Standard OOC chat. Come in here, hang up your cape and talk shop.

We back online?

We're heading there, that's for sure.

Woohoo!

The Bunker is back and better than before.

So I'm still working on putting together a story/timeline/overall goal but keep in mind character creation rules are out. I'm fine if people want to keep their existing characters but also we can discuss new custom characters as well.

In reply to OblivAeon (msg # 5):

As much as I like AZ, I would like to make my own PC.

Yeah, new PC does sound like fun.

I'm fine with that. I'll be looking to open 'er up to new players as well soon and they will likely be custom PCs as well. That tends to be the most common response in the IC thread I opened up awhile ago.

Quick interest check: How would you feel about going through the same campaign again but with new custom characters?

I really like the storyline that it tells but I understand if you're more interested in other things. At this time I would like to re-run the intro with Akash'Flora and the robots but I can also skip ahead to focus on the Visionary/Dreamer aspect as well so we don't retread old ground.

I think the updated rules of making minions not auto-die at d4 is going to change things up dramatically in terms of difficulty but I think heroes are also a little beefier now as well.

In reply to OblivAeon (msg # 9):

Ether way is fine.

Hey everyone, I'll be playing a light manipulator superhero. He recently manifested his powers during the OblivAeon disaster.

Glad to be here. ^_^

One thing I forgot to ask in RTJ is how familiar are you, the players, with Sentinels Lore.

On a scale of 1 - 10 (1 being Sentinels of the what? and a 10 being 'I basically wrote the wiki') where do you fall on things.

Pre-Oblivaeon I was a 9. I had listened to every podcast, seen every tweet etc. however I stopped listening to the podcast for awhile. I'm picking it up again but I would say I've easily fallen to a '7'. I still know a lot of the lore but as the wiki isn't 100% updated with the RPG timeline there are definitely gaps. I remember hearing about stuff in the podcasts that don't always make it to the wiki even months later.

In reply to OblivAeon (msg # 12):

I would say I was a 4 on that scale.

Probably a 1 or 2. I read what you had in the setting threads and just tried to make a PC as new to superheroes as I am to the setting.

Hello.

I am in the process of trying to fit my concept into the rules for a character.

I'm a 1 for knowledge of the rules or backstop, having only read the notes in this site and a little of the rulebook.

Don't worry about the rules, focus on the character. You can always do Guided Creation and we can work on making the mechanics fit.

Apologies if this sounds ranty but I am just trying to clarify things. This is not a game about min/maxing. It is impossible to build an ineffectual hero and focusing on specific powers is the exact opposite of the spirit of the game. In this game you get the exact same XP from winning as losing. The game is hard and the challenge isnt from  character building like in GURPS or M&M or Champions. It is far closer to a freeform game then super crunch like M&M.

With the right explanation anything can be used for anything as long as it fits the story. The story and characters trump the rules/crunch and from running this game before the challenge is working effectively as a team and making the correct tactical choices and not developing a one trick pony game breaking power. In fact getting zeroed in on just attacking is a quick way to lose.

So build a character with a focus on how you will write for them,  not on the game mechanics. That is why I love guided because you can igore the mechanics and just focus on fleshing out the character concept (plus it is much easier to check your work afterwards :D) but I am fine with constructed so long as the character shines through in every choice.

Hello.  I'll probably be playing Freya, but I'm not 100% sure yet.  I apparently have too many quality concepts I want to play. #First_World_Problems, eh? ;)



Here are the 3 concepts I offered up for the game.  I thought I'd see what looks cool to the rest of you, as well as figure out what, if any, kind of gaps the current team has.  That, and I'm a bit indecisive.  My analogy is being in an ice cream shop and only being able to choose one flavor.  I'll be satisfied with whatever I get, but there will be some lingering regret that I didn't get the other flavors. ;)

Hello! I am the portal making genius currently stuck in this alien dimension due to the events of OblivAeon.

I'll rate myself as a 3? on Sentinels Lore.  I've played the card game and skimmed the rulebook, but hadn't realized that there would be a test at any point. ;)

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re: msg # 17

While I understand where you are coming from, and agree that there isn't much room for powergaming, there is still some room for optimization (Do I need more than one recovery maneuver?).  There is also an issue of personal expression, and building/playing the character you have in mind.  Especially for a long-term game, I'm not a fan of random characters.  Even if the Guided system is far more balanced than the old Marvel FASERIP random tables.

That and some of the origins and archetypes overlap.  Is my brick a Powerhouse or an Armored hero?  Was the radiation accident more Accident or Radiation?  There are decisions to be made, even if there are no real traps or wrong choices.

Agreed. I don't want to force anyone into a single path but I like the overlap because it does let you think about your character from different perspectives and with the same powerset you can look at it through a different lens.

I just want to apologize if I came off too strong or offensive earlier. I did not mean to imply in anything in anyway. I get these ideas and worries in my head that kind of fester until I address them and unfortunately online you cannot set the tone and I don't want to come off as angry or ranty.

