Editing GWS:Main Page

[[Category:PBP]]
== Superheroes against the NecroNazis ==

Hitler's [[GWS:necromancers|necromancers]] have raised an army of the dead and the damned. His "scientific" [[GWS:Human Laboratories|charnel houses]] have created dark arts to craft [[GWS:ubermensch|ubermensch]] out of living and dead tissues, and together with the vicious [[GWS:Rocketry|rocket powers]] of Werner von Braun he is well on his way to conquering Europe, and then the world. 

Already France, one of the great powers, has fallen. Of course, there is the dashing and debonair [[GWS:Resistance|Resistance]], a swashbuckling group of thieves, spies and expatriates who take pleasure in operating under the very noses of their oppressors. But can they long stand alone? 

The [[GWS:Faerie armies|Faerie armies]] that rose to the aid of Britain (in honor of the long-ago pacts) and the steadfast [[GWS:RAF|RAF]] are doing their best, but soon the full force of the enemy must fall upon them. The Russians with their dark sorcery cannot be called upon (or, perhaps, even trusted) to help ... not with Hitler pressing the land war against them as well. There is only one bastion of democracy that remains with the power and the determination to defend all that is right and good. 

American know-how and Yankee ingenuity have cracked the [[GWS:super soldier serum|super soldier serum]] ... well, mostly. America's newest, greatest, weapons are still very much in their testing phases, and the serums have a disconcerting tendency toward creating unexpected abilities that fit only awkwardly into a theater of war. Nonetheless, recruits for all branches are clamoring to be given the arms and the powers to take the fight Over There.  But with [[GWS:Rommel|Rommel]] massing his [[GWS:mummy tank|mummy tank]] divisions in [[GWS:North Africa|North Africa]], and der fuerher's dreaded [[GWS:Sea Wolves|Sea Wolves]] striking with near-impunity against the shipping lanes, will America's heroes be deployed in time? 

And what of the rumors that the Japanese have, with their conquest of the Chinese mainland, finally gained the resources and ancient tablets necessary to unlock the ultimate human potential for [[GWS:martial arts|martial arts]]? Do they really have fighters that can skip over the surface of the ocean and tear apart battleships with their bare hands? How can any force hope to stand against such powers? And if they have such powers, will they not turn their eyes toward America's amber waves of grain, across the Pacific? 

There are those who say that America's contributions lay not primarily in warfare (though war, of course, is becoming inevitable) but in our ingenuity and our daring, pioneering spirit. From across the globe, those with extraordinary (and often disturbing) powers have gathered loosely under the auspices of the United States Navy.  This band of multi-national misfits have been striking blows for democracy in unexpected places like the pyramids of [[GWS:Giza|Giza]], the mountains of [[GWS:Tibet|Tibet]], and even the ancient cities of [[GWS:Antarctica|Antarctica]]. They argue that small forces of spectacularly trained men and women can do what whole armies cannot. But will the government really listen to a group of undiscplined ne'er-do-wells? Or will Washington decide to take the safer, more cautious path? 

What happens ... next week?

== The Characters ==

So far the main emphasis of our input has been in the creation of our own spotlight characters, as follows:

; [[GWS:Landshark|Landshark]]
: (played by [[User:dunlaing|dunlaing]]) [[GWS:Devon McWilliams|Devon McWilliams]] was turned away from the Navy for being too short. It boiled his blood that he wouldn't be able to help out against the Nazis and Japanese, but it seemed like there was nothing he could do about it, at least until he got a call from his sister asking him to meet her in Washington, DC.  [[GWS:Devon McWilliams|Devon]]'s sister was busy getting ready when he arrived, but she had left a pitcher of drinks on the table, so he helped himself. When [[GWS:Julia|Julia]] came out, she was shocked to see her brother drinking her experimental [[GWS:Shark Repellant|Shark Repellant]]! [[GWS:Julia|Julia]] quickly brought [[GWS:Devon McWilliams|Devon]] down to her office at the [[GWS:OSS|OSS]] for tests. After extensive testing, they realized that not only had [[GWS:Devon McWilliams|Devon]] grown to a full 6 feet tall, but he now possessed the ability to control sharks, and his teeth... his teeth! The effects wore off after a few hours, but with [[GWS:Julia|Julia]]'s help [[GWS:Devon McWilliams|Devon]] created a supply of [[GWS:Shark Repellant|Shark Repellant]] that should last him through the rest of the war, and Landshark was born!

