Freedom Planet. [M&M 2e: recruitment closed]

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Name: Freedom Planet
System: Mutants&Masterminds 2e
Players wanted: recruitment closed, but you can still PM me if you want
Posting Rate: 3-4 times per week
Special Rules: See below.

“Toward each horizon there is perhaps no place more famous that the planet Freedom.  It is the birthplace of superheroes, the men, women, and other genders of all species who, through amazing power and skill, have kept the Stellar Alliance safe from the nefarious villains who plot their schemes of conquest and destruction.  Headquarters of the horizonly-famous Freedom League, Freedom is the greatest beacon of hope and justice for all peoples.”

This is a sci-fi space-travel version of the Freedom City setting (a translation to the sci-fi genre, not the outer space presented in the book).  You will be members of the umbrella organization of the Freedom League, assigned a sector of space to patrol and keep free of all the usual villains and disasters.  You are expected to be heroes, not vigilantes.  Internal struggles and problems are up to you (I’m not very good at them, personally).  4-color non-lethal for the most part, even the villains.  I’m of the opinion that death gets the character off too easy.  Having to fight your way back from a defeat is a lot more interesting.  You have to earn death.

* PL 8, 150 pp.  The setting works on scientific principles bended to allow comic-book pseudo-science.  That being said you may choose any power source, even seemingly non-scientific ones, with the understanding that since they are really phsyics-based there will be occasions when I may rule that you may not be able to get away with certain uses that you could under normal non-physics magic.  I will try to be as fair as I can be on these rulings.
Feel free to make up your own aliens and cultures.  VERY IMPORTANT FACT: Humans are not the “most” of anything: common, cosmopolitan, adaptable, or important to the setting.
----You will receive a modest HQ and a combat-worthy FTL jet for free.  You also receive free spacesuits [Immunity (all environmental conditions plus suffocation)] with ion jetpacks [Flight 4] but these are a genre consideration for obviously hostile environments and should not be used to get a free handout of powers.
* To use a power such as ESP or Teleport on a specific location you must know where you are spatially in relation to that location.
* You do not have to pay for separate kinds of Perform.  It is now all one skill.
* The Survival skill now automatically includes the use of the Track feat.  Also you may use Survival as a Knowledge-type skill for anything wilderness-based.
* Knowledge (art), Knowledge (theology and philosophy), and knowledge about specific cultures are all folded into a new Knowledge (xenoculture) skill (yes, I do know that “xeno” means “foreign” or “other people”, but in a setting with aliens that’s everyone else to everyone).

The existing setting information is as follows.  If you don’t see something you need feel free to ask, or you may submit something for my approval.  If it exists in canon Freedom City it’s probably fine in this setting.

I’m looking for 5 to 6 players.  I will make my selection based on concept.
(Please feel free to ask questions.)

[Sacremas]

Okay first, insanely rough basics here, just getting it out there, expect it to go through ten different kinds of variations after a while though. Basics is that he's a supercop, a police officer who stumbled onto one of the schemes of the mysterious interplanetary criminal organization The Labyrinth and got snatched up and experimented on, surviving the process and breaking free, but coming out as something else than human (or whatever he was originally, he may have been from a human-like race, though at this point it obviously doesn't matter). His molecules scrambled by the process and rendered highly unstable but incredibly adaptive, to such a degree that it's constantly changing and warping unless keeping his focus up ("focusing" is automatic, but whenever in a down time and relaxing, his guard goes down, meaning that unless he's constantly keeping his guard up he would have a hard problem getting close to other people for long), but it did make him the ultimate undercover cop, capable of infiltrating any criminal organization within days, though the Labyrinth has so far eluded him. Since he was unsuccessful so far in getting on their trail on his home planet, he applied for transfer to the League. He can survive and fly in space unaided but he obviously prefers wearing the space suit and jetpack to keep his abilities free to deal with more direct threats than mere survival and movement.

Note that I may change the concept and go for hard to lose Gadgets, having been bonded to some sort of liquid-metal being currently taking the shape of a suit, neither of them now able to survive being separated from the other for long... although that concept works just as well with the current stats actually, where the shapeshift represents gadgets that can't be taken from him at all. Going to think on that. Either way it would just be the unstable molecules bit that's slightly changed, everything else remains as is more or less.

