[AI] After Impact PSL Info

[holynpcsbatman]

PREMISE

After Impact is a DC/Marvel Comics Crossover PSL. The premise behind the game is that the Marvel and DC universes have been combined in a great and terrible catastrophe that characters will slowly regain their memories of as time goes on. This new world is not like it was in Amalgam comics, where characters were crammed together with other characters to become new people, nor has history been changed so that both worlds always were one--everyone in this new world is acutely aware of the fact that their world has now changed and is not what it once was. In fact, some of the heroes might now even recall times they had teamed up before, such as in JLA/Avengers and DC vs. Marvel.

This means that all the comics characters in the game will be the original universe versions, fresh from the comics, that remember the DC and Marvel universes as they were before the Crisis, just like everyone else. Due to the nature of the Crisis, many of the heroes are lost in time, and are currently missing. Their entrances to the game will be their initial return from being lost in the timestream.

The heroes will have to first restore social order, and keep the world from collapsing into total chaos, and then have to establish a new status quo. They'll have to learn to work together with new heroes and new teams, determine who has authority where, and learn to fight new villains. Some might start searching for a way to restore the worlds to what they once were, or to mitigate the effects of overpopulation. In many ways, this is a post-apocalyptic superhero game--while they managed to save the worlds, the sheer devastation in the aftermath is their new enemy. It's a very different kind of fight for humanity's survival.

It's been a year since many of the heroes started returning to the world and they are finally starting to slowly bring back order and reorganize their hero teams.

TIMELINE
Two and and A Half Years Ago

- The Marvel universe had already been tethered to a nearby universe: DC, by Adam Warlock, to stabilize the damage from the Fault.

- Thanos returned and started dicking with the Fault to use its power to destroy all life, everywhere, for his Laaady (Death), as a present. 'Cause he's a dick.

- DCside, Gog's head, with Metron using his knowledge and planning to betray him to use the fault himself to gain all multiversal knowledge. They try to use the Fault from DC side. The conflict between Gog and Thanos rips the Fault open on both sides. Multiversal cosmic beings start attacking everyone, because of the bad guys messing with the Fault and trace it to the source. Both sides rally up EVERYONE. Crisis! The heroes of DC and Marvel team up and beat the bad guys but not in time--the fault is causing the fabric of reality in both worlds to deteriorate. The Living Tribunal and the Spectre merge the worlds together again, but the interference of one mystery villain causes the Merge to happen incorrectly, so that the worlds don't amalgamate, leading to the cataclysmic merge of the two worlds.

- The heroes were lost in the timestream, as reality broke down around them, but are tethered to the world and will eventually snap back. Eventually.

- The people of the New World call the merging the Cataclysm because of the mass chaos that happens because of it. Earth is devastated. Many governments declare a state of martial law.

- Mutants get repowered. A fuckton of energy was released in the merging of the worlds, so it poured back into all of the spaces that it once existed. It overwhelmed the blocks that had been reality warped into place. So it probably hurt like hell.

- Mutants repowering at inconvenient times and sometimes killing themselves and others causes anti-mutant sentiment.

Two Years Ago

- Some basic vestiges of social order have been restored, but there's still mass chaos. Massive overcrowding is a problem, there is famine and there are food shortages. People live in tent cities and refuge camps and ghettoes around major cities.

- Most armies are deployed to control the local populations and prevent open conflict--not always successfully.

- Several new wars have started. Lacks of potable water and disruptions to manufacturing leading to medication and vaccine shortages have led to widespread communicable disease and deaths. Overall quality of life drops. in the third-world, some stuff is HORRIBLE.

- Scientists of both worlds have, however, joined together to combat many of the problems with technology, and various magical beings have done the same with magic.

- Still led by Norman Osborn, H.A.M.M.E.R. takes over fighting meta-human threats.

- Political unrest is occurring in many parts of the world, but the US has finally ironed out it's political problems...Somewhat. However, President Obama and Pete Ross are barely holding their positions, because the public is scared and all that. Perfect for Lex Luthor to do some maneuvering.

- The lack of heroes is a problem. There are villain issues. A bid by the Society of Supervillains and the Masters of evil, where people literally have to go to war against the villains. There is an incident in Chicago that leads to the destruction of the Sears Tower and the loss of thousands of lives. Lex Luthor actually steps forward to help fight against the villains, without the public knowing of his part in actually orchestrating the attack. The attack leads to the public rallying together against the villains and many young adults volunteering for service with the military, and many volunteering for service with H.A.M.M.E.R.

- Because of the incident in Chicago, an elite team of agents is created, drawn from the army, H.A.M.M.E.R, S.W.O.R.D., and other elite military organizations, as the Human Defense Corps is reinstated. There are several key teams, each one specialized in dealing with a specific type of threat, such as metahumans or aliens.

