Guardians - Welcome to the Wild Wild West (FULL)

Thanks for your interest in the game. I am hoping that it turns into a fun time. I took a look at the current charachters and will be looking at the future charachters too. Below are my suggestions/questions for each charachter/player.

A couple things for everybody:
1) Just so you are aware weaknesses will be exactly that. I thought I should give fair warning that they will appear in play.

2)The Guardians are at least partially a publicity stunt for the N.A.A. No-one else is allowed to take the disturbing flaw. Keia and Argent Silvermage already took them. If your charachter desperatly needs to be disturbing we can discuss.

Keia:
- I don't like your natural dexterity being so high. Right now, you have +7 w/o mutant powers. Could Brandon jugle 10 things while dancing if he was a normal? If he can thats fine but if he can't I would like to see your dex score lowered a little bit from 20 to 16/18 and rearrange your super-dex source.
- We will be using partial weaknesses. I would like to see eiter more strangeness to warrant the full 10 point disturbing or you to lower your weakness to -5 pp.
-I am a little confused on your fire powers. Are the constantly on but uncontrolled? Is the suit needed for other people to not get burnt? If so, I didn't see that shown in your stat block.
- The men who came and picked you up introduced himself as Blackhawk and Fury, members of the primary N.A.A. mutant team. Blackhawk was kind but cautious when he first met you. He was covered in a black energy that rolled away once you didn't try to burn him when he showed up. Fury was queit and beside a wave and smile didn't really interact with you.
-Pheonix has a 'slot' in the game pending the above.

Argent Silvermage:
- I have the same problem with your ability scores that I did with Pheonix's. Did Danny Rage win the strong-man competition every year before he mutated? Does Danny thing Lance Armstrong is a wuss that couldn't take pain or excersion for very long? Your 20's in Str and Con seem very high to me. If Rage is strong and hardy because of his mutation then that should only appear in the powers section. Please reduce the base scores to 16 for impressive or 18 for pro-athelete level.
- You can't have both protection and super-con. The stacking rules won't allow it. If you flaw your super-con to not include DMG saves then I will allow the combination.
- On the bright side, skills are 2:1. So you get some PP back. I would like to see Danny with some more skills.
-I'd like to see a backstory by monday. If you can't get one up before easter(understandable) just drop a post so I know you are working on one.

Synchronicity:
-Sorcery would have been acceptable. But you can keep on the backburner for now. The sorcery is still a mutation in this game.
-It is 2:1 skills
-Military Scientist is a fine occupation. Lightspeed would have been put through a 'basic training' with his powers which is supervised by the military.
-You can not apply your Lightning Reflexes feat to your damage save as well as your reflex save.
- Your super-speed is mis-priced. It is 6 for the base +1 for Mach One Punch -1 for limited. As a result you are over your PP allotment by 8.
-The cost of your weakness is fine. I would like some clarification though, Do you need natural light to power up or just any light?
- You would have gone to a normal school until your powers manifested. Hand waving is fine. You would have a Ph.D in genetics and a B.S. in Biology.
-Lightspeed has a spot reserved for him as well. Enjoy your easter!

GreatLemure/Vendetta/tyrlaan looking forward to seeing your charachters.

Any questions that you don't want to ask on the boards can be emailed to me. stumpyfjord@yahoo.com Please use Enworld-Username as the subject so I don't accidentily delete your message as spam

E-mail sent!

Keia

Quartz's back story will be up tonight but the basics are that he was born like this. His parents abandoned him because they could not feed him and could not deal with his prodigious strength even from infantacy. he was left on the streets of Los Angelos' slums and eventaul learned to survive on his own. It was many years before he could speak (no one to this day can understand how he does it with no actualy breath in his lungs.)

I'll modify the supercon. It was an afterthought to begin with. and more skills are a plus.

You can most definitely bet I will be submitting a character for this sometime this weekend

Yo! I am struggling with a crappy 56k dialup to make this post, so I hope you feel my pain!

