Board 8 > Scarlet Ranks 52 Characters from 52 Sessions of the DCRPG Campaign: Part II

(+) Yeah! (+)

#91 - Jaime Reyes
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/9/3/AAOJ0pAADa99.png
There has been a long and rocky history to the character of Jaime in this campaign, often stemming from my own handle or lack thereof regarding the character. From what I've seen and have come to understand, that isn't necessarily shared with the players, many of whom really, truly love the character. And how could you not? Jaime's is the most notable coming-of-age tale in the campaign, a crucible forging Jaime in the most unforgiving flames imaginable - those of the Final Crisis. Jaime, a rookie in every sense of the word, however, has stepped up, held firm to his convictions, and dared the world to deny him his chance to be a hero. For that, Jaime's travails and traversal of the American continents, ferrying refugees to the last bastion of safety on Earth - Z'onn Z'orr - has become the stuff of campaign legends.

Oftentimes, what makes Jaime work best as a comedic character is what I find most limiting: his stupidity. Jaime can be a social rube and a mental welterweight, oftentimes not even able to be propped up by his guardian and mentor, Khaji Da. But being fused to an alien entity with thousands of years of experienced bank in its data processors doesn't guarantee success. Khaji Da may know best, but Jaime doesn't often lead with his head, but he's instead guided by the tug of his heart. This tends to put Jaime in position to be the noble fool, the child-like clarity he possesses a fresh insight in a jaded world.

To Jaime, right is right and wrong is wrong. There truly can be no expansion on these things - either you're good or you're evil, and the in-between is just an excuse in Jaime's mind, a moral minefield meant to punish those who step out of line. Of course, while that has led to a stubbornness which has alienated Jaime from friends and family alike, it has also garnered him the respect of individuals like Lush, who perhaps sees the dream she so deeply wishes she embodied, residing in Jaime. More often than you might expect, the wayward villainess turned hero will go out of her way to quietly support Jaime without his knowledge, trying to shore up his friends and provide him a safety net so he can continue practicing what he preaches.

With the upcoming Blue Beetle film on the horizon, I suppose I'm sinking into a comfort with the character that I think is seeded in the soil fertile from grand ideas originally posed by Keith Giffen and John Rogers in the first outing of Jaime as a comic star. Jaime is proactive, noble and a true hero. He certainly experiences the ups and the downs of a Spider-Man, but Jaime rarely is as much in his own head as Peter Parker - not that he has the capacity to be, I suppose. But also, Jaime is much more selfless and willing to sacrifice in the way a superhero does than Peter. Parker will give up everything, and spend an entire comic letting the reader know that's exactly what he's doing. He's Ted Danson in Curb Your Enthusiasm - building an anonymous wing of a hospital and letting every one know he's done it. Meanwhile, Jaime is the opposite of that. Sure, he may be very public in his successes, but only because Jaime does things in a broad, uncomplicated way. All he sees are the people that need help, the enemies that need to be stopped, the story that remains to be told.

You have to respect someone so simple in another wise complex world.

#90 was drafted as well!

Oof, very worrying about my draft list when I see Jaime THIS low.

Mah Jaime! He's been one of my comfort characters to RP with and I don't think that will change. Jaime may butt heads with Brennus over the shades of gray that Brennus feels comfortable existing in, but I like to think they have a good bond between them.

Had Cody and I done draft lists Jaime would have been on mine.

Terrible. Ah, terrible.

Mah Jamie (not Jaime, MI)

Jaime is a lot of fun. I think the buffoonery is endearing and doesn't take away from his heroism, though I can also see how it would make him feel, I don't know, less complex?

Jaime's a good grandson.

While they have been drifting apart, I do still appreciate the dichotomy between Pepper and Jaime. They both started out in a similar place, but Jaime is very much pure and positive and unflinchingly good in the use of his newfound powers, while Pepper was already on the darker side of that coin, and her pragmatism is a contrast to Jaime.

I said it on my list- Jaime is the type of character that defines this campaign. I can see how he may make scar feel more limited with what he has to work with portraying him in some ways, but the fact that Jaime is what he is also is what draws people to him.

I really enjoy that Minerva has really only reacted to Jaime in sessions thus far. It makes for a slightly different dynamic if the two ever had more of an interaction on an rp day. Although I also like keeping his interactions with the likes of Pepper, Brennus, and Lush. He has plenty of people his story can continue with so I don't need to add him onto my list pushing back characters that... Well, are my characters to bond with.

Inviso posted...

