Re: X-Men, Marvel, DC, Original Super Hero RP

[quakernuts]

Alright, to clarify.

He does not give sentience to the things he changes. He can't create life, he only changes the functions of non-organic items.

For example, in the one post in the other RP, he grabbed a pen. With his power, he managed to re-arrange the pen into a one-shot pistol and that is how he took care of a guard.

A sheet of metal becomes a metallic body armour that is folded specifically to his body, or a welding machine becomes an arm-mounted flamethrower-esque weapon.

That's the sort of thing I'm talking about.

[Kathryn Lacey]

Oh. So basically, he can force inanimate objects to shapeshift into something else as long as it has all the right pieces... With that said, I get how a sheet of metal becomes armor and how welding machine can become a flame thrower, but I don't understand how a pen can become a gun.

[quakernuts]

With a push pen, it has a button that forces the...head? To come out. Rearranging the pieces, supercharging the spring and then giving it a way out, voila, instant one shot pistol

[Digital Muse]

I like that power actually. He'd he a helluva handful. Would he have to have his hands free in order to do this or...is there a way to neutralize his ability?

What might work (and keep your character from being completely isolated) would be if he/she worked within this squad and had this secret agenda as well. That way he/she could interact with the rest of the characters and yet still be the bad guy at the same time.

[Syrena]

Is it awful that the first thing I thought of when I read about your character's power was the second Transformers movie when the kitchen appliances come to life as little robot things?

Oooh, I like Digital Muse's idea a lot. A villain inside the special task force (or what have you)! So much potential for fun.

[quakernuts]

He doesn't necessarily need to be using his hands to use his power, but there was to be physical contact of some sort with the piece of material that he intends to warp.

I like the idea of being a villain inside the group, although that would be tricky considering everyone would already know who the bad guys is, it would rely on everyone not giving into the temptation to be all "I FOUND YOU BAD GUY!"

Also if we were to do that, I would need to do some pretty heavy re-working of the character. I guess we'll have to wait and see as to how this RP gets set up.

[Kathryn Lacey]

Question: Where in the world should this rp be based? I mean, while there are fictional location throughout the world of X-Men, it's still basically an Alternate Earth, so all of those regular locations of our world still apply.

Any suggestions?

[Digital Muse]

Well, New York is already fairly covered in all the comic books, so that likely wouldn't work. But any other city in the world is wide open. Chicago? London? L.A.?

[Lara]

I like the idea of an international city. Like, the London Branch of the Justice League sort of thing, minus the Justice League.

Plus, I know it makes no difference, but it always feels like it'd be a lot easier to travel larger distances overseas rather than the U.S. It's like, "the criminal has escaped to the nearest country! Let's cross the lines and bring him down!" Rather than "he's on the run into Nevada!"

[Syrena]

I'm with Lara on having the setting in an international area like London. We'd have a wonderful opportunity to explore a lot of different countries, too, like Lara said.

Plus, I feel like many role plays are either a fantasy setting or somewhere in the United States like New York or L.A.

[Guest]

I understand the interest in an internation setting, I just don't really know that it is ideal for our role-play. With the plot that we've chosen, a group of humans/supers who are tasked with taking down the small-time villains, I think a darker setting would be better. I know that L.A. is a little over-used, but I think it would be perfect for what we are trying to achieve.
Look at all of the gangs in L.A., and the crime rate in general. Not only would it keep the group busy, but I think that it would make it more interesting by making it more dangerous for them. Once their faces and names get out, every crook and gang in the city would be on the look out for them, waiting for their chance to take them down or just trying to keep off of their radar.
Traveling across the world is fine if we can still make it work with the small-scale villains, but it just seems more suited to the villains aiming on taking over the world.

[Digital Muse]

That's where I was aiming too. Small scale doesn't translate as well to crossing international borders.

[Kathryn Lacey]

I agree with Silvone and Digi. I think that L.A. would be a good place to have the setting be. Crime rates help keep things interesting, too! It doesn't seem like a huge leap to have a gang aimed at anti-mutant hate crimes or a mutant gang that's anti-non-mutants, either. =D

[quakernuts]

Yeah, I like the whole 'London' thing, but crossing borders to deal with people who aren't exactly world dangerous would be a little over the top in my opinion.

We could have it set in Washington DC? Maybe our characters are kind of the trial run for a possible global task force. Washington is our dry run, to see if law-enforcement supers can do their duty and take out villains and bad guys without excessive collateral damage. Washington would be the best place for it due to the centre of Government being right there.

[Digital Muse]

Hrms....that's not a bad idea, either, Quaker. Maybe you and Silvone should get together and make with the plans.

[Kathryn Lacey]

Okay... I'm seeing three ideas, and not very much discussion on them...

London: Where we could experience more of a foreign aspect to the X-Men universe, and where baddies could be chased across countries rather than across states.

Los Angeles: Where crime rates are high, so there would be a lot for the group to do. This would provide a dark, gritty setting for the story.

Washington D.C.: Where the group could be a test runner for a much larger, international mutant-related-crime-fighting sector.


My thoughts:

I already said that I'm not so sure about London because this is supposed to be smaller scale crime and not a "fight the baddies trying to take over the world" kind of game. While that would prove interesting for a larger scale, different sort of game. I could see that happening in maybe an advanced role-play, but for a casual one, it seems a bit too mcuh.

As far as L.A. goes, I love the idea of a dark, gritty setting. It would give us the opportunity to constantly have something to do because there would be hate crimes going both ways with gangs of various natures.

Washing D.C. would offer something in the middle of our London and L.A. ideas. It would permit a larger setting while still being small enough to work on the scale we want. I imagine our task force would potentially be like the F.B.I. where if something happens in other states, they travel to deal with it? We would have to sacrifice our grittier, darker setting to do this, but it could still work.

