When Reed Richards and his friends launched themselves into space and came back as the Fantastic Four, a few things changed on a societal level. With the uncovery of an alien invasion (Skrulls) a few months later the U.S. government focused their energies on this threat instead of the USSR.
With the genius of Reed Richards and the possibility to reverse engineer Skrull technology, with Tony Stark’s cheap energy producing arch-reactor, with the combined geniuses of Bruce Banner, Hank Pym, and others, the base-line technology of society shot up. All the things Marvel reserved for its heroes and villains in the comics, are commonplace in this setting. When Galactus visited a few years later, Earth was ready. (No Deus Ex Machina like the Ultimate Nullifier was needed.)
The geniuses of this second Manhattan Project used their skills to build enormous wealthy corporations (STARK, Richards Technologies, Pym Microprocessors, etc.). These corporations changed the world and became the dominant forces.
In 2014 everyone can buy a flying car, energy is cheap, and living standards are high. Whilst not everyone has superpowers (in whatever form they come), they are a lot more commonplace than is good for society.
The political situation is very different. The U.S. is by far the most powerful nation on Earth, but apart from its ties with a few close allies is very isolationistic. The Wakandan Hegemony is the second most powerful political entity in the world and dominates Africa. Most of the middle of Europe and large parts of Russia are now part of Latverian Empire. Atlantis, Lemuria, Attilan, the Savage Land, and Genosha all are recognized as sovereign countries by the U.N, with Atlantis even having a permanent seat on the Security Council.
Mutants have fought for equality and have been granted thus in some countries, but not all. Genosha is ruled by Magneto and is a safe haven for mutants all over the world.Furthermore, some of the gods living in near-Earth realms (Asgard, Olympus, etc.) and the hidden races (Homo Mermanus, Deviants, Eternals, Inhumans, Subterraneans) have all been recognized by the U.S. and some other countries, unfortunately not all.
Space is still a frontier, but several planets and moons in our solar system have permanent basis, Mars is being terraformed, and we have permanent ambassadors and trading posts in all the major galactic empires. Richards Space Ventures dominates the exploration of space and other dimensions, but some other corporations and countries are also exploring space.
It seems an ideal world, but a lot of big problems are hidden. Even in the paragon nation that is the U.S. the poor are very poor and form a huge proportion of the population. Everyone can be be a superhero or villain, but the shadows of Stark Tower and the Baxter Building loom very large and are very deep. It is here where you have to survive.
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This game borrows the setting from Marvel and the atmosphere and dynamics from Shadowrun.
The player characters are effectively runners with superpowers. When compared to Marvel’s mainstream heroes, they are second or third tier. They are also second or third generation. The heroes of old have become old. Tony Stark is the recluse CEO of the most powerful corporation in the world.
Hosted and narrated by:
Jan Bernd ten Berg (JBtB)
Completed 01/11/15.
Scenes played: 11
License: Community License
