Paradigm Shift: OOC

[Bladewind]

As previously stated, villains (while not banned) face an uphill battle.
That said, nothing prevents them from being used.

I gots catching up to do here.

[Ryan M. Danks]

After sleeping on it, and reading additional comments on the matter, here's what I've settled on. Let me know what you think. If opinions are positive, I'll start on the build immediately.

Oliver Queen was at sea when his ship was caught in a paradigm shift. His father died in the event, but he found himself trapped in another realm (will detail later). He fought for survival and found his way back, but was forever changed.

For powers, he can bend space, allowing him to teleport himself and his arrows (indirect attacks). Still working on the details, but that's what I've come up with. What do you guys think?

[Bladewind]

That has potential. I want a little more on how he got back though.

I am going to review the bids thus far (via thread and pm) and make general comments tonight.

[RedBstrd]

Sorry, you are right, I looked at the general description and not the specific one. On the last point, is there any possibility someone can realize his mind was read? I always considered hiding power usage no glowing eyes and other halo effects. This is a real question how others handle this.

Np. Don't be sorry; your other two pieces of feedback were really spot-on and useful.

As a sensory effect, by default it doesn't have any visual accompaniment. Characters can take Noticeable on sensory powers (and get red eyes or whatever) to make them less expensive if they wish. I didn't take any.

Anyone can realize that their mind was read if they pass the required Perception check (DC 20).

[Ryan M. Danks]

NIGHTSHIFT
Real Name: Oliver “Ollie” Queen
Power Origins: Paradigm Shifted
Base: Metropolis
Affiliation: Science Police
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 195 lbs
Eyes: Violet
Hair: Black
Distinctions: Violet spatial energy courses through black chitinous plating.

Power Level: 10 (150 points)

Abilities
Strength 2, Stamina 2, Agility 4, Dexterity 4, Fighting 4, Intellect 1, Awareness 2, Presence 3

Powers
Chitinous Plating: It's not his former face, but it'll scare the hell out of his enemies. That'll have to do. Protection 4 • 4 points
Darkwood Bow: 31 points, Easily Removable (-12 points) • 19 points

Infiltrator’s Arrow: Nock, draw, teleport the arrow across the intervening space, then back to the quiver. Ranged Penetrating Damage 8, Affects Insubstantial 2, Indirect 4 • 30 points
AE: Spatial Shock: Charges the arrow with spatial static, creating a dimensional rift where it lands. Ranged Burst Area Affliction 10 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated) • 1 point

Transdimensional Quiver: Alters the structure of the arrows within, depending on what's needed for the job at hand. Dimensional AnchorGM • 0 points
Night Vision: Didn't have to pay a 20 Menthol Kools to get this eye-shine job. Senses 2 (Darkvision) • 2 points
Shadow Escape: Creates a minuscule wormhole, literally jumping across space. Enhanced Active Defenses 4; Enhanced Advantages 1 (Hide in Plain Sight); Teleport 3 (250 feet), Change Velocity, Extended (8 miles), Turnabout • 20 points

Advantages
Accurate Attack, Defensive Roll 2, Favored Environment (Darkness), Favored Paradigm (Shadow Reality)GM, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Aim, Improved Critical (Bow), Improved Initiative, Precise Attack 2 (Ranged, Cover and Concealment), Skill Mastery (Ranged Combat: Bow), Power Attack, Quick Draw, Redirect, Startle, Takedown

Skills
Acrobatics 6 (+10), Athletics 6 (+8), Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+8), Expertise: Survival 4 (+5), Insight 6 (+8), Intimidation 7 (+10), Investigation 5 (+6), Perception 6 (+8), Ranged Combat: Bow 8 (+12), Stealth 8 (+12)

Offense
Initiative +8
Infiltrator’s Arrow +12, Ranged, Penetrating Damage 8 (Affects Insubstantial, Crit 19-20)
Spatial Shock, Ranged Burst Area, Affliction 10
Unarmed +8, Close, Damage 2

Defenses
Dodge 12, Parry 12
Toughness 8*/6, Fortitude 6, Will 6
*Defensive Roll.

Power Points
Abilities 44 + Powers 45 + Advantages 15 + Skills 30 + Defenses 16 = 150

Complications
Mistrusted: Oliver was physically changed by his time in the shadow reality and no longer appears (and may not be) human.
Responsibility - Motivation: Perceived guilt over the events surrounding the fall of New Angels pushes Ollie to fight for the independence of his reality.
Temper: Ollie can have a short fuse, particularly when it comes to social and political causes he believes in.

