TwoDee

To spool further off this point, I'm a roleplayer who writes exclusively in a literary style, always providing /em text about what my characters are doing between words, and to mark the intonation of their speech, because the English language is such a magnificent, sprawling toolset that it seems silly to me to deliberately leave vague that which could be easily clarified by a few lines of descriptive text. Consider the following: Now, we can sometimes glean from context what the intonation of statements like these are. In this case, let's say that HardLight has just caught his sidekick, Trespass, going through his office while he's away. What is HardLight feeling when he says "Just what do you think you're doing?" Presumably, he's not stating it neutrally. There is an intent to his statement: he's questioning Trespass. If I'm Trespass' player, though, I don't have a lot of room to build on that in a way that plays off HardLight as a character. Now, let's add some emote text: In this example, HardLight is shocked. He's either confused or betrayed that he'd catch his sidekick going through his things without his permission, and likely both. This lets Trespass' player know that he's not about to do anything so drastic as escalate to violence immediately, but he's shocked, and he'll need to be mollified or become an imposition. Next, let's try on: Danger! In this version, HardLight may still be feeling betrayed, but he suspects sabotage, subterfuge, or some other enemy action. He's not shocked, he's angry, and that same line, "Just what do you think you're doing," suggests that Trespass is about to be punished for her transgression. The tone is vastly tenser and more immediate. Alternatively, we could go with: This is an entirely different scene from the first two, with identical dialogue. In this, HardLight has parsed what Trespass is doing as some kind of game. Being compared to a predator here also conveys, additionally, that he feels that he has the advantage in whatever this game is, and isn't threatened by Trespass' interference. On the contrary, he welcomes it. Now, if we return to, - that gives Trespass way less of a picture of what's going on, and way less to work with when she's crafting her own response. Worse, it may give her the wrong impression and our respective visions on the tone of the scene will fall apart, because I wanted to convey option 3) - that HardLight is playfully teasing Trespass for stealing from him - and instead she reads option 2) into that, and starts going: Being descriptive gets us on the same page and helps us avoid that, and it paints a richer portrait of what the character is like - how they express, what they sound like, what the values they wear on their sleeve are - to boot.

((Cheers for the prompt, Moka! I've taken the liberty of doing it on my much-abandoned Corruptor and Praetorian dirtbag, Archenemy.))

As a belated, quippy response to this, there's a reason why as soon as Jack Emmert left Cryptic Studios, they dropped a bridge on Statesman with extreme prejudice and had Posi step into his shoes. The dev team wasn't any more immune to 'who gets to be Superman' drama than we are.

So I went back and forth on how much of my bias I wanted to showcase on this topic, because in a lot of cases where I've encountered 'Last Of My Kinds' it's kind of a yellow flag for me, because of that necessary separation from the established canon of the world with a concept that necessitates the character be an outsider. One of the wonderful things about City of Heroes is that it's kind of a hodgepodge, kitchen-sink setting and you don't necessarily need to be beholden to the game lore to write a compelling character. There's bandwidth there for endless varieties of space aliens, or alternate-dimension humans, or whatever, and you can exist in harmony with the roleplayers who lean on more 'established' lore as equally valid parts of our collective fanon. But something that is built-in to the Last Of My Kind, as a subset of Characters From Another World, is that they need to come packaged with a whole world and setting all to themselves, which won't have readymade touchstones for other characters to immediately vibe with. At its best, that gives the player a ton to work with and improvise regarding fleshing out how the Last Of My Kind's alien culture informs them and leads to dramatic or humorous disconnects with the world of Primal Earth, but at its worst, it means that you're giving other players homework to read your original fiction to even understand the character they're interacting with. It's a 'lonely' trope, as indicated by other commenters above, but it's also a 'selfish' trope, because it creates a barrier of entry to interact with you that isn't true in the inverse with more grounded characters with a basic set of assumptions like "is human, with human perceptions" or "is from St. Martial, a zone in the game that we see and can draw context from." Last Of My Kinds - and all 'canon aliens' - can easily verge into the territory that Grym lampoons in the Shining Stars arc, where he constantly drops completely opaque references to things from his world and his culture that clearly have profound meaning to him and precisely him and absolutely no value to other characters: "Silver Aura Chords," the Order of "Grims," the "Sacred Blade of Terrinael," the "Gressalian Tournament" et al. And that's not engaging behavior conducive to good RP, which is why Grym is a parodical character. In a player-to-player setting, basically the only reasonable response to such a thing is "hey Grym, I don't know what the Sacred Blade of Terrinael is so I don't understand what you're talking about, could you please explain that to me?" and then, assuming Grym were a player character, he'd self-indulgently rattle off five pages of original fiction he had waiting in a Word document for that moment that he could manipulate another player into asking about it. Then you combine that with the element of extreme tragedy common to all Last Of My Kinds, which is similar in that it proscribes a certain set of responses. Hyperbolic tragedy is nothing strange in superhero comics, but in an RP setting, it's kind of hard to bounce off of 'everyone I ever knew is DEAD' with anything other than 'shit that sucks, I'm sorry dude.' It's not really a character trait that invites reflection, confrontation, or yes-anding; it's just a Horrible Thing that is all said and done that nobody else can effect in any tangible way, but that still demands to be acknowledged and sympathized with due to the sheer magnitude of its horribleness. And that's kind of why I say I get a 'yellow flag' from Last Of My Kinds. It's not a red flag, in that I don't immediately go 'that's a bad RPer,' but it's a very valuable tool in the utility belt of a hypothetical RPer who wants to monopolize attention and not offer much attention in return. I've seen good Last Of My Kinds and bad Last of My Kinds, but the Last Of My Kind is an archetype that is uniquely suited to facilitating selfish RP just because of the social dynamics involved in reflecting on that character from the outside.

