Character Creation & Initial Relationships

Welcome to Halcyon City. The City of Tomorrow! Since the 1930's the City has attracted superheroes and has been the centre of many a titanic showdown; as though it's the centre of the multiverse. A bustling, diverse metropolis, there is no greater place on Earth; and certainly no better place to be a superhero. All of you, even those new to the life of being a super, have witnessed or experienced some supernatural or super-heroic event; it's a daily occurrence here.

You're part of the fourth generation of superheroes; the Golden Age heroes from the 30's are long gone, the Silver Age cosmic powers are mostly gone (or fighting galaxy scale events you couldn't even begin to understand), and the current era of Bronze Age grittier heroes are standing sentinel over Halcyon and similar cities around the world. The eyes of the world are on you, ready to label you one way or another while you try to carve out your identity.

You've all chosen to be on a team with each other; for whatever reason you've chosen to stick together as a team. None of you are killers, none of you are openly being hunted by the authorities or loved by the populace at large.

So what does everyone feel like playing?

I like gadgeteer types so I'm looking at the Beacon or Legacy. Having said that, Outsider looks fun.

I've submitted a Janus from another game that ended early, but I'm open to other playbooks.

Thinking on it further, I have a faerie character that would be perfect for an Outsider if you are OK with me reflavoring alien tech as alien sorcery.

Upon first scan-through I'm feeling like playing the Nova. What age are the heroes? The site says "young adult" but I wonder if we might also have some awkward teenagers?

Also, does anyone have a good layout for the Custom character sheet? Never mind, I'll follow the layout Joanne used for Cammy.

Just submitted my Outsider, Whimsy, if you want to take a look. Whimsy

No Character Found. Forgot to add him to the library?

Gaaaah was reading through Whimsy and it was all awesome and pressed the approve button and then it became a remove button and god we need a better mobile client for this site. :(

Please resubmit your awesome fae character Verrain. :)

The characters are aged anywhere between teenage and young adult. Awkward teen is definitely suitable.

Resubmitted. I have played Whimsy as a PC and NPC in many a fantasy game but I have never tried her in a superhero game before. Kudos to my wife for suggesting the idea.

i just submitted a Transformed character named Rosethorn. Let me know what you think!

Everyone's looking awesome so far. Plant Controller Transformed, Faerie Visitor, Energy / Substance Morpher who's juggling school/babysitting/boyfriends. It's going to be exceptional fun :D

Tiny errors thus far. Whimsy's labels aren't highlighted yet and Cammy has her potential marked from her last campaign. Otherwise, they look okay to me!

Whimsy / Kayn - is adding my character to the library separate from creating it and selecting it for the game?

Ahha, got it. Thanks for the tip! I have made the sheet public.

Submitted my Nova though still incomplete. Still needs a name, avatar, and story. I'm picturing an awkward teen, doesn't know what to do about all these hormones, has a huge crush on his team mate. Basically me back in highschool! :-D

Poor awkward kid Novas. :D

I think we've got the group together. Four a good number for people? Great! For the rest of the week... Time for Backstory!

When Our Team First Came Together
So some of you have already got your backstory questions written into your sheets. Some blanks still exist but I'm sure we'll get those filled in with some prodding. So we should work out the most important question; what brought your team together? The questions that we've got to ask through the playbooks are the following ones:

Outsider: We didn’t trust each other at first, but that changed. How? Why?
Transformed:We drew attention and ire from plenty during the fight. One important person in particular now hates and fears us. Who is it?
Janus: We saved the life of someone important, either to the city or to us. Who was it? Why are they important?
Nova: We destroyed our surroundings in the fight. Where was it? What did we destroy?

Talk it out, I'll ask questions and bits and pieces as well. I'm sure there'll also be follow ups. Hopefully we'll have an idea of some of your villains, important NPCs and places you've been to or hang out in afterwards.

Relationships
Then you've got these ones to answer. Remember to volunteer if it makes sense with what you've made up for the first meeting or your backstories.

