Pious

So Chimera's about half its health and the scientists seem to be withdrawing. What are the aparent and actual casualties? Brit got KO'd but appears to be uninjured, Vix (Julia?) shot Masha but she hasn't suffered any fatal wounds, are there any wounded or dead civilians or scientists? Is Soapbox the only casualty then? Just need to get some facts straight.

Aww, Dev its a minor misunderstanding, overlooked detail. There's been lots of that so far, don't feel neglected, stick around.

Something turned deep inside Alicia's bowels and she soon realised it was a mixture of fear, guilt and anxiety, masked by a sense of pride, pride in the two beautiful people stood before her. "Antonio... Silvia" she stammered. "I don't know how to say this but, I'm Alicia Barzini... I'm your biological mother."

Alicia suddenly felt vulnerable, her deepest secret now spoken out loud. She clung on to the sense of relief and sighed heavily. "I'm so sorry. I neglected you, I know that now, but... Oh, what you must think of me..." she trailed, choking on her emotions. "Can I... can I come in?"

A plain clothes officer entered the bookshop and met Alicia and Suraya by the bookstands, talking. "Sorry to interupt but the car's ready Ms Barzini" he said.

"Okay I'll be right out" said Pistol. "Suraya, its been nice meeting you and quite honestly, I look forward to working with you and the others."

Without so much as a wave goodbye, Alicia was lead out of the shop and into a black SUV. The motocade rolled through Steel Canyon and Independence Port before pulling into Kings Row to connect with Skyway City for the airport. While in the Fool's Gold district of the Row, movement around the Crowne Memorial Hall attracted Pistol's attention. The Humanity First versus Mechano conflict looked well on its way. Alicia's passenger seat windows wound back up and the vehicle wheels rolled on by, disappearing into the distance.

Later that day, in the California surburbs of Costa Mesa...

The motocade of black suburban vehicles rolled up at the home of an up and coming singing artist. Alicia was escorted out of her seat and up the walkway. A police officer in a smart black suit and dark sunglasses raised his hands and rasped his knuckles against the wooden door. Patiently, they waited.

I'm glad we're finally talking about this and getting it all out there. Priest has recently become a focus issue, discussed either conceptually, theoretically or personally and I don't mind. I like constructive criticism and in a creative environment like RP, we could use more of it and less childish attacks. As TA or Bunny might agree, I'm one to hear people out and eventually learn from any mistake. Arguments, when held properly, are supposed to bring people to a common understanding and hopefully come out better off and I think that's what’s happening here, which is great. I'm positively surprised to read some of the arguments in my support because clearly there are people out there who do actually understand my character Pious and the strict ways in which I try to play him.

Now FFM hinted at past forum RP situations where I may have badly portrayed Pious's ability to switch powers or change weapons. Like wall-phasing, powershifting is a fragile ability to pull off right and I think I'm only still getting better at it. In my opinion, what's important is that I always try to play it as realistic as possible so as not to break plots or metagame over other characters who are probably just as or more capable than the Priest.

Misportrayal of Pious's powershifting wouldn't happen in-game. I often use the Iron Man approach, which is basically to analyse a mission or enemies beforehand and go in with the appropriate counter-weapon. It's all a learning process, for him as well as me, and you never quite know what to expect so it doesn't always work. In fact it hardly ever works. Kahn's the best example of this epic fail. After the character called him out to fight, Pious spent time researching the man's skills and weaknesses in the short time he had, the best he could and (probably incorrectly) concluded that trying to match Kahn's brutal strength is his best hope of winning the fight and thusly sending a message against the upcoming Arachnos.

Some time was spent (ICly and OOCly) attuning the dimensional placements caused by his powershifting, into the inside of Warburg's Longbow boat-clinic. So when his regeneration was foiled, he escaped to this hospital clinic and shifted (re-logged) to another melee skill, which inevitably got foiled even worse. It wasn't until later that Stryke expressed his disapproval of 'not being told' about this tactic OOCly beforehand because he was confused about the constant re-logging. I had to apologise and attributed the lack of fore-discussion to the very short notice of the subplot. Either way, I've learnt from that, and it’s a mistake I won't be repeating. Like I said, powershifting is a fragile ability to pull off and should be played with caution, but we shouldn't rule against it just because of that.

