Hundred_Nations

More costume ideas.
- I didn't like the look of any of the Claws options. The metallic gauntlets pictured here would be for Electric Melee or Energy Melee. If I went with Martial Arts, I would go bare-handed or gloves instead of gauntlets.
- The high-tech belt in the first one is his Cloaking Device; #2 doesn't have one, he's just sneaky; and #3 & 4 have it integrated into a full-body Stealth Suit.
- The eye-pieces in #1 & #4 are cybernetic implants; #2 & 3 just wear helmets. I tried #3 with a "blast shield" visor, but it looked too much like a motorcycle helmet.
- I'm not in love with the camo in #2, although I think the shorter boots look better than the higher ones in #1.
- I just realized I should've varied the belt options in 2, 3 & 4, but oh well.
- I tried Army-green and SWAT-blue versions of these gray-scales, but I wasn't impressed with either.

Hola, compadres. I've been thinking about trying out a Stalker of some kind as my next Praetorian character. If you think a Stalker would be appropriate for this SG, I could build him with that in mind (name, costume, background, etc). Do you think a Stalker would be an appropriate AT? They're all melee so except for Temp Powers, guns and grenades and stuff aren't an option.

If a Stalker would be a good addition to the group, I'm thinking Claws, Electrical Melee or Energy Melee, and Regeneration, Electric Armor or Energy Armor would fit the theme best (Science or Tech Origin, as appropriate). Martial Arts and Ninjutsu seem popular too, for a Natural Origin, but I'm not sure they fit the theme as well. I haven't ever played a Stalker before, so if there's any substantive difference between these sets, I'd be happy to consider opinions on them before choosing (I'll probably peruse the Stalker forum and guides too, fwiw).




Also, Travel Powers:

1. Is there a particular Travel Power that I should be aiming for? Some people like a themed SG to be uniform. There aren't any Travel Powers I loathe, and they all have a prerequisite I can use, so my choice of Travel Power is always a thematic one.

2. I found a travel power completely unnecessary on my first trip through Praetoria, and if I don't need one, I won't get one. We could, as a group, do the Atlas Park and Kings Row Safeguard missions and get the Raptor and Zero-G Packs. Those each last for 2 hours of usage (e.g. when they're turned off, they don't run down the timer). I did that with my villain, who's now 29th level and has used only about half of each. He also has a Rocket Pack Invention Recipe that he can build for himself when the Raptor Pack finally dies. He may never need to get an actual Travel Power.

3. The Steel Canyon Safeguard mission gets you the Summon Teammates Group Recall temp power, which lasts 24 hours of in-game time, whether you use it or not; we could do that one individually, as needed by the SG, so that 1 or 2 of us always has it available.

4. For inter-zone travel, the SG Base teleporters, the Midnighter's Club, and the Ouroboros Gate will eventually be available to us too.

Good point.

If it were up to me, I would ditch the "War Mage Division." It doesn't really fit the science fiction theme, to my ear/eye, unless you want to go "space fantasy" like Star Wars or Warhammer 40,000. Lots of weird powers can be explained as either technological or psychic, like the Biotics in Mass Effect. And I don't have a problem with the fact that certain power sets are difficult to squeeze into the SG's template - Thugs, Necromancy, Demon Summoning, and Ninja Masterminds, for example, would strike me as odd choices based on what's been outlined so far.

I was messing around with some uniform ideas. I'm not in love with any of these, but maybe something I've done here will spark an idea for someone else.

Color me intrigued. I've been thinking about looking for a SG, and I'm a fan of all things sci-fi. I haven't filed an application yet, but I'll give some thought to a character concept. In the meantime, a question and a contribution...



I'm always in "lite-RP" mode while playing - I enjoy talking in-character and try to bend OOC topics into IC talk - but I've never done what I would call "heavy" roleplaying, so I'm not sure what that means here. What are your hopes or requirements for SG-members contributing stories? Are you hoping for in-game, out-of-mission dialogue; AE mission arcs; forum stories; something else?



