Post by dorkknight23 on Apr 17, 2020 9:03:08 GMT -5
Like many superhero teams the Guardian’s lineup has had many shakeups and changes over the years. Your characters joined at different times, alongside others who’ve come and gone, whether these pre-existing Marvel characters or an original one of your own design. (I’m not asking for full CADs for these in favor of a choice of one of more of the team role categories {Close Fighter, Ranged Fighter, Master (Type), Scout, Support, Other} and a rough description.) Although people come and go, the lessons and experiences they left with you are part of the history of the team forever, and there should be no reason to assume that a character from one era might have interacted with an earlier team member unless it's more dramatically expedient otherwise. I reserve the right to veto any concepts and any canon PC Guardians (although I also decided against a set list of approved ones as well). For each character that gets suggested and applied that you came up with, you can also pick another NPC-Guardian to have a relationship with, and I've provided three options to get that rolling. Not setting any limit on the number of these people come up with please don't make me regret that decision.
The only guidelines I can really think of in terms of concept are to stay appropriate to the historical era the comics were published, avoiding anything that would be in especially poor taste (i.e. racist, overly sexual etc.), not pulling from characters who would be too powerful or too central to other teams to justify having a prominent spotlight on The Guardians (someone on the scale of power and prominence as The Thing, for example, should not be a Guardian, but someone like Moon Knight not only definitely could but I've decided briefly was). For the purposes of this exercise beyond aesthetics ignore any differences in Reserve or Probationary membership from full membership (Moon Knight, for example, would have been a Reserve member but beyond the flavor of the game that’s irrelevant).
Former-Guardian-NPC’s can fall into one of these broad categories for any one player at any one time, and the benefits they could provide for you:
1) personal (good friend, family, significant other, etc.): In addition to being their own reward, you can reference a personal contact you had once an issue as basically a free +2 sit mod to a single action. (1 time/issue, 1 reference/issue no matter how many of these you have, 1 +2 sit mod.) You can also purchase Social Skills (or similar social actions like Leadership/Statecraft, etc.) at a 1/2 cost discount (5/AN instead of 10/AN).
2) mentor/student: in the most basic terms, teaches you something or you learn something applicable from them. For actions with specialties, you may take a specialty to indicate you were trained by that NPC, and any one relevant specialty that NPC has could be used at half-efficiency (generally as a +1 sit mod). If the characters have overlapping actions and the NPC has a higher AN, you may instead improve that action for 5 LOE instead of 10. If the player has a higher AN, he instead purchase all options for that action at half AN cost with one exception: Ability Bonuses cost 20 LOE if the ability is above 2 (...if, for any reason, a character wants to buy an Ability bonus for an ability at 1 it would be just 10 LOE in this instance although I see no reason why to.)
3) professional contact (to another superhero team, government agency, church, other organization, etc.): you were also a former member of the same organization the NPC is (which can be added to Teams on your CAD). Organization benefits will vary, but include easy access to specialties or certain limited actions, an increase to personal Wealth (with a proportionate “In Debt To (Organization)” Challenge, capped at 3), custom equipment (either traded for with Wealth or the above “In Debt to (Organization)” Challenge or a combination thereof,) or other benefits approved by the GM. Organizations may have different or conflicting goals related to the task at hand.
4) rival/frenemy: not a friend, but not quite an enemy, often someone who pushed you to be the best. May be anti-heroic, might not be. You may take a new Rival challenge to reflect this relationship, the stronger the challenge the more likely they’d present a distraction, scaled from 1-3. These stones can be spent like normal challenge stones. You also get the same free +2 sit mod to a single action once an issue that personal relationships get.
Captain Conduit (Status: Currently Unknown) (Ranged Fighter/Scout/Master (Electricity))
Ghost Train (Deceased) (Close Fighter/Support)
Moon Knight (Close Fighter/Ranged Fighter/Scout/Support)
Roster Overview (years approximate) (Edit as of: 4/17/20)
Silver Age 1963-1970
PC Recruits: Flypaper (not a founding member, but treated as one retroactively like Captain America)
Founding Members: Ghost Train, ??,Xenmu the Hulk
Other Recruits: Captain Conduit, ??
Bronze Age 1970-1980
PC Era Recruits: Raijin, Shimmer, Wildfire (Reserve Membership)
Other Recruits: ??
