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Nice response.

I see your point, I really do, and you already know why I structured things as I did, so I won’t recycle all of that.

That being said, even if you don’t get your gear back, I’m still brainstorming ways to “bring things full circle” for the MC at the Part 3 climax.

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Have a mini-climatic fight at the pond where several outcomes such as “going swimming”, “being dunked”, “fishing for bait” and others can be written :wink:

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:chicken: Chicken fight!! :chicken:

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So it’s been a while since I’ve last posted these builds, but they’re really fun to make! For those interested, I’m using a superhero game, Mutants and Masterminds for the builds, not traditional Dungeons and Dragons, there’s too much fiddling for it to be fun and fit the superhero genre.

I’m kicking off with the Detective path MC first. When I do a build I’ll walk through highlights of the character, how powerful they are and what role they’d play in the game if you’d like to play them. The detective MC is really at one thing, sneaking and gathering information. They can throw a few punches, but they’re really best at hanging back and letting heavy hitters go to town while sneaking around. Their hacking device is very good at getting information, but it’s situational at best. Smoke grenades can provide some crowd control and would allow the Mc to get the drop on enemies, but that really depends on the environment. I’m keeping the MC builds as netural as possible because there are so many ways players make them in terms of personality and skills they’ve leveled in, so I’ll space them out over the course of my postings.

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So I’m writing the first classroom scenes this week, and I’m trying to decide how mean the Prestige students should/would be to Stoic, who is basically now the MC from CCH1; the only un-powered person around, with it being even worse because the Prestige students all know each other, whereas the entire Speck student body were newbies in CCH1.

Choices are:

  1. Condescending and insulting her.
  2. Ostracizing and totally ignoring her.
  3. Physically intimidating her.
  4. All. of. them.

Thoughts?

Oh, the Afterthoughts are going to have a really hard time too.

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I would say 2, with a touch of 1, the condescending part most notably. From what we’ve seen, Prestige might be an elitist school yeah, but it’s a disciplined elitist school. Those people spend their time training, I doubt they’d have the time to go out of their way to bully her. And even if they did, I doubt the teachers would stand for such poor behavior (because once again, discipline). On top of that, those are people training to be heroes. I get that they would be frustrated over her still being a student when she’s unpowered, but not to the point of outright shoving her around.

That’s why I can definitely see them completely ignoring her as part of a ‘if I don’t see her, she doesn’t exist’ mindset and on the off chance they do have to interact with her, treat her like she’s made of glass or perhaps be nice but in a very backhanded/condescending way. Or maybe, given Prestige’s military motif, treat her like a civilian playing at war.

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I feel no 3 would be something that both Stunner and staff would have nipped in the bud by proactive disciplinary messages … it is the same playbook that occurs whenever a “special” student arrives in the general population of a public school in America now.

I’d also include the following choices:

  • pity her
  • overhelping/defending her

These types of situations are scenarios I’d expect as well.

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@Eiwynn, @Harroc

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I’m not convinced that physical intimidation would be off the table. I mean, it’s hard to imagine the sort of hazing rituals a militaristic superhero school would have formed over the years. But I’ve been imagining/brainstorming it anyway. I mean, maybe some Prestige students would be like, “We’re being asked to rely on these chumps? To possibly place our lives in their hands? We need to see how tough they are.”

But I also love y’all’s suggestions of “treating her like a civilian playing at work” and the “over helping” and perhaps anticipating that the powers-that-be would have instituted some “Stoic rules” in advance of her arrival. I mean, they let her attend for some reason, right? That would be great to see Stoic call out Stunner for trying to soften her landing. She probably wouldn’t want that.

The best course of action is probably to show a wide range of reactions from different students. Of course the more I crank it up, the more MC might feel pressured to intervene.

You two were a great help! You really helped me flesh this all out. Thank you!

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I’m with #2 and the reason why is simply because she wouldnt be considered a “threat” I mean we get singled out unintentionally at the community college and people even show a small amount of respect at times but at one of the big schools with no powers? Honestly it would be like being invisible to at least to the truly gifted kids there the weaker ones that are around 3-4.5 on the scale might mess with her but I’d say I personally think they’d just ignore her with how strict the school is.

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Wouldn’t special Stoic rules also mean/imply there are special MC rules? Especially if Stunner is dating you, he would want to protect you. Most (or at least, I assume most?) didn’t realize you had any special abilities until you got there, particularly on the route where you did not gain powers or your dad’s equipment making you effectively a normal person (I think, haven’t actually played Tactician yet so do correct me if I’m wrong).

I could see MC shocking/showing up unaware Prestige students with their out of the blue prowess that the Prestige students hadn’t prepared for. Or MC and the Afterthoughts or Stoic bonding over the ill-treatment. Maybe MC gets angry at Stunner and confronts him/or is encouraged to confront him for what’s happening to them and their friends while he’s making buddy with the Prestige students?

