Ammon

Rumours circulating around many of the Skulls members lately concern Jimmy "Blackheart" McGee, who was apparently pushed out of a 6th story window by his own boss. Although there are many wild rumours about what earned him such treatment, the most common version is that he had brought a lot of heat to the gang, resulting in a massive bust up of a gang safe-house, and the arrest of over 40 gang members.

Almost all versions of the story say it was over a woman, some ex-girlfriend of another Skulls member that Blackheart wanted to get at.

Unwisely, Blackheart had neglected to take into account that girls who have gained both super-powers, and super-powered friends, are not easy pickings.

Oh jeeze, not yet another ex-playboy-model katana-wielding skantily-clad heroine running around Paragon... hehehe

Given the topic title, I've tried hard to focus on tips for new roleplayers, people who are not yet experienced, and who have no idea whether or not they are 'good' or 'bad' roleplayers.

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That all starts with having a really strong idea of your own character's tastes, beliefs, and identity.

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As you gain experience, this becomes less necessary, and it isn't needed at all if you're just new to roleplaying in CoX. It does depend on you and how comfortable you feel in winging it.

One of my best roleplaying characters... no, two of them, weren't planned out in more detail than a vague idea before taking them to GG the first time. Their personalities developed from interacting with other characters.

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I do know what you mean there, and certainly an experienced roleplayer can take on a variety of roles with only minimal planning. But they are often rather hackneyed characters at first, based on predictable stereotypes with no depth but what develops with later thought.

The other danger, and one that affects even the experienced roleplayers, is that one can easily end up reacting with one's own reactions, making all the characters a little too similar, like some of those cameo roles that professional actors end up in, where they are really just playing the same part in differing situations from one film/story to another.

Personally, I do recommend adding some original depth to a character from the start, before ever roleplaying, if one wants a meaningful character to be predicted.

There's a lot of fun in just slapping a loose idea together - say for an archer who is an ex poacher and has a mummerset accent - but those characters, while fun and easy to play, are really not so believable to interact with in the main, and much more shallow at the start than a really detailed concept, who has a history, attitudes, and rationale behind those attitudes all planned out.

The great characters are not those that are everything we expect, and so easily swallowed - they are the one's who surprise us, and yet are utterly convincing with those unexpected twists and unpredicted character details and realisticly individual psychology.

My 2 cents anyway.

Good going, Gorbaz. Registered myself at once.

Private journal of White Vampyr

Thankfully I remembered to get some fresh fiter coffee on my way to the base tonight. Johnny keeps finishing it off with all his late night lab work, and we would have had no coffee for the meeting tonight otherwise.

Marina was the first to arrive. I'd spoken to her on her cell phone earlier to make sure she wasn't in a bar - I'm sure Bastinado would be against anyone drinking before a mission. Was good to chat over fresh coffee before the boys arrived.

Johnny was absent - probably off grabbing more supplies - but he was missed, especially by Marina. I'm worried he's over-working himself. A cracked egg-head won't be any use to us or himself.

Solar Flame was the first to arrive at the base. He's been having a tough time of his immolation powers, and has several times almost burned down his home in his sleep. I think it is leaving him quite tired, as several times he seemed a bit disconnected from activities about him.

Psyte came in next. He's the one I worry most about at the moment. He's having a hard time with his new powers too, and seems to have let it make him self-absorbed. He seems so cold at times, only interested in himself and his own needs and wants. But I understand that I guess, and I do feel he'll come around in time.

The last week or so has shown me how wrong I was to withdraw from others at first. We, all of us, are stronger in company. We need to support one another, and pull together if we are to get through this. Psyte was the one pulling against the group, rather than with it. I hope he can change that in time.

When Bastinado arrived, our meeting began, without Johnny or James. It is amazing how much Bastinado seems to be changing his spots too. When I first met him, it was he that seemed the coldest, and most callous. I'm not sure that he's learned any love for us, but he does seem a lot easier with us, so has at least accepted us as his allies and team, and that's good enough.

He laid out his plans for the evening to investigate the Outcasts and Trolls in the Hollows. Both groups are gangs where others changed by the incident might seek to fit in with other mutants, he felt. I certainly agree it is worth a shot, but we will need to tread carefully.

I still think The Lost are a better bet, since not only can dropouts and mutants hide in their ranks, but rumours also speak of them having access to advanced technology, especially weapons, and some way of causing further mutation. Since homeless people are so often present in hospitals, it just seems the most obvious place to start, to me.

Anyway, Bastinado had a contact already at the Hollows, and we found ourselves again assisting the PPD directly. This time in dealing with the open gang warfare that has broken out in this area.

