The World In The Aftermath (Formerly A World Less Magical)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
RainOnTheSun
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by RainOnTheSun »

I assume the Muscle Factory is like the Power Broker in Marvel? Purveyor of low-level strongmen and strongwomen to the supervillain world?
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Davies
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

RainOnTheSun wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 1:32 pm I assume the Muscle Factory is like the Power Broker in Marvel? Purveyor of low-level strongmen and strongwomen to the supervillain world?
Somewhere between that and whoever keeps manufacturing Venom for Bane. Their process is incredibly addictive and horribly toxic, and the majority of their 'product' dies in under a year. All that for Enhanced Strength 3.
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MacynSnow
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by MacynSnow »

I noticed some of these Argus agents are rather Corrupt(justifing my PC's distrust).
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Davies
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Argus is a microcosm of humanity, containing within it the noblest of souls and the most base.
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Voltron64
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Voltron64 »

Davies wrote: Thu Feb 18, 2021 5:11 am Argus is a microcosm of humanity, containing within it the noblest of souls and the most base.
With the ones even baser than that ending up in Saturn.
MacynSnow
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by MacynSnow »

Davies wrote: Thu Feb 18, 2021 5:11 am Argus is a microcosm of humanity, containing within it the noblest of souls and the most base.
Yeah, but it looks like the Noblest of Heroes are getting stuck with the most corrupt Agent. Out of 100%, it look's like there's 5% are corrupt. They must have a horrible vetting process to miss that many.
I can understand it being a microcosm an all, but that's a lot of Bad Apples in that bunch...
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Davies
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

"Ken" Kang-su Jyeong
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Born in North Korea, Kang-su Jyeong was the son of a minor party functionary who narrowly avoided the decapitating attack that annihilated virtually every other member of the government of the Democratic People's Republic prior to the Pythonian invasion. While he and his wife were unharmed, four-year-old Kang-su suffered a serious head injury in the attack. In order to save him, his father contacted the American CIA and turned over information about what remained of the nation's security to them in exchange for new lives in America. It seems likely that some of this information helped ensure that the second invasion, by the South Koreans, was a success.

The operation that saved Kang-su's life was also a success, and he grew up as a typical teenager in a California household that spoke both Korean and English. Feeling that he owed a great debt to the country that had saved both him and his family, and despising what had become of the land of his birth, "Ken" Jyeong sought and found employment with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, hoping to be assigned to the department which handled spies from the Empire. That never quite materialized, and instead he found himself working on several cases with the telepathic agent Helice.

Ken was honestly a bit skeptical about Helice's abilities -- the idea that someone could read thoughts didn't seem at all consistent with what he'd learned in university about current theories of how the mind worked, and he decided that Helice was just using superpowered versions of cold reading and similar mentalist's tricks. The fact that she never managed to accurately read his own thoughts cemented this opinion. As it happened, she really could not read his thoughts; the damage from his long-ago injuries had made his thoughts indecipherable to telepathy. While he could be telepathically influenced in other ways, this often produced unusual results. It all made him a rather effective partner for her, though she doubted that he would have believed any of this if he was told about it.

After Helice left the Bureau to work for Heroic Enterprises, Ken's own career began to stagnate. He became the victim of a round of layoffs in 2015, and started looking for other work. Argus, having learned of his neurological peculiarity, contacted him and offered him a job, arranging for him to have a cover job in the Indiana State Police's Criminal Investigation Division -- not all that coincidentally, an organization that frequently had contact with Helice. They were soon reunited, and Ken was in a good position to become Helice's handler.

While she can't read his mind, Helice is herself a good enough detective that she's long since figured out that Ken is working for Argus as well as his official post. Since she knows him to be a fundamentally honest person, she has chosen not to expose him, and takes advantage of the leads he provides, verifying them personally beforehand but recognizing them as useful. As such, they have a very good working relationship, and so she'll go to some lengths to ensure that it can continue, rather than doing things that would lead to her being assigned someone different, whom she might not be able to trust completely.

"Ken" Kang-su Jyeong - PL 5

Abilities:
STR
1 | STA 2 | AGL 1 | DEX 1 | FGT 3 | INT 2 | AWE 3 | PRE 2

Powers:
Neurological Quirk: Immunity 5 (mind reading); Perception Range Nullify Telepathy 5, Randomize, Reaction (when targeted) - 30 points

Advantages:
Benefit (state police officer), Contacts, Defensive Roll, Equipment 2, Language (Korean, English [bilingual]), Second Chance (mind control).

