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Where in all of your character write ups will go.
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Ken
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Re: Quadtron

Post by jcjec »

Ken wrote:Real World Stuff
This is Jim's character who I described elsewhere as an "outcast". He's actually the first super-hero RPG character that Jim ever built or played. He introduced him in a Champions of Justice game, but, rightfully, realised that having the character with the CoJ would be like having the Beast join the Avengers. Not an all together bad thing on a meta-level, but rather than the angst of being so different, he'd be accepted too quickly. Jim wants to plumb Luke's angst.

Jim tried him in a few different campaigns over the course of 20 years, but the campaigns didn't last. Finally, Neil started the Frisco Freax, and he was building it around Quadtron (obstensibly it was around Quadtron and Zero Man, but Neil later admitted that it was just around Quadtron). And missed the point utterly. Neil set about trying to keep Luke from feeling angst. All of the NPCs were accepting of him; beautiful women were throwing themselves at him. And Jim tried to keep it in character, "Why is this happening, all of a sudden?"

Finally, Jim and Neil being at odds over Quadtron led to Quadtron leaving, and the campaign being overhauled. Jim brought Quadtron to Andy's game, where, honestly, things are a little better. There are actually characters around who remember that Quadtron is hideous looking.
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As Ken said, this was my first gaming character. As a child, I very much felt like the outsider and I think Quadtron was my way of turning an outsider into a hero, but also realizing that, no matter how much people might accept you, you need to accept yourself first. This is the part that I've focused on the most with this character. Its the reason why, after that first adventure, when he was offered membership in the CoJ, he turned them down -- a variation on the old adage "I wouldn't want to be part of a group that would have me as a member." As great of a hero as Quadtron can be, and he has proven through the years to be a good one, he can't truly be accepted until he is able to accept himself. His friendship with Zero Man has started on the path, but he's far from being there yet.

Part of the reason that he's been on the path for so long (over 25 years) is due to both lack of play (too few campaigns and too many active PCs) and the fact that, it seems, not a lot of people can handle dealing with this type of character growth. Probably due to people's own desire to be accepted and wanting their flaws overlooked, I've struggled to find a GM that's willing to acknowledge the character's flaws and allow him time to grow rather than just ignoring them. I realize that I'm probably being more realistic than is needed in a RPG superhero game, but its these kinds of nuances that make the game more than just a "punch'em up brawl" and more of a story for me.
Jim C.

I know that into every life a little rain must fall,
but why do we have to live in the flood plains?
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Re: Spectrum

Post by jcjec »

Ken wrote:Real World Stuff
Anyway, this is Dwight Jones, right before he lost his powers. Spectrum was the third character Jim introduced into the CoJ, but in many ways was the most successful. It took some doing though. In his early days, Spectrum's powers were based on temperature instead of light ("spectrum" was used in its secondary meaning referring to a range of things). Besides rankling some of the more science-y players (including his GM, me) it also meant that, powerwise, he was incredibly similar to Doug's character, Count Zero. And, along the way, various things were tried. Finally, Jim said to me "I want Spectrum to be my Morning Star." And, after clarifying that what was meant "big star, powerhouse, team leader type character," I said, "Okay, then let US make him that." Basically, when someone wants their character to fill a role, the player and gamemaster need to work together, and be on the same page.

And, so, we did. We adapted Spectrum's powers to be electromagnetic. Jim played the role to the hilt and Spectrum was magnificent.

We had a big laugh in 1997. As I explained when I posted Morning Star, Jim had, at one point, asked "Morning Star is kind of your Superman" and then later he said "I want Spectrum to be my Morning Star". So using the transative property, it could be said Jim wanted Spectrum to be his Superman. And in 1997, DC decided to make Superman, well, more like Spectrum: the "electric blue" Superman had electromagnetic powers.

