Hello everyone, and thank you for coming.

I am Rydi.  I have ran Aberrant several times in the past, and think it is a wonderful setting.  I have extensively ran most of the other White Wolf games, as well as D&D in its various incarnations, Marvel Superheroes (TSR card based game), and several other games.

This game will be something of an experiment, as I am new to these forums, but they look very promising.  The built in dice roller is especially alluring...

Anyway, I would like it if everyone wanting to play could introduce themselves, and perhaps give a little blurb regarding their interests and expectations regarding the game.

Thanks.

-Rydi
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:55, Thu 06 Aug 2009.

I just added everyone that has messaged me.  So now you should be able to post and add comments.

In reply to Rydi (msg #2):

Hey everybody. Free Man here. This place is pretty nice. How does the dice-roller work anyway? Oh! And my expectations... Well, I just want to learn how to use the WW system, and I figure this is good way to start.

In reply to Rydi (msg #2):

*inclines his head* hello all, Dersdai here, thanks for running the game, I've been interested in superheroes since I could read. I just expect to have fun with some folks. :-)




if I may recommend a player? forumite by the name of Daredevil...he usually comes up with in depth character backgrounds.I'm also going to send him a message to pm you on the ww forums, but i'm not sure how many players you are looking for.

The dice roller is accessed via the link in the header (it should be near the cast and scratchpad links). It takes some fiddling, and the GM can setup defaults for what it'll use, but mostly its a lot like rolling regular dice: pick how many, what type, and any modifiers to the roll.

In reply to Dersdai (msg #4):

I'm up for that.  If you know cool people, feel free to invite them.  I will take as many as 8 (we have 4 now I think).

oh, and Free Man, your char looks good so far.

In reply to avilister (msg #5):

Avilister, could you perhaps give everyone some suggestions on how to set up characters, use the software, things you think are important, etc?  You are the only one here with xp on this software.

Thanks in advance... Love you... :)

Give me GM privs and I can start setting folks up. Main thing for a game like this is to give people access to their character sheets and then probably rename them with their character name instead of a user name.

In reply to Rydi (msg #6):

Oh. Thanks Rydi. All I need to do now is come up with an origin. Could you give me a few more details on what's going on here so I could tailor it to the setting?

In reply to Rydi (msg #1):

are we getting auto points in backing, resources and eufiber as members of t2m?

Ok, first order of business complete, my name is capitalized now. Ass.

Anyway, let me know when you've got a character name. I'm trying to write up a character sheet template. When that's done, I'll send it to the game and give everyone access to their sheets.

In reply to The Free Man (msg #9):

Avilister, you're set to go.

The setting:

It is three years since the Fireman first erupted (refer to the front of the Aberrant main book, pg 9-11).  The date is March 18, 2001.

Project Utopia has been wildly successful, and the public has shifted from fear, to wild wonder.  In response to the public's fascination with Novas, and in hopes of addressing problems more directly, Utopia created Team Tomorrow. T2M was a PR godsend, and has become the face for Project Utopia.

T2M is a victim of its own success however.  Time demands are becoming difficult for T2M to meet, and its members are constantly overseeing projects,stopping natural disasters, and intervening in the world's violent conflicts. Even their free time is spent for them, with attendance at charity events, government dinners, and press conferences being mandatory for all members.

In response to these needs, Project Utopia has decided to expand the T2M initiative.  Pulling promising individuals from the quickly growing population of Novas, Utopia is assembling a secondary team.

You are that team.

Ok, all three of us should now have a skeletal character sheet in text format. Yay. Just delete or add minor elements as needed. I encourage keeping the same overall structure for consistency's sake. I'll also make a new thread to save it for future use.

In reply to Rydi (msg #1):

Darkling Wanders on the WW forums here. Have a complete set of Trinity and two copies of Adventure!, but I've never had the chance to play Aberrant, though I have two copies and the Players Guide.

As to interests and expectations, just here to have fun in a part of the Aeon Continuum I have yet to delve into.

Should have a character together pretty soon, working on it now.

Do we get any free dots in backgrounds for starting as members of Team Tommorow?

EDIT: How do you determine Accuracy for an attack? All it says in the book under the Drama section is "Normal." Is it like... Perception or something?
This message was last edited by the player at 18:03, Thu 26 Mar 2009.

In reply to The Free Man (msg #15):

accuracy is generally 0.  Some special maneuvers, powers, and equipment give bonuses however.


Thanks for reminding me on the backgrounds btw.  You do get Backing 2 starting out, which will move up to Backing 3 (assuming you don't mess up) and Resources X (X=salary in project utopia book that I haven't had a chance to look up yet...) upon completion of your training.

How is everyone coming with characters btw?  I know Dersdai said he was mostly done, and has sent me a backstory.  Anyone else need any help?

No, just need to sit down and do it. To give you an idea of what I'm looking at putting together, it will probably be fairly similar to the character I originally put together for the stalled Aberrant game we played a few months back.

In reply to Avilister (msg #17):

Works for me.

I may use some of the chars from that game as npc's just to save work.  And they had interesting power sets.

If someone has a eufiber outfit, do they need to take attunement as well? I only ask because the flavor text makes it sound like you don't need to, but I want to be sure.

That is correct, Eufiber is a good way of bypassing the need for the Attunement background. That said, attunement can still be useful. It can make large objects or even other people immune to your powers (useful, for example, if you have Immolate and want to be able to touch someone else while it is on)

Thanks Avi. Okay, I've got the mechanical stuff, his origin, personality and physical description. I'll do his family, contacts, and the origin of his eufiber outfit some other time. I'd like someone to look over everything to make sure it's kosher, would anyone mind doing that?

I can (though it would probably be tomorrow while I'm at work).

Cool, cool. Just let me know when your ready and I'll send it.

In reply to The Free Man (msg #23):

I'll be available tomorrow as well.

I'll send it to both of you then. It'll be good to get more than one opinion.

You can use the private message function to send it. Just go to the Private Messages link (should be in the top-right), and then make a new PM (bottom right) and check the boxes for both our names.

Thanks for the review Avi. I added couple merits and flaws to make him more distinct. If Rydi doesn't suggest any changed I should be good to go.

Writing up my background stuff now. Probably won't finish until after lunch and then the meeting I have here at work. Luckily today has been exceptionally slow.

In reply to Avilister (msg #28):

Good going everyone.  I will be adding some content tonight since it looks like people are finishing up with character creation.  You will be getting a few more teammates as the days go by, as those that finish char creation first will be the first to arrive in game.

The characters looked good, though I did give a few suggestions on improving efficiency on a couple of things; hope no one minded my suggestions, and if they conflict with your characters, feel free to disregard them.

Thanks for the help you guys. I decided to get rid of Biolum entirely to give him a little boost, and max out some abilities and arrtibutes. I gave him a decent number of flaws, but I doubt those will be a huge problem. Out of curiosity, is there any way to increase health levels aside from Mega-Stam?
This message was last edited by the player at 22:09, Fri 27 Mar 2009.

My character has quite a few flaws himself, it all comes together. I've seen Boost used to great effect in other games, it comes highly complimented. I believe you have to specify which attribute it boosts, though I know there's an extra to add another (though it may not be worth it at chargen).

In reply to The Free Man (msg #30):

I'm a ginormous Boost fan.  The extra to add another attribute isn't worth it at character creation, but is very nice to enhance it after.  Especially since you don't have to up the level of the power very high for it to be effective.

The other way to get health levels is Body Modification.  I recommend the 2 lvls of Maimed vs the 1 lvl of bruised though.  To represent the extra Lvls, you could have a sort of energy form underlying your regular form, or the energy could hold your body together.

Oh wow. That's a little embarassing. I meant that I gave him a little boost to his attributes and abilites, not the power itself. ^_^;

EDIT: And if he took body modification (electric tendril) which attribute would be used to calculate damage? Stamina?
This message was last edited by the player at 22:59, Fri 27 Mar 2009.

Are you limiting the amount of merits/flaws?

I believe the books limit things to 10 points of flaws. I don't know that there is a limit on merits, that'd be up to the GM

In reply to The Free Man (msg #33):

I would say either stam or wits, depending on how you envision the tendril working.

And there is no cap on Merits, but yeah, Flaws max at 10pts.

In reply to Rydi (msg #36):

So does that mean he would use wits to calculate the attack itself as well?

Let me know if you'd like me to switch your name in the game over to a character's name or codename. I'm going to make a second character for myself, and use this one only for when I need to use GM-like abilities (administrata).

In reply to Avilister (msg #38):

Wait. You mean I can't change my own name?

That's correct, the game controls only allow GM's to change a character name.

Ok, I've got my description and history up, visible on the cast page. I've made the minor tweak to my sheet that wasn't right... I think I'm good to go.

Would someone mind changing my name? I'm pretty much good to go.

Done and done.

Much appreciated.

In reply to Avilister (msg #40):

if you wouldn't mind changing mine to Prodigal I'd appreciate it  too.

Also done.

Greetings and salutations!  I'm going to be playing a gravity/spatial distorting ex lab rat.  His name is Jason Tyborn.  I am really busy for the next couple days but after that, all systems are go.

I am a bit curious, what kinds of individuals are we going to be making here?  Are we going to be all stealthy/cerebral or are we going to be teh big guns who are sent in after subtlety fails.  I am a big fan of talking with other players while in the character creation process so that we can have complimentary skills and abilities.  I remember the first Ab game i was in and two of us were earth elemental/bender types and the other two were both electrical.  Sigh.
So, as i said, Jason is going to be focusing on gravity and spatial distortion themed powers, eventually getting into things like teleportation, total cosmic power, that kind of thing.  What are the fortes of my fellow mutants... er novas?   Personalities?  Dietary requirements?  Grooming habits?

Hm. Well I'm playing an investigator/diplomat type, with control over electricity. I never did like playing big crushas, always felt kinda... one dimensional. He's also very amiable, loves making people laugh, and has some disdain for violence, so don't be surprised if he tries to talk the group out of combat, or uses his Soothe enhancement often.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:24, Sat 28 Mar 2009.

Sweet, i myself like going for the disarmingly charming type who pack a mean left quantum bolt for when it's needed.  Your electrical control then, will be qbolt? FField?  Biomorph?  I ask so we don't have different colored/flavoured clones.

In reply to crazyroundeye (msg #50):

I might pick up quantum bolt at some point, but I'm leading toward Bodymorph. Most definately weather control. Maybe Cyberkinesis. So many choices! What are your plans for advancemant?
This message was last edited by the player at 15:02, Sat 28 Mar 2009.

Have had to rework my powers a bit, but I am looking at momentum control.  Twisting things around, altering directions, that kind of stuff.  Probably run with that and add things like flight, qbolt and other stuff later.  As of now though i am terribly swquishy.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:19, Sat 28 Mar 2009.

Squishy? How do you mean?

In reply to Samuel Wolfson (msg #53):

I think he was referring to his low defensive stats and lack of defensive powers.

Looks like I beat someone to the punch on the gravity control thing. Quentin has a number of related powers in addition to his gravity control. Given sufficient preparation time, he's probably the least squishy character, but it is very expensive, for the moment, to be tough. Most of the info on the character can be seen by clicking on the portrait or the name in the "The Cast" screen. I've put a brief description and history up there.

