Thank you all for coming. There's a few things we need to do before gameplay gets underway. As this is a character-focused campaign, the characters are the most important. I need things to build on so please make sure to choose a few complications at the very least.
Also, here are details I'd like you to expand on:
Family situation (emphasis on the relationship with parents/parental figures)
Short-term and long-term goals
Specifically, why do you want to be a certified hero
In this setting, as I put in the initial post, all characters must have been assisted by the government to either enhance rather weak powers or gain more control over erratic powers. This detail is what separates you from the other "normal" supers and is a secret that binds the group together.
Other details are welcome. The more you put down the more I have to work with, but please don't go too crazy.
Greetings to everyone, and thank you for the opportunity to play.
Family Relationship : Elsi's on good terms with her parents. She's always been on fairly good terms with them. They are very much 'Country and Crown' types, and thus are almost always working, one in MI-6 offices, and the other in the field. Elsi's day to day 'Parent' was her Nanny, Lady Ogden, however, Lady Ogden died of a heart attack (congenital defect) several months ago. This is part of what pushed her to go out and see more of the world.
Short Term Goals : Elsi's short term goals are to see what life is like as a normal college student. She's spent most of her life working for MI-6, scanning top secret files, doing intelligence analysis, and reading the Queen's Library from attic to basement. Her current social skills are.. underdeveloped.
Long-Term Goals : To push her powers further, develop them, broaden them, and to also prove to herself that she is more than just her powers.
Why a Hero : Elsi is tired of hiding her powers, and wants to be able to use them openly without having to worry about who has clearance or not. However, she also has a sense of duty (that whole Crown and Country thing her parents gave her in spades), so she can't just go out and start using them willy nilly as a vigilante or villain, so she's going through the proper channels.
Power Development : Elsi's powers were originally rather weak, she could read books without looking at them, and make up to 4 or 5 fly around. Her memory she was born with. MI-6 pushed her harder and harder to develop her paper sense and ability to absorb languages from her books. They pushed it hard. They didn't really care about the ability to move and manipulate paper, nor her ability to defend herself with it, but it was a package deal. Elsi's looking forward to people who are not going to whine about her 'wasted effort' developing the other abilities.
Elsi has a tendency to be rather...odd...with her powers. For example, she routinely (in her quarters) has several odd paper golems that hang around and perform routine thing for her, clean, fetch, and so forth (Paper Golems based off the 'zombie' robot template, 5 points of tech pool, 4 for one, 1 for a second). She also has plans for several vehicles made out of paper. Her favorite is a Lamborghini Estoque concept car replica. Her 'paintjob' is superhardened photographic paper colored to replicate the car's paint job and trim. Up close, it has a faint 'paper sheet' look to it, similar to ghosted flames, but it just looks like a custom paintjob. The windows are real glass she had made however, because transparent paper is something she hasn't found yet. (Based off an 'armored truck' template from the vehicle section, taking 15 pts from her equipment pool).
How many 'paper construct' plans can she have already completed before the game starts? Once she has the plans memorized, it just takes paper and time to make them/change them.
Hi there, I'm here. I'll get to the details tomorrow, as I'm at a face to face game.
By the way, where are we located?
I'll make Allison's profile and get stuff all sorted out tomorrow. ^^
Located?
Kinda quasi-generic near big city suburb area, but we can declare it near Seattle.
Oh, in that case, I need to alter my contacts that are in NY to be in Seattle. I'd assumed we were pulling an alternate X-Men mansion university thing, which is usually outside NY. :P
Hello everyone!
I will get down to making my guy's profile and filling out the details you want, but I am not sure I can do so today. I also need to come up with a different name as there is already a profile called Michael Gray it seems.
You can include a "." in the name somewhere not too conspicuous if by some crazy chance someone else has used your name or one weirdly similar to it...
