Friv makes twenty superheroes!

[FrivYeti]

Step 1: Background

We begin, as usual, with our classic 2d10 roll. This time I rolled 5 and 4, which gives me access to Adventurer, Unremarkable (or not) and Performer. I just did a creative sort, so let’s make an Adventurer!

This adventurer is going to have Leadership d8 and Fitness d10 as his two traits. Archibald Harsbury is the son of a wealthy family and easy-going explorer, who spends his time going to remote places, funding archeological digs, and generally making a nuisance of himself around the people who actually live or work there. He’s very good-natured, but maybe not that bright.

Being an Adventurer also gives Archibald an Expertise Principle. He picks the Principle of Mastery; he’s proud of his abilities, and is always looking for new ways to apply them.

Step 2: Power Source

Sadly, Adventurer only gives us three d8s for Power Source. My roll nets me 4, 4, and 2, giving me access to Training, Experimentation, Nature, and Powered Suit. Nature would make a certain amount of sense, but I’ve just had a brainstorm so I’m going with…. Powered Suit.

Archibald doesn’t just explore. His team has built a suit that he uses to explore places that humans straight-up can’t go. In the process, he’s begun to encounter the stranger, more malicious aspects of the Sentinels universe, who want to use those places as remote lairs, as well as the innocent and reclusive folk who live there, and he can’t just leave them in danger.

For dice, Archie has Powered Suit d8, Strength d8, and Wall-Crawling d8. It’s a classic strong, maneuverable suit that’s built for versatility over power.

For Yellow Abilities, Archie doesn’t have an element (which it has been pointed out to me doesn’t actually prevent taking Abilities that do things for elements, but I hadn’t thought of that when I was designing Archie), so he’s got to take the other two, boosting himself with his Power Suit and attacking enemies with his impressive Strength.

Step 3: Archetype

Powered Suit gives a d10 and two d6s to determine Archetype, driving the numbers down. I rolled 6, 4, and 5, which opens up Marksman (nope!), Blaster, Close Quarters Combatant, Elemental Manipulator, Robot/Cyborg, and Sorcerer. This is a bit rough. Robot/Cyborg overlaps a lot mechanically, Blaster and Elemental Manipulator require re-shifting to elemental powers, and Sorcerer, I think not. So I guess he’s a Close Quarters Combatant.

He gets a d10 for Close Combat, a d6 for Leaping for some extra mobility, and he puts his last d6 into Gadgets; the team makes a lot of neat little gizmos for Archie.

This Archetype gives a lot of Green Abilities, but they’re mostly direct combat. Flexible Stance seems like a given, especially with the power suit, letting Archie do a couple of things at once. Precise Strike lets him hit hard even when there’s a lot of problems in the way, and Defensive Strike lets him use his Fitness for protection. For his Yellow, he adds Throw Minion using Strength, because who doesn’t want to throw a minion?

Close Quarters Combatant gives a Responsibility Principle, and I’m going to stretch a touch to give Archie the Principle of the Team. His conservation team/media crew is well-known, and gives him both official permissions and a lot of flexibility with authorities and locals.

Step 4: Personality

I rolled a 2 and a 10 for Personality, which gives us access to Natural Leader, Alluring, and Nurturing. This actually kind of sucks, because most of Archie’s stuff unlocks early, and he has strong defenses to avoid getting sucked into Red early. But I’ll go ahead and make him Alluring, because of course he’s a sexy mess.

For his backstory, Archie gets “Media Conservationist d8”, which represents his performances and also his familiarity with the natural world.

Step 5: Red Abilities

Archie doesn’t have any Reactions right now, so a good one seems like a solid bet. A Reactive Defense lets him get into the fray and use his Close Combat to redirect damage to himself, and his Push Your Limits lets him do this repeatedly to just generally sacrifice himself to keep everyone alive.

Step 6: Retcon

While I was looking at the Athletic powers I saw an extremely funny combination, so I’m just going to go ahead and do it. I’m taking Reactive Strike. When Archie is the target of an attack, he can Attack his attacker by rolling his Strength die, plus any damage that he takes. The result of this is that Archie can take 2 irreducible damage every time someone nearby is attacked to redirect the attack to him, then Defend himself with d10+3, then Attack his attacker with d8+(damage taken).

This is not sustainable unless someone is really helping Archie recover, but that’s half the fun!

Step 7: Health

Archie’s health is a moderate 30 (8 + Red Die 10 + Strength 8 + 4). It’s not as big as it could be, but it’s solid.

Step 8: Alias

We still need a name for Archie, and it’s got to be tied to his media persona. He’s pretty open about who he is, but he travels the world as Archie The Adventurer!

Character Sheet

Archie The Adventurer

Alias: Archibald Harsbury

Background: Adventurer, Power Source: Powered Suit, Archetype: Close-Quarters Combatant, Personality: Alluring

Principles: Mastery (Expertise), Team (Responsibility)

• Minor Twists: How did your powers fail you in the moment? What embarrassment did you just cause as a member of your team?
• Major Twists: What side effects are you suffering from your powers? What major sanctions will you suffer as a result of your actions?

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10

Health: 30 (Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1)

Qualities:

• Fitness (Physical) d10
• Close Combat (Physical) d10
• Leadership (Social) d8
• Media Conservationist d8

Powers:

• Powered Suit (Technology) d8
• Strength (Athletic) d8
• Wall-Crawling (Mobility) d8
• Leaping (Mobility) d6
• Gadgets (Technology) d6

Green Abilities:

• Principle of Mastery (A): Overcome in a situation that uses your powers in a new way and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of the Team (A): Overcome by using your status as an official representative and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Dual-Systems Mode (A): Take any two basic actions using Power Suit, each using your Min die.
• Turtle Up (A): Defend using Fitness. Attack with your Min die.
• One-Hit Punch (A): Attack using Close Combat. Ignore all penalties on this attack, ignore any Defend actions, and it cannot be affected by Reactions.
• Damage Reduction (I): Reduce physical damage you take by 1 in Green, 2 in Yellow, and 3 in Red.

Yellow Abilities:

• Adaptation (A): Boost yourself using Power Suit. That boost is persistent and exclusive.
• All-Out Attack (A): Attack up to three different targets using Strength. Apply your Max to one, your Mid to a second, and your Min to the third. If you roll doubles, take a minor twist or irreducible damage equal to that die.
• Toss-up (A): Attack a minion using Strength. Whatever that minion rolls as defense Attacks another target of your choice.

Red Abilities:

• Take The Hit ®: When a nearby ally is attack, you may become the target of the Attack and roll your single Close Combat die to defend yourself.
• Fight Back ®: When you are Attacked and dealt damage, you may Attack your attacker by rolling your single Strength die and adding the damage that you took.
• Burning Bright (I): You may take 1 irreducible damage to take an extra Reaction, any number of times per turn.

Out Ability: Boost an Ally by rolling your Power Suit die.

Aftermath

I think it’s interesting that both our second and third heroes have already had options closed off by prior heroes. Those low numbers show up a lot! I’m going to have to lean in on the over-10s when I get them.

Archie is an interesting one, but not the most mechanically sound. In Green, he’s really going to need some boosts from his team to get things done; he’s got a d6 status and a d8 maximum for his Powers, no strong way to Boost himself, and two of his three core Abilities use his Min die.

Once he hits Yellow, things start looking up; his status die improves, he can give himself a long-term Boost that will be very useful with all those Min effects, and he gets a pretty good crowd-clearing attack. And of course, in Red he can just absolutely burn himself out to tank and counter-attack an absurd number of hits, especially physical ones. He can’t take his main action to recover during all of this, though, so it’s a short-term plan.

Personality-wise, he seems fun! Just a fun-loving rich boy who gradually realizes that things are a bigger deal than he was originally imagining. Depending on how our teams shake out, other heroes could be part of his media crew, or just friends that work alongside it.

[FrivYeti]

Continuing with one hero a day, here is #4…

Step 1: Background

Three down, seventeen to go! For Hero #4, our Background roll gives us an 8 and a 2. That gives us access to Blank Slate, Tragic, and Military.

Let’s build a Blank Slate. Our mystery woman doesn’t have a name yet. She awoke without one, based on whatever her Power Source is. So for the moment, let’s start her off with Alertness d8 and Stealth d10.

Blank Slate gives an Identity Principle, and the Principle of Amnesia seems entirely on-point, so Imma take that.

Step 2: Power Source

Blank Slate gives us a d10 and two d8s. Rolling them, I get 5, 3, and 7. This gives us access to Genetic, Mystical, Relic (nope!), Powered Suit (nope!!), Tech Upgrades, and Artificial Being.

