Earth Zero is my Icons campaign setting. It diverges from our earth during the WW2 when the supers first start showing up (for the second time, the first time was 35kya but nobody remembers that. May campaign is set in 1950, but this adventure takes place in 2004. I really dig the idea of having my payers go into what is the 'future' and have it be totally wrong in comparison to our world.  
Island X is an attempt to mix two things that I think we're really made for each other: Japanese style Kaiju (giant monsters) and American style supers.


Anyway this is very much a work in progress, I have many of the hexes detailed, but I haven't typed them up yet. I also have a couple more maps I need to ink before I can scan and post them (e.g. X Force X's  volcano base).

Whatever, this was supposed to be a filler adventure, but we're out to session 4 with it and no end in sight.

Here is what I have typed up so far- I'm like half a step in front of the players now.







Island X Primer:

Location:
The South Pacific, 2004 AD.

History:
During the late 20st century, giant monsters of unknown origin ravaged the Earth. The world devolved into a state of chaos as the remaining nation states struggled for decades to beat the giant creatures back.

Status Quo:
The year is now 2004 and the monsters have long since been defeated. Island X is used as a combination containment area and preserve for the last of these creatures. X Force X, a Japanese paramilitary organization administers the island and keeps a watch on the monsters. Due to the force field which surrounds the landmass, radios do not work on or around the island. Furthermore the island can only be reached by submarine. As a result, traffic between the mainland and Island X is very limited.

Situation: A super villain strike force has gotten past the force field and attacked the X Force X troops in as an attempt to take control of the island and the monsters. The attack is in its second day when the characters arrive.

Factions:
Several groups vie for control over the island and its inhabitants.


X Force X- is a Japanese paramilitary organization dedicated to keeping the monsters on the island. They are armed with lots of high tech stuff. They mostly fight with mechs. Their headquarters is located in the extinct volcano Mt. Muti, in the center of the island. Currently they are at war with the Spider super-villain strike force led by Iron Mask.

[Note: None of the PCs know Japanese and all of them fought in WW2.]


Spider Super Villain Strike Force: A group of super villains brought to the island by Iron Mask.  Iron Mask has technology that will control the monsters and hopes to use them to conquer the world.

Beast Men: There is a population of a about 500 beast men. They are the stewards of the Time Caves.

Giant Monsters:  there are a number of giant monsters on the island.



The Facts of Life:
Radios: they don’t work on the island and there are none to be found, except amongst the super villains- but theirs don’t work either.

Getting off: As long as the pylons are functional, the only way on and off the Island is by submarine.

The Pylons:  four giant nuclear powered force field generators situated equidistant from one another off the cost of the island. The pylons are easily visible on a clear day and at night there lights can be seen from the beaches and the highlands.





Some key features of the island:
(This stuff has all been placed in specific hexes, which will be seen when I post the hex by hex break down).

Supply caches: small depositories for XFX equipment scattered about the island. Usually have food, camping and medical supplies. Made to be hidden from monsters, but pretty easily noticed on a awareness 3 check.

XFX outposts. The one on the north coast is completely empty and there is an alarm going off. Reinforced observation/staging areas scattered around the island. At the current time all of them are empty. All writing and labeling is in Japanese and there are absolutely no radios. Lots of large bins stuffed with burned parers all of which are in  Japanese.

Meat stations: feeding drop offs for the giant monsters. Twoce a day five tons of synthetic meat are teleported to these locations.

Dinosaurs: Because sometimes giant radioactive monsters like snack.

Flying Saucer:  A flying disk with a pulsing crystal power plant. The power plant can be used to destroy Morgetor.

Mech’s Grave Yard: a scatter of  five XFX mechs all destroyed.

Mini cemeteries: 1-6 graves shallow graves in random places. Some are very old some are from the last few days. Many of the recent ones from energy weapon fire. All are marked with an XFX helmet.

Wrecked Submarine: On the southwest coast, near where the road turns into the bush, there is a wrecked submarine of futuristic design.

Strike Force Five

Facts:

The Tomb: Located deep in the Australian outback, the Tomb is a facility established by Central Control (The Earth World Government- formed in the 1970's) for the disposal and storage of all of the world's nuclear weapons. Thought at present (2004) to hold roughly 25 thousand warheads, representing an estimated  2 million megatons or more of explosive force.

SPIDER:  A high tech global terrorist organization, active since the late 1940's, SPIDER's  ultimate goal is nothing short of world conquest, but they organization is not above engaging in  extortion for money.


Spider Assassin!

STRIKE FORCE FIVE: SPIDER'S elite super villain assault team.  Currently engaged in an operation on Island X.  Iron Mask the leader of  both SPIDER and SF5, intends to ransom the world for one trillion dollars. If the money is not forthcoming he will use the islands meat telportation system to transport Mutantor to the Tomb. According to his calculations, the the immense radiation will stimulate the pre-spawn which grow in boils on Mutantor's back forcing them in to a period of accelerated growth. This will result in the sudden appearance of a score or more full grown creatures identical to Mutantor.


Mutantor.



