The Abstract
With a bit of a block going on on the homebrewed setting I am working on, a friend decided he wanted to try his hand at a Super Hero campaign. However, knowing all the work that goes into creating a setting from scratch, he opted to instead use the Freedom City 2nd Edition setting and asked help of two of the other players (me and another player) in making the setting unique to our group and in planning and running sessions. As a result, we have started to build an interesting, if perhaps not totally unique, version of the Freedomverse. Of the players we have, three of us are actively participating in building the setting and running sessions. Italics show OOC information and design notes. This is our thread...
The Ultimate Freedomverse Timeline Although the majority of the Freedomverse Timeline remains intact, the Ultimate Freedomverse contains a few minor timeline changes!
1935
Archaeologist Adrian Eldrich discovers the lost Temple of Sirrion and awakens Malador the Mystic. Eldrich becomes Earth's new Master Mage.
Wilhelm Kantor becomes an initiate in the Thule Society and begins studying Black Magic.
1938
The Centurion first appears, preventing a robbery at the First National Bank by lifting the get-away car off the ground with his bare hands, bullets harmlessly bouncing off him.
1939
The Freedom Eagle appears.
1940
The first Bowman makes his public appearance, followed by Johnny Rocket.
1941
A new Lady Liberty makes her appearance in Washington D.C.
President Roosevelt announces the formation of the Liberty League.
1942
The Patriot appears, and soon joins the Liberty League.
The first appearance of Siren along Freedom City's waterfront.
1954
Hepcat, beat poet and vigilante, begins operating in the Fens area of Freedom City.
1955
A HUAC hearing forces the conscientious disbanding of the Liberty League.
Freedom Eagle and Bowman retire.
1961
Dr. Alexander Atom makes his home in Freedom City, purchasing the newly constructed Goodman Building and moving there with his wife Anne and their daughter Andrea.
1962
The U.S. government establishes AEGIS (the American Elite Government Intervention Service), appointing Jack Simmons (formerly the Patriot) as its first director.
1992
Michael O’Connor’s “No Moore” campaign wins him the Freedom City mayoral election by a landslide—particularly after FORCE Ops exposes some of Franklin Moore’s ties with organized crime. The newly elected O’Connor devotes his efforts (and considerable personal fortune) toward rebuilding people’s trust in their leaders and in Freedom City. He also begins working to repeal the Moore Act.
The Soviet hero Blazing Star returns to Earth from space, appearing in Belarus to avert a nuclear cataclysm. In gratitude for his heroics, Blazing Star is buried under 40 tonnes of steel and concrete by the Belorussian government.
1993
The Terminus Invasion. The armies of Omega invade Freedom City. The largest alliance of heroes ever seen unite to repel the invaders. Many heroes die or are seriously injured in the battle. Centurion sacrifices himself to shatter Omega’s support armor, forcing the overlord to retreat back into the Terminus. Freedom City and the world mourn the loss of their greatest hero.
Detroit is destroyed during the Terminus Invasion, along with almost all of the area's heroes.
Dr. Metropolis makes his presence known in Freedom City. FORCE Ops is no more in the aftermath of the invasion, leaving Freedom City without a team of heroes.
Mayor O’Connor officially repeals the Moore Act, making costumed heroes legal in Freedom City once again. Many of the heroes who came to fight Omega choose to remain and help with reconstruction. A grateful city welcomes their return with open arms and the so-called “Iron Age” draws to a close with the reestablishment of the Freedom League by Captain Thunder.
1994
A group of heroes re-establishes the Freedom League, and it quickly becomes the world’s premier superhero team.
Mayor O’Connor establishes Honor Day, the annual citywide holiday to commemorate the defeat of Omega and the sacrifice of the Centurion and other fallen heroes, with the dedication of the Sentry Statue in Riverside Park.
1997
The Belorussian government sends a military team to investigate power fluctuations at the site where Blazing Star was buried. Suspicions are confirmed when from under 40 tonnes of concrete and steel Blazing Star returns as the Czar. He declares himself ruler of all he sees and forms the Burning Protectorate.
2000
Jack Simmons, the original Patriot, passes away in a government hospital.
2005 Current Year
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The Ultimate Freedomverse Setting The main Freedomverse setting again remains largely intact, however, in the Ultimate Freedomverse there are some changes and some additions!
The United States
• Freedom City This is the Ultimate Freedomverse's Freedom City of 2005.
• Hudson City In Hudson City the Iron Age never ended. Many of the Freedomverse's Iron Age Heroes and Villains operate in Hudson City. The city itself is being adapted from the Champions setting and being made to fit the Freedomverse. Mostly I didn't feel like statting out an entire city and I received a few Champions books. I have no intention of ever learning Champions, but the fluff still largely works and Hudson City will soon be the back drop for a FORCE-Ops game.
• Vibora Bay Vibora Bay is also being adapted from the Champions setting, though at the moment it is in creative limbo until we as a group decide exactly what to do with it.
As soon as the 3e source book for Emerald City comes out, we will be introducing that into our setting as well, working to make it backwards compatible with our 2e campaign!