As obvious as Artificial Being would be, I’m taking Tech Upgrades. Blank woke up in an aftercare room in a mysterious facility, with implanted technology in her and a lot of red alarms going off. She fled rather than wait to see, and the whole facility burned down mysteriously. She doesn’t know if she was a willing patient or a captive.

Blank is now a Lightning Calculator (d10), but has also gotten some substantial physical upgrades with superhuman Agility (d8). She’s also got a Nuclear (d8) power source inside her, which is properly shielded except when she doesn’t want it to be. This could be the root of what went wrong…

For Abilities, Blank takes an Energy Burst, letting her use her Nuclear power against a bunch of people, and Recharges herself with Lightning Calculator. For her Green, she grabs Indiscriminate Fabrication; when she starts calculating, she doesn’t always know who she’s helping.

Step 3: Archetype

Another d10, d8, d8 for Archetype. 3, 3, 4 doesn’t give us many choices. Physical Powerhouse, Marksman (nope!), Close Quarters Combatant (nuh-uh!) and Armored. So my choices are Strong, or Tough. That doesn’t line up with her earlier choices at all, but we can make a Powerhouse work, I think.

Strength (d10) is a given, and Close Combat (d8) covers the previous lack of physical Qualities. The last choice goes to Density Control (d8), for interesting shifts in mass created by her nuclear core.

For Abilities, Blank picks up the very strong Damage Resistant. She also takes Frontline Fighting with her Strength, to force enemies into close combat with her. At Yellow, she takes the Reaction that when she defeats an enemy with Strength, she can Recover. She is going to be a hard nut to crack.

Finally, Blank takes an Expertise Principle. Stealth would be interesting, but I think Blank is not fully used to her weird, indiscriminate strength, so I’m taking that.

Step 4: Personality

Blank’s personality roll gives us a 10 and an 8, which gives me access to Fast-Talking, Alluring, and Apathetic. I think she’s leaning Apathetic right now. For reasons that she’s not clear on, but suspects has to do with her implants not being tuned correctly, Blank feels everything in a muted way.

Her roleplaying quality is Mysterious Programming. Sometimes, she just gets prompts to do things, and if she goes along with those prompts she gets some results. This isn’t consistent, and it can’t be directed, and it kind of worries her, but here we are.

Step 5: Red Abilities

We don’t have anything tied to Blank’s Stealth, so let’s have her fade when things go bad. Book It lets her Hinder any number of enemies, using her Max die, and then end up somewhere else in the scene. And her overclocked systems can unleash an Unerring Strike to hit an enemy very precisely and very hard.

Step 6: Retcon

I’d like Blank to have a little bit of social skills, so she isn’t entirely falling back on running away whenever things get awkward (as funny as that is.) So for her Retcon, I’m going to give her Persuasion d6. This is definitely not as strong as boosting something Red, but it’s a nice layer of versatility.

Step 7: Health

We’re getting a lot of beefy friends. Blank’s Health is (8 + Strength 10 + Red 10 + 4) for a total of 32 Health, the third of our four to reach that high.

Step 8: Alias

So I guess Blank needs a name, in addition to a hero name. I’m going to go with Patience Smith, mainly because it is a pun on Patient. For her superhero name, she’s a beefy fighter with nuclear power, so let’s call her Atomizer!

Character Sheet

Atomizer

Alias: Patience Smith

Background: Blank Slate, Power Source: Tech Upgrades, Archetype: Physical Powerhouse, Personality: Apathetic

Principles: Amnesia (Identity), Strength (Expertise)

• Minor Twists: You have a flash of your former life that distracts you. What was it? What just broke?
• Major Twists: A shocking detail of your past changes the current situation – how does it affect the scene? Who just broke?

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10

Health: 32 (Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1)

Qualities:

• Stealth (Physical) d10
• Close Combat (Physical) d10
• Alertness (Mental) d8
• Mysterious Programming d8
• Persuasion (Social) d6

Powers:

• Lightning Calculator (Intellectual) d10
• Strength (Athletic) d10
• Agility (Athletic) d8
• Nuclear (Energy) d8
• Density Control (Self-Control) d8

Green Abilities:

• Principle of Amnesia (A): Overcome a situation where a completely fresh perspective is useful and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Strength (A): Overcome using brute force and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Indiscriminate Fabrication (A): Boost using Lightning Calculator. Use your Max, Mid, and Min dice to create three bonuses. One must go to an enemy.
• Stuck In (A): Attack with Strength. The target of the attack must use their next action to Attack you, if possible.
• Damage Resistant (I): Reduce all physical and energy damage by 1 in the Green Zone, 2 in Yellow, and 3 in Red.

Yellow Abilities:

• Nuclear Blast (A): Attack multiple enemies with Nuclear. Use your Min die.
• Reorient (A): Boost yourself using Lightning Calculator. Then either remove a penalty on yourself or Recover using your Min die.
• Surge of Strength ®: When you defeat an enemy with Strength, Recover using your Min die.

Red Abilities:

• Book It (A): Hinder multiple enemies with Stealth. Use your Max die. Then end your action anywhere in the scene.
• Fracture Point (A): Attack an enemy with Lightning Calculator. Use your Max + Min die. Ignore all penalties to the attack, ignore any Defend actions, and it can’t be affected by Reactions.

Out Ability: Remove a bonus or penalty of your choice.

Aftermath

Even more choices blocked off, but I think we got something interesting. I like how I was opening with “upgrades to make Patience faster, stealthy, and quick-thinking” and then ran face-first into “but actually she is a brick.” It totally shifting the tone of the character, in a way that I think worked out. If I were Guiding her in a vacuum, I would probably have gone with Marksman as her Archetype to line up with the stealth, but this works!

Patience is a character who probably needs to be drawn into a story; I would integrate her with a team by asking another PC to have found her early on, and she’s living with them while she tries to figure out what the heck’s going on and doing superhero work more out of a desire to fit in than a drive right now. There’s a lot of story potential in her head being full of not-fully-functional technology from a mysterious and unknown source – was she meant to be a hero, and villains destroyed her lab before she was done? Was she an innocent test subject of a malevolent agency? Was she just a slightly amoral person whose experiments went terribly wrong? Or worst of all, was she a supervillain herself? There are a lot of ways her story could go.

[FrivYeti]

Step 1: Background

Twenty percent complete, and trucking on. Our fifth Background roll is 4 and 8, giving us Adventurer (nope!), Tragic, and Criminal. Let’s lean into to an ex-con, with our criminal buddy Cameron Reddican.

Cameron is going to take Imposing d10 and Criminal Underworld d8. They grew up on the wrong side of the law, distrusting the system, and learned to use their attitude to keep trouble low. I think they mostly handled small-time crimes; fencing goods and running numbers for a local mob.

Criminals get an Expertise Principle, and Cameron is going to take the Principle of the Tactician. They’re cool-headed and have a plan for everything. But they may not have had a plan for…

Step 2: Power Source

Our class three d8s for Power Source nets Cameron 8, 8, and 2, which gives us Training, Powered Suit (nope), Tech Upgrades (nope), and Cosmos. So I’m going to have to go with Cosmos. Now, how does a low-level criminal get awesome cosmic powers, especially one known for… oh, of course.

Cameron got hired as the tactician and numbers folk for a mysterious heist. In truth, the heist was being run by Wager Master, the Cosmic Trickster! Wager Master just really wanted to watch a heist movie, and there wasn’t anything good on Netflix, so he went ahead and made his own, with a bunch of ways for the crooks to betray each other for profit. Right near the end, Cameron used the McGuffin they were stealing and put themselves at risk to save the life of a teammate who had previously betrayed them, which coincidentally was the win condition that Wager Master had secretly built into the scenario. It was all such good entertainment that Wager Master let them have the powers, congratulated them, and said that he’d be back to check in next time he wanted a good show.

Cameron does not know how to feel about this, but they always said that the thing keeping them from doing good was that the system was rigged against them, so they’ve decided to hold to that and become a superhero.

Cameron definitely has superhuman Intuition (d8) and can use their Suggestion (d8) to influence people to follow their desired plans. Finally, their Invisibility (d8) relies on fading into the background and becoming unimportant.

Since they didn’t take Cosmic, Cameron doesn’t actually get to choose Abilities. They just have to take Encourage (using their Suggestion to push people in the right direction) and Mass Effect (using their Intuition to set up coincidental actions that mess up or benefit everyone nearby.)

