TimeLord

The following lyrical verse was discovered among the effects of the late London Fog, a British hero who had been slated to join the roster of the Omega Team during the Rikti War. Fog was unable to join his teammates due to injuries suffered in a skirmish shortly before the mission was to have taken place. London Fog died last week of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

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Leaving their families behind them
Knowing full well what lay ahead
Waving goodbye, as they left us in tears
Remembering all they'd said

I looked to the sky, I offered my prayers
I asked Him for guidance and strength
But the simple beliefs of a simple man
Lay in His hands on on my head

They came from the North
They came from the South
With Will and with Power
And a new kind of Order
Showing no fear at what laid up ahead
We'll never see the likes of them again

They sought the Great Portal, which led beyond the stars
Sneaking through darkness and dealing with danger
Showing no fear at what laid up ahead
We'll never see the likes of them again

Fighting the good fight
Flying and firing the track
With blistering ice
And fire burning their backs

But they could hear the people's cry
They could see the fear in their eyes
Memories of those they'd left behind
Still ringing in their ears
I'll always remember that night
As they waved goodbye to their fathers

The smoke cleared, the dust it settled
No one knew how many had died
All around there were broken men
They'd said they were safe...they'd lied
You could hear the cries, you could taste the tears
But good fortune that day was ours
And it occurred to me the heart of a true Hero
It seems isn't hard to find




((This was based on "Driving the Last Spike", written by Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford, as appearing on Genesis' "We Can't Dance" album. Apologies to the original artists.))

Actually, I've already seen a billboard somewhere...can't recall where now, of course...but it seems to have been in reference to the Kheldians. "They could be ANYONE!" it declared. I thought it was pretty funny.

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Hmmm. Perhaps I'm the only one that would enjoy any of this.

Nevermind, then.

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I dunno, man...I just can't describe the transcendant joy I experience when I get puked on by a random stranger...!

It is an interesting idea, though, and I concur with the notion of having powers linked to a given concept. I, however, AM a roleplayer, so it's just a given for me. For instance, one of my alts is a Highlander-style Immortal character. Giving him a travel power just seems anathema to me. Fitness, however...yeah! So he gets Swift, and he gets Hurdle, and Swift + Sprint is still moderately fast, so no worries. He's also a doctor, so I'm planning on giving him the Medicine pool (if I ever level him high enough for a 2nd power pool ). If we had vehicles in the game, then I'd get him one, since it makes perfect sense. But Easter, my Mutant MA/SR Super-Leaping main? No, no need for a vehicle, thanks much...her primary concern is to avoid ramming her head on the underside of the traffic helicopters as they swoop overhead...!

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Regardless of anything else, if you are speaking in character, and you have an affectation (speaking with an English accent, or like a machine, saying "Sugar" or "Sweetiekins", etc.), then you should probably warn those you team with in advance so they won't be offended, in character or out. A good place for that is in your character description, of course, but since others may not read it, an announcement in Team chat mode is probably a good idea, too.

As always, YMMV!

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And of course, mine does.

I'm forced to disagree on the notion of "warning" people that your character speaks with an accent or has cutesy names for people. Do you do this in RL? "I'm terribly sorry sir, but as I was born in Manchester--Great Britain, you know--I have this terrible trouble with an accent, and I'd HATE to give offense...if you should find my speech abhorrent at any given point, please do let me know now so I might avoid offending you further!" /e boggles I see nothing at all wrong with just "being yourself", being in-character, and going right along until someone pops up & says, "Hey. That offends me. Please stop." That's been the rule I operate under since I started playing SWG (shudder) awhile back, and I haven't had any troubles at all. In fact, the few times someone has requested that I stop, and I promptly do so and apologize, they tend to follow with, "it's okay, it's just that <explanation for why it bothered them so>", and thus a conversation and eventual friendship was created.

Not tryin' to pick a fight or anything...just feel obligated to speak for the "other side".

