MarkK

Throwing improvised weapons is on page 162. Does your strength. However, following your link there.. how are you throwing a mailbox at someone after breaking out of a mid air grapple? Does your character have flight?

Whatcha gonna do when they come for you? This is just a general note. If you're in a thread having a big flashy fight in a public place, we'd like it to be eventually factored in that if it goes on long enough, cops/SWAT will probably be swinging on by. Note something like the sound of many sirens being heard, or etc. Agree between yourselves if it's a player run thread what they would be doing on arrival, and so forth. Use your best judgement there, or pm a ref to ask "would the cops be showing up yet? what will they be doing when/if they do?" We're happy to run said police as needed, part of what we're here for. As is, keep an eye out for some notes of "if you could factor in some cops showing up" in various ongoing threads.

Don't mind me.. just going through a few threads and noting in em this is a point where a whole mess of cops and SWAT would be showing up, fight's been going on long enough and been flashy enough. I'm happy to run them if you wouldn't all feel comfortable factoring that in yourselves. For the moment let's just say you all hear a very loud cacophony of many incoming police sirens.

Depends, is Prodigy trying to suss out what is known historically about him? Technologically about him?

A smile at that. "An admirable sentiment. Learn by doing indeed. Alright then, we can set to right now really, unless you have any other matters you had to tend to." He scratches the back of his head. "And if we're heading up to rooftops, there will be a brief interlude of carrying you, just to say."

It was a fun adventure, that one.

"Oh, well of course, the flight provides. It's a good idea to try out and get a sense of your abilities anyway, I'd be happy to help with that. If you like, before a patrol of any kind, we can head out to one of the warehouse districts first, or make use of the Wreck Room at Freedom Hall even, just let you push your abilities."

He had been dodging this sort of thing for a while, but that only meant that when the parties finally caught up with the Emissary, they did so with a great vengeance and furious anger. Top of the list had been another insisting request from the Midnight Society, and when he had a new social project in mind that was going to take some serious favour trading come the day, he couldn't really say no. He could however wear a tux instead of his costume again, and by now had done so enough times to pull off the look without seeming like a floating silver statue in a tuxedo. His smiles were politely amiable as always, nodding to all the right people as he made his way into the mansion, gently shaking hands, moving through to say a hello to whoever had taken particular charge of this soiree. Though the extremely perceptive might catch his feet hovering fractions of inches off the ground as he walked, it was all the same a graceful, fluid stride, the effortlessness of it a showcase of the Emissary's perfection of form.

There was a near imperceptible cough when she started stroking his hand, but he was able to push that aside with a shake of his head at her protesting as it came in. "I am sure you can do plenty of cool things, and I hardly mind the ocassional foot patrol. It's good in fact for bolstering the confidence of the people around you, to walk with them, ask after how they're doing, all that sort of thing. Worse comes to worse, I can carry you besides, if you don't mind that." "Besides, depending on how far you can jump, we can also take the rooftops."

Thread! viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1831

The ooc thread.

The sun shone brightly over the steel and glass towers of downtown freedom, giving a sense that the city itself was gleaming. Ensconsed between the skyscrapers was a small, if well appointed banquet hall, used for the sorts of conferences and parties that wanted an intimate, but yet high class feel. Rented out for the day by the supergenius Prodigy (if with some organizational assisstance from the Emissary), guests would find that past the frosted glass double doors of the entryway, signs within pointed to the rooms for this hallowed conference. Making his way through was a man with ageless Mediterranean features, a trim goatee over olive skin, his seeking gaze taking in every detail of his surroundings. He wore a beige trenchcoat over what looked like a far too bulky physique for his face, though there were glints of metal underneath. A small smile was pulled from him in the room proper when he noted that while arranged buffet style, brunch included some of his particular favourites. He savoured the smell of the baklava as he moved to get a plate instead of staking out a chair at one of the tables. "Benefits of being early" Daedelus mumbled to himself.

Sorry, got a bit ill the past couple days. On the plus side, a couple more people confirmed for the thread while I was. Setting it up momentarily, watch this space.

Just waiting on replies to a couple of pms and then we'll get this show on the road. And yes yes, nerds. Nerds with superpowers!

