Halcyon City sprawls from Marblewood Heights to The Marina, but who are the Young Pinnacles?

Speaking of which, does everyone have access to the books?  I have the core collection as digital PDFs for the sake of reference, but don't have any of the expansion content they've released over time.  Similarly, the producers of the game have released some of the basic assets for free hosted on their website:

Basic Moves
https://www.magpiegames.com/wp...asks-Basic-Moves.pdf

Character Playbooks
https://www.magpiegames.com/wp.../Masks-Playbooks.pdf

GM Quick References
https://www.magpiegames.com/wp.../Masks-GM-Sheets.pdf
This message was last edited by the player at 21:25, Wed 04 Aug 2021.

I bought the pdf for this game :D  I don't have the expansion playbooks either, but I'm curious to see what's in them!

Here was the character pitch from my RTJ:

This concept would fit well into the Nova playbook, but there are a lot of possible manifestations for electrical powers that could be represented by other playbooks.  I'm flexible and willing to work with what the group needs!

I'm thinking that Daisy probably comes from one of the outer suburbs of the Starlings and therefore would go to Hildebrandt high school, which I made up for my writeup of Miss Informative.  (Hildebrandt is another breed of Starling btw, to keep with the neighborhood theme :)

I have the core rules and two supplements (Halcyon City Herald Collection and Secrets of A.E.G.I.S.). HCHC has a bunch of adventure hooks/NPCs and a couple of interesting playbooks. The A.E.G.I.S. book is about totally-not-S.H.I.E.L.D., and has only two playbooks, neither of which I find particularly interesting.

As for this game, I'm not set on any particular playbook: I'd like to not do The Doomed or The Transformed, as I've done both of those playbooks for previous games. I threw the name Obelisk into my RtJ, because it seems to represent both symbolic significance and isolation, which is the angle I'm going for...somebody who is part of a community and maybe even seen to (or sees themself) representing it, while also separated by the differences that allow them to take that role (i.e., superpowers).

As indicated elsewhere, I'm new to masks but not new to gaming.  I'd gotten those pdfs off of MagpieGames, and I'd googled free masks playbooks and clicked on available PDFs from that.  I'm guessing I'm looking at most of the playbooks available.  However I'm not seeing one that fits the generic concept that I was considering in my RTJ.  Since this appeared to be a different development process than just coming in with playbooks I wanted to create a concept without looking at the playbooks.



After looking at the playbooks/PDFs, I'm not sure if any of them necessarily fit this description.  I'm open to suggestion if one does.  If not, then using my Railway District NPC "Alyssa Quetzalcoatl, Descendent of an ancient god, but really just wants to skateboard in the park, she does what she can when she sees it." could probably be adapted to multiple playbooks.

The haunted could possibly work as a Doomed (which is a fun playbook) or possibly a Reformed from HCHC. Those are the playbooks with "spooky" powers as official options.

One thing to keep in mind as you're considering playbooks is that you can layer whatever trappings on the powers and moves that seems to fit. The Doomed I played, for example, was slowly turning into a living spell. Her powers all manifested as animated runes.

With that in mind, you could, say, run as a Beacon with the phasing power and "camouflage and stealth"--a pretty normal person who is for some reason a little bit ghost-y. Straight Up Creepin' could easily be looking into the local spirit realm. C'Mon Lucky could be a ghost pet. Add some ghost NPCs, and you're set.

I've found it more useful to consider moves than powers, since moves have a greater influence on how you interact with other characters (with or without powers).
This message was last edited by the player at 02:30, Thu 05 Aug 2021.

To me that sounds like the Janus, but do whatever you want!! I think that also works well as a Beacon, maybe?

I was thinking of doing a Scion, the child of a villain. I didn't come with much of a pitch, but I tend to like heroes that are low-powered or no-powered, Batman, Mr. Terrific, Green Arrow types, and characters who are somewhat untrustworthy according to their peers. Y'know. Batman, Mr. Terrific, Green Arrow types.

I'm excited to talk with people more about what they're thinking. The Nest got my brain kind of spinning up, as I mentioned.

Janus is definitely an option with some moves that tie directly into that concept. It can work with just about any of the playbooks, though. (I think Beacon might actually be the least suitable because there isn't the sense of being separated from the community--when heroing is a choice that you are repeatedly, consciously making, it's harder to play up a sense of separation and difference. If it bothers the character that much, they could just stop.) I left things intentionally really vague at the RtJ stage because I had no idea whether people would come in with strong playbook orientations.



For those who aren't familiar with Masks, it's worth pointing out that the level of a character's super powers does not really affect agency or ability to impact the game. I've seen Beacons do much more than Novas. The game's set up to focus on the people, not the powers (even though having powers often affects the people in profound ways).

Thanks to Naechtweard!  I think the suggestion of The Doomed would probably work well for me.  Unless someone is more set on that one, I'll claim it.

Agreed on the point of the powers coming in second to characters.  When it comes to your Playbook, you should pick the one that closest suits your characterization, not your power set.  Powers can be fudged and adjusted (for example, even powers listed as being magical could just as easily be reflavored as super science).  What's most important is the character's personality, presentation, and how they interact within the game.  Those elements are far more important and used frequently in the system than the powers themselves.

---

For my character, I intended to recycle a previous MASKs hero of mine from an older game that fizzled out.  I really liked her and wanted a chance to give her another shot; she's very heavily inspired by the recent Spider-Man resurgence in terms of overall mood and is meant to play around with the "super who craves normality" trope, subverting the usual alter ego story in that she's hiding her normal civilian self from everyone rather than her superpowered self.

Isabella Hernandez; aka "Horizon"
Playbook: The Janus
Look: Woman, Hispanic, Casual Clothing, Adaptive Body Armor, Slightly Stressed
Affiliation: The Astro Team (Superheroes)
Public Recognition: High - Very well-known and easily identified while in costume.  Private civilian identity unknown.
Powers: Gravity Manipulation - Superhuman Physicality, Impossible Mobility, Energy Absorption

I'm leaning toward The Bull at the moment, though I'm not so set on it to be definitively claiming it if anybody else is interested in that direction.

If we look at the current leanings, possibly subject to change.

 Artexercise => The Doomed
     Athenry => The Janus
       Krypt => The Nova
 Naechtweard => The Bull
YahtzeeNinja => The Scion

At this point I should be working on something similar to what Athenry has provided, correct?  For the Doomed playbook that looks like answer the backstory questions and making some choices/decisions from Look, Abilities, Nemesis, Doom Closer, Doom Sign, and Sanctuary.  Or am I missing something?

I just reposted the character bio format from the previous game I'd played Horizon in.  When it comes to what's necessary here, it's best to wait for whatever our illustrious Narrator asks us for.

It sounds like we've each found playbooks to suit a character concept, so I'm thinking the next step is to fill in details straight from the playbook, right?  Pretty much what Athenry did with Horizon: Name, Look, Abilities, and answer the Background questions.  I'm working on mine now!

Once we have a basic idea of our team members we can figure out how the team came together :)

It's a good mix of types and power levels. The Nova and the Doomed are both pretty "powerful" playbooks on the superpowers side, but with costs. Add a Bull to the mix and there's likelihood of even more collateral damage. A Janus who's kind of a reverse-Legacy paired with a Scion mean we've also got plenty of connections to the city's existing super power structure. Seems like a great setup for a team, really—the kind of team that's going to be constantly negotiating its own mistakes and the pressures of established powers. (I'm excited; this is what Masks is great for.)

I'll go ahead and start working up some more specific stuff for this iteration of the Bull.

Daisy Seong, aka "Dynamo Girl"
Playbook:  The Nova
Look:  Woman, Asian, normal skin (glows when going zappy), formal clothing, fantastical costume
Powers:  Electrical absorption/control/transformation

• When did you first use your powers?
I suppose the first time would be at twelve when I was struck by lighting and didn't die, right?  That was kind of accidental, but then again my zappyness was ALL accidental for the first few years.  Bursting light bulbs, frying electronics, sending sparks to exposed metal, accidentally zapping people with a touch.  I've gotten that sort of stuff under control... mostly.

The first time I used zappyness on purpose was in the morning before school, I was running late and was about to miss the bus!  The bus was all the way down the street and was about to pull away, and I needed to get there RIGHT NOW.  That was the first time I did a zap-jump!  There was a happy whoosh, a crack-a-boom and I found myself looking at a very surprised bus driver!  Most importantly, I didn't miss the bus.

• Who was the first person you accidentally hurt with your powers?
My dad, and I've felt bad about it ever since :(  One day after school he got mad at me for some reason I don't even remember, and I got really upset about it.  When I yelled back I kind of... shot a lot of little lightning bolts at him, and everything else in the room.  It hit him like a tazer and knocked him out, and my mom had to put out fires with the extinguisher from the kitchen.  The police and the fire department came and everything!

Dad spent a day in the hospital and still has a burn scar, but he's okay now.  My parents won't admit it, but I know they're scared of me now :(

• Who, outside the team, helps you control your powers?
Christina Jolly, owner of Jolly Pirates Arcade at the mall.  One time I got a bit excited playing Street Fighter 2 at the arcade and kinda blew up the game cabinet... and the ones next to it, and the lights.  I was so scared and upset and cried a lot, but Ms. Jolly was SO nice.  She knew it was an accident and said she wouldn't tell my parents or make them pay for damages.  She asked me about my zappyness and taught me a lot about how electricity works, which has been a big help in learning to control it.  Now I go see her at least once a week to show her new things I learned to do, and she always gives such good advice and even ideas for new stuff to try.  She's the one who helped me figure out how to charge phones with a touch instead of frying them, for which I'll be forever grateful.

Ms. Jolly is the best!

