Tate's favourite characters.

[Potatrobot]

Spoiler: Pictures 

User: Dark_potato57
Name: Maarucye
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Biography: Maarucye is of a species known as the Aurbature. He worked as a mercenary, mostly as an assassin, for quite some time. However, on one mission, a rival assassin threw a grenade at Maarucye and he wasn't able to avoid or lessen the detonation. Of his four limbs, only his right leg remained. He also lost an eye and a lot of bone from his skull and back, but he was fortunate that he was on the roof of a hospital at the time. He had acquired much money beforehand, which he spent rebuilding his body. His limbs were replaced with stronger, bionic equivalents, with the exception of his right hand. That was saved and attached to the end of his robotic right arm. His eye was replaced by a wide, hooded lens, and a plethora of curved, metal plates were attached to his body to cover up the areas where he lost bone. There's one on his head, attaching his artificial eye to some more metal on his neck, two serve as shoulder guards, and the rest are spaced out evenly along his spine.
His most recent past he doesn't like to talk about, but it is known that he hasn't seen or heard from his only friend for some time.
Equipment: (Brace yourself) He had the common sense to arm his limbs. On his left arm is a boxy plasma pulser that has three curved blades extruding from the vent at the front. He can shoot with the pulser without interference, but he can also heat up the blades with it. On his other arm is something like a gauntlet, just a plate of metal with three claws on it that it held over his right hand by a frame. On his biceps are two compact batteries for storing energy.
He has two other weapons. The first is a plasma sword. It looks like a short, blunt piece of metal, but when it is drawn, a longer blade of plasma extends from it. His last weapon is one that he had before he was blasted to pieces: a collapsible sniper rifle.
Strengths: His skill is in combat. The metal which makes up so much of his body is a strong alloy that can stop most types of bullets, with the exception of strong armour-piercing ones. His limbs provide him with greater physical strength, and he isn't clumsy with his rifle, either.
Weakness: He is very heavy. The metal attached to his body brings his mass up to 180 kilograms. As a result, he can't swim very well, and he usually pushes the weight limit of passenger vehicles. The metal also conducts electricity. The batteries can intercept a net charge that starts at his hands without injuring himself, but if he is electrocuted anywhere below the shoulders, the vital organs between the point of contact and the batteries are at stake.

---

In Nerrone's Rangers, Maarucye is Flank's room mate. He even gets a brief appearance. In the name of conserving him, I applied him for the new roleplay on the GAC. Took only a few sentences of the prologue to convince me that the RP would not survive the winter. It literally didn't, because it started and ended during Australian winter.

This creature I made at random in the Space Stage of Spore. I wanted to make a cybernetic race that could pose as a decent threat, but when I raised the creature to space faring intelligence, it turned out to become a race of bards and minstrels. Well, another allied race to the list.

Inspiration: None.

[Potatrobot]

Spoiler: Picture 

User: Potatrobot
Name: W3RM
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Biography: "He may be the descendent of a dragon. He may have come from a slug. One thing is certain: he has a mean temper and a formidable arsenal." That brief description that the hosts of Dreadzone announce to the screaming audience is the only clue W3RM has about what he is. The truth is, he knows nothing about his lineage, nor does he have any memory of his past life before waking up on the Dreadzone station. He noticed that the robot gladiators the contestants fought against were all mass-produced, and what few organic gladiators there were among them were all cloned. Knowing that, and given how his name is adorned with a number, he suspects that he himself is a cloned contestant.

He is incredibly sceptical about the legitimacy of the show, especially his own weapons; he doesn't believe that half the Omega modifications are even functional, but rather crowd-pleasing special effects while enemies are somehow programmed to respond as if they were genuine. He also questions the design of the weapons, claiming that they serve to please the audience with easily-recognisable visuals first and cause damage second.

Equipment: W3RM primarily favours two weapons: the Hunter Mine Launcher, and the Quasar Turret Launcher.

Spoiler: Pictures 

Strengths: He is very quick and agile, and he is small enough to use this to his advantage when pitted against larger enemies like Executioners. He has a sound knack for predicting projectile motion, allowing him to place mines and turrets with an acute degree of precision.
Weaknesses: He is not very defensive, considering his small frame and light body. He also favours weapons that do not allow him to directly attack enemies, with the exception of launching a flurry of floating mines that quickly pile onto a target. Since he does not believe in the effectiveness of some modifications, he chooses not to use them, which negates several potential advantages he could have.

