[OOC] Super Mercs

[Michael Thayne]

Seeking 3-5 players for a somewhat gritty supers game with crazy, over-the-top combat. Expect opponents who will not fight fair or respect genre conventions. Players will be members of a super mercenary company assumed to be willing to take what jobs they get. More plot may be added later.

This game is currently full.

The character sheets:
Myrmidon by sheldrine (also in PDF)
John Miller by Hannes665
Jamal Smith by ErhnamDJ
Toni Whael by Totem
Eric 'Bolt' Franklin by Galedeep
Minuteman by Skullcrusher

Link to the IC thread.
Initiative Order

Since I've had a few PbP games die on me already, I'll try to avoid that by putting a hard limit of 5 players on participants, and won't be afraid to push on with the game if someone initially expresses interest and then isn't posting.

Point total is 500, with a maximum of -100 disadvantages (all non-quirk negative traits) and -5 in quirks. If you go above -50 in disadvantages, I'm likely to be stricter about making sure they really affect the game. I want this to be "anything goes" as much as possible without allowing anything blatantly abusive. The big three restrictions:

*Tech Level is 8. Characters may not begin play at higher tech levels, but will be allowed "downtime" to attempt to invent or commission the invention of higher TL items.
*PK's rules on allies apply.
*Modular Abilities (Cosmic Power) is prohibited.

Within these guidelines, though, I'm very much looking forward to seeing what kinds of characters you can come up with! Other minor points:

*No restrictions on spending starting wealth.
*Control Rating is 2. Characters may begin play with black-market weapons for double normal cost.
*Mana level is normal.
*Supernatural abilities should have one of the Magical, Super, or Cosmic modifiers. Feel free to create psi-themed characters with psionics talents, but for game mechanics purposes there will be no distinction between psionics and super powers.
*Society is a "classless meritocracy" (i.e. can only buy 2 status outright, rest comes from wealth and rank).
*If you really, really, want to buy rank, you can buy up to Mercenary Rank 3. This will mainly function as an equivalent-point-cost Ally Group of competent but non-super members of the mercenary company.

I'll be using detailed hit locations, a variation of "Restricted Dodge Against Firearms" from Tactical Shooting, and possibly other optional rules if I think would make the game more fun (I'm open to player suggestions there). Benefiting from cinematic rules will require a relevant advantage or perk. For those who don't have Tactical Shooting, here's "Restricted Dodge" in a nutshell: normal characters will be limited to dodging one enemy gunperson per turn, though I'll loosen this for characters with Extra Attack and Altered Time Rate. This makes it possible, just slightly more difficult, to build characters with extreme bullet-dodging capabilities.

[Hannes665]

I would like to take part, I am already in 3 games but one of them seems to be over or at least dormant for more than 10 days.

1 Question. Are Americans, Russians, Spanish, Japanese or is this a fantasy future world (alas Star Wars or similar)?

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Hannes665

I would like to take part, I am already in 3 games but one of them seems to be over or at least dormant for more than 10 days.

1 Question. Are Americans, Russians, Spanish, Japanese or is this a fantasy future world (alas Star Wars or similar)?

I assume that's "Are there Americans... etc." in which case the answer is yes, real world nationalities exist. But there are also whatever made-up factions and changes to the political climate help move the story along. 20 minutes into the future, but supers have been around for awhile. Long enough that people are starting to adjust, not long enough to change things too radically.

[Totem]

Definitely interested. Can have a basic character together shortly. Couple of questions first:

How much in the way of social stuff or background would you recommend for this? I previously got involved with a game and wrote a decent amount of backstory in with a bit of a grim slant and plenty of points in non-combat stuff, and then spent 90% of the time involved in fights. I'd just like an idea of the kind of balance. Also, how much of an option would there be for non-combat solutions to situations?

Are there any restrictions on origins? Again, backstory, but I'm running a world-jumping game (with non-Humans as NPCs in it) at present so it's slanted my thinking slightly. Normal Human tooled up to 500 points I can do, I'm just wondering what other options are available.

You mentioned Mana; I've had a couple of thoughts along those lines. One regards ghosts/ spirits (anyone who has heard of the Project Raphael radio series may understand where this is coming from). Just a thought.

