Year One- a proposal.
As we all know, the CVU has a very rich universe. Hundreds of characters, with backstories and interconnected canon that makes an incredibly fun universe to write in. RPO, sadly, has none of this. That said, it isn’t necessarily going to be a detriment. This fact,coupled with the fact we only have a handful of writes, sparked this idea. Year One- a more refined approach to universe-building.
The idea is simple. This is year one of the universe. Not literally speaking, of course, Rather, this is the first year in which superheroes and supervillains begin to appear. The way the world will change thanks to them remains to be seen.
We’ll start the metaphorical ‘clock’ around January 2018, through the exact date is irrelevant, and assume that vast majority of history is exactly the same as the history of IRL-Earth. A month or two before we start the clock, heroes and villains began to appear.
This doesn’t mean your canon can’t extend into the past. If your character was created by a government facility, or they’re immortal and used to live in Ancient Egypt, there’s no problem- so long as it’s not something the public knows about, or that changed the world, before the clock starts. The point of this is to give the universe a ‘clean slate,’ with no Empires or Events to worry about.
At some point in the future, presumably when we have more users than we do now, and a richer canon, Year One will end. Writers will be allowed to make greater changes to the universe, and we might have a time-skip to justify the changes more.
The Restrictions.
Economics: You’re permitted to have companies in your character’s backstory, but none that seriously impact the universe’s canon. The large economic forces of the real world still dominate the economy, not your Wayne Enterprises or Stark Industries or what have you. All of this would, of course, change, once Year One is over- the point is to build up that kind of thing, and make it feel more ‘earned.’
Politics: Because no-one wants to involve contentious real-life political issues in their writing, such as having a real-life politician in office, we’ll be adopting the CVU policy of keeping the POTUS an NPC, at least for the duration of Year One. They won’t make any major policy changes, at least in any ways that affect player characters. Furthermore, until Year One is over, no one will be allowed to run for political office.
Law Enforcement: Things that are illegal in real life are still illegal in-universe. The police will go after villains, but unless someone’s character is a police officer themselves, they’re unlikely to have much luck. When it comes to heroes, it will generally work as follows. ‘Super-hero’ archetypes will be left alone by the police, for the most part, despite technically breaking the law. ‘Vigilante’ archetypes, however, will be treated like criminals, and hunted down, though perhaps with somewhat less relentlessness than a villain might be hunted with. The dichotomy is, for the most part, this. Your Superman-types will be left alone, and your Batman-types will be arrested if caught. If you want to bend these rules somewhat, that’s acceptable, on a small scale. For example, if you’ve created a city, and you want the cops to be ‘dirty,’ and leave villains alone or go harder after heroes, that’s fine. Conversely, if you want a Jim Gordon-esque ‘friend on the force’ for you're vigilante, who won’t try to arrest you, that’s OK- so long as it’s not the entire police force.
As an addendum, there are no official government (or extra-governmental) organizations that work with, or against superhumans. No SHIELD, and no Task Force X, for the duration of Year One. This is for two reasons- one, because it takes time for these things to be set up, and having them spring up mere weeks after the super-people themselves makes little sense. Secondly, because giving an entire branch of the government to a user or users from the start would be irresponsible.
Teams: Teams are allowed. Of course. But, no team will be officially recognized by the government, or anything like that. No government-sponsored Avengers or Justice League teams, through the governments of the world may defer to, or work with them, out of necessity. Your character can work for the government, if you want, but not as a part of a team.
Events: This is something of a moot point, as RPO has nowhere near enough users to have a successful ‘event,’ but it bears saying anyways. During Year One, there will be no ‘Events,’ be they Empire Claims or city-destroying attacks. The scale of destruction should slowly escalate, with the most permissible damage during Year One being the destruction of an office building. Users would be expected to sell this as a serious event, with media coverage, and negative repercussions for whoever caused it.
At the end of Year One, however, should there be enough users, we’d celebrate the end of it with a big event of some kind. A big, public ‘superhero fight’ would also be a good way to transition into superhumans being more commonplace in the universe, rather than it being newsworthy every time a hero flies though the sky.
Misc.
Year One isn’t necessarily going to take a year, in or out of universe. The name is a reference to Batman: Year One, a quintessential Batman comic the idea of which is very similar to the idea of Year One itself. It may take several in-universe years, or six IRL months, I don’t know yet.
