Masks: A New Generation of Heroes

Game Master Cwethan

Welcome to the game!!

I really liked the questions from the playbooks, since they really got us talking and brainstorming about our character relationships from the outset. It also gave us an "origin story" that everyone contributed to and saved Default from cooking up something to get us all together.

How that translates to adding new characters to an existing group... is probably going to be a bit more awkward. Either Bioshock, Bran and Thor Girl form their own little team that pulls the rest of us out of mothballs, or maybe Default wants to skip that part altogether.

My vote is to say that the team is essentially disbanded during at least part of the downtime. Fully half the team is gone or retired, Wingblade is doing major penance with Whippoorwill, Hashtag is dealing with North's sacrifice, and Atoms is dealing with his rapid evolution into... something else. Not much left to form a team.

This way, when the new characters arrive on the scene, the rest of us in a twist could join them. Maybe we'll actually get a team name for once. :P

Wingblade, that's straight-up brilliant! I love it! How's anybody else feel about that? Bran, Thor Girl, and Bioshock use the questions to fill out how they came together as a trio (or quad? But one doesn't make it?), and then the others join us after we've established ourselves. That shakes up team dynamics a bit, maybe gives Wingblade a chance to step back from being leader if she wants.

Also, Thor Girl, I'm so sorry I forgot about you in my earlier post when considering Relationships. I was still thinking of you as North Star, but there really are three new characters, not just two.

I like the secondary team plan too. Thoughts GM?

As for how the new players and old players sync up, I have a couple ideas:

1. Each 'new' character comes across an 'established' character and forms a bond. From here, they develop as a pair and we start the 2nd season with a central conflict that drags all three pairs into the fray. After we play out this scene, we enter another "shorter" time skip that will be everyone learning to trust each other and becoming good friends.

2. As suggested, the 'established' team and 'new' team will form separate units. In this case, we can roleplay them meeting and become a strong team up, or we can establish they've become fast friends already as we did for Season 1.

Second one would be simpler, but if the 'established' heroes want to roleplay meeting up again, or if anyone wants to rp the "meeting phase" of superhero teammates, this could be fun as well.

One of the things I find the most interesting (and really sort of a missed opportunity) about the default assumption of the game is that you already start as an established group. In my personal experience, I tend to find that group dynamics growing organically to be the best.

With that being said, I like the idea of people pairing off with established characters to then allow all of them to be pulled into the larger story. That will be my vote.

I've just had an idea that's going to send Wingblade to Halcyon High. So at least that's going to open some ways for her to meet the ones going to school.

I'm about to start working on my Wingblade/Whippoorwill post, btw. Not sure if I'll get it finished tonight, though.

Okay, so id love for Hashtag and Bioshock to be buddies.

His illusions are quasi-real, things or people he pulls from the place he goes through when he teleports. However they are very fragile, and only follow a preset action unless he's actively controlling them. He can simulate all senses save for touch.

Of his two, its his most practiced power. His teleportation is WAY, way stronger, but he's kinda afraid to experiment with it and see what he can do with it.

That said, Bioshock probably could have found him doing his graffiti thing to an underpass or something as a confrontation that ended with both of them sprawled on the ground dizzy enough to puke.

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@Bioshock. I'm okay with Eli wanting to kiss Bronwyn, especially since she's another Halcyon High Hornet (though not a member of the 'special' classes), but my thought is that Bronwyn hasn't really unmasked herself to the group as a whole yet.

She's not crazy careful about pretending to be uninvolved though, so she's probably had to cover to some of you as being Bran's friend/'gal in the chair.'

I'll hold off on my When Our Team First Came Together till we've ironed out which team that is, but for relationships I've got
"_______ knew me from my civilian life first", and "I refused to tell ________ my secret identity when they asked."

I think Bioshock would be an interesting option for Civilian life first, and especially if they joined the team together, I could see him being (one of) the only ones to know that she's Bran.

Since Wingblade seems like someone who likes to know what's going on with people that she isn't too comfortable with yet, I can very much picture her trying to dig into Bran's secrets and getting refused.