I just had this idea in my head that many people's exposure with superhero games are games like Mutants & Masterminds or Champions or GURPS (because those were my introduction to superhero games) and in those games 50% of the game is in the character build. The rules are so dense and complex you absolutely have to min/max your character or else your first encounter is going to be miserable because you're just missing all the time or you realize that you forgot to put points into accuracy so you can't hit anything. Basically the idea in your mind does not translate to the game because of how obtuse the creation systems are. On top of that you have players for a variety of measures, decide the best course is to break the game. Later editions actually had to put hard limits on what you can put points into because you would have the person who dumps all their points into regeneration and toughness and is basically invincible to the system. Almost nothing can hurt them and the few crits that get through are instantly healed. I ran a game with a player like that and I could throw anything at them and it did not matter and it broke the game and especially my motivation for playing the game. Either I had to do ridiculous things to deny that ability set OR I had to just cheat and say damage was dealt even though there was no reasonable way it would happen and neither of those were why I wanted to run a superhero game.

Anyway the point of all of this is that if you have experience in those types of games where the game is won or lost in character creation, this is not that game. Between the "min/mid/max" system of the dice pool trending towards averages instead of extremes, because abilities are crafted by the designers with balance in mind and because the game isn't about winning or losing any specific fight but instead is about the comic book feel of heroes getting beaten down and then rising back up in a climatic final turn the rules and dice are secondary.

I've run it before, I played it before, the challenge is NOT the system. The challenge is the choices AFTER creation. Do you save the civilians from the falling rubble or try to take down the main villain? Do you sacrifice your personal goals to help the team? Is it better to let the villain get away or violate your code of ethics as a hero and shoot them in back?

THESE are the challenges that drive this game, not "do I get a +4 to hit and +3 damage or +3 to hit and +4 to damage"

On brighter news, I believe we have sufficient players to get started. The timeline goal is to get character creation finished in this upcoming week so we can start 5/31 or there abouts.

Hello all. I'm your tanky front liner/ magic expert.

I'm a Knight-turned-alchemist who gained immortality by locking himself in his armor. Only recently released from my cell beneath the Vatican after 500 years or so.

This message was deleted by the player at 16:41, Sun 23 May 2021.

Okay, now that we have a quorum, we can start to figure out how the team fits together.

Sounds like we have enough ranged/mobility options that Impulse would be redundant.

Is anyone else angling for a face-type character?

And is anyone else thinking about any detective type abilities?

I just expect that part of the reason for a team is so that we have diverse abilities and cover each other's weakpoints.

In reply to Freya (msg # 26):

Warp is a scientist and inventor, has some detective skills, but mostly uses gadgets and warp portals of various sizes.

Rune Knight fills neither of those niches right now.

Also @GM I'm listening thru the Letters Page podcast. I mentioned the Philosophers Stone in my RTJ not realizing that the Scholar actually had it. I might still be a Philosopher's Stone denier and just assume my rune magic is so different from traditional alchemy that my expertise on the subject doesn't really apply.

Dead Eye was a businessman and is a detectve with an investigation skill set.
He also has basic basic close combat skill.

Either way, I planned on having some Banter/Imposing, but rather than go with my initial concept of what the games consider a Physical Powerhouse with some minor water control/theming (fomori are often associated with raiders coming from the sea in the same sort of archetype as ASOIAF's Ironmen or WoW's Kvaldir), I might lean into the water stuff (or punching) more if we already have someone who sounds Armored.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:01, Mon 24 May 2021.

I'm a Cyborg. I have the damage reduction trait that is the same as Armored and Powerhouse. But I don't have a way to do a Defend Another like Armored Might.

I'm more like a medieval Terminator. I'll be rolling around with my -3DR and my HP regeneration long after the fight is lost to circumstance. Still not sure if I would want to take Indestructible along with my Immortal Principal. I have it as Mastery now which might come up less but is more interesting.

I'm still trying to figure things out, but I'm planning on being a ranged blaster who can both toss out boosts (radiant-enhanced attacks, etc.) and hinders (blinding?) to targets from afar.

I wasn't thinking about playing a face or detective, but I have the Precognition and Awareness powers Alertness (forgot that it was a quality). That might help provide the group something like danger sense and "What if?" clues for the future.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:07, Mon 24 May 2021.

Sorry I’ve been AWOL, but I had a brief vacation that coincided with our reboot.

While I haven’t done a lot of work on character creation at this point, I’m thinking I’ll concentrate on buffs and debuffs to help the effectiveness of the rest of the team. That said, I’m not in love with any concept at current and am happy to adjust anything to fill needs.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:13, Mon 24 May 2021.

I envision Dead Eye as Medium between the dead and the living.
He summons those who have an interest in the problem at hand as Minions, negotiating for their help.  He currently has Telepathy and Postcognition to communicate with the spirit/soul and to identify motivations.

Neat. Seems like you would end up being social as a side thing if you are really negotiating with them or have a Principal that would encourage you to be social, like Compassion?

