Ex_Libris

OOC:
Just a note, but not everyone wants to play a superman clone in this game, and to be honest it'd be pretty darn boring if we did. Many heroes have other motivations that they fight for than truth, justice and the american way. Honestly, saying the only reason people get angry about KSing is the xp is rather insulting and narrow minded. Many heroes in comics were much more prideful and pig headed than the above example, so don't be so quick to judge.

IC:
Don't scoff at them just because they wanted the glory of their fight, all heroes have a price whether it be some warm fuzzy feeling they get for helping someone or cold hard cash. Just be thankful their price was cheap. If you enforced your standards on all the heroes protecting this city, Paragon would be nothing but a smouldering ruin. High ideals don't win battles, numbers, strategy and pure tenacity do.

As for the greenhorns that got smoked, they'll survive alot longer in Paragon if they learn to listen to the guy holding the rock prison together, whether they like what he says or not.

- Jay Winters

Took last night off! I needed the rest, and needed to separate myself from all the chaos out in Paragon. So I spent the evening with the kids at Chiron Medical Center. I do miss the pediatrics unit there, and the doctors on staff were kind enough to let me make a couple of rounds. Thankfully, all patients are fairly well there - I don't want to be tempted to use my powers in there; that's what the doctors are for.

Returned to my crime-fighting role today, and found out something new. I was getting coffee, and as I was turning to the cupboard to get a mug... THE THING JUST SUDDENLY APPEARED IN MY HAND. After getting over the initial shock, I gave it a more concentrated second attempt, thinking about the TV remote while still in the kitchen...

POOF! Remote!

Teleportation. Of all the ways my powers could develop, that was the last way I'd ever think about. Still, as I would find out later that morning, it has immense tactical advantages for my role...

1). I can pull back and setup a triage area for fallen comrades from afar, out of harm's way where I can perfrom my duties uninterrupted.

2). If I sense a teammate is in serious trouble, I can wisk him/her out of danger before it's too late.

Thinking of more ways that I can make this thing work for all involved. There's got to be countless applications for teleportation in combat. Then again... maybe I'm getting to far ahead of myself - master the basics first, Doc.

Speaking of this morning, who knew that loving couples existing as superhero teams were more common than scarce! It's a great concept, fighting side-by-side with a fiancee/wife/lover/etc. I thought that Dr. Pascual and Isobel were the exception to the rule... apparently, I was wrong.

Yi

PS - One last thing: note to self - Flame is actually FLARE!

Thumbing through the newspaper, Aleria scoffs at the "news" of infighting among the cities so-called heroes. Thinly vieled as it was, they were fighting for prestige, something she still didn't understand. Money, power, land, that she got. This still baffled her.

"Humans, they can't work together or even respect each other's trophy kills. To think I was called barbaric when I came here."

Tossing the newspaper on the ground, she notices a police officer approach her with a frown. She snarls and bares her teeth, causing him to back off. The stranded princess walks off and ignores the gaping looks of passer-by's. Shaking his head he mutters something about retiring to a nice, safe city like L.A.

Attention All Non-Hero Citizens!

We know life is hard in Paragon City these days. What with the crashing economy leaving so many warehouses and office buildings in an unused derelict state and so much of the city rendered uninhabitable by crime, finding a job in Paragon City is harder than ever before. One can merely look at how few cars are on the streets to be able to tell how few citizens can afford them. There isn't even a single gas station left in the city. And even if you do find a white collar job, your workday is bound to be constantly interrupted by gang wars in your office building, kidnappings, hostage situations and bombs. You could wait forever to get one of the cushy monorail driver jobs or to drive one of the white delivery trucks around that never have to deliver anything, OR you can come to us.

That's right, join the PCPD! No experience whatsoever is required. All that your job will entail is to don the uniform and to walk the streets. How much easier could it be? Due to Superhero union restrictions, crime-fighting by the PCPD is not only not required, it is forbidden! You may be victim to the occasional street crime, just like any other citizen, but apart from that you can simply spend your days getting paid to stroll about (we can't find the keys to the garage with the police cars in it) in our perpetually beautiful weather, ignoring crime and running from danger. Yes, just like everyone else, but you're getting PAID!

