Earth-3 Project: Time Travel

I'm currently reading through The Great Darkness Saga (a well-regarded Legion of Super-Heroes story arc). Naturally, reading stories about the far future of the DC universe made the gears turn on how time travel works on Earth-3.

I fucking love these 90s colors.

There's some stuff I could draw on to fluff Earth-3's future eras like the Super Syndicate from One Million. I definitely want to throw in Waverider and an Armageddon 2001-esque little metaplot. But beyond that, I feel like time travelers from the future could undermine some of the roleplaying potential of Earth-3. If everything is shiny and lawful in the 30th century, would Underground or Syndicate grunts really feel the need to keep fighting?

While such issues can be handwaved in static fiction, I think it infringes a bit on player agency and emergent storytelling in a roleplaying game. Therefore I'm putting a bunch of characters I like (Booster Gold, O.M.A.C., the Legion, Zoom) into cold storage. It feels like I'm cutting out some potential fun but I think it's for the best.

On the other hand, I think that allowing time travelers from the past can add a lot to the story. A character from a pre-Syndicate era can be horrified or awed by the modern world while also providing a different perspective to present-day mutahumans.

Earth-3 Project: Timeline of 20th-Century Earth

Here’s a brief timeline of relevant recent events on Earth-3. Expect other timeline posts covering other subjects (like the distant past and potential futures) but this a roadmap for both y’all and I. Red links will eventually lead to other posts as I type up the relevant material.

1930s: Exposed to ancient magic, strange chemicals, and all other sorts of weird substances, men and women across the world gain strange and terrifying powers. Initially called “mutant-humans”, the term later developed into “muta-humans”. Most muta-humans used their powers for crime, hoping to live like kings and queens amidst the terrible Great Depression. But a few, like the mysterious Guardian, used their powers to punish crime instead of commit it.

1940: To avoid all-out war, coordinate crimes, and foster cooperation for bigger heists, the Crime Lodge of America is formed.

1941-1945: After the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt contacted the CLA requesting their aid in the war effort. Motivated by greed, racism, and a small amount of patriotism, the CLA accepts on condition that they are pardoned for all their crimes. World War II ended in an allied victory.

1946-1960: Content with the loot and public admiration they gained from their patriotism, the CLA degrades into little more than a country club for retired muta-criminals. Their “amazing heists” become infrequent and outlandish spectacles done more for attention than for wealth.

1966: In an alley in Gotham City, a mugger kills Martha and Bruce Wayne. Thomas Wayne sr. and Thomas Wayne jr. survive the attack but scarred by this event.

1973: Thomas Wayne jr. abandons his father and begins his journey into the criminal underworld.

1974: A mysterious magic ring is discovered by a marine named Stewart Johnson in an ancient temple Vietnam. For a solid week the mysterious new Power Ring manages to turn the tide against the Viet Cong until he collapses dead, apparently from exhaustion and dehydration. A crashed USAF pilot named Martin Harrolds recovers (but does not don) the ring and takes it back to the United States.

1982: Thomas Wayne jr. returns to Gotham as Owlman and begins a campaign of petty vengeance against his father, who has now become the mayor.

1986: An unidentified object enters the atmosphere and crashes in Kansas. Besides the impact crater there are no clues as to the nature of its source. Meanwhile, Lt. Clark Kent of the USAF and four others test a spaceship equipped with a new experimental engine. Something goes catastrophically wrong and all the crew are presumed dead.

1988: Now both more and less than he was before, Clark Kent returns to Earth. Conscious of the passage of time and fearful of how his parents will react to his strange new powers, he settles into a life of anonymity

1989: After reading Nietzsche and several books on the CLA, Clark Kent re-styles himself as the Ultraman. Meanwhile, Joseph Harrolds inherits a strange ring from his dead father’s estate and becomes the new Power Ring.

1990: Concerned with the sudden appearance of muta-criminals, the governments of the world begin several covert projects dedicated to containing muta-human threats, particularly Checkmate and Project Cadmus.

1991: Mary Batson is visited by a mysterious being calling itself “The Super-Power”. She becomes Superwoman.

