Speed round because I’m in my phone and having difficulty scrolling to everyone’s comments:
Yes, you are supposed to be confused a about Hedonist. Does he control minds? Does he use pheromones? Is he just naturally very flirtatious? Is he evil? Just sleazy? Does he actually want to help the students?
Yes you can punch him. Choose “take your hands off me” and you’ll get the option (but also a D)
The MC isn’t totally ungifted physically. Even overweight heroes are decently strong and sneaky. A 20 stat is probably about human average and obviously a 40 is “athlete” level at bare minimum. With an upgrade or two, the MC can be a legit threat in at least in the two highest stats.
Even a strategist, probably the least physical of the classes, can train some other stats up into the 30s at least as well has having really high stealth and analysis that absolutely can help bring down the bad guys, just not quite as directly as other classes.
So in the beginning, the Bullet MC is about an average running athlete, who can have no combat experience whatsoever, yet they still get a scholarship to a school for powered heros. Why is it so completely unheard of for unpowered heros to be in these schools? The MC is about at the level of an average athlete, so why wouldn’t other Normals with similar skills and equipment try out door the school?
If I could repeat an earlier comment of mine, “why not have the MC do something impressive, then be accepted?” This would provide a decent explanation while also maybe giving the MC a secret to protect other then their personal information (and possibly Hedonist).
@God_of_Demonz, you make some good points. I do have an idea in mind that would somewhat explain why the MC was admitted to the program, but if it doesn’t end up making sense, I can definitely considering doing a little more backstory as you suggest.
I would also add, the Speck program kind of sucks (we all know this) and it is in the middle of nowhere and although everyone else is “powered,” I’m not sure that super swimming, creating portals or making smoke really puts them much above a non-powered athlete when it comes to fighting bad guys.
I’m gonna have to agree with God_of_Demonz here on the whole how we got in bit, but if you have a big “reveal” plan going on with that then go ahead and ignore us. Also gotta disagree with the whole portals/smoke not being useful against baddies. I’m just imagining dropping a mountain on the joker via portal >:) or other combat uses. though we can ask aquaman what he thinks about swimming. That said still love your story so far and can’t wait for the next update. and punishment against a certain teacher. :-))
Well keep in mind that its a community college for heroes, so it’s not like we’re going up against A listers, that said it’s not clear if anyone at the college is at “inferior five” level.
That said, its also obvious that like the PC our fellow students have little to no experience too. Even the future champions among them are closer to George Foreman after a few boxing lessons, not George Foreman at his prime.
Also, it looks like the goal of the school is to make people dangerous with or without powers: Self Defense, combat, stealth, investigation.
So presuming everyone graduates calling them “someone who makes portals” or generates smoke would be like calling The Shadow “A guy with a little telepathy.”
Accurate, sure, but loses the forest for the trees.
@God_of_Demonz exactly my problems with MC believability . I could believe it if she has some sort of genius talent. Like tactician, she is a mental genius a Mensa member. In sniper she obtained a golden medal … not a normal girl just send a letter because is a hero fanatic.
Yes, the classes are pretty much oriented for everyone due to the variety of powers. But my more important question is this, why just the MC? From the descriptions we aren’t extremely skilled, or have much experience under our belt. So why aren’t there MORE non-powered heroes?
I understand if you want the MC to be unique in the school, but considering our relatively low skill level earned us a scholarship, why haven’t other normals done the same? Why are there no other Normal people who don’t need powers to fight crime? A single squad of highly trained criminals with good equpment could likely clear the whole school from what we’ve seen so far. While I realize no one is at graduate level, what is a graduate even capable of? Could a black belt take down a graduate? If so, why haven’t martial artists or fledgling boxers signed up to be heroes?
Also, why have so many heroes if there isn’t much crime in the area anyway? Do graduates to to more crime filled cities when they graduate or is the town clogged with useless, ‘heroes’?
@God_of_Demonz exactly my problems with MC believability . I could believe it if she has some sort of genius talent. Like tactician, she is a mental genius a Mensa member. In sniper she obtained a golden medal … not a normal girl just send a letter because is a hero fanatic.
What if I edited the story to include two revisions?
Speck instituted some sort to quota rule for admissions, promising to accept one (and only one) non-powered/non-at least somewhat awesomely equipped student each semester? And…
I include a choice in the first chapter before the acceptance letter section where you pick the accomplishment you write about in your application essay? Perhaps things like saving a drowning victim (ala Mitt Romney), starting a neighborhood watch, etc. You all could help me come up with good choices there because I haven’t thought about it.
Would those two changes address (at least somewhat) why the MC was picked and why there aren’t more non powered heroes at the school?
I am committed to having the MC the only non powered student, and I am committed to Speck’s program being crappy and small, at least in its first year, but I am VERY open to possible revisions that help better explain those things.
I’d prefer if the reason why you got chosen was your secret, and you had to decide what that secret was during Nil’s “Spy on your classmates for me” test. Of course the reason why would have to correspond with your class.
That’s a very interesting idea too. Can you give me an example?
At first I thought about secrets just being things name, hometown, etc, but it sounds like everyone would be more entertained by the characters having “deep dark secrets?” @-)
I’ve thought of one good one already this morning.
TO KEEP THINGS SECRET, PLEASE SEND ME A PRIVATE MESSAGE WITH YOUR SECRET IDEAS FOR CHARACTERS. Sorry for the shout!
@HornHeadFan could be a political complot to make Mc fail?
Like others schools didn’t want normal people like heros. asomething like The t
Lieutenant Ripley movie when marines only want her like an advertisement and want her fail. THAT could be a good reason to acept Mc even being so normal
i have a question: do the secrets have to be big(like identity,or hometown).because
nil never specifies on whether they have to be big secrets.
for example if you learned that ____ has a fear of ____ would it count as a secret since they haven’t told anyone?
obviously bigger secrets have a bigger appeal stroy-wise, I just think that since nil didn’t say it had to be a big secret, that most students wouldn’t look to betray their friends by handing out bigger than necessary secrets.
you could of course address this by having nil say it had to be a big secret,but that might come off weird in text.
What if the back story could cover the secret for nil’s class. Because if you can steal there secret they can steal yours. So a backstory could cover that. Things like your dad was a convict or you were in a gang etc
@AdamGoodTime, those are good points.
Nil will give the students specifics on “what constitutes a secret” in chapter 5.
I fear my head will explode if I make things much more complicated, and I really need my head (for work and such). I’m leaning towards giving the MC a juicy secret but the secrets of the other 9 characters will vary from juicy to somewhat blah. It will be hard enough to write 9 secrets.
KEEP SENDING IDEAS FOR POSSIBLE MC SECRETS TO ME VIA PRIVATE MESSAGE, NOT THE THREAD
But why only one non-powered hero? Surely after years of watching people with terrible powers get accepted they would have figured out that you don’t need powers to kick ass. Aka, Batman. He never went to hero school and turned out alright(somewhat mentally unstable, but he always came through) speaking of non-powereds, are there some high-level non-powered heroes who didn’t go to school and have to flee the scene after they bring down criminals?
As for accomplishment, it has to be something relatively impressive. Not just saving a kitty in a tree. Brawler/Bullet may have stopped a three man mugging team. Detectives may have tracked down a drug smuggler, etc… A sniper may have stopped a crazed gunman with a hostage, Having achievements based on skills of a class
