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''Freedom City'' is a campaign setting for the ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' game system. Freedom City, the town, is the default setting for the 1st and 2nd editions of the game and is where most setting information is provided for. Also known as "[[The Verse|the Freedom Universe]]" and "the World of Freedom," it is a setting built around the conceit that superheroes appeared roughly at the same time that comic book heroes did in the real world. Its primary hero, '''The Centurion''' sparked a massive wave of imitators in the 1930s and carried on until he was killed in a battle with a supervillain known as Omega. Unlike the comic book Superman, the Centurion remained dead and it is up to the player characters and similar successors.
In 2010, Emerald City was revealed to be the default setting for 3rd Edition, being set in an analogue of Seattle, WA as compared to Freedom City being an analogue to New York City, NY.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Abusive Precursors]]: The Preservers are explicitly noted as being amoral and unempathetic.
* [[Adaptive Armor]]
* [[Affirmative Action Legacy]]: The most recent person to take the name of Johnny Rocket, the setting' premiere NPC speedster, is openly gay.
** The current Star Knight, actually the first Terran-born human to be invited to join the Order of Star Knights, is the American-born daughter of immigrants from Greece and Central America.
* [[
** Both were made/mentored by Daedalus, an Iron Man/Hank Pym expy.
* [[All Your Powers Combined]]: Argo the Ultimate Android (i.e. [[Justice League of America|Amazo]]) has all the powers of the Freedom League. The Meta-Grue (i.e. [[Fantastic Four|Super-Skrull]]) has all the powers of the Atom Family.
* [[Alternate Universe]]: [[After the End|After-Earth]], [[Looney Tunes|Ani-Earth]], [[Mirror Universe|Anti-Earth]], [[Everything Is Better With Monkeys|Earth-Ape]], ''[[Stupid Jetpack Hitler|Erde]]'', Terra-Roma, [[Heroic Fantasy|Verecia]].
* [[Animesque]]: Doc Otaku's android [[Bodyguard Babes]], due to being designed by Doc Otaku, fit this.
* [[Amoral Attorney]]: The law firm of Cabot, Cunningham & Crowley.
* [[An Ice Person]]: Glacier. Madame Zero.
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* [[Anti-Hero]]: While mostly an idealistic setting, there ''are'' a few of these listed under villains.
** [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes|Type IV]]: The current wielder of the Crimson Katana is explicitly described as an anti-hero who fights people much worse than she is, though her situation is complicated by the fact that her father, one of those people, [[Grand Theft Me|routinely hijacks her body.]] The Silencer, as the setting's Punisher analogue, could be this ...
** [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes|Type V]]: ... or possibly this. As another example, Larceny Inc. are straight up criminals, but do as much to oppose [[Ancient Conspiracy|the Labyrinth]] as most heroes.
** [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes|Type III]]: Depending on how he's played The Silencer could even potentially be here, as his (unwanted) high position in the mob means his information is pretty reliable on who is actually part of the mob and the possibility of someone being an informant or undercover cop at the ranks he prefers to kill outright is very low.
* [[Badass Abnormal]]: Foreshadow. Magpie. Wildcard.
* [[Badass Normal]]: Orion the Hunter. The Raven (both of 'em).
* [[The Cape (trope)]]: The Centurion. Captain Thunder.
* [[Captain Ethnic]]: The expansion books take care to avoid this with the Atlas of Earth Prime series, but in the main books it's noted that because the United States and Japan (a distant second) are the only two countries with any substantial hero or villain population in the modern day (Europe ''used'' to have a decent number but the World Wars put a big dent in their population, the Nazi super soldiers turned super humans into a symbol of terror and the fall of the Soviet Union meant the end of its super solider programs.). This means many heroes from other countries are going to be seen as this regardless of powers or costumes because there are so few of them. It also notes that while Mexico has few heroes, the tradition of [[Masked Luchador]] ensures public love of masked men who champion the weak, regardless of if they are actually grapple based.
* [[Captain Geographic]]: Britannia. Lady Liberty and Patriot for America. Mad Maple ''thinks'' he's one for Canada.▼
* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Just about all the pre-made characters are derived from either better-known [[Marvel]] and [[DC Comics]] heroes, or heroes from Kurt Busiek's ''[[Astro City]]''.
** Some of the organizations too: AEGIS is essentially S.H.I.E.L.D, right down to their names being synonyms.
▲* [[Captain Geographic]]: Britannia. Lady Liberty and Patriot for America. Mad Maple ''thinks'' he's one for Canada.
