1. I officially apologize to anyone that has been held back by my lack of activity, and specifically to GM Thess, as well as BCTheEntity and Terminal. I'm sorry, I should've contacted someone and I didn't. My fault.
2. Harkon has been updated, there's only a short bit added to his background with training and the L3 technique 2healing" has been moved to a mystic arts-hider.
3. As soon as I've hit the post-button I'll start reading the IC to get up to speed.
4. When I'm done reading I will write the entry post for Harkon and the unnamed Android. Hopefully, by the time anyone sees this I have already started writing.
What happened is that I'm studying to become a teacher, and as such I have to write a series of essays to prove to my colleagues that I understand academic lingo and am able to reproduce the same. However, the time set for writing these essays is extremely short, and finding scholarly sources to support my theses... Let's just say that it takes time. Time I didn't have, a fact that I discovered a few hours after posting my last comment in this thread. Since then I've pretty much only gone to lectures, studied and slept, somewhere I got fed, not sure how. Anywho. I have all my sources and quotes sorted, and a writing schedule in place. A few hours free time every other day should let me keep up with this game from now on. I hope you can understand. I don't want to quit this game.
Huh, I thought I wrote a reply here earlier today, must've forgot to push the button...
I'll get my first post up this weekend and do the changes to my character before that. In short I'll give him some mystic training and raise his power level up to about 15000. (combined PL (ca 1000) x 15).
@Halvtand 1. There's no way Piccolo got to 800000 from 3500 in less than two months, when Goku only increased from 8000 to 90000, with a zenkai boost and after training at one hundred times Earth's normal gravity practically non-stop for six days. That being said, yes, it's totally feasible that Limic's corruption might have affected the fusion in some way, though I feel like it might not need to be the case that Harkon doesn't then improve his power at all after fusing with him. That just seems incongruous to how DBZ itself works; even the weaker characters improve fairly consistently as long as they keep training to improve their power level, after all. 2. Well, of course. All I'm saying is that it's a pretty major thing to need to account for, if a character has a cuts-nearly-everything attack that they can basically spam freely. 3. Oh right, he could do that. Even so, I'd still go with the thing that has a precedent in canon over the thing that doesn't, as a general rule.
1. I agree, this leap in power is HUGE, even if we removed 10% of it and brought it back to 80,000 it's still way out of what we'd expect to see. I only brought it up because it came from the one source I could find that in any way could be considered somewhat legit. Personally I think we should see about the same power increase in Piccolo as we saw in Goku when he trained with King Kai, which in a few months should leave Piccolo at about 5000-6000 or so. 2. Yes, I understand your concern, it is something that we have to look out for, because unbalanced techniques like these can seriously wreck the game. I've played and GM'ed several fandom-rps myself, the danger is real. On top of that I've heard the "I won't abuse"-line about five million times, so yeah. The only thing that can help balance this is playing in the advanced area, because the requirements are so much higher here. You don't just run in and attack, you have to justify it first, role play the whole thing. 3. As a general rule, yes. I'll leave it to the GM to decide right now though.
Thanks for the great discussion. I'll try to give your characters a god read-through tonight and tomorrow. I already have one question, but want to read everything through properly before I make a fool of myself :)
3. I mean... when I say absurd, I mean really a whole hell of a lot of power is gained from Namekian fusion. Nail had a power level of 42000, and Piccolo presumably didn't have much more than that, if he wasn't in fact weaker; yet their fused state escalated Piccolo's power level to more than a million, most likely at least 1.2 million or so given the difference between how he does in his fights against Frieza's second and third forms. Even if we assume that Piccolo miraculously reached a PL of 58000 from his sub-Nappa strength prior to death whilst training with King Kai to round off the combined PL of him and Nail to 100000, that's still a twelve times multiplier on that amount of power, minimum, and it's far more likely that their combined PL was closer to 50000, requiring a multiplier of twenty four times to reach the 1.2 million minimum (lets assume the PL of fusing Namekians is added together prior to the multiplier itself), and probably twenty five times if we assume both the initial combined PL and the fusion multiplier are relatively round numbers. Piccolo's fusion with Kami was presumably a less dramatic boost than that, but given how much weaker Kami was than Piccolo at that stage, and the fact that Piccolo was already a fused being (suggesting reduced potential in future fusions), it'd still have been pretty impressive. Long story short, even the lowest possible combined PL between Harkon and Limic, 950, would likely have resulted in a PL of just under 24000, and the higher number of 1150 would have given even more than that, nearly 29000. In short, Harkon's far too weak for a fused Namekian.