Does he also use guns? Dead Eye seems too intentional to not cover both those fields.

Not sure that it's really the kind of a game where you need a Face but even with if you just supported it in your retcon phase you could pull Status + d6 + Telepathy in a social scene which is pretty OK. Beats my intentionally bad Status + d4 + d4 unless I'm talking to a wizard or a history buff.

I went with Indestructible/Levity. My sheet's up as my description, I think I'm different enough from what you're describing with Rune Knight that I don't need to make any sweeping changes from my original plan.

Face stuff is covered, unless Banter is much more limited than I think it is. Not that others can't get in on it, but don't feel pressured.

My stats are under my description as well.

I posted up my full sheet as well if anyone cares to look. Things might wiggle around a bit. I suppose we are all necessarily new to the system. So if anyone sees anything wonky with it let me know.

While Undertow and Rune Knight will no doubt be fighting side by side and a fight between them would go one for days. I don't think they will really step on each other's toes (and if they do neither will notice).

No doubt. I can't even leave you to sink to the bottom of the ocean, what with that pesky Flight power.

Thankfully, we have a teleporter, I was actually worried when conceptualizing how she'd get anywhere with no Leaping, Flight, or super-Speed.

I'm sure he would be able to figure a way out of it if you did. That's sort of the nature of the genre, I suppose. Transmutation is a really versatile power on its own.


I'm sure you could catch a cab or something, lol.

For the Freedom Five that never really comes up. Legacy can fly, Tachyon has super speed but that is it. I think Bunker has a rocket pack he can use for movement and IIRC he is supported by a satellite that drops equipment into place (think Iron Man from Avengers II).

However Absolute Zero? Wraith? Unity? Never really mentioned. I think it is implied they have a jet as Freedom Tower has a landing pad but the environment deck also implies that it is specifically for Legacy to land at, not necessarily a superjet.

I can assure you that it won't actually matter in the game. The system talks about cutting out "boring stuff" as happening between the panels. Remember, the spirit of the game is NOT a superhero game but a game about a comic book about super heroes and it definitely leans into a lot of those tropes. Editor's Notes, "between the panels" etc.

How is everyone doing? Anyone have any questions or anything they would like to discuss?

One question is going to be "how did you all meet?" and I think the obvious answer is they were kind of sort of "assembled" by the Sentinels of Freedom as a new super hero team.

So that becomes the question of "how did you become part of the Sentinels" and that is a more personal question.

Doing great, thanks!

Once you approve of my background and draft powers I’ll publish to the group and see if we need any tweaks.

I wouldn’t mind establishing a few connections outside of ‘we met at Freedom Tower’, so if anyone is interested, please let me know. Particularly if your name rhymes with Red Guy.

Where are we in the timeline?  My RTJ I said I was pulled out of a cell in the Vatican by the Fanatic to fight OblivAeon? Is this actually post-OblivAeon? If not I can work out some other conceit. But I sort of included a connection to a canon character just incase we needed something like this.

@Undertow, do you want to say we actually did have that day long fight in a backstory event? Like Rune Knight is like a thousand years old, so it coming to blows over a poorly placed joke isn't out of the question.

@Obliv, My sheet should be done. The one in my description. I think we are in agreement on how my powers will generally work.

Eh, got a bit sidetracked the last couple days, as well as taking some time to consider some character builds.  And trying and failing to come up with a custom quality.  Part of it is I'm trying too hard, and pressuring myself to come up with something awesome.  Nor am I spotting an obvious angle.  Help?

---

Lauren Lager moved to Megalopolis with her friends a few years ago.  They had plans for being in the big city near their desired careers; Lauren mostly made the rent numbers work out.  Not that it was without benefit, but a sci fi & fantasy artist can do most of their networking online these days.  Being an artist didn't quite pay the bills, so she was a waitress as well.

She was badly injured during the OblivAeon chaos; exposed to various radiation and caught in a collapsing building.  It wasn't quite miraculous that there were able to dig out her still alive body, but the survival rates for that rubble pile weren't great.  The miracle was more in how fast she recovered, and the extent - most people don't grow 6 inches and put on a bunch of lean muscle in 2 weeks.  Or develop super-strength in the process.

Being the victim of a super fight meant that she was already on the radar of the Sentinels, or at least their bureaucratic staff.  Then developing superpowers while in the hospital meant that received an invitation to come down for some power testing once she was released from the hospital.

---

A small part of Lauren is thinking about illustrating a comic of her own adventures some day.  A bigger part is responsibility; she was always the reliable friend, the one there to clean up after the wacky hijinks her friends got up to.  Besides, what is she going to do, not be a superhero after she gets superstrength and flight?  Doesn't every little girl want to grow up and be [Wonder Woman analogue] at some point?

---

Speaking of questions, one just popped out as I was typing here.  Is there a Wonder Woman analogue?  Not in a Paradise island Amazon way, but more in the sense of the most famous female superhero, the icon and legend in her own time?