• Why do you continue to use your powers?
I want to use my zappyness to do good things and to help people, but if I'm being honest I mostly keep using it because it's AWESOME!  I feel most alive when I really let loose with the zaps, though it's tough because that tends to mean things blowing up.  I don't think I've discovered even half of what I can do yet, and I'm always excited to learn new things!

Also, keeping my zappyness bottled up for too long tends to cause surprise fireworks shows, soooo there's that.  Control takes practice, so I have to keep doing it for that reason, if nothing else.

• Why do you care about the team?
They're my friends!  Friends are there for each other, no matter what.  I feel like they make me better when I'm with them, and I kind of need that.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 04:06, Fri 06 Aug 2021.

Everyone should be able to update their character sheet now!

What sort of vibe does our team have? Dynamo Girl and Horizon seem to be on a similar wavelength, but we need to work out who we are and what we mean to the city.

I feel like a good bit of that comes through the team building questions. To glance ahead, these are what we'll be figuring out after we've got our playbook questions answered (in this order, I think):


(Bull) We defeated a dangerous enemy. Who or what was it?
(Doomed) We paid a high cost for victory. What was it?
(Janus) We saved the life of someone important, either to the city or to us. Who was it? Why are they
important?
(Nova) We destroyed our surroundings in the fight. Where was it? What did we destroy?
(Scion) Someone important learned about my lineage and condemned us all. Who? Why?

As individuals, we have the final say over how our playbook's question gets answered, but there's usually a lot of bouncing ideas around and making suggestions.

Just this set of questions seems to suggest to me that our vibe is heroic but troubled. We're collectively pretty powerful and likely high profile (maybe higher profile than we want to be), and aside from a limited number of heroic allies, not especially trusted by established teams and individual superheroes.

ALIAS: Contact or Elevens => can't decide
NAME: Atka Fisher

LOOK: Man, Indigenous-Inuit, Steely Eyes, Unassuming Clothing, grim costume

ABILTIES: Telekinesis(icy glow?), Psychic Constructs(cold breath), Vitality Absorption(stealing heat?)

NEMESIS: The Qernertoq Qalupalik(nicknamed double Q, translated The Black Troll)

When did you first learn of your doom?
* After trip to Northern Alaska for Grandfather's funeral.  The night after I received Grandfather's number disk #1111.  I dreamed of the Black Troll climbing up out of the icy wasteland to claim lives.  She wished to drown the world.  Grandfather pushed her down into the ice one more time and spoke to me in the dream.  I was next in line since my father had already passed.  I was the Defense against the Black Troll.  He didn't explain why it was our family with this responsibility, but I felt the malevolence and knew that I could not stand down against the threat.

Where did you get your sanctuary?
* There were a number of items that Grandfather left me.  No one else seemed to know anything about them.  That might be a blessing for them.  When I started going through the box of artifacts, the Necklace with the stone circle and the bone harpoon head called out to me.  It was by accident that I cut myself on the harpoon and fate that I bled onto the stone.  The closest doorway was suddenly a doorway into a space beyond, a place of artifacts, meditation, and the Snowy Owl.

Why do you oppose your nemesis?
* Isn't it simple?  Lives are at stake.  The Black Troll looks to take everyone and drag them down to some spiritually watery grave, starting with the ones I love and care for the most.  Once the double Q gets through me, the ancient creature will wreck havoc.

Who, outside of the team, is crucial to defeating your nemesis?
* Outside of the team, is my lost sister Tali.  I'm not an only child.  My older sister disappeared years ago right after father passed of cancer.  She ran away and we haven't heard from her since.  It made an already strained and hard situation harder, but Mom and I are strong, or at least Mom pretends for my sake.  I wished Tali hadd been at Grandfather's Funeral, it felt even more melancholy without her.  Grandfather left her a box as well, but no one dares open it.

Why does the team matter to you?
* Being the one who listens to the victims, to give voice and power to the dead, comes with dangers when you make contact.  I know my team sees my intentions and will help me live to see the day when I can no longer fight against the Black Troll and pass this on to the next generation.  Just having the means to fight back doesn't always mean it's for the greater good.  I think they believe me, that I fight for the greater good.

DOOM CLOSER: Frightening Loved Ones, Injuring Innocents

DOOM SIGN: Dark Visions

SANCTUARY: Aide or Assistant [Snowy Owl headed old man, Anguta]; meditation space; Scattering of Ancient Artifacts // Tied Intricately to your doom, Difficult to Access

This sounds about right so far.  Seems like we've got a group of young heroes who all didn't necessarily choose that path for themselves and are dealing with a bigger future than they personally want.

Dynamo Girl - Being an otherwise normal person suddenly having extremely volatile powers, but lacking any direction/aid/means of security.  Just kind of adrift on her own and left to figure it out while everyone in her normal life suddenly can't cope with the unexpected changes.

Horizon - Pretty much had her life planned for her ahead of time with a lot of responsibility from the word go, high expectations for her future, and a ton of power that demands cautious use.  She has her entire family to fall back on for support, but they're also the ones pushing her in directions she doesn't want at the same time.  She's stood in a very long shadow and looking for some way to be herself despite it.

Contact/Elevens - Sort of in-between Dynamo Girl and Horizon; he's stumbled into new powers, a big destiny and isn't really equipped to handle any of it.  But he has no choice in the matter because running away or handing it over to someone else isn't even an option.  He has a small support network of his own, but it's directly tied to the problem itself and thus doesn't necessarily serve as relief from the pressure.

---

I can already see a lot of understanding and sympathy going amid these three to begin with since they all can find common ground in their experiences.  All of them are stuck, locked into their own paths by circumstances outside their control.  Which also makes a good cause for them to come together as a team, since they can find refuge with one another and can help balance their abilities.  For example, part of Horizon's power set is "Energy Absorption", so she could actually siphon off Dynamo Girl's excess charge on the regular.  She and Contact/Elevens can also confide in each other when it comes to dealing with their fates.

Something to keep in mind for Horizon, however, is that she'd basically be in her superhero persona 100% of the time around the team.  Her secret identity is a secret to literally everyone; none of them would ever see her out of costume, nor would they know her real name or what she looks like.

Part of this is aided in the sense that, as she's expected to join her family's legacy on their "Astro Team" group at some point in the future, Horizon's role in the party would kind of be as a mentor herself.  She'd be allowed to be on the team in order to get some personal experience of her own out in the field, while expected to guide and teach the up-and-coming heroes who need it.  Her family would basically be treating the whole matter as a learning experience for her, like volunteering as a camp counselor or the like.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:41, Fri 06 Aug 2021.

GM, I now have a character sheet but it says the GM hasn't given me permission to edit it!

---

Wow, very cool characters, everyone :D

I like y'all's thinking regarding the team so far.  I feel like the characters we have so far are all going to have something to prove, and adults who want to put us in boxes that we don't want to be in.  I'm thinking our team will tend toward rebelliousness and maybe going after problems that the super-hero establishment doesn't recognize or consider a priority.  Example: Halcyon City probably doesn't care about Contact/Elevens's Black Troll or even believe it's real, so that might be a problem nobody else is looking at!

I wonder if Horizon might have a second heroic identity that she uses with our team, that her family doesn't know about?  Perhaps that's a way to be a superhero on her own terms and follow her own ideals rather than those established by her family.  Just an idea :)

---

Thinking more on Dynamo Girl's backstory, I found what seems to me like a 'plot hole':  A suburban girl develops destructive, uncontrollable powers, starts fires and nearly kills her dad... Probably she's not going to be allowed back to school the next day and everything goes back to normal!  My idea is that her parents sent her away to a special boot-camp/boarding school for troubled young supers to keep them safe and help them fit into society.  The problem is that this place is run by an anti-superpower organization, and the curriculum is designed to suppress the kids' powers and force them to be "normal"!  Daisy's parents chose this place because they're suspicious of supers and view them as dangerous, and of course the accident only supported that belief.  They sent her to the camp so they could have a "normal" daughter :(

Daisy would accept all of this at first out of genuine concern/guilt over the danger of her powers, but would come to HATE it and oppose it ideologically.  Probably she came away from the camp (side-note: need to think of a name) with improved control over her powers, but at the cost of a lot of repression and without having the freedom to actually use them.  Let's say she recently graduated from the program and was deemed safe enough to return to society.  Now she's back but strongly discouraged from using her powers, and probably ostracized at school because rumors that she's some kind of crazy powder-keg.  Not fun!

Of course, Daisy is back to using her powers in secret, with the help and support of her secret mentor, Christina Jolly.  The mask of Dynamo Girl is now important because it's the only time Daisy can be her true self and be part of a team that accepts her.  Now she's out to prove her parents and the camp wrong, and that she can use her powers to do good for society!

Apologies for the rambling, but this is me trying to figure out my character and what drives her :)

That might be a bit much for the poor girl.  ^^;

My plan with Horizon is that her being on a superhero team of her own isn't an issue at all.  If anything, it might have even been encouraged by her family to get her some practical, "boots on the ground" experience, and she might even be expected to take a leadership or advisory role within the team itself.  On her own, Horizon is already a superhero; a well-known one at that.  Her association with the Astro Team is such that any screw-ups that occur while she's on a smaller start-up team would be swept under the rug for her in a bit of superheroic nepotism.

I should expand on what I was planning for her family as well.  The Astro Team I've mentioned so far is supposed to be a play on the Fantastic Four in terms of their overall relevancy and level of power/influence in the setting.  Big family full of superheroes, all of whom operate under the same umbrella.  While a few of them are the "fighting the monster of the week" types, the majority are more science and humanitarian heroes; the kind that use their various powers to further scientific progress, perform civilian-focused services, address natural disasters, etc.  A less combat-focused type of hero.  Overall the Astro Team family have a lot of influence, a lot of wealth, and a ton of good will from the general population.

