[M&M] Under an Orange Sky

[Acathala]

Originally Posted by squirmonkey

Oh perfect! I'll give it a look, I secretly love reading game rules

It’s not a secret if you post it on the internet lol.

[FoggyKnight]

Val Name:Valerie Ramos Age: 23 Concept: Mama Bear mechanic Personality: Valerie is good with hands-on work and is self-sufficient. She dislikes overindulging in anything, afraid of picking up an addiction, but she enjoys variety in her day to day routine and is willing to try most things at least twice. She didn't have much growing up, but she is attached to a fleece blanket she had as a child, and can't sleep without it. She also likes to have things squirreled away in case of emergencies and keeps a suitcase full of spare clothes, food, water, and cash ready at work, at home, and in a storage locker at a facility. While she has a bank account, she also keeps cash in her mattress. She cites this as a positive thing, given how useful it was when the city was destroyed. She likes to learn and keeps her library card current. What she knows about the world mostly comes through books or anecdotes about the world and she has found herself naively believing in conspiracy theories until taught otherwise. She has been embarrassed by this before but so far her co-workers just think she's naive rather than a conspiracy nut. She's a big reader in the popular science and health/wellness sections. She dislikes the historical books because she feels it's too far away for her to grasp. Working as a waitress and with mostly male mechanics have given her the ability to put a "customer service" poker face on but Ignition's owner lets her have more leeway in responses to anyone harassing her than the casinos ever did. Usually she tries to respond in kind to the mechanics and shut down any unkindness from the clients before things escalate, knowing that Cody will likely have her back if she doesn't take it too far. --- Over the last few months, she was finding herself increasingly annoyed with little frustrations. Her growing body made her misjudge things like doorways and weight and having to force herself to slow down and be smaller with her movements and effort is aggravating when she just wants to close a door without pulling it off. Except, if she growls, mutters, or swears, everyone looks at her like she's going to rip their heads off! It makes her feel like a monster from outer space. At the same time, she's trying to find the awesome moments. Looking eye to eye with basketball players. Men don't catcall. She's not worried about being mugged. She can walk down the street or go for a jog at 3 am and not worry. She can keep up with a car on the highway and bench press more weight than the gym owns. She can eat anything she wants to and spicy food doesn't give her heartburn. She still has nightmares about the day of the terrorist attacks and keeps a sharp lookout for anything out of the ordinary around her. The city has returned to some sort of "normal" life, but she still feels an edge, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop. Physical Description: Valerie resembles a humanoid brown bear, standing about seven feet high. She wears loose sleeveless shirts, denim shorts, and custom boots when not in public, and a hat and trench coat when she is. A pair of black nano-tech gloves give back her ability to do small motions otherwise not capable with claws, and also hide her paws. There is a patch of shaved fur on her left shoulder with a skeleton key tattoo.   Valerie grew up in Baker, Nevada. A "town" with about a hundred people year round. With the Great Basin National Park nearby, she saw a lot of tourists come and go through the town, especially astronomy buffs, but none stayed. "Fun" was 60 miles away, along with groceries, schools, and the doctor. If you didn't want to look at stars or hike in nature, there was little to to do. Her father Roger was an alcoholic custodian at the local hotel, and her mother Theresa was a stay-at-home mother and a quiet, religious woman that was cowed by her father. Theresa home-schooled her, but Val had to supplement a lot of what she was taught with Nevada's online library and her friend's parents. Val spent most of her time hanging out with the other two people her age in town, Rikki and Matt. Rikki was the daughter of scientists, with a large collection of movies and books, and would take Val along when her family hiked on the weekends. Matt was an always hungry, neglected kid that dressed in Salvation Army hand-me-downs and had great ideas for hands-on projects when he was sober. Both of Rikki's parents encouraged Val and Matt to think about a future outside of Baker, but could do little to help their home lives except open up their own. Roger looked suspiciously on Val's love of learning, wondering why the life Theresa was raising her for wasn't enough for Valerie. He expected her to grow up to care for them in their old age, and supplement the household income. He frowned on anything Val did that seemed like "a waste of time" or "man's work", and she learned to hide her projects from her father, sneaking around to the sympathetic post master, and buying things online with Rikki's credit card. A tourist's junker car brought freedom for Val at sixteen, and she spent a lot of time fixing it. With a car came a part-time job over the border in Utah as a waitress. Her tips would mysteriously disappear out of her purse overnight, leaving just her paycheck to cover her automotive costs and whatever she needed at home. She began stashing money at Rikki's in a jar, saving up for the day she turned eighteen. Tragedy struck when she was seventeen. Matt overdosed in November with a mix of cleaners and alcohol he stole from his parents. Burying him, Val felt a mix of relief and guilt. Matt was what Valerie was afraid she'd become if she stayed in Baker, but he hadn't been sober for a long time, and Valerie felt he had dragged their friendships down. She swore that she wouldn't become like him and that she'd get out of Baker and do something with her life. She passed her GED the same day she turned eighteen in June. Marching home, she threw her belongings into a box and tossed it into her car, sleeping in it overnight. The next day, she drove with Rikki to Vegas. She and Rikki found space in an already crowded apartment and settled in, getting waitress jobs at the casinos to pay the rent. Val and Rikki split at the end of the summer, when Val started attending automotive classes at the local community college and Rikki went off to the big university. After a few near misses, Valerie started attending kickboxing and self-defense classes, getting into better shape and finding an outlet for her aggression. She also got a tattoo and dyed her hair in colors her mother would never approve of, hiding her head under a wig at work. Looking to make connections and add to her resume, Valerie began volunteering with the Los Platos food bank, serving meals and making deliveries to people that needed help. She began making connections with lonely older folks that liked to have someone to talk to and show off pictures of their grand kids to. When she was twenty-two, she graduated with her degree in mechanical and technological automotive work, and began looking for a "real" job. Most garages passed on her, citing a lack of positions and her lack of experience, but she figured it was her gender. Despite an increased number of women in car work, there