1992: Owlman, Power Ring, Superwoman, and Ultraman band together to form the Crime Syndicate of America. Elsewhere and to little fanfare, John Garrick discovers a “super-speed drug” that enables creatures to move at exceptional rates of speed. Billionaire industrialist and philanthropist Alexander Luthor begins assembling a group tentatively named “Justice Underground” to oppose the CSA.

1993: Unable to secure funding or subjects for his super-speed drug, John Garrick tires it on himself. Under the influence of the drug and inspired by the recent exploits of the CSA, he adopts the muta-criminal persona of Johnny Quick. Meanwhile, the Crime Lodge of America reforms with a mix of botrh new and old members to cash in on the CSA’s popularity. In Europe, muta-criminals band together under the banner of the Crime Syndicate of Europe.

1994: Johnny Quick is inducted into the CSA, quickly rising to expand the “Big Four” into a “Big Five”. In Asia, the operations of both the CSA and the CSE are sabotage by a mysterious group calling itself The Greater East Asian Co-Delinquency Sphere.

1995: Joseph Harrolds successfully manages to convince a young man to take his cursed ring. Todd Scott becomes the new Power Ring. The CSA, CSE, and Sphere enter into an unsteady cold war as they try to contain each other and the innumerable splinters of the Justice Underground movement

1996: The current year.

Why 1996? Well, mainly because I like that era of DC comics. It also makes the history pretty tight: Seven years is enough time for the new crop of muta-criminals to impact the world in notable ways without impacting it too much. In fact, most of the "big events" of Earth-3 don't actually start happening until 1992 when the CSA itself forms.

Recommended comic reading: AXIS Hobgoblin limited series

We live an era when cape comics are oversaturated with Big Events. Most of the time these events are quite frankly utter shit like DC's Trinity War or Marvel's Original Sin. But sometimes, we get a legitimately entertaining event. Right now, Marvel's Axis is one such event. Despite a lackluster prelude and beginning, it's really entertaining so far. Due to a botched spell several heroes and villains have had personality inversions: they haven't quite gone 1005 good or evil but they exhibit either much nobler or ignobler behavior. One of the best things to come out of these inversions is the change in Roderick Kingsley, the Hobgoblin. Before the inversion he would franchise out old villain identities to upstart criminals, setting up their gangs and committing crimes disguised as them to give his customers instant street cred...and his only fee was a cool 40% of all their profits. Now, the Hobgoblin is training heroes and has become a motivational speaker. Deep down he's still a greedy bastard but he's noticed how profitable heroism is. Hopefully, this change will stay part of the post-Axis status quo.

Creating a Superhero Setting part 4: Parallel universes, alternate timelines, and you

I just want to apologise for the huge wait between blog posts. Being a nerd in college isn't easy .__.

Previously I discussed teams and organizations, people and places on Earth, and space and other dimensions. Now we get to one of the most iconic parts of cape comic universe: Parallel universes!

The idea of parallel Earths with alternate versions of heroes seems to have debuted in "Wonder Woman's Invisible Twin" from Wonder Woman #59 (May 1953)  but it wasn't fully expounded upon until the classic "The Flash of Two Worlds" from Flash #123 (September 1961) with the concept of "parallel Earths occupying the same space but vibrating a different frequencies". Substitute the Earths with Universe and you've got a Multiverse. Crisis on Infinite Earths amended this even further by making the Multiverse a set of INFINITE parallel universe occupying the same space and vibrating at the same frequency, right before destroying all of them. Oh well.

There's a big difference in the way Marvel and DC approach multiverses, with Marvel favoring Divergent History and DC favoring Parallel Evolution. Divergent History is just that, it starts with an established real-life or comic book history and asks What If...? So we get a world where Captain America didn't wake until 1984 (What If Captain America Were Revived Today?) or where Sue Storm abandoned the Fantastic Four but Spider-man became a permanent member (What If Spider-man Joined The Fantastic Four?). The Divergent History method is a way to revisit old concepts and roads not taken. The Parallel Evolution method tends to change the setting and rework concepts and archetypes to conform to that setting. For example, a world where Kal-L of Krypton landed in USSR in the 1940s (Superman: Red Son) or one where Bruce Wayne is bound to the Demon Etrigan and lives in a steampunkish version of Camelot (Batman/Demon: A Tragedy). The Parallel Evolution method is a way to take a fresh look at concepts and inject a little weirdness into a multiverse.

