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[MURPG] Marvel Universe RPG X-Academy: Issues...I think we all have issues here!

samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
edited March 2011 in Critical Failures
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Marvel Universe Role-Playing Game: X-Academy
By Samurai6966

Today, with the passing of the Mutant Registration Act, we are one step closer to protecting life here in the United States and one step closer to a day when people can walk the streets without worrying if someone with laser eyes or powers of magnetism will wreak havoc on the streets of our country. This act will not be used to round up the mutants and collect them for study or some secret scientific research towards weapons of mass destruction, like conspiracy theorist have tried to lead us to believe with the “report” of the Weapon X project. No. This is so we can keep a watch on those mutants who misuse their powers. We shall open registration booths up in New...
-Senator Kelly in Washington D.C after the Act was passed.


The passing of the Mutant Registration Act was the first step. Soon other countries like England, Russia, Japan, France, and Germany pass similar bills. Some countries just wanted Registration, other turn towards creating “Zones” for mutants to live in away from the population. However, the United States stood by their guns and tried not to go to those extremes. Until the assassination attempt was made on Senator Kelly. After that, the U.S began to create Mutant Zones, concentration camps for mutants. The Thunderbolts, a group lead by the Norman Osborn was hired to find the mutants who wouldn't register. Norman Osborn was all too happy to follow this order as he made plans for the assault on the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters...


Marvel Universe RPG (MURPG) is a Role-Playing Game made by Marvel in 2003. It has two official expansions and one fan-made. Marvel stopped supporting the game in 2005 due to sales not being as high as DnD, and Marvel gaining a new CEO who saw it as a money waster. However, even today, the fan base for this game is large and very active. Fans are even designing a second edition. But enough about the background of the system, lets play it.

This game isn't under any certain time line so I may mix things between pre and post-Civil War and Secret Invasion. Your characters will be students at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. You will play a mutant between the ages of 13-18. You can play any preexisting characters from the series (Rogue, Iceman, Nightcrawler (X-men cartoon), ect.) But I rather not have anyone play Jean Gray, Cyclopes, Storm, and other “adult” and overpowered characters from the series. Original Characters will be chosen before others. Fair Warning. I'll explain more about combat and what not after we have some characters. I have a character builder here that will help with making characters. Now the character creation uses stones as points, red stones and white stones. 3 red stones = 1 white stone. You can use up to 40 white stones for character creation (minimum of 20.) When picking Actions, Advantages increase the cost of an action and disadvantages decrease the cost of an action. Modifiers are special passive powers that are always on (Like Spiderman's Spider Sense or Wolverine's Healing Factor) that require no energy stones to use. Once the game starts I'll explain more about Combat and what not. I'm wanting to try out a new thing on the site Infrno that is like Facebook, Skype, and Maptools all in one. That said, this ISN'T A PBP GAME so I'll like to hear if there is a time everyone can agree to meeting up. You don't need a webcam (I won't have one) but you do need a mic of some sort (Headsets would be nice so we don't have an echo effect going on.) Just post your characters here and we'll figure out how to but that info onto the Infrno site later. I'll decide later when sign ups closed. I'm looking for 4 players.

Important Game Terms
Panel- Standard unit of time that can pass in Marvel. Panels can be a few seconds or a few weeks. Normally they are long enough for one character to do one or two actions. However, every player's panel can occur simultaneously.

Flashback Panel- In a Flashback Panel a character recalls an event that relates to his current Action (like remembering a combination to a lock or something a villain said.) Flashback Panel interrupts the normal playing cycle and gives the character 1 free stone as a Situational Modifier. Only 1 Flashback Panel per Mission per Character.

Page- This is a collection of Panels. In other games, this is known as a round.

Mission- This is a collection of pages. This usually is called a session. For our purposes, we will call this an event (like chasing the Green Goblin down in NYC or fighting multiple groups of zombies so you can get to a space ship.)

Issue- This is a collection of Missions. An Issue will most likely be a day as far as time is concerned unless something happens.

Campaign- A story arc. In this game, the Mutant Registration Act and what you all will do to change, fight, or while running away will be considered our Story Arc. Campaigns can be a few weeks or can be over the course of years in the game world.

