Supermaxx

Is it overdone? Cliches, popular genres, ect.

Another, notably shorter cliche I have taken note of an issue with. When writing fantasy roleplaying, not everything needs an explanation. The whole backstory of the world, the events, the mechanics and philosophy of magic, the effects and express details do not need to be stated; implications of it should be. It should not feel like there is a manual being written about them, about how "X magic does Y things, but when it happens to be here it does Z." or the details of every race and the entirety of the history of their people leading up to the current era. The players, unless relevant to their character, do not need a history lesson on every major event that has transpired over the past few hundred years and the minute details working in it.

I suspect the reason that this is so common is that in order to make the prospect seem larger and more relevant, Game Masters go through tremendous effort to lay out everything verbatim, in the process destroying much of the mystery. The second reason I suspect this is, is because players have a difficult time grasping just what they wish to do or fleshing it out without delving into the mechanics of it. We, fellow players or readers alike, do not need to know your fireball magic costs three points of mana, burns at this specific temperature, was learned from a college of wizardry and requires the phrase, "Ignatorio!" in an obscure language's specific dialect to be cast. This is an issue of "Show, do not tell." failing to be adhered to.

Likewise, a related issue spawns is that every player under the sun seems to want to develop their own intricate system; there is no need for three different forms of wizarding magic, warlock pact magic, sorcerous bloodlines, rune magic specifics, then spheres of magic used by some. All of them are "arcane" and it has become a cliche to try and stuff as many disparate things into it, almost all of them loaned from media, for the sake of appealing to the audience rather than just say, "You tell me how you manage it, I will decide if that seems reasonable or not in the world."

Summarized, the cliche of spelling everything out in fantasy and eliminating the mystique and wonder of it is dreadfully overdone.

@The Harbinger of Ferocity

I doon'ttt...think I agree with this sentiment, almost at all. Obviously, there's a point where a GM is stuffing too much detail into their OP and droning on when it isn't necessary, but you can't expect someone to play a wizard with a magic system that's completely undefined. That'd be like handing someone a DnD character sheet but erasing half of the stats and telling them that those are a 'mystery' they'll learn about later. On top of that, just leaving it up to the player to define is just going to create a crapshoot where nothing between characters is coherent; you'll end up with one guy that fights like Harry Potter and someone else that uses magic like they're a superhero.

Likewise, the history of a world is pretty important for character creation, no? You don't have to go through creating every town and defining every event that's happened since mankind first stood upright, but if your world has no definition then the characters know literally nothing about the world they've inhabited presumably for their entire lives. Giving players lore to draw on for inspiration is necessary for keeping the game coherent and everything grounded in the same foundations; without those foundations, you're going to get a whole lot of weird shit all thrown together that makes absolutely no sense.

You can have mystique and wonder, but that shouldn't come from the wizard not knowing if his fireball is going to kill the enemy in front of him or explode the entire party in nuclear pyre.

Superboy's Shitty Characters

[Intro]

---

We dug up the body of a dead god today.

The boys were runnin' low on steam before this. We've been huntin' on this damned rock for months, and all we had to show for it was some broken pottery and cave paintings. Millions of credits and hundreds of hours of research and preparation and the expedition turns out like this? They were just about ready to stick an ice pick through my frontal lobe for it.

But now the whole camp's celebratin' so loudly that nobody can get any sleep. We finally found him: Wodos, the Underbound. They said he forged this solar system on his anvil, and he fashioned the sun from the embers of his forge. Its a wonder somebody that powerful managed to get gutted; its only a matter'a time before we know how he ate it, though, 'cause our crew's the best in the galaxy.

I'm attachin' a couple'a picts to this file, just so ya know I'm not bullshittin' you. Should be proof enough that my theory was correct. If I'm gonna get to the bottom of this, I'm gonna need more men and hardware sent my way. It'll cost us, but I'm tellin' you, sir, it'll be worth it. I'll update ya in a week's time on what we find out.

