Gizmo

Yuck. Well, the upside is that Jack'll have a lot more points to move around come next edit than I thought!

Well, that clears that up! It's just as well; after tinkering around with this a bit I found I had a lot of trouble matching up the ranges of every single effect. I had much more success just coming up with specific pairs as part of a single array.

Jack's eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly at All-Star's abrasive attitude. At least Lady MacParanoid over there is polite. When the caped man gave the swordsman an appraising look, clearly expecting an introduction, Jack snapped to attention and saluted smartly. "Captain Stupendous Magnifico, Scion of a Thousand Stars, Son of Admiral Awesomestien, Slayer of Chupacabras, long may his name sound in the hallowed halls of my people." He gave All-Star a grave look. "Far have I traveled to meet the one called All-Star. We face a terrible enemy, and our only hope is a weapon powered by pure ego. You are our only hope." The swashbuckler leaned back against the table. "That said, I also answer to Jack," he drawled, deadpan. Before All-Star could respond, a seventh person arrived. "Hey, new guy! Well, so much for the kegger; no way you're legal."

Jack leaned against a nearby table as Grim shifted her outfit not once but twice. "Well, that's gotta be a time saver. So much for supers putting their pants on one leg at a time like everyone else." He made note when Velocity mentioned Blink's name, then gave a good-natured smirk when she introduced herself. "Yeah, I know. You're sort of a big deal, huh?" He placed his hands far apart, as if indicating distance, then drew them closer together. "I'm more of a think globally, act locally kinda guy. Jack of all Blades. Friends just call me Jack." The swashbuckler shrugged. "Well, friends and people looking to save time." He suppressed a wince when All-Star arrived. It's the guy who knocked 'Head's block off, he groaned inwardly. For a moment he thought the broad shouldered man had recognized him, but realized that he was talking to Colt instead. He's never seen me in costume, Jack reassured himself. Small favours. All-Star wasn't exactly his favourite person, but more than that Jack was embarrassed by his overreaction at the carnival's haunted house. Second chance at a first impression for both of us.

If they can't exceed caps, why do they even exist? I have a hard time imagining a character build which wouldn't be better served by putting the points into Attack Focus or Specialization or simply the basic attack bonus.

Erik took an involuntary half-step back as the fire eater released a massive gout of flame. His energy awareness made it clear, this 'Maxie Napalm', though Erik didn't believe for a moment that that was his real name, was certainly super human. Jack's palm practically itched to draw the fire into a sword. The young man blinked. He'd just thought of himself as 'Jack' instead of 'Erik'. He rubbed the back of his head ruefully. This little identity crisis is getting a little out of hand, he thought to himself. He definitely needed to spend more time without the mask and wig. As the performance continued to light up the area, Erik spotted Dead Head approaching accompanied by a sizable group of young women. He shook his head in disbelief, muttering, "The guy's dead and he sees more play than me. That's just messed up."

Jack hung back long enough to let the others enter the building before he approached the door. Not like I'm expecting it to explode or anything, but still... Catching the swinging door with his booted foot before it could close all of the way, he slipped inside. The swordsman immediately came face to face with a small woman with a bowl of cereal. "Nice, uh, slippers," Jack observed, moving in an arc to take a step backwards into the building. "More of a Leafs guy, myself, but with the opening they're having... Am I overdressed? 'Cause I missed the BYOPJs part of the invite. I'm like that, though. That could just be me," he rambled absently as he looked around the interior of the brownstone. A few step further inside, he spotted a familiar figure. "Colt! Hey, my fellow unusually-large-coat-wearing... guy." He moved over to the cowboy. "So, how's Freedom treating you? Super wacky fun? 'Cause I'm guessing super wacky fun." Looking about some more he saw the dark haired woman and what was unmistakably the Freedom Leaguer Velocity. Glancing back and forth between the three women, Jack nudged Colt in the side, murmuring, "Woah. Good team-up." Sweeping one side of his coat out as though it were a cape, he bowed melodramatically. "Ladies..." he greeted as he rose with a roguish grin.

