Mighty Morphing SDN Rangers (RAR)

[Bernkastel]

In the tradition of RARs, Q is bored and so decides to fuck around with the denizens of this forum. So, you find yourself suddenly in the command room from the show Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, with Q's head projected in a tube in the centre of the room. He declares that you and four other SDN members will be selected to replace the heroes of the show, with one more to serve as the sixth ranger who will appear later. You will be given the same task they had of fighting the efforts the evil Rita Repulsa and her efforts to take over the world.

So, here are the main points of this scenario.

. You are free to decide who the other rangers will be, though they do need to be SDN members. The Red Ranger will be the team leader and you will be it by default, though you can offer it to one of the others before the scenario begins.

. Not going along with what Q demands will result in him doing horrible things to you that I will not describe, due to a mixture of preferring to leave it to your imaginations and because there's bound to be some person who will chose the horrible punishment if I do try to describe it.

. The other members will be able to do betrayal story lines if they can persuade Q that it'll be interesting. Take that into account when deciding on your team.

. You are also free to select an alternative robot from fiction to replace Alpha as the robot assistant located in the command centre. It can give you advice and will be friendly, regardless of how hostile it might normally be. But that robot will be stuck in the command centre and cannot accompany you on missions.

. You will be given the same level of martial arts skills as the people you are replacing, as well as enough local knowledge to pass for an actual inhabitant of Angel Grove, the home of the Rangers. Everyone in Angel Grove will have memories of you having lived there and you will be given all the information you need to go along with that put right into your heads.

You will also revert to your teens and be in a good enough physical state to fight. However, this does mean you will have to dedicate time to high school as the original protagonists did. You also won't stay in fighting shape if you don't exercise, though you will be given knowledge on how to best to that if you don't already possess it.

. If you have knowledge of the show, you keep it. However, the forces you are facing will not necessarily do the same things they did in the show, or do them at different times.

. As in the show, the authorities will be completely useless in dealing with the forces of the villains. Any effort to get the authorities to do something will be sabotaged by Q so you just look like a crazy person.

. You will be expected to keep your status as power rangers hidden. Failure to do so will not get you instant horrible punishment, but Q will use his powers to guarantee serious negative consequences for you, such as people you know being targeted for attacks or you being targeted when you are vulnerable.

. Anything that might be destroyed during giant monster fights will be conveniently vacant. You know, because it's Sunday or some crap. (Apart from them, people can and will be killed by the attacks of the villians if you do not manage to handle them.

. At a random point, the person you selected as the sixth ranger will be introduced. They will be obliged to be initially antagonistic to you as was the case in the show.

. The win state for this scenario is the defeat of Rita and Lord Z, who will appear later as he did in the show. To do that, you must either capture them, kill them or defeat them to a degree that they can't or won't launch any more attacks.


Right, that's this done. I hope it's okay. The recent RARs do mean this will look better by comparison, but I do want this to be enjoyable, not merely less terrible than Archinist's RARs. I believe I've provided enough detail, but do feel free to ask for more information if you need it.

[FaxModem1]

Thank Q for the extra decade of life, improved physical shape, and enjoy a tour of Angel Grove. Work hard on keeping in shape, keep up my fencing and archery, and do what I can to do really well in high school.

Ask if we can replace Alpha 5 with Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. See if he can help us with improving the place, and improving Angel Grove/the world's technology.

As soon as the first of Rita's minions show up in town. I activate 'Operation Robot Foot'

Screw Rita Repulsa and Zordon, and their preferred order of combat. I pilot my Zord, preferably a flying one, and squish Rita's first monster/putties while it's human size, then decide that the best defense is a good offense. Fly out to her palace on the moon with a few strafing runs. If that doesn't kill her, it'll at least weaken her ability to make putties and monsters, and take out quite a few of her lieutenants. Keep doing so until she's dead, even if I have to knock down her palace with my giant robot.

After that, have Data look over the remains of her palace for anything useful, destroy what's dangerous, and build up orbital defenses for when Lord Zedd or the Robot Empire arrives.

Then, I continue enjoying being a teenager again.

