Issue 5 Epilogue

Regarding updates, some posts are longer than others, and with five to knock out it's a bit sporadic, but I aim to update once a day and move the dialogue on, so I'll try to put you in situations that always keep moving rather than back and forth with conversations that last weeks and get you not much further on. Right, 15.15, best hit the sack for work

With regards stats, it's going to depend on your host form. The superhuman powers (strength, vigour) will affect them, but I will decide your physical stats based on the description of the character, whilst your ego score remains the same. How you play the interaction between your character and your new host form is up to you - squabbles, submission, an inner battle, all down to you. I'll be working my way through the first posts over the course of the afternoon, keep an eye on the 'Current Issue' section...

Just wanna say... *clunk* in one night it looks like we've pulled together all the info I need to get us up and running. Expect New issues in the next day-2 days. Posting rate will depend on you guys though at least one of you will be impossible to keep up to (Frosty, I'm lookin' at you ) Settling down to read what you've written and will get started on cooking things up. Oh yeah *clunk* is the sound of my jaw hitting the desk...

Going to try to have fun with this one - you may remember him from the life and times of colonel blimp (the film, not the strip)Guy is now:



Maj General (res) Clive Wynn, DSO, DSC, MC & a raft of campaign medals from India, South Africa, Eqypt, Sudan, Boer War, & WW1.

Born 1876 and now 63 years of age. Not quite put out to pasture but been hauled out as an Aide to Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff, War Office (London) Lt Gen Forbes - to carry out those absolutely wonderful jobs that require a general officer but don't particulary require him to command!

Remarkably fit for a man of his age but rather prone to reminisce about past events and people.

At the start of a Home Guard exercise one bumptious Lt found out where he was staying the night before and staged a pre-emptive strike on the old fella. Wynn seized the Lt and nearly drowned him in the bathing pool. In the middle of the following Tirade Wynn just collapsed, assumed to be a stroke and is about to wake up in Queen Alexandras Military Hospital, Millbank.

They're going to be rather surprised at his remarkable good health etc. Fit as a Fiddle and all that tommyrot. Storm in a teacup will have a rather remarkable result though as he's retaining the Weather Control G3

Typical comments about him (usually by a private sotto voce): "'E fought the flipping Zulu's! - no wonder we're losing this bleeding War!"

New Power: Speed G1

Joe Hoskyn AKA Frostbite

Tough skin has been, in my opinion, more useful for you than intangibility,
The computer is a great choice to make. Field Manipulation will be more useful than Energy Attack, but you'll not be great in a fight. I'd have gone with energy attack. And it looks like bullets will hurt - a lot - if they zing into you (with no defences), something to bear in mind...

Ok I agree with you, I'm not so good at optimisation anyway, so lets go with an upgrade to tough skin,

As regards to moving forward then it'll be strength for weather control, upgrade tough skin and energy attack which I think fits the bill.

Moving from here I'll take tough skin, energy attack and the computer, simple since it makes more sense that its with me from the start.

Ok now to read the rest of the stuff ;-)

Sj

The Kitten of this world is Joanna Van der Berg from Holland. She's older than Kylie, probably in her late twenties or early thirties. She's a young widow (the circumstances of her husband's death is up to you, war-related or not) without children. To connect her to the war efforts, she's probably acting in the capacity of a nurse, possibly accompanying an order of nuns (she hasn't taken any vows herself) who are attempting to the ease the suffering of the injured.

No switching out of any exisiting powers.

I think that the 1 grade will be added to Health to get Fast Recovery.
For the new power, I agree with the suggestion and will put that 1 grade into Strength.

She will awaken with
- 1 level of Shrinking (since she hasn't used that yet)
- 1 level of Strength (since it's the new power)
- 1 level of Martial Arts (got to defend herself somehow)

PUTTY

One last thing and then off to bed.

Want to get rid of Agility and change it over for a new power that you will have to make. I think with 20 meters of stretching [G2] and shapeshifting and wallcrawling, that Putty should be able to run, climb, leap, glide those 20 meters. Well, maybe not glide at Grade One.

Speed doesn't quite do it since I am not looking for breaking frames in half to do multiple things. The first two sentences of Speed kinda cover what I want to do for running but the rest isn't what I'm looking for. Can you make some kind of stretchable/shapeshifting/wallcrawling movement power with two or more grades in it so that all types of movement gets covered if he has both stretching and shapeshift? Including Glide/Fly and Swimming?

Not really looking for bonuses to combat using this power, which is why Speed doesn't work, just the movement, which can be powerful enough on its own.

