Insight's Agents of Artemis (M&M2E): OOC Thread

[Insight]

THE AGENTS OF ARTEMIS
A Mutants & Masterminds Game

This is the OOC (formerly the recruitment) thread for a new Mutants & Masterminds game. Please note that this is NOT your typical superhero game. In fact, it's not really a superhero game at all. Crazy, you say? Read on.

GAME CONCEPT
In "The Agents of Artemis", characters are members of the Artemis Foundation and hunters of the supernatural: ghosts, vampires, werewolves, demons, faerie, and the like. The characters are hunters in training, learning their trade at the Bleak Stone Academy. These hunters are special individuals, possessing abilities far beyond those of normal men and women.

The concept for this game somewhat echoes White Wolf's Hunter games. Why not simply run a Hunter game, then? For three reasons. First, I want to offer the players a wider variety of powers for their characters; Hunter characters are quite limited in their selection. Second, in "The Agents of Artemis", the hunters are part of an organization that is public and out in the open about its aims and purposes. Third, this is not intended to be as "grim 'n gritty" as WoD games.

"The Agents of Artemis" does have some similarities to Hunter. First, there ARE supernatural monsters in the world. Unlike in WoD, the people of this world know of the existence of monsters and are quite fearful of them. Our hunters are considered heroes, the few able to stem the tide of darkness threatening to overwhelm the Earth. Second, our hunters have powers that may be inspired by divine or psionic origin. Hunters in this game will have a far wider variety of powers from which to choose than in the White Wolf game.

The player characters are new hunters, still technically in training at the Bleak Stone Academy, but able to take on field missions. The Artemis Foundation, which owns the Bleak Stone Academy, will send the hunters on missions to take down specific threats or achieve specific objectives against supernatural creatures or cults dedicated to them.

Hunters are constantly working against the Shadow, a supernatural, otherworldly force seemingly powering and/or creating the creatures found roaming our streets and killing our citizens. No one really understands the Shadow completely. It could be a malevolent force of ultimate darkness, it could be a presence from beyond, bent on destroying all that we know, or it could be a neutral force currently being used to foment chaos. All that your hunters know is that your enemy is in league with the Shadow and that its corruption threatens reality as we know it.

CHARACTER CREATION
Coming up with a character concept for this game won't be easy. Because this is not your typical superhero game, not all normal M&M character concepts are going to fit it. All submitted characters will be scrutinized for their ability to fit into this game concept, but I will work with interested players to ensure that they can find a way to make a good character.

Here are the basics:
* PL 8, 120PP
* Please observe all PL caps
* No more than 1/3 of your points, or 40PP, in "powers" - NOTE THAT THIS IS A CHANGE FROM THE ORIGINAL
* All powers will be of the divine, psionic, shadow, or sorcery power origins. Yes, that means you can have a character using powers associated with the Shadow.
* Powers should not be super-flashy and be things that generally fall under one of the categories above. These will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
* Characters are HUNTERS and must be able to fight and defend themselves.

HOUSE RULES
I mentioned in the "interest thread" that I was planning to introduce some house rules, but I'm not going to do that at this time. I think there's enough strangeness going on already that I don't want to add to the confusion.

If we get to the point that I feel comfortable making these changes to the game, we can revisit them.

SUBMITTED CHARACTERS
Note: These are not necessarily approved, but have been submitted by potential players. I have reviewed these characters for their mechanics.

hafrogman: Warren A. Seaver, Jr., Shadow device character
Padreigh: Unnamed light controller, angel-transformer
Shayuri: Juno Reyes, physical adept
Voda Vosa: Lakatos Svikola, alchemist

NOTE: This game is no longer accepting submissions.

 

[Voda Vosa]

First reply, in your face everyone! =D

*Ehem* On a more serious matter:

I was going to build an alchemist, but I saw your 30pp cap on powers rule. I don't think I could get a lot of "formulas" with that. However I'll see what I can do.
Would you consider more appropriate to have a "Magic" power and then AP to it, but fluffed as alchemical reagents and potions?

 

[Insight]

"Agents of Artemis" will employ a wiki as a resource for information about the setting and the various organizations in the game world.