Family situation (emphasis on the relationship with parents/parental figures): Betsy's an orphan (or so she assumes at least). However, as much as she'd claim that she and Killer Shark were partners, she really does look at him as a paternal figure; it's probably a big part of why he essentially dropped her off at school. She's not good enough to not eventually get herself killed (no matter what she thinks), and his own issues with family made that grim likelihood something he couldn't ignore.
No one's tried it recently, but when they were running together, it wasn't uncommon for one psycho-villain or another to kidnap her or otherwise strike at Killer Shark through her.
Short-term and long-term goals
Specifically, why do you want to be a certified hero: Damned if she's going back to running her little lame-ass grifts, she's got a taste for costumed craziness, but villains are all crazy. Besides, if she's gonna work with Killer Shark again she needs to get her cert. And if she's gonna turn down working with him again, she definitely needs to get her cert.
In this setting, as I put in the initial post, all characters must have been assisted by the government to either enhance rather weak powers or gain more control over erratic powers. This detail is what separates you from the other "normal" supers and is a secret that binds the group together.
Some early tests indicated that there was a chance that if properly (or at least aggressively) trained, her brains combined with her hyperawareness could lead to a sort of probability based ESP, possibly even limited precognition.
More details (and an actually filled in profile) to come
What's Your Family Situation? Allison was raised as part of a communal group*. Her parents are a part of this group, albeit minor members, who were accepted along with Allison when she was first recruited. She's quite loyal to them, but while she's expected to eventually take over as the leader of the group, for now they still exercise a fair bit of authority over her (and she generally goes along with what she's told).
*: See the Deep Background at the bottom of this alias.
What are your short-term and long-term goals? Allison's short-term goals involve increasing her connection to the source of her magical powers, which is key to reaching her full potential. Long-term, she's hoping to become a known quantity to the government and other heroic figures - basically, expanding her social circle to make it easier to act in the future.
Specifically, why do you want to be a certified hero? Allison feels that certification as a hero is one of the best ways to expand her social network and become accepted by the world at large. Her organization is relatively secretive, but with proliferating powers in the world, she figures it's impossible to stay hidden forever. Instead, she'd like to have them go a little public on their own terms (and talked them into this by leaning on her status as future leader).
Michael Grey?
Mike Gray?
Mike Grey?
Irish : Mícheál Gray? Mícheál Grey?
Russian : Mikael Gray? Mikael Grey?
Thanks for the suggestions guys, but I think I will actually go with an even more Greek-sounding name: Jason Marko (from Iason Markou). Which means that both of his parents are Greeks that have been living in Britain long enough to also have the British citizenship.
Kjersti's parents are not supportive. They are religious and don't like her being a dancer, they caught her kissing a girl. They wouldn't appreciate having a superhero, so they'll never know. Allejandra's mother supports her, and knows she has abilties. Her father isn't in the picture. Derek's parents think that he's going to college. They support him generally, but they've never understood each other.
For their goals, they feel that since they've got these powers, they need to use them for good. Power corrupts, so they've chosen to specifically work to help people. Purpose gives them focus, something to strive for.
On a personal level, finding love is something they want. Each of them dated in their previous lives, but before they completely integrated it always felt off. As if there was something missing. Now they want to find somebody who loves them for themselves.
For the governemnt experimentation, I was thinking of a division that focused on more psychic experimentation. Perhaps a group less supported than the biological and super-science groups. They arranged for grants for class trips to bring all three to Washington DC. A glitch in homeland's records got each of them to a facility to bring them together around a crystal amplifier. That allowed them to fully merge and become one.
What's your family situation?
Jason is on good, even excellent, terms with his parents.
Admittedly, his father, Stephen, is out of his depth and still more than a little confused about the fact that demigodhood so to speak runs in his wife's family. He is nevertheless taking it all in stride. Even so, he is concerned for his son's well-being, as powers or not, he thinks that putting himself in dangerous situations, be it training or actual confrontations with other powered beings, will sooner or later result in Jason getting hurt.
