The New Ultimate DC RPG: Sign-Up/OOC Thread

[Spike_x1]

Meh.

 

[Batman]

Not that I think anyone needs to be reminded, but today's the last day to get posts up for the season. Depending on when Byrd decides to put up the montage after midnight, which is the deadline for making it into that, I'll close the thread and we can do awards in here until the new OOC thread can be put up on either Sunday or Monday.

I'm thinking a week from today will be when the next IC thread'll go up, giving us two days to re-apply for characters and start planning posts. If that raises any problems, let me know and I can reschedule it.

 

[Batman]

Oh, and Batman's done for the season aswell. I had intended to write another post - but screw it, the one I put up and my contribution to the montage both cover what I mainly had to say.

 

[CoreBrute]

I was wondering, for the next season can new people apply? I was wondering because I was interested in doing Black Adam or a future character (I remember the Legion of Super Heroes taking place in the 30th century). If so, I will post it in the new OOC thread on Sunday.

 

[Byrd Man]

Of course new people can apply. Go for it.

Also, since the season is over, I shall post the season-ending montage thingy this evening. So if any of you slack ****ers have anything else you want to add, now is the time to do it.

 

[MST3K 4ever]

I have an idea for a final Giganta post...it will keep LexCorp in the clear concerning what is currently transpiring. I should have a post up within the next 2 hours.

 

[MST3K 4ever]

Okay I think Giganta is done for the season...it ends with her monitoring the L-Soft Program in another control room on the moon and taking. I would have her comeout and help Lex if the tide starts to turn...but I will make a quick edit saying Lex wants this to be his moment against Superman and NO interference from her or anyone else.

 

[Spike_x1]

Kryptonite is going to be a new energy source for Earth, despite how little of it Lex actually has (something I have a big problem with as a concept, not to mention Lex specifically says the Blue will be Earth's new energy source)? Professional psychologists think that Superman wouldn't want to sit down for an interview and testing to possibly put peoples' minds at ease (even though the doctors who came to that conclusion work for LexCorp, would anyone buy that after seeing Superman appear in front of dozens of reporters in the park just minutes ago, plus his known relationship with STAR Labs?)?

I really don't want to be too harsh or stifle anyone's creativity, but that post really threw me for a loop. Was any of that exposition necessary? Now it just seems kind of redundant and contradictory to past events, as well as some of the things Andy and I planned out. Lex already said that the L-Soft's hacking can't be traced back to LexCorp, so Luthor was already in the clear. Plus, I really liked the simplicity of just the three characters of Supes, Lois, and Lex alone on the moon to close off the season in Andy's contribution to the montage.

 

[MST3K 4ever]

Kryptonite is going to be a new energy source for Earth, despite how little of it Lex actually has (something I have a big problem with as a concept, not to mention Lex specifically says the Blue will be Earth's new energy source)? Professional psychologists think that Superman wouldn't want to sit down for an interview and testing to possibly put peoples' minds at ease (even though the doctors who came to that conclusion work for LexCorp, would anyone buy that after seeing Superman appear in front of dozens of reporters in the park just minutes ago, plus his known relationship with STAR Labs?)?

I really don't want to be too harsh or stifle anyone's creativity, but that post really threw me for a loop. Was any of that exposition necessary? Now it just seems kind of redundant and contradictory to past events, as well as some of the things Andy and I planned out. Lex already said that the L-Soft's hacking can't be traced back to LexCorp, so Luthor was already in the clear. Plus, I really liked the simplicity of just the three characters of Supes, Lois, and Lex alone on the moon to close off the season in Andy's contribution to the montage.

fine...I'll make some changes and Giganta will be out of the way of the arc already in progress...sorry I got overly-involved or if I screwed anything up.

 

[Spike_x1]

Thanks.

Man, I really feel like an IC Post Nazi lately.

 

[Byrd Man]

We all have a little post Nazi in us, mein Fuhrer

 

[MST3K 4ever]

Thanks.

Man, I really feel like an IC Post Nazi lately.

Sorry Spike...you're still a ways off from Nazi status. Maybe an IC KGB Agent but not Nazi.

There are others who (thankfully are no longer here) were WAY worse than you. (Hello Red X)

 

[trustyside-kick]

Sorry Spike...you're still a ways off from Nazi status. Maybe an IC KGB Agent but not Nazi.

There are others who (thankfully are no longer here) were WAY worse than you. (Hello Red X)

DAMN that's kinda cold.

