Board 8 > Inviso Also Also Also Ranks Their Top 52 Characters in Scarlet's DC TTRPG

(+) Yeah! (+)

Rover

Patch

That's a surprising ranking, even though you have commented in the past how you did like those scenes. I think I just assumed he was a low 80s-ish type.

I'm going with Rover - as much as you like him, I don't think he can rank too highly.

Alfred the Cat

Pocus

Detective Chimp

I think Rover too

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41. Mike the Rooster

We had a brief pause with Tillall, but now were back to the comic relief section of the list! Before I discuss Mike himself, I feel like I need to describe the circumstances that led to him joining the campaign. For a long time, we had Las Vegas as a major site for our field teams to investigate, and we finally managed to plan missions there in conjunction with Tokyo. We get to Vegas, and we ended the first session with a drunken party that led to our five playable characters in a Hangover-esque scenario where we had NO fucking clue what wed done the night before. One of us wound up stuck atop the space needle, one of us woke up married to the Queen of Spades, one of us woke up missing a daughter (with an unexplained replacement daughter), and one of us woke up having made a multimillion-dollar drug deal. Sorry Data, but waking up next to a bum is the most normal thing that happened to us.

For the rest of the time in Vegas, we were either trying to piece together what happened during our drunken stupor, trying to FIX what happened during our drunken stupor, or through almost every one of our varying storylines, we found ourselves recruited into an Oceans Eleven-style casino heist, trying to break into a Society vault to obtain a weapon of unimaginable power. We eventually broke in, got into a city-wide brawl between half a dozen factions, and eventually managed to escape by the skin of their teeth, while successfully establishing a drug connection for my characters unique product. Thats the basic overview, and I feel its important to understand, given that this entry is about a character called Mike the Rooster.

One of the steps we undertook in our heist was visiting a pawn shop to get supplies and weaponry for use in the heist itself. There were a LARGE number of cool items and unique supplies with interesting stats and effects, and hell, we even had the Stanley Cup that SOMEONE thought they could successfully steal. However, the store owner, who had commissioned us to rob the vault, told us that she would only loan out three or four items to aid in the heist. No problem: even if we couldnt get everything we wanted, the party had five members and we could largely each get an item that would help us in the long run. And thats when Scarlet mentioned the shops rooster mascot. Or maybe he wasnt a mascot and was just around.

One of our party members, Data 7, is a talking dog who is one of our two translators when it comes to interacting with animal NPCs. And he happened to be the point man (point dog?) in interacting with the store owner. So, when Scarlet introduced this rooster character, Data was intrigued. Now, I dont know if Scar intended on Mike the Rooster becoming a prominent part of the campaign, or if he was just there for flavor, but regardless of the intent, we ASSUMED he was important. Its kinda hilarious, thinking back on that scene, how were trying to portion out which items are most valuable for our characters, and then suddenly the subject is broached: Hey, should we use one of our four item slots to take this rooster? And the rest is history.

The whole point of the pawn shop was to equip us for a difficult mission and we believed that having a rooster in our party would be to the benefit of the heist. Were now about half a year later, and I cannot think of a single in-game benefit Mike the Rooster has added to our campaign (against Darkseid, not the CAMPAIGN campaign). Its ACTIVELY hilarious, how we debated and hemmed and hawed, and eventually chose to just burn a supply slot on a detrimental NPC.

You see, Mike is a very skittish character, to put it nicely. To put it less nicely, Mikes characterization is that of South Parks Tweak, compressed into the body of a flightless bird. Mike is constantly paranoid, and when communicating in text, hes in all caps; when communicating in voice, hes still in all caps. And Mike is terrified of EVERY little thing. It doesnt matter what the subject is; Mike will find a way to frantically cluck and perhaps even excite himself to the point of passing out. And what makes Mike even better is that hes one of those minor characters that hangs out with us a bit more, so every so often, Data will just pull Mike and be like Hey, what do you think, Mike? And suddenly we get a frantic cluck, claiming its too much pressure to suddenly be put on the spot for his opinion.

