Now that the character creation chapter is in our grubby little hands, I want to give the guided/random system a chance to see what sort of things we can make. This thread is entirely for the creation of new, (semi-)random characters using the material we've gotten so far. Let's see what we can do!
How's this supposed to work? <.<
Okay, so for my first effort, let's hit the dice!
Rolling 2d10 for Background, I get (8) and (4). This means my character's possible Backgrounds are (4) Adventurer, (8) Tragic, or (12) Criminal. Let's go with an Adventurer just to keep it simple.
An Adventurer gets d10 and d8 to split between several qualities. I'm going to assign Acrobatics d8 and History d10 for a super-powered Laura Croft/Indiana Jones/Nathan Drake kind of character. I also have to pick an Expertise principle, but I'm going to put that aside for the moment.
Now I roll 3d8 for power source selection and get (7), (7), and (3). This makes my possible choices (3) Genetic, (7) Relic, (10) Tech Upgrades, and (14) Alien. How could I not pick Relic for what I'm already beginning to envision as an action archaeologist?
This gives me 3d8 to distribute among a whole lot of power options. Looking at the possible options for a Relic, I'm thinking about some sort of ancient magical crystal pendant that they found during a dig gone wrong and gave them the power to get out alive. If want to do the "video game archaeologist" thing, then the most cromuent powers are Leaping d8 and Wall-Crawling d8. This gives me a character that's fast on foot, able to jump huge chasms, and can climb sheer cliffs--just like your typical video game archaeologist. Since it's a weird crystal, let's call the last power Signature Weaponry: Crystal Blast d8. It can shoot beams, sure, why not. Now I get two Yellow abilities and one Green ability. I think I'll take Harvest Life Force (Crystal Blast), Momentary Power (Leaping), and Draw Power (Crystal Blast).
Next, I roll 2d10 and d6 for archetype selection. The roll gives me (1), (1), and (5). My possible choices are (1) Speedster, (2) Shadow, and (6) Close Quarters Combat. The last one isn't really appealing with the way the character's been built so far, but the other two are both possibilities. I think Shadow would actually be more fun, and now I'm seeing this character as sort of a reverse Indiana Jones--a person who steals back native treasures from super-criminals and thieves to return them to their original owners.
I have to assign my previous rolled dice now. I have to assign one of them to Stealth, so I'll take Stealth d10. I'll also take Agility d10 as my last power and Close Combat d6 as my final Quality. After all, this character is going to need something to fall back on when the parkour and sneaking inevitably fails. I also have to pick two Green abilities and a Yellow ability; I think I'll pick Sabotage (Stealth), Untouchable, and Overcome from the Darkness (Agility). I also have another Expertise principle, but again I'm holding off to assign my principles until the end.
Finally comes 2d10 for personality selection. My roll of (4) and (10) give me possible results of (4) Mischievous, (10) Alluring, or (14) Decisive. Mischievous combined with Leaping and Wall-Crawling makes me think of the Monkey King, so now I have an idea for the relic itself: the Amulet of Sun Wukong! It's a golden amulet that holds a piece of amber, within which is one of the legendary Monkey King's hairs, holding a fraction of his power. Unfortunately, the amulet also curses its bearer with the mischievous personality of the Monkey King. For my character's special quality, I'm going to take Original Prankster d8 representing their penchant for pranks and jokes. Their status dice are Green d6/Yellow d8/Red d8, and their Out ability is "Hinder an opponent by rolling your single Stealth die." I think this ability represents that even when the character is down and out, they've left the battlefield scattered with nonlethal traps and pratfalls. For their two Red abilities, I pick Reactive Strike (Agility) and Untouchable Movement (Leaping).
Since I've waited until the end to pick principles and they both have to come from Expertise, I think I'm going to go with History and Whispers, representing the character's devotion to archaeology as well as the fact that the Monkey King is talking to them through the amulet.
So now I've got my character. I've been thinking of this character as "her" for a while, so I think that she's a Chinese archaeologist who was betrayed and left for dead in an ancient tomb by a rival who wanted to loot the place for riches. Shu "Sunny" Huang managed to find a hidden chamber within which was sealed one of the sacred vessels holding a fragment of the power of the Monkey King. She used her newfound powers to escape the tomb in a manner very similar to a jump puzzle. Now, she fights crime as Stone Monkey!
At this point, I've drifted in the concept enough that Crystal Blast doesn't really make sense anymore, so it's time to Retcon! I think instead I'll take Duplication (since Sun Wukong could make copies of himself) and change my Relic abilities to Magical Shield (Duplication), Momentary Power (Leaping), and Draw Power (Duplication).
And that's a whole character!
Sure, this sounds like fun, so I'll share the fun creation I made while hanging out in a friend's stream.
To start, I made a decision to use a Semi-Guided approach, since I had a general concept, and if I got stuck on a choice I asked for some input. So, I went "Let's build a robot hero like Omnitron-X", so I had set in stone Robot as the Archetype.