At least I'm not a god-modder who's exclusively abusing the Priest character. Or is it the other way around? Am I a decent guy with an overpowered character? Is the Priest potentially a plot-breaker because he has access to any and all counter-measures? I don't think so. Kahn's fist was the ultimate counter-counter-measure to Priest's counter-measure wasn't it? So basically, even though he's got 54 guns, they're not very big. And in this genre (CoH at least), size matters.

He has to rely on friends, or use brains over brawns, and I have to keep it that way always. Mainly because (unlike Stryke) I neither understand IO's nor like them, and thus don't have the means to back up a really big gun character. It’s a shame that SO's are increasingly becoming redundant. It means Pious will always be beneath his IO-powered adversaries, like Kahn or even Bathory, who both can probably tank out Statesman or Recluse. But I like it that way. Like I said earlier, Pious is good at relying on teamwork and an 8-man TF win is better than soloing GM's. In my opinion.

Lastly, about the resurrection of Pious; there was confusion about how he died or who caused it. Admittedly, that subplot was badly handled on my part and I've learnt from that too. But it was pre-decided that since he was now broken and hospitalised, Memphis (then allied with the Corp) would force Pistol to wield a specialised arcane weapon that would counter Pious's regenerative skills and poison him to dead. Some people have said in passing that he should have stayed dead and I guess that’s a fair comment. The same can probably be said for many comicbook heroes who've returned from the Abyss. But hey, get over it. Like media slander (yes, I now bite my tongue), resurrection is an acceptable norm in this genre and since deciding to return to the game, I chose to use it as a plot-tool to have Pious brought back to the living and to fully embrace his angelic nature.

I've been doing research into Angels of mythic lore now and it’s something I'm enjoying. There’s promise of upcoming character plots set about and around the heavenly realms which I look forward to sharing on these forums. That’s what this whole RP thing is about right? Exploring deeper fantasies and all that.

Woot! My luck has turned, double 6's baby! In your face die-face 1 with your stinking shoe-hurl. LOL.

The rally had incited within Dragonfly all the hate she needed to unleash Humanity First's special brand of terrorism. The speech on careless and manipulative egomaniac metas in the city only brought to her mind the cold and sacrificial murder of her minutes-old baby girl all those years ago. The negative emotions all suppressed now came boiling to the surface. All she needed now was a reason for violence. Right on cue the Chimera arrived, flanked by a train of armed and unarmed, arguably innocent scientists; a clever tactic of legal shielding.

"F**k it!" said Dragonfly, her face a picture of rage. "Altair, get the kids out of here. I'm about to open a can of righteous whoop-a** on these motherf**kin freaks."

"No, Sabrina please" Altair begged. "You're right, you're a mother who got f-ed over pretty bad, but use some logic will you? Mechano had nothing to do with it."

"Out Altair!" screamed Dragonfly. "Do not make me say it twice"

Altair gave a flitting look of disappointment and Dragonfly could tell she was hurt by that outburst.

"Fine, you're right. Mechano didn't kill my little girl" she admitted, struggling to keep her pain bottled in. "But there are countless other little Jasmines out there whose mothers must live in fear, everyday, because our society has lunatic scientists who think wrecking people's lives like this is justified. Why has he sent his freakazoid to attack a peaceful rally? When will it stop Altair? When will the war end? It ends when we all come together and fight back, thats when. And if you'll please mind the children, get them out of here and get out of my way, I got a science experiment to terminate. Okay?"

Altair didn’t respond. She picked up the kids and just left.

"Right then you feline pile of chemical sh*t, get ready for a whole world of righteous f**king pain" Dragonfly spat, walking right up to the beast and throwing a shoe at it. With a CLANG the shoe bounced off its face. "Come on, bring it on bit*h!"

((If you don't have a die, http://www.roll-dice-online.com/ is a good website for this kind of thing. Question: a few people have multiple characters present so in retaliation to Chimera's attack, can we involve them all and how? One die roll to decide one attack and one attack per character per play/post?))

Thanks guys. Tempted to do something in-game but too busy IRL. I sense the game'll be taking a back seat from now on, save for NH nights. :/

Altair Stevens shifted uncomfortably in her seat, giving a mildly disdainful look at the girl sat next to her holding two toddlers. "I cannot believe you tricked me into coming here Sabrina" she moaned.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine" Dragonfly lied, secretly nervous about the increasingly crowding hall. She was starting to regret bringing the babies to a potentially violent rally but Altair was childminding Damsel and Pious's foreign kid Hazel all evening and Sabrina regarded coming alone as a non-option. She needed Altair for moral support and as back up should something be starting.

"So this Chimera project huh?" said Altair, making conversation. "Remember Ed used to work at our church in Astoria? Man those were the good times. He was always a little on the strange side but I figured he was alright. Didn't really know about his comic-relief looney-villain days though. But now this?"

"Don't worry, he's still a comic-relief looney-toon" said Dragonfly, petting her son's jet-black hair. "Humanity First are going to talk to us about coming together to stop looneys exactly like him distrupting our peace, know what I mean? Should be a good meeting. Don't worry."

But Altair did worry. She wasn't supposed to be here and neither were the children. If Pious found out, she'd be in a lot of trouble with the other nuns.

By the title, I gather we're talking mainly about incredible cosmic power contained within the tiny space of a humanly body, pros and cons and the best ways to play them if at all we think they should or can be played right. In some ways I agree with Birdy. Why would you want to play a God when basically, the majority of people you're supposed to be playing with would frown upon the practicalities. By all means one can do it if they must but I imagine he or she would be avoided by a lot of other roleplayers.

The CoX universe is written by the game devs and I find it easier for maximum acceptability to just play within those rules and cannon suggested by the game stories. This may mean being only as powerful or as weak as can be represented in-game, and also in scale to the actual uber-powers you must face in-game.

According to the existing lore, the most powerful characters are incarnates like Ganymede, Ms. Liberty, Trapdoor, Infernal in a way, Imperious, Romulus in some ways, Tyrant, Statesman, Reichsman and Recluse. Facing the latter five and winning (most likely through teamwork) are currently the greatest accomplishments available to players and characters within the CoX universe. They and other incarnates are basically cosmic power contained within the tiny space of a humanly body, likely due to a strong connection with a God. There are gods and demon-gods like Zeus (Statesman's origin), Eros (Ganymede's origin), Tartarus (Recluse's origin), Stheno & Medusa (Snakes origin), Hequat (Mu's origin), Ermeeth (Circle of Thorns origin), Merulina (Corolax origin), Hera (Ms. Liberty's origin), Baphomet, Envoy of Shadows, Prince of Demons, Lilitu, Caleb and even Banished Pantheon's Tielekku, Rambetu, M'teru etc.

So my point is, its fair practice to play an incarnate or some such, much like the other demigods within the game, but caution should be taken not to actively over-power them beyond what is represented in-game. So an incarnate or demigod character that can maximise all his energies to explode and burn down a dozen mortals in an inferno can be done in-game. The teenage mutant standing next to you can probably do the exact same thing but that’s where it comes down to what was said earlier, you're super, but so is everyone else and they plausibly can be just as super as a demigod.

I'm reminded of a recent episode of the excellent American TV drama 'Supernatural' where two mundane brothers Sam and Dean are fighting off an apocalypse. They get kidnapped by a group of gods including Kali, Ganesh, Odin, Baron Samedi, Baldur, Mercury and Zao Shen who are all pissed off about the Judeo-Christian apocalypse approaching and they decide to use Sam and Dean (Lucifer and Archangel Michael's earthly vessels respectively) as bargaining chips. Sure they're gods but in one scene, Dean attacks Zao Shen (who was once mortal) with an arcane blade and could've killed him. So again, incarnates, demigods and knife-wielding idiots can fight on the same level if done properly, but properly is a hard standard for most people to achieve, and what you end up with is Pocket D full of egotistical RP'ers who may be unaware that they're god-moding or power-gaming.