You don't have to choose between the two methods and it's quite possible to mix and match between the two approaches (90s What If...? and some of the later Elseworlds did this).

The exact difference between a Multiverse and a Timestream is hard to decipher. Indeed, Crisis on Infinite Earths featured heroes going to the wild west, WWII, and the medieval era to destroy the Anti-monitor's evil tuning forks, seemingly conflating both Temporal and Universal travel. Marvel tends to treat pasts and futures as simply other worlds in the Multiverse; indeed, for a long time the rule was that an attempt to alter the past by time travel resulted in the creation of a new Universe while leaving the traveler's home Universe unaltered (This rule is being broken/bent in modern Marvel comics). After the destruction of the Multiverse, a few DC writers (Mark Waid is the one that most easily comes to my mind) proposed a time-equivalent of the Mulitverse called Hypertime. To paraphrase the above line about the Multiverse, Hypertime could be interpreted as "infinite parallel timelines occupying the same time but vibrating at different frequencies." So while the Multiverse and Hypertime are definitely not the same thing, they're close enough to be considered the same thing by most people.

There's a problem that I've been dancing around and that is the "infinite" part of the Mulitverse/Hypertime equation; namely, it makes all the heroes' and villains' actions meaningless. For every life saved in this world, there's another were one or more were lost. If all actions are a finite drop in an infinite bucket then it can quickly seem pointless from a character perspective. A good examination of this comes from Owlman in the animated DC feature Crisis on Two Earths (although Batman is very badly written in it). A way to combat this to make the Multiverse/Hypertime at least appear finite in a way similar to the "snowflake Multiverse" of Warren Ellis' Planetary or DC's post-Infinite Crisis Multiverse. So how do you present a somewhat satisfactory answer as to why the Multiverse/Hypertime is limited? I'd personally take a page from atomic structures: The strong nuclear force can only hold together a nucleus that has about 100 protons in it; go above 100 and it will start breaking apart via radioactive decay. But there are atoms with over 100 protons, the just violently disintegrate in very short times. So certain frequencies in the Multiverse/Hypertime are inherently stable and past a certain frequency there can be no stable Universes/Timelines.

Confused yet? It really confuses me too, although I still love it. I've probably rambled enough so let's get to the details already, yeesh. I use Universe and Timeline interchangeably below, so don't be afraid to make an alternate present where everyone's evil or an alternate Earth that's a sci-fi future.

The Evil Universe

A mainstay of fiction sometimes called a "Mirror Universe", this reality features evil counterparts of heroes and good counterparts of villains. In some cases, history may be altered or reversed, such as making England a colony of America that revolted and gained independence in 1776. For very brief adventures, just switching the moral leanings of your main reality's supers while keeping a realistic population should do well enough to convey differences; for extended looks at this type of universe, shades of gray can make the reality more engaging. For example, the counterparts of villains might be "good" but are still brutal or the counterparts of heroes are "evil" but have a certain code of honor.
Examples in comics: DC's Earth-3, the "shadow Earth" created by Warlock/Magus in Marvel's Infinity books

The Old Universe 

In this reality, all major heroes and villains debuted at a specific time decades ago, aged, and have children. This creates a much longer, stronger Superhuman culture in this reality. It's also not unreasonable to expect more teams than usual here to accommodate the much greater number of Supers. Although this type of universe shows up in comics, it's a bit harder to adapt to a roleplaying game.
Examples in comics: DC's Earth-2, some issues of What If...?

The Nazi Universe

A perennial favorite of "speculative fiction" is the alternate time/place wherein Nazis won WW2. In comics it generally manifests as turning most post-1940 supers into Nazis. Depending on the current year of this reality, there can be a lot of fundamental differences between this Earth and the "main" Earth of the setting.
Examples: DC's Earth-10, Marvel's Hauptmann Englande and Thunder Guard universes.

