Building Vanguard

[Thunder King]

In order to ensure that the new team can get up and running in a reasonable amount of time, I think it's necessary to plan it all out in advance.

Step One: The Meetings

In order to do this efficiently, let's establish who needs to meet, and who has already.

NOTE: If two characters have already met, please PM me and I'll edit this post to include that.

Voltage + King of Suits (DONE!)

Voltage + Stormbreaker

Voltage + Quintessence

Voltage + Crusader

Voltage + Ironclad (PLANNED!)

King of Suits + Stormbreaker

King of Suits + Quintessence

King of Suits + Crusader

King of Suits + Ironclad

Stormbreaker + Quintessence

Stormbreaker + Crusader

Stormbreaker + Ironclad

Quintessence + Crusader

Quintessence + Ironclad

Crusader + Ironclad

Feel free to post proposals for different threads. We can meet two at a time, or three at a time, but probably not more.

Establishing the Team:

One thread won't work with six members, unless we want to have Vanguard established sometime next winter. I had an idea though;

Divide the team into two squads

Give each squad their own thread

Have both threads deal with the same situation from different angles

Establish a third OOC thread for coordinating the two teams

Use the Coordination thread and PMs to coordinate the teams

From there, we can establish Vanguard in the aftermath of the situation.

I already have the idea I want to use for this thread, but it may change depending on how the team develops

Ideas? Thoughts? Concerns? Thread proposals?

[Cubist]

Idea: Some sort of uber-mystical type (a deity? a world-class mage? something else?) does something which ensures that the six heroes will find each other. The "particular task" need not be the thing which gets the heroes together in the first place, of course, but you can certainly go there if you like. If the U-MT didn't intend for the sextet to join together, you've basically got the Loki-forms-the-Avengers scenario from Marvel Comics. On t'other hand, if the U-MT did intend the heroes to get together, the next question is "why did they want that to happen?" Maybe the U-MT foresaw a threat which only that combination of heroes could effectively oppose (i.e., Marvel's Exiles, more or less), maybe the U-MT figured the sextet would make good cat's-paws to accomplish some purpose of its own, maybe the U-MT wanted to bring the six heroes together as an experiment of some kind, maybe something else. And if the heroes discover that they've been manipulated and therefore decide to rebel against the U-MT's ulterior motive, or at least break away from whatever support the U-MT may have given them… good!

Plot-wise, the whole reason for invoking this Uber-Mystical Type is to provide a justification for an otherwise-improbable series of events which brings the heroes together Real Quickly. We don't want to have the heroes appear to be puppets dancing on the U-MT's strings, so it would prolly be a good idea to address said appearance in the inaugural thread (open rebellion/breaking away from the U-MT, the heroes get some hints of the true state of affairs and make a note to Find Out What The Heck Is Going On, whatever).

[Thunder King]

I...already have an idea. It will involve the creation of a long-term nemesis for the team, as well as some other, minor threats that they can fight on a regular basis.

[Raveled]

I'd like to avoid a mystical threat for a team that's supposed to be tech-oriented. But I could see some sort of Preserver-tech going bonkers and requiring a group to check it out.

Actually, depending on how SoS shakes out, we could use the Lor and the Communion as a threat to bring the team together.

EDIT: To expand on my idea: In Seal of Sedna we were introduced to two NPCs. Verlee Mirta is a captain in the Lor space fleet, specifically a commander of one of the ships blockading the Sol System. It also has Admiral Kalf, the overall commander of the blockade effort who doesn't think much of humanity or its heroes at all. My idea is that a scout of the Communion is headed towards Earth. Kalf expresses the belief that the Lor blockade fleet can destroy it; Captain Mirta thinks otherwise and comes down to Earth in a disguise to warn the superheroes about the threat.

Additionally, Quintessence and Ironclad are already in Seal of Sedna and are personally known to Captain Mirta, so she would naturally come to them anyway. Stormdragon is probably known to the Lor as a pirate, i.e. someone with their own spaceship who is used to doing stupidly dangerous stuff, so she'll be 'volunteered' as transport. We would have to work out how to connect Voltage, Crusader, and King of Suits to it all, though.

