Assuming Normandy has no issues, you are accepted, and will be added to the list later when I get home and am not on a phone

• Main Character
  • Hei (a.k.a "Lee Shengshun," "The Black Reaper," and "BK-201")
  • Age: Approx. 24
  • Appearance: Does the Reaper dream of darkness darker than black?◊
  • Personality: Rational and efficient, Hei is one of the most skilled assassins the Syndicate has ever employed. He is incredibly manipulative and immerses himself in his passive, friendly, and physically pathetic alias Lee Shengshun. He loves to eat food and is a remarkably good chef in his spare time.
  • Powers: Aside from incredible physical prowess, Hei has a Contractor ability that allows him to electrocute anything he touches. This ability also applies to indirect electrocutions by using water or metal as a conduit. Hei can control the amount of electricity he releases, so he can damage his targets or just knock them out.
  • Equipment: A bulletproof black coat and a mask compose his typical Black Reaper attire. He has a utility belt that holds a flexible chord with metal weaved into the stands that he uses as a grappling device for getaways and long-range electrocutions. His weapon of choice is a large dagger.◊
  • History: When his little sister Pai became a Contractor, Hei followed her into the dark side of world's politics and became one of the most formidable killers in the now infamous Contractor War. Hei's kill streak was so impressive that he was dubbed The Black Reaper, even though he was just an ordinary human. Along with a handful of others, Hei is one of the only survivors of the Heaven's Gate incident, where a large chunk of South America inexplicably vanished from existence. Even though he lived to tell the tale, it looks like Pai did not. Still, Hei has dedicated his deadly skill and his newly awakened Contractor abilities to search for his little sister.

• Supporting Cast
  • Misaki Kirihara
  • Age: Mid thirties (?)
  • Appearance: Reporting for duty◊
  • Personality: Misaki is the definition of a workaholic. She focuses almost exclusively on her detective work, which makes her appear ultra-serious. Since her father is Tokyo's Chief of Police, Misaki feels that she needs to embody the perfect police officer. She loves junk food, and by some miracle she never seems to gain weight.
  • Powers: Leadership, intuition, skill with a firearm, and amazing metabolism.
  • Equipment: A badge, a police car, and a handgun. She also has plenty of access to Tokyo's police force up to some of the highest levels.
  • History: Misaki Kirihara is the only daughter of Tokyo's Chief of Police and is the chief of Section Four of the city's Department of Foreign Affairs. This position exposes Kirihara to the hidden world of Contractors that very few people are allowed to know. She has recently taken a considerable interest in the mysterious Contractor known by his star number: BK-201.

  • Yin:
  • Age: Approx. 13
  • Appearance: A heart unswaying on the water's surface...◊
  • Personality: Emotionless and robotic, just like all Dolls.
  • Powers: Yin can create spectral projections that extend her senses to any nearby body of water. These "specters" act just like eyes and ears, and are invisible to ordinary humans.
  • Equipment: None
  • Backstory: Yin has always been blind, but she hasn't always been a Doll. As a preteen, a new star sparkled into the night sky and Yin lost all traces of her bubbly personality. She had become a Doll, and was therefore abducted by the government and ultimately employed by the Syndicate to assist The Black Reaper on missions.

  • Mao
  • Age: Middle-aged (he's in the body of a cat of a similar age)
  • Appearance: Meow!◊
  • Personality: Incredibly cautious, and therefore nervous under any amount of pressure. Like most Contractors, Mao follows the self-preservation rule above almost anything, even the lives of his allies. He has a soft spot for Yin.
  • Powers: Mao's Contractor ability allows him to possess the body of any animal he can make eye contact with. The amount of time he can spend in any particular body depends on his ability to remain conscious (will he accidentally run it into a wall?) and his access to Syndicate software that will keep his animal instincts in check. His signature black cat host has a tiny chip on its left ear to download this software into his brain, allowing him to stay as a cat indefinitely. Since his original body was destroyed, Mao does not have to pay a price for his Contract ability.
  • Equipment: The chip that's explained above, and a tiny bell on his collar. Also within the collar is a communication device so he can talk with his allies.
  • Backstory: Mao lost his human body while on a mission, and now lives permanently as a cat. He has joined Hei's group as a scout and master of disguise.

  • Amber
  • Age: Appears to be in her early teens
  • Appearance: Memories of betrayal in an amber smile...
  • Personality: Amber is an enigma to most. She acts a lot like a girl with a bubbly personality, but her attitude towards others (especially Hei) belong to someone much older, almost motherly. She knows much more than she tells, and seems to be one of the only people in Hell's Gate Tokyo who understands what's really going on. That being said, even she doesn't know how to best react to Battleworld.
  • Powers: In Darker Than Black, Amber's Contractor ability is to manipulate time at the price of growing younger. Even I realize that's way too powerful in an RP environment, so I'm saying that Amber lost her Contractor abilities when Tokyo was transported to Battleworld; perhaps The Cure realized it would be a nuisance and has permanently blocked it. That leaves Amber with considerable combat experience (although not necessarily with a body this young) and plenty of resources as leader of the Evening Primrose.
  • Equipment: I suppose you could consider her right and left-hand associates/bodyguards as her equipment, since they're the ones who would be doing most of the fighting. Her closest confidant is a big red-haired Contractor named Amagiri. He can project concussive blasts from his palms at the cost of eating a hard-broiled egg. Amber's other associate is a blonde woman named Brita, whose Contractor ability is teleportation at the cost of a kiss. For the RP, I will limit her abilities to only places she has traveled to in person; she can't just pop up in Shao Kahn's throne room without having any sense of its space or architecture because she'll probably reappear partially in a column and get torn in half. Another important note about Brita's ability is that she cannot teleport clothing, so everyone she brings with her (no matter the distance) will reappear naked. She's completely fine with that side effect, by the way.
  • Backstory: Amber is one of a handful of survivors of the Heaven's Gate incident, along with Hei and (supposedly) his sister Pai. According to Amber, she used her abilities so much in the Contractor War that she watched her friends (Hei and Pai included) die dozens of times before she could get everything right. This has given her a powerful sense of responsibility to protect everyone she can, especially Contractors and Dolls. She is the leader and founder of the Evening Primrose, a Contractor terrorist organization demanding equal rights to Contractors and Dolls, who are currently not even known by the general public. Amber firmly believes that Contractors and Dolls are just as human as the rest of the world, even though everyone else believes them to be strictly rational killers and tools, incapable of human feelings.

  • April (and July)
  • Age: Late Twenties (about 10)
  • Appearance: Aren't the three of them just precious?◊
  • Personality: April is very chill and happy-go-lucky overall, but she is incredibly protective of July. As a Doll, July does not have much of a personality, much like Yin. Both of them are very fond of November 11.
  • Powers: April is an agent of MI 6, which means she has extensive marksmanship and close combat training. As a Contractor, April can collect all of the moisture in the air to have it plummet to the ground in a torrent of rain. April's price for her contract is to drink alcohol, which she thoroughly enjoys. July can produce observational specters from glass objects such as windows. Like Yin's specters, these projections cannot be seen by normal humans.
  • Equipment: Aside from a handgun and access to MI 6 resources, April doesn't have anything really worth noting. July has nothing significant on his person.
  • Backstory: April and July were assigned to accompany November 11 because their abilities compliment his. April is the perfect partner for November 11's abilities since she can provide a virtually infinite supply of water for him to solidify. July is the group's surveillance expert, and his power to observe through glass makes him very effective in urban environments.

• Chunk
  • ''Hell's Gate Tokyo''
  • Description and Locations: Basically the capital city of Japan as it is today, although a massive wall has been constructed that separates a big bite out of it. Inside the gate is an inhospitable Hellscape (no pun intended, sorry!) that refuses to listen to the laws of physics. Other important landscapes include the Observatory, a massive collection of Dolls connected to the same brainwave, which allows the Department of Internal Affairs to track and monitor suspects through virtually undetectable specters. But the greatest perk of the Observatory is also the most obvious: it monitors the sky. Why is this so important, you may ask? Well, in the world of Darker than Black, the Earth's stars suddenly disappeared the same time that a large portion of Tokyo and the sea surrounding it (along with a large portion of South America). What replaced the stars were a massive collection of pseudo-stars that directly relate to a Contractor or Doll's powers. Whenever a Contractor or Doll uses his/her power, the star related to him/her shines. In addition, every death of a Contractor or Doll is connected to the disappearance of a star. This is the Observatory's main purpose: to monitor every Contractor and Doll on the planet. Of course, now that Hell's Gate Tokyo has been transported to Battleworld, the regular stars (or whatever's regular for Battleworld) have returned and the Observatory has been rendered slightly more efficient than the city's security system.
  • Specialties: You might've noticed that I've been talking a lot about Contractors and Dolls. Put simply, these are human beings who have inexplicably gained supernatural abilities. But these powers come with a price. For Contractors, these powers are only useable when a specified price is paid. These prices can vary from singing a simple tune to breaking one's own fingers, but they always must be performed after the Contractor's power is used, otherwise (according to rumors) the Contractor will die in a horrific way. Dolls have an even worse deal: they lose all traces of their personality and memories of their past lives. Contractors can have a wide variety of powers, but all Dolls only have the ability create monitoring specters through a specific medium (like water or glass).
  • Government: The government of Hell's Gate Tokyo tries to keep the existence of Contractors and Dolls a secret from the public. A new memory erasing technology (called M.E.) allows the government to abduct those who have witnessed a Contractor's power in action and return them without any memory of the event. No world power in Darker than Black acknowledges that they use Contractors and Dolls as federal agents, even though it's pretty clear that they all do. An international covert operation led hundreds of Contractors to battle each other in the area surrounding Heaven's Gate in South America, in what is secretly known as the Contractor's War. The conclusion of the Contractor's War was nothing short of disastrous: somehow, the entire Heaven's Gate area was erased from existence—nobody can even fly a plane over it. When the leaders of Hell's Gate Tokyo discover that their city has been transported to Battleworld, they will undoubtedly believe that the same event that triggered Heaven's Gate's disappearance has happened at Hell's Gate.
  • The Syndicate: The Syndicate is an enigmatic organization that seems to flourish off of the Contractor and Doll conflict. They seem to work both with and against the government, but their ultimate goal appears to be the complete eradication of all Contractors and Dolls. They want to go back to a world where humans ruled, even if it means using Contractors and Dolls to reach that goal.
  • Population: Most of the population of Hell's Gate Tokyo is composed of normal human beings. There is a very effective police force, but aside from that not many people have any effective ways of defending themselves. That leaves the real line of defense to the Contractors.

