So this is where we'll have a quick talk about our characters and what the group looks like at the start of the story.

If everyone could just give a short intro to their character. Nothing too detailed or fancy. Just a quick rundown of who they are and what sort of hero they are and what kinds of cool things you plan to be doing.

And, while we're doing that, I want to talk real quick about how you guys want to start off the game. Would you rather be an established group, or sort of 'meet in a tavern' and get to it, or some combination?
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:25, Mon 08 Mar 2021.

I favor an established group. Saves time and misunderstandings.

Definitely prefer an established group, we can discuss and develop the group's relationships as we create the heroes(?).

I just want to throw it out there...

You do have a team member called "Dr.Roller." And you are in Bay City.

You COULD be the Bay City Rollers.

...that hair.

I need to learn some more about my character. He's almost done! Only need the baseline stats, and to figure out what the hell happened, as he has engaged in seriously intensive physical training AND somehow got the positive attention of a divine force of good.

Well, I've got a blueprint, anyways. Cobbled together from various parts here and there. It looks like a blueprint, made from other blueprints, sewn together with the grace of Leatherface's mask.

Okay that was funny! I'm old enough to remember those guys.

My concept for Doc is that he works for some government super law enforcement organization.

Would everyone want to work for that group?

If not I would be happy to bend my story to fit with what we decide to do.

In-universe, there will definitely be at last one well-developed and well-funded law enforcement group made of supers and aimed at controlling supers.

But anything from a competing law enforcement group, to some kind of research organization, to something privately funded, is all good with me.

Doc's group would reluctantly want me aboard, but I'd be game for playing ball with the government. I suspect it would be one of those "If we keep him busy with greater threats that we choose, he is less likely to decide there is a part of his society that requires correction." This would probably get Altruist accused of selling out, though.

He'd still do it, as long as his morality wasn't offended and as long as he felt like he could leave.

Let's put it like this: my now flying brick has Hacking.

BRICKHACK: THE HACKING BRICK!

I, too, can recall shouting the letters along with the band at the end of the week.
Shitsumon would definitely 'attach' himself to a government entity or political ideal, so a government sponsored group would be fine.

Oh, and could we please have a wind-controlling supervillain called "The Fan" so my samurai character could hit him?

That's GOLD, Jerry! Gold!

S A, T U R, D A Y...NIGHT!

Gentlemen, KNOWING this clearly marks our age as...advanced. I feel I am in good company.

The concept(originally), was of a criminal courier who entered into a Pact with a Deevil when the Artifact he was illegally transporting "awoke" and freed the Deevil within. The Corrupted Good Empowerment has him now hunting down those who would summon Deevils and Demons and "stopping" them. Hunting the Supernatural. His powers would have him transform into  Deevil form with Shadow Based Powers.

Now, established group? Good with that. Government Sponsored? OK with it, might work a backstory where his involvement was "mandatory"...was captured, sort of and is what effectively is work release? Thoughts on that?

I am still working on the new expanded build...this could take me a little bit. The expanded opportunities have me pondering.

I have a strange feeling the Altruist and Shadowbourne are going to get along just fine. Our patrons probably hate each other, though.

Doc would be honored to have captured Shadowbourne. He's certainly the kind of guy that would have "noticed the potential for good" in someone.

I think this is where we talk about our characters, which in my case, is apparently Magic (Mystically Endowed Abilities/Two Major Powers) and Physical Training (Strength/Aggro). Hence my self-assessment as "Paladin."

In my case, I am THE CLUNK.

Invulnerability, Immortality, Strength, Durability, a solid list of adventure friendly skills, and with a recent upgrade, Wingless Flight; I'm not tanky unless I grab someone and begin doing a Zangief impersonation or unless I can dodge into attacks, but I am one hell of a battering ram and will inspire enemies to run from me. I cannot get them to run from the rest of you or unwisely focus on me, unless I get creative with MA rolls.

In reply to Bookmark (msg # 16):

Heya Bookmark, Any chance I could negotiate you out of taking the Physical Training Hero as part of your build? That is core to Doc Roller' niche.

Also going for aggro/strength, eh? Hmm. I could take speed/defensive, instead. It would change the character, but HAHA NOPE. I didn't expect to have any control over what I got anyways.

