chase

RE: RE: An urgent matter for FBSA leadership. Um, thanks everyone. I'm sorry to cause so much trouble. There's no chance that Donut days will be reinstated during this administrative review is there? Just askin. And anyone know the range of this distro list? I got a message from some Westin Phipps saying that even the Grandville soup kitchen has a weekly donut day and suggesting i come check it out.... not that I'd consider that... no need to bring it up with my caseworker or anything. The 300 additional community service hours for that other infraction has me well aware of the limits of my provisional hero status. Thanks, Tabby

Dear FBSA HR Department and/or executive team. I’m writing to share my deep concern over the situation I encountered at City Hall and the suffering endured by the great FBSA agents working there. They toil, often thanklessly, day after day, often suffering indignity from things beyond their control- jokes about the security of magi vaults or that nasty DATA ransomware incident. It sometimes seems like they toil through it all for one purpose- one piece of joy that comes just once a week. I’m speaking, of course, of Donut Day at the FBSA lunchroom. From my first day of court-mandated visits until now, I’ve witnessed the extra skip in the step of everyone in the courthouse that day. I’ve even scheduled my weekly check-ins for this day so I can share in that excitement each afternoon when that “take only one” sign goes away and everyone’s free to clean up with seconds or thirds… the mad rush to the lunchroom leaves you convinced that there is just nothing that can stand in this team’s way. So, imagine my dismay when I stopped by yesterday, only to wonder if I mis-stepped into some devouring earth autopsy room instead. VEGGIE TRAYS have replaced DONUT DAYS? I knew something was amiss the moment I entered city hall- the pallor in everyones’ faces had me convinced someone had died. The sense of resignation was nearly overwhelming. I get that some people have unique tastes, but how can anyone ever imagine that an organic tofu-based faux-cheese log, carrots, and celery sticks could compete with the rapturous joy of a double bacon-maple-bavarian-cream deluxe? Who chooses decoratively-cut radish flowers over glazed strawberry-shortcake-filled goodness? Even the simple-yet-glorious powdered sugar pastry cannot be compared to kale. How are they supposed to face the rest of the week? Where has their joy gone? I implore you, please bring back Donut Days before all of FBSA is reduced to a hollow husk of what it once was. Don’t let the villains win. Sincerely, Tabby P.S. If donut days are truly gone, I respectfully request my appointments to be rescheduled to Pizza Delivery Day. I’m usually around city hall on those days for unrelated business, so it would be no trouble at all.

An Overly-Delayed Post to an Overly-Long Post: I cannot stress this part enough- take advantage of that off-screen time. Heck, before you log out, coordinate a few lines covering where things may go or what might occur. if you know you won't be online together for a while, that gives your counterpart talking points on what may be occurring off-screen during that time... something so they can answer the social, "I haven't seen X lately how is he?" or answering "we've gone out every night this week, but never made it through even a dinner and drink before... y'know... the freakshow's been damn busy." Communication is key here. Don't put your partner in a position where they're struggling with what they can or can't say about what's going on in their characters' lives, and don't put yourself in a position where you're adapting to more than you bargained for. I, for one, usually LOVE improvising to hooks that other people bring, but everyone has limits, and (I'll repeat for emphasis) COMMUNICATION, SET LIMITS, AND RESPECT THE TRUST PEOPLE PUT IN YOU. Perhaps an illustration will help: imagine the following scenario, and determine where your comfort level might be break: Artificer and Battle Jester had an intimate RP interlude just before both of them needed to take a few weeks off from the game. Neither had many concrete plans for the relationship and just agreed that they'd RP the relationship proceed naturally during the offline time. Artificer, being newer to relationship RP, thought that would mean more dates, a few more implied nookie moments, maybe a pet name. He didn't see reason to be more elaborate. Battle Jester's player , as the name might imply, is chaos incarnate with the subtlety of a rocket-enhanced sledge hammer (her weapon of choice). Her idea of natural progression might be a bit... different. When Artificer logs in, Battle Jester's chatting away with Sea Siren, the biggest gossip in Pocket D. SS: "Artificer! It's been ages, man. Come on over and let me buy you both a drink! -- something for the jet lag, maybe? BJ here just told me you both just got back from Paris." Artificer: ::looks a bit out of his element, but smiles warmly at BJ and heads over to the duo. "Yeah, well, we were already there for the whole battle with the Revenants- you probably saw that on the news. BJ: ::wraps her arms around Artificer's like a boa constrictor and pulls him into the booth beside her, practically on top of her. "and since it's known as the City of Love, we decided to stick around and let things happen. Artificer: :: 's cheeks redden as he lets himself be drawn tight against Battle Jester, tensing, then slowly relaxing at the still-new feel of her body pressed against his own. "Um, yeah... you know- see the Louvre, dine along the Seine... the eiffel tower..." SS: :: "Oh? She said you didn't go out much." BJ: : "Isn't he so adorable, trying to protect my modesty like that? No... like he said, we went there for battle, so we didn't really pack civilian things-- and it's the city of love, not the city of lookin at stuff painted by dead guys.. so we just got ourselves a BnB above this little restaurant that delivered. No TV, no internet, no supergroup. Just... us... for two whole weeks... and I didn't put my supersuit ON even ONCE." ::she now seems thoroughly entwined around her lover, playfully nipping at his ear before working down his cheek toward his lips. "It was everything I could have imagined." SS: ::giggles gleefully as two fresh drinks are delivered to the table. "You'll have to give me all the details.... later." Artificer: :seems a bit stunned even as he returns BJ's kiss. Between moments of liplock, he mumbles out, "I thought you wanted to keep us quiet..." SS: ::leans back in her chair, practically beaming at the two lovebirds. She quickly snaps a pic of the two in liplock to go along with the post she was preparing. "And the RING- she tried to hide it from me but I got her to drop the full story just before you got here. Such a PERFECT proposal. I'll be right back- I want to get a full-body pic too- such an adorable couple." BJ: ::takes advantage of her friend's departure to whisper in her lover's ear, "I didn't tell her everything yet. I wanted you to know first. Remember how, since the trip was so spontaneous... neither of us had birth control?..." Artificer: goes line dead. So, as I've said before- use offline time wisely, but COMMUNICATION, SET LIMITS, AND RESPECT THE TRUST PEOPLE PUT IN YOU. ... and for all that is good in the world, don't tell a secret to Sea Siren.

