Bill's PC dumping ground

A general post about coming up with off-the-beaten-path PCs:

Some PCs I pitched for my Saturday game:

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POD (the Newborn)

Who created you, and why? I am a Concordance protoform unit designed to accelerate harmony-promoting skills through sparring, combat, and similar activities.

How are you different from humans? Protoforms are artificial emotional beings, designed for a purpose. We use a technology called baryon-affect transduction, rather than a carbon-based chemistry.

Who, outside of the team, is your caretaker? I have been assigned to cooperate with human chemist code name NONO RODRIGUEZ.

What about humanity fascinates you the most? Humans are not designed for harmony-promoting combat, and often fight against harmony. However, these efforts have yielded a metastable social context that allows me to study harmony by contrast.

Why do you care about the team? My fighting and harmonizing skills seem most likely to be put to practical use by this group.

Resister (the Scion)

Who is your supervillain parent? I am the son of the woman known as the Dread Queen of Vyortovia.

Who told you about your parent’s true nature? I know her as a mother and a leader of state. When I was made privy to her war plans by a concerned counselor, I realized there were other sides to her. I grew up as a child of privilege, not realizing the cost of that privilege.

Why did you turn from your lineage to become a hero? The simple realization that our current activities betray the heroic stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. If we are so advanced, if our technology is so grand, our destiny writ so large, why must we engage in underhanded stratagems and sacrifice civilians? I believe in Vyortovia. I do not believe in this Vyortovia.

Who, outside of the team, helps you on your chosen path? A member of a secret underground society known as the “Ponies”, identified by the code name “My Little Power Ranger”. They have been instrumental in teaching me about the world outside Vyortovia.

Why do you care about the team? I have been told that the youth are malleable, or impressionable. I have been told that we do not understand everything our adult figures do. It stands to reason that if adults are willing to sacrifice the innocent, I ought to turn to those who are not adults.

Agent 1337 (the Brain)

How did you first reveal your genius to your friends and family? I think probably when I got arrested the first time for hacking, and my parents disowned me? They weren’t very happy. I could have just told them, I guess.

Why did you decide to use your intellect for the benefit of others? You know, they say information changes us. The more you learn, the more you’re changed. And when I started poking around at corporate and government systems, and seeing what people were really up to, I thought, I can do something about this.

What accident or misfire taught you some sense of humility or responsibility? The day Rosa Rook’s corporate strike team blew up the apartment I had just escaped from. I had neighbors. I knew their names. Thing is, Rook also got their hands on a lot of the important data I’d squirreled away, and I think they did something with it…

Who helped you realize you needed other people? AEGIS rescued me at the last moment, good job you jackbooted goons. But yeah, I mean, I’m alive so hooray?

Why do you care about the team? Well, here I get to be awesome and smart, and have people who can benefit from it, and we’ll keep each other safe.

Agent 1337 (the Soldier)

What inspired your service? AEGIS saved my life after a Rook strike team took out the apartment where I used to live. They didn’t owe me anything, and when I expected the handcuffs and the rejection, they just started asking me stuff.

What do you admire about AEGIS? I think that they sometimes do stuff my way. Don’t ask permission, just sorta git-er-done, know what I’m saying? Like I hate the endless bureaucracy, don’t get me started, but when push comes to shove, they shove hard.

Who within AEGIS is worthy of your trust? I dunno, I know it’s not Department 42, the weird-tech division. Those eggheads just wanted the schematics I’d downloaded. If anyone, I gotta say field agent Nat-- sorry, N8. She’s kind of my senior or mentor, even if she’s kind of a stick in the mud.

Why were you assigned to lead your team? Whoooa, I think maybe lead is a strong word. I was assigned as AEGIS liaison to these yahoos, yeah, and Department 42 hooked me up with some sweet tech. But leading this gang is like herding cats.

Why do you care about the team? I dunno, because they’re also kids being bossed around by grownups and they push back? They’re curious and interesting and I like watching them do stuff?

Flex (the Star)

When did you first appear onscreen? I did this silly series of YouTube videos showing off my stretching powers, and I really liked the feedback and comments. I mean, really liked engaging with people. I’ll tell you why: stretching is a goofy power. Like people just can’t take it seriously. But here I was, being the nerd who had the nerd power, and I was on and strong. A lot of comments were just like “thanks” or “cool”, but I got DMs from people who said I was making their life better.

What do you tell people about how you got your powers? I think my three favorite origin stories are I got bitten by a radioactive Slinky, that I inherited it from my dad, Stretch Armstrong, and that I was experimented on by the Navy under the auspices of Commander Flex Plexico. Real dude. Look him up.

Who, outside of the team, supports your burgeoning star in every way possible? I’m affiliated with another channel, run by “My Little Power Ranger”, who’s completely awesome, you need to check out her content. She goes places and does things no sane person should, and the only reason I’m still on the air after the stuff she’s done is I’m actually doing superhero activism out on the street.

Who, outside the team, loathes what you represent? I mean I get nasty hate-mail from some of the folks in the adult hero league, so I think they just generally don’t like me? But I’m also down with exposing just what a messed-up situation the Halcyon superhero scene really is. This is what real reporting is about - speaking truth to power.

