Do you DO? (Dual Origin - NOT about enhancements)

[Replacement]

Ra's al Ghul is what I would consider a "natural" character, judging by his capabilities and the sorts he deals with (Batman).  But he only became so talented due to the long life granted by the mystical or chemical nature of the Lazarus Pits.

 

Spider-Man is certainly a Science origin character, but one of his most iconic attributes (webshooters) are definitely Technological marvels.  To make it even more interesting, no mere human could ever use the webshooters the way he does!  Aside from dexterity and a spider-sense to keep him from swinging into traffic, there's the simple fact they're basically engineered to dislocate the shoulders of any baseline human!

 

I've recently become obsessed with this idea of "dual origin" characters, or simply characters that blur the lines of the origins and/or what they fight.  This is only getting more intense with the "Origin" pools.

For example, a Natural origin Martial Arts character could be a lot of fun Unleashing Potential and going full Anime with the Force of Will pool.

 

Do you guys have any technologists who needed sorcery to overcome their nemesis?  Any Bio Armor mutants concocting Experimentations based on their own mutagens? It's especially exciting when you need one half to really make the other work (Spiderman example) but I'd like to hear them all.

 

Tell me about your toons' stories that blend the origins!

Edited January 24, 2021 by Replacement

[Techwright]

Ace Barnstormer's backstory (MA/SR) has always been one of being a wanderer and later a stunt plane pilot in a flying circus that traveled the globe.  His wanderings allowed for him to train in martial arts in Asia.  Following the Ritki War he returned to hometown Paragon, and connecting with family friends in the supers biz, he eventually got in on a powered undersuit project retro-engineered from Rikti tech.  He wears it under his stunt show costume.  The undersuit enhances his speed, endurance, strength, and overall survivability. While this classifies him as tech, his martial prowess stems entirely from his natural training.  Were the suit to fail him, he still might prove a formidable fighter, just not as fast or durable.

 

 

[Soyuz]

A couple of my characters do this.

 

Pool Boy is an amateur boxer (Natural) who stumbled into one of those shops selling wierd and wonderful things that aren't there when you go back to try to return your purchase or clarify how it works (Magic). He bought a book detailing how to enchant a pair of gloves so that you can punch ghosts, among other things. Now wierd events just won't stop happening around him and he can't seem to get rid of the thing, He tried leaving it in a dumpster and a helpful samaritan mailed it back to him. Threw it in the bay, it turned up in his shower the next morning looking no worse for wear. He even tried burnin the thing -  it showed up on his bedside table the next day and it turned out he'd burned his tax return by accident.

 

Radio Girl is a science witch. Her power source is a black hole which she's linked to via quantum entanglement. Typical lab accident stuff, ergo Science! She wouldn't be able to control that power without her training in sorcery though, therefore also Magic.

[DougGraves]

I have 2 design standards for character.  I base it on an NPC group and look like that.

 

Or I take two concepts and combine them.  Skeleton cowboy (Tomb Fisted Kid), scuba diver scientist (Aqueuous Solution), etc.

 

The combined character concepts are often dual origin concepts..

[Soyuz]

Actually though, this is one reason why the origin-specific pools irk me. Some of them are so damned useful for certain AT's (e.g. Sorcery with its Rune of Protection) that you almost have to work them into your build. If your AT lacks built-in mez protection, you'll certainly be better off taking Sorcery than the Flight pool in most cases.

 

Most pools don't work this way. If I take the Concealment pool, I might be using a spell to hide my movements, I could be using a high-tech chameleon device, I might be leveraging my spy training to be just that stealthy, I could be using mind control to constantly distract the guards or any of a host of other possible mechanisms which all result in the same effect - I'm stealthy. Pools like this abide by what I call the Tactical Effect Doctrine; don't worry about precisely how it works, just worry about the final effect.

 

But with Sorcery... it's magic. The clue's in the name. There are even runes around you when you fly which you can't change or turn off, so that others know it's magic too. It's all very cool if you are a magic-origin character, but if not then you have some mental contortions to go through to justify it all. To make matters worse, while Sorcery copies powers from other pools (flight, teleport) no other pool has an equivalent to Rune. I mean, seriously - the Force of Will pool doesn't have stun, sleep or hold protection?