I've been going back through Crusader, so I can dig into it. I suspect that you're right, that Senators are a faux-democratic elected body of do-nothings, and Magistrates are actual decisionmakers.

A lot of the dialogue also really corroborates the idea that the state ideology of Praetoria was a form of ecofascism, between citizens speaking glowingly of positive environmental change, the purging and replacement of home gardens, and the government cracking down on rogue farmers because of the threat of 'Hamidon spores.' Not to mention that ominous line from the one citizen about how they'd 'spit on [the Syndicate] but it's illegal to litter,' making sure to exonerate themselves of the potential thoughtcrime of daring to litter.

@huang3721love that you consolidated all of this! I tried to incorporate bits we know from the civilians into my timeline - like them knowing about First Ward - but I've never actually bothered to just go out and feverishly click on civs to get all the responses. In particular I love all of the very shallow knowledge of the Hamidon, and of the environmental effects of the nuclear war: like the civs going "my sister said she saw a Hamidon!" or "I had a nice garden, but it's even nicer now after the Decontamination" or "Clean air, clean water, you wouldn't recognize this place from 50 years ago." It suggests that peoples' memories of the Hamidon Wars are hazy, indistinct, with enough recollection to point out how it sucked to live in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, but with only a dim grasp of why that was the case. Ditto folks recognizing the military tattoos on the Destroyers and then going 'nah, couldn't be...' And interesting anachronism: Cole's audience of non-metahuman puppet governors are referred to as Senators in the civilian dialogue, but in Resistance Crusader they're referred to as Magistrates (hence, Magisterum). I wonder whether the civilian dialogue or the arc was written first, and why they changed the name.