Dark Age 1980-1995
PC Era Recruits: Infra-Red, Jack-in-the-Box, Wildfire (Full-Membership)
Other Recruits: Moon Knight (Reserve Member; quit prior to Onslaught)
2020 Revival Line-Up:
Flypaper, Infra-Red, Jack-In-The-Box, Raijin, Shimmer, Wildfire (Leader)
The only guidelines I can really think of in terms of concept are to stay appropriate to the historical era the comics were published, avoiding anything that would be in especially poor taste (i.e. racist, overly sexual etc.), not pulling from characters who would be too powerful or too central to other teams to justify having a prominent spotlight on The Guardians (someone on the scale of power and prominence as The Thing, for example, should not be a Guardian, but someone like Moon Knight not only definitely could but I've decided briefly was). For the purposes of this exercise beyond aesthetics ignore any differences in Reserve or Probationary membership from full membership (Moon Knight, for example, would have been a Reserve member but beyond the flavor of the game that’s irrelevant).
Former-Guardian-NPC’s can fall into one of these broad categories for any one player at any one time, and the benefits they could provide for you:
1) personal (good friend, family, significant other, etc.): In addition to being their own reward, you can reference a personal contact you had once an issue as basically a free +2 sit mod to a single action. (1 time/issue, 1 reference/issue no matter how many of these you have, 1 +2 sit mod.) You can also purchase Social Skills (or similar social actions like Leadership/Statecraft, etc.) at a 1/2 cost discount (5/AN instead of 10/AN).
2) mentor/student: in the most basic terms, teaches you something or you learn something applicable from them. For actions with specialties, you may take a specialty to indicate you were trained by that NPC, and any one relevant specialty that NPC has could be used at half-efficiency (generally as a +1 sit mod). If the characters have overlapping actions and the NPC has a higher AN, you may instead improve that action for 5 LOE instead of 10. If the player has a higher AN, he instead purchase all options for that action at half AN cost with one exception: Ability Bonuses cost 20 LOE if the ability is above 2 (...if, for any reason, a character wants to buy an Ability bonus for an ability at 1 it would be just 10 LOE in this instance although I see no reason why to.)
3) professional contact (to another superhero team, government agency, church, other organization, etc.): you were also a former member of the same organization the NPC is (which can be added to Teams on your CAD). Organization benefits will vary, but include easy access to specialties or certain limited actions, an increase to personal Wealth (with a proportionate “In Debt To (Organization)” Challenge, capped at 3), custom equipment (either traded for with Wealth or the above “In Debt to (Organization)” Challenge or a combination thereof,) or other benefits approved by the GM. Organizations may have different or conflicting goals related to the task at hand.
4) rival/frenemy: not a friend, but not quite an enemy, often someone who pushed you to be the best. May be anti-heroic, might not be. You may take a new Rival challenge to reflect this relationship, the stronger the challenge the more likely they’d present a distraction, scaled from 1-3. These stones can be spent like normal challenge stones. You also get the same free +2 sit mod to a single action once an issue that personal relationships get.
Captain Conduit (Status: Currently Unknown) (Ranged Fighter/Scout/Master (Electricity))
Mastery of Electricity 7 (cannot create, only manipulate; absorb energy at AN, accumulate energy, force blast) Flight 2; Close Combat 2, Technology 2, Thieving 3
Ghost Train (Deceased) (Close Fighter/Support)
Powered Armor (Humanoid Form/Train Form); PA Blasting (Train form only) 0/5, PA Manipulate Body Density 5, PA Ghost Whistle (as Fear) 4, Transform Self (Humanoid/Train forms); Wealth (6), Leadership 5, Social Skills 5, Close Combat 3 (Hand-to-Hand, Powered Armor Combat, Use of Powers in Combat)
Ghost Train
Milo Manderbach IV
"That’s the end of line for you, evil-doer! All aboard, for justice! Choo-choo!"
Milo Manderbach IV was the heir of the Manderbach shipping empire, a childhood friend of Warren Worthington III, a wild-eyed eccentric dreamer inspired by Reed Richards’ journey to the stars who spent millions creating a special interdimensional engine that would break through the fifth dimension beyond time and space. Soviet sabotage (from the superspy Ivan Menzikhov, later to become The Menace) disrupted the experiment, disintegrating Manderbach’s fiancee Elizabeth and fusing him to the engine. Now, whenever he blows the ghostly whistle chained around his neck, Manderbach can transform into Ghost Train. His armor has two forms, in addition to a base humanoid form it can also transform into a steam-spewing spectral locomotive that can rocket forward with furious speed. He can control his density to phase through objects (and move through non-Euclidean space) just as easily as he can become nigh-invulnerable to attack, and the hissing fifth-dimensional steam of his Ghost Whistle inspires fear in the hearts of evildoers.