This is really interesting, and I think your calculations are logical. That big flaw here is that we don't know Piccolos power level pre-fusion. The latest number we have is around 3500 while fighting Nappa, which must have changed otherwise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsMSiVn6vpQ In my search for a reasonable power level for Piccolo pre-fusion I found one thing that is slightly more reliable than the thoughts of mr random internet person who once saw an animu. A published RPG with the DBZ logo on it. Granted, this was before people cared much about the integrity of IPs, but at least it's something. link: http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Ball_Z:_The_Anime_Adventure_Game This list states that Piccolo's power after training with King Kai is 800,000. Nail at 42,000. Post-fusion 1,200,000. With these numbers as a base the power increase was less than 50%, which makes Harkon's and Limac's fusion much more reasonable. This is of course with the assumption that the power increase is made with a set multiplier instead of with an accumulative scale.
Anyway. I don't think there will ever be a solid right answer to this. In the end the fusion is simply a plot device and the power level of Harkon is set pretty low because I don't want this character to be the big and powerful dude that he might be if all rules were followed to the letter. If it bothers you, we can write something about it in-game after he's had a big power surge, something about the corruption holding back his true power or something like that.
4. ...I mean, maybe? I'm just saying, one clean hit with even a single shuriken could probably take any human-sized target's head off, and it doesn't seem like it takes much time to create one. I'd have figured the actual difficulty in the technique isn't in the amount of ki you put in, but in the way it's spun to form a razor edge, presumably with most of the disc's ki focused at that edge, which is why they're always made to be so large in canon - you may as well make it as likely to hit as you can get, especially since the disc always seem to be going at a fair clip (not the Final Flash's "across the galaxy and blowing up a distant planet in a few seconds" fast, but not overly slow either), and since one can figure out ways of telekinetically manipulating any given disc.
I agree with this whole quote, and when this character is facing Mooks or other unimportant NPC's this will be a pretty devastating technique. But the important thing is that mooks are mooks for a reason, they're pretty much just filler. When the real fighting begins (against other players or GM-controlled enemies) I expect everything to be dealt with in a more lore-friendly way. What's important is that the story we write is interesting and fun. I'm not after a "always kill"-attack, I just think the destructo-disc is cool as hell and wanted to make a character that has it as a theme.
5. Maybe Guru's powerup unlocked Dende's native potential for magic, and Healing just happened to be the field he was naturally skilled in. Maybe his potential unlocking ability had two different types, with the magic type only working on beings with the potential for magic, i.e. not most humans or Saiyans, and certainly not those with a generally martial inclination. Or it just changes what it does depending on what significant potential it senses within any given being. My point is, there's a few possible reasons why Dende suddenly acquired healing abilities, and since he didn't show any potential in ki usage either before then, I have trouble imagining that he had "special ki" which needed its potential unlocking when there's clearly a precedent for magical healing, both in-series and in this game.
I see your point, the only thing I can correct here is that Dende did show that he could manipulate ki by flying. Other than that I have to agree, we have no idea how Guru's unlocking actually works, it could be any of these things or fifty others. I can't really argue here. I think I'll leave this up to the GM. If necessary I will change the healing to a mystic art and write some shit about it.
@Halvtand Uhhh... do... Namekians actually, like... have life partners...? I mean, if you want to fluff them like that, go ahead, but, uh... I was always just under the impression that they were kind of asexual and/or aromantic. And also only had the one gender, making "male-type Namekian" seem like tautology. Really, I'm just thinking that their whole reproduction method and biology precludes stuff like, uh... like romance. Is all I'm saying. I will also say that Namekian fusion seems to result in an absurd power increase, given the two examples we see of it in the anime, which suggests to me that both Harkon and Limac had absurdly low power levels for their race prior to fusion. Other than that, I wouldn't necessarily suggest that anything is wrong with the character sheet, though miniature Destructo Discs as level 2 techniques seems potentially excessively powerful if they can be produced practically at will, and Healing is absolutely a Mystic technique, so that's something that might want changing.
