New Genesis Fame (Interest Check & Signups)

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• Roleplay

Straight to the point: New Genesis Fame can vaguely be considered Prototype meets inFamous concept/mechanics-wise. At the start of the Roleplay, an explosion goes off downtown- Which is quickly followed by a small speeding black shape ramming itself into people's chests and knocking them out.

Upon awaking up, they will quickly discover they now have a superpower derived from their personality. This is the first of many, as the thing that entered them is a Symbiote that is developing itself by studying people's minds- And in turn granting the host powers as it becomes more developed.

Thus, one's actions, beliefs and morality will greatly shape their powers. For example, say a Neutral has biology manipulating powers. Good means they'll become able to heal just about anything, while Evil means they could cause countless problems. However, say they believe Biology Manipulating means only mutating. Instead of being able to heal/hurt with a touch, they can basically perform status (de)buffs instead.

The initial plot, however, is the city becoming quarantined under the claim a very dangerous bioterrorist organization is there. Nobody can truly check with the outside world either, leaving them completely in the dark if that's true and what's happening outside. In addition to that, the Players and any other Hosts have to worry about two main factions: The Military and a group called Eldon, who were responsible for creating these Symbiotes. Both however tend to vary between killing the Hosts and capturing them.

Finally, a little more on how Symbiotes can develop. The rate of their development is in relation to the danger they're in, and the rate of development can be affected by the Host's personality as well (so a slothful person would have a slower rate of development while someone constantly vying for power would develop faster). In addition, by consuming live brains a Symbiote can temporarily study it and become stronger as a result.

On a last note, Hosts might become physically changed as their morality increases in one direction. Good Hosts change to resemble something they deem good or heroic, while Evil Hosts slowly become humanoid abominations. Anyways, here's the Application Format if anyone's interested.

• Character Name:
• Morality: (By their definitions of Good, Neutral, or Evil)
• Personality: (Very important)
• Beliefs: (Generally, elaborate on their beliefs behind their morality & personality in addition to random important to them things like magic or heroism)
• Starting Ability: (One "beginner-level" power, like electric bolts or enhanced regeneration for example, that also makes sense with their morality/personality/beliefs)
• Inventory: (Explain the odder things, like why a sixteen year old has military access cards, in the backstory)
• Backstory: (List everything else important, like the events of their life and how they became the person they are)

edited 8th Feb '15 11:22:53 PM by Kkutwar

Might reuse a character for this.

I would like to know where I can find this character so I can look over the original application. Besides that, I'll allow players to control any family members or friends their character has. Oh, and would anyone like me to write up a Character Sheet as an example?

Interest - just leaving this as a place holder.

• Name: Susie 'Q' Martin

• Gender: Female

• Appearance: This. Light brown hair, pale skin, light blue eyes. Vest and pants are dark brown, a little dusty and her black and white shoes are well scuffed.

• Morality: Neutral, leaning towards 'good' but doesn't really believe there is such a thing as good or evil in any strict sense. More a balance between helping other people and screwing them over, thus tends to a middle path - she has enough to worry about regarding her own wellbeing.

• Personality: Susie is an inherently anxious and often hyperactive individual, a compulsive fidget and strongly opposed to inaction. Unfortunately since puberty she has suffered from delusional parasitosis (Believing and even feeling parasites crawling under her skin) and other halucinations (auditory) - she has anti-psychotic medications to this end but the side effects are thoroughly unpleasant and 'Q' feels it hampers her creativity. Instead she tries to distract herself from these delusions and her own paranoias regarding other people using music, a promising student of its composition and performance.

• Despite her perceptional issues Susie is an intelligent woman and friendly when she can manage it albeit her emotions can be a little muted or skewed due to her schizophrenia. She enjoys sarcasm, humor and (secretly) puns as well as mixing grandiose and vulgar language for comedic effect.

• Beliefs: Susie is usually a little confused regarding what she really believes, not having the greatest faith in her own faculties but not willing to trust what others put there's into. However, she feels that leading a good life is about being happy and, if at all possible, making others happy. She sees 'higher powers' as just voluntary delusions, hence steering clear of such religions. When suffering an episode Q begins to feel and see parasites in her body and believes she got them from food and/or other people working for a secret 'true' government.

• Starting Ability: Parasitic generation - Her body can produce and release a variety of bizarre, symbiotic or parasitic... things, typically similar to insects or worm of variable size with nasty bites/stings. They may be directed by her will and used as another set of eyes.

• Inventory:
  • Motorbike: Old and simple but maneuvers well. Slightly rusted in places and much of its original white paint has rubbed off to reveal the rust kissed metal. Used mainly for quick travel or longer journeys

  • Helmet and Goggles

  • Notebook: Contains musical compositions, notes, random musings and things she doesn't remember writing.

