Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Ettin
Oct 2, 2010


:siren: This is currently an OOC thread only, we are not recruiting right now. Sorry guys! :siren:

This is the OOC thread for NyarlathoTech games. At the moment we have three active games:

TRIGGER WARNING: ANIME (City: Dubai)
TRANSELDRITCH (City: Miami)
PRIVILEGE THRESHOLD (City: Shanghai)

If you're looking for setting fluff, scroll down to the second post.

Also, since a couple people asked: You are free to steal things from this thread if you want, I'm not gonna stop you and some of it wasn't my idea anyway. :toot:

Old recruitment post:

quote:

Hello! I'm Ettin, the dude who complains that CthulhuTech sucks all the time. Let's play CthulhuTech together!

Alright, it is not that simple. I am refluffing a lot of it and making my own additions! You can find them after this post. I hope they are not too terrible.

If you have any questions join #redhandofdoom on SynIRC. I'll run this recruitment for a couple weeks to see what we get, then we'll take a couple weeks to do city creation/phases. Deadline's at 11:59PM US Pacific, January 17.


CHARACTER CREATION

This is basically a Fate Core game but it includes DFRPG material. (It started as modified DFRPG but there's not much difference anyway.) We are playing with 8 refresh, 30 skill points, and skill cap Superb!

Your character is a member of the Soul Network, a secret alliance of secret societies dedicated to ending the threat the Mythos poses to humanity. The primary groups of the Soul Network are presented in the next post (along with some templates), but if you want to make up your own group, go for it! (Bonus points if it is shamelessly poached from some anime.)

I am looking for characters that are interesting, creative, and, if possible, anime as gently caress.


Aspects: Give each Aspect a name and a little blurb, and give me an idea of how you want to invoke it/ideas on how to compel it. This is just to let me know what you want from the aspect, it's not required.

High Concept: What you are! “Eldritch Society Wizard”, “Really Goony Whisper Tager”, etc.

Trouble: Your first world problems. It can be a personal problem (“Sucker For A Pretty Face”), something that keeps happening (“Falls Down Stairs”, “My Nemesis Moriarty”), etc.

Aspect Phases, Weeaboo Style

Backstory: Where did you come from? This is early stuff – childhood, family, school, whatever.

Yomikiri: What shaped you into the person you are today.

Volume Three: One of your Soul Network adventures, one important or memorable to your character. (This is a good aspect to leave open-ended so other characters can guest-star later.)

OVA and Omake: The crossovers into other's stories, which we'll deal with later. Leave blank for now.


Skills: Here are the basic skills. You can guess what they do, because I lifted most of them from DFRPG (with some Fate Core changes!)

• Alertness
• Athletics
• Burglary
• Casting
• Contacts
• Crafts
• Deceit
• Driving
• Empathy
• Fists
• Guns
• IntimidationProvoke
• Investigation
• Lore
• Performance
• Physique
• Presence
• Rapport
• Resources
• Scholarship
• Stealth
• Survival
• Systems
• Weapons
• Will


Physique is the FATE Core skill - basically Might+Endurance.

Will is Conviction+Discipline, except for Discipline's spellcasting stuff which has been moved into Casting.

Systems is for hacking, digging for information on the Net, assessing people via their social networking profiles, etc. Scholarship still has the Computer Use trapping, but it doesn't do the complex stuff; it can complement Systems for conducting research though.

Also, you are required to make up one skill – this is your Passion, what your character is really into. Maybe they're obsessed with all forms of Battle Rap or Skateboarding, or a Hardcore Gamer, or a Super High-school Level Archaeologist, whatever. This will be a very important skill! You are not required to include it in an Aspect, but it is recommended.

You must sink at least four skill points into your Passion. However, since you're so rad at it, you can accomplish superhuman feats with it: your Passion can have some of the trappings of another skill and then some. (For example, a Baseball Player can play a mean game of baseball, use it as Weapons if she has a bat, and do anything else they can justify as being like a baseball move.) This can't outright replace multiple skills, but it can complement a few. Again, I am looking for Passions that are creative or anime as gently caress.

Stunts: These are same as normal.

Powers: Magical abilities! Powers specific to the Dresden Files setting that can't be refluffed to the Mythos (no actual vampires, for example) are a no, but the rest are fine. You're not restricted to the five elements for Channeling and Ritual.

Run things by me if you're not sure, please do not ask me for simple poo poo like permission to take Claws or something. I'll put any answers in at the end of this post.


RULES QUESTIONS

I want to be a wizard, should I use the full Wizard template from Dresden?
You don't have to. In the past I've allowed Wizards with just Thaumaturgy, even. Pick what you want!

How would para-psychics work? Just like a Minor Talent, or what?
If you can do it by refluffing Minor Talent or Evocation, do that! Otherwise talk to me. If there's popular demand I might find some appropriate rules on psi powers.

Shouldn't some of the Tagers have more strength/toughness?
Tagers get the Beast Change power in Dresden; use it to shuffle Endurance/Might higher and bam, you've represented most of the Tager's stat boosts without having to buy more powers!

What if my Passion could conceivably cover multiple skills? Is that TOO BROKEN???
If you are worried you can give it the trappings of one skill and have it complement the others!

Ettin fucked around with this message at 03:37 on Jan 29, 2014

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Ettin
Oct 2, 2010


SETTING FLUFF

Here are the major changes to the setting. Anything in the CthulhuTech books this doesn't contradict is in; ask if you're not sure or want to refluff something.

• The year is 2119.

• Arcanotechnology and mecha are a thing. This is street-level though, so no giant robots for you.

• Internet technology: Everyone and their dog has cheap, fast wireless internet now, and with micro-chips embedded in everything the Net is everywhere. Everyone is assumed to have their own personal data pad (a flexible, stretchable device which serves as a laptop, smartphone, locator, holo-projector, etc) or augmented reality shades or something and know how to use a computer. Arcanotechnology communications nodes allow interplanetary communication, though for the average citizen it is basically like dial-up in space.

• Medicine: Health care is free, many formerly terminal illnesses can be cured, and gene therapies make the human lifespan pretty drat long. Arcanotherapy can do what science can't, but people are still doing heavy research into nanomedicine because they don't trust magic.

• Nanotechnology: Nanomanufacturing techniques are heavily regulated by the NEG, but they cannot stop it transforming society, only control the change. Personal nanofabricators provide people with boring clothing and lovely food, provided they have a license and buy matter bricks to feed them. You still need to buy the good stuff at stores. Large-scale manufacturing makes heavy use of nanotechnology, and it is a vital part of the Martian colonisation effort. Magic has rendered it obsolete in some of the fields it was expanding into, but research continues.

• Arcologies are totally still a thing, though some places (like the Chicago-Milwaukee and New York-Jersey Metroplexes) are still kind of behind on herding everyone into one.

• There hasn't been a war with the Migou yet. Instead there's the Charon Treaty (an agreement to stay out of each other's business), very limited trade and a lot of saber-rattling; less hot war, more cold war.

• The poorly-named Rapine Storm is out. Instead, the poorly-named Xanthic Storm devastated parts of China, India and nearby countries in the 2060s before the Migou introduced themselves in 2064 by lasering the poo poo out of them from orbit, their only major military offensive so far.

• This doesn't mean there's no war – the NEG is currently wrapped up in one with the Green Fury (see below).

• The Ashcroft Foundation is still a thing. Chrysalis Corporation isn't, but the Children of Chaos are still there in a decentralised form (see below).

• Space colonies exist. Mars is the only major one so far, and the Martian Federation has managed to wrangle itself some independence and force Earth to set up the Sol Council as a new space-based United Nations. The New Earth Government is a coalition of Earth nations formed to protect Earth's interest, though in practice it's still sometimes split into old economic blocs that bicker and work at cross-purposes to each other:

- APTO (Atlantic-Pacific Treaty Organisation) – the US, UK, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Others
- NERU (New European-Russian Union) – Other European Union and Warsaw Pact states
- SEAA (South East Asian Alliance) – China and the ASEAN nations
- AEF (Arab-Eurasian Federation) – the Arab League plus a bunch of Western/Central Asian nations
- RSA (Republic of South America) – Central/South American nations
- SAL (South African League) – Southern and Eastern African nations

• No sexy space drow Nazzadi. Instead we use the Akathar, a slightly different space drow! EDIT: Here's a summary from later in the thread if you give a gently caress:

Ettin posted:

Okay, some slightly expanded Akathar backstory:

The Yith made the Akathar a millenia or twenty ago and buried them deep in the Great Sandy Desert, either in or near Pnakotus. They were empty backup bodies in case of emergency, and a bunch of Yith activated them in the 2050s to escape some unknown catastrophe. The original group (nicknamed the Thetans by humans, not usually to their face though) decided to make themselves known to the NEG and ask for somewhere to live in exchange for some tech, so the NEG took them in. Luckily it turns out when you are an alien with a genius intellect in the body of a space drow it is really easy to get a job.

That was a few generations ago, so the Akathar most people know are their children. They've been raised in human communities and had to deal with having reclusive aliens in the family and not much culture of their own, but they're working something out. I haven't had to define it all yet so I haven't, you are free to make something up as long as it's better than CTech's vaguely racist bullshit. Akathar can be found all over the world but a lot of the Thetans stayed in Australia because :effort: so Darwin and Perth have large Akathar populations now. (The Arcane Underground in Perth is a great place to get your hands on alien technology.)

The Thetans themselves don't get out much, instead they keep to themselves or work high-level but behind-the-scenes jobs for governments and megacorps. A lot of them moved to Mars, which annoys the NEG because they don't like the idea of losing their technological edge over those Martian jerks. Some of them work on piecing together the Yithian knowledge they lost or left behind but they are more likely to move away from Earth and leave their children to have fun with the humans than risk derailing future history by helping Earth advance science a few centuries. They are basically D&D wizards but with penthouses.

This is intentionally flexible, you can make up some stuff about Akathar all you want.

• Any group I haven't said is out is in. The OIS has been refluffed into the Office of Occult Intelligence (see below).

• There are a few new groups – the Diogenes Club, G://0st, the Order of Shinigami, Wolf Lodge, the Disciples of the Cold Ones and the Green Fury. Again, see below!



SOUL NETWORK

Soul Network groups! A couple of them have templates; they're found here.


Aspects: Better Living Through Omniscience; Manners Must Adorn Knowledge; Collections and Connections

The Diogenes Club is a gentleperson's club for learned men – scholars, sages, wizards, scientists, professors, Miskatonic alumni, anyone with an interest in learning and a love of silence. That is all they are. In no way have they ever been a brain-trust for the British government, or used a front and recruitment center by the founders of the Eldritch Society. They most certainly do not dabble in dark magic, and rumours they consort with the Soul Network are just that – and if any of its inner circle did deduce the existence of such a profoundly fictitious group, they most certainly would not tag along on their exploits in the hope of uncovering some new bits of knowledge the law won't let them have.

Okay okay, they were and do all of those things.

The Club are the enemies of the Disciples of the Cold Ones, in an opponent-worthy-of-my-genius way. They have a simple deal with the Soul Network: the Club's libraries for whatever data the Network finds. They are the backbone of the Soul Network, because they're the ones with the knowledge.

The Diogenes Club will admit anyone with academic credentials, an interest in the weird, and a courteous and honorable disposition. Not everyone in the Club is affiliated with the Soul Network, and plenty don't even know about it. Those that know of their fellows' Network dalliances politely do not talk about it.


Aspects: Monsters With The Hearts Of Men; Death To Dhohanoids; Shrouded In Secrecy; Failure Is Not An Option

The Eldritch Society is a secret society dedicated to fighting the Children of Chaos and preventing the Old Ones from returning to power on Earth. They are the only group who know the Rite of Sacred Union, a magic ritual that can turn people into the shapeshifting Tagers.

The Society are mostly embroiled in their shadow war with the Children of Chaos, but recognise the existence of other threats to humanity and assist the Soul Network wherever they can. They are the backbone of the Soul Network, because they helped found it and they're the ones who help the most.

The Eldritch Society will recruit anyone who looks like a suitable candidate for the Rite of Sacred Union (or who stumbled on the Society's existence and seems cool), though it is optional and they have plenty of people who perform other functions. See here for the Tager template.


Aspects: Buffer Overflow Protection; Boot Up Or Shut Up; I Thought What I'd Do Was, I'd Pretend I Was One Of Those Deaf-Mutes

G://0st (or Ghost, to literally everyone else) is a collection of hackers, technomancers, and general technology nerds who unofficially police the Net, protect it from magical threats, and find and hack cults. Their members are embedded in government and research groups all over the world, and thus they are at the cutting-edge of technological development. Their usual purpose is to act as mission control and communications for the rest of the Soul Network, but they're not above getting into the field.

They don't have a particular nemesis, but the OOI's hidden Public Security Section 6 counter-cyberterrorism department are always after them (rumour is they were founded by rogue PSS-6 agents). They are the backbone of the Soul Network, because without them who would administrate their chat rooms?

Ghost will recruit anyone with at least some interest in computers; you need to have either Systems at Fair (+2) or Average (+1) and some cybernetic implants. There aren't any power requirements, but they have plenty of wizards and other Soul Network groups have been known to assign supernatural members to work with them (especially the Eldritch Society's Operators). Generally, only members of G://0st spell it like that; nobody outside the group bothers with their actual loving stupid name.


Aspects: Mage Slaying Soul Reapers; 10,000 Years Of Rules; Destroy All Monsters; Are They Still In Soul SoThe Dreamlands

The Order of Shinigami are a secret society dedicated to fighting creatures of the Mythos and stopping sorcerers from summoning more into this world. They are an ancient order, founded in classical Japan as an order of mage-slayers; the resurgence of magic in the world has really given them a boost. From their secret headquarters in the Dreamlands, they venture out into the world to slay Mythos creatures, crush wizards who go too far in the dark arts, and harvest their souls. (They do not tell outsiders what they do with the souls.)

The Shinigami see all Mythos creatures and evil wizards as their sworn enemies, and since even the NEG barely knows they exist they rarely give a poo poo about mortals. They are the backbone of the Soul Network, because they're the ones with the centuries of experience and unshakeable honour.

