Earth-3 Project: Time Travel

I'm currently reading through The Great Darkness Saga (a well-regarded Legion of Super-Heroes story arc). Naturally, reading stories about the far future of the DC universe made the gears turn on how time travel works on Earth-3.

I fucking love these 90s colors.

There's some stuff I could draw on to fluff Earth-3's future eras like the Super Syndicate from One Million. I definitely want to throw in Waverider and an Armageddon 2001-esque little metaplot. But beyond that, I feel like time travelers from the future could undermine some of the roleplaying potential of Earth-3. If everything is shiny and lawful in the 30th century, would Underground or Syndicate grunts really feel the need to keep fighting?

While such issues can be handwaved in static fiction, I think it infringes a bit on player agency and emergent storytelling in a roleplaying game. Therefore I'm putting a bunch of characters I like (Booster Gold, O.M.A.C., the Legion, Zoom) into cold storage. It feels like I'm cutting out some potential fun but I think it's for the best.

On the other hand, I think that allowing time travelers from the past can add a lot to the story. A character from a pre-Syndicate era can be horrified or awed by the modern world while also providing a different perspective to present-day mutahumans.

Earth-3 Project: Timeline of 20th-Century Earth

Here’s a brief timeline of relevant recent events on Earth-3. Expect other timeline posts covering other subjects (like the distant past and potential futures) but this a roadmap for both y’all and I. Red links will eventually lead to other posts as I type up the relevant material.

1930s: Exposed to ancient magic, strange chemicals, and all other sorts of weird substances, men and women across the world gain strange and terrifying powers. Initially called “mutant-humans”, the term later developed into “muta-humans”. Most muta-humans used their powers for crime, hoping to live like kings and queens amidst the terrible Great Depression. But a few, like the mysterious Guardian, used their powers to punish crime instead of commit it.

1940: To avoid all-out war, coordinate crimes, and foster cooperation for bigger heists, the Crime Lodge of America is formed.

1941-1945: After the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt contacted the CLA requesting their aid in the war effort. Motivated by greed, racism, and a small amount of patriotism, the CLA accepts on condition that they are pardoned for all their crimes. World War II ended in an allied victory.

1946-1960: Content with the loot and public admiration they gained from their patriotism, the CLA degrades into little more than a country club for retired muta-criminals. Their “amazing heists” become infrequent and outlandish spectacles done more for attention than for wealth.

1966: In an alley in Gotham City, a mugger kills Martha and Bruce Wayne. Thomas Wayne sr. and Thomas Wayne jr. survive the attack but scarred by this event.

1973: Thomas Wayne jr. abandons his father and begins his journey into the criminal underworld.

1974: A mysterious magic ring is discovered by a marine named Stewart Johnson in an ancient temple Vietnam. For a solid week the mysterious new Power Ring manages to turn the tide against the Viet Cong until he collapses dead, apparently from exhaustion and dehydration. A crashed USAF pilot named Martin Harrolds recovers (but does not don) the ring and takes it back to the United States.

1982: Thomas Wayne jr. returns to Gotham as Owlman and begins a campaign of petty vengeance against his father, who has now become the mayor.

1986: An unidentified object enters the atmosphere and crashes in Kansas. Besides the impact crater there are no clues as to the nature of its source. Meanwhile, Lt. Clark Kent of the USAF and four others test a spaceship equipped with a new experimental engine. Something goes catastrophically wrong and all the crew are presumed dead.

1988: Now both more and less than he was before, Clark Kent returns to Earth. Conscious of the passage of time and fearful of how his parents will react to his strange new powers, he settles into a life of anonymity

1989: After reading Nietzsche and several books on the CLA, Clark Kent re-styles himself as the Ultraman. Meanwhile, Joseph Harrolds inherits a strange ring from his dead father’s estate and becomes the new Power Ring.

1990: Concerned with the sudden appearance of muta-criminals, the governments of the world begin several covert projects dedicated to containing muta-human threats, particularly Checkmate and Project Cadmus.

1991: Mary Batson is visited by a mysterious being calling itself “The Super-Power”. She becomes Superwoman.

1992: Owlman, Power Ring, Superwoman, and Ultraman band together to form the Crime Syndicate of America. Elsewhere and to little fanfare, John Garrick discovers a “super-speed drug” that enables creatures to move at exceptional rates of speed. Billionaire industrialist and philanthropist Alexander Luthor begins assembling a group tentatively named “Justice Underground” to oppose the CSA.

1993: Unable to secure funding or subjects for his super-speed drug, John Garrick tires it on himself. Under the influence of the drug and inspired by the recent exploits of the CSA, he adopts the muta-criminal persona of Johnny Quick. Meanwhile, the Crime Lodge of America reforms with a mix of botrh new and old members to cash in on the CSA’s popularity. In Europe, muta-criminals band together under the banner of the Crime Syndicate of Europe.

1994: Johnny Quick is inducted into the CSA, quickly rising to expand the “Big Four” into a “Big Five”. In Asia, the operations of both the CSA and the CSE are sabotage by a mysterious group calling itself The Greater East Asian Co-Delinquency Sphere.

1995: Joseph Harrolds successfully manages to convince a young man to take his cursed ring. Todd Scott becomes the new Power Ring. The CSA, CSE, and Sphere enter into an unsteady cold war as they try to contain each other and the innumerable splinters of the Justice Underground movement

1996: The current year.

