Eleanore's Request (Fantasy MnM 3E, Recruiting)

[SuperZero]

"More or less D&Dish fantasy" is probably a good description.
Creatures I definitely had in mind include humans, elves (actually I don't think I have any elf NPCs in mind, but I have a half-elf one so logic dictates they must be around), goblins, worgs, kobolds, dragons, and demons, although I wasn't necessarily going to draw from DnD specifically regarding details like their exact capabilities or particular types of dragons and demons.

The limitation on acquiring new shapes sounds like a complication--unable to power stunt new forms (although potentially still able to power stunt things that the creature he's currently imitating could power stunt itself). Still being able to Morph into such creatures without actually gaining any abilities sounds fine to me, if that's what you want.
And I have no issues with him being uncertain of his origin. I would like to ask, though, whether it's something that you already know out-of-character, it's something that you'd like to remain vague and unknown, or if it's something that you'd be okay with me working up (I'm not sure if or how I'd do that at this point, but I'd like to know if the possibility is available).

 

[Shayuri]

I do not currently have a solid explanation, OOC. I have several competing notions. I'd be happy to work with you on that, or simply let you have at it. Whatever you feel comfortable with. 'Mysterious' origins are a lot of fun, but also mean extra work for the GM, so I'm inclined to be very flexible. I don't want to monopolize your time.

One additional question. As my thoughts on the character evolve, I was considering giving him a little regeneration along with the power that lets you 'heal' from death. Upon this power I'd want to heap the caveat 'loses memory when this happens.' Thus explaining the murkiness of his background, and maintaining a plausible death-deterrance.

That said, I'm equally open to having that not be the case. I'm just exploring ideas right now...nothing is remotely close to being baked in just yet.

 

[SuperZero]

Sounds good to me. Would you want complete memory-loss or would he still have a vague idea of what's going on around him?

 

[Shayuri]

I think some of that depends on the circumstances of the death. How much of the body is disrupted, perhaps... Dying from a sword to the heart being less 'serious' than dying of being lit on fire, or crushed between two moving walls.

Or maybe the duration he's dead makes a difference, if he keeps getting killed and re-killed...or keeps taking more damage even after death.

In general, I think his 'core' skills and personality are pretty much ingrained. Short of regenerating back to life from a single cell or something. His retention of other things depends on time. So the 'fresher' a memory is, the more resilient it is to the amnesia. He might recognize the face of the man who killed him, for example...the very last thing he saw. He might sort-of recognize the face of a friend he saw a few days before that...know that he knew him, but not remember the name or HOW he knew him.

Memories older than a week or so are pretty much gone.

 

[Binder Fred]

Shayuri: So he/she is like a shape-shifting wild-child/orphan? Sound very Fae-ish (or maybe fae-curse-ish?). Me like. How do the 'face' elements figure in?

For the IC mechanics, have you considered tattoos? (can shapechange into the form he/she has tattoed on (drawn with ink incorporating some of the creature's blood?)). That might be a bit too technological for your concept though..?

Touching the thing you want to transform into is super cool too, though maybe too restrictive? Certainly adds flavor though (I can imagine them chacing down a falcon, or a bear, for that special use )... Maybe this is what you had in mind, but how about he needs to touch the thing in order to *change slots in his shapechange array*? So he can change from human to bear as many times as he wants, but he has to hunt down a (living/recently deceased) bird and touch it before he can then change from human to bird as many times as he wants?

 

[Moon_Goddess]

I'm wanting to play like a Shamaness of a primitive tribal peoples, maybe like goblins but I'm open to suggestions for a different race not completely happy with the goblin idea.

the thought is she'll be speaking with spirits and a spirit will be directing her to help the other pcs, something she's only grudgingly doing against her nature.

 

[Binder Fred]

Hey there, DarwinofMind. Does it have to be of a humanoid species? Not exactly a big deal, but I'm thinking Baclava might have filled our "hated on sight" quota for a while .

As I understand it, Madehst (the town where we're based) is a small village, pretty rural in a medieval sort of way (which is saying a lot), with wild forests and bogs nearby. These people would still believe in spirits; they'd have *need* of "services" outside the church; have need of somebody to interseed between them and the spirits exactly as they have someone to interseed between them and the Gods. What I'm saying is: what do you think about a village witch, bog/forest witch theme? (Apprentice level if you don't want the responsability?)

 

[Binder Fred]

Prince Mercer[...] In fact, in response to his father's fear of the idea that Mercer and Heather could become king and queen of different nations at the same time and cause them to effectively merge into one large kingdom, Mercer has pledged that he will immediately pass his crown to the next in line (likely Eleanore) should that ever be the case.

