Guild of the Bat [OOC]

[sweetja713]

I'll take a stab with the only vegetable I know from dc. Floronic Man

[roguescribner]

A mutant Poison Ivy?

[Macguffin]

I'm going to go with Lady Clayface.

[Shock]

Anyplace in the alley we could stick McClintok where he's a little more out of sight?

[Spectrum]

Unlikely to come up in this scene, but was picturing:

Slaying swords (matched swords- need something suitably horror) Damage 4 (str based), variable descriptor 2 (magical), split 1, removable

The variable descriptor being like primium, where its naturally antimagical- taking on the properties of any weakness the defender has. So silver (or gold) against weres.

[Lord Fell]

hmm.

I'm having a different problem with the game, that's unrelated to pacing. It's something that I've been thinking for a while, and it seems every time we move a bit forward in the game, instead of being alleviated my sense of there being a problem increases.

It's entirely plot related, so that's a problem. I can't really express a problem with a plot that I don't see the behind the scenes for. You may have everything all sorted out, squared away, and preplanned.. and perhaps my concern is something you can consider and discard. But... here's where I see it from a player side of the equation.

First, we have an issue with Sinister Six, and we start investigating the theft of the Philosopher's Engine.
Suddenly, King Shark seems to be a thing...?
Given our investigation into shipping, it does make sense to encounter Blackhawk. That character, as an Easter Egg was a nice touch... assuming she's an Easter Egg, and not an ongoing distraction.
Then there's this Dr. Mureau angle, which seems to be a thing.
And suddenly, the German team is fighting for their life against Madame Rouge.
Oh look, here comes Deathstroke the Ravager.

...what were we doing again? Actually, it feels to me like my list is missing something.

What I'm saying is, the plot feels like it's getting sidelined by a lot of extraneous stuff. The question I would like you to think on... is all of this appropriate to your plot? Are the additional personalities you're bringing into the thick of things useful to your overall story, or are they mostly there because you have a cool idea of how they would fit into your world? I feel like the game isn't really benefiting from these new angles and twists, when the pace is already so slow. It was presented to us that our enemies were going to be the Sinister Six. Going on 15 pages, we haven't even managed to get into the same Country as they are as of yet.

As I said, I don't know what you've got planned, and everything might be going according to that plan, in which case don't worry about any of this.

[Spectrum]

First, we have an issue with Sinister Six, and we start investigating the theft of the Philosopher's Engine.
Suddenly, King Shark seems to be a thing...?
Given our investigation into shipping, it does make sense to encounter Blackhawk. That character, as an Easter Egg was a nice touch... assuming she's an Easter Egg, and not an ongoing distraction.
Then there's this Dr. Mureau angle, which seems to be a thing.
And suddenly, the German team is fighting for their life against Madame Rouge.
Oh look, here comes Deathstroke the Ravager.

I think that I can see some of the links.. (at least I think that I can, probably wrong)

King Shark is a member of the Sinister 6, right?
Blackhawk was kinda.... nifty. *blush*
Dr, Mureau seems to explain the presence of beastmen in the setting..

No clue on the other two, except maybe as members of Villains Unlimited which is heavily involved on the backstory of the Sinister 6 during *mumble* Crisis, or is that Crisis *mumble*.. I gave up most comics (at least the Big Two) when they insisted on continually blowing up their worlds as being good for sales.

[Coyotzin]

@ Spectrum: keep a HP, you don't roll Parry, it's a passive defense which Madame Rouge's attack roll met and surpassed. The swords look good

@Lord Fell: Yes, it's relevant to the plot. It's a very large conspiracy and you're slowly disentangling the thread. And you're after the Secret Six, not the Sinister Six. King Shark is a member of the Secret Six as was detailed by Lord Wayne, so the German team can be sure that they ARE in the same country as the Secret Six, and also the Philosopher's Engine. Madame Rouge did yell that the Brotherhood of Evil is also after the Engine, which means the Guild and Luthor's hired hands are no longer the only players on the board. It's a race to get one of the most powerful devices ever built. Do note that Wilson asked for McClintock, which means that he's in on it in some way or another. The information you have been uncovering about Blake is ancillary, but related. Blake has a life outside his role as Catman, and by digging into the loose ends of that life you're honing in on the part relevant to the central plot. The rest is there as seasoning, and potential subplots you might want to pursue later or ignore completely.

I'm using flavor NPCs to drop hints into which is the right direction for the plot (Zinda told you to focus on the anomaly in the shipping schedule), but otherwise I'm letting your actions dictate the actual plot.

[Shock]

Spectrum, you don't roll Parry. It's a static Defense.

As for the plot, I haven't had a problem yet. He's throwing a lot of stuff at us but I think a lot of it is just name-dropping. There's also probably a bit of set-up for future missions occurring. My guess is there's a villainous organization analogous to the Guild of the Bat that is shaping up to be a recurring foe. Sort of the SPECTRE to our MI6.

Aaaand, I was too slow and Coyo ninja'd me.

[Lord Fell]

I'm pretty happy with that response.

I guess to echo what Shock said, it just felt like you were throwing a lot of stuff at us. I just wanted to make sure that all of the stuff was being juggled and not dropped.

[Coyotzin]

There is a name-dropping factor involved, yes But my main method of including NPCs is... I setup a role for a character in the plot, then I think if there's a DC character I could safely adapt into Steampunk that meets the narrative functions for that role. Lady Blackhawk fulfilled neatly the role of free-rolling merc pilot with a heart of gold to use as a contact of Barbara Gordon (and is related to her in the streamline DCU), and Deathstroke is fulfilling the role I need for that particular part of the plot. It's up to you to make his presence big or small, but he's there doing a job.

[Spectrum]

Are they the super secret sinister six sisters of errrr.. syndrome?

[Shock]

As long as we can get a hold of Syndrome's remote, we should be OK ;}

[Spectrum]

Spectrum, you don't roll Parry. It's a static Defense.

Okay, so I'm going to let my newbie side show.. I've never actually been in combat before. Combat scenes, yes, actual combat- not really.

What mechanics do I need to remove from my post?

[Lord Fell]

Here's a query related to the scene...

Where did Slade come from? Did he not have to go past Selina?