HF RPG 2.5: Discussion

DIBS ON THAT IDEA

In answer to Nato: First, yeah, we were waiting for someone to take over the security, remember? That just got left behind a little. As I said, you were waiting a while and no one stepped up- and it was suggested that since my characters were so connected to the event, I shouldn't take over the NPCs. Which is fair, and now we have Cor at it so it's all worked out.

Second, I've explained this before to you, but I think you might have forgotten so that's all right. The issue isn't facial recognition. The issue is he seems to be hiding his face on purpose, which makes one in the situation wonder why he would be. It's really suspicious. If everyone looks the same, why hide it?

The issue is he seems to be hiding his face on purpose, which makes one in the situation wonder why he would be. It's really suspicious. 

You're just saying that because you're desperate for an excuse to throw Vyle out before he can ruin your wrestling match.

I'm actually desperate for a reason to throw Vyle into the wrestling match. Right in the ring. That's been my end goal all along.

Also Nato you should have copyrighted your idea or something because now Dallior has dibsed it and it's too late, you can't use it now. I'm sorry.

Then I will refuse to approve it, out of spite. 

Your compliance is not needed, the other GMs can approve it without you.

Can we timeskip to the fight itself once we're done with this Vyle business?

Also, stolen idea coming up soon.

As I mentioned earlier, I've been busy, which has led to a delay in posting Thumper's fight- originally, it was actually planned to a few posts and then done, but I delayed a little to give Quark time to get there (which likely won't be happening now) and then other characters started showing up so I feel like anything short of a spectacular battle would be rude. At the moment, I'm waiting on the interactions happening outside the arena to finish before putting something up. So, long story short, we shouldn't need a timeskip. c:

My goodness, though. I'm gonna have to make this a really good fight, for all the people who decided to have their characters come watch. It's so nice of them.

Stolen idea coming right up.

Name: Kyuhaun

Character Type: Villain

Abilities/Equipment: This villain wears a large Hero Factory logo on his chest, taking advantage of the uneducated masses by making them think he is a hero rather than a villain. He possesses two twin hand-blasters capable of firing low-powered bursts of energy.

Appearance: A large, dark villain, with strong gunmetal armor with a red faux hero core on his chest. Two guns with holsters at his side. LDD model to come.

Bio: A villain used to being found in crowds due to his conspicuous appearance, he noticed in the crowd of a Makuhero brawl that a dark hero was instantly identified as a hero, regardless of the rest of his chassis. This gave Kyuhaun the idea to give himself a fake hero core, so that others would think of him as a hero, granting him access to almost anywhere in the universe.

Name: The Drop Ship

Ship Size: Small

Pilots/PCs: The villain Kyuhaun.

NPCs: None.

Communications: A Hero Factory signal radio and a covert ops radio for intership communication.

Navigation & Drive: A typical Hero Factory drop ship with hidden impulse thrusters and a warp drive for interplanetary travel. The HF tracking has been dismantled so his location is not revealed to the Hero Factory.

Weapons & Armor: Reinforced armor on a stolen HF dropship, with three pairs of hidden anti-aircraft guns that can be hidden within the ship's hull landing-gear style.

Propulsion: A plutonium core powers the ship.

Landing: No changes have been made to the standard Hero Factory landing gear. 

I... I honestly can't believe I never thought of this. 

I would totally approve this more if I could, but unfortunately all I can give you is

Kyuhaun and The Drop Ship Both Approved 1/3

I'm of two minds about this. 

On the one hand, I'm not entirely convinced that the people of Makuhero City - where Hero worship seems to dominate practically every aspect of media, entertainment and so on - would be fooled by just a fake logo. Living and working with Heroes every day, they'd probably be able to recognise the difference between a real one and a cosplayer.  

That said, I could definitely envision a disguise like that being more effective on other planets, especially on the more far-flung outer colonies, where visits from heroes would be far less common (although local law enforcement would likely still be suspicious if no one on the planet has actually called for Hero Factory's presence).

I might hold off on approval for now, and wait to see what some of my fellow GMs have to say on the matter. 

Exactly, thus creating a necessity for more stealthy ops and less reliance on the cover in a more Hero-centric environment.

Actual specifications on what guns those are would be nice.

