by Louis IX
Check first chapter for disclaimer and global warnings.
CharactersWelcome to WORMb – the fully-immersive version of the best online game success of all times (beta version)! The game is Worldwide Online Roleplaying Massively-multiplayer.
Create a new character? Ok. Choose one for the game, or create your own? Ok, heading to character creation now. Please wait…
What do you want your character to be: Male? Female? Other? Note that Males can impregnate Females, and Females can give birth to new characters. There won't be any other differences between the sexes (apart the fact that women are better), because… just because.
Your choice? Male? Ok, we don't judge. But don't expect to have better wages just because of that: we intend this world to be realistic, after all. Oh, and I see how you push the sliders to the maximum, there, for Size and Strength. You want to play a big strong guy. Still not judging. Even if that means that you remove points in Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. You know that those allow you to resist mental powers, right? Alright, moving on.
Choose your class. Because everyone must fit into neat categories, you have to choose one. You can choose either Cauldron as a source of power, or a trigger event, in which case, given your choice of birthdate and starting age, you can select first-generation (traumatic event with the possibility of PTSD) or second-generation (less trauma, less power). If you selected a later starting date, you could have gotten grab-bag (several lesser powers) or group trigger (a single lesser power, with established groups of friends and enemies). Note that depending on your choice, your range for your birth date will change.
Oh, sorry, this is the beta version. Our developers haven't implemented anything past first-gen – because it's always the developer's fault, those who plan are never so greedy as to blame others and reap all the rewards. Nooo…
Moving on, again, here are the possibilities according to your choices in abilities: Brute and Striker are a given, given your chosen Strength score. You can choose Mover and Breaker, too, and exchange Striker for Blaster or Shaker.
You can't choose Tinker and Thinker because of your low Intelligence score, Changer and Trump because of your Wisdom, and Master and Stranger because of your Charisma.
What will it be? Brute, Striker, Mover. With flight. Because, of course, everyone wants to be a flying brick.
Moving on…
Choose your birth date and starting age. Yes, the slider starts at 1950. But if you do, your starting age will be 35 or something. You will start after the Golden Man's appearance anyway, not before. So? 2000? Starting play at 20? Are you sure that's wise? That's when Bonesaw released her worldwide plague, you know? Oh, you want to change… for September 1993, starting play in April 2009. Why?
You know what? Why not? You're the player, anyways.
Now, your place of residence. You can choose- Alright, alright, Brockton Bay it is, with a rich family with no drama. Sigh. Still, because it's Worm, a universe in which there won't be any happy family with the norms that have been in force for millennia, you'll have a working mother and a stay-at-home father. So there.
Alignment: do you want to be a Hero or a Villain? Yes, Hero. As an underage hero, your choice of affiliations are Independence or PRT Ward. You choose… Ward, very well. And with everything you already told me, you'll probably be schooled at Arcadia? Alright.
Wait a second, genius… given all that, methinks you want to meet another Alexandria package. A blonde one, too. And-
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First steps, and a realizationI awoke with a start (pun not intended) and noticed that I was in my fluffy bed, in my large bedroom. Being the only kid of rich parents meant that I had no lack of luxury.
I still "remember" when I triggered: I was in a summer camp, sharing living space with others, and couldn't sleep. So I walked out… and got mauled by a bear. Which I mauled in return before escaping.
I got up and headed outside, changing clothes easily by moving them from my dresser and putting them in the "outfits" section of my Inventory. Yes, because I know I'm a character in a game. In fact, I can use "I" to designate both me and the player currently controlling me, I'm MPD that way (on top of the PTSD from bears, now, shrinks would have a field day).
Aaand… I flew to the school. Time to meet the love of my life, the one I'd been dreaming about since I read about her in an online fiction. Vicky. Being a hero, and the same "package" as she was (or would be, since I chose to come earlier in order to play the "mature boyfriend" and guide her), it was fated that we would be together, right?
But things rarely go according to plan. Victoria Dallon was beautiful, but in the "affected high school girl mentality", giggling with her friends and being generally nasty to any boy who approached her group.
Even a hunk like me. Or so I thought. Looking in the mirror, I noticed that the dumped stats made me stupid, tactless, and generally non-personable. And, apparently, being shown as a failing flying brick, it led her unconscious mind towards other choices when she triggered: she became a teleporting artillery, striking heavily from afar while able to move freely on the battlefield.