Gideon said:

Synchronicity:
-You can not apply your Lightning Reflexes feat to your damage save as well as your reflex save.

Click to expand...

Got it, I'll amend my damage save accordingly.

Gideon said:

- Your super-speed is mis-priced. It is 6 for the base +1 for Mach One Punch -1 for limited. As a result you are over your PP allotment by 8.

Click to expand...

Ack, guilty as charged. How embarassing. I've no idea how I missed that! I've been staring at the screen for a little while trying to see where I can get 8 points...at the moment, I'm out of ideas. I don't want to pare down in any area other than powers, because I've got them just the way I want them, and I don't want to take another weakness because that would be cheesy and irritating. Twelve points of weaknesses is about my limit - that's practically another PL right there! Idealy, another flaw on the power would be good...but I'm drawing a blank on what it could be. Things like Tiring or Heroic Effort just don't fit what I want to do with the character, Obvious and Full Effect aren't really flaws on a power like Super-Speed...does anyone have any bright ideas? Regardless, I'll think on it a bit harder.

[EDIT] Hmm, an idea has occured to me. I was mulling over Obvious, thinking 'Well, he already moves at blinding speed, that's pretty bloody obvious.' But then, I thought 'However...' So, here's an idea to account for those 8 PPs. Let me know if it's acceptable.

If Christopher went up to somebody and said "Excuse me, do I appear to be glowing to you?", he'll get some very odd looks. He doesn't even tan well, his mutation absorbing the sun's energy in such a way that it seems to make tanning all but impossible for him. However, should the person in question be looking at him in any other spectrum of light than the visible, the answer would be a resounding "Yes! Quite a lot, actually." As a side-effect of his mutation, Christopher's body emits light in the infra-red, ultraviolet, and the rest of the light spectrum which is invisible to the naked eye. He always shows up on devices which allow viewing of such things as a strong emitter of such light. As for the visible spectrum, Christopher doesn't glow...usually. However, when he travels at Super-Speed, he leaves a glowing trail of light bright enough to see by which remains for several seconds (5? 10? 30? A minute? What's a good number?) or so before it fades away, a sideffect of the process in his body which converts absorbed light into kinetic energy. Wasteage, if you will. This makes stealth and hiding from pursuers extremly difficult, unless Christopher wishes to forego the use of his mutant powers during such activities. Would those effects be acceptable for the Obvious flaw on his Super-Speed? Or are they not limiting enough to constitute a flaw?

Gideon said:

-The cost of your weakness is fine. I would like some clarification though, Do you need natural light to power up or just any light?

Click to expand...

I was thinking any light, so long as it's in sufficient quantities. Is that OK?

Gideon said:

- You would have gone to a normal school until your powers manifested. Hand waving is fine. You would have a Ph.D in genetics and a B.S. in Biology.

Click to expand...

All fine with me. Thanks for the input, Gideon!

Synch.

New Character

PC Name Tornado
Real Name: Travis Harold
HP: 4

Quote: "X"
Association: Guardians

Occupation: Meteorologist
Legal Status: Citizen with no criminal record
Identity: Public
Place of Birth: Amarillo, TX
Marital Status: Married
Living Relatives: Wife Sara, Daughters Linsy and Sandra.

Age: 31
Gender: Male
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 180
Size: Medium
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown

~~~ABILITIES~~~
(Ability, Rank, Mod/Total Mod)

STR 14 +2/4
DEX 14 +2/4
CON 14 +2/4
INT 16 +3/6
WIS 14 +2/4
CHA 16 +3/6

~~~SAVES~~~
DMG +2
FORT +2
REF +2
WILL +2

~~~MOVEMENT~~~
INIT +6
SPD - Normal: 30/60/120
Flight SPD 40/80/160

