Board 8 > MI ranks his Top 3 characters in Scarlet's DC TTRPG!

(+) Yeah! (+)

Here's our rankings so far!

4. Fiddler
5. Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes)
6. Amanda Waller
7. Patch
8. Zoom (Hunter Zolomon)
9. Scandal Savage
10. Valentina Vostok
11. Ragman
12. Inertia
13. Weeping Woman
14. Captain Cold (Leonard Snart)
15. Batgirl (Stephanie Brown)
16. Cullen Row
17. Thom Kallor
18. Oracle
19. Bluebird (Harper Row)
20. Arion
21. Batman Japan (Jiro Osamu)
22. Tommy Jagger
23. Vicki Vale
24. Mento
25. Foal Fruntell
26. Ragdoll
27. Lady Flash
28. Pat Dugan
29. Stargirl
30. Rover
31. Starsa
32. Parademon
33. Joker
34. L-Ron
35. Dweller in the Depths
36. Jason Burr
37. Marie
38. Merlyn
39. Ambush Bug
40. King Shark
41. Shade
42. Misty Kilgore
43. Rot Lop Fan
44. Blue Devil
45. Peacemaker (Chris Smith)
46. Spectre
47. Dewormer
48. Kid Karnevil
49. Tomorrow Woman
50. Paco
51. MORFIUS
52. Scrappy

And here comes out number 3...

#3 - Harley Quinn

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/7/7/AAOJ0pAADbkx.png

Right after Harley Quinn was brought back from Belle Reeve, I would have never suspected that she would rank on this list, let alone this highly. In fact, the first conversation Brennus had with Harley was only because he wanted to talk to Jaime. I mentioned that Jaime referred to Lush as "Harley Quinn crazy". When Harley first got rescued from Belle Reeve, Jaime saw her and shouted "Harley Quinn crazy!". Harley got very offended by this, so she chased Jaime back to his room where he locked himself in. Harley then stood outside his room, using a pulley system to suspend a rolling chair full of rocks over his door, so that when he left his room, she'd drop it on him on him. We'll ignore the fact that this proved Jaime's point.

Harley was an obstacle for Brennus to get past to talk to Jaime. He sweettalked her and was pushing for her to head up to the Secret Six floor, since she knew and is fond of Deadshot. But somehow the conversation took a turn when Harley agreed to be Brennus roommate. Brennus didn't think he offered, but she happily accepted his offer. Brennus spent some time attempting to convince her not to and trying to get Vostok to not allow it, but it was in vain. Harley redecorated Brennus' room...

When you arrive, you have to concede, it's not the room you left at the start of the day.
Your bed has been replaced with a new headboard that is a half-black, half-red heart.
The mattress is tall and fluffy looking, with a new spread that is checkered black and red as well.
The ceiling lights have been removed, replaced with red twinklers that remind you of Christmas tree lights.
A large fluffy flat rug lays at your feet, a bright, off-putting pink.
Harley has been given a hammer by someone whose decision making should be called into question, and she stands on your rolling chair, nailing a picture of herself at the Eiffel Tower with Poison Ivy into the wall. Each time she hits the nail, the chair spins 360 degrees, slowly, and Harley makes a show of wobbling with imbalance.

Even at this point, I still wasn't sure what I had done. I still saw this as an obstacle to overcome. I told Harley I snored. I told Harley that if she opened her own psychologist office in Z'onn Z'orr it'll be better for her patients to not have a roommate. But she remained fixated on us being roommates, spooning at night and becoming best friends.

And then the more I talked to Harley, the more I got onboard with us being roommates, spooning at night and becoming best friends. Brennus has always given off a bit of chaotic energy and Harley is his outlet to learn into that side even more. Starting with the first time Brennus went to Harley's office for therapy and the two of them spent the whole time flipping through catalogues and talking about what kind of toaster Brennus would be. It started as goofy but then became a bit more meaningful when they started talking about why he was drawn to certain toasters and what that said about him. But she was still Harley even during this - Brennus pointed out one toaster that he really disliked and...

Harley rips out the page and crumples it up, sharing your disgust. She instinctively puts it in her mouth.
Staring at you wide-eyed, she pauses.
"Thart's wart irt mearns ter Gortham. Whart der yer thirnk abourt irt - jurst yer."
She waits patiently, chewing the page, and clearly regretting every second of it.

After landing on what toaster Brennus would be, Harley arranges for Snapper to bring that toaster back their room. It was very sweet, even if it eventually started a small fire because Harley kept stabbing a fork in it. Hopefully that's not foreshadowing of what Harley will actually do to Brennus...

