[CURRENTLY FULL] Return Of The Old Guard (Superheroes, Mutants&Masterminds 3E)

[TheGlyphstone]

"When everyone is super...no one will be." - Syndrome, The Incredibles

This is a game idea I've had bouncing around for a while in my head, and I need a new project, so I might as well give it a shot. This is a game set in a world with superheroes, and supervillains, and all the typical stuff you would expect to see in a comic book universe - but with one big twist; Super-Geniuses Are Not Useless (beware, TVTropes Link), and as a result, the world has moved on and rendered its superhumans redundant. Anti-gravity belts let anyone fly, medical nanobots can repair and regenerate the most terrible wounds or illnesses, mass-produced power armor gives amazing strength and toughness, and all sorts of other technological wonders. Superheroes have been put out of a job by regular law enforcement, while supervillains have been reduced to the level of petty crooks with super-sized egos. It's been forty years since the last great hero retired, and twenty since the last confirmed 'natural' meta-human was born.

And then the invasion comes. Hostile aliens from another dimension, wielding strange weapons of their own and capable of one terrible and devastating ability - the power to project a sort of inhibitor field that disables complex technology. Reduced to the level of the Dark Ages, humanity's ability to fend off the invasion is crippled and the aliens establish control over large swathes of the world including all of the major population centers. There is only one hope left for Earth and the human race - the handful of aging, but still powerful superhumans whose gifts come from their genes, not their machinery. They might have been heroes, or villains, but now they have one overwhelming goal in common - fighting back against the alien menace and eventually driving them away from Earth forever.



That's the story pitch. It's obviously an original setting, so while your character could be inspired by a canon comic character, they still have to be an original creation. The local plot will be heavily player-driven; the ultimate goal is to free Earth from its alien dominion, but how that goes about happening will be very much up to the players - at best, I'll present a set of potential 'hooks' or targets and let the characters choose. All the characters will be middle-aged or outright elderly retired superhumans, though it'll be entirely optional as to how much their age has impaired any abilities they might have.

Now, the crunchy bits and possible bone of contention. I want this to be a system game (I've run one freeform superheroes game already), but I've got two options to pick from.

Option 1 is FATE. http://fate-srd.com/
This is my preferred option for a few reasons:
-It is very rules-lite as far as systems go. This makes it more attractive to people who might otherwise prefer total freeform, and makes it easy to learn for people who've never used the system before.
-It is extremely roleplay-friendly; Aspects integrate character personality and background directly into the mechanics, and Invoking/Compelling them gives players (and the GM) a lot of narrative control over what happens.
-It's free, with the SRD linked above.
-Downside is primarily the need to monkey-wrench Elliquiy's Dicebot to replicate rolling FATE dice, which will be a bit unintuitive at first.


Option 2 is Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Edition. http://www.d20herosrd.com/
This is my second-favorite option, but I'll list the perks anyways:
-It is d20-based. This is a plus for E's built-in dice roller, and will have familiar trappings for people comfortable with the D20 game engine.
-It is purpose-built to play superhero games, with a fairly flexible system to help people express the mechanics they want properly.
-It's also free, with the SRD linked above.
-Downside is that it's not particularly rules-lite, and will require more GM oversight to guide system novices and prevent overpowered ability combos.

In either case, I'm looking for 4-5 players who can commit to seeing the game through as long as possible - I've got more free time than I know what to do with, so I won't be going anywhere. I'd like to see posting frequency of at least once every 3 days or so, with allowance for special circumstances - beyond a week, and I'll be checking up on you; beyond two, and I'll be checking the reserve list.

Sexual content will be at the preference of the players, but unless anyone has a very strong aversion to it, I plan on putting the game into Extreme to allow for some body-horror on the part of the aliens.

If you're interested, post with an idea of the sort of character you'd like to play, and if you have a strong preference, which ruleset you'd like to use. Once I have a set group of players and a set system, we'll proceed to character creation.

UPDATE: The game will definitely be run with Mutants and Masterminds 3E. Crunchy bits will be PL10 base, with a small bonus given to older characters (60+). Currently in the concept-pitch and early discussion phase, which will end on Monday the 16th.

[Angie]

Hmmm, would it be possible to play one of those last 'natural' meta-humans, and play a younger character who's never really used his/her powers? If not I'm still interested, but I'd kinda like to be the 'new guy' to the 'old guard'.

[Batman4560]

Expressing interest with a Speedster type of character. Or assassin type.

[TheGlyphstone]

Hmmm, would it be possible to play one of those last 'natural' meta-humans, and play a younger character who's never really used his/her powers? If not I'm still interested, but I'd kinda like to be the 'new guy' to the 'old guard'.

Yup, I totally set that for a possible origin story/background. I'll only allow one 'young' character in the group, to provide that sort of contrast, but it is an option.

Expressing interest with a Speedster type of character. Or assassin type.

Sounds good, speedster is always a solid classic archetype.

[Angie]

I will have to read up on Fate, and I would like to claim that one 'young'un' slot if no one minds?

[TheGlyphstone]

Go ahead and pre-read, but I don't expect anyone to go into this knowing the system - the links are there purely as a reference for the curious. Once we get down to the gritty bits, I will explain what people need to know step-by-step (particularly for FATE, since character creation there has a semi-cooperative aspect).

[Kolbrandr]

I'd advocate a bit for M&M 3e, if only because the other advantage of M&M is even if you go light on the use of system post char creation, you still with it more than anything else have a strongly fleshed out sense of just what your character is capable of and isn't, especially as compared to FATE, while still having things like stunts and the like to let you blow past it when drama demands. FATE can run into a bit of "well I named this capability X, and it's not doing what I thought it could". M&M is a lot more coherent out of the gate with "X does this". Paradoxically that way, while FATE is a lighter system, I've found it harder for people not primarily familiar with systems to get behind a clear use of (which is just my personal anecdotal experience)

With that said, how powerful do you picture the characters being? That's really what would more clinch a system. And also impact any pitch of my own.

[TheGlyphstone]

I'm picturing something around middling power level, like early X-men comics. Stronger than the street-tier characters of Watchmen, but nothing approaching the interplanetary/galactic/cosmic power level of the top-tier heroes.