Correct, which was why I did not say Azari is an adversarial person (because I don't have enough information for that), but I did say Azari had established an adversarial dialectic. I understand that offhandedly dismissing the most popular RP hub space as a hive of special-snowflake degenerates while complaining about how nobody will RP with your good-natured jokester can be construed as the justified hurt of someone who feels ostracized by that same space and is lashing out, but it also paints a stark portrait of what tone the player may be bringing to the RP through that character. And this: Is an adversarial dialectic, pitting player versus community in the very ground level of the argument, which frames what is clearly a mismatch of expectations, as the community being stick-up-their-ass fuddy-duddies and the player/character being a lovable scamp that nobody appreciates. I'm a big proponent of dropping the pretense of 'It's what my character would do/it's how my character is,' and abandoning character authenticity if it means that you'll be a better fit with the RP you're trying to engage with. This is especially true of casual-social RP, which already relies on a lot of contrivance to explain why heroes and villains can coexist in a bar setting without descending into violence, or at least performative, shit-slinging kayfabe at every opportunity. I wouldn't describe my characters as either 'dark' or 'light' themed characters, but rather they adapt to whatever the tone of the RP is. I've had the same character beat a victim into a coma in anger during a particularly dark supergroup RP, that I used to play a drunken improv in Pocket D where everyone was making up fake band names, that I've had give Objectively Bad Hot Takes to invite other players to dunk him for that fun argumentative catharsis, that I've done cutesy relationshippy stuff with, that I've occasionally allowed to be legitimately heroic and straight-up save the day from the bad guy. Humans have many faces, and so do our characters, and you shouldn't feel beholden to maintaining a particular tone 24/7, especially if it's clearly causing a disconnect. Accordingly, I'm always very wary of playing 'jerk' characters, even 'lovable jerks with a heart of gold,' because many players play this game as escapism, and that's the RP that they're going to seek out. Dealing with jerks isn't part of the escapist fantasy - it's just an ugly reality lived by basically anyone in a service position. The logic being - "I get to spend all day getting heckled and having my work qualifications questioned, and then I log into the game and now I have to roleplay a character getting heckled and having my work qualifications questioned? Hard pass." This isn't to say that there isn't a place for jerkish, rude or uncouth characters, and I've got quite a few in my stable; when I'm given the remit I love the opportunity to play an odious dick and bask in the negative attention. But if you think of casual RP as attempting to project a variety of compelling traits out into the open for other players to latch onto and run with, "heckles you" is more often a turn-off than a turn-on, which I think is part of why it can lead to radio silence in response.

Thank you! Though a Guildie actually just pointed out that I have the timing on Sutter wrong, since it assumes that Power Suppression has been disabled and Berry's counterattack neutralized. I've linked this thread in our channel, so I'm sure more little adjustments will be forthcoming.

I'd echo this, and note that if your 'trickster' persona involves calling other characters a "weaboo furry emo angst club," to paraphrase, then you're establishing an adversarial dialectic to your razzing and it's no wonder that people don't want to play with you. I get by very well by focusing my 'humor' characters on being near-failures with very easy flaws for other roleplayers to latch onto and kick them for. It's an invitation to engage by poking fun at me, rather than an unsolicited razzing/hazing, the latter of which not everybody is going to be receptive to. Regarding 'classic capes' and how they never win Costume Contests, I've won precisely two costume contests, one generic and one with an explicit 'classic' theme, and both times were with a character in a single-piece skin-tight pattern jumpsuit with a cape (though one is a lot more 'classic' than the other). There are people out there who like to play superheroes, and you'll get a very stilted impression of that looking at the people hanging around Pocket D, because it's hard to reconcile 'classic capes' hanging out in a nightclub. Incidentally, I do wholeheartedly recommend the Hero Corps Information Exchange if you want a good excuse to RP your superhero, as a superhero.