edited 20th Aug '15 10:22:01 AM by TheodoreHastings

Two things.

Hei-Afraid the electricity's gonna need a heavy nerf, as in it's current form it amounts to an insta kill touch against anyone not resistant to it. he can still have the ability, but he'll only be able to damage targets with it, not kill. I'll allow the knockout, but it'll require an extended touch to implement and not be something he can do on the fly.

November 11-I don't have a problem with the ability for the most part. However, I feel that blood freeze may be a little too much, as it sounds to me like he can freeze someone's blood completely soon as he gets an open wound to work with. The blood freeze may need to go, but he can retain it on most other fluids.

I can definitely tone down those powers. I guess I focused too much on the show to think how it would work in an RP. My bad! ^_^;

This is why I am here, quietly holding a nerfbat behind me to whack peoples signups with.

Anyway, since you've agreed to said limitations, you are accepted

Glorious! Looking forward to it!

I have no issue with Decepticons joining in. It should be interesting, considering they're both from lighter continuities with a bit of overlap. Indeed, in both continuities, the Decepticons are decentralised, on their back feet and clawing their ways back to the top, so it should be interesting to see.

It helps that the Transformers franchise has a massive precedent for multiversal shenanigans.

edited 11th Aug '15 3:36:46 AM by SR3NORMANDY

here we go

• Main Character
  • Name: Caesar
  • Age: Just about 18
  • Appearance: "Show."◊ / "APES! DO NOT WANT...WAR!"
  • Personality: Caesar is a natural born leader and an ape who puts the well being of his people above all else. He possesses respect towards humans as the accompanying sentient race. However, a deep-seated resentment for the events of his past pave the way for a subtle, but none too harmless belief that apes are morally superior to humans, and that they can do better as a species. To sum up; Caesar will point to peace as the first option, and ally himself with humans, however, his wariness of humanity and their actions remains.
  • Powers: Being a hundred pound chimpanzee, Caesar is possessive of strength worthy of the deadliest creatures of the animal kingdom. He possesses the agility of a chimpanzee as well, allowing him great flexibility and the ability to traverse a variety of areas with ease. But what sets him apart is his intelligence. Caesar is capable not only of leading a small civilization to prosperity, but is a growing expert in tactical warfare. He is usually the first on the front lines; leading his fellow apes into battle.
  • Equipment: Caesar typically doesn't carry much with him. When going into battle, however, he prepares himself with elaborate war paint to appear more intimidating. His favored weapons, as with many other evolved apes, are makeshift tools, such as spears made from sharpened rocks and branches. Caesar and his fellow apes also keep stables of horses around, providing them their main source of long distance transportation.
  • Backstory: Born from a lab experiment, Caesar's mother was exposed to the highly specialized drug ALZ-112, which greatly increased her intelligence. This trait was passed onto him. After a frightening mishap which involved the death of his mother, the higher-ups were preparing to exterminate every chimpanzee they had in their lab. Caesar, still a baby, and having only recently been born (just before his mother's death), was smuggled out by one of the only scientists who actually cared for the animals, and placed in the care of the inventor of ALZ-112, Will Rodman. Caesar thought of Will as his adoptive father, but a series of traumatizing incidents led to Caesar being placed in a chimpanzee shelter, where he was abused. Unwilling to take any more mistreatment, he hatched a plan to expose his fellow apes to ALZ-113, a similar drug, granting them sentience like his. Together, they made their escape and formed a home deep in the woods.

• Supporting Cast
  • Name: Koba
  • Age: Mid 20's
  • Appearance:"Caesar. You know I would do whatever you asked...◊ but we must show strength!"◊
  • Personality: Having lived his entire life as a lab experiment, tortured and tested on by greedy humans, Koba is very bitter of humanity, much more than his simply distrustful brethren. His loyalty to Caesar is held fast by the fact that Caesar had rescued him and allowed him an avenue to take revenge on humanity. Beneath his fragile faith in Caesar, lies a sadistic, cruel ape, hardened by his unholy past. As Caesar makes peace with other human-based chunks, Koba begins to rethink his loyalties.
  • Powers: Koba is an evolved bonobo, ironically, a species of ape usually known for being more peaceful and less rambunctious than chimpanzees. Despite the difference in species, his abilities match Caessar's, though he lacks Caesar's cleverness in battle.
  • Equipment: Same as Caesar.
  • Backstory: A bonobo being experimented on by the same company that helped Will Rodman create ALZ-112, Koba was eventually rescued by Caesar during his initial rebellion. In the ensuing battle, Caesar allowed Koba to personally kill the CEO who was responsible for his sufferings. A decade passes, and Koba has become one of Caesar's closest lieutenants.

• Supporting Cast
  • Name: Maurice
  • Age: Estimated mid 20's to early 30's
  • Appearance: "Apes stupid."◊
  • Personality: Maurice is a gentle individual, sensitive to his environment and the knowledge he takes in on a daily basis. Though his fellow apes retain a hot tempered aura about them, Maurice remains calm and collected most of the time. He is open to new ideas and perspectives, making him one of the apes most likely to trust humans after spending enough time with them, the good ones at least.
  • Powers: Maurice is one of few apes whose intelligence seems to truly match Caesar's, and it shows as a hunger for knowledge. Despite his status as an intellectual, Maurice is a force to be reckoned with when angered. Though possessive of a more lumbering stance, his flexibility matches Caesar's, and his strength exceeds Caesar's.
  • Equipment: Same as Caesar, though Maurice's build doesn't suit him well to horse riding.
  • Backstory: At a young age, Maurice was a perfoming orangutan at a circus, astonishing the audience with his mastery of sign language and communication. Eventually, he'd found himself in the same ape shelter as Caesar, where he was similarly abused. After being freed and participating in Caesar's rebellion, Maurice became the intellectual and teacher of Caesar's Ape Colony.

• Supporting Cast
  • Name: Blue Eyes
  • Age: About 5
  • Appearance: "Father...let...me...help you."
  • Personality: An ape who's just reached adolescence, Blue Eyes possesses a rebellious, pouty personality typical of teenagers. Though his father expects great things of him as the heir to the Colony, Blue Eyes spends more time disagreeing with his father. Like Caesar, he possesses the capability to be a great leader, but is brasher and more stubborn, clear indicators of his youth.
  • Powers: Same as Caesar.
  • Equipment: Same as Caesar.
  • Backstory: Born to Caesar and Queen Cornelia, Blue Eyes was named so after the odd coloration of his eyes for a chimpanzee. Caesar raised him to be his heir, even granting him a place in the Council of Apes; resulting in Blue Eyes being adept in survival, hunting and leadership. Blue Eyes has been treasured by the Colony as the only child of their leaders, which changes when news comes of Cornelia being pregnant with Caesar's second child.

• Supporting Cast
  • Name: Rocket
  • Age: Estimated 18-early 20's
  • Appearance: "I follow Caesar."◊
  • Personality: While exuding a burly aura, indicative of his thuggish past, Rocket is one of Caesar's most trusted Lieutenants and a member of the Council of Apes. His loyalty to Caesar knows few equals, and his dedication to him is such that he would follow him to the end. He and Caesar share a friendship that is not unlike a bond between brothers.
  • Powers: Same as Caesar.
  • Equipment: Same as Caesar.
  • Backstory: A chimpanzee who originated from the ape shelter Caesar was briefly trapped in. Formerly a bully who harassed other apes into submission, he was eventually beaten and humbled by Caesar's guile and intellect. Upon being exposed to ALZ-113, Rocket joined Caesar's rebellion and eventually went on to be Caesar's second-in-command, and one of his most trusted.

