Aberrant: Infinite Earth - Cosmos Nova OOC

[SeaEagle]

See...

What I want is a compass! A directiont to go toward!

In fact now I need advice.

Naomi: She's preggers, and once she has her kids/kittens... well babies... what can I do with her? She's got 5 little ones to keep an eye on. What can she do? Can she keep with the job she had (detective) reasonibly without being a completely horrible mother? My thinking has always been with the pacing of the game calendar to RL I may have to retire her. But, if people are willing to see something/way where I could keep Naomi in the game while still being mostly realistic I am willing to hear ideas.

Kei: Kei is a simple girl to keep going. Give her a threat, crisis, or rescue and Kei is there. That and there is potential with her since she is a bit geeky (I mean, hello, gamer!) but I would love to see Nate and Kei go further at some point, hopefully once Fox has gotten his daddy stuff on lock. Outside of that Kei is still in Convention crawl, although not for much longer, although if I may propose, having Connor and Kei meet none the less to salvage the convention experience for themselves would be cool. After all, Kei is spoken for and she sees Connor more as a co-worker and a good friend.

Kamiko: Kamiko is getting her head straight. She has been on the run and in hiding and that mindset needs time to get out of. She needs someone to trust. I am still willing to do a Kamiko/Max's character story. Might not be as life and death as I was originally planning, but it would still be important to who hired Mas' character and asked Kamiko to come off of medical leave.

That is my current mindset.

[Mr Fox]

Yeah, I've got to apologize. My issue at the moment isn't a lack of desire to post and get involved, it's a lack of ability. After 6+ years of accessing this site from work, they finally got around to blocking it, which given the newborn twins at home effectively has reduced my time on the site to about 5 minutes an evening just to check on what's going on. Things will change eventually at home and things will get back to at least some semblance of normalcy, but it could be a couple months. Meanwhile, I'll try and figure out a way to access from work if I can find some way around the web filters.

I can do it from my phone, but that's not exactly efficient, and I can't compose posts via the phone.

[Sakurako Hino]

No worries about that, I know you're busy.

Oh, this is Kei/Naomi here... was just checking something.

[z-Coyote-Mad Scientist]

Re: CN moving: Not everyone is going to post as fast as you, Endeavor. CN does move slow, but that's why I like it. I am not holding up an entire group of people when I have shitty weeks at work or real life gets in the way of me posting. I feel bad for the people I'm writing with, though most of them are patient beyond reason and understand. I feel bad that I'm shortchanging my characters but they're here to serve me, not the other way around, so fuck 'em. But I don't feel like I'm derailing an entire damned game if I can't scrape up the inspiration to post. That's why I remain invested here.

So please don't take it personally if I don't get too excited by calls of "we have to save CN!" We don't. It's moving along, albeit at a slow pace. If you don't like the pace I post at, please don't post with me. I do the best I can, same as Fox, and we have priorities beyond role-playing games. My are related to my career and his to his kids. I know that's a downer, but it's also reality.

Re: Compass: Naomi can get a nanny (or five). It doesn't make her a shitty parent unless she's never at home and always off doing her job. There is a difference between having help watching your kids and helping you out, and abandoning them to the help. Frankly, my sister went nuts having two babies at the same time; caring for one ordinary kid is hard work. Caring for five nova babies, particularly when they reach the toddler stage, will mean that help is mandatory, not optional. No woman, nova or otherwise, can adequately care for five nova babies alone, or even with one nanny. And yes, Long will be there to help, but I doubt he'll want to be stuck with a baby in each arm while trying to wrangle the fifth that Naomi can't hold. You get the picture. They're going to need help, and I won't make disparage her as a mother if you do show scenes of her being an attentive parent.

Kei sounds like you're fine with her.

I'm not familiar with Kamiko's story. From what you've described, she's in a victim's mindset right now. That's a fine place to start, but characters who remain there aren't interesting. More than finding someone she can trust, Kamiko sounds like she needs to relearn to trust in general: herself and the world. I'm overgeneralizing, but again, I'm not sure of the specifics.

[Sailor OOC]

Kamiko will blossom out. I and Max will have an adventure and become quick friends, I'm sure. Relying on eachother to survive will do that. Well that and once she realizes she is in control of her destiny more than she thinks, she'll change.

With Naomi I should really stop worrying and learn to love the bomb... err role of being the mother and the world's greatest detective.Yes... I think the family budget will include hiring a couple blip novas for nanny work. I can just imagine how Naomi will go over their backgrounds with an electron microscope.

Kei... well, Kei is set. She's an easy character with motivations easy to fulfil.

But honestly I worry about games I love because I know that feeling of having a game you like die off RL at the TT.

But I want it to be made clear, I am completely understanding about RL. Fox got his situation, and You got yours. We all got our RL glitches and obligations.