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If I’m not wrong, the Tactician path does actually give you heightened abilities. All the paths result in you having physical capability equivalent to a 4.8 Zenith scale rating, although in the case of the armor your actual body stays normal and it is just the armor.

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Thank you, I stand corrected! I think we can still assume that this is information not necessarily everyone (including me apparently, lol) possessed since your main upgrades happen during the break (as far as I am aware, might be wrong here too).

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I think everyone should be aware as the issue comes up when Downfall first tests you.

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That was only directly before the start of classes though, wasn’t it? I’m not sure how directly however as I clearly need to replay the demo. Plus, Downfall and the rest of Prestige staff/faculty never seemed the keenest on widespread information sharing at any decent speed. I could definitely see at least some students being caught unawares. Or, if not unaware, reluctant to believe the news without some proof of strength. Elitists don’t tend to like sharing their elite ranking with a former extreme nobody after all.

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Yeah, news would be getting around the school that you appear formidable, especially considering: 1) the show you put on in the first scene against one of the Afterthoughts, and 2) you coming back from the SF mission unscathed, while three Prestige students died.

Plus, if you’re on the Dr. Stench route, you’re walking around in an armored suit - I’ll have to clarify the specifics around that (when you take it off, do you have to leave your mask on, etc. Like maybe you don’t wear it on “non-combat” class days, for example.

I’ve been watching The Last Dance on ESPN, and “The Jordan Rules” were Detroit’s rules about defending and basically beating up Jordan. It would be amusing if “The Stoic Rules” were the exactly opposite, protecting and supporting her.

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Definitely excited for whatever you come up with for Stoic and the goal involving her regardless! Her power has been my favorite out of any of the characters, except maybe Birthday Boy because his nickname and reaction to it are just genius.

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I finally read through the updated demo. I had a few suggestions if you’re still taking them.

First, when we arrive in SF, it doesn’t really make much sense for Rain to ask; “Did we lose Trendsetter?” when she doesn’t immediately walk out with everyone else. Maybe change it to “Where’s Trendsetter?” or, “Is Trendsetter coming to?”

Second, I think it’d be interesting if there was a scene later on where we could criticize Downfall for not doing more to protect us and the other students. Maybe say that she could’ve used Blackfire’s powers to create a shield, Whisper’s powers to warn everyone telepathically, or even the MC’s powers if they’re a Zenith to disable Shock the moment she saw him. Then Downfall could either brush off your questions by saying she doesn’t have to explain herself, giving you a relationship boost with someone for at least trying to question her, or actually explain why none of those ideas were possible.

Third, went with the perimeter team, not sure if this is intentional or not but… " You scrunch up your eyes, studying the La Tranquilidad for any sign of movements. Then you spot someone stepping out of the gaping hole in the hull, a large device floating in the air behind him."
Shouldn’t this be her?

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How is Prestige like?
Are there some nice students there or most of them are the stereotypical arrogant spoiled type?

Also a question about the stench armor: Won’t you get into risky situations without it?
For example you can just go back home for a vacation and just wear normal clothes and you’d suddenly get attacked.
I think it might be one of the main disadvantages of it compared to Zenith (where it’s your own power) or Tactician (cause the nanobots are inside your body)

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@Frogs, We’ll see about the Prestige students. It’s tough because I’m trying to “clear the decks” a bit to allow more focus on the main characters, so although I have to introduce a few Prestige students, I’m keeping it limited to just a couple, with the rest rather nameless and not super important. You’ll see some Trendsetter and Blank, but those will be the main ones, and they won’t be in the MC’s classes since they’re returning students.

And re: the armor, well yeah maybe…if I decide to go that route. But I’m not making any of them “better” than the other, so rest assured if one path encounters issues, the others will too. And think about the limitations of Zenith. It’s great against other Zeniths, but if someone like Wyvern showed up, it would sort of suck. You’d have your enhanced abilities, but that would be it.

And what about the Tactician route when facing a large number of less-powered foes. The Tactician is great at maybe trying to take down big guns, but when facing a swarm of lesser enemies, like your standard street gang, again you’d have to rely on the enhanced abilities.

Whereas, with the Armor, you’d be able to kick the Wyvern’s ass and obliterate the street punks.

@Dread_Dragon, Thanks for the catches; I’ll tweak the wording a bit.

And yeah Downfall won’t be explaining shit to any of those kids. But I will consider if I should put in an choice to let the MC ask, or wait to see if someone else speaks up. (but the “real” answer would probably be something like MC’s powers are far to weak and don’t have enough range, we’re talking lightning here, so sending out telepathic warnings would have been inefficient, because it would have confused/distracted some of the kids, perhaps making them tense up and get killed. And shielding? It almost certainly wouldn’t have held even once against Dr. Shock, and and certainly not against repeated blasts. And then when it shatters, you have everyone all clumped together to get electrocuted).

Her call was to close the distance between her and Shock and try to take him out high in the sky away from the kids. It seems like the right call to me.

But again, she won’t say any of this.

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They should be called the red shirts … (Star Trek reference)

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