Let's make a team!

Team Members:
 - Argo, the Bull, played by McS;
 - Leech, the Doomed, played by Baeraad;
 - Harbinger, the Harbinger, played by Odin;
 - Reverie, the Innocent, played by Nox;
 - Ironheart, the Reformed, played by Riven;
- Cyclone Burst, the Protégé, played by PSinha.

There are several things we need to determine now. Feel free to discuss them in any order in this thread. I will put all the relevant information here once we're done.

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1. When The Team First Came Together

There is an official(? I think, anyway) preferred order in which those questions should be answered:

Argo:
We defeated a dangerous enemy. Who or what was it?

Ironheart:
We fought a terrible enemy from my old life. Who was it, and what did they take from me?

Reverie:
My future self was involved, and I tried to stop them. It took the rest of the team to help me succeed. How did we stymie my future self’s plans?

Leech:
We paid a high cost for victory. What was it?

Cyclone Burst:
We stuck together after all was said and done. Why? How’d we keep in contact?

Harbinger:
We averted a disaster from the future’s history books. What was the disaster? What effect do we hope it had on the timeline?

While each player has the final authority over the answer to their character's question - feel free to discuss them, and the whole situation, among yourselves and to give each other suggestions. It may well go smoother that way.

Anyway, it sounds like it was a real mess. :P Have fun with it.

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2. Relationships

I strongly recommend giving each character at least a couple of relationships (surely you people are not so coldhearted as to avoid giving one without me saying so!). I see no reason to force some artificial symmetry, though. Go with what makes sense.

Argo:
Reverie is your love. You’ve opened up to them about the worst parts of your past.
Harbinger is your rival. They tried to control you at a crucial moment.

Leech:
You told Harbinger all about your doom and the danger you’re in.
You’d love to kiss Ironheart before your doom comes.

Harbinger:
Leech turns away from the hero’s path, according to your history books. You have to prevent that from happening.
You’ve always idolized Argo, but it’s too awkward to admit it to them now that you’ve met them in real life. Keep it cool, keep it cool.

Reverie:
Ironheart is helping me understand this weirdo future. I follow their lead.
I saved someone important to Argo; they’re now my biggest defender.

Ironheart:
I’ve earned the trust of Reverie, and I follow their example of what a hero should be.
I did something terrible to Argo once. I hope they can forgive me one day.

Cyclone Burst:
You and ____________________ teamed up a few times before the rest of you came together.
Your mentor is cautious; they asked you to keep an eye on __________________.

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3. Starting Influence

Argo:
You’re selective about who you let in. Give your love and rival Influence over you, but that’s it. (Reverie, Harbinger)

Leech:
These people matter for what you need to do. Give Influence to two of your teammates. (Harbinger, Argo)

Harbinger:
Every member of your team has the power to change the future—your future. Give everyone influence over you. (Argo, Leech, Reverie, Ironheart)

Reverie:
These people are your guides, your friends, and the ones helping you find a better way. But you are careful about whose guidance you follow. Give Influence over you to two teammates. (?)

Ironheart:
Do you talk openly about your days as a villain? If so, give each team member Influence over you.
If not, just give Influence to the one teammate whose example you most closely follow. (Reverie)

Cyclone Burst:
Choose your demeanor: playful or business.
If you choose playful, give Influence to two teammates.
If you choose business, give Influence to no teammates.

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4. Other Team Questions

There are a few other questions that I made up and that we may as well start thinking about now.

Name: Do you have one? It'd be really helpful, you know. Then again, you could decide this later.

Leader: Likewise. Maybe you'll never get an official leader, though. People could take charge on a case by case basis. It's New Atlantis, anything goes.

Premise: Were you just in the right place at the right time, or was there some other reason why you came together as you did? Honestly, this looks like a right place, right time situation, but then again one can think of another explanation. Like Harbinger trying to get you together on purpose, for example. Or some shared enemy. Or...

Affiliation: ...do you have a sponsor? Some of you already have links to powerful organisations or individuals that may have either arranged for you to act as a team in the first place or assumed some responsibility for you afterwards. Ironheart has an ATLAS probation officer; Argo is linked to Dunamis Incorporated. Cyclone Burst's Mentor could pull strings as well. Having a sponsor would give you some resources and leverage and give adults more opportunities to control you (and you more opportunities to rebel). That said, you look like an independent sort of group to start with. You can always find a sponsor or some allies later. I could be reading things wrong, though.

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5. Miscellaneous Character Details

It's not too late to tweak your characters and their backstories, so long as it's not a radical departure. In particular, there may be good opportunities to establish some extra connections between your characters or their backstory elements (connections between NPCs, setting mechanics, etc.). I may have a few suggestions/questions for you in that vein later. In the meantime, have at it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:25, Sun 29 Aug 2021.

Hey, all! After the in-depth backstory work with the GM (thanks GM!), I'm hyped to start Mutual Plotting with everybody. I'm just going to give everybody's characters another read and then start throwing out ideas. It seems like it's going to be a very interesting, multi-faceted group.

Not looking to skip the skip the queue so no specifics here, but I thought I'd lay out some immediate thoughts and reminders that might be helpful as we go through this:

When The Team First Came Together

Artiana's villainous past is heavily tied in to the Corsair Network, an organisation which lends itself to a narrative involving infiltration of New Atlantis, smuggling/tech theft in or out of the place, and perhaps just generally lending mercenary muscle to (or teaming up with) some other threat in the event that their plans and intel aligns. I'm likely going with an enemy from Artiana's past who was looking to bring her back into the fold (by choice or by force) and drag her off the island, but that doesn't have to be the case or could be a target of convenience secondary to whatever other grand scheme is going on.

I'm very flexible if any coherent ideas get put forward to tie anything together.

Relationships

I'm a little unsure how I'm going to make I did something terrible to... work with this team as it looks like all the other team members might (?) have been in totally different parts of the world (or the timeline) during the period when Artiana was an active villain. Any thoughts how we could make that work or should I suggest a replacement prompt?

Starting Influence

I feel like I want to get a sense of how long the team's been together and what other people are feeling before making a call here. Looking to compliment the group in terms of outlook.

I have nothing concrete yet looking to talk about it a little before fully committing to an idea.

When The Team First Come Together
It looks like the Bull's and the Reformed's prompts are similar so I don't want to go with an enemy that makes what they want to do with their prompt more difficult to work. I'll try to have something up tomorrow while keeping it vague that Ironheart can add on the person we faced from her past.

Relationships
I'll go ahead and say that to me Bull labeling one of the team as their love doesn't mean romance. I know that sort of thing tends to happen in these games but I also know not every player is into that sort of thing. Keeping that in mind I'm more of the love being a friend since this is someone who Argo felt comfortable enough to talk about their past with.

The rival on the other hand is someone who tried to stop Argo when he was doing something. The what and why will be hashed but that aside if anyone would not like to have one of those roles let me know. I don't want to make someone have to put up with Argo in this regard if those sort of connections do not interest them though it's part of the playbook that the Bull's love and rival can change later on.

Starting influence
Mine are tied to the love and rival so once I have those figured out the influence sorts itself out.

@Ironheart: Argo might be able to fit the role of the one who you did something terrible to. He's been under the control of those who took him for a while. It could be something such as she once helped them move Argo or maybe to change his backstory up slightly he broke out once before and Ironheart was part of the group hired to bring him back in which they were successful in doing. His mind was wiped of the experience so it could be one sided for now or maybe he remembers pieces of that time which makes him feel uneasy around Ironheart.

Of course it's also worth remembering that we have a triple-threat here. Even if we reconcile those two together we still need a situation where it makes sense for Vigilance to be involved.

While I appreciate the suggestion, I think a bit of a problem with trying to connect our characters through that relationship is that they lived most of their lives half a world apart. Unless there'd be some reason for Argo to pass into the hands of a group operating out of West Africa and the Mediterranean I can't see the two meeting before New Atlantis, and by that time we're already past the villain days.

Re: When the Team First Came Together/the Triple Threat

I was planning to try and figure out more specific details after Argo/Ironheart kick around ideas for the enemies, but my not-very-specific idea is that Vigilance was using the diversion of (multiple?) enemies to sneak something important off New Atlantis that wasn’t supposed to leave New Atlantis and get it to another American hero waiting offshore. You know, spy nonsense.

The tricky thing with Vigilance is she’s still definitely a Hero, just a Dark-as-Hell, Intimidating, Those-Shades-of-Gray-Are-Looking-Rather-Black-In-This-Particular-Light, Fully-Engaged-in-Nationalist-Cold-War-Shenanigans Hero—so I thought it would make sense for the “stop Vigilance!” portion of what does sound like a right epic mess be focused on making sure state secrets/potentially dangerous to world peace (vague hand waving) didn’t get out into the greater world.

So foiling Vigilance's plans wouldn't get the publicity that, say, taking down the more obvious threats would get, but the team wold know what they did.

Relationships

If anybody wants to volunteer for one of Reverie’s spots, please raise your hand! Or if anybody thinks they specifically are unsuited, lemme know that too, because I’m about to argue why every single character could potentially fill every single spot :P

The one who’s helping her understand this weirdo future. My instinct for this one is to say either Artiana, Argo, or weirdly enough Harbinger, though I could make a case for any of the characters.

It sounds like Artiana might wind up being the oldest, and even if she isn’t, she clearly has the most practical experience in this world/getting along with ATLAS and New Atlantis. Added bonus, Reverie is a hopeful idealist who’d love to think people can change, and a Reformed ticks that box. Argo comes from Reverie’s time or close enough to it (even if he was frozen rather than properly time travelling into the future) that she probably feels a kinship there she doesn’t feel with the others, so even though this weirdo future isn’t really his time either, she’d be ready to accept his opinion of the present/not be too shy to ask him loads of questions. Harbinger is an on-purpose time traveller, not an accidental, oh shit something went wrong time traveller, so I could see Reverie taking that to mean that Harbinger has got some sort of authority on how to act. Artiana/Argo seems a little more likely to me, but I’m pretty open depending on what people want/would make the most interesting story for people. Thoughts? Comments? Volunteers?

@Ironheart, @Argo

How long ago were Ironheart's villain days?

Argo/Ironheart: That seems like a potentially pretty cool idea for Ironheart’s “I did something terrible to,” especially if he half-remembers while she fully remembers that time she helped catch the supersoldier kid trying to escape and returned ‘im to his high-paying captors. Some potential for some interesting RP down the line. It seems to me like Orthus might easily have been moving him around for various field tests and passed through the Corsair Network's realm of influence? Perhaps he woke up/was rescued once before, and, again, wound up in the Corsair Network's realm of influence, and they were contracted to get him back?

Otherwise there’s Cyclone Burst. Perhaps the Network could have tangled with his mentor before, especially if they’re engaged in nefarious smuggling and/or mercenary-muscle-lending. This presumes that the mentor might have taken Cyclone Burst out on a traveling mission of some sort - but then, Cyclone Burst is in New Atlantis, after all, so why not?

...There are also the market fires his parents died in; perhaps the Corsair Network was around? Mind you, perhaps involvement in the parent-killing market fires is too dark an “I did something terrible to," and it would have been the wrong part of the world, unless the Corsair Network has a sister pirate network operating closer to wherever Cyclone Burst/his master are from.