Indeed, i do lack the combat oomph.  Annoying to fight, yes.  Dangerous, no.  Well, only around the ladies.  Geeky looking kid with bad skin and your standard computer nerd physique suddenly granted the body of Adonis and the ability to read people like an open book.  Imp's going to be very lighthearted, well meaning, and high as a kite on his  sudden popularity and sex appeal, oh and his ability to manipulate energy.  That's the important one, yeah.  energy.

I'm going stealth-nova, I think. I'll have something up by tomorrow, sorry, unexpectedly busy in the last few days. I'm thinking less flashy powers and concentrating more on Mega-Stats. Going to get flight though, the mobility is nice.

In reply to Apathetic23 (msg #57):

np. A few people have mentioned they want to make characters, so we're going to be starting slow as they finish up.

If one of you could change my name to Solitaire, I would be grateful. I'll jump in once I get up tomorrow.

Done.

Hmm, a conundrum:
One of Imp's flaws is lusty.  He needs to blow will power to not hit on anything he finds even remotely attractive.
Solitaire is, i assume, a woman with more than 2-3 dots in appearance, thus qualifying for Impetus' flaw.
I think that having someone hitting on a fellow player all the time (in character or no) reminds me of some of the most mind-wrenchingly awkward rl gaming sessions i've played in.  I don't think it's fair to everybody else in the game for me to go after another player (or even worse: use the two knacks i have to make me almost unstoppably seductive, thus removing any mechanical reason for it not working).  I'm just not gonna do it.
Further, i don't think my wife would approve.
So, shall i blow the wp every scene to fight the urge, or (my pref)can i dumb the hitting on a long way down? Go for harmless flirtation and corny lines rather than full on hunting?
speak that i may know.  I'm looking for feedback from both the powers that be and all the other players in the game.
Peace
Imp

Hm. Well as long as you role play it properly (and tastefully) I don't think it'll be a problem; but I am not the GM, nor am I Solitare, so you don't need to listen to me.

In reply to Impetus (msg #61):

I think that down playing it would be a bit better.  Certainly flirting is fine, as well as the occasional inappropriate comment.  But just like in real life, even the biggest jerk will rein it in a bit when they have to deal with someone constantly, and when they know they will get in trouble with those around them.

Also, since you generally get more than enough volunteers, you seldom need to resort to outright coercion... and since your backstory suggests that you are a somewhat moral individual, such coercion might be something you would resist anyway.

So I guess the guideline is this: make the occasional inappropriate comment, and as long as you are finding enough NPC's to hook up with, you need not spend will to resist your flaw.  If you are hard up, well, spend the Will to resist for the day.

Flirt all you like, She can punch you through a wall if you upset her >:D

In reply to Solitaire (msg #64):

Well, I guess that solves that problem.
:P

Imp is indeed a moral guy, for now.  I'm curious to see if the development of the character will lead to his new found hawtness going to his head.  Maybe yes, maybe no.  I'm guessing when his taint starts to increase, though,  it may indeed result in some kind of mental aberration.  And, as Rydi says, the Imp is [mechanically anyways] a hot piece of ass, thus shouldn't have too many problems.
I will therefor keep stuff light and playful, if it gets on people's nerves, let me know, i certainly don't want to become "That perv on RPOL.net."
peace Imp
This message was last edited by the player at 15:16, Mon 30 Mar 2009.

In reply to Impetus (msg #66):

We have two more players, and the game is officially CLOSED for business.

Once everyone is done, I will start posting some more threads for your training.  In the mean time, talk amongst yourselves.  As anyone with military experience knows, it is a lot of sitting and waiting.  Your fellow soldiers (or novas, as the case may be) are all you've got for entertainment most of the time.

Though of course, weekends in Vegas should be fun...

I can't imagine novas are well-loved in casinos. Particularly if they've got powers that could 'accidentally' be used for cheating. TK+craps=win. Clairvoyance+poker=win. Luck+anything=win. Not that Novas really have to work hard to make money if they put their minds to the task.

In reply to Quentin Abernathy (msg #68):

Indeed.  Though if they stealth in as baselines, it could be OK.  You guys haven't been seen in the media yet, after all.

Has anyone else been having problems with the White Wolf forums?  It has been giving me an error message for the last several days every time I try to post.

Taint insures that I pretty much cannot 'stealth in' as a baseline. =\ Creepy all-black eyes and weird rippling of space? Not so much...

As for the WW forums... I dunno. They load fine, but I don't really have anything to post to test with. :P

Hey everyone. Kegluneq from the White Wolf boards, here as a late addition to the fun.  I am an old hand at roleplaying but have never actually run or played a game of Aberrant, so someone should probably look over my sheet before we all get started.

I bring to the table Dillon "Comstock" Amargosa.  Dillon is a heavy, a man capable of wrapping himself in metal and shambling down the hallway while bullets and quantum bolts bounce off of him.  I'm building him now, but I'm looking for input with regards to what people think will complement the team best.

My motivation is to take over the world. My PC's motivation is to become the greatest iron chief ever!

I just punch things, very, very hard. And play cards as something of a joke. I'll explain ingame fairly soon I expect.

Let me know if you don't have access to your character sheet. I think I've turned it on for everyone, but I may have missed one somewhere.

In reply to Kegluneq (msg #71):

It looks like the slot you are filling is a good one, honestly.  Solitaire hits hard, but few if any of the group have high defenses yet.

Yes, the squishies can all hide behind him and shoot our lasers or whatever. There needs to be a taunting power. Heck, that might just be having a lot of Charisma. "Hey! Look at me! *flex*"

Alright, good to hear.  Mega Stamina and Bodymorph it is.  I am not sure think that I will have the points to grab Elemental Anima from the get go, but that is definitely the objective in the longer run.  When in doubt, hide behind the metal man.  Where should I send my character sheet?

Also, we should probably change my name over to Comstock.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:04, Mon 30 Mar 2009.

I've created your sheet, you can put it there. The template is in another thread.

Edit: Also changed your name.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:08, Mon 30 Mar 2009.

Comstock: The Q3 powers like Elemental anima/mastery are very good if you are looking for a broad range of powers that may not be as individually powerful as their Q2 analogs(e.g. the bolts from the various Q3 power suites are about half as powerful as qbolt, but if you consider that for every dot of your Q3 suite you not only add a new power but also add to the power of all the powers in the suite they're good buys). Mega sta and bodymorph are great, density control as a bodymorph power is also nasty.  growth too.  mega str 5 is pretty easy to get to using those powers.
In regards to Solitaire: I don't think i'd make it to the wall, depending on how hard you hit you might have a 200lb mewling meat bracelet instead...just as effective a deterrent really.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:41, Tue 31 Mar 2009.

Out of curiosity Comstock, what sort of elemental powers will you have?

In reply to Impetus (msg #79):

Mega-Strength does that, haha.

In reply to Samuel Wolfson (Msg #80):

Metal.  As Comstock develops my intention is to have him gradually understand all metals, but he is going to start with an intuitive grasp only over the more common ones -- iron, copper, steel, silver.  Whether this ever develops to the extreme (and arguably munchkin-tastic) limits of matter -- control over mercury, uranium, and anything else that could arguably be classified as a metal -- is so far in the future that I don't think it is worth worrying about.

So ... at it's most basic, Comstock will wrap himself in metal and get awfully indestructible and punchy, while at its more complex Comstock will be able to warp the foundations of buildings or play with atomic properties.  I am adding enough stamina that he will grow alarmingly, inhumanly durable, and in the event that Comstock picks up any aberrations he is going to find it difficult to get rid of his metal skin and parts.



In reply to Impetus (Msg #79):

Alright, so here is a question.  When I purchase dots of Bodymorph, am I automatically gaining Claws or Armor or do I have to purchase these powers separately?  Since each dot of Bodymorph is three Nova Points, I want to say that they are included and that the chief advantage is the ability to add or subtract a variety of powers at once.  With a cheap activation cost.

Second question: if I have dots of armor and Bodymorph (Armor), what happens?  Do they stack?

Tentative power picks right now: Body Morph * 3 (9 Nova points), Elemental Anima * 2 (10 Nova Points) and something arbitrary to use up the last point.  Thoughts?

Molecular Manip may be more appropriate than Ele Anima, depending on the effects your going for.

I ... have no idea why I did not realize that sooner.  While out of immediate reach, Molecular Manipulation is definitely more suitable.

you only get what it says you get automatically.  The other powers are assigned.  You get to assign a dot in a power for each dot in bodymorph.  so, you could take density control 1, armor 1, and claws 1 if you are at bodymorph 3.

Out of curiosity, do we have a standard post format? I tend to put put audible comments in italics, to differentiate them from actions or thoughts, also tends to break the text into more manageable chunks. Was wondering if people had a preference on the subject, or wanted to bother with it at all.

In a lot of games I play in, people color their speech to make it stand out. Just highlight it and use the "Styled text" dropdown at the bottom of the posting window. That way its all like:

Quentin woke up and yawned and said, "I could eat 500 pancakes!" Then he went downstairs and actually ate 600. There's some other text here too, but the blue speech really stands out because its colored, and people are unlikely to miss it.

I tend to italicize thoughts, as this is the convention used in the vast majority of American literature. But thats just my two cents. Or is that three? Whatever.

Makes no difference to me, just thought I'd mention it so we can decide what we like.

In reply to Solitaire (msg #88):

I am fine with whatever people prefer, but coloring the speech sounds good.  Italics for thoughts can be messy, so I would only use it for direct thought-sentences.

so I sure would like some cake would be in italics but not (bob though idly about cake).

That's what I meant. Italics for the inner monologue. Alternately, if we eventually have someone that has telepathy, we could use colored itallics to represent unspoken conversation, or something.

Well, that sounds like a cool idea. Do we want to post whatever colors we'll each be using so we don't have duplicates?

In reply to Samuel Wolfson (msg #91):

I'm going with yellow.

I'll take blue then.

In reply to Samuel Wolfson (msg #93):

I think Comstock is all that's left for character intros, right?  After he shows up at the training camp thread, I will move things forward.  I know people are probably anxious to see what they are in for...

In reply to Rydi (msg #94):

Nice!

claiming purple.

Replied.  Also, I've grabbed Aqua.

Character sheet is more or less done, but I like ST approval on these things so there aren't arguments later.  I moved away from Body-morph, since the only real advantages it seems like it would provide would be 1)the aesthetic perk of being able click the metal on and off and 2)the +2 damage and +1 difficulty to hit.  If everything is kosher, though, I think I've got a character with a soak of ~20B/17L.

In reply to Comstock (msg #97):

looks good to me.

For me, green.

In reply to Impetus (msg #99):

Brown for me, unless someone has taken it.

20/17 soak?  My word.  that's just...well...impressive.
Speaking of stuff like that, are we going to be needing a Rule of X?  As in must be able to do/soak X damage?  If so i'm in the trouble, i don't have any attack powers at all.
Note to self, remember -> Lover, not fighter.  Do not get in combat.

In reply to Impetus (msg #101):

In the really real (aberrant) world, they can't depend on people having crazy soaks and attacks.  T2M takes what they can get, and often they would prefer interesting over raw power anyway.

 One of their "cool" members that they 'port around to different locations to fix problems for them has the "awesome" ability to see through solid matter.  What is that?  Like a level 2 power?  A mega enhancement?  where did her other 27 pts go?

If she can be considered that useful, I'm sure you guys will be fine.

