Resonating Spirits

So right, what exactly is Resonating Spirits? Well, it began one day when a Game Master on the sluggy.net forum pitched the idea of a Fullmetal Alchemist-based game... In Space as an Extranormal Institute! So quickly, a group of posters on the forum hopped on the chance and made a cast of characters and things went from there. While the game is subject to a slow schedule since all the players are going to college or just busy and, it has still been going on for three years and ~~doesn't look like it will stop soon.~~ and is coming to an end, but may return in another form.

Immediately after the creation of the game, an OOC thread was formed for player chatter, general silliness and the occasional Omake. Here is a link to an archive of the game thus far.

Here is a list of characters in the game and with a small description of them and some tropes they fall into.

Player Characters:

Alex Ophen, Passion - A Homunculus character with the ability to change his flesh into fire and ice, and is quickly learning how to use these powers to break things down and make artificial Alchemy.
Benjamin (Ben), The Fluid Soul Alchemist - A Sealed Soul with a mysterious and half remembered past who takes the form of a suit of armor. He's able to fully fuse himself into solid object such as the ground and in extreme cases, other characters.
Branden Ziel, The Burning Soul Alchemist - A Kyoushin with a non-elemental means of using Alchemy in the form of massive white auras about him. He has a huge family and past and was not one of the original characters in RS.
Caliga Enmu, Paranoia - Another Homunculus who has a massive Split Personality, in which one takes over for long periods of time. One is meek, one is strong, both can control his body and turn it into various gasses and plasma.
Elias Neth, The Gate Crasher Alchemist - A Phoenix Kyoushin with an automail right arm. He carries a pet snake that is part of his power and can form wings of resonance when he uses his big attacks and collapses other characters powers around them.
Jacob Kinde, The Deceitful Frame - A Hybrid character, half Homunculus and half alive. Jacob can fuse about anything with the dead parts of his body and use them as weapons. Jacob has the tendency to absorb a lot of damage.
Nic King, Karma - The last Homunculus with the ability to make a clone puppet of himself. The puppet can then transform into other characters he's fought and absorbed bits of blood and DNA from, making him a well rounded character.
Rai Scrimgore, The Harmonic Octave Alchemist - A small Kyoushin boy who holds incredible powers over lightning and thunder and is just learning how to control his split soul. Rai just recently found out he is a small part Chimera, an extremely rare mix with a Kyoushin.
Rojo Rockbell, The Flowing Scribe Alchemist - A Ishvalan boy who hated Alchemy when starting at CORE but is now the most accomplished master of neutralizing any and all alchemist effects in the school. His ability to analyze and turn a situation on it's head is second to none.
Xerin Barga, The Soaring Fang Alchemist - The group's super powered badass wolf/falcon chimera. What is there to say about Xerin, except that he can kick your ass, will kick your ass, and send you footage of your ass getting kicked to show you why you got your ass kicked, complete with unforgiving, audio commentary.
- Tends strongly towards Jerkass behavior in the eyes of other characters, though.

Tropes used in Resonating Spirits include:

Abusive Parents: Xerin's father and Ethan's slew of foster families.
Accidental Pervert: Rojo has not ~~once but twice~~ three times completely vaporized female character's clothing. (The first time it ended up stopping a brutal rivalry battle and the girl has ended up being Rojo's girlfriend.) The third incident left an entire team naked.
Achilles' Heel: Blood seals for Sealed Souls and physical remains for Homunculi.
Action Mom: Ethan's mom was fighting on the front lines before getting captured
Adults Are Useless:“ Subverted. Multiple times the teachers have come to rescue the students.
An Ice Person: Initially just Tom, but Alex later learned to do this too.
Anti-Magic: Rojo's personal style of alchemy
Artificial Limbs: Automail arms, again an element from the series this game was based on. Several characters have automail.
Author Existence Failure: Less extreme than the normal version. Sometimes characters had to be dropped because their players stopped posting.
Awesome By Analysis: How Rojo's gets his Null alchemy to work.
Badass Bookworm: Rojo and Caliga
Badass Family: The Rockbells and Ziels.
Big Bad: Chaos
Big Badass Wolf: Lupis and Xerin
Bloody Murder: Xeno
Body Snatcher: The higher end of Johnny's powers
Born Winner: Only people born with the ability can learn alchemy, with the Kyoushin being even better than normal.
Brother Chuck: What ever happened to Ethan?
Bunny Ears Lawyer: CORE is willing to let all kinds of eccentricities slide as long as students get results.
Cain and Abel: Tom and his siblings
Catgirl: Geno, Terra and Myrcial who is a rare catboy.
Cerebus Syndrome/Growing the Beard: Once it was revealed that the class was being trained as soldiers for a far off war.
Character Development: Everyone. Usually in the form of them confronting whatever emotional baggage they had when they came to CORE and dealing with it.
Chekhov's Skill: Xeno's ability to make golems hinted at his ability to make clones of himself
Child Soldiers: CORE exists to train alchemists to serve as soldiers in the war with SCAR. Luckily the students mostly fall under the precociously talented sub type.
Code Name: Everybody second year and above as a code name. Alchemists are dubbed The _____ Alchemist with some title relevant to their abilities. Homunculi are give titles based on an emotion and hybrids are given a combo name.
Combat Commentator: The teachers lapse into this whenever there is a battle
The Combat Pragmatist: The main class goes for the kill in their fights.
Combat Tentacles - Elias likes to use these to pull apart opponents and alchemy.
Death by Origin Story: All the Homunculi in the main group had â€˜â€™theirâ€™â€™ deaths in the backstory
Death Glare: Fess constantly uses this to keep Tom in line
Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: Homunculi and Hybrids will revive moments after being killed.
Deserted Island: The Island Arc
Disappeared Dad: Elias's father.
Drunken Master: Mary
Dysfunction Junction
Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: There, but not really a big deal
Eleventh-Hour Superpower: The class had their Dual Resonance flare during the Xeno fight.
Empathic Weapon - REAPERS
Equivalent Exchange: This game is based on Fullmetal Alchemist after allâ€¦
Everything Is Better With Monkeys - ADAM
Evolving Attack: As the game progresses the characters continue to refine their signature techniques
Evolving Weapon: REAPERS are supposed to grow with their creators over time
Expy- Oh, let's just take a look at some of the NPCs:
- Mary Illyana is super strong and hyper competent while drunk? Remind anyone of a certain Ninja?
- Anna shifts her bones into weapons. She is a reference to either Kimimaro or Marrow.
- Harley Cobura is a snake chimera and uses vectors as her weapons like a certain witch named Medusa.
- Bane and Shin seem an awful lot like two members or Slytherin House...
- Terra's powers are a lot like a Sound Ninja whose name escapes me.
- Nicoleis alchemy works a lot like the Alters from S-Cry-ed.
Extranormal Institute: CORE is a sort of cross between Super-Hero School and Wizarding School
Extraordinarily Empowered Girl: Fess
Fairy Companion: Jacob's PET Dita.
First-Episode Resurrection: Elias became an alchemist after dying once in a fire accident
- Most of the Homunculi characters count as well.
Four Is Death: Chaos' four Holy Knights
Functional Magic: Alchemy is a combination of Inherent Gift, Force Magic and Rule Magic. Drives also add on Device Magic
Fun with Acronyms: Several characters even lampshade CORE's love of these.
Fusion Dance: Done by Ben and Jacob with heavy lampshading
Genki Girl: Nicole
Genius Loci: CORE itself is a giant Sealed Soul for one of its students
Glowing Eyes of Doom: Kyoushin tend to display this when they are angry
Green Lantern Ring: The applications of alchemy are basically limited only by the alchemists imagination and their player's ability to back it up with Techno Babble.
Green Rocks: Alchemy can do pretty much whatever the plot requires
Grievous Harm with a Body: Xerin's decision to use Tiffany as a club.
Half-Human Hybrid: Chimeras are humans fused with animals and Hybrids are part homunculus to a degree.
Has Two Mommies - Elias was raised by his mother and her cousin.
Healing Factor: Homunculi and Hybrids are really hard to kill
Healing Hands: Paige and later Branden
Heroic Sociopath: Nic at times
High-Pressure Emotion - Alex has a distressing tendency to ignite when enraged.
Indy Ploy: Every single fight. Granted characters rarely have foreknowledge of who they are up against, but hey.
Incendiary Exponent: Alex sets himself on fire!
Intangible Man: Tiberous
Inheritance of Acquired Traits: The Ether technique runs in the Tirande bloodline.
Jerkass Facade: Xerin does care about some of his classmates but canâ€™t quite deal with his anger
Keet: Tiberous
Kill Sat: CORE itself
Large Ham: Ben and Branden
Loads and Loads of Characters
Luke, I Am Your Father: Taikyo turned out to be Ethan's father.
- Dominic Scrimgore, anyone?
Magical Gesture: Clapping hands activates Gate alchemy
Magic Knight: The whole cast
Magic Misfire: Echos
Magic Wand: A lot of alchemists build drives to augment their alchemy instead of building straight out weapons.
Magitek: Drives allow for all sorts of neat applications of alchemy
Mana: Resonance