Re: When the Team First Came Together/the Triple Threat

Okay so ... this in no way is meant as some kind of definitive "I want to do this and exactly this" statement, but here's the super vague idea I was working with in a vacuum (that is: with absolutely no regard for anyone else's prompts) when I was generally brainstorming stuff in case I ended up making the team:

Artiana has as one of her past connections an individual known as Ash, a pyrokene (of sorts) who she had a rather contentious and adversarial relationship with. I had been thinking that perhaps Ash was acting as muscle with a crew who were part of the Network's expansionary efforts into New Atlantis (or had gone rogue after a falling out and tried to strike it big there), had somehow learned that Artiana had relocated there (be that through a source/informant working on the island or just coincidence) and decided to bring her home - be that for spite, loyalty or the pursuit of a reward. They brought some backup, cornered her on her current worksite somewhere in Downtown, and after a cursory attempt at recruiting her forced a brawl that inevitably started set half the block ablaze.

I was totally open to the eventual team members being drawn to this and saving the day or showing up too late/focusing on stopping the fire and having to track and rescue a kidnapped Artiana, maybe being led to some other crime in progress going on under the radar or a hideout in the process. Alternatively/additionally they could have been the only people able to respond to the incident as Ash was taking their shot while some other high-profile incident was drawing in the big guns. That was just an idea anyway and not one that needs to make it into the game in any way shape or form.

Another vaguely-defined possibility would be that, say, Ash and their people were fed intel by Vigilance to convince them to target a Dunamis Incorporated facility that was doing some kind of research into superpowers - maybe directly linked to Argo but could also be unrelated. Ash took the bait out of the belief that they'd developed tech which could be used to enhanced superpowered beings - they've always had a bit of a complex over wanting more power and the respect that comes with it - and in doing so provided a big messy distraction for Vigilance to do ... whatever super sneaky things they were up to.

Just some thoughts to prompt discussion anyway.

Relationships

Artiana could be brought down to 17-18 if there's a particularly notable age gap. She's on the older end because I wanted the key points of her backstory to have some room to breathe, but there's no reason that can't be condensed or start a little earlier if everyone else turns out to be curving lower.

I'd be totally on board with taking on that relationship if you think it makes sense and nobody else has any strong attachment to it. The Innocent and Reformed make quite good foils as one is trying to avoid slipping into darkness while the other is doing their best to claw their way into the light, and it could be neat to see how their more idealistic/pragmatic elements play off each other. I can definitely think of some interesting ways their perspectives might be complimentary or lead them into conflict. Not sure if Artiana'd be the best person to help someone acclimatise to New Atlantis, but then the prompt didn't say they had to be doing a good job of things...

Other Things

Artiana's probably something like 12-18 months removed from villainy, not all of which has been spent on New Atlantis or indeed outside of an ATLAS holding cell - could be adjusted either way if needs be. I wanted her as someone who got dragged back into the superhero/villain life by the inciting incident rather than someone who'd already been trying to play the hero before she joined up with the team.

I'm absolutely fine with playing the antagonist for someone else if we can find a way to sort out any weirdness with the when/where/how. I think the nature of our PCs does make that sort of thing a little difficult though given that we seem to have ended up with a team where the characters have either spent most of their lives 5-10k+ miles apart or not even existed in the same time period until quite recently. Any suggestions are super welcome.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:55, Sun 08 Aug 2021.

Okay, I've skimmed everyone's threads. Let's see now...

Leech has told Harbinger the fact that he's dying and that he hopes to stop Doctor Atrocious before his time runs out. She's a super-genius, so he thinks she might be able to understand a science-based threat. Also, in a weird way, she knows what it is to have no future. Harbinger has Influence over Leech.

Leech also feels an odd connection to Argo, one escaped child-soldier to another. He isn't quite sure how to approach him, but he views him, vaguely, as a sort of older-brother figure. Argo also has Influence over Leech.

Leech would like to kiss Ironheart before he dies. He may have a thing for bad girls... though he isn't sure he's comfortable with what that says about him. He's also entirely and completely clueless about all things relating to love and attraction, so it mostly shows by him getting weird and flustered around her.

@Reverie Argo has been giving some crash courses about what has transpired since he was taken along with being educated about how to behave nowadays. The social norms and all that jazz. So it could be fun to see him fill the role of Reverie following his lead which then involves them comparing notes while potentially reminiscing about "the good ol' days".

@Ironheart I was just throwing a suggestion out there. I left it vague but Orthrus has been disavowed from the government for quite a while and moving around as a result from it. So it could have been a case of while transporting Argo from an area where Ironheart would have been active in, a mishap occurred and they needed the extra hands to bring him in.

@Leech I like the reasoning behind Argo having Influence over your character. Both have been through the wringer being experiments to be made into weapons. It will be interesting to see how they interact with one another as the game progresses.

As for my prompt on the enemy we faced I'm mulling it over still but I'll have it something later on today.

I like how this is coming along so far. I don't want to interfere with the process too much, but I may as well weigh in to smoothen things out.

Re: doing something terrible. That is something of a wrinkle. I think that relationship prompt (as well as others) can be interpreted creatively. The main thing is that the Reformed has something to feel guilty over and the victim has something to justly hold against the Reformed (whether they choose to do so or not).

The Argo option sounds ideal to me. It was already suggested in his thread that Argo was deployed in a field test somewhere before Orthrus moved him to New Atlantis. Both Africa and the Mediterranean have plenty of neglected and/or war-torn areas that would be ideal for testing out a human weapon. The Corsair Network could have helped get him in and out. They may even have killed two birds with one stone by providing a target. Perhaps Ironheart was involved and had to subdue him when his conditioning slipped for the first time. Given how destructive he is, it may even have been her best option in the moment, as far as she knew. He may or may not even recall it at first given his memory issues, but she would. Lots of potential there, if both of you are up for it.

Alternatively, though, less direct options could work as well - such as the Corsair Network's dealings with one Dr. Atrocious, for example. He must get his equipment and supplies from somewhere. It's not as personal or dramatic, but it may still meet the requirements, and there may be some interesting ways to flesh it out.

Re: ages. It would be nice to sort that out before we are done here. Leech is technically 3 years old, but physically and mentally sort of 15. Ironheart is "approaching 20" - I can't imagine ageing her down to 18 would change much. How old are Cyclone Burst, Reverie, Harbinger and Argo? Time travel and similar shenanigans notwithstanding.

Re: how long the team has been together - another fine question. Probably best answered once you have sorted out the initial incident.

Belated addition:
Re: Reverie and Argo. Argo is from near the start of the war, Reverie is from a short time after. They are closer to each other in time of origin, of course, but the differences may be bigger than the dates alone would imply. In no way an objection to the link - just noting it here. If anything those differences may make it more interesting.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:56, Sun 08 Aug 2021.

I was making a reply of my own but it seems you beat me to it, GM.

No problem whatsoever with what you're proposing there - any of the angles. I'd been volunteering the shift on my end to put Artiana in the US on business on at least one occasion - perhaps La Reyna or one of her successors looking to open ties with an Orthrus that needed roads to get things out of the country - so I'm very willing to have an incident along the lines of what Argo suggested take place in the States if that makes for a better fit.

Very happy to let you have the deciding vote here, Argo. We're largely shaping your character's backstory here when it comes to how and where Orthrus was operating, and pretty much everything on my end (feelings and actions) should remain pretty constant no matter where and how we stage things.

I'll reply more in-depth to other comments in a few, but for age I was thinking 16 or 17, and I'm not envisioning that Reverie's been in the present for longer than a year (because at that point, she might get a little worried/angsty, and I'd rather play that out IC if we ever come to it).

Response, continued.

Re: When the Team First Came Together/the Triple Threat



I can definitely see Vigilance deciding it might be a good way to kill two or three birds with one stone. Villains attack, villains get defeated, less villains plus useful distraction = a win for Vigilance's goals. I suspect Vigilance wouldn't do anything so careless as feed the intel directly / in an easy-to-trace way, but that's the beauty of mind control/implanting suggestions...

I'm not quite sure what Dunamis's actual allegiance or secret allegiance is, but perhaps there's some interesting corporate espionage reason between West/East/New Atlantean powers for Dunamis to have been targeted just then. I know this is all very vague, but I also suspect the team wouldn't have all the pieces of this puzzle, and if it ever comes out it'll come out in satisfying story drips/drabbles.


Re: Relationships

@Ironheart



I dig this a lot, esp. the bolded bit, so barring anything else that makes a lot more sense, I think I'll put Ironheart down for that relationship. It seems like it could be really dynamic.

@Argo



Oh man. I actually really love this, too. I think Ironheart fits more neatly into that relationship slot, but I don't think that precludes some of this being a thing. Perhaps they bond off-the-bat enough that Reverie can be the Bull's love/best pal? They're both out of their own times (beginning of war versus end of war is pretty interesting), so I could see them bonding a little bit/perhaps he'd think opening up to the telepath made sense anyway?

Uh, it also suddenly occurs to me that, I think, Argo is the only PC who has... family around? Perhaps in service of the best pals bit, he could slot into: I saved someone important to __________________; they’re now my biggest defender. And Reverie saves his brother at a time when he's too tied up to do it himself. Perhaps during the big coming together fight, if Dunamis is targeted?

Just some thoughts/brainstorming.

@Leech:

I like the reasoning you've got going for everything!

@Cyclone Burst, @Harbinger, @Leech:

Some random thoughts here.

I'm wondering whether it makes sense for you guys--Harbinger, Cyclone--to have worked together first (for Cyclone's relationship slot)? IF we do go with the inciting triple-threat bad guy stuff having a personal connection to Ironheart, Argo, and Reverie... perhaps Harbinger is like: Cyclone Burst, this is where we've got to be because this is where all three of these people are going to be muddled up, just gotta pick up Leech on the way. Then she impresses Leech with her Big Brain, and he's in. Or Leech and Cyclone Burst are already working together, and Harbinger shows up all, "Come with me, guys. I know something that's about to go down."

I don't know if you want to be the connective tissue in that way, Harbinger, and you guys might have other/cooler ideas, but just thought I'd throw this out there for discussion.

@GM:



Ah! That could make it more interesting, even. Do you have any idea what year the war ended? It seems like 'end of 70s,' but it might be helpful for me to know specifically, just so I can figure out how old Reverie was when it ended/figure out how old Vigilance is in 2001. No big rush/big deal.

@GM, @Ironheart, @Argo



I would watch this? Ha. I'm sure there could be other cool options, too, but for what my two cents are worth this seems like an interesting story.

The War is usually considered to have started in 1973 (with the official creation of the World Unity Coalition) and ended in 1979 (with the death of the Archlion, the last active Warlord). That said, for most of the Western Hemisphere, the War practically ended in 1977 with the defeat of the Steel Caudillo and the repulsion of the Cylien attack on US soil. Martial law continued for the rest of the decade, though. Even after it was officially lifted, many subtler repressive measures persisted to this day. Hope that helps.

@Ironheart the location of where your character apprehended mine does not matter much in the grand scheme of Argo's backstory. Orthrus has moved more than once and with Argo being on ice for most of the time spent as their prisoner. It can be pretty much wherever though maybe the GM can pick since this could be a place the team potentially goes to or is brought up in the media. That way it could lead to a scene of say Argo remembering being there but doesn't know how that makes sense and potential awkwardness.