Question on etiquette:

I like the swift pace of posting so far, but I've also don't want anyone pushed aside because they have work or anything and can't get to their computers more than once or twice a day.  Phantasm, for example, hasn't gotten a word in during our briefing -- though whether this was player choice or just a lack of opportunity, I cannot say.  Do we want posting limits or posting order?  Or is everyone fine with the free-for all style we've got going?  Or should different threads be tagged differently, so, for example, a thread with action and combat has strict posting order but a more free-flow investigative thread doesn't?

I vote we keep using this thread for general discussion though.

I'd say it doesn't much matter until we get to some more plot-critical stuff.

I was actually kind of wondering myself, i sit at work waiting for response because i don't want to feel like i'm just bombarding the threads lol.

Same here earlier this morning.  I have no problem, I just like seeing communication earlier rather than later so no one gets alienated.

In reply to Comstock (msg #106):

In pbp games, I personally don't mind people just posting when they can.  I of course don't want people to feel left out, but if you happen to be on at the same time as someone else and want to have a long conversation with them, no harm in that.

Really the only time I see rapid posting being a problem is when we are in some sort of critical situation, or when someone is doing something directly with a slower-posting player.  In both cases, people end up working at the pace of the slower player.

I also have no problem with carrying on two conversations at once, at least not for the most part. Might not be totally realistic, but it is a concession to the nature of play by post.

I'm thinking that my post times may be slightly off kilter for everybody else.  I'm in asia so what is evening for me is like 6am for you NAers.

Ouch.  Sorry to hear it.  Course, as long as I am keeping late hours there may be some overlap.

what he said..i tend to stay awake until like 12-1 eastern standard time

Yeah, i do often have free hours in the afternoon, so it's a more reasonable time for me to interact with people.

I dont really sleep at standard times, so my posts will be all over the place. I'm sure we'll find something of a rhythm going once we've been going a bit.

nite all

nite

In reply to Impetus (msg #114):

every time i try to set a normal sleep schedule, I fail horribly.  Like tonight... 6:15am, and I'm just now getting to bed.  And school doesn't help.  Stupid psychopharm papers.

NiteNite.

True, school doesn't help.  Stupid school!!  BURN THEM!! BURN THEM ALL!! Oh, wait, then i'd be out of a job.  must rethink this...

I've got a pretty set schedule. I work 9am-6pm M-F, so I'm on from work pretty much all day (like I am right now). I usually go to sleep around midnightish, so I'm on most of the evening as well.

I'm busy all day really, but most of the time I'm in front of a computer, got something to do that way.

Hey, what would our dining facilities look like?  Military barracks?  Restaurant?  Cafeteria style line or a concealed kitchen with a cook that makes the food for us (so they can drug us at their whim without us seeing)?

In reply to Comstock (msg #119):

I was going to describe that shortly actually, over on the other thread.

but in short, cafeteria, line style, with a short order area for special orders.

Just to be clear and I'm sorry I didn't think to ask before...I'm not offending anyone am I? If I am please say so to me or the GM if for some reason you feel uncomfortable with saying anything to me.

I'm really sorry I didn't think of it before... :-(
This message was last edited by the player at 01:08, Fri 03 Apr 2009.

What exactly would you be offending people with?
This message was last edited by the player at 01:55, Fri 03 Apr 2009.

In reply to Phantasm (msg #122):

sometimes religion can be one of those touchy subjects and this character is fairly focused in that direction, so I didn't want to offend anyone

I don't consider most things within a religious context. In a way you could consider it atheism, except that sort of implies a conscious/active rejection of religion and a god (usually the religious context does not occur to me independent of actual religion-based discussion or certain topics that necessarily require that context [medieval Europe, the middle east, etc]). I don't think I can be offended wit religious topics, excepting when people do exceptionally stupid things with purely religious justifications.

In reply to Prodigal (msg #123):

I don't think anyone is goiing to get offended unless you're actively trying to push your religion on them. Relax a bit.   :P

As a note (particularly towards Prodigal regarding his last post) Quentin is hardly in a position to critique others on the obvious expressions of their abilities. His eyes are totally black, space sometimes ripples around him, and he has a notably reduced apatite compared to other novas.

Not offended or anything, Solitaire just isn't sure of her ability to not offend anybody when dealing with religion, thus prefers to avoid the subject. Shes something of an apathetic agnostic, doesn't know, and doesn't care.

I have no problem with religion and enjoy exploring the concept in the context of fictional settings.  Hence the Mormon background on Comstock.  Thanks for checking though.

In reply to Comstock (msg #128):

Just to share, all of this food talk has made me extremely hungry.  I'm going out to eat b/c of you people.

:)

In reply to Quentin Abernathy (msg #126)

granted but David/Prodigal hasn't really dealt with people all that much in his life as he was home-schooled a good portion of it.


as far as everyone else thank you for the replies about my concerns.

I will add new content (next morning, and some training) tomorrow afternoon or late this evening, assuming people are nearing completion of their meal.

just letting people know.

Patch 0.1?!?

I'm also going to be totally ok with pursuing religious ideas here.  Unless you start talking trash about the FSM.  Then it's on.
I am interested in pursuing the themes of are novas still human?  adn why should they be bound by human definitions of morality?  Is this problematic for people?

In reply to Impetus (msg #133):

HA! Flying Spaghetti Monster. Nice. That actaully sounds pretty awesome Imp. I know if I had any sort of power, I wouldn't submit myself to the morals of mortals.  ;)

No problems with anything, really. Out of character, I don't really care, and in character, I only care as much as she does. Heh.

I think just about every trans-human themed setting demands some amount of trans-human ethics.  Questioning humanity is the nature of the beast.  Is Comstock a human with power over metal?  A mutant freak?  A new, mineral based form of life ordering its own evolutionary direction?  Part of a new species?  Will Impetus become as twistedly persuasive and self-indulgent as Exalted's Desus?

I enjoy those stories.  I think we've got a good spread of characters so far, too.

All these answers and more in our next episode!


Whats funny is as its 2001, theres no Teragen yet, they get really into the trans-humanist thing. They don't the scene till late '02-'03 I think? And dont go public till '05. It would be quite amusing to have a drink with Count Orzaiz and talk philosophy, or meet Mal on the street, thinking he's just another "normal" nova.

@Rydi mostly, though feel free to chip in.
On a side note, how closely are we following the standard timeline up to this point? My read of Trinity History is the world ought to be just getting over the Russian Crash, so we'll hit the scene about about 9 months after the original T2M hits their stride. Have to work hard as T2M² to keep pace with them.

Curious because starting this early in the setting allows us to shape it essentially as we see fit, while also removing most of the traditional antagonists and political conflict. Without asking you to reveal any plot points, I'd like to know your thoughts on the situation.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:31, Sat 04 Apr 2009.

The lovely solitaire raises excellent points.  We are getting in early, so IIRC elites aren't common (The Equatorial wars will be later this year, and holy crap does Imp not want to get mixed up in them) Eufibre doesn't exist yet (i for one am wearing the future) and they haven't fixed the environment yet.  hmm, must needs rework my previous post since none of the stuff i mentioned t2m doing has happened yet.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:23, Sat 04 Apr 2009.

I don't think we'd see Mal on the street. I think he's still in his third chrysalis. His 4th begins in about 2006.

But, yeah, the Kashmir thing hasn't happened yet. They're putting together plans to fix Africa and I think they've already fixed the ozone. There's a lot left to do in the world still. Eufiber I think does exist, but is very new and probably being studied. Most of the opnet gets put in place during 2002-2005, I believe.

Eufibre is said to be created on August 7th, 2001 (Corebook, p11).  They may indeed be testing the stuff out earlier (like what proteus did with early terraforming techniques that didn't work out the way they wanted them to.  I don't think i'd have a full suit of the stuff (5 dots) that early in its production though, unless our st rewrites the history a bit.

The settings fluid enough that it wont have a great impact, But it was reasons like this that I brought it up in the first place. Best to know how things stand to better limit meta-knowledge slip ups.

I am following the standard timeline in the main book, for the most part. Though as you astutely observed, your actions may change much of what occurs... for example, a team of teragen friendly tomorrowites may result in less aggressive teragen members, but also a more alienated public.

As far as every little detail in all the books... I will try to stay somewhat accurate, but despite having read most of the setting, I don't intend to play it out exactly as written.  Further, as most of it is 2008+, much of it could be different by then.

For the eufiber thing, if you took it at character creation, you can have it.  Experimental stuff.

If you have any other specific questions about the setting or the timeline, I'll be happy to answer them.

Coming back to any near-future game or fiction, I am always entertained by the deviations.  Vladimir Putin must obviously be an underling of the new Russian government in our setting, wondering what might have been.

Alright, more serious note.  I have never before been in a PbP game where absolute loyalty to combat rules helped anyone, but I've been severely house-ruling Exalted 2nd for my home game so I'd like to bounce a few mechanical questions off everyone more familiar with the system.

Question:
I just looked over the errata and expansions in the player's guide and discovered balancing issues about Density Control which led to a new flat cost option for Density Control (Increase).  Page 111 if you are interested.  I'd like someone to check my work to make sure I have this correct:

Comstock, uses the flat cost option of Density Control.  He has Density Control 2 and Quantum four.  He spends two quantum to activate, which gives him (1+2) successes.  He may buy additional successes for one quantum, to a maximum of (Power rating + Quantum dots).  Each success bought in this way doubles Comstock's weight, adds one dot of strength (maximum Mega-Strength 5), and adds +1B/+1 Lethal soak (no maximum stated).

If I am interpreting this correctly, this means that with just two dots of Density Control (Increase) and the expenditure of 8 quantum (2 on the power, six additional), Comstock multiplies his weight by 9 (based on how Exalted handles multipliers ... if I double at each step, his weight is multiplied by 2^8, or x256), adds six to his strength (bringing him to the maximum of Mega-Strength 5), and adds +9B/+9L soak.  This lasts for (quantum + power rating) 8 turns before Comstock must spend quantum again to renew the effect.

And, just to make sure I am not doubling up or calculating something wrong, while the power is active this would bring Comstock's total soak to:
-----Stamina [4B/2L]
-----Mega-Stamina (Resiliency) [+4B/+2L]
-----Armor 3 [+9B/+9L]
-----Density Control (Increase) [+9B/+9L] (total 8 quantum spent)
-----Eufiber Suit [+3B/+3L]  (assuming three points of quantum charge)
Total Soak: [29B/25L]


And I don't have to worry about Essence ping in these rules.

I'd need to hash over the rest to confirm, but Aberrant has mini-ping damage, you always do at least one damage unless the target's soak more than doubles your damage output. You're probably safe from most things short of missiles though.

Just what IS ping damage anyway? I've seen that term on the Exalted forums a lot, but I don't know what it means.

In Exalted's mechanics, no matter how high your soak is, if you get past a target's hardness, you will do at least (Essence rating) damage, even if their soak is a million times higher than your raw damage was. Thus, you ping them for a bit of damage as long as you exceed Hardness, pretty much no matter what.

Any Watchmen fans?  I am going to assume everyone's seen this by now, but I think it bears reposting.  Saturday Morning Watchmen.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w

That video was bad and you should feel bad.  :P

oh that's funny...

With regards to the dice roller, it looks like the WoD 3rd Ed counter doesn't work right for Aberrant. Aberrant's system doesn't subtract 1s from dice rolls. I think the Target Number default is probably the best way to go, though do note that any successes on Mega-Attribute dice count as 2 (or 3 for 10's) and should probably be rolled seperately.

Think the Exalted roller might work? Both Aeon and Exalted run on Storyteller Revised.

Exalted's counts 10's twice, which isn't how Aeon rolls.