The Near Future Dark Age

40-100 years in the future, The Team is dead and so are most heroes. Megacorps/Terrorist organizations/Criminal syndicates rule the world (or maybe just the USA). The government is too weak or corrupt (or both) to put any pressure on the corporate juggernauts. The poverty gap is wider than ever. Cyberpunk elements become more pronounced. Heroes are more pragmatic in their methods and most villains are only in it for the money.
Examples in comics: Marvel's 2020 and 2099, DC's Booster Gold and Zoom futures 

The Apocalypse

Overlapping with the above, the Apocalypse reality is about 50-200 years in the future after some great disaster has ravaged the world. The great disaster can be any number of things, including but not limited to: Nuclear war; biochemical war; magic gone awry; alien invasions; science gone awry; demon invasions; zombie uprisings; robot uprisings; or pretty much anything else. Humanity is perilously close to extinction and very few supers are around in this reality.
Examples in comics: Marvel Zombies, DC's Kamandi

The Cosmic Future

500-1000 years from now, Earth and Humanity are part of the cosmic stage, colonizing and exploring the fringes of space. Aliens that had previously been enemies of Earth may have become allies or vice versa. In some cases, Aliens that hated each other have teamed up to fight Earth! The equivalent to The Team in this era is heavily inspired by the ancient legends from the Super or Heroic Era of Earth and tend to be almost dangerously idealistic.
Examples: Marvel's original Guardians of the Galaxy, DC's multiple incarnations of the Legion of Super Heroes

The Missing Hero Universe

In this reality, the most popular "big name" hero of the main reality (usually equivalent in influence to Superman or Captain America) (re-)appeared significantly later or didn't appear at all. Without this hero's influence the Super society is a bad state and the general public is fearful of supers. If the hero ever does appear he or she might cause some major shake-ups in society and culture.
Examples in Comics: Marvel's various What if Captain America was revived today? stories, DC's JLA: Nail

The Reverse-Sex Universe

Like the Nazi Universe, the Reverse-Sex Universe is a common cliche but it has even less world-building in place. In this reality, all Supers (or all beings) are the opposite sex...men become women, women become men, and I guess sexless entities become hermaphodites and vice versa (dare you enter that magical realm?). If you use one of these realities then please take the time to do a little world-building so that the world isn't just "the same as the regular one but Superman has boobs and a vagina!!!"
Examples in comics: Marvel probably has one that I can't find, DC's Earth-11 and a Pre-Crisis universe.

Creating a Superhero Setting part 3: Out amongst the stars

We continue our look at elements of a Superhero setting! (Sorry for the delay, college kicked my ass this week.)
In previous parts I discussed teams and organizations and people and places but you may have noticed that everything I've talked about only deals with Earth. This installment will remedy that with a look at some of the common alien civilizations, groups, and worlds in these type of settings. I'll also cover some of the dimensions too.

The Neighbors

The Neighbors are an Alien (or modified Human!) species living right in our solar system, usually on a terrestrial planet but also found on the Jovian planets or our own moon (!). Such species are technologically advanced but usually few in number. Individuals also have superhuman powers, making the perfect material for heroes or villains. Their society and culture tend be isolationist and they are usually a civilization in decline or rebuilding from some great disaster.
Examples in comics: Martians (DC), Inhumans

The Space Cops

Endowed with cosmic power by a group of Aliens with big egos, the Space Cops police a large portion of the galaxy or universe. Recruits are drawn from a myriad of species, although there's inevitably a hot-shot Human rookie that some think might become the best Space Cop ever. The founders of the Space Cops are a little distant and their actually authority to enforce space laws is pretty sketchy but most civilizations at least pretend to care.
Examples in comics: Green Lanterns, Nova Corps

The Militaristic Empires

Two (or more) empires that frequently war with each other, often dragging other planets into their own brutal wars. One or both empires also consider Earth to be a key strategic point in this war and will often attempt to conquer it.
Examples in comics: Kree and Skrull Empires, Rann and Thanagar

The God-World

This larger-than-life world is inhabited by beings that identify themselves as gods and have the power to back up their claims. Although the average "god" isn't necessarily superhuman, the people higher up on the totem are ridiculously powerful. Their technology is so advanced that it either seems or IS magic. The gods often meddle on Earth and other planets, sometimes for altruistic or selfish motives. In some cases there might be a second God-World inhabited only by evil gods.
Examples in comics: New Genesis and Apokalips, Asgard (Marvel)

