Alleyverse Character Discussion

[+ZincAboutIt]

2 hours ago, Grey Knight said:

Fair enough, I'll change the character. Fortunately, I did some sleep-deprived thinking and realized that I can change Mr. Poot into an Epic with basically no significant re-writes needed. In fact, it actually works a bit better this way.

This made me chuckle a little bit, not going to lie.

 

Anyway, here's the new character!

  Reveal hidden contents

Name: Rik Poot, Wizard 3rd rate

Appearance: Just an ugly little rat of a man. Short, with a long nose and bald head. Has a thick black beard that he obsessively braids and cares for. Young, despite his looks.

Guild (or intended guild): None. Potentially Ghostbloods.

Personality: Rik Poot has surprisingly developed mental resiliency, coping mechanisms, and social skills for an Epic. He simply chooses not to use them. He is erratic and eccentric, and annoyingly stubborn. For better or worse, he will not deviate from a path he has chosen.

Motivation (Short & long term goal): Rik Poot is not native to the Alleyverse. Given the choice, he would rather be anywhere else in the universe. Unfortunately, he has found himself bound to the second-rate Epic known as Balrog, an eldritch horror hell-bent on expanding his personal power. Multiple kill-switches have been embedded in his body after a series of invasive surgeries performed by Balrog. His short-term goal, then, is his captor's mission of joining the Ghostbloods. Doing so will let him survive for a little while longer. His long-term goal is to escape his captor's grasp and finally find freedom.

Merits: Poot's Epic powers grant him what looks like actual wizardry.  Unfortunately, he's terrible at most of these powers. He's capable of only the most rudimentary telepathy and pyromancy, and can barely manage organic manipulation (all minor merits). Where he truly shines is in his telekinetic abilities (Major merit). He can crush enemies' heads at a distance, create blasts of concussive force, and deftly manipulate minute objects. A lifetime of combat has also given him proficiency in swordsmanship, and his rough upbringing have given him an unusually tough constitution (normal merits).

Flaws: Over-use of Poot's powers will straight-up explode his head. As such, he needs time between powerful attacks to rest and decrease his Perils level. He can do 3 powerful attacks before needing about 30 seconds to recharge. His Epic weakness is a nasty one, too-- he's terrified of anything demonic or eldritch horror-y. Even being around such things will shut down his powers. Rik is also stubbornly fickle and distrustful of authority to the point of active detriment to his mission.

NPCs (Eg. Family and Friends): Other members of the small warband of traveling Epics, along with the hated leader.

Backstory: As earlier stated, Rik would rather be anywhere else in the universe. Unfortunately, he fell into the grasp of an extremely powerful Epic that hard-countered all of Rik's abilities. This Balrog then decided to travel the multiverse with its warband of lesser Epics (all forced into servitude or insane enough to willingly serve a demon). The band has ended up in the Alleyverse, and Balrog has decided to make itself a local powerhouse by joining the Ghostbloods.

Home Planet: Earth, somewhere in Holland

Loose ends: The kill-switch in his brain, and his current state of captivity

 

Thanks for being so willing to re-work this!  We really appreciate it. Obviously we have some questions about the strength of each merit in a more specific capacity. To have telephathy, pyromancy and organic manipulation as minor merits, they would be relatively minor in capacity. Here is what I would consider a minor merit version of each, for a hypothetical:

Telepathy: A sense of heightened empathy, skill reading another person’s emotions, something akin to tapping a low level of Connection.

Pyromancy: Snuffing/lighting candles, evading fire when it’s brandished at you, minor fireproofing of a limb or piece of clothing like a cloak.

Organic augmentation: Healing a minor wound or burn, regrowing hair/nails, possible augmentation of senses if the other options for this were not taken (basically using this ability like A-tin)

It should be obvious to you that long range head exploding is a very high level major merit so I want to make sure I understand it. I would count this as an OP powerset but that’s just me, and it doesn’t mean your character is rejected. But I do think that perhaps this specific power should come with either a set lead-up time or a very high personal cost so people can have the ability to run away or so your character can weigh pros and cons with each use. That way people won’t be too hesitant to interact with you (there is a reason people aren’t lining up to RP with IC Mac or Voidus, they can kill you so fast it’s a big risk). Thoughts?

[Grey Knight]

3 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Telepathy: A sense of heightened empathy, skill reading another person’s emotions, something akin to tapping a low level of Connection.

Pyromancy: Snuffing/lighting candles, evading fire when it’s brandished at you, minor fireproofing of a limb or piece of clothing like a cloak.

Organic augmentation: Healing a minor wound or burn, regrowing hair/nails, possible augmentation of senses if the other options for this were not taken (basically using this ability like A-tin)

It should be obvious to you that long range head exploding is a very high level major merit so I want to make sure I understand it. I would count this as an OP powerset but that’s just me, and it doesn’t mean your character is rejected. But I do think that perhaps this specific power should come with either a set lead-up time or a very high personal cost so people can have the ability to run away or so your character can weigh pros and cons with each use. That way people won’t be too hesitant to interact with you (there is a reason people aren’t lining up to RP with IC Mac or Voidus, they can kill you so fast it’s a big risk). Thoughts?