 

[Byrd Man]

But true....very, very true.

Montage post is put together. Getting ready to post it now.

 

[MST3K 4ever]

DAMN that's kinda cold.

I know it is...but playing with him was a lot of times (to be kind) difficult. His telling me how I needed to play Luthor in the World of Heroes RPG was the straw that broke the Camel's back.

I am sure there are others we can all name off...but...I digress.

All that being said...I should have something in the montage post in the next 24 hours.

 

[Eddie Brock]

I know it is...but playing with him was a lot of times (to be kind) difficult. His telling me how I needed to play Luthor in the World of Heroes RPG was the straw that broke the Camel's back.

I am sure there are others we can all name off...but...I digress.

All that being said...I should have something in the montage post in the next 24 hours.

Umm...the montage is going up momentarily. You don't have 24 hours. You might have 24 seconds.

 

[Byrd Man]

Is there anyway you can make it be a little sooner? I mean, I literally have the first part ready to post all I need to do is press the button. I can wait a few hours and fit you in

 

[Byrd Man]

It's 11, MST3K hasn't logged in since he last posted so I'll give him another half hour.

 

[Byrd Man]

And that is a wrap.

One heck of a ****ing season, everyone. Congrats to everybody.

 

[Batman]

My sentiments exactly. This season was absolutely fantastic. My only hope is that Season Two can be nearly as grand... if not moreso.

Best Hero:
Best Villain:
Best 'Walking The Line':
Best "Ultimized" Character:
Best Character Development:
Best Story Arc:
Best Post:
MVP (Most Valuable Player):

Have at it, people.

 

[Saved]

*reads montage*

Spoiler

... Daddy?

 

[Byrd Man]

All I can say is,

Spoiler

Acting Commissioner Nygma, anyone?

 

[Byrd Man]

Best Hero: Batman - Batman

He likes Batman, as if you couldn't tell by his username. And he's good at him. Real good. Each Batman post is chocked full of detail and packed with emotion. He gets inside Batman's head better than many of the comics writers who write him today. While each post may take a bit longer than I like, , that doesn't mean it isn't great. I have no qualms with saying MB is the best Batman these RPGs has ever had or will ever have.

Best Villain: Lex Luthor - Andy C.

"Aim small, miss small," those were the words of Mel Gibson in The Patriot back when he was still sane and those can be words to live by. Most of my story arcs are small in nature. The biggest arc I've done so far in my RPG career was pretty much a solo one for nearly nine months. Small arcs usually have less chance of failing, which is how I do it. I aim small, so I miss small.

Andy aims big. Now, sometimes that's not a good thing, but Andy pulls it off with flying colors. He's been building up Lex's evil machinations ever since the RPG began, so now it's pretty sweet to see it come to fruition. I'm looking forward to having Flash slap his bald head at super-speed


Best 'Walking The Line': James Gordon - Catman prb

I love Catman's take on Gordon, love it. It works perfectly to me. Despite what you may think about Batman's greatest ally being a corrupt mini-tyrant in this RPG, Catman's Gordon is still Jim Gordon at his core. He cares about protecting Gotham and keeping it safe. Does he go about in a ****ed up way that benefits him? Sure. But that's no crazier than paring up with a man who dresses up with a bat and bending the laws. I loved playing Nygma this season, and Cats is a big part of that. He gave me a perfect foe/friend to play off of and cats, along with EBJ, is the reason why I managed to stay interested with Nygma and keep him as long as I have.

Best "Ultimized" Character: Jason Todd - Syn

Never been a fan of Jason Todd, to be honest. His Robin was kinda annoying and his greatest moment was dying, and DC managed to **** that up. Morrison has made him better, but still don't care for him much.

I like Syn's Jason Todd because he is no way associated with the Robin mantle and his Todd is actually a pretty cool character. Arkham doctor by day, hooded crimefighter by night using psychology to get inside victim's heads. I've liked his Todd posts this year, where he's going with the character, and what little bit about what I know where he'll be going. Keep up the good work.

Best Character Development: Selina Kyle - EBJ

They say patience is a virtue. If that's the case, EBJ is one virtuous mother****er. He was gone for a brief time in the winter, but he's stuck with Selina for pretty much the whole time of this RPG and been constantly working on developing her character....and she's still not Catwoman! He's made Selina Kyle into a head-strong, independent woman who kicks ass in her own right without a bullwhip or kitty ears. EBJ is on the home stretch with her journey, though. If the first three quarters are any indication, then I'm looking forward to the last leg of her journey to the claws. You go, girl! Or guy.

