Vantage Point
is a superhero/sci-fi roleplay that takes place half in Journal Roleplay via Character Blog on Tumblr, and half in Play-by-Post Game sessions on Skype.
It tells the story of El Asilo, CA, a city that was once a refuge for anyone with superpowers, a community where supers could come, share their experiences, and coexist in piece. Those with dangerous powers could get the help they needed, others with less consequential ones could feel welcome in a place where everyone was like them. The city saw its fair share of villains, of course, but they were always shut down efficiently by small, organized groups of superheroes doing their part to keep El Asilo safe for everyone.
But everything changed in 2005, when Preston Winters, chairman of the Vantage Corporation, announced his candidacy for mayor of El Asilo. Vantage Corp sprung up almost overnight, and promised even greater upkeep of those ideas: more protection for the city, as well as new jobs, affordable housing options for less-wealthy civilians, and even cheap, Vantage Corp brand foods and home goods. Winters, though a dark horse, became a hit with the whole city, the polls predicting the future way before any precog could. And then election day came, and he won by a record breaking landslide - 95% of the vote.
Now, El Asilo has been living under Vantage Corp's rule for ten years. Heroes are outlawed, and the city is overrun with crime and chaos. But the tides are beginning to turn once more...
A chronological log of the RP's events can be found here.
Vantage Point contains examples of:
- Anti-Climactic Unmasking:
- Most of the characters are average civilians with average jobs, like students and dock workers, when not in costume. They probably pass each other on the street daily without noticing.
- K and Sundance meet in person, as civilians, in a gesture of trust, but neither even recognizes the other without a mask at first.
- Badass Normal: Finn and Stim are highly efficient assassins, on a squad that most people don't even know exist. Neither has superpowers.
- Bad Powers, Good People: In general, one would expect someone with offense-based umbrakinesis to go down the path of the dark side. Violet is trying her best to not give in to the dark.
- Big Eater:
- Sebastian is known for his enormous appetite and basically eating whatever he wants, from both edible to inedible matter. Sebastian could also be considered a Villainous Glutton due to vague implications he's made about cannibalism.
- Jiggsaw falls under this trope due to eating large amounts of meat to regenerate, and Keye also consumes a lot as his super strength burns calories quickly.
- Cape Busters: One of the purposes the Vantage Corp assassination squad serves.
- Clark Kenting: Many of the supers with easily distinguishable appearances do this. Foible even wears Clark Kent glasses as a civilian.
- Code Name: Most of the characters in Vantage Point have one.
- Domino Mask: Foible, Kas, Sundance, Monarch and Dispatch all wear one.
- Healing Factor: Luxe's heals himself, Elias's heals others.
- Mood Whiplash: Because the longform play-by-post R Ps tend to be much more serious than the in-character Tumblr blogs, things like characters posting 10-hour meme videos while, elsewhere, someone is nearly getting murdered are entirely possible.
- Pest Controller: Sky Beetle has the power to communicate with and control bugs. He also falls under the trope of Friend to Bugs, as he's genuinely affectionate to them.
- Power Nullifier:
- 8 Cora's power does this to anyone within a certain radius of her.
- Maria takes peoples' powers away from them via touch.
- String Theory: Both K and Sundance are confirmed to have boards like this. Knowing El Asilo, they're probably not the only ones.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: Patty's specialty lies in making weaponized mobility devices, as well as hybrid weaponry.
- World of Snark: The number of characters who aren't some variation of snarker could be counted on one hand, making for some very interesting interactions.
