Board 8 > Scarlet Ranks the Top 52 Characters of the Last 52 Sessions in the DCU RPG Campa

(+) Yeah! (+)

In campaign 1 Fastbreak had Booster Gold sing happy birthday to Spirit

He phoned in to do it

He got the name wrong

It cost 100k in game and a use of a mechanic that meant he would now never show up if we asked for help because the help pool was one and done

#33 - Jemm
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/6/6/AAUHRBAAEQvu.png
The Son of Saturn, crown prince of the rings and all its surroundings moons. Jemm is the rightful ruler of the Red Saturnians, a long-tenured peaceful leader- did we mention he's Roz'etta's boss yet? Has that not come up? Well, there you go. Roz'etta Schtone is, in reality, not a superhero - she's Diplomat-12, a titled dignitary whose entire life was spun out of a routine mission trip to Earth, courtesy of the red feller gracing your screen currently.

Now, if you've been following along, you might be aware of the story of the Odyssey. You wouldn't consider Jemm a member of that coterie, and that's not an oversight on your part. The Odyssey is comprised of metahumans solely from Earth's community. Jemm showed up in space purely of his own volition, traveling to Rann in response to distress pleas sent to hundreds of allied worlds by Rann's leader, Sardath. War was bowled over to discover that the character that had long been the motivating force in both his Campaign 1 and Campaign 2 actions was suddenly before him. I didn't give him a lick of prep time. Roz'etta was tongue-tied, shocked and off of her game the moment the crimson visage of Prince Jemm revealed himself. In fact, she nearly earned herself a demotion, she was so errantly wobbling about.

However, since then, Jemm has demonstrated, I think, a truly boundless depth of compassion, as well as wisdom. Jemm has laid out his master stratagem - one that, believe it or not, Amanda Waller is party to as well. Jemm was captured by Lex Luthor, mistreated, abused and forced to carry out psychic missions as an unwilling accomplice to Luthor's Injustice Gang. After recovering, Jemm left - and he's now vowed to return... to make Earth a subsidiary territory of Saturn. Jemm's plan is to eliminate Darkseid and bring humanity to the intergalactic stage as part of a new, united federation of planets.

Suddenly, the wayward players have a potential ally... but for quite uncomfortable reasons. Uncomfortable, that is, for all except Roz'etta. Will Jemm's determination to unite the Sol system earn the undying loyalty of Roz'etta or cause her to question the decades-tenured leader? Time will tell. In the meantime, Jemm has determined that he will carve a swathe across the universe, right through the solar system and up to the Grid surrounding the Earth. Darkseid vs. Jemm. You can book it here, now.

Hint: A shocking turn of events put this father figure's allegiance in peril.

Jemm is our replacement J'onn

I was extremely confident I would find Jemm in some sort of broken state, if at all.

Instead no, of everyone involved with Rann and Thanagar on the Rann side he might be the best off, tied with Air Wave.

...I do wonder though how the rest of the party, and humanity, would react to Jemm effectively becoming King of the Earth.

I haven't visited Jemm with Riev yet, but there was a time when a few of us got 5 suggestions of characters for our PCs to visit. For Minerva, the princess of Tritonis as we know, Scar gave me 5 members of royalty. One figurative, 4 literally. Jemm was one of those. My visit to Jemm can be... described with one set of quote.

>Jemm gestures to the planet Oa. "On this planet, you will find my hand-chosen diplomat to your homeworld. Request of her a handwritten note of Kr'a'asha. If she consents to your request, return to me with this."
"Only then, may I interfere with the politics of your undersea civilization and offer you teachings."

I was waiting for a set of missions to finish before talking to Rosetta, and soon I will.

Going to say this is Black Lightning, if it's trickier than that I don't see it

ScareChan posted...

Going to say this is Black Lightning, if it's trickier than that I don't see it

Meanwhile I was thinking this could be Mark Richards.

i'll guess crime doctor for this?

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

i'll guess crime doctor for this?

I like this too

Guessing Ra's Al Ghul

WickIebee posted...

I was waiting for a set of missions to finish before talking to Rosetta, and soon I will.

I can't wait for this!

I can see this being Crime Doctor. I really should've drafted him.

#32 - Black Lightning
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/0/6/AAUHRBAAEQ2m.jpg
The cruelty of Darkseid's world is the suddenness in which a man can be torn from his loved ones and left replaced by a cold-hearted husk devoted to everything that they stood against moments before. In Washington, one of the last major superheroes in the world scoured the city for resources and aimed to find his way to the Justice League Watchtower. This was Black Lightning, former Secretary of Education and member of the Justice League in his own right - and without any incoming or outgoing communications, he believed himself to be both the current President AND the leader of the Justice League.