Alright, if your character is superheroish and known as part of their thing for having a big shiny brain, one way or another you get a lovely invitation all done up in calligraphy inviting you to a banquet hall one sunny day for a brunch to discuss "the foundation of the Freedom City Society for the Advancement of Scientific Understanding." It seems to be from one Sarah May Brown. This thread is basically a meet and greet and clash of the giant brains of the city and possibly a founding of some kind of related snobby nerd society to consult on all your geeky superhero things. Like revenge on Captain Thunder for a wedgie given in the halls of the Lighthouse. Or possibly it will instead lead to group creating improvements that will better and transform life for everyone in Freedom City. Either or. If you play an advanced intellect type hero, a scientist type hero, that kind of deal, this thread is for you! This is basically to facilitate an idea Maze had for her character Prodigy trying to gather people for. I'll be npcing people like Daedelus and possibly some Atom family members as far as others show up. And possibly the brunch may get attacked by Godzilla, who can say. Either way, plans to improve the city! Intellectual rivalries sparking! Who's science fu is strongest! And other such things. Heroes I can see taking part in this (feel free to say that you might if I miss your name and you can make a case) : Doctor Archeville Quark Prodigy (given that this was her idea) Twilight Gryphon (who has a scientific background and quality ratings in related skills) Emissary I might have there or probably just mention him in the background details as someone that helped Prodigy put her meeting together, as he likes facilitating that sort of thing. Sooo.. post here to confirm wanting to take part in this and once we get enough people, I'll make a thread.

That's fine, ultimately. If you want to particular adapt some of the questions in a way you feel better suited, go ahead. But really, answering ones that don't apply with a "doesn't apply" is fine.

I'm sorry if you feel that you can't or won't take these things into account, but the statements on the overall play we're aiming for here remain what they are. And if you're not going to take into account the posts of others on the matter who disagree with you and simply ignore them, there's not much point in leaving this open as a discussion thread, as it no longer is one.

Cool, I'll keep an eye out.

Okay, it happens to all of us at some point. You're playing in a thread, whether set up between players, or GM run, and because of people falling away from the forum, or for any number of reasons, the thread fizzles just when things get interesting or even before they can much get a move on despite a premise that drew you in, and falls into limbo, and inevitably gets closed, because it can't be sustained. And that entirely sucks. It leaves someone without any closure or a sense they can tell themselves and picture how that arc ended for their character. What we're offering is this. If you've been in a thread like that, and either no one else involved with it plays anymore, or you can get permission from the few that still do, you can create a post giving a fleshed out summary of how events proceeded and came to a close, then post it in your news thread. Aside from the whole adding to post count, you get to say how your character's adventure there ended. To avoid any potential "And then Centurion came back from the dead long enough to say that I'm his son. And the awesomest being alive," we will want you to pm it to a GM for approval first, generally myself as I'm heading this up and otherwise lord over creating projects for the news forum. Just post here or send a message directly about what thread you'd like to take up doing so with, and go from there.

There's a staggering difference in tone between the world of the Boondock Saints, and Freedom City, and honestly, it's noted right in game rules and character creation the overall setting tone we're trying to maintain here right in the things to read before you make a character. If you want to play in a world like that of an R rated movie, why play in Freedom City? It's not as though we aren't upfront about this place. There's further a difference in tone between guys who go around killing criminals, and a guy who randomly kills various witless bystanders as far as claiming vast segments of the population would adore your character. The analogy doesn't track here for what you're trying to say. Again, the big problem has been that no, you haven't been. You don't just post about the Captain going around killing and beating whoever, you then post whole clubs full of people cheering his name and throwing themselves at him. That's not his perspective, that's saying how other people react, and it clashes heavily with the general FC setting. There are whole things about god modding and the like in shared, administrated rpg settings. Saying that people at large love your character no matter what your character does, amounts to saying "the setting works how I say it works, regardless of what the people running the joint, or the general depicted tone of the setting says." And that's problematic of itself, but moreso is that you particularly apply that for something that would be difficult to buy even in reality. Your character verges on being a spree killer, is wanted by the law, and so forth. Do you really feel that it jives with the setting to narrate from a 3rd person perspective whole crowds of average people cheering him in adulation? Even that aside, do you think it's all that likely in Freedom City? The point of a shared setting is that, you know, it's a shared setting. It's not for a single character's indulgence. Among our big selling points is "hey look, Freedom City!" it falls apart on characters causing carnage galore, then dictating they are loved for it anyway. Again, the problem is that you haven't been. For instance, I wanted to set up with you that thread where your character runs into Lady Liberty off of your request and was talking with you how to do that. When I noted it didn't seem plausible that she would want to agree to meet for a talk with a villain with the kind of MO and track record as the Captain and noted other ways you could make it happen that would still fit, but still give you the encounter, you abruptly cut off talking to me, and tried to find another GM to do it for you while I waited for a reply. Only when that didn't take was when you came back, and even then without particularly acknowledging that, you know, given what your character does, Lady Liberty is really only likely to react to your character in a certain way. We're not talking about religion, we're talking about your narrating your rampantly murderous character as being beloved throughout the city, particularly a "the Iron Age is over, things are overall hopefulish" comic book city. I like to think you know there's a difference between those things. Look, I'll restate, the problem is not what your character believes, the problem is you having seemingly decided how the setting should treat your character. and his beliefs. And particularly in a way that doesn't fit at all with that setting. That you seem to be pulling back on that now, that's great, we appreciate that, thank you. That you were doing this previously is just what you were doing. Your character can do whatever he wants. How people are narrated as reacting to him doing so is something completely different, and something you need to separate out. If you want to say that given his personal crazy and egomania, Captain Knievel thinks in his head that everyone loves and is cheering him, but meanwhile make clear that something completely different is going on, that's just fine really, go to town with that. The problem has been that it hasn't been such, nor coming off that way. Regardless, it would be better if from this point you just modified your character's posts appropriately rather than continue in trying to argue this.