All Shinigami have received training at the Mage Killer Master Academy (Shinigami like names that intimidate wizards) on the island of Oriab in the Dreamlands. In other words, whether you are a graduate or still a student, all members of the Order must take the Shinigami template.


Aspects: Nodens Is A Pretty Cool Guy; Hunts Mythos Creatures; Doesn't Afraid Of Anything

The Wolf Lodge are a centuries-old hunting club, founded in America but found all over the NEG. Their members hunt the most dangerous game they can for sport and thrills, and the simply mundane ceased to interest them long ago. These days, they hunt the creatures of the Mythos for the incomparable rush – and to prove that humanity is worth something. If man was not “meant” to know it, the Wolf Lodge is going to know it and put its remains on their loving wall.

The Wolf Lodge don't have many sworn enemies – even Mythos creatures are seen as challenges to overcome, not evil that needs to be purged. Lately, however, Wolf Lodge members have really gotten into hunting the Green Fury, even organising raids on Fury outposts or joining the military to go up against them. They are the backbone of the Soul Network, because they don't need no magic powers to bag a byakhee.

The Wolf Lodge do not have any templates, but entry for non-humans or akathar is difficult (as many Lodge members want to prove humanity is awesome, not being human is considered cheating). They respect any creature that understands the thrill of the hunt, though, so it's not that rare. Many of them are followers of Nodens now, so some of them have picked up True Faith, Sponsored Magic or Item of Power abilities anyway.


ANTAGONISTS

Here are some bad guys. You can be ex-members if you like!



Aspects: Cult Of The Crawling Chaos; Nothing Personal, It's Just Business; You Don't Have To Be A Dhohanoid To Work Here But It Helps; More Money, More Problems

The Children of Chaos are a cult of Nyarlathotep with one goal: Chaos. Also, bring the NEG to its knees. So, two goals. Cells of the cult infiltrate major corporations around the world and spread their members across a cloud of seemingly unconnected IP management companies, non-profit associations, private education services, R&D-for-hire and micromediacorps remotely managed by a think-tank/investment funds; from there they divert money and resources to their own twisted ends. With the Rite of Transfiguration, many of them can transform into monstrous Dhohanoids.

They are the sworn enemies of the Eldritch Society, who devote their existence to shutting the Children down. As the cult is decentralised, the NEG is largely unaware of their existence for now. A big planned push to out the Eldritch Society to the NEG and turn them against each other might change that if they gently caress it up, though... They also dislike the Ashcroft Foundation, who are annoyingly hard to infiltrate.

Players can be ex-members, with the caveat that the Children of Chaos will do their best to make any intel you could give unusable and also murder you. Dhohanoid PCs are doable, but you will be making a lot of Discipline rolls to stay sane and getting compels against your aspect. Also, the Soul Network might keep you at arm's length. We'll probably rewrite Feeding Dependency or something. Talk to me!


Aspects: Sciencultists; They Called Me Mad!; Fantasy And Microchips; Agents In Every Institution

The Disciples of the Cold Ones are a small but influential cult of scientists and scholars who couldn't handle what they learned, and worship a group of inscrutable beings they believe exist beyond the end of the universe. They seek to infiltrate as many academic institutions as possible to steal research and open everyone's mind to the truths of the universe. They have ties with a lot of other cults, who pay them good money for smuggled tech.

The Diogenes Club are their enemies, in a in-another-reality-I-might-have-called-you-friend way. The OOI knows full well about them, and openly works with the Diogenes Club to take them down. (Rumours that the Disciples were founded by ex-Diogenes Club members are true and the Diogenes are so terribly sorry, gents.)

Players can be ex-members, and even carry True Faith, Sponsored Magic or other powers from their affair with the Cold Ones. The Disciples of the Cold Ones only admit people with a university diploma or equivalent – you must have Scholarship or Lore at at least Good (+3). Yes, they are going to try and kill you.


Aspects: "Iä! Shub-Niggurath!"; Getting Back To Nature; Gorilla Warfare; Use Their Science Against Them!

The Green Fury are an ecoterrorist fertility cult who are down with Shub-Niggurath. They have decided that humanity doesn't deserve the planet it lives on and is determined to reclaim it for their “mother goddess” and banish humanity to Mars. They are a major threat in the southern hemisphere, where they have amassed small armies of jacked mecha and summoned help and stage guerrilla attacks on industrial centers. They know some magical tricks the NEG don't, which enables them to evade detection – and somehow, they've managed to dredge up some creatures of almost Godzilla-like proportions, which are really hard to hide from people in

Literally everybody who lives on Earth and isn't down with Shub-Niggurath are their enemies, though mere civilians are just half-enemies for herding into re-education camps. Industrial centers are their double enemies. The NEG is their triple enemy, and their jacked mecha and Dark Young openly fight with NEG mecha squads.

This is an easy group for PCs to be ex-members of, with a relatively high turnover rate (people just like Earth too much). The NEG has had much success rehabilitating captured ex-members and taking them as advisors, and some groups will even look the other way if you're still down with Shub-Niggurath as long as you don't agree with the evil bits.


Aspects: Semper Occultus; For Our Eyes Only; Protect At Any Cost

The Office of Occult Intelligence are the NEG's magic police. They deal with magic and para-psychic crimes, police the Arcane Underground and do their best to protect the NEG from monsters and the cults that summon them. They do a good job!

The problem is they don't like you. Members of the Soul Network are subversives who ignore laws, civil liberties and common sense in the name of protecting people from monsters and hoarding dangerous knowledge, and that is very clearly the OOI's thing. Unless you like being disappeared to a detention facility, you better watch out.

The OOI is unaware of the existence of the Soul Network, but know many of its members:

• The Diogenes Club are treated as friendlies and sometimes contracted as freelance detectives. They disavow all knowledge of Soul Network groups and will throw anyone caught under the bus.
• The OOI know there's some kind of group/cult in the Underground whose agents are monsters that look like people, and another group fighting them. The Eldritch Society is trying to convince them they're just a wizard version of the Diogenes Club, while the Children of Chaos are trying to frame the Society for their misdeeds and prevent the other two making in-roads into each other. OOI response teams usually shoot Tagers on sight.
• Public Security Section 6 wants to bring G://0st's rogue agents back into the fold, and shut down the rest. They do have an unofficial gentleman's agreement: as long as Ghost avoids interfering in OOI business, PSS-6 don't make them high-priority targets.
• They don't know about the Shinigami because that's how the Order rolls.
• The OOI know the Wolf Lodge and allow it to exist, but any member caught working with other Network groups, but any member caught trapping and transporting Mythos creatures for study or hunting, using magic/para-psychic abilities without a license or committing other magical crimes is arrested and burned by the Lodge.


FLUFF QUESTIONS

did the cubans still get kicked out to make way for the special not-not-elves?
No that was dumb. We can work out something like it if you have an idea for a Cuban character though!

Ettin, would you be opposed to taking a page out of The Laundry and
Do it.

am I anime enough
Your heart knows the answer.

Muslims!
CthulhuTech's fluff on Islam is stupid and racist, so we are ignoring it. Instead, here's a cool thing MorsRattus wrote:

<MorsRattus> Also, Ettin, as for what is going on with Islam: I would actually imagine, like, very little in the way of change
<MorsRattus> Since Islam has already explicitly got room for creatures that are neither angel nor human
<MorsRattus> so aliens just get slotted, theologically, into the same slot as 'jinn'
<MorsRattus> okay, bam, we done, they can be muslims if they want

Do Nazzadi still lack a nudity taboo?
No creepy bits!

hey ettin your post doesn't explicitly say rape camps are out
No creepy bits!

Intelligence agencies!
This post listed CthulhuTech's intelligence agencies and some of their subdivisions; swap "OIS" with "OOI" and you should be good.

>"Everything here is absolutely true with no omissions or surprises" should I be suspicious?
I never said that.

Ettin fucked around with this message at 11:59 on Apr 24, 2013

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

Da'ud ibn Husam al Din



High Concept: I Put On My Armani And Wizard Hat

Trouble: I Need To Know!

Da'ud has the affliction of the idle, rich and nerdy: he needs to know the truth about whatever he gets interested in, even if it means running headlong into danger. Curiosity, even at the cost of his own health or sanity, surely will not cause him any trouble at all, ever. Especially not as a member of the Diogenes Club.

Backstory: Dubai Style

Da'ud was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, the third son of a wealthy space oil baron in Dubai. He grew up flying across the world, and he studied at all the best schools. In England, of course. The shocking part was that Da'ud loved school. Oxford was the best part of his life, especially when he became friends with Professor Landon Malcolms, who introduced him to the world of the occult and the Diogenes Club. Da'ud still isn't really used to the darker parts of the world, but pre-human civilization and magic are simply the most fascinating things he's run into. Besides, being able to speak eloquently about such things is a hit at parties, and while he's never going to take over Husam al Din's space oil conglomerate, his name is more than enough to get into those parties.

(Da'ud is also more than rich enough to have one of those annoying floating personal assistant robots as a pet.)

Yomikiri: Master of the Occult Sciences (BPhil, MOcc)

At Oxford, Da'ud studied philosophy and anthropology...at first. As he delved deeper into anthropology, he ended up stumbling into the Forbidden Books section of the University of Oxford library. It was there that he met Landon Malcolms, after reading his book on theoretical history of the Unknown Antarctic Civilization. He was fascinated, and hunted down Landon, since the man was in his own department. The two became friends, as Landon saw in Da'ud a potential protege. It went very well, and Da'ud even went on a few digs, learning the secrets of wizardry and necromancy from his teacher as well as making a name for himself academically.

Volume Three: The Dagon Ethnography

One of Da'ud's greatest adventures was his attempt at studying a Deep One-controlled town. It was meant to be safe - they hadn't been a dangerous group, by and large, just a strange one. However, things went...badly. Da'ud ended up surviving by the skin of his teeth, thanks to his ability to understand and empathize with the Deep One culture...at least to the extent that allowed him to grasp what they were doing and why and find a way to use that.

OVA: Hey, Did You See That Thing I Did?

Da'ud hadn't really planned to deal with trolls. Or sewers. He'd been in Budapest on vacation...but a little curiosity goes a long way. Especially when he ran into an old school buddy. He ended up getting pulled into the chaos when he spotted a few arcane sigils, heading into the sewers. There, he ran into Maximina and Erika having trouble with trolls, and...well, you can't let a friend get into trouble, right? Even if she was way better with any form of weapon than him. He ended up trying to show off, hardening the mud and...mud in the sewers around the trolls to give Maximina a better shot. Of course, he'd never have managed to get the spell off if it wasn't for...

Omake: If It's Worth Doing, It's Worth Doing With A Flair

Da'ud was not a fighter or soldier. That is for other people. But power was in his blood. Power was his birthright. Not just the power of money, but the power to control others. That was why they'd called him in. It was his duty, they said, to use that power. The Diogenes Club provided such things when needed. It was the arrangement.

Da'ud didn't especially like taking orders from the government men...but they told him to contain the battle. That was all they ordered, thank goodness. And so he could show them the real power there. A great magnetic shield, a dome over the battle to ensure no one escaped. No one out...but someone in. It wasn't very long, but Da'ud spotted the strange creature approaching the field...and made a spot judgment, warping the magnetic field around him. And, once he landed, using metallic objects to shield him long enough for him to get somewhere useful.

They'd never know how hard it was, how much work went into making sure that happened. But Da'ud would. It was art, and he'd know. That was what mattered.

Skills
Super University Level Anthropology 5
Casting 4, Resources 4
Will 3, Lore 3
Contacts 2, Presence 2, Scholarship 2
Athletics 1, Rapport 1, Survival 1, Physique 1, Empathy 1

Powers
Evocation (-3) (Elements: Fire, Air, Earth. Specialization: Control.)
Thaumaturgy (-3) (Specialization: Necromancy, Complexity.)
The Sight (-1)
Soulgaze (0)
Wizard's Constitution (0)

Item Slots
Focus Item: The Obsidian Eye of Ma'at (+3 offensive control and +1 offensive power to Earth)

Refresh: 1/8

Stress Boxes

Physical: ()()()
Mental: ()()()()
Social: ()()()

Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Jan 22, 2013

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!
EDIT: Hacker (both HOLLYWOOD and actual "Hello I'm from the Password Security Agency" kind) or Shinigami soon to come!!!

ProfessorCirno fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Jan 3, 2013

ravenkult
Feb 3, 2011


Ima give it a shot.

Ronwayne
Nov 20, 2007

That warm and fuzzy feeling.
Will be ready shortly.

Roland Jones
Aug 18, 2011

by Nyc_Tattoo
Noriko

(Picture coming soon; I'm thinking of just drawing something.)

High Concept:

Trouble:

Backstory:

Several years ago, RTE agents raided an independent laboratory on charges of illegal AI creation and conspiracy to commit cyberterrorism. While their information was not complete, they had intercepted messages between the scientists. Stated to be indistinguishable from a person, in possession of unprecedented processing power, and capable of breaking into any network or system imaginable, it was deemed a major threat that could not be allowed out in the world.

They didn't expect it to be alive.

At first they thought that there was a mistake, assuming she was some kid the perpetrators had kidnapped for some reason; after arresting the scientists and relocating her to one of their facilities, though, they made some unnerving discoveries. First, she (or "Noriko", as she referred to herself) didn't exist. There were no records of her anywhere, in any government database. Despite this, when speaking with her she talked about things like a family, a house, and going to school; the school had no knowledge of who she was, the address she gave for her home belonged to someone else entirely, and her supposed family was likewise nonexistent, not only in terms of records, but apparently in any other sense either. Even the notes they had confiscated referred to her as the only subject. Additionally, the tests they ran returned strange results. Mental scans produced readings that were off the charts, and physical tests showed that, though organic rather than cybernetic or arcanotechnology, she wasn't quite human. Left with some worrying questions, they had no choice but to continue the later with better equipment and specialists they didn't have on hand.