The default PL8 if we end up going for M&M3 after all; if we go with FATE, I'll work out the specific mechanics for that.

[Kolbrandr]

Ah alright, not quite my bag then, I'd have preferred to clock in at east at the pl 10 baseline of capacity.

I will just in a general advice sort of spirit note that is the other thing of FATE, the working out guidelines. It's both less work, yet more work, as you have to sort out what the benchmarks are and what stuff means, especially for supers which is all about the hell your powers can do in a lot of cases and such as they can't and their scope relative to others.

This probably sounds like I'm ragging on FATE generally, I'm really not. Works really great for Dresden for instance, I'm just aware of its shortcomings in particular situations in the face of a tendency for people to advocate FATE as a sort of one stop shop for any possible kind of rp.

[TheGlyphstone]

Is PL10 the 'average' level M*M expects? That was off the cuff while I finished watching Captain America.

EDIT: Okay, PL10 is what I meant. PL8 would be the Watchmen-level power, and I do want to exceed that.

[Kolbrandr]

10 is default start, yeah. 10 is.. mm.. to go all nerd ramblor, your Teen Titans, your New Warriors, the Outsiders, the Defenders lineups when Strange, Namor and the Silver Surfer are out of town, X-force, X-factor, certain early 90s X-men lineups sans specific people, that sort of scale of things. Various members of those teams would be pl 10, but built on more than 150 points for diversity of what they're capable of (in some cases well more than 150), but 10 otherwise clocks them in for scale of effectiveness.

To briefly go against myself, the main thing against M&M 3e is because of the changes to both skill points being more expensive, and impervious toughness kinda crapping out, some concepts are harder than others to do. Becoming bulletproof is a lot harder than you might think it would be, for instance, and being a skill monkey is painful.

edit: which is to say, you need to bling out your toughness save to 10 and then get impervious 10 to be able to make bullets go sproing off your eyeball without having to roll.

[TheGlyphstone]

Indeed. Plus, and one of the reasons why I'm still somewhat preferential to FATE despite it being a more generic system, is the math involved. PL limits, spending build points, balancing Toughness vs. Defense...it's a lot of number crunching, and certain things (like being bulletproof) are points-intensive and unintuitive. The biggest way to scare off habitual free-formers is the need to crunch numbers.

Using the Toolkit Mod for Superhero FATE, I'd probably just render Bulletproof Skin as a Fate point-powered Super Stunt. It's got its own quirks (your skin is bulletproof sometimes but not always?), but that does help encourage a player with Bulletproof Skin to accept more Compels, or even self-Compel their own aspects to keep their supply of points up.
http://fate-srd.com/fate-system-toolkit/supers

TBH, a big part of this is that I've never really seen FATE in play, and want to give it a solid shot.



EDIT:
Okay, so far we have:
Angie looking at a youthful super of indeterminate powerset (no system preference)
Batman4560 looking to play a speedster (no system preference)
Kolbrandr....interested? still not interested? (M&M preference)

[Kolbrandr]

Heh, that's actually why I'm not a huge fan of FATE for supers, though I grant what you're otherwise saying. I mean, it takes more wrangling to get there, but once you're bulletproof in M&M 3e, you're bulletproof. And that's more like the comics, where generally speaking, if you're bulletproof, you just are, and it's a basic thing. Bulletproof but sometimes not, needing the compels and quirks and temp points, it's.. well.. anti thematic. The Thing is never not the Thing, for instance, unless, you know, some kind of depowering ray is involved or what all ever, but that's an edge case at best. Colossus is just a dude in human form certainly, but as Colossus? He's never not Colossus. He's when metal'd all up a reliably eff off strong, eff off durable guy. His crap just works without fault. Bullets should be the least of a supertough brick type dude's concerns. Or someone in decent power armor, so forth. Any number of people's powers are just.. there.

With that said, don't mind me, if your heart is set on giving the FATE system a test drive, you should go for it.

Oh, I'd be interested if M&M pl 10 and the point total was a bit variable, I suppose to say.

[TheGlyphstone]

Yeah, it's hardly flawless. I suppose it could also be reflected as just a really high Physique value - I'll definitely be starting the Skill Pyramid at +5, and possibly giving out a free Stress box in each category to reflect above-human resilience by default. And there's always 'bulletproof' being relative, since players will be up against aliens with alien technology and weaponry.

But you're only interested if we use M&M, then? If a whole lot of people chime in with a preference for M&M, I'll use it instead, but I think I can make FATE work for this.

[Kolbrandr]

Basically, yeah. Don't take that as a reason to use M&M, no, it doesn't seem like anyone else has a strong preference in that direction.

[Elven Sex Goddess]

I have an idea for a 40 year old mutant gadgeteer.   That for the past 16 years or so been playing the soccer mom.

Madame Crafter

Her mutant abilities is she is literally a living rechargeable battery.  However,  unlike other heroes  she does not exhibit this power with enhanced physical characteristics or energy bolts.    Her other mutant ability is a neurotic  genius level inventor.   Where she makes special gadgets that are powered by herself.    To add flavor, the character dress and gadgets are in the style of steampunk.   

The concept of rechargeable battery is not infinite.   As noted rechargeable,  so pondering idea of either a solar recharging or just plain stick her finger in a socket.     

I know and have MM3, never done FATE.    I will go with what the group wants as my preference.   

[TheGlyphstone]

That's 2 for M&M, 1 ambivalent, and 2 unknowns then.

I have an idea for a 40 year old mutant gadgeteer.   That for the past 16 years or so been playing the soccer mom.

Her mutant abilities is she is literally a living rechargeable battery.  However,  unlike other heroes  she does not exhibit this power with enhanced physical characteristics or energy bolts.    Her other mutant ability is a neurotic  genius level inventor.   Where she makes special gadgets that are powered by herself.    To add flavor, the character dress and gadgets are in the style of steampunk.   

The concept of rechargeable battery is not infinite.   As noted rechargeable,  so pondering idea of either a solar recharging or just plain stick her finger in a socket.     

I know and have MM3, never done FATE.    I will go with what the group wants as my preference.   

So she'd have been born right around the end of the capes era (40 years ago)?

