angrydurf

Mike glanced up in concern at Alex, she usually didn't flip out like that but it had been a trying day and the new girls rebuke to her offer of sympathy had been particularly stinging. He raised one hand to try and calm everyone before this got any worse, "Hey now," he said calmly, "She's not the only one with things in her past she doesn't want to talk about. I can respect that." He glanced to Erin sympathetically for a moment then turned back to Zoe and continued in the same calm voice her father preffered for his lectures, "But that was uncalled for, We have tried to be understanding, and you are clearly upset by what has happened but you don't need to lashout at us, we are not responsable for what happened to your family." He looked down at her like she was six, "Now I think you owe some of us an apology and maybe we can get back on the right foot with this." He almost instinctively sent across his link to Alex a soothing calm, 'Are you alright? She's just shaken up from everything we should give her another chance.'

Mike missed a few of the more salient points as he concentrated on sending Alex a reply 'Not much, She had some wierd turns of phrase I think but who knows why.' When he focused back on Zoe it was with the casual scrutiney of her father, He would accept what she said as truth but when ever one of her statements rang false he looked just a little sad or disapointed. And he was too, he was more baffled than most by all this alternate dimension stuff but he knew she was hiding something. She probably had her reasons but he wished she felt secure enough to just tell them what the truth was. Could it really be that bad?

Over ten and mike remembers anything relevant about Zoe's sudden appearance. 10 or less and he' shis usual observant self. (1d20=10) Mike has a big ol dohwha? moment edit Senseing the motive Sense motive (1d20+4=20)

Ace was holding court over a bevy of trophy wives while thier mafioso husbands paid homage to the Boss in the back room. It took Taylor awhile to find her way through the sea of bleach blonde hair and silicon 'enhancements'. "... So there I was," He said to the pretty, and remarable for her mostly original equipment, young lady hanging on his arm, "Surrounded by these canibal underdwellers, the rest of my team no where to be found." The plot of episode 78 'Ace Danger and the Canibals from Below' certainly seemed to be a hit especially straight fromt eh source such as it was. However much to disaproving sniffs from the assembled fans Ace stopped short upon spotting Taylor, "Appologies ladies," He said with a bow, "It seems Mr. Farretti has lost his date." He offered Taylor a wink, "I guess I'll have to see her safely returned." From the looks from the assemblage it was clear no one suspected her to be returned fully 'intact', of course his tone did nothing to dissuade that assumption. He did however have the grace to acknowledge her only as Jack Farrettis date rather than besmirch her actual name.

Ace Danger

Michael Harris (AKA Phalanx)

Well once blink gets her Bluff posted and make an IC post of wht she is doing it will be on to the guy in the car and then the Merc leader. Followed by you I'll post an update after Blink does her IC post

Ok So Ace is Injured+Bruised and at 2 HP after buying off the stun.

Counter Bluff (1d20+4=10) Ok She'll go with you go ahead and toss up a Bluff Check to convince the observign heroes you were in the vehical the whole time. Take a +2 circumstance since none of them caught you suddenly appear there and your other persona was seen running off as the smoke went off.

From what I see you beat my defense by 4 so at worst it was a DC 29 toughness meaning a 20 is failing by 9 over 5 but less than 10 is a result of stunned + bruised + injured if you are now doing lethal. How 17 is 10 over 13 I don't know but I think thats where your confusion came in ;)

