transformer question

[Badger]

I recently found a station that shows the old Transformers/GIJoe cartoons at midnight and watching them when I get home at night. But, it did leave with a couple of questions.

 

1) I am pretty sure of this one but want confirmation. Soundwave's cassettes would be Summon and/or Follower right?

 

2) For characters, like the Constructicons when they combine into Devastator how would that work in hero terms?

[Greywind]

Re: transformer question

 

1) Yes

 

2) Multiform: Only in conjunction with...

[steriaca]

Re: transformer question

 

1) Yes...Summon. (Let's see...the cartoons Lazerbeak, Buzzsaw, Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage, Ratbat...that is six summons,not counting any others which did not show up in the show...and Blaster can do the same).

 

2) This is a bit more complicated. Try Multiform for the leader, other members of the team must be ajantiant to activate, and Extra-Dimentinal Teleportaion for the pieces. Multiform and EDT automaticly ends when knocked down or stuned.

[Bloodstone]

Re: transformer question

 

I recently found a station that shows the old Transformers/GIJoe cartoons at midnight and watching them when I get home at night. But, it did leave with a couple of questions.

 

1) I am pretty sure of this one but want confirmation. Soundwave's cassettes would be Summon and/or Follower right?

 

Summon is probably the easiest way to go, though one could make a strong case for Altered Duplicates as well.

 

Unfortunately, it will be very expensive as a Summon. They are (mostly) Slavishly Loyal, are all Specific Beings and he can deploy multiples cassettes at once for extended periods of time ( I don't think we ever saw him summon more then 5 at once in the cartoon, thought he had 8-10)

 

2) For characters, like the Constructicons when they combine into Devastator how would that work in hero terms?

 

Several different ways to do Combining (Multiform, Duplication, etc). Do you have the Ultimate Metamorph? Several options are laid out in there.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: transformer question

 

Duplication works too.

 

Cheers.

 

QM

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: transformer question

 

Gestalts/Combiners can be complicated.

 

I would probably do it by building the Gestalt form as the base character, with Duplication to spit out the limbs (the other 5 Constructicons in Devastator's case), with Devastator having Multiform to transform into the team leader when he Duplicates. (though exactly who the Constructicon team leader is, is debatable. I would probably go with Hook, simply because he forms the head, even though in the G1 cartoon Scrapper seems to be in charge).

 

Thread digression, re: Constructicon Leader

Unlike practically every other Combiner, the Constructicons do not have a firmly identified leader. Most of them can make some claim to leadership.

Scrapper: Most commonly assumed to be the leader due to having the most lines in the cartoon and constantly speaking for the whole group, as well as giving most of the orders. His Transformers Universe profile lists him as Megatron's favorite Constructicon, and Dreamwave's More Than Meets The Eye explicitly names him as leader. He also has the highest rank of the bunch.

Hook: Forms the head and much of the torso, a trait shared by the other combiner leaders. He got the second most number of lines and certainly seemed to be the one issuing all the orders in the non-flashback parts of "The Secret Of Omega Supreme". Is clearly defined as the leader in Wings Universe.

Mixmaster: As noted above, he was briefly indicated to have ascended to leadership in 2008, and is seen giving the orders in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5" as well.

Scavenger: Shockwave gives the Constructicons' orders to him in their comic debut as if he were the leader.

Bonecrusher: Led the Constructicons on their mission to recover the fallen Decepticons from the Ark.

Long Haul: Sorry, Long Haul, you lose again...

[Alverant]

Re: transformer question

 

I recently found a station that shows the old Transformers/GIJoe cartoons at midnight and watching them when I get home at night. But, it did leave with a couple of questions.

 

1) I am pretty sure of this one but want confirmation. Soundwave's cassettes would be Summon and/or Follower right?

I'd do it as a follower or independent characters and have the ejecting be a special effect. There were episodes where Rumble was around without Soundwave (Sea Change for example). But continuity wasn't exactly a high priority in those series. If you go with follower, add Extra Dimensional Movement controlled by Soundwave. Either way it begs the question, "Why aren't they out all the time?" OTOH, there was one episode where Soundwave ejected an "auto-scout" which was a 3 wheeled probe that got destroyed when it touched some Plot Device crystals. In the GIJoe/Transformers series a few years back, one of the Cobra techs comment that the cassettes have some symbiotic relationship with Soundwave.

 

2) For characters' date=' like the Constructicons when they combine into Devastator how would that work in hero terms?[/quote'] It wouldn't. Merging means one character has control while everyone else gets bored and start talking, reading, making dice sculptures, etc.

[Badger]

Re: transformer question

 

Well, tonight they had the one with time traveling to Camelot, Rumble and Ravage were they and no Soundwave. So, yeah, the can be independent of Soundwave. I did always think SOundwave was in a way kind of a "patriarch" of the cassettes.

 

As far as the gestalts, understand, my thinking was of NPC sorts, but, yeah, actual role playing of PCs would be dysfunctional.

[Jhamin]

Re: transformer question

 

How to handle the cassettes is kind of a philosophical question. Are they characters in and of themselves or are they extensions of Soundwave? I would make the argument that it varies by tape. Rumble, Frenzy, and Ravage tended to operate more or less independently but could pop out of his chest. (as you mention, they show up on a number of episodes he doesn't) Laserbeak and the only-seen-a-couple-times Buzzsaw operated in close cooperation with soundwave most of the time.

 

I might give Soundwave a multipower, one slot a summon for laserbeak & such, and EDM to allow him to move the more independent characters in and out of his "chest dimension".

His summons would have writeups attached to his sheet, while the others might be fully independent characters.

[Christopher]

Re: transformer question

 

Several different ways to do Combining (Multiform' date=' Duplication, etc). Do you have the Ultimate Metamorph? Several options are laid out in there.[/quote']

Also, APG I 58-61 discusses that thematic. First you ahve to determine what you are really goign to play: One of the Sub-characters? All of the Sub-characters? Mostly the main character?

That determines a lot about how to build it.