* [[City of Adventure]]
* [[Cloning Blues]]: The vast bulwark of SHADOW is comprised of legions of cloned troopers. The general public is aware SHADOW uses clones, taken from the body of the 1930s Nazi star athlete, Holtz Hellman. {{spoiler|They're all really clones of Wilhelm Kantor, Overshadow himself.}}
* [[Comic Book Time]]: Averted: In strong contrast to shamelessly using every other comic book trope or shamelessly "inspired" by the big two, characters age normally and dates remain consistent between editions.
* [[Comic Book Tropes]]: Being a comic book inspired RPG, this is a given.
* [[The Cowl]]: The Raven. Foreshadow.
* [[Crapsack World]]: [[Averted Trope|Averted]], hard, on Earth-Prime. The main universe of the Freedom City setting is an optimistic place where most people are basically good and most people love superheroes. Other dimensions like [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler|Erde]] and the Terminus, on the other hand...
** Not to mention the obligatory [[Mirror Universe|Anti-Earth]] where the [[Evil Counterpart|heroes are villains]], the villains have been wiped out, and everyone's corrupt. The [[The Dark Age of Comic Books|Iron Age]] supplement also creates a world full of violence, corruption, and few signs of hope, although it of course ended eventually.
* [[Crisis Crossover]]: The adventure ''Time of Crisis''.
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* [[Dark Is Edgy]]: Black Star. ''Nacht-Krieger''.
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: The 1980s and early 1990s, as detailed in the ''Iron Age'' supplement.
* [[Deal
* [[Descriptive Ville]]
* [[Dimension Lord]]: Besides [[Multiversal Conqueror|Omega]], there's actually a specific term for these beings: Dark Lords are mages who have essentially learned the trick of [[Reality Warper|claiming authority over their worlds' physical laws]], and have become the total ruler of them in the process.
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* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: The Unspeakable One, the entity worshiped by the [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|Serpent People]]. Omega, Lord of the Terminus, could also count as one.
* [[The Empire]]: The Grue Unity and The Stellar Khanate.
* [[Everything's Better
* [[Everything Is Better With Monkeys]]: Cosmo the Moon Monkey. Dr. Simian. Earth-Ape
* [[Everything
* [[Evil Counterpart]]: The Tyranny Syndicate, the evil counterpart of the Freedom League. They're from Anti-Earth, an evil counterpart of the main Earth-Prime setting.
* [[Evil Sorcerer]]: Malador the Mystic.
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* [[Fragile Speedster]]: Bolt. Downtime. Johnny Rocket.
* [[Functional Magic]]: Baron Samedi. Eldrich. Hades. Malador the Mystic. Medea. Seven. Una, Queen of the Netherworld.
* [[Genius Bruiser]]: Taurus, [[Trope Codifier|the Minotaur of Crete]] himself, possesses an perfect memory and a knack for puzzles. As one can imagine for someone who has lived since the heyday of Greece, this means he is ''[[The Chessmaster|very]] [[Xanatos Speed Chess|damn]] [[Magnificent Bastard|smart]]''.
* [[Government Agency of Fiction]]: AEGIS (American Elite Government Intervention Service), The Ministry of Powers, UNCOT (United Nations Command on Terrorism), UNICORN (United Nations International Coalition Ordering the Reality Nexus), UNIQUE (United Nations International Quorum of Unaligned Exceptionals), UNISON (United Nations International Superhuman Oversight Network), UNPEC (United Nations Paranormal Enclave Committee), and UNSAC (United Nations Science Advisory Council).
* [[Gratuitous German]]: ''Nacht-Krieger'' (Night-Warrior). ''Roter Adler'' (Red Eagle). ''Schlasbringer'' (Sleep-Bringer). ''Schwarzpanzer'' (Black Tank). ''Totenkopf'' (Death's Head). ''Die Walküre'' (The Valkyrie). And, inevitably, ''Ubermensch'' (Overman).
** And in the Time of Crisis adventure, ''Der Übermenschen'' (The Supermen): ''Der Eule'' (The Owl), ''Die Geist'' (The Ghost), ''Götterdämmerung'' (Twilight of the Gods), ''Der Hand Des Todes'' (The Hands of Death), ''Übermensch II'' (Overman II), and ''Weißer Ritter'' (White Knight).
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* [[Healing Hands]]: Lady Liberty.
* [[Hive Mind]]: The Grue Unity.
* [[Hollywood Voodoo]]: The designer wanted the Voodoo ''loa'' to be as important to the Freedom City setting as [[The Mighty Thor|the Norse gods]] are in Marvel and [[Wonder Woman|the Greek gods]] are to DC.
* [[Humanoid Aliens]]: The Farsiders and the Lor. Justified, since they're both descendants of humans taken from Earth millions of years ago.
