Ravenswing

The load screen tips need reviewing. Some of them are actually wrong at this point.

And no to the idea. I'm a roleplayer, and I wouldn't like it.

For the sheer awesomeness, yes.

For the number of times some dimwit would use it in roleplay, please no.

I was kind of basing my 'in-game' definitions on the missions rather than the tips themselves.

Rogue and Villain seem pretty clear, but Vigilante and Hero are a bit more vague.

Frequently, a Hero will act on the most immediate 'threat' ignoring the fact that something evil thrives to try again and possibly cause far more damage, while a Vigilante goes after the root cause and, perhaps, prevents greater long term loss of life. As has been quoted before in this respect, a line from Zoe in Serenity springs to mind, "A hero is someone who gets other people killed." the corrolary would be, "A vigilante who lets other people get killed if fewer people die in the long run."

Or, to put it another way, heroes are reactive, vigilantes are proactive.

I'm not actually passing judgement on either being better. If it were me, I'd have difficulty allowing someone to come to harm when I could save them at the cost of allowing the perpetrator to go free.

In-game, sometimes the vigilante course saves a worse fate than the hero one, other times you have to live with the consequences. Hero missions tend to give the impression of being beneficial, no matter what, but you often leave something evil active which might have been stopped.

Ignoring what I think, what the game seems to think is...

A Hero is someone who looks at the immediate state of play and determines what course of action will result in the most immediate, short term, 'good.' They are enormously short-sighted and their actions are pretty likely to perpetuate evil, because they rarely act against evil, they are too busy rescuing victims.

Vigilantes are willing to let a few people die if they believe that there's some chance that they'll do 'greater good,' i.e. something which deminishes 'evil.' They don't always get it right, because they are more concerned about defeating evil than doing good.

Rogues are selfish. They are looking for the main chance and are will to do more or less anything to make a profit. Equally, they aren't going to do something just because it's mean.

Villains are in it for the villainy. They do evil because that's what they do. They will happily expend effort and come out at a loss, as long as their reputation for being evil b'stards increases. Not only do Villains want to commit evil acts, but they want it to be known it was them doing it.

Do... some research. If your character is an ex-Longbow agent gone freelance, read up on Longbow. There are several good sources for in-game material. Turning up and stating as facts things which people know are wrong is a sure fire way to get people's backs up. If it's a matter of opinion, then it's cool, but the stuff's called canon for a reason.

Useful tip: the I'm Typing message.

All people have an opinion coloured by their experience. That includes well conceived characters.

So, for example, Longbow as a group appear to be heavily coloured by their leader's opinions of 'villains.' They oppose Vanguard, not because they are incapable of mounting a good defense, but because they will employ villains to fight a common enemy. They believe all Praetorians are evil, because Ms Liberty does not have a high opinion of them. Individual Longbow members can be persuaded that these cases are untrue, but the group attitude appears to be to distrust without considerable evidence to the contrary. There's canonical, plot-based evidence to this. Longbow are crusaders against injustice, zealots, vigilantes. That's fine, but it's bound to rub some people up the wrong way, even those who have vigilante tendencies themselves.

To take another example, my current mains dislike Longbow. Nitoichi works heavily with Vanguard and has had to deal with far too much interference from Longbow in her career. Gunwitch is a Praetorian; IC she never came across Longbow, but she heard about them invading her home from others and finds them arrogant at the very least, if not imperialistic. These are opinions gained from experience, just as Longbow's nature is determined by Ms Liberty's experience.

It's just good characterisation.

In Nitoichi's fall from grace, she spent several months tracking a human trafficing ring (actually, linked into Z's Fear Trigger plots, because we felt like it and it worked) who had killed someone placed in her care. Somewhere there's a link to a story called 'The Rising Price of Meat' (I think) about that very thing.

You do need to consider your audience. I'm fairly happy that people reading my stuff are adult and able to cope, but I post notes to the effect that it's 'mature' content. Similarly, the recent 'New Divide' trilogy, which featured the actions of a sadistic serial killer, and did stray into in-game roleplay, was marked heavily as containing adult content.

You should know your audience, and write plots or fiction accordingly. One of the basic rules of GMing and writing.

Rolling Rock magazine, September 2010 edition, Band News section

Fans of the Burning Sons can now find a couple of publicity stills from the upcoming Shades of Grey video on the band's web site. The two stills so far released are 'tasters,' according to the band's management, featuring the star of the video, American superheroine Annette 'Nitoichi' Barrington, in each of her two roles. Post production is expected to complete soon, however, and we've been promised more teasers before the final release of the video in October.

There are, indeed, a number of events which happen outside the Heroic Eras. Arguably, the entire magical period, where Mu and Oranbega were in power, is outside of one of those eras. I always thought the box simply caused an explosion of heroes, rather than limiting them, or causing them. Anyway, off topic.

The really unfortunate thing about dev canon, is that for any part of it that says one thing, you can usually find a part that says the opposite. Considering the trouble they seem to go to to keep it straight, that's rather annoying.

While I'm not sure of the need for this thread, tbh, shall we just stop the name-calling now so the OP can have his thread, get his info, and continue in peace?

Let's see...

As FFM said, new speaker, new paragraph.
You need to seriously read a text book on grammar.
Your general handling of speech follows no grammatical rules I've ever seen.

Pick a tense. The first section of the story is past tense, the second starts in present and drifts back to past, etc. I generally prefer past tense for storytelling, but present can work. It doesn't really matter as long as you pick one and stick with it.