We came under fire several times just traveling around in the Hollows. Most wounds were minor, but there were a couple of incidents were teammates had to seek medical attention at the nearest hospital.

After breaking up a few open gun-battles between the gangs, we discovered the location of one of the Outcast bases where a sizeable arsenal was being built up. We took the place apart and found some serious weaponry in there, including sniper rifles and automatic rifles. Thank goodness we could sieze at least that consignment before it made its way to the streets.

We made several arrests, and tracked down some of the leaders of the gun trafficing ring, rescuing several police officers along the way who'd been outnumbered and outgunned by the Trolls gang and were in serious trouble.

Our team really did come together well, even Psyte seeming to have discovered that we're sincere about helping one another, especially once Marina risked herself openly to save him from a bad situation.

It was a good day's work, all around. I finally feel we started to justify the title of 'hero' that has been thrust on us. Saving those cops was such a good thing. Of course, I still think that anyone who'd choose to be a cop in this crazy city is the real hero. They know they are often outclassed, yet still bravely do their best - sometimes in situations massively beyond them.

The biggest surprise for me tonight came last. Bastinado decided to make me one of the Lieutenants of our group. I really didn't want that kind of responsibility, but once he assured me the title was mostly nominal, and I'd not be responsible for ordering teammates into danger, I accepted the honor.

It surprised me though, especially given that Bastinado had seemed so opposite in terms of ethics at first. Still, perhaps that voice of question is what he wants - a second opinion that will be genuine.

Marina got promoted to Lieutenant too, and given her bravery tonight, I fully agree with the decision. I do hope she won't be forced into tough situtions by the role though. She's so sweet and, at times still so young.

Ah well, duty calls. As lieutenant, I get to make photocopies of Bastinado's 'field notes' for the evening. Oh joy.

((OOC note for those absent: the levels have reached 9-10 if you want to catch up a bit before the next session))

I just wanted to add a few of my own tips to Zortel's great guide.

My 'qualifications' for giving any advice, if you want to know are simply that I've been a roleplayer for over 22 years (starting out with AD&D), and that I have managed to integrate 3 separate alts into the regular groups at Pocket D within just a week. That last bit is the important part - if I can fit three characters in so easily, then following the same tips should help you too.

My first tip is the most basic but essential: Know your character. You are going to have to play a part realistically enough to seem completely real to strangers. You're also going to need to be consistent from one meeting with other characters to another. That all starts with having a really strong idea of your own character's tastes, beliefs, and identity.

If a big brute lumbers up to your character, will they be intimidated or attracted? If someone casually refers to having murdered someone, is your character shocked or not? Do they speak out or back off?

You are going to have to react in real-time to all the weird and unexpected things that dozens of other people's imaginations and plot-lines will throw past you. The better you bknow your role, the better your rolepay will be, and the more enjoyment you'll get from it too.

My second tip is to keep it real. Don't play the game, play the character, and make them as realistic as you can so that others can relate to them. Think of your character in the context of the game world. You are not actually that special in a whole city of heroes or villains. Positron doesn't walk in and expect to be worshipped, so if your character act's like that, everyone else's is likely to regard him/her as a bit of a fool, and way too weird and arogant to want to know.

If your character is in a new situation, such as joining the social gathering at GG, or in Pocket D, only the most stuck-up and conceited would expect everyone to treat them like a friend right away. Take it slowly and keep it realistic. Just getting to introduce yourself on evening one is an accomplishment. On evening two you can wave to people you met before, hopefully remember the names they gave (often not the ones above their character), and be a loose aquintance.

Making friends in character should be like making friends in the real world - it takes time, and comes about through either many interatcions, or very meaningful ones.

My third tip is the most important of all. Remember that this is a MMRPG - massively multiplayer. RP is not just about showing off your brilliant ideas for a colourful background. It is just as much about being the foil for other people to Roleplay their characters to. Be someone they can talk to to further their own roles and you'll be someone popular to RP with. Spend too much time just showing off and self-absorbed and there's no reason for others to talk to you at all - they aren't playing to be an audience for your monologues. It is all about participation and mutual enjoyment of the roles you have chosen.

Private journal of White Vampyr

The rest of the past week has been just as turbulent and life changing as the first few days. Fellow Watchman, High Burn, who I call Burnie, has become like a sister to me, and we often meet up in Pocket D for a dance and a drink. I've promised to take her to some of my favourite designer boutiques too.

