Innigo

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Hehe you can try but mostly you fail, mostly. Even if you do become a stalker hunter, you've got one last problem to overcome. You've got to catch me

All stalkers go through a special training school on the art of running away. As noted by many people, we do this often and its almost as fun as AS'ing someone

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No, sending you scurrying back to the safety of your base gives me plenty of satisfaction heehee. Seriously though. One of the nice things about AR is the victim doesn't know where the shot came from - so what way do you run? I spent a good few minutes running around the ledge of a building popping at villains without them having a clue where the damage was coming from

The stalker I popped had run away from the nearby heroes, around a corner and had started resting when i closed in to finish the job. Was using the stealth suit last night, but next time it'll be the cloaking device

Of course I could always throw down some caltrops and see how fast u can run through them

Heehee, just kidding.

Have just got an AR/Dev blaster to 20th lvl and took her into Siren's where with the aid of my targetting drone, IR goggles and a stealth suit I could see stalkers perfectly well and even managed to bring one down - despite having only DO enhs in all my slots and the limited damage that AR puts out.

My opinion of stalkers has now wildly changed. They're not as squishy as some would have us believe but the ability to see them and *mostly* interrupt AS changes the game considerably.

So, my advice to anyone who's been struggling with stalkers is to roll up a toon that's capable of hunting them. Trust me, it's a lot of fun turning the tables on them

In which case I need to know your;

AT
Lvl
Primary/Secondary powerset
Principal colours in costume.

And if you have a screenshot to hand then send to;

Innigo@hotmail.co.uk

I spotted there was a Tufty on the boards shortly after I posted Part 4. It was then I thought about asking ppl to submit their toons to be incidental characters. Rather than coming up with a name that someone is already running around with it'd be better is I were given the name along with their blessing to use it in the story.

There's a thread further down if you wish to submit your own toon to be included.

BTW: He's not a blaster

I know, I know. I hang my head in shame. However, next issue there is some action. Be warned though, he's only lvl1 so what he's got, he aint got much of.
The real action will come in 7 & 8 when we get to see N00b in action in the Hollows.

It could use some punctuation work. For example;

"Climbing out of bed Xiddo grabbed his jump suit that he wore whilst off duty, running down the corridor of dark oak walls and polished marble floors, he was over taken by Far Seer “come on ya slow sod” he shouted as he shot passed, when he arrived in the mission room the lights were off and the holo-display was projecting a green 3D map of paragon city, “here and here we have two rifts in the fabric of reality” said Spinester, bio girl who was sat in the corner of the room stood up and walked to the display “there not rips in reality there teleport holes, every teleporter ruptures space as they jump” she took a sip of her drink and continued “when I was bonded! when you guys saved my life after dreck, my symbiote passed on knowledge of wormholes and how they manage to teleport over longer distances than normal meta-humans” she stopped and look at omega protector who since his bonding had been distant, maybe it had something to do with the fact that he had bonded with a peacebringer and bio girl with a warshade as the they had become to be known on earth,"

This is effectively one sentence. It make the piece more difficult to read and detracts from the story. A general rule of thumb to remember is that if a character is about to speak you start a new parargraph. And definitely start a new paragraph to differentiate between one character speaking and another.
Another point is, if you're not going to indent a paragraph then put in a blank line (minor point).

Apart from that it was quite good.

50 odd views and only 2 takers. Come on gang, there must be more ppl wanting their favourite toons immortalised in literature

Thanks for the pic, always useful. Will deinfitely be using Cass

Thank you, count yourself in.

I had a thought. It would be a great help if anyone wiling to help out could send me a screenshot of their toon.

Send it to Innigo@hotmail.co.uk

Cheers.

I need some incidental characters for some forthcoming episodes. If you'd like you favourite toon to appear in one othe N00b chapters then please tell me the following;

Character's name.
Lvl
AT
Primary/secondary powerset
And main costume colours

Cheers.

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TD and tactics work just fine, Silent Scope is a pain in my butt in Sirens call. An illustration of how much I beleive in this build is that I started my own stalker hunter AR/Devices a few days before you started this thread (honestly )

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Great minds think alike, or should that be fools seldom differ

I was just in Warburg and had it confirmed by an AR/Dev blaster that TD and tactic sees through hide and stealth and that he could see a non-stealthed stalker before they could see through the cloaking device.
Unfortunately the damage they put out is fairly poor and no build-up to augment it

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Your best bet is to pair up with a dark or storm def, if you're both running tactics then that's a double bonus and the have +stealth PbAoE toggle powers that should stack with cloaking device.