For your protection we've deployed a few automated police drones that do all of the departments legally allowed crime fighting. Yes, we could deploy several hundred more, thereby wiping the city free of crime but our budget won't allow for it due to police officer salaries.

What are you waitng for? Start collecting your salary TODAY! Apply at the PCPD main office in King's Row.

Aleria Evarshae was born a noble princess in another realm, one very different from that of Paragon city. A dimension consisting of two elven races, the light and dark elves. For thousands of years they fought bloodthirsty fueds and wars for dominance, perfecting the arts of magic and warfare. Neither race was predominantly good or evil, this realm was full of gray. Violence and valor was intermingled as easily as salt and pepper.

Being the highest born child of the royal family, Aleria was destined to rule her kingdom. Cruel, Arrogant, and aggressive, she displayed qualities that assured greatness for her family. Her enemies, however, did not wish to see her ascend the throne. Bribing and coercing her younger (and quite guillible) sister Vasha, they planned a method to eliminate her as a threat.

No mere assassination would work-she could merely be raised from the dead. Or worse, be turned into something even more powerful afterwards. No, instead they spent decades planning, plotting, and preparing. On the day of her 160th birthday, they struck. Rather, her sister did.

Attacking from behind, Vasha planted a dagger in her shoulder. Believing that her light elven allies would help her erradicate the rest of the party, the younger sister was suprised to be surrounded and arrested on the spot by her parent's command. She was executed the following day.

Aleria, on the other hand, was covered in a bright purple glowing light. All of the protective enchantments on her armor and blade could not protect her from this magic-one that tore through the fabric of space and time itself. A hundred mages had given their life to power the spell, and it worked well. Hurdling her through the dimensions, she landed on Earth outside of Paragon City.

Discovered by M.A.G.I., they took the half-alive dark elf to the nearest hospital. Coming into consciousness surrounded by strangers in a different world, she reacted very violently. It took several of M.A.G.I.'s special operatives to restrain her, while Azuria explained the situation to her.

She took it suprisingly well, and became curious about Earth. Deciding to make the best of her situation, she studied the history and cultures of Earth.

While agreeing to fight for Paragon City's protection in gratitude for saving her, she has yet to decide on if she wishes to become a "hero" yet or not. Giving up the life of rulership is not easy....

Hello Living End, I think I've seen you on the streets of Freedom while delivering my packages to the fiends that terrorize our homes and parks.
I am PackageMan, Perhaps we could meet in a well populated area and talk a little.

It’s basically has to do with the way you act and speak, and goes beyond just running around in a costume and attacking bad guys.

That doesn’t mean you have to stand around with your hands on your hips, puff your chest out, and speak heroically when you’re talking about anything. It’s more of picking a personality for your character (which could very well be your real-life personality) and having their mannerisms conform to that.

If you choose a personality that’s different than yours, be willing to live up with it. It’s probably a bad idea to claim to be overly courageous if you’re the first one to run every fight, for instance. So stick with characteristics you feel comfortable playing.

As for the dialogue, it’s not using thee’s and thou’s, but instead trying to find an in-game way to make a comment about a game mechanic. For example (since I just posted this elsewhere) instead of saying “nice bio!” (if you read their biography and enjoyed it enough to comment), you can try approaching it differently by saying something like “You’re SuperDude aren’t you? I’ve heard a few things about you. Quite a colorful history you have, if you believe the stories you read in the paper.”. That definitely provides another player with a springboard to launch off of and go into a role-playing conversation with you.

For some people there may be more to it than that, but it really seems simple enough to me. Sometimes you’ll find yourself in a situation where you can’t figure out a role-play way to explain something easily enough, and have to resort to talking out of character. But that’s just how things go, and anyone who gets annoyed by that is probably not someone you wanted to chat with in the first place. As long at the attempt is there, that’s good enough for most people.