 

I know this will only bother roleplayers or those who build to a concept instead of a mechanic. However, I'm one of those and it feels like an itch I can't scratch at times. I'd prefer it if you could turn off the VFX or if there were alternate animations (maybe equations instead of runes, or a FF- or sonic-style bubble).

[Snarky]

My current main is a Dark / Dark Brute.  The origin is magic.  But the story involves someone irritating a Lord of Space and Time who use the forces underpinning reality (science so advanced it can be considered magic) to install (imprison) their brain and spirit atop a large robot.  So the character is a shining robot with a brain in the jar at the top, a dual origin magic/technology.  tri-...science?

[Placta]

I've got:

• A mutant whose power is uncontrollable and deadly without technology
• A character whose only extraordinary feature is the fact that she can't die
• "Then there's the debate over the nature of her powers; the finest minds of GIFT, MAGI, and SERAPH have examined her and concluded that she definitely has powers."

[DoctorDitko]

For what it's worth, there are some minimal sfx options available for the Sorcery Pool. And I was a big fan of paper-and-pencil Champions, which was mechanically based only upon the game effects, to which you could apply whatever visual effects or rationale struck your fancy.

 

My namesake:

Once a powerful and arrogant magician, he overreached himself and suffered a sorcerous backlash that left him unable to access the higher magics. In despair and wandering, he was taken in by a kindly relativistic physicist who taught him the ways of his field. Now, having achieved his own advanced degree, he uses his knowledge of both science and sorcery to make the world a better place.

 

(Affectionate parody dedicated with love to Steve and Stan, who made MY world a better place.)

Edited January 28, 2021 by DoctorDitko

[Replacement]

Good stuff so far.  @DoctorDitko, I enjoyed reading your signature after reading the backstory. 🙂

 

On 1/26/2021 at 2:28 AM, Placta said:

• A mutant whose power is uncontrollable and deadly without technology

I have one like this!  What's really neat about this example is the idea that it's more like dueling origins than dual origins!  The technology is the only thing keeping them from becoming a rampant mutation, so... who's the real hero in the equation?

 

One of my favorite character backgrounds is a former med student who was infected with a wasting blood disease.  She ended up using what I called "garage medicine and black magic" to pump her blood into a ritual and return it as essentially a living artifact under her control.  Parallel to Doctor Strange's origin story, certainly, but I enjoyed the notion that she, being new to magic, would approach it and experiment with it as scientifically as possible.  She is Magic origin with the Experimentation pool, which fits really well except for the green syringes I wish I could color recolor.

 

I have some others, like a Natural with a talent for improving others' techniques - easily manifests in fighting, but applies to technology just as surely and houses a slew of borrowed and tuned-up gadgets from other supers.

[ZekeStenzland]

Heka Meka Deka is a Roomba that’s become a magically animated free-willed guardian. The magician had the ritual all set up, but his sister and her family dropped by for a visit. His nephew swapped one of the ritual’s tarot cards with his own Hearthstone Hecklebot card. Later, when the family left, he cast the ritual without rechecking his components. It still worked, but he didn’t get what he was hoping for...

 

So... tech/magic?

Edited January 29, 2021 by ZekeStenzland

[Flashtoo]

Yes.

 

My Shield/Psi tank is a mutant, from a family of mutants with precognitive and flashy telekinetic abilities - and they use techniques rooted in magic (i.e. meditation, crystals, etc) to focus and direct those abilities. So, Mutant/Magic.

 

My Fortunata is an escaped product of Arachnos experimentation trying to artificially build a better Widow, with more and stronger innate abilities, by hybridizing human and Soldiers of Rularuu stock. Soldiers of Rularuu, as the direct implements of a deity's will, are essentially angels, and thus my SCP Thing That Should Not Be is demi-divine. Science/Magic.