[Ari]

That might work Cubist, but as previously mentioned by the others the team is mostly aiming to fight science-based and tech-using foes, not magical and mystical threats. That aside, such a being might work best later on, perhaps with a cosmic entity that appears before them and claims to have gathered them for such-and-such a purpose. Are they telling the truth? Only one way to find out...

Using the Communion as a formal opponent to the group strikes me as a little gun-jumping. While VERY powerful, VERY scary and VERY much "**** just got real" material, bringing them out at the start would kind of diminish later threats, wouldn't it? Admittedly, the Lab faced the Legion mind-virus last year, which i dare say would make an attack by the Foundry no less fearsome, but still. I'd prefer to build up to that level of notoriety and threat, instead of having such an opponent serving their first challenge as a group.

Like I said in the Team Discussion thread, I'd prefer a more Earth-bound introductory villain. Nothing like the Sinister Science Squad to my mind(those seem more like foes the Lab would deal with), but at least less..vast in scope than the all-consuming horror beyond the stars.

[Supercape]

Im going to Run Voltage + Ironclad thread soon....

Whilst I may not be much good for this, let me know if I can help with some GM duties, including if you wish a whole team thread. I cant promise Ill be great at this (ill try stretching myself!) but I thought I would let you guys know if you want me for a few threads, my GM services at your disposal!

No offence taken if you want to do this "in house" and reject me! :tinfoil:

[Ari]

If we have need of your GMing powers, I for one won't hesitate to ask you.

[Thunder King]

Supercape, I respect your skills as a GM, and if we need you, I will not hesitate to ask either.

[Raveled]

I just had an idea. How big can a robot get? Fighting a huge mech that's determined to destroy the city would be a cool way to bring the group together.

[Ari]

Works for me, though it ought to have some twist to make it stand out from the other giant robots, like it carrying a really powerful force-field that needs to be taken down first to damage it, or maybe it phases in and out of the normal plane of existence?

[Cubist]

The menace: Some sort of Von Neumann replicator-type gizmo that can (a) convert existing machinery into copies of itself, and ( 'possess' existing technology to incorporate it into a larger system. Katamari-type positive feedback; the longer this gizmo is allowed to go about its business unmolested, the more copies of itself it makes. And the more copies of itself there are, the more easily it/they can 'absorb' cars and computers and iPhones and etc into an increasingly massive Menace...

[Thunder King]

A combat featuring six PCs would slow down to a crawl by virtue of the sheer number of people involved. A giant robot is not impossible, it's just not something we can run against everyone at once. I, for one, don't want a thread that takes four or five months to complete. This is not dogging anyone's playing or reliability. It's simply a fact of how it works here. Even threads that consist of people who are always on the ball always take longer to complete if there are more people involved.

The more people, the more it slows down.

My thread proposal, the one I was planning on using, is as follows;

Dr. Benjamin Green is a conniving, manipulative, scheming, charming psychotic. He believes, firmly, that humanity is destined for Godhood, and that super powers are the next stage in human potential. This trait alone, however, would not make him all that bad.

It's the fact that he also believes that those who do not survive to acquire superpowers are unworthy of living anyway. He is not Apocalypse. He is not driven by visions of conquest or control. He is driven by his firm belief in human potential, and his desire to see it through. He wants power for himself, of course, but that's part of his delusion. If he is to be humanity's shepherd, he must also have great power.

So he's been poking at heroes, here, and there. Trying to find what makes them tick, especially those powers he does not understand, like Quintessence and Stormbreaker. He'd use agents and outside forces, make it impossible to track back to him. All so he can see what they can and cannot do.

His plan is to harness the energy of these heroes, the powered ones, so that he can grant himself godlike power. Once he's confident he understands the powers of the heroes, he will draw them to himself for his master stroke...

