[Meta] What would your character be?

[nexus]

The mishevious reality warping "PlahtG'awd" has decided to work its bizzare humur on your character's home dimension. He effectively changes the genre/mood of the entire world over night. Your character wakes up and finds himself (or herself) converted into an Iron Age/Dark Champions style character along with their entire world. What changed? What stayed the same? Would they even notice?

 

Meanwhile....

 

Never one to not run something into the ground, PG has done the same trick on the Iron Agers, except in reverse! They are now square jawed virtuous four color defenders of Rightenousness! What are they like...

 

And how to both sides react once the realization dawns on them?

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Well, Blues would go from 'good Timecop' to 'bad Timecop', basically. His nonlethal flechettes would be replaced with lethal poison, his Electrostunner juiced up to lethal amperage, etc. His powers, such as they are, wouldn't chance much.

 

I'm not sure how much the mind of the character is supposed to be altered by this, though ... if he kept his own mind, he'd be pretty torked off at the whole universe.

[pinecone]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

It depends on the character...Vengence! is a gun toting vigilante in a four color world....if it turned all Iron agey on him the only major change is the other heros would stop whining so much!

[assault]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Assault would shrug, and go to the pub. Even the Silver Age version drinks.

 

His Life Support means alcohol doesn't affect him.

[Chuckg]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Starguard, -- in a deeply Iron Age game, would have only one valid ecological niche -- "victim". (If not physically, then emotionally. The innocent one who keeps getting crushed by life, and everything turns out horribly wrong, because she 'doesn't have the ability to do what's necessary.')

 

Oh yes, and once her amnesia was lifted, she'd either turn out to be the product of some hideous experiment that would make Henry Bendix puke up his lunch, or have been repeatedly assaulted at age 13 by her psychotic, inbred, shack-dwelling parents.

 

 

 

Baron von Darien -- "How did I go from being DKR Batman with Fangs to being Hannibal King without noticing?"

 

 

Dr. Pain -- he's my character that can go either way, really.

[steriaca]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Let me think...

 

"Lady Heart": Basicly, s/he would be back as an anime loving teenage boy without a cair in the world. "Lady Heart" and Yuri would not exist in this world.

 

"Sunburn": He would change from a mutant boy scout with an vast knolage of superbeings, to a crafty, teleporting mutant sniper with a "built in lazer gun", and with a pro-mutant grudge. Basicly, he would turn into a bad guy.

 

"The Damsel": He would change in another way. He would still crossdress, but now he would wear all black, and his parasol weapon would contain more lethal chemical weapions instead of his pride and joy sticky resen projector. He would strike the night, targeting on rapest and hate mongers (like the KKK, and gay bashers...btw, The Damsel is a crosdreser only, but is frendly twords the gay/lesbien/bisexual/transexual comunity of New Orleens). And he will kill.

 

That is all the 'light' heros I played. (I did play a violent vig once...The Red Death. I have even recreated him as a bad guy in 5th edition).

[dbsousa]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Dexter Morache would no longer be Golden Eagle, but would still have a personal FF to protect himself from assassination. Without the heart of a hero driving his actions, he never would have sold his early patents so cheaply. Instead of merely being one of the richest men on the planet, he would be the most powerful as well, having amassed a tech empire that dwarfs any known today, and under attack from anti-trust laws in every civilized nation. His team, Good Guys, Inc., would further his personal vendetta against those who would steal from him, or undermine his authority by committing crime on "his" planet.

 

Bouncer would be a former wrestler on the skids. His "Bounce Field" would make him unable to commit suicide, and his Z-level Celebrity status would have him bouncing from humiliation to humiliation as he turns to booze, pills, women, and eventually, muscle for hire.

 

Protector would become a serial killer, offing drug dealers, gangsters, slum lords, and crooked cops with a perverse sense of irony. As the body count increased, and the mayor sent super teams after him, he would research their weaknesses, lure the teams onto his turf, and rig abandoned buildings to drop on their heads.

 

Revenant, an undead pulp hero, would now have never died but knocked unconcious and placed in a coffin. The scarab that brought him back to life, allowed him to regenerate from any blow (He once walked into a propeller to prevent the bundists from flying off), and gave him the ability to remove the souls from the living, would now have Green Lantern type powers that would help him solve spooky mysteries with some meddling teens and a talking dog.