• Supporting Cast
  • Name: Luca
  • Age: Unknown
  • Appearance: "HWOOOOOOOOOOAAAAGH!"
  • Personality: Tough, but boisterous, Luca brings an optimistic passion to his role as the guardian of the gates of the Ape's colony. Like many other apes, he shows loyalty to Caesar through his dedication to defending the apes' home. Of the apes, he is one of the first who'd put his own skin on the line to save another.
  • Powers: Luca possesses the terrifying strength one would expect of an ape of his stature. He's extremely tough, even for a gorilla. It is not as though he can't feel pain, but he's very good at withstanding it.
  • Equipment: Same as Caesar.
  • Backstory: One of many apes freed by Caesar, Luca partook in the Ape Rebellion and survived. He was eventually appointed a position as the fourth-in-command of the Ape Army (behind Maurice, Rocket and Caesar himself) and the leader of the Gorilla Guardians, meant to defend the gates of their colony.

• Supporting Cast
  • Name: Cornelia
  • Age: Unknown
  • Appearance: "You worry about the humans."
  • Personality: Kind, compassionate, and loving, Cornelia provides Caesar the familial support he needs to bolster his leadership. Though gentle and innocent to the point of being almost childlike, Cornelia possesses a subtle sheen of pride in her personality. In the past, she and Caesar had come to blows over their views.
  • Powers: Though Cornelia doesn't fight often, she's still a chimpanzee, and is possessive of similar strength and agility to Caesar. She is particularly skilled in the art of healing, and often applies her medicinal knowledge to aid apes in need.
  • Equipment: Same as Caesar.
  • Backstory: Having been born in the wild, but eventually being captured and put into the same ape shelter as Rocket and Maurice, Cornelia joined Caesar's Ape Rebellion after being freed from captivity. Though she and Caesar disagreed more than a few times, they both grew an admiration of one another, which eventually became their romance. When Battleworld occurs, Cornelia will be currently pregnant with her second child.

• Chunk
  • Name of the World: Ape Home
  • Description: Surrounded by dense woods, the village the apes call 'Home' is formed from caves and huts of leaves and bark. Mostly vertical in nature due to the apes' affinity for climbing, Ape Home provides sanctuary for the apes, who leave only occasionally to hunt. Between the village and the woods are the gates, patrolled by the Gorilla Guardians.
  • Contents/Locations: Past the gates and the Gorilla Guardians lies several huts that serve as the apes' homes, followed by one hut higher than the rest that serves as home for Caesar and the Ape Royal Family. There are also caves, and on the walls of the caves and small hills are drawings and engravings, which serve as Maurice's 'blackboard' of sorts when he teaches the younger apes.
  • Specialties: Surrounding Ape Home is a dense forest, where flora and fauna of many kinds prosper, from tiny harmless flies and frogs to vicious bears. Other than that, there are no special rules applying to the chunk.
  • Population: Growing to a population of 2000 apes of a variety of species in 10 years, the apes of Home spend their days hunting, expanding their homes and learning new things. Very receptive to Caesar's views and very loyal to him, they follow Caesar's rule and word to the end. However, they remain distrustful and disdainful of humans, no doubt to their past experiences or from stories of their leaders being kept in captivity and either mistreated or experimented on. The apes communicate with each other through sign language, but are capable of speech when they get particularly excited, or if they encounter humans.

edited 11th Aug '15 11:29:59 AM by LatverianBadger

No issues here. You are accepted.

A primer on Dresden Files magic system!

So, this universe has a bigass magic system. I'm going to be giving a basic overview before I dive into my actual sign up, as well as to clear out any issues at a broader level. Plus, unlike harry potter it's impossible to list out each and every usage of magic that dresden and friends have access to, so instead I'm giving out an explanation as to how things work, the natural rules pretty much all magic must abide by, and then later I'll include in some specifics on what the PC's specialize in.

Also: If someone is reading this and actually know their Dresden Files and spots something wrong, do lemme know. 15 books worth of information — with some of that info being very vague — was a lot to try and keep track of, I probably got something mixed up somewhere.

Oooooooooh boy. Where do I start...by copy pasting something from the wiki, of course.

So there's an intro. Like the good wiki said. Magic is DF is a combination of faith, intention, energy, and conviction. To cast a spell, first a wizard must collect energy. A spell can be powered from many different things — firstly, himself, physically. Most magic casting will eventually begin to tire you out unless you find an alternate source of energy, and is magic's main limiter for most practitioners. However, it's not just physical energy specifically that powers magic — it's emotion, will, and conviction that fuel a spell, with the tiring body being taken from beneath it once those aspects become drained. Basically what that means is that normally, let's say, it could take a wizard to their knees to cast one fire spell ^* A weak ass wizard, mind. If that wizard was suddenly filled with righteous fury and conviction, that wizard will be able to cast one very strong fire spell before going to their knees, if you see what I mean. There's still a limit, but things such as emotion and belief empower magic. You're still going to tire if you're just drawing energy from yourself to enact the magic, but your spells will be more powerful if you're giving it a your emotional all as well. So, in the RP, you might see a wizard's battle performance go up if you severely piss them off in the middle of the fight, for one example. The relationship between energy and emotion in terms of spell output is unfortunately a little unclear in the books, but for simplicity's sake just go with 'wizard has super surge of emotion = next spell will be tougher than normal'.

Next, the wizard must shape the spell once energy is collected. For magic to work, the practitioner must perfectly envision what exactly the spell is going to do, how the magic is going to do so at a fundamental level, and keep it all perfectly straight in their heads while casting. Most wizards are going to be experts at things like perception and clarity of thought and focus, due to this — first thing all apprentices really have to learn is how to keep a still image of their surroundings in their heads in photorealistic memory. For relatively simple spells, this isn't a problem. You can still technically cast without really having a clear idea of what you want to happen, but things could go haywire if one chooses to do so.

Finally there's releasing the spell. You've built up the energy, formed the spell in your head, now you have to aim it at your target and choose how the spell shall be released. Can't really give too many general details on this particular step — the how's depend on how the practitioner will want the spell to actually work — but it's not really a complex step either way.

A couple general notes before I begin going into detail —

magic is based on belief, in terms of its interaction with most physical materials. So if I carve a magical shield charm out of wood, it's going to be less effective than a magical shield charm made out of steel. It's actually completely arbitrary, it's just that to the practitioner, steel is better for defense than wood, so the steel forms a stronger shield. This explains a couple of odd choices wizards do, like harry's magic charm being made out of a dozen different metals for a dozen different defenses. The other important note is that, while magic can bend reality in certain ways, it still has to operate on the fundamental laws of the universe like the rest of us. Conservation of energy, momentum, etc etc, they're all still in play...a wizard can manipulate them in weird ways by absorbing energy and momentum into specifically crafted charms, but it's not actually disappearing, just being taken for something else. Something can't come from nothing, is another one.

In terms of limiting factors on magic, it's energy and complexity that determine what a wizard can and cannot do. Hurling a blast of fire at you, throwing some force at you, conjuring some ice and using force to hurl that at you? Combat spells a wizard can do. Pinpointedly ripping your heart out with force and killing you instantly and undodgeably? Nah, that'd take a ridiculous amount of concentration and mental fortitude — not so much power, but no one has the brains to do that without sitting there and putting the spell together in their head for an hour or so, with the target standing stock still and helpfully providing a diagram of their ribcage to the caster...guess it's technically possible then but that's a pretty unlikely scenario all told. And you can't cause everything within 30 feet of you to instantly incinerate, that'd take a ridiculous amount of energy, if not mental fortitude, to give some concrete examples out to help illustrate what I mean.

Also, when it comes to energy collection

There are various sources that a wizard can draw on to power his spells:

• Himself. Every wizard has a degree of personal strength—some more and some less—representing the strength of his belief in himself and the magic he can work. Typically, this is represented by the wizard’s Conviction skill.

• Willing magical creatures such as spirits, demons, fae, or other magical creatures who can lend their magical power.

• Unwilling magical creatures; the deliberate sacrifice of humans or animals. Nasty stuff, but can be great batteries if you don't mind the whole ritualistic sacrifice thing.

• Objects that store power that can be tapped for later use; items that are very potent in some way, like religious relics.

• The environment, drawn from natural sources such as the elements which make up reality (fire, air, earth, water) or actual raw power in nature (storms, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc.).

• Powerful emotions in others — one wizard partially powered some spells by absorbing the amount of lust generated by some people's orgy nearby. Was a rather odd day.

• Outside reality. This is invariably dark, corrupt, and likely to utterly taint and destroy the wizard using it. Probably would do nothing in battleworld anyway.

Basic ways magic is cast and transmitted:

There are two broad types of magic in The Dresden Files:rituals and evocation. Basically, ritual and complex magics — the former — and more quick and dirty magics — the latter, typically for combat.