- After being recognized for his "heroism" in the Chicago incident, and getting a presidential pardon for his crimes, Luthor gets himself chosen as part of the President's cabinet, for his expertise in "metahuman affairs", and then orchestrates a scandal to get Pete Ross dismissed as vice president. He then manages to get himself selected as the new vice president and lines all the right pockets in Congress and gets himself voted in. Now there's only one hurdle between him and presidency.

- It's a hurdle that's taken care of a few months later. The president is assassinated by Crossbones, a white supremacist, who got in through a security leak (one guaranteed by Luthor). Vice president Luthor is shot as well, for attempting to help the Secret Service get the downed president out of the kill zone. While many who know Luthor suspect the link between him and the crime, none can be found, and after he's out of the hospital, he's appointed as the President of the United States, for his second term.

- Amanda Waller is made vice president.

- A general state of social order is restored, and with Luthor's pushing, a wartime economy starts to be put into place. His organization of the scientific community leads to this happening extremely quickly. Factories are converted to new uses, victory gardens start to get grown, bonds are sold, and it's the start of America's recovery.

A Year and Six Months Ago

- Luthor's popularity rate is sky-high. America's economy is starting to recover, and it's starting to produce many products. Many individuals have returned to farming, which is now incredibly lucrative, given the food shortages. The US is one of the first countries in the world to stabilize. (One of--Latveria was the VERY first).

- A tremendous PR campaign has led to the American public taking great pride in "the common man's triumph" over adversity. President Luthor puts great emphasis on the country's lack of reliance on metahumans. While much of the population still respects and mourns their heroes (which they think are likely dead), much of the population from 616 is rather taken by this philosophy.

- Hate crimes against mutants (and even just metas) reaches an all-time high, though many individuals in the country campaign against it and many local populations that had local heroes try to counter it. Their efforts are made difficult, however, by the limitations against free speech due to the state of martial law.

- Discreetly, a mystery villain starts putting plans in place to study the metahuman populace, and remove it from the country. Some mutants and metas start disappearing, although usually homeless populations are the ones targeted so that no one notices them going missing.

- The supervillains have largely gone quiet, all taking time to put long-term plans into place to dick everyone over.

Near-Present

Over the last year the heroes have reorganized into several super teams and in between facing supervillains they have to constantly deal with Norman Osborn and the Luthor administration's schemes and politics.

Now

US LEADERS
President: Lex Luthor
Vice president: Amanda Waller
Director of H.A.M.M.E.R.: Norman Osborn
Secretary of Metahuman Affairs: Henry Peter Gyrich

GLOBAL PEACE AGENCY
Global Peace Agency Executive Director: Mister Bones
Agents: Renee Montoya, Cameron Chase, Buddy Blank, Nemesis

WORLD EVENTS:

- Civil War between Q-rac and Iraq
- Food shortages
- Earthquakes and tidal waves devastating seaside areas
- Underground wars between different under-earth species causing cave-ins and sinkholes
- Drug trafficking and related violence (drugs are becoming a huge problem as many are seeking an escape from how awful the world is). Xium, a drug creating by combining processes used to synthesize Tar and MGH, is now very popular. Also showing up as a problem: Rave, Kick, Rapture, Delirium, Velocity 9 and various derivatives, and a new form of Bzrk. Metahumans are often kidnapped and kept in slavery to provide genetic material for the synthesis of some of the drugs.
- Supervillains run rampant, often there are mass civilian and Military casualties before they are stopped
- Human trafficking (people sometimes sell family members into slavery to afford to feed the rest of the family).
- Infrastructure is starting to get repaired, but slowly. Unless you're using government satellites and the like, the internet is hella slow. Telecommunications are regularly down because of repairs to the Earth's satellites.
- Ra's Al Ghul's League of Assassins is trying REAAAAALLLY hard to kill off like half the population.
- The Punisher just blew the shit out of the National Palace in Mexico, taking out a few high ranking (but corrupt) government officials out as well. This has been blamed on terrorists, but rumors abound that one specific man is behind it.

ATLANTIS AND ATLANTIS
There is a tense conflict over territory between the two civilizations of Atlantis. There is currently a ceasefire in place as both wait for their kings to return, but violence could erupt at any time--and possibly spill over into the surface world.

This is because Norman Osborn dropped Utopia on New Atlantis and made it so blame was put on the other (DC) Atlantis. He is a dick.

COSMIC STUFF
Wars and Conflicts

I was thinking the Thanagarian and Shi'ar Empires are now overlapping, leading to some intense friction, and the devastated Skrulls are now infiltrating a lot of planets to try to find places to live, which could lead to conflict. (They don't plan to conquer, just to hide and survive, but they're not being tolerated well by anyone). (Possible solution: Introduce them to the Durlans).