Interesting choice. I didn't notice that Amy triggered right afterwards, with no change at all in her own powers, nor that those powers could help reshape me completely (as if the game included her as a in-game re-spec mechanism). Given how little I had advanced in the game, I turned back to the menu.
Back so soon? Unsatisfied? Would you fill this form to describe your level of discontent and the features you liked-
Uh. So rude. And what are you doing, fiddling with the parameters? Oh, reducing the GUI's sass, I see-
Welcome to WORMb.
Do you want to play as "HunkPlayer007" or create a new character? Do you want to play as one of the original characters? Who? Dean Stansfield.
…right, because it worked so well, last time you wanted to boink Glo- sorry, no sass, promise.
Do you want to customise "Dean Stansfield"? With Tinker abilities? Sorry, that choice of class is locked, you have to accomplish some tinkering in-game, first. Play Kid Win, or whatever – note that choosing Armsmaster automatically triggers the "Hard Mode" and you don't want that, sass or no sass.
What other limitations? Let's see… you can't play Trump or Changer characters at all until you buy the required additional content – 1000 wormblings, it's a steal!
Wormblings are the monetary units for additional content, and you can buy a great bunch some with real money, or do some in-game quests to grab a few.
As Dean Stansfield, your character background is already filled, leaving you the choice of your starting age. Pick wisely, there's a 50% chance that Vicky won't be your girlfriend at that precise moment, given how their relationship went.
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Beware of Master powersI chose to start at the beginning of the "story", because it told about the Vicky-and-Dean couple right off the bat. Vicky was the same high-school girl, but she had matured a little. And she was my on-again off-again girlfriend. Maybe because she was only so when Dean (I mean… I) blast her with lust powers?
Given how she acts around me, that's probably the case. Still, I want to see how it goes and push all the way, her a willing companion.
You'd think I'd learn from my mistakes. Or those of others around me. Victoria was a girl of her times, with a lawyer mother who idolized her. She regretted everything the very next day.
In no time, I was sent to prison. And since I was a parahuman and Carol Dallon a massive bitch with no compunction about crushing a PRT Ward, it was the Birdcage.
My fault, really. But the hysteric reaction made me think about things while I disconnected – I had just seen Acidbath behind me, ready to unleash his vomit on me, and I wanted nothing to do with that future.
Welcome to WORMb. Again.
Do you want to play as "HunkPlayer007", "Dean Stansfield"? Due to your account status (free), you can't create a new character unless you delete one. Account status can be premium, if you spend some Wormblings, and VIP if you subscribe to a monthly payment (in real money, thank you).
Removing "Dean Stansfield"… done. Achievement unlocked: deleting a character.
List of achievements… here. Note that this is the beta version. The full version might include more.
The full version is available for download. Apparently, you play with a beta that's already outdated, as the full version is already in free-to-play mode.
[…]
Welcome to WORM. Do you want to play as "HunkPlayer007", play a monster, play an existing character, or create a new one?
Removing "HunkPlayer007". Note that the "deleting character" achievement has no further rank, no need to delete ten of them just for that.
You need more Wormblings to play monsters such as S-class threats or Endbringers.
Creating a new character? Prioritize Dexterity and Constitution over the rest, while keeping an average Charisma… check.
Generation? Explanation?
Infodump: first-generation capes are front-loaded, with massive powers that don't change. Your only "progression", regarding powers, is to figure how to use them (you still gain increases in basic stats as you level, as everyone does). Second triggers are like having a second class level, either adding abilities or upgrading the ones you already have.
Second-generation capes have significantly easier trigger event, meaning less emotional baggage. Despite the fact that they are less powerful as individual, they work better with others and can make powerful teams. Besides, as they level, they powers can eventually reach those of the first-generation ones.
Third-generation or "grab-bag" capes are those who gain more powers, but with a much reduced impact. However, you can mesh them well with some Trump to act as a glue. They can gain other powers at each level, depending on their choices during their quests and adventures. Some can opt to be self-healing brutes (at least), so that they can progress solo.
Fourth-generation… shouldn't happen, because the Entities mapped their cycles on three iterations of the host species. After that time, they usually harvest the shards. However, Scion is still hovering around, rescuing cats from trees, and things like that. It means you can live as a really low-powered individual – perhaps even below baseline human, depending on your starting stats.