I'm just happy that I am more paranoid than anything else, needlessly so.

[SeaEagle]

It's going to take a little time to get Kamiko set up stat-wise. I'm going tobe delayed in getting a couple other things for other games set up. BUT, next week I can start something with Echo, Kamiko, and Envoy's character if they're still interested.

[AceWildcard]

Okay. I need help with making sure my background and character is sound before I work on stat's and such. Would anyone like to help me or can I just post it here?

[Sean Cassidy]

You can post it here, or make a new thread for it in the Character Forum and ask for feedback here.

[AceWildcard]

I'll post it here. I do not have a look for him yet. I have not done his stats yet. This is just background and I need to clearly figure out all his powers or what he can/cannot do. Or if his powers reflect upon the character.

Name: Isaac Sora

Looks:

Eruption:

Due to emotion trauma.

Power:

He manipulates various dolls and puppets. Often those that look like people. He often uses this to spy on people or for entertaining them. He also has a subpower to control or manipulate machines?

Personality:

A very lively person who loves to be around people. Isaac often loves to go out and have fun when he can. Even with what happen in his life, he keeps on trying to achieve both his dream and desires. Isaac has a strong will and does not like to submit to other people desires when it does not fit his own. As such he has gain a reputation as being stubborn.

He has a good heart and often wears it on his sleeve. He is a kind hearted person. He is smart and wise about things. In the past people often came to him for advise on various matters, even if he was not a real professional about things. He loves to listen to people stores and help them out. He is also a sort of jack of all trades but master of none style person.

He has no love for those who harm others. He was pick on a good bit on his life for his lifestyle, and personality. He also has a naive sense of right and wrong. Yet at times what he does maybe not as noble as he thinks it is. Even so he can be a good ally to have on your side or one of your worse enemies.

He loves to read books and learn about different things. He also loves to act and play around. As such he had chosen to be an part time actor. He often also worked for various community plays. He is not very big on politics and seems to care more about individuals more then what some people might call the big picture.

Quirks:

Isaac is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to work. He strives to be the best and give people what they came for. This stems from his background with his parents and his family in general. His attention to detail can make him appear as argumentative and jerk at times.

Isaac had a habit of forgetting to do things at times due to his busy schedule. Unless someone reminds him of some things. This may also due to him being distracted by his desire to do more pleasurable things and often avoids doing things he views as boring. Often these things are important, like cleaning and getting groceries. As such he does these things late and sometimes gets into problems like not getting to the stores at times and having a filthy place. This is also true when he does his free style acting. As such he often writes things down. He also has a calender to point out important dates and work times.

Isaac hates to be sad or depress. He often tries to hide his feeling during these times. He often tries to help other people get happy. Yet he avoids people who desire to have a life base off sadness and pain. He hates emo’s and goth’s and often gets into fights and arguments with them. He also has no love towards those glorified crime. This is especially true for gangs and rappers. He hate’s rap music with a passion, as well as grunge music.

Background:

Isaac came from an modest family who were very strict and demanding. They came from families whom had deep history in military and politics. As such the families always try to train and guide their children to become like them in some way or fashion. The fact that he his parents are from different countries and want him to work for their side also disgusted Isaac. Isaac never desired such a life and wanted to do something different.

He loved art and drama. He try to be the best at it, but does not stand out which frustrated him. He also like to fix things. He hates when something was broke and he knew he could fix it. He graduated from high school among the top 10 of his class.

While Isaac was deciding which college to go to Isaac and his parents argue a lot. His father wanted him to go to the military. His mother wanted him to go into politics. Isaac did not want to do either. He wanted to do his own thing. That has cause a rift between Isaac and his parents to this day.

Isaac went to various colleges. He mostly studied in electronics and computers. He also took classes in the arts, as well as drama. He eventually worked at an tech firm while doing part time jobs in drama and the arts in hoping to be an actor. He also occasional sold various art works, but he was not in very high demand. Yet he was well enough to pay off his college tuitions and to give to various charities where he also work with them on various art and play’s. He also had eventually gather a small group of close friends, though many people call Isaac their friend due to his popularity. He even had a steady girlfriend.

Yet Isaac has piss off various people. Mostly goth’s and emo’s who’s attitudes piss him off. He also has no love towards gangsters and rappers who glorify crime. This accumulates with several members of the group going out of the way to kill Isaac in a gunfire while during a performance. He barely escape when he gets knocked out by a baseball bat.

When Isaac woke up he was in a dark cellar that reminded him of a medieval torture chamber. He also realized he could not move his body. There he was tortured by several mysterious mask figures whom torture him both physical and mentally. They wanted various information that did not make sense. He gave them none, even under the most intense cases. They view him like a doll whom could dispose of at a whim.

