"Supers" isn't my favorite genre, but as Ive said elsewhere, the systemless thing appeals to me. I also happen to be a history nut. Total history geek. (I know that the Tunguska event happened in 1908 for instance....)

I also happen to know that it coincided with a certain power transmission experiment conducted by Tesla, who was a mad scientist in a very real way....

Those aspects of it seem to pull at my interest, because I love situating my characters into historical events, even if they only wander through them in a forrest Gumpish way.

We're not limited to one Collaborative Writing Project. If Supers don't grab you (though I love superheroes), we could always have another genre project going on. What's your poison? Pulp? Space Opera? Urban Fantasy?

As for the Justice League (or whatever we end up calling them), I'm in.

Editing now....

Hmm. A multi-decade timeline is going to require some planning--or at least some careful record-keeping if we want to avoid inconsistencies.

I can do Supers. Just because it's not my favorite doesnt mean I wouldnt be interested. I played Champions, back in the day. I have to say, that I've been itching to do Western, gunslinging cattlerustling Clint Eastwood tough Western. but, I also believe if you're not willing to gm it yourself, you ought to be enthusiastic about what others offer....

So Supers works for me. Its a wide Genre after all, and I can get a character to fit into it. ( Steve rogers was just a regular guy till he got the super soldier serum, and even after that, he was only apex homo sapien.  Donald Blake stayed a regular physician who shared his life with The Mighty Thor for decades.)

I think this sounds like a really cool idea!

I agree about the record keeping being important. Even in Conquistadors I sometimes had a hard time tracking what happened when. There should be at least a timeline and list of important characters, and everyone should be responsible for keeping them updated. You post a story, you go update the darn wiki. Or whatever.

In the other thread, someone suggested a policy of authors having veto power when other writers use their characters. That's something to think about.

Gotta admit I am kind of burned out on your typical mainstream supers. But the alt-history angle intrigues me. If supers stem from the Tunguska explosion, and Mars invading Britain, does that mean supers are concentrated in Eurasia instead of North America? That would be very interesting to explore.

He walks erect?

BWAH HA HA HA HA

Dunno, maybe at first, but keep in mind the 'martians' will be invading New Jersey in the thirties, and doughboys will be coming back to America from the Great War and all that stuff.

I'm agreed on the record keeping thing, and I'm not entirely sure of how to handle it. I would like to keep track of who created each character and who currently 'owns' the character.

I'm partial to using Wikis to keep track of such things. And there are plenty of sites that provide free wiki space if we don't/can't employ a wiki here at NextGen. In fact, this is a mostly-ignored wiki I created at one time. We could use that one, or create a dedicated wiki for the CWP.

It no longer exists, but the LJ CWP game I was in for so long had a wiki as well. We maintained a timeline of events, as well as pages dedicated to each character (the pages for Iron Maiden, Raven, Lloyd Greystoke and others on my wiki use that same template). Feel free to check it out and see what you think.

Drupal doesn't do wiki markup very well, but we could install a separate wiki. Though I would think the tools we already have are sufficient.

Looking forward to hearing more about this setting Richard. 

I don't think that--installing a wiki module on the site--would really be necessary. All anyone would need is a bookmark for any wiki site we use, and a pre-existing wiki (like mine or any other site that offers free wiki space) would be adequate. Besides, not all wikis are created equal. I like Mediawiki, and can't abide tiddlywiki--which is worse than useless, in my humble opinion.

Just my two cents.. and honestly thats about all it's worth...

but the guidebook functionality here on NG is more than good enough for this purpose. Whether the GM would want to use something else that might be easier or what not would boil down to personal preferance.

I'm computer ignorant, and I can manipulate this sites guides well enough. People who are familiar with and have confidence with more complex things should have no trouble.

I just started reading the comic book Global Frequency and thought it would be neat hook for a shared world. From Wikipedia:

The Global Frequency is an independent, covert intelligence organization headed by a former intelligence agent who uses the alias of Miranda Zero. There are reportedly 1,001 people on the Global Frequency, forming an active smart mob communicating by specially modified video mobile phones through a central dispatch system coordinated by a young woman code-named Aleph.

...

The existence of the organization is an open secret, but its membership list is anonymous, the identities of its field agents unknown to even each other before they meet on a mission. Often the only way to tell a member of the Global Frequency is by the phones that they carry or the Global Frequency symbol—a circle with four points on its perimeter 90 degrees apart—that they sport somewhere on their person.

It's one of my favorite books and part-inspiration for one of my campaign ideas (although mine was set back in the '30's with a more Doc Savage feel).

One great thing about the Global Frequency concept is that the stories were episodic with rarely the same character featured in each one. The only constants were Zero, as the leader, and Aleph, as the information source and coordinator. From a RPG point-of-view, it means that you're not forced to use the same characters (or even the same players) from one session to the next..

I'd be up for this.  I agree with the Wiki idea though rather than game pages and such.  Mediawiki being a preferred wiki, as it is what I use on my Home comp to attempt to keep my own games straight.

Okay, after trying to figure out what kind of wiki slash guidebook slash whatever to use for this project I must admit to being massively confused. I'm going to need help with the organization of the site.

I've chosen the name Justice Patrol for our central superhero group. I like the name because its slightly cheesy and it just sounds like a team that has a lot of history. Keep in mind that stories contributed to this project don't necessarily have to be about the team. The stories just need to take place in a world under Justice Patrol's protection. Have a story about a mere mortal who gets rescued by Captain Marvelous? Cool.

I've written a rough timeline which I will post here next. This is just to frame the game world and there are big gaps in the timeline especially during the most current decades. I have an idea for at least one story that takes place early on after the Tunguska Event and I plan to do more with Doctor Nocturne. As far as I'm concerned everything else is up for grabs.