Energy Reserve- The total number of red stones of energy that are available for a character to use in a Panel. Usually, you will be using these stones to do your actions (Punch, Pick locks, Shoot laser beams from your eyes.) The number of stones will vary from Page to Page depending on how much you used last Page.

General Pool- A group of stones that represent energy that comes from outside of the characters, like cosmic, or energy from objects, like from a gun, or energy inherent to an object, like the energy from a rock falling on to your head.

Abilities- These are the Stats for your character. They can be used for Actions when appropriate (like you can use Strength to throw a car.) There are 5 Abilities: Intelligence, Strength, Agility, Speed, and Durability.

Ability Bonus- These are extra stones (if available) to be used with an Action. You can use as many stones as the Ability has to help the Action. (Example: You are punching someone with Close Combat Action and you have 3 Strength. You can add 3 more stones to your Close Combat Action because you added your strength with it.) Some Actions include built-in Ability Bonus; other Actions may have them added for an extra cost. All extra stones must come from your Energy Reserve. No Action may have more than tow Ability Bonuses.

Actions- Anything your character can do. This includes Super Powers, Healing, Inventing, Social Skills, and Combat. You can perform Normal Actions too if it's something non-super heroes can do. This would use your ability to figure how many points of action you can put towards the task. You are limited to 9 Actions you can be trained in.

Action Numbers- A character's Action Number represents his skill level at a particular Action and is also the maximum number of red stones of energy the character can put into an Action (not counting Ability Bonuses and Modifiers.)

Specialties- This reflexes the prowess of a particular aspect of an Action. (Example: Martial Arts could be a Specialty of Close Combat.)
These are often for overcoming Situational Modifiers.

Modifiers- This adds stones to some aspect of play, including Actions and Defense. It may also add stones to Difficulty Level or Resistance Level of an Action being attempted. Modifiers are for Weapons, Healing Factors, Defensive Modifiers, and Situational Modifiers. All Modifiers are “free” - as in they come from the General Pool and not your Energy Reserve.

Situational Modifiers- these are stones added into play by the GM to take into account for factors that may arise (Like it's harder to see in the dark, or character hasn't been spotted by the guard). They can help or hinder the character's Action.

Challenges- This is a character trait that the character must role play. Every character must have at least one Challenge. For every Challenge a character has, he gets additional stones for Character Creation.

Advantages- Add extra capabilities to an Action or Modifier and raises its cost in Character Creation.

Disadvantage- Handicaps to an Action or Modifier which lower its cost in Character Creation.

Difficulty Level- how complicated a task is. If the sum total of your Action Number, Ability Bonus, and any relevant Modifiers is equal to the Difficulty Number, then you may attempt the task.

Resistance Level- number of stones of effort is needed to successfully complete an Action. This is normally for for something that requires a long time to complete like computer hacking.

Lines of Experience- This is this game's version of EXP. You earn lines for preforming Actions. You will get 1-3 Lines per Mission and 1-5 Lines per Issue. Once you have earned 10 Lines in any Action, you may increase the Action Number for that Action by 1. Not every Action lets you increase it's Action Number like Shrink or Grow.

Area Effect
- This applies all of its stones equally to everyone in the affected area. You determine the Area by comparing the number of stones in the Action effect to the distances listed in the Area/Leaping row on the D&R Chart. The distance listed is the diameter of the area affected.

D&R Chart
- Difficulty and Resistance chart that shows real world numbers like speed and weight in terms of stones. (I'll post it later)

Stone cost in Character Creation
To buy a stone in an Ability, Action, or Modifier, it will cost some of your stones. Here's a chart to help determine how much each number will cost you.
Ability/Action/Modifier #                     Cost Level in Stones
1 (or less)                                                  1 red
2                                                               2 red
3                                                               1 white
4                                                               2 white
5                                                               3 white
6                                                               4 white
7                                                               6 white
8                                                               9 white
9                                                               12 white
10                                                             15 white

Each # above 10 costs 5 stones more than the previous #.

Info on Abilities
Abilities: These are the stats of your new hero. The are Intelligence, Strength, Agility, Speed, Durability. These stats limit the amount of red energy stones you can use later to solve problems and fight villains. You will use Abilities in two ways.
1) As a bonus for an action. Like if you are using an Action that can get a bonus from an Ability (like Strength) then you can add stones from your strength stones to help with the task. These bonus stones can also be re-allocated to your defense. You can't have more than two Ability bonuses.
2) If you are doing something you have no Action box for. Like you are trying to override a password on a computer but you have no Computer Programming or Hacking skills. You can use Intelligence to try to think through it. Most of the time there are penlites with doing something these way.

