The Golden Age Secret of the Paragon Society (ARC 344596)

Name: The Golden Age Secret of the Paragon Society
Arc ID: 344596
Creator Global Name: @Wrong Number
Synopsis - Every citizen of Paragon City has heard of the adventures of the Paragon Society, a hero group that was active from the 1930's through the 1970's. The last surviving member of this group has asked for your help investigating a secret involving the 5th Column that dates back to World War 2.
Difficulty Level: Medium
Number of EB/AVS – 2
Level Range – 25-54
Story Type – Drama
Villain Groups – 5th Column, Custom 5th Column
Mission Count: 5
Estimated Time to Play: About an hour

I have finally gotten it together and written a new arc. It is quite a departure from my normal humor related stuff as it is a drama involving the 5th Column. Having three humor based arcs and a humor/drama one I figured it was time to try and stretch my writing.

Here are a few pictures from the arc to hopefully pique your interest.

Reviewed in my One A Day thread - S12.

I would have left you this message in game, but my cat seized the opportunity to jump on the keyboard as I was doing my rating.

I got a chance to run this over the weekend and really enjoyed it. 5th Column are a fun villain group to fight and the custom ones at the end were really well done, the final boss was especially good. Even though this was a serious arc, it still did have a little of your humor in it by way of the contact which was a nice touch. Some really great dialog from that guy. I gave you a solid five stars, I really liked it even though it was serious and not the usual humor you do.

I went over this arc with a fine tooth comb again today and think I got the last of the typos out (time will tell). While I was at it I made a few favor based text changes and tweaked Sherman's power set.


WN

Played through this just now, it's pretty good.

A couple of typos found: "discrete" instead of "discreet" (first one is a math term, the other means prudent); "alright" instead of "all right." Although people use alright quite a bit, it's technically incorrect. On the bulletin board in the 4th mission, one of the heroes mentioned is "Stars and Strips" -- based on the other names, I suspect this should be "Stripes." (Unless of course it's a heroine who started as a "hotel girl" in Pearl Harbor.) Sherman's "lost" message says, "Your are" instead of "You are."

I like Sherman's punny name, as well as the twist. I really liked the design and names of the custom group in the final mission. Nice use of the 5th Column weltanshauung.

While working with The Firecracker Kid on this arc he was nice enough to show me many pictures from the Paragon Society's hay day. Here is one of my favorites:



Red White Boom and The Firecracker Kid circa 1942


I have asked him to dig out some pictures of the other Paragon Society members so hopefully more to come.


WN

Cool. Ariadne liked the Firecracker Kid, even though he seemed to think that because she's a Communist, she comes from the Soviet Union. No matter how many times she told him differently, he would look at her with deep suspicion, as though she was about toe break out the hammer and sickle.

PW reviewed this arc and as a result I made some changes and corrections to it.

Updates

- All Missions: Changed the color of the mission name to match the clues given in each mission.

- Several Missions: Corrected minor typos

- M1: Changed “I just got wind from a friend on the force…” to “I just received an alarm alert and it seems that the vultures are already swooping in”. This little word change eliminates any question of the break-in being known before you arrive.

- M1: Due to system weirdness the defeat boss goal completes automatically once you enter the mission. I have bugged this issue, though most people may not even notice it in my mission, I have had it happen in to me while playing other people's missions where it really mattered.

- M1: Changed Defeat Anderson to Stop Burglars

- M1: Change Anderson to a Captain

- M2: Change Hecker to a Commandant

- M5: Werwolves were giving no exp due to a misclick on my part. Fixed it by resetting to Standard/Standard.

- M5: Added a patrol of standard 5th Column mobs. Their dialog helps make it clear that the clones are made from the altered DNA of Sherman.

- M5: Changed guards of the Mainframe and Mind Probe destructible objects to be standard 5th Column.

I had thought more than once about adding some standard 5th column to the last mission and PW's comments pushed me to finally do it.


