JohnnyTurbo

ISSUE #51: RELICS OF A BYGONE ERA

Replacer's wet dream comes true when he splits himself into 3 other copies, all psychically piloted by his friends from an alternate dimension in which heroes are pitted against one another for brutal bloodsport. They call themselves March, Liberty, and Silit. The one known as Silit also claims to be a detective, as well as a dinosaur hunter, and even the world's greatest mountain climber. Upon further investigation, it is discovered that all these claims are 100% accurate. Hardened by past battles with vicious criminal warlords like "ViperNet Gaming" and "HoneyBadgers" (the secret enforcers of known psychopath, Duggy McFresh), March, Silit, and Liberty unleash no mercy on their adversaries. Replacer is shocked by this, he thought they lived by a code. He tells them to please, heed his warning and not fight so viciously. They do not listen. In a moment of rage, he transforms into the WARE.wolf, the most ferocious and bloodthirsty mythological beast ever to exist, other than whatever that cat/bird/6pack-abs in a skull bikini thing in Night Ward is. The booming voice of the WARE.wolf declares that Lib, Silit, and March listen to him or be "dumpstered" and they pledge allegiance to it, as they are secretly members of a fraternity that follows the laws of the WARE.wolf. All was well in the world once again.

(Real new summary to come, but all these events happened ^)

Lmao if that wasn't so big I'd make it my signature.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but I'll give you a tentative yes because its really an event for other people, we're just hosting it.

You may recognize this poster, drawn by Red-Havok. I figured I'd post it here as well.

Yeah, there will be an intro for all characters and whatnot so it doesn't seem like you were "randomly" drawn to the event, but that's as far into detail as we're gonna go because it will spoil some of the story :O.

(IC/OOC AD FOR AN EVENT ON JUNE 3RD AT 6 PM EST)

“First The Imperial, then Statesman, and then Sister Psyche. We’re out of options, Havok.”

Red-Havok was silent. Back when his brother was alive, Red felt more assured in every important decision he made. There was always someone by his side, supporting what he said and fighting for it tooth and nail. Now, that person was gone and Red had to rely on his own intuition. That was a hard adjustment. He was petrified of making the wrong call, but despite this deep-seated fear, he found himself thrust into the leadership position. Now, in a scenario ripped directly from his nightmares, he was the leader of The Challengers, a premier team of superheroes, and he was being grilled by some of the most high-ranking Longbow personnel.

“Are you listening, Havok?” asked Abigail Slate, one of the directors of Longbow.

“Yes,” he responded curtly.

“We want all of your Challengers on Longbow task forces. We need to deal with any fallout from these events. Wade may be in captivity, but the loss of Statesman and The Imperial is a massive hit to our morale and it provides every threat to peace out there an opportunity to strike.”

Red shook his head, “I can’t guarantee the support of every Challenger. After Longbow was involved with the FBSA’s attempt to neutralize Paul Ooshun permanently even though he has reformed? They...we...won’t just overlook that.”

“Make them. Don’t you see that if your team remains independent, we will continue to lose good heroes out there!?”


Red looked down, shaken, “This isn’t my fault!”

Slate shook her head, “It is all of our faults.”

One by one the Longbow officers filed out of the Cromwell Mansion. Havok sunk low in his chair as a tremendous sense of helplessness washed over him.

“I appreciate you sticking up for me sir.”

Red turned to see Paul Ooshun standing with Replacer, Charon, and Human Flashbulb by the door. They were listening to the whole meeting.

“You’re welcome, Paul,” Havok said weakly, “Director Slate may have blunt, but she is just feeling pressured at this point. Death always leads to unrest.”

Even if Red was without a blood brother now, he knew that his team would back up every call he made. There was a familial bond he felt with his Challengers, something that could only develop after surviving numerous life-threatening situations together. They were by his side through thick and thin. It made him, and his allies as well, feel immortal. But the death of The Imperial and Statesman proved one thing to the world for certain, immortality was just a lie.


