The Watchtower/Prospect

From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

Okay, folks! Lotsa stuff cut away due to being no longer necessary. :D The character notes remain - but you can check out the WIP pages now under The Watchtower.

Contents 1 Characters 1.1 Ridger 1.2 Deathglow/Livelight 1.3 Talen's Ideas 1.4 @Andy's Ideas 1.5 Fox's Ideas 1.6 Cauda 1.7 Rome/Seer's Ideas 1.8 B's Input 1.9 Pendix's Idea(s)

Characters

Post something about the character you're planning to play. Perhaps we can coordinate so we get nicely balanced teams, or not too many scrappers, or whatever.

Ridger

Ridger is the unifying trait of all these characters. Right now, Ridger is incarcerated in a state Prison in a state other than Rhode Island. Inspired by Bridger, from the Original Italian Job, he runs a criminal empire from inside his cell, safe and quiet and calm. He's a master manipulator, and tends to only operate on the best information he can get. For this reason, while people may be disparate, they're all going to be people that Ridger thinks he can control - and he'll have a good reason for thinking that.

Ridger's incarceration is for a number of crimes, but he got caught explicitly so he could be in the prison, a place he views as ultimately safe and waylaying all criminal suspicion. Ridger is a mild-mannered model prisoner in his late 40s.

Deathglow/Livelight

I'm considering playing Deathglow, which of course is a horrible idea since he's such a nasty murderous bastard. It's also hilarious and will hopefully cause plenty of interesting roleplay. DG is a living cloud of radioactive gas, and will be a rad/rad defender. --FredrikSvanberg 14:53, 15 November 2008 (MST)

Obssessive? --Talen Lee 15:00, 15 November 2008 (MST)

Only in the sense that it covers the people who don't really care one way or another. Deathglow doesn't really have an agenda of his own. At least not yet. --FredrikSvanberg 18:42, 15 November 2008 (MST)

And I've created the character. I ended up with the name Livelight, which I think is pretty ok. It's sort of the opposite to Deathglow and it is also a play on words.

After some brainstorming with Talen I've figured out that Livelight is no longer satisfied with existence as a living cloud of gas. He believes that Ridger's scheme somehow will allow him to become human again, and is Obsessive about this. --FredrikSvanberg 11:14, 18 November 2008 (MST)

Talen's Ideas

First up, for personality, I fully expect I should be one of the 'face' types, the one who stands before the press and makes big, impressive and expressive speeches about how Awesome Justice is. A real firebrand and demagogue kinda guy, somewhere between Teddy Roosevelt and Rusty from Ocean's Eleven. Now I'm pretty flexible in this regard, since I can see a whole host of possible archetypes to fit. He'd be most likely a Soldier (abdicating responsibility to Ridger) or a Con Artist.

Mechanically, I'm trying to avoid scrappers per se, but I've done a lot of stuff already with the other archetypes. Regardless, what I've got as possibilities:

• Dark/Dark Defender

I sampled the dark/fire scrapper today, thought about it, considered it... and no. No, it's time for me to get that D3 I've wanted for so long.--Talen Lee 19:13, 19 November 2008 (MST)

@Andy's Ideas

I have the basic character background and personality type down I think. Origin is mutation. Name is Midnight Bandit. She's an international jewel thief, among other things. Basically if you need small, highly valuable items stolen, she's your girl. She's also not bad with security systems and computers. She'd go along with the hero con because 1) She'd find it amusing; 2) Paragon is full of marks; and 3) It'd appeal to some of the more...personal scores she has to settle. As far as AT's go...

• Illusion/FF controller
• Inv/Em or Inv/SS tanker
• Inv/DM Tanker - adding this to the list and bumping it up to my number one choice atm.

I have 2 SR scrappers already, which is kinda unfortunate because it fits conceptually for Bandit I think. But the illusion angle plays well too. I'm a little less enthused about the FF secondary, but I have a *lot* of alts...so I've done almost all the secondaries for controllers either in defenders, other controllers, or corrupters. My other possibility is Trick Arrow.

So she's more of a Con Artist? --Talen Lee 15:31, 15 November 2008 (MST)

Stupid lack of SR for tankers!

I'm leaning heavily toward a tanker right now unless someone else wants to play one. :)

Indecision still keeping me from making a final decision. The powers element is less problematic than the powers-and-concept dynamic. There's a lot of powers I wanna try in CoH, but for this particular character, I'm trying to decide what works for her conceptually speaking. @Andy

Perhaps try picturing her performing a heist and then let the powers come from that? --Eventide 21:26, 19 November 2008 (MST)

Fox's Ideas

I'm a little lost for once. I have the name "Tradewind" camped and I'd like to do something with it, but that's the only guideline I have. Assuming other people have ideas, I was going to wait and see what would fit well with everybody else's characters :p Of course, the Innocent and the Redeemer interest me, but since having more than one of those would prolly suck, I was gonna let everybody else have a shot at them first.

In other news, I'll probably try to play something blasty/support-y - this probably also means a boy, since the kind of women I like to play are almost universally a) tanks or scrappers, and b) brutally honest - not the sort to go along with any con. Soldier also interests me in that light. I like the idea of someone who isn't so much bad as just terrified of taking responsibility for his powers/actions.

Okay, so now I have an Empath/Dark defender who afflicts others with his own fear (it's a "gentle", "human" way to fight - it doesn't kill anybody! :p). His name is Avowal, and he's most assuredly a Soldier.