[Simon_Jester]

[snip this version, meant to edit, accidental double post]

[Simon_Jester]

Most of my thoughts are on the subject of team selection. I suspect my overall military strategy for the campaign, and that supported by anyone I'd be likely to pick over myself as Red Ranger, would look enough like FaxModem's that he basically speaks for me on the issue. If we have giant robots, the only reason NOT to use them is fear of collateral damage. Trying to draw a monster out into the open so it can be crushed by a giant robot while still small is an extremely good plan, if we can make it work.

Launching a pre-emptive attack on the enemy's moon base with our by-your-powers-combined giant robot sounds like a really good idea. However, we should probably get some pre-battle intelligence. There may be a good reason why the Power Rangers seldom if ever actually tried attacking Rita or Zedd or whoever on the moon. For example, they might have anti-space defenses capable of blowing giant robots out of the sky, in which case, we need a way to neutralize those defenses before going in. Otherwise, at best the team is now stuck on the moon with no hope of rescue, and at worst we are dead.

In the tradition of RARs, Q is bored and so decides to fuck around with the denizens of this forum. So, you find yourself suddenly in the command room from the show Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, with Q's head projected in a tube in the centre of the room. He declares that you and four other SDN members will be selected to replace the heroes of the show, with one more to serve as the sixth ranger who will appear later. You will be given the same task they had of fighting the efforts the evil Rita Repulsa and her efforts to take over the world.

So, here are the main points of this scenario.

. You are free to decide who the other rangers will be, though they do need to be SDN members. The Red Ranger will be the team leader and you will be it by default, though you can offer it to one of the others before the scenario begins.

Pick people with the following credentials:

1) Combat experience and/or moral courage to face potentially violent situations that I trust. Two or three people popped immediately into my head; actually thinking about it (or asking them) will probably suggest a few more.
2) Mechanical aptitude and driving/piloting ability. Given that a bunch of teenagers were able to pull this off it probably isn't necessary, and it may or may not actually help us when we're operating giant robots. But it can't possibly hurt.
3) Actually agreeing to do this shit, which is nontrivial given that I'm mostly thinking of emotionally mature people in their late twenties or older who have lives of their own. Adolescent fanboys might jump at the call, but adolescent fanboys operating gigantic walking gun platforms is probably not a great idea.
4) Knowledge of the series would help, since I have fairly minimal knowledge. However, it is not critical since a bunch of teenagers with little or no genre savviness were able to do the job. I have at least one candidate in mind who would be helpful here and he will probably agree to do this, so that's good.

Some of the people on my list would probably make better Red Rangers than me. If so, I will very happily put the blue hat on.

Actually, this is very important, can I interview candidates or do they get appointed without their consent? At least one or two of my potential candidates would probably seriously consider strangling me if they found themselves transported into high school in Angel Grove and yanked violently out of their former lives, if they had not consented to it in advance. And I would certainly not blame them for turning me down. They would want to know:

a) What happens to their/our significant others? Are the people going to Angel Grove like, copies of us or something? Or do we physically disappear from the face of the Earth, abandoning anyone who would mourn us? Or do we get to take them (or teenage versions of them) with us? If we're appearing as teenagers, does that mean we live with our parents? Our real parents, or new people made up for this scenario that aren't actually the people we remember being related to?
b) What about any relevant physical disabilities, as discussed below?
c) If we win the war, do we come back to our native time and place? Or do we spend the rest of our lives in the future we've created in Angel Grove?

. The other members will be able to do betrayal story lines if they can persuade Q that it'll be interesting. Take that into account when deciding on your team.

See (1) and (3).

. You are also free to select an alternative robot from fiction to replace Alpha as the robot assistant located in the command centre. It can give you advice and will be friendly, regardless of how hostile it might normally be. But that robot will be stuck in the command centre and cannot accompany you on missions.

The other poster suggesting Data was a brilliant call. He's extremely smart and knowledgeable, competent in difficult situations, and a good multitasker, even by robot standards. He's a pacifist, so his not being along on our actual missions will not be a major handicap, and I don't have to worry about irritating Q by trying to lawyer some way to get a walking killbot to come along on the mission.

You will also revert to your teens and be in a good enough physical state to fight. However, this does mean you will have to dedicate time to high school as the original protagonists did. You also won't stay in fighting shape if you don't exercise, though you will be given knowledge on how to best to that if you don't already possess it.

