All out-of-character discussions should go here.

And for our first topic, what do you think we should do about our reality? I could go either of two ways: a non-descript Marvel timeline where we play fast and loose with what's happened to our characters up to this point and slot them in as we see fit. Maybe you like Cyclops but don't want to play him as the guy who murdered Charles Xavier. Maybe you've always wanted to do something with a character who's currently dead. The whys and wherefores are less important here than what we do going forward.

The other option would be all the characters appear in an alternate timeline that we create as we go along. We're all strangers to this version of ourselves (kind of the like Exiles, if you've ever read that comic). We explore this strange new world together, and learn as we build. This would give us the opportunity to jump headfirst in the Motif Story Engine options and allow for alternate versions of the canon heroes (i.e. Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man 2099, Juggerduck) to be played without having to come up with complicated backstories. Boom, here we are.

Thoughts?

In reply to Wading in the Doom Pool (msg # 1):

A few thoughts:

We should decide if we're going to be earth-based or more cosmically inclined. And if earth-based, we probably need a power level too. Not that that's too big a deal with MHR, but we probably don't want Thor mixing it up with Speedball.

Do we want to do something closer to the movie universe or the comic universe?

I like how they sort of rebooted everything in the comics after the 2015 Secret Wars. It allowed them maximum freedom to start over, but not completely from scratch because they assumed much of the stuff that came before still applied.

My take is comic book rather than cinematic. I'm a fan of the lesser-known heroes.

I would say Earth-based heroes rather than cosmic, with a power level that could include the Thing or thereabouts. It should go without saying that the player characters should be able to co-exist, even if they don't send each other Valentine's Day candy.

Hey, guys! Just adding my two cents here:

I agree that an Earth-based game would be best, and I personally favor the comic book universe.

Okay, so let's go with current but loosely-interpreted timeline, comic book universe. Only bring as much canon baggage as you want to for your character, and feel free to retcon or conveniently fail to notice anything that hurts your heart.

Who are you thinking about playing?

I'm trying to think of someone with a big personality, or someone I can take that way. Overconfidence is a big plus.

I would say submariner, but he's probably too powerful.

Volstagg maybe?

I'm fine with you playing Namor if you're okay with me playing Howard the Duck with the Son of Satan's powers (as seen in Howard the Duck #14: https://www.marvel.com/comics/...ard_the_duck_1976_14).

The character sheet would be a mashup of the first Son of Satan datafile from Plot Points:

https://marvelplotpoints.com/2...le-daimon-hellstrom/

And the one for Howard here:

https://marvelplotpoints.com/2...ile-howard-the-duck/

If that's too weird, I'm also considering Vance Astro or Shatterstar.

As long as we're going with randomness, is there any appetite at all for making random characters? That would mean original, non-canon characters, which can be a challenge with MHR, but it might go with the overall theme.

I'd probably suggest using the old faserip rules (out of print but available online) to generate characters, then convert them to MHR.

We should also make sure we agree on any house rules / conventions for the.

The main house rule I use limits counterattack to when you have a opportunity. Otherwise it's too powerful.

For conventions, I usually avoid purchasing extra total dice when I've put a d4 distinction into a pool.

Also, when in doubt, I tend to take a lesser dice pool than try to shoehorn an explanation to get a bigger pool. For example, if I don't have a specialty that clearly and obviously applies, I'll leave that die out entirely. Most common example would be guys without Combat. Combat is usually the specialty that will apply in combat, so I'll often leave out that die altogether.

Another convention I use in pbp to help with bookkeeping is to purchase opportunities by default. The exception is if the Doom pool is already large (like >8 or 9 dice) then I'll stop. This might be less of an issue with anyone being able to  post reactions.

My pitch was for a canon game, but I'm not opposed to random character generation if everyone else is on board for it, but if we do we'd use the published system:

https://files.meetup.com/17136..._randomdatafiles.pdf

Let me know what you'd rather. If no preferences are given, we'll go with straight canon, as I don't want to get bogged down before we start.

Considering the power-levels at play here (assuming Namor and Howard The Son of Satan are your characters), I'd either go with Shiver Man (who I really wish got more issues) or Torpedo (not sure which one yet, though).

I would prefer a canon game, though with the caveat that we get to decide what is canon for our characters.

Let's do that then.

Canon heroes, with canon being at the discretion of the writers. Loose canons, if you will.

I'm still waffling on my choice, but can you two confirm your choices when you have a minute?

I've had a bit more interest, so am getting the new joiners signed up as well. Everyone will be posting their preferences, and I'm using Namor as the benchmark for power levels. Play who you want, not who you think can stand up to the most powerful among us. Wasp has been with the Avengers since the beginning, and she's never had a problem finding something to do.