Best Story Arc: Justice League vs. Star'ro

This arc scores with me just because we finally managed to do it. We tried for three seasons in the last RPG and never got around to it. Hell, it was the arc that was going to bring the JLA together ended up causing it to stall and fail. I loved taking part in this arc as Flash and I'm looking forward to what's to come. Props to Cats for getting things rolling and Spike, Andy, MB, Bounce, MST3K, and Majestic for making sure this ****ing RPG finally gets its JLA.


Best Post: The Death of Black Mask by Catman prb

As I said before, I love Catman's Gordon just because it is indeed an ultimate take on the character. This post right here is what put everyone on notice that his version of Gordon would be one we had never seen before. A year later and it's still awesome.

MVP (Most Valuable Player): Batman

He's not as hands-on (controlling) as some GMs in other RPGs (See: Byrd) but MB's management style has kept this game going and his hard work in the defining the rules and continuity at the beginning of this RPG is what made it better than the previous incarnation and his continued work both IC and OOC is what will make this RPG get even better.

 

[Batman]

Best Hero: The Flash (Byrd Man)

One thing you tend to expect from an Ultimate reinterpretation of a hero is that they're generally darker, filled with angst and moral shades of gray that reflect our own minds and the times that we live in. But Byrd's Ultimate Flash, more than others, managed to capture the sheer fun and essence of what it means to be a superhero in the most classic sense. While it might have been easy to remake The Flash as a tortured crusader to try and contrast his sunny disposition in the comics, Byrd manages to take the other side of reality - that of being a young man who's down-on-his-luck nature provides some humor and lightheartedness - and blend it all into a nice interpretation that blends the best of all four prominent men to bear the mantle in the DCU. With Jay Garrick's unfledged morality, Barry Allen's keen intellect, Wally West's sarcastic wit, and Bart Allen's overall consistent theme as a young gun trying to prove himself worthy of the big leagues, Ultimate Flash is sure to become one of the more heroic icons of the UDCU in seasons to come.

Best Villain: Bane (Spike_x1)

While Lex Luthor and The Joker both had their moments to shine, as they typically do in any DC continuity, Spike's Bane was undoubtedly the most consistent villainous presence since the start of the season. And presence is the key word - a good majority of Bane's actual posts were setup for something obviously bigger and grander than a giant murder spree, territory that the character could have easily fallen into. But Ultimate Bane managed to capture the cunning prowess that made the original Bane such a threat to Gotham City in Knightfall/Knightquest, a feat of which many comic book writers haven't been able to recapture quite as well since the early 90's. The fact that he and Batman only had one face to face encounter for the entire season speaks volumes about the sheer patience and strategy that the character brought to the table, and without Spike's skills as a seasoned RPG vet, it wouldn't have been nearly as effective.

Best 'Walking The Line': Edward Nygma (Byrd Man)

You know, I tried to nominate someone else to balance my awards out, both in terms of player recognition and the overall amount of Gotham nods, but I decided that I'd seriously be lying to myself if I had put anyone else here. Simply put, Byrd's interpretation of the man who would be Riddler is the most unique that I've ever seen. Humanly flawed to almost his most basic detail, yet quirky and sometimes even brilliant in his methodologies, Byrd's Edward Nygma drops the camp and focuses on the potential that one of these characters has without their traditional flamboyance. And his slow build to utter insanity on a realistic, fascinating level made Byrd's posts both engaging - and even sometimes hard to read, due to the level of unlikeableness that Nygma's spite and arrogance brought about. Whether or not you eventually expect him to don the question mark tights and plague Gotham City with deathtraps and puzzles, Ultimate Nygma has remained the UDCU's most cerebral and dramatic read since his debut, setting up plenty of interesting ways to take the character in the future.

