International (HeroCentral Rallying Point)

[Wyrm Ouroboros]

Okay, for those of you who don't know - yes, I'm Micronaut, and Micronaut means me. ... and that's all I'll quote Gandalf.

 

This-yere thread's for rallying allayouse what're waiting on HC to come back. No, I don't intend on running International here on the HG board, but that doesn't mean we can't poke at the backgrounds and the like some more. Or rather, you lot can't keep thinking about your interviews, and injections and Threadings ...

 

Now, for all of you who aren't part of the aforementioned campaign on HeroCentral but decided to read this thread anyhow, well - since HC is on hiatus, this is the perfect chance for you, yes, YOU to decide you really want to apply and play a Teen Champions game where the fate of the world rests in the hands of you and ... uh ... okay, thousands others like you. International is a 5e Teen Champions 'battle school' campaign.

 

I wish I'd copied the information from HC, but the gist of it is a crossover between the movie Battle: Los Angeles and pretty much every battle-school alien-invasion anime out there. Battle: Los Angeles shows the start of the invasion in 2065 - treat it as as close of a documentary as they've been able to make. Unfortunately, two days after the events of that movie - the day after the 'new day' at the end of the movie - the second wave hit. It wasn't much bigger than the first wave, but the aliens learned too. This isn't to say that the aliens wiped out humanity in the first week - or even the first year. Humanity fought tenaciously, and though they've been pushed back and away from many cities on many coastlines, they still have ships out there (not too many), and plenty of cities. Few cities over 50k have escaped being at least somewhat attacked, but humanity controls almost everything away from the water - and, almost as important, under the water.

 

However, for two years humanity was on the slowly-losing side. Salt water was what the aliens used best, so they remain strongest along the oceans, but even their use returns the water (by diverse routes) into the ecosystem. (No, they're not returning it to orbit; they're here to _stay_.) That's when Professor Karl Schein - a mad genius with nonexistent morals - turned over to the UN (now in de facto planetary command, even though nations still have their say) the thing they needed - the way to make basic physically-enhanced super-soldiers. Unfortunately, you couldn't use the serum on full adults; it killed them.

 

Schein experimented (both secretly and illegally) on adolescents, and emerged with, like, half-a-dozen classic-superhuman (flight, energy beams, etc.) young adults. It worked best on newly-adolescent young people, but it would work somewhat later on. A continuing issue, though, is that 55% of injections result in no effect, 30% result in the teen's death, 10% result in transformation psychosis requiring the, erm, killing of the teen, 4% result in minor enhancements, and only 1% result in the true superhuman. It's now been 10 years since the invasion. For 7 years children have been volunteering for the injections; the one-percenters go to schools for training in their skills, then advance to the battlefield to start driving the invaders back, to destroy them, to regain the planet.

 

The interviews of parent and adolescent to get to the point of receiving the injection are brutal, especially for the young adult; the interviewers are instructed to break the adolescent swiftly and brutally during the interview, analyzing how they react, and making the decision there as to whether or not the 12- to 14-year-old will be allowed to be injected. Both parent and adolescent have to want the child to run that 40% death rate; the adult less so than the child, but the child deeply and ferociously. If there is any uncertainty on the adolescent's part, any reluctance, they're turned down.

 

The PCs are, presumably, one-percenters. Right now, ICly, some have described their interviews, and have gotten to the events of what is described as 're-Threading' - when the KS Serum starts to take apart and recombine the 'threads' of their DNA. Campaign instructions follow.

