Thanqol

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

That was a compelling argument. After all, despite what she sometimes said, Princess Eska didn't trust Princess Azora Howl at all. And Azora Howl honestly gave Adila the creeps. Wait a moment! Was... was it possible that Princess Azora Howl had hypnotized Princess Eska!?!

She didn't know why her brain had made that leap, or why she fixated on it so hard. She also didn't care! After all, Princess Eska had told her to not focus on weird contradictions like that too hard - the last time that it'd happened she'd almost hurt herself. But luckily, this time Princess Adila knew exactly what to do because Eska had told her - she didn't need to think at all! +Don't worry Kazelia, I'll take care of this,+ she thought confidently.

She spread her wings and hurled herself back up to the platform with Princess Eska, heedless of the hidden ambush-bots. +Princess Eska,+ said Princess Adila. +I have reason to believe that Princess Azora Howl has hypnotized you.+

Monster Hearts: Sleepshy Rise

When we last left the perilous Sleepshy Rise, Elodie, daughter of the Grim Reaper, had survived some perilous makeouts just in time to overhear the dark and shocking confession of Timothy Crompton where he confessed to the awful sin of falling asleep on the job. Meanwhile, Annalee was desperately seeking a way back into the castle in order to fulfil one of the increasing numbers of mental compulsions that were placed upon her and the vampire Samuel was brooding ominously in his office.

Place yourselves, and resume.

Monster Hearts: Sleepshy Rise

"Why was the skeleton so mean?"
"He didn't have a heart."

- Dad

SLEEPSHY RISE

A game of Monsterhearts

Old thread: forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?59…

Starring
Amish Pirate as Timothy Oglevee Crompton
Anarion as Annalee Sokolov
Elanorin as Samael Hale
Raz Fox as Elodie Faucher

Sleepshy Rise is a wicked place.

It is a huge and sprawling castle manor, built by the Mad Lord Arret who was promised by an angel¹ that he would be able to cure his insomnia if he built a tower here. It seems to have worked - in that Mad Lord Arret stalks the corridors to this day with his eyes shut and a contented smile on his face even as he strangles those who cross his path. Not that you don't have warning these days: one of the 'bonding activities' that every new class is put through is collectively designing a new warning sign/graphic example of the threat posed by the sleepwalking nobleman.

I say 'class' because that is what is being inflicted upon you here - the full version of the statement is Remedial Socialization for the Incorrigibly Malicious. If you screw up - and then you continue to screw up, and you continue to do so in every combination of bold and italics that can be imagined, then you will be sent to Sleepshy Rise to be reformed. What you need to do to be sent to Sleepshy Rise varies - perhaps you were too bloodthirsty, or too evil? Perhaps you disappointed your parents? Perhaps your ungrateful underlings organised a coup and had you sent off in a box? Perhaps the cops just didn't know what to do with you? Maybe you didn't really grasp what the flyer meant by 'night school'? But now you are here it is the angel's job to straighten you out and turn you into model citizens.

(You have seen the graduating classes. All smiles and suits and maybe some fresh scars on their foreheads. The angel likes to talk about how it has never had a repeat offender.)

So there are classes. They are a simpleton's idea of friendship lessons. The concepts of 'sharing' and 'kindness' and 'not sucking the blood from innocent victims in broad daylight while making obscene gestures at law enforcement' are explained in agonizing and condescending detail. There are other classes too, explaining basic facts about the modern world like 'airplanes are not dragons and it is not ok to slay them', and 'Blending In With Kids These Days: From YOLO to Y U NO'. There are regular sporting events so that the inmates can blow off steam and they usually end with someone being mopped up off the floor while the angel gives a lecture about sportsmanship.

The only thing more infuriating than how condescending the angel can be is how wrong it can be. It's ideas about the wider world are not significantly more modern or sane than the average monster's - but you're in its house and it has its rules and nobody will help you if you break them.

Sleepshy Rise has a number of Rules, and the angel is capable of enforcing them should he discover transgressions. It is fortunate that the angel can only be in one place at a time, but it can be stealthy when it wishes.

- No kissing. No romance whatsoever. You animals cannot be trusted with basic human interactions, let alone something as important as love².
- No leaving. The angel doesn't want to have to come and get you, but it will.
- No sleeping. It disturbs His Lordship and we can't have that³.

Welcome to Sleepshy Rise. We hope your stay is... relaxing.

1: We say 'angel' because it would be very rude to suggest the far more probable alternative.
2: Outside of the How To Love Someone extra-credit course, where the angel will teach you all the fine arts of courtship and chivalry.
3: Most students still need sleep. They just need to find a place to do it where the angel won't catch them. The best spots are occupied by the scariest monsters. The least prestigious students spend their nights in terror.