The original idea was for primarily much older characters - 60's and upward, though longevity drugs would keep them physically much younger. My draft concept was 'put down the canes and pick up the capes', but that was also inclusive of a more humor-oriented angle that might not fit here. If people prefer to play characters in their 40's-50's as the upper limit, I can compress the historical timeline somewhat.

[Elven Sex Goddess]

Yes,  right around that time.    She grew up with stories of the cape crusader days.   When she was a young girl she imagines herself as Madame Crafter.   Alas it never comes to fruition.   The genius level gal goes to college,  meets boy,   falls in love has two kids.    Ten years down the road,  no longer in love.   Divorce,  single mom,  despite abilities stressed out like any single mom would be.   Especially its been like 6 -7 years raising her children who are now teens.    When the event of the aliens happen.   An then a light bulb goes off in her head.   This is her chance to become the heroine Madame Crafter she always visioned in her head.    The world needs its heroes again.    So technically she is a newbie super.    However, she is not the brash young adult.   She a 40 year old woman who has two teenagers.  That put more gray hairs on her.  But thank god for Clairol hair color.   

[TheGlyphstone]

That works, though as mentioned, if the preferential trend is to have everyone naturally in their 40's-50's or so (I'll consider anything less than 40 to be a 'young' character for these purposes), then I'll just compress the time scale - 30 years since the end of the Capes era, and 15 since the last confirmed superhuman birth. Hopefully someone makes an actual retired superhuman, though the concept is flexible enough to work around a lack of actual 'old guard' PCs.

[Angie]

That works, though as mentioned, if the preferential trend is to have everyone naturally in their 40's-50's or so (I'll consider anything less than 40 to be a 'young' character for these purposes), then I'll just compress the time scale - 30 years since the end of the Capes era, and 15 since the last confirmed superhuman birth. Hopefully someone makes an actual retired superhuman, though the concept is flexible enough to work around a lack of actual 'old guard' PCs.

Heh, all this talk of old guards reminds me of X-COM, with the motto of the Genetics Division being "Mutare Ad Custodium" (Change to Guard). Either that or "Vigilo Confido" (Watch, I am confident) could work as actual mottos for our group too...

[TheGlyphstone]

Were you particularly preferential towards either FATE or the growing trend of M&M?

[Angie]

I'll go with whatever the group wants, though I will admit, I have been kinda wanting to play M&M for a while now.

[TheGlyphstone]

That's 3 in favor then, 1 ambivalent,and 1 undecided, so I guess M&M is in!  Help is available at need for creation.

PL10, and the standardized 150 build points for initial creation - if your character is over 60 years old and takes a bonus Complication related to your age in some way, you can start with a flat additional 10 build points (total of 160); I think that sounds like a fair boost in exchange for playing to the intended theme of the game. But before anyone starts crunching, I do want to discuss character concepts so that everyone doesn't end up playing the same thing.

[Angie]

I don't think I've ever done a supers game before, so I don't really know what I should do.

[TheGlyphstone]

Maybe take a look through the list of Archetypes (pre-generated generic characters), and see if any of them hook your muse?
http://www.d20herosrd.com/character-creation/archetypes

[Angie]

A psychic might actually be kinda fun.

[TheGlyphstone]

Sure - the psychic archetype comes with:
- a telepathic sixth-sense,
-telekinesis
-telekinetic armor
-flight
- telepathy/mind reading that can also be used to generate illusions or mind-blast enemies.
-Can swap the psychic illusion ability for a mind control effect.

That's a pretty good spread of offensive/defensive abilities, and comes with a very strong Will defense against mental effects.

[Angie]

I do kinda want to experiment with making my own, just to get a feel for the system (and using premades, to me, feels like cheating). I'll probably be basing it off the Pyschic Archetype though, and I do like how she has a lot of stuff she can do-I'm also not a fan of heroes that have one answer to everything ("What do you do, Cyclops?" "I shoot it with my laser...")

[TheGlyphstone]

That works too- one of the nice thingsabout the Archetypes is that they list how much everything costs. So if you don't like, say, the telekinetic flight, you can strip it out and have 10 points to spend on something else.

[Elven Sex Goddess]

That's 3 in favor then, 1 ambivalent,and 1 undecided, so I guess M&M is in!  Help is available at need for creation.

PL10, and the standardized 150 build points for initial creation - if your character is over 60 years old and takes a bonus Complication related to your age in some way, you can start with a flat additional 10 build points (total of 160); I think that sounds like a fair boost in exchange for playing to the intended theme of the game. But before anyone starts crunching, I do want to discuss character concepts so that everyone doesn't end up playing the same thing.

Concept - Gadgeteer  (steampunk style)  How I see the 40 year soccer mom in regards to her taking up the mantle of being a cape crusader with the alien invasion.   Is as Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker) of the cinematic comic movie of RED.    How she fits in with the old timers.   

[Angie]

Ooo, since I did make a few mentions of X-COM, can my character have some kind of military background? I don't think I've ever made a military man/woman before ever, and if we're going new, go all out!

[Elven Sex Goddess]

Advice on the rechargeable battery concept -  I am thinking to represent this to take with my  powering the gadget,  with the flaw tiring.    Does this sound feasible and plausible in regards to the concept.   

[eternaldarkness]

Oooh! I want in! I love supers games and I have a few great concepts for this! If it matters my vote is for M&M as I know it well and I loathe FATE utterly (its too ambiguous and lacks the 'crunch' I like for superhero games.

Character concepts-wise I'm thinking a former masked vigilante a'la batman who disappeared around the time heroes began retiring whose disappearance went unnoticed because no-one ever knew his identity and was actually captured and experimented upon by the aliens currently invading. His powers will be alien-induced mutations that do basically what his old tech did anyway, complete with an organic cape that is a mass of tentacles!

[TheGlyphstone]

Ooo, since I did make a few mentions of X-COM, can my character have some kind of military background? I don't think I've ever made a military man/woman before ever, and if we're going new, go all out!

That sounds great - I could see the military being a career for someone with innate powers but no cultural sense of them being anything special. And it'd give you a bit of seeming authority when dealing with civilians and/or mundane military, which could be quite useful as the story grows and resistance gets stronger.

Advice on the rechargeable battery concept -  I am thinking to represent this to take with my  powering the gadget,  with the flaw tiring.    Does this sound feasible and plausible in regards to the concept.   

