[OOC] The Paradigm Stone

[Warm Regret]

I'm always behind you guys! ^^; Ok I'm gonna start working on my post now, I should have something up by tomoz at the latest! ^_^

[betelgeuse]

No rush, really. I had my own busy week where you guys were patient ^____^

In other news, I received a PM requesting a certain power for a character. It's for power absorption like Rogue's, but includes shape shifting into any character after contact as well. I would most likely prefer one or the other. Also I personally feel that the players here have signed up to write as characters with super powers (for the most part) and having their powers taken during (most likely) combat, takes away the meat of what they can do. This also leads to a character that is powerless unless they take it from someone else.

Be that as it may, I want every decision in this game to be made as a group, so I want to see how all of you feel about it. We can set strict standards or rules on when the powers are kosher, or opt away from it entirely. Just want to hear everyone's opinions!

[Corporal Lance]

Now the crucial question: power absorption or power mimicry? The difference is that an absorbed player's powers would have their powers taken from them, a player whose powers are mimicked would have the mimicking player copy the other player's powers. If it's absorption, no way. That's a good way to kill the game for other players if they can't get their powers back, even if it's possible. Also a no if it's 1:1. If someone with power mimicry can completely copy anyone else's power perfectly, it makes them ridiculously overpowered. Like you intended, Betel, players should naturally come to stalemate if neither player starts with an advantage (say that one player has an environmental advantage or the other player is injured, etc.). 1:1 copy would be a cheap way to get more than one power. Depending on the power mechanics, I'd be alright with the morphing part. A power mimicry character that can only use one power at 1:1 at a time (that being that the player won't even have access to any other powers easily, no swapping mid encounter!) with transforming abilities would fly with me, but if they wanted to hold onto multiple I would say that their ability to use them should be degraded to a fraction equal to that of how many they have/are using. Say, they absorb Ocean's waterbending and Officer Collins's telepathy, the player could only use either to about half efficiency.

Then again, it would depend on how the character was written and how they approach the story. If they're the type of player to be perched upon a rooftop and metagame themselves into an encounter with another player just so that they can fight someone ("Mary Sue just happened to see a passerby sprinting down the street. Suspecting them of being a supervillain, she leaped down from her perch in front of them"), then hell no. That's a power asking to be abused more than a masochist in an S&M club.

TLDR; I'd have to see how the power mechanics are written up before I cast my vote.

[FrozenEcstasy]

Well from my point of view, I agree with Lance here. Power Mimicry might have a place, power absorption would not.

Power Absorption is like... Majin Buu territory. Let's not do that please.

Mimicry though... I could see it like a Mystique-like character that can mimic whatever body they take on.
Or maybe a mirror effect?

Or maybe they don't copy the powers at all! It's just an illusion!

Godang. How many mimicry type powers are therrrreee.

[Sizzlin Bacon]

Mimicry maybe, but it seems kind of eeeh to do that instead of just thinking of something else.

Anyway, I'll hopefully write something sometime soon, the mojo has not been flowing lately and I've been distracted by other issues.

[betelgeuse]

Sizzlin Bacon said Anyway, I'll hopefully write something sometime soon, the mojo has not been flowing lately and I've been distracted by other issues.

No need to worry about it, Bacon, hope all's going well!

Like I said before, I might make an update on what's going on with the scientist.

[betelgeuse]

Oh! Quick reminder that there will be a mix of Loche Security (the felon thugs) and regular Beacon guards (honest working civilians) so keep that in mind when you're beating the shit out of one/the other.

[FrozenEcstasy]

So... Ugh... yeah I'm turning Jacob into a full fledged character, going to post as him tonight.
And when I say full fledged, I mean wait a long time before he get's out of the house and does things.
Ocean is going to be fairly static character while Jacob is going to grow and change immensely.

Jacob

-Basic Info-
Name: Jacob Teague
Gender:Male
Age:17
Alias: N/A

-Stats-

Height: 5'5
Weight:120bs
Hair Color: Naturally Blonde, Currently Pink
Eye Color: Glassy Blue
Skin Tone: Creamy White
Body Type: Scrawny, Slight Muscle Tone
Notable Features: Flamboyant dress and hair.

-Psychological Profile-
Personality: Jacob is psychologically a mess. His difficult upbringing and lack of a real family caused him to react with a head in the clouds and a wild imagination. At first glance he's an overpositive almost-legal-adult, with a penchant for making a mess. A layer underneath, he's rather morbid and a bit off his rocker. On the inside, he's scared as hell of just about anything you can think of that could give someone a reason to be scared, except not exactly.. Some things that should be scary to a timid person excite him. For instance, here's Jacob thinking "Spider? Fuck no. Snake? Fuck no. Ghosts? FUCK YES DEAD THINGS.Actual dead bodies? Oh God fucking no."