Thanks for the feedback, and normally I would agree with you on pretty much everything here. Let me explain myself. Life partners: Yes, this is a new one. While all the prominent Namekians we've seen have not been much for hugging, I thought about this for a while and came to the conclusion that while Namekians reproduce asexually, there is no reason for them to lack the feeling of love. After all it was the enormous heartbreak of having all his beloved children slain that killed Guru. So if they can feel love, then they might also feel deeper love for certain members of the race. They may not be able to do the nasty, but they can care for each other and have the type of nurturing and loving relationship that makes romantic comedies as a genre unwatchable.
Male-type: In a world filled with strange people and fanfiction that blatantly disregard canon one can never be too careful. In fact, Namekians doesn't even have one gender, they have none. Male-type describes the social gender that humans would assign this person. So in short, it's your standard Namekian. Also, it's easier to talk about the guy as a "he" instead of an "it".
Fusion: You are correct, this fusion did give Harkon an absurd PL increase. While Limac was a fairly strong warrior of about 800-1000 PL, Harkon was a PL-retard of ca 150. Basically, all he could do was heal, and then hope that the guy he brought back to the front could kick enough ass to save him. The only reason Harkon was even sent to the front was because of his healing ability. Otherwise he'd be back home, getting ready to murder the children in case the makaioshin attacked.
Minidisc of doom: Indeed a potentially broken technique in itself. Thess also reacted to this one. The thing is that the three disc-techniques are closely related and works pretty much the same way. The smaller disks are faster, but at the same time easier to dodge because of their small size. The larger are slower, but might be harder to avoid due to the area they occupy. All disc-techniques are also about as accurate as a space duck with a jetpack. Once thrown they will go along the intended trajectory without fault. A single step to the side can be enough to dodge. Like Krillin's D-disc these techniques are best suited for backstab-tactics. Also, I expect people to dodge them all the time. I'm not the kind of player who wants everything to hit/damage/work/be awesome. DB is all about launching your most powerful shit at someone, only to find that they miraculously dodged or blocked it. Come to think of it, I don't even expect it, I demand it.
Not very mystic healing: Yes, I wrestled with this one myself. Healing is one of the mystic arts, and that's all good. But thinking about the series made this hard. In this game you have to learn the arts, and train them to a certain point. At first I wanted the healing ki to be a genetic mutation caused by breeding between the castes, which couldn't work for obvious reasons... I settled for it being a rare ki-form and went along with that. The thing that made me place the healing as a ki technique in the first place was Dende. This snotling didn't show us anything in the way of magic training or even ki-manipulation. Then, after he was touched in his special place by Guru, he was suddenly able to get people back from the brink of death, multiple times. All Guru did was unlock his full potential, the same trick that gave Krillin nothing more that a tiny power boost. So, instead of writing in magic training just for this one thing (borderline powergaming) I decided to handicap myself (or the character) by making it into a ki technique. I won't get a new one for a good while and pretty soon Harkon will be one of the weakest protagonists in the game which everyone else will have to protect (story and role playing elements!).
So.. Yeah, I think that's most of it. Do let me know what you think. I'm not perfect, maybe it is better to do it in another way. This just made sense to me while I was planning and writing.
I did say only one level 3 technique, I am approving the Namekian you created with two level 3 techniques simply because the character is technically two people that could each have had a level 3 technique. I will look over the android later, though I do like the initial idea of a fusion based line of androids. I will also say that no one in this game will be reaching anywhere near Super Saiyan God's level of power, though the potential may be left there so that other androids could be made with the ability.
Sorry about that, must've missed that part completely. I've put one of the techniques in a hider to save it for later.
About the power level: Yes, I suspected that we wouldn't reach those levels. Lore-wise that would be a theoretical optimal scenario, but as I state next, there is no way of knowing just how many androids that can still be used. In game terms, what I'm actually saying is that the character will be able to keep up with the main protagonist cast power-wise during the game.
