Potential Teen Superhero Game

Started by Xerial, May 28, 2007, 10:48:41 PM

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Xerial

Alrighty folks, my twisted mind has been mulling this one over for a little while, and it's time to see if there's an interest out there...

What I'm looking to start up is YAHGBNQ (Yet Another Hero Game but not Quite).

The game will feature a group of 4-6 high school aged heroes (16-18) with an older mentor, akin to the Teen Titans. The characters have been together sice they were heroes in training, and as such are at least comfortable working as a team. Of course that doesn't mean they know everything about eachother, especially since they're all in that nice happy hormonal period in their lives when things they are a changing. I would like characters to be more than the sum of their powers, in that I would like to see them fleshed out as much as possible before the game starts. I intend to spend some time looking over the characters to cater the scenario to them, and as well I intend to bring together a group that will be able to have a nice blend of tension and teamwork, as well as providing interesting interactions amongst eachother.

In creating character concepts, I would like to see at the very least the following:

- Information on what powers the character has, when/how they manifested, and how capable they are of controlling them;
- Background on the character's upbringing, family and relationship with them;
- A little bit of insight as to how the character came to be part of the supergroup;
- How the character responds to stress, as well as any fears or outright phobias;
- How sexually experienced the character is, and what their previous encounters might have been;
- At least one secret the character is keeping from the others, and why they feel the need to keep it;
- Something that really gets the character going; and
- How open the character is with the other members of the team.

Remember, details are good, so if you want to include a little blurb about your characters pet racing turtle Michelangelo, all the power to you.

I would also encourage players plotting amongst themselves, creating links between their characters prior to application, commonalities and such. Site limits, and anything in my ons/offs as off are the only limits I intend on having at this point in time, as this may be quite the dark little number, so the links between the characters are entirely up to you, the players.

As said, this is a preliminary probe, to get your minds rolling. If I get the player base, I will set an application deadline. Fair warning, once the team is set I'm going to take at least a few days to plan the initial setup, in order to create a rich environment.

Questions, comments, concerns, and death threats can be levied here, or PMed to me.

Jefepato

Interesting thought.  Any system in mind, or just freeform?

Xerial

Freeform, as I don't really like system for a character interaction driven story.

Lirliel

*Latches fingers around doorway, eyes peeking in, together with slight bit of forehead offcourse*.. consider intrest peeked.. *then runs off*
"Jealousy would be far less torturous if we understood that love is a passion entirely unrelated to our merits."

"A minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection."

Xerial

On a further note, expect the villain to have the upper hand in this one early, and the characters to potentially be put out of their element for some time... which of course will only further ratchet up the possibilities for tension, and for everyone to shine as a team...

indarkestknight

Not sure... I'm really busy right now, so I might join, might not, and if I do, it'd be as a latecomer...

Lirliel

Have to go with Glab on this one actually..
"Jealousy would be far less torturous if we understood that love is a passion entirely unrelated to our merits."

"A minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection."

Xerial

No worries, as I warned it'll be a little while in setting up... got a bit of a snag with certain things on my RL end which'll result in some catch-up once I get the e-mail I'm waiting on, so I expect any character deadline won't be until the weekend after this upcoming one...

Ajoxer

I actually have a character idea for a Super Hero game I've been wanting to use forever... Based off a combination of general super-heroly stuff, combined with Mary Zero from Agent X.

Essentially, a mutant, whose mutation gives him a good deal of Super-Strength and physical ability, but makes him almost never impact on the minds of others. They see him, they know he's there, but he never sticks in anyone's memory, he never gets any credit, making him desperate in many ways for fame. The only way to stop this effect would be to suppress his mutations, and he couldn't stand to be unable to make the difference he can as a super-hero. His existence is a catch-22.

I can flesh him out a bit more, but I'd figure one of the others- preferably female- has either some power or unusual mental state that allows her to percieve him, and remember him. This basically means that he loves the hell out of her, would do damn near anything.

