Freedom City

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 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.

The tone for Freedom City is light and airy, roughly meant to simulate The Silver Age of Comic Books. While there are some exceptions, like the villainous Jack-A-Knives, it is mostly meant to be a place of fun and whimsy rather than darkness.

Supplements for the setting in 2E include: Agents of Freedom, Book of Magic, Freedom's Most Wanted, Golden Age, Hero High, Iron Age, Silver Age, and Worlds of Freedom, as well as the adventures Time of Crisis and Time of Vengeance.

Tropes used in Freedom City include:
  • 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.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Talos, who wants to replace humanity with robots the same way humanity replaced the gods (and the gods replaced the titans). The Erinyes/The Furies Three, who were originally known as the Chorale.
    • Both were made/mentored by Daedalus, an Iron Man/Hank Pym expy.
  • All Your Powers Combined: Argo the Ultimate Android (i.e. Amazo) has all the powers of the Freedom League. The Meta-Grue (i.e. Super-Skrull) has all the powers of the Atom Family.
  • Alternate Universe: After-Earth, Ani-Earth, Anti-Earth, Earth-Ape, Erde, Terra-Roma, 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.
  • Ancient Egypt: The Scarab's origin story began here, as did Overshadow's.
  • Ancient Conspiracy: The Labyrinth, Taurus' organization.
  • Anthropomorphic Personification: Dr. Metropolis, living embodiment/spirit of Freedom City. Hiroshima Shadow, living embodiment of... yeah. Jack-A-Knives is the Spirit of Murder.
  • Anti-Hero: While mostly an idealistic setting, there are a few of these listed under villains.
    • 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, routinely hijacks her body. The Silencer, as the setting's Punisher analogue, could be this ...
    • Type V: ... or possibly this. As another example, Larceny Inc. are straight up criminals, but do as much to oppose the Labyrinth as most 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 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. 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, 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 Erde and the Terminus, on the other hand...
    • Not to mention the obligatory Anti-Earth where the heroes are villains, the villains have been wiped out, and everyone's corrupt. The 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.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: The Thieves' Guild, mentioned in Freedom's Most Wanted and the 2E Time of Crisis, are six brilliant scientists who've managed to develop technolgoy from extremely detailed holograms to Batman-level bolo-themed gadgets, to cryokinesis to weather controlling. They use these inventions to rob banks. It's even noted in their descriptions that they could have made millions were they all not more than a bit crazy. (They're specifically a group Captain Ersatz of The Flash's Rogues, who were pretty much the same.)
  • Cycle of Revenge: The Scarab and Overshadow have been locked into one for the past 5,000 years.
  • Dark Is Edgy: Black Star. Nacht-Krieger.
  • Darker and Edgier: The 1980s and early 1990s, as detailed in the Iron Age supplement.
  • Deal with the Devil: Mr. Infamy's shtick.
  • Descriptive Ville
  • Dimension Lord: Besides Omega, there's actually a specific term for these beings: Dark Lords are mages who have essentially learned the trick of claiming authority over their worlds' physical laws, and have become the total ruler of them in the process.
  • Elaborate Underground Base: The Scarab's Lair is basically an underground pyramid located beneath Pyramid Plaza.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The Unspeakable One, the entity worshiped by the Serpent People. Omega, Lord of the Terminus, could also count as one.
  • The Empire: The Grue Unity and The Stellar Khanate.
  • Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: The Lost World.
  • Everything Is Better With Monkeys: Cosmo the Moon Monkey. Dr. Simian. Earth-Ape
  • Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Megalodon
  • 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.
  • Evil Tower of Ominousness: Subverted by a rare heroic example, Pyramid Plaza. The Scarab's Silver Age incarnation built what amounts to "the World Trade Center, only with three buildings, and they're triangles" over his secret base. They're still the tallest buildings (and the hottest real estate) in Freedom City.
  • The Faceless: In his incarnation as the superhero "The Scarab," Prince Heru-Ra wore a Cool Mask that covered his entire head.
  • The Federation: The Lor Republic.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: The Mastermind was just a prehistoric hunter-gatherer, when the Preservers dissected him to serve as cloning material to create the various Human Aliens. His mind survived as a Digitized Hacker, and he has now become a Well-Intentioned Extremist Ubermensch dedicated to bringing humanity to it's true potential...under his guidance.
  • Flying Brick: Captain Thunder. Centurion. Superior.
  • 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, 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 very damn 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).
  • Great Gazoo: Quirk.
  • Green Thumb: The Green Man.
  • Hard Light: Tess Atom.
  • 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 Norse gods are in Marvel and 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 Claremont Academy, especially the members of the Next-Gen and the Alterniteens.
  • Kid Sidekick: Previous versions of the Bowman had a sidekick called Arrow. Two of them 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 Revolving Door Afterlife.
  • Kill It with Fire: White Knight.
  • 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 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.
  • Light'Em Up: Beacon. Lady Liberty. White Rose & White Thorn.
  • Living Shadow: Nacht-Krieger.
  • Lizard Folk: The Serpent People.
  • Magic Pants: "Morphic Molecules"
  • Make Me Wanna Shout: Rant. Sonic.
  • 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 with Fire: Pyre. White Knight.
  • Politically-Incorrect Villain: Exaggerated with White Knight. He is literally a member of the Ku Klux Klan who was given fire powers by Mr. Infamy when he wanted to "purify the Earth".
  • The Power of Rock: The second Fear-Master. The Maestro (but he uses Classical music).
  • Power Crystal: Daka crystals, which can channel various forms of energy. The Moonstone, a psionic amplifier held by the Farsiders. The Starstone, the energy source for the Star Knights.
  • Powered Armor: AEGIS Agents have access to the MAX and Super-MAX armors. The Power Corps are an octet of power armor-wearing mercenaries. The Star Knights are the Green Lantern Corp, but with suits of armor instead of rings. Daedalus, Devil Ray, Doc Otaku, Overshadow, and Star Khan are the most prominent individual users of power armor.
  • Precursors: The Preservers.
  • Psychic Powers: Chase Atom. The Cosmic Mind. The Farsiders. Mastermind. The Psions. The Scarab.
  • Psycho Serum: The DNAscent Process. The assorted treatments offered by the Power House.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Daedalus. Mastermind. Taurus. Medea.
  • Ridiculously-Human Robots: The Angel Androids.
  • Robot Buddy: Freebooter. Talos was one, for Daedalus. The Chorale were also ones, for Daedalus. Notice a pattern?
  • 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 Expys, virtually every location in Freedom City is a loving homages to classic comic book characters and sites.

