So, for those of you who know, the first major community-wide RP story is coming to an end soon. And with that, I am bringing forth a brainstorm session for the next major story arc that will hopefully hit around late February-Sometime in March.

Post your ideas for a story, or post ideas for your possible villain. We'll work together on organizing something to create the next story and what villain or villains to use.

(Use this small template for the brainstorm.):

Story Idea:
Villain:
Villain description:

Well shucks, if it ain't my favorite thing to do.

Will be back later with 5000+ ideas.

Decided to write a tribute story to HP Lovecraft using Champions Lore as a background.

Story Idea: The Drums of Sir Francis Drake, which beats everytime England is in trouble, lays silent until today. The Isle of Sindbad which lays ontop of a ever-moving large blue whale, has crossed through the mythical Northwest Passage and ended up laying still on Millennium City Harbor. The Isle of Sindbad; the hiding place to all of Sindbad's treasures from two-headed giant birds to orges and treasures from all over the world. One of these treasure buried deep within Sindbad's castle is the withered eyes of a half-crazed Arabian sorcerer, which know the location of a maelstrom-portal able to let passage to King of Edom to our destroy our world. DEMON and the Bleak Ones minions race to collect the eyes. Its up to Millennium City to not only defeat the villains but most destroy the Eyes before time runs out the President is forced to nuke the island.

Villain: King of Edom, DEMON, Bleak Ones, Lemurians, monsters of all kinds and any random punch-me villain
Villain description: Powerful Qliphothic entities who threaten humanity, and possibly the entire multiverse!

I'd really like to see a feedback thread (that hopefully won't degenerate into a flamewar) once the first RP story is wrapped up so people can sound off on what was liked and disliked. Sure bets are just as valuable as bright new ideas.

I was discussing with Superior the possibility of making Mammoth the villain. Mammoth has a magical nemesis from an alternate Earth that can put people (including Mammoth) under his thrall. I was thinking that perhaps the mystical solution that's supposed to defeat Superior opens up a rift through which Mammoth's nemesis - The Ice Lord Grolok - to enter through and fully dominate Mammoth and, through him, several other characters.

So, to use the template:

Story Idea: A magical rift opens causing the Ice Lord Grolok to possess Mammoth and through him dominate others.
Villain: Mammoth
Villain Description: Mammoth comes from an alternate Earth where Grolok kept the world in an eternal ice age. Mammoth was Grolok's unwilling thrall for years, but was accidentally portaled to this world. If Grolok finds a link to this world, however, he can easily resume his thrall on Mammoth and, through him, others in this world.

Redaquas idea sounds neat to me, except for one thing, the dominate others part. Do we really want another mind control scenario? How about the possesed Mammoth recruiting other villains instead? A few of us regularly play villains and are glad to lend our characters. I'd be happy to include Naji for instance or any of my other punch-me villains.
I'm just finding the villain who does stuff against his will abit bleh. Its neat but you know.. We already did that with Superior, sort of... Less mindcontrol more evil!
Thats what i think anywho ^_^

If there are enough villain characters to support an ongoing plot, then I'd say we should go in a different direction entirely, and instead I'll involve my real villain, The Good Doctor.

I was assuming we'd want to duplicate the mind-control dynamic because it allows any character to go villainous and then hopefully go back without being killed IC and have to stop playing that character until it's resurrected somehow.

#2184526 @redaqua wrote:

If there are enough villain characters to support an ongoing plot, then I'd say we should go in a different direction entirely, and instead I'll involve my real villain, The Good Doctor.

I was assuming we'd want to duplicate the mind-control dynamic because it allows any character to go villainous and then hopefully go back without being killed IC and have to stop playing that character until it's resurrected somehow.

Good point. I'm not opposed to some "mindcontrol" or manipulation but basing a completely new story line on it again seems abit like watching the same movie twice to me ^_^ Personally I'd rather see us take it in another direction.

Say our player run villains band together for whatever (World destruction and pie!) and, use abit of what theStreetAngel wrote, like releasing Powerful Qliphothic entities on the city to help them bring Millennium city and ultimately the world, to its knees, or whatever the goal we have in mind is.
I'm sort of liking the idea of having magic involved in some way. Even though my main villain isnt magically oriented that wont stop him from using technology along side the horrible monsters unleashed on the city.