I wouldn't mind seeing a flag over one's head to indicate one's presence as a RP'er. Just seeing the "RP" over a toon's head would let me know how to approach that person--if to even approach them at all. Sure, you can do that now just by R-clicking on them and selecting "Info" to read the bio; I've found that generally speaking, non-RP'ers don't have bios. But I digress...

I have other concerns, but I've addressed them in another thread & they can't be helped by IG tools anyway.

Now, when Easter chats with people, she often uses "sugah" and "darlin'"; she doesn't mean to offend anyone, that's just the way she talks. There's significantly more to her than that, though; she was born in Tennessee in 1939. She's a recovering Superadine addict (I imagine it like alcohol--no such thing as "recovered"). The longest relationship she's ever been in lasted 6 months...this ties back to her abandonment issues with her father. Her mother slowly started going insane when she was 10; she left home at 18 and at some point after that, her mother committed suicide (details left out for the games "T" rating), leaving Easter to feel responsible for having not been there for her. She has a deep abiding love for puns, especially the really bad ones. Growing up, she wanted to be a ballerina...

There's more than this, but I sense people falling asleep on the other side of the screen...and my point is, you'd never know ANY of this from just teaming with her. She'd call you "sugah" or "darlin'" and as far as you'd be concerned, that would be the end of that. He called it RP'ing, and perhaps he misspoke...he was "speaking in character", using an accent. And especially since he stopped once you asked him to, well...so what?

And I'm afraid I have to disagree with an earlier poster...if you can't stand people hitting on you because you play a toon opposite of your RL gender, well...stop! Play a male toon. Put "((MALE PLAYER))" in your bio, real early on. Tell people you team with as early as possible, preferably immediately after accepting the invite, "btw, I'm a guy". I play toons of both genders, and refer to other players by way of the gender their toon presents. (Bad grammar, I know, sorry. ) When I play a guy, I get treated as a guy...when I play a chick, I get hit on like a chick. It's half the reason I play the different genders--just to see how people will react. It's a RP exercise for me; how long can I play a gender different from my own before someone scritches their tiny little head and says "waitaminute...what the hell are you?!?"

Okay, so this post has lost focus and I'm going to stop now...but point is, I'm afraid I simply can't agree with your reason for being offended. Sorry. *shrugs*

Easter is homeless...not too new a thing for her. She hitchhiked across the US before coming to Paragon, and has been sleeping in those open spaces above the restrooms in the tram stations. She only recently discovered the official stipend for being a hero, though...and is looking at getting her very first apartment.

Aether Stream is a magickal sprite that took physical form...well, for fun, really. Money? What is this? Job? She's still having trouble with the concept of NAMES, let alone money or jobs.

The Bodman gets an allowance from his mother. Shh, don't tell.

Finally, Alastriona belongs to a dwindling order of Battlemages. The order itself dates back to the days of Merlin (Arthur was a geek ), and while it is fading away in modern times, it still has sufficient resources to care for its remaining members.

Oh, yeah...all on Virtue.

***edit***
Google-fu...heh...! STARS FOR YOU!

Nearest to where? I wouldn't trust any seafood joints near Terra Volta, but that's just me...

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Personaly I'm not a role player and will never be one either. I don't mind role players in most games but in this one it just really annoys me because it just a bunch of guys with medieval armor talking in Shakespearian language (which is ALWAYS butchered because they don't know how to truly speak it). What I wanna know is that why someone doesn't role play as a gangster or a soldier. Enough of this crap, lets get some true role playing or none at all.

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This absolutely astounds me...how an avowed non-RP'er can even start a thread entitled "True Roleplaying" boggles the mind. Give me a break. If you don't RP, that's perfectly fine. You don't have to, and in fact, I fully support your right to turn your nose up at any and all intimations of roleplay. HOWEVER...I fully agree with Sweet Thang...if you don't play football, don't go telling a football player how to play the game. If you're NOT a roleplayer, and you NEVER WILL BE a roleplayer...for the love of the gods, DON'T tell me how to roleplay. I'm not even gonna try to sugarcoat this.