Oof, very worrying about my draft list when I see Jaime THIS low.

That was the exact thought I had

#90 - Thinker
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/4/3/AAOJ0pAADa-v.jpg
The brains of the outfit - or so he would have you believe. The sentient almost-but-not-quite artificial intelligence of Z'onn Z'orr is a near constant mainstay of the campaign, capable of appearing in virtually any scene around Z'onn Z'orr without a second's warning, or a millisecond's hesitation on my part. The Thinker, however, often is sidelined, saddled with a more maintenance position in the campaign. This is intentional; there is a need for support staff in a campaign of this size and magnitude, and, for the party, Thinker was a crucial piece of the early campaign. Capable of summoning up those pesky, necessary bits of exposition and serving as the medium through which investigation often began, time has not been kind to the Thinker's role in the spotlight, as more and varied specialists in various fields shine more and more, relegating an all-purpose character to secondary status.

Thinker was originally conceived in this campaign as a response to the idea of superior artificial intelligence. The idea was to take that well-worn conceit and explore the arrogance of artificial intelligence from another angle. As opposed to the artificial aspect being the source of those worrisome meditations on power going to one's end, what if it was simply the intelligence portion? Perhaps there is something instead to the idea that simply having the mental prowess of a machine can warp and shift your perceptions. Humans are insects to AI not because they are living beings but because they are simply poorly programmed machines with low capacity. The Thinker straddles this line, perhaps playfully, perhaps seriously.

Still, the Thinker was once human, once filled with the fleshy bits of sentient life. Emotion, hunger, fatigue, sexual desire... the Thinker has forsaken all of it for a chance at an eternal life. Still, that life has been robbed from the Thinker by the nature of the Equation, an idea that runs through every inch of fiber optic cable in America. In many ways, the Thinker is now a complete prisoner, a victim of his own hubris, forced to exist in a tiny box (of course, that box being Z'onn Z'orr). For my money, his constant irritation and enjoyment of frustrating others is entirely reasonable. He's only human after all.

For all of the various computer minds in the campaign, so many of the endearing ones are learning to be human, fresh into the universe of independent thought. We have Starsa, Tomorrow Woman, Aria on some level. The Thinker is the opposite, a retort to the ever-optimistic notion that if we could just TEACH them to love, our computers would desire nothing else than to be human. Here's a human that, simply put, has done the math. He realizes that there is no chance for a human unmodified to ever achieve the heights of those servile beings it constructs. Thus, Clifford DeVoe became the Thinker - perhaps the last of his kind, the last thinking being on the planet, if Darkseid gets his way.

Thinker is so great to have around. He was so dynamite early on - it is a little sad how he doesn't quite get showcased as much, but he still is used so much. Might be one of if not the most present NPC's out-of-session.

*gasp*

Thinker really is great, he can pop in at any time, and he's just so confident in himself and whatever he thinks being right.

It's hard to tell when he's chastising someone and when he's just...stating what to him is the obvious.

Forgot to mention, the next one's an undrafted mention!

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

It's hard to tell when he's chastising someone and when he's just...stating what to him is the obvious.

Why not both?

T'inker is consistently great

scarletspeed7 posted...

Forgot to mention, the next one's an undrafted mention!

Hoping for Donna Troy. Seeing a space mention pop up will give me some hope Sinestro was the right call

#89 - Tex Thompson
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/3/2/AAUHRBAAEW8E.jpg
This one is a deep cut for even the players, so I'll try my best to explain.

Harry "Tex" Thompson was a blonde-haired boy who struck it rich in the oil fields of Texas. Instead of a future as a rich oil baron, Thomson decided to seek a more adventurous lifestyle and traveled the world as Mister America. Thompson gained prominence as a mysteryman and even earned a position in the All-Star Squadron. Thompsons life forever changed when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called upon him to undergo intensive training to become a special commando and secret agent behind enemy lines. For this mission, he was codenamed Americommando. For the remaining years of the war, Thompson was aimed to rise through the ranks of the Nazi Party and gain the confidence of Hitler in an effort to assassinate him. This would culminate in the 1945 siege of Berlin, where Thompson infiltrated Hitlers bunker and killed him. Returning home, he was lauded Americas greatest hero and became a senator with presidential aspirations. Tex organized a program to defend the United States from the Soviet menace, an effort that would rally Robotman, the Atom and Dan The Dyna-Mite Dunbar to his cause and kickstart the Atomic Era in Cold War America. Among other long-standing efforts Thompson produced was the Area 51 project.