Nah, I don't figure on a connection between the Skulls and the Vahziloks. Whenever I've ran into Skulls and Vazzies together, one's usually beating on the other. To quote one frightened Gravedigger Slugger: "You. Sick! FREAKS!"

I think the Vazzie responded by saying "Brains..."

If you catch the WarWolf's scent on Justice he shall run with your pack. He only asks that you turn your head after defeating any 5th Col. He treats them..differently.

(On Virtue he's actually KnightWolf too..no space. But I've got more friends on Justice so made a clone. WW's only 6th also right now, If you're on he may track you down)

One personal slightly-off topic note to add: I never mind exchanging some role-playing banter with someone, but it is a rare day that I initiate a conversation with someone I don’t know in the game. And nine out of ten times when someone starts a conversation with me, it’s usually something like “nice bio!”. And while the compliment is appreciated.. my limited imagination honestly finds nothing to work with there, and all I can really offer back is a thanks.

And that can be frustrating, because I’m thinking “well if the person took the time to bother reading the biography, chances are they’re at least slightly interested in role-playing”, and yet I’m feeling like I have nowhere to go with their comment.

My point being, I think a lot of players miss opportunities to role-play. If, for instance, you like another character’s biography enough that you’re going to point it out to them, try approaching the compliment differently than just an OOC comment. Perhaps saying something like “You’re SuperDude aren’t you? I’ve heard a few things about you. Quite a colorful history you have, if you believe the stories you read in the paper.”. That definitely provides another player with a springboard to launch off of and go into a role-playing conversation with you.

First, honestly.. I’ve played every day since the server came online and there has only been one evening when Virtue seemed to be having problems and was taken offline for a short time to be rebooted. Apparently everyone and their mother must have chosen that moment to try and log in at, because now I keep running into stories referencing the day people weren’t able to get onto Virtue. Myself and my friends that play on this server have never had an issue getting onto Virtue except for that one single time, and we were online when they announced they were taking it offline, so we logged off for 20 minutes and that was about the extent of our painful experience.

I know nobody likes to hear someone say they’re not having problems with connections or lag when you yourself are having those problems, but you have to ask yourself.. if the server was really having issues, wouldn’t everyone on that server be having issues? The truth is they’re not, and isolated cases are more likely to be issues with ISP’s, a temporary problem on the net between you and the servers, etc. Things basically beyond Cryptic’s control.

Poz has stated that the problem Virtue had that particular evening had nothing to do with overcrowding. If you go by the server dots, Virtue does seem to be up there with the most actively used servers. However, those same dots show me it’s not the most active server.

As for the role-playing, if you’re expecting to log on Virtue and see everyone on their best superhero behavior, you’re going to be disappointed. It is rare to see people openly role-playing in public areas, but it does happen from time to time and thus there are opportunities to jump in and get involved. What Virtue possibly does offer is a higher probability of running into role-players, as I wouldn’t be surprised if at least a few hundred people from the forums heard about the unofficial role-playing designation and chose to make it their home, including some role-playing supergroups. That’s a few hundred people out of however many thousands are on the server though, including those that don’t role-play and those that do but have no idea a forum community picked Virtue as an unofficial role-playing spot. Of course, if more role-players make Virtue their home, then that always increases the odds that you’ll find a group to role-play with.

All of my characters are on Justice, and I love to role play. I am currently only 6th level, but part time grouping might be a good lession for me.

I think I as well as RP'ers everywhere would agree that in order to have a good RP server you must be in RP at all times. That means when anyone asks where everyone is from you need to say where you are from in the game and not where you are at in real life.
I have been guilty of this when I am not thinking about it. If someone starts talking RL to you just act confused and ask what he is talking about like he has the plague.

Doctor: "Deep Breaths Ma'am"

Husband: "Stay Calm Dear"

Nurse: "Almost there"

*Power goes out*

*Screams*

As the lights come back on there is a strong sense of fear in the room. A woman in her late 30's lays dead on an operating table, at her feet a young new born child eyes glowing blue is crying. A doctor and 2 Nurses are backed into a cornor, fear in there eyes, and a Bewildered Husband runs to his wifes side.