Strengths:
-Positive
-Intelligent with machinery
-Computer semi-genius

Weaknesses:
-Timid
-Unstable Emotions
-No fighting skill

Fears:
-Spiders
-REAL dead people
-Snakes
-Clowns
-Cleavers
-4 Inch Heals
-Pretty Women
-Drag Queens
-...Etc.

-Power Points:
-Empathic Influence: 3
-Attractiveness: 2
-Rich Best Friend: 3
-Computer Semi-Genius: 2
-Mechanic Extraordinaire: 3
-Wealth: 1
-Brawl: 1

Empathic Influence: Jacob is currently unawares of his ability as he hasn't been around anyone but Gabriel and his housemaids. Jacob is able to broadcast his emotions or an emotion of his choice to one person, or a group of people, as well as read other's emotions. At the moment, at his weakest, he can affect up to 17 people at once. This ability has the potential to incite riots with rage, cause increased arousal among a group of people in order to create confusion, or even promote an unusually large amount of generosity. The way people react to these emotions, however, is uncontrollable.

-Public Identity-
Job: Bum!
Home: Gabriel Lang's Beachouse

Wealth/Lifestyle: Jacob owns absolutely nothing, everything he "has" belongs to Gabriel. If he were to ever leave Gabriel he'd be on the streets. But despite that, he benefits from Gabe's money and if he wants something he's technically got it.

Clothing Style: Scene as fuck, OH BOY HE'S IN THAT PHASE. Alternatively dresses in a mechanic's dress.

Friends/Relationships: Gabriel Lang(Best Friend)
Rivalries: Gabriel's entire social media following
Public/Professional Goals: Goals? Oh you mean Gabriel's money.

History: Prefer to write out into the roleplay/Will come when Jacob becomes more of a main character

-Secret Identity-
Uniform:N/A
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Combat Method: Nope.
Hideout: Gabriel's house...
Mode of Transportation: Never leaves the house\Gabriel's car when Gabriel's driving
Allies/Relationships: "Sidekick" to Ocean
Nemesis: Whoever Ocean dislikes
Motivations/Goals: See Ocean's
Supplies/Inventory: He owns nothing!
Extra: Jacob has no real superhero life outside of helping out with Ocean/Gabriel and his stuff. Jacob has absolutely nothing that would allow him to participate much in a fight at all, so he literally stays at home 24/7 and serves as a stress reliever for Gabriel and his antics as Ocean. He has no real desire to go out into the city, but as things get more heated, we can expect Jacob to get out and about.

-Paradigm Stone-
Paradigm Stone Appearance: The stone becomes an unassuming, blood red necklace.
Personal Appearance Changes: His skin takes on a translucent appearance and seems to glow according to his feelings, suiting his abilities.
Power/Ability Progression: Jacob's emotions broadcast on a wide scale and begin to make people sick with the intensity.
Power-Drunk Goals: Jacob begins to desire to have the entire world to know what it's like to grow up the way he did, and seeks to force people into his position.
Weakness: Ocean/Gabriel can still overpower him emotionally. Someone with emotions stronger than his own will reverse the intensity of his power back onto himself. Places containing extremely emotional people will wreck him.
Withdrawal Symptoms: Jacob suffers severe mood swings and loses ability to focus.

[Sizzlin Bacon]

Is the balcony Pheonix is being led to the same one that Eudora and Wisp were just talking on?

[Corporal Lance]

I can't speak for Betel, but I would say no. A smoking balcony would normally be available to everyone, especially considering that the poor (or at least less wealthy) are more likely to smoke. Pheonix has gone past the VIP line, so he's probably not in the same place.

ON THE OTHER HAND... Eudora herself smokes, and someone that high up would probably gear things toward their own tastes. I'm in a collab with Betel right now, I'll ask.

[betelgeuse]

Sorry all! And no, the VIP area is under the second floor catwalk the runs like a horse shoe around the room.

Frozen: As of right now, I have a few problems with your bio;

Strengths:
-Positive
-Intelligent with machinery
-Computer semi-genius I'm. Sorry, but neither of these two have power points assigned to them?

-Power Points:
-Empathic Influence: 3 Again, characters with strong will can resist this and he can't influence more than emotions.
-Attractiveness: 3 I would need a better description for this.
-Rich Best Friend: 3
-Popularity: 3
-Wealth: 1
-Brawl: 1
-Bravery: 1

-Paradigm Stone-
...
Weakness: Ocean/Gabriel can still overpower him emotionally. So your other character is his lone weakness? Doesn't that make it impossible for everyone else?
...