One of our potential players is considering bringing someone over from the DC universe, and I'm fine with that. If you want to do that same and can justify it, fire it up. This is meant to be a low-stress, fun experiment.

Loose canon is fine with me.

I'm not enthusiastic about mixing publishers, but dc WOULD open up more options. And in the spirit of "yes, and" let's go for it and see how it goes.

I'm leaning against Namor, especially if we're going to have a weird team. I think Namor might be a little tougher than we want, at least how he's depicted in the comics. Spiderman (again comics - I think his data file might actually be tougher than Namors) is probably where we should shoot for.

Which means I need to commit to SOMETHING!

If we're doing weirdos + dc, I kind of want to do something like Wonder Twins, Agents of Shield :-)

Hi, everyone. I'm here and looking forward to being part of this group.

I'm just happy to be here so I'll go along with whatever y'all decide. Though it would be my vote for established heroes in a straight/non-alternate universe, either Marvel or DC but not both (unless the point is that they're mixed).

I might have more to say later but I can't count on being here over the weekend. I look forward to what you all come up with and decide and what I can do to be a part of it.

I'd rather stick to just one universe, but I'm fine with someone bringing over a DC character if they want.

I'm gonna go with Torpedo (Brock Jones) as my character. I'm just gonna conveniently ignore everything that happened when he became a side-character in the Rom comics.

Got it!

Torpedo led me to Blue Diamond, who led me to Black Marvel, who led me to Ricochet. I'll be able to play him with one of my favorite personalities and his costume is just stupid-awesome. I love the mid-90s bomber-jacket costumes!

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki...hon_Gallo_(Earth-616)

I'll commit to Ricochet

I'm going with Shatterstar as statted in the Civil War: X-Men sourcebook. Fugitive from the future, Mojoverse gladiator, and planning to play up the naivety.

Sweet! We've got an awesome D-list team coming together! One early80s guy and two mid90s guys.

I like it!

Character names for Torpedo and Ricochet have been updated, and I've added Shatterstar for myself.

This might be off-topic but having a campaign without a central GM made me think of it:
When I started gaming again a few years ago, with MHR, I came up with an idea for a another game playing DC heroes. I've wanted to play Mayfair's DC Heroes 2nd Edition (on my IRL bucket-list) and had a great idea to start a campaign but I knew I couldn't carry running a second game, so I wanted to establish an aspect where we could pass around GMing duties among players, maybe every few dozen posts or with every scene or randomly, or something like that. But my friends whom I thought would be gaming anything with me flaked out, and I can't get my hopes up to find reliable strangers who would be willing to co-run a game that hasn't gained any new players in a few decades. It's a wonderful system, and something I would love to return to if I wasn't so involved with MHR/Cortex. I'm sure the founder of this game has a different idea for how to conduct it, and I'm excited about the elements of randomness, but it makes think of non-conventional, GM-less games and intentions I had for one.

So, D-list heroes? Give me a minute, I'll come up with something.

Interestingly, Ricochet has worked with Turbo (the third person to wear the Torpedo suit). Fun little connection there.

Also, that costume is the exact description of the 90s. It is perfect. Lol.

I love the D-List idea! Are we all onboard with that or still getting Namor? If it’s the former, I’m eyeballing Dazzler, Hellcat, or Sepulchre! Maybe even Moonstone! Are there data files for Satana or Valkyrie?

BTW, speaking of Mayfair DC, I’m the player who proposed importing a DC character. :-)

I was thinking of Namor at one point. As I've settled on Ricochet, Namor would be a no, unless the 5th person decides to go for him.

(classic) Valyrie: https://marvelheroicrp.fandom....nders,_Hero_Datafile)
Satanna: https://marvelplotpoints.com/2...her-datafile-satana/

Satanna is a watcher datafile, so it would require some modification
This message was last edited by the player at 01:21, Mon 23 Nov 2020.

We seem to have gone with a D-list set-up, which is perfectly fine with me (I prefer the more obscure characters, myself).

Finally got my Datafile done. The one I found on Torpedo was missing some details, so I filled it in with another person's version and with a little wrangling on my own end.

Is it cool if I wait until This Person Also chooses a character?

My Choices
Dazzler
Firebird
Monet St. Croix
Moonstone
Satana
Sepulchre
Valkyrie
This message was last edited by the player at 12:20, Mon 23 Nov 2020.

I put a data file I found online in my description but I want to make a few minor changes

From a timing perspective, let's take this week to finish selecting characters and getting our datafiles in order. Given that it's a holiday week for most, I don't want to rush. My plan is to kick the game off with a roll of the dice to see how we start. The result may or may not wind up with us all being in the same place at the same time. I'm also going to randomly generate our rolling order for when we need to come up with something. In between rolls is where we can develop and move the story, and do all that wonderful roleplaying.

