General Character Discussion Thread

[leons1701]

7 is probably fine if your character isn't a "fighter", but it looks like you wanted her to fight pretty well. One thing I'd suggest dropping, the OMCV, I doubt we'll be fighting many mentalists. For that matter, since your only mental attack is an AoE, you'll always be attacking a DMCV of 3 even if you are fighting mentalists. Which means you currently hit on a 15- or 95% of the time.

[Papa Bear]

7 will be fine. 8 is like the cap as is the 60active points.5 or 6 will probably be average. And of course it all depends on the character. For example, maybe your guy is a dodging spiderman type and you wanted a DCV of 9 but only had 10 pd/Ed with no or little resistant defenses, I would be OK with that.

Typically resistant defenses are just over half, so the cap of 20 pd/Ed might have 12 pdr/edr... But if you are a brick 20 both is appropriate.

[Papa Bear]

Oh yeah, you all do not have to have finalized characters by tomorrow. We can fine tune them next week

[Solomon Black]

4 hours ago, leons1701 said:

7 is probably fine if your character isn't a "fighter", but it looks like you wanted her to fight pretty well. One thing I'd suggest dropping, the OMCV, I doubt we'll be fighting many mentalists. For that matter, since your only mental attack is an AoE, you'll always be attacking a DMCV of 3 even if you are fighting mentalists. Which means you currently hit on a 15- or 95% of the time.

Perfect and thank you.

[hakootoko]

My CV might be too much, then, too.

Currently: OCV 3, DCV 7, OMCV 8, DMCV 3, PD 15, ED 15, no resistant defense.

Maybe I could go down to DCV 6 (because I'm not a "fighter"), OMCV 6 (because the bad guys won't have a lot of DMCV)?

[Papa Bear]

Naw, that's fine. There ARE some villains with an 8 CV (and because the GM is a jerk, maybe even a 9 but wouldn't see that until we get a good feel for the group's combat potential)

[GleefulNihilism]

I think I got something. Please, do look over “The Shriek”. I was thinking my guy does have an aggressive personality and a temper but little to no actual training for reasons that will be obvious.

Edited April 12 by GleefulNihilism (see edit history)

[hakootoko]

22 minutes ago, Papa Bear said:

Naw, that's fine. There ARE some villains with an 8 CV (and because the GM is a jerk, maybe even a 9 but wouldn't see that until we get a good feel for the group's combat potential)

I think there's some confusion in this question and answer... Let me try again.

Is OMCV 6, DCV 6 enough? Or am I trying to shave off cp in the wrong place?

[Papa Bear]

Oh yeah. That's about average for CVs across the board. There are not many mental powers so if you want to shave, maybe... Of course we both know that when you NEED mental defenses, you freaking need them

[leons1701]

5 hours ago, Papa Bear said:

Of course we both know that when you NEED mental defenses, you freaking need them

Truth. I'm a bit nervous about my lack of mental defenses to be honest, but well, given Tiger's physical defenses, he needs some sort of weakness. And of course, there is the inevitable tweaking period to work on that stuff anyhow.

[Papa Bear]

1 hour ago, leons1701 said:

Truth. I'm a bit nervous about my lack of mental defenses to be honest, but well, given Tiger's physical defenses, he needs some sort of weakness. And of course, there is the inevitable tweaking period to work on that stuff anyhow.

exactly :)

[Papa Bear]

@GleefulNihilism, @hakootoko, @leons1701, @RedRajah, @crimsonjoe, @Solomon Black, & @RagallachMC, You all are in. I like the toons and I like your participation in the discussions. I am slightly leery of 7 but I usually always take 6 because of the inevitable attrition that PBP games suffer. The adventure was written for 5-7 dark champions so I am good with the choice. Please note I do NOT want attrition. A) The adventure is for up to 7 and B) there isn't anyone I don't want in the game.

Also, there is a character with some political leaning (cooly balanced, I think), but I'd like to avoid any real world politics in the game. There will be some politics as the governing bodies dicker back and forth about things, such as whether or not vigilantism should be legal, but I'll not be assigning political parties or common terms such as Liberal or Conservative to describe anyone. The character's stance will be their belief, not their affiliation.

 

SO, this next week will be for fine tuning your characters though most of you are already right there, maybe a tweak here or there is all that is needed and maybe 'needed' only because you decide you want to make a small change and need to rebalance the points.

I believe I mentioned this before, you have A) the full assortment of Everyman Skills listed in the book. Of course, those are only 8- skills with no boost because of a high Characteristic, but an 8- chance beats no chance at all!!! Just remember, as per the rules, if you want the 'full skill', you have to pay the full points. there's no discount on the Everyman Skills except to get the roll at 8-

B) you have stuff like Cell Phones at a 'level' equal to your character's wealth. A poor character will have a phone with data and everything, but it will be a cheepy phone, maybe used bought on Amazon or an older iPhone or something, but not a 'flip phone'. A wealthier character can have a top of the line, freshly minted with all the bells and whistles phone. Same goes with cars. If you poor, your transportation might be a bus pass, but otherwise you've probably got a decent car, 5 to 10 years old, some dings and scratches but it works pretty well. That rich jerk gets a Tesla or something... the really rich jerk gets pretty much whatever they want (a leer jet? Helicopter?). Really, something appropriate to your wealth level. This also goes for housing. You do not need to spend any points on any of this stuff that is common to the greater population. Not everyone has guns, so that you'd need to pay for.

You probably should 'track' the freebies in that second post so we (me really) have quick reference to where your character lives (what district, not like 3265 Franklin Street) and operates (you might not live in the same place where you go beat up bad guys). Yeah, let's please list where your character's typical stomping grounds are when they are out wearing their cowls.