Right, ah well.

As a note, Mega-attribute dice can lower the difficulty of a roll, but not the target number, which are different. It's rather like Exalted's system in that sense. If you're facing something you need multiple successes to do, you can forgo rolling Mega-Att dice to lower the difficulty, but I can't think of anything in the Aberrant ruleset that changes target numbers (unlike Exalted, which has a few).

I tried the roller thing, not quite sure how to do what everyone else did with the spoiler stuff...assistance?

In reply to Prodigal (msg #155):

Actually, I just was rolling for you and about to post the results.

The code is <spoiler >at the beginning and </spoiler > at the end of whatever you are posting.  and delete the space before the > symbols.  I couldn't actually type out the code fully or the program would just show it as spoilers without the code for you to look at.

I've updated the character sheet template. I lowered the quantam that it lists to 1, which was an oversight on my part - too used to Exalted. I've also added two lines to the top to track XP with. I believe the most that anyone could have at this point is about 9 or 10? Correct me if I'm wrong. I didn't edit everyone's individual sheets, I'll leave that up to you. :P

Your evil Dr Zero, evil! We'll get along just fine. Heh.

Are you channeling the mist guy from Hellboy 2, Zero?  Very amusing...

Dr. Zero?  Kraus (Hellboy 2) and Psycho Mantis both come to mind for me.  But Aberrant has always put me in the mind of Metal Gear for some reason.  Foxhound and the Directorate go together like chocolate and peanut butter.

The Last Days of Foxhound (http://gigaville.com/index.php), I should note, has also twisted my notions of Metal Gear.

So, a question,
does anybody find it deeply amusing that we are all engaging in terragen esque debates on like the first day of training camp. We are so going to suffer an accident while terraforming....

Teras as a philosophy is fine, its simply that the Teragen is mostly populated by assholes.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:25, Thu 09 Apr 2009.

Well, yeah, the "do as you wish" philosophy does draw in people who use that as an excuse to do anything they want, regardless of the consequences it has on others.

Its really a lot deeper than that, in my opinion. It had so much potential and the second half of the Teragen book ruined it IMO. I was so much more of a fan of Mal the Visionary than Mal the Ass.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:41, Thu 09 Apr 2009.

Well, yeah.  The night of long knives thing was kinda crap.  i like Mal the visionary, and scripture the visionary as well.  That's it, lets start the terragen movement ourselves and make it what we want.

>:D Lets do it! We'll make it the way it should be! And who care what Mal says we could take him!

FLAW: Overconfidence.

We're probably screwed.  Or we are the founders of the Teragen.  I love revisionist settings.  Ultimately I do not think that Comstock will embrace Teragen Philosophy unless pressured heavily.  He's dumb now, but as his brain rebuilds itself and he gets more worldly I think he will favor Utopia's puppetmaster perspective on world development, using his power for the greater good.  On the other hand, if he is leaning more mineral than man he might be tempted to impose his own vision of the future.

I say we wait for a few plot events before picking any definite direction.

Edit: Just saw Samuel Wolfson's post.  Comstock is so outrageously screwed right now.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:55, Thu 09 Apr 2009.

Of course, we're just joking around, I think. And we have about 3-4 years before the to-be-Teragen group starts meeting anyway. We won't be starting/joining it anytime soon. If we end up anything, I suspect it will be Aberrants.

Hrm.  Just thought of a plan.  Kill Pax.  Take his place.  World at feet.

There sure is a lot of talk about Teragen going on here, who are they? I haven't had a lot of time to go over the book in detail.

Hmm, kill Pax.  good plan. Tough though.  Also, must kill Director Thetus, she's a bad egg.
"The Teragen: a diverse group of Novas who share a common philosophy called "Teras". A direct result of this philosophy is that the group willingly embraces its evolved status, and therefore claim biological superiority to humans. While the outside world views the Teragen as a single group it is actually a coalition of different interests united by philosophy and their enigmatic inspiration, Divis Mal. In his Null Manifesto, he declared, essentially, that novas could only be governed by their peers, freeing its members from the obligations of human law."

to quote wikipedia.  Teras are novas who don't think they are human any more.  And that they have amoral imperative to evolve.  Utopia doesn't like them because they think that novas slaving away for baselines is demeaning.  And because some of them kill people, either for fun or for reasons they consider sufficient (of this latter group, many still enjoy it).

Oh... Hm. Sounds like we need to worry about Dr. Zero a bit then.

Yeah, and not just because of his quirky sense of humour.

Under that mask and uniform, he has Divis Mal's arms.

Seriously though, he's well on his way.  Already poking and prodding and sowing doubt in the heads of his new team-mates.  Course, we still have little to go on about Phantasm ... is she secretly a Directorate agent?  An ancient shape-shifting nova?  A spy for internal affairs?  Just shy?  The possibilities!

*note* You are quite lucky you just knocked, try it from within arms reach next time >:D

Indeed... mysterious... :)

Just a note on the current action in the Training Camp thread:  The current play is going to be largely about your characters coming to see that they don't have the limits others do.  Whether they manage to get through it because of mega-stamina, or just plow on through using their high endurance/will/healing rates, your characters are not human anymore.

While I will toss in interesting tidbits over the course of the 3-day challenge, it will be entirely up to you guys to spice it up with personal dialogue, inner monologues, temper tantrums, and all that other fun stuff people do under stress.

And good job everyone on your interactions so far.  It has been a pleasure to read.

Bleh, had a bit of catching up to do there.

Comstock, I hope you're not expecting a response from Prodigal, he's out for a few days, I believe.

I had forgotten, sorry, but hey, it's in character.  He's probably cheating with those wings of his.

After the pool is done, we will fast forward through the rest of the 72 hours.  You will get to have some vacation time in Vegas after that.  The bad stuff has just been to create some bonding and showcase some abilities, I don't want this to be the main game material.  Since things are slowing down a bit, we will move along to more fun stuff.

Also, I would like to hear from you guys about what you would like to happen to your characters as you develop, what direction you would like your individual stories to go. You can post here, or PM me, either way.

And good jobs on the interaction and descriptions so far btw.

Personality wise, I see Solitaire developing Teragen-esqe leanings, but continuing to help baselines out of a sense of noblesse oblige. Though this may likely be shaken with the eventual aberrations and powers more inhuman than mega-attributes.

Power-wise, if left in a vacuum, gonna grab a few dots of Hyperflight, another Mega-Dex, then possibly dip into the Quantum manipulation powers, as nobody seems to have leanings in that direction, though I have no bloody idea what Zero and Phantasm can do. However, as I've developed nothing flashy at the moment, I can fill whatever niche is needed, (long as I keep punching stuff) depending on what all of your plans are.

This is all subject to the needs of the story, of course.

I'd love to see...

Giant T-Rex-es! It would be awesome. (Dreamed it last night!)

I'd like to kick some arse, and discover all sorts of secrets of the setting. (If this game goes on a loooooong time, I'd love to face some Trinity era threats. Novas vs Doyan! It would be soooo kewl.)

I've seen people talk about Revisionist Settings. We could make ourselves the main Pantheon or Utopian big wigs, or Aberrant revolutionary leaders! That could be fun.

On the other side of that coin, I would love to be run through some of the adventures in Year One & Phase One, with a bit more leniency. I mean, by the time Pax and Mal join in manly fisticuffs, we might be able to give one of them a bloody lip. That book's assumption that the Players couldn't interfere was a little silly when we are playing PC's with "The Power of Gods."

Or other stuff. Stuff inspired by other sources are very cool. X-Man elements always mesh in easily, as the Aberrant setting seems like an inversion of the X-Universe.

Original stuff is always awesome, but, and I'll be blunt, it can put a lot of stress on Storytellers. I've seen a lot of excellent games die because of ST burnout. The Storytellers naturally think they have to be ungodly 'original,' and murder themselves with plot planing, which Players just rip through anyway because we are arses.

So I just want to be clear, I love original stuff, but the Storyteller is not getting paid like a White Wolf or Hollywood writer (Ha! I just compared the two in quality & income!) to dream this stuff up. They have real lives, real incomes, and real time restraints, and I am just as happy to play through a published adventure or a game inspired by one. I am enjoying this game, and have no interest in killing the ST with requests for 'Super New!' crap when he's already paid good money for adventure supplements.

And other stuff. Oh. I want to beat up Divis Mal. And a Talking Ferret. And a pony. Uhhhh... I think that's it.

This message was last edited by the player at 14:23, Mon 13 Apr 2009.

To reiterate, Mega-attributes cannot lower the target number of a roll, they lower the difficulty (which is 1 for most tasks and higher for very hard things). Pretty much nothing in the Aberrant toolset lowers the target number of a roll.
EDIT: 7-10 are one success on normal rolls, 10s do not count twice. You can re-roll if you have an applicable quality for an attribute. Mega-attribute dice are 2 successes for 7-9 and 10's are 3 successes.
EDIT again: Updated the dice roller to record each dice so that we can more easily count mega-att dice rolls.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:46, Mon 13 Apr 2009.

In reply to Avilister (msg #184):

A good way to do the combined mega-att/normal-att rolls would be to count the first x dice as your megas and the others as your normal.  That way we don't have to roll twice for everything.  Speed things up.

If people will just use the notes section to indicate how many mega-dice they're using, that should work out.

Edit: Also, just as a general note, use the default settings for rolling. The World of Darkness and Exalted counting systems do not accurately record successes for Aberrant. WoD subtracts 1's from successes (which Aberrant does not do) and Exalted counts 10's twice (which Aberrant also doesn't do). For any roll with no Mega-Atts, the TN7 system should work just fine. Otherwise, you should also note how many mega-dice you get, each dice that comes up a success counts twice for mega-atts, or three times if it comes up a 0. Note that there is no way to change the target number in Aberrant (at least, not that I am aware of).
This message was last edited by the player at 22:23, Mon 13 Apr 2009.

Too many systems, brain cannot cope...  Sorry, my bad on the mega att lowering tns.  dunno why that particular fallacy got lodged in my brain.

Probably because they can be used to lower difficulty, providing that it is higher than 1. In effect this is at least one gauranteed success on the roll.

Impetus:

Too many systems, brain cannot cope...  Sorry, my bad on the mega att lowering tns.  dunno why that particular fallacy got lodged in my brain.

It got in my brain, to, in the B-Ball game.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:07, Tue 14 Apr 2009.

As stated prior, Comstock is moving into molecular manipulation.  He may pick up some more Mega-Intelligence if given enough mental stimulation, tutoring, etc., but otherwise his emphasis will on building the powers he has and adding the capacity to twist, warp, and control metal.  He will acquire an interest in Chemistry and Physics, especially given that he is periodically seeing in High-Frequencies.  At some point, I would like to confront the issue of Comstock's biology breaking down, his organs dispersing across all his tissues, and his increasing discomfort with being "Dillon" versus "Comstock."

And yeah ... I would like to touch on themes of Celebrity.  Such as Team Tomorrow turning Comstock into a "local hero" for Nevada, Dr. Zero getting into a lawsuit, and Impetus replacing Corbin.  We need action figure sales.