Plotwise... what you have here is a Mary Sue story. "Oh the greatest heroes in the universe have been kidnapped and only my previously unheard of characetrs can save them!" That's fine, if you want to write stuff like that, just don't expect anyone else to enjoy it unless you're a particularly good, and very humerous, writer.

If you really want to write about your characters, write about your characters. Let them have adventures of their own. Make stuff up that isn't poor fanfic. Honestly, you'll feel better for it and more people will want to read it.

Hmm...

Everything I've said in this thread has been my opinion. I've not attempted to set rules for other people, but an opinion was requested and has been given. It isn't just my opinion however, I could get a random selection of roleplayers and (especially) LARPers together and get the same opinion. You earn positions of power, you don't assume them.

However, I have been rather nice about my opinions here. Actually, I'm rather more hardcore about it.

"I'm related to Statesman:" Why? What possible benefit is to be gained by this? Aside from making your character more important or boosting your ego, there's nothing about this that's not gained by using a non-canon character instead.

Two good examples, both Zortel's characters. Arrow Azure's father was a semi-famous hero from a while back and his son has followed in his footsteps. He comes from a line of heroes. He could have been Manticore's long-lost brother, but he isn't. The Moral also comes from a line of heroes, the title passed down since the Civil War. It creates a history for the character, but doesn't mess with canon and is actually imaginative.

There's no need to be a relative of some famous, canon character, because you can always use your own imagination to create a character to be related to. Unless, of course, you want some RP advantage due to the relationship. All you're doing is demonstrating your own lack of imagination.

Now, what I don't understand about the OP here is that he clearly has a good imagination and he's a pretty good writer. I have absolutely no problem with his stories about the canon characters, because they're good stories, and I don't have to treat them as canon, they're his interpretation of the characters. It's not much different to me writing a story with any of the GG characters (which I've done, with permission of the player). So why feel the need to have characters related to the NPCs? Why not create something that's actually original?

I'm happy enough with characters being members, or even leaders (to a certain level) of canon groups. The alternative is that they create their own group and be entirely unable to back it up with any in-game effect. Both have the issues, generally that you run the risk of power-gaming contact with other players. ("You're under arrest, and if you don't agree I'll have fifty PPD officers down here to arrest you." "Oh yeah, let's see that then." "You're a lousy roleplayer...") I have two PPD characters, one a bit part created for some fiction, the other a member of a special ops team I barely ever play.

Vampires: I have no problem with people playing vampires. I have a problem with people playing uber-hard, super-vampires who ignore any and all conventions and simply want a God character. If you can play a vampire well, more power to your elbow. Most of the vampires I've met in this game (and almost all other MMOs) have been power-gamers wanting to play gods.

And I'm getting a bit tired of being told I set rules for people and then break them myself, especially when the person making the accusations can't back up the accusation with any facts.

Well, my DS/Fire MM (though she was once a blaster) is Anjelica Darling. She's a sweet little teenage girl who happens to have the mutant power to summon demons.

I wanted a name for her that was so sickly sweet your teeth would rot just looking at her.

As Omy says, we do know (or think we know) more about the world outside Preatoria City than you think, if only from badge texts. What evidence we have suggests that the world outside the city is massively devastated.

However, you fail to see my point. If you're a Praetor, you have authority (and people must respect your authoritee!). By no action of your own other than selecting a name, you have decided that your character can order other player characters, and NPCs, about. You've simply decided that your character is better than everyone else.

Now, since Cole didn't give you the title, as far as my characters would be concerned (and remember, there are very few Praetors, everyone knows all of them) it's the equivalent of your character saying he's Napolean. Clearly a nut. Mother would likely have a few words. You are, in fact, relying on the game mechanics to avoid the natural outcome: death or being sealed up in the BMF.

BTW, if they'd made 'praetor' a 'bad word' we wouldn't be able to use them in AE. There's only one list.

I seem to recall having Lady Gray congratulate Nitoichi on reaching level 50. Well, she does stand right beside the Vanguard Field Trainer.

DP/* Blaster: Loadabull?

Well, yes, then there's my Praetorian. Her father was a PR guy in the PPD who shopped her brother to the state for turning Resistance. She hates Cole's side for killing her brother.

On the other hand, a Resistance operative tried to kill her in her bed.

She thinks both sides are about as bad as each other. (Let's face it, they are.)

No, I don't make characters who are related to canon characters. It's tacky, more or less as soon as you consider doing it. Similarly, I wouldn't have a canon character as a patron, because it's tacky.

Writing fiction about canon characters, having canon characters appear in your fiction... as long as it's done well (and BB does do it well), that's cool. It's not actually that far from using other people's characters in your own stories. (The only difference is that you can ask a player's permission fairly easily.)

If your uncle is Positron, however, your player is a pratt.

For various reasons, I moved this up from starting tomorrow, to starting today.

I present the final part of the New Divide trilogy...

The Truth that Lies

And may the gods have mercy on my soul,

I'll be sorting out a PDF version this evening, I hope. The general level of graphic violence and such is somewhat more subdued in this story. It's not quite as bad as the previous two parts.

Due to popular demand, i.e. you lot are chasing her way faster than I'd thought, the next installment of the trilogy. It actually fits slightly better with what's going on this way, and didn't take much rewrite.

Warning: adult themes.

Ashes of Memories

Unionverse version for those having trouble with the PDF.