@Reverie funny enough I think if your character saved Argo's brother who in turn becomes your biggest supporter that would make you unable to be the love. The reason being his brother is keeping their connection on the downlow and hardly seeing Argo for that matter. So to see another member of the team have his brother's support (probably more of a PR move with how Harold does things) it would irk Argo to no end. This could mean potential for Reverie being the rival even more so if the reason she tried to control him was due to his brother asking her to.

For Argo's age I have him being 17-18 since he was in the process of applying for colleges when the accident occurred.

@GM

That IS helpful, thank you! The only thing I need to decide is whether the in-joke of having her accidentally bamf to the future in 1985 ‘coz that’s the year “Back to the Future” comes out in reality is enough for me to make that the year. :P

@Argo

Hmmm! I'm not entirely sure rival + saving somebody relationships work in conjunction; it might have to be one or the other. Correct me if I'm wrong or toss out a different interpretation, but it seems like the spirit of the Innocent's relationship is along the lines of “this person is sure that you can avoid turning into your Future Self because of the good turn you did their person”—would that still fit? I suppose it could, depending on how you see the rivalry taking shape? Could be a fun dynamic! Somewhat one-sided one-upsmanship?

I wasn't really imagining Reverie and the brother interacting beyond a quick telekinesis catch when he gets flung off a building or something, but if something else sounds interesting, lay it out. That said, given who she’s trying to avoid becoming and the advantages she has when it comes to, uh, control, I think there’s probably a 0% chance Reverie would try and control Argo because some corporate grown-up asked her to.

@Reverie I can see that potentially working though I'm not a big fan of it because I don't think Argo's brother would let it be a one off since he would try to use it to his advantage. I'm also not suggesting your character would try to control Argo just because his brother said so but more of him coming to Reverie saying "my brother needs help, I think you're the one to do it." So it would be less of a corporate grownup than a family member asking for her help.

That being said if that is not interesting the "saving someone important" connection can easily go to one of the others. The important person doesn't have to be a family member so maybe someone else on the team can offer an NPC to fill the role.

For the rivalry I am currently not seeing it not starting off on the best terms. The PC in question does try to control them and with what Argo has been through that's going to be a sore spot. Nothing hostile from him or anything but likely some cold shoulder at the start or unwilling to hear out that particular PC's plan. You know, typical Bull things.

@Argo. Hmm. Appealing to her inner-savior could work from the brother, especially if the brother was being sincere. I'm sort of playing around with the idea that one of the 'dangers' of telepathy for Reverie is being too willing to entertain the other side vs being too UNwilling to entertain the other side, so it could be a case where the brother is so convincing that she's like "Ack, okay, I will stop him from doing that thing he's doing, HEY ARGO I AM STOPPING YOU SEE?" I wouldn't mind Reverie's plans getting (insert Bull-pun involving stampede) on or a bit of cold-shoulder.

I shall mull over some interesting potential scenarios and I'll lay 'em out. Feel free to do the same. Even if the official connections wind up not working, we might still come up with cool backstory. :P

It's certainly feeling like I'm going to be taking the closed book approach and only handing out Influence to one person, presumably Reverie at this time. Doesn't seem at all likely that Artiana would be talking about her past too liberally if she's trying to keep any past connection to Argo under wraps, and I'd imagine she's got quite used to burying this stuff after stepping into something resembling a normal life.

Re: Where Argo and Ironheart crossed paths before. If it's up to me, I pick Morocco, at the intersection between the Corsair Network's main territory and the more violent frontier of its influence in West Africa. I do have a follow-up question: when did this happen? I don't think it would change much for Argo, but was this after La Reyna's "death" or before it?

Re: Harold Hess, Head of Research and Development at Dunamis Incorporated. His relationship with Argo is definitely something I'd like to explore. There is a fair amount of ambiguity in it: is he only helping his brother for selfish reasons, out of genuine personal concern, some combination of both? A mind-reader could cut right through that ambiguity, if she were both able and willing to probe that deeply.

Given Reverie's powerset, I think that possibility is already on the table regardless of what you decide for that Innocent relationship. (Although, she might go out of her way to avoid doing that, of course.) The relationship might make any such revelation happen sooner and would add more dramatic impact to it. I do think that any deeper probing should happen during play, if it happens at all, rather than at this stage.

In any case, I can definitely see Harold asking Reverie to keep an eye out for his brother. Whatever his motives, he is interested in his safety. He also knows how destructive and volatile Argo can be, based on the events around his breakout from Orthrus. I think he may be less than happy about Chasin joining a team after all his efforts to keep his brother a secret, whether for the sake of Chasin's own safety or for some other reason (and she may pick up on the genuine concern without seeing anything else yet?). Reverie's powers make her ideal for keeping an eye on Chasin and making sure his impetuousness doesn't get him into too much trouble. Also, she has already proven her competence and heroic mindset to Harold in the most direct way possible (assuming you go with the Innocent relationship of course).

Those are just my thoughts about the proposed relationship, though. Up to the players involved.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:02, Mon 09 Aug 2021.

Obviously this can be tweaked, but right now it'd have to be before. I have Artiana as being in Algiers on the return leg of the journey when the news came through - to write around the possibility of someone like Serpiente not letting her go - so I'd assume that means we're talking somewhere on the earlier side of 1998-99 (?).

One kinda neat thing about this particular connection is that it allows then-Artania to be like "I don't like how we're complicit in this and the way these people are treating someone like me, but at the same time it proves that I'm valued as a person rather than a tool. Clearly I'm not with the Bad People™" Then naturally it can be a point she can look back to in hindsight and recognise just how delusional and caught up in the need to make excuses for the evils of the Network (and herself) she was back then. That you'd do bad things on someone else's behalf was a failing in them, not in you.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:25, Mon 09 Aug 2021.

So here is a rough writeup of my prompt. I'm not fully onboard with it since I think it can be improved though I also did not want to write a ton since mine is the first in line and the more details I put down the more I potentially take from the rest of the players. Also I really have been going hard into the Greek myth references s

We defeated a dangerous enemy. Who or what was it?

Char and Scy, their real names are Charles D. Bis and Synthia Cate though people are more familiar with their aliases. These two are… Bad doesn’t even begin to cover this pair. They’re usual M.O. is stealing whatever is nearby and causing as much damage as possible in the process. The latter is rather easy thanks to their powers. Char is a pyrokinetic who likes creating vortexes of fire to burn every thing in the area. Scy can control her hair with each strand being insanely dense or light depending on what she wants it to be. The same goes with their length along with if any are either soft like regular hair or razor sharp. Even worse she can remove strands and still control them so she is rather fond of leaving her hair in places as a means to set traps. Mostly though she prefers to cut her victims up close and personal. Like they have been hacked up by a bunch of scythes. What a psycho. They were running amok, terrorizing the city and no heroes in sight. That’s when we showed up…

@Ironheart the GM's suggestion works for me though if any of it needs to be changed that's also fine with me. If I did my math correctly Argo was held captive by Orthrus for around thirty years though most of that won't matter in terms of affecting when the other PCs have been active.

I do like this connection from how Ironheart can see it as well as how it can affect Argo. Depending on how long it takes for the truth to come to light his reaction will vary. Even more so if during Ironheart helping to capture him again she noticed that instead of being a raging monster/weapon she noticed he was more afraid than anything. It might not have clicked for her right then but maybe later when she reflected on it. Regardless I like the connection.

@Reverie I think this all comes down to how Harold interacts with your character. Say instead of doing the PR event he asks her privately to keep an eye on his brother as a favor to him. Maybe by saying something that makes her think he means well. Such as "I can't protect but at least if I know you're looking out for him I won't worry as much" or something along those lines. Then there's also Argo would be grateful to Reverie for rescuing his brother, the only connection to the past he currently has. I think as long as Harold doesn't make a spectacle of trying to make  PR stunt with Reverie there should not be any misplaced feelings from Argo. There's also the opportunity of her being his love along with them being the two who are from the past.

That's the current idea at least since I was looking over who could be Argo's love. As funny as making Ironheart the love would be to me I think that would be even more awkward for them two especially Ironheart if he tried to be all buddy buddy with her. Harbinger knows about Leech's past and I think that would be too much for one character to have to deal with knowing both of their troubled pasts. Same with Leech since he is also an experiment Argo would probably not want to open up to him about it since Leech went through a similar ordeal and would not want to pick at the scab as it were for either of them by bringing that up. Cyclone could work though I'm having a difficult time trying to make that connection work but I'm open to any suggestions about who Argo's love could be as well as the rival.

Okay, so a thought that comes to mind for: We fought a terrible enemy from my old life. Who was it, and what did they take from me?

Like I've said before, my intention for this is to go with Ash, a pyrokene who Artiana worked with during some of her time in West Africa. What makes Ash a little unusual as a pyrokene is that their powers lie wholly in manipulation rather than creation and the way they express them is instead by taking fire, smoke and burning material and binding it to their body. They can go full Human Torch, cover their skin in a protective shell of thick ash and soot, trail smoke etc. before weaponising and releasing them later, but in all cases they need a fuel source to work with. It's something that's always made them insecure and spiteful, the sense that all that power is locked behind this limitation that makes them less useful than someone with a gun if they're not given prep time.

I can see Ash eventually having a falling out with their people, going rogue to find greener pastures (to burn) in New Atlantis, and perhaps falling in with Char and Scy for the obvious synergy between their powers and Char's, being more a junior partner and hired thug than a third top-tier threat. That doesn't need to be a thing though, and we could keep them totally separate without it hurting anything.

When this incident all went down they decided to take advantage of the chaos, and a brief to make a mess, to go settle past scores and hunt down Artiana on her own turf, maybe knowing her location through Vigilance's machinations/connections if that fits and makes any kind of sense. They brought the firestorm to part of Downtown where she'd made connections, baited her out, and started a brawl very much on their terms. Some or all of the team got involved (perhaps on their way to the main trouble with Char and Scy) and together we took Ash down before moving on to the real danger.

In this case the taking can be literal - property damage and loss of life in a district where Artiana had tentatively set down roots - or metaphorical, instead referring to the loss of that distance from her old life and self. Even if they failed to find some kind of vengeance, Ash still succeeded at taking from Artiana the sense that she could ever truly put her past behind her.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:30, Tue 10 Aug 2021.

Unfortunately, my time is going to be a little limited this next week, so my plotty posts might be hastier than otherwise! But here goes.

Re: Age

Although specifics probably aren’t needed, I think I have settled on 16-17 in 1984, which is when the teleporter malfunctioned Reverie into 2001 and the scary shadow of her ominous future.

Re: Ironheart

Digging the thoughtful character-building, Ironheart. Hyped to play with Artiana. (Also hyped to play with all, of course.)

Re: The Hess Twins and Reverie

Thanks for the helpful input, GM! With that in mind here are some ifs for comment.

If Reverie saves Harold during the big when the team first came together mess, and Harold afterward asked Reverie to keep an eye on Argo, it sounds like it could potentially lead to some very interesting story. I tend to think Reverie would avoid probing Harold’s mind too deeply, but she would probe a little. Because she’s a teenager and thus at least a little self-involved, she might be alarmed that he’s asking her because he thinks she’s a discount Vigilance and want to assure herself that’s not the case as well as that he really has Argo’s safety in mind, so if she picks up on genuine concern, I bet she’d be satisfied at this point in time. Of course, she’ll feel pretty bad if later on it turns out Harold’s motivations aren’t great, but guilt feeds the story soul.

