October Dawn: Recruiting Players

[Utgardloki]

I have started recruiting players for my October Dawn campaign, which I plan to run in the chatroom on this site. If you are interested, please post a response with a description of what sort of character you'd like to play, availability, and any questions you might have.

October Dawn is a supers game set in the modern era (2011), using a heavily mutated system where the Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition was my starting point. I plan to have you start out as relatively normal people (perhaps a little above average, maybe Power Rank 1), and then at some point you will gain your super powers.

To make things simple, I will create the PCs using the descriptions you give me, and random selection of what you do not determine in the description. If you have a starting Savage Worlds character you'd like to use, we can use that as a base.

If you want to import a character from another campaign, we may be able to work something out, as long as it does not become a game of arguing with munchkins. Your power level will probably change if you do this, so your character matches the others.

Any questions, ideas, comments, thoughts will be welcome.

[Utgardloki]

It might be helpful to see a quick overview of how the history of this world subtly differs from that of the "real world".


ALTERNATE HISTORY
Events in this universe pretty well followed the course they did in our universe. The major differences involve the evolution of supers prior to the Rapture Event.

The Arrival of Starwoman: In 1908, a spaceship bearing an infant girl crashed into the Siberian wasteland. Since it landed in such a remote area, nobody noted it. The girl was found by a Siberian shaman who taught her his mystic secrets. During World War II, she fought against the Nazis, but afterwards took on Stalin's regime, until she was killed in 1955.

The Golden Guys: Evil was afoot in the 1930s, and it made sense back then to put on a colorful costume and fight it. A lot of costumed heroes arose in those days, taking on nom de guerres like Ratman, Green Tornado, and Liberty Belle. Most of them were killed in the violence of World War II, and the rest mostly hung up their capes in the 1950s. "Golden Guys" however have had a tendancy to pop up in various areas of the world, where they were needed, such as south-east Asia, Bangladesh, and the inner cities of America.

Superspies: As the Cold War advanced through the 50s to the 80s, espionage between the super powers became more important. Well-funded superspies were trained and equiped with the best equipment modern technology could make. Some of this equipment might have found its way into unauthorized hands...

The Superchicks: It is hard to imagine the world that prompted Miss Terrific to put on a mask and a skintight costume, and wage a one-woman war for Right, Liberty, and the Overthrow of Male Chauvanism. But she was soon not alone, as other ladies took on costumed identities to fight for women's lib. In 1977, they banded together as the Angels, which might have been a mistake because they were all killed in 1983. By that time, however, even the arch conservative President Ronald Reagan declared a day of mourning for them.

The Day of the Cyborgs: In 1974, Russian scientists succeeded in creating a cyborg -- a man who has mechanical body parts granting him superior strength and other abilities. In 1976, the Americans duplicated the feat. A few cyborgs were created, but problems developed. Cyborgs had a nasty habit of dying young from either infections or radiation poisoning or mutated infections. Not even the power of Hafnium could save them.

The Power of Hafnium: In 1977, hafnium power cells were invented. Hafnium cells can store and release a tremendous amount of power. They are, however, fickle, expensive, difficult to make and use, and have a tendancy to release radiation in the X-Ray spectrum. After a few years, their drawbacks became apparent, and they have not been much used except in very high end equipment.

Dr. Wartha: In 1978, Dr. Andrew Wartha made headlines with his book about how detrimental the superchicks were to society. He blamed the superchicks for practically every problem that existed in the 1970s. Since 1990, his work has been continued by his son, Dr. David Wartha.

The Zorros: Events in Latin America got pretty violent in the 70s and 80s. Many people took up masked identities to fight for one cause or another. It's not always clear who the good guys were and who the bad guys were, although one rule of thumb is that a guy holding a gun to your head is probably a bad guy. Since the 90s, tensions have died down a little, and most Zorros are involved fighting drug lords.