EDIT: Yep, I'm decided, rather than him being rendered unstabled via scrambled molecules or whatnot, the process actually bonded the cop with an alien being he'd never seen before and only glimpsed for a few seconds before the two were made into one (think Megastar). No stat changes though, but it does introduce another complication: schizophrenia; "am I me, or am I that thing, thinking I'm me?" Regardless he needs to find the Labyrinth, as only they hold the answer to what happened to him, and how to reverse it, if it's possible.


Anyman (name tenative, likely to change)

PL 8 / 120 PP

Abilities: Str 22, Dex 20, Con 22, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10

Skills: Bluff 4 (+4), Investigate 4 (+4), Notice 4 (+4), Perform 4 (+4), Sense Motive 4 (+4).

Feats: Dodge Focus 4, Jack of All Trades, Uncanny Dodge (hearing).

Powers: Adaptation 1 (reaction 1/round), Shapeshift 5 (Free action 1/round).

Combat: Attack +6 (Unarmed +6), Grapple +12, Defense 16 (11 flatfooted), Knockback -3, Initiative +5.

Saves: Toughness +6, Fortitude +6, Reflex +5, Will +4.

Total: Abilities 34 + Skills 5 + Feats 6 + Powers 55 + Combat 16 + Saves 4 = 120 PP

Complications: Disturbing (constantly changing when not concentrating), Enemy (The Labyrinth), Schizophrenia (doubts whether he's still himself or not).

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Scremas I can't figure out how you got 54 pp for powers.  Adaptation 1 (Free action) = 9 pp/rank = 9 pp.  Shapeshift 5 = 8 pp/rank = 40 pp.  The only thing I can come up with is that you took the Controlled extra on Adaptation.

[hero4hire]

Scremas I can't figure out how you got 54 pp for powers.  Adaptation 1 (Free action) = 9 pp/rank = 9 pp.  Shapeshift 5 = 8 pp/rank = 40 pp.  The only thing I can come up with is that you took the Controlled extra on Adaptation.

Shapeshift is normally a Move action.

I believe he bought it with the action extra to make it a free action.

Adaptation 1 (Free action) = 9 pp/rank = 9 pp.  Shapeshift 5 (Free action) = 9 pp/rank = 45 pp

[hero4hire]

Complications: Disturbing (constantly changing when not concentrating), Enemy (The Labyrinth), Schizophrenia (doubts whether he's still himself or not).

This is a common mistake. Despite its etymology, schizophrenia is not the same as dissociative identity disorder. Or a "split personality" if you will.

Schizophrenia may demonstrate auditory hallucinations, delusions. For example if your character thought he was bonded with an alien but really wasn't he would be a schizophrenic.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Shapeshift is normally a Move action.

Ah, yes, read the wrong entry in UP.  Thanks.

[Sacremas]

This is a common mistake. Despite its etymology, schizophrenia is not the same as dissociative identity disorder. Or a "split personality" if you will.

Schizophrenia may demonstrate auditory hallucinations, delusions. For example if your character thought he was bonded with an alien but really wasn't he would be a schizophrenic.

Yep, I know, got a close friend who's schizophrenic actually. So it's not a parasite ala Venom, whatever the thing was it was subsumed entirely into his body by the process, and he's in control. But the process scrambled him so completely mentally and physically (his original stats would have had a 14 in each mental score) that he's not sure if he's really himself anymore. He is, for now, but I'll leave up to the GM wether that's a situation likely to change in the future.

Making minor stat change, reducing will save to +4 and increasing Adaptation to Reaction instead, meaning he can adapt to attacks as well (get shot by a guy with a firearm, Immunity 5 (bullets), etc., but this is only once per round, so if he's first stabbed then punched, the punch goes through).

[Requiem]

I'll toss my hat in the ring for this one. Got a couple concepts in mind, I'll start the selection/creation process and get something up in the next couple days.

