Never Mind... No Longer Recruiting... Please Ignore

[Insight]

Golden Age Freedom City



Concept in a Nutshell
The year is 1943. Wars in Europe and the Pacific have all of Freedom City holding their collective breaths. Heroes like the Liberty League have come forward to aid the citizens of Freedom City, but, in these trying times, will their efforts alone be enough?

The Liberty League has gone missing for the last month and people are starting to worry. City government, under the watchful eye of Mayor Otis Ballard, has come to believe that the Liberty League may not be coming back. Wartime crime is at its peak and something has to be done. Mayor Ballard, in desperation, has turned to a most unusual source for heroes: South River State Penitentiary. Ballard has chosen incarcerated villains, all of whom are allegedly repentent, to form Eagle Corps, a brand new team of heroes to help defend Freedom City. Leading Eagle Corps is John Eagle, a retired superhero who serves as the team's mentor, minder, and honorary captain.

The Protagonists
Each of the PCs will be a former super-criminal brought to justice by the Liberty League and has spent at least one year imprisoned within South River State Pen. The supposedly reformed villain has professed to turning over a new leaf and has been personally interviewed by Mayor Ballard prior to being selected for this new team. Characters will be Power Level 8 and built on no more than 120pp.

Resources
All current M&M 2E books will be considered 'in-play'; the majority of setting sourcebooks, however, will be of little use. The main books to consider are the M& main book, Ultimate Power, Freedom City, and Golden Age.

On Character Concepts and the "Golden Age"
This game will have a very definite genre and era specific feel to it. If you have access to the Golden Age sourcebook, have a look through it before considering what sort of character you'd like to submit. If you don't have the Golden Age sourcebook, check out Wikipedia's entry on the Golden Age of Comics or try a Google search on the subject. Recruitment for this game, as you could imagine, will not be "first-come, first-served". Instead, characters will be chosen based on a) golden age feel, b) ability to fit into a team, c) interesting super-criminal background and d) originality.

"Golden Age" Characters and Stories
The vast majority of "golden age" comic book characters (heroes and villains) tended to be low-powered. In fact, all of the earliest golden age characters were simply "high-skill" - no powers, just superior skills and human abilities. Later golden age characters had super-science or magic to draw upon. It was only in the late golden age that heroes and villains had what we could call super-powers.

The characters in this game will have super-powers, or at least could have super-powers, depending on your build. Golden age super-powers are simpler and more straightforward than in modern comics. Typically, golden age characters had one "feature" power and no more than one or two support powers. Characters were usually known for (and named for) their signature power.

Golden age characters tended to be simpler, more innocent. Heroes and villains were clearly defined and obvious. It wasn't until later that shades of gray were introduced into comics.

As noted above, your characters are reformed villains. This puts an interesting spin on a typical Golden Age game. Here, your "badder than bad" villains are now working as heroes. Your characters should be recognizeable as villains yet still possess a glimmer of hope that they could truly become heroes.

Character Submissions
If this game idea interests you, please post a fully built character, complete with some sort of background. I will review each legitimate character entry and comment on it before characters are selected (giving you a chance to edit your submission if needed). Decisions on character submissions will be made within two weeks. One character submission per player, please; submit yout best "golden age" idea.

[Walking Dad]

Interested. This is just my placeholder and for my subscription.

Idea so far: Reformed German chemist with the ability to transform his body into various chemical compounds.

[DCrane1]

Here's my placeholder, right now I'm leaning towards some kind of reformed mad scientist. Maybe something dealing with flight.

[Insight]

Not seeing muh interest in this so far. I'll give ita few more days before giving up and running 4E like everyone else.

[ShaggySpellsword]

“Ghost Lion”
Gender: Male
Age: 21
Height: 6' 3"
Weight: 207lbs
Hair: blonde, long
Eyes: Blue
Tradeoffs: +1 damage/-1 attack

Personality

Ghost Lion, formerly a very trusting individual, has become very distrustful ever since he was tricked into serving as muscle for violent crime wave across the city, then being abandoned to take the fall. He is somewhat quick to take offense, but slow to take a life. He feels very sorry for the wrong that he has done, and is eager to serve as protector of the city to make up for what he’s done.

Background

Lost during an African Safari gone horribly wrong, the boy that would come to be known as the Ghost Lion found his way into a pack of lion cubs, raised by a lioness in the ways of the savanna.

A year ago, poachers discovered a young man hunting the savanna, stalking and bringing down gazelles with a bracer/gauntlet constructed from the hide and claw of a large white lion stretched over a club of stone and hard wood. They befriended this man, amused by the oddity he represented. They also convinced him to help them hunt, evade authorities, and eventually return with them back to Freedom City. Impressed by Ghost Lion’s physical prowess and skills, they convinced him to help in a wave of robberies across the city. Eventually, they made a mistake and where surrounded by police. They made Ghost Lion hold them off while the rest escaped; because he was outnumbered, Ghost Lion was captured and put into prison.