His mother, Elena, on the other hand, is much more accustomed to her son's having such abilities, since she has heard about such people in her ancestry before. She is still his mother so she is concerned about him, but she wants him to reach his full potential. Not only because that is what parents want for their children, but also because she has heard the stories of what happened to those ancestors of hers who had not managed to do. It was not pretty. Whether it was because they had lost control of their powers, thus being consumed by them, or because of something or someone else, the records are fuzzy on that part.
Both of them, though proud of him, believe that he may have bitten more than he can chew by wanting to balance superpower training and medical studies.
What are your short-term and long-term goals?
Short-term (though short is relevant) he wants to get a better hang of his abilities. He suspects what he can do now is only an inkling of his true power, power he can do great good with. He also wants to study medicine and wants to try and find a balance between his two goals, difficult though it may be.
Long term, becoming a good doctor and helping people through not just lifting really heavy things and punching other mean things is definitely important for him. He cannot also deny however the change he can effect and the good he can do not only locally but perhaps in a grander scale if or when his powers develop and evolve.
Specifically, why do you want to be a certified hero?
Jason's motive is simple enough and two-fold really. On one hand, he wants to do good, not simply because he feels it is his responsibility, having the powers that he has. But really because he is fundamentally a good guy. Not always a nice guy, but still good. On the other hand, he cannot deny the excitement and the adventure of it all despite the dangers and risks that come hand in hand with the former.
In this setting all characters must have been assisted by the government to either enhance rather weak powers or gain more control over erratic powers.
Jason's powers are still in their infancy for various reasons. It has been a very long time since the last such person in his mother's family line had been born. Thus, the power in his blood has been dormant for a long time. Not only that, but even when they first manifest, it takes some time for the body to grow strong enough to contain and control them fully, though facing and overcoming challenges can speed up the process. There is one more thing however, and that is Jason's own doubts and self-imposed limits. Excited though he is about having them, he is also more than a little worried about how well he can control them, especially as they grow, and whether he may unwittingly end up hurting someone.
I think that's everyone yes?
What's next GM?
I'm making some notes on a word document, but I will be messaging each player privately for some more secretive details. Though I firmly believe an open communication between players keeps confusion to a minimum, I have also begun to appreciate a slight mystery and rapturous development keeps most parties invested.
For now however, as a blanket source of information for me to use, please follow this link.
This is something I use for D&D games to flesh out characters and give them flaws, mistakes, and important things that I can break.
....
I mean....well, yeah, break.
Message me the details you feel are pertient to your character, and while you all are working on that, it should give me enough time to put together the first day.
Oh, and also at the end tell me what stereotypical school event or trope you'd like to see. This is supposed to be a fun romp through college, but with superpowers.
All the stuff that feels relevant to me is in the 'Deep Background' bit of Allison's profile. ^^
(More immediately... this character was designed with the idea that the group supporting them has at least a basic level of competence. XD So disruptions to the source of their power are bad, not to mention kind of cheap as a plot device. Bigger knives for them are things like challenges to their future control of said group, convincing the government that they're worth accepting, and obligations to hit a certain level of performance.)
PM sent
So where are we in getting going?
I suspect (Hope?) the GM is still waiting on someone to send him their PM.
EDIT : GM's status on his main alt :
24 April2018 Update
Currently trying to not fail a fairly large assignment in Java coding. It all makes sense in lecture and then the homework makes no sense at all....
Anywho, don't expect too much until at least after Wednesday.
I'm in another game with Default, real life does intermittently give his posting-times a wallop, but there'll usually be a note in his tagline if he expects to be out of contact.
Gotcha. ^^ Thanks for letting us know.
In the meantime... what sorts of shenanigans do you think your character is most likely to get into? (Everyone)
Elsibeth is most likely to be found in the library (at least the first month or so, until she's read all the books in it, then she'll still hang out there, but not as much. She feels more at home around books).
She'll have a couple of paper golems that follow her around, running errands and doing small things for her. That's likely to annoy people, or scare them, depending on whether they know her or not.