If you insist on making noise about something you evidently barely comprehend, do what another poster (was it Thang again? Sorry, can't remember ) suggested and be a part of the solution. Want to see roleplayed gangsters/soldiers? Logic suggests...shut up and do it.

Oh, and my wife has volunteered her services to beat you about the head and breasts with iambic pentameter anytime you feel the need.

So there.

Interesting...OP makes a statement, I place my stance on the matter comfortably in opposition to his, and in response, OP...hangs a hard left, leaving squeal marks on the pavement, straight through the department store window.

HUNH?!?

I guess, when you don't have a leg to stand on, all that's left to do is flallop around a lot. Okie-day...moving right along...

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I think people have a misconception of what RPing really is.

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Is that so?
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I've been a RPer for 16 years now and alot of what I see in game is not RPing but nonsense. If you want to stand around and chat about made up issues then play the simms ,if you want to RP a hero then make one.

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I'm so glad you're here to tell us these things. I mean, my god...some of us have been playing tabletop RPG's since, what, 1985. Some of us are even LARPers. Lord knows we haven't a clue how to RP, so, gosh, I'm so happy we have someone else here to police it for us.
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If you have to take a power for playabilites sake then do so, you can allways chose to ignore that ability when you RP or you can make up somthing different than the discription for how it works. A jet pack for super leap, who says you jump like the hulk, a invisable motor cycle for superspeed, who says you have to run that fast, wonder woman had an invisable jet.

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Okay, this I agree with. Not a half-bad idea. Too bad it's buried in with all this other stuff.
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Instead they chat away hours at a time and when they do happen to do a mission there has to be a 2 hour debrief on how the mission personally affected their heroe, leangthy debate on wether the color purple looks good on them and disscusions on their RP girl/boyfriend. Shure thats fun some of the time but I see more people centering the game around that instead of the game itself. It is a game and not a chatroom or story contest right?

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Actually, it's all that. That and more. It's just as viable to spend all night in the Paragon Dance Party and tell your female friend about how you and your boyfriend broke up because he went and got another girl pregnant, but it's awful because she still loves him, and doesn't know what to do...then, to alleviate the stress and get an emotional outlet, step outside and beat the snot out of some offending pack of Tsoo. And really...does purple look attractive on anyone?

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RP is assuming the role of somone else and even in a fantasy setting is closely related to RL

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HUNH???
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and if in RL any of my friends got as indepth about themselves as some people get indepth about thier heroes I would go crazy. Heroes take action, not stand around talking about action, save the drama for the soap operas.

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*opts to refrain from discussing the comic-book style stories that crop up from time to time in the long-running soap operas*

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I'm just commenting on what I have seen in game and I know not everyone plays like this, maybe I'm wrong about what a superhereo does. If you have fun doing this more power to you I don't want to spoil your fun, I just had to get this off my chest, hopfully you will understand my point. Does this make me an ********? yes but I don't care and you shouln't eithier.

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If you don't care about being an ********, why are you concerned about appearing like one? I wasn't going to call you names in this post, but if you insist... j/k

Look, I realize you're probably very well-intended with this post, and I appreciate your input, as I do *MOST* of the people who post on here. There is a great deal of creativity and good information to be gleaned from these boards, and I actively enjoy reading them and learning from them. HOWEVER...anyone who starts talking about "right" and "wrong" ways to roleplay... *eyes turn white, skin turns green, clothes ripping, eerie high-pitched music playing in the background* Flat out: There is no right way to roleplay. Period. The closest you can get to "wrong" is "I act like an a-hole because my character is an a-hole so it's just him." Is it drama? Yes. Is it overwrought sometimes? Yes. If it bothers you, move on. Or, there's always the ever-popular /ignore function. Please use it; it means the rest of us RP'ers don't have to listen to you tell us how "wrong" we are.