As far as influence goes, Bronwyn definitely is fascinated with Thor Girl - she's the hero Bronwyn wants to be.
Aside from that, her trust in Eli (assuming he is the one she already knew) is definitely important to her.

Ahh! Indecision, my Kryptonite! Oh how it burns...

So at current count it looks like we've got Hashtag and Thor Girl in favor of option 1. Wingblade, Bran, and I ought be recounted now that there's another option on the table, and we haven't heard from Atoms yet.

As much as I love option 2, option 1 sounds like it might be better for building interactions in a way that upholds the spirit of the game; the point is to discover the story, not decide it, right? So I'll switch my vote to option 1. The pairing off scenes also give the new blood an opportunity to play with the system with slightly lower stakes at first.

@Hashtag
Sounds good! That sounds like a good set-up if we end up going with option 1, too.

@Bronwyn
To make sure I'm understanding you, most of the team doesn't know that Bran is Bronwyn and she keeps up a somewhat-flimsy ruse that Bronwyn is Bran's voice-with-an-internet-connection. Eli could help with that with some minor memory alterations.

Bronwyn's backstory indicated she was at Midtown High; was that a placeholder for Halcyon, then? I guess the better question would be, "Where do Marco and Mary Beth go to school?" Also, how long ago was that fateful field trip to the museum?

Yeah, that was a placeholder name. My understanding is that Halcyon High has a portion of the school that's set aside for super heroes in training, and that Bronwyn, Marco and Mary-Beth would be from that portion of the school. If there's not a muggle section of the high school they'd be from somewhere else, and I'll need to rethink.

I see the museum trip as having been about 6 months ago. Long enough to do a little research, knit together a costume, and start figuring out what parts she has no clue about.

I'm good for pairing off scenes as well if the existing players don't mind taking the time on us newbies :p

Thor Girl doesn't actually go to school, but she might try it if someone convinced her to. Currently I'm leaning towards Atoms being my old timer contact that introduces me to the group (should we go that way).

As far as my teambuilding questions go, I have:

You’ve been learning about Earth by spending time with _____________.

You have a crush on ________________ but you keep it under wraps.

Not sure on the first one yet, but for the second one I think it might be interesting if it was Bronwyn, but not Bran (since oddly enough, I kinda picture the various religions as being competing organizations, so Bran would represent someone from a different country).

I don't think that TG would be openly hostile to him, but she wouldn't exactly be best friends either.

I like the idea of Thor Girl not being a fan of Bran, especially since Bronwyn won't really get it. She doesn't think of herself as really belonging to a myth cycle (yet), so she'll probably see Thor Girl as something to aspire to rather than as competition.

@Hashtag: I was thinking we could move on to our date from this point. I just wanted to establish that little complicating nugget of doubt in Wingblade's mind before we got started. Sound good?

Options: Option 1 works for me. So much for my "brilliant" idea ;P Clearly, I think Bioshock and Hashtag seem to be paired off, which makes sense. That leaves Bran and Thor Girl to meet up with either me or Atoms. That's a tough call. I'll be happy with either. Maybe since Atoms and TG don't go to school, they could meet, leaving me and Bran? Perhaps Bronwyn could befriend the sullen new girl (the wings are going to be curiously absent, and I've got a post planned for that at some point, but I'd prefer it to be after the interactions with Hashtag and Atoms).

EDIT: missed that part of Thor Girl's post where she already suggested pairing with Atoms. So, that looks like it's Bronwyn/Bran and me. Awesome!

It was still a brilliant idea! I still like it better, even if option 1 is "better" for the game.

Works for me, does a setup like Bronwyn being asked to show the new girl around sound good?

Yeah sure! Date is fine!

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Bronwyn, that's a perfect way for us to meet. I completely agree!

Hashtag: whenever you want to make the move, go ahead and post. Wingblade can be found whenever in her clock tower (she's basically grounded by Whippoorwill).

Alright, looks like the "timeskip" events are starting to planned out. I'll pop in with suggestions and idea from time to time, but really just consider this an online conversation that roleplays situations in the gameplay thread.