Below are excerpts from the wiki (still in development):

[sblock=The Artemis Foundation]The Artemis Foundation is a privately-held organization dedicated to the study of paranormal activity and beings tied to the supernatural. Of late, the Artemis Foundation has focused its efforts on the Shadow and the cultists dedicated to it.

Organization Type: Private Investigative Agency
Headquarters: London, UK
Leadership: Emma Tolhurst-Stone (CEO)

Founded by the great hunters George Grainger and Herman Stone in 1961, Artemis has always been a small organization dedicated to the hunting of ghosts, vampires, werewolves, zombies, demons, and witches. Originally, Grainger and Stone were the only members of the foundation (and thus, the only hunters), but by the 1980s, several other hunters had been added to the roster.

In the 1990s, Herman Stone fell ill and retired from active hunting. He remained with the foundation at its London headquarters, while Grainger and Herman’s daughter, Emma Tolhurst-Stone remained in the field and also took over training duties at the Bleak Stone Academy. When Herman died in 1996, Emma took over full-time duties with the foundation and a few years later, she became headmistress at the Bleak Stone Academy. In 1999, Grainger retired from hunting, leaving neither of the original founders on active duty.

With the Revelation in 2012, and the increase in Shadow-related activities around the world, the Artemis Foundation has been far more successful in reaching potential investors and finding hunters to bring into the organization. The Bleak Stone Academy, once nearly dormant, has experienced a rush of activity in the past year and is actively seeking young people to become a new wave of hunters.[/sblock]

[sblock=The Bleak Stone Academy]The Bleak Stone Academy is an academic institution dedicated to the development and training of operatives to track, study, and hunt supernatural creatures and agents of the Shadow. It is an arm of the Artemis Foundation, which wholly owns the Bleak Stone Academy.

Organization Type: Training Institution
Headquarters: Denver, CO (USA)
Leadership: Emma Tolhurst-Stone (Headmistress), Stephen Bleak (Chairman Emeritus), Samuel Midland (Associate Headmaster), Anne Sanders (Director of Curriculum)

George Grainger and Herman Stone, after more than two decades hunting on their own, realized that they would retire someday and the world would need new hunters to take up the reins. In 1979, they joined forced with Kellan Bleak, another hunter, to found the Bleak Stone Academy in Denver, Colorado. It should be noted that George Grainger was initially against the idea of a formal academic institution to train hunters and thus, the reason why Grainger’s name does not appear in the school’s name.

From 1979 to 1981, the three hunters formed a curriculum and training program and, at the same time, recruited students with extraordinary gifts in fighting the supernatural. Within a few years, the first class (’82) graduated and was immediately submitted for field duty.

Over the next 15 years, as Bleak, Stone, and Grainger (the first generation of hunters) continued to slow down (and with Stone’s death in 1996), the Bleak Stone Academy stopped producing new hunters and fell into some disrepair. Hunter and son of Kellan Bleak, Stephen Bleak, joined the Academy’s staff in 1995. With his father’s passing in 2001, Stephen Bleak became Chairman of the Board of Trustees and later, in 2008, became Chairman Emeritus. In 1999, Stone’s daughter, Emma Tolhurst-Stone, already CEO of the Artemis Foundation, became Headmistress of the Bleak Stone Academy. Under Bleak’s and Tolhurst’s control, the academy experienced a renewal during the late 90s and early 00s.

With the Revelation in 2012, the Bleak Stone Academy has been inundated with applications and has grown exponentially.[/sblock]

[sblock=The Shadow]What the Shadow is, or perhaps what it is not is a matter for great and perhaps unending debate. Since at least the 1930s, various experts on the supernatural, including the paranormal investigators Kellan Bleak, George Grainger, and Herman Stone have studied the Shadow as a potential source of perceived supernatural activity observed in various places on Earth. Whether the Shadow truly is a source of supernatural power and whether or not it really exists is unproven and perhaps cannot ever be proven.