For my take, I'll focus more on combat roleplay style and expectation: I'm a relative noob to RP-based battle-- I've engaged in it probably over a dozen times, but rarely with the same community members. Each time I go in with very little understanding of what's expected of me, what conventions they might expect to use, or what the tone of the fight will be. I usually BEG to lose initiative so I can see a few examples before providing my own. The first few rounds end up being a bit of a mild spar as I try to feel out my collaborator-foe's style and expectations and figure out how to match them. I can be an outlier with my own style and expectations, and I know it. Some people embrace the game mechanics far more than I, while I tend to use the format as a way to subvert the mechanics for a "good story" approach: There are plenty of in-game examples where for balance purposes attacks have far less impact than narratively they should. The minuscule per-bullet damage on even a person lacking damage resistance is a glaring example, but let's not discount how most people would fare to a fireball to the face, foot-long ice spikes impaling them, or a stone fist half the size of Mt Everest slamming into their face. I've encountered many people that express their attacks and damage in RP in comparable terms. I don't... or would prefer not to. Beyond damage, there's hit-rate. A game is intended to not reflect reality, but instead set a good pace that balances small reward (often an enjoyable "hit success rate" to) with a larger reward (often a "battle lasts within an enjoyable time") so damage is scaled not on reality, but on what fits this rate. Players using the game as a reference will often expect a much higher hit-rate than I would use narratively. i won't go into the studies showing the per-bullet hit rate of gunfight. I'm not aiming for reality- but for story, my tastes tend to follow cinematic fight choreography ideals as quickly summarized here, though counter to their examples, my flavor aims more toward self-deprecating humor you may see in Jackie Chan fight scenes while leaving heroes battered, limping, and cursing like a Bruce Willis fight scene. So, between the two above, I've learned that my fight preferences is more dodge/block/deflect/miss- centric than most people... which might lead them to think I'm being unfairly OP in that regard. They don't get much chance to see that I'd be treating any real "hit" as far more damaging because... well, I've not been hit that badly yet. That can lead to confusion. How to combat that? I don't think I've found THE answer, but there are things I try: If I am USING should-be-lethal attacks, I intermittently write them in a way that implies that I almost expect them to be dodged. You’d see a spray of bullets in the direction of the enemy or a swift blind attack in their direction, taking no time to aim before dodging for cover. I might even make note of environment elements to hint that I’m ok with hiding behind things (“ the edge of the shotgun blast splintering an overturned table between them”). In this way, I try to communicate that I hold no objection to others who might turn my attacks into misses. I try to make dodges/blocks/deflections still have a tangible impact. A near-miss is usually very near. The fire jet that Tabby dodged was close... so close that a chunk of fur and whisker shrivels to dust just from the superheated air when it passed by- her exposed skin instantly reddened from the burn. It's both meant to give some taste of success while also hinting at how seriously I'd treat a true direct hit. I'm trying not to diminish their power, but instead show RESPECT for what I imagine that power could truly do. I overuse klutz-fu far too much.. but with some reason. I just don't know if there are better ways. I may dodge an attack but not "stick the landing" and instead imply that I'm vulnerable to a follow-up. This gives an outlet to my foe-- if their style isn't meshing well with mine and they're frustrated with the constant misses, this is their chance for an attack that I'm not in a position to dodge/deflect. I'll have to take it. If they just want this to be over, this is their chance. If they are enjoying the exchange, there are many reasons they could use to miss that follow-through. Personally, getting two masters of Klutz-Fu can lead to things getting silly. Sometimes you need a little silly. Sometimes it may ruin the tone a storyteller's trying to set, too. Use wisely. From the above, you'd be forgiven for thinking that I play to lose. I joke about that myself. Most of the techniques above put the decision on my foe/co-storyteller and it's natural that they'd want to decide to come out on top. The same clues I drop here can often be gleaned in their writing. They can subtly cue you in to how important "winning" is for their narrative or how important they see a "hit" being... or what they'd find damaging. They may give you klutz-fu openings. Look for those hints. Sometimes hints are less-subtle. I'm talking about inner thoughts. I've seen debates over whether your emotes should just describe the visible/immediate aspects of the attack or whether it's appropriate to describe thoughts and motivations of the character as you would in a storyteller's perspective. I personally like these narrative approaches, but I've seen considerable animosity from the "just emote what the senses can pick up" camp when that unspoken rule is broken. Counter-arguments like, "this is a superhero game. You could be a telepath, a blind master, or deaf, and I wouldn't know. If I write something your character wouldn't perceive, filter it out yourself!" tend to only inflame emotions, not ease them. I instead now avoid writing in ways that that may show motive or thoughts unless I see it in my adversary-author do it. But I cheat, though. I play emotive types-the kind who are very easy to read. Tabby's thoughts for example are unconsciously conveyed through natural body language and facial expressions. If she were a book, she'd be written at a kindergartener's reading level. Even if you imagined to ignore the typical human-feature body language, there's a whole range of felinoid cues- ruffling/fluffing/flattening fur, animated ear position, a tail that's a near-perfect mood-barometer, whiskers twitching, involuntarily curling claws, etc. When she TRIES to be deceptive, her tail will almost certainly give it away. You have to try very hard to not understand her inner thoughts 😄 Rising to the Challenge Finally, I tend to play Tabby as more of a neighborhood girl- street-level threats like those found in Kings Row through Brickstown mostly, but some look at her the character data and the incarnate-level stuff and have critiqued that. I, personally, tend to subtly vary her depending on the needs of a good story. I don't play to rigourously represent a character sheet. I play to maximize fun- everyone's fun. Tabby may still be a street-level heroine that's destined to lose to the bigger threat (unless help shows up) but very few people enjoy just being a bully- they'd prefer a fight that implied some risks. For this I'll have her "dig into her reserves" or get more creative in using everything at her disposal to... while perhaps not level the playing field... it should bring meaningful value to her opponent's victory This also helps when a foe intends to lose or be driven off. They may not have expected me to be playing Tabby to be as fragile to their attacks or be such a less-seasoned fighter. I'm a fan of tongue-in-cheek stories that have Squirrel Girl defeat Galacticus solo, but it's not for everyone. At some point, losing to someone so far below you on the power scale just won't fit another's expectation. By letting that little heroine get serious, find the resolve and the confidence and perhaps a little luck to REALLY be the opponent your foe needs, you may add to their story far more than if you stayed rigidly true to numbers you set for them. ------- I'm not saying any of these are the right way to go... it's illustrating the style I've adapted to and why- but everyone has their own style, often with similar hidden meaning. Maybe you'll see some of these cues in others. Maybe you'll see the cues you do- or adopt some as you "negotiate" a better RP combat encounter with your co-author-foe. Maybe... hopefully... it'll help you find a more fun experience.