The Dancers League: In reaction to the increasing chaos in the Middle East in the 2000s, a number of women have decided to openly flout the puritanical shieks and dress themselves in belly dancer attire to fight against evil.

[Wolfprince13]

Meet Jason Kearney. An average film-school graduate who plans to make documentaries that will change the world. Until then, he works as the assistant editor on an independent music magazine called "1sTune".
25 years old, Jason stands 5'11 and weighs in at 160. He has red hair and blue eyes, with a light dusting of freckles across his face, which, he has been told, makes him look 'cute'.
When not working or filming everything he sees, Jason spends time at the gym, practicing his Combat Sambo, a martial art form he has been learning since he was 6. He currently holds the rank Master Sportsman, the rough equivalent of a blue belt or 6th dan in other forms.
Quite skilled with computers, Jason has had some practice with hacking, but nothing too serious.
Comes the Rapture - When the Rapture strikes, Jason is transformed. He begins to develop strange abilities beyond that of normal ken. But when disaster strikes, Jason finds himself rising from the ashes, his abilities altered, time and time again.

[Mechanics - Jason has the constant ability of resurrection. His other abilities change each time he returns from the dead. Upon each resurrection, he has a new set of random abilities within his power level.]

[Grandmagi]

Dillan D'Lorian comes from money. Young and a bit spoiled, his life changes during the rapture when he finds he can copy himself. Multiple copies become erratic and problematic (each copy missing and additional element of his psyche with the primary personality trait of that psyche missing from each of the following). Strong emotions tend to trigger the split with multiple strong emotions producing multiple splits. Dillan struggles to contain his emotions at all times, trying to restore some order and perhaps sanity to his life.

[KayeoticNeutral]

Before I post an actual story, I'd like to make sure, once more, that this idea is fine by you, Loki.
A character that has MPd (Multiple personality Disorder) In which she believes herself to be about 4 different people... all with skills of their own, some combat-oriented, some not... but she doesn't have any control over who comes out at what point in time...
Sometimes the paramedic will surface just before an attack and not know what to do other than run or try very unskillfully to protect themselves and sometimes the martial artist will appear when someone needs some form of medical assistance... there is a chance the paramedic will come around, but you never really can tell.
I know not whether to use one name or variations of the same name to make it easier or to have completely seperate beings with different names... at least some having variations of the same name might make it easier, not entirely sure.
If this is approved, I'll put a nifty story up. If it isn't for any reason... I'll shoot one of my other three back up plans your way ^.-

[Wolfprince13]

I have had characters like this in games I have run before and they add a lot of fun to the story. the only thing I would say is that in true cases of MPD it's not really that random. The personalities generally are certain portions of the patient's psyche and will (most of the time) surface to particular stimuli. For instance if the schism happened as a result of abuse, then when the patient feels vulnerable or scared, the "protector" persona takes over.
i would say if you go this route, you probably want to define the emotions or stimuli that would trigger each shift. And probably have a good solid idea of what caused the initial personality schism in the first place as that will help clarify a lot, as well as figuring when each personality developed. Were all the fractures simultaneous or did they happen over time?
My two cents and things that i ask my players to consider when they want to play this type of character. Feel free to ignore me

[Utgardloki]

Your idea is fine, Kaye.

I might develop a way for players to have secondary characters, so if you have other ideas, perhaps they can be used as secondary characters in some way (maybe with some version of the Leadership feat).

[KayeoticNeutral]

I did the random roll as a way to kind of say "Hey, this isn't my way of being overpowered in any way or anything." lol.
I have an idea of the personalities at hand, I can omit or replace any if necessary but I picked my favorite four, each having a different nickname derived from the name Alexandria. (Lexi, Alex, Andria and Ria)

Lexi- Soldier. Trained in guns and endurance. A deadly opponent in combat; a good team member to have on your side.

Alex- Paramedic. Trained to patch up or stitch wounds and keep the traumatized calm. Not the most effective in a combat situation but she knows exactly what to do when someone goes down.