Hey so Super late to this thread, but I'm the Lead of the <New Praetorians Initiative> supergroup, where we have regular internal debates about the timeline, and as best as we could reckon, you can separate Praetorian history into four phases: Pre-Cole, President Cole, Chairman Cole, and Emperor Cole. It is worth noting, however, that these periods seem to overlap in ways that frequently are not the best thought out, and indeed I don't think that the original developers ever intended Going Rogue's vision of Praetoria (or for that matter the more truncated, pre-Going-Rogue version) to be trackable. For instance, if you work backwards from the '30th anniversary of the Praetorian Empire' line in Going Rogue (2010), it conflicts with the date of 1995 given for the Founding of First Ward on a plaque there, which in turn conflicts with Tilman's age, which would have to be much younger than her Primal equivalent since she's described as too young to serve in the Praetorian Wars, except if we assume the Empire was founded in 1980 then Keyes and Berry would both be teenagers so how could they be Praetors unless they were older than- Etc, etc. My point is that I think we've - and I'm referring both to the NPI and the greater City of Heroes community, here - put more thought into the Praetoria timeline than the devs ever did, so the following events are given only the broadest dates, and even those dates are kind of wibbly-wobbly. Timeline 'diverges' in some zany early ways regarding Kheldians never showing up, possibly different Circle/magical history, etc Nemesis dies an ordinary toymaker. First major timeline divergence in the immediate aftermath of WWI: Marcus Cole murders Stefan Richter and takes both of their shares of Incarnate Power, as indicated by Cole being able to fuel his own powers with mass death, destruction and evil. 'Absorbing' Richter also explains the massive power differential between the Emperor Cole we fight and the Statesman encountered in several missions. Second major timeline divergence: Dr. Hamidon Pasilima is born almost a century earlier than his Primal counterpart, and presumably gets infected with the Will of the Earth around the time of World War II instead of the Rikti War. This version of Hamidon is also implied to be an Incarnate. World War II progresses largely as normal but sees greater proliferation of nuclear weapons. Heroes and villains sign up, like they did on Primal Earth. At Douglas MacArthur's urging, the Korean War goes nuclear. Scores of heroes are caught in the blasts and die, including (it is presumed) Cole, who actually goes into hiding in the Australian Outback - presumably abandoning his wife in the process! A limited nuclear reprisal obliterates the West Coast of the United States and much of Russia. Douglas MacArthur was President in 1952, but his victory lap after 'winning' the Korean War in nuclear hellfire is cut short as the Devouring Earth begin to assail American cities. Cole comes back to America after MacArthur orders a nuclear strike on Shroud City, Rhode Island, his hometown and the equivalent of Primal Earth's Paragon City. We know definitively that this is The Year 1955. We know the First Hamidon War must have started in 1955, because Cole goes into hiding for 'years' after the end of the Korean War (1953), and the next Presidential Election Year, which will become pertinent, is 1956 Cole battles against the US government until the context is presented to him: the Devoured have already overrun the city, and will hit critical mass and exterminate the remaining human life. The atom bomb is a mercy kill. President Douglas MacArthur is killed when the Devoured overrun Washington DC, and his Cabinet put Marcus Cole up as their successor candidate. Marcus Cole sweeps the 1956 United States Presidential Elections with 98% of respondents voting for him. This begins the President Cole phase, with Cole as a wartime President fighting the Hamidon Wars. We don't have a lot of material about the President Cole phase. We can reasonably assume that it went for 8 years, as the 22nd Amendment would have been ratified on Praetorian Earth (not enough deviations to the timeline in WWII), but there's no way a superhuman being with 98% of the vote is losing his second term. During this period, we see material that describes America as the nation best-prepared for the Hamidon Wars, since it has the critical mass of the world's superheroes and a superpowered President. However, America isn't necessarily doing super great either, with Utah and Colorado being reduced to post-apocalyptic badlands (Specifically, Cole's Super Corps have scoured America clean of the Devoured within 'a year's time' of 'bitter, grisly work,' putting the First Hamidon War [for America, anyway], at 1955-1957) However, the rest of the world does much worse, described as fighting a 'losing battle' against the Devoured with refugees flooding America's borders, and several nations choose nuclear suicide over being added to the ranks of the Devouring Earth, with 'dozens and dozens' of nuclear exchanges rendering the planet into a near-unlivable hell-ball. This will echo, later. After his Presidential terms (so presumably circa ~1964), and with the Hamidon Wars getting worse and worse for the world outside of America, Cole nationalizes the United Nations, addresses the nations of the world, and calls for the abolishment of national militaries and the absorption of all resources into a dictatorial one-world government on a permanent war footing. Cole does not volunteer to be Dictator - in fact, he refuses - but is guilted into the role shortly thereafter. Or, possibly, this was all a show and he knew he would be the leader from the very beginning. This begins the Chairman Cole era. Chairman Cole expands America's Super Corps to encompass a draft of all metahumans worldwide for immediate military service, equivocal to Might For Right on Primal Earth. In light of the pan-national rebrand, the Super Corps are renamed to the Praetorian Guard and the individual superheroes/supervillains, Praetors. Both Raymond (Anti-Matter) Keyes and Steven (Neuron) Berry sign on with the Praetorian Guard in their youth (Berry only when the war is winding down), but the only way this makes sense in the timeline is if (1) their military records are fabricated or (2) they're both 5 years older than their Primal equivalents. The Praetorian Guard follow a brutal slash-and-burn reclamation policy equivalent to what the Super Corps did in America, but worldwide. During this period, normal human soldiers are deployed in doomed positions to buy the Praetors time to do the important work, and die horribly in droves, as indicated in the Resistance Warden arcs Sometime in the 70-80s, Hamidon manifests as a city-sized Kaiju in South America and begins gradually eating his way up towards the former United States. When Hamidon crosses into Mexico, they nuke themselves in a desperate bid to save the world, to no effect. Cole fights the Kaiju alone, with neither able to harm the other Cole strikes a decisive blow after calling on 'reserves of power he didn't know he had' - as indicated in the Magisterum Trial, this was him using the human death and misery caused by the Hamidon's attacks and Mexico's self-nuke to empower himself with Stefan Richter's Incarnate power. THE BIG LIE happens, the most enduring in Praetoria. Cole and the Hamidon lock 'in psychic battle' - they actually don't, they're just talking. Cole's supreme willpower defeats the Hamidon - he actually doesn't, they just reach an accord and leave negotiations Hamidon Pasilima 'dies' - he actually doesn't, he just dispels the Kaiju avatar and returns to his inchaote form beneath the surface of the