Over time, Dwight/Spectrum married, started a family, got into politics, and was almost the Vice-President of the U.S. Eventually though, Jim got to feeling like Spectrum's story was by-and-large told. So, he started taking more and more of a backseat role. And, when another player came in with another electromagnetic character, and competitive streaks started flaring up, Jim decided to have Dwight lose his powers and retire from active super-heroics completely. Powerless Dwight Jones can be seen here.
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Dwight was my "I want to play someone better than myself" character. I wanted him to be successful, heroic, hot-tempered and able to get away with it, in a loving relationship and respected. This viewpoint is probably also the reason why he was sometimes the most frustrating for me as well because, as hard as I tried, I couldn't get him to where I wanted him to be. I tried changing power settings, switching campaigns and changing power settings again, and it seemed as though he never really took off. And that's what sparked the "I want Spectrum to be my Morning Star." MS was respected within the group, powerful, successful and heroic. And Ken, once he understood what I was looking for, came through in spades.

The moral of this story? Communicate with your gamemaster. If you're not getting what you want out of your character, trust them enough to help you. And if you're a GM and a player comes to you with such a request, help them achieve their goal so that its a better roleplaying experience for both of you.

While Dwight's story was eventually told and I retired him, it wasn't because of not liking the character or feeling unfulfilled. In fact, my GM helped me achieve all of my goals so that I felt a great story had been told and the chapter could end. When I retired him, I didn't kill him off because I knew that he could still continue the story as a supporting character to others. And the day I told the story of Dwight losing his powers, it was a powerful enough tale of sacrificing all to save the person he loved that I was brought to tears, not because I didn't want to lose the character, but because it moved me. It was something that I wish the others had understood better.
Jim C.

I know that into every life a little rain must fall,
but why do we have to live in the flood plains?
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Re: Shrike

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Shrike was my first real attempt at building a knock-off character. While I had built Fireforce before her, and he was an amalgam of two characters (in my mind) with a twist, Kris was a "I want to play a character that's like Buffy." I have been a big fan of Joss Whedon's, even before I realized that some of his stuff was done by him. I had seen the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie and had enjoyed it for what it was, so when I saw they were doing a TV show based on it, my thought was "well, I'll check it out for as long as it lasts." Little did I know that it would become a phenomenon and last for seven years and that I would fall head over heels for it.

So Neil says that he wants to run a campaign with a bunch of newbie teenage heroes, and rather than focusing on some of the more common teen heroes out there, I decided that I wanted the Vampire Slayer. What I didn't realize was that, in a superhero setting, a Slayer isn't exactly that useful without some tweaking. Focusing in on her accuracy, acrobatics, stamina and a pinch of supernatural speed, we came up with a fairly decent martial artist without too much Mr. Pointy. Slash was created and I loved her. Unfortunately, Neil's campaign managed to last about two sessions before going pear-shaped and she fell by the wayside.

I loved the concept so much that I soon tried it again, this time as an antihero named Shaft, who I arbitrarily made Kris' estranged mother. We were gradually bringing more supernatural stuff into the RCU and she was on a team of monster-hunters who really didn't care what side the monsters fought on.

Then the conversation happened where Ken and I changed Slash to Shrike and she became Robin to Guardian's Batman. In some ways, I think she finally became the teen hero that Neil had originally been thinking of. A few more years later, I started running Retribution and my love of Buffy came through again as I had Shaft switch sides and become my GMPC. She also changed her codename, kind of against her will, to Artemis and runs with the team to this day, in spite of a number of times where I've questioned her usefulness and thought of killing her off. But much like Ms. Scarlett, the players have grown to love her enough to save her.
Jim C.

I know that into every life a little rain must fall,
but why do we have to live in the flood plains?
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Re: Fireforce

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Ken wrote:Real World Stuff
Yes, his surname was inspired by Robocop. He was Jim's second RCU hero. Inspired by Iron Man (who had, in 1989, just been paralysed), Captain America, and, IIRC, Batman, he was my first real lesson in "always take the time to go over a new player's new character sheet". I overlooked the obnoxiously over-powered gun when I looked through the sheet before play, and then took it away in a horrible, horrible way. And I put the blame about 99% on me because Jim was very new and there's little reason for him to have realised how obnoxious the gun was.

