Nick Ragnarok's page

Hmmm... LL hasn't been back in a week. Anyone had a PM from him?

I think we're waiting for LL to tell us if Jack is in this.
I guess we could put together a list anyway?|

Updated - what do you reckon?

Nick Ragnarok wrote:

Edmond A. Kelly wrote:

Maybe "You Are What You Eat" ? ;)

That is a fantastic aspect. Not sure if I can make it apply completely to Nick, but very subtle... will have to think on it.

Perhaps the original Nick's soul was mutated/consumed/used as fuel in your birth/transformation, and periodically his personality/values/etc can influence your actions?

Yeah - that's what I like about it. On the other hand Nick eats a lot of pizza... but perhaps there I can go with the more mundane interpretation. it seems like a better match for the origin in all honesty. maybe I'll swap it out.

Maybe "You Are What You Eat" ? ;)

That is a fantastic aspect. Not sure if I can make it apply completely to Nick, but very subtle... will have to think on it.

@Quin: Is Nick hogging niches Quinn wants skill-wise?

I've been thinking I'd like Nick's story to be soon after the event.

"Who am I?"
Nick, desperate to find out who - or what - he is starts looking for answers in unlikely places.
Depending on "who's in" in the story would change how answers are extracted.
I'm vaguely thinking of an Aspect like "Product of my time" or "Child of the 21st century".

So far we've got;
Astrid's "In bed with Monoc"
Anne's "Black vs White".

Yeah?

@Quin; sure. If you needed someone who could get data out of a captured hard drive then asking around could well lead you to Nick.

Trying to remember this.
We have a story each, right, with two guest stars.
We then guest start in two stories.
So with 5 players we have a total connection.
If LL says J is in, then we have 6 players, so everyone is missing one connection.

That right?

Hmmm. Am I right in thinking Edmond is pretty much stone broke? he's got some craftmanship, so potentially he could get a "normal" job while he finds his feet. Obviously it would need to be largely technology-free, something where magic could sub for technology, or something where the technology is rock-solid.

I guess working in most stores are out, as is a job in a kitchen (gas stoves are dangerous). Working at one of those small newsagent stands near a station could work - there's little done there with power, and a newspaper now is much like a newspaper then.

Seeds 'n' stalks might be interested in hiring - although given a white council wizard is in the top percentile of wizards, odds are that you will cause far worse maintenance problems.

@LL: do you want to roll to see who has stories with who or something?

Looks good to me!
Do you know what skills you're looking at? Want me to move Nick's skills around a little?

Sherman's Seeds & Stems?

Sounds interesting! Could be cool if it has been there for a long time. Originally as an apothecary, then an herbalist, then as laws got stricter moving into 'exotic teas' and 'incenses'.

Does Sherman live there? I see that a druid probably wants a natural area to grow stuff in, like a farm. Maybe he has a daughter he's trying to get into the family business, and they take shifts? If she's younger quite possibly she made her dad change the name from Sherman and Son's Seeds & Stems?

dang! You're right.

@Edmond: I'd love the idea of calling it "Neutral Grounds" ;P

@LL do you want to do faces and locations?
Anne suggested 2 locations already
there are 3 threats/themes
Monoc corp
Darel corp
you mentioned white, red and 2 black courts?
Sounded like there might be some independent practitioners or monsters as well.

Well, thinking up stories...

I can see Nick:
* might get hired by someone who needs a hacker.
* falling into situations.
* calling in people he knows (or knows of) for help.
* trying to find out who (what) he is.

Okay, so submission for group

Paranet. Although barely associated with the association started by Dresden, the idea of banding together in the 'new order' of the Red Court's death has led to a number of minor practitioners forming a Paranet group. Worryingly recent internal debate has led to a faction advocating a "first strike" against the dangers that assail them. 2/3

Spreadsheet is updated.
Are people okay with the idea of the skills upgrading?
I should have said thanks to Astrid, I followed a lot of her suggestions ;P

@LL: There are definitely hit men, so I guess there would be bounty hunters, but as you say it'd be a grey area.

@Astrid: Edward already has scholarship 3 (medicine, computer use) or I'd be looking at that. Hacking is burglary modified by scholarship, but there's a Hacking stunt. I don't see Ed being much good with a PC though ;P

Alright, so how about
Fists 5
Rapport 5
Burglary 4*
Deceit 4
Empathy 3
Performance 3
Drive 2
Athletics 2
Presence 1
Endurance 1

*Hacking stunt

Reasoning
Nick grows up on a farm. He rides a bike, learns to drive early, gets into video games and through that into hacking. Year 10 he decides he wants to be an actor, year 12 he moves to Sydney to become an actor (hoping to get into NIDA). He lives in a share house with three other guys, eats cheap, trains in rollerhockey and works delivering pizza. He owns a cheap motorbike, his dad's old ute, a reasonably good laptop, one good suit and battered electric guitar.

@LL/Arknight: That being the case, it would be good to get some friendship between Arknight and Nick at the start.

Australia doesn't have bounty hunters that hunt humans. It does have people paid to hunt & cull animals, and private investigators.

Well, I'm still trying to work out what to do.
I don't want to take anyone's niches, but if no-one is interested in stealth, for example, using it probably means Nick doing something by himself, which seems counterproductive.

