This borough belongs to the teeth in the darkness, the whisperers in the walls and the eyes behind the cracked blinds. The three brothers have possessed the underworld of Brooklyn. Before when the family was in charge-, it wasn’t any better but you knew where not to be; now every dimly lit hall and darkened ally gives you goosebumps. Some nights it feels like if you stab a brick you’ll pull back a bloody edge. But it’s not just those three headed wolf posters, it’s also Rayven. The PMCs that won the Brooklyn Public safety contract. Display screen helmets replacing their faces with psychologically manipulative images, dozens of deep cover officers mixed in with the population and petabytes of spyware making them a force of faceless spectres. Most know Manhattan lights are too bright for shadows, most know their electronics are listening, most know the three headed wolf’s eyes stalk the streets and most should know that no one is who they say they are in the borough of Kings. -Noted- Brooklyn grew from a single image; a rough handmade doll of three wolf heads upon a human body, on the corner of a neatly made ofrenda. Then came the brother’s origin written like a bedtime story, after that it was a steady growth to what it is now. A noir, spy-like horror that pits spookies against spectres. It kind of gives off a cthunic feel; with the people of brooklyn caught between these two faceless groups operating in the dark, trying to slither into their lives in order to get the upper hand on each other. Ethereal & Dev-X | Stock & Bull Entertainment
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The Duan of Destruction, Shogun of the silk streets, sterling silver; for his very words hold value. The true successor to the god king he shares a name; Ramesse, The undisputed underworld Emperor of the Bronx, has fallen. His generals, the architects of war have fallen as well but into perpetual infighting. New and old names alike are taking up the title of warlord and have fractured the Bronx beast. In this chaos the Flicher & Welsh Security force(winners of the public safety contract for the Bronx) have taken on a militarized approach to all forms of policing. They shoot first then shoot again and after the smoke has cleared they write the answers that best fits their narrative. The people like the land they inhabit are torn, not just by affiliation but between the blackest grey shades of the past, the possible greener pastures and the flames enveloping the now. Lines have been drawn in the sand and they are showing no signs of fading. -Dev Notes- We built the Bronx to be a Romance of the three kingdoms meets Arthurian tall in a Blackspitation, grindhouse, Double Feature. Here we play with the atmosphere in which you find yourself in. The Bronx previous to this civil war was ruled by a crime boss that saw himself as a king and the people beneath him as His People. Ramesse believed an empire was only as strong as its weakest subject. So began to train and better the people; opening dojos, trade schools, educational lotteries that sent the best and brightest to college and many other things. All these things were available to anyone willing to serve under him. He built a micro government in the Bronx and now he’s gone; leaving behind a people that have been forever changed, whether they followed him or not. Ethereal & Dev-X | Stock & Bull Entertainment
In the world of Powerpunk, science and technology occupy a funny space. During the Cold War, technology was viewed as a necessary median; “the only true measuring stick for a nation’s greatness” necessity. It was a grand love affair, with the known limits of science being reestablished almost quarterly and the great nations treating scientists like rock stars. The East and West both took to collecting doctors, professors and engineers, like children collecting trading cards. Giving them larger budgets than many of them had ever dared to imagine, these scientific minds were tasked with finding and cultivating any potential advantage against the opposing bloc. It was amidst this age of political desperation that all avenues of science, including the fringe sciences, were being treated with open minds and open wallets. This was a glorious time for scientists who started signing up with grant after grant and put real effort into experiments and inventions that they hadn’t ever thought they could complete. This was the age of “hypertech”. Super-science tools capable of bending terrestrial and celestial energies into fuel for weapons and vehicles, bending minds, transforming the body of a person into a walking arsenal of bio-weaponry. These tools that pushed through the established limits of the scientific field and into storied fiction appeared in every field. All the while the tensions of the Cold War grew closer and closer to the brink of open conflict. The era came to a screeching halt as prolific communist agents like “Soviet Supreme” and other frequent criminal collaborators from soviet nations were caught time and again by the U.S Government’s special forces, D.A.N.G.E.R. These communist agents seemed to favor the use of hypertech knockoffs from the Eastern bloc that never seemed to quite work as intended under pressure. They favored it