The Paradox: Fine Tuning and Sign-Up Thread

[Toastburner B]

”Are you okay?”

Isaac wasn’t okay. He wasn’t even sure who asked the question, he was so out of it. One second he was fine, the next he felt like he was going to be sick. Very sick.

“I’ll be right back,” he muttered, then stood up and stumbled in the direction of the restroom as fast as he dared. His vision swam, and the ache in his head pulsed in time with the music of the club his friends had dragged him to. Isaac Knowlton wasn’t much of a social animal, but he had found himself having a half-decent time up until now.

He pushed open the bathroom door, and scrambled for a stall as his stomach clenched. He managed to reach the toilet before his dinner came back up. However, instead of decreasing, the pain in his stomach only got worst as he continued to retch, even after his stomach was empty. The pain spread from his abdomen until it felt like every muscle in his body was cramping up. Isaac could do nothing but slide to floor, fighting to make his diaphragm work so he could breathe, even as bile leaked through his clenched teeth.

Just as he thought the pain couldn’t get worst, it did. It felt like his skin was splitting, and that something was pulling his bones out of their sockets.

When Isaac looked at his body, there came the horrible realization that that was exactly what was happening to him.

He could only watch in horror as his fingers extended into claws, and as his bones punched through his skin. He cried out in pain as his back felt like it spilt open., Blood pooled around him.

As his body changed, Isaac felt hunger growing in him. It soon eclipsed the pain, the burning desire to eat something, anything.

Isaac stood…but to call him Isaac anymore would have been a stretch. He was in there somewhere, but at the same time, it wasn’t him. He flexed new muscles, casing his newly formed wings to flap, flinging the remains of blood and tissue from them.

“Yo, Isaac! You okay in there…oh my-“



Isaac woke up in an alley way. He didn’t know how long he had been unconscious, because his watch was gone. In fact, all he had on was tattered remnants of clothing. He tried to stand, but groaned in pain. He looked down at his hands, vague memories of something horrible happening to them haunting his thoughts. He wasn’t sure how, but they were bloody, spotted with a series of half-healed cuts.

He felt bloated and groaned as the urge to vomit overcame him once more. However, his eyes widened as he retched up blood.

His disgust deepened when he came to the realization that it wasn’t his blood.


Welcome to my next attempt at a RP.

As voted by you, the viewing audience, my attempt this time is a lovely little dark gem called “Paradox”.

Players will take on the role of people like the above, Isaac Knowlton, who discover that they are not completely human.

Here are the high points of what you will need to know.

The Paradox: Humans who are Monsters

Up until the day of your Awakening, you lived a normal life, as a normal person. There was no warning that of what would happen to you.

And what happened to you?

For all intents and purposes, you became a monster.

The recollections of that first transformation are hazy at best. All you know is that you felt ill (even though ill doesn’t really begin to describe your misery), and that a deep, overwhelming hunger welled up from inside of you…and that one way or another, you satisfied that hunger.

My inspiration for the initial transformation came from the opening of the opening scene of the game SMT: Digital Devil Saga, most specifically, from about 3:40 to 4:20 (be warned: the scene is pretty intense and graphic).

You wake up covered in blood and wounds, with nothing but a hazy, nightmarish recollection of what happened when the monster took over. You hunted, killed, and fed. The lucky ones slaughtered an animal of some kind. The unlucky ones…suffer the same fate as Isaac does in the opening, and feed on a human.

Just as the lives of those who become a Paradox are forever changed, they are thrust into a world that exists in the shadows…just beyond what the normal humans knows and believes.


Powers, Abilities, and Consequences

As you would figure, becoming a monster does offer some perks.

The vast majority of a Paradox’s new powers can only be used when they manifest their monstrous form. However, all Paradoxes share an important ability that can be used while fully human:

Sense Supernatural: This ability is the key to the shadowy world of monsters and summoners for the newly Awakened Paradoxes. Its like taking off sunglasses in a darkened room…you can see things more clearly. More to the point, as a being of the Supernatural, you can now sense the presence of things that are beyond the norm, such as monsters, and magic that is currently active. Please note that this is a talent shared by most beings gifted with supernatural powers. In your human form, you aren’t considered a supernatural being, however, once your transform, other creatures will be able to sense your presence. The effective range of this is a few hundred feet, depending on how careful the user of the supernatural is being. If it is within 40 feet, you will be able to pinpoint the location of the source of supernatural activity.