Earth. Unbeknownst to all, Cole agrees to enforce order on and limit the spread of Humanity across Primal Earth, rebuilding the Earth as an ecofascist dictatorship. In return, the Hamidon will spare Humanity. THE PRAETORIAN EMPIRE is founded. The date given for this is '30 years before' City of Heroes: Going Rogue, ergo 1980, but there are several indications this is a lie, least of which the plaques in First Ward, which still call Cole 'Chairman' and refer to him as actively fighting the Hamidon Wars as late as 1995. So, Praetoria is between 30 and 15 years old, though it was probably a gradual transformation closer to the '30 years' side of things, given that nobody seems to remember the United States of America except people over ~40 during Goldside content. Shalice Tilman is deputized as a Praetor in the first year of the Praetorian Empire (whenever that is) even though she was too young to serve in the Hamidon Wars (which in turn makes her decades younger than her Primal equivalent). She is instrumental to the transition from 'temporary' chairmanship to permanent Imperator, as her prodigious, mutant psychic powers and her lock-tight control of world media allow her to rapidly streamline the message. As part of her work as Praetor, Tilman absorbs and homogenizes all world mental health services into the Seer Network, which is not so much a treatment plan as a system that turns the mentally ill into test subjects and psionic people into a surveillance and thoughtcrime-prevention apparatus. Raymond Keyes develops 'clean' nuclear power sources and radiation-scrubbing technology while Steven Berry cures all diseases (including the Tellurian Plague, though that part is a lie). The two of them begin to reverse the effects of global thermonuclear war, though how much they know that the Hamidon is actually helping them along here is up in the air. The efforts of human soldiers are completely erased from history, and the commonly-accepted narrative becomes that the Praetors saved the world singlehandedly, with no help from ordinary people. Cole's ecofascist dictatorship takes the shape of a benevolent metahuman-supremacist nanny state, with ordinary humans viewed as powerless rubes who must be caged and protected for their own good. Some Praetors begin to go off-message and are quietly purged by Praetor Sinclair. Eventually 'some Praetors' becomes 'most Praetors,' with the original Praetorian Guard of 'hundreds and hundreds' reduced to five, and the remainder erased from history. Rather than be given Praetor titles, newly-drafted metahumans are placed into Powers Division, a subordinate unit of superheroes/villains whose job it is to police dissent and make metahumans look good compared to the purely-human PPD, thereby validating the principles that Praetoria is founded upon. Imperial City and Neutropolis are built over the ruins of a settlement somewhere in the Southeastern United States or Mexico, likely in Louisiana or the Florida Keys (referred to in First Ward plaques as the 'Eastern Bloc'). This is a gradual process of updating and bulldozing, and there are still architectural holdovers from the original city still visible in Neutropolis. Collectively, they are referred to as 'Praetoria City' and refugees are encouraged to settle there. First Ward is founded in approx. 1995, though it was likely 'in prototype' for a while given that Cole is still referred to as Chairman, not Emperor, in the plaques there. Likewise, the Mayhem's Prodigal badge describes it as 'A Tyrant's Dream' predating the Empire, so it's likely that Cole was already planning a coup and wanted to have the city 'ready to unveil' by the time the Empire came about. First Ward is supposed to be the first truly 'Praetorian' city as-distinct from prewar cities nationalized into the Praetorian Empire. It is constructed using the newest technology and features largely new architecture, with the notable exception of the Mother of Mercy Psychiatric Hospital, which hides the global HQ for the Seer Network. The city goes up practically overnight, as Keyes debuts the first generation of Clockwork, which are pneumatic models that do not move or think under human-like logic. Keyes deploys the Sonic Fences, a deterrent mechanism intended to keep the population in and Hamidon out. For unknown reasons given the secret Accord, Hamidon decides that he doesn't like Keyes' face, and another giant Kaiju erupts from the ground beneath the Westerman Building, the prototype for the Magisterum. Thousands are absorbed in the first wave of Devoured attacks, and Keyes panics, overcharging the Sonic Fences to face inward and liquifying the district - killing the Hamidon Kaiju and the human beings alike. Cole is understandably furious, and demotes Keyes from Praetor of Science, allowing Berry to take his place. This makes Keyes the only Ex-Praetor we know of who is still allowed to exist unmolested in Praetorian society, without being removed from history. All of Keyes' work is given over to Berry, with Neuron improving the Clockwork (with humanlike thought patterns, synthetic muscles, and beta-titanium 'skin') and "improving" the sonic fences. Surely the Hamidon can't break through a second time! Approximately contemporaneous to this time, Cole begins to cull the world's various Magical groups such as the Cabal and the Carnival, citing their unwillingness to bend the knee to the Cole Regime in service of ridiculous abstracts like 'cosmic balance' and 'the fate of the multiverse.' The decimated Legacy Chain throw in their lot with the Carnival, and the Midnighters split, with some joining the Carnival and the others fleeing into the Netherworld to escape Cole's wrath. This proves to be a terrible mistake. Nova Praetoria is founded as the 'first planned city' of Praetoria, and First Ward is swept entirely under the rug. First Ward is converted into a training ground/live fire zone for Cole's military, with political dissidents shipped there to disappear. Although officially its existence is denied, people kind of seem to 'know the score,' as indicated by dialogue with civilians in Imperial City who describe not wanting to be sent to the First Ward. City of Heroes: Going Rogue begins in 2010, at the supposed 30th but possibly 15th anniversary of the Praetorian Empire. In rough order: Maria Jenkins' arc happens. The events of the Tip Missions happen, specifically as relates to Maelstrom and Desdemona. The events of Twinshot's arc happen Responsibility, Power, Warden and Crusader happen Tina MacIntyre's arc happens, set between the end of Goldside content and the beginning of the Praetorian War. The Praetorian War begins when TinMage iTrial happens. BAF iTrial happens. Lambda Sector iTrial happens. Admiral Sutter TF happens. Keyes Reactor iTrial happens. First Ward (20-30) happens Concurrently with First Ward, the Underground iTrial happens. Night Ward (30-35) happens Concurrently with Night Ward, the TPN Campus iTrial happens. Dark Astoria happens, before the formal end of the Praetorian War, but Dominatrix defects to help the Primals. Belladonna Vetrano's arc happens. Praetoria begins to collapse from the inside. Minds of Mayhem iTrial happens. Praetoria is falling apart. Magisterum iTrial happens. In an echo both of the destruction of Shroud City and of the nuclear suicides of several nations during the Hamidon Wars, Cole nukes Praetoria City, killing millions of his own citizens. Praetoria entirely falls, and refugees begin flocking through the former invasion portals into Paragon. The Major's arc happens. Provost Marchand and Mr. G's arcs happen contemporaneously to each other. The New Praetorians are founded as several Praetorian supervillains escape containment. Number Six's arc happens.