The Ultimate Freedomverse Characters These are characters unique to the Ultimate Freedomverse setting, whether fully our own creations, or spins on legacies and existing characters.
I've filled out a little more of the information. We currently have three games going on in the setting, soon to be four when I get the FORCE-Ops game up and running in the coming month of so!
The Liberty League game is being GMed by three different people, which is working out swimmingly. All of the GMs have a character and get to play and GM, and it has worked out pretty well. We are about 13 sessions in, and soon I should like to recap all of those issues to share. Blackbird is a solo game that I am running for my Girlfriend, she is playing a reimagined version of the villain Blackbird, though he is a good guy in this continuity. And as of last night my Girlfried started a duo, the Eyes of Night, for me and a friend (the only one not GMing M&M currently. But he has two of his own games to worry about, so it's OK). So far the setting is a lot of fun, and making legacies (as I am sure anyone familiar with the Freedom City setting can tell) is adding a lot to our games and making it really easy to seemlessly integrate villains tied to heroes from the past.
Dakana Deep in sub-Saharan Africa, at the crossroads of Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, and the Congo, is the small nation of Dakana. Dakana has retained the same government and resisted outside invasion for centuries. The reasons for this are twofold. First is Dakana’s advanced technology, the second is the nation’s king and hereditary defender, the White Lion.
Millions of years ago, a meteorite crashed in what would later become Dakana. It has become the only known source for daka, crystals with unique properties, making them useful in any number of super-science devices, including weapons, force shields, teleporters, and dimensional gates. Daka crystals serve as focusing agents for a variety of forces, and the mining and (limited) sale of the crystals has made Dakana the wealthiest nation in Africa by far, one of the wealthiest nations on Earth. Study and use of daka crystals has given Dakana technology well in advance of its neighbors, allowing the Dakana to defend the crystal mine against any invaders trying to seize it.
For generations, Dakana pursued a strict policy of isolationism. Surrounded by potentially hostile neighbors, the Dakana cultivated a reputation for ruthlessly defending their borders. By the 20th century, their African neighbors had long-since learned to leave Dakana alone, and legends spoke of the mysterious “Land of the White Lion” and the magical “diamonds of Dakana.” Even European colonialists and American explorers learned Dakana was a dangerous place for unwanted visitors (much less potential invaders).
Still, the tiny country could not remain isolated forever. Although more advanced on a per capita basis than any nation on Earth, the Kings of Dakana recognized the rest of the world was catching up. In a world of rocketry, aircraft, and satellites, Dakana could not remain separate. So the decision was made to begin both trade and cultural exchanges with the outside world, a decision some conservatives opposed. Daka crystals—and technologies designed to use them—found their way into the hands of certain governments, with an emphasis on the importance of Dakana’s continued good-will. Additionally, the White Lion (King M’Zale of Dakana) became active as a sometime member of the Freedom League.
The White Lion left the League in the late 1970s to continue to rule his nation wisely and well. He saw Dakana through a number of crises while remaining steadfast to his devotion to maintaining contact with the outside world. His son, M’Balla, the current White Lion and King of Dakana, has been a steadfast ally of the Freedom League, like his father, although he makes it clear his first duty is to Dakana and its people.
Capital: Jiji La Mji Mkuu Largest City: Jiji La Mji Mkuu Official Languages: Swahili Demonym: Dakanan Government: Hereditary Monarchy Population: ca. 4,000,000 Currency: Gold Time Zone: EAT (GMT +3:00) Drives on the: Left
Lugendu On the West Coast of Africa, wedged in between Nigeria and Cameroon, lies the small country of Lugendu, an oppressive place ruled by a man named Joseph Otanga from a luxurious palace in the capital of Nahambane. After appointing himself President-For-Life following a bloody coup several years ago, Otanga saw to it that many of his remaining enemies simply “disappeared.” No one knows what happened to them, though natives who dare to speak of such things claim Otanga possesses dark powers of sorcery that he uses on anyone he suspects of plotting against him. Outsiders scoff at these stories as mere superstition, noting how easy it would be for a man in power to make his enemies “disappear” through mundane means like bullets and shallow jungle graves.
Capital: Nahambane Largest City: Nahambane Official Languages: English Demonym: Lugendan Government: Military Dictatorship Population: ca. 5,000,000 Currency: Central African CFA franc Time Zone: WAT (GMT +1:00) Drives on the: Right
Campaign Notes
Lugendu is ported over from the Heroes/Champions setting.
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The Burning Protectorate With the world’s protests received as little more than annoyances, the Czar has carved a well-defended state, the Burning Protectorate, from radioactive lands of southern Belarus and northern Ukraine. Few governments in the region can muster the unconventional forces necessary to depose the autocrat. In addition to his own nearly boundless power, the Czar fields a formidable conventional army composed of local thugs and mercenaries from the Balkans to the southeast. He frequently offers sanctuary to the world’s most loathsome criminals, including Cryptomax, Kalak, and agents of Unitrol. Even Protonik himself has failed on numerous occasions to bring his former comrade to justice.
Campaign Notes
The Burning Protectorate comes from the META-4 Crooks! book.