Assuming it's your turn to post (i.e. everyone's had a turn), it's encouraged that everything we do help to move the story forward. Go ahead and introduce new elements or complications. Feel free to do something that moves it closer to a conclusion. Don't be passive or purely reactive. We're all going to freeform this thing together.

Do we have a reference doc for Mythus, or whatever we're using for the random determination? I'm pretty sure I have an electronic copy somewhere

I'm leaning toward Shroud: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shroud_(comics)

I've read millions of comics but I'm not sure I've ever read a comic with him in it. He's just always looked cool. I can have the space to make him whatever I want to play. And he already has a Datafile (which I'll get ready once I break out my CW book).

Shroud teamed up with Spider-Woman I a few times, notably helping the Avengers & Dr. Strange save Jessica Drew from Morgan Le Fey. A few years later, he led The Night Shift as part of his con game on the criminal Underworld. Ironically, most of the Night Shift were Spider-Woman rogues. Double the irony when he dated the second Spider-Woman during CIVIL WAR.

He showed up in the first west coast avengers run. That was during his night shift days.

Hey all. I'll be playing Falcon (Sam Wilson). He's probably not considered D-list, being an Avenger and all, but IMO he's one of the more underrated members of that team. Looking forward to going on this adventure with everybody!

With this lineup, I’m leaning toward Firebird, but she doesn’t have any Milestones listed on her Civil War Datafile. My thoughts were Almost An Avenger and La Espirita. Any suggestions?

I could always go with M. or Moonstone, too. Dazzler would indeed be too weird with Shatterstar around, and we're Mutant-heavy. Satana would be fun, but TOO evil (unless Shroud recruited her for The Night Shift).

Interestingly, Falcon and Torpedo have worked together before. They were both part of the Defenders for a day and were a team with Valkyrie, Stingray, Prowler (and one or two others that I don't remember). Fought against Boomerang, Batroc, Shocker, Toad and a couple others.


I didn't have any Milestones, either, so I just made a couple. I'm not terribly familiar with Firebird, but you should be fine so long as you fit the character well.

I think Firebird is your best bet. You can pretty much play her however you want  and can take milestones to support that. I can help you with them if you need it. Those two you picked SOUND about right (without looking at the details)

And Firebird gives me an excuse to give Texas Twister a guest appearance! :-)

Of the others, I think Dazzler would be second best, especially if you went with 70s disco-dazzler.

Here's a link to the Motif Story Engine system on DriveThrurpg.com:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/p...-Roleplaying-Toolkit

Almost An Avenger
1 XP when you mention a time in the past when you aided the Avengers in a crisis or they helped you.
3 XP when you suffer an Emotional Stress over wanting to join a team or when you refuse to join during a Transition scene.
10 XP when you turn your back on your community to aid your team, or when you leave your team for your social work.

La Espirita
1 XP when you refer to your faith during a mission.
3 XP when you receive a premonition about a supernatural menace.
10 XP when you offer a hero timely aid during a crisis of faith, or abandon your team while experiencing a crisis of faith.


How do these sound? I would also need to make up Milestones for Dazzler, too. I also think that Firebird likely encountered Falcon sometime during the Busiek run on Avengers.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:25, Thu 26 Nov 2020.

Did you want to go with Shroud? Still considering?

Anyone else make a final selection that I've missed?

Also, hey, this is a game. If you find you're not grooving with your initial decision, we can always swap them out later!

Review my Milestones for Firebird, please.

The 1XP is fine. I recommend something along the lines of the following edits for the other two:
3XP the first time in a scene when you create an asset for an ally
10XP when you allow a teammate to be harmed for the sake of helping your community, or you allow your community to be harmed for the sake of helping a teammate.

I'm still not really satisfied with the 10XP one. 10XP should really be a major turning point for the character. The problem I have with the original one is that leaving the team for the community implies to me dropping out of hero work. In that case, the 10XP doesn't really matter. That makes it kind of a non-choice. The one I rewrote attempted to make it more of a choice, but it doesn't make it enough of a dramatic turning point to me.



1XP is fine again.
3XP is kind of hard to define/hit. I'd change it to when you first confront a supernatural menace.
I have the same reservations about the 10XP one here as the other 10XP one. The second choice of abandoning team is kind of turning away from heroing, in which case it's kind of a non-choice. You could adapt this one from Cyclops pretty easily:

 When you refuse help from allies in a desperate situation because the help would undermine your new philosophy or belief violate your faith, or when you abandon your new outlook your faith and you entreat your friends to help you make your life go back to the way it was. for help

Here's a datafile for dazzler that includes a couple of milestones. Those are decent and fitting for the character, at least what I remember of her from the Fall of the Mutants era when I was reading her.

