OOC Discussion Thread

Feel free to discuss out-of-character topics here, including character development.

Potential concept 1: "Banshee"

Rhiannon has been variously described by her case workers as "quiet", "withdrawn", "morbid", and in one particularly insensitive report, "creepy and disturbing". It's perhaps to be expected - at fourteen, she became a ward of the state when her parents were killed in a traffic collision. It is assumed that she had been in the car with them at the time - she was found wandering in the woods near the crash, traumatised and in shock, but without so much as a scratch.

Since becoming an orphan, Rhiannon has been moved through numerous foster homes. Consistently, despite the best efforts of her carers, she has lasted no more than a few weeks before vanishing into the night. She has similarly absconded from child protective services and the police, seemingly with ease. It is clear to her case workers that Rhiannon is a very "special" case - should she wish to go her own way, no earthly power can restrain her from doing so. In desperation, they appealed to the Claremont Academy, whose facilities and expertise may be more suited to Rhiannon's needs.

Powers: Rhiannon can assume a ghostly form at will (Insubstantial 4, flight, immunity). Other ghost-themed powers as appropriate - I'll develop these in more detail should I take this character further.

Going to spend a day or two looking through the book. Never played mutants and masterminds, so going to try and get a figure on what I can do.

The beauty of M&M is that you can do almost anything, especially with 3rd edition. If you need any help, let me know. I have Hero Lab to build characters with. Makes life sooooo much easier,

I've been informed. Boyfriend and some of my friends have played it, he;s aso offered help. Though I won't turn down the Herolab offer even if it's just to plug in numbers and make sure I was correct, and have a laid out sheet. I have it for pathfinder and shadowrun, and agree so much nicer.

How is character generation coming for everyone? I'm posting a few new advantages here that might be of interest to players:

Cool (Skill, Ranked)
You have a certain style and calm method to your actions that works on anyone under 20 years old. This gives you a +5 circumstance bonus on one Presence-related skill when rolling checks (Deception, Intimidation, Persuasion, or PRE-based Expertise) involving teens. Adults don’t "get it," and are thus immune to your hip charm. Each rank in this advantage adds an additional presence-related skill, and the bonus given can never give you an effective total skill bonus higher than the series’ power level limits.

Disarming (Fortune, Ranked [10])
It started with Mom and Dad, the way you could wrap them around your little finger with a doleful puppy dog stare. You’re cute and innocent looking, and when you want to, you can make villains really nervous about hitting you. Oh they’ll blast you if they have to—they are evil after all—but they’re likely to pull their punch because attacking you is like blasting away at Thumper or a Tribble.

By spending a hero point, you can direct this innocent charm at one villain, forcing the miscreant to make a Will save (DC 10 + twice your ranks in Disarming). If the villain fails, he still attacks, but he "pulls" his punch, reducing his attack’s rank by 2 for one degree of failure, 5 for two degrees of failure, or 10 for three or more degrees of failure. The effect lasts until you attack and hurt the villain. If the save succeeds or you attack and hurt the villain, he cannot be affected by the Disarming advantage for the rest of that encounter.

Holding Back (Fortune, Ranked [6])
Holding Back means you possess a lot more power than you’re letting on, but you won’t use it out of a legitimate fear. Can you shatter buildings with a thoughtless word? Can you tap into an endless pit of darkness to fuel yourself? Can you surrender to an indiscriminate battle-fury that turns you into a lethal tornado of death? You can tap into and wield abilities above and beyond the series’ power levels. In fact, the current power levels are holding you back from going full-bore. This is a dangerous ploy, however, and a slip could prove worse than the threat facing you now.

With Holding Back, you must spend a hero point and two conditions must be met before you can access this untapped reserve. Over half the team must be incapacitated for you to consider making this sacrifice, or many innocent lives should be at stake (possibly including your own), and you must make a Will resistance check with a DC of 10 + your Will defense to overcome your own years of self-deprivation training. You get a +1 bonus to the roll for each rank in this advantage after the first (to a maximum of +5 with 6 ranks). If both conditions are met, you have access to greater powers for that encounter.

