(P&P) Desperate Times (A Simple-System Superhero RP)

[Dreamtique]

It can't be helped, from some stalking I guess they are busy, which is understandable, cuz even myself get quite exhausted at the end of the day recently. In fact I have to admit that most of the typing for the cs is done while I am half-asleep. :')
I guess we'll just have to take it slow for now.

 

[Epiphany]

I might be game but it'd be next week before I have time to try to grok the rules.

 

[Squee]

Neon Valkyrie
I've read most of the rules and I think I'm interested. So far I've only been able to find the Quickstart PDF, not the whole core rulebook.

I'm really in love with the idea of starting out as a villain and transitioning to becoming one of the good guys during the game. Would that be possible?

 

[Sara Sidereal]

Neon Valkyrie
I've read most of the rules and I think I'm interested. So far I've only been able to find the Quickstart PDF, not the whole core rulebook.

I'm really in love with the idea of starting out as a villain and transitioning to becoming one of the good guys during the game. Would that be possible?

Dropbox - PP_Core_Rules_Color.pdf

 

[Neon Valkyrie]

Neon Valkyrie
I've read most of the rules and I think I'm interested. So far I've only been able to find the Quickstart PDF, not the whole core rulebook.

I'm really in love with the idea of starting out as a villain and transitioning to becoming one of the good guys during the game. Would that be possible?

I'm sticking to heroes for the moment, only because this is going to be a guided playthrough, so I already have villains

 

[Buckteeth]

NAME: Alonzo Devine
ALIAS: Redeemer, Roberto Toliver
HERO GROUP: Once we name the group ...
MOTIVATION: To act as a deterrent against crime, and provide possible closure to it's victims.

TRAITS AND PERKS

Traits:

2d Academics, 5d Athletics, 2d Charm, 4d Command, 2d Medical, 5d Might, 3d Perception, 2d Professional, 1d Riding, 2d Science, 3d Stealth, 4d Streetwise, 2d Survival, 2d Technology, 2d Thievery, 4d Toughness, 2d Vehicles, 4d Willpower

1d Contact - Criminal:

Kyle "Spook" Lemdas

1d Headquarters:

An abandoned utility tunnel beneath the decaying infrastructure of Mega-Vancouver. It has been rebuilt into a hidden base of operations.

1d Immunity - Fear:

Intense training and the nature of his psyche have allowed Alonzo to become practically immune to the detrimental effects of fear.

1d Immunity - Disease:

An effect of the experimental treatment, Alonzo's body's immune system is enhanced to a superhuman degree, rendering diseases unable to infect him.

1d Knockdown - Might:

Even before the treatment, Alonzo knew how to leave someone flat on their ass. Now, no one's fragile balance safe.

1d Lightning Reflexes:

Intense practice has markedly improved his reaction time.

1d Psi-Screen:

Specialized training with psychic Inhumans has left him more capable of detecting and stopping their intrusions.

3d Regeneration

The primary effect of the treatment, Alonzo heals at an unnatural rate, and in such a seemingly efficient way that it doesn't impact his nutritional needs.

1d Relentless:

Alonzo has a ridiculously high pain tolerance, and can ignore the pain of injury when necessary.

2d Uncanny Defense:

Self-discipline and unorthodox conditioning has allowed Alonzo to always be on guard.

6d Weakness Detection:

An ability Alonzo's had all his life. By reading something's behavior, Alonzo can determine where it's weakest.

-2d Demanding: Alonzo forces his mind to analyze and deduce incredibly quickly and often in convoluted ways. This, understandably, puts stress on his brain and gives him mental fatigue.

-1d Inhibited: Alonzo must be able to focus on his target for analysis, so powerful emotions such as rage or grief are far too distracting for Alonzo to maintain his train of thought. He doesn't usually feel these emotions, but when he does, it's hard to set them to the side.

-1d Limited: Alonzo cannot discern the weaknesses of inanimate objects. In this case, inanimate means objects not currently moving of their own accord.

-1d Side Effect Alonzo finds it harder to feel empathy for those he analyzes.

1d Wealth:

Alonzo has several hidden accounts containg an impressive fortune of ill-gotten gains.

GEAR
Armor: Modern military/riot gear.

Weapons: Explosive grenades, flashbang grenades, a heavy machine-gun, a combat knife (melee edged), a pistol, an assault rifle, a sniper rifle, and a submachine gun. Not all can be carried at once, most are illegal, and all are stored at the Hideout.

Equipment: Binoculars, a bug detector, a custom untraceable flip phone, a portable computer, a crowbar, explosives, a gas mask built into his helmet, plastic handcuffs, a lockpick gun, night vision goggles built into his helmet, a parabolic microphone, rappelling gear, a scope, a silencer, tracer bugs, transmitters, wire taps, and a voice modulator built into his helmet. Not all can be carried at once, and some are illegal. All are stored at the hideout.