; [[GWS:Dain McEwain|Dain McEwain]]
: (played by [[User:Sensorium|Sensorium]]) [[GWS:Dain McEwain|Dain McEwain]] was her Majesty's royal navy's deputy liaison to the [[GWS:fay kingdoms|fay kingdoms]], that is until the damn [[GWS:faerie|fay]] started to give him psychotic episodes. Quickly relieved of his duties, he was sent on a bum assignment to Australia, supposedly to make friendly contact with the [[GWS:australian aboriginal faerie|native fay]], but really just to get him out of the British Isles, where he had angered a number of [[GWS:faerie|fay]] nobles before being relieved. Reports say that Dain was taken into the [[GWS:australian bush|bush]] by a local guide. Two months later he returned a changed man, with a harsh laugh and a waning respect for authority, which landed him in the brig. The next day, it appeared that [[GWS:Dain McEwain|Dain]]'s cell had momentarily attained the consistence of spaghetti. [[GWS:Dain McEwain|Dain]] himself was "sleeping" at the bottom of the base's, now reeded and festering, pool, and one of the tanks had been disemboweled by a large tuscked creature. Not caring to think about what Dain had really become, The Australian Navy began the process installing him in an American "Super Soldier" team, figuring it would be easier and cheaper to aim him at the Nazis than to try to imprison him.

; [[GWS:Arjan Visser|Arjan Visser]] the Dutch [[GWS:doodlebug|Doodlebug]]
: (played by [[User:Mandacaru|Mandacaru]]) Having been recruited by force to the Nazi’s iniquitous [[GWS:V-4 programme|V-4 programme]], [[GWS:Arjan Visser|Arjan Visser]], an engineer originally hailing from [[GWS:Scheveningen|Scheveningen]] in Holland, spent many moons plotting a way to escape his captors. Befriending the colonel in charge of the [[GWS:ubermensch|necrowarrior]] plant next to the Bremen doodlebug factory, he discovered their sinister techniques for animating flesh. Eventually, using himself as a subject, he merged his body with one of his rockets and fled the continent for Britain, his last hope. Landing just short of the White Cliffs, he was rescued by a patrol boat and, after much prodding and poking in a secret laboratory, was sent on to Los Alamos where, once more, following certain tests with radiation, a general scratching of heads led him to be passed on. 

; [[GWS:Rebecca Achilles|Rebecca Achilles]], PhD
: (played by [[User:TonyLB|TonyLB]]) Doctor [[GWS:Rebecca Achilles|Rebecca Achilles]] was once lab-assistant to [[GWS:Tesla|Nikolai Tesla]], and is now an all around Two-fisted Mad Scientist.  She drinks too much, chain-smokes and hangs around with ruffians and thugs at every opportunity. She's violent, ill-tempered and disrespects authority. She is also, of course, a Genius with a capital G, and an adventuress who has travelled everywhere and has contacts (pleasant and unpleasant) in every corner of the world. So, despite the trouble she causes, she is tied with this Allied unit that the rest of our misfits are part of.

; [[GWS:Lucy Cannon|Lucy Cannon]]
: (played by [[User:Kintara|Kintara]]) [[GWS:Lucy Cannon|Lucy]] is the adorable niece of the CO, who happens to have a cannon grafted onto her arm. As you might imagine, sometimes her aim can be a bit off, but she means well!

; [[GWS:Blaze|Blaze]]
: (played by [[User:Threlicus|Threlicus]] Natalia Marciano was a maid in a secret laboratory before she was exposed to super-soldier serum in the middle of a terrible fire. Now she's the one controlling the fire. The US military are a little suspicious of her -- she's Italian after all -- and she's been assigned to our unit to see what they can do with her abilities. Hopefully they'll avoid being the target of her temper!

===Backup Characters===
====The Big Fight====
[[GWS:Baroness Von Grimm|Helga Von Hohenzollern]] The German aristocrat that the team was sent to rescue

[[GWS:Vurga Heilig|Vurga Heilig]] A Nazi Hexe (witch)

[[GWS:Agent Conway|Agent Conway]] A Nazi agent

[[GWS:Big Fight Backup Characters|Characters as of the end of the scene]]

====The Gossamer Hawk====
[[GWS:Frasier Brendan|Frasier Brendan]] An OSS agent with ties to Landshark

[[GWS:Savate|Savate]] A Vichy French collaborator/toady who is a master of Savate, the French martial art.

[[GWS:Gossamer Hawk|The Spirit of the Gossamer Hawk]] A dirigible that can become invisible, the Gossamer Hawk was developed by the USAF and then handed over to a Nazi spy.

[[GWS:GH Backup Characters|All the Characters From the Scene]] as they were when the scene ended

====Cairo====
[[GWS:VernichtungTräumer|VernichtungTräumer]] Inhuman Nazi magician in charge of the Cairo pyramid tomb excavation.

====Opening Scene====
[[GWS:Kurt von Marek|Kurt von Marek]]

[[GWS:Abstract Characters#Thing in the crate|Thing in the crate]] 

[[GWS:Abstract Characters#DRG Rheingold|DRG Rheingold]]

[[GWS:Stock Characters#Jackbooted Thugs|Jackbooted Thugs]]

[[User:Sensorium|Sensorium]] 13:39, 21 December 2005 (PST)

====Other====
This is just a note to remind Bill to come up with [[GWS:l'Esprit de l'Escalier|l'Esprit de l'Escalier]] at some point.