When they returned the next day, she was gone. The door to the room where she was contained was wide open, and both security footage and all data related to her had been erased. And the agents who had been involved with her case had their personal information posted on the Internet, and their 401(k)s emptied.

Invoke:
Compel:

Yomikiri:

In the years after her escape, Noriko lived two lives. In reality, she was an ordinary schoolgirl (though no one seemed to see her actually going to school), albeit one who was extraordinarily socially awkward. She had trouble speaking to people or even looking them in the eyes, fidgeting and speaking softly most of the time. Her appearance as a young girl made things even more difficult, limiting the places she could go and things she could do, as well as when she could go out in public without getting in trouble for ditching school that she didn't go to in the first place; that she did not appear to be getting any older as time went on did not help here. In general, she tried to keep to herself as much as possible.

Online, though, she was a completely different person. Free from others' perceptions of her (and some of her own insecurities), she took to the 'Net with ease. Loud, brash, and extremely skilled with computers and systems, she began to garner a reputation as an expert hacker, and a very active one at that. At first, it was mostly limited to small-scale stuff, as well as non-hacking-related things such as dominating online games to the point of being accused of botting, though occasionally government agents found their personal info leaked and all the data on their computers replaced with a "wink" emoticon. You know, the usual stuff.

Eventually, though, she got up to what the government and media called a dangerous wave of cyberterrorism, the geeky Internet crowd really awesome, and the general public just loving weird. Besides another breach of RTE and OOI security,

Eventually, she met (online, of course) with a representative from G://0st, who found her skills impressive, even if how she put them to use was a bit over the top. They also, though they didn't mention it, had found some RTE files listing who, or rather what, she really was; while the originals had been erased the agents were able to record what they remembered, and when this latest wave of activity broke out they managed to put two and two together. Promising better and more interesting things to put her skills towards, protection from government agents that might track her down, and a relatively legitimate source of income, G://0st offered her membership; after thinking things over, she accepted.

Invoke: Reputation online,
Compel: Not being taken seriously due to apparent age, difficulty in face-to-face interaction, notoriety as a hacker and cybercriminal

Volume Three:

Generally, G://0st tries to keep Noriko away from the front lines. Besides the risk of losing a useful individual (and unique specimen), it's far easier for her handlers to keep watch on her in a controlled environment, and besides that her lack of physical ability can make her a bit of a liability. Sometimes, though, a mission comes along that her skills are necessary for, or at least there isn't an acceptable alternative in the area.

This was one of those times; G://0st was assisting the Diogenes Club in dealing with a lab belonging to the Disciples of the Cold Ones, and the place was locked down tight in more ways than one. Besides having far more armed guards than one would expect a bunch of insane scientists to be capable of mustering,

OVA: TBD

Omake: TBD

[Still working on the mechanical side of things.]

Skills
+5 Computer Freak, Systems
+4 Contacts, Scholarship
+3 Deceit, Will
+2 Empathy, Intimidation
+1 Presence, Rapport

(Passion should replace Crafts for working on computers and other technology, either replace or complement online investigations and technological knowledge, and complement most other things online, like social interactions. Idea is that the character is really good online and with technology but basically shuts down in real life conversations, which I think the Passion for the former and Aspect compels for the latter works pretty well for. Also the skill used to get high scores in video games.

As for how this would work as a Passion, well, think of Serial Experiments Lain. Over the course of it Lain becomes some mysterious super-hacker Internet celebrity everyone's crazy about, her room slowly turns into a freaky machine cave where you can barely see the walls, and reality itself starts to break down as cyberspace encroaches upon it. I'm aiming for that, or at least the first two.)

Stunts
: May use Systems instead of Resources.
: Use Systems instead of Burglary for technology-based activities (hacking keypads, etc.).

Powers


Equipment
Portable computer with AR headset

Refresh: ?/8

Roland Jones fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Jan 18, 2013

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

ProfessorCirno posted:

Sticking a post here for an eventual character~

IRC has determined you need to play a magical girl tager.

Davin Valkri
Apr 8, 2011

Maybe you're weighing the moral pros and cons but let me assure you that OH MY GOD
SHOOT ME IN THE GODDAMNED FACE
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!
I don't suppose a OOI analyst dissatisfied with his current job defecting to the Eldritch Society and becoming a Tager is too out of the park, is it? I have a character idea, and I like FATE.

Ettin
Oct 2, 2010

Davin Valkri posted:

I don't suppose a OOI analyst dissatisfied with his current job defecting to the Eldritch Society and becoming a Tager is too out of the park, is it? I have a character idea, and I like FATE.

:thumbsup:

MadRhetoric
Feb 18, 2011

I POSSESS QUESTIONABLE TASTE IN TOUHOU GAMES
As an emissary from ADTRW, my expert opinion is this game is too anime by a factor of two too many gratuitous Japanese phrases.

and shinigami would be magical girls

not tagers

{this is an interest post}

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

MadRhetoric posted:

As an emissary from ADTRW, my expert opinion is this game is too anime by a factor of two too many gratuitous Japanese phrases.

and shinigami would be magical girls

not tagers

{this is an interest post}

Tagers get the transformation sequence.

Ettin
Oct 2, 2010
Shinigami can have a transformation sequence if you want! And Shinigami PCs can still be students at Shibusen Mage Killer Master Academy if you can justify leaving the school to go on missions.

Maybe they can catch a magical school bus back to the Dreamlands or something.

grassy gnoll
Aug 27, 2006

The pawsting business is tough work.
You want anime? gently caress you, I'm going to make a test tube baby arcanoengineered to be a population-pacifying pop sensation and I'm going to sing a Deep One to sleep with the power of love and catchy backing tracks.

I am become uguu, destroyer of worlds.

K Prime
Nov 4, 2009

Jose Romero aka El Tigre, aka Tagerman Blade, aka Wild Tager


High Concept: King of Braves

Trouble: Sometimes Musashi Has to Die

This is an era of shadow wars and callous compromises- one that does not always sit well in the big heart of Jose Romero. He spends much of his free time and his work time trying to make things better for anyone he can, but it just never seems like enough.

Backstory: The Invincible Steel Man

Jose Romero was one of those kids who just always ends up about twice the size of his peers. Unlike many, he did not fall for the temptation of becoming a bully- Instead he become known as the guy who intimidated bullies into leaving other children alone. As he grew older, he only got bigger- topping out at nearly two meters of height and 115 kilos, making him a wrestling team star. However, defenders of the weak leave a trail of angry enemies behind. Finally, luck caught up to him- an altercation with a gang in high school left 3 people in the hospital and Jose out on the street from an unsympathetic family. Luckily, his size and wrestling training lead to a new career path...

Yomikiri: TRANSFORM! TRUE TIGER GOD!

...As a masked wrestler! Adopted into the Romero wrestling family (his birth name was Soto,) he became the newest member of their wrestling linage, the ferocious EL TIGRE. Initially mistaken for a rudo monster because of his build, it quickly became clear that El Tigre was a champion for JUSTICE and the PEOPLE. El Tigre's idealism and brave stand for Doing the Right thing resonated in an age where such things often seemed distant, and he became very popular. Part of it was that his off-stage behavior carefully matched his on-stage- he donated time and money to charity, helped children, and despite the best efforts of the tabloids was never caught doing anything unseemly. If only they knew what he was up to after that incident...

Volume Three: Tagerman Blade

The incident occurred after a charity event at a children's home- Jose was taking a walk to cool off after a day of carrying children around on the SHOULDERS OF EL TIGRE when he ran, through his own terrible or possibly amazing luck, into a Tager/Dhoanoid struggle in a secluded area of the city- one in which he used to hide as a child. Acting on instinct, he brained the Dhoanoid with a trash can as it lunged at him, allowing the Tager the kill- and giving him an in to the shadowy world of the Eldritch Society. Seeing another way to make the world a better place, he was quick to agree to join, and to become a Tager himself- after all, fighting behind a mask is something he is more than used to!

Now El Tigre hunts on a new warfront as the invincible TAGERMAN BLADE! (One handler has already quit over his refusal to stop calling himself that.)

OVA:

Omake:

Skills
LUCHAAAAA 4, Athletics 4, Physique 4
Resources 3, Fists 3, Performance 3
Presence 2, Conviction 2, Intimidation 2
Rapport 1, Empathy 1, Weapons 1

Skills (Tager)
LUCHAAAAA 5
Fists 4, Physique 4
Athletics 3, Intimidation 3
Presence 2, Conviction 2, Alertness 2
Stealth 1, Survival 1, Guns 1, Weapons 1, Performance 1

Stunts
Wrestler (duh)

Powers
CHANGE, TAGER ONE [-1]
Human Form [+1]
Inhuman Toughness [-2]
Inhuman Recovery [-2]
Spider Walk [–1]
The Catch (Stross Primes) [+3]
Tager Senses [+0]
Inhuman Strength [-2]
Claws (Blades) [-1]


Refresh: 2/8

K Prime fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Jan 10, 2013

Sax Battler
Jul 31, 2007

Another bloody customs post,
Another fucking foreign coast,
Another set of scars to boast,
We Are The Road Crew.

Nvmnd.

Sax Battler fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Jan 12, 2013

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.
Thinking of making a character. In the IRC version of this, I'm already playing a magical catgirl Mesoamerican flavored were-jaguar/Tager.

Might make a shinigami, dunno yet.

Davin Valkri
Apr 8, 2011

Maybe you're weighing the moral pros and cons but let me assure you that OH MY GOD
SHOOT ME IN THE GODDAMNED FACE
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!
Alright, here's what I got so far. Anything need to be clarified or changed?

/

Arthur "Ghost Eye" Durandall

Physical: [ ] [ ] ([ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] tager)
Mental: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Social: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Fate Points/Total Refresh: 1/1

High Concept: OOI Analyst Turned Tager

Trouble: The Price of Defection

Arthur had absolutely zero authority to "infiltrate" the Eldritch Society, undergo the Rite of Sacred Union, and become a Tager, so he's technically AWOL. He also had a lot of knowledge of OOI codes, practices, and procedures, which he may or may not have given to the E.S. in exchange for letting him attempt the Rite. Essentially he's painted a massive target on himself for the organization that knows how to take down Tagers and may still have his personal information on file.

Backstory: Wake Up, Go to Work, Help Fight Cults

For every heavily armed agent who storms a cultist building and breaks up a plot to summon eldritch horrors, there's fifteen or so people back at base building up a case for a raid, tracking cult leaders and money transfers and watching satfeeds for odd transmissions. Arthur Durandall was one of those people, recruited into the OOI right out of high school and put through their higher education programs on intelligence and counterintelligence theory. Of course he had also become incredibly bored by it, and requested transfers to field ops several times, believing he couldn't effectively fight the insanities of the universe from a desk. Each time he was turned down, with the higher-ups claiming he was too important in analysis to "waste" in the field. He took out his annoyance by turning his analytical mind on fake invasions past and present, pushing around little chits marked "1st Gds. Tank XXXX" and playing near-mil-spec flight and armor simulators in his spare time. He liked them and got good at them, but it didn't really help his displeasure much.

Sample Invoke: Identify evidence of Mythos presence, recall helpful classified intel
Sample Compel: Lose patience and show annoyance at a bad time, occasional delusions of grandeur


Yomikiri: Whispers in the Dark

Then Arthur picked up some unusual transmissions from a group which seemed to be actively fighting the influence of madness, and they almost sounded like they needed members. Citing a potential informant for a fake cult infiltration operation, Arthur packed a briefcase with money and headed for a proposed meeting site. And there he met his introducer to the Eldritch Society, who told him about the Rite of Sacred Union and the warriors, the Tagers, it produced. Arthur raised an eyebrow at the whole "using alien symbiotes to produce eldritch horrors on our side," but after crossreferencing his information with OOI records and getting turned down for a transfer AGAIN, said introducer practically had to physically stop Arthur from giving him the briefcase of money, OOI secrets--ANYTHING to get in on that chance to fight the madness on its own turf.

The introducer hadn't exactly been clear on what the Rite entailed, though, so Arthur got his first taste of it when he followed him into an abandoned street clinic turned E.S. hideout...and got a breathtaking, Tager-powered punch to the guts. What followed was six months of extreme torture and near-starvation that would make a hardened soldier blush, followed by three days "meditation" with a little worm-thing from beyond space squirming around in his brain and filling his mind with impossibly horrific imagery. But was it worth losing a major portion of his "humanity" to bond to an alien parasite from beyond the stars? OH GOD YES! Even if the alien symbiote he got wouldn't let him fight claw-to-claw with the monsters, at least it would let him go out into the field and actively take down the occult horrors.

Sample Invoke: Establish rapport with Eldritch Society friends, resist pain and torture, act decisively as a Tager
Sample Compel: Flashback to extreme pain and insanity, leap without looking onto potential counter-magic advantages, enjoy the benefits of Tagerhood a bit too much


Third Volume: Old Office Interconnections

Arthur's first mission with his new powers was one he'd always wanted to go on while in the OOI--a group called the Children of Chaos had set up in an abandoned office building, and he was to break in and figure out why. Overflying the site on his incredible new wings and looking down with his new vision, he found that the building was being raided by the OOI, and that they and the Children were in pitched battle! He swooped down and dove into the fray, but...(to be finished later, or by a guest star?)...and was wounded. He turned back into human form and tried to lay low nearby, but was found by one of the OOI raiders doing a final sweep. By a stroke of luck, the OOI operative that found him was actually an old friend at his office, actually promoted, and in exchange for intel on the Children's operation, left on, if not good terms, at least not actively hostile ones.

Sample Invoke: Trade intel for favors or silence, act against the Children of Chaos
Sample Compel: Piss off CoC on sight, get caught between two hostile parties

OVA: Guest Starring in Mina Fisher's "Eternal Showoff": Albetson, You Magnificent Bastard, I Read Your Book!