Yes, its safe to say this is the last time this young boy would ever be around his parents again, because not 4 hours after his birth all the T's were crossed and the I's were dotted on the adoption papers.

But was it his fault he couldn't be touched by human hands? And who was this never before seen man in a dark cloak signing his adoption papers..

To Be Continued....

I checked in on Heath today, his jaw is healing nicely. Although he doesn't have any powers, the good folks at Cygnus have used some of the technology that aids the heroes of Paragon in his healing. He still doesn't hate me for the accident..... in fact he smiled and said (well wrote on his legal pad ) that that was the only way I could keep him from going yard on me.

He knows. He said as soon as he saw a film clip of Ballistic on The Hero Network's "New Faces" program, he knew it was me. "Same goofy run and how can I forget the bright blue blast?" I don't run goofy!

Now the BIG news.....I am on a Team! Stars of Paragon asked me to join and I accepted. Seem like a good bunch and God knows I could use the help! I think my growing offensive prowess will be a boon to them as well. Well enough typing, time to go out on patrol.....

I'll be roleplaying on any server I play. Playing a super-powered character, to me, implies RPing no matter what. What's the point of playing otherwise?

~Derek

Alexi had the power to control gravity. His father was a telepath, so he was unable to teach Alexi much. But when Alexi decided to leave the Fallen, his father had made friends with fellow mutant Vladmir Siwik. Siwik had written discourses on power development.

By the time he was 18, the Fallen had come under the leadership of a mage named Lightseeker. Lightseeker had a militant philosophy, and viewed his followers as superior to ordinary humans. He also saw anyone not for him as against him.

The day he graduated Alexi went home to see his house in flames.
To be continued

Abdiel, Justice Server

I think #2 should be Freedom. More people are on Freedom that RP, myself included.

I thought that the second RP server (after Virtue and all its connection problems) was going to be Guardian, but I have yet to see anyone RPing on it.

SO...to that end, Guardian RPers, post here, (Char Name, brief bio, times you play, etc.) let your voices be heard!

(and let RPers hook up with people other than "Teh 3|173 5up3rh3r0")

"I dream about how it's going to end, approaching me quickly. Leaving a life of fear... I only want my mind to be clear... people making fun of me, for no reason but jealousy. I fantasize about me dead.... I kill myself from holding my breath. My suicidal dream, voices telling me what to do. My suicidal dream... I'm sure you will get yours too."
- Silverchair

Growing up, Tallan was nothing more than a punching bag for those who knew nothing of his struggle. Dealing with being a human lightning rod and his troubles at school, it came as no surprise to anyone when he attempted to kill himself.

They found him on the ground out behind his house. Apparently he had jumped from the roof and tried to land on his head, unfortunately it did nothing but give him a headache.

East Germany at the time was very brutal; one could not go a minute without being informed that you were different, unwanted. Tallan was a scape goat for those who hated their own lives.

"Freak! You have lightning coming from your hands. You were meant to be a cloud, not a human!"

Tallan locked himself in his room every night. He had no reason to go outside.

It was a dark night when he realized he had to leave. A dark, stormy night. His mother kept him in the basement during storms so he wouldn't set the house on fire. Unfortunately for her, he wanted out.

Standing out in the rain, he felt at home. It was during storms he felt most alive, when he could get outside.

"Tallan! Get back inside, you fool!"

He looked back at his mom, his eyes bright blue from energy racing through his body.

"I'm not taking another step into that house."

Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck him, he focused the energy into his body. The sounds of screaming coming from his mom soon dissapated. He was one with the lightning.

Suddenly he was not a human form any longer; he transported into the clouds and was never seen by any citizen of Germany again.

The clouds traveled over the ocean... he rode as energy, free at last. Until it rested over a certain city in America, where he was brought back down to Earth.

He knew where he was; it'd been common talk in Germany, as well as the rest of the world. He would call this place home, only to unleash his fury upon those deserving.

Good, evil, it was all the same to him. For now, he'd focus his energy on street gangs... they reminded him most of those at school.