This might actually be a problem for some of the people I thought of first, for reasons I won't go into; I may end up having to dig further into my candidate lists than I'd intended.

On the other hand, some potential candidates have physical disabilities that would normally make them a poor choice; are those disabilities cured? If not, they are disqualified. I would like to ask Q about this, and would probably go through a laundry list of relevant disabilities. If he refuses to answer, I have to pick candidates I know to be basically able-bodied which limits my options somewhat.

[The Romulan Republic]

Hmm.

First of all, fuck you Q. If I can find a way to take him down a peg, and break his constraints, I will, though only if I am sure of my advantage. For now, watch and wait, and remember that he is not as omnipotent as he claimed, and that he apparently can be negotiated with or taken off guard (see Sisko punching him).

Well, after that... I know fuck all about Power Rangers. So that limits the amount of planning that I can do rather severely.

My two main decisions will be who I pick from the forum to accompany me, and which robot I pick.

The first would take some real thought. The list of people here who I would remotely trust to a) be competent in a crisis, b) behave in an ethical manner, and c) not get into pointless personality conflicts is... not long. Frankly, I don't know people here that well.

But I think I could come up with four decent guesses pretty fast if pressed to.

The robot pick, since I can pick from other franchises, is the best way to game the hell out of the scenario.

Some options that come to mind:

Amazo from Justice League/Justice League Unlimited:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7CWGMNkzgw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz8hXyBdTOk

Something from Who. Doctor Who tech. is insanely wanked.

The Guide Mk II from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, at least if I could begin to trust it. Ability to see (by virtue of existing in) all possible alternate universes, making it an essentially omniscient plotter? Yes please.

But I'll probably go with full power Amazo. Especially because if I can get Q in a room with him, he could potentially copy Q's powers.

[Panzersharkcat]

The Guide Mk II from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, at least if I could begin to trust it. Ability to see (by virtue of existing in) all possible alternate universes, making it an essentially omniscient plotter? Yes please.

I was thinking of something from Hitchhiker's too but my choice was Marvin the Paranoid Android for shits and giggles. I decide to give the role of team leader to Simon_Jester, probably, because I make decisions like choosing Marvin the Paranoid Android for shits and giggles. Seriously, though, putting me in position of power where people can end up dying is a very irresponsible thing to do.

[The Romulan Republic]

Honestly, I'd probably surrender the leadership post myself. Partly because I know my limits that well, at least, and partly because I doubt their are a lot of people on this board who would be willing to take orders from me.

[RogueIce]

As soon as the first of Rita's minions show up in town. I activate 'Operation Robot Foot'

Screw Rita Repulsa and Zordon, and their preferred order of combat. I pilot my Zord, preferably a flying one, and squish Rita's first monster/putties while it's human size, then decide that the best defense is a good offense.

Possible, and not totally without precedent: during the "Green With Evil" saga the Rangers went into the Megazord against a non-giant Tommy.

Fly out to her palace on the moon with a few strafing runs. If that doesn't kill her, it'll at least weaken her ability to make putties and monsters, and take out quite a few of her lieutenants. Keep doing so until she's dead, even if I have to knock down her palace with my giant robot.

This, unfortunately, is much less of a possibility. The original Megazord can not fly for one thing. The only individual Dinozord that can fly is Pterodactyl but it's unknown if it can achieve spaceflight. It does have laser-eyes though, so I guess if it can get to the Moon, that would help. But that's a big 'If' and the PR arsenal of spaceships is still a few years off. You'll need another plan.

Launching a pre-emptive attack on the enemy's moon base with our by-your-powers-combined giant robot sounds like a really good idea. However, we should probably get some pre-battle intelligence. There may be a good reason why the Power Rangers seldom if ever actually tried attacking Rita or Zedd or whoever on the moon. For example, they might have anti-space defenses capable of blowing giant robots out of the sky, in which case, we need a way to neutralize those defenses before going in. Otherwise, at best the team is now stuck on the moon with no hope of rescue, and at worst we are dead.

