Recruiting closed Original character Superhero game, co-gm's TheVillain & ESG

[TFcommando]

Oh I got an idea a big club and gun put together. into one kewl weapon. I'll have enough equipment points for some kind of armor costume and one weapon that is bad ass.

I'll second that... since she's quite strong, she could have a short cannon or heavy rifle with a very thick, reinforced barrel that can be used to club people without damaging it.

One thing I do want to double check on because it's always been one of the blurry lines:


Powers = infinite uses, can be nullified but not 'removed', cannot be used by anyone but the PC, and return immediately after nullification effect ends.

Devices = infinite uses, can be removed, do not function for anyone but the PC, and are replaced at no additional cost if lost or destroyed.

Equipment = infinite uses, can be removed, functions for anyone who has it, and is replaced at no additional cost if lost or destroyed.

Invention = one use, can be removed, functions for anyone who has it, and requires a new check / expenditure to replace if lost or destroyed 

The big difference between devices and equipment is that equipment is realistic, mundane gear, things that could be bought off the shelf.  Cars, guns, knives, that sort of stuff.  It also has less "plot immunity" than devices as far as getting damaged or lost.  There's some overlap, of course, and you could buy a special gun or knife as a Removable power. 

Inventions and rituals are one-scene creations... once you make the check, you have it for that scene, barring Complications and such.  After that, you'd start over.

[D12]

Are inventions one scene or one use?

What with the whole design check and then the craft check they struck me as the sort of thing you get to make during downtime, and then get a one-shot use of sometime later.

Like making an invention that nullifies a specific enemy's specific power for some amount of time. You make it back in your lab after studying the enemy, and then use it once before it blows up or shorts out or is otherwise rendered unusable because it was just a prototype.

[Crash]

I think it is one use.  If you want a multiple use invention you have to pay the PP to make it a device.  However that one use thing can (and often does) get abused by players (Quickness + Inventor/ritualist = OP) so most GM's that I know limit invention and ritual in some ways.  Heck I know a lot of GM's that just flat out ban both of those feats.

[D12]

This might mark me as a total nerd, but I can actually think of one instance in comics where Quickness + Inventor got used.

Kid Flash... 3? I think it was 3. The one who was previous Impulse.
He had an eidetic memory and could remember anything he read, so he read an entire library. At one point he got into the future and read up on all the blue prints and stuff for future tech, spent the next couple days super-speed building just, everything... stuff he didn't even know what did.

I think the GM / Writers blew up his room after that, and declared that any information he gleamed from being in the future was slowly 'fading' out of his head as the future changed.



I always saw it as more of a 'in case of the unforeseen' feat. Like making an AoE that disables Downshift's superspeed cause none of us have superspeed and therefore can't keep up.

Although, and keep in mind that Copper Rose is kinda from that phase where you make dumb stuff cause it sounds cool, in her original campaign she just used Invention & her huge Tech bonus to build a little mini-bomb that I called the 'Anti-Cherry Cherry Bomb' because it was supposed to use anti-matter... it was just like... ridiculous area, ridiculous damage... come to think of it, it probably broke the Power Level limit. But it was supposed to be the thing evolution of the thing she was working on when she blew herself up and lost her arm. *shrug*

[TFcommando]

Here we go...

"Once the invention is complete, it is good for use in one scene, after which it breaks down or runs out of power. If the character wishes to use the invention again, there are two options." (Buy it with CP or spend a hero point to use it for a second scene).

A little Quickness for mental/inventing tasks can be reasonable, but yeah, if you can do it instantly, it can be trouble.

[RubySlippers]

Here's what I have so far including her signature weapon and a chain-mail coat lined leather coat with sewn areas and layered patches to hide the armor both made of Hard-to-Obtainium well the German technical name is that picked up in a Nazi laboratory it was some of their projects the weapon formed from two sections of metal and chain of the material and a little creativity. And a little mundane gear she'll be working to add to later.

Her powers are basic movement to get around, some defense fitting the classic monster strong points and a formidable raw form and decent mind and psyche.

I figured she doesn't have much right now being basically what she had picked up over the decades she lived and her training trying a little of everything not requiring a license.

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=193803

[D12]

Here we go...

"Once the invention is complete, it is good for use in one scene, after which it breaks down or runs out of power. If the character wishes to use the invention again, there are two options." (Buy it with CP or spend a hero point to use it for a second scene).

A little Quickness for mental/inventing tasks can be reasonable, but yeah, if you can do it instantly, it can be trouble.