Spoiler: Alternate sheet 

W3RM's entire life until recently was spent in captivity, on an underground yet somehow simultaneously, galaxy-famous live combat sport. The hosts would announce him as some sort of mean-tempered dragon-slug hybrid, but in truth, W3RM has no clues as to his lineage or who he even is. His first memory is waking up aboard the space station where the sport was conducted, and being taught how to fight before being plonked in as a contestant.

He wasn't ignorant, however. He noticed that a lot of the cannon-fodder monsters and machines put forward for the contestants to fight were either mass-produced or cloned, and it was hard not to observe that his name was written with a number despite it being pronounced as the lowly 'worm'. He knew he had to have been cloned; just a piece of filler while the main event was prepared. He resigned to it fairly quickly; it's not like his life was any better without that knowledge. But now, he hopes to find out what he is, and maybe even find another member of his species.

Real Name: None
Code Name: W3RM
Archetype: Specialist
Primary Attribute: STL

STR 3
DEX 9
INT 9
CHR 7
END 3
STL 10

Motivation: W3RM needs to keep himself afloat. He has no family, friends, or many acquaintances that he can fall back on for support. His home/prison/job has been destroyed, and he has nowhere to go. He has experience surviving in open conflict, so he will use those skills. He also wants to find out what he is and what species he belongs to.

---

W3RM was my second character after Maarucye in the roleplay called Behind the Shadows. He is actually a skin from the PS2 game Ratchet: Gladiator. I liked the skin so much I made him into a character. Therefore, there will be no inspiration section of this sheet.

I've gone and improved this sheet, now that I've given more thought to this character. I just love Ratchet: Gladiator. It's my favourite PS2 game, and I even bought the slightly dodgy PS3 HD re-release and play it very often. The gameplay is great, but it's this skin that keeps drawing me back. He just looks so cool, and compared to the others, he actually looks like another contestant: an alien creature in a suit of armour, like Ratchet. But since he's just a skin, he needs more character and personality. I won't say that he's the latest masterpiece, but I'm proud of what I did, considering what I had to work with.

I chose the weapons because they seem to resemble W3RM. The Hunter Mine Launcher, unlike its picture here, actually bears a striking resemblance to W3RM's armour in-game. The Quasar Turret Launcher reminds me of the creature beneath the armour so between the two, there's a solid theme here. If this guy had combat bots like Ratchet does in-game, they'd have the Gatekeeper helmets and the Dragon as a colour scheme.

Any anticipated story elements for this character? You bet, that's what I do. I imagined him in a Gladiator-themed roleplay in which he and the other contestants have to find a way to escape. So far the only little bit of plot I've thought of is him finding a clone of himself (and many others) deep in the Dreadzone station, confirming his theory. It would be the skin's alternate colour scheme from the game.

In hindsight, W3RM is quite similar to Azazeal's Shrk'jaar (I think I spelled that right) in that he's simply a game character taken and fleshed out into a roleplay character. Maybe not as detailed as Azazeal's, but still in that same league.

I've added an alternate sheet because I've submitted W3RM to be used in Suit of Spades, another online table top that serves as a prequel to Stars Without Number, in which Kassandra is a character. It's run by another player in that game, and tries to follow more of a crime gang/organisation than the team of space mercs that we have in SWN.

The system is home-made and therefore isn't as deep as SWN (which has tonnes of expansions), but it's more focused on player stats rather than player skills, which make the stats that define your character, actually define your character. My biggest gripe with the SWN system is that the stats you choose to build your character with are barely used and can't change, whereas in SoS they are. In the sheet you'll see fields for Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Charisma, Endurance and Stealth. Most of them are high. When rolling sets of stats to choose from, I rolled 5 tens and a nine (from 6 sets of 3d10s), meaning that I could choose to specialise in any stat and get a very high primary attribute. I also had some sweet backup numbers for secondary stats, and only ended up with strength and endurance as low stats. And this perfectly reflects how I view W3RM's abilities and build. Again, I'm really happy that this system really uses the stats you roll.

I couldn't get any weapons similar to the two in the sheet, although the GM promises me that there are secret weapons to be bought. I also managed to nab a hoverbike after the first session, which is one of the four available vehicles in Ratchet: Gladiator.

[Potatrobot]

[Deleted]

[Potatrobot]

[Deleted]

[Potatrobot]

[Deleted]

[Potatrobot]

Name: Cat
Gender: Female
Transformation: A backhoe excavator
Description: Cat's robot form is thin and small in frame due to the size of her vehicle form, which is predominantly black. She is very flexible and energetic, and she fights with various punches, jumps and kicks, often swinging on things to build momentum.