Having a background in intelligence means you know all the tricks bad guys use to try to hide themselves from detection. But it also means that you know what the analysts are looking for when they go trawling for plots. So when Ghost member and Soul Network friend Mina Fisher feels the heat from OOI branch PSS-6, Arthur uses his somewhat limited experience with computer analysis and decidedly less limited experience with intelligence analysis to lead PSS-6 team members on a wild goose chase, giving them all the faked intel they could ever ask for and dragging them as far off Mina's cyber trail as he possibly can. Of course, hacking isn't his primary skill set, and eventually he straight-up runs out of tricks, but that doesn't stop...(insert 2nd guest star here).

Sample Invoke: Use a program for something other than its purpose, assist Mina, "I know exactly what you're looking for and I'm going to give it to you to throw you off completely"
Sample Compel: Give something away through the smokescreen, suddenly run out of options, "I misread your book and gave you exactly what you wanted aaaaaahhh"

Omake: Guest Starring in Maximina Daniken von Gilgamesh's "You and I Remember Budapest Very Differently": Operation Street Sweeper

Arthur is in Budapest to "practice his Hungarian and sightsee Buda Castle" (read: make contact with the Eldritch Society there and look for Dhoanoids) when he hears a massive commotion about one of the outlying water treatment plants. So, being the good person he is, he flies over to the scene and sees a very brave Maximina and Da'ud looking to take down the trolls that had set up shop there. He steals a few radios out of a Hungarian police car that had responded to the scene--their owners having apparently charged forwards and been eaten already--gives two to Maximina and Da'ud, and keeps the other one to coordinate a textbook "assault on fortified position" with them and the Hungarian assault squads from 2,000 feet up. Push up here, hold here, cover here, tear-gas here, shoot here...it's all so very clinical, so Close Combat-esque. At least until the operation is done, and he has a chance to walk among the blood and ruin that the trolls, their handlers...and in a way, Arthur...are responsible for.

Sample Invoke: Assist Maximina, keep calm under direct threat, coordinate military style action
Sample Compel: Lose sight of individual lives in the "wargame", be surprised when "wargame" experience and real life conflict, get shaky when confronted with the results

Powers:
Whisper Tager Change [-1]
Human Form [+1]
Inhuman Toughness [-2]
Inhuman Recovery [-2]
Spider Walk [–1]
The Catch (Stross Primes) [+3]
Tager Senses [+0]
Inhuman Speed [-2]
Supernatural Sense [-1]
Wings [-1]
Total: [-6]

Stunts
Limit Break?
Total: -1

Skills (Human):
+4: Investigation, Wargaming
+3: Systems, Scholarship, Rapport
+2: Contacts, Lore, Will, Presence
+1: Stealth, Guns, Alertness, Intimidation, Empathy

Skills (Tager)
+5: Alertness, Investigation
+4: Stealth, Wargaming
+3: Athletics, Physique
+2: Fists, Will
+1: Presence, Intimidation

Equipment:
OOI standard sidearm Damage: 2

Davin Valkri fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Jan 23, 2013

mistaya
Oct 18, 2006

Cat of Wealth and Taste


Name: Murasaki Shiro
Age: 25

High Concept: Cyborg Shinigami Relations

Shiro’s injuries (mental and physical) were severe enough to get her pulled from active duty for a time. She’s been assigned “temporarily” to work with the Diogenes, utilizing their libraries for research and sharing information when instructed. She is struggling with having to juggle her loyalties when keeping Shinigami secrets could cost the lives of her friends.

Trouble: Failure Weighs Heavily

In the literal sense, with all the metal in her body she weighs over four hundred pounds and sinks like a rock. In the figurative, she knows she’s the cause of that mission’s disastrous failure and has a guilty streak a mile wide.

Backstory: A Master to Avenge

Murasaki Yuki was an old man when he discovered the toddler in the remains of a blood spattered apartment on the south side of the London Arcology. The little girl seemed unharmed, but her hair had gone completely white. He called her Shiro. He didn’t plan on keeping her, but she was eager and smart, and picked up Japanese like her own tongue. She became the favorite of everyone at the Academy, where she stayed when Yuki was on missions. He was the proudest parent when she graduated at the top of her class.

Old man Yuki was always there for her. He was the one who led her on her first mission as a rookie Shinigami into that abandoned factory. When she accidently alerted the creatures inside he was the one who cut her free of the tentacle horror that would have taken much more than just her legs if given another instant. He was the one who pressed the cursed katana into her hands and threw her to safety as the great iron doors closed behind him…

Broken and bleeding out in the cold night air, she swore her vengeance on the monster. But when the rescue team arrived, it was long gone.

Yomikiri: Ueru’s Respect

The weapons of the Shinigami come to them in different ways. Shiro inherited hers one bloody night outside an abandoned factory. She’d lost both legs and her left arm to the creature that killed her master.

Cursed Blade Ueru was furious. His wielder, his trusted friend, had thrown him away at the end. Entrusted him to this worthless, crippled child. The bond between weapon and wielder was something that had to be earned, and Ueru was too hurt to give Shiro any chance. He shared no magic with her, refused to be drawn from his sheath, and wouldn’t speak to her at all.

Shiro was patient. She didn’t try to force the issue, but she kept the sword with her at all times. It was with her through all her surgeries, all through rehab and learning to walk again. It was with her, sulking, while she took her pity reassignment and was packed off the London libraries. It watched (and listened) as she took to playing Shiro's old battered guitar to improve the coordination in both her mechanical replacement hand, and her broken sword hand. It watched as she practiced with a wooden replacement sword. It watched as she took to patrolling at night, looking for trouble, when under direct orders not to.

“Ueru, I need you.” she would whisper when she ran into anything worth putting down. But the blade refused to be drawn for infected dogs and ROUS. The nights passed, and as her confidence returned Shiro sought stronger and more dangerous foes. One night she came up against a monster she could not defeat with her own strength. Bloody, beaten, the Dhoanoid tore her weapons away and picked her up by her throat. In desperation, she grabbed the Cursed Sword’s hilt. And finally, it gave answer. The blade sprang free with a blaze of fire, and the beast dropped Shiro in surprise. A rush of speed and energy ran through her and she realized why Yuki was always so much faster than seemed humanly possible. Though she could not kill the creature alone, she wounded it badly and it fled.

Afterwards, Ueru was finally ready to talk. They spoke of Yuki, what he would have wanted. Ueru agreed to work with her, at least until they avenged Yuki. She had finally earned his respect.

Volume 3: Loyalties Divided

Shiro got into quite a bit of trouble over the flaming sword display with her bosses since she was supposed to be recovering. But the Diogenes actually thought what they caught on tape was impressive. It was enough for them to start inviting her along when they stamped out creatures or cult activity. Shiro was more interested in fighting monsters than people, but Ueru was the opposite. He relished taking every treacherous human life. Ueru was a kinda creepy sometimes.

It was on one of the anti-cult missions that things went sour and Shiro ended up trapped in a beach-house with a half dozen of her Diogene allies. The enemy banging on the doors and rattling the windows was something she knew well, but they didn’t. It was a Rogue Shinigami, driven to madness by the horrors he'd seen and the cursed blade he bore.

Shiro knew she could get expelled from the order for even admitting it existed. But if she didn’t tell her allies how to fight it, they’d all die in a few minutes. She knew these people, they were her friends. What should she do? (guest star)


Skills:
+5 Weapons, Will
+4 Lore, Acoustic Guitar*
+3 Stealth, Physique
+2 Rapport, Athletics
+1 Resources, Alertness

Stress:
Physical: ()()()()
Mental: ()()()() +1 Mild Consequence

Refresh: 8-7 = 1

Stunts:
Magic Swordsman: [-1] Use Weapons instead of Spellcasting for Evocation.

Powers:
Soul Relic: Ueru, the Cursed Blade [-3] (-5+2)
-Evocation [-3] (Fire, Water, Spirit, spec: Spirit Offensive)
-Inhuman Speed [-2]

Kanai Anzen: [–1] Presence Strengthens Thresholds

Zen Direction: [-1] be where you're needed, sub conviction for another roll

Sora no Kokei: [–1] ninja vanish from mortals

Shinigami Taishitsu: [-0] Halted aging process

Gear:
Cursed Blade Ueru- Weapon:3, 2-handed katana.

Paper Talismans- 3 Potion slots. (Base Strength of 4.) Can store evocations.

Shield Arm- Enchanted Item, 4 shift spirit shield with 1 use. The metal under the false skin of Shiro's left arm is engraved with defensive runes, letting her focus her will to call forth a shield of spirit energy to deflect attacks.


*I thought about what her passion should be for a while and settled on guitar as a more complementary sort of passion rather than have rival singers. She's sort of shy and awkward socially so singing didn't feel right anyway. Guitar is something she can get lost in and not realize she's in front of people, and it's another link back to her master. I'll work it into an aspect for sure, one of the guest stars if possible, if not then a tweak on the first aspect.

mistaya fucked around with this message at 11:50 on Jan 8, 2013

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!
Mina Fisher



Appearance: Black hair cut short in the front and left extra, extra long in the back, pulled into two braids. Multiple piercings on both ears and one eyelid. Bright purple rimmed glasses she doesn't actually need due to unseen cranial cybercomputer implants. Wears a lot of flashy - and gaudy - jewelry. Favors either an actual suit when "on business" or a lot of black, baggy clothing with unnecessary studs and chains.

High Concept: Technomancer Cybercriminal
Trouble: Bad With Blood

Backstory: Got a Lifestyle to Maintain

Mina wasn't born rich, but she sure did learn to enjoy being rich rather fast. As many people tragically born into poverty, Mina never really learned how to save or invest money. Which worked fine for her; her "job" ensured she made it fast enough anyways, starting with a simple pickpocket group, going solo, and eventually diving happily into the life of cybercrime. While the thrill of crime always called to her, it's the results that really widened her eyes. A lady needs hands so soft you could polish (her own) gold with them, don't you know?

Invoke: Throw money around carelessly, have the newest, nicest, best ______ on hand.
Compel: Act purely on greed, be unable to use money wisely

Yomikiri: Infovore.exe Trojan Horse

As with so many youth, Mina found herself in a cult as her life of cybercrime continued. Intrigued by the idea of technomancy, Mina finds herself in a group devoted to C://0r0nz0n, an Elder Being of pure data. While she learned no small amount about other cults and Elder Beings in general, she quickly jumped to the top of the class when it came to the actual magic. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and this story ends with a ritual designed to implant C://0r0nz0n inside her own cranial cybercomputer implants. The ritual is stopped just in time by members of the Soul Network, before the transmission could be completed. Well. Fully completed. Who knows what managed to make it through?

Invoke: Know inside information on cults, Elder Beings, and technomancy/computers in general (perhaps more so then she should)
Compel: Be hunted by former cult members, have remnants of C://0r0nz0n's code lurking in her cyber-implants

Volumn Three: Eternal Showoff

When new G://0st member Mina makes the "mistake" of intentionally signing her work (over and over and over again), she catches the attention of PSS-6 agent Melvin Albetson. Now that the PSS-6 has taken the case against her, can she escape his swiftly closing trap to catch this rogue hacker?

Invoke: Be recognized, totally already have a worm in this system
Compel: Be recognized, be hunted for her current (and rising) outstanding warrant

pre:
Template:
High Concept: Technomancer Cybercriminal
Trouble: Bad With Blood
Other Aspects: Got a Lifestyle to Maintain, Infovore.exe Trojan Horse, Eternal Showoff, Hack All IPs Simultaneously, 
She Of Many Mostly Just Two Faces

Skills
	+4: Hollywood Hacking, Burglary, Deceit
	+3: Casting, Will, Lore
	+2: Investigation, Stealth, Resources
	+1: Presence, Awareness, Empathy

Powers
	Ritual: Technomancy (-2)
	Refinement: 2 additional item slots (-1)

Stunts
	Honor Amongst Theives: Use Deceit instead of Contacts for Knowing People

Gear
	Four potions "programs" developed on the fly
	MeganeBeam.exe (fires AR laser, energy is transferred into real world power.  
Weapon 4, uses Hollywood Hacking for attack, one free use per session)
	Metatag: Wall (downloads BRICK_WALL.jpg as a one-shot shield in front of herself.
Block 4 vs physical attack, one free use per session)
TECHNOMANCY:

With near unlimited wifi and AR capabilities comes near unlimited access to increasingly bizarre systems. As Arcanotech is used more and more often in communication nodes, the world wide web has begun to stretch out beyond just the world. Even ignoring creatures such as C://0r0nz0n, magic has begun to very clearly effect the virtual world. Technomancy is the use of magic in the virtual to effect the real world - essentially dragging the internet into reality and vice versa. This could mean anything from physically controlling wires and other peoples' augmentations, to outright uploading real world objects into data or vice versa. The downside is that technomancy is hard. Unlike regular magic which can be thrust out with pure will (if often times corrupted by the use of alien magics the human mind isn't attuned to), technomancy requires both normal magic and substantial programming to work right, eliminating most on the fly uses. AKA I ONLY HAVE RITUAL. However, a few pre-made "programs" can be utilized, though often the magic focused in one dies out after one use. Mina's programs are slightly different - due to her interactions with the data entity C://0r0nz0n and it's partial habitation in her own cranial cybercomputer implants, her programs are occasionally much more powerful, deadly, and corrupting then normal, giving her access to things such as basilisk hacks or on the fly uploading/downloading from the web into reality and the other way around.

Mina's brand of technomancy typically adds a lot of traditional hermetic circles, diagrams, props and runes for long term rituals (to be intermingled and combined with advanced programming and computation(, and AR tags thrown at objects for program usage.

ProfessorCirno fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Dec 29, 2013

404GoonNotFound
Aug 6, 2006

The McRib is back!?!?
WIP, I'll try and finish this up by the deadline.

