Greetings, Salutations and Queries

[Casey]

Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong

Hi everyone, I’m Casey.

I could not find a place for introductions so I hope this here is okay.

I am a long term fan of the Transformers universe. I grew up on the original G1 cartoon and I’m about 98% certain I have seen every episode of every carton series aired in North America. I’ve read a ton of the comics in the last five years since the local library started stocking them and thoroughly enjoyed the four live action movies – mostly for the CGI of the transformations however as opposed to anything resembling plot.

I have roleplayed Transformers once before for a couple of years about four years ago (I think), a couple of my OC’s are still there in the site’s wiki. The site played out similarly to this one as best as I can tell, having each little story in its own Thread. I stopped playing about the time Bruticus was fighting Overlord. In this case each component of Bruticus was controlled by a separate Mun so each Mun took turns controlling Bruticus. Overlord was a Staff controlled NPC. Good times. Sadly that site has been in slow decline for the last couple of years. The big difference is that in that site, posts contained very little meta, playing out more like a comic than a novel.

tfdeadzone.proboards.com/
deadzone.pbworks.com/w/page/17042365/Application

(For the Curious. Note that in the wiki, the character profiles are deliberately omitting information – personality/weaknesses - to reduce OOC knowledge)


Before that, I played Dungeons and Dragons 3.0 and 3.5 with my friends for maybe six years until we sort of went our separate ways. Before the game broke up, we had started a new campaign. I had a level 3 half orc barbarian who had just died due to falling damage when he failed all his climbing checks. Going into rage to boost his strength bonus an additional two points to add to climb checks just meant he fell really angrily. He was so angry at gravity; he head butted the ground hard enough to kill himself after falling something like 40 feet. Sure my minty fresh character died, but that is sometimes how the dice rolls.

So yeah, I love science fiction and fantasy. I read all the time and wish I had the creative talent to b a professional writer. Favorite authors include Isaac Asimov, Peter F Hamilton, Robert J Sawyer, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, and R A Salvatore.

I used to work as Semi skilled labor, three years ago I screwed up my right shoulder pretty bad, I can’t lift my hand above shoulder height, and so made a career change. I went and got a civil engineering degree and now I have a job which is 50% desk work and 50% out in the field. I essentially have a fair whack of free imagination time. I want to get back into the forum based roleplay groove.

Why am I writing all this here? The Chat box (which is really awesome since my last rp forum had none) does not work on my work comp, and my phone’s screen is too tiny to user friendly. This way I only have to introduce myself once, and can get all my thoughts in order. I would still like to appear in the Chat box but likely not often. I’m talkative on certain topics, like transformers duh, but just not all the time.

I have been lurking for about a week and I definitely would like to apply. Straight off the bat, I don’t know if my writing skills will be on par for your intermediate to advanced site. I shoot for the stars, hope, and if I fail, re-evaluate.

I know it’s been said that apply for the character I most want to play, but I’m a believer that there must also be a balance in how well that character fits in – what roles are empty and so on - in order to maximize role play opportunities. Given my background and personality, I love construction vehicles and this leads to a love for Constructicons.

With that in mind and given the low demand for engineers, would a muscle head, heavy lifter, strong and tough but really slow, construction vehicle be a good fit for the current Decepticon side?

If yes, how heavy can I go with the altmode before pushing my luck? (There are 100 ton bulldozers and dumptrucks that would just tickle my fancy, but I would still be happy with 50 tons versions)

Could a character be stronger or tougher than Megatron if their weaknesses make them vastly inferior? (Built for heavy labor not combat)

I’ve noticed a couple of characters that appear to be heavily based upon Canons from other continuities but are listed as being OC’s, as what point does a non TF Prime Canon become OC?

How do new characters enter the game play?

I’m sure I had other questions…oh well.


Thanks in advance

Casey.

[Casey]

I remembered a question, some of the character profiles are quite spartan while others are overwhelmingly detailed, what is the suggested minimum length for each section?