[jackalope]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Eh, both of my characters tend to stradle the line of Four-Color/Dark comics. One is a ultra rigid but fundamentally good super cop. The other is cackling nutball with a bag full of bombs. Okay, who am I kidding, Iron Demon is totally a dark champion. So I guess that makes Peacekeeper the four color hero.

 

Peacekeeper as Iron Age Hero: Amp up the fascist tendancies, remove the sense of justice and fair play, drop the absolutist adherence to standads of ethical behavior, and turn the somewhat bemused bewilderment at the silliness of human behavior into outright hsotility and contempt. Also, get rid of the reluctance to kill, turn the EB into an RKA, and Peacekeeper the Interstellar Lawman becomes Stormtrooper - Jack Booted Thug From Beyond The Stars!

 

Iron Demon as Four Color Hero: There are two ways to go with Iron Demon. Both ways require reducing the lethality of his weapons (replace the Shrapnel Bomb with a Sleep Gas Bomb, the Razor Bats with a Batarang), and getting rid of the berzerk inducing combat drugs (too villianish). Iron Demon, as a Dark Champion, walks a thin line between sanity and madness. To make him four color you have to push him one way or the other. Towards sanity, and he becomes a somewhat grim, dark crimefighter, basically Batman with a glider wing. he also loses 90% of his personality - gone is the cackling, the phases spent doing useless cartwheels in the sky in the middle of a fight, the truly bizarre jokes, and the psychotic bursts of rage and violence. Towards madness and he becomes a flying goofball, a weird, wacky nutball with ineffective powers. At any rate, he'd have to stop stradling the line.

[nexus]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Valkeyrie's abusive past has manifested itself as fear and hatred of men. She's a lethal vigilante that uses her great strength to rend rapists, muggers and even midly abusive males to pieces. Oddly enough she dressed in a revealing black leather costume....

 

Tao is a super solider designed by the government and engineered from DNA "harvested" from the Baltimore Guard after their termination for refusing to play ball with Feds. She has been brainwashed into a lethal, utterly loyal killing machine with dozens of supers powerse and is used to hunt down supers that need to silenced. Unfortunately, some of the memorieso f her predecessors are starting to surface and chip away at her programming...

 

Shidoku would became a virtueous martial artists practicing Judo or some other soft style and dressed in a traditional gi. Her manner would be quiet and non violent. She would also have another name since Shidoku means something like "Deadly Poison".

 

Eve would be a brat. A spoiled, evil little child with the tactical abilities of every great general and low impulse control. Built by the military she is a built in lack of concern for human life and see humans as toys and playing peices in her wargames, nothing more. Only the safty measure programs keep her on a short leash and she subverts them constantly.

[Metaphysician]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Microman II: No clue at all. Best guess is, he'd be a perfectly, logically brutal individual.

[Dust Raven]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

My characters are designed for more of a middle ground campaigns, so I'll do them all for both situations.

 

Into the Iron Age:

 

Cobalt: Same powers (martial arts plus energy absorption and expulsion) but instead of becoming the benefactor of a superhero team, would have organized a villain-hunters agency that operates similar to the mafia, uses similar tactics (but with superpowers) and targets criminals of all kinds.

 

Vantage: He would become darker, lose most of his sense of humor and his psionic powers would include either a mind lance (BOECV RKA) or the killing attack from Scanners.

 

Zectron: Wouldn't change a thing. He's a 4 color hero specifically designed to be played in a realistic world. He'd certainly be more frustrated though...

 

Kristian Rolyat: Add retractible claws to his cyberarm and remove the "stun" setting on his gun. Shoot to kill.

 

Into the 4 color age:

Add CVK (point bonus or not) to everybody but Zectron, who already has it.

 

Cobalt: Would not have his Reluctance To Use Powers and become a real hero instead of someone who helps other heroes. Or maybe a sidekick.

 

Vantage: Probably lose all his telepathic abilities and become more telekinetic. No more sneaking around either. He'd be right out there tooth and nail... er... fist and forearm with the other heroes.

 

Zectron: Just wouldn't be special any more...