I've made a lot of new friends at the club actually. Some like Chilly and Dinah are staff there, but others like Rachel, Raven, Nick, Lee, and Leon, are just other people who like the place. Some are even classed as villains, but I judge by what I find, let the courts or those with evidence worry about the rest.

The biggest changes to my life are certainly those involving Brit. I have to admit that I was flirting with him, but we both were doing that in no serious manner, but simply because flirting is good fun. There wasn't the least intention to get involved. I was nowhere near ready for dealing with that kind of stuff, I thought.

But somewhere in all the chats, and all the soothing of my fears and worries, I found myself realising that I was in love with him. When he asked me out on a date, I was both terrified and thrilled.

We just get on so amazingly well, and we seem to have this empathic bond almost. He sometimes accuses me of being psychic and reading his mind. I think it is simply that we have such similar spirits, but I really don't know what my powers can do yet. I know I'm barely scratching the surface of them so far, so perhaps he's right and I can absorb mental energy too?

Whatever, I'm feeling like a giddy schoolgirl, and despite the wrench of my life, I feel blessed rather than cursed now. I just can't believe how my life has turned around so swiftly. I am incredibly lucky, and determined more than ever to find an equally positive use for these strange powers. How I got them, or what they cost isn't the big issue, compared to choosing how I will use them for good.

I'm looking forward to going out with the Watchmen tomorrow and seeking out other survivors. We thought that other survivors discovering powers may have sought to join one of the gangs to feel kinship. The ones we feel most likely are probably the Outcasts. However, the Lost also seem to be a possibility, and more to the point, they are rumoured to have a lot of access to advanced technology, and some kind of scientifically produced mutation. That could be very similar to whatever device poor Hyperion Star was hit with, and which caused the devastation at the hospital in the first place...

Although I’d been forced to register as a ‘hero’, on the advice that to use super-powers without registration would contravene much of the protection of the Citizen’s Crime Fighting legislation, I have never considered myself a heroine. I’ve not done much heroic so far. Stopping a few muggings? Any social minded citizen should do what they can there.

In working with the Watchmen, I finally did something that seemed more worthy of the title. I assisted the police with springing a trap on a super-powered villain who was intending to raid the bank in Atlas Park. However, it is still the PPD officers who truly deserve the credit, as it was they who had uncovered the plan and staked out the bank. All I did was confront a villain, power on power, according to the plan of the cops. Give the credit to the fine officers of the PPD, I say.

I returned again to Pocket D after the missions with the Watchmen, and was delighted to see that lovely Brit guy from the night before. Once again, his calm and casual manner was a salve to my soul. He introduced me to a friend that even in this journal I will only call Edward. Edward was hiding a secret, although only barely.

His secret enabled him to answer the question that has frightened me the most. It was the answer I had most dreaded. There is indeed something of the Vampire about me. I cried I’m afraid, making a complete fool of myself, not to mention ruining my eye make-up. But in fact it was better to know. Better by far to confirm the worst than to simply fear and dread it.

I don’t have any blood-lust, and indeed, don’t feel any actual compulsion to use whatever vampiric power I have inside. It could be so much worse. As it is, I am still free to be what I want to be, to do what I choose to do. I still take responsibility for my own actions and choices. If my soul is cursed or whatever, well, suicide would have meant the same anyway – no loss there.

Brit and ‘Edward’ were so wonderful. I really do feel so much better for knowing, and neither of them seemed to regard me as any kind of monster. I feel a lot better equipped to deal with whatever I am or am becoming now. I feel a lot stronger, and prepared to take responsibility, not just mope about my fate. Compared to ‘Edward’, I have it so easy I should be ashamed for my past year.

Private Journal of White Vampyr

…and it just gets stranger.

The last week has been so eventful that each day a dozen life-changing events seem to occur. It started just the night before first joining the Hyperion Watchmen – when heading to the strange Pocket D bar to get some ‘dutch courage’ for the following day.

I felt so nervous going in, but I know clubs well, and there’s no anonymity so thorough as that on a crowded dance floor. Besides, music has always been my best therapy. Getting out on the floor and dancing soon washed away so many of the troubled thoughts that had been too long dominating my days and nights.

Of course, after dancing a while, I found myself gasping for a cool drink. I only realised at that moment how long it had been. I hadn’t been clubbing since before the… incident. The last alcohol I’d drunk was on the night of the incident itself, but that brought back thoughts I didn’t want to face.

I headed up to the bar, for the first time not wondering if I might be recognised. It had been too long, surely. I got myself a drink and noticed the cool fetishwear type outfit one of the women at the bar was in. The guy she was with was huge – a man mountain of a guy. She caught me glancing and came over to mark her territory clearly – alpha female for sure. Her name was Echo Hammer it turned out, and once she realised I wasn’t hankering after her man, Ben, she was pretty nice company.