“Simon”

(AKA Pietr Petrikov, AKA Dorian Allegri, AKA Brandon Stross, AKA Brian “Bear” Egan, real name *REDACTED*)
High Concept: Tager Cat Burglar

Trouble: "I thought the draft was over!"
Simon is good at his job. Very good. He’s somehow managed to avoid nearly every surveillance system known to man and remained off the radar of the BAU. He was a myth, a ghost, little more than a nickname assigned to unsolved files in the cold case archives. Of course, this doesn’t quite matter when a nightmare with way too many eyes that isn’t even native to this plane of freaking existence decides it wants you on its side. Now Simon has a freakshow riding shotgun in his brain and is on the front lines of a shadow war he never even knew existed until a year ago. Simon’s a lifter, not a fighter, and is fully convinced he’ll be dead and buried by the end of the decade... unless there’s a way out. And as far as he’s concerned, there’s always an escape route.

Backstory: One thing a global war creates is orphans, and a lot of them. Even with the progressive government and adoption rates on the rise, the foster system was still a virtual hell on earth for some children. For one child, this meant an endless series of uncaring foster families, the cruelty that is being “the new kid” in school, and way too many near misses with the local police while trying to enjoy oneself on a non-existent budget. Of course, this does teach a desperate enough child certain skills. You learn to grow eyes in the back of your head, when to lie and when to run, how to escape any building in less than five minutes, and how to know exactly when no one is looking. Sure you end up finding it hard to connect emotionally, and end up being a bit distant & shifty, but some find the trade-off almost worth it.

Aspect: Travel Light.
Sample Invoke: The building’s on fire, and there’s a Dhohanoid strike team at the only exit... it is the only exit, right?
Sample Compel: poo poo has officially hit the fan, and there is perhaps a significant chance it might be Simon’s fault. Time to make yourself scarce?

Eventually, young *mumble* decided to take his unfortunate childhood and parlay those skills into a more constructive career. Namely, stealing anything that isn’t nailed down and selling it to the highest bidder. It might not have been easy at first, but the child’s strange luck seemed to always make sure he got away clean. Cop cars would go left instead of right, light bulbs would be burnt out, one-way doors would be closing just slowly enough to slip through. But eventually, he became skilled enough that luck didn’t matter, and he became just that drat good.

Simon was the best around, and unfortunately he knew it all too well. So while there was nothing he couldn’t take, given enough time, the concepts of “payment” and “private property” were a bit lost on them. And a lifetime of getting away with it left him more... playful than your average second story man. Sometimes he would leave notes in advance of his robberies, detailing exactly what his target was and signed with a simple elaborate S. Other times he decided he would “trade” for items instead of stealing, taking a priceless tome and leaving in its place a simple comic book. Other times he would go above & beyond his aims, leaving his targets utterly broke & humiliated. In short, someone you really didn’t want to flaunt your wealth in front of.

Yomikiri: The first warning should have been how the job description itself. Just sneak past 200 armed guards, get through a state of the art alarm system five years ahead of what even the Pentagon has, and get out of the country with the merchandise by sunrise without even knowing what said merch was until he had laid eyes on it.

You know, the usual.

But no, Simon’s pride and greed got the best of him. Not only did his professional pride demand he take the job, his curiosity to know what the client was willing to pay a fee with that many zeroes for was irresistible. Besides, he’d been spending long enough in New England, and if he didn’t get out to sunnier climes he felt like he was going to start growing gills.

The to say the job was complicated was an understatement. Turns out the much-vaunted security system was just for show, but the guards... what the gently caress was wrong with those guards? Simon usually considered himself to be the most alert and cautious man he knew, but these private security types seemed to have a goddamn hive mind, and the first time he saw that violet glow coming from their eyes he realized that he was way out of his depth on this one. But still, Simon was nothing if not a professional, and a couple faked alarm calls and one unfortunate (and way too flammable) delivery van got him inside the building, and eventually to that all-important 50th floor. Unfortunately, what he found inside made him strongly consider leaving the thieving game for good and perhaps look into becoming a crazed hermit, or maybe a volunteer lobotomy patient.

He still can’t remember what he found in that room clearly. It still comes to him sometimes. In flashes. He wishes it didn’t.

There were... things. Books that felt warm to the touch. Specimen jars that sounded like they were breathing. Scrawls on the wall that smelled of salt and old pennies. Walls meeting at odd angles, dimensions feeling wrong, entrances where the floor plan said the building didn’t even spread out to. Even the goddamn paperweight on the desk felt wrong.
Eyes. So many eyes. They knew.

Simon tried to steel his nerves as best he could, then grabbed the freakiest thing in the room and ran. That was about when the guards started howling. Not separately, but in unison; one sustained note that made him feel like his ears were bleeding. Now the great and powerful Simon doesn’t usually consider himself a violent man, but in this case a liberated assault rifle from the first guard on the scene felt like a goddamn necessity. Eventually he made it out of the building, out of the city, out of the loving continent and a half a hemisphere away, feeling like he was still being watched the whole time. The dead drop was made, the burner phone used, and Simon prayed for the first time in decades that it was finally over.

That night he found a freaking nightmare made flesh at the foot of his bed watching him as he slept.
It had a business card.
“Congratulations, you’ve passed the audition.”

Aspect: Phantom Thief (aka Sticky Fingers)
Sample Invoke: The briefcase is 500 feet underground, covered with enough lasers to light up the ruins of Vegas, and surrounded by dogs that literally shoot bees? Child’s play.
Sample Compel: Are they really going to miss that totem? Sure they say it’s required to ward the safehouse, but we’re done here and there’s a friend of a friend who would owe you for this. What’s the worst that could happen?

Volume Three: TBA

Skills (Human)
5: PHANTOM THIEF
4: Stealth, Will
3: Alertness, Athletics
2: Resources, Investigation, Deceit
1: Contacts, Systems, Fists, Physique, Presence

Skills (Spectre)
5: PHANTOM THIEF, Fists
4: Stealth, Physique
3: Athletics, Alertness
2: Presence, Will
1: Investigation, Deceit

Traits
Spectre Tager Change [-1]
Human Form [+1]
Inhuman Toughness [-2]
Inhuman Recovery [-2]
Spider Walk [–1]
The Catch (Stross Primes) [+3]
Tager Senses [+0]
Claws (Icy Touch) [-1]
Insubstantial [-2]
TOTAL: -5

Stunts
Tager Limit Break Stunt? Waiting to hear back from Ettin on this one.

Gear
Thieves Tools (Lockpicks, keycard spoofer, glass cutter, tactical turtleneck, fake mustache, dog treat flavored sleeping pills, etc etc)

404GoonNotFound fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Jan 8, 2013

Old Kentucky Shark
May 25, 2012

If you think you're gonna get sympathy from the shark, well then, you won't.


This is an interest post; Bombastic Big Game Hunter goes here later.

Ronwayne
Nov 20, 2007

That warm and fuzzy feeling.
Arlington Espinoza-Storms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TA-QJ2d3kk


Physical: [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Mental: [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Social: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Fate Points/Total Refresh: 4/4

High Concept: Unkillable Cannon Fodder

Trouble: poo poo Magnet
Whereas most people would want to not have their life summarized as “Comedy of Errors,” Storms is estastic to simply still be in one piece and mostly sane. From a computer glitch changing his MOS from Chaplain's Aide to Light Infantry right before the biggest offensive of the decade, combined with do-it-yourself portals to hell-dimensions in the broom closet, tentacles in the toilet, and insane S.O.s attempting to introduce them to their (cannibalistic/fishy) family, his adult life has rarely been short on excitement. Although he doesn't like to admit it, he's fairly certain the only reason he's still alive is because the universe isn't finished laughing at him yet.

Sample Invoke: Soldier on when chance has handed you an incredibly crappy hand, draw attention to yourself (and away from others) in a life or death situation.

Sample Compel: Really, you can do just about anything to him with this.

Backstory: War Crimes are the Best Crimes!

Madness, violence, incoherent babbling, the very concept of humanity fraying and coming to pieces, and then he decided to get the hell out of the Miami-Dade area. Born into a Cuban-American family in the sprawling South Florida metroplex, Storms joined the NEG military a week after graduating highschool. Administrative shenanigans routed him to a front line position right before a massive, multi-continent government counter offensive against the nascent Green Rage cult. The next few years were long periods of crushing boredom and fatigue occasionally interrupted by bullets, napalm, dreadlocks, and fish gills.

Sample Invoke: For the times when ultraviolence really is the best answer. Only usable for aggressive, extreme, and completely unsubtle actions.

Sample Compel: For the times when you're done gazing into the abyss and want to poke it in the eye, this is the all purpose aspect for messing with the life of a shell-shocked veteran. Whether its flashbacks, itchy trigger fingers, or simple inability to relate to the life of Joe Arcology-Dweller, this is a handy general purpose aspect for making his life miserable.

Yomikiri: Afrikanized Killer Water

Sample Invoke: Performing ghastly first aid with no supplies in fetid conditions, surviving in the wilderness or undeveloped world, or maneuvering through a shattered wasteland..

Sample Compel: Any number of recurrent health issues. Dealing with people that know about his failure. Forcing him to deal with the aftermath of whatever he failed to keep contained.


The War is over! Well, at least the first phase. Arlie declined reenlistment and followed a friend's lead into private contracting, a booming industry in a world with lots of discharged vets, companies with things to protect, and a whole lot of the globe the government could not protect. “Easy work, big money!” Right?. Sometime later, after months and months policing a large industrial compound in some undeveloped hellhole forgotten by the civilized world, the problems inherent with being employed by sinister research companies became apparent. One night after 48+ hours of no sleep plus several tropical diseases, Storms was on the verge of passing out while standing guard. A momentary nod-off was all that kept his head from being in the way of a torrent of small arms fire that vaporized the wall behind him. The ensuing clusterfuck and hordes of gibbering cultists pouring from the woods were just the start of a very bad night.

NEG law has ruled that you can't label goods “water proof” or “fire proof” because eventually, if exposed to enough water or fire, those things will be destroyed; the term “resistant” is used instead. The tide of human flesh found that its magic only rendered it bullet resistant, but that was still enough to push back what remained of the security team to the far side of the compound. Locks were blown, and containment areas were breached. It was when a horrific screech emanated from one of the breached cargo containers did it click; this was a prison break. As the cultists nearest to the crate were torn to bloody ribbons by an invisible force, Storms decided this was time to consider employment elsewhere. Signaling whatever teamates were immediately around him, they hauled rear end for the treeline, abandoning everything else to whatever the hell had been turned loose. It was a hundred km hike through the boonies before they managed to escape the gigantic corrupted area, patrolled with horrible things that darted right in the corner of his eye. Even with the NEG's SOTA medical technology, it was months before Storms was fit enough to walk again, and every now and then that hacking bloody cough will resurface.

Volume Three: Miami Sound Machine
"Look, I'm from Florida, stupid poo poo just comes out of my mouth sometimes."
*fill out story re: coming home and being reminded why you left in the first place, complete with auto weapons fire. First hookup with wolf lodge, leave open ended*

Sample Invoke: KABOOM! Dynamic Entry through door ways, plateglass windows, etc. Dealing with cretins who make poor life choices

Sample Compel: Being a cretin who makes poor life choices. You can't go home again. You COULD go home again but its a terrible loving idea.



OVA: TBA

Omake: TBA

Skills:
4: Guns, Alertness, Mercenary Attitude
3: Craft, Resources, Will
2: Stealth, Athletics , Physique
1: Connections, Presence, Drive

Stunts:

-Corner of My Eye (Alertness): When successfully rolling
Alertness passively to pick up on details, gain
an additional 2 shifts. This reflects the ability
to pick up on more pieces of information, but
it does not improve the depth of that information

-Lightning Reflexes (Alertness): Substitute Alertness for Athletics for the purposes of avoiding damage.

-Filthy Lucre (Resources): Ggains a +2
to Resources whenever using it for illicit
purposes

-Hand-Eye Coordination (Guns): Shooting and
throwing aren’t all that different, once you get
familiar with ‘em. You may use the Guns skill
instead of Weapons to throw manual projectiles
(rocks, grenades, boomerangs).

-Pin Them Down (Guns): When Aiming, the
aspect you place on the target cannot be removed
so long as they do not move out of the zone, and
any attempts to leave the zone face an increased
border (page 212) of 1 as long as you continue to
make Guns attacks against that target.

-Demolitions Training (Craftsmanship): You are trained in
the effective use of explosives.You may use your
Craftsmanship skill to place and set explosives
appropriately. This allows you to do attacks and
maneuvers against structures, and your skill roll also sets the difficulty for any characters attempting to avoid
damage from an explosive that you’ve placed.
Note that to hide an explosive you will still need
to use the Deceit skill.

Gear:
Black Market Tacticool Gear (Body Armor +2, Guns (Usually an automatic shotgun or flamethrower (Guns+3 damage), or a machine pistol if slightly more subtlety is required. Explosives/Grenades. Vision mods/HUD/comm gear. Good first aid kit. If he's feeling exceptionally goony, throwing stars/knives/tomahawk.)

Workshop (Questionably Legal Armory) +3

Ronwayne fucked around with this message at 13:39 on Feb 12, 2013

grassy gnoll
Aug 27, 2006

The pawsting business is tough work.
ID: Sharon-715


Sharon at the Omaha concert


Casual day at B/P-bAML

High Concept: Literally manufactured pop singer

The finest arcanotech, cybernetics and genetic engineering that APTO's Los Angeles metroplex labs could scrape together, all for the purpose of building morale and showing off, in the spirit of the newest cold war. Check it out, alien freaks, we can piss money and resources into pop music and not even blink!

Invoke: Perform for the masses, dazzle the crowd, stupid performer tricks
Compel: Challenged to a songfight, in front of a large audience, recognized by a fan

Trouble: Bubble baby

When your entire existence is a manufactured product, sometimes the outside world does a number on you, mentally and physically. Especially beef products, for whatever reason, but who gets real meat or butter these days anyway?

Invoke: Existential certainty, I'm curiously okay with this, just like home
Compel: Space oddity, confidence of a serial killer, horrible food intolerance

Aspect Phases:

Backstory: Death on Two Legs - Sharon was produced by Lynn Spector, Dr. Nina Takeshi, quite a number of genetic donors and Burbank/Pan-basin Advanced Media Labs, LLC. Life with the rest of the kids in the musical cadre was pretty nice, actually - a lot nicer than the stuff they got up to over in Strasberg complex. Those kids picked up some serious DID. Sure, Sharon might not have gotten out a lot, and maybe the only human interaction she got came from the tutors and the other cadre, but induced savantism is worth it. Probably.