Next time some guy in a jetpack with a laser rifle comes on the scene, I want him to be surprised to see Putty shapeshifting into some kind of man-sized condor-like bird and taking to the air after him.
Or shifting into a dolphin form and swimming after the speeding boat loaded with drugs.
Or whatever.

Darkman is also an inspiration for this version of Putty.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkman

Loved all three movies and two of the books.

BTW, you can find all sorts of information on various comics and characters at this link:

http://www.comics.org/

Its the Grand Comics Database. If you are looking for covers to modify then you can find lots and lots of covers here.

PUTTY

Okay, Phoney War period, I can deal with that.

I am: Lance Corporal Lance Allard, ACTOR!!!!!!

•Add 1 grade to an existing power (if anyone wants to instead add a skill, they can do this with this option)

•Add a new power at grade 1

I want to add four minor skills: Acting, Vocal Mimicry, Escapology and Locksmithing {Dad always said to have a skill you can fall back on when times get lean.
Was going to take disguise but Shapeshifting says it is actually a more advanced form of disguise.

When you've done all that, I want you to pick 3 grades (they can be separate powers of varying grades or all one, like Stormwardens grade 3 Weather Control) of power. Those will be what you start your new solo issues/Issue #6 with in the past.

He will keep:
Strength Grade 1
Shapeshift Grade 1
Armour Grade 1

I guess that means he loses Stretching Grade 2; Agility Grade 1 and Wallcrawling

Lance Allard is a brilliant young actor. Was an up and coming actor before the war and enlisted when Britain went to war. He wound up in the Army's Morale Section [not sure what it was really called], appearing in patriotic films, short medical films, short training films and presenting plays for the troops at various bases, etc. It was during a performance of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde at one of the remoter bases that he collapsed over the "lab" where he was drinking the formula to change him into Mr. Hyde. He was burned when the bunsen burner caught the other props on fire. He will wake up in the burn ward. He won't have the Putty look but will have bandages covering his face and hands.


So Putty now becomes a super-strong, nigh invulenerable version of DC Comics Unknown Soldier.

Here's a link if you are not familiar with that character: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unknown_Soldier_(DC_Comics)

DavidMcMahon wrote:Where are we in the timeline? I know who I am going to play but how the new Putty gets his powers will be different depending on whether or not we are Before, During or After the Blitz on London, which is Aug, 1940.


A Brief Timeline of World War Two

1939-1940

Sept 1, 1939 - Nazis invade Poland.

Sept 3, 1939 - Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany.

Sept 4, 1939 - British Royal Air Force attacks the German Navy.

Sept 5, 1939 - United States proclaims neutrality; German troops cross the Vistula River in Poland.

Sept 10, 1939 - Canada declares war on Germany; Battle of the Atlantic begins.

Sept 17, 1939 - Soviets invade Poland.


April 9, 1940 - Nazis invade Denmark and Norway.

May 10, 1940 - Nazis invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister.

May 15, 1940 - Holland surrenders to the Nazis.

May 26, 1940 - Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk begins.

May 28, 1940 - Belgium surrenders to the Nazis.

June 3, 1940 - Germans bomb Paris; Dunkirk evacuation ends.

June 10, 1940 - Norway surrenders to the Nazis; Italy declares war on Britain and France.

June 14, 1940 - Germans enter Paris.

June 18, 1940 - Hitler and Mussolini meet in Munich; Soviets begin occupation of the Baltic States.

June 22, 1940 - France signs an armistice with the Nazis.

June 23, 1940 - Hitler tours Paris.

June 28, 1940 - Britain recognizes Gen. Charles de Gaulle as the Free French leader.

July 1, 1940 - German U-boats attack merchant ships in the Atlantic.

July 5, 1940 - French Vichy government breaks off relations with Britain.

July 10, 1940 - Battle of Britain begins.

July 23, 1940 - Soviets take Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Aug 3-19 - Italians occupy British Somaliland in East Africa.

Aug 13, 1940 - German bombing offensive against airfields and factories in England.

Aug 15, 1940 - Air battles and daylight raids over Britain.

Aug 17, 1940 - Hitler declares a blockade of the British Isles.

Aug 23/24 - First German air raids on Central London.

Aug 25/26 - First British air raid on Berlin.

Sept 3, 1940 - Hitler plans Operation Sealion (the invasion of Britain).

Sept 7, 1940 - German Blitz against England begins.

Sept 13, 1940 - Italians invade Egypt.

Sept 15, 1940 - Massive German air raids on London, Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester.

Sept 16, 1940 - United States military conscription bill passed.

Sept 27, 1940 - Tripartite (Axis) Pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan.

Oct 7, 1940 - German troops enter Romania.