Her legs form out of the front end of the excavator while her head emerges from the back. Her head is black while her face is made of yellow and silver plates. Her 'hair' is formed out of narrow, black plastic-framed panels of glass that link together like chains, and come down to the middle of her neck. The digger arm shifts over to the right to form her right arm while the scoop armature at the front moves towards the back to help form her left arm. The right arm is very long and her hand forms out of the scoop (like a hand fitting into a clawed glove) and has tremendous reach. Her left arm isn't as long but the scoop is split laterally into long plates of armour that protect it (on the triceps side, so she can block attacks with the outside of her arm). Hydraulics form her biceps and triceps.

The underside of the chassis becomes her back, and the wheels turn 180 degrees until they are closer together, facing each other, and submerged into her back. The rear wheels half stick out of her shoulder blades while the front wheels stick out of her lower back. The cabin compresses down until the roof forms the shape of her chest with some of the windows still visible. Through the glass, the submerged sides of the rear wheels can be seen.

Personality: Somewhat cynical, partway sarcastic, a clear thinker, and the rest is essentially aggression and eagerness to get into the action. Having taken cover in Australia and learned the human language through phone transmissions, she has a strong Australian accent.

Spoiler: Old sheet 

Name: Cav
Gender: Male
Build: Medium (he's pretty lanky, though)
Position: Field soldier
Type: Triple changer
Transformation: Excavator, bobcat and digger varieties.

Spoiler: Bobcat 

Spoiler: Digger 

Description: He is black and yellow, and relatively thin. He shifts between his humanoid form and the two excavator forms, which have a similar structure. His right arm is essentially the backhoe of his second transformation, and is longer than his left. His right hand transforms straight from the scoop, and therefore resembles one. It can, however, retract and give way to a large, corkscrew drill.
Personality: Somewhat cynical, partway sarcastic, a clear thinker, and the rest is essentially aggression and eagerness to get into the action.

---

Revising my old characters is very rewarding. Just look at the difference between Cav and Cat. This is the first character I've ever gender swapped, and I think it's a change for the better. Cav was originally based off the Manikin: Dustland character on the first page, but refitted into a transformer. The rest of the inspiration came from a car ad I saw a few years ago. To demonstrate the pulling power of this car, it was towing a trailer with a Bobcat on top. The Bobcat then transforms into a backhoe. That's where the idea of a triple changing transformer came from, even if it was a waste of an entire transformation.

Cat, on the other hand, is a revised version of this concept. She used to be a Bobcat until she chose a new vehicle to take the form of. Now that I've used both vehicles in the concept, I can move onto more important things, like her fighting style and how she transforms.

Yes, she is Australian because I am Australian. Taking the Michael Bay movies as the most relevant canon, the Transformers should be all over the world, not just America. It's typical of Mr. Bay to keep the setting localised in America (although the most recent film seems to be stepping away from this) so I'll just take the focus of my Transformers characters and put it in Australia. Just imagine an Australian Transformer! They'd have the best attitudes towards anything.

[Potatrobot]

Name: Steel Clad
Gender: Male
Transformation: Semi truck with dump trailer (or dump truck with transfer trailer)
Description: Both variations of his vehicular form are dark, metallic blue in the hood and trailers and silver everywhere else. The cab is square-nosed, and the roof is flat, without any wind deflector. Without armour he is a decently agile and hard hitter. With it, he is sluggish and heavy, but a real defensive tank and a devastating hitter. If he gains momentum while in armour, he can deliver crushing blows. He fights by advancing while shooting, until he can get close enough to strike hand-to-hand. Whether he is wearing his armour will determine how he advances. He has a single-barrel plasma gun on either arm.

The back of the truck folds down to form his legs while the fifth wheel shifts up onto his back, which is the back of the cab. His arms and head all seem to come from within the cab while it shrinks around them to shape the torso. The smokestacks form the barrels of his guns, which lie on the upper side of his forearms and emerge over his hands when they are needed.

His trailer transforms into a thick layer of armour that weighs him down and adds incredible bulk to his frame. It attaches to the fifth wheel on his back, so it can transform with him without having to be detached. It can be split, however. While in its vehicular form, it can split into two smaller dump trays, the first joining with Steel Clad and turning him from a semi truck to a dump truck, and the second turning into a transfer trailer. This splitting allows Steel Clad to achieve a happy medium between completely armoured and completely nimble, as naturally, he is equipped with only half his armour (which is still evenly spread over his body).

