The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Red Ronin! Netsuko Nishimura! Rinako Saeki! Fujiko Yoshihara! Masaru Kido!)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
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EternalPhoenix
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Re: The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Newest: Jedrick Jagoda, Princess Audrielle Eliska, Exiles Core Team Commentary)

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Jabroniville wrote: Wed Mar 09, 2022 12:43 am I’m digging Aubrielle- the notion of a teen party girl who’s also a powerful soldier in slave is interesting, as is her more militaristic/practical bent. I’ll have to check your backlog for stuff on Megagirl or the Knights.
...the Knights are literally the four builds above her. :lol:

I have built Megagirl in her Silver Age incarnation but you know it's gonna be a while probably. Still, there's some minor info on her in Baroness Valia's entry. Long story short, Megan Price was a Paragon with some Speedster tricks picked up from a Speedster teammate. She and Valia punched it up on the regular. Valia wasn't and isn't an easy person to prove did anything illegalin a court of law, and there's the also the whole...ruler of a sovereign nation...thing.
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Re: The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Newest: Jedrick Jagoda, Princess Audrielle Eliska, Exiles Core Team Commentary)

Post by Jabroniville »

EternalPhoenix wrote: Wed Mar 09, 2022 2:40 am
Jabroniville wrote: Wed Mar 09, 2022 12:43 am I’m digging Aubrielle- the notion of a teen party girl who’s also a powerful soldier in slave is interesting, as is her more militaristic/practical bent. I’ll have to check your backlog for stuff on Megagirl or the Knights.
...the Knights are literally the four builds above her. :lol:

I have built Megagirl in her Silver Age incarnation but you know it's gonna be a while probably. Still, there's some minor info on her in Baroness Valia's entry. Long story short, Megan Price was a Paragon with some Speedster tricks picked up from a Speedster teammate. She and Valia punched it up on the regular. Valia wasn't and isn't an easy person to prove did anything illegalin a court of law, and there's the also the whole...ruler of a sovereign nation...thing.
Sorry- the immense blocks for the bios take me a while to get through, so I kind of pick and choose where to start. Looking up after reading this one, I found Valia's, so at least I have that information :).
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Re: The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Newest: Jedrick Jagoda, Princess Audrielle Eliska, Exiles Core Team Commentary)

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Jabroniville wrote: Wed Mar 09, 2022 7:39 am
EternalPhoenix wrote: Wed Mar 09, 2022 2:40 am
Jabroniville wrote: Wed Mar 09, 2022 12:43 am I’m digging Aubrielle- the notion of a teen party girl who’s also a powerful soldier in slave is interesting, as is her more militaristic/practical bent. I’ll have to check your backlog for stuff on Megagirl or the Knights.
...the Knights are literally the four builds above her. :lol:

I have built Megagirl in her Silver Age incarnation but you know it's gonna be a while probably. Still, there's some minor info on her in Baroness Valia's entry. Long story short, Megan Price was a Paragon with some Speedster tricks picked up from a Speedster teammate. She and Valia punched it up on the regular. Valia wasn't and isn't an easy person to prove did anything illegal in a court of law, and there's the also the whole...ruler of a sovereign nation...thing.
Sorry- the immense blocks for the bios take me a while to get through, so I kind of pick and choose where to start. Looking up after reading this one, I found Valia's, so at least I have that information :).
Yeah, sure. That's fair enough. I do post the groups together, for the most part (League of Seven got a little...creative), and I have a well sorted table of contents in the first post I'm keeping up. But most folks don't read as fast as I do, and oh boy is there ever a lot to read in some of those posts, heh.
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Re: The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Newest: Jedrick Jagoda, Princess Audrielle Eliska, Exiles Core Team Commentary)

Post by Jabroniville »

Okay, onto Jade Knight!

Having a suit that modifies not just her physical might, but turns her into an "Interaction Skills" monster is DEFINITELY unusual. Is the Diplomatic Assitance Module something that's always active, or an AP of something else? I have trouble with reading blocks from HeroLab sometimes. You are using HeroLab, right?

Healing, Illusions, a Drain Toughness AND a power blaster, Affects Corporeal/Subtle 2 stuff... this character seems designed to cover as many bases as possible, and be as huge a pain in the ass to PCs as possible! The kind of thing that's a GM nightmare if you let a player take all that, lol.

She's... huh, so a variant of the "Atlantis" thing or "Wakanda" thing, but it's in Oceania and it's ancient SUPER-tech, complete with sentient androids. Crazy stuff. And of course the giant Magi-Tech war is in another bio, lol. Looks like Ma're had good intentions, but still led her people to death and destruction- instead of settling and living on, their role as monster-fighters seems to have doomed their entire civilization!

Valia being Ma're's savior is an interesting wrinkle- it gives the war hero a good reason to serve, and a justifiable excuse for being an ardent defender of Valia. It seems to give Valia another "side" beyond childish jealousy and a thirst for power... but still involves her having this powerful soldier with technology even she can't figure out close at hand. AND a potential means to recruit the other found gynoids, if there are any.
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Re: The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Newest: Jedrick Jagoda, Princess Audrielle Eliska, Exiles Core Team Commentary)

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Jabroniville wrote: Fri Mar 11, 2022 6:36 am Okay, onto Jade Knight!

Having a suit that modifies not just her physical might, but turns her into an "Interaction Skills" monster is DEFINITELY unusual. Is the Diplomatic Assitance Module something that's always active, or an AP of something else? I have trouble with reading blocks from HeroLab sometimes. You are using HeroLab, right?

Healing, Illusions, a Drain Toughness AND a power blaster, Affects Corporeal/Subtle 2 stuff... this character seems designed to cover as many bases as possible, and be as huge a pain in the ass to PCs as possible! The kind of thing that's a GM nightmare if you let a player take all that, lol.

She's... huh, so a variant of the "Atlantis" thing or "Wakanda" thing, but it's in Oceania and it's ancient SUPER-tech, complete with sentient androids. Crazy stuff. And of course the giant Magi-Tech war is in another bio, lol. Looks like Ma're had good intentions, but still led her people to death and destruction- instead of settling and living on, their role as monster-fighters seems to have doomed their entire civilization!

Valia being Ma're's savior is an interesting wrinkle- it gives the war hero a good reason to serve, and a justifiable excuse for being an ardent defender of Valia. It seems to give Valia another "side" beyond childish jealousy and a thirst for power... but still involves her having this powerful soldier with technology even she can't figure out close at hand. AND a potential means to recruit the other found gynoids, if there are any.
The Device Transfer System is a big ol' Variable Power. All those powers listed are possible uses of it. They're not all there at once. But yes, she's supposed to be a pain in the ass. Since the starting PL in my 'verse is 8 (teens get 120PP, more experienced adults get 150PP), not 10, any PCs will have to be quite experienced before taking on the Knights, let alone Valia herself.

Ah...yeah. I...tend to assume people are reading these in the order I've written and posted them. The Magi-Tech War is over in Neith's entry (Seawings Adventurer Guild, Truman Home sub group), but there's bits of it scattered across the Yas & Friends subgroup as well. And of course, Ting Heskett in the NuGen subgroup. You don't have to read anything outside of Neith, I'm...reasonably sure. The (very) long story short is that the War itself was a pretext. There was a bunch of magical energy, and demons were about to use it to create a Hellgate, slide some PLX's through, and absorb the world into Hell. Which would be about as fun for humanity as it sounds. So the two kingdoms went to war to burn the energy without letting the demons know what they were doing and accelerating their timetable. And naturally, 10k years later, the Seawings had to deal with the problem all over again. With a touch more finality, but only a touch. It ain't over, not by a long shot. And if you'd like to know what a world subsumed into Hell might be like, you can read Madeline Blackwood's entry, also in the Truman Home subgroup.