I sorta love the character because he's stuck in a rough situation, he works like hell, but never gets recognized, and he responds to 'Hey, Joe!' as a super-hero name.

Might require a little work, but it would be a fun character to use...
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Ryvaken

I am intrigued.

What is the setting of this RP? What technologies are available? How abundant are supernatural forces? Should character powers be innate or do you allow for tech-based heroes?
In creativity, meaning.

Jefepato

Quote from: Ajoxer on May 29, 2007, 12:40:29 AMI can flesh him out a bit more, but I'd figure one of the others- preferably female- has either some power or unusual mental state that allows her to percieve him, and remember him. This basically means that he loves the hell out of her, would do damn near anything.

That's a cool concept, but wouldn't it be really tough to interact with the rest of the group or the mentor?

Ajoxer

Aye, that's a part of it. He'd almost function as an 'invisible friend' type for the one who can see him- They've grown used to the fact that the rest of the group ignores him, so she relays his thoughts, that sort of thing. And there are always the possibility of somebody dampening his powers, giving them memories of him once again- I think that it could make for some good scenes.
I have a shock collar, designed for maximum Player/GM efficiency. If you see that I have not properly been fulfilling my duties in posting regularly, or a game being held back because I haven't posted, PM me and give me hell!

Creeper

#12
Colour me interested. I'm imagining a weird druid plant controller/healer type.


Edit: NO! No!

better idea.

A Mole-man.

A radioactive mole-man!
Ons and Offs, yo: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=4370.0

Too tired to post Wednesday night. Posts on Thursday!

schnookums

I think I'd be interested as well, if I can get my act together to come up with a concept and suchlike.

Ryvaken

I've got about, oh, a dozen concepts floating in my head.

Idea number one is a shapeshifting individual. He is capable of altering his body in many ways; he started by just mimicking animal life but quickly expanded his repertoire to creating unique forms by mixing up traits from several animals at once. His powers are instinctual, and help him adapt to a new form within a few hours of his first attempt, but before that he can barely stand up. He is capable of manipulating his mass, allowing larger or smaller versions of forms without difficulty, but he is not yet capable of engaging a giant eye-to-eye or taking on a microbe with his bare fists. It seems, however, that the more he shifts the stronger his powers get, like exercising a muscle, and there is no indication of just what his limit might be. His given name was Sam, but no one is really sure if that's short for Samuel or Samantha.

In truth, Sam was raised male by a loving nuclear family in east coast US suburbia; two parents and a younger sister. His family had the usual bucket of problems, but nothing extraordinary. When Sam's powers began manifesting at the age of seven, things changed. His parents panicked and called in doctors, specialists, psychics, veterinarians...the chaos lasted a year after which, finally, it became clear that Sam had abilities, and that was all that anyone would ever be able to figure out. The best explanation given was "Understand this, you will not. Powers he has. Control he must learn. Your money to me you will give now?"

Once the panic finally settled, Sam joined the superteam in order to get the training he needed. His parents at first treated it like a daycamp, then a school, then a boarding school as the years went on. His sister, on the other hand, was maddeningly jealous of her brother's abilities and tried to monopolize her parents' attention to compensate. With Sam spending most of his time away from home, it became easy for her to achieve that goal, and she grew up a spoiled little brat.

Sam responds to stress by altering his form to whatever seems least likely to be subject to that stress. A cat won't fear small places as much as a human, a hawk won't be afraid of heights, so on. He has an aversion to cleanliness as a proper teenage boy should, but in the event his uncleanliness results in disease he almost always has some kind of emotional break. Current theory is that his unique anatomy doesn't play well with other creatures and expresses its ire to the mind by altering hormone levels. Or maybe he just really hates being sick.

Sam's experience with sex is long and detailed. His talents make physical attractiveness a trivial accomplishment, and he is able to pick up a one-night stand any night he pleases. As alluded to before, he does this as a man or woman as his whim takes him.