Argo: Ah! I don’t think I quite understood earlier that you were thinking Harold would ask Reverie to watch out for Argo in a Public Media sort of way. I believe I like it better as a private ask. Also, if it would make Argo unhappy/angry, I think the more interesting story has the ask coming out in the worst possible way at the worst possible time when the team needs to be united and they’ve already been through some Hell and then here’s this little social dynamic thing that shouldn’t necessarily seem that bad but BOOM. Or something. (grin) Bulls are fun.

If Reverie saves Harold for the Innocent relationship (I'm putting that down for now!), I do think the spirit of the relationship lends itself better to adding to the love (“biggest defender”) than the rival, not that filling in one means the other also has to be filled in. Bonding over how weird the future will no doubt occur at some point regardless! So I'm 100% down to be the friend, but it's up to you!

Re: How We Came Together Prompts

Will comment tomorrow evening, or at least to give a more proper “rough writeup” for mine. Fading fast tonight, alas.

Random Curiosity

What Time Zone are we all in? EST, myself.

Thankies :)

We'll have to see how much of it actually comes through in the game...


I'm on BST. Not that you'd ever guess.

We still need to hear from two players, so I wouldn't worry too much about the speed at this point.

It occurs to me that the wording in this prompt: "I saved someone important to __________________; they’re now my biggest defender." might have caused some confusion. Since the relationships are aimed at player charcters, I interpret it as meaning that it would be Chasin, not Harold, who would be Reverie's biggest defender. So while Harold would probably also be grateful and potentially helpful, it's not necessary for him to give Reverie any public support at this point. Instead, the assumption is that Argo would be especially motivated to defend Reverie because of it. Which can certainly work with the Rival role. It would be a bit tangled, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Are Char and Scy basically meant to be local freelance supervillains? Either making trouble on their own or sometimes being hired/wrangled into lending their firepower to someone with a bigger plan. That would leave plenty of ways to connect them with any of the previously suggested hooks or other threats, if you wish.

As a possibility, perhaps Ash simply seized upon a firestorm as an opportunity? Then again, they may have set up that opportunity by manipulating the duo into attacking the target Ash was after, like a place where Ash knew Artiana was working. Which may have just happened to be a Dunamis-affilited warehouse or located next to a Dunamis facility, if you want to keep that idea. And of course thanks to Vigilance that much might not be a coincidence...

I can't help but think that a short-sighted and destructive thug who can make fire would find someone who can use it but can't make it kind of pathetic and useless. On the other hand, Ash might be able to offer the two something else, like information or connections.

BST=British Summer Time? I'm on YEKT (GMT+5) myself, though the actual time when I'm active can be all over the place.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:15, Tue 10 Aug 2021.

I've been thinking about my prompt. It states that we paid a terrible price, so the price has to be something that we'd all care about. That's a bit tricky since it's our origin story and we don't have much in the way of collective assets yet.

One thing that did leap out at me was the idea that Vigilance was taking advantage of the chaos to be up to some kind of shenigans, and we stopped her as well. Maybe the US government wasn't happy that we foiled their scheme, and ended up slandering us in the world press as a bunch of bumblers who'd if anything made Scy and Char's damage worse. Not sure if that goes against the premise assumption that we are neither famous nor infamous when the game starts, though.



GMT+1.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:14, Tue 10 Aug 2021.

That's the one.

Very good point RE: Ash; I was only thinking of things from their perspective. As useful as a minion you have inherent leverage over might be, it's probably not ideal for a supervillain to have a henchman who is near-exclusively of real use when they're working in close quarters to you. Probably best to leave them as an opportunist in this scenario (and give them at least some weak innate powers). Definitely feel as though it makes sense to keep them as a bit of a secondary threat if we're taking down three different targets on our first time having anything to do with each other.

@GM, I don’t think there was any confusion on the prompt concerning one of the Innocent’s relationship prompts. When the idea of Harold being pitched the one who is saved that would make Argo being the defender but I also mentioned Harold would make a PR stunt out of it and be a vocal supporter of Reverie. This is something I saw happening from Harold since he would not pass up the chance for damage control either if Dunamis Incorporated was the place attacked.That in turn would grind Argo’s gears since his brother wants to keep quiet about him but is not above standing there taking a photo with another teenage hero. That’s why the rival relationship was the one I first pitched because the love one did not feel like a good fit. Also why I said it might be better for Reverie to consider an NPC connected to another teammate. Something I’m still encouraging since we have not heard from two of the players and I don’t want them or anyone for that matter to feel left out. Currently though we reworked it Argo is more thankful since it fits better overall.

I’ve also put some thought into who the rival can be. I think out of the remaining PCs Harbinger would be a good fit. She is a scientist type and since Argo does not like those type ever since being experimented on that’s one reason for him to be guarded around. Plus with her wanting to change the future in other words control it sort of makes sense she would be fine trying to rein Argo in at some point. For the others I thought Ironheart would have been a little too much since there’s the connection of her being part of the reason he was taken back to Orthrus so no need to add more drama there. Leech I don’t see either since he vaguely sees Argo as an older brother figure so him trying to control the bull as a connection doesn’t feel as likely though not saying it could not have happened. Cyclone could also work though that’s one I’m finding more difficult to get a clear idea on.

@Reverie I didn’t mean Harold would ask her to do that publicly since that would not make much sense when he doesn’t want the connection between Argo and him known yet. I’m even thinking that Argo has not even told the team about his brother yet. Not so much because he wants to keep it a secret for the reasons his brother does but more he really doesn’t know how to approach the subject yet. I also meant with my original suggestion he would endorse Reverie publicly as a PR stunt as a means of damage control. If Dunamis Incorporated is attacked he would try to put a spin on it and take focus away by focusing on the one who saved him. That being said the idea is scrapped for now and unless a better option presents itself we’ll go with he thanked her (along with the rest of the team) and then privately asked her to look out for Argo at some point after the fact. Whether his intentions are purely good or not that’s to be seen but it should be interesting. So I’ll make Reverie his love and with that she knows all about his time spent with Orthus.

Char and Scy, these two I see as freelance villains but also make a habit of going out on their own since sometimes villains want to rob a bank because that’s what those types do. They get a certain level enjoyment out of it, so they’re more than happy to team up or take almost any job since it means they get to go out and do what they love.

I’ll also say if those two characters do not work overall for when the team first came together I can do a rewrite. I have a few more I came up with but decided on those two.

Sorry about the radio silence, folks. Life got crazy and I had a series of bad brain days, but I'm back now and catching up as best I can.

Regarding age, I think Harbinger is between sixteen and eighteen, probably closer to eighteen, but she's bitter and angry at the world enough that she probably acts a lot older.

Wherever she lives, Harbinger probably has a whole room devoted to a crazy hologram string theory diagram plotting out how she thinks the timeline goes from present to future, and how she thinks the future can be altered. She probably has a photo (or drawing, or other representation) for everyone somewhere in the diagram, so she can try to nudge things along as and when she remembers what the original Plan was supposed to be. Specifically:


From what I can see, Argo's got what it takes to step right up to danger, without having to go through the whole process of thinking and planning and preparing that Harbinger finds so tedious, so he's always been one of her favorites. Of course, now they've met and she can't actually say that, because he seems to think this is a rivalry thing (I am absolutely on board for everything you laid out there, Argo), and he's not a big fan of scientist types, and hooo boy, is he going to be annoyed if she has to nudge him any harder in the direction she needs him to go, so best to keep the whole "childhood hero" thing to herself.


This one's more difficult. Obvious choice is Ironheart, because Harbinger doesn't really believe in reform, per se, but I'm happy to entertain other ideas if anyone's got 'em.

I'd be willing. Hell, my character is under tremendous pressure, and he's literally a clone of a deranged megalomaniac, I'm sure he's one day away from a psychotic break at the best of times. :D If the clock was running out for him, he might have done something like blow up an entire city just because Atrocious was hiding in it. Or he might have rejoined Atrocious in return for a way to stabilise his powers so he could, y'know, not die.

Just able to pop on for a brief moment, but Leech - neat potential road to villainy.

Leech/Harbinger - as viewing audience, if you decide to slot Leech into that relationship, it does seem like it's a pretty nice echo. Leech confides his Doom to Harbinger hoping she can help/feeling she similarly knows what it's like not to have a future; Harbinger literally knows Leech's future/that he becomes a supervillain in an effort to avoid his Doom. Heck, maybe given how Harbinger's brain is, she remembers (or thinks she does) what he's like in the future because he confided in her...

...I'm appreciative that some of the big emerging themes of this team seems to be secrets, destiny, free will, etc.

Yup, we're seeing a lot of that classic teen/YA theme of characters who are/were 'supposed' to become something pushing back and trying to decide their own future.


I'm kinda curious about this idea if you'll indulge me: Harbinger thinks it's fair game to try and change the timeline to fix her own mistake but doesn't believe that other people deserve second chances?
This message was last edited by the player at 21:52, Thu 12 Aug 2021.

It's not so much that she thinks no one deserves a second chance, and more that she doesn't believe anyone's got the moral fortitude to make the reform stick. Except herself, of course, because she's got the sort of personality/ability combo that leads to grandiose pronouncements about how "they said I was mad!" but soon, she'll "show them all," and makes all her laughter sound sort of cackle-ish.

The time travel plot she doesn't think of as a second chance, instead she keeps telling herself that she's working for a better world for everyone, not just herself. Making sure Kate doesn't die is her primary goal, of course, but she's going to try to do that by making the world a better place, rather than installing herself as god-empress for life. Everyone wins, she just has to be the one in the driver's seat for editing the timeline, because someone else might get it wrong, whereas she won't let herself believe that she could be so fallible.

In short, she's on a long road to Villain Town herself, and her opinions on the subjects of redemption and second chances should all be considered suspect.

Leaning toward Leech for the "destined to go bad" slot now, incidentally.

I see. Thanks for the explanation :)

First of all, I'm very glad to hear from Harbinger. I've already heard from Cyclone Burst's player by PM, so we can consider the team composition confirmed. I wouldn't worry about being slow to respond. What I wrote about the posting rate (i.e. try to post at least once a week and warn us if you can't - it's nice if we can go faster, but not mandatory) pretty much applies here too. This set-up is important, so it's better not to rush it anyway.

Re: the price you paid. Good point, Leech. I do wonder whether there may be something else you all have in common... like ties to the Downtown, maybe? Perhaps the price can be related to that. Otherwise, though, it will have to be the team. Reputational damage may work. You still won't be hated per se, but some individuals and groups may be leery of working with you, both because you may be seen as incompetent and because the more clued-in people will be wary of crossing the Americans and Vigilance, who evidently have it in for you guys. I'd suggest that making an enemy of her could be a price in its own right, but I think Reverie's relationship with her more or less ensures that anyway.

Re: the incident. I think Char and Scy would work well. There are plenty of morally-dubious masterminds on the board already. We need dumb muscle to balance them out. Ash is good too. I am fine with them taking away Artiana's sense of successfully escaping from her old life. It may be a little abstract, but it works. Perhaps they made sure to call out Artiana by name, so that the people she worked with would know who is "to blame" for the attack there?