-Last known communication from Captain Aris O'Russ of the 1st Odyssey Expedition to his sponsor in ArCo Inc.

[Setting]

---

Adohim: Dead Gods takes place in the Adohim Galaxy in the year 1520 PMD, one thousand, five hundred and twenty years after the Pantheon died. All knowledge of the gods prior to their death was erased from galactic memory by unknown means; every computer file, book, and scrap of paper about their existence was somehow destroyed. All that remains are the stories passed down from the lips of those that walked among them, and the handful of ancient paintings and sculptures that depict them. Most believe the godfolk to be objects of myth; mere stories created by their ancestors to explain that which the science of the time could not.

A few know better, however.

It started out as the childhood fascination of a boy with an overactive imagination. He dreamed of worlds being crafted in the hands of giants, and of titans that could change space and time with but a word. Those dreams stayed with that boy as he became a man, and once he had gathered to himself a great deal of wealth and power, he set out to prove them to be true. Aris O'Russ, once a prominent marine in the Artifel Defense Force, turned to a life of academia as he went on his foolhardy quest to prove the existence of fairy tales and visions. Most thought him a madman.

Until he discovered the Underbound's tomb in the depths of Cratix-5 and promptly vanished, giving his ravings a frightening degree of legitimacy. His sponsors in ArCo Inc, one of Adohim's largest megacorporations, have started a mad scramble to get to Cratix-5, ascertain O'Russ's fate, and retrieve whatever research he may have left behind.

Major Races

Humans

Celphex

Thragaki

Rthya

Glitch

Major Politcal Powers

Artifel League

Kingdom of Rthya

Stonek Tribal Confederacy

Gedean Union

ArCo Inc

Broken Harmony Restoration Front

Blackhoof Mercenary Company

Technology

Psionics/Magic

The Pantheon

Wodos, The Underbound

Hayami, The Mother

Leyo, The Nothing-Scholar

Wesken, The Bright King

[OOC Information]

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Body of Text

Superboy's Shitty Characters

Revisit Later

[Intro]

---

We lost the United States in July, 2125. It took 'em turning the entire state of Virginia into a crater, but they did it. Everybody was sure we were witnessing the beginning of the end.

It's almost funny. Just a few years ago we were popping champagne and waving around flags with little green men on 'em. NASA had finally done it; they'd made contact with extraterrestrial life. Lotta people were scared then. We'd seen enough movies to know aliens were probably bad news. But the experts assured us that nobody would travel so far just to kill lil' ol' humanity. They went on TV and yelled at people for bein' paranoid fearmongers; after all, when was the last time a more advanced civilization ran over a native population to make room for itself?

I've been wondering lately why the stars were so quiet for so long, only for us to run into...this after yellin' into the void for a century. I think I figured it out when I was watchin' Mittens hunt mice last night. I think the stars knew there was somethin' waitin' to pounce on 'em the moment they squeaked a little too loud. Or maybe they all made the same God damn mistake before we did. Who knows.

All I know for sure is that I'm not goin' out quietly.

[Setting]

---

Earth: Besieged takes place on a future earth in the year 2125. The world looks very different after a century of development and conflict.

Earth history pre-invasion

The Russian Federation has been broken up into over twenty-two independent republics, with much of its territory being absorbed by China, Ukraine, and the Baltic States after its attempted invasion of Europe in 2052. Their president had foolishly believed he could retake the former territories of the Soviet Union due to the weakening state of NATO. China and the U.S intervened with swift, violent effectiveness, causing the Federation to capitulate in less than a year. Russian leaders had attempted to respond with a nuclear salvo against the aggressing countries, though they found the majority of their commanders unwilling- the threat of mutually assured destruction caused all but a few to mutiny against the orders. That lessened salvo was almost entirely intercepted by NATO and Chinese Missile Defense Systems...save for one, single rocket, which managed to slip through.