[Michael Thayne]

The plan is for a very combat heavy game, where opportunities for non-combat solutions will tend to be limited.

Character origin stories shouldn't require any huge pieces of campaign architecture to support. There won't be any known non-human races in this world, or known alternate Earths, but mutants who don't look human any more are fine, non-human creations of some supergenius are fine, etc.

A ghost or spirit with sufficient ability to interact with the world (and reason to work for a mercenary company) could work. So could a character who summons ghosts or spirits. This isn't a world where many people would matter-of-factly say "of course ghosts and spirits exist," but people also wouldn't be surprised to meet a few beings with abilities resembling those of traditional spirits, whatever their true nature may be.

EDIT: After you mentioned spirits, I went and looked up some relevant rules, and noticed that the wording of "Affect Spirits" is that it works on "incorporeal spirits." I've already decided to read this loosely as "any insubstantial being."

[ErhnamDJ]

I have an idea. A gangster from the hood who can turn into a demon.

"I made a deal with the devil. Now I am the devil."

[sheldrine]

Considering it -- although it would be a day or two to put together a character. Could you hold off long enough for me to get one together?

[Michael Thayne]

@ErhnamDJ: I like it.

@sheldrine: Sure, I can wait a couple days.

[Galedeep]

I'm interested; throwing together an idea I've had for a while. A guy named Haze, with some fog-based (...yes. Fog based. Leave me alone.) powers. Since you mentioned magic, I think I'll have him rely on a magical pendant to give him his supernatural abilities, and put the rest into making him competent without relying on the magic side of things.

Should have something for you to look at in a day or less.

[sheldrine]

Ok, before I spend too dreadful much time statting this guy up, I wanted to run by you a proof of concept. Name will be something related to Achilles, or Myrmidon, or similar (changed enough to be reasonable for the modern days).

This guy is older, and has been retired for several years (he is in his late 30s now, and has been retired for maybe a decade). In his prime, he was one of the most well-known heroes in the world, and still is. His trait was that although he was a hero in the side he fought on (just about every major government in the world at some time or another), he had little respect for life and would kill his way up the food-chain to the big bad guy (which he often killed as well). Opinions on him were split -- many people loved him and many people hated him, but everyone had an opinion of him.

His battles with his nemesis (the Silk Spider? may change) were legendary. He was the bloody hero, and she was the villain with a conscience. Then one day she disappeared. Everyone assumed that HERO had killed her. Less than a month later, HERO retired himself to marry his longtime girlfriend, and everyone assumed it was because after killing SS he had nothing more to challenge him. (In actuality, of course, he found out SS was his longtime girlfriend -- this is a supers campaign, after all).

He was retired for several years (7?) when the (Irish/Russian/Italian/Demonic -- whichever you don't need in the campaign) mob found out SS's secret identity (HERO never hid his identity). SS had double-crossed/robbed/etc. someone or something related to them and they had her killed. This was a mistake, as HERO went ballistic. He killed about 75% of the organization personally -- calling in favors to kill off the last 25% (including calling in a favor from a hacker to force-launch and reroute some missiles into one of their meetings). They aren't his enemies, though, because whoever they were they no longer exist as an organization.

After that, he retired again. Without SS, he grew despondent, turned to alcohol and women, and his life became an absolute mess. Some of you thought he might have drank or whored himself to death, but he is still alive. For whatever reason (still working on this) he has come out of retirement (lost letter from SS, revenge, who knows).

He is going to be a battler, and a bloody one at that. He can be toned down however much he needs to be for the purposes of the campaign (promise to SS?, etc.), so let me know that. Most of his stats will be a combination of Black Ops stuff and combat stuff, but no emphasis on stealth. I am thinking Legal Immunity (knows too much about too many governments for anyone to touch -- probably need to be more than 20 points) as well -- some of the other PCs may have arrested him somewhere along the line and wondered how he skated on essentially committing murder right in front of them, along with perks/advantages/disadvantages/features related to being extremely well known.

That's just a rough sketch, but before I spent time discovering this guy through statting him up and fully preparing a backstory I figure I better get preliminary approval as to the concept.