 

Kristian Rolyat: Remove the "kill" setting from his gun, or remove the gun entirely. Change Hunted By RTI (private high-tech company that gave him cybernetics) to Subject To Orders (RTI would be a government agency Kris works for).

[Stormraven]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Guardian - She tends to skirt the edge as it is, she has no CVK and has killed before, though never in cold blood. Basically, in Iron Age, she'd just be more ready to kill, using her full strength against even your generic mooks.

 

Checkmate - Would probably be a Destroyer type in the Iron Age. He's already ruthless, cold and strategy oriented. In 4 colour games, he has a CVK, but remove that and his arrogance takes hold.

[Blue]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

I'd play them the same.

 

Audra Blue is already pretty unforgiving. She believes in justice, not necessarily law. She already commits crimes to see that the right thing is done.

 

Anthem would not bend to this world To me she'd be a far less interesting character if she did. Instead she'd try and remain squeaky clean in a world gone wrong.

 

Uncle Slam has been the dark protector of liberty, a guy doing bad things because his government said it was important. He probably would never have develope the subsequent CvK that he has in his latter years, instead he'd have a reticence to commit the crimes and begrudgingly accept each terrible result, dragged under by the horror of it all.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Blakcat retcon: Her revelations that got her to her superhuman martial prowess (after being a MA/EP for years) would include the realization that the ends do justify the means, and would be well known for killing hatred based villians (anti-mutants, pro-mutant human killers, nazis you name it). Probably turns somewhat in the mode of Niche for her philosphy.

 

Ballistic retcon: he never stopped being a cop. Now he just had a supersuit instead of a gun. Same methods, same intensity, same degree of lethality.

 

Terminal Velocity Is the son of a superhero and supervillianess (one night stand). Dad's wife got him killed when she found out about it and retired from superheroes. TV would be trying to find her to kill her for Dad's sake.

[Wanderer]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Nova as a four-color hero would probably become something like a mix of Silver Surfer (philosophical brooding cosmic powerhouse baffled over the flaws of man and angstful over his lost home) and Tony Stark (playboy tendencies, gadgeteering angle). Assuming it is a Marvel-style late Silver Age setting. Tone down his vigilante tendencies, amp up his "defender of Earth" role.

[Katherine]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Hm....

 

Menagerie as a four color character would probably be an X man type "Peace and co existence" style mutant superhero. She'd like still believe she was superior but in "nobliess Oblige" sense instead "You are my toys" sense.

 

Pinnacle would be allot more hardcore and brutal. She'd probably have have "stomp" attack thats AE killing attack when she's fully grown. Her costume is already kind of skimpy since "metaweave" is extremely rare. In a really Iron Age setting, she might just go naked when she grows.

 

Gaia: Would be more the protective, nuturing "Mother Nature" like Gaia from Captain Planet...

 

Stopwatch: More of a giggly good girl teen. She's not really a bad sort but would be more an acceptable teen age role model in a four color world and tend to use her powers in less selfish ways.

[caris]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Adonis also tends to skirt the lines between the two as well, since he has a CvK and pretty firm set of ethical principles, but he is also an extremely in your face sexual being.

 

Iron Age Adonis would not have had Officer Rodrigo Sanchez’s special attention, and his foster parents would instead be either neglectful or outright abusive. Anyway you put it Adonis would have been used early on after his rescue from Dr. Patton’s compound. This could lead into either of two ways. First would he would be come the classic “dependent victim†latching onto someone to defining his self-worth by the fact that he is someone’s boyfriend. Alternatively, he could become jaded and callous towards others, seducing people and dumping them at will often in a humiliating fashion. He would tend to wear darker colors in what appears to be leather, latex and/or vinyl, instead of his normal light blue and white cotton/spandex blend. He would have a harsher and tougher outlook to combat. He would probably add a few damaging maneuvers to his martial arts.

 

Four Color Adonis would probably only differ from the original in more in attitude. He would probably be a heck of a lot less overtly sexual. He may not even be a sexual omnivore anymore. He definitely would not engage with same sex flirting to throw his male opponents off guard, or talk about three, four or more somes.

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Point. I'm not sure whether Flippant is more 4color or Iron Age.