As Thompson grew in popularity, he also developed an animosity for those mysterymen who refused to unmask for the public interest. Thompson would ultimately co-chair the House Un-American Activities Committee alongside Joe McCarthy, and during the hearings that would see the Justice Society refuse to unmask, Thompson would wind up dead under mysterious circumstances right at the height of his presidential campaign. Thompsons body was found in a seedy area outside of Washington, strangled to death and badly bruised and beaten, part of one of the strange what if that litter the history books. With this scandal brewing, the Justice Society would temporarily disband in order to avoid connection to the mysterious death of their one-time ally.

Now, the mystery of Tex Thompson to me is one of the best little side stories in the campaign. So far, the tale is only woven into the characters of the Golden Age. People like Iron Munro, Sandra Knight and the like. Thompson is a relic of the past - his death put a nail in the coffin of the anti-Communist hysteria of post-war America. For me, this era of comics history is fascinating; mirroring the continuity of the DCU, comics at the time were suffering from the same rabid morality policing thanks to the book Seduction of the Innocent, which was fueling a hysteria suggesting that superheroes turned children into fetish-crazed, sex-crazed hooligans. In many ways, we've never really moved past this sort of dull, oft-retrodden refrain, in every movement in mass pop media. Comics nearly died off forever, and all but a few superheroes escaped the Comics Code Authority's purge of superheroes - including the sad but unstoppable demise of the JSA's comics at the time. So the death of the Justice Society? It also happened in the real world. It's the tale of HUAC, but spun through the eyes of the mysteryman I so richly adore in modern comics now. A story that's largely open and shut, but still a curiosity. How did Thompson die? Why did he turn on the team that created him, essentially - brothers in the All-Star Squadron?

Well, the story has recently developed. You see, in Area 51, Eve Manners revealed the tale of the predecessor to the shadowy UFO storage bunker. Area 50 was a much different beast than its tiny little cousin. The scope was wide, the efforts and initiatives dark and disturbing. In fact, the lead scientist, Randall Dowling, put together a body of work that traces a line directly to Darkseid's Anti-Life Equation, his Warhounds and more. And who saw to the funding of Area 50? Why it was Tex Thompson, of course. And who was at the site during its most egregious human experiments? Why it was Robotman - the same Robotman who is suffering from an unusual case of sensory deprivation-caused dementia. the same Robotman who was the first to stand at Tex Thompson's side decades earlier.

Tex Thompson to Darkseid. There's only one hop between them, and Eve Manners has brought that to light.

It all comes back around, you see. And just as relevant to the story in the present is this forgotten tale of the past, with long-reaching tendrils that snake right into the save haven of Z'onn Z'orr, a fortress that is protecting itself from the stormy present. But can it stave off the ghosts of the past? That's the real question.

Tex Thompson. An American patriot? Maybe. Or maybe he was a villain with incalculable vision.

#88 is a drafted character - someone's second to fall!

I feel bad about not thinking of Tex, because he's connected to my talks with Sandra, who I adore!

I certainly never would have guessed him.

Mostly because I didn't know who he even was before I read that post!

also PAUL LINCOLN AUGH

TotallyNotMI posted...

I certainly never would have guessed him.

Mostly because I didn't know who he even was before I read that post!

I hope you find a way to insert yourself into learning more about him - it's one of the stories I'm most excited to tell, given his connection to the Eve Manners story and one of the strangest time periods in American history.

Dang. I may have gotten to Tex in time, but I would have put Dowling before him. I'm surprised Tex is the only mention that has made the list that we did not pick and that Dowling doesn't rank. I have to think he's one of the 28 that missed, or that Tex and Eve will be enough to mark his story as far as this top 100 is concerned.

Scar mentioned that we (though it was directed at War) wouldn't guess who it was which was people still speculating someone huge that that wouldn't be among the top 10 guesses that he'd make. I pretty much said in response "I highly doubt it's going to be something like that. It's going to be someone we either don't even realize is a character." Even that was wrong, but I was closer than the likes of suggesting Donna Troy or some other thoughts.

WickIebee posted...

suggesting Donna Troy

why are you firing shots at me wickle

Because I didn't remember War's guess while I remembered yours.

Very interesting how Tex connects to historical events, both in game and outside of it. Cool writeup, history rocks!

FYI - I'm extremely busy over Easter weekend, so I may not get to any write-ups Friday-Sunday, thought I'll try my best.