The vast majority of powers, however, can only be used when transformed. Almost all monstrous forms will grant the Paradox strength, speed, agility, and toughness beyond that of a human. Powers beyond that, I leave up to you to come up with. Nothing to over the top, mind...I would prefer things to remain somewhat elementally based (earth, water, lightning, etc), but I’m not going to go through the trouble of setting up a weakness-strength chart. If you have an idea, just go ahead and put it in your character sheet, and I’ll approve or veto as needed.

The price of being a Paradox is high, especially at first. When you first start to develop your powers, the transformation is a painful process, and the instincts of the monster are all but overwhelming. With time and use, these will become second nature, but are major barriers to overcome in the beginning. In fact, until you can find a way to make peace with it, your biggest enemy may be the creature that shares your body. For the first while, when you transform, you’ll barely be able to control yourself. You’ll be able to stop yourself from harming innocents or loved ones (if you so chose), but all other bets are off. I have no real way of enforcing this, so I’m expecting your guys to keep this in mind if you choose to transform.


The Curse of Tiamat, and Summoners

Due and an ancient curse which monsterkind contributes to the dragon Tiamat, a monster may not slay another monster. Beat to within an inch of their life, yes. Torture, and do everything short of killing, yes. But they cannot, no matter how dearly they wish to do so, lay the killing blow themselves.

The curse, laid down according to legend to prevent destruction, in fact did nothing but drag humanity into the conflict of monsters. Thus were Summoners born. Summoners are humans who have entered into an agreement with a monster to join forces. There are both good and evil summoners, as you might imagine, just as there are both good and evil humans and good and evil monsters. The classical tactic is to let the two monsters fight each other, until the opponent is weak enough for the summoner to move in and kill.

As a rule, a human is no match for a healthy monster. Even the strongest human warriors would be hard pressed to defeat a weak monster single-handedly.

The relationship between a monster and a summoner varies from partnership to partnership. Some are genuine partnership, working towards a common goal, while others are just monsters using the summoner to achieve an end, or vice versa. Some are temporary, some permanent, and some even last generations since monsters generally live for hundreds of years before dying.


The game will take place in a fictional city: Hampington. It is a major city, but not a massive one like LA or New York. I’ll leave the layout pretty simple so that you guys can make stuff up as needed.



That’s all I have right now. If you want something explained in more detail, let me know. I’ll do my best to answer the questions when I’m a little more awake.

Now, the character sheet:


Name: Character’s name.
Age: Obvious
Gender: Again, obvious
Physical Description: How your character looks as a human.
Bio/Background/Etc: The personality and history of your character, along with whatever background notes you want.

Monster Name: The name of the creature you transform into.
Appearance: The appearance of your monstrous self.\
Abilities/Powers: Can you fly? Breath fire? Other such things? Please limit yourself to one or two powers. I’ll allow for some progress later as the character achieves more control over the monster.


Example Character:

Name: Isaac Knowlton
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Physical Descrption: Isaac is a guy who is just shy of being good looking instead of average. He is tallish at 6’4”, and is of average weight for his size. He favors jeans and t-shirts, and tries to keep his brown hair short so he doesn’t have to worry about combing it too much.
Bio/Background/Etc: Isaac isn’t a real outgoing guy, and would rather spend a evening with a handful of good friends than at a party with a lot of people he doesn’t know. This isn’t to say he isn’t friendly, just not particularly extroverted. He’s a lifelong resident of Hampington, and is attending the state college located there.

Monster Name: Griz
Description: Roughly looks like this:



Is tall, close to seven feet, with an impressive wingspan, and hard skin. Fingers and toes end in closes, with a long, blade-like bone that curves out of the side of his right forearm.
Abilites: Flight. Increased toughness (essentially immune to most small arms fire, and can take an impressive amount of punishment, even for monsters).

He is currently mourning the lose of a friend, Steven Valburg, who died recently. The official report is that he was attacked by a wild animal that somehow got into the restroom of a local nightclub, but Isaac knows what really happened…he did it.



I’m tired, so I’m sure I missed something or other. Again, if you have questions or need something explained in more detail, let me know.