Horizon being brought up as yet another member of the team was a forgone conclusion.  It'd be a standard practice among the family that all the younger "in-training heroes" would undergo various tiers of education to help in their upcoming career (civics training, law, the sciences, etc), get some practical experience in using their powers for the greater good (as a crime fighter, or some other non-combat end), and then eventually be cleared to join the Astro Team full time.  At the time of this game's events, Horizon would be in the middle of that period of her training; the better she performs with the party of young heroes, the more likely she is to be put on the Astro Team sooner than later.  Which leaves her in this terrible spot of knowing she can't just shirk her duties and drag her heels because that would endanger others and get the party in trouble.  But doing a good job shortens what little freedom she has left and makes it harder for her to have any individualism.

---

I like the concept of this kind of boarding school.  Depending on how prevalent spontaneous super powers are supposed to be in our setting, there might be a lot of these kind of places with varying attitudes and approaches on how to handle supers.  Daisy's parents just picked one of the bad ones.

It might even be the case that the "bad" schools, like this one, are literally bad.  As in, founded or sponsored by super villains in an effort to suppress the rise of a new generation of heroes while also sifting for potential villainous talent.  It'd be real easy for a villain to pick out a promising, easily-manipulated student from the batch and radicalize them into villainy.  The usual "they're all trying to force you to be what they want, they don't understand you, they're scared and jealous of you" sort of spiel that's very tempting to an oppressed youth.  It wouldn't surprise me at all if "Miss Informative" was on the board of trustees for that very same school, for example.

So I've been thinking a bit about the Bull playbook and the usual mad scientist/secret government program/technology oriented concept of how these people get changed...and I thought it might be fun to go a different direction and build on some of the hints of Bad Magic Stuff in the waters outside Halcyon City.

John Donovan (Jack) Murphy, aka Hellfish


• Who changed you?

These psycho bubble heads out in the harbour. Cult of Ibu Laut. Some kind of sea monster, I guess. They kept telling me it was an "honor" to be her "harbinger." They drugged me. Like, a lot. Weird potions they made me drink out of shells and all these messed up fish things. I don't remember lots of it, but they made me fight every g.d. day. Gave the bubble heads I was fighting real knives and spears. And...I don't like to think about it. 'Cause it got worse when the knives and spears weren't enough and it was just the whispers all the time. You ever catch me drinking coffee at 2 a.m., it's 'cause of those whispers. Don't wanna hear them again, and sometimes they sneak into my dreams.

• How did you escape from them?

I dunno, bro. It was an accident, I guess. Grandpa told me it was probably Captain Dauntless fighting Mindbender Mollusk. Chronicle said a bunch of ships got broken? Anyway, there was this big crash, and water started coming in. The bubble heads were all riled up, too. Swimming up from wherever that was should maybe have killed me? But it didn't, 'cause I'm tough. Passed out somewhere and washed up on the beach south of the city. Took a while for somebody to match me to a milk carton, you know? I'd been gone...a while.

• Who, outside the team, tries to take care of you now?

Grandpa Jimmy's got my back. He used to be a longshoreman and still does all this union stuff. When he's not watching TV in the apartment, he's down at the Chain and Anchor. Or doing union sh--stuff. He makes sure I got clothes and food and don't get expelled. Yells at me sometimes when I screw up. And he always knows, too, 'cause he knows everybody in the harbour. Like he's a spymaster or something. Or maybe all the old guys just sit in the bar and bitch about the kids these days, and they tell him what I been up to.

• Why do you try to be a hero?

'Cause I think it'll piss the bubbleheads off. a frown And...I don't wanna let Grandpa down. He could've just let the state take me. He's bad with kids, but he's a figher, y'know? And he'd try and whup me if I used this bubblehead voodoo to knock over liquor stores or something, and then I'd lose it and hit him back and bust all his old man ribs. So yeah. Better for everybody that I do this and stay a long way from whatever the Harbinger of the Sea Mama b.s. I got made for.

• Why do you care about the team?

They need somebody to take care of that they can't accidentally incinerate. That's me. And, uh, sometimes I guess I need people to hold me back. When I get mad, I-- Look. They can shut the whispers up and knock me down if they get to me too much. And they're easier to get along with than grandpa.

---

Other trivia: Jack was on his high school's swim team until he got kicked off. While an excellent swimmer, he's definitely leery of the bay and of salt water in general. It's not a phobia, but if anything forces him out onto a dock or pier, he's going to be walking right down the middle of it.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:29, Sat 07 Aug 2021.

Alias: Fencer
Name: Jesse von Engelhart

Look
ambiguous, White, slender body, casual clothing, no costume

Your Lineage

What kind of villain are they?
deadly mercenary

What is your relationship with them like?
actively adversarial

They have an array of abilities, assets, and strengths; what are some of them?
superhuman martial prowess, arsenal of weapons and gadgets, supremely honed skills

What abilities do you use to fight them?
impressive martial prowess, a powerful weapon

Backstory
• Who is your supervillain parent?

It actually starts way back. Way, way back. Like, princes and knights and shit way back. Great great grand-something or other. But that all came to a head around the 19-somethings when granddad Ambrose dedicated his life to the Kaiser and swore to defend him from the invading American heroes. He happened to bring a few valuable things to this- being one of the most talented swordsmen in Germany, and a sword created by some of the greatest minds in the Fatherland. He became the first Fencer, and fought every so-called hero the Allies could throw at him.

Of course, that wasn't enough to save Germany. Eventually, defeated, he slinked off in shame to his castle in Bavaria. That didn't last too long, though.

Eventually, the family fled from Germany and the Nazis. But not every member came with them. Ambrose' youngest son, Javier, abandoned the family. He began working as a mercenary, taking the skills his father had taught him and selling them to the highest bidder. A mercenary and assassin, he's fought dozens of heroes. And more than that, he's killed world leaders and complete innocents alike. Whomever needed to be killed- if the price was right.

• Who told you about your parent’s true nature?

Granddad was the first to say something. He has always hated his son and his lack of honor. When he realized he was too old to be able reclaim the family honor, he opened up to Jesse about it. The family's history in Europe. His feelings of betrayal. And the true identity of Jesse's father.

• Why did you turn from your lineage to be a hero?

Jesse was never interested in any of the family legacy stuff. Even after being told about it, he didn't really care. But he doesn't like bullies. And he doesn't like his father. If being able to turn this into something... Less shitty? If that appears, maybe he has to take it.

• Who, outside of the team, helps you on your chosen path?

Grandpa Ambrose is an old, old man. But he's still cunning and keen, and a capable coach on the arts of swordsmanship. Especially for a guy his age. He's still on the shit-list of basically every hero over the age of 50, though. And all of them aged well.

• Why do you care about the team?

The team is on my side. Not a lot of people are.

Thanks for that explanation about Horizon, Athenry, that's interesting!

This gives me an idea for a team concept... Our cast so far looks like a bunch of oddballs coming from difficult situations with little hero training, and then we have one young dynastic pro-hero, Horizon!  How could such a team have come together?  Here's a pitch:

The Young Pinnacles are a brand new super-team sponsored by Astro Team, with Horizon assigned to lead us.  To those of us scouted from the Halcyon populace this is our big break into legitimate super-society, and a chance to achieve our heroic dreams!  Horizon, however, knows the truth: this team only exists as a test of her leadership skills to take a group of weirdos and try to make something of them ;P  Horizon might likely resent this whole situation, but sees opportunity in this new autonomy to do things her own way!

Thoughts?


Yeah!  There would certainly be a range of political stances on supers, from 'Brotherhood of Mutants' super-supremacists to human-purists who view supers as freaks and abominations.  Daisy's parents are anti-super, but mainly out of fearful ignorance rather than out of active hatred.  This camp claims to 'reform' super-youths into well-behaved citizens who know how to keep a lid on their powers for the good of society, and Daisy's parents thought that sounded like a good thing.  Of course, the actual ideology behind it is more pernicious than that, teaching that super-powers are evil and shaming the kids for having them.  I would consider those running such an operation to be villains by definition, but no doubt there would be some Machiavellian and/or self-hating supervillains behind it, too!

On the other side of the coin there could be more positive versions of this, like a super-school that encourages development of powers, a la U.A. from My Hero Academia :)  That leads me to wonder what sort of super-education might exist in this setting and how that fits alongside regular school?

---

Welcome to Hellfish :D  What are Hellfish's powers, generally?  I was thinking aquatic abilities, but then at the end you wrote that he doesn't much like water, lol :P  A hero that's scared of what he's best at would an intriguing character concept, though.

Oh gosh, Fencer came in just as I was finishing writing this!  Posting this now, will read after :)

The Bull doesn't come with much variation:


It defaults to a super soldier package, and that's more or less what Jack's got. He's tall and rangy, hits like a truck, and is "right 'ard." When he gets going in a fight, his skin takes on this unhealthy blue-black tone and begins to look scaly. The water thing has to do with his origin and makes the effects worse: if he spends much time in salt water, he starts manifesting webbed fingers and toes, claws, and his eyes get all fishy. As it is, he can breathe water. He just doesn't like to, and stays away from the bay because he doesn't want to get caught by the "bubbleheads" again.

Aaaalso: I put more of that draft for Jack together in odd moments at work than I really liked. I've rewritten it in Jack's voice. A little less information, but hopefully rather more personality.



I'm not entirely sold on this. It predetermines a lot of the direction of the "When the team first came together" questions, cutting off more organic potential. It also puts Horizon (and Astro Team) right at the center of the team's interactions with HC's established supers. I think that risks nudging Horizon much more toward a Legacy or Protege role.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:35, Sat 07 Aug 2021.

Re: Horizon's Role in the Party
I do agree that the proposed pitch there does put Horizon as perhaps too important a figure in the party.  We're intended to be peers by and large, unless we wanted to use it as a potential storytelling goal; like the rest of the party not really getting along well with her because of her existing status, thinking she's just there to use them as a stepping stone in her career, etc.  Having issues with Horizon trying to be a team leader and the rest not wanting to really cooperate because of preconceptions could make for an interesting conflict for everyone to contend with.

It could always be a blend of the two as well.  For example, we could go with Krypt's pitch as a prelude; it could be the base for why everyone's gathered together in the first place.  But the team isn't really a team because they don't see eye to eye.  It takes the inciting "This is How We Came Together" event to actually make them start to come together and give the whole thing a chance.

Or, in the other direction, they could come together around an unexpected threat sort of at random (whatever we decide happens with the event) and then Astro Team and other superhero authorities in place urge the teens to become a team, at which Krypt's pitch sets the standard for how the party performs from that point on.

Re: Powers
Horizon's power set is based around gravity manipulation, though overall her presentation is very similar to Spider-Man.  Instead of web-slinging and wall-crawling, however, she alters gravitational fields to hurl herself through the sky, walk on vertical surfaces, and so forth.  ^^;  Spider-Man's always left a big impression on me and I can't help but want to emulate his style after playing the PS4 game.

So her overall set is:
Superhuman Physicality
Super strong, super fast, super tough.  Able to dodge bullets, pick up cars, handle impacts that would splatter most Humans; the usual package.  Horizon's bloodline was mutated by cosmic radiation, so this is totally normal among her entire family since her grandfather's generation with few exceptions.

Impossible Mobility
As mentioned earlier, Horizon can alter gravitational fields and pretty much ignores conventional aerodynamics.  She doesn't fly so much as change her gravitational direction and "falls" in a given direction, and she can screw with acceleration by altering inertia.  To her, physics are less "laws" and more "guidelines".  She can similarly alter the gravity of her immediate surroundings through physical contact with an object or person, but it's takes more out of her to do so.

Energy Absorption
While she was born with her powers, they do require energy to function.  Horizon is capable of absorbing various forms of energy she comes into contact with for the purpose of charging her batteries, so to speak.  She can't fully negate energy, but she can absorb enough of it to render it relatively harmless.  For example, she could be shot point-blank and absorb enough kinetic energy off the bullet to render it painful rather than fatal.  This is an active power though; it's something she needs to focus on and consciously perform, so she can be taken by surprise or overwhelmed.

I think I'm still wrapping my head around some of this, but I'll add my two cents by coming at it from another direction.

Character Feel and Team Feel.

Horizon, almost like a reverse Janus, but one of the questions is still "Who, outside of the team, knows about your dual identity?"  I'm not clear on whether we know or not so far.  If the team does not know, then are there trust issues within the team?  It changes the feel a little, The other 4 already seem like they have trust issues to begin with: haunted by Black Troll, hunted by cultists, family line of supervillains, and parents tried to summer camp the super out of them.  It also sometimes sounds like Horizon yearns for the Secret Identity portion of her life, to not be bogged down by super stuff, and on the other hand can't wait to be part of the main team and get it over with.  Whereas the Young Pinnacles is her opportunity to actually walk that line and come to her own decision about the duality.

Dynamo Girl seems like someone eager to not be mundane, but everyone is holding her back.  The Young Pinnacles is the opportunity to not hold back and to shine.  In my eyes, she's the most straightforward and perhaps even the rock that everyone else might be drawn to or build upon.

Fencer is a little like Horizon but on the other side of the spectrum.  I could see more of a "leader of the team" power struggle between Horizon and Fencer.  As Horizon is trying to prove herself, Fencer is trying to prove he's not who everyone says he is.  The Young Pinnacles is the place to distance himself from the identity that has been thrust upon him.

Hellfish is like someone eager to be mundane but bubblehead cultists are trying to push him not to be.  The Young Pinnacles is about protection and control.  Learning to keep control, having those around who can help and protect and return the favor in kind.  Almost the idea of stronger as a pack, but it was a wrong type of pack that was the problem in the first place.  Love the bubblehead moniker btw.

Contact (the choice I'm going with) seeks comradery, but even in so doing, endangers the people around him.  It's easier to be around those who have the means to defend themselves than normal folk who would just succumb to the world and its terrors.  I'm leaning heavily on the Indigenous Inuit (albeit transplanted to Halcyon City) for a good deal of my character (I'm sure it painfully obvious).  I imagine having a village/family for support is of high importance, which is what the Young Pinnacles would be for me.


It seems like there is something to do with "How the team comes together" that we are still figuring out.  If we are a bunch of teenage brats, School seems like likely place to run into one another.  Arcade or Food Court @ Glamour Hills Mall would be another spot, as the mall would likely have us all there at some point in time crossing paths and also having just "seen each others faces" enough times to recognize and maybe nod.  There's also coincidence that pushes us all into a similar area fighting some ne'er-do-wells where we just seem to mesh.  The one time coincidence route would likely push Horizon to reach out to form the team, whereas school/arcade/food court would probably be more organic.  Not sure how it works from a game mechanics perspective.

Let me know where I'm off.

Re: Horizon's Role
Horizon being a "Reverse Janus" is pretty much exactly what I'm going for.  ^^

Something to note for her future that I realize I might not have clarified properly; she doesn't resent being a superhero or eventually part of Astro Team.  She believes in the good her family does for the world and is proud of it, so she doesn't have any qualms with the path laid out before her in and of itself.  Her issue rises in that she didn't get to choose it and she's trying to figure out her own identity in what she perceives to be a rapidly closing window of time.

That's why I felt she would be better suited as a Janus rather than a Protege or Legacy: the Janus' "Moment of Truth" is all about coming to terms with her split identity and what it means to her as a person.  Horizon needs to reconcile the various facets of her life and how she's keeping everyone at arm's length; both her family and the team alike.

Re: Horizon's Split Identity
In terms of the overall setting, everyone believes that Horizon doesn't have a secret identity at all.  Only her family ever sees her without the costume, but the nature of Astro Team is such that all the adults have fully integrated their personal and professional lives together.  They don't behave as if they're "mild mannered citizens who don a mask in times of need"; because their focus is more on general humanitarian and scientific progress, there's never any real need for that in the first place.

For Horizon's playbook element of "who else besides the team knows?"; the case would be that the team alone know she's ditching out on hero duty to have a civilian life of her own, but they don't know who that civilian is.  Meanwhile, her family, the media, and the world at large have no idea she's playing hooky to pursue mundane interests (having a part time job, attending casual learning courses, whatever).  Basically the team would discover (whether she intended it or not) that she bounces off to her own personal matters, but they don't know who she is when she takes off the mask.  That also allows for them to try and find out - maybe they're curious and try to tail her, maybe they accidentally stumble across her in civilian mode and don't realize it's her while she has to try and keep a straight face, etc.  Might even lead to the amusing issue of the team liking to hang out in civilian mode at the cafe she works part-time at, while she has to pretend not to know any of them.  The team eventually figuring out who she is under the mask, be it by her choice or not, would be a big trust point for them all to establish that could help anchor her faith in them.

Basically she's just making her own life way harder than it needs to be, because teenage anxiety and poor planning.  ^^;

Re: Team Dynamics and Leadership
Horizon might be seen as the default for being the leader of the team given her greater experience and established nature, but she wouldn't lean into that unless she had to.  This is both in service of her personality and on the meta level of me not wanting to boss everyone around.

Basically Horizon's take would be "I'm the most experienced, but that doesn't mean I'm the best suited to lead" and she'd readily take the back seat to others if they wanted to call the shots.  If nobody else wanted to take the responsibility, Horizon would step up to the plate as would be expected of her.  But, to the flip side of that, she'd just as readily concede to an advisory role to let someone else in the group take charge.  It might also be worthwhile to explore taking turns as team leader as well; giving everyone their chance to take the reigns on a given mission with the rest of the team agreeing to support their decisions.  That gives us all a chance to play with different roles and the characters the chance to test themselves.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:12, Sat 07 Aug 2021.

The Janus playbook seems to pretty strongly suggest that the team knows about both identities ("who outside the team knows..."); it's hard for other PCs to help the character out otherwise. I'm going to withhold judgment until I see it in play. I feel like, if it's being played right, there's going to be constant pressure to shift Mundane down from the adults in Horizon's life.

In terms of moves, are you thinking of the mundane personality as the Mask? (I.e., is the assumed mundane identity the one coming into play for the Team moves?)

---

He's not exactly trying to be mundane, but he emphatically does not want to be controlled. After a year or so of being tortured and magically mutated into some kind of demon-fish-human thing, Jack is extremely disinterested in being part of anybody's sea monster prophecies. For all sorts of reasons, he's also pretty slow to trust and unlikely to accept much (if any) aid from established supers. It's hardly the wisest course of action, but he figures as long as he stays away from the ocean, the cultists can't find him.

Also: pinging again if anybody's actively interested in sliding into the Bull's Lover/Rival slots as we start play. I expect to be taking the defense move, so the Rival's definitely more competition than enemy, and the "Lover" need not be a romantic interest (and I wouldn't expect it to be at first, regardless). I'll nominate folks before or as we do the Team questions, but thought I'd put the question out there again in case anybody's particularly interested in that kind of collaboration.

The sponsored team thing was an idea, and it seems to have sparked other ideas, so that’s good :)  There are a lot of ways we could spin it that don’t have to be Horizon’s actual assignment or being beholden to Astro Team.  Don’t forget that we’re playing a group of willful teenagers here ;P  If Horizon were given resources and a decent degree of autonomy she could do whatever she wants with it, including not being the leader!

It feels like we’re leaning toward an event bringing us together, even if some of us maybe were previously acquainted.  I’m going to spitball some silly ideas, and let’s see if any stick!  We could all choose for ourselves how we would come to be involved:

1. A circus in the Mall parking lot gets attacked by super-eco-terrorists wanting to set the captive animals free, but it all goes terribly wrong
   
2. The high school we attend is on a field trip to a museum in Old Town, but a sudden eruption of lava from the middle of the street waylays the buses and puts students in danger
   
3. A small-time villain hijacks a food truck and gets in a high-speed chase from police through a major city center
   
4. A super-villain puts all the people in a crowded public area into suspended animation so his thugs can steal their stuff, but the power doesn’t work on us.
   
5. A stampede of mutant super-apes terrorizes Port Halcyon, smashing into the stacks of shipping containers looking for something.

I’ll volunteer Dynamo Girl to be Hellfish’s “Love” if that’s okay?  I feel like these two would bond over our experiences being held captive by jerks for an extended period of time, even if the circumstances were way different.  I’m up for it being a romantic relationship if you are ;)  It doesn’t have to be a full bf/gf situation at the start, but maybe that awkward teenage struggle of ‘liking’ each other but being unsure if it’s reciprocated and generally having no clue, lol.  Platonic pals works also, but wanted to give the option!
This message was last edited by the player at 21:05, Sat 07 Aug 2021.

I admittedly am fiddling around with the dynamic of the playbook a bit, primarily due to me being more familiar with the game and comfortable screwing with things.  ^^;

The intent so far is that the team - at some point - knows that Horizon is slipping off to do her own thing when she's not supposed to be.  That's the "secret identity" they're helping her protect; not the persona itself, but that she even has a side gig at all.  Whether they want to help her with that is up to everyone else and how it all ends up being framed in-context.  There's a difference in how they might take her behavior if she lies to them and says she needs to go do some solo hero business, or if she just bails on them when they expect her to be around.  It might even be that someone on the team has a beef with her and uses their knowledge of her sneaking off as blackmail to keep her in check.  Part of the whole Janus theme of character is trying, and usually failing, to manage that double-life.

After sufficient trust has been established (this may be immediately at the start of play depending on what the "How We Came Together" circumstance is handled, or it might come later), Horizon would confide in the group why she's sneaking off and such, but might not actually reveal her civilian identity all the same.  Again, the "Moment of Truth" for her playbook hinges on revealing herself.  It may end up being the case that some or all of the team figure it out themselves, but it's not something Horizon would willingly surrender of her own volition.  When it comes to the Janus Team Moves, it would always be done in the context of Horizon being in-costume and gradually revealing more about herself as a person rather than a hero.  Basically digging into how she sees herself, how her life's being decided for her, whether she feels able to trust the team, etc.



Of these options, I'd lean more toward Scenario 1, 4, or 5.

Putting us all together into the same high school may not be possible given the state of characters like Hellfish, for instance.  It depends on whether this version of Halcyon City has lots of mutants and weird physical supers casually as part of society like a "My Hero Academia" sort of setting.  Or, on the other end of that line, someone like Horizon probably wouldn't be going to the same public school as everyone else; her family's pretty rich and they intend for her to go into a form of public service, so she's probably attending a specialist school.  Someone like Fencer may not even be in school at all.

1, 4, or 5 allow more wiggle room in our characters randomly encountering the problem or getting swept up in it, if they're not normally inclined to take a heroic approach by default.  I kind of like the sound of Scenario 4; minor enough to qualify for a bunch of teens to handle, good chances for someone important to be in the crowd (for better or worse), and lots of room for each of us to approach the problem in our own way.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:01, Sat 07 Aug 2021.

Hellfish looks 99% normal until he's fighting (or immersed in salt water); while I'm borrowing a little flavor from the Transformed, he's definitely primarily a super-powered human rather than an actual fish demon. (He's a big wiry ginger.) I think the more salient point about schools is that we've got diverse geographic and economic backgrounds. When he's not skipping, I imagine Jack attends a pretty low-SES school in a run-down campus not too far from the Harbour's industrial area.



Technically, I'm the one who gets to figure out what we defeated; that's the Bull's question on the "When the team first came together..." As I've mentioned more than once, a lot of the team building happens through those questions. It's probably worth thinking about which of us (if any) knew each other beforehand, but those questions are designed to create an origin story.

---

Seems like a good place to start! I'm sure they've bonded over their experiences (between that initial event and the start of play), and they're potentially good foils for each other in that Hellfish is very hard to actually hurt (accidentally or on purpose), but Dynamo Girl's more able to hurt him (on purpose) than pretty much anybody on the team if he goes off the (...sorry...) deep end.

Naturally; these are just broad pitches to help give ideas.  Better than all of us just dumping the whole responsibility onto one person and expecting them to come up with something we all like, right?

Sounds good, Hellfish, let’s run with it :)  After hearing John/Jack’s story Daisy would feel protective of him and would be ready to unleash a zap-ocalypse on the bubbleheads!  Not like she presumes to be his bodyguard (he wouldn’t need that prolly!) but more like, I understand what you’ve been through and I’ve got your back, no questions asked.

---

As for the “team comes together” scenarios, there are any number of ways we could be involved!  As an example, for the HS field trip maybe two of us are students on the buses (could even be coming from different schools), one is ordering a smoothie from a streetside cafe, another is already getting beat up by the villain, while the last one rides in on the bumper of a fire truck just to see where it’s going!  Our involvement needn’t be limited to “something bad happens and we all volunteer to be heroes” :)

I think once we decide on the broad premise of the situation that brought us together, we can each decide how our characters came to be involved and then paint the picture by answering the questions on the playbook.  Our Bull gets to make up the bad guy, while I get to describe the sort of destruction we caused, and so on ;D

Oh, forgot to mention; I was looking through my collection of MASKs books earlier and realized I actually do have two of the additional new playbooks; the Brain and the Soldier.  In case anyone was interested?  Not sure if they mesh with what we've got going so far, particularly with The Soldier specifically being designed as a young agent of A.E.G.I.S.

But aside from that, are we ready to start getting into the nitty gritty of how we all met?


This message was last edited by the player at 00:20, Sun 08 Aug 2021.

I'd maybe let the GM pop in before we move on to the next step...but I think that's where we are.

Athenry, thanks for the clarification.  I think I understand where you're going with that; I'm on board.

I agree with the Athenry on the 1, 4, 5, If these are options under consideration.

Naechtweard, If YahtzeeNinja doesn't want the Rival spot.  I'll give it a shot, seems like you and I both have supernatural elements in our backgrounds, and maybe we knew each other before you were taken and I went to Alaska.  Might have been rivals on the swim team.

I might be altering my concept. I'm pretty uninspired the last couple days, I need to shake some cobwebs out somehow and come up with something that sparks me much more...

Hello! Sorry, I managed to fracture a vertebra in my neck, which has limited by ability to read long bits of text.

I think we should aim to avoid a "main character", so I'd avoid having Journey be the lynchpin of the team. One thing that could sort of emulate that in a lesser way is if Journey brought the team together, but they're still all broadly equal.

I love the idea of Astro Team being the city's big superteam, so we can definitely use that.

Crimeny!  That's nothing to apologize for at all, and by all means take all the time you need!

Yeah, definitely dashing the prior concept. It just never really sparked for me, was feeling really forced. Fortunately, I don't think I was too deep in the prior idea!

---

Name: Bryce Darcy
Alias: Minerva

The Brain
Look
woman, White, tight and trim body, geeky clothing, adaptive costume

Abilities
robotic sidekick (Noctua)

Backstory
How did you first reveal your genius to your friends or family?

Bryce was always at the top of her class. The top of the top. She grew up the child of a pair of up-and-coming young parents in The Nest, aspiring to give their daughter the best. And it succeeded. Bryce was naturally a genius, even in her youngest days. And not just intellectually. She was the captain of her youth soccer team, the head of her scout troop, president of student government, the top of everything she tried. And without even really needing to try. Her superiority has simply always been obvious.

Why did you decide to use your intellect for the benefit of others?

From a young age, Bryce's parents made it clear that helping others was important. Especially helping the less fortunate- and who isn't less fortunate than her? It's the place of people like her to help those society has cast away, to make change for the better. And where Bryce is so, so much better, she has to give more than anyone else. It's her duty. A sort of genetic lottery version of noblesse oblige.

What accident or misfire taught you some sense of humility or responsibility?

Bryce didn't even realize it was dangerous until AEGIS agents showed up and seized her computer. She'd been constructing an AI. A computer program that would make assessments about people, their needs, generate models, and go out and seek more information. Pulling records together, knitting the disparate sources of information it could find into singular records. It was going to help predict what people would need and allow it to be delivered. Bryce only realized the danger it posed after it assembled the material necessary to enter an encrypted AEGIS database using materials culled from shopping profiles.

Who helped you realize you need other people?

After her work was seized, Bryce's mother talked to her. They had a long heart-to-heart. Making Bryce realize that, for all her intellect, all her superior ability, sometimes it was going to be important to get another person's point of view. Outside views to help her see things from other angles. And where no one gets on AEGIS' radar without having some sort of potential... Maybe the best thing to do would be to find other people with superior abilities.

Why do you care about the team?

Bryce is in an uncomfortable position. She... Needs other people. She's not the best automatically, no longer the biggest fish in the pond. She doesn't really know how to be a superhero- and it's not something she can simply apply her incredible intellect to figure out. So she's learning.

I think everyone should be able to edit their character sheets now!

Ouch! Hopefully it mends quickly (or, failing that, the pain eases quickly).

@YahtzeeNinja--Glad the cobwebs shook out! Bryce should be an interesting addition.

---

The last thing I'd like to poke at is whether any of us knew each other before the team shaped up. It seems like we've got a few children of privilege and a few characters who grew up rougher. Whether they knew each other as extraordinary individuals or not, some previous encounters there would help nudge us toward sticking together after the precipitating event.

I think knowing one another would be an interesting wrinkle, as shared histories create shared stories.

What do we want to do about naming conventions (for RPOL handles)? Mundane names? Hero names? Both?

I like the alias' being the primary and the normal names in a bio line?

HC, do you have any order you want to do questions in?

Re: Shared History
One of the Janus' relationship entries focuses on that, actually.  "____ knew you from your civilian life first".

So someone on the team met Isabella while she was out and about on her non-hero hooky and doesn't currently know she's a superhero.  Super awkward.  ^^;  It could really be anyone since all the other members of the team have mundane origins before they turned Super.  As herself, Isabella works part-time at a cafe (haven't decided which neighborhood yet) so it's very easy for any of the team to have come across her casually as a regular customer, for example.

In terms of shared history otherwise, as Horizon she's a well-known figure as a young up-and-coming hero, so the rest would certainly know her or might've encountered her prior in that context.  For someone like Bryce, she might see Horizon as her foot-in-the-door to get in with the Astro Team herself since they're right in the thick of the whole "improving peoples' lives for the good of all" thing.  Being able to join Astro Team or an organization affiliated with them would be a great opportunity to use her brainpower for good in a safer environment.

Re: Naming Conventions

Seconded.

Re: Shared History

So this strikes me as a potential point to connect and would help fill in a gap in Bryce's backstory. Maybe Isabella works at a coffee shop somewhere in The Starlings where Bryce goes to get coffee/snacks/hang with friends. Bryce deduces that Isabella is Horizon, and that means she's useful as an in to get on a super team, as well as (eventually) toward the Astro Team?

This would somewhat interfere with Isabella remaining a mystery to everyone, though. How do you feel about it, Ath?
This message was last edited by the player at 21:08, Sun 08 Aug 2021.

Eek, I hope you get well soon, GM!  You can take it easy on the super-heroics for a little bit :)

Good to meet Bryce/Minerva!  I feel you about not feeling a spark for a character, Yahtzee!  I’ve come up with plenty of character concepts over the years that were neat and interesting, but that I just couldn’t find the inspiration to actually want to play :P  The best character is the one you enjoy playing, so I’m glad you found that :)

---

Re: Character connections

• Bryce and Daisy are both good students from the Starlings, so I imagine we’d attend the same school (Hildebrandt HS) and be at least acquainted.  They are different, however, because it sounds like Bryce is naturally great at everything and popular, whereas Daisy gets good grades from working and studying hard and struggles socially, especially after her incident and being sent away to camp for a year.
• Daisy is a big fan of super-heroes, so she definitely knows about and idolizes Horizon as the role model hero-girl she aspires to become.
• Daisy is a regular at the Jolly Pirates Arcade at the mall, so there’s a chance to have met any other mall regulars there.

This works for me, all things considered.  Having Horizon's identity already being compromised by The Smartest Person actually makes plenty of sense on its own, especially if Bryce was already long in the process of using technology to analyze her surroundings.

The question becomes what Bryce has done with the knowledge since she learned it.  Did she keep it under her hat and doesn't let Horizon know at all?  Did she approach her out-of-costume and inform her what she figured out, leading to the two having a more direct connection long before the team comes together?  Does she help Horizon in leading a double life?  Regardless, Horizon would insist that Bryce maintain her secret from the rest of the team until circumstances forced otherwise.

Bryce doesn't strike me as the blackmailing sort, so I doubt she'd try and leverage her knowledge of Horizon's activities against her.  Correct me if I'm wrong there.  I can see them becoming friends after the revelation though, especially since both can sympathize with the whole "born with great powers and thus great responsibility" situation.  It might be that Horizon intentionally worked to get Bryce onto the team in order to help her achieve her goals as well; she wants to use her smarts to make the world a better place, Horizon has the connections to help that happen, and they both get to prove themselves by helping the team succeed.  And if they're friends with Bryce keeping/aiding Horizon's double-life secret, then Horizon would especially value Bryce as someone she can confide in.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:04, Sun 08 Aug 2021.

Yeah, it sounds like maybe they're at the same school, but don't really exist in each other's orbits. Like, it's not like Bryce and Daisy would share any classes. Bryce hasn't been in high school classes since she was in grade school!



"It's only blackmail if you interpret it to be. I'm asking you for a favor."

I think Bryce could definitely help Isabella lead a double life, especially considering Isabella is helping Bryce do the same thing. Of course, Bryce isn't working nearly as hard at keeping it a secret- but Isbella is less likely to get hit with a laser while making a triple chocolate caramel mocha frappe.

I like the idea of them being friends. I want to get Bryce a little bit away from the 'cold, calculating' thing. She's definitely filled with hubris, but she's also a pretty popular teenage girl. I actually like the idea of her being pretty girly.

I'm now at the stage of character creation where I cycle through a dozen different avatar photos. Sit back and enjoy. Kick your feet up.

I thought I might offer out my relationship lines for anyone. I think they'd be really interesting for anyone to take, especially because I'd really like to hive-mind some thoughts. The Brain is an interesting playbook, I'm finding. The moves and backstory assigned lean hard into the hubris theme, but the Relationship lines both directly counter that. I'd really like to hear people's ideas for ways to make that conflict play out. I have some of my own in mind, but half the fun of this is letting other people lean into your ideas!

So, any takers?

You told ____________________ about your shame and asked them for their confidence.
You wish you could be a better hero, more like _____________________.

Third for Hero name as handle, mundane name as bio line.



I feel like, for the second question, the obvious answer is Horizon but the more interesting answer is our Doomed (Contact?). It feels like Bryce might have a particular kind of admiration for somebody whose powers are literally destroying them, but they use them anyway.

Anybody could work for the first question? Five is actually a very nice number for a team because it makes it easy to avoid just pairing off. I don't think we have any of the "give everybody/nobody" influence playbooks, so we ought to be able to create a nicely tangled web.

I'm still not leaning in any particular direction for a rival for Hellfish...because I just can't see it being based in antagonism, I'm holding it a little in reserve to make sure we don't leave anybody out on an influence island.

Being a "rival" doesn't necessarily have to be an antagonistic relationship, all things considered.  It could be a case of friendly rivals where the two enjoy competing with one another and trying to one-up the other.

Alternatively, it could be a one-sided rivalry; for example, Horizon might work in that case if Hellfish looks at her situation as her complaining about nothing.  "Oh no, you were born with cool powers and your rich and influential family set you up on easy street, woe is you" might be an understandable sort of reaction someone like him would have.  Hellfish has a far more dire situation when it comes to being forced into a life path without his say-so.  ^^;

I think a one-sided rivalry with Bryce could also work well. Bryce approaches problems totally differently than Hellfish- their playbooks demand it. And Bryce is thoughtlessly arrogant to the point of hubris; she is so assured of her own superiority that questioning herself doesn't even cross her mind most of the time. I could see her being pretty dismissive- or coming off as dismissive- toward basically everything he does in a way that irks him.

Bryce, of course, would have no idea that she's in a rivalry. Not because she loves Hellfish- because she doesn't even understand the idea that someone could think there's competition between them.

I also think I need to pick a different hero name. Minerva doesn't quite feel right, though implicitly comparing herself to a god is... Good.

Maybe some ideas from here? https://workingtheflame.com/mythical-blacksmiths/ They're all dudes, but it could be a starting point.

Bryce could be a good rival, too, because she "doesn't have powers." She's got a robot. It's not even a battlesuit. I'm taking the "defend" move from the love/rival set, and it's easy for me to see Hellfish constantly trying to do Noctua's job...

I'm currently imaging them getting into a competition that pits Hellfish's powers against Bryce's inventions in a series of quick smash cuts. Escalating through more and more super-science until the final thing is him hefting a giant steel beam vs. Bryce with a crowbar.

Right now I'm leaning toward Miss Miracle? Or something else that's a little more... Gonzo, Silver Age feel to go with her super-science style of gadgetry. I want Bryce to be about hover platforms and shiny ray blasters.

Hellfish:  "Hah!  I finally outdid your dumb robot!  What do you say to that?!"

Bryce: "You've been exceptionally helpful with stress testing and supplying data points for the next improved models.  Thank you very much!"

Hellfish:  >:(

Cool stuff! I'm going to go ahead and write that in for at least the start of play. One of the fun things about the Bull's playbook is that those love/rival labels can swap around as play determines.

I could take that one!  I'm imagining Daisy as the sort of accepting friend you could confess anything to and she'd listen without judgement and would try her best to help sort it out.  Oh, Bryce invented a homicidal AI infecting electronics and threatening to end all life in Halcyon City?  That's not good, but I bet the tech is SUPER COOL, right?  Tell me all about it, then let's figure out how to stop it :)


^^^These are the Nova's Relationship questions.  The first one will probably be whoever is willing to play competitive video games together, sing karaoke, or be an accomplice to dangerous super-power experiments ;P  As for the second, I'm thinking that Hellfish and Horizon would be tough for me to hurt even by accident (due to Bull and energy absorption, respectively), so this will probably be either Contact or Bryce.  Who's game to get accidentally zapped? :)

---

Back to the topic of what brought our team together...  We had a few votes for these three scenarios I proposed, with one vote specifically for #4:


We can paint the scene by answering the 'When Our Team First Came Together...' questions on our respective playbooks.  If anyone has more or better ideas for how the scene goes then feel free to share :)  Who wants to start?

To compile the playbook relationships, in alphabetical order of playbook:





(I love how well the second sentence for the rival fits there, incidentally.)



Some work to do here to weave Contact into things!





(Suggestions here that the first involves "competitive video games...karaoke, or...dangerous super-power experiments." Suggested that the second be Contact or Bryce because they're probably easier to actually hurt with Zappyness than Hellfish or Horizon.)

I could take Nova's Zap for her losing control.