Here's an idea for allowing some characters to start in Nova Praetoria, some in Atlas Park or Galaxy City, and some on Mercy Island:

"Campaign Prologue: Flash! Thunder!"

"When Liberty Ascendant activated its emergency evacuation sequence, it was still caught in the event horizon of the dimensional rift. The matter-transmission streams were inadvertently split between two different Earths and, in a "snafu" reminiscent of the Allied airborne landings in Normandy, the crew were scattered hither and thither. Armed only with their wits and whatever equipment they could grab during the chaos of the evacuation, the crew members must orient themselves, locate each other, and reach their hastily-described rally point - Talos Island."

1. This allows players to start characters in any of the 3 starting zones, at their discretion. Honestly, I might rather eat a raw habañero than roll another low-level toon Blue-side.

2. This means the campaign proper won't really start until characters are 20th level, for better or for worse. The good part is that it allows us to give our characters a test-drive; no one wants to commit to a SG and then discover that the character we created is no fun to play. The bad part is that anyone who wants to get the RP rolling sooner than 20th level can only hook up with whichever of their ship-mates happened to drop in the same location, and some of those crewmates may be lost before reaching the rally point (this could be seen as an RP opportunity too, I suppose, allowing crewmates from different departments, who may never have interacted aboard ship, to meet and learn to work together).

3. Why Talos Island? (A) I believe Praetorians arrive on Primal Earth there. Mine did, at any rate. (B) It's a hub zone, with a Wentworth's, a vault, and an entrance to Pocket D. (C) It's a level-20-to-27 zone, so the group could jump right into some pre-written content, if they wanted to. (D) Personal bias. I just happen to like it. I also like Dark Astoria and Striga Isle.

4. The title I chose is a reference to the Allied airborne landing in Normandy in 1944, when the paratroopers were scattered all over the countryside. "Flash" and "Thunder" were the call-and-response code words given to the paratroopers so they could find each other in the dark. If you haven't seen it, I recommend the television series "Band of Brothers", particularly the episode "Day of Days."

5. "SNAFU" was an acronym, used by American soldiers at least as early as World War II, for "Situation Normal: All [Fouled] Up." The crew of Liberty Ascendant can probably relate to that sentiment.

More spoiler talk:

Y'know, now that I'm thinking about it again, I can't remember if the bit about the drinking water was revealed before or after you blow up the Enriche plant. I'll have to look for that the next time I play that mission.




And I wonder if this forum can enable spoiler tags. That'd be useful.

Welcome to the 'verse. And BBM is right, definitely watch the series before the movie.

I felt at my most bad-*** while playing my Fire/Storm Controller. He started off a little slowly, and had a steeper learning curve than other characters. My sense is that Controllers are among the more challenging ATs to play, and require a more cerebral approach. Someone who just wants to sit back with a beverage and slap some sense into the bad guys might not like playing one. Like many Tankers, he had Endurance problems until he got Stamina, and most of his powers had to have a -End Enhancement in them, and he soloed very slowly. If you've played Tankers before, these similarities could be either no big deal or your perfect reason to not play a Controller.

Given all of that, my Fire/Storm was capable of forging a team into a nigh-unstoppable engine of destruction. Experienced SG-mates were surprised to learn that I always played on the highest Difficulty Setting. Scrappers and Blasters I would recruit for PUGs would shy away from enemies I pointed them towards, then say "wow" after they had kicked its butt. Teammates would exclaim "You have ____ too??" when I unleashed a new power they hadn't seen me use yet. I played this character before Alternate Builds were introduced, but the Power Sets offered so many awesome powers there's no doubt in my mind that I could have created a second, perfectly capable build using all of the powers I'd chosen to skip. I'm not kidding - or even exaggerating - about any of this. I actually thought the character was a bit over-powered.

Icon, formerly of Milestone Comics, is an obvious homage to Superman.