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That's unacceptable and kind of defeats the purpose of the excercise. IMHO if an AT with a perception boost from it's secondary powerset and one from the pool powers STILL can't see a stalker through hide and stealth then their really is something wrong.

The point of this toon is to hunt stalkers, not simply be able to see them off if I'm being hunted.

I would agree with this, the rep should be divided as xp is; i.e proportional to the amount of damage inflicted (unless part of a team obviously).

I promised action and have uttered failed to deliver

Part 4

N00b dumped his plastic bag onto the bed. It declared “Welcome to Paragon” in large cheerful red letters that didn’t suit his surroundings. The cost of accommodation in Paragon was considerably higher than he’d anticipated and he’d been forced to take a room at the YHCA. Bare floors, hard beds and toilet facilities he had to share with eleven other fledgling heroes, which from the looks of it had been recently visited by a hero with a faecal AoE ability . It was a less glamorous start than he’d imagined for himself.

‘Howdy neighbour,’ announced a cheerful voice from behind him.

N00b spun in surprise. His visitor, standing in his doorway, was no more than five foot tall and had the physique (clearly outlined by his red and blue lycra costume) of someone who’d spent most of their life neither eating nor exercising. He wore thick black-rimmed spectacles over his mask.

‘I’m sorry, did I surprise you? I’m always being accused of sneaking up on people, but I really don’t mean to it’s just I walk softly and of course these nice boots with soft soles don’t help. Anyway, I heard you come in and saw your door open so I thought I’d welcome you to the neighbourhood and of course, the hero brotherhood. That’s assuming you’re a new hero. We get some old timers in here from time to time if they’ve fallen on hard times. Usually they’re complaining about prestige but I’m not sure what that is. Do you know?’ said N00b’s visitor, apparently without inhaling.

N00b tried to absorb most of this but failed.

‘Uh, hi,’ he almost managed but his visitor started talking again.

‘I’m sorry, I talk an awful lot, or so people tell me but I’m not sure if I believe them. I mean, who’s to say what a lot is. It’s not like there’s any universal scale for measuring talking. So I guess they mean I talk a lot compared to themselves which doesn’t necessarily mean I talk a lot compared to everyone else. Oh! Where are my manners? Here I am coming over to say hello and I haven’t even introduced myself yet. I’m Jerome DeTuff. An odd name I know, there’s an interesting story behind it, which I must tell you some day, but my friends call me Tuffy, which is now my hero name. I had though about Tufty but then someone asked me about road safety and laughed. I’m not sure why but I didn’t want anyone laughing at my name so Tuffy it was.’

N00b launched in. ‘And no one laughs at Tuffy?’

‘No, and they’d better not, not if they know what’s good for them. Not with the firepower I’ve got at my disposal. I’m a blapper you see. We’re the big hitters in the hero world.’ He fell into a pose, which N00b assumed was meant to be menacing.

‘I’m the Amazing N00b,’ he said sensed Tuffy spooling up for another monologue.

‘Wonderful to meet you. I’m sure we’ll become firm friends and go on many dangerous missions together. But I can see you’ve still got to find your feet and I can’t stand here blathering all day. There’s crime afoot and the rent’s due and I’m out of milk. The city never sleeps and neither does Tuffy I always say, but of course I’m exaggerating. Of course I sleep. I mean who doesn’t sleep but it’s just a figure of speech, I’m sure you understand. Of course you do. Lovely to meet you, bye.’ And without waiting for a reply shot off down the hallway to make the city a city a safer and probably louder place.

With more than a little relief N00b shut his door and sat down heavily on his bed - the frame gave more under his weight than the springs in his mattress – and regarded his hero welcome pack. He knew what was in it. Aside from the two hi-tech devices there was a collection of pamphlets, which supposedly contained everything he heeded to know about being a hero in Paragon. Although he’d been warned they were Issue 5 and a little out of date. The first run of issue 6 was due in any day now and apparently had been since November. Out of date they might have been but they’d already proven useful. The number and address of the YHCA had been on the front cover of one of them.

Now he needed money and fast. N00b had no intention of spending a minute more than he had to in this dive. He pulled out the stack of pamphlets and leafed through until he found one entitled “Earning a living a heroic way”.

It was only two pages long and the print was quite large and he quickly digested its advice. When he put it down N00b found himself horrified and angry. Were the heroes in Paragon really so stupid?

Could anyone let them self be suckered this way, let alone the most powerful people in world? The booklet said the system had been set up at the end of WWII when the city’s resources were stretched to breaking point and its coffers empty. The city’s economy had only narrowly averted a complete crash thanks to a lot of good will and some very cunning accounting.

