Hardhead and Furos

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Warcry
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Hardhead and Furos

Post by Warcry »

Name: Hardhead
Titan Master: Furos
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Ground Assault
Alternate Mode(s): Mobile artillery
Weapons/Equipment: Shatter blaster, artillery cannon
Motto: "It's either my way- or no way."

Strength: 10
Intelligence: 6
Speed: 5
Endurance: 9
Rank: 5
Courage: 10
Firepower: 8
Skill: 7
---
Teamwork: 10
Cooperation: 8

Profile: Hardhead has been an Autobot soldier for longer than most of his comrades have been alive. A veteran of the Combiner Wars and countless conflicts that preceded it, he is stubborn and set in his ways. He'll rarely listen to advice that he doesn't agree with, so his fellow Autobots have learned that it's best to talk him into coming up with an idea himself. He'll often even balk at suggestions from Furos while in vehicle mode. In social settings, he rarely speaks and is gruff and blunt when he does. On the battlefield, however, he is in his element and awash with the brutal joy of a being fulfilling its natural purpose. Because of his love for battle, violence is usually his primary solution to every problem that presents itself, and he can grow frustrated when his commanders choose to pursue stealth or diplomacy instead.

Before the disasters that forced the Autobots to downsize to Titan Masters to conserve energy, Furos was Hardhead. His mind was transferred into a smaller body capable of driving and combining with his older, larger one, but he never really stopped thinking of their combined robot mode as his "real" self. Over the years, however, Furos has grown and changed: he's more talkative and less angry than Hardhead, though just as serious and humourless. He's less stubborn, and while still loathe to take outside advice he's at least willing to consider it rather than dismissing it out of hand.

Because Hardhead and Furos are essentially the same person, they work together and get along better than any of the other Autobot Titan Master pairings. However, they have grown apart as time goes on. Hardhead, often stuck in vehicle mode idling in a hangar when not in use, has only become more stubborn and reactionary over time. Furos, meanwhile, has gotten a fresh perspective on life from his smaller body and has learned to at least try and rein in his baser instincts. Both secretly think the other has changed for the worst, but don't give voice to their thoughts because they secretly wonder if they are the one who's different. But even with that issue between them, they are a nearly seamless match as a team. They've served in a security and tactical role ever since the Autobot/Decepticon war has cooled off, but still not-so-secretly long for the sound and fury of pitched battle.

Abilities: Hardhead's mobile artillery vehicle mode is rather speedy for a tank-like machine, with a top speed of 155 mph. His thick armour is impervious to most projectile and beam weapons, and can only be pierced through a sustained bombardment. His main gun is a 120mm cannon with laser-assisted targeting that can fire a variety of explosive, incendiary or sonic shells. In robot mode, he carries a shatter blaster, an assault carbine that fires diamond-hard crystal shards that explode on impact. The crystal shards can carve through up to a foot of steel.

Furos is equipped with an equipment module that supercharges the autorepair systems of whatever robot he is connected to, allowing them to heal at a much faster rate than normal. Because of this he sometimes serves as an emergency field medic, combining with damaged Titans to get them back into service quickly. However, using this ability places great strain on both Furos's systems and those of whoever he's repairing.

Weaknesses: Hardhead is resistant to direct damage. But he suffers frequent internal damage, both from the recoil of his own main gun and the kinetic force of the fire that his armour is turning aside. Furos is far less formidable in battle on his own, but that doesn't stop him from throwing himself into harm's way armed with only a standard-issue laser pistol or even engaging enemies hand-to-hand.
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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

Very interesting take on the downsizing concept -- that both Furos (not Duros?) and Hardhead used to be the same person... but split into two bodies, it seems. And one remained stagnant while the other mellowed out. A very interesting concept, that's for sure, and one that I don't think we've ever done before in the RPG unless you count Skywarp/Cyclonus shenanigans.

Also, we're doing profiles now? Time to whip something up.
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Warcry
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Post by Warcry »

Furos is what they call the new toy. I figured it fit the personality, so why not?

As far as them being the same person split into two bodies, I figured it was an interesting spin on the whole "Hardhead and his partner get along so well and never disagree" angle that the old bio had. Because it just sounded boring to have Hardhead and mini-Hardhead without any conflict between them.

What do you think of using the teamwork/cooperation stats? It was something I remembered the old Micromaster teams having and figured it'd be a nice addition where Headmasters are concerned.
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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

Warcry wrote:Because it just sounded boring to have Hardhead and mini-Hardhead without any conflict between them.
It's a far more personal identity conflict this time around as opposed to 'who gets to influence the gestalt personality more', which is very different and unexpected.
Warcry wrote:What do you think of using the teamwork/cooperation stats? It was something I remembered the old Micromaster teams having and figured it'd be a nice addition where Headmasters are concerned.
It's a nice little thing, yeah. Never really understood the difference between teamwork and cooperation -- I feel that they're honestly similar enough, but the old Micromaster profiles had them and they actually fit the Headmasters thematically, so yeah, why not?

Though honestly, it's been a long time since I actually paid attention to tech specs when playing the RPG. ;)
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Warcry
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Post by Warcry »

I read it as "teamwork" being more about results, and "cooperation" being how they get the results. So for example, Vorath and Mindwipe are a good team even though they constantly bicker, just because they're so damned brilliant that it overcomes their shortcomings. They don't cooperate at all, but they still get good results, so I've given them a good Teamwork score but a lower Cooperation. But I agree, it's a pretty fine line between the two and in most cases the scores will be pretty similar.

I find that the specs are a good guideline in combat. If my character is being chased it helps to compare speeds, and likewise if I'm being shot I'll check my endurance vs. the other guy's firepower. If my endurance is a 5 and the guy who shot me has a firepower of 8, I'm going to write my next post very differently than if the numbers were reversed. But honestly, once I'm familiar with the characters I usually don't need to reference the specs because I'll remember their capabilities pretty well.
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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

Warcry wrote:I read it as "teamwork" being more about results, and "cooperation" being how they get the results. So for example, Vorath and Mindwipe are a good team even though they constantly bicker, just because they're so damned brilliant that it overcomes their shortcomings. They don't cooperate at all, but they still get good results, so I've given them a good Teamwork score but a lower Cooperation.
That kinda makes sense. I'll keep that in mind when I write up my bios. I'll have Perceptor up in a while, with a fair amount of cobbling together from his Universe profile.

I did change the tech specs around a bit, keeping the total mostly the same, but to reflect that my version of Perceptor is, well, the SniPerceptor as opposed to just the geeky dude, so more firepower and less strength and endurance.
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