Whimsy
You've been learning about Earth by spending time with _____________.
You have a crush on ________________ but you keep it under wraps.

Rosethorn
___________________ comforted you when you were at your lowest.
___________________ knew you before you changed.

Chameleon Cammy
___________________ knew you from your civilian life first.
You refused to tell ___________________ your secret identity when they asked.

???? (Nova)
You hang out all the time with ___________________ to blow off steam.
You once hurt ___________________ when you lost control of your powers.

Influence
This one's a pretty important deal; the equivalent of the Hx stat for Apocalypse World. If someone has Influence over you, you generally listen to and care about what they say. You may give Influence to anyone at any time, and anyone with Influence over you has a mechanical advantage over convincing you or shifting your Labels.

Whimsy: Cheerful; You're thrilled to be here. Give everyone Influence over you.
Rosethorn: You try not to care what other people think, even if you can’t shut everyone out. Give Influence to one teammate.
Chameleon Cammy: You look up to your teammates; they seem to have this superhero thing figured out. Give two of them Influence over you.
???? (Nova): Choose Happy Facade or Locked Down. If Happy, give influence to three teammates (everyone). If you choose locked down, give Influence to one teammate

Hey Kayn, do we start by answering the backstory questions from our own playbooks or from any one of them?

Heehee. Molepeoples...
Mix and match as is appropriate. I've listed them all down in case people have a great idea for something that came up, but generally the player who's got that question as the playbook gets final say over it.

Sure, that works. As for why she’d keep a crush under wraps- what if she did tell the person, and they laughed and thought it was a huge joke and/or were otherwise super dismissive?

I volunteer for these two relationships if you'll agree.
Julio, my Nova, has had a big crush on Cammy from school for a long time. Wait, is the Janus the only one with a normal life? Is everyone else a full-time hero?

Janus is the only one that keeps her identity secret.

Jabes, we could have been in the same group of friends - and perhaps gotten our powers at the same time? That could flow nicely into your relationship:

---

For the intro fight with the Molepeople, what if they did a lot of damage to the Arts District, but we ended up doing even more. During the final push we ended up destroying a newly built Performing Arts Center that was supposed to be the crowning achievement of a powerful alderman gunning for Mayor?

Very nice! I second the massive destruction of Art!

Also, I believe Whimsy will have a crush on Rosethorn.

Sorry if I am late to the party. I am playing around with the idea of being the team dick/type A tsundere. I am also bringing in a Bull from an old game.

Man, this team is all about collateral damage! Hahaha!

Helps make the teenage angst easier =)
And along those same lines, what if we saved the Alderman's daughter from the Art's Center as we were (accidentally) destroying it? That could lead to some tasty conflicts...

Well having read over jkl's Bull I see collateral damage is definitely going to be a theme.

I like the Alderman's daughter idea. I was also thinking that person might be someone from Cammy's normal life. If he's got a teenage daughter in a good school, that could work.

So my question is why do we trust each other now. With all the chaos and collateral damage, I'm thinking we each had a chance to protect at least one another member of the team during the battle. So we came out of it feeling like we really have each other's backs.

I’m good with everything above.

Are we in the same school? If it’s a fancy school, then Talia got in by either voucher or lottery. She’d be kind of a geeky nerd if you saw her out of costume.

I think a lot came from after the battle. During the onslaught of negative publicity we stuck together and didn't throw anyone under the bus. Maybe for some additional depth, one (some) of us were more responsible for the destruction than others making that bond even stronger.

Haven't completed Julio's sheet but my idea has always been that he and his family (Filipino immigrants to begin with) had to move around because Julio kept getting bullied and then he'd (unintentionally) melt the school.

The. Whole. School.

It's fortunate there were never any lawsuits! He's just glad to have friends. Plus the crush on Cammy.

Well, if Julio melted down the local public school (or even a chunk of it) it might explain why everyone's crammed into the fancy private one now. Or vice versa if we want to explain why all the trust fund kids are in the public schools.

I really like the sticking together during the post-battle interview. Consider that canon.

