Roleplay / My Superhero University

My Superhero University is a Play-by-Post game started on TV Tropes in April 2019 by kkhohoho. It is a Superhero / Cape Punk story starring the colorful students of Saint University. The school is open to all who want to better control their powers or learn how to be a hero.

Below, find the links to the:

• Overarching Series Page
• Signup Thread for player characters
• Discussion Thread for information on the world, NPCs, and some background on the player characters
• Game Thread for the Game itself.
• First Year Page for the trope page of the first year at Saint Academy.
• Second Year Page for the trope page of the second Year at Saint Academy.

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Tropes

• Abusive Parents: A disturbing number of the students of Class One have horrible parents.
• Always on Duty: The students of Class 1, particularly since the university is now a popular site for villain attacks. The stress contributes to alot of the cast dropping like flies.
• Anti-Human Alliance: One villain faction, although, it might just be the leader. Every single member of the group has other goals, perchance including the leader.
• The Cutie: Wren plays a rather feral version of this as soon as she's introduced. Perry as always is on cutie duty, but the setting's increasing darkness limits these moments.
• Cape Punk: The setting is not just supers beat up bad guys. The 'how' and things like ethics and image heavily affect play.

• Cast Herd: The Class acts in 4 distinct groups.

• Crapsack World: The 14 year old student hero is a war veteran. And the students are in the middle of two more insurgencies with xenocidal ambitions. The public is slowly heading down the stages of genocide and well, see below.
• Darker and Edgier: No one may have intentionally shifted the work's tone, but MSU went dark quickly. The first season has the bad guys on a winning streak and three student heroes are knocked out in short order. Further, the meta world takes Saint's death as a sign to do the opposite of what he worked for while yet another group has tearing down his legacy as an explicit objective. Among the students and staff the mental instability has far more serious consequences between three suicide attempts, one inner-student clash, and the apathy of the staff and instability of students contributing to a string of Guardian and Terran victories.
• Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us: A major motivation for the rank and file in both movements. The Guardians draw people who witnessed the Gaea War in vivid detail, watched their unflinching public support, and decided that they wouldn't let it happen to them again. The Terrans inherit the Gaea supporters who grew on Superdickery episodes and an increased feeling of powerlessness before the increasingly prominent and apparently unfettered supers.
• During the War: The whole Myth Arc. The students blunt one Gaea offensive in Super City only for the Gaea conflict to feed directly into two insurgencies. No one said 'mission accomplished'. And more of the public comes around to either group of insurgents' points of view every update...
• Dysfunction Junction: Just like last the previous year, though much more prevalent this time. Every member of the class has some sort of issue or baggage associated with them, some of which is carried over from last year and some being new issues that cropped up in this year. Not even the new students are safe from this.

• Fighting for a Homeland: One could call the efforts of Class one, self-defense, duty, or this. Very few of the current class are native to the USA, the heart of the Gaea and Guardian movements, or Earth. Pure self preservation would also be satisfied by leaving for the Abyss (Mikael's friends and allies); another dimension (they've visited plenty); or the last frontier and leaving Terra Firma to its fate. Some of the class feel a duty as a hero to stabilize things, some are too stubborn, but all are fighting for a homeland.
• Heroic Fatigue: One big effect of modern hero work. The Guardians accidentally exploit it to eliminate Zach and Yoko. The teachers only accelerate Martin's fatigue, even while he's determined to remain a hero.
• In Their Own Image: Martin, Mahvash, and Clay begin to build up a parallel super force.
• No Biochemical Barriers: Zach ^note (formerly human then ink magic shaped as a human) and Yoko ^note Kitsune Yokai have a couple of kids when the series starts. Mikael's existence is evidence that humans and demons can reproduce. His and Ellie's constant offers seem to imply that they can couple with no more risk than any given pair of humans. And so far, Martin has not died (permanently anyway) even before being empowered by 'Love'. That said, he doesn't talk about what happens...
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Saint died in the prior year after his legacy was smashed to bits by some bad news cycles. Kind of showing it was never there to begin with. Martin wants to rebuild a whole new superhero structure and the Protectors are adrift.
• Not Wearing Tights: While most of the class has codenames and some even have costumes, many don't bother with super names or Spandex. 'costumes' consist of everything from white tie suits to robot armor.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: It went unnoticed at first but as the episodes descended into darkness, Floofy Yoko and Cheery Zach were among the first to bite the dust. Ash does not return to the fight, only appearing in omakes. Wren never finds herself in the setting, and most tragically, Dante suffers an acute breakdown which his clown behavior directly fed into and attempted suicide. Clankybottoms and other NPCs like him stay out of focus until Clankybottoms tries to commit murder-suicide by BFB and Bozo's drinking and the teachers' apathy stops being played for humor (mostly).
• So Last Season: A trend among the characters, as several are given midseason powerups even when their prior power set remain effective.
• Superhero Gods: The group has an ascended yokai/'Guardian of the Earth', the pupil of a trickster god and a daeva.
• Super Team: The cast 1 is split into 4. Each squad can handle general threats (muggers, kaiju, etc.) by raw power of their members. They differ mainly in how they're organized and how they interact.
  • Squad 1 - Team Anime
  • The Iridium Wonders - Supernatural Companions
  • Squad 3 - Anti-Hero Team
  • Squad 4 - Hufflepuff House
• Superheroes Stay Single: Oh so averted. Mikael and Ellie have been lovers for years, and Zach and Yoko show up on their first day with their children.
• There Are No Global Consequences: Averting this is one of the main themes of the rp. Saint's order collapsed. Saint himself is dead. Gaea's legacy is a long campaign of divisive politics reminiscent of post-2016 USA... And with every GM post, the world spins further into darkness between increased (and increasingly lethal) superhero violence and constantly increasing tension between Gaea-style groups and Guardian supporters. Interestingly enough, the students are aloof from this world getting closer and closer to midnight but the momentum from the Gaea campaign has kept on without anyone to stop it.
• The War Just Before: Many of the student heroes are veterans of the Gaea War and the conflict has only entrenched the post-2016 politic style.