Question 12

[Elithanathile he/him]

Is this were I go to add a new character to the madness that is the reckoners RPG? If so, I'll edit this with the information of my epic, so you can all pick and tug at it until it gets better.

 

Edit: Here's all the relevant and irrelevant information

 

Thoron, defender of the people.

 

Chin Wong, Grew up in China, working in a factory from the ages of 10-22, before his parents saved up enough money to send him away, and go to America. Discovered comic books, and became fascinated by superheroes in general. Worked at a car manufacturing plant for 8 years, while building up his collection of comic books, but going to the gym regularly, and never discussing them, so as not to be called a “nerd.” Was 34 was calamity rose, and a few years afterwards, was overjoyed to discover he had powers. When his rending occurred, he originally tried to lock himself in his apartment, after he realized what would happen, but he blew up the building, and went on his rending, destroying entire city blocks nearby. He had stalled enough though, that he didn't destroy more. His parents had finally saved enough to come to America, had finally tracked down their son, now that they were getting on in years, but had not told him because they wanted it to be a surprise. They were walking down the street, excited to see him once again, when he destroyed the block. Their hearts were broken at seeing him, and they died with the rest of the block. He never became aware that he had killed them.

 

Very PR focused. Styles himself as a superhero, and styles his fights to make him seem to be a hero, while casting his opponent in a bad light. Is grim underneath the surface, but he almost always has a smile on his face for the crowd, and most citizens see him as good. He seeks the praise of others, and after one city idolizes him for a time, he will move on, constantly attempting to gain more fame. But underneath the pristine exterior, he has a violent temper. He tries to keep it under control, but if someone gets in his way, or frustrates or annoys him in any small way, he will take it out on that person, and occasionally other bystanders in a mad fit of rage. He never attempts to cover these up, merely stating that the offender, who is now dead, was a traitor, and was a threat to the city. Most don't believe these statements, but he does enough for the people, in their eyes, that nobody really complains. He must always have his way.

 

Tries to help the people, isn't big on mad rampages, and views the world and incredibly courageous, to the point of foolhardy even, trusting his powers to keep him safe. It's also good for his image.

 

Easily provoked to anger, pushed to be the person everyone looks up to, and egotistical, thinking himself a superhero, and no-one else can be as strong, or as handsome as he is, because they aren't one. Also holds a grudge a long time.

 

His three wishes would probably be: To have the anger taken from him, to earn the respect of the entire world, and probably to stop using the powers, so to have an alter-ego.

 

Cocoa Puff Question: Probably have a small bit of anger inside, suppress it, try and go to a different store to get some, but remember the “slight” and possibly target the store as a candidate for destruction during a fight in the future.

 

Enemy laundromat question: He would attempt to force them to remove their clothes from the machine. If they complied, he would probably let them live, but if they complained or hesitated, he would kill them without a thought, burn the washing machine, and then bully another customer into letting him use theirs.

 

Powers: Cannot be damaged. i.e. skin cells do not die, so constantly getting bigger. Never gets stomach cramps, sickness, or bullets to the brain. The bullet would have some impact, so he can be shifted around, but would not penetrate, or damage anything. Could be seen as “next level” of impenetrable skin. Power sees how he sees himself, and keeps it that way. So he sees himself as perfect skin, skin never dying, never getting stomach cramps, so it keeps him that way. Can freeze time, but can't affect anything frozen in time, so he just uses it to move around. Looks like a mix of teleportation and super speed. Very minor shape shifting powers, only usable to change physical appearance. He used to have brown hair, and light skin, though pretty bulky, he changed it to a tan skin color and black hair, in a superman style. Super strength, so can lift a bus, but mostly uses it for brawling, coupled with skill in boxing/brawling/martial arts given by powers. Doesn't bother dodging blows.

 

Appearance: Wears cape, and usually jeans and T-shirt, but has custom made superhero costume locked away, for “special occasions.” Very large, (6'8”) and has big muscles. Plays off of the superman angle for looks. The pupils of his eyes are black, the one thing he can't change about his appearance, somehow brought on by his abilities. Strong features, chiseled face, etc.

 

Edit: Something I forgot to mention, he is pretty shallow-minded about his powers. Instead of using them for disguise or discovering secrets, he uses them primarily for fighting and making himself look like a superhero.

Edited June 10, 2015 by Bridge Boy

[Kobold King he/him]

Is this were I go to add a new character to the madness that is the reckoners RPG? If so, I'll edit this with the information of my epic, so you can all pick and tug at it until it gets better.

 

Yep, this is where the madness magic happens.

[Mckeedee123 he/him]

Pretty in-depth. You've got a nice character here.

[Elithanathile he/him]

Yep. That's an entire 15 minutes of my morning you're looking at there.

 

A.K.A. Feel free to tell me what to do to improve it, because I know it can be better.

Edited June 10, 2015 by Bridge Boy

[Curious Anamaximder he/him]

Okay. What thread would you join?

[Elithanathile he/him]

The Salem Thread. It seems a bit light on epics, as far as the rules and regulations topic shows.

[Curious Anamaximder he/him]

The Salem Thread. It seems a bit light on epics, as far as the rules and regulations topic shows.

I would personally do Astoria, cause your Epic is a High Epic. But you are welcome in Salem!

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I would personally do Astoria, cause your Epic is a High Epic. But you are welcome in Salem!

Give both Edge and Voidus. (Astoria and Salem GMs, respectively) a chance to give their two cents.

[Elithanathile he/him]

What's the difference between the different cities?

Edited June 10, 2015 by Bridge Boy

[Voidus]

Salem's welcome to all, Astoria is our designated OP character thread and he could certainly fit in there but Salem has High Epics too.

Salems mostly going to be combat focussed, I'm not planning on much intrigue or city-wide plots going on although that may change in future when we get around to more openly destroying the state. There will be regular arena matches between Epics of varied power levels and in various conditions and settings as well as some Epic vs. Monster battles and the like.
Astoria is pretty combat heavy too but has a bit more happening that affects the city, I'll leave it to Edge to better describe it.

[Elithanathile he/him]

My Epic is pretty combat focused, so I'd like to try and put him in a setting with more plots and intrigue, forcing him to change his habits and how he does things. I want there to be some character growth

 

I will wait to see how Edge puts things before I make my final decision.

[Edgedancer he/him]

 

Powers: Cannot be damaged. i.e. skin cells do not die, so constantly getting bigger. Never gets stomach cramps, sickness, or bullets to the brain. The bullet would have some impact, so he can be shifted around, but would not penetrate, or damage anything. Could be seen as “next level” of impenetrable skin. Power sees how he sees himself, and keeps it that way. So he sees himself as perfect skin, skin never dying, never getting stomach cramps, so it keeps him that way. Can freeze time, but can't affect anything frozen in time, so he just uses it to move around. Looks like a mix of teleportation and super speed. Very minor shape shifting powers, only usable to change physical appearance. He used to have brown hair, and light skin, though pretty bulky, he changed it to a tan skin color and black hair, in a superman style. Super strength, so can lift a bus, but mostly uses it for brawling, coupled with skill in boxing/brawling/martial arts given by powers. Doesn't bother dodging blows.

I'll be honest, I'm a little bit tight on time right now, so I only read the power section and am going to read the other parts later.

On the powers: What do you mean with "constantly getting bigger"?

I know this is a bit of a usual overlooked thing but if he can move around after stoping time he can clearly affect air, is there anything else that's a bit wonky within the powers.

The other thing, if his powers keep him the way he sees himself, wouldn't that automatically cancel out his shapeshifting, given that he obviously sees himself as himself?

 

What's the difference between the different cities?

As for Astoria, we have a city with a regim made out of very powerful Epics, the head of state (Lucentia) is currently out of town. Although the puplic hasn't quite catched on to that, given that she isn't a very puplic person and just left 1~2 days ago. The setting is about new powerful Epics entering the city, starting a turf war with the government, figthing each other, alliances to take down the government or whatever other interaction with the setting and the characters they feel like.

[Elithanathile he/him]

To answer your power questions, thousands of our skin cells die every second, which then flake off, so we grow still, with our skin expanding and our bones growing, but we still lose those skin cells. His skin cells never die, meaning that his skin is always getting thicker, so he is growing and extra inch or two every year. It is stated multiple times in the reckoner books that epic powers are weird, not acting like they maybe should. So he can move the air, but everything else is immobile. And he sees himself as a sueprhero, kinda like superman, but with some other ones mixed in. His shapeshifting powers are just showing on the outside what he sees himself as on the inside. If he really tried, he could manipulate them to a further extend, but he's satisfied with how they show him now.

 

Sorry if my facts are off anatomically, I read it a while back, and that's what I remember, but I might have forgotten something very important that makes my point null.

Edited June 10, 2015 by Bridge Boy

[Elithanathile he/him]

And Thoron wants to find a smaller city, with some epics in it, but none powerful enough to stand in his way. He wants everyone else to look up to him, and respect him, and he feels like he can't do that with many other powerful epics around. But maybe he decides that he needs to make some motion, go big, if you will, to make the entire world notice him. so I think he's going to head to Astoria.

[Elithanathile he/him]

So if my characters okay, how do I join the Astoria thread?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

So if my characters okay, how do I join the Astoria thread?

 

I'd wait a while to give Edge a chance to respond in full. (And try to avoid double- or triple-posting. Just edit your previous post. ) 

[Elithanathile he/him]

Alright. Apologies, and I'll make sure to avoid that in the future.

[Edgedancer he/him]

To answer your power questions, thousands of our skin cells die every second, which then flake off, so we grow still, with our skin expanding and our bones growing, but we still lose those skin cells. His skin cells never die, meaning that his skin is always getting thicker, so he is growing and extra inch or two every year. It is stated multiple times in the reckoner books that epic powers are weird, not acting like they maybe should. So he can move the air, but everything else is immobile. And he sees himself as a sueprhero, kinda like superman, but with some other ones mixed in. His shapeshifting powers are just showing on the outside what he sees himself as on the inside. If he really tried, he could manipulate them to a further extend, but he's satisfied with how they show him now.

