Sizzlin Bacon

The Paradigm Stone

Is there any particular reason other than revealing vulnerabilities for loved ones and other connections as to why the hero and person are not one and the same in terms of identity?

The Paradigm Stone

I am feeling out a possible true hero to add to our list since we do only have four and most of those seem to be borderline or clearly villainish.

The Paradigm Stone

I see no reason for such an attitude or preference. None. Malcolm is a fine, gentle man, who loves guns and playing executioner.

The Paradigm Stone

Considering Executioner toes the line between good and evil pretty heavily it might not be an greeeeat idea to poke the armored bear :P

The Paradigm Stone

Malcolm O

Basic Info
Name: Malcolm O'Connor
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Alias: The Executioner

Stats
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 250 lbs
Hair Color: Dull Red with Streaks of Grey
Eye Color: Blue
Skin Tone: Pale under clothes, somewhat more tan where his skin is exposed to the sun.
Body Type: Extremely Muscular
Notable Features: Multiple scars from bullet and knife wounds, with part of his ear blown off in the middle with a large scar streaking across his cheek down to his jaw from the mangled ear, mostly covered up by his scruffy beard.

Psychological Profile
Personality: Malcolm may or may not be one of the most psychotic, psychopathic people a person can ever meet depending on whether or not you view his methods as he does. Full of rage, anger, and hatred of the failings of society, most especially its justice system, and God's decision not to bless Malcolm and make him one of the Chosen Supers, Malcolm's sole mission in life is to purify the world, starting first with the criminal scum that populate it. God help anyone who gets in his way, as they are clearly accomplices to the crimes of those they are trying to protect. When he is not on one of his Crusades, and when he does not view you as a criminal, Malcolm is actually a somewhat friendly person, if a little bipolar.

Strengths: Malcolm is an incredibly fierce, determined, and surprisingly physically strong man who will do damn near anything to ensure those who must die, die. In some ways, if he were a little less psychotic, the man could potentially even be a leader. His mind is nearly impossible to break or bend, especially when he is pursuing a target of his.

Weaknesses: Malcolm's aggressiveness can lead to shortsightedness and and inability to do anything other than purge his targets, which can sometimes get him in sticky situations. In addition to this, he has little stomach for subtle actions, believing might makes right. Why poison a corrupt politician when you could simply fire a rocket-propelled grenade into his limo as he waves to the crowds? It makes a hell of a greater impression, not to mention a lightshow. He also tends to prefer to remain a lone wolf, and to tackle the world alone.

Fears: Perhaps his greatest fear is failure. Fear of failure drives him to accomplish what he sees as his mission at any cost. Fear of vulnerability also drives him to encase himself in a kevlar-and-ceramic suit, much as his own mind is encased in a mental fortress, both prisons constructed by time.

Power Points
Firearms: 3
Any true military man loves firearms, and if he says he doesn't, he's a lyin' son'uva'bitch. Malcolm has assembled quite the arsenal of stolen firearms and explosives, is damn keen on using them, and is damn good at using them. His pride and joy is probably a beloved anti-materiel rifle he stole when he left the military, used for those especially hard-to-hit criminals that like to hide like pansies behind such things as walls.

Armored Behemoth: 3
Malcolm is covered head to toe in what he believes to be an effective, if not very pretty, suit of kevlar and ceramic that he likes to think of as the composite armor of a tank, but mounted instead on his own body. It does get pretty damn hot in it but Malcolm is made of sturdier stuff than most men.

Strength: 3
The Executioner believes he is not one of the Chosen but that might not be true considering his incredible, and seemingly increasing, strength. As it is, he sprints in his suit of armor like it was almost weightless, and tends to deliver skull-shattering armored punches. Then again, maybe it's just adrenaline and rage.

Engineer: 2
Despite his bruteish nature, a moron wouldn't be capable of constructing suits of armor, especially not ones that required careful layering and interlocking of kevlar and ceramic to result in such a nearly impenetrable (at least to small arms) hide. Years of making due with the resources Malcolm has had available have further honed this sense of engineering solutions to problems out of scrap, raw material, and stolen resources.

Brawl: 2
Trained in the military's martial arts, combined with an incredibly strong punch thrown by an armored fist, it's no surprise that when the Executioner makes physical contact with a person, it typically hurts like hell and breaks bones. The vigilante has been recorded as having knocked the living shit out of a common thug that got in his way with one punch, shattering the man's skull and causing hemorrhaging in the thug's brain. Needless to say, that man never got up again.

Hideout: 1
Malcolm squats out in an old rusted factory district, using some of the machinery there to forge what he needs. It's not comfortable, but it's defensible, and it's been home to him ever since the military kicked him out.

Wealth: 1
With the job of purifying the world, there isn't exactly time to do much else, and besides, Malcolm hasn't been able to get or hold a job ever since he was discharged anyway. He steals what he needs, and occasionally takes from the rich to finance his operation. They have enough money anyway, and most of them are corrupt ass holes that he intends to kill eventually.