I agree with basically everything you just said. You've perfectly captured what I was planning on having for the minor talents, and I totally agree that the head-popping is a big deal. In my mind, it would take a solid 30 seconds of very obvious concentration and channeling, that if interrupted would immediately reset the process. It's also immensely taxing-- as I said, he can only do it a couple times before needing a good deal of time to rest. It also really hurts him to do.

[+ZincAboutIt]

20 minutes ago, Grey Knight said:

I agree with basically everything you just said. You've perfectly captured what I was planning on having for the minor talents, and I totally agree that the head-popping is a big deal. In my mind, it would take a solid 30 seconds of very obvious concentration and channeling, that if interrupted would immediately reset the process. It's also immensely taxing-- as I said, he can only do it a couple times before needing a good deal of time to rest. It also really hurts him to do.

Awesome! I would say that I’d want a decision on just how you’d classify organic augmentation (using it as alternative tin or as a minor healing boon) as well as a range of the telekinesis power. “Long range” can mean a lot of things. Then we can do a full review and get back to you, since Voidus knows most about Epic type abilities!

[Grey Knight]

Just now, ZincAboutIt said:

Awesome! I would say that I’d want a decision on just how you’d classify organic augmentation (using it as alternative tin or as a minor healing boon) as well as a range of the telekinesis power. “Long range” can mean a lot of things. Then we can do a full review and get back to you, since Voidus knows most about Epic type abilities!

For organic augmentation, I was thinking it would be an alternative pewter, so to speak. A minor strength and speed boost to himself, maybe to others? Only if he's concentrating on it, though.

As for long range, I was mostly just thinking of "within normal eyesight". And he doesn't have very good eyes

[+ZincAboutIt]

2 minutes ago, Grey Knight said:

For organic augmentation, I was thinking it would be an alternative pewter, so to speak. A minor strength and speed boost to himself, maybe to others? Only if he's concentrating on it, though.

As for long range, I was mostly just thinking of "within normal eyesight". And he doesn't have very good eyes

Alright cool, I will take this back to Mod HQ and we shall let you know if we need anything more from you. Again thanks for being so willing to work with us it’s really setting an awesome precedent for the era 

[Ashbringer]

Byron:

Spoiler

Name: Byron

Appearance: A young boy of about 17 who's seen a lot for his "young" age. Light brown hair and brown eyes, about 5’3”. Wears a nondescript brown traveling cloak over some leather clothing for protection. Looks like most skaa, and has worked hard to be unnoticeable. 

Guild (or intended guild): None as of now, but looking for one.

Personality: Tends to be easygoing but anti-social. Prior MO was to briefly get to know people, steal from them, and vanish and flare cadmium in a well-hidden place. He doesn’t steel as much in the Alleyverse, but still has some kleptomaniac tendencies; particularly in the Alleyverse, he found Investiture made most needs easier to come by. He still has a habit of briefly getting to know most people without opening up about himself.

Concept: Byron is essentially a conglomeration of the WoBs about what a time-bubble savant would be capable of, and what that would do to a person.

Motivation (Short- & long- term goal): In the short term, Byron wants to find somewhere to belong, whether with one of the few people he’s met prior or with a new group or guild in the Alleyverse. He’s had some difficulty connecting (and Connecting) to people, and wants to try and avoid that.

In the long term, Byron wants to find out how much he’s using cadmium or how much it’s damaging him over helping him. In a stable environment, being slower is not as helpful as he’d thought, but he’s finding it almost impossible to stop.

Merits:

• Minor:
  • Somewhat skilled as a thief.
  • Somewhat skilled knife fighter.
  • Quite perceptive when up close.
• Normal:
  • Very agile/has very fast reflexes.
  • Resourceful; good at cobbling together quick ideas and at getting people to help in situations he needs them to.    
• Major:
  • A-Cadmium Savant.
    • Can change his time bubble from between 2x slower and 128x slower speed, although any increase in time compression needs to be ramped up over a relative amount of time. This also increases deflections. With focus, he can change the time bubble to be only 1.2x slower.
    • Can change his time bubble from about a 1-meter radius to an 8-meter radius.
    • Can carry his time bubble along with him, or lock it in place as normal.
    • Can feel the deflections of objects entering/exiting his bubble, basically sensing when something enters or exits and its approximate size/momentum, or if something meets the bubble as it moves.
    • Ages somewhat slowly even relative to his own timeframe.