Here is Atoms' new alias and character sheet. I may flesh it out a bit more, as I've still yet to complete the Timeskip questions (not to mention re-doing Relationships, Influence, and anything else that needs it). Feel free to discuss.

Nice to have you, Bioshock and Bran/Bron ;)

It sounds like we've got the go-ahead to start, but maybe it would be easier for Bran/Wingblade and Bioshock/Hashtag to hold off until after Masks Special Issue: Date Night?

Cool new avatar, Atoms!

I don't really want everyone waiting on Hashtag and me. I think we've already agreed it's not going to go perfectly, so if we don't have the date concluded (or even started), maybe the two of us could just have an, "I don't wanna talk about it" response until we know how it really went. That way we could interact with the others and not delay the game any further.

It could make things a little disjointed in the continuity department, but I think with clear use of spoilers or headers, the events could be kept straight.

I just posted!

Sorry if there's something I messed up; I'm not good at roleplaying other player's characters.

Oh, and if anyone wants me to be an npc for rp-ing, feel free to ask. Otherwise.... *grabs popcorn"

om nom nom

Just so you know, i wont be able to post for like 12 hours

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Side note, a day at the fair sounds like it would be a lot of fun to play. The strong people could try to one-up each other on the hammer-bell game (does that have a name?), Hashtag could mess with people in the Hall of Mirrors, Bioshock could carb- and salt-load like there's no tomorrow, Atoms could sulk over not being human.

Wait, that last one kinda sucks. Atoms, could you have fun at a fair?

@Bronwyn
Alright, so Bronwyn has always been at Halcyon. So Elijah transferred and has been attending for about a year at the end of the timeskip, so they probably didn't know each other before then. Maybe she made the effort to show him around when he was new? That also seems to be what she's doing with Wingblade, so maybe that's just part of who she is? Eli and Bron could be friends who just usually run with different crowds, so they're not too close.

Or we could go back to the drawing board. What do you think?

I definitely picture her as the kind of girl that likes to show around the new kid (and so gets assigned that task a lot by the administration), so that makes sense to me.

I envision them as having been closer than they are right now. Maybe something like hanging out with Eli got weird one time when he was self-medicating? Everything gets laughed off later, but they don't hang out as often as they used to, that sort of thing.

Thanks, Wingblade!

Side note, a day at the fair sounds like it would be a lot of fun to play. The strong people could try to one-up each other on the hammer-bell game (does that have a name?), Hashtag could mess with people in the Hall of Mirrors, Bioshock could carb- and salt-load like there's no tomorrow, Atoms could sulk over not being human.

Wait, that last one kinda sucks. Atoms, could you have fun at a fair?

*loud sobbing in the corner*

"N-no, yeah. Totally. I can have fun at the f-f-fa..."

*MORE loud sobbing*

Haha, but seriously though~ Atoms usually finds his own way to have fun, so yes, he could enjoy himself. I like the fair idea. In-fact! Make it a carnival and we're golden :D He'll be in there like swimwear.

Don't leave me out of the Halcyon High conversation! Atoms and his confidant, Alexis, both attend the school. Not to mention most of his gang members are students there as well. He's pretty friendly and personable, but I'm not sure what everyone's characters will think about his gang, there are a lot of angry people in there and by proxy it might make Atoms pretty intimidating (especially considering the unnerving costume, frightening atomic powers, etc.).

Oh, and to those wondering. Yes! Alexis Evelyn Forester is the same Alexis that was kidnapped by The Givers before the timeskip. Atoms, The Defenders, and maybe some other members of The Team (like Tectonic) went into their dimension and got her back, along with a handful of other kidnapped students.

It might be fun to have Haxor be one of Blueshift's members, now that I remember him.

So since we're in kind of open RP/mid-timeskip mode~~ I guess now would be a good time to introduce Atoms and hammer out the remaining bits of his CS.

To New & Old Players Alike - An Introduction
Atoms is really, really OP. Like, unstoppably so. No one, not even himself, is sure of what the upper limits of his abilities are, because he seems to get more powerful with each passing day. For example, at the start of the game, his only power was really his invulnerability, but now, he can fire energy blasts, fly extremely fast, etc.