Also: Namekian posted in character-tab for anyone to see.
@Halvtand It looks good. However, I seem to recall it being said somewhere that characters are only allowed to start with a single level 3 ki technique? Also, I'm still waiting for additional critique on my Majin absorption ability, specifically from @Thess to confirm that such an ability would be allowed in a character at all.
Can't say I've seen such a rule myself, but I'll see if I can find it or maybe the GM finds me first.
Name: The android. (I will give him a name in-game) Race: Android, technically a cyborg. Homeworld: Earth. Current Location: Long-abandoned android factory. Affiliation: None. Age: Around 1 minute.
Physical Description: The android looks like a muscular man with spiky white hair. His clothes are made from a kevlar-like material created to withstand gunfire, while allowing the android to move with full agility. His eyes are glowing red, which is the only thing that reveals his androidness. All of his clothes are pure white. Martial artist’s boots, baggy pants, sleevless gi and fingerless gloves.
Personality: Unknown. (will develop in-game)
History: Dr Gero wasn’t the only android-builder in the old red ribbon army. There was at least one more with a vision matching Gero’s, but in a totally different way. Gero built a small number of increasingly powerful androids, the strongest able to stand up even to a super saiyan. The other, called Dr Wheir, instead focused on massive-scale production. He built many factories around the world in secret and had them producing hundreds of thousands of the same model of android. This model had something that Gero would later steal for his cell-design, the power of fusion. Each model was extremely cheap to build, but didn’t hold much power on its own, only enough to act as training opponents for demon king Piccolo. By harnessing the power modules from each other they could grow in strength exponentially. Dr Wheir built an army able to conquer the world, one that would grow more powerful with each loss, instead of weaker. Yet history doesn’t remember his name. The red ribbon army was destroyed only minutes before the androids could be unleashed, Wheir was driven away from his lab and killed by bandits before he could tell anyone about his army.
Long after the death of Goku (the final one) and the other legendary Z-fighters an adventurer stumbled into the ruins of one of Dr Wheir’s factories. Looking for a terminal with information about the place the adventurer accidentally activated the production line and a single android was engaged. The old hardware had deteriorated though, and the last software update became corrupted. When the android booted up it found that it had a similar programming as 17 and 18, but the insubordination software that normally would stop an android from disobeying its master was damaged. This android had perfect free will, not disobeying orders out of choice but because they were not needed. The android’s eyes lit up as it turned to watch the adventurer that had activated him. The adventurer held a weapon in his hands, aiming straight for the android.
Base Power Level: 100. Average Power Level: 100. Max Power Level: 125.
Racial Abilities:
Energy Reading – Nearly every android can inherently read the power levels of those around them, much like having a built in Scouter.
Self Destruct – Most androids are unaware of this feature that is built into every Royal Robotics model. It allows the android to unleash all of their energy at once, causing a massive explosion that very few could survive.
Transformations: None.
Techniques:
Laser pointer - In both of the androids index fingers or “pointers” are hidden powerful laser emitters. The battery for each are extremely limited and each can only fire for about a second before it has to recharge. During this time the laser can be moved for a slashing attack or held in place for a powerful piercing attack.
Ki Barrier – By extending an arm forward and spreading his fingers a powerful shield can be created which shields the android from incoming attacks in that direction. By extending the other arm in another direction a second shield can be created.
Energy bomb - The android will put his arms up in front of him, palms facing each other but with space between them. Energy starts gathering into a ball between his hands and once it has reached the size of a football the android will start to press his hands together. The ball is compressed so much that the android’s fingertips meet just before the ball if released forward. Like many techniques the android is still connected to the ball and can do beam-struggles with it.
Ki wall - A stronger kind of shield that will cover a larger area, making it possible for the android to protect something behind it. This requires both arms in the same direction. The power of the shield is so great that if it is not pushed back by a level 4 technique it will actually move forward and can be used as a crushing attack.
None
Weapons: None.
Armor: His clothes.
Items: None.
Zeni: None.
There are a number of androids all over the world, the combined power of every android combined would give the last android a power level equal to a super saiyan god, but it is unknown how many androids are actually operational.