 

So, both:

 

4color Flippant:

Well, being a paid professional hero is right out. Secret ID is in. Hiding it because of meta-exsports-shame is out. He actually has a heroic motivation, instead of it being his 'second best choice'.

 

Iron Age Flippant:

The drug allegations are true. He was a mutant all along. He's keeping his secret because he'd have to pay back money from an advertising deal. He pulls guns out of other dimensions... He's acting as protagonist because... dunno.

 

Iron Age Wraith:

Hrm. Powers roughly like a mentalist, but with SFX of 'helpful ghosts'. Okay, let's add 'rip the soul out' as a lethal attack. Next, lots of overt otherworldly mayhem (make him stronger- let him power up armies), so his mere presence is scary ('cause YOU now see dead people). Ruthless, so he's wealthy.

 

Something like those.

[rjcurrie]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Hmmm. I usually use my SuperSquad America characters for these threads and they're in a somewhat middle-ground campaign, so I'll do them both ways:

 

Four-color:

• Challenger: Instead of being a patriotic superhero trying (and not always succeeding) to live up to his great father's legacy, he would be a patriotic hero who was successfully carrying on that legacy.
  
• Rick Davies, the Resilient Rubber-Man: He probably actually did receive his powers from falling into a vat of experimental rubber rather than being a product of super-soldier program whose later subjects had been kidnapped and brainwashed into being villians.
  
• Silver Bow: Her superhero parents wouldn't have been murdered by a 13 year old junkie looking for cash. Instead, they would have simply retired when she took over. She would also have a CVK and wouldn't be worried about cleaning up the scum of the streets, concentrating more on traditional supervillains.
  
• Forethought: Her powers would have simply triggered when she matured rather than triggering as a result of a near rape that left her confidence somewhat shattered.
  
• Whiz Kid (now Fast Track): Would not turn into a time travelling supervillain in one possible future and thus would not have to worry about that possibility.
  
• Nightingale: Probably not much different at all.
  
• Diva: Would probably have become a superhero almost immediately after gaining her powers, rather than spending several years as a super celebrity.
  
• Swift Kick: Would probably still be called Madam Morph, because no one care if the name gave away her shape-changing powers rather than keeping them secret. She would have never been kidnapped, brainwashed, and turned into a supervillain for several years.
  
• Crimson Fist: Would have been granted his powers by a benevolent scientist rather than a supervillain who killed his girlfriend.
  

Iron Age:

• Challenger: Would slowly discover that his father's great superheroic career was just a cover for his real job as a government assassin.
  
• Rick Davies, The Resilient Rubber-Man: Since he was created by a project overseen by Challenger's father, he was likely created as a government weapon and programmed to be a flashy, publicity-seeking hero. However, upon a trigger word, he would become the government's willing pawn.
  
• Silver Bow: Would not use any speciality arrows, but would instead just use her deadly arrows to execute scum like the junkie who killed her parents.
  
• Forethought: Would have been gang-raped and literally turned off the brains of the lot of them when the act triggered her mental powers. She would not be worried at all about invading others because she would feel that if those men could freely violate her physically, there's no reason why she shouldn't freely violate others mentally.
  
• Whiz Kid (Fast Track): Would be doing everything possible to become the powerful time traveller that he knows he will be in the future. After all, with that kind of power, he can make over the world the way he wants it to be. He would be using his vast intelligence to manipulate things so that the future where he is Time Twister is guaranteed to come about. This might include injecting his own mother with cancer so that she would be sure to die.
  
• Nightingale: Instead of being turned over by a caring priest to a group of Tibetan mystics to raise, she would have been turned over to a cult of Tibetan assassins by a corrupt priest. While she would have some healing abilities, she would have also been trained to use those same abilities to inflict harm. The cult would have sent her as a spy to infiltrate the superhero team.
  
• Diva: Would be into superheroing only for the cash that could be made. She would have little concern for puny humans except when she is paid to protect them. Rather than a middle class African American upbringing, she would have been raised as a African American militant.
  