 

My main (Grav controller or Time defender with the Fighting pool) is an immortal wizard who steals time through verbal trickery and teleports. In a fight, he does not blast you with spells - he swipes a few crucial moments off you and then punches you in the face with his normal, unenhanced human fist. Obviously magic for the most part... but with more of a Natural thing going on than I see in most arcane practitioners.

 

My Earth/Time controller is a quantum physicist who manipulates tachyons to freeze enemies in time crystals, and needs some significant equipment in order to do it. However, the gear would be more or less useless in the hands of anybody who didn't know enough quantum physics to use it properly. Science/Tech.

 

Anyone else has just a single origin or I haven't put much thought into.

[ZorkNemesis]

I have multiple characters who would fit a Magic/Natural hybrid.  Their backstories have them existing on another plane before arriving in Paragon/Praetoria.  While their abilities would be considered natural talents, they are very much arcane in nature.  One of them, for example, is a fairy.  Fairies are generally magical in esscense, but her abilities are very much part of her species.  All three of them use Magic as their origin though as I feel they are more magic than mundane.

 

Reversing the trend, I have a Natural/Magic Dom who's trained in forbidden martial arts.  Such arts allow her to use darkness and shadows to augment her ninja-style combat capabilities.  Summoning ghosts and a fell beast likely qualifies for Magic somehow, but she definetly learned how to do all that through training and dedication.

 

Similarly, a Mutant/Natural who developed cat-like physical features and traits (yes, she's my requisite catgirl character) but once again she also trained extensively in sword combat and stealth engagement.  A fair bit of her agility can certainly be chalked up to cat senses but swordsmanship is generally something to be learned.

 

Another character takes after Dr. Aeon where he built and uses an unstable power suit fueled by the Netherworld, resulting in a conbination of radiation and shadows.  The suit qualifies him for Tech, but tapping the Netherworld has to count for some sort of Magic.  After all, Aeon did that with a demon.

[Heraclea]

I pay next to zero attention to origins in my characters.  Moreover, I often revise their backstories and concepts from the moment of creation until I get a better feel for how their powersets work and play.  You unfortunately can't revise the origin, so I ignore it.  Heraclea has always been Magic origin, but her backstory includes military training.  Moreover, her original power set was Super Strength, but is now Dark Melee, a souvenir of her descent to the Underworld.  (I gave her Air Superiority as a reminder of her super strength origin).  And also, alchemy is part of the background of all the Amazons. 

 

The game plays fast and loose with origins as well.  Consider the Clockwork.  They were Technology enemies, and at the beginning if you chose Technology origin you got sent to fight Clockwork enemies.  Then it turns out that they are somehow connected to the psychic power of the Clockwork King, who has some kindo of weird obsession with the psychic Penelope Yin.  This isn't an inconsistency, it's just developing the story in motion.

 

There is, however, one consistent theme in my origin choices.  If your character fights with a mace, axe, sword, katana, bow, or gun, their powers are centered on using tools. This makes Technology the obvious choice for all such powersets.  IIRC I made my most recent war mace brute (Bonquers) technology for this reason.  Then again, Bonquers is not quite sure how her hammer works.  She claims to have studied hammering at Vassar, but says that was a waste of time, because it's pretty frickin' easy. 

Edited January 29, 2021 by Heraclea

[Bill Z Bubba]

4 hours ago, Heraclea said:

There is, however, one consistent theme in my origin choices.  If your character fights with a mace, axe, sword, katana, bow, or gun, their powers are centered on using tools. This makes Technology the obvious choice for all such powersets.  IIRC I made my most recent war mace brute (Bonquers) technology for this reason. 

Ahh, but my mace/bio scrapper is a completely normal human mechanic who just happened upon a magic wrench that grants her abilities. Sooo, magic origin.

[Shred Monkey]

Yeah.. this is why I almost always use natural origin.  If they happen to pick up some technology or magic or get mutated by an accident later in life, they're still good.  But it's much harder to explain how they go the other direction.

[Mirai]

Splasher Umi is a sentinel with mystic water powers and natural ninjitsu skills. Her parents want her to be a proper ninja assassin, but she dreams of being a heroic magical girl.