  • Noise-cancelling Headphones

  • Smartphone: Contains nearly 4 GB of music.

  • Flat Key

  • Small kitchen knife

  • Small burlap backpack: To contain the above.

  • Flat contains a piano, cello and a few varieties of double bass. Basic bed and little furniture - most have been previously scribbled on in permanent marker. Has left her wallet ($50 and I Ds) under a cushion and her seroquel as well as other medication in the kitchen.

• Backstory: Susie Martin was born to a relatively normal and thoroughly secular family, the youngest and only girl of 3 siblings. Growing up she was a tad quirky and disorganised but nothing of any major worry to others, otherwise highly intelligent with an avid interest in music. She started piano lessons at 3 years old and cello at the start of high school, showing considerable talent in both and teaching herself double bass on a whim. When Q hit 17 her thoughts and speech became less organised but didn't have full blown schizophrenia triggered until the summer following high school graduation.

Susie rarely discusses the incident with anyone lacking a degree in psychology but the trauma was enough to derail her mind. With great care from her family she was able to overcome this and continue her life, enrolling in university and getting a flat downtown. The musician supported herself by tutoring and moonlighting with local bands. The quarantine has cut her off from these, however, and seeks to find a way out.

edited 8th Feb '15 3:48:45 PM by Lt.BGob

I'm interested, so here is this character sheet for your judgement.

Name: Gordon Jones

Morality: Good, or at least he tries

Personality: Gordon is fairly passive without strong motivation to do something. He has little if any filter between his thoughts and his words. He enjoys being sarcastic, and whatever he feels is felt strongly.

Beliefs: Gordon believes that you can only judge someone accurately by the context of circumstances and beliefs that define their choices. He considers empathy the cornerstone of conventional human morality. He hates mankind and loves individual people. He hates the idea that things can ever get irreversibly worse and believes that the responsible use of knowledge is the salvation of humanity. He thinks that happiness comes from making other people happy and that the proper thing for a person to do is work to make today better than yesterday and tomorrow better than today.

Starting Ability: Gordon can detect sources of danger to other people but only up to a minute in advance.

Inventory: A mobile phone, clothes, a sunhat

Backstory: Gordon had almost no human contact with anyone but his parents until high school. He filled the void with reading, the Internet, and music. When he did acquire friends, Gordon was prone to frequently saying and doing the wrong thing until he was able put together a system for how to talk to people without messing up. Even after several years of learning how to be part of the community of mankind, Gordon hasn't quite gotten used to talking to strangers without any obvious starting point. He has acquired nigh-encyclopediac knowledge of useless trivia due to spending the better part of twenty years with nothing else to do in his free time. That Gordon never broke is a miracle even he can't explain.

I admit I put a good bit of myself into this, I hope that's okay.

edited 1st Feb '15 7:59:09 PM by CrazyHerodotus

Yeah, Gordon seems acceptable, and I'm interested in knowing your general idea for how his abilities will grow.

I was thinking that he would develop mainly in the direction of helping other people with his own safety as an afterthought. Making shields that extend out from him, intuitive fighting ability activated by protective instinct, that sort of thing.

Definite interest. Will come up with a character in a couple of days. If his power was in the sensory area would it be limited to one sense at first and then spread out?

Well, they need the right mindness for the Symbiote to develop specific abilities. If they're blind and a Daredevil wannabe, that's one example for developing multiple sensory abilities. Then there's the question of what exactly you mean by sensory power. Enhanced senses? Or things like X-Ray Vision & Hybridized Senses?

Regarding Herodotus... Well, each Symbiote would have its own way of processing information to develop. So for the most part, I'll probably just let you guys decide how your abilities grow. Those also seem fine by the way.

Oh, this isn't necessary to mention (for now), but I would like to know your characters' idea of an Good and Evil entity. Can be anything, though should generally be considered their ultimate concept of Good and Evil (so one might think an Angel is ultimate Good, while another thinks Elven appearance would be that instead for example).

In answer to your question, Kkutwar, Gordon thinks the Good is someone who looks at the inherent lack of meaning in the world and responds by choosing to continue doing right by other people and the Evil is someone who looks at that same inherent meaninglessness and treats it as a license to be as selfish and uncaring as they want.

Gonna try and do my sheet tomorrow - I got side tracked and changed ideas part way through.

I might join later. This'd be nice.

Can anyone get in on this, it sounds awesome.

Character sheet for you to consider o3o

• Character Name: Yecotis (no other known name)

• Morality: Yecotis has almost no morals except for regards to the hunt. When hunting, he has a set of personal rules that he follows and nothing breaks this code. He sees himself as "Ultimate Good" in that evil is allowed to exist as long as it contributes to the greater good.