I would like to have story ideas run by me first. I figure the buck should stop with someone, but I don't intend to be a dick about any story lines. Someone just has to keep an eye on continuity.

I'm excited about this idea. I'd really like to see what comes of this.

Pre-20th Century – The distant past is not well defined in this campaign, but we can assume that gods once walked the Earth, knights fought dragons and magic was a real thing. The level of magic has ebbed and flowed throughout history to account for ages of great magic and ages of little magic. During the latter half of the 1800's magic is at low levels.

The dawn of the 20th Century – The 'martians' with their tripod war machines and heat rays invade the Earth in 1898. The 'martians' attempt to establish a major beachhead in England, but also attack other parts of the planet. 'Martian' defense strategy against normal Earth pathogens proves to be inadequate, and they retreat back into space.

The martians suffer high casualties and a substantial amount of their technology remains on Earth. The Earth's technology level is too low to fully understand the alien tech, but the race is on between rival nations and notable individuals to acquire and study this technology. This kicks off a lot of steampunkiness in the first decade of the twentieth century.

In 1908 an object explodes over Siberia in what will be called the Tunguska blast. The object is widely accepted to have been a meteor, but that theory doesn't explain the bizarre effects of the blast. The first notable effect was that magic became powerful and easier to use.

Also, the barrier between other universes was severly weakened allowing some beings to pass between worlds. This accounts for the discovery of hidden lands in remote parts of the globe such as the himalayas, the south pole and parts of central africa.

During the 1930's a wave of organized crime prompted the formation of the FBI. Doctor Nocturne, one of the FBI's premeire agents becomes the first costumed crime fighter. Other masked men follow the fashion and prove to be very effective crime fighters. Their success is attributed to the crime fighter's alternate identity providing a magical totem effect that increases their physical prowess.

The most notable effect attributed to the Tunguska Blast was not noticed until the late 1930's. Several individuals born after the event possessed the potential to acquire superhuman abilities. Typically the mutating event was kick started by a trauma such as a lightning bolt, or even an animal bite.

Forty years after their first attempt, the martians invaded the Earth establishing a beachhead in New Jersey, USA. Although they had developed a defense against Earth pathogens, their alien physiology proved vulnerable to biological attacks, and the martians suffered a complete defeat. Several superpowered crimefighters contribute to the defeat of the martians. Another race to acquire martian technology ensues and it is revealed that the aliens were not native to Mars and had been searching for a new home after being conquered by a more advanced alien race.

World War 2 brings on a glut of superhumans many of whom contributed to the war effort. Early in 1941, Axis forces attacked Washington DC. Several superheroes join forces against the invading Axis forces and form Justice Patrol. The team's founding mission was to defend the United States from foreign enemies.

Adolf Hitler's use of multiple body doubles, later learned to be clones, creates confusion at the end of war when several superheroes lay claim to having killed the dictator.

In 1947, an alien spacecraft crashes in Roswell, New Mexico. An alien couple are the only survivors of the crash. They are dissidents from the alien race, known as the Grays, that had conquered the martians. Their existence is kept secret until the late 1950's when they take the oath to become American citizens. They assume the names George and Martha Roswell. Their son is named John Roswell.

During the Cold War, the Justice Patrol becomes an international strike force under the direction of NATO and frequently find themselves in conflict with Soviet superhumans.

Encounters with the alien Grays brings Earth to the attention of the intergalactic community. Multiple races visit Earth with such regularity that the 1960's and 1970's are sometimes referred to as the Cosmic Age. The Justice Patrol builds their first orbiting headquarters.

The second bullet point up there, When the 'martians' invade earth to establish a beachhead in England, is that supposed to be 1898 instead of 1998?

Also, will the most modern stories be set in the 1970's or present day 2010's?

shit! yeah, 1898.

The stories take place at anytime you want them. I stopped the timeline in the 1970s because I didn't have anything good.

I noted that incorrect date too, but figured it would get corrected pretty soon.

I like the idea of masked identities acting as totems to empower the heroes (and villains, I assume). It helps answer the question of why essentially ordinary humans with masks are so kick-ass. In Watchmen, for instance, the idea that an ordinary burglar could overpower the Comedian (who was in his 60s or 70s) was dismissed as absurd, and Laurie and Dan--also normal humans--were capable of dealing with an alleyful of thugs or a prison in full riot meltdown without getting their hair mussed. Simply by virtue of being superheroes, apparently, they simply outclassed any mere human (or gang of humans).

The totemic power idea provides Suspenders of Disbelief (tm) for me.

Richard, I'll get you set up so we can use guide book pages for the timeline and such. Working with a guidebook page is identical to working with a regular game page and you can format it however you want. The only thing I need to know from you is what abbreviation you want to use and JP is already taken for Joint Posts.

Thanks very much, KL. You are once again my hero.

How about JPAT for an abbreviation?

Everything needed to make this an official project has been set up. I've created a forum and given Richard GM permissions to create the threads he thinks will help with the planning.

Richard if you have any questions on how to do something either send me a PM on the site or an email and I'll walk you through it.

Isn't KL everyone's hero?   

Looking forward to this Richard! Got some ideas brewing....

I think I have things figured out enough to muddle my way through, but I reserve the option of running to you in tears begging for your help if I should fall short.

Note that there are mutants and aliens as well in the setting.  I'm guessing that the totems is just an extension of the magic that started it all.  Foci for the super practitioners.

I think the only thing that might give you problems could be the guide books. We made a change to them for Aaronymous so he could share certain pages with only select people. The permissions for them work just like the JP ones and I'll jump in and fix them if you need help.