This makes him kind of Nova-ish, but unlike 'The Nova', he doesn't struggle to control his powers as much as he struggles to control himself. Which isn't to say that he loses control, no no. What he grapples with are the questions "What am I?" and "What should I be doing?", making him a true 'The Transformed'.

Atoms, Character Development & Discussion
There's quite a bit to sort out before we can start the game proper: Influence (who Atoms has Inf. over and who has Inf. over him), Relationships, Timeskip Questions, "When the team came together...", and not to mention this pairing up that we're doing.

Timeskip Question - Negative and Positive Event
I'm going to go a liiittle bit crazy with this and make Atoms' positive and negative events tie into each other. A megaevent, if you will. And it will absolutely have a lot to do with The Defenders, The Givers, Redshift, and the evolution of Blueshift.

Before I put anything in stone though, I want to ask @Default if it's okay for me to include The Defenders and Givers in that way. I've already grabbed Alexis without asking, so I don't want to step on your toes any further, especially if you've got specific plans or future plots for these groups. Because while I'm totes fine with manhandling my own creations, those two groups are things that you've created.

My current thought is to put Blueshift on The Giver's good side and The Defender's bad side, while also making Blueshift an enemy of Redshift. This would mean bringing back Panel, Alloy, Knight, and all those other Giver-type characters.

Feel free to PM me, Default, if you don't want to spoil things :)

Timeskip Question - Bonding Event
Anyone want to bond with big blue over here? :D I noticed I got paired with @Thor Girl, so I'm fine if you want to be my bonding event. Any ideas?

Relationships
Right now, I have one of my relationship questions open:

[insert name here] comforted Atoms when he was at his lowest.

Any takers?

(Atoms, Alexis went to Franklin High)

(Atoms, Alexis went to Franklin High)

Yep! She's a former Franklin High student. The Givers were kidnapping people from Franklin High (among other places) to give them powers, and when Alexis was given powers her appearance changed (namely her hair, but maybe there was some other changes too). The appearance change, coupled with a rough home life that she didn't want to go back to, made her not want to return to Franklin High, because it'd be easier for her family to track her down. The only reason she's in Halcyon High now is because it's on the other side of the city, she sees the importance of education, and probably because she wants to keep playing basketball ;)

Since we're discussing it, I'll throw out my idea for Atoms' and my meeting: Mainly we had a mid-air collision (Which was from me being teleported into space, but close enough to Earth to be pulled in by gravity).

Meanwhile, Atoms responded to a meteor crashing to Earth and discovered Skuld falling, wearing her divine armor, which you discovered you could interact with without destroying her (what with it being made by Gods and whatnot). She had passed out during the fall (what with the lack of oxygen) and came to when you grabbed her and stopped her fall.

We made friends from there. Or something like that.

Since we're discussing it, I'll throw out my idea for Atoms' and my meeting: Mainly we had a mid-air collision (Which was from me being teleported into space, but close enough to Earth to be pulled in by gravity).

Meanwhile, Atoms responded to a meteor crashing to Earth and discovered Skuld falling, wearing her divine armor, which you discovered you could interact with without destroying her (what with it being made by Gods and whatnot). She had passed out during the fall (what with the lack of oxygen) and came to when you grabbed her and stopped her fall.

We made friends from there. Or something like that.

Sounds good to me, Thor Girl :)

Today's bad idea brought to you by teenaged drama!!

Bronwyn/Bran the Blessed: One of my relationships is, You and _______ teamed up a few times before the rest of you came together.

I used to have Imagine in there, but since we're rebooting/starting fresh, would you want to have at least one team up? I think it could be interesting, especially if you manage to keep your identity secret from me.

My idea so far is something along the lines of, when you learn that Shayera lives in a rough neighborhood and takes the rail transit every day, you decide to shadow her to make sure she makes it home safely in your hero guise. Then some goons attack or maybe a minor villain strikes nearby and we both jump into the fray -- so "Bran" knows about Shayera, but Bronwyn has to pretend she doesn't... what do you think?