They then downgrade one power and upgrade another, turning their dice into d10, d8, d6. I’m going to upgrade Intuition, and downgrade Invisibility. Cosmos may not grant a Green Ability, but at least it is also bad about giving you something else in exchange.

Step 3: Archetype

Cosmos, at least, gives a d10, d8, d8 as its Archetype spread. Results of 7, 2, and 4 gives us access to Shadow, Marksman (no), Close Quarters Combatant (noo), Armored, Elemental Manipulator, or Sorcerer. Shadow fits the secretive mastermind that Cameron is turning into, so we’ll go with that.

We have to give Cameron Stealth d10. We’ll also give them Agility d8 and Ranged Combat d8 to round things out. For Abilities, Sabotage using Stealth is just too cool, and we can add a Green damage/redirect to keep that ‘control of the environment’ thing going on. Then, in Yellow, we can add Overcome From Darkness, which is also using Stealth (a rare time when that’s allowed!)

Finally, Shadow unlocks a second Expertise principle. Now that we’re subtle, I’m going to add the Principle of Stealth and really drive home how sneaky they can be.

Step 4: Personality

Cameron’s two d10s for Personality come out to 10 and 7, which unlocks Stalwart, Alluring, and Naïve. Alluring is taken and Naïve does not fit at all, so Cameron is a Stalwart sort.

Step 5: Red Abilities

When things get bad, Cameron gets tricky. Impossible Knowledge lets them turn penalties into bonuses, and Give Time lets them either Boost someone, or hand their turn to another hero and boost them – but at a cost.

Step 6: Retcon

Cameron is going to take a third Red power, one that’s pretty strong for them. Whenever they use an Ability, they also get to take a basic action. That’s going to be great in conjunction with giving people extra turns.

Step 7: Health

Cameron has 28 Health (8 + Red 8 + Agility 8 + 4) . So far, everyone has come into the 28-32 range. I wonder if that’s standard, or if it’s because I’m leaning towards making sure that people have at least something Mental or Athletic. Would a lot of people not do that, or do it less?

Step 8: Alias

Cameron is going to be calling themselves the Synergist. They use their newfound cosmic awareness to push everything into the correct path, uniting a lot of disparate actions into a single flowing whole.

Character Sheet

Synergist

Alias: Cameron Reddican

Background: Criminal, Power Source: Cosmos, Archetype: Shadow, Personality: Stalwart

Principles: Tactician (Expertise), Stealth (Expertise)

• Minor Twists: What one variable did you not account for? What evidence of your presence did you leave behind?
• Major Twists: What major threat is revealed that invalidates all your plans? What just happened that identified you as an obvious threat?

Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d8

Health: 28 (Green 28-22, Yellow 21-11, Red 10-1)

Qualities:

• Imposing (Social) d10
• Stealth (Physical) d10
• Criminal Underworld (Info) d8
• Ranged Combat (Physical) d8

Powers:

• Intuition (Intellectual) d10
• Suggestion (Psychic) d8
• Agility (Athletic) d8
• Invisibility (Self-Control) d6

Green Abilities:

• Principle of the Tactician (A): Overcome when you can flash back to how you prepared for exactly this situation. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Stealth (A): Overcome to infiltrate somewhere or avoid detection and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Sabotage (A): Attack using Stealth. Remove one physical bonus or penalty, Hinder using your Min die, or move to a new location in the environment.
• Subtle Redirection ®: When you would be dealt damage, roll d4 in Green, d6 in Yellow, or d8 in red. Reduce the damage that you take by the result of the roll, then Attack another target with that roll.

Yellow Abilities:

• Coaching (A): Attack using Suggestion. Boost all nearby heroes taking Attack or Overcome actions with your Min die.
• Eye of Chaos (A): Boost or Hinder using Intuition, and apply that mod to multiple nearby targets.
• Control the Battlefield (A): Attack or Overcome using Stealth. Boost yourself using your Min die.

Red Abilities:

• The Hand-Off (A): Boost another hero using Intuition. If they have already acted this turn, use your Max die, and they lose Health equal to your Min die. They act next in the turn order.
• All According To Plan (I): At the start of your turn, you may turn any penalty into a bonus.
• The Dominoes Fall (I): When you use an Ability action, you may also perform a basic action with your Mid die on the same roll.

Out Ability: Defend an Ally by rolling your single Intuition die.

Aftermath

Boy, Cosmos is not a very good Power Source. It gives you some versatility at Yellow, but at a heck of an opportunity cost, and the boost one / reduce one is not that great most of the time.

Still, I think that Synergist turned into someone pretty neat, and that dangling Wager Master thread could lead to appropriately chaotic nonsense for the person who wants to control everything.

[TakeWalker]

Just want to poke in and say I’ve really been enjoying this thread, and that latest backstory is sheer brilliance. Excellent Wager Master writing!

[FrivYeti]

Thank you! It is one of my favorite little bits, although there are a few more coming up that I quite liked. And speaking of folks I quite liked:

Step 1: Background

Here we are coming up on our second quintet of heroes. We start with the classic two d10s, and roll a 5 and a 1. So… Upper Class, Unremarkable (nope!) and Law Enforcement. Let’s go ahead with Upper Class, it’s less likely to pop up a billion times in the next four draws.

We’re actually starting to run low on available Qualities already, but I will take Persuasion d10 and Investigation d8. Harrison Kent was never content to sit around and spend the family fortune; he wanted to know how and why things were happening, and spent his time learning how things actually worked with the goal of inheriting the family business.

Upper Class gives us a Responsibility Principle, and I just said that the family business was important, so Principle of Business it is!

Step 2: Power Source

Upper Class gives the beefy d10, d8, d8 for Power Source selection, so let’s roll! 9, 8, and 8 pushes us high, with access to… Powered Suit (nope), Radiation, Cosmos (noope), and Extradimensional. We thought our last friend was weird, let’s get bizarre.

Harrison’s company was working on some extremely cutting-edge stuff. In particular, they were developing a mechanism for instantaneous travel across the globe. Harrison was visiting due to some irregularities in the safety reports, and in the ensuing confrontation the device switched on, sending him cascading across several horrible sub-planes before reconstituting him in the lab.

Needless to say, the scientist responsible for lab safety was fired.

Harrison is definitely picking up Teleportation d10 to represent his experience, as well as Infernal d8 and Postcognition d8. He can feel the residue of experience around him, and channel terrible energies.

For Abilities, his Flicker Strike lets him teleport around striking a lot of people, but that comes with pain. He can also draw the pain from the people he defeats into himself, growing stronger. Finally, his Otherworldly Attunement lets him call on infernal energies to boost himself, at the cost of becoming more infernal.

Step 3: Archetype

Extradimensional gives us a d12 and a d6 to roll. Rolling gives me a 9 and a 1, for Speedster, Elemental Manipulator, and Robot/Cyborg. We’ve got the teleportation for speedster, but I’m going to lean into this Infernal situation and be a Manipulator. This allows me to boost Infernal to d12!

Now I’ve got a d8 and a d6 to play with. I’m going to go with Science d8 and Magical Lore d6, to give a strong informational backing.

Interestingly, all of my Abilities need to use Infernal. This is… well, I made this bed, I’m going to lie in it, but I feel like it may be a bit of a flaw in the system. Anyway, External Combustion lets Harrison hit a couple of people at the cost of hurting himself, and Focused Apparatus is a Hinder/Attack combo that affects multiple people if Harrison drops into the Red. Once he’s in Yellow, Energy Alignment lets Harrison recover whenever he takes Infernal damage, which means he’s probably not going to stay Yellow from health for long.

Elemental Manipulator gives an Esoteric Principle. Thanks to his wild trip, Harrison is getting the Principle of Exorcism; he can sense the manifestation of other realms, and fight back against them.

Step 4: Personality

Rolling two d10s for Personality nets 6 and 6, so my choices are… Distant and Nurturing. Let’s go with Distant. Harrison is a bit of a cold fish, probably thanks to all that trauma.

For a roleplaying quality, Harrison kind of needs something to use with his primary abilities, so I’m going to go with “Extradimensional Conduit”. It lets him fight with his extradimensional powers and sense and manipulate rips in the fabric of reality.

Step 5: Red Abilities

We’ve gone all-in on a couple of powers, here, so let’s double down and take one each for Infernal and Teleportation. When things are bad, Harrison can crack open the realms he travelled through and summon a horde of demonic spirits. Untouchable Movement is a massive boost that also gets him to safety.