However, you have no limit. You can discover a skill by doing it by accident, and use it repeatedly to increase your proficiency with it… independently of your own level. Note that, in order to be slightly realistic and prevent power creep, each skill not practiced during a level will have its own level halved. Also note that, barring circumstantial changes, each skill level start at one percent, and each normal use increases it by one percent… of the remaining total.
Your choice? Third-generation… check.
Power choices? Blaster (artillery), Brute (self-healing), and Mover (slow flight only – fast flight and teleportation require Wormblings)… check.
Affiliations? Unwilling villain, the Undersiders… check.
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Let's try the other sideMy fascination with Glory Girl having been assuaged, I followed Skitter around – she was the base story's main character after all.
Starting on the day she went out for the first time, I helped her against Lung while we waited for the Undersiders to do their shtick. And since I could fly, even if it was slower with a heavy load, I let her hug me while one of my hands continued to blast at the dragon-man's face, the other keeping her in place – why not on my back? Because that's where my wings are.
Big monstrous dogs took charge of the half-dragon and brought him down, and the poison from Skitter's insects ended up keeping the bad guy down for a while. We met the Undersiders, and then Armsmaster. And I got to see first-hand what having a lowered Charisma meant.
The guy was a paranoid douchebag! No wonder Brockton Bay had so many villains if new capes meet him on their first night out while undecided on their heroic careers. Who chose an autistic guy to welcome would-be heroes? Not that autistic people aren't fine people in general, it's that Armsmaster being one, and paranoid, and always geared for a fight, meant that would-be heroes wouldn't want to be heroes.
Thankfully, I knew the story, and kept my presence to a minimal to lower the possibilities of an escalation pushing all my knowledge to the drain.
And then the tutorial ended and I found myself in the multiplayer part, with people jumping every which way. Amusingly, I found another player with "HunkPlayer007" floating over his body – everyone had their name floating there, sometimes with an indication of level or affiliation.
Since I had followed Skitter, I was now affiliated with the Undersiders, which meant that, for the time being, their warehouse was my HQ. And they gave me missions, too: replay the bank attack, for instance, which was an "instance" where possible multiplayer was limited by choice. Since I still hadn't realized that I had no real friend, I went solo, with a reduced difficulty. Still, I met Vicky again – and let me tell you that there is quite a difference between the beta version and the final release, there. And her sister, too.
Missions, and even simple pest-cleaning around the starting areas, meant experience points. And I quickly realized the massive difference between the original characters and the game: in the story, very few people progressed. Skitter was one of the few who worked hard to get themselves better as time advanced.
They couldn't have done a role-playing game that way, of course, so they split the various powers in tiers, with numerous increases at every level. And there were milestones to compare yourself to, too, such as the Triumvirate-level tier: they were all over level 200. Protectorate leaders such as Chevalier, Myrddin, Armsmaster, or high-level gang leaders such as Kaiser and Lung were over 150. High-powered individuals such as Miss Militia and Hookwolf were over 100. And, contrarily to other games, they continued to improve.
Endbringers, when there were missions regarding them, didn't have a number shown over their head.
I played, gained levels, and improved my character. As I gained levels, I chose to expend the points I acquired into a longer range for my attacks, increased damage, increased flight speed and manoeuvrability, increased strength for carrying heavier loads, increased hardness for my skin and wings, and increased self-healing.
However, it felt like grinding after a while: I had to repeat the same missions over and over to reach the next experience level, with huge gaps as to what was required to even enter the next tier-level missions.
I lost interest in my character, and created a new one. Fourth-generation. I died many times, and lost the opportunity I had with the others to gain the "Invincible" titles related to surviving without dying from level 1 onwards (for my first character, I got the title up to level 50, before starting to face really hard monsters). I also had to spend much of my money to restore my damaged equipment, each time.
But as I ground forward, I saw what they meant by "separate progression" in the presentation of that generation: you could outstrip your level by grinding a skill by itself (although it took longer). It led to power jealousy, of course, because all those who laughed at the poor fourth-gen failing level-appropriate trials (for them) became stronger than the best of them towards the end.
It took time, and dedication (especially as resistances only increased when I was damaged by something), but I reached the highest level again. I still couldn't enter the final battle missions, though.