• Personality: Ax Crazy with a capital AAAAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Althoguh he can maintain an air of sanity it is just an illusion to lure his victims into false sense of security.

• Beliefs: Yecotis worships an insane vision he sometimes recieves called "Blastizatchowhitz". Yecotis thinks his murders, or "hunts" as he calls them, are divine mandate and that he is the patron saint of murder.

• Starting Ability: Yecotis can create brief but powerful hallucinations. So far they are only Visual illusions. This owes to his trickery, in letting people see only what he wants them to.

• Inventory: A butcher nife, a 9mm semiautomatic glock pistol, a mysterious orb (blatant macguffin), clothes.

• Backstory: Yecotis worked part-time for a group called "The Skyward Initiative". They were some sort of science research something built on top of a 20-year-old crater caused by an unknown object. It is situated outside the city in a vast expanse of isolated wilderness. Yecotis, performing his vague and ill-defined job, decides to break several security protocols and steal whatever it is that is being researched. This notion is a bolt from the blue to him, a random impulse he felt must be fulfilled. A small voice whispering in the dark, "Take it. They have no idea what they toy with." He abandons his post to do just that. He sets out to find the 'White Room', a high-security wing for those with top-level acces only. The lead researcher and the company CEO were the only ones that ever went into the White Room. He is surprised to find no one else in the faacility on his way to the White Room. He makes it to the central chamber and finds a mysterious orb in. Voices start shouting in his head and he takes the orb. Several alarms activate and he starts running in a random directions. Every now and then he would see a flicker of light in a hallway. A strange multicolored light. He decided to follow it and it lead him out of the facility. Once outside he starts running towards the city until he sees a massive explosion. He's pretty sure the shockwave was what knocked him out, but he also saw a dark shape speeding towards him at the same time.

• Appearance: Five feet and nine inches, 180lbs, medium length curly black hair, Hazel eyes (with a hint of red), slim build with some muscle, feminine hips, fox-like facial features, wears a black t-shirt, red hoodie with blue detailing, black converse sneakers with red detailing.

edited 10th Feb '15 6:43:13 PM by WolfAmongGods

@Wolf: You can't just introduce a MacGuffin. Though I do have new ideas churning in my head now. Still, you'll probably need to rewrite the bio. "Random impulse" "surprisingly little resistance" "escape somehow" isn't enough detail. I would also like to know why he's called Yecotis, if he has a last name, and if he specifically sees himself as Good or Evil.

@Gob: Looks good so far, I can see the Symbiote easily deciding to go with Parasitic Generation. Mostly because it thinks working with her parasitosis would be easy given its own nature.

I edited my char sheet. I mainly wanted the sphere in case I ever needed a deus ex machina, but if you ever want to do anything plot related with, who am I to stop you?

Requesting to come aboard, sir!

___________________________________

• Character Name: Martin Grayson
• Appearance: A Caucasian young man with disheveled brown hair and wearing a pair of glasses. He typically wears baggy fleece sweatshirts zipped up all the way.
• Morality: Good
• Personality: A kind, but unmotivated soul. Martin is very considerate of others, and genuinely enjoys being able to see others happy. He has difficulty motivating himself, which can cause him to appear lazy. He's actually fairly hardworking, and enjoys volunteering his time to help others, but has difficulty applying the same work ethic to his own benefit. He's a bit shy, but quickly opens up to people. He's very earnest, and straightforward, always attempting to be truthful and honest.
• Beliefs: Martin is a Christian, and takes the various aspects of his faith seriously. He believes in well-defined terms of good and evil, and strives toward goodness and light as much as possible. Martin believes strongly in the virtues of justice, fidelity, mercy and forgiveness. He idolizes tales of heroism and adventure, but dislikes violence in general, and is strongly opposed to killing.
• Starting Ability: Soothing Light- Martin can emit a clean, soft light from his body, or from an orb that appears within an inch of his hand. The light has a mild calming effect on those around it. Sight isn't a requirement for this effect, as the light seems to radiate pure warmth and kindness.
• Inventory: Clothes, wallet with $20 and a credit card, a very old cell phone good for little but making phone calls (which may or may not work in the quarantine zone), and a bicycle. All very ordinary. Objects of note in his apartment consist of a handful of game systems, a set of angelic figures inherited from his grandmother, a functional but relatively low spec laptop computer, and an imitation katana.

Backstory: Though born to a technically Christian family, Martin became more involved with his local church than his parents at a young age, much to his now late grandmother's delight. He was intelligent, and always got good grades in high school, but lacked motivation. He decided to leave college without much aim within the world after only attending for one year.

For the most part, he's been lazily living day to day, working at a comic store to pay for his living expenses while also volunteering with various groups whenever struck by the whim to do so. He's often shy, having difficulty making many friends and may be attempting to fill that void with the good works of his volunteer efforts.

