Board 8 > War also ranks the top 52 characters in scarlet's TTRPG. (dc comics)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm glad the story of Stargirl's emotional guilt over her actions and even deeper guilt for not feeling the guilt she thinks she should feel is sitting well with you! I love Court; she's great. You all play so well off of her.

The best doctor in the campaign is Wanerstrand.

Ice Sickle

#38 Simon LaGrieve
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/9/6/AAQcMAAADe7I.png
Simon LaGrieve, whom we rescued from his imprisonment in Belle Reve, is not the funniest doctor, or the most charismatic, or the most forceful.

But he is fantastic. Dr. Simon LaGrieve was the psychologist for Task Force X, and as a result he is great with patients. Currently one of his patients is Harleen Quinzell, although she doesn't know it. She doesn't know it because LaGrieve's diagnosis is that the way for her to heal starts with believing she's attained victory over him as the superior, which fits in nicely with how every time Harley talks, she sets herself at the bottom of the foodchain. But Simon LaGrieve has made sure she is above someone. And his way of establishing this is to tie himself up. Poorly, but enough to let Harley know that she's the winner. For a doctor to go to such lengths for his patients is just so admirable, and he gladly helps us gain insight into the minds of other such characters who simply need someone to help them through their trauma, giving us what we need to order to get footing.

The other half of Dr. LaGrieve is that he is perhaps the only person on Earth who can call themselves friends with Amanda Waller. When we rescued him, Amanda Waller's reaction was to give him a hug. Waller doesn't hug anyone. She's cold, sometimes sounds heartless, regularly holding everyone at an arm's length, the ultimate professional. But Simon LaGrieve she hugged, and hugged publicly. In many ways Amanda Waller does not give a single damn, and for her to simply not give a single damn about people seeing her be emotional, for her, says everything about what this old man means to her.

And to think, we wouldn't have him OR Harley if we had gone down a different hallway.

Hint for #37: This character has a unique vehicle.

Jon Valor

LaGrieve, I think, is the psychologist utility the campaign needed. Maybe the one they needed last time, as well. But for this party, who has nothing but trauma to endure, I think LaGrieve is a perfect vehicle to maintain an even keel.

I will go with... maybe it's Black Pirate?

this has to be Squire

Rex the Wonder Dog

#37 Snapper Carr
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/0/5/AAQcMAAADe81.png
(Pictured: Snapper's Car)
Snapper Carr is, without question, the NPC with the most screentime. He's there at the beginning of almost every mission on Earth, ready with a whistle and a snap of his fingers to deliver us to our mission, at least on Earth. He almost always has a witty remark about our mission, our preparation, and our inevitable asking for a map.

He's also a Justice Leaguer, even if it's as more of a mascot, but his ability to teleport makes the campaign function, taking us around the world in moments. And he's a bit of a forgetful dork. He's in a relationship with Lush (Scare's character), and is a constant problem for her, because he forgets ex-girlfriends, he forgets to file his divorce papers, he forgets a lot of things that become much bigger due to his focus on heroics. But she's also a problem for him, so they fit together to hold each other up. It's rather sweet.

Really, more than maybe any character, this campaign is hard to picture without Snapper. It's hard to sometimes just settle on one thing to love about him due to how ingrained in the campaign he is. Recently I was on my first session starting with a chat with him in a while, and I realized how much I had missed the banter. He's just such an addictive character that I'm pretty sure if scarlet let us we would eventually have a session where we forget to actually start the mission and just hang out with Snapper the entire time.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/3/5/AAOJ0pAADYj7.jpg
Look at that smile, what a charmer.

...He also has a cat. Her name is Starro.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/0/6/AAQcMAAADe82.png
She's cute.

Hint for #36: This character leads both humans and animals.

Awww, yay Snapper!

I will go with...Roulette!

I don't think Vicki Vale is a member of Big Troubles yet.
Pretty sure it's something in the field or Kit.
(way too early for Dawn to drop)

But I'll guess Sir Justin.

Wait wait wait is this where ORACLE drops??

Doctor Annie
Barbara Ann Minerva that is

Uhoh, Susie going down here!

Shining Knight again

Maxine Baker

Roulette

#36: Oracle (Barbara Gordon)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/0/2/AAOJ0pAADY9-.png
If this was based on both campaigns, here is one of your contenders, possibly the frontrunner, for #1. Oracle was our boss, our leader, our dearest friend. I could go into so much detail of what Oracle means to all of us as players, and I don't think it'd scratch the surface. You mess with her, and we will bring the power of the gods down on you. No, literally, we did. Calculator messed with her, so we called in Captain Marvel and almost completely wiped out his forces, and left him a prisoner of someone who was incapable of feeling thing like sympathy, whose form of mercy is that you're alive. That might not even be in the top 5 moments where we supported Oracle. Basically, we love her.