“I mean it had to happen eventually.”

Phanto was always a ruthless, cutthroat villain, but after tricking The Imperial into letting his guard down with an illusion of his late spouse, he reached a new level of scum. He made the world experience one of its greatest tragedies, the fall of The Imperial. The worst part was that he felt proud of it.

“I just did what every villain should’ve done a long time ago,” Phanto said as he recounted his conquest to a thoroughly bored Baron Blitzman. The maniacal speedster was one of his frequent partners in crime, but even he was growing tired of hearing the story for the hundredth time.

“I know what happened,” Blitzman moaned, “if you don’t stop talking about it soon I’m going to kill you...then myself.”

“You’ve got a point Blitzman, and I’ll let you in on an idea of mine,” Phanto responded.

Blitzman remained straight-faced, “There’s plenty of people out there with plans, Phanto! Statesman and The Imperial are dead! It is a free-for-all, but nobody’s been able to get away with anything BIG, not with The Challengers, The Reciprocators, and heroes like them working all hours of the day! What makes you think you’re any better?!”

“Everyone else looks at death and sees opportunity, I see a learning experience,” Phanto explained, turning away from Blitzman for a moment, “Of course, I mostly just learn new and inventive ways to kill more people.”

“What the hell are you talking about, fishbowl-head?” Blitzman retorted sharply.

“I’m talking about a whole new type of weapon,” Phanto chuckled as he twisted back around to meet Blitzman’s gaze, “a psychic bomb...made of a living psychic!”

A malicious grin appeared on Blitzman’s face, “Like with Psyche? Who did you have in mind? Who is powerful enough to melt the minds of every hero in Paragon!? Penny Yin? Crux Enigma? Not Mindswipe, he’d be on board with all this, and where’s the fun in that?”

Phanto thought for a moment, he knew exactly who he wanted for this, and he knew exactly where to get her, “I know who I want, and she won’t expect the three of us.”

“Three?”

“Well of course Blitzman,” Phanto snickered, “I don’t know how to arm a psychic bomb. She does though.”

Phanto pointed across the room to a doorway. Blitzman turned and saw a petite woman with eyes that screamed madness. She burped a small cloud of noxious gas and introduced herself.

“Trioxin,” she said while doing a mock bow, “now come on gentlemen, there is SCIENCE to be done!”

-----------------------------------------------

(OOC:

This is the second event that we'll be hosting! It will be a mixture of AE missions and RPvP inspired by the death of some iconic characters in the game! It will start in Steel Canyon and eventually move to a PvP Zone that will be revealed later. It will be a lot of fun and a good way to send off a few characters that aren't with us anymore in a comic book fashion.

The abridged story is that Phanto and supervillains from the Rogue Isles are planning to turn a psychic into a mind-melting bomb, as Darrin Wade was about to do to Sister Psyche during the Who Will Die Story Arc. Obviously, the heroes of Paragon must work together to find out who the psychic they're after is...and save them before it is too late.

Once again, these events are the products of all Challenger members, the same people who helped come up with and host the Press Conference we did way back in October!

For more information on the death of The Imperial, read Xanatos' ERA of Challenge which is still ongoing.

DISCLAIMER: Since this is very far in the future, there is a possibility that certain things are subject to change. We don't mind, but keep that in mind!)

That did seem to be the mission of this Signature Story Arc in the beginning, but that's obviously not the turn it took. The reason? I don't want to get in trouble here, but I'm saying it, poor writing.

I'm not asking for multiple layers of depth and symbolism or anything like that. I'm just asking for an understanding of plot, characters, genres, and how to make the player feel number one. Also, for them to basically understand what makes the most sense.

The SSAs started with that question of Who Will Die? And it sent us to help Synapse.