was still a bias by customers and higher-ups. The owner of Ignition Kingdom decided to give her an opportunity and offered her a probationary job. ---------------------------- Following the terrorist attacks, Val spent weeks living in a tent with the rest of the displaced people, helping search for survivors, and picking through the rubble with the rest of her neighbors for belongings and valuables. Cody paid for his mechanics to help out on FEMA and Red Cross vehicles as they were needed using his insurance payout, but mostly Valerie spent her days with Ellen, serving food. The power was gone for several weeks, but neighbors were happy to share their sterno cans and barbecue grills, cooking all of the food that could be rescued or that was donated by rural people. People driving trucks, campers, and whatever they could find began flocking into the shattered city, donating what they could to help out. There was a man with a ham radio that went to the universities to help out the students that were trying to reach loved ones. There were looters, as with any kind of event, people that took advantage of the chaos to score some televisions despite the lack of power, or liquor, or random things like potato chips. Valerie met up with Rikki by chance. With the University leveled, most students that survived returned home to their families when they could. Those that had applicable talents helped out where they could. Rikki had been looking for Valerie herself. Baker was untouched by the attacks, but Val's parents had passed away suddenly. NovaTech moved into the center of the city, beginning to help rebuild with flashy new nanotechnology. Rumor in the camps suggested that the CEO and company now owns shares in every major casino on the new strip in exchange for the rebuild. Regular construction crews began moving into the edges of the town shortly thereafter. Those that had their money began seeing their apartments and businesses rebuilt. Ignition Kingdom was one of these lucky ones. There were waiting lists for people waiting to get back into a solid home. Despite her startlingly different appearance, her powers took time to grow in. In the aftermath of the event, Valerie began putting on weight, and went through a growth spurt, needing new clothes and shoes several times within a few months. She began to get hairier, to her horror. Her savings didn't afford health insurance, and she dared not going near the doctors at the Red Cross when there were so many other people to take care of. Newspapers began popping up with tales of "miracles" and accidents. With the sky still orange, Valerie began wondering if the smoke that hung over the former city was giving her some kind of strange cancer. Her neighbors seemed sympathetic to what she was going through, and Ellen suggested it was just stress or a hormone imbalance. Valerie continued to go out and about, trying to claw back some sort of routine in the face of what had happened. She returned to work as a mechanic about the same time that she was able to get into an apartment on the east side, where Summerlin once stood. Instead of middle-class housing, it was blue-collar, younger, and more crowded. Less trees, but NovaTech made sure there were a couple of asphalt basketball courts, a few parks, and a Starbucks on the corner. Nova's rapid rebuilding often changed streets and buildings over the course of the day, and what was a good path home might not be a path at all the next day. Disoriented on a walk home, Val found herself facing off with three drunk men in an alley that hadn't been there the day before. Prepared to defend herself, Val felt a blinding crunch in her head before everything went white and ring-y. She came to in a very V-shaped bed, covered in shreds of sheets and vomit, looking at her bedroom door swinging on its hinges. A quick check in the mirror confirmed she was awake, moving, and very much a terrified grizzly-person. Rikki didn't answer her phone, but Cody did. Val met him at the garage the following evening to beg time off. He was startled but quickly became excited over the development, having more access to the news and current events than she paid attention to. There were individuals that were making headlines all over the world, and others that were featured in medical magazines. Val wasn't thrilled over Cody's comparison with her and Beast, but staying calm, wearing concealing clothes, and keeping to her apartment or work was something she could do for a bit. NPCS Rikki Yapelo: A childhood friend of Val's from Baker, Nevada. In her mid-twenties, she is pursuing a graduate degree in Microbiology at the University of Las Vegas. Smart and driven, she made plans with Val to become wealthy and travel all over the world. She currently works at Summitrust Diagnostic as a lab assistant. She has a boyfriend Val has not met in person named Jason. Rikki and Jason own a cat. Ellen May: The director of the Los Platos Food Bank. A generously built blue-eyed red-head that wants to feed the world, especially orphans and runaways. She is a former cook, and likes to try out new recipes on her clients to try and make the donated food go farther. She hates red tape and schmoozing with donors, but she finds both as necessary evils to her field. She's constantly trying to talk people into volunteering. Los Platos is in such need of volunteers that Ellen will not turn away a volunteer in the shape of a bear as long as said bear doesn't eat all of the food. Val doesn't go out for deliveries anymore, not wanting to cause heart attacks in old people. If anything, Los Platos also has started to see other people that have been affected by the Orange Sky event, and Ellen thinks maybe having a representative scoop food isn't so bad. Cody Wood: The owner of Ignition Kingdom. Cody is in his mid fifties. A former Army man, he is average height, balding, and willing to throw down if needed. He's annoyed by machismo culture, but he has a weakness for puns and comic books. He's a big fan of Superman, and jokes he's just like Beepo. Cody also wishes he had been "bit by a radioactive bear" instead. He's keeping her as a mechanic and outfitted her paws with nano-tech gloves as an investment, stating that sooner or later, his shop is going to have customers again and what better way to stand out than a mechanic that looks like a bear and can bench press a car. He has a husband, three cats, and a dog. Leah Miles: Val's landlady. Val usually sees her on the first of the month when rent is due, or when maintenance needs to be let in the building. In her sixties, average looking, with frizzy hair. She's a sucker for cute and fuzzy things and ignores the food that two tenants put out for Muffins the street cat. Powers: Increased speed, strength, and durability. Increased agility and reflexes. Claws and jaws offer natural attacks along with martial arts, but with a decreased lack of fine motor control due to the claws, if not wearing her gloves. Complications: Driven to prove herself: Motivation (acceptance): She was taught all of her life to hide her interests and talents because it was "man's work" and she's still fighting for the respect she feels she deserves. Doing Good: She learned what not to do from her parents, and wants to do better than them. She likes the warm fuzzy feeling it gives her to help out other people. She volunteers at the local food pantry following the Orange Sky Event. Temper: Quit telling me what I can and cannot do!