Sure, that works fine - though looking at Tiring and how Fatigue works, you'll probably want to create your gadgets with only some of their ranks as Tiring, to represent a low-power and high-power setting; otherwise you'll be spending Victory Points like candy just to avoid passing out. And as for how you recharge - if it's bio-electrical in nature, it could just be tied directly to your metabolism. That'd fit the Tiring flaw thematically, and let you recover by eating a lot of food.

Oooh! I want in! I love supers games and I have a few great concepts for this! If it matters my vote is for M&M as I know it well and I loathe FATE utterly (its too ambiguous and lacks the 'crunch' I like for superhero games.

Character concepts-wise I'm thinking a former masked vigilante a'la batman who disappeared around the time heroes began retiring whose disappearance went unnoticed because no-one ever knew his identity and was actually captured and experimented upon by the aliens currently invading. His powers will be alien-induced mutations that do basically what his old tech did anyway, complete with an organic cape that is a mass of tentacles!

The aliens only showed up about 6 months ago - heroes started retiring 50-60 years ago, so the events weren't really related. But aside from that, your concept is oddly prescient to my plans - the aliens do capture humans, one of the low level mooks you'll encounter are infested humans.

I could see a batman-esque masked vigilante who tried to stage a solo attack on the invaders, failed due to the inhibitor field and was captured, but escaped partway through the infestation/experimentation process (Heroic Willpower!) and is now using his alien bio-tech grafts against them. Does that work for you?

[Batman4560]

I am familiar with second edition but have no clue about third. :(

[TheGlyphstone]

The SRD's linked in the opening post.

[Batman4560]

Cool, do you have a character sheet layout we are to use?

[TheGlyphstone]

Not yet. Before we start crunching, I want people talking about their character concepts to make sure it will all fit together as a team and make sense in the setting.

[Batman4560]

I actually have an old character I am going to try to de-level and convert over.

[TheGlyphstone]

Which is what the concept/discussion phase is for. No point in doing the de-leveling/conversion work if the character won't fit into the game. All you've said so far is 'speedster/assassin'.

[Batman4560]

Yeah, I wanted to make sure on the system we were using fist. I'll for sure be using a speedster with some sort of luck control if it works. An Irish Cowboy from the land of eternal youth. Traveled with Gypsies to learn his control over luck and manifested the ability to fire blasts from his finger tips a sort of "Spirit Gun".

[TheGlyphstone]

Okay, that's a start. Now how old is he, and how/where does he cope with a world whose technology has rendered superhumans obsolete?

[Elven Sex Goddess]

Sure, that works fine - though looking at Tiring and how Fatigue works, you'll probably want to create your gadgets with only some of their ranks as Tiring, to represent a low-power and high-power setting; otherwise you'll be spending Victory Points like candy just to avoid passing out. And as for how you recharge - if it's bio-electrical in nature, it could just be tied directly to your metabolism. That'd fit the Tiring flaw thematically, and let you recover by eating a lot of food.

I agree,  I was thinking the same thing.   An I also was running along the lines of bio-electrical in thought.   Through the metabolism did not,  like it.   As for the tiring,  I have been pondering the idea of tying a rank of tiring on the effect of activation to use the  item.   A unique situation as its applying it to another flaw such check required or activation roll.   That as the gadget powers up she infuses it with her bio electrical.    It only be like -1 pt gained from the tiring effect.  As I am not looking to crunch numbers, but instead looking to build the character close to the concept being envisioned.    So after it is powered up for the scene,  as in using her force field it be lost of 1 fatigue but using the blaster to channel my bio electrical into a beam with the mattel master blaster it be -1 every time I fired it.  Or the Wrangler anti grave harness would be like the the force field for the scene or for as long as in flight.   Once set down would need to reactivate.   

[TheGlyphstone]

Well, you have a lot of options for representing that sort of 'drain' effect.
-You could go with levels of Tiring - say, a Rank 12 energy blaster with 6 levels of Tiring on it; you'd be able to fire Rank 6 blasts freely, but every Rank 12 blast you fired would cost you a level of Fatigue. This works for something that draws directly from your energy supply whenever you activate it, tacking levels of fatigue rapidly or demanding Victory Points to stave it off.
-You could attach a Side Effect: Weaken or Side Effect: Affliction to it, making you test vs. Fatigue/Exhaustion/Incapacitation when using or trying to use it. This could be something that has a fluctuating power supply- maybe built-in capacitors that can store power, but need to recharge them from your body, and might end up drawing too much at an inconvenient time.
-If you want more potential gadgets than you can power at a time, but want to be able to switch between them, that's exactly what Alternate Effect Arrays are for - so the anti-gravity field might use the same control circuits as the force field, letting you either fly or have extra defense up - stuff like that.

[eternaldarkness]

The aliens only showed up about 6 months ago - heroes started retiring 50-60 years ago, so the events weren't really related. But aside from that, your concept is oddly prescient to my plans - the aliens do capture humans, one of the low level mooks you'll encounter are infested humans.

I could see a batman-esque masked vigilante who tried to stage a solo attack on the invaders, failed due to the inhibitor field and was captured, but escaped partway through the infestation/experimentation process (Heroic Willpower!) and is now using his alien bio-tech grafts against them. Does that work for you?

hmm. nah, that would change the feel I was going for too much. I think I'm going to just come up with something else.

[TheGlyphstone]

Alright, no rush. I plan on giving this until Monday for people to express interest/propose concepts/discussion interactions and histories, then pick the combination I think will work out best overall. So plenty of time to brainstorm.

What was the feel you were going for? Knowing the intended outcome helps me make better suggestions.

[Muse]

Am I not too late to express interest, then? :) 

Did you decide on Mutants and Masterminds? 

[TheGlyphstone]

Yeah, the overwhelming preference was for M&M, so that is the engine. I'll settle my craving for FATE another time.

And yes, you can still express interest - post up a concept/draft and we can hash it out. Recruitment will stay open till Monday, and anyone who doesn't get in originally will go on the reserves list to replace people who have to drop out.

