Excelsior (PL 10) - Dinklebot (Newbie)

[DinkleBot]

Hello, folks, I saw the page on TV Tropes and I was blown away at the idea of a Play By Post lasting for seven years, so I figured I'd join and submit a character! Please be merciful, I'm new here.

 

He's a parahuman from the Worm web serial, a human who has unknowingly bonded with a shard of an extradimensional alien that grants them superpowers. Given that both Worm and this setting prominently feature alternate realities, I figure this would probably be okay, but let me know if it isn't; Scion canonically scattered some of his shards across different alternate realities, even if he deposited the vast majority into one particular universe.

 

Player Name: DinkeBot
Character Name: Excelsior
Power Level: (10) (150/150PP)
Trade-Offs:-2 Attack / +2 Damage, -2 Defense / +2 Toughness
Unspent Power Points: 0
Progress To Bronze Status: 0/30

In Brief: Disaffected nerd given super-science powers by extra-dimensional Lovecraftian alien, who used those powers to build a super-suit

Alternate Identity: John Sutwyche
Identity: Secret
Birthplace: New Zealand
Occupation: Unemployed, looking for work
Affiliations: None, yet
Family: Lives with his parents and elderly grandfather. Has a couple brother's he's relatively distant towards.

Description:
Age: 27 (DoB: 1987)
Apparent Age: 27
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Caucasian.
Height: 6'2".
Weight: 135 lbs.
Eyes: Blue.
Hair: Brown.
 

In his civilian identity, tall, and skinny, though he's gotten a bit of a stomach and he's a bit self-conscious about it. He wears glasses, with his short brown hair parted to the right; on the back of his skull is a silver computer port that he uses to interface with his armor. In his super-costume, he wears a white underlayer with bits of red patterning, which acts both as a final layer of protection, as well as a conductor of power and data to the components attached to it. On top of that, he wears black armor plates with red trim and detailing. On his chest lies the micro-fusion reactor that powers the suit; on his back is his main jetpack. His boots also contain thrusters, on the back of his arms are a pair of force-cannons, and on his hips are the gravity-manipulators that assist his flight as well as grant him enhanced strength (or, at least, a simulacrum of it) and a personal force field.

 

Power Descriptions:

Attached to his brain is a shard of an extradimensional alien, which grants him an inuitive understanding of a portion of the technical knowledge of all the species of the worlds its ancestors destroyed; in particular, it grants him knowledge of aircraft, flying machines, and aircraft systems, as well as the ability to construct super-advanced technology with perhaps insufficient tools. Additionally, he's used that knowledge to install a data-port for a mind-machine interface into the back of his skull.

History:

He had a fairly average life growing up; he was fairly heavily bullied by his peers for the social awkwardness his autism caused, and his family tended to move house every few years, but other than that, nothing too eventful. They lived in the American South, they went to church, they were a fairly normal family. Then they moved to Australia when he started high school, and his younger brother began a downward spiral into drug use and teenage delinquency. Then, he started university and started doing rather poorly at it, before moving to a different town and starting all over again in another course at a different university, and finally finished his degree in Aviation Technology, and shortly afterwards found out it was next-to-worthless. Then, after a year looking for a job, even as an aircraft baggage handler or a ticket desk person, and failing for a lack of experience, he decided to go back to school, attending a trade school to learn the theory component of maintaining aeroplanes. And then, when he started looking for an apprenticeship to finish his trade qualification, he looked and looked and looked and sent out resumes and got rejection letter after rejection letter after rejection letter.

 

Then he sort of snapped under the pressure, and when he awoke from his daze, he could see it in his head: technical diagrams, designs for all sorts of aircraft and spacecraft. Flying cars and jetpacks and hoverboards. And he looked around at the malaise of society, caused by the Marxists in government and Hollywood and the selfishness of the Baby Boomers, and he knew he had to do something he could fix it. He had to become a superhero, and lead the world back on path of righteousness, away from the degeneracy that is plaguing it! And so, he began scraping together what money and resources he could, and began building a suit of power armor in his parent's garage. He swiftly discovered that while his intuitive grasp of technology was broad, it was not all-encompassing; he couldn't quite figure out how to get the suit's musculature to work without tearing apart its user, so he decided to cheat by altering the anti-gravity belt he had designed to use gravitational forces to assist his movements, and then decided to patch on a shield-generation function onto it as well.