Well, as mentioned above, the Dino Zords can't actually fly, with only one exception. However, as demonstrated in Season 3, they can be teleported into the Moon Palace if need be. However, as you noted, they never once considered this a viable tactic. Within the constraints of the first season, there's probably a few reasons:

1) Goldar. While he'd be reduced to the role of comic relief later on, in the first season he's still a badass. He's capable of fighting all five Rangers and holding his own against their combined efforts.
2) Rita herself. We never see her in direct action, but she's a powerful Sorceress and should not be underestimated.
3) Finster and his Monster-Matic. It takes somewhere around 10-15 seconds for it to spit out a monster, and he always has at least a few molds of them in various stages of creation. Putty Patrollers can be spammed out much faster.

So these reasons above make an assault against the Moon Palace via teleportation (the only known way to assault during Season 1) an extremely risky proposition. Goldar alone can't beat the Team, but he can hold us off long enough for Finster to start spamming Putty Patrollers and any reasonably complete monsters at us. While they may not be the best quality - ie: going toe-to-toe with the Rangers - in their half-finished forms, quantity is its own quality as the saying goes. And there's not a lot of room to maneuver in the Moon Palace. And then there's Rita, who will have plenty of time to start up her incantations and directing her magic against us.

Of course, given the scenario requires an evil Green Ranger and that he will be selected from our ranks, it's possible Q won't let us conduct (or win) such an operation before the Green Ranger Saga. Granted we'll be able to free him or her from Rita's control and the Green Ranger can help us out on Operation: Moon Assault - but Rita will also have added Scorpina to her ranks, who is an equal to Goldar and we'll be stuck in the same quagmire as before.

All in all, attacking the Moon Palace is a terrible idea. At least with the resources we have on hand as of the first season.

4) Knowledge of the series would help, since I have fairly minimal knowledge. However, it is not critical since a bunch of teenagers with little or no genre savviness were able to do the job. I have at least one candidate in mind who would be helpful here and he will probably agree to do this, so that's good.

Skipping ahead to this, I'm a pretty good PR nerd (and involved anyway, if we're talking my version of the scenario) and I'll bring along Faqa who I believe meets most the qualifications and is an even bigger PR nerd than me. This will be useful when we're talking about gaming the system in an effective fashion.

First off: it's probably better to just wait for the Green Ranger, honestly. We already have an advantage here: since we're picking the Rangers, we know exactly who Rita will take. This comes in handy because unlike Tommy, he won't be able to get the drop on us in civilian form and send our Red Ranger to the Dark Dimension. We'll know who s/he is and can take precautions. Additionally, we'll know the Green Ranger can not only infiltrate the Command Center, but will likely attempt to do so, and again prepare - especially if we have a better robot buddy than Alpha. Or just make sure there's a guard there at all times, the robot buddy will immediately contact us in the case of intrusion, etc.

Most important: we know the Sword of Darkness is how Rita controls the Green Ranger, and we know a good Power Blaster (the guns we have at our sides when morphed) will destroy it. We might have to wait awhile though - it took awhile before he used the Dragon Dagger to summon the Dragonzord, and we'll definitely want to make sure that one is in our arsenal. In any event, since the Green Ranger is always standing separately from the Dragonzord when summoned, when it happens we can just go fight him directly and aim for the Sword of Darkness right off the bat. With any luck, we can destroy the Sword of Darkness before Dragonzord is finished munching on smokestacks in Angel Grove's port district.

Now that we have the team assembled, we start gaming the system. The Zeo Crystal is under the Moon Palace, protected from the forces of Darkness. But a sufficiently Good Person can still take it - including Tommy, despite his evil beginnings. So presumably we will be granted the same level of Good as the OTL Rangers on the PRU's Cosmic Karma Scales or whatever-the-heck it uses to decide, and we can retrieve that puppy early from the Caves of Deception.

We also have five known candidates to use the Zeo Powers - or at least to transfer our Dino Powers to after retrieving the Sword of Light - who should be of the right age (more or less, since they were contemporaries of the OTL Rangers): Rocky, Adam and Aisha over in Stone Canyon, Kat who is either in Australia or America right now (it's not clear when she moved) and finally Tanya over in Africa. This is convenient because the Zeo Crystal can be split into five parts, so the numbers work out.

