Thanks for the kind words, Burning. I still need to read more of Blightlord though. Fighting hoards of undead is always fun.
But Billyboys critique got me thinking about my past. Now that I remember, I was always poor when I was young and couldnt afford comic books so I was exposed to Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers before comics. Dont get me wrong, I love comics and have been reading my cousins Marvel collection for years but I can see why Im more favorable to martial arts. Now that I have a job and money, I dont buy comics. I buy anime DVDs, manga and kung-fu movies among other things. I actually bought a season of Power Rangers on video when I found out my senseis teacher was a Power Ranger.
Anyway, thanks for the words. I never even really thought about that in my past so Im closer to understanding myself. Ill write some more serious notes in a few days.
Okay, Burning, your turn. *Mozart's Requiem plays*
No, seriously. Burning, your characters have extensive and interesting backstories, but the actual personalities of your heroes are a bit lacking.
Your villains, though, are very entertaining. And you have a distinct sense of humor, which I always admire.
Your biggest problem might be that you play so many characters at once that you can't really focus on any. . . but don't stop! It's your Forum Power!
Leo,
Its very impressive how you manage to find something in almost every situation to make Ian angry. The only critique I could possibly make is when Ian is fighting some maneuvers arent always incredibly clear. I imagine that you are trying to write in a cinematic style and you are light-years beyond me in that. I always understand the end results it just gets cloudy in my mind exactly how it got there sometimes. Ian is a great character and very well thought out and written.
Soviet,
I've only read your trolls and some Malta, but it seems that you're only happy when writing fight scenes. I love the trollspeak even though I have trouble reading it sometimes. My only other complaint is that some of the technology is a bit unrealistic (even in hero-land), and the never ending supply of guns. I think Reikoff pulled like 8 different firearms in that fight with Lotus so long ago (Which was a ton of fun btw)
Devious,
Same technology complaint. Things escalate and then there is power gaming on both sides. Nobody wants their toon going out like a chump but there isnt always a technological or magical answer to everything (Well maybe there is, but not always at your finger tips). Other than that, I enjoy the imagination of your toons
Billyboy,
A+ got to love and hate Billyboy. Sometimes I switch between those two extremes multiple times while reading the same post. I have only seen Phyllis in the SH101 threads but the interactions with him and Billy are classic. Bastian gotta love her even with her flaws/weaknesses/vulnerabilities you have added so much depth to her as a character, she is so much more than just the mean nurse
ManySplinters,
Well thought out, well written post with much detail reasoning and description. I wish you had the time to join more threads
Arashi,
I like your characters, though I have trouble reading Rachels accent and havent had a chance to interact with her much. Tam is hysterical I love her hyper-energetic cannon-speak. Those are the only two characters Ive had a chance to write with 
HaloInc
Triumph:
Heroes: Lady Halifax, Miss Kia, WhiteLotus, Agent Immolate, Lady Empathy, Sylence Fyredancer, Maiden of Fire
Villains: Innocent-Ella, Aegis-Sprite, Midnight Dragonfly
[ QUOTE ]
S-6: I like things that are cute, good, innocent and all that rot....seriously, Im a 19 year old that likes stuffed animals(I like to act like I hate the world but I really dont). I have a huge plush tiger on my dresser that I see every morning and my friends always give me teddy bears and what not. But even I have a limit. When I pass that limit, I want to break stuff but I will ignore that desire when Im talking about Essex. In all seriousness, I think you're a tad too passive even as a GM. If you think something should happen, it should happen(kind of like you did in 24HV by getting everyone infected). Dont let the other posters bully you(if Hyun-ki was suppose to kill that fake Zealstorm you should have FORCED HIM!). And whenever you start up GToA, please let Rosalind do something; if she doesnt approve of something make her do something about it....I feel like Im dragging her around against her will.
[/ QUOTE ]
Waaaah! All red for me? All right...
Okay, so Essex is predictable. Duly noted.