[Sacremas]

I kinda realized a bit too late about my concept that
a) This is a bit too Prototype-inspired likely
b) It's essentially the same character, Freak, as I used for one of Unkabear's games
and c) Overall he's probably a bit too dark for what you seem to be going for, more iron age than silver age.

So here's an alternate, using the same basic backstory, minus the unstable molecules or alien symbiote thing and accompanying likelihood for existential angst;


Everyman

PL 8 / 120 PP

Abilities: Str 16/30 (+10), Dex 14 (+2), Con 16/30 (+10), Int 10 (+0), Wis 14 (+2), Cha 12 (+1).

Skills: Investigate 4 (+4), Knowledge (Behavioral Science) 4 (+4), Notice 8 (+10), Search 4 (+5), Sense Motive 8 (+10).

Feats: All-Out Attack, Attack Focus (melee) 2, Diehard, Dodge Focus 2, Jack of All Trades, Power Attack, Takedown Attack.

Powers: Enhanced Constitution 14, Enhanced Strength 14, Immunity 9 (Life Support), Impervious Toughness 8, Super Senses 2 (Ultravision, Ultrahearing), Super Strength 8 (Heavy Load 200 tons, Power Feats: Countering Punch, Dynamic, Dynamic Alternate Power: Flight 8 [2.500 MPH]).

Combat: Attack +4, +6 melee, Grapple +23, Damage +10 (unarmed), Defense 16 (12 flatfooted), Knockback -9, Initiative +2

Saves: Toughness +10 (Impervious 8), Fortitude +10, Reflex +2, Will +6.

Drawbacks: Vulnerable to Electricity (Very Common, +50%), Vulnerable to Chemical Effects (Uncommon, +100 %).

Total: Abilities 22 + Skills 7 + Feats 9 + Powers 69 + Combat 16 + Saves 4 - Drawbacks 7 = 120 pp.

Complications: Enemy (The Labyrinth)


Vital Stats:
Height: 6'6''
Weight: 245 lbs
Build: Athletic
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Ethnicity: Caucasian


Background:

Officer Everett Manning was a growing thorn in the side of Arcadia City's criminal elements, an incorruptible, determined and courageous cop that could not be bought for any sum, could not be discouraged by the criminals political allies, and could not be intimidated to cease his seemingly never-ending quest for justice. Without knowing it Everett had stumbled onto a much greater enemy than what was apparent, the ancient secretive interplanetary criminal organization called the Labyrinth, who's regional managers were getting fed up about Officer Manning causing such a dramatic dent on their earnings by hitting their rackets and dealers one by one, and decided to take him out. But rather than ordering Officer Manning killed, they had him captured and tortured for weeks, before he was added to the latest batch of test subjects for the Labyrinth's many attempts at creating super-thugs capable of standing up to any cops or even superheroes. Most of these experiments ended in failure, and out of the over one hundred test subjects of Everett's batch, only he emerged alive. And not merely alive, Everett had been transformed into a superman, and rather than being broken by his weeks of torture like his captors believed he had merely grown even more determined! With astonishing feats of super strength and resilience Everett easily dispatched his captors and freed many other test subjects, in the process literally tearing down the entire regional Labyrinth headquarters with his bare hands! Defeated and now truly worried about this foe they had inadvertently created, the Labyrinth fled Arcadia City, and with it the crime rate dropped like a stone. Everett was hailed as a hero of the people and given the honorary title of Everyman, as well as a specially fashioned police uniform marking his special status. But it was not enough, Everett knew that the Labyrinth was much larger than Arcadia City, much greater than his home planet even, and so after a few more years of doggedly pursuing crime Everyman applied to and was almost instantly accepted into the Freedom League.


EDIT: Dropped regeneration for Impervious Toughness, now he's pretty much a straightforeward brick in all respects.

EDIT2: Dropped enhanced dexterity, increased super strength and gave him an impressive flight speed as well as life support, meaning he won't be needing the spacesuit or jetpack. By now he's your basic low-level Superman.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

c) Overall he's probably a bit too dark for what you seem to be going for, more iron age than silver age.

Well I was going to try and let you play him and see what happened but yes, I think you'll have more fun in this game with this character.