Step 6: Retcon

Harrison is going to be bouncing around Zones a lot, so I’m just going to pump up his Red die by a step and call it a day.

Step 7: Health

We’ve got our lowest Health yet for Harrison, with (8 + Red 8 + Investigation 8 + 4) 28 Health. On the other hand, he can heal like nobody’s business, so probably not an issue.

Step 8: Alias

Harrison makes a big deal out of wanting to make sure that illicit science doesn’t hurt anyone the way that he was hurt, so he’s going to call himself The Regulator. He’s pretty open about his identity, and balances his time superheroing and working on his business.

Character Sheet

The Regulator

Alias: Harrison Kent

Background: Upper Class, Power Source: Extradimensional, Archetype: Elemental Manipulator, Personality: Distant

Principles: Business (Responsibility), Exorcism (Esoteric)

• Minor Twists: You’re always looking at the bigger picture. How does this cause friction with the team? What is literally or figuratively coming back to haunt you?
• Major Twists: Your business interests are in danger. Where are your true priorities? What has been allowed to enter this world?

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d8

Health: 28 (Green 28-22, Yellow 21-11, Red 10-1)

Qualities:

• Persuasion (Social) d10
• Investigation (Mental) d8
• Science (Info) d8
• Extradimensional Conduit (RP) d8
• Magical Lore (Info) d6

Powers:

• Infernal (Element) d12
• Teleportation (Mobility) d10
• Postcognition (Psychic) d8

Green Abilities:

• Principle of Business (A): Overcome in a situation related to the field of your business or knowing locals, and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Exorcism (A): Overcome entities or elements from another dimension and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Otherworldly Attunement (A): Boost yourself with Infernal. That bonus is persistent and exclusive. All damage dealt using that bonus is Infernal.
• Dark Blaze (A): Attack up to two targets with Infernal. Also take damage equal to your Mid die.
• Shatter Reason (A): Hinder with Infernal. Also Attack with your Min die. If you are in the Red Zone, you may apply the penalty to any number of nearby targets.

Yellow Abilities:

• Flicker Strike (A): Attack any number of enemies using Teleportation. Then, take irreducible damage equal to the number of targets hit.
• Absorb Pain ®: When you defeat a minion, roll that Minion’s die and Boost yourself using that roll.
• Infernal Alignment (A): If you would take Infernal damage, reduce that damage to 0 and Recover that amount instead.

Red Abilities:

• The Abyss Beckons (A): Use Infernal to create a number of d6 minions equal to your Mid die. Choose the basic action they perform. They act at the start of your turn.
• Untouchable Movement (A): Boost yourself using Teleport. Use your Max + Min die. Then you may end up anywhere else in the scene, ignoring any dangers between your starting and ending location.

Out Ability: Boost an Ally by rolling your Red Status die.

Aftermath

Harrison is definitely going to be the edgy boy on whatever team he ends up on, but with a strong feeling of responsibility and focus to help temper those impulses. He’s also one heck of a one-trick pony, since I got forced into using Infernal for almost all of his Green and Yellow Abilities, and then dialed it up into the stratosphere, while also giving him a persistent Boost that turns everything he does Infernal regardless.

When he comes up against enemies who are immune to his main shtick, Harrison isn’t totally useless; he’ll probably be good for Overcomes against most enemies like that, and in Yellow he can use his Teleportation to fight, but he’s not much of a team player and will probably need to fall back more on basic actions.

The Regulator also comes with a whole slate of possible supervillains. The scientist who was originally running dangerous experiments in his company, corporate rivals, and extradimensional threats give a wide range of foes that he’s likely to come up against, most of which can be easily integrated into other players’ stories. Overall, I like how this fellow turned out.

[FrivYeti]

Step 1: Background

For Hero #7, we roll a 7 and a 5, giving us Academic, Unremarkable, and Criminal. Two of those three are already taken, so we are creating an Academic. Anyone care to place bets on how far into this process I get before I have to do the “sum of the dice plus 1” trick?

We start with a d12 and a d8 for our dice. I’m going to go for the Ultimate Historian. History d12, and Self-Discipline d8 give us a solid start for our mysterious professor. This is someone who researches the past, in great detail.

Academic gives an Expertise Principle. If I’m going to be an ultra-historian, might as well double down and take the Principle of History. Eleanor (that’s her name now) lives in the past, and thinks it was pretty swell. But like, the really far past. She’s pretty sure that everything wrong in the world can be blamed on the Roman Empire.

Step 2: Power Source

Academic is one of the garbage Backgrounds for power source selection, giving only a d10 and a d8. Rolling them gives us 2 and 7, unlocking Training, Relic (no, unfortunately) and Radiation. I… kind of want Training. Of course, I need at least one new Power, and… hm.

Okay, here we go. In her historical studies, Eleanor learned how to construct an ancient form of mechanical servitor, long lost to the world. She now has Robotics (d10) and Deduction (d8) to represent her mind being finely-honed by these complex devices. The downside to these robots is that it takes genius intellect and years, maybe decades of study to build them; they can’t really be industrialized. But she is determined to prove their effectiveness.

Since we only have two powers, our Yellow Abilities need to use them both. A Robot-based Boost, and a Deduction-based attack that feeds on boosts, seems fun. And Training will give us even more dice in the next step as compensation for not getting as many Abilities right now.

Step 3: Archetype

Training is a strong Archetype! We get to roll d10, d8, d8 for selection, and then will have an extra d8 off the actual list. Results of 2, 7, and 1 give us Speedster, Shadow (no), Physical Powerhouse (no!), Armored, Flyer, and Elemental Manipulator (no!!) So three actual choices. Armored could work, but then I realized that Flyer allows for signature vehicles and I want this person in an ornithopter as often as possible.

So, Signature Vehicle d10. Ranged Combat d8 covers physical needs, and Technology d8 gives her a bit of real tech alongside her historical tech. For her training bonus, I’m going to hand her Magical Lore d8; you don’t learn that much history of the Sentinels universe without picking up a few things.

Abilities are a bit tricky, but let’s go for mass robot Hindering and a reaction to defend Eleanor using her Ornithopter. At Yellow, she adds an Attack that also gives her Defense to be harder to kill, also using her ornithopter.

Flyer gives you an Ideals Principle, and Eleanor is taking the Principle of Justice. There’s a reason that her first thought when gaining the ability to build ancient robots was “save lives!” There is also a reason that her students like her a lot more than the dean of the university does.

Step 4: Personality

For Personality, we roll 9 and 2, giving us Natural Leader, Inquisitive, and Stoic. I’m going to go with Stoic. I don’t think Eleanor is a leader by nature, and Inquisitive is taken.

For her roleplaying personality, Eleanor is going to take Mentor d8. She doesn’t just know things, she likes to teach and guide people. It is important to her, and she’s pretty good at it.

Step 5: Red Abilities

Sticking with our themes, we’re definitely going to go ahead and build on Ornithopter and Robotics. I sort of love the idea of just dropping an ornithopter on someone, so Sacrificial Ram will be our first pick. For Tech… no, they’re all attacks, let’s look at Info. We’re just going to use Specialized Info to make it so that Eleanor is extremely good at using her historical knowledge in the pinch.

Step 6: Retcon

This is an interesting one. I don’t think I want to boost Eleanor’s Red die, because she doesn’t want to be in Red as a rule and will be defending a lot in Yellow. I don’t think I want a third Red for the same reason. Instead, I’m going to give her Remote Viewing d6. It’s a nice power for Overcomes and opening options, and can reflect more robots under her control surveilling and exploring for her.

Step 7: Health

Eleanor is back at (8 + Red 10 + Self-Discipline 8 + 4) 30 Health, right in the middle of our common range.

Step 8: Alias

Eleanor wants an alias that feels a bit old-fashioned, but also reflects her ancient robots and ornithopter. I’m going to call her The Artificer.

Character Sheet

The Artificer

Alias: Eleanor Dulac

Background: Academic, Power Source: Training, Archetype: Flyer, Personality: Stoic

Principles: History (Expertise), Justice (Ideals)

• Minor Twists: How did your old-timeyness cause an issue? How are you taking extra time to show yourself as a shining example of justice?
• Major Twists: What ancient force is now making itself known in the present? How do you unnerve your allies in the single-minded pursuit of justice?