As someone who doesn't do faceclaims myself, I think that 'you're stealing someone's face and RPing their life' is absolutely a mischaracterization of the practice in the vast majority of cases. Faceclaiming isn't 'I'm Tom Holland and I want to be treated as Tom Holland,' it's 'In the movie version, my character would be played by this actor, and you should use their persona and mannerisms as a touchstone'. Which is something that I dare anyone who's GM'd a D&D campaign to tell me didn't at minimum come up as a topic of conversation amongst your players at least once. Do I still find the practice in bad taste? A bit, particularly when it's done in an objectifying context e.g. "my character is super sexy, so they look like this actor/actress who is super sexy." But otherwise, it can be a useful shorthand that's largely just a lower-effort version of commissioning character art. On the topic of characters not taking the threat du jour particularly seriously during content, I'd call that a consequence of what the game is telling you mechanically, but it's also a necessary concession to large groups, especially. If you're blasting through a RP task force on a group of 8, and all of you are chattering constantly, you'll totally get lost in the scroll. Paying attention to content - while also standing out in a crowd of roleplayers all trying to showcase their characters just as much as you - necessitates a quippy, 'easy dunk' format of communication that is in many ways anathema to good RP. Mind you, I love me some RP content. But you wouldn't run a D&D group where 8+ people show up to every session and expect quality discourse and immaculate 'turn order' respect. The ideal number is in the 3-5 range, and so it is with mission RP.