I'm having trouble deciding whether I like L.A. or D.C. better... >.<

[Syrena]

As much as I like London for the setting--and I really like London--I can see the problem of having a "smaller scale" story in an international setting.

Since London doesn't cater to a smaller scale, the dark, gritty setting of L.A. is appealing. So is the potential for hate crimes.

I like D.C., too. But, like London, I don't think D.C. fits a "smaller scale." Once the bad guy or what have you moves out of state lines, the task force would also move out of state lines--the traveling reminds me of chasing something outside of Britain's boarders. States aren't the same as countries; although, the feel is kind of the same.

If the task force isn't like the FBI and is located in L.A., if the villain leaves he or she isn't in our jurisdiction anymore. (It becomes federal jurisdiction, I believe.) And we didn't do our job well. I also think it fits a smaller scale better.

Although, I'm not going to lie, I'm very partial to the idea of travel. D.C. seems to offer travel and plenty of it! Anyway, just a couple of my thoughts on the whole thing.

[Kathryn Lacey]

Interested Participants:
Digital Muse
Kathryn Lacey
Lara
quakernuts
Squall Reyes
Syrena
Ysopet

Potential Locations:
London (Votes: Lara)
Los Angeles (Votes: Kathryn Lacey, Ysopet)
Washington D.C. (Votes: quakernuts)


I think I'm leaning more toward L.A., and it looks like London probably won't be happening, but I don't want to count it out just yet. Votes can be changed at any time, of course, this is just sort of a tally of who thinks what would be good. Muse and Syrena seem like their votes could go one way or the other, so I'm not sure it's right to count their preference just yet at L.A. because a compromise could be reached on the L.A. vs. D.C. front.

[quakernuts]

Well, when it comes down to location and atmosphere, it also depends on what timeline we plan on doing this story in. Are we planning with present timeline, all the stuff we have plus maybe a few toys due to the presence of supers? Or are we thinking near future, in which case the city becomes our playground for our ideas. Sure, they have to remain somewhat the same in order to keep the name of the actual city, but we could change them in subtle ways.

For instance, if we were to do a near future example of Washington DC, let's say 30-50 years in the future, it may not be the pristine example of Government that it's supposed to portray now. In fact, if we really wanted, we could have be the most heavily super assaulted city due to the fact that the head of Government is right there. Maybe the bad guys want to overthrow the President? Maybe they want to simply show they won't bow to Authority? Maybe they just like making things hard for one of the most important men/women in the country.

Either way, if we were doing a near future thing with DC, we could easily transform at least a section of the city into a very seedy, dark, and gritty area much like LA.

Just my thoughts speaking out loud.

[Digital Muse]

Washington DC already has a dark, gritty slum area. It just doesn't get much press time. We'd just have to be careful not to make the plot too large due to the 'seat of power' that Washington DC represents. The larger supers group or FBI and NSA would handle the big stuff.

If we're voting on venue, though, I rather prefer L.A. to D.C.

[Syrena]

Since we're voting...

I'll go ahead and vote L.A., too. The setting is better for a smaller scale. D.C. has so much potential to escalate into large, world problems.

[Safton]

I'd be interested in this RP as well, if I can find the time to join. I'd be perfectly happy to play one of the normals. Interesting formula brewing here.

[Syrena]

If you're interest is sparking, you should add your thoughts to all the plot points floating around!

[Safton]

I guess I should, shouldn't I?

I would be really interested in a present/very near future plot. As for the location... I really like L.A., even if it's a bit "cliche". I've been to D.C. and I enjoy it as a setting, but Muse brought up a good point there as well.

If I may, I'd like throw out Atlanta as a suggestion. I'm a little biased because it's my hometown (close to it, anyway), but it has some potential in my opinion. It's one of the top ten most dangerous cities in the U.S. with some very bad, slummy areas. Also, if we're going with the hate crime/discrimination thing, I think it would give it a more believable feel to the whole thing. Plus, there's the fact that it's not used very often in stories.

I'm also a sucker for dark, rainy cities, because it's easy to have a sort of neo-noir feel to them -- kind of like the city from Se7en. Portland's a good example, too.

This is just me throwing ideas out there, though. I'm perfectly fine with L.A. or D.C. -- either one has plenty of potential.

[quakernuts]

I'm perfectly fine with any area as our starting point, just throwing DC out there as an option. Although the general feel is starting to definitely shift towards LA. Once a place has been solidified, I can start working on a CS if that's alright with you guys?

I guess the next question, once the area has been chosen, will be what exactly you want the story to be, why we're together in the first place, what we're fighting for, and exactly how large we want this thing to get. I like the idea of having the villain (Yours truly) implanted with the other players, but that should be our next thing to nail down for sure.

Once again, once our host city has been chosen, I'll continue with the making of the CS's if you guys want me to.

[Digital Muse]

The character sheet is going to be necessary sooner or later, so go ahead and fire one up, I'd say, Quaker.

**A few things I think we all agreed on is no over-powered characters and no powers that would allow one character to control another (mind control, time travel, that sort of thing).

As for plot, we can start small; say in the recruitment and training stages to solidify the character's interactions and relationships.

After that, it seems most of the opinions lean toward fighting small powered crimes (robbery, etc) and an over-arc of dealing with prejudice and hate crimes.

Have I got that about right, guys?

[Kathryn Lacey]

sounds about right to me. =D

[Guest]

Sounds good. Not sure how much free time I will have this weekend, but I can start working on a solid outline for how this will start out, and then get up the intro post.

[Digital Muse]

WIN!

[Syrena]

Sounds fantastic! I can't wait.

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