[Nexus] OOC 37: What Goes Here Again?

[GrandDM]

Here's the thing. 'Enough strength to shatter a planet with an errant footstep' is Superman-level strength. Not sure if you keep up with the comics, but he does stuff like that these days.

Ah.

Ok.

I don't keep up with the comics, so I really had no idea that Superman has become even more OP than before. In that case, toning down the strength is definitely a good idea. However, I stick to all the other stuff I mentioned in my earlier explaining what I meant / ranting that you bypassed me post.

[Beans]

Hopefully you can see the linked Mythweaver sheet in Meddy's rebooted profile, because when you look at it you'll probably hear a celery-like crunch.

[Lady Serpentine]

Seeing as statting characters is apparently a thing now...

(May produce a PF version of Lellienth later, since that is mostly what's been being done, but a future-tech mercenary just didn't really work for that.)

[ThirdEmperor]

I think all of my characters have enough weird stuff that they couldn't be started, at least not in D&D. Except maybe the Cat Burglar... Who would probably be something like a high-to-medium level Expert.


Also, C'Nor, I'm still waiting on you in the Nest. Any particular reason you haven't responded?

[Lady Serpentine]

That would be because I can't seem to remember anything anymore. >.>

[GrandDM]

That would be because I can't seem to remember anything anymore. >.>

Including the plot we had going between Shadow and Mayhala. Could you respond please? This is my latest post.

[Lady Serpentine]

Including the plot we had going between Shadow and Mayhala. Could you respond please? This is my latest post.

Oh, right. Meant to ask about that... What might Mayhala have been able to sense about what happened when he opened that portal? Also, where do you want the reply to go, and how is he going to be sensing if she goes to her arena or just drops back into the Nexus?

[GrandDM]

Oh, right. Meant to ask about that... What might Mayhala have been able to sense about what happened when he opened that portal? Also, where do you want the reply to go, and how is he going to be sensing if she goes to her arena or just drops back into the Nexus?

Well, the Darkness is halfway between realms - if life is heads and death is tails, then the Darkness is the edge of the coin. All shadows are doorways to the Darkness, and all shadows are part of it.

When the portal opened, and for as long as it remains open, Mayhala will feel a tugging on her shadow-half, as the Darkness attempts to draw in the shadow-stuff. The actual opening is not magical, and the portal emanates no magic and no power - in fact it has no energy signature whatsoever - but Mayhala, because of the shadow-half, can understand how it works when any ordinary mage would be baffled.

Essentially, the doorway is not actually a doorway. It's simply the three-dimensional representation of the link between all shadows; it allows anyone to enter the Darkness. (Mayhala, if she spends a bit of time thinking and practicing, should now be able to open a shadow-door on her own).

As to how Shadow would know about where she goes, all shadows are linked, and Shadow is a shadow. He is linked to the Darkness, and thus to all shadows, and so he can see, hear and travel through them.

Hopefully that's clear

-DM

*EDIT*
If you stay in Shadowside, stay in the Inside thread. If you go through the portal, follow the Darkness link in my signature.

[Lady Serpentine]

Hm... Mayhala will be staying, then. Anything that tries to pull her in is not something she wants to go through.

As for opening shadow-doors, she can already jump between shadows, and take people with her to Shadowside. The Darkness, however, is a complete unknown to her, as it has no counterpart in her universe, nor is she inclined to study/experiment with something she sees as trying to eat her.

That also renders the shadow spirit, and shadows she's influencing, including the territory she has claimed, immune to that sort of passive scrying. Actively attempting to look for her may or may not work, and would come with the risk of detection.

[GrandDM]

Hm... Mayhala will be staying, then. Anything that tries to pull her in is not something she wants to go through.

As for opening shadow-doors, she can already jump between shadows, and take people with her to Shadowside. The Darkness, however, is a complete unknown to her, as it has no counterpart in her universe, nor is she inclined to study/experiment with something she sees as trying to eat her.

That also renders the shadow spirit, and shadows she's influencing, including the territory she has claimed, immune to that sort of passive scrying. Actively attempting to look for her may or may not work, and would come with the risk of detection.

Fair enough. It's up to you to post for the Arena in the Inside thread, then. However, Shadow is currently at Mithar Keep attempting to retrieve part of his essence, so he may not arrive for a few days (real-time).

I'll get him over there as soon as possible, though.

-DM

[ThirdEmperor]

Uh, how are portals to a dimension of darkness not magical? Because that sounds a lot like magic to me.