Yeah, it does sound like it can be pre-made like I thought; although I guess it just fizzles out after the scene rather than one use. Which; honestly seems like kind of the same thing, but I guess if you wanted to make an Invention Affects Incorporeal Damage to go ghost busting or something you'd have it for the whole ghost-fight-scene, which is nice.

[Crash]

Here's what I have so far including her signature weapon and a chain-mail coat lined leather coat with sewn areas and layered patches to hide the armor both made of Hard-to-Obtainium well the German technical name is that picked up in a Nazi laboratory it was some of their projects the weapon formed from two sections of metal and chain of the material and a little creativity. And a little mundane gear she'll be working to add to later.

Her powers are basic movement to get around, some defense fitting the classic monster strong points and a formidable raw form and decent mind and psyche.

I figured she doesn't have much right now being basically what she had picked up over the decades she lived and her training trying a little of everything not requiring a license.

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=193803

Looks pretty cool Ruby.

[Pumpkin Seeds]

Well I know the GMs wanted us to discuss our characters together and such.  So is Tech really a road block or can something be done to bring everyone to the same page?

[Crash]

I don't mind people playing tech based characters, Slipshade just simply isn't one.  He is a scientist but not a robot, cyborg or construct.  If the group decides to go in the all cyborg direction I will bow out with no hard feelings. 

[Muse]

  Hm?  Was someone talking about becoming an all tech group? 

  Atemi sure isn't that! 

[Crash]

It was tossed out at one point as we have 3 or 4 tech based concepts and others contemplating them.

[Pumpkin Seeds]

Well I wasn't trying to imply an all tech group.  Simply that we all find a common ground and theme here to work along.  For instance if your character is a scientist, maybe have him know of or be part of the projects that contributed to our characters.  Maybe sort of build a company that has created these technological marvels and maybe put that into the game.  Maybe even make them a villian.  I don't know..it seems the GMs are quite open to our ideas and input in this world as well.

[Crash]

Heh we are in the same page pumpkin.  My character has just that sort of villain company in his background.

[Pumpkin Seeds]

Awesome.  That is all I was saying is that we should probably move now toward tying all these characters together.  I'd have no problem having my character's cybernetics placed by such a company.  At the time she was being rebuilt she would have been very vunerable.

[Crash]

Take a look at the Background and Deep Water Industries below and see if it will work for you.

Slipshade

Background:

Daniel Black was a rising star in the field of quantum mechanics.  His graduate work had won international recognition as breakthrough work in the field of extra dimensional theory.  He was snatched up immediately after earning his PhD by Deep Water Industries, a leader in cutting edge science and technology.  It was here that Daniel met his fiancée Milly Nocturne.  They were part of an R&D group tasked with finding an unlimited source of extra-dimensional energy.  It took a year but the team was sure they had found a break through.  Using new theories in dark energy and anti-matter Daniel formulated a way to breach the shadow dimension where dark matter and energy originated and leaked into our reality.  Extra funding and personal were dedicated to the project and a prototype breach, extraction and containment facility was in place in surprising little time. 


The owner/president and the entire board of directors was onsite for the initial breach, but something went horribly wrong with the containment field.  The ensuing explosion destroyed the small facility located on an isolated island out of the Keys.  The owner/president of Deep Water Industries, Lucas Shrike survived, but many of the board of directors and much of the research staff did not.  The extent of the accident was covered up by Deep Water Industries and Daniel as the only (known) surviving member of the research team was blamed for the accident.


Daniel and Milly were closest to the containment field at the time working desperately to keep the field for exploding.  While Daniel miraculously survived Milly did not.  She was completely vaporized by the explosion (or so he thought).  Days after the explosion Daniel began experiencing strange dreams and waking visions as the shadow energy he had been exposed to changed him.  Daniel was now a creature of multiple dimensions.  He has since used those abilities in an attempt find out what actually went wrong with the experiment.  These attempts caught the attention of Overwatch and he was recruited with the assurance that he would be able to continue his investigation into the accident.


Deep Water Industries/Order of Shadows
Daniel wasn’t the only person changed from the exposure to the Shadow Dimension.  Lucas Shrike and the surviving board of directors were too.  Lucas’s exposer gave him insight into the nature of Shadow energy and he has used this to create a new form of shadow technology.  He sells some of this technology to the government, but keeps the best for his own organization, the Order of Shadows. Lucas’s company got its start-up funding from organized crime.  Being beholden to the mob as always rankled Lucas.  A bit of a megalomaniac before his transformation Lucas’s mastery of shadow energy has broadened his delusions of grandeur.  Now dubbing himself Master of Shadows Lucas has used his shadow technology as a new weapon in the war to become the only criminal organization in Peninsula City.