Sam's dark secret is that he is lonely. He can be the life of a party, he can make a few phone calls and have an intimate meeting with anyone he wants, and he has comrades in his teammates, but his desire to master his abilities, the abilities that so terrified his ever-more estranged parents, has made it impossible to form any true friendships.

Sam gets going when he's told to get going or when he's really bored. Any excuse to show off is taken without hesitation.

Sam is not terribly open; he wants to please people so any suffering he feels is subjugated by him saying what he thinks others want to hear.



Another idea is the intellectual who manipulates technology to suit his needs, possessing about fifty different gizmos on hydrodynamic servomotors that spring out of his ass at a moment's notice. This type of character is contingent on the technologies available to him, and his effectiveness is dependent on the technologies available to others. As such no progress can be made on this idea without information of that sort.
In creativity, meaning.

MadPanda

Oooooooo...

I is interested Panda.

Every superhero team needs a Martial Arts Death Machine!  Let me go ponder the possibilities...
Voluptas ailuri fulgentis decretum est!
Omnis nimis, temperantia ob coenobitae.
(Jes, tiuj frazoj estas malĝustaj. Pandoj fakte ne komprenas la latinan!)

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Valerian

Quote from: Ajoxer on May 29, 2007, 12:40:29 AM
Essentially, a mutant, whose mutation gives him a good deal of Super-Strength and physical ability, but makes him almost never impact on the minds of others. They see him, they know he's there, but he never sticks in anyone's memory, he never gets any credit, making him desperate in many ways for fame. The only way to stop this effect would be to suppress his mutations, and he couldn't stand to be unable to make the difference he can as a super-hero. His existence is a catch-22.

Ooh, have I got just the character for this character!

Melanie was originally designed for an MnM game that sadly ended all too quickly, but she'd be perfect here.  She is, both legally and physically, blind, and has been since birth.  However, she also possesses other senses, primarily psychic, that allow her to "see" for all practical purposes.  She can sense life, emotions, and other psychic abilities that usually let her home in on other living things, and has a sort of telepathic "radar" that allows her to maneuver around inanimate objects.  With a pre-established mental link, she could also project and read surface thoughts, and delve more deeply if she wasn't worried about being caught.  Ironically, she was an excellent spy, since she could project her senses slightly ahead of her and do reconnaissance without even moving.

Originally, she also had the ability to perceive time differently.  This allowed her to move back into the past as well and study things that had happened previously.  (It was really the Postcognition power and a little Super Speed, but the differing perception of time tied it all together nicely.)  Into the future was much iffier and more uncontrollable, but she could do that to a limited extent as well.  (Actually Danger Sense a few seconds ahead.)

So with powers like that, she could easily be immune to whatever forgetting goes on with Ajoxer's character.  Maybe it works primarily through vision?  In any case, she'd be reading his thoughts and sensing his feelings more than anyone else really could, and that really should be harder to forget.

Good, yes? :D
"To live honorably, to harm no one, to give to each his due."
~ Ulpian, c. 530 CE

MadPanda

Niiiiiice!

I'm tempted to bring back an old Feng Shui character, but I'm not sure if I wanna make it a boy or a girl (we seem guy heavy at the moment).

Short version--character is a Transformed Dragon (that is, a human descendant of a Dragon that managed to become human) but does not know this.  Has been raised in monastary far from the eyes of the modern world.  Sent to campaign location as exchange student and, for whatever reason, ended up sticking around.

Sick stats.  Great skills (in a few focused areas like butt-kicking).  Humorously ignorant of all else.

Too silly?
Voluptas ailuri fulgentis decretum est!
Omnis nimis, temperantia ob coenobitae.
(Jes, tiuj frazoj estas malĝustaj. Pandoj fakte ne komprenas la latinan!)

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Ajoxer

Quote from: Valerian on May 29, 2007, 12:49:12 PM
Ooh, have I got just the character for this character!