Yes!

After thinking about it more, I'm going to subtract a point from Superior instead of adding it, so that will put it at -2 to start. I think it fits Eli's personality better.

Also, I'm currently going with 'no costume', but that's something that I'd like to change eventually. Elijah might be the Doomed, but I'm going for more Kid Flash and less Raven. He's pumped to be doing this whole superhero thing, and the Doom hanging over his head translates to more manic attention-seeking than gloom-and-doom. Hashtag, your illusions could be awesome for designing costumes!

@Bronwyn
That sounds good. Having less-than-perfect control of powers that change brain chemistry could definitely lead to some awkward moments.

Im sorry. I had intended this the whole time. :p
I think i left enough foreshadowing to allude to it.

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That seems to have ended differently than it was originally conceived, but I liked it! It seems that the Hashtag/Wingblade romance isn't as nipped in the bud as we thought it would be at the beginning, but I don't think that's a bad thing. I didn't see the ending coming, but sometimes that's the best part, no matter what those old dead Greek guys say.

Should we start in on our three mini issues soon, then?

Very fun!

Before I post up Bronwyn's entrance, I assume that Shayera's not 'out' as a superhero?

That's right; I'm just going as an "average" high school student.

As far as the ending of the date, I was also surprised. But I like how it ended, and let me show a little of Whippoorwill's perspective on the whole situation.

I don't see any reason to hold off on your own stories. Thanks for your patience while the 'date' special issue was released!

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing. Halp.

I think it still ended badly; it left a sour taste in vick's mouth and he wont do any more cause he thinks she's got blackmail on him.
He would be distant, agitatingly so, to wingblade from now on. But that will be new roleplay opportunities.

Also he shouldnt be allowed to let his subconscious run his illusions. Its an arse to even vick.

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I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing. Halp.

I think everyone was holding off to watch the date. (Thanks everyone!) Now that that's over, we're into the "downtime" posts. I think you and Thor Girl are going to meet up, so if you're ready, post something to set up your encounter. At least, I think that's what we're doing next.

Sorry for the absence folks! X.X

Loving everything I'm seeing so far.

@ Atoms
While I have a direction I'm heading, its somewhat freeform to account for everyone's superheroic antics.

Not sure what this redshift & blueshift stuff came from, so if you can explain that in more detail that'd be great.

I think the easiest way to do this is you to explain in full and on the discussion thread, pointing out the changes you're proposing and how to explain them.

As much as I like secret details and suspense, in the PbP format it might not come across well if the player is in the dark too. Plus, this game is about narrative collaboration, so if other players want to give input I'd like to encourage that.

I've gotten caught up on the game thread, found no mention of Blueshift. It turns out it's in Atoms' profile, it's explained in there.

Also, there's never really been discussion of what actually happens at school with these 'special' classes. It was toyed with a bit back in the beginning of the Discussion thread, but I don't think it went anywhere at the time. Do some of us have some of these extra classes together? When did we start attending them? I've got some ideas for kicking off my scene with Hashtag, but I'm trying to figure out where in the timeline it takes place. The main question I need an answer to somehow is have Eli and Vick met in class before their scuffle in the underpass?

While we're on the topic of timeline, maybe we should get that fixed firmly. The inter-relation of events makes it a little tricky to sort out.

Quick note, fell behind on my reading here so I'll be spending a day or two on that and to process.

I'm currently working on an explanation post about the Blueshift situation that I want to post before getting into the RP :) Sorry it's taking a few days, it's rather long.

Looking forward to it, Atoms!

@Bronwyn, I was going to go with a gas attack, but saw that your special power is energy absorption. So I switched it to some kind of nullification energy so it'll be easy to explain your immunity to their device.

Working tonight, but hopefully can get some reading in before bed.

Appreciated, though sadly the energy absorption only works while she's Bran and wielding Gae-Dearg, but since Bronwyn's enhanced physique isn't specific to her Mask, she should be able to make something work...