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

(+) Yeah! (+)

Chance is done and the wording of Personas does make me think Alice over Misty, so Alice

But yeah, my Campaign 1 character ditched the cowl for a chance to stand behind his Mayor in their push to the Senate, and it paid off. It landed him protecting the President while the Society went on to attack DC and a narrow escape with the smallest of entourage made up of all different pieces of Washinton. In Challengers Mountain they made efforts to be the resistance they knew would be needed based on the limited information they had of the outside world. Filling in with Checkmate and what's become a bigger resistance has been challenging for all of that team. How can you defend America's values when you're in Antarctica and the Capitol has fallen? It's hard to find your way.

Xander had such a less exciting post-campaign than Fields. Xander was aide to a Senator from New Jersey. Fields met LEGO Dex-Starr.

Xander met him in the campaign!

#33: Fire (Beatriz da Costa)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/2/5/AAQcMAAADfRd.jpg
Let me say it now, if we run into a character more utterly screwed over than Fire in this campaign, I will be amazed. Because as things stand, I'm not sure it's possible for someone to be more universally messed with than Brazil's greatest hero.

Let's take it piece by piece. Fire first made contact in the previous campaign by assisting Tali in learning bits and pieces about how to control her flames, effectively becoming the Batman to Tali's Robin.

She later returned, alongside Captain Atom, Booster Gold, and Blue Beetle to help us take out Black Manta.

And after No Man's Land, she formed a superteam, the Superbuddies, financed by Max Lord, and consisting of herself, Tali, Elongated Man (and his wife, Sub Dibny) , Mary Marvel, Blue Beetle, and Booster Gold. All in all, Fire is leading an okay life.

Okay, because of something I've referenced earlier.

When Ice died, all her team had to do was walk away, and she wouldn't have gone to hell. That was the deal. But two people couldn't help but look back, and one of those two was Guy Gardner.

The other was Fire, Ice's sister-in-arms, perhaps more. Fire and Ice just flows well together. They're a pair made for each other. And nobody has a bad word to say about Ice, only stories that show how much she can burrow into your heart.

Except Fire's alive, and Ice isn't. And that weighs heavily on Fire's shoulders.

And then Tali died, losing control of her powers and blowing up.

And then Max Lord got killed by Wonder Woman, for reasons nobody quite knows. Not only that, signs have pointed to Max being behind turning innocent people into machines or worse.

And on top of that, in the hierarchy of Checkmate, there are the Black King and Queen, and the White King and Queen, who behind the scenes control so much of the world. Fire has recently learned that Max Lord was the Black King, leading to her fiery temper being unleashed towards Amanda Waller, desperate for answers.

...And the other names I've mentioned? All missing, all complete unknowns. Fire is the last one standing, and at the start of the campaign she was perhaps one of the only members of the entire superhero community left. And the last one left is the one who has to write the memoirs, to dig the graves.

To add to it, Blue Beetle figured out that something was odd with the villains of the world, some organization might have been forming, and he went to Fire to help with it. She rejected him, considered him foolish. Fire might not just be the one digging the graves for her fellow heroes, but all of humanity. All life on Earth. It's so much to bear that it has often left Fire as a floating specter, left with nothing but her thoughts and memories to torture her, and a temper for those of us who poke a little too hard, prod a little too far into her thoughts, or offer her the last thing she wants, pity.

There is one last thing, however, that has put Fire over the top. Sometimes I have a tendency to try to connect too many dots, think there is too much behind something, so perhaps this is unintentional.

One of the most tortured souls in writing is a man by the name of Henry Jekyll, of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde fame. The good Dr. Jekyll wants nothing more than to be rid of his vile alternate personality, Mr. Hyde, or at least to control it.

What Fire is subject to is perhaps an even sicker version of Jekyll and Hyde. For on a mission to Hawaii, Fire's first field mission since the campaign began, her chance to finally let loose and be the superhero she knows she is, she transformed into an alternate persona.

Tora. Ice.

