Only if you don't allow the Geat Big Evil Gal/Guy, and some of her/his most trusted henchmen to do the same.

Well, the whole point of this is to discuss and plan on builds. I will honor Doc's wishes. I am now looking harder at Demon Hunter. It IS a lower powered option that would pair nicely with Corrupted Good...put slightly more mystical capabilities into the group(I do mean slightly).

Cool. That's fine with me. I prefer two categories. But, in that case, I don't think we can easily grant anyone exclusive rights to any one category. Especially one that matches with almost every other category.

Dr.Roller, if at the end of chargen you still feel like your lack of clear niche is going to mess with your enjoyment of the character, just drop me a PM. There's lots of ways to manage that.

I think Shitsumon and myself are basically running the same two power sets (Magic/Physical), but we are not going to look or feel like same characters at all.

Demon Hunter sounds more specialized, but it might be cool. I was surprised you didn't take Special Training, but I'm not as familiar with Heroes Unlimited as I am with Rifts. Speaking of Rifts, I recognize the name "Armageddon Unlimited" - merc company, bad news, everyone stupidly trusted those guys despite being in a world of psychic/magic people who can literally see demons for what they are, but Naruni and Robot Control were the ones with all the warning flags hanging around them.

skewed priorities, guys

Punching their smug demonic faces sounds fantastic, but Heroing insures a target rich environment regardless of what we go after, whether it be aliens, robots, ninja, or robotic ninjas with alien technology (see the Foot Clan).

Quick note everyone: the 25,000 XP is for levels and for spending. So whatever's left after you buy cool things will determine your level. 25k puts most categories at the top end of 5th level (you could be a 6th level Mutant/Experiment/Special Training if you spend nothing at all).

So there is some leeway before you have to drop down to 4th.

On an aside, I'm seeing Altruist as having a bit of a superiority issue. Not one that would make him a bad teammate, but more the type who rubs allies and enemies alike the wrong way. Statistically speaking, he has no weak points, and I figure this might cause a break in how he relates to others - that is, it is the weak point to be that far removed from others.

He favors surgical planning, he knows he's better, stronger, faster, and harder than most, he tends to detach and distance himself from others because he never knows when he needs someone to do something they'd rather not, and one of his few dilemmas is whether he needs to deal with the impending threat or ignore it to solve the bigger problem. With that said, he tries to control the threat he could be if he were careless, by not being careless.

His patron would prefer it if his "student" were more reactive to the moment, had responsibility with his powers, defended the innocent (without empathy or mercy for the offender), avoided escalation in favor of saving lives, and fully accepted they cannot be "merely mortal." Even if the Altruist is not running counter to these, his patron will judge him according to that metric, for good or ill.

Take extreme caution with this approach, please, especially at the outset before we've developed a rapport and put some trust and grace in the bank. In my experience, it takes only a few errant steps on the 'run people the wrong way' path to sour a PbP game.


Watch this one too. The other thing that kills PbP games dead is tactical pre-planning. Momentum is the single most important resource of a PbP game, and the stop-start-24-hour-delay nature of the medium is not a good for the detailed back and forth of detailed pre-planning.

I tend to prefer full on Leeroy Jenkins all the way, but if Altruist (and/or anyone) wants pre-planning to be a big part of their character or the group or the gaming experience, we could use a Flashback mechanic. I've done this before to good effect. Basically, you expend a resource (Cool Points, usually) to pause a scene and flashback to how you planned for this eventuality and what you put in place to help.

Anything to not kill momentum is good in my book.

Mostly, I was thinking more Justice League Superman's problem - "I'm Superman. You are not Superman. I should be handling this." Nevermind that the League is composed of people around his power weight level and Batman, and that Superman does, in fact, get in over his head and require bailing out.

But I do get your concern. I was actually going to make it clear one of Altruist's flaws was that he spent so much time preparing for things and being overwhelmed by options, he actually often needs to roll with someone else's madness for a bit. He's too damn smart - too many options, too many variables, too many possibilities; the universe is too vast, and existential crisis are a danger.

It's paralyzing. Indecision is a real danger to him. Sometimes, the smartest move is to go with someone who doesn't think so much, and he is aware of that.

He'd likely envy others who can draw a decent conclusion on so little data. They are actually living, and they remind him what he's fighting for. So, in short, a plan of "Altruist, go through the door and fight whatever is behind it," is probably not something he'd argue with, beyond issues of collateral damage.

Any data I need can be requested off-screen. Doc and him might do the planning stage in PMs.

