Aberrant: Nova Reality - Round table discussion (OOC)

[Amped]

Bandwidth would want 3 dots in resources to replace the income from the job he left. He would take the remaining 2 in Devices probably since he's a researcher as far as computers go.

Bandwidths role would be support. He could assist in transportation of one person at a time as long as they don't weigh more then attunement 5 can carry, and as long as their is an Opnet terminal on the other end. He can also do some traffic control, manipulation of city infrastructure to help us get where we need to faster. Bandwidth is also a gadgeteer, and with Alchemist in the group as well, I'm sure we can come up with some handy and useful stuff.

Now that I think about it though, if housing is paid for, then the resources Bandwidth gains could be put at 2, and the rest could be thrown into his gadgeteering lab.

[kestrel404]

Sure. As I see it, I will end up as Q (James Bond, not Star Trek) for the team, with a side role as damage control/repair, and some front line time during emergency situations (natural disasters, chemical spills, building collapses, etc.).

For backgrounds, I figure Resources 2, Backing 3 (a local Pharma manufacturer), Followers 1 (a few lab assistants/researchers), Sanctum 1+whatever everybody else gets (for having lab space in the base).

If you want, I can also help in the base construction/design.

[Alex Craft]

Are we getting any automatic Backing from local government?

April can transport people and material in fairly large measures and perform most kinds of rescue operations. She can perform in basic 'crime-fighting' situations, but will be mostly support when fighting novas or well-equipped baselines. (Given some time to develop combat skills, she will be able to provide air support in combat situations - both assisting with ground fights and keeping airborne opponents boxed in close to the ground.)

She'll also be fairly good at crowd control and public appearances, though she's young enough that she might not be a great choice for that kind of thing (someone older might get more respect).

I figure for Resources 2, with the rest placed into Influence (derived from being a field member of the team) and Backing (if we don't get any automatic governmental Backing).

[Jager]

Backing ... a very high backing ... from time to time Jager would like to be "off-camera", and backing seems the most appropriate.

Suggestions on how high?

[Interceptor]

Interceptor would likely take only a little in Resources, probably none, he's got 3 dots right now, and I figure he can maintain it once he sells his company. It looks like he migt be the 'face' on the team as a Chicago native, so he'll probably take at least 2 maybe 3 Influence, and put the rest into Backing.

[BlackStar]

BlackStar is going to take 2 dots in Resources, 3 in Backing (if it is enough to disappear like Jager from time to time).

As I have said before, he would be best suited for field work. It is the same in rescues or crime fighting.

[Interceptor]

OK, who else do we need to hear from? What other specific deals need to be made?

[billy Horrorshow]

I'll be coming in tonight or tomorrow (RT) but don't worry about the Background dots thing. Another 3rd or 4th in Resources would blow Hellbilly's mind and well, if you guys are using his NTV contacts it'll pay off well for him in the long term...if the show goes well. I think anyone on the team is going to get at least a little fame out of this anyway. Billy asking for more than money wouldn't be his character. And you can buy fame later.

Sound alright?

(I'll post Horrorshow in the office later, Real life has been smashing down on me a bit rudely as of late.)

I'll also post his character sheet later as well, since I've already got a fair amount of N!tv influence, contacts, etc.

[Epicenter]

ok?

I'm shooting for strongman....

every group needs the guy that throws cars and gets knocked through buildings.

your not-so-standard issue M1A2 Abrams main battle tank. ya dig?

and as far as rewards are concerned. some pocket change never hurt, some fame never hurt, and a chance to do some good definately.

[billy Horrorshow]

Oops. Forgot about role. Billy would definitely shoot for the front lines...which refers to the defender role as well as the Press scene.

As for "team" usefulness: Being able to adapt his invulnerability gives him a Swiss-army knife approach to most problems. Unfortunately he's doesn't have too much in the way of offensive capabilities. Hence he's a good support monster that's good for occupying a threat's time while someone else gets something done.

Or in Epicenter's terms: If Epicenter is the Abrams battle tank I'm the Shiny Decoy that takes all the missiles. Hopefully.

[Interceptor]

OK, who else do we need to hear from? April? Anyone else?

[Alex Craft]

You've heard from April - I just posted up under Alex's name. (c;

[Interceptor]

OK, took us a while to get here, but it looks like we got where we need to be. What I'm going to do over the next day or two is post the beginning of the first story, that being meeting with the fatcats involved and getting our contracts signed. I'll start it up, and from there, anyone that wants to can take over. We're still hammering out the basics on how we're going to do this, but I think a quick OOC discussion on another thread I'll start can help keep things organized, where we can submit our ideas for things that happen, in that OOC thread I'll also include the NPCs that we'll be dealing with. Before we begin, any questions or suggestions?