 

 

Player Characters are built as they are now, and presume failure to become one of the Threaded - i.e. don't think ahead to 'what I'll be when I become a superhero!!' Characters are built on 0 Base + 50 Disads, with the following baseline attributes for a 13-year-old character:

 

STR: 6

DEX: 10

CON: 6

BOD: 6

INT: 15

EGO: 7*

PRE: 6

COM: 6*

PD: 1

ED: 1

SPD: 2

REC: 1

END: 12

STUN: 12

RUN: 4"

 

Skills: Standard 5e Modern Everyman; replace TF Motorized Vehicles with TF 2-wheeled muscle-powered ground vehicles, i.e. every kid knows how to ride a bike. Pick a city, or at most a clearly-defined region of a state for the AK. If English is not your native language, you must have it at a minimum of a 2-point level. Maximum general skill level is 11-, though 10- 'competency' is preferred. Up to 2 skills may be above 11- (usually at 'attribute roll' levels), but typically have a limitation of some sort on the skill to represent its limited applicability; other PCs have such things like 'Tactics 12-, MMORPG Only (-1/2)', 'Tracking 12-, Only vs. Humans (-1/2)', and 'Navigation (Land) 12-, Mountains Only (-1/2)'. You most likely grew up in a particular area; be realistic about what exists in that area, and pick skills that are appropriate. Pushing yourself to the 50-point maximum ... may be foolish, may not.

 

Disads: two disads are required; the first is standardized, while the second is a minimum value.

5: Social Limitation: Minor (Under 18) (Occasionally; Major; Not Limiting In Some Cultures)

15: Psychological Limitation: Save Humanity (Common; Strong)

 

The player must come up with 30 more points in Disads -- likely psychological, possibly physical or social.

 

Understand that going over 10-13 in most attributes makes you a serious prodigy, and will have ramifications on your current and future possibilities. 75% of human max is your absolute limit in all but INT - 17 on that one - and asterisked attributes, as explained below.

 

EGO: Minimum is 7, Max is 8. Kids with a low will don't get through the interview. Both minimum and maximum are increased by 2 if you do not have a background that includes 'personal tragedy / revenge on the aliens' - your home was destroyed, your parents died, an alien kicked your puppy, whatever. Min/Max are increased by a further 2 if you do not have a warrior heritage, were born into a military family, trained to be a soldier all your life, or similar 'combat kid' background.

 

COM: Comeliness is being used as a representation of sexual attractiveness; each point above 5 indicates a 10% portion of the part of society which you match the gender-preference for considers you sexually attractive and hit-on-able. Most 13-year-olds are not generally thought of as being sexual to most of society, whether that be actual animal attractiveness or societal mores. You can be a teen hottie - a couple of the PCs are - but be bloody well aware of what you're putting your 13-year-old adolescent into. I'd rather not go too far down that road.

 

I can read a character's point-spending data (skills, attributes, etc.) and see a background/history/personality for the kid; I'd rather you come up with them. Tell me what the kid is like, where s/he comes from, the whole nine yards. The more particular you are about your character, the fewer problems you'll have, and the less you'll have to bang your head against the wall.

[ATTACH]45486[/ATTACH]

[Delwyndwn]

Re: International (HeroCentral Rallying Point)

 

Actually I am worried about the comment you made about my character the last time we chatted. I mean come on seriously don't you think it is a little too early in the game to start screw with our characters?

 

I think, barring any radical alterations you have made, my character will continue being the nerdy teen that he is..

[Wyrm Ouroboros]

Re: International (HeroCentral Rallying Point)

 

Presuming this is RocEter ...

 

You misunderstand my meaning. I love - love - the character design process, the power building, all of it, which is why I was so hard on pretty much everyone - to get a clear idea of their character, and not just what their skills and all were. You wrote your character concept and background very well just to start with, so I really didn't have to hammer you so hard.

 

What I meant, just in general, is that your character's powers 'follow' what your character's personality is - how he thinks, how he feels and desires and all. Adrian is a geek; his powers very much follow the lines of who and what he is.

[Binnister]

This is Binnister

 

...who is Jay Arkinson.

 

We've already had our little 'chat'. But, if you need any other info/input, just PM me here.

[Kaze9999]

Re: International (HeroCentral Rallying Point)

 

Hero checking in for Harper Ross. I believe I am just waiting for the next step after having posted Harper's Interview, Injection, and pre-Threading scenarios.