Melanie was originally designed for an MnM game that sadly ended all too quickly, but she'd be perfect here.  She is, both legally and physically, blind, and has been since birth.  However, she also possesses other senses, primarily psychic, that allow her to "see" for all practical purposes.  She can sense life, emotions, and other psychic abilities that usually let her home in on other living things, and has a sort of telepathic "radar" that allows her to maneuver around inanimate objects.  With a pre-established mental link, she could also project and read surface thoughts, and delve more deeply if she wasn't worried about being caught.  Ironically, she was an excellent spy, since she could project her senses slightly ahead of her and do reconnaissance without even moving.

Originally, she also had the ability to perceive time differently.  This allowed her to move back into the past as well and study things that had happened previously.  (It was really the Postcognition power and a little Super Speed, but the differing perception of time tied it all together nicely.)  Into the future was much iffier and more uncontrollable, but she could do that to a limited extent as well.  (Actually Danger Sense a few seconds ahead.)

So with powers like that, she could easily be immune to whatever forgetting goes on with Ajoxer's character.  Maybe it works primarily through vision?  In any case, she'd be reading his thoughts and sensing his feelings more than anyone else really could, and that really should be harder to forget.

Good, yes? :D

That'd be superb. He'd probably be insanely protective of her sometimes, though, heh. And MP, that sounds like a fairly neat character, my character would probably not have nearly as much style, but has a significant quantity of Super-Strength. I actually had him statted out in M&M- I believe he had Super Strength 10, which gave him a lifting weight of around 200 tons, and a significant jumping ability.

But yeah, the empath/psychic girl would probably make the perfect conduit.
I have a shock collar, designed for maximum Player/GM efficiency. If you see that I have not properly been fulfilling my duties in posting regularly, or a game being held back because I haven't posted, PM me and give me hell!

MadPanda

I guess I'll go 'girl' then  ;)  To give Melanie someone to talk to about girl stuff.

Writeup will follow when I have enough time...but a few things everybody's going to know about Rin (or is that pronounced 'Lin'?)

1.  She's not Chinese.  Chinese girls don't come with jade green eyes and white hair, Mister Burton!  She was just raised there.
2.  She's allergic to magic.  It makes her sneeze.
3.  Her style is probably Jeet Kun Do, since it doesn't seem to be anything else in particular...
4.  Yes, she calls out the name of her moves.  Usually she does so before using them, but there was this one time she make a 'mistake'.
5.  She is also not above pretending that she cannot speak or understand English very well, although she does not do this with her friends and team-mates.
Voluptas ailuri fulgentis decretum est!
Omnis nimis, temperantia ob coenobitae.
(Jes, tiuj frazoj estas malĝustaj. Pandoj fakte ne komprenas la latinan!)

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Ajoxer

Joseph.

At the age of twelve, young Joe disappeared. Oh, he was still there- he didn't get some fun power like invisibility. But nobody ever remembers him. They ignore him, accredit what he does to the wind or other people.

For a 12 year old kid with dreams of glory, this would be devastating. Except for the fact that he also developed a not unimpressive degree of super-strength. He's still training, and his body hasn't fully developed, but he can lift a few tons, and he hits hard. This is one aspect of his mutations, the other being the way that his body wipes memories of him from the people around him. He spent several years anonymously fighting crime, occasionally nabbing hot-dogs and such to keep from starving. He had plenty of opportunities to do deeply immoral things, but his parents had raised him right.

He's a proper black Irish boy, his family immigrated to America a few years before he was born, and though he was raised in a strict catholic family, he was never a very strict believer himself, aside from the morality bits. He still loves his family, and visits them occasionally, even though they think he disappeared a long time ago.

The happiest day in his life was when he met Mel. She was the first person who ever could see him, and he insisted on working with her- and is highly protective. When she was invited to the group, he tagged along. He admires the others in his group, and sometimes wishes he could get to know them better, even if the only way they know he's actually there is through Melanie.

