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[pikachu17]

That is an awesome character.
But I am a first-time GM, and to be honest, having five people is probably already pushing my capabilities.
But if Sirus or somebody else turns not to be able to play, I'll be sure to tag you in.

[pikachu17]

mother was... well, Amy had never really been wanted. Her mother was always coolly distant, preferring to leave Amy's raising to the school system, her meals to the local supermarket's microwave meal brands, and her

This part seems to be missing. I assume the part where you get your powers you are just improving.

Edit:For some reason I am accidently double posting a lot now.  Sorry.

[Sirus]

Agh, so many new questions being added and here I am just trying to make the basics.

Spoiler: Incoming Outsider (click to show/hide)

HERO/PUBLIC NAME: Toba
REAL NAME: Unpronounceable in any human language

LOOK: A humanoid, genderless being made of what appears to be orange oobleck or clay. Toba's body structure changes from day to day, shifting from male to female forms and back again, using extensions of xer body to act as "hair". These shifts do little to impact Toba's capabilities, and xe is unable to change colors. Thus, xe cannot use this ability to (convincingly) impersonate others.

Toba's only permanent feature is xer eyes, which have black sclera and violet irises. Although the amorphous alien has no real need for clothing, xe wears a light blue jumpsuit capable of accommodating all but the most radical of shapeshifting. This usually serves as a superhero outfit, allowing Toba to wear eclectic human garments during off-duty time if xe wishes.

ABILITIES: Toba possesses the ability to fly at a decent, but not supersonic, speed, and has superhuman levels of durability due to being made at least partially of an alien goo. Most injuries simply don't stick, as xe can reincorporate lost bits of xerself and reform around blunt trauma, though the transdimensional alien still feels discomfort from such involuntary deformation. Taking too much damage in a short time frame will cause Toba to run out of energy and collapse back into a formless blob.

Aside from recovering from physical attacks, Toba's amorphous nature allows xer to shift forms both for combat and utility purposes. Although complex machines are behind xer ability to mimic, xe can readily form limbs into simple objects or stretch them several meters. In times of great need xe can perform more radical transformations, such as taking the shape, size, and properties of a large net to catch a falling civilian.

Toba is also capable of storing sunlight as internal energy and unleashing it in blasts of heat and light. This heliokinesis is xer preferred method of doing battle against villains at range.

LABELS:
Danger: 0
Freak: +1
Savior: 0
Superior: +2
Mundane: 0

BACKGROUND: Fifteen years ago, a strange portal opened in low Earth orbit and deposited an object the size of a small bus. This object, tracked closely by A.E.G.I.S. and other interested parties, entered Earth's atmosphere and came to a controlled landing in the Rocky Mountains, where it was quickly seized by a task force consisting of government agents and a trusted team of superheroes.

It quickly became apparent that the object was a vehicle of advanced design, beyond what was available to all but Earth's brightest super-scientists. Opening the hatch and boarding the craft, the team found only one living occupant: an amorphous orange blob in a sealed capsule. Both vehicle and occupant were removed from the landing site and brought to a top-security facility for study.

While the mechanics behind the craft remained a mystery, as it seemed to have no power source of any kind and did not respond to any tests, the alien lifeform provided nearly as many answers as questions. Upon opening the capsule, the blob began to move around under its own power, crawling around the sealed laboratory and trying to mimic whatever it came across. A few tests showed that the mass was not hostile to lifeforms, nor toxic in any way the scientists could detect. Deciding that the creature/colony did not merit immediate disposal, the science team labeled it UAL-03-021, or more informally The Orange Blob Alien.

As study on TOBA continued, the blob became more and more adept at shifting its form, being able to mimic more complex detail and hold its shape for longer periods of time. This worried some of the scientists, who feared that TOBA might eventually become a perfect shapeshifter and escape, and their fears grew even more intense as TOBA showed signs of mimicking the humans who worked with it. A small but vocal part of the science team began petitioning for TOBA's destruction.

It was the head of the UAL-03-021 project, Doctor Edgar Hinks, that saved TOBA. Not wishing to incinerate a genuine alien without due cause, Hinks called in a number of experts, super-powered and otherwise, that specialized in working with post and non-humans. Through observation; careful interview; and the use of tel-empathic communication, the experts discovered that TOBY was not hostile or threatening to humanity. Far from it, in fact.

As it turned out, the alien was something of an emissary. As a representative from a trans-dimensional race of xenophiles, TOBA's journey to Earth was not one of conquest, or assimilation, or even espionage. Rather, it was here to learn. To study humanity up close and personal, to observe the best and worst of the species, and eventually to return to its home dimension in order to share its collected knowledge. To TOBA's species, such forays were crucial to understanding the universe.

These revelations begat a number of changes in Project UAL-03-021's methods. Whether out of a genuine desire to assist TOBA's quest for knowledge or a selfish wish to make humanity seem more favorable, the science team moved away from impartial observation and began to engage with the alien. This shift caused a dramatic improvement in TOBA's ability to imitate humans, allowing it to learn human language and take on properly humanoid forms. These open discussions resulted in a flood of new information: for instance, the knowledge that TOBA's species was genderless (it chose some new pronouns when it learned that some human languages did not have such a concept in mind) and that it had a very different form in its home dimension. As time passed, the science team stopped referring to the xer as The Orange Blob Alien and instead simply as "Toba".

RELATIONSHIPS:
Toba's been learning more about Earth by spending time with ___________.
Toba has a crush on _____________ but keeps it under wraps.

INFLUENCE:
Cheerful demeanor. Toba genuinely enjoys xer mission to Earth and has a generally fantastic time. Everyone has Influence over Toba, especially if they have something new about humankind to share.

OUTSIDER MOVES:
Kirby-craft: The vehicle that Toba arrived on Earth in. The size of a small bus, it has a decent amount of passenger room and is capable of flight at much greater speeds and altitudes than Toba can manage alone. It's real use, however, is serving as a method of interdimensional communication and travel.
Being an emissary vessel, however, it is completely unarmed and is readily detectable by even humanity's relatively primitive technology. Toba's species seeks peaceful interaction, not stealth or conquest.
Belong in Two Worlds: Toba periodically uses xer craft to speak with xer species in their home dimension. While the primary purpose is to report on what xe has learned, xe can also seek advice or material aid.[
u]The Best of Them[/u]: Toba greatly enjoys being around humans, and can often find good aspects about individuals when trying to help one through a tough time.

I'll work on those other questions later. Right now I just want to get this in and see if it's at all feasible.

[Digital Hellhound]

Oh, and Digital Hellhound, maybe she's not capable of it now, but she could later learn to transmute her body into someone's appearance in a memory later?

I rather like that. Let's say that's something she could figure out down the line.

A fortress of sorts, where you can have solitude.

It would be fitting if Vestige had her sanctuary in her head, I think. Like, in her head, but because she can manifest things, it isn't in her head. A sort of Happy Place, except instead of going to her Happy Place Vestige makes the Happy Place come to her.

Maybe then she could have it anywhere if she is given enough time and space to summon it. So if you wanted, the part of the base that is hers might just be a large empty room for her to "meditate" in.

That's a great idea. It could be something like her childhood room summoned into being inside the empty attic or such. Given how it's supposed to be a private place, the rest of the team might not even know that she's doing it? If the sanctuary needs to be away from the base, I suppose she could also be doing it elsewhere in a quiet place.

[pikachu17]

Just so long as the sanctuary has features and downsides that make sense, I don't care too much what it is.
However only 'a meditation space' goes out too me as a feature that would make sense.
And likewisey 'difficult to acess'(very long meditation) 'Draws dangerous attention' and 'tied to your doom'  go out to me as downsides that make sense.


Sirus, why did you think Toba might not be viable?
Outsiders get three moves, by the way.

There is a "why do your people want you come home?" question, which I can't really think why in this imstance.

While you don't have say who now, I will need to know what romance meana for a genderless being.

[Digital Hellhound]

Just so long as the sanctuary has features and downsides that make sense, I don't care too much what it is.
However only 'a meditation space' goes out too me as a feature that would make sense.
And likewisey 'difficult to acess'(very long meditation) 'Draws dangerous attention' and 'tied to your doom'  go out to me as downsides that make sense.

I went with aides, music, food and art, and meditation space for features, difficult to access and tied to doom as drawbacks.

I'm thinking of having my 'You'd love to kiss ______ before your doom comes' be Sepiatone, since his power nullification no doubt appeals and provides an interesting dynamic. Not sure about 'You told ______ all about your doom and the danger you're in' - does anyone feel like their character would make particular sense for it?

[Sirus]

Whoops, I thought they only got two. I'll add one real quick.

I thought I made the reason to come home clear, but basically after X years on Earth Toba will be expected to go home and share everything they've experienced. It's not an immediate issue (not like a Doomed character's problems), but it will come up eventually. This is a somewhat more permanent departure than simply checking in every so often.

As for romance, it's really no more different than stories about AIs or monogendered species falling in love with humans. Besides, it's a crush and not necessarily mutual attraction. Some people aren't into blobs and Toba's target may well not reciprocate

[heydude6]

Hey, so I think I finished my sheet. There's only one problem left and that is deciding whether I'll have detective skills or telekinesis. The old sheet is currently detective skills, but I have made another sheet for telekinesis that I'm posting here. The only part that's changed is the backstory where Sancho talks about himself and the ability description. And the labels.

Spoiler: Sir Samuel, The (psychic) PROTÉGÉ (click to show/hide)

Hero Name: Sir Samuel the Second
Real Name: Sancho Quixote

Look:
Sancho is a pale, short, and thin young adult with neatly combed red hair and bangs, plus many freckles. In his regular life, he wears a red shirt with a green hoody, plus your usual jeans. On the job though, he wears an archaic suit of plate amour more suitable for the 1700s than the present. Though the pointed helm with a purple plume has a visor that covers the entirety of Sancho's face, his identity is further obscured by the armour's extra height and bulky frame.
 
Mentor
Hero Name: Sir Samuel the First
Real Name: John Quixote

Embodies Savior
Denies Mundane

Mentor Resources
A hidden base: He calls it the Dragon's Den. Says his ancestors defeated a dragon way back when, and it's been the family's ever since. My research says that it's just an abandoned gold mine he bought. It's basically a batcave, but way messier since dad didn't want to hire a butler.

A vehicle: A herd of mechanical horses, one for each of us. Though they are a bit embarrassing, they run pretty fast and are a lot more maneuverable than a car. They can't swim, but they can walk on walls.

Communicators: When duty calls, it must be answered. This was Dad's way of keeping in touch with me 24/7. Doesn't use it as much ever since I joined the team. It's encrypted thankfully, and he didn't mind making some for my friends. I still only use it when we're split up. Can also summon a horse if you say the proper command.

Backstory:

Dad is honestly kind of crazy. He's the very embodiment of all money and no sense. If you asked him why he did what he did, he would spin some story about how he was descended from a long line of valorous knights who made it their mission to fight evil, and he really believes it too. He had many tales about the exploits of these heroic knights as well as his own, but I'm not gonna bother you with his bullshit. The stories are filled with contradictions and inconsistencies, so I did my own research and found what I believe is the real story.

John Banner was the youngest child of a rich business man and the black sheep of the family. It's not that his parents hated him or anything, but compared to his older brother Alex who was due to inherit the company, John was a nobody. It gave him freedom actually. While his parents were trying to turn Alex into a good heir, John was mostly left alone and was free to pursue whatever he wished. In this case, engineering.

Unfortunately, Alex got drunk one night and drove his car off a bridge. Needless to say, he didn't make it. With Alex's position now vacant, John was taken out of engineering by his parents and forced to take his place. It didn't matter if John was 20 years behind, they were going to make him their successor no matter what.

At the beginning things were rough, but John managed to adapt quickly and soon he was working his shifts with a smile. Upon his father's early retirement, he was given full ownership of the business. Everything had gone according to plan.

And then John sold it. Dad had never forgiven grandfather for taking control of his life, so he took revenge by getting rid of the man's life work. What no one was expecting though was for the old man to commit suicide. Naturally, his mother blamed Dad for grandfather's death which drove the last of the family apart.

The rest unfortunately is just conjecture. By selling the company John had more money than he would ever need. This unfortunately just made it easier for him to hide away from the world, but I don't think he was ever able to hide from his guilt. I guess one day something in him finally snapped, cause suddenly he changed his name. Not long after he was prancing around in a costume like he was playing make believe.

You would have expected him to get killed, but somehow the madman pulled it off. He taught himself how to fight and built a suit that could withstand tank shells and lasers. He even bested a few villains and made a small name for himself.

Oh. Me? You want me to talk about myself?

...

Well I'm a mess.

According to him, I'm the product of some affair with the daughter of a villain he fought, but he never gives me any names or other clues that could help me uncover the real truth. You don't really expect me to believe that crap after all? Regardless, I am the next knight in this "noble" lineage and he's been training me whenever I get home from private school at the expense of my homework. I've actually been questioned by the teachers a few times, which makes sense considering the kind of city this is. I've always been able to lie my way out of it though. If the truth got out not only would I be in danger, but so would dad. He barely functions as is. There's no way he'd be able to survive if he was attacked without his armour.

I wasn't always this grumpy though. Back when I was younger and I guess a little more gullible, I thought his stories were incredible and I was really looking forward to one day taking his place as the next Sir Samuel. Then I learned how to google and found out that a lot of the stuff he told me was a total lie.

Maybe I should have talked to him, BUT WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU EXPECT!!!! AM I SUPPOSED TO THINK THAT THE MAN WHO'S BEEN LYING TO ME FOR (now) 17 YEARS OF MY LIFE IS SUPPOSED TO SUDDENLY START TELLING ME THE TRUTH?!

I know he's just crazy and he isn't trying to lie to me, but having the world you believed in as child get shattered so completely is still pretty traumatic. I honestly would have run away from home, but  then I shit you not, I suddenly developed the ability to move things with my mind. I didn't believe it at first. I thought whatever madness was affecting my father had finally started to take root in me. That I was just imagining the floating pencils and pebbles. But it's a real. Somehow the lunatic who thought he was a super, had a son who was an actual super. As if the power of belief itself managed to magically weave him into being.

I don't know what to think of this. I don't even know how dad would think of this. So far I haven't told him anything. Not about meeting my grandmother, not about learning the truth, and definitely not about the psychic powers. I've just been biding my time, doing business as usual until I come to a decision about what to do. My team knows, and they helped me develop the confidence to use my powers on the field, but I've still been hiding them from dad. Been hiding a lot of things really...

Abilities

Shared Ability:
Powerful Armour: The Errant MK V

On the outside, it looks like your typical suit of medieval plate armor, but secretly it's packed with all sorts of enhancements to bring it to the modern age. For one thing, it isn't made of steel, but instead the latest Duraluminum which allows it to withstand not just gunfire, but also rockets and tank shells. The latter two tend to throw the suit around, but thanks to an internal G-gel lining, the worst the occupant ever has to experience is an upset stomach from the incredibly dizzying flight. This has cost Sancho and John some battles though, as a villain was able to get away while the heroes were trying to recover their bearings. Another weakness of the suit is that it isn't temperature controlled. There's an internal air conditioner for hot summer days and the G-gel insulates for winters, but they do basically nothing to protect against the firepower or cryopower of modern supers. If you expect Sir Samuel you to run into a burning building to save some orphans you'll be very disappointed.

But durability is not enough to make a hero. Your average super has enhanced physical abilities so any suit designed to fight with them must be able to keep up. That's why its no surprise that the Errant MK V has a few electronic subsystems to level the playing field. For a powered suit of armour though, they are surprisingly modest. There are no lasers or jetpacks, nor superintelligent AI assistant. All that's there is an electronic HUD built into the helmet, a sound system that allows one to hear and speak into the environment (a necessity since G-Gel insulates against sounds), and motors that grant greatly enhanced speed and strength.

This is likely a good time to talk about the suit's final major weakness, electricity. Though the electronics in the suit have a decent tolerance for shocks, a sufficiently strong current is still enough to overload them. The G-gel will protect the pilot in such a case, but life gets incredibly difficult from there on out. No motors means that John or Sancho will have to carry the full weight of the suit and its subsystems on its own which leaves mobility significantly impaired. With no cameras or microphones to relay information from the outside world to the HUD and sound system, Sir Samuel is rendered deaf, blind, and mute. There is a back up for the latter effect, but it's less than ideal. Hidden underneath his gorget is a small lever Sir Samuel can pull that can lower his visor a little, allowing his eyes to at least see a little of the outside world. The action tears a hole in the G-gel which allows some muffled sound to get through as well. The problem with such an action though is that it negates the suit's biggest advantage, its durability. A clever villain could easily approach the now sluggish Samuel and plunge a knife through the gap, ending the hero's quest for good.

My Ability:
Telekinesis

I seem to have developed the ability to manipulate objects from a distance. If I just look at an object and imagine it in my real hands, then whatever I do to the imaginary object will happen to the real object. I can swing it like a bat, throw it like a ball, snap it like a stick, and the real object will react as if I were physically performing those movements on it.

While I'm doing this, the imaginary object feels real. If the real object would resist my forces, so will the imaginary object. If I try to drop-kick an imaginary canon ball like a soccer ball, it will actually hurt my foot! Forces exerted on the real object also seem to transfer to the imaginary object. If I try to grab a knife out of someone's hands, they could in theory manipulate the real knife so the imaginary knife stabs me in my chest, though I can probably unimagine it before that happens. Weirdly enough, the strength enhancements from my suit seem to transfer over as well.

Mentor's Ability:
Impossible Fighting Skills

Despite the whole knight thing dad has got going on, he never fights with a sword or any other weapons. He says that those weapons don't play to the suit's strengths so instead he uses his fists. I don't know where he learned his technique (it's definitely not one I've seen before), but the dude is a master at hand to hand combat. I never managed to beat him in any sparring session and as for the villains he fights, they're only ever able to get the upper hand because of their powers (I haven't used mine in front of dad yet). Even then, Dad has won some battles that I really didn't expect him to. He wouldn't do well in martial arts tournaments though. All of them have certain rules and his unconventional fighting style is likely to break all of them.

Moves

Been Reading the Files: Sancho has always been good at doing his research. If he wasn't, perhaps he wouldn't have such a strained relationship with his father.

Venting Frustration: Though what his father told him is a lie, when Sancho is out there fighting evildoers, he can almost feel a certain hidden truth in dad's words. There may be no noble lineage, but the villains he's vanquishing are real.

Fireside Chat: To Sancho's surprise, he still sometimes needs the advice of his father. Usually he says some sort of crazy nonsense, but by carefully interpreting it he can sometimes get something useful out of it.

When our team first came together
[OOC:It makes more sense to discuss dad's relationship with the group once everyone else is done.]

Relationships
You and [BLANK] teamed up a few times before the rest of you came together.
Your mentor is cautious; they asked you to keep an eye on Nahullad (understatement of the century).
[OOC: We can flesh these out once everyone is done]

Spoiler: Things that change in play (Sorry for ripping you off Cruxador) (click to show/hide)

Labels:
Danger -1
Freak +1
Savior +1
Superior +2
Mundane 0

Potential
0/5

Advances:
None yet

Conditions:
❑ Afraid (-2 to directly engage a threat)
❑ Angry (-2 to comfort or support or pierce the mask)
❑ Guilty (-2 to provoke someone or assess the situation)
❑ Hopeless (-2 to unleash your powers)
❑ Insecure (-2 to defend someone or reject others’ influence)

Influence
Demeanor is Business. No influence

Spoiler: Quick Q&A summary for GM (click to show/hide)

How did you first meet your mentor?
He's my dad

When and why did you choose to train with them?
He told me that we were the descendants of a noble lineage of knights who's purpose was to fight evil. It was my duty to train and as a kid I believed it

Why did they agree to train you?
He genuinely believes what he just said above. It's his duty to train me as well. I guess he wants to leave a legacy

Who else, outside of the team, knows about your training?
No one! Secrecy is very important. My mother might know, but maybe not. She could be dead for all I know

Why do you care about the team?
They're the only people who I can be completely open with. Dad is nuts and anyone else could be a liability later down the line.

What family does your character have?
Just Dad. I managed to track down my grandmother once back when I was doing research, but I pretended to be a reporter for my college paper. I haven't talked to her since. Mother is a complete mystery.

Do you go to school?
I go to a private school. I'm not doing very well though

Do you have a secret identity?
Sancho Quixote, son of a reclusive billionaire and ordinary high schooler.

Essentially I have two concerns about giving Sancho Psychic powers. The first one is that I'm afraid it might make him too strong and overshadow the others. The suit of armour is already pretty impressive. The second one is that I feel like psychic Sancho is thematically different from detective Sancho. Detective Sancho is someone who could plausibly learn to embrace his heritage and learn to follow in his father's footsteps. Psychic Sancho is definitely only going to be pushed further and further away from him. If things do turn out well for him, he's going to be a completely different person.

There are definitely upsides to psychic Sancho though. The inevitable discover-the-identity-of-his-mother arc is definitely going to be more interesting for obvious reasons, and he has more tools to work with as far as fighting is concerned. It also gives him something in common with Vestige.

What do you guys think?

EDIT: As for the session zero stuff, run the game that makes the most sense for your vision of these characters. I'm sure we'll go along with whatever you choose to do. Session zero is more important in a game like DnD where the world, setting and conflict, can be vastly different depending on what the GM chooses. It also meant to prevent people from creating characters who are completely incompatible with each other. Here the setting is always Halcyon city, and it's always superheros vs supervillains. Characters haven't been a problem so far.

EDIT2: Rewrote the description of the telekinesis according to Pikachu's suggestion. It's less creepy though which I don't like.

[pikachu17]

You think telekinesis would be too strong? In that case you could make a weaker version, it could be tactile telekinesis, so you can only move thinga that are touching you. Or it could be limited to you own strength, so it is basically just a bit more range to your actions.

I think telekinetic protege would probably push away from his father in favor of his mother.
However in either case it could go either way.
Detective Samuel could decide to leave his crazy father, and Psychic Samuel can decide to follow in his father's footsteps.


Please, everybody submit any team names you can think of. I'll put them into a poll.

Concerning "When our team first came together", only the Bull specifies that you defeated a dangerous enemy, so what y'all have defeated instead?

After all the characters have finiahed everything except Relationships, Influence and WOTFCT you are supposed to answer the WOTFCT questionin the order of Outsider, Delinquent, Doomed, Transformed, Protege. However that might not work well in PbP. What do you guya think?

[scriver]

That is an awesome character.
But I am a first-time GM, and to be honest, having five people is probably already pushing my capabilities.
But if Sirus or somebody else turns not to be able to play, I'll be sure to tag you in.

I understand. I hope you'll have a great game anyway

[pikachu17]

Also, Sirus, is that third move supposed to be outside the spoiler?

Is this Toba's first research mission, or xe already been on multiple such missions?

What is Toba's relationship with Dr. Edgar Hinks? I would imagine they have a somewhat nice relationship, though probably no one has informed Toba that Hinks saved xer life.
What is Toba's relationship with the rest of Hink's team?

To reiterate a question, how do Toba's kind reproduce, if it is comprehensible to humans at all?


And it occurs to me that Nahullad is headless, and thanks to Sir Samuel the First, going to ride on a horse.
Probably unintentional headless horsewoman for the win!

GiglimeshDespair, are you sure that you want Nahullad to be your hero name?
Nothing like Headcase, Head Case, Cockroach(because of their being insects that supposedly can survive without a head.), or Mannequin?

How much do you former friends and family fear you now? Do they refuse to believe you were ever Amy? Do they think you are some kind of devil possessing her mutated corpse?


===
Also, some terminology for the world of superheroes that I've snagged from Worm, because dark as it is, they have some cools words for super-related things.
Rogue: Someone with powers that uses them for neither evil nor good.
Endbringer: An S class or up villain, especially kaiju sized.
Trigger Event: A catch-all term for when you gained your powers.
Cape: A superperson.

[heydude6]

It could be limited to you own strength, so it is basically just a bit more range to your actions.

I like this idea, at least for a start. I'm okay with letting it get stronger as my character levels up. It would be neat if it was also enhanced by the bonus strength of the suit.

Guess it means I'm sticking with Psychic Sancho after all. Could you change the link in the OP to point to my new sheet instead?

Please, everybody submit any team names you can think of. I'll put them into a poll.

I'm pretty fond of the names you gave earlier, but let me try to think of a few extra:

The Heralds, Freedom United, Omen Masters.

Eh, Twilight force is still my favorite so far.

Concerning "When our team first came together", only the Bull specifies that you defeated a dangerous enemy, so what you have defeated instead?

After all the characters have finished everything except Relationships, Influence and WOTFCT you are supposed to answer the WOTFCT questionin the order of Outsider, Delinquent, Doomed, Transformed, Protege. However that might not work well in PbP. What do you guys think?

I think it would work pretty well in PbP actually. It minimizes discussion which is often the slowest part about it. If you want some ideas though, I think that black sorcerer cabal in GiglameshDespair's backstory, "The Cauldron" is a pretty good starting point. It's an epic event that's sure to bring usually lone heroes together. Sancho's dad would have certainly dragged him along to fight. Perhaps after fighting them off together, they decided to stay together.

Fakeedit: Ninjaed

EDIT: Just want to mention that I rewrote the ability description for the powers to accommodate the new suggestion, please read it and give me your thoughts. I might decide to change it back and just have it start off weak and irrelevent, but grow over time. I REALLY miss the creepiness.

[Sirus]

No...no it is not supposed to be outside the spoiler. I'll fix that.

This is Toba's first mission, which is part of the reason for xer enthusiasm. The other part is natural inclination.

Hinks was one of the kinder and more personable researchers, so xe knows Hinks pretty well. I know Outsiders don't have a Mentor per se, but Hinks would come close to Mentor status. The rest of the science team is seen fairly positively with one or two exceptions that treated xer poorly - even after the truth of the mission became known.

I'm...not sure if knowledge of how Toba's species reproduces is strictly necessary?  It's not like xe would kill or consume someone in a fit of passion.