---

One more question.  Freya is a character concept I've been sitting on for a while, and has always had a bit of a Power Girl homage in the mix.  But a tall, blonde flying brick in a white leotard already exists in the form of Legacy.  Is that too close, and I should switch it up?  Or is it okay, and perhaps even a source of comedy for mistaken identity?  I'd be mixing things up with blue, below the knee boots and a red bolero jacket (aka, black canary style).

Batman is a woman in Sentinels and she and Tachyon are the women on the Freedom Five, Wraith.

Young Legacy/Beacon is more Wonder Woman-ish. But there is no specific true expy for her.


'Obvious' angle on custom quality seems to be look for what you don't have covered otherwise. No need to be a "Retired Street Fighter" if you already have "Close Combat". You can always pivot to get something that includes the other benefits without that overlap, picking up some other coverage inn the process.

@Freya: Yeah, the custom quality is there to basically catch what might otherwise be a huge layout of points spent covering background/lifestyle-type qualities that would be pretty narrow on their own.

For example, I wanted Undertow to be able to proficiently canvas local working class folks without needing to be broadly proficient at Investigation or Criminal Underworld Info, so that was a consideration when I picked Blue Collar Bruiser.

Given what I can see about the character, both mechanically and thematically, maybe something like "Hero of my Own Comic Book"? You could maybe swap out Creativity since you might only need to be good at Drawing and this covers that, and could also be used for leadership, conviction, inspiring folks, etc.

@Rune Knight:
Sure, though might I suggest something more specific for the reason for their conflict? Undertow's powers are an expression of Fomorian ancestry, and since you're a thousand years out of date, maybe seeing a drowned-looking indestructible water controller led you to the reasonable conclusion that she's one of those demons the blue-painted savages were always going on about? This also has the interesting side effect of you having more of an inkling about where her powers come from than she does.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:32, Thu 27 May 2021.

Legacy is more a Superman expy. Has a laundry list of super powers. Being "just" a flying brick is perfectly fine.

The game takes place Post-OblivAeon. Given how deadly it is most people would not have fought it but if you want to consider being in the Obliv fight that can be discussed. As part of character sheet reviews I might help with backgrounds a bit. Help flesh 'em out and fit them into the setting.

Those are all of Legacy's powers Paul VIII is the modern one and Pauline is Beacon. The laundry list is basically just becoming more of a flying brick.


My point was there is a fair amount of female representation in the core team. But none of them are Wonder Woman.

Ok, I like the idea of being brought out of storage to fight the cosmic entity. If we need to work out the details then we can discuss in the PM thread I suppose. Rune Knight is exceptionally durable, but less durable heroes than him survived the event.

@Undertow, ya that works. Like he sees her surfing around on a wave or whatever and he flies down assuming she is up to no good because she is basically a demon by an 11th century Englishman's definition. She assumed he's a bad guy because he is a scary suite of armor who just dropped by to kick her out of town. Fight ensues until like the F5 get sick of seeing this news story about two supes slugging it out across town for like the second day straight and break it up.

My character draft is up in my description.  The work is still done by the spirits he negotiated with but his power set is not using the minions archetype because they  are invisible and intangible most of the time.

@Nephthys:  Oh, right.  My character's name rhymes with Red Guy.  It'z a play of  'Private Eye.'  What connection do you propose and do you want to discuss it here or in PM?

Warp is not from this dimension, and now can never get back to his own due to OblivAeon. He most likely arrived shortly after those events had played out. There is no record of his existence in this dimension other than that. Warp would have tried to find the best source of tech in this dimension, attempting to discover if his home still exists or he is just cut off. As a result, he is one of the leading experts of dimensional geography, as he remembers the dimensional science before it was rendered useless.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:39, Sun 30 May 2021.

Sorry for being quiet. I'm just waiting on a minor clarification from the GM before finishing up my character, and the end of the schoolyear is occupying a lot of my time as a teacher (gotta convince my kiddos that maybe summer school isn't as fun as it's cracked up to be).

Starblaze is kind of complicated. He's a human hero with light-based powers who showed up toward the end of the OblivAeon event/crisis/saga. He's a blank slate/principle of amnesia hero, and I'm happy to leave his origins up to the GM's creativity. As a light-based hero, he blasts light rays and throws up light shields, and believes that his use of light makes time kind of weird for him. He has no memory of his past, but he gets glimpses of potential futures. He's had no luck finding any clues about his origins, so he's content to focus on the present and possible future.

"Gotta keep moving forward as there's no use in looking back..."
This message was last edited by the player at 08:52, Sun 30 May 2021.

I am here. I forgot about the holidays completely which is why I was gone all weekend. I'm back and have a large chunk of time set aside to go through everyone's sheets today.

I've updated my description with the character sheet but I haven't used my retcon yet. I just wanted to know if I should add the Speed mobility power.

