Board 8 > Scarlet Ranks 52 Characters from 52 Sessions of the DCRPG Campaign: Part III

(+) Yeah! (+)

This one is me. Bye bye Sinestro

I'm more curious to learn about where K'Ray is from, and that doesn't seem like something we're going to get very good answers on

Since they have both fallen, it's time to tell a little story of Thinker, K'Ray, and Roz'etta.

When Roz'etta went to question K'Ray pre-Secret Six about Darkseid, Lashina, and such, she considered the possibility that K'Ray would be suspicious, or that there would be tiny details she would only get through re-watching the talk to him. As such, she conspired with Thinker, that she would ask him to turn off his security cameras, and he would fake doing so.

Thinker responded by declaring that he would do what he does when agents go to shower.

It would turn out K'Ray was very open about everything, just suffering the effects of no longer being connected to his hive, but just the little set-up is a quality memory of Roz'etta prep and Thinker being Thinker.

K'Ray is so sweet. And it's crazy to think of what might be in the future - are all Parademons redeemable like this?

Honorable Mention: Ferdinand
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/2/9/AAblU3AADyDF.png
The bull who would be #124.

Ferdinand was a loyal friend to Wonder Woman, working as her chef after his exile from the Kithotaur people. Ferdinand hid underneath the remains of the Gateway City Themysciran Embassy after it was torn down and demolished by rioters, following the murder of Maxwell Lord. Found by Checkmate agents, he returned to Zonn Zorr, where he now works as a sous chef in the Checkmate mess hall.

God, it's so hard to figure out where to rank Ferdy. He has a lot of great, small scenes, but I think we're still outside of his great, shining moments. Ferdinand generally is known for the common refrain of "Ferdinand snorts a jet of mist," at anything that might irritate him even slightly, and an often inscrutable attitude that rarely betrays his smaller emotions until he builds to the point that he must explode with a larger outburst. He has strong friendships with both Data 7 and Lush as well - Data has lots of sparring matches and other conflicts with various beings around Z'onn Z'orr, but the ones I really enjoy the most come from Ferdinand. He's a versatile beast who can operate like a man or a bull in combat, but he's also until recently been a pacifist. A disappointment to his own kind for a lack of combative talents, Ferdinand now relies on Data to help him get up to speed. First inspired by the fate of Diana and a desire to battle on in her name, Ferdinand has been given a terrible, rude awakening after discovering his brother dead in the ruins of Where Themyscira Used to Be - he desires nothing more than to honor his brother's memory and return home now to both share the news and help recruit his race to the fight against Darkseid.

Lush began as Ferdinand's rival, in the beginning, but after a COOK-OFF (which Ferdinand through to allow Lush a much-needed victory to stabilize her mental upheavals at the time), Ferdinand begrudgingly showed Lush the respect she demanded. Since then, they've been fast friends, Ferdinand often quietly taking the opportunities to tacitly defend his theoretical boss. When Lush was ready to give up her position in the Mess, Ferdinand actually talked her out of it.

Roz'etta has also had a few good moments with Ferdinand, who respects HER respect for death, even asking her to undertake the funerary rites for his brother.

Really, all in all, Ferdinand only suffers from not having that BIG moment, I think - I've been waiting with bated breath to witness Ferdinand's homecoming on Kithira. I think the emotions within Ferdinand which have occasionally been manifesting in a big, explosive way, are ready burst in an unstoppable, unbridled way. Ferdinand has lost his closest friend and his brother. He's watched his workplace be destroyed. Can he keep an even keel when he returns to the isles where Greek legends reside? I can't wait to find out.

An undrafted Lantern falls next to the Honorable Mention list.

SCARE YOU did IT TO ME AGAIN!

The (did) makes that post so amazing.

It's okay, Winged Victory wouldn't have made it either so I woulda been doomed anyways... RIGHT?!

Just think -

If we went to the museum like I wanted in week 8, we would have Helena Sandsmark this whole time, and not Ferdinand. Who knows if we'd ever have gotten Ferdinand? He's such a staple of the campaign - it's hard to imagine it without him.

Love Ferdinand.

Ferdinand is a character who benefitted from me really wanting to talk to him, but waiting until I know I have something good to talk to him about. His respect for her, especially since they first met with him putting her face up against a stove for being a Martian, really felt like a big piece of growth for both of them from where they started.

