POWERS BRAINSTORMING

[larkers]

> POWERS BRAINSTORMING

Hello everyone! One of the major goals we have with Meadowlark is customizing and tailoring the game experience to the characters themselves, and one of the main ways we hope to do this is with characters' powers. However, we know this may be a little difficult from the initial application phase, so we thought that having a powers brainstorming post could help everyone out! To reiterate what our application page says: This power should be complementary of your character's personality or self, such as a character with a strong motivation towards helping people finding themselves with a shielding or healing power. It should be unique to your character. By this we do not mean that only one character in game may have a fire power, but that the form or starting level of those fire powers should be specific to your character, such as one character's power first expressing as the creation of small flames on their hands, while another's first expresses as fire resistance. Please bear in mind that we don't expect anyone to have their character's full power development trajectory figured out from stage one. We want this to be something that evolves and changes according to the character's experiences and development in game, so what you start with here may evolve some months down the line. This post is primarily to provide a venue for interested applicants to brainstorm and use one another as a sounding boards. Please fill out the form below to give everyone a starting point! <b>CHARACTER NAME</b>: <b>CANON</b>: <b>SOME CORE CHARACTER TRAITS</b>: <b>ANY POWER IDEAS</b>: <b>ANY POWERS YOU'D PREFER TO AVOID</b>:

Comments

[frostedplum]

CHARACTER NAME: Mei-Ling Zhou
CANON: Overwatch
SOME CORE CHARACTER TRAITS: helpful, sweet, apologetic, unfailingly positive, determined, resourceful, genius
ANY POWER IDEAS: So in her canon, she's associated with ice. She has an ice weapon, can build ice walls, put herself in an ice block, was cryofrozen, and stationed in Antarctica. When I was thinking of how to apply this to her personality, I thought what about having her help others through thermal manipulation? That way she can use both heat and cold to aid people. In the long term, things like ice bridges to get people to safety, warming the homeless stuck out in the cold, resourceful stuff like that. The first stage would just be heat or cold coming off her fingers, and these fancy manipulations would build with time. I'm open to other suggestions, but it's hard to get away from the ice motif with Mei.
ANY POWERS YOU'D PREFER TO AVOID: None I can think of offhand.

[warfares]

i think thermal manipulation is a great way to incorporate the ice motif without going straight for cryokinesis or some variant, and it will also be able to be developed in a lot of interesting ways. ultimately you want something that will be fun to use, right? and while something more generic might not be fun and useful this is something that seems pretty workable while also being a little different.

[frostedplum]

That's what I'm hoping for! I was scratching my head for a bit trying to pick something, because ice powers seem more like something a "cold" personality would have, but having it being used to aid others, plus the addition of heat powers with it would hopefully be more Mei-like.

[warfares]

as to how it'd manifest, i think your idea about mei's body temperature being noticeably hotter or colder than it should be is a great way to start. subtle too. you could potentially build it up a little more before she even necessarily realizes something's up.

[frostedplum]

Oh, yeah! Like she feels overheated or freezing and maybe thinks she's sick or something. Then her fingers frost over and she realizes Things Have Escalated.

[secondnature]

What you've described reminds me of an X-Man: Here! It might lead to seeing some cool (hah) ways she used her powers.

[frostedplum]

Oo, thanks! I think she was shown on the Wiki page I linked, but I didn't click on her to learn more. I could definitely add some of this to Mei's power.

[dirtyredneck]

I really like the power idea, but I'm a little worried the ice-end of it will be too close to her canon powers for the mods to approve. I think the version that's more similar to the X-Man you were linked would be better. Where the character needs heat to make ice and cold to make fire, so it's more distinct from her canon powers on the ice end.

[frostedplum]

I don't think I explained myself very well, because Mei doesn't have ice powers. She has a weapon that she built that can produce these ice related things, but take away the gun and she has no control over ice at all. She's baseline human.

[dirtyredneck]

Oh, yeah. Then that is very different. The way it's written it sounds like the ice powers are hers. I'm really not familiar with Overwatch, either. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[frostedplum]

Nah, it's okay! It was bad comma use on my part!

