Transcendence Now - M&M Game [Resumed!]

[Sollir Furryfoot]

The difference between 6th spot and reserve is really tough , I've got to go but I'll be back in 2 more hours and decide then

 

[KaintheSeeker]

The difference between 6th spot and reserve is really tough , I've got to go but I'll be back in 2 more hours and decide then

meanie!

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

I'm sorry for the overly long wait, everyone. I ended up going back and forth and the spots quite a bit, to be honest.

Characters Chosen:
1. Shalimar's MaKenzie Wolf
2. Samnell's Joshua Lucas Trevin
3. Festy_Dog's Lukas Clausewtiz**
4. RobotRobotI's Miss Maleck Blackwell**
5. Rybaer's - Joseph Vaughn
6. ByteRynn's Dr. Emerson Walden***
Reserves:
1. KentDArnold's Adriana "Sin" Neiko
2. KainTheSeeker's Kyle Graham

It was extremely hard for me to choose between the characters, I know I asked a lot from everyone and I'd like to thank everyone who submitted a character profusely. Overall, all the characters were fantastic, and several of the choices I made were simply due to personal taste and how the characters will interact with each other/the story. These last three slots were especially hard to be filled, and I actually wavered between those three slots and the two reserved and a few others pretty heavily. Hopefully though, this will make for a fun campaign!

Thank you very much Shayuri, Hammerhead, Mimic, Tinner, Kent, Kain for all your participation. If you'd like, with your permission, I'd be more than happy to insert your characters somewhere in the campaign, either in the 2nd or 3rd waves of mutants in the game. I won't do so without your express permission however, and the characters may not show up 100% exactly as you submitted them although I'll try to stay true to their personalities/backgrounds.

**Festy_Dog/RobotRobotI -> I liked Miss Maleck's character/personality/background, and her powers having shadow/darkness themes are fine, but I'm curious to see if you can come up with powers that are perhaps less direct and perhaps more interesting than simply 'Blast'. I'm also concerned that Festy's character and yours might have some overlaps, and I'd appreciate it if the both of you can work together to not step on each other's toes as much. Negative energy and shadows aren't the same thing, but sometimes they're associated with each other so I'd feel more comfortable if each of them had distinctly separate powers.

***ByteRynn, I liked your writeup and think your character fits a much needed niche in the game, and eagerly await your choice of powers.

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

I'll write a bit more on what I need from the characters who got in tomorrow. I'd like to find a stat block organization that is clean and easy to use for everyone, need to work a bit on what their character is about to do, and then specific questions for each person.

Edit-Oh, very importantly. For people who got in, everything in general can be more relaxed and we can play give and take a lot more. In the next couple days, I'd like it if you tell me what you expect of me, what type of game you'd like to play, and what materials if any I should be familiar with to present the best game (within reasonable limits of course ). To be clear about the materials part, for instance, Samnell might ask me to be familiar with the basics of the concert business of musicians or similar. It'd save me a lot more time if you'd provide me a link to the basic information needed, of course

The schedule for the next couple of days (probably four) would to be get the characters hammered out, and for me to create a couple more NPCs and get the basic plotlines down/be ready for starting the game, and familiarizing myself a bit more with M&M rules.

 

[Tokiwong]

Looks like things are shaping up in this thread, good luck Sollir.

 

[RobotRobotI]

**Festy_Dog/RobotRobotI -> I liked Miss Maleck's character/personality/background, and her powers having shadow/darkness themes are fine, but I'm curious to see if you can come up with powers that are perhaps less direct and perhaps more interesting than simply 'Blast'. I'm also concerned that Festy's character and yours might have some overlaps, and I'd appreciate it if the both of you can work together to not step on each other's toes as much. Negative energy and shadows aren't the same thing, but sometimes they're associated with each other so I'd feel more comfortable if each of them had distinctly separate powers.

I suppose I did go a bit heavy on the Blast. I think the consideration I made was something along the lines of "Well, she needs some way to defend herself..." ... and then that wound up being all she had.

I could probably get away with reducing Blast down quite a bit (or removing it altogether, but I'd really prefer Maleck not just be in the way in a fight).. Getting rid of blast would also probably mean getting rid of Sneak Attack (because using it in conjunction with Blast was pretty much the idea.)

I could probably pick up Dazzle or something along those lines. (It's hard to spread around with disabling effects, though, because basic visual is 2 ranks for most powers, and *all* visual is 4, which can be expensive... and I don't really see Maleck's powers numbing someone or making it any harder to hear..)

