depends on how we want the story to play out I guess. I've personally always preferred super-powered heroes as opposed to tech heroes myself though.
 
Those are definitely things to take note of. I'm going to give it about a day at this point before I make the next leap in development to give everyone either not update to date (yet) or not involved yet a chance to throw some potential input in.

I will note that for the sake of fairness, this process (in the past) does take a little while. But, it's an enjoyable process before the roleplay and it won't take me long to make the OP/OOC for the roleplay once we have the ideas. This is a group project, so I intend on making sure there is group input.
 
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On the subject of Darker Toku, watch Garo, the first episode of Ohranger, or Kamen Rider Shin for examples.

As for power sources, if we're going with the 20s we should keep that kind of flair and glitz the period had in mind. There could definitely be both super powers and tech, but I don't know where we draw the line there.
 
I may watch a few episodes if you can pinpoint good ones, but I'm a setting person myself. My goal will be to make the setting, if we keep it the Roaring 20's which is my personal preference, as authentic as possible. I will do the research up until that point and I've done it before; the Roaring 20's is an amazing timeframe to use, not to mention the lead ups to war, major crime rates and prohibition.

I'm going to toss out an idea I'm presently having and enjoying. While there could be supernatural/superhuman individuals in this world, the group could act as a government agency using alien technology (actually not too far off Zeo Crystals from Power Rangers) to combat them. If we tone it down, tone it darker and give it some realistic flair, that could work.

I've been watching television shows from both DC and Marvel in the forms of Arrow, Flash and Dare Devil. I think that if we worked it out right as a small team of five or so, we could definitely recreate that tone as a "Prototype Team" - maybe agents similar to those of the Suicide Squad, ie dispensable soldiers, using this new technology. However, it's just "tech"; it could definitely grant abilities that made its heroes more super. Clarke's third law states "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", and I believe that could be applied here very effectively. I'm also really liking the Alien technology theme because that ties in to DNA manipulation that otherwise isn't available in the 20's - meaning that our heroes could be very, very unique from other characters in that sense.

As suggested, the group could be more anti-heroes. When I thought Suicide Squad and this, it came to mind that they could very-well be test subjects with implanted bombs. They could be anti-heroes in their own right, forced to do the bidding of their captors and earning their freedoms via compliance. It draws from a lot of elements I've seen in popular comic interpretations, and with sufficient research into Tokusatsu media, I could just as easily incorporate more elements there.

On another note, Power Rangers and Kamen Riders actually is not the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of Tokusatsu. It's Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! lol
 
Super robot monkey team is a senshi show (which super sentai also is), but by definition a Toku is live action. And I can't think of specific episodes of Garo, and Shin is a movie. I like the idea of the alien tech and all, but not sure if superscience meshes well with the 20s themes.
 
I think keeping the super tech secret from the people could be fun
 
digiexpert said:
superscience meshes well with the 20s themes.
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Actually, this is a point I was bringing up. The group would be unique in that others could not replicate them, and it would emphasize the whole "suicide squad" feel if they were basically told that the scientists had no idea how it would work out long-term. I was thinking they would be like highly specific super soldiers, basically, but each one unique and possibly with side abilities. As per their tech, I was thinking James Bond meets a little Alien tech, mostly crude or something that compared to today wouldn't be considered "tech" as much as a gimmick or novelty.
 
Are we going for heroes of a city, then? We'd need a bit more high level tech, or just really neat side abilities, to do much more.

I think the typical flare of a Sentai team would be fun in the twenties, with all their flashy weapons and what not.
 
I really think we need to take into consideration the actual technology of the Roaring Twenties. What seems trivial to us now would be fantastical to them, literally. Consider the original James Bond movies and what was considered advanced technology to him.
 
Good point. Simply whipping out a phone would essentially be beyond what they believed magic could do. But I just think something like a normal gun doesn't suit a Tokusatsu hero very well. Usually there's something interesting about it, like summoning it out of a belt, or it shoots lasers, or something. Or a gun attached to a leg. A gatling gun.
 
Pew pew! Lasers make me happy.
 
My only problem is, if we go with a feel of what was fantastical to the 20's, we end up with something seeming mundane today. That seems less "Superheroes" and more "Secret agents" to me. Which is fine, but not the kind of game I wanna play.
 
@digiexpert I actually considered that and I believe the solution to it is just to have different types of missions for the plot. While some missions might be more superhero-Tokusatsu style in that they fight major villains, use their abilities to their maximum and try to save the day, other missions might be more covert or morally ambiguous, like for instance the Suicide Squad missions from Arrow. I actually wanted to use that as a plot element, ie the characters inside the roleplay realizing that while they're saving their city on some days, at others they're just doing grunt work for their agency because they're "expendable" to them. I believe if we keep closer to the Superhero side of that and only use the Secret Agents side to highlight things here and there, it will make the group seem more realistic while also giving them something to consider. I mean, realistically, the Avengers only ever assemble if the world is in danger, which shouldn't happen to often. To fill in the gaps for major plot events for our heroes, smaller plots that seemingly undermine their value might hold true.

To further that, I believe that if they start getting public appeal as well as eventually begin getting tired and frustrated with the grunt work, secret agent stuff, it could lead to an interesting plot event where one or two of them defect to create their own group and we can introduce more roleplayers at a later date. In addition to that, if just one of them defects then eventually comes back once a revision to the group is made, they might become the White/Silver/Green of the group, since there is always one. These are some of the forward thinking ideas I had here. It'll be a more dynamic roleplay, so it won't be consistently saving the world or being solid Tokusatsu, but it will have a plot with a lot more depth and have a lot more possibilities.

To address the topic of the Roaring Twenties, the entire roleplay just needs to be considered for the era. It's a period piece. It might be mundane today, but science fiction roleplays are going to be impossibly advanced, fandoms exist in entirely different worlds and fantasy exists in a world of magic. A period piece will allow us the chance to relive some of history and possibly even alter it, making impacts on the Great Depression and World War II if we make it that far. It might not be "fantastical", but it will hold the elements of Tokusatsu, the elements of comic books used and I'm going to try to keep the setting so down to Earth that when we start introducing our characters and the villains in the "subsetting" that is taking place, it will have a feeling to it that definitely makes it unique. It won't be fantastical, but it will definitely be a merger of espionage and superheroes. I hate to say it, but think Watchmen as well. There sure as Hell won't be a Mr. Manhattan, but that somewhat emphasizes my point.

For villains, I'm thinking we would work our way through other groups (mercenary, non-gov't, opposing gov't) trying to acquire new alien artifacts for research. In many Tokusatsu style shows, there's an "enemy of the week" and major battle, and I think we can recreate that feel on missions to recover artifacts. Not only that, aliens will in fact exist and at some point they could just as easily be villains. So, basically, I'm looking at first thinking of villains that are just mercenaries, then maybe with upgrades, then maybe an entirely separate Tokusatsu style team, or maybe just a single individual that kicks everyone's asses because that's apparently a common trend. There are a ton of directions to take this, and you can easily have a hand in making sure it goes in the direction you want it to.

Additionally, and this goes for everyone, I've updated the OP to try and get everyone caught up to where we are.
 
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