Lindharin wrote:Finally got a chance to finish it (one of the few good things about insomnia ). Very cool information, AslanC! I'm looking forward to more.
MrJupiter, the image is a .png file, which supports transparency. I assume that he made the image with a transparent background, and when it gets displayed here the area beyond the paper edges just show the forum background through the transparent background.
AslanC wrote:As for how the typewriter page was done Mr. J, Lindharin has it right, made it a transparent background png in Photoshop and rotated it a bit.
I thnk I see, convert an image to to ".png" and then work with Photoshop to make the background transparent. When I get some time, I'll try experimenting with this... Thanks for the info on this guys: I've always wondered how it was done as it creates a very cool effect.
More to come, much more actually, just been a crazy few days where I haven't had much of a chance to do any writing.
Stay tuned!
I certainly will be.
P.S. The ability to write is something to be charished. So often I'll blow off 2 to 3 hours writing and only end up with about 4 paragraphs. I like bullet points. They are simple to spew out and then cut and paste to arrange. It's the next level, where you try to make them connect and sound good, that kills me!
MrJupiter wrote:P.S. The ability to write is something to be charished. So often I'll blow off 2 to 3 hours writing and only end up with about 4 paragraphs. I like bullet points. They are simple to spew out and then cut and paste to arrange. It's the next level, where you try to make them connect and sound good, that kills me!
Well I will assume that means you like the way I write sir... but I will TRY not to let it go to my head
Definately great stuff to read here. You have a lot of depth to your backstory and characters. You must have been letting these ideas simmer for years!
P.S. You've got a lot of really great names for characters and other elements (I love the name "Infinity Serum" and "Victory Porgram"). You have a really strong Golden/Silver age feel with this stuff.
Cool Beans, man! This is great stuff! Reading the Actual-Play thread inspired me to read this material, and man am I glad!
I'm considering submitting characters for your play-by-post, but I have to seriously consider how much time I'll have at my disposal. I'm not very well-versed in this time of gaming forum, so can you give me a sense of what the time commitment is likely to be?
Anyway, I'll be thinking of character ideas for possible submission. Worse comes to worst, I'll just enjoy the material that you post.
Okay this get's a bit involved and jumps around a bit, so let me set out some points;
1] Doc Titan is part of it all
2] Lady America died in Berlin and is now a clone
3] Guardsman did NOT get his powers from a magical helmet, but rather is another recipient of the Infinity Serum
Those three points should provide touchstones for the following;
Okay so before WW2 and all that Phineas Titansky's parents divorced and agreed to each take custody of one of their children. Phineas stayed with his father in America and his brother Axelrod Titansky went to Poland with his mother. Years pass, enter WW2.
In Poland, Axelrod Titansky has joined the * science community and is working diligently on creating super soldiers for Hitler. Failure after failure occurs, same as the Allies attempts. Neither side can pull off the induction of super powers in an individual.
One night, at his wits ends, Axelrod receives a package containing a vial of blood and a chemical break down of it. There is also a note that promises this is the answer to all his problems.
He concocts a serum and tests in on himself, unwilling to go before Hitler with another failure. He is rewarded with the power to influence the emotions of others, primarily the fear reaction. Over joyed, but afraid of what Hitler will do with this, he sends the formula to his brother in America.
As the world trembles at the arrival of Übermann in Germany, Phineas Titansky injects himself with his version of the Infinity Serum and not only increases his brain capacity, but gains the power of growth.
Of course Dr. Titansky would eventually create the entire Victory Squad for the Americans, as well as their allies, including the Soviet hero Commander Soviet Union.
Creating an improved version of the serum, Doc Titan uses his influence within the military to get it transported to Italy, where a courier will take it to his brother, now acting as a * super, Doktor Fear! This new serum will improve their current powers and allow for more control for future experiments.
Unfortunately the soldier carrying it for Titan is seperated from his unit and fears the approaching * getting the serum which is is delivering ("It'll change the tide of the war son!"), in a last ditch moment the solider injects himself.
Enter the Guardsman.
With this unexpected turn of events, the brothers Titan are now a bit concerned that they might not be able to bring about their utopian world they have envisioned.
Now as the war is winding down, the Titans perfect cloning. The goal is to make an army of perfect, loyal, übermensch they can use to take control of the world. This also presents them the opportunity for immortality as Doktor Fear has in his custody a young boy who is a very powerful bio-telepath, whom they are sure can transfer their minds to new bodies if need be.
(Sorry I know this is complicated at this point)
Seeing the end on the wall for the * regime, Guardsman is sent by Doc Titan to extract the bio-telepath, which brings him into direct conflict with Übermann, which ends with these two living gods talking to each other. Both see that they are the natural leaders of the world and a deal is struck to share the planet. Later, in Berlin after the death of Hitler, they will add Commander Soviet Union to this deal, but more on that later.
The Brother's Titan learn of the pact, thanks to the bio-telepath and they decide to support this cabal, so long as they are left to their own devices and their pursuit of science. The final deal in the conspiracy is made.