Without wishing to step on Reverie's toes, it occurs to me that there may have been a chain of puppet-mastery here. Vigilance could have used subtle psychic influence to manipulate Ash, letting them know where Artiana can be found. Ash, in turn, could have manipulated Char and Scy by suggesting or luring them towards a good target. Char and Scy are after carnage and whatever they can grab; Ash is after revenge; and Vigilance has something else in mind, but is content to let the catspaws think they're all acting on their own goals. Your call, though.

Also, are you guys sticking with the idea of attacking a Dunamis facility? No one has a question that obviously relates to the target of the attack, so I guess you can decide it by group consensus. The corporation is bound to be a presence anyway due to Argo's connections, so personally I'd recommend it. I think it would also make sense for Dunamis to conduct superpowers-related research - and for Vigilance to crack down on that for any number of reasons.

Re: relationships. Interesting discussion. I'll hold off for now, however, except to point out that somebody should probably give a relationship to Cyclone Burst. Maybe it would be easier to decide once he posts here, though.

(Also: "Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong."?)

Re: themes. Well, I did pick those team members for a reason. :P I'd say an Innocent and a Harbinger are bound to put fate on the table, even more so than the others do.

Oh definitely. I'm not going to claim to have ever locked in a 100% certain sense of how things played out but there's always been a very vindictive element there. Ash is hunting down Artiana with the intention of taking every part of the new life she's tried to make for herself, and it's very much in their nature to want to rub salt in her wounds for no reason than spite alone. I can definitely see them deliberately going out of their way to give an audience some idea of their history - the good ol' tense standoff and mid-fight villain monologue - and dragging things out to cause more damage, perhaps giving the team the time they need to get on the scene.

Artiana's definitely falling in the don't talk about your past camp so it's very possible this could be the first time some of her friends and associates get any real sense of who she was before. Between being confronted by a ghost from her past, the sense of responsibility for everything going wrong, and maybe an off-hand jab about Ash not being the only one who knows she's here, I can certainly see Artiana feeling like all those efforts to hide away her pre-New Atlantis self have come to nothing. She isn't allowed a fresh start and maybe all this pain and suffering is the result her selfish belief that she could yet deserve one.

---

I'm floating a relationship question but was hoping to get a better understanding of everyone before deciding who fit it best:


I'm still not totally sure who that'd suit, so maybe that could be Cyclone Burst? Hard to make any kind of judgement right now.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:54, Fri 13 Aug 2021.

@Harbinger glad you are on board for being the rival and I really dig the relationship you're considering for Argo. It could go a lot of ways with one being "never meet you heroes" or her maybe pushing him to be the hero she always saw him as only for him to take it differently because of the whole rival perspective. I will mention for the rival relationship Harbinger does try to control Argo at a crucial point so we should hash out what that exactly so it can be referenced as needed.

For the price paid prompt maybe it was someone was injured or worse. Say a resident superhero the public loved who is no longer able to perform their duties due to being injured while rescuing the team. That or maybe there was a young hero hoping to put a team together and was scouting some of us because they believed we had potential only for them to die so their death is part of the reason we all banded together. I know it basically makes an NPC a Phil Coulson but I thought I would throw the idea out there.

Some thoughts on Leech’s prompt/what we all care about.





Keeping in mind that in the end I'm pretty good with whatever you decide, I do kinda feel like the team’s relationship with Vigilance is already sort-of baked in and that kind of broad reputational damage doesn’t necessarily feel like a new terrible price to me (I don't think Reverie cares very much about her reputation, for instance, as long as it isn't "you're awfully like that American hero, aren't you? Twins!"). And slandered in the world press does sound a little too well-known for how we're supposed to start off, though if the GM doesn't mind...

So, Leech, what if the reputational damage was more localized, to an area we all valued a lot, sorta like the GM suggested? That might also give us good cause to stick together/something to hang a team name on. We all seem to be sort’ve fish out of water types, none of us are from New Atlantis originally, so it would probably really hurt if we had to abandon a spot/person that/who made us feel comfortable. Could we all have shared an ally who gets hurt, like Argo suggested, or simply loses trust in us/decides we're not welcome anymore because of the chaos of the battle? Is there the implication that this is punishment for going against Vigilance/the American interests?

Maybe in order to do everything we need to do the terrible price is a deal we make with ...somebody on the Soviet side or Guiding Light side or Still Another Side... A Damocles-sword type geasa/favor yet to be cashed?

Darn, it IS rather tricky to figure out a terrible price when we're just figuring out our origins. Could we have had to destroy somebody's life work/research?

Re: Cyclone Burst!

Hooray, I'm glad they are confirmed for the team roster! Rather than a relationship slot, I was leaning toward giving Cyclone Burst an influence point, just to spread the social tie wealth around - but it will be easier to say once we hear from them, especially as to what kind of protege they're going to be playing, business or playful.

Re: Other Things

Still thinking about proper write-up of Vigilance's plans and the thwarting there-of. This whole weekend is a bit of a mess (I know there's no hurry; just addressing why I'm not addressing it in-depth here yet :P).

But GM, no toes are stepped on with: Vigilance could have used subtle psychic influence to manipulate Ash, letting them know where Artiana can be found. Ash, in turn, could have manipulated Char and Scy by suggesting or luring them towards a good target.

That's sort of where I was going to go with it, though your write up is much cleaner
.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:08, Fri 13 Aug 2021.

Hmm, I agree that it would probably be better if we lost an ally - perhaps he was also the person who brought us all together in the first place? If he then died in the fighting, it might lend a lot of pathos to the team, since we're going on in his memory.

What sort of person should it be, though? Leech probably has the scientific parts of his crusde covered (at least once he brings Harbinger on board), so what he needs is mainly intel. So... some kind of master spy type, like an experienced CIA agent or something?

Re: price paid.

The "world news" bit did strike me as a bit incongruous, but local reputational damage seems more appropriate. I also agree that it seems like a pretty low price at first glance - but if it causes problems for the team, then I think it would work fine. Reverie may not care about her reputation, but it may still do some appreciable harm in some scenarios.

I would like it if you came up with a weightier price that works for everyone, though. If you're going with the ally option, then that brings us back to my question about the premise. Was there some person who could reach out to all of you and get you working together? Or did you all just seize the chance to be heroes, gladly or not?

It's your choice, of course. However, having some master spy bring you together to deal with the rampage seems a bit... I don't know, contrived. Especially if it's someone who only existed in the backstory long enough to bring you all together and then die. There are ways to make it work, I think. For instance, maybe it was an American intelligence operative who knew about but decided to go against Vigilance's plans? But personally, I'd probably go for something else.

Maybe instead it could be someone important to that particular corner of the Downtown? A respected member of the local community, or maybe the owner of a hangout where you may have met before. I don't want to force some variant of the Downtown angle on you, but there are definitely some character links to the area:
 - Ironheart will have worked there as part of the Rebirth Program;
 - An abandoned warehouse like the one Leech is squatting in is most likely to be down there;
 - Reverie's backstory features a couple of locations from the Downtown, and I would guess she spends a lot of time there;
 - Ithaca Apartments where Argo is staying might be down there too. Not as sure about it as the warehouse (and in any case you can both contradict me on those if you have something different in mind), but if the point is for him to stay under the radar, it would make a lot of sense for it to be in a Downtown apartment.

With that in mind, I think it could make sense to have some locale there get destroyed in the flames and/or an important and sympathetic local killed - or better yet, badly injured - in the crossfire. That place, or that person, may well have helped bring you together in some more mundane way, before or during the fight. Anyway, your call, but they don't all have to be super spies.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:03, Sat 14 Aug 2021.

In reply to Master of Games (msg # 41):

I'm good with that. :) I don't have any ideas for who that person should have been, though. Suggestions, anyone? ^_^;

If you want to go with a person dying in the battle you could have them be connected to each of the PCs even if it's only minor. This is only a suggestion so feel free to disregard, change it or whatever you wish to do.

Say the hero worked with the Rebirth Program or was an advocate for Ironheart to be given a second chance. They also was someone Reverie knew back during her time, maybe even one of the people who was on her team or a former member. To Harbinger this was one of the people who she believed needed to live for her to complete her mission so now she has to figure out another way to solve it. For Leech, maybe this person was someone who was offering to take him in you know be a guardian of sorts or go the intel route like you suggested. For Argo this was the hero who apprehended him when he escaped from Orthrus the last time and basically saved the guy from their clutches even if that was not the hero's intended goal. The person could have been an established member of the community and maybe seen as the next paragon for New Atlantis and now they're dead because of the team.

If we're going with Dunamis Incorporated being one of the places that suffered during the attack I don't think it would make sense for that to include downtown. That being said if downtown works better for the prompt then let's go with that.

I'd assume the Dunamis HQ would be Uptown or Midtown, but there is no reason why they can't have some other facilities in the Downtown as well. Like a warehouse or a lab conducting sensitive tests that they don't want to get as much attention.

Re: Dunamis Inc being targeted in the attack.

I think this makes sense, and fits when Reverie will be saving good ol' Harold. From what we've been throwing around, I wasn't necessarily imagining the HQ, but a smaller office/facility - something with interesting, possibly secret stuff.

Re: high price

Leech: Is this person going to die or be injured in some permanent way? My suggestions will vary, depending.

(In either case, I don't really need or want them to be connected to Reverie's past. I'm really happy for it to be a New Atlantis native! Gotta have ties here and now, after all. :P)

Re: the GMs other team questions.

Team name thoughts: I'm very bad at coming up with team names which is why Reverie's old team doesn't have a name in her backstory. The Hey Yous? New Guardians? The Rascals? Society's Last Defense (used mockingly by others maybe shortened to the Last Defense)? Menace Squad? Pizza Protectors? >.> Like I said, bad.

Leader: No real thoughts here.

Premise: Right place, right time - is that why we were all there? It kind of feels like what might work here is a half and half situation - a couple members of the team just happened to get embroiled, a couple others were there pursuing leads or something, maybe a couple of them already knew each other out of mask or not, and boom they all wound up working together.

Affiliation: I don't have a strong preference one way or another here, and may feel more creative on the morrow.

Okay: some kinda-sorta stream of consciousness overthinking-while-also-not-thinking-enough thoughts. Sorry if that means I end up saying a lot without saying much.

Price Paid:

Personally I’d rather avoid anything too specific to Ironheart if possible. My own prompt is already factoring in some kind of loss, and I can’t help but feel like pushing anything notably distinct on top of that risks moving into overly angsty territory. It might not actually be a problem but it’s just a concern I have bubbling up.

Artiana’s already getting a push to stop hiding herself away from her own prompt, so I don’t think she needs another gut punch to convince her to be a hero.

Team stuff:

I feel like a bit of a spanner in the works is that a lot of this ties in (indirectly or not) to Cyclone Burst’s prompt. Obviously we can all make suggestions and try to rationalise things out but ultimately they’re supposed to be the one who casts the deciding vote on why this team stuck together. The answer to a question like that can have a lot of impact on our characters’ relationships, the tone we’re going for, and just generally the ‘aesthetic’ of the team itself.

Like I can’t help but think that the Team Name and Leader are going to have a lot to do with the actual motivations behind this team coming together. A group united (as a completely off-the-cuff example) by Harbinger going out of her way to make sure these specific individuals intersect and stay together might be themed to match her influence, while one put together by the proper authorities to keep us in check or with a sponsor might have a very different feel and distinct branding. There could be a big difference between what a group of teens might call themselves and the optics a bigger organisation wants to present.

