Intro Thread (Read First)

[Eanwulf]

Ever wonder what it would be like to play a cosmic-level super hero? Yes, that’s right, an interstellar class super hero. Perhaps something akin to a member of the Green Lantern Corps or possibly even a colleague to Rom Space Knight? Maybe you’d prefer something along the lines of Shazam or Adam Warlock.

Answer yes? Then this may very well be the game for you!

Utilizing the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Core Rules by Margaret Weis Productions Ltd. and the frightening powers of My Sheer Imagination - I have come up with a game setting in which players are allowed the chance to play such powerful types of heroes.

Essentially, our game Starknight Academy will allow players to portray one of their home-world's "best" in a military academy styled setting. There they will undergo the trials and exams that will hopefully reward them with the title of Starknight and a chance to join the galaxy's finest known order of law-keepers and protectors in the Universe!

[Eanwulf]

Hey True Believers...

I wanted to take the time to welcome each of you to our game and describe what it is exactly that we are to expect from this day forward going into it all.

Please allow me to begin...

Starknight Academy is going to be a Marvel Heroic Roleplaying campaign, in which you shall start off as an up-and-coming “Cosmic Level” superhero. The premise is quite simple; your characters shall start off as members of the academy itself and go through the day to day life of their rapidly approaching Final Exams. Think of it as the first remake of Star Trek, where everyone meets up at Starfleet Academy. Some of you forge new friendships, whereas others make bitter rivalries, and some even simply go-with-the-flow and do what it takes to get a passing grade and undergo the final (and rather brutal) series of testing to become a full fledged Starknight and gain their assignment to a Starbase of their very own.

Our game shall initially begin as a brief though enjoyable series of posting to help us each get a feel for A) Our characters, B) The NPCs of the game, and C) The Academy itself. Here we shall learn how everyone gets to become friends and rivals with one another in addition to the end result of an adventurous fade-out to the later times spent learning how to become a virtuous soldier and upholder of the cosmic law.

It is here in the second stage of our adventure, players shall undergo the final weeks of their testing and if successful, they will ultimately undertake a graduation celebration and receive their orders to report to a new base of operations as a newly assigned law-keeper within the Starknights’ organization itself. What happens along the way should hopefully be quite entertaining!

Once players have become an actual "Starknight" they will then begin their journey into the wild and exotic Universe, each day testing their mettle on a whole new level. I hope to throw some crazy adversaries and story arcs at you all and use what happens in the beginning of our story to come to the head of a rather explosive scenario that I've been thinking about for over several years now. Once it all does come to a boil however, the sky's the limit as to what you guys do next!
Overall, I want Starknight Academy to feel like a living comic book in which YOU, the players, help color its pages with heartfelt episodes and stories. I shall do my best to poke and prod you all individually for ideas and suggestions as to what you'd like to experience individually as a hero and then provide a virtual Bounty List of the Galaxy's "Most Wanted" to go after. In the end, I hope we each have a good time and work together to keep the curse of a super heroes game far…far…far… away from this forum!

Most sincerely and more to come as able,

Eanwulf

[Eanwulf]

Preliminary Thoughts

Character creation in Marvel Heroic Roleplaying is concept driven as opposed to mechanics driven. What this means in English is that the character concept is key and you're not limited by any pool of points or "power slots". You come up with a character concept first then work out how to model it using the mechanics of the game and our own specialized “Crunch & Fluff” factors.

The more effort you put into making the concept in the first place, the easier it is to make a character. A vague, one sentence description is much harder to model (because you can't pin down specifics) than a concept that is a couple of multi-sentence paragraphs. I find that, at bare minimum, three paragraphs are needed and this is my attempt to help provide a focus for those players who have a deer-in-the-headlights reaction to Marvel's concept driven character modeling style. This is not the only way to go about doing it, but I think it can help focus players that are struggling to formulate a coherent concept.

Paragraph 1: Who Am I?
This is easily the shortest paragraph, and probably the easiest to come up with. Its the character blurb, the bit that encapsulates the character without going into too much detail. You don't need to worry about powers or abilities at this stage.

Paragraph 2: What Sort of Person Am I?
This paragraph mainly concerns itself with the personality, motivations and how other people may see your character. As far as perceptions of you are concerned, "character" can either refer to your hero identity or your secret identity (if you have one). This paragraph can also be used to establish the "hero" part of superhero.

Paragraph 3: What Can I Do?
This is the meat of the character, the part that makes a superhero "super". Here is where you describe what powers and abilities your character as. Not just what they can do, but also what they can't do. Remember, Marvel uses very broad power traits (such as "Attack") and it is the SFX and Limits of a Power Set (as well as the "fluff" description") that distinguishes one hero's Attack power from another.

Answer each of these three questions in a simple-to-read 2-4 sentence paragraph and you should be ready enough to move on to character creation.

[Eanwulf]

Know Your Role

One of the first major steps in our character creation process is to define your role and overall character concept. One’s role is pretty much their profession and abilities lent to the group in some manner or fashion, as well as what you expect their primary (and even secondary/tertiary) functions to be in said group. One’s concept would then define such a role further by going into the character’s past and general background in a much greater detail.

Now in past superhero games, one’s role was generally labeled to be their character’s archetype; ranging from City of Heroes’ Blasters, Controllers, Defenders, Scrappers, and Tankers to Mutants & Masterminds’ Power Houses, Speedsters, Battle Suits, and Shapeshifters. Overall however, the end result is usually the same and your character is meant to either: Take DPS/Inflict DPS/Perform DEFFENSIVE Utilities/Perform OFFENSIVE Utilities.

The bottom line here is that knowing one’s role in the group helps to avoid stepping on any of the other party member’s toes (creation-wise) and likewise helps to know just what bases are covered in the group as balance is always good!

EXAMPLE
I want to make a genetically altered super soldier who primarily acts as the group’s protector by jumping in front of harm’s way and tossing/distracting/engaging opposition to provide his teammates an opportunity to find safety if they need it or a better position on the battlefield. His Role & Concept could/would then be that of a Power House/Tanker type.

[Eanwulf]

Having ranted long enough, I want you to HEAD TO THE CHARACTER CREATION SECTION of the forum and start learning how to put a toon together.