Andria- Ex-criminal out for redemption. Skills include self-defense, stealth and street wisdom. Also can make a quick getaway by car if necessary. Never got into the murder scene but knows basic manuvers for self-defense.

Ria- Secret agent... not that she would tell you unless she thought it was safe and could use your help in her mission. Whatever the mission is, Ria is on it.

Also, Wolf:
I tend to not ignore advice that is serious advice. Now if I said I had a stomache ache and you said "Eat more chili fries" I might ignore that. =P But, I know where you're going with the emotional triggers. Again, I just didn't want it to seem like I was trying to be overpowered or anything because that isn't something I do.

[Utgardloki]

You're doing fine, Kaye. This looks like a good set of personalities. What do you think about adding a "normal" person who doesn't know what any of this is about?

And perhaps adding a dorky librarian type with an encyclopediac knowledge of superheroes and supervillians?

[KayeoticNeutral]

Sure. I mean, I could do that. Kind of makes me wish this were skype and maptool rather than chat so I could talk out the parts but... lol. Should be fun and interesting.

[Death_Jester]

If you wouldnt mind I'd like to take a look at your rules set bud.

[Utgardloki]

Because Kaye was in the room, I did her character first. The dice really liked her. In fact, she ended up with almost perfect stats. The MPD makes things tough, because skills have to be divided between four personalities. She is a lot like Echo from the TV series _Dollhouse_.

The character is it currently stands is:


Alexandria Pearl
Sex: Female Height: 5 feet 6 inches Weight: 131 pounds
Age: 21 Birth: February 8, 1979

Appearance: Fair skin, dark red hair, full of body

Agility: 1D12 Smarts: 1D6 Spirit: 1D12 (one six)
Strength: 1D12 Vigor: 1D12 Charm: 1D12
Luck: 1D6

Pace: 12 Defence: 6 + 1/2 fighting Reputation: 0
Toughness: 12

Occupation: Secret agent, although nobody believes her.
Wealth: 1D6 Yearly Income: $75,000 a year
Monthly Funds: Cost 4 ($640 a month)

Skills (six bonus skills):
General (available to all personalities)
Athletics: 1D4 Survival: 1D4 Notice: 1D6 Chemistry: 1D4
Perseverence: 1D6 Cooking: 1D6 Carpentry: 1D4 Metalworking: 1D4
Singing: 1D4

Lexi's Skills
Fighting: 1D8 Firearms: 1D8 Fortitude: 1D6

Alex's Skills
Medicine: 1D12 Psychotherapy: 1D6 Willpower: 1D4

Andria's Skills
Fighting: 1D4 Dodge: 1D8 Stealth: 1D8
Streetwise: 1D4 Driving: 1D12 Driving Corvette: 1D4
Law: 1D12

Ria's Skills
Stealth: 1D6 Fighting: 1D4 Firearms: 1D12
Pistols: 1D4 Acrobatics: 1D8 Driving: 1D4

Hindrances:
1. Multiple Personality Disorder.
Alexandria has four different personalities. Certain skills are only available to certain of her personalities, as noted above. Any new skills and edges she learns has to be associated with a personality, but she buys skills for half price.
Starting edges cost 50% more if they affect all personalities, or 50% less if they only affect one personality.

2. Amnesia.
Alexandria does not remember her past. Each personality has a different background story, but none of them are true.

Edges (7 1/2 Advances)
1. Jaded
All of Alexandria's personalities are Jaded, and gain a +1 bonus to rolls against fear, horror, or naseau.

2. Equipment
Alexandria happens to have the following equipment:
1A a. A 2012 Chevrolet Corvette C5 Z06 Coupe (405 hp, 0-16 mph in 3.9 seconds, base price $75,525 (cost 7))
1A b. A pair of jet skates When activated (one action), her pace increases to 24. The jets are powered by hafnium batteries that can be used for 14 rounds before they need to be recharged for ten minutes with AC power. An Acrobatics roll is required to avoid a mishap.
c. A firearm and a concealed carry permit for the State of Iowa.

