Thanks, everyone! Looking forward to what you think of these folks. And speaking of folks…
Step 1: Background
For our second hero, I’ve rolled 9 and 8. That gives access to Tragic, Performer, and Interstellar for our origin. Our last hero was extremely grounded, so let’s go the other way and take an Interstellar hero.
Zam Tej is an alien from many light-years away, a member of the Ruuni, a species previously unseen in Sentinel Comics. He’s come to Earth in the aftermath of Oblivaeon for… reasons. Not sure why yet. Let’s look at his dice. He starts with a d12 and a d6 for Mental and Information skills; what about…
Creativity d12, Deep Space Knowledge d6. Zam is an interstellar artist enthralled by the idea of the world that kept existence alive.
This also gives Zam an Esoteric Principle, but none of these are great. I will give him the Principle of the Future. He has seen things about what is in store for Earth, and is following up on these visions.
Step 2: Power Source
Interstellar once again gives us d10, d8, d6 for our Power Source. I rolled 7, 7, and 1, which limits our choices to Accident, Nature, Relic and Cursed. I can’t take Relic, leaving three real choices, so… let’s be Cursed!
Zam’s world was stricken by a Scion of Oblivaeon, who shattered time around him and broke his world’s history. This is how Zam saw Oblivaeon’s defeat, and he hurried to Earth to be a part of it. He’s still kind of… messed up, temporally speaking.
Unfortunately, Cursed doesn’t do much for direct time powers, but Zam can control Cosmic energies (d10), and is incredibly durable with his Vitality (d8). Thanks to his weird relationship with time, he’s also got incredible Speed (d6).
For Abilities, Zam is taking the extremely powerful Costly Shape, which lets him boost everyone around him at the cost of hindering himself. He also Absorbs cosmic energy, replenishing his lifeforce and restoring his temporal nature.
Step 3: Archetype
Cursed lets us roll a d12 and a d6 for Archetype selection, so let’s get to work! My results were 4 and 6, which gives me access to Marksman, Close Quarters Combatant, and Robot/Cyborg. Given the shattered time stuff, I’m going to go for Marksman. Zam is perfectly precise in every way.
Zam possesses a d12 Signature Weapon – the Stitch. This is the potent weapon that our still-unnamed Scion used to break his world, which Zam claimed after defeating him. It fragments time as a weapon, creating point-paradoxes and hyper-age. The weapon needs a fine mind to wield, and Zam’s is the finest.
He also takes a d6 in Ranged Combat, because sometimes you just want to shoot someone in the face with cosmic energies.
For Abilities, Zam takes Spin and Shoot; he can wield time to attack while making it harder to affect him. He can also use his Creativity to put together fun plans with his Load. For Yellow, he can only use qualities, so his Hair-Trigger Reflexes creatively trash anyone who gets close, while his Exploding Ammo uses his ability to fight at range to wield the Stitch or his Cosmic energies against the environment.
Finally, Zam gets a Responsibility Principle. He takes the Principle of the Veteran; his entire world was ravaged, and he stood firm.
Step 4: Personality
Another straight two d10s, and this one gets us 5 and 9, giving us access to Sarcastic, Inquisitive, and Decisive. Once again, only two heroes in and an option is closed off. We’re going to go with Decisive. Zam is the sort of person who takes action, and sees it through.
For his roleplaying Quality, he just takes Temporally Wobbly. Time is just always a little bit weird around him. I thought of giving him something connected to his species, but I think they just mostly act human.
Step 5: Red Abilities
Hallmark and Mental are pretty obvious choice for Red Abilities, but instead I’ll be grabbing Eruption. A powerful Cosmic attack that also heals instead of hurting is too obvious a choice. And if things go really bad, he can reset time with Purification to rewind all the tactics that have changed the scene.
Step 6: Retcon
I went back and forth for a bit, but I added the Red Ability to let Zam boost himself when he gets hit by Cosmic energy. This means that his primary tactic on hitting Red is to try to get out of Red again by Erupting and healing a lot.
Step 7: Health
Zam is another beefy buddy. He has (8 + Red 8 + Creativity 12 + 4) 32 Health.
Step 8: Alias
I need a name for Zam’s superhero alter ego. Having arrived on Earth and gotten the idea that you need a name that reflects your powers and attitude, Zam has called himself Montage. It doesn’t actually fit perfectly. But he likes the idea of motion skipping bits and pieces, as part of an artistic endeavour.
Character Sheet
Montage
Alias: Zam Trej
Background: Interstellar, Power Source: Cursed, Archetype: Marksman, Personality: Decisive
Principles: Future (Esoteric), Veteran (Responsibility)
- Minor Twists: What unintended ripple did your actions have? What affected you emotionally about the current conflict?
- Major Twists: What ripple effect now threatens the future as you know it? How are you withdrawing from the current conflict?
Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d8
Health: 32 (Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1)
Qualities:
- Creativity (Mental) d12
- Temporally Wobbly (RP) d8
- Deep Space Knowledge (Info) d6
- Ranged Combat (Physical) d6
Powers:
- The Stitch (Hallmark) d12
- Cosmic (Energy) d10
- Vitality (Athletic) d8
- Speed (Athletic) d6
Green Abilities:
- Principle of the Future (A): Overcome using your knowledge of possible futures and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
- Principle of the Veteran (A): Overcome a tactical challenge using knowledge of a previous conflict and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
- A Stitch In Time (A): Attack using The Stitch. Defend with your Min die.
- Inspiration (A): Boost using Creativity to create one bonus using your Max die and one using your Mid die.
Yellow Abilities:
- Depletion (A): Boost all nearby allies using Vitality. Use your Max+Mid die. Hinder yourself with your Min die.
- Time Warp (A): Attack or Overcome using Ranged Combat on an environmental target, using your Max + Min die. If you roll doubles, take a minor twist.
- Time To Shine ®: When a new target enters close range, attack them rolling only your Creativity die.
- Cosmic Locus (I): When you would take Cosmic damage, instead Recover that amount.
Red Abilities:
- Temporal Storm (A): Attack up to three targets with Cosmic, one of which must be you. Assign your Max, Med, and Min dice to those targets however you want.
- Rewind (A): Remove all bonuses and penalties from the scene. You cannot use this Ability again.
- Born To Die (I): When you would take Cosmic damage, instead Recover that amount and Boost yourself with the amount of damage that you would have taken.
Out Ability: Boost an Ally by rolling your Stitch die.
Aftermath:
So, Zam is a weird one. Marksman is not the Archetype I would have gone with if I’d had the call, but it gave me The Stitch, which is pretty great, so interesting. He’s extremely powerful when he can use his two d12 dice, but doesn’t have a lot of versatility if he’s not being Creative, so there’s a lot of mental energy a player is going to need.
The biggest thing I would probably have changed if I’d known the whole spread was Zam’s Cosmic immunity at Yellow. The Red version is a lot better, and works well with his Red power, enough so that I wanted to take it, but he’s not spraying a lot of cosmic energy around at Yellow like I imagined he would be.
Aside from that, this is definitely a character I wouldn’t have thought of building if I hadn’t gotten “Cursed” as an option, so I’m calling it a win.