---

How seriously are the PCs taking this team? Which of them are really invested in it? These things feel like they should have an impact on how we represent ourselves (and who takes responsibility).

I point to this in particular because Artiana probably doesn’t much care about that sort of thing. She’s not going to want to be the leader and she’s certainly playing too aloof to be caught dead suggesting team names that are anything less than SRS. I’m in no way suggesting we can’t have a more colourful name for the team, just that in-universe it’s going to be the product of someone other than her.

Reverie touched on this in the last post, but I think it’s maybe worth considering what the PCs' motivations for getting involved here were:

• Did they already have costumed identities?
• Were they personally invested in what went down or did they just want to help or get dragged in etc?
• What do they want/get out of being on this team?

Those seem like the sort of thing that might really play into who took charge in regards to putting/keeping a team together and what our mission statement and identity is.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:56, Mon 16 Aug 2021.

Okay, let's just say that Downtown had a local hero called Brightheart, who had taken down a number of dangerous threats and seemed poised to become one of New Atlantis' signature champions. He and Leech had teamed up a few times before, and Leech considered him a mentor of sorts. When Scy and Char started their rampage, he was one of the heroes who appeared to stop them, but he was killed in the final showdown.

You can all decide if you want any personal connections to Brightheart or not.

ETA: Also, as far as leaders go... I vote "Not Me." :p My character has too much of a personal agenda and too little people skills to have much ability or inclination to bring other people together.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:37, Mon 16 Aug 2021.

Team stuff:

I’m setting myself a goal of having a “proper” write-up for my backstory prompt for everybody by tomorrow. Noting that I think their coming together is probably a day’s worth of trouble—definitely a whole movie’s worth!—I think the basic beats for when we first came together so far are:

We defeated a dangerous enemy. Who? Char & Scy run amok. Fire! Destruction! Danger! Brute force! Theft! Did we mention danger? A Dunamis Inc facility is involved, perhaps one that was conducting super-powers-related research. No established heroes in sight. Teen heroes, assemble!

But wait, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We fought a terrible enemy from Ironheart’s old life. Who, and what did they take from Artiana? Separate from Char & Scy, Ash—a super villain formerly (?) part of the Corsair Network—strikes at Artiana, reformed villain on a jobsite downtown, bringing the firestorm from Char & Scy to bear. Thought you escaped your past, Artiana? It’ll never let you go. She’s left shaken.

Look deeper. The iceberg is a big one. Reverie’s future self was involved, and she tried to stop them. It took the rest of the team to help her succeed. How did we stop Vigilance’s plans? *abandons 'basic beats' format to dig in plottily* Here are many plotty words and please comment away or share thoughts. Yes, Vigilance used subtle psychic influence to kick the chaos off w/ Ash; she intended to use the diversion to move Mysterious Thing* off New Atlantis to an American hero waiting in the waters. Yes, Reverie figured out Vigilance’s goal, possibly because she recognized the signs of her own-style mental interference and dug deep enough in somebody’s head to put the pieces together—maybe in the middle of everything else going on, or right after they’ve helped Artiana with Ash and are turning their attention to the sh*t Char and Scy are still getting up to. Everybody’s skills basically contribute to a game of keepaway/reverse-heist. It ends when the Mysterious Thing is returned to owner (or destroyed/damaged so it can't be used any longer).

At first I wasn’t sure Vigilance would show up physically at all, and I’m still not 100% sure what would make the best story. Perhaps Vigilance shows up only at the end of the keep away game, just enough to do something morally ambiguous, and force either the hasty breaking-of-the-thing or the returning-of-the-thing. Then Vigilance probably just helped clean up the mess, all good will. But essentially: Perhaps with the team already bonding against external threats (Ash, Char, Scy), when Reverie notices the plotty shady underhanded dealing going on and asks for help, everybody’s down. Cue keep-away, while also defending downtown. Plot foiled when Thing is returned to owner and/or is broken.

Thoughts on Mysterious Thing: Could be a person who works for Dunamis Inc, perhaps, or Mysterious Thing can be a floppy disc or CD rom or microchip with research compiled from Dunamis and Storm Petrel or maybe something like a piece of music which is actually a key to a portion of New Atlantis’s defenses.

A real mess. We paid a high cost for victory. What was it? Brightheart, a local hero who came on the scene and who had some connections with the group, didn’t make it out to star in the sequel.

Note: I will def come up with a personal connection but it will probably be pretty basic. Like, Brightheart knows Elena, or just happens to be somebody Reverie has interacted with a bit. She does spend a bit of time downtown.

We stuck together after all was said and done. Why? How’d we keep in contact?

Over to you, Cyclone Burst!

We averted a disaster from the history’s timeline. What was the disaster? What effect do we hope it had on the timeline?

Over to you, Harbinger!

... I'm so sorry my posts are such wallcrushers, haha. I have more to comment on but I'll leave this one here for now.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:16, Mon 16 Aug 2021.

Sorry for the short post, it's been a long day but I wanted to get something in.

Team Name: I don't have any suggestions at the moment though like it was mentioned earlier it depends on how the characters are tackling teaming up. If some are more hesitant then maybe a team name has not been chosen yet. It's also worth mentioning how long it has been since the PCs first worked together. If it's not been very long then maybe a name hasn't been decided on yet.

Team Leader: What I said about the team name can be applied here as well. If I recall each time the team steps out to handle a scene we decide on who the leader is for that particular scene. So maybe an official leader doesn't need to be chosen. That or maybe whoever is picked should be decided as the game unfolds.

Downtown: I really had Dunamis only having the main compound but if there needs be a lab this away then okay. For it to make more sense that could be where Argo was taken for testing and also why he was close by when the attack happened.

Re: Brightheart. Okay, I can work with that! Feels a bit weird to have two heroes with -heart in their names so close together, but eh, it's as good a name as any. Any other details you may come up with will be appreciated, though I will fill in any remaining blanks myself. One thing in particular - approximately how much older is he suppoed to be?

Re: Vigilance's role. I assume the Thing was stolen from the facility? As a stray thought, if you are going for someone working for Dunamis, you might be able to unite that with the relationship and have Vigilance try to kidnap Harold. I can think of any number of (probably secret) reasons for why she would want the R&D head of a major corporation involved in superpowers research.

In this case, kidnapping can be achieved through long-distance mind control of the sort that's probably beyond Reverie's ability to effect... for now. Deniability is a major plus of this method, though she may still show up in person to keep Reverie from interfering. The chaos is excellent cover for someone to die or go missing. Even if anyone saw Harold, they might think that he was wandering around in a shock before falling into the water, terrible but easy to believe under the circumstances. It would draw Argo into Reverie's story more, which may or may not be something that you want at this stage (that said, PCs being dragged into each other's stories is naturally going to happen anyway).

Or you can go with something else entirely.

Re: Dunamis. It's your call, Argo, but to me it makes sense that a major group with such varied interests would have more than one building in the city. Though, we can have most of their other assets concentrated in the main compound. I do like the idea of this being the remote and secretive testing lab.

Re: leader, yeah, you can definitely just choose one on a case by case basis or wait for one to emerge during play.

It could always be a tribute (whether well-meaning or calculated) on Artiana's part as she didn't have an alias prior to this.

I guess maybe mid-twenties? Not a grizzled veteran, but definitely an older member of the same generation.

In regards to Dunamis and the lab, I'm fine with whatever works best for the story. Apologies for the short reply. It's been a long week and my brain is fried.

In case it was not clear, I still want some details from Reverie. What exactly was Vigilance after? How did you stop her? Answering that would be enough - there may be plenty of other mysteries left for later, such as why she was interested in Dunamis and whatever or whoever she took in the first place. That could be interesting to pursue during play.

While more information on Brightheart or any connections you may have with him would be welcome, I consider Leech's question answered.

Incidentally, if Artania picked her name as a tribute, that seems like it could easily backfire for someone with her playbook... at least at first. After all, it's "her fault" he died. Those who knew him as their protector are liable to take offence, or judge her even more harshly because of it. I think that could play out just fine if you're up for it.

Next we come to Cyclone Burst's question, and here we have a problem as his player has not logged in for over a week. I've tried to reach out by PM and rMail, but haven't heard anything since the last time I mentioned being in contact. I'm still hoping to hear back from PSinha, as there may be any number of real life problems that have their attention. If I do not get anything (whether a full post or just a quick status update) by... let's say 10:00 AM GMT on August 27 (Friday), I think it would be easier by this point to push on ahead with a five-member team, and try to answer his question and related ones by group consensus. While I would really prefer to keep him, I think the smaller team would work just fine, and there is no sense in us waiting forever in radio silence.

Sounds good.

Maybe the name itself is very charged (and she hasn't wholly thought through the consequences of using it) but to her it's statement of intent and cover in one. She can claim - honestly and disingenuously - to be paying tribute to a great hero while also labouring the point that she's not Brightheart if people get on her back and that it isn't her fault if they expect better from someone like her. That lets him occupy a space in her psyche as the (likely unreachable) aspirational goal she both chases and rails against ... which could probably make for a decent parallel with Cyclone Burst and his mentor now that I think about it.

Okay. We can always revisit this if Cyclone Burst returns, but I thought it would make sense to start thinking about my second relationship now rather than leaving all discussion 'til the end of the week.

So:

Argo is ineligible for this as they've already taken up one of my relationships, but does anyone else feel that it might suit them?

What sort of heroes are your characters?

A quiet one, who tends to stick to the shadows. More a hero of opportunity than a crusader for justice - he's got a nemesis that he's focused on, so while he'll stop a mugging if he runs into one, he won't go looking for it.

Sadly, I've still heard nothing from PSinha, so we are going to go ahead without Cyclone Burst for now. I reserve the right to reverse this if I do hear from the player in the near future, but we shall probably have to move on.

Most of the Relationships and Influences seem to have been already decided, and I have updated the first post accordingly. Please correct me if I have made some mistake. If I'm right, though, Ironheart's "hero example" relationship and Reverie's Influence are the only things we need to resolve there. Plus Ironheart's Influence if that has changed. Incidentally, if she does go for the closed book approach, then it would probably make sense to give the one Influence and the relationship to the same person, given the phrasing.

Cyclone Burst's question does not strictly speaking need to be answered according to the rules if he is out... but it is something best addressed now anyway. Why did you decide to remain a team after that first incident?

For that matter, how? Do you have a shared hideout or hangout somewhere? Did you swap contact information? I suppose Reverie might be able to reach out to the rest of the team psionically, or maybe Harbinger made/improved a communication device. Or if you have outside backing, they may have provided for this as well. I think it's best to decide this part now as well, since it would be invaluable for setting up scenes.

EDIT: Oh, and also, how long ago was the incident? Sorry if I overlooked this, but I don't think that was decided?
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:22, Fri 27 Aug 2021.

I'd generally assumed the heroic example and lone influencer were going to be the same, yeah; it only makes sense. Still kinda hoping to get a little more clarity from Harbinger and Reverie on how they're looking to present their characters as heroes (what it means to them and how pragmatic/idealistic they are etc) before locking that one in.

---

I feel like there's a lot still up in the air when it comes to all that other stuff. By my reckoning the list is something like:

• Why we stuck together
• If we have any backers/oversight
• If we're a formal team or a loose group of individuals
• How long we've been together
• Probably some other things I'm overlooking...

