Making this in tandem with my public domain superhero team thread.
Using public domain characters with a new interpretation to fit the setting. For example, Marvel used the Norse god Thor and reinvented him to fit the Marvel Universe. Or another example, this is the entire premise of Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. So with that being said, how would you reinvent characters considered public domain (completely free to use without copyright issues) for the lore of City of Titans?
My ideas (more later):
[b]Hansel and Gretel:[/b] They are twin brother and sister of German origins. In the 1850s, the 11-year-old children were lured in by a cannibalistic witch, and only barely escaped by outwitting her. From there, the two were adopted by a team of secret organization called the Huntsmen, who specialized in hunting witches just like the one that tried to eat them. Hansel and Gretel were given extensive training in combat and the use of magical items. Hansel became known for his signature silver revolver and dagger, Gretel was famed for her crossbow and lasso. Both had magical properties to enhance their usefulness. They continued for seventeen years, where at age 28 after slaying many witches for the Huntsmen, they were frozen in time by a magical spell. Awakening nearly 150 years later in Titan City, and adopted by a modern superhero team, they pledge their skills and weapons to fighting the magical enemies that threaten the world today.
[b]Alice:[/b] Alice is an English girl from the countryside. 18-years-old, Alice was bored with life in the manor and followed the White Rabbit down a hole into another world. In Wonderland, she saw all sorts of bizarre and strange things, but in all the bizarre instances she saw a new perspective on the world, one where she could do so much better. During her time in Wonderland, she drank a magical potion that gave her powers. These included flight, psychic, and illusion abilities. When she left Wonderland, she ended up in Titan City not long after. Alice is now a hero who fights evildoers, and does so in her fancy dress.
What about you guys?
Giving Alice growing/shrinking powers would gel with the story. Though also having her being able to tap into the madness of Wonderland after her trip and having her have essentially chaos magic.
Red Riding Hood as a Batman style vigilante would be pretty sweet. Grandmother wasn't killed by a wolf, but a wolf themed supervillain. Now Red Riding Hood fights crime to protect the grandmothers of the world.
Robin Hood is pretty easy to translate to modern day, especially when you can have him targetting corrupt businesses. He'd be more of an anti-hero what with the stealing.
Sherlock Holmes, you just look to one of the many modern interpretations.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
I was thinking of a Sandman Demon like character that pits heroes against other hero’s. The premise being he puts a character into a mild coma (mechanism not yet defined) in the coma/dream state the character has entered he sees a reality where the heroes are villains doing some dastardly deed (robbing a bank or whatever) and our character is compelled to stop them. All the player sees is generic versions of characters bosses etc., but the “group” is actually a PVP team that is just doing PVP against a higher level character. (They have no idea he is seeing them as villains.) (Say a mid level team against a single character maybe like a top level boss for their level as a team. Not undefeatable but very difficult.
I don’t know, i’m just sort of rambling here just an idea.
"A sad spectacle. If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly. If they be not inhabited, what a waste of space." ~ Thomas Carlyle
That's pretty good. I just wonder how extensive power customization is so I can make a proper set for her. Are growing/shrinking powers in the game?
If they are, great! But they'd be tricky to implement, I think.
Other Alice Ideas:
- Super speed from her time on the Red Queen's Racetrack
- Illusion and control type powers from (take your pick)
- A magic blade that goes *snicker-snack*
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
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Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
Robin Hood or Hawkeye (Last of the Mohicans) but he's just the Huntsman.
[youtube]mMoDeb2u8GY[/youtube]
[B]Revenge is motivation enough. At least it's honest...[/B]
Roleplayer; Esteemed Villain
[img]http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/5.jpg[/img]
This kinda reminds me of a comic that a friend of mine told me about; Peter Panzerfaust. It was supposedly, according to him, a re-imagining of the character during WWII. It sounded interesting but I never got around to checking it out.
Natty Bumppo - An alternative to the Hawkeye suggestion above. His ghost is haunting a place and needs a thing done to move on for reasons. He possibly possesses one of the villains (after the player character knocks them out) and fights alongside the PC using rifle and knives and such until the task is done and he can move on.
Sinbad - A guy shows up with a scar on his head dressed as an Arabian swashbuckler and claiming to be Sinbad. He travels the TC area looking for lost treasures and fending off foes. Eventually, he manages to get a boat, but quickly realizes he has no idea how to sail and claims he must have been cursed by a djinn. In reality, it's not the "real" Sinbad, but rather, someone with brain trauma who developed a dissociative identity disorder. Didn't stop him from taking down a villain or two and finding a magic scimitar along the way, though.
Dorian Gray - No real redesign here... He could easily still be alive if no one ever got to his painting. Probably in charge of some large corporation.
Grendel & Mother - Extra-dimensional aliens. Can't get home without basically the entire world's power supply, which is why they're still here. If "killed" they recover a few days later even from being shredded, which is why the old tale of Beowulf falsely thought them defeated. No known way to permanently contain or kill them.
Rupelstiltskin - There's a couple versions of him in DC, including Mr. Myxlplyx. Keep that general theme, with a seemingly all-powerful trickster who nevertheless has to obey some odd rules.
Morgan Le Fay. The portal to Avalon has reopened and the evil side of the fair realm is spilling out into Titan city. they open a seasonal Ren Fair in a park and end up unleashing gothic horrors into the city. Further the royal elves muster a "Wild Hunt," chasing down and killing supers. Mortals maketh for great sport! No?