Mike is just such a random character, and his origins in the campaign are so hilarious in and of themselves (we wound up taking him on the heist, and he largely spent his time ensconced in Datas earwhich is the worst place for a creature with Mikes volume), that I cant help but love every appearance he makes. Weve got a lot of good animal characters, but Mike just makes for quality comic relief.

Hint for #40: Has a connection to Trish McKenzie.

Carol?

Well this is Paul McCartney or Radio Tuner

I'm rooting for buddy

McKenzie, thank you

and the guess here is Oracle

i'll go with Ray. D. O'Tuner

Radio Tuner

Nice, I like Mike.

I'm also surprised Mike makes your list, but I really do love the little guy. He's such a great visual gag as well, especially atop Data's head.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/9/1/AAAe4tAADpUr.png
40. Radio Buddy Tuner

Alright, this is the last strictly comic relief character for a while, and Radio Tuner is probably the best and brightest comic relief character the campaign has to offer. There are a handful that rank higher, but ever since its introduction to the campaign Radio Tuner has just been an ever-present force among the field teams, almost serving as our eleventh PC. Thats not bad for one of the only characters in the campaign that I think was strictly created, wholecloth, by Scarlet. No DC influence on this one.

On a mission to Los Angeles, the field team wound up visiting a Hollywood studio and ran afoul of a handful of D-list villains that were just wandering around at the time. But as is the case with quite a few D-list villains weve met over the course of the campaign, they were not long for this world. In fact, Monsoon and the Tangler seem to have existed entirely to introduce Radio Tuner in the first place. They were just investigating this studio when music starts playing. Confused, they sought out the source and found a damaged iPod. But it turns out this was no ordinary iPod, and it soon sprang to life. It began playing music, trying to coax the two villains into a lively dance, and they did not take kindly to this invitation. And Radio Tuner did not take kindly to them not taking kindly to its song. What we then witnessed was a magical iPod proceeding to outright murder two grown adults with superpowers.

Our party then made their presence known and correctly realized that they needed to play Radio Tuners game in order to gain the trust of this powerful entity. After a fun dance party, Radio Tuner joined the team, and has been with us ever since. Its had a few moments since then; namely, revealing that it was created by campaign one fan favorite Trish McKenzie, and doing so by speaking entirely in song lyrics. But Radio Tuner is one of those rare characters whose best scenes come from campaign sessions, rather than Zonn Zorr RP scenes. Regardless of which configuration of five party members goes on any given mission, we always make a point to trade Radio Tuner off from one group to another, because it just makes missions all the more fun.

Heres the thing: not every session is going to have a combat scenario. But when they do, and when those sessions have lengthy combat sequences that are your standard big bad final boss sort of scenario for the given setting, we want to bring Radio Tuner into the mix. For one point of damage (whacking Radio Tuner against ones head), Radio Tuners power activates and changes the theme song for the battle. The running theme of these past few entries is comic relief, and Radio Tuner brings that in spades, often times transforming a rough and serious battle into something upbeat, lively, and fun.

Of the top of my head, I cant picture any specific songs that have played, but theyre always something fun that adds a crazy new twist to the battle. Nat 1s get turned into nat 20s, everyone is floating, everyone does nine damage no matter what, an overabundance of enemies swarm the arena, making the fight harder (yet more rewarding). All of this is accompanied by the anthropomorphizing of Radio Tuner itself, dancing around and dodging attacks and jumping onto peoples shoulders like an overexcited pet. But the biggest example of Radio Tuners contribution to the campaign is from a battle in Gotham. We activated Radio Tuner and it wandered off, leading us to think the power wouldnt work in that particular combat. And then Christmas music starts playing. Radio Tuner managed to summon the literal Paul McCartney, who is now a real character in the context of the campaign.

As an addendum to recent events: the other party went on a space mission, and an alien collector (interpret that combination of words either way, because both are accurate) called the Auctioneer showed up. He tried to kidnap Radio Tuner as a rare piece of reality-altering tech, and the party wasnt about to part with their buddy. This led to a whole session of Radio Tuner spouting off individual lines of songs to serve as dialogue, plus various NPCs requesting songs (Churljenkins dancing to I Touch Myself, Joe Gardner bopping out to Intergalactic, Gal Gardner defending the honor of Britney Spears). It all culminated in a massive boss battle against Auctioneer, where Radio Tuner played Chumbawumbawhich led to Saoirse summoning magical summons of Chumbawumba to play in stereoand then fake JFK gave a rousing speech, using the words of Chumbawumba. The whole scene was a glorious trainwreck, and it kicked off with Radio Tuner.