IMO, her powerset is doing a bit much for what I remember her doing. I'd go with:

Light control d8
SFX: absorb sound
SFX: area attack
SFX: dazzling display
SFX: immunity
SFX: unlimited potential photonic blast
Limit: Mutant
Limit: Sound dependent

I also don't see her as an acrobatic expert or a cosmic expert (Cosmic expert I could kind of see just from all the stuff she met as an Xman). Combat expert I could see because superheroes fight so much, and she had danger room training. I probably give her Business expert to cover her entertainer stuff.

https://stuffershack.com/dazzler-marvel-datafile/

Yeah, I think I'm getting more firm on the Shroud -- and I can always switch him out later! I just have to break open the CW book. But still in for this.

I remember Ali absorbing “the sounds of the universe” with some instructions from Galactus that time he recruited her as a Herald. She’d absorbed Klaw, and also Blackbolt’s voice on different occasions, which could reflect that “Unlimited Potential”. Her encounters with Galactus, the Beyonder, Enchantress, and Roma certainly gave her experience with the Cosmic side of Marvel. What about Legal Expert d8? Her dad was a hotshot attorney, and she nearly attended Law School herself, but dropped out to become a singer.

I don't think there is a Legal specialty, and personally, I wouldn't call almost went to law school justification for it. She-hulk would have Legal expert, but probably only expert, and she's a practicing attorney in most stories.

I haven't ever seen cosmic-Dazzler. I would definitely call being a Herald a cosmic thing though and she'd need a huge bump to all her stats for that. I was thinking of "Fall of Mutants" Dazzler, back when she was dating Longshot, circa 1990. I would call absorbing Black Bolt (or more likely Banshee's) scream a power stunt, and/or cover it with her absorption sfx.

She refused the Herald job, but cosmic expertise comes from a character’s personal experience, not just power sets. Dazzler encountered several MU players WAY above her pay grade, so to speak. She’s also died and returned to life at least three times (Secret Wars II, UXM, Excalibur), so she has intensely personal experience with the Cosmic side of Marvel (and Life & Death).

I can’t remember a time when Firebird deliberately let another hero be harmed under those circumstances. Maybe Beyond, I’ll need to reread that miniseries. Covering 10XP is indeed a toughie.



I love the suggestion for 3XP! It covers her initial meeting with Master Pandemonium and her first vision. I see that 10XPs are a work in progress. :-p
This message was last edited by the player at 01:36, Thu 26 Nov 2020.

Anyone wanna take a look at my milestones? I've never actually had to make milestones for a character before.

The idea of milestones is they represent the progression of a character development arc. As you move up the scale, they get bigger, and less frequent. I try to make the 1XP be possible to hit multiple times in a scene. 3XP can be hit once per scene, and 10XP can be hit once. The 10XP one represents the culmination of the character development and represents a big choice that fundamentally alters the character.

You had:



A few questions to consider: is this about achieving public recognition for being a big hero, or is about meeting your own inner criteria? Actually, it would be great if you could bundle those two to together. That's actually a pretty compelling inner conflict - the desire to be *recognized* as a hero vs. the concept that a hero does it because it's the right thing to do, regardless of the recognition.

With those in mind, here's a few prototypes:

public recognition angle:
1XP when you mention your superheroing past
3XP when you score the finishing blow on a foe in a public setting and get mentioned in the media or when you score the finishing blow on a foe out of the public eye and realize it still feels good
10XP when you accept the city's public recognition that you're one of its famous heroes or turn that recognition down because you realize real heroes don't do it for the fame

Another thing to consider is whether you want to make it about comparing yourself to your own idol. e.g.: pick a guy like captain america or iron man and you'll be a hero when you see yourself able to do the same things as them.
1XP when you mention what your idol would do in a particular situation
3XP when you first encounter a foe that you realize your idol has battled before
10XP when you defeat a threat as large as any of your idol's nemeses and realize you have lived up to the idol's reputation, or you fail to defeat a large scale threat and decide you'll never live up to your idol's reputation





This isn't really set up as a character development arc. It seems more like a distinction. You're a hot head. That's who you are. You get pissed off easily and act impulsively. Sometimes that can be a good thing (use the distinction as a d8), sometimes it gets you into trouble (use it as a d4).

To make it a milestone (the way I like to do them), you need to build in some kind of development. Like you're trying to NOT be a hothead. In that case, I'd call it "Anger Management". Hulk might have a milestone along those lines you could emulate.

There's a milestone that I think Punisher has about being too violent. Maybe have a look at that one. Human Torch might have one about being too impulsive that you could pattern off of too.

I'm otherwise coming up short on this one. Some general thoughts:
Make the 1XP something you could hit multiple times in a scene. Something like when you use your hot head distinction (but I don't like that particular one). Maybe it could be when you realize you're acting impulsively and do it anyway. That's pretty close to what you have already.
3XP make it about the aftermath of a situation where you either acted impulsively and something bad happened or you acted cautiously and something good happened
10XP should be the culmination of achieving your anger management or giving it up and leaning into your impulsiveness.