Thaumaturgy is one huge area of ritual magic and deserves its own note here. operates by creating magical links between objects. It operates over greater distances and with more precision, but is more time consuming and requires a conduit to the target - usually a physical sample. These spells are typically what are employed in rituals. For instance, let's say I want to give someone lethally bad luck — I need to collect a piece of them — hair, blood, etc — in order to actually aim this spell at them unless they are in sight and I can just point and them and go 'that guy right there'. Rituals take a lot of time, usually, so most of the time the wizards use Thaumaturgy to aim the spell. Thamaturgy is also what powers things like voodoo dolls (very depowered in this RP, by the way, if I ever use anything like that — I wouldn't even know where to begin setting the damn things up since they're never used in series). How a magical link is formed is usually by either an extremely close connection — like the blood of a close relative — or by taking something that's a piece of a greater whole and using it to enact magic on the other pieces, like...silly putty that was pulled into separate globs. For all intents and purposes, consider the school of magical object connections to be mainly used as a magical aiming system. Applications of this include working magic over long distance with separated parts of a whole, aiming a spell at someone over long range if say I get some of their blood, and some weirder ideas like using someone's hair to track them over long distance.

Evocation is loud, flashy, instantaneous, and often destructive. It works on its target directly without the need for a link, and can be performed quickly, but has limited range(line of sight) and is generally more difficult to wield with precision. This type of magic is what is mainly used in direct combat situations. The ability to use it without ritual allows more focus on combat than anything else. It usually works best with a physical focus depending on the skills of the wizard such as a staff or specially crafted cane, to help with the whole 'properly envision the spell in your mind' thing with the focuses taking a lot of the mental complexity down. While it takes a while to learn a new evocation, it has the advantage of being able to be used on the fly. It draws directly from the wizard's will and is turned loose without much benefit of a guide or limit. It is dangerous and difficult so not used for genuinely complex spells. So for application, this is what the wizards will use in combat most of the time — quick and dirty spells that aren't usually super complex, like throwing fireballs at you, opening holes in the ground, freezing the ground, etc etc. You can't generally make them TOO powerful because most of the time you don't have the time to get a secondary source of energy for your spells, unlike rituals.

Rituals to explain in a bit more detail are spells of longer casting that tend to involve more delicate weaving's of magic over larger areas than mere evocation spells. These are where magic can get really weird, such as giving you shit tier bad luck. It's also where things tend to get more powerful, as you have time beforehand to build up a lot of magical energy and shape it in your mind than having to do it immediately. So if you give a wizard a lot of time and a way to target someone with a spell — usually with thaumaturgy — they can do some pretty meaty spells vs just throwing a fireball at you, though it's still ultimately limited by how able you are to form complex spells in your mind. Splitting the work among multiple people can help.

ANYWAY

that's the generals of magic, how it's collected, how it's formed, and the ways you can aim and fire it from rituals to magical links to evocations.

Now, for more specifics, there are about a dozen schools of magic in dresden files — schools for air manipulation, divining the future (not used here), ghost magic, magic of mineral manipulation, magic of illusions, water, force, necromancy, mind reading, mind control, sound, fire, actual mental illusions, earth magic, alchemy, transfiguration, and a few other elemental manipulation schools. It's very wide, I know. What I'm going to do is give you, in the PC list below, what schools they specialize in with more detail on their actual specific abilities. On a universal level, in combat expect wizards to mostly use elemental magic and other direct-to-damage magics, with some illusionary magic thrown in for a couple wizards. Oh, and of course, as a general rule anything that can allow godmodding or other unpleasantness will be at the very least resistible

Other info:

• Usage of physical guides: Wizards tend to use a lot of foci in their magics. Harry for example carries a blasting rod and a general purpose staff around, both very intractably carved with magic runes to help him with casting. The rod is laced with runes to both focus and help give strength to his offensive blasts, while the staff is more general purpose and has runes to help with anything from magic detection to wind manipulation to cracking mouthy yahoos in the face with. Focus's are different from charmed materials in that Focus's don't usually actually hold active magic (though their carved runes obviously hold passive magic) so can't unleash spells on their own and are more for channeling magic, while charmed items actually hold spells in them to be activated, such as a magical guard system on your door to make it blow outward if something grabs its handle. Both types of usage of physical materials are quite hard to produce, wizards have to work for days or sometimes even more than a week to carve out effective materials. Also, you can craft defensive charms into items — harry’s duster is fireproof, bulletproof, knifeproof, acts as an extreme inhibitor to blunt damage, and a few other things, for example. Wizards are like batmen — you don’t generally want to give them time to prepare for a fight, give them a week and they’ll carve some very impressive armor up. It takes a good few days, still, so you can’t just make new gear on the fly and even the best of magical defenses can be overpowered without too much effort because it doesn’t really have an active powersource — none of that 'anti everything ever' bullshit, at least without it being crackable with a couple good swings from the opponent — but they’ll still usually come in carrying a lot of annoying resistances.

Alchemy

Potion making is a thing — things get really weird here too, like changing your form, making yourself super fast for a while, making love potions, healing potions, invisibility potions, floating potions, good luck potions...they all need a pretty diverse set of ingredients though, so I doubt it’ll really get used much in battleworld. For the potions they will wind up making...honestly this school isn’t elaborated worth shit on in universe, so I’ll just bring em up for approval as they come.

A brief note on the wizards themselves and how they generally fight

Wizards are very conniving and dynamic in ability — that batman comparison wasn’t made in jest. They are generally tough, but ultimately outclassed in a lot of fights — they know that, so they don’t tend to fight fairly, and when they do fight they focus on combining their abilities for great tactical effect. For example, someone coming running at you like you’re a freaking servant from nasuverse,, ready to kill you with a finger poke? That’s k — just use a force spell to knock em up into the air when they get close, then shoot them in the air while they’re helpless to dodge with a stream of superheated gas. Boom, a physically human wizard armed with a couple not-so-intensive spells just killed something that’s 10x faster and stronger than he was → that’s how wizards try to fight. It’s not about how powerful a spell is, it’s about how you use it. They also tend to be pretty learned on magical enemies, at least the combat mages, and DF has a MASSIVE library of magical enemies. So, they probably won’t be taken completely off guard by most of the enemies they encounter in battleworld...if they’re fantasy-esque enemies at least — the local giant robots are going to be a big surprise, there's no codex for dealing with those. Despite how the magic system sounds and how the examples probably make you worry how powerful wizards are, truth be told they’re not THAT hard to kill — wizards still struggle against simple things like modern firearms in scraps, and there’s not much that’s undodgeable or instant kill unless you let them have access to your blood or a super good magical energy source. The biggest danger with wizards is that they’re smart, they’re usually very knowledgeable, they fight dirty, and they tend to be versatile. On a brief note, they’re not much better than normal people physically, but they ARE noted to be very long lived and can heal from wounds that no human would ever be able to. Not heal FASTER than a normal person, but heal better, which is probably why they’re very long lived. Don’t think that’ll affect the RP though, unless someone’s plans relies on the wizards being crippled for life and then suddenly those plans get blown open when an IC year later the wizards show up with the ability to move their limbs again.

Other trivia

Circles are very common magical tools — they cut off stray magical energy and more powerful circles can even be used to block powerful magical strikes and cut off thaumaturgy links, as the inside and outside of the circle become magically isolated. Forming pentagrams works even better — chalked circles, actual carvings in the ground,, sometimes a mental construct if you’re super good, etc. These are a wizard’s primary defenses against ritual magics — the more powerful it is though the more likely it is to overwhelm a mere circle — as well as their way of imprisoning magical beings.

They tend to be sensitive to magical systems and are quite good at studying it— because DF wizards tend to understand magic at a fundamental level, they also will probably possess the ability to study and come to understand the magic systems of other’s chunks if you let them stick around, like magic scientists. Their first actions IC, for example, will probably be to begin to analyse the magic of battleworld itself in an attempt to figure out how to subvert it. There are very few times where they won’t be able to detect magic at all from other verses on a universal level, if they have magic there.

Wizards have the ability to open a door in the world’s physical plane and step into any magical plane beyond it — at home, this is used to travel between the magical world and the mortal world. Here, it probably won’t do much, but it depends on each chunk and if they have any similar setups to that. Also can probably use that ability to escape from a transdimensional prison if someone tries to encase them in one, at least if it’s magically powered in nature. This kind of ability also allows them to summon magical creatures using magic circles, if there are any that can be summoned...um, probably won’t do anything here either as there’s no magic world to summon creatures from, but again depends on the specific chunk and if it has magical summonable monsters from the beyond. Though they probably won’t wanna try if it’s a foreign environment, shit can get scary.

Wizards don’t use mirrors — magic baddies can use them as entrances. Big no no

Technically names can be used for thaumaturgy links, but fuck that, that’d be hilariously OP here, what with everyone probably giving their full names to the wizards at the start.

Wizards can do something called soul gaze, which allows people to see into their souls and vice versa, happens automatically with eye contact that lasts more than a couple of seconds.