The separate trailer can join Steel Clad and fully defend him, but it has other uses. It can drive itself independent of its owner, be swung as a very heavy, very slow weapon, or it can be used as armour for another transformer like Cat. If he shrugs off his armour, it will join the transfer trailer and turn it back into the full length dump trailer, which cannot drive itself.

Personality: He was stationed with Cat in Australia and as such also learned English with an Australian accent from tapping into phone lines. He is brave and eager to fight, which often leads to him charging into battle. He is also very defensive of Cat, due to her smaller frame and lack of armour. He often lends her his transfer trailer to use as armour.

Combination

Steel Clad and Cat have been very close for a very long time; their partnership dates all the way back to when the war was fought on Cybertron. Upon arriving on Earth and realising that they were alone on the continent they landed on, they decided to take the closeness of their partnership to the next level, in the hope of increasing their chance of survival; they power linked.

Name: Ploughshare
Gender: None
Transformation: A plough truck with a large dump tray on the back and an backhoe digger arm behind the cab
Description: Ploughshare is a single, genderless entity comprised of the collective consciousnesses of Cat and Steel Clad. It stands taller than Steel Clad and wields the combined strength of both Cybertronians.

Holding Cat in front of himself by the waist, Steel Clad lifts her up to his chest, which splits in half vertically and transfers most of its mass to his waist and legs. This leaves room for Cat to merge into his chest and connect to him, freeing his arms. Her waist folds in half, bringing her hips up to her chest. Her legs fold up to, over, and back under her shoulders, merging with Steel Clad's arms to make them incredibly bulky. His open chest closes on her body, and his head splays open to envelope Cat's. His armour covers Ploughshare's body, protecting its head with a can-shaped helmet with a horizontal slit at eye level.

Spoiler: Old sheet 

Name: Long Haul
Gender: Male
Build: Large
Position: Field soldier
Type: Triple changer
Transformation: Dump truck with transfer trailer, semi truck with detachable trailer.

Spoiler: Transfer form 

Spoiler: Semi truck form and trailer 

Description: He is metallic blue almost all over. His transformations are similar in build, but his second form allows him to detach his trailer and become faster. He needs it to transform fully, though, as it makes up a lot of his bulk. Without his trailer he is very thin, but he is still just as capable a fighter.
His left hand can transform into a gatling laser barrel, and his right arm houses a set of very long blades.
Personality: He's usually ready to fight, and since he can take a beating with all that armour, he can be a little too eager to rip some Decepticons to shreds.

---

By God was it hard to think of a new name for this one. As you can see in his old sheet, he used to be called Long Haul. Obviously when I created this character I hadn't brushed up on the Transformers lore because that's the name of an existing character (which would explain why it seemed like such a good name). The GM must have thought I was roleplaying canon. I had to draw a freaking mind map to think of a new name for him, and even then I wasn't totally satisfied with it. I finally found a suitable name for him in Steel Clad. At first I thought of Ironclad, as in the Thunderchild from the War of the Worlds, but since I thought it would be too much like Iron Hide, I used steel instead. Doesn't make any difference, since apparently they're made out of Transformium (thanks, Michael Bay).

I agonised over how his trailer would function in terms of splitting up and forming armour. I eventually convinced myself that it wasn't tedious and unnecessary, so that I could go through with it. I just felt like I had to incorporate the two truck forms somehow. I think this works, giving it enough utility to justify the confusing change. At least it doesn't make him a triple changer any more (I mean jeez, what a waste of a concept!)

Also, after watching Optimus Prime and Jetfire power link in Transfromers: Armada, I decided that Cat and Steel Clad should share that privilege as well.

[Potatrobot]

Name: Michael Victor
Age: 28
Socioeconomic status: Working class
Occupation: Construction worker.
Ability: Electricity, but he doesn't fully understand the science behind it. It follows the principals of electricity in that electrons rush to areas that lack their negative charge. Michael can draw them from objects or areas of air and let them rush back in the form of an arc of electricity. He doesn't understand these principals, however, he just knows it by feel. If he was asked to describe his ability he would say he was pulling the energy away from something like an elastic cord and letting it go. He is most powerful at close range with these arcs. When the target is farther away, he is far less accurate, and the bolt may not even reach as far. He also can not measure precise voltages and currents; he only knows them by feel.
Ability augmentation: He can't deliver precise voltages or currents, but he has gained a feel for how much energy releases when he discharges. He can short out or power up electrical devices such as lights and radios.
Backstory: Michael gained his ability when he was at work one day, building the foundations of a tower. His job at the time was to sand the paint off a large ceramic pipe, which he did in one sitting. However, when he removed his gloves and reached for the pipe, it sent a powerful zap of electricity at his hand, electrocuting him. Rather than killing him, the net charge altered his brain and the way it handled neural-electric energy.