[Interceptor]

BTW, we'll consider the Meeting in the Burbs thread closed now, Billy's appearance makes a decent ending to it, a 'hopeful' end I'd say.

[billy Horrorshow]

I guess my only question would be what's been "blackboxed" at this point?

I also might suggest a "leisure time" thread or something, since it seems like there's a lot of people in Chicago right now. I was sort of interested in having a few casual conversations with the people interested, but methinks I came a bit too late for that in the other IC thread.

(As in are you going to write a "black box" assumption post closing the Office scene before starting the new one, or, ?...Sorry for my newbie questions.

[Interceptor]

Sorry for the delay. I usually post at work, and we've been real busy lately due to absences. I don't have anything yet to start the contract signing story, just too busy. If someone else would like to start it, I'd be OK with that in the interest of getting things started.

BTW, cool look Billy.

[kestrel404]

A leisure time/chicago activity thread would be good. Given what we're doing, we're not only going to be dealing with N! cameras around us all the time, we're also going to have to worry about Paparazzi.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'Blackboxed', HS, but as far as I know only what's been stated in the various threads here is anywhere close to 'definite'.

If you mean things that happened behind the scenes while the show begins 'production', here's some logical steps (not definite things that have happened, but things that are very likely to be finished by now):

The backers are definitely in, and have provided real money towards this. The minimal backers are the local governments in Il and surrounding states, N! Inc's entertainment branch, Project Utopia (through a front company, to keep an eye on what we're doing), and several very large corporations who will want advertising and product placing during our show.

The legality of this has come into question, the local state legislatures have passed Go-Ahead bills, and pro- and anti-nova rights organizations have filed lawsuits against each other and the backers (but not us directly), which will take years to resolve and end up in the lawyers justifying their own existence but little else. For now.

The contracts have been written, scrapped, re-written, gone over with a fine toothed comb (by nearly every party involved), and are now sitting there waiting for us to sign them.

A bunch of N! figures, some well know, most completely green, have been assigned to this project. A studio and and editing office have been set up in Chicago, staffed, and is gearing up to produce whatever it can.

Several of us (most likely Interceptor, Bandwidth, Epicenter, and Blackstar, the 'earliest' members) have posed for promotional shots and possibly even a pilot episode.

Several Opnet fansites have started.

Various fiddly details have annoyed everyone involved.

Anyone else want to add to this list?

[kestrel404]

Oh, and I almost forgot. A base of operations is currently under renovation. Chicago's got lots of old industrial buildings that would work well with some modifications, so it's much more likely that the backers will buy a building and renovate than to build new.

The name of the team is still under discussion, as far as I can tell. But by this time, Alchemist has threatened to call them 'The A-Team' on live feed if the don't choose soon.

My vote's for Windy City Knights. Acronyms are overrated anyway.

[billy Horrorshow]

In our gaming circles we call "black Boxing" when you speed up time and just say what's happened without having to make everyone roleplay it. In Vampire it's often feeding, in Aberrant it's "Everyone goes to research, talk to their contacts, etc". Looks like you got the general idea. Time passes but no one wants to roleplay the boring paperwork or "the trip to the mall".

My only additions would be I've just started calling it the Chicago Defense Force (patent pending). As for the N! people...I'd like to think that you've got a crew a bit more experienced than completely green, since I figured we would be using some of the technicians that I brought with me.

I haven't posted about it yet, but I've still got contracts with N!. The solution was to move the shows to Chicago, taking what staff I could and rebuilding the rest. The only practical thing this really means is that there's going to be a couple of freaky looking but very skilled "behind the scenes" people floating around. I'll be introducing them in-character as it's appropriate.

,,

Quote:

Originally posted by Interceptor:

BTW, cool look Billy.

Yep. Billy's looking quite sweet these days.

Ashnod of Continuum Girl fame did a great job.

[billy Horrorshow]

We SO need to come up with a name. Whether it sucks or not, and stick with it. Who's up for a final vote or some such crap?

Hell, I'd hate the Windy City Knights..but Billy'd get a kick out of making fun of it. Actually, come to think of it, Billy's probably going to poke at whatever it ends up being called. Even him using "Chicago Defense Force" is tongue-in-cheek. So I say we do a poll or some such crap, or not (It's Interceptor's project, so I'd be cool with him just saying what it is)...but we need to decide before we got too much further methinks.

[Interceptor]

I vote Windy City Knights then. I wanted make it a nickname, with the CDF as the real name, but what are ya' gonna do?