3. Skills
a. +2 dice type to Acrobatics for Ria
b. +1 dice type to Fighting Lexi
c. +1 dice type to Fortitude Lexi
d. +2 dice type to Medicine Alex
d. +2 dice type to Dodge Andrea
d. +2 dice type to Stealth Andrea
d. +4 dice type to Driving Andrea
d. 1D4 specialization Driving Corvette Andrea
d. +4 dice type to Law Andrea
d. +1 dice type to Stealth Ria
d. +4 dice type to Firearms Ria

---------- Post added at 12:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:48 AM ----------

If you wouldnt mind I'd like to take a look at your rules set bud.

I don't know if I can do that, because my rules set is still under construction. If you want to create a character using the Savage Rules rules, you can do so, and I'll go ahead and give you whatever bonuses I think necessary to match the rest of the group. If you want to give me an email address, I can email you what I have. Or, I can walk through the process I used to give numbers to Alexandria Pearl.

---------- Post added at 01:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:52 AM ----------

Actually, maybe I should at least touch on some of the process I used for Alexandria Pearl, to ensure everybody that I am being fair, if somewhat random.

For the seven traits Agility, Smarts, Spirit, Strength, Vigor, Charm, and Luck, I rolled 1d6 to determine the ability. 1 => 1D4; 2 => 1D6; 3 => 1D8; 4 => 1D10; 5 => 1d12; 6 => roll again, but not the number of six's. (Thus, Alexandra has a note (one six) after Spirit. This will come into play later.) Then I chose one ability to advance by one -- for Alexandria I chose to advance her Smarts from 1D4 to 1D6.

Wealth was determined by a binary distribution (50% 1D4; 25% 1D6; 12.5% 1D8, 6.25% 1D10; 3.125% 1D12) I have a table which translates that into Monthly Funds and a Yearly Income range. I then rolled to determine where in the yearly income range her income falls, but that number is not really important because most of it is needed to pay for her living expenses.

The skills were randomly determined except for where guided by the description given for the character. To determine the bonus skill points I rolled 5D10 and divided by 5. I winged skill selection for Alexandria because of her Multiple Personality Disorder; I decided to give her 12 points for all personalities, and then each personality gets 6 points for itself. Then, in buying points, they were bought for 1/4 Advance per point but only applied to one personality.

The hindrances were based on the posted background.

Using a binary distribution I randomly determined a number of Advances to be used to purchase edges and skills. All characters get three advances, plus one per hindrance (or half for a minor hindrance), plus a randomly determined number 50% chance of 1, 25% chance of 2, 12.5% chance of 3, et cetera. Thus, Alexandria ended up with 7 1/2 edges, since I considered Amnesia to be a minor edge.

Three Edges were used to provide equipment: 1) a nicer car than she could otherwise afford; 2) jet skates; 3) a firearm and concealed carry permit. The rest of the Advances were used to purchase skills.

---------- Post added at 01:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:04 AM ----------

If my calculations are correct, the odds of getting five 1D12s in my generation system is about 1 out of 1562.5.

[Death_Jester]

I think there was a misunderstanding in the chat last night, and it's easy to do in chat, I got the impression you already had a finished rules set that you want me to look over. So you asked that a post be made in this thread to declare an interest and intent. But I now see that you weren't talking to me directly but to someone else in the room.

Allow me to apologize for taking up your time, and putting you in a situation where you had to straighten this out.

Best of luck with the Game and Hope that you have many awesome sessions.
Peace
Jester

[KayeoticNeutral]

That is awesome Loki. Do you want the different personas versions of my background?

[Utgardloki]

I created Wolfprince13's character, Jason Kearney. Feel free to let me know if you want anything changed.


Jason Kearney

Player: Wolfprince

Jason Kearney is an average film-school graduate who plans to make documentaries that will change the world. Until then, he works as the assistant editor on an independent music magazine called 1stTune.