Until some vile guy in a suit came up that was. She called him Mugon or something like that, but he was slimy. One of those guys with a massive superiority complex they’ll never live up to. I tried hard not to hear the conversation, but the guy was such a braggart he was almost shouting, and it was clear he was some kind of contract hit-man. Worse, he seemed to be in the employ of Echo and her gang or whatever.

I felt there was more than enough darkness in me already – I really didn’t want to get involved with the Underworld as well, so I pretty much backed off. It showed what I’ve always suspected though – that some villains are just people, and likeable people, they simply are able to justify actions that the rest of us would feel sick about. Shame, Echo had been a good enough drinking companion, even if Mugon had been a slimeball.

Turned out for the best though, because that was what made me edge along the bar a bit further and encounter a guy who was going to change my life completely. He was stood there in casual clothes – a bit more of a muscle-man than my tastes had ever run to, but there was something about him. He was calm and casual. Just what I needed.

His name was Britanic, but he prefers being called Brit, and he was such soothing company. That casualness was something I so needed around me in the craziness my life has become. I found myself chatting with him so easily, and even when he seemed to recognise me, it didn’t worry me somehow.

The poor guy was pretty cut up about the way his cover had been blown, and his identity as a super-hero revealed in his ‘normal’ life. Someone had targeted him, and caused harm to innocents and colleagues and the poor guy was blaming himself for it. Heck, that kind of stuff is common to all celebrity. We all attract weirdos who want to do us harm or stalk us. In drawing those parallels for him, letting him see that it is not about us, those things, but about the nature of sick minds. That if the sickoes hadn’t had him to target, they’d have surely targeted someone else, and still done the same damage.

The singer doesn’t cause the stalking, and neither does a hero. Both are simply random excuses used by sick minds to justify the evil they wanted to cause anyway. They are just scapegoats. They are victims as surely as any.

Funnily enough, helping him and sorting his problems eased my own mind too. Bad things can happen to good people. We don’t have to have earned or deserved our misfortunes. It is more about what we do with what happens to us, not about whether what happens is our fault or not. When I left, my spirit felt lighter than it had since a while before the hospital incident.

Personal Journal of White Vampyr

Life is strange.

It has been just over a year now since the incident at the hospital that gave me my powers, and this strange new life. A year since successful singer Suzi White, pin-up front-girl for the band Gothic Overtones, arrived in a hospital, her heart having stopped beating in the ambulance on the way.

Suzi died in that hospital. I’m not quite sure who I am, but I’m not the same Suzi that was taken to that hospital. I’m the one who was reborn in a flash of shock, seeing for just an instant a medic over her, holding two paddles to her chest. Seeing in that frozen instant, all the details, like a snapshot in my mind.

I can see the look of shock, even horror on the medic’s face. I can see the charred wires that have split their blackened plastic sheathing, which lead from the paddles he holds back to the smoking machine to my side. I can even smell the burning plastic and a sharp scent of ionisation.

Then the world jolts and twists, with a blast, that tears everything across my vision like a drawing in dry sand being blown away by a great gale. Walls collapse and the ceiling falls, yet I am unharmed, seeming impervious, and nothing but a covering of masonry dust and a few flakes of ash seems to touch me.

It could be that the shock affected my perception. Or the terror. But I recall just getting up and rushing out. Fleeing the scene of Suzi’s death. Hoping to escape the madness. Desperate to get away from what I had seen in the eyes of that medic, or the burning of his resuscitation equipment.

I simply ran off to my flat, grabbed my tour bags and purse, and got out. I didn’t want to be where anyone could find me. I used my anonymous account, the one I use for booking hotels or flights when on tour, to rent a small flat on the other side of town, in a run-down area where nobody looks at their neighbours.

I hid.

I hid from the press, from my friends, and from whatever the heck had happened to me. I’d known immediately in that instant of shocked awakening that something was very wrong. Very wrong with me. I’d known because I could see it. I could see a dark swirling inside me even as I’d seen the heat-energy coming from the burned wires, and the life-energy of the medic. Just as I’d seen the electric energy of the lights in the ceiling and the wires in the wall.

I could see energy somehow like the way some mystics are supposed to see auras. I could see, in myself, a force that was almost a polarised opposite of natural energies. A negative energy. Something that had sucked the energy out of the resuscitation machine so fast and hard that it had burned it out.