I've tried to make my comeback to the game several times now... annoying how "real life" can get in the way of things so easily. I also would love to participate.

Give interested parties breadcrumbs they can follow. You mentioned the forums (a great start) but consider creating an organization over at https://fbsa.homecoming.wiki/ describing what should be publicly known. Include a link to that in your sig here and your bio in-game, so curious people can get it even if they miss your forum post about it. Include rumors and "hooks" that people could use to slip it in to their own narrative- ways that people might have crossed paths with the organization in some minor ways in the past. When you really "launch" all that, be prepared to play often on that character in ways that emphasize your presence. It's hard to infect others with enough interest in your own content if they discover it only to find you're never around. It'll need some handling at the start before it has a chance to take a life of its own.

removed. ignore. Got a chance to look at this particular AI image generator and it's not one that takes text instruction/modification like I'd assumed

There are some uses for it. I was largely unimpressed by AI Dungeon and although they were very useful for structuring technical write-ups, the AI I tested was woefully inaccurate. AI to me can change a Subject Matter Expert into an editor rather than a writer, but that's an entirely different skill we need to develop. When you're reading a subject that you think you know, you often speedread right over the contradictions rather than catch them. Me? what I want most from AI is not comic-fying a photograph, but to digitally nudge the images. Give it a reference image and say. "this character but sprinting." If I could take a city of heroes screenshot and just say, "make his face [talking, laughing, angry, unhappy, disappointed, stern, sad, etc]" I'd have so many more screenshot comics come to life so quickly. Minor photoshopping I can do well enough. Illustrate faces, nope.

I fluctuate. I used to start alting and end leveling of a character when I got to a place where there abilities in-game met what I imagined the character to be- usually mid-late 20's. Then little things pushed me past it. I tend to like min-maxing stats, so with the creation system and set bonuses, even my mid-20 charaters became more powerful than I really wanted to imagine them at. Then came the development of the level 50 endgame and so much story following the incarnate system. I gave up caring and rushed the characters I could to 50 to experience THAT story even if that story didn't fit the character story at all. Now I tend to divorce my characters' game stats from their personal story... keeping them narratively far less powered than their incarnate stats would suggest.. but every once in a while I revert and "alt roll"-- I had my maxed-out, slotted-out Tabby and a level-appropriate one and I rename them as the whim strikes me.