~~~COMBAT~~~
BASE DEFENSE 2
DEF 14
FLAT 12
MENTAL 12

BASE ATTACK 2
MELEE +4
RANGED +4
MENTAL +4

~~~SKILLS~~~
(Name [Mod/Ranks])

*Science: Meteorology [+7/4]
*Acrobatics [+6/4]
Balance [+6/4]
Listen [+6/4]
Spot [+6/4]
Search [+7/4]
Handle Animals [+7/4]
Ride [+6/4]
Perform: TV personality [+5/2]
*Profession: Weather man [+6/4]

* = Trained Only

~~~FEATS~~~
Improved Initiative

~~~POWERS~~~
-------------------------------------
SPINNING +8 [4 pp per rank+4, 36 total]
- SOURCE: Mutation
- EXTRAS: Flight, Blade Storm
- STUNTS: All-around vision, Whirlwind Attack.

WEATHER CONTROL +5 [5 pp per rank+2, 27 total]
- SOURCE: Mutation
- EXTRAS: Fog, Lightning, Air Control, Air Snare (Whirlwind)

------------------------------------

~~~WEAKNESSES ~~
None

~~~COST~~~
ABILITIES [28]
BASE ATT [6]
BASE DEF [4]
SKILLS [19]
FEATS [2]
POWERS [63]
WEAKNESS [-0]
TOTAL [120]
UNSPENT [0]


=====================
BACKGROUND
Travis is a home town boy made good. He grew up on a farm, home schooled by his mother. He learned to raise horses and ride like a true cowboy. His father had higher hopes for his son. Travis was pushed into going to college where he took a course in broadcast journalism and graduated with a masters in meteorology. He married his highschool sweetheart Sara Heartwell and they moved into the farm after his parents passed away within days of each other both from old age.
Travis and Sara have twin daughters Lindsy and Sandra who are just 8 years old. Both are tomboys like thier mom. Sara is a stay at home mom with a teaching degree.

Before long he was hired by WTEX tv in Amarillo and was an up and coming reporter and TV personaliy. He was working on camera when his mutation kicked in.
He was standing outside in a hurricane when he was struck by lightning. The charge energized his latent powers and he started to raise into the air spinning around like a dervish. Lightning flashed from his “funnel” and he realised he was in control. In a panic he flew home to his family ranch and was met by his wife and daughters. It was soon after this that he became a local celebrity but he found that being so public a hero has a real downside. He was never allowed to sleep. His phone run non-stop and even his station had him out 24/7 saving lives and kities in trees you get the idea. Eventualy he just stopped picking up the phone and resigned from his job. Unfortunatly living on Sara's salery was not a good thing. Recently he was asked to leave Texas and his farm for a life far more different than any he had known. He still has reservations about uprooting his family and selling the farm but it should be worth it if he can help the world.

DESCRIPTION
He’s a really layed back guy and not at all stuck up for having been on TV. He’s a family man and his wife and girls come first most of the time but Sara knows he has a higher calling. He's very well built and has long flowing brown hair kept in a pony tail and warm brown eyes. His costume has a bit of a cowboy look and he is never without his Stetson.

Synchronicity:
- 5 seconds of trail and the bright radiation in non-visible spectrum will warrant the obvious flaw I think.
- Any light is fine for the weakness.

Argent Silvermage:
- Which charachter are you submitting? Currently, I am assuming Tornado.
- I like the beginnings of the Tornado's back story but I would like to see more over the next couple days.

I hope its not too late to throw in a character suggesetion.

Lucy White Feather
PC Name: Karma (level 8)
HP: 4

Quote: "You should stop before you hurt yourself."
Association: Guardians

Occupation: Actress
Legal Status: legal citizen
Identity: Public
Place of Birth: Boston
Marital Status: Single
Living Relatives: Parents, Bryan and Cloud; siblings, brother Matty, and sister Moon

Age: 19
Gender: Female
Height: 5’8”
Weight: 117 lbs
Size: Medium
Eyes: Green
Hair: Black

~~~ABILITIES~~~
(Ability, Rank, Mod/Total Mod)