Fireforce was always the source of a quandry for me. I think most of the players in the group preferred Fireforce, where I, honestly, favoured Spectrum, who, honestly, I had put more into, working with Jim, but also fit a little better into what I have always wanted the Champions to be. But there's also a bunch of weirdness in the character's backstory, that made it tough. And then he became the template of the agents for the government's parahuman Strike Force, and honestly, it's probably been 25 years since Peter's been a full-time part of my campaign.
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As I stated above, Peter was my first amalgam character. Years before being introduced to gaming, when James Rhodes originally took over the Iron Man armor and Steve Rogers stepped down from being Captain America, with John Walker taking his place, I thought about how "cool" it would be if the two new characters were combined into one. A few years later, I was introduced to gaming and the idea was still lingering, so I build Fireforce. Using Champions at the time and needing disads for him, as well as the above mentioned crippling of Tony Stark, Peter was a paraplegic when not in the armor. For me, though, it was always the other disad that was the motivator.... his deceased wife, Wanda. He may have lost the use of his legs that afternoon, but it never made him less of a hero or a man. His Achilles Heel was the fact that he had lost the (first) love of his life and thought he could never recover from it, and was driven by revenge.

As I've pointed out several times before, I'm driven by the character's growth, and Peter has had a lot over the years. He overcame his hatred for Count Zero (as it was Captain Zero impersonating him and the fight that ensued that took Wanda's life), found his footing as a leader, forming Strikeforce and eventually finding love again in his fellow CoJer, Miss Scarlett.

Ken is correct, though, that Fireforce wasn't a perfect fit for the CoJ. He's come a long way over time, but Spectrum was better suited and got a lot more air time. It was Fireforce's popularity, though, that led to attempts to spin darker / grittier campaigns out of the CoJ to deal with more street-level heroes like him. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view), none of them were able to hold up to the "we're CoJ, but not CoJ" difficulties that often ensued.

For the record, the Strikeforce aspect came about during the time I had left the RCU and was creating my own campaign world. I was using my own characters to fill in the background. I used Fireforce to start a meta-police force and had recycled the Strikeforce name (Neil had used it it for both his teen heroes and CoJ spinoff campaigns). When things were patched up and we folded Earth-L back into the RCU, Strikeforce came along for the ride.

Like Spectrum, most of Fireforce's story has been told. His demons have been defeated and he is in a position to receive his happily-ever-after. Instead of "depowering" him, though, I have let him stay in the background, brought in when it helps drive the narrative and occasionally finding ways to give him an even-happier-ever-after, and I'm happy with that.
Jim C.

I know that into every life a little rain must fall,
but why do we have to live in the flood plains?
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When the most powerful super hero on Earth marries an ordinary man, hilarity ensues.
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Re: Ken's Kache of Khracters (Goldar, Superman, RCU Heroes & Villains)

Post by Jabroniville »

AGH- all these builds and text-walls in one day. This is what it must be like for people who read MY thread!

I kinda like the idea of Fireforce- we don't often see what becomes of the "innocent bystanders". What was so broken about his gun in that old system?

Longbow is definitely unique- I've always thought that there weren't enough "double minority" characters in comics. It's something you almost NEVER see! Though it's funny that the closest thing I seem to have to a "hometown hero" in your campaign world is the son of an American soldier.

Charcoal is... pretty much what an anime fan would think of, yeah. Right down to "embarrassing fanservice". And yeah, Project A-Ko was HUGE in the early days of Anime Fandom in North America- I actually feel a bit "left out" for never having seen it. It was THE anime that it seems "everyone had seen", and was considered the peak of Japanese comedy, along with Ranma 1/2. Curiously, it was huge because it poked fun at anime tropes (several male characters were fops in women's clothing, people were powerful for no reason, etc.), many of which I can't imagine Westerners were that familiar with at that point.