And if theres Qliphothic entities involved the story can take some neat turns and let the entities end up turning on their masters(the villains) aswell as keeping the pressure on the heroes. Making it a two front war for both sides. ^^

I dunno if this makes sense but it sounds kinda neat to me. THough it would of course need more work and planning.
Random ramblings over..

Edit: There would also need to be a bunch of player controlled fodder villains or henchmen for the heroes to destroy/arrest. So the ones who take their time to get involved feel they accomplish something from time to time. Make the heroes be heroes and not just hapless fools who watch the villain slip away.

No more mind control.

There are lots of reasons for people to change sides. Being under mental domination is the easiest. Easiest to explain, easiest to clear up afterwards.

The best stories are the ones where someone is slowly subverted or a hidden aspect of a persons personality causes them to switch.

The best redemption stories are the ones that involve a slow earning of trust, time spent explaining the reasons and proving a change of heart.

Changing sides should be a hard decision for the character AND the player.

#2184740 Hinty wrote:

No more mind control.

There are lots of reasons for people to change sides. Being under mental domination is the easiest. Easiest to explain, easiest to clear up afterwards.

The best stories are the ones where someone is slowly subverted or a hidden aspect of a persons personality causes them to switch.

The best redemption stories are the ones that involve a slow earning of trust, time spent explaining the reasons and proving a change of heart.

Changing sides should be a hard decision for the character AND the player.

EDIT:

Agreed. I think we're all a little tired of domination and mind control. The next plot needs to focus on something else. It feels like we've done the mystic/psychic stuff to death. How about giving tech heroes a bit of the spotlight?

Story Idea: There have been isolated reports around MC and a few other areas of the states of AI going rogue, malfunctioning, or simply shutting down. Thought to be the work of Mechanon, investigators are dispatched, but evidence suggests someone or something else is pulling the strings.

Villain: ???
Villain Description: The concept of the villain would be a technopath, likely cybernetic, who liberally uses nanotechnology in a variety of cunning and disturbing ways. His "endgame" would be to jumpstart the Singularity (a projected point in the future in which machines and humans essentially become one, it's a real prediction, look it up on wikipedia.) This would allow the villain to not only mess with tech heroes/robots, but also hack into computers, cause power outages, etc. for other non-techs to deal with.

A bare bones idea, but there it is. Feel free to add onto it. And yes, I realize that AI going "rogue" is a similar mechanic to mind control, but it is a bit more limited in scope and threatens a different group of heroes that have yet to be targeted.

#2185140 @Drakenvalt wrote:

#2184740 Hinty wrote:

No more mind control.

There are lots of reasons for people to change sides. Being under mental domination is the easiest. Easiest to explain, easiest to clear up afterwards.

The best stories are the ones where someone is slowly subverted or a hidden aspect of a persons personality causes them to switch.

The best redemption stories are the ones that involve a slow earning of trust, time spent explaining the reasons and proving a change of heart.

Changing sides should be a hard decision for the character AND the player.

Agreed. I think we're all a little tired of domination and mind control. The next plot needs to focus on something else. It feels like we've done the mystic/psychic stuff to death. How about giving tech heroes a bit of the spotlight?

Story Idea: There have been isolated reports around MC and a few other areas of the states of AI going rogue, malfunctioning, or simply shutting down. Thought to be the work of Mechanon, investigators are dispatched, but evidence suggests someone or something else is pulling the strings.
Villain: ???

A bare bones idea, but there it is. Feel free to add onto it. And yes, I realize that AI going "rogue" is a similar mechanic to mind control, but it is a bit more limited in scope and threatens a different group of heroes that have yet to be targeted.

Funny, I was just involved in an RP like that last night.

As a player of tech characters/heroes, I'd love this.

I see some real potential in the faulty-AI thing. Any character with mechanical parts can suddenly turn villain.

There's also - and we might want to save this one because it could really be climactic - the possibility of coming up with a world event on which good people disagree, like Marvel's Civil War (The issue there, if you don't know, was whether metahumans should be licensed).

As a newb, I am going to avoid contributing ideas, and let the vets guide this.

