This is a little idea I call Streamers! It's inspired by a lot of different fandoms, I'll go ahead and list them and see if any catch your attention! It's a modern people with powers idea, but it's very specific powers, so it's kind of like The Tomorrow People, or Stranger Things, there's also lowkey interdimensional monsters so another tick on the Stranger Things box. Also Life is Strange, figure since we're busting out the modern twists might as well drag that one out, and I've been playing the hell out of LIS 2 episode one so yeeeees! Anyway, there wont be as much diversity as in something like X-Men as far as powers, but there's going to be quite the list of available powers and their specialties; Telekinesis, Telepathy, Teleportation, Temporalkinesis, and Technopathy. All powers will be open to the player but mastery of said powers will vary and everyone will have their own 'specialty' which grants them additional applications of said powers.
I'll go ahead and do the rundown for those, but first; there's a lot of trust here. Your characters will not know half of what they're actually capable of, and may not ever learn the full extent of the powers, so they can only use purposefully use abilities they know they have, and accidentally use new powers in high stress situations. They can learn of other abilities from other characters or other Streamer NPCs, or they can just make educated guesses. Like I said, trust- but I will make you rewrite if I feel you've abused said trust. Also keep in mind these are abilities that draw from the energy of your character to use, so throwing a bunch of telekinetic punches on an empty stomach will wear you out quick.
Telekinesis is the power to interact with the physical world using only one's strength of mind and will.
Average Powers:
Kinetic Grip: The ability to grab and manipulate objects with one's own mind.
Kinetic Shield: The ability to create a solid force field in the air to block an attack or moving object.
Kinetic Strike: The ability to throw a solid force akin to a punch with one's mind.
Levitation: The ability to levitate objects and oneself, as well as control their momentum.
Push and Pull: The easiest ability; pushing or pulling targets towards or away from oneself.
Specialists Powers:
Kinetic Blast: The ability to cause an explosion or implosion of kinetic energy with one's mind.
Kinetic Construct: The ability to create a solid object out of telepathic energy.
Spatial Sense: An ability like an extra sense, able to detect nearby streamer abilities.
Telepathy is the power to interact with the psychic world using only one's strength of mind and will.
Average Powers:
Empathic Sense: The ability to sense the emotions of another.
Empathic Telempathy: The ability to communicate one's own or alter another's emotions.
Psychic Hearing: The ability to hear the thoughts of others in one's own mind.
Psychic Speaking: The ability to project one's own thoughts to another's mind.
Psychic Projection: The ability to extend one's senses far outside their usual range.
Specialists Powers:
Possession: The ability to take over a body from another mind.
Psychic Control: The ability to control the minds of lesser psychics.
Psychometry: The ability to read memories from physical objects.
Teleportation is the power to instantly move oneself to another location using only one's strength of mind and will.
Average Powers:
Apparition: The ability to reappear instantly in another location using one’s own mind.
Disapparition: The ability to disappear instantly from one location using only one’s mind.
Remote Portation: The ability to teleport a target without teleporting oneself.
Spatial Limbo: The ability to linger between disappearing and reappearing, extending the time spent traveling and essentially teleporting into limbo.
Substitution: The ability to switch places with a target via teleporting both them and oneself.
Specialists Powers:
Dimensional Portation: The ability to teleport between Streamer dimensions.
Portals: The ability to create a portal linking one place to another.
Spatial Distortion: The ability to generate a field that interrupts Streamer abilities.
Temporalkinesis is the power to manipulate the perception and passage of time using only one's strength of mind and will.
Average Powers:
Acceleration: The ability to quicken oneself or a target in relation to the rest of reality.
Deceleration: The ability to slow oneself or a target in relation to the rest of reality.
Temporal Copy: The ability to summon a solid kinetic copy of an object from a different time.
Temporal Scrying: The ability to see the histories or an area play out in one's own mind.
Temporal Vision: The ability to see possible futures in one's own mind.
Specialists Powers:
Remote Time Travel: The ability to send a target into the future, or the past.
Temporal Portal: The ability to go create a portal leading forwards or backwards in time.
Temporal Travel: The ability to teleport oneself forwards or backwards in time.
Technopathy is the power to interact with the cyber world using only one's strength of mind and will.
Average Powers:
Cyberlingualism: The ability to innately understand and communicate with electric machines.
Electric Spark: The ability to generate electricity from one's own mind and body.
Mechanical Construct: The ability to assemble and control electrical devices and objects.
Technical Scrying: The ability to navigate and locate information and data intuitively.
Technical Modification: The ability to alter cyber coding with one's mind.
Specialists Powers:
Blackout: The ability to suppress electrical devices in an area.
Genetic Modification: The ability to modify genetic coding in living things with one's mind.