Lucas Shrike/Master of Shadows

Milly Nocturne/Midnight
Milly wasn’t vaporized in the accident. She was shifted from our dimension to the Shadow Dimension.  Completely isolated and faced with beings completely alien to her Milly’s mind eventually broke from the alien influences she encountered there.  Her insanity brought new insight into the realm and the hive mind that found her wandering in their world.  Milly was connected to the hive, but her human mind though shattered infected the creatures.  They no longer followed there queen and only followed Milly’s commands.  The human part of her was still desperate to find a way home and the hive known as The Hex set about doing just that.  The pain, loneliness and isolation of her time has twisted her mind into a hatred of both Deep Water Industries and Daniel Black who she has convinced herself betrayed her and left her to die.  It is only a matter of time until Milly and her Hex find a way into our reality again to seek out their revenge.

Milly Nocturne/Midnight

The Hex

   

Character Sheet

Alias: Slipshade
Name: Daniel Black
Build Points:150
Concept: Experimental Accident
      
   
Age: 26
Birthday: 2/25/89
Gender: Male (Heterosexual) 
height: 6’0”
Weight: 220lbs
Hair: Dark with long bluish bangs
Eyes: Brown 
      

History: See below. 
Motivation: Responsibility, Thrill
Complications: Enemies: Former Co-Worker and Fiancée (Milly Nocturne – Midnight) and Owner of Deep Water Industries (Lucas Shrike – Master of Shadows)

Total Points: 150

Advantages: 5   
Attributes: 36   
Powers: 78   
Saves: 18   
Skills: 13   

Attributes:
Strength: 2   
Stamina: 2
Agility: 4
Dexterity: 2
Fighting: 4
Intellect: 4
Awareness: 0
Presence: 0

Defenses:                 
Dodge: 15      
Parry:15      
Fortitude: 7      
Toughness: 7/4* Without Defensive Roll
Will: 9      

Skills: 
Athletics:
2   +1   +0   =+3
Close Combat: Unarmed
6   +4   +0   =+10
Deception
0   +0   +0   =+0
Expertise: Quantum Mechanics
4   +4   +0   =+8
Insight
0   +0   +0   =+0
Intimidation
0   +0   +0   =+0
Investigation
4   +4   +0   =+8
Perception               
4   +0   +0   =+4
Persuasion               
0   +0   +0   =+0
Ranged Combat:            
0   +2   +0   =+2
Stealth               
0   +4   +0   =+4
Technology            
4   +4   +0   =+8
Vehicles: Car            
2   +2   +0   =+4

Advantages: Defensive Roll 3, Instant Up, Move-by Action

Powers: 

Dark Vision
   Senses 2 (Vision Counters Concealment –darkness) • 2 points
   Scry Through Shadow: Remote Sensing 3 (visual and auditory), Medium (shadows and darkness) • 6 points

Healing Darkness:
Regeneration 2, Source (darkness) • 1 point

Shadow Strike:
Damage, Strength-based Attack 8, Affects Insubstantial 2, Penetrating 3 • 13 points

Shadow Form – Fades (Recharges when resting darkness)
   Shadow Dimension Phasing: Insubstantial 4 (Incorporeal), Fades • 16 points
        Shadow Walk: Teleport 2, Medium (shadows) • 1 point


Super Speed
   Speed 10 • 10 points
   Enhanced Advantage (Improved Initiative) • 3 points
   
Fast Attack
   Damage 3, Strength-based, Multiattack • 4 points

Fast Defense: Enhanced Dodge 10, Enhanced Parry 10 • 20 Points

Run On Water:
Movement 1 (Water-Walking), Limited to while moving • 1 point.
   
Run Up Walls:
Movement 1 (Wall-crawling), Limited to while moving • 1 point.
   
Attacks: 
Initiative: +16

Shadow Strike (Attack +10, Damage +10)
Fast Attack (Multistrike) (Attack +10, Damage +5)

Background:

Daniel Black was a rising star in the field of quantum mechanics.  His graduate work had won international recognition as breakthrough work in the field of extra dimensional theory.  He was snatched up immediately after earning his PhD by Deep Water Industries, a leader in cutting edge science and technology.  It was here that Daniel met his fiancée Milly Nocturne.  They were part of an R&D group tasked with finding an unlimited source of extra-dimensional energy.  It took a year but the team was sure they had found a break through.  Using new theories in dark energy and anti-matter Daniel formulated a way to breach the shadow dimension where dark matter and energy originated and leaked into our reality.  Extra funding and personal were dedicated to the project and a prototype breach, extraction and containment facility was in place in surprising little time. 