When you overcome your mental blocks and become more powerful, your power level increases by 4 and you gain 60 points to spend on your traits (during teen hero creation, make two character sheets for the normal hero and the tricked-out, really dangerous hero; this prevents you from slowing the flow of combat). The bad in all this is that once you unleash your full potential, there’s a price to pay. You suffer a complication chosen by the GM for unleashing your full power, for which you do not receive a hero point award.

Untapped Potential (Fortune)
Folks expect you to grow into your powers eventually, but you’re special; you haven’t even begun to tap into the full extent of your abilities. With Untapped Potential, you can push your powers beyond their current limits and touch upon that greatness for a short time. When you use extra effort (see Hero’s Handbook, Chapter 1), you can increase a power by 3 ranks rather than 2.

I've been coming up with various ideas for characters, but I keep coming back to Rhiannon (above), so I think I'll commit to playing her and start building her stats. I wasn't sure if we were waiting on more players before getting started?

I had hoped to get a few more, but I'll run with what I've got. I'll boost the ad to see if I can hook a few more.

Hey all, looks like we have one ghost. What are the others playing?

A quick look through the books and I'm thinking:
Angela Armageddon: "Well, with the apocalypse coming and stuff, I thought I'd take a last look around and be human until, you know. So I squeezed myself into this girl, isn't she the cutest?"

Angela is a bubbly inquisitive type. Immortal, she fears little except missing out on new experiences. She doesn't talk about "The End" in any specifics, saying things like, "The details are in committee" but she is totes caj about it.

For powers, I'm thinking some sort of melee range light attack, teleport, and immortality. Skills and what have you, probably charm and exploration flavor.

I've been drawing a bit of a blank right now.
May go fo a paragon who on the outside appears to be the stereotypical alpha b*tch archetype, but then try and play around with it.

May see if I can somehow make her powers related to other people's feelings about her.

I think I broke my boyfriend, who's trying to figure out how to do it.

(Source and power-loss might be easy ways, but less variable)

Edit: Currently thinking a lot of activation abilities, each which requires a source of 'belief/positive feel's, etc) nearby. So the more people feeling positive/cheering her on/something towards her near her, the more she can activate?

Edit 2: Or variable shenanigans, using a quirk to introduce 'x' as number of 'supporter/positive feelings etc, and source as can only use Variable x, plus having a set form for each rank level. (This came from me asking if it was possible to have 2 rank 1 enhance strength to activate separately, rather than rank 2 str)

(Sorry trying to work on the mechanics, and if feasible and not too much of a headache, before actual powers. Though yeah likely super strength, flying etc)

Submitted Angela Amageddon
I'll work on a story for coming to the academy

Submitted Rhiannon. Let me know if anything looks wonky!

Still having fun seeing if I can make this work and still have a decent character out of it.

The character concept I'm working on is inspired by Bacchus.

His super powers revolve around afflicting enemy with levels of intoxication and also charm. Other powers such as damaging effects are limited in a way that they will only work on intoxicated targets or targets that have drunk alcohol within the past few hours. Some powers would work only if he kissed someone. He becomes stronger when he is drunk, which is something that's not yet legal for his age. I'm still studying how I can make this work lol.

As for background:

Charming and disciplined, people either worship him or are intimidated. Due to his powers, people stereotype him as a troublemaker or a happy go lucky person but truth is he doesn't drink, is organized, law-abiding and diligent. His parents, the exact opposite. Perhaps it was due to his parents behavior that he gained weird powers. He lived with his aunt, owner of a coffee shop, because his parents are often in prison. His aunt was the reason why he's not like his parents. He worked part-time at the coffee shop and would sometimes use his powers to punish rowdy customers.

Sample Powers:

hello all! I'm Excited for this game. I took a brief hiatus from PbP's in general but am ready to be back. I've got a basic character concept in my head, but I know very little about M&M. Gonna take some time to look it over ASAP.

Can I get a quick reminder of the various parameters for this game? Character restrictions? Books? that kind of thing.