It hit Berlin, causing approximately half a million casualties and flooding the region with radiation. The wind sent fallout as far as Hamburg and salted the earth with Cobalt-60, making Berlin completely uninhabitable for a decade. Though the city was eventually repopulated, the effects of the attack are still felt in German industry and culture to this day. The country became far more militarized, its people spurred on by paranoia and anger to grow into the largest military force in Europe; the phrase 'Für Berlin' still populates propaganda and recruitment campaigns, even after seventy-two years.

China has elevated itself into a world superpower, far outpacing the U.S and Europe economically. Its pacts with Unified Korea and Japan have allowed it to soar ahead in terms of technology. They were the first country to deploy Exo-Frame mechs in combat, design shoulder-mounted anti-rocket laser systems, and they popularized the use of adaptive camouflage for special forces.

The United States, however, has continued its dominance in the space race thanks to the discovery of Thorneium underneath the Martian volcanoes. Thorneium, named after Dr. Robert Thorne, is the primary component in the most efficient battery currently in production. Its presence across Mars prompted American colonists to flock to the red planet in 2070, where they've been rapidly expanding for the last fifty some years. Other colonies have been erected on Mars's numerous moons, where mining and research operations are in full swing. A handful of attempts at independence by these colonies have ended peacefully, with the U.S providing better resources and trade options in exchange for continued dependence on their country of origin.

Technology in the U.S has kept up alongside Asia, for the most part. The Americans have yet to yield their dominance of the oceans, their submarines and aircraft carriers continuing to outpace any of the competition through ingenuity, sheer numbers, and the use of Railgun artillery cannons on all of their major bombardment vessels.

They also developed the first Fighter plane capable of both in-atmosphere flight and, by means of a one-use carrier rocket, space flight; this Spaceplane, known as the X-40 Medusa, was the basis for the currently running X-45 Gorgon series.

Luftteufel Invasion

The aliens made contact with earth in February of 2119 through the use of radio signals. Their language was impossible for us to even speak, let alone translate, but we were able to communicate more universal truths like math and the periodic table. We found a way to start sendin' each other images, and they showed us their home; a home they had destroyed in their ignorance. They showed us that our world would suffer a similar fate, but that they knew how to stop it. There wasn't any consensus on how to respond. China wanted to block communications and prepare for the worst. Europe wanted to keep talking to 'em before they decided what to do. America was split on how to proceed.

Eventually, it was decided that we should keep the line open but start amassing some kind of defensive force on the off chance things went south. We put together our own orbital defense network and a fleet of fighters more advanced than anything we'd previously been capable of building. We even started work on a few 'capital ships' of a much larger size that were meant to mirror our ocean-based vessels in terms of firepower. We weren't able to finish any of them in time.

Not that it would've mattered.

Their first ships arrived only two months later, far sooner than we had expected. Over two dozen, gargantuan ovoid-shaped vessels appeared in orbit around the earth in a flash of green light, trumpeting their arrival for all to see. The International Space Station sent an envoy out to greet them, flanked by hundreds of woefully underequipped Gorgons and other Space-capable fighters. They looked like gnats compared to their alien counterparts. The envoy was made up of our best and brightest- those we believed might be capable of communicating with the extraterrestrials- wielding the best technology and research in xeno-language we had available. Their shuttle was brought aboard the largest in the alien fleet, and humanity waited with bated breath to learn about the new arrivals.

Nobody knows who shot first. Some people think it was an American with an itchy trigger finger. Others think it was some kind of plot by the Chinese to start an Intergalactic war. Most think they hit us first. Whatever happened, the first space battle in human history was over in fifteen minutes. Every single ship, orbital platform and satellite orbiting the earth was destroyed by weaponry unlike anything we'd ever seen.

They entered the atmosphere only a day later, launching millions of much smaller craft that spread across the planet like a swarm of locust to a field. Four 'motherships' were sent to each populated continent, with the final vessel remaining in orbit. Once more humanity attempted to deploy its aircraft against the invaders, and once more they were chewed through like they were made of paper mache. Mass bombing campaigns began across the surface, destroying population centers enmasse. We thought they were invincible; we were sure they'd make us extinct in less than a year.