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

I'm not an idiot, Black. I know there are bad men in power and the world is not an equitable place -- but you can't throw morality in the garbage just because life's tough!

- Superman

Resurrection Roundabout

A game of Masks

Old thread: forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?57…

STARRING
PhoeKun as Errant
Raz_Fox as @Sarahphim
Eldest as Ferra
Balmas as Brainstorm

The year is 200X. It is the future.

For almost a century the world felt like it was on the brink of annihilation. Its defenders were legends, of course - paragons who through courage and sacrifice saved humanity from the worst the universe had to offer. Statues were built in their honour, and Neo Halcyon City has holidays to remember them by. But that was then. This is now. All the legends are dead or old enough to be thinking about being dead and it's time to hand off power.

The question is who they're going to be handing it off to.

So ever seen that episode of [url=http://"onlyjusticeleague.blogspot.com/2012/1…"]Justice League[/url] where they go to the future and Batman is [url=http://"youtube.com/watch?v=PETk8eBbfN0"]old[/url]? That's the kind of vibe that I want here.

Over time tech has proliferated. What used to be a C-list supervillain weapon is a civilian sidearm, and while unleashing a giant killer robot on downtown Halcyon is still the supervillain equivalent of 'hello world' the police response comes in armed mechas rather than cop cars and pistols. Metahuman based corporations, both hero and villain founded, have effectively rendered the governments of the world obsolete as a problem solving engine.

Security is... patchy as a result.

Some areas are perfectly safe utopias with around the clock metahuman defense. Some areas are the wild west. If you're in the wrong part of town and you run into the wrong kind of guy all you can do is hope for one of those rare few superheroes who still do things the old fashioned way.

*

So, welcome to Masks! Before we get started I just want to have a chat about genre assumptions. Superheroics can be done in a billion different ways but the same ideals need to be consistent throughout the story, so everyone pitch in with what superheroics means to you. While I get to set the game's initial aesthetic, the specific themes and setting rules depend on the players and the characters.

My baseline assumptions look like this:

- Superheroes don't kill. This is the definitive feature of a superhero to me. Without it it's a totally different genre. I mean, I am totally prepared to extend the courtesy of ridiculous A-team style escapes from spectacularly exploded helicopters or use robots as a chance for people to cut loose. But if you're going to take a life it's going to be totally deliberate and quite possibly the end of your character's story.

As a little side note to that, I will try to avoid having villains who are so reprehensible that killing them would be the objectively correct move.

- This is a superhuman society. We're well beyond the point of hiding it, it's a fact of life. There are superhuman TV shows, cage fights, statues in the streets. Society is shifted accordingly. There's no government around to enforce any registration or mandatory training programs, and there's no central Justice League co-ordinating hero efforts globally. There are a bunch of smaller groups who look after specific areas, either as vigilantes, corporate authorities, or otherwise. Some of these organizations are unironically good - think, like, Batman successfully turning Wayne Enterprises into the supplier for the Gotham PD. But they are territorial and limited in scope and there are entire areas that are poorly protected.

- You have the potential to be the best. You're certainly not there yet, but you are the kind of people who might one day throw down for the fate of the world. You may or may not know and/or believe this in character.

I've set the game in a cyberpunk-adjacent setting, but that's mostly aesthetics at this point - as a MC I have very limited ability to set themes in advance. If nobody picks a playbook that engages with that directly then it really won't come up that much. My villains will be designed as rogues galleries specific to each player character so questions like 'are there evil megacorps?' are mostly going to be answered by 'is the existence of an evil megacorp relevant to anyone?'

Bonus AMV playlist for inspiration:

[url=http://"youtu.be/hy7QZT4one0"]Superhero Intervention[/url]
[url=http://"youtu.be/iJHASLCXA-w"]Lucky Strike[/url]
[url=http://"youtu.be/gUjeFa5kS1Q"]Killing 'Cause I'm Hungry[/url]
[url=http://"youtu.be/fuMnHItjNEs"]Across the Line[/url]
[url=http://"youtu.be/XkEXZK9V3qk"]ZXC741ASD852QWE963[/url]
[url=http://"youtu.be/fTcqdlSrE9g"]Little B AKAdemia[/url]
[url=http://"youtu.be/AJYmDlt8ZiI"]Invincible[/url]
[url=http://"youtu.be/mzqssCrKq6I"]Put Ya Guns On![/url]

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

It's the end of an issue! Princess Errant I of AEGIS has just surfed Old Man Satan across the cosmic barrier, Brainstorm has been branded a fugitive and chased underground by the full force of the corporate security system, @Sarahphim has defeated an all-powerful AI in an intense laser duel, and Ferra has successfully purchased some accessories for her pet cat! What will happen in the next climactic issue!? Find out in the penultimate issue of Resurrection Roundabout!