I could fill up post after post of what Oracle was to us. Sister for Tali (Vis's campaign one character), mentor and friend for Roz'etta, more than friend for Fields (Han's campaign one character), sometimes just a person to prove ourselves to for Xander (Scare's campaign one character) or a trustworthy human for Artemis (now Data 7). She's the best. She and Roz'etta even played a key role in things outside of Gotham, helping take down the Hyperclan and show the world it still needed a Justice League, resulting in the reformation of the JLA. Oracle and Roz'etta even both got invites, although the spot on the main team was always going to be Oracle's, and Roz'etta would have never accepted a spot over Oracle. To choose her over Oracle would just be...silly. Dumb. Absolutely bonkers. Oracle's respected, and just as we earned her respect, she earned every bit of ours.

Of course, that campaign was only in Gotham, and this campaign has taken us to every corner of the world, and may take us to every corner of the universe and beyond before it's done, so Oracle sits, one of the leaders of the resistance efforts of Gotham, stubbornly unwilling to leave it. Because no hanging up the cape, no spinal injuries leaving her in a wheelchair, no swapping out field work for support duty behind a computer will change that she's THE Batgirl, and anyone who wants to wear a cowl had better prove themselves worthy of it. And Bats do not abandon Gotham.

But in a world where the Anti-Life Equation lingers on nearly every computer, where enemies just in Gotham alone number in millions, where does an Oracle fit in? For a while, the answer was...just survive. She has Batcow, she has the hyenas Bud and Lou, she has Alfred (both Pennyworth and Damian's cat), she has Nightwing. Or specifically, she has Dick Grayson. Dick is in no state to be out there being Nightwing, and Barbara is in no state to be Oracle. But the world cruelly needs them to be, and there's no Bruce Wayne to be found, at least in Gotham. So Barbara is able to be bits and pieces of Oracle, using an uninfected network to coordinate her few allies, but certainly not to her full ability. And when Barbara can't be Oracle, when she just needs to sit back and not be overwhelmed, Dick Grayson can be a Bat, threatening those who try to push Oracle too far as Pepper (Vis's character), or judging a Batman who is half there, as our Batman is...unbelievably, Harvey Dent.

It's safe to say Oracle is far from happy that the person who hates her father (and Jim Gordon himself is under Darkseid's sway) more than any other is wearing the cowl of the Bat, yet another piece of pressure for her to bear. Yet she's accepted it, trusting in her longtime allies, and knowing that every Batman needs a Batfamily, even a Two-Faced Batman with a love for a coin that, fortunately, will always yield the right result. And she's corralled this Batman. Maybe not perfectly, but enough that they have a team, a unit.

When the campaign began, the idea of Oracle not being equated was insane. How could she not be equated, she has the job that puts her most vulnerable to it. Roz'etta had accepted it. It just...couldn't not happen. Even when we found evidence she might not have been equated right away, it pointed to her being captured, and if she was captured, it was only a matter of time before red crossed her vision.

The moment we found her, without a trace of red in her eyes, might be the happiest moment of either campaign.

It was yet another case of Oracle, of Barbara Gordon being underestimated. Her injuries, her reliance on computers to do her duty, they aren't a weakness, they're a strength. Even if she's vulnerable herself, and needs to be picked up out of a funk from time to time, don't call her weak. Don't question her sources of strength. Because she will tear you apart. Her job is to know things, and she will know just the words to tear at your very soul, just like Batman.

When you think you've won against Barbara Gordon, and perhaps even after she's accepted defeat, that's when things will start to fall into place with her as the victor. Simon Hurt has Gotham right now, Furies, an army of OMACs, and the very being controlling the OMACs themselves. The world is his oyster. I almost pity him for what will happen the moment he and Barbara are on equal level.

...Also we're working with The Joker. Let's hope that doesn't blow up in our faces.