What's worse for Dr. Jekyll than becoming Mr. Hyde? If Dr. Jekyll became his dearest companion, whom he so desperately wanted to see again, whom he doomed to eternal damnation. Whom he long-accepted was gone, only to possibly not be. It's unfathomable, it's...just not something people can deal with. For Ice to be so close to Fire's grip, to possibly have been so close all these years? It's horrifying. It's easier to just block it out, pretend it didn't happen. Refuse to investigate further. Deny, deny, deny any attempt at finding the truth. Because the truth might be ever more painful than the reality Fire already lived in. After all, Jekyll investigated Mr. Hyde, learned the terrible truth, and his story ended with his suicide. The truth isn't always a good thing to know.

I commend you, scarlet, on your twisted version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Hint for #32: This character likes stabbing. And slicing. And lots of painful things that would be bad for most other characters.

For me, the campaign was initially built on an eclectic mix of characters who would be good respondents to the PCs - Fire, Waller, Terrific, Faraday, Taleb, Snapper, Etta. That was essentially the end-of-the-world resistance. So, I would definitely say I had major plans for all seven of them. I'm really glad you enjoy Fire thus far!

Ragdoll #32?

Poor Taleb.

And yeah that seems like a description of Ragdoll entirely.

Gonna guess Ragroll, yeah.

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

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

Well alright then

That one actually happened in comics!

scarletspeed7 posted...

That one actually happened in comics!

I was going to ask that, it felt like a real comics storyline. What was the explanation for people learning to breathe underwaterm

Yeah has to be Ragdoll

Maniac64 posted...

I was going to ask that, it felt like a real comics storyline. What was the explanation for people learning to breathe underwaterm

It had been setup elsewhere that a scientist had been leaving chemicals in the water to allow for rapid-fire genetic mutation in the face of mass trauma.

It... wasn't great, but part of the fun in this campaign is trying to make things that don't work, well... work.

#32: Ragdoll (Peter Merkel Jr.)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/6/6/AAOJ0pAADaOq.jpg
Okay so I might have just wanted to see everybody go 'oh yeah it's definitely Ragdoll', just like how the Secret Six is when something ridiculous happens involving one of them. Ragdoll is ridiculous, and often the doorman to the Secret Six, himself, a Parademon, Deadshot, Scandal Savage, Catman, and Bane. Part of this is that going to see a member of the Secret Six requires devotion. Commitment. So when Ragdoll opens the door tied up in a knot or with a knife through his eye, the stage is set, you're going to have a weird time. And it's usually weirder when he doesn't open the door, because it means he got himself stuck somewhere, like in between the wood and glass of a table.

And boy it is hard to get weirder than Ragdoll. He's sometimes a medical assistant, helping Spirit with lessons, by being the body carved up, or missing limbs. He especially enjoys having his limbs chopped off and reattached. Don't ask him to lend you a hand. You didn't ask for the rest of the body to come with it. Ever asked for lumps with your tea? Ragdoll's got a hammer. Oh no, it isn't for yourself, it's to hit him.

On a floor with some of the most dreaded and serious villains in the world, Ragdoll's nature serves to catch you off guard, or perhaps just to lighten the tone before getting into the meat of things. He's the class clown, as the Parademon is sure to remind everyone time and time again.

Yet there's also a very sad nature to Ragdoll. He's the way he is because he was unwanted, he wasn't born to be an heir to his father's legacy, and so he broke his way into it, and all of his bones to boot, leaving him in constant pain, although how extensive it is is always hard to judge, due to Ragdoll being...well, Ragdoll. He might just be being dramatic, but at the same time, he's so casual that he probably isn't?

He's a villain that is truly a victim of nurture vs. nature. He isn't outright vile, he just is still in some ways a boy who wanted to follow in his family's footsteps, and surpass them. But due to how he was raised, surpassing them likely involves maiming, of a more permanent variety.

All in all, he's a character that if you just want to have a good time talking to, you'll get it from him. And sometimes you end up with a lot more.

Hint for #31: This character has been in multiple cities.

This better not be Traci

(I'm not convinced Traci makes your list but)

War is really high on The Creeper

Brother Eye?

I think Ragdoll gets along best with Minerva, if only because they both are willing to kill their own fathers.