Finally, the characters don't ALL need to know each other but I'd like each to have met and probably worked with at least one other character. How many is up to you. Its obviously more likely that characters that work the same neighborhoods will have had a better chance of meeting up. Heck, maybe you've even fought against each other. You don't know who they are!!! Boom, Smash, Bash... wait, you're staking out these creeps too? Sorry. Yeah, let's kick their *BLEEP*s. So, as with how many others your toon might know, the level to which they know each other is also up to you. We'll continue using this string to discuss our characters' previous interactions/relationships while we fine tune our character sheets.

 

Anyway, my plan is to start with some individual RP to get things going and get a feel for how we all play and set up your character's little bit of paradise here in Sovereign City. In supers adventures, I often run multiple 'chapters' at a time with two or three characters in one while another character is doing some investigating this or that on their own and the others are doing yet something else. I'll flip it around, including everyone doing something together, especially the 'big encounters'. When I start a new RP thread, I'll put the character names in the title inside of parenthesis. Those characters are invited to that thread. I won't do it up private unless its something that needs to be private. I actually hate private threads but, well, sometimes (wait, you're going to betray the group? Yeah, better go private with that!)... Most private stuff we can use your character sheet thread or DMs. I like DMs better but those are harder to reference later, so I get that. When a character is 'invited', you don't have to join in (but why did you join the game if you don't?). But maybe you'd feel like your toon would ignore whatever thing is going on because they have something else going on... but I don't try to be restrictive on time frames... so your character can be running in two completely different RP threads at the same time. This does cause some players a headache as they go "I'm waiting to see what happens in the other thread" and I get that too. I'm also not opposed to Retconning stuff either. I'm pretty 'easy' as a GM.

Also, I'll set up a given setting for a new RP thread. I'll leave it up to you why your character is 'there' and how they decide to get involved. It might be obvious. I'm at line in the bank or across the street from it when bank robbers bust in. Sometimes it might be more involved. Really, its up to you to get your toon involved and how.

There's a lot of investigation that can be done, with lots of different tidbits to learn so if you feel like your character might be able to get some intel from the 8-13s gang, feel free to let me know that is what you want your toon to go do, in your particular idiom (Monty Python reference, sorry had to be done), whatever violence, investigative, or undercover work that may be.

Welcome to Shadows of the City!

Edited April 13 by Papa Bear (see edit history)

[hakootoko]

@crimsonjoe Pinging you about a possible pre-game connection. We both worked for the city government, and perhaps worked together at a crime scene, when John was a novice superhero and Chester was still a normal detective.

@RagallachMC Perhaps John rescued you from your chemical accident and got you to the hospital, and sympathized with your new superhero-ish-ness. (John isn't open about how he became a super, but can sympathize, since he wasn't born one). Maybe recently you got back in touch with him because of your app, and found him dubious. John isn't in this for the mony. John's popularity sells his art, which keeps him funded.

 

 

[GleefulNihilism]

Well, I’m bored at work so I’m gonna take a look at possible character connections. First, let me say I have no idea who the political character is supposed to be even after I’ve looked through them all. Does that mean it’s me? Lol.

 

Helpful Hooks For You All:

• If your character frequently visits the artsy districts, especially around the live music scene in the Emmy Mours, you are probably aware that one of the rising darlings is a blind guitar player named Sergio Pearson. Known for a heavy blues/rock sound, he is considered extremely talented and it’s often believed that the only thing holding him back from a major record deal is that his singing voice is not quite up to par with his guitar playing.
• Those of you better connected to the rumor mill know that the actual thing holding back Sergio from a record deal is that he has a bit of a temper and spiteful, anti-authoritarian streak. To the point that his manager famously comments that even with Sergio being blind he causes bigger headaches for him than the punk band he also manages.
• There’s an urban legend going around saying that Sovereign City is home to a literal Demon from Hell that’s responsible for a string of vicious attacks. The creature’s exact features, nature, and origins vary from story to story and telling to telling but there are a few things that the stories usually have in common. The creature produces high-pitched shrieks, prefers to attack from darkness, can supposedly be summoned with a nursery rhyme, and the victims appear to almost always be people that abuse children in some fashion.
• Sergio has no idea where his powers come from, all he knows is that there’s a three day gap in his memory and soon afterwards he began developing superhuman hearing and other sound related powers. He is pretty confident that he’s not actually a demon from hell, but he does think that sounds cool.
   

Possible thoughts for links to other characters.

• I don’t have a good one for Rescuer, but the UFO angle might be interesting.
• I don’t have anything for Geist either, but I really like her. Sergio might’ve been a fan.
• Chess is probably my most solid possibility, from his earlier cop days. I’m picturing dramatic scenes where when Sergio was still a baby he was one of responding officers to a boat that was caught human trafficking. A bunch of the victims either dead or disfigured, including a baby that was blinded with industrial bleach? That’s gotta stick to a cop. And he seems like the sentimental type that occasionally checks in on the victims of crimes he investigated and feels like he failed.
• With Medusa feels like there’s got to be something there. Mysterious corporations willing to experiment on the relatively helpless would help explain Sergio’s memory gap. Plus if I’m reading your sheet right your characters’ main attack can’t really be turned off, but if you don’t establish eye contact you get some level of resistance. Well, Shriek is blind.
• Fluke is a sellout, lol.

Edited April 13 by GleefulNihilism (see edit history)

[hakootoko]

I guess I see Rescuer as political, in the sense he's connected to those who run the government. He's not a politician, though, if that's what you mean. He knows the comfortably wealthy professional elites, not the old-money types.

I'm putting his home in the art district in adjacent to the community college in Auberdeen, by the Powhaten River.