so much that although the USSR was pretty far behind the U.S in production of hypertech in both number and quality it became, in the eyes of the public, communist or”pinko” tech. This stigma brought an end to free and unchecked scientific experimentation and discovery and saw the rise of tighter restrictions on independent laboratories. Hypertech faded into obscurity, a technological oddity known for being highly unreliable for some to marvel at while the wider world passed it by. However, the turn of the millennium saw a drastic slowdown in hardware innovations across all markets. The early 21st century, as the short lived Russo-American alliance went to war against extremists in the middle east, was perhaps the last time new hardware was released. Very quickly companies had to turn to releasing re-packaged versions of the same model already on the market over and over as programs grew in complexity to sell the illusion of breakthroughs. Cracking into the hypertech market had made anything less seem paltry by comparison. A generation of people grew up with the knowledge that advancement was out there and being kept just outside their reach and so some turned to expensive, custom goods that could grow as they needed. Still a few companies have re-discovered the idea of Hypertech and with clever re-branding are eagerly rushing to market determined to ride at the forefront of an inevitable tech-boom. This is where characters in Powerpunk find themselves currently; mostly recycled tech that has inched on slowly for more than two decades. Programming has grown at a reasonable pace but has seemingly caught up to hardware now and both are growing at a controlled, predictable pace. All the while, visible on the horizon, is the dreaded return of hypertech. Dev-X & Ethereal | Stock & Bull Entertainment
Possible variants or an evolution of the Quarks, the Kin do not wield the forces of earthly energy but instead embrace their role as dominators of cosmic powers. With skin flushed by the radiation of solar flares, muscles pulled taut with gravitational pull and a mind rippling with magnetic waves from out in the void. Gravity, Kinetic, Magnetic, Radiation, Temperature and Vibration are the celestial toolkit of these exim. Not more than but certainly not less than their Quark contemporaries, the Kin are the other face to a powerful coin. Absorption: Turn a cell phone into an anabolic steroid, a microwave into a lifeline, the l000 degree temp from a fire into a zero calorie snack to stave off starvation, or a howitzer shell to the face to rude, albeit, harmless tap from metal. Density Manipulation: This is actually two powers that combine to become one greater than the sum of its parts. On one hand, you can increase your density till your skin is like steel and the city of towering steel and concrete feels like cardboard and paste. Or increase the density of your favorite item till it rivals some dwarven crafted alloy of adamantium and mithril. On the other hand, you can reduce density to the point where the space between molecules serves as a new doorway to you and a molecular cage to others. The body can flow like water, is as malleable as clay, and deadly attacks can harmlessly pass through. But What if we combine them…? Super Speed: As noted before, move like a blur, strike like a flash, escape like lightning greased in the blood of a cheetah...that was...struck by lightning. That’s SPEED-CEPTION! Native Element Control: Back at it again, this scoundrel two-timing power has been described before but instead of Fire, Electricity, water etc, you harness the harness of gravity, master magnetism, redirect radiation, drumbeat the world with vibration, temper heat and frost and even control kinetic output (I can’t make a kinetic pun or witticism) like a punch, a bullet or the freight train at the end of the tunnel coming your way. Dev-X & Ethereal Deep Diver | Stock & Bull Entertainment
Would you like to spot someone in a crowd by the smell of their personalized shampoo care kit? Do you like the idea of having two sets of claws; one for tearing through fabricated material and the other for flesh. Do you have the desire to soar like an eagle over a target and then turn into an plated 6 ton bunker busting elephant? Then you might want to play a Proteán. Proteán Masters of adaptability and the living tool that is their bodies. Physically intimidating and dominating; they are the teeth in the darkness, the Talons in the Night, mermaids, centaurs myth made manifest, shapeshifter and body mixers. What follows is a small smattering of what they can do: Body Adaptation: This allows you to build a catalog of body mods that your character can switch between or mix and match. Picking from things like adhesive grip and extra arms; for expert wall crawling and a hellish grappler. Or Extra stomach and extra mouths for a very disturbing magic/smuggling trick. There's also fins and too much more to tlk about in a single paragraph. Natural Weaponry: It's exactly what it sounds like; access to the weapons of the animal kingdom. But not just access, the ability to combine these weapons in different and devastating ways. Like mixing a tentacle with plating and claws to make a living version of Ivy's(from Soul