Transportation: 0
The Executioner has no personal transportation, preferring to make use of abandoned subway tunnels and the sewer system to move around the city. Occasionally he will commandeer a vehicle from a citizen or even the police or military if the mission calls for it.

Public Identity
Job: Unemployed

Home: Old Factory District

Wealth/Lifestyle: Poor as All Hell

Clothing Style: When not beating criminal skulls in, Malcolm typically wears old, ragged clothing, with a bullet proof vest over his chest and a pistol holtered on his hip just in case some brave, stupid bastard figures out where he lives and comes after him.

Friends/Relationships: Malcolm has been alone since he was discharged.

Rivalries: None currently.

Public/Professional Goals: Deliver true justice where the system has failed to do so.

History: Born from the battlegrounds of modern warfare, Malcolm was trained to complete the mission at any cost, number of casualties, or collateral damage. When he was eventually discharged from the military for, in his words, "being too much of a bad ass," he found himself forced back into the civilian world, a world he no longer understood. Unemployed and unemployable, his anger festered and his rage at the society that glorified soldiers and threw away veterans mounted until the appearance of the Meteor and the coming of the Supers. Only, he hadn't been blessed with their ability. He, of all people, was not Chosen. He cracked within days. His first action? Raid the nearest police station and slaughter all of the people held within its jail cells, killing anyone who got in his way. Thus, the Executioner was born.

Secret Identity



Uniform: A black-and-brown suit of kevlar and ceramic, carefully crafted and interlocked as to be damn near impenetrable to small arms, and resistant to explosions and shrapnel. He wears a reinforced helmet of metal painted with flames.

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Combat Method: Shred, explode, punch, or cut apart anything and anyone in his way.

Hideout: The old factory district.

Mode of Transportation: Whatever he stole for this particular mission, or walking through abandoned subway tunnels and sewers.

Allies/Relationships: None currently.

Nemesis: None currently.

Motivations/Goals: Purge the Corrupt.

Supplies/Inventory:
-A hand-made suit of armor composed of kevlar and ceramic that's damn near impenetrable to small arms and highly resistant to shrapnel and explosions.
-An assorted choice of primary weapons that range from assault rifles to shotguns to sniper rifles depending on what he plans to kill and how. Sometimes that how involves rockets as well because lightshows are fun too.
-Dual Desert Eagles holstered on his sides. Because flooring a man with just one big ass round isn't enough.
-An assortment of frag grenades, flash bangs, C4, and a few special hand-made explosive surprises. Because everyone loves surprises.
-Bandoliers and combat webbing that hold a large amount of ammunition.
-Often a backpack holding yet more ammo. When in doubt, bring more ammo.
-Two knives holstered on his shins and a knife on his chest. One can never have too many knives.
-A first aid kit in his pack just in case something somehow hurts him, with some heavy-duty narcotics stolen from a nearby hospital just in case he does start feeling pain.
-Duct-tape. Because it's muthafuckin duct tape that's why.
-A flashlight. A man needs to see in the dark sometimes, and he can tape it to his weapon when needed.

Paradigm Stone
Paradigm Stone Appearance: When Malcolm possesses the Stone, it takes the shape of blood red cross connected to an iron chain around his neck. To any who try to hold it up, it feels as if it weighs multiple tons.

Personal Appearance Changes: Malcolm's appearance doesn't change when he wears the 'Cross' as he calls it when he possesses it.

Power/Ability Progression: Interestingly, the Cross doesn't seem to modify Malcolm's strength, physical appearance, or give him any additional power. He just seems to never run out of ammo or have to reload.

Power-Drunk Goals: Similar to how the Cross doesn't amplify Malcolm's power, Malcolm's ambitions don't seem to change either. He still wants to 'just' murder every last corrupt bastard on the planet. It does, however, seem to screw with his mind further, with the weight of the Cross symbolizing many things to him, enhancing his bipolar nature and leading him to search himself for corruption and consider self-execution.

Weakness: The Cross seems to imbue some small sense of conscience to this armored behemoth of a psychopath, weakness that the man would not normally allow. A shaken mind combined with amplified emotions makes him more vulnerable than usual mentally, emotionally, and psychically.

Withdrawal Symptoms: Depression, melancholy. Instead of rage, there is only sadness. Contemplation of lost friends and family. Dead comrades. The people he's killed and the repercussions of his actions. Malcolm wants to do little more than sit in a corner and eye the pistol on the table, wishing he had the courage to just get it over with already.

The Paradigm Stone

I am working on some concepts. Scrapped one for being too good though.

Game of Thrones - A Song of Ice and Fire

Sini said
Good work everyone.I don't see that getting a lot of action without deaths of characters. Maybe it would make more sense as a secondary character. What did you have in mind exactly?