Updated my character sheet with the following. Let me know if anyone's opposed to any of it. :-)

Even the annex buildings? Wow.

So yes. Due to REASONS those of you who go to school can all be in the same school; either because the one you were meant to be in was melted, or accidentally destroyed as part of a superhero incident, or because A.E.G.I.S. (this setting's version of SHIELD, the supers police and shady black ops group) decided that after that whole Arts District incident you'd be better in one place, under closer supervision. Or all three.

For those of you who don't go to school, there's a very good adult and supers learning annex that anyone from out of town (or out of this world, dimension, realm... Whimsy) are encouraged to attend. After all, you all decided to stick together, so they may as well keep you together.

A.E.G.I.S. probably knows all about you given the high collateral damage. Well, except about Cammy's identity. It's obviously just a gigantic coincidence that her studies have been disrupted and she and most of her class has been placed in this school while they repair the extensive damage to the previous one. Right? Just one more thing to worry about I'm sure.

Additional Question about what will now eternally be called The Arts District Incident since we now have a Bull!
We defeated a dangerous enemy. Who or what was it?

I'd like to offer up that Whimsy was there for me after the change, when I had even less of a clue about how to handle being a monster

In addition to the Molepeople, right?

Well depends how dangerous the mole people are to Halcyon City... of course one of these enemies could be the Monarch of the Mole People, or the supervillain using them for their nefarious ends. :D

Absolutely fantastic =)

Well, I presume we are talking about the leader of the Mole People or the super villain that took control of the poor mole people in their quest to blah, blah something evil. Quite frankly I stopped listening to the monologue around the time the school bus showed up for their field trip.

"Hell, that guy made me look normal"

You use the Post As dropdown (right under Quick Reply). And you can do that even after you've posted - just click edit.

And one final player incoming.

I think the underterror would give me nightmares. Let's see if we can find a more four color super villian.

Oh, and Whimsy is female Moofs.

I assumed the relationship meant Julio/Quasar would know Talia=Cammy bit oh man this is so much more teenage drama! So which identity has the boyfriend? Does the boyfriend know her secret.

... thats a Power Rangers villain. Isn't it?

Might have gone too far in the other direction, there. Shame we can't average them somehow.

How about The Underminer from the Incredibles?

Whoops! Updated.
Talia, surprisingly enough, has a boyfriend. It’s not like they’re head over heels or anything, but it’s nice to feel like someone appreciates the "real" her. She doesn’t have to pretend to be anyone else with him. Well, kinda. He has no idea about Cammy. Whenever she has to cancel on plans, she tells him she’s working on one of her many projects. He knows how important securing a college scholarship is to her so he’s pretty understanding. Most of the time.

I'm leaning towards using the Beacon playbook.

GM, are we limited to using the powers listed in the playbook?

Also, we aren't just answering the "When We First Came Together" questions for our own playbooks, the intent is to answer all of the ones from the core set. The core book should have the order for them.

Considering it's my first time running Masks, yes. :)

Also we only ask the ones from the playbooks in play. The order given in the book is the recommended order I ask them in, but considering this is PBP, I'm more comfortable with everyone talking it out all at once since it's harder to interject and interrupt here.

Alright, here's my character. I don't think I missed anything, besides not having a civilian name yet.

Phasing. I love how the Beacon is meant to be low powered and yet it gets Phasing. :)
Welcome to the awesome.

I think that's mostly because they partially based it on Kitty Pryde, but let's be real, phasing isn't super useful in a fight.

I'm getting a Character Not Found error when I click on the link.

Tell that to Martian Manhunter. :)

I also imagine that since it's attached to the Beacon, it's the hyperfocussed, requires tonnes of concentration, fairly low powered version of Phasing; the kind that phases you, your costume and maybe if you concentrate really, really hard something or someone you're holding. Rather than the kind of phasing that lets you justify flight.

