Hmm. I've been writing Ruben's first post in my head, and it has occurred to me that his most prevalent weakness is that he only knows how to follow orders, and there is no clear chain of command in the crossover world. Subsequently, he can't make independent decisions (or has never needed to) and will be incapable of performing in combat without a CO on the field or in contact (since that's how XCOM works anyway). I'm thinking maybe free will is something that is stripped away when you join XCOM? Or maybe it's just as simple as he's never been trained how to do that? Either way, one of the immediate problems will be him trying to locate a CO and taking direct orders from them.

So what I'm wondering is, could there be a way for either Bradford or the Council to contact him through a screen or something? The XCOM research division is crazy good at future technology, and maybe Vahlen could take a signature from the magic circle and research it to find a way to connect to Arcade. My plan is for Bradford/the Council to explain that Ruben will have to make independent decisions now, rather than constantly give him instructions or anything. I can set the length of time until completion of the connection, since XCOM can research whenever they want, so it can either be handled immediately or after the first mission. I imagine it'll be difficult to work with him if he only follows orders, which would make his first mission more difficult and would probably make his allies dislike him, but I can use that to develop his character. Trying to make people like a character that they initially don't gives plenty of room for growth.

In fact, I think I like the "Needs orders" weakness more than "Authoritative," since authority is the last thing XCOM operatives have. Some Arcade allies would be fine with telling a rookie what to do, but I doubt any of them would accept orders from him, and that would just overly complicate things immediately with, frankly, a bunch of lame arguments with other characters not wanting to be bossed around. Heh, maybe a character could get a little power-thirsty and start taking advantage of him at first?

tldr; 1. Can I find a way for XCOM to contact Ruben, and 2. Can I change Ruben's "Authoritative" weakness to "Needs Instructions?"

@Holy Soldier@Etherean Fire

I'd like to take a moment to point out that some of the things you list about Ruben aren't entirely true, such as no personality. If you take the time to watch your troops in the barracks, and the bar in Xcom 2, they have plenty of personality. The needs direction is something of a game mechanic, which is moot in this RP because you ARE the character, otherwise you would see all of us with that same weakness. For example, James, one of my characters, would just stand there without input from a control, but he moves, he aims, he thinks, he talks, all without outside influence.

So I guess I'm saying that while your sheet was good, there are some unfair judgements made on the character of the character.

Now, more in line with the question, I'm fine with that, though it's, again, just a game mechanic. We kinda like to see some autonomy without express permission from a, honestly, outside force here.

<Snipped quote by Zarkun>

It has actually been a while since playing XCOM, and I don't recall ever watching the troops (and I don't have XCOM 2). So ya got me there.

The need for direction spawns more from him just straight up being a soldier than a video game character. The idea is not for him to maintain a lack of autonomy. I'm going to RP him as an actual character, just as a character who is used to being given instructions on a battlefield rather than making them, as opposed to an FPS hero/protagonist (i.e. James). In some turn-based games, the turns are being determined by the characters (like Invisible Inc, for example), but in XCOM, you as the player are specifically the Commander. Ruben doesn't decide where to go and what to do on a battlefield. He is given orders on where to go and what to do.

I can give him a handful of personality traits, but ultimately the concept is that a character who is not autonomous (especially in combat) develops autonomy. Maybe even leadership skills. Rather than be an existing hero with an existing story and existing personality/mannerisms/preferences, I'd like to sort of be below that status and build up to that. There are no "heroes" in XCOM. If Squaddie Ruben dies, XCOM can pay some credits and get a brand new Squaddie almost immediately, unlike, you know, the Heavy or Cloud Strife. Personalities in general are irrelevant to the XCOM initiative. That's why this RP is so interesting. He's getting sucked out of the world of XCOM and put into a totally different situation, where he has to make his own choices and isn't expendable.

It's easy to jump in as X hero from X game and build on that. I want to try someone who isn't quite there yet.

I guess our interpretation of how characters from Xcom would work are just that different XD I always look at it like even on the battlefield, you're letting them react to things how they would.

What he instead heard sent shivers down his spine. He looked at her with his already large eyes now open wide, his jaw finding trouble keeping itself closed.
@ONL

@Holy Soldier

So I had a few questions after having read the story and restrictions set in place.

How exactly do characters generally get to other worlds in this setting to begin with?

What are in character reasonings behind the re-balancing of characters down to level 1, figuratively and literally? Example, Castlevania's Alucard is supposed to be this very powerful vampire character but if he is level 1 his backstory is hard to believe unless there is some excuse. Is that something the virus is doing?

I have a potential character that I may or may not wish to sign up with. Valvatorez, the protagonist of Disgaea 4 and would never consider himself a hero. In short, he is a vampire in charge of Hades that epitomizes the ideals of a Noble Demon. He seeks the natural law and order of the universe, and does so by properly training criminal humans to repent their sins. With that in mind, Demons exist primarily to scare humans away from the darkness. So he would, should he be properly informed, fully support The Balance 110%. Would this be a proper hero in the gray area between villain and hero? As a demon he would find no fault with the use of devious tactics or th slaughter of innocents should it come to his benefit. But as such his allies are natural born heroes and he would stay his demonic tendencies for the greater good.

I don't see anything wrong with Piper. She is good to go in my book. @Lugubrious Comments?