When I think about villains, I draw a line between those that are merely selfish and/or uncaring and those that are actively malevolent. Bad and evil, so to speak. Valia sits very firmly on the "bad" side of that dichotomy. She's selfish and prideful, yes, but she's not actively opposed to helping other people. She's just not going to do it for free, even if it appears she is. I think it makes her more interesting as a antagonist, and also explains why there hasn't been a World War or something to finally take her down. Like if she was straight up capital E Evil, she'd have been smashed by now.
Last edited by EternalPhoenix on Fri Mar 11, 2022 11:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Exiles Creator Commentary: First Gen

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Individual Build Commentary: First Gen

Musical Note: The initial Exile House era of the Exiles’s theme is Be The Young, from Yellowcard’s album When You’re Through Thinking, Say Yes.

Tigress: You know the TV show from the early aughts, Dark Angel? With pre scorching hot movie stardom Jessica Alba and pre NCIS Michael Weatherly? Those are her parents. Or, at least, the Phoenixverse knockoffs are. Though I’m reasonably certain her father is dead. Bummer. And that’s about all I had as of the pause point. Leader of the new kids, part of Exile House’s first generation (hence First Gen), some feline powers, anger issues. The rest of her was developed in the big update. Though she is notably for the only appearance of the Agency outside of (the amazing and/or spectacular) Samaritan’s origin and Rogues’ Gallery in that time period. She’s a martial artist, really. Just bit faster and beefier than most. And of course, the superhuman senses.

Magi: He was the magic one of the first Exile House kids. I knew he was powerful, because weak mages are lame af. And that he had control issues that made him feel inferior. But that was it. He was just some generic ass white boy. With the big update and a lot of setting refinement, he’s the Sorcerer type. Except he didn’t get the intuitive spellcasting portion of the show. So like his entry says, he’s continuously generating mana with nowhere to put it. And none of the established wizardly traditions can help him because they’re designed to use mana outside of the self, not inside. So he’s on his own. I’d probably build him differently these days. But the old build has its charms, too. He’s just a big tough blaster, though most of his kit is Perception range. And the big update turned him into a Kurd. Mainly because why the hell not.

Morphin: Always knew Phorpin was the shapeshifter and kind of a fluid personality. The big update gave me a chance to actually define who they were, specifically by not doing it. The whole schtick is kind of an animated Beast Boy riff, but mostly they’re their own person. I didn’t initially define their gender, but it was probably male. Obviously, the update changed that to a big shrug and “dunno, really.” Build wise, I really don’t have any actual comments. They’re a shapeshifter. There’s four established forms. They’re not limited to them. It took some effort to balance them the way I liked, but that’s it.

Clon: I always knew Clone was a robot version of a dead kid, and that he couldn’t distinguish whether or not it was a transfer or copying of his mind and thus AAAAAAANGST. It’s literally in the name. Clon is one letter short of Clone. I never claimed to be a good or clever namer of things. I also knew he was the techie of the new kids. But like the rest it was the big update where I got specific about him. Expanded the backstory, added some details. You know. He’s a construct with a few special abilities and also a gadgeteer with a few special devices. It’s not fancy or anything, just two archetypes blended.

Priestess: Now she goes back. She was, in her original form, a later member of Youth Justice, the teen/young adult training team/counterpart to the Superhero Justice Association. But at that time she was just a pretty blond in robes who could heal people. Yes, I was doing Justice League and Teen Titans. It was fun, but it palled and entered mothballs. Then I lost my notes. I dragged her out of mothballs to be the last member of the Exile House kids. She was still just a pretty blond in robes who could heal people. I couldn’t figure out her schtick beyond that. Fast forward to the big update, and I was still stuck. I didn’t want to give her any other powers and giving her ranged combat risked infringing on Yasmine Sakaguchi’s niche. So, melee combat. But I already had a religious themed swordswoman in Christine Gale (of Roth Investigations; they’re a while away as of this posting), so weapons were basically out. Martial arts, huh…and I had one of my “wouldn’t it be cool if…” moments and BOOM kung fun nunnery. Does it make sense? Hell no. Is it comics af? Hell yeah. So a martial artist with deep faith and minor healing powers. There ya go.
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Exiles Creator Commentary: Second Gen

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Individual Build Commentary: Second Gen

Barry Holden: Wendy’s the one who died, but Barry is the one who left. The Exiles’ first leader, and the first to walk away alive. And there was it. He was just gone, with the exception of a guest star spot purely to see what he’d been up to. That is, until the big update when I needed someone to mentor the Second Gen. What better opportunity to bring him back into the fold? My original conception of his powers had no offensive use and little defense. So I juiced him up and kicked his relative power level to the ceiling to make his planes of force actually seem indestructible, with a little bit of retcon to make him actually somewhat useful in the early days. He was always Black and nerdy, but the lawyer thing is new. As if the full write out of what he was doing while the Exiles were busy being Exiles.

Cavatina: Boy does she go back a bit. The original version of Cavatina was in my notes that I lost. I just…never had a place for her outside of her intro story. Flash forward to the big update, and another “wouldn’t it be cool if…” moment. She becomes leader of the Second Gen, finding a place at last. Since she’s been around for so long, she has two songs. Weezer’s Perfect Situation, from their album Make Believe, and Yellowcard’s Soundtrack from their album When You’re Through Thinking, Say Yes. Her origin story is the same, just fleshed out and expanded upon. Her powers are also the same. The idea actually came from Final Fantasy. V and Tactics’ Job Systems both featured a Bard and a Dancer. They did status effect attacks by singing and dancing, respectively. So yes, her original conception was a “wouldn’t it be cool if…” moment. Later on, Neverwinter Nights 2 exposed me to the DnD Bard, who does both things and added the sonic damage to her toolkit. Fun fact, I originally got her build wrong. It took me a little while to understand the difference between Perception Range and Perception Area. Even her build is kind of old, though I refurbished it for the big update. Fixed that little issue, got her a little quarterstaff.

Stoker: The rest of the Second Gen, however, were created on the spot for the team. I wanted someone to do melee and settled on homaging Wolverine. A regenerative scrapper type, you know? The why of he could do this took a bit longer until I thought of vampires. Several lines of expository bullshit later, he was a pseudo vampire with batlike wings. Hello, Stoker. For the record, it’s Stoker after Bran Stoker, the author of Dracula. He’s still arguably a Wolverine knockoff, just from another angle. And also the second of many reasons (the first being Tigress) to beat the stuffing out of the Agency.

Electric Lady: Literally based off a song. And named after it. Because I don’t have shame, apparently. Electric Lady, by Janelle Monae. That’s why she uses electricity, has Enhanced Charisma, Attractive 2, and the first name Janelle. The Second Gen needed a techie and so it all just kind…fit together. I can’t explain it any better than that. If you’re a builder, you know what I’m talking about. If you’re not, then you don’t. It’s like intuitive magic. I do remember having to fight with her points to get them all to fit inside 150 PP. Shock Resistant was supposed to be Shockproof, but just not enough points. Oh well. Now go listen to the song, because it’s good.