Technical Portation: The ability to render oneself inside an electrical device.
Okay, so that's done. Super overpowered I know, hence the trust and the warning above! And I'll give a warning here as well; a lot of these, especially the time travel stuff, is sustained, not push a button and done, but hold down the button until the energy bar runs out and you reset. We'll just say its the natural state of the universe for everything to exist in the present, thus grappling into the future or past you will eventually reappear in the present when you can no longer resist the pull to go back or until the present catches up in the case of going to the really-near future.
Also you should probs ask questions here or in dms- or in the discord which I will make if this get's any interests! - before doing anything you think might be problematic.
Also, there's more powers to come, and some of the current powers don't make sense, like what are Streamer dimensions? Welp. You'll find out. In game. Muahahahah. So there's that to look forward to. And don't worry, I have planned with the diversity and OPness in mind, so meet your enemies;
These are the last thing you ever see. Kinda literally, but that's metaphorical for now! They're called Seekers and they have all your powers and more, plus the advantage of actual skill and expertise with said powers, and of course they can fly through objects, normal people can't see them, and they come from a mysterious and vastly technologically superior alien species. Whether that's interdimensional or extrastellar aliens is up for debate, but you can probably guess!
Then there's these bad boys;
Pretty dumb, animal like, also hello Stranger Things inspo! They're Hunters, pack-like foot soldiers of the Seekers, they prowl around Seeker bases and tear their enemies to ribbons. These ones can be seen by normal people, but they can also sort of clip through objects by jumping through dimensions. Like in Stranger Things. That's like the third name drop, this isn't promotional I swear, no one paid me!
Oh and there's a big boss but don't worry about him he's end game. Or she. Maybe they don't have genders... Anyways! Ic-ish intro:
It's cold and dark, and the room is empty and bland. There is a mat on the floor, surprisingly soft but itchy and sticky, and sometimes it moves to a different corner without anyone noticing. There is a huge door, it never opens and it's made of biting icy metal. Beside it is a foggy glass window with metal bars on both sides, through it monsters can be seen patrolling the halls... they lope and move in packs, and they have no faces, but many teeth. The doors of the hall open only for them, and nothing else ever comes through.
Is it good luck or bad that they never come through the room doors? There is no food, or water, and no warm clothes or any speck of sunlight. It can't be healthy, and yet as hours turn to days, days to weeks, weeks to months, the hunger, the thirst, they never come. Sickness doesn't come either, nor death, just an endless patrol outside, a bone-rattling chill, and a whisper in the mind. A skittering, sibilant tongue, hissing words that can't be understood, but feel like worms in the brain anyway. How long has it been whispering? Where does it come from? It never answers any questions, or changes from that droning, sickening language to something coherent...
When was the last time there was sunlight? Warmth? Food? Family? People... When was the last time there were actual people, and not monsters around every corner? The memory is dark and cold, like the room, but at least there is an echo of warmth.
The first time it was glorious, the windows had rattled and the lights had flickered and power had raced at the finger tips, tingled at the brain. They didn't come the first time... but they did the second. The memory was foggy, how much time passed between the first time and the second was a mystery, but the second time, oh the second time there had been consequences. The ground had shook and there had been such a blast of light, and then a faceless creature had come from below, it's tendril like arms like whips lashed around the wrist, the arm, the waist, tightening and pulling down, through the floor and into darkness.
The prison came after the darkness, and the darkness came after the power, but sometimes... sometimes that power came back, and the whispers were silenced and the cold was stymied and at last there was rest... and then it buckled and fell away, and the cold and dark came back...
How long... how hopeless... how lonely.
...and then the whispers were silent, and there were screams in the corridor.
Name: Aarón Luca Alejandro Dante, “Alante”
Age: 19
Residence: Los Angeles, United States Occupation: Student, Street Musician
Appearance:
Hair: Dark black, smooth undercut.
Eyes: Dark brown.
Skin: Light brown, very light freckles.
Features: Stark eyebrows, ears pierced, accented speech.
Personality: Stand offish and thoughtful, Aarón is considered quiet and dependable, but hard to befriend. He’s also headstrong and very independent, quick to take a leading or solo role, with little regard for rules or fairness. He doesn’t do well with large crowds, dislikes dealing with emotions, and cares deeply for his family.
History: Aarón grew up in a mixed Mexican-American household, his mother’s side spread out across the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, originating from an increasingly poor little city known as Palo Vista in the Mexican state of Sonora, and his father’s side being an estranged wealthy clan from the state of Washington. They met in Los Angeles and fell in love, and his father followed his mother south across the border to Palo Vista. Eventually they saved up enough money, and with help from their relatives across the border, they moved back to the city of their dreams and bought a home in South Los Angeles.