The android has activated a beacon that will draw all of the working androids to it, but the rate they will do this varies a lot depending on what kinds of obstacles they will have to clear before uniting with their dominant brother. There is also an algorithm in place to spread out the load of androids to the different factories, so even though there are working androids close by, the algorithm might decide to send one from the other end of the world instead. (in short, the android will not simply go “hey, I need more power” and suddenly fifteen powerups appear. That’s just bad writing)
In the beginning the androids are so similar in power that they can stay and fight, but later they will pretty much become powerups.
When a power module is removed this will automatically trigger the self-destruct sequence. Careful timing and planning can therefore result in a powerful explosion (attack) that also powers up the android.
The androids are all made the same, and so and damaged part can be replaced by the same part of a discarded android.
The android will receive a 30% powerup with each looted power module.
The android is the only one that has been properly activated, all others are working on slave-circuits and have no will of their own or will to survive.
All androids have a heritage-drive that activates once it takes a certain amount of damage. This activates the radar, locates the strongest (primary) or closest (secondary) androids and does anything it can to reach the selected android to make sure that the other android can get its power module.
Name: Harkon. Race: Namekian. Homeworld: Originally New Namek, now resides on Earth. Current Location: Secret lab underneath Capsule Corps HQ. Affiliation: Namekian. Age: 43
Physical Description: Being a typical male-type Namekian Harkon is basically humanoid, but lacks and kind of body hair. His skin is green, rather pale as he is still fairly young, and interrupted by light areas on his arms and torso. Lacking hair Harkon’s head is entirely bald if not for a pair of antennas. Like most Namekians Harkon has a pair of big, pointy ears that makes him able to hear things humans could not. As for clothes Harkon wears the same full gi-like sleeveless costume that is favored by many Namekians. Harkon’s clothes are red, the pants held up by a black sash. Pic: pre01.deviantart.net/f189/th/pre/f/201..
Personality: Harkon is very trusting and believes that everyone has some core of goodness in them. He will often spare the life of an opponent once he’s defeated, and will not kill or torture an incapacitated being. With this said he’s nowhere near as naive as Goku, if someone has proven to be evil or deceitful Harkon will not think twice if an opportunity shows itself. He is weak though, and has to rely on more powerful allies to do any real kind of damage. Although it isn’t his own home, Harkon likes Earth, the blue sky and green grass looks much better that the reverse back on Namek.
History: Born and raised on New Namek, Harkon was part of a select few with the rare mutation that gave his ki healing properties. Because of this rather unique trait he received special training from the leader of the Namekians himself, Guru. Harkon was shown to have great potential, and mastered the healing technique in a matter of seconds. Training would've continued if word had not arrived at that exact second, forcing every available healer to leave training and join the battle squads at the front. Harkon had conflicting feelings about going to the front, on one hand he'd love to put his limited skills to good use, but on the other hand the front was an extremely dangerous place where a young healer like himself could get killed very easily. Either by luck or a remarkable turn of events Harkon stumbled upon one strong warrior after the other as soon as he'd joined the battle. His healing aside, it seemed like he always managed to find key fighters in need of medical attention, and was hailed as a hero amongst the warrior caste within weeks. Before his tenth birthday he'd saved hundreds of lives. As the galactic war raged on Harkon was sent out together with small teams of Namekian warriors that fought shoulder to shoulder with both Saiyans and Humans. All enjoyed the healing that Harkon provided and some even went on to say that it was because of people like him that Earth never fell to the Arcosians.
After the war Harkon and the warriors settled back on Namek and tried to get on with their lives once more. But the Makaioshins made this difficult. In the early days, before anyone knew about the corruption, Harkon’s best friend and life partner Limac had been attacked and infected. Limac was a strong warrior, and Harkon a kind of weak dragon member, their love was not permitted. Even worse, Harkon might get blamed for murder and exiled. As the corruption spread through Limac’s body Harkon explained an ancient technique known only to the most respected of dragon caste members, even Harkon wouldn’t normally know about it, but war tends to loosen a few tongues. The namekian fusion technique. It wouldn’t save Limac’s life per se, but they’d share bodies for a while, and when the danger had passed Harkon could ask the Guru to teach him the technique to divide one’s body and so Limac would be alive and well again.
