TheOtherTed

A wise man once said that once bread becomes toast, it can never go back.

I am having visions of a half-forgotten childhood.

Awww, Scrapper Archetype forgives you.

Broke my rule about not buying "early access" games and picked it up this weekend. Not regretting it at all, but, man, I'm gonna need a bigger computer... And, yeah, Vulkan is bad.

The first PnP game I ever bought was FASA's "Star Trek: The Roleplaying Game," back in nineteen mumbledy five. Ended up buying nearly all the "background" supplements and a few campaign supplements. Never ran a game, never played a game. Still have some of the books - though not exactly mint condition. I fell into a PnP group in my first year of college that tried pretty much everything. Except Star Trek, that is. ICE's Rolemaster was a general favorite, but we also played Paranoia, Traveller, James Bond 007, MERPS (a simplified version of Rolemaster specifically for Middle-Earth), Advanced D&D, Champions, and a few others I can't remember. I ran a MERPS campaign for a semester, and while it was fun, it's clear to me now that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing... Eventually I bought GURPS, and that ended up being my system of choice for years. Our "regular" campaign was in a standard high fantasy setting based loosely on one of those "choose your own adventure" book series. After a while, we branched out in random directions, including cyberpunk, Lovecraft, the World of Darkness adaptations, an unintentional mock-up of Space 1889, Bunnies and Burrows (ugh) - and Star Trek. Then we all grew up and scattered across the country. Although I'm not likely to play again (and, frankly, I have no desire to), I'm still fascinated by the genre. I impulse-buy a system or two each year out of curiosity, just to see how things work, and I'll occasionally pick up a "vintage" game for nostalgia's sake. Always good for bathroom reading, if nothing else.

Brass doesn't offer missions after you hit 20, unless his arc is active (I think). I don't really know what crossing over to blue would do to active mission arcs. Is Brass listed as an active contact for you? If so, does he have a book icon in his contact profile? If the answer to either is "no," then crossing over may have disrupted the arc somehow. That said, I think you can do his missions as an Ouroboros Flashback arc at any level. You might have to redo the first mission to get it going, though. (BTW, stealing the jetpack and getting it to Flammond are both part of the first mission.) Or you could "tag along" with someone who is doing the arc and is willing to share missions with you. In any case, best of luck, and here's hoping someone more knowledgeable about this sort of stuff will chime in with something more helpful!

Whatever hero I'd pick, I'd probably end up like this anyway... (credit where credit is due: https://www.instructables.com/Arthur-From-the-Tick-for-Around-20/ )

They might - but my character won't. 🙃 Nope, turns out the "bushes" I was thinking of were actually trimmed yew trees. That said, Nandina is a really good call. Just grabbed it (and some variations thereof) and will let it stew in my brain for a bit.

@FoulVileTerror, Makaria (and Macaria) are taken. Getting a name from Greek mythology is tough on a good day. I've only ever been able to grab one such name, and let's just say I wasn't happy with it. @Techwright, I like the direction you're going in, but I'm personally not a fan of double, self-descriptive names. Too hero-y for my tastes. That said, a single, relatively uncomon color word (like Cerise) could do the job. Now I gotta find out the "official" color of those red berries that grew in the shrubs around my childhood home, that us kids "knew" were poisonous just by looking at them...

*digs down to page 4 and dusts off the topic* Your mission, Jim*, should you choose to accept it, is to name my latest project. The subject is a female /Nature controller (still deciding on Illusion or Dark as the primary), most likely of magic origin, who will probably start in Praetoria. Background is unknown. Motives are unknown. Methods of operation are unknown. All I can say at this time is that the subject is a loose port of the one Skyrim vampire that I've managed to play past level 30 (if I bail on a Skyrim character, it's usually in the early 20s). Said character is a do-gooder by default, but is quite capable of casual evil (especially in the pursuit of Daedric artifacts). The costume is still a work-in-progress, but will mostly be dark red and black, possibly with silver highlights thrown in. Power customization is also WIP, and will feature the same dark red as the costume. Instead of black, however, the counter color will be the darkest one in that weird band that's not quite green and not quite yellow. Imagine, if you will, a miasmatic field of undergrowth pocked with sinister red flowers; that's the effect I want with the secondary. Also, the character will have a red firefly combat aura, because, you know, why not? Wish I had more to go on, but this is a rare situation where I'm working "backwards" from powers and general look towards a character. Anyway, the spookier the name, the better. Botanical names are certainly welcome. Real names, whether of actual people or mythological figures, would be most welcome as well. I'm envisioning the character as vaguely Asian in some way, if that helps, but that's not at all a limiting factor (my first two choices were Alecto and Tisiphone - both taken). As always, if you are caught in the process of naming, I will disavow any knowledge of my own existence. This post will self-destruct in ten seconds. *or, you know, whoever, it's not like I even know who Jim is anyway.

Tom Waits - for when you need music to walk home drunk to. Tom Waits - Table Top Joe

I hope the OP doesn't mind me piggy-backing on this thread. I've got a costume (below) and a general idea for a character (one of three insane interdimensional techno-genies from outer space), but no good idea for an AT or powerset combo. Currently, she's a Gravity/Rad dominator, but for whatever reason, I just get bored with doms very quickly. I'm digging Rad (never played it on live), and I like the idea of a control or support character, but I'm open to any role. For instance, I've been considering a non-stalker melee set with some sort of elemental or energy defense, but not sure what would look good in gold against the purple costume. BTW, I might change all that purple to black. Anyway, enough rambling. Here's the costume.

Zoinks!

I haven't tried Kinetic Melee, but from what I've seen in the character creator, the "build up" animations for the attacks don't seem like they'd fit. I see my charater as being quick and reflexive, and KM looks a little too deliberate (granted, pretty much all powersets feel that way, but the whole "gather your Chi" thing brings it home). Maybe I'll give it a shot on an experimental character, see how it feels. That said, other hand-to-hand combat styles could fit, but I've already got more Martial Artists, Street fighters, and Blappers than I can count. A Judo style powerset, though, chock-full of throws and KDs, would be amazing. @carroto, yep, the Staff animations are bit "eh..." But, then, I got seriously spoiled with the Staff animations in one of those other superhero games, so I'm trying not to judge too harshly. Looks like higher level powers get a bit more snazzy, so maybe there's hope. Also, I suddenly understand why Dual Blades felt relatively weak - I'd completely forgotten about the combo system! Anyway, thanks for the input, all. Sticking with Staff for the time being, and letting the boys in the basement of my brain play with ideas for the Redcap Daggers. Maybe there's a less than wholesome version redside, or maybe I can trick myself into thinking they're mystical "spirit daggers" or some silly thing. Too bad we don't have a "translucent" texture for ancient weapons... If anyone has other ideas, though, I'd still like to read 'em.

I'd rejigger the whole archetype/powerset system to allow a bit more freedom, something along these lines: Scrap archetypes and classify the powersets according to five "roles" - melee damage, ranged damage, tanking, control, or buff/debuff. Each character gets one primary set and one secondary set. One of the two sets has to be damage or control, but could be either primary or secondary. The primary set determines your basic stats (base damage, buffs, defense, etc.). The primary set also allows you to pick an appropriate inherent (e.g., a tank primary would give access to either Gauntlet or Fury). Not quite sure how Masterminds, Stalkers, or EATS would fit into this scheme, though. Maybe new roles, or maybe "sub-roles" - e.g., Mastermind henchmen sets would be under "control," but you could only access Supremacy if you took a henchmen set as your primary. No idea. Just thinking out loud.