Oct 12, 1940 - Germans postpone Operation Sealion until Spring of 1941.

Oct 28, 1940 - Italy invades Greece.

Nov 5, 1940 - Roosevelt re-elected as U.S. president.

Nov 10/11 - A torpedo bomber raid cripples the Italian fleet at Taranto, Italy.

Nov 14/15 - Germans bomb Coventry, England.

The Phoney War was a phase early in World War II—in the months following Britain's declaration of war on Germany (shortly after the German invasion of Poland) in September 1939 and preceding the Battle of France in May 1940—that was marked by a lack of major military operations in Continental Europe. The various European powers had declared war on one another but neither side had committed to launching a significant attack, and there was relatively little fighting on the ground, notwithstanding the terms of the Anglo-Polish military alliance and the Franco-Polish military alliance, which obliged the United Kingdom and France to assist Poland.

The period was also called at the time, the Twilight War by Winston Churchill, der Sitzkrieg in German ("the sitting war": a play on the word Blitzkrieg),[1] the Bore War (a play on the Boer War), the Polish dziwna wojna ("strange war"), and the French drôle de guerre ("strange war").

From Wikipedia. I figured we'd fill in that gap with some details of our own In other words, figure on the date being between Sept 17th 1939 and April 9th 1940.





By the way, I mentioned to Kendal earlier today, if you guys want to upload vintage 'flavour' images (preferably with some grainy black and white images of battle scenes and some smudge/bur flying in the background that sort of thing) then feel free. I will be putting in pictures of archive photos doctored with my own take on how superhumans might have looked in world war II. You'll expect it to be awful, and by jove, I'll try not to disappoint with my lousy drawing

Steeple_jackuk wrote:Joe Hoskyn AKA Frostbite

Frostbite

Now called Joe Hoskyn. A good ole farm boy who followed in his Dad footsteps when he enlisted, and became a GI having moved to England with the start of hostilities.

He has three sisters, one of which, Jean is a nurse also in England. When he gets R&R they sometimes try to hook up depending on where he has been located.

His mum and dad write often and miss him, but his dad is proud of his son.

Ok in terms of powers and stuff...

Ok I will ditch weather control which I want to swap out for Strength grade 1. I want to upgrade intangibility to level 2 and since Strength and Weather control are a straight swap I'll pick energy attack grade 2 instead of a new power. I think that fits within the confines of what you said.

At some point I'd like to see if intangibility and tough skin really work or not. Since I got such poor rolls on my vigour score my HTC and HTK are not great hence the reason for going for tough skin. But with intangibility 2, I'm wondering if tough skin will become more redundant and I could swap it out for vigour? Not sure.

Ok I wake up with:

Field manipulation grade 1, Flight and I guess my computer would be onboard right from the get go? Wouldn't it?

I think that covers everything, I'll leave the details up to you.

Sj

Tough skin has been, in my opinion, more useful for you than intangibility, but that's your choice (remember with super strength your dividers will go up with tough skin too, even if it's only by 1 each, they'll make it more useful) That said, it is your choice, but the limitations on Intangibility grade 2 will apply, so you can't use more than 1-4D6 in any case. However, on the battlefields of Northern France it's possible that being able to ignore bullets and grenades completely will come in more useful than hoping they ping off your chest. Mind you, the guy stood behind you might not think it that way he he leaks like a teabag before keeling over.

Anyway, the choice is totally yours - drop 3 and add 3 more as you see fit, then improve 1 by a grade and add a new power. So long as you do it that way, I'm good (because then it means everyone is on a level playing field). Just give me your final, FINAL list of powers and I'll write them up on the character sheet. You guys are - slowly admittedly - creeping your way up to Class 4 power levels. In the world of superhumans, that makes you badass. In this case though, you need to go backwards (3 powers makes you around grade 1 to a low grade 2) before you go forwards...

The computer is a great choice to make. Field Manipulation will be more useful than Energy Attack, but you'll not be great in a fight. I'd have gone with energy attack. And it looks like bullets will hurt - a lot - if they zing into you (with no defences), something to bear in mind...

Where are we in the timeline? I know who I am going to play but how the new Putty gets his powers will be different depending on whether or not we are Before, During or After the Blitz on London, which is Aug, 1940.


A Brief Timeline of World War Two

1939-1940

Sept 1, 1939 - Nazis invade Poland.

Sept 3, 1939 - Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany.

Sept 4, 1939 - British Royal Air Force attacks the German Navy.

Sept 5, 1939 - United States proclaims neutrality; German troops cross the Vistula River in Poland.

Sept 10, 1939 - Canada declares war on Germany; Battle of the Atlantic begins.

