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.

[Arhra]

I'd like to express interest. Not quite enough time to write up a character tonight.

So its a modern setting? How exactly do the monsters fit in?

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Name: James Wade.
Age: 23.
Gender: Male.
Physical Description: 5'11, caucasion, jet black hair which is badly in need of a haircut. Almost always seen wearing black jeans and t-shirt, and always listening to rock music on an ipod.
Bio/Background/Etc: James is just an average middle class, hard working guy. Generally spends his evenings out drinking with his friends, but is usually sensible enough not to get too drunk. Somewhat contradictory he is actually quite quiet and thoughtful for the most part, something which is further contrasted by the berserker beast that has recently awoken inside him.

Monster Name: Ifrit
Appearance:


Around 8 ft tall while erect, but generally moves around on all fours. Has 3 fingers and toes on each limb, ending in massive bone like claws which nether the less are quite dextrous and opposable enought to lift and manipulate objects. He is entirely hairless except for his back, which is covered in a mane wreathed in fire.
Abilities/Powers: Ifrit is a fire elemental, with the ability to create fire and control it to a limited extent. Only the primal insticts of the beast prevents him from aquiring greater control over his element and so normaly this power is used chaotically and haphazardly. Because of this alignment he is immune to fire, naturally. His physical strength is also far greater than most other monsters. He is the embodiment of rage, destruction and chaos.

[Flarecobra]

What all can we expect in terms of technology?

[Toastburner B]

Originally Posted by Arhra

So its a modern setting? How exactly do the monsters fit in?

Modern setting, yes. I find those to be easier to handle, as most everyone knows what you are talking about when you describe a city, a building, etc.


The monsters fit in about the same way they do in shows like Buffy or Supernatural, where they exist main just outside of the norm...most for survival reasons. For all their power, mankind has monsterkind outnumbered by quite a bit. Only a handful of people know for a fact that monsters exist. The rest of humanity either cannot see the clues, or willingly ignore them. After all, we've been convincing ourselves since childhood that nothing exists that goes bump in the night.

Of course, events in Hampington are likely to shake that belief.

In many ways, the monsters are not to different from humans. There are good and evil ones, some try to exists in an society, while others prefer to be loners. They love, and hate, and feel everything that humans do. The biggest difference is the inability to kill other monsters (monsters can kill humans with no problem, however).

Originally Posted by Flarecobra

What all can we expect in terms of technology?

Modern tech. Sorry I didn't make that clear in the intro. The setting is a fictional American city, so characters will have access to what the average American citizen can get.


Also, I suppose I could clear up a few more things:


The Toughness of Monsters
.
All in all, monsters are pretty resilient. Weapons, such as guns and arrows, that leave a comparatively small wound will hurt monsters, but isn't all that effective at killing them. As such, summoners and hunters favor melee weapons or very large caliber guns to bring down monsters. Monsters with a power like improved toughness, such as Griz, have very hard skin that will deflect almost all small arms rounds.

Also, your average monster is strong. Your average monster could flip a car by itself with a hard effort and enough time. Exceptional strong monsters can manhandle pick-ups and SUVs to the same effect.


Summoners: Pacts with the Darkness:

With the Curse of Tiamat making it impossible for monsters to kill each other, mankind found itself being brought into a series of conflicts not of its making. Those who fight in these conflicts are called Summoners, as they fight along side another monster in this conflicts. More often than not, Summoners only strike in the very end of a battle, landing the killing blow as only humans can. Otherwise, they would only get in the way of their partner.

As stated before, the range of relationships between summoners and their partners runs the entire range. Some work together only for a common purpose (such as to kill another monster that has wronged them both), while others have built long relationships (such as a monster who has stayed with a family for generations), and others have one or the other all but enslaved to the other.

The relationship between the Paradoxes and summoners is going to be just as complex. It will greatly depend on the summoner, and the action of the Paradox, to decide if how it will work out...and whether the Paradoxes will find themselves being hunted by the summoners.

Magic: The All But Lost Art

With the advent of technology, most of the secrets of magic have been lost. When a simple bullet can kill at a range greater than any magic sword, or at the same range as a spell, and be easier to learn to use, most people wonder why even bother.

As such, even summoners will know only a the bare-bones basics of magic. Mosterkind itself doesn't use magic either per se, since their abilities closely match magic of old.