I'm going to be the first to admit that I'm not super confident offering any definitive answers here. Not sure if I have any particularly strong leanings. As such don't think that I'm super crazy about any of these suggestions or attached to them enough that I'd want to fight for them. I'd be very open to taking things in other directions.

Why we stuck together

From Artiana's perspective the team are people who bailed her out in a rough spot and quite possibly both saved her life and prevented more significant collateral damage to an area she has no small attachment to. She owes them something of a debt of gratitude and respect - not that she'd ever be emphatic in expressing it - and is also probably intrigued by the idea of getting to spend time with people like herself (i.e. with powers) to get a better sense of how they express themselves and live their lives. Being involved with the team is also an avenue by which to prove and better herself.

I feel like as a team in general it's not that hard to put together a rough idea of why we stuck together. We've got two time travelers whose goals seem intertwined, if not strictly directly linked, and a bunch of others who've had pasts shaped by their connections to supervillains or at least 'bad guys' so there's a fair bit of common ground. Harbinger certainly seems to have a vested interest to have some or all of us on call, and I can definitely see some trading of contact information after the first outing leading into some general meet-ups and unofficial team-ups before we decided to make the team a definite real thing. We've all kinda got agendas of our own or a general want to do something good that makes strength in numbers pretty appealing.

If we have any backers/oversight

Artiana's always bringing some degree of oversight and has her own (not entirely legal) sources, but I'm not sure how I feel about wedding the team itself to something like that. It can certainly make sense - we're either in poor standing after making a mess of things or we've got someone trying to salvage our rep - but at the same time I think it maybe (?) risks making things a bit too corporate. Like there's a big difference between a group of teens running the hero game on their own time and those who are being regulated or supplied by an organisation above them. It could change the character of things in a big way.

Personally I don't think that's a bad thing, but at the same time it feels like the sort of thing we'd all need to be on board with before committing to. Shouldn't be the default.

If we're a formal team or a loose group of individuals

This is kinda tied into the last point.

I'd imagine that, as a team who mostly have less-than-sunny pasts, we're probably not the most keen to put ourselves out there and court the press, and Reverie likely would rather avoid giving Vigilance too much reason to pay her much attention. As such I'd suppose we're unlikely to have too formal a set-up. We might have a team name and work together but it's more of an opt-in job than a lifestyle.

Kinda curious about actual interpersonal connections. Like Relationships certainly imply that Artiana and Natalie are something like friends and spend time together, but how close are we as people beyond that? Are we just punch-clock friends and allies of convenience or do we hang out?

How long we've been together

/shrug

I'd assumed it wasn't exactly recent. Like it was the inciting incident that brought the team together but we'd developed an identity and dynamics that weren't wholly shaped by its fallout.

I've been traveling, but looking to answer some of these questions this weekend, everybody! Just popping in to say so.

First up, what sort of hero is Reverie. Lo, there was rambling: Reverie’s definitely an idealistic hero and an optimist, essentially a hopeful sort-of hero. Reverie has a (small) pragmatic streak, but even that’s guided by an idealistic belief that good is worth fighting for no matter what the odds. I mean, faced with this darkest timeline version of herself, her instinct isn’t just “figure out what happened and make sure it doesn’t when I go back to the past,” but ‘save’ Vigilance now, so just in case she can’t change the timeline, things don’t continue as they are.

She decided to do heroing now in the future rather than just focusing on getting back home or the Eidolon or Vigilance, because Reverie believes both that she has a responsibility to make the world better—but also that responsibility is a choice. Admittedly, she thinks she has this responsibility especially because in her view Vigilance isn’t getting the job done the way she wants herself to get the job done—but even if we don’t consider Reverie’s dynamic with her future self, it doesn't sit right with her to chill on the sidelines when she could try and make a difference. Reverie's big on hope, believes in second chances, big on trying to help people rise to be their most legendary self, big on freedom and personal choice and compassionate justice. She’s very used to being reckless with herself when the chips are down, which is something she still struggles with. Most of the Innocent playbook's moves seem to involve the Savior stat, so I definitely kept that in mind.

Sponsorship/Backers/Oversight:

A sponsor could be cool, whether it's an adult hero who's decided that it's best to give this gang some guidance considering/community service-orientated or some sort of organization proper. What does everybody else think? Would this add to the teen dynamic in a fun way? Would it be informal or formal?

That said, given her background, Reverie is anti-the idea of being controlled by any adult organization whatsoever. Which doesn’t mean that we can’t have a sponsor! Indeed, given her general schtick, might be kind of a fun contrast. She’d just be very cautious of it and constantly advocate for more independence, while gratefully accepting any help. Allies are great! Getting turned into an asset is not. Being used to further plans one doesn't have enough information to sign onto is not.

How long ago was the get together incident:

Same as Ironheart here.

I'd like it to be at least a couple of months, just to give us a chance to have established all those pre-set relationships/dynamics. Masks gives us the chance to drop into the action with a team already together, so why start at the beginning when we don't have to, is my general attitude ooc, although I don't mind it still being "newer." I think I said before I'd prefer them not to have been together longer than a year, just because I don't want Reverie to have been in the present that long yet, but I'm flex for how many months, etc. Two? Three? Six?

More later!

What sort of hero is Harbinger?
Harbinger's definitely more pragmatic than idealistic. She's laser-focused on her overriding goal, and anything positive that spins out of that is just sort of a happy accident for her.

Backers/Oversight: I feel like Harbinger would be fine with backers, but she's going to resent any sort of oversight. She's used to being the smartest girl in any room and bring in control herself, so she'll have a hard time letting anyone else have any kind of control over her, especially an authority figure.

Why/How did we stick together?
I think Brightheart, sacrificial guest star of Issue 1, was sort of Harbinger's "Plan A" for changing the future. When that plan went south, she had to scramble for a Plan B, and this team is what she came up with. A few hours in the workshop later, and she's got secure communicators for everyone and a brand new road map to a brighter tomorrow. Just gotta let someone else think the team is their idea, else it'll all fall apart if she ceases to exist because Causality.

With that in mind, I guess it makes the most sense for the inciting incident to have been a month ago, maybe two? Time enough to get to know each other, not enough time for the drama to set in and tear us all apart?


In the original timeline, Ash got out of this mess and eventually came back later with the power-enhancing technology of their dreams, but it was an unstable device and when Ash lost control of the situation, the resulting inferno crippled the city. In this timeline, Ash was defeated by a plucky group of misfits (Us. We're the misfits), and we hope this prevents them from acquiring and using the unstable enhancement tech that burned the island in the original timeline. For Harbinger, intervening was mostly an experiment aimed at answering "can I change the future at all, and would my memories change with it if I did?" (Spoiler alert: she can, they do, but now she's got two sets of memories regarding this event and its ramifications, and they both feel equally valid).

Thanks for the input, guys.

Ideally I'd wanted to avoid doubling up like this, but in light of what's been said I'll be going with: I’ve earned the trust of Reverie, and I follow their example of what a hero should be.

Main deciding factor was that Harbinger and Leech probably aren't a million miles from Ironheart in terms of their baseline position and I wanted something a bit aspirational for Artiana. Pragmatism and opportunism are things she can bring to the table herself, and while there's obviously conflict in wanting to do more/better but deferring to someone who has less lofty goals, I would rather Influence at least initially be something pulling her up rather than holding her back so to speak. That sort of thing can always change and shift as things go on anyway.

So that means Reverie also gets my lone point of Influence. Feel privileged, bestie :)

(Also it's kinda neat how this now leaves Reverie well and truly caught in the middle between Ironheart and Argo.)

Sponsorship: I don't see Argo being thrilled about having someone telling the team what to do even if having such support would be beneficial but I as a player am fine either way.

Incident: A couple of months sounds best. Like Reverie said, it's long enough that the relationship connections can be established and short enough that the event is still sort of fresh in the public's mind.

Speaking of relationships, I know mine has been filled out but I never gave any detail to one concerning Harbinger being Argo's rival and trying to control him at a crucial moment. I'm going to go ahead and say what happened. If it needs to edited it can but I think it works.

There was a time after the team came together where Harbinger and Argo were working together. Perhaps they just so happened to be nearby when the rest of the team was elsewhere or some other reason. That aside, they were trying to apprehend a villain when said person used civilians to try to escape. Argo went to save the people when Harbinger tried to get him to go after the villain. Maybe the villain being caught was part of her plan to alter the timeline or whatever their player wants to come up with. Since then though Argo has seen Harbinger being similar to the members of Orthrus in terms of forsaking innocent lives to complete the mission. I as a player am not saying that's the case but the Bull has to have some beef with the rival.

I think this is coming together well. For various reasons, I have become rather busier than I expected myself, but I think at the current pace we should be able to start the game proper in two weeks (if not sooner). At least, that is my current goal, barring objections and/or unforeseen delays.

Sounds like the incident was two months ago, then. Plenty of time for relationship-building in the meantime, like Argo's example.

About the incident: perhaps in the original timeline, Ash got the technology from the facility they attacked? Then everything unfolded as per Harbinger. The later, bigger fire may not have been enough to start WWIV or ruin New Atlantis by itself, but the damage it did to the city and its defenders would prove critical as other things went wrong in the future. For want of a nail...

Whereas here, Harbinger alerted Brightheart to the danger. From what I understand, at least some of those other misfits will have already been on the scene or nearby. So at least Harbinger wouldn't have had to run off to get more heroes (as I'm not sure if the situation would've lasted long enough for her to do so), and could have simply stayed behind to support and coordinate their efforts. Does that sound right?

Hmm. By the way, what happened to Ash, Char and Scy at the end? I suppose Ash was arrested by ATLAS or the police. The other two may have fought their way free in the confusion and made it to the nearest safehouse - or not? What would you prefer?

As for oversight, having some adult hero in particular be associated with you could be interesting. I'm not sure if it's really necessary if Harbinger is already there to micromanage you, but having an occasionally interfering adult ally to butt heads with her (and Reverie, and Argo...) could be interesting. Perhaps a superpowered agent or associate of ATLAS, given Ironheart's existing connection?

Pared down version of all the stuff we've chatted about re: Reverie's "when we came together" still coming, but as far as an adult superhero who checks in on everybody goes: A superpowered agent of ATLAS would be cool. Another possibility I'll throw out there: Someone associated w/ Brightheart? Their mentor or a team member of theirs? Which could make it a bit awkward to just resentfully shut them down in true teen style whenever the interference gets too annoying.

Why not combine the ideas? The superpowered agent of ATLAS could also be a family member of Brightheart's. Someone who went that path and tried to get Brightheart to do the same. Now they have to keep an eye on the kids who cost them a loved one.

@Ironheart. I'll treasure the point of influence long after it's gone. :P Given our character's relationship(s), do we want to perhaps say they knew each other prior to the team's first coming together? Happy to leave it vague or to work it out more specifically in PMs/wherever.

@Master of Games, Everybody, re: Char, Scy, Ash.



I think we should have been able to turn the villains over to the authorities/ATLAS, in the end, especially since another hero actually died. Although I also think it might be neat if either Char or Scy escapes. Not both, though! Gotta have that potential villain-trying-to-spring-partner storyline later on.

