THE BIG QUESTIONS

What is this?
Capital H is an panfandom roleplaying AU in a superhero genre setting. OCs and AUs of existing media characters are equally welcome!

What kind of content can I expect in Capital H?
We are aiming to replicate a feel approximating Marvel or DC Comics (though the game is certainly not set in either of those universes) which generally means that the tone may vary between grimdark angst and lighthearted hijinks; if you’re here just for one or the other you might need to broaden your expectations a bit.

What is the time ratio?
2 OOC Days = 1 IC Day. Time is slowed by half, because otherwise we find that it is difficult to not get either rushed or left behind by real time paces. This isn’t meant to make Captial H a slow paced game, however. It’s merely meant to give our players a bit more ease in keeping on top of events.

How does the network work?
capitalchan can be used for any IC online activity, just indicate in the post title what website it’s taking place on. There are a couple of hero specific networks, which is where we expect the bulk of the online stuff to go down, but if you want to have your character using twitter or blogging you are absolutely encouraged to put that on capitalchan too.

Is the game wiki important?
Heck yeah it is! Go check it out if you haven't already! The Capital H wiki contains a lot of miscellaneous setting information, as well as allowing players to keep up-to-date pages on their characters and manage their own contact information. This is pretty useful to have in a game like this, where setting elements and worldbuilding are in large part dictated by the players.

Can my character die?
Yeah they can. The default assumption for characters dying is that they’ll stay dead, but this is a superhero game, so if you can present the mods with a good reason for them to come back then they can. However, any character who dies must stay dead for a minimum of one month before they are revived, if they are going to be revived.


CHARACTERS

What kind of characters can I app?
Pretty much any kind of character you want. Existing fictional characters and OCs are both allowed, although all characters have to be AUed to fit the setting (some may need less AUing than others). Capital H’s all-encompassing superhero setting means there’s room for characters who have super powers for basically any reason you can think of – magic, gadgets, falling into a vat of chemicals, just being born with them, whatever – as well as characters with no powers at all. Intrepid reporters are just as welcome as superheroes and villains. Characters can be robots, demons, time travellers, space aliens, just about anything as long as you have a reason for them to be in LA.

Can I app a fancharacter?
Yes – in many cases there won’t be anything to distinguish them from a regular OC, and in practice we see no reason to distinguish apping a character from LA from apping a character from Alternia or apping a character from Equestria when it comes to what is and isn’t allowed. Make sure you keep your character’s background in line with what existing players have established about that aspect of the setting, though.

My character is a superhero already, how much do I have to change them?
A character with a significant canon history is going to need a lot of that wiped in terms of interactions with allies and enemies just because the allies and enemies are different in this universe, but generally speaking it’s cool to keep your origin story basically exactly the same as in canon if you want to. We definitely encourage people to substitute significant canon events in their character’s backstory with analogous events involving in-game characters in place of the ones who were canonically involved.

I want to app a villain, but it seems like the game isn’t set up to allow villains as much in depth CR as heroes.
That is true. It’s not impossible to get a villain in on the unofficial superhero bulletin network, and we absolutely encourage people to play around with the boundaries and make exceptions to this, but villains in this game are frequently better suited to being secondary characters who aren’t constantly in play.

My character canonically travels between universes, can they come into this one like they would other ones?
Absolutely! It is, however, up to you to come up with a reason for them to stay here long term. (Of course it’s also okay for them to just be a frequent visitor). If you take this route it’s fine to just have their background be identical to canon up until the point at which they crossed universes. This also applies to time-travelling characters; if you can come up with an excuse for a character from the past – or from an alternate future timeline (there is, of course, no singular future timeline) – to be transported into the present then you’re welcome to do that without changing their background if that’s what works best. That said, we would prefer to keep characters who originate from other settings from becoming a majority – and we'd prefer not to have characters from alternate realities who have been interdimensionally transported simply by accident, and for whom travelling to a world like that of Capital H would not ordinarily be a thing. This is an AU game, not a jamjar, after all!

My character is from space, can I keep them as a space alien or do I have to AU them as a human?
Either way is A-OK, just, again, if they’re from space it’s your job to decide how they got here and why they want (or need) to stay – and, again, we’d prefer not to have more aliens than humans.

If AUs can vary that much, do you allow doubles?
Yes! This is never a guarantee, but if your AU take on a character is different enough from the one already in game (say if you want to play Bowser as a human kingpin while someone else is already playing him as a literal fire breathing turtle thing) then you may be allowed to app them in as well. All we ask is that you check if it is cool with the version who got here first, and then with the mods to be sure a double is appropriate with the concept you have in mind.