Opera: Opera took a lot of conceptual refinement to get him where I wanted him to be. His inspiration was the 3E Hero High character Elflight. I wanted his gear to be themed, but points were sparse for anything significant. So I took a cue from Pathfinder 1e and basically gave his sword and armor the Ghost Touch property. Fun fact: His backstory marks the first appearance of the Seelie or Summer Queen of Faerie. Her Majesty turned out to be quite important over to the folks over at NPC Investigations, but for him it’s relatively incidental. Opera, as in Phantom of the. Hinting at his gear’s purpose.

Miss Fist: She was probably the easiest of the four new characters in the Second Gen to make. And not because she’s just a powerhouse with Growth. I knew I wanted an alien. I knew I wanted to use Growth. And I knew I didn’t want to repeat Cory’s incredibly might. So what better way to do it than to knock off Captain America? Because yes, I had another “wouldn’t it be cool if…” moment. I just flipped who were the good and bad guys in his origin and tweaked her people to be more Russian than German. And that’s literally all there is to Miss Fist. Well. She and Electric Lady are girlfriends because I thought it’d be cute and I’ve probably spent too much time on Tumblr.
Last edited by EternalPhoenix on Tue Mar 22, 2022 11:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Newest: Exiles Core Team, First Gen, & Second Gen Commentary)

Post by EternalPhoenix »

For the record, I'm doing these Creator Commentaries to give the huge patch of builds room to breathe, and everyone time to something resembling catch up. It's also kind of fun to share my thought process from so long ago. It's been three years since the Exiles were finished, after all. The links to them are provided so the reader can see who I'm talking about without any hunting for them whatsoever.

Though I suppose it's entirely possible only my villains are interesting. :|
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Exiles Creator Commentary: Third Gen

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Individual Build Commentary: Third Gen

Musical Note: Redpin, Brutus, and Pathfinder’s original incarnations would use as their theme Yellowcard’s Holly Wood Died, from their album Lights and Sounds.

Hummingbird: So there I am, thinking about the Third Gen, while I’m doing the big update. I know they need a mentor/temp leader. I consider doing a new, never before seen veteran Exile, but it feels wrong. I consider the Human Rocket IV, but he was never an Exile why would he be now? I know I can’t use Hummingbird, because she’s dead. And there’s no one else. But wait, I thinks. What about the other one? Who helped retcon herself out of existence and save Flare? She and Stormy were best buds during that plotline. And just like that, I brought ‘Bird back. Well. A alternate one. And breaking reality to get a friend back is just such an Exile thing to do. It’s totally going to come back in bite them in the ass. Regarding the build, she’s basically a cybernetic version of the Wasp, except considerably amped up in overall power. More blasts, super senses, and definitely higher carrying capacity. Though Janet can go giant and ‘Bird can’t, so it evens out I guess. Also she’s got the gadgeteer skillset, as the team wouldn’t have a skilled techie I decided.

Redpin: Remember back with Priestess, where her original incarnation was a member of Youth Justice? Redpin led that team. It was a four person squad at the end, and the other two are here in the Third Gen. The only thing that’s really different about him here is that he’s Chinese and at the beginning of his journey to being one of the finest hero leader types to ever do it. I brought him back because needed a rookie team leader, and neither of his Youth Justice predecessors (Fury, basically Spider-Girl without the Spider; and Starprince, a Starfamily member) made any sense as an Exile. They’ve both got family and solid support structures. But Redpin was attached to nothing but the defunct team, so here he is again. He’s not a complicated concept. Throws red energy pins. I’d say his vibe is half Cyclops, half Red Hood. Fun fact, the first time a YJ team met Redpin, it was one who came back from a Bad Future to stop it from happening. That one did succeed, and even met his younger self before heading back to his saved future.

Sailor Scout: Look, I wanted a magical girl on the team. That’s it. The whole thought process. They needed a magical member, and I wanted it to be a magical girl. So I made one, and bullshitted up a reason for a child to be on a team of teenagers. Like all magical girls without her powers she really is just an ordinary kid. But with her Magical Maiden’s Heart, she’s a real superhero, Pretty Cure style. Think that’s the series where they kinda fight like it’s shonen instead of mahou shoujo. And it's a nice little plot hook point to 2019's big Exile storyline, War of the Precogs. So that's nice.

Brutus: He was a another member of that last YJ squad, and honestly he’s not that different here either. There’s now a reason why he’s so good at melee fighting beyond “idk, mutant I guess?”, but that’s about it. I actually wanted to bring him back at some point, as he’s kind of fun. I just didn’t have a place to do it. Cue big update and his old team leader coming back, and it was a no brainer. He’s just a bit of a Casey Jones reference these days, but that’s just for fun. Honestly he’s just a big dumb thug with a heart of gold. I dunno what to tell you.

Pathfinder: The last member of that final YJ squad, she’s the one who’s changed the most. Because in those days the only thing she had was the power to find things and people. No noted fighting ability of any kind which in a superhero, well…most of the Substitute Legion would have slapped her around in those days, and that’s just sad. I was scraping the bottom of the barrel on hero ideas, I tell you. This was way before I got back into anime, checking out online comics, and reading TV Tropes. So now she’s a pretty good archer and has an actual defense bonus. Sorry Subs, it’s a fight now. I brought her back because in my head she and Brutus were basically attached at the hip. Her original powers are actually intact in the build. Direction Sense, Distance Sense, and Telelocation. With more Survival than I’ll probably ever give anyone else, she’s never lost, and pretty damn good at finding people.

Android: So I hit this point and realized the team didn’t have a powerhouse and tank. And like, that’s no good. Need Mr. Punch Hard. So I did some thinkin’. Be kind of nice to have a counterpart to ‘Bird. The Agency played a role in creating a member of both the First and Second Gens, so why not keep up the pattern. Add a little of DC’s Cyborg for what his powers are built like and a little Shadowrun for body horror, and hello Android. A brick with flight and some ranged capability. And yet another reason to kick the living shit out of every Agency facility you find.
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Exiles Commentary: “.5” Gen

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Individual Build Commentary: “.5” Gen

You know what, these aren’t that complicated I’m just gonna breeze through them rapid fire. Some may go longer than others, but yeah.

Frostee: Half forgot to give the Third Gen an alien, so this started off with one. Cold controllers are always kind of fun, and none of the Gens had a straight up energy controller. They’re species is agender for three reasons. Why would aliens always be just like us? I wanted a quirky personality like Stormy’s. And hopefully making nonbinary folks feel represented is cool. Bonus points for being disabled.

Steeltoe : Thought up the name, built around it. No, seriously. Girl with power of kicking. Kicking is strong because of literally steel toes. Built out from there. There were surprisingly points left, so threw in the chemical bomb gadgeteer thing. She feels like a really cut down version of Rebecca Heskett of the Seawings, in a way. She’s not, but it feels that way. Basically a martial artist. Chemical bombs probably aren’t Equipment, but I’m the GM here so F it.

Wingz : Yes, another name build. Another opportunity to show the Agency sucks and you should kick their asses. Though really he was made for the wider Phoenixverse reference. Samaritan is pretty dang important, metatextually speaking. Build speaks for itself, really. Armor, two potential attacks, flight. Done.