Vehicles: Van (truck stats).

FLAWS:
Frenzy: Alonzo has always thrown himself into combat with great zeal, sometimes to his detriment. Now that he believes his actions to be righteous, it's even easier for his fervor to get out of hand.
Responsibility: Alonzo is currently raising his seven year old niece Julie. This has a lot of responsibilities, from school and daycare, to doctor's visits and just spending time with her.
Secret: If the Redeemer is revealed to be Roberto Toliver, who is in turn revealed to be (former) career criminal Alonzo Devine, his public standing would be irrevocably damaged, and he'd likely be prosecuted. There's also the possibility of old enemies going after Julie.
QUOTE: "This isn't vengeance, vengeance requires personal investment. And this isn't justice, I have no authority for such a thing. This is me turning you into an example, a memory. So the next time someone thinks of doing the selfish, cruel things you did, maybe they'll think of you. Maybe they'll remember the awful things I'm going to do to you. And maybe, just maybe...they'll reconsider."
HERO APPEARANCE: He wears the armor in the image, a full body suit of titanium-vanadium alloy plates and a Kevlar frame. None of his body is exposed, even his eyes are covered by the red-tinged lenses of his helmet's night vision goggles. Unlike the image, the plates on his front and back are emblazoned with the white painted symbol of an ankh.
CIVILIAN DESCRIPTION: Alonzo can be a somewhat intimidating figure, and it's easy to see why. At 6'1", he's fairly tall, with a muscular, boxy frame, and a severe, older face for a twenty-eight year old. Scars criss-cross his dusky skin, and damage to his right eye has left it purpetually bloodshot, though his vision was largely unaffected. His head is hairless, partially by choice, partially by injury, which draws attention to his shifty gray eyes. He wears an eyepatch over his damaged eye when in public, mostly for disguise purposes. When out and about, he dresses in concealing clothes: hoodies, baseball caps, high-collar jackets, etc. When in private, he'll usually just rock a tank-top and some shorts.

OTHER DETAILS: Lives in a studio apartment in one of the slums of Mega-Vancouver.
CONNECTIONS: Kyle "Spook" Lemdas - One of two people still in Alonzo's life from his criminal days, Kyle Lemdas, or "Spook" as he's more readily known, is a goods fencer and information broker throughout Mega-Vancouver. A wiry, twitchy little man, Spook got his street name partially from his jumpy nature, and partially for his strict requirements for meetings with him and total willingness to bail if the meeting so much as "feels" wrong. Nevertheless, he's reliable if he trusts you, and his neutrality among the gangs and unwillingness to risk his own neck through betrayal make him quite popular in the underworld. Alonzo and Spook go back to when they were kids, and Spook owes him for Alonzo's help starting up. Because of this, Spook is still willing to do business with Alonzo, and usually with favorable rates.

Julie Hernandez - Alonzo's seven year old niece and ward. Has his sister's temper and a resiliency that rivals her uncle's. Likes horses, wants to race them when she grows up, but without whipping because that's mean. Likes Dotty's stories and when Alonzo throws her in the air. A bit short for her age, green eyed and with wispy auburn hair. A healthy weight, and as athletic as a little kid can be. Has a fierce shin kick.

Dorothy "Dotty" Dolores: A second generation southern immigrant from the U.S, makes a living as a small-scale daycare provider in the slums. A doting, maternal woman, but quick with a scolding when anyone, adult or child, "acts a fool", Dotty is excellent at her job. Nearing her fifties, her strawberry blonde hair is streaked with white, but she is spry for her age. Her thin, banana shaped body is quite healthy, allowing her to keep up with her wards, and her blue eyes are surrounded by laugh lines. She's gotten it in her head that Alonzo, or rather Roberto, has self confidence issues due to his scars, and that's why he's single. Pesters him about it quite a bit, but is always there when Alonzo needs to drop Julie off at odd times.

ORIGIN STORY

A native of the Seattle Bay mega-city, Alonzo was born the oldest in a lower-class family of five. His father was chronically unemployed, his mother was disabled and unable to work. He had a brother, Marco, who died of undiagnosed pneumonia at age four. His parents loved their children, and each other, but Marco's death strained their relationship. They took turns blaming each other for their family's financial troubles. The Devine household was not a quiet one.

Alonzo still had a younger sister, Valentina. She was an Inhuman, unlike Alonzo, with the ability to manipulate dreams. As Alonzo neared his eighteenth birthday, she told him she'd drop out if school and use her ability to help pay the rising bill prices. Alonzo loved his sister, and didn't want her to have to enable people's depraved fantasies, especially when he was the older brother. He promised he'd find a solution, and went around the neighborhood, looking for a job at sixteen. He found one, but not in the way he expected. He got a job, running packages for a gang with his friend Kyle. It made good money, and stress in the Devine household was severely reduced. Even if they weren't sure what Alonzo's job was.