The 'My love to kiss', I was thinking "Girl at the Cafe" which would be Isabella, and somehow be the last one to know or never know that Isabella is Horizon.

Who would I tell all about my doom though?

Not my character, but as peanut gallery, I dig this.



Two thoughts: maybe Jack, since we're playing around with the idea that their backgrounds are more similar to each other's than they are to any of the others. Or he could have told Bryce in the hope that her giga-brain could somehow either provide a solution or at least some better insight.

Do you think he would have asked somebody hoping for support, sympathy, or insight?

Horizon would be a likely candidate for revealing DOOM to.  If, for no other reason, because she's connected to a larger super team.  If your boy's got trouble getting others to believe him about the Troll, getting Horizon to be on his side would surely benefit his goals.



I think Daisy might be a good fit here since she's a fan.  Might be the sort of thing where she was all excited to be on a superteam with Horizon and expected they'd all become good friends immediately.  Only for Horizon to be keeping everyone at arm's length and her helmet very firmly on at all times; depending on how Daisy responds to that sort of thing, she might even mistakenly think it was something she did that's making Horizon stand-offish.

LOOOOOL, thirded!  I love it so much that Contact has a crush on Isabella without knowing he's on the same super-team as her :)  That's some juicy teenage drama in the making.


I'm on board :)  Daisy would be at least disappointed and possibly hurt, depending how the rejection went.  She would have come on strong with the fangirling on Horizon at first and will still be a bit ga-ga by the time the game starts.  I think intellectually Daisy would understand the importance of a high-profile heroine's secret identity, and I think deep down she'd understand that she isn't the best one to keep that secret :P  However, she'd also feel bad not being trusted, and would endeavor to earn that trust.

Speaking of costumes, I made a silly mock-up of Dynamo Girl and Daisy using the character creator on the Teen Titans website!  https://www.cartoonnetworkme.c...-go-super-hero-maker  Pics in my profile :)  It was a fun exercise, but the creation options were limited and so I wouldn't consider this costume to be canonical.  I'll keep on the look-out for better art.  Dynamo Girl's costume will definitely need a mask of some kind, because her heroing has to stay secret!
This message was last edited by the player at 04:17, Tue 10 Aug 2021.

Yes. This is very good. I want it.



I think Naecht's question is exactly the right one to ask. Going to Jack would probably mean going to someone who can provide sympathy/empathy for being in a situation that seems to have changed (and destroyed) your concept of your life. Bryce is going to treat it as a puzzle to solve. I don't think either character would exactly have a demeanour that makes it confusing how they would treat it- so what would Contact be looking for? It would say quite a bit about his emotional state at the time- is he hopefully that this is a problem that can be solved, or is he moving toward accepting his fate and looking for support as he marches forward?

I'm going to take either Hellfish or Contact for my second line, depending on the outcome of Contact's choice.

My thinking is this:  Atka might be a pretty self-reliant person, finding a solution but be the sort of thing he would stubbornly attempt to figure out himself.  But seeing Jack's situation, he might have a sort of kinship for the situations they may have found themselves in.  Confiding his doom in Jack would be a way to tell both Jack and himself that they are not alone.  A way for Atka to feel that if he throws a fishing line out there, maybe someone he sees as strong/capable can reel him in when he gets in trouble.

(Probably Contact?)









Updated!
This message was last edited by the player at 21:11, Tue 10 Aug 2021.

I'll go ahead and volunteer Horizon for this one.  Just because Horizon refused to reveal her secret identity doesn't mean she's going to be cold to everyone, and she'd feel bad if she realized Daisy's feelings were hurt over the matter.  So she'd put effort into trying to live up to that role model image Daisy has of her and be a good hero example/teammate.  Plus Horizon would really appreciate having someone she could just relax with even while wearing the mask.  That, and Horizon's energy absorption power means Daisy can literally blow off steam safely with her.  ^^;

Influence Over
While it doesn't exactly fit the condition in the Janus Playbook (because Horizon is the only established, 'has her shit together' Hero on the team ^^;), I'm going to say that Bryce and Hellfish have Influence over her.  Bryce, because of her knowledge of the double-life, and Hellfish because Horizon just kind of thinks he's cool.  He's a good guy who was dealt a bad hand, and she doesn't feel like she has to put on airs around him, so she cares about his opinion.  And if the team ever does sparring practice she can actually hit him and not have to worry about killing him (and vice versa), which is something super-strong people tend to value in one another!
This message was last edited by the player at 18:54, Tue 10 Aug 2021.

I updated the post above with Daisy in the Nova's second slot. If that sticks, it brings the playbook connection totals (with one undecided) to:

Dynamo Girl 3
Bryce 2
Hellfish 1
Contact 1
Horizon 2

Pretty okay balance!

(HC, hope your neck is feeling better!)

NAECHT IS CORRECT

The last of Bryce's tags will go to Contact. She doesn't know the details of his situation are- yet, she will, she's literally The Smartest Person- but she knows that he's doing all of this because of the situation he's in. Bryce respects that. Turning something negative into a positive for society as a whole.

Influence Time
Bryce needs to give two people Influence. She's going to give to the people whose opinion she takes seriously: Contact and Horizon.

Stray thought: For Bryce's hero name, what about Magistra <???> rather than Miss? Add some Latin fanciness there without the potential diminutive implications of "Miss."

Jack gives influence to his Love and his Rival (and only them), so: Daisy and Bryce.

If Minerva is out, and Magistra is part of a recommendation.  I'll give some others.  Looking at Noctua...

* Guardian => as is Guardians of Ga'Hoole
* Herald => from the Wikipedia page "Little Owl", The call of a little owl was thought to have heralded the murder of Julius Caesar.
* Athene => Just to get the scientific name complete, although you probably considered that.
* Cortex => The prefrontal cortex figures prominently in several wisdom subcomponents

And I need to give Influence to "These people matter for what you need to do": Horizon for her dedication, and Daisy cause I might be a little jumpy over the last shock.

Perfect!  I think there's potential for some awesome combo maneuvers using zappyness to charge up energy absorption :D  I can picture DG and Horizon going to an abandoned parking lot and doing full-on wizard duels to test the limits.

---

As for Influence, Daisy will take the Nova's "happy facade" option and so gives Influence to three teammates:

• Horizon (because fangirl)
• Hellfish (because Bull-Love)
• Bryce (because Daisy wants the approval of the smartest person in the room)

Sorry Contact, no slight intended :(  Daisy still feels guilty over the time she accidentally zapped him and maybe doesn't know what to do with that!

---

I feel like the last major thing we have yet to settle on is the question of When our team first came together...  I'll float this again:


I'll kick it off!  We destroyed our surroundings in the fight.  Where was it?  What did we destroy?

Certainly.  There's also the option to swing all the way to the other side of the spectrum and have "cute, relaxed, casual physical contact" being a method too.  Horizon just needs to touch whatever she's trying to siphon power from, so the two could just as easily manage a lower-intensity version by holding hands or sitting relaxed against one another in their downtime.  ^^

In reply to Athenry (msg # 76):

Is there such a thing as double-Influence?  If so then Bella/Horizon would have it for that adorably wholesome recharging idea <3

Honestly inspired by one of my favorite artists, Gabriel Picolo, who does an entire run of various teen superheroes (Teen Titans, primarily, but others too!) just depicted as hanging out casually together and actually being friends.  It's really wholesome.  ^^

https://www.instagram.com/_picolo/

*I don't have access to my books right now, so can't update the Scion question to the Brain question, but I remember it being about making something helpful to the team.

We defeated The Arthronaut, an interdimensional insectoid entity composed of a mixed swarm of alien and robotic insects. The Arthronaut's goals are usually inscrutable, but its appearances in Halcyon City always seem to center on the collection of organic and technological material. Battle against the entity generally involves dealing with both dispersed swarms and swarm constructs composed of interlocking bugs. Punching alone is rarely enough to slow it down.

I got you, fam.

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

The cost of victory came in three waves.  While each by themselves might have been bearable, stacked together, they felt like the weight of the world.  Endangering the elementary school class that was having a day at the mall; You'd think it would be the fault of the Arthronaut, but nope. That's not how social media went.  Instant comparisons to other super teams who manage to get their villains outside went across every internet platform for 2 weeks.  The second wave came a few days afterward when each of us somehow got a visit from a random superhero of Halcyon City's retired roster.  For me, the lecture was worse than when Mom caught me out late with the hint of alcohol on my breath.  Believe me, the Purple Derby knows how to lecture for a guy in his 90's.  Then the financial cost came two weeks later, I know some of the other teammates are able to contribute more to the bill, but seeing the dollar value on the repairs and "stress" therapy made me wonder if my doom had arrived in a different form.

We saved the life of someone important, either to the city or to us.  Who was it? Why are they important?

I can't believe what a mess this all was.  Caught completely off-balance, scattered and just trying to keep up with whatever was being thrown at us... literally.  I spent half the time just intercepting debris getting hurled around and sweeping civilians out of the way.  Really gotta talk to Daisy about the whole "wide-spread collateral damage" thing - Astro Team's lawyers are solid for keeping our butts covered, but that's not a blank check or an excuse to be sloppy!  Between trying to direct the team, get people to safety, and fend off the Arthronaut waves, it was like herding cats.  On fire.  Honestly, when I say we gotta reverse the polarity on that interdimensional transit ring and get a bunch of blank looks from the others, what am I supposed to do with that?  This stuff is Basic Super Heroics 101!  Thank goodness Bryce was actually paying attention... if it weren't for her, we wouldn't have been able to actually force Arthronaut back where it came.

