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PRE-APPLICATION DISCUSSION POST!

Hey guys! I had some requests for a discussion post where people can shoot the shit about potential backstory and power ideas, so here it is!

For best results, make sure to check out the FAQ and other setting information for inspiration, such as superhero registration and power levels, as well as taking at peek at the game wiki to see what's already been started!

POST RULES:

Feel free to discuss any facet of the setting you like, and how they relate to your character ideas!

Please keep in mind though, that nothing can be set in stone until the related apps are accepted. Try to not rely completely on everything on this board being apped successfully.

If you would like to know whether something sounds good to the mods, just flag us down by giving a shout in the subject line or by pinging us on plurk! We'll hit you up as soon as we can.

Have fun!

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Quickly running through the bare bones of my current origin/backstory and powerset for this guy. This is basically a test of if this sounds consistent enough outside of canon and all. The other thing I'm worried about is if it sounds like it's a bit too much like 'making a human something else for funsies', which is really why I wanted to bring it up early before I started poking too hard.

Origin story, then! For people who know his canon, it's roughly based on his arc with Chidori and how he acquires Trismegistus. Otherwise...
Basically, silly boy here gets involved with a strange girl he meets. Over time, they become close, fall for each other: but it turns out that she's an alien. Dun dun dun. I'm eyeballing this as her being some kind of energy being in human form. Crap happens with her and some others from her own world (planet? dimension?): poor Junpei gets mixed up in it by accident, and is sadly killed. However, because reasons (already dying from having spent too long on Earth?) she gives up her own life, merges with him, revives him: he's now not quite human, not quite one of them... and eventually realises that with the new abilities he's been given, hey, he could get on with this superheroing thing...

The powerset's based around energy (heat) manipulation. Heat-ray type effects and solid-energy constructs/blades. So far so consistent, but with his part-inhuman status and having been revived, the other ability of his from canon I'd like to bring in would be a degree of a healing factor. Nothing particularly strong as yet, but accelerated recovery with perhaps an 'in future this'll get stronger' sidenote.

At present, he probably comes out as a Rank D: powers are there, but he's hella untrained.

Thoughts?

Just so you know, for Ranks, it isn't really based on training so much as how overall effective they are! Having any useful powers at all would probably make him better than Rank D, unless he is super incompetent. Primarily it is based in how objectively powerful he is though.

The backstory also sounds good to me! This sort of stuff is great for the setting. How did that all go down in canon?

(PS this is Quix, one of the mods, hi.)

I know I've seen some people talking about potentially apping fantrolls, so I just wanted to throw this up here! We've established that in recent years, probably just after the second invasion attempt on Earth (in the 90s), trolls have occasionally managed to make it across the galaxy to hang out as refugees on Earth, even though people tend not to like trolls very much what with those invasion attempts. Trolls on Earth are not SUPER common but there are a few here and there. (The assumption is sort of that because this AU's version of Alternia has come up against civilisations it can't conquer, more trolls are willing to try to leave the Empire and try their luck in less tyrannical environments.)

ANYWAY, we've established that the two canon trolls we've got already – Karkat and Sollux - were involved in an escape attempt that made it out of the Empire but got split up after that, and we've been keeping it intentionally vague in order to accommodate more people. We would be interested in having other canon characters with a reason to want out of troll society involved in this! HOWEVER we've been keeping it vague about how exactly the escape was arranged because we want to be open to involving other characters too – like, your fantrolls. If you've got a fantroll who you'd like to involve in this then please please bring them to us. Involve your fan characters in our canon characters' backstory. There is nothing we would desire more

Hehe, he's a total goofball, but yeah, he can fight. XD Okay, so a bit of a rank up's likely due, good to know.

Okay, Junpei and Chidori in canon... The tl;dr version is 'very similarly except aliens weren't involved and he had a couple of powers already'.
He was a good guy, she was a bad guy with odd healing powers. He befriended her, fell for her, and swayed her from the bad guys' way of thinking until they forcibly dragged her back: when they eventually shot him, she realised how much he meant to her and gave up her life to heal him, merging her power with his own.
I can give a full on wall of text on the story if you'd like, explain how Persona powers work in canon or how the different groups here work out? But that's the quickest summary I can give.