After severely beating a rival gang member who tried to steal his package, Alonzo was made a full member and quickly made a name for himself as an enforcer. Intimidation came easy to Alonzo, and the money was good. After a few years, the gang leader died of cancer, and Alonzo, now a lieutenant, was promoted. He ruled his territory through fear, intimidating witnesses to the gang's crime and ruthlessly eliminating the gang's enemies. He was good at being the boss, and by the time he was twenty-one, his sister was married and pregnant, and his parents were retired in a house he'd bought for them.

By the time he was twenty-four, his control was uncontested. But he was cocky, and thought the surrounding territories wouldn't be able to resist him if he tried to expand. He didn't know the Mafia already had stakes there. He couldn't make amends when he realized. He ran a local gang, a powerful one, but still just a local gang. They were terrified of a war, but Alonzo assured them he'd handle it. He trusted them to trust him. He was wrong.

They tried to kill him. He was meant to be a sacrifice, a message that they'd realized their mistake. But he'd always been at home in a gun fight, and despite being stabbed and set on fire, killed his attackers and escaped. He'd come to wish he hadn't. First they killed his parents. Shot them in the home the gang had bought. Once he found out, Alonzo hurried to his sister's house as fast as he could, but was unable to save her or her husband. After blowing holes in the punks his former friends had sent, he found her bleeding in the kitchen. She died in his arms, and he promised to take care of her daughter. He took her to a safe house set up by his friend Kyle, or "Spook" as he was now called, and made a strange request.

After the events of the November Crisis, there were plenty of quacks who claimed they could give Inhuman powers in one way or another, but none were consistently successful. But on the black market, a treatment involving injection of pieces of the original meteor while the patient's body underwent extreme stress had better results. Nearly thirty percent received Inhuman powers, but nearly twenty percent died. Alonzo, against the advice of Spook, underwent this procedure. He needed to strike back at his former allies, who had shown him a pain he had not thought possible, and he couldn't do that as a normal man. He doesn't remember parts of the treatment, but it was worse than any physical pain he'd felt in his life. But he survived, and over the next few weeks, his body changed, and his abilities manifested. He began training, refining and augmenting his skill set so he could take vengeance upon his former gang.

After nearly a year, he had completed his training, and over the next six months waged a personally war against his family's murderers. When the dust settled, he remained. He illegally immigrated to British Columbia under an assumed name, and has been living for around a year in Mega-Vancouver. But it seems like he's right back where he started, just in his own parents shoes. He fears for Julie's safety, and moving to a more affluent neighborhood risks exposing him. Something needs to be done. Maybe it's time to get out the old armor...

 

[Buckteeth]

Sorry that took so long Neon Valkyrie . I've been busy, as another user said, and a recent change in my access to a desktop has forced me to do this on mobile, something I'm not use to. Still, I should have kept you all informed, and I apologize for that. Despite revising this thing like four times, I still can't get it formatted correctly, and if possible I'd appreciate some help from someone who knows the code. But the cs is filled out, and I'd still like to participate if allowed. If not, I can delete the cs and skedaddle. And btw, I did accidentally post my cs for a few seconds, but it wasn't finished, so I deleted it.

 

[Dreamtique]

Sorry that took so long Neon Valkyrie . I've been busy, as another user said, and a recent change in my access to a desktop has forced me to do this on mobile, something I'm not use to. Still, I should have kept you all informed, and I apologize for that. Despite revising this thing like four times, I still can't get it formatted correctly, and if possible I'd appreciate some help from someone who knows the code. But the cs is filled out, and I'd still like to participate if allowed. If not, I can delete the cs and skedaddle. And btw, I did accidentally post my cs for a few seconds, but it wasn't finished, so I deleted it.

A quick way or trick to make sure the format is correct is to press [reply] on a finished cs with correct format done by others (you'll get a code of the post, simply delete the {Quote} {/Quote} at the beginning and end of post) and then replace the info with copy and paste. You can try that! It's super easy that way.

 

[Sara Sidereal]

A quick way or trick to make sure the format is correct is to press [reply] on a finished cs (you'll get a code of the post, simply delete the {Quote} {/Quote} at the beginning and end of post) and then replace the info with copy and paste. You can try that! It's super easy that way.

Buckteeth If that doesn't work, feel free to PM me your character info and I'll see if I can get it formatted.

 

[Buckteeth]

Neon Valkyrie And I'm finished. Am I yet worthy?