...or maybe, in a way, it was. Harley found out from Lush that Brennus had met with and worked with the Joker in Gotham. Brennus was very set on never telling Harley this, since Harley still has some... conflicting feelings on the Joker. But Harley wasn't a fan of Brennus keeping this information from her and when he returned back to his room, she set up a trap for him.

The chair seems to be laden down with a whoopie cushion. A whoopie cushion that, as you study it, connects to a rope which reaches up to a pulley system rigged above the chair, across the ceiling, and trailing down to the wall behind the computer monitor, connected to a spring attached to a crossbow, arrow aimed right at the back of the monitor.
She pats the seat, clearly carefully avoiding the whoopie cushion, with almost comically obvious attempts to pat an unobstructed section.
Brennus grabs the computer chair and pulls it to the side of the desk so it's out of the line of fire for the crossbow
Harley's pom poms flop down, in line with her slowly forming disappointed frown. Each inch you move the chair, Harley frowns a little more deeply.
Brennus slides it back to the center of the desk
Harley's breath catches as she waits in anticipation, clapping her hands together, pom poms rising.

Brennus has a spell to summon a punching bag, which he has named Punchy, and he uses this to thwart her plot. Harley's reaction is to tackle him to the ground and the two of them roll around for a while before Brennus finds out why Harley is mad. The two of them cry, hug each other and apologize. Brennus genuienly feels bad for lying to Harley and hurting her feelings. It's a sweet moment... that ends with Harley handing Brennus a piece of broken glass and asking him to kill Joker for her. Brennus, of course, agrees and... what did I get myself into it?

For a while I've wanted to commission another Harley scene, but I haven't gotten around to doing that yet. Harley doesn't trust The Thinker, and neither does Brennus because of their earlier interactions. Harley plugged Brennus' ears so he couldn't hear what Thinker was saying. Brennus realized that Harley was unprotected, so he plugged her ears. Then they kept shouting at each other, not able to hear what the other was saying. It was an absurd scene, especially since I don't think Thinker was even trying to say anything to them at the time. But I have such a clear mental image of it.

Harley and Bren Bren just work. They make sense together. I still have a lingering fear that Harley will try to kill me in my sleep over some slight I caused that I didn't even realize, but until that happens I'll continue to enjoy ever single moment I have with her.

Hint for #2: This character is an Eighth Ager, was rescued early in the campaign from a city in the Midwest, their powers involve transformation, they have multiple different powers they can use, they are friends with Brennus and Pepper Spray, there is or has been a one-way attraction between Brennus and them, they accompanied our team to Bahdnisia, and they were locked in Oblivion during Kobra's assault on Z'onn Z'orr.

Prowley

TotallyNotMI posted...

Hint for #2: This character is an Eighth Ager, was rescued early in the campaign from a city in the Midwest, their powers involve transformation, they have multiple different powers they can use, they are friends with Brennus and Pepper Spray, there is or has been a one-way attraction between Brennus and them, they accompanied our team to Bahdnisia, and they were locked in Oblivion during Kobra's assault on Z'onn Z'orr.

Don't forget they assisted Spirit in summoning a goat recently

I almost PMed you yesterday asking for more things they have in common - that's a good one!

Harley's my #1 for your list. For sure. The pair goes together so, so well.

I cannot possibly imagine Alice beats Freddy. But maybe she does!

I pick Freddy

Im gonna pick Alice, yeah.

Gonna say Alice but we all know it's actually Ramalthi

TotallyNotMI posted...

But somehow the conversation took a turn when Harley agreed to be Brennus roommate. Brennus didn't think he offered, but she happily accepted his offer. Brennus spent some time attempting to convince her not to and trying to get Vostok to not allow it, but it was in vain. Harley redecorated Brennus' room...

This sounds like a really funny scene.

I'm going team Alice

#2 - Black Alice (Lori Zechlin)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/5/8/AAOJ0pAADbTS.png

I think I still get surprised whenever I remember that Alice's name is actually Lori. Does Brennus even know that in character? I feel like he does, but even if he does he's probably forgotten that the same way that I keep forgetting it.

We first met Alice when we travelled to Dayton. Detective Chimp knew that there was a powerful witch there and we needed (and still do need) all the magical assistance we could gather. How did Chimp know that there was a powerful witch in Dayton? He had a contact there that he didn't share details with us. When we arrived, we met his contact.

It was Rover.

He took us to Alice, who did not react well to us. Chimp was trying to explain to her how important it was she came with us, but she had headphone in and didn't hear a word he said. She thought we were there to attack her, and she demonstrates her first ability to shift into other forms to turn into a Blue Devil form - and attack us.