Your Ability don't charge over time unless something major happens like you get depowered or get exposed to Gamma Radiation. These will have either positive or negative impact on your abilities. But this is rare.

Intelligence
: Measures how smart your character is. You use this towards problem solving, using machines, inventing, Gambling, ect. It's a recommended bonus for Mastery of Magic. There is a Special Intelligence-Energy Rule that allows you to base your energy on Intelligence rather than Durability. In this case, you get 2 red stones for every stone you have in Intelligence and regenerate 1 red stone per Intelligence stone per Panel. You still get your Health from Durability and follow the health rules. Durability also still cost triple but Intelligence now cost double it's normal rate with this option.

Strength: Measures how much physical force your character can use. Strength is used for lifting, carrying, throwing, Hulk Smashing, Thing Clobbering Time, jumping, ect. It's also used for Close Combat for simple attacks (punches, kicks, tackles, ect.)

Agility: Measures the speed of your reflexes, coordination, how dexterously you handle things, and how you move. It's used as a modifier for Acrobatics, Wall-Crawling and Web-Slinging, Thieving and some Close Combats that have a style to them (Kung Fu, Kendo, aiming a simple attack, ect.) You also take 1 less stone of falling damage for every 3 stones in your Agility Number, rounded down. Agility determines who goes first unless the GM states otherwise.

Speed: Measures how fast your character runs. That's about it. At a Speed of 7, your character can run on water or up walls. At 10, you can create a cyclone gust up to 5 stones of attack. For an Extra stone when buying Speed, you can use it to determining who goes first instead of your Agility.

Durability: Measures stamina, physical health, and how much damage you can take. It's important as you get 1 white stone for health for every stone you have in Durability. You also get 3 red energy stones per white Health stones for Actions unless you took the Special Intelligence-Energy Rule. You also get 1 energy stone per white stone of health per panel up to your max. Durability rarely gets used as a modifier, except in cases like the Blob's Close Combat where he gets both Strength and Durability bonuses. Because Durability is so important in determining other parts of your character, Durability cost 3 times more to buy than the other abilities.

Info on Actions:
Actions are every move you do in the game. This includes using super powers. There are two types of Actions: Action that that Action Numbers and Normal Actions which don't (i.e talking, walking, crewing gum, ect.) Each character is limited to 9 Actions with an Action Number.

Normal actions usually don't need any energy to be put into them. You want to walk to point A to B, you do it. You want to throw a ball, you do it. But in cases were it's important that you do it (throwing ball at a thief who is running away) you will use your Abilities and use them as your Action Number. Strength of 3 now gives you a Lift Action at level 3. By using this, you are doing something you are untrained for and may suffer a Situational Modifier against you. However, you can have a Normal Action written down as one of your 9 Action with Action Numbers.
(Like Michael Jordan would have Basketball down as an Action.)

Actions with Action Numbers are things you are trained in, powers you have, anything a non-Superhero couldn't do as well as you or not at all. You can use the Abilities as is or modify the power with the Advantages and Disadvantages. Pick a power that is close to what you want and buy it at it starting cost, add and/or subtract cost using Advantages and Disadvantages and you will end up with the new cost of your Action.

Some Actions get Ability Bonus which you don't have to pay extra for. If an Action doesn't get one, you can pay for one or two Ability Bonuses to be added to a power. However, you can only have up to two Ability Bonuses added to one power. Some powers don't allow Ability Bonuses to be added at all.
Ability Bonuses let you take up to Ability Number's worth of stones out of your Energy Reserve and place them into an Action. Once your character has begun play, he can no longer buy Actions. To start a new Action (but not a new super power), with its own Action Number, you simply take a single Line of Experience of a Action related to it and create the new action at Level 1. Once you gain 9 lines for the new Action, you can level it up to Level 2.
You can also combine like Actions into one Action at the lower Action Number of the two. Or you can drop a Action from your 9 Actions completely.

Some Actions cost more than others. These are either powerful single powers (Like Gambit's Charge Objects) or full suites of powers called Masteries (Like Storm's Mastery of Weather).