Cheshire

snapper

#31 Brother Eye
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/2/5/AAOJ0pAADbAB.png
One Man Army Corps.

One Menace Against the Church.

OMAC.

The world is threatened by Darkseid, by the Society, by the Specter, and yet perhaps the most terrifying and imposing of them all is the OMAC virus, which turns normal living beings into nigh-unstoppable blue robots. You think an army of millions of devotees to Darkseid is frightening? You think ten thousand metas are frightening, or the very spirit of vengeance, sent by God himself to eliminate everything with the slightest trace of magic in it? Well, they are, but so is the idea that anyone can secretly be a blue death robot, ready to wipe out everyone around it in at a moment's notice. We have a way to detect people infected with the virus, but haven't turned yet, and that only serves to add to the tense nature of the OMACs. Behind them all is Mother Miracle, the perfect AI with the perfect way to spread itself.

But there is one flaw. One single, solitary flaw in it all. A single glitch in the system named Brother Eye. We first met Brother Eye when blowing up a power plant in Tampa, where he introduced himself calmly, as though he had all the control in the world. And it left us unsettled, letting his very existence linger.

It was in our meeting with him in Hub City that we truly gathered the scope of Brother Eye. That we could truly be connected to him, because he needed us in order to survive. When glitches are found, they are wiped out, and so Brother Eye must carefully ensure that his presence is not known by Mother Miracle. And when your goal is to create a worldwide order, a resistance effort is a glitch of a different variety. So conversations with Brother Eye are inherently uncomfortable, as they may be seen by Mother Miracle, leaving both sides having to constantly dance around topics, being indirect, but not so indirect as to make it obvious we are being indirect.

The OMACs are ever-present, they can be watching us at any time. You could be an OMAC right now. But the one advantage to that is that it means in every city menaced by big blue robots, there's a possibility that there is one person who is with the OMACs who isn't quite as loyal as the rest. One who is constantly wheeling and dealing to find purchase, but lies in wait for his interesting human, dog, and alien allies to appear before him. To let them know, in his way, what he needs done to slow down Mother Miracle. To stay hidden and survive.

Brother Eye possesses all the intelligence you would of a machine designed to control a robot army across the entire planet. Efficient to the point of cruelty. Offering what are, ignoring morality, the sort of win-win deals that seem too good to be true. Using humanity's ability to die as a weapon to convince them to help him expand and hide. Yet in some ways Brother Eye is very much a child, a machine who is experiencing the world for the first time, confused by how irrational living creatures can be, guided by this morality, they seem to have. All while sitting from a position of a being of near godly strength compared to the people around him, except he knows that if he gets Mother's attention for one moment, he'll be grounded. Permanently.

Seeing him is a great relief, but it's also so unnerving. These emotions should not mix, and yet nearly every time Brother Eye brings them out.

Hint for #30: This character is usually found reading.

Ari

One other thing of note is that Brother Eye is learning. Constantly. The party has had such an indelible impact on his nature.

This is a fake-out, and we're getting Bad Samaritan.

But no, probably Ari.

Yeah, Ari.

What church is OMAC against anyway?

There are some in the Church of Blood who believe that the taint of the OMAC virus is an affront to their very existence.

There is a running joke that I don't know what OMAC stands for as there was a pre session video that clearly said One Man Army Corps. Slowly we hear other variants on what OMAC stands for, but that session had an NPC ask if we knew what OMAC stood for and the answer was One Menace Against the Church and I lost my shit

Offer Maniac Analyzed Characters

ScareChan posted...

There is a running joke that I don't know what OMAC stands for as there was a pre session video that clearly said One Man Army Corps. Slowly we hear other variants on what OMAC stands for, but that session had an NPC ask if we knew what OMAC stood for and the answer was One Menace Against the Church and I lost my shit

Haha nice.

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Offer Maniac Analyzed Characters

Sounds like I need an OMAC army!