When they did decide to dispose of Isaac, he erupted into an nova. The events are still a blur to Isaac. All he recalls clearly is the aftermath. Several bodies laying on the floor dead from various stab marks and broken body parts. Isaacs hands where strangling a long dead body.

Isaac was shocked. First he was moving his own body which he should have not. He was not complaining though. He felt lucky. Yet he view himself not so much after seeing his body look dollish. He contemplates this and figures it could have been worse.

Isaac goes to search and find a phone and call the police. He stays on till they come. He was arrested, but after a lengthy case they cops view him as a victim instead of a criminal. The people responsible for his kidnaping and torture have no direct relation to one another or Isaac; plus they had no reason to commit the crime in the first place except as some sick please. Since there is no evidence of other accomplishes the cops have shut the case, even if it is strange. Isaac accepts it. He views that strange things happen in life and leaves it at face value, yet sometimes ponders if there was something more to it.

After the incident Isaac became more popular then ever and became a greater actor. Due to some of his powers he has even done plays single handedly. He has become famous and wealthy in no time. Isaac does more charity work in the past then what he has before. He has left the tech business and is totally into acting and art now.

[Sailor OOC]

I think I feel like giving a little preview of Kamiko CN style... I think you guys will like it.

[Rebecca Baines]

Announcing my intent to bring in Rebecca as a "Teammate" for Crazy Girl's character.

Inspiration:

[Rebecca Baines]

Just had a change of concept in look... Will post once I find an example.

[z017]

I'm going to, though it'll take a bit, to remake my little shapeshifter into another of the Teen Brigade.

[Jordan]

Okay so I am working on a 15 year old character called Rumble. His theme is "Elemental Mastery."

This is a sort of thematic pic for him even though he can't actually become all 4 elements at once

[Mr Fox]

hehe... he's an air head!

j/k, it's a pretty cool pic.

[SkyLion]

Hello Fox, everyone!

I have been jonesing for some Aberrant again, so I came back to see what was popping. I have to say I like the idea of a setting where we can play high powered, but without the game breaking Q6 mastery stuff (though I understand that that is up for discussion shortly). I also like the idea of a world (mostly) untouched by canon metaplot.

My all time favorite character is Titan Omega from In the Beginning and I barely scratched the surface of that character's potential before the game collapsed. I think Cosmos Nova might be the right place to resurrect the character but wanted of course to check in and ask what you guys think?

[Mary Masters]

Speaking of characters, I am dropping from consideration bringing Kamiko in.

With the level of characters I got in my build queue, I need to drop things in order to keep my brain working on a creative level.

I will be moving Rebecca up the build tree in the process, right after June for A&A.

Oh and can we get some more info on what Crazy Girl wants for a character? I am sort of building Rebecca so her chracter isn't alone. That and I am starting to like the concept of a "Nextgen Initiative" for the DSA.

And I am going to be temporarily shelving Naomi until some time after she's had birth. That should get me some time to see if these other games pan out.

[z017]

Question on something for CN:

On Improved Attribute, are we allowing people to buy it in character creation and then spend NP on the dots? This is not the rules as written in the books, but it is how it's been played pretty much anywhere Improved Attribute has been allowed in a game on the site.

I can make arguments for it either way, which is why I'm bringing it up. I don't know if any current CN characters have IA and/or how the player built them, but I thought we should have a definite consensus on it.

[Sean Cassidy]

I bought it for a few attributes for Taeli, but didn't start above five. I figure XP accrues fast enough, and really, by spending NP (especially the amount we have in CN), you're generally better off upping stats to 10 before buying Megas (3np = 1 dot of Mega-Att = 9 base Attribute dice).

I vote we use the rules as written. Attributes can't start above 5 at Character Creation.

[Jordan]

Okay was originally going to build a teen for CN but after realizing again just how ridiculously powerful characters in this universe are I don't think I'm comfortable with it so I'm going to save Rumble's concept for another time or game.

[SkyLion]

At least not Q6 mastery powerful. Though I concur...would be great to see more medium power games, 50 np or so, an more ST driven games.

[Charlotte]

Hello Fox, everyone!

I have been jonesing for some Aberrant again, so I came back to see what was popping. I have to say I like the idea of a setting where we can play high powered, but without the game breaking Q6 mastery stuff (though I understand that that is up for discussion shortly). I also like the idea of a world (mostly) untouched by canon metaplot.

My all time favorite character is Titan Omega from In the Beginning and I barely scratched the surface of that character's potential before the game collapsed. I think Cosmos Nova might be the right place to resurrect the character but wanted of course to check in and ask what you guys think?

My earnest recommendation is: try it, but before you try it, go over the character and ask yourself what parts will fit the world and what can be left out.