Hm. Also, beyond negative energy, I have no idea at all what Festy's character is able to do, so I don't really know how to disambiguate my character from his.

 

[Hammerhead]

Alas, the agony of defeat...

Looking forward to how this game gets played out.

 

[KaintheSeeker]

Alas, the agony of defeat...

Looking forward to how this game gets played out.

tell me about it... gimme a holler in Toki's group if you need me.. I got too many threads tagged.

Got to prune them down.

 

[Rybaer]

Good deal! I'm looking forward to seeing how this game evolves. And I fully understand Sollir's difficulty in choosing a cast...it was one of the best "character auditions" I've seen for a supers game yet.

I have a number of questions for Sollir (minor/background types), but they'll have to wait for later. Gotta get ready for work right now. In the meantime, I'll try to flesh out Joe's story a bit more.

 

[Festy_Dog]

**Festy_Dog/RobotRobotI -> I liked Miss Maleck's character/personality/background, and her powers having shadow/darkness themes are fine, but I'm curious to see if you can come up with powers that are perhaps less direct and perhaps more interesting than simply 'Blast'. I'm also concerned that Festy's character and yours might have some overlaps, and I'd appreciate it if the both of you can work together to not step on each other's toes as much. Negative energy and shadows aren't the same thing, but sometimes they're associated with each other so I'd feel more comfortable if each of them had distinctly separate powers.

Hm. Also, beyond negative energy, I have no idea at all what Festy's character is able to do, so I don't really know how to disambiguate my character from his.

I actually gave this matter some thought when I was crunching numbers, and I made sure that Lukas' powers were more along the lines of 'necromancy' as opposed to Maleck's (what I assumed were) powers more inclined towards 'illusion' (just using d&d there as a bit of a crutch for character development). If it's much of an issue though I can brew up another idea for powers to give Lukas, just may take a day or so as none readily come to mind as I type.

I'm fairly certain my character will require some refining before he can be put to use, even if his superpower concept isn't changed:

[sblock=Statblock]Name: Lukas Clausewitz
Cover ID: *yet to be announced*
Size: medium (6’4", 172lbs)
Gender: male
Age: 26

Str: 10 (0 pp)
Dex: 10 (0 pp)
Con: 10 (0 pp)
Int: 18 (8 pp)
Wis: 14 (4 pp)
Cha: 18 (8 pp)

PowerLevel: 6
PP: 90
XP: 0
Attack: +2
Defense: +2 (total) = +2 (base)
Grapple: +2
Speed: 30'
Init: +0

Fort: +3 (total) = 3 (base) + 0 (con)
Ref: +3 (total) = 3 (base) + 0 (ref)
Will: +5 (total) = 3 (base) + 2 (wis)
Toughness: +4 (total) = 4 (power)

Attacks
Blast (negative energy); 5 damage; fort save; poison (save or take damage again 1 round later); 50' increment

Drain (3rd tier); save or lose 7pp worth of all traits of any single specified type; DC15 fort save; 50' increment

Fatigue; save or fatigued, fail >5 exhausted, fail >10 unconcious; DC15 fort save; poison (save or take additional fatigue applied 1 round later); 50' increment

Movement Types:
Walk (std)

Feats:
attractive
connected
contacts
equipment
well-informed

Skill Points: (20 pp)
bluff +10/6 ranks
concentration +4/4 ranks
diplomacy +10/6 ranks
gather information +10/6 ranks
intimidate +10/6 ranks
knowledge (arcane lore) +12/8 ranks
knowledge (theology & philosophy) +10/6 ranks
knowledge (behavioural sciences) +8/4 ranks
knowledge (physical sciences) +8/4 ranks
knowledge (tactics) +8/4 ranks
notice +4/2 ranks
search +4/2 ranks
sense motive +6/4 ranks

Powers: (30pp)
Blast (negative energy) 5; feats- alternate power 2 (fatigue, drain); mods- alternative save (fort), poison
--Drain (3rd tier) 5; mods- ranged
--Fatigue 5; mods- ranged, poison

Force Field 4; mods- impervious, linked (immovable); flaws- limited (physical)
Immovable 4

Languages:
German
English
French
Latin
Russian
Hebrew
Arabic

Equipment:
cell phone
camera
flashlight
laptop
comlink

Max Weight: 33(lgt), 66(med), 100(hvy), 200(lift), 500(push)

Breakdown: Stats (20pp) + Combat (8pp) + Saves (9pp) + Feats (5pp) + Skills (18pp) + Powers (30pp) = 90pp[/sblock]


[sblock=Background]Lukas Clausewtiz is a statuesque and charismatic man of Prussian ancestry. His family, originally of a military slant, gradually moved over to economics without losing the discipline and efficiency they possessed in their military traditions. Today the family runs a large corporate conglomerate that rivals the largest of Europe.