As the Russians descended on Berlin, the Victory Squad was dispatched to capture Hitler before the Russians could get him. Lady America, Major Victory, Spangle and Kid Victory arrived too late, Hitler was dead, but the * supers (Übermann and crew) were still there and the fight was on.
All of the Victory Squad was killed, outmatched by their enemies. When Guardsman arrived, moments later, he gathered what he could of the remains and returned them to Doc Titan for cloning. Titan was only able to clone Lady America, but thanks to the bio-telepath he was able to recreate her mind and memories as well and simply erase the Berlin event and instead implant the "Raid on Castle Fear" story that every school child knows.
This has been going on since then, the amount of times Lady America has died and then a clone with imprinted memories activated has happened is well over 20.
The war ended, Übermann went into hiding, Commander Soviet Union returned to Russia and Guardsman came home a great hero. Their plans beginning to ferment.
Guardsman took over control of the Citadel under his guise as Lord Sovereign, Übermann claimed leadership of ODESSA in South America and Commander Soviet Union enjoyed the full support of Stalin.
Their plan was to divide the world into 3 primary zones (Guardsman = North & South America, Übermann = Europe and Africa, Commander Soviet Union = Asia Major and Minor, Oceania would remain neutral ground for various uses.) and the brothers Titan would be free to experiment and work their mad science.
Oh and Axelrod was smuggled out of Europe under Operation: Paper Clip, just like the rocket scientists.
So why haven't they succeeded?
1] In the 60's, Commander Soviet Union's anti-Western stance became rather dangerous and he was eventually subdued by other Soviet supers and confined to a Siberia prison facility. This leaves the cabal with little influence of the Soviets, which they seek to rectify.
2] Übermann, having learned the Titan's are Jewish has been pulling more and more away from their guidance and starting to get ideas about total domination of the world.
3] Guardsman sees himself as the only one who can really rule the world, buying into his own press. This has lead to him secretly feeding EAGLE information about ODDESSA, obstructing Übermann's plans, without showing his hand.
In 1980 the Brother's Titan decided to test their new Infiniti Serum on a Lady America clone and see if they could invoke particular powers. It worked, they dispatched of the currently active one, imprinted the new one and sent her out, claiming exposure to various super villains and energies over the years had mutated her. What they didn't know was that years earlier, the Bio-Telepath (now just a brain in a jar thanks to the experiments of Axelrod) had reached out with his mind and discovered Dr. Walter Van Jove, who was facisnated by the field of metahumans.
Using his powers, the bio-telepath (named Joseph) unlocked mental powers within Van Jove's mind and told him the whole story. Van Jove, recognizing the threat offered to use his influence to create a team ready to resist should the Cabal make it's move. His first effort was Team Justice, but that was a failure. This would lead to the creation of his own super-villain identity, Brain-Flex and his team, Ravage V.
When Joseph informed Van Jove about the new super powered Lady America, Van Jove advised him to implant a trigger that would allow her to remember all the lives she had lived.
When that happened, she made a bee-line to where the cloning facility was in an effort to expose the Titan's. They in turn activated a new clone (actually it was about 10 by the time the fight was done) but managed to kill the renegade Lady America. They then killed the one who won the fight, and activated a new one, with the cover story that she had been captured by the Citadel and cloned. The evil clone was running around for 2 years and only when the real Lady A escaped she was able to stop her evil clone.
Guardsman was not impressed as this story brought attention to the Citadel, which had been all but forgotten by the public.
Having had enough of the Titan Twins, he contacted Übermann, blamed them for the leaks about ODESSA and convinced him it was time to launch their endgame.
Stage one was to fake his own death at the hands of Übermann and Commander Soviet Union. Unfortunately, Übermann was unable to spring CSU from the Soviet Union when the Soviet National Team intercepted him and took CSU back into custody over the Ukraine. Undeterred the plan continued, they would put CSU in charge of the USSR later.
The faked death went off without a hitch, but also killed Gravity, whom Van Jove had planned to recruit to his cause.
I think that about brings us up to speed as the remainder of this tale is told in the session write-ups.
Now of course, Übermann and Guardsmann/Lord Sovereign were both killed in the last session, but not to worry, I have plans to bring them both back as need be, as well as Zero-G, who had become Van Jove's replacement choice for Gravity (when she died).
Oh yeah, that's the point of Ravage V btw, they are testing heroes, to try and find those that might be up to the task of combating the Cabal. So far he has only recruited Brute (formerly of Team Justice) to the cause.
I think I followed it. Now I have to go back and re-read the original stuff on page 1, and maybe the campaign journals, to see if I can integrate it all together.
* man! This would be like if DC had Superman turn out to actually be Lex Luthor's Evil creation, making up some story about being from a planet called "Krypton", while he's only been PRETENDING to be good all this time, biding his time to take over the world along with Brainiac!
). Very cool information, AslanC! I'm looking forward to more.