We talked in chat about things that would be difficult to model, such as eufiber-based transformations and having four different alt modes. If you think these things are central to the character, then maybe it's not a good idea to lead with a concept that will require a load of rules allowances at the onset. And if they're not central to the character, maybe this iteration can do without. I would have sworn blind that Superman's costume was central to his character until the T-shirt and jeans early-days Action Comics showed me that Superman on Casual Fridays is still Superman.

Much of Cosmos Nova will be social interaction with other novas , from what I understand, so you should be concerned with how your character will interact with the other characters and the authorities of the world. I purposefully had Vixen set up to have ready-made interactions one on one or with groups of novas. It required a rethink of a lot of elements of the character, but I realized that the older elements wouldn't quite fit the world or the places I thought I'd be going.

On a related note, while this is a more "writerly" setting than In the Beginning was, it's still collaborative fiction, and people are going to do things you don't approve of or anticipate. So it helps to have a very, very loose plan, and not to get upset when things throw it off course. I remember you not liking it one bit when Nathan copied Titan Omega's powers, because you'd planned the reveal to happen in a certain way; however, plans are the first thing to go in an RPG. A forum such as this requires a lot of flexibility and the ability to say "yes, and" - the two most important words in improv, which is, of course, what this all is.

[SkyLion]

All good thoughts Mike!

A few things:

-The costume is in fact a central part of the character. The costumes are literally part of the bodies he creates. I don't care if it is based on the Eufiber mechanic or not. It may be as simple as a "gimmie" part of the special effects of his powers.

-Regarding his forms, no special rules are needed. It is done with Dormancy, Mr. Nobody, and Bodymorph, in various combinations.

-Regarding that scene in ItB, that was mainly annoying because it was narrated in such a way as to take my choice out of it. IIRC there was no attack roll required to touch someone who doesn't want to be touched, and beyond that, I would say from a collaborative writing perspective, I would have preferred to have been approached or asked before "spoiling" my character in that way. I'm over it now, but it felt like a dick move at the time, to have not been checked in with.

It is that kind of thing that makes me paranoid and want to buy things like Invulnerability to power affecting powers.

Edit: I suppose the main thing to bring up with TO is that he can potentially have a big impact on the setting and to see whether that is a direction the game as a whole would be willing to go.

In other words, having a superhero appear who looks and acts right out of the comics and who ends up brawling with Kaiju and mad scientists with giant killer robots, etc...

Mind you it isn't meant to be a 4-color concept...but a through-the-looking-glass-darkly pastiche of it. IN other words...TO is *meant* to be an anachronism. The question is...is such an anachronism appropriate to this particular setting?

[Mr Fox]

Sounds kinda interesting. Keep a few things in mind... governments don't trust novas. Most novas are affiliated with the government to some degree or other because the governments want them on their sides, and to keep an eye on them. Teragen philosophy exists, but there is no teragen movement because the refugees who came to this Earth were escaping the Aberrant war. The governments questioned the refugees carefully to find out everything they could about the the 'earth' they came from. That is one reason they are wary of novas, although obviously native novas (the only playable choice) are much better trusted than the refugee novas from the alternate earth. Even so, let me say again that novas are not entirely trusted. This can be as subtle as some countries and organizations providing their novas with 'handlers' to help them. Or it can be as overt as some countries insisting that any novas work for the Government, such as China.

Many of the characters in the setting work for, or are associated with the US based organization by the name of the DSA, which I forget what the acronym stands for at the moment. There are also Psions/Psiads in this setting in equal amount to the novas, due to the fact that there is no Divis Mal tweaking the quantum of the world to ensure nova eruptions.

The governments and people of course don't trust Telepaths, and so they must register, and display a PSI symbol and wear gloves at all times, and their organization is controlled by non-psi, much the same way that the DSA is controlled by non-novas. Most telepaths are pretty weak and people believe that touch is required for mind reading because most telepaths are too weak to do it without touching, thus the requirement to wear gloves.

There are some novas who don't work for the government and are famous because of being in entertainment, but they are relatively few. Speaking of which novas are less in number than a canon world due much to the fact that there is no tampering with the quantum on CN earth.

I don't see an issue with Titan, but the governments will be very interested in who he is. They will want to recruit him, or control him, or at the least they will want to keep tabs on him. If they can't do one of those things they will get antsy and ramp up the efforts to accomplish one of those things.

As for world changing. We are pretty big on passing things by the group for a consensus before doing anything that would change the setting. No inventing something that would radically alter the world's economy for example. Not that it wouldn't be allowed, but it would need an approval by a majority of the players first.

Hope that clears things up.

[SkyLion]

Hi Fox! I missed ya! I realize this is OW, but I take it you are the main man to talk to?

Regarding governments: this is all to be expected of course, and part of the reason that mental defenses, cipher, and teleport are so important in maintaining the anonymity of the character.

