Hello and welcome to the Metasphere! This is our superhero subforum, where capes and ne’er-do-wells run wild.
In this world, metas (people with powers) are emerging across the country. There have been historical reports of metas throughout the last few decades, but for some inexplicable reason, there’s been a recent boom in activity. While most metas are just trying to survive, several have taken to vigilantism or criminal activity. While there aren’t many well-established heroes or villains, some are beginning to emerge, and the city is taking notice.
Pittsburgh (our setting) has been a recent hub of meta activity, be it concerts ruined by flaming valkyries or planes disintegrated mid-flight. You can check out the Breaking News thread for all updates and information regarding current events!
However, as with all good things, there are some rules to follow. If you have any questions, feel free to ask Stitches (Cinnamonbones on Discord) or Containment (dumbcat7440 on Discord) (Metasphere’s mods). We’re active in the RPF Discord, so feel free to stop by the #metasphere-discussion channel to talk about characters or threads!
Rules:
When in doubt, ask! Feel free to reach out on Discord to either Stitches or Containment if you have any questions on the rules.
Character Sheet Template:
In this world, metas (people with powers) are emerging across the country. There have been historical reports of metas throughout the last few decades, but for some inexplicable reason, there’s been a recent boom in activity. While most metas are just trying to survive, several have taken to vigilantism or criminal activity. While there aren’t many well-established heroes or villains, some are beginning to emerge, and the city is taking notice.
Pittsburgh (our setting) has been a recent hub of meta activity, be it concerts ruined by flaming valkyries or planes disintegrated mid-flight. You can check out the Breaking News thread for all updates and information regarding current events!
However, as with all good things, there are some rules to follow. If you have any questions, feel free to ask Stitches (Cinnamonbones on Discord) or Containment (dumbcat7440 on Discord) (Metasphere’s mods). We’re active in the RPF Discord, so feel free to stop by the #metasphere-discussion channel to talk about characters or threads!
Rules:
- Original concepts only. You can draw inspiration from pre-existing heroes in media, but your character should not be a reskin of them.
- Don’t use well-known characters as image refs.
- Try to keep backstory effects centered around your character and minimal in their impact on the world at large. As an example, we don’t want to see “New York City was blown up” in your backstory. Any large-scale events or major incidents need to be cleared by moderators first, and ideally should happen in RP.
- Expanding on Rule #2, no major event threads should occur outside of Pittsburgh. Minor character interactions can occur with moderator permission elsewhere in the US, but most of the action should stay centered in Pittsburgh. This to keep these events within reasonable reach of all players for interaction and reaction. Extraterrestrial events and characters will not be accepted within Metasphere.
- Do not create large-scale concepts that extend beyond the character and city. That means no big weapons/tech manufacturers, no big branches of military or government, and no secret societies. Minor government factions and tech manufacturers can be created in conjunction with the moderators. A minimum of 2-3 players have to be actively involved with these groups. Resources need to be built up in character. (Mary’s militia, Slate, MBAU Pittsburgh Branch.)
- The 2-3 player rule is to prevent the group from disappearing if one of the players drops out.
- Having family members who have access to and/or run companies is acceptable on a small scale. (Water's Pharmaceutical, Amagiri International)
- Characters must have a posted and approved character sheet (CS) before they can participate in RPs. Inform moderators before you delete a character sheet, or ask the moderators to change their tag from “active” to “retired.” CSes should be kept updated with any new power or technology advancements, and mods should be informed when updates are made. Your character cannot use an ability or piece of equipment unless it is mentioned in the CS at the beginning of the thread.
- If your character has an arsenal or can source equipment, please list what they currently have at the start of a thread. Work with the people in the RP and be realistic about what they have access to and can reasonably carry.
- If you would like to add equipment to your character, please do so in a thread.
- Please stick to equipment that exists (or could feasibly exist) in the real world unless your character is an inventor type.
- When making a character, look through the other accepted CSes for a gauge on acceptable power levels. Villains can be stronger, as they may have to take on multiple heroes at once, but no one should be planet-breaking.
- For example, a strong character being able to flip or throw a car is fine. A strong character being able to topple a building with one punch is not fine. A fast character may be able to outrun a speeding train, but not circle the world in an instant.
- Please mention the upper limits of your character's powers within the CS (if applicable).
- If you have a character who will scale and grow, keep in touch with the moderators. Scaling characters should have the threads where they “level up” included in their bios.
- While we highly recommend looking at other character sheets that have been approved to gauge a proper power level, we do have some examples. When creating your characters, some good in-universe examples would be as follows. For event villains, you can reference the power level of Veljara (Valkyrie) and Prometheus. For good villain references, you can reference characters such as Mary The Warlock and the team The Resonants. For heroes, we’ll point you in the direction of Samantha Walsh (Phoenix) and Venus Votticelli (Griffonage). Other good low-tier character examples include Mari Ito (Kitsune) and Jeremiah Rowe.
- We also have some out-of-universe examples that you can refer to. You can reference the MCU versions of the Defenders and the Guardians of the Galaxy, or DC’s cartoon version of the Teen Titans. While we do not want D&D characters or direct WotC references, a good rule of thumb would be a Level 1-4 D&D 5e character for heroes, and 5-7 for villains and event villains.
- Baseline Magic Rules: Anyone using a magic system has to work with the moderators to determine your “brand” of magic and its limitations. The magic rules from one character will never apply to other characters, and magic is and always has been a very scarce resource in the setting.
- If you need to contact the moderators, either here or on the RPF discord, please contact both of us together.
- All standard RPF rules apply.
When in doubt, ask! Feel free to reach out on Discord to either Stitches or Containment if you have any questions on the rules.
Character Sheet Template:
- Name
- Alias (if applicable)
- Age (exact or approximate)
- Appearance
- Scent Profile (Optional)
- Powers (if any)
- How strong their powers are
- If the powers have an area of effect, what is the max area?
- How/when they got their powers (if not specified, we will assume they were born with them)
- Equipment
- Weapons, armor, gadgets
- Brief character bio
Last edited: