technoRomancer

1. Tell me a little about yourself I've been playing PbP for decades, starting with freeform roleplay when I was a kid but mostly D&D/Pathfinder in recent years. I've GMd D&D 4e back in the day and my longest running campaign in Starfinder a few years ago. I am a fan of crunchy tactical combat systems as my entry to tabletop was actually miniatures/wargaming, not RPGs. I do really enjoy experimenting/reading about more narrative focused systems but am mostly limited to what my IRL friends are willing to play or what systems are more popular on the Weave. I have a little experience with PbtA (Scum and Villainy) and my wife has played Masks, but the game I was in was being run on Discord and I found myself unable to keep up with the pace, so I ended up dropping out before it got too far. I love the Avatar world and definitely think a narrative system like FATE or PbtA is a better fit for it than something more combat-centric like a D&D homebrew. It's been a while since I've been in an active PbP game, but I usually aim to post at least once a day or whenever most of the other players have acted since my last post.   2. How familiar are you with the world of Avatar? My wife and I have watched through Last Airbender many times, and I... actually do own the artbook... although considering I also have the artbook for the Avatar with blue aliens, that's more a measure of my concept art collecting habits than my level of fandom obsession. I've read three or four of the comic series I think. We only watched through Korra once, as it was aired, but I keep meaning to do another watchthrough sometime. It wasn't as good Last Airbender IMO, it obviously suffered quite a bit from network interference, but it was still a lot of fun with great characters and lots of cool ideas/moments.   3. What's a favorite Avatar moment, and why? Sokka is my favorite character, and almost every interaction he has with a companion is gold, but I think one of my favorite lines is the simple, "Boomerang! You do always come back!" On the more dramatic side of things, the Last Agni Kai still gives me chills, whether it's the beautifully choreographed confrontation itself (and some great fuel for Zutara fans) or even just listening to the soundtrack from that scene.   4. Is there a playbook (or several) you're especially interested in? I think I would be most interested in playing the Rogue, or the Idealist; possibly the Elder depending on the era we're exploring?   5. Fiction Narrative WIP   6. Cooperative Narrative WIP

I said so previously but just to make sure it's not missed, Trouble is complete.

Trouble is actually pretty extroverted, but her tendency to get overwhelmed and need to isolate herself to recover makes it easy to understand and empathize with social pariahs (self-inflicted or otherwise) even without taking her powers into account. I could definitely see her falling in with or even pulling together a group of misfits just because she can see they're in need of a friend. With those who struggle in interpersonal relations she naturally makes an effort to take up the social heavy lifting.

Thank you, looking forward to seeing who gets in!

I think likening it to a mundane sense helped; now that I've done some more in depth reading I don't want it to be something Trouble has to actively scan for that can be resisted. She can "listen in" if she tries but sometimes she just picks things up, and other times it's like a constant noise or bright flash, overwhelming and hard to tune out. Thanks for the advice!   I'm not sure about Analytical at the start, maybe something to develop into depending on how the points line up; but if I'm not misreading, it seems like I need to take Acute at least, otherwise Trouble can only tell "there are angry people here" and not "this dude in particular is mad"?

Hmm... I think this came up in another player's app in some manner, but what would be the functional difference between Mind Reading (Limited to Emotions) and Senses (Detect Emotions)? On first blush it seems like Mind Reading is a more active power, so I'm wondering if Detect Emotions would better represent something Trouble can't really turn off, even if much of that will just be roleplaying. Are there things that could be accomplished with one and not the other, or is it just two different approaches to the same result?

Thank you! I look forward to seeing what you've got for Badger's fluff. I think Trouble's the type to give all her friends nicknames, so if we do both get in the game I'll try to come up with a fun one for him.

Trouble dislikes and avoids physical confrontations when she can and relies on the City to protect her when she can't, not any sort of combat training or experience. She's good at MacGyvering solutions to problems, aims for compromises and communication in conflict resolution first and violence is a last resort, so I think weaker combat defenses make sense for her. I have shored Dodge/Parry up from "non-existent" to "below average" now at least, thanks for the advice and suggestions everyone! (I also realized I missed the "cannot use power points to raise Toughness directly" note in the text so that's been fixed.) Between the mentioned Protection, and Favored Environment (which will hopefully be relevant fairly often), she shouldn't be completely useless when in a vulnerable position. I also plan on eventually expanding her Healing to affect living things too (though it will always be one of the less developed aspects of her powers) so that should help her recover from inevitable bumps and bruises more smoothly.   I will likely still make minor tweaks to Trouble here and there before players are chosen, and there are still a lot of things about the game I need to properly grok, but I think she's close enough to call her complete at this point!

What's a good baseline for how much one should invest in Abilities/Defenses vs. Powers? Does Trouble look imbalanced at all on that front or am I in an okay place?

Yeah, the first result I found was pretty sparse. He actually sounds more like the City "entity" I envisioned than Trouble herself, it's just on a much larger and mostly less corporeal scale. How long has the Doctor been active in Freedom City? We could say his presence and influence in the city is what triggered its "awakening" in a way that allowed Trouble to commune with it as a singular being with agency and will. Or perhaps he is a physical manifestation of the more alien mind that developed a distinct personality. I will have to read more about him.   The way I play it Trouble herself doesn't really control her environment, the City acts of its own accord to assist her when she needs help, using her as a conduit. It reacts and responds to her emotions, intervening when she is distressed. If she's really pissed off she might not even notice the lights in the building suddenly flickering on and off in sympathetic anger. (The thaumaturgy cantrip was really fun for this aspect for D&D Trouble!) Maybe she will grow into actual control with time and experience but she's not there yet.   Would the limitation on the Environment power reduce the point cost at all or will we just call it a flavor aspect?

Ah, no, I wasn't aware there was a similar character already in the world! I haven't looked into any dramatis personae from the default setting yet. Trouble is a reworked character from a D&D game a few years ago; she was a City Domain Cleric in a campaign that was somewhere between Shadowrun and Mad Max, so I just needed to turn down the grunge and existential despair a bit to fit into a modern capes setting. (As a side note, find vehicle is a fun spell when used creatively!)   Would we just... pretend Doc Metro doesn't exist if Trouble is in the game, or work out some sort of connection between them? From a quick wiki dive he doesn't seem to be a particularly central character but, as noted, I don't know the setting well yet.

Is it possible to add a limitation of urban terrain to the Environment power? I envision it as things like lights/electricity turning on and off, water or gas pipes bursting, concrete buckling, etc. So it wouldn't work on plants, bare earth, or open bodies of water, for example.   That's a good point for emotion control; maybe Enhanced Trait (Presence) would work if I want to keep it as a power but simplify things...

Ah, thanks for the clarification... I was unsure if the point cost would multiply with rank for each effect since the text says you purchase them as Alternate Effects, and those are listed as a flat point cost rather than per rank.   I will take a look at Affliction and see if it works for what I have in mind. I am starting to understand Powers can get pretty complex, but I suppose that's part of the draw of the system's versatility! Now that I have a better idea of what I want I can start paring things down to meet the point limit.

Still very much a WIP, but I could use some help figuring things out. First, I'm not sure how to sort the total pp for the Environment Control ability. And second, what power do you think might work for influencing the emotions of others? It's not mind control, but I picture Trouble could try to calm an angry mob, or provoke a usually cool-headed person, for example. 