Some Actions like Close Combat and Ranged Combat have Specialties, styles of that skill. Actions will tell you if it allows for specialties or not. There are no extra costs for Specialties and if you don't have a specialty chosen at the beginning of the game, you can add one later if the GM allows it. To add them, you must get 10 Lines in that Specialty. Like for a Social Skill, you hang out at a backwoods bar, you would get +1 Line in Social Skill (Low Life). A few more trips later you will earn the 10th Line and gain Level 1 in Social Skill (Low Life). At this point, people will know you from the bar scene and might be willing to talk to you about some of the low level crime in the area. Specialties cancel out any negative Situational Modifiers that you might have to deal with or might get you "extra" bonus to be successful in a task.

Actions with Area Effects are powerful. They apply all stones equally to everyone in the affected area. Some Actions automatically have Area Effects, some can have them added as an Advantage. You determine the Area by comparing the number of stones in the Action effect to the distances listed in the Area/Leaping row on the D&R Chart. The distance listed is the diameter of the area affected.
You can add more energy stones to an Action to decrease the Area effected and keep the damage the same. Like if you had an attack that is 7 stones (500 foot diameter), you can add 2 more stones to shrink the area to 100 feet in diameter with 7 stones of damage (total cost: 9 stones.)

Super Powers can only be learned at character creation, but can add Lines to them and Increase their Action Number. The only way powers can be gained or lost is by events in the story.

Powers can also be powered by "Elements". There are many elements that can give energy to a power.
Concussive, Fire/Heat, Ice/Cold, Water, Electricity, Light, Psionic, Magical (including Necromancy), Kinetic, Vibration, Magnetism, Dark Force, Cosmic, Bio-Energy, Sonic, Radiation, Plasma, Poison, Acid, and any other you can think of. This helps describe how your power works.

samurai6966 on
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Posts

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    EgosEgos Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Have interest. I'll post a character in a bit..

    Egos on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    If anyone has an question about character creation or what not, ask. I've got all the books (including the fan made one) and I've read them about 3 times over. It's such a simple system that the core book is only 128 pages, 40 of them is just pre-made characters.

    samurai6966 on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    No body wants to play? Come on folks. Just post character concepts if nothing else.

    samurai6966 on
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    FaranguFarangu I am a beardy man With a beardy planRegistered User regular
    edited September 2010
    I'm working on one right now. Despite how much time I spent with the X-Men as a kid, I'm having a hard time thinking up a new mutant for my use.

    Farangu on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    You should see Egos trying to come up with a name that Marvel hasn't already use.

    samurai6966 on
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    HeartfinderHeartfinder Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    I'm using a idea that I first created for Aberrant - a magician whose skills as a magician unexpectedly evolved on him. Kinda chaotic, but mostly looking out for himself.

    Also, there's a ton of "wow, that can be used for equipment?" choices, but had to make his throwing knives custom. Still working in the CB, so it may be a while before his stats are posted.

    Heartfinder on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    That's cool. If need to be, when you post your character, just add the equipment you want and what it does if it's custom and I'll work with it from there.

    samurai6966 on
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    HeartfinderHeartfinder Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    I was able to make them in the CB. Cost 3, 2x Damage, Armor Penetration, Range Increase, Hurts Others (they're knives, so I thought it fit).

    Heartfinder on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Hurts Others is more for if your power will hurt your allies when use correctly. Like Storm's Windstorm might blow objects into her teammates, ect.

    samurai6966 on
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    HeartfinderHeartfinder Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Oh. Noted. Only bumps them up by one, to Cost: 4, so not saddened by the loss. Does that cover "Others not shielded from power" as well?

    Heartfinder on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Oh, and once everyone is on Infrno, my name on there is Robert Baxter (since my screenname didn't pop up...) so add me so I know which profile is whom.

    samurai6966 on
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    FaranguFarangu I am a beardy man With a beardy planRegistered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Added you on Infrno. Also I think my character sheet is done; give me an email address and I'll shoot it to you and await your GM questions / advice.

    Farangu on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    samurai6966 on
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    HeartfinderHeartfinder Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Okay, character and Infrno request sent off. Note: My profile name matches my forum name here (Heartfinder) and has the picture of Val Hallan as the profile pic.

    Heartfinder on
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    EgosEgos Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    oh Dexter's Lab...