Plus, the big group shot! Thank you all so much for turning out!

And in some better light...

Here were our finalists! From left to right: Whispering Vengeance - Tie, Second Place Glockwork PPD - Third Place Crimson Provost - Tie, Second Place Justicar Mecca - Fifth Place Street Violence - First Place Golden Bombshell - Fourth Place

As a reminder, this is happening in 30 minutes! Be there or be not Praetorian!

I've edited the top post to reflect that Iron Character is happening immediately after the big CC.

Cheers Shade! I wasn't around yesterday. Yes, it will be a contest held after the CC for folks who want to trade names and test their mettle with rapidfire character creation.

There is a place, where the writing is better, the heroes come in shades of grey, and the ambush spawns flow like wine. It is a lonely, personal journey. Not every new character makes it out. And those who do... are forever marked by the experience. We call it... goldside. The New Praetorians Initiative supergroup is celebrating our beloved Going Rogue content by holding a big damn costume contest in the Magisterum Courtyard, in Nova Praetoria, on May 23rd. There will also be an Iron Character contest hosted by our own @Kai, time and place yet TBD directly after the Costume Contest winds down. We fondly hope to see you there in your best stars and chevrons.

Left to right: SoundFury (1st Place) FourSee (2nd Place) Starcharger Hot Particle Orchestrion (3rd Place) Leftovers Rainstorm and Concuss Orchestrion's backstory, in particular, had me in stitches. Wish I'd saved it.

The New Praetorians Initiative have been keeping this in mind as our base comes together. It's still a long way from finished, but hope to have it submitted anyway and do what we can before the cutoff. SG NAME: New Praetorians Initiative BASE NAME: "Little Imperial" (working title, hahaha) CODE: BRIX-10044 SG LEAD GLOBAL: @TwoDee It's a mixed-use neighborhood of refurbished warehouses being used by the Brickstown Praetorian community, including the local supergroup, the NPI. Presently includes an apartment building of exactly ONE apartment, a free clinic, a charity bakery/thrift shop, the base itself w/ attached Vanguard DPO, a park, a gym, a bar, and a burger place. Give or take a big street market as the focal point of the base.

I've got a name and some funds to put into the mix! Thanks for running, Kai!

Howdy! This is purely tentative, but I may swing by to rep for the New Praetorians Initiative, which is a small RPSG modeled off of the New Praetorians as seen in Provost Marchand’s 30-50 arc. We’re heavily involved in City of Roleplay’s ongoing community story arcs, so we’ve built up quite a little internal canon for ourselves. Our blurb is thusly:

It's only ancillary to actually playing the game itself, but my fondest memory was winning a costume contest in my Super Group, the Circle of Jerks (then the League of Extraordinary Bastards as I recall). Whoever was running it mailed me a bunch of ATI Radeon swag and it was probably one of the coolest moments of my otherwise punishingly-awkward teenage years. There's a lot of nostalgia wrapped up in putting Johnny Rad into this forum's first costume contest, lemme tell you.

Name: Johnny Rad Account: TwoDee Battle Cry: Kick the habit! Feels great to finally return to my old hero, the (barely) functioning-alcoholic rad-blaster. With apologies to everyone who had to suffer his presence in Everlasting's Pocket D tonight.