I just love Radio Tuners contribution to the combat sections of the campaign. Im always big on RP and interacting with the NPCS, and combat is lower on my list of prioritiesso anything that can spice that portion of things up for me, personally (I know other players are much higher on combat than I am) is great. Radio Tuner might largely be a game mechanic, but its a game mechanic with a fun, goofy personality, and the way Scarlet characterizes Radio Tuners general disregard for social norms makes ever scene it pops up in a winner.

Hint for #39: First appeared in Campaign One.

Well, this narrows it down to 400... but I'll guess Deadshot here.

Inviso posted...

Alright, this is the last strictly comic relief character for a while

I wouldn't even call him that!

guessing, uh... Catman

Hmm. Gonna go with Jesse I think

Radio Tuner has had some great moments. One of most memorable is what coined Buddy from just something my character called him to the general accepted name of him. He gave everyone in the party laser eyes for the battle. My character just could not get it to work for her. One attempt sent her flying off the platform she was on into the sea, and as she fell called out "Buddy why!?" as she splashed down. It was a great moment.

Oracle

Inviso posted...

we even had the Stanley Cup that SOMEONE thought they could successfully steal.

Could I hear more about this please lol

Cody11533 posted...

Could I hear more about this please lol

So in the pawn shop Martina had the Stanley cup. My character has a disadvantage that she's a kleptomaniac and things that she finds highly valuable she has to attempt to take. I simply gave a small distraction and then said I take it and head out... not even thinking how huge the cup is and it was literally me just dragging it out making no real effort to hide it.

Vegas fell so I stand by it would have been in better hands with my character since now it's rubble

That's true, Pixie could have used a new bed.

ScareChan posted...

Hmm. Gonna go with Jesse I think

Radio Tuner has had some great moments. One of most memorable is what coined Buddy from just something my character called him to the general accepted name of him. He gave everyone in the party laser eyes for the battle. My character just could not get it to work for her. One attempt sent her flying off the platform she was on into the sea, and as she fell called out "Buddy why!?" as she splashed down. It was a great moment.

"Buddy why?!" was a great moment for sure.

Zigzagoon posted...

That's true, Pixie could have used a new bed.

God, can you imagine her fucking ego if she had the Stanley Cup as her bed baskie?

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39. Batgirl (Stephanie Brown, aka Sally Beamish)

There are a trio of characters in this campaign that returned from campaign one, and theyve made an impact in their brief time in campaign two. All three of these characters were great and ranked at LEAST top ten, if not top five for campaign one, but they have the misfortune of being relegated to field missions, rather than regular Zonn Zorr staples, so I only really have their time in-session to judge them by in THIS campaign. Well be discussing the other two shortly, but right now, I have to rank Steph the lowest of the trio, if only because in doing these write-ups, I just feel like shes the one who has remained the most static in terms of where their story left off and where it is now.

Campaign one, Spoiler was beloved across the board. From the earliest interaction, when she saved us from Mad Hatters territory and started judging our hotness on the low end of a scale of one to ten, she was just such a fun personality. Now granted, she definitely grew beyond the scope of a one-note joke character, and by the end of the campaign, wed rescued her from captivity by the Joker and felt extremely protective of dear Spoiler. I think when we were selecting teams for our endgame rescue missions, she was likely high on many peoples lists (though she wound up going with Fastbreak and his goofy smirkand Tim Drake too, I suppose).

In the interim between campaigns however, we found out that Spoiler had been killed in action. Much like my own campaign one character, Tali, the loss of Steph was particularly devastating. This was a girl whod overcome so much just to survive No Mans Land, and even though she still had to deal with her criminal father, it seemed like there was hope she could find peace and live a happy life in the aftermath of everything that went down. But sometimes, there are no happy endings, and Spoiler fell victim to a tragic fate, shared by far too many who found themselves orbiting the black hole of tragedy that is the Batman.