STR 10 +0
DEX 16 +3
CON 14 +2
INT 12 +1
WIS 16 +3
CHA 20 +5

~~~SAVES~~~
DMG +2
FORT +2
REF +5
WILL +5

~~~MOVEMENT~~~
INIT +3
SPD - Normal: 30

~~~COMBAT~~~
BASE DEFENSE 4
DEF 17
FLAT 14
MENTAL 17

BASE ATTACK 2
MELEE +2
RANGED +5
MENTAL +5

~~~SKILLS~~~
(Name [Mod/Ranks])
Acrobatics [5/2]
Balance [4/1]
Bluff [10/2]
Diplomacy [15/5]
Disguise[12/5]
Drive [5/2]
Innuendo [9/2]
Perform [10/5]
Sense Motive [10/7]
Taunt [10/5]

~~~FEATS~~~
Attractive +3 Bluff/Diplomacy
Fame +3/-3 to charisma skils based on her Rep
Iron Will
Lightning Reflexes
Surprise Strike
Wealth

~~~POWERS~~~
Absorbtion(Blast) +8 [6pp;40pp]
- SOURCE: Mutation
- EXTRA: Both Types
- EXTRA: Triggered x2 (Does not need to be aware of the attack)
- EXTRA: Automatically hits (as the effect in Energy Field that always hits)
- FLAW: cannot turn off the triggered blasts