And then, there's the positive alternative: Make some popcorn, sit down, and admit (strictly in private, to yourself, of course) that you enjoy this guilty little pleasure and watch your friends make virtual fools of themselves.

So there you have it. Is this a flame? It wasn't intended to be, but who knows? I've lost track. Am I trolling? Again, not intentionally. Did I piss you off? I do apologize; it wasn't my intent. Did I make you stop and think?

Yay me.

It was late in the wee hours of...well, the morning...when she sauntered in through the door. Damn near closing...oh, well. If they wanna kick me out, let 'em. Won't be the first time... Easter smiled, and lowered her 6-foot-tall frame onto a stool in front of the bar. She paused long enough to remove her Stetson and set it down--band up--alongside her. "Jack and coke, please." Her deep Southern drawl seemed eminently appropriate, somehow. "On the rocks--no ice." She smirked, and reached her arms back behind her head to stretch, her leather bustier creaking ever so slightly.

The late-night bartender sighed. He'd been wanting to close up shop, maybe go home early...the place had been dead for hours, and he'd been sooooo BORED...but maybe this chick would make it worth his while. She *was* gorgeous, after all...the bustier alone made the potentially later stay worthwhile, to say nothing of the way her dark thigh-high boots displayed her shapely gams. He shrugged. "Comin' right up."

As the bartender turned his back, Easter casually reached over to the "No Smoking!" fold-up placard and turned it face-down on the table as she pulled a Camel from her satchel. She struck a match to light it, pausing to let the orange firelight play across her features.

The bartender brought her her drink. "So...you, ah, one'a them hero-types?"

She smirked. "Ah s'pose you could say that, sure. I'm just new in town, s'all...passin' through. Might keep mah interest...who can tell." She one-shotted the drink, and waved for a refill.

The bartender raised an eyebrow, a little surprised, but went to get her another drink, keeping her in the corner of his vision...something wasn't quite right about this woman. The way she was smoking her (illegal indoors) cigarette...it was...sensual, somehow. Not like just smoking. Like being with a lover. He pondered this as he brought her her drink. "Kinda unusual for a lady to come in at this late hour, ain't it?"

She smiled ruefully, still not making eye contact with him. She swirled her drink around, staring into its depths. "Gotta do somethin' ta take mah mind off the Dyne."

The bartender's eyes grew wide with shock, but the years of dealing with Paragon's occasionally less-than-savory types had granted him the training to cover it up...he hoped. He swallowed. "Listen...I hate to do this to you, but--"

"Closing time. Ah know." She slugged the drink back, just like the first, and pulled a wallet out of her satchel.

"No, no...don't sweat it. On the house." He smiled at her. Just please, PLEASE, get the hell out of here!!!

She glanced up at him then, finally making eye contact...he shied away. Too bad, she thought. Might've had a little fun tonight yet. Ah, well... She nodded. "Well, thanks." She took one final long drag from her cigarette, and plunked it down into the remains of her drink. "Have a good night, sugah. Be safe."

The bartender would remember that night for a very long time...a hero not just fighting Dyne users and Dyne pushers, but battling Dyne itself...what was the world coming to...?

Hey there, Tall-Dark-and-Not-So-Talkative! Why don'tcha come on over here an' sit down, have a drink. The name's Easter, sugah...you an' me, we gonna get along jus' fine. S'alright, hon, you don't have t'say much...Ah know how it is, sometimes, out on the road...drop me a line sometime, ah'd be happy for a little conversation.

Wow...I have no idea where this thread is headed, but both entries thus far have such promise...! Keep up the good work...and maybe a singular direction? Cheers!