In 1938, Dr. Heinrich Einhard published what is considered the seminal thesis on the Shadow, “Hundert Tanzende Schatten”, or “A Hundred Dancing Shadows”. In this 138-page work, which heavily references Dr. Einhard’s own field investigations into the supernatural, Einhard postulates that the paranormal activities he and others have witnessed over the centuries is the result of an encroachment into this world of a force he calls “the Shadow”. Dr. Einhard writes that he has first-hand experience with this “Shadow” and further, that he can prove a causal link between ghosts, vampires, demons, and other creatures and this Shadow force.

Dr. Einhard’s was almost completely ignored by his peers and mocked in mainstream science. One person who did take Einhard’s work seriously was Adolf Hitler, who, with the rise of the Third Reich, became interested in the supernatural and the occult. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), Dr. Einhard died in 1941 and was unable to aid the Nazis in any meaningful way in their pursuit of the Holy Grail and other items of alleged supernatural origin.

Interest in Dr. Einhard’s work renewed in the 1950s with the paranormal investigations of Kellan Bleak, George Grainger, and Herman Stone. Grainger and Stone, a team of investigators and self-styled “ghost” and “witch” hunters, delved further into study of the Shadow, while Bleak became obsessed with communicating with creatures supposedly created by or powered by a connection to the Shadow. Grainger and Stone formed the Artemis Foundation in 1961 as an institution devoted to understanding and containing the Shadow threat and published various papers on the subject of paranormal investigations. Bleak published no papers (officially), but did join Grainger and Stone in 1979 with the founding of the Bleak Stone Academy, intended to train young hunters to seek and study the supernatural.

Bleak, Grainger, and Stone were the most prominent hunters and students of the Shadow, but were by no means the only individuals interested in the supernatural. The rumored existence of many cults dedicated to Shadow worship have been put forth by Grainger, Stone, and others. Aside from decades-long rumors of the Scholomance in the Carpathian Mountains, most cults dedicated to the Shadow seem to come and go rather quickly.

The Revelation, in 2012, changed the world’s attitude towards the supernatural and hunting. The virtually proven existence of the Shadow now evident, people of the world live in fear of real ghosts, werewolves, faerie, vampires, and numerous other creatures “bound to the Shadow”. Study of the Shadow, the existence of which is still unadmitted in the annals of hard science, is now being undertaken by world governments and militaries, as well as in many respected universities and other private institutions.

According to current thought, including academic papers published in 2012 by the Artemis Foundation, the Shadow is an otherworldly force somehow connected to the existence of various supernatural creatures and powers now prevalent on Earth. Researchers who have had the opportunity to study such creatures report no physical evidence of such a tie, but also cannot explain through scientific measures how such creatures exist and continue to “live” despite, in some cases, vital signs or other traits typical to living beings (such as circulation flow, aeration, breathing, food consumption, and so forth). Many institutions and organizations throughout the world continue to study the Shadow and its relationship to supernatural phenomena occurring in the modern day.[/sblock]

[sblock=The Revelation]On December 21, 2012, some say that the Shadow revealed itself to the world for the first time. Others say that the Revelation was merely a culmination of a string of events and was a long time in the making.

Between December 13 and 21, 2012, strange symbols began to appear on the stone faces of walls, statues, and other edifices at various ancient historical sites around the world. Stonehenge, the Great Pyramid at Giza, Maccu Picchu, Chichen Itza, the Roman Colosseum, the Great Wall of China, and other similar sites of antiquity bore glyphs, up to then unknown. Scientists could explain neither the symbols not their meaning and could not account for how or why the strange symbols began to appear.

At mid-morning, London (UK) time, December 21st, witnesses around the world reported that these new glyphs started glowing with a purple light. As the light intensified, a “humming” sound with no apparent origin was also reported in the vicinity of these glyphs. At noon (GMT), giant, black “portals” appeared at each of the sites. Through these portals came all types of strange creatures: ghosts, vampires, werewolves, faerie, and demons were the most commonly reported emerging from the portals. At exactly 12:01 (GMT), the portals closed and vanished.