Iron Mask



Ivan Von Freer was once a mild mannered schoolteacher in the tiny European Kingdom of Assuria. After the death of his family at the hands of the Nazi invaders, however, Von Freer tapped into the forbidden science and sorcery once practiced by his sorcerous grandfather, and became Iron Mask. As Iron Mask, Von Freer worked enchantments and experiments on himself, turning back the clock, he made himself young once more and imbued himself with incredible power. First, he drove the Nazi's from Assuria and then he kept the Soviets and the Americans out. Ever since then he has ruled the tiny nation with an iron fist. Furthermore, using his diplomatic immunity as a shield, he has plagued the world as super villain terrorists for well over half a century.

Active since the dawn of the Cold War, Iron Mask is the Supreme Leader of SPIDER, a high-tech global terrorist organization. SPIDER SUPREME! The super villain team Strike force Five is Spider's elite unit. Iron Mask is in command of S5 as well and has a complex series of relationships with its members. He is romantically involved with Mind Warp and locked in a continual battle for dominance with Maximus; Surge, the notorious and wanted cybernetic assassin is Iron Mask's daughter; furthermore he directly responsible for the creation of the being known as 170.


Iron Mask

 
Real Name: Ivan Von Feer

Abilities
Prowess 9
Coordination 8
Strength 8
Intellect 6
Awareness 6
Willpower 7
Stamina 15

Determination: 0

Specialties
Science Master (Physics)
Leadership Master
Occult Master
Powers
Invulnerability 6
Wizardry 5
Mind Control 5
Paralysis 6

Aspects:

Qualities
Honorable to a point
Always thinking
Terrible to behold
Stops at nothing

Challenges
Surrounded by fools
Must have it all
It's all about me
 



176
 

 
Abilities
Prowess 5
Coordination 6
Strength 5
Intellect 3
Awareness 2
Willpower 2

Stamina 7

Determination *

Powers
Binding 6
Stretching 8
Invulnerability 5

Aspects

Qualities
Silent watcher
Logic dictates
Good right hand
Sudden movement

Challenges
That's some crazy shit
What does it want?



Notes:
176, the product of Iron Masks attempt to create a perfect being, is a sentient polymer. It is a strange and unknowable being; however, it seems to be completely loyal to Iron Mask. 170 is prone to sudden unpredictable actions, It can speak, but seldom does.
 

Mindwarp

 
Real Name:  Jennifer Treemont

Abilities:

Prowess 5
Coordination 6
Strength 3
Intellect 4
Awareness 4
Willpower 5

Stamina 8

Determination *

Powers
Mental Blast 7
Invulnerability 3

Specialties
Pilot Expert
Mental Resistance

Aspects

Qualities
Does't really love him anyway.
Kicks 'em while they're down
Hot

Challenges
I love me
They're out to get me

Notes:
Jennifer Tremont was born in 1984, during the aftermath of the Second Monster War  (MWII). Her mental powers are thought to be a result of exposure to monster related radiation. She had been involved in small time super crime for her entire adult life. Joining up with Spider and Strike Force five is her first step into the exciting world of arch villainy. She is supposedly Iron Mask’s girl, but spends much of her time teasing Maximus and leading him on.

Maximus
 

 
Real Name: Maximus, High Master of the Zero Zone

Abilities

Prowess 7
Coordination 7
Strength 9
Intellect 4
Awareness 4
Willpower 4

Stamina 13

Determination

Specialties
Military Master
Acrobatics Master

Powers
Invulnerability 4
Fast Attack 5

Aspects:

Qualities
Lord of Pain

Challenges
Hey ladies!
Better than you
The strongest one there is.
No time for this!
Fair weather fearless
Speaks of self in 3rd person
 
 
Maximus was once the High Master of the Zero Zone, a savage anti-reality dimension. Deposed and exiled by his own people he desires nothing so much as to regain his lost throne. He originally came to Earth thinking that after subjugation it would make an ideal place from which to launch his campaign of re-conquest against the  forces of the Zero Zone, but that hasn’t really worked out for him. Currently, he has deigned to lower himself to work with Iron Mask in return for the shamefully meager wage of passage back to his own universe.

Surge
 


Abilities

Prowess 8
Coordination 6
Strength 5
Intellect 5
Awareness 5
Willpower 5

Stamina 10

Determination *

Specialties:
Investigation Master
Martial Arts Master

Powers
Blast 5
Leaping 4
Invisibility 4

Aspects:

Qualities
Daddy's girl
Slinky
The bionic girl

Challenges
Look at that whore!
Get away from my father!
I’d do anything to get that bitch!

Notes:
Iron Mask’s mysterious daughter, the bionically augmented Surge is the most sought after and highest paid assassin in the world. She does nit like or trust Mindwarp and is actively looking for a way to destroy her standing within SPIDER.

Cool write up and as always awesome art. I take it Mindwarp's Invulnerability 0 is a typo?

Yeah, she should have an invulnerability of a 3 (fixed now).  I did  all the Sf5 drawings except for Surge on Sunday while getting ready for the game. I did Mutantor while we were setting up to play. Surge is old and recycled because, I'm lazy.