Lukas was hardly the eldest sibling, however, and held no hopes for inheriting anything of particularly significant value, so he was never able to maintain an interest in economics. He turned instead to the study of history (and to a lesser extent the occult) out of interest for the conversion of Prussia to Christianity by the Teutonic Knights. Although history was what inspired him to study, his interest shifted to the occult and paranormal, and thusly the various sciences that were most relevent to them. He soon became one of the youngest people in Germany to have earned a Doctorate degree, and his extensive academic achievements, keen intellect and ruthless tactical talent brought him to the attention of the 'Transcendental Human Project'.

After the three months he was left with a power that he was particularly impressed with. For some reason, whatever it happened to be, he now had the ability to manifest something he referred to as 'negative energy'. It resembled electricity in its shape and how it moved but that was where the similarity ended. It was cold, dark and seemed to stick to people for a brief period after its initial contact, tenaciously sucking away whatever it was there for initially. Also of note was the sound. While the sound of electricity is distintive so is the sound of Lukas' negative energy, it could almost be described as a cacophony of the cries of suffering. It could almost be considered the opposite of electricity. This naturally brought the scientific theories of anti-matter to Lukas' mind, and he had to ask: Is what he possessed 'anti-energy'? He could discharge an arc of negative energy (as he preferred to call it, finding anti-energy unpleasant in how it rolled off the tongue) and found he could affect a person in a few different ways, all of them unpleasant however. He is eager to explore other areas of application for his powers, in the hope of expanding them and finding new abilities.

Lukas isn't an evil person, but he certainly isn't a good person either. His primary concerns are academic, exploring his abilities and potentials and determining new ways in which to use his power. With other Transcendents soon to be added to the mix he's curious not only to explore the potentials of his own abilities but also how they measure up to the powers of others. Research on the Trancendents' abilities in regards to morality hasn't crossed his mind yet, nor is it likely to pose much interest to him without a lot of convincing. He is highly unlikely to perform acts of evil without a solid research hypothesis, and is willing to regularly put his powers to the aid of others mostly as an opportunity to test his abilities in the field. He can, more or less, be considered a 'goodguy', but probably not a genuinely good guy.[/sblock]

[sblock=Powers]Initially Lukas found that discharging negative energy into a target caused extensive and rapid decay in the affected location, as though the individual had died and the process of decomposition was accelerated. This was assumably an application of negative energy on something he referred to as 'life energy'. Further expertimentation found he could also drain a target of specific faculties or of whatever energy maintained consciousness.

Another application he has found for his negative energy is to surround himself with a field of 'anti-kinetic' energy. To call it a 'force field' would technically be incorrect. Any object carrying momentum when it hits the field has the kinetic energy negated on contact. An object's momentum needs to exceed the minimum amount of negative energy at any point in the field before it has a chance of getting through, otherwise it simply stops where it is or falls harmlessly to the ground. Because the field affects an object's kinetic energy, rather than simple blocking the object, the field has the added benefit of also preventing attempts to move Lukas.[/sblock]

[sblock=Description]Lukas is a classic example of the tall, dark and handsome stereotype. Short dark hair, deep brown eyes, stubbled and well-tanned from studies afield (funded either from his own pocket or a research grant, more often than not a grant). He tends to wear a pair of rectangular reading glasses low on his nose as he likes how studious they make him look. It's worth on that point noting that he is exceptionally vane. He possesses a powerful charisma, and a natural (albeit ruthless) sense of tactics which seem to have come naturally with the genes of the talented military officers in his ancestry. He still wears the stereotypical academic attire common among scholars much older than himself (turtle-neck, coat with leather elbow patches, etc.), though he has been cooking up an outfit in his mind that caters to his sense of vanity now that he has Trancendent capabilities. He hasn't sought to have it made yet but his hesitation does not come from suspecting he lacks the economic means, he's just wondering whether a 'super-hero' outfit would be suitable (read: fashionable) this early in the rise of Trancendents.[/sblock]