[FrozenEcstasy]

betelgeuse said
Sorry all! And no, the VIP area is under the second floor catwalk the runs like a horse shoe around the room.Frozen: As of right now, I have a few problems with your bio;Strengths:-Positive I'm. Sorry, but neither of these two have power points assigned to them?-Power Points: Again, characters with strong will can resist this and he can't influence more than emotions.-Attractiveness: 3 I would need a better description for this.-Rich Best Friend: 3-Popularity: 3-Wealth: 1-Brawl: 1-Bravery: 1-Paradigm Stone-... So your character is his lone weakness? Doesn't that make it impossible for everyone else?...

ALright! Sorry.
I didn't spend much time on his thing. Gimme about 20 minutes to run it over with a steamroller.
Also: Didn't think of powerpoints.

Edit:
Fixed! The weakness list now has like a gajillion(not really) things in it.

[Warm Regret]

betelgeuse said
No rush, really. I had my own busy week where you guys were patient ^____^In other news, I received a PM requesting a certain power for a character. It's for power absorption like Rogue's, but includes shape shifting into any character after contact as well. I would most likely prefer one or the other. Also I personally feel that the players here have signed up to write as characters with super powers (for the most part) and having their powers taken during (most likely) combat, takes away the meat of what they can do. This also leads to a character that is powerless unless they take it from someone else. Be that as it may, I want every decision in this game to be made as a group, so I want to see how all of you feel about it. We can set strict standards or rules on when the powers are kosher, or opt away from it entirely. Just want to hear everyone's opinions!

Hmm...I don't know if I mind either way. If you think about it, all of our characters have the potential to be overpowered but it's up to the player to have some kinda self control, ya know? lol. I will say that if you have a power that strong, where you can completely debilitate someone just by touching them, there should be some negative effects that go along with it, just like with Rogue. She absorbs more than just powers but people's memories and emotions as well and without psychic help from professor x, she'd probably be a schizophrenic psychopath with split personalities all trying to take control! She's also not in control of her powers and can't turn them on or off to touch people whenever she wants, so she can't casually touch people when it's convenient. So she kinda has a balance.

I do think power mimicry would be the easier way to go though. I read a comic when I was a kid with a character who had powers like that. He could mimic the powers of someone he was in a certain proximity of but once out of that range he could no longer tap into that person's abilities. Something like that would probably be a lot easier for everyone haha.

[Warm Regret]

Ok, postage! ^_^

[FrozenEcstasy]

I'd sure like to post but I'm waiting for Jacob to be completely cleared!

Plus I'm sitting here halfway to tears over PTX music.

[betelgeuse]

Sorry Frozen, but I'm still having some problems with your profile. I understand that you "didn't spend much time on it" which isn't fair to everyone that worked hard on a very thorough profile in order to be accepted. Right now your main character is still a full day behind the others, which shouldn't be influenced if Jacob is accepted or not.

As for the profile: I'm having trouble with Jacob's fears, since they seem to be written as a joke. Four inch heels (spelling aside), pretty girls and drag queens have no real implications or uses in character development. Give him something real to be afraid of and make a more rounded character.

In all honesty, the personality section really confuses me- there are a lot of contradictions. He's really positive but morbid, afraid of everything but not really. It doesn't make sense.

Again, I NEED descriptions to all of the power points. How is he a computer genius? Can he write code? Hack? Amazing at Photoshop? We have no idea and it's too broad. Mechanic extraordinaire; but what can he build? Cars? Boats? Obviously not robots or weapons, because he has points in mechanic instead of engineering or similar fields. Again, I already asked for descriptions to points.

On top of all that there is no history. I understand that some of the others are brief or lead to being developed in-story, but you need something.

So yes, I know that you would like to play Jacob, but he seems very thrown together and this is an Advanced game, as I said in the first post.

EDIT: To add, what are his goals? "Gabriel's money" doesn't make sense. Does he want to steal it? What are his life plans?

[betelgeuse]

Great post Regret! I'm (for real) going to get something up for the scientist and Finn tonight or .uk n the morning.

[FrozenEcstasy]

Yessir >:| No more Lazy Ass Frozen.
I guess I'll just catch up Ocean first.
And the fears are both a joke and not. But I understand what you're wanting and I'll give it.
And as for those contradictions, I have a friend who is both positive and morbid at the same time, so I'll get to work on cleaning it up.
Honestly I've been rushed recently and haven't been able to do much writing. Forgive me for being a dolt and breezing through.

*cough* And as for the goals? He has none. I'll get on that to.

[betelgeuse]

No need for forgiveness, I just want the best for this game that's already so freaking awesome. I'm excited to see what you'll get up!

[Sizzlin Bacon]

I'll probably write something tonight, I'm feeling really good, just have a few other things to take care of first.