To cut a long story short, I stayed hidden. I went out only when it was dark enough that I could feel nobody would see me, or at least, wouldn’t think they recognised me. Even then I only went out to late night stores, and only when I had to. I couldn’t face my own reflection in a mirror, scared of what I’d see. I had some weird vampiric power, and was living like a vampire too.

I did strongly consider taking another overdose. Ridding the world of whatever monster I’d become. Of course, considering that was how it had all started, I was terrified it would only make things worse. I honestly felt I was being punished. That I was cursed. Committing the same sin again was only going to make it worse, surely.

Basically, a year passed. I’d had plenty of money in my accounts, and I was living so frugally, had so few shopping needs, that I wasn’t at all worried about cash. Somehow my accounts had never been closed, even though I’m sure I had been reported dead. I heard about the memorial service held for all those who’d died, but I couldn’t go. It just wouldn’t be right to attend the memorial for the dead, when you are one of those departed being remembered.

But then I heard about what happened after. Other survivors who attended had had super-powers. They’d gone on to do something heroic, presumably to honour the super-hero whose death had been a part of the explosion at the hospital. They came into the local news again later, busting up some grave robbery ring.

When reports of the villains they’d arrested mentioned a connection with hospital staff, I knew they were investigating something. Were they looking for me? Was it my transformation that had caused the blast? The death of the hero?

I think the loneliness and terror must have gotten to me because what I did next was insane. I hunted out the rest of the grave-robbery ring to get answers. Perhaps my bravery was due to their sacrilege of the dead, I don’t know, but I was driven, and I hunted through their ranks until I found information on their gathering places and hideouts. Then I hit those hideouts with a vengeance until I found someone who’d had the answers of what the heroes had been after.

Fate threw yet another twist at me when in trying to discover if the group of survivors had registered themselves with hero corps, I was recognised by one of those survivors themselves. I didn’t remember him, but then I’d arrived at that hospital unconscious and with no heart-beat. He recognised me, and told me what they were doing, that most if not all of the survivors seemed to have gained powers of some kind. That something about the hero who’d died had probably caused these changes, and the explosion too.

He wanted me to meet the others, and driven by my need to know about these powers, and the fact that James seemed an honest regular Joe, I agreed to meet them the next night. That brings me to how I met the Hyperion Watchmen, and decided to join them in seeking the cause, and perhaps even a cure, for what had happened to us all.

"Britanic has become a vampire, or else was one all along. Not only has he been seen hanging almost exclusively with Vampires in Pocket D lately, but he's actually dating one of them too!"
- The statement of one of the bouncers at Pocket D, overheard by several customer who were entering or exiting the club at the time.

Major Paul Stone (retired) arrived at Pocket D quite early in the evening, a while before people might gather under GG's skirt. Already a few patrons were there, and he managed to easily fall into conversation with Nick over the difference between a fine single-malt whisky, and the commercial but inferior Bourbons he'd been drinking.

Of course, with Nick's women troubles, he was probably quite prepared to settle for any booze that could numb the heart-aches.

High Burn was already present, but was very tired , and later fell off her seat after dozing off.

There was certainly little call to ask for proof of age when a number of the patrons of the bar were speaking of times centuries in the past with first-hand knowledge.

The customers were the typical mix of Pocket D, with both heroes and villains sharing space with (mostly) a very minimal amount of animosity. Indeed, on the few isolated disagreements that did break out during the evening, both heroes and villains alike stepped in to preserve the 'Neutral Ground' sanctuary status of Pocket D.

There was one slightly insane customer who insisted he was a God named Dark Jaguar, ((typical God-modding idiot determined to spoil RP for others)), but he was easily drowned out by the music ((and typing /ignore Dark Jaguar helped even more)).

The liveliest conversation for Paul concerned world travels, studies of the arcane, and history as experienced first-hand, that he had with Flame Slinger. The two seemed to enjoy one another's company, and the bottle of very fine single-malt that Paul had purchased to share with various drinking partners throughout the evening.

Although Paul didn't stay long, he enjoyed his visit, and will certainly be back.

Later on, after Paul had left, White Vampyr arrived, mainly hoping against hope that Britanic would turn up sometime. She was happy to see many of the faces that have already become familiar to her, including Alraune, Justice Goldheart, Vigilante Storm and Mechanical Mary.

White Distracted herself for a while in a civil argument with Mary and another Mechanical person she hadn't met properly before. These 'mad inventor' types from the Rogue Islands were insisting that creating zombies might be a perfectly ethical experiment to discover more about life and death, while White Vampyr and Flame Slinger both disagreed completely, stating that zombies were nothing to do with life, but mere puppets made from dead meat, and were furthermore an insult to the very essence of life.