Their family was small, and Aarón grew up with only an elder sister named Julia and was raised almost solely by her and their mother after their father was pushed off the pier at Santa Monica during a fight and drowned when his foot became trapped beneath the pier’s support struts. The fight happened when he was very young, but he remembers it began because some older boys had been picking on his sister and threatened her.
His family recovered from the tragedy well, all things considered, and through the pursuit of music they bonded and began to play together in the streets or sometimes booked in small local venues. Towards the end their connections began to fray, his mother lost her job and was forced to take an option with less pay and more hours, and his sister got into a good college in Washington, leaving him to play alone and try and find his own path. Eventually he was accepted at a local school of arts in Los Angeles, but he never made it to his first class. Instead he had a minor freakout when two cars collided in front of him, and he was only saved from being struck by the debris by mysterious powers holding the metal bits that would have speared right through him, freezing them in midair. Then later the same day, still in disbelief and closer to his new school, he’d been hit by a wave of fatigue and called home- only for his phone to glitch massively and begin spitting out a strange warning that he needed to run away as fast as possible- and then he was caught, dark tendrils wrapped around his wrists and waists, pulling him down through the concrete below before he could even scream.
He, like all the others, found himself in the Seeker Prison next; a place that was cold, dark, and filled with monsters. A place where time didn’t seem to ever pass, and a dark whispering stole all his strength.
Abilities, Talents, Traits, Powers:
Music: Aarón is adept with a guitar and knows how to read and play music on a variety of other instruments, as well as a good grasp of performing with singing and dancing.
Tri-lingual: Aarón can speak his native languages of Spanish and English, as well as fluent Portuguese.
Telekinetic Specialty: As a Streamer the abilities related to teleknietic abilities come easiest to him, and he is capable of learning more advanced applications and skills of that specific power.
Yeah! Though I want to clarify just in case I didn't do it very well in the beginning; Streamers can use all the base abilities, meaning they'll all be telepaths and teleporters etc., but whichever power you specialize in will grant you the specialist abilities of those powers- assuming you learn how to use them, which won't be too hard otherwise it wouldn't be any fun :P
Also mind control is like... you can possess a mundane person, totally take over their body, but thats just one person at a time and all your concentration, though you would get better at it in time. Psychic control is more useful for mind controlling other Streamers (try not to do the PC chars :O ) and there will be times when other Streamers oppose you, but mostly it's for putting the whammy on the aliens, taking control of their Hunters and Seekers so you can escape! I'm doing it like that so it's a bit more insular, like sure mundane people will be involved, but this is all happening because you are psychic and the aliens are psychic and the mysterious connection between the streamers and the aliens, so it's between all of you- but it's also going to open up a lot.
You start as a captive in a Streamer Realm controlled by the aliens, and a Streamer Realm is basically any world exposed to the Stream, which is the psychic tether threading across the universe - hence Streamers, we're streaming our connection to use our powers - but anyway that's only so you can have a character from anywhere in the world with any kind of history you want and still you all meet up and start together. The RP begins with an escape from the Seeker Prison back to the 'real world' and kind of takes on a fact-finding mission, pooling our information, getting to know each other, figuring out whats safe and what isnt and how to fend off Seekers and Hunters, maybe even building a base or something, I mean I do have a plot in mind, but I kind of want it to be open-worldy too where we get to figure things out on our own and make our own decisions on what to do.
What do you mean portray? Like make a character of one? That's not something I planned for, and they are (spoilers) a hivemind so Seekers, Hunters, their big boss, that's off the table, but I guess if you wanted to make an alien... It'd have to be really well done, I planned on a few Streamer Realms but I hadn't really accounted for another planet like Earth with it's own species and stuff to be like... on the map I guess? Aside from the Seekers I mean, and we do go to Earth right after, it'd potentially totally change the dynamic of interacting with mundanes...
But yknow what, I'm open to the idea, though they'd have to be in the same boat as everyone else; their world may be more or less advanced but for the most part no supernatural Streamer powers, it'd be all new to their world as well and your char wouldn't have any advantages over the other Streamers. Unless it was like a minor biology thing like good nightvision or something.
This looks pretty cool, I'm interested. Will each character have to have a different specialty or could we have multiple people being telepathic specialists for example?
Got it, sounds good, I'll likely just roll a die to pick. That way it's more realistic, I doubt if this situation were real you'd get to choose your specialization ;)
I dunno, it’s all psychic mumbo jumbo, maybe there’s something in the way your character thinks or behaves or their desires or something that plays a role? Or you can roll a die lmao it doesn’t matter ;p whatever you want
Definitely, like this idea. I myself like the idea of a technopath specialist. Also, What is your ruling/thoughts on NPC's? And if someone is a streamer what would the odds of a family member being one as well? I.E. the character in my mind's eye has a twin and I was wondering what kind of impact him being a streamer would have on her.