A little brief writeup...
I have a shock collar, designed for maximum Player/GM efficiency. If you see that I have not properly been fulfilling my duties in posting regularly, or a game being held back because I haven't posted, PM me and give me hell!

Ryvaken

Quote from: Valerian on May 29, 2007, 12:49:12 PM
However, she also possesses other senses, primarily psychic, that allow her to "see" for all practical purposes.  She can sense life, emotions, and other psychic abilities that usually let her home in on other living things, and has a sort of telepathic "radar" that allows her to maneuver around inanimate objects.  With a pre-established mental link, she could also project and read surface thoughts, and delve more deeply if she wasn't worried about being caught.
How far have you thought through the whole psychic thing? Mind readers take character depth to different levels; I'd like to know how much I need to work on Sam's mental processes.
In creativity, meaning.

Valerian

Ooh, girl stuff.   :D  It's amazing how often I end up as the "token female", especially in the supers games...

Mel is going to object to being sheltered sometimes, since her father was also insanely overprotective of her growing up.  Her mother, who was clinically depressed, also developed the delusional belief that Mel's blindness was somehow her fault, and killed herself when Mel was only a toddler.  She attended schools for the blind "incognito", developing her powers in secret, until she was somehow found and contacted to join the group.

She would have thought meeting Joseph was pretty cool, too -- who wouldn't want an invisible friend that's real?  Hee.  Though as mentioned, she will try to get him to back off a little on the overprotecting.  Now that she's a little older, she wants to see how self-sufficient she can be.

She's probably always thought of him as a sort of big brother, up until the last couple of months when the hormones really hit, and she started getting some very, very mixed feelings towards him...

Quote from: Ryvaken on May 29, 2007, 01:44:04 PM
How far have you thought through the whole psychic thing? Mind readers take character depth to different levels; I'd like to know how much I need to work on Sam's mental processes.
She wouldn't scan deeply into a teammate's mind unless under some really extraordinary circumstances -- like if someone was possessed by another's mind, for instance.  Primarily, she uses her send and receive abilities to relay surface thoughts as necessary during combat or sneaking, and even then, she doesn't do it casually.  So you won't have a constant eavesdropper, if that's what you were wondering...
"To live honorably, to harm no one, to give to each his due."
~ Ulpian, c. 530 CE

Ryvaken

Mm. I've had bad experiences with psychics in RP and I like to make sure that I know what I'm getting into. I have three concerns.
First, your ability to influence the minds of others. I don't like games that have any kind of mind control. Influence is fine and can be very interesting, but any kind of mental enslavement is a major turnoff for me. From your description I don't anticipate any problems on this issue, and I include it mostly to underline its importance to me.
Second, what you can pick up without trying. Strong emotion, weak emotion, vague thoughts, specific thoughts, obsessive thoughts, so on.
Third, what are your limits? Can you read the thoughts of any creature? If so, can you understand the thoughts of different creatures? Are you limited to humans? Can you make yourself understood to an animal intelligence?
In creativity, meaning.

MadPanda

Here are a few ideas about Rin for Mister GM to play with:

It's a one in one probability that the kindly old monk who trained Rin is either a) a supervillain, b) a retired supervillain, or c) immortal and sneaky.

One 'secret' I'm considering, unknown even to Rin, is that her bloodline is unusually strong...and that if pushed too far or too hard, she might transform back to Dragon-form with the expected city-flattening results that follow!  Finding a way to push her that far would be a most villainous thing to do.  Perhaps her inner Dragon should serve as her 'dark side'?

Are we sharing a base, or do we live with ordinary folks and try to pass ourselves off as 'normal'?
Voluptas ailuri fulgentis decretum est!
Omnis nimis, temperantia ob coenobitae.
(Jes, tiuj frazoj estas malĝustaj. Pandoj fakte ne komprenas la latinan!)

One on Ones Suggestion Box
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