Or so it seemed. Imagine our surprise when, on a routine mission to Bristol Township, in search of the Brentwood Academy and the imprisoned children therein, we were informed that a Sally Beamish was running the underground there, and helping kids escape the school. Granted, she wasnt doing the BEST of jobs, since her safehouse was found out and we came across several murdered children along the way, but still, theres only so much that one girl can do on her lonesome. After rescuing one such victim (who recovered from his head trauma and resides in Zonn Zorr to this day), we finally infiltrated the academy itself, fully aware to keep our eyes peeled for Miss Beamish and the underground. What we found instead was a fully outfitted and armed Batgirl, serving as the protector of the downtrodden in Brentwood Academy.

When I say Batgirl, I dont mean one of the three other Batgirls we met during Campaign One, but rather the only one I dont think actually went by Batgirl during that campaign. Nope, everyones favorite valley girl accent returned as we found out that Stephanie Brown faked her own death to get out of the Bat Family in the same way one might go into witness protection in order to flee the mob. And within minutes of meeting her again, it was like that campaign one introduction all over, for a group of us whose characters had never had the pleasure of meeting Spoiler before. She got into a verbal sparring match with Lush (inadvertently parroting the Pepper talking point that Lush is old), yet also came across like she thinks Pepper is a total nerd (not inaccurately).

I just enjoy Stephs personality. Its so easy to paint members of the Bat Family as super serious and focused on being the best they can be. After all, these are non-meta superheroes, so you would expect the training needed to be at their best to be higher than someone born gifted. But with Steph, shes a standard high school girl, and she refers to us as 2s or 3s (or a 1 in Lushs case, I believe). Shes inherently charismatic, and she feels like a relatable superhero, despite having that big name Batgirl pedigree behind her. She fucks up occasionally, of course; after all, she did send kids off to their doom, not realizing that her safe house had been compromised. But shes still doing her best to take charge in a shitty situation with authoritarian school administrators trying to convert kids into Equated minions.

Im surprised I dont have much more to talk about, if only because Steph has such a memorable personality. Weve only been to Bristol Township twice though, and in both instances, Batgirls presence was largely superfluous to the goals we had set before us. Still, its great to find out that Steph is still alive, and her presence in the campaign opens up so many opportunities for future developments. Weve already met with Leslie Thompkins, who helped Steph fake her death in the first place; and we also have a contact with Stephs father, Cluemaster, who she never exactly saw eye-to-eye with as a villain. Right now, weve got her mother back at Zonn Zorr as well, so close to her daughter, yet unaware of Stephs survival. Theres a storyline there, and weve just gotta unlock it further.

Hint for #38: A survivor from the Convoy storyline.

I think we're probably looking at Brutale here? I would guess La Dama scores higher.

Jaime drops here.

Paco

scarletspeed7 posted...

I'm also surprised Mike makes your list, but I really do love the little guy. He's such a great visual gag as well, especially atop Data's head.

So what were your thoughts when they chose to take Mike instead of a helpful item?

So, Scar introduced Mike as one of the first "items" and I kinda forgot about him when I was looking about the shop. (This was when we were all split up so making these choices was on me)

But just as I was about to make my choices, Mike piped up and started squawking and then one thing led to another...

Also Mike is VERY helpful. He's very loud and has good eyesight! He can also fly me around!

ScareChan posted...

So in the pawn shop Martina had the Stanley cup. My character has a disadvantage that she's a kleptomaniac and things that she finds highly valuable she has to attempt to take. I simply gave a small distraction and then said I take it and head out... not even thinking how huge the cup is and it was literally me just dragging it out making no real effort to hide it.

Vegas fell so I stand by it would have been in better hands with my character since now it's rubble

As someone who knows how big the Cup is that is a hilarious visual.

And yeah The Stanley Cup would have been a great addition to Zonn Zorr

Maniac64 posted...

So what were your thoughts when they chose to take Mike instead of a helpful item?

I imagine Scar would be surprised if they DIDN'T take Mike.