Robotic/Magic? This is going to become very strange, and hilarious. It will take me some time to rebuild this, but I can do it.

EDIT: If I must. I randomly got Physical.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:06, Tue 09 Mar 2021.

I completely get the desire to have a narrative niche supported by a mechanical one (I have a real problem playing Gestalt D&D for this reason), but I don't think we'll be able to do that.

As I said in the other thread let chargen happen, we'll see what it all looks like, and we can address it then if need be.

Altruist is, mechanically speaking, a furious ambush fighter when depowered, but generally favors recon, stealth, and hacking over dealing with someone upfront and would rather leave no evidence of his arrival, passage, or exit unless he has to because something went wrong. When powered up, subtlety is not in the cards anymore.

Most of what he is, though, is because he was seeking something specific. His is shaping into a search for enlightenment.

Shitsumon is a nigh unstoppable killing machine, with hardly any other skills, trying to be a good and honorable person and build a few dojos.

Let's consider what we have -

Doc Roller = Pulpy pulp goodness
Pitstop = Definite shoe-in for the Transformed guy wondering if he has a place
Shadowbourne = Blade meets John Constantine? Also we must kill all the demons.
Shitsumon = Samurai
Myself = Because Luke Cage needed the power of SHAZAM!

It's a nice group of five, so maybe we can figure out who which character type? Unless Pitstop has something in mind, I sound like the resident Big Guy, whose job it is to get Worfed engage the enemy's physical strength.

So, thinking more about the narrative frame for the group. My initial plan was to have a well-funded, organized, pretty on-the-ball government agency of supers that would be a source of running conflict against what I had assumed would be a motley band of uncontrolled freelancers.

HOWEVER.

If you guys are thinking YOU'RE the government superhero group, I can swing with that, and I'll morph the Supes-Police I had in my head to a privately funded corp-funded thing. The first anyone's ever manager to put together.

And so then, you guys become the government bankrolled defenders of the city, which gives us good story benefits. Not having to stress overmuch about where you live and where your spending money comes from. Your real-life job is now super-heroing. And I can parade an endless array of politically-minded pencil-necks before you telling you to reign it in and mind the optics.

Downside is you're The Man.

Another option could be that Doc Roller works for the government AND has this fractious freelancer group on the side. Or maybe you're all being bankrolled by an old rich dude for old rich dude reasons.

I'm open to a few different ways to go.

I can work with everything after the "However". Both ideas sound good to me.

I lean slightly more to the idea that we are all on the Government Team but only slightly.




I like this idea.

Shitsumon is all about discipline and honor, if the team is working for 'the man' he'll be the loudest proponent of going 'by the book', if the team isn't working for 'the man' it's justified because 'the man' is undisciplined and has NO honor.

This right here is why L5R has always been one of my all-time favourite games.

I could roll with any of the four, although the Altruist changes with each one. Altruist is a solid Scrupulous alignment - Chaotic Good, or Dishonorably Humane if you are the Lawful Good type looking at him. Shitsumon and him are likely to agree on ends, but they will dispute the means.

I don't have solid readings on the other three yet, except "hey, Pitbull is Gecko now, awesome."

1) Dealing with 90's antiheroes (read: Villain Protagonists) and well-intentioned tyrants? I can work with that. We will always question our government handlers, though, because that's convention.

2) Similar to the above, although corporations are usually motivated by profit and fear liability. Still, it can be much as the above, just with an extra layer of separation.

3) Interesting, with Doc having a split allegiance. Most of us might see him as a government handler, although we might be glad for his patronage.

4) Much like the corp above, fear of liability would be real for rich old dude, although their personal reasons are likely to be all over the place.

The trustworthiness of a sponsor is going to depend on how idealistic this game is. And right now, there is a very untrustworthy branch among the powers that be based on the Game Info. Whether specifically our sponsors are bad guys is likely something we are going to be looking into, whatever their nature.

Shadowbourne is a Sneak and Spy. His powers work well for scouting and ambush. Still roughing out exactly what his second category will be...

As for what group...

All of them are workable. In all honesty, it seems like Doc has taken on the ad hoc leader persona so far. What does Doc wanna play?