Hint for #35: This character gets names wrong.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/5/1/AAblU3AADbtv.jpg

fake arion

Jay Hunter

This is Bobo benetti

Bobo

Bobo Benetti

#35: Bobo Bennetti
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/2/1/AAOJ0pAADa5t.jpg
First off, yes, Bobo is 34 spots too low. Secondly, Mush sounds way better than Lush. Thirdly, he's never found someone whom he isn't supremely confident he could beat in a fist fight. Just give 'em the ol' one-two and wham, down for the count. Winner and still champeen, that's right, your boy Bobo Bennetti of Opal City. Former danger to Opal City, but set right by that guy Jack Knight, Starman. Now ol' Bobo's a danger to those who think themselves dangers, from shadows to queen mountain robots. But they all end up the same, at the wrong end of Bobo's hands. He wouldn't mind going all out, havin' a real challenge, maybe that red alien can turn into Marciano and they can have a real good scrap.

But Bobo ain't all just fists, you know? He's got a big ol' heart inside that big ol' body. He should know, being a redeemed man himself and all. As long as you're a good person you can probably find a place in it. If you're not though, ooh boy, you'd better run scared. Bobo'll have the whole state of Colorado runnin' soon, that's for sure. He just needs to convince Ilsa to let him loose.

Speaking of convincing, he's always there to convince debriefing that this tactics stuff isn't his cup of cup. Tactics schmactics. You don't need 'em, you have Bobo Bennetti. Have you ever seen him lose a fight? I didn't think so. The lighthouse where you helped out Bobo doesn't count, because none of you saw what happened there first. Had 'em right where he wanted 'em, he did. Just lurin' 'em into a false sense of security, he did. When the time was right, it was time to knock them shadows' lights out. Not that he's complainin' 'bout some good samaritans showin' up and puttin' the boots to those things, helpin' out ol' Hamilton Drew, and the O'Dares and the Knights.

And on the topic o' lights, there ain't a mood Bobo can't light up. You need a smile, Bobo can be there to lift you up, 'cause that's what Jack Knight does, lift people up, and far be it for Bobo to not pay it forward. In case you haven't figured it out from this write-up, he's oozing charm, endearment, and you just know when a line is said or written that it's Bobo butting in.

I wonder how many players will read this in Bobo's voice. I know I did.

Hint for #34: This character has a journal.

Trish McKenzie

Former President John Horne

Bobo is 34 spots too low.

Hmm... this clue is tough, honestly. Trish feels like a too-obvious choice, but I can't think of a better option.

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Former President John Horne

How dare you

Did you already do Jack Cross? Jack Cross

I wanted to say Shade but I guess the thing in campaign 1 wasn't a journal.

Hm.

Jeremiah Arkham

twish

I've been lurking in these topics and am finally caught up to the present. They have been very entertaining to read, this campaign sounds fantastic. The dedication to the worldbuilding and story telling looks incredible.

Cody11533 posted...

this campaign sounds fantastic

It really is. There's a session in London going on right now

We should really have a topic explaining the PCs themselves and everything or something. We all love the NPCs for sure, but it feels a bit weird to not have anything for the characters playing through the whole story, with their own motivations and stories.

Zigzagoon posted...

We should really have a topic explaining the PCs themselves and everything or something. We all love the NPCs for sure, but it feels a bit weird to not have anything for the characters playing through the whole story, with their own motivations and stories.

Yes please.

Player character info and plot summary would be awesome to read.

Maniac64 posted...

Yes please.

Player character info and plot summary would be awesome to read.

Seconding this.

We just have to get the 1 minute session recaps going again.

Though those don't really dig into the PC's too much.

Could probably get a topic going, but Scar is rewarding people for doing ranking topics now so expect these for awhile.

Cody11533 posted...

I've been lurking in these topics and am finally caught up to the present. They have been very entertaining to read, this campaign sounds fantastic. The dedication to the worldbuilding and story telling looks incredible.

Also, curious - impressions from my list? Do you AGREE with the top 10 (without knowing anything more)? These are the important questions.

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Also, curious - impressions from my list? Do you AGREE with the top 10 (without knowing anything more)? These are the important questions.

With the bare minimum of context that I have, absolutely. Your writeups were informative and persuasive enough to be compelling IMO.

Once I read a few more top 10 lists then I can start to form my own well-rounded opinions on this campaign I barely know anything about.

Oh boy are you in for a surprise when we get to my list in 4 months.

I am legitimately excited for your list. The stuff with Data 7 and his rat led group sound amazing.

Not to mention all the animal characters in this campaign.

I'm glad you think so! Scar has been a blessing in giving me so many awesome animal characters to work with and explore. Each one feels unique and has their own voice.