However, White was merely trying to keep herself occupied to stop her constantly glancing around the bar in hopes that Britanic would drop by. When Britanic did finally arrive, it soon became apparent to all others at the bar that their relationship had progressed beyond mere friendship, and that the two were dating quite seriously.

White Vampyr and Britanic were inseperable all night, and were obviously an item as they chatted and joked with others. Britanic introduced White to his team-mate, GoodGuy, and White introduced Brit to her team-mate, Bastinado. Brit and White headed for the exit together in the small hours, long after Alraune had gone home, and Lost Vahzilok (who told Alraune her name was 'Found') who'd had the late-shift, had called time, and closed the bar.

Thanks, Romanov.

I forgot to mention, OOC, that White Vampyr is a Defender (Kinetic/Dark).

No way could Suzi think of attending the memorial service. While there was no way of forgetting the whole incident, there was no reason to make a show of remembering. Even in such a decision, her mind flashed back to the awful event, and she sobbed...

There had been dim sounds like a far off drumming back at the flat. Then strange faces had wavered into her dimming vision. She wanted to sleep but they kept disturbing her, dim booming voices, and perhaps some shaking. She had no idea how long this lasted, but sleep came at last.

No pain. No regrets. Peace.

Then pain and shock and bright light. She could see now the instant - the shock on the face of someone holding two metal things to her chest as the world jolted and a force ripped across everything. Something... no, everything, was seriously wrong as catastrophy struck...

Shaking uncontrollably, Suzi snapped back to the present. The hell with the memorial service. Too much. Too soon. Especially since she was perhaps one of the dead being remembered - at least if any had known she'd gotten to the hospital, for none had noticed her leave it in the aftermath and shock.

The world may well think that sweet goth-chick Suzi White is dead. Suzi herself is certain of it. Now she's just some pale thing, afraid to look in a mirror for what she'll see, hiding from daylight.

Like a frikken vampyr.

White Vampyr, that should be her name now...

I'm certainly interested.

I don't know if this is any use to you in taking ideas further, but I was thinking the other day about a team that are guided by, for want of a better term, negative spirits.

I'd started out idly wondering if a team could be based on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The obvious inherrent limitation was that there could only be four. So I switched my thinking to the Seven Deadly Sins, and what they might be like. Naturally, with the sinful connotation, I was thinking villains appropriate. I somehow imagined Envy as being a corrupter with draining (theft) powers, such as Dark Blasts and Kinetics. Wrath seemed aslmost certainly a brute, perhaps fiery, like his temper. Greed seemed to be a stalker, lurking and striking for personal gain, not sharing even his hiding places...

Anyway, that was the thinking that lead me to think up the Spirits of Vice, each representing the darker side of what intelligent beings can do, from murder to treachery, from enjoying the pain of others to caring only for one's self.

These spirits are a supernatural manifestation. They are magic of the kind that Demons and Angels may be. The kind of magic of ancient forces of the world itself. But they have taken physical form.

At the beginning therefore, such characters would be drawn to each other. Would sense a kinship. Yet while recognizing the spirit within, the characters may not have any idea of their own origins. Each would be left to puzzle whether he had a former life and was possessed, or whether he was 'created' as a physical form for the force within. In other words, any character could be such a spirit...

Just some thoughts to play with or discard as you like.

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I think corruptor possibly is the hardest AT to choose powers for since, it can both work as blaster/buffers/healers and debuffers and there isnt room for them all.

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Ain't that the truth! The corrupter is probably the most versatile AT of all, and can be very aggressive, very defensive, or any point of balance in between. I think that is one of the reasons I'm enjoying that AT so much with no less than 4 different variant Corrupters on the go currently.

Also, the powerset choices make more difference to a corrupter (and the same was true of Defenders in CoH of course) to that while 2 characters may be of the same archetype, there is a world of difference between the often Dominator like powers and style of the Dark/Dark corrupter, the 'leverage the team' style of the */Kinetics corrupter, and so forth.

The last thing I'd want to do is lose that diversity. But certain powersets are designed as more 'supportive' and 'team-based' than others. There's a reason that Thermal Radiation has a lot of powers that cannot be cast on yourself, and it isn't therefore a particularly wise choice of powerset for those who mostly prefer to solo. */Radiation or */Dark would be far better for the soloist. Thermal is designed as a team support powerset, that will only attain its full potential in a team-support role.