The Three Cosmic Beings

The Three Cosmic Beings are extremely powerful wild cards that follow their own agendas. One is Benevolent, and will often help Earth or other beleaguered planets; another is Malevolent and wants to kill/eat/enslave most of the galaxy; the final is Neutral, pursuing its goal single-minded and sometimes breaking the rules along the way. These three don't have to be actively opposing each other; They may not even be fully aware of each other. If the Malevolent being gets too crazy then the Neutral being will aid the Benevolent out of self-interest.
Examples in comics: Silver Surfer/Terrax/Galactus, Highfather/Darkseid/Metron

Now, let's veer off in a more mystical direction with dimensions:

The Hell Dimension

Whether based on traditional fire-and-brimstone imagery or something stranger, the Hell Dimension is home to both what Humans would call demons and the souls of evil people (or people who signed contracts). Evil magic-users tend to draw their powers from this realm. The head honcho is usually a stand-in/analogue of the devil, although he/it is rarely presented as THE devil. Likewise, there are sometimes multiple Hell Dimensions.
Examples in comics: Neron's Underworld, Mephisto's Hell, Dormammu's Dark Dimension, Darkseid's Apokalips (debateable)

The Afterlife Dimension(s)

There are also dimensions based on almost every religious conception of the afterlife, although the Judeo-Christian Heaven tends to only be hinted at (see the ends of Thunderstrike and Ostrander's Spectre). The afterlife dimension are really just set-ups to meet departed friends or foes, not for full adventures.

The Magic Dimension

Quite simply an excuse to throw weird shit at the heroes and villains, the magic dimension(s) make a mockery of rational thought and real world physics. Magical characters get stronger and slightly more unhinged in these places.

That's all for now. Next: Alternate timelines, possible futures, and the multiverse.

Creating a Superhero Setting part 2: People & Places

In the previous installment of this series, I detailed some of the organizations I thought were essentially for a large-scale, kitchen-sink  Superhero universe. In this installment I'll be focusing on the ever-important civilian population and some key locations.

The Civilians

The little people. The ones most frequently in danger during villains' onslaught, the one who become a statistic during the alien invasions, the ones heroes swear to protect. The most important factor in civilian population is how they feel about Superhumans. As noted in part 1, The Team is the most well-known and well-liked team on the globe (or a big part of the globe). But if the general populace detests Superhumans and sees them as walking WMDs, that's analogous to saying that The Team is the least hated example of Superhumans and still are constantly trying to prove themselves. There's a couple of viewpoints that can crop up regarding Supers:
-Fear/Hatred: Supers are inherently dangerous; they cause damage to cities when they fight. Also, Supers are causing aliens/demons/whatevers to attack Earth...if the Supers leave, Earth will be unmolested as it was before the Supers emerged (of course there usually have been invasions prior to the emergence of Supers, they've just been forgotten/mythologized)
-Cynical: Yeah, the really powerful Supers are good guys but one day some crazy asshole will win the superpower lottery and turn Earth into a hellhole.
-Optimistic: The inverse of the above, it's only prevalent in areas ruled by villains or Supers with extremely loose morality.
-Idealistic: The good that Supers do far outweighs the evil. And we can trust them because (most) are still ordinary people deep down.

A "realistic" setting would have a mix of Idealistic, Cynical, Fear/Hatred, and simple indifference about equally distributed. Marvel leans toward Cynical & Fear/Hatred viewpoints. DC leans toward Idealistic viewpoints.

Places

So now that I've ranted about civvies, let's focus on locations.

The Villain-ruled Country

This smallish, fictional country is ruled by a villain or an extremely pragmatic hero who took control after ousting a "corrupt" government. This country is usually in an are with a recent history of war and instability such as the Balkans, Eastern Europe, or the Near East. The ruler might be a total despot or a "tough but fair" figure: Population viewpoints are split between Idealistic, Fear/Hatred, and Optimistic (if the ruler is a jerkass), but any viewpoint that challenges or condemns the ruler is unlikely to be expressed publicly for fear of retribution.
Oddly, the regional impact of this country seems to be frequently neglected.
Examples in comics: Latveria (ruled by Doctor Doom); Kahndaq (ruled by Black Adam)