Morgan is of course a magic super by now and she has a legion of fallen/cursed knights at her beck and call.
[img]https://s15.postimg.cc/z9bk1znkb/Black_Falcon_Sig_in_Progess.jpg[/img]
Well if you're talking Morgan Le Fay might as well include La Fée Verte (a.k.a. The Green Fairy) as well.
[img=302x302]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e6/10/cd/e610cd366b8edbf47d0b391a97d8e21f.jpg[/img][img=300x300]https://orig00.deviantart.net/538f/f/2008/198/5/c/absinthe_demon_by_jesselindsay.jpg[/img]
She would obviously be some kind magical Operator with Confusion powers. ;)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Dorothy Gale: A simple farm girl who's farm was struck by a tornado, through sheer luck however she lived, but had a concussion that activated a mutant gene giving here mad science abiliteas but also combined with her being a young girl dealing with the death of her family and the destruction of everything she owns, caused her to have a case of disassociative personality disorder, making her believe that she is the Dorothy Gale in the Wizard of Oz and that she is in the land of Oz. She sees herself as a hero never realizing the harm that her machines do to the innocent bystanders around her, she has even convinced herself that Anthem is the Wicked Witch of the West.
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
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Rasputin: So it turns out that when Rasputing was shot and then thrown into a freezing river, he didn't actually die. He was frozen, Captain America style, until he was found again in a block of ice and unfrozen by a curious historian, with nowhere to go he now lives a life of crime using his apex human levels of durability and his manipulative nature to get what he wants
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
[CENTER][URL=http://www.nodiatis.com/personality.htm][IMG]http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/24.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/CENTER]
Properly, he was shot, strangled, poisoned, stabbed, shot again, hung, then drowned.
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
yup, that guy was durable, and would make a great villain for CoT, just crank his ability to survive death up to 11, say he's that way because he's an apex human and then make him a mafia boss.
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
[CENTER][URL=http://www.nodiatis.com/personality.htm][IMG]http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/24.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/CENTER]
Leaving this here...
[youtube]KS3Flm7KrrU[/youtube]
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
I think they shot him a couple times when drowened/ing too :p
Pretty sure he had some regen going on ;)
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[color=red]PR, Forum Moderator[/color]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/desvipers-creative-impulsivity]My Non-Canon Backstories[/url]
Avatar by MikeNovember
The Shell Answer Man. 70's commercials for you kids. He gave a wrong answer and there were accidents all over the country. In disgrace, he was forced to work for an unscrupulous indy research lab hired by the govt. an accident occurred and now he has super powers and a 2nd chance to redeem his name.
[img]https://s15.postimg.cc/z9bk1znkb/Black_Falcon_Sig_in_Progess.jpg[/img]
I'm fairly sure Shell still holds copyright on the SAM, or perhaps Ogilvy & Mather.
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
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Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
"I guess he wasn't too popular"
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_HUdf89hI8]Send out your signal, call in your hero
I kidnapped his lady, now his power's are zero.
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[youtube]hvreI_h3BPU[/youtube]
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
To expand the list of public domain characters (and find some that surprised me) http://free-universe.myartsonline.com/literature.html
With links to the original source, although it is interesting to see the legal wranglings that keep something that should be considered public domain still under licensing (read Zorro's wikipedia entry)
So 'the Gray Ghost" was actually biographical crime docudrama in the CoT-verse. The "missing" serials were conveniently destroyed when one of the principal adversaries of the Ghost entered politics in the 1930's and pulled some strings to clean up loose ends.
Well it could be, but look at it this way. In our world we know military officers exist and yet we still write fictional stories like Rambo and Taken, so it wouldn't be out of the question that people in CoT would make their own fictional heroes.
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
[CENTER][URL=http://www.nodiatis.com/personality.htm][IMG]http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/24.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/CENTER]
Yeah, that was just my contribution- I took one that fit so well as a pseudo-costumed crime investigator that it really didn't need much alteration.
The Green Fairy is Absinthe, which brings strange dreams and forgetfulness, also, possibly, addiction.
Be Well!
Fireheart
Right... The Green Fairy (as a standalone character and not just an alias for the drink itself) was effectively the "unofficial mascot" of Absinthe back in the day. She was basically Tinker Bell before Disney ruined her by making her "family friendly". ;)
[youtube=450x300]uwyCfi6qcS0[/youtube]
Anyway, why did you think I also wrote the following in the same post:
P.S. There's a great little Absinthe bar at Boat Quay in Singapore. Good times...
P.P.S. Sure the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thujone#In_absinthe]Thujone in Absinthe[/url] is technically poisonous but you'd have to drink multiple gallons of the stuff to get to the point where -that- might harm you. As they say "the dose makes the poison". Absinthe you can now legally buy in the USA isn't even allowed to have "any" (technically less than 10mg/l) Thujone anyway. The fact that many brands of Absinthe are traditionally (and currently) roughly 140-160 proof alcohol is likely the part that killed most people after drinking too much...
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Sadly all that remains of Absinthe in Boat Quay is its Google Streetview ghost. It's a fickle town.
[size=14]"The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths." - Pushkin[/size]
[size=14] "One piece of flair is all I need." - Sister Silicon[/size]
Eh, it was a few years ago now. Many of those places down by the river do seem to come and go. Clarke Quay has been completely transformed from a "local flavor-esque" destination into a huge "internationalized chain restaurant" tourist trap over the last 10 years or so.
I'm sure you can still get Absinthe in many bars there - it's just that the place I was referring to actually specialized in it.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]