He was wrong on both counts, it would turn out.

But Black Lightning's plans didn't hinge on either of these honorifics. He desired no more than to regroup with his family and try desperately to unite some sort of resistance. When Checkmate discovered Black Lightning's existence in the ruins of the District of Columbia, they thought they'd found a like-minded ally. Instead, they found an unexpected sacrifice.

As work on the Justice League teleporters commenced, the veteran hero Black Lightning was nearly the last man on the ground - and as troops began to advance on the ruins of the Hall of Justice, Black Lightning made the noble, stupid, painful decision to push Rosetta through the door, slam his hand on the device, and ensure that Rosetta would survive - and he would be taken by the Equated.

But that wasn't the end of his story.

When the party was shunted through the teleporter on the JL Satellite back to Earth, Silhouette and Green Arrow would find themselves the only ones inside of the Hall of Justice on arrival. Both severely injured from a bumpy ride, Silhouette was in no condition to take on the Justifiers scouring the building - Justifiers led by Black Lightning now, converted into another prowling, vicious minion of the Dark Lord himself. So Green Arrow would follow the lead of Black Lightning, sacrificing himself to the Justifiers, forced don their mind-controlling helmets, as Silhouette and the rest of the battered party escaped with their wounded. In both of these moments, there was an audible deflation, a palpable shocked silence. These weren't simply rescues turned awry, after all. The loss of Green Arrow and the loss of Black Lightning left an indelible mark on those who witnessed them, and the entire tenor of the campaign has transformed as a result. There is a different form of resolution that has stemmed from these darkest moments, something you can see in so many of the PCs since they brought down the sky in Washington, all of those weeks ago.

The cycle never ends - Darkseid is. And Darkseid begets Darkseid. Always. Forever. In this dying age of superheroes, the instinct to put oneself on the line does not create martyrs - it creates new foes, rising in place of towering giants, of icons of justice. Instead, there is no justice. There is just us.

Hint: We sound off for one who knocks - another undrafted ranking!

Hell yeah I'm finally on the board. I wasn't on that session but Black Lightning's sacrifice was great.

Black Lightning's sacrifice took everything out of us. Everything.

The only thing that could possibly get us going again was ending the session by seeing Black Canary AND Green Arrow AND Dr. Mid-Nite AND the Ray

Probably the session(s) I was most upset that I wasn't on.

one who knocks....Aa?

also losing black lightning, and knowing that saving black lightning would have also saved ollie just added to it

...black lightning hits a special place though because it really felt like rosetta failing him

gotta find a way to break justifiers free now too

Guessing the other Green Lantern on Nok. The one who deputized the party. I forgot her name. She wasn't drafted, right?

Black Lightning is great, I loved him in Young Justice. Losing him and Green Arrow is a tough one-two punch.

Here is my full list broken into tiers.

Top 52
S Tier
Susie Tompkins
Starsa
Patch
Catman
Blue Beetle

A Tier
Amanda Waller
Freddy Freeman
Harley Quinn
Cheshire
L-ron
Misty Kilgore
Manitou Dawn
Rex the Wonder Dog

B Tier
King Shark
Deadshot
Ragdoll
The Thinker
Fake Arion/William Knightley
Kid Eternity
Vostok
Pixie
Black Alice
Kobra
Morro
Brother Eye
Stargirl
Rover
AJ Curry

C Tier
Constantine
Fiddler
Mento
Joker
Bobo Benetti
Lono
Guy Gardner
MORFIUS
Parademon K'Ray
Radio Tuner
Trish Mckenzie
Ferdinand
Dewormer
Blackbriar Thorn
Snapper
Fright
Cheetah
Oracle
Tracy 13
Squire
Pocus
Vicki Vale
Tomorrow Woman

D Tier
Spectre

Honorable Mentions (roughly in order)
D Tier
Joe Hollywood
Perdoo
Uncle Sam
Kilowag
Prowley
Thom Kallor
Arisia
Batman Tokyo Jiro Osamu
Bluebird Harper Row
Lord Death Man
Blue Devil
Foal Frontell
Leroy
Detective Chimp
Jesse Custer
Nightmaster Jim Rook
Rot Lop Fan
Black Canary
Hamilton Drew

F Tier
Helios (tortoise)

Losing Black Lightning was a punch in the gut to a session we felt very high on as it went. We were collecting a Justice Leaguer, clearing a piece of DC, claiming a Motherbox, and getting these families to safely. And it was all taken away in one moment. Deflated silence doesn't even do it justice. Had it not been for discovering Canary you would have heard a pin drop for a long time. What happened with Ollie hurt just as bad, I started to tear up when we realized what was about to happen. Highly meaningful sessions here.