Best "Ultimized" Character: Selina Kyle (Eddie Brock)

I've made no secret that, as Batman for three seasons prior, one of my biggest issues with past seasons of Ultimate was that I was never given a satisfying Catwoman to spark a fair chemistry with. That all changed from the moment that Eddie Brock, one of the RPG forums' biggest rising talents at the time, took on the reigns and made Selina Kyle into perhaps the strongest female read of the game thus far. A great thing about this season is that while most of the main characters skipped past telling their origins with reason, supporting characters were given the chance to develop their journies, and Selina is what I consider to be the prime example of that opprotunity gone right: Strong willed and confident from the beginning, she's everything you'd expect from Catwoman without even putting on the costume. But what makes her Ultimate is actually the brilliant twist of combining her origins into one cohesive narrative through making her a cop, bringing Ms. Kyle to the forefront of Gotham City's corruption while explaining away her seedier origins, taking away the sleaze of her prior experiences to becoming a thief and making her as independent as she eventually became. My one biggest regret was that I couldn't make the time to interact more with EB's begrudging feline fatale, a fact of which I intend to rectify in Season Two as we both work to build Batman and Catwoman's romantic tension into being as strong as the comic books portray it - while never losing sight of the fact that this iteration of Selina Kyle still stands apart.

Best Character Development: Barbara Gordon (Syn)

When the words 'character development' come into mind, you picture a character's journey that has taken them from one point in their life to the next in a seamless transition that matures the character through the growth that you're subjecting it to. That right there explains Syn's Batgirl to an absolute T - at the beginning of the season, she started off as a moody brat who cared little about anyone other than herself, often clashed with her father, and generally made life hell for those who stood in her way. But as the season progressed and Barbara experienced tragedy, her womanhood took over as she suddenly realized that there's a world beyond her own selfish gain, giving rise to one of Gotham's greatest crimefighters. When she finally donned the cape and took her first steps into the world of heroics, as a reader, I was genuinely thrilled. I felt like I had known the character through the most important time of her life, and that is one of the greatest narrative traits that a writer can pull off. As Syn's skills have improved, so has his characters, and his version of Barbara remains my absolute favorite... so much so that I actually felt kind of bad for having to write the scenes where Batman brushes her off instead of encourages her, simply due to the need to see the character shine. She started off as a bratty teenager with no redeemable qualities and ended up becoming a selfless, unjaded heroine who's sure to at least win the respect of her idol in time.

Best Story Arc: Lex Luthor's Revenge (Andy C., Spike_x1)

...is all I really have to say. Never have the games seen such a drastic turn of events that have felt as natural as Lex's end season turn from petty manipulator to grand scaled mastermind. Andy's Lex Luthor had always read as part Grant Morrison, part Mark Waid, and a sprinkle of Geoff Johns with a dash of Paul Cornell's recent Action Comics run. But his first and definitely most epic moment were the final moments of the game, where in one foul swoop, he managed to incapacitate Superman and bring him to the darkest corners of the moon, enacting what is sure to be a doozy of a world takeover plot. With only a few posts geared into overdrive for an epic cliffhanger finale, Andy managed to pull off all of the traits of any good event comic book arc - a feat of which he used to steal this award from both our space-spun Blackest Night arc and the birth of the Justice League, among other great storylines to weave out of the season. Now that's just evil.

Best Post: Exit Black Mask, Enter Jim Gordon (Catman_prb)

Not to echo Byrd's sentiments, but I really do have to give props where props are due. Commissioner Gordon was put through the proverbial ringer this season, and no moment hit Jimbo the hardest than the violent murder of his son at the hands of Black Mask. But evidenced, the mobster hardly got away with it - yet still managed to inflict more damage than he probably even thought possible. Gordon was left a broken man, and as a result, all of Gotham paid the price. For this post alone, I truly hope that Cats' montage contribution doesn't spell the end for Gordon's reign as perhaps Gotham's greatest menace.

MVP (Most Valuable Player): Byrd Man

There's a reason this reboot was a success, and that reason was it's players. But Byrd's unbridled loyalty to the game went above and beyond the call of writing characters and interacting with players - his ideas and constant reference of imput helped shape the RPG into what it is today. No one works harder than Byrd does to ensure that this game keeps running smoothly, whether it's badgering me over IM's to get a much needed post up, counciling the GM's through making tough decisions, or PMing other players to kick them into shape and get some sweet character moments into development. He's the Sigfried to my Roy, the Bonnie to my Clyde - hell, he was even briefly the Robin to my Batman.

Byrd Man: making the RPG's better one South Carolinian boot-up-the-ass at a time.

 

[Batman]

I just wanna note that, for each category, there were multiple runner-up nominations that left me struggling for days to decide which I would ultimately nominate. And that just goes to show how good you people really ended up making this game.

Cheers to all.

Good lord, my lips are numb from all of this ass kissing...