Then they landed in Germany.

And we massacred them.

Their infantry and ground vehicles were completely unprepared for combat on earth. Their walkers were painfully slow and liable to getting caught in trees, bushes, and sinkholes. Their infantrymen were dominating when they managed to close the distance, but their energy weapons lacked the range of our seemingly more 'primitive' ballistic weapons. The Exo-Frames turned out to be our greatest asset, however. They ran circles around the enemy and could move through territory the extraterrestrials considered impassable. It was an absolute slaughter. If it weren't for intervention from enemy craft, Germany would've routed them in a mere three days. The Germans started calling them Luftteufel when they were in the air and Kakerlake on the ground. The names stuck.

The last six years have looked much the same as those first weeks. The Roaches continue to hold an iron grip on the sky, using their air superiority to shell our ground forces and cities into rubble. But every time they attempt a landed assault, we manage to tear 'em to shreds and send them running back to their transports with their antennae between their legs. Its a war of attrition that the enemy knows they can't win, but humanity knows its only a matter of time before something changes. Either the Roaches retreat, or they come up with some new weapon to break our shell so they can turn us into mush.

Technology

The Kakerlake

[OOC Information]

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Body of Text

Superboy's Shitty Characters

| Character You're Applying For |

Superboy // Kon-El // Conner Kent

| Age |

Appears Roughly 17

| Powers And Abilities |

Super Strength:

Superboy's most prominent and oft-used ability, his strength is only marginally less than that of a developing Kryptonian around his current age. He can lift objects weighing over fifty tons, shred steel with his bare hands and throw punches strong enough to shatter buildings. This same strength allows him to leap great distances and toss objects just as far, though it has the unintended side-effect of being quite difficult to control at times; Conner has to take considerable care to avoid doing too much damage to an opponent, often to his own detriment.

Super Speed:

Though far from an equal to speedsters like Wally West, Superboy is still quite a bit faster than any ordinary human. He has the reaction speed necessary to stop a bullet, and the ground speed to outrun any man-made vehicle. He does, however, grow quite tired after moving at max speed for any significant amount of time, equivalent to how an athletic human would grow exhausted when they sprint.

Flight:

Flight is one of the most iconic abilities of the Kryptonians on earth, and the one Kon-El happens to be the worst at. He has yet to grasp even the most simple concepts required to keep himself airborne, finding it next to impossible to guide himself through the sky; thus far, the best he can do is point himself in a direction and jump as hard as he can to achieve 'flight.' Attempts to redirect himself tend to end in a crash landing at best and a simple crash every other time.

Heat Vision:

'Heat Vision' is the release of absorbed solar energy through the eyes in the form of a pair of focused beams capable of burning through steel after an extended period of time. Heat vision is one of Conner's most energy inefficient abilities and is best used in short, low-powered bursts.

Invulnerability:

Invulnerability is a misnomer, better defined as 'incredible durability.' There are few living beings capable of permanently damaging a Kryptonian, and Superboy is no different. Though such things as explosives can cause him pain, it takes a great deal of force to wound him in any meaningful manner, provided no Kryptonite is present. It is said the best way to kill a Kryptonian is with another Kryptonian.

Enhanced Senses:

Kon-El experiences our five senses at a far higher level. Each is tuned to be much more sensitive than any human could imagine, allowing him to see on several different spectrums, hear sounds no human ear could comprehend, and feel on a deeper level than most could put into words. While typically quite useful, he can easily be overwhelmed by sensations, with a particular weakness to bright light and sonic weaponry.

| Origin And Backstory |

Project CADMUS was established in the wake of the Doomsday event by the United States government in order to create a metahuman task force loyal to the American people that could protect them from any threat. Project Legacy was one of CADMUS's first and best-received endeavors, created with the intention to breed successors to current, living heroes in case they ever fell in battle. Superboy was the first of these creations, cloned from the Kryptonian DNA presumably collected during the Doomsday event and spliced together with compatible human DNA from the research staff. The current iteration of Kon-El is the third clone in the series, created with roughly 70% Kryptonian DNA and 30% various human DNA strands taken from several different subjects. He is predicted to be nearly on par with Superman when he reaches full maturity thanks to the genetic enhancement CADMUS used in his creation.