Edit: PS I really enjoyed the Tomorrow People and am glad I'm not the only one.
Well all the PCs were basically kidnapped, and time doesn't seem to ever pass in the prison, but it does. So we will be returning to Earth, and as kidnapped kids/young adults/whatevers, we're probs going to want to reach out to our fam asap. We'll discover exactly how much time has passed, and also we'll pretty quickly discover how unsafe we are. So yeah, you can have NPC family, those members may even be as yet untapped Streamers, and we could even bring those NPCs into the in character roleplay instead of just having them in the background, but how much of a role they'll play will be determined by how the characters react to them/how long you're willing to write for them.
tl;dr you can have npc fam but whether its background, a cameo, or a second character is up to you and the group- like if they don't come into their powers or they'd otherwise just be safer without the team around, may be better to leave them, but if you just want two bro chars and we recruit one later in the rp and they come into their powers then, thats fine :P
And yeeeeeeeee TP was p good, the not being able to kill thing was weird though, and the villains were boring, so this is my own somewhat more zany take on the idea!
Well I rolled a die and got Teleportation, so I'll be going with that as my specialty. What kind of age range should we be making our characters? Also how detailed should a sheet be? I know we have your as an example, I just like knowing what standards we're looking for here.
Also, should I watch The Tomorrow People? I've been looking for things to watch so if it's enjoyable I'l check it out. I'm guessing it's the one that was on TV from 2013-2014?
Well, I should probably have been a bit more detailed in my own sheet. I don't know if anyone here has watched Sense8, but that series focuses on a cluster of eight totally different people around the world suddenly being telepathically linked; they can share skills, languages, knowledge, they can sense each other's pain and love, etc. This is not that, but we will all be telepathic and in close proximity so a good detailed sheet will give people the chance to pick up on things as the characters get to know each other and realize their powers; things like personal fears or doubts, their general default attitude, maybe even some of the more intense moments in their individual histories.
That said, most of the telepathy/empathy going on will be current stuff gleamed from whatever you put in your post, the character sheet can be kinda sparse if you don't really know what to say or whatever, I'm not too anal about it, just make sure it's a character you want to play!
So yea, this RP will be a bit unique in that meta-gaming is kind of a canon mechanic? But keep it kinda lowkey as well, you're still learning your abilities and you wont be able to glean every emotion and thought from the rest of the team right away, and eventually we'll also learn to shield ourselves and you know that weird thinking of something but not naming it thing that some people do in sci-fi to evade telepaths? If someone doesn't state it in their post, you can't say it happened; so still kind of a solid no on the metagaming, but if someone says something like they're thinking of running away from the group and trying to survive solo, someone else might pick up on that feeling of flightiness and say something or do something about it.
tl;dr, char sheets are chill, whatever you want, but more detail is more for others to work with - and telepathy/empathy is a thing for everyone so be aware of that extra level of the game when writing your posts.
Anyways, Tomorrow People isn't bad, and it's only like one season? Twenty-ish episodes? Good enough to binge all in one night if you're up for it, though it is a bit cliche here and there, and it wont be winning any diversity awards. Not too much of a cliff hanger ending either, so it's not like stumbling across an old tv show that was really good and then getting to the end and realizing it was canceled and there's still a lot of unfinished plot. Like Terra Nova. Or Heroes. That's an endless list I'm p sure. But yeah, TP is on netflix, prob not worth outright buying it, but if you have netflix or find it somewhere else it's worth a watch I think.
So when do we start this fun little game of ours? So will we already know each other when the rp starts? And is there a certain length of time wee have been down there or will that vary with each character?
Sorry for the slow uptake, I'm trying new meds and it's a mess with my brain right now, but the doctor said that's expected and should go away after a couple days!
Anywho, we'll start with the prison cells opening and each of us exiting into the halls and following a voice to the same place. It's set up one prison cell per hall, so you'll be alone, and then you'll immediately meet someone else in the next hall. Said person will be random or ya'll can decide yourselves, and then everyone meets up in the next room and after stuff happens there we'll take a portal to Earth and escapay.
Also, time doesn't really mean anything in the prison, at worst you'll think a couple months have passed, and you wont have aged, but yeah, some of the chars may have been missing for a decade at most, and it can vary from character to character how long it's actually been. The current year on Earth that we'll be going to will be 2020. As for character ages, whatever you prefer to play is fine, but I do have this idea that powers start turning up somewhere between adolescence and maturity- and I read somewhere the brain doesn't stop maturing until like 22 or 25 or something? So yeah, later teens lower twenties for most, and this is a relatively new phenomenon, Streamers haven't existed for centuries undetected, they're something that's just now popping up in the last couple decades.