Why 1996? Well, mainly because I like that era of DC comics. It also makes the history pretty tight: Seven years is enough time for the new crop of muta-criminals to impact the world in notable ways without impacting it too much. In fact, most of the "big events" of Earth-3 don't actually start happening until 1992 when the CSA itself forms.

The Earth-3 Project: Prospectus

If you're a fan of DC comics to any significant extent then you've probably heard of either Earth-3 or the Crime Syndicate of America. If you haven't then head over to dc.wikia.com and start info-binging. 

Anyway, many many years ago back when I still used forums, someone on the Atomic Think Tank was recruiting for an Earth-3 one-shot game. There were some pretty good character submissions, like The Puffin (heroic version of The Penguin), Sureshot (heroic version of Deadshot), and The Man-Owl (heroic version of The Man-Bat). Ever since then, I've had intermittent thoughts about such a game. In fact, about two years ago I actually started writing things out. I had a nice little file with a rough history and bios for several heroic Earth-3 versions of DC villains. Then the external HD all this info was stored on decided to die. 

I'm finally going to try to pick up the pieces and charge forward again with Mutants & Masterminds Earth-3 material.This will hopefully be the first post of many. I'm more familiar with the 2nd Edition of Mutants & Masterminds but I have the 3rd Edition books too; any characters I present will be statted for both systems. And if people ask really nicely I can also stat characters in GURPS Supers 3rd Edition (don't judge me, I love dead trees). This post is basically just going to be an overview of my goal and core concepts.

Kinda like this but slightly less goofy.

Goals:

1) Make a setting suitable for long-term play.
"Mirror morality" worlds share the same problem that D&D's Ravenloft did: They're basically treated as a throwaway place for "weekend in hell" scenarios. I want to be able to give people enough information to go beyond that. What is life like on the ground? How do the governments of the world react to the Syndicates? What do aliens, etc. think of this Earth? I want to answer those questions, even if I have to answer them vaguely.

Core Concepts:

1) Drawing on all of the many interpretations of the CSA/Earth-3. 
You can bet that I'm going to swiping stuff left and right for all the myriad versions of Earth-3 and the Syndicate to form my own personal version. Owlman will basically be straight out of JLA: Earth-Two, Johnny Quick will combine traits from JLA: Earth-Two and Forever Evil, and Superwoman will be lifted from Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.

2a) Not a world of reversed morality.
While many people who are traditionally heroes on other DC Earths are instead villains and vice versa, Earth-3 is basically just like the baseline DC Earth (or Earth). People generally think that treating other people decently and sticking to your principles are admirable traits. Robbery and murder are still considered bad things. People are people.

2b) Sometimes evil is still evil and good is still good.
The serial killer Victor Zsasz is still an evil bastard on Earth-3. By the same token, Jon and Martha Kent are still good people.

2c) Heroes and Villains of circumstance.
Just because someone is part of the Crime Syndicate or the Justice Underground doesn't necessarily mean that he's a "bad guy" or "good guy". Ralph Dibney, The Elastic Man, only aids the Crime Syndicate because Owl-Man holds his wife hostage. Gorilla Grodd aids the Justice Underground because he believes that it is only with their help that he can crush the Syndicates and then conquer the world for himself.

3) There are some elements of the "normal" DC universe present.
Just because Earth-3 is "corrupted by anti-matter" or whatever doesn't mean that everything has to be different. There's still a Green Lantern Corps in Earth-3, although they are much more legalistic and only care about interplanetary laws and not intraplanetary laws; Sinestro's dictatorship on Korugar is well-known but the Guardians of Oa don't care because he still enforces their laws. Likewise, The New Gods wage a celestial war here, although both Darkseid and Highfather are not nearly as interested in this particular Earth. 

4) There's always something going on.
The US alone has at least three Syndicate-related organizations (the Crime Syndicate of America, the Crime Society of America, and the Young Offenders) and several more anti-Syndicate organizations (the Justice Underground, Extreme Justice, the Doom Patrol, and the Suicide Squad). Almost every country has their own splinter movements, cells, and derivatives of both the Syndicate and the Underground.

5) There's always a chance to change the world in at least a small way.
A corollary to the previous point. A metahuman might not be able to oust the CSA from the US but he can swing down to Peru or Colombia and take out local Syndicate affiliates, giving Justice Underground cells and local movements the opportunity to win their freedom while simultaneously . Or a Syndicate member can do the opposite. 

6) The Crime Syndicate of America is not all-powerful.
While the "Big Five" of the CSA are probably the most powerful metas on Earth, they aren't the unquestioned rulers of the world. The Crime Syndicate of Europe has weaker metas but compared to the CSA's average power level they're stronger; a head-to-head fight between the CSE and CSA would leave most of both organizations dead minus the CSA's Big Five, who would then be open to assault from the world's other big Syndicate. Headed by a mysterious creature said to be as strong as Ultraman, the Greater East Asian Co-Delinquency Sphere runs Asia. The CSA's Big Five believes that the Sphere's leadership is almost as strong as they are; thus, a war against the CSE would lead to an immediate war with another healthy Syndicate, one that a battle-wearied CSA might not win. The three Syndicates have therefore settled into a cold war.

7) The Syndicates actually do protect Earth to an extent.
The Syndicates have a vested interest in making sure that Earth doesn't suddenly explode or get eaten by Cthulhu or such; to paraphrase The Tick, Earth is where they keep (or at least get) all their valuables. On rare occasions such as when Johnny Sorrow is trying to screw everyone over or Darkseid decides to invade, the Syndicates and their enemies (like the Justice Underground) will even put aside their differences, call a truce, and save the world.

We'll see how this crazy project goes.