[Interceptor]

I just had an idea, we can speed past the contract signing, and have everyone write their own version of what happened between them and the city planners, and specify the deal they made. They should also include if they had any assistants in it. Maybe the Nova has an entourage or something that he needs to take care of.

I'm going to post something in the lab thread, and then we should perhaps concentrate on like a Press Conference or something.

[Interceptor]

OK, we have some potential here to do some Q&A at the lab, how do you think we should go about doing it? Does anyone have an alternate persona they could use to ask a few questions? Should we maybe take turns? How do we want to go about doing this? maybe we should make a generic 'press face', a character that is from N! that all of us know the login for, and we can take turns running him or her. That way it looks a bit more authentic. What do you think?

[Jager]

Windy City Knights is fine with me.

Press Conference .... hmmm .... how to avoid that without looking like I'm avoiding it?

[Alex Craft]

"maybe we should make a generic 'press face', a character that is from N! that all of us know the login for, and we can take turns running him or her."

That actually sounds like a pretty solid idea - at least, assuming this guy/gal would be a long term element. It'd be a good step toward building an NPC character base for the team.

And Windy City Knights, is fine by me - I think I've already used it once or twice.

[Interceptor]

Basically I was thinking that that person could be the Basleine host of the show.

[kestrel404]

An NPC. Sure sounds like a good idea to me. I've already given first names to the two reporters in the lab. If we're going to make a 'face' out of one of them, that would be 'Greg', the interviewer.

Stop me if anyone disagrees. Here's some basics:

Name: Greg Frist (everyone just calls him Greg, unless he's on camera)

Age: 21 (up and coming N! show host/actor)

Stats: Social primary (Cha, App, Man in that order), Mental secondary (Wits++)

Personality: Bland, and a bit smarmy? Or earnest and casual? He is a reality TV show host...

That should do for a profile. Anything else can be done on the run, unless someone wants to chip in.

Will somebody make a new profile and PM the group?

[Interceptor]

We'd also need a face for him too, so we'd need to send a polite request to Ashnod. Greg sounds good though.

[Alex Craft]

On personality:

Greg Frist, relatively young interviewer given this long-term assignment as his first totally independent job. His career is riding on this, so he doesn't want to make any mistakes. Earnest, friendly, and casual, but nervous as all hell when he isn't being recorded. Will hopefully begin to settle into his role as time progresses.

Greg Frist, veteran field reporter for N! network. Put on this job because his bosses wanted someone good on something this big, but he isn't happy about it at all. He has gone from a news making career in hot zones and full-on nova combat to what he views as a baby sitting job. May lighten up eventually if he sees that the team is actually a serious group, not just a Roman circus.

Greg Frist, pro host. Seeing this a just another job, he just came in from N! program: "Nova Reunion," where novas estranged from their families are reunited with their long lost mothers/fathers/siblings/cousins twice removed. He knows his stuff and can project a personality appropriate to pretty much any show. He's considering doing something that's a cross between '60 Minutes' and 'Entertainment Tonight,' but that could change if the team doesn't seem to suit.

Heck, I dunno. A few general ideas. Anyone else?

[BlackStar]

I like the second one, Alex. But what about Billy Horrorshow?. I thought he is going to do it.

And about the group´s name, you know my opinion. I like the acronym. But I don´t have problem with the Knights one.

[Alex Craft]

I think Horrorshow's in, but we'll likely need an alternate. Otherwise, we'll be putting a lot of workload on him - one of him and several of us to keep up with.

[BlackStar]

Ok for me. And anyone knows something about Epicenter?.

[April Rice]

Has anyone actually gone to register a Greg Frist identity? If not, I can do that later today and PM around the login info.

[Blaine]

Why don't you go ahead? Then when it's necessary we can assign people his role.

[Interceptor]

Quote:

Originally posted by Blaine:
Why don't you go ahead? Then when it's necessary we can assign people his role.

And make sure you do a better job than me of managing mutliple profiles.

[Greg Frist]

Ok, then - done.

I've PMed login info to the following people:

April Rice

Bandwidth

Epicenter

BlackStar

Jager

Alchemist

billy Horrorshow

Interceptor

If I'm missing someone, anyone on that list oughta be able to fix that.

[Jager]

Weeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

[Interceptor]

Let's go ahead and wrap up the Halloween hang out with a few more posts perhaps, unless someone has an idea for something to happen there. From there let's introduce Greg perhaps into the lab, and then we'll start a new thread with the actual press conference. That could be trickier to do, but my suggestion is for even other NPCs to basically speak through Greg's mouth, just to keep things simple. Any ideas for that instead?

[Alex Craft]

Not really - works for me.

[BlackStar]

And for me. Sorry for the delay, friends.