Those are some pretty great tiers

Maniac64 posted...

Honorable Mentions (roughly in order)
D Tier
Joe Hollywood
Perdoo
Uncle Sam
Kilowag
Prowley
Thom Kallor
Arisia
Batman Tokyo Jiro Osamu
Bluebird Harper Row
Lord Death Man
Blue Devil
Foal Frontell
Leroy
Detective Chimp
Jesse Custer
Nightmaster Jim Rook
Rot Lop Fan
Black Canary
Hamilton Drew

Man, the end of this honorable mentions list is a murderer's row!

Wow accusing Dinah of murder that's Ollie's bag

#31 - Onomatopoeia
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/0/6/AAUHRBAAEQ4K.jpg
When reintroducing a character from the first campaign to the second, I always focus on two things. First, being mindful of the past and building into the future. Onomatopoeia, the sociopathic serial killer of superheroes who can only speak in sound effects, in my estimation, succeeded on both of these fronts. Encountered in Star City, Onomatopoeia appeared at first to be a disastrous wild card, pulled from the deck that inevitably has dealt only bad hands, over and over. But Onomatopoeia, his silent visage and vacuous, inscrutable mask before them, surprised the party thanks to one lone individual.

You see, Brennus has inadvertently stumbled into the position of becoming the face of the Checkmate field teams. After two very public appearance - one in Fawcett City and one confronting his mother in Chicago - the Society has determined that Brennus of all people is the leader of this gang of fast-moving guerilla resistance fighters. Bounties have been placed, chits have been called in, and villains like Onomatopoeia have been hired to bring down this menace. But if you knew the story of Campaign 1, you would know that wouldn't come so easily.

After all, it was Stephanie Cruz - a false identity cobbled together by Varra as she infiltrated Victor Zsasz's True Facer territory, that would ultimately confront Onomatopoeia. And in the final battle to eradicate Zsasz's power, Onomatopoeia would be brought down - but not killed. In the last moments, facing down down death, Onomatopoeia would reveal his trump card - a business card, actually, and one that demanded Onomatopoeia, on surrender, be treated under the rules of the Geneva Convention. Thusly, the party decided to honor this request, despite being nearly killed by an array of bizarre household objects brutally utilized. And Onomatopoeia would live, though he would be delivered to a prison, expected to languish for his remaining days within a cell.

But he lived. And when he confronted Brennus in Star City, Onomatopoeia remembered Stephanie Cruz and her honor - and instead of viciously murdering Brennus like any other superhero in his path, he gave him a warning. And now, a conundrum. How do you manage expectations and push forward with the most tenuous of alliances imaginable? How do you trust a killer with only the most vague notions of a conscience?

EDIT: I should mention that all of this has always been presented via business cards and sound effects - Onomatopeia never EVER talks outside of mouth sounds.

Hint: Summon up your guesses for this one.

Click clack

Cody's Full List, Untiered (because I didn't do tiers)
1. Star Sapphire Ring (aka Starsa)
2. Catman (Thomas Blake)
3. Amanda Waller
4. Black Alice (Lori Zechlin)
5. Cheetah (Barbara Ann Minerva)
6. Freddy Freeman
7. Till'all
8. Harley Quinn
9. Patch
10. Valentina Vostok
11. Misty Kilgore
12. Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes)
13. Batgirl (Stephanie Brown)
14. Stargirl (Courtney Whitmore)
15. Traci Thirteen
16. Snapper Carr
17. Susie Tompkins
18. Bluebird (Harper Row)
19. Pixie
20. The Thinker (Clifford DeVoe II)
21. Rex the Wonder Dog
22. Squire (Beryl Hutchinson)
23. L-Ron
24. Fiddler (Isaac Bowin)
25. Manitou Dawn
26. Brother Eye
27. Detective Chimp
28. William Knightley (aka Arion)
29. Crazy Shy Lolita Canary
30. Ferdinand
31. Oracle (Barbara Gordon)
32. The Joker / Oberon Sexton
33. Weeping Woman / La Llorona (Maria Salvaje)
34. Goldilocks (Lena Leigh)
35. Captain Cold (Leonard Snart)
36. Deadshot (Floyd Lawton)
37. Lono
38. Fire (Beatriz da Costa)
39. Foal Fruntell
40. Jonathan Horne
41. Parademon (KRay)
42. Batman Japan (Jiro Osamu)
43. Dewormer
44. M.O.R.F.I.U.S.
45. Bobo Bennetti
46. Vicki Vale
47. Laura Penn
48. Radio Tuner
49. Arisia Rrab
50. Rover
51. Joe Hollywood
52. Batman (Harvey Dent)