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WoW Ammon... nice. After all the best way to convince someone of your point is to say they're idiots for not agreeing with you isn't it? XD

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I said I couldn't make it a neaderthal issue - were you asking it to be made one? If any neanderthals are reading this (bit difficult without a written language I'm thinking) they might be insulted. How can it insult anyone who is not deciding for themselves that this applies to them? Was it you who thought this thread was advising people to be taking buffs instead of heals, when that has specifically been explained several times that this is about having both? If it is, then yes, if you're asking, I'll think you are stupid on the Forrest Gump proof method (Stupid is as stupid does).

Anyone else is simply being informed of my (admittedly strong) opinion that it isn't an either or question, and can't be made one without being oversimplified. (As Einstein famously put it: "Everything should be made as simple as possible - but no simpler!"). I felt that was an essential point because some of the replies were obviously thinking that this thread was telling them to choose a buff powerset over a healing powerset (force fields instead of empathy it seemed some were thinking) and needed a bit of a nudge that such a choice is not the case.

I actually went out of my way to express that disagreement is fine when I said: "Noone is teling anyone how they must play. What we are trying to do here is educate newer players about strategy methods they may not yet have discovered for themselves."

If anyone is being insulting here, is it not you for continually implying things that have never been said? I actually said its fine to disagree, and where on earth did I claim I was angry?

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Just curious but that corruptor who took 6 blast powers... was he a good damage dealer or were you too busy hollering at him to notice, because he didn't play the AT the way you fanatically believe it should?

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It was hard to say - he spent half the mission on his face asking if anyone had spare awakens. He face-planted 3 times through making the standard 'noob blaster' style mistakes of firing off shots like mad and being surprised that he got the aggro for it. There's no Tankers with taunts to save his hide in CoV.

The team all declared they were taking a break after the mission, and all split, but it turned out they just wanted to lose him, as the team reformed (minus the rad/rad corrupter) straight after.

I know that noone in that team ever wanted to team with him again, which is sad. They could have helped him become more familiar with game mechanics and concepts, with teamplay, and the idea of not pulling a second mob's aggro while the team are all still busy on the first.

They did try a little I think, but he had this mentality that isn't right for any team game. I think you put it into words earlier:
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Here's an idea... how about you concentrate on your character

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After they'd tried to explain why pulling the second mob had gotten him killed, and how dealing with one lot at a time was easier his response was that it was his character and they should mind their own business, and concentrate more on healing him rather than criticising him. (And honestly, it was the mildest criticism to someone who has just pulled a second or third mob into an already hectic fight for the third time in a row I have ever seen on CoH or CoV).

Funny thing was that of course, he was continually shouting at others on how they let him get killed, should heal him faster or protect him more. Guess it was only he that had a character we were all supposed to focus on. He seemed to think that all other players were merely accessories to his game and his fun. Guess that's why he got ditched.

As you can tell just from the discrete way they decided to lose the guy, even after he'd been such a rude and thoughtless dork, noone wasted their time (or his) on shouting. Once it was clear he wasn't a team player, there was obviously no point in bothering with further advice, never mind shouting at him. They let him do what he liked, and tried to deal with the consequences to the rest of the team. A pretty mature group all in all.

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Feel free to give people advice and share your experience; that's definitely good, but please calm the heck down and stop getting so angry over something that really is ultimately unimportant ^^;

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That's what I am doing, and no matter what you are trying to read into my posts, there is no lack of calm, and certainly no anger. I was laughing as I thought back to that particular guy, with some slight sympathy, but it was so ridiculous it was funny. I can't help the assumptions you make, but I do respectfully ask that if you can't stop yourself from making false assumptions about me, my emotional states, and my motivations, that you at least have the decency to stop posting them as some kind of forum-based defamation of character. Thank you.

If you must hunt out angry people, see if you can figure out which one decided to down-rate me as a poster simply because they don't agree with me. Now there's anger for you.

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imagine your teammate has a total of 300 hit points of life. The alpha-strike is doing 305 pts of damage. No matter how many heals you have, and no matter how you slot them, how will you heal that? All the pure healer can do is rez him, and he got debt. But even a mere 10% damage reduction would have saved his life, and prevented debt.

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That's not about whether it is more fun to heal or not. It is the simplest of strategy. Without the shields, no matter how fast or well you can heal, the squishies in the team can be one-shotted.

The shields give you the chance (and still sometimes a very slim, edge of the seat one) to get a heal in while your teammate is on that tiny fragment of life, before the next shot comes in. A fragment of life he'd have not had without the shields.

This isn't about buffing instead of healing. Its about the fact that you should be doing both if your powerset provides the capabilities for both. It is about waking people up to the strategy that being able to raise a dead one-shotted teammate isn't as strategically clever as preventing him being able to be one-shotted.