Calibur) whip sword! True Flight: Do I have to say more ... YES! It's the ability to fly and enter into what can only be called Aerial Kombat. Taking advantage of being able to move in three dimensions to pull off a whole set of maneuvers and gain a number of bonuses/boons. Last and way far from least- Animal Transformation: Its what it sounds like and sooooo much more. Yes, you can transform into different animals from a library of animals that your character has memorized. You choose which animals and all the animals have different natural boons that boils them down to their core (usually 2 to 4). You can customize your transformations to fit your play style; you can transform animal to animal, from frightening lion to slithering snake like Beastboy. Partial transform like equipping the eyes of an eagle or the pump of a gorilla arm. You can even go with the essence of the beast a la Vixen. Not enough for you? Good, because it wasn't enough for us either. We also built in the ability to mix the different animals in your libraries to make Chimeras! You can also transform into Were creatures and YES you can become WERE-CHIMERAS! Oh and all these powers can be used together ... just wanted to let you know that little fact. Ethereal Deep Diver "Sam" | Stock & Bull Entertainment
Yes, it's at a Library but beggars can't be choosers! Hell they made this Boss poster for us! We'll be teaching people how to RPG using our System and Setting. If you can make it, AWESOME! If not, don't fret, I'll be posting the best bits here on the site. Ethereal Deep Diver "Sam" | Stock & Bull Entertainment
"...you can go sideways, and slantways, and longways, and backways..."
-Willy Wonka, describing the effects of Gravity Control This sketch and the previous rough brought to you by Alvaro Estrada. Turning people into unwitting pawns is the purview of the power Mind Control!
This sketch and the previous rough brought to you by Alvaro Estrada. Vera Bleacher A.K.A. Breacher: If Ares picked favorites then the bleacher family was it; they've fought in every war this country involved it's self in. Vera Bleacher, fourth youngest grew up in a house run like a platoon. Emotional availability and self expression were tossed onto the pyres of duty and efficiency. Tasks were doled out based on skills and abilities, hers was protecting the siblings. The girl could take a beating like nobody's business. Her near indomitable resolve made her tougher than most grown men. Shielding people from danger was her calling and when Uncle Sam called collect, she accepted the charges. Desert storm two, the Russo-American flex fest in the sands (America's world trade center and Russia's Red Square were attacked by terrorists, mirroring the events of 1812). A war that to this day is shrouded in myth, mysteries and misunderstanding. She was there and the events that transpired aren't care to her either. What Vera and other Vets can agree on is that soldiers, enemy combatants, and rumors of special abilities vanish in the mists of the Contractors. Distant, dangerous, overpaid, maniacs that bled "need to know" and when word of Vera's toughness reached them they began moving in. Vera isn't sure when her powers surfaced; maybe after the third IED, the twelfth building breach, the chili diarrhea incident or hell she might have always had them but never noticed. But after the murder LLCs moved their chow table next to her scout's she knew it was time to go home. Vera got her 50th documented kills, some IED fragments in her chest, a few medals and a medical honorable discharge. When she returned home she found her family in pieces. Most dead due to health issues sprung from; poisoned air and water from hazardous industrial runoff, dangerous work environments, drug addiction fostered by predatory pharmaceutical companies, growing criminal influence, and a government slashing funding to anything not connected to bullets and business. Home had become as bad as the lands she fought in and it's all the fault of a small few, a powerful few but now she has power too. Image: Neck length Blonde hair, glasses, stacked and has a full back tattoo. The tattoo is dedicated to her time in the marines, as lead breach and the fifty confirmed kills she gained in service. Quote: *Drunken burp* I Killed Fitty Men!~ ("In 1812 both Washington and Moscow burned, 2001 The world trade center and Red square are attacked, coincidence?!") Power: Absorption: Absorb energy to enhance your character instead of taking damage Native Element Control Kinetic: Control elements to attack, defend and build Weaver's Note: In Vera's mind she believes that there is no safe place, no shelter. The Front line is everywhere. She does her best to give off the air of a retired Vet but; inside she is paranoid and terrified that she is now trapped in a never ending war. Feeding into her paranoia or promising the next mission will ensure a better protection from outside forces usually works to convince her to "soldier on". Vera was inspired by the song "B.Y.O.B." I have included it here for your listening pleasure. Here's a rough sketch of one of the Demo pictures!
Are we excited? Yes, yes we are. Are you excited? We hope so! |
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