Ok, so Im starting this thread to get an idea of who is interested and to get some opinions on the kind of games people want to see run...

Some options -
Project Utopia (as actual good guys)
Elites (the not so invulnerable psyche of a killer)
Teragen (the less bold early days of the movement)
Directive (watching the watchers is a hard job)
Other (XWF day to day lifestyles, Government Sponsored Novas, Devries but not military, Independant Organization, Corporate Disney/Viasoft/Coca-Cola Novas, etc...)
Anyone interested is welcome to leave some input/suggestions

I'm interested in the PU game, but I'll play just about anything except maybe Elites if people'd rather.

I'm interested in a PU game or a Directive game. But like Login, I'll play just about anything.

I think the real question is what would the ST like to run?

My preferences:

1) Utopia game
2) Directives game

Of course, whichever one Dr. Zero would prefer is the best game to go with.

I'll play anything as well, but I wouldn't mind a PU game myself.

Great! Seems about 8 people or so are interested...

Tekk
Joshua North
Login
Dr. Troll
Carver
James Bradford
Neil Preston
North (who I presume isnt Joshua North)

Ok we are going to play a PU game that is going to be something of a team tomorrow in training game. Its going to be heroic and over the top but also have a very human side. Picture this "Nova goes out and does PR by doing a middle school lecture, does 2 hours of training himself that is interrupted because they need an energy leech at a bomb site which ends up being a real threat... and also ruins a date with his girlfriend, that night when trying to make it up to her he gets another call for assistance with a street gang but simply doesnt answer the phone..."

This kind of thing to one degreee or another.

Sounds good. Do you want us to PM you our final characters? 30 NPs to start? Any house rules that we should know about?

Quick note: This is Carver, just one of my alts. I'll try not to do this again.

The house rules are in the price of blood rules... basically I am discerning about people making killer combos and such and you cant buy 5 dots in eufuber and have 1 dot in backgrounds... stuff like that. Basically I will ask for plausible justification.

Merits and Flaws are OK but I WILL use flaws as often (if not more) than merits.

Are you requiring us to take Backing 4, Influence 4, Resources 4 as stated in the core book for T2M characters? Since we're in training I would think the answer is no but I wan't to make sure.

Should we post our characters here or just PM them to you?

PM the exact stats to him;
Post a "what everyone should/does know about him" here.

No, you guys arent exactly T2M... you are going to be T2M projections, so to speak. You guys are being groomed to be the next gen of face novas...

Also, PM you stats and stuff to me and also feel free to ask about characters here so nobody gets their wires crossed

Also, is anyone unable to post more than once every 2-3 days? I will be posting either every day or every other day, generally. Id like people to keep their posting at about the same rate (both more and less can cause headaches)

Since it's summer time I'll be able to post everyday if I need to.

Here's some info on my character

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION: Joshua North is a lean, medium built man who appears to be in his mid-twenties. He stands at just over six feet tall and carries himself in a casual, easy going manner. He has a slightly pronounced squared jaw, a short nose, and light blue eyes. His hair is blond and short, and his face is clean shaven.

Powers: North has demonstrated the ability to manipulate light is various ways. He can discharge burst of white light to attack or blind opponents, create protective barriers, or to simply read by. He has also developed the ability to fly.

Furthermore, others, especially baselines, are captivated by him and have a tendency to defer to his authority.

Other Information: Others on the team know that he is divorced and a convert to Catholicism.

Ok Ive only got a few characters... Anyone else?

I know I already PMed you about it but you should get mine by the end of the weekend

I'm still in as well, and I PMed you mine a little earlier today.

I'll something for you by the end of the weekend. I have house guests, so I've been a bit preoccupied. :p

Ok great, Im starting to come up with some cohesive team/campaign stuff too... Id love to see everybodys in by, say, weds. That will be the cut off line... it will also show me who is actually really interested.

I'll try to get a character done and sent today, but I may not be able to, and I'm not going to have time for anything until Saturday (big scary exams looming). After that I'll be generally free to post at least once every other day, except for 10 days in July in which I probably won't have Internet access. Could this be worked out?