Flaws:

• Savant weaknesses.
  • Must burn cadmium if any is in his system, and gets cravings.
  • Is jarred whenever something is deflected by his bubble. Anything small is counterbalanced, but leads to Byron being unable to move correctly when outside of a bubble with nothing to counterbalance. Larger objects with more momentum can forcibly move him.
  • Has difficulty seeing / paying attention to anything distant, even besides the impact his bubble has – some parts of his brain block out distant events.
  • Any aluminum inside his bubble exists as if it was at normal time, meaning its momentum within the bubble is essentially multiplied by however much time is slowed. While this can be manipulated to an advantage, practically it makes it too difficult for Byron to carry aluminum constantly and makes aluminum weapons much more dangerous to everyone.
• Has an overwhelming self-preservation instinct, which gives him issues with being loyal in times of danger and in leaving himself too vulnerable to anyone.    

NPCs (Eg. Family and Friends): Family is long dead from old age, although Byron sometimes wonders how many distant relatives he’d have on Scadrial. Knows a few PCs such as Aln, and has interacted with a few more (Victoria, Vivica, and unnervingly Sanax, and likely will know some NPCs at the Hospital. However, almost all of these were from the Forgery which may leave him mostly on a blank slate.

Home Planet: Scadrial

Current Residence: Alleycity, the slums.

Backstory: Byron was born on Scadrial soon after the Catacendre, and soon Snapped with his new Cadmium powers, which no one seemed to understand. He had friends with some of the other Mistings of his generation (namely Cassie), but didn't fit in very well. Along Cassie and a few others he worldhopped to Roshar, to try and understand his abilities and to adventure on their own. Cassie helped him with cadmium creation, but after his own tendency for theft got him in trouble with a local Shardbearer, Byron hyper-flared for the first time, skipping over years within about a week. He found Cassie had left Roshar after leaving him enough cadmium to last a lifetime, but Byron had found out just how useful being a Pulser when pursued by people could be. Over the next few hundred years Byron stole, met people, and saw different places in Roshar, only to burn cadmium and skip a few months when things went wrong, and eventually he burned enough to begin breaking some of the few limits he’d found. And yet, he still had no idea what he could do, and found cadmium harder and harder to come across. He came to the Alleyverse in search of more cadmium and understanding, and perhaps somewhere where his own oddities would fit in.

Byron entered the Alleyverse during the world’s Forgery, which had some interesting results. He found that Cassandra was indeed in the Alleyverse, but much older thanks to his time dialation. He also met a few other people, like Aln, Folorian, and Emily, but mostly stayed disconnected, particularly when he was attacked by an unknown entity and essentially froze himself in time as a defense. Byron eventually went to the Einladung Hospital in a paralyzed state, and once recovered (and largely out of cadmium) Byron stayed to learn more about his savantism in a more controlled setting. But that didn’t last, as the draw of adventure and the powers he held drew him out.

Loose ends (What is unfinished in their life?): Byron has some difficulty connecting (and Connecting) to people, both from a life spent stealing and hiding and from his savantism both making him view things relative to himself. But coming into the Alleyverse has given him several people, strange like himself, that he can connect to.

Byron also has yet to reconnect with Cassie, as they left on relatively unknown terms; Byron knows Cassie is in the Alleyverse, but isn’t sure how understanding he is of their parting.

Links: TBD

 

So Byron needs some work. Both in powerset and in personality, because I don't know enough about science to extrapolate what ramifications his powers would have, and an antisocial runaway in group RP tends to not go well. So any and all advice is welcome, whether about his abilities and how powerful/limited they should be or how to make a character start interacting more.

[Voidus]

On 10/19/2022 at 2:35 AM, Grey Knight said:

Fair enough, I'll change the character. Fortunately, I did some sleep-deprived thinking and realized that I can change Mr. Poot into an Epic with basically no significant re-writes needed. In fact, it actually works a bit better this way.

This made me chuckle a little bit, not going to lie.

 

Anyway, here's the new character!

  Hide contents

Name: Rik Poot, Wizard 3rd rate

Appearance: Just an ugly little rat of a man. Short, with a long nose and bald head. Has a thick black beard that he obsessively braids and cares for. Young, despite his looks.

Guild (or intended guild): None. Potentially Ghostbloods.

Personality: Rik Poot has surprisingly developed mental resiliency, coping mechanisms, and social skills for an Epic. He simply chooses not to use them. He is erratic and eccentric, and annoyingly stubborn. For better or worse, he will not deviate from a path he has chosen.

Motivation (Short & long term goal): Rik Poot is not native to the Alleyverse. Given the choice, he would rather be anywhere else in the universe. Unfortunately, he has found himself bound to the second-rate Epic known as Balrog, an eldritch horror hell-bent on expanding his personal power. Multiple kill-switches have been embedded in his body after a series of invasive surgeries performed by Balrog. His short-term goal, then, is his captor's mission of joining the Ghostbloods. Doing so will let him survive for a little while longer. His long-term goal is to escape his captor's grasp and finally find freedom.