Oh, and if you have a diary, make it a video diary, as she basically almost instinctively reads all paper within about 100 ft of her just walking around. And her paper sense means she can speed read a book all at once (10 pages per second or there about, basically she reads each page simultaneously, and the integrates them in her head). Photographic Memory.
She'll likely have to take any exams in an isolated room so she can't read the other student's papers. Not that she needs to cheat, but it's kind of reflexive at this point.
...I don't recommend trying to read Allison's grimoire. XD (I wonder if I can add some kind of trigger effect to that... it's pretty dangerous to the uninitiated. Oooor I could just go "it's encrypted, so you need to know how to read it".)
My three are still adjusting from the transition from three-in-one to one-in-three. They knew everything about each other, but now they now this differently.
Elsibeth has enough book knowledge, she can probably comment on your grimoire, and the spells. She wont' be able to cast them, but she might recognize that they are written in ancient mesopotamion, that there are 387 pages that have writing that is hidden currently (she can't see the writing, but she can feel the ink in the page, so knows it's there), and even know that the cover is actual human/calf/lamb/whatever skin, and the pages velluum, and probably make a fairly accurate guess how old it is.
Since she's not technically 'reading' ti so much as simple absorbing an sense of it, it shouldn't be dangerous for her to read. If she could cast magic, it would be dangerous, but she's psychic, not magic. IE: Human Brain imprinting psychic imprints on paper.
It could actually work as a 'help' to Allison, pointing out that page 37 and 38 are not actually page 37 and 38, they're page 37 and 40, with two pages stuck together that she hasn't unlocked yet. Or that page 148, while looking half full, is actually completely full but partially hidden.
Plus it could help Elsi work out a power she's going to buy eventually (immortality, basically encoding her entire essence into a set of books with a trigger to activate if she dies, rebuilding her). I think Elsi and Allison could end up being good partners, given the shared link of books and knowledge research.
Although, Elsi should probably not try to imprint any psychic imprints on Allison's book, that could lead to Bad Things, Very Bad Things.
Kestrel will be an infrequent visitor to the library, she's got a substantial case of know-it-all, so that'll keep her from diving in, even if part of her does relish having access to a resource like this.
She will also definitely write rude notes at random intervals on random scraps of paper once she learns how Elsi's powers work...
Or it might end up "why... why do the pages keep going? o_O Wait, the pages are changing? ......Allison, why did your book just rearrange itself to blow a raspberry at my brain? Is that thing ALIVE!?"
Maybe. XD
Kestrel may find that her notes morph into love notes from her to various people around the college if that happens. She does have control over paper...
That will escalate :p
...That sounds like exactly the sort of thing this game is supposed to have? XD
Exactly!
Dear Headmistress Alsatia,
I know this is inappropriate, but I can't keep my feelings inside any more. Please accept this note as a pledge and declaration of my undying love for you! I will do anything for you, whenever you want! Even if you don't return my love, I'll still do anything you want... anything!
Signed, Kestrel
---------------------
I'm fairly sure I can use my paper control to move words from her homework and assignments to the note, so it's her handwriting. :P
Actually, that's not paper control, it's ink control.
Money isn't paper, it's cloth, but she can still control it. It's not a science thing, it's a metaphysics psychic thing. She believes that she can control money and paper, and change it's colors and move ink around on it, and because she believes it, she can. If you tried to get scientific and technical, she'd never be able to control vellum, or books with plastic ring binders, or money.
If you ask 90% of the US, a $1 bill is 'paper money' and a quarter is 'metal money'. That's why she uses Artificing instead of Inventor, to make paper golems, her powers aren't magic, but mechanically, they work more like magic than science. She's kind of like a weird mix of magic/science with a bunch of ESP thrown in.
I am thinking Jason will probably be as much the butt of many a joke as well as the one making them. Certainly, being skilled in several varieties of sarcasm will serve him well when being teased, the... leisurely pace at which he flies quite possibly a main reason for making him a target for said teasing.