There's a thread on Silver Age rules on the Atomicthinktank if anyone wants some pointers:
http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?t=33567

Powers: Enhanced Constitution 14, Enhanced Dexterity 10, Enhanced Strength 14, Immunity 2 (disease, poison), Impervious Toughness 10, Super Strength 4 (Heavy Load 12 tons, Power Feat: Shockwave, Alternate Power: Speed 4 (100 MPH) and Leaping 4 [x25]).

This only seems to add up to 60, unless Speed and Leaping and both APs.

Ethnicity: Caucasian

I'm assuming you just mean this as a guide to general appearances and not that you want there to be a planet or region known as the Caucasus where his ancestors and/or this term comes from in-world.

[Sacremas]

c) Overall he's probably a bit too dark for what you seem to be going for, more iron age than silver age.

Well I was going to try and let you play him and see what happened but yes, I think you'll have more fun in this game with this character.

Thanks, but you know you can feel free to use that GM veto at any time and say that "No you can't use reaction-level adaptation because I personally think it's overpowered" or "no you can't make Flight an AP off Super Strength unless you give me a proper pseudo-scientific explanation" (which I incidentally have, one intended so that I can also power stunt a Blast power off it in the future, but I'll wait with that until I got the character done since I'm still modding). At least when it comes to me, I may argue with you but I'm of the opinion that the GM rules since it's his game, so if he wants to change a character around or even the whole system then the players can bitch and complain about it, but in truth they can't really do much more than that, aside from quitting obviously. Thankfully the GMs who do stuff like that are far between and usually have a very good reason for it (like it's temporary while we do a Days of Future Past or a DC 1.000.000 event thing).

There's a thread on Silver Age rules on the Atomicthinktank if anyone wants some pointers:
http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?t=33567

Thanks, good thread, actually gave me a few game concept ideas of my own.

Powers: Enhanced Constitution 14, Enhanced Dexterity 10, Enhanced Strength 14, Immunity 2 (disease, poison), Impervious Toughness 10, Super Strength 4 (Heavy Load 12 tons, Power Feat: Shockwave, Alternate Power: Speed 4 (100 MPH) and Leaping 4 [x25]).

This only seems to add up to 60, unless Speed and Leaping and both APs.

Yeah as you can see I'm constantly modding it, and in the process a few math errors do crop up. I usually catch those on my own during future revisions, but for now consider what's up there now as a general idea of what he can do, rather than

Ethnicity: Caucasian

I'm assuming you just mean this as a guide to general appearances and not that you want there to be a planet or region known as the Caucasus where his ancestors and/or this term comes from in-world.

Right, so it's more of a Star Wars than Star Trek situation, whereas Earth/Terra may or may not have existed at some far distant past? Actually I was thinking Firefly for some reason, with Freedom and any other human planets being colonies of some old world... anyway, yes, general appearance guide it is. I actually have a very specific image in mind for his appearance, I think it was a Storn drawing actually, of a big-muscled brown haired Caucasian super-cop in an all-blue spandex body suit with a gold police badge pinned over his heart with a gold stripe (or two) running down his chest from the badge. Can't find the image now however, and I don't even remember if it was even in some M&M sourcebook or somewhere on the net.

[Reaver Reader]

I'll toss my hat in as well. Most likely a scientist type, some sort of density control thing. Should have something going by late tomorrow or thursday.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

……but you know you can feel free to use that GM veto at any time and say that "No you can't use reaction-level adaptation because I personally think it's overpowered" or "no you can't make Flight an AP off Super Strength unless you give me a proper pseudo-scientific explanation" (which I incidentally have, one intended so that I can also power stunt a Blast power off it in the future, but I'll wait with that until I got the character done since I'm still modding). At least when it comes to me, I may argue with you but I'm of the opinion that the GM rules since it's his game, so if he wants to change a character around or even the whole system then the players can bitch and complain about it, but in truth they can't really do much more than that, aside from quitting obviously. Thankfully the GMs who do stuff like that are far between and usually have a very good reason for it (like it's temporary while we do a Days of Future Past or a DC 1.000.000 event thing).