What do you want to see in the game?: I like combat as much as anyone, but I also enjoy games where there is downtime and the characters are able to make friends in and out of the team. I was able to have my characters interact outside of the their superhero identity; take martial arts classes, babysit, go to school, move into their first apartment.

[FoggyKnight]

Admittedly, the powers are weird. I thought it up overnight. Based on "Create food and water" except the water can be Gatorade, and it's not porridge.

Val started as "I really liked that tattoo artist I heard about that lives a life of spite" and she wanted to be really good at making vehicles things run. I suppose she also wants to eventually learn how to make other things run, but she lives in a lower-class apartment without a garage.

She's mostly at the "wtf?!" stage on her newfound powers.

[Fairy Overlord]

Hmmm.... It's not necessarily a bad thing to have weird powers. I am curious to know if you have plans for ways the powers might develop to make them more useful for the purposes of being a superhero though.

[GleefulNihilism]

I mean, you can make the case that most crime is done out of desperation. Making mass amounts of food and water is less desperation is less crime, but that’s a long term thing. Heh.

[Vesper]

Create food and liquid is different but as others have said there is some long term possibilities there, especially since she is just discovering them. Perhaps it slowly branches into being able to make ice to pop locks, oil to start fires, poisonous touch. Heck, liquid nitrogen to freeze things, there are liquids that spontaneously combust at normal temperatures... I'm totally getting into your powers, haha.

Is that your cat in your avatar?

I was considering having a motor bike as my characters means of transportation. Having a mechanic would come in handy.

[SageBahamut]

The first idea I had would work better as an NPC, so I'm trying to come up with something else.