Importantly, Wizards can access something called the sight — “use of the Sight, sometimes also referred to as "third eye", allows a wizard to gaze upon the world and see its supernatural side, allowing the perception of things hidden to the normal eye. What has been seen through the use of the Sight will remain a lasting memory forever, and will neither fade nor be forgotten. Because of this, wizards don't use it often, for it could easily drive them insane. The Sight usually shows concepts physically, e.g. if a loved one had recently died, a person could have wounds similar to those of a sword, as thought by Harry Dresden. When Molly Carpenter forced her friends off drugs, Harry saw the damage done by her as if a laser scalpel had drilled 2 holes into the victim's head. [2] The Sight can break through illusions and is generally the method used by wizards to pierce veils.” So basically, it lets a wizard see the magical and conceptual side of things — useful for detecting magic and getting a reading on people since you see their ‘true’ self when you look at them with the third eye. This is a double edged sword — as it says above, the shit never leaves your mind and stays with perfect memorable clarity, and when you experience something with your third eye you REALLY experience it. So, if you look at a really bad other PC or at something otherworldly, the wizard is probably just going to be driven insane.

Large amounts of running water tends to be an anathema to magic — can't usually cross rivers directly or the like (though I imagine if you go up high enough it stops being important).

The sun rising also tends to be an anathema to standing magic — it tends to cancel it out if it's not superpowered or anchored to something.

Last general thing I can really think of is that IU, wizards are techbanes. Not super RP friendly, that, usually removed.

//Oh, and when I say 'wizard', in this particular document I also typically mean 'warden wizard', IE combative mages specifically. Most wizards aren't actually scrappers. They all have the same general abilities, but only trained wardens really have the combat proficiency described above.

Edited by tvtropesnoob on Jan 20th 2020 at 12:04:34 PM

Alright, you and I have had extensive talks on this already, so I'm gonna keep this to a minimum here. For the most part? Looks alright to me. Anything sufficiently powerful/abstract, rituals and the like, I'd appreciate if you could at least let us know what you intend beforehand, if only so you don't waste time doing a post only to have the target object and be forced to do a rewrite.

Let's see, about the Sight, I don't see much of an issue with it, I have a feeling the wizards are gonna be REAL careful about using that once they see the kind of people some of the battleworld chunks have.

Lastly, while I'll wait till I see the actual signup....er, this bit here?

"Harry’s duster is fireproof, bulletproof, knifeproof, acts as an extreme inhibitor to blunt damage, and a few other things, for example"

Ya, that might end up getting nerfed. I don't mind it being resistant to stuff, but you can't render yourself completely immune to some of the most common (and for some of these chunks, the only) ways to hurt people.

Going with Terminator, gonna blend some timelines together for one complete Timeline here that provides a lot of options. And the funniest thing is what with all the Time Travel nonsense it can happen.

Main Character

• Name: John Connor
• Age: 42
• Appearance: The Leader of Humanity◊
• Personality: John is a thinker who believes that if something can be achieved without having to kill anyone, he will take it. He doesn't feel that humanity should be warring with each other and wishes to defy the idea that it is in their nature to destroy themselves. He's a bit of a idealist, something that has served him well on the personal level as he's motivated humanity to stand and fight.
• Powers: While lacking in combat prowess compared to the average soldier John makes up for it by being a tactical leader with years of computer sciences and robotics engineering, he's capable of finding the structural weaknesses in the machines and even reprogramming Terminators if need be, even more advanced ones such as Cameron.
• Equipment: Favors as his sidearm the MK23 Pistol◊, carries a M25 Carbine with a M203 underbarrel◊, has used a HK416 in the past and keeps it at base just in case.◊ Also carries a small computer system with basic drives that can be used to overwrite a machine by Skynet.
• Backstory: John's birth is a funny one, even he notes that it's a mess considering all the time travel that he and Skynet have used to stop each other, all that is certain is that currently his father is named Kyle Reese and he was sent back in time to protect Sarah Connor, John's own mother, so that he may live and lead the resistance to victory against Skynet.

Supporting Cast

• Name: Uncle Bob AKA T-800
• Age: Not available
• Appearance: He will not stop until you are dead!◊
• Personality: Cold, logical, will follow his mission to a fault and consider all parameters within it, leaving him room to interpret, odd preference towards Shotguns and pistols as weapons of choice, seems to really love the M134 Minigun if he can get his hands on it.
• Powers: Calculative mind, enhanced targeting, superhuman durability and strength, average human speed with excellent agility despite his size, can mimic voices to throw otehrs off
• Equipment: Winchester Model 1887◊ sawed off, Longslide .45 Pistol with Laser Sight◊, the Westinghouse M27 Phased Plasma Rifle
• Backstory: Built on the Skynet Production line to serve as the ultimate infiltrator, the T-800 was just the first, when the Resistance captured a Skynet factory and gained the ability to make their own they reprogrammed one to travel into the past and protect John from any future assassins Skynet would send. John has since kept one as a bodyguard and personal attack dog that he affectionately calls "Uncle Bob". The Resistance has thought about trying to upgrade him to a T-888 model.

• Name: Cameron
• Age: Not Available
• Appearance: the Summer Infilitrator◊
• Personality: Cameron is best described as the most personable of all Terminators ever built, having advanced social programming allowing her to act as human as possible, this has caused some disturbance amongst the Connor family when she first appeared as it was unnatural to have a machine be so... human.
• Powers: Increased durability, vocal mimicry, superhuman strength, advanced targeting, increased speed
• Equipment: Cameron unlike "Uncle Bob" has no particular favored weapon and will grab anything, however as most combat is still in the long range, John has assigned her at the very least a glock and a M25.
• Backstory: Cameron was a infiltrator for what was the present day of the human machine war, she was designed to Kill and Replace a human resistance member and was made as part of the T-900 line, so advanced that even she was unaware that she was a machine. However when the truth came out she was quickly reprogrammed and sent to protect John in another timeline. Something that has caused this current John all sorts of confusion.

• Name: Marcus Wright
• Age: 43
• Appearance: Dead man walking◊
• Personality: Marcus doesn't truly remember all about his history or what he was like before, but he's best described as a atoner who wants to better himself and will sacrifice his own life if need be
• Powers: Increased durability, superhuman strength, decent aim
• Equipment: Prefers the Remington 870
• Backstory: A death row inmate who sold his body for science when he died after killing 2 cops in a spree of petty crime, unaware that it was basically a frankenstein treatment into transhumanism Marcus woke up years later confused as to what he saw. A world that had been blown apart, with a long journey ahead he joined the Resistance and saved the life of John Connor, who has since kept him active in this timeline as one of his top soldiers.

• Name: Derek Reese
• Age: 32
• Appearance: Time Travel is a bit funny◊
• Personality: The Stoic through and through, a typical soldier in every sense of the word, though with a few sore spots, mentioning his deceased brother who traveled through time and the state of the world
• Powers: Combat prowess through and through, everything you would expect of a soldier meant to survive a war.
• Equipment: Carries a HK USP pistol and a M27 plasma rifle
• Backstory: Derek was a distant relative of Kyle in another timeline, something that he regrets, when it came down to preventing Skynet, Derek was volunteered and sent into the past to handle it. However due to the fluctuating timelines he followed John back into the future, though further complications in Time Travel have caused him to join this current group of Resistance.

Chunk

• Name of the World: Resistance Base
• Description: A Veritable fortress, one of the few safe places on the planet from Skynet, around the size of a small town as needed with plenty of room to move about in. Largest sight is the reclaimed Skynet Factor where the Resistance is currently holed up.
• Contents/Locations: Armory, Recaptured Skynet factory, hangar, bunkers, garages, a hopsital made out of a part of the reclaimed factory, watchout towers, small stock of food supplies, Various◊ Technicals◊ and trucks◊, with jets◊ and helicopters◊ mounted with plasma guns.
• ''Specialties: No clear special rules, maybe just one sealed off pool of radioactive waste left over from the bombing
• ''Population: The brave men and women of the future, fighting for their freedom from the machine threat, ranging from mechanics, to soldiers and pilots, to doctors. All of them serve here to keep the base running with John organizing raiding parties into tactical locations to cripple Skynet and drive it back, serving as the most threatening thing to Skynet. Few Terminators serve on the Frontlines, instead being used for specific missions or guard duty.

Sadly I could find no appropriate images for the base, and I included the Skynet Factory as you gotta repair your terminators somewhere.

As for all the characters from varying Timelines? It's Terminator, they have a comic about how so much Time travel has screwed up everything that Skynet had to make a machine to fix it.

edited 12th Aug '15 10:38:49 AM by EchoingSilence

Gotta love time travel. Anyway, you are accepted

Good to hear.

I can only imagine how Caesar and John will react to meeting each other. Especially if they go into war.

I can smell the philosophical debates from here.

Main Character

• Name: Donkey Kong
• Age: Unknown, equivalent early thirties
• Appearance: BANANA SLAMMA!!◊
• Personality: A powerful ape, Donkey Kong is a laid back, almost perpetually lazy gorilla, content with just lazing about all day eating bananas, playing and listening to music, and play video games. He's also not the smartest gorilla around, he tends to get easily distracted, incredibly stubborn to a fault, and can get pretty immature for a gorilla his age. Despite his flaws, DK will always step up and take charge whenever his friends and/or island are attacked (though you have to really work to get him to do it unless the situation is that severe), and he has been shown to be really clever when facing down unknown enemies and battle situations. However, while good natured and heroic, the heroism only extends to either the borders of his islands and/or people in the general vicinity of him. Rarely will he ever actively fight against the forces of evil unless they attacked him first, and even then only if the stakes are high enough. Those that do attack him first and/or threatened those he cares about will find themselves at the receiving end of a very irate ape that will beat their faces into submission, entire armies be damned.