One of the accounting brainwaves was the invention of influence. N00b admitted to himself that whilst he may be ignorant of a lot of things within the city he knew store credit when he saw it. Influence, paid out in a bounty system was only good for buying certain items. It could be used to buy food and clothes, pay rent on an apartment, but little else. Most shops in Paragon demanded dollars and cents just like everywhere else.

And of course Influence wasn’t recognised as legal tender anywhere expect within Paragon city itself.

Mother would not be pleased. N00b was supposed to send most of the money he made each month back to her to repay sixteen years of pocket money (calculated with 33% compound interest). Explaining the influence system to her was not a conversation he was looking forward to.

But he needed to eat and the rent of his room was due on a daily basis. So he vowed to work within the system for the moment and turned his mind to the task of being a hero. Opportunities to earn hard currency would no doubt come along.

He dug into his Paragon welcome pack and pulled out the two items that weren’t made of paper. The first, once he removed it from his box was his medical teleporter. The most valuable secret owned by the Heroes of Paragon, so he'd been told. He’d been sworn to secrecy and had to sign a form promising never to mention its existence to anyone under penalty of a severe sueing. It was a shiny disk the size of a silver dollar and he’d been instructed to wear it at all times. If he ran into any problems whilst fighting crime he’d be beamed to the nearest hospital and wake up in the medical rings. It seemed a little far-fetched to N00b but he tucked the disk away into one of his costume’s many recesses. Mother had anticipated him taking snacks on missions and designed the costume with plenty of chocolate bar sized pockets.

The last item was considerably bigger and called a “Herocom”. This plugged him into the city’s hero-dedicated communication system and database and came complete with a build in GPS system that gave fairly poor directions in a condescending tone. It had looked a little fragile and N00b had asked about damaging it.

‘If you lose it then you’ll have to pay for another,’ he’d been told. ‘But don’t worry about it being damaged. It’s build from reverse engineered alien materials. It’s really quite tough. If it gets damaged whilst it’s on your person then I wouldn’t worry about, because whatever’s happened will be so bad that you’ll just be an expanding cloud of red mist.’

N00b had looked doubtful. The man who’d given him the device (N00b hadn’t bothered learning his name) had laughed and said, ‘Don’t worry, your medical teleporter is even tougher and it’ll beam most of the cloud straight to the hospital.’

‘And I’ll be revived?’ N00b had asked.

The man had laughed even louder and wandered off.

N00b slipped the herocom into his specially designed cookie pocket and rose from his bed. He took several deep breaths to steel himself and then headed out into the city to make it a safer place.

A tanker without taunt is just a scrapper with lower damage output. I would ultimately prefer someone more useful on the team.

Having said that "taunt" doesn't necessarily mean the taunt power. Mud pots are a great way of handling agro and if you use them for full effect (i.e. herd the mobs) then taunt is unnecessary.

Plus, if the team's on the ball it can take full advantage of them as well. Your mudpots are a great place for team members to hide.

I have an empath healer and we were doing one of the troll missions in the Hollows. The team wasn't well organised and went rushing in where it should have pulled just as a patrol turned up. Bottom line is everyone except me (an empath) and a tanker with mudpots survived. Completely surrounded by mob, the tank was taking an utter hiding but I could just keep ahead of the damage and I was only taking the odd hit.

BTW, Punchvoke is one notch above useless when it comes to holding agro.

I'm glad you liked it.

Part 4 will be posted this evening

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I though the pvp zones wer basically no holds barred anything goes areas.

If it 1 v 1 you want isnt that what the arean is for?

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But the PvP zones are bigger and offer the potential of a wider battle including the ability to run and hide if need be, so is it SO surprising for people to want to fight specific people in one the zones?

And if the PvP zones WERE no holds barred, anything goes areas there'd be no such word as "griefing".

Yeah I'm convinved. I'll take tactics as well. Anyone any suggestion on the 1st two powers in the leadership set; Assault or Maneouvers? Damage or defence. I here the damage boost is almost neglible. Can anyone confirm this?

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fffffffs don't encourage them! XD we gotta have some people to kill ya know

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I think it's high time you stalkers were actively hunted
The downside with the AR build is there's no build-up so dishing out damage is likely to be a problem AND i'm fighting an AT with defences. This build may prove a disaster but not ventured and all that

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Plot needs to be put over clearly and carefully. The post was logically inconsitant and badly written, which means it doesn't do its job.

