Bindweed

It's around 200 miles from Rhode Island to Canadian border - on the other side you can drink legally at 18 in Quebec, or 19 in Ontario - the two nearest provinces. Montreal and Ottawa aren't that far away. They could borrow one of Richard's cars (and one of his credit cards ). Libby could fly there, but she could only carry one person at a time, and the odds are she'd take Ni, find a bar, and just start drinking..

Pocket D has to be outside of US jurisdiction unless the USA have taken to annexing other planes of existence. Plus, there's always the Golden Giza in St Martial or The Devil's Candy in Port Oakes I can't imagine Recluse even bothering with an alcohol age restriction in his Empire...

You're right. Henceforth I shall think of November as the month of Nappy Drama. Like an Ingmar Bergman movie remade by the Teletubbies. Excellent!

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Jason is, technically, an uber-character, but not really. He cannot die. End of story. But then, he was born of the desire to embody the game mechanics. No chracter ever dies in this game. Not unless the owner wants it.

Of course, Jason isn't hard to damage, and you can tae him out of a fight easily enough. He just won't stay down.

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My concept for Doctor Bindweed is similar in as much as he can be easily overwhelmed, but his physical body is destroyed and turns to a kind of compost and he reincorporates another body from organic components in the ground and in the local environment - including the spores and particle residue of his last body. He's like a zombie Swamp Thing, but he's far from uber. For a kick-off, he stinks to high heaven... And the Red Caps don't carry Weedol...

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(WP) is a really amazing set for roleplaying with.

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Agreed. Lots of possibilities. I spotted a lot of potential in your Nitoichi to become a so-called "uber" character, and my character, Columbia, is a WP tank and would probably be the closest thing I had to a "Superman". Although the main reason I chose it was because it had none of those horrible glowie auras that they've inflicted on Inv and (shudder) Energy Armour...

In the comics themselves, I suppose there's a not-too-dissimilar parallel; Superman is the ultimate uber-hero, and Stan Lee himself has often repeated the question "Why need a team like the Avengers anyway, if you've got Thor?" You have to wonder what, on paper, gives half the JLA and Avengers something to do when crisis threatens - even if Superman and Thor were out drinking together in Asgard, what could a sulky millionaire or a WW2 throwback with a patriotic frisbee bring to a fight where Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, or Iron Man and Ms Marvel, had already opened their respective cans of whup-[censored]?

I'm sure I was going to mutter something about creative storymaking, but thanks to a boisterous 8-year old running riot behind me I've forgotten what my point was...

The Security Level thing (I'm assuming the Security Level vs Power Level debate is settled by now) is occasionally useful, and occasionally needs to be ignored. I can recognise that Doctor Bindweed (level 23) has not yet had his security status reviewed and reclassified to a point that will allow him to travel unhindered to and from the War Zone, which, necessarily, is a secure zone whose perimeter is secured by Vanguard and the PPD. I can't justify IC why he can't go to Brickstown, which is a residential zone crawling with civilians who regularly commute to and fro on the Green Line. So, to echo Shadowe, this is a clear case for me where player canon wins over game mechanics.

Basically, just about all RP is about storymaking and fudge. Sometimes game mechanics help it along, sometimes it doesn't and has to be worked around. I've had the good fortune in this game that almost all RPers I've met help that along with imagination, patience and humour. We all share the same bizarre virtual space and generally we all try and understand what one another are trying to do. Before I tried RP in CoH, I'd heard all kinds of stuff about "RP nazis" in other games. I've not even sniffed one in CoH. that's how come we can have good humoured debate like this on these forums. And that's very cool.

As for the "uber" characters - sometimes that's an issue, sometimes it's not. My own issue with "uber" characters would come from things like forum RP, maybe like the recent Attack on Unity Plaza thread: Liberty Girl seems pretty useless in situations like that when the best she can do is occupy a few bad guys by engaging in painful and bloody fisticuffs while the assorted controller/defender/blaster types were disintegrating whole battalions with a flick of an eyelash. It could be frustrating to try and Forum RP a scrapper under those circumstances, but in the event it turned out to be a very handy catalyst for some ideas for RP about Libby's notions of her own self-worth in a city populated by what she considers to be demi-gods. I don't have an "uber" character that I play regularly, but I imagine that having fun with one is hard unless you create elements within the character's story and persona that impose limitations on them. I don't have any uber-characters but my guess is that they're harder and less fun to play if they don't have limitations and flaws created for them.

Is that why there's so much angst flying around at GG?

*renews his membership of the Dozy Pillock Club*

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Are you sure, Dan?

