Not mine! Unrelated to the war. Was a Prionese researcher off on an uncolonized planet when Prion was slaughtered, is what I'm thinking.
...has anyone actually tried to decipher Neocybex or Old Cybertronian runes/characters/whatever? Because I am Curious. (If I end up playing with y'all, I'll just build to whatever ends up suiting the party.)
Oh man, I haven't created an OC in a year and a day but this makes me want to try! I'm good at RPing and shit at character creation. I always end up with, like, a character who's bubbly to the point of being obnoxious (and who turns it up on purpose to irritate people).
I imagine mine would have been one of the ones who fled Cybertron, because wow fuck this shit. I miiiight do an outlier, because I'm mary-sue trash, but I know he definitely wouldn't be aligned with anyone. His name is going to be something stupid like Hot Stuff and he is an arrogant prick and I have no idea whether or not his design is actually feasible but here he is. Spoiler: lorge
ohhhh that sounds so great for your consideration: what if the amica was blown up by a bomb and nichrome is never quite sure whether it was one of hers or not.
What would you be thinking for setting? Cybertron post-war, or someplace else? (Yet another intergalactic road trip???)
Intergalactic road trip! ...says the person who may or may not even get involved. Spoiler: collecting OC thinks Hiiiistorian? Linguist? Historian/archivist went way too Rewind last time I tried to build it, but. Linguist might work, if they were involved in the war it could easily be bent into intelligence work-- codes and cyphers gotta come from somewhere. Would be on Intergalactic Road Trip theoretically to find more data/relics/whatever, but mostly just to get out of the Political Power Struggle Hell that is modern Cybertron. faction, what faction. guh. Whatever works with story, probably.
OC ideas: what if he was a medical researcher before the war who practiced occasionally (irl you have to have an MD to lead medical studies so I'm just going to assume Transformers is the same in the absence of conflicting evidence) who was forced by necessity to become a field medic almost exclusively during the war, and now that it's over only wants to do research? He can still practice in an energy emergency thanks autocorrect but has zero interest in it any more. Maybe his alt mode is some sort of life support equipment. No strong feelings one way or the other on faction, I'd be willing to play whichever is better for worldbuilding/story purposes.
Also, @IvyLB it doesn't look like alt-mode has a huge effect on most of the "smart ones", so it would mostly be up to you design-wise. Fliers get wings, you've got bigger tankier alt-modes, mid-sized basic land alt-modes, and speed demon alt-mode, and then there's always the possibility of being a monoformer. edit: I mean alt-mode doesn't have a huge effect on anyone, Functionists be damned, but the ones involved in smart things wrt weapons seem to mostly have war-capable alt-modes and the old sciency groups ranged from cars to things like lab equipment. I think it's implied that non-war alt-modes could be changed into more war capable ones too though, so pre-war alt-mode might even be a nonissue.
Agreed, a setup thread would probably be useful. Unsure how this evolved throughout the war, but at least pre-rebellion it's pretty apparent that more sciencey, high-tech alt-forms get more legal leeway than, say, tankers and miners under the Functionist Senate/Nominus Prime. (See also: rando upper-middle mcgee talking to Quark in the flashback/storytime, who turns into an electron microscope.) The forms we think of as "war-capable" were either law enforcement... or scrapyard fodder low-class citizens. (Maybe colonists/conquerors? Unsure if any space travel attempts were made between the 12/13 titans leaving and the Autobot/Decepticon war.) So yeah, non-war-capable alt-modes were totally a thing. Also I got the implication... somewhere*... that implanting a new transformation cog gives a new alt-form? I might have misread something, but if someone was rich enough and/or damaged enough they could probably change. *I bingeread too much and take too few notes, I honestly don't remember where I picked this up.
Spoiler: reread 10! Domey gets a cover all to himself, and the title is Shadowplay. :c Did. Did they get models from Rung's room specifically to play with toy spaceships while they tell stories. I love these nerds. "Cyclonus is practically a Decepticon-- and that makes him our prime suspect." ghadfgsdfhfgh nO. BAD RODDY. [sad laughter] "It's obvious Prowl was [Chromedome's] hero. What do you think, Rewind?" "I think you might forget you ever said that... So!" At least they can joke about it now? "I want you to hurt them. I want you to crush them. I want-- I want... I want my hands back." WHIRL D8 I don't know who this random empuratee is, but I kinda want to hug him. Domey says the words "new world order" and suddenly Prowl's smiling. I Have Some Concerns. [blah blah ProwlDome lovers' quarrel] Rewind: "--We don't need any of this." oooooooooooo someone's still jeeeeealoooussss Treeeeeepaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnn =_= All the horror potential in this double-page spread, and my first thought is still how the fuck do your elbows work
I thiiiink it's a combination of your "kibble" (aka the stuff that attaches that changes with you) and your cog, because cogs do affect some of it but then theres characters like Tarn who burn through them and it's implied that replacing his doesn't actually change his alt-mode.
i think even just bodily modifications can change your alt-mode? is scanning a thing in the idw verse.... i don't think a new t-cog is necessary but i am also mostly talking out of my ass here. shrug!
Well, we know that being able to change your alt-mode at all used to be a privilege of the extremely wealthy-it's why relinquishment clinics used to be a thing, suggesting it definitely didn't used to be easy. I'd imagine it only really became widespread after Megatron instituted the Infiltration Protocol and there became a huge need for Cybertronians to be able to disguise themselves on other worlds. It seems like a lot of functionism's basic tenets have become disproven or otherwise reduced by a combination of scientific advancement and the war. Body modification seems to have gotten way easier, the caste system was thoroughly eradicated because everyone needs to turn into tanks now, the old religious authorities were probably killed in one of the many, many purges. It got replaced by arguably worse wartime ethics, but Megs did crush functionism.