At the moment I'm looking at

Guns - my comments to Astrid still stand though

Burglary - maybe as a computer hacker? Fits the 21st century kid theme.

Drive - I said I'd get it, but taking 3 spellcasters anywhere sounds like a recipe for a broken car.

Deceit - I dunno, makes sense for a child of Loki, and especially one going undercover, but just doesn't speak that much to me

Performance - How do people think about Nick being a rock star or actor? Sounds like something he might be working towards.

Weapons - I'm actually a little inclined to go "yes everyone has it, but everyone has it. Make it a group theme thing.

Empathy, Rapport - I'm also still interested in getting empathy and rapport.

Presence represents rep, so starting with a low presence sounds interesting.

Would love feedback...

I've been looking at skills for Nick. I was hoping to find out what Arknight was looking at, but if anyone is interested I did a spreadsheet if what everyone's skills were at here so I wouldn't overlap too much.

@Astrid: some refresh is needed to activate those aspects of yours!

Guns are very powerful, but problematic in Australia - there are very strict gun laws. Weapons are controlled, but less so (and many 'tools' can be considered weapons). If Astrid has the clout or ability to hide guns they can be very useful.

My experience has been that you want to be able to participate in conflicts in a PbP. So have a way to do physical, social and investigative challenges. You've certainly got social and investigative down pat! Magic can be used in combat, but has the weird problem of it being too easy to kill some things and become a Lawbreaker. Weapons/Guns at a reasonable level means you're good at killing things. If you do go guns, remember it is not a defence skill, so you'll need a decent athletics or something as well.

If you want alluring there's the white court inspire emotion touch power, flesh mask or the seductive stunt. In some ways the aspect does that for you though. Presumably you can activate immortal beauty to get +2 to a roll where beauty is important, or invoke for effect to get some random to fall for you. Conversely LL can invoke to have someone fall for or recognise tyou at the wrong time.

I see you are interested in a friendly rivalry with Nick?
I'd still like to play Nick up as a bit clueless. Obviously OOC everyone is going to know stuff about him, but I'd like that to more turn up in play, with clues and stuff. Friendly rivalry might work, but if it is a supers rivalry then you're going to be in a far more dominant position!

Incidentally, should I go with "Nick Ragnarok" as an avatar name? Could try for Nick Jones, or Nick "Ragnarok" Jones.

Am I right in thinking we're going to have Vamp Courts in Black, Green and White? How prevalent is Faerie likely to be? Is the "Norse community" rare or common?

Are the supers physical territory based, conceptual territory based or just mingling?

@Nick: That sounds really awesome, just as long as it's in my hands I'm ok with it.

Not a problem! I figure you can play around with stuff as you like, but I'd like to start "looking" fairly mortal.

Also, I'd like to invite Arknight into the game, since it seems Jack isn't joining us.

All good with me!

RE themes and threats
I'm a big fan of using the theme/threat aspects in play. Did you want to talk through aspects for them? The 'cultural diversity' implied by "A center of power" suggests a lot of smaller groups to me.

Are we talking cbd-sydney, suburban sydney, or outskirts sydney. Remember there's 4 and a half million people living in sydney, more than 20% of the total population of Australia.

Power wise, been thinking...
I'd like Nick to be a very powerful being hiding out in a human-disguise. Presumably use of power is "noisy" and to be avoided. Conveniently this gives a reason not to be some twenty refresh monstrosity.
Would it be okay to get modular powers(-4) and Human Guise(+2). The guise is irregular change "when take a consequence, or about to die." So it works if you hurt him, or he falls out a plane, or he gets mind-zapped by a black court, but also if he gets a really terrible put down. As part of that I'd put the modular powers under your control; the beast rolls slightly and reveals a fraction of itself for the rest of the scene, but it tends to be a different (if appropriate) fraction each time.

Does that sound reasonable? (Especially to you, LL)

Thanks guys :)
@Mister Lurch, help yourself :)

@LostLegions: Sounds good!
here gives a list of all the different aboriginal tribes of Sydney. Can I suggest instead of a "curse" there is some sort of huge genus loci from the area that was somehow linked to the local aboriginal bloodlines? Could possibly be cheeky and call it Eora.

@All: I am re-re-reading changes and ghost story, and I noticed that immediately after changes there was a big change in the world. The huge power vaccum left the White Council desperately trying to defend people, talents being killed and kidnapped, damn near open war, the paranet turning militant and creatures that had not been seen in thousands of years turning up again. Was wondering if that is worth having as a threat or theme? Something like "The Old Ones are Rising", "Everything's up for grabs" or "there is no status quo".

I've made a few quick updates to Nick's profile. All feedback gratefully accepted!

Do we have a decision on a city yet?

Well, two Norse characters seem to work I thought :)
I'd like to see some Norse stuff, even if is just Monoc. Alternatively there could be an easy Way to the Icelandic area, or Neverwhere, for some reason.

@Songdragon: I liked the Norse link. I'm happy to have a non-australian city if LL wants something more nordic.

Full disclosure, I was born in Brisbane, lived in Melbourne and have visited Sydney.

Well, here's Nick!

Depending on who he's teamed up with would change Nick's skillset and what powers I'm asking LL for... I see Nick as *either* a social monster or a supernatural threat with a few precise social powers - We'll have to manage the overlap a bit I guess.

Harakani