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10

Health: 30 (Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1)

Qualities:

• History (Info) d12
• Self-Discipline (Mental) d8
• Technology (Info) d8
• Magical Lore (Info) d8
• Ranged Combat (Physical) d8
• Mentor (Roleplaying) d8

Powers:

• Ornithopter (Hallmark) d10
• Robotics (Technological) d10
• Deduction (Intellectual) d8
• Remote Viewing (Psychic) d6

Green Abilities:

• Principle of History (A): Overcome a situation involving archaeology, history, or puzzle-solving and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Justice (A): Overcome to stop an act of injustice in progress and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Tiny Robots (A): Hinder multiple targets using Robotics. Use your Min die for each of them.
• Moving Target ®: When you are attacked while flying, you may Defend yourself by rolling your single Ornithopter die.

Yellow Abilities:

• Battle Robots (A): Boost yourself with Robotics. That boost is persistent and exclusive. Then, attack with your Min die. You may use the Boost you just created on the Attack.
• Coordinated Assault (A): Attack using Deduction. Use your Mid die to Attack one extra target for each bonus you have. Apply a different bonus to each attack.
• Swoop and Strike (A): Attack using Ornithopter. Defend against all attacks against you using your Min die until your next turn.

Red Abilities:

• Sacrificial Drop (A): Attack up to three nearby targets using Ornithopter. Use your Max + Mid dice against each of them. You cannot use Ornithopter for the rest of the scene, and until it is recovered or repaired.
• The Weight of History (A): Overcome using History. Use your Max + Min dice.

Out Ability: Defend an Ally by using your single Robotics die.

Aftermath

I was not very excited about Academic/Training until I ran face-first into the ability to create robots, and from there everything just developed beautifully. The Artificer is kind of amazing, and I love the idea of her. Just a serious, old-fashioned lady and her army of mechanical robots fashioned from the secrets of ancient civilizations, out to stand against injustice in all its forms.

[Powerhound_2000]

These are great so far.

[FrivYeti]

Thanks! Hope that this stays true with:

Step 1: Background

Here we go again! Two d10s nets results of 9 and 10, which gives us access to Performer, Military, and Otherworldly. Who knows when I’m going to get access to Otherworldly again, so I’m taking it now.

Alertness d10 and Otherworldly Mythos d8 indicates someone who has been fully raised in a supernatural realm. Looking over Esoteric Principles gives me access to all sorts of weirdness. I’m going to take the Principle of the Sea, and say that our lady is a selkie! She lives in an oceanic fae realm, but has often come to Earth to explore. I’m going to make a note that if I can get shape-shifting, take shape-shifting. Her name is Siobhan.

Step 2: Power Source

Otherworldly gives us the slightly rough d10 and two d6s, because why would actual supernatural people have strong super-powers I guess? Anyway, ignoring my sarcasm I got 2, 4, and 6, which unlocks Training (no), Experimentation, Nature, Powered Suit (no), and Tech Upgrades (no). The obvious choice is Nature, but… I suddenly like the idea of a selkie who was captured and experimented on, before managing to escape. Her seal-skin is slightly damaged, but she can still change. Her primary power is Cold d10, empowered by magic-technical experiments, and she retains Shapeshifting d6 and Swimming d6.

For Powers, she’s going to grab a high-power Frost boost at Yellow, and also the ability to use her shape-shifting to distract and redirect damage (which ironically is more powerful with a weak power, so works really well here.) Even in Green, she just shakes off trouble, removing a penalty at the start of each turn.

Step 3: Archetype

We’re at three d8s for Archetype, which is hard combined with Otherworldly but could be worse. Results of 2, 5, and 6 access Shadow (no), Blaster, Close Quarters Combatant (noo), Armored, Flyer (nooo) and Sorcerer. With three actual choices, I’m actually going to take Armored. Siobhan’s cold-enhanced powers and shape-shifting combine to make her nigh-immortal and indestructible, far more so than her kin.

For dice, Siobhan is going to take Vitality d8, Close Combat d8, and Insight d8, which just meets my “one thing needs to be new” rule. She’s tough, she fights up close with claws and ice, and she’s got a supernaturally good eye for people’s hearts.

Siobhan gets Armored for free, plus three Green Abilities and no Yellow ones. She’s going to use Cold to power an Attack that defends allies, and an attack that hits multiple people. She also uses Shapeshifting for an Attack that heals herself; it’s not her best pool, but it’s neat.

Armored also gives an Expertise principle. Siobhan will pick the Principle of the Mentor. She is quite a bit older than most other heroes, and has lived her life helping and guiding, so there’s no reason to stop just because some people messed with her.

Step 4: Personality

For our two d10s, we get 6 and 7, opening up Distant (no), Stalwart (no), and Nurturing. So we have to take Nurturing, which fits very well thematically but actually sucks for Siobhan because of my self-inflicted rules. Her entire build is based around damage resistance and healing, slowing down how often she changes Zones, and now she’s bad at things until she reaches Red. Once she’s there, though, she will be unstoppable, so that’s something.

For her roleplaying die, she’s going to take Selkie d8, which just covers her supernatural nature, is probably what she uses for shape-shifting, and handles her knowledge of the coast and the sea.

Step 5: Red Abilities

Speaking of being unstoppable, let’s see what Red Abilities Siobhan has access to. A nice, straightforward Powerful Strike lets her use her Cold to blast harder, but our big winner is going to be Resurrection. Once per session, Siobhan just gets back up again.

Step 6: Retcon

Since Siobhan is great in the Red, let’s let her turn into a monstrous chimera that can do too many things at once. This uses her Shapeshifting die, unfortunately, but it also uses her Red so I think she’ll be fine.

Step 7: Health

Siobhan is officially our toughest hero yet, clocking in at (8 + Red 12 + Alertness 10 + 4) 34 Health!

Step 8: Alias

Siobhan has lost a lot, but not her sense of humour. She goes by the alias “Deep Freeze.”

Character Sheet

Deep Freeze

Alias: Siobhan (no last name)

Background: Otherworldly, Power Source: Experimentation, Archetype: Armoured, Personality: Nurturing

Principles: The Sea [Esoteric], Mentor [Expertise]

• Roleplaying: You can speak to aquatic creatures and breathe underwater. It is important to guide less-weathered heroes. Everyone grants you some measure of respect for your wisdom.
• Minor Twists: What challenge does the surface world pose? Which whippersnapper just showed you up?
• Major Twists: What disaster is incoming as the sea calls? What has just proven that you’re too behind the times?

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d6, Red d12

Health: 34 (Green 34-26, Yellow 25-13, Red 12-1)

Qualities:

• Alertness (Mental) d10
• Otherworldly Mythos (Info) d8
• Close Combat (Physical) d8
• Insight (Social) d8
• Selkie (RP) d8

Powers:

• Cold (Energy) d10
• Vitality (Athletic) d8
• Shapeshifting (Self-Control) d6
• Swimming (Mobility) d6

Green Abilities:

• Principle of the Sea (A): Overcome a situation while underwater and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of the Mentor (A): Overcome a challenge that someone else younger already tried and failed. Use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Frost Wall (A): Attack with Cold. Defend another target with your Min die.
• Chill Blast (A): Attack with Cold. Attack another target with your Min die.
• Shifting Strike (A): Attack with Shapeshifting. Recover using your Min die.
• Swim Free (I): At the start of your turn, remove a penalty on yourself.
• Armored (I): Reduce physical and energy damage by 1 in Green, 2 in Yellow, or 3 in Red.

Yellow Abilities:

• Cold Snap (A): Boost yourself using Cold. Use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Twisting Form ®: When a nearby hero in the Yellow or Red zone would take damage, Defend against that damage by rolling your single Shapeshifting die, then redirect any remaining damage to a nearby minion of your choice.

Red Abilities:

• Icy Blast (A): Attack with Cold. Use your Max + Mid dice.
• Chimeric Eruption (A): Choose three basic actions. Use Shapeshifting in your Pool and take one action with your Max die, one with your Mid die, and one with your Min die.
• Shed Skin (I): Once per issue, if you would reach 0 Health, roll Alertness + Shapeshifting + Red Die. Your Health becomes that number.

Out Ability: Boost an Ally by rolling your Alertness die.

Aftermath

Boy, oh boy, Deep Freeze is pretty much unstoppable.

I mean, she’s got 34 Health for a start. She removes penalties on herself every turn so it’s hard to stop her with Hinders. She has damage reduction. One of her Green Abilities lets her recover health, and if she somehow hits 0 she’ll heal an average of 15. She’s relying a lot on a d6, more than I would have liked, but she’s got a very potent Boost in Yellow to help with that. Mechanically, she is a beast.