Personally I would preffer a straight Silver Age game. Its not what everyon here has signed up for and I'm sure there are plenty who would preffer Iron Age. I do however think that a big part of the problem this thread brings up is that attempt to straddle the line. There are characters villian and Hero alike that lean to one side or the other, its hard to have them co-exist at times. Since it is consistantly brought up I'll use Ronin as an example he and Avenger are both really rather Iron Age and I think both characters really muddle the tone of the site as well as get held back from fully playing thier characters by the restrictions on killing Etc. I don't really have a solution except to say that contrast that to characters like Ace or even moreso Dark Star who are very anti-killing, and use minimal force whenever possible. It creates a situation where some characters feel they should be allowed to go further and some characters fell things are taken too far already. With hero to hero interactions this can be a fun batman vs. superman argument about philosophy of heroism bring villians in however and it turns into a situation where they just have no hope of redemption and really the Hero feels the villian should be taken permanently out of commision (in prison that can't be escaped) and the villian has to struggle to find a reason not to employ lethal force against these gods that walk amongst us. Ok kinda rambled there in the end I think the real issue is that the tone does need to be clear and that characters that streatch that tone need to know they are stretching that line and may not be a satisfactory experiance in the end as they will be limited. All that said its Docs site and really up to him what he wants out of it (even if that is to have a ref or player vote on the issue) All I think any of us really want is for that to be clearly defined across the board. Perhaps with something akin to the CCA rather than the somewhat harder to grasp DCAU meets Buffy/angel that is kinda commonly tossed out there. I think this is key regardless of if villians are involved or not and is key to a good PbP alot of this is often hammered out in chat but sometimes it isn't really covered sufficiently at all leading to confusion and irritation on some players part. I first suggested this and pointed out exactly this issue with it. This is exactly what caused the Iron Age in the comics really. To make Villians more "serious" and less "campy" they started to have villians step up the violence. Then to make the heroes not stupid or at least seem effective the heroes stepped up the game and we got the downward spiral of violnce athat characterizes the Iron Age. Its a matter of taste if thats good or bad. But once again its deffinately something that needs to be clear. that thats what we want for the tone of the site. This is a PbP convention that I really don't like personally the idea that until you decide you want your character out of the picture it won't be. Particularly when coupled with the convention that you can act however you like and the worst consequence will be other players or characters not interacting with you. I think with as things stand now. Meaning villians are more guilty of assault and property damage than anything more serious the cardboard or revolvign door prison is fine and fairly genre appropriate. Once it is stepped up to more serious crimes it stretches the bounds of both believability and fun. Because its not fun if the hero can have no reall effect to better the world any more than the villian can't be a "rReal" threat. That said I think the threat of Killing still needs to be valid. Villians should be able to issue ultimatums to the hero ala rescue the school bus full of kids or catch me. Its the Heroes job of course to make that believable by choosing to rescue the kids even if the player knows the Villian isn't supposed to actually kill anyone. All in all I kinda like what we hve now. If it was up to me 100% I'd say no villian PC's and more silver age than bronze but that's not what the site has been advertised as but I will note it hasn't been advertised as a villians consequenceless playground either.

Sense Motive (1d20+13=23) Toughness save (1d20+8=20) Stunned and Bruised. HP to wipe the stun effect. 2 HP remaining

Ace Danger: Replace the skillmastery Gather info with skill mastery disguise. he can just use contacts to take 10 with gather info. Edits done by Geez3r

As the last of the effects of the feedback faded Mike stood to his full height once more. His physical presence almost unconciously dominated the scene as he nodded agreement with Alex, a glimmer of the man he had yet to grow into showing through the unkempt hair and oversize clothing. He hefted the lightsaber and casually crushed the device between his hands dropping the peices to the ground in disgust. Taking to heart Erins words he cast a critical eye to Zoe "I doubt she's in league with that sort." he gestures to the unconsious teens though his tone was clear that this was a statement of his expectations rather than any real certainty of her motivations and it was once more as if she had brought home mere B's on a progress report, kindly even supportive but with expectations that she prove herself worthy of the trust in his eyes. Mike Harris was, even through the teenage ennui, the kind of person that one wanted to prove themselves to.

Mike shook his head to try and clear the continued ringing in his ears but got his feet stable under himself once more. He glanced to Erin saying, "I dunno what it was, but it hurt like nothing I've ever felt before." He said his voice firming as he pushed past the recent debilitating pain. He glanced curiously to Zoe but without Erins intensity, "Yea I'm fine thanks." He offered a weak smile as he tried to place what was so familiar about her. 'Did she just say daddio?' he thought to himself as he took in the unconcious villians on the steps, that either went very quickly or he was out of it longer than he thought.