Can I get some suggestions on how to fix it? I mean, she's a robot, so there's always going to be some sense of predictability - and she's still feeling out her boundaries as a 'sentient' being. But is there anything, any situation or whatever, that you guys would have handled differently?
Come to think of it, I've only had her really get angry a few times. Hmm...
As for forcing things when I GM, I just.....don't feel right doing it. I was brought up roleplaying in chats, so they were very fast-paced and individualized. You didn't just force people to do things, and I always try to allow for people's abilities that I may or may not know about. In truth, I really felt bad infecting everyone with the virus in 24HV - I thought it was really godmoding of me. Vern, for example, with his immune system, and Archlich, with his high amount of power, should have easily been able to shake things off, so I really had to get creative with how on earth I was going to pull it off.
Drama is good when people are put into a situation that is threatening to them, but if I don't let people use their natural abilities, then that's like disregarding part of the character.
But anyway! I'm really seriously looking for suggestions. I'm glad everyone likes Rosie and Nessie, anyway. :P But since Essex IS pretty much my main character, I want her to be someone who is a pleasure to play with - not someone who you see in a thread and immediately think, "Oh, here we go. Kittens and puppies. Heard it before. Jeez."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
Well, I love Essex. I mean. . . I didn't exactly have Hal fall for her on a whim. . . 
I suppose she is a little predictable, but that's really just part of her character, and it is just a matter of whether you like her or not, as with any character.
Personally, I think you should stop worrying about Essex, she's fine. If you worry about anything, worry about being too much of a pushover. 
. . . Although, I am something of a pushover myself sometimes. . . but still.
Yeah, Essex is awesome. Being predictable is what makes her cute! You just KNOW she is going to worry about her friends, and how her emotions work. Now, if 2.0 were mean, he would most likely use that predictability to his advantage...
But, let us leave that to Shimmer, eh?
<.<
>.>
Hey, I know! Let's start an Essex fan club! She'll DIE of embarassment. . . which is great, because she's always complaining that no one wants to kill her in fight threads! Maybe we can get Helper to join!
. . . Okay, I'm done now.
Ok BurningBrawler, here it comes.
My problem with Blightlord is that the man comes across as a walking pissing match. I have this issue with Reikoff somewhat but he's not a regular in AH101 so it's not a big deal.
Whenever Blightlord shows up I know it's going to eventually come to a never-ending game of one-up-manship. I mean, how many zombies do you need for crying out loud.
I just prefer characters which have 'realistic' limits within the constraints of the game world. I like to know that the fight can end rather than dreading an encounter with someone who is going to constantly pull a solution to everything out of his back pocket and drag a fight out forever.
Anyhow, how do those of you following AH101 like the adventure in the abandoned lab so far?
[ QUOTE ]
Hey, I know! Let's start an Essex fan club! She'll DIE of embarassment. . . which is great, because she's always complaining that no one wants to kill her in fight threads! Maybe we can get Helper to join!
[/ QUOTE ]
LMAO, sign me up! ^_^
[ QUOTE ]
I just prefer characters which have 'realistic' limits within the constraints of the game world. I like to know that the fight can end rather than dreading an encounter with someone who is going to constantly pull a solution to everything out of his back pocket and drag a fight out forever.
[/ QUOTE ]
I totally agree with that, Lazarus. I'm not naming names (I'm still the new guy so I don't want to risk my fragile acceptance =p ) but I think that some people's posts would benefit greatly if they took this advice to heart.
[ QUOTE ]
Anyhow, how do those of you following AH101 like the adventure in the abandoned lab so far?
[/ QUOTE ]
Could use more descriptiveness. Your post tend to be concise, which can be fine for character reactions, but when setting up a creepy abandoned underground lab with creepy people running around it. It could use more flavor. Taste, smells dust, indistinguishable sounds, blood trails, mysterious piles of excrement with belt buckles and watches still in them(depends on the critters there). The setup with the lab and the storm was a great opportunity for horror mystery. The mystery is still there, but it has basically devolved into a quick fist fight. Now I know you probably have a lot more planned and dont intend to have them stroll up to the surface all easy like, but I like flavor.