I also like the roleplaying idea of being a sort-of fae who was hurt by humanity, but refuses to become hateful from the experience. She’s looking for the good in the world, and she will shut you down if you stand against that.

[Godai]

So what I’m hearing is that Covenant and Deep Freeze are on the same team as BFFs, shrugging at each other as their teammates Archie and the Artificer have a Will They/Won’t They struggle for the Leader slot.
Edit: Forgot to mention their team books tag line would involve “History’s Mysteries!”

[FrivYeti]

That is definitely a possibility! I hadn’t settled on any teams for certain at this point, but I will say two things - I was strongly leaning towards Archie and the Artificer teaming up, and I was pretty sure that the final teams would include one with both the Regulator and Deep Freeze on it - he investigates science being misused to experiment on other realms, and she’s the result of misused science experimenting on someone from other realms.

But in other news…

Step 1: Background

Let’s hop to it! We start off by rolling two d10s, as per usual, netting a 6 and a 2. Back to the low numbers… this gets us Blank Slate (no), Law Enforcement, and Tragic.

Let’s go ahead and take Law Enforcement. We’re really running out of low-numbered Backgrounds. Leslie always wanted to be a police officer, but has found themselves stymied by corruption in the ranks and the Thin Blue Line. They’re a patrol cop, who bucks the system but still believes that it can be repaired.

Leslie is our first person who can’t take an unused Quality. Instead, they start with Investigation d10 and Close Combat d8.

Leslie also gets a Responsibility Principle, and they’re going to take the Principle of the Mask. It’s kind of critical that their vigilante activities not get back to the corrupt cops at the precinct.

Step 2: Power Source

Law Enforcement grants d10, d8, d6 for Power Source, and rolling that results in… 1, 1, and 1.

Huh.

So our Power Source choices are Accident or Training, and we’ve already taken Training. Accident it is!

Leslie was on patrol when they stumbled across an arms deal involving alien biotech. They tried to surveil it, but their partner charged in and when they went after him, everything went bad and Leslie got infected by alien spores that, in a burst of luck, only almost killed them. When they recovered, they discovered that the spores have altered their DNA; they can control plants, stretch and twist their limbs like vines, and give off spores that control animals. It’s kind of creepy, but they’re doing their best.

For Yellow Abilities, Leslie can use their plants to provide huge bonuses or penalties to groups, or use their Elasticity to fight directly. Their Greens are… not great, but they can Boost whenever they change personal Zones, so that’s fun. Maybe I can get a healing Ability in there and ping-pong around.

Step 3: Archetype

Accident is another d12 / d6 combo (which means I’ve hit all three of them in my first nine characters, weird) and rolling that gets me… 2 and 6. Seriously? That nets me Shadow, Close Quarters Combatant, and Flyer, all of which are gone, which means that we’re cascading straight down to Robot/Cyborg. The spores that infected Leslie are biotech, and have altered them inherently.

As a cyborg, Leslie gets a d12 to Size-Shifting and a d6 Criminal Underworld Info, as well as an extra d10 Technological Power. None of them quite work, so I’m just going to say that she has access to all sorts of police Gadgets.

Size-Changing gives Leslie a Green Boost that is persistent, which will be a nice way to start things off, and will stack well with their ability to attack multiple people with Plant Control based on how many Boosts they have. Once they hit Yellow, they get the ability to make single, powerful Size-Changing attacks that get stronger if they have more bonuses available. So create bonuses, don’t always use them, and unload with the big guns.

This Archetype also gives an Expertise choice, and I’m taking Whispers. The spores talk to Leslie, trying to offer advice and alien knowledge. And as anyone who has ever seen a TV show or comic about alien battlegear grafted to humans knows, this is probably fine.

Step 4: Personality

Rolling two d10s for Personality, Leslie’s choices are 9 and 9, because apparently they are getting all the bad luck. This opens Inquisitive and Apathetic, which are both taken, so Leslie is Jaded. They used to be very hopeful and upbeat, but seeing police life up close has made them a lot more cynical.

We’re also going to take the Beat Cop roleplaying distinction, which covers the day-to-day knowledge that Leslie is badly lacking. This is actually pretty good for Leslie, because it means she has a ludicrous die pool for that first Boost, which will carry through a lot of other tricks.

Step 5: Red Abilities

Goal #1 for Red – a way to heal out of Red. Major Regeneration more than qualifies. Leslie Hinders themselves with Size-Changing, then heals a huge amount at once. Goal #2 – something to do with plants in case the situation is bad enough that we don’t want to waste time. A Field of Hazards shuts down the opposition, with the possibility of dealing damage to a large group too.

Step 6: Retcon

I dislike d6 Red dice, and this seems like a good time to boost one up to a d8, since we are very set for Red Abilities and I don’t think we need new powers.

Step 7: Health

Back in the middle, with (8 + Red 8 + Investigation 10 + 4) for 30 Health.

Step 8: Alias

We explicitly do not want an alias that evokes law enforcement concepts, so I’m going to go ahead and call them Fernwick. Leslie took the name to represent their plant powers, plus ‘wick’ for green and ready to grow, but everyone thinks it’s a fire thing and they keep having to explain. But they’re stubborn, so they’re not changing it.

Character Sheet

Fernwick

Alias: Leslie Flaherty

Background: Law Enforcement, Power Source: Accident, Archetype: Robot/Cyborg, Personality: Jaded

Principles: Mask (Responsibility), Whispers (Expertise)

• Roleplaying: You have a career that allows you to slip between identities when necessary. You hear a voice in your head that no one else hears. That voice tells you things, which might be true or false, but the voice certainly seems to know a lot.
• Minor Twists: What clue about your real life did you leave behind? How did the voice distract you?
• Major Twists: Who from your civilian life is now in imminent danger? What is the voice demanding of you?

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d8

Health: 30 (Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1)

Qualities:

• Investigation (Mental) d10
• Close Combat (Physical) d8
• Beat Cop (RP) d8
• Criminal Underworld Info d6

Powers:

• Size-Changing (Self-Control) d12
• Plants (Material) d10
• Gadgets (Technological) d10
• Elasticity (Self-Control) d8
• Animal Control (Psychic) d6

Green Abilities:

• Principle of the Mask (A): Overcome using knowledge from your civilian life and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Whispers (A): Overcome against a challenge that involves information that you have no real way of knowing and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Personal Growth (A): Boost yourself with Size-Changing. Use your Max die. This bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Whiplash (A): Attack using Plants. Attack an extra target with your Mid die for each bonus you have. Use a different bonus on each attack.
• Green Thumb ®: When you change personal zones, you may boost by rolling your Plants die.

Yellow Abilities:

• Harsh Terrain (A): Boost or Hinder any number of nearby targets using Plants. Use your Max die.
• Grapple (A): Attack using Elasticity. Hinder that target with your Min die.
• Colossal Smash (A): Attack using Size-Changing. Add a bonus equal to the number of bonuses you currently have.

Red Abilities:

• Back to Basics (A): Hinder yourself with Size-Changing. Use your Min die. Recover using your Max and Mid dice.
• Spore Field (A): Hinder any number of targets with Plants. Use your Max + Min dice. If you roll doubles, also Attack each target using your Mid die.

Out Ability: Remove a bonus or penalty of your choice.

Aftermath: Well, we certainly ran full-tilt into my personal restrictions this time. Two cascades much earlier than I’d expected. I think I am going to add a small revision to the previous rules, so that I can keep having two options up to the end. This rule is as follows:

If I have only one option, I can take it, or I can take the next available option after whichever one is the sum of the two dice. If I have zero options, I can take the first available option either before or after the sum of the two dice. This lets me always have two choices, without opening things up too far.

But the prior system pretty much worked out here. Sort of a plant-themed Blue Beetle, with a few particularly weird abilities tied into it all. Mechanically, they are a beast. Build up bonuses in Green, then shift to Yellow and use those bonuses for massive hits or area hits, and then when you drop to Red get more bonuses before defending your way back to Yellow for more massive hits.

Leslie doesn’t have a lot of Quality versatility; most of their high dice are over in Powers. But they can get by, and they have what they need to be good at their core competencies.

[fjur]

Heh, let’s hope Fernwick and Cameron don’t end up on the same team.

[Sea-Envy]

I was seeing Archie, Regulator, and Artificer together.
Covenant and Deep freeze to make it 5 works.

[fjur]

Is it too obvious saying that Fernwick and Zam might be on the same team?

[Sea-Envy]

human infected by alien and alien cursed by cosmic works I think
The decisive hero dragging the jaded hero into action works well.

