Evil Ghost NoteThe scale of the damage in the Prison fight doesn't excuse anything Abe does in a crowded restaurant filled with people when he has other choices. If you fight a villain and somebody dies because of an honest mistake it's different. But in the eyes of the law when an Officer's actions result in the citizens he's sworn to protect dying because of an intentional disregard for their safety, he's done a serious crime. It's no different for Superheroes. Sure it could be part of his character not to care, but isn't also in-character for him to want to avoid being implicated for a crime or have his reputation besmirched? None of it is based on what I think of a character's personality. Because frankly I hate Cordella and If I wanted to I could have Emily bitch-slap her to death but I don't because that'd be bad GMing and another mistake I don't wish to make
Okay, I'm putting this out there, and everyone else in the RP will probably skim past it, but I need to draw attention to these issues, as I feel they'll kill this RP over time if left ignored. I've attempted to be professional about the problems I've seen but this crosses the line.
First off, you're applying your own morality and code of ethics to this situation, and allowing it to interfere with the way the game progresses. You have said it's a rule that we can't kill innocents-but that's not a rule. It's not in the set of rules stated in the OP, and to arbitrarily declare that it is later on is somewhat unfair. It feels identical to playing a game with a kid who keeps mixing up the rules whenever he starts to lose. This has occurred in other instances, when details about the League or the environment are told us after we've posted them, seemingly as facts without any way of knowing them beforehand. It's obvious this is meant for the old-timers who were in the last incarnation of this RP, but it'd be nice if you established a more clear setting before setting us loose in it. Leonerdo progressed in a direction you didn't care for, so now killing innocents is totally out of character for anyone, and thus unavoidable. Having the vllains save him further reinforces this-you're depriving him the chance to reap the consequences of his actions. You've stated that depending on how the RP goes we can progress into anti-heroes, mercenaries, etc, and yet now when our characters are faced with the opportunity to do so, Leonerdo's character is unable to. If he wants to kill innocents and suffer the consequences...why can't he? Why did these villains save those people? Maybe they're a darker-shade-of-grey type villain that's out to save people, and this was just an extreme measure-but by the same token, if we're fighting people with morality like that, why can't some of the "good guys" have grey morality? I find it unprofessional that you're essentially telling Leonerdo what his character should do. I mean, not to rant on Abysse here, because playing as a mentally unstable character takes a lot of effort to do well, but we have a legitimate pyromaniac/psychopath in the RP. Surely a fair number of the League's members suffer from PTSD, Cordelia's not exactly had things easy-and yet attempting to portray the more complex moralities that may result from that are shot down. From your comments on the 80s and 90s anti-heroes, hand-waving of my questions regarding the League's moral legitimacy, and comments on Cordelia, it's obvious you prefer one-dimensional, black-and-white heroes and villains. Which is fine, but with comments like these it doesn't feel like you're affording that opportunity to the rest of us. In the OP, you state that this RP is an attempt at portraying heroes realistically. While I doubted that, given Pariah's nature as a lawyer, CIA operative, and Marine extraordinaire, whose capable of throwing knives accurately in a fight (I do not know if you have ever thrown knives-it takes weeks to hit the target reliably and you have to gauge distance and number of spins to do so-trying to throw it in a fight is literally just throwing and hoping for the best, it would be beyond impractical to try using them on a moving, dangerous target like Pariah likely faces), I attempted to make what I felt was a realistic character, knowing full well they would be outclassed by the extremely powerful characters present in the RP. I hoped to offer cunning, knowledge of the criminal underworld, and perhaps a Lancer to the organization as a whole, someone who'd provide a different outlook.
The result was Cordelia, a street rat. However, I don't feel you truly have realism as an interest in this RP. You claimed that the VTOLs would cause no collateral damage whatsoever, yet could simultaneously swat down anyone escaping out of the sky. What weaponry is capable of doing that? Miniguns are anything but precise. What else could they have mounted on them as weapons, precise enough to shoot down individuals flying away without shooting up nearby buildings, wounding passerbys, etc? Any of Cordelia's criticisms of the League were met with assurances that the League is a seemingly 100% benevolent organization, that somehow manages to give most of its money to charity whilst affording a fleet of VTOLs, cutting edge technology, and salaries for thousands of members. It's more of a well-intentioned paramilitary group than anything.
Similarly, you just said that
The whole point of having him fight the monsters is to allow the players to decide how the Prison scenario unfolds. Also there's nothing about him that is nigh God-like. He's powerful, but frankly quite a few of the NPCs and Villains I've made up can fight him and even kill him. he higher-level PCs could probably give him a drubbing if they were smart enough about it.
Our strongest characters could PROBABLY take him in a fight if they were smart. This kills any dramatic tension in the RP. If even the strongest characters in the RP can only HOPE to give him a beatdown, assuming they had the advantage of superior tactics on their side (and this guy's also actively holding back, as stated in your sheet)...why do you even need us to RP? I mean, seriously, can't he handle the prison situation entirely on his own if he has power of that magnitude? Put a few VTOLs in the air, contain anyone from flying away, and have him crush anyone who comes out the front door. Problem solved. You haven't shown us why any of our characters are necessary. Zenith, Pariah, and Apogee, combined with the indefinite funding, fleet of airships, and presumably excellent military and tech connections, seem more than capable of handling any threat that rises up in this RP. Pariah is ridiculously smart and trained as a covert operative, the other two are nigh unkillable. Very few scenarios they can't handle.