Most magic in the modern world takes the form of weapons, almost all of these being melee weapons wielded by summoners. However, even the help of magic weapons isn't enough to make most humans a threat to the average monster.

Other than a few die-hard mages here and there, magic is an dying art. It does still exist, however, and as such, should be mentioned, if only in passing.



I should also mention that this going to be a little more open-ended than my RPs usually are, at least in the beginning. I'll prove a nudge in the direction I'd like you to go, but it's up to you whether or not you'd like to go there. My only request is that you try to keep any PvP to a minimum...or at least work it out between the players what the outcome will be. Overall, I'm generally wary of PvP in this style of RP, as it usually goes to the person with the biggest ego.

And finally, on a minor note, a picture of your monster form is not required...I just threw one in for me because I suck at descriptions.

Hawk: Approved, but go easy on the fire-control at first. It's supposed to be a relatively minor power at this point, remember.

[deathpigeon]

Name: Rocum B. Black
Age: 14
Gender: Male
Physical Description: A short young boy with short, jet black, spiked up hair. Wears comfortable clothes and is never seen without his butler
Bio/Background/Etc: The Black family used to be a very rich family, but recently there fortune was running out. Rocum was very shy and sickly from birth. Most doctors were surprised he could even walk, and some thought he was going to die. On Rocum's 14th birthday, a month ago, he transformed into a demon and ate his father as his brothers fled. After his fathers funeral, Rocum set off for Hampington because of rumors of others like him.

Monster Name: Selrue the scholar
Appearance: A short imp with stretched skin and a skinny body. His skin is deep blue, nearly black. It has two bony wings and a tail.
Abilities/Powers: Selrue can fly weakly but on the ground he can move at immense speeds. He has an intimate knowledge of the human body and can strike pressure points with extreme accuracy. Selrue is not really good or evil and not much of a fighter preferring to end conflict quickly.

Edit: I fixed it up a bit.

[Toastburner B]

DeathPigeon: Sorry, but no. For a few reasons.

1) I rather heavily implied that magic is rare. Very rare, as dying arts tend to be. As such, having a character who just so happens to come from a family of mages and happens to be a Paradox is just...overdoing it. I'm going to have to veto that.

Plus, a good portion of the start of the game is going to be the characters trying to figure just what the heck is going on. Presumedly, if you character comes from a family skilled in magic, they would already know all about monsters and all that, stuff that I'd not have characters be privy to when things kick off.

2)I find your monster idea somewhat intriguing, I'll admit, but you may want to refine that a bit as well. I'd rather you treat flying and enhanced agility as two separate talents instead of combining them. I know that sounds nit-picky, but giving the overall advantages of flying, I'd rather have it be treated as its own ability, with no add ons.

[Arhra]

Hmm, I'm still honing in on ideas. I had considered basically the ability to bleed acidic poison, but decided it was a little too focused on the whole icky grossness and the effect of that would wear off too quickly. Not to mention the general danger to other characters. Still, I did like the mental image of a monster with tears of pitch and drooling black ichor, possibly with quills that dripped the stuff too. Incidentally, this would actually be reasonably close to the original definition of ichor.

Currently the front runner is a regeneration power with a twist. There would be an overgrowth option for things bigger teeth, extra limbs or just general growth but at the cost of slowing down the healing the more stuff gets added. Would that be alright?

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Originally Posted by Toastburner B

Hawk: Approved, but go easy on the fire-control at first. It's supposed to be a relatively minor power at this point, remember.

Yeah, I figured as much, so for the first while it will most likely be a "oh crap, now he's REALLY pissed off, and oh, the room's now on fire" kind of lack of control over exactly what he's flambeing.

Couple of questions I forgot to ask in my initial post:

1) What initially causes these transformations for our characters? Do the monsters just get hungry and break out, or does extreme stress and life and death situations bring it out as well? Do emotions like anger cause Hulk-outs?
Obviously over time we'll be able to control when the transformations occur, but what about in the initial stages?

2) Does the Sense Supernatural ability tell us what we're sensing, or just give us an indicator that something otherworldly is nearby? Does one need knowledge of magics and the like to be able to tell what it is they're sensing?

[lazy man]

Hm, I'm also claiming interest in this. I have an idea of what I want, but I can't quite put it in words yet.

Also, Toast, I'm jealous of your use of Amon. Quite the awesome monster to pick, if Shadow Hearts is any indication...

Anyway, I should get something down soon. I just want to find a good picture to describe what I'm thinking.