[recruiting maybe] Simple Superheroes - Artifice City

[Walking Dad]

I will bow out of this. To much stuff I just don't get and my RL group is switching to another system I have to learn, too. I wish you all the best and good gaming.

 

[Thondor]

I will bow out of this. To much stuff I just don't get and my RL group is switching to another system I have to learn, too. I wish you all the best and good gaming.

[MENTION=59043]Walking Dad[/MENTION];
Hmmm, I am happy walk you through any questions you may have. In the hopes of peaking your interest, here is a rendition of Yarko the Great.
The Mystic/inventor/green lantern type character who can do almost anything they can imagine is a more complex character to model. If your still having trouble groking the system a simpler achetype might be easier.

[sblock=Yarko the Great]
Identity: Yarko the Great

Talents
Accuracy: 2- nimble handed and footed [F]
Mobility:
Toughness: 3- Mystic shields [D]
Might:
Brains: 4- Cast a Spell [T], 5- Spell Potency [P], 2- Mystic energy (extra strain) [F]
Senses: 3- Mystic Sight [F]

Superpower Finesse 5- Mystic

Relations: I am leaving this blank
* 2
* 1
* 1

Lifepoints: 6
Strainpoints: 7

Weakness(es):
If Yarko cannot see then he is unable to cast spells.
To cast new spells he must be in his primary form.
Yarko requires artifacts to cast complex spells. The Gem in his Turban is his primary focus. If he is without mystic artifacts he suffers a die penalty.

Description of Talents:

* Cast a Spell (Brains 4): It normally takes Yarko 1-2mins to cast a spell. He can cast a spell in one action if he spends a Strainpoint. He can prepare spells ahead of time to be released as an action. He can maintain 4 spell effects at once.

* Spell Potency (Brains 5): Yarko can mimic the effects of almost any potential Talent as if it was Rank 4 (he could roll 4 dice). One of his favourite spells is to shapechange himself. But he can perform a huge host of other incantations such as enchanting a carpet to fly, or invisibility, intangibility, telekinesis etc.
Spells can last for an entire Scene or confrontation at which point they fade away endless Yarko casts them again or expends Strainpoints.

* Mystic Energy (Brains 2): Yarko has a deep reserve of mystic energy which he uses to boost his spellcasting. This gives him one extra (positive) Strainpoint. His negative 1 repeats.

* Fleet handed-and-footed (Accuracy 2): Yarko can perform classic stage magic and circus tricks. Such as making things dissapear and reappear, as well as walking on a tight-rope or similar tricks.

* Mystic Shields (Toughness 3): Yarko is shielded from hostile magic and mind-control.

* Mystic Sight (Senses 3): Yarko 'sees' and feels magic.



Personality and Background:
Yarko is a stage Magician who is also a True Mage.
[/sblock]

 

[Walking Dad]

Thank you very much. I will happily play this character after adding the relations. Let's just hope I will not be too annoying with my questions during play.

 

[Zerith]

I'm wondering what you think of this character concept :3

[sblock=Harbinger]
Identity: Alexander Ravensworth

Talents
Accuracy: 2-Defiler’s Grace[F]
Mobility: 2-Feind’s Fleet Feet[F]
Toughness: 5-Immortal Defiance [D, R], 4-Death Defied [D], 3-Wrath of Madness[O, A], 2-Ichor of Undeath [O, R, A]
Might:
Brains: 3-Terror[C, F, R]
Senses:

Superpower Finesse: Pending

Weakness: Harbinger is unable to cross the threshold of hollowed ground without being invited by an authority to do so.

Inchor of undeath is involuntary, and he may not chose to ‘not’ use it, placing anything, friends and foes alike, nearby him in peril if he comes to harm.

Lifepoints: 6
Strainpoints: 6

Relations: 2-Remediation, 1-Truth/Truth sayer, 1-Revenge

Description of Talents:

Defiler’s Grace[Accuracy-2]: Harbinger has never been one to avoid dramatically walking into ‘peril’, but he is able to sneak his way by when so he chooses.
Fiend’s Fleet Feet[Mobility-2]: Harbinger is fleet of foot and able to move swiftly.

Immortal Defiance[Toughness-5]: Harbinger is, arguably, Immortal, recovering from wounds that sunder flesh and bone without breaking stride, knitting himself and his attire until whole.
Immediately at the end of his turn, and after being harmed, Harbinger rolls to regain LP up to his max LP.
Rolls 2d6, 5+ to regains a LP

Death Defied [Toughness-4]: Harbinger’s body is not made of mortal flesh and bone, when ‘gravely’ wounded his interior is exposed, appearing as a hellish ether that steams and smolders out of the wound until it closes, it smells of brimstone.
Harbinger treats Death Defied as a rank 3 talent vs physical harm, but treats all attack attempts (successful or not) as if he was harmed for the purposes of Immortal Defiance and Ichor of Undeath.