Perhaps you've been reading recent works such as Dark Reign, where the public embraces a known multiple murderer as their idol and protector due to their fickle distaste for superheroes and general ease of being swayed to forget about such things. Or maybe Bomb Queen, where a whole city idolizes a rampaging homicidal lunatic because, well, exciting boobies. Or really almost anything by Garth Ennis, where superheroes are basically dunderheaded, ridiculous victimizers of the world around them who don't actually help people in need in any meaningful way, and only guys like the Punisher/The Boys/Whoever is Garth's mouthpiece today can show humanity the way. All of these may indeed arguably be interesting comics in and of themselves. They have nothing to do with how Freedom City works in any way whatsoever. At all. In setting, the people of Freedom like their superheroes, and dislike their supervillains. The Iron Age was a relatively brief period that came to an end. There isn't even any kind of widescale anti meta prejudice ala what seems like the entire world hating mutants in X-men. Think of it like the relationship the people of the DCU have with the Flash, they built the guy a museum. Think of it like the animated DCU, where ultimately Cadmus, the people based on "superheroes are fools, humanity first, humanity dislikes superheroes" were revealed as little more than the duped pawns of Lex Luthor and nearly facilitated his taking over of the world. Freedom City operates ultimately like a sort of Bronze Age/modernized Silver Age hybrid kind of thing. Where people with Civil War Maria Hill/Tony Stark's perspective on things ultimately end up becoming Shadivan Steelgrave, lieutenant of the Omega. What am I getting at particularly? There are consequences for being, and acting like a villain and part of making a villain character is acknowledging that. A villain that tells themselves they aren't really evil, and that they're the hero in their own mind and that the superheroes are really the bad ones? That's great. That's complex and interesting to play out and deal with. It doesn't however mean that anyone else remotely agrees with them, and depending on how they have acted to this point, might just mean specifically /no one/ agrees with them. That /no one/ sympathizes with you, or your perspective. And that last one particularly about "heroes don't really help anyone and etc. etc. etc."? It's objectively wrong in the world of Freedom. It certainly doesn't mean that you get to narrate that people love you anyway, that you can decide there is a whole current of humanity that grooves on what you do, and that it matters all that much if you feel "chafed and limited" if superheroes don't acknowledge your quality and want to talk to you on the terms you demand, instead of want to throw you in jail at the soonest opportunity they can manage. You are what your actions have made. Take for example, Captain Knievel, who when asked to describe what he does as a villain, has mentioned he dangles orphans out of windows to try and get superheroes to fight him, hijacks cars and attempts to cause multi car pileups on the highway as he drives against and through packed traffic, that he generally causes random devastation around him. He has supplemented this by describing incidents where he goads massive trucks to crash into each other, resulting in the deaths of one of the drivers. He has supplemented /this/ by describing instances of him wandering around the city and beating people bloody, and tossing their bodies in dumpsters, to the point where he can't tell, and notes that he specifically does not care if they are alive or dead. It does not then matter as a result if he says "but my character is not evil". These are the things he has done. And it means that the citizens of Freedom will on the whole view him as a dangerous, insane, sociopathic monster. If his anti mutant/meta views become clearer, a bigoted, insane, dangerous sociopathic monster. Superheroes will not respond to his requests for parley and idle chit chat. People will not think he is reasonable or want to listen to anything he says. He will not be greeted by the cheers of an adoring populace. When he appears, people will hope to god superheroes show up to finally arrest him so that he can be brought to trial and a hopeful speedy incarceration. People don't generally respect the villain, or even the massive bodycount antihero, and there's usually no driving reason for them to do so. It breaks the setting we as admin are trying to maintain the feel of for someone to demand that they do anyway, and to narrate that they do anyway. You want to play the subtle villain who can engage heroes and people at large in dialogue? That's great, that's cool, that's a classic concept. It means that however if you've done things like the Captain has, or gone on rampages otherwise to field test your weapons, or your robots have caused havoc across the city, or etc. etc. etc. both the superhero community and the average man on the street aint about to buy it. You might have to do something like create a completely new villain id for yourself. Or: There's a difference between early 60s raving madman Magneto, and 80s-90s tragic Magneto as far as which of these people is actually sympathetic outside of their own delusions. There's a reason they had to completely retcon the vast numbers of people Magneto massacred under Grant Morrisons run for the character to come off as sympathetic again. Or, say you want to turn the community against superheroes? Again, cool, classic plan. It is however /an uphill struggle, because most people like superheroes and superheroes have demonstrably made the world around them better/. So you have to factor that in. You don't narrate that you're tapping into a sentiment you've already created or that exists outside of you. We have villain characters with the understanding that when you slot your character under "villain", you're accepting a few things about their place in the world. And that if you have them act a certain way, you don't follow that up by stating what they believe should in fact be objective truth across the setting. And that depending on what your character believes as is, it's not the objective truth anyway, or anywhere even close. I say this because we've had what feels like a rush lately of either particularly, spectacularly dark characters, or characters who in the way they act and what in several cases have become what feels like demands to us on how the setting should treat them, seem to feel they are playing in a completely different setting. This isn't Image, or Wildstorm. If your conscience hath a thousand several tongues, and every tongue brings in a several tale, and every tale condemns you for a villain, then you're a villain. And you will be treated that way. If you don't like that, either make a different type of villain, or don't play a villain.