It strikes me that we may yet see Tex Thompson in the campaign, through Kid Eternity

I was thinking Storyline

#88 - Eclipso
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/3/1/AAUHRBAAEXFb.jpg
There are two sides to the Eclipso coin, two joining paths which have come together to form one of the most influential and terrifying enemies in this campaign.

Eclipso was once the original spirit of wrath, operating in the name of the Presence. But after his drive proved to be motivated by anger rather than vengeance, Eclipso was replaced by the angel Aztar, who had become the angel of death as punishment for Aztars role in the fall of Lucifer. The Spectre, anointed as the new Spirit of Vengeance, trapped the physical form of Eclipso within the black diamond known as the Heart of Darkness, and Eclipso languished for untold eons before his diamond prison was shattered into a thousand pieces and spread around the world, or so the story goes.

Jean Loring was the girlfriend and later wife of the Atom, Ray Palmer. Their union was not a happy one, and after their divorce, Jean had a mental breakdown. Obsessed with getting her old life back, Jean began to plot a ruthless but elegant system wherein Ray would be forced to protect her from an unseen evil targeting the loved ones of the Satellite Era Justice League. However, a crucial misstep while inside of Sue Dibnys brain (using one of Rays own belts as a weapon) left Sue dead. In her haste to cover things up, Jean found herself sinking into further and further depths of depravity, nearly murdering Lois Lane and leaving others dead or injured - from Captain Boomerang to Jack Drake to Firestorm. Ultimately, Ralph Dibny and the Justice League bright Jean to justice, imprisoning the psychotically obsessed ex-wife of the Atom in Arkham.

While in Arkham, Eclipso's diamond found its way into Jean's cell, and soon the broken mind of Jean Loring became corrupted by Eclipso - not in the way that Eclipso possesses others to do their bidding. No. Instead, their formed a strange hybridization, a corporate partnership of one body and one mind, fully aware of both halves of this twisted, dark journey that has brought two together as one. Jean Loring is a monster. An absolute monster. To speak of Jean to those who knew her best is to witness a reliving of abhorrence and shock, recalling just the lengths she was willing to go to be with her husband. And those who have fought Eclipso know what his power can cost others - Eclipso, in one night, killed a dozen superheroes, from Yolanda Montez to Doctor Midnight to Commander Steel.

These two forces of nature, driven together, have combined their ambitions into one - a desire from Eclipso to punish the Spectre, and the dream of Jean Loring to have an eternal companion. This has driven both to see the Spectre as a mate and a puppet, one that can be pushed to commit great atrocities through a tongue capable of plying will from any being - including Aztar himself. The Spectre is aimed to destroy all of magic, and following ever in his wake, the party has discovered Eclipso's minions picking over the carrion like vultures, and from the wreckage raising an army filled with unquestioning soldiers. The only hope to stop this multitude of moon-faced minions is to bring down Eclipso herself - and the only weakness Eclipso possesses is sunlight. Remember what's wrapped around planet, preventing anything from coming in or getting out?

Jean Loring. Eclipso. They're unstoppable. They have no weaknesses. And combined, they've created an unholy monster ready to eclipse the planet and reveal its darkness within.

Oh, and I should mention that Jean Loring also is in possession of "Sussudio" by Phil Collins. Like, the entire track. Any time it plays anywhere, the corruptive magics of Eclipso take hold and begin to launch their poisonous powers into the act of unmitigated destruction.

#87 went undrafted!

Fuck Eclipso. Fo' real, fuck that bitch.

For all the talk of Eclipso, since the first time we saw anything Eclipsed (like week 14), it wasn't until a couple weeks ago she showed for the first time.

It's been an unfolding plotline that's been a real pleasure to experience.

Eclipso's debut session was one of my favorites and it was, what, last month? They've been such a frightening presence for so long and then when we finally met her face to face I was legit terrified thinking of how she could so easily kill us if she desired.

I think she truly expected Plastic Man to finish us off though. She told Brennus that she doesn't expect the two of them will meet again. I look forward to when we do.

I also think she can place much, much higher than this as she gets more appearances.

I also don't know what about it has captured my attention so much. It might just be that I was the one to collect Bruce Gordon's journal back in week... 4 or 5? But I'm so invested it in.

Eclipso and Plastic Man were the two MI picks that I definitely scraped away from my mind due to them debuting after the list would have... essentially been cut-off. I still thought ignoring her debut that Eclipso could rank even essentially as a mention. We'll see about Plastic Man.

Eclipso is one of the slowest of slow burns, and it's been a treat.

scarletspeed7 posted...