Until the end, he'll be a living nightmare. Until he confronts his living ancestors, he'll forever be the end.

He is The Living End. An Electrical storm of rage and anger that cannot be stopped.

Name - The Living End
Type - Magical Blaster
Level - 14
Server - Freedom

----Back at the previous encounter-----

Lobe wipes his mouth with the back of his forearm and hand. "Ahhhh! That was good orange juice. Thanks Mr. Helsing, that really....." Looking around to find the object of his thanks Lobe sees that he is alone. "Ummmm, where'd everybody go? Hellooooooo!"

The orange juice forgotten, Lobe sits heavily on the grass, causing the remaining debris around him to jump. Scratching his head an intense look of concentration replaces his normal childlike countenance. Resting his chin on both his fists he tries to remember what was said while he was drinking. "The foxxy fella said to look after the cat-lady who was sleeping in the air, then...I guy named Yankee Daring bought drinks for the nice ladies - That was aweful nice of him. Then, hmmm, oh yeah! We had to go get a Golden figure in Steel Canyon from a Star in the morning!" Lobes face brightens considerably and resumes its innocent cast in light of his successful deduction.

An old man, who had seen better days, pushes a shopping cart, filled with odds and ends that only the homeless could find useful, up to one of the remaining bodies. He bends over and grabs hold of a blood stained ribbon that seemed to escape the concerted looting efforts of FM and Helsing. He yanks on it but the majority of its length is beneath the body and it doesn't. After wrestling with it for a few moments the homeless man looks to Lobe, who grins like he just discovered the girl he's had a crush on for years feels the same about him. "Hey, mountain-man," the bum calls.

"Me?" Lobe asks, forefinger firmly in chest.

"Yah you. Do you see any other mountains around here?"

Lobe looks around and points North.

"OK, OK there are mountains over there, I'm talkin to you though," the bum says in exasperation. "Can you spare a bit of pinky power to move this?" he points to the body.

Looking at his pinky with disbelief, "You must have the wrong man, mister. My pinky doesn't have any power."

"For the love of brain cells! Just - pick - up - the - body - and - put - it - over - there." the homeless man points to his left.

"Oh! Ok," grinning, Lobe grabs the fallen hellion and lays him down where the bum indicated.

The homeless man recovers himself after staring at Lobe's hand, which had been wrapped around the Hellion's torso and arms like he were a GI-Joe figure in a toddler's grip, and picks up the blood stained ribbon. It ends in a medallion of gold chaced with silver. The medallion has the face of a demon engraved in it with two small red gems for eyes. Not believing his luck the bum smiles with greed. Then, realizing his audience, his face falls and he waits for the other shoe to fall.

"Wow! That's perty! You sure are a lucky guy. I once found a rock with green stuff in it in the woods. My ma told me it was jasper. Maybe if you take that to your ma she'll tell you what it is." Lobe says, excited for the man's good fortune.

The bum stares at Lobe with a look that almost matches the larger man's when he is asleep. "Yah, right," he manages, "I'll do that right away, go ask my ma." he finishes and turns back to his shopping cart.

"Sir?" Lobe asks

The bum cringes, expecting that the giant man has finally clued in to the fact he could take the medallion for himself, "Yes."

Looking a little embarassed Lobe enquires, "Could you tell me which way the tram is?"

The homless man blinks a couple of times then mutely points in the direction of the nearest tram station.

"Gee, thanks mister! Have a nice day," Lobe squats and launches himself into the air with a mighty leap that carries him swiftly out of sight of the bum.

The bum, shaken at the gross display of power commanded by one so...simple, stares at the spot where Lobe faded from sight. Then, focusing on the medallion in his grimy hand, he begins to grin. A shaky laugh emerges from his throat and he quickly returns to his overburdened shopping cart. After hiding his find inside a partially open box of KD, missing its packet of cheese sauce mix, the homeless man starts down the street. Pushing his cart and its treasures before him, he chuckles softly.