Merits: Poot's Epic powers grant him what looks like actual wizardry.  Unfortunately, he's terrible at most of these powers. He's capable of only the most rudimentary telepathy and pyromancy, and can barely manage organic manipulation (all minor merits). Where he truly shines is in his telekinetic abilities (Major merit). He can crush enemies' heads at a distance, create blasts of concussive force, and deftly manipulate minute objects. A lifetime of combat has also given him proficiency in swordsmanship, and his rough upbringing have given him an unusually tough constitution (normal merits).

Flaws: Over-use of Poot's powers will straight-up explode his head. As such, he needs time between powerful attacks to rest and decrease his Perils level. He can do 3 powerful attacks before needing about 30 seconds to recharge. His Epic weakness is a nasty one, too-- he's terrified of anything demonic or eldritch horror-y. Even being around such things will shut down his powers. Rik is also stubbornly fickle and distrustful of authority to the point of active detriment to his mission.

NPCs (Eg. Family and Friends): Other members of the small warband of traveling Epics, along with the hated leader.

Backstory: As earlier stated, Rik would rather be anywhere else in the universe. Unfortunately, he fell into the grasp of an extremely powerful Epic that hard-countered all of Rik's abilities. This Balrog then decided to travel the multiverse with its warband of lesser Epics (all forced into servitude or insane enough to willingly serve a demon). The band has ended up in the Alleyverse, and Balrog has decided to make itself a local powerhouse by joining the Ghostbloods.

Home Planet: Earth, somewhere in Holland

Loose ends: The kill-switch in his brain, and his current state of captivity

 

Thanks for being cooperative here, I do like the idea of an Epic warband in the city that's some interesting flavour as long as it doesn't become too overblown too quickly. Abilities look relatively okay, with the notes that Zinc mentioned above. Think we can approve this one.

[+ZincAboutIt]

15 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

Byron:

  Reveal hidden contents

Name: Byron

Appearance: A young boy of about 17 who's seen a lot for his "young" age. Light brown hair and brown eyes, about 5’3”. Wears a nondescript brown traveling cloak over some leather clothing for protection. Looks like most skaa, and has worked hard to be unnoticeable. 

Guild (or intended guild): None as of now, but looking for one.

Personality: Tends to be easygoing but anti-social. Prior MO was to briefly get to know people, steal from them, and vanish and flare cadmium in a well-hidden place. He doesn’t steel as much in the Alleyverse, but still has some kleptomaniac tendencies; particularly in the Alleyverse, he found Investiture made most needs easier to come by. He still has a habit of briefly getting to know most people without opening up about himself.

Concept: Byron is essentially a conglomeration of the WoBs about what a time-bubble savant would be capable of, and what that would do to a person.

Motivation (Short- & long- term goal): In the short term, Byron wants to find somewhere to belong, whether with one of the few people he’s met prior or with a new group or guild in the Alleyverse. He’s had some difficulty connecting (and Connecting) to people, and wants to try and avoid that.

In the long term, Byron wants to find out how much he’s using cadmium or how much it’s damaging him over helping him. In a stable environment, being slower is not as helpful as he’d thought, but he’s finding it almost impossible to stop.

Merits:

• Minor:
  • Somewhat skilled as a thief.
  • Somewhat skilled knife fighter.
  • Quite perceptive when up close.
• Normal:
  • Very agile/has very fast reflexes.
  • Resourceful; good at cobbling together quick ideas and at getting people to help in situations he needs them to.    
• Major:
  • A-Cadmium Savant.
    • Can change his time bubble from between 2x slower and 128x slower speed, although any increase in time compression needs to be ramped up over a relative amount of time. This also increases deflections. With focus, he can change the time bubble to be only 1.2x slower.
    • Can change his time bubble from about a 1-meter radius to an 8-meter radius.
    • Can carry his time bubble along with him, or lock it in place as normal.
    • Can feel the deflections of objects entering/exiting his bubble, basically sensing when something enters or exits and its approximate size/momentum, or if something meets the bubble as it moves.
    • Ages somewhat slowly even relative to his own timeframe.

Flaws:

• Savant weaknesses.
  • Must burn cadmium if any is in his system, and gets cravings.
  • Is jarred whenever something is deflected by his bubble. Anything small is counterbalanced, but leads to Byron being unable to move correctly when outside of a bubble with nothing to counterbalance. Larger objects with more momentum can forcibly move him.
  • Has difficulty seeing / paying attention to anything distant, even besides the impact his bubble has – some parts of his brain block out distant events.
  • Any aluminum inside his bubble exists as if it was at normal time, meaning its momentum within the bubble is essentially multiplied by however much time is slowed. While this can be manipulated to an advantage, practically it makes it too difficult for Byron to carry aluminum constantly and makes aluminum weapons much more dangerous to everyone.
• Has an overwhelming self-preservation instinct, which gives him issues with being loyal in times of danger and in leaving himself too vulnerable to anyone.    

NPCs (Eg. Family and Friends): Family is long dead from old age, although Byron sometimes wonders how many distant relatives he’d have on Scadrial. Knows a few PCs such as Aln, and has interacted with a few more (Victoria, Vivica, and unnervingly Sanax, and likely will know some NPCs at the Hospital. However, almost all of these were from the Forgery which may leave him mostly on a blank slate.

