Hawk wrote on Apr 24
th, 2014 at 11:13am:
Thunderbolt wrote on Apr 23
rd, 2014 at 3:23pm:
Lightning Emission, Machine Control and Cybertelempthy. BUT.. I'm proceeding upon what the Rules As Written say about the singular power Lightning Control.
If you are using him from Dom's game, doesn't he list That level of control as a separate power?
My question about his seemingly precision control of power application as it applies to his interaction to the bad guys he is fighting is that he is seemingly always in control, when he has "rage issues". You have written that Shawn is a child of abuse, and yet Dad hits him and Shawn takes it because long ago Dad was a good guy. I understand that he may think that logically he would be able to kick Dad's A$$, but his "issues" don't seem to make him put Dad on his backside, and tell him to "lay off". Would someone who has these issues not be unwilling to continually be a punching bag for Dad, or would he at least be overly aggressive about unleashing against thugs that he does fight?
Dom and I have spoken on the matter in the past about the power Lightning Control.. thus far he has said that though in a sit-down game he would make alterations to how Lightning Control also has mastery over machines, potentially making a new power cybertelempathy to cover computers; for the purposes of his Empire City Game I can indeed use the Lightning Control power as is listed in the rules as written and that he would like me to pm first before I, In-game, did any serious computer data manipulation; so that story would be maintained to a level acceptable to him. But no... he has not given me any specific restrictions on the Machine Control aspect of Thunderbolt's powers.
Now as for Lack of Self-Control.. it is a flaw that Thunderbolt fights with constantly. In my above fight with the Blood Knives.. there was a Very miniscule chance that the street punks could have hit Shawn/Thunderbolt as if you look at Magnetic control... when used as a defense against Hand to Hand the chance to hit is a 0. RAW. So all Thunderbolt needed to do was use his Magnetic Control as a defense and then pummel the thugs down with just simple hand to hand-martial arts which for him is a 11 or less on a d20. 50% hit rate with all his modifiers. He didn't need to hit them with Magnetic Control to rip out nose rings or errings or give them concussions with metal brow studs.. and certainly NOT risk killing any of them {which he did} by hitting them with ANY lightning control, 2d8+DM damage! But he did... he used WAAAY more applied force than he needed to just subdue some street punk thugs.. especially when they really could not hit him on anything other than sheer luck!
Also, Thunderbolt does not have one weakness.. he has three.
1) Lack of Self-Control “anger issues”
2) Water causes his Lightning Control to damage him if he is in contact with it while using his Lightning Control, EVEN if it just controlling machines. He can't use Lightning Control in contact with water as he'll ground out and take his own lightning control damage.
3) Shawn/Thunderbolt counts as a metal object versus Magnetic control. Meaning he can be picked up and thrown around as if he were made of metal {just like Colossus of the X-Men}
His weaknesses are no less frequently showing up in story than taking damage from say being in the presence of kryptonite or taking damage from being phased through or teleported.
I discussed it with Dom and he was satisfied that with three distinct weaknesses they were all in total of a slightly lesser importance because of the number so they qualify for a singular weakness. In-Game Dom has made it clear to me that Shawn does not go into a bezerker fury, he just tends to apply more force to a fight than he needs to... and his powers {especially lightning control will act somewhat more deadly when he applies them because of his anger issues}. Hence, in the blog posts when Shawn tried to subdue a Boost-crazed, Justin, one of his Tae Kwon Do students, Shawn almost near killed him when all he wanted to do was keep him from hurting people int he neighborhood by throwing cars around. Again Shawn applied lightning control to hit him with a 'small' blast, which was nothing of the sort... and it stopped the boy's heart! Shawn managed to save him but it was dicey and Shawn was very emotionally stressed about that which I made clear in the following role-play.
As for his anger with his dad, I'm tasking the drama slowly – I had intended for Shawn to loose patience and actually lash out at his dad at some point but I felt I needed at this point in the story as its unfolding to showcase his deep respect and love for his dad.. he does not hate him.. he hates what he has done to himself. In the past Shawn indeed did trade blows with his dad… but that was something I was going to show case at a more specific flashback at an appropriate time in the story.
I’m trying to show that indeed Shawn does indeed take his frustrations out on the foes he fights, but really struggles with lashing out on his family.. he does NOT want to be like his father.