Hello all.  The name is Gecko.  Hard to find, blindingly fast, always seems to be snacking on something.
I could go with the government funded group, but I see Gecko as more of the type to be living on the streets and protecting the homeless and the impoverished, the ones who slip between the cracks.  He sees himself as a kind of an outside consultant, but he seems surprisingly suited for working with a team.  Trusting the team when he sees them trying to do good is one thing.  Trusting their handlers is quite another.  I'm not trying to make him seem like the anti-social lonewolf.  He isn't.  He just has trust issues.
He can qork with any of the team ideas, but I think the best for him is as a band misfits brought together.

The one where Doc is a government guy who has recruited the others for a sort of A-Team/Suicide Squad is also appealing.


No matter which way we go Doc is a straight arrow good guy and anyone waiting around for him to try and stop them from helping homeless people will be waiting a long time.

Based on this discussion I'm strongly considering one of Doc's categories being Super Agent.

A super-powered version of The Expendables!

Since we are still in the build phase, I wanted to share what Shadowbourne is shaping up as...

My main is a Variant of the Mystically Bestowed called Deevil Bestowed w/Corrupted Good. Basically put, he sold his soul and a Deevil let him live and gave him some powers in the bargain. Buyer Beware. His Powers gained from this are Alter Physical Structure: Shadow, Shadow Meld, Shadow Stepping, and Shadow Trap.

For my secondary, I am NOT sure what I am going to take. Right now, I would say that I have mostly ruled out Demon Hunter. It IS too limited to be of use.

Quick question Doc, I assume that if you chose Super Agent, you will use it to replace Hardware?

So I rolled my stats to see what I would start with.

11, 10, 10, 30, 17, 8, 23, 24

30!

23!

24!

And this is before anything is added because of skills and category bonuses. The 8 is low....but could most likely be put in a place where it could get some assists.

Now Imagine Spending 1000 XP for 10 Attribute Points...spread evenly for the lowest stats it would be:

13, 12, 12, 30, 17, 10, 23, 24

For 1000XP and the Blessing of the RNG Gods...

Just Sharing.

That was the plan. Your question though has given me some thoughts.

Version 1 Doc: Phys Training(End & Str)/Hardware(Analytical Genius and/or Weapons Expert)

Version 2 Doc: Phys Training(End & Str)/Special Training(Super Agent)

And completely new...

Version 3 Doc: Special Training(Super Agent)/Hardware(Analytical Genius/Weapons Expert)

Obviously the focus of this last version would be almost 100% on organizing and running the team with the far more powerful team members doing the heavy lifting. Not my usual character type but I can see that being fun if everyone is on board with it.

You know, if you start with Hardware: Weapons and then add Hardware: Analytical you get a better deal.

I'll need more information about personality, but I'm getting a rough idea of how we all interact with each other. I'm thinking my character might actually be a playful type - unlike his master, he wants to interact with the world. This means two of you actually have some pull on me, likely Shadowbourne (who concerns my mentor) and one of you that I've worked with a few times before we came together as a group.

I did know that but I appreciate that sort of tip.

If you wanted to go with this version, you can have both Hardware Categories without giving anything up (all three Categories, basically).

Oh now that is a tempting offer.

I'll think on it tonight and decide in the morning.

Okay this unique opportunity is too cool to pass up. I'll be going this way.

I will of course withdraw all requests for players to avoid physical training as this changes Doc concept away from that.

I do want to make sure everyone is okay with Doc being the team lead since I am basing the new version completely on that.

I am good with Doc being...our Handler?

I'm fine with that. Leading PC groups is like graveyard work, though. Everyone is below you, but no one does what you say.

I'm okay with that, if Doc is okay with Gecko completely ignoring him sometimes. LOL

Works for my character, he's not really interested in who leads who.

And I'm not talking about micromanaging or trying to run anyone's character for them here. These are obviously going to be hyper-competent operatives.

Peyton Manning didn't tell Marvin Harrison how to catch passes and run the ball but he did call the plays.