Illusia: Fourth build in, let’s do some magic. Hey, haven’t done anything with illusion. Yeah, sounds good. Little bit of Buffyverse/Dresden Files influence here. Finding magic on the internet like Willow, but oh no it’s evil like it would be in Dresden. Hit the three possible ways of not being seen, add damage, Illusionist wouldn’t really use a force field so enchanted device to get toughness up, done.

Malocchio : The name is from Dresden Files, but the idea is actually from RWBY. Qrow’s Semblance. A living bad luck charm. Yeah, sure. Probably the only time I’ll ever use Reflective Impervious Toughness. (later edit: this turned out to be untrue) Damage, Prob Control because duh, and Teleport because I dunno I needed another array setting let’s get weird with it.

Tenshi: Superman riff. That’s it. Okay, also I’m a history nerd and a lil bit weeby. Like a proper Supermanaloge, he’s super strong, super tough, and can fly. Only he’s flying with angelic white wings, not however paragons do it. He can do divine magic because I’m also a d20 nerd and aliens should have a little something special.

Tressa: Medusa riff for the powers. The Inhuman. Dust of the New X-Men for the actual person. Hair smacks, is strong, is stretchy, grapples real good, and can do the Spider-Man swing thing. I dunno you want something fancy at PL 6?

Flutter: Went Wikiwalking. That’s where you bounce from Wikipedia article to Wikipedia article. Learned some major butterfly breeding grounds or migrating ground or something are down Mexico way. Brain whispered “how about a butterfly girl?” I said yeah sure sounds cool. …that may have gone the other way around, I don’t remember. Anyway she’s a Totem with exotic targeting dust clouds. Cloud area lingers an extra round, which, you know, super great models the intended effect very well.

Pern: I got into epic instrumental music as a hyper fixation a few years before this. There’s the one video I have from off Youtube. Leap of Faith, by Audiomachine. It’s the one with a picture of a white haired anime girl riding a dragon over what looks like a pair of tall apartment buildings and a street. If it’s still there, anyway. Sometimes my inspirations ain’t complicated. And I’d built a dragon before in Raheed. Pern herself is your basic weaponmaster. Very basic, as giving up a fifth of her limited points for the dragon hurts.

Phobia: There’s this chick in 2e’s Hero High Yearbook. Angst. Fear girl. I said yeah, I can do that too sure. But I don’t like all of her build for my purposes so I’mma change it. Core idea is the same. Permanent Fear Aura. Rest is more or less different. Gave him being an empath but personally emotionless, which is an interesting quirk I think.

Octagirl: She is another pic build. A cute little girl in a sundress and glasses, with a mass of tentacles in place of each arm. It’s a cutsey lil picture. Threw in just a bit of reference to the Great Old Ones, Cthulu and the gang, as the origin of her abilities. Though I’m not really a fan of the Mythos. Hopelessness isn’t my thing. Heroes stop bad things from happening. That’s the rule. No matter how big and how dangerous the bad things are, ultimately the heroes get the job done. Granted, sometimes this kills them, but the hope is the important part. With the Mythos there’s ultimately nothing anybody can do. You can put off that final day for now, but it WILL come. Everything will end, and even the bravest and mightiest will be powerless to do anything about it. I don’t like it. No, sir. Anyway, she’s one of those builds that’s really a supporter more than a fighter. Little bit Octopus Totem, little bit Artificier.

Ferrous: Open theft. 3E’s Threat Report. Cybertribe. Heavy Metal. Open. F’N. Theft. Though if he makes the Fourth Gen I’ll take him in a different direction. Dunno what that team will look like yet. There’s time to figure it out. If he doesn't he'll quietly disappear.

Karone: I don’t know. No, really. I don’t know. Scraps of Flutter and Sailor Scout dancing around my subconscious, I guess. I turned it into something kind of terrifying. Between her and Scout, they’re the first indications of what the Exiles got up to in 2019. The big event that swept together everyone but the Second Gen (who were busy with NPC Investigation’s Harmon siblings). War of The Precogs. Nothing without price, Dreamer. You too, Stormy. She’s like a magical girl warrior I guess? There wasn’t one clear vision or inspiration, she just kinda happened.

Rambo: He’s one of those joke characters, you know? Just inherently ridiculous. A sheep totem. …well, maybe your sense of humor is different than mine. But a joke can only take a character so far, so I also made him a person to go with and hopefully augment the joke.

Sabre: Two inspirations here. 3E’s Rogues Gallery. Mercurial. I also have MDSnowman’s Marvel and DC PDFs. So form Marvel he did the X-Man Mercury. Put the two together and you have Sabre’s build. Eventually. The former Russian assassin stuff I just made up myself. Sounded cool, so I kept it. And bookending the group with nonbinary folks had some symmetry to it. I got OCD, what do you want from me? Plus you know, more representation for those folks. Always nice.
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NPC Investigations Commentary: Partners and Senior Associates

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Creator Commentary NPC Investigations

Personal Comments

I said I used to be a big Whedonite before, so it should come as no surprise that my favorite tv show is Angel. I mean, I own all five seasons on DVD. They’ve been watched, beginning to end at least three times. So it should also be no surprise that I kind of wanted my own flawed private eyes getting sucked into heroics. Which was how Hayden Streett and his merry band of four others (Eve the kind of samurai girl, Penny Nihara the ninja, Carla Perkins the detective, and Edwin Christian the trust fund telekinetic and touch telepathy addict) became a thing. And then I moved it forward, adding Sonya Harmon, Harmony Perez, and Willa Hawke, as I realized that Hayden was kind of dull and Eve didn’t make sense. So, in the process I laid the groundwork for removing them, and then later pulled the trigger on removing them rather dramatically. Hayden had secrets from the start, and so I made Eve’s weirdness a plot point in that she was his partner. The rest of the team was left to pick up the pieces, and they did. NPC Investigations was formed. And then I lost all my notes. Every single page. The group entered the same stasis the Exiles were in. And honestly, without any musical inspiration, that was where they were going to stay. I liked them the way they were, and a small agency probably wouldn’t change that much from year to year. That is, until I decided to do the big update of the whole Phoenixverse. They’re still relatively small compared with the Exiles and especially the Seawings, who got blown out in the update. But they fit their role in being the most grounded of the current trio of heroic groups. The Exiles and Seawings get up to shenanigans, but NPC Investigations is a business first. They stay street level, with the update taking several cues from the Dresden Files (what I consider to be Angel and the Buffyverse’s modern day successor, in some ways) and Netflix’s Marvel shows (mainly Daredevil, which was consistently good aside from everything involving The Hand). As a side note, I did build Roger Simon (formerly Hayden Streett) and Eve. I’ll have to go over them again when the time comes, but for now I’m holding off of doing direct enemies. Fun fact, it actually had to be pointed out to me that Nihara, Perkins, and Christian was the same letters as Non Player Character. I swear to god, I didn’t do that on purpose. It just kinda happened, because my brain doesn’t like to tell me things sometimes.

Musical note: The updated versions of these characters and the new ones (with one exception) were written to Blue Encount’s Polaris. It is the opening theme song for the first half of My Hero Academia Season 4, but none of MHA is in here. I just…vibed with it, and so NPC Investigations had a great update.