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And here was me thinking that the players job was to work out what the plot was rather than have it explained to them from the getgo.
How how do you know it wasn't supposed to look logically inconsistant.
And yes it was badly written, but that notwithstanding it might have helped to ask questions before critiquing the piece.

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You sure? I can guarantee that any planned plot would run to five minutes of IC roleplay and thirty or so minutes of OOC argument over how we couldn't just arrest his key plot NPC.

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I'm not familiar with IC roleplaying but how do you know it wasn't a setup?

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"you know that girl who acted weird at GG, well, she's a psycho who dismembers people," isn't going to get her a second chance.

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OK I'm lost but that's OK. The point remains, this forum isn't for writing critiques imho. It would have been better to state an interpretation of the OPs post and ask if this was what he intended.

Some people on here are only 12 years old. We can't expect to be literary masters and I tend to err on the forgiving side. Whilst none of this is directed at any one in particular I just felt the OP was came down upon rather harshly.

Just my tuppneyworth gov'nor

Were the OPs article posted in the Creative forum then critiques of his work are to be expected, but this is the roleplaying forum and imho subject to different unwritten rules.

True, the OPs post could have been a bit more thought out, but so what? He got his point across, there's a dangerous killer on the loose and the players have a name to work with. The dice have been rolled and that's all that matters.

And as for the police being surprised by not finding the culprit at the scene, consider the Paragon police department's approach to crime fighting which primarily consists of either ignoring it or running away in a blind panic

I was thinking of turning my AR/Devices blaster into a stalker-hunter. Just to see if it could be done. I'm hoping the targettting drone (coupled with IR goggles if necessary) will be able to see through a stalkers hide+stealth. But for it to work I need to be invisible but I hear invisibility prevents attacking so you have to switch it off and then queue up your attack which would be a bit of a pavalar.

Might just have to put up with it

I was just wondering if cloaking device from the devices powerset stacked with stealth and if so do they give you something approaching invisibility?

From now on all installments will come out on Mondays and Thursdays and for those of you wondering when N00b is actuallt going to get around to some actual heroing... not this episode I'm afraid, but it's coming

Part 3

N00b paced the polished floor of city hall with ever increasing impatience. He’d filled out the forms they’d handed him. He’d submitted all the material he’d been asked to bring proving he was who he said his was; which these days involved a birth certificate, driver’s license, passport and his social security card. Then he’d been fingerprinted and a sample of his blood had been taken for a DNA comparison.

All that had been two hours ago and had been concluded with an assurance that someone would be with him soon. Clearly “soon” meant something entirely different to the Paragon civil service than the common dictionary definition.

City hall bustled with activity. In addition to the dozen or so heroes cooling their heels as they waited for their hero license application to be processed, others came and went every few minutes, passing through the main hall and down into a corridor marked “New Hero assignment”. A few glanced in the way of the new recruits but none paused to talk.

In addition were the less heroic and certainly more conservatively attired civil servants, the cogs and gears in the machine of city government. They hurried about giving the finely crafted illusion of efficiency but they seemed to do little more than walk between offices. N00b watched them bustle aimlessly with growing contempt as he continued his own impatient pacing – pausing every once in a while to dig part of his costume out of the cleft of his buttocks – and as each of the other heroes was called in so N00b’s frustration grew?

Until finally.

‘Mr N00b?’

So intent on his own annoyance his name being called didn’t register the first time, or even the second. Finally a small bespectacled man stepped directly into his path.

‘Mr N00b?’ the little man repeated.

‘Yes?’ snapped N00b.

‘I can see you now.’

N00b was led through a door to the side of the information desk and through a short corridor lined with offices. He glanced through the window in one of the doors as he passed. Inside a gaudily attired hero was sitting across a desk from a suited man similar to the one that N00b was following. The next office was a similar scene.

He was shown into an identical room, devoid of anything not purely functional and decorated, presumably, right after they’d done the hospital and discovered they’d ordered too much paint. N00b took a seat and the small man took the seat opposite. As he did so N00b noticed a small badge on his lapel. It said “Hi, I’m Walter. How can I help you?” and was underscored with three small stars. There were holes where two more stars could be plugged in at a later date.

Walter flicked through the file he’d been carrying, grunting occasionally but otherwise silent. N00b did his best to wait patiently and after just under three minutes failed miserably.

‘Is everything in order?’ N00b demanded.

Walter didn’t react immediately, not vocally at least. He did however very deliberately turn to the next page in the file and furrowed his brow as if discovering something that wasn’t in order.