Equipment:
Light Pistol (Ranged Damage 3), smartphone, handcuffs.

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+5), Close Combat: Unarmed 2 (+5), Deception 2 (+4), Expertise: Civics 2 (+4), Expertise: Current Events 2 (+4), Expertise: Streetwise 2 (+4), Insight 5 (+8), Intimidation 4 (+6), Investigation 6 (+8), Perception 4 (+7), Persuasion 3 (+5), Ranged Combat: Guns 4 (+5), Technology 2 (+4), Vehicles 4 (+5).

Offense:
Initiative +1
Unarmed +5 (Close, Damage 1)
Pistol +5 (Ranged, Damage 3)

Defense:
Dodge 6, Parry 5, Fortitude 3, Toughness 4/2, Will 7.

Totals:
Abilities 30 + Powers 30 + Advantages 6 + Skills 22 + Defenses 12 = Total 101 points

Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Delusion ('telepathy is just trickery'.) Hatred (Empire of Korea.) Secret (Argus agent.)
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."
MacynSnow
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by MacynSnow »

Huh. A Debunker that's partnered with a True Telepath? Intresting move by Argus....
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Davies
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Yeah, I don't know where they'd get a crazy idea like that.

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MacynSnow
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by MacynSnow »

:lol: True enough,i suppose. I just think it's an intresting pairing, especially since the enemies She'll encounter are going to be similar to her(as Comic Logic teaches us :) ), so Ken's bound to be right there at least a couple of times. It'd be intresting to read his After-action reports...
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Davies
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Davies »

Simon Garnoff
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Simon Ilyanovich Garnoff led a surprisingly comfortable life in post-Soviet Russia. His father adapted to the changes well, and ruthlessly built a small fortune while constantly looking for opportunities to make it a large fortune. When Simon was identified as a potential hyperbrain, Ilya Garnoff's signature was on the papers authorizing the think tank to take charge of him almost before the psychologist finished talking. Unfortunately, Simon proved to be only a mundanely talented and clever young man, washing out of the think tank's program when he was fifteen. His father was annoyed at the loss of the subsidy he was getting, but just added it to the long list of ways that his son was a disappointment. For his own part, Simon was only slightly upset that he'd probably never again see the one friend he'd made at the think tank, a boy named Kuznetsov. Life went on.

Usually, it takes more than a single generation to erase all the gains that a previous generation has made. In the case of the Garnoff 'dynasty', the process was slightly quicker. After his father's death during Cerebron's attack, Simon quickly realized that he was not nearly as callous as his father had been, nor as capable of bending people to his designs. Therefore, he deliberately let most of his family's businesses slip out of his hands, managing things just well enough to maintain a comfortable but not really luxurious life for himself, notably holding on to some real estate holdings that gave him a reasonably secure income. His mother was as happy with her second marriage as she could be, his younger sister ... well, she'd never had much use for him and so her change of circumstances didn't bother him. Much.

And then, in 2007, while visiting one of his properties to check on some noise reports, he was startled to find an injured man in a white costume collapsed on the floor of the building's show room. Parovoy, the vigilante, had been using it as a safe house and passed out there after a difficult fight with some bratva goons. Simon didn't even think about calling the police, of course, but he wasn't sure exactly sure about the better course of action. He settled for treating the man's wounds, which led to his discovery of Parovoy's secret identity as his old friend.

Pavel Kuznetsov was no less surprised to be reunited with him. He reluctantly discussed his situation with Simon, in the process convincing the latter that (a) Pavel was clearly insane and (b) Pavel needed help -- not just psychiatric help, but actual material assistance. He found himself providing that help, initially just sheltering Parovoy, then providing limited investigative backup, and ultimately joining the vigilante, some agents and the superhuman crew in preventing some people from taking over Russia two years later. In the process, Simon became known to Argus, who offered him help in learning how to protect himself a bit better if he was going to do this sort of thing.