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It was the "willingly killing a human being" bit that stuck in my mind. OK, its semantics, but it's language that usually lights a beacon in my head.

I'm assuming you're talking Villainside - she sounds a tad brutish for the forces of light. Have you tried contacting any of the SGs in the "Roleplaying Supergroups" thread?

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...After all the barman does tell you the chalk outline on the wall is from BAB punching some one...

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doesn't the barman just say something like; "The chalk outlines? That's from when BAB had a few too many drinks?" He doesn't actually say BAB smacked anyone. It could mean BAB got drunk and started drawing portraits of his friends on the wall and floor... or it could be one of those "No More Hiroshimas" campaigns. In any event, it's deliberately vague and I don't think it means BAB beat anyone to death in a psychotic drunken episode. For a start that's unarguably unheroic behaviour. I think BAB is considerably more than some Smirnoff-chugging dimwit. I go with the "barman trying to create atmosphere and mythology" notion. A bit like those pubs where the landlord has a photo of the Kray twins behind the bar.

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... vampires that are suddenly immune to absolutely everything. I ran into TWO in Pocket D in one night, and a couple more dimensional/demonic undead beasties. My priest, who is a human, armed with a gun, lots of holy ammunition and basic skills with holy flame, basically got bounced off the walls, as 'Oh look we're immune to holy light too and holy bullets dont work either.'...

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You're also forgetting that a lot of vampires state that the religious aspect is just superstition, because in order for it to affect them, it would have to actually be holy, rather than (in their eyes) just crazy men with 'special' water.
Does holy water and crucifixes really have power over undead or was it just a way of making the frightened and gulliable see them as powerful?...

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Sorry for lopping so much out of the quotes, but it was getting big

This debate reminds me of an old Sylvester McCoy Doctor Who (The Curse of Fenris?) wherein the writers had the Doc postulate that the power of the icon over vampires had nothing to do with holy power but everything to do with profound faith and belief in philosophies that consequently lent great power to their advocates: hence the Russian officer keeping the vampires at bay with his Red Star badge and the priest falling victim to them because his bible and cross were useless when he himself had a crisis of faith.

Now I feel embarrassed, citing ancient Doctor Who storylines to illustrate the power of philosophical codes on the human psyche. Someone point me in the direction of the nearest Geek Asylum?

I'm confused dot com.

You can already create a character that's anywhere between 4' and 8' tall... I'd call that editing the height. Is that not what you mean?

Seconded! Top story! Gratz, Abbzy!

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BODICIA's voice came into Linda's ear. "Several groups are in pursuit of Ryan and Leo, but they are currently keeping ahead of them. Assistance is needed in the Lobby of Vigilance Tower. If you get there, I'll reroute forces to assist."

Pausing a moment, she then sent messages elsewhere. "Leo, Cara, head to Vigilance Tower Lobby. Ryan, keep moving and do not stop, intelligence recieved from Jane indicates they are looking to assassinate you."

"Please do your best Linda... as loathe as I am to admit it? I am scared. I do not like being scared."

12:06:03

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12:06:04, Vigilance Tower

Linda bounded through the blast hole without breaking stride. "nah... you're not scared, BODI... You're excited!" She started to freefall toward the concrete, littered with rubble and bodies far below her. Picking up speed, Linda streamlined her body and flexed whatever invisible, internal organ inside her that enabled her to fly... she streaked downwards, faster and faster, toward the mashed heaps of steel, Plexiglas, wood and concrete that had once been the architectural-award nominated entrance lobby to Vigilance Tower.

The ice-blue beam caught her full square as she reached the ruined entrance. Every nerve in her body suddenly spasmed uncontrollably in searing pain and she crunched into the concrete. She lay unmoving for vital seconds. She felt nothing but pain, everywhere. She could move no muscle except those she needed to groan. She coughed, and tasted blood in her throat. She could feel her bones knitting back together and the rends in her flesh healing; but it was too slow. The sapper beam had seen to that. She tried to roll over onto her front, gritting her teeth against the pain, and eventually made it onto her hands and knees.

"I'm really... startin' to hate... today..." she muttered.

Something exploded in her belly and she lifted several feet into the air, a black armoured boot still embedded in her stomach. Linda crashed back to earth on her face and knees, and the boot struck again. Linda emitted a muddy, gurgling grunt as internal organs popped. She hung limply as a black metal fist lifted her by her hair and hurled her, head first, through the debris that had fallen across the building's entrance. The doorway collapsed even further, and huge steel-reinforced marble lintels and granite pillars tumbled, spewing dust. The Shadow powertank shouldered aside the rubble and batted away a crashed joist as it stalked into the shattered building to finish off its wounded prey.