Agreed, that makes more sense for a 10xp milestone that's potentially achievable and still keeps you in the game.

Datafile posted in my character description.

Just to put them out there, I'm interested in using the milestones on Falcon's sheet as they appear in the Civil War manual:

With Falcon being more of a top-tier character, I wonder what people think about him forming his own new team, a la Batman & the Outsiders, or when Luke Cage reformed the Avengers or the Thunderbolts?

That's what I was aiming for, albeit better phrased and worded than I did. The first prototype you presented fits the spot perfectly, so I've taken that. Thanks!


It actually was a distinction originally; I thought it would work better as a milestone, though, and tried to flesh it out. I'll take a look at the ones for Human Torch and the Hulk when I get home, and see if I can come up with something better. Thanks, again!


I could get behind something like that, though we are quite the odd crew for Falcon to grab.

In reply to Shatterstar (msg # 54):


That'd be a fun setup, if like Torpedo suggested, we could come up with a good reason for it. Maybe I've got an off-the-books mission for us that the other Avengers can't know about?

I like it!

Need to come up with a reason he'd be stuck with the rest of us. Could be a 50 States thing, or an avengers expansion franchise, or maybe all the a-listers are off world fighting something cosmic, or ...

I don't know that Torpedo would be the type for an off-the-books type deal, but I can roll with it if the others think it'll work.

We could always go with the Defenders For A Day route: Falcon posts a newspaper ad and we're the only ones who took it seriously enough to respond.

In reply to Torpedo (msg # 58):


Ha! I like that a lot.

I like it!

The SubstAvengers. :)
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 18:01, Sun 29 Nov 2020.

Maybe the Midwest Avengers? We might step on a certain team’s toes and create story fodder.

Dazzler
Allison Blaire (Public)

Affiliations:
Solo D8, Buddy D6, Team D10

Distinctions:
Disco Diva
C-List Socialite
Rollerskating Relic

Powers:

Sound To Light

Photon Blasts D10, Light Control D10, Force Fields D8, Flight D8, Mind Control D6

SFX: Sound Absorption - On a successful reaction against a sonic attack action, convert your opponent’s effect die into a Sound to Light stunt or step up a Sound to Light power by +1 for your next action. Spend 1 PP to use this stunt if your opponent’s action succeeds.

SFX: Dazzled - Whenever Dazzler makes an attack roll using her Light Control ability, add a d6 to the dice pool and she may choose a second effect die to put a "Blinded by the Light" complication on the same target.

SFX: Holograms - Add a D6 and step up your effect die when using a Sound to Light powerset to create assets or complications.

SFX: Multipower; - Use two or more Sound to Light powers in a single dice pool at -1 step for each additional power.

Limit: A World Without Melody - Shutdown Sound to Light if sound in the area is silenced. Step down all Sound to Light powers if Dazzler has a complication on her that is related to silence or quiet. Gain 1 PP.

Limit: Mutant - Earn 1 PP when affected by mutant-specific Milestones and tech.

Specialties:

Acrobatic Expert D8, Cosmic Expert D8, Combat Expert D8, Psych Master D10, Vehicles Expert D8

MILESTONES

LIFE IS NOT A LOVE SONG
1XP when you flirt with another superhero or a Watcher character.
3XP when your heroic life puts a love interest in danger or your romance puts your team in danger.
10XP when you either abandon your love interest at a critical moment or sacrifice something you hold dear in order to preserve your relationship.

STARS IN HER EYES
1XP when you pursue a career or entertainment action.
3XP when your interest in your career conflicts with your superhero responsibilities.
10 XP when you choose to engage in super heroics during a critical career moment or allow others to be in danger in order to pursue your career.

In reply to Hey Look, Someone Else! (msg # 63):

I like the song-based labels on things!

Do you have a specific version/era of Dazzler you're going for?

That really depends on the era we choose. I’ll acknowledge the Disco look and Outback Era. Definitely Post-Excalibur.

Need something for my 10xps. Any suggestions?

While datasheet discussions are ongoing, do I owe anyone a name change?

Also, Dazzler, let's stay timeline agnostic. Whatever works for you will be fine here.

The Datafile, though not necessarily a final, but to show I'm still into this:
SHROUD
Maxmillian Quincy Coleridge (secret)

Affiliations
Solo    d10
Buddy    d6
Team    d8

Distinctions
Keen Tactician
Mysterious Vigilante
Trained by the Cult of Kali

Power Sets
KISS OF KALI
Enhanced Reflexes    d8
Enhanced Stamina    d8
Superhuman Senses    d10
SFX: Immunity. Spend a PP to ignore stress, trauma, or complications from attacks targeting sight or vision.
SFX: ESP. Spend a PP to add Superhuman Senses (or step up if already in a pool) and reroll.
Limit: Sensory Overload. Shutdown any Kiss of Kali power to earn a PP. Activate an opportunity to recover that power.