Ermine isn't the hardest person to predict the actions of

TO BE FAIR, most of the items were not THAT helpful. The next most valuable item you guys wanted me to take was a hat that made you super dizzy and fall over and maybe people thought might have a spell in it, or like a +1 to persuasion item in an area we visit once or twice a year.

Mike was the easy choice. A slam dunk if you will.

Chillerang was cool. Scorpion whip was taken. Tie was good. Spider quiver was good. Sleeping gas was useful. Rebreather was useful. Cyanide penny was useful. Manhunter's Mask you took? Baker's Dozen was good. Mines are always good. Spoiler's Mask was taken. Flippers were good. Compact that sees through invisiblity or shapeshifting is good. Fists that increase damage by +3 only 20x is good.

There were a lot of good items there!

(Mike was also good, of course)

Mike is far more valuable to the campaign than an item. He even played a rather crucial role in the party's final heist planning strategy!

Mike's also good for an empty stomach in a pinch.

That's not very nice.

I think we gave the cyanide penny to Mike for a bit 'just in case' but were worried he would take it himself

Batgirl is a very complex character that's done a lot between campaigns we still need to investigate. Steph is the best

Brutale sounds right for this next one, yeah

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/7/1/AAAe4tAADpg3.jpg
38. Half-Life (Byron Stark)

I need to do more with Half-Life, because this is a character that is very much tailored to Pepper right now, and I feel like Ive been neglecting him. He has a lot of potential, and I just need to unlock that through continued RP scenes and nurture that NPC/PC relationship that weve already established. I think he kinda falls victim to my mentality of being drawn towards more damaged and chaotic personalities, because those lend themselves really well to continual storylines and new things to happen. Half-Life, despite his appearance, is just a normal, stable guy. Extremely rugged and reliable. And thats not a bad thing, but its also something I think that I need to work on as a player to focus more on than I do at this time.

Anyway, the Convoy storyline is one where I wasnt in on the ground floor, but my character is from Texas, so she wound up taking a vested interest in the goings on. The overarching plot is that you have La Dama in El Paso, who is a drug queenpin who controlled the city prior to Darkseids takeover, and you have La Llarona in Juarez, who is a revenge-driven water spirit who has it out for La Dama. Despite being diametrically opposed, these two women are forced to work together due to the overwhelming third party influence of Darkseid/the Society, and our party wound up brokering peace to bring everyone together and make a trek down through all of Central and South America to get over 50,000 refugees safely to our Antarctica base.

Half-Lifes role in all of this is that early on, La Dama was very much the villain of this storyline. This was while El Paso was still technically a free city, and of course the criminal drug lord has a negative influence over goings on in the region. As such, a coyote system began operating to ferry people out of La Damas influence, to the safety of La Llaronas territory. Half-Life was one of the primary scouts working as a kind of runner for La Llarona, and at first, that was his main role. He had a motorcycle, so he was useful in getting our small group quickly and efficiently from El Paso into Juarez. However, I think he (and Peacemaker Chris Smith, who served a similar purpose) became more prominent once the convoy started moving, and it became increasingly valuable to have someone who could lead a motorcycle battalion and scout ahead to keep the convoy safe.

As for why Half-Life makes it onto my list in particular, that largely has to do with his role in connection to my PC, Pepper. I hate to make this write-up revolve around my PC, rather than the NPC being ranked, but it is important to explain why I personally enjoy Half-Life. Now, as you can see from Half-Lifes picture, hes fucked up. His body is at LEAST 50% (I know the name is Half-Life, but pictures from the comics make it seem like more than just half) a mess of acidic and chemical slime, as a result of some alien abduction bullshit that also killed his pregnant girlfriend. Dude got absolutely whacked by the bullshit stick in his lifetime, and that sucks. And aside from like, three NPCs weve met at this point in the campaign, Half-Lifes physical make-up isolates him from contact with other people, because a single touch could cause severe and disfiguring chemical burns.