Home Planet: Scadrial

Current Residence: Alleycity, the slums.

Backstory: Byron was born on Scadrial soon after the Catacendre, and soon Snapped with his new Cadmium powers, which no one seemed to understand. He had friends with some of the other Mistings of his generation (namely Cassie), but didn't fit in very well. Along Cassie and a few others he worldhopped to Roshar, to try and understand his abilities and to adventure on their own. Cassie helped him with cadmium creation, but after his own tendency for theft got him in trouble with a local Shardbearer, Byron hyper-flared for the first time, skipping over years within about a week. He found Cassie had left Roshar after leaving him enough cadmium to last a lifetime, but Byron had found out just how useful being a Pulser when pursued by people could be. Over the next few hundred years Byron stole, met people, and saw different places in Roshar, only to burn cadmium and skip a few months when things went wrong, and eventually he burned enough to begin breaking some of the few limits he’d found. And yet, he still had no idea what he could do, and found cadmium harder and harder to come across. He came to the Alleyverse in search of more cadmium and understanding, and perhaps somewhere where his own oddities would fit in.

Byron entered the Alleyverse during the world’s Forgery, which had some interesting results. He found that Cassandra was indeed in the Alleyverse, but much older thanks to his time dialation. He also met a few other people, like Aln, Folorian, and Emily, but mostly stayed disconnected, particularly when he was attacked by an unknown entity and essentially froze himself in time as a defense. Byron eventually went to the Einladung Hospital in a paralyzed state, and once recovered (and largely out of cadmium) Byron stayed to learn more about his savantism in a more controlled setting. But that didn’t last, as the draw of adventure and the powers he held drew him out.

Loose ends (What is unfinished in their life?): Byron has some difficulty connecting (and Connecting) to people, both from a life spent stealing and hiding and from his savantism both making him view things relative to himself. But coming into the Alleyverse has given him several people, strange like himself, that he can connect to.

Byron also has yet to reconnect with Cassie, as they left on relatively unknown terms; Byron knows Cassie is in the Alleyverse, but isn’t sure how understanding he is of their parting.

Links: TBD

 

So Byron needs some work. Both in powerset and in personality, because I don't know enough about science to extrapolate what ramifications his powers would have, and an antisocial runaway in group RP tends to not go well. So any and all advice is welcome, whether about his abilities and how powerful/limited they should be or how to make a character start interacting more.

So, as you’ve said Byron is a bit hard to easily fit into a group setting but not impossible. What you need is either an obligation or a need on his part to force him into regular company, since personal desire isn’t going to inspire him to seek out others. Naturally you could play the Vin angle here - he wants something from someone, they have it, he’ll stay as long as he needs to get it but ends up growing fond of them before he decides to leave.
 

You could also do some sort of debt situation. He likes to steal? Well perhaps he stole from the wrong person this time. Oh dear, now he has to work off a debt to some dangerous folk and spend time with them, etc.

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

20 hours ago, Voidus said:

Thanks for being cooperative here, I do like the idea of an Epic warband in the city that's some interesting flavour as long as it doesn't become too overblown too quickly. Abilities look relatively okay, with the notes that Zinc mentioned above. Think we can approve this one.

Plus, Demaren will be agains them, if you need more plot.

[Voidus]

4 hours ago, kenod said:

AnLien:

  Reveal hidden contents

Name: AnLien
Appearance: Variable, since they're a Kandra, but her preferred body is that of a woman around their early 30s, with a brown, Terris skin and shoulder-length dark-brown hair. She prefers wearing a Roughs outfit, suitable for exploration and travel. Normally carries a Scandrian rifle with her, or, if that isn't possible, a revolver or derringer.
She wears a number of copper bracers and other jewelry, though she keeps her main copperminds inside her body.
Guild (or intended guild): Dark Alley (Records department, moonlights for Alleymatics and DoCI)
Personality: Someone who has seen it all. A calm and mature woman whose main motivation is learning more, as well as enjoying herself. Somewhat of a thrill seeker, as well as a knowledge seeker, frequently making trips in more dangerous areas, such as exploring the further-out alleys, to gain more information and knowledge.
Has somewhat of a Roughs persona, thanks to traveling there for quite a while, and, liking the place and attitude, the personality traits stuck.
Concept: A traveling Kandra researcher and archivist who during their travels has stumbled onto basic Alleymancy, and who moonlights as a spy/infiltrator.
Motivation (Short & long term goal): Try to figure out the nature of the world pre, during and post Forgery, record the different changes and after effects. Long term get a better understanding of the nature of the alleys, and try to map out as many of them as possible.
Merits:
    - Minor:
        - Blessing of Awareness, granting increased senses
        - Feruchemical copper (spike).
        - Basic shooting skills. Nothing to really write home about, but she knows how to use a rifle.
    - Normal
        - Kandra: A decent shifter with a fair bit of experience with the regular Kandra jobs, though she's somewhat out of practice compared to before joining the DA.
        - Arcanist: Thanks to both her travels and experiences with the DA she has build up a large amount of knowledge on the nature of magic, especially on the various alleys.
    - Major
        - Novice Alleymatics user: She is capable of using Alleytravel to a more accurate degree, travel faster, and can use non-alley passageways such as long hallways and bookcases for travel as well. Aside from that, she has learned a basic trick for using Alleymatics to a limited degree.
            - Trick: She uses a form of mental suggestion to consider the environment around her part of the alleys, allowing her to pull the special nature of an alley she's familiar enough with into the real world. While doing this she has very limited control over how the effect interacts with the environment, generally functioning more as switching up the rules of the area the alley is deployed in.
If she wants to do this she still needs a bit of time to get into the right mental state to map to the alley she wants and adjust her view of her environment. She can also only do this with alleys she has a thorough understanding of, of which she currently only has one.