It was a big to-do to get the island of Lesbos, which itself is merely the first step towards Greece to get the coins to get to Kithira for Ferdinand's brother, on the board, but it came with such a feeling of purpose. It wasn't being done for the sake of saving the world, it was done for the sake of giving a proper funeral for a character we never met, but whose brother we've known since almost the beginning of the campaign. Well, and for Eros, who Roz'etta is also helping for a friend, but mostly it's for Ferdinand.

Here comes Rigid Tony

Rigid Tony would be #123

My undrafted Lantern guess is...Soranik?

After Soranik placed as low as she did on the previous list there was no way I was drafting her, but just give her some time and she might make the next list.

For the readers, Soranik just started training Spirit in the art of doing two surgeries simultaneously. He's going into the next session with his right arm handcuffed to his belt to force him to only use his left so he'll make himself ambidextrous.

hombad46 posted...

Here comes Rigid Tony

don't ever say this again

Soranik certainly has the capacity to rocket up the list. I really feel a deep familiarity with her voice already; she just lacks screentime.

My guess is Kyle Rayner

Faerdinand also has the benefit of being one of our favorite words that Saoirse says. And Patch likes to correct her on it.

Ferdinand is a real sweetheart, given the way he threw the cook-off so that Lush could win, but he's got all the angst from finding his dead brother and wanting to head home to Kithara - he's been around enough to really develop in some ways.

scarletspeed7 posted...

Very recently (this week, actually), Spirit hosted an event at the Flash Museum to allow the orphans who have been brought to Z'onn Z'orr as refugees to get to know one another. Advertised in the first addition of the Z'onn Z'orr Junior Gazette, dozens of children showed up - as did K'Ray. He spied a maze on the back, and that led him to read the rest of the issue. The Junior Gazette was "so much better written" than the adult one - "it makes more sense." So the Parademon read a child's news pamphlet and, realizing he must be an orphan, too, since he doesn't know his parents, the Parademon showed up. It ended up being one of the sweetest little scenes in the campaign.

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

Thinker responded by declaring that he would do what he does when agents go to shower.

I love that I'm still hearing new stories for these characters that are great. And Thinker is still making me laugh.

hombad46 posted...

For the readers, Soranik just started training Spirit in the art of doing two surgeries simultaneously. He's going into the next session with his right arm handcuffed to his belt to force him to only use his left so he'll make himself ambidextrous.

Best of luck! If I were ever your patient could I request the right arm?

Cody11533 posted...

Best of luck! If I were ever your patient could I request the right arm?

Given that Spirit doesn't yet know how to perform simultaneous surgeries, you'd get both arms.

Even better!

That K'ray story is amazing! I love the idea of this big dude reading the kids news and doing mazes.

Honorable Mention: Rot Lop Fan
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/9/3/AAcguBAADlUd.png
The alien who would be #123.

A blind silicate-based member of the Green Lantern Corps, Rot Lop Fan has often been considered an outsider among the thousands of seeing Lanterns. Hailing from Sector 911, there are no stars that provide significant starlight. No evolution based on photosynthesis exists in Rot Lop Fans sector, which has led to the Guardians creating a sonic weapon, the F-Sharp Bell, which harnesses the emotional equivalent of green. Rot Lop Fan has found companionship in the Earth Lanterns, who themselves sometimes felt outcasts, and because of his unique Bell, he was not rendered powerless when Hal Jordan destroyed the Central Power Battery. Fan remains a loyal ally to Hal, John and especially Guy, who he considered his closest friend among the Lanterns.

There's not a ton for me to say here aside from the fact that I greatly enjoy the notion of alien life being extremely removed from the human experience, so much so that the F-Sharp Bell exists. Having no sense or knowledge of sight and color, Rot Lop Fans brain doesnt have an occipital lobe and therefore more of his brain is devoted to temporal senses. The top of Rot Lop Fans head is shaped in such a fashion that his skull resonates sound, allowing him pitch perfect hearing and moreso. The F-Sharp Bell is designed to harness this limited sensation function, allowing for a protective shield and sound waves shaped into solid forms. The F-Sharp Bell also can be used to provide emotion-quelling sonic waves, as well.

In any attempt to try and translate a race of eternal sightlessness, a sector of general darkness, to our notions of complete reliance on sight, by and large, for almost every daily activity, one has to leave their comfort zone and really dig into what makes the other senses work. There are so many Lanterns that provide similar opportunities - Norchavius, the sculptor Lantern, whose sense memory comes from an internal mansion of memories within their mind, a perfect photographic repository of their experiences; the extremely sensitive fronds of Olapet, whose plant-based form allows her the ability to calm any organic lifeform; even Rigid Tony, the pastoid spaghetti bowl whose confidence is unmatched and three-stage life cycle is absurd and bizarre. I relish all of these characters and all of the stories their alien cultures and biological makeups allow me to tell.