Individual Build Commentary: The Partners

Penny Nihara: You know what the original Exiles didn’t have? A Badass Normal. So the original Streett Agency team had one in Penny, and then she became one of the core trio at NPC. The core idea is still the same. She’s a big bag of skills and feats, with a little extra left over for weapons and gear. An unmatched master of stealth and highly skilled in sneaky things. What’s genuinely new and not merely upgraded is her backstory. I cribbed a few elements from Empowered’s Ninjette but made it less “oh god why have they not been carpet bombed out of existence” cartoonish evil and more “Book!Jason Bourne” style low key spies and occasional assassins. The former works in Empowered’s nightmarish ‘verse but so very not in mine. The horror of the ninja clans is a more subtle thing, as I also borrowed a bit from a Japanese tabletop game named Tenra Bansho Zero. Generally, there’s no mystical bullshit going on with the Phoenixverse ninja. They’re simply very, very good spies and intelligence agents, trained to have no sense of self and only exist for the use of their clan and their clan’s clients. Children indoctrinated into being little more than tools instead of free willed and thinking people.

.. So why isn’t she PL 12 like Carla and Edwin? Because I couldn’t justify it from an offensive damage perspective. Penny is a small, thin East Asian woman using more or less mundane weapons. STR 16 is like Olympic level strength, if one isn’t a weightlifter or something. How many women do you know who are strong enough to carry your average NFL wide receiver on their shoulders and yet all that muscle doesn’t inhibit throwing themselves around better than a world class gymnast? And as I’ve continued to build and build, I’ve more or less come up with PL 11 being the normal limit of unpowered human ability. More requires specialized gear on offensive or defense, or some kind of enhancement that lets said human being be more badass than normal humans get to be. Because Equipment hand portable firearms stop at +5 for assault rifles and +6 for solid slug shotgun shells, and the best Equipment armor is a +4 to Toughness. I try to hold to the idea that having more than 16 in a given ability score is somewhat special, and gets more special the closer you get to the human maximum of 24. I do relax this a little when it comes to DEX and INT, but mostly it holds up. You see, 16 (+3) STR & CON, with a Sword (Damage 3, Mighty, Improved Crit) and that Body Armor (Protection 4) is doing +6 damage (same as the shotgun) and resisting with +7 Toughness. That’s my standard for what the normal peak of human damage and toughness looks like. And with my house rule of not being able to trade off for more than five, PL 11 is as high as they can go. +16 attack, +6 damage. Plus I typically include Power Attack in my calculations, and a full +5 Power Attack with +6 damage is a whopping +11. That swordsman is cutting through steel now, which is kind of crazy from a realistic perspective.

Carla Perkins: She was always a detective, always an ex-cop, and always Black. I was never intentionally doing a Misty Knight riff, mind you. I just thought there should be an actual detective in the initial group who wasn’t Hayden Streett himself. And she should be a Black woman because I didn’t have one in the Exiles (Hummingbird was of unknown ethnicity at the time, and also dead). With also a shocking lack of them in the Superhero Justice Association and Youth Justice. Felt a tiny bit racist, even if it was basically an oversight. And so being a detective continued to be her role even after I gave her superpowers. They’re not a Luke Cage riff, either, they’re a Colossus one. Not that she can turn them off, but still. Honestly in the beginning she was still a bad melee fighter, as befit an ordinary human police detective who suddenly got superpowers. So her strength was nice, but not very useful. And her police training made her seek cover despite being bulletproof. I enjoyed the counter intuitive nature of that. You’d think an organic metal powerhouse would wade in with their fists, right? Well, Carla was ducking behind a car and pulling her gun. Less so, these days as she’s gotten used to the powers. Dr. Chrome is a slippery mad scientist, but she got him in the end. He didn’t have a name in the beginning. Her build is that of a whip smart detective. She knows a lot about a lot, and what she doesn’t know she can find out pretty easily. Really not enough detectives in comics, I think. There’s Batman (plus Batfam), Elongated Man, and Detective Chimp that I can think of. Some have bits of the skill set, but it’s not their identity. Really kind of a shame, as I don’t know what’s scarier to street crime than a superstrong, bulletproof woman who’s also a detective on par with the goddamn Batman.

Edwin Christian: Him being a white trust fund kid was the point. Kinda something most people wouldn’t see coming. The one with the social graces. The face man, if you would. I think it works specifically because Penny and Carla aren’t what you’d call people persons, in addition to being minority women. Men from backgrounds similar to Edwin’s wouldn’t give them the respect they deserve, and the criminal element would naturally underestimate the “rich pretty boy”. But if it was just that he’d be kind of an insufferable Marty Stu, so I gave him a giant flaw in classic Marvel style. He can’t touch people anymore, not without triggering it. And so the one who’s supposed to be the face man is actually the most socially isolated. At the time of his original creation, I had not read the Dresden Files. But during the update, I noticed he was basically a riff on Thomas Raith. So I decided to lean in when writing his entry. Buildwise, he’s just a basic telekinetic. Nothing special aside from his jacked up social skills. Evaluate is sizing up a person with Sense Motive. It normally takes a minute, but Fast Task Evaluate lets Edwin do it in 15 seconds, or two and a half rounds. Round down, so two rounds.

Individual Build Commentary: Senior Associates

Sonya Harmon: She’s a bit of an anomaly. Your basic young adult fire controller, originally, and none too skilled with anything beyond her receptionist job. See, Eve was originally the receptionist, but if she was going to be turning heel and leaving she needed to be more active than just sitting at the front desk. Why did there need to be a receptionist? The Street Agency was and NPC Investigations is a business where clients can potentially walk in the front door or call at any time, and somebody should be there to speak with them and keep the plot wheels turning. I was probably taking inspiration from Ghostbusters, now that I think about it. But manning the phones and keeping the metaphorical home fires burning is still an important job. As Streett turned into NPC she was basically promoted in character prominence rather abruptly, and gained an actual personality. It took until the big update to provide an actual source for her fiery powers, though I’d been thinking about it off and on so the big reveal wasn’t outta nowhere. Her build is a little unusual for a fire controller, with the Dynamic Array and Soul of Flame container. But the way I figure it she’s just approaching being the team magician from a different angle. And she’s actually a pretty good detective these days, even if the main trio is better overall.

Harmony Perez: Ah, Harmony. Barely more than a backgrounder with the Street Agency, part of the catalyst to ultimately remove Hayden and Eve. Intelligent, certainly. Tiny young woman, you bet. Anything else? Nah. Somebody had to manage the all the books the team used to research stuff when necessary and be Little Miss Exposition on demand. She’s the one who’s arguably changed the most with the big update. From a fragile intellectual in need of protection to a gadgeteer who can handle herself on her own. From nothing more than the team librarian to a detective worthy of standing beside the main trio. She’s really grown up, that Harmony. The settings on the Defender wand are taken from what the Equipment actually does. Just cranked up the ranks a bit where I could.