I'm sorry if that's too complex a concept for anyone to understand. I'm sorry I can't make this moronically simple like "heal good, buff bad" but I can't. This isn't a game for neanderthals, so its concepts can't be brought down to that level.

It is all about strategy. The corrupter who knows that buffs and debuffs can be more useful than heals is strategically superior to the corrupter who only bothered with one heal out of a rich and varied powerset and worse still, can't even see what's wrong with that.

Noone is teling anyone how they must play. What we are trying to do here is educate newer players about strategy methods they may not yet have discovered for themselves. Buffs and Debuffs offer more strategic options, and many of us that have posted here are more likely to want to team with a player who understands that than a player who slotted one basic heal all the way to level 20.

For goodness sake, I was teamed with a Rad/Rad the other day who'd taken every one of the six attacks he could have had, and had nothing from his secondaries but his basic healing aura power, and he'd HAD to take that when making the character at lev 1!

The guy obviously has no clue of the difference those Rad debuffs will make to any team, and how quickly and easily any boss falls with those on him. Hopefully a few people like that will see the thread and give the less obvious powers a try.

The League of Scoundrels

The League have existed in a great many forms across the decades for certain, and have roots that extend back to earlier forms of organizations whose effects can be seen in much of human history.

The League adapts to its time, and currently takes the organizational form of a modern international corporation. While the Board Member directors of the League are known, at least by fearsome reputation, to all members, absolutely nothing is known of the Shareholders.

To learn more about the League of Scoundrels, its five major departments, the members, and the rich roleplaying background, feel free to drop into The League of Scoundrels forum, and to read the backgrounds of The League and its Departments.

Yup. Let's face it, the reason this happens is inexperience and lack of good mentorship.

For my Rad/Thermal character, I three-slotted my first shields before I ever added an extra slot to my single-target heal. Why? Because it is more important.

You are mid-fight, and out of endurance. Your heals are taking 30% longer to fire simply because you haven't enough endurance to fire them as fast as they recharge. But those shields you cast before the fight are still working because the endurance was pre-paid. The shields are the more reliable life-saver in this situation, and many others.

Or imagine your teammate has a total of 300 hit points of life. The alpha-strike is doing 305 pts of damage. No matter how many heals you have, and no matter how you slot them, how will you heal that? All the pure healer can do is rez him, and he got debt. But even a mere 10% damage reduction would have saved his life, and prevented debt.

The shields, buffs and debuffs prevent deaths just as effectively as healing does, and let you need to worry less about healing, and do more to actively help in a fight.

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P.S. anyone at the Comic Expo? I live in Brighton and am busy both days but will be at the party on Saturday

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Yup.

It was said elsewhere that there are 50 people booked to attend, but they don't really expect that all will indeed turn up. Still would expect more than 30 I'd guess.

And hello near-neighbour

If you want to hold bosses, and elite bosses, even when a lackey, slot 3 hold duration enhances so you have time to stack. Slot 2 Accuracy enhances to get to hit those bosses, and make the final slot either an end reduction (for the less slow recharging powers) or a recharge enhance. Remember that you can always use an insp to up your accuracy, but there ain't one to up your hold durations.

If you are going for Hasten as a power, favour endurance reductions over recharge reducs mostly, and let the Hasten power do the fast recharges. However, if you really want to cycle those Holds fast, once again remember that you can take an inspiration to recover some endurance, but there's (really unfairly) no inspiration that hastens or speeds you up.

Tar Patch helps you (and all team mates) kill enemies faster by increasing the damage they'll take from any attacks while in the tar patch.

Darkest Night is one of the best debuffs in the game, and some would say THE best, and what it mainly does above all else is stop them hitting you by MAJORLY reducing their ToHit chances.

Darkest Night burns a lot of endurance until you can slot it, but it is extremely useful in PvP as well as in PvE. Darkest Night is a toggle, and lasts as long as the target of it, which is known as the anchor, is still alive. Tar Patch isn't really much cop in PvP, but as a PvE attack, it does help hold mobs in place, prevent escape, as well as making them all take more damage. Tar Patch helps keep the rest of a mob in the area of the anchor of your Darkest Night.

You definitely do want both, the only question is which to take first. Your choice really.

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To be honest I'd be happy with just 2 or maybe 3 pets... 6 seems a tad overkill XD

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So just summon your top tiers.

More importantly, several defensive powers (including Force Fields) now enable characters to resist enemy TP Foe usage. TP Foe is no longer a guaranteed hit with no defense against it.