Hell, in the early days of my anime fandom, stores had DOZENS of tapes I could only drool over, as a single VHS could set you back at least forty dollars. You KIDS TODAY have no idea how good you have it! Now kids have so many options for anime they think it's all overrated crap! I would have LOVED to have thought anime was overrated crap when I was your age!
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Re: Longbow

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Ken wrote:Real World Stuff
Longbow, another of Jim's characters, is another character that has his origins in another campaign, on another campaign world. Jim knew Jeff through the LARPing they both did. And Jeff had started playing in the Hawk about the same time Jenn did. And, after a few years, he began his own game as a play-by-post game (I think in YahooGroups) and invited Jim and I to play. And in that group, the set-up was that each hero would be a different nationality, in a group being set-up by the U.N. It was a mess. Jeff encouraged players to play up nationalism, in an effort to bring-up team strife. He failed to take into account that a team with too much strife won't gel. And the guy playing the Canadian and the guy playing the Brit were a) thick as thieves and b) were able to let their characters find some cultural common ground. But the whole thing kind of blew up, badly.

Well, there was a specific character, the American, who'd gotten the worst of things. And I wanted to make it up to that player, and give her a venue to play a variant of that character. That would be Graviton, who I may discuss later. But Jim asked me if he could bring over his Candian archer to the CoJ and I said yes. This was when we were going through our play-by-post phase, so it kind of worked out fairly well. Outside of Graviton's weirdness.

Anyway, this is Longbow. Archaeologist by day, Hawkeye/Green Arrow style vigilante by night. A Canadian with an American expatriate father, and a Blackfoot mother. And a crazy uncle on his mum's side.
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So, we all have our top five superheroes. Number two for me is Robin Hood. I remember watching the Errol Flynn version with my dad at a very young age and, in the years that followed, constantly watching for it to repeat on Family Classics on WGN. It was that love that drew me to Green Arrow and Hawkeye, though I probably enjoyed Hawkeye a bit more than GA because of his differences from RH. Either way, the archer has always drawn my attention and I've been a strong proponent of them in the RCU, but hadn't made one as a PC until Jeff asked us to play in his game. And when it crashed and burned half way through its first adventure, I was significantly disappointed. I had created in Longbow all of the things I loved about my favorite archers into an amalgam that, while very similar to his predecessors, had distinguishing characteristics to make him different from them as well. He has edge, but with integrity, and will have his ally's back (even from a half mile away :D ).

So when Ken asked MoonRyu to convert Graviton over to the RCU, I asked to bring over Longbow as well because I knew I had a lot of story to tell with him. I will admit to a bit of metagaming in striving to make Longbow a friend to Graviton, primarily because we were pitted as rivals in Jeff's game ("You don't trust the American representative. They're going to want to take over and its your job to stop them." You don't give me a roleplaying task like that -- I'll succeed way to well.) and I wanted MoonRyu to feel welcome, not drive her away.

I love playing Turbo, but I can honestly say that Longbow is currently my favorite CoJer. Very street level, but has no problem holding his own among the demigods, just like GA and Hawkeye.
Jim C.

I know that into every life a little rain must fall,
but why do we have to live in the flood plains?
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My Amazing Woman: a super-hero romantic comedy podcast.

When the most powerful super hero on Earth marries an ordinary man, hilarity ensues.
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My Amazing Woman: a super-hero romantic comedy podcast.

When the most powerful super hero on Earth marries an ordinary man, hilarity ensues.
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When the most powerful super hero on Earth marries an ordinary man, hilarity ensues.
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My Amazing Woman: a super-hero romantic comedy podcast.

When the most powerful super hero on Earth marries an ordinary man, hilarity ensues.
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My Amazing Woman: a super-hero romantic comedy podcast.

When the most powerful super hero on Earth marries an ordinary man, hilarity ensues.
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