[u][b]Personality & Motivation[/b][/u]:

Fundamentally, he does what he does out of anger. He's angry at society, and he's angry at the people who have degraded society, but he knows that as a super-hero, he can't single-handedly destroy Hollywood or Leftist academia or half of the Federal government, so the anger just sits inside him and festers. Kicking the asses of the people who trespass against society (a.k.a. super-villains) helps a bit, though. He's recently come to Freedom City in the hopes of joining the premiere team of superheroes; perhaps if he can't destroy his enemies, he can weaken their influence by leading by example?

Powers & Tactics:

He flies in, he kicks ass, he calls the police while securing the perps, and then he flies out, and he does this all the while livestreaming it all onto his Twitch account. For someone whose power would imply super-intelligence, he is not subtle at all. More like an angry bull in a china shop than anything else.

[indent]
[indent=1][hr]
[u][b]Complications[/b][/u]:
[indent=2][b]Secret[/b]: He currently has two large secrets: the first being his secret identity, and the second being how extreme his personal politics are: he self-identifies as a White Nationalist, just short of being a full-blown Neo-Nazi. He actually quite dislikes most Neo-Nazis, since they're criminals who encourage the very moral degeneracy that he stands against. He is, however, confident that that won't save him from being crucified in the Leftist media if the truth of his personal politics become publically known.[/indent]
[indent=2][b]Livestreaming[/b]: He uses his suit's sensors and communication systems to livestream all of his patrols on his Twitch account. Mostly they're fairly boring, just him flying around looking for trouble, but a canny villain could possibly use this to their advantage.[/indent]

 

Parahuman: He's got an extradimensional Lovecraftian alien bonded to his brain, and he has no idea that this ever happened. Someone with magical truesight or some sort of extradimensional sensors would probably be able to detect it, however, and if he were shown a photo of it, it would manipulate his mind to immediately forget the image he was shown. It also creates an urge towards engaging in violent conflict, though that's subtle enough it wouldn't count as a Complication.

 

[indent=2]No Magic, Just Science: His powers can't detect or interact with magic, psychic powers, ki, "life force", or any other non-physical phenomena in any fashion whatsoever. If a wizard tosses a fireball at him, his shields can stop the physical flame, but if the wizard shoots him with raw magical energy, he's screwed.

 

Autism: He is a high-functioning autistic, and sometimes he misses social cues or feels forced to follow through with certain routines; he washes his hands a lot. His mother sometimes compares him to Sheldon from Big Bang Theory; it's a comparison he quite dislikes, because Sheldon's actor is gay in real life and a lot of his camp gay mannerisms leak into his portrayal of the character, but he understands what she means by it.

[indent=1]

[u][b]Abilities[/b][/u]: -2 + 4 + 2 + 6 + 0 + 0 = 10PP
Strength: 8 (-1)
Dexterity: 14 (+2)
Constitution: 12 (+1)
Intelligence: 16 (+3)
Wisdom: 10 (+0)
Charisma: 10 (+0)

 

 

Everything else below this line under construction

 

--------------

[u][b]Combat[/b][/u]: 0 + 0 = 0PP
Initiative: +0
Attack: +0 Melee, +0 Ranged
Grapple: +0
Defense: +0 (+0 Base, +0 Dodge Focus), +0 Flat-Footed
Knockback: -0


[u][b]Saving Throws[/b][/u]: 0 + 0 + 0 = 0PP
Toughness: +0 (+0 Con, +0 [Other])
Fortitude: +0 (+0 Con, +0)
Reflex: +0 (+0 Dex, +0)
Will: +0 (+0 Wis, +0)