He also feels somewhat a fish out of water, since it takes him a bit of time to adapt usually, and despite the way he looks, he is more of a nerd than a jock.
He's welcome to ride with Elsi, she can haul around quite a bit of weight. As long as you don't mind riding in a paper airplane. Not one of those folded sheet of paper airplanes, hers tend to be larger and much more realistic unless she's just throwing paper under people to move them along.
Above is paper equipment from equipment pool, using Artificing to make a paper airplane that's real sized and flies. :)
Any GM updates?
Whew!
Sorry for the radio silence. College is beginning to go into crunch mode and I had to buckle down to triage my points for class.
With that excuse/apology/explanation out of the way, let's get down to business!
I have recieved at least a synopsis of sorts from everyone except Triad who has three characters. If it makes things easier for you Philo, you can send me details on one and we can go through them one at a time with the other two characters being less of a focus to the current prime.
Now for the fun stuff, starting!
I regret to inform you that you'll have to give me at least until Tuesday to get the game up and running. While i could post now, I haven't compiled all my story threads where I want them and I'd rather start off the game with a bang rather than a trickle.
But I can promise you on Tuesday you can expect some very personal and focused attention on each of your characters, not just a general intro and go post.
All right, any questions? I will try to be better if school does start to bear down on me again.
I'm good to go whenever you are. ^^
School comes first, just if you can let us know so we know to expect an absence.
I have a question that I just remembered, I'd asked it in the recruitment thread, but never got an answer.
How many 'designs' can Elsi have already created using Artificing before the game begins? At a minimum I'd like to have her golems (zombie robot from book) and her car (armored transport from book, but looks like a sports car) for her equipment. But I'd like to have some additional ones if that's ok? My understanding is that she can have lots of equipment, but only up to 20 pts in use at any time (she has equipment level 4, 20 points). So if she starts using something else, the golem's basically stop working and sit in the corner until they get reactivated.
Give me some time to think on that Elsibeth.
First post is up!
"Well, interestin, 'n 'eear ah thowt ah wor t' onny 'un 'a' could doa summa' li' 'a'?" She says, her Yorkshire accent fairly strong. "Opisanie Sviashchennago Koronovaniia Ikh Imperatorskikh Velichestv Gosudaria Imperatora Aleksandra Tret'iago i Gosudaryni Imperatritsy Marii Feodorovny vseia Rossii." She says in perfect un-accented Russian. "Is 'a' t' 'un 'a' sowd a' christi's for seventy three thousan', twoa 'undred 'n fifty pounds eur few months agoa?" She asks, scanning the book, already having absorbed the first 100 pages. "T' print is i' gran' shape for it's age."
Okay, you've hit a pet peeve of mine. If you are going to do an accent this thick, please put a translation using real words in a spoiler. I do pretty well listing to real accents, but I'm crap at reading them.
Well, interesting, and here I thought I was the only one that could do something like that. [actual russian, just the description of the book, if you're curious, plug it into google translate, it's a book about Alexander and Marii's wedding] Is that the one that sold at Christi's for seventy three thousand, two hundred, and fifty pounds here a few months ago? The print is in great shape for it's age.
Just a Quality of life thing, but a spoiler with the "non-accented reading" if you choose to post with a dialect would be extremely helpful to me as I also suck at reading accents and if I need to go back to reference something, it doesn't slow me down.
I'm curious, do you actually know Russian?
No, I use Google Translate when necessary. That particular passage was from the Christi's description of the book (it really was sold at Christi's about 2 months ago for 73,250 GBP).
And sure, I don't mind spoilering it if you prefer. Wasn't sure if you needed it or not. She only has an accent when she's using her own voice. If she ever speaks 'American' she will speak it like an american. She can speak without an accent if she chooses to, she just doesn't usually bother.
Ah, they have that kind of service in the UK too? Elsi would find my name unique. The US version is howmanyofme.com
Yeah, there's a big overlap between UK and US on common names. David Smith is a huge one in both areas.