The "fear" bit has me a little puzzled [MENTION=6690219]SuperZero[/MENTION], given that this is exactly what every royal family in history has ever wanted to achieve in terms of marriages... Is it because King Alexander fears the reaction of the Silverscales to any changes to the set-up his mother dragon put into place or something? (For my personnal edification, you understand. Baclava is unlikely to ponder the matter very long, let us say ).

 

[SuperZero]

Well, his family never took power but were put into place by a semi-mystical guardian who established the borders, so there's that.
Alexander is also more interested in maintaining and protecting the kingdom as it stands than expanding it.

But if it were planned he might be more okay with it. As it is, neither Mercer nor Heather is supposed to inherit a throne at all. If things go in an unexpected direction, however, his grandchild might suddenly find him- or herself simultaneously the king or queen of two different kingdoms with different cultures and power structures and with no plan for dealing with that. It could go badly.
Does that make sense? I confess that real-world history isn't my strong suit, and to some extent I think my world-building history suffers for that.


To some extent, he also wants to establish that he wants his children's marriages to be about their personal relationships and not about politics, and it might be for show.
(That's obviously not based on real world history at all, but since I've already established royal families that don't discriminate between their princes and their princesses it seems to me to go with that.)

 

[Jemal]

Not one to pass up an opportunity to play M&M, even with a new baby.
I'm in if you'll have me.

One of my favourite things about M&M is that you can completely ignore archetypes in favour of just making a fun character. I'm hoping you wont have a problem with me doing that.
I have several ideas that would work in a medeival/fantasy setting. A few power-set ideas, and a few background ideas. The two 'groups' are exchangeable - that is to say that any of the powersets should work with any of the backgrounds, so I'll just list them all and let you veto any you don't like, then I'll work from what's remaining.
Powers:
Telekinetic: Fairly straight forward, someone who specializes in telekinetic powers. Psionic or Magical would work.
Force Mage: a mage specializing in spells that utilize solid force to control the battlefield or damage opponents.
Lucky bastard: A wanderer who always seems to be in the right place in the right time. He's actually not that LUCKY, he just has the ability to control probability. Powers would include high attack and dodge/parry shifts (no special rule, just explained as probability shifting), Luck Control, and a low-rank 'Variable' power to account for 'other things' he can do with it (With DM influence of course, as Variable can be powerful)
Artist: Kind of a bardic type. Has the ability to bring his art to life.. whether it be music or drawings. Power-wise, likely create and summon abilities. He starts singing about a dragon, and one comes to help him, etc. Obviously we'd have to talk about it and figure limits, but I think the insane cost on adding variety to summoning like that is pretty limiting already.
Swordmaster: Exactly as it sounds. More finesse than power.
For any of these I'd also likely be using a couple Items of Power (whats a fantasy character without magic items?) And possibly a single Minion as an intelligent item.

Backgrounds:
Dimensional/Time Traveler: (NOTE that this would NOT include the time travel power, which you already said you don't want.) This is a person who has been sent back from the future with no idea how or why and is trying to get along with his strange powers in this odd new world.
Amnesiac: Doesn't remember much, if anything beyond a short while ago, but what he does remember disturbs him greatly.
Cool guy: A happy, calm, collected individual. He adventures to help people while simultaneously enjoying himself - See the world, test his skills, beat up the badguys.. Some independent wealth and/or power in his family background.
Bad guy/Anti-hero: A mercenary who's into adventuring for the money. Possibly has an ulterior motive? Or perhaps he WAS Evil and is slowly changing from being around the good guys for so long.
Baby Dragon : He is actually a young dragon in humanoid form, out to see the world and/or learn a new perspective. *Can easily be combined with cool guy or amnesiac*


*EDIT: Just read through the proposals of other characters and noticed some of my concepts are cutting close to others. Rather than see this as stepping on toes, I see the following:
The 'bad guy/anti-hero' could be an old companion of BF's convict.
The amnesiac is different from Shayuri's character b/c Shayuri's memory less is partial and based off of a power, wheras mine would be more of a 'something BIG happened to cause this' than a recurring thing.



As to the lethality, there are a few ways to go with Lethality in M&M. The first is similar to what you posted, alter 'incapacitated' to 'dying'. Dying characters are affected each round as though they had taken a damage effect equal in rank to the games PL (So for a pL 5 game, that would be a DC 20 toughness save). A second 'dying' effect indicates death, and toughness penalties from any failed saves continue to stack. In this case, a completely successful save could indicate that the character has 'stabilized' and is merely incapacitated, no longer dying.
Also you could add another degree of failure.. fail by 20 or more and you die outright.. The blow was so massive that you just could not withstand it.
Another way to do it is to make two types of attacks.. lethal and nonlethal. Lethal attacks kill as above (Or, if you want increased lethality, you can just replace incapacitated with flat out dead), while Nonlethal attacks work as standard M&M.