Plot-wise ... I would imagine that the missions given to us by Team Tomorrow will make the biggest difference.  To my eyes, the default plot for Aberrant was always "uncover the plot within Team Tomorrow, come in conflict with the supposed good guys, eventually find some means of resistance you find morally acceptable."  Fight for the future of humanity optional.  I think our characters deserve some amount of say in the future of the human race.  There seems to be some interest in the Teragen ... why shouldn't we blaze a path?  (I am almost regretting I didn't haul out the character idea I had for SUPER-LAWYER, shining beacon of tort-reform and litigious might.)  Original material is great, but Aberrant is full of setting that I haven't gotten to play with.  Haul out the Worldwide scenarios, twist them slightly for flavor, and I think we can do the rest.

Oh, and missiles.  If Dr. Zero gets T-Rexes, I get missiles.  Everyone else seems to have a means of stopping missiles, and I can take one to the face.

In reply to Comstock (msg #190):

I very much want to deal with both celebrity, and teragen philosophy personally.  I wanted to provide a bit of background for everyone, but plan to move from the prologue into the main storyline, with you all being a full fledged team, fairly rapidly after that.  The problem is that with pbp it takes a bit of time to play through even simple scenes.  You end up having to balance the value of a given micro-interaction against the pacing of the entire story.  With you guys it is difficult b/c you all have been interacting so well that I hate fast forwarding over anything, but I think I'm going to speed up training after this.

Oh, and I also think that I will station your team permanently in nevada, and let you remake this base into whatever crazy lair you dream up.  After the pool gets finished of course :)

Everyone's plans for their characters are totally workable btw, and sound pretty reasonable.  For those interested in exploring more Terat philosophy, feel free to continue down that direction; I will try to have a bit of an intro with a few important people in that group, but you don't need them to come up with the tenets of the philosophy for you.  I would be just fine if you as a group came up with the whole marvel/portent/monster model... or something entirely different, a third path if you will, bridging man and monster.  Much like Exalted, the possibilities are limitless in Aberrant.

Finally, while I do plan on using novel setting stuff, most of it will be straight out of the books, or at most modified just enough to fit the current story.  Timeline will remain the same unless you diverge from it heavily (though I see it definitely possible for you to make a few notches on the timeline yourselves, or perhaps to erase some events).  As far as using the actual adventures... It is mainly going to depend on the direction your group ends up taking.

I've already discussed a lot of my interests with Rydi personally, and I mentioned some of them back on the WW recruitment thread (or what eventually ended up as a recruitment thread, anyway). I've always had a lot of interest in the Terat philosphy, so Quentin is likely to reflect that as time goes on.

Quentin already has control over one of the fundamental forces of the universe (gravity) so its not a streatch for him, particularly with a background in physics, to attempt to reach out for other similar abilities or to try to find logical applications of gravity to his own ends. I've already got a few of these planned out, and I think you'll be pleasently surprised.

As far as other stuff goes, I plan to eventually pick up one or more dots in every Mega-Att (luckily our particular character creation method made this way easier) to represent sort of the trans-human awesome that is being a nova. I also want to pick up some of the mental prodigy enhancements for Mega-Int and probably Eidetic Memory or something.

Quentin is, at this point, one of the most obviously inhuman novas in existance. He has *gasp* obvious taint and makes normal humans at least a little uncomfortable as a result (fortunately I spent my one Social Mega-Att on Mega-Cha with Sooth :P), at least sometimes. Though he may be able to hide his totally black eyes (which will eventually change if he gains more Taint) with glasses, he cannot supress his 'glow' effect, which manifests as ripples in space every now and then (particularly when he uses his powers). This obvious Taint effect was intentional and is basically designed to help promote conversation among the party as to what makes Novas different than baseline humanity and, in a way, to help seperate the two out (or at least to seperate Quentin out) in a way that makes him consider his overall position in society.

Anyway, thats sort of the medium length version of my plans. One thing at a time though, we've got a pool to dig!

I could see Prodigal very easily slipping into a teras line of thinking...his belief would change from we have been blessed, to we have been chosen, we are gods...

or the church of the immanent eschelon...becoming his thing...which could tie veyr deeply with the teras mentality. I'll pm you power wise later Rydi.

Hi everyone! I'm back, decent trip to any who was wondering.

I get the feeling I'm the least intelligent character here. Haha.

Yeah ... Comstock is Int 1, but part of Comstock's character development is his growing intelligence and drive to learn more.  That and I could not justify a metal man being quick thinking at Char-gen.

MoEP: Infernals just arrived.  Productivity just went out the window.  I will be posting and reading all night now.

Infernals is beautiful, is it not? I know exactly what you mean.

Yes it indeed. Infernals have effortlessly supplanted Lunars as my favorite exalt. Sure do hope I have the time to get into a game at some point.

What amuses me most is how the new charms and excellencies feel so much like Fate/SotC Aspects.  Dramatically reduces speed-bumps and XP-sinks.

Edit: I left Comstock's response brief in case anyone wanted to prod him on the topic.  Otherwise, I'll edit my post to reflect his relatively basic education and interest in "how stuff works."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:04, Wed 15 Apr 2009.

I think the Infernals are a good addition. The charms are, as has been noted in many places, revolutionary in many ways. Not necissarily in what they do, but just in how they all come together. That said, I've already discovered a number of holes in their arsenal (no late-step defenses, no unit-leading War charms, etc). Many are also very situational. Just sort of depends on which trees you go with, though.

I blame the Count of Words, myself.

Don't worry, there will be plenty of new charms in future Infernal supplements. XD

I never was that interested in Infernals back in 1st ed.  But if there's one thing that could get me into it is having Neph doing all the charms.  Everything he's done has been pure win.

Back to the game at hand; Imp is going to be focused on movement powers, either increasing his own or his team-mates or decreasing our opponents.  Flight, hypermove, immobilize, TK, all i think will fit him.  He may also get into direct quantum manipulation as he realizes that all energy is basically the same, and that it all flows from the same source, quantum.  I am going to try something i have never done before: not take any purely offensive powers.  I'm going to be a royal pain in the ass to fight, but one that will probably leave foes alive, or incapacitate them so that everybody else can deal with them more easily.  If this is problematic for others i am willing to get some boom boom stuff too.

Imp is going to be pushing himself to see how far he can go, and how far novas can go.  Epic atts and quantum are going to be at least half of his expenditures.  Depending on what everybody else takes i may work on becoming the face for the group, mega socials, or simply be the backup guy.  I am also very interested in seeing where this introspection into the nature of Novas will lead.  Will Imp become a terat?  Will he turn on Utopia?  Will he settle for being the greatest lover in the world?  No idea.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:15, Wed 15 Apr 2009.

I am entertained.  *grin*

Ahaha! You said copybooks. I'll share: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0Vc3t3GIWY

Quentin Abernathy:

Ahaha! You said copybooks. I'll share: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0Vc3t3GIWY

"Lepidopterus arboratus."
Dear Lord, that's bloody brilliant.

First of all, that was hilarious.

Second of all, I don't know that it matters, but did we have a location for Archon, our Nova-Only Club in Las Vegas?  If not, then might I suggest the following address: (http://maps.google.com/maps?oe...esnum=1&ct=image)

Gameworks opened in 1997, and I think I remember it having some financial difficulties back in 2000 or so.  Which, if we care about such things, means it would be the perfect opportunity for new owners to buy the property off of GameWorks and make a shiny new club.  It's got its own parking garage, it is dug into the terrain, it's centrally located, big ceilings, fake climbing mountain ... it's got it all.  The MGM Grand (next door) is the largest of the hotel casinos and even has its own Helicopter Pad.  I would locate the club someplace north of Flamingo and LV Blvd where it is trendier, but that property is packed tight and if anything went wrong we'd be flying through the next building in no-time.

I know if I were a club owner trying to cater to Novas, I would want a bit of extra room and some reinforced walls.  Just in case someone got out of hand.

Also, if the group rennovating Gameworks into a Nova-Club had the money, they could jump-start the Las Vegas Monorail project, which ends at the MGM today.  It didn't become operational until 2004, but with a little handwavium...

Handwavium nothing, apply liberal quantum until problem is resolved. We've already shown that with Novas working on a project, it can be greatly accelerated.

In reply to Comstock (msg #206):

Let it be done! The club is now THERE!

Good suggestion btw.

And I love those videos Avil... I was actually making a hidden reference to them.

As long as we are applying handwavium (and as long as I am spouting random Vegas information for verisimilitude's sake), let's say they are building the planned expansion to McCarran Intnernational Airport already, in 2001.  That's not even done today, but I have a feeling that an elevated monorail has greater dramatic potential than the endless stream of limos and taxis.

Where's the money coming from for this?  Funny thing about Las Vegas politics ... I really couldn't tell you today.  See, most of the strip isn't actually part of the city of Las Vegas ... it is part of "Paradise," an unincorporated block managed by the Clark County Commission.  This means that most of the major casinos give zero revenue to the coffers of the city of Las Vegas.  If you ask me, Team Tomorrow has probably bankrolled someone or several someones to get on the Commission ... a nice, low-profile-but-high-power position from which to authorize civic projects and manipulate local matters.

Oscar Goodman (mayor of Las Vegas, you will know him by the margarita glass of gin glued to his hand) is actually a pretty damn cool guy ... for Las Vegas anyway.  Wiki him.  I could easily see him trying to get Nova-based endorsement for City-Center and the renewal of North Las Vegas, his personal crusade since taking office.

Sweet, sweet handwavium.  It's kinda funny, when i get home from work in the evening and have time to post nobody's online so i end up saying a couple things, then log back on after my morning class to find that everything has changed.  makes things interesting.

I like handwavium.  At least when it makes sense.

And yeah, I'm not on much during the early-mid evening myself.  Usually do updates either late evening,or in the afternoon.

As a former resident, I approve.  Good description.

Something like 1.5 million people do live there in 2001.  But they live in the endless sprawl of suburbia stretching in all directions from the strip.  Best parts are Henderson to the south and Summerlin in the North West of the valley.  The houses are all mass produced, stucco and red-pink hacienda tile roofs.  It doesn't take a Nova to punch through the walls of these things.

Alright, enough spam.  If anyone wants to know anything else about Vegas, ask away, I'll try to answer.  I am perfectly content to reference the original and build a freakish imitation in its place.   Vegas deserves nothing less.  I should note that I am definitely wiser to Vegas than Comstock ought to be.  Before long, Impetus and other super social characters should have a much better grasp of the place than he.

In reply to Comstock (msg #212):

Glad it sounded good.  I've visited Vegas before, and really only saw the strip.  But even what little I saw struck me as... strange, in a very surreal way.  And I had a friend (r.i.p) that told me about the more mundane areas of Vegas, and how they contrasted with the strip itself.

When I went two years ago, we stayed on the strip, but we also visited downtown. Downtown is like "last year's Vegas" or felt that way, anyway. The casinos are all much older and, at least when I was there, so was the clientèle.

You've got that right.  Oscar Goodman is always trying to revitalize downtown and old Vegas, but it really doesn't compete.  Young people and tourists stay away.  This lets it keep a weird flavor.  Perfect for WoD games, though.

I will post tomorrow.  I've got a couple of short papers due though, and I have to sit on a panel for an academic conference early in the morning, so it may be a bit later int the evening, or saturday at worst.  My apologies.  Feel free to entertain one another, or if people get impatient, you can free form the art show and/or poker... Whatever pace you want to set.

Dude, no worries, I think everybody here can empathize with having a whack of work to get done before Monday, (as i look guiltily over at the textbook i need to write a syllabus for).
I'm curious as to how to deal with the poker game.  I have both natural empathy, which should let me read people very easily, and analyze weakness, which will tell me when they're bluffing.  I've got 5 dice each in perception and awareness, plus 1 epic per, and 5 dots each in intelligence and wits, plus epics in both as well.  What should I roll to see how i do?