I want to app a character as a native human but their close castmate has already apped as a time traveller. Do I have to follow their lead?
Nope! They might have already mentioned your character in their character’s background, but you can work that out with them however you like – they might want to retcon your character’s role as an NPC or something, or just assume that your character bears an ~uncanny similarity~ to the one from their background. As stated above, by that same logic you could even app a second version of an already-apped character who just happens to uncannily resemble this one from a different planet/future/past/alternate universe/whatever, due to some sort of ineffable intergalactic resonance or something. That’s totally plausible. (Make sure that’s okay with the person already playing the character who’s going to be duplicated, though.)

If there can be doubles, is there an in setting explanation for why there are sometimes eerily similar people from completely different places?
At one point, a supervillain’s attempt to end the universe crunched reality into an uncomfortable little ball for a very brief period of time. After this was resolved it exploded outward again, sending off ripples of certain ‘spiritual essences’ across the universe, which resulted in strangely identical people occurring in multiple places at a time. It is fairly rare that they come across each other, but it is always sort of bewildering when they do. People who are into that sort of thing, like wizards and quantum scientists, will be generally aware that this is a thing that can occur.

I have an idea for a character but the person who apped one of that character’s castmates who’s already in the game wrote my character into their backstory and their concept is completely different to mine, what do I do?
Ask them if they’re willing to retcon, generally. In order to avoid circumstances like this it’s generally best to keep things in your backstory vague where you can get away with it – this also makes it easier to incorporate things involving characters from different canons, because cross-canon backstory sharing is great – but obviously this can’t always be possible because some characters play such a significant role in other characters’ backstories. For example, it would be unfair to expect someone playing Spider-Man to be really vague about his legal guardian in case someone wanted to app Aunt May in different circumstances to the ones the Spider-Man apper established. Ultimately preference has to go to people already in the game, and if someone isn’t willing to retcon then if you want to app one of their castmates you’ll have to roll with what they’ve already established.

Can I be a dragon?
Your character can be basically anything as long as you have a reason for that thing to exist in this universe, provided it is not like a talking dong. Please note this only applies to characters who are already dragons. You cannot make a character who is canonically a human into a dragon just for funsies. AUs should generally be aimed at making characters more appropriate to an Earth setting, not less.

Can I play multiple characters from the same thing?
Absolutely, especially if they’re AUed in such a way that their backstories don’t intersect – but also if they do. For example, we've accepted apps for a single person playing both a character and that character's daughter. Really the only limiting factor is whether you personally will find it inconvenient to not be able to thread this CR with another person.

How many characters am I allowed?
The current limit is six. Not all your characters are required to be constantly active at the same time – see the activity check rules for more on this.

Can my character be in ALPHA FORCE??
If there is an open slot and your character has the kind of power level, experience and reputation to warrant it, yes! If it’s currently got a full roster then no. Most teams are first come first served as far as getting a spot on them goes, although we may need to be selective in terms of which characters will be a good fit. If you’re planning to app onto a team with several established members already, it’s a good idea to talk to the players of the characters already on that team before apping, to ask if they’d be cool with another member and see if you can work out some interlocking backstory elements with the other characters.

Does my 16-25 superhero have to be in the Trailblazers?
Not at all. Teenagers who register as superheroes are strongly encouraged to join the Trailblazers, especially if they’re registering alone, but if they’re in their 20s and they have some experience then they’re more likely to be spared the pressure to Trailblaze. If a teenage hero is the sidekick of an older superhero, or registering as part of a group alongside older heroes, then that’s more accepted, too – basically as long as they have at least one older superhero to look out for them.

Generally the only people who’d be faced with “Trailblazers or nothing” as an option on registering are teenagers who register without any kind of adult hero as a sponsor, as C.O.N.D.O.R. doesn’t like the idea of unsupervised teen heroes or whole teams of unsupervised teen heroes. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any, of course – just that they’re not registered. For this reason there’s probably a larger percentage of unregistered teenage superheroes than any other age group.

Does my character have to have the same powers as in canon?
No. If you’re apping a character who canonically has no powers you can give them powers or a superhero gimmick that they didn’t have in canon, or if you’re apping a character who canonically has more powers than is reasonable you can strip them down to just a few more manageable ones. If you really feel the need you can change a character’s power to a different unrelated one but generally if you’re giving a character a power that they didn’t have in canon there should be some kind of justifiable reason for it.