Cauda

I'd like to play an Obsessive, in Paragon City to retrieve something of value to her (undetermined, perhaps a child). I plan to use the name "Consequence", which I have already claimed. The character will make heavy use of Cloak of Darkness as part of her concept.

I'd really like to be able to roll this character as a Katana/ Dark Armor Scrapper, but given that everyone else has been so considerate in planning to roll useful characters, I could be persuaded to make her a Dark Armor/ Broadsword Tanker. Not that I've ever played a Tanker before.

@Andy We'll want damage too. And Kat/DA is SEXY. =D

Not to mention that Broadsword isn't an option for Tankers yet. Katana/DA is ok, I had one for a while, but DA doesn't mesh well with lag and my computer freezing up in the middle of a fight and preventing me from using Dark Regeneration, which is in fact the only thing keeping a DA user alive. The toggles say they provide resists but I don't believe them. Oh wait, Oppressive Gloom does in fact work. And the fear toggle. But for about 25 levels you're running on fumes.

Broadsword is available for my Tankers because I, err... nevermind.

I chugged through 34 levels on my spines/dark scrapper leaning on the fact that everything was dead before I could breath. Then Oppressive Gloom became a factor. It's a great build for an AE soloist, or if we have a fantastic supporter, but really not that necessary otherwise. Now, that said, Kat/DA is rock solid and has some fantastic customization options. Katana makes anything way less squishy, and between the damage aura and the upcoming sets, you should have no problem providing any role, even main tank.

I also need to add to my concerns the possibility of a Spines/Fire scrapper. I know, I know, I know. --Talen Lee 20:10, 16 November 2008 (MST)

@Andy I have a dark/dark scrapper, and my main problem was always an end issue.

I've thought a little more on the concept. I'm thinking something along the lines of a villain who made a deal with denizens of the Netherworld for power/ longevity and is now trying to get out of paying up. --Eventide 07:40, 18 November 2008 (MST)

Oooh, I like that idea! @Andy

Go down to the crossroads, woman. And if it involves dark armour, I can only advocate it, pulling me more to use an Oppressive Gloom toter.

Consequence

Rome/Seer's Ideas

I was sort of thinking of a hybrid Actor/Machinist, Fire/Mental Blaster character. He's basically a mild-mannered psychic with a psychotic split personality. Some of the details are still sketchy, but some of the thoughts I have are:

• Both personalities have a motivation to work with the group. The Machinist side of the character sees greater opportunities for mischief if he worked with the group than if he were working alone. The Actor has similar thoughts, but has another reason to work with the group.

• Dependent on "suppressant" drugs. The Actor enjoys a good scam, but he feels the Machinist goes too far. However, he doesn't have the willpower to keep himself in check unaided. This leads him to turn to drug use in order to suppress the Machinist. However, his body will eventually build a resistance to conventional drugs. Enter Ridger, offering a "special" drug that will make sure he never loses control unwillingly. As long as Ridger controls the drug, he controls the character.

• Different personalities, different powers. The Actor is telepathic, while the Machinist character has the more direct power of Pyrokinesis. This could lead to one or the other personality willingly giving up control in order to better handle a certain situation.

I was talking to Talen about some possible ideas, and eventually we came up with this. I think it's pretty nifty and I already have the name "Psi Havoc" save just for me. I even have some of the outfit design figured out

B's Input

I've come to settle on what concept my character is but the powersets are hard to match up. I've been sitting on the name Polymorph for a long time and this is a good time to finally use it. She'll be natural origin, as she is an alien being, found by Ridger and 'cultivated' into what she is now. Essentially she can take almost any form, and has latent psychic powers. A key to why she has captured the interest of Ridger is her ability to reproduce by budding - one which remains herself, the other which can take forms she has encountered before. Because she's never met another of her own race, she can't, unfortunately, make more Polymorphs.

Ridgers goal then? Have her introduced to as many mutations as possible, and force her to give birth to a plethora of beings that he can manipulate to his control. Carefully cultivated, Polymorph is an endless battery of new and more terrible mutations, one after the other.

Her powers are - at this point - Mind Control and Empathy. Fear powers involve her discovering her foes greatest terrors and morphing into them, and confusion is her altering herself into their allies. Others are simply forms of madness - flailing masses of tendrils and gibbering faces and eyes that send their foes mad briefly (dominate with the holding their head animation). For lack of any good secondary powers I've settled on Empathy - she can cause minor morphological changes in those nearby to her - healing, bolstering and otherwise aiding them.

She's not a hero or villain - she is manipulated by Ridger and her future is open to greater evil or redemption for her acts.

Here's my poor attempt to sign this thing...

Bunny Anomalous

ps: no to Maxim Force as the SG name!

Every team needs the token alien! (and there is a button above the text box for signing). --Eventide 05:19, 21 November 2008 (MST)

Pendix's Idea(s)

Hero Alias – Steel Deva

Real Name – Riley (maybe Betty) (no last name yet)

Merc Alias – Roughshot Riley (or Black Betty)

Archetype – Operator

A semi-independant international mecenary, Riley has a short, but impressive, carrer before being hired by Ridger. She fights using a hightech battlesuit which is a recent acquisition and also conceals her true identy while masqurading as a hero. Mechanically she would most likley be a Blaster, thou I'm not certain on Powersets yet.

Possible wrinkles – She is a big fan of hedging her bets, and will have a plan to bail if everything go south. Short Temper & proclivity towards violence. --Pendix

Looks like an Operator?