notes: Fighting Karma is a tricky proposition, Shoot her, and your the one that gets hurt, throw her off a building, and the street ends up with a bigger then normal crater and an unhurt lucy standing there. While she cannot really hurt anyone herself, people can batter themselves senseless slapping her around.

~~~COST~~~
ABILITIES [30]
BASE ATT [6]
BASE DEF [8]
SKILLS [16]
FEATS [12]
POWERS [48]
TOTAL [120]
UNSPENT [0]

Karma is one of the truly lucky people, always been the most popular, she was born with a silver tongue and the beauty to make her a star. Lucy has been on the path to stardom since she was 5 and was in her first play. At 13 she did her first modeling job, and at 17 she star'd in her first film. Her parents have been fairly supportive of her career meerly making sure that she kept up her school studies. At least until it happened.

Lucy and her parents were eating at a posh resturant hotel when a Super Criminal decided to rob the place. In the bothched attempt he recognized Lucy and took her hostage. The Super ended up hitting the star with an energy blast to the temple, it wasn't Lucy that was lobotomized, and that was the first indication of her powers. The Starlet was the the talk of the Entertainment industry when she when she "decided" to go to the mutant academy to learn about her powers.

Karma's inclusion in a Hero Squad would be a media Coup, the young woman is quite well versed in dealing with media, as well as all the skills required for being an undercover operative, beside already being a media darling.

Appearance: Karma is a very attractive young woman, having won modeling contracts, and movie deals sice she was 13. She wears her shoulder length brown hair in whatever way strikes her fancy, but currently, it is in a gelled spikey mass. She has bright green eyes, and the delicate facial features of a person with a hint of Sioux blood.

Name: Mason Kim
Alias: Banjax

Abilities (18 points)
STR: 10 (+0)
DEX: 14 (+2)
CON: 10 (+0)
INT: 16 (+3)
WIS: 14 (+2)
CHA: 14 (+2)

Combat (9 points)
Damage Save: +0
Fortitude Save: +0
Reflex Save: +2
Will Save: +2
Base Defense: +0
Initiative: +2
Speed: 30
Base Attack: +3
Melee: +4
Ranged: +4

Skills (28 points)
Computers: +8
Craft (electronics): +8
Craft (programming): +8
Disable Device: +4
Knowledge (conspiracy theory): +4
Knowledge (local underworld): +4
Open Lock: +4
Repair: +8
Spot: +4
Taunt: +4

Feats (11 points)
Attack Finesse
Dodge
Talented (Craft (electronics) and Repair)
All-Around Sight (flaw: Device)
Darkvision (flaw: Device)
Radio Broadcast (flaw: Device)
Radio Hearing (flaw: Device)
See Invisibility (flaw: Device)

Powers (54 points)
Datalink: +6
- flaw: Range (touch)
- 6 points
Drain: +6
- flaw: Limited – One Source (super-science)
- 6 points
Stun: +4
- flaw: Range (touch)
- 4 points
Super-Intelligence: +6
- flaw: Limited (only useful with machines)
- 6 points
Force Field: +4
- extra: Force Attacks (Energy Blast (stun))
- flaw: Device
- 8 points
Gadgets: +6
- 6 points
Teleportation: +6
- extra: Blink
- flaw: Device
- stunt: Extended Teleport
- 14 points
Telescopic Sense: (sight) +4
- extra: Extra Sense (hearing)
- flaw: Device
- 4 points


Background
Mason Kim grew up as part of a stable family in a safe, semi-wealthy California suburb. His family wasn't one of the wealthy ones, but they did well for themselves at the jobs necessary to support the rich folks' lifestyles. As a child, Mason never wanted for much, except perhaps excitement.

His mutation finally manifested itself, at age 15, in a gradual manner. Over a course of weeks, he began to realize that the electronic and digital devices that surrounded him were full of subtle energy and coded information that he could somehow feel. At first, he didn't even recognize the phenomenon as mutation-related. He simply assumed he was just noticing something most people don't, like the tiny, high-pitched whine of a cathode ray tube. But as he began to understand and interpret the language of electrons, he found he could touch such a screen, close his eyes, and still know exactly what it was displaying. Eventually, he realized that he was experiencing something unique.

He kept this quiet, however. He had no interest in getting shipped off away from the highschool--where he'd finally started making a few good friends and talking to girls--to go to one of those special schools. Not over something like this, something he could easily hide, something that could never be dangerous anyway.

So he kept his simple power to himself, gradually learning more about it as he felt the pulse and flow and sizzling patterns of the machines in his daily life, and--when he was absolutely certain he was safe from observation--experimented with trying to send data back at them.

It was only a year before he found he could use a computer faster and more effectively just by touching the system unit. And two weeks after that, he learned to skip the hardware altogether, and access the Internet just by touching a public data jack.

Mason's unique insight into electrical devices incubated a preternatural understanding of machines. While still in highschool--and without so much as reading a repair manual--he began tinkering with electronics. He was successful enough to burn down half his family's garage and almost kill himself through electrocution twice. He was hooked.

After high school, he rode a full scholarship off to college, the big city, and a curriculumn of engineering and computer science.

He never quite made it all the way to a degree.

He began making good money writing code in between classes--usually in his dorm room, where no one could see that he wasn't using his hands--and started to wonder if he even needed college. Especially while there were such interesting things to distract him. The money he made as a freelance programmer almost always went into electronic components, which in turn went into any of a dozen different private projects he'd spend his nights messing about with.