There was a howl like someone towing a trailer load of nails along a blackboard road. The tank stopped in its tracks, it sensors flaring to white before dying to black. It reached up a metal hand to the steel rod, ripped from the concrete rubble and now stabbed into its Plexiglas visor. Gripping the rod, it's failing sensors detected something soft, about the size of a tennis ball, attached...

The explosion blasted the powertank's head clean through to the desk in the reception lobby. Whoever's skull it was that had once occupied the fried helmet, it was vaporized now.

From behind the fallen masonry where she'd sheltered from her blast, Libby smiled. Coughing a little more blood, Libby nonetheless chuckled cruelly at the smoking remains of the armoured power suit. "Butthead..." she sneered. "Never [censored] off a woman with a regenerative physiology... and a fistful of Malta C4..."

12:07:02

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...I thought it was going to be a quick post, and then it just kept going on, and on, and on, and on...

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NaNoWriMo?

12:05:38


Liberty Girl sighed as she pulled herself to her feet, dusting rubble from her shoulders and pulling shards of glass from her shredded uniform. "You guys... always with the drama..." She pulled a face as she picked a piece of rubble from the top of her boot. "I came here to guard BODI's virtue - looks like you two fellas can handle anything they can throw up here. I'll start making my way down - see if I can link up with any strays..."

Libby started towards the ragged hole to the outside world that she had made as an entrance and tapped her comms unit.

"BODI! Sit rep please? Where's the nearest hole needs pluggin'?"

12:05:50

I'm confused dot com

I thought BODI's core was in Vigilance... that's where Libby flew to... did she get lost in the smoke and end up in Unity?

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"This is BODICIA...Take no undue risks. Take... oh my. Could I have some volunteers please? Special Forces are about to try and breach my Core Room in Vigilance Tower."

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12:04:19

The exterior of Vigilance Tower was clouded with smoke, but Liberty Girl had something of a clue where BODICIA's core room was... the armoured glass on that floor was cracked from weapons fire...maybe it might give...if it was hit hard enough...

Libby summoned up the concentration she needed and wound up to her top flight speed...

Glass exploded into the corridor, shredding the flesh of the Malta engineers that were planting C4 around the door to BODICIA's outer chamber. Libby crashed through the glass and steel and barrelled into the others. She didn't see much - just lots of hard, cold, scarlet and black armour.

She lay in a heap amongst them, laughing at her luck in finding a breakable window...and groaning in pain. Her boots were streaked with dirt and blood, and her uniform was dyed almost purple with blood - hers as much as anyone's - but she was still, apparently, recognizable.

"Liberty Girl..." someone rasped. "Kill her! Now!"

12:04:59

12:03:04

Libby surveyed the reception lobby. It was a mess of dust, glass, water, steel, blood and bodies. She saw Starborn remodelling a Titan over to her right, while a trio of Knives were... what were they doing... Libby readied to launch herself, but relaxed her posture when she realised who it was. Julie tipped her a wink, and Libby blew her a kiss back. A red laser sight dotted a Malta Tac Ops and a half second later the mercenary's helmet flew from his head in a cloud of scarlet mist. Linda didn't see ADAOS but she reckoned he was there.

Leaning over the counter, Libby saw Chlorr and Gemini."You girls OK?" she shouted, trying to be heard over the noise and grinning confidently. "Listen... Starborn's got the door, I think ADAOS has the ceiling crawlspace, and there are three chicks who look like Knives of Artemis coming in the front door who are on our side... got that - they're on our side... We're covered in here - fall back with the Vigilants if it gets real hairy... I'm going to try and get to Vigilance and keep these mothers away from BODI..."

Without waiting for an answer, Libby spun around and looked for the nearest exit point - one of the holes blasted by the Titans in the initial salvo. She launched herself at it, her sudden slipstream sending a spiral of dust and debris into the air. She felt bullets rake her but ignored the stinging pain... they were expelled from her flesh almost immediately anyway. She tore through the air and directly upwards, before banking and diving towards Vigilance Tower.

12:04:00

Ahh, the stories we can tell...

Personally, I hate having my tanks and scrappers SBed - I always ask for NO Speed Boost when I join a team that includes a Kin. Yesterday I kept getting SB from each of the two Kins in spite of asking, and was given a load of back chat and lecturing from one of them throughout the mission about why I needed it. I would have thought seeing the main tank over run the mobs and losing aggro to the following squishies would have offered a different point of view but apparently some people always know best...