The Khund and the Dominion are nearing all-out war.

And there's trouble between the Kree and Korugarians as well.

The Gamesmaster might have plans for the Kree, the Khunds, the Thanagarians, and the Shi'ar, as well...

The Corps. Corps'. Plural.

The Green Lanterns are likely still active. A lot of the non-Earth Lanterns might not have been in the Fault when it all went to hell because there were problems all over that needed fixing since reality was falling apart.

There will be friction between the Oans and the Guardians/Nova for playing space cowboy, as well as LEGION.

The Green Lanterns also have been receiving reports about something called Galactus...

Things are quiet on the ROYBIV front, but that won't necessarily stay that way forever. The other Corps are still out there, looking out for their own agendas.

L.e.g.i.o.n

LEGION is still in a sorry state, albeit Vril Dox II has managed to sequester away some resources and restore order to a few planets. He needs help, the Guardians of the Galaxy will need his resources. Sucks to be them.

GEOGRAPHY

CF-OPOLIS
Because DC Earth is slightly larger than Marvel's, New York City didn't align exaclty right. Called Megapolis officially, but often called CF-opolis (short for Clusterfuckopolis) by its residents, New New York City (DC's NYC), Old New York City (Marvel's NYC), Philadelphia, Metropolis, and Gotham City are all one giant metropolitan area--a mega-city. Spider-Man could websling the entire way from one city to another (although it'd be a hell of a workout). Fortunately, the area's public transportation networks have been combined into one of the largest and most convenient public transport systems in the world. Gotham's is especially well-designed as their public transport system was destroyed before the Crisis. It was rebuilt in a way that the Gotham Metropolitan Transportation Hub, at the city's borders, could act as a major hub between the different cities.

Old New York is still situated in New York Harbor, while New New york has been shifted inland.

Crime rate: While the Science Police of Metropolis have started to patrol the entire metropolitan area, working in tangent with city police precincts, Old New York and Gotham are considered to be have some of the worst crime rates in the country, and these dens of criminal activity have had their criminals extend their gaze to Metropolis, NNYC, and Philadelphia. Many are angry with the Science Police, however, as it's perceived that they don't patrol areas other than Metropolis enough. The Gotham City Police Department has been constantly struggling with Gotham's crime problem, especially since the Kingpin has set his sites on the area.

Media: After Frontline and the former Bugle staff pooled their resources and staffs, it was revealed that JJJ was the original financial backer of Frontline, leaving Ben Urich upset by this revelation. Frontline is redubbed the Daily Bugle, and Urich leaves the new Bugle to work at the Daily Planet as an editor. JJJ assumes EIC responsibilities of the Bugle, once again working with Robbie Robertson as editor (Robertson had left the "DB" for Frontline after the Bugle was bought out back home). Despite Urich's leaving, JJJ has told him the Bugle's door is always open, and has kept Frontline's broadsheet format and is attempting to maintain the spirit of hard-hitting fair and balanced journalism Urich was trying to capture with the new paper, eschewing some of the old "yellow" journalism tactics the Bugle had used to sell papers in the past.

The Daily Planet and the Daily Bugle are two of the most widely read newspapers in the area, and are often considered to be rival papers (although Perry White and JJJ respect each other greatly as newsmen). At the Planet, roving reporter Lois Lane has made even more of a name for herself, often sharing bylines with Ben Urich the rare few times he takes on stories, and the efforts of the two in exposing the various criminal ventures of the Kingpin in Gotham have brought them both great acclaim. However, with both recently widowed (Clark Kent is thought to have died in the Cataclysm), rumors abound that the two are sharing more than bylines. Miss Lane is known to have a friendly rivalry with Bugle reporter Betty Brant, as the two have often beat one another to a story and are both hoping for a Pulitzer.

Daily Bugle
Editor-in-Chief: J. Jonah Jameson (MU)
JJJ's Secretary: Glory Grant (MU)

Notable Staff
Editor: Robbie Robertson (MU)
Reporters: Betty Brant (MU), Joy Mercado (MU), Kat Farrell (MU), Richard Jones (aka the Phantom Reporter) (MU), Lana Lang (DCU), Cat Grant (gossip columnist) (DCU)
Photographers: Cole Cooper (MU), Angela Yin (MU), Jimmy Olsen (freelance) (DCU)


Daily Planet
Editor-in-Chief: Perry White (DCU)

Notable Staff
Editor: Ben Urich (MU)
Reporters: Lois Lane (DCU), Ron Troupe (DCU), Steve Lombard (DCU), Irene Merryweather (MU), Gil Corazon (MU), Mary Jane Watson-Parker (fashion reporter) (MU)
Photographers: Daniel Morton (MU), Sarah Williams (MU), Jimmy Olsen (freelance) (DCU)