HaloInc
Triumph:
Heroes: Lady Halifax, Miss Kia, WhiteLotus, Agent Immolate, Lady Empathy, Sylence Fyredancer, Maiden of Fire
Villains: Innocent-Ella, Aegis-Sprite, Midnight Dragonfly
[ QUOTE ]
I just prefer characters which have 'realistic' limits within the constraints of the game world. I like to know that the fight can end rather than dreading an encounter with someone who is going to constantly pull a solution to everything out of his back pocket and drag a fight out forever.
[/ QUOTE ]
QFT&E
I've tried doing this with my characters, especially Toy's robots. Hell, the only reason Toy has a freaking army right now is because Acid has a never-ending supply of the buggers. >_>
So...*pokes Burning and Devious* I consider that always prepared/unlimited resources thing a black mark on two otherwise really awesome people. Not much of one, cause I can almost always figure out a way to trump it (Except for Devious so far) but yeah. However, I do think I'm going to have issues with Lord Netharak and Death's Right Hand, not having ironed out the extent of their powers as much as the others.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
*DIES*....
You guys know me too well. D: *drapes a tablecloth over her head and stands in the corner*
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
Almost forgot.
*waves Essex flag*
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Argh.
Right, I know I often pull several weapons in any given fight, and I admit, that's a bad habit of mine. Yes, I will fit every weapon that it is phsyically possible for a person to carry on said person, but see, half of my guys are Paramilitary types, so I figured it was mildly acceptable. But I will work on that.
The Trollspeak...Well, it can go if it is a hassle. I could translate my posts in OOC, too.
And heh, sorry, sometimes I forget that I pretty much devote my free time to studying weaponry, and that others may not know just what a P-90 or Beretta 93R is. I will try to link obscure weapons I mention to Wikepedia or somesuch, at least to let you know if it's a Machine Pistol or a Sniper Rifle.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Anyhow, how do those of you following AH101 like the adventure in the abandoned lab so far?
[/ QUOTE ]
Could use more descriptiveness. Your post tend to be concise, which can be fine for character reactions, but when setting up a creepy abandoned underground lab with creepy people running around it. It could use more flavor. Taste, smells dust, indistinguishable sounds, blood trails, mysterious piles of excrement with belt buckles and watches still in them(depends on the critters there). The setup with the lab and the storm was a great opportunity for horror mystery. The mystery is still there, but it has basically devolved into a quick fist fight. Now I know you probably have a lot more planned and dont intend to have them stroll up to the surface all easy like, but I like flavor.
[/ QUOTE ]
Well, no offense to anyone, but when I set up scenes I expect the others to contribute to it as well. So far Darkstorm is the only one doing that with the scratches on the wall thing and seeing the eyes watching from the woods.
Maybe I'm just used to my old group, where I could set the basic scene and they would go ahead and fill in such 'flavor' details on their own. It gets tiring for me when I feel like I have to explain every single little detail, then it begins to feel more like I'm writing a novel than GMing a RP.
Especially tiring when I have to start calling out the names of all my attacks. I thought the descriptions of the powers being used were enough, then again I work under the assumption that everyone participating has played CoH/V enough to recognize such described effects.
Or maybe you're just expecting Resident Evil when I'm trying to deliver System Shock instead.
[ QUOTE ]
The Trollspeak...Well, it can go if it is a hassle. I could translate my posts in OOC, too.
[/ QUOTE ]
I love the trollspeak, even when I cant read it, and you are always cool enough to PM the translation when I ask
HaloInc
Triumph:
Heroes: Lady Halifax, Miss Kia, WhiteLotus, Agent Immolate, Lady Empathy, Sylence Fyredancer, Maiden of Fire
Villains: Innocent-Ella, Aegis-Sprite, Midnight Dragonfly
Wait....you want us to fill stuff in?
...
...
Ok, I didn't know that. Never run into that sort of descriptive technique before. Let's try and get it to work now.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
[ QUOTE ]
Well, no offense to anyone, but when I set up scenes I expect the others to contribute to it as well. So far Darkstorm is the only one doing that with the scratches on the wall thing and seeing the eyes watching from the woods.