The seconds ticked by until N00b couldn’t stand it anymore. ‘I said…’

‘Yes Mr N00b, I heard what you said,’ said Walter in a soft but compelling voice. ‘I’ll be with you momentarily.’

More time passed and N00b suddenly realised his bladder was making its presence felt with a certain sense of urgency. That wasn’t good. If wearing his costume he liked plenty of notice, it took over ten minutes to undo enough of it to perform any bodily function. He was contemplating asking Walter for a toilet break when the other man suddenly closed the file and looked up at him.

‘Everything seems to be in order,’ he said with a cool smile.

‘So that’s it? I’m a Paragon hero?’ asked N00b all his anger and frustration instantly forgotten.

‘Well not quite yet,’ Walter replied. ‘You still have to report to the hospital for a full medical check and once you’ve been given a clean bill of health come back here and we’ll take some photos and print up your I.D. card. Then you’ll be a recognised hero.’

It came surging back in a moment, rage seethed just below the surface and N00b had to fight to keep it in check. ‘How long will all that take?’ he managed.

‘Three, maybe four hours.’

‘I’ve been waiting around for over two hours already!’ N00b exploded. ‘And I’ll bet you keep every other hero who comes to the city hanging around as well.’

‘There’s procedure to follow.’

‘I’ll bet. Procedures people like you dreamed up to make sure you could feel important. Out there,’ he pointed at a bare patch of wall which, had N00b designed the building, should have had a window, ‘people are suffering and dying while you and your kind keep us locked in here going through your all important procedures. Just want us to know that while you might not be able to do anything about the crime running rampant in the city you’re more important than the people who can do something about it.’

Walter appeared entirely unruffled by the outburst although N00b’s file was back in his hand, almost as if by magic. He flicked through it idly until he came across something of apparent interest.

He fixed N00b with an altogether too familiar stare and said, ‘Tell me about the burning building.’

The fire of rage was almost immediately snuffed by a tidal wave of guilt. ‘The burning building?’ asked N00b doubtfully. ‘I’m not sure what you’re talking about.’

‘Oh you remember,’ Walter challenged. ‘It says here in your in section E4 “miscellaneous heroic deeds” in your application form which you, yourself filled out that you saved a woman from certain death at the hands of a raging inferno. I, of course, am using your words here.’ The civil servant glared back at N00b and he felt himself withering. It was the same glare his mother used when he lied about brushing his teeth before bedtime.

‘Uh, yeah, that,’ said N00b hesitantly. ‘What about it?’

‘We check these things out Mr N00b and found no record of a fire having occurred within your home town on the dates you gave in you application.’

‘Maybe I got the dates wrong,’ N00b offered.

‘Nor of any fire of any note for the last seven years,’ Walter continued, his voice has hard as his unwavering stare. ‘The last serious fire was an asbestos factory which the fire brigade managed to handle without any civilian interference.’

N00b wilted under the ferocity of the stare. Interrogators often shone bright lights into the eyes of those they were questioning. Had it been pointed at Walter the light bulb would have popped.

‘Em...’

‘Yes?’ whispered Walter putting his glare into high beam?

‘It was cat,’ said N00b mournfully, despite his best effort to resist.

‘And the house?’

‘It was more of a tree.’

‘And…’

‘No, it wasn’t on fire!’ lamented N00b.

‘I see,’ said Walter ominously and dropped his gaze back to N00b’s file. After a few moments of silence he spoke again, ‘Of course prior hero experience isn’t required to attain hero status here in Paragon.

N00b straightened his shoulders as he realised Walter was right. It had said as much in the application form. So he hadn’t rescued anyone from a burning building, so what? Most heroes hadn’t done anything noteworthy in heroic terms before coming to Paragon. That was why they came to Paragon in the first place, to test their skills and abilities.

Walter watched the hero intently, watched the hope blossom behind the other man’s eyes before moving in for kill. ‘However, lying on your application form is sufficient to have you barred from getting your hero license in Paragon for life,’ said the civil servant with almost innocent menace.

N00b slumped again, his defeat in the battle of wills was almost at hand and he knew it. It was an all too familiar scenario.

‘So, will you report for your medical or shall we discuss item two in section E4 – “how you, single handed, broke the back of an international crime cartel”.’

‘I’m going,’ said N00b and fled the office.

Walter closed the file and allowed himself a slight chuckle. There was a reason that heroes, despite all their power and determination, weren’t running the city.

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nicely done bud, but can i suggest one thing? Super n00b? the current one is a little close to home for me
Only kidding, great stuff.

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Damn, I wish I'd thought of Super-N00b