• Swift Kick: No one know of her shape-changing abilities. While she would still be a kidnapped subject of the project that created Rick Davies, he would not know her as such. Also, instead of being kidnapped by an organization of European mad scientists, she would have been kidnapped by a more serious-minded group of would-be European dictators and sent to American as a martial artist to infiltrate the hero group so that her bosses could learn how to stop them if need be. She would also use her shape-changing abilities to obtain other information to support her bosses' goals.
  
• Crimson Fist: His crimson energy field is recharged by the blood of his defeated foes.
  

[OddHat]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Like so many others here, my characters are born and bred middle grounders, so:

 

Four Color:

1) Style – The current Style is the son of Doc Emerald, a WWII Doctor Fate type who was driven mad by the Emerald Crown and eventually died fighting the Council in Vietnam. Style’s fate is to eventually die while thwarting a plan of the Dragon. In the Golden Age Style’s father would have overcome the taint of the crown and put it aside, and would never have committed war crimes. Rather than being driven out of a sense of guilt, Style’s motives would be purely altruistic. Style’s fate would also no longer be fixed.

2) AnimeGai – Rather than being an AI inside of a hologram generating Light-Bee, AnimeGai would probably be a scientist with the ability to turn himself into Living Light. His emotions would be real rather than simulated, he’d have a human mind, and he’d probably have a series of soap-opera style relationships rather than living in near isolation. Other than developing a code versus killing, he’d otherwise remain more or less the same.

3) Thirteen – The master of the Thirteen Steps and all super-skills would become Batman. He’d start wearing a costume with a 13 on it, fighting with weapons designed to look like the number 13, etc. Add a code versus killing and a much cheerier disposition.

4) Indomitable Will - A socialist pulp hero who spent decades as the gladiator-slave and plaything of Istvatha V'Han, Will would still have been kidnapped into V'Han’s home dimension, but would have led a successful revolt against her tyrannical rule. Their relationship would have been much more Flash Gordon versus Ming’s Daughter, with strong romantic undertones. Once he escaped back to our reality, he would have developed a Golden Age code of contact instead of his current Pulp Hero code.

5) Flesh Gordon – A brick without an invulnerable costume, he’d get at least a pair of invulnerable shorts. He’d also use many more brick tricks. His personality is already cheerful, optimistic and slightly clueless; that would remain the same, but he’d lose about 15 points of INT and go from being bright to being The Tick.

 

 

Iron Age:

1) Style – The council goes from being a group of mystics who tried to save Doc Emerald into a group of mystics who engineered his fall to develop a weapon against the Dragon. Style stops feeling guilt over the war crimes of his father and becomes obsessed with evading his fated destruction at the claws of the Dragon. His Code versus Killing stays, but becomes far more of a liability. Rather than being fated to die stopping the Dragon from breaking free, Style is now fated to die in a meaningless skirmish thwarting one of the Dragon’s endless plans.

2) AnimeGai – No more silly tricks using the holograms. The AI’s simulation of human emotions becomes much less convincing, creating a near emotionless character subject to sudden debilitating outbursts of simulated rage, fear, lust, etc. The character in general becomes much less silly.

3) Thirteen – He’d move into the Iron Age almost unchanged, except that rather than killing if there was no other way to end a threat, he’d start to rack up a huge body count. He’d justify this as the only way to be sure that criminals wouldn’t repeat their crimes.

4) Indomitable Will – He’d have deeper scars from his time as a slave. Rather than having been used primarily as a gladiator, his enslavement would have been far more degrading. Add an alcohol problem, and his current Pulp Hero code would instead become psychotic violence directed at criminals and other “sinnersâ€.

5) Flesh Gordon – On the surface, he’d move into the Iron Age unchanged. However, he’d become far less silly in his outlook and behavior, becoming almost mercenary. He’d exploit his looks for cash, use his charisma to become manipulative, and drop the Code versus Killing.

[zornwil]

Re: [Meta] What would your character be?

 

Blazing Arrow would change from being a politically-incorrect (through his naivete and drug use) version of an American Indian to a politically-correct anguished one, going from what he is to Iron Age. Pretty straight-forward.

 

Going to straight 4-color, he'd be more respectful of what he perceives as the "white man's" ways and follow the letter of the law rather than doing things like breaking into people's homes. He'd also be nobler in combat, not using his hand-chop against people's throats.