Add in the stalwart Synergist for the personality dynamics of forward momentum, stability, and indifference combined with ex-criminal and cop interactions

[TakeWalker]

One of the more interesting things about this thread and your build dynamics is how you start writing the character’s story immediately. I usually don’t get that far until at least power source if not archetype.

Or is this a result of writing them up after the fact?

[FrivYeti]

Nope, I started right away. When I started this project, I ran into choice paralysis almost instantly when trying to decide what qualities to take, so I started trying to create character outlines right off the bat based on the qualities that I picked.

I’m not married to whatever idea I come up with in the first step; there are a few characters coming up where I made either slight or substantial revisions to a person’s story based on what I rolled up for their Power Source. But in general I found it gave me a bit of guidance for the “pick a Power Source” step that would have overwhelmed me otherwise.

[FrivYeti]

Step 1: Background

Our two dice for Background this time around give me 2 and 7. That means Blank Slate, Academic, and Performer. Two of those are taken, which means my choices are Performer or Military, but I’ll stick with Performer. I am required to take Finesse, since I’m almost out of Qualities, so what kind of performer…

Mike Wu is a professional stage magician! He uses his Finesse (d10) for his tricks, and his Banter (d8) to hold the rapt attention of his audience. He has a decent following and a few tricks of his own. For his Principle, the Principle of the Detective is why he got into stage magic; he loves seeing how things fit together.

Step 2: Power Source

Performer gives d10, d8, and d6 for Power Source, and my roll gives me 5, 5, and 1. That’s Accident, Mystical, Nature, and Tech Upgrades. Is it weird that I don’t want the magician to be Mystical? That feels too stereotypical. Instead, I’m going to do something ridiculous and give him Nature.

Mike was looking for a new white rabbit for his act, and found a sickly and exhausted rabbit in a mysterious pet shop. He took her home, and nursed her back to health, at which point she revealed that she was a magical rabbit on a quest to find a champion for the world; she gifted him with powers because of his good heart. This power has given Mike the ability to command the weather, speak with animals, and withstand terrible blows. It’s weird, and he’s not sure what to do with it, but apparently he’s a defender of the Earth now? Plus, being able to talk to the rabbits and doves really helps with his act, as does his ability to make thunderclaps happen for dramatic effect and stir a breeze to ruffle his cape.

For Abilities, Call to the Wild is a pretty reasonable way of grabbing animal minions, and Predator’s Eye creates weather that attacks enemies, but also empowers them. In Green, he uses his weather control to Hinder large groups.

Step 3: Archetype

We have a d10 and two d8s for selecting Archetypes, and rolling them gives me access to 7, 7, and 2. This means Shadow, Armored, Elemental Manipulator, and Minion-Maker, which means that I’ve actually got Minion-Maker and… Wild Card. Yes, let’s do that. Wild Card it is.

Awareness d10 gives our magician a good view of the world, and Acrobatics and Insight give him a solid range of Qualities. For Green Abilities, Unknown Results is very funny but also very bad, so I’m going to take Gimmick and Multitask. At Green, Mike uses his Awareness of the situation to Boost or Hinder, and maybe exploit an opportunity, and can use his Finesse to do a couple of things at once.

Yellow is much harder. I definitely want a Reaction. Break the 4th seems like the most powerful thing ever, but I love the idea of waiting to apply bonuses until after you roll and see how you did… no, I need to give him Break the 4th, it’s just too much better than the other Yellow options.

Wild Card also hands us our second-ever Ideals Principle. (For those keeping track, we’re at seven Expertise, five Responsibility, four Esoteric, two Identity, and now two Ideals.) I’m going to give Mike the Principle of Liberty. He believes in freedom and choice, and hates to be restrained.

Step 4: Personality

Two d10s gives me double 6s, which opens up Distant and Nurturing. Since those are both gone, we get Fast-Talking and Analytical instead. Those both work, but I’m going to take Analytical. Mike can do the fast-talking thing, but his impulse is to figure out what’s going on and take advantage of the situation. This makes him best in Green.

For our roleplaying quality, I’m giving Mike Coco the Rabbit. Coco is a sentient rabbit who may or may not be a nature spirit, and is Mike’s animal companion.

Step 5: Red Abilities

In Red, Mike is starting to get worse at doing things, so I want a pair of Abilities to offset that. Summon Allies lets him create a whole host of animal friends, through psychic powers this time, and a Finishing Blow lets him turn the penalties he creates into a single, powerful hit (which with a horde of Hindering doves can be really strong.)

Step 6: Retcon

I don’t really need a new Power or Quality, and I am keenly aware that I keep just boosting everyone with a d6 Red die to d8, so I’m going to deliberately duck the trend and give Mike a new Red Ability instead. Impossible Knowledge lets him just turn penalties into bonuses, which will do well.

Step 7: Health

Oh, hey. (8 + Vitality 6 + Red 6 + 4) gives us a mere 24 Health, by far the lowest we’ve seen to date. We now officially have an example of the weird semi-failure state – with Physical Qualities at d10 and Intellectual Powers at d10, Mike’s stuck with a d6, and since he’s not great in Red he ends up in Red faster, which is sort of an interesting effect.

Step 8: Alias

I really want to call this guy Magic Mike, but I’m not going to. Instead, he is Ilamar the Inscrutable, Master of Mystery! Ilamar doesn’t actually mean anything, he just liked the sound.

Character Sheet

Ilamar the Inscrutable

Alias: Mike Wu

Background: Performer, Power Source: Nature, Archetype: Wild Card, Personality: Analytical

Principles: The Detective, Liberty

• Roleplaying: You can always tell when an important piece of information is being left out or
• obscured, though you might not know exactly what it is. You believe strongly in liberty and side with the oppressed. You can never truly be mentally restrained.
• Minor Twists: What important clue did you miss? How do you become temporarily trapped?
• Major Twists: What major information was revealed that you wish had stayed hidden? How have you become a prisoner yourself?

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d6

Health: 24 (Green 24-19, Yellow 18-10, Red 9-1)

Qualities:

• Finesse (Physical) d10
• Acrobatics (Physical) d8
• Banter (Social) d8
• Insight (Social) d8
• Coco The Rabbit (RP) d8

Powers:

• Weather (Element) d10
• Awareness (Intellectual) d10
• Animal Control (Psychic) d8
• Vitality (Athletic) d6

Green Abilities:

• Principle of the Detective (A): Overcome to learn hidden information and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Liberty (A): Overcome in a situation in which you are restricted or bound and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Blasting Winds (A): Hinder using Weather. Use your Max die. You may split that penalty across multiple nearby targets.
• Quicker than the Eye (A): Take two basic actions using Finesse. Use your Min die for each.
• Set The Stage (A): Boost or Hinder using Awareness. Use your Max die. If you roll doubles, you may also Attack with your Mid die.

Yellow Abilities:

• Hat Trick (A): Gain a d8 animal minion. It acts on your turn, and goes away at the end of the scene. You may only have one such minion at a time.
• The Storm’s Eye (A): Attack an enemy with Weather. Use your Max + Min die. Then gain a Boost using your Mid die. The target of the Attack gains a Boost of the same size.
• Callbacks ®: Uncheck one of your Collections.

Red Abilities:

• Summon Nature’s Allies (A): Use Animal Control to create a number of d6 minions equal to your Mid die. Choose the basic action they perform. They act at the start of your turn.
• Nothing Up My Sleeve (A): Attack using Finesse. Use your Max die. Remove any number of penalties from the target, and add your Min die once for each penalty removed.
• The Old Switcheroo (I): At the start of your turn, change any penalty into a bonus.

Out Ability: Remove a bonus or penalty of your choice.

Aftermath: Boy, I changed the rules just in time. Ilamar the Inscrutable had to use my new rule set twice. The next ten heroes I make are going to be real restrictive.

With that said, this quick-talking magician who has actual powers that are not in any direct way related to stage magic is pretty great, and I could see him becoming a fun part of the team. There’s also some dangling story threads about his literal magic rabbit – where is she from, what is she after, how is this going to go down, can anyone but him hear her, or do they all just think he’s talking to a rabbit (or even better, anyone could hear her, but she’s shy and doesn’t like to talk…)

Now that we’re ten heroes down, I thought that I would also quickly take stock of how they handled the options:

For Backgrounds, I only have three of the first ten unlocked, so we’re likely to see a lot more of “pick from two high-end choices” popping up going forward. This is also true to exactly the same degree for Power Source; I didn’t get a lot of high numbers rolling previously. This is even worse for Archetypes; only two of the first ten are around, and one of them is Speedster, which requires a 1 to be rolled. Oddly, Personalities aren’t nearly as tilted, with seven of the first ten still available.