Unsorted Honorable Mentions
Jesse Custer
Fright
Miracle Molly / Squeak
Tomorrow Woman
Ragdoll
Lady Luck
Mento
Scandal Savage
Black Canary (Dinah Laurel Lance)
Blue Devil (Daniel Cassidy)
Zatanna (Zatanna Zatara)
Hector the Lion
Blackbat (Cassandra Cain)
Paul McCartney
Leroy / Twiggy
La Dama
Zoe
Chris Smith (Peacemaker)
Kilowog
Mike the Rooster / The Stanley Cup
Jack Cross
Kid Eternity
Winged Victory
John Constantine
Wonder Woman
King Shark (Nanaue)
Cheshire

Cody's list is better (because Traci and Starsa are higher).

It's too bad I went first because then you guys would know about Her Highness, Princess Iolande.

Argh, I was so close to putting Onomatopoeia on my draft list. Regrets. It's hard to predict where the 1-shot characters will end up.

Brennus made a deal with Onomatopoeia after he spared Brennus' life. He will make sure it's safe for Brennus to move about Star City for now, but Brennus also has to deliver a bounty that he has on someone named Panacea. Brennus agreed (because I mean, the alternative was getting murdered) but in a bit of follow up research Brennus has done, turns out Panacea is a hero and not someone Brennus wants to help kill. So uh, we'll see where this goes.

EDIT: Panacea is a NAZI-FIGHTING hero, so even more so someone Brennus doesn't want to help murder.

She's an armless hack

onomatopeia is just so weird, I should have known you'd rank him just for how much fun he is to portray

also maniac's list has susie #1 so it is clearly superior

but cody does have till'all high...

overall two great lists!

as for this...Yolanda?

Little Miss Hollywood? Yolanda?

Sugar Plum Fairy

Onomatopoeia returning was pretty great. I have yet to interact with him in either campaign, but it doesn't take much to get the character. At least you'd think, then his business cards make him actually pretty deep. He's fun.

This one I've got between Grim Accounting, Yolanda Montez, and Little Miss Hollywood

Going Little Miss Hollywood

TotallyNotMI posted...

Argh, I was so close to putting Onomatopoeia on my draft list. Regrets. It's hard to predict where the 1-shot characters will end up.

Brennus made a deal with Onomatopoeia after he spared Brennus' life. He will make sure it's safe for Brennus to move about Star City for now, but Brennus also has to deliver a bounty that he has on someone named Panacea. Brennus agreed (because I mean, the alternative was getting murdered) but in a bit of follow up research Brennus has done, turns out Panacea is a hero and not someone Brennus wants to help kill. So uh, we'll see where this goes.

EDIT: Panacea is a NAZI-FIGHTING hero, so even more so someone Brennus doesn't want to help murder.

but what about my captain nazi

What about him?

I'll punch him in the face but you won't schedule return to Fawcett:(

If someone had to miss Railway, I wanted it to be for a session they had greend.

I'm not asking for logic I'm asking for blind support of my whims geez

TotallyNotMI posted...

I'm not asking for logic I'm asking for blind support of my whims geez

Speaking of this, we have recently added Turkey to the mission board because Spirit wants to find a patient of his that is there. There is no other reason for this mission to happen and Waller was confused when she noticed it on the board before telling Spirit that if he wants it to happen he has to make it happen himself.

#30 - Little Miss Hollywood
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/3/7/AAS3NhAAEA95.png
I've always had a fascination with seedier side of the Hollywood experience. Not the modernized corporate corruption that produces your power misers like Harvey Weinstein, the sort of expected end to amalgamation of power, but the old Wild West days of the original silverscreen stars, from the early silents right on through to postwar celebrity. It's in this particular era that a generation of talent was gobbled up under a few banner studios and spat out. Tales woven of murky legends like Fatty Arbuckle and the Black Dahlia were the order of the day, and to simply survive in a world run with gin and drugs and crime was a much taller order.