He'd never had much interest in the various mutant hero groups that crowded the media, but the very night he managed to get his portable forcefield system working decently was also the first night he hit the streets as Banjax: solo, unlicensed superhuman vigilante. And while he kept attending classes--however sporadically--for almost a month afterwards, that was also the night that his college career truly died.

From there, his life settled into a comfortable routine of high adventure and dangerous science. By day he'd lie, drowsing, on the couch of his new apartment, curled in a fetal position around a closed laptop, writing code in a whisper of electrons. By night, he'd run around the city in a multi-lensed helmet and a shimmering blue forcefield, looking for trouble and generally finding quite a bit of it. Over time, his costume and array of gadgets changed, and he raised his sights ever higher, taking down ever more prominent crime figures. More than a few people died. He dabbled in technology verging on science fiction, eventually achieving a reasonably-safe personal teleporter.

No one was safe from him. Not Marlon "Bomb" Welch, the explosively-powered gang leader Mason launched out an 8th-story window--and into traffic--with a force blast. Not Dane Freggiaro, the regenerating mob enforcer for whom he invented a disintegration chamber. Not even the Heavy Crew, a mercenary team who found their modified military power armor turned against them by Banjax's special touch.

Eventually, he began to look past the endless crime bosses and mutant criminals towards suspicions of corrupt government agencies. It could be that that's why he was finally arrested. Mason himself certainly thinks so.

Unreported and untrained mutant powers, possession of what any creative DA could term illegal weaponry, unsanctioned vigilanteism (and all the assorted violent crimes that that entails)--Mason Kim was looking at serious prison time. And so, despite his now-validated distrust of the government, he jumped at the chance to take a stint in the Guardians instead.


Powers and Equipment
Mason's only real "power" is his ability to electrically communicate with and manipulate electronics by touch. He can start a car without a key, read or write to magnetic media by handling it, hack a network by grasping a data cable, or severely scramble a suit of power armor with a touch (the technique which prompted him to call himself "Banjax," and archaic word meaning to ruin or destroy). If pressed, he can channel enough electricty into his touch to shock and stun a human being, but it's not a trick he relies on often.

His primary advantage is in his array of home-made gadgetry. Between his intuitive understanding of machines and his ability to influence them directly, he's managed to make possible a number of feats beyond mainstream contemporary technology. His main devices are a forcefield-generating suit which can be used to direct burts of concussive force, a face-obscuring helmet that bristles with a variety sensory equipment, and his most profound accomplishment, a suit that enables quick, short-ranged teleportation.

At any given time, he generally also has a few completely experimental devices more-or-less assembled and ready to go in his workshop, and available via a more cumbersome, long-ranged teleport system that uses his personal teleporter as an anchor point.

Almost everything he builds would be entirely unusable by anyone else. His mutation makes any sort of normal mechanical interface unnecessary, and in some cases his own brain actually serves as a calibrator and relay for separate components. His helmet, in fact, lacks any sort of internal display. Reverse engineering his devices would also prove difficult, due to the haphazard nature of their workings, with gaps here and there that can be filled only by his unique ability.


Appearance
Without his Banjax gear, Mason Kim is a short, moderately attractive young Korean man of average build and nondescript mode of dress. He keeps his hair cut closely to improve direct head-to-helmet contact.

The main element of the Banjax outfit, the forcefield generator, consists of a black jumpsuit covered in a web of straps which support dozens of smooth, palm-sized metal disks--which actually project the field--and a single, back-mounted power supply. The teleporter is a complicated and multi-segmented cluster of machinery attached to a heavy belt. Most striking, though, is probably the helmet, which covers Mason's head entirely in black steel, presenting to the world an assymetrical collection of camera lenses, including a number mounted on the back and sides of the apparatus.


Personality
Still vaguely immature at 21, Mason is a slightly amoral thrill-seeker at heart. While he truly did start his vigilante career with the intention of helping people, the primary reason was always the same as the reason for all his time spend inventing devices no one else could ever use: it was a tremendous amount of fun.

His moral code is one that, he feels, functions as elegantly and unquestionably as a mathematical proof. Inflicting a small hurt--or committing a small crime--in order to prevent a greater one is entirely justified. Greater hurts are acceptable to prevent even more terrible ones, and the systems scales all the way up to justify the murder of people whom the world is theoretically better off without. At the same time, however, he abhors the use of unnecessary force.

In the recent years before his forced conversion from a criminal vigilante to an enlisted soldier for the North American Alliance, he had become increasingly interested in theories regarding the powers involved in the War, and the rumored injustices and excesses of the Mutant Age governments. He doesn't specifically believe any particular theory and has no strong political leanings, but he maintains a healthy skepticism regarding the motives of government agencies all the same.

Gideon said:

=Argent Silvermage:
- Which charachter are you submitting? Currently, I am assuming Tornado.
- I like the beginnings of the Tornado's back story but I would like to see more over the next couple days.

Click to expand...

Yeah. Tornado. more backstory coming up.