A 'new' ERA in Mankind...

Yo, get at me at @President SK. I think i sent you a gfriend invite last night. (@Insane V right?)

lmao, as long as I get one that's cool.

((Correctamundo, my friend. I'll see you online soon!))

It would help if there were links back to this thread in those. I saw all those threads on the first page and couldn't figure out what they were all about.

"The ERA of Challenge" isn't really an event. It's just a nickname I've given to the current time period on Virtue. (As it coincides with the introduction of The Challengers & ERA to the Virtue server.)

Here's what started it:

I wanted to put together some epic roleplay events on the Virtue server to get us back to how we used to be. I figured with COH:Freedom on the horizon, the server population was going to increase with those interested in superhero RP. So if ever there was a time to promote it...it's now.

The ERA of Challenge is basically my attempt to promote The Challengers & ERA to the Virtue server. (I don't lead either group.) As it's basically just promotion with no overall metastory you don't need a jump on point. Just make your own thread entitles "ERA of Challenge #Number: Name" and go with it. So far, each issue has started with a different villain meeting with Sebastian Kain. Each issue is self contained. (Mine, for example, does start with Baron Blitzman meeting with SK, but it's going to focus more on Xanatos as it progresses. It won't cross over with any of the other threads directly.) The only real "rule" is that the stories have to refer to The Challengers or to ERA in some way.

There's no over-arching meta-story other than "ERA has started and it doesn't like The Challengers, here is a tale of what some of the people involved are doing right now". That is how the story is going to end. The idea is that BECAUSE of Sebastian Kain forming ERA, and BECAUSE of Red-Havok forming The Challengers, Paragon City is now entering into the "ERA of Challenge". The whole purpose of this is to establish two groups that can host events on the Virtue server. (Such as RPVP events, forum story RP events, big meetups, etc.) The ERA of Challenge is basically setting up a foundation upon which future serverwide RP events can be run...on both heroes AND villains. The big events are coming, this is just the prologue. We're just trying to find our feet and encourage public RP again.

My ultimate goal is to have private inner-sg rp events for The Challengers & ERA independent from one another. But public events that involve both on a monthly/bimonthly basis. That way the private RP can be the ongoing, complicated, in-depth, story/team-driven stuff. Whereas the server-wide events will be a series of one-off events that anyone can join in on due to not needing to know months and months of story progression. I'm treading lightly though, because Red-Havok runs The Challengers, and SK runs ERA.

If you're still unsure of what all this is about. Just wait for me to finish my thread. (ERA of Challenge #1: Xanatos) As that will basically explain everything.

So you're not running a RP event, you're just hoping to run a bunch of public RP events with the idea of "our Villain Group is behind everything bad ever and our Hero Group is the only one who can stop them". And you're declaring this to be the start of "our VG and HG story time".

While I can see you hinting at me being elitist/a godmoder...I have to say you're spot on for the most part. I am looking at running RP events in the future that spotlight the two groups, but not to the extent of making everyone else observers/insignificant. (It does seem arrogant to even assume I'm capable of the latter!)

If anything the RP events will be: "[ERA] is behind [some bad stuff] and [The Challengers] [needs your help] stopping them"

Anyone who feels marginalised by this theme is more than welcome to make their own events. I feel having one clear villain & hero group as antagonists to the other makes it easy for people to jump in and get involved. So far it's worked.

Should also point out that ERA & The Challengers have rosters that are completely different. I'm one of the fews players who is actually in both teams. It would be unfair to refer to them as "our SG" or "our VG" because they each comprise of different groups of people. In truth they're just two cool groups that I thought would be great to run events with. There's no reason we couldn't run something similar to the "ERA of Challenge" at a later date with completely different groups/characters.

Hope that clears it up for you.

And if these two primal earth factions are found engaging in illegal fiteclubing in any of primal earth's future timelines the Praetorian Crisis Police will be there to restore "order" and "security".

Freedom is a lie there is only subjugation.Through subjugation we find peace. Through peace we are one. As one we are eternal. Long live the infinite empire.

This message brought to you by Shallow Dose of the Praetorian Crisis Police.

Welcome to hero/villain showdowns.

On a more serious note, I personally am all for something like this. Any attempt to re-invigorate redside and pump some life back into red/blue RP interaction gets my vote.

If I may add to this...

In the past, most RP events have been run like this. If you're not a member of either group there is no reason you can't be a part of this. Back in The Sadistic Seven vs Defenders of Paragon days, we had a huge showing. And think about that from the villain side. The Sadistic Seven are just that: seven individuals. But they were supported by a great showing of non affiliated villains.

After that, with The Rogues Gallery vs The Frontline it was very similar. I can't speak for the Rogues, but on hero side, a huge coalition was born, The Peace Keeper Initiative that consisted of a good number of Super groups (well beyond the game's allowed coalition amount). We met amazing people, whether they were on our SG or not.

And now, recently, The Infiltrators hosted an event vs The Blacklist. Events had not been run in some time, so we ran one. We actually had an awesome showing and we lead both groups. A lot of people came, unaffiliated with either group. I got the chance to meet and fight Premonitions (as his awesome villain Mobilise) and a fellow hero Snaerr who I may not have met otherwise.

Maybe the sheer amount of stories seems overwhelming, but you're not required to read them at all. In fact, you're not required to participate at all. But if you want to, you're more than welcome. Don't feel that if you're not a part of either group that this isn't for you.

The whole purpose of this is to make new connections, and just have fun.

Sorry if I came across as accusatory - no real value judgement is implied, you just hit me with a Wall of Text and I was just trying to make sure I got the right points out of it. By all means, keep organising large-scale events. From the response you got, it seems like the theme of the groups is wide enough that plenty of RPers can find a place for one or more of their characters.

I'm sad to have missed the Sadism of Defenders, the Gallery of Frontline, and the Infiltration of Blacklist. Thankfully I seem to be right on time to jump in early with the ERA of Challenge.

This is all you need to get out of Xan's wall of text.