A few of us were discussing this in chat and wanted to get a referee ruling on it. Do the following feats allow Attack to exceed PL caps in the way that Power Attack or Defensive Attack do? Improved Block Improved Disarm Improved Sunder ... and so forth. For instance, Jack of all Blades has an attack bonus of +15 and two ranks of Improved Block; does he make his attack roll to block at +19 or not?

Let's wait a bit to give everyone a chance to okay it or not. Is there anything else that needs to be on there besides the roster? Are we assuming the location of The Underground and Doc A's involvement are simply un-find-out-able, at least with a check?

Right. I think the example I used in chat was, if All-Star is throwing cars at a giant robot, who's going to notice Razorwing sneaking around the back of the warehouse to disarm the bomb? So, in broad strokes: DC 10: The famous speedster Velocity and the paragon-class hero All-Star have been working together on a new superteam. DC 20: Called The Interceptors, the team has at least a half-dozen members, including the western-themed Colt and the swashbuckler Jack of all Blades. DC 30: The remaining members of the team are Blink, a convicted thief, the shapeshifter known as Grimalkin and the brooding vigilante Razorwing. The Interceptors seem to confine their activities to Freedom City. Beyond that, our individual reputation charts can determine how much someone knows about each of us. Are the DC placements about right for everyone?

A few of us were talking in chat, and basically decided that so long as Marcus doesn't overtly draw attention to the brownstone, we're covered by genre conventions and suspension of disbelief. So, y'know, no bringing dates back to his place of flying out the third floor windows. The way I figure it is this: Marcus is known to be All-Star, fine. It's still not particularly strange to find him living with or hanging out with people his own age. 'Wing wears a mask, Velocity and Jack wear masks and wigs, Blink and Grim can look like anybody they want to. True, Colt doesn't conceal his identity, but he's only had time to meet a few people; if he gets some non-cowboy clothes to wear around, who'd recognize him? Worst case scenario he could pose as his own alternate-universe double. So long as we don't take any team photos, I think we're fine. As for revealing secret identities to each other, if Doc A's 'pitch' were interrupted by some emergency before they had time to decide, a successful team-up might go a long way to getting them to trust each other, right? Regarding the info DC, I really think we should just set up a chart like the personal reputations, with different team members being revealed at different difficulties. Knowing a sports team exists doesn't mean you can name all of the players. Some are more famous than others.

Turning to the fantastic being, Jack nodded with exaggerated amicability. "Well, sure, Mr. Glowy-Shifty-Migrane-Causing-Energy-Man. A non-life. Y'know, I was just going to say that?" The swordsman glanced down at the blade of flame in his right hand. He had a feeling it wouldn't do much good against humanoid elemental, but out in the middle of the woods he didn't have many other energy types available to him. He looked over his shoulder to the earlier arrival with the Southern drawl. "How about you, 'hoss'? Got a case to state? I'm an easygoing guy, far as weirdness goes," Jack said slowly. The swashbuckler gestured casually with his sword. "Breaking a few natural laws right now myself, but you're both pushing my tolerance levels, comprende?"

I like the idea of everyone under one roof; disparate personalities working together is drama, disparate personalities living together is comedy. Best of both worlds. As far as Jack goes, he'd have to unmask, but he could simply let everyone keep calling him Jack. All-Star would recognize him from the carnival, but none of them would have any reason to know who Erik Espadas is. That's kinda fun because it gives him the chance to reveal more to the team as he learns to trust them more. I think the assumption here is that Doc A at least has used his resources to learn everyone's true identity, in order to track them down an invite them to the team. If we go with the scaled reputation for the team, it'd take at least DC 30 to figure out the whole roster; until then it wouldn't be obvious that Marcus' housemates are his teammates as well. So long as he doesn't advertise where he lives too much and we operate under the theory that civilians in this sort of setting are kinda slow on the uptake, we should be fine.

I'd say DC 20; The Underground definitely needs to be a secret, as do the Brownstone appartments. Doc's involvement is supposed to be under wraps as well, as I understand it. That said, I don't see the team operating solely from the shadows. It's probably a staged thing, since the members have different levels of fame. DC 10 probably tells you that All-Star and Velocity have been seen working with a group of heroes, DC 20 tells you the team is called The Interceptors, and a better idea of the full roster (that there's around a half-dozen members, who some of them are) and DC 30 reveals who all seven members are, their powers and habits as a group.