I will just offer our humble group Genesis League. If you want to involve them in any ideas that percolate from this thread, please feel free to do so. So while I don't feel confident enough to drive the narrative, I can gladly support the story anyway that you guys might find useful.

Tech misbehaving is the sort of story that can lead to all sorts of fun, but a specialized threat like that can lead to very similar situations with mind control, especially given the number of robot and power armor characters I've seen. Different methods, sure, but I'm worried it would do in the same direction as the current event.

Story idea: The existence of a set of items with unusual powers has been revealed. Taken alone, they grant odd powers to individual, but taken together they can bestow great power on many. Villains and heroes begin to think about what they or their enemies could do with that kind of power, and a race begins for the items...

Now, as a loose framework I like starting on a level playing field that can shift as the event moves on. The items do not have to be of any particular origin, but so long as they work for anyone they become a temptation for heroes and a target for villains. The story can end when the items are all destroyed, or they are brought together and used. The main theme runs around the temptations of power, something that can lead a hero to act villainous or scare a villain into working with heroes to stop other people from getting stronger than them.

As for the main villain, this kind of story should have a few card-carrying villains to begin with, but as the story goes on a main villain can emerge based on the events of the story. The possibility of anyone becoming the main villain is what appeals to me, as the competition for the items could lead a hero to cross the line or a B-list villain could get enough power to actually be dangerous. The actual roles can be agreed on beforehand.

As a person who didn't/won't take part, all I can add are overall opinions and random ideas :x

Another mind control/confusion related tale would just be bland. The first one looked fun and interesting, since it was a fresh idea for CO, but not only would it be boring and tedious to slog through another, it would reflect badly on the heroes ICly. If I was a civilian, and huge mobs of heroes were mind controlled twice in a row for long amounts of time, my first thought would be 'Seriously? These are our heroes?'.

The tech idea, with rogue machines and plenty of booms, would be interesting. It'd add the option to be antagonized by robotic foes, which seem a bit rare in CO, and it'd give players the option of creating a truly robotic character that works ICly.

Another idea would be a Mastermind type, who, using propaganda, negotiation, and logic, manages to convince a number of heroes to be a part of his 'greater good', or something. It'd be easy, since it would work like the mind control by being able to use already leveled heroes (with the added bonus of them keeping their personalities, instead of being mind slaves), but there is a dilemma in that, if a hero were to consciously and willingly become a villain, he wouldn't exactly be allowed to walk free.

And that's all I've got xP

To kind of bounce from Drakenvalt's idea...

Story Idea: A pseudo-horror story plot. A mysterious alien organism, capable of overtaking/controlling anything mechanical and infecting organic lifeforms, has crashlanded on Earth. For unknown reasons, it has begun overtaking various technologies such as robots, power armor and other mechanical 'frames' and seeping into organic life.

Villain: The Red

Villain description: The Red is a mysterious symbiotic organism that has just suddenly appeared on Earth. This organism is capable of infecting living heroes with 'Blood Fever', which drives them crazy. However, instead of mind-controlling player heroes, it will literally infect them and warp them into monstrous mockeries of their former selves, at which point heroes will have to cure the infected without BECOMING infected, whilst they've got their own robots and powered armor turning on them! Think 'The Thing' with this plot.

#2185140 @Drakenvalt wrote:

[quote_post2184740 user=131867]Story Idea: There have been isolated reports around MC and a few other areas of the states of AI going rogue, malfunctioning, or simply shutting down. Thought to be the work of Mechanon, investigators are dispatched, but evidence suggests someone or something else is pulling the strings.
Villain: ???

As a cyborg player, I wholly endorse this. Yes, there's a potential for mind control-esque shenanigans in the form of reprogramming, but I don't see it being quite as compulsory. I think there's a good opportunity for tech-centric characters to have a bit personal growth as they learn to do without power armor, or even discover that they're whimpering children without it.

And as another Tech based player, theres potential for trouble other then the sort we saw through mind control. For example, if Anna's computer started maflunctioning and spitting out random files through the internet, we'd have a serious security issue effecting everyone, not just tech based characters.

As well as things like Armor suddenly shutting down in combat our requipment mysteriously overloading.

Or perhaps a cyborg's bionic arm rebelling against the rest of him.