Of course, there was a price tag, and so Simon has found himself acting as Pavel's handler for the organization. He's not all that happy about the situation, but having some sort of safety net if everything goes completely south -- which he's sure that it will -- is probably a good idea. It's not easy being Pavel's friend, after all! He gives Argus the bare minimum of information about Parovoy's activities, generally only what they could find out from other sources, and tries to steer him away from his association with Ugolev, whom Simon neither likes nor trusts. Not all that successfully, unfortunately, but at least Pavel has the sense to steer clear of the evil old man's daughter ...

Simon Garnoff -- PL 6

Abilities:
STR
1 | STA 0 | AGL 1 | DEX 3 | FGT 4 | INT 5 | AWE 2 | PRE 0

Advantages:
Benefit 2 (independently wealthy), Contacts, Defensive Roll, Equipment 6, Improvised Tools, Language (English, [Russian is native]), Well-Informed.

Equipment:
Meta-taser pistol (Ranged Affliction 5 [Fortitude; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated]), car, smartphone, 8 points of equipment as needed.

Skills:
Expertise: Business 4 (+9), Expertise: Science 5 (+10), Expertise: Streetwise 4 (+9), Insight 5 (+7), Investigation 4 (+9), Perception 6 (+8), Technology 6 (+11), Treatment 2 (+7).

Offense:
Initiative +1
Unarmed +4 (Close Damage 1)
Meta-Taser +3 (Ranged Fortitude 5)

Defense:
Dodge 4, Parry 4, Fortitude 3, Toughness 2/0, Will 5

Totals:
Abilities 32 + Advantages 13 + Skills 18 + Defenses 9 = 72 points

Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Friend
(Parovoy.) Secret (Argus agent.)
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."
MacynSnow
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by MacynSnow »

Simon sounds like a nice guy caught up in his Friend's problematic life. Nice build Davies! :D
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Voltron64
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Voltron64 »

MacynSnow wrote: Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:38 am
Davies wrote: Thu Feb 18, 2021 5:11 am Argus is a microcosm of humanity, containing within it the noblest of souls and the most base.
Yeah, but it looks like the Noblest of Heroes are getting stuck with the most corrupt Agent. Out of 100%, it look's like there's 5% are corrupt. They must have a horrible vetting process to miss that many.
I can understand it being a microcosm an all, but that's a lot of Bad Apples in that bunch...
Where did you read that it was 5%?

And it's not like any such agents are supposed to continue being corrupt unhindered with a proper GM.
MacynSnow
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by MacynSnow »

Voltron64 wrote: Sat Feb 20, 2021 12:53 am
MacynSnow wrote: Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:38 am
Davies wrote: Thu Feb 18, 2021 5:11 am Argus is a microcosm of humanity, containing within it the noblest of souls and the most base.
Yeah, but it looks like the Noblest of Heroes are getting stuck with the most corrupt Agent. Out of 100%, it look's like there's 5% are corrupt. They must have a horrible vetting process to miss that many.
I can understand it being a microcosm an all, but that's a lot of Bad Apples in that bunch...
Where did you read that it was 5%?

And it's not like any such agents are supposed to continue being corrupt unhindered with a proper GM.
On an average number of say 100 Argus agents, it look's like at least 5 are going to be corrupt. Seriously, count the number of agents that's been written (even one's in other origins), now count how many of said Agents are Corrupt. You'll be suprised. And to be fair, ninitpic everything(even my own stuff). I mean nothing by it...
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Voltron64
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Re: A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

Post by Voltron64 »

MacynSnow wrote: Sat Feb 20, 2021 12:59 am
Voltron64 wrote: Sat Feb 20, 2021 12:53 am
MacynSnow wrote: Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:38 am
Yeah, but it looks like the Noblest of Heroes are getting stuck with the most corrupt Agent. Out of 100%, it look's like there's 5% are corrupt. They must have a horrible vetting process to miss that many.
I can understand it being a microcosm an all, but that's a lot of Bad Apples in that bunch...
Where did you read that it was 5%?

And it's not like any such agents are supposed to continue being corrupt unhindered with a proper GM.
On an average number of say 100 Argus agents, it look's like at least 5 are going to be corrupt. Seriously, count the number of agents that's been written (even one's in other origins), now count how many of said Agents are Corrupt. You'll be surprised. And to be fair, nitpick everything(even my own stuff). I mean nothing by it...
I don't think it's meant as an average, just a random sampling. And define corruption, because I only count two red who are still active Argus (and the latter has the excuse of being a vampire thrall).
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