Alleyverse Character Discussion

[Tacitus he/him]

On 7/13/2022 at 8:00 PM, Voidus said:

Well there's no shard of Circus, but 80 points would typically be considered peak physical fitness and highest levels of possible profiency in a particular trade. Which would make someone as good as a person can be at that trade without magical assistance. But yeah as ZInc said we don't really mess with Shardic level characters these days. Additionally since this tends to nowadays be a pretty serious RP with very real issues that get explored I would be hesitant to approve such a character since they'd very likely turn into a kind of joke character / just introduce zany whacky antics everywhere they go, which can really undercut other people's stories.

Cool, cool. The whole 'shard of circus' thing was really just a hyperbole I used to express the pure skill, but yeah, I know what you're saying. And with the whacky antics thing as well, that could turn south for sure, although I wasn't really considering that sort of personality for a character.

All in all, that's very helpful in my ongoing quest to understand this thing that is the Alleyverse, thanks.

[SymphonianBookworm she/her]

If my character is a mastermind, can they have photographic memory?

@Voidus @ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

2 minutes ago, SymphonianBookworm said:

If my character is a mastermind, can they have photographic memory?

@Voidus @ZincAboutIt

It’s finally happened, someone thinks I’m in charge around here. 

In truth I have no idea, you’ll have to ask our most excellent ruler, Voidus. Though I would think it might depend on what your character’s specialties are. If I recall she is/was a scribe? That might be a logical ability in that case. But again, I have no actual power here.  

[SymphonianBookworm she/her]

9 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

It’s finally happened, someone thinks I’m in charge around here. 

In truth I have no idea, you’ll have to ask our most excellent ruler, Voidus. Though I would think it might depend on what your character’s specialties are. If I recall she is/was a scribe? That might be a logical ability in that case. But again, I have no actual power here.  

Hah! I knew you said that you were able to answer questions, so... yep.

Something like a scribe. Ah well, i'll wait for Voidus.

[Voidus]

Sure. I would recommend doing some research since there's actually some academic debate as to whether such a thing exists so you may wish to look into actual memory prodigies for some inspiration but this is after all a fantasy RP so not too unreasonable. And yes memory is one of the abilities implied by the Intelligence skill.

[EmulatonStromenkiin he/him]

@Voidus, I need you to asses an Epicish power. I just need a ballpark idea of how many points it would have.

Emulator - can copy the power of any being touched. This is invested powers and epic powers. Can retain up to 5, 1 hr tryout. Allomantic/Feruchemic metals each count as 1 slot. Must be touching Hemalurgic spike to gain the ability it has. Occulator gains the ability to use one lens, but must be touching that lens type and the occulator. No Smedry talents. Nightwatcher boon/bane if applicable, i.e. Lift’s metabolism. However, must copy both boon and bane if can. Only 1 surge, which requires stormlight to function, along the lines of Honorblade use of the stormlight and holding of it. Stormlight reinforcement is part of the surge. Can retain only 1 Aon per slot, and has no innate skill/knowledge of how to draw the Aon. Nightblood is too strong to duplicate, and anything along those lines. Can copy 1 result of BioChroma Heightenings, i.e. Agelessness or Perfect pitch. If taking epic power, weakness of that epic applies to that power, cannot take prime invincibility. Sandmastery- 1 ribbon per slot. Can copy ability to Forge, but has no skill/knowledge in it. Cytonic abilities are the same as A/Fmetals, one per slot. Limited to the ones that keep him in the physical realm - no jumping. (i.e. mindblades and thought-sense yes, FTL travel no.)
-essentially has 5 blank slots in his Spiritweb that he can overwrite with “code” taken from others’ Spiritwebs when touching them, granting him an invested ability per slot. He also has has a temporary slot that clears 1 hour after he overwrites it. He can choose to shift the ability from the temp spot to a permanent slot, but does not have to. Doing so clears the temp spot. All abilities first go into the temp slot before overwriting one of the 5 slots.