Am I to post up a whole sheet and shebang publicly or send it privately for approval?

While I seriously doubt it will take 100 NP to make this character with the cost reductions in play I would want to make sure everyone agreed that my powers were in theme. I mean, to me they all make sense but it would not be the first time I had had folks here disagree with me on matters of character design, and I am endeavoring now to be a much more conciliatory and sociable SkyLion. Believe it or not, a lot of maturity happens between 28 and 32.

[SalmonMax]

Are the gloves that telepaths wear blue?

Because that would be oddly kind of cool.

[Mr Fox]

I was thinking black like the psi-corp. *shrug*

Sky, in CN, I'm not the 'main man', I'm just one guy in a group. As for character, yeah, post it up for review. If you have any questions regarding in-theme, post here. Maybe write up a paragraph explaining the theme you envision so that we can better understand where your mind is around the character, that will help. I remember TO from ITB, but I can't honestly say I fully understand the theme you are going for with it.

[Jordan]

Also Sky remember that the point cost breaks only apply to powers that fit within your character's "theme" which you should be able to describe in one sentence. For example: Lance's Theme was "Perfect Nova" allowing me to buy all mega attributes and enhancements discounted and that's it.

From what I've heard you describe (And the very little I remember of Prime) your them should be something along the lines of "Creates a super powered Fleshsuit around himself." Mental Defenses and Teleport don't feel like they fit with that Theme to me; which just means you have to buy them at full cost. As for changing the setting, please remember that this is a shared world and what you think is fun and cool, others may not.

[z-Coyote-Mad Scientist]

Personally, I don't feel like TO is a good fit for CN. He's four-color and over the top, regardless of the reasons why, which is fine for some games (perfect for ItB). CN tends to be more realistic; there are people in suits, but they don't have secret identities. For example, it's public knowledge that Telluris's real name is Rob Lennnnnnshhhhheerrrr, and that Coyote's family lives in New Mexico. The secret identity schtick (which I assume you're keeping because it was a huge part of TO's theme in ItB) doesn't match the rest of the setting.

That said, the real issue isn't TO but his enemies. I don't want to see Godzilla and Mega-Mothra or whatever stomping around CN, and will ignore anything to do with those monsters. I acknowledge that my sentiment isn't very nice, but those kind of things will totally disrupt my suspension of disbelief and ruin my fun. CN is a very "real" world, and those kind of tongue-in-cheek B-movie monsters do not fit in the world. If TO creates only realistic enemies to fight, then that's another thing entirely. But I sense that you wouldn't find that as much fun and it would reduce your enjoyment. I don't want anyone's fun to get ruined.

On a more personal note, Coyote will totally make fun of Titan Omega if he acts like a super hero.

A note about what happened in ItB: In the Beginning was not a collaborative game. It was an ST-driven game, which means that Titan had full authority to do whatever he wanted with TO. The ST didn't have to check in with you about anything, so you being upset came across to us as petulant whining. No one needed to get your permission to do anything to your PC. Now CN is cooperative, so we will be checking in with you on certain things.

Don't ask my opinion on in-theme powers. I personally feel that most CNers abuse the freedoms we're given to pick our own themes by making every power and every mega in-theme, which is ridiculous given that we have 100 NP to spend. I wish we'd just adopt the lower costs if that's what people want to pay and stop cocking around with it. So now I'll step off my soapbox.

To be positive: TO would fit in A&A pretty well. it's supposed to be very heroic, what with the fighting Nazis and cock-punching Hitler. Adding in bizarre monsters, while not what I envisioned, could easily be accepted as Nazi super-experiments gone horribly wrong. The secret identity schtick would be very acceptable in that setting, as many of the PCs have been crafted into personas to represent their government. I believe that you could easily build TO on the points given in A&A, since they are more than we got for ItB.

[SalmonMax]

Adding on; my character Echo might seem to be in violation of that notion that secret identities don't fit...but there's a difference in my mind between someone who has a very public persona, and a secret identity, and someone who is working entirely incognito as a super-powered spy and espionage expert. And even then, the secret identity is only because she's taking some fairly elaborate pains to keep it that way (via the Cipher background) and for the purpose of protecting herself against a high level rogue operative whose identity she doesn't know.

Speaking of which, Carver, I have an idea for connecting with Coyote. I'll PM you shortly on your Coyote account if that's okay.

[Mr Fox]

For my part, I don't really have a problem with the secret identity thing, as long as it was played well, with governments chasing the character trying to learn their identity. They really wouldn't take kindly to unknown novas roaming around.