Jameson Bradford a.k.a. Richter 10

If there is one thing Jameson hates is when people call him the brick of the group. Being made of and armored in stone makes that joke get old pretty quick. Jameson has been with PU for a few years now learning to better control his Quantum powers. He tries to be jovial and have a good attitude but even his freinds and teammates feel like there is always a gap between him and everybody else. It's not that he doesn't want to fit in but when you tend to break furniture that isn't reinforced for your weight you can't help but feel a bit like an outsider.

Richter 10 has both massive size and strength. Standing over 10 feet tall and looking like a golem or roughly hewed statue he possesses great strenth and endurance. Although he may not be the toughest nova out there when combined with his strength and his practiced skills in close combat and throwing large objects he has little trouble finishing what he starts. His best known signature move is a megastrength shockwave he calls "The Earthshaker Punch" whereby he slams a fist into the ground sending shockwaves for hundred of meters in some cases.

When he dorms down and finally assumes a fully human appearance Jameson is a man who defines average. The only thing which makes him stand out is the shaggy blonde hair and his blue-grey eyes.

Thats no prob Login

Appearance: Dark Mind is a goth, and she dresses according to the aesthetics of that sub-culture. She varies in her style, ranging from "Victorn" goth to "Modern" goth styles. Her hair is sometimes black, and sometimes dyed other colors. Her skin appears to be very pale, though that could be makeup. She is five and a half feet, of a fit weight for that height, and is in her early twenties. Her facial features tend to be delicate or etheral. She tends toward silver jewelry with darker themes.

Powers: Dark Mind is a mentalist, though her file notes that she's diversified for one so young and is therefore considered somewhat weak. She can shroud an area in darkness, read minds, defend her own mind, create a protective force-field, and force cooperation from her opponants. She's also displayed amazing dexterity with her feet and her hands - sometimes at the same time. Last, she's incredibly proficent with languages, even those she doesn't know.

Quick History: Alice was a member of the local goth group, and she was a faithful adherant to that sub-culture and its philosophies. She was in attendance at her favorite night club when everyone within was taken hostage. One of her friends had spurned a young man with anger issues, and he came back to the club in a jealous rage. He took the entire bar hostage, and in the stress and panic, Alice erupted.

She used her mental powers and the ability to call forth darkness to rescue the room. The police who arrived on-site called Utopia to deal with the young nova, and she was convinced to go to the Rashoud facility.

While there, Alice decided to live up to her true potential in Project Utopia. Despite her subculture of choice, she feels that she should use her abilities to further mankind. She despises the idea of selling her talents as a mercenary, so she joined PU.

Name: Xavier Cain
Nova Name: X

Apperance: Xavier stands about 6 foot 2 with brown eyes and hair, is of Italian decent an athletic build, and in his early 30's. He's has a small scar that runs down the left side of face which runs from the bottom of his eye down to his mouth.

Background: Xavier has shared little of his past with his teammates. He has told them of how as a child he attempted to stop a mugger from robbing his mother, and the scar is a reminder of that incident. Despite his uneasiness in sharing his past, Xavier has shown to friendly, caring person who enjoys being able to help out his teammates, and is a devoted follower of Utopia's goals.

Know Powers: During training X has shown a remarkable resistance to injury by normal means as with his ability to use his Quantum in the form of a force field, and as a offensive measure he can generate his quantum into claws. His athletic ability has be demonstrated by a quickness that far exceeds that of normal human. The most promiant abiliites X has shown is the power to render other Nova's power useless, and to drain Quantum energy with his touch.

I was going to post something and realized I was making a big assumption.

Question for the ST:

What year is it? Has Slider died yet? And as I understand it, we are basically T2M in training?

It is 2008 and yes, you are all reeling from the Slider scandal. Basically, the world as it appears in the fiction section of the Aberrant book... anything other than that, ask me.

And yes, you guys are being groomed as the T2M next gen or "Team Eventually" or "Team Unlikely" (depending on your particular critics). You guys are stationed in New England at the New York MR facility but you guys are being moved further up to Boston to populate the newest office and MR clinic. The grooming, btw, is unofficial. The project does not state you are being trained for such purposes, though they have told you of their intentions. For now, your ability to operate as a semi independent Utopia team in the wake of the Slider scandal is being highly scrutinized... rewarded greatly if you can win hearts and minds and put on a good face for PU. You are not the only T2M next gen team but they are stationed at other places around the world to fill in the blank spots T2M cant always get to.
Answer your questions?

I hope to have a character out tonight or tomorrow morning.

Ok Ive got Dark Mind, Richter 10, X, Joshua North, Multigate... I suspect we will be starting soon!

Sounds great, I'm looking forward to it.

I'm interested in playing if you have the room.

Right now I'm thinking Warper or possibly some type of biocomputer character with CyberK, Poison and Mirage... wow, i'm really liking that, and maybe tendril for Jacking in... call him Android...

I don't think that it would be a problem to join us at all. Just be sure and pm Zero your stats, and stuff.

PM me your concept...

Open rules Q:

The errata on this site for the abberant core rules (in the downloads section) differs from the errata included with the players guide in regards to the system for shockwave and thunderclap.

Basically the errata here has the power dealing 5 times the damage dice (a significant difference) and I was wondering if this was an older errata or ruling which had been overturned?

Either way the other party members should know that Richter 10's signature move is a Mega-strength 5 Shockwave with enhanced area effect. He calls it the Epicenter.

It's up to the ST but I suggest we just use Mega-Dice against live targets.

Yeah, I must say my jaw dropped when I saw I could potentially be doing 25 dice bashing to all targets within 50+ meters. I was quite happy with only 5 dice.

I figured that with the bulk of my Aeon Universe gaming being Trinity and Adventure somebody else may know if that errata was out of date or unofficial.

I think that errata was unofficial but was from official sources. The vast bulk of it did end up in the APG.

With those I think the problem was originally that Shockwave and Thunderclap were considered too weak. But the errata's solution is much worse as it gets turned into massive shear overkill.

Leaving the situation as it was means that Thunderclap is still pretty weak (although it is strong against crowds of baselines), but IMHO Shockwave is still very strong. Letting you, with one action, knock down buildings should be strong enough by itself.

I tried to send this to Dr. Zero but his mailbox is full so I've decided to see what ev everyone else thought. Here's my problem.

North's Q-Bolt takes the form of focused beams of light. Naturally, one would assume this would be lethal. However, North is a pacifist so he has to spend one willpower point to use lethal attacks. I'm torn on whether to ignore logic and make his attack bashing so it can be freely used or to have it as lethal, be more realistic and be a pain in the ass. Any thoughts? Keep in mind that this is his only offensive power.

The US military experimented with lasers that flash boil fluid under the skin, the result is in intensely painful flash that isn't lethal.

You may want to go with a stun effect rather than a laser if he's really a pacifist. High quantum and a decent dice pool really do make the power effective.

I looked at the stun attack but with Q2 I wasn't sure if it would be effective. I thought it would be interesting to make it a simultaneous linked power with his Strobe attack

An area stun with Q2 becomes a good way to deal with baselines and and mentalist types (since the traditional mentalist is rather squishy) but otherwise you're right, not effective, but a bashing QBolt for an intense flash leaving painful second degree burns, pretty effective and rather believable.

I agree with Chronogeist, there's no reason why you can't take a bashing laser beam. Photons do exist partially as particles and thus have mass and thus convey force (a la solar sails) and the effect on the target does not need to be lethal even though it may cause tissue damage, it could manifest as sunburn or 1st and 2nd degree burns which disable the opponent with pain.

Have your character treat it as a directed stun style attack fot the purposes of his use of the power.

Just make is a bashing Q-Bolt. I don't see how that is more unrealistic than (for example) Green Lantern's/Quasar's solid light constructs.

Alright, I'm convinced. Bashing it is. Thanks for the advice.