My requirement to include every Quality is just about over; Medicine is the only one left, so someone’s going to get that soon (probably Medical, if they’re drawn before I get “any Info”). I have 18 Powers that I haven’t included, and thus would like to have in my last ten characters, but they’re quite spread out; half of them are Energy or Materials, with the other half spread out across five categories and every Athletic power picked (Hallmark too, but there are only two Hallmark powers so that’s different.) Materials in particular seems uncommon; I hadn’t noticed that there were only five Power Sources and four Archetypes that use them, and didn’t take them a couple times early on, so I’ll have to focus in on that when possible.

For Principles, I still have nine Esoteric options, seven Expertise, eleven Ideals, ten Identity, and seven Responsibility to choose from. I hadn’t run through all twenty of my remaining options to see how many I’d have left when I was picking. (Spoiler alert: Expertise is… a thing.)

And finally, I still have 43 Red Abilities to pick from, and will be picking 20-30. I’m going to have to keep an eye on some of the categories to try and pull from them to keep my options open overall, but I haven’t accidentally picked an entire category clean yet.

[fjur]

Huh, I just realised that, because of your rules, it is more likely that your Heroes will be built with mostly common parts or mostly rare parts, but not both, because you’ll roll all the common results first, then add and get the rarer ones later on.

Hmm, there could be some connection betwixt Covenant’s Mantle and Coco the Rabbit . . . Also, Deep Freeze is animalistic and Ilamar* can talk to animals, so, teammates, maybe.

*In “Step 8” you call him Illamar (with two L’s), but in his character sheet he’s Ilamar (with only one L).

[FrivYeti]

Whoops! One ‘l’ is the correct spelling, inasmuch as it’s the one I used everywhere else.

My little hint about team formation is as follows, because I like to drive speculation: Of the five teams, one has not had a single member appear yet! The other four teams have each had at least two members appear, and no team has had every member appear.

[FrivYeti]

Step 1: Background

As we round the second half, our 2d10 gives us the choices of Adventurer, Performer, and Medical. That technically also gives me access to Anachronistic, but I do need to give someone Medicine so let’s do it!

We get extra Qualities for our Medical professional, so let’s make them a first responder in disaster situations. We’ll give them Medical d10, Conviction d8, and Finesse d6 to cover their general skills. Medical also gives… another Expertise Principle, huh? Huh. Well, let’s take the Principle of Speed. Juanita works in a field where time is of the essence, and that leaks into his civilian life as well.

Step 2: Power Source

Medical inexplicably gives d10, d8, d8 for Power Source in addition to having the extra Quality, so let’s roll it. 6, 5, and 8 gives us Mystical, Nature, Power Suit, Supernatural, Cursed, and Alien.

An alien doctor, you say? Played by Alan Tudyk, perhaps?

Just kidding, but I do want an alien. Sorry, Juanita, you are being renamed. J’nyta is a Maerynian disaster responder now! She has seen devastation firsthand, and wants to bring peace to the world that sheltered her people when they were nearly wiped out by Grand Warlord Voss.

J’nyta is a natural weather-worker, as are many Maerynians, so Weather d10. She’s also a bit of a genius with a lot of medical Inventions (d8) that she makes significant use of, and she has tremendous personal Presence (d8) to direct people in emergencies.

For Abilities, she can use her Inventions to give people boosts, but doing so distracts and Hinders her. She can also use her Weather for a wide array of effects, which also heal people who are running low on energy. Finally, her Finesse upgrades to d8.

Step 3: Archetype

Alien only gives three d8s for Archetype, but J’nyta has enough dice that I’m not too worried about that. Rolling, we come up with 3, 4, and 8 – finally getting those higher numbers! This gives us access to Physical Powerhouse, Marksman, Armored, Flyer, Sorcerer, and Psychic. Which means Sorcerer and Transporter. We’ve got a high-speed dispatch healer, so let’s go with Transporter.

One or two of our dice needs to go to a new Power, and I’m going to go with Precognition and Flight. J’nyta can harness the winds to fly through the air as needed, and she is a rare Maerynian psychic who gets flashes of where the best place to be is when there’s trouble. Her precognitive intuition is almost subconscious; she doesn’t get proper visions so much as a strong feeling that she’s needed. Finally, we will give her Fitness; she’s good at keeping going for a while without burning out.

Transporters don’t have a lot of Ability choices. At Green, we’ll let her attack targets and then either hinder or move them, using her Weather, and a Reaction to force attackers to reroll their pools. At Yellow, she gets the ability to attack with Flight, and then Defend herself for the turn.

And… Expertise Principle? Are you kidding me? We might actually run out of these. I’m going to give her the Principle of Clockwork, so that she understands how all the pieces fit together.

Step 4: Personality

Two d10s gives me 6 and 10 – J’nyta really likes rolling high! That unlocks Distant, Alluring, and Cheerful, which means Cheerful and Naïve. I’m going to take Cheerful. Naïve doesn’t seem right for someone who has seen this much tragedy, but I like the idea that she believes in keeping a pleasant face up.

For roleplaying, I’m just going to give her the Maerynian Quality, to cover her alien background.

Step 5: Red Abilities

I’m running low on Elemental choices, so I’m going to attach my Red Abilities to Medicine and Inventions. In emergencies, J’nyta’s Medicine is very Reliable, and… oh, right, all of the Tech powers are attacks. Instead, let’s use Flight to protect groups of people from danger.

Step 6: Retcon

Screw it, Red to d8.

Step 7: Health

Back into the general range, with (8 + Conviction 8 + Red 8 + 4) 28 Health.

Step 8: Alias

Well, she’s primary a rescue worker, even when she’s fighting evil, and a lot of her background is about being safe, and wanting others to feel the same, so let’s go with Refuge.

Character Sheet

Refuge

Alias: J’nyta Gnz’l

Background: Medical, Power Source: Alien, Archetype: Transporter, Personality: Cheerful

Principles: Speed [Expertise], Clockwork [Expertise].

• Roleplaying: You’re fast, and you don’t like to waste time. You are good at understanding how pieces fit together and spotting flaws in orderly systems.
• Minor Twists: What physical drawback did you suffer from going too fast?
• Major Twists: What crucial detail did you speed by earlier that’s coming back to haunt you?

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d8

Health: 28 (Green 28-22, Yellow 21-11, Red 10-1)

Qualities:

• Medical (Info) d10
• Conviction (Mental) d8
• Finesse (Physical) d8
• Fitness (Physical) d8
• Maerynian (RP) d8

Powers:

• Weather (Element) d10
• Inventions (Tech) d8
• Presence (Intellectual) d8
• Precognition (Psychic) d8
• Flight (Mobility) d8

Green Abilities:

• Principle of Speed (A): When you successfully Overcome, you may end up anywhere in the current environment. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Clockwork (A): Overcome a complex problem with a simple tool and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Gust of Wind (A): Attack an opponent using Weather. Either Hinder them with your Min die, or move them somewhere else in the scene.
• Evasive ®: When you are hit with an Attack, you may take 1 irreducible damage to force your opponent to reroll their entire die pool.

Yellow Abilities:

• Weather-Worker (A): Boost, Hinder, Attack, or Defend with Weather. You and all nearby heroes in the Yellow or Red Zone recover with your Min die.
• Fine-Tuning (A): Boost all nearby allies using Inventions. Hinder yourself with your Min die.
• Fly-By (A): Attack with Flight. Defend against all attacks with your Min die until the start of your turn.

Red Abilities:

• Take the Hits ®: When multiple nearby heroes are Attacked, you may take all of the damage instead. If you do, roll your Flight die + Red Zone die, and Defend against the Attack with the total.
• Reliable Medic (I): When you take any action with Medicine, you may reroll your Min die before determining effects.

Out Ability: Boost an Ally by rolling your single Weather die.

Aftermath: I like her!

It’s interesting that I didn’t end up having anything to do with the Precognition and Presence dice that I gave her, but they’re still valuable for general Overcomes and social interactions. J’nyta has a pretty wide range of abilities, leaning towards Boosts and Hinders but able to fight if she needs to. She’s probably going to have a lot of stories dealing with trying to help people in danger while her teammates focus on the big bad, but also about believing in the best in people and being alternately rewarded and disappointed.

Probably also some issues with people not trusting her, as an alien living shortly after a giant cosmic attack, but hopefully that won’t go too dark.