I could even be ok with the 4 color thing, but definitely not with fighting monsters like godzilla. CN is a very realistic world that hasn't gone so far down the nova taint path as a normal canon world because there are fewer of them, there is no tweaking of the quantum going on by Mal, and the governments are afraid of novas and want to control them. Any nova that turned into a total taint monkey like sloppy joe, would very quickly find themselves strapped to a table in a government lab somewhere surrounded by guys in white lab coats checking off things on clipboards as some very clinical forensics guy slowly took the nova apart to find out what went wrong with him/her.

So in other words if you were thinking of going 4-color in CN it would have to be more Batman fighting criminals, or novas who turned to crime than battling space monsters from the Dark Zone, or taint monkeys.

[Sailor OOC]

Actually there is the possibility of the occasional taint monster escaping from the universe the refugees cane from. Yes, they should be rarer than hen's teeth, but they can happen. Just not a whole lot. If you want adventure, exitement... There is always either being a military nova, or taking up search and rescue. Or you can become an actor like Connor.

I think to distill in one sentence, this is the real world with powers. Everything else is negotiable. Well, within the rules and the spirit of the CN setting.

I also have to owe Max a apology in regards to Kamiko. Luckily I've finally gotten through my Character Creation Constipation. June helped break the block. I know you have been waiting on me, and this delay has done you no service. I can advise on plot. We'll just have to wait a story for me to join Echo.

Also, I am working on Rebecca, no matter what. I sorta fell in love with my witch of time and space.

[SalmonMax]

It's okay, Kami...I've got no legal standing to chastise -anyone- about timely development of ideas. And it might be for the best anyway. A little solo jaunt might help me get a lock on Echo from the inside. And I have a notion for trying to build a tie to Coyote as well...if I can get the new forum to stop being a PITA to post in. Hopefully it's just a work problem.

[June O'Gara]

That's ok. I have to be honest that damn picture I found for Kamiko is pulling me up by the bootstraps to give it the old college try. Since Naomi is still carrying her kittens, it's only natural I should have a character still in D0... it is sort of my creation and I don't want to abandon it.

Thanks for being a bro about it, Max.

[SkyLion]

Okay, had a long day and a lot to reply to here:

,,

Also Sky remember that the point cost breaks only apply to powers that fit within your character's "theme" which you should be able to describe in one sentence. For example: Lance's Theme was "Perfect Nova" allowing me to buy all mega attributes and enhancements discounted and that's it.

From what I've heard you describe (And the very little I remember of Prime) your them should be something along the lines of "Creates a super powered Fleshsuit around himself." Mental Defenses and Teleport don't feel like they fit with that Theme to me; which just means you have to buy them at full cost.

,,

Mental defenses because his powers are ultimately "psychic" (in the nova mentalist sense). Kinda hard to do his theme in one sentence, hmmm...a challenge! How about: "Imagination brought to life through mentally manifested ectoplasm."

,,

Yeah...that sounds about right.

,,

Personally, I don't feel like TO is a good fit for CN. He's four-color and over the top, regardless of the reasons why, which is fine for some games (perfect for ItB). CN tends to be more realistic; there are people in suits, but they don't have secret identities. For example, it's public knowledge that Telluris's real name is Rob Lennnnnnshhhhheerrrr, and that Coyote's family lives in New Mexico. The secret identity schtick (which I assume you're keeping because it was a huge part of TO's theme in ItB) doesn't match the rest of the setting.

,,

I hear you. I would also like to make a counter argument: TO works best in a more real world environment. That was part of why he was so great for ItB...he had his debut on N-Day...and in full superman style regalia, zipping around the world making the news.

,,

It is that anachronistic quality that I like so much about the concept. He is a comic book come to life, and being that in a world where that isn't more common only heightens the surreality of it. In this way TO could stand out and become even more important because in this world there aren't a ton of novas and they aren't media icons to a blase' and jaded media oversaturated public.

,,

Which brings me to the Secret ID part and his 4 "forms"

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First is his "secret" identity: Adam Capello, teenage kid.

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Second is the Titan. This is when he is undormed and bodymorphed.

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He actually has a couple of other identities from ItB that never got used:

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He was going to be a founding member of Team Tomorrow, but Pax would never let a kid in...so he was going to have one of the cyber-K's he made friends with doctor up a paper trail, and then he would have a "Clark Kent" identity, which was him undormed and bodymorphed, but with Mr. Nobody activated (I had gotten approval that activating this while bodymorphed would temporarily nullify his growth). A nondescript guy in a suit...haven't given it a name yet.

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Lastly, is his Teen Titan identity. This is achieved by being undormed and unbodymorphed. So he is a teenaged kid with bulging bodybuilder muscles and unearthly beauty and a more "Kid Flash" Version of Titan's duds. He is really fast, but can't fly and isn't as strong as the Titan.

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On a more personal note, Coyote will totally make fun of Titan Omega if he acts like a super hero.

