Ideas for a New long-term Campaign

[Cheeseball]

Originally Posted by newton

First of all: schools often only offer advanced classes for certain metrics of advanced, AP classes in highscholl might let someone with an IQ12 finish college faster but only for some values of faster.

I agree with you, and this has already been cleared with some real life example.

Originally Posted by newton

Secondly: I should have made the distinction bewteen IQ and effort, if a student is struggling they might actually put more hours into learning through tutoring and furious studying but still might come out with a lower effective skill.

I also agree, there you would have a perfect example for a character with low IQ.

Originally Posted by newton

Regardless none of this talk of statlines and skill levels will make having more than one late twenties child-prodigy turned special forces character more believable to your players especially ones without significant disadvantages.

Ah, they have already swallowed that pill, now what I need are more characters, like rivals at their level, and others with different levels of power. If you have files, or stories, or anything, of characters that might fit, with its characteristics, advantages, disadvantages, etc., I'd be happy to incorporate them into the campaign.

[Varyon]

Stepping out of the discussion for a bit, I suspect there isn't much more to be gained arguing over whether or not these prodigies-turned-Big-Boss characters are realistic - OP has made the case that they're perfectly fine (regardless of how much we may disagree with such a conclusion), and at this point I feel we've given ample warning about the threat to Sense of Disbelief and Player Agency these types of characters represent. No more sense beating on a dead horse.

Anything else about the setting you'd like to discuss, Cheeseball?

[JulianLW]

Originally Posted by Cheeseball

Ah, they have already swallowed that pill, now what I need are more characters, like rivals at their level, and others with different levels of power. If you have files, or stories, or anything, of characters that might fit, with its characteristics, advantages, disadvantages, etc., I'd be happy to incorporate them into the campaign.

Maybe check out DC and Marvel comics?

[newton]

Originally Posted by Cheeseball

Ah, they have already swallowed that pill, now what I need are more characters, like rivals at their level, and others with different levels of power. If you have files, or stories, or anything, of characters that might fit, with its characteristics, advantages, disadvantages, etc., I'd be happy to incorporate them into the campaign.

Originally Posted by Varyon

Stepping out of the discussion for a bit, I suspect there isn't much more to be gained arguing over whether or not these prodigies-turned-Big-Boss characters are realistic - OP has made the case that they're perfectly fine (regardless of how much we may disagree with such a conclusion), and at this point I feel we've given ample warning about the threat to Sense of Disbelief and Player Agency these types of characters represent. No more sense beating on a dead horse.

Ok if you're just looking for mostly Inspiration I think I can still help.

One thing that's definitely struck me as a good source of inspiration is the metal gear series of videogames. I think it's got a good blend of both real world ideas and concepts with the more "rule of cool" type stuff. There's plenty of video essays(and normal essays) about the characters and plot in metal gear you can find online if that interests you.

One character(who coincidentally is also from a video game) that might be an inspiration for making rivals is Delford "Iraq" Wade from the first watchdogs series. The essence of his character is that after being dishonorably discharged from them military he applied all that skill and experience to the running of his own gang that quickly becomes very powerful. Whilst part of this is due to the "internet of things" setup watchdogs has where he leverages SIGINT knowledge to gain power it's also the application of strategy and discipline that really helps. Another part is that he keeps his inner circle well disciplined and teaches them what he learned as a veteran while keeping also around unskilled members to appear like a normal gang. There's a lot of ways you could make a more powerful version but the basic idea of "applying military skills to crime" is pretty interesting.

[Donny Brook]

Originally Posted by Cheeseball

... now what I need are more characters, like rivals at their level, and others with different levels of power. If you have files, or stories, or anything, of characters that might fit, with its characteristics, advantages, disadvantages, etc., I'd be happy to incorporate them into the campaign.

Here's a thought.

[Purple Snit]

Honestly, the best solution here is to just re-skin the npcs and templates you already have - they fit what you are trying to do, and will match any PCs that use similar templates. I don't think anyone here has characters at hand that will fit in to your campaign framework.

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Stepping out of the discussion for a bit, I suspect there isn't much more to be gained arguing over whether or not these prodigies-turned-Big-Boss characters are realistic - OP has made the case that they're perfectly fine (regardless of how much we may disagree with such a conclusion), and at this point I feel we've given ample warning about the threat to Sense of Disbelief and Player Agency these types of characters represent. No more sense beating on a dead horse.

Anything else about the setting you'd like to discuss, Cheeseball?

Or, you know, give us anything about the setting? All we've had so far is one fairly dull and uninteresting character writeup. A character I don't get anything about. What are her hopes, dreams, goals, motivations, fears, etc?