The Kid brought to life an opportunity to spin my take on classic Hollywood in the form of a one-shot member of the Newsboy Army, the World War II children's unit that served as collective sidekicks to the Guardian. The story of Little Miss Hollywood was one of innocence lost. As a child, she was beloved by filmgoers - and she loved them back just as strongly. But time passed, and Hollywood began to change. LMH had to fight tooth and nail to maintain her innocence as she began to develop physically - and the studios refused to see her as anything other a sexpot and a cash cow. Ultimately, LMH couldn't resist. When the Time Tailor, Zor, took a very integral part of LMH away, her life fell into ruins. She succumbed to the temptations of Hollywood, and her life slid downhill quickly. By the end of the '60s, she'd killed herself, overdosing and taking the last train out of celebrity. She died relatively forgotten, penniless and without hope.

In one of my favorite Kid tales, it was Lush who gave her a little pot and dragged Little Miss Hollywood to the spring, to experience Lush's own personal take on paradise. It... gave Little Miss Hollywood some relief. There was, for the first time in years, an opportunity to be at peace.

And when it was time, Little Miss Hollywood faded away. It wasn't a grand victory, but it was a little bit of quiet resolution. Lush's compassion really touched me in that week of Little Miss Hollywood - one California girl taking care of another, the cinema freak that Lush is using her passion for film and screen to give the proper send-off to a woman who had given everything to both the superhero business and the film industry.

Then she just faded away, as is the way with every Kid summon, in the end.

Hint: And they say people don't like tabletop RPGs that stay on-rails the whole time.

scarletspeed7 posted...

#30 - Little Miss Hollywood
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/3/7/AAS3NhAAEA95.png
I've always had a fascination with seedier side of the Hollywood experience. Not the modernized corporate corruption that produces your power misers like Harvey Weinstein, the sort of expected end to amalgamation of power, but the old Wild West days of the original silverscreen stars, from the early silents right on through to postwar celebrity. It's in this particular era that a generation of talent was gobbled up under a few banner studios and spat out. Tales woven of murky legends like Fatty Arbuckle and the Black Dahlia were the order of the day, and to simply survive in a world run with gin and drugs and crime was a much taller order.

The Kid brought to life an opportunity to spin my take on classic Hollywood in the form of a one-shot member of the Newsboy Army, the World War II children's unit that served as collective sidekicks to the Guardian. The story of Little Miss Hollywood was one of innocence lost. As a child, she was beloved by filmgoers - and she loved them back just as strongly. But time passed, and Hollywood began to change. LMH had to fight tooth and nail to maintain her innocence as she began to develop physically - and the studios refused to see her as anything other a sexpot and a cash cow. Ultimately, LMH couldn't resist. When the Time Tailor, Zor, took a very integral part of LMH away, her life fell into ruins. She succumbed to the temptations of Hollywood, and her life slid downhill quickly. By the end of the '60s, she'd killed herself, overdosing and taking the last train out of celebrity. She died relatively forgotten, penniless and without hope.

In one of my favorite Kid tales, it was Lush who gave her a little pot and dragged Little Miss Hollywood to the spring, to experience Lush's own personal take on paradise. It... gave Little Miss Hollywood some relief. There was, for the first time in years, an opportunity to be at peace.

And when it was time, Little Miss Hollywood faded away. It wasn't a grand victory, but it was a little bit of quiet resolution. Lush's compassion really touched me in that week of Little Miss Hollywood - one California girl taking care of another, the cinema freak that Lush is using her passion for film and screen to give the proper send-off to a woman who had given everything to both the superhero business and the film industry.

Then she just faded away, as is the way with every Kid summon, in the end.

Hint: And they say people don't like tabletop RPGs that stay on-rails the whole time.

I love rails >_>

also, guessing Lizzie Hexxam

Woo points for me. I am the King of points

She was my next pick and then Han snatched her ugh

It's time for Mr. Ives

Little Miss Hollywood was a treat and seemed like a perfect compliment to Lush based on their backgrounds. Lush has a habit of finding kinship in these fallen heros.

I'll pick someone else and say Oliver Haddo, but thinking probably Lizzie

I sure hope it's Haddo, I'd love to get more points

Little Miss Hollywood was one of those character explorations that just, it needed the right space to happen, and it needed the right time. And once it happened, it was done. Like a poignant short story - opened and shut.

Definitely stuck out a lot as far as kid summons go.

TotallyNotMI posted...

Brennus also has to deliver a bounty that he has on someone named Panacea. Brennus agreed (because I mean, the alternative was getting murdered) but in a bit of follow up research Brennus has done, turns out Panacea is a hero and not someone Brennus wants to help kill.

With a name based on medicine I certainly would have expected them to be a good person.