Setting & Networks

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Overview
The game takes place on an earth, hereafter referred to as New 616, that combines Earth-616 and New Earth, and, thus, the major elements of the setting will not be enumerated here. You do not need to memorize the entirety of DC and Marvel canon to play; it is assumed that those playing New Earth or 616 characters will have a good grasp on their own canon and that those unfamiliar with it will reference online resources as need be.

All elements of the real world exist in New 616, including some comic books, as there are certain instances of heroes or teams having licensed comics (comic book "adventures" of the original Flash, Jay Garrick, and some Avengers, for example). However, this is a murkier realm of canon, and it's safe to assume that, unless you have a canon reference to a certain character having been published, it should not be referenced.

The way the public treats your character depends on your character's original canon. Both halves of the core universe have beloved superheroes (Flash, Captain America), sometimes mistrusted ones or secretive ones (Batman, Spider-Man), and ones that have a bad reputation (Hulk, the X-Men). In general, humans and metahumans are well-regarded, and mutants are not, although this is not a hard and fast rule.

Most action will be in the United States, as that is generally where comic books keep the plots, while the rest of the world laughs and eats baguettes. Occasionally, the plot will jump around the globe, and there is nothing restricting your character from world travel, so long as they can arrange transport.

Transportation, for superhero characters, should be fairly easy. The game operates under the assumption that most heroes have travel-friendly powers or else they have a seemingly endless supply of vehicles. If they don't have their own vehicle, they are usually part of a team that does. To this end, any character affiliated with the Avengers, X-teams, Defenders, and Teen Titans (or a similar squad) will have access to the jets of said team. Characters associated with the Justice League will have access to the network of teleport devices.

For non-superhero characters and superhero characters who don't come with their own transport, it will be more mundane forms of travel for you, but there's nothing stopping you from working out a faster way to get around in-game.

Fictional Locations
For the purposes of this game, the fictional DC and Marvel locations have concrete locations. The main ones are as follows:

Gotham City is on an island off the southern coast of New Jersey.
Metropolis is on the coast of New York City.
Keystone City is in Kansas, along the Missouri Border.
Central City is in Missouri, directly across the river from Keystone.
Smallville is in Kansas, presumably in the middle of the world's largest cornfield.
Star City is on the coast of Massachusetts Bay.
Coast City was formerly on the southern Californian Coast.
Happy Harbor is in Rhode Island.
Opal City is in Maryland.
Themyscira is in the Bermuda Triangle.
Genosha is found off the east coast of Africa, north of Madagascar.
Latveria is smushed between Hungary, Serbia, and Romania.
Qurac is between Iraq and Kuwait.
DC's Atlantis is in the northern Atlantic Ocean.
Marvel's Atlantis is in the southern Atlantic Ocean.

This is not an exhaustive list.

Networks
There will be two Networks in this game.

The first Network is almost a superhero bulletin system, accessed by a device that is similar to Google Glass. The standard form is a pair of slick, mirrored shades, although customized versions are provided for those who prefer their costume to stick to a theme. They can be built into cowls, demi-cowls, hoods, helmets, and masks as well. This version is predominately voice-activated, but also utilizes retina-tracking for most basic commands. It can display videos and text, as well as play audio through a connected earpiece, and it can post all three formats as well. If you use this device, text is done through voice recognition software.

An alternative form is a device that looks like a smartphone and has a touch screen. It is capable of doing everything that the glasses can, with the addition of a keyboard input.

It operates on its own satellite feed, is rechargeable, and posts the majority of uploads system-wide. If a character posts with their Visual Comm, anyone with a VC will see it. There is only one way to lock down a feed. Similar to a Nintendo friend code, if you know the serial number of another person's device, you can send the message directly to them. There is no group messaging service or feed at game start. Tech savvy characters may develop this for themselves.

As the VCs are distributed by the Justice League, villains and civilians do not have access unless they "liberate" a VC to hack it or clone the technology, but this will be a risky maneuver unless they know what they're doing.

The second Network, Starkers, is akin to Facebook and owned by StarkTech. While you can add people to a friends list, it will show you updates from people who know the people you have friended, people with similar interests as you, etc. There are no encryptions on this Network other than various friendlocks.

Feel free to make up double entendres with the name. For example, if you friend someone, you're starking them. If you don't lock down a post, you're going stark naked. The highly publicized launch of Starkers will coincide with the opening of the game.