[u][b]Skills[/b][/u]: 0R = 0PP
[Skill] [# of Ranks] (+[Total Bonus])
[Skill] [# of Ranks] (+[Total Bonus])
[Skill] [# of Ranks] (+[Total Bonus])[/indent]
[indent=2][i]Examples[/i]:[/indent]
[indent=2]Craft (Structural) 5 (+5)[sup]Skill Mastery[/sup] (would be used for someone with 5 ranks in the skill and a +0 Int modifier, and the Skill Mastery feat for that skill)[/indent]
[indent=2]Knowledge (Technology) 8 (+10)[sup]Second Chance[/sup] (would be used for someone with 8 ranks in the skill and a +2 Int modifier, and had the Second Chance feat for that skill)[/indent]
[indent=2]Languages 2 (English, French [Native], German) (would be used for someone who speaks those three languages, but learned French first)[/indent]
[indent=2]Notice 5 (+4) (would be used for someone with 5 ranks in the skill and a -1 Wis modifier)[/indent]
[indent=1]

[u][b]Feats[/b][/u]: 0PP
[Feat Name]
[Feat Name]
[Feat Name][/indent]
[indent=2][i]Examples[/i]:[/indent]
[indent=2]Accurate Attack
Dodge Focus 2[/indent]
[indent=2]Equipment 2 (10EP)[/indent]
[indent=2]Luck 2[/indent]
[indent=2] [/indent]
[indent=1][b]Equipment[/b]: XPP = 5XEP[/indent]
[indent=1][equip]Name (power breakdown, if applicable) [XEP][/equip][/indent]
[indent=1] [/indent]
[indent=1]Example:[/indent]
[indent=1]Gas Mask [1EP]
Sword (Damage 3 [Feats: Improved Critical, Mighty]) [5EP]
Undercover Vest (Protection 3 [Feats: Subtle]) [4EP][/indent]
[indent=1] [/indent]
[indent=1]Please note that the Equipment block is only applicable if your character has the Equipment feat.


[u][b]Powers[/b][/u]: 0 + 0 + 0 = 0PP

[b]Power/Array Name ([/b]descriptive name, descriptors; [i]Extras[/i]: ???, ???, [i]Flaws[/i]: ???, ???, [i]Feats[/i]: ???, ???, [i]Drawbacks[/i]: ???, ???[b])[/b] [XPP]
[array][u]Base Power[/u]: Power Name (Descriptive Name, Descriptors; Extras: ???, ???; Flaws: ???, ???; Feats: ???, ???; Drawbacks: ???, ???) {power cost/array cost}

[u]Alternate Power[/u]: Power Name (Descriptive Name, Descriptors; Extras: ???, ???; Flaws: ???, ???; Feats: ???, ???; Drawbacks: ???, ???) {power cost/array cost}[/array]

[b]Device 1 ([/b]Descriptive Name, Descriptors; 5PP Container; Extras: ???; Flaws: Easy/Hard-To-Lose, ???; [i]Feats[/i]: ???; [i]Drawbacks[/i]: ???[b])[/b] [3/4PP]
[device][b]Power Name ([/b]Descriptive Name, Descriptors; [i]Extras[/i]: ???, ???; [i]Flaws[/i]: ???, ???; [i]Feats[/i]: ???, ???; [i]Drawbacks[/i]: ???, ???[b])[/b] [XPP][/device][/indent]
[indent=1] [/indent]
[indent=2][i]Examples[/i]:

[b]Electrical Control 10 ([/b]electricity, mutant; 20PP Array; [i]Feats[/i]: Alternate Power 2[b])[/b] [22PP]
[array][u]Base Power[/u]: Blast 10 (Chain Lightning; Extras: Autofire; Flaws: Action [Full]; Feats: Accurate; Drawbacks: Full Power) {20/20}

[u]Alternate Power[/u]: Blast 10 (Ball Lightning; Extras: Area [50-ft. Burst, General]; Flaws: Distracting) {20/20}

[u]Alternate Power[/u]: Stun 6 (taser blast; Extras: Range [Ranged]) {18/20}[/array]

[b]Device 2 ([/b]Mighty Shield; 10PP Container; [i]Flaws[/i]: Hard-To-Lose; [i]Feats[/i]: Indestructible[b])[/b] [9PP]
[device][b]Damage 3 ([/b][i]Feats[/i]: Improved Critical, Mighty, Thrown[b])[/b] [6PP]

[b]Force Field 2[/b] [2PP]

[b]Shield 2[/b] [2PP][/device][/indent]
[indent=1] [/indent]
[indent=1]NOTE: If your powers do not have any Extras, Flaws, Feats or Drawbacks, you do not need to include those categories. I.e., if you have a plain Blast 10 (a bolt of fire), all you need to write is "Blast 10 (fire bolt) [20PP]".[/indent]
[indent=1]If all Powers have the same Descriptor (all Mutant, all Tech, etc.), you can just write that directly under the Powers header.