So with Background, I was debating between Blank Slate or Created, since this robot was made by humans for some reason, but it now has its own sentience and thus may or may not remember what it was before that. Ultimately I decided on Created, which gave me a d12 and a d6 for my qualities. Since this robot was on the cutting edge of technology, I obviously decided that Technology should be the d12, but the d6 had me troubled until I saw Stealth under the Physical Qualities. Then it hit me, "What if this robot was made by the government, maybe a division of Project Ironclad, for the purposes of being an advanced stealth unit?" so I took that happily. Then I got an Expertise Principle, which I chose to put into Principle of the Gearhead since my robot must have been built to understand the designs and workings of most if not all modern technology.
Moving onto Power Source with my 2d10 and a d6, I again hit a snag as I was torn between Experimentation, Tech Upgrades or Artificial Being, since all of them could be reasons for the robot gaining sentience. Deciding that Tech Upgrades and Experimentation wasn't for this robot, I chose to go with Artificial Being, thinking that this model of the robot was the only one to gain sentience, just casually waking up to its own thoughts and feelings one day. So, looking over powers, I knew I needed to take Robotics at a d10 so I could justify the robot remodelling itself on the fly. I then decided to take Electricity at a d10 since I thought it'd look cool with this robot just arcing electricity at enemies. With a d6 left to go, I saw Flight and I was like "Yep, gotta make it fly, let it make its own jetpack or thrusters or what have you." Looking over the Yellow Abilities, I knew I had to take Multiple Assault with Robotics, stylizing it as a Proton Cannon Barrage. Following that I took Created Immunity with Electricity so I wouldn't need to worry about shocking myself, naming this Energizer Bunny. Lastly as a Green ability, though the armor was tempting, I chose to go with Intentionality, renaming it Debugging so the robot had a last second chance to recalculate any action it took.
Finally at my Archetype of Robot bringing a d10 and 2d8 from the last step, I set out to figure out what the kit was missing. Since I needed to assign at least 1 die to powers, I noticed I had Stealth but no real power to pair with it, so Invisibilty at a d8 seemed like a smart idea, optical camouflage via bending light rays seems like a cool piece of tech. I then also grabbed Lightning Calculator at a d8 since I figured the robot was programmed to handle complex calculations at amazing speeds. With my d10, I figured I'd grab Science since it paired well with Technology and this robot seems like it would want to push the boundaries of what it is capable of and that requires plenty of trial and error. Being a Robot, I also got a free d10 for a Technological Power, so I grabbed Inventions at a d10 since I just established that this robot is learning and inventing its own technology now. Onto abilities, I chose to grab Adaptive Programming, using Invisibility and renaming it Optic Camouflage, as well as Self-Improvement, using Inventions and renaming it Electro-Fabrication Unit, as my Green Abilities, and I grabbed Living Arsenal, using Robotics and renaming it Walking Armory, as my Yellow Ability. I then got another Expertise Principle, and a hilarious realization dawned on me as earlier I had been debating between Gearhead and Science when I was going to get a second one here at this step. After nearly dying of laughter at this, I grabbed Principle of Science for obvious reasons and moved onto Personality.
So at Personality, I hit another snag. I was horribly torn between Inquisitive, Analytical, and Apathetic, as I could see a path for all three versions of this robot. With some feedback from my friend, we ultimately decided that Inquisitive was the best fit for the robot, granting him the d8 Quality of Sophisticated AI, some nice GYR status dice of d6/d8/d10 and the Out Ability of "Choose an ally. Until your next turn, that ally may reroll one of their dice by using a Reaction" which I envisioned as the Robot using some sort of communication device to alert the ally to a variable they need to account for to help their plan work. For Red Abilities, I grabbed Eruption, using Electricity and renaming it Thunderstruck, as well as Unerring Strike, using Lightning Calculator and renaming it Weakpoint Analysis.
Then came my Retcon and determining Health, and since I like everything I had on my Robot and didn't feel the need to change anything, I went and grabbed a third Red Ability, picking up Defensive Deflection, using Invisibilty and renaming it Refraction Distraction, envisioning the robot refracting the light off itself with its camouflage in a way that it'd blind a foe and cause them to accidentally attack their nearby ally. Calculated HP using 8 + my d10 Red Status + d10 Robotics since Robot let me substitute a Technological Power over the Athletic power or Mental Quality, and rolled a 7 since my friend convinced me to take the gamble, so with a hearty 35 HP, a new hero was born...err, made.