You may draw from Heroes Handbook, Power Profiles, Gadget Guides, Hero High, Cosmic Handbook, Basic Heroes Handbook, Beginner's Guide, or Freedom City. Characters begin at PL8 and must be of high-school age (15) or the equivalent in whatever aging system their culture uses. You don't even have to be human (though a humanoid form is convenient)! You could be from another dimension or outer space, or a lost world. Anything is possible.

You may not have any Expertise skills except arcane lore, art, current events, history, popular culture, streetwise, tactics, and theology/philosophy. You may take a maximum of 4 levels of Treatment. Exceptions may be made for heroes whose schtick is dependent on a certain skill (such as science). Talk to your GM.

Tell us about yourself. What is your name? Do you have a hero name yet or will you be looking to come up with one? Are you the legacy of a long line of heroes, or are you the only one in your family with powers? Are you a native of Freedom City, or new to the area?

Don't neglect your family. Who raised you? Do you have any siblings? Are your grandparents alive? Are your parents separated, divorced, widowed? Are they dead and you were raised by your extended family? Be sure to include details like this in your write-up.

If you are knowledgeable about Earth-Prime in general, or Freedom City specifically, feel free to incorporate such details into your backstory. The one thing that you should not be is an established hero. You may have been out once or twice on patrol or may have used your powers, but your hero name (if you have one) should not be known to the public. If you want to be brand new to your abilities and still discovering what you can do, that's fine too!

Oh, I need to adjust Bloodwine a bit. I set him at PL10.

Awesome!

So I’m working details out on my head but here’s a very basic idea.

Leaning into Celtic Mythology and some alternate dimension shenanigans (because comics). Female Character. Inspired by Wonder Woman ethos.

Idea: There is a superhero in this world who is called The Morrigan. She’s essentially a demigod with magical powers. But she dies sacrificing herself to save (insert thing she saved- city? World? I’m open to suggestions).

A bit later the Superhero team finds themselves in another dimension. It’s a darker, crueler place where a big bad essentially rules. They discover this 15 year old version of Morrigan and through some shenanigans (I’m pondering the details) she winds up in the dimension we’ll be playing in.

So now we’ve got this 15 year old who’s just starting to test her powers suddenly confronted with massive expectations. Expectations of heroism, sacrifice, and often expectations and assumptions about her personality.

I like the idea of this teenager trying to find her own way in a world that keeps making assumptions about her. And imagine the psychological "whoa" factor of, like, seeing a memorial to an older version of you and thinking "there’s no way I can be that". I think it’d be a fun headspace to play in. In many ways they’re the same but in many ways they’re different. That kind of thing.

That's a very cool idea!.

I'm still kind of figuring out how this system works but based on group composition and what I like to play. I'm thinking of putting together a dodge tank- front line fighter- But I want it to all be a magic base. The idea is that they have these celtic knot tattoo's across they're body. Like a latticework, but technically a birthmark. Th tattoo's are essentially a magical foci, and they glow when she's fueling them. Giving her strength and speed enhancement and (as she gets better, aka levels up) the ability to cast spells.

Obviously she's still relatively new at all this. So I'm planning to have her focus on melee combat, But that's the power set I'm going for.

I'm working on the character stats. Just checking to make sure everyone is here- it's been a bit quite.

I'm here! Just waiting for the game to get started. I really like the variety of characters we've got.

For the Morrigan's origin story, would it perhaps be easier to have her power pass on from the previous Morrigan at death, kind of like the Slayers in Buffy? It avoids the need for established contact with the omega-level superheroes of the setting, and also means you don't have to worry as much about culture shock when trying to fit in after coming from a different dimension. She could just be an ordinary fifteen-year-old kid, then all of a sudden BAM, tattoos, cosmic powers and a truckload of other people's expectations. Up to you though, don't let me sway you from what you feel is best for the character.

I'm glad that Bloodwine is on the side of good, because a teenage boy with an intoxication powerset seems like he could go down a really rapey path if he took a wrong turn in life.

Am still here, also just waiting.

I was waiting for everyone to finish up their characters before beginning. I know that LightofMidnight was working on hers and I was waiting for Redbarron219 to finalize his stats.