Though roleplaying in completely freeform sessions I've come to discover that the fewer flaws a character has the less interesting they are.  Something that I think other people knew but I had to work at. So I didn't really consider your build overpowered in a "going to ruin the game" sense but in a "you're going to find out it's not that much fun to be able to do everything".

Right, so it's more of a Star Wars than Star Trek situation, whereas Earth/Terra may or may not have existed at some far distant past? Actually I was thinking Firefly for some reason, with Freedom and any other human planets being colonies of some old world...

Another example of me assuming people would understand my information like I did.
It's very much the situation that Earth never has, does, or will exist.  There is an identifiable homeworld for humans (I think it is theirs, at any rate), but we wouldn't recognize it.  A bit of the point is to not to have any Earth past that would then correlate onto their space-born imitations in this setting.
Let me try to summarize the setting again in a possibly clearer way: I've designated "Earth, 1 planet" as the backdrop before which the whole of human history and legend, then changed the Earth backdrop for a "region of a galaxy" one.  Then altered the players and play a little so that they fit the new backdrop, while leaving things open so that if you like something from Earth you can use it with some minor alterations.

[Sacremas]

Though roleplaying in completely freeform sessions I've come to discover that the fewer flaws a character has the less interesting they are.  Something that I think other people knew but I had to work at. So I didn't really consider your build overpowered in a "going to ruin the game" sense but in a "you're going to find out it's not that much fun to be able to do everything".

Nope, I think that's pretty much something everyone has to work at, and many still hasn't gotten to. But yeah the "Do anything" factor was another reason I dropped the Anyman version. The more I think about it the less I'm actually liking variable powers in general unless they're severely restricted (such as shapechange to animals only) or out of the player's hands (Adaptation, Nemesis, Reflex Memory). Otherwise power stunting should really be the way to go if you want a "reshape reality" type of character, otherwise a PC with Variable Power is going to be able to do anything and potentially outshine all the others, or a NPC with Variable Power is just a way for GMs to deprive players of the hero points they'd normally get from GM Fiats.

Anyway, I think Everyman is getting close to done, overall I'm fairly happy with him. He's vulnerable to electrical and chemical attacks because large amount of electricity and an unknown amount of exotic chemicals was part of the process the Labyrinth scientists used to give him his powers, so electrical attacks just hit him a lot harder than normal, while chemical ones can cause strange reactions at times (this chemical steals his powers for X time, this chemical turns him evil, this chemical creates an evil twin, this chemical reverses every color in his body, etc.). Feel free to go nuts there. If he's ever depowered all of his feats aside from Beginner's Luck and Jack of All Trades should go as well probably, those were basically what made Manning such a successful cop in the first place. Everyman will probably be the group's blunt instrument, he can shrug off a lot of damage and deal out even more. He's not subtle in any way whatsoever, if he sees some villain he'll go straight at them and pound at them until they cease and desist. Most original thing he'll do in battle is grapple with them and try to get them on the ground with hands behind their back, or whatever passes as such in all three instances. Feinting and other more creative tactics is beyond him. Outside of direct confrontations with the badguys he's got his police background allowing him to offer up basic behavioural profiles on individuals or groups, or treat a crime scene properly, but here too unless he calls upon Beginner's Luck he's best off assisting a more competent detective-type.

[Midnight]

I have an idea I think I'll throw into the pool as well. It will end up being a bit more fleshed out when I finish the concept, this is more just a summary.

My character would be coming from a planet of bipedal aliens, mostly humanoid in appearance, that all possess the ability to project an electrical field from their bodies. As the civilization evolved and such, they learned to use their own abilities to power the planet. So, instead of using nuclear power and the like, each person on the planet spends a few hours a week having their electricity tapped and stored for usage by the people, resulting in a very clean and habitable planet.

Where my PC stands out from the rest is that his abilities of electrical generation are much stronger than most of his race. And so, with his engineering aptitude, he built a battlesuit that taps the overabundant energy in his body, using it to power the suit. While in the suit though, he can't use his electrical aura though to do anything other than power the suit. After making a name for himself on his homeworld of *name pending*, he was invited to join the division of superheroes run by those on Freedom Planet to help protect the galaxy