* [[Interpol Special Agent]]: UNISON, the United Nations International Superhuman Oversight Network
* [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]: Bowman.
* [[The Jailer]]: The Warden.
* [[Kid Hero]]: The students of the [[Super-Hero School|Claremont]] [[Elaborate University High|Academy]], especially the members of the Next-Gen and the Alterniteens.
** [[Wake Up, Go to School, Save
* [[Kid Sidekick]]: Previous versions of the Bowman had a sidekick called Arrow. Two of them [[Sidekick Graduations Stick|went on to become the next Bowman]], and one became a [[Nineties Anti-Hero]] called Archer.
* [[Kill All Humans]]: Talos.
* [[Killed Off for Real]]: As a general rule, Freedom City doesn't have a [[Death Is Cheap|Revolving Door Afterlife]].
* [[Kill It
* [[A Load of Bull]]: Taurus, who gets extra points for being the [[Trope Codifier]] himself. Did we also mention he's a [[Magnificent Bastard]] with a knack for [[Xanatos Speed Chess]]?
* [[Legacy Character]]: Blackbird. Bowman & Arrow. Crimson Katana. Fear-Master. Johnny Rocket. King Cole. Lady Liberty. The Raven. Red Death. Siren. Sky Lord. Star Knight. Trawler. Several of these are [[Generation Xerox]] to avoid [[Comic Book Time]] and [[Death Is Cheap|Revolving Door Afterlife]], though many are stark contrasts of the original.
** Several legacies are also explicitly left open for players to pick up and run with, some of which come complete with power templates to start from.
*** In stark contrast to these however, the Centurion's name is said to be sacred to the hero community and anyone who took the name would be regarded as an imposter, not a successor. The books do however include the option of playing a (supposed) bastard child or clone of his.
** Invoked as a cover for Daedalus who lets the public believe he's the legacy of the 1960's superhero but in fact actually is that hero (he also doesn't mention that he's THE Daedalus)
* [[The Legions of Hell]]: Hellqueen. Mr. Infamy.
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* [[Making a Splash]]: Siren.
* [[Master of Illusion]]: Rave. Silver Scream.
* [[Multiversal Conqueror]]: Omega, Una.
* [[My Grandson, Myself]]: Daniel Daedalus, one of the world's most brilliant scientists and engineers, is not merely named for the figure from Greek mythology, he ''is'' the original Daedalus. Many believe the Daedalus who fights alongside the Freedom League today is the son of the Daedalus from the 1960s; he does nothing to discount the rumor, since his immortality isn't widely known.
* [[Omnicidal Maniac]]: Omega, Lord of the Terminus.
* [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist]]: Daedalus. Dr. Atom. Dr. Simian. Dr. Sin. Overshadow.
* [[Physical God]]: Baron Samedi. Black Anubis. Donar, Lord of Thunder. Horus the Avenger. Siren (the second one).
* [[Playing
* [[Politically-Incorrect Villain]]: Exaggerated with White Knight. He is literally a member of the Ku Klux Klan who was given fire powers by [[Satan|Mr. Infamy]] when he wanted to "purify the Earth".
* [[The Power of Rock]]: The second Fear-Master. The Maestro (but he uses ''Classical'' music).
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* [[Science Hero]]: The Atom Family, particularly Dr. Atom and Tess Atom.
* [[Shock and Awe]]: Bolt. Captain Thunder.
* [[Shout-Out]]: '''Everything'''. Not only are there a ton of [[Alternate Company Equivalent]] s, [[Captain Ersatz]] s, and [[Expy
== [[Shout Outs]] ==
** AEGIS [[Incredibly Lame Pun|is the name of a mythological]] S.H.I.E.L.D.
** Argo the Ultimate Android is an [[Justice League (animation)|Amazo]] expy.
** ASTRO Labs homages [[Astro City]] and DC's STAR Labs.
** The Atom Family is cut from [[My Suit Is Also Super|the same cloth]] as the [[Fantastic Four]], and a dash of [[Power Pack]]. And also a bit of the First Family in [[Astro City]], especially in the sense that this family actually changed and grew over the decades.
** Black Star is [[Green Lantern|Sinestro]], but with the powers of [[Starman (
** Bowman and Arrow are the [[Green Arrow]] and Speedy homages, down to the drug addiction and [[Nineties Anti-Hero]] era for Arrow.
** Brittania is a [[Excalibur (Comic Book)|Captain Britain]] expy.
** The law firm Cabot, Cunningham & Crowley references Laurie Cabot, Scott Cunningham, and [[Aleister Crowley]], all occult authors.
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*** He's much more like the Preserver of the same continuity.