Martin adores angelic imagery, and has been writing a comic about angelic knights, and warriors who fight for love and for justice! He secretly hopes to one day publish his comic, and to be able to share his ideals with the world.

edited 6th Feb '15 12:44:12 AM by Daecion

Approved Daecion, I'm definitely excited to see how his abilities develop.

Though Wolf, I would still like to know what's going on with his name. Even if it isn't known in universe, I would like to know why he lacks any additional names. You also can't call on a Deus Ex Machina at anytime.

Oh, by the way: Pretty much everyone is human. There's no alien lifeforms, so the mysterious orb for example would either be lost technology or something lost by another organization.

Well, Iwanted to avoid outright saying it, but Yecotis is an anagram of 'Society'. And fine, I guess the orb is some kind of lost technology. I'll do something fun with it, nothing game-breaking. That would be lame.

Very interested. Lemme just redo an old character to fit...

Name: Haile Selassie Addisu.

Morality: Neutral.

Personality: Haile is quick to make friends and is very loyal, since having a good group of friends is a key survival trait in the part of the city where he grew up. He tends to use a lot of slang and talks like he doesn't have a care in the world, which is more or less true.

Beliefs: Haile does what he wants, when he wants, which generally involves wandering the city and seeing what's going on. However, if he sees, for example, a mugging, he's going to do his damnedest to stop the mugging and get the victim's stuff back... Unless the victim is somebody he really dislikes, then he'll do the mugging himself. Note that in cases like this, Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil, so no matter how much he hates the victim, he will help them out.

Starting Ability: Haile can cover his fists in dark green energy, making his punches do more damage than they usually do, in addition to reinforcing them so they don't break as easily. This generally lasts for about 5 minutes, and if he concentrates, he can do the same for his feet, but the time limit is cut in half.

Inventory:

• Brass knuckles (gift from father; scuffed, but clean)
• Dark green Badass Longcoat with red trim (also a gift from his father; worn everywhere, everyday)
• $15 and change
• Old Nokia (found it on the ground, still working. Can only call & text)
• Gray t-shirt (worn under the longcoat; light gray with "Hawaii" on the front)
• Blue jeans (well-worn, with a few suspicious stains and some holes at the bottom and knees)
• Running shoes (worn with no socks, because all the ones Haile found were really gross. Tattered, black and neon green)

Backstory: Haile grew up in the bad side of town. The son of an Ethiopian army officer who was discharged when his legs were blown off and a woman his dad will say nothing about, Haile grew up on the streets, stealing and doing petty crime (and occasionally getting an actual job) to feed him and his disabled dad. He does have a bit of education, but far less than he should have at 17. Still, he counts himself lucky - a lot of his friends don't have parents, or at least not ones that actually take care of them. For Haile's 15th birthday, his father gave him his old set of brass knuckles, and a longcoat that his mother made for him, back in Ethiopia. Haile wears them both to this very day - useful intimidation tactic.

Appearance: 6' 2", African-American, hair at odds with his scruffy appearance; lovingly maintained in a giant afro.

Other: His father taught him Amharic, and he occasionally talks/swears in it just to freak people out. He's just short of fluent, though.

edited 8th Feb '15 10:35:45 AM by Tojin

Well that's odd, mind giving some context behind his name being an anagram for society? Though if it's alright with you, I would like complete control over what the Orb is. I have... plans for it. Such as it sharing important things with the Symbiotes.

By the way Gob, you're approved and can finish your bio whenever you can. Though do you or anyone else have some questions about the Symbiotes?

Sorry, didn't notice your application until after I posted Tojin, your character is approved. Hmm... Think I have enough players to start for now. In that case, the Roleplay will be up either later today or tomorrow. Been watching some old cartoons lately, like Danny Phantom.

edited 8th Feb '15 10:44:52 AM by Kkutwar

Cool. Should probably note that Haile's choice of slang involves a lot of Spanish, since his neighborhood had a lot of Mexicans. Should probably also note that his name is pronounced the same as "hail".

Sorry I haven't finished the bio, yet - real life has kept me busy. I'll get it done today and I can't wait to get this shindig started.

This is what I wanted to avoid -_-. See, Iwanted his name to be an anagram for Society because I wanted to be all like, "Man, Society sure is crazy as hell, ain't it?". And yeah, the orb can be your plaything.

So... He doesn't have a normal name then? Did he come up with the anagram pseudonym or is there more of a story to it? And, well, has he any notable personality aside from ax crazy?

Don't take my questions the wrong way, I'm just curious and I like villains with good motivations, even if they're nuttier than Mr. Peanut at a squirrel buffet. Perhaps especially then.