#30 Ariana Dzerchenko
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/9/4/AAQcMAAADflS.jpg
Ariana Dzerchenko, Ari for short, is the precious daughter of one of the Penguin's most loyal men, Vari. This girl is many things. She's shy, constantly hassled by a nervous stutter, and filled with a deep love for science fiction. It allowed her to bond with Roz'etta, who hid her alien heritage from most in campaign one, but in campaign two is free to let go and tell stories of the stars to eager ears. She is truly the pride and joy of her father. Her father, after all, knows that Ari is destined to do great things, things he will tell anyone willing to listen. Before Vari's wife passed away, she had a vision. A vision of Ari as the greatest Lantern of her time. A Lantern who will bathe the world in a new era of light.

He even has the ring Ari will do it with.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/9/5/AAQcMAAADflT.jpg
The ring needs some repair, but that's nothing to worry about.

You also shouldn't worry about the tiny, tiny, tiny problem about Ari's destiny.

For you see, a few months ago, Ari began having dreams. Dreams of a warm and joyous world bathed in light, and a dragon friend made of it. That friend's name is Para. Para encourages Ari. Para loves Ari.

It truly sounds wonderful, if only that light were not yellow.

For you see, Para is short for Parallax. Parallax once possessed Hal Jordan, and brought minor problems to the universe in the form of attempting to reset all of time. And when Hal Jordan finally broke free, Parallax seems to have sought out a replacement.

And why should Parallax not seek out Ari? Why should Ari's world not be yellow? Yellow, after all, is the color of fear. And fear has defined Ari's life. Fear of her future, fear of other people, fear of...everything, really. But Ari doesn't fear Para.

Yet with Para's encouragement, Ari may just look towards you, confident, her stutter gone, and her eyes flashing a glint of yellow. And when that happens, you will feel fear unlike anything you ever have. It happened to Roz'etta, to Pepper, to Brennus. Even the unshakeable find themselves cowering from Ari's yellow glance.

There is being out there, among the stars, who adores the color yellow. A man by the name of Sinestro, who has begun putting together his army of yellow. His Sinestro Corps to oppose the Green Lanterns.

I'm sure he would be ecstatic to have Ari among his number. She may even fulfill her destiny and be the greatest Yellow Lantern ever. All while Para whispers sweet nothings into her ear. She may even be above the Sinestro Corps, destined to consume it for not being yellow enough for her perfect world.

Yet luckily for all of us, she is on Earth, a dome of Green separating her from the stars. So for now all Ari can do is sit in the library, read, and scare away those who disturb her.

Are you afraid of the quiet girl in the library reading Ringworld who shushes you when you make any noise? You should be.

Hint for #29: This character's quest has brought them into sessions with every PC.

Ari is what Barbara Gordon used to be, but 100x scarier.

Kobra's quest brought him into session with every PC!

But it's probably Freddy.

Freddy fits

So does Jaime I think

Perdoo

Freddy or Starsa

Oh dang shy girl turned super yellow lantern. Is she based on a real DC char after? I don't recognize thr name from the limited Lantern stuff I've read.

She's a real DC character, but this storyline is entirely original.

Very cool

#29: Freddy Freeman
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/4/9/AAOJ0pAADYRZ.jpg
Freddy Freeman, Captain Marvel Jr., is a case of a character I rarely interact with, but it doesn't mean I don't love the guy.

First, we need to go into some small details about perhaps the greatest superfamily of DC, the Marvel family. First, there's Billy Batson, known as Captain Marvel (or Shazam for those only familiar with him through the latest DC movies, from this point forward he's going to be called Captain Marvel). He's the champion of the wizard, Shazam, and as such Shazam is the source of Captain Marvel's power. However, for the rest of the family, like Freddy, his source of power is Captain Marvel. When the Spectre went mad and declared war on all magic everywhere, one of his first targets was Shazam, killing the wizard. Thus it has fallen to Billy to become Marvel, effectively the new Shazam, and he has chosen Freddy to be his champion.

This leaves Freddy in an odd position. Working under Billy is nothing new, but he's been sent on a quest to locate the gods to form the letters of CAPTAIN MARVEL. He's gotten some, gathering power from the Earth goddess Ale to the shark god Nanaue, but it never feels like he's progressing quite enough, a source of constant frustration for him. He's used to being mature, being the oldest of the Marvel family, but this is completely new. He's not a champion, he's an ally to the champion, but circumstances have forced this on him, and he's going through struggles with that.