Have an NPC though:

 

Eris de la Vega, aka Vega Discordia, is the Awakened Spirit of Discord City itself. Some believe she is the collective souls of those who died during the Orange Sky Event, others that she is nothing more than a rogue AI.
In appearance she is a nature spirit - mostly rock of the same color as the desert sand - blended with nanotech goo. Her appearance is vaguely feminine but in the blank-anatomy way of mannequins or plastic dolls.
Powers-wise she is able to move anywhere she pleases within her City, and can be aware of anything going on within its borders, though it takes her some concentration to change her perspective. She has enough nanites on her to reliably Create mundane tools and materials, but she has no high-tech knowledge of her own and is not a Tinker-type super, so she can't conjure ultratech from thin air.
Personality-wise, she is capricious and alien in a fey sort of way that comes across as distinctly Not Human. She incorporates some of the devil-may-care attitude of Old Vegas and some of the nurturing, desperate hope of Discord City. She is dedicated to the defense of the City... but not as dedicated to the defense of the people in it. She will restore damaged buildings, remove pollution from the ground, and so on, but she won't necessarily intervene to save lives without someone reminding her that she is supposed to.

I say she works better as an NPC because I'm not sure I could do her justice on a PC's point budget, and also because I am not 100% confident I could consistently play a character like this.

[FoggyKnight]

Originally Posted by Vesper

Create food and liquid is different but as others have said there is some long term possibilities there, especially since she is just discovering them. Perhaps it slowly branches into being able to make ice to pop locks, oil to start fires, poisonous touch. Heck, liquid nitrogen to freeze things, there are liquids that spontaneously combust at normal temperatures... I'm totally getting into your powers, haha.

Is that your cat in your avatar?

I was considering having a motor bike as my characters means of transportation. Having a mechanic would come in handy.

I was (half-asleep) thinking power tricks like (olive) oil slicks, distracting guards by pouring sticky soda in their boots or on their head, ruining electronics with gatorade, or summoning apples to throw at ranged triggers. Something I am probably NOT going to do is suffocate someone by summoning said gatorade into their lungs. I think I was leaning into the "be creative" part of the powers request, rather than the "make sure it can be a superhero" request.

Pico was my cat until a few years ago when he passed, but I thought that cheeky picture was a good one to leave in place. He was very food motivated. Jessie is an awesome kitty, but I don't have pictures of her doing anything in particular except flopping on the floor and asking for pets.

edit: Now that I have Val's backstory written up and a sense of who she is, I can revisit powers too. After I get out of work tonight or tomorrow.

[Hiruma Kohaku]

Thinking of smooth talker gambler native to Discord city with Luck advantage and Luck Control. Luck advantage is half PL rounded down (so 3). The Luck extra from Luck Control power set gives the benefits of a rank of luck with same limitation of half PL. Does this mean it can only be a max of 3 combined between the two or that each can be 3 for a combined 6?

[Vesper]

So far I have singer/entertainer from Southwest US with Native American ancestry in mind. I don't have time to write now but I have no doubt it will develop as I type. In my head am thinking a Powerhouse type but I'll see what happens.

[Fairy Overlord]

Originally Posted by Hiruma Kohaku

Does this mean it can only be a max of 3 combined between the two or that each can be 3 for a combined 6?

The Luck extra sounds like it's just Enhanced Advantage: Luck so I'd definitely rule that you can only have up to three combined between the two in this case.

[squirmonkey]

Originally Posted by Acathala

It’s not a secret if you post it on the internet lol.

Only if people read it!

[GleefulNihilism]

Gremlin is "done". As in everything that has to be in the app is there though I reserve the right to make tweeks. Criticisms and Critique welcome.

[Hiruma Kohaku]

I was thinking of a revolver where my character spins the chamber like a slot machine with effect produced is based on a roll of a d6 with each chamber a variable effect. Would it be considered a Unreliable or Uncontrollable flaw?

[Fairy Overlord]

Originally Posted by Hiruma Kohaku

I was thinking of a revolver where my character spins the chamber like a slot machine with effect produced is based on a roll of a d6 with each chamber a variable effect. Would it be considered a Unreliable or Uncontrollable flaw?

Neither of those flaws really do what you're describing, though I could see Uncontrollable being a factor.

This probably wouldn't be something you'd actually build mechanically. Too complicated. Doesn't follow the current design of the rules. What you could do is just make it a variable power on a device, then just voluntarily roll a d6 to determine which effect you use.

If you really want me to be the one to roll the d6, you can give it the uncontrollable flaw, otherwise this is probably best handled through a complication to allow me to throw in a few surprises into the mix.