Invoke: Bizarrely specific knowledge, musical savant, I trained for this!
Compel: Licensed product, I never trained for this!, the occasional flashback

Yomikiri: Thriller - You remember a few years back, that chemical plant that exploded in Omaha? Definitely not a chemical plant. The Green Fury sees this public concert, right, tons of people seeing this tour, tons of sponsorship and very public ties to NEG organs, really visible soft target, and they do the smart thing and try to blow it up. Sharon stopped the assassin, and her songs kept the crowd from panicking when the bombs started going off. Funny thing, though. Nobody in the lab ever taught her how to throw a punch, let alone pull off those kinds of moves.

Invoke: Work the crowd, I didn't know I could do that, cool under fire
Compel: OOI knows your name, the cult knows your name, obsessed fan

Volume Three: Information High - Turns out sometimes, the NEG censors aren't fast enough on the draw. Most people are still in the dark about Omaha. Those people are not nerds. You know, the kind of people who obsess over the tiniest minutiae of pop culture. Sharon gets a call out of nowhere from this guy Wade who says he saw the raw concert footage, says he's from G Colon Slash Slash OST. Apparently a whole bunch of these nerds are out there, and they know something's up, and maybe she'd like to help out now that she's on administrative leave? Wade's kind of a dork, but he's pretty smart and Sharon's met some really interesting new kinds of folks, like that time with the convenience store cult.

Invoke: Networked up, harness the powers of Asperger's, all the latest memes
Compel: Deal with the nerd herd, midnight phone call, can never eat in a convenience store again

OVA and Omake - TBD

Skills

5 Songfight (Passion), Conviction
4 Fists, Presence
3 Empathy, Rapport
2 Systems, Physique
1 Resources, Scholarship

Songfight: Not quite chess boxing, not quite busking, not quite a Bollywood musical, but something delightfully in between.

Stunts
Blessed Tuned Words: Use conviction to perform a block in physical conflict, potentially preventing someone from making a conflict action against you.
Footwork: Use Fists to dodge attacks instead of Athletics, in all circumstances in which Athletics would apply.
Pointed Performance: Target a specific thing when performing instead of setting a mood.
Leadership: When using Presence to command a group, gain +1. Move one time increment faster when commanding.

Physical [ ][ ][ ]
Mental [ ][ ][ ][ ]

Consequences: Mild/(Mild Mental)/Moderate/Severe

Refresh: 5

Equipment
One-Woman Concert Hall rig

grassy gnoll fucked around with this message at 10:30 on Jan 14, 2013

Ettin
Oct 2, 2010
:frogsiren: NON-SUSPICIOUS UPDATE! :frogsiren:


First, if you haven't yet, check the ends of the first and second posts to make sure you haven't missed an update.


Okay, so those of you who used the DFRPG skill list: I have been changing poo poo behind your back! I have been convinced to make the following modifications from Fate Core:

• Endurance and Might have been merged into Physique.
• Conviction and Discipline have been merged into Will.
• A new skill, Casting, handles everything Discipline used to do in spellcasting so DFRPG's magic system doesn't break in half.



Meanwhile, Passions! Some people have been asking about what it entails exactly so let me explain! The simplest explanation is it's a hobby or profession your character is really good at and super into, but it can also be:

• Something your character is way too into. If you have ever seen something like Yakitate!! Japan (where baking competitions get stadium audiences!), Air Gear (even the President cares about rollerskating),The Legend Of Koizumi (the fate of the world hangs on mahjong games), And It Don't Stop... You get the idea. If you get in I am totally okay with making what your character is into serious business, with Passion-themed Locations during city creation and everything! (e.g.: If you pick Rap we could make a stadium-sized Rap Battledome one of the Locations.)

• If you've been following the Dangan Ronpa LPs, you can also view your Passion as a Super High-School Level Talent: Something you are amazing at that you can push to superhuman levels.


You don't need to take an Aspect for your Passion, but it could help! If you decide to, you can save it for later phases.

As for Skills, you also don't need to specify what skills the Passion replaces/complements/modifies/whatever. I am pretty flexible with what you can let skills do, as long as your Passion isn't being rolled for everything. "Replicating a skill and complementing/modifying some others" can be a handy point of reference, though. Feel free to be creative with that - Gongoozling could be spun as an Investigation skill since it is basically standing around and observing things, for example.

(Also, don't bother taking Performance if you took a similar artsy Passion like Singing.)

Ettin fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Jan 8, 2013

Old Kentucky Shark
May 25, 2012

If you think you're gonna get sympathy from the shark, well then, you won't.


Maximina Daniken von Gilgamesh

or

High Concept: Teenage Big Game Hunter
Trouble: Addicted to Arcanoflesh

The Wolf Lodge is old; its earliest membership rolls, written on cracked vellum, are still housed in the original lodge, located above a tavern in Essex county, Massachusetts. Over the centuries this collection of hunting enthusiasts has seen any number of cliques, clubs, and subgroups, but the strangest among them is and has always been the Society of Leopold. Originally founded to further the culinary appreciation of large, exotic, or extinct species (the last Dodo was served à l'orange at the first meeting), the club’s focus shifted as its members began to hunt increasingly eldritch game; everything changed forever the night they served roast byakhee. Through (delicious) experimentation, they discovered that by carefully and ritually consuming the flesh of mythos creatures, the hunters would take on some of those creature’s strengths. There were downsides, obviously, and more than its fair share of the club’s membership have met grisly ends or been locked in madhouses, but if you’re going to let a little thing like sanity loss stop you, you don’t deserve to be in the Wolf Lodge in the first place.



Back-story: Born with a silver knife in her teeth

Maximina’s father is Maximilian von Gilgamesh, minor Dutch/British noble and famed foreign correspondent for the Independent Times. Unlike most of his fellows, who left their children at home or in boarding schools, Maximilian took his daughter wherever he went, from Beirut to Jakarta to the depths of the inner Amazon. What few outside the Wolf Lodge knew was that Maximilian's journalistic travels were a cover for his hunting trips, and he kept his daughter close so as to raise her in the art of the Hunt. So on her eighth birthday, Maximina was given a KA-BAR and thrown into a wolf pit. For her thirteenth, she got her very first .50 Cal. When her peers were learning to drive, she was learning to set mines and tripwires.

Invoke: hunting big game monsters, identifying and handling weapons, being insufferably British
Compel: treats people like targets, is insufferably British



Yomikiri: Daddy Issues

On her eighteenth birthday, Maximina attended her first Feast of Leopold. It was a solo hunt. After hours of ritual preparations and days of stalking she brought down a Gnoph-keh, carved out its heart, cooked it, and ate it. Immediately she felt eldritch power coursing through her veins; she was faster, tougher, more alert. Something more and less than human. It was everything her father had been preparing her for her whole life; and she hated him for it.

Maximina wants to be a normal person. She wants to fit in in normal society. She wants to, like, shop and go on dates and stuff. I mean, she likes hunting deadly monsters, but there’s more to life, y’know? But she can’t fit in, because she has this three hundred pound loud, overbearing ham of a father hanging like a social albatross around her neck, dropping in at all hours of the night to demand that she help him kill a byakhee or grill up some tindalos meat. It’s just not fair!

Invoke: when begging favors from friends of the family, trading on her father's reputation, wrapping him around her little finger
Compel: Daddy Issues. Just, all of them.


Third Volume: “You and I remember Budapest very differently”

Maximina's first contact with the larger Soul Network came only recently, when a hunt in Hungary went awry. It all started when she got a text from her cousin Erika von Daniken, also a Wolf Lodge member, claiming that there had been some Green Fury activity in Budapest. Apparently the cultists had discovered some ancient texts claiming that a river troll slumbered beneath the muds of the Danube, sealed away by a Moravian sorcerer of all things.

@MaximumMina: "wat, seriously? trolls R real?"
@ErikaTheReddest: "I know, rite?"

The Green Fury, seeking to raise the creature, had infiltrated a water treatment plant. Having nothing better to do, Maximina threw her best dancing shoes, a DSR 50, and her father's credit cards into a bad, tossed it in the trunk of the family Rolls, and headed down to Budapest. She and Erika went to ground in the sewers, where they quickly discovered that Erika's imperfect Hungarian had muffed part of the message: not Troll, but Trolls. Things would have gotten pretty hairy if it hadn't been for the timely arrival of...

Invoke: to call on an anecdote from an old hunt, drudge up bizarre local knowledge
Compel: be forced to owe a favor to others, explain how you leanred this bizarre local custom


Skills:
5: Guns
4: Discipline, The Most Dangerous Game
3: Weapons, Alertness
2: Stealth, Contacts, Physique
1: Intimidation, Empathy, Resources, Lore



Stunts:
Sniper: +2 to damage with Guns when attacking an unaware enemy.
Old Boy’s Network: Your fellow Wolf Lodge Hunters tend to show up when trouble is around. +2 to Contacts when establishing that you know someone while near a Mythos hotspot.



Powers: -4
Society of Leopold: -1 (Deeper Reserves, Fellowship Training, Nightvision; See Tattoos of St. Giles)
Feeding Dependency: +1, affecting the following powers:
Inhuman Speed: -2
Inhuman Recovery: -2

Stress:
Physical ()()()
Mental ()()()()
Hunger ()()()()()()


Refresh: 2/8

Old Kentucky Shark fucked around with this message at 07:46 on Jan 21, 2013

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!
Just to be clear, Casting does not cover Lore and Conviction parts of standard spellcasting, right? This is just to make sure you still need three skills for the sake of balance, more or less, while giving non-spellcasters a bit of a step up.

Ettin
Oct 2, 2010
Right! Lore-Conviction-Discipline is now Lore-Will-Casting for the purposes of magic.

Stormgale
Feb 27, 2010

Marcus Bauhdric

or
High Concept: A Will and Body of steel, A Gentleman beyond reproach!

Trouble: A Modern day Atlas


Background: A Line Lasting Generations
Marcus was born into the long Bauhdric line, a family that originally came from germany but settled into england years ago and set up many company’s producing goods as varied from woodcarvings to high technology of the day and age. With this line came the curse of lineage, a history to look to and guide you but also to bind you, old grudges that surfaced from playground disputes to fights over educational establishments. Marcus took the best of it though, fascinated by the adventurers, scholars, artists that had come before, vowing to one day live up to his lineage.
Invoke: My Family once encountered something similar...., Ah the Wilforson estate may be able to help I will give them a call, This line will not end here not now!
Compel: Curse you Baron Rupert why must you haunt my family!, Weight of ages

Yomikiri: Pure Hearted Englishman
Marcus was raised on a strict diet of Physical and Mental Exercise to take over the family company. Although he was not apt at the raw mental talents to succeed his father as the head of industry he had a good heart and grew up to be a fine face for the family, making associates and new business partners even at a young age even as he kept up the training regimen that had kept his family strong for generations to come. The gentle giant was well known and liked, preferring to solve problems diplomatically than resolving to fighting, leaving him with surprisingly few enemies amongst even the sourest of sorts.

Invoke: Heartfelt Pleas and Inspiring people, Knowing how to act in social situations
Compel: Cannot turn away a request for aid, Must avoid improper act or Deed, Old favors and promises coming back to bite him

Volume Three: I have no time for fear
The main problem with a secret war against the shadows is how secretive it is, hard to get aid or assistance or even prepare for the worst when you have no idea what is lurking in the shadows. When the Disciples of the Cold Ones decided to enact vengance for his family's part in the founding of the Diogenes club he was quickly abducted off the streets of london, to be shown the "Truth" as they put it. Old favor's were called in and a rescue effort was mounted, which gave the young strapping gent a chance to show these poor misguided fools the lineage they were tussling with, they were merely armed with weapons beyond the scope of mortal engineering after all!

Invoke: You call that a wound?, No matter what madness I see I shall press on
Compel: Leave no man behind, Trying to save those who cannot be saved

5 Phsyique
4 Fist, A GENTLEMAN’S DEMEANOR! (probably going to replace Rapport)
3 Will, Athletics
2 Alertness, Empathy, Presence
1 Resources, Intimidation, Intimidation, Performance, Contacts

Stunts:

Collegiate Lineman (OW:156): In combat, you gain a +1 to Physique-based rolls where your size would prove an advantage.

Wrestler (YS:154): Hand-to-hand combat maneuvers to switch from Fists to Might are made at +2.

Step Into the Blow (YS:152): When you use Fists to defend against a close-quarters attack and fail that defense, you may sacrifice your next action to counterattack immediately (with Fists) at +1.

Best Foot Forward (YS:155): People just like you, especially when you're deliberately trying to make a good first impression (page YS:138). You gain a +1 on your roll to make a good first impression, and failing that roll cannot give you a negative temporary aspect or make the situation worse.

Tough Stuff (YS:152): The stuff of blunt trauma - fists, sticks, and stones - pose little trouble for you. Against such things, you have a natural Armor:1 (which stacks with other forms of protection). This does not apply to things like blades, bullets, and burns, but it makes you a beast in a burly brawl.

Teflon Persona (YS:154): It's difficult to make you look bad in social conflicts. Provided that the people present are aware of who you are, you gain Armor:1 against any social attacks.

Refresh 4/10

More to come, just throwing up what I have for now.

Stormgale fucked around with this message at 14:03 on Jan 13, 2013

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.
Sun Yue



High Concept: Combo #5, Death God With a Side of Wuxia
Comes with your choice of an egg roll or spring roll, a side of rice, and a magical sword.
Sun Yue is a shinigami, but not the typical super-serious psuedo-samurai who dresses like the Edo bakufu is still in power. No, Yue is completely different. She's the kind of shinigami who was raised in a Shaolin temple and comes from a part of rural China that hasn't changed much in a few centuries. Totally different. Except for using a magical sword and having supernatural abilities, that's the same.