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Oh totally feel free. Like I said the anachronism is kinda the point.

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A note about what happened in ItB: In the Beginning was not a collaborative game. It was an ST-driven game, which means that Titan had full authority to do whatever he wanted with TO. The ST didn't have to check in with you about anything, so you being upset came across to us as petulant whining. No one needed to get your permission to do anything to your PC. Now CN is cooperative, so we will be checking in with you on certain things.

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Titan (the ST yes)...other players no. Permission, no...attack roll, yes. If someone tries to use a touch attack/power on another character, they shouldn't just be able to narrate it. Nathan's player did not make an attack roll...he just assumed he could walk up and poke someone. It was *that* assumption that irritated me. You aren't supposed to assume success when taking hostile actions (including using a power on someone). Also...I felt that OOC it was a dick move to spoil my character without coming to me first player to player. It just felt discourteous, in particular because that player did what he did using OOC knowledge (in other words he knew damn well he was spoiling my character and did so on purpose).

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To be positive: TO would fit in A&A pretty well. it's supposed to be very heroic, what with the fighting Nazis and cock-punching Hitler. Adding in bizarre monsters, while not what I envisioned, could easily be accepted as Nazi super-experiments gone horribly wrong. The secret identity schtick would be very acceptable in that setting, as many of the PCs have been crafted into personas to represent their government. I believe that you could easily build TO on the points given in A&A, since they are more than we got for ItB.

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Thank you but no. TO is very much a modern-styled character. While I can certainly envision an Otherworlds version of him in Nazi-Germany, I have not gotten to play him nearly as much as would be liked in his original incarnation. Again, thanks for the invite though. Maybe another character will fit that mold...

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That said, the real issue isn't TO but his enemies. I don't want to see Godzilla and Mega-Mothra or whatever stomping around CN, and will ignore anything to do with those monsters. I acknowledge that my sentiment isn't very nice, but those kind of things will totally disrupt my suspension of disbelief and ruin my fun. CN is a very "real" world, and those kind of tongue-in-cheek B-movie monsters do not fit in the world. If TO creates only realistic enemies to fight, then that's another thing entirely. But I sense that you wouldn't find that as much fun and it would reduce your enjoyment. I don't want anyone's fun to get ruined.

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I could even be ok with the 4 color thing, but definitely not with fighting monsters like godzilla. CN is a very realistic world that hasn't gone so far down the nova taint path as a normal canon world because there are fewer of them, there is no tweaking of the quantum going on by Mal, and the governments are afraid of novas and want to control them. Any nova that turned into a total taint monkey like sloppy joe, would very quickly find themselves strapped to a table in a government lab somewhere surrounded by guys in white lab coats checking off things on clipboards as some very clinical forensics guy slowly took the nova apart to find out what went wrong with him/her.

So in other words if you were thinking of going 4-color in CN it would have to be more Batman fighting criminals, or novas who turned to crime than battling space monsters from the Dark Zone, or taint monkeys.

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Ah...ok, let me explain the story arc for TO that would be coming into play.

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So Adam is a kid obsessed with comic books. He loves reading them and writing them and drawing them. He is talented too, talented enough to have a career as a famous comic creator.

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Then he erupts. His imagination comes to life. He becomes the hero of his stories, but this hero...he needs villains to defeat, monsters to slay, princesses to rescue.

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The dark aberrant twist, the part I added to the core Prime/Captain Marvel pastiche is this: He has the Quantum Construct power maxed out...it is uncontrolled (and indeed he doesn't even know he has this power), and he has multiple personalities...his creations literally have a mind of their own.

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So the Kaiju and mad scientist and robots and super-ninjas...they aren't from a different world, they aren't taint monsters....they are an expression of his own Taint. A lot to explore there but that was the basic gist of it as I came up with with Titan (the ST).

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I'd love a chance to play this character because it just works on so many levels and I had such grand plans for him (eventually in ItB he was going to get control of his powers and have a bunch of clone Titans patrolling around in the way that Superman has his army of Superman-Androids), and only ever got to scratch the surface.

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And...

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:deep breath:

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...after having shared my character concept and what he would bring in terms of affecting the setting, if there is a consensus that y'all just don't want that level of "interesting" (in the Chinese proverb sense) in this setting, then...I will yield (and maybe bring him into another IE world. I liked this one because it seemed more manageable).

[z006]

I do not feel that TO would add to the CN setting in a manner that would be fun or interesting to the already established feel of the world. You say that "over the top" is the point of the character, and that is exactly what is the issue with such a character in CN.

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The government agencies would not stand to have a nova so publicly running around, flaunting their powers and getting into fights with "monsters", no matter their origin and most especially if it ever occurred anywhere near a population center. The "Superman" concept of "saving Metropolis" from the monster of the week simply doesn't work in a realistic setting. Too much danger to the population and too much constant property damage. TO would be seen as as much of a menace to public safety as the "monsters".