    Available Alleys:
        - Alley vc = −0.7269 + 0.1889i: Frozen Garden
This alley appears to be filled with numerous sharp crystals with fractal-like properties, often forming into branching, tree-like structures. Over time parts of these crystals fade away, while in other places new crystals are born, possibly spawned from the movement of small particles of dust moving through the air.
These crystals do not appear to be made from any specific material. Instead, they're formed from materials already there, frozen into place in a crystalized form through what appears to be an extreme form of time dilation. This time dilation reducing again seems to be responsible for the noted "thawing" of existing crystals.
Finally, this alley seems to have a unique response to any movement, with these crystals forming in the wake of moving objects, apparently based on the distortion of air caused by the movement.
Those entering this alley are advised to move slowly, in other to avoid provoking large-scale reactions. While these reactions themselves aren't dangerous, the subsequently formed crystals are both apparently indestructible and extremely sharp, meaning that heavy movement could leave those in the alley trapped.

Flaws: Risk-taker: She's always looking for more knowledge, which, combined with virtual immortality, means she takes a lot of risks others would consider to be too dangerous, such as traveling into the deep alleys, or trying to retrieve a highly guarded document with some obscure lore.
Like all Kandra she has a vulnerability to emotional allomancy, more pronounced in her case because of her additional Feruchemical copper spike.
She has a constant degree of awareness of alleys she's familiar with, especially the Frozen Garden, which tends to make it a bit trickier to focus, because of the background information.
NPCs (Eg. Family and Friends): Familiar with Azim, working under him. Also has a basic familiarity with Mac and people in the DoCI. Has a pet cat called Esmeralda, though she's more of someone who shares the house and occasionally comes for treats and pets than someone she actually takes care of.
Home Planet: Scandrial
Current Residence: Alleys
Backstory: Originally from Scandrial, one of the later generation Kandra. Unlike most of her kind she spent most her time outside of the Homeland, doing various contracts and learning more about the wider world.
After the Catacendre she acted as Harmony's agent, though she mostly spent her time wandering this new world. At one point during this she managed to come across a small group of Hemalurgists, and, once the fighting was over, managed to obtain a Feruchemical Copper spike from one of them, and, against Harmony's advice, took it into her own body.
From there she kept exploring, eventually ending up in the Roughs, where she spent most of her time, including becoming familiar with a local Terriswoman who had come out there to seek her own fortune. The two of them became close friends, with her even disclosing her own identity as a Kandra to her, and them jokingly making an agreement that AnLien could use her body after she died.
Sadly enough this agreement came true much quicker than either had wished for, with her friend getting caught up in a duel, and, with AnLien being unable to talk her into accepting her help, she died during the fighting. Afterwards AnLien, sticking to their agreement, took her form and then left.
Eventually she managed to find her way into the alleys while exploring, and from there, to the Alleycity and the DA, where she decided to stay, though more because it'd allow her to travel and explore than alleys than because of an interest in Hemalurgy.
Loose ends (What is unfinished in their life?): She is currently busy compiling a report on the various alleys, and trying to find their source, as well as building up a complete catalogue of them, something that she has, needless to say, been doing for a long time, and can likely spend an eternity or two doing before finishing it.
Links (Eg. Theme song, a spotify playlist, a pinterest mood board): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVhyoOkQFqs https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX17GkScaAekA?si=bfc10676d4a548af https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbnzygGMpdQ

 

Hey, took a look through this one and I think there's just a bit too many edge cases. For instance I'd probably typically put Blessings as a Normal merit, Awareness being effectively equivalent to tin which is far from useless for social characters/spies especially. And a Kandra would almost definitely be a major by itself just because it combines so many things (Ageless, healing, pain resistance, shapechanger), unless they had very serious and non-typical drawbacks for a Kandra.

Think this one will need to be resubmitted as an OP character sheet with Kandra as a major and the Blessing as Normal.