After his near-death experience, Ghost Train dedicated his life to public service, which often put him in conflict with the interests his own fortune was bankrolling and those who wanted to use his unusual powers for their own ends. Ghost Train’s Rogues Gallery included The Menace, The Mad Conductor Loco Motive, General Diesel, and his ex-fiance Elizabeth, who later returned to an interdimensional half-life and diminishing sanity as Banshee Train.
Ghost Train was present at the founding of The Guardians, and went on to bankroll the team through many of its adventures. His underground station base became such an informal base for the team that it soon became their official one and he acted as de facto leader of the team through some incarnations, though just as often he tried to defer to others. He did his best to mentor the younger recruits and developed a reputation as something of an avuncular presence, and was team leader just prior to the team’s encounter with Onslaught. Ghost Train built and then sacrificed himself to launch The Guardian-Liner out of the world of Heroes Reborn to give his friends one more chance to return home.
Milo Manderbach IV
"That’s the end of line for you, evil-doer! All aboard, for justice! Choo-choo!"
Milo Manderbach IV was the heir of the Manderbach shipping empire, a childhood friend of Warren Worthington III, a wild-eyed eccentric dreamer inspired by Reed Richards’ journey to the stars who spent millions creating a special interdimensional engine that would break through the fifth dimension beyond time and space. Soviet sabotage (from the superspy Ivan Menzikhov, later to become The Menace) disrupted the experiment, disintegrating Manderbach’s fiancee Elizabeth and fusing him to the engine. Now, whenever he blows the ghostly whistle chained around his neck, Manderbach can transform into Ghost Train. His armor has two forms, in addition to a base humanoid form it can also transform into a steam-spewing spectral locomotive that can rocket forward with furious speed. He can control his density to phase through objects (and move through non-Euclidean space) just as easily as he can become nigh-invulnerable to attack, and the hissing fifth-dimensional steam of his Ghost Whistle inspires fear in the hearts of evildoers.
After his near-death experience, Ghost Train dedicated his life to public service, which often put him in conflict with the interests his own fortune was bankrolling and those who wanted to use his unusual powers for their own ends. Ghost Train’s Rogues Gallery included The Menace, The Mad Conductor Loco Motive, General Diesel, and his ex-fiance Elizabeth, who later returned to an interdimensional half-life and diminishing sanity as Banshee Train.
Ghost Train was present at the founding of The Guardians, and went on to bankroll the team through many of its adventures. His underground station base became such an informal base for the team that it soon became their official one and he acted as de facto leader of the team through some incarnations, though just as often he tried to defer to others. He did his best to mentor the younger recruits and developed a reputation as something of an avuncular presence, and was team leader just prior to the team’s encounter with Onslaught. Ghost Train built and then sacrificed himself to launch The Guardian-Liner out of the world of Heroes Reborn to give his friends one more chance to return home.
Moon Knight (Close Fighter/Ranged Fighter/Scout/Support)
Close Combat 5, Ranged Combat 4, Acrobatics 4, Black Ops 5, Vehicle Ops 3
See Spider-Man's Guide to New York for specialties etc.
Roster Overview (years approximate) (Edit as of: 4/17/20)
Silver Age 1963-1970
PC Recruits: Flypaper (not a founding member, but treated as one retroactively like Captain America)
Founding Members: Ghost Train, ??,
Other Recruits: Captain Conduit, ??
Bronze Age 1970-1980
PC Era Recruits: Raijin, Shimmer, Wildfire (Reserve Membership)
Other Recruits: ??
Dark Age 1980-1995
PC Era Recruits: Infra-Red, Jack-in-the-Box, Wildfire (Full-Membership)
Other Recruits: Moon Knight (Reserve Member; quit prior to Onslaught)
2020 Revival Line-Up:
Flypaper, Infra-Red, Jack-In-The-Box, Raijin, Shimmer, Wildfire (Leader)