Ermine character has even met the best animal yet

Prowley

#34: Johnathan Horne
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/8/7/AAQcMAAADfQ3.jpg
Okay, to give a bit of background to this ranking, after No Man's Land, Lex Luthor was elected president of the United States, because all of the crimes you associate with Lex Luthor were actually done by a robot clone. As president, Lex was mostly a great guy, until one day, he put a plan into action to take down his hated rival, Superman. His plan had massive consequences, one of which was the removal of both himself and his Vice President Pete Ross from office. This left someone needing to clean up Lex's mess.

Enter the folksy Speak of the House, perhaps inspired slightly by The West Wing's Glen Allen Walker in his demeanor, Johnathan Horne. Horne can be irritatingly casual, folksy to a fault, and it sometimes feels like the Presidency just fell into his lap. Which, in fairness, it did. In other words, everything the calculating megalomaniac Lex isn't.

And yet in a way he's the perfect man for the job. He doesn't hold people at arms length, if anything he's the one who tries to pull them in. Spirit has a disdain for America, due to the nation leaving him and his loved ones to die during No Man's Land, when Gotham was devastated by an enormous earthquake and basically put in quarantine by the United States government. Horne acknowledges it was wrong, not out of a political motivation, but because it was wrong. He's the leader of America, but he's not rah-rah about it. America can be wrong. When a potential second No Man's Land occurred in the city of San Diego, where much of the city simply sank into the Pacific and many of its inhabitants gained the power to breathe underwater, like Atlanteans, Horne pushed for every resource he could to be used in the recovery effort, and now San Diego has a new name, Sub Diego, and in better times it is likely a thriving underwater city.

For this campaign, one of the biggest questions was 'what happened to Johnathan Horne?' We found evidence that the Society, led by a vengeful former President, was looking for Horne, but for what purpose? Nuclear codes, perhaps? And where did Horne get to? Our evidence pointed to a single airstrip in Washington D.C., and when we went there, we found out that Xander had gotten ahead of A-Day just enough to get Horne out of there, to Challenger's Mountain, base of the Challengers of the Unknown.

And inside Challenger's Mountain, we found a resistance. A functioning resistance not unlike our own, with a political structure, a small attach of troops, and someone from the US government of days gone by at the head. For this one, it was Johnathan Horne. In a world where so much has been lost to hopelessness, there's the folksy, never-shoulda been President, holding his piece of the world together. While others insist on keeping decorum, standing and saluting the President when he walks in the room, Horne is simply too tired for that. He's not above the people he's surrounded by, he's one of them. Perhaps part of that is because he was never elected. Nobody chose him to be President, if anything he was simply chosen by a small slice of the American people, and fell into the biggest shoes in the US, and now is facing even bigger ones, rebuilding America alongside the rest of the world, and planning for the day when freedom from Darkseid will ring.

The US government was very much our enemy in the No Man's Land campaign, as everything could have been solved if they just stepped in on our side. Instead, deaths added up, we heard news slowly trickle in about the outside world's opinion of No Man's Land, knowing all we could do we rebuild while others watched. Horne is different. He's a man of action, a man who can't let injustice happen under his watch, and he's not about popularity and politics, he's about right and wrong.

This campaign takes place in 2008, and as such needs throwback feels to set the time period, and Johnathan Horne feels like a politician who would be written in 2008. He really sets what year we're in.

Hint for #33: This character has multiple personas.

Black Alice, since War has one of the lesser relationships with her

I still have a rubber mask of John Horne.
I should give that to Bloodfruit, since Saoirse is not the type of character to wear it around the president for any reason ever.

Maybe she'd wear it around Xander though.

Guess is Misty, which is too low, but I don't know if Roz'etta ever speaks to Misty.

There's actually no West Wing to Horne, weirdly enough! I've based him entirely on Lyndon Johnson, and how I think Johnson would have responded to the growing Crisis. Horne is a man of action, in another situation, another, more stable America. But Roz'etta and Xander both have seen the hints of doubt in between the cracks in the President's demeanor and sought to rectify that, filling them with lessons from John Adams and Uncle Sam. It's interesting how quickly those two characters flocked to Horne.

Horne is a patriot, but he's also a realist. If he's close to anyone in West Wing, it's likely Hoynes, actually - he is a Republican, but extremely moderate. He's sort of the last of that dying breed of actual centrists, I think.

I'll guess Misty as well.

ugh, we would get Hoynes

Yu Narukami

HanOfTheNekos posted...

ugh, we would get Hoynes

you get Hoynes and you like it damnit

this is no Bingo Bob house