I usually try to keep these threads to a couple of players to be honest, if you want to set up something separate from em though as far as some kind of villain/hero encounter, let me know.

You would need to pm one of us with more detail on your intended use of the guy. It's otherwise better when you want to use major setting npcs, to have one of the GMs run the thread honestly, it's part of what we're here for.

His lips curved gently in a slight frown at her anxiety, he moved a hand forward to rest lightly over one of hers as she spoke, a gesture of reassurance, to reinforce that it was safe to speak here, and to him. "I am from an eons old society descended from the survivors of Atlantis, and in my comparatively to others short career as a superhero I have flown through the skies alongside restored champions from decades past invoking the power of whole pantheons, and been in fights with giant robot mummies from space. I am in no way unnerved or put off by the details of your parentage. I am however honoured that you would feel comfortable to share such with me though, and I assure you, I will keep it to myself." A firm nod at that and an entirely gentle squeeze of her hand to punctuate the sentiment. "You might though, consider mentioning it to someone with more familiarity or pull with the Greek Gods that could help you out in that venue if problems arise. Daedelus perhaps, who I could introduce you to." That thoughtful pause again. "I'm not, being forthright, exactly pleased with the other reasoning you're giving as to your motivations, as far as it goes, but.. ahm.. I think this is one of those situations where learning by doing would be more illuminating for you, would you like to come on patrol with me today?"

"I am the ambassador of a people who for millenia kept themselves concealed from the outside world, and particularly bear some of the thought echoes of those who created the policies for so doing in the first place. So.. ahm.. yes." "The problem with that question though, and your very weighty look.. well.. if your secret is something that is causing harm to another, I can't promise you anything. I would suppose I can only tell you to trust whatever instinct told you I would serve well as a moral compass in the first place." He shifted forward to her in turn, out of no other instinct than trying to let her feel that if she wanted to keep speaking quietly, he would certainly hear her.