Shout Outs

    • AEGIS is the name of a mythological S.H.I.E.L.D.
    • Argo the Ultimate Android is an Amazo expy.
    • ASTRO Labs homages Astro City and DC's STAR Labs.
    • The Atom Family is cut from 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 Sinestro, but with the powers of the Shade.
    • 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 Captain Britain expy.
    • The law firm Cabot, Cunningham & Crowley references Laurie Cabot, Scott Cunningham, and Aleister Crowley, all occult authors.
    • Centurion is their Superman expy (from a parallel Earth where the Roman Empire never fell). He died in battle with Omega, Lord of the Terminus, and he's stayed dead.
    • Conundrum is a Riddler expy.
    • The Crime League is the Legion of Doom/Injustice Gang expy.
    • The Curator shares much in common with Brainiac, specifically the version from the DCAU.
      • He's much more like the Preserver of the same continuity.
    • Daedalus combines elements of both Iron Man and Hank Pym.
    • Devil Ray is...Devil Ray, the Black Manta expy from Justice League.
    • Dr. Simian is equal parts Monsieur Mallah and Gorilla Grodd.
    • Dr. Sin references all those sinister oriental masterminds from the pulps, especially Fu Manchu and Marvel's Yellow Claw, as well as Ra's al Ghul.
    • Eldrich is a lot of Doctor Fate with a dash of Doctor Strange. He lives on Ditko Street.
    • 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 Phantasm.
    • Freedom Eagle owes much to Golden Age Hawkman and The Rocketeer.
    • Hiroshima Shadow is an isotope of Radioactive Man (the Marvel one, 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 Johnny Storm and Mark Waid. His being gay is in homage to Northstar, another speedster.
    • The inspiration for the 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".
    • Mr. Infamy has much in common with Mephisto.
    • The Liberty League was the 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 and Stan.
    • Mastermind partakes of elements from Magneto, Vandal Savage, and The Master of the World.
    • Medea fills a similar role as Circe.
    • Megalodon (Connor Kirkstrom) is an expy of the Lizard (Curt Connors) and Man-Bat (Kirk Langstrom), but he went with sharks.
    • The Meta-Grue is the Super-Skrull expy.
    • The Next Gen is very Teen Titans -esque. They're students at the Claremont Academy.
    • Omega, Lord of the Terminus borrows from both Darkseid and Thanos.
      • 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).
    • The Psions are Magneto and his Brotherhood of (Evil) Mutants, but for mutants with psychic abilities rather than any mutant.
    • Quirk is Mr. Mxyzptlk, but slightly more annoying.
    • 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 Aquaman, Thor, Storm, and Wonder Woman.
    • 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.)
    • Thomas Rhymer is a John Constantine homage.
    • Talos is quite close to Ultron.
    • Terra-King shares much in common with Marvel's Moleman.
    • Toy Boy is the DCAU Toyman expy. His last name, Lettam, as a Sdrawkcab Name.
    • Der Übermenschen, of the Time of Crisis adventure, are direct parallels to DC's Freedom Force. Der Eule is Black Eagle, Die Geist is Phantom Lady, Götterdämmerung is The Human Bomb, Der Hand Des Todes is Dollman, Übermensch II is Uncle Sam, and Weißer Ritter is The Ray.
      • In the Erde setting, Dr. Tomorrow names his wonder chemical noburpolene.
    • The Ultima (aka the Hyperboreans) are an expy of Marvel's Eternals
    • Una, Queen of the Netherworld has much in common with Umar of the Dark Dimension.
    • UNISON has a fair bit in common with UNIT, in particular having dealt with alien invaders operating from a base they had constructed in a gravel quarry in central England in 1969.

The Emerald City material contains the following tropes

  • Affirmative Action Legacy: In a villainous example the new 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 who plays an important part in the module.
  • The Atoner/Heel Face Turn: 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.
  • Big Damn Heroes/Villainous Rescue: Given as a suggestion to the GM if the players are overwhelmed by final stage of Emerald City Knights.
  • 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).
  • 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.)
  • 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.
  • Cute Bruiser: Princess pretty much lives by this trope.
  • Green-Skinned Space Babe: Averted 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. Her shapeshifting powers are enough that she could take such a form, though has no real reason to.
  • Hero Antagonist: The Cybertribe, a group of cyborgs and Digitized Hackers who work as thieves...against some 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 trying to buy time for the others to escape.
  • Instant Win Condition: The finale for Emerald City Knights has 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 adventure series where you try to discover why it happened.
  • 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: 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
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