WN

A few more pictures from The Firecracker Kid of the Paragon Society members from the 1940's.


Spirit of 76, Homefront and Stars and Stripes



Silver Eagle, Liberty's Shield and Shooting Star


Author's Note- None of these character's appear in the arc. I may at a later date do an arc featuring them.


WN

Some reviews are in!

@FredrikSvanberg wrote: The whole arc has a fine balance of humor and serious business.

@DarklordDKL wrote: Awesome! Your best yet, IMO. Firecracker has some classic material!

@BackFire wrote: Nazi-smashing fun! Great attention to detail, fun dialogue, and a solid story. There was a lot more humor than I expected, but it didn't detract from the arc. Esp. liked the fight dialogue for Sherman and his turn to the dark side. Great touch! BTW- was able to solo the EB with a lvl 27 MA/WP scrapper

@Meatpiston wrote: Nice story and great dialog!

@Tragedy Redtear wrote: great depiction of the 5th column, the customs were well made and a lot of details about the faction came through indirectly in while playing. I don't speak German but i know enough to see that you knew what you were doing when writing the names and dialogue.. Nice job!

@Lethal Guardian wrote: (as Pro Payne) Wonderful arc! The contact and mission briefings were very well done. The mission design and the story were top notch -- the arc was a blast to play, and I very much enjoyed it! Very, very good job!

@Gypsy Rose wrote: Loved this arc, especially the contact!

I had a great time working with Sherman to end the Nutsi threat. I felt a real attachment to him, and especially like his dialog while resisting the brainwashing and his plea for us to get the device to fix him before he lost control.

When I found his outfit in mission 3, I was genuinely upset. His Panzer costume was a nice offset to his regular outfit.

The contact rode the line of being annoying, but never quite crossed it, IMO. It set up his change of attitude and made the respect he gives you after mission 4 feel all the more real.

p.s. I just read the souvenir. I look forward to trying the arc mentioned in it.

Played this last night and enjoyed it. The only thing I would suggest changing, is picking a different color for the clue text on I think it's the third mission. The red is kind of glaring. Another shade of orange/yellow, or a blue, or even a dull green would help. The color coding of the clues was a nice idea to separate them. It does make it easier to keep up with them after a mission.

Just did this mission with a friend. Really enjoyed it. Liked Shermans lines in the third mission. Really felt immersed in the story. Cheers!

-Xan

Hey no worries really enjoyed playing it. (Rare for a playermade arc.) Ran it with a fellow MA architect who agreed. Good work.

I know a couple /tells saying good job & a few posts on a message board aren't much compared to 2 months work...but hey. I enjoyed it

-Xan

Small update

- Added info promoting @Jail.bird's arcs about the new Paragon Society to the Souvenir for this arc. The arcs feature Sherman and are about him putting the new group together.


WN

I was noticed that I have not updated the feedback this arc has been getting in months! So, here is some more of what people are saying:


@Fasttrack1 wrote: I thorougly enjoyed the humor and the atmosphere you gave the story (WW2 era). Gave it 5 stars, especially since I love reading on WW2 history. Fantastic creation!

@Dalghryn wrote: Well-written and researched.

@Fiery Redeemer wrote: Excellent arc. Doesn't hurt that it's about beating up 5th Column. Thank you.

@Dr Mechano wrote: loved it, very golden age and would like to see more on the Paragon Society

@Dark Phoenix wrote: Fun story. Very polished.

@Tubbius wrote: REALLY well done and well researched. Excellent arc.

@TheDeepBlue wrote: Neato

@Arctic Princess wrote: This was a great arc - I played it after playing your Aeon Challenge II arc! A lot of fun, quite difficult even on 0/1 setting with the EB and then Panzer but ultimately rewarding! 5 stars.

@K'aji wrote: I loved the custom Columnists. the 'Kid was a nice dynamic contact.. Nice arc,worthy of a 5!

@Teravoltt wrote: I liked this. Good job.