CADMUS never intended for Superboy to break free. The mental suggestion techniques they were planning to use to keep him under control until he was fully developed and indoctrinated failed for unknown reasons and Superboy proceeded to go on a rampage that destroyed the CADMUS facility prior to him escaping into the wilderness. He wandered through the mountains for several days before he was rescued by Kara Zor-El and Kal-El and taken to the Fortress of Solitude, where the truth of the world and his origin were given to him.

Superboy struggled to accept it all at first. He was angry and confused and lashed out at the Kryptonians on many occasions. But over the course of two weeks, he came to understand his existence, and transitioned into assimilating into earth culture, under the tutelage of his adopted sister and 'father.' Conner's exposure to the outside world has been...limited, thus far, as it presents a danger to both him and others. But he's slowly grown more comfortable around humans, learning how to communicate with them and 'blend in' like a normal person. Conner is impatient, however; he despises being 'locked up' in the Fortress of Solitude, and finds every opportunity to leave Clark or Kara's side and sneak away to indulge in humanity without their guiding hand.

| Summary of Version Differences |

While quite similar to his current canon origin, I've streamlined a good deal of it to erase many of the contrivances that come with comic book origin stories. Nearly everything one expects from Superboy's backstory remains the same, though I do have a few changes in mind that should make for a more interesting departure from the norm. You'll just have to wait to find out what those are ;)

Monsters and Men: A One Universe Comics Presentation

Smol boi post for now.

Monsters and Men: A One Universe Comics Presentation

Witwicky Ranch, Colorado
Evening

---

The scent of expended energon rose up from the smoking barrels of Bumblebee's stingers, and the surviving townspeople had been driven away. He stood sentinel before the Witwicky house, towering above the old wooden structure; his frame rose and fell in a slow, methodical fashion as heat dispersed from his form. The Cybertronian scout watched for several moments as the tiny humans scattered into the fields, their panicked cries dying out as they gained considerable distance from the ranch in record time.

All about the yard lay piles of ash and molten organic matter with nothing that could be readily identified as human remains surviving the encounter. Energon-based weaponry was disturbingly effective against organics, Bee quietly noted. It wasn't until silence reigned over the farm that he stored his blasters in his sides, the guns disappearing up into his body so that they might recharge. The machine knelt to the ground, his shoulders sinking and his arms collapsing into themselves, continually folding and changing until the fifteen foot tall giant had compacted into a tiny, old-fashioned car. That ancient little bug drove itself up toward the ranch house's window, peaking inside to get some look at his human companions.

Daniel Witwicky had his son, Steven, laying atop the dining room table, the previous contents spilled haphazardly onto the floor. His old, gnarled hands were hidden underneath rubber gloves stained in his son's blood. The boy was howling like a banshee, but his father was yelling at him to stay still, and poking at his interior with some kind of tool. Bumblebee had seen something like it before, back on Cybertron. He'd seen the faces of old, grizzled surgeons as they tried to convince some poor wounded soldier to stay online just a little longer.

Bee grimaced at the memories, and at the ache in his spark as Rachet's face flashed before his mind. Bee remembered what it was like to be where Steven was. He didn't envy it.

Nearly half an hour passed before anything changed. Steven had stopped his screaming, and Daniel's shoulders had sunken with exhaustion. The old man slunk out the front door and cast his heavy eyes toward Bumblebee. He was quiet for a time. Not but an hour earlier, life had been...normal. He could never have expected everything to sour so suddenly. Witwicky sighed and shook his head, tossing the pair of ruined gloves down onto the porch. "Alright, Bee. You remember the drill?" The former marine asked.