A little more clarity required here...and let's keep it PG-13, as the 'structions on the main forum site requests. Clearly, it's a question about sex, roleplay & MMO's, CoH in particular...a little more explanation, si vous plait? I do know "naughty" behavior goes on, in private...and not just in this game. I've heard tales from SWG that might make Larry Flynt cringe. Or not. But anyways...

And there's nothing "dirty" about it! Just think of what that little Jewish lady was always trying to tell us: "Zex, zex, und more zex!!!" (Sincerest apologies to Dr. Ruth Westheimer.)

Anywho, this is an old thread I found by accident so probably nothing more will come of it...but I'd love to see the conversation!

Electric Blue got doused with biomutagenic chemicals illegally stored by Crey just shortly before an Outcast Shocker pasted her with a lightning bolt. The end result is that her mitochondria became supercharged & self-regenerating. This allows her access to similar powers utilized by those same Shockers. She has mastered the use of self-generated static repulsion to hover about, and is trying to figure out a way to increase the amperage in such a way that would allow her to *really* fly, and not just create a massive localized spark. She also can change the channel on her television (as well as turn it on or off) from across the room; additionally, she has discovered a tendency to destroy a random electrical appliance in her apartment whenever she has a really violent sneeze. Her power grows daily, but her metaphysician remains assured that her cellular walls (to say nothing of her other organelles) will keep pace, so she needn't worry about her own internal current consuming her.

The one thing her metaphysician hasn't mentioned to her is the possibility--a remote one, granted--that the increased voltage on her cerebrum might change some basic psychological characteristics, i.e., overall emotional stability, clarity of thought, sexual orientation, etc....

HOLY (censored)!!! I mean, the link looks really cool & all, but...wow...please correct me (politely) if I'm wrong, but can't you get your anatomy sued off for using the "CNN" logo and stuff? Yowza...

Aside from that, 2 thumbs and both lekku way up!!

Pain...head...exploding...trying to read...owwwwwwwwww...

Rassumfrassumrackinfrackin--PC is DEAD!!! *cries* Go figure I miss out on the TRULY COOL STUFF... *whimpers, moans* Y'all have to let me know how it goes, I'll be scouring the boards as I can borrow PC's at work. Fight on, Heroes! Fight on, my Sisters--Dynamo Girl is with you in spirit!

Thanks, Kilytee...and as to why... *shrugs* It's not an "official" COH content board, so why not? RP isn't the *best* fit...but where is? Ah, well...

Feel stupid for admitting this, but I can't remember how haikus are formatted...is it 6 syllables, then 8 syllables, then 5? *crawls under rock*

This is just a side note about people ranting about how Cryptic/NCSoft are saying things are to be happening "soon", and this is CLEARLY not "soon" enough! Let me tell ya, folks...go play SWG, and let me know what kind of response you get from Those On High. There are bugs in that game that have been there since launch...and are still resting comfortably right where they are. Professions that are flat BROKEN, and everyone KNOWS they're broken...but they're in no rush to get them fixed. (Smuggler, anyone? Squad Leader?) Cryptic/NCSoft is taking their sweet time in releasing updates & patches, and by god, LET THEM!!! I played SWG for a year before throwing in the lightsaber, and during my tenure, "patch" became synonymous with "new & inspiring manner in which our software will crash your computer". CoH is (in my admittedly little experience) 110% more stable in comparison, and if all their releases continue in this vein, then I shall forever remain a willing and cheerful slave to Statesman's "soon".

Now, as far as mods go, I admit I don't know jack about 'em and will shut up and move on.

..................where's the next episode?

I've noticed a trend, hopefully you've received pm's from these people. There are an alarming number of drow scattered about...one good friend of mine has at least 1 drow on 5 or 6 different servers...! Drop Web Priestess a line, see if she's up for anything. An excellent RP'er. Tell her Dynamo Girl sent you.

Non sequitur...feel free to flame, I asked for it...

...but wow, that has to be the *longest* entry on these boards I've seen yet...!!!

*dons scorch-proof suit*