Maybe I'm just used to my old group, where I could set the basic scene and they would go ahead and fill in such 'flavor' details on their own. It gets tiring for me when I feel like I have to explain every single little detail, then it begins to feel more like I'm writing a novel than GMing a RP.
[/ QUOTE ]
None taken.
Actually I found it slightly confusing when Darkstorm mentioned being watched cause he seemed to elude to his demonology.
I never considered the possibility that it was expected to contribute in that way. I figured it would be too presumptions of me and might derail what you have planned.
HaloInc
Triumph:
Heroes: Lady Halifax, Miss Kia, WhiteLotus, Agent Immolate, Lady Empathy, Sylence Fyredancer, Maiden of Fire
Villains: Innocent-Ella, Aegis-Sprite, Midnight Dragonfly
I try to avoid 'railroading' my players as much as possible. My style is to set the rules, present the scene, and only introduce plot devices when needed to nudge the players in certain directions while incorporating the ideas that they bring in with them as long as they do not stray to far outside the constraits of the setting.
Like I said, Blightlord's personality is to feel superior to everyone. Consider it an exploitable character flaw in him.
As for the zomg armies! bit... Well, when he raised his first army in Final Fight, I was a bit of a forum noob... I thought it would be cool, since I didn't expect many people, and I could set a sort of goal: Crush the army, working together.
Then Devious joined and he also had an army, which trounced mine, so I brought in the Pocket Dimension Blightlord owns and recreated troops there when Acid could detect any people I killed and re-raised.
Basically, it started out as my fault, and grew bigger as others went along with it.
I think it makes Final Fight different enough from Cosmic Chess so that it's harder to post something meant for the other thread.
Also, notice Blightlord really hasn't used any armies in the other thread. I didn't say raised, but he's not using any 
Cosmic Chess I plan to keep him to the normal MM limit and just spruce of the zombies, in Anti-Hero he's not fighting anyone to begin with, but he only has the personal guards, Grime, and the zombies he's going to use for class experiments.
In Crown of Thorns, he's only using the basic MM amount.
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
Yeah, pretty much the only reason I built an army in Final Fight was to counter Blightlord. I was planning to lose it all in the big battle for the pocket dimension of infinite zombification, but then BL went ahead and created another...so now I'm kinda back to square one over there.
As for critiques on any of yalls...yeah, I got squat. I'll have to figure that all out sometime... 
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Er... really? Cause the only reason I did that was cause I thought you still had more armies and didn't want to leave something defenseless. O.o
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
The huge armies was a big part in me leaving Final Fight, to tell the truth. Having my lone hero in there when every side had huge amounts of artillery and troops just seemed so one sided and impossible I didn't feel like I would be able to contribute in the slightest. I kind of tried to set up Dr. Phillis with an army to counter the others, but I guess Burning was trying to rid himself of my army as he had tried with Devious, and things just became silly. Then Toy came around and had some serious firepower against Billyboy, and I made him to honestly not be able to take that much punishment. I mean, for one, I hate undermining people's character, and taking out Archlich, Ghoul, Toy and all his robots seemed like a bit much for me to say Billyboy had a chance of doing. Things just kept getting bigger and bigger, and I ended up feeling really obselete. Oh, and did I mention that I would sit down at the computer to read about forty posts that left me in the dust? :P
Okay, so the activity part of it wasn't so bad, but I really do think several of us could really tone down our characters just a bit if they're going to be used to RP.
I'd gladly get rid of the giant armies.
And Billyboy? Archlich is still looking for that rematch.
>_>
<_<
^_^
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Well now I have to critique Leo...
I can definitely see the transition on Ian's personality as he gets older, and that's a good thing, cause I know hearing his every thought makes it hard for Pstorm not to shock him.
Also, how you can keep Hyun-Ki passive pretty much no matter what shows commitment to a personality style. Blightlord's self-developed to someone more easily angered, though whether that's a bad thing, I don't think so.
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell