I've actually suggested this idea before, long, long ago, but I figured I'd repeat it;
Basically, take the Vanguard concept; reduce it in scale; and apply it to a variety of factions already present in the game. For example;
Your player reaches level 5, and meets up with Manticore; he offers them membership in Wyvern. This leads to a handful of story arcs where you work alongside existing wyvern operatives, earning Wyvern costume pieces, doing 'less savory' jobs that lead neatly into becoming a vigilante after the arc ends at level 20. It would have 'random' paper-style missions like going into the Isles to assassinate an Arbiter, or an up-and-coming villain; basic Wyvern-style activities. You earn Wyvern merits, which you spend on the costume, on temp powers that give you wyvern-style arrows and jetpack, and possibly summoning a wyvern operative.
(Or, alternately, to avoid yet another merit system; the costume pieces and temp powers are bought with Inf; you simply have to perform enough missions with the faction to unlock the ability to buy them.)
The most obvious faction to do this with is Arachnos; to have people who start out as villains and then join Arachnos, rather than the other way around. But hey, anything works.
"Why do these Lost keep trying to hold me? Don't they know I don't swing that way?"
I've actually suggested this idea before, long, long ago, but I figured I'd repeat it;
Basically, take the Vanguard concept; reduce it in scale; and apply it to a variety of factions already present in the game. For example;
Your player reaches level 5, and meets up with Manticore; he offers them membership in Wyvern. This leads to a handful of story arcs where you work alongside existing wyvern operatives, earning Wyvern costume pieces, doing 'less savory' jobs that lead neatly into becoming a vigilante after the arc ends at level 20. It would have 'random' paper-style missions like going into the Isles to assassinate an Arbiter, or an up-and-coming villain; basic Wyvern-style activities. You earn Wyvern merits, which you spend on the costume, on temp powers that give you wyvern-style arrows and jetpack, and possibly summoning a wyvern operative.
(Or, alternately, to avoid yet another merit system; the costume pieces and temp powers are bought with Inf; you simply have to perform enough missions with the faction to unlock the ability to buy them.)
The most obvious faction to do this with is Arachnos; to have people who start out as villains and then join Arachnos, rather than the other way around. But hey, anything works.
"Why do these Lost keep trying to hold me? Don't they know I don't swing that way?"