Inchor of Undeath[Toughness:-2]: Harbinger’s body reacts violently to harm; creating a spray of thick ichor whenever he is harmed, the Ichor is highly acidic and gnaws through whatever it lands on.
[Harbinger, and his wardrobe, are immune]
-Wrath of Maddness[Toughness-3]: Harbinger ruptures his form and envelops an area with his inner ether; cording it away within the miasma; The action is is not without respite, however, Harbinger is harmed and loses 1 LP doing so.

Terror[Brains-3]: Harbinger is frightening to behold, when he so chooses, he sheaths the air in a miasma that causes a deep sense of foreboding in those who beholds him.
Those who look at him must either focus their actions on him, getting away from him, or roll to overcome the fear.

Group: TBA
Orientation: Anti-Hero
Role: Bullet magnet/Distraction[/sblock]

 

[Thondor]

I'm wondering what you think of this character concept :3

Harbinger
snip

Orientation: Anti-Hero
Role: Bullet magnet/Distraction

Honestly, he's a really neat character and I like how you have worked the Talents. There would probably be some small tweaks. I can tell you put quite a bit of work and creativity into him.

My concern is that his concept is pretty dark, and that's a poor fit for the particular Universe that we have been planning. It's not a poor fit for the game system, but for 1950's lighthearted Artifice City its not so great.

I tried to convey this in my OP with comments like

What are the Assumptions for this Play-by-Post?
2. A friendly, bantering, not particularly high realism game. Your costumed heroes out to foil the villains diabolical plot ‘nuff said.

So the question is, are you comfortable tweaking him to be a little less 'dark' and a little more of a team player who would be happy foiling a bank robbery?
He doesn't need to be the kind of character who rescues kitten's out of trees for old ladies and little girls, but he needs to be able to work with heroes who do exactly that.

I want to make sure that there is consensus between players (including myself) on the kind of game and its tone that we are playing. Because otherwise it can lead to a lot of dissonance and disappointment for the participants.

If you tweak him so that he views his current state as some sort of curse but has pledged to help the common man with his abilities until Dr. Nexus and/or Yarko the Great can cure him then it might work.
You may also want to add some sort of 'manifest' weakness, which means he is a normal human until he chooses to 'manifest' which takes an action on his part. He won't be able to use any of his inhuman talents until he 'manifests.'

Think about it. And feel free to propose a new character if you wish. I'd love to have you onboard.

 

[Zerith]

I love feedback ^_^
Critiques as well
But yeah, he is a bit… Black… much less dark :/
His motive is more to do good things for his own benefit then the benefit of others, that their helped is a worthless note to him “There all dead in the end anyways.” Basically, from his point of view, he Knows there is a heaven and a hell: he dos not want to go to hell(who would?), thus he will do whatever he can to make the world better: so that all his deeds are ‘good’ and he gets to go through the pearly gates when he finally is ended; thus working as ‘a good guy’ is his means and getting an infinite reward is his ends. So he is a bizarrely heroic anti-hero… but also a royal jack ass ^_^;
As for not liking his state? He enjoys it to be honest, the circumstances that caused it? He loathes, the ends though? He likes.

As for weaknesses: they were thrown in, I did not spend much time on them. I like and dislike the idea of him having “mortal time” but he has no reason to change out of his ‘super’ form. Though I was thinking about making him weak to magic/mystic/arcane powers (as his body is basically made of arcane energy…)

I would have used another version of him that is a caster, but we had one so meh; no further point going into that. And I was a bit worried he would not fit (given that he is themed to basically get cut in half and then corrode everything around him, without caring) but I do have a few others I could bring in.

Basically, right now, I'm pondering a nature user, a steam powered bot, and... another manna being, though more myth themed and less demon themed ;3
Basically they are, in order: AoE damage/crowed control, Tank, Generalized combatant.

 

[Mark Chance]

...though more myth themed and less demon themed

That reminds me of years ago when I statted up Clio, the muse of history, as a superhero. She had a "history touch" power and could turn into a column of water.

 

[Jemal]

Reasons, intentions - the WHY behind actions - is what makes a person Good or.. not...
If your only reason for doing something is the reward (or avoidance of punishment) then you are most decidedly NOT good. That's my problem with the majority of religious views, the conceit that without the carrot and stick we are inherently evil when in fact it is quite the opposite.
But that's just my opinion, I have no desire to start an argument.

 

[Jemal]

OK, I've dropped the idea I was discussing earlier, I just don't see it being doable to my satisfaction in this system, and I have an opportunity to play her in an M&M game.

So, I'm going instead with a telekinetic 'superman' style. By superman I mean both in demeanor and power set. He uses his telekinesis to duplicate superstrength, invulnerability, flight, etc.

For background/personality, I want to try something much different from my usual snarky/witty Spiderman/tony stark style and go straight Cap America/Superman goodie good guy.

Lincoln is a an African American who joined the army at a young age to help protect people. He was in the war for 4 years, until he was crippled saving his entire squad in 49. Because he was black however, it was THEM who got the medals for bringing back his broken body, but he didn't care.
When he got back to the states, he moved in with his brother Abraham - a professional Football player - and took up writing.

One day several years after the war had ended, he found himself - through a series of what he would later realize to be incredibly contrived events - in a most peculiar situation where he was faced with something terrible about to happen. Given his conditions, there was only the most remote possibility that he had even a tiny chance of stopping it, and even if he succeeded nobody would ever know. On the other hand, he could benefit greatly by letting it happen, and nobody would know that either. He of course chose to sacrifice himself, despite knowing his actions were most likely futile.
At that point, it was revealed that he was being tested by a powerful cosmic entity (watcher/guardian/etc) who had been watching the planet - and him - for some time. Lincoln was told he had proven himself 'worthy of the gift', and that it was hoped he would inspire others to be as virtuous as him.
They unleashed his mind, expanding his intelligence and unlocking powerful telekinetic powers which continue to grow. He uses these powers under the super-name "Paragon" to fight crime, hatred, and injustice. Much of his telekinetic power is actually used to keep up the appearance that he is a strong, fit, NOT CRIPPLED young man, to help hide his secret identity.

*ASIDE: My first concept was slightly different and fed a bit off Harbinger's semi-religious theme, but I wasn't sure how deep you wanted to get into stuff like that considering this is supposed to be a fairly light game, and I'm already throwing in a crippled black super-hero in the 1950s. SO, I'm offering it here as an alternate in case you DO like it and want to pursue it (And nobody else is offended).
Basically, in the first draft Lincoln was an atheist, and the 'cosmic entity' claims to be God, giving Lincoln a side of wondering "is it really God, and does that change how I act at all?"
I thought it might create an interesting dichotomy with Harbinger - A demonically fueled hero who is absolutely sure of heaven and hell and does 'good' things just to stay out of heaven, despite the fact that he has no morals... and an atheistic hero who supposedly got his powers from "God" but does what he does simply because It's the right thing to do, regardless of heaven/hell.

So whadaya guys think, do you want a crippled black atheist who was turned into superman by a cosmic entity that may or may not be God? Or should I stick with the alien thing?


NOW, Rules Questions for Thondor:
First off, I notice most characters have letters next to their talents (Emphasis mine)

Accuracy: 2-Defiler’s Grace[F]
Mobility: 2-Feind’s Fleet Feet[F]
Toughness: 5-Immortal Defiance [D, R], 4-Death Defied [D], 3-Wrath of Madness[O, A], 2-Ichor of Undeath [O, R, A]
Might:
Brains: 3-Terror[C, F, R]
Senses:

So.. what up wit dat?

Second, I view Lincolns Telekinesis as being kind of a 'pool' of power that he draws from when he needs to enhance one thing over another. Could that be represented by buying my 'main' powers (Strength, force field, flight) as talents, and then assigning the rest to just 'telekinesis A, telekinesis b' or some such, and having a lot of pooling options, or is there another way to represent that?

Third, What exactly is the superpower finesse about?

Fourth, how do we represent non-power abilities (What other systems tend to call SKILLS, like technology usage, knowledges, acrobatics, etc).. They're not all just talents are they? That would seem to indicate a VERY focused system with no room for heroes that are good at more than one or two things. If I was to use the 'standard' array, I'd probably have something like 'strength 4, Force field 4, Telekinesis 3, Flight 3' at the very least to represent my actual powers, which would only leave 3 2-ranks for utility and skills..

 

[Zerith]

By that logic, it is most decidedly not good to go to work for the simple and sole reason of getting paid.
I'm not saying he is a great guy because he dos good things for selfish reasons, but history judges on actions and when it comes down to it, how do we know who was truly a good person and who just wanted to be known as one? And most good people get enjoyment from helping others; their getting rewarded by doing so and that is their motive, and that is selfish when you think about it.

In my book, good comes down to: do you pray on others to get what you want or do you choose to work for it without doing so?
___

Anyways, what shall I bring? The plant, the robot or the Manathingy?