Heroes also have, for the most part, a pretty recognisable build. The Hero Core is part of what makes them a Hero, but they're also all made in the same factory and made to pretty similar standards. We do have differences- Captor would be one example- but you'd imagine even Scooby Heroo would have design elements that appear in other Heroes. A villain of a completely different brand and make might not look all that convincing. It'd be like sticking an Apple logo sticker on a Windows computer, I guess.

That's not really a complaint- to be honest, a villain running around thinking he's fooling everyone when he's really not is pretty funny to me- but I'd think it'd have to come into consideration when playing the villain.

Kyuhaun himself isn't really OP, in fact kind of the opposite. His ship I have some questions about. For one, I think Hero dropships are actually medium, not small. Small ships, from memory, house one person usually. Dropships hold a good handful of Heroes. I was going to ask where he got the dropship, but he could have easily stolen it, so that's fine. Dane brings up a good point about the guns but honestly I've been picturing them as a couple of tiny pistols duct taped to the hull of the ship. Also, he has access to Hero Factory's radio signals, right? Has he altered any other parts of the ship's inner workings, or is it just a case of the ship having extra guns and armour tacked on?

As far as having access to HF radios, wouldn't the Factory swap out encryption keys every few weeks/months?

We should also establish whether or not Heroes and/or their vehicles use Identification Friend or Foe systems.

~Unit#phntk#1

Heroes also have, for the most part, a pretty recognisable build. The Hero Core is part of what makes them a Hero, but they're also all made in the same factory and made to pretty similar standards. We do have differences- Captor would be one example- but you'd imagine even Scooby Heroo would have design elements that appear in other Heroes. A villain of a completely different brand and make might not look all that convincing. It'd be like sticking an Apple logo sticker on a Windows computer, I guess.

 

That's not really a complaint- to be honest, a villain running around thinking he's fooling everyone when he's really not is pretty funny to me- but I'd think it'd have to come into consideration when playing the villain.

 

Kyuhaun himself isn't really OP, in fact kind of the opposite. His ship I have some questions about. For one, I think Hero dropships are actually medium, not small. Small ships, from memory, house one person usually. Dropships hold a good handful of Heroes. I was going to ask where he got the dropship, but he could have easily stolen it, so that's fine. Dane brings up a good point about the guns but honestly I've been picturing them as a couple of tiny pistols duct taped to the hull of the ship. Also, he has access to Hero Factory's radio signals, right? Has he altered any other parts of the ship's inner workings, or is it just a case of the ship having extra guns and armour tacked on?

Yeah, like I said to THE GOOD GUYS, it would convince some people, and some would be pretty confused. Still, if someone has heard of computers and sees a Windows with a Mac sticker, they'll probably think it's a Mac.

And yeah, all of your points on the ship are correct. It's really just some above-average sized pistols welded/taped to the sides, and he's not really changed the inside.

As far as having access to HF radios, wouldn't the Factory swap out encryption keys every few weeks/months?

 

We should also establish whether or not Heroes and/or their vehicles use Identification Friend or Foe systems.

Hm, I was talking to Zippy about this via PM, and she brought up the fact that Witch Doctor still apparently had functional HF access codes a significant amount of time after being exiled from Makuhero City. While the timeframe and circumstances aren't as clear cut in that situation, it'd make sense that Hero Factory would become a little more careful with its access codes, encryption keys and radio frequencies after an incident like that. Especially given that HF had been repeatedly attacked - and then destroyed - since then.

As for IFF, most sci-fi franchises have some kind of universal system for scanning and identifying ships, and I'm sure HF would be no different in that regard. 

Yo, could use an Echo post, Ry.

Yeah, I'll get right on that. Was waiting for a Core post from Lucina, but that's clearly never going to happen. 

I continue to be super busy, let me catch up on these posts.

Unit brings a very good point; I believe, yes, there'd be some switching of encryption keys and friend-or-foe signalling. In Savage Planet, Witch Doctor did still have codes that worked, but I think the best way to think of it is that after that incident they tightened up on the encryption keys. So, while Kyuhaun can fly the thing (Core Hunter did so in one of the books, and they might have changed it since then but I'm willing to think it's a rare enough occurrence and also not leaving your keys in the ship would be a pretty good defence against it), he wouldn't have access to Hero Factory channels. Additionally, I'm pretty sure Hero Factory would have a warning out for the ship disappearing/being stolen, so in-depth examination (eg. checking the sci-fi equivalent of a licence plate) would reveal it to be a stolen vehicle.