[Elven Sex Goddess]

I have the concept put forth of the 40 year old   gadgeteer    I've notice a vilgante type banter about with a  Batman feel which means gadget concept character to a degree.   I also see more energy type characters.   I am good with that,  So to balance the party is now thinking more in lines of a 90 year old ex heroine.   Who is actually a A.I.  construct.   Been living as a normal human.   Likely with a transient job.   With the advent of the tech that rendered cape crusaders pointless.   The A.I. slipped into obscurity and anonymity fitting right in with all the new fangle  tech that enhanced people.   As a transient job,  a trucker.       A quasi martial artist/brick type.   A heavy hitter in the thick of drawing the firepower and blows of the bad guys.   Of course  she don't look ninety,  she looks more in her late twenties to early thirties.   

Anyways another concept put forth as were brainstorming to help round out the party if it gets too top heavy in one direction.   

[TheGlyphstone]

I don't think the alien-hybrid Batman concept is on the table anymore, Endless Darkness decided it wasn't going to work. So you don't have to ditch your soccer-mom gadgeteer just yet, though I also like the robot bruiser.

Are you posting from a phone or something? Your spacing/syntax looks really weird there.

[Kolbrandr]

I feel like my concepts as I noodle them out are a bit grandiose to go with the vibe you have in mind here as far as the situations of retired heroes, which I don't want to force you out of, going to withdraw. Which, ha, when I started the M&M wave there (though it went well beyond me obviously) I kinda feel crappy about, but I also think thematic campaign integrity is important, and I keep straining at its edges when I plot each thing out.

[TheGlyphstone]

Unfortunate, but okay.

[Angie]

Since I'm playing the "Kid" of the group, I imagine my Psychic girl actually only recently learned that she even has powers-being Psychic, her powers probably caused colossal headaches so she's been on migraine medication up until the alien invasion, and it wasn't that the meds stopped working, it was that she stopped taking them because with the whole invasion thing and emergency services tied up it was impossible to get them. Then she realized, as the headaches returned, it was Psychic power desperately trying to get out.

[TFcommando]

It looks like there's still space and I love M&M 3e, so how about this...

A sexy sorceress prodigy, bit of a femme fatale with revealing costume, playful banter, sometimes scandalous... back then.  She helped the genius inventors work out some sort of dimensional barrier to keep demons and elder gods away from Earth for good, and helped herself right out of her main duty as a sorceress. 

Since then, she's spent her time writing books and teaching classes on the magical lifestyle, the philosophical aspects (and maybe the tantric sex magic parts of it)... she doesn't have a real apprentice, since you can buy a phone with superpower apps at the Targ-Mart instead of studying for years.  She's also let herself go a little from her prime and is now more MILF-y than supermodel in appearance.  Still acts racy and suggestive though.

Power-wise, a variety of magical blasts, teleportation, anti-magic powers (Deflection and Nullify), move object.

[TheGlyphstone]

Heh. Sounds great.

[TFcommando]

A question on technology... was super-inventor tech everywhere, and now nothing works (save for hobbyists who like the old cars and guns?) or are there still some things working, like keeping the lights on and the cars running?  Because if it really is a dark ages level, a lot of humanity could die off very quickly (See SM Stirling's Dies the Fire for an exploration of a sudden return to medieval tech levels) and the world would be beyond saving. 

My hero might be even older than she looks, thanks to magical gene, to be closer to the 30 year retirement timeline.  "Are you still acting like that after all this time?"  "Darling, I've perfected it!"

It also strikes me that training some apprentices would be one way to help fight back against the aliens.  Finding those with talent would naturally be a challenge (and they'd probably be in dangerous, inhospitable places, in need of rescue!).

[TheGlyphstone]

So the way I'm picturing it, the inhibitor fields aren't blanketing 100% of the Earth from the start. They're projected, emanating from some unknown sources (potentially a mystery/plot to pursue at some point) that the aliens deploy to protect their forces and cripple opposition. So anyone inside the fields is reduced to muscle-powered transport and black-powder weaponry - effectively a handful of antiques or museum pieces, since super-tech has been around so long; but outside the areas covered by the fields, civilization can persist on the local level as long as it doesn't appear to be offering anything that looks like resistance to the alien harvesters. There are lots of problem areas with the lack of long-distance transportation and a heck of a lot of people are dead (mostly in the large cities), but there's still hope. The Emberverse is awesome, but I want to tell an alien-invasion story, not a post-apocalyptic one.

[Elven Sex Goddess]

Just to flesh out my understanding of the backdrop.  A alien invasion comes, harvesters of earth's resources.  Most of the large cities destroyed.  A EMT type device that is not world wide, yet is used effectively against the mounted defense forces of earth, nullifying the tech equipment with surgical strikes.  That small towns,  that do not resist have no military associate with it.  Are left to their own devices.  Now the questions I have.  Is there a like aspect of 'V'.  Will there be alien sympathizers, that assist the aliens.  If technology is been in most cases rendered inoperative.  Does that mean no internet, no broadcast of television and like cell phones.  Are there exceptions to the technology.  Like in the Pacific Rim.  Where the digital Jaegers are knocked inoperative.  However the analog nuclear are not effected.   Sorry for the questions, just wanted to get an idea of your vision scope of what you conceive with the world setting.   

[TheGlyphstone]

TBH, I'm making a lot of this up as I go along, so keep the questions coming! The more you ask, the more I have to answer, and the more fleshed-out the world gets.

Early stages: More or less, yes. The largest cities have been destroyed and/or colonized; I'm imagining the 'first strike' was a series of kinetic impact attacks on large cities, from projectiles that then 'hatched' into attacking swarms. The nullifier effect is very EMP-like, but it's more of a persistent radius effect than a pulse - anything electrical or electronic in the field just shuts off and can't function.

Alien collaborators/sympathizers- there were quite a few of them early on in the invasion, but they disappeared pretty rapidly. The aliens don't communicate with people, but it's obvious they consider humans to be just another resource to be harvested, so the problem of people trying to assist the aliens solved itself. Captives mostly disappear into the hive complexes (yeah, I'm being lazy and going with a Bug Swarm theme), but some of them do reappear as 'thralls', humans with opaque bubble-like helmets on their heads and obviously completely under the control of the invaders - they get used as cannon fodder, living shields, and disposable scouts by alien forces.

