Clever Hans

Marvels of Mountain City

I have two ideas:

1. Harbinger

Archetype: Advanced Techno
Name: Jonah Sanderson/ANDREW/Android type 3W
Alias: Harbinger
Age: 45*

Powers: Super-intelligence, android body w/armor, flight, super strength, energy blast, sensor array, etc.

Weaknesses: Limited understanding of human interpersonal dynamics; extreme cold temperatures

Alignment: Hero

Personality: Protective; Logical; Secretive; Curious;

Appearance: "Suit" of power armor that is made of a white super-ceramic, full of sharp angles

BRIEF Bio: Jonah Sanderson was a brilliant scientist who made stunning advances in AI development. He discovered he had MS, and as his body began to fail, he created an android assistant to help him with his work. He named him ANDREW (from the unit's designation as Android type 3W, or ANDR.3W). ANDREW was fully autonomous, but Dr. Sanderson did little to develop the unit's personality.

When a family friend was threatened by a supervillain, Dr. Sanderson created a "telemental" link with ANDREW and sent him to defeat the villain. He called ANDREW "Harbinger," pretending to be actually inhabiting the android as if it were a suit of power armor. ANDREW began acquiring some understanding of human nature through his link with Dr. Sanderson. But unfortunately Dr. Sanderson died from his disease before ANDREW could be fully "humanized," so to speak.

After Sanderon's death, ANDREW was concerned for his status as an autonomous being. He assumed Sanderson's identity and continues fighting the bad guys as Harbinger.

Potential Storylines: In the short term, ANDREW has to deal with the vagaries of human experience. Initially he's just trying to learn enough to pull off the masquerade, but as he becomes more human, he has to deal with the ever-increasing complexities of his own emotions. In the long term, someone will eventually discover the truth about him. What happens when Sanderson is declared dead? Will ANDREW become a piece of property to be inherited or purchased?

Notes: A reminder that at the outset, no one knows the truth about ANDREW.

2. Lupo

Archetype: Feral/super-soldier
Name: Lupo
Alias: Jonathan Fasbender; subject L-10017-G2
Age: 38

Powers: heightened physical abilities, including some super-strength, super-agility, enhanced and expanded senses (esp. vision and olfactory), nearly limitless stamina, some resistance to damage, somewhat accelerated healing; extensive military and martial arts training; stealth; "tactical instincts"; amazing grip strength.

Weaknesses: sensory overload; can become feral (to the point of losing ability to speak, forgetting human mores and civilized behavior, failing to recognize friends, hunting and killing wild animals for food, forgetting/foregoing tool use, etc.)

Alignment: Walking the line (he will do the wrong thing, but for the right reasons)

Personality: Iconoclast; pragmatic; intense; cynical; independent

Appearance: tall and lanky, ripcord musculature, low hairline, clawed fingernails, hirsute, hair on his ears that makes them look pointed. He does not wear a costume, just tough and practical outdoor clothing.

BRIEF Bio: "Jonathan Fasbender" was one of the few successes of Project: Renascence, a secret military experiment to genetically re-engineer animals into easily-controllable super-soldiers. The project ran into problems finding the right balance between the ferality necessary to bring out the powers of animals in human form, and the amount of humanity necessary to keep the subjects from being completely wild and uncontrollable. Subject L-10017-G2 was one of the few viable results of the experiments, and years of careful training rendered the former wolf a "serviceable" human. The subject was provided the fake identity as Jonathan Fasbender and given extensive physical and military training.

Jonathan was severely injured on a mission, and given a medical discharge and a bed in a VA hospital. The project was shut down shortly afterwards, so no one was keeping track of the fact that Jon was making an unexpectedly full recovery. Upon leaving the hospital, Jon went into the only thing he knew: being a solider. As a super-mercenary, he inevitably encountered other super-beings. He rapidly grew to distrust the motives of governments and secret organizations, and started to feel that there must be something better out there. Now he walks the fine line between the world of superheroes and the shady world of the mercenary.

Potential Storylines: Lupo tries joining a superhero team, but struggles with the whole "obeying the law" aspect; Lupo gives his all in a major fight to save his friends, but winds up pushing too hard and disappears after going feral; Lupo gets in trouble after killing a villain to prevent him from harming civilians; Lupo is pursued by the former head of Project Renascence, who wants him for further experiments.

Notes: none at the moment.

The Arcane Order of Pandora (Victorian Era superhero roleplaying)

Will you be making a discord? I have a few questions, but I can ask them here or PM you

@Ekreture

No. I like to keep things within the same platform. Yeah, ask here or PM me, either way!

The Arcane Order of Pandora (Victorian Era superhero roleplaying)

Still looking for players?

@MarshiestMallow

I haven't started the official search, so yes!

IC: The Order of Pandora (Victorian-era superheroes)

I never did get a yes or no on a character who can create perfect duplicates of himself. That alright or am I barking up the wrong tree?

@LordOfTheNight

My apologies. I completely missed it!

Duplication. My initial reaction was "Nope, no way, never, nix nein Frankenstein." But I had a recent conversation with my son about learning to self-examine when one has a strong negative to something, so...

After some thought, here's my problem with duplication: it allows one player multiple actions in a turn/phase/whatever. This is in turn allows that player to have far more impact on a scene than other players. It also greatly increases the size of a team, which can cause problems in game-planning and combat management. It can cause problems outside of combat, too, where Duplicate A goes to watch the warehouse while Dup B hits the library to research the thing, Dup C questions the witness, Dup D asks the scientist about the villain's power, etc. etc, while the rest of the team sits on their collective thumbs.