And when the things go all to Hell, despite the planning and preparation (because it will), somebody will have to pull something crazy out of their poop chute to fix it. LOL

I'm thinking Altruist has probably rolled with Doc Roller in times past. Both seem to value prep work. With that said, I'll gladly work "off-screen" to say "yup, we thought of that" if it is entirely reasonable for us to have done that. Unlike Superman or Sun Wukong, I don't have the super-senses to see the truth - I have to unravel it the hard and long way through skill rolls and investigative work.

Espionage, Locksmithing, and Hacking - the Altruist takes a page from Richard Feynman when he wants to know something. "I've read the files on them, because yes, I do have that kind of time."

I think the way I'll handle this on my end is make Doc Roller the sort of official liaison with whoever is footing the bills/calling the shots. So he gets to have a couple of good 'called into the captain's office' scenes, and it becomes a good way for me to help guide the story.

It seems like you guys will be able to manage your internal hierarchy, which is good, so I'll stay out of that unless and until it looks I need to get involved.

So this is where we are, group and dynamics-wise:
-Doc Roller: the responsible one. Ersatz leader and company man. Probably the face and spokesman of the group. The closest to humanity with all its foibles, and with the simplest moral code (punch bad guy, save good guy, yell at punks, ignore red tape).
-Altruist: the mega-powered outsider-type, aggressive ethical steamroller sort of way. Always wants 'the Good' but maybe sees good on a scope that makes its edges hard to see.
-Shitsumon: almost the opposite of Altruist. Very human, very street-level in scope, basically a murder-machine, but ethical in a straight-edge 'my honour or my life' kind of way
-Gecko: the wacko outsider. Loves humans even though maybe humans don't love him. Will do 'what's right' without thinking too hard about what that means. Will probably do most things without thinking too much about what it means. But the kids love him.
-Shadowbourne: the 'says he's a hero but... ?' type. Does right, there for the team, but gets his powers from not-so-great places and therefore has suspect loyalty. Says he has it under control, but can you trust him?

If I've read everyone right, then I'm very excited about how this is shaping up.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:00, Sun 14 Mar 2021.

That is Shadowbourne on the nose! Working through the last stages of Mechanics.

Pegged Doc as well.

Backstory for Shadowbourne is up(As well as this seeming that looks remarkably like him <-). Take a read and see what kind of Hell He Razed(Pun Intended!)

Right enough for a hand grenade.

I dig it!

Yes, Shitsumon must maintain his honor, and slice bad guys into small pieces. It is vitally important to present the proper face while skewering the mutated swamp monsters so that you maintain your dignity. A life without honor and dignity is life not lived.

Yep, you pegged him.

Shitsumon's back story is up, and, no, I'm not sure I couldn't have forced more tropes in.

Shadowbourne now has a description and some personal information up. Sheet is in and waiting approval(and suggestions).

Some things to think on;

Doc will be able to make equipment for the team. This will at a minimum consist of flex-armored uniforms (think marvel comics beta-cloth) that provide 40 SDC and have built in communications gear. This armor can be worn under, and will stack with, any other conventional (read "Worn") armor.

I can also upgrade armor (other than magical) if there is anyone that actually wears armor other than Doc.

(For example I can make a set of Samurai Armor for Shitsumon that has about 250sdc rather than the 40sdc of his current set or higher if he's okay with some penalties.)

If there is anything that you think you can benefit from that Doc may be able to build hit me up.

Thing I have been pondering;

How does Shitsumon feel about Trick Arrows? Doc can build amazing bows and Green Arrow/Hawkeye style arrows if your interested.

He would, most assuredly, use trick arrows for performance purposes. Of course, if he was really fighting he would be ignoring his bow and charging the enemy as it would be more honorable. His current armor is worn for sentimental reasons, he wouldn't complain if it were improved as long as it didn't slow him down.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:56, Sat 20 Mar 2021.

A scalumlizard-man in a suit of armor.... LOL

In my case, I'm fine with the armor as long as it allows complete mobility. No prowl penalties or anything like that.

Samurai were perfectly willing to use bows in real combat. A lot of samurai duels opened up with archery, and then turned into hand-to-hand if both of them were bad shots (or just not lucky, given the difficulty of hitting a moving armored target on horseback in a decisive way while you were on horseback in armor and moving trying not to be hit in a decisive way yourself). Still, I can see what you are going for, and won't argue "realism" when I am playing a flying invulnerable man.