In Prison, Ghost Lion learned a better command of English. He also studied the civilization of Freedom city, realizing how naïve and tricked he had been. He welcomes a second chance to be a member of Freedom City’s population. He also is interested in getting revenge on the criminals who used him. If possible, he would also like to know who he was before he was abandoned in Africa.

Abilities

Ghost Lion has no super-powers, but he is in peak physical condition. He is a trained hunter and naturalist, skilled in stalking prey, communicating with animals, and avoiding capture.

His Lion-Claw Gauntlet gives him the ability to make mighty, raking claw attacks which knock enemies to the ground or stunning, brutal back-hand attacks which knock enemies senseless. He also uses his gauntlet to block incoming attacks.

Raw Stats

Name: Ghost Lion
Power Level: 8
Power Points: 120
Hero Points: 1

ABILITIES 44
STR 22 +6 (12 PP)
DEX 22 +6 (12 PP)
CON 22 +6 (12 PP)
INT 8 -1 (-2 PP)
WIS 18 +4 (8 PP)
CHA 12 +1 (2 PP)

SAVES 14
TOUG +8 (6 Con + 2 Feat)
FORT +13 (7 Base + 6 Con) (7 PP)
REF +13 (7 Base + 6 Dex) (7 PP)
WILL +4 (0 Base + 4 Wis) (0 PP)

COMBAT 8
INIT +6
BASE DEF +2 (4 PP)
DEF 18 (10 + 2 Base + 6 power)
FLAT-FOOTED 11
BASE ATT +2 (4 PP)

ATTACK
Unarmed +7 to hit, DC 21 nonlethal bludgeoning
Claw-Gauntlet Strike (Mighty Strike 3/Trip 9; penetrating 5) +7 to hit, DC 24
Claw-Gauntlet Stun (Stun 9) +7 to hit, DC 19 Stun

SKILLS 100 SP (25 PP)
Acrobatics +15 (9 ranks)
Climb +9 (3 ranks)
Escape Artist +9 (3 ranks)
Handle Animal +14 (13 ranks)
Intimidate +12 (11 ranks)
Notice +17 (13 ranks)
Ride +15 (9 ranks)
Search +9 (10 ranks)
Sense Motive +8 (4 ranks)
Stealth +16 (10 ranks)
Survival +17 (13 ranks)
Swim +8 (2 ranks)

LANGUAGES
English

MOVEMENT
SPEED 6

FEATS 14
Acrobatic Bluff
Animal Empathy
Defensive Roll 2
Endurance
Evasion 1
Fearless
Melee Focus 5
Move-by Action
Track

POWERS 15
Device 5 (Claw Gauntlet)
Shield 6
Stun 9
Alternate power: Strike 3 (Mighty, Penetrating 5, Trip 9[melee/Knockback)

COST
Abilities [44]
Combat [8]
Saves [14]
Skills [25]
Feats [14]
Powers [15]
Drawbacks [XX]
Total [120]
Unspent [0]

[Walking Dad]

Will post more after the WE.

[Shayuri]

For what it's worth, I love M&M...it's not the system that's my hangup, it's the era/Golden Age thing. I've never been able to connect to it very well.

Still, I'll enjoy reading it, so I hope you guys get enough interest to start.

[Insight]

Originally Posted by Shayuri

For what it's worth, I love M&M...it's not the system that's my hangup, it's the era/Golden Age thing. I've never been able to connect to it very well.

Still, I'll enjoy reading it, so I hope you guys get enough interest to start.

Yeah, it might be a little too "niche". I might switch to a more mainstream genre/era or drop it altogether and run something else.

[Vertexx69]

Place holder - I'm thinking about a storm themed flying blaster. I still need to go through golden age and freedom city, but it shouldn't take too much longer to throw a build together.

[Arkhandus]

I'm interested, just been busy and still pondering my character idea.

The basic idea I've been churning around in my head has been THE MOLE-MAN! :P A disgruntled construction worker or something whose ideas were only scoffed at, and eventually just used them to build a set of mechanical drill-claws that he used to sabotage his boss' project or something and wound up going on a crime-spree, digging swiftly under and up into banks then breaking into vaults (maybe a jewelry store before that, getting the idea to make diamond-studded drill bits). I dunno yet, though.

[Shayuri]

You could be: THE UNDERMINER!

You're beneath us, but NOTHING is beneath you!

[Insight]

Guys, I'm cancelling this. I'm not seeing the interest I was hoping to see and I think I'll run something else. Better to cancel it now before players waste too much time on making characters.

I'll be running something else soon.