[Lady Serpentine]

Fair enough. It's up to you to post for the Arena in the Inside thread, then. However, Shadow is currently at Mithar Keep attempting to retrieve part of his essence, so he may not arrive for a few days (real-time).

I'll get him over there as soon as possible, though.

-DM

She... May choose not to go to the Arena. Mayhala is, not without a certain amount of justification, paranoid. Shadow just opened a portal that, to her mind, is trying to eat her/pull her into someplace she can't choose to leave. He also is extraordinarily powerful, so far as she can tell.

This does not make her inclined to duel him, at least not without significant preparations.

That said, she'll dispatch a few of her tougher people there to keep an eye on things and let him know she's doing other things, should he show up before she's done...

[GrandDM]

She... May choose not to go to the Arena. Mayhala is, not without a certain amount of justification, paranoid. Shadow just opened a portal that, to her mind, is trying to eat her/pull her into someplace she can't choose to leave. He also is extraordinarily powerful, so far as she can tell.

This does not make her inclined to duel him, at least not without significant preparations.

That said, she'll dispatch a few of her tougher people there to keep an eye on things and let him know she's doing other things, should he show up before she's done...

That... could get interesting. Hopefully in a good way, depending on whether 'tougher people' means 'trusted soldiers' or 'nasty thugs'.

Uh, how are portals to a dimension of darkness not magical? Because that sounds a lot like magic to me.

I believe I mentioned that the door is not actually there? It's simply a three-dimensional rationalisation of the link between all shadows and the Darkness that Shadow conjures to allow mortal guests to enter, because they can't use the link as it stands (except in a very few rare cases, and even then they invent their own rationalisations).

Ergo, it is not magical, merely a visualisation of one of the fundamental parts of the universe.

[Lady Serpentine]

That... could get interesting. Hopefully in a good way, depending on whether 'tougher people' means 'trusted soldiers' or 'nasty thugs'.

Well... They're creepy shadow-monsters. So the lines are kind of blurry. But more towards the former.

[happyturtle]

Oh. I wanted to ask for advice on how many layers to use!

Head for the Arts and Crafts forum, stat. They'll give you all sorts of avatar help and answer all your questions.

[Recaiden]

Uh, how are portals to a dimension of darkness not magical? Because that sounds a lot like magic to me.

When they're Science!

Spoiler

Show

An avatar(ish) of Clegg! I'm trying my hand at doing these.. Not too great yet.

You'll want to use the same thickness for all your lines, barring weird special cases. You'll probably want to curve then ends of your lines. One layer is sufficient for me when I'm using a vector program, but with a pixel-based drawing I use 4 or 5.

[BladeofObliviom]

I think all of my characters have enough weird stuff that they couldn't be started, at least not in D&D. Except maybe the Cat Burglar... Who would probably be something like a high-to-medium level Expert.

This is why I use GURPS whenever I feel the need to come up with stats. Coincidentally, Cyrus is a 1000-point character.

[Hattish Thing]

Mhm. So, GrandDM. I guess we'll keep everything, but the blackfire, and tone down his strength? That would be good! Not keeping the blackfire because it's a listed ability of another OPed character. (Maybe they'll meet one day!) So, post in that timeline!

[happyturtle]

Just to jump in on a conversation that's mostly over - The blightning / blackfire thing is obviously your choice, GrandDM, but there are a couple of things to consider.

If someone looked at Cyrus and thought 'I know! I'll make a character that has his blightning ability' that wouldn't be very nice. But no one believes that's what has happened here. You came up with an ability that sounded neat to you, and it happened to have also been an ability that Blade of Obliviom came up with some time ago that sounded neat to him.

In this case, there's no such thing as 'dibs' in the Nexus. If you came up with that ability yourself, then you have the right to play it. The unusual thing is really that Cyrus has been the only one with that ability for so long. Usually people independently come up with power overlaps all the time.

From the Nexus FAQ:

Oh no! Someone's already using my character concept!
In the Nexus, all cosmologies are true. Just because someone is playing the incarnation of Death doesn't mean you can't as well. You are very unlikely to come up with a character concept that is wholly unique while remaining playable; there is nothing new under the sun, and so on.

Sometimes you'll say 'I just came up with a great character idea - they have x race and y abilities and z backstory and I'll call her Linda' and someone will say 'You mean like my character Lynda over there that I introduced last week?' No one really knows why these sort of coincidences occur, but the Nexus seems especially prone to them. When they do, the best thing to do is to look at your character concept and figure out what makes yours unique.