MASTER OF DARKNESS
Darkforce Mastery    d10
Flight    d6
Invisibility    d6
SFX: Area Attack. Against multiple targets, for each additional target add a d6 and keep an additional effect die.
SFX: Blinding Darkness. When inflicting a vision-imparing complication on a target, add a d6 and step up the effect die.
Limit: Conscious Activation. While stressed out, asleep, or unconscious, shutdown Master of Darkness. Recover that stress or wake up to recover that Master of Darkness. If receiving mental trauma, shutdown Master of Darkness until recovering trauma.

Power Sets
Acrobatics Expert    d8
Combat Master    d10
Covert Expert    d8
Crime Master    d8
Menace Expert    d8
Vehicles Expert    d8

This is the base build from the book, modified to be a hero, including having the Affiliations stepped up. Having two Power Sets makes him distinctly powerful but I could consolidate those two into one, with compensation. I could also take or leave the “Kali” cult connection, unless that could connect to something in the greater story. I forgot about the Milestones but I have a few ideas so I'll come up with those later (and maybe aided by feedback to this Datafile or some ideas about where the campaign might go). And he will not be using “bomberangs.”

In reply to Shroud (msg # 68):

I think 2 power sets makes sense for him. He has his physical abilities and his darkforce. I didn't think he could fly or turn invisible. The invisibility would be more of a side effect of him blinding people with darkforce. If you drop those two, you end up with only 1 power in that set, so maybe then you'd want to combine it, but I think it would be fine either way.

Isn't he himself blind? You could replace the cult of kali distinction with that.

Specialties are so hard to calibrate. Captain America has Combat Master, right? Is Shroud as good in HTH as Cap? I'd probably bump that down to expert (or cap should be grandmaster at d12).

What about “Leader of The Night Shift” or “Undercover Underworld Boss”?

Thanks to everybody for working together on this. I'd like to kick us off in a few days once everyone's good with their datafiles, so let's get finishing touches done. Anyone who hasn't posted their datafile in their Description, please do that thing!

Any questions?

I'm ready!

Ready!

I tweaked Dazzler’s SFX list to include  two stunts she traditionally pulled. I combined a few traits of the sheets listed in the link Ricochet shared. “Enhanced Hearing” seems unnecessary, since that usually meant she couldn’t be deafened in the comics (unless she drained ALL ambient sound). Area attacks were Dazzler’s thing from the near get-go and I included that option.

If the updates are agreeable to all, I’m ready, too!

Ready here too.

Oh wait, there's my character portrait. Now I'm ready!

If I'm the last one then I can be ready too. I can play Shroud from his original build. The more I considered an alternative to the background with the cult, the more I thought I can do something with it. It's something, at least. Without it he'd barely have any flavor at all (save for that great costume).

So yeah, I could do this.

I'm good to go!

Falcon old bean, can you please put your datafile in your Character Description to match the other players? Cheers!

Sorry, don't know why I turned British all of a sudden.

Cheerio, gov'nah.

Hey all,

Thanks for your patience and your enthusiasm. Today is a busy one for me; I'm going to create a randomized table to determine the order for the players to roll on the random generation tables as needed, and get the first IC post up tomorrow. 'Til then, True Believers, Make Mine Marvel Heroic!

11:59, Today: Dazzler rolled 3 using 2d6.  Events Check.
       

I’m off for Christmas shopping, so I’ll go ahead and post my roll here.

Thanks!

Players, you can choose to put up an establishing post if you feel like setting your character up, or wait until the results of the rolls are revealed before your first post. Your call!

<<Players should feel free to call for randomization any time they want to.>>

Randomization of what? Can I call for it now?

How much more is going to be done with the Rolling Order thread? Do we need a Status Tracker thread?

Blast it: The establishing post I wrote could be appropriate for a certain season that is not winter. I'll rejigger it for something I can use, assuming there's isn't another prompt to act on while I'm rewriting. I like where this is going already (since I like randomness like that).

Randomization of anything you might want randomized. Reactions, introduction of new NPCs, additions to the environment, anything at all. None of this is required, it's just a way to color the scenes and help spark creativity. If things are chugging along and everyone is merrily posting, we can move things along ourselves and not rely on random tables.

You can call for randomization any time, at least for now. I've never used this system before, so this is all uncharted territory. I expect that with everyone's input I'll fine-tune things as we go along. The main focus is fun and sparking creative writing energies.

Torpedo, can you please roll me 2d6? Thanks!

Sure!

08:15, Today: Torpedo rolled 6 using 2d6.