However, Rita can still Green Candle away the Green Ranger's powers, which is a bad thing. We may want to hold off on the Zeo Crystal until that happens, and let it play out more or less as OTL: she drains most of the Green Power but before she can get it all, the Dragon Coin is transferred to the Red Ranger, giving a nice power up. We can then try to convince Zordon that he should create the White Ranger powers early - there's no real indication as to why he waited as long as he did - to bring the former Green Ranger back to our team ASAP. Meanwhile the remaining five go about retrieving the Zeo Crystal and the Sword of Light, pick up the OTL Replacement Rangers and transfer the Dino Powers to them while taking the Zeo Ranger powers for our own. Maybe go to Ninjor early and see if he'll transform our Dino Powers to the Ninja Powers, but I wouldn't count on that as a certainty.

In any event, with 11 Rangers now and the OP-ness of the Zeo Rangers - for reference, they were able to match the Machine Empire who casually drove away the combined forces of Rita and Zedd - a direct assault on Rita's Moon Palace should be much more feasible now. Have most of the team engage Goldar and Scorpina while one or two of us split off to take out the Monster-Mastic and eliminate the possibility of reinforcements. We should be able to take out Goldar and Scorpina with all of us - Squatt and Baboo are non-threats - and then seal up Rita in a Space Dumpster. Although this time we can just seal her in the Command Center's basement levels, assigning our robot buddy to clean them up and upgrade them for defenses and alarms in case anyone tries to infiltrate and release her. Then we wait on Zedd...

...and basically assault the Moon Palace again. This is a risky proposition, since Zedd is more of a fighter than Rita (Zedd easily soloed Tommy at his arguably strongest and barely broke a sweat) but the combined forces of the Mighty Morphin' Zeo Rangers should be able to overcome him. Especially if we can break his Z-Staff early on, which caused him to retreat against Tommy during their battle and seems to be the main focus of how he uses his power.

Honestly with the Zeo Powers and Rita sealed away, Zedd has no real chance against us. Even if he retreats to come back later, there are enough ways for us to build an early Ranger Army in the interim that we can easily meet the win conditions of the scenario. And even if we do defeat him outright, there's no reason not to set in motion a Ranger Army anyway, assuming we're still around to do so.

That my friends, is where the real fun begins.

[Tribble]

Damnit! I was actually about to post a power rangers RAR myself, and now I'll have to hold off for a few months so it doesn't look like I'm copying. Thanks a lot

[Tribble]

However, Rita can still Green Candle away the Green Ranger's powers, which is a bad thing. We may want to hold off on the Zeo Crystal until that happens, and let it play out more or less as OTL: she drains most of the Green Power but before she can get it all, the Dragon Coin is transferred to the Red Ranger, giving a nice power up.

I would want to keep the Green Ranger powers if possible, since the Dragonzord is necessary for the original UltraZord combo, and at full power it was shown to be stronger than the TigerZord

We can then try to convince Zordon that he should create the White Ranger powers early - there's no real indication as to why he waited as long as he did - to bring the former Green Ranger back to our team ASAP.

Ya, it was never stated when / how he got the Tiger Coin and created the White Ranger. My guess was that he had the coin as a reserve in case one of the other coins was destroyed, but hadn't created the powers to go with it.

Meanwhile the remaining five go about retrieving the Zeo Crystal and the Sword of Light, pick up the OTL Replacement Rangers and transfer the Dino Powers to them while taking the Zeo Ranger powers for our own.

Good idea, might as well go for the Zeo Crystal while we were at it, especially as the Zeo powers were specifically stated to be stronger than the original Power Coins (and would grow stronger still over time)

Maybe go to Ninjor early and see if he'll transform our Dino Powers to the Ninja Powers, but I wouldn't count on that as a certainty.

I wouldn't recommend that except as a last resort. IIRC it's never stated outright that the Ninja Power coins were stronger than the Dino Coins (only that their Zords were) and they have the nasty side effect of drawing on your own life force for power, which the original power coins did not. A better idea would be to get Zordon to upgrade the Dino Zords right away to the Thunder Zords as that would put them on a higher level than anything Rita can crank out and would be immune to Lord Zed's control.

That my friends, is where the real fun begins.

Yaaaaa.... Beating up on Rita, Lord Zed and the Machine Empire will be fun, but they were only a warmup compared to what was coming. We'd be completely screwed against Dark Specter unless we managed to get a hold of some planet killer weapons. And beating up the bad guys earlier than the show did might just make him decide to come sooner than expected....