(PS hi right back. :) )

Edited 2014-01-10 02:50 (UTC)

I think that Cynthia's canon backstory translates pretty ok to CH, but I want to lay out what I have just to be sure that it's alright! if anyone has any input or ideas or really anything, I'd love to hear it!

So far what I have is: Cynthia grew up with her superhero mother Sumia (and maybe a dad too?? I don't know what to do about the father situation, because no marriage or father-child relationship in FE:A is "canon"). She was very close to her mother, but despite that influence in her life, she did not particularly want to be a superhero. She was preoccupied with other, more normal things, like hanging out with friends and keeping up with school. She would have been happy to stay a civilian with cool powers and live a normal life. But, of course, it didn't go that way. One day, her mother MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED while on a mission, and Cynthia received the terrible news that her mother was probably dead. She also received her mother's wedding ring, which was found around where Sumia was supposedly doing superhero stuff. The event influenced her so greatly that her entire view on her role in the world shifted. Ever since then, Cynthia has worn the ring in her mother's memory, and she has vowed to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a superhero. Part of this is to help and protect others the way her mother did, but part of it is also to see if she can one day find her mother. She's hopeful that Sumia is still out there, somewhere.

She's definitely a registered superhero, as she believes that's more heroic (though she believes there's sort of a ~cool~ aspect to being a Teen Vigilante Superhero). She's young, so I'd imagine she would register with the Trailblazers.

As for her superpowers, they're innate. She can fly and she can make other stuff fly too. Sometimes at very fast speeds. Sometimes even in the direction she chooses. (She's still working on it.) I imagine she'd be a D ranking at the moment? Maybe just barely a C. She doesn't have too much combat training, or superpower training, but her powers have the potential to be pretty good as she learns how to use them.

So my app for this kid is basically done except for the samples BUT IT IS KINDA LONG so to summarize:

I'm writing Nagisa in as having the power of persuasion, manifesting from when he first swims the relay as a child. His canon background is mostly the same (mostly with development differences due to his power), but his timeline diverges from before the start of the anime, so he hasn't reunited with the rest of the swim club and hasn't met Rei at all. I really want castmates though so if anyone out there is even kind of considering PLEASE COME TO ME and I am 100% willing to talk to you and change stuff and work out pre-established CR.

Of course, I am also totally up for pre-established CR from non-castmates! The easiest would probably be if they live in the same apartment building or attend the same school? Nagisa is unregistered due to the tricky nature of his ability (and the fact that he's kind of living illegally whoops) but he's planning to start his own youth vigilante team. From the reserves page I feel like most qualifying youth plan on joining the Trailblazers, but if there are any who aren't and might be interested in a super sneaky alternative, please do hit me up!

(Oh yeah, as far as power levels go I have him as Rank D because while his ability is inherently super broken he's still really young and effectiveness varies a lot. But from the discussion up there with Junpei, I get the impression it should actually be graded on potential? Mods, if you have any input it would be great, thanks!)

LOOKIN GOOD I AM REALLY EXCITED ABOUT CYNTHIA

if she's a Trailblazer she'd receive training before she went into active heroing – I hadn't specifically thought about this before but there are probably like more experienced active Trailblazers and then, like, in-training ones who are newer and don't go on actual hero duty yet but get to spar with the older ones and then come along as backup occasionally or whevsies once they're good enough

I'm mostly just sort of thinkin aloud here though like you may have been assuming this was the case already oops

re: power levels, it's basically like in terms of how much damage the character is currently capable of doing, intentionally or not – so a character who has no powers but has been trained in hand to hand combat would probably have a lower rank than a character who can generate powerful lasers but can't control their ability to do that. If a character's inexperience limits the amount of effect their power has then it would lower the ranking. I think we've been sort of unclear about this, so sorry for the confusion! I'm going to update the power levels page to make sure it's clearer, haha

(please excuse my disdainful default icon it is the only one i have)

(still Julie, hi)

That is very helpful, thank you! I think I'm going to keep it as D for now then; assuming the rankings are flexible (?) it's likely it would go up during the course of the game once he gains some actual real combat experience, of which currently he has none past "yo dude can you not do that".

They are flexible, yes! Characters' power levels can absolutely increase.