The first time he used the ability was a week later. Ever since the incident he could feel what he described as a strange wind that nobody else could feel, but was actually the presence of the electrons in the air. After a week of familiarising himself with the strange feeling, he developed an limited ability to grip it. He tried 'pulling' it, drawing it in, and when he could not retain a grip it slipped out of his grasp. The next thing he saw was a bolt of lightning flaring out of his right hand at a nearby street lamp. At first he was terrified. Electrical sciences did exist at the time, so there was at least someone he hoped could consult about this. The first three doctors he told thought he was just a drunk, just an uneducated carpenter who saw some lightning. It was after them that he was approached by Doctor Parvonian. He convinced Michael that he knew how he could learn to control his ability, and was more or less correct. He summarised what had already been discovered about electricity at the time, as well as a little that hadn't, like how the brain used electrical signals to communicate with the body. Michael learned about electrons and how people conducted them with batteries and metals, and the principals of voltage, current and resistance.

With time he was able to display a greater degree of control over electrons, gaining abilities like striking objects with arcs of electricity that didn't have to originate from his body, and moving a continuous stream of electricity.

Other: He keeps a pair of rubber gloves on his person should he need to insulate his hands.

---

Michael Victor is my character for Behold the Machine! by Charvi Mehra. His power is based off DC's, but only instead of being a thunder wolf he is a working class Englishman living in 1884.

Inspiration: None. He's pretty uninspired.

[Potatrobot]

Spoiler: Picture I drew 

User: Dark_potato57
Name: The Storyteller
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown, considered ageless. He knows even the most ancient of tales.
Power: Subjective Reality (Make things of fantasy reality and vice versa; warp logic, law, time, space, truth, physical form; create links to alternate dimensions, etc)
Bio: The Storyteller is transcendental. While his apparel changes frequently, it is usually into an old style of clothing. He also consistently assumes the form of an old man.
He brings things out of fantasy and into the world of fact, and banishes real things to fantasy. If it has been written or told in a story in any way, he can make it real. Any wondrous scenario that the human mind can invent, he can bring into existence.
He warps the laws of physics into false ones, granting him the ability to change the way the world works. He often uses this to fly, but also change his physical form. He usually changes the laws back again, but he might leave them every now and again.

He has his own dimension called the Dark Realm. Inside it is just a massive space surrounded distantly by swirling black and purple, occasionally lit up by lightning. It is from here he opens portals to the various realms of stories and places on Earth.

He tends to conjure two types of magical solids, one light and the other dark. The first is made of translucent, white light that swirls with other light colours like green, pink, blue, yellow; forming a subtle, irregular rainbow. Whatever he forms out of this solid light is very hard, harder than steel. He usually uses it to form wings behind his back to fly or blades that attach to his staff. It does not ring out when it strikes another blade, but rather hisses and gurgles.

The second light-solid is much more devious. It is the same material as his Dark Realm, swirling with black and purple, occasionally flaring with black lightning. It is as solid as titanium and then some, and The Storyteller also uses it for blades for his staff. But whenever those blades strike anything, wherever they cut, portals to the Dark Realm open. He could hold a blade of this evil light-solid into the ground and skate along with wings of light and open a giant crevasse that leads to his realm.

_________________

On the GAC, Nerrone's Rangers is not going anywhere, so this other RP has opened up. It's based on characters with a randomly generated superpower. I rolled Subjective Reality, which grants me the power to blur the line between fantasy and reality, so that I can summon any fictional character, creature, or anything that has been conjured by the human mind. I can also warp time, space, and everything else by extension.

I remember Jim Henson's The Storyteller, an old show of which my family has three episodes on video. I love it, so I decided to name my character after it. It also makes him awesome. He is a timeless, ageless deity of stories and fantasy.

I even plan to have him summon ideas and characters from games and films, because they count. I'll use the Portal mechanic for some reference-y fun, and then finish off with a Tripod from the War of the Worlds.

Inspiration: The Storyteller, for starters. But his magical solids were inspired by the Subspace Bombs and Tabuu's wings in Super Smash Brothers Brawl.

[Potatrobot]

[Deleted sheet, it contained the next two characters in this thread but acting as some sort of double-character]