We fight her off and she retreats. As we continue searching for her, we find her house and her father, bound to a chair with an IV attached to him. His eyes glowing red - he's been equated but Alice is still caring for him. I mean, the IV was full of beer, but she's trying to care for him at least.

The next time we find her, Saoirse attempts to connect with her as a fellow witch, but it doesn't go well. Alice doesn't want to be compared to Saoirse, who she doesn't know and doesn't trust. Saoirse mentions that we know Enchantress, so Alice reacts by tapping into Enchantress' powers and attacking us again.

This pattern continues. We fight her off until she retreats and when we next meet her, she refuses to listen to us and fights us with a new set of powers - Nightshade and Phantom Stranger's this time. Eventually we realize that Alice is unaware that the only people left in Dayton are her, her father and Glenda, who was assigned to protect alice. She thought she was protecting the people of Dayton from us. As she tries to wrap her head around this, The Spectre appears, drawn her from our battles. She turns into Zatanna to attempt to fight him, but we stop her - she's not ready yet. And she returns with us to Z'onn Z'orr.

As is the case for oh so many of my top rankings, Brennus didn't like Alice. She was impulsive and didn't listen to us, resorting to attacking us instead. Which is totally the way Brennus would operate in that scenario, but he doesn't have enough awareness to understand that. But after we returned, Alice put in an effort to become friends with Alice. She was always around, she was really nice to him, she had an exaggerated interest in everything he said or did. It was nice! And to a closeted gay teenager with 1 perception, he was completely and utterly unaware that she was crushing on him, hard. Brennus liked Alice a lot - as a friend. He bonded with Rover, and she was smile while watching them play. Pepper, also oblivious to Brennus' secret but aware of Alice's feelings, spent time on both ends trying to push them together.

When Brennus went to Calvin City and was being tortured mentally by Susie, the brunt of the torture was The Spectre killing him repeatedlhy, but Alice played a part in it as well. Brennus was living with his parents and was dating Alice - unable to explain to anyone involved that this scenario wasn't right. Then the Spectre would kill him and the day would start over again. Sometimes his conversations with his parents and Alice would get interrupted by a naked Jagger which led to more confusion... before getting killed by The Spectre again.

Alice was really close to initiating things between them, but an NPC would always interrupt the scene before she was able to. But things came to the inevitable conclusion when Brennus invited Alice into the bathroom in Oblivion. Brennus' plan was to inact a plan to confirm his suspicions about fake Arion, but all Alice heard was Brennus inviting her into a private room. As soon as the door was closed, she kissed him. Brennus was stunned and pulled back and came out to Alice - the first person he ever told. She reacted... poorly. She turned into Etrigan and threatened him to leave Oblivion before she killed him.

It took a while for the two of them to get back on good terms. Alice decided before she could forgive Brennus for leading her on (not that he ever did!) she needed to punch him in the face. And she did. Right before the party went out on a snap, Christopher Chance was at the snap zone to talk to them. But it wasn't Chance! It was Alice! And Brennus nat 1'd his perception check to notice it was her, naturally.

Brennus isn't convinced that the natural reaction to being the first person he ever came out to is getting punched in the face, but as Alice's friend, he's willing to accept it, now that they are friends again.

There's been a lot more than Alice did and is doing. She tapped into The Spectre's powers to reach Heaven in an attempt to convince God to save the world. Whoever was sitting on the Throne in Heaven, which is still unclear to me at least, didn't react positively to her intrusion and branded her with a cross before sending her back to Earth. She's started training with Nightshade in Oblivion. The two of them have bonded and now Alice is conflicted - Nightshade wants to kill anyone who has shadow based powers, believing these powers to be evil. Alice and Brennus are attempting to research the Heart of Darkness where these powers come from and try to find a way to stop her. Alice has also recently joined the field team in Tokyo - she's been quite eager to get out into the field but Tokyo is a brutal place. I need to check in with her and see how things have been going there...

Her ability to tap into other magicians powers provides lots of entertainment. Her powers are wide and varying and it's always exciting when she taps into a new power source. Most recently, she tapped into Madam Xanadu for the first time - gaining some premenitions powers and bleeding from her eyes - tricking Lush into punching Brennus again - although I doubt that took much convincing...

I think Alice's attitude is another positive one for Brennus. She speaks her mind, challenges authority and doesn't sugar coat things. I like to think their friendship is causing this attitude to rub off on Brennus a little bit as well. He doesn't go quite as far as Alice does, but his confidence in himself is building.

Hint for #1: Brennus' personal will-they-won't-they story.

The Thinker

One more plate of food

Alice's story is really about insecurity more than anything else - that's why she felt she needed to punch Brennus, and sometimes still does. Because when you can force some measure of control, no one sees you shake.