Animal undrafted for this next honorable mention.

Rot Lop Fan is so cool. Really alien and exciting to explore the ways in which he's so different.

Guessing Bronagh

I really enjoy Rot Lop Fan. In our first Oa session with all the different aliens he stood out for being even more alien than I expected us to encounter. But he brought a whole new perspective with him.

Rot Lop is how we found Riev iirc, was a good time

Guess is Prowley

In general I like the very idea of Rot Lop Fan talking to Roz'etta, because Roz'etta's greatest sense by far is her vision, while Rot Lop Fan is more or less the opposite.

I'm not sure you can even say vision is his worst sense, since it doesn't exist for him.

Rot Lop Fan is one of the more interesting aliens we've met thus far, because even though he has a unique physiology, it feels like he's defined more by his connection to Guy Gardner, aka a friend to Terra in these trying times.

Honorable Mention: T.C.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/6/3/AAblU3AADvhH.png
The cat who would be #122.

Animal Mans cat, T.C. is the beloved pet of Maxine and Cliff Baker. T.C. is known for his preternatural talent to nab virtually anything, even if one would consider it unnabbable. T.C. was coaxed by Data 7 and Patch to join Big Troubles, where he proved his mettle once more, nabbing a score so big that even Amanda Waller was forced to admit its value. T.C. recently has begun to court Pixie, a canine belonging to Lush, and thus he switched his team allegiance to the Passable Persuasions. He is frequently found in Holding, much to the chagrin of Sasha Bordeaux, as well.

I'm quite a fan of T.C., if I'm to be honest. He has very little sense of anger or shock - drama seems to simply roll off of his back as if it was nothing at all to be worried about. Data 7 will howl to high hell over, for example, T.C.'s betrayal of the Big Troubles, right in the middle of their recruitment drive, and yet both Patch and T.C. were remarkably cordial and friendly as T.C. went Benedict Arnold. Data 7 has repeatedly been at odds with T.C., and yet these spats end before Data 7 can get the off of the ground, simply because T.C. has no conception, no understanding of just what has gone wrong.

I'd love to see more T.C. as the campaign progresses. As one of the earlier supporting characters of the campaign, he's fallen to the wayside, sadly, but this rather precocious and laidback cat is probably one of the best animal characters of the campaign. More T.C, please!

Honorable Mentions take a break after this Kid summon.

The Cat.

T.C. is adorable and I will never be disappointed at how playful he always is. He makes me miss mah Jamie

My favorite TC moment is still from the session he debuted in. Data 7 is telling him how he wants to enter the house through the roof and TC simply says "I don't like the way you do things, Artemis." It just came from nowhere, it was so good

Guessing LMH

I think Data and T.C. relationship is actually quite interesting and I've always got him at the back of my mind in terms of RP stuffs. I really enjoyed how they played off each other during the start of the campaign. They'd rib each other, but more brotherly than anything, or maybe cousin-like. I think the recent disconnect comes from their two personalities clashing where Data is pretty serious about the Big Troubles group and can't stand the betrayal by someone he'd been decently close with, back at the Baker house. Whereas with T.C. and likely Patch as well, they don't see it as a problem at all.

T.C. is always in holding where he belongs.

well the pot is where he belongs

Patch and T.C. being so friendly with each other after the horrible betrayal just makes the animal drama even funnier.

The gang rivalry as an enemy thing only really exists in Pixie and Data 7's heads and nobody else's. Just perfect.

A Kid summon huh? Perhaps this is Pasiphae

I'm guessing Juliet

Also guessing Juliet

Honorable Mention: Juliet Capulet
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/3/6/AAS3NhAAEA94.png
The woman who would be #121.

The great tragedy of the Kid is the fleeting passage of his summons, knowing they'll never return again. I think most of them leave the campaign a better place for their presence, but none as much as Juliet, my favorite of the summons thus far. Juliet's story came perfectly timed, a crucial bit of patchy history that informs the nature of Starsa and the Star Sapphires, as well. I enjoyed translating one literature's great icons into a DC Comics world, and I felt that she was one of my better-written characters, despite her limited tenure in the story. I think, for me, Starsa introducing her form of kissing for the first time, a nuzzling, jingling buzz, was something that could only be done with Juliet. Starsa felt a natural kinship to this Sapphire that never was, and Juliet was such a lilting, easily overwhelmed figure that in combination, the two seemed naturally primed for one another. Juliet's story of tragedy also became I think tinged with even more sadness, knowing that Starsa was only scant hours away from washing away the untenable situation Juliet found herself in. Nevertheless, Juliet remains proud of her decision, this reality's narrative one that isn't just a little bit brave, a little defiant, a death meant to do more for the Capulets and Montagues than Shakespeare would admit in his retelling of events. Anyways, I think Juliet is the high point of Kid Summons, and I hope she serves as the template for a number of exciting summons in the months to come.