I'm thinking that discounting weakness it's be around 100 or 110 points.

Edited August 17, 2022 by EmulatonStromenkiin

[Voidus]

On 8/17/2022 at 8:02 AM, EmulatonStromenkiin said:

@Voidus, I need you to asses an Epicish power. I just need a ballpark idea of how many points it would have.

Emulator - can copy the power of any being touched. This is invested powers and epic powers. Can retain up to 5, 1 hr tryout. Allomantic/Feruchemic metals each count as 1 slot. Must be touching Hemalurgic spike to gain the ability it has. Occulator gains the ability to use one lens, but must be touching that lens type and the occulator. No Smedry talents. Nightwatcher boon/bane if applicable, i.e. Lift’s metabolism. However, must copy both boon and bane if can. Only 1 surge, which requires stormlight to function, along the lines of Honorblade use of the stormlight and holding of it. Stormlight reinforcement is part of the surge. Can retain only 1 Aon per slot, and has no innate skill/knowledge of how to draw the Aon. Nightblood is too strong to duplicate, and anything along those lines. Can copy 1 result of BioChroma Heightenings, i.e. Agelessness or Perfect pitch. If taking epic power, weakness of that epic applies to that power, cannot take prime invincibility. Sandmastery- 1 ribbon per slot. Can copy ability to Forge, but has no skill/knowledge in it. Cytonic abilities are the same as A/Fmetals, one per slot. Limited to the ones that keep him in the physical realm - no jumping. (i.e. mindblades and thought-sense yes, FTL travel no.)
-essentially has 5 blank slots in his Spiritweb that he can overwrite with “code” taken from others’ Spiritwebs when touching them, granting him an invested ability per slot. He also has has a temporary slot that clears 1 hour after he overwrites it. He can choose to shift the ability from the temp spot to a permanent slot, but does not have to. Doing so clears the temp spot. All abilities first go into the temp slot before overwriting one of the 5 slots.

I'm thinking that discounting weakness it's be around 100 or 110 points.

I mean effectively this amounts to approval for five of the highest ranking abilities that he's capable of copying, not including accounting for compounding and such. This would be well and truly over the point cap. Like 300-400 range probably if I put a specific to it.

Copying one power from people is already very powerful due to its versatility, having five stored up is prone to all sorts of broken shenanigans. 

[EmulatonStromenkiin he/him]

5 hours ago, Voidus said:

I mean effectively this amounts to approval for five of the highest ranking abilities that he's capable of copying, not including accounting for compounding and such. This would be well and truly over the point cap. Like 300-400 range probably if I put a specific to it.

Copying one power from people is already very powerful due to its versatility, having five stored up is prone to all sorts of broken shenanigans. 

I see I need to restrict this more. And make him have lots of problems.

[SymphonianBookworm she/her]

On 8/18/2022 at 5:12 PM, EmulatonStromenkiin said:

And make him have lots of problems.

That's what I did, in a nutshell. When in doubt, a couple phobias is never wrong!

[EmulatonStromenkiin he/him]

2 hours ago, SymphonianBookworm said:

That's what I did, in a nutshell. When in doubt, a couple phobias is never wrong!

fair. I came up with a few more restrictions based on how the magic systems work. He would not be able to copy the surges, as that requires a spren of some kind, but he would be able to inhale stormlight, using it as fast as someone with an honorblade. Cannot duplicate Fused abilities either, but same principle for voidlight.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Just perhaps a small bit of advice - simply “adding problems” to a character in order to get more points isn’t always the best idea. Also, if you build too intensely up front then it’s really hard to add fun stuff as time goes on. In a world full of easily inserted upgrades (“easily” being very ah, simplistic of a term ) it’s often way more fun to let things unfold naturally and build power level slowly. I think, anyway.