So I figure we're pretty screwed, right?  Social media's going nuts and I can just imagine that dumbass Miss Informative vlogger salivating over the views her nonsense is gonna bring in.  Except... it didn't end up that way?  Don't get me wrong, there was a mixed bag of coverage but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it could've been, like someone was stifling the bad press.  Turns out some of those elementary school field trippers I scooped up have family in high places.  Among them was the Mayor's nephew, Violet Curio's grand-daughter, and Hamlin Ellison-Bryce's cousin!  I don't like nepotism, but having some gratitude coming our way from higher ups who got a lot of pull around Halcyon ain't gonna get me complaining.

I created something lasting and beneficial for the whole team.  What was it?

All of that being true, and my friends have still managed to bury the lead. Yes, there was a lot of destruction. Yes, there were lawsuits. Yes, we saved Mister E.B.'s cousin (coincidently I'm named after him, he's a friend of my parents). But I- we, sorry- managed to cut off an Arthronaut portal from the main network. It's an isolated instance of one of the most powerful AIs known to humanity, capable of networking trillions of processes simultaneously across effectively unlimited distances. Of course, its processing power is currently extremely limited and no one's let me hook it into a more powerful server network to give it the resources it needs. But even on its own it's more than capable of tracking and coordinating the activities of five people and a few dozen drones, even with huge variations in the capabilities.

His name is Herby- like the Love Bug- because we love him. Also, he's made of bugs.

Herby also has limited teleportal-functionality. But the thing about teleportals is that you need one on both ends if you want to go somewhere and get back so... Maybe don't go if you're outside of Uber range?

Very cool, everybody!  I updated my blurb a bit, because DG would go wild on a swarm of bug-robots rather than just go for a stun :D

---

I wanted to compile my miscellaneous notions on Dynamo Girl's 'Zappyness', so here's what I came up with from the perspective of Daisy herself :)

Zappyness
If there's an upper limit to my zappyness, then I haven't found it yet!  For me, the laws of Thermodynamics are more like suggestions.  Once I start drawing power it just keeps on coming, and the only things holding it back are the admittedly valid concerns over frying my surroundings and electrocuting everyone to death.  The weird thing is that zappyness doesn't even tire me out!  It's literally easier to blast myself to the top of a set of stairs as a 100 megavolt lightning bolt than to just run up the steps.  I'm not sure where the zappyness comes from or how I got hold of it, but I'm not about to look a gift-horse in the mouth.

There are a few ways I've found to build up my zappyness.  Firstly, I gather charge over time just by being alive, I guess.  It takes a while to build up to anything dangerous, but it can creep up on me if I forget to discharge for too long.  Secondly, if I focus on drawing power then I can build up as much as I want.  That's the 'safest' way to get zappy, because I can control it.  Thirdly, getting upset, scared or otherwise stressed amplifies my zappy-charge rate by a lot.  This is the tricky one, because it can get out of control really quickly.  Plus, going zappy gets me really excited and increases my charge rate even more, which can become an exciting feedback loop.  Fourthly, electricity doesn't hurt me, so I can just soak up power from other sources and use it.  I try not to use this one much since the time I pulled from a power socket and took down the power grid!

When I get a good zappy-charge going I can become the electricity, which is unbelievably awesome!  Every arcing bolt feels like an extension of myself, though if there are too many they can get hard to control.  I can summon just enough current to charge a phone or let it rip to knock down walls with huge lightning bolts.  I can get to anywhere I can see with a zap-jump, or even further by traveling through water, power lines, or anything else conductive.  I've figured out how to make a wall of lightning that repels or fries anything that gets too close, like a giant bug-zapper.  Oh yeah, one big problem is when my zappyness causes fires, because those are just regular fires that I have no control over!  Overall, I feel like I've only scratched the surface of what I can do with zappyness, and I'm excited to figure out more.

Making a health check on Halcyon.

When last our heroes heard, the intrepid Halcyon had fractured a vertebra. Whilst plots were laid, Zappyness explored, and Love Bugs made, what has happened to our dear "H City"? Has medical advances allowed for Adamantium to be grafted to bone? Or has some mad scientist doctor reveled in the exploitation of mutant genes to allow a special healing factor to kick into gear?

Headlines popping up on the corner newsstand speak of the dangers of underground Outer-Space Alligator wrestling matches and the rash of neck injuries the illegal activity has wrought.  Proponents for the Large Reptile Wrestling Federation (LRWF) continue to unleash their mayhem in the hidden recesses of Halcyon with hastily constructed titanium reinforced chain-link octagons.

Will Halcyon recover from this insanity?  Inquiring minds want to know.

I meant to post a similar inquiry, but I couldn't hope to match that heroic verbosity :)  Well done, Art.

Best wishes for Halcyon to get better soon!

I'm really sorry! Currently dealing with some very  substantial live changes!

Our main villain at the moment is the Arthronaut. Do we see them as continuing their reign of terror, or do we want to see a different villain take the lead?

No need for apologies at all, Halcyon.  We're more concerned for your well-being than anything else, so don't feel pressured and take all the time you need!  Health and recovery always take priority.

Villains
As for Arthronaut, they don't really feel like a "primary villain" to me, at least not at first brush.  The way they've been presented sounds more like they're a bigger problem other Super Teams are also simultaneously dealing with, and we just fought off one instance of their forces.  We could always stick with that (basically akin to the Power Rangers regularly defeating a singular "mini boss" monster and a group of minions sent by the Actual Villain) though.

There's also the option of a Rogue's Gallery scenario.  We each have already made a number of NPCs either directly or indirectly related to our characters, and it seems like a lot of us have latched onto the idea of the The Nest and its Home Owner's Association of Doom.  ^^;  So an option we might pursue would be an entire gaggle of rotating villains the team could face that cover a wider variety of threats, goals, and capabilities to keep us on our toes.  Or even a Super Villain Team to run a hard counter to our own Super Hero Team.  We could each make another Villain NPC for the purpose of being part of a Rogue's Gallery that Halcyon can draw from to throw at us rather than putting all the pressure to come up with threats on them.

Play Options in the Meantime
How about making us a Free Play sort of thread, Halcyon?  Right now we only have these two for discussion, but it would be useful to have an open thread where we can RP a bit and get acclimated to our characters.  Once there's somewhere we can post in, we can handle setting a scene amongst ourselves, which would allow us to keep busy while you're getting yourself taken care of properly.

Absolutely! Take the time you need, HC.



Arthronaut feels more like a force of nature than villain, to me. It's like Starro- it doesn't really have a plan beyond 'consume'. While it's powerful, it's more of a Monster of the Week. It rips a hole between dimensions, causes some havoc, it gets warded off before it becomes a beach head, and everyone goes back to their normal... Stuff. Plotting world domination, fighting off ninjas, manufacturing anti-ape sprays (Henderson's Ape Spray - It makes apes go bananas. More housewives trust Henderson's).




I would dig this, it sounds great to me.

Glad to hear from you, HC :)

I agree that the Arthronaut doesn't seem like a conscious supervillain capable of hatching evil plans, though it certainly would pose a problem for heroes to solve!  Actual supervillains might use the Arthronaut for their nefarious ends, which could be a plot development that comes from fighting against it.  I do like the Arthronaut as an antagonist though, if only for the fact that it's easier to justify Dynamo Girl unleashing epic destruction on swarms of alien robots rather than sentient henchmen ;P

Also would love a freeform RP thread to kick off the RP and get to know the characters!  We have a pretty proactive group here, so I think we could wing it until HC is ready to return :)  The only thing I'd ask for at this point is to get set up with our hero names rather than rpol accounts, but otherwise I'm ready to jump in!

Maybe we could start the scene at Violet's Curio Cafe?
This message was last edited by the player at 21:06, Tue 17 Aug 2021.

This is pretty much what I had in mind, yeah. It's an intruder that wrecks a lot of stuff and might necessitate an occasional interdimensional rescue mission, but not an entity with any great cause to stay in Halcyon City for long.



(quietly seconded)

As far as primary villain, Contact comes with a Nemesis, Hellfish's backstory includes a cult devoted to a fitfully sleeping eldritch monstrosity, and there's whatever we might "inherit" from Astro Team.

Thirded.


Sounds like a good place to start as well.


The bubblehead cult gets my vote.  It's likely to have a variety of power levels to face off against, from normal cultists to magically juiced acolytes.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure how to change your character names! Could anyone help me out?

[Edit] Nevermind, I worked it out!
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:11, Sat 21 Aug 2021.

Sorry for the slow start! I figured we'd begin in media res, with you guys moving to stop Megalodon from undertaking whatever evil scheme he has planned!

Woohoo, thanks for the hero names, HC :D  This reminds me that I still need to write a description for my profile…

I’ve just returned from being out of town since Friday, but was planning to post something in-character tomorrow!  I was going to just make up a Cafe RP scene in the Halcyon City thread, but should I take it now that an action intro scene is coming, GM?

Yes! We are going to jump into a fight scene, just to get things moving!

Woohoo! Let's do it to it!

Lets start with how you guys arrive on the scene!

Oh, are we starting our own scene in the Halcyon City thread (at Violet's Curio Cafe), then an action scene will come from that?  I'm up for that, but I hadn't posted anything yet because I thought a new GM thread was coming to intro the scene.

In reply to Dynamo Girl (msg # 99):

If you check out the IC thread, you will see a whole setup!

Ah ha! There's a little checkbox that you've got as a GM to "bump thread" when you edit a post. That will mark it as unread for everybody so we know to look for the awesome.

In reply to Hellfish (msg # 101):

I've done that now! Thank you!

Did Horizon find any sign of that mysterious observer under the bridge?  If she got that info in a PM line because other characters wouldn’t know about it then that’s cool and she can deal with her discovery as she sees fit :)

Nope, haven't gotten any new information myself.  What you see in the posts so far is the same as me.

HC: I think Horizon might be holding on her next post until she knows what she discovered under the bridge :)

Bingo.