~~YEAH. I DID IT. I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY~~

Following the whole 'demons' thing that SMT games run on- spirits are recognized and exist in this world, right? In any case, other than samples I've got her app up here as well as a whole bunch of excitement and tears because there goes the rest of my non-rp time

Another thing- she'd definitely sign up with Trailblazers, so that's settled, but her power level... is extremely tentative. Thing is, while she control over elemental magic thanks to the demons, she's also extremely reliant on them, and still uses a COMP to summon them so if her COMP was destroyed or all her demons wiped out, she'd still fight valiantly but probably go down pretty quickly. Plus, she can't exactly... run very fast with that clothing of hers.

So is she a D or a C? Since she doesn't exactly have the ability to protect herself against most threats. She may seem super-powerful with her angels and demons but they're not very... reliable. Also, I plan to have the Shomonkai be a rather big thing is Japan, is that alright?

Anyway, thoughts? ~~especially on my origin story i'm sorry i hurt you again amane~~

I'm trying to figure out Micchi's backstory but there's one thing that I'm having trouble with. Does this sound alright?

His origin story's kind of the same as canon, where he's the son of the owner of the Yggdrasil Corporation (it's evil btw), but he and his brother never go to Zawame. His brother gets assigned to the Yggdrasil branch in LA, and Micchi requests to go with him. I've decided that instead of having innate powers he gets to keep his neat belt and be a kamen rider, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how he gets his belt? In the show he gets it from a dealer to help his friends, but here there's no dealer and no friends. I was thinking that his brother brought home a belt and Micchi basically steals it with intent to give it back and then just never gives it back. His brother is ranked highly enough in the company to have access to top secret equipment like that and he's absentminded enough to leave these things unattended but it still feels a little flimsy to me.

I'm just really attached to him keeping his belt because his transformation involves a grape falling from the sky onto his head.

(I've been calling him Micchi just because that's what I'm used to but seeing as he never met Gaim in CH there'd be no reason for him to have that nickname...)

Also I'm totally open to CR or team ups or anything! Micchi's an unregistered teen hero because he feels weird about his hero activities being controlled by any adults.

ME TOO she makes a very funny superhero and that is what I am all about

that makes sense though!! that's probably where she stands right now, like, apprentice superhero in training. she looks forward to the day when she is able to fight in a real battle. she will make sure to fly a lot so that all of her enemies are intimidated by her cape. she is simply too heroic for them to handle

HEY FRIEND! I'm obviously not a mod so I'm not at all an authority on whether it works or doesn't, but I do have a question that hopefully will help out with the concern of flimsiness (if thats ok)!

Have you figured out why he took the belt in the first place? Because I think having a solid reason (whether it's "he had to stop a bad thing" or "he wanted to play with it and got into a situation where he had to be a hero using the belt" or anything that would explain why he took it and maybe also why he didnt give it back) would strengthen the backstory a lot. If that reason ties in with how he decided to become a superhero, I think it's even better.

also the initial reason I wanted to comment is to say oh my god tHE GRAPE FALLING OUT OF THE SKY.........(i haven't kept up with gaim but it looks like i need to start)

I think the main reason he took the belt was just to mess with it. The reason he didn't give it BACK is kind of... the belt locks onto the first person who uses it, and once someone uses it it goes from blank black to have a little decal on it, which would give him away. But the main reason he didn't is, he feels trapped by the expectations placed on him by his family, and he feels really helpless. He sees the belt and the powers that come with it as a way to (literally) fight for himself, on his own terms? It's something that hasn't been planned out for him, so it's HIS and that's really important to him.

GOD YEAH... grape... we're expected to take this all very seriously but it's a show about fruit warriors. it's so good though!! it's not too far in yet so it'd be easy to catch up.

Alright I may need to figure out how this is going to work, at least in origin of her powers. The backstory isn't much of a problem, daughter of a wealthy Japanese family whose business booms in America, but she isn't much for just sitting around and being pretty all day. But when it comes to becoming a Super Sentai it's a bit awkward.