Thanks! Working on a post now; expect some delays this week because of the holidays, and I'll expect the same from you. :)

Okay, first post is up. At this point, players can take this in any direction they want. We don't need to randomly roll again unless you want to. If you want to, tell me what random thing you want to roll for (NPC, a reaction, meeting someone, a challenge, whatever your mind can conjure). If you decide to introduce something that leads to combat, we'll roll that as usual per MHR rules, with me acting as the doom pool.

Questions? If not, let's write!

Falcon's going to be in the park. I'll work on getting my first post up soon.

I was going to ask which version of Falcon's look you were thinking of having, whether it's the open-chest and lantern bracelet (possibly in green) or otherwise. "Wings made of hard light extend from his back..." answers that, I suppose.

Yeah, I liked the sound of the Wakandan-made suit mentioned on his datafile so I went with that. I'm sure he's got other suits (including the original) lying around, too.

Form over function, I suppose, but the old-school version is so badass:

I finally came up with Milestones. If we don't have a specified Watcher then I leave these up to everyone else for approval or suggestions. If you have some ideas, especially for the second set, let me know. The first set could be a lot of fun, the second one could be a challenge, especially if the Cult of Kali doesn't come up in the campaign (and there's no reason it should). There's also some similarity between both 10XP triggers, if not being in direct contradiction, but I'd be willing to go with one or the other. We could play these out to see what happens.

Undercover Hero
1 XP when a villain doesn’t attack you because they think you’re also a villain
3 XP when you cause Stress to a villain within your Team Affiliation
10 XP when you shut down a criminal organization due to your undercover activities

Cult of Kali
1 XP when you find a clue inferring the Cult of Kali
3 XP when you interact with a member of the Cult of Kali
10 XP when you shut down the Cult of Kali or join it again

FYI, I'm in the process of trying to change my RPoL user name to SacMan and apparently need to notify any games I'm in. We'll see if it goes through.

(The unwieldy "sacmarvelrpg" was chosen to give my old IRL players something easy to remember when they searched me to join my game... which, y'know, never actually happened...)

I picked my RPOL user name well before I thought I'd be on the site so much. If I knew I was going to do so much on here for so long I'd have given more thought to my name. I've just gotten used to it (as I have with various other sites I've given a dumb name to, including the site where I met my wife).

Having a dumb name somewhere on the internet is almost like a rite of passage. I've been using my current dumb name since I was around 12.

Hey all, with sincere apologies I need to cancel this game. I hope to be able to restart it at some point, but right now I can't devote any time to it.

If someone would like to take it over please let me know. If I don't hear from anyone within 7 days I'm going to delete.

Thanks for your interest, and hopefully I'll find you again.

Real life can be a drag sometimes. No hard feelings from this Falcon. And I'll consider your offer, if no one else volunteers.

If anyone wants another Marvel Heroic PbP game, mine is always open: link to another game

And thanks to Wading for starting and keeping this one together as long as he did. It's a bummer it didn't work out but hopefully we'll all meet up again.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:16, Wed 06 Jan 2021.

It's a shame that this game is closing, but I entirely understand. Best of luck to you, Wading!

@Shroud: I might join your game. Would I be able to just drag Torpedo over as is? Or are there house rules at play in your game that I should know of?

Shroud, do we have the option of playing a NPC?

Wouldn't playing an NPC invalidate that designation?

There are house rules for my game (though mechanically it's as straight-from-the-book MHR as I can make it, with minor adjustments to rules just to clear up a few things rather than re-creating it to be my own thing), the biggest and most relevant right now being that all new players must run a hero with an official build from a list (in the RTJ thread) for the first adventure (which is actually ending before long so you'll get a relative short-cut). But after that we can talk about a hand-made build (as long as there is precedent for the character in the comics).
This message was last edited by the player at 10:41, Thu 07 Jan 2021.

So Carol Danvers & She-Hulk stay off the table?

Go! Go find someone else's game and be happy!

Dazzler: I'm not sure what you're asking. Carol and Shulkie are NPCs only because someone isn't playing them.

Uh-huh.  That’s why I asked about playing one of the NPCs. Not being one, but taking one as a PC.

I could take over this game if there's still interest, and as long as no one minds a slow pace. Like Shroud, I'm also running my own separate MHR game, Marvel Mania, but it could be fun to have a second game to tinker with.

I've wanted to run Annihilation for the longest time. Is anyone interested to play through it here?

That sounds good to me. Off of your list, I'd be interested in either Speedball or Night Thrasher. Give me a day or so, and I'll send you a proper RTJ.


I'd be interested in sticking around regardless of the pace. Can't say I have much knowledge of Annihilation, though, but I'd be willing to give it a shot.