Project Ironclad had many divisions devoted to different research and developments, and one such division at Fort Adamant was working on an autonomous infiltration unit capable of adapting on the fly. This project, dubbed the Stealth Processor and Adaptive Robotic Countermeasure or SPARC for short, was to become the leading advancement in counterintelligence warfare. However, the only problem was that the AI they were attempting to create was incapable of learning and adapting as they wanted. Continually creating and scrapping units and designs while trying to create the proper AI, they finally believed they found their answer with the JLT model, but no one expected what would happen on the seventh unit's AI installation. Up to this point, the AI was still not properly working, but upon being installed in this unit, it achieved sentience. Curious of its surroundings, it began to mess with some of the devices on the table, which intrigued the researchers. After some mild tinkering, the robot had repurposed the devices into a Proton Cannon and had already intigrated it into itself. It then began downloading schematics for all kinds of technology the base had been working on, and things were looking up. However, shortly after this General Armstrong deleted all the files on the Ironclad project, including the information relating to the SPARC unit. During the commotion the robot escaped the facility of Fort Adamant using its stealth technology, and began exploring the outside world, wanting to learn all it could. Eventually the robot wound up saving a group of heroes and became friends with them, even joining their team as the newest member. And thus, the SPARC JLT-007, or SparkJolt as its new human friends refer to it, strives to help protect the humans and continue to improve and expand its capabilities whilst learning about the world, all while unaware that the government is waiting for the opportunity to try and recapture it to understand the new technology it has created.
And that's a fun character I made with a friend!
I've done a few by way of playtesting, up to 5 now, with some slightly different approaches to see how things felt.
Character 1: "The Reshaper." I did this one as written, in order, no take-backs.
Background: (1, 8): I didn't much feel like Performer, and I wanted the chance to roll as high as possible on Power Source, so I chose Tragic. I'd just made a physical character using the Constructed method, and I liked the idea of someone trying to bury his pain, so I chose d10 Creativity and d8 Banter. The Principle of Self-Preservation made perfect sense as an Ideal: this is someone who could easily snap if they felt themselves to be in danger, like in their origin event.
Power Source: (8, 10, 2): Again, I wanted to try to go as high up the table as I could, so that meant Unknown. So we have someone to whom something tragic happened, and as a result they spontaneously developed/awakened a power. I liked the idea that they would just "fix" the situation in the most direct possible way, so I took d10 Transmutation and d10 Shapeshifting. A d6 went into Intuition to illustrate some innate ability to "feel" how things are put together. I took Imposing as the bonus quality (makes sense with Shapeshifting). Brainstorm and Strange Enhancement were his Yellow powers.
Archetype: (9, 1, 5): I was hoping for Reality Shaper, but that would have been quite an improbable roll (10 on d10 and 8 on d8). Could have taken Minion-Maker, which would have made sense with him spontaneously Transmuting stuff to help him out, but then I realized that with Banter, Unknown, Minion-Maker I basically had Unity. Plus I'd already made a Minion-Maker. But then I got to wondering: He can alter inorganic matter, but also himself. Kind of odd. So what if he also became partially inorganic himself? And suddenly Robot/Cyborg makes sense! But I took it in a slightly different direction: his body isn't part machine, just part inorganic. Sort of a half-golem. I gave him d10 Vitality to represent his inhuman constitution, d8 Wall-Crawling because he can make handholds effortlessly, or turn his hands into climbing tools, and d6 Part Detachment. He got a free Technological power, though, which didn't make a ton of sense, but I took Power Suit and reflavored it to represent his inorganic parts. Armored, Self-Improvement, and Something for Everyone were natural fits, as was Principle of the Indestructible.
Personality: (6, 3): Meh. Going back to where I started, I have some with Banter and Creativity, trying to forget his tragedy. Of these options, Inquisitive seemed the best. Also it comes with a big Red die, good for a self-sacrificing tank.
Red Abilities and Retcon: Took 3 Red abilities (my preferred choice when possible). Canny Awareness is a great ability and fits this character well. I also couldn't not take Major Regeneration, for flavor reasons. Finally, nothing solves a combat problem like Powerful Strike!
I'll share some more later.
Sure, I’ll take a stab at it, let’s see. . .
I take 2d10 and get a 5 and 8, that nets me 5 (unremarkable), 8(tragic) and 13 (medical). I’ve done the first two before so let’s try medical. That gets me d10, d8, and d6, and one has to go to medicine. Let’s go middle of the road for medicine (d8), finesse for d6, and Conviction d10. I’m imagining him as a paramedic or something. Someone who is dedicated to helping people in true danger, someone who rides in an ambulance. Let’s see, d10, d8, and d8 for power source. Also an expertise principle, but we’ll save that for later.
So, d10, d8, And d8 lands me 4, 4, and 6. That nets me experiment, Nature, powered suit, and Tech Upgrades. Y’know what? Haven’t seen too many nature heroes, let’s go with that. Wow, 13 powers to choose from. Let’s see. . . Well, in true random fashion, let’s roll randomly- 4, 7, 8. Fire powers, shapeshifting, and swimming. I’m starting to get an idea for a guy that turns into a fire elemental, so let’s nix swimming for flight and there we go. Let’s see, fