Alternate Earth Characters #3

[farik]

Alternate Earth Characters #3

Your GM has announced he's going to run an alternate Earth game and he wants you to make a modified version of your character to fit his "Alternate Earth Setting. The GM is being deliberately unclear about whether you'll be playing your alt character or if your regular character will be facing them.

 

So what is different about your character from (as requested)

Legacy Earth

Your concept character appeared during World War II so what were they like? What has happened in the interim? Have they passed the mantle on (more than once)?

[Chuckg]

Legacy Starguard -- [mindboggle]

 

Starguard is a 750 point Cosmic Power Pool wielder. If she appeared in the Golden Age, she'd be... ummm...

 

... good God, an 18-year-old utterly innocent teenaged girl version of the Spectre. In concept, if not in raw power.

 

That makes my head hurt.

 

Anyway, as she is unaging, she'd still be around, and probably by now be as mature, majestic, regal, and beautiful as Archangel Novalis(*) or Queen Galadriel.

 

 

Legacy Dr. Pain -- his grandkid's a superscientist brick. Dad kept nagging his kids to go to school and not just be a boxing bum (no pro wrestling back then) like his old man.

 

 

Legacy Baron von Darien -- in his original reality, the Baron was /alive/ in WWII... he's 1100 years old. And vampires don't have kids. No change.

 

 

 

(*) "In Nomine" RPG reference.

[Mayday]

Legacy Mayday is still alive and well in France with several children and grandchildren. Revered for her role in freeing France from the nazis she is a national treasure and advisor to many french Presidents on hero and supernatural affairs, and probably was instrumental in the creation of a UN sponsored super team to combat global threats. She still has her ties to vampires she met in her youth. Although that initial contact did not go well, she has since helped many of them to remain in hiding and also acted as go btween so that they could serve her country and the world now and then.

 

She teaches her descendents Duty and hopes they are happier than her life was. Could be France's UN Ambassadress on the Security Council, as a telepathic mutant that would be interesting...

 

Legacy Sabre has no children, long ago retired from the Sabre suit and has developed her corporation into an international one selling armor and high tech weapons primarily to governments.

 

Legacy LineDrive never made it to the Hall of Fame but is retired comfortably, still in Florida, supported by his twin children from a one night stand he doesn't even remember, but he could not refuse the infants and shaped up his life, going on to coach for several years. His children are patriots, like himself, and energy absorbers/projectors in a local hero team.

[Blue]

Anthem's Children would likely be with a a superheroic-type husband. She would by now understand where here power came from and would teach her children to be better people than her father had attempted with her. Since her type of powers seem to be hereditary, I expect three closely knit siblings; two girls and a boy; with martial arts training, invulnerability, and maybe something from the father.

 

Uncle Slam's Children would be with a normal human wife, someone without superpowers, though she may be military or PRIMUS. They would have developed into normal adults, until one day Slam turns up missing. His son decides he needs what his father had and contacts the government. They perform the procedure on him and for only the second time the U.S. Military successfully creates this particular type of hero. He is, in every respect, the Young Uncle Slam. He adopts the name Flag and seeks out his missing father.

 

Audra Blue's kids would be older than her, which would be odd on parent/teacher night. They'd be technical geniuses but without the superpowers. They're your typical useful DNPCs.

[farik]

Kenneth would have approached the government with his serum and after some training he would have headed an even more effective "Howling Commando" filled with above intelligent soldiers who could turn into slow witted but still managable powerhouses under his command. Bolstered by the confidence from being a war hero he'd have developed Power Armor for the Husky form in time for Korea and transferred his intellect into a robot body in time for Vietnam. Unable to resist tampering with his own DNA while simultaneously striving to create the idealized family life he never had; the contemporary Clarke family would be a large unstoppable team of Super Heroes each unique and specialized their biggest foes would be siblings who have turned against the family.

[Trebuchet]

Well, Zl'f ages at only 1/8 normal rate and she's been a superheroine since she was 16 (She's now 22, but still looks 14.). So after 60 years she'd finally look like she's about 24 years old, but would have 60 years of experience under her belt. Yikes! A 450 point version boggles the mind.

 

However, since she is Russian and during Stalin's regime you simply didn't say "no" to the Kremlin, she would probably never have left Russia and would be an official Soviet (then Russian) superheroine. A female counterpart to Captain America, who has battled the evils of capitalism for decades. Dosvidania, tovarisch!

[Chuckg]

If Zl'f lived in the Ukraine, the invasion of 1941 might have made her have to become a refugee, bounce around some DP camps, and eventually end up in the West...

[Fuzzy Gnome]

Legacy Ace was a U-boat commander during World War II whose submarine went down. The crew swam to the surface; the commander stayed until he knew everyone else had escaped. By that time, the U-boat was on the bottom and the commander was unable to find the way to the surface because there was a lot of oil and silt in the water and he was also suffering from the pressure.

He felt something calling to him and discovered an ancient artifact that granted him superhuman strength and the ability to breathe water. He swam to the surface and helped his crew survive. For the duration of the war he had to fight as a super-powered amphibious commando and saboteur.

Among the powers he gained from the artifact was eternal youth. Today, he makes up for his warlike past by fighting for justice.

 

Seraph is ancient; he could have become a superhero during WWII or the Hundred Years War, it wouldn't make much difference.

 

Legacy Lin-Si is Cologne from Ranma 1/2.

[Trebuchet]

Originally posted by Chuckg

If Zl'f lived in the Ukraine, the invasion of 1941 might have made her have to become a refugee, bounce around some DP camps, and eventually end up in the West...

Nope, she's from Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Given a superhero-laden universe, she'd almost certainly have been off fighting Nazi supervillains somewhere behind enemy lines. (Her father was a junior tank officer during the Great Patriotic War, where he won the Hero of the Soviet Union, Soviet Russia's equivalent of the Medal of Honor.)

[Chuckg]

A possible expression of tragedy, if you want Zl'f to still be Western, is for her father to have been one of the countless victims of Stalin's unjust military purges, and Zl'f reacted to that by high-jumping the border fence.

[Trebuchet]

Originally posted by Chuckg

A possible expression of tragedy, if you want Zl'f to still be Western, is for her father to have been one of the countless victims of Stalin's unjust military purges, and Zl'f reacted to that by high-jumping the border fence.

It would be simple to create a scenario where she goes west if I needed to. I'm just setting up what I see as the most plausible scenario given Farik's setup.

 

Given that Zl'f's father survived both World War II and Stalin's purges in our campaign universe to become a Marshal in the Soviet Army, it seems reasonable that Zl'f would stay with her family in Russia.

 

She didn't like being forced to flee Russia in the first place, and now that she's been cleared of the false murder charges against her by the Russian government, she visits Russia frequently incognito. (Being highly photogenic, Russian, a former Olympic medalist and an internationally acclaimed superheroine, she has to go in disguise or she'd be mobbed in any Russian city. She's as recognizable to most urban Russians as Brittany Spears is to most Americans.)

[caris]

I’m not sure what Adonis’s Legacy counterpart’s name would be, but I’m thinking he would be the product of an Axis super soldier program. He would probably have been thoroughly and effectively brought into whichever power’s ideology that created him. He would have served the Axis powers well. He would probably have fled to South America, and has several progeny that are now trying to revive the appropriate ideology there.

[Fuzzy Gnome]

Actually, I lie. If Seraph was a WWII character he would have been sent to Earth by Freya to stop the mass terror bombing of civilians. He would have spent the whole time calling lightning on buzz bombs and doing move-throughs on bombers as they approached London or Tokyo or wherever he happened to be fighting that day.

I'm not sure what he'd be doing in 2004 in that case, or whether he'd be considered a hero or villain.

Yeah, the Greek Titan dude works for Freya. He's inspired by AD&D and Rifts where different pantheons know each other and sometimes work together or have rivalries. When Seraph is bored he goes and bugs a member of a completely different mythology for something to do.

[Hermit]

The nigh immortal Golden Hunter would find the Nazi mode of thought silly since terrans are all pretty much equally barbaric and inferior.... but he'd admire the defiance of the Allies and join them.

 

If there is no WW2 version of Firewing to checkmate him, GH would soon become a nightmare to the Axis, focusing his own attention on preventing the Nazi occultists from using any elder worm technology.

Assuming he lived for decades after and got over his melancholy...

 

He'd eventually find a companion among Earth, and have a child or two with her if possible. He'd be obnoxiously proud if they too became heroes. Devastated if they went villainous.

 

 

In the decades to come, he'd push humanity to space at a faster rate, and by 2004, thanks to his still being around, the Terran Republic/Empire would be off to a running start and God help the Xenovores when they arrive.

[winterhawk]

Dr. Wade Hayes invented a gun that could generate an intense cold ray. Creating a costumed identity for himself (as was the style at the time), he used his Freeze Gun and his wits to fight the Axis as Dr. Winter. His innovations in thermodynamic technology allowed him to amass a small fortune, and offer his offspring a confortable living. Inspired by his heroic grandfather, Wade Hayes III, the current CEO of CryoDyne Technologies, using cutting edge thermodynamic technology, continues the noble legacy of Dr. Winter.

 

Hellion is probably a little too Iron Age to be transformed into a Golden Age character (although the Spectre had similar origins).

[Brandi]

Irving would not be much changed, though he'd have more accumulated learning and perhaps an even more pacifist attitude-- though it's unlikely that he'd travel to Europe, he'd be meeting more Holocaust survivors first hand as well as watching the Nuremberg trials unfold and it would upset him profoundly about the ways of humans.

[Vex]

Hmmmm, let's see....

 

Adrenaline would have been a member of the Super Soldier program, retiring after the war.

 

Realm would have been a member of the military, lying about his age to join the war. His powers would have to be changed a bit as his concept it way outside the norms for Golden or Silver Age comics.

 

Hecabus would have been a patriotic war profiteer. He would obviously fight for his homeland, but there isn't anything wrong with gathering power.

[Argus]

Look up in the Sky.

 

If Argus had been around during WW2 he would have gone off to war and helped the Army Air Corp. If other members of the group are around he might have joined up with Force and Demon and wreaked total Havoc on Germany.

 

If he was still around today he would have gone the route of Teacher to new Heroes, and tried to impart unto them his own moral compass.

[Supreme Serpent]

Omega: result of accident at early atomic experiment, ATOMO would be pretty similar to modern-day Omega - noble, duty driven, religious. Would take an active role in the War superheroics. Try to end the war as fast as possible to help save lives on all sides. Children likely born as mutants, though with different powers. They would probably end up as heroes, though with different names, etc.

 

Jack O' Lantern: already IS a 1930's-40's character. Easy enough.

 

Frogman: becomes one of the US Navy's most feared weapons. Children may or may not become heroes is powers pass on, but will definitely be civicly minded.

 

Lei Kung: gives Japanese in China a really rough time.

 

Cat-man: already is a 30's character with a modern legacy successor.

[Farkling]

Lightning:: Would be more of a Flash character, created by the experimental super soldier programs. He might have electrical resistance, but not proofing. Perhaps it acts as a turbocharger on more moderate speed powers. He likely would still be alive, and practicing, his lifespan is written as 400 years. Children? Only if he was seduced by a beauty in the French Resistance. He would have acknowledged and supported them, but kept his identity secret from them. One or two might develop mutant electrical powers and/or speed powers though. It is latent in his genes.

 

FlameJet:: Famed for his actions of slagging tanks on the battlefield as he slogged through the mud with vartious foot soldiers, he was tragically wounded at Normandy when his landing craft sank while he was firing on the emplacements above the beach. The resulting cloud of steam obscured many targets from the gunners, but it also damaged the lungs of many men as the surrounding ocean superheated. His powers crippled by overextension, Jet spent the remainder of his years in a wheelchair, happily married to a New York deb. He died of of natural causes related to his powers in the early 80's. His fortune sustains his children to this day, and one of his sons sits in the Senate, another is a state governer. his favorite graddaughter is attending high school in the Bible Belt, a school that recently experienced an outbreak of vandalism involving welding torches...

[ZootSoot]

Gangway--She's Polish, you know, and she would teach the Reich quite a bit about what a lightning war really is. Assuming she can even delay Germany's conquest of her homeland history is probably wildly different. Without an Iron Curtain she would never leave her homeland (well, actually her family left because of that, but if she were there . . .) and would have served as Poland's national hero. She is cut off from the passage of time, so she cannot have children but she would not age either. Today she might be Europe's premier superhero.

 

Sword Dancer would have been a seventeen year-old girl with the Japanese barbarians invaded the peninsula and she came into her legacy. This is a Sword Dancer who would have fewer doubts and compunctions about her powers. She would fight the Japanese like a demon and when the time came she would fight to keep the US and China out of an internal Korean situation; she would prefer to see Korea unified (and not dominated by a foreign ideology like capitalism, or communism) and would favor China over America in this conflict. She is part of a nearly 2000 year old legacy anyway and when her successor appeared she would prepare that person and allow part of her soul to join with her predecessors' in lodging within the new Sword Dancer (who quite probably would have no blood relationship to her or her family).

 

Crimson Tide. The Arthurs have been aviators since the first decade of flight and Chester L. Arthur, III, would have traded his football helmet for aviator goggles in heartbeat after Pearl Harbor. Adding gravitational powers to his magnificent piloting and marksmanship he would never have adopted a costumed identity but would be the most successful fighting ace of WWII. His legacy would be the Round Table Stables in Arthur, Kentucky and a middle name so awful that no Arthur who has borne it in a century has revealed it to outsiders.

 

Luna. Fights for Germany even if the Fatherland does not welcome her. If she finds out the truth about the concentration camps (something she would have been uncomfortable with in the first place, but probably willing to believe they were a more humane alternative to prison) she would eviscerate Hitler and every member of his inner circle with her bare hands. After the war, her homeland divided, the glory of Germany tarnished past redemption, she would leave, probably to settle in Switzerland or Lichtenstein and live out the rest of her life in quiet seclusion.

 

Armando. He was born in Costa Rica, presumably around 1925 now in order to keep the age equivalent. He would have been a child opera star during the depression and possibly have come to Hollywood to be a movie star as well. He would be glad to aid America, but would likely have been left making movies rather than fighting at the frontlines, being only 16 when Pearl Harbor is bombed and appearing to be of more use in Hollywood. His superhuman abilities are relatively subtle and would not be recognized easily even by him. Only by the late fifties, early sixties would they have become clear to him (mostly from the fact that he wasn't aging). Having missed the Golden Age, Armando would finally have become a superhero during the Silver Age and would still be going strong today, probably not much different from how he is in his current campaign.

[Bunyip]

London Pryde became the founder of a superheroic tradition (I'd already established that his grandfather used the name as an alias while working with SOE). Tony Pryde's grandson continues the line today as London Pryde III, while the original, now the Earl of Semmermere, is a leading figure in the House of Lords and a senior adviser to HM Government on metahuman affairs.

 

Robyn Hood, by contrast, does not exist - I'm not sure that competitive archery for women was an Olympic sport before WW2, so that cuts out a parallel to RH's breakdown at the Atlanta games. However, she is the daughter of a stage actress; Melody Main went into films herself. She graduated from small ingenue roles to become one of Britain's most respected acting talents and became a Dame in 1990.

 

MC Sonik and Mini are both of Afro-Caribbean origin; Mini would probably never have had the lab accident which shrunk her, and instead Kate Walcott became a leading light in the post-war independence arguments in her native Barbados. Everton Lycett, born in Jamaica (the parents of the regular version came to Britain in the 1970s) on the other hand went to the bad - and with his metapowers became a serious player in the Kingston underworld...

 

Greenmantle, given a similar (but not identical) origin, fits nicely as the 'homefront hero' in Glasgow; later reporter Jim Munro would have become a war correspondent. His journalistic career flourished after the war and he later edited the Glasgow Herald and authored four novels set in Glasgow's backstreets. The Greenmantle uniform has long since been put in mothballs - but there's a young fellow out there who's revived the name after all these years, and Jim's too much the newshound not to be interested...

 

Silvershadow, transplanted to wartime, was a loyal - if at times too openly sceptical - metasoldier for Mother Russia in the first version of Red October. She survived the chaos surrounding the fall of Stalin, and later defected to the West in a dispute over the Soviet Union's actions in Hungary in 1956. Settling in Britain, she worked with the British Lyons in the 60s and 70s before retiring to a small village in Cornwall. She has never married.

 

Bluebird (already a legacy character) inherited her powers from the WW1 hero Blue Streak. Susan Hellthwaite fought largely on the homefront during WW2 due to her age (and her location in remote Cumbria) but led the British Lyons in its first, 1950s, incarnation before retiring from active superheroics in 1967. Her son, Blue Streak II, is now one of Britain's more prominent metas.

[Glen Sprigg]

Well, Snowbird IS a legacy character; his grandfather is a WWII hero. So he'd be unchanged.

 

Comet starts out at 400-450 point Superman clone. By now, he'd be pretty much like Superman is today. Icky. (Gonna have to write him up...) His descendant would probably be less powerful, but still muy impressive.

 

Shadowhawk is Batman, only not quite. His legacy character would be a highly trained vigilante, probably like Batman today (except not as infallible).

 

Archangel is an immortal being. So, think Thor if his book had started in the 1940s instead of the 1960s.

 

Glen