Alright so I'm a half week behind schedule but things are moving along. I've reached out to most of you, many of you are just waiting for final approval and some of you are already approved! Hopefully I can get through the rest of you tomorrow but now it is time for me to sleep :)

What is the context for this question? Do you run fast or not?

No, but I want to fly fast.

You will 100% never need Speed if you have a bigger die in Flight. It would pay off to have a Quality that you can easily apply to Flight, like Acrobatics maybe. But if you were a psychic flyer something like Self Discipline might work.

Ah, OK. Thanks for the advice! ^_^

Ya, you roll Power/Quality/Status so if you have Strength d12 but only Close Combat d6 (and nothing more applicable) it would be harder to actually use your Strength to hit someone without an Ability, typically.

re: Star Blaze

I hear you on flying fast, but that just not how this system works.  It's a very narrative system.  As near as I can tell, everyone moves at the speed of plot.  I mean, I'm not even spotting rules for a chase scene, which seems like an odd oversight, but it does mesh with the typical style of comic book storytelling, as opposed to movie storytelling.

re: a Wonder Woman analogue

So, sounds like the answer to my question is technically no, because comic book time is weird, and only the current generation of heroes are important.  So  my character has been looking up to Beacon for over a decade, despite her only being a hero since her teens. ;)

re: a custom quality

As much I liked "Hero of my own Comic Book", the GM thought something like "Superhero Lore" would be a better choice.

I'm just wondering if I can play a superhero fan without having to play her as an obsessive fangirl.  Well, I can picture it.  I guess it's more a question of how subtle we can play things.  How much we're supposed to play up part of our characters and how much we need to be blatant about things.

For instance, I'm going to guess most of us have watched Into the Spiderverse.  While some parts of Miles's story are blatant, other parts are subtle and told with background visuals.  Whereas Spiderman-Noir chews all the scenery and smacks us over the head with his characterization.

I guess I'm looking to get a sense of what kind of game and characters the GM is expecting, as well as what kind of game other people are expecting to find themselves in.

There are no rules for chasing someone because that would be either an overcome or an attack and would use same system.

Think about how often you have seen a "chase" in a comic book last more than a couple of panels. Sure the bad guy starts running but next panel or two hero either gets them somehow or bad guy does something and escapes.

Remember this is NOT a super hero rpg like Champions or Mutants & Masterminds etc. This is a super hero comic book RPG and that frames the entire system.

Ya, being in a chase would be a clock for them to get away and an overcome track to catch them. They didn't need explicit rules for it, the rules are pretty versatile for that type of thing.

I understand the "superhero comic book" conceit of the game system, I just wanted clarification of what the power encompassed. I like having a solid grasp on what my character is capable of doing so that I can roleplay accordingly. That's the main reason I was asking.

I understand, we're just trying to help get you thinking about things in the right way because honestly we can't answer that, not really. It's up to you and the dice how fast you are.

Why is Starblaze's Flight an on going conversation? I thought we had it hashed out already in our brief back and forth.

If you want to fly you take Flight

If you want to fly better you take Flight with a high die.

Even better take a supporting Quality to roll with Flight.

Want to decisively take out problems quickly with Flight take a Personality with a high Green die.
or
Want to dramatically win races at the last second take a high Red die
or
Want to be equal fast all the time take a d8/d8/d8 Personality.

Want to be the fastest take Principal of Speed so you are always where you want to be anyway when you do an Overcome. Ironically Principal of the Indestructible would also work for a speedster who keeps charging ahead heedlessly.

Sub Flight and fly for Speed/Leaping and run/jump if it fits better.

I've added some visual details and numerical build information for Nephthys into my character description if anyone would like to take a look.

Of note she has an alter-ego that she keeps separate from her crime-fighting persona. At least she tries to do so. I'm not yet certain who would know that Catalina the up-and-coming actress and Nephthys the up-and-coming heroine are one and the same.

<snark>Because the rest of us are allowed an opinion, too?  And because not everything you think is obvious makes sense to the rest of us?</snark>

And I kinda agree with Starblaze on needing a better metric of how fast he can fly outside of dice rolls.  Can he fly faster than a car?  A plane?  Can he reach orbital speeds and fly to the space station?  Can he turn into energy and move at the speed of light?  It matters to him in how he pictures his character.  Also, it could come up in game - a fanboy villain is terrorizing the mall because he can't get that one specific Amiibo.  Do we have to beat him up, or could Starblaze quickly fly over to Japan, beg one from Nintendo, and be back in minutes?

Speaking of guidelines, would it be possible to get a rough guide for how strong we are?  I know comics are inconsistent; sometimes Superman has issues with a tank, other days he's lifting supertankers or pushing celestial objects into new orbits.  Should I be expecting such a widely varying scope, or will there be some more consistency in the challenges we face?  I'm not expecting an exact number of kilograms I can lift in various ways; but it would be nice to have an idea how much those of us with Strength can pick up before they need to think about rolling to Overcome gravity. ;)

Like OblivAeon said, it's kind of up to you. Even in a more systematic game it would hardly matter, like a couple points to be able to be able to fly to the moon in a round, because it really doesn't matter. If his conceit is that he fly lightspeed then he does and he should probably have the Principal of Speed so he can be anywhere since that's what that speed would imply. But because comics+dice he might still not be able to meaningfully catch a speeding car, they would make an unexpected turn or he would overshoot or something.