[u][b]Drawbacks[/b][/u]: (-0) + (-0) = -0PP

[b]Drawback[/b] (Description; [i]Frequency[/i]: [Uncommon, Common, or Very Common]; [i]Intensity[/i]: [Minor, Moderate, or Major][b])[/b] [-XPP][/indent]
[indent=2] [/indent]
[indent=2][i]Example[/i]:[/indent]
[indent=2][b]Vulnerability ([/b]Fire; [i]Frequency[/i]: Common; [i]Intensity[/i]: Major [x2][b])[/b] [-4PP][/indent]
[indent=1] [/indent]
[indent=1](Please note that you can only have a number of drawbacks equal to your PL, not including power drawbacks. Also, power drawbacks, such as Full Power or Power Loss, should be listed on the power, not here.)


[u][b]DC Block[/b][/u][/indent]
[indent=1] [/indent]
[indent=1]ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT[/indent]
[indent=1]Unarmed Touch DC15 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical)[/indent]
[indent=1] [/indent]
[indent=1](NOTE: The easiest way to get your DC Block to line up is to write it out in a word processor in a Courier font, then just copy/paste it into your post.)[/indent]



[indent=1][b]Totals: Abilities (0) + Combat (0) + Saving Throws (0) + Skills (0) + Feats (0) + Powers (0) - Drawbacks (0) = 105/105 (or 150/150) Power Points[/b]
[/indent]

Edited February 10, 2015 by DinkleBot

[DinkleBot]

I don't know why half of the formatting isn't working! I just copied it off of the example sheet in the newbie info thread!

[Avenger Assembled]

DB: 

 

Hello, Dinklebot, and welcome to the site. 

The Freedom City universe is not part of any larger multiverses from outside what Green Ronin has created or what we've created here on the site. The idea of a character empowered by an extradimensional alien presence is fine, just not that _particular_ extradimensional alien. 

 

In general the biggest problem with the character is its political content. 

 

 

Then he sort of snapped under the pressure, and when he awoke from his daze, he could see it in his head: technical diagrams, designs for all sorts of aircraft and spacecraft. Flying cars and jetpacks and hoverboards. And he looked around at the malaise of society, caused by the Marxists in government and Hollywood and the selfishness of the Baby Boomers, and he knew he had to do something he could fix it. He had to become a superhero, and lead the world back on path of righteousness, away from the degeneracy that is plaguing it!

 

It's interesting that your character is starting out with ideas about the world that he'll need to shed as a PC- characters who have grown up in cult settings and the like make for interesting backstories. But you can understand we'd be pretty nervous about a new person wanting to play a character like this - writing this character's moral journey would be an interesting story, but it would be extremely challenging for a new person. It's very hard to write a character like this and make him remotely sympathetic - i.e., somebody anyone would want to be around. When the new guy starts at the circus, they don't put him on firebreathing right away. 

 

There's also the issue of politics - the last thing we want is people fighting in-game over politics, and there are PCs who would take some pretty strong exception to Excelsior's attitudes. There are also a lot of players who'd be uncomfortable with it too - and "a concept that raises the hackles of everybody else" isn't really something we'd let a new person play. (Or veteran, for that matter!) 

 

Fundamentally, he does what he does out of anger. He's angry at society, and he's angry at the people who have degraded society, but he knows that as a super-hero, he can't single-handedly destroy Hollywood or Leftist academia or half of the Federal government, so the anger just sits inside him and festers. Kicking the asses of the people who trespass against society (a.k.a. super-villains) helps a bit, though. He's recently come to Freedom City in the hopes of joining the premiere team of superheroes; perhaps if he can't destroy his enemies, he can weaken their influence by leading by example?