The fastest way to get him pissed off, however, is going after his banana hoard. If one values their health, DO NOT STEAL HIS BANANA HOARD.

• Powers:
  • Super Strength: Donkey Kong's trademark ability. Even by the standards of normal gorillas he is insanely strong, able to send giant monsters and villains flying incredibly long distance with powerful punches and able to lift and jump with heavy objects like he was holding light pillows. He is so strong, he can juggle enemies into the air by slapping the ground hard enough to cause intense enough vibrations, and can even plow enemies through the floor be merely headbutting them hard enough.

  • Speed and Agility: Being a gorilla, DK is already pretty agile for someone of his size, but he can be surprisingly quick on his feet as well. He's certainly not winning any races, he is pretty fast when on all fours and can sprint pretty fast, which is useful when chasing down foes. His main method of faster travel and long distance melee attacks involve somersaulting towards enemies, and can do so indefinitely if someone light enough can roll him like a barrel. He can also spin fast enough in midair that he can achieve very short ranged flight.

  • Intelligence: While stupid by Kong and human standards, Donkey Kong is incredibly intelligence by normal gorilla standards, having the ability to flawlessly operate complicated machinery and electronics, sometimes with little or no prior knowledge or experience, such as motorcycles, go-karts, and sound equipment, and is smart enough to appreciate art and music as well as proficient in various musical instruments. He even owns a 3DS. He is also proficient in the basic rules of different sports, such as golf, tennis, and football.

• Equipment: Most of the time Donkey Kong will rely on whatever is lying around to use as an improvised weapon, including smaller mooks he can pick up, but he has a few notable exceptions:
  • Grapefruit Grenades: Exploding grapefruit that can be used as grenades when in a pinch
  • Coconut Shotgun: Wooden shotgun that shoots whole coconuts; shots explode on contact, spreading shell shrapnel over a wide radius into initial target and nearby targets
  • Weather Horn: A prize he snagged from Lord Frederick of the Snowmads, it is an ancient and powerful magical artifact with the ability to create weather effects over a large area depending on the personality, will, and musical ability of the user. While in Lord Frederick's clutches, with only long, single note bellows, it can create Ice Age level frozen weather, turning a chosen area into a frozen tundra in minutes, just as he did for all of DK Island. While in DK's hands, its completely reverses any previous effects as well as raise the temperature up to a comfortable tropical level as he plays it like a saxophone.

• Backstory: The grandson of the original Donkey Kong, thus making him the third in the line. His father, Junior, is no where to be seen but no one really cares anyway. Donkey Kong's first real test as protector of Kong island came when Kong Island was invaded for the very first time by the villainous industrial crocadilians the Kremlings, led by its borderline psychotic ruler King K. Rool, when Donkey Kong's precious banana hoard is stolen for the first time. The next two times the Kremlings attacked, he found himself unfortunately kidnapped, but aside from those two mishaps, DK managed to successfully beat down the Kremlings whenever K. Rool reared his incredibly swollen eye at every turn. Whenever he's not battling against the Kremlings and/or other assorted threats, Donkey Kong would often travel outside DK Island, sometimes with Diddy Kong in tow, to join in various sporting, go-kart events, and wild parties with his grandfather's old nemesis, Mario. Outside of the instance where Donkey Kong once tried to steal from Mario's wind up toy business, DK and the plumber were fast friends and allies, mostly due to DK not being born yet during the time when Mario and the Kongs were fighting each other.

Most recently, the Kongs had repelled an invasion from a group of hostile vikings called the Snowmads, had finished celebrating DK's birthday.....

Supporting Cast
Name: Diddy Kong
Age: Equivalent to early teens
Appearance: Beloved nephew◊
Personality: While just as fun-loving and laid back as his "uncle" Donkey Kong, Diddy is far more adventurous and carefree, often times throwing himself into the unknown and against badguys despite being no where near as able to take hits as his idol. Conversely, he sometimes acts as the cooler head between him and his uncle, the one to calm DK down during temper tantrums and, ironically, the planner and negotiator when a plan is needed. He is also far more actively heroic than the other Kongs, being the first to help others in danger even when a conflict has nothing to do with the Kongs themselves. Diddy loves jamming to rap music and loves peanuts as well as bananas.

Powers: The only real power Diddy has is the ability to spring up to great heights by coiling up his tail and bouncing off of it. However, he can only use it to jump single great bounds. Otherwise, he's faster and more agile then DK by virtue of being smaller.

Equipment:

• Peanut Popguns: A pair of wooden pistols that shoot peanuts for bullets that Diddy fires with precision accuracy and hit like rubber bullets. The shells explode on impact, causing very light extra damage that can stun weaker enemies.
• Barrel Jetpack: High powered jetpack that fly at great speeds and soar to great heights. Can be outfitted with attachments to further enhance capabilities, particularly in steering.

Backstory: A large monkey of indeterminate species, Diddy Kong was adopted into the Kong Clan, and he grew up admiring Donkey Kong as his idol. He eventually became DK's sidekick when the Kremlings invaded for the first time after botching up his first ever job of guarding the banana hoard, and he spearheaded Donkey Kong's rescue along with Dixie Kong from Kroc Island. He was kidnapped alongside Donkey Kong when the Kongs were vacationing in the Northern Kremesphere, and later temporarily when K. Rool was implementing his Blast-o-matic to just blow up DK Isle, but otherwise went on just as many adventures as DK as the gorilla's sidekick. He even went on his own adventure to help out his pen pal, Timber the Tiger, to prevent the evil alien porcine warlock Wizpig from taking over Timber's home.

While not always, Diddy accompanies DK when visiting Mario and his friends at the Mushroom Kingdom, and he's a big name in the go-kart circuits after his adventures on Timber's island. He's also dating Dixie Kong.

Name: Dixie Kong
Age: Equivalent to early to mid teens
Appearance: Watch the hair!◊
Personality: A kind, cheerful, and tomboyish young gorilla who loves adventure and likes sports. While she sometimes does not like fighting, she nevertheless will help out to fend off against invaders and badguys if necessary. She has a soft spot for other animals, and while very friendly towards others, the only people she has any real animosity are to Kremlings, due to their constant threat in the past, and her baby cousin Kiddy, though with him its mostly through her own dislike of dealing with babies and he's genetically blessed so he can take the punishment.

Powers: Dixie's large, over sized ponytail is actually perhensile and capable of lifting up heavy objects much heavier than even herself (though no where near Donkey Kong's legendary strength). It can hold onto ledges indefinitely, she can spin it around to glide long distances like a helicopter through the air and traverse underwater like a propeller, and can be used to handle hazardous objects as long as they don't damage her hair. How she gets her pony tail like this is unknown, but all she says on subject is special coconut infused shampoo. The ponytail does make her slightly slower and heavier than Diddy, however.

Equipment:

• Bubblegum Popgun: Dixie loves chewing bubblegum so much she has her own wooden pistols that shoot out bubble gum, similar to Diddy's popgun. Upon impact the gum explodes, covering the target in sticky gum

Backstory: Dixie and Diddy started dating before Donkey Kong got kidnapped for the first time, and she accompanied him to Krco Island to rescue him. Dixie then proved her worth as a true hero when both Donkey and Diddy became kidnap while in the Northern Kremisphere and she rescued them with the help of her cousin, Kiddy. Since then she accompanied Donkey and Diddy on most of their adventures, though she's only traveled with them to meet with Mario and his friends for basketball and baseball.

Name: Cranky Kong
Age: Really, really old
Appearance: Get off my damn lawn!
Personality: A crumudgeon old coot, he is rude, brutally honest, and often verbally insults the other Kongs, mostly his grandson and his dead wife (who's now a ghost). Despite his crass outward personality, within he still deeply loves his family. He also deeply mistrusts Kremlings, which is justified, and humans, due to his past, though the latter has lightened up in recent years. Cranky also has a tendency to ramble on and on about how the good old days of video games were so much better than today and about his supposed achievements, many of which are so obviously blatant lies one has no idea whether the more plausible ones are true or not.

Abilities: Cranky became a master chemist and alchemist after he retired. This skills truly shined during the Blast-o-matic incident where he provided potions to the Kong that gave them special abilities. Unfortunately these potions had some rather unstable, though ultimately harmless, side effects, and in most cases were temporary. The one concoction that was truly successful was a banana flavored invincibility potion. However, its very difficult to make, thus making it extremely expensive and Cranky only allows the Kongs to buy ONE AT A TIME, even himself.