He is 25 hears old, stands five feet eleven inches, and weighs 160 pounds. He has red hair, blue eyes, and has a light dusting of freckles across his face, which, he has been told, makes him look 'cute'.

When not working or filming everything he sees, Jason spends time at the gym, practicing his Combat Sambo, a martial art form he has been learning since he was six. He currently holds the rank Master Sportsman, the rough equivalent of a blue belt or 6th dan in other forms.

Quite skilled with computers, Jason has had some practice with hacking, but nothing too serious.

Comes the Rapture - when the Rapture strikes, Jason is transformed. He begins to develop strange abilities beyond those of normal ken. But when disaster strikes, Jason finds himself rising from the ashes, his abilities altered, time and time again.

GM's Additional Background Information:

Jason Kearney learned the rudiments of chemistry from books his mother had, since she works as a professor of Chemistry at UW-Platteville.

1st Tune is not making a lot of money. Jason barely gets enough to keep him current with wealth and utility payments. Fortunately, he knows how to be frugal. He even grows some of his own food in his garden on the balcony of his apartment.

Jason Kearney
Sex: Male Height: 5 feet 9 inches Weight: 160 pounds
Size/Mass/Weight: 6.1 Lift: 7.1 (301 pounds)
Age: 25 Birth: February 6, 1986

Agility: 1d10 (2 six's) Smarts: 1d6 Spirit: 1d12
Strength: 1d8 Vigor: 1d10 (1 six) Charm: 1d12
Luck: 1d8

Occupation: Assistant editor of an independent music magazine called 1stTunes.
Wealth: 0 Yearly Income: $0
Monthly Funds Available: Cost 0 ($0 a month)

Skills: (six bonus skill points)
Editor: 1D6 Fighting: 1D6 Combat Sambo: 1D6
Computers: 1D12 Hacking: 1D8 Chemistry: 1D4
Film Directing: 1D6 Music Industry: 1D4 Current Events: 1D6
Persuasion: 1D8 Finance: 1D6 Astrology: 1D4
Negotiation: 1D4 Repair: 1D4 Gardening: 1D6

Hindrances
1. Poor. Jason doesn't have any money. By the time he pays for his rent, his gas, and his food, heat, and sometimes electricity, he doesn't have anything left, if that. To buy anything requires a Smarts + Finance roll, with a raise required for each cost factor above one. Since his initial randomly generated wealth was 1D6, he gains an additional advance for taking this hindrance.

2. Hesitant. Jason has a tendancy to overthink his reactions. In combat, he gets only half the cards he is normally entitled to for actions. (e.g. with an Agility of 1D10, he would be entitled to 5 cards, but he only gets 2. He doesn't do a lot, but he does it with great accuracy.)

3. Bad Star. Jason was born under an unlucky star. Each day, roll 2 - 1D6 to determine his modifiers for that day. With a successful Astrology roll, he can reduce this penalty by 2, to a maximum of +0. Taking this hindrances gives him 1D4 in Astrology for free.

Edges (3 + 3 = six Advances)
1. Skills: Raised Finances to 1D6, Negotiation to 1D4, Repair to 1D4, Gardening to 1D6

2. Equipment: MP3 Player with his Lucky Soundtrack. When he listens to any song from The Byrds, he gains a +1 luck bonus to all rolls, increasing by +1 for each additional song he listens to to a maximum of +2. This luck bonus lasts for 1d20 minutes. A successful Spirit roll is needed to get this bonus more than once a day, with a raise for the 3rd time, two raises for the 4th time, etc.

3. Frugal. Jason knows how to stretch a dollar. He is able to come across items that he may need, for a fraction of what a normal character needs to spend. With a successful Smarts+Repair roll, he can get something for 1 Cost factor less than it normally costs. With each raise, the cost factor is reduced by an additional 1.

4. Green Thumb. Jason is good with plants. He gets a +2 bonus for gardening, and other rolls involving plants.