Step 1: Background
With eight heroes left, choices are starting to slim down. Results of 5 and 7 would unlock Unremarkable, Academic, and Criminal, but with all of those gone our choices are now Retired or Anachronistic.
I’m going to start with Anachronistic. Our hero is from the distant past, and has slept through the centuries until awoken by… something. They are a skilled fighter and mage, with Close Combat d10 and History d8. Upon awakening, they’ve learned quite a bit about this new world, and non-binary genders is one of those things. It was a pretty exciting discovery.
I have a few choices for Principles, but I’m going to be honest, I like the Principle of the Undead. Sir Teylor isn’t just a time-traveler. They died in glorious battle, and have been returned to… well, not exactly life, but something disturbingly close…
Step 2: Power Source
Anachronistic provides a d10, a d8, and a d6 for Power Source. Rolling those gives me 5, 5, and 2, which opens up Training, Mystical, Relic, and Tech Upgrades, so Mystical and Artificial Being. Let’s go ahead and finally take Mystical and create a proper mage knight.
The Rune Sword d10 gives our knight the powerful magical sword that is bound to their soul, Radiant d8 gives them holy might, and Presence d6 gives them a bit of raw social animus. It’s a good spread.
Mystic doesn’t give a lot of choices for special abilities – two out of three. Mystic Redirection lets Teylor use Radiant energy to redirect attacks to themselves, and then defend against them. Sever link lets them deal with environmental challenges with their rune sword, draining energy into themselves.
Finally, I get to pick up a free d10 Information instead of getting a Green Ability. Magical Lore it is. (Mage knight!)
Step 3: Archetype
Mystical gives us d10, d8, d8 for Archetype, and 8, 2, and 4 gives us Shadow, Marksman, Closer Quarters Combatant, Armored, Elemental Manipulator, and Sorcerer. That means Sorcerer or Minion-Maker, and I’m taking Sorcerer! Mage Knight! Mage Knight! Mage Knight!
As a Sorcerer, we can give Teylor Conviction d10, plus Absorption d8 to absorb energies and Leaping d8 for cool stunts. Pretty much all the Sorcerer Greens are attacks, which is useful. Let’s go with a Radiant Hinder that sometimes attacks, and the Runesword can Attack extremely powerfully.
In Yellow, we’ll take a trick with Absorption, to draw all the bonuses and penalties off someone and then Hinder them (usually useful against an enemy, but if a player has too many big Hinders, it can be worth replacing them all with a single one.)
We get a second Esoteric Principle here, and since we’ve leaned hard into magical stuff, I’ll give our knight the Principle of Magic. Sir Teylor can sense magical energies, and knows when they’re at hand.
Step 4: Personality
Our Personality roll gives us 1 and 9, which means Teylor could be a Lone Wolf, Inquisitive, or Alluring. So Lone Wolf or Natural Leader. I’m thinking Lone Wolf right now; it’s Teylor’s nature to run off and try to resolve situations alone, in order to shoulder the burdens of combat. This may be what got them killed the first time around, and it’s possible that this Personality will shift over time.
I’m not sure what to take for a roleplaying quality; a lot of the choices I would have made are really covered already. I think I will take Courtly Training; while Teylor doesn’t have a lot of social graces, they were trained in a noble court, and can fall back on formal etiquette (even if a lot of it is out of date.)
Step 5: Red Abilities
One of our Red Abilities is going to be unlocking the full power of the Rune Sword that Teylor wields, giving them a persistent Boost while also attacking. For the second, we’re going to go for the sacrifice play, using Teylor’s full conviction to hit extremely hard, at a heavy cost.
Step 6: Retcon
This is someone who’s going to be using their Reactions to pull aggro, while building up towards massive martyrdom blows. They do not need more Red Abilities, because I don’t think they’ll be sitting there for long. Let’s go ahead and boost their Red Die.
I should track how often I use each of the Retcon choices, just for fun.
Step 7: Health
Sir Teylor is pretty buff, with (8 + Red 10 + Conviction 10 + 4) 32 Health! Top end of the range.
Step 8: Alias
I spent some time mulling over whether Sir Teylor even has a superhero alias. In the end, I think they want to fit in with the team, so they call themselves Runesword.
Character Sheet
Runesword
Alias: Sir Teylor Clarihue
Background: Anachronistic, Power Source: Mystic, Archetype: Sorcerer, Personality: Lone Wolf
Principles: Undead [Esoteric], Magic [Esoteric]
- Roleplaying: You can be hurt and damaged, but you can ignore many of the afflictions that bother the living. You are attuned to an otherworldly force, and can feel the mystical energies of
- the area.
- Minor Twists: How did your undead nature unnerve those around you? What weird curse is now following you around?
- Major Twists: How are you risking your connection to the living world? What mystical backlash has changed your life?
Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d8
Health: 32 (Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1)
Qualities:
- Close Combat (Physical) d10
- Magical Lore (Info) d10
- Conviction (Mental) d10
- History (Info) d8
- Courtly Training (RP) d8
Powers:
- The Runesword (Hallmark) d10
- Radiant (Element) d8
- Absorption (Self-Control) d8
- Leaping (Mobility) d8
- Presence (Intellectual) d6
Green Abilities:
- Principle of the Undead (A): Overcome in a situation in which your undead nature comes in handy and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
- Principle of Magic (A): Overcome a mystical force and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
- Light of the Heavens (A): Hinder using Radiant. Use your Max die. If you roll doubles, also Attack using your Mid die.
- Blade Strike (A): Attack using the Rune Sword. Use your Max die.
Yellow Abilities
- Cut Through (A): Overcome an environmental challenge using the Rune Sword. Use your Max die. Either remove any penalty in the scene or Boost using your Mid die.
- Energy Drain (A): Remove all bonuses and penalties from a target. Then, Hinder that target using your Absorption. Use your Max die.
- Knight’s Duty ®: When another nearby hero in the Yellow or Red zone would take damage, you may redirect it to yourself and then Defend against it with your single Radiant die.
Red Abilities:
- The Final Sword (A): Boost using the Rune Sword. Use your Max die. That bonus is persistant and exclusive. Attack with your Mid die.
- Sacrifice Play (A): Attack using Conviction. Use your Max + Mid + Min dice. Take a major twist.
Out Ability: Boost an ally by rolling your single Conviction die.
Aftermath: Undead holy knight with a high power magic-absorbing sword. I am all in for Sir Teylor, folks. I think they spend a lot of time trying to pretend that they definitely understand the modern world, and maybe some time wistfully dealing with the fact that the only taste buds they still have are for spicy foods.
I suspect that in the broader publishing metaverse, if these heroes were part of it, Sir Teylor was part of some comic in the 70s where they were the token ‘girl knight’ on a team of historical magic knights that ran for about 24 issues but had a large niche following, and they made a bunch of comments that later writers used to point out that they were absolutely a trans character, and then someone brought them back into the present as an undead knight and canonized it.