[RogueIce]

I would want to keep the Green Ranger powers if possible, since the Dragonzord is necessary for the original UltraZord combo, and at full power it was shown to be stronger than the TigerZord

Dragonzord could still be used as in the OTL scenario, so there's that. It's just, saving it will be difficult. Even the OTL Rangers couldn't beat the Green Candle, remember. Granted we know it's coming, but it's not a guarantee. I'd rate this as "we'll try, but not banking on it".

In any event, we should let this play out before going after the Zeo Crystal, just in case Rita does something tricky after we power up, assuming we can't beat her straight off.

Ya, it was never stated when / how he got the Tiger Coin and created the White Ranger. My guess was that he had the coin as a reserve in case one of the other coins was destroyed, but hadn't created the powers to go with it.

Yeah, we'll have to ask Zordon about that. For all we know, it was the loss of the Green Power that let him do it. In that case, we may not have a choice in losing the Dragonzord.

I wouldn't recommend that except as a last resort. IIRC it's never stated outright that the Ninja Power coins were stronger than the Dino Coins (only that their Zords were) and they have the nasty side effect of drawing on your own life force for power, which the original power coins did not. A better idea would be to get Zordon to upgrade the Dino Zords right away to the Thunder Zords as that would put them on a higher level than anything Rita can crank out and would be immune to Lord Zed's control.

This one is a definite "maybe" for me. It really depends on what happens when we "win" the scenario: do we go back to our lives or stay on as Rangers? If the former then fuck it, the Zeo Powers are more than enough. If the latter though, we might want to consider it - even if what we wind up doing is finding another Six Teens who could become the Ninja Rangers while keeping the Dino Rangers around; we'll probably want the New Rangers to assume the Dino Powers and let the Replacement Rangers go Ninja, because they'll be more experienced. Again, if we can convince Ninjor to go along, especially as the Dino Coins will still be in play.

Upgrading to the Thunder Zords is definitely something we'll want to do. Basically if we're sticking around after defeating Rita and Zedd, I want us to have as many concurrent Powers and Zords as we can get. The Ninja Powers are a risk with the Lifeforce thing, yes, but a manageable one. They also give us added options with the Ninjetti modes, and IIRC they were necessary to awaken the Shogun Zords; at the very least the Falcon Zord could interface with them, so we'll want the Ninja Zords if not the Powers.

Yaaaaa.... Beating up on Rita, Lord Zed and the Machine Empire will be fun, but they were only a warmup compared to what was coming. We'd be completely screwed against Dark Specter unless we managed to get a hold of some planet killer weapons. And beating up the bad guys earlier than the show did might just make him decide to come sooner than expected....

Yeah, the U.A.E. is the first big threat we'll have to deal with and build up to. We do have potential allies within the current bounds of the Zordon Era, but they were all overcome. Granted, they also didn't have Dino/Thunder MM Rangers, Ninja MM Rangers, Zeo Rangers and (possibly, if we want to go down that road) Turbo Rangers active at the time. That may give us the necessary edge without needing to sacrifice Zordon.

But if we're preparing for that, I'd probably start looking into activating as many of the post-Zordon Powers as we realistically can, just to hedge our bets. Obviously not SPD and Time Force, because they're in the future. But we may be able to jumpstart Operation Lightspeed; possibly get up to the Animarium and get Wild Force going, if we can even do that earlier than OTL (what with Shayla and the Wild Zords still 'sleeping'); retrieve the Dino Gems for an early Dino Thunder; wake up Gosei's useless ass early (Megaforce powers will be useful, but Legendary Mode unnecessary if the other teams remain active); link up with the Samurai Rangers (17th generation, the parents of the OTL Samurai team); go to the Wind Ninja Academy and link up with the Ninja Storm powers; since Hartford did Operation Overdrive on his own, we can recruit him early and get him working with Zordon and Lightspeed to get those Powers running, also get the Corona Aurora and the Corona Gems early.

