Welcome to Justice Patrol. This is a shared world collaborative writing project centered around a legendary superhero group. I'm going to refer to this project as a campaign because of the deep roots the contributors have in the online RPG tradition, but it has little to do with a traditional RPG. There are no dice. There are no game turns There are no system rules. There is no math. Let me repeat that. There is no math. We are free, my children. Free!

Combat, or anything else that usually depends upon rules and dice will be dealt with in a narrative fashion. Hell, maybe combat doesn't even play a part greater than 'we really kicked ass last night', or 'we really got our asses kicked last night'. There are far more interesting things to tell a story about. Let's make this a character driven project. You can't lose when you concentrate on characters.

So, how do you play in this campaign? First you become a contributor. To do that just sound off over in the JPAT: We Want You! forum and we'll get you signed up. While there, take a moment to talk about your intentions. In which era of team history would you like to play? What kind of characters will you use? How fanciful or gritty you want the tone to be?

Technically the campaign manager (me, Richard L Smith) will have to okay the concept, but I'm an easy dog to hunt with. I plan to allow any concept short of a crusading cartoon moose who fights crime using his exploding testicles.

After that you just start writing your story. The superstructure of this site is a timeline divided into decades. If you have a story about a two-fisted, commie hating patriot working for Joe McArthy, create your content in the folder named 1950s. If you have a story about a roller skating disco queen superhero, create your content in the folder named 1970s.

I encourage collaboration. In fact I pretty much see it as inevitable. For this reason I'm not going to offer any gimmicks or tricks to get contributors to work together. It's just bound to happen naturally. If I'm wrong about this, then I'll take steps to make it happen, but I'm not too worried.

The campaign is called Justice Patrol because the stories have some connection to the centerpiece superhero team that we'll all be creating together. This connection could be direct or tangental. Maybe you have a story about Amazing Fella's great grandmother who helped tame the west. Maybe the main character in your story is, knowingly or unknowingly, dating a member of Justice Patrol. Maybe you want to explore the life of a Justice Patrol villain. At the start this campaign will be a great big blank piece of paper for all of us to scribble on. Have fun with it and stuff.