[Cruxador]

~~~~~======GREAT WALL OF TEXT======~~~~~

Are there any house rules any of you want? I am for the moment just going with base stuff, an Infinite Powers buff, and allowing the extra playbooks.

I think everything should be conditionally allowed on the principle that fun things are fun, but I don't know the system well enough to say anything specific. Since I don't know it well, I'd be inclined to stick close to RAW until/unless we find problems with it - though I don't necessarily think such a problem would need to be a big one, rules are easily mutable even after we get going.

What kind of campaign do you want this to be? With the backstories already and the Doomed its probably going to be some level of dark, but what kind?

I didn't think about it that much, but it seems like the darkness is almost entirely personal or interpersonal, which means that I would think personal plots are most important and others are more like backdrops. But then, that's often the goal anyway. And it might make sense to have something not too personal just to introduce the characters and the system before we get really heavy. I think the biggest concern is going to be level. Thematically, Sepiatone is pretty street level, and if I'm reading it right, Vestige leans that way too, but while Nahullad and Sir Samuel seem reasonably level agnostic, Toba is much higher level, nearly cosmic. So that's something that's gonna need consideration and probably should have been thought about before conceptualizing our characters.

Do you particularly want anything in the setting, other than things already in your backstory?

I think a common narrative structure for cape stories is to not block all the setting details out too thoroughly but just bring up new things as they become relevant, with the insinuation that they've always been true but just haven't come up before now. It works well with a modern type setting because there's so many huge areas of life that are only dealt with by specialized professions, so it's believable that there can be something that's a very big deal that was just never really relevant until it was.

Sirus, why did you think Toba might not be viable?

I mean... Besides the power level, it's also very upbeat and cheerful of a story, where once everyone mutually realized that nobody meant each other harm, everything was resolved more or less just because of that. I'm not sure how that kind of optimistic narrative gels with the tone in the others. This applies as well to how the agender thing will work - Sirus showed no indication of wanting to deal with discrimination or misgendering issues (and I feel that), but that paints a much rosier picture of the world than the other characters' stories. And that detail is a lot easier to set aside than xer very different relationship with AEGIS and scientists than the one Vestige has, and xer implicitly positive relationship with authority in general. It's not an insurmountable problem, but it's definitely gonna be a lot harder to GM for than something like adding another (tonally consistent) character, especially in light of how the system and format both do a lot to mitigate the added difficulty of increased party size.

I'm thinking of having my 'You'd love to kiss ______ before your doom comes' be Sepiatone, since his power nullification no doubt appeals and provides an interesting dynamic.

Yeah, our characters definitely have some things in common that could make for interesting interplay. Would you want to have done some badass crime together? I don't have anything specific in mind but that's one of my relationships.

As for romance, it's really no more different than stories about AIs or monogendered species falling in love with humans.

That's pretty challenging to write though.

(Sorry for ripping you off Cruxador)

All good, I ripped it off (in subsequently rearranged bits) from Giglamesh anyway.

Essentially I have two concerns about giving Sancho Psychic powers. The first one is that I'm afraid it might make him too strong and overshadow the others. The suit of armour is already pretty impressive. The second one is that I feel like psychic Sancho is thematically different from detective Sancho. Detective Sancho is someone who could plausibly learn to embrace his heritage and learn to follow in his father's footsteps. Psychic Sancho is definitely only going to be pushed further and further away from him. If things do turn out well for him, he's going to be a completely different person.

There are definitely upsides to psychic Sancho though. The inevitable discover-the-identity-of-his-mother arc is definitely going to be more interesting for obvious reasons, and he has more tools to work with as far as fighting is concerned. It also gives him something in common with Vestige.

What do you guys think?

I like the psychic thing. Going psychic works well since we already have mind oriented powers going on – Vestige is all on memories, Sepiatone has dream issues, and even Nahullad has weird ways of getting by without a head. It's not a power ranger level of overlap, but it's thematically cohesive. More importantly, I think forming his own identity is a fun narrative line to go down. Being strong isn't necessarily a problem, Superboy and Robin/Nightwing were both concurrently members of the team in Young Justice after all. Besides, the suit is kinda cool but power wise it's just "tough+strong". Telekinesis actually makes you something a bit more interesting than a bruiser, which helps avoid overlap with Nahullad. But honestly, being strong doesn't matter much in a narrative game; just don't use it to try and be the only one doing stuff in combat and it should be fine. I don't think you need to limit this in particular, although since it's supposed to be a new ability, it makes sense for it to be weak at the start.

EDIT: And it seems like you decided while I was writing my giant weekend's hot take roundup post.

EDIT: As for the session zero stuff, run the game that makes the most sense for your vision of these characters. I'm sure we'll go along with whatever you choose to do. Session zero is more important in a game like DnD where the world, setting and conflict, can be vastly different depending on what the GM chooses. It also meant to prevent people from creating characters who are completely incompatible with each other. Here the setting is always Halcyon city, and it's always superheros vs supervillains. Characters haven't been a problem so far.

I'm not sure I can agree with this notion. True, you don't have to worry if there's such a thing as an elf in this particular case, but I've already (in this post) mentioned concerns I have for setting and character compatibility, which are a less familiar than the more thoroughly discussed ones of D&D. D&D is both older and more widespread, but that only makes the problems harder to navigate since there's less resources accumulated on them. I'm not trying to be a downer, but the thing about problems is that the worst ones are the ones you don't know about and therefore can't anticipate, and that's especially difficult for a new GM.

That said, PbP tends to have a forgiving pace, and I imagine everyone will be happy to provide thoughts on making things work here in the OOC thread. And in any case, the thing that ultimately kills games isn't details like this, but simply GM abandonment, which is a lot more easy to identify and just not do. Even player abandonment can be addressed by replacing people.

However that might not work well in PbP. What do you guya think?

I can't say that I know, but I think it's not going to be difficult to do no matter what method we use. At least with this method, we have a thing that saves us from infinite dickering.

Probably unintentional headless horsewoman ... GiglimeshDespair, are you sure that you want Nahullad to be your hero name?

I mean, her name is just Dullahan backwards with some vowels swapped. Seems like a clean enough reference to me. That's not the first thing I would be concerned about with that character.

Cape: A superperson.

That's very much not specific to Worm, it's general comic nerd lingo.

...

Also I can see y'all don't work weekends.

[Sirus]

Unfortunately, I had Toba's concept in mind before everyone else started posting their gloomy backstories, and I don't know if I can re-write it or make a new one.

I dunno, if this is going to be a serious issue maybe let scriver's character in instead. I'll save The Orange Blob Alien for a lighter-hearted game.