@CrusaderKal wrote: Nice Story

@Aehaed wrote: Great fun! Nice classic bit of adventurin'.

@PTD : Enjoyable arc!

@Aracade wrote: Another very good story. Nice progresion.. Over all solid arc.

@Sevyyn wrote: Good arc with good writing. Really enjoyed it.

@KemLi wrote: loved the story, loved the dialogue and the classic nature of the characters

@FredrikSvanberg wrote: The whole arc has a fine balance of humor and serious business.

@DarklordDKL wrote: Awesome! Your best yet, IMO. Firecracker has some classic material!

@BackFire wrote: Nazi-smashing fun! Great attention to detail, fun dialogue, and a solid story. There was a lot more humor than I expected, but it didn't detract from the arc. Esp. liked the fight dialogue for Sherman and his turn to the dark side. Great touch! BTW- was able to solo the EB with a lvl 27 MA/WP scrapper

@Meatpiston wrote: Nice story and great dialog!

@Tragedy Redtear wrote: great depiction of the 5th column, the customs were well made and a lot of details about the faction came through indirectly in while playing. I don't speak German but i know enough to see that you knew what you were doing when writing the names and dialogue.. Nice job!

@Lethal Guardian wrote: (as Pro Payne) Wonderful arc! The contact and mission briefings were very well done. The mission design and the story were top notch -- the arc was a blast to play, and I very much enjoyed it! Very, very good job!

@Gypsy Rose wrote: Loved this arc, especially the contact!

@Defensive Option wrote: Perfect classic red/white and bliue story thanks

@Kow wrote: Really awesome!! I enjoyed every single mission, and the dialogue for the contact is hilarious. "I can barely work my Jitterbug..." Classic stuff dude, keep up the good work

@Mad Machinest wrote: Well written and a lot of fun to play.

@Grave Touch wrote: I liked it very much; well written, good plot line; kinda creepy and fufilling on how well you mimiced the Nazis on that last mission, really felt good killing them; am I an Inglorious ******* now?

@Ultra Lad wrote: Very fun, I played it with a toon named Agent Valor...a perfect fit

@Hurricane Hank wrote: Nice arc, I always enjoy the old school stuff

@LaceySkye wrote: Hey! Just played this one with my lvl 50 Claws/Super-Reflexes Scrapper. This was an excellent story that had me laughing from the get-go. It held my interest the whole way through and really delievered in the "event" department. Sherman/Panzer turning on us in mission 4 was a great touch! I loved your custom baddies in the last mission and would love to see more of them. It IS fun beating up Nazi's. >.> lol! 5 stars and another fantastic job!

@Zamuel wrote: Very well done. Nice to see the 5th Column in a role where you can actually regard them as a threat.

@BigJoules wrote: Easily the most enjoyable MA story I've run thus far. Thanks for putting in he work!

@Adept wrote: well written and enjoyable to play through

@Rude Dog wrote: Very nice!

@Simian Stalker wrote: Really enjoyed this arc! Great story, flow, and characters!

@Hydrophidian wrote: Had a great time! I wasn't the leader, but I was still able to follow what was going on. Loved the custom group at the end. Thanks for making a wonderful arc we could play!

@Mr Wallace wrote: greart story very JSA loved it will run again with my SG thx

@PTD wrote: Enjoyable arc!

@KemLi wrote: loved the story, loved the dialogue and the classic nature of the characters

@Sevyyn wrote: Good arc with good writing. Really enjoyed it.



WN

I've been away on vacation for a week and was very happy to find that the Golden Age Secret of the Paragon Society had reached over 200 plays when I returned.



Of course, I couldn't let's this milestone go by without either Twitery Tweating or bligity blogging or posting something on my Faceyspace about it.

This arc took me months to finish and it's extremely pleasing to see that so many have enjoyed it so far. Thanks to everyone who has played it.


WN

- Updated the feedback post (above) since I had not done it in many months.


WN