[Voidus]

Yeah I do generally discourage people from adding just a laundry list of minor phobias and inconsequential flaws to get more points. Big flaws can be good to add to flesh out a character but generally it's good to think of what they add to the character rather than how many points you can get for them.

[EmulatonStromenkiin he/him]

I'm putting it on the backburner for now, possibly for use in another era. I like to think of random complicated powers that are technically possible here because of Epics.

[Ashbringer he/him]

Quick DA Era 5 question - between Alithya’s memory hunters and the DA being secret, would a Department of Public Relations even exist? Or would that be something that was sorta made nonexistant by the Forgery?

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

4 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

Quick DA Era 5 question - between Alithya’s memory hunters and the DA being secret, would a Department of Public Relations even exist? Or would that be something that was sorta made nonexistant by the Forgery?

I would guess that the PR division might exist but it would revolve around people not knowing about the DA. So likely some kind of sub-department of possibly the DoCI or maybe even Acquisitions. One of the groups that is out in the city covertly making sure no one gets too aware and also making sure that the more enthusiastic R&D members don’t get out and roam around looking supremely suspicious.

[Ashbringer he/him]

13 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

I would guess that the PR division might exist but it would revolve around people not knowing about the DA. So likely some kind of sub-department of possibly the DoCI or maybe even Acquisitions. One of the groups that is out in the city covertly making sure no one gets too aware and also making sure that the more enthusiastic R&D members don’t get out and roam around looking supremely suspicious.

Neat! Assuming the de-Forgery necessitates a full Department of PR, then that gives a good intro for my PR Head.

Assuming I get around to it. Which I should have time to do.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

49 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

Neat! Assuming the de-Forgery necessitates a full Department of PR, then that gives a good intro for my PR Head.

Assuming I get around to it. Which I should have time to do.

Yes this Dept would be its own thing  in the normal timeline or sort of rolled into Marketing (which is headed by the Stranger currently and uh, might need a new leader too depending )

[Ashbringer he/him]

2 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Yes this Dept would be its own thing  in the normal timeline or sort of rolled into Marketing (which is headed by the Stranger currently and uh, might need a new leader too depending )

My current idea for the PR head is a mortal copper-based Hemalurgist who wants to mainly do PR with memory-editing, but also doesn't "trust" / doesn't want to rely on the demi-god forces of the DA in order to actually do that. Mostly Alithya, but also Voidus/Stranger/anyone else who shows up.

Not exactly Marketing, although there would be involvement with probably a few Departments to figure out the best "image". And I could probably find a marketing aspect if we need to.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

2 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

My current idea for the PR head is a mortal copper-based Hemalurgist who wants to mainly do PR with memory-editing, but also doesn't "trust" / doesn't want to rely on the demi-god forces of the DA in order to actually do that. Mostly Alithya, but also Voidus/Stranger/anyone else who shows up.

Not exactly Marketing, although there would be involvement with probably a few Departments to figure out the best "image". And I could probably find a marketing aspect if we need to.

The demigods likely appreciate the break in obligation

Edit: Also, @Chaoslink, is your character at all inspired by the (Game of Thrones/ASoIaF spoilers) 

Spoiler

Faceless Men assassins guild? The origin philosophy is so similar, I couldn’t help but draw a parallel. 

 

Edited September 15, 2022 by ZincAboutIt

[Chaoslink]

Actually not, because I havent watched GoT and have only read book 1 of ASOIAF, but thats really interesting! I didnt know that!

[Rushu42 she/her]

I have a question about the new character sheet that's specific to my character, if any mods could help me out. I would consider Aln's scholarship/intelligence to be her major merit, because that's the skill that her character is built around. But, obviously, 3rd oath Knight Radiant is also a major merit. Her bane does interact with her Radiant powers in a way that makes them less powerful - but I'm not sure if that's enough to downgrade it to a normal merit, since that'll only apply in some scenarios. Do I need to tweak this power balance, or does the fact that these advancements were previously approved mean that I can keep both merits?

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

20 minutes ago, Rushu42 said:

I have a question about the new character sheet that's specific to my character, if any mods could help me out. I would consider Aln's scholarship/intelligence to be her major merit, because that's the skill that her character is built around. But, obviously, 3rd oath Knight Radiant is also a major merit. Her bane does interact with her Radiant powers in a way that makes them less powerful - but I'm not sure if that's enough to downgrade it to a normal merit, since that'll only apply in some scenarios. Do I need to tweak this power balance, or does the fact that these advancements were previously approved mean that I can keep both merits?

Despite her foundational reliance on her scholarship I would actually not consider it a major merit myself, I would consider it normal. Unless she were truly a famous level of scholar perhaps like Jasnah, who could use her status to wield extra influential power or something with that kind of reputation. If it helps I actually have Lita’s Twinborn capabilities also listed as normal merits, despite the fact that her abilities as a Tineye especially are the core element of her character. So it doesn’t need to be that a major merit is the foundation of a character. Just their largest character advantage in relation to the world or to others around them.

Also, since she’s been approved she would obviously be approved again. So no worries there. But this may give you some reassurance on the character sheet formation.

[MacThorstenson he/him]

@EmulatonStromenkiin Balancer is looking really nice, two quick questions though, how does unageing fit into his character, where does he get that from, and then can you describe framesight a bit more? does it just cause things to be outlined in his frames, if so how does that show him that objects are forged?

[EmulatonStromenkiin he/him]

3 hours ago, MacThorstenson said:

@EmulatonStromenkiin Balancer is looking really nice, two quick questions though, how does unageing fit into his character, where does he get that from, and then can you describe framesight a bit more? does it just cause things to be outlined in his frames, if so how does that show him that objects are forged?

I just put Unaging in there so he wouldn't die of old age. It's mostly pointless, given my current plans for him, and I can remove it if you want.

As for the Framesight, it's a visual extension of his powers, functionally a mental eye. If he were to look at a ball or any spherical object, he would see this:

Things aren't just outlined in frames, everything else vanishes in framesight. Sometimes it slips over his normal vision and he does see the object outlined by lines, but not often. As for the detecting forgery, This post describes it best, mostly the following memory:

Nightmares. Pain. His fault. Destruction.
His eyes flew open, waking from a long slumber. Unfamiliar faces, all around. He reached within, instinctively grasping something that was not there before. A heartbeat. A light exploded, rippling across his sight. When he could see again, all he saw were lines of blue giving shape to everything, wires outlining what he assumed were objects, buildings, people. But there was something wrong. The lines kept bending, twisting. Trying to change to an orientation that was the same yet different, but being forced back by some thing or being he couldn’t see. He strained to see more, trying to understand, but darkness crashed over him and dragged him down to sleep.

He sees the lines wishing to go back to what they were, which is only something he sees in a Forgery, due to how it works. Individuals are hard to distinguish when he is using the framesight, as most specific features are smoothed over. A head normally looks like a mostly smooth egg shape.

[MacThorstenson he/him]

@EmulatonStromenkiin

I think getting rid of the immortality might be a good thing. Something feels deeply wrong inside with a character that has functional immortality as a minor character trait . If it was going to be a foundational aspect of their character (i.e. a couple arcs were going to be grappling with their newfound unaging and what that means for how they act in this constantly changing world) then I would say lets keep it and rework somethings, but if it can be removed lets drop it. 

As for the framesight, thats a really awesome and descriptive ability! I like it, but would ask that its limited to forged objects, not all illusions in general. Perhaps you could say that all illusions have some form of mental component that influences their framesight as well as their real eyes. General illusion detection would be a bit more then a minor merit. 

With unageing being removed, that gives you another minor merit you can add if you would want, as soon as you get it let me know and I'll add balancer to an era 6 character list.

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by MacThorstenson