[BladeofObliviom]

If someone looked at Cyrus and thought 'I know! I'll make a character that has his blightning ability' that wouldn't be very nice. But no one believes that's what has happened here. You came up with an ability that sounded neat to you, and it happened to have also been an ability that Blade of Obliviom came up with some time ago that sounded neat to him.

It should probably be noted that my words appear to have gotten a little bit jumbled up, since this wasn't really my issue with it. I wasn't annoyed so much by a character having a similar ability; what I was annoyed by was the fact that it sort of disregards balance entirely in addition to stomping hard on my character's toes.

Blightning has sort of been established as Cyrus' signature spell, thus implying that he's, you know, good at it. On top of the fact that he's generally rather powerful overall, at least in his chosen fields of unstable, entropic, and "dark" magic, that also sort of implies that he's REALLY good at it. In fact, he's sort of implied to be among the most powerful sorcerers in the known universe when he takes the kiddie gloves off.

Thus, it's sort of bothersome when somebody else adds something onto a long list of powerful abilities that amounts to "your favorite ability, but stronger, more versatile, and very slightly changed by making it fire-themed".

I'm not nearly so jealous as to go "No! Nobody can have these abilities that I've called dibs on!", but that particular execution bothered me enough that I felt the need to say something. There's nothing saying that he can't have a power along those lines, but short of a character with actual godhood whom you never intend to put in a fight anyway, I wouldn't recommend making them much more powerful than Cyrus. He's already pushing it, honestly.

[happyturtle]

I'm sure they did get jumbled, since I didn't go back and re-read the argument before I posted.

But even with your explanation, other players will always have the right to make OP characters.* However much any of us might wish to play the one PC who is the best at something, someone else can still come along and say 'Oh yeah? Well I can do that EVEN BETTER, while catching bullets in my teeth and playing a harp concerto with my toes.'

Personally, I'd prefer if it people would just be satisfied playing medium to low powered characters. But since that isn't going to happen, it's best to let everyone play what they want.





*And other players will have the right to remonstrate with those who do so.

**And the original OP players have the right to say 'Okay, I heard your objections, but I'm playing my PC the way I want.'

[GrandDM]

Ok, all fair enough. The stepping-on-Cyrus'-toes-with-blackfire thing is news to me; I don't even know who Cyrus is, so apologies for that.

Madhatter: I've posted.

Everyone else: Sorry again.

[Deathkeeper]

With my track record I'm not even going to try to figure it out (and get it wrong for a third time.)
Whose turn is it in Trog's?

[ThePhantom]

So, who would be interesting in a plot regarding a storm of a century, aka a really massive thunderstorm sweeping over the nexus? All it is, is just a big storm and people's reactions to it. Just a little something I think might be fun.

[Darkcomet]

Personally I wouldn't be for reasons related to 1, not being able to do much about it, 2, being kind of bleh on disaster relief with NPCs type stuff, and also 3) because I like keeping my flying aircraft carrier free to use.

[Morcleon]

*pokes Bushranger/Reinholdt to Sekrit Lab*

*pokes Firefox to Infirmary +*

So, who would be interesting in a plot regarding a storm of a century, aka a really massive thunderstorm sweeping over the nexus? All it is, is just a big storm and people's reactions to it. Just a little something I think might be fun.

I would. I could bring out a character idea I've had simmering for a while.

Personally I wouldn't be for reasons related to 1, not being able to do much about it, 2, being kind of bleh on disaster relief with NPCs type stuff, and also 3) because I like keeping my flying aircraft carrier free to use.

2. I think most of the disaster relief will be carried out by NPCs and stuff.
3. Fly it above the storm!

[ThirdEmperor]

Is this going to end being part of Gordon's schemes? Because it sounds suspiciously like the sort of thing he'd get up to.

[ThePhantom]

Personally I wouldn't be for reasons related to 1, not being able to do much about it, 2, being kind of bleh on disaster relief with NPCs type stuff, and also 3) because I like keeping my flying aircraft carrier free to use.

1 that's kind of the point, if you could just get rid of the storm, what would be the point of having it? 2 you don't have to do much with the relief. 3 well isn't normal that there would be bad weather every once in a while?

Is this going to end being part of Gordon's schemes? Because it sounds suspiciously like the sort of thing he'd get up to.

Oh, he'll use it I'll admit, but he isn't the cause of the storm. Its just a natural storm. Any one could use it for all kind of things.

[Darkcomet]

I know, that's the point. I don't really like having to do stuff when I can't do a single thing about it. Personal preference.

Also I run a good chunk of NPCs myself sooo yeah.

[horngeek]

Brianna could be part of the disaster relief, especially as part of a Watchtower mission.