Sept 17, 1939 - Soviets invade Poland.


April 9, 1940 - Nazis invade Denmark and Norway.

May 10, 1940 - Nazis invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister.

May 15, 1940 - Holland surrenders to the Nazis.

May 26, 1940 - Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk begins.

May 28, 1940 - Belgium surrenders to the Nazis.

June 3, 1940 - Germans bomb Paris; Dunkirk evacuation ends.

June 10, 1940 - Norway surrenders to the Nazis; Italy declares war on Britain and France.

June 14, 1940 - Germans enter Paris.

June 18, 1940 - Hitler and Mussolini meet in Munich; Soviets begin occupation of the Baltic States.

June 22, 1940 - France signs an armistice with the Nazis.

June 23, 1940 - Hitler tours Paris.

June 28, 1940 - Britain recognizes Gen. Charles de Gaulle as the Free French leader.

July 1, 1940 - German U-boats attack merchant ships in the Atlantic.

July 5, 1940 - French Vichy government breaks off relations with Britain.

July 10, 1940 - Battle of Britain begins.

July 23, 1940 - Soviets take Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Aug 3-19 - Italians occupy British Somaliland in East Africa.

Aug 13, 1940 - German bombing offensive against airfields and factories in England.

Aug 15, 1940 - Air battles and daylight raids over Britain.

Aug 17, 1940 - Hitler declares a blockade of the British Isles.

Aug 23/24 - First German air raids on Central London.

Aug 25/26 - First British air raid on Berlin.

Sept 3, 1940 - Hitler plans Operation Sealion (the invasion of Britain).

Sept 7, 1940 - German Blitz against England begins.

Sept 13, 1940 - Italians invade Egypt.

Sept 15, 1940 - Massive German air raids on London, Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester.

Sept 16, 1940 - United States military conscription bill passed.

Sept 27, 1940 - Tripartite (Axis) Pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan.

Oct 7, 1940 - German troops enter Romania.

Oct 12, 1940 - Germans postpone Operation Sealion until Spring of 1941.

Oct 28, 1940 - Italy invades Greece.

Nov 5, 1940 - Roosevelt re-elected as U.S. president.

Nov 10/11 - A torpedo bomber raid cripples the Italian fleet at Taranto, Italy.

Nov 14/15 - Germans bomb Coventry, England.

Admin wrote:He went through the time gate, as did Saladin (otherwise Lionheart would croak anyway without the cure in Saladins blood). You'll be controlling him again if you want to. He will have been placed in a different predicament to the others, but at least has his full range of powers and abilities to call on. By 'predicament' I mean 'extreme danger' by the way And his most hated enemy might yet be a lifesaver, in more ways than one...

Great lets go with it I'll do whatever...But let it fit into your time frame several solo issues all going off at once can be a lot of work and I know I'm the most regular posters so having me posting two characters at a time and all that...so I'm happy to fit around you, even if it means getting to Lionheart a little way into things.

Sj

Joe Hoskyn AKA Frostbite

Frostbite

Now called Joe Hoskyn. A good ole farm boy who followed in his Dad footsteps when he enlisted, and became a GI having moved to England with the start of hostilities.

He has three sisters, one of which, Jean is a nurse also in England. When he gets R&R they sometimes try to hook up depending on where he has been located.

His mum and dad write often and miss him, but his dad is proud of his son.

Ok in terms of powers and stuff...

Ok I will ditch weather control which I want to swap out for Strength grade 1. I want to upgrade intangibility to level 2 and since Strength and Weather control are a straight swap I'll pick energy attack grade 2 instead of a new power. I think that fits within the confines of what you said.

At some point I'd like to see if intangibility and tough skin really work or not. Since I got such poor rolls on my vigour score my HTC and HTK are not great hence the reason for going for tough skin. But with intangibility 2, I'm wondering if tough skin will become more redundant and I could swap it out for vigour? Not sure.

Ok I wake up with:

Field manipulation grade 1, Flight and I guess my computer would be onboard right from the get go? Wouldn't it?

I think that covers everything, I'll leave the details up to you.

Sj

He went through the time gate, as did Saladin (otherwise Lionheart would croak anyway without the cure in Saladins blood). You'll be controlling him again if you want to. He will have been placed in a different predicament to the others, but at least has his full range of powers and abilities to call on. By 'predicament' I mean 'extreme danger' by the way And his most hated enemy might yet be a lifesaver, in more ways than one...

Hey Paul

this is great and no problem but before I start, what happened to Lionheart!!! I've got quite attached to playing him and although I'm happy to hand him back for now I wouldn't mind playing him again if possible.