== The World ==

Very little has yet been defined for certain about the game world or our place in it ... though lots and lots has been posited.

===Scene Seeds===
A bank of short, two or three line, seeds for possible scenes. Don't use anything that you want to have control of, as some one else might pick it first. The Bank is [[GWS:Scene Seeds|here]].

[[User:Sensorium|Sensorium]]

== The Rules ==
=== Current Mechanics ===

Check out where we're currently at, [[GWS:Current Mechanics|mechanically]] speaking.

=== Rules System ===

The game is run under the [http://www.museoffire.com/Games/ Capes] roleplaying game system.

{{:GWS:House Rules}}

== Our Story So Far ==
[[GWS:Scene One|Scene One: Landshark and the Thing]]

[[GWS:Scene Two|Scene Two: Catastrophe in Cairo]]

[[GWS:Scene Three|Scene Three: The Gossamer Hawk]]

== Outstanding Questions ==

What is the nature of our Commanding Officer?  Where do we fit in the military hierarchy?  Does [[GWS:Rebecca Achilles|Doc Achilles]] have command duties that she's supposed to perform?  How bad do things get when (oh, I suppose "if", but let's be realistic) she fails at those duties?

How long has our group been operating together?  Are we a well-honed (albeit unconventional) team?  Or are we a bunch of misfits just now thrown together and told to operate as a unit or else?  Or something in between?

How much of the backstory do we want to define in this Wiki just as a fun exercise in group writing?  How much of it do we want to leave deliberately undefined until we bring it up and hash it out in play?

== Wikiquette ==

'''READ THIS BEFORE EDITING!'''

''TonyLB speaking'':  We are part of the broad spectrum of the RPGNet Wiki here.  The organization of the Wiki is only going to be as tight as the organization of its members.  I'm not a crusader on this point.  I don't think that we need to go out and "fix" how other people are doing things.  However, I do think that in the context of the Great War Supers game, we should put in a little effort so that people can find our information when they're looking for it, and don't trip over it when they're looking for something else.  I recommend the following:

# All Great War Supers game pages should have their link-names inside the namespace 'GWS'.  This a little work, but quite possible with Wiki's ''piping'' capability:  basically, instead of simply linking with <span style="font-variant:small-caps"><nowiki>[[LandShark]]</nowiki></span> you link with <span style="font-variant:small-caps"><nowiki>[[GWS:LandShark|LandShark]]</nowiki></span>.  The blank pipe in the middle tells the Wiki to '''link''' to the first phrase (<span style="font-variant:small-caps">GWS:LandShark</span>) but to '''display''' the second phrase (<span style="font-variant:small-caps">LandShark</span>).  I wish there were an automated way to make this happen without all the fol-de-rol, but if there is one then I haven't figured out what it is.  I'm pretty new to Wiki though, so this whole recommendation may go away if I can figure out something clever.
# If you write something that has relevance beyond the Great War Supers game, make sure you reference appropriate Categories.  If people fill these in, they can function as a table-of-contents for the whole Wiki.  If nobody fills them in then we'll all be thrown back on keyword search, which (while cool) doesn't really accomplish the same goal.  To include a Category link, simply type <span style="font-variant:small-caps"><nowiki>[[:Category:Whatever]]</nowiki></span>.  If you're creating a new category, give it some structure.  For instance, there simply '''wasn't''' a PBP category when I started writing up this page.  Which, y'know, that's no good.

On a pure "between us" level of etiquette ... 

# I think it's worth signing your edits, just so that people know what's coming from who, and when.  This is dead easy to do:  just type four tildes, "<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>" and the system will enter your name and a date once you save, like this "[[User:TonyLB|TonyLB]] 12:03, 13 November 2005 (PST)".  Make sure you're logged in, or all we'll get is an IP address, and I for one can't translate those to people.
# I'm not so sure about whether we should leave dangling pages.  As you're writing up a page, you may realize "Hey, this is a term that people might want to define further!"  You can just bracket (say) "Faerie Army" as <span style="font-variant:small-caps"><nowiki>[[GWS:Faerie Army|Faerie Army]]</nowiki></span>, without bothering to actually create any material to link to.  This will let anyone who feels like clicking onto it get a new page to write into.  Is this something we should be making an effort to do?  I've done it on this page ... maybe people can give some feedback about whether they find it helpful or distracting.
# I like to pick up tidbits about real history.  I especially like being able to tell my real history (which I can use in conversations outside the game) from my fake (which, obviously, would lead only to ridicule).  Items from real history should be '''tagged''' somehow ... possibly even put on separate pages and then transcluded into accounts of our totally fictional history.  That way we can be educated while we play!  I'll try to figure out "templates" well enough to give folks some useful tagging tools.