In reply to Impetus (msg #217):

Depends on the approach you take, as both perception and manipulation (even charisma or int) will help you win.  I would roll both a social and mental check to see how well you read your opponent and the game as a whole, and to see how well you bluff and play your own cards.  Not sure on the skill to go with those though; probably subterfuge/raport off the top of my head.

That said, unless you entered high stakes poker(which you probably don't have the money for) I wasn't planning on making anyone roll.  Just seems silly to roll, with the stats involved.  I was just going to have people play out their games in hopefully fun and entertaining manner.

ok.  Off to the transformative learning panel.

Its something of a joke that she's actually really bad at cards, through no fault of her own really, just abysmal luck. She's come to write it off as funneling her bad luck through the deck, so nothing else goes too horribly wrong. That, and this time, shes going to win. Never does though.

On that note, I really should pick up the Luck power.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:26, Sat 18 Apr 2009.

In reply to Solitaire (msg #219):

For a level 1 power, Luck is incredible imo.

And yes, I love the card player that loses concept.  Really not that far from the way it works out in real life, either.

yeah, luck does rock, very worthwhile picking it up.

Of course, now OOC I have to wonder if this is just MORE deception and Phantasm is just leaning on Comstock because he's not smart enough to be suspicious of a little girl.  Heh.

Nice twist though.  One big-brother type earned.

Anyone want to get into a fight at the Archon and make a scene?  Comstock would make a good bouncer.

Well, demolishing the place on our first night there, and as T2M prospectives....

Sounds fun! But might not be the wisest course of action. Course, if it was self-defense...

Yay!

It is mostly true, with a few details changed to protect the innoncent... Unless it isn't of course :)

And a fight would be nice.  See everyone's powers in action.

Will post up the nova club happenings tomorrow.

Just keeping people informed.

There may indeed be a scrap.  A scrap of Imp left to be picked up off the floor anyways.

You will be fine.  Put some ice on it.

Yeah, if they get through me and Comstock to you, we've lost anyway. Haha.

In reply to Solitaire (msg #228):

I could pepper-spray them. ;)

Good to know those much tougher than i have got my back. front. side. place where danger is coming from.

*makes gansta pose* yeah!

When the angels themselves are aligned against our foes, who can stand against us?

Great Cthulhu?  Maybe?

yeah, it'd suck.  Suck huge.  I remember its "stats" from call of cthulhu, and its damage rating was "eats 1d6 pcs per round."  Pure win that one.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:56, Mon 20 Apr 2009.

Pshaw, Mal could take him.

LOL

Grin.

Nah. We'd just punch our way out.

  "Look they're break dance fighting"......

And everybody was kung fu fighting, nah nah nah na nanana....

More posties tonight. Papers and class.  yay.

Same here, so no complaints.  Another month or so and we should be in happier territory.

Another month and hopefully you will be much more active in the action part of the game.  But I do think it is good for you guys to have this time to get to know one another and feel out your characters w/out the stress of nova combat and powers use weighing you down.

Indeed,
i think that this early stretch of no combat is making everybody's characters come alive, making them have real personalities rather than being "that guy who flies and shit."  This could last a good long while before it gets old.

It's definitely pretty fun right now. I'm glad there's no combat yet, as I'm also trying to wrap up a lot of work this week.

A chat with Raoul! You guys are lucky.

Raoul ... why does that name sound familiar.

*rummage through books*

Ah.

So which one of us is going to inadvertently give him ideas for the Teragen?

In reply to Comstock (msg #247):

Give him the idea? I think he was his own brand of Terat the moment he erupted. Out of curiosity, is he actually working there? Or just bartending for fun?
This message was last edited by the player at 17:31, Tue 21 Apr 2009.

Given that he's stupidly wealthy and some sort of European nobility (Spanish? I think?) he's probably just doing it as a good way to schmooze and make some contacts amoung other novas.

That's what I figured, though he might actually own the place or something, and just work there when he's bored.

Actually, he was just fixing himself a drink when Imp came up and requested he make something.  Being the gentleman he is, seeing a fellow nova in need... who was he to say no?

They don't generally allow baselines to go upstairs, even to make the drinks.  It is a private haven from the mortals down below.  The only exception is if someone orders food, or something special needs to be delivered.  So there is actually no bartender up top.  Of course, those that go up also pay club membership fees... but they generally make an exception for newbies.

Canon has him chatting it up with early members, if I'm remembering correctly. Of course, we might become those members. Or join them. Or politely decline.

What I meant was he had the trans-humanist mindset from the get go.

most definitely.  and the timeline actually has the founding teragen meetings placed at '00 or earlier.

Really? I thought it was '03

And somehow I didn't think it was that early, either.  Huh.  Well, consider me educated.

As an amusing sidenote from the bored, doing the math ... Ms. Frost has to have had nearly a gallon of something strong.  Unless she has more Mega-Stamina than I expected, in which case she needs an IV of pure ethanol.  If Comstock wants to get drunk, I think he'll just end up sticking to Methanol straight from a lab.  Everything else will take too long.

How the hell are we paying for this?  Utopia's bill on booze alone must be astronomical.

LOL

In reply to Comstock (msg #256):

Most novas drink alcohol for the taste.  Getting drunk just isn't viable without assistance.  However establishments that cater to novas have ways to help get you drunk.  Anything that activates the (p450?) liver enzyme system is going to reduce ones tolerance to alcohol.  So, drop a sleeping pill or 8 in the bottle of everclear, and you've got a relaxing, mood altering beverage. Many other combinations are possible of course.

And frostburn sucks on the mega-stam.

)))))))))))))))

In other news, I will post some replies later.  Despite being online and responding to the OOC, it takes a bit more thought for me to reply to the IC stuff.

I had not considered intentionally spiking drinks in the quest for inebriation.  I still like the notion of guzzling methanol.  At least for Mega-Stamina characters with Adaptability.

Edit: alright, let's see if Comstock gets slapped or gets lucky.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:05, Wed 22 Apr 2009.

From T2Mer to terat in one easy step.  Or at least on both side's official watch lists. crap.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:36, Wed 22 Apr 2009.

All the more fun!

Also, if people like trans-humanism without the selfishness of the average Teret, we can always start our own movement, with our own manifesto. Like Dr. Worm.

Hm. "Crimson Dawn." That name looks familiar...

So, this club thing is heading in directions mildly uncomfortable, and I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable.  It is meant to display the excesses available to, and indulged by, those with power (both the rich, and the superhuman; power is power).  The club interior is shielded from the law by the prestige and money of its clientele, and even were it not, the nova manager could pull a jedi mind trick and inform any investigators that "this is not the club to investigate".  Because of this, drugs, sex, and anything else you want can probably be acquired here, and partaken of right in the middle of the dance floor for those inclined.  The people here are looking for the biggest high they can get, and part of the high for most of these people is the fact that they have the power to do whatever they want, especially those things that are taboo or illegal.

I think the point has been made.  I will refrain from pressing it further on the dance floor, and anyone wanting to partake of sex on the dance floor, or anything else that doesn't need a blow-by-blow account, can simply allude to their activities, and skip to a later point in the scene.

Anyway, hope everyone is ok with everything so far.  If not, please let me know.

I'm fine with it, myself, though more gratuitous description would move us out of the realm of the tasteful and revelatory and into the realm of the prurient.

I feel that Comstock is actually an ideal sort of character for a scene like this, given that he is trying to balance his slowly maturing ethics and general good character with the sudden wash of attention and ego-inflation.  Combined with sudden promises of fantasy-fulfillment, some lingering fear that he'll overindulge and screw everything up like he did before he could get into college, and the fact that he's a simple guy that's never really hit this sort of complexity, and we've got serious moral conflict.  Ultimately, he'll draw the line at exhibition sex, but damn, that's temptation.

If Comstock gets lucky, allusion is more than sufficient.  Have the camera pan away and focus on the more substantive and plot significant conversation with Raoul.

You know, I like Frostburn more and more with each post.

Solitaire likes to drink, likes to dance, to generally have a good time, and is a tad bit vain, so as long as Olympian behaves himself and plays to her ego a bit, they may end up in a private room somewhere. He seems like he can get any girl he wants, so she'll make him work for it, just to mess with him a bit. But no, she is not going to sleep with him in the middle of a crowded club, in full view of her co-workers, that would be hard to do even if she were totally smashed.

Also, your not going to offend me with anything, but I agree with keep it tasteful, bit of dirty dancing, and fade upstairs before it gets too raunchy.

I'll post in the morning, dead on my feet atm.

Good good. Just making sure; I want to keep story interesting and thought provoking, not push it to new levels of weird and awkward for people. And since I don't know where people's boundaries are at, figured I'd check.

so far no complaints from me either, vastly different for David but he's going to start changing  and growing up a bit sooner or later, living a sheltered life I figure he'd either go this is crazy or this cool. the line between crazy and cool can be a very small one.

Awesome, trouble comes knocking and the two heavies are downstairs.  Please note, monsieur ST, that Crimson Dawn doesn't technically want to kill me.  Unless you want him to.  Then he does.

Well, do something to attract my attention, though I might hear it too, and I'm a short flight and plate glass window from helping.

Alright ... just got back.  Am I reading this correctly, that Crimson Dawn is an NPC created via the Enemy flaw or some other trick of backstory ... and that I just had Comstock ask this guy to help Phantasm upstairs to where Impetus is?

Because that is funny.

My interpretation is that, yes, that is correct.

*snicker*

R.E. Comstock:
Indeed sir, indeed.  Well played.  So well played that I almost think you're in cahoots with our ST. Almost.
R.E. Solitaire:
Screaming for help like a girly man may indeed be the most sensible tactic Imp can come up with.  Not that he's always sensible.

I swear I had no idea.  I probably would have done the same thing if I had known since he looked like he was coming to the defense of little sister, but I had no idea.  This is seriously amusing.  Bonus points if the fighting happens while Comstock is indisposed.

Course, if you need a big meat shield ... someone just yell.

Also: Comstock needs to get some secrets.  Everyone else seems to have 'em.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:08, Fri 24 Apr 2009.

Quentin doesn't really have any. Or at least no obvious ones, I should say. Muahaha.

Ach ... I was afriad of that.  Guess she has high wits.  I am going to delay responding a bit so Phantasm gets a chance to post.  After that ...

Wow Phantasm, seriously cool fries.  Kick her ass!

I finally got to use my cool power.  Happiness.

*applauds*

Is it house-trained?

If I hadn't have taken the "sentient" enhancement, they would have been.  But with that enhancement, they sort of have a mind of their own.  They tend to eat people I don't like :)

Seriously cool, good show, and a lot less property damage than if I was involved. I commend you. Very sinister set of powers you've got there, I love it.

You know, should we just call ourselves Teragen Tomorrow? What with our attitudes and all. We'd be the Noblesse Oblige faction, or something, choosing to help out baselines because we want to, not for anyone but ourselves. Creed involving "not being a dick to baselines", "responsible personal responsibility" and "no wanton destruction".

A joke, but kinda serious.

Thanks. I played this character in a short lived tabletop game, and never felt it got the time to develop that it deserved.  There is one more power that I plan on buying that will complete the creepy though...