The first SSA, in my opinion, was a trainwreck writing-wise. In an arc that is supposed to center on Synapse, we fight the Lost and the Minions of Igneous. Two villain groups so randomly plucked from nowhere that do not at all mesh with Synapse's story. He's a science hero, created by science and Crey Industries. He's having his powers sucked out...by an obelisk. A magic obelisk can suck out science powers? It is just lazy writing. If you want to create depth for your signature characters, so we care about saving them, working with them, and feeling on par with them, bring us into their story. Synapse is captured by Crey and the original doctor who experimented on him is trying to steal his powers back using some kind of device. It is in the same genre, it makes (comic-logic) sense, and it brings us into Synapse's story. Fighting the original Crey specialist who gave Synapse his powers would've been much more interesting than fighting through "random lost minions, circle of thorns, and bird-poo monsters" to get to an end goal and have Synapse say thumbs up to you.

Also, giving us Synapse's powers, while fun, annoys players like me who don't understand why the run speed cap for my speedster is so low.

The second SSA, we must help the quintessential magic heroine, Numina! Wow! Magic? Sounds like a good place to implement the Circle of Thorns, the Banished Pantheon, or any magic-driven villain group. OH WAIT NO. Let's just put in RULU-SHIN. Rularuu Ninjas. WHY!? That arc just becomes a mission to retrieve some dead guy's skull from a Rularuu-Ninja. You do it. Numina shows up and says "what's up, you found my dad's skull, thanks." If you want us to feel on-par with the Freedom Phalanx, have us fight WITH THEM, have us RESCUE THEM, or have us fight their ARCHENEMY. Fighting these random Rulu-Shin tells me nothing about Numina's story and is annoying because Rulu-Shin look like somebody hit random in the costume creator.

The third SSA, we're supposed to help someone, I think? I don't know. Manticore? He's in this one, we'll say this is his. But, we're no longer saving them, huh? We're just...I don't know, doing something unrelated to everything else. So we go to Warburg and fight Rogue Arachnos and stuff for some reason and then Statesman's daughter dies. Alright. What? Like...WHY put Rogue Arachnos into this at all!? If we're trying to explore Manticore's backstory in this while killing off Statesman's daughter, Arachnos is the obvious choice. Statesman and Recluse have a rivalry, Manticore has a history with them. Instead they use Rogue Arachnos and set it in Warburg for some reason. We find out one of the people behind this plot is Malaise (who is now dressed in a steampunk vest and pants as if to hammer home that superheroes and supervillains will no longer be in this game.) Seeing as the Calvin Scott TF's been gone for a while, might be a decent idea to explain who he is...

The fourth SSA, we're literally a gopher. We just run everywhere while the Freedom Phalanx argues. We're forced to say Posi is the heart of the Phalanx, we're forced to watch a scene in which Posi calls us tag-alongs even though we just saved Sister Psyche's mind.

The point is, the writing in this could've been done in a way that actually made the player feel like a hero. If that's what the objective was then they failed because of just plain old bad writing.

Also, as a final note. How many think these would've been better if we had one of the Freedom Phalanx as a contact? That in itself would make you feel on-par with them rather than a lackey for the Lost, or the f***in Luddites, or some random Longbow spec ops soldier, or some ghost, or some rogue fortunata, or some stupid red-brick faced dude in a suit.

There, yeah, the mechanics are part of the problem. But its also the writing. Don't be afraid to say it, ya'll.

Any supervillain mastermind character would put up with him to use him as a henchman. Any superhero would fight him to get him to shut up.

I guess the only thing that this doesn't work for is sitting around talking about life, but I didn't think that's what the OP was referring to when he said "roleplaying with some peeps".

Don't generalize.

My main is this type of egotistical jerk character. And my villain is also a vain jerk with a superiority complex. I've got plenty of people to RP with. Although, the majority of the D may have me on ignore.

Find people who want to RP superheroes and supervillains and you'll fit in fine because your concept blends in well. Unfortunately, the majority of this game prefer to RP that they're just people.

That's not what this thread is about. If you really feel the need to voice your opinion. Send one of us a private message or talk to us in-game.