Awesome. It's a far-reaching campaign that takes place across multiple planets and dives deep into the cosmic side of Marvel. The beauty of it is that it heavily features troupe-based play (each player having multiple PC's), meaning that in addition to playing cosmic characters, ya'll could play your current PC's during the Earth-based portions.

Is there a Mantis write up anywhere out there?

If there's Annihilation, I call Drax.

@Dazzler I do have a Mantis lying around somewhere, from an old GoTG one-shot I ran years ago. I'll send it to you once I dig it up.

@Shroud Oh, yes. Gotta see you play the Destroyer.

I'm working on passing off the GM duties to Falcon now. Thanks!

Falcon here, now your resident Watcher. I've been passed on the GM role and plan to get something going here as soon as possible. Like I mentioned, it will be a slow pace, as I've got an existing MHR game in progress on top of this one. I'm aiming to finish that adventure by March/April, so it could be some time before I'm able to devote my full attention to this game. But I've wanted to run the Annihilation event for a long while, and I'm really excited to have you all here and interested to play. I'll be adding game posts at my own pace as I can find the time.

Please continue using this space to discuss anything related to this game, the Annihilation event, or anything you guys would like to see in the campaign. Thanks!

Last Annihilation game I was in, Rocket ended up with the Nova Prime.

He was legitimately the best candidate! :-)

@Ricochet That sounds incredible. How did that end up happening?

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 117):

I was playing Gamora, someone was Rocket. I forget who the other couple of PCs were. Thing might have been in there and maybe Darkhawk. We started in the Kiln. Escaped on a ship with Paibok and Lyja as the Annihilation Wave broke over the system. I think we had Star Lord at that point because I remember Gamora and Lyja jumped his bones. But he must have dropped out (I guess they wore him out.) Thing must have dropped around then too or those two went a different direction because they didn't come with us to Xandar.

We ended up diverting course to respond to the distress signal Xandar was sending out and got there right after the A-wave. Between Gamora, Rocket, Paibok, Lyja, and Darkhawk, the Nova Prime chose Rocket as the least worst choice.

We kept playing a bit longer. Rocket with the Nova powers was pretty great. I think we connected with Blastar at one point, and I remember a pretty epic battle where Gamora took on Stellaris and her crew single-handed. The counterattack on her knife rocked that fight.

I was in that "Annihilation" game too. I was Star-Lord, originally. And yes, there was an... encounter with Gamora & Lyja. (We didn't play that out but it was there, and funny that that kind of thing was in a game. I've done RPGs for most of my life and I've never been part of a risque encounter.) Star-Lord must have dropped out when I switched to being Drax, who was a blast to play. That game petered out without a real ending, just going away when the Watcher, presumably, went away, like so many of these do, so I've hoped there would be a time when I could play that adventure again and see how it ends (since I also haven't read the series).

So, is there a plan to play Annihilation? And will it be here? It makes more sense to me for it to start its own game listing since this one is now defunct.

And it's a bummer that this one isn't happening: I was curious how the Watcher/whoever started this was going to let it run. I would have loved to see how it would be conducted, how it was going to be random, and what we could do with it. It could work, I'm sure, and I'd have liked to see how.

Yes, and the best answer I can give is "stay tuned." My other game won't wrap up until March/April, and even then I'll probably need a break in between running games (That other one's coming up on the one-year mark). So I'm emphasizing that it's going to be something of a wait before Annihilation gets going.

Hopefully that's not too much of a damper on any potential enthusiasm. For my part, I've wanted to run this event for years.

I was planning to keep the game here and re-purpose the intro with the spaceship making contact on Earth. I may also re-skin this thing as an extension of my other campaign-- which, Shroud, your game post may have given me the idea for. ;)

Dusting off this thread to say I'm still planning to run Annihilation here sooner or later, if there's interest. My other game is still chugging along, so that has my current attention for now. It could still be a few months' wait, or maybe I'll just say "screw it" and run them concurrently.

I'm still in for it, if and whenever you're going to do it. I'll even surrender Drax if anyone else really wants to play him. I'd consider the challenge of running a different hero, even (or especially) one who's not one of the MCU Guardians.

My game is also chugging along (or will be soon once I get some IRL things sorted).

I’ll give it a go! I’d like to see if I can capture Ali’s voice.

Hey, glad to hear it! You all may have noticed some GM activity here over the last few days. I'll be posting a notice in the other MHR games that I'm looking for players. Thinking we'll be ready to start within the next couple of weeks.

And it might not be Annihilation after all. At least not yet. I've found another cosmic-themed premise I really like that's a bit smaller in scope (but still planet-wide, go figure).

If this game happens, let me know. For now, I’m removing it from my Sticky List.

Thank you, I will do that once life stops getting in the way. (Hey, is that Unseen I see?)

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 127):

Her avatar, but not the player. ;)