[Deleted]

Hiya Casey! It's nice to meet you! I'm Lex, one of the Mods here - lemme see if I can't help you with some of your questions!

First off, no worries about the Cbox inactivity. We've had other folks here who have had problems with Cbox not functioning on their rigs in the past, and god knows that typing on a wee phone screen can cause a certain amount of strain XD. There are spots on the forum for chatting, and the PM option is available for registered characters here, so while the Cbox is a handy tool it's not absolutely necessary for communicating with other players.

Questions!

*handrubs*

With that in mind and given the low demand for engineers, would a muscle head, heavy lifter, strong and tough but really slow, construction vehicle be a good fit for the current Decepticon side?

Speaking for myself, I would love to see more construction vehicles and engineers about, whether for the Cons or the Bots. A construction Decepticon would be grand, especially if you have that background to begin with! I love seeing people write what they know, and what they enjoy.

Plus, oh my gosh, more construction bots would be so handy for the Decepticons.

If yes, how heavy can I go with the altmode before pushing my luck? (There are 100 ton bulldozers and dumptrucks that would just tickle my fancy, but I would still be happy with 50 tons versions)

I think a good rule of thumb here - and for any potential alternate mode - is to ask oneself how likely it would be to see such a vehicle in real-life. If a 100 ton bulldozer would not look terribly out of place, then go for it! If it's super-rare and something that would draw immediate attention and alarm, then a 50 ton version might be more appropriate. Both the Autobots and the Decepticons in the Prime Universe (and our own game setting) have been shown to go out of their way to avoid very unorthodox alternate modes. Flashy cars can squeak by - there's always SOMEONE out there driving a supercar - but a vehicle that is alarmingly unusual would be discouraged in-universe.

(There are also penalties that apply to less commonly seen alternate modes. If I may borrow my own Fort Max as an example: he turns into an A1M2 Abrams tanks. That's not exactly a vehicle that you see rolling around just anywhere, so his movements are thus strictly restricted to avoid drawing attention.)

Could a character be stronger or tougher than Megatron if their weaknesses make them vastly inferior? (Built for heavy labor not combat)

Those would have to be some VERY serious weaknesses. Just to elaborate: the 'stronger than Megatron, smarter than Shockwave, more devious than Starscream' types are kind of discouraged here. It's not that we think they could be poorly written or played by a good player, but more a case of it potentially breeding a sort of competitive one-upsmanship attitude that is, I'll be honest with you, kind of tiring to deal with. By putting a firm cap on power levels, with Megatron being at the top of that cap, we don't have to worry about increasingly escalating power levels in new characters.

I’ve noticed a couple of characters that appear to be heavily based upon Canons from other continuities but are listed as being OC’s, as what point does a non TF Prime Canon become OC?

I think you could argue it mostly depends on the obscurity of the canon character. Zoom-Zoom is a perfect example - that dude was barely a blip on the greater TF universe landscape XD. His player essentially wrote his character from the ground up, because there was practically nothing there to work with.

How do new characters enter the game play?

Mostly by crashing their ships or escape pods on Earth XD.

Okay, all joking aside, most peeps will start up an intro thread that details their character's arrival on Earth. I think most characters have come to Earth via shuttles or escape pods. But a few we've sort of subtly integrated into gameplay by stating that they have always been there - just gone very unnoticed in the background XD. How your character is introduced into the game is up to the player, ultimately!

I remembered a question, some of the character profiles are quite spartan while others are overwhelmingly detailed, what is the suggested minimum length for each section?

It's up to you, really! We don't put a word count on apps. Some people can write excellent and concise short apps; some prefer to put in a lot of detail and write longer ones. As long as we can get a good idea of what your character is like - their personality and history, their strengths and weaknesses, and any special skills they might have - we're happy.

For new players or OCs, a more detailed app might be advisable, just to give the Mod Squad a good idea of what this strange new character is about. But man, we don't expect huge essays, so don't feel you are obliged to write pages and pages :D. Just enough to give a nice clear low-down on what your character is like!

I hope this has been helpful! Nice to see you here, Casey!