It's a good suggestion... don't get me wrong... and perhaps... hopefully... the person takes it in such stride as to continue some fun play and banter. My personal experience over the years with this level of powerset doesn't lend much hope though. Godmodders at this level broadly fall into three categories those that are doing this as their own form of griefing and they'll just escalate the 'changes' they're doing to you, happy to just waste your time as you counter all the things they claim they can do those that really REALLY emotionally NEED to be the omnipotent super-powerful entity they pretend and take personal affront that you'd deny them their RP outlet. Things escalate fast those well-adjusted individuals that just either take the hint or make it clear they're engaging in well-intentioned playful banter and appreciate your handling of it. Generally speaking, I hope for #3, prepare for #1, and usually encounter #2.

I used to keep reminding myself that a genre like this has to have room for all kinds of characters, that some will just be choosing to play at such an extremely different level of play from everyone else that the best solution will be to just to avoid them and "retcon it away" from my own personal timeline. That works, but I've been suppressing something more blunt. "((I'm sorry. I can't see how continuing this would be fun for either of us.))" It hurts to hear that someone finds your creation so unenjoyable they want to end it. I like to think i'd take it well if one of my more quirky creations was unknowingly interacting with someone whose styles were so opposite of mine that it troubled them, but I know I'm more thick-skinned (and thick-skulled) than the norm, so I try to take that into account. When do you make that decision, though? To me, it comes down to agency. When I see an omnipotent character that strips away all agency from another character, denying them any reason or purpose to exist, as far as I care that's a level of meta-griefing that I have no interest in supporting or encouraging. I may listen in for a few additional exchanges just to be sure I'm not misunderstanding or taking out of context (two players jokingly in a meta-omnipotent godmod war with one another can be quite entertaining) but I'll probably not be sticking around.

I know you're looking for serious examples, but a friend of ours has a favorite, "Seraph blue" that to us seemed perfect for an angelic-themed power rangers parody. Poor Seraph Blue was subjected to over a dozen color-based "Seraph Squad" members, including Seraph Khaki (dressed as you'd expect) and Seraph Ultramarine (that was not just ultramarine-colored, but also looking like every marine corps stereotype taken to 11. Sadly, as with most SG's initiated in fun, this one didn't last long.

A diminutive grey-striped catgirl feliform wearing little more than a purple backpack bounds into view, scans the scene and stops dead in her tracks, a little cockeared and a very fluffed up. She fishes out a ream of paper stapled together and flips through it, reading, "yep... seems like the right place, now I just gotta look up my lines and..." It shouldn't be possible for her to get more fluffed up, but she manages, "Oh... no... that's a big nope." She continues to read through the script, page by page. "nope... nope.... William and Tabby f... absolutely not." Several pages later "Emily and Anni and Tabby.... man they're going nuclear on the fanservice there. Still a nope." "Nanite Hacker Lord and Tabby.. his nanites crawling through her fur...big nope there..." ...another page and she just drops the script like it had just burst to flame. "EEW" She pulls out a bundle of duct tape that somehow acted as a phone and dials. "Hello, office of Saul Rubenstein, Agent to Paragon's Elite. Can I speak to Marty?" "The intern. Yeah." "Hey Marty. I'm not doin it." "Nope... not a chance." "I don't care if it's for April Fools or not. I have my pride." "Yes, as bad as the pizza cat thing was, I still DO have some pride left, thankyouverymuch." "I know my fans would love it. That's why I won't do it. Hell, imagine the mashups that would occur." "I DON'T WANT THIS GOING VIRAL." "Well, what charity?" "That's not a thing." "Totally can't be a thing. I don't believe you. Doesn't matter." "What do I object to? Pretty much the whole thing!" "Yeah!" "So, they'll give me half if I just do the parts that I don't find objectionable?" "You've got that on paper?" "Deal" "Yeah, let me just make some edits and I'll resume where I cut off." Pocketing the phone Tabby tore off the cover page and the last page, tossing the rest of the script behind her, and reads, "A diminutive grey-striped... yeah we did that part. that's a take..." and flips to the second page and reads "Tabby leaves with a satisfied glow about her. She turns straight to the hidden camera, "I expect my payment direct deposit before my order's ready at City of Gyros." She smiles, adding "See this? this is my satisfied glow. I'm out" as she leaps away.

Tabby's budget doesn't allow for take-out... or dine-in. She has, however, mapped out where and when over a dozen organizations offer free food- from catered supergroup recruiting to FBSA's "donut day" in the city hall lunchroom, and when those fail, you can always check which crey facility is getting lunch delivered, send them an anonymous tip about an incoming hero raid, then sneak in and grab grub while they evacuate.

Is that really right to request this for someone who famously authors pieces containing "An Overly Long..." in the titles?" 😛

In the spectrum of superheroes that ranges between "cosplayers that like to punch things" to "cosmic entity that barely acknowledges humanity exists" my preferences are far closer to cosplayers, so I do know where you're coming from. I've seen it particularly in social situations, where you encounter a powerful entity who so discards your characters' challenges as so trivial and meaningless that it just sours things very early. Some of those cosmic-powered folk are exploring the trope of the person who's grown in power so far that he's lost some of his attachment to humanity. It's a great topic to explore, but the best examples of it remember that although the character may lose his empathy with those more common folk, extra effort is needed to assure the player does not. The people you're encountering may be insignificant insects from where you stand, but the players behind them are seeking something out of this encounter as well and exist to do more than serve your cosmic-sized ego. If they remember that, the cosmic-hero-level encounter can sometimes work for me. If it doesn't, I have no problem unilaterally retconning away the whole encounter. (I'd not "acknowledge their headcanon" using the terminology of this thread.).