James Scott: Buckle up, we’re gonna be here a minute. His brother David is in the running for oldest character in my head. Probably isn’t him, but he’s way up there. When you’re like 10 years old and don’t know or understand why there isn’t an American James Bond because Pierce Brosnan is the freaking coolest and why wouldn’t people want more of that. I really liked Goldeneye, is what I’m saying. David Scott, The Secret Agent Man. And then I got a little older and got access to all those Bond movie VHS tables my father has. But…while David was cool and all, he was decidedly an Eighties and early Nineties style action hero. Machine guns a blazing and rocket launchers a firing. Totally badass, but then I saw Mission Impossible 2 and like…oh. Now that’s a different approach. And James was born. Doing things with style instead of firepower. The team up was inevitable and fun, but…how do I put this? Childish fantasies fade. I got more into videogames and pro wrestling. You know, aged out of the idea. David himself evolved a bit after I read The Bourne Ultimatum. The movie was a travesty and I ignore it. But James himself I didn’t really ever pull out of mothballs, aside from an aborted attempted at taking NPC Investigations international. Didn’t like it, it didn’t really work how I wanted, enough said. Then came the big update, and I thought why not fully drag him out of mothballs? So I did, and made him an incredibly hypercompetent badass, but only human. Seriously, 7 ranks of Skill Mastery. Meaning twenty-eight skills he’s automatically grabbing a 25 result on. He can be frighteningly effective as long as he’s kept away from Justice League and Avengers tier threats. Fortunately, NPC Investigations doesn’t normally deal with those.
Last edited by EternalPhoenix on Wed Apr 13, 2022 1:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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NPC Investigations Commentary: Junior Associates and Other Titles

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Individual Build Commentary: Junior Associates

Ricardo Alvarez: The original idea for the big update was the core trio (Nihara, Perkins, and Christian) getting a pair of understudies each. While I didn’t quite prove equal to the task (Penny got her two, but the others stopped at one and Sonya ended up with one to make me feel better about the failure), Rick was the result for Carla. As Carla’s thing is being an ex-cop and detective, all I did was take the “ex-“ part out, switch ethnicities, and give him a power that was very good for a detective but useless in actual combat. That’s the Psychometry. The Investigator container was something simultaneously workshopped with Carla’s build. And like her, Rick is one hell of an investigator. He’s PL 8 because, well, Carla was originally a hell of a shot (still is, but you get me). Like I said, understudies.

Teresa Maria Amarista-Mcleod: You have a favorite book? I do. Well, I have a few that vie for the title. But the one I’m referring to is The Proud Breed, by Celeste DeBlasis. It is a pretty meticulously researched piece of historical fiction. It’s also a somewhat trashy romance novel of doorstopper length running across 50+ years of California’s history. I’m not normally a fan of romance novels, but this one, man. S’good. The Tessa mentioned in the Background was the protagonist. I didn’t even change her name. I’ll have to if I ever want to publish properly, and that’s kind of depressing honestly. It won’t enter the public domain until 2071, as the author died in 2001, years before I ever got my hands on her novel. Which is also depressing. Would’ve liked to meet her. Anyway, my Tessa wasn’t always from the novel. She was just the telepath who snapped Edwin out of his addiction and freed his ladies. She didn’t even have a last name. But the big update came and I decided to put her on the team. So why did decide to rob the poor author? Well, it’s one of my favorite books, and Tessa honestly makes the whole damn thing work. With a less interesting and/or stereotypical woman the book would just fall flat. Like I said in Discord the other week, I like strong willed, kind hearted, and soft spoken women. Though Tessa was only soft spoken until it would conflict with one of the other two qualities, heh. Buildwise, well…I kinda got carried away. There were points to be spent, I only wanted her to be a telepath as far as powers went, so now she’s just straight up terrifying. Uh, oops? Meh, whatever.

Elinah Monroe: Back to the understudies. This is the one Edwin got, though in universe they don’t have much to do with each other anymore. And let me tell you it was a fight to get her to work at all. Finding her hook both mechanically and narratively was extremely challenging, and why Edwin only got one understudy. Posessed by a spirit, easy. Why? Uhhhhhh. Dunno. What powers did it give her? Uhhhhhhh. Dunno. Fuck it, she’s a medium. Fuck it the sequel, she’s a cold controller. And how did all this happen? Fuck it, she’s one of Edwin’s former pseudo harem and all that triggered it so she’s kinda like he was. Done, thank God. Pretty much how it went, with many days comprising each “Uhhhhhh. Dunno.” As a side note, she’s also a pretty good example of what the entry level powered superhero in the Phoenixverse looks like.

Immortia: So I’m down here. I’m short two builds, as the understudies project stumbled. So I get to thinking about old characters I never ended up doing anything with. And I remember Agent Zero and Immortia. To be clear, they didn’t have real names then, and it was just the base set up of Sandstone Golem Soldier betrays his masters and rescues Immortal Little Girl from being experimented on by Evil Scientists and they Go On The Run. Basically a TV pilot pitch of a thing. But this was the big update, moving forward a decade in time from where everyone started. So Immortia couldn’t be a little girl anymore, and I took out Agent Zero temporarily for maximum pathos. The Evil Scientists were a natural fit for the Agency, as well, and adding yet another reason for heroes to beat the piss out of them was a sweet bonus. It was just a matter of writing it all out after that.

Eiko Takanouchi: So there I was. Down to one slot. Needed to put someone there. I ponder. Oh hey, why the heck was the very white Eve looking like a Japanese girl anyway? Because she stole her appearance. And so I cribbed from anime for the first time. If you’re gonna crib, crib from the classics. Eiko’s backstory is basically she was Kagome from Inuyasha and then Roger Simon did a thing. I changed some stuff so it would make more sense in my ‘verse, though. She’s…probably not a long term member of the team, heh. She’s basically a magic Archer, and another example of a good starting level Phoenixverse hero.

Individual Build Commentary: Other Titles

Willa Hawke: The last of the original members, she hasn’t changed much. Aside from getting the stuff from Harmony to defend herself at need. As for where her inspiration comes from? There’s a character that is crucial to the narrative in the main House of M crossover book, and takes a bit of a starring role in the Messiah Complex X-Men plotline. Layla Miller, with the power of “knowing stuff”. It’s a cool power, if kind of useless in combat situations. I was adding a cheerful cheerleader type to counter the shy nerd that was Harmony, and figured “why the hell not?” That’s it. She’s very, very much a non player character and unlike the two she more or less debuted with, firmly remains supporting cast at best.

Kazuma Nihara & Rumiko Nihara : Tackling both of these at once, as they’re both obvious riffs on Penny herself. Was doing the big update, core trio was getting understudies, oh hey a great opportunity to show what the not so prodigy like ninja look like. And since Penny’s prodigy-ness is in the Assassin school, they can be a Chi Wizard and a Voice. The two of them are very much supporting cast, functioning as a reluctant Penny’s errand runners. They’re basically the pocket versions of her except with different focuses. Kazuma has a power she doesn’t and can genuinely do Ritual magic, though I’d flavor it as all Chi descriptor. And Rumiko trades out stealthy and good at combat for a Charisma bonus above zero and plenty of points in social skills. Nothing like some mundane spy work, yes?