 

Hah-hah, well, it is certainly true that a blood-sucking Marxist has infiltrated the Freedom League - 

 

But still, these are attitudes we don't really want player characters to have - after all, you're talking about a hate-on for groups that includes both other characters and lots of other players.

 

A good person to look at for ideas might be KnightDisciple's character Gabriel, a man of very strong religious convictions who at the same time doesn't feel the urge to judge the sinners around him.  

[DinkleBot]

DB: 

 

Hello, Dinklebot, and welcome to the site. 

The Freedom City universe is not part of any larger multiverses from outside what Green Ronin has created or what we've created here on the site. The idea of a character empowered by an extradimensional alien presence is fine, just not that _particular_ extradimensional alien.

So, make him an Expy, then, is what you're saying?

 

 

In general the biggest problem with the character is its political content. 

  

It's interesting that your character is starting out with ideas about the world that he'll need to shed as a PC- characters who have grown up in cult settings and the like make for interesting backstories. But you can understand we'd be pretty nervous about a new person wanting to play a character like this - writing this character's moral journey would be an interesting story, but it would be extremely challenging for a new person. It's very hard to write a character like this and make him remotely sympathetic - i.e., somebody anyone would want to be around. When the new guy starts at the circus, they don't put him on firebreathing right away. 

 

There's also the issue of politics - the last thing we want is people fighting in-game over politics, and there are PCs who would take some pretty strong exception to Excelsior's attitudes. There are also a lot of players who'd be uncomfortable with it too - and "a concept that raises the hackles of everybody else" isn't really something we'd let a new person play. (Or veteran, for that matter!)

That's fair enough. He isn't an idiot, though; he's not going to outright call someone something derogatory to their face, especially since he's trying to lead by example. That's why it's a Secret complication, instead of just a Hatred complication. He might, however, decide to spend most of his patrol time overflying African-American neighboorhoods since he knows that's where most of the crime is.

Also, a lot of his beliefs are in the form of generalities: for instance, he believes that Black people as a whole are racially inferior because of their increased tendency towards violence and their lower IQ values (a whole standard deviation lower than white people), but that doesn't mean that any particular black person can't beat the odds and become a stand-up member of the community, and he respects those that do (and pities those who don't, more than anything else).

 

Hah-hah, well, it is certainly true that a blood-sucking Marxist has infiltrated the Freedom League - 

 

But still, these are attitudes we don't really want player characters to have - after all, you're talking about a hate-on for groups that includes both other characters and lots of other players.

 

A good person to look at for ideas might be KnightDisciple's character Gabriel, a man of very strong religious convictions who at the same time doesn't feel the urge to judge the sinners around him.

Well, part of the idea is for a broken and human character to try to play the Superman role: trying to inspire the world by being a beacon of hope. Besides, if they were being played realisticly for their time periods, a lot of the 1940s and Victorian-era characters would be pretty prejudiced by today's standards as well - if he wound up on Victoriana, I doubt they'd think him terribly unusual.

[trollthumper]

Also, a lot of his beliefs are in the form of generalities: for instance, he believes that Black people as a whole are racially inferior because of their increased tendency towards violence and their lower IQ values (a whole standard deviation lower than white people), but that doesn't mean that any particular black person can't beat the odds and become a stand-up member of the community, and he respects those that do (and pities those who don't, more than anything else).

 

 

...see, here's the thing.

 

We will accept a lot from a superhero here. As I am all too fond of telling new players, my first heroes on this website were a necromancer and a skinhead. But when it crosses the line into bigotry? Even if it's "the soft bigotry of low expectations," the kind of thing where you champion "the good ones" and pity "the bad ones"? We don't go for that. We expect that, in a multicultural setting with a wide variety of races, religions, orientations, and political beliefs, there will be soft clashes between the PCs. You see it in comics all the time, like how staunch law and order Hawkman clashed with limousine liberal Green Arrow in the Bronze Age JLA. But when it crosses the line into one PC having to explain their basic humanity to another PC...