    Egos on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Dexter's Lab was awesome! Come on, Egos, don't be like that.

    samurai6966 on
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    EgosEgos Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Dexter's Lab was awesome! Come on, Egos, don't be like that.

    I meant "oh Dexter's Lab how I remember thee."

    not "oh you like Dexter's Lab" :P

    I LIKED Dexter's Lab. LIKED, Sami. Agent Honeydew :winky:

    Egos on
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    FaranguFarangu I am a beardy man With a beardy planRegistered User regular
    edited September 2010
    When I'm in trouble I always Dial M for Monkey.

    Farangu on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Sorry, I would have posted today but Phalla is getting crazy and I'm close to dying.

    samurai6966 on
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    FaranguFarangu I am a beardy man With a beardy planRegistered User regular
    edited September 2010
    So...what's the status on this?

    Farangu on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    It's still going. It's just Phalla and RL have been hurting me this week. I'm going to be out tonight. I've been looking at your characters and they seem to be good. I still want one more but I can roll with 3 if we have to.

    samurai6966 on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    I made a sample character on Infrno. I'm thinking about posting our characters this way. To see your stats, just click character sheet under the picture.

    Sample Character

    samurai6966 on
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    Crimson PhantomCrimson Phantom Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Seriously interested I'll be making a character for this!

    Crimson Phantom on
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    Crimson PhantomCrimson Phantom Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    I'll post a character later tonight. I've got the books, just haven't ever been used. lol

    Crimson Phantom on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    I'm guessing Crimson Phantom is Gabriel D. Also, Heartfinder, your doc didn't come with his backstory. Do you have one?

    samurai6966 on
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    HeartfinderHeartfinder Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Yeah, I was waiting to see if he needed revisions before I wrote his back-story. Now that he's good to go I'll get on that as soon as I can.

    Heartfinder on
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    Crimson PhantomCrimson Phantom Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Yes sorry, I submitted Gabriel D. Forgot to put that in here :D

    Crimson Phantom on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Ok, it's all good. Crimson Phantom, have you made a profile for Infrno yet?

    samurai6966 on
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    Crimson PhantomCrimson Phantom Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Just made it and sent you an invite. My profile is AKDevildog

    Crimson Phantom on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Ok, I know that Egos is working on a character once he finds a name Marvel hasn't already taken (I'll let you use anyone's name and but play a totally different character) and Heartfinder's backstory is being worked on and I'm sure we aren't going to get anyone else so I'm closing the recruiting. Ok, so I'm thinking that the play time per session will be 2-3 hours. So what days work for you guy? I can't do it Tuesday nights as that's my Air Force Bowling League night.

    samurai6966 on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Also, if you would like to move your character's info onto Infrno, just do like I did for J. Jameson then go to the game X-Academy and click join game and have your character join the game. I approve and now that character is linked to my game.

    samurai6966 on
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    Crimson PhantomCrimson Phantom Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Ok, how is my character? Anything you feel needs to be worked on, or improved? It's my first MURPG guy so I want to make him great!

    Crimson Phantom on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    I almost missed it, but you used too many stones, Crimson. You get 40 stones to play with, you used 49.

    And Jabal (I think Fan's character) used 45.

    samurai6966 on
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    Crimson PhantomCrimson Phantom Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    I think I used 49 because I took on challenges, I though that's what the point of them were.

    Crimson Phantom on
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    Crimson PhantomCrimson Phantom Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    3 for being a mutant, 2 for having glowing eyes/hands, 1 for psychological symptoms (teen angst for now wanting to touch people), 3 for vulnerable loved-ones unaware of powers (since only his father knows of his abilities)

    Crimson Phantom on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Ok, I see now. Then your characters are both good.

    samurai6966 on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    When creating your character on Infrno like I did with J. Jameson, put all the advantages and disadvantages of powers in the notes area.

    samurai6966 on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Ok, so Egos is already doing stuff on Infrno so if anyone else wants to, go ahead. I'll help you out when I can.

    samurai6966 on
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    samurai6966samurai6966 Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Crimson, join the Game and add your character to it so I can find it easier.

    samurai6966 on
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    FaranguFarangu I am a beardy man With a beardy planRegistered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Jubal has joined the game.

    As a side note I'm starting a new job on Monday; I'll try to see if there's a fixed night I'll have off, but I doubt it.

    Farangu on
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