Since Hero Factory is known pretty much across the galaxy, I imagine that the disguise- literally a Hero core replica with no other alterations to the villain's make or appearance- won't be very effective except in places that have never heard of Hero Factory or very, very, very rarely see them. In the time the RPG takes place, I doubt that just having a Papier-mâché Hero Core will fool people familiar with Heroes, or at least not for very long.

I was actually joking about the guns being pistols taped to the sides of the ship, but since you agreed with me, I'm just gonna point out that these wouldn't work in space. They'd be lucky to work at all. I guess you could pull them off the hull if you got into a fight just beside the ship, but then so could your opponents. Still, I'm not judging at all, and you can keep it that way. Otherwise, you should probably clarify what they are.

Oh, and the reason I asked about not altering the insides is because, besides Hero Factory having the means to track their ships, they can also apparently control them from the Hero Factory. This feature was a new addition in one of the books, and it was pretty funny to picture this villain being flown right back to Hero Factory. Of course you can absolutely change it so he did take out the tracking function, and also I'm not entirely sure if the remote control function is widespread or just in some models (I can check to make sure if needed). I just wanted to share that.

Profile edited. Now can I get an approval or two?

Here’s my villain profile:

Name: Whipcrack

Character Type: Villain

Abilities/Equipment: Whipcrack uses an elongated electrical-charged whip with the power to stun anyone it hits. He is unnaturally strong, and has good reflexes.

Appearance: Whipcrack’s armour plating is black and deep purple, and extremely shiny. He would be tall, but he walks hunched over and coughs often, due to his affliction with an unknown disease.

Bio: Whipcrack was once a mere citizen, until he was diagnosed with an unknown affliction. Driving him insane, he now takes sadistic pleasure in acts of murder, sabotage, and destruction. He is dangerously unbalanced, and the few people he works with find him to be extremely cruel and calculating, though he undeniably is extremely intelligent.

And also his ship:

Name: The Cyclic Resonator (Whipcrack chose its name because it sounds ominous)

Ship Size: Small (the Cyclic Resonator is a heavily modified hero dropship, which Whipcrack stole)

Pilots/PCs: Whipcrack

NPCs: N/A

Communications: The Cyclic Resonator can communicate with any of the villains or villainous gangs Whipcrack is affiliated with. It can also pick up standard-frequency transmissions.

Navigation & Drive: Sadly, the star charts on the Cyclic Resonator are patchy and incomplete, due to Whipcrack damaging them when installing the thrusters. The ship is piloted manually when in space, though an autopilot function does exist for landing on ground.

Weapons & Armor: Whipcrack has bolted state-of-the-art plasma gatling cannons to the Cyclic Resonator, which he stole. He has also bolted on some chunks of metal, giving it marginally stronger defensive capabilities. Whipcrack also stole a cloaking device, but this has proven itself to be extremely unreliable.

Propulsion: The Cyclic Resonator has several different makes of thrusters attached to it, and is therefore very fast and agile. However, due to power saving, Whipcrack cannot fire the thrusters and the guns at the same time, so the ship must stop in mid-air with the secondary thrusters keeping it aloft in order to fire.

Landing: The Cyclic Resonator is capable of landing on ground, although it has too much exposed circuitry to cope with landing on water.

Now that the tracker issue has been cleared up, I see no real problems, so Approved x 1. 

Stolen idea coming right up.

 

Name: Kyuhaun

Character Type: Villain

Abilities/Equipment: This villain wears a large Hero Factory logo on his chest, taking advantage of the uneducated masses by making them think he is a hero rather than a villain. He possesses two twin hand-blasters capable of firing low-powered bursts of energy.

Appearance: A large, dark villain, with strong gunmetal armor with a red faux hero core on his chest. Two guns with holsters at his side. LDD model to come.

Bio: A villain used to being found in crowds due to his conspicuous appearance, he noticed in the crowd of a Makuhero brawl that a dark hero was instantly identified as a hero, regardless of the rest of his chassis. This gave Kyuhaun the idea to give himself a fake hero core, so that others would think of him as a hero, granting him access to almost anywhere in the universe.

I'd still like to reiterate that my suggestion was a joke, and I certainly didn't expect anyone to try to turn it into a character concept. That said, there's nothing wrong with the profile itself, so again, Approved x 1.

Name: Whipcrack

Character Type: Villain

Abilities/Equipment: Whipcrack uses an elongated electrical-charged whip with the power to temporarily shut down anyone it hits (e.g. a hero). He is unnaturally strong and fast, and has extremely good reflexes.