Master of Illusion: Caliga and David
Meaningful Name: The whole Ziel family. Just translate from Dutch
Meta Origin: The ability to use alchemy is derived from a resonating soul.
Mind Over Matter: Branden's Crystal Resonance
Missing Mom: Played straight initially with Rai and Ethan, but later subverted when we learn that their mothers are being held captive by enemies.
Muggles
Nightmare Dreams: Jacob has a tendency to have horrible nightmares about his past. To the point that for the last 6 months (in game) he has been wearing a device to suppress all dreaming activity in his brain. It makes him a bit fragile, mentally. But hey, its better than having dreams about people dissecting you.
Our Ghosts Are Different: The ghost itself is a manifestation of a student whose soul was bonded to the ship.
Organic Technology: Rojo's drive ADAM and Elias' drive Hebi.
Orphaned Series - Now officially over due to lack of interest after one Series Hiatus too many
Parental Favoritism: Alex's parents started to care about his sister more after he became a homunculus
Personality Powers: Character's techniques are usually based at least in part on their personalities
Petting Zoo People: Chimeras
Playing with Fire: Alex, Elias, and Tiffany
Power Gives You Wings: Elias and his resonance membranes.
- Alex stores energy for his artificial alchemy in the form of three fiery rainbow wings.
Power Glows: Resonance gives off a glow when alchemy is performed.
Power Tattoo: Flow Tattoos
President Evil: Xeno is on his way to becoming this, as he replaces the government with clones
Psychoactive Powers: Chimera's have to be in a certain state of mind to shift
Psycho Electro: Bane, Rai and Shin have hints of this at times
Put on a Bus: Myrcial snapped under the pressure, Paige went to take care of her Dad and Simon got sick.
Recycled in Space: Was initially pitched as Fullmetal Alchemist in SPACE!!
Re-Power: Fess used to focus on deconstruction alchemy before she became a Phoenix Kyoushin.
Retcon: Several characters had bits added to their backstory during the group Vision Quest
The Reveal: Tom does these a lot
Reverse Polarity - Alex learning how to drain heat rather than creating it, giving him ice powers.
Robbing the Crusoe: Tom's class was pitted against Banes class on the Island.
Rule of Cool: embraced by the players and GM with full force
Me's a Crowd: Nic's puppets
Screw the Rules I Have Plot - On a meta level, Rojo's player. Every single one of his plans is more or less a flagrant rule abuse designed at forcing the GM in to RP battles instead of mechanics battles, where he is assured victory.
- Probably the most outrageous example of this is a current work in progress. It's really huge and complicated, but the end result is transforming the enemy team's big tornado of death in to a Wave Motion Gun fired back at them by combining the talents and equipment of the class. There is no rule that says this is possible, and it has even caused Caliga's player a bit of mental anguish that had to be handwaved away by Rojo's player assuring him that resonance is just Spiral Energy.
Shapeshifter Weapon: Hommunculi in general and others.
- Nic can turn his hands into human sized puppets and other weapons.
- Xerin transmutes his feathers.
- Jacob transmutes the metal on his bones.
- Caliga transmutes his body into poisons and plasma.
- Elias' resonance membranes count since they can't leave his body
Shock and Awe: Bane, Rai and Shin.
Shout-Out: I'm not even going to try to list them all. Lets just say that most of the players watch anime and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is a group favorite.
Sixth Ranger: Ben and later Branden.
Soul Jar: Sealed Souls
Spirit Advisor - Every student got one during their Vision Quest
Spirit Bomb: The Null Sword
Split Personality: Caliga and Elliot who have switched dominancy of their body a couple times.
- Lupe and Rose did this too before Lupe won the Split Personality Takeover
Spotlight-Stealing Squad - What happens when three players love their characters so much they each end up trying to wrestle control of the spotlight away from the others at an almost constant basis? Rai, Rojo, and Xerin, that's what.
Squishy Wizard: Simon, Rai and Branden. Mostly Pure Blood Kyoushin
Stepford Smiler: Elias covered up his old guilt and self loathing with manic energy until he was forced to deal with it.
Summers Family Tree: The Scrimonger family tree. Rai was conceived by a union of his mother Harmony and Dominic Scrimgore, Baneâ€™s Evil Twin. Alicia is a clone of Harmony and Raiâ€™s aunt. Bane had Tiberous with an unnamed woman.
Super Mode: Chimera's shifts and Dual Resonance flares
Techno Babble - And how!
Technopath: Johnny does this by literally fusing with machines
Teleporters and Transporters: CORE uses a series of alchemist tubes for rapid transit.
The Dragon: Xeno
The Empath: Kurt
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: The main cast are the only people who can legitimately go after Xeno
The Power of Rock: Phase
The Syndicate:Name of a criminal organization on Crystalis
Token Girl: Paige was the only girl in the main class before she got Put on a Bus.
Training from Hell: Everyone
Transformation Trauma: Some of the Homunculi have very painful metamorphs
Trope Overdosed
True Companions
Tyke Bomb- All the students
Unstoppable Rage: Xerin has worked it into his fighting style while Alex used to slip into these.
Vision Quest: Everyone had to go through one to get their Dual Resonance to stabilize.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Homunculi settle for this in lieu of alchemy.
Weasel Mascot - Hebi fits this despite being a snake.
We Can Rebuild Him: Tom and Fess has significant portions of their bodies rebuilt by Garrin Rockbell.
What Have I Become?: Sealed Souls and Homunculi often have trouble dealing with their change.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Completely subverted at CORE, where everyone is treated equally regardless of their humanity.
Winged Humanoid: Xerin with weaponized Perpetual Molt
Wise Beyond Their Years: Every. Single. Student.
X Meets Y: Can be described as a cross among Fullmetal Alchemist, Ender's Game and X-Men.
Youngest Child Wins: Tom was the good child while his older brother and sister are evil.
You Fight Like a Cow: Ben and Elias resort to this in combat.