Nestled in his extravagant high rise towering above the cares of New Angels, Oliver Queen lived life to the fullest and never gave anything back. Behind his private security and social status, Ollie thought he was protected from any eventuality. But then the portals opened, the incursion of New Angels had started.

Oliver and his family tried to escape the city in their private jet, literally pushing others aside as they made their way to the airfield. Once the plane made it off the tarmac it became a target and the pilot was forced into an invading portal. After Rogers destroyed the devices keeping the portals open, it was thought that the Queen family was lost forever.

On the other side, the plane crashed, killing the crew and most of the Queen family. Oliver crawled out of the wreckage and found himself on demonic terrain. The land seemed dead, the stone as black as the clouds above. He spent his divided between avoiding shadow demons as they made their way across the terrain conducting whatever terrible business they had to tend to and seeking food and shelter. His first meal was glowing purple fungus in a cave made of obsidian stone, it didn't go down well.

To survive, Oliver built a bow from the bark of an extremely tough tree that had been severed by a lightning strike. Violet embers, the same color as the lightning that had struck the hard wood, glowed at its center. Oliver found a piece that was roughly the shape needed for a bow stave and used the extra strong silk of a demonic spider for the bowstring. Several long pieces of the tree were fletched as arrows and his alien weapon of survival was complete.

During his many hunts, Ollie found that his body had been changed by the alien forces, or was it from the portal he traveled through? He couldn't exactly say when his body began to change, but it did. He was becoming something similar to the shadow demons who lived in this realm, even able to move about by bending space as they did.

After some time, Ollie had become a successful hunter and resolved to finding his way back home. As much as he thought he was above others and needed no one, his lonely experience in the shadow realm proved the opposite. He found himself desiring human interaction and intimacy. He didn't care what he had to do for others, he wanted to be part of a community again.

He began to spy on the shadow demon settlements, moving invisibly by bending space and teleporting through their streets. On one such venture, Ollie discovered the devices the shadow demons used to extend their spacial abilities to other dimensions. Upon discovery by the shadow demons, he activated one of the devices and slipped through, back to earth. He destroyed the device with an arrow, the only one he had ever lost, closing the portal.

Ollie found himself in the ruins of Lost Angels. Everything he longed to see was destroyed. He spent hours picking through the ruins, nostalgic of times lost and feeling that if he had spent his money helping people and protecting them rather than living only for himself maybe the city would have been ready for such an event.

Finding the edge of the devastation, Oliver saw that Metropolis had survived. Although he was forever changed, and would likely not find the human interaction he was searching for, he was resolved to joining those who protected the world from such incursions. He would not sit idly by while such atrocity happened, not again.

[Bombaatu]

Updated Horus background concept:
The entity known as 'Horus' had been to Earth before, thousands of years ago during another paradigm-shift event. That event came to be known as 'the Age of Heroes', when advanced beings defended the primitive humans from other-worldly forces; the humans worshiped these beings as gods. These battles gave rise to myths and passed down through the eons, with the grains of truth behind them lost.

Present day: another paradigm-shift event threatens the multiverse and Horus again wishes to lend aid to the world that had been his home so long ago. However, this event is not as pronounced and Horus is not able to fully shift across the dimensional barrier; he requires a host. Enter one Billy Batson, a young runaway on the streets of Metropolis. He left the suburbs and came to the city to escape an abusive uncle, his guardian since the death of his parents. Billy was in Metropolis when the shift-event occurred and the barrier went up; even if he wanted to go home, he couldn't. Alone, he made his way as best he could. For <<time since event>> he has lived on the streets. His good-hearted nature have at times made him a target, but he is well-known among the transient population and they watch out for him. It was Billy's purity of spirit in the face of hardship that drew Horus to use Billy as his vessel.

Thoughts?

[Walking Dad]

...

As a sensory effect, by default it doesn't have any visual accompaniment. Characters can take Noticeable on sensory powers (and get red eyes or whatever) to make them less expensive if they wish. I didn't take any.

Anyone can realize that their mind was read if they pass the required Perception check (DC 20).