Communications: Long-distance communication is extremely spotty. Prior to the invasion, Earth had a ton of satellites in orbit, and probably some outright orbital colonies, but they're all gone now. With the loss of the satellite networks, most communication is limited to line-of-sight or hardline setups; you might still have a portable phone, but without any relay points, it's limited in use. The internet (or whatever replaced it) is all but obliterated, since the servers and data centers were located in the cities. Television works if you can find one and are in range of a local broadcasting station - the big studios, again, were in the cities, but there's still surviving local stations in operation.

Exceptions: The field only suppresses electrical/electronic devices. This description applied to well over 90% of Earth's technology by this point, I'm thinking cheap, portable cold fusion or something similarly sci-fi, but chemical reactions and biological phenomena aren't suppressed. So an internal combustion engine or a laser rifle would be disabled, but a gunpowder weapon or a steam engine (if you could find someone who knew how to make it) still works. So your gadgeteer concept's devices would have been exempt, since they were fueled by bio-electricity; if you decide you want to pursue the android/gynoid idea instead, we can work something out.

[TFcommando]

Yes, since my concept is playful/flirty/outrageous/exhibitionistic, I want to make sure her feel isn't at odds with the setting.

Have you ever read Strikeforce: Moritori?  It had an alien invasion by aliens who travelled from planet to planet to loot... they were tough fighters and used the technology they stole (that they could understand) to great advantage.  They stayed in orbit over Earth and descended to raid wherever they felt like... they had total control over the skies, so it was all in-city fighting. Life continued as somewhat normal, with a heightened state of readiness and defense.  Since they wanted to pillage instead of destroy, they weren't bombarding the planet from orbit.  The Earth developed a way to make people superhuman, at the cost of all but a year of their life at most.  Great book.

The aliens might not need to black out all the world... if they could demonstrate it and keep it on in a few places, and that they can do it to anywhere else who resists at any time, most people would go along if they keep the lights on.  Speaking of "V,"  the TV series had LA as a free city like Casablanca, where there was no military activity from either side, and both could mingle and communicate (and spy, of course).  A place like that could be interesting. 

Though there's been a reply since I started this too.  With a lot of communication down, the heroes might be the ones linking civilization together, delivering mail and the hope that goes with it, coordinating resistance and so on as well.

Regarding invulnerability, Impervious is a bit tricky to use, but another option is Immunity.  Immunity to Bullets costs a mere 5 points and is absolute.  In this case, you'd want to go with Immunity to Energy Weapons, since that'd be the most common weapon the bad guys would be using. 

I'm thinking of Catteyla from Queen's Blade as her body model.  (NSFW)  https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/71956915/CatteylaB.png

[Angie]

It's good to see TF involved with this-hi TF, how's it going?

[TheGlyphstone]

-A sexy/exhibitionist character is fine, as long as you're not going in looking for fun sexytimes with aliens. Human-alien direct interactions will have a distinct horror-esque flavor to it.

-Never read it, but it sounds interesting, and I can see some parallels. Here, the invaders are methodically, if somewhat slowly, strip-mining the Earth of everything it could possibly have of value, so they do need a consistent land-based presence. Surviving human resistance cells generally hide in valleys, caves, old mines, and other places where they're safe from orbital drops or kinetic strikes.

-The aliens definitely don't black out the whole world, the communications breakdown is primarily a side effect of the destruction of infrastructure during the fighting. Anything that threatens them or gets in the way of their harvesting gets squashed, but otherwise they pretty much ignore humans they're not in the process of collecting. The idea of the heroes working to set up communications and coordinate a larger resistance effort is an awesome one - I can see that as a big milestone along the road to victory.

The alien weaponry will mostly be bio-based, actually, to go with their bug-swarm theme. Crushing claws, Piercing spines, acid sprays, etc. And yeah, M&M is pretty easy to smash into a bazillion pieces, so all I plan to do on that front is 'please don't'. :D Something like Immunity to Acid could be justified if it fit the character; Immunity to Biological will get a 'NO' and a scowly face.

[Angie]

I'm going to just presume that my psychic powers are able to affect the aliens, or you probably would have said something before now!

[TheGlyphstone]

Absolutely. There might even be times when having a psychic will be extra beneficial in that regards...

[eternaldarkness]

I'm going to bow out of this one. The setting is putting a serious cramp in my style though it sounded cool at first.

[TheGlyphstone]

I'm going to bow out of this one. The setting is putting a serious cramp in my style though it sounded cool at first.

Unfortunate, but okay. Pity I don't know what your style is/was, accomodation might have been possible.

So, our current roster so far looks like:
TFCommando - sorceress/magician
Angiejuusan - youthful psychic
-ElvenSexGoddess - Unknown, gadgeteer or gynoid?

Muse - expressed interest?
-Batman4560 - expressed interest, speedster?


That's 3 definite and 2 possibles. I'll keep on schedule by starting up an OOC/character creation thread tomorrow, but recruiting will stay open until I have 4-5 concepts that I like.

[TFcommando]

-A sexy/exhibitionist character is fine, as long as you're not going in looking for fun sexytimes with aliens. Human-alien direct interactions will have a distinct horror-esque flavor to it.

-Never read it, but it sounds interesting, and I can see some parallels. Here, the invaders are methodically, if somewhat slowly, strip-mining the Earth of everything it could possibly have of value, so they do need a consistent land-based presence. Surviving human resistance cells generally hide in valleys, caves, old mines, and other places where they're safe from orbital drops or kinetic strikes.

-The aliens definitely don't black out the whole world, the communications breakdown is primarily a side effect of the destruction of infrastructure during the fighting. Anything that threatens them or gets in the way of their harvesting gets squashed, but otherwise they pretty much ignore humans they're not in the process of collecting. The idea of the heroes working to set up communications and coordinate a larger resistance effort is an awesome one - I can see that as a big milestone along the road to victory.

The alien weaponry will mostly be bio-based, actually, to go with their bug-swarm theme. Crushing claws, Piercing spines, acid sprays, etc. And yeah, M&M is pretty easy to smash into a bazillion pieces, so all I plan to do on that front is 'please don't'. :D Something like Immunity to Acid could be justified if it fit the character; Immunity to Biological will get a 'NO' and a scowly face.