Equipment:

• Walking Stick: Uses it to not only conventionally whack people with but also use as a makeshift pogostick to traverse through hazardous obstacles and upon enemies, a technique he certainly did not rip off from another game entirely, especially not one staring a rich duck searching for treasure.
• Invincibility Potion: Banana flavored, and causes the drinker to become resistant to most forms of damage for ten seconds. Does not work against drowning, diseases, and any other hazards that require breathing. Very difficult to make, extremely expensive, and sold in very limited quantities. Not even he's allowed to carry more than one at time.
• Squawks: A green parrot that's helped the Kongs throughout the years, starting with carrying lanterns to light up dark caverns to carrying Kongs and firing eggs upon enemies. Currently lives with Cranky now, and used to find secret items by squawking very loudly whenever a hidden object of importance is nearby.

Backstory: The original Donkey Kong. When he was younger, he was captured by someone whom he claims was Mario and abused by the plumber to entertain by as a side job, one that involved juggling pineapples near open flames and Mario himself laughing at him for every one he missed despite the very clear risk of flaming injury. The gorilla finally snapped and in his rage, kidnapped Pauline, Mario's girlfriend at the time. He was defeated and imprisoned again, forcing his son Donkey Kong Jr. to rescue him. Senior finally returned to DK Isle after a run in with a gardener, where he lived peacefully and ultimately retired, allowing his grandson to carry the title. Age had NOT been kind to Cranky. Mostly stayed on the sidelines to dispense advice of varying usefulness and selling important items. Momentarily came out of retirement to actively kick butt when DK Isle was thrown into a freak Ice Age by the Snowmads and he, his grandson, and Diddy and Dixie were blown out of the island.

Name: Funky Kong
Age: Equivalent to mid to late 20's
Appearance: Funky Flights is the way to go!
Personality: Laid back and fun-loving, Funky is one rad dude with a love of the important things in life. Namely, tuning up and fixing vehicles, surfing, and playing the drums. Ironically, Funky does not like to go adventuring despite owning his own flight services.

Abilities: Funky is an expert at mechanics, responsible for making many of the vehicles and transport cannons littered throughout DK Isle and other locations the Kongs are at, able to take a large barrel and literally make almost any sort of vehicle around it. He's also responsible for many of the wooden weaponry and weaponized fruit the Kongs sometimes use. He's also pretty strong, but again, no where near the same level of strength as DK.

Backstory: Funky Kong has provided his fellow Kongs with fast travel over large distances with his Funky's Flights service for years and had more recently entered the realm of high ordinance weaponry when K. Rool attempted to blow up DK Isle with his Blast-O-Matic. Rarely he's been over in Mario's turf, driving in the latest Mario Kart circuit and having set up a Funky's Flights franchise before that. Recently he's been expanding his business to create an entire island spanning network for his flight service. Coincidentally, these island were also ones in the middle of being conquered by the Snowmads at the time, and just as fortuitously, these were where the main Kongs from blown into when the Snowmads invaded DK Isle.

Name: Candy Kong
Age: Equivalent to late 20's
Appearance: Look, but don't touch! Seriously, no touching, she's taken.
Personality: A fun-loving, bubbly, if slightly ditzy bombshell of a woman. Prefers to sit on the sidelines and merely assist the Kongs as they fight off enemies, but she can kick ass if hard pressed. She's playfully flirtacious with many she meets and loves to flaunt her curves, but ultimately she's completely faithful to with main squeeze DK, and she's ready and willing to painfully remind those with wish to touch instead of just looking. Unless she's just keeping their attention away from whatever's gonna kick their ass instead of her........

Openly despises Cranky Kong, and the feeling is mutual.

Powers:

• Seduction: With a few gestures and movements, she's able to make any straight man and lesbian fall head over heels for her, even if they initially found her ugly for some reason. Most effective use was distracting K. Rool, who has a pathological hatred of primates, long enough for Funky to blast the villain away when he was defeated by the other Kongs during the Blast-o-matic incident.

Backstory: Candy started dating Donkey Kong shortly before the Kremlings' first invasion, much to the disapproval of Cranky, and the two of them have been an item ever since. Throughout the years, Candy has taken many different professions while helping out the banana of her eye as well as the other Kongs, mostly through managing various minigames. Currently she's being mentored by Wrinkly Kong in being a teacher and the Kong Clans' main record keeper and working part time at the barrel factory at its sole organic employee.

Name: Wrinkly Kong
Age: Same as Cranky, but had stopped
Appearance: Wise beyond the grave◊
Personality: The kind old lady, Wrinkly is a school teacher by trade and often dispenses words of wisdom to those willing to hear them. She is a strict but fair teacher who loves her students like they were her own children, and unlike her husband Cranky is very friendly and humble. The only bad words that come out of her mouth are direct jabs at Cranky, which can be surprisingly juvenile and hurtful when out of the mouth of such a kindly matriarch. It becomes less surprising as Cranky does the exact same, and beneath the vitriol they do still love each other very much.

Unlike Cranky, Wrinkly whole heartedly approves of DK and Candy's relationship.

Abilities: Outside of being an excellent school teacher and giving helpful advice, not much. As a spirit though, she is able to look into different areas far and wide, but much of it is vague and/or incomplete as her spirit is tied to the Kong themselves and to island, and can only travel outside the island when traveling with them. Even then, leaving the island must be voluntary on the living Kong's part.

Backstory: Wrinkly married Cranky when they were younger and the latter went by the Donkey Kong moniker, having a son named Junior. For years Wrinkly was both a teacher and records keeper for the Kong Clan and helped the Kongs in fighting against the Kremlings. She retired from teaching after Donkey Kong's first rescue, but unfortunately she died after the adventure at the Northern Kremesphere. She came back later as a spirit when K. Rool attacked with the Blast-o-Matic, but had trouble trying to communicate with the living. She stabilized later on, and has since continued helping out the Kongs and came out of retirement as a teacher. Currently mentoring Candy Kong to become the next records keeper.

Name: Bashmaster the Unbreakable Age: Unknown Appearance: Friendly, ain't he?◊
Personality: The laziest and most laidback of Lord Frederick's forces, Bashmaster prefers to just sit back let his minions do all the menial stuff. However, if properly motivated, the bear will dutifully get involved, especially when it comes to fighting against someone. He is also the most negotiable of Frederick's general, showing respect to any who bested him in combat and not as overzealously committed to his master's conquering streak.

Powers and Abilities:

• Immense Strength: A given, considering he is a rather strong and powerful polar bear.
• Super Jump: Can jump a few stories straight into the air while on a solid surface. While he had move up to a hundred yards in any direction from where he initially jumped to change his landing trajectory, he can only move in that single direction while midair, and he needs to either land on something soft to break his fall and/or on a buoyant surface or else he risks leg injury.

• Ice Magic: Considerably low level compared to his fellow generals and Frederick himself, he can only channel it through his hammer. While initially the magic sends out shockwaves of damaging ice and snow when he slams his mallet onto the ground, Bashmaster has adapted it was to help cushion his falls when doing his super jumps, and can transfer the magical energy into objects up to as big as the mallet head by hitting them, turning the object into a powerful, ice fuel projectile. The magic has about a three second charge.

• Equipment: The only equipment he needs is his powerful mallet, which can smash through solid concrete. However, he has a problem with pulling it out of thick surfaces after it hits.

• Backstory: The most physically powerful of the Snomad leaders, second only to Lord Federick himself, Bashmaster commands respect from his minions and was in charge of Juicy Jungle after it was conquered before DK Island was next. He spent much of his time eating popsicles and lounging around until Donkey and his friends accidentally made him drop his popsicle in a piranha infested juice lake. Bashmaster put up a good fight, but in the end DK prevailed. After the defeat, Bashmater left the island to join up with the other Snomad remnants.

Chunk
Name of the World: DK Island
Description: A large tropical island, DK Isle is named after and protected by the Donkey Kong family line and the main home of the Kong Clan, it sports several different biomes and environments within, each with its own wildlife and even races. In general though, the location is very rich in natural resources and has some sort of magical enchantment where fruit is constantly growing and remain fresh for ludicrously large amounts of time, the most numerous staple being bananas. The most common animals seen throughout the whole island, except for the upper locations echelons, are snakes, frogs, hippos, zebras, giraffes, elephants, squirrels, various exotic birds, and pigs.

Contents:

• Jungle: The most populous area of the island, it where the Kongs make their home. The only notable landmark are DK's hut and the original homes of the various other Kongs. Directly under DK's hut in a hidden cavern is his legendary banana hoard, often the target of various villainous organization for various reasons. There are ancient ruins littered around the landscape, and most of the wildlife are harmless unless provoked.

• Beach: A large, expansive sandy area that stretches to the fringes of the island's boundaries, littered with tide pools and varying docks and piers. Further out into the sea rests scattered rock cliffs and outcroppings leading to a small cave system. There is also a large ship graveyard, littered with the broken remains of wooden galleons and vessel that have washed up and/or crashed into the area, where old treasure and still be hidden and claimed. Many of these ships were put there either by the nearby coral reef, the sporadic yet deadly hurricanes and storms that hit the area, and/or the particularly nasty and territorial Squiddicus species◊ of giant octopus waiting out in the open sea. Other notable creatures are sharks who bark and act like dogs and the various band of pirate crabs patrolling the surrounding seas.