Why do you care about the team? They’re not just a platform for me to get a message out there - namely, don’t trust authority that’s not accountable, and don’t depend on people you just can’t depend on - but also they need me, and I need them, because that’s what real heroism means. Doing the right thing for other people. I just wanna publicize it a little more.

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Here’s some PCs I’m considering, but holding back to see what other players do.

Retrorocket (the Innocent)

Who or what brought you to the present? Well sir, I was a batch of clones in the 1940s, created to fight the Shadow Side of WW2. We got issued our rocket-packs and ray-guns, and golly gee, we couldn’t wait to go fight the Axis! Thing is, though, there wasn’t really much for us to do after that, so Professor Pulsar, he said, “well lads, let’s put you on ice for a bit and see what we can come up with”. And the next thing you know, I’m waking up, only there’s a Q instead of a P on the building.

When did you first meet your future self? So I guess one of my brothers got thawed out early. He’s #9. He’s pretty grown up now, and it looks like he left a message for the rest of us on some kind of new-fangled video gizmo. He says, if there’s no war to fight, he’s gonna make a war for us, and then we can thaw out and fight forever and ever and ever.

How is your future self the embodiment of a future you never wanted? Well, sir, the thing about us Rocket Troops is that we were supposed to fight for freedom and the American way, and the way the Professor told it to us, the goal of war is to get to peace. How are ya gonna have peace if there’s just always war? Sounded pretty bad to me.

What is your favorite part of life in the future? Your least favorite part? Well golly, I think I’d have to say all the neat little gizmos! They gave us some good equipment for the Shadow War, like these wrist tele-radios and stuff, but it’s like every kid nowadays can carry that kind of thing around! I gotta say, I don’t really feel comfortable with how rude everyone is, though. Why can’t people be more polite?

Why are you determined to stay in the present with this team? Well, sir, the team is kind of strange, I’ll admit that, but I think it’s for the best. Y’see, when the Professor made us, and trained us, he once told us how he didn’t think children ought to be soldiers, and he seemed kind of sad about it. I think maybe I gotta look out for these kids like I’d do for my brothers, and we gotta stop #9 before he makes it so everyone has to be soldiers.

Call (the Nomad)

Who took you from the Earth when you were younger? I had the bad fortune to be caught in something called the Cerulean Conjunction. It’s something that just happens, like a riptide that washes you out to sea. There were other survivors with me, and when we got dumped out the first time, all we had was each other…

What farscapes did you explore? There’s whole worlds of magic and dream and imagination out there, populated by dragon gods and vengeful colors and culinary sprites and goetic demons, all kinds of things. The flotsam and jetsam of human imagination mixes with the cast-off dreams of primordial things. I saw mountain monasteries and ruined cities.

Who was your favorite traveling companion? There’s a kind of pantheon of spirits, called the Farrago. Those of us who survived the Cerulean Conjunction are sort of like their priests, if we want to be. We call on their power, and in turn we give them eyes and ears to experience the world. My favorite member of the Farrago was Rime, the winter witch.

What brought you back to stay (for now)? I found a way to ride the Cerulean Conjunction again, only this time to step out of it back here on Earth. The Farrago are really interested in it, and they heard stories from other Earth people, or strong dreamers. So now we both get to learn about it.

Why do you care about the team? I think they’re all weirdos and have seen some shit, and I don’t know who else I can talk to. I know I’m here to see what Earth is like, but… I feel like I have to talk to someone about everything. But who? One thing I learned after the first Conjunction. Those people, the desperate ones who’d come with me? They’d do anything to survive. So would I. I don’t want to live that way any more.

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I’m sorry. Did you create a Captain America/Star Wars Clone Troopers character? I love that.

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I kind of want to do fan art.

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Okay, I feel much less outlier (but now kind of envious) from having done (just) two character write-ups.

These are awesome, @garrett. I’d love to play any of them, let alone see them being played.

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Quantity isn’t always quality, but I’m glad you like them. The goal now is to eliminate the ones that work least well or don’t connect to the rest of the group, e.g. Call will probably not make the cut.

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I also appreciated your calling out bits of lore from the other game (not to mention actually two write-ups of an NPC from same).

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3 posts were split to a new topic: Masks-616 Art Thread

With a bunch of folks who aren’t from around here, I feel like either Agent 1337 or Flex are my best options for PCs. I think the deciding question is “how do we feel about AEGIS?” :smiley:

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If Joey has been hanging out with the Quills (in one form or another), probably a guarded attitude. Especially since they almost certainly have interviewed / grilled him on multiple occasions.

That said, I think Agent 1337 deserves a shot in the PC limelight.

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Kiln may not have the best relationship with AEGIS, with them keeping their tech away from AEGIS, but I don’t see why that would stop AEGIS from sending someone to the team or why it should keep you from doing Agent 1337.

Overall I’m good for whichever one you want. Both sound fun.

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https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/journal/5937276/character/-M1pXTnrCEwbWYAPsBaR

It says I’m not authorized/don’t have access to this page

If you haven’t joined the Roll20 game already, do that, and then it should work.

In the About category? That link gets me the same message. I am not sure what I’m doing wrong.

Join link: https://app.roll20.net/join/5937276/aTbRTQ

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I have joined the game. I got the same error from that link, @garrett

It would help if I were logged in. Derp.

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