The owner/president and the entire board of directors was onsite for the initial breach, but something went horribly wrong with the containment field.  The ensuing explosion destroyed the small facility located on an isolated island out of the Keys.  The owner/president of Deep Water Industries, Lucas Shrike survived, but many of the board of directors and much of the research staff did not.  The extent of the accident was covered up by Deep Water Industries and Daniel as the only (known) surviving member of the research team was blamed for the accident.


Daniel and Milly were closest to the containment field at the time working desperately to keep the field for exploding.  While Daniel miraculously survived Milly did not.  She was completely vaporized by the explosion (or so he thought).  Days after the explosion Daniel began experiencing strange dreams and waking visions as the shadow energy he had been exposed to changed him.  Daniel was now a creature of multiple dimensions.  He has since used those abilities in an attempt find out what actually went wrong with the experiment.  These attempts caught the attention of Overwatch and he was recruited with the assurance that he would be able to continue his investigation into the accident.


Deep Water Industries/Order of Shadows
Daniel wasn’t the only person changed from the exposure to the Shadow Dimension.  Lucas Shrike and the surviving board of directors were too.  Lucas’s exposer gave him insight into the nature of Shadow energy and he has used this to create a new form of shadow technology.  He sells some of this technology to the government, but keeps the best for his own organization, the Order of Shadows. Lucas’s company got its start-up funding from organized crime.  Being beholden to the mob as always rankled Lucas.  A bit of a megalomaniac before his transformation Lucas’s mastery of shadow energy has broadened his delusions of grandeur.  Now dubbing himself Master of Shadows Lucas has used his shadow technology as a new weapon in the war to become the only criminal organization in Peninsula City.

Lucas Shrike/Master of Shadows

Milly Nocturne/Midnight

Milly wasn’t vaporized in the accident. She was shifted from our dimension to the Shadow Dimension.  Completely isolated and faced with beings completely alien to her Milly’s mind eventually broke from the alien influences she encountered there.  Her insanity brought new insight into the realm and the hive mind that found her wandering in their world.  Milly was connected to the hive, but her human mind though shattered infected the creatures.  They no longer followed there queen and only followed Milly’s commands.  The human part of her was still desperate to find a way home and the hive known as The Hex set about doing just that.  The pain, loneliness and isolation of her time has twisted her mind into a hatred of both Deep Water Industries and Daniel Black who she has convinced herself betrayed her and left her to die.  It is only a matter of time until Milly and her Hex find a way into our reality again to seek out their revenge.

Milly Nocturne/Midnight

The Hex

[D12]

Copper Rose was meant as a sort of tech-head; brief version of her general backstory is she's a child science / engineering prodigy who blew herself up trying to make something complicated out of spare parts, then decided that she didn't like having a mannequin arm in place of the one she blew off so she built herself a better one. She's into things that are probably too dangerous for her to be messing with, and the kind of snob that comes from being a 17 y.o with a college-level degree. She's kind of a know-it-all and generally acts like she knows more than anyone else, and while she's a technically genius she still has the sort of general 'teenager' sense of things and doesn't really recognize the difference between 'things that are dangerous' and 'things that are too dangerous.'

She favors function over form and so her stuff tends to be really ugly but really functional. I want to describe her plasma thrower as 'the bastard spawn of a flamethrower and a steampunk piranha.' Being 'ugly' is sort of one of her things since she's walking around with this auto-mail arm 24/7.

I was actually thinking Rose might be the group's leader / Iron Man. She doesn't have her own corporation or anything, but she's supposed to have stuff like military contracts that gives her access to stuff secured information. She's got Wealth 2 an Security Clearance 2, with the idea that she's already making more money than most adults do; and has emancipated herself from her parents so they don't exploit that. (They never supported her anyway; particularly after she blew off her own arm. They had the best of intentions but like most teenagers she resents them anyway.)



Lady Radiance's short-version backstory on the other hand is more of a fell / came to earth for undisclosed reasons a really long time ago, and stuck around because she likes being around people who revere her. I go back and forth on how long she's been on earth, either since slightly-before humanity was a thing, or just within the past couple of years. She's mainly in the hero racket because superheroes are this century's gods; and before I revamped her she even had stuff like Benefit: Wealth and Benefit: Status to represent being the figure head of a brand name, I kind of still figure she is that but just figure she doesn't care about having the money, so like. 'Lady Radiance brand sports-drink' donates her cut to charity and makes a big deal about it so everyone knows how generous and kind and pure she is.