Then there was the time I spent a Hollows mission having my Sonic/Sonic defender yelled at throughout with shouts of "Heal! Heal! For Pity's Sake, think of the children and HEAL!!" (or maybe it was "WER R DA HELORZ" or somesuch nonsense ) I had to tell them I was a sonic defender and had no "Heal" To which someone wittily responded along the lines of "[censored]? U r a defender? how can u b a def an hav no heelin u noob" I quit and prayed to all the pantheons known to humankind that the buffless team were subsequently mutilated by the trolls.

So, back OT: Sorry Dave, but I think it's no more, no less than it ever was: the game still carries the standard quota of rude and ignorant pinheads. They're like buses: you don't see any for ages and then when they do show up they come in groups.

Starborn is also in the Unity Tower lobby, isn't she?

They can be just rough sketches, can they? I mean, anything I can knock out using just pencil and paper in, say, 30 mins?

If so, then I'll have a crack at this: I'll aim to do 50 30-min sketches (probably as rough as heck) spread over the 30 days. To keep my interest going, and to give me some kind of boundary and sense of order to keep me pushing along, I'll stick to 50 different CoX characters. When I run out of characters to draw (about Novemeber 10 ), I'll come back on my knees begging for help - but until then... I have a plan!

D'oh!

Edited it now - thanks FFM!

12:01:58

Linda grinned through bloodied teeth at her assailants. The stealth webbing in the uniforms of the Knives of Artemis could render them virtually invisible. But if they were standing in the middle of a cloud of plaster dust and water spray from fire sprinklers...like, say, in a lobby recently devastated by laser cannons...?

Linda sprung to her feet, ignoring the pain. They'd probably broken her nose and busted a few ribs, but already the crack in her jaw and the ruptures in her belly were healing fast. Her right leg snapped out at head height and the speed of the kick caught the Knife by surprise. It also caught her in the teeth, knocking most of them into her mouth. The woman fell over backwards like a toppled statue.

Three left.

Linda's elbow shot backwards and cracked the chest of the mercenary behind her. She felt the impact and heard the gasp and knew without looking that she'd incapacitated another.

Two to go.

The third slashed at her with a sword. Linda caught the woman's wrist and twisted her arm sharply. The arm snapped and the woman grunted. Knives didn't scream. Linda chopped at the woman's knee with her left boot and that snapped too.

One more.

Linda grunted as she twisted to look for the last mercenary. This fourth one was an officer. She was also much faster. She was the one whose blows hit like hammers. One of those hammers crashed into Linda's kidneys. As Linda arched in pain, a backhand chop hacked at her exposed throat and she staggered backwards, gurgling. The Hand of Artemis followed up, sweeping two blades from sheathes on her back and leaping at the staggering heroine. Linda caught her in mid air and swung her into and through the smouldering countertop of the reception desk.

Liberty Girl grinned, coughing and clutching her bruised throat. Four Knives in about a minute. She was slowing down in her old age...

Looking up and taking in her surroundings properly for the first time, she glimpsed a familiar blur of scarlet and black. "Klair..." she croaked.

12:02:57

Minute Zero - 12:00:46

Liberty Girl shook her head, trying to knock her senses back into shape. The laser blasts had torn up the reception lobby and sent glass and metal flying everywhere. Civilian contractors and visitors were being helped to safety by armed vigilants as Libby's eyes started to focus. She winced, and pulled a two-inch sliver of glass from her side.
"Dammit, " she cursed. She was running out of wearable uniforms. Pulling herself to her feet she tapped her comms link. "BODI? BODICIA? What the hell's happening? Wha - AARGH!"

Linda dropped to her knees, a sudden burning pain screaming across her back. She couldn't see anything - it must have been shrapnel. She tried to stand again, and something hammer hard hit her in the mouth. She spun backwards against the shattered reception desk, her blood staining the white of her uniform. But there's no one here! Her eyes refocused on the empty space in front of her. She pushed herself away from the desk - and the hammer hit her again, driving into her left ribs. Then again, into her right ribs. It boomed into her like a steamhammer and buried itself in her stomach. As she folded forward it met her chin and straightened her up again. She flew backwards spraying blood until her back crashed down onto a lobby coffee table, splintering what was left of the pale wood.

She groaned, her head swimming and her eyes watering... but now... oh, yeh... now she could see them...

I am such a ****.

1.2 sketches a day... well, all I can do is try

All CoX related? Have I got that bit right?