 

I play a black female character. Her having to explain, in detail, to another PC why Charles Murray can go blow without whalloping him about the head is not my idea of a good time. That has happened with NPCs - you should have seen the thread where she came face-to-face with the spirit of the Confederacy - but it's not something that should happen with somebody she might potentially consider a colleague. Likewise, I play a gay character, and - as a gay man myself - I don't see much fun in having to kindly explain why maybe you should not be using the F-word (no, the other one). I'm not saying your character would do that. But your character has adopted viewpoints that not only put him at odds with a good chunk of the other PCs, said viewpoints also tend to dehumanize the other heroes he fights alongside and view them as either "lesser" or part of some vast leftist conspiracy that is ruining America. I mean, Cannonade may have Feelings about unfettered capitalism, but he's still able to get along with tycoon characters like Asad.

 

Here's another example, from another online game. The Global Guardians game, a multi-year e-mail superhero game that's been written up on TV Tropes, had a NPC group of white supremacist superheroes. They did not burn crosses, they did not beat up black people, they just saved the day while espousing a viewpoint that maybe the blacks would be better off back in Africa while the whites stayed here. But they were NPCs for a reason, because that sheer level of antagonism - of viewing your fellow PCs as subhuman - would sour things horribly. 

 

We're cool with angry young men. We're cool with contrarians, traditionalists, and conservatives who may want to let the wind out of the sails of "political correctness" without necessarily being a dick about it. But there are limits. You're talking about how, hopefully, the other PCs will help your character to see the light and mellow out. But keep in mind that, given the polarity of some of his opinions, there's also a very good chance said PCs will not have time for your s**t, and may leave you to twist in the wind. 

[KnightDisciple]

Going to echo what AA and TT have said here.

 

Speaking as likely one of the more conservative members of the forum (if not the most, generaly speaking), and a RL-devoutly religious person playing a devoutly Catholic person (the aforementioned Gabriel), this guy is not quite the right approach to this.

 

It's one thing to play an occasionally-cranky type like Hawkman who makes toothless jokes about "commies" once in a grand while, but generally doesn't do much beyond that, and is entirely willing to help and save anyone and everyone.

 

Or, to use a more personal example, Gabriel has some pretty firm and specific religious beliefs that inform what he views as moral behavior or not. This does absolutely nothing to change how kind and polite he is to everyone, or his willingness to help and save everyone. But taking it a step further, I try my best to not use any IC threads as a space for him to preach on that matter. My view, and the character's view, is that when he's dressed as a superhero, he's supposed to do super-hero-y things. He can have calm debates about religion and morality and society and all that when he's in his civilian guise. Off-screen. Because that's not what this board focuses on.

 

I should mention that Gabriel's build means that if he wanted he could use game mechanics to force other characters to think the way he wants them to think, and there's nothing 99.99% of the population of Earth Prime could do to stop him, especially since he wouldn't even be using the Mind Control power. Being aware of that, I find myself being extra cautious how he speaks on most any matters in any and every thread he is in.

 

I once had him defending the rights of some teenagers to be practicing pagans, spellcraft included, despite his personal beliefs and convictions. He did this alongside a woman who's a devout pagan. It's one of my personal favorite threads precisely because of the balance he walked. At one point he talked one-on-one with one of the teens and told her that while he didn't necessarily share her beliefs or even think they were the best choice, he would absolutely defend her right to have them, and that she should never, ever fear believing what she chose.

 

That's the standard I hold any and all of my characters to, or at least attempt to do so, and that's the standard pretty much everyone sticks to. We have characters of all sorts of religions and politics and races and so on here, and they all get along pretty well, because at the end of the day a.) they know not to preach while heroing, and b.) they're not jerks about it.

 

But also c.) they don't hold to beliefs that are quite as...angrily hostile...as this character's seem to be.

 

It's 1000% fine if your character isn't impressed with how Hollywood or the media go about presenting their messages, or think there are mistakes being made by the government.

But a "festering anger" that could just as easily lead him to "destroy Hollywood and half the Federal government"? That's....less fine, gonna be honest.