In canon she, and the other Kyoryuger, are picked by an ancient bird themed alien for their great bravery in order to face other evil aliens that want to steal emotions to ressurect their beast of a master. But to prove worthy of becoming Kyoryuger they have to defeat their pre-requisite Sentai giant robots in honorable combat, to show they have the bravery to be partners with them. Therein lies the problem-these are just roboticized dinosaurs that fought besides bird-guy that have existed for millions of years waiting for the evil aliens to attack again...because the evil aliens are what killed the dinosaurs, with anthropomorphic versions of extinction level events (disease, the ice age, and metors). So that may be a slight issue. I'm wondering how to get around that.
Both because I'm unsure where a sentai robot would sit on the power scale (not that she'd need or use unless it's against a giant enemy), and because I doubt having robot dinosaurs just sit in seclusion for that long and not be discovered is doubtful.

some of this should be covered in jon's app when I finish it, but here is the basic family history in this AU

the stark family prides itself on having produced an exceptional amount of metahumans in the past (mainly because most of them prior to the 20th century were fairly famous miraculous rabbis). around 25 years ago or so four stark siblings-brandon, ned, lyanna, and benjen--formed a sort of power pack/fantastic four type superhero team to protect their home city of chicago. right around the time ned was set to marry plucky love interest catelyn tully, brandon and lyanna disappeared under mysterious circumstances. shortly after the birth of their first child, ned and cat adopted newborn jon under equally mysterious circumstances. ned took over the family superhero business and benjen went off in search of answers or whatever. he is not the only superhero in chicago but he has kind of a role like batman in gotham. cat and ned's children grew up with the understanding that they would probably develop powers and the standing rule is that all stark children will have the opportunity to join trailblazers when they are 18, so long as they go to college, but it's p likely younger starklets will find their way around that. combat training is available and encouraged, but not mandatory. they live in the north suburbs of chicago, and not the city proper. ned is obvi the sponsor and go-between for all the legal stuff. he probably has a job in municipal politics but I will leave that to any potential players.

the direwolves are just suspiciously large dogs that ned rescued as puppies in the course of his superhero work. the kids couldn't bear to give any away so they kept them all. idk if warging is allowed as like a secondary mutation in addition to more original primary powers?? it isn't super useful in a traditional superhero fight because the warg's human body must remain unconscious during the possession.

also if anyone is bringing any characters to berkeley (the college or the town), the bay area, or san francisco proper, hit me up!!! not unrelatedly, if anyone is apping any teleporters or pilots with their own aircraft, hit me up as well.

oh and if anyone was wondering about the tullys they are an old tammany hall irish family that for the most part still lives in new york

I mean they don't have to be but wouldn't it be cool if they were

Edited 2014-01-11 01:28 (UTC)

heck
CYNTHIA
im really looking forward. to her cape. god

thatd put her in the same boat as karkat. sitting on the trailblazer bench. it's a very prestigious bench

Hmmm, yeah, giant robots might be a tricky element to include as just a matter of course in superhero fights; on the whole we'd prefer to keep the hero scale a little smaller than sentai robots where we can. Perhaps you could AU it so that instead of robots they're some kind of ancient dinosaur spirit that like bonds with them after they prove their worth and allows them to use special dinosaur powers via a transformation sequence, or something like that?

Well it is only PART of a sentai giant robot, it's not like she's going to pull it out on some random mooks robbing a bank or something.

Tech in Kyoryuger is sort of weird and necessary to a point. If it was just dinosaur spirits and such it'd just be Zyuranger.

Ah okay! I was suggesting since you asked for possible ways around it and it was the first thing that came to mind – I'm not really familiar with the canon. (Also sorry if my icon is making me seem like I'm hecksa disdainful or anything, it's the only one i have on this account, haha)

Nah, I gotcha! Sounds good! Honestly, I think it's a pretty cute origin story.

Cool! :D It's more complex than that in canon, but that's the version without getting into gritty plot details and how Personas work and all that stuff.
I'm currently kind of fiddling around, working out options as to how I can leave it open for her to come back/be revived, and considering throwing a few other bits and pieces out for folks to look at: P3's final boss is a good ol' end-of-everything-bringer if such were needed.

But anyhoo, glad you like: now time to get down to the fun business of writing it up properly~

No it's cool. When I meant ways around it, I more meant making sure the Dino-Mecha weren't discovered by humans before they felt the time was right. Especially in a place with Organizations looking for answers and a bunch of high tech gizmos.
Also it's cool, default icon, no big

Hm! Maybe something like the scarab in Blue Beetle, where it's a small but sentient piece of alien tech that expands into high tech armour when activated by its user? Perhaps each one could be disguised/in stasis/whatever as a fossil fragment from the relevant dinosaur, or something.

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