Great posts. I personally like seeing COMMUNITY Headcanon come to life. What's community headcanon? Lore that you multiple people and collaboratively build, sometimes just from a seed planted by one person. Your Supergroup is a good example of one. It's not canon in the game, but it has a backstory and history and continuing development. You probably have someone acting as the loremaster authority shaping their vision, but the best ones leave room for people to add their own twist to it. The incredible supergroup-base social spaces do this as well- Yes, they're mostly the architect's headcanon, but as we all get to use them and interact in them, we in our own way can add to their lore. You can also have them be very open concepts not tied to a supergroup. They may start as one person's canon that others just love and latch onto,. - It can be as simple as a certain box of cold cereal or Saul Rubenstein, Agent to Paragon's Elite? - Maybe you have an idea for your own giant shadow organization that's stalking your hero and realize that it's so big that it's probably tracking other heroes. Pitch it and invite others to incorporate it into their stories. Give them the leeway to make it work. Or maybe you find another character with a similar ominous threat.. are they the same organization under multiple fronts. - Maybe it's a metahuman sporting league that your hero participated in. You have it in your backstory, and it'd be cool to have a supergroup based around it, but wouldn't it be even cooler to encounter *another* character you never knew, only to realize that they were on the team you bumped from the playoffs with that last-minute win... - They can be spontaneous- The Paragon Police Force is canon. Roleplaying a detective in the Paragon Police Force requires a degree of headcanon-creation. Two PPD detectives running into each other in Atlas park and commiserating on bizzarre Police Union grievances is Roleplaying. When that police union grievance board takes on a life of its own- that's community headcanon. Community Headcanon always comes with risks- you're putting your creation out there and no matter how detailed of a vision you shared, the moment you invite others to incorporate it into their vision, it will morph. Sometimes for good, sometimes into something unrecognizable. Some communities credit the original creator for having a "veto" rule, but the best of these can outlive the original author's participation in the game, leading to no clear "head." There's also the risk that it'll go nowhere. Sometimes, your idea isn't picked up or used by anyone other than yourself... and that really can be disappointing, but keep in mind that this really no different than any of your other headcanon- its largely your creation for your characters, and it's still available for you to use as you always would have, even if its never adopted by others. That's what happened with St. Ives Prep. After making (and encountering) young heroines and villains with troubled past and times spent in juvie, I decided to flesh out the place and see if others wanted to add their stories to it. To my knowledge, it didn't go anywhere. It's not something I'd tried to recruit for or build behind. That's something to keep in mind-- if you REALLY want to bring a community headcanon to life, you need to treat it like any online community- it needs some recruitment, some passionate advocates, and some time spent cultivating the community before everyone feels like a collaborator.

