Object as Character

[Scarlet Shocker]

I don't RP very often. I can, and I like to think I'm reasonable at it but I don't tend to hang out in RP chats nor do I create contiguous stories or work through character scenarios in great detail...

 

usually.

 

I had an idea the other day that may change this and I wanted to run it by you guys as a discussion and for input and advice.

 

Our game is very much centred around the the character as the main protagonist. Your character, your story. You create your character at level 1 and work up to 50 and then beyond. How you do that is your own business. You follow the constructs of the game but there's a lot of flex in there that we already know about. Then at 50 you go through the incarnates levels and then you farm and accumulate all the goodies and stuffs and build your best toon evah... or you might shelve it and move on. 

 

Neither of those is wrong. 

 

I was talking with friends and had an idea: What if it wasn't a singular person, but an object - a physical thing, that imbued the wearer/owner/carrier of this object with power. The thing can grow over time but it might change owners, either by accident or willingly. Is it sentient? 

 

There are plenty of examples out there, the best known is the One Ring that Frodo bore to Mordor but before that had been variously owned by Smeagol and then Bilbo. Previously it had been created and worn by the dark lord Sauron. Originally it was simply a ring of invisibility but then it became the One Ring to bind them all... So it clearly grows in power or at least adjusts. (I understand Tolkien gave it additional power as he wrote - but that's not really part of this debate.)

 

I originally thought it might be a pair of eye-glasses or spectacles - but that might be a bit Joe 90. (Bonus points if you get that refence or danced at the Twisted Wheel.) Then I remembered an old British comic book series called "The Gauntlet of Fate" - where this medieval chainmail gauntlet (I know, not entirely coherent) would be found and worn by contemporary people who'd then do extraordinary things with it. I forget the comic or the main details but it would be a different person every episode but the gauntlet was the power. 

 

This struck me as a very interesting concept within the framework here but it is inherently an RP scenario. We can create a character with a different look and feel but the powers must be the same (or must they?) Our primary and secondary are fixed. But pool powers, APP/PPP are mutable and can be created differently within a built of one character. We also have 9 handy costume slots and the ability to upload potentially infinite costumes. 

 

We may have to visit Serge or Facemaker from time to time when we want Gender Realignment Surgery - to change sex/body shape - but that's a small limitation. 

 

I'm currently thinking the object itself may well be a kind of mystical mask or hood, but I haven't precluded it being a weapon or something similar that already exists in game. But given that it's the object that levels and that the person wielding it may well be very different the next week or even mission, I need to ask the following: 

 

What AT and Power Sets lend themselves most appropriately to this scenario? One week you're mild-mannered accountant Jeremy Boxhall-Compton and the next you're Sarah McDonald, housewife. Then suddenly you're Bobby "The Bullet" Bristow, amateur boxing champion down on his luck. How do I capture that in one single AT and set combination?

 

Does the "will" or "demeanour" of the person wielding the object have a bearing on its performance? Can its alignment change with the bearer? (Or vice versa?) Are these people connected in any way or does The Object just move around random people in the city? Does it go back to a person twice? Is the item in question of good or evil intent? 

 

Does The Object itself change to suit the moment? Is it a hat one day, a jacket tomorrow, and last week is was a pair of very well fitting but horribly coloured pants?!?! 

 

I don't yet have all the answers  (I don't think I even have many at this stage) but I'd love some of your input and feedback.

 

I have the bones of a character fleshed out on Everlasting but that's nascent and can be changed so without revealing it I'd prefer your input. 

 

 

[chase]

So many ways you can take this too- is it a battle of wills between the possessor and the possessed a la "Vanessa DeVore vs the  spirit of Giovanna Scaldi" - is it direct personality override or subtle cues-a  slow takeover or an eventual synergy of two wills?

Is it a weapon? Jewelry? A suit?  An AI implant? A spectral force?  
How does it feel about the people it possesses? 
Does it delude itself or is it aware of what taking over those bodies mean? 
Are they good, willing participants? 
Bad people that the "thing" deems too dangerous to have autonomy? 
Injured minds in need of assistance? 
Does it mourn or miss its previous "skins?" 
Do they depart amicably?

Many great narrative possibilities.

The closest I had to the concept was a "thorn" storing the soul of an ancient oranbegan that when shoved through the skin of a victim, would possess that victim and grant them mystical powers.  If the thorn was removed and stabbed into someone else, the possession would follow.   Although the spirit liked to believe he was in full control, each new vessel influenced the manifestation of his person in some way- increasing over time... so that he'd often seek out new vessel once he felt he was losing himself to the vessel's original occupant.

I tried to keep a number of costume slots with pre-made alternatives based on villain groups- the idea being that if I fell in battle the character's last great effort would be to possess one of the foes that they were just fighting.    That was tougher back in the day, but I had a half-decent malta look, crey was relatively easy, and suddenly becoming an uncomfortably self-conscious carnie could be good for a chuckle...


 

 

I also had a faux backstory of that nature triggered by the game's introduction of new powersets, kinda explaining a character's reroll from a less-imaginative amazonian strongwoman into a shield-defense character

An artifact from the oranbegan / mu era- a jewel-encrusted piece of armor that seemed to respond to a very specific bloodline.   A mu prophecy associated with the armor said that its eventual destruction would free the demigod imprisoned within.     For generations, the armor was passed down mother-to-daughter and wearing it granted the bearer a taste of the power of the thing within-   To anyone else that tried it on, it did nothing.   

The current incarnation's mother had inherited the armor suddenly and without any preparation and she was determined not to let the same fate befall the next.   She dedicated her life to making up for her early shortcomings, sought a man solely for the qualities he may help pass to the next warrior, and then trained that girl from an early age to be prepared for her eventual duties.

The girl eventually inherited the role and... while she did her duty, she resented it- her fate and purpose was decided before she was born,  Her heart wasn't in it.  She wanted to rebel against the fate her mother had made for her, but her sense of duty wouldn't allow her.     She got careless.   She got caught.   She witnessed the mu ritual destroying the armor just before other heroes rescued her.   

For weeks she dreaded what was to come- what her carelessness had unleashed on the world- waiting for the demigod to appear.   So did the somewhat-baffled mu.  While she saw signs of something terrible in every storm or natural disaster, the mu became convinced that some part of the armor remained somewhere- in some museum or storage or property tied to her family line.   Both were now convinced that the mu were preparing the way for the demigod's wrathful return.

 

Without any superpowers of her own, she used her natural talents to lead a team against them.  Armed with little more than a weakly-enchanted shield, a tactical mind, and reflexes trained since birth, she led from the front, and although she was still going down a path very similar to the one her mother set for her it was now on her terms and it was one she felt passionate about. 

That's the problem with ancient prophecy.  Always so ambiguous.. and words change meaning over time.  What the Mu read as "demigod" now may have just meant "hero" or 'great champion' back then.   Regardless, the armor was now broken- she'd escaped her prison and was well on her way to becoming the great champion they foretold.