The Hero-ruled Country

Ruled by a Hero, this country is a hereditary monarchy. You'd think this country would come into conflict with the above but it's usually placed in a different region than the above. It also has a surprisingly low impact on regional politics. The majority population viewpoint is Idealistic.
Examples in comics: Wakanda (ruled by Black Panther); Markovia (ruled by Geo-force)

Atlantis

As something that has intrigued Humanity for centuries, it's no surprise that Atlantis gets heavily used. The exact nature of the Atlanteans varies but they generally have superhuman durability (to withstand pressure) and strength. They can breathe underwater but being capable of air-breathing could be a rare atavism/mutation. Atlanteans tend to be lead by a ruler that is half-Human/half-Atlantean. Depending on how scientifically accurate you want to be regarding interspecies breeding, this would mean that the Atlanteans were once Human.

The Lost World

Whether it's an unreachable island or a secret spot under the Earth, the Lost World is a place were dinosaurs, cavemen, wizards, and Conan rip-offs dwell. There are also occasional bits of ancient hyper-technology that boggle the mind. The Lost World is a savage, tribal land where hunting-gathering is the main mode of subsistence. But feel free to insert random castles and a suitable agrarian support network for them. There's also plenty of room for Lovecraftian elements.


Now, let's head into space and the outer reaches of the galaxy!
Or you can explore parallel Earths if that interests you more.

Creating a Superhero Setting part 1: Teamwork

"So what elements do you need to make a decent superhero setting?"
I was thinking about this earlier and had a few ideas in quick succession about. This list is specifically based on "kitchen sink" settings like Marvel and the old 52 DC. I can't guarantee that it'll make your setting great and memorable but it should convey a sense of familiarity while preserving some surprises. For now, I'm just going to focus on organizations that should be present in such worlds.

The Team

This is the main superhero group of the world, known by virtually everyone, and influential on a global stage. It contains a variety of heroes; magicians, superscientists, people who can punch really good, etc. A good group size is about 5-9 heroes here, most of whom should have a noteworthy career outside of the group. Also, consider who/what the heroes are and how being a global celebrity might shape public opinion. If a member is a robot or an alien, expect to see more acceptance of robots or aliens, respectively.
Examples of these organizations in comics: The Justice League, the Avengers

The Old Team

Founded back in dubya-dubya-two, The Old Team has been kicking ass and taking names since before most of The Team was even born. Although they made history, The Old Team is largely forgotten, overshadowed by The Team. The Old Team consists of a few survivors from World War Two, who have usually experienced some sort of time skip to avoid too much aging or are practically unaging, and new heroes inheriting the mantles of the survivors' comrades. They also fight Nazis a lot.
Examples of these organizations in comics: The Justice Society, the Invaders

The Young Team

Members of The Team have an unfortunate tendency to hoard sidekicks and gain  derivative characters much younger than themselves. These youngsters organize into a new team where they don't have to deal with the stuffiness of either The Team or The Old Team. Most members are in the 16-20 age range.
Examples of these organizations in comics: The Teen Titans, the New Warriors

The Government Agency

Superhumans pose a lot of legal questions. Can you use x-ray vision on someone without a warrant? Is anyone who throws on a spandex suit and tries to rob a bank unfit to stand trial?
Stuff like this is the purview of the Government Agency, which is the public face of Human-Superhuman relations.
Examples of these organizations in comics: Department of Metahuman Affairs (pretty sure that's a thing in DC), House Committee on Superhuman Activities

The SECRET Government Agency

While the Government Agency is the public face of Human-Superhuman relations, this organization is its private face. At times helpful to Supers and other times harmful, this Agency believes in preparing defenses against a possible Human-Superhuman war and often engages in questionable activities to obtain it.
Examples of these organizations in comics: Cadmus, Checkmate, S.H.I.E.L.D.

The Criminal Syndicate

Crime usually pays but in a world with Supers you get diminishing returns.This is where Syndicate steps in. Need some crazy science doohicky? Need some super-powered muscle for a job? The Syndicate is more than happy to provide it as long as you help advance its agenda. From petty crime to global domination, the Syndicate is always hiring!
Examples of these organizations in comics: Intergang, AIM, Hydra

Next, we need to think of people and places. On to Part 2!
Or you can skip to OUTER SPACE if you prefer.