** Daedalus combines elements of both [[Iron Man]] and [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Hank Pym]].
** Devil Ray is...[[Exactly What It Says
*** [[Older Than They Think|Freedom City's Devil Ray came first.]] Though it should be noted that the DC comics version of Black Manta was introduced ''way'' back in 1967.
** Dr. Simian is equal parts [[Doom Patrol|Monsieur Mallah]] and [[The Flash|Gorilla Grodd]].
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** The Factor Four are the other [[Fantastic Four]] expy, but with stronger elemental ties, and evil.
** Fear Master (both of them) shares much in common with Batman's foe the Scarecrow, and the original's costume borrows heavily from the [[DCAU|Phantasm]].
** Freedom Eagle owes much to [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] [[Hawkman]] and [[The Rocketeer (
** Hiroshima Shadow is an isotope of Radioactive Man (the Marvel one, [[The Simpsons (animation)|not the other one]]).
** The Green Man springs from the same soil as Poison Ivy and Plantman.
** Johnny Rocket is an expy of [[The Flash]]; his name, Johnny Wade, references [[Fantastic Four|Johnny Storm]] and [[Mark Waid]]. His being gay is in homage to [[Alpha Flight|Northstar]], another speedster.
** The inspiration for the [[Jack Kirby|Kirby Museum of Fine Arts]] should be obvious.
** Lady Liberty is a mix of [[Captain America (comics)]] and [[Wonder Woman]]. Her name, Beth Walton, references Betsy Ross and [[The Waltons]].
*** There's also a bit of Liberty Belle in there, and even DC's Uncle Sam (in ''Worlds Of Freedom'', we're told that, just like Sam spent the [[American Civil War]] split into Billy Yank and Johnny Reb, the Spirit of Liberty empowered Columbia and Southern Belle).
*** Her husband is Trevor Wright; a reference to Steve Trevor and a play on "Mr Right".
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** The Liberty League was the [[Justice Society of America|WW II-era superheroes team]], while the Freedom League is the Silver Age and Modern era [[Justice League]].
** Master Lee's School of Self Defense is named for two eponymous masters: [[Bruce Lee|Bruce]] and [[Stan Lee|Stan]].
** Mastermind partakes of elements from [[X-Men|Magneto]], [[Justice League (animation)|Vandal Savage]], and [[Alpha Flight|The Master of the World]].
** Medea fills a similar role as [[Wonder Woman|Circe]].
** Megalodon (Connor Kirkstrom) is an expy of [[Spider
** The Meta-Grue is the [[Fantastic Four|Super-Skrull]] expy.
** The Next Gen is very [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]] -esque. They're students at the [[Chris Claremont|Claremont]] Academy.
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*** In one supplement, he basically fills the role of the Anti-Monitor.
** Overshadow combines elements of [[Hawkman]] (constantly reincarnating) and [[Doctor Doom]].
** Patriot, the main [[Captain America (comics)]] expy, is Jack Simmons, named after Cap's creators [[Jack Kirby]] and Joe Simon.
** Pseudo is very much a [[Martian Manhunter]] homage, though his race, the Grue, are much closer to a mash of the Skrull (militaristic shapeshifters) and the Kree (specifically, the Supreme Intelligence-like Grue Meta-Mind).
*** [[Word of God]] is that they're named after the late Marvel exctutive editor Mark Gruenwald (their home planet is called Gruen-World).
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** The Raven (the first) filled the [[Batman]] expy. His daughter, the second Raven, homages Earth-2 Huntress (The daughter of Batman & Catwoman) as well as being the grandchild of the setting's equivalent of Ra's al Ghul.
** The Scarab has elements of [[Hawkman]], but with awesome [[Psychic Powers]].
** Siren is a mix of [[
** Star Knight is a [[Green Lantern]] homage, with bits of [[ROM Spaceknight]].
** The Thieves Guild are one-to-one homages to [[The Flash]]'s Rogues: Huckster is Trickster; Bola is Captain Boomerang; Looking Glass is Mirror Master; Weather Mistress is Weather Wizard; Firebug is Heatwave; and the Mad Maple is Captain Cold. (Although the Maple's name and Canadian origin are also a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Big Name Fan]] Jim "T. M. Maple" Burke.)
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* [[Sizeshifter]]: Maximus Atom.
* [[Space Station]]: The Freedom League has one.
* [[Spell My Name
** As well as almost every member of The Thieves' Guild: The Bola, The Firebug, The Huckster, The Weather Mistress, The Mad Maple, and... Looking Glass. Well, almost.
* [[Stephen Ulysses Perhero]]: The Bowman's real name is Fletcher Beaumont.
