Wordmaker

Damn you Birdy, foiling my evil plot! Now everyone will know that it was in fact Nevermore who masterminded the robberies in order to test out possible new Vigil recruits!

And no, we can't have t-shirts.

Well, we can, but only Figment would wear them

Figment's what?? Oi! Clowny! Noooooo!!!



That was a Vigil operation

So long as we find something that can feed me to the point of satisfaction* I'm fine with anything we go for. Though, given our numbers, perhaps closer to the date we should get a set list of who will definitely be going to the dinner, and book well in advance?

*As many will attest, my appetite defies my size, weight, and waistline. Women hate me for this

Avengers, Assemble! Um...damn, wrong battle cry...

Okay, here we go...

I concur! Dead animal FTW!

Asian is always good, Chinese, Japanese. Not a fan of really spicy stuff though.

Italian's good.

And yes, lumps of dead cow are always enjoyed!

Foiled again!

Few people know that Ravenswing actually lives in a pouch on my back, watching my every move, ready to point out any failure.

[ QUOTE ]
No, sorry but it's generally against the NDA of the game and Cryptic got sued over such a matter a few years ago by Marvel.

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You mean EULA, not NDA. An NDA is a Non-Disclosure agreement, used in order to prevent details of a new product being leaked before the relase. The EULA is the User Agreement, which states the rules by which you agree to abide in order to be allowed to play the game.

Also, the legal suit against Cryptic from Marvel occurred only last year, and wasn't brought about by players breaching copyright regulations, but rather the fact that there was potential for such regulations to be breached by the character creation system.

Just to clear that up

All booked! Bristol, here we come!

Reading it now, looks good. Yep, couple of errors, you want them PMed?

Was I the only person expecting the song to be based on "We Will Rock You" by Queen?

Quiet Birdy! I'm trying to maintain a facade of credibility here!

But in any case, comic books themselves frequently have things change depending on the writer at the time. And as has been said, Cryptic aren't all that good at keeping the CoH setting consistent, so I wouldn't hold it against a player if I happened to find out at some point that some details of their background didn't mesh exactly with the setting.

Yep. Nevermore was originally a complete contradiction to the setting because I had no idea what it was like.

Info on the CoH setting is notoriously sparse, vague, and sometimes contradictory.

No problem, Veskit, and thanks for saying it. It's nice to know my advice is appreciated (and a relief to know people don't hate me for it )

As for earning my name? I studied English at University, it kind of stuck

Okay, fair enough. It's good that you've got all of those details worked out, but you can't assume the reader knows these things. You do need to remember that the reader doesn't know everything you do.

With those factors in mind, the story works well. Looking forward to seeing the consequences of Veskit's actions.

A definite improvement on your first piece. Still a few spelling and grammar errors, but far better than before. Good work.

The change of style works well, actually. Telling the story from a first-person perspective means you can get away with leaving certain details vague, and you use it rather well. It's a style worth considering more often if you find it works for you.

Three people holding off thousands of androids does seem a bit off. Perhaps if you stated that they were among the society's greatest warriors, and used tactics and terrain to their advantage, or maybe had some troops as backup, it would make a bit more sense.

I'd also have liked some information on how this disease in the androids was discovered. And how if, even a scratch can make them attack someone because they're different, they don't turn on each other once a battle has started.

You're definiely improving, keep at it, and you'll get better.

Okay, fair enough, I mis-read.

Still though, assaulting eleven scientists, all of whom are alive to testify against him, is going to mean Veskit will be hunted by these people.

Also wondering how he was able to walk around freely while carrying said unconscious scientists.

Is this a government/military group, or a privately owned corporation?

A post I made earlier was removed which I feel needs to be repeated.

Callng people out on the boards is against the user agreement. I shouldn't have done it, I was wrong to. I apologise for the offence caused, and wll in future keep such matters private.

Nicely written, except for a few points where you repeat certain words unecessarily, such as "the sound of the claws sounded." Also there were one or two grammatical errors, but nothing that, for me, took away from an interesting story.

In terms of storytelling advice, I'd have tried to shorten the piece. The first killing I would have had already in the past, as backstory, with Veskit thinking about it, or using the name of the dead scientist as a threat to Campbell, along the lines of "If you don't want to help me, you can give Dr. Smith my regards..." etc.

On that note, a name for the first victim would have worked very well, and removed the need to use the term "the man" over and over.

The image of Veskit having a pile of bodies was, to be honest, actually quite comical. I'm curious as to how Veskit has carried out several murders, among military science staff no less, and not been caught, or at least pursued. Describing him stealthily breaking into the last lab, dodging patrols of soldiers, ducking away from helicopter searchlights, would have added some nice tension to the piece.

Also, if Veskit has displayed suicidal tendancies in tests, has he not been sent to counselling or kept under watch? I'm just wondering how the people in charge of the experiement managed to let the situation go from "suicidally depressed man" to "remorseless killer," especially since his need for revenge is so great that he kills Campbell even after he's been given what he wants.

I am interested to see what you plan on doing with the character next. He has murdered several scientists and destroyed a building. If any security cameras caught him, an all-points-bulletin will be issued, and other heroes will try to arrest him. If any character a GG finds out, your character's days are pretty much numbered.

Looks really good! Can't wait for more.