Though recruited into the Shinigami, most of Yue's initial education was in a different style of supernatural martial abilities. Plus she comes from one of the few places that remained highly provincial in the modern world - even up til the current year. She is a bit of a fish out of water. Not helping is the fact that she was probably actually born a few centuries ago - that whole Dreamlands and not aging thing really messes with personal timelines. Yue makes embarrassing mistakes with everyday things, and sometimes gets obsessed with weird foreign ways. She also gets pulled back to TA at Mage Killer Academy from time to time, a polite way of sticking her with some remedial work.

Trouble: Chronic Hero Syndrome
Yue takes being a youxia and a shinigami very seriously. No, really. Not in a stuffy, dignified way. But she'll never turn down a chance for adventure, never walk away from someone in need. Even when she should. She also believes that heroics should be thrilling. Quiet heroics aren't really her style. And she might occasionally indulge in a cheesy speech about why good will always triumph over evil.

Invoke: Do noble story-book hero things, to find someone who needs help or just happen to be present when someone needs help
Compel: To do dumb story-book hero things, to make a racket when doing heroic things, to get sucked into problems that aren't hers

Backstory: When You Snatch the Peb- Oh. Uh, Next Lesson!
Sun Yue's parents were killed by a mad wizard when she was very young. Her grandfather disguised her as a boy and managed to enroll her into an elite monastery teaching kung fu. Sun excelled beyond anyone's wildest expectations. Obsessed with martial arts, she voraciously devoured every piece of media she could find related to kung fu, and spent every other waking hour practicing. Her abilities soon bordered on the supernatural. Of course, eventually the fact that she was a girl came to light, and she was quickly booted out of the monastery, to the relief of her teachers. Annoyed, Sun left to become a wandering hero. Results were mixed.

Invoke: Succeed on something on the first try, Learn new kung fu moves, Impress people
Compel: Jump into a situation without thinking, Annoy people in authority

Yomikiri: A Sword in a Stone? Sure Whatever.
Sun Yue wields Fate Defying Virtue, a jian sword once wielded by Geng Yuanjia. A swordsman of supernatural skill, Geng Yuanjia served the last Ming Emperor against the Qing. Though he came to recognize the Ming had lost the Mandate of Heave he still served faithfully - until the Ming hired a demon-summoning wizard to smite the Qing. Geng Yuanjia could not abide this, and even as the demons attacked the Qing he cut them down and slew their master. Impressed, the Qing offered him a place but he refused, and though already mortally wounded fought a dozen Qing swordsmen to a standstill before finally succumbing to his wounds. The Qing then blah blah blah, the sword absorbed Geng Yuanjia's spirit, more adventures, eventually driven into a stone when no worthy successor left. This is the part where Yue comes in.

Having spent some time as a youxia, solving problems with her excellent wushu, Sun Yue found herself trying to find some bandits who had holed up in an abandoned temple. Unfortunately, the bandits had awoken some kind of evil undead wizard demon thing. His skeleton minions grabbed Yue and he monologued at her for like half an hour, but she stopped paying attention after about five minutes. She managed to get loose, and in an awesome chase scene through the temple, she fell through a rotten floor. That's where she found a sword thrust deep into a stone. Long story short, Yue pulled it out, beat down the wizard and his minions, and then had a bunch of weird visions that related the history of the sword. When she woke up from these, she found a Japanese warrior staring at her. The Shinigami, sent to deal with the resurrected wizard, was shocked to see the deed already done. He decided that, even though she was an uneducated Chinese peasant girl, Yue belonged at Mage Killer Academy.

Invoke: Pull off sweet sword fighting moves, succeed with hastily made "plans", connect up with the local wulin
Compel: Get bored with important exposition and zone out, to get caught up in crap from her youxia days

Volume Three: Shinigangnam Style
Stuck in the Dreamlands and struggling through boring classes, Yue once again managed to simultaneously amaze and annoy her teachers. Eventually the higher ups decided the best way to deal with her was to graduate her. They'd fill in the holes in her education by assigning her remedial duties and on-the-job training. One of her first missions was a recruiting trip to Seoul. The candidate was actually a pop star - a veritable milk run. Naturally, things went crazily wrong when the new hit single accidentally summoned an ancient horror from another dimension. Instead of asking for backup, Yue dealt with it herself. In the process she decided she liked modern music and that she should probably learn how to drive before she engaged in any further high speed chases. Fate Defying Virtue agrees with the latter and is resigned to the former.

Invoke: Relate to people over music, Engage in high speed chases without killing her passangers
Compel: Recklessly try something she doesn't know how to do, Exceed orders, Drive people crazy with her music

OVA: Double Order of Sorcerer, Hold the Sashimi
Checking out reports of evil magician activity - okay, reports is a bit strong. Gossip of evil magician activity in an ocean side town, Yue discovered that the magician was actually much too pretty to be evil. Unfortunately for her hopes of a seaside holiday it turned out the whole place was infested with horrible fish-men. Da'ud, the mage, said a bunch of stuff about old gods and conspiracies and whatever. The important thing is she got to kick some fish-man butt and scope out some magician butt.

Invoke: Kick monster butt, work with good magicians, assist Da'ud
Compel: Get distracted by a nice butt, have wizards show up inconveniently, not get along with nice monsters

Omake: No Minute Like the Last Minute
Despite the best efforts of Arthur and Mina, PSS-6 was closing in. It was time to stop being subtle. Arthur put in a call to a friend he knew from Budapest. She wasn't available, but she knew someone who would be just what they needed, and promised to make some calls of her own. So they waited. And waited. Where the hell was this person? PSS-6 was literally pulling up and no sign. Assholes are at the doors, fiddling with the locks.

Wait, who the hell is that chick sitting on their sedan eating a taco? Where the gently caress did she come from?

Invoke: Make an entrance, Help out her friends, Score delicious food truck food
Compel: Be overly dramatic, Get distracted by food, Try to help her friends even when they don't want it

Powers
Soul Relic [-2] (Supernatural Speed)
Zen Direction [-1]
Sora no Kokei [–1]
Shinigami Taishitsu [-0]
Shi no Te [-1]

Skills
5: I'll Show You My Kung Fu!*
4: Athletics, Investigation
3: Physique, Will
2: Alertness, Lore, Presence, Stealth
1: Driving, Empathy, Rapport, Systems

O
OO
OO
OOOO
OOOO

Refresh: 8-5=3

Physical [ ][ ][ ][ ]
Mental [ ][ ][ ][ ]
Social [ ][ ][ ]

Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Mar 15, 2014

Transient People
Dec 22, 2011

"When a man thinketh on anything whatsoever, his next thought after is not altogether so casual as it seems to be. Not every thought to every thought succeeds indifferently."
- Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
Santiago Aden

/

High Concept: Armored Warchild

Invoke: To tap into his heavily internalized military training; To get off the grid and use his status as a deniable asset; To obtain things from the military.
Compel: To have a rival, instructor, or person in his past surface and confront him; To have his youth used against him.

Trouble: Double-Timing Double Agent

Indoctrinated and prepared by years of psychological conditioning and mental manipulation, Santiago's devotion to the military has not diminished by joining the Soul Network. He firmly believes in its ability to do good, but has been slipping data on it to the NEG.

Invoke: To gain the trust of NEG or Network officials; To call upon contacts or call in favors to keep his cover; To lie convincingly and without hesitation.
Compel: To force a clash of loyalties; To put him and his companions under suspicion or bring the spotlight to them; To be subject to manipulation as a puppet of unknown organizations

Backstory: Veteran Of The Great Green Raid

Argentinian by birth, Santiago's parents were old money, with influence and cash to spend as they saw fit - which was exactly what they did when they had him. He was a child of luxury, conceived and genetically tinkered with to showcase all the best qualities of his parents, and become an inheritor to their fortunes they could proudly parade for all their acquaintances to see. In spite of this, his mother and father treated him quite warmly. Part of it was the fact that he was a prized possession, and treasured accordingly by the pair of diehard materialists, but much to their surprise, the little kid grew on them far more than they expected. By the time, Santiago was six, the Adens were a true family, if an uncommonly loose one, closer to being good friends than parents and son. That changed very quickly when the cultists of Shub-Niggurath belonging to the Green Fury staged a massive surprise raid on Buenos Aires. A sudden rise of the organic matter beneath the city's foundations turned several districts of the city into a marshland, confusing the armed forces stationed within and allowing the cultists to take entire neighborhoods prisoner. Santiago and his family were carted thousands of miles away from home, as a massive chase ensued, the NEG's troops hot on the Furies' tails. As the military closed the distance, however, it found out that the Furies had prepared a nasty surprise: a massive band of jungle, stretching from the Andes to the coast, had sprung up overnight, providing the Furies with a perfect hiding spot. The writhing trees actively resisted all attempts to penetrate the forest, lashing out with overgrown roots and poisonous leaves. A dark mirror of the Impenetrable forest in the northern edge of the country, the Furies' surprise was codenamed 'Impregnable Woods of the Black Goat', or the Impregnable for short. The unholy cross between the Black Goat's thousand young and simple trees gave the Furies ample time to begin conducting grisly rites and experiments on their prisoners. Santiago never saw his parents again after being separated from them, and spent the next month in the filthy pigsty that the Furies called a prison, starved and mistreated, but refusing to give up on the life he'd been taught was his to enjoy. When the NEG finally managed to bust through the Impregnable and attack the makeshift Fury facilities, Santiago was one of a few hundred survivors of the raid. With no family to look after him, he would have been relocated to a foster home, had he not spent so much time speaking to the troopers who had rescued him, asking them what it was like to fight Fury scum, and how old one had to be to join the corps...which seemed to get someone's attention, as the 57th Mechanized Infantry Squadron took Santiago as their charge, delivering him to a secret NEG facility in the mountains known as the Steel Cradle. There, Santiago met a doctor named Adrianna Fang, adjunct advisor to the military courtesy of the Ashcroft foundation, and head of one of the NEG's most secret efforts: Project Warchild.

Invoke: To push through pain and survive dire situations; To take advantage of familiar war territory.
Compel: To go out of his way to get revenge and distrust members of the Green Fury; To take extreme measures to ensure threats to his own safety are taken care of.

Yomikiri: Play Around, But Play For Keeps

Unbeknownst to all civilians, and almost all members of the government hierarchy, the NEG had been working on backup plans in case of emergencies since its formation. Given the state of turmoil the world was in because of the appearance of things beyond the imagination of all but children and madmen at the time of the NEG's formation, it was only natural for the upper echelons of the government to decree that the intelligence and military branches of the NEG work hard to prepare for all eventualities. And by this, they truly meant all eventualities. Nothing should be left to chance. Government contingencies ranged from the sensible (countermeasures in case of a Mi-Go invasion), to the bizarre (sudden worldwide appearance of a race of underground monstrosities) to the bleakest, darkest possible futures for mankind. Project Warchild was born out of contemplating one such future: a world in which mankind had been so depleted by otherworldly horrors that all combat-ready adults were dead or disabled, leaving children to fight the wars of men in a desperate bid for survival. What started as a simple risk projection and psychological analysis of the aptitude for children as soldiers rapidly metamorphosed into live tests, using rejected, unwanted kids as test subjects in controlled environments, before ballooning into a full-fledged military program, devoted to obtaining combat data of man's last line of defense, the better to prepare it for its potential destiny. The advisor in charge of directing the project was Doctor Adrianna Fang. One of Ashcroft Education's preeminent experts in child psychology, Doctor Fang was in charge of managing the human element of Project Warchild. While there was an astoundingly high rate of suicides and resignations among the Warchild researchers, Dr. Fang seemed to be immune to the tremendous psychological strain that the project posed. Indeed, one of the few times Dr. Fang showed any emotion was when she put her newfound 'pupils' through her modified education regime, delighted by the prospect of enlightening a new generation. Santiago entered the project a vivacious, clever jokester, heartbroken by the loss of his parents and ready to do whatever it took to get back at the Green Fury for it. By the time his education had concluded, the sadness was gone, replaced by quiet determination. He was well on track to achieving his goal, and knew it. He had a new family too, made up of the other Warchildren and their overseers, much bigger and more tightly knit than his old one, with an innumerable number of brothers and sisters. He would have given up an arm for them, and he knew they would do likewise for him. His trainers loved him, and it was plain to see: he could detect their happiness behind their professional façade, and saw a glitter in their eyes when they thought he wasn't looking. Each test passed was cause for celebration, each benchmark exceeded a reason to punch the air in victory. In spite of being in the middle of an enemy zone when it happened, Tiago had to keep himself from letting out a shout of triumph when he bagged his first cultist bastard, at the age of twelve. His work was more than a duty: it was a joy, something that gave his life meaning and purpose. And to think he had found it before hitting adolescence!

It didn't take long for Tiago to distinguish himself from his peers. Out of more than a hundred Warchildren, Santiago was one of the first three selected for full combat duty. Each of the three graduates was provided with a prototype suit of Dragon-class power armor, employing state-of-the-art technology to transform resourceful, but easily overpowered children into operatives unmatched by opposition below the scale of Engels. Reina Aldrich, the Warchild with the highest kill-count, received the Red Blaze, specialized in close-quarters combat. Sophia Aquinas, who favored subversive operations and avoidance of confrontation, received the Black Ice, armed with a massive array of electronic devices and metamaterials with which to avoid detection. Santiago, possessing the best marksmanship record of the entire project, received the White Light, capable of waging unmatched long-range warfare, capped by the massively powerful Judgement Spark weapon. As a final test before their first tours of duty, the three children were pitted against each other in a training match. What started as a trial run for the Dragons quickly escalated, turning into a full-fledged brawl as the hypercompetitive First Class Warchildren refused to be shown up by their peers. The battle ended with all three armors disabled, but not before Tiago managed to score the only clean takedown of the match against the Red Blaze. He spent the next few days avoiding a murderously angry and humiliated Reina before finally abandoning the Steel Cradle.

Invoke: To appear harmless and nonthreatening; To get into someone's good graces; To come out on top when the stakes are high.
Compel: To not treat things as seriously as they should; To escalate a situation to prove his superiority.