For the record, I'm fine if you hate Cordelia. I've GM'ed many RP's, and there have been many characters I disliked-but not saying that outright is just a sign of respect. I wouldn't say I take RP'ing seriously, it's not my one passion in life, but I put effort into what I do and attempt to write quality posts and work in character arcs and development. Saying you hate her after, what, less than a week of RP'ing? It's dismissive and not what I want to see in the person running things. Stating that you could have Emily swat her down like a fly if you wanted, but you won't-solely because you don't want to repeat another mistake-no, there's no point in me staying. I'm not sure it occurred to you when you typed that, but that really screams that this RP is YOUR sandbox and not OURS. We're free to play as much as we want, as long as we don't try and cross your guys. They're undeniably the superior ones. This tells me several things, beyond the fact you've so extremely made up your mind about my character after five pages of RP'ing with her.
First, there's next to nothing holding you back from killing off my character. I have no desire to stay in an RP where my characters, who I put serious work into and actively work on developing, can be killed off on a whim. I do this for fun, and outright seeing your stance on this, along with the knowledge that the rest of this RP will not be favorabe to my characters or myself, is not exactly fun.
Secondly, that your character can kill mine so easily. Again-why are our characters needed if yours are so ungodly strong? You've given no reason why Emily, Zenith, and Pariah can't handle this entire thing by themselves. I'm fine with playing the second-rate character if necessary.
However, the manner in which you've acted is unprofessional. Letting a character essentially break the fourth wall to target the "90s antiheroes", yourself commenting on how much you dislike them, selectively issuing consequences, and outright stating that you hate my character and would kill her off if you didn't want to make "another mistake", and finally banning any more 90s antiheroes (a vague, ill-defined term, which essentially lets you ban whichever characters you dislike) is enough of a sign that I'm not wanted. There is an evident bias in your moderating and writing towards characters that buck the norm, and it's not handled in a mature or fair manner. Let's look at how things have turned out so far. These are not attacks on other RP'ers, but rather on the nature of consequences in this RP.
Sonja rushes into combat. Is attacked, but allowed to defend herself and live to fight another day.
Hot Rod rushes into combat. Is attacked and suffocated, but allowed to be saved by another character.
Agnes rushes solo against a horde of beasts, throws a hand grenade (collateral damage) and is saved by an NPC.
Abe stealthily attacks a group of unsuspecting (because, they may have been expecting a conventional attack, but seeing the roof collapse evokes entirely different responses than hearing someone shoot at you, they were expecting the former and not the latter) terrorists and is immediately recognized, knocked out, taken prisoner, and all the NPCs targeted saved.
Zenith takes on one fifth of the prison riot by himself by the time we arrive. No consequences.
It's pretty clear there's something up. Your addendum to the OP confirms this.
My apologies if I've irritated any of the other members with a wall of text, but I feel these issues need to be addressed. Didact, this RP isn't a choice-based one. We were told that
players will be allowed to take on the roles of other kinds of characters, from vigilantes working outside the system to mercenaries looking for profit to soldiers serving the government and even to villains pursuing their own agendas.. This is not the case. Changing things up is fine, but you should be upfront about it, and not enact such changes as a reaction to RP'ers or characters you dislike, which is unfair and unprofessional.
If you wanted an RP that had pure heroes against pure villains, that's fine, but I feel misled by your OP and slanted against. Stating that you hate someone's character and would kill her off? I am not being hyperbolic here-I've been RP'ing for six years and I haven't ever seen that before. Much less after five pages of the RP. I don't know whether it's a more cynical, pragmatic take on the world you dislike, or simply the fact we weren't present for the last incarnation of your RP and are the outsiders of the group, but it's pretty clear you don't want us around. I put effort into my sheets, posts, and was attempting to help contribute to this RP, but what've you said and done as GM says that those contributions are unwanted and will likely have no tangible effect on the story. I was holding out for this conflict with Abe to blow over, and hopefully work on changing things slowly and more diplomatically, but I'm not going to sink more time into this RP if Cordelia, and by extension myself, is going to be getting secondhand treatment and outright disdain from the guy running it. Similarly, Leonerdo was told how his character's morality SHOULD be and what reaction he SHOULD have, which I find to be similarly dismissive. You outright hate one character and are commenting on how another should react...it's just not the way you should treat people that are attempting to post and contribute to your RP. This RP doesn't feel like a collaborative effort, it feels more like one of those stories where you get to pick the endings. And that's okay, if we're upfront and clear about it-but we're presented with an open world and told to stay within the dotted lines. This may, to give you the benefit of the doubt, be the result of unspecified vision for the RP as a whole, but more negatively this is your dislike of myself and others in the RP, or at least our characters and writing styles. The former is more excusable, but I suspect it's the latter. If this is the manner you're going to operate in, that's fine, but I'm not going to stay where I'm not wanted.
To the members of this RP, I want to clarify this isn't an attack on any of you, please don't interpret this post as such. I've enjoyed my brief time with Polyphemus and Blacksam in particular, and look forward to bumping into all of you in the future on here.
Cordelia can be lost in the prison riot with a certain hellhound from solitary confinement too. Hope you all enjoy this RP, I'll see you around.