Pepper, however, before this campaign began and we had any concept of what expect, was designed with a similar drawback. She was a pretty, young Christian girl who was big into chemistry and got caught up in a lab explosion while she was prepping some illicit substances for her side hustle. As such, she has metahuman abilities now, and her body can alter its chemistry to produce acidic fluids (blood, sweat, tears, etc.). So, when we first met Half-Life, it was very early on in the campaign, and Pepper is one of the most rookie members of the party (at BEST shes ninth out of ten when it comes to having, and understanding her powers). And for someone who was normal before her accident, her brand of powers is not great. She often worries about accidentally hurting people because she cant control herself, and has developed a nervous habit of constantly wiping her hands dry, just in case of acidic palm sweat.

These two characters met for the first time as we were attempting to flee a wave of scarab beetles that threatened to consume El Paso, and we had a party of five players and a limited number of motorcycles with which to make our escape (plus not everyone had the driving skill). So Pepper, perhaps overjoyed to have found someone who she could touch and who could touch her without fearing for anyones safety, wound up riding with Half-Life. And given that Half-Life is a 1950s greaser-style biker (perpetually kept young by his affliction), this created an interesting pairing as the aesthetic bad boy and the aesthetic good girl kinda recreated that classic dynamic from a lot of old school fiction.

This sort of relationship continued for quite some time, since the Convoy was a long storyline, and Half-Life filled a very prominent support role as both our teleportation contact, and as a scout to safeguard the convoy against external threats. Whenever we had situations that required Half-Life to join us, either in scouting or just traveling to a location to make first contact, Pepper would eagerly hop on the back of Half-Lifes bike, scoot in close, and hold on tight. And together, Pepper and Half-Life make for a solid combat duo, since Half-Life is really skilled at maneuvering his motorcycle, and Peppers got an array of ranged attacks she can execute (even beyond just spitting acid).

Needless to say, Pepper slowly began to grow close with Half-Life and generally liked going on Convoy missions specifically to hang out with him, on top of helping the save world and all. This all culminated with the final escape from South America, where the majority of the Convoys fighters and civilian population managed to avoid getting slaughtered by OMACs, and to celebrate their survival, Pepper and Half-Life finally shared a first kiss aboard their ship en route to Antarctica.

Like I said at the start of this write-up, I, Inviso, havent been GREAT at maintaining the relationship with Half-Life since arriving at Zonn Zorr, and Im definitely looking to fix that in the near future. But still, Half-Life has just had a very positive impact on my view of the campaign. For a long time, Pepper was largely feeling isolated and desperate for companionship; shes still a rookie to the superhero community, and she got kidnapped before the world went to shit, and has no means of seeking out her family at this time. So, she wound up getting invested in several failed romantic relationships, and then the lengthy trip to Las Vegas and Phoenix really fucked with her head. Having Half-Life just be there as a solid presence had a wonderfully calming effect on Peppers (and my) psyche.

I get that having tension and conflict makes for a more interesting plot, but at the same time, Im someone who needs the occasional safety blanket. Heck, Harry Matthews made this list for being almost exactly that, though more of a safety pillow than anything else. Just having that character you can go to and feel safe and comfortable with is absolutely needed in an apocalyptic campaign, and Half-Life has definitely taken on that role for me. Its just like in my real life; sometimes you just need that positive energy from another person to keep yourself going. And, in the time since initially writing this write-up, Pepper has opened up further to Half-Life (phrasing), learning more about his more carefree, party lifestyle and being cool with that. Theres some instinctive jealousy with regards to other women, but hey, what else can you expect from a relatively sheltered girl whos now gone of the way around the bases with her first real boyfriend?

Hint for #37: At least one of this characters parents has appeared in the campaign.

Stargirl

...this seems low for Courtney or Susie.

Hmm. I think AJ counts

Or... shit.

Ahhh Jaime

Stargirl

Batgirl again

Pepper needs to tell Half-Life an interesting story of her past when her high school friends were total bitches but she doesn't realize it

Half-Life is too old for Pepper anyway. Cute? More like cradle robber. He was like 40 when she was in diapers

Half-Life and Pepper are cute together because ol' Pep needs someone she can use her powers around without the slightest bit of fear or worry, except for the poor couch, which deserves better.

That said, I'll go a bit off the wall and go with Ari.