• Ruins: The main chunk of the ancient ruins which litter the island, they belong to a long forgotten ancient civilization, mostly likely early ancestors of the Kongs if one were to judge from the carvings. They have a rather vague resemblense to ancient South American and South East Asian cultures. There are also various carvings of other creatures besides Kongs, including Gnawties◊, indigenous beaver species on DK Isle, and Toothberries◊, small blue creature with ravenous appetites and lots of teeth. Many of the traps and mechanisms are still active, so one must up careful in traversing them.

• Caves: An intricate cave system running through the mountains and below the surface where the main, and seemingly only, mode of travel are various minetracks with varying level of disrepair. Down here lives a race of moles◊ who created the network in the first to mine for various resources, mostly the crystals that grow underground. While usually hostile to outsiders, they give the Kong a wide berth, particularly after they freed their leader, Max◊, from the mind control of the Tikis, mostly via kicking his ass. Another notable hazard are the ferocious bats living in the caves, particularly the gigantic "queens"◊.

• Forest: A temperate forest teeming with life almost as much as the Jungle, but far more dangerous, filled with far more hostile creatures and more areas that block out light than its rainforest counterpart. The trees are also more massive and sturdy than the Jungle, able to withstand fire and sever impact. Of particular note are the vast varieties of Zingers◊, giant wasps that are covered in spikes and resistant to most damage, making them extremely deadly, and the giant spiders, which have been known to overpopulate parts of the Forest so much that so many clutches can hatch simultaneously it results a literal flash flood of baby spiders that can kill anything in their path. There is also a supposedly haunted castle within that was a vanity project by K. Rool, but it was mostly abandoned by the Kremlings.....though there are still ghosts within.....

• Cliffs: Mountainous cliffs on the highest peaks of the island. Inhospitable to all but the most hardy and resillient of creatures, the rock is littered with the fossils of prehistoric creatures long extinct and rivers of tar and crude sludge flow freely like water. Sign of previous settlement spot the area, long abandoned by those who built them. The most pressing dangers are the sheer drops, the crumbling rock and bones of species long extinct, and even the skeletal undead of smaller (read: gorilla sized) creatures roaming the dusty slopes.

• Factory: One of the many factories originally built by the Kremlings during their first invasion of Kong Island as well as one of the largest. Initially built to pointless spew out pollution, it has been long since cleaned up and converted into a barrel factory. Recently now under the control of one Colonel Pluck◊ after he was freed from the mind control of the Tiki Tak tribe. Candy Kong is currently the only organic employee, with most of the factory fully automated and the rest of the workforce made up of mechanical chickens. While cleaned up and far safer than when under control of the Kremlings, the place is still rather hazardous to traverse through, with exposed circuits, seemingly random burners and scalding exhaust pipes, zero railings and fences, crushing gears and mechanisms, and the robotic workforce spontaneously glitching out and attacking non-authorized personnel (namely anyone NOT Pluck or Candy).

• Volcano: At the very top of DK Island rest its highest peak and also its sole volcano. It has become dormant now, and is now the safest places on the island, free of any dangers aside from accidentally falling off the ledges and the few remaining rivers of lava, and giving a magnificent 360 degree view of the entire island. Wreckage from the Tiki Tak Tribe's temple and from Lord Frederick's ship can to seen littering the area.

• Cranky's Huts, Kong Kollege, and Funky's Flights: Spread around the island are various other huts. Some are alternate homes of Cranky Kong, were he goes and sells his wares for coins. Some of Kong Kolleges run by Wrinkly Kong, who provides free education to those willing to learn. Others are airports owned by Funky Kong, who provides easier travel between sections of the island, though for travel between adjacent section, he uses a large canon instead of a plane......

• Ancient Temple: Entrances to ancient temples are scattered around the island. Despite being thousands of years old, these structures as still inexplicably in pristine condition, with everything perfectly preserved. The floors, the furniture, the relics......and the traps. Only the bravest and most skilled of adventurers are able to combs their depths for treasure, but even the best of them most often never return to see the light of day. DK and Diddy managed to survive three of these temples and came back with a shining jewel and seemingly emanated untapped magic in each, but they decided not to bother with the rest of them as they danger was not worth it. The jewels themselves seemed completely useless other than being trophies and for filling in the sockets surrounding that mysterious circular gate that appeared after the Tiki Tak gang was defeated.....

Specialties: While very subtle, there is a lot of latent magic within the island, mostly affecting plant growth. Various fruits, vegetables, and edible plant life are all effected in various ways, such as causing grapefruit to become explosive if used as grenades, but can be safely eaten with no ill effect. They also seemingly replenish after a certainly amount of time, a week at most, and can stay fresh and edible for a vary long time. The fruit that are most effected are bananas, which somehow are able to float in midair, some specimens managing to sprout wings and fly, and can actually last for years without going rotten. This magic has also effected various carnivorous plant, causing them to gain animal like intelligence and develop more complicated methods of prey capture, such as providing vines over large pits to reel in anything that grabs them. However, this amazing plant growth is stunted when large amounts of pollution is introduced to the land or through excessive farming.

Population: Most of the inhabitants of DK Isle consist of the natural wildlife as stated above and the various monsters and other creatures which inhabit it as well. Many of these creatures are harmless unless provoked in some way, but a few of the more violent ones will attack on sight. While the Kongs are the most famous, there are other races whom live on the island as well, prominently the moles and crab pirates. While not friendly with the Kongs, many of these races have given the Kongs a very wide berth, mostly due to either hearing about or directly having their asses royally kicked by them. The only sapient races that is directly allied with the Kongs are the banana fairies◊, whom were first discovered during the Blast-o-Matic incident, when there were scattered around the island by the Kremlings and their princess came to Tiny Kong for help; and pigs, who are help out the Kongs any way they can for reasons the Kongs themselves have absolutely no idea about.

The two most recent races to live on the island are the remnants of its invaders. The most recent are the Snowmads, and group of seafaring Vikings conquerors made up of various polar animals, in particular penguins and walruses. These snowmads were left there when their leader, Lord Frederick, was booted out of the island by the Kongs when their flag ship was sent flying, forcing them to try to fend for themselves. Mostly they wish to be left alone and thus stay as far away from the Kongs as possible.

The other race are the Kremlings that were leftover from K. Rool's various invasions of the island. Unlike the situation with the Snowmads, K. Rool on purposely left his minions to rot on Kong Isle despite having all the resources necessary to recover them. Also unlike the Snowmads, the Kremlings are always causing trouble on the island]], mainly involving being as pointlessly cruel and sadistic to the more defenseless creatures on the island as possible, even if doing so bears absolutely zero advantage for them in the long run, or even if its actually detrimental to them. They are also prone to directly antagonize the Kongs themselves despite knowing full well they kicked got their asses kicked by them multiple times. Any Kremlings who wish to actually become good are immediately ostracized, if not outright murdered, by their brethren. These rare good Kremlings do find protection and shelter in Wrinkley Kong's schools though, where they can get a real education as well. The number of good Kremlings are on the rise though, only because the remaining bad ones are dwindling due to their idiotic need to be assholes.

Having been violently rejected by every other race on the island for an alliance to finally take down the Kongs and conquer the island, the Kremlings are willing to look towards people outside the island for allies. Whom they plan on backstabbing, stealing their resources, and leaving to rot as they rule DK Isle.........

edited 10th Dec '15 4:24:03 PM by UdtheImp

So, two factions of intelligent apes.

This is gonna be interesting...

I have one issue, but it is a big one

Invincibility Potion: Banana flavored, and causes the drinker to become immune to damage for thirty seconds.

I am sorry, but 30 seconds of total immunity strikes me as FAR too long, even given it's a one time use thing. I see two solutions

1-Change immunity to increased damage resistance. You can take more hits, but enough damage is still going to hurt no matter what.

2-Reduced time on immunity. Max I think I can reasonably allow is 10 seconds, and even then I'm tempted to nerf it more. I'm going to need a firm promise from you not to abuse it or it'll suffer further nerfs.

edited 12th Aug '15 6:45:13 PM by Meanken

I really can't wait for Prime and Steeljaw to start slugging it out. Unlike other versions of Optimus, it would be a very close match.

There are some interesting parallels between the whole group, too...

• Inexperienced leader trying to keep an unruly bunch under control: Optimus/Steeljaw
• Cranky, cynical second-in-command: Ratchet/Thunderhoof
• Dimwitted bruiser who acts first and asks questions later: Bulkhead/Underbite
• Aloof, sneaky warrior: Prowl/Fracture
• Fast-talking motormouth who doesn't have a lot of combat training: Bumblebee/Clampdown

We now have Bowser and DK in the same place, as well as DK and the Apes.

And in the other side we have Autobots and Decepticons.

dis gun be gud.

I may need to implement a no-combat rule in the common room, or this will quickly turn into a bloodbath (Oilbath?) on the first meeting.

edited 12th Aug '15 6:59:51 PM by Meanken

Guess I know who Caesar's first allies are gonna be.

Maybe some kind of field that dulls blades, jams guns, cancels out offensive magic and such?

Something like that. Think the Pacification Field that was in FNV: Old World Blues.