 

[Neon Valkyrie]

OMG! So sorry, it's just been such a horrible month, and I've been getting side-tracked, and distracted, and just out of it. Anyway, If you guys want, I think we can start with this many and have people join as we go, but I wanted to get everyone's opinion about something;

I have a few different ideas about how this RP could go down, and it's all very atmosphere dependant, so I was wondering;

What kind of atmosphere does everyone want from this RP? Spawn, Watchmen, Batman, Spiderman ... how gritty, how dark, and how action or intrigue packed do we want this to be? I'm thinking more of a spider-man, young justice kind of level of grit, but I'd happily shade it out a bit. Also, where does everyone see their character starting out a night? Just off work? Already patrolling? Not really looking for trouble, as it has a habit of finding them?

I have tomorrow off, and I'm going to be putting up both of my major RPs, so we should be set to start ... probably ...

 

[Sara Sidereal]

preferred grit level: pulp sci fi
when the night is young: probably staying late at the lab, securing equipment and annotating supplies and substances that need to be ordered

these are only preferences, I am happy to play no matter what.

 

[Dreamtique]

I'm thinking more of a spider-man, young justice kind of level of grit

This will be fine!

Also, where does everyone see their character starting out a night? Just off work? Already patrolling? Not really looking for trouble, as it has a habit of finding them?

I would say just off work, since my dude works a low paying job when the sun begin to set only for a few hours or so. Sometimes he just straight out leaves his job and someone will be ready to take his place most of the time.

And the time we start is up to you, I personally have no problem in taking it slow.

 

[Buckteeth]

I think I'm fine with a Young Justice level of grit, though all knowledge of it is second-hand for me. I think the bad guys are grey-shaded, and my character blowing thugs full of holes won't be a problem, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Starting now and having others join later sounds fine. Redeemer would probably be on a stakeout at wherever in Mega-Vancouver that "decent" folk are loathe to go at night.

 

[Practically Philistine]

Are you still looking for more players? I'm cool with the seeming majority of young justice levels of grit, although like buckteeth my knowledge is mostly secondhand. I am familiar with the P&P system as well

 

[Neon Valkyrie]

Are you still looking for more players? I'm cool with the seeming majority of young justice levels of grit, although like buckteeth my knowledge is mostly secondhand. I am familiar with the P&P system as well

Lol, you might be the only person with actual experience we've got. I just kind of stumbled upon it searching for superhero RP systems, thought it looked nice and forum-friendly. We're always accepting, and I hope to get enough people to turn this into a hosted project with public events to gather new players.

As for the level of dark, I feel like the middle-ground between pulp sci-fi, young justice, and MY preference, which is somewhere between Witchblade and Spawn, will be equivalent to a kind of ... Batman: Bad Blood level. People die, the world is corrupt, crime is everywhere, but keep it artful, not graphic.

 

[Practically Philistine]

Lol, you might be the only person with actual experience we've got. I just kind of stumbled upon it searching for superhero RP systems, thought it looked nice and forum-friendly. We're always accepting, and I hope to get enough people to turn this into a hosted project with public events to gather new players.

As for the level of dark, I feel like the middle-ground between pulp sci-fi, young justice, and MY preference, which is somewhere between Witchblade and Spawn, will be equivalent to a kind of ... Batman: Bad Blood level. People die, the world is corrupt, crime is everywhere, but keep it artful, not graphic.

Awesome! Admittedly my experience with the system was rather short lived but still, at least know how rolling works etc. I'm totally cool with going as dark as you think you can handle. Just hope people are able to speak up if they start to feel uncomfortable so we can reign it in and not alienate anyone.

 

[Neon Valkyrie]

Awesome! Admittedly my experience with the system was rather short lived but still, at least know how rolling works etc. I'm totally cool with going as dark as you think you can handle. Just hope people are able to speak up if they start to feel uncomfortable so we can reign it in and not alienate anyone.

Of course, I don't want to push anyone out! What kind of character were you thinking of playing, given the compliment of characters so far?

 

[Sara Sidereal]

if you don't have to rulebook yet, just google [Thruxus.shadows-angels

you couldn't have mentioned that in the first post?

 

[Neon Valkyrie]

you couldn't have mentioned that in the first post?

I did

It's the third result when you Google "prowlers and paragons pdf."

 

[Sara Sidereal]

I did

It's the third result when you Google "prowlers and paragons pdf."

I guess google hates me, I just get a bunch of SEO / linkspam / dead domains

 

[Practically Philistine]

Sorry guys, still want in just was really busy this week as I was out of town. Should be back to normal tomarrow and I'll put a character concept out there

 

[Neon Valkyrie]

I guess google hates me, I just get a bunch of SEO / linkspam / dead domains

Well, Google may hate you, but WE think you're aright.

 

[Sara Sidereal]

Well, Google may hate you, but WE think you're aright.

s-senpai...!

 

[Neon Valkyrie]

s-senpai...!