--

Here we go. Big Wallcrusher When We First Came Together: Tried to condense everything we've been chatting about and put it into the greater context of the scene. Hopefully all questions are answered!


We stopped Vigilance’s plan. Hooray! Vigilance’s plan seems to have been to get her hands on Project Trendsetter, and she’d’ve loved that; it would have been a huge plus. But her actual goal was to get Harold Hess out’ve New Atlantis and into an American facility. How did we stop the plan? A two-prong stop, set against chaotic supervillainy.

First: w/ some telepathy work, Reverie found shady research assistant Jakob Visser and some hired muscle making off with Dunamis Inc. property in a way that pinged her this is what I’m, uh, I mean Vigilance is after can’t let her get this thing it would be bad for it to be out in the world, and together the team reclaimed a cube w/ schematics and a rare but difficult-to-reproduce yet-also-essential battery of a device called Show Dog (more on that below). Leech drained the battery (if Leech can drain energy from machines as well as organic things; or perhaps even if he can just drain energy from organic things? Dun dun DUN), the rest used their powers to play “keep away” from Visser and some of the other villains on the scene who went after it once they’d got it from Visser just because it looked like a cool thing to have. Maybe in the end, once some authority figures show up, we give this to one of the junior Guiding Lights to take care of.

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I’m thinking Project Trendsetter’s all about superpower assessment and discovery, with a current prototype of a device just called Show Dog which can scan an individual, building, or city block (with varying degrees of accuracy, depending on its power source - this is a prototype after all), and tell its wielder what superpowered individuals are about, what their superpowers are, when they last used them. Show Dog’s in early stages, but IF they ever get it really cooking, potentially Show Dog could offer up data on how to neutralize these superpowers or how best to amplify them or using a combination of downright precognitive software and energy signals, it could track the use of an individual’s superpowers straight through a city or larger and find them. I think it might also be kind of cool if—again, should they ever get Show Dog working up to Project Trendsetter’s max potential—it can calculate how a nonsuperpowered individual might respond if exposed to XYZ factors which changed them. I imagine Show Dog/Project Trendsetter is very much something Vigilance and the Americans don’t necessarily want on the public market / don’t really want out of their control, and hey, if they should find some uses for it…

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Second, the kidnapping. I quite like the idea of long-distance mind control causing Harold to apparently wander directly into danger--after all, the supervillains are just chaos, so it's not like there's necessarily a safe path for him to take to get where Vigilance needs him to go--on his way to the docks. Since this’ll be wedding to the Innocent relationship, I think early on in the attack on the facility, Reverie will pretty straightforwardly use her telekinesis to keep Harold from falling into one of Scy’s hair nets and getting diced into cubes; we haven’t referenced Scy’s super terrifying hair power enough. :P But later, it’ll seem weird that he’s still wandering around and seems sort of confused, so they’ll get him back to safety again, at which point Reverie could look for signs of Vigilance's interference and, since she knows her own powers so well, think she finds something.

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Finally, whether Vigilance shows up or not. I'm leaning towards yes she does show up towards the end to, as the GM suggested, just sorta keep Reverie from interfering further--but also to see if there's anything that can be salvaged of her plan. If there is, we don't know it. I don't imagine Vigilance revealing the layers of her involvement at all, but perhaps when it's just the team words are exchanged that indicate a deep displeasure with how the kids handled everything as well as the deeper connection between Rev and Vig, just to build on later.

In the end, Vigilance is one of the authorities (all good will helping out the Guiding Lights super and whatever other authorities) who takes control of clean up and civilian helping after the situation is handled/the villains are caught and poor Brightheart dies.

Let's take it to PMs and see if we can come up with anything interesting. Maybe we end up leaving things vague or find that a pre-team up connection doesn't really fit, but you never know.

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Big write-up looks good at a glance. I like Trendsetter and Show Dog as something which falls into that grey area where you can absolutely argue valid applications but it also has lots of potential to go in very scary directions, and it definitely feels like it could pop back up later down the line in some capacity. Good stuff.

@Reverie wow I am digging it all. I love the danger and benefits something like Show Dog could bring to both sides of the coin. It's all great and yeah Scy's power is pretty creepy. I'm glad someone else thinks so too. :D

Speaking of her and Char I agree maybe we caught one of them while the other escaped. That or both were captured otherwise if they both got out then when the team first came together would be seen as a failure and then why would we consider trying to be an actual team?

Only organic things, yeah. But yes, perhaps the maguffin was actually some skeevy psychic-brain-in-a-box sort of thing?

@Ironheart, Argo

Thank you! I was trying to go for something that wasn't necessarily "Obviously Evil Why Are You Even Developing This" but something that could 100% be used for scary not-so-great things.

@Leech

Ah! Vitality absorption, not energy absorption, got it! It's not really necessary to have the battery drain part of the keep away, I just wanted to include everybody's powers, so we can easily go without it. :P And I'd rather not have it be a psychic brain in a box since that tiptoes too close to "obviously evil" in my books and would have probably pinged Reverie's psychic senses and caused her to try to deal with it in a different way.

That said, if we still want Leech to have drained the battery a little, it might still be cool if we just call it a glowing cylinder of mysterious energy and Leech himself is pretty surprised he can effect it. Then we worry about what kind of 'life' it might contain (cells taken from superpowered individuals and grown in a certain way/combined with space dust? Living goo from the center of the moon?) later on, if the story brings us back in that direction.

Sure, works for me. :)

I had a busy week. Preparations aren't coming along as quickly as I'd like on my end, but I'm pretty happy with the discussion here. Hopefully things will straighten up for me as well soon.

Re: team affiliation and adult supervision. So far what I am getting is that you are an independent team, but with an informal connection to a superpowered ATLAS agent who is also a friend of Brightheart? You act on your own, but you have a contact you can reach out to in a pinch... and that contact is also keeping an eye on you in case you mess things up later. Does that sound right?

If you have any more specific ideas for this character, they would be most welcome, though I could also flesh them out further myself otherwise.

Re: the supervillains' fate. Agreed that you shouldn't be robbed of your hard-fought victory. One possibility that comes to mind is that Char or Scy may have escaped, only to end up as the villain Harbinger and Argo encountered later. If so, Argo's resistance to Harbinger's commands may have resulted in him or her escaping once again. Or maybe Harbinger did get her way in time to prevent that.

Re: Show Dog. That's a really ambitious device! I do like it, though I imagine it is still at a fairly primitive stage. Some superhuman power sources seem like they would be very difficult to account for in any way, such as magic. Perhaps that is where having an... unusual and very secret power source that may be affected by life-draining comes in.

It also makes sense as something for Dunamis to work on and for many people to take a sincere interest in. Hell, for all you know, Vigilance may have very good reasons to want to keep it off the market. Then again, she and her allies seem unlikely to just sit on it once they have it... so there is that as well.

Perhaps you ended up giving the battery to your superpowered ATLAS contact? In any case, giving it to someone else would definitely give Harold some mixed feelings about the team, I think, though I doubt he would be in any state to protest then.

I'm for Char or Scy being the one Argo and Harbinger encounter though I'm more for the villain escaping since it gives more tension between the two characters. Plus it's more fun for Char/Scy to still be out in the wild so they can either break the other out or cause other problems for the team.

I also think Argo would go to bat for his brother to have the device turned back over to Dunamis. As far as the team is concerned, it's their property, it's not illegal and while he's not exactly happy with his brother he wouldn't also want to do something like take the guy's hardwork away from him. That being said if the team does want to give it to ATLAS I have no problem with it.

Noticed I hadn't officially decided on influence but absent Cyclone, I think the two Influence I have to hand out are going to Ironheart and Harbinger. Ironheart, because she's the one Reverie looks to for future stuff, and Harbinger to shake things up a bit and because, although I imagine Reverie is actually kind of unsure about Harbinger, I can't help but think Harbinger's words will still carry special weight because of time travel-y experience.

Re: team affiliation and supervision. I think that sounds about right. If I think of any more details for character, I'll definitely toss 'em your way.

Re: Show Dog. Yeah, I was thinking early stages, and a mysterious power source might help track/judge/weigh/predict, etc., the more implausible powers.

Re: giving the thing to ATLAS rather than directly back to Harold. I'm for mixed feelings! I'm thinking Reverie would want to give it to someone else at first just so Harold, all mind controlled, doesn't immediately give it to Vigilance, but she also wouldn't want to necessarily totally sell her future self out :P I don't imagine she'd think giving it to ATLAS meant Dunamis wouldn't get it back. Sort of a "Er, but won't ATLAS just keep it safe while Dunamis gets their security back in shape? Mr. Hess had a pretty traumatic experience and was acting weird, and that Visser guy was one of their staff." What the adults do afterward is up to them! That said, I'm good either way.

May as well not put this off - I probably won't be able to start the game this weekend. Too many distractions have come up. I'll aim for the next one, though. Should give you plenty of time to finish sorting things out, while hopefully not overstraining your interest. I will try and find time to weigh in if it seems warranted as well.

Any preferences as to whether it is Char or Scy who got away?

Week continues to be very busy with various unforeseen complications, making it hard for me to focus on this. But the upcoming weekend should be more free. I hope that everyone is still around, so we could quickly wrap up any urgent loose threads and move on to the game proper.

Take your time, GM. I'll be around! I've been rather slammed by RL myself (will try to get to my character creation thread asap).

I'm still here as well. Take as long as you need GM. In the meantime I got bored one night and made a playlist for Argo. "Stressed Out" by Twenty One Pilots really feels like a song for the character. lol

Thank you for your patience. Unfortunately, I am going to have to ask you to exercise it a bit longer. There has been a death in the family. While I am still very keen to run this game, that leaves me with neither the time nor the mental state to do it justice right now. I will still try and make some progress towards setting things up when I have some room to breathe during this weekend, but the start will have to be pushed back some more. At this point, I would say that it'll be ready when it's ready rather than make a promise I am not sure I could keep, though hopefully it won't take too long.

I'm really sorry to hear that, GM.

Seriously, as far as I'm concerned, take your time. I've been on RPoL for a couple years, I'll be here for a couple more.

That's totally understandable, GM. My condolences, and don't let yourself worry about deadlines or anything like that. We're all here for the long haul.

My condolences to you and your family, GM, death is never easy. Take your time, you seem to have a good group here, and I'm keeping tabs on this game to see the system at work.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

Quick update: it has taken me longer than I had hoped, but I am starting to get back on my feet. Assuming the coming week passes without any major unanticipated difficulties, I will get back to work on the game. Still have a few questions to either resolve or officially put off before we begin, and some basic prep to finish up, but it shouldn't take too long once I find a chance to get going.

Hopefully Leech and Harbinger are still around as well?

Yeah, I'm here.

Also here, yes.

Suffice it to say that things did not according to plan. When it rains, it pours.

I didn't want to push here until I was able to push ahead, but I figure that I should keep you informed, at least. I still haven't been able to focus on this, but I will try when I finally get some room to breathe, if everyone is still around and up for it then. That could be pretty soon, or not. If you are not around when it occurs... well, it'd be a real shame to lose this team, but I suppose I'll try this game idea again at a later time.

Reverie'll be around whenever *handwave* - though thanks for the update!

But hope life starts being kinder to you in the meantime, and you have/can find a good outlet for stress.

I'm not going anywhere so whenever you're ready GM.

And ditto what Reverie said. I hope things start getting better for you.