Appearance: Whipcrack’s armour plating is black and deep purple, and extremely shiny. He would be tall, but he walks hunched over and coughs often, due to his affliction with an unknown disease.

Bio: Whipcrack was once a mere citizen, until he was diagnosed with an unknown affliction. Driving him insane, he now takes sadistic pleasure in acts of murder, sabotage, and destruction. He is dangerously unbalanced, and the few people he works with find him to be extremely cruel and calculating, though he undeniably is extremely intelligent.

Just wanting to clarify - you mention him being sick with some sort of affliction, so I assume Whipcrack is an organic being, rather than a robot? I'm going to have to ask that you tone down the weapon a little, though. A weapon that can completely shut down mechanical beings, in a game that's filled with mechanical beings, is a little too OP. 

As someone mentioned to me recently, the average Hero Dropship is designed to accommodate a full team of heroes, so if Whipcrack's vessel is a modified dropship, it would probably qualify as a medium vessel, rather than small. 

Apart from that, the rest of the profile is fine, so Approved x 1. 

Woohoo one step closer to approval.

I've made the changes.

Hmm, not sure about Whipcrack being strong, fast, smart, AND having an insta-stun weapon, but if the other GMs say it's fine, I'll go along with it. With those kind of stats it's really going to boil down to how this guy is played in-game to determine if he's OP or not. He's a bit like Shade or Captor, where his profile is kinda borderline OP, but he could be a perfectly reasonable character depending on his interactions with the other players.

His ship looks fine, though, so 

The Cyclic Resonator Approved 2/3

Oh, I didn't realize I hadn't taken out the bit about being fast. That was supposed to have been removed before I posted it.

Now it's been edited out.

Made a quick post. Activity probably won't be great for the next while though.

I've made the changes.

Thanks, looks good. Whipcrack Approved x 1.

Alright, he looks a lot more balanced now.

Whipcrack Approved 2/3

*cough cough*

Do the rest of the mods have anything to say about Kyuhaun?

Name: Michael Barrier (Hero)
Powers and abilities: Michael's main speciality is his ability to reduce damage given to both him and his team, carrying with him a Tactical Shield Projector or TSP, which is a rod shaped device that when placed, it attaches itself to the ground, and projects a large bubble like barrier (think the drop shield from Halo without the regen), which functions as cover for him and his teammates. It will eventually fail if given enough fire power, in which case the device will unattach itself to the ground, and will need to recharge. Check here for how much damage it can take. The shield is about the size of a small van. His other weapon is his pump action plasma shotgun, customized with a pistol grip. It has a quite futuristic look, looking like a standard stake out in real life but more advanced. It fires plasma bolt rounds, and he has about 4 rounds in it before he has to reload. He also carries a single tesla grenade, which is a grenade that when detonated, unleashes a violent arc of tesla around the area, enough to stun or even incapacitate some villains. It has about a 10 feet area of effect. It is primarily used for bringing villains in alive. Michael's purpose is primarily a tank-type support for other heroes, as much as he is good for shooting, his supporting capabilities are much more valuable, therefore his armor is also reinforced to reflect more bullets, and take more hits. His helmet's visor is also very strong, but it is still just a strong glass, therefore it can be smashed with enough force. This also makes him quite a bit slower than most heroes, however. His strength is a little high naturally, but not extremely so.

Appearance: Michael's actual hero build is just above average, quite tall, and quite buff. However, he looks a lot bigger in his armor, which gives him an old school riot gear look, sporting large shoulder pads and a bulky chestplate. Barrier's helmet is like that of a real life riot helmet, but with a yellow trans visor, instead. His shoulder and knee pads are a brownish yellow, and his armor color is a dark navy blue. Underneath, he is a lighter blue, with yellow hero core, and eyes. He is a 2.0 model underneath the armor.
Bio: Barrier is by no means a rookie, but he's not exactly a veteran, either. He has been around for around 5 years, and during that time he has learned a lot, serving as the team's heavy support for a multitude of missions. Other than that, Michael's story is pretty average compared to others in the Factory.
Personality: Barrier is extremely protective of the people he is sent on missions with, fitting his class of heavy support. He can get quite angry if irritated, but is usually quite friendly.