Phantasm isn't going to be hopping on the Teragen bandwagon anytime soon, due to background and her perspective on her abilities.  But if the majority of the team goes that way... Well, I won't stop anyone.  Might argue a bit though :)

Most of the Teragen references involves redoing the movement the way it should have been done, not the way it actually happened. The current timeframe of the setting actually allows this, and it would be amusing.

Mostly, its a joke.

Really, it doesn't have to be a joke if the pc's don't want it to be.  Part of why I started early in the timeline.

Man. I missed all the fun.



I'm probably going for a Pantheon spot, if I can pull it off. Maybe I'll try starting a faction. "Promethean Movement." I actually like a good number of the Terat's being selfish idealists. A lot of idealists have turned this way in history, and Mal going from Portent to Marvel to Monster is very in character, given his Adventure! writeup. Besides, if all the Terat's where nice, we'd have no opposition to convert to our correct way of thinking! Mu-wha, hahahaahah!

I'm very cool with a mixed croup, though. I actually prefer it, and like Comestock and Phantasm's outlook on stuff.



Maybe we'll take over the Aberrants! We are The Colony.

Hey, that's catchy. Let's call our group The Colony.

I'm in as long as that "don't be a dick to baselines" doesn't shift to "don't dick baselines."

Form your own faction.

Splitter!

Teragen Tomorrow.....hmmm....

Is that the name of the faction?  Kinda odd, but the teragen are odd aren't they?

Would "the Colony" be wise, given that it seems to indicate either invasion or a desire to secede?  Still catchy though.  I'd be down for that.

Essentially, what we need to do here is write our own response to the Null Manifesto.  Not sure if any of our characters are legal scholars or world class writers, but I would nominate Dr. Zero to the job in a pinch.  Shrewd man.  Also, the rough draft would be hilarious to read over.

When did the Null Manifesto come out?  Zurich was 1998 I think.  Raoul started meeting with like-minded Novas in 1998 as well.  How fast was Mal at getting his own message out?

Mal didn't even meet the others until about 2004 or 2005. He was in crysilis through most of the decade. The Null Manifesto was in 05 or 06, I think.

Plenty of time to find our feet then.

A few timeline notes (since I've got my book open now). N-Day is March 23, 1998. The Equatorial Wars run from about May-Nov of 2001 and popularize "elites". Eufiber is officially invented in August of this year. The current president is Robert Schroer who narrowly beat out Al Gore in last November's elections. Nova population as of the end of 2000 is believed to be about 1800 and at the end of 2001 is around 2100. The Null Manifesto is issued on Oct 31, 2005. Kashmir conflict starts in late August '06

Sort of an add-on to the previous post, I found a mini timeline in the Teragen book too:
Orzaiz and Santiago have already been meeting as of 1999 and include Marcel delorimiter, Caroline Fong, and the Apothecary as of 2001.
Geryon, Shrapnel, Swarm Queen and Scripture join in 2002. Mal shows up in 2003 and gives it the name Teragen (having just emerged from his third crysalis).
In 2004 Utopia captures Fong while she's in crysalis. In 05 the Null manifesto and a host of others join, notably Bounty and Leviathan. In 06 Mal goes into his 4th crysalis which he will exit in 2008.

Something I find a bit curious: Mal has done 4 Chrysalises, two of which happen post 2000 (I'm guessing that the third one started around 2000-2001, and lasted 2 or three years, may be totally wrong here) his next one starts just three years later and lasts 2 years.  Then the Teragen book says that Chrysalises take a long time to get into, blah blah blah, Mal has only done 4 and he erupted a century prior blah blah blah.   It seems that the author failed to consider that it might have taken Mal a long time to figure the process out, say 75 years or more, but once sussed it offers a relatively quick form of advancement.  Not that I'm saying we should all become Teras, start chanelling taint, and try to keep up with Scripture.  That'd be dumb.  I'm not sure if i have a point here.  after a quick reread it appears not...
As to world class scholars, technically Imp is one in a bunch of areas.  Although I think Zero's draft would be far more entertaining to read.

I think the Tergen book talks about it a bit. Scripture is the one that actually came up with the process, and he talked Mal through going into his first one (which is, I think, -the- first one). He and Mal then go through at least one or two more (Scripture is one of the few Third Stage Terats as of 2008, while Mal is like Fifth Stage). If you read through the rules for Crysalis, its actually fairly easy to wrack up if you're really shooting for it. You also don't have to fill up the track completely to initiate the process, though it is easier.

Mal is also, ha, an aberrant among aberrants. He has a very small number of disadvantageous aberrantions. Most of his are things like the anima banner, inhuman beauty, glow, and the like. This is likely sparked by the fact that he was RIGHT NEXT TO the Hammersmith device when it exploded, recieving a dosage of the radiation it emmitted second only to Maxwell Mercer himself. He's either something of a perfected specimen or just very skilled at channeling his taint in such a way that it isn't overly negative to his person.

At the outside, it is also possible that he developed the Aberration Transfer ability and uses it to offload unwanted deformities that might marr his transcendental magnificence. I think that's what I'd do. :P

Mal is the Prime Exomorph, as Mercer is the Prime Paramorpth, and Hammersmith is theoretically the Prime Psycomorph. The is some speculation as to if Mal is in fact a 2nd generation Nova due to his mastery of his powers, though its far more likely that he simply the most powerful Nova due to his proximity to the explosion and genetic makeup. No other nova to date has had the exposure to the levels of telluric energy that he did.

I speculate that Hammersmith actually became something like the Doyen, a being of pure Psi.

I had a neat little write up of my theories on the subject of Inspiration on the old forums, pity its now gone.

Speaking of Doyen, I always wanted to see them cry when all the Q6+ novas realized the little ghosties were playing with their old toys, and came back to teach them a lesson.
"Earth is ours, fuck off"
"NO! Your species is a threat, and we're going to eradicate its genetic potential"
"Damned right its a threat...[Mal blinks, Doyen are dodos]"

weird question..so what does a gin and tonic taste...never really been a drinker...i've  had a few drinks but...yeah...tips?

I mostly stick to rum and ciders, so I'm not actually sure. :P

In reply to Prodigal (msg #298):

It tastes like bad. Not sure what to compare it to.

G and Ts are, if well made and with good gin, really really nice.  Is my drink of choice, actually.  they're dry and citrusy and don't get your palate all sticky and nasty like a rum and coke does.  I'll make you a deal, you come to Korea and I'll make you one.  or more than one to justify the trip.

While tempting, I think my bank account will prevent me from getting the plane ticket :)

But if I'm ever there, I will most definitely try your beverage


)))))))))))

On another note, did we want to cut scene to the next day, or do we have more to discuss?

Dont have a problem with that, the interesting has happened.


And god, did I mention I love Frostburn? Endless amusement right there.

In reply to Solitaire (msg #303):

She is very professional... at work.  lol.

In reply to Impetus (msg #301):

what rydi said provided that invitation was for me too

Cutting forward in time seems fine to me.  My character is done with meaningful interaction.  I could get him involved again, but I think he just wants to go to bed.

Yup, meaningful interaction is i think, finished.  Coming to Korea is pretty easy, you take the job, jump through way too many hoops and hey, presto you're here.  Back when i arrived i literally decided on korea on March 14 and was here on the 29th, now, not so much.  So many hoops.  You wanna come, i'll point you at the right job and get you wasted if you come to Busan. Promise.
On a related note, I decided to test the gin and Tonic=crap hypothesis tonight and after sampling a dozen or so I stand by my initial statement and say that they are indeed quite nice.  strong, yes. but nice.  Tomorrow may suck however...

Oh, and hello to chromalfean.  Your ideas are neither off base nor three dogs barking.  The thought of taking powers like flight or hypermove or other more arcane things and attributing them to momentum mastery is indeed possible, but i think that for the movement ones anyways, the oomph that you get out of Q3 suites versus the oomph from Q2 individual powers necessitates Imp grabbing flight and hypermove as standalones to fit my idea of Imp being Really Fucking Fast (tm).

Hey, welcome aboard, chromalfean.

hello and welcome!

Welcome to boot camp.

You'll need to buy a pool membership.

ok, here goes. try to dispense with too many words and hope this doesn't degenerate.

first off, thanks everyone for the welcome and the GM for letting me join late in the game after cutoff no less. much, much appreciated. happened to stumble across the threads for the game quite by accident and was afraid I'd missed the boat/bus/whatever.

played ww aberrant and mage years back and loved both systems, but on pbp and pbem, the games proved very transient. I have very high hopes for this one though and have to say quite impressed with this group, both players and characters.

taken me all day reading just to get through the ooc thread, and still have other threads to read, but think (hope) I have enough background now to get a rough concept together in my head, so want to pitch it to the group for viability and avoid any conflicts.

basically, a counter-poise to some of the younger members of the group and Imp in particular. not to single Imp out or pick, but just to act as a counter-balance. devil's advocate, so to speak. here's what I've come up with so far and a bit of background and character development and evolution thoughts.

original character concept started out as a mega-intelligent matter manaipulator, but that's being covered already, so branching off from that theme want to stick with key aspects being mental, mainly intelligence and perception, but think he'll explore the mental avenues than physical world-bending stuff.

starting off as an older character, say in the mid-life range before erupton, so like Cap Marvel (of the Shazam line), he'll be more baseline oriented having spent more of his life as a man than a nova. imagining him as more mature and settled having gotten most of the kid stuff out of his system already and survived.

so hopefully add some grounding and perspective to the team, although admittedly his perspectives, which may or may not work for anyone or everyone, but he'll share without being pushy. want him to be supportive, not a know-it-all.

he won't have all the answers, but encourage people to think and consider different points or view. question conventional wisdom and explore to find their own answers, so concepts might include philosopher, pioneer, rebel or maybe scholar.

so this is where things might get sticky. thinking of opening up a whole new can of worms for the ST. there's been a lot of talk about the timeline, events and how things get changed and shaped, so ... well, how far do we go? thinking his insights and perspective come from his powers to some degree.

was thinking of exploring the quantum and or temporal, starting small with powers like intuition, premonition, pretercognition for awareness and perceptions in time and maybe working up to temporal minipulation and if we go long enough for the truly high level (Q5+) powers like time travel.

now like I said, this is where things can get sticky, especially for the ST where they have to deal with things like "are events pre-ordained to happen or can the characters influence the outcomes?" etc. there's a lot of paradoxes and stuff and can get pretty mind-bending.

if it's more trouble than it's worth, and the ST just really doesn't wanna go there, I can opt for the quantum route or mix and match a little. think I saw another player post expressing interest in the quantum abilities.

hopefully there's enough powers in that category to go around, especially if the powers are tailored to a theme, but if that's going to cause any heartburn or overlap, I can simply switch off to the old "luck/entropy" combo stand-bys as a "wildcard" character concept like my old euthanatos mage (God, he was fun, toxic, but fun. pure anarchistic chaos. entropy at it's best and brightest).

either way, I was kinda going for basically a cross somewhere between "Xavier" to Imp's "Magneto" (if he goes that route with character development, although admittedly that dynamic is a bit played and tired), and Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen, but focus on quantum/temporal effects than matter creation/manipulation.

bodymorph and/or density decrease I'm hoping to fit in with his powers giving him a quantum and/or psychic energy form. lemme know, and thanks agin.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:10, Sun 26 Apr 2009.

Sounds good, feel free to do what you want, don't mind us, bit of overlap isn't bad if you flavor it right. I'd been looking at Quantum Imprint when I commented about those powers, just cause its so damn useful, but if you want it, first come, first serve, and there are other avenues to explore.

