Happy Halloween!

As Threatened... (mostly irrelevant)

Just like this blog post. :)

Okay, on behalf of Warshades everywhere, this one's kinda relevant. :D

David Styrm - Important Info

Keen's latest post combined with a few things that happened as we played made me think it might be helpful to everyone (myself included) to remind the players of a few things about Styrm. Keep in mind, some of this is stuff the characters might not know yet.

Styrm is a Genius
The player is most certainly NOT, but I try to play Styrm with a Lex Luthor/David Xanatos kind of genius. Brilliant technically, tactically, and financially. The battlesuit he's wearing now, he managed to build while imprisoned in the Zig. With a few upgrades made on the way to the Rogue Isles.

Styrm is Insane
Yeah, that fine line between genius and insanity everyone talks about? David has crossed it a bunch of times. Remember that the reason Team 2.0 went up against him in that giant mech is because his plans had been thwarted too many times. In response? He got into a giant battlemech and tried to smash his way through the War Walls to get at the people who got in his way.

Styrm is Evil
He is charismatic. He is smooth. He has a way with people. But what he really wants is the power and the resources to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. He will try to eliminate anyone who stands in his way. He can sound very nice... but he's evil to the core.

Styrm has People
Styrm is big on minions. Generally-speaking, he doesn't like to get his hands dirty if he doesn't have to. He has people for that sort of thing. Before now, he rarely took to the field himself if he didn't feel he had to, sending his Nights to do the work for him, leaving him looking much "cleaner". Now that he's a known and wanted criminal and his empire is once again in ruins, he's in the field because he pretty much has to. But he's still going to prefer that his people (that'd be you guys :) ) do a lot of the work.

Styrm is a Father
Thanks to genetic tampering, E and Styrm are both the father of Eve and therefore of the clone. David named the clone "Dawn". E called her "Jennifer". Eve's mother (and therefore, Jen's as well, sorta) is E's ex-wife, the psycho who tried to shoot down an airliner with a bazooka just to kill E.

Styrm has Goals
Now, he's not sharing these with anyone yet, but what Styrm wants right now is to rebuild his own assets and organization, and build his new Nights up to strength. Once he starts to feel confident about those things, his goals include taking Jen back and making E, Frost, Fyre, and Masonry pay for their roles in thwarting him. But that's long-term.

Which is not to say that Styrm won't pop into Pocket D for a drink...

Styrm Lives

I've just finished creating two new characters on Triumph. Both are parked in Outbreak and more or less ready to go. I have:

David Styrm, Robotics/Traps Mastermind
EREBOS, Energy Blast/Traps Corruptor

EREBOS will be the "main" or the one I level, only bringing out the "human" Styrm for RP and such.

What is "EREBOS"? Well, it's another acronym character. It stands for "Enhanced Reaction Energy Blast Offensive System". I wanted a "codename" or whatever for the battlesuit version but his original table-top codename has always been (intentionally) a little lame ("The Night Lord") and was already taken anyway. Did some poking around and websearching and discovered "Erebus" (also spelled "Erebos") as a Roman god of darkness.

This makes my fourth character to use an acronym for a name, HEADS (High Energy Amplification and Deployment System), TRAPS-1 (Tactical Response Armored Protection System, version 1), and REDS-27 (Robotic Electrical Discharge System - series 27) being the first three (in order of creation). HEADS (FF/eng defender) and TRAPS (eng/dev blaster) are long since deleted and REDS (elec/elec brute) is still over on Guardian.

Odd... I just realized all four of them end in "System". Huh.

Well, Evil Alt Sunday ought to be interesting.

David Styrm - The Night Lord

Okay, so I've started thinking about making another Styrm character, this time villainside. I blame Mason for setting those creative juices flowing.

First of all, as has been mentioned before, when Styrm goes into battle, he generally does so in a giant robotic battlesuit. That being the case, I would probably want to create two Styrms: one using the "huge" body model with maxed-out height or possibly just the "male" body with a bulked-out physique; the other being a "normal" Styrm, more than likely similar to the "hero" Styrm that I had for RP.

Now obviously I wouldn't be able to level both at the same time and keep up with whatever team we put together (assuming we put one together), so depending on the team, I'd probably level one and use the other strictly for RP. If the one being leveled is the "normal" one, I might not even bother creating the "battlesuit".

So here are my thoughts on potential archetypes and powersets:

David Styrm, "normal"
Assault Rifle/Traps Corruptor
Robotics/Traps Mastermind

The Night Lord, "battlesuit"
(could be just about anything)
Brute (Energy or Super Strength/Electric or Energy or Invuln)
Corruptor (Energy or Fire or Radiation/Radiation or Traps)
Dominator (Gravity or Mind/Energy or Fire)

Mostly, I'd be curious to see what other people would want to play before picking which Styrm to try and play. :)

Just a Random Post

Fyre and I were on Derick Darklight and Hex Raven a couple days ago (before Mas joined us on Idaho). We zoned into the Hollows and staring us in the face, wearing a black trenchcoat, was a character named "Styrm". I blinked, and the character leaped past us and headed into Atlas Park.

Well, really the character's name was "Stryn" (I'm glad Fyre's eyes focused faster than mine), but still: it caused quite a double-take. My villains that I create for my table-top games do have a way of intruding on me while they're being played, but Styrm does seem to enjoy popping up and saying "boo" once in a while.

My focus lately has been on Will (both Cpt. William Piett and Captain Peterson) and on Derick.

I really want to get HeroWill up to epic levels so I can get him a rocket launcher out of the Munitions Mastery pool. I know it's quite a ways off, but I can't wait. I want to get Piett up to 40 so we can get to some new missions, specifically ones I haven't done before. I've heard all the complaints about Grandville, but I've only been there twice, and both times it was just 'Ware Wolf running around Hidden so I could see the place. Will's RP has been a lot of fun and very interesting for me. I'm not entirely sure where he's headed. I'm just kinda playing with it as it goes for now.

Derick is doing the same old missions I've done hundreds of times (or so it seems), but I like his story, and as fun as it was to play the semi-newbie with Will, Derick is a Paragon citizen who's suddenly found himself one of the heroes. Total newbie! On top of that, his regular partners are even greener than he is, both Raven and Idaho barely knowing their own origins and having been conscious for maybe a month now each. It makes me laugh to imagine these three bumbling a little, and it just makes my jaw drop when I really read some of the things your contacts expect you to do. Defuse a bomb, deactivate a portal, retrieve a cursed artifact... "Wow," Derick is thinking, "you people are nuts!"

Amateur Photography

Ken (aka "Sleetsquall") and his robot sidekick "Beepy" gettin' sleety wid it. Crystal, meanwhile, pretends not to know them.

The world-famous physicist, Mason. Wow, Mas. Really lettin' yourself go there.
That's Rosie (aka "Khryo") in the background and Sleety Bob in the foreground.

My Warshade, Derick Darklight, after meeting with Sunstorm. Both of them are in "official" Kheldian costumes.

Hex Raven, Derick Darklight, and Keen Fortress. All lookin' pretty pleased with themselves after kicking some Circle of Thorn butts.