Sofia Harmon: You guys remember Dawn Summers? Buffy’s sister? How she suddenly always existed one day? Yeah, this is that. The original idea was, as I said above, consolation for how the “core trio each gets two understudies” plan did not work out entirely. So Sonya would get one. Decided on another elemental. Obviously, fire was out. Power sets in groups should be unique, or close enough barring like, actual DC style sidekicks, which this was not. And because Sonya was a blaster, I wanted a melee character. Water and wind aren’t too good at that, so Earth it was. Density is fun to play with, so that went in. And honestly I’m such an anime nerd that making her an arrogant tsundere princess was kind of effortless.
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Seawings Commentary: Yas & Friends

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Creator Commentary Seawings Adventurer Guild

Personal Comments

Things just got out of hand. But rewind. I was a big Final Fantasy buff, back in the day. Not so much anymore, as Square’s priorities have hella changed from 15-20 years ago. Anyway, I played basically every one released for Playstation and PS2. Including FFX and FFX-2. The Gullwings kind of ruled, from a storytelling standpoint. Spira is a relatively unexplored world. They’ve got their own transporation, skilled combatants to deal with monsters, and an inciting incident to go searching though said world having adventures. Also I loved the dynamic between Yuna, Rikku, and Paine. So naturally I filed the serial numbers off the girls and their airship dwelling teammates and shoved them into the Phoenixverse. I mean, Lara Croft meets Charlie’s Angels? Sign me right the fuck up. I knew I wasn’t getting away with taking the dressphere system, and honestly I didn’t want to. Too complicated and versatile outside of video game limitations. So the new Yasmine Sakaguchi (seriously, I even took Hironobu’s surname for her how has nobody noticed before?) kept her default Gunner abilities combined with her original curative White Magic. Rebecca Heskett (I have a book with an author named Heskett, or at least I did at the time; I’ve moved twice it could’ve disappeared) got Rikku’s Thief abilities combined with her original engineering bent plus a lil bit of speed because yanno rogues be quick. And the Dark Sword Portia was stuck with just being a Warrior. But just a weapon master would’ve been boring and they would’ve lacked a big hitter, so she got a demonic atavism (I was reading something at the time that was using a genetic atavism to explain a character’s powers, and boy that sounded cool so you know STOLEN) that made her physically superhuman and a sword she couldn’t lose. With my trio of knockoffs assembled, and a name given to them (Gullwings, Seagull, Seawings) it was time to go adventuring. After a while I was like yeah okay let’s give Yas back her summoning, starting with the big bad dragon because Bahamut is always awesome. I mean, I had a dragon king in mothballs in my notes ready to go. And they should probably finish up their FFX-2 adventures so they can go on new ones. So Tidus-I mean, Tobias showed up with Coyote. Now Coyote was something new and definitely not FF related. My knowledge of Native American mythology is still kind of piecemeal today and it was worse then. But even I had heard of the great trickster and honestly I just thought it’d be cool and fun to have Coyote of all beings over in East Asia/Oceania just hangin’ out. You know, banging Portia and fighting monsters with the girls.

. . But we’ve reached that point. You know the one by now. I lost all my notes, and they entered stasis. Until I decided to do the big update and uh, things just got out of hand. Yas & Friends was easy enough, just bring in the rest of the FFX main cast why not, and hand Rikki her own boyfriend finally in a character at loose ends in The Desert (now Pacific) Stranger. The Truman Home is uh, where things started getting out of hand. There was supposed to be 12 builds total. It ended up being 16. Rumble Hearts was supposed to be somewhere from 5 to 8. There’s 10. Even the NuGen were supposed to be only 5…but they ended with 7, and specifically because I put my foot down with myself. It was, uh, a very long project to say the least. Fortunately, I was watching Black Clover at the time, and it gave me plenty of motivation. And no, I didn’t steal anyone from it.

. . No, the actual idea behind the update was basically turning the Seawings as they were into the Fairy Tail guild from the eponymous manga and anime. Fairy Tail isn’t what I’d call unequivocally good, but what it does well it does very well. The spark for this was an old idea, as I’ll get into in Truman Home entries. Before this, I didn’t know what to do with the Seawings at all. Quite empty of ideas, in fact. Initially I thought of a more moderate expansion, like NPC Investigations. But that 1) sounded boring because I just did that and 2) I’m gonna cram a half dozen more people on that airship? No. So I reached for ideas and remember that Nathaniel Truman and his not really named (I couldn’t remember after the loss of my notes, not that it ended up mattering) Soulblade wielding ward weren’t doing anything. And that was the start of everything getting out of hand. I mean, hell, originally Team Rumble Hearts wasn’t even separate from the Truman Home. But concepts finalized, and they didn’t fit anymore. So the numbers had to be made up, and I kept having cool build ideas. Everything just got out of hand. But ultimately it worked out, I think. Eventually.

Individual Build Commentary: Yas & Friends

Yasmine “Yas” Sakaguchi: Normally I’d explain how she came to be here, but I already did that. So I’ll skip to the update portion. I knew the Seawings couldn’t continue forever the way they were. Yas as I knew her wouldn’t want to, not with Tobias back. She’d want to settle down sooner rather than later. And you take one leg off a stool it’s not fit for use anymore. Without the consistent presence of Yas, the Seawings would sputter to a stop. So I decided that was how it was gonna be, and then I decided the biggest reason was that Yas and Tobias had their first kid, a daughter, and I also figured out how to get the gang back together again by creating and using the Truman Home. The only thing left to do was update Yas’s build. White Magic is Life Control and summoning, plus her upgraded guns. So it was really just slapping in more points and balancing caps again. Generally speaking she’s the support player of the OG Seawing trio. She has the guns, but her most powerful abilities are arguably healing allies and summoning a bigass dragon to stomp on the problem until it goes away.

Rebecca “Rikki” Heskett: Again, I’ve already explained how she came to be and what her build was supposed to represent. And like Yas above, her update was just updating her build, really. And let me tell you, an extra 75 points is useful as hell for finally filling out someone with as broad a skill set (tech specialist, sneak thief, and some social skills) as hers. She may be a full PL below her teammates, but hopefully the Gadgets (especially her Heavy Combat Gear) can make up for it, as well as having Inventor on call. She’s a PL 11 and not a 12 for the same reason Penny Nihara is. Rikki just isn’t big enough to justify being stronger to me. She’s tiny, and yet has the same strength score as grown men twice her size. Rikki functions as the skill monkey of the OG Seawings trio. She’s an excellent goon sweeper, and can solve just about any problem with her Gadgets or Inventor.

“The Dark Sword” Portia Rousseau: One more time, I’ve already explained how she came to be and what her build was supposed to represent. And like both Yas and Rikki, her update was just updating her build. And finding something to fill out the extra points I allocated. More skils, more feats, more powers, gotta burn up those points. The exact opposite problem from Rikki, heh. There is one thing I didn’t discuss above, though. The Dark Sword itself. There was this book series I read a few copies of in the public library I was living near at the time. A woman receives the strange power of summon Joan of Arc’s sword, and it saves her life from some bad dudes. All she has to do is reach out and concentrate, and she can feel the sword’s handle in her hand. Easiest draw in the world. Having a sword you can pull out of nowhere is handy like that, even if you’re like an archaeologist or something and not any kind of warrior. Think I only read like three of them. You know the type. Thin novels, like 200 pages or so. Maybe less, I really don’t remember. It was the sword trick that stuck with me, and when I wanted to give Portia her Dark Sword, that was the idea I picked. So she can do the early JRPG thing where she’s clearly unarmed until a fight scene starts and she suddenly is. Side note: It was the update where she finally got a surname. I justify it as part of the “she was technically absent without leave” thing. Portia functions as the hitter and tank of the OG Seawings team. Neither of the other two can reach the +14 damage of the Dark Sword, (though Yas can get close with Power Attack), and both of their Toughness bonuses are far lower (especially without Defensive Roll) with no Impervious whatsoever. When Raheed is summoned they split the duty, however, as the Dragon King was just as strong and tough and is now actually a little stronger and tougher.