Ace was somewhat mollified by Jacks eventual explanation, "There have been rumors of an independant operator, front running theory is that he ended up here somehow after some cabal took out an inquisitor trianing facility. It seems Mr. Harrow may be the individual in question." He siad plainly offering up a portion at least of his knowledge on the matter. Jack could hear as the elevator opened the destinct echo standard to most large underground parking facilities. "I'll poke around her apartment and make sure they don't scent onto anyone else." Ace said as he approached his car. "And Jack," He said almost hesitantly, "Thanks for looking after her." Ace hung up before Jack could respond. Undoubtable Elena would be barging into his head in moments and he preffered as little distraction as possible when dealing with the ancient psychic.

"I'll take that as a yes then." Ace said dryly. He didn't delve deeper into the grim heroes methods he knew well enough what he did to run of the mill scum this was likely to have been messy even by those standards. "The inquisition knows better than to opperate here under the nose of Eldritch." Though since jack wasn't in a sharing mood Ace left out the rumors of the arrival of a lone inquisitor cut off from his order. It was possible the young man had however seen fit to have Taylors apartment watched he would ensure no one else was caught in the fanatics trap.

"Understood." Came Aces reply his voice cold and hard, in the background Jack could hear at least one voice offer complaint along with the soft sounds of dinner coversation growing quickly fainter as Ace began to move, "I'll see to it the others are alerted." He paused for a moment his voice softening "Is she hurt?" He asked quietly. His other hand had already sent a text to Elena telling her to alert the knights that someone or something might be after them. By that time he was already on the elevator heading to the garage.

Mike glanced up at Alexes question wondering why she thought he might be involved with language classes. Upon Dark Stars response he grinned at his longtime friend, of course she knew he spoke two languages she wouldn't be able to find a teacher for elswhere. Alex's broad based intrests had kept he from mastering every language on earth so far but only due to lack of indepth study a chance at extraterestrial languages wouldn't be something she could pass up. He smiled up at Dark Star, "Alex has pretty broad intrests I think she was hoping your extraterestrial experiance might be available to round out the holes in her knowledge so far." He in the slightly teasing tone of good friends.

Ace picked up before the second ring with a snappy, "Ace Danger." As Jack introduced himself Ace smiled a lazy smile and replied, "Well hello Jack." in a tone not at all in keeping with his generally antagonizing attitude. "What can I do for you?"

Since I'm just stunned for the round I went ahead and posted so no one would be waiting on me :D

Pain was not a sensation Mike was acustomed to, being nigh invulnerable since birth he hadn't had alot of opportunity to become acustomed. Thus when the Psychic feedback slammed into his head he was ill prepared and driven sharply to his knees clutching at his skull, countenance twisted by the pain he rocked slightly trying to push past the staggering sensation knifeing through his mind.

Phalanx: Drop Speed 1 from powers Frees up one pp Add and additional DAP to the Paragon Array: Linked Speed and Quickness 7 cost 2 pp Add one Rank of Flight outside the Array cost 2pp Done by MBCE

As the man pulled the gun Ace vaulted off the couch and charged across the room. He closed quickly and decisively with the man grabing the gun and twisting it easily from the startled mans grasp. He quickly ejected the clip and cleared the chamber of the weapon before casually tossing it aside with distain. "You used up your chance to do this the nice way Jeeves, you're going to spill everything you know about your employers and I just might not make sure they know exactly how I found them." Ace said looming over the man, gunshots meant word would travel that something had gone down the clock was officially ticking and Ace was out of patience.

Power attack Disarm (1d20+10=28) Disarm Roll (1d20+8=16) HP that: HP reroll for Disarm (1d20+8=18) +10 gives a 28 he has to beat on a strength check. I'm gonna assume he does not have superhuman strength and that Ace gets the gun away from him. I'll edit if thats not the case. Intimidate check if its needed again Intimidate check (1d20+12=14) blech but I'll let it stand as I already had a pretty good one on him.