--Orph.
As we all know, the CVU has a very rich universe. Hundreds of characters, with backstories and interconnected canon that makes an incredibly fun universe to write in. RPO, sadly, has none of this. That said, it isn’t necessarily going to be a detriment. This fact,coupled with the fact we only have a handful of writes, sparked this idea. Year One- a more refined approach to universe-building.
The idea is simple. This is year one of the universe. Not literally speaking, of course, Rather, this is the first year in which superheroes and supervillains begin to appear. The way the world will change thanks to them remains to be seen.
We’ll start the metaphorical ‘clock’ around January 2018, through the exact date is irrelevant, and assume that vast majority of history is exactly the same as the history of IRL-Earth. A month or two before we start the clock, heroes and villains began to appear.
This doesn’t mean your canon can’t extend into the past. If your character was created by a government facility, or they’re immortal and used to live in Ancient Egypt, there’s no problem- so long as it’s not something the public knows about, or that changed the world, before the clock starts. The point of this is to give the universe a ‘clean slate,’ with no Empires or Events to worry about.
At some point in the future, presumably when we have more users than we do now, and a richer canon, Year One will end. Writers will be allowed to make greater changes to the universe, and we might have a time-skip to justify the changes more.
The Restrictions.
Economics: You’re permitted to have companies in your character’s backstory, but none that seriously impact the universe’s canon. The large economic forces of the real world still dominate the economy, not your Wayne Enterprises or Stark Industries or what have you. All of this would, of course, change, once Year One is over- the point is to build up that kind of thing, and make it feel more ‘earned.’
Politics: Because no-one wants to involve contentious real-life political issues in their writing, such as having a real-life politician in office, we’ll be adopting the CVU policy of keeping the POTUS an NPC, at least for the duration of Year One. They won’t make any major policy changes, at least in any ways that affect player characters. Furthermore, until Year One is over, no one will be allowed to run for political office.
Law Enforcement: Things that are illegal in real life are still illegal in-universe. The police will go after villains, but unless someone’s character is a police officer themselves, they’re unlikely to have much luck. When it comes to heroes, it will generally work as follows. ‘Super-hero’ archetypes will be left alone by the police, for the most part, despite technically breaking the law. ‘Vigilante’ archetypes, however, will be treated like criminals, and hunted down, though perhaps with somewhat less relentlessness than a villain might be hunted with. The dichotomy is, for the most part, this. Your Superman-types will be left alone, and your Batman-types will be arrested if caught. If you want to bend these rules somewhat, that’s acceptable, on a small scale. For example, if you’ve created a city, and you want the cops to be ‘dirty,’ and leave villains alone or go harder after heroes, that’s fine. Conversely, if you want a Jim Gordon-esque ‘friend on the force’ for you're vigilante, who won’t try to arrest you, that’s OK- so long as it’s not the entire police force.
As an addendum, there are no official government (or extra-governmental) organizations that work with, or against superhumans. No SHIELD, and no Task Force X, for the duration of Year One. This is for two reasons- one, because it takes time for these things to be set up, and having them spring up mere weeks after the super-people themselves makes little sense. Secondly, because giving an entire branch of the government to a user or users from the start would be irresponsible.
Teams: Teams are allowed. Of course. But, no team will be officially recognized by the government, or anything like that. No government-sponsored Avengers or Justice League teams, through the governments of the world may defer to, or work with them, out of necessity. Your character can work for the government, if you want, but not as a part of a team.
Events: This is something of a moot point, as RPO has nowhere near enough users to have a successful ‘event,’ but it bears saying anyways. During Year One, there will be no ‘Events,’ be they Empire Claims or city-destroying attacks. The scale of destruction should slowly escalate, with the most permissible damage during Year One being the destruction of an office building. Users would be expected to sell this as a serious event, with media coverage, and negative repercussions for whoever caused it.
At the end of Year One, however, should there be enough users, we’d celebrate the end of it with a big event of some kind. A big, public ‘superhero fight’ would also be a good way to transition into superhumans being more commonplace in the universe, rather than it being newsworthy every time a hero flies though the sky.
Misc.
Year One isn’t necessarily going to take a year, in or out of universe. The name is a reference to Batman: Year One, a quintessential Batman comic the idea of which is very similar to the idea of Year One itself. It may take several in-universe years, or six IRL months, I don’t know yet.
--Orph.