Limac accepted and with his last breath fused with Harkon. With speed otherwise only reserved for people who drops their babies Harkon made his way back to his village and the elder. He tried to explain about the attack, and at first it was going well, but once the elder found out about the fusion the elder became so enraged that he actually shifted colour. While the threat was a real one, they couldn’t allow someone who had used that technique to stay in the village. Harkon was exiled to earth, not a great punishment, as it was the closest thing you could come to an intergalactic ally, but he was still in exile and unable to return.
Not one to sit around in the wasteland Harkon immediately sought out the saiyans in Capsule Corps. Some of them even remembered him, while others seemed not to care much. Long story short, they promised that CC would take him in and give him a place to stay. A healer was always needed amongst the saiyans and conventional medicine still had them in the hospital for days at least. Harkon gladly accepted and lived at CC for a short while until he made the awful mistake of telling one of his closest saiyan friends about the corruption, fusion and the voice inside his head that had once been Limac, but that had changed with time into something clearly different. Not knowing that it would do harm the saiyan relayed the info to some of the scientists, thinking that they could perhaps help the Namekian in some way. Instead they had him drugged and kidnapped.
Harkon woke up in a lab, his skin cut open in several places and many tubes connected to different parts of his body. They never wanted to harm him, or so they claimed, they only wanted to know how his body could contain the corruption without it taking over. If they could figure it out it could save the entire Namekian race. Harkon wondered why they hadn’t simply asked for his cooperation, as would’ve been glad to do anything for his race, but he never got a reply. They put him through a number of cruel tests, each more painful than the last. At the start of our game Harkon has reached his limit and will allow whoever owns the voice in his head to help him flee.
Max Power Level: 17500. Base Power Level: 15000. Average Power Level: 25. (Namekians are expert ki-manipulators)
Racial Abilities: Limb extension, Regeneration.
Transformations: None.
Techniques:
Spirit shuriken - Small versions of the destructo disc forms on the tops of Harkon’s fingers, they can then be thrown against an opponent. Each disk is very small, about the same size as the palm of your hand, but will cut through virtually anything just like the larger version.
Clothes beam - Harkon’s most metro attack. While this technique is mostly used for the production of clothes, it is actually able to transform ki into practically any physical material in any form Harkon can think of. It is used to create many of the weapons Harkon will use. As the weapons are made of ki themselves they are able to do things that normal weapons cannot, like block ki-blasts.
Mystic chakram - A larger version of the spirit shuriken, about as large as a plate. Haron can produce one in each hand.
Destructo Disc – A fairly inaccurate attack made of a razor sharp disc, it is created by placing one arm straight into the air with the user's hand perpendicular to their arm. Once charged, which always takes a while, the user throws the disc at their enemy. It can cut through nearly anything. Note: Catch it with your teeth.
Healing - Harkon’s ki has healing properties and infusing it into a damaged body can get it from almost dead to 100% in seconds. The technique is quite taxing if used over and over again.
Weapons: A variety of swords, daggers, staves, polearms and others forged by Harkon’s own ki.
@Halvtand Holy shit. I really like that idea. I mean, the third option for increasing an android's power level would be "get a mechanic to increase your ki throughput directly", and I think one of the DBZ movies did a similar thing with the Super Android 13! movie, but it definitely works as a character concept. You'd best make that character, good sir. And now, in exchange for my feedback, can I ask you what you think of my idea regarding the Buu-like absorption ability for a Majin?
Of course, and thank you for the feedback. I'll check out that movie and see if I can pick anything up. This this technique isn't one of my favourite parts about DBZ it does seem to be an important part of Majin Buu's character and should've been passed on to his children. As I remember from the series the technique itself did not require a lot of preparation, but as you yourself states, it is potentially very broken. With that in mind I would probably bump it up to a level three even though the description for level two seems a bit closer to the anime. I would add an extra limiter in that another player must accept to be "hit" because it can completely devastate the character otherwise, and those things never end well. To push it up to level four is in my opinion too much as it would make the technique potentially unusable, the whole point is that it comes as a surprise. If you have to stand around and chant "chocolate beam" for a while it will spoil the effect.
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