With all the side quests I did, I had accumulated enough bonus points to open a new character slot… and buy the Trump "class" of powers. I had also Tinkered enough on the side to select that class from the start, as well. I made a second-gen team player with Tinker/Trump powers, with a power armour allowing me to act as a Brute/Mover, and special ammunition that would increase of decrease powers.
Fun to play, with many "friends" asking for a shot before a big battle. But soon, I was high-level again and still unable to compete in the Scion battle. Apparently, such a battle required all the highest levels to swear fealty to a single character with a specific power, and they just… wouldn't.
I tried.
I was even lucky to have found out that the required power was Skitter's, whom I had been following all along. Knowing where her various pitfalls were, I even started the whole thing again, collecting all the side-quests and bonuses.
But, try as I might, I couldn't get the others' help. Damn power-gamers.
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They are all gamers!They were six of them who never answered… in a meaningful way. Even those who replied negatively, I could get traction after a while. Exchanging favours, or items. But those six… I shudder. They were out of this world. And "true" gamers.
The first I met was a villain named Über. The player behind the character seemed like an overachiever, in the skill department: he pursued each and every skill available in the game, up to its maximum level. Talk about a single-minded dedication!
His natural opponent, the one who gained the most out of their encounters, was an Empire cape named Victor. His chosen power was to steal skills, taking for him the work of others. And each time he met with Über, he took the equivalent of months of work from the assiduous cape, making him mad.
Those two were high-level due to skills, but there were those who were high because of their power.
The first of these was Bonesaw.
It was difficult to get access to the girl, because she was always surrounded by overpowered Slaughterhouse Nine members. Her shtick was the Tinkering over human bodies. Especially the brain. Especially the body and brain of capes.
In fact, she would be a respected expert in that domain, if she wasn't an arch-villain. She was able to remove powers from a person, by removing the brain structure known as Gemma and or the Corona Pollentia. But she was also able to remove them in a manner that allowed her to graft them to someone else, giving them powers… if they didn't have them.
If they already had, that often led to madness, but also more power for that individual. And she did herself, more than once. Hence more madness and more power.
The second was the Butcher.
The Butcher was not a character. It was a list of powers obtained through a hole in security. A game developer, mad from the stress heaped on him, had left that "easter egg" open, and a committed the code to memory. And then, because the whole world was a giant Player-versus-Player arena, the character got killed. The first time that had happened, the mad developer snapped. Using his administrative access, he got the IP address of the player having killed him, and he went there to kill him for real.
As the power of each character subscribing to the Butcher list was added to said list, the current Butcher became quite powerful, and people stopped trying to kill him. Unfortunately, nobody caught on the ruse, thinking that the Butcher was a cleverly-done NPC or something like that.
The next was Eidolon.
He was not mad, per se, but powerful (and still power-hungry) to the point of considering all the other characters as beneath him. Like ants. Due to a glitch in the Alpha version, he had gotten access to all the powers, and threatened to sue the game studio if they removed his access to them. After long negotiations, he was left with three slots that he could rotate.
However, update after update, the developers had introduced changes that made the use of the same powers more and more costly in energy. As Eidolon liked to show himself as the "best of the cream of the world" (whatever that meant), he always flew, and was always invulnerable. And his third power was always a ranged destructive power. He didn't test the other powers, especially those who had appeared in the game after his early registration.
The last was Glaistig Unaine.
She was another cape with three rotating powers, except that she kept changing them. All the time. For no reason. In fact, that player answered my queries, and I found out that they were mad. Completely so. When I left the discussion, discouraged, she followed me, and I had to block her.
The "Faerie Queen", as she likes to be called, gets her powers when other capes died nearby. And let's say that, to get the most powers in the shortest time, she engineered long campaigns of mass destruction before calming a bit.
It was as I blocked her that I realized that, even if I could reach them all, I wouldn't be able to form any semblance of coherent action between us.
I didn't even try to contact the other one known to gather power from dead capes: Aasdier, the beast following Moord Nag. Or the ones pooling the powers of their super-powered followers; in the Yangban. If I couldn't even bring together people from one country, what hope could I have of doing the same internationally.
Thankfully, it was still a game, and not the real world.
I decided to quit. Besides, there were other games to play, too.
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To be continued… in another game?Author's Notes: Overdone, I know. It's also over… and done.