Freddy

Also, only one personal will-they-won't-they story? Amateur :P

scarletspeed7 posted...

Alice's story is really about insecurity more than anything else - that's why she felt she needed to punch Brennus, and sometimes still does. Because when you can force some measure of control, no one sees you shake.

Freddy

Yeah, I think one of the things that's become really endearing of her as of late is just like, she's a total punk a lot of the time, but while she's being one, if you give her a little validation, she gets pretty excited.

Believe it was the Saint of Killers that branded Alice. He's there because he was Jesse's weapon against God

Alice has also tried her hand at writing for the Gazette...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/6/4/AAJ38fAADoUM.jpg

#1 - Freddy Freeman

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/4/9/AAOJ0pAADYRZ.jpg

Brennus hopes he's gay

#1 - Freddy Freeman

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/4/9/AAOJ0pAADYRZ.jpg

What, that wasn't a good enough writeup? Okay, okay, fine.

Freddy, previously known as Captain Marvel Jr is on a journey to become Captain Marvel. Billy, previously Captain Marvel, has taken over the role of Shazam after Shazam was killed by The Spectre, leading to promotions down the line.

Billy, perhaps due to the new influx of power he gained, isn't his normal self. He seemed to struggle with recognizing Freddy and couldn't just grant Freddy the powers of Captain Marvel - he needs to prove himself by gathering powers himself. One for each letter in Captain Marvel, the word of power that Freddy says to trasnform into Captain Marvel and activate his powers. But there's another on this same quest as Freddy, Sabine De La Croix. We haven't met Sabine yet, she seems to be gathering a different pantheon of powers than we are, but she has sent her men after us to attempt to stop us. They've slown us down and I am very much looking forward to when we actually get to meet Sabine.

Brennus without doubt had a crush on Freddy after he first came back to Z'onn Z'orr with them, but even more than that the two of them have become extremely close friends. Brennus has spent a lot of time theorizing with Freddy and trying to solve the riddles he gets that point him to the next deity he needs to find. Freddy spends a lot of time up in the library reading through encyclopedias in an attempt to learn about different deities in an attempt to know what they are looking for when they are in the field.

Freddy is crippled and uses crutches to get around. When they go in the field together, Brennus often ends up having to support Freddy or even carry him when they have to climb up a cliffside. Freddy seems reluctant to accept this help sometime, a point of pride of his perhaps.

Captain Marvel was the first one to grant Freddy his power. Our first riddle pointed us to Rock of Gibraltar - this was where we realized our theory of who his pantheon would be was wrong. We kept theorizing big names and instead we found Chiron, a centaur who granted Freddy the power of wisdom. In Tunisia, we got powers for Ale, an African Goddess. In Aquacave, Freddy got his power from King Shark, Nanaue. And in Bahdnisia, Freddy got powers for Vyndktvx, a Fifth Dimension Imp.

Now that we know that his powers can come from a wide variety of sources, theorizing about who the powers can come from is still a fun exercise, but I'd be surprised if we guess any of them correctly. We still need to gather him a P, T, A, I, A, R, E and L. Our next riddle is leading us to Egypt - saying that the god he needs to find is burried in the sands beneath the pyramids. Who will we find when we get there? What letter will they be? And what power will they grant him? Freddy already has immense powers. Alice and Freddy worked alongside Terataya and T'CHarr, Lords of Order and Chaos to fight the Spectre in Bahdnisia. We initially suspected one of them to be the T power he would be given, but instead, the four of them working together provided a stalemate to the Spectre for long enough for us to gather his actual power from Vyndktvx. In the end, T'Charr and Terataya were killed by The Spectre, and Freddy used his new power, control over plant life, for us to escape. This power he gained might be the strongest power he had yet, the display he made with it was massive, but it left him drained and exhausted after using it.

Freddy though tries to avoid using his powers - he doesn't want to attract the attention of the Spectre. When he transforms into Captain Marvel, he can walk. But he doesn't use his power for his own gain. Oblivion is a safe place that he could use his powers, but he tries to avoid being there more than he has to be, not fully trusting the magicians within. Freddy is very serious. He knows that the world is hanging by a thread and that he has a lot of responsibility to try to save it. He's expressed a lack of understanding of how Brennus can remain so upbeat and optimistic about things, but I think that they balance each other out. Freddy makes sure that Brennus remains more focused and serious and Brennus makes sure that Freddy remembers to eat and get out of the library every once in a while, like when Saoirse put on a rock concert. Brennus dragged Freddy there and I think Freddy was ultimately grateful for it, even if he probably was still thinking about their next mission.