Volume Three: Working Out The Grand Equation

Santiago's fourteenth birthday found him at the frontlines of the Aeon War doing what he did best. An year spent fighting had done little to quench his thirst for adventure, excitement, and the opportunity to pump some lunatics full of holes. Keeping a low profile and traveling across the globe as per Doctor Fang's instructions gave him a chance to see quite a few strange things, and meet an inordinate number of strange people. As a Warchild, he had standing orders to provide as much combat data for the project as possible and assist NEG forces whenever the opportunity arose, and no other obligations, except for the occasional special assignment. He didn't see his fellow Warchildren much after leaving the Cradle: while allowed to intervene at any potential hot zone, each Warchild First Class took up an unofficial assignment: Sophia focused on counterinsurgency and investigating the Migou, while Reina took up the war zones in Asia that persisted after the end of the Xanthic Storm. Tiago focused his efforts on the Green Fury, of course. It was a difficult, solitary job, but he did not mind, as he had something to keep him busy while not unleashing hell on cultists or strange monstrosities: Chaos Stage.

An ancient game which sprouted from military strategic simulation programs, Chaos Stage put its player in the role of a mysterious benefactor, overseeing the development of life on Earth. Beginning in prehistoric times, the game allowed players to create a wide variety of lifeforms, leading to the development of a complete ecosystem throughout multiple stages, up to the beginnings of civilization. It was at this point that the real meat of the game began, as it entered its namesake stage, forcing the player to relinquish direct control of his creations and leave them to their own devices, only allowing subtle environment manipulation and cryptic oniric visions to guide the fate of the creatures and stave off the collapse of civilization. These visions were only available in limited amounts per age of civilization, forcing players to carefully study each lifeform and select the appropriate one to transform into a prophet and impact the fate of the world. Santiago had been playing Chaos Stage since he was a young child at the Cradle. It had taken him years to learn the basics of the game, but it was so tremendously engrossing and rewarding of proper judgement that he took thousands upon thousands of failed sessions in stride. Over time, he became a part of the fan community surrounding the game, known as Stagehands. The Stagehands were staunch believers in a 'proper play theory', integral to success in Chaos Stage. This theory, based on accounting for reliable interactions between variables governing the actions of sapient lifeforms, was known as the Grand Equation. The Grand Equation proposed that, while the immense number of hidden variables behind each lifeform made it impossible to perfectly predict the consequences of introducing a new element to the mix, pattern recognition allowed players to intuitively understand the effects of the hidden variables, known as Chaos Factors. To that end, the Equation provided hundreds of pointers with which to develop an unconscious knowledge base through which to perceive the impacts of the Chaos Factors. One day, while studying possible assignments, Tiago decided to make his decision based on an analysis rooted in the Grand Equation. To his shock, months later, Santiago began to see signs of changes that the Grand Equation had accounted for. Could it be used to predict changes not just within the game, but also the real world? Seeking to test his hypothesis, Tiago plunged into an analysis of the unexplained events of the world in the last few weeks, and found signs of a small insurance company in the States exerting tremendous influence on global affairs. Not waiting a moment, he took off to perform a more direct investigation, and soon found himself caught in a battle between a large cell of the Children of Chaos and a powerful private military contractor, Blackmore's Knights.

Invoke: To press the right buttons; To see a pattern obscured by a cloud of misinformation; To intuitively perceive a coming event before it happens.
Compel: To try to find meaning in things that lack it; To follow a hunch to disastrous effects; To be rattled by unaccounted factors.

OVA: Child's Play (Is Serious Business)

"Can I go in yet?"

"No."

---

"Can I go in yet?"

"No."

Sitting back on his chair in the middle of the deserted apartment, Santiago stared at the monitor array in front of him and grinned. An emergency call from a Soul Network contact meant he'd raced for Berlin overnight to keep an eye on a gathering of eldritch nasties, and act as support for one of the OOIs agents inside. Unlike most of his assignments, though, he'd received explicit, extremely serious orders not to intervene until the situation had escalated. The whole thing was such a powder keg that any bad moves could unleash complete pandemonium on the city. If something went wrong, his job would be to stall for time until Engel squads could arrive. If those agents couldn't handle the situation, drastic measures would be leveled against the threat. Needless to say, Santiago was dying to know just what the hell was going on inside, and the operative handling the matter, one Aidan Frost, had not been particularly forthcoming with information.

So, he was settling for acting dumber and more eager than he was and pestering him with the kinds of questions a kid would ask. The extra distraction would help him bring his A-Game, anyway.

One of the screens flashed as a tab indicated he had received messages. Keeping an eye on the screen that monitored Frost's vital signs (and especially, his heartrate), Santiago seized a keyboard.

pre:
<BlackWidowmaker>hiiii, how's our boy doing? ^_^
<BrightChild>Angry, but that's normal for him. Australia still bad?
<BlackWidowmaker>Ugh, yes, I can't wait for my transfer. I just want out already! (-_-)
<BlackWidowmaker>BTW, how'd he react to the offer? I've got some people who would love to have his help.
<BrightChild>Been too busy to ask, gimme a second.
Opening communications, Santiago pitched his voice up a little and spoke. "Hey, Frosty, ever felt like just saying 'screw it' and leaving all this behind? Doesn't look like you're having too much fun to me!"

"And forget about dealing with you, kid? Every second since you jumped in."

pre:
<BrightChild>Ain't too happy about his job. Pretty sure he'd desert it if he could.
<BlackWidowmaker>Yaaaaaay! We just have to offer him the right incentive. I'll be working on it. Keep up the good work!
"Keep up the good work? Sure." Sometimes, working for the Soul Network had nice perks. It was good to have understanding bosses. Once again, Santiago opened communication lines, and this time, his voice was normal (if a little amused) as he spoke.

"Hey Aidan, what if I told you I'm part of a super-secret worldwide organization and I want to recruit you for it? You interested?"

"Kid, I swear if you keep loving with me I'm gonna get out of here and leave you hanging for a wire by your intestines. Shut up already!"

"Fair. I just got one last question then."

"What is it? What?"

"Can I go in already?"

"ARGH!

Invoke: To act like a child to his benefit; To leave lasting impressions on people and get them expecting certain things from him; To have certain contacts and resources at his disposal (Mostly all illegal ones)
Compel: For an impression to be too long-lasting; To kid around too much and too long; To have his business bite him in the rear end.

Omake: Hunter In Someone Else's Hunting Grounds

Incident SA4126, Progress Report 15
From: Santiago Aden
To: Dr. Adrianna Fang

During the ReInsurance Co. debacle, the man behind the operation, one Catriel Imara, vanished into thin air, leaving few traces of his activities behind. Data salvaged from the ReInsurance headquarters pointed toward several still ongoing operations, and linked him to several major terrorist acts of the last two decades, including the Black Night of London, the massacre at Bruges three years ago, and the Great Green Raid. Hoping to find Imara and either terminate him or bring him in for questioning, I departed for one of the OpSites.

(Before you ask, Doc, I don't have any scores to settle with this bloke. He's a dangerous fella first and foremost, and he needs to be brought down before more people get hurt. The Green Raid ain't important here. Honest.)

To speak freely, what I found there was a clusterfuck. Apparently several people wanted to stick their fingers in the pie and they hadn't taken a liking to each other. The place was a warzone by the time I got there, and things kind of blew up when I got involved. Literally. Imara used the distraction to get away again. One of the survivors pointed towards Shanghai, apparently he has a backup base there. Any backup I could get would be appreciated, there's no telling just how many goons Imara might have at his disposal.

PS: There was an OOI operative at the OpSite who handled himself pretty well considering he had no special tech to help him out against eldritch nasties, I think his name was Zhang San. That's chinese, isn't it? Maybe he knows the lay of the land well enough to help out?

PPS: Don't tell Reina that I'm visiting her turf, Doc. Unless she's changed since we last spoke, she doesn't like it when people butt into her business.

PPPS: No, really, please don't. Catching this SOB is too important.

Invoke: To follow a trail succesfully no matter how cold it might be; To understand fellow hunters' mindsets and how to deal with them; To take down his prey.
Compel: To focus on chasing down a target singlemindedly; To trespass into forbidden territory, literally or figuratively, and get caught in the act; To become someone else's prey.

---

Skills
+5: Guns, Chaos Stagehand
+4: Athletics, Deceit
+3: Systems, Rapport
+2: Physique, Will
+1: Empathy, Scholarship

Chaos Stagehand: Uses Investigation as a base. Can act as a complement to other skills when dealing with pattern analysis borne of studying an extensive amount of data, and employ the Command trapping of Presence where appropriate.

Stunts:
Perfect Aim (Guns): When making an attack, take a -2 penalty to defenses and Alertness until the start of your next turn to gain a +1 to the attack roll.
Outrageous Untruths (Deceit): Use Deceit to apply the Overcome/Create Advantage trappings of Provoke, so long as falsehood is heavily involved in your claims.

Powers:
Item of Power: White Light Dragon Armor [-3]
-Supernatural Speed [-4]
-Wings [-1]
-One-Time Discount [+2]

Item of Power: Judgement Spark [-2] (A massive concealed energy weapon, intended for use in desperate situations to take down heavily armored enemies. Its effects are indicated below.)
--Target Acquired. Dispensing Judgement: Make a Guns attack. If it succeeds, add four shifts to the effect.
--D-Engine Depleted: Judgement Spark can normally only be used once per scene. Additional uses require the expenditure of a Fate Point.
--Hard Light: Your Guns attack roll is also treated as a roll to Create an Advantage. The extra shifts from Judgement Spark and the attack's weapon rating are not added when determining whether the action Succeeds with Style.

The Grand Equation [-0] (Cassandra's Tears reskin: Features the following trapping instead. Chaos Prediction: You have an uncanny ability to notice details others have missed and put them together to form a coherent picture of the future, borne of natural intuition sharpened by years of training to recognize patterns. When you make a prediction, which requires a minimum amount of information with which to make a logical connection, you place an aspect on the “world” related to the prediction that remains until it comes true or is otherwise resolved. However, your intuitive leap leaves some factors unaccounted for, giving the GM one free tag or compel against you to use before the prediction is resolved. You can perform more accurate predictions by spending a Fate Point to invoke your related Aspect: if you do so, the GM does not get the free tag or compel.)

Gear:
White Light Dragon Armor, Armor: 3.
White Light Weapon Systems (White Heat), Weapon: 3.
Judgement Spark, Weapon: 4.
D-Cell Sidearm, Weapon: 2.

Stress:

Physical: ( )( )( )
Mental: ( )( )( )

Refresh: 1/8

Transient People fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Apr 12, 2013

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.
The banner image change in the OP worries me.

Davin Valkri
Apr 8, 2011

Maybe you're weighing the moral pros and cons but let me assure you that OH MY GOD
SHOOT ME IN THE GODDAMNED FACE
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!
It intrigues me, too, along with the removal of the "everything here is true and complete" clause.

Incidentally, how did I miscount my skills and put 35 points down? Changed it to 30 but yeesh, how embarassing.

Ettin
Oct 2, 2010

Comrade Gorbash posted:

The banner image change in the OP worries me.

That's the banner I put in the recruitment thread for laughs, I swapped them around.

Davin Valkri posted:

It intrigues me, too, along with the removal of the "everything here is true and complete" clause.

I answered that question at the end of the second post already!

Davin Valkri
Apr 8, 2011

Maybe you're weighing the moral pros and cons but let me assure you that OH MY GOD
SHOOT ME IN THE GODDAMNED FACE
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

Ettin posted:

I answered that question at the end of the second post already!

I said it intrigued me, not that I wasn't aware of the answer :cheeky:.

Ettin
Oct 2, 2010
Final Sunday Updates!

We are down the final 4 days almost! To celebrate we're announcing one more round of updates and bonus features for the Adventurer and Shinigami Rewards!

$10 Add-On - The Secret Salute

You will have access to a special title that commemorates your participation in this recruit. Titles are selectable in the OOC thread and you can determine when this title is displayed to other characters. You will be able to trigger an on-command "emote" animation available only to recruit posters! A fun way to commemorate the recruit and to show solidarity with other Psycho SS Officers in-game! All characters you make will have these benefits.

Adventurer Reward Bonus - Head Start

You will be invited to Skype me while I am posting the followup stuff about city creation so you'll get a jump start on all players joining on Release. Shirts stay on.

Adventurer and Shinigami Reward Bonus - Invite A Friend: Nakamamate

We want to encourage backers to entice their friends to join the recruit. In the after the project ends you'll be able to link to a friend's account, and if that friend accepts, you and your friend get a special benefit. Pledges for Buddy and Guild level rewards get 2x and 6x accounts, respectively, that you will be able to allocate as you see fit (and there is no need to worry, there's no rush).

Characters on your SA accounts will bear the Nakamamate Mark. Any time two or more characters with the Nakamamate Mark are in a pbp, everyone with the Nakamamate Mark will gain a synergy bonus. In addition, your friend will be super loving anime. Each backer will only be able to invite one Friend and accept one invitation, which will be permanent (but you can change your invite if your friend request is denied).

- - -

Okay for reals though, this thing is still open despite all these apps. Moving the deadline is tricky due to Reasons, but I might cut it short by a few hours to a day if new apps drop off and nobody indicates they are working on a thing. If you haven't finished your characters (and aren't waiting while I drag my feet on deciding how to stat something) please do so!

I am still in #redhandofdoom if you need anything (on Australian time but still).

Old Kentucky Shark
May 25, 2012

If you think you're gonna get sympathy from the shark, well then, you won't.


yes, but how much do we have to donate to be a dragon?

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!
And Mina is done, along with a vague explination of her technomancy!

MadRhetoric
Feb 18, 2011

I POSSESS QUESTIONABLE TASTE IN TOUHOU GAMES
I'm out of Cat Jail, give me a day or two to make something.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Ettin
Oct 2, 2010

MadRhetoric posted:

I'm out of Cat Jail, give me a day or two to make something.

Ettin posted:

Deadline's at 11:59PM US Pacific, January 17.

You can do it!

  • Locked thread