  T.R. "TROUBLE" KNOX DESCRIPTION Pale of complexion and always hunched despite her lanky height, 16-year-old Trouble gives off the air of someone burdened by a great weight. She streaks her eyes with makeup to cover the perpetual dark circles there, to only moderate success. She doesn't like to appear tired, weak, vulnerable. Few would describe her as pretty; her expression is typically annoyed at best and angry at the world more often, and she barely has any meat on her bones. Altogether, she's cursed with what some have called "resting murder face." Her clothes and gear are well-worn, patched, but functional, with little thought spared for aesthetics; she prefers tough materials like leather and denim. Her mass of thick, dark hair is wild and uncooperative (and is a favored spot for her to hide small tools or holdout weapons). Her voice is somewhat scratchy, her tongue wielded less by a sharp wit and more like a blunt instrument.   Trouble's hands seem to have a mind of their own, always moving - most often fiddling with something. She likes fidget toys she can wear, spinner rings and bracelets with beads that click or have different textures. She's uncomfortable with physical contact unless it's someone she trusts, as she's nervous about triggering an empathic connection, but will swallow her discomfort for the sake of politeness most of the time. With those she manages to get close to it's the complete opposite; she almost seems touch-starved when she allows herself to let her guard down. PERSONALITY Trouble doesn't want to be a grump. She's a naturally social person, and despite her scrappy appearance she exudes a confidence and openness that attracts people to her. But it's hard to maintain an optimistic attitude when she's essentially a living lightning rod for the emotions of everyone around her. Though she's learned to control it much better than she did as a child, Trouble is easily influenced by the feelings and surface thoughts of those she interacts with, particularly when a strong sentiment is shared by a large group. She's prone to mood swings, and when she succumbs to her feelings it's always big - bursting into tears for sob stories, quick to wrathful anger, irrationally giddy. This empathic channel goes both ways, though. She can usually keep it locked down, but when her own genuine emotions overwhelm her, they can spill out and influence others nearby. Furthermore, when people get a strong sentimental attachment to places and things, over time a psychic imprint forms that Trouble can sense. Particularly strong imprints can have as much involuntary influence on her state of mind as a rioting crowd. She can't bottle up her own emotions, or they'll explode - so she lets them bubble out in a constant stream instead.   Keeping all this under heel leaves Trouble exhausted and with a chronic headache. And she always knows exactly how horrible people can be. Hence, the perpetual bad mood. She's quick to sarcasm as an outlet for her frustration, but those who get to know her seem to appreciate her bluntness and dry sense of humor. Honesty is an uncommon virtue in the circles she grew up in, but Trouble simply doesn't have the energy for subtlety most of the time. She doesn't try to hide her power from others, and the friends she's managed to keep are usually patient with her occasional outbursts. She's quick to apologize for an unintended affront as soon as it passes, and always takes responsibility for her words and actions. People just find it easy to trust her, and it helps that she's uncannily good at knowing when they can be trusted, too. HISTORY Nobody noticed anything strange about T.R. when she was young, a loud and rambunctious bundle of energy careening around the poorer neighborhoods of Freedom City. As she grew, it became increasingly obvious she had an unnatural knack for reading people. Her parents suspected she had some sort of innate telepathy. Such a talent could be a huge asset in the family line of work, typically security for local businesses; her burgeoning gift was encouraged. But the older Trouble got, the more overwhelming her empathic sense grew. And growing beneath the constant malaise of suffering, despair, and ennui that enveloped the impoverished parts of the city was a Voice. It was BITTER. It was SCARED. It was VERY EXCITED to find someone who could hear it, even if Trouble could barely comprehend it.   It was the City. The hopes, dreams, and fears of millions of mayflies accumulated into an aggregate consciousness over generations of civilization. Freedom City doesn't think, not in words. But it feels what its people feel, and it wants - nothing more than to thrive, to be a home for the people that inhabit it. It loves its people, and it especially loves Trouble, rising up like an urban elemental to protect and aid her when she gets into... well, her namesake, which is often.   Freedom City feels it's in a precarious position. It has convinced Trouble to try and change that. She knows change starts on a small scale - one person, acting in a way that encourages others to emulate her. She's still a kid, relatively powerless, but stubbornly determined to help whoever and wherever she can. Between her innate urban gestalt and odd hours as a delivery driver on her beat-up old motorbike, she knows the city better than the back of her hand - its quirks, backroads and dark alleys and hidden treasures. If she doesn't know where something is, she knows where to look for it or who to ask about it. Her connections and a lot of hard work earned her a scholarship to Claremont, and she and her family are hoping the school will help her get a better handle on her powers - and maybe start to understand what the City really wants from her... COMPLICATIONS Doing Good: Trouble genuinely wants to help people; literally, when they're happy, she's happy. And when enough people are happy, maybe the City will be too. A bit idealistic, sure, but Trouble thinks it bodes well that the urban overmind seems to be an idealist. Temperamental: Vulnerable to vibes. Trouble struggles with volatile emotions, external and internal. Enigmatic Patron: The gestalt psychometric entity that has awakened in Freedom City drives Trouble to act, often without knowing exactly why she is being pulled towards a particular person or situation. ABILITIES   DEFENSES   Strength 0 Dodge 6 Stamina 2 Parry 6 Agility 0 Fortitude 6 Dexterity 2 Toughness 2 Fighting 0 Will 10 Intellect 3     Awareness 8     Presence 4       POWERS Empath (17pp) ... Enhanced Trait 4 (Presence) (8pp) ... Senses  ... Detect Emotion (Acute, Analytical, Radius, Ranged) (5pp) ... Postcognition (4pp)   Urban Avatar (33pp) ... Environment Control 2; Selective, Limited (Artificial Elements) (14pp) ... Cold 1, Heat 1, Impede Movement 2, Light 1, Visibility 2 ... Healing 1; Area, Affects Objects Only (2pp) ... Move Object 3; Improvised Weapon, Perception, Subtle, Precise, Limited (Manmade Materials/Objects) (11pp) ... Protection 6; Sustained (6pp)   ADVANTAGES Street Rat ... Favored Environment: Urban ... Improvised Tools ... Improvised Weapon 1 ... Well-Informed   Sympathetic Subconscious ... Inspire 1 ... Teamwork ... Animal Empathy (Limited to Vermin - Rats, Pigeons, Stray Cats/Dogs)   SKILLS Close Combat (Unarmed) 4 +4 Expertise (Streetwise) 5 +8 Insight 6 +14 Investigation 5 +8 Perception 2 +10 Persuasion 6 +10 Sleight of Hand 4 +6 Vehicles 4 +6 OFFENSES Initiative +0 Unarmed Strength-based Damage +X vs Parry; DCX vs Toughness Throw Strength-based Ranged Damage +X vs Dodge; DCX vs Toughness   Abilities 38pp / Powers 50pp / Advantages 6pp / Skills 18pp / Defenses 18pp