Neos Themiscyra
Deep in the heart of Africa, hidden from prying eyes by trackless miles of jungle and grassland, under the concealing cover of an expansive karstic formation, is the home of a people who once made the strongest warriors quake at the sound of their name: Neos Themiscyra, the last bastion of the Amazons. Complicating any search for the city is its physical location in the high, airy caverns of a karstic formation that sprawls at the feet of the northern foothills of the mountains to the south. Constructed entirely within a three-cavern system linked by tunnels, the city is invisible from the air and virtually invisible from the ground unless someone peers in through one of the openings in the cavern roof or stumbles on one of the two exits to the outside world that the Amazons have not sealed off over the centuries. Outside the city proper, the Amazons’ territory encompasses a wide range of terrain from grasslands to jungles to the mountainous south of the caverns. Included in that expanse of territory are a half-dozen native villages, several waterfalls and lakes in the mountains, and a pair of quarries where the Amazons obtain stone for building materials and sculptures.
The Amazons are a tall, well-proportioned race, noted for their athletic ability and attractiveness in Classical times. The Amazons range from a fair olive complexion reminiscent of their original Greek heritage, to the dark complexion that is most common to the neighbouring central African tribes that have become part of Neos Themiscyran society since the foundation. Dark hair and eyes are most common, but not universal. Blonde hair is considered to be particularly attractive; it occurs in only a few family lines. Red hair is a sign of a connection to the supernatural world, and girls born with it are destined for the ranks of Artemis’s priestesses from birth.
The city is governed by a Queen, who must be descended from the line of Evandre, the last of Penthesilea’s champions and the commander who led the Amazons into Africa. The current ruler is Queen Andromache. The Amazons universally follow the goddess Artemis. Three priestesses who each represent one aspect of the goddess (the Huntress, the Warrior, and the Mother) preside over the Temple. They surrender their names and take up the face of the goddess they represent as their name until they step down. They serve as an advisory council to the Queen.
Campaign Notes
Neos Themiscyra is ported over from the Heroes/Champions setting.
Atlantis
Atlantis’ existence became widely known to some surface-dwellers in the 1940s when the superheroine Siren operated with the Liberty League. She was a surface dweller who gained her powers from a combination of Atlantean science and sorcery. Following the war, she married Atlantis’ crown prince Thallor and became its queen. Her son Theseus had a career as the superhero Sea-King and was a member of the Freedom League. He is now King of Atlantis.
Atlantis’ relations with the surface world have not always been peaceful. Atlantean barbarians have been known to attack ships and coastal areas. There have also been occasional coups or secession crises leading to Atlantean invasions of the surface world. Even the most peaceful Atlanteans are disdainful of surface-dwellers and their constant pollution of Earth’s oceans. Atlantis currently has a delegation to the United Nations. While recognized as a sovereign nation by most of the surface world, contact is understandably at a minimum. There is also an ongoing debate as to how far Atlantis’ “dominion of the oceans” extends, and whether or not King Theseus can truly claim to be “Sovereign of the Seven Seas.” Although the king’s hot temper has cooled somewhat over the years, diplomacy between Atlantis and the surface world remains tense.
Orichalcum
The ancient Atlanteans invented a unique metal alloy called orichalcum, a hybrid creation of advanced metallurgy and alchemy. The secret of its creation was lost in the sinking of Atlantis, but samples of the metal still exist, owing to its near-indestructible nature. Orichalcum is a golden metal with Toughness 25 and is immune to damage from temperature extremes. It also holds enchantments well, and many ancient Atlantean artifacts made of the metal have magical powers. Orichalcum weapons, armor, and tools are prized heirlooms among the Atlanteans and Utopians.
Kaiju Island
Located in the Kuril Islands chain between Japan and Russia, Kaiju Island is a rocky, volcanic prominence jutting up from the ocean. Ancient lava tunnels beneath the island connect to underground regions controlled by the various factions of Sub-Terra. Parts of the tunnel network and the surface of the island are also home to various monstrous creatures (called kaiju by the Japanese, thus the island’s name).
The monsters’ origins are unknown. They might be descendants of Preserver experiments, or creatures summoned by the Serpent People. Another as-yet unknown alien race could have created them or brought them to Earth, or they may have been spawned by radiation, mutagenic chemicals, or ancient corrupt sorcery still lingering on the island. A combination of some or all these factors might make Kaiju Island what it is. Regardless, the rocky islet is home to giant mutated monsters, which fortunately tend to stay on or near the island, since most of them can’t swim or fly very far.
The world community keeps careful watch on Kaiju Island for any signs of trouble from its inhabitants. It was long ago decided no one nation would have control over the island, and it was best to leave it and its inhabitants alone. Observation of the island falls under the purview of UNISON. Conventional military forces are of only limited use against the monsters. The international community will not sanction stronger measures to remove or destroy the monsters for fear of stirring up a hornets’ nest of unbelievable proportions. Previous such efforts have always ended in near-disaster, save for the intervention of heroes like the Freedom League and the Atom Family. So the international community does its best to maintain Kaiju Island as the world’s most dangerous “nature preserve.”