Are the aliens baffling and completely inhuman, like the Mi-Go?  Some of the references made me think of them, the mining, the bug-theme, the body-horror and such.  The ship too, ala Cthulhutech.

Other options were "Less advanced people with some superior technology..."  the sorts who are barbarous and greedy, invading for fun as well as profit, because they can, and the "more advanced people," who simply don't care about "lesser" beings, like the Earthlings who were here first.

[Angie]

Are the aliens baffling and completely inhuman, like the Mi-Go?  Some of the references made me think of them, the mining, the bug-theme, the body-horror and such.  The ship too, ala Cthulhutech.

Other options were "Less advanced people with some superior technology..."  the sorts who are barbarous and greedy, invading for fun as well as profit, because they can, and the "more advanced people," who simply don't care about "lesser" beings, like the Earthlings who were here first.

As long as they're not Cryssalids, dear god, please no.

[Angie]

Oh hey, Glyph, any idea where in the world will we be starting? Will we be swiping an established universe, using our own world, or something new?

[TheGlyphstone]

Are the aliens baffling and completely inhuman, like the Mi-Go?  Some of the references made me think of them, the mining, the bug-theme, the body-horror and such.  The ship too, ala Cthulhutech.

Other options were "Less advanced people with some superior technology..."  the sorts who are barbarous and greedy, invading for fun as well as profit, because they can, and the "more advanced people," who simply don't care about "lesser" beings, like the Earthlings who were here first.

Enigmatic and inhuman at first for certain, at least in-chararacter.  Much less Cthulhu/Mi-Go and more the bad guys from Independence Day, though. I've got some cards related to this  that I am holding close to my chest right now, because the info could relate to one of the many possible victory conditions, but I can spill zee beans OOC on request.

As long as they're not Cryssalids, dear god, please no.

Oh, I plan on finding inspiration stealing liberally from all sorts of other media. Alien, Zerg, Tyranids, X-COM, Cthulhu...Chryssalid Zombies are quite tame compared to the process that creates a Thrall, for instance. >:)

Oh hey, Glyph, any idea where in the world will we be starting? Will we be swiping an established universe, using our own world, or something new?

Well, it's Earth. I was wavering between having the resistance cell/camp the game starts at be in the Appalachian mountains - like, West Virginia-ish, or in the eastern Rocky Mountains, but I'm open to alternative suggestions. US mountainous regions just came to me first for locality.

[Angie]

I asked because I kinda hit upon the idea of my character being Japanese (I'm building her as we speak, er, type), so I can fit anywhere, I just kinda wanted to know where we are.

[TheGlyphstone]

Ah, okay. Sadly, I know very little about Asian geography, so exploring there will have to come later.

[Angie]

Ah, okay. Sadly, I know very little about Asian geography, so exploring there will have to come later.

I was figuring more family of immigrants anyway. The parents know of Etsuko's powers and her (current) status as a costumed hero, and while they don't like the whole 'risking your life' thing, they do like the whole doing good with her gifts thing. And yes, they are a Complication!

[TheGlyphstone]

Presumably living in a small town or one of the countryside refugee camps, then? Family-related Complications make me cackle with evil anticipation. :D

[Angie]

Presumably living in a small town or one of the countryside refugee camps, then? Family-related Complications make me cackle with evil anticipation. :D

There's also an uncle who is a former hero-he got permanently retired after getting hit with something that turned his powers off permanently. I'll PM you the background info when I'm done with it.

[Angie]

So I had almost all of my points spent...then I accidentally clicked the X on that tab and closed the sheet. And when I reopened the tab, all my work was gone.

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I remember what I was gonna do, though, so, I should be able to just rebuild it.

[TheGlyphstone]

[Elven Sex Goddess]

Well I am glad to see Muse and Batman4560 both interested.    Like the concepts of both  Angiejuusan and TFommando.

TFCommando are you with your magic going to go with like a alternating effect to use different powers to achieve a spell repertoire.   Then we have a psychic and a speedster.   Not sure what Batman is going to play.    As of right now I leaning towards the gynoid to flesh out the party with a tank like character.   Someone to rip off doors and such.    Through I can still go with my gadgeteer steampunk style gal.    As for sheet I have only in mind got it down for both,  could whip either up quick.   

[Angie]

Well I am glad to see Muse and Batman4560 both interested.    Like the concepts of both  Angiejuusan and TFommando.

TFCommando are you with your magic going to go with like a alternating effect to use different powers to achieve a spell repertoire.   Then we have a psychic and a speedster.   Not sure what Batman is going to play.    As of right now I leaning towards the gynoid to flesh out the party with a tank like character.   Someone to rip off doors and such.    Through I can still go with my gadgeteer steampunk style gal.    As for sheet I have only in mind got it down for both,  could whip either up quick.   

My Psychic has a lot of Telepathic powers, and is shaping up to be somewhat Rogue-ish for anyone concerned-she can make herself mostly invisible and she's got a ton of Face skills, her only combat ability is an automatic hit, Resisted by Will Blast. Just so people know.

[TheGlyphstone]

Face skills will also be useful - the aliens are the Big Threat, but they're not the only thing out there. You might need to negotiate or bargain with other resistance groups. Once in a while there might be a former supervillain who's decided to set themselves up as a warlord. Or even weirder things, who knows.

Well I am glad to see Muse and Batman4560 both interested.    Like the concepts of both  Angiejuusan and TFommando.

TFCommando are you with your magic going to go with like a alternating effect to use different powers to achieve a spell repertoire.   Then we have a psychic and a speedster.   Not sure what Batman is going to play.    As of right now I leaning towards the gynoid to flesh out the party with a tank like character.   Someone to rip off doors and such.    Through I can still go with my gadgeteer steampunk style gal.    As for sheet I have only in mind got it down for both,  could whip either up quick.   

Any reason you can't do both, with a suit of steampunk armor to tank hits with? Aside from it just not fitting the image you had going for her, obviously; if she's never had to go 'professional' with her abilities and just tinkered as a side hobby, having a fully functional power suit stored away in her garage behind the minivan might not be what you wanted.