[secondnature]

CHARACTER NAME: Keith
CANON: Voltron: Legendary Defender
SOME CORE CHARACTER TRAITS: Temperamental, relentless, determined, hot-headed, more of the "straight man" of the entire (Voltron) team, newly-crowned leader, more physically oriented than smarts, intuitive, introverted (he likes nature and silence). Think introverted leader.
ANY POWER IDEAS: I am coming up dry on ideas. Most of my ideas are more like ... what I don't want, so see below! Nature stuff, though? I'm not sure.
ANY POWERS YOU'D PREFER TO AVOID: Transforming into a lion, anything with fire.

[frostedplum]

Hmm, maybe the ability to make plants grow and control them? Like making vines wrap around someone, or form a ladder, or something helpful? Or something to do with rocks and dirt, like an earthbender?

[secondnature]

Out of curiosity, can you think of a way to tie emotions to this? Like emotional reaction.

[frostedplum]

Yeah, I was thinking of that too! Like if Keith has an outburst, maybe vines stretch out in a threatening way? Or if you go with earth, then there's a rumble like a mini earthquake? If he's in a good mood, maybe flower buds spread open, trees can rustle their leaves and drop fruits. If I remember correctly, there are gardens and such all over the city, so he'd have areas to work with.

[forcevisions]

what about something shield related to help with the leadering? i think a collaborative/support power would be right up your alley.

[dirtyredneck]

You could go with physical abilities, like say, super agility that makes him a little more responsive to attacks and eventually levels up to spider-man like danger sense. something along those lines. have it be very physically based.

[warfares]

okay, so what about something like reactive adaptation or kinetic absorption or vector manipulation. if none of these work for you i'd advise checking out the wiki because it's immensely helpful especially when it comes to seeing ways the power can be applied and give you an idea of how it might develop.

[secondnature]

I'm thinking of something emotional adaptation, so I'm going to go take a look at these suggestions from that angle. Reactive adaptation with emotions being the link sounds like it could be cool, in terms of environmental stuff?? maybe.

[warfares]

i'm not really canon familiar so i unfortunately wasn't sure on what to suggest that would tie into keith's character specifically but in terms of a physical/emotional power that seems like a neat idea.

i think the only area you might need to be careful with is how you basically outline it? idk. i think it's definitely something you could work with, and especially in this setting. and since it'll primarily impact keith's body it won't require as much player negotiation when you have to use it, which is definitely a risk with more invasive/emotional and mental centric powers.

[dirtyredneck]

CHARACTER NAME: Daryl Dixon
CANON: The Walking Dead
SOME CORE CHARACTER TRAITS: Asshole with a heart of gold(tm), secretly a softie, a bit on the hot-headed side, suffers from PTSD from traumatic events both prior to the Walker-apocalypse and after, tends to view any death in The Group as somehow his fault, fully willing to kill a man in cold blood if he thinks it'll protect The Group, tends to adopt people as 'his' and pretends he ain't, says 'ain't' a lot, grumpy, likes motorcyles and hunting, biker redneck
ANY POWER IDEAS: I don't really know. I've played him in MoM before and had some powers there and I'm trying to avoid doing any of the exact same thing, but all his powers were based on traits he had or symbolism that the show gave him (wings, flower-based tracking powers, tattoo manifestation, etc). I'm not adverse to having something similar, but I don't want to just repeat ad nausem.
I was thinking maybe something related to the Biblical Jesus since the show has gone out of it's way to 'pair' him with various Jesus symbols throughout the years, but I don't really want to go full 'walk on water' with that, either, lol.
Any suggestions are welcome!
ANY POWERS YOU'D PREFER TO AVOID: Zombie related powers

[medved]

Daryl's focus on protecting his people makes me think some kind of support ability might fit well, like the ability to take damage on behalf of other people, or boost the strength or powers of people in a small group, maybe?

Alternatively, for Jesus-related powers, something like Ben Hawkins in Carnivàle might be neat — essentially, the ability to heal others in exchange for draining an equal amount of life out of something else. (plants, animals, other people, etc.)