Oh, and I should mention that Jean Loring also is in possession of "Sussudio" by Phil Collins. Like, the entire track. Any time it plays anywhere, the corruptive magics of Eclipso take hold and begin to launch their poisonous powers into the act of unmitigated destruction

Has Radio Tuner played that song?

Maniac64 posted...

Has Radio Tuner played that song?

No, but Batman Jones has.

Who dat?

#87 - Foal Fruntell
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/0/9/AAcguBAADmft.jpg
Oh! A ranking!

Foal Fruntell, Prince of the Skartaran unicorns, witnessed the death of his mother and disappearance of his father at the hands of Monsieur Mallah, given only the instructions to hide among the wild horse herds to the north, near Kaambuka. Thus, Fruntell, young and naive, waited with hope of his fathers return. However, it was a team of Checkmate agents who would come along, led by Rozetta, that would convince Fruntell to return with them to Zonn Zorr while they began the search for Fruntells father. Foal Fruntell now lives between the stables and the spring of Zonn Zorr, anxiously awaiting the return of Rose Admiral at all times.

Foal Fruntell IS Brennus. Or rather, when MI first pitched Brennus to me, what was conjured up in my mind was Foal Fruntell - a hearty, emotional horse that occasional has his prissier, fussier moments. Yet despite this, Foal Fruntell's wide-eyed optimism and breathless enjoyment of the world around him turns this young prince into a natural lover of life and adventurer. Foal Fruntell also shares Brennus' lack of perception to the point of being a grossly lethal friend to the human prince - Brennus often takes a skewering from a poorly-placed horn waved around at inopportune moments. And furthermore, like Brennus, Foal Fruntell is drawn to villains. For example, a small woolly ant called Evan the Evil became the target of Foal Fruntell's desire to create friendships and assist the common cause of Z'onn Z'orr, and for hours, Foal Fruntell would prance around and try to show Evan the errors of his evil ways. Of course, Evan was Data 7 at his smallest size - which Foal Fruntell did not recognize. Evan had also left about ten minutes into the conversation, so an unfortunate loss on Foal Fruntell's part.

Fruntell's comedic personality might be one of my favorite sources of humor I get to present in the campaign. Few PCs are ever too mean to the dear, sweet unicorn prince, but there is a lot of deception carried out either at his expense or for his benefit. With a mission in mind, Fruntell is desperate to return to Skartaris and reunite with his father. However, no one wants to admit that the outlook in regards to that prospect is likely quite bleak. Those, Foal Fruntell has been jerked around gently, the goal being to run interference and prevent him from realizing his father might, in fact, be dead.

A tinge of tragedy painted into the edges of a largely comedic character in my mind ultimately creates a well-rounded little character. And combined with one of my personal favorite voices in the campaign, it's so easy to sink into the foal's persona at a moment's notice. Sure, there are more utility horses in the campaign - and Data 7 prefers Winged Victory, while Saoirse prefers Stormwind - but in my mind, the top tier equine of Z'onn Z'orr is and will forever be Foal Fruntell.

A drafted character comes in at #86.

Look, Foal Fruntell can't fly. And Victory is partnered with Shining Knight. It's not about preference, it's about pragmatism.

I need to make more time for...well, most characters, but especially Foal.

Oh, for those unaware, Roz'etta's latest talk with Foal involved her trying to teach him to be more careful with his horn, that he has used to ruin trees and nearly throats.

It was with mixed results, so when she returns to him again, it will be with a sheath as what I imagine to be the unicorn equivalent of training wheels.

I still love Foal Fruntell.

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

It was with mixed results, so when she returns to him again, it will be with a sheath as what I imagine to be the unicorn equivalent of training wheels.

This seems wise.

Cody11533 posted...

I still love Foal Fruntell.

This seems wise.

Foal would tell you all about how wise the Admiral is.

I wouldn't have predicted him on this list but I'm so glad he is!

How quickly did the characters realize Foal is like Brennus?

scarletspeed7 posted...

For example, a small woolly ant called Evan the Evil became the target of Foal Fruntell's desire to create friendships and assist the common cause of Z'onn Z'orr, and for hours, Foal Fruntell would prance around and try to show Evan the errors of his evil ways. Of course, Evan was Data 7 at his smallest size - which Foal Fruntell did not recognize. Evan had also left about ten minutes into the conversation, so an unfortunate loss on Foal Fruntell's part

Amazing.

I had multiple PMs in discord the night of that session telling me that they brought Unicorn Brennus back and that I had to go meet him.