He strikes at Quintessence, Stormbreaker and Ironclad, for their power and technology. He is responsible for Voltage's powers (he knows it, Voltage does not) and believes the kid is some sort of harbinger of the future. He would attack King of Suits pre-emptively out of paranoia (having dealt with him before).

GranspearZX has approached me on how he thinks this should go down for Crusader, and I've integrated him into the plot in a unique way; Crusader's future version, one of them, is warning him about Dr. Green, and he's going to move in to stop him, being the wild card Green did not anticipate or prepare for.

As to why a super scientist villain would target YOUR PC? Well, that's entirely up to you. I haven't defined exactly why Quintessence, Ironclad, or Stormbreaker would be targeted, so feel free to come up with ideas or, if you want, let me do so.

This was what I was planning to run.

Of course, nothing says we can't involve a giant robot into the above and have the team fight it, :D

[Cubist]

It may be worth noting that with a 'replicator gizmo' as the villain, it's very possible that each of the six heroes could face a separate & distinct replicator-infestation by themself; thus, the six heroes can be grouped as densely as the GM likes, or separated as widely as the GM likes.

[Ari]

Could. But to be frank having Replicator versions of the heroes strikes me as a little beyond Green's repertoire at the moment.

I think we should save that for another thread. Perhaps a 'thread-planning' thread once the team is actually gathered and has gotten around to working together. It'd totally be a sensation!

[Blue Rose]

Please say this ends with the crazy human giving an actual (if depowered) god the, "I am destined to godhood," speech.

Obvious reasons why he could be interested in Stormbreaker? If he's so convinced of human supremacy, that probably comes with bigotry towards non-humans. Meanwhile, Stormbreaker's a star-hopper deeply entrenched in interstellar commerce, so he'd need to find out if Stormbreaker's actually human (which she technically is now) or alien scum that merely looks human, and if she's human, he'd need to find out if she can be turned into an ally or if she's a disgusting alien sympathizer. And if she is an alien sympathizer, he can still steal super-advanced merchandise for himself.

Or, of course, he can learn through secret villain plotomancy that Stormbreaker is an actual god (or something in the vicinity), making her an obvious target.

[Paragon]

That works for the techies and the non techies allike. I like to smash things.

[Thunder King]

Eh, he's not a human supremacist. He knows enough about Stormbreaker to know she wields some form of magic or technology that he doesn't understand. That's more than enough for him to start poking at her to learn about her powers. If he can determine that her powers are useful to him, he'll try to capture or make a deal with her. At the very least, he'll want to rid himself of her interference so he can operate without her becoming problematic to him.

[Ari]

One thing: how Crusader and King of Suits find Dr. Green? Good ol' detective work, a vision from the future, a signal fired by Voltage?

[Ari]

Question answered in Chat, apparently investigation is involved, so that's alright.

Onto other matters, where should this be set? I'm assuming they'll be set in different areas of the city on account of who lives/patrols where and so on.

[Thunder King]

Alright, to get this ball rolling, I want people to start brainstorming character meeting ideas. Find someone your character has yet to meet, and propose an idea to them.

Blue Rose; I had an idea wherein Stormbreaker and Voltage would end up tracking one of Green's technology theft operations, independently, and then jointly. I have to wait for a thread to free up, but what do you think?

[Ari]

If Granspearzx is agreeable, how about KoS is looking into rumors of some kind of super-soldier who's been wandering the area between the Fens and Greenbank, and gets ambushed there by Dr. Green's mooks before being saved by Crusader.

[Thunder King]

Alright, I want to get this team off the ground. I am not making accusations, but I want it to actually happen before months pass.

So, with that said, here's how it's going to work;

1) we're going to start building the team very, very soon, like, within a week of this post.

2) If you are unavailable, well, you may not end up on the first roster.

3) If we've already told you you can join, you can join. We just may end up not including you in the team establishment thread. You may have to join later.

[GranspearZX]

I'm ready whenever. Still dealing with my Accounting final and various school issued with fundraisers and what not, but I'm in a much better position to do stuff than I was last week.

[Blue Rose]

Ready when y'all are.

[VideoGeek]

I'm ready!