Quite often on Freddy's missions, a guardian demands Freddy pick a champion to battle them one-on-one to prove themselves. Brennus is always quick to volunteer for this, and when he was about to fight King Shark Freddy chimed in that Brennus is more than just his champin. Brennus is his best friend. I can't even express to you how much my heart melted in that moment. But I think that was also the moment that I started to have doubts on if Brennus should ever attempt to move his relationship with Freddy past friendship. Freddy is popular - Brennus is far from the only one who has a crush on him. Pepper has as well and she ended up asking Freddy if she could kiss him. His reaction was:

"Pepper... no. We have so many things we have to - together - we have to focus. I need to fill out the acrostic of power in my name. Darkseid, the Spectre..."
"Mary's somewhere out there still, too."
"If we're too focused on - no. I don't want to lose my purpose in-"

He also admitted to Pepper in this scene that he's never kissed anyone before. With how serious Freddy takes his role in this world, his reaction isn't surprising. But it continues to put doubt in my mind and in Brennus'. Brennus, due to living a life on the run from the League of Assassins, never really had a friend, let alone a best friend. Jiro was the one exception, and then that turned into something different when they met up again in Tokyo. Scar once said that Freddy and Brennus was evolving beyond a will-they-won't-they into a should-they-shouldn't-they instead. What does Brennus need more - to pursue a romantic relationship or to continue to have a best friend that he knows he can always rely on, who help make each other better? I don't have an answer to that question yet and don't know when I will. I think some other PCs think I should make a move and just see how things shake out, but I don't think I'm ready to rock that boat yet. We still have eight more powers to gather and Brennus is going to make sure he's still at Freddy's side for every step of that mission.

Now, when we resuce Mary and bring her back to Z'onn Z'orr, if it sems like there might be something between the two of them, that might make me change my mind and decide I have to take my chance before it's too late. Is that what will happen? Or will Mary be a Fury somewhere instead? Time will tell...

Thank you guys for reading my ramblings. I can't express how much love I have for not only these 52 characters and I look forward to meeting more new characters every week to see how much my rankings can shake up. We're 85 weeks into this campaign with no end in sight. The scope is massive and I wouldn't have it any other way. Thank you scar for letting me be a part of this story.

I am firm in the camp that Mary is just a sister to Freddy, it won't be romantic. And I think she won't be a fury because her power should be sapped

I do have concerns that Mary is Sabine though and that could fuck everything up

And thank you for being a part of it! You all have your hands on the wheel of this vehicle, and I cannot wait to see where it leads, from Earth to space and beyond! It's such an absolute privilege to tell this story with you, and I know there are some amazing - and maybe chilling - things in store for Brennus on the horizon. I know your schedule can be a really mess to juggle with our little campaign thrown in. It means so much that you've stuck through it, especially during the pandemic.

scarletspeed7 posted...

and maybe chilling - things in store for Brennus on the horizon.

I can't even tell you how much anxiety I have over Wally not answering my question about Vertigo!

TotallyNotMI posted...

But things came to the inevitable conclusion when Brennus invited Alice into the bathroom in Oblivion. Brennus' plan was to inact a plan to confirm his suspicions about fake Arion, but all Alice heard was Brennus inviting her into a private room. As soon as the door was closed, she kissed him.

Did you as a player realize what Alice would think when you invited her?

TotallyNotMI posted...

Most recently, she tapped into Madam Xanadu for the first time - gaining some premenitions powers and bleeding from her eyes - tricking Lush into punching Brennus again - although I doubt that took much convincing...

What did she tell her to cause that?

oh god yes

that was one of the best scenes in recent memory

Maniac64 posted...

Did you as a player realize what Alice would think when you invited her?

When I first told her I needed her help? No. The second she responded to me? Yeah.

Maniac64 posted...

What did she tell her to cause that?

I think it was something really generic, like you're cursed to bad luck unless you punch Brennus in the face.

TotallyNotMI posted...

When I first told her I needed her help? No. The second she responded to me? Yeah.

Perfect

"The future~ card is the last~ one~"
"I see... I see... grave~ danger~ in your future~..."
"The only way~ to prevent it~ is to punch~ Brennus~ in the fucking~ face~"

She told Lush that she needed to punch Brennus in the face if she wanted to fix her karma and not be Harley Quinn crazy. Lush brushed this off, but then did some things she felt she needed better karma on so she punched Brennus to be safe

Haha nice. Thanks for answering my questions!

Another good list I enjoyed reading through!

Honorable Mention: Bolphunga the Unrelenting

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/4/2/AAcguBAADpPO.jpg

He called me a little skint and I liked it.