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* [[Unobtainium]]: Daka crystals. Impervium. Orichalcum.
* [[Villainous Harlequin]]: Wildcard.
* [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]]: Victoria Atom. The Grue. Changeling (a Grue from a parallel world). Pseudo (a rogue Grue).
* [[We Can Rebuild Him]]: The Power House can do it. Also, this happened to {{spoiler|Patriot}}.
=== The ''Emerald City'' material contains the following tropes
* [[Affirmative Action Legacy]]: In a villainous example the new {{spoiler|Commander}} is female. The dialog suggestions for questions asked by the players indicate this is to make the PCs know the new one is not the original {{spoiler|who plays an important part in the module}}.
* [[Captain Ersatz]]: As usual with the setting, however now lampshaded with an actual character named Ersatz, who has the power to assume the form of an imperfect copy of any hero (In his first appearance via an illustration he takes the form of a fat version of Princess.) ▼
* [[The Atoner]]/[[Heel Face Turn]]: {{spoiler|Mars, who has gone from being the super villain "Commander" vaguely referenced a few times in older editions to legitimate industrialist}}. Emerald City Knights emphasizes to the GM that, despite his past, he ''is'' a changed man.
* [[Cute Bruiser]]: Princess pretty much defines this trope.▼
* [[Big Damn Heroes]]/[[Villainous Rescue]]: Given as a suggestion to the GM if the players are overwhelmed by final stage of Emerald City Knights.
* [[Green-Skinned Space Babe]]: Subverted with Xeno, who is a female of her species (actually the hybrid of a female alien and a female human), but looks like a bug like humanoid rather than a beautiful human woman. ▼
* [[Big in Japan]]: Despite his career in the west being ruined by accidentally injuring a co-star, Rocky's attempt to resurrect his image in Japan was successful enough he's still fairly popular over there. It helps he's fluent in the language (one of three of the prebuilt Sentinels to be multilingual and the only one to have English as his native language).
* [[Hero Antagonist]]: The Cybertribe, a group of cyborgs and [[Digitized Hacker|Digitized Hackers]] who work as thieves...[[Asshole Victim|against some]] [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|very evil]] people, and only to get the money to repair their mechanical parts-which doubles as a life-support system. Explicitly called out in the overview of Heavy Metal, since if you rupture his [[Power Armor]], it's likely because he's [[Heroic Sacrifice|trying to buy time for the others to escape]].▼
▲* [[Captain Ersatz]]: As usual with the setting, however now lampshaded with an actual character named Ersatz, who has the power to assume the form of an imperfect copy of any hero (In his first appearance via an illustration he takes the form of a fat version of Princess.)
* [[Mass Super-Empowering Event]]: The Silver Storm has recently hit the city, with survivors gaining powers. There's an on-going adventure series where you try to discover ''why'' it happened. ▼
* [[Captain Ethnic]]: While the Freedom City default characters were Captain Ersatz of popular western heroes, most of the sample characters for Emerald City are Captain Ethnics for the western United States. They include a dotcom billionaire, a [[Valley Girl]] college student, a sapient Silicon Valley computer system, a washed up child actor and a Chinese immigrant.
* [[Clark Kenting]]: Princess has this as an actual super power! Anyone she doesn't tell about her identity simply can't make the connection. Note that in the system the ability for the Kryptonians and their Expy the Centurion to do this is just a genre convention, so Princess having this as an outright power is something special. Completely averted by Victor: Despite wearing a domino mask, he doesn't have a secret identity.
▲* [[Green-Skinned Space Babe]]:
▲* [[Hero Antagonist]]: The Cybertribe, a group of cyborgs and [[Digitized Hacker
* [[Instant Win Condition]]: The finale for ''Emerald City Knights'' has {{spoiler|the final boss and his minions are all defeated if the players complete a jammer to disable them}}. The module notes that unless the PCs are REALLY clever, they're not going to win any other way (though stats are provided to try).
▲* [[Mass Super-Empowering Event]]: The Silver Storm has recently hit the city, with survivors gaining powers. There's an
* [[Playful Hacker]]: Digital Demon, one of the Cybertribe. Leads to a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] when the report on him is handwritten, with some choice personal comments from the investigator.
* [[Robot Kid]]: [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Kid Robot]]
* [[Samus Is a Girl]]: Two different examples: Both Ultramarine and Xeno are difficult to identify as female unless you read their backgrounds.
* [[West Coast Team]]
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:The Verse]]
[[Category:Freedom City]]
[[Category:Tabletop
[[Category:Superhero Roleplaying]]
[[Category:Tabletop Games of the 2000s]]
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