If I went with Radiance and had her go with the 'been on earth since slightly-before humans were a thing' I wanted to ask if she could be someone who executed / murdered in combat / generally killed some of the previous-age supervillains. Despite her whole 'pure as light' thing Radiance is supposed to be one of those 'Light is not Good' characters and will straight up kill her enemies if given half the chance. Human lives are just a glimmer to her anyway.

She's meant to be more of a 'Thor' than Iron Man, with maybe a little Captain America mixed in to get that 'been around for freaking ever and has her own trading cards' thing.

[Elven Sex Goddess]

Crash  I like the writeup and all that you have put into creating Slipshade.   

Especially the Dark Water industries.   One of the major hooks in the game planned is in addition.   To having the normal megalomaniacs super villains.    Was to introduce a mercenary corporate teams.   That are neither good or bad as in hero vs villain concept.  Their objectives follow what is best for the corporation,  which often falls on the wrong side of the law.   

So far the board went from discussing to much magic based to perhaps too much technology.     Which does not seem the case.   I see the technology based characters falling into two distinct categories.     Technology which to me means cybernetics,   equipment and enhancements.     Then the other half, science.   Where they through accident or gene manipulation have been transformed to have super powers.   You could also add a third alien technology or physiology.

The weakness clarification.     Character complications;  1st motivation what has driven your character to become a hero and now drives them.   2nd a complication that effects your character.   I.E.  Secret ID,  a dark secret  of your past.   A dependent such as a aunt May.    You can have more then just the two.   

   

[Crash]

Thanks for the clarification ESG. 

D12 - Not sure bitchy, spoiled (seeming) teenager no matter how smart = team leader. ;). That said Slipshade is not the leader type either.

[D12]

Thanks for the clarification ESG. 

D12 - Not sure bitchy, spoiled (seeming) teenager no matter how smart = team leader. ;). That said Slipshade is not the leader type either.

Oh but alcoholic playboy billionaires can be team leaders? :P

I figured it would be sort of an 'Iron Man' thing, with some NPC / GM 'Nick Fury' character being the technical leader, and Rose is just in charge because she orders people around.

Sitting at the head of the meeting table; arms crossed over her chest, kicking her foot impatiently as 'Nick Fury' is speaking.

[Crash]

I would say Captain is the leader not Iron Man really.  The personality you described doesn't mess with leader to me that is all.

[D12]

Less 'Leader' than 'one who leads' I guess. She'd definitely be willing to tell people what to do, whether they'd listen or not on the other hand...

Meanwhile Radiance has the means to lead but doesn't really care to. She's probably been a member of numerous superhero teams throughout the years; though she might refer to them as pantheons, but since the other members either die or get old and die she's not the type to get involved.

[RubySlippers]

I'm not tech based okay she has armor, a cool weapon and some common items but not Iron Man but should give a good accounting in battle. As for complications do they give more points for characters if you take more than one. I'm thinking:

1. Inhuman Origins: Is clearly not natural and her Presence except for Intimidation is 0.

2. Vulnerable to Cold: Her Toughness is half normal for defending against Cold Descriptor attacks, excluding armor protection.

Both would fit and cold fits her immortality flaw its the one thing that can hurt her. I know the big bad uses cold but Wolverine had to deal with Magneto and he was basically part metal.

[Elven Sex Goddess]

I'm not tech based okay she has armor, a cool weapon and some common items but not Iron Man but should give a good accounting in battle. As for complications do they give more points for characters if you take more than one. I'm thinking:

1. Inhuman Origins: Is clearly not natural and her Presence except for Intimidation is 0.

2. Vulnerable to Cold: Her Toughness is half normal for defending against Cold Descriptor attacks, excluding armor protection.

Both would fit and cold fits her immortality flaw its the one thing that can hurt her. I know the big bad uses cold but Wolverine had to deal with Magneto and he was basically part metal.

No you don't gain extra points for additional spending at the start of the game.    However motivation and a complication or more then one additional complication.   Give  you a chance to earn more victory points to be used during game play.    As victory points can be spent to overcome impossible situations.     

Example is the complication that one is condescending within groups, as that character considers themselves a lone wolf,  don't really need to work with anyone.     Victory points be gained by ingenuity in role play overcoming such a complication in working within the context of a team.   As this is a team orientated role play.   

Complications can also be on both ends of the spectrum.   For example a secret ID is a complication.  But so is a public ID,   as you cannot escape the fact your a well known hero or heroine.     

[IsabellaRose]

I have a couple ideas for characters, if you're still accepting new ones.