And I will admit, writing in iambic pentameter for a week was a hell of a lot of fun.

We're back to #75, and someone is losing a character in the bottom half of their draft board.

The idea that William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is actually more in line with things like Mel Brooks' History of the World than an original fictional drama is both tragic and hilarious world-building.

Juliet was a really uplifting tale. And any interaction that has Starsa happy without tying someone down is great.

That could be a lot of people, maybe it's time for.... Hector?

I wonder if we had the Kid Immortality item when Juliet was around if we would have used it on her instead of finding Jenny Sparks

If your suggestion is that we'd turn her into our Star Sapphire, then maybe.

If not, then absolutely no way.

Yeah, I don't see a place where we keep Juliet and not turn her into our Star Sapphire

#75 - Mento
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/4/5/AAQcMAAADc9V.png
Steve Dayton would be the first to tell you that his helmet and his powers all stemmed from a desire to date the most beautiful girl in the world, Rita Farr. Dayton was enchanted by the savvy and commanding presence of one of Hollywoods premiere starlets of her heyday, and he went to work, turning Dayton Industries into a one-stop shop for his new superhero abilities. Developing a powerful helmet that created psychic amplification, Dayton became Mento, the first non-founding member of the Doom Patrol. After wooing and marrying Elasti-Girl, the pair adopted the primitive creature known as Beast Boy, raising him into a fine, upstanding hero. But Daytons marriage fell prey to his vices, as his helmet, when removed, only amplified his paranoia and onset dementia. Eventually reduced to a quivering mass of neuroses, Mentos helmet was lost to him and he gave up his role as a hero, hating the man he became as Mento and loathing the man he was left as without it. However, after being rescued from a host of monsters unleashed by a strange painting within the Midway City mansion of the Doom Patrol, Dayton has allowed Mento to reemerge, losing himself in the powerful alter ego that is embodied in a new, mysterious second helmet of indistinguishable origin. He single-handedly maintains the psychic shield around Zonn Zorr now, and his powerful Mento ego knows just how invaluable he is to the resistance at large.

But just what assistance does Mento provide? With his helmet on, Mento presents as a hero with arrogant bravado - but with his helmet off, Steve Dayton is a man crippled into a severe depression, barely able to move himself as he wrestles with guilt. After all, Mento finds there to be no issue when it comes to invading someone's mind and wresting their secrets from dark, wet places. Nothing is sacred to Mento; everything is an open book. Mento also has no qualms in the maniupulation of another person's mind. Much like Zatanna, Mento possesses the capability to change someone - however, unlike Zatanna, he rarely - if ever - has done it. In fact, only by request from the naive, hopeful Bloodfruit did Mento rearrange many pieces of the villain Fright's broken mind. Bloodfruit sought to provide some relief to a woman plagued by terrors; instead, Mento left Fright bereft of the parts of her mind that COULD feel horror. Fright was nothing more than a doll afterwards, a childlike fool, incapable of complex emotion or complicated thought.

For Bloodfruit, this nearly broke our dear fairy friend. But for Mento, he heeded a plea for aid and wielded a sledgehammer to achieve the goal that a pair of tweezers could accomplish. He prided himself on yet another success - but Steve Dayton didn't. Once the helmet comes off, the grimness of reality sets in, and Steve Dayton is crushed by the unenviable burden of what horrors his other self can achieve when unencumbered by the shackles of morality and humanity. The mind of Mento is something else entirely.

Of course, Mento can't exactly be punished for his actions; currently, he may very well be the single most important NPC in Z'onn Z'orr, erecting psychic defenses that obscure the resistance's base from the minds of any wandering passersby. Death at the hands of Darkseid might well be avoided entirely because of our boy Mento - so how do you weigh a near omnipotent god's carelessness against the greater good, survival of a species in the face of another, darker god's insatiable lust for conquest? It's a difficult question.

A top-half draft pick falls at #74.

I still remember a particularly fun point in campaign 1 where Oracle and Fields had a laugh over Mento's name.

Now we have him in campaign 2 and he's frightening at times.