If you'd like to know, my current To Get list of powers includes: Luck, Hyperflight, Quantum Imprint, Absorption and Boost, in no particular order. Solitaire will grow from just hitting things to absorbing and reversing powers used against her.

But she'll still hit things. Hard.

In reply to Solitaire (msg #313):

All that sounds good to me.  Time hasn't really been touched upon yet.  If you are wanting to get time manip straight out of the gate you will need q5 though, which I will tentatively give permission on.

Q.Imprint doesn't seem to be in theme with the whole time thing though.

thanks for the offer, but I think I'm gonna have to hold off on the full-blown time manip, at least for the time being (excuse the pun, none intended) and reserve it for character development.

for now I'm going to start cheap and lite, sticking with perceptions of time since there's other ground I want to cover as well, like Gravitas. sorry, I mixed up Imp and Gravitas in my earlier reference to counter-balancing.

I take if from the write-ups, that Gravitas is the intellectual and Imp is the socialite, so gonna go with the "philosopher" aspect for my character. thanks again for being open to temporal abilities.

I'll try not to put too heavy of burden or demand on it for you. I know some STs avoid it like the plague since "forecasting" can be such a massive pain. still reading up on posts trying to get up to speed.

For a moment there, i was like "Imp=Magneto? Holy crap am I cooler than I thought.  Also darker."  I don't know if Gravitas can be said to be magento, unless you are talking powers rather than outlook.  If any of us can claim Mag's Nova First title I'm gonna say Zero.

Yeah, I'm not sure that I'm a great parallel with Magneto. I don't have anywhere near the zeal he does for his own kind. It is true that Quentin's got leanings towards the Terat philosophy, but he wouldn't be a Terat in the way things are portrayed by the storyline as of 2008 - they're too anti-baseline for him. I just don't really see the need to be any sort of Devil's Advocate type to set against Quentin, he's not really pushing an agenda on anyone at this point.

In general, I'd say not to be too concerned against balancing a character against the rest of the current party, and just make a character you're interested in playing. Trying to avoid overlap is a worthy goal, since it will ensure that everyone has their niche, but it doesn't really need to be pursued at the exclusion of all else.

Character development can take us in weird directions, anyway, so don't sweat it too much.  Besides, it looks like the whole team falls rather nicely into Raoul's "separate race" ideology more than the Shrapnel / Mal extremist terrorist mindset.  If anything, I would expect our characters to be opposed ... perhaps even violently ... to extremists on either side.

My thoughts exactly.

eh, not exactly what I had in mind, but true, I was referring at the time to all the teras discussion going on in the ooc thread and comparing the terats to magneto's brotherhood, not entirely dissimilar. they both had militant leanings, but the more I read, the more my concept is developing and evolving. got through the training base thread today and see the distinctions you mean now.

I don't see Imp getting militant about anything unless they make laws about baselines and novas breeding.  Then it's on.
This group though, we do seem to be falling into teh terragen mindset pretty early.  I see Imp being very much a Casablanca, social, popular, manipulator, and very much not like Nova Vigilence who is all about kicking ass.
That said, I can certainly see Imp fully supporting Geryon taking the Mayor of Tampa's head clean off.

Alright ... since it is 2001, how about the Eiffel Tower Restaurant (http://www.parislasvegas.com/c...staurant-detail.html)?  Great menu, superb view, etc. etc.  It's also open for lunch and secluded enough for a bit of privacy, and just across the street from the Bellagio.



It is worth noting that part of the ready exploration of Teragen thinking has to do with the lack of  notoriety around such ideas.  Talking about new social contracts and transhumanism is one thing when it is academic.  Lines in the sand haven't been drawn yet.  When clashes between novas become more common and government think tanks begin paranoid hypothesizing about "sphinxes" and "terrorist elements" it will be harder to say anything like "Nova's aren't human."

The words and thoughts don't have the political context that they will in 2008.  We're just supers right now.  N! probably isn't even the dominant network yet.

I try to avoid end-game decisions and stick with speculation.  Besides, Magneto's Brotherhood had an agenda of "nefarious scheming".  We've got higher standards than that.

This.  At least for me anyway.

And honestly, while I could perhaps see Phantasm taking a teras influenced worldview, I think she'd be more likely to rip Geryon apart with Q.Constructs than let him kill people.  Basically, there is only so far she will ever go down that road.

maybe not, in reference to this group so much, but the parallels between Magneto's Brotherhood and Mal's Teragen are very similar, especially in the "nefarious scheming" dept.

hopefully, not over-simplifying, but the parallels are there.

both consider mutants/novas to be the next logical step in the evolutionary chain and squarely level a certain disdain towards baselines, treating them more like a disease to be eradicated.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:23, Mon 27 Apr 2009.

I think it mostly depends on which version of the brotherhood, and which version of the teragen, you go with.  There could certainly be parallels drawn between the scheming of Cortez to take out Magneto, and the Apostle's quest to down the current leadership.  And the old version of the evil mutants as a bunch of infighting misanthropes also could be compared to the teras pantheon... depending on the view you take of it.

Ultimately there are so many versions of the brotherhood, and so many variant takes on the Teragen and Teras, that comparisons are both inevitable, and impossible to bring into full synchrony.

You know, I just noticed we have nearly 800 posts, and we've been going just over a month. Keep it up people, good work.

[EDIT] Post 100! Yey.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:20, Tue 28 Apr 2009.

I may be delayed a little in posting over the course of this week, but I will get stuff up when I can.  I have a couple more papers, and then study for next week's finals.  I hate end of semester.

Anyway, as stated above, good job everybody!

Thank you. This has been the best online game I've been on yet.

Rydi, personally, I feel if you need some time to really focus on your studies, please do. Finals are a bear. If you have to vanish for a few days, I'll have 0 complaints. You've already given us a heads up, so please do what you have to do.

woot! go us! like Z said, do what you got to.  If David keeps up this waivering in faith...i'm thinking intangiblity might be a way to go....depends on how quick we go to thinking we are above the norms...

I have no complaints about time off for finals.  Have my own studying to do.  I just use this for sanity maintenance.  I'll 2nd the notion that this is the best online game I have played yet.  That includes some that I have run.  Participation rates are high all around.  Good job people.

As another timeline note on religion, the Pope issues Ad Dei Lucem, a bull that declares that novas have immortal souls and are tainted with original sin, etc, etc on June 15, 2005. Of course, if you push to meet him, you may change that.

not going to lie, I just wanted to be post 800

Fiend!

Well, we've dropped Crimson Dawn's name in front of Impetus.  Maybe that will cue explanation for the rest of us and set up one humorous situation or another.  And Prodigal is moving quickly into the domain of religion and spirituality.

Dr. Zero ... should we get the boy some John Locke and make him obsess about natural rights?  With some work, Prodigal becomes our Divis Mal.  At least in the context of 'greatest potential to lead a cult of devoted worshippers.'

*smiles innocently* I'm just waiting for the other line in my bio...LOL...really depends on how things go a bit...a three way toss up with intangible, immolation, or forcefield.

This game is indeed rockin.  Lots of participation, interesting characters, massive potential.  Take as much time as you need bossman, we all understand how the end of semester crunch feels.

This is actually a true story.




I don’t have Phase II on me. Was that the new, fictional Pope, or Pope John Paul II? John is still alive as on the time we are in, correct?



With his thoughtfulness toward others and the way he pushes his understanding, I could actually see Comstock puling that off quite well.



Intangible sounds like a lot of fun. I didn’t think of using it to avoid Baselines. What about Plant/Animal Control, though? It’s sort of a restoring Eden type of idea. Or bring plagues & famine. I’d love to see a nature themed character in the team.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:31, Wed 29 Apr 2009.

The book says Benedict, its in the timeline of the corebook. This was, of course, printed in the late 90s before they could have known that the next Pope would name himself Benedict :P

That said, Pope John Paul II died on April 2, 2005 and Benedict was apointed on April 19. Real history and fiction history actually kinda mesh on this one.

maybe a nova with recog wrote it...

BoooWEEEEEOoooooo!  *hand gestures*

Intangible would also be useful with the whole flying thing.  Not hitting buildings is good.  And before Comstock can start sharing ideas about natural law he has to learn about it himself (C'mere Academics score ... Dr. Bharati says I can have you now!).  I am going to keep his Intelligence low for now, though.  I am enjoying "gullible but occasionally talkative."  It also helps the smart characters by giving them a chance at exposition.

Looks like our new guy has a bio up.  Somehow I am getting a "young Nick Fury" vibe.

That or Wolverine.

yep, PC is finished, and have to say, hope he isn't too much trouble. he's a much darker, grittier PC than this group has among it's current membership. has a very "polished" feel and he's pretty rough around the edges, but just waiting for feedback from the ST. tried very much *NOT* to do a "wolverine" clone, but hey, every group has one, right? have to admit, that was one among a variety of characters that provided inspiration. just wondering what can or worms about to open on the unsuspecting world?
This message was last edited by the player at 23:57, Wed 29 Apr 2009.

In reply to Harley Logan (msg #341):

Ok.  got a chance to read.  I like the character, and think it can work.  I will try and work you in when training resumes.  You will be damaged goods that Utopia wants to see if they can salvage.  If you can stay stable at training camp, and keep it together, you might have a place in Utopia.  If not... they're planning a nice resort out in the desert for people like you...

They may also start looking into "Eruption Amnesia" if they start finding more mysterious people that don't have pasts.

heh...sweet...could use a vacation...lol...

but seriously, feel free to exploit any of the info provided in Harley's background/history at any point for "teambuilding". if you wanna have the team respond to the fight at the apartment complex, by all means, be my guest. I just provided some "lag" time in the story after the fight to account for timeline. according to those press releases, that "incident" went down around January 2001 if I read it right, but feel free to adjust as you see fit for plot development, storyline, etc.

while I'm thinking of it, wanted to post some additional material, but can't create new threads (unless I missed it?). can we have a "miscellaneous" thread just for posting relevant tidbits if anyone's interested in checking out, so main threads don't get junked up?

thanks again
This message was last edited by the player at 10:22, Thu 30 Apr 2009.

In reply to Harley Logan (msg #343):

Sure, though I am trying to limit somewhat the watering down of threads.  I have found that there is a happy medium between one huge thread, and a whole bunch of well organized small threads, as in the case of the former people get confused and stuff gets lost, while in the later case the same thing happens, and people stop keeping track of it all.

But a miscellaneous character thread wouldn't be bad.

))))))))))

In other news, I am currently scraping together the last few pages on my last paper (pharmacotherapies for the treatment of a case study of an individual with panic disorder and a nicotine addiction) and will then only have studying for next week's finals left to do.  Yay!
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:30, Thu 30 Apr 2009.

cool, thanks. just figured it would give us a spot to dump miscellaneous semi-relevant info to the game, characters or ooc threads without junking up the same. much appreciated...*reads last lines a few times, blinking*...no fair...you cheat...reading my crib notes on Harley again...lol...wow, no, but seriously...that's kinda scary how close my PC fits that description...I see a lot of "therapy" in my character's immediate future...lol...

Is anybody else unable to see any of the male character's faces?  Have we broken the maximum machismo limit of rpol.net and now must hide behind blank white faces on a white background?  I vote yes.

nah, must be a server issue 'cause I'm getting the same thing

Nope, it's the man sexy.  I have spoken, thus it is so.  On that note, I'm gonna listen to my giddyness and go to sleep.  G'night all.

I'm having the same problem today.