[kenod]

3 hours ago, Voidus said:

Hey, took a look through this one and I think there's just a bit too many edge cases. For instance I'd probably typically put Blessings as a Normal merit, Awareness being effectively equivalent to tin which is far from useless for social characters/spies especially. And a Kandra would almost definitely be a major by itself just because it combines so many things (Ageless, healing, pain resistance, shapechanger), unless they had very serious and non-typical drawbacks for a Kandra.

Think this one will need to be resubmitted as an OP character sheet with Kandra as a major and the Blessing as Normal.

Alright. What are the current rules regarding op char submissions nowadays actually?

[Voidus]

1 hour ago, kenod said:

Alright. What are the current rules regarding op char submissions nowadays actually?

Same sheet just without merit caps obviously, and currently we're just doing a vote amongst the mods to approve. Not sure if that will last or if we'll go back to community approval but for now it's quicker at least.

[Lord Meeker]

Would megalomaniac, psychopath, sociopath be considered flaws for the type of characters I like to play? (Anti-hero and villians.)

[MacThorstenson]

Probably not. Flaws are something that would generally inhibit your character achieving their goals.

[Lord Meeker]

Then what would necesitate a flaw for a character that is trying to get back their memory? I want a clean slate, i've been gone a while and have not clue where to really start.

[+ZincAboutIt]

29 minutes ago, Lord Meeker said:

Then what would necesitate a flaw for a character that is trying to get back their memory? I want a clean slate, i've been gone a while and have not clue where to really start.

Hello there! If you want to discuss further this is the place to do it. As far as a flaw for a character trying to get their memories back, I’m not entirely sure what you mean. A lack of memory could already be a flaw. If this is relating to your earlier question about classic “villain/antihero” characters then a flaw for those could be something that a more classic “hero” character would call a merit. Something like a serious moral restriction - possibly even a compulsion - to avoid harming a set group of people. A lack of self confidence or perhaps extreme disorientation could be one. If they have no memory of who they are/were, it would be harder to act in a way that is megalomaniacal. Lack of sense of self reduces charisma because you don’t know what it is you’re obsessed with, etc. In general though I would need to know more about the supposed character to really help you out with suggestions.

[Lord Meeker]

@ZincAboutIt

I'm trying to create a character that lost important memories due to a mental break that subsquently resulted in two seprate personalities. One side being able to use, I think, allomancy specifically steel. This side specifically being the more megalomaniac, psychopath, sociopath, anti-hero/villian. This side will only be able to access steel. I haven't quick thought through the otherside completely. But I might make him twinborn and separate their powers based on personality. If possible. Some examples of some similar character designs that to mind are Killer Frost, Firestorm from the Flash and Moon Knight from Moon Knight. More like Moon Knight.

Edit: A split personalty can result in amnesia.

Edit 2: Definitely mostly like Moon Knight

Edited October 30, 2022 by Lord Meeker

[Voidus]

So a good way to think about flaws is to figure out motivations first. What does your character want? What are they doing in the plot? Then you just need to work out what is stopping them from achieving it, something that they may need to work to overcome. This is generally a good thing to include as a flaw.

(Eg. Character wants to be president of the world, however they have a crippling fear of public speaking which is preventing them from campaigning.)

Other good ideas are detriments of their powers, usually we wouldn't count those that are just inherent to the power like feruchemy needing to store the attribute, but something like a particular inability to use their entire powerset could be an idea for a flaw. I will also note a little trepidation around the idea of a megalomaniac/psychopath. Historically these kinds of characters tend to derail plots and get in the way of other characters' storytelling so we are somewhat discouraging them this coming era. But if you come up with a solid concept that has some way of easing those concerns then we can definitely take a look.

[Lord Meeker]

7 hours ago, Voidus said:

Historically these kinds of characters tend to derail plots and get in the way of other characters' storytelling so we are somewhat discouraging them this coming era. But if you come up with a solid concept that has some way of easing those concerns then we can definitely take a look.

I remember. I'll probably have one specific side use this megomania, etc, and have the other be more rational/ resposible to balance it out. I don't have a particular plan for this character, just to Rp a good cop bad cop duo style with more extremes thus the megalomania, pyschopath, sociopath. The mental break will have dialed up opposite emotions in each side to the extreme, which could also be a flaw.

Edti: If that sound like it could be accepted let me know

Edited October 30, 2022 by Lord Meeker

[Bookmaster007]

My rough draft of a character for the alleyverse

 

Spoiler

 

Name: Willbur Bright

Appearance: 

Guild (or intended guild): TUBA

Personality:  horrible with social situations he finds his comfort in tinkering with his guns. Their rules don’t change. At least not much, compared to humans.

Concept: A gunslinger an gunsmith from Era 2 scadrial who wanted to be a lawman but kept finding himself on the wrong side of the law

Motivation (Short & long term goal):

Short: Get acquainted with the new guns he’s seeing around

Long:  clear his bad reputation so he get around to enforcing the law

Merits: 

Minor: can pick up schematics quick, 

 Normal: Practiced gunfighter, Survivalist

Major: Excellent Gunsmith

 

Flaws: 

Gullible by being so focused on his guns he doesn't notice body language

Social awkwardness. The rules are never the same.