Now on a more personal level, my character Pious (angelic name now revealed as Elli) is a priest born of an angel, who like Zao Shen (the kitchen god) or Ganymede (Ganymede was a mortal who impressed the gods so much he was made the cup bearer of Zeus), impressed the Heavens so much with his heroic and priestly work that when he died just recently, was ascended to the ranks of angels. Why do I want to play an angel at the risk of being frowned upon? Well, I understand that just because he's now an angel doesn't mean he's a godly power. Pious is a glass cannon, even though he has countless elemental skill and ammunition. He's as fragile as the next guy and judging by the embarrassing losses both in Gladiators and more recently against Kahn, he can't actually fight.

Apart from offering psychotherapy to everyone with a problem, what the Priest is good at, is leading a team out in the field. Apart from the weapons he wields, his main power is the magical control of fire, water, earth and air at the expense of spiritual and physical energy. This is represented in-game through multiple cartoons and so to explain the 'logging out' disappearance needed to change powers (if ever I had to), I write that he must briefly return to a distant plane to re-energize and is often displaced upon return. Besides, I'm a sucker for trying out new powersets but can't be arsed to make a whole new concept character, so a new cartoon of Pious is the easiest way to go.

So anyway, there is one example of an incarnate with grossly limited cosmic power who is no more powerful or capable than the ninja with a killer blade. I'm not the best RP'er around so I do make a lot of mistakes but I think at least I got the 'no god-moding/meta-gaming characters' thing on lock. Besides being KO'd out of his senses, if a player requested to know all the unique weaknesses of Pious or any other of my characters, I'd happily make it available. Despite that, I still get people who criticise me for Pious's power, my countless cartoons of him and the recent resurrection. Just can't please everyone and there will always be misunderstandings, IC as well as OOC. But on incarnate characters, I would always advice the easier option, try to work in the in-game limitations we have.

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She chose the perfect dress and I chose the perfect bride. Best day of my life and the begining of a wonderful marriage. I'll have photos to share later on but for now, here are the pre-wedding shots from last week. Thanks one and all for your continued support and well-wishes. -- Peter

I can understand the unwanting of player buffs. I dislike ice shield buffs 'cos I cant see my char underneath it and don't particularly need the extra defence buff anyway. So yeah, I'm all for a built-in option to auto-decline buffage. They're not always desirable, Mystic Fortune especially can be annoying.


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"Accomodation here is beneath the five-star standards I'm used to but it's okay" said Alicia, with an attempt at a polite smile that probably came across as condescending. "While I'm being forced into community service, I imagine I'll have to join your little arcane team of monster hunters Suraya, so you'll be seeing alot more of me. Care to walk and talk? I'm heading out cross-country, courtesy of the PPD."

Site should be back up now guys. Be advised, its always good to save a back up version of your handbook profiles somewhere, just in case.

Nighthunter's Basement Bedrooms

Alicia was getting dressed downstairs in the bedroom levels of the Nighthunter's basement. She had a laptop open next to her vanity mirror which was busy running a satellite trace on a suburban address. She held her hair up with both hands, a holding pin balanced between her lips. Multitasking was something she was used to but something about the woman in the mirror was so captivating, her attention kept getting drawn back to it. She was so youthful and so slender; perfect skin, beautiful hair and her eyes, they seemed so tranquil, like the reflection of a soul at peace. Who was this woman, Alicia thought, doubting her worthiness of such a flawless virgin body. The laptop bleeped, an arrow pointed to the Costa Mesa suburban settlements in Orange County, California. "Gotchya" she muttered, eyes trained on the 'get directions' button.

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"Well as much as I remain opposed to this abhorent project Mechano, I'm thankful that you've taken good care of my sister. I hope she will live in peace from now on. How much do we owe you?" Pious asked, sensitive to what such a medical operation can cost.

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