I definitely plan to have various plot opportunities available to pursue based on people's power sets, so everyone can offer something unique. For example, having a psychic who can potentially communicate with the invaders non-technologically opens up all sorts of possibilities, for information-gathering if nothing else. A bio-mechanical gadgeteer genius might be able to use or reverse-engineer the alien bio-technology; comparatively, a sentient android/gynoid somehow immune to the inhibitor fields could be a potential route towards developing anti-inhibitor defenses. Sky's the limit, so don't feel constrained to have specific 'party roles' at the cost of fleshed-out and interesting characters.

[Angie]

Oh, I wasn't building Etsuko as a Rogue/Face, it just kinda came up that way after I started making powers-I realized she would do really well as a Rogue so I ran with it.

[TFcommando]

Well I am glad to see Muse and Batman4560 both interested.    Like the concepts of both  Angiejuusan and TFommando.

TFCommando are you with your magic going to go with like a alternating effect to use different powers to achieve a spell repertoire.   Then we have a psychic and a speedster.   Not sure what Batman is going to play.    As of right now I leaning towards the gynoid to flesh out the party with a tank like character.   Someone to rip off doors and such.    Through I can still go with my gadgeteer steampunk style gal.    As for sheet I have only in mind got it down for both,  could whip either up quick.   

Thanks!  You're correct on my approach. She's heavy on the flashy attack spells, with flying and teleportation.

I liked the gadgeteer steampunk concept... her alternative technology will still be functioning and she'll be able to set up alternative solutions to keep civilization going under the null fields.  Plus you could give her a clockwork exoskeleton/power loader if you want the heavy lifting covered. And an airship for the group vehicle!  :)

[TheGlyphstone]

Oh yeah, and a specialist in extradimensional travel/protection. I'm certain that will come in handy somehow against an invasion of aliens from another dimension. :D

[TheGlyphstone]

We now have an official OOC thread, for all our character creation/sheet discussion and approval needs.

https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=225503.0

I'm holding the last two spots open for now, to see if Muse or Batman come back with solid character concepts. Anyone else who wants in can still express interest with a concept - there will be a reserve list for replacement PCs if someone drops out or changes their mind.

[eternaldarkness]

Actually, I may have a concept that will work for this after all if you're still looking - an immortal neanderthal who is perhaps the oldest superhero of them all!

[TheGlyphstone]

I'm intrigued, tell me more. It certainly takes the 'retired oldster' theme to its practical limit.

[eternaldarkness]

I'm intrigued, tell me more. It certainly takes the 'retired oldster' theme to its practical limit.

I'm thinking of a Vandal Savage-esque character who somehow got immortality and enhanced intelligence somehow waaay back in prehistoric times and has been around ever since. Very much a brick/tank kinda guy, because intelligence or no he's still a neanderthal :D basically, the group's Hulk. Superstrength, maybe enhanced durability or regeneration, stuff like that.

[TheGlyphstone]

Is he actually Immortal, Highlander style, or just immune to aging like Vandal Savage? I'm not against either, just curious what you're envisioning and how being that old (whether or not he's spent that long conscious and active versus sleeping/hibernating/'dead') would affect him.

[eternaldarkness]

Is he actually Immortal, Highlander style, or just immune to aging like Vandal Savage? I'm not against either, just curious what you're envisioning and how being that old (whether or not he's spent that long conscious and active versus sleeping/hibernating/'dead') would affect him.

I'm thinking he's just extremely long-lived, to the point that he isn't going to die of aging but can still be killed - he's lived this long by dint of sheer awesomeness. When you have all of recorded history and then some to learn new things, you tend to get kind of amazing, though i'm going to play it as he's forgotten more things than most living beings will ever know, and probably give him some trait or power to represent that he can pull up random knowledge and skills he's learned over his lifetime. Maybe say that big 'ol neanderthal brain just has a lot of storage capacity, but it's hard to actively recover it. His main thing though is being a big badass bruiser. That just doesn't mean he'll be the big dumb guy, even if other people believe he is in fact stupid (and he wouldn't do anything to make them believe otherwise; people underestimating him works to his advantage).

[TheGlyphstone]

Okay, you've sold me. Wander on over to the OOC thread and we can start crunching numbers.

[Batman4560]

Hey guys, sorry I have been away for the weekend but here is my basic back story/concept for my character:

Eoin Barodoo was born in the land of Tir Na Nog (The land of eternal youth.) Where he was told that should he ever leave the island he would live forever and stop aging but should he ever return home his life would be drained from his body. Eoin spent the first 20 years of his life like any man from his era over 200 years ago. Learning to fight with blades, fists, hunt and farm. On his 25th birthday Eoin set out on his own to live a new life. It wasn't long before Eoin ran into a band of traveling Gypsies who took him in and taught him about luck and how to harness the seemingly magical life energy. He learned to manipulate the luck of others and his own in various ways, from boosting his own reflexes to firing blasts of pure luck from his finger tips and even causing others luck to go south. After Eoin learned everything he could from the women he traveled to America and took on the name John Winchester.

There he developed a sharp mind, and became something of an inventor. Eoin invented the first revolver and eventually founded Winchester Rifles and coined the phrase "The Gun that Won the West." After founding the company Eoin settled down and had children with a wife, leaving his company in good hands then, after a few years he vanished...Eventually he sprang back up as a masked hero in the guise of a Cowboy calling himself the Ace of Spades. He garnered a high amount of fame in the 70 years that he was a hero and he found that his powers were constantly advancing and developing.

As time went on and the world advanced Eoin found he was no longer needed to help protect it and he once again vanished...That was until the invasion started. Without giving it a second thought Eoin dawned his suit again and joined in the fight for earth.
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So as it stands that is the basic concept for my character. I haven't looked at the available powers yet for 3rd edition but the basic idea is that he is a learned individual with a few powers (Luck control, super speed, blast, and anti-aging. Maybe a power to boost his stats or absorb some form of damage. More to develop.) and alot of feats and some high dex, and intelligence.

If that would work in your story?

[TheGlyphstone]

Sure, looks good. The OOC thread is linked above, where we can discuss how to replicate what you're looking for in 3e mechanical terms.


And that looks like a full set of five. If you're still interested and show up sometime soon, Muse, I can probably handle 6, but this is currently closed to new interest at this time.