One of the real takeaways here is that while in a TV show, the hacking is just usually a quick moment to get a specific piece of information to move the plot forward. A real hacking effort could be a show unto itself, particularly if you introduce colorful and entertaining elements around the well-grounded hacking as provided by McSpazz. But what will your team consider colorful and entertaining? The easiest way to do that, is let them add it: Discovery: This is the part where you're gathering as much intel as possible before you do anything. The more info you have, the more directions you can take the attack. You won't use everything you find, but it gives you a chance to piece things together. This makes it an ideal time to introduce collaborative storytelling- distribute tasks and encourage them to get creative with the outcome. You send out a non-techie to walk around the public areas around the target with device that passively picks up wireless signals. - they come back saying how they were out on the sidewalk for less than 5 minutes when a whole crey response team came and interrogated them. Great- guess what? That's one crey response team not available to react elsewhere. - or they come back commenting on all the food delivery services that come in all the time, and security just waves them in without checking ID's. A potential vulnerability. - or they overheard a conversation about some tech that's on the fritz or mention an underground tunnel that's not on any of the plans... - or they encounter another organization (arachnos?) also scouting the place. - or they notice employees sleeping in their cars, rather than going home. - the scan finds an unexpected hotspot. You have a techie guy scan ancillary systems (like the utilities, phone company, etc) - they find on the hacker databases that a guy whose name matches a telephone company engineer uses the same username and password on a bunch of gaming sites. That let them get into the phone records- we can intercept calls! - on one of the message boards, they find where a hacker kid discovered a newly-replaced wirelessly-managed sewer pump still had the default password. It's changed now, but not before he inserted a back door to prove he was there. Someone else just scans the systems for software with zero-day exploits. - this extends beyond "what luck! they're on CreyCorp 2016R2. They never patched! - Maye the wireless scan ends up showing an outdated or malware-infected smartphone. Remotely enabling the microphone, you discover it's the poor underpaid security officer using a backup phone after the last one broke in a scuffle. So you get Info. What do you do with it? Probe further- Pull on those loose threads and see what it leads to. Test it out- see if someone CAN sneak by the guard as a city of gyros employee. Delicately probe at that zero day exploit and see where it leads to. Entire side-quests can occur here, depending on interest. Make Mistakes Happen- In any hack, mistakes are the true key. You only get so far on software exploits. Wonder what would happen if you went on social media and made a challenge that caused flashmobs around the building? How many crey enforcement squads would come out? What happens once they're tired and bored with all these false positives? You found that the head of physical security had a gambling problem (and a terrible password-management system) but not enough for blackmail material. Wonder what would happen, though, if suddenly someone made tons of bad bets on all his gambling websites accounts. He's sure to be distracted, if nothing else. That tech that's on the fritz. The repairmen were coming today. Social Engineer your way into a call with them and cancel the repairs. Really piss them off when you do, so they'll be really grouchy when they get calls asking when they're showing up. Form A Plan- (the heist) Sure, you could do it all remotely. You got info on vulneabilities and mistakes, you acted on them, prize accessed. Done. .... but c'mon. who doesn't like a good heist? Once you have had your fun probing and exploring and checking out your options, bring them together into a course of action: You've decided you need to break in to the crey lab and plug something into the wireless network. No other way. Fortunately, you think that by flooding the sub-basement by shutting off the sewage pump, you can get a small crew inside as cleaners. It's a shitty job, yes. Your intel gathering also let you know that the door that the lunchtime powerwalkers use when exiting the building has a broken sensor (they can sneak in and out without clocking out) so if they wedge something there to keep the door from latching, others can sneak in. Since you can triangulate the security guard's location with his cell phone and listen in, you know exactly where he'll be ... and he'll be the only one inside because the response team will be dealing with those stupid flashmobs. Once you get in, your hacker will need about 20 minutes of uninterrupted access to get what he wanted. He also plans to introduce a stealthy worm that would infect any other systems that may connect to this network. With any luck, techs that work on this project might get moved to other projects and take their infected computers with them.... it's a long game, but if it works, future heists will be far far easier. The Complications: Now the fun part- actively sabotaging your own plan. While the best heists really are done without ever raising alarms, the best heist stories never go as planned. By this point, everybody should have had a chance to contribute something to the story- some of these things may not have made it into the final plan... but they still might be needed when things go to crap. Imagine halfway through the heist you realize that yesterday was patch day and the zero-day exploit no longer works. The sewage pump handled a lot more effluent than you thought- and worse- it somehow restarted while your team was in the sub-basement. Power's out, elevator's broken. stairwell's locked, and your up to your armpits in crap. That security chief with the gambling addiction? the distraction backfired. He was out all day dealing with his bank but came back to the office late to make up time. One extra (and untracked) body in the building. This puts the security officer with the compromised microphone on a different routine. He's coming straight your way. You need a distraction fast, and your catgirl knows just the one! Now, you might all improvise. You might take pieces of intel that didn't make the plan before to find a way to success. Maybe you can still get out without being detected? It's your story. The Wrap: You can just end it here. You got your hacker prize- you do what you planned with it and it's done. Maybe you sell the intel, maybe it advances the overarching group story... but what about what you left behind? What makes the news? What doesn't? Is there any lasting effect or a chance to add some flavor? What are the threads from this story that might carry over into the next? Maybe you all have a new enemy in the chief of security. Maybe something had to be left behind- something that you can't just leave in your adversary's hands. Maybe there was damage control. Maybe that worm found its way into unexpected systems- including the neural implant of a cyborg assassin. Its countermeasures detected the worm, dissected it, and traced the code style back to the author through code snippets in his doctoral thesis... Or maybe your catgirl brings her new beau by the base with his snazzy new (and more secure) smartphone to celebrate his promotion. As the distraction she told the security officer that she was there to stop his boss from embezzling funds to fuel his gambling losses. She let him take the credit since she technically shouldn't have been there. --- How did you think she was going to distract him? I mean, yeah she'd had a crush on the beautiful baritone after her first shift listening in on him looking for exploits... but she really felt like she got to know him in that time and he's really a decent dude that's good with his puppies Mr SnarfleLumps and Ed... but dammit, she's a PROFESSIONAL! They didn't totally hook up until his shift was over!