As for strength it really seems like for most of those things if they are presented as a defeatable challenge then we are strong enough. Like a meteor would be a track that we would have to Overcome. The track wouldn't exist if we weren't strong/clever enough to address it with our powers.

In terms of lifting cars and things it's really what fits the narrative. But your dice only go so high so your Hinder for lifting the back tires off the ground will only work so well. Your more likely to get a twist with lower dice. So you might hurt yourself lifting something out of your league. It seems like if we are at least vaguely internally consistent it should be fine. Just figure Superman has a d12 in everything superman does I guess. It's a 5 point scale going from Unpowered to Superman so there is a lot of wiggle in each zone.

Deepest apologies for the delays. Last week was...hellish. Every time I would sit down something would occupy my time and I would think "Oh I can put in some time tonight" and the night would come and I would be too exhausted to think and I would say "I will get to it first thing tomorrow."

Rinse and repeat.

This week is looking much better, however. Despite appearances I am really excited to get this started so this game is now my highest priority. I am going to try and get everything audited and wrapped up ASAP. In the meantime I will open up an IC thread so you guys can introduce yourselves to one another and get comfortable with these new characters.

Whether you are approved or not you are welcome to post, just everyone understand there needs to be a bit of flexibility. I don't think there are any major concept changes for anyone but there might be slight adjustments in specific powers or backgrounds.

Correct.

d4 = "Normal" human. Minions, cops etc.
d6 = Above average. On par with olympic athletes, the best in the world!
d8 = Borderline supernatural. The best human ever. Captain America would be like d8s
d10s = Definitely supernatural. This is the highlight for "weaker" heroes/villains or a powerful secondary ability. Batman's close combat skills or The Thing's strength.
d12 = Character defining. Hulk's strength, Thor's lightning, Flash's speed. Batman's planning. Superman's....everything.

Don't try to compare across heroes. Superman and Hulk might both have d12s in strength but so might Colossus or Thor or Drax. It's not about who wins in an arm wrestling but more "what is this hero best at? What do they fall back on to solve 90% of their problems?"

Freya was right---I want to know because it helps me write HOW my character will solve things, and that is the breakdown I was looking for. Thank you.

I will read and reond tomorrow.  Dialysis has been brutal this week and I've been sleeping alot this week.

Trust me I know all about not getting to stuff you wanted to get to :)

@Warp: Rune Knight would be the only one that has a true dimensional doppleganger because he existed before the timelines split. Anything that existed before about 1960s is pretty much a duplicate unless Warp came from a "theme" timeline like the Animalverse or the Telemundo dimension (that one is a fun one, everything is a spanish soap opera!).

Nephtys exists but in Warp's reality was a villain and had somewhat different physical characteristics. His scans would show a lot of oddities because even though the person acting as Nephtys is obviously a different person there are a lot of subtle perfect matches between the two so although on visible appearance they are different a scan by Emily would show a nearly 85% match to the villainess from Warp's reality. It's kind of like how humans share 90% of their DNA with worms but that last 10% is really really important.

Everyone else has no real match. There might be another Freya or Deadeye, or maybe they're going by a different name but match rates would be <35% similarity due to the timeline fracture.

In reply to OblivAeon (msg # 75):

Got it. Edited my post accordingly. Warp has been to many dimensions before the OblivAeon events trapped him here.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:08, Wed 09 June 2021.

Technically OblivAeon allowed interdimensional travel. His destruction is what cut it off. Well that and Warlord Voss activating a device powered by OblivAeon's corpse to isolate this timeline from all the others so he could rule it like a god but was then triple crossed by Baron Blade/Luminary resulting in Voss being expelled from time & space and Baron Blade dying.

I love comic books :D

@Warp

Oh, your actions are going to end up a bit ironic.  Freya was going to think about it and consider a more academic path in life.  But then you had to imply that she's not making enough of herself.  That gets you lumped in with all the people who told her to stop wasting her time on art, and do something in STEM or business.  Now she's going to avoid the science path out of spite.

That butterfly effect, man. ;)

In reply to Freya (msg # 78):

How many times has that freaking butterfly caused cosmic calamity? At this point I am about ready to stomp them all, regardless of the consequences!

So...if you were a super team what would you call yourselves?

Salvation Syndicate?

Sanguine Seven?

Conservation Crew?

Wolfpack of Wonder?

Back when I played DCUO, I was part of a guild called "Rescue Party." I always loved that name. If we're more proactive or lending help to other superheroes, that might be fitting.

Rune Knight and the Chump Patrol.

LOL. Perfect!

Blanket general statement. My real life has gotten very busy these past two weeks. Work stuff, some people were let go and I'm picking up their slack. I think it is dying down as this week looks pretty calm and in general until mid-July things should drop back to normal.