Must have missed the sensory effect part. This is the only rule for noticing effects I found:

Effects with a duration of instant, concentration, or sustained must be noticeable in some way. For example, a Blast effect might have a visible beam or make a loud noise (ZAP!) or both. Some effects are quite obvious, such as Flight, Insubstantiality, Growth, or Shrinking. Effects with a continuous or permanent duration are not noticeable by default.
If an instant, concentration, or sustained effect’s base duration is changed using modifiers, the effect remains noticeable. A continuous or permanent effect made instant, concentration, or sustained also becomes noticeable. The Subtle modifier can make noticeable powers difficult or impossible to detect. Conversely, the Noticeable modifier makes a normally subtle effect noticeable.

And mind reading is sustained.
I also read the entry again, and it sounds like the "victim" notices automatically the Mind Reading, unless you took subtle 1 (requiring a DC 20 check) or subtle 2 (no chance) for it.

I really like both shapeshifters and psychics, so this is helping me immensely, but I hope I don't annoy you or anyone else in this thread. Thanks again for taking the time.

[RedBstrd]

Must have missed the sensory effect part. This is the only rule for noticing effects I found:

Effects with a duration of instant, concentration, or sustained must be noticeable in some way. For example, a Blast effect might have a visible beam or make a loud noise (ZAP!) or both. Some effects are quite obvious, such as Flight, Insubstantiality, Growth, or Shrinking. Effects with a continuous or permanent duration are not noticeable by default.
If an instant, concentration, or sustained effect’s base duration is changed using modifiers, the effect remains noticeable. A continuous or permanent effect made instant, concentration, or sustained also becomes noticeable. The Subtle modifier can make noticeable powers difficult or impossible to detect. Conversely, the Noticeable modifier makes a normally subtle effect noticeable.

And mind reading is sustained.
I also read the entry again, and it sounds like the "victim" notices automatically the Mind Reading, unless you took subtle 1 (requiring a DC 20 check) or subtle 2 (no chance) for it.

I really like both shapeshifters and psychics, so this is helping me immensely, but I hope I don't annoy you or anyone else in this thread. Thanks again for taking the time.

It's no bother. I know you love Martians (who have Mind Reading and so on by default), so I take your questions/comments from the perspective that you're interested in exploring the rules for how one of your favorite character types works, rather than trying to be bothersome. Similarly, I like making sure my characters are all designed legally and appropriately.

I think the way it works is how you describe: all powers of certain duration types have to be noticeable somehow though the exact sense needed to perceive them depends on the power. Growth is noticeable to visual and tactile senses, a Ranged Damage effect might be noticeable to visual and audible senses. For mental sense effects with the appropriate duration (like Mind Reading), they're still noticeable, but only to the target or to people with exotic senses. In other words, they're less noticeable by their very nature (it says that they have a "degree of subtlety").

My impression is that people with an exotic mental sense could detect Mind Reading with a pretty easy difficulty on a Perception roll (perhaps DC 0 or DC 5, based on the guidelines for the Perception skill). The target would probably have a slightly harder chance (perhaps DC 10) unless they had an exotic sense that perceives mental powers. I don't think that they automatically notice it, though they automatically have a chance to do so (i.e. a Perception roll). Adding the power feat of Subtle just raises the difficulty to DC 20 for people with exotic senses or for the target. The second rank, as you note, makes it completely undetectable.

At least, that's my reading of the part you quoted in relation to what it says in the Perception skill and the write up for Mind Reading with Subtle.

[Bladewind]

Note that I am working on backgrounds and suitability to the game and the current group.

These are the submissions I have found since reopening recruitment (the ones that go beyond a very welcome expression of interest.):

@timothy Iron Fist

@baixiwei The Secret

@RedBstrd Eclipse
If I have not mentioned, I like this concept a lot.
The Rivalry complication is not likely to come up often, if at all. You can keep it in case I have moment of inspiration.
His Paradigm Shifted origin works perfectly well.
I would appreciate a little bit on the whys and wherefores of getting tacked onto the Science Police and what role he plays there, if any.
If selected, he's in the SP detail with the others and is in "human form."

@Ryan M Danks Archer
Nice job with Ollie. I especially like the integration into the Metropolis and Lost Angels game history.
Be aware that I will play up distrust bewteen Shifts...
Show me some stats !

@Bombaatu Horus
Liking this a lot. Fits well, I can have him insert easily enough.
This backstory gives me stuff to work with outside of my original notes and provides a greater continuity to the campaign as a whole.
The complication of Shifted will apply heavily to this character.