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He would be hunted down. Even with all the dots in the world thrown after "no one knows who I am", if you constantly engage in public actions, most especially combat, you would, in a setting like this, find each monster fight increasingly interrupted by agents of every government with access to novas and high-tech equipment showing up to capture the monster and the man in tights. Eventually, and I think not very long from debuting the character, any story that didn't end with his capture would be snapping the bounds of incredulity.

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Also, there seems little about TO that is actually interactive. So far you've described a 4-color superhero that manifests monsters for himself so he can run out and "save the world" (which wouldn't have been in any danger in the first place without him), and then disappears back into anonymity the moment he's got his claps and cheers for being such a "hero". If that's what you want to write, I would suggest simply posting up solo fictions in the area provided for them, as there's no real manner or point to the other PCs being involved in those storylines.

[Mr Fox]

So, I see where you are coming from Sky on the monster thing, but I really don't think it fits this setting, in the sense that it's not what the rest of the players want for this world to be like. I could see TO being more of a batman type fighting villians and nova/psiad criminals, but like Vyserian said above, you would increasingly be pursued by the authorities. But then that would have to be a planned part of TO's story with the understanding that they would absolutely catch up to him at some point and he'd be brought into the fold. Then you could participate with other players in normal stories if you wanted.

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I think Vy also had a point about TO not being a very interactive character. Until he was brought into the fold of the DSA or some other organization as a known nova it would be very hard for you to write him into stories with the rest of us.

[Sailor OOC]

The way I see this character... he's nuts.

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He goes around in a costume thinking he lives in a comic book. I mean Kei wears what could be considered a "costume" but that is to provide a marketable look and have some sort of image that stands out that is her's. TO sounds like a certain character we had in the original NPrime.

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He saw himself as the consummate superhero. He was the goofiest thing we ever saw. While it was fun to have the guy as it was a pretty brilliant parody, In Character this might not be a pleasant experience.

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You, logically, would have penalties for social interaction.

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Let me bring a RL example. Real World Superheroes. They wear costumes doing neighborhood watch and doing charity work. The kids adore them but outside of that, Regular folk like us look at them weird. And some RLSHs are eccentric themselves.

[SkyLion]

@Fox/Kamiko: well that is where having teleport and some kind of quantum signature mask would be crucial. I expect the authorities to try of course. It shouldn't be obvious that the monsters come from him (again he doesn't even know).

Re: Interactivity: lots of options to interact. As I said he has a fake "secret ID" he could use for starters. He would probably try and create a Justice League with other novas...he would insist on costumes.

@Kamiko: Oh I agree...totally nuts!

@All: sounds like a non-starter after all, at least for this universe. Oh well...in any case what is the point in asking if you can't take a no right?

Next on deck: Ricochet...now with less Taint!

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Edit: Or maybe...hmm...depends on which character I get approved for Mutant High...

[Jordan]

Yeah, Sorry Sky, but TO has "Dick Character" written all over him. I know you are working on something else now but I'm going to take this time to point out a few things that I found wrong with what you've written here. Okay first off, if his theme is "ectoplasmic creation" I would still say Mind Shield and Teleport are out of theme. It doesn't matter really that his ectoplasm is psionically induced, he's still not a mentalist and nothing about ectoplasm screams spatial manipulation to me. Thus I cannot see them getting the in theme cost break. Although that is a minor point that others might disagree with.

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The main issue I see is that you are trying to create an "I win" character. A character that can't ever get caught or be messed with in any way so you can keep on doing whatever the hell you want, regardless of it's impact on the rest of the people trying to enjoy the world. And if another player tries to interfere well you just happen to have the perfect power to avoid any and all consequences. That is not fun. It's not fun to read and it's not fun to try and interact with. it makes TO a dick character that no one wants to be associated with. Without weaknesses, faults and the possibility of failure there is no challenge and thus whatever you are writing becomes a masturbatory experience. That's great for you but not for the rest of us.

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Also, I take exception to you just assuming that it's okay to make a character that is setting altering and/or takes a central roll in the setting as a whole. In an open world game you are a cog. We all are; and all us cogs must fit together and work with the setting/world so it keeps running. It's not to say that you can't make a character that is important in the setting but you can't just force that kind of thing on the other players from day one and expect us to take i seriously. That character also shouldn't be so important that it alters the setting. Otherwise you are doing exactly what you bitched about happening to you in ItB. You are taking away the player agency of Every Other Player. That is a major dick move.

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So for those reasons not only do I think TO won't work here, I just think he won't work. He's designed for a solo game experience not troupe play. Perhaps Ricochet will be more group and world friendly. I hope so.