Bumblebee responded with a serious of high-pitched beeps and whistles before turning about and heading toward the barn. Daniel, meanwhile, started back inside, glancing down at the watch on his forearm. They had around fifteen minutes before Steven would be aware enough for travel. Fifteen minutes to prepare all of the bug-out equipment, get the mini-cons in the air and ensure every scrap of information on Daniel, his son, and his wife was destroyed. He wasn't particularly fond of the idea of leaving his life behind, but...

'It wouldn't be the first time.' He thought glumly.

Superboy's Shitty Characters

Witwicky Ranch, Colorado
Evening

---

The scent of expended energon rose up from the smoking barrels of Bumblebee's stingers, and the surviving townspeople had been driven away. He stood sentinel before the Witwicky house, towering above the old wooden structure; his frame rose and fell in a slow, methodical fashion as heat dispersed from his form. The Cybertronian scout watched for several moments as the tiny humans scattered into the fields, their panicked cries dying out as they gained considerable distance from the ranch in record time.

All about the yard lay piles of ash and molten organic matter with nothing that could be readily identified as human remains surviving the encounter. Energon-based weaponry was disturbingly effective against organics, Bee quietly noted. It wasn't until silence reigned over the farm that he stored his blasters in his sides, the guns disappearing up into his body so that they might recharge. The machine knelt to the ground, his shoulders sinking and his arms collapsing into themselves, continually folding and changing until the fifteen foot tall giant had compacted into a tiny, old-fashioned car. That ancient little bug drove itself up toward the ranch house's window, peaking inside to get some look at his human companions.

Daniel Witwicky had his son, Steven, laying atop the dining room table, the previous contents spilled haphazardly onto the floor. His old, gnarled hands were hidden underneath rubber gloves stained in his son's blood. The boy was howling like a banshee, but his father was yelling at him to stay still, and poking at his interior with some kind of tool. Bumblebee had seen something like it before, back on Cybertron. He'd seen the faces of old, grizzled surgeons as they tried to convince some poor wounded soldier to stay online just a little longer.

Bee grimaced at the memories, and at the ache in his spark as Rachet's face flashed before his mind. Bee remembered what it was like to be where Steven was. He didn't envy it.

Nearly half an hour passed before anything changed. Steven had stopped his screaming, and Daniel's shoulders had sunken with exhaustion. The old man slunk out the front door and cast his heavy eyes toward Bumblebee. He was quiet for a time. Not but an hour earlier, life had been...normal. He could never have expected everything to sour so suddenly. Witwicky sighed and shook his head, tossing the pair of ruined gloves down onto the porch. "Alright, Bee. You remember the drill?" The former marine asked.

Bumblebee responded with a serious of high-pitched beeps and whistles before turning about and heading toward the barn. Daniel, meanwhile, started back inside, glancing down at the watch on his forearm. They had around fifteen minutes before Steven would be aware enough for travel. Fifteen minutes to prepare all of the bug-out equipment, get the mini-cons in the air and ensure every scrap of information on Daniel, his son, and his wife was destroyed. He wasn't particularly fond of the idea of leaving his life behind, but...

'It wouldn't be the first time.' He thought glumly.

Monsters and Men: A One Universe Comics Presentation

Alrighty, now that Christmas is dying down, I think I'm good to start working on a post. Hope to have that up in a few days!

Ultimate One Universe: Season Two

I'll be posting in a couple of days, should work not murder me violently in a bloody mess.

@Sep

get dabbed on

Monsters and Men: A One Universe Comics Presentation

<Snipped quote by Superboy>

All good. I’m trying to get some posts up before the weekend, because otherwise I don’t see many posts getting done on my end during the holidays

@HenryJonesJr

Wunderbar. Loving what you're putting out with the Turtles so far.