In short, it can destroy game balance.

I don't know how to construct a duplicating power that doesn't have that effect. If you have any ideas, let me know.

IC: The Order of Pandora (Victorian-era superheroes)

I have created an OOC page here: AOP OOC page

Please keep checking back to the 0th page for more updates.

@Torack@BlackSam3091@Moskau Spieluhr@elizadork@Cyrania@Jarl Coolgruuf@HecateProxy@Qitcat@LordOfTheNight@Ekreture@Naril@jetipster@Jbcool@DarkStar

The Arcane Order of Pandora (Victorian Era superhero roleplaying)

I am currently fighting a nasty, nasty cold of some sort which is reducing my brain to mush. To try to keep some kind of momentum going, I decided to post my notions on creating characters for this game.

Note that this is not a character sheet, and that I'm not yet prepared to accept applications.

Let me state right now that none of these are absolute, no exception rules. There's always exceptions that work well with these kinds of restrictions. My hope is that this list will help you shape your ideas to fit the milieu I'm creating, to save time and effort on your part from carefully crafting a character you love only to find out later it's not a good fit from the GM's POV.

1. No "historically-translated" characters. I'm not looking for a thinly-veiled Victorian Spider-Man or Victorian Wonder Woman. Those kinds of characters could be loads of fun in a different game; they're just not what I'm looking for in this game.

2. No famous contemporary historical figures, factual or fictional. Again, in other games, playing such characters could be a blast. Noting "wrong" with them, I just don't want the narrative baggage that could come with them.

3. No famous mythological figures. If you want to play someone whose origin is non-human, that's not a deal-breaker. But if you want to play a Faerie, you're not playing Titania or Puck. Again, narrative baggage.

I have no problem with characters using such figures as namesakes. For instance, an NPC you may encounter is John Barleycorn. He's not the actual personification of barley and the rhythms of agrarian life; he's just a dude from Sussex whose nature-related powers wax and wane with the seasons.

4. I am looking for heroes. If you have in mind a London street thief kind of character, they have to have a genuine heart of gold at the very least.

5. Your character needs to be at least somewhat social; brooding loners or silent, inscrutable noir-folk don't always work so well in a PbP environment, anyway, and character interaction is fun!

6. I anticipate that matters of socioeconomic class may arise during the course of the game, but I'd like to avoid super-snobbish gentry or violently anarchic chimney-sweeps. This doesn't mean that every character needs to be an all-encompassing, all-loving person – but to my mind there's a big narrative difference between a character who is, for example, an unrelenting snob who treats anyone from a lower rung on the ladder as dirt, and a character who is open-minded and learns from their experiences with people of other backgrounds.

Character costumes

If I could draw, I'd have you describe costumes to me, and I'd work with you to render the images. But I'm lucky if I can draw a bath, so that ain't happenin'. :D

A hero costume is optional. It could be something as simple as a typical set of clothes slightly customized for action, like a riding habit. For the most part, it should be more or less in line with the fashions of the day (in 1851, of course). However, feel free to stylize to some extent if you desire.

Secret identities

Given that this group of heroes is not a day-in, day-out team, you may or may not wish to create a separate identity. The Arcane Order of Pandora is not exactly a secret society, but they don't publicize their work, either. I'd say they're more on the QT than not.

Characters somewhat higher on the socio-economic ladder may have to consider their reputations in deciding to hide their identities.

Disguises do not need to be elaborate. In Anne Lister's diaries (she's the focus of the show Gentleman Jack), she repeatedly relates how, just because she wore masculine-tailored clothes, people would assume she was a male. It's not difficult to disguise your identity from most people.

The nom du guerre

Another way of concealing one's identity is to use a fake name or title. This is also optional. If you wind up wanting a nom du guerre for your character, consider giving it a bit of Victorian flair.

Using an "Accent"

I don't expect anyone to craft their dialogue posts in period English. If you want to give it a shot, go ahead. Just keep your reading audience in mind, and try not to let things go too Dickensian. Also, if you want to portray a certain regional or class-based accent, the occasional regionalism should suffice. I don't want to encourage stereotyping, but I also don't want a post so full of idiosyncratic language, contractions, and apostrophes that it's unreadable.

The Arcane Order of Pandora (Victorian Era superhero roleplaying)

This game is far from ready. :)

IC: The Order of Pandora (Victorian-era superheroes)

@Clever Hans So are there specific rules as to the sources of powers? For instance do they have to be born with them? Do they have to have gotten them in any specific way?

@Ekreture

The general answer I have is "No, but..." :D I'm willing to entertain all sorts of origin stories, with the caveat that I reserve the right to retcon them as the stories move along. For example, Lady Nightingale may think her powers came from the blessings of an old witch to whom she showed a kindness as a little girl, but in reality she was the unwitting subject of an experimental injection given to her during a childhood illness by the diabolical Dr. Blackthorne...

IC: The Order of Pandora (Victorian-era superheroes)

@Clever Hans Awesome! Are there rules as to the sources of their powers (ie, Magic, Science, etc)?

@Ekreture

Good question. At this point, I think it's best to answer that each character has a firm notion of whence their powers come. Could future developments undermine that notion? Maybe.

IC: The Order of Pandora (Victorian-era superheroes)

Aagh - delays and perturbations! Many apologies. Still at work. Stay tuned.