Raheed The Dragon King: Raheed is not Bahamut. At least, not anymore. He actually goes way, way back. To the very beginning of my notes (now sadly lost). I was deeply, deeply into JRPGs at the time, and so the very first things I ever wrote down were what my own would look like. Actually came up with a FFX style summoning system on the first friggin’ go, half a decade before that game came out. Mine didn’t kick the rest of the party out, either, just the summoner. And in every iteration of that series of mine (got up to…X, I think, before my notes were lost), the second best summon was Raheed. So yes, he was kind of Bahamut in that he was in the same role as a summon, but all later iterations of him have been the greenscale Western dragon. And when Yas needed a summon emblematic of the power she had sacrificed, I pulled the dragon king out of mothballs. And he is a beast in the update. Bigger, stronger, faster, tougher, and more intimidating. In the open he’s arguably a superior version of Portia. But his downsides are that he doesn’t fit inside buildings or on narrow city streets, Yas can’t do other magic while he’s out, and there is absolutely nothing subtle about the appearance of a dragon bigger than most buildings.

Tobias: He’s boring as hell. I dunno, man. He’s just a weaponmaster with a few extra tricks. I brought him in because a Yuna without her Tidus is unthinkable to me. He can be very effective, but ultimately he’s just a guy with a sword. Next to the OG Seawings trio and friggin’ Raheed, he’s dull and boring. Goonsweeps like a champ, though, and those who underestimate him because of his mundane nature typically regret the hell out of it. He’s PL 11 specifically because that while he shoulcn’t feel out of place next to his wife during combat, he also shouldn’t be able to outdo any of the OG Seawings, which chained him to 11 like Rikki.

The Pacific Stranger: The Stranger goes back to Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers. Specifically, the opening issue where Vigilante gathered an interesting if offbeat crew but was one short so they all died. The concept was interesting, though, so I copied it. Seven in the Wild West era, and seven in the present. The Desert Stranger was a only shared member of each squad. He did not have the sword or grenade launcher in the Wild West era, and it took one of the pre-eminent wizards of the era to get him his revolvers and poncho/bandanna. I actually gave him the sword in this update. A former Crusader should have a sword. He was also a member of Texas’s superteam, the Wild West Marshals along with Dallas Austin and her father. Just a small connection, I suppose, but it counts. His name has always been Oliver, but a little researched showed last names weren’t exact a thing yet in the era he was born in, so LaRouche or however I spelled it was dropped. This was the first time I’d actually ever built him, so a lot of thing needed figuring out. He may seem a little…meh, for having 9 centuries of combat experience, but really he wasn’t fighting the entire time. Much of his life has been relatively quiet, too. He’s had plenty of romances, raised a legion of children of every conceivable ethnicity, and spent years at a time in isolated solitude and sorrow. And he is only a man. Not some prodigy or anything. He was not PL 12 in World War 2 and very much not in the Wild West era.

Coyote: How do I explain Coyote more than I’ve already done? All I really did was expand and elaborate on him. He’s a canine totem who’s overloaded on Charisma, social skill points, and the feats that go with them. Basically he’s Dragon Age’s Varric. If you let him start talking, he’s already won. That’s just the kind of guy and build he is. Not that he can’t fight, but whew lads is his tongue dangerous. Ladies. I mean, have you ever met one of those people who just seems to glide through life on sheer charisma alone? Yeah. Oh, right. Multiexistence. Stole that from Justice Squad. Liam Smith. If you know, you know. If you don’t, bummer. His scripts were fun. Capeman, Ultrawoman, Cosmic Weasel, and the whole gang.

Lucy Hasegawa: Like with the OG Seawings trio, I filed the serial numbers of FFX’s Lulu and adjusted to fit with the established Phoenixverse canon. She’s a blaster who can power stunt other stuff if she needs to, and has a device to boost her up to caps. Why Lulu and not new original Seawings? Well, first I was already gonna do that with all the other groups. Second, completely original characters are cool and all, but also a lot of work. Adapting is so much easier. And third, it would have felt weird as hell to just…leave the rest of the FFX cast out there, unnamed and doing nothing much. Of course Yas is going to call on her own friends for her new thing. It just doesn’t make sense to me otherwise.

Willie Teriong: Yeah this is Wakka. A decade older, with a mess of kids via being married to Lucy. Should probably decide how many there are, but meh, screw it. Later. Wakka’s fighting style is a special kind of physics defying bullshit. I have yet to hear of anyone killed by rubber ball impact. So, had to explain that one. And yeah, magic maybe, but I kind of liked it better if he was this highly skilled martial artist using the power of Chi. And because Blitzball doesn’t exist, I had to pick a different ball using sport. The obvious choice was soccer/football, but I don’t make a habit of going for the obvious. So beach volleyball. And then because you know, sports hero and strong sense of morals, I thought it be fun to make him a member of Palau’s government. Google was probably very confused as why I was looking how Palau’s government worked up, heh. And yes, Palau is a real country in Oceania. It’s small, mostly sparsely populated and almost uniformly Polynesian, but has a decent sized capital in Koror City. So, martial artist with a Chi channeling volleyball. Part time adventurer. Dad. And politician. My, but Willie’s a busy guy.

Kaikoa: He’s Kimahri. Or rather, the Hawaiian human being version of the guy. Because giant blue furry people don’t exist in the real world. Spear, old school Blue Magic. Like, FFV old school. A little thing to represent his badass warrior training. He’s arguably more useful than the “here, have another of the characters you already have” of Kimahri. Other than that he’s extremely freaking boring as a build and a character, but to leave him out would’ve been just mean. Because I’m the sort of softhearted wretch who cares about characters I have neither named nor fleshed out in the slighted. Ay.

Laki Sigrah, Herman Heskett, & Sione Sigrah: The Gullwings support crew. You know, that smart kid, Rikku’s brother, and the navigator dude. I hesitate to even call this stealing, as I only took the basic ideas of them. One person on the ship smarter than Rikku, the pilot who’s both Rikku’s brother and in love with Yuna, and the other guy nobody remembers (I kid, I’m sure somebody’s a huge fan.) They’re supporting cast, don’t worry about them too much.
Last edited by EternalPhoenix on Wed Apr 13, 2022 1:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse!)
The Archetype Blendarama!
You, Dear Reader, may comment on any build at any time. I will be happy regardless.
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EternalPhoenix
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Re: The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Newest: Full Exiles & NPC Creator Commentary; Seawings Yas & Friends)

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Y'all know you can comment on old builds, right? It's not against the rules. I certainly don't care. Hell, I encourage you. Unless you're dying to tell me horribly negative, in which case I'd ask that you keep that one to yourself please.
The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse!)
The Archetype Blendarama!
You, Dear Reader, may comment on any build at any time. I will be happy regardless.
greycrusader
Posts: 1179
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 11:25 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Newest: Full Exiles & NPC Creator Commentary; Seawings Yas & Friends)

Post by greycrusader »

I'm going to be giving your thread a more thorough read pretty soon, and I'm sure I'll have a comment or three; I'm a bit overwhelmed with my day job and prepping a house for the next couple weeks, but as I've said, I DO find your characters of interest.

All my best.
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