@CelticRei Arcane Hammer
Granddaughter? I'da thought daughter, but I like the concept. Mystic Battlesuit is a favoured niche of mine that I rarely explore...

@Evolución Kmer Lahasir
(Being discussed via PM)

@bi0philia
Bats is in Gotham. Metropolis has no current knowledge of the Dark City

@All
1) If I miss a proposed concept, please tell me.

2) As I count it, that gives me several solid concepts for three places. It will come down to builds and actual power combos for me to make the choice.

[Ryan M. Danks]

No opinions on my concept? Should I start building the character?

[Bladewind]

@Ryan M Danks Archer
Nice job with Ollie. I especially like the integration into the Metropolis and Lost Angels game history.
Be aware that I will play up distrust bewteen Shifts...
Show me some stats !

[Ryan M. Danks]

Sorry, I think we posted at the same time. Will post tonight.

[Bladewind]

No prob.

[Evolución]

Agent X

For Lex Luthor its not enough to have the perfect spy working for him, that man has to be genetically enhanced and perfected to the ultimate secret card. That thought alone turned Kmer Lahasir, former Iran secret service, AKA The Agent into Agent X, the ultimate spy. Close to unlock the secrets of immortality, Luthor's genetists turned Kmer almost unkillable and enhanced his already almost superhuman skills. But Luthor is no fool, he would not create such a powerful weapon without a secret Off button. After a few test missions, Luthor told Kmer his services were appreciated and that he was not longer bound to him, but that Metropolis needed him to fend off the paradigm invaders. Kmer decided to join the ones opposing the paradigms and make a stand with them, with his more subtle approach to things.

Complications:
Secret complication.
Enemies: Not many people like Luthor, and the only thing not secret about Agent X is his past allegiance with him.

Agent X






Abilities ( 36 pp)
Strength: 3
Agility 4
Dexterity: 5
Stamina: 5
Fighting 5
Intellect: 4
Awareness: 4
Precence: 6


Combat
Guns + 13 Attack for DC: From 3, to 5 Ranged
Sword + 12 Attack for DC: 3 Melee
Imp. Weapons + 9 Attack for DC: 8plus the type of object Melee

Initiative: 12

Saves ( 16 pp)
Parry: 11
Toughness : 7
Fortitude: 9
Dodge: 11
Will: 9


Skills ( 39 pp)
8 ( 4 ) Acrobatics
14 ( 8 ) Deception
8 ( 5 ) Athletics
11 ( 7 ) Insight
11 ( 5 ) Persuacion
8 ( 4 ) Technology
9 ( 4 ) Close Combat Unnarmed
12 ( 7 ) Close Combat Sword
9 ( 4 ) Vehicles
9 ( 4 ) Sleight of Hand
13 ( 8 ) Ranged Combat Guns
9 ( 5 ) Perception
8 ( 2 ) Intimidation
10 ( 6 ) Investigation
9 ( 5 ) Stealth


Advantages ( 42 pp)
Equipment 6
Move by action
Set-up
All out, Defensive , Accurate, Precise and Power attack 5
Assesment
Benefit: Ambidexterity
Benefit: Cipher, Wealth 1, Alternate identity 3
Benefit: Security clearance
Connected
Contacts
Well informed
Ediatic memory
Improved aim, Initiative (2) 3
Improvised weapon 8
Interpose
languages 4
Jack of all trades
Redirect
Quikdraw 1


Powers (Rank) [Cost]
Immortality ( 9 )[ 9 ]
Limited: Can't rise if burned to death.

Immunity ( 3 )[ 3 ]
Aging, disease, poison

Regeneration ( 5 )[ 5 ]


Equipment Cost Bonus
Night vision googles 1
Lock release gun 1
Binoculars 1
Mini tracer 1
Fire extinguisher 1
Undercover shirt 2 Protection 2, subtle
Rebreather 1
Camara 1
Audio recorder 1
Cell phone 1
Commlink 1
Computer 1
Parabolic microphone 1

Equipment array: Weapons 11
Heavy pistol 1 Ran. Damage 4
Sniper rifle 1 Ran. Damage 5
Light pistol 1 Ran. Damage 3
Stun gun 1 Affliction 5, electrical
Sword 1 Damage 3

[Zen_Gypsy]

I had a post about Mind Scan and mental effects, but wow, just wow. Reading it, it's the only power that gets subtle & insidious for free >.<