NPCs (Eg. Family and Friends): while his Dad and little brothers are still alive back home, he hasn’t had much much contact with them since he left to become a lawman

Home Planet: Scadrial

Current Residence: None

Backstory: ______ set out to be a lawkeeper after some particularly nasty bandits wreaked havoc. his hometown. However, when he came into town the bandits would always convince him they were the law into town. Until the real lawmen would come down on them – and him, no matter how many times he told them he was a lawman. After he got rejected from the first few towns he ended up in, he found himself in the alleycity

Loose ends (What is unfinished in their life?): He has yet to find a job as a proper lawman

Links (Eg. Theme song, a spotify playlist, a pinterest mood board):

 

 

[I think I am here.]

1 minute ago, Bookmaster007 said:

Short: Get acquainted with the new guns he’s seeing around

I love this goal

[AonEne]

Looking good so far! Do you intend to RP him joining TUBA? 

[Bookmaster007]

I do intend to rp him joining TUBA

[+ZincAboutIt]

How very exciting! Welcome welcome! I see no problems with this character, you’ve given him a lot of room to acquire more skills and grow through plot. If you wanted to submit him in the main thread I see no reason why we wouldn’t quickly approve him. 

[Voidus]

13 hours ago, Lord Meeker said:

Lord Everette Meeks (1st draft)

  Reveal hidden contents

Name: Lord Everette Meeks, 

Appearance: Man in early 30’s, messy brown hair with an oval face, piercing green eyes. Often seen wearing the distinct customized aluminum armor of the Meeks family. Helmet includes an early prototype voice modulator otherwise voice sounds staccato, abrasive, suave yet sophisticated and steely. Carries several throwing knives, and a revolver nicknamed Ace

Guild (or intended guild): None, but up for recruitment

Personality: Split personality, amplified emotions for each side. 

     Negative side: megalomaniac, psychopath, sociopath, egocentric, manipulative, malicious, sadistic, hateful, untrustworthy, cruel, conniving

     Positive side: compassionate, efficient, generous, innovative, loyal, reliable, responsible

     Shared attributes: ambitious, and calculating

Concept: Medieval meets Star Wars. Though armor is just customized and just metal, no other special additions other than the aluminum.

Motivation (Short & long term goal): 

     Positive side goals: regain memories from the mental break and possibly re-unite split personalities.

     Negative side goals: increase allomantic power/ability and monetary wealth to gain political and social(nobility favors) power

Merits:

     Minor: Business smart, steel allomantic savant, expert wooer

     Normal: Nobility, combat experience in firearms, swords, knives and hand to hand combat

     Major: Steel Compounder (See Flaws for more details)

Flaws: Steel Feruchemy can only be accessed by the positive side of his personality. Allomantic steel is accessed by the negative side of his personality. Steel compounding is out of the question as powers are split between personalities and neither would help the other anyways. Personality can inexplicably and suddenly interchange and swap at random. Both sides are fighting for control

NPCs (Eg. Family and Friends): Doesn’t remember any friends or family and wouldn’t want to as it would get in the way of goals. Though when he does remember, he killed his family in a mental break and thus inherited the family estate and wealth.

Home Planet: Scadrial

Current Residence: AlleyCity, also where the estate burned down

Backstory: Killed his entire family(extended as well) in a mental break that split his personality into positive and negative sides which subsequently induced amnesia. The estate was burned down in the process. Little to nothing remains of the Meeks family. Family dealt in the mining metals for allomantic, feruchemic, and hemalurgic use as well as the refining and creation of some of the alloys. Also in charge of sales and distribution(including transportation). One of the more well known in the industry but not a monopoly.

Loose ends (What is unfinished in their life?): Establish estate for goals listed above

Links & Other:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

So I don't know that this would work well for the RP and the direction we're heading currently. There's also a little bit of concern because there's a number of very real mental health concerns you're looking to incorporate here, some of them quite difficult to portray at the best of times. Dissociative Identity Disorder is the one I'd have the most concerns about allowing to be RP'd in this way, the reinforcement of an 'evil' personality feels like it could get problematic very quickly and also seems like it would be very likely to cause issues with other characters' stories.

On the more mechanics side, I would be hesitant to allow 'general combat experience in every form' as a single, normal-level merit unless they were all at a relatively minimally effective level. Steel Savantism I would also not put as a minor merit either.

Lastly as mentioned we're also trying to somewhat steer clear from straight up 'villain' characters as a general rule, especially those operating primarily by themselves as it tends to derail other plots and cause problems that don't particularly advance anyone else's story. Mod team are still discussing things but currently considering putting some limitations on these types of characters such as requiring them to participate in the Collaboration thread and get sign off from other players before introducing them to a scene. Something to ensure that they're actually helping to tell a story rather than just causing murder and chaos.