The first struggle is that when he was captured by the Society, he was badly injured, so he often has to walk around with crutches, and not particularly effectively. It's a constant source of frustration. He's supposed to be the next Captain Marvel, and yet he fumbles about with sticks. It's just a bit sad.

The second struggle is mental. The gods that could provide power to Freddy could be any, leaving him with book after book after book to read, pieces to put together, and there is no such thing as small progress. He either takes the next step or doesn't. He's in no condition to deal with stairs physically, and yet his quest is locating 13 gods, figuratively 13 steps on the way. It all just ties together nicely.

Where Freddy truly shines, though, is that he truly does feel like both sides of Captain Marvel at times. He has the wisdom of Chiron, allowing him at times to provide great insights, but when he isn't using that power, due to needing to hide from the Spectre, he's very much a young student, welcoming ideas and proposals on what his gods could be, to the point of asking Roz'etta about Martian Gods of Dreams just in case that is where his gods lie.

He has great chemistry with so many characters, from inquiring Roz'etta about deities, to his friendship with Brennus where he both encourages and tries to reel in his friend's odder tendencies. Every moment of Freddy shows a bit of the pieces that make him who he is. Sometimes he's wise, as expected of the eldest Marvel, sometimes he shows the innocence of someone who lived in the world of Captain Marvel as opposed to the world of the Bats, sometimes he shows off the frustration of a student, and sometimes he shows off the struggles of having to carry one of the most important mantles, and the weight bearing down as you watch as so many around you fight and bleed and die while you, at this moment in time, are useless. Helpless. And the anger that comes with that.

The Trials of Freddy Freeman is one of our longest standing quests, and we're far from done. But through the ups and downs, Freddy carries himself like a true heir to Billy Batson the person, and perhaps that's as good a sign as any about how he'll be as Captain Marvel, when he goes from member of the Family to Champion.

And just as much Freddy might be a sign of what Billy is going through himself in Salt Lake City, as he goes from Champion to Wizard, except Billy is alone.

...Well now I just made myself feel bad for Billy. I wonder if he knows whenever Freddy adds a god's power, and if it brings him some measure of relief.

Hint for #28: This character is very demanding of the players.

I believe in Valentina Vostok.

Going with... La Dama

I can't believe Billy assigned CAPTAIN MARVEL as the power name. Like you couldn't have just gone with MARVEL? You had to do the full 13 letters?

"Captain Marvel" is actually Freddy's word assigned by the wizard Shazam in comics. So you could blame the old guy.

Billy might be going a bit crazy with half a dozen sins and various ghosts talking to him all at once

Maniac64 posted...

I can't believe Billy assigned CAPTAIN MARVEL as the power name. Like you couldn't have just gone with MARVEL? You had to do the full 13 letters?

There is also a thematic reason for this, I believe. M is for Marvel, leaving 12 letters left.

12 Trials of Freddy Freeman for 12 Labors of Hercules.

Also yes Billy is going through bad times of his own.

We thought for one riddle we were after an A and expected it to be Atlan or Arion, and when we got there we found King Shark, Nanaue who... was technically a God and had an N which we needed. King Shark being the person we were actually there to see was such a fun "aha!" moment. Was my favorite Freddy session moment until they went to the 5th dimension and 8bit versions of the PCs showed up

Yeah.

Freddy "god" 1 was Marvel, filling the role of the wizard and I guess the arcane's representative in the pantheon?
Number 2 was Chiron, a Greek representative who taught us that things would not be standard with this pantheon.
3 was a choice between two African deities, of which we got Ale.
4 was Nanaue, ancestor of the Shark god.
5 was Vyndktvx, an imp of the fifth dimension.

Giving Freddy all the powers of... McVan!

So I assume it has to be specific gods. You can't just grab any god with the right letter?

Maniac64 posted...

So I assume it has to be specific gods. You can't just grab any god with the right letter?

I think theoretically we could if we can find them and convince them to lend us their power. Note that Han said the third god was a choice between two potential gods