A Potentially-Crippled Breakdown

[Potential Player]

Hi,

I'm a new player, and I was interested in playing Breakdown. Before I send my App in, I was curious - I've gotten the go-ahead to play a Breakdown more damaged than he was in the show by MECH, and possibly crippled. How could I go about with Breakdown being unable to enter combat, and possibly being semi-crippled by the damage MECH did? I'm sure Megatron wouldn't want him around as much, the least of the consequences Breakdown being more devalued than Starscream at points.

[Deleted]

Howdy!

Just speaking for myself, I don't mind a Breakdown who was more damaged by MECH than shown - or hell, if he tries to take some revenge and gets further damaged by MECH that way (without Starscream and the Vehicons around to save his butt a second time, ha!) I admit, I always like watching big bruiser-types getting seriously injured and seeing how they cope as a result. I wish the show had done more with Bulkhead when he got into a similar predicament in Season Two. Woe. Sad face.

That said, it would be a tricky scenario to play out, for sure! Dealing with potential combat against the 'Bots, MECH, or even fellow Decepticons while simultaneously dealing with a crippling injury would pose a unique challenge to either confront or avoid. Even for a big guy like Breakdown, it could prove dangerous. It's one of those scenarios where I think, if the player doesn't mind the repercussions of playing a crippled Decepticon among a faction fairly notorious for looking down upon weakness, or would get a kick out of exploring them and playing them out, then great!

[Deleted]

Hi!

Just for my own understanding, what kind of damage/crippling are you suggesting for Breakdown? Do you have any future recovery in mind for him, or is he out of the arena for good? Breakdown's now and future usefulness as a frontliner would depend on this, and I'm sure it would shape 'Con command's thoughts on the matter as well.

If he is out of the fight for good, not to worry! There's a LOT of admin and filing that needs to be done. Your countrymen and women thank you I'm sure there are a lot of non-combat roles that Breakdown could make himself useful in, such as monitor duty, and the before-mentioned office work. Or he could retrain in a completely different role. Manning ship mechanics, for example, or even assistant medic duty, would make him useful enough to be kept around (and he could buddy-buddy more with NPC Knock Out on the last one). He'd most likely still have to deal with a lot of stigma as a 'disgraced' former frontliner, but at least he wouldn't get turfed out of the airlock. Again, it would depend on how debilitating his injuries are, and what my fellow mods say on the matter. But those are some potential options

[Potential Player]

Well, I was thinking the level of damage he had would assign him to "the reserves", being that he only fought when he had absolutely had to. He might be able to work on the front lines a little, but he would have some sort of condition that made fighting dangerous, even agonizing, for him. As for recovery, if there was recovery, it would be the kind of thing that would take years to heal; it might never go away, even with good medical care.

As for specific types of damage? A few ideas:

- Damage to the T-Cog so that transforming is slow, arduous and results in multiple tears and wounds throughout the body. Some of these injuries may never heal.

- Damage to the spark chamber that is too delicate to fix without SERIOUS risk of death. He gets shocks to the chest from his malfunctioning chamber that can leave him flat on his back, or even unconscious.

- Other severe, internal damage that the Decepticons do not have the resources to fix.

- From his eye being cored out, something similar to the spark chamber idea, but it shocks his mental circuits and can cause him to pass out randomly. It happens on a frequent basis, and it can also cause sudden, berserk rages.

Just a few ideas.

[Feldspar]

Hey there, nice to see a new face! Hope you stick around and decide to app a character, we love new players!

As for Breakdown - hey, I'd love to see someone pick him up as a character. The other mods have pretty much said everything I think I'd say. One of your options too is to start him out with some damage and progressively let it get worse over time, like the T-Cog being sticky and then getting worse and worse... Could be super fun to work around and play and show that gradual failure of his systems.

Edit: Whoops, for some reason I totally missed the bit about the rages (I have no idea how I did.) Have to agree with Krax on that one, and fixing my response accordingly, so in which case, yep, the T-Cog seems the best bet.

[Deleted]

I think the T-Cog being severely damaged is the best bet, here. It was enough to have Ratchet restrict Bumblebee to base as he couldn't move at any real speed, nor hide in plain sight (and Megatron is all for staying under the human radar). Megatron would make a point about Breakdown having to earn his energon by being useful on the ship, as he's not gaining favours by being a frontliner who can't go on the front line after being kidnapped by organics who then built weapons based off of studying him.

Chuck in some after effect of being dipped in acid (not literally, of course) which has affected the structural integrity of his armor, thus making it brittle and liable to shatter.

I'd prefer to stay away from random fits of unconsciousness or berserk rage, but that's just me.