So, a quick reminder/apology: Sorry about how slow it's been! It's been very busy in terms of real life stuff. I'll try and get another wrestlepost out soon, I just want to get up to date on profiles first. And do a quick post for a couple IC things beforehand.

To start with, Kyuhaun: I feel like I should reiterate that his disguise probably won't work all that well most of the time, so don't expect to be able to walk into high security places or the Hero Factory itself or anything. I mean, he's pretty much busted the moment someone asks for an ID/scan his core/systems for identification/etc. Still, that's not a reason not to approve him- it's not an issue with overpoweredness or conflicting with established canon, so as long as you keep that in mind (his profile mentions he got the fake core to grant him access almost anywhere in the universe, and clearly that's not going to work out well), he's fine. Approved (3/3)

To be clear, his ship's communications would probably not have access to Hero Factory lines of communication, nor would he be able to identify his ship as Hero Factory-owned (or not successfully). I mean, the extra armour could give it away too I guess, but some characters have customised ships in Hero Factory so I'm willing to let it slide that, on sight, it's not that conspicuous. So approved (3/3)

Devo Whipcrack, as Rylinth has mentioned, will depend entirely on how he's played. The issue I have is mainly the whip, purely because something that can one-hit defeat an enemy isn't really fair. That said, stunning isn't really defeating, more like shocking or throwing someone off guard, so... It's borderline. Also whips are tricky to use and he wouldn't be able to rapid-fire like one could with a gun- if he misses, he'd have to draw back and flick it again. I do have to ask though: so, he's presumably organic, since he has a disease (I mean robots can have em too, but usually you say something robot-like in that context because this is the robot science fiction future)- are his strength and reflexes affected by that? Or his stamina, since his breathing/airways are affected? And, is it contagious? The last three questions are purely out of interest, not connected to his approval. Approved (3/3), but be careful with how you play him!

Whipcrack's ship is fine, but I'm concerned about how many Hero Factory dropships are being stolen. I bet it's just this one guy who keeps leaving his keys in the ship. Approved (3/3)

Michael Barrier's main deal is his shield, which might be a bit over the top, especially with him having so many other abilities/weapons on top of it. Abilities and weapons are tricky to balance, and it's often a case-by-case scenario of what's balanced and what's too much. If Michael Barrier had less in the way of abilities, it'd stand out less as too powerful, I think. I'll get back to you after I consult with the other GMs, and then let you know how that goes and if there's an issue I'll do my best to offer a solution.

I'd appreciate some more specific indication on how much punishment that shield can actually take, but apart from that I'm not really seeing any huge issues with Michael Barrier. 

As you can imagine, it's a little difficult to specify how much, especially for me because I'm bad at maths, but I'm thinking 20-30 hits from lower class weapons (pistols and such) 17 to 25 hits from weak rifles and smgs. 15 hits from assault rifles, 5-10 hits from snipers and revolvers, 1-2 hits from explosives based weaponry.

Alright, thanks. That works for me, so Approved x1. 

Does it make a difference whether physical bullets or energy blasts are hitting the shield? Energy blasts would be the canonical common thing to protect against, but we have a weird amount of physical bullets being thrown around.

Also, just so you're clear on this fact, it's been explained to me that standard shotguns would be basically useless against robots. So that pretty much helps weigh out the issues I had with the power balance, I suppose. Granted that fact, approved (2/3).

If you want to change the weapon, don't count that approval and I'll give a different one if the new one's fine. But honestly having the gun equivalent to a feather duster sounds really good

Hey hey hey, Quln said I should join the RPG so here I am. Before I start making my hero though, is there anything I should know about? what things should I keep in mind. I have some crazy ideas so I want to know the boundaries of what I can get away with before I go too nuts.

It's probably in my best interests to change that weapon, so I don't have a tickle gun.

Energy blasts would probably be slightly more effective when hitting the shield.

Hey hey hey, Quln said I should join the RPG so here I am. Before I start making my hero though, is there anything I should know about? what things should I keep in mind. I have some crazy ideas so I want to know the boundaries of what I can get away with before I go too nuts.

Honestly, it's hard to say without knowing what you've got in mind. Generally, anything that makes your character utterly invincible, or gives them the power to instantly kill any and every thing in their path with total ease, isn't going to be approved. 

Apart from that, though, we tend to address abilities and powerset combinations on more of a case-by-case basis.

There's no set standard.

It's probably in my best interest to change that weapon, so I don't have a tickle gun.

Dangit.