Hey, Grim could even be inside already and answer Blink's knock!

Yeah, that makes sense. They're both pretty useful abilities, and there isn't anyone on the team who can replicate them.

I think they know varying amounts at this point. The Doc hasn't revealed himself to everyone yet. Grim and Velocity probably know the whole score, though. I made Jack's summons particularly vague because that's what would best attract his attention; if something's going down in the West End, he needs to check it out and learn more. He would have viewed a letter delivered to his home, where his family lives, as tantamount to an attack. Conversely, a bizarre television message? No way he could just let that pass.

As Erik reached the edge of the crowd gathered for the fire-eating display, he spotted Ellie and her date, who walked over to greet him. The younger Espadas carried a large, plush rabbit made of pink and purple fabrics. Andrew moved to let go of Ellie's hand when he recognized her brother, but she continued to grip his, giving the nervous young man a reassuring look. Sparing his feelings, Erik pretended not to notice. "So, won the lady a prize, eh, slugger?" he grinned, slapping Andrew on the shoulder. "Uh, actually, she won that herself. I'm... not so good with the..." the high-schooler vaguely mimed playing skee ball. Ellie interjected, saying, "We decided to come and check out the fire-breather. This guy's supposed to be amazing, maybe even a meta." She gave her brother a significant glance, and Erik raised an eyebrow. His extra sense would certainly make him aware if that was the case once the show started; energy created and manipulated using superpowers always had a noticeably different... texture than its mundane counterpart. Andrew gave a soft snort. "C'mon, like anyone with powers would be hanging out at a place like this.

See, now, that's an acronym! MAVERIC is fantastic, well done. Not to belabour the press issue, but since we're talking about it, it strikes me that certain members are more likely to act as the 'public face' of the team than others. 'Wing and Blink certainly aren't trying to advertise their location, and I know Jack avoids being recorded when he can, but it'd probably be more suspicious if All-Star and Velocity started avoiding reporters.

Ha, good point. I'll have to get back to you on that.

I definitely want to go with a mandatory linking, with the Extra and Flaw canceling each other out, point-wise. The whole idea here is an 'equal and opposite reaction' sort of power set. I think it would be pushing it to categorize the Cold Control as a Side Effect Flaw. I mean, it might be annoying to leave an ice slick everywhere you run, but combined with super speed, it would let you coat an entire battlefield in ice with a single action, for example. The mechanics seem pretty straightforward; treating Array as a power in and of itself, Link two Arrays together, resolving which alternate power you use from each container separately. You'd have to use an A and a B, but you could choose A1+B3 or A2+B1, for example. Obviously it'd take some tweaking, matching up action types, making sure everything could pair up without breaking any rules, but that's all details. I guess what I'm really asking for is a ruling on whether or not this would be allowed. I don't think it would be unbalancing - the flexibility is offset by forcing the Link - but it is a bit outside the box.

That's it exactly. The idea is that he can't do one without the other; the kinetic energy needs to come from somewhere and it needs to go somewhere. He can't go fast without making things cold, and vice versa.

I've been toying with the idea of a speedster who works by robbing the kinetic energy from the molecules around him. Basically he'd have linked Super Speed and Cold Control. My question, then, is whether I can link two arrays together, so that he could basically choose any power from Column A and any power from Column B. Obviously I could just use a single array of linked powers, but I like the flexibility of the first option. So. Can this work?

I kinda like the ground vehicle. Sooner or later we're going to want to load it up with explosives and remotely pilot it into something. You know it'll happen. The added Defense and Toughness are nice, too. I wonder about the caltrops; how often are we going to be driving away from somebody? Mostly I'm just surprised the name's not an acronym, quote!

Hey, you can't let society dictate where you post! IC, OOC, it's all just labels, man! Throw off the shackles! Fight the power! Oh, and shouldn't 'Interceptors' have a second 'e' in it, Doc?