Galaxy Rangers are iffy: we'll probably need the actual Galaxy Rangers to release the Quasar Sabers, and they might not be old enough to be viable Rangers until closer to the U.A.E. invasion (assuming it's not early due to TL differences). Plus getting to Mirinoi is no simple task on its own. That may simply need to wait until Maya winds up on the Moon and we can send the others through that wormhole. And again, SPD and Time Force won't come into being until the future, maybe we could get SPD going a little early but I wouldn't count on that, certainly not before the U.A.E. shows up. The Jungle Fury Powers are also debatable - we'd have to get candidates from the Phai Zua Academy, certainly, but the actual Ranger suits were RJ's doing (with the help of "somebody") so that we'll have to make happen on our own.

[Tribble]

Hmmm, according to the OP we win if we beat Rita and Lord Zedd (with the ladder arriving later on), so the U.A.E. should not be an issue. Which is good because I don't think we could have beaten Dark Specter; it took being drained by the psycho rangers and being blindsided by two planet-killer missiles to kill him, and that's far beyond the capabilities of any Ranger team we could conceivably come up with.

Rita will be coming first, and dealing with her should be easy if we can convince Zordon to crank out the Mega Voyager early. It's space-flight capable and a lot more powerful than anything Rita had in her arsenal, so if we are granted access we could just fly over with it and kick her ass, and keep the Dino/Thunder Megazord and the Zeo Megazord in reserve. Lord Zedd would be more of a problem as he has Serpentena, the city-sized planet-killer Dragon Zord. I doubt we'd have the firepower to acutally take it down. IIRC Serpenena's only weakness is that it uses a tremoundous amount of energy and takes a massvie amount of time to recharge (possibly even years given that Zedd only used it's main weapon at full power once). Given that it is at full power when first introduced we'd have to find some way to get Zedd to use the planet-killer setting on something besides Earth.

[FaxModem1]

I think everyone is taking something into account that isn't there. According to OP, there is no Zordon in the tube.

So, you find yourself suddenly in the command room from the show Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, with Q's head projected in a tube in the centre of the room. He declares that you and four other SDN members will be selected to replace the heroes of the show, with one more to serve as the sixth ranger who will appear later. You will be given the same task they had of fighting the efforts the evil Rita Repulsa and her efforts to take over the world.

Q is in the place of Zordon. Let that sink in for a minute.

[Tribble]

I think everyone is taking something into account that isn't there. According to OP, there is no Zordon in the tube.

So, you find yourself suddenly in the command room from the show Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, with Q's head projected in a tube in the centre of the room. He declares that you and four other SDN members will be selected to replace the heroes of the show, with one more to serve as the sixth ranger who will appear later. You will be given the same task they had of fighting the efforts the evil Rita Repulsa and her efforts to take over the world.

Q is in the place of Zordon. Let that sink in for a minute.

Great, is he willing to give advice? Give us access to stuff Zordon would? Or is he just going to float there and taunt the hell out of everyone?

So here is the composition of my SDN Power Rangers Team:

Tribble: As a living example of the Dilbert Principle, I will be the leader of the team. I come with no leadership, military, scientific, engineering, housekeeping, or social skills to speak of. Good luck with that.

Zor: Has half of Zordon's name, and that must count for something. Also completely crazy, and that should provide Q with plenty of amusement.

Archinist: Actually seems to be a Teenager With Attitude (or at least someone with a very sheltered and warped view of reality), which certainly fits the bill.

K.P. Pital: Seems to hate capitalism and America in equal measure, so naturally he must be recruited to defend the American Dream. May try a betrayal storyline in order to overthrow the USA and establish a new world government, which Q would no doubt find entertaining.

Borgholio: Anyone who is willing to choose Beavis as their Avatar has to be on the team, 'nuff said.

Rogue Ice as the Sixth Ranger: when I inevitably screw up as team leader and all hell breaks loose, Rogue Ice will be there one day to pick up the pieces. Bonus points for having pre-existing knowledge of the Power Rangers universe.

And I will replace Alpha 5 with... a Dalek (yes I know it's not exactly a Robot, but it's close enough), if only because I'd like to see how it and Q get along. Plus even though it's stuck in the command centre, it might have knowledge and capabilities which could prove useful.

So, what do you think good sirs?

[Simon_Jester]

I want you to make the team even more obviously worse.

[The Romulan Republic]

The Dalek EXTERMINATE!s everyone. The end.

Or Q disqualifies it for not being a robot but a mutant in power armour, or something.

Though a Dalek would make an interesting straight man/foil for Q's antics and snark.

And designing a horribly dysfunctional team with the goal of entertaining Q might not be the worst approach to this.

For a more serious attempt at a team, I don't know. Pick from any board members who are professional academics, cops, or soldiers and who aren't total asses, mostly.

[Simon_Jester]

I'd still like to know about some of the questions that affect how people live and what happens to our significant others and so on.

[Panzersharkcat]

Are we booted back in time to when the show started or is it the Power Rangers stuff with the storyline starting in 2016? Do cyborgs count as robots? If in 2016, what happens if the robot signs up for an SDN account?

[Tribble]

I want you to make the team even more obviously worse.

Then I'll need some suggestions as I simply haven't interacted with everyone enough

The Dalek EXTERMINATE!s everyone. The end.

Ah but according to the OP it will be friendly regardless of choice, so that shouldn't be a problem. Is there a kitchen in the command centre? I'd love to figure out how the Dalek manages to cook things and make tea.

Or Q disqualifies it for not being a robot but a mutant in power armour, or something.

Though a Dalek would make an interesting straight man/foil for Q's antics and snark.

Q would probably allow it precisely because he'd get to spend his time getting under the Dalek's... skin? and drive it crazy. Hmmm, maybe this isn't such a good idea...

[Bernkastel]

Well, this is going better than expected. Thank you all for responding.

Right, time to answer some questions. I'll probably miss some, but I'll try to answer them later.

Of course, given the scenario requires an evil Green Ranger and that he will be selected from our ranks, it's possible Q won't let us conduct (or win) such an operation before the Green Ranger Saga.

Hmm, I'm deciding now that, while you might be able to try such an operation before then, you will be obliged to fail it and in a way that emphasises the threat posed by the villains.

Great, is he willing to give advice? Give us access to stuff Zordon would? Or is he just going to float there and taunt the hell out of everyone?

Q will do the minimum to assist you with situations, though he will have no problem insulting you while providing that aid. If something is absolutely required and Zordon had either access to it or information on it, he will normally give it to you. However, he will not go beyond the minimum needed to give you a chance of success unless you persuade him. That is possible, though it will be hard. Also, if your fight with the forces of evil is going too well that it gets boring, he will be inclined to suddenly not know certain information for the sake of making things harder for you.

Also, if you succeed in really insulting him, he might decide to have a strop and not do anything for you. Whatever robot you have selected will still try to help you, but Q will just endeavour to be even ruder to you.

Are we booted back in time to when the show started or is it the Power Rangers stuff with the storyline starting in 2016? Do cyborgs count as robots? If in 2016, what happens if the robot signs up for an SDN account?

You will be booted back to the time of the show. Also, cyborgs do not count.

[Panzersharkcat]

Dang. For shits and giggles, I was going to try to get Cyber Sub-Zero, have him sign up for an SDN account, and join as Blue Ranger just because it'd be funny to make a cyborg Lin Kuei assassin go through high school. In that case, I stick with Marvin the Paranoid Android.

[Tribble]

I want you to make the team even more obviously worse.

Alright, after some thinking I've decided to swap out Rogue Ice with Havok, who apparently believes that you can still be a hero after slaughtering women and children provided you only did so in a homicidal wage and got wangsty about it for a scene or two afterwards. Great Green Ranger material.

Hmmm, and maybe I should swap out Borgholio with Flagg, if only because I'm certain I can get more profanity out of him.

I think I have my bases covered now:

Useless Leader: Me
Crazy Man: Zor
Teenager With Attitude: Archinist
Disgruntled Employee: K.P. Pital
Sociopathic Hero: Havok
Profanity Expert: Flagg

I'd still want to keep the Dalek, but if it's not possible I'll settle for Marvin.

This should create a big enough mess to keep things interesting

[Tribble]

And does anyone else have suggestions for teams?

[madd0ct0r]

Are we allowed to customise the zoids?

Id love to see broomstick in a giant pink parrot droid.

[Tribble]

Are we allowed to customise the zoids?

Id love to see broomstick in a giant pink parrot droid.

Wow, that'd be awesome, I'd get the Tribble Zord! Good thinking!

On a related note, besides the usual "It's Morphing Time!" and whatnot I always thought a cool tagline for the 2017 remake could be "No one will ever take them down" (lyrics in the original song).