[dirtyredneck]

Thank you for the suggestions! The martyr complex he gets with his people fits well with them. I'll mull over it.

For a thought, though, what do you think about Food manipulation as a power set? A 'feed the multitudes' type power. Like, he starts with the ability to make any piece of food he's holding last for as long as he's the one holding it and passing it out (i.e. one loaf of bread now suddenly is able to feed say, 10 people no problem) and then expand in to things he can do with food, like imbue it with healing properties or strength boosts, that sort of thing?

[medved]

Oh, I like that! Especially since a food is always kind of a problem in TWD.

[frostedplum]

Like the person above me said: Jesus imagery makes me think of healing abilities, and there are a lot of ways you can take it.

[dirtyredneck]

Thanks for that! I'll check out the link to see if anything catches my eye.

Edit: For a thought, though, what do you think about Food manipulation as a power set? A 'feed the multitudes' type power. Like, he starts with the ability to make any piece of food he's holding last for as long as he's the one holding it and passing it out (i.e. one loaf of bread now suddenly is able to feed say, 10 people no problem) and then expand in to things he can do with food, like imbue it with healing properties or strength boosts, that sort of thing?

[frostedplum]

Ooo, that's a really cool power set! And adding healing through the food is a really nice touch. I think that would suit him based on what you've said about him.

[dirtyredneck]

Yeah, he's a hunter, so providing for his family is definitely a thing. I think I like this one.

[furgot]

CHARACTER NAME: kat
CANON: gravity rush
SOME CORE CHARACTER TRAITS: selfless, outgoing, confident, bold, vigilant, hardworking, bubbly, innovative, sarcastic, sometimes sassy, basically lives to help people and do what's best for everyone / is a natural born leader. very wholesome :^)
ANY POWER IDEAS: kat has the ability to manipulate gravity and create 'stasis' fields in her canon. basically, this is a fancy form of flying and making something of a telekinesis forcefield. she's also associated with cats (she has a cat familiar, which is what allows her to control gravity, and her name lmao). i was thinking of something with elasticity because of her tendency to bend over backwards and her quick thinking / flexibility when her plans go awry, but idk tbh.
ANY POWERS YOU'D PREFER TO AVOID: since she's very combat oriented i don't think she would do well with a healing power, and obviously anything with manipulating gravity, but besides that i'm all ears!!

[sumio]

cat balance powers, throw kat off a ledge and she lands perfectly :^)

[furgot]

WTF THAT'S SO CUTE...????? omg she would have so much fun w that, i wonder how u would practice that and expand upon it tho

[sumio]

maybe it's like, funny cat-like reflexes that slowly turn into like wild ass matrix bullshit. idk. :|a

(also hi woaw we're gonna be in a game together maybe after 200 years)

[furgot]

maybe like... cat physiology, so like it could expand to be claws and fangs and night vision and other cat shit idk it's 3am

I LITERALLY CANT BELIEVE IT im sO EXCITE!!!!

[sumio]

we reunite at last and u turn ur character into a furry, smh (NO IM KIDDING THAT SOUNDS COOL, I'M ALSO EXCITED)

[furgot]

:3 nyan nyan~ sumio chan would u like to pet my ears

[crownless]

sumio would Rather Not

also rip travis, out of the current sudaboy rotation when the catgirl rolls around

[furgot]

kat would be liked “omg he cute tho” at first and then the second he would open his mouth she’d beat the shit out of him

[frostedplum]

Yeah, cat + gravity definitely makes me think of her always landing on her feet. Maybe something from the feline physiology wiki entry will suit her?

[furgot]

tbh this seems like the perfect power, honestly i would’ve never thought of anything like cat physiology even tho it seems like the most logical power for someone like her lmao :’) maybe i could focus solely on cat abilities (balance, night vision, etc.) rather than the physical attributes and it would count as one power?

[frostedplum]

Yeah, it's possible! And if not, then you could at least pick the attribute you like most and expand upon it.