That wouldn't cause him to grow and just make him thicker or cover him with a ball of skin cells that makes his movement impposible, kind of like putting your arms into a tube, given that he'd also grow to the sides and into his joints and that's without the matter of his new skin having to push away his old skin, which it couldn't.

Okay, we are moving into metaphisycal level here but if his powers don't take how he sees himself as an absolute (aka looks exactly like he does ect.) but as an ideal to allow for his superman looks he still wouldn't be able to shift into another appearance from there or at least have a very limited range and more importantly his ideal of himself wouldn't be invulnerable until he knows how his powers work, which he would never find out because they don't trigger... unless the corruption of Calamity convinced him he's that awesome but then it'd also have to raise his perception of himself as the optimum and eliminated idols like Suprman as a superior reference point for his shape shifting... and if you actually look at this set up not as a finished product but as the required steps that lead up to it it is way more complicated than it has any right to be.

 

Anyway, if you want to join Astoria just write up an introduction post for your character and then go from there. It would probably advisable to ask other people in advance if you want your character to meet their character, which is bound to happen at one point or another.

[Elithanathile he/him]

Yeah, there's a lot of things that don't make sense, but I figured it was a pretty good outline of a character. Thanks, and I'll go write up my introduction post. Thanks everyone for all your help.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Yeah, there's a lot of things that don't make sense, but I figured it was a pretty good outline of a character. Thanks, and I'll go write up my introduction post. Thanks everyone for all your help.

 

If he thinks he's a hero, that's a good basis for Calamity to corrupt from. What kinds of atrocities does he usually perform in the name of heroism? 

[Edgedancer he/him]

Yeah, there's a lot of things that don't make sense, but I figured it was a pretty good outline of a character. Thanks, and I'll go write up my introduction post. Thanks everyone for all your help.

So, if you yourself think that it doesn't really make sense how about cutting that bit about it being based on self-perception? It's not like you are drawing any mechanical effect from it compared to normal invulnerable skin.

[Elithanathile he/him]

Well, there are a few differences. With his ability, no part of his body can be hurt. With invulnerable skin, you can still get stomach aches, headaches, etc. also, it builds into his motives. He is all about keeping his image up, others image of him, and his image of himself. I don't know how it all works exactly, but it adds to his character and to his motives.

 

And some atrocities that he has commited are mostly minor, setting up other epics to make them look bad, framing many people, killing vanillas left and right, which isn't seen as a felony by most epics, but once, he was attacked by a reckoner cell in Illinois, which made him mad enough that he lost control and talked a fellow epic into running electricity along the power lines, enough to kill every vanilla and some non-high epics, as well as overloading the grid. Then he personally hunted down every remaining epic in the city. He left the city a desolate wreck, completely dead. Then he moved to another state, and began overtaking another city. Any atrocities that he commits, he bases it on the fact that he's a hero, he can't do anything wrong, and finds a reason why it was right. He hasn't really commited any huge atrocities besides the city in Illinois.

[Edgedancer he/him]

Well, there are a few differences. With his ability, no part of his body can be hurt. With invulnerable skin, you can still get stomach aches, headaches, etc. also, it builds into his motives. He is all about keeping his image up, others image of him, and his image of himself. I don't know how it all works exactly, but it adds to his character and to his motives.

 

And some atrocities that he has commited are mostly minor, setting up other epics to make them look bad, framing many people, killing vanillas left and right, which isn't seen as a felony by most epics, but once, he was attacked by a reckoner cell in Illinois, which made him mad enough that he lost control and talked a fellow epic into running electricity along the power lines, enough to kill every vanilla and some non-high epics, as well as overloading the grid. Then he personally hunted down every remaining epic in the city. He left the city a desolate wreck, completely dead. Then he moved to another state, and began overtaking another city. Any atrocities that he commits, he bases it on the fact that he's a hero, he can't do anything wrong, and finds a reason why it was right. He hasn't really commited any huge atrocities besides the city in Illinois.

Stomach aches can easily be included with invulnerable skin and this may just be my personal philosphy but if you literally don't completely understand how the power works, to the point where it doesn't really make snese at all and it doesn't really matter in the long run, maybe you shouldn't use it.

 

...so murder and destroying an entire city, which means dozen if not hundreths of people died in the aftermath counts as "mostly minor"?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

...so murder and destroying an entire city, which means dozen if not hundreths of people died in the aftermath counts as "mostly minor"?

 

If he's done awful things like that in the name of heroism, I say just embrace that aspect of his character. He's not a gifter, correct? So he wouldn't have Prof's excuse for staving off the corruption. A character who fancies himself a hero, yet has no qualms against destroying an entire town in his rage, could be extremely chilling. 

[Kobold King he/him]

I'm not gonna comment on his powerset--that's more Edgedancer's modus operandi--but a callous Epic who sets himself up as a hero even while being a total slontze?

 

Do we finally have Epic!Captain Hammer?