I thought I'd extend this conversation by my own take on flaws: 1. A Flaw Becomes A Quirk Without Good Self-Control: I think about how they'd play out in a traditional pen-n-paper system. You might define something that just comes up when you want it to come up (a "quirk") or something that's gonna make you roll the dice at times that you normally wouldn't (or add a penalty to an existing die roll (a "flaw"). With in-game mechanics and no RP die rolls, you're stuck using an on-your-honor system to reasonably bring a flaw fully to life, affecting you when it's not convenient and letting foes really make it have an impact. As an example, here is one of Tabby's negative effects: If I was GM'ing a pen-n-paper game, everything above would just be a "quirk" because it's largely just flavor-text that comes up when the player wants and disappears otherwise. However, if we put rules with real negative impact to the gameplay- penalties to fine-manipulation rolls, this becomes a more costly weakness. If Tabby tried to grab a downed officer's gun to stop a baddie, but her failed manipulation roll means one of the one of the gel-caps got cocked and jams in the trigger guard, that's a flaw. It has a tangible negative impact. Or if Tabby was unable to call for help with a mouthful of the caps... or could choke on a critical failure... again, more impact. It's not a Kryptonite-level impact, but it has an impact. Now, back in-COH, I'm playing both the character and the GM enforcer that brings up a "would a die roll be needed here? Would I succeed?" 2. Quirks Are Fine (and fun)- Just Be Honest With Yourself. Quirk-level play can still be engaging play, but be honest with yourself if it isn't a true weaknesss. Tabby has an intolerance of furries- She protests the stereotypes people impose on catgirls when it affects herself, but she reflexively assumes those same negative stereotypes are true for every other crittergirl she meets. She can be downright rude to them, blaming them for the way others perceive her, while totally blind to the fact she's doing the same to others. If something like this gets resolved quickly- if it's gone with a moment of revelation, "oh, you're not like that either!" it's barely a quirk, and I do tend to play it that way during chance encounters when I don't know how the PLAYER would take persistent bitchiness, but in a more established player-relationship, I can really dig into it. Tabby has quite the love-hate relationship that borders on dysfunction with my wife's catguy, Rascal. ) 3. Your Flaws are Your Own- Don't Make Them Your Team's. This is a tough balancing act. Some of the best uses of Flaws is to enhance the team narrative- what makes you great is not just what you can do, but the people around you that help you when you're down. That's a GREAT narrative element. I'm not discouraging that. In pen-n-paper games, the 2 most common "Flaws" abused by powergamers are "dependents" and "enemies". Terms and rules change based on game system, but generally speaking, the player takes on these limiting factors as a trade-off for more points to spend elsewhere on the character. It's a great way to boost your character up- they're still inherently great and their flaws are all external. There's a built-in incentive system to take more powerful foes (or more-dependent dependents) that have a high frequency of appearing each game session. When they do show, your whole team will help take them down. You've made your own character stronger while making the whole team have to work harder. I need to state again, though- there are GREAT STORIES that can arise from this. Batman's great in part because of the extended bat-family. You just must avoid abusing it. Make sure that although the entire team may need to step in and help, the cost of that enemy or dependent really rests on YOU. The risk of failure should fall on your shoulders- even if a friend falls in battle helping you save your dependent, there is a weight YOU must carry. An active and powerful enemy can also take away from others' own personal narrative. If you're taking cycles upon cycles of game-time having the team address YOUR issues and you're not in a prearranged pseudo-campaign-gm-role, assure others have cycles to include their own narrative- collaborate, even -- if they have enemies or dependents too, what happens when they both come gunning? 4. Don't Be Quick To Judge Others' Flaws as Misplayed In roleplaying, people will often telegraph their flaws early on in benign ways that just seem to be quirks. They have no impact, save for the color they provide at that moment. They might just be that- but they may also be subtly letting you know that these can have a bigger impact later in play if opportunity arises. Be prepared for that, but don't punish them if it doesn't. If an opportunity for that flaw passes later on and nothing happens it could be that they were more concerned about disrupting a dramatic moment for another character. They may not have wanted to draw a spotlight onto themselves. Perhaps they missed the opportunity but don't want to backpedal. There may be reasons. Now, if you're roleplaying a conflict and were relying on exploiting that flaw just to have it handwaved away, don't assume the worst. Engage constructively, they may have real reasons you cannot see. Don't make a pattern out of one encounter. 5. If You Really Trust Your Team... I mean really trust your team. Factor in the odds that they're playing while drunk when you decide on that trust. Then factor in the odds that you're drunk, too. This is something that can go horribly wrong OR horribly right depending on your team: Don't rely on your own personal moderation for when your flaws come into play- invite your teammates to introduce these moments as well, then react to them. Some of the most fun I ever had with Tabby was letting others introduce flaw moments. I love reacting to the unexpected and scrambling for the appropriate response. I've also seen such moments devolve into nothing but a missed opportunity for a "yakity sax" soundtrack, with everyone triggering everyone else's flaws in the virtual equivalent of a free-for-all pie fight, so some moderation is necessary. It's still fun, but you're all left with the RP equivalent of a hangover hoping that everyone will embarrassingly agree that the last session should be retconned away....

Good writeup, although I do think some of the biggest offenders will take offense to some of the characterizations and thus ignore some of the constructive points here. Although I haven't encountered it with the return of CoH, one of the more disruptive "powers" (due to my tendency to play dirt-broke characters) LET ME PUT THAT ON MY CARD: You probably know the type-- the person that sees financially-struggling heroes and immediately starts throwing unlimited credit lines at everyone as if he was Oprah coming onstage, "YOU get a swiss bank account... and YOU get a swiss bank account... and you- YOU ALL GET SWISS BANK ACCOUNTS." The ones that are honestly upset when you either won't accept it ("that's not realistic- everyone would take it!") or that the impact of the life-altering (and character-concept-altering) windfall isn't being carried out the next time you run into the character. By their logic, if I was going to pretend to be poor again, I had better have come up with an RP story to explain how I lost all their funds, and then they just want to wire me more money again.... Having a financier is good and can add an extra dimension to a supergroup's play-- when done with care and caution- and yes- someone at Bezos' wealth but trying to do good might just decide to bankroll an army of heroes so they never have to worry about rent or food or the cost of bullets again... but there's a better way than single-handedly trying to wipe away an aspect that other players have written into their characters for their storytelling.

In CoH there was this really annoying catgirl I once played.... Seriously though, I've had more trouble back when I was the default GM in pen-n-paper. I did my best to adapt my vision to the characters that players brought to the table, and several gaming sessions were dominated with grimdark characters, so their opponents turned even darker and some did get uncomfortable to bring to life.