Moral ambiguity, and the depiction of both heroic and villainous characters as being less that strictly Good or Evil is what makes great fiction. We can't truly enjoy a villain whose motivations or desires do not in some way come close to our own.

Dr. Vahzilok wants to eradicate death. Which of us has never lost a loved one, and wished they could be brought back? We can sympathise with the desire to prevent death, even if we do not agree with the methods involved, or even the goal itself (which I do not).

Black and White is boring, and becomes stale. Co* is not a four-colour setting. It is one with varying shades of grey, on both sides.

One of the things I find objectionable about this debate is the lack of willingness to accept other peoples' viewpoints. Something which Syra and Augury are particularly guilty of in this instance, in some cases coming close to being insulting with their responses.

Fun fun! I'll be coming back to hat regularly!

Sounds good to me, definitely very useful

I fully agree that playing an heroic group in CoV becomes a problem once other players are thrown into the mix. Because, porbably without even considering the option, will assume the hero group won't let their characters suffer any consequences for their actions which, if they get caught, they should.

Where I to run or play a tabletop campaign, a resistance group based in the Rogue Islands would be a lot of fun. However, it simply would not work if the group tried to interact with others, because sooner or later, someone's going to get annoyed, because someone on either side (not just the antiheroes) will be accused of godmoding.

If the group is just some friends who want to play the game their own way, that's fine.

Having played through the early missions, and seen admittedly little roleplay in CoV, I could easily see myself getting bored trying to play a "hero" in CoV. Playing a fallen hero, who doesn't see himself as evil, who may not go to the depths certain other villains will, and even stop someone being attacked if he thinks they're a helpless innocent, is fun. Noctem's not a good guy by any stretch. Nor is he a truly evil character. So far, he's gotten by on petty revenge, theft, and taking on other gangs. We'll see what the future has in store.

That said, yes I'd fudge details when playing on my own. Noctem is vindictive enough to free a hostage from the Mooks simply because he's had problems with them in the past. He won't ransom the person, but he'll do as much damage to the Mooks as he can. Unless it was a -really- big ransom

And yes, we're all probably like to not change our views on these things, but I agree it's a really interesting discussion.

That'll teach me to try to read a thread too quickly.

Re: Nevermore and the Orbis children. Nevermore was not directly responsible for their deaths, and did indeed learn that Orbis had orchestrated their deaths in order to try to break him and distract him. They failed, as it happens

A lot of people seem to be of the opinion that any kind of heroic figure would not last ten minutes in the Rogue Isles. Now, this is not an attempt to argue for playing a Hero in CoV, merely a wish to discuss what I'm interpreting from what's been said.

Do people think that a hero operating in the Rogue Isles has less of a chance of survival than a villain in Paragon City? If so, why? Paragon City is a fairly ordered society run by an organised government, with a police force and corps of heroes working to serve and protect it. The Rogue Isles are in a state of near open gang war thanks to Recluse keeping the various factions fighting amongst themselves, where the police are as bad as the criminals they arrest. By simple logic, it should actually be easier to hide and lay low in the Rogue Isles, especially since the towns and buildings are far older than Paragon, with less up-to-date town plans and maps than in a city which has essentially been rebuilt recently. And anyone with the cash to spare can probably pay off the RIP to look the other way and not go squeeling.

In fiction, there exist plenty of cases where a hero has operated without being found in a corrupt society, such as Batman in Dark Knight Strikes Again, and in the No Man's Land series. Not to mention the fact that Longbow can operate on the Rogue Isles themselves, often mere yards from Arachnos troops. And this is without mentioning historical resistance movements, such as in France during Nazi occupation in World War II.

I get the impression a lot of people believe that "Evil" is more efficient in terms of rooting out troublemakers than "Good" is. Just because those who cause problems in Paragon are sent to jail instead of killed, doesn't mean that you have to assume that the forces of Arachnos are any better at finding and removing threats than the heroes and police of Paragon are. In fact, with their infighting, you could argue that they would be worse at it, and that a resistance movement, starting small, carving out patches of turf to protect from certain gangs, simply protecting the ordinary citizens of the Rogue Isles, making sure they get enough food, aren't the victims of gang attacks, etc., if done right, would come across as simply another gang trying to eke out an existence. As the group gains the trust and respect of the citizens, and the fear of the gangs, they could slowly rise to a point where they could either wage a guerilla war against Arachnos, possibly coming to the attention of Longbow or Wyvern, who would then offer aid of their own.

Now, this can't posibly happen in-game, of course, because we can't change the game world. I'm just presenting a possible scenario where a resistance movement could be feasible. Villains are not all-knowing.

On the subject of changing the details of missions, I do this all the time on my CoH characters. As I said in the other thread, I believe there's a story arc where you kill the villain at the end, and another where you blow up a cloning lab, including everyone in it. There's no way Nevermore would kill a helpless villain, and he would most definitely not kill dozens of lab workers just because they happened to work for Crey. Now, this is a very small-scale change, as far as I'm concerned, but there's no way I'm going to sacrifice the integrity of my character concept just because some mission text says so. And I honestly do not see what the problem is there.

The only way to truly play "with the setting," adhering to all that you see in the mission text, is to play the game solo, never repeating a single mission. And that, for me, is a lot more pointless than changing a few small details so that you and your friends can enjoy the game more.