Sj

Something a bit different this one. What started earlier this year (March or April I think we embarked on this course) comes around full circle now the Vanguard have stepped through the time portal.

When you arrive at the other end, you are someone else.

You have your characters' knowledge, some of their powers (see later in this post) and someone elses' body. That's how the time travel works in this campaign, and to screw things up further Lionheart and Saladin messed the spell up. Those two go through time as they are, you guys are weaker, at first. Let me explain.

Long time players will know that Nowhere Man has a weird thing going on - he dies, gets resurrected with some of his powers, and regains them all eventually. That just happened to you guys. It's also time to dish out rewards, and as you know, play by post runs at a different pace to normal games, so rewards are doled out differently. So with that in mind, the rewards are as follows:

• Add 1 grade to an existing power (if anyone wants to instead add a skill, they can do this with this option)
  
• Add a new power at grade 1

Any new powers don't need to fit in with what your character does or has at the moment, and you can, if you really want, redesign your character at this point. Essentially, they have been 'reborn' and sometimes things get jumbled about. You lose something, get something else in return. That's the rationale I always used for Nowhere Man having quite different powers from his days as Wraith in the Lore Knights all those years ago. You can change three of your existing grades/powers to ditch powers you never used (Frostbite, weather control?) and give something more appropriate. Doubtless there are key abilities (Frostbite, Field Manipulations and Energy Attack, Stormwarden Weather Control, Nowhere Man Intangibility and Invisibility and so on) you'll keep, but it's a chance to take a look, decide what you want to change, then add the extra rewards as listed above once you've sorted out the other powers. Kitten may want a measure of superhuman strength to give her more punch in a scrap, for instance.

When you've done all that, I want you to pick 3 grades (they can be separate powers of varying grades or all one, like Stormwardens grade 3 Weather Control) of power. Those will be what you start your new solo issues/Issue #6 with in the past.

And when you've done THAT (I like to make you guys work) I want a few lines about who your character will be, and where they came from, roughly. For instance, if an American, they will be in training in military base. If British, they will be in the Army, Air Force or Navy, possibly fighting the Germans (the setting of the game is 1939-1940 at the start of issue #6). Your new alter ego will be someone with a life, a family, friends, and... well, they just woke up from a mysterious week long coma in a military hospital. Sound familiar?

We'll be running solo issues at the start, then when the team gets together, get into Issue #6.

I will give you an example:

Nowhere Man vanishes into the time stream with the others and wakes up on the other side. All about him, white tiled walls, distant voices, and a smell of disinfectant. Through pained eyes he looks at his hands, then reaches down. The dogtags say W R Carter, serial number and Army battalion. He groans and lies back. William Carter, 'Billy' looks over as a pretty Nurse comes to check his chart. "How are you?" she asks. "Where are my friends?" rasps an unfamiliar voice. "Frostbite... Stormwarden... Putty... Kitten..." The Nurse frowns, then says "I don't know whom you're speaking about but you've just come out of a week long coma. Had the doctors baffled you did, and you're signed off, ready to go back to your unit. We can't find a thing wrong. You're actually..." she grins, looking about "In perfect physical shape."

Billy Carter takes over "Well Nurse, you'd better give me a once over before I check out of this place" and inside him, a man called James Caldwell in another time and place cries out in exasperation as the curtains are drawn around the bed...

Man, woman, beast (though not sure why anyone would want to run a super powered Horse or dog. The option is there though...Don't expect 'Mr Ed' to go down too well though) you can make up any new identity you fancy playing as. one thing - you'll be on the Allied side, rather than an Axis (German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, at the wars start) soldier.

I'll give you that checklist to run through again.

1. Take a look at your character. All to your liking? If not, you can change up to three grades of powers from what they are to something else.
   
2. Add another grade to an existing power, and add a new power at grade 1 to your character
   
3. Choose which three grades (that's grades, not separate powers) you want to wake up with
   
4. Make a new identity. I'll need to know Nationality, so I know where to start you off, and you wake from a week long coma. You've seen what happened to Nowhere Man. No restrictions on age, sex, species of the new identity... Just bear in mind most animals can't talk, though I'm sure some wise guy might come up with a parrot...

Any questions, fire away in here. I have some set up work to do so it will be towards the end of the week when we're up and running but I'll be on every day as usual. Need to come up with some old style newspaper headline template layout for the 'flavour' pictures... I recently got hold of a game called 'Godlike' set in WWII and an encyclopaedia of the War as well, so expect some grayscale pictures from time to time... Other than that, you have super villains, zombies, aliens, robots and Nazis to deal with.

Just another ordinary day for the Vanguard then!

Hop to it soldiers!