The creatures that came through the portals, however, did not vanish. Instead, these creatures ran rampant through cities and rural areas, killing people and destroying property in their path. This chaos went on for days. By December 25, world governments ordered their militariues to engage these supernatural beings, with limited degrees of success. By the end of 2012, verifiable reports of supernatural creatures had subsided, but very few cases emerged documenting that someone had killed one of these creatures. Only one conclusion could be reached; the creatures had gone into hiding. But, why?

One group trying to answer this last question is the Artemis Foundation, a paranormal investigative firm whose members had been investigating and studying the Shadow since the 1960s. Artemis has been working with the U.S. and U.K. governments and militaries to develop strategies to deal with the supernatural threat now evident in the world.[/sblock]

 

[Insight]

First reply, in your face everyone! =D

*Ehem* On a more serious matter:

I was going to build an alchemist, but I saw your 30pp cap on powers rule. I don't think I could get a lot of "formulas" with that. However I'll see what I can do.
Would you consider more appropriate to have a "Magic" power and then AP to it, but fluffed as alchemical reagents and potions?

Just build them as alternate powers. I don't see why you couldn't fit that into 30PP. Kinda like this:

ALCHEMY ARRAY: [24pp + 4 APs = 28pp]
Base Effect - Fire Breath Potion: Damage 8 (fire, sorcery; Extras: Area - Cone (+1), Contagious (+1)) [24pp]
AP - Power #2 [24pp]
AP - Power #3 [24pp]
AP - Power #4 [24pp]
AP - Power #5 [24pp]

 

[Voda Vosa]

Cool, just checking. Character on the way.

 

[Insight]

I've upped the limit for powers to 40pp, or 1/3 total for PL8 (changed above).

 

[Padreigh]

I would like to go for a "Light controller" (Alt Powers would be most likely Blast, Healing, Dazzle, Illusion, Strike, Force Field).
All those powers require a skill check "Knowledge:Religion" to be activated (Divine Source) .
I also consider a drawback that requires a "saintly lifestyle" or risk power loss, not unlike a D&D Paladin.
Unfortunately those powers are rather flashy ... literally so.
What do you think?

 

[Insight]

I would like to go for a "Light controller" (Alt Powers would be most likely Blast, Healing, Dazzle, Illusion, Strike, Force Field).
All those powers require a skill check "Knowledge:Religion" to be activated (Divine Source) .
I also consider a drawback that requires a "saintly lifestyle" or risk power loss, not unlike a D&D Paladin.
Unfortunately those powers are rather flashy ... literally so.
What do you think?

That sounds fine. The only hangup is that, if the "Requires a Skill Check" is going to be a Flaw and not a Drawback, it will severely limit your skill bonus in Knowledge: Theology & Philosophy. Basically, if it's too easy to make the check, it will be a Drawback (-1pp) and not a Flaw (-1pp/rank).

I like the "Power Loss" drawback that you cited. We will, however, need to fairly strictly define how this "saintly lifestyle" works.

Also, and this goes for everyone, make sure that you are building your powers using Ch. 2 of Ultimate Power. If you don't have access to Ultimate Power, I'll work with you to iron out any problems.

 

[Padreigh]

Makes sense. I was always wondering about that flaw anyway. Gives you -1/pp, but can be easily "countered" by good old "Skill Mastery"

I think I'll go without it and just pray for flavour anyway. I expect to have a character up for approval on Monday around noon (GMT).

Re lifestyle: I'll have something hammered out, it will most likely be very close to the oath of the D&D Paladin and the Knights Hospitallers (Knights of St. John). The character will have a military background, most likely a Swiss Guardsman.

One question about equipment/wealth: How are you going to handle that?

 

[Insight]

One question about equipment/wealth: How are you going to handle that?

Mundane stuff that doesn't directly affect combat or your ability to use skills, solve problems, and so forth, will not require points. For example, all of the characters should own cell phones and have some cash on hand for incidentals. This will not cost points.

Use the Equipment feat to purchase mundane equipment that falls into the above (guns, vehicles, lockpicks, night vision goggles, and so forth), and use the Device "power" for things that emulate existing powers.

Keep in mind that the Artemis Foundation and/or Bleak Stone Academy will supply your characters with mission-related equipment. I wouldn't spend a whole lot of pp on items unless your character is "Device-based".