I am still here. I am still dedicated to play. My free time ebbs and flows and this is an ebb time. I will update when I can but try to have some patience with me this month.

No worries, I get it. My work was killing me until the school year ended a few days ago. Good luck, and I hope work gets less stressful soon. ^_^

Alright coming up with a super hero name would be great. Thoughts?

I personally like Rescue Party (but that's because I suggested it).

Also, I'm pretty sure my character sheet is done and error-free. Let me know if you're having trouble auditing it.

In reply to OblivAeon (msg # 87):

Champions of Megalopolis?

Megalopolis Guardians?

Megalopolis Patrol?

Rescue Party sounds pretty decent.

So it's tied 2 v 2 between "Rescue Party" and "Rune Knight and the Chump Patrol"?

I suppose we could overstate your importance and go with "Rune Knight and his Amazing Friends" like the spider man cartoon.

The fact that we will mostly have Warp bringing us in and out makes me think of Star Trek and the name "Away Team" comes to mind.

How about Mega Patrol? The ‘-lopolis’ makes for quite a mouthful. Mega can have multiple meanings, but is an obvious nod to our home city.

In reply to Nephthys (msg # 92):

I can get behind that!

:)

Compromise Mega Rescue? Otherwise it seems to be either Mega Patrol or Rescue Party.

I'm happy with that compromise, although I'd still put Rescue Party as my first choice. :-p

I'm fine with mega rescue or the rescue patrol.

Not a fan of anything with Patrol in it because we aren't a patrol, right? We should be training and getting missions not wandering around looking for trouble.

So Rescue Party would have my vote.

In reply to Rune Knight (msg # 97):

That's 3 vs 2 right?

I'm fine with being outvoted, as Rescue Party has multiple meanings.

FYI I have announced the closure of three of my games here. My hope is that by drawing down the number of games I run I will once again have the energy to get this game moving again.

I deeply apologize for stalling these past few weeeks. My work schedule is crazy and more importantly I sit down with what little spare time I have and I just do not have the energy of mental capacity to post. Things are getting a little better as I get used to this new workload and I hope that by cutting my active games in half I will be able to get back into the grove of things. Thank you for standing by and I hope to get some real good and regular updates going starting tomorrow.

To make clear, this game is not shutting down. I am hoping to get it going again.

In reply to OblivAeon (msg # 99):

Sounds good!

As for me, I've been out of sorts the last... 3 weeks?  That was my last post?  How?

Anyway, yeah, depression and procrastination.  So I'm not about to make any comments about the GM's ability to post in this game. ;)  I've taken care of a couple things, so hopefully I'll be back to regular posting.

I'm going to assume that it's way too late to suggest the "Freedom Sentries"?

I'm not especially fond of "Rescue Party", as that's something that comes up as a generic noun too often.

Summer. Summer always takes all my time for things that aren't RPOL. So I'm fine waiting for you to get things under control, GM.

As for the name - I also prefer 'Freedom Sentries'.

I'm not a fan of Freedom Sentinels. It just sounds derivative of all the other superhero groups in the game rather than giving us our own identity. I'd prefer something unique.

"Sentinels" is also the generic term for Hero in the universe right? I seem to remember that coming up. It's why there is no group called "The Sentinels of the Multiverse" we are all Sentinels and the story of the multiverse is the meta of the card game.

Would it be faster of we rolled the robots defense against our attacks?

Ya, probably should.

Yeah. It would also help with your writing to know if you smash them or just brushed them away.

Okay, will do from now on.

Apologies for the delay in posting - I left for vacation just as the first action post came out. I'm back now!

GM - I've posted my first action. Let me know if I can then take her second or if those attacking her will do so before she takes a second action.

OMG Week. From. Hell. My boss went on vacation and everything broke. I've been working 12 hour days trying to get everything fixed before he gets back. Just...so tired.

But he's back, everything is fixed. I am taking the weekend to relax and coming back next week strong!

In reply to OblivAeon (msg # 110):

Real life comes 1st.

:)

I included it in my IC post, but I'm not sure if my Reflexive Burst catches any of the bots. If it does, then they have to defend against 6 dmg.

Given each cluster if someone doesn't post before the next update I'll just "skip" it and say their fight is happening off panel.

I have energy immunity to radiant (reduce dmg to 0 and heal that amount instead), so would that laser count? We're both light-based, so...I hope so. ^_^

The lasers are energy damage, not radiant.

Radiant isn't really light. The simplest explanation is it is "holy" damage as in the opposite of infernal but it doesn't quite work like that. Damage based on positive willpower, faith, belief in good etc. It typically is more related to magical beings than ones of science and technology.

Oops I forgot. Radiant can also represent "cosmic energy". So not energy like a laser blast but the old comic book trope of Cosmic Energy! that is just...different.

Well, my entire concept is built more around light energy as my element rather than "radiant" as holy damage a la D&D. What element would that be?

Well I guess the question is you mentioned "The Light" being the source of your powers. That could be some kind of energy based ability but perhaps it is also something like the Flash's "speed force" where it represents something deeper than just photons.

If you want to swap radiant out for energy I'm fine with that. Or if you want to make The Light a "thing" that is a source of radiant damage that is fine too.

Also to correct radiant doesn't necessarily mean holy. More like holy damage is an example of radiant damage.

Blargh, this is what happens when I think a thing and forget to write down what that thing means. Sorry.

"The Light" was meant to be IC shorthand for an abstract concept. He doesn't know where his powers come from, or how to explain what exactly they do. He just knows that they are light-based, and the more he "embraces" or "leans into" The Light, the more his powers manifest.

Writing-wise, it's also how I see the Green to Red Zone progression. The more in phase Starblaze is with light, the more he starts existing at special relativistic scales of space-time and the harder time he has reconciling that existence with human scales of space-time. If he gets knocked out or goes full special relativity, he has no idea what will happen (consciousness gets sucked out of his head, his body dissipates into energy, etc.).

Radiant was the closest element to light in the book because that's also the definition of light energy (radiant energy = em radiation, which includes light). Could we just call his element "Light" to keep it specific and well-defined? That would make my brain happy.

So, we're only halfway through (or mostly through, whatever) the round, right? Waiting on the rest of the pcs before we go again?

Just making sure before I post out of order.

Yeah I'm fine calling it "light" energy. Something more than just regular energy?

It's more that energy includes motion, electricity, gravitational potential energy, chemical bonds, etc. Defining his power set as "light" energy limits the scope and helps me figure out what to write, and also will make my science teacher brain very happy. ^_^

I don't know if Undertow's question was ever answered. Are we in a new round?

So I'm back from the hospital. I fainted and I bet injured my eyes. I can't see well enough to read Walmart and I have to drop out of the campaign. I apologize really wanted to play .

I'm very sorry to hear that.

---

Waiting on everyone except for warp to post their next rounds actions.

I've poked Fray, Nephtys, and Rune Knight. I'll give them until tomorrow before moving forward.

Eh, had some car issues that required looking in to purchasing a new vehicle.  Just kept running out of time each day.

Doing a quick pause and breather to give you a chance to react and get back into the swing of things as well as giving our absent and returned players a chance to quick catch up again.

Back now! Sorry for the absence, folks.

GM - I assume by 'breather' you meant there are no immediate threats, but we'll get some more soon.

Correct. The city is still obviously under attack but you get a few moments to catch your breath and figure out your next move...

Rune Knight and Dead Eye are dropping for IRL issues so we'll take this time to write them out and adjust accordingly.

Sorry I haven't posted, I'm still here. I was trying to figure out what actions to use. Would overcome actions help?

Yeah, I understand the need to kind of move past the current events to keep the actual "still here" group together, but I'm mostly wondering if we should resolve what's been narrated locally, or if that's kind of smoothed over as part of us heading to the Tree.

The scene tracker is basically a time limit for the encounter. When it completely fills up the mission is scrubbed, basically. The game isn't over but you will save the day at tremendous cost, in this case to the health of Akash'Flora and the potentially critically wounded Argent Adept.

One of the neat things about SotM is that it very much is designed around the idea that the heroes might lose, they might not save the day and yet the story will still continue on because from a comic book perspective this is just part of a larger arc. Any given comic book issue might see the heroes beaten down, the villains winning and escaping etc. but in the grand scheme of things eventually the heroes will rise up and save the day....or maybe not if this is a Frank Miller story :D

I'm throwing a lot at you so let me know if you have any questions. I encourage you to work as a team because there is a lot going on.

All right, but just a heads up. My HP is currently 18 due to healing 3 damage from the light based attack used to me while in yellow status.

Also, if we can do some table talk, one of my Principles is Principle of the Future, and I have the Precognition power as well. Would it be possible to use my Overcome action to see where the harvesters are going so that we trap/destroy them as they try to get the tree? For example, I call out locations for warp to put teleport portals transport harvesters into a trap?

In reply to Starblaze (msg # 136):

Sounds good to me! Should I use my own overcome action and Starblaze doing a boost action to help me, or is it visa versa?

On further reflection, I'm still not managing to keep up with this game.  I think I'd better bow out; I don't really see things improving on my end.

Good luck with the game; I hope things turn out well.

Just a friendly nudge to the GM that there are some questions in OOC

I didn't realize you were waiting on me to respond. The idea is that there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of robots covering the tree but if you can figure out a reasonable way of tackling them it becomes an overcome action.

Again the issue is scale so what does "calling out targets" mean compared to hundreds and hundreds of them?

I think I am going to have to bow out. I appreciate you letting me join, but I'm having issues with the system and I don't have the time to learn it.

Apologies.

Yeah I think I am going to shut it down again. Between my own real life issues and the difficulties it is to keep people in the system I think I'm going to call it the end for good on me running SotM here.