Something of a dornish/essosi shady-type character that maintains connections to less than savory elements of society, excels with a bow, and could probably perform espionage duties in most capacities while giving off the appearance of being sellsword or other occupations as needed, potentially changing his backstory and given name as well to fit whatever role he needs. Not really intended to be main facet of the RP but I'm not particularly interested in taking an entire Great House, more just in a single character. If not this character, then perhaps a minor knight or something else depending on what I can imagine.

Game of Thrones - A Song of Ice and Fire

Would an individual assassin be acceptable?

The Descent of Man: A Grimdark Modern NRP

You think more would join if it went full OOC?

The Descent of Man: A Grimdark Modern NRP

I'm putting this out to measure interest;



The Descent of Man

Peak oil. Climate change. Energy scarcity. Food riots. Emergent diseases. Paralyzed governments. Political upheaval. Rising global tensions. The world stands not on a knife's edge, but a hill. A hill that pulls Man towards the valley with all the force of gravity. It can be resisted, but never defeated. The hill has rises and falls followed by different nations and peoples, but in the end, the destination is the same. The valley is approaching all Men, the question is, how does they reach it?


Concept

The idea of this NRP is based off of today's world. The political players are different, but the nations are the same, as well as their situations. This way, there is no political discourse on Obama, Putin, or any other real life people. Parties may remain the same or be changed. All nations not taken by players are NPCs controlled by me. I will not be taking a personal nation. I will write and hand out different global and national events to help stir the cauldron further in this NRP.

You represent your nation, not your government. It is possible the government may change. It is possible your nation may splinter apart in a civil war where you must pick one of the successor nations. It is possible that a nation may use nuclear weapons on another, but be aware that there will be consequences of many forms, both from me, and from the other players. This NRP is not about success, about the rising of man towards the stars, about our superiority as a species. It is about our fall, our slow, inevitable descent as the easy luxuries afforded us by fossil fuels diminish, and climate change wreaks havoc on the world. It is about the actions nations take when faced with dire circumstances. It is very likely billions will end up dead if the RP goes on long enough. The future is Grim and full of Darkness. Many of the lights go out, not through apocalypse, but through human ineptitude and lack of foresight.


Mechanics

The NRP runs on fuzzy logic, as the world itself does not run entirely rationally. Economies cannot simply be boiled down into GDP or even effectively forecasted for instance, meaning the information you receive each turn about your nation will be an approximated abstraction.

Every "turn" itself is fuzzy, with the RP progressing as fast as necessary. The various players would PM their orders, such as order production of such and such amount of tanks, increase recruitment, etc, with me interpreting these orders. We progress when I decide we progress, with inactive players having their nation controlled by me until they return or are replaced by an active player.

In terms of orders, use common sense. I will PM you the state of your nation, including approximated military numbers and fuzzy positions, how your economy is doing, what issues your nation is facing, any events that may occur that only you know of, etc. The system isn't hard-coded around equations, industrial points, or any of that, but if you place an order for a thousand tanks to be produced in a Third World nation without tank production capability, let's just say that order won't be very effective. Common sense. Orders might be long-term as well in a way, it's basically impossible even for a nation like America or Russia to build a thousand tanks in a week or a month.

I am intentionally avoiding having micromanagement of military and movement as well, by using fuzzy, approximated positions such as "XXX Tanks, Infantry, etc on Western Border of Russia." Combat is the same way, you can dictate, as a government, what targets you want to hit and tactics to be used, or even write or RP whatever you want in terms of small-scale firefights, but the overall progression of a fight is determined (through common sense and fuzzy logic) by me. I don't want twenty thousand posts about one battle, that's not the point of the NRP, so I'm hammering it down based on the fuzzy turns. This makes sense anyway as chain of command exists in the military for a reason, so one person doesn't have to directly command millions of troops, warships, logistics, etc.

For the most part, you can generally do as you like, but again, common sense. America invading Mexico for no reason makes no sense, and probably isn't a good idea in the first place. Don't do stupid shit basically. If most of the players are disgruntled about something that makes absolutely no sense, I'll review it, we'll all talk about it, and decide what to do.


Rules

Usual rules apply. No flame wars. No E-Penis bull shit or anything else of that nature. I really don't fuck around with this. All participants in "hur dur my country is better" will have their countries receive a sledgehammer in the form of an event. Annoy me enough and I'll simply remove you. The NRP would be an advanced RP, do your best to write well. As GM, my word is law, and bad things will happen to your countries regardless because the RP is grim.


Application

Application would be simple, pick a modern country. Your situation will be similar to if not exactly the same as the present day situation. The starting year is 2014. If you want to pick a crummy, civil war-infested state in Africa, that's your choice, but good luck having an influence on the NRP as a whole. Beyond that, perhaps write about your current head of state or something like that. Be creative. It's kind of the point of RP.