Edit; or given the name, literally turning into mist. That works too :D

Actually while I'm looking at that, power wise obviously Masks gives you huge amount of leeway in your powers. I'm obviously trusting that Power and Responsibility thing you're all meant to have learnt :)

Also all the teenage drama is hilarious. :D

When DC Martians turn solid they’re still super strong and durable, whereas Mist is still a fragile-ish human boy.

I’d say at first he’s limited to just phasing himself and whatever he’s wearing/holding, but that’s just part of the game in my experience. These kids are supposed to be getting better with their powers as the game goes on.

I’d be open to Mist and Kingfisher being rivals, seeing as their powers and possibly personalities are opposite.

What's an alderman?

I think it's something like a city councilperson, just going off context.

Ah ok, I thought maybe it was something specific to Masks that I was missing.

Sorry, in Chicago where i lived for a long time the city was brokem up into districts and alderman were the local representatives of those districts

Sounds good to me - who doesn't like some good ol' radiation! We both got our powers 4 years ago when a stone cask which stored spent rods broke and seeped into the groundwater, and eventually, the river.

Executives of the RANSEUR corporation assures the population that this was a freak incident and that their power plant is perfectly safe to continue operations.

Incident? I’ve never heard of any incident. RANSEUR Corp does so much to protect the environment. Clearly this so-called "incident" is some kind of smear campaign.

Just gonna sketch a nice corporate logo for RANSEUR who totally aren't going to be a major thorn in your sides...

It is an interesting feeling to use my GM muscles to help set up my own troubles. I rather like it. :)

Also, if someone doesn't pick Whimsy as a crush or love interest, I think she will stamp her foot and pout. ;)

Trying to decide where Whimsy would live while in Halcyon City. Between boyfriends, girlfriends, just friends, and judicious use of superpower level beauty, I suspect she stays with other people most of the time.

Sorry, got Cammy and Whimsy mixed up for a second =)

Mist has an apartment all to himself most of the time, so he probably wouldn’t mind having someone else around. The fact that he might have a thing for her is beside the point.

Then we will start the game with Whimsy crashing on Mist's couch/futon/air mattress.

So after the site downtime I'll start this thing off. I think most of the things are ironed out. Got an idea of what your characters do on a daily basis, how they live, who they're on good and bad terms with... if there's anything else people want to make part of the setting give us a should and I'll start writing the intro for the first session issue

What’s our favorite in-costume (because otherwise Cammy wouldn’t be there) hangout spot?

My wife suggested a funky basement coffee bar called Under the Hood.

Everyone knows that supers hang out here, but if anyone asks, the barista just offers them a Super Cappuccino ($6.99) and a smile

If that’s a coffee shop that caters to superpowered individuals, I’m in. As long as the owner of the place is themself a retired hero.

Comics exist as something between gossip rag, fictionalised history and fanfiction. It causes no end of problems for A.E.G.I.S. who have to toe the line between good publicity and keeping super secrets, and publicists who want their clients to always look their best. It gets even more interesting for villains who take part in all of this, or find themselves filing defamation suits from behind bars. And naturally once merchandising and sales royalties are taken into account, for anyone who got into it for the money it gets a little too tempting to stage "events" purely for attention.

This of course is all something adults have to deal with. None of you really have the legal rights to sell your image even if you wanted to. Maybe RANSEUR has someone in their PR Department who'd be interested at some point (maybe talking to your parents, guardians or representatives from the Feywild), but don't expect to end up in the funny pages of the Halcyon City Herald anytime before you hit the age of 21.

Mist probably spends most of his time when not doing superhero stuff either critiquing said comics or using whatever the popular social network for cool teens is.

Okay then. I think we've got an idea of the setting. I'll kick this off tomorrow with our first fantastic issue.
Excelsior!

PS. I am loving all the R.A.N.S.E.U.R. plot threads.

Forgot to do my Relationships and Influence stuff before, so here it is:

Relationships
Whimsy is awesome, and you take every chance you get to hang out with them.
You’ve got to prove yourself to Quasar before you feel like a real hero.

Influence
You are so excited to be here. Give Influence over you to three of your teammates: Cammy, Whimsy, and Kingfisher