Lying face down on the pavement Cyberjack runs diagnostics on his cybernetic systems. The unexpected overload of electricity had sent his visors display into chaos, but his right arm showed no ill effects from the charge. Slowly the flickering becomes readable, if a little monochrome still. He makes a mental note to himself to make adjustments to prepare for this kind of attack when he has some spare time.

With a slight hiss of effort he hauls his good arm up off the street and levers it under himself, pushing him off the street. Glancing over he catches sight of the two men who had come to his aid. Background processes run automatically and within moments the registered ID's of Contact and Ivory along with several smaller associated files are accessed, acknowledge, and filed away again.

Suddenly Ivory goes down in a storm of electricity. With is left arm still propping him up, Cyberjack extends his right arm under himself, knowing that there wasn't much time. Processes realign themselves while sup-processes are created on the spot, the power Build Up causes small red sparks to jump from his arm in flurries until a massive surge of ice shoots out slamming into the Shocker, who gasps in pain and shock from the cold, then Cyberjack is up and running. Gritting his teeth with the effort he approaches the shocker and throws one mighty punch, releasing all the energy built up in the arm, hurling the shocker back from the fallen Ivory several yards but doing no apparent damage.

The Shocker slowly regains his feet, shaking his head to clear it. Cyberjack stands ready, but his depleated power source makes the next few moments tricky...

[Note: I would prefer not to have to make this disclaimer since this is the Roleplaying forum, but just in case you think I perhaps am posting in the wrong place rest assured the following is entirely in character.]

Greetings all,

Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Brian Simonson though I am better known in these parts by my adventuring persona Dr. Simian. There is an aspect of my fellow travelers that I have been wondering about and perhaps you would be able to help me. My question is directed at other uses of weapons, primarily swords but also others tools of the trade. There seems to be a wide variety of swords used by members of our profession, every thing from ancient heirlooms handed down for generations to high tech electronic devices to strange artifacts possessing an intelligence all their own.

Why did you choose a weapon and why that particular one?

Allow me to begin the discussion with my personal experience. When a schoolteacher finds himself transformed into a large primate, what must be done when one makes the decision to join the ranks of the costumed adventurers? (I realize the colloquial term is "heroes" but I am loathe to use it self-referentially.)

Originally I thought simply my natural strength, agility, and resilience would suffice but the more I investigated the situation the more I realized I need more to truly be effective. I looked into martial arts but I quickly realized this would not work well for myself. Most martial arts are very specific to human physiology, and did not mesh well with the differences with my gorilla proportions. Moreover, the redirection of energies did not take advantages of primate form, specifically the massive strength (and largely upper body strength at that.)

My gorilla body seemed ideally suited to Western boxing techniques with my longer reach, higher strength, and larger mass. In practice though boxing seemed to be very difficult to apply in situations when one faces multiple opponents, a situation faced often in our profession. At this point I turned to weapon use.

Gorillas (unlike chimpanzees and other primates) do not make use of weapons in the wild so I was only concerned with human weaponry. I originally considered a fencing foil, having been something of a fencer in my college days and occasionally teaching a class myself. This turned out to be a poor choice for a large ape in a real combat situation for what should have been obvious reasons. At the advice of a colleague in our Asian Studies department I tried a katana and this turned out to work remarkable well. The long grip fit my enormous hands well, and my extended reach and strength added much to the fighting technique.

My first two katana were simply ordered from an online catalog. I believe they were intended as wall decorations but were reasonably well constructed. One was broken during a particularly ugly brawl but the other held up admirably. Currently I use one specially made by an engineer rescued from a band of clockworks. It is an unusual alloy of titanium and steel and remarkably sturdy. I am quite pleased with it.

Anyway, that is my story, I am most curious to hear of how you acquired your particular weapon.

/bumpage.

And people should feel free to contribute more than just 10 rules.. there is alot of creativity in this community.. more can be done here.... but not by me.. im not very creative.

My character's name is the same as my forum name. Paladin Phoenix. I roleplay when others roleplay, otherwise, I'll talk as if I'm playing a game. Don't tell me you're roleplaying. I can pick up on it.

Send me a tell or email, and I might team up.