Tabitha sat on a rooftop watching the fireworks go off above Peregrine Island, unfazed by her feet dangling over the edge, many stories up. A well-worn journal was open on her lap as she chewed on her pen. She read from the latest page: "This year everything changes. No more waiting for a cure from someone else. FIND A WAY TO CHANGE BACK. Don't be afraid to try. Get this over with so you can live the life you want, do what you want, and be who you want to be. Do not let your life be "on hold." Make it happen." Fireworks in the city were far more elaborate than the ones her backwoods county would set off and she only ever saw them from a distance across the lake. Here, from her dangerously-close viewpoint, she could feel the shockwave on her fur- the best ones even rippled through her, forcing a little air out of her lungs. Their sounds were deafening. She'd seen a lot this year and been dangerously close to explosions bigger than these, but she could still lose herself in them. In contrast, looking at the journal deflated her. What she read was last years' resolution. Yet here she was. Unchanged... or more accurately, still changed. She flipped back further until she found the resolution from the year before that. Pretty much the same thing. In a fit of frustration, she threw the journal from the rooftop, immediately regretted that decision, and started after it down a parkour path that any "american ninja warrior" contestant would "nope" out of. Friction-braking down the side of a building to a balcony, then leaping across a road onto a parking garage, to another roof, then across an awning clearly not meant to hold much weight, then diving off a pier to pull her book from the water. It was soaked. Many of the pages smeared and unreadable, but the very last page, where she'd started writing this years' resolution, had 3 words perfectly clear, "Make it happen." She flipped through the journal, watching memories she logged fade from view, wondering why she ever tried to preserve them. "It's enough." Soaked and shivering in the cool sea breeze, she watched the fireworks finale. "This year.... one way or another, whichever way *it* goes- it will happen."

Fur honor, De Hai Preest of da Nekonomnomicon sez he is being purrsecuted by da heroeses. Doing whatefur he wants is part of his Relishun. Da heroeses sez "ok, We's also followin Nekonomnomicon. We do whatefur we want too, and we wants tah chaseses da Hia Preest moar." Halp!

Tabby’s First Gyro One of the perils of learning a word by reading is getting its pronunciation right I, for example, grew up in an area with very little greek influence, so I’d only ever read- not heard- gyro, and just assumed it was pronounced phonetically with a hard g. Tabby had much the same problem. WARNING: I’m spoilering this for suggestive content, but it's really only a walk and talk in Atlas park. It's only suggestive if you're already corrupt...and pronounce gyro correctly. (also, apologies to any characters named in this piece. I didn't go online and search for open names before coming up with the supporting cast.)

Gonna cheat here and post over part of Marzaana's FBSA profile to start. I'm still behind on other posts: Extract from FBSA debriefing with Tabitha Lachann (Tabby) ''… Mary Zane? Insane Mary Zane, of the “Zane Foundation” Zanes? Yeah, that’s actually how she’d introduce herself- well, not the insane part, but “Zane Foundation,” part, like “my family’s so rich we have our own foundation” bullshit. God, she was a pretentious bitchy wannabe goth-head. '' ''Y’know, when your boarding school makes everyone dress the same and won’t let you wear make up or jewelry, it takes real talent to pull off the goth look. That’s about the only talent she had. Oh, that and finding fifty thousand ways to fit “we have money” into a conversation.'' ''… yeah, we didn’t quite get along. You can tell? She was all pissy and moaning that I got to do magic research but she wasn’t allowed. Not that the no talent hack could do anything with the knowledge.' ''… Arch nemesis? Well that sounds kinda extreme. I mean, we’re not friends… not even frenemies… we just… hmm… maybe just nemesis. I wouldn’t want to give her the satisfaction of arch-nemesis.' ''… she’s a necromancer now? Seriously? Are you sure she’s not just paying people to cosplay it up for her amusement? She did that… like… I think it was our sophomore open-house. Totally freaked the faculty till I ruined her fun.. Some ancestor of hers supposedly was known for being bloodier and more murderous than Dracula, or so she says. Like that's a good thing. Nuts. ' ''Can I see that file? ...Marzaana! Hah! An eastern-european death goddess! See what I mean about being a pretentious bitch? God, she probably just googled for "death goddess" and ran down the list of results. Hilarious since most tales have Marzanna appearing like Baba Yaga. A girl so obsessed with looks chooses an ugly old hag for her name. Geeze, she can’t even spell Marzanna right.' ''...Oh, the name was already taken in the registry?' ''...By a real death goddess from eastern europe? ''...Now here, in Paragon? ''...Can we, um, edit these transcripts. Take out the “hag” reference, maybe? Just in case she reads this... ' Tabby and Marzaana are constant rivals ever since very early in Tabitha's placement at St. Ives. Unlike Tabby, who's quite convinced she's just an utter failure, Marzaana's determined to prove she's not. Tabby sometimes points to Marzaana as proof that she's a loser, too- because everyone knows a hero's only as good as her archnemesis, and her archnemesis is such a loser. They'll continue to spar against one another through the city for quite some time before Marzaana's quest for power peaks. When it does and Tabby's forced to be the one to step up, thwart her nemesis, that's when Tabby's defining moment occurs (soon(tm)).