Ah. Sorry about the holdup. To be honest. It took me a bit to get my head around this system. Didn’t want to accidentally build a crappy character stat wise.

Also @kadeton. That’s a good idea. But the big thing I want from the character is "younger version of that person" rather than "a person who inherited the powers" if that makes sense.

@Redbarron219: Yeah, totally! One of my favourite comic arcs is the Journey Into Mystery series where a younger version of Loki has to deal with all the expectations and baggage everyone has because of his older self (mainly that he'll also turn out to be a villain).

@Redbarron219, you were asking about magic. Yes, you should build powers and then add the "magic" identifier. If you wish to make them more spell-like, add a limitation like, "must have hands free and be able to speak". You might also choose to make them an array, so that you can't use more than one spell at the same time.

If you have the magic sourcebook, they've already done it for you. They have developed "spells" that are simply powers under a different name.

Cool, yea. What I ended up deciding was that I wanted to tag different powers with "magic" as an identifier. Since I’m not really looking for her to "cast spells" as such and rather her powers are magical in and of themselves.

I submitted a character!

Hero Name: Nemaìn

Civilian name: Morgan Sìthich

Nemaìn doesn't belong here. She knows this, even if it seems that other people are glad she's here. But Nemaìn knows they are glad she is here, not Nemaìn... the other one... The Morrigan.

Some would say they are the same person, but they're not. Not really. They look the same, though Nemaìn is younger. They have the same voice. The same powers, though Nemaìn can't use a lot of them yet. Sometimes they even act the same way. But they're not the same, and so many people have a hard time believing that. Seeing that. Accepting that.

Nemaìn's not from here. She came from a crueler dimension. One where evil ruled and survival was an everyday experience. She was... violence... violence given form in that place. Tempered and used to wreak destruction. She only saw the light when hero's from this place arrived. They gave her hope, helped her to see, and to escape that universe of darkness.

Turns out, though, that there was a version of her in this dimension. Honestly, it tough looking at statues and seeing your face, wondering how you could ever be that good. For now, Nemaìn knows that she needs to put on the confident act. Meet this world head on. There's a lot of good here. She may not truly belong here, may never live up to her other self's legacy, but she'll protect this place or die trying.

Powers/abilities: Nemaìn has her Havoc Howl, and Raven's Talons. Both are magically fueled abilities. The Howl is a blast of sound that harms opponents. Her Talons are essentially burst of piercing magical energy from the tips of her fingers. Nemaìn has few skills outside of combat but her combat abilities are relatively high. Her demigod Physiology has afforded her several senses upgrades: Darkvision, The ability to see through illusions, Danger Sense (she is a god of war), and Postcognition (The ability to see into the past, but only related to acts of violence).

The Morrigan had many more abilities but Nemaìn has not grown into, and thus unlocked, more of them.

We have a party then :)
Well, we still have to wait for LightOfMidnight's character.

The party composition looks a bit Halloween-y with a ghost, a spider, and pseudo vampires hehe

LightOfMidnight left the game I think.

If they ever truly existed at all.

Bum bum BUM

Okay, I'll get something started at some point this weekend.

Looking forward to it!

Sorry about the delay. Things got wildly busy this pst but. But it’s settling. I’ll get something up ASAP

Did they hear the alarm?

Yes, everyone can hear the alarm in the distance.

I see I’m up first. I’ll take the time tonight to post

Playing Dodge'em with hurricanes again. If I'm out for a while, please bot me or wait for me (if you're in my game). This one looks to be a direct hit. See you on the other side.

Hey, just checking in @WhtKnt - did you survive the hurricane?

I did indeed, though now we have another taking aim at us! I hate hurricane season. Also, I am, at the current time, reclaiming my man-cave, which has become a storage facility/family dumping ground. This is taking up a lot of my time. Please be patient and I'll post as often as I am able. I should be done by the end of the week. Maybe.

No worries at all, just wanted to make sure you were okay. Good luck!

Given the pace of this game, and the fact that even I'm not sure where I was going with it now, I think that I'm going to kill this one. I thank all of you for joining us and I appreciate you giving it as much as you did.

Fair enough. All the best!