In reply to Altruist (msg # 17):

This all sounds great. Thank you for clarifying.

It's okay.  Gecko tends to be a bit hyper and impulsive.

OK...I have done some considering(or reconsidering). I am going to effectively double dip into the same category, but make alternative selections. Both will be into Deevil Bestowed(Mystically Bestowed Variant). First Dip will give the Darkness Based Powers(APS Shadow, Shadow Meld, Shadow Stepping and Shadow Trap). The Second dip will give Arcane Knowledge w his Spells using Shadow Magic to complement first dip. That means that Shadowbourne will be a spell casting Shadow Demon(Looking at it, He is literally a humanoid Shadowbeast, as in Summon Shadowbeast spell.

This is mainly due to RNG Gods being incredibly generous on the rolls for Attributes, with 30, 24, 23, and 17 for half the rolls. Then the expenditure of 1000XP for Attribute points shores up the others.

Interesting choice. Does that mean he's good at communicating with the generally malevolent beings? Also, on the topic of the War I'm not sure who they are allied with. I got the impression the Shadows hired out to both sides as expendable stealth units.

Armageddon Unlimited is a heroes Unlimited Sourcebook. Of the Merc unit, I am unfamiliar with them. Can you point me in the direction of their information? As for communicating with malevolent beings, he will be able to communicate with anyone as one of his powers will be Mystically understand and speak any language.

So, now that we have a magic character, the Event that heralded the emergence of super beings now also involved the emergence of malevolent magical beings. So Shadowbourne may get to be all wrapped up in the public perception of that whole mess. But one way or the other, there will certainly be some deevil-related shenanigans now that I have a character to anchor them to.

Which is fun.

And feel free to put canon info in your backstory, but anything you don't put there, I'm under no obligation to include.

As a GM I've always been super lazy about canon material. Sometimes it's a strength and sometimes a weakness.

Armageddon Unlimited is a merc company from the Rifts: Mercenaries sourcebook that wants to help break their boss, Ahriman, out of his box. Their means happen to be their end: war. Get a whole bunch of people to kill each other, take advantage of the PPE doubling on death, and funnel any power the company isn't using to crack the boss out.

They are normally a straight fight, because demons and Rifts PCs. Here, however, they might actually have filed local paperwork, and could be much more of a threat as a result.

So how fast is everyone?

Gecko's and Shadowborne's sheets aren't up yet, but I'm likely fast enough. True speedsters and teleporters will outmaneuver me, though.

Do you know your top speed? Full disclosure I am building our team transport and I want to make sure it is useful to everyone (while saving as much of the budget as possible for "cool" stuff).

Edit: Found it. 280mph (for now).
This message was last edited by the player at 19:32, Wed 24 Mar 2021.

Far as I know, top speed is 280 mph in the air if I'm going full power. I don't think you'll have to worry about me too much. Altruist getting shot out of the sky means I need to lower my altitude anyways.

On the other hand, they probably just did that, as after that, I will no longer be missing the ground when I throw myself at it.

Shadowbourne's Speed is 120(somewhere around 80-90 MPH) and can be doubled while traveling through shadows...He can teleport through shadows(roughly 80 ft per melee action? So...with 5 attacks per melee, that is 400ft? I forget how long a round is? For the life of me, I keep thinking it is 15 seconds...so using that as a base(!$#@^@^#$^....Math Stuff) 1600 ft per minute(Roughly)....!$#$#@$@^^^^*&($#@...MORE Math stuff...96,000 ft per hour......@%^@^^@#^@^#@#@@!^&&((&^$#$#@...MATH MATH MATH....18.4 miles an hour? SERIOUSLY? Not sure my math is correct. But if it is....that is some messed up.

That being said....he has a spell that allows him to become someone's shadow...traveling with them. That could affect speed....

The teleportation is probably intended as a short range surprise, not as a jump to jump method. Combine mundane movement with teleportation. Screaming "I'm your shadow!" is completely optional, but hilarious if they are already jumpy.

Gecko will be able to run at 300 mph.  However, he will also be able to pilot prop-driven fixed-wing aircraft and rotary-wing aircraft, as well as motorized aquatic craft.

So it looks like we will all benefit from a supersonic transport. So be it.

Shitsumon is a samurai warrior, who can fly at 50 mph. That's fast enough, isn't it?

Plenty fast enough for tactical movement but less than adequate of we have to relocate from one city to another. Never fear though Doc's got it covered.