How many powers can my character have?
That depends on what their powers are. Generally speaking we’re more concerned that a character’s powers should be thematically consistent than that they should be kept to a certain level – for example controlling earth, fire, air and water as a unit would be a reasonable powerset, and so would controlling fire and also being able to see heat, or something, whereas both controlling ice and also having telepathy would be a bit weird and inconsistent.

Where a character gets their powers can also affect what’s acceptable. For example, a character whose powers are innate wouldn’t be able to have both super strength, super hearing, the ability to fly, and eye lasers, because those are sort of unrelated as a power set*, but if you apped a character with a flight capable robot suit that shot lasers, amplified audio input that the naked ear wouldn’t otherwise pick up, and allowed them to lift things they couldn’t lift outside of the suit, then that would be alright – the trade-off, of course, is that a robot suit might be more versatile, but it can also be stolen or damaged in ways innate superpowers can’t.

*Yes, this means if you apped Superman you’d have to trim down his powers a bit.

I want to app a character who’s very powerful, and I feel these powers are fairly key to the character, but I also don’t want having those powers to mean they hog the spotlight all the time. Should I just find a way to power them down?
Not if you don’t want to, although powering them down is always an option! If you do app a very powerful character, though, we wouldn’t want them hogging the spotlight all the time either, and when dealing with characters like that it’s generally best to let plot convenience dictate when their powers come into play – just because your character could save the day all the time doesn’t mean they actually have to. They might not know about everything that’s going on, or they might be somehow indisposed… This is a setting based on superhero comics – we’re probably not going to end up being MORE heinously unrealistic than actual comics when it comes to “surely this guy could just step in and…”

That said, if you really can’t imagine them not saving the day all the time, or suspend your disbelief for them not saving the day all the time, or if you know you’re the kind of person who can’t help being pedantic about your character being more powerful than other people’s, then it’s probably best to go with decreasing their powers.

You said you’re more concerned with thematic consistency than keeping powers to a certain level. Does that mean I can app my character who can punch a hole in the Earth’s crust/fundamentally alters reality by sneezing/is literally omnipotent?
No. Powers like these fall into the X rank, which is not a power level currently exhibited by any known being on Earth. If a character has powers this strong, they should ideally be toned down to better fit the setting.

Can they still be a god tho.
Yeah, provided the god is like Thor in Marvel where he can function reasonably amongst normal people. Try not to fuck up the power scale. Also, you can’t app any gods that conceptually rely on being the only gods around.

How about angels and demons?
Yeah, there are like a billion heaven and hell dimensions. Most of them don’t all even work the same way, so you don’t even need to make sure that, like, Aziraphale from Good Omens and Castiel from Supernatural are on the same page about heavenly bureaucracy. (You totally could if you wanted, though. Linked concepts are the bomb.)


MISCELLANEA

Can my characters bone?
Yes. Pretty much wherever (IN SPACE) and whenever (IN THE FUTURE) you want, provided you like...you know, post a warning for it, or whatever.

Thoughts on muncesting?
We don’t even give a shit. You are free to have your characters interact with each other as much as is reasonable, and as long as you aren’t turning your character circle into your own private melodrama it is probably okay. Just don’t be obnoxious about it.

What kind of stuff can I control in terms of NPCs?
At any given time it’s pretty reasonable to assume you can control random people on the street, minor villains (muggers, thieves, gangs, the like) and casual interactions with the police. However, if you are playing any NPCs in a capacity that implies some sort of city wide attitude as opposed to individual personalities, you’ll probably want to check it with the mods first.

Also, Team Magma and Team Aqua are the official shit villains. You can have them fucking around ineffectually any time you want.

Can I make up organizations and significant historical events in regards to my character’s backstory?
Yes! That’s half the fun! And after you are accepted, you should totally make a page for it on the wiki.

Is game activity confined to LA?
Heck no! LA is the major hub of the game’s activity but everybody is heartily encouraged to have characters and teams who operate in other nearby towns, or to send their characters on missions anywhere in the world. We do generally advise that characters’ base of operations be kept to places pretty close to LA just for the sake of not having most people in California and then one guy on the East Coast who never gets to have team ups without having to go on a days-long road trip to get there, but this is a suggestion more than a rule; if things develop in favour of a wider sprawl and that turns out to work for people rather than getting in the way, we definitely won’t try to stop anybody.