Sorry, just got rid of my messages... Can everyone send me their character sheets in PMs again...

And yes, Bashing is fine... Novas can do some interesting tricks with fundamental universal powers. Being able to condense photons mass wouldnt be the strangest... "He punched me with a lazer..."

So...

Multigate, X, Dark Mind, Richter 10, Android and Joshua North... did I miss anyone?

I have X's sheet currently (I did a mass PM purge so I lost a few sheets)

Also, Im going with the original version of shockwave... its not really a damage dealing power to living targets... its a knockdown attack and, effectively, an area attack to structures.

(Login here, in character-account)

Elena Álvarez de la Rosa a.k.a. "Glowbe"

Appearance: The first impression that Elena gives is "cute", not impressive, and rather plain for a nova, but nice to look at nevertheless. She's also small, not much more than a meter sixty, and looks young, barely twenty, although you know she must be closer to twenty-five. Soft, tanned, freckled skin, and soft wavy hair left relatively unstyled, simply falling down her back. She wears minimal or no makeup, and small, unassuming pieces of jewelery. She look genuinely humble, even in her expressions, the most common of which is a small, warm smile, something that is rather rare among novas.

Personality: Good at being nice, following orders, getting on with people and occasionally cheering people up, she lacks initiative, authority, decision-making. She's someone you want to have around, although fitting into a definite support role.

Background: Elena talks willingly enough about her past, although she warns beforehand that "it's rather boring". Born in Spain, but studied Medicine in the US through a scholarship, threw herself in front of a truck to save a kid, and then joined Utopia. Not very spectacular, especially not how she tells it, as if it could've happened to anyone.

Powers: Glowbe can create spheres of glowing, gelatinous matter, either for protecting herself or other, immobilizing people or things, hurling them at people or simply for shedding light. She's also rather more resistant to damage than a normal nova, although not that much. She also has a knack with languages, but it's doubtful that that is an actual quantum expression, and she claims to have been good with languages even before she erupted.

Further Details: Elena is known to be good friends with T2MAm nova Shard (non-canon nova, with the power to manipulate and create crystal, apart from moderate MSocials), it's quite possible that her rapid progress, both in the control of her powers and her career in the Project, in what has barely been a year since her eruption, is largely based on Shard's tutelage and patronage. It's even rumoured that she was admitted onto this team only because of a recommendation from the Tomorrowite nova.

Siggismund Auerbach a.k.a. "Firedrake"

Appearance: ‘Siggy’ is six foot, five inches, and must weigh well over 200 lbs, thanks to his broad shoulders. He looks to be pushing fifty, and moves with the measured pace one associates with ‘old people.’ Out of doors, he is almost never seen without some sort of casual suit, generally a tad out of date, and he often wears a bowler hat to cover his balding head, which is otherwise quite prominent, as is his hook-like nose. Everything about him seems just a little too big for the rest of him. He’s got too much forehead, too much nose, too wide a chin, etc. When he smiles, which is surprisingly often, his *teeth* look too big. And when he shakes your hand, his hand is large, dry and hot, and he squeezes just a little too hard, which comes off as either deliberately intimidating or just ‘showing off’ or overcompensating for his obvious age. The fringe of hair remaining to him is pale white, but his skin is just a shade darker than typical for someone of his Swiss heritage (his coloration being less Germanic and more Gallic, a native would say).

Personality: Siggy is a paradox. He’s obviously old, and rambles on about the Second World War (he never abbreviates it as ‘WWII’) and how he moved to post-war America from Switzerland and intolerably boring stuff like investment portfolios and credit reports and speculative financing. And yet he’s physically competitive, and can be seen in a wife-beater and sweat shorts jogging around the quad, or pumping iron in the gymnasium (steadfastly avoiding the fancy machines and going for the free-weights), or playing a spirited (if not terribly skilled) game of racquetball or walleyball with other people. He’s also got a bit of a reputation for making stuff up to get rid of people that he finds bothersome, like claiming not to be a Nova at all, but something else, something older than humanity.

Background: Siggy has been a banker, a teacher, a private investigator, and, most recently, managed a credit bureau, in his long life, and anyone adding up the years of his various tales will quickly conclude that he isn’t fifty-something, he’s seventy-something, or perhaps even eighty-something. He’s been married, for decades, and widowered, for decades since. He’s had a full life, and near what for most people is the end of the story, a whole new chapter has opened up.

Powers: Siggismund is obviously superhumanly fit, for a man pushing eighty, and his body generates enough warmth to not only keep him warm in any climate, but for him to project a blast of flame from his mouth. But this is just the ‘warm-up,’ when he truly engages his power, a rippling golden-green field of force rises up out of his body in the form of a humanoid dragon, with him still visible at the center of this oversized ‘anima banner.’ Fully manifest, the exoskeleton of force is nine feet tall, and has a wingspan stretching eighteen feet from wingtip to wingtip. Claws, fangs, spines and edged tail, all bits are pointy (although he seems to have no control over the tail…) and dangerous, and inside this energy field, he is well-protected, and able to exert tremendous strength, as well as fly on crackling wings of raw quantum.

Further Details: ‘Siggy’ is known to be on poor terms with the Utopian research staff, and it is from them that he has picked up his ‘reputation’ as a compulsive liar, since he long ago grew impatient with their endless tests and started to make up all sorts of improbable stories in response to their questions.

Kyle Aarons: Android

Kyle is 23 years old and just under 6 feet tall with brown hair cropped in what might be seen as a messy or longish-on-top "high and tight". Since his eruption his skin has changed to a type of Hi-Liter Blue and his Irises perpetually radiate light like a neon sign(typically red). He stands rather upright, shoulders back, eyes front and falls into the relaxed 'parade rest' of the American Air Force when conversing casually.

His left ring finger seems techno-organic in nature, moving very naturally but composed primarily of gold, it can extend some six feet. The nail flips open to reveal a multipurpose instrument which can be used to interface with most man-made devices as well as inject some form of "poison" (currently believed to be a silicate based DNA or RNA substitute). Android is also capable of using his Quantum signature to (inexplicably) influence a targets Gamma brainwaves (Those associated with higher mental activity) and propagating Theta Brainwaves (Those commonly found in hypnagogic states).

He's never more than a few feet from a cell phone or OpNet terminal and he perpetually surfs the Net.

Kyle prefers to be called Android when the "Eufiber's on" and Aarons when it's not. For the most part he just seems glad to be there. He lives in Project U. housing with his baseline wife Janice (a rather bright and attractive latina woman, total nova-phile), he drives an economy company car and invites co-workers to his home for barbecues every weekend.
He wouldn't strike you as very "warm" but when he's on a roll he can be the life of the party.

Ok Id like to start very soon...

Looks like the team is X, James North, Multigate, Richeter 10, Glowbe, Android, Firedrake and Dark Mind

Any last requests?

How about an extra 30 Nova Points

Jack doesn't have cipher and his background is fairly public so I'm just going to post it. Note that since most of his background is DeVries rather than Utopian some Utopians may have mixed feeling about him.


Background: Jack grew up upper lower class. He was also lazy and the local schools sucked. He coasted through high school with a winning smile and little work. Then he got his high school girl friend (Ann) pregnant, they got married, and 5 years later he found himself working 100+ hours a week on 3 dead end jobs. His high school class reunion had really rubbed his noise in this. Other people were making things of themselves. The brains had gone to college, the idiot class president had gotten a football scholarship and was now starting a company, everyone else was doing great.

Life sucked. Day in, and day out, there just wasn't enough time for him to do anything and he needed to be in 4 places at once. One day after the 2nd day of a killer headache, he was late on most of his bills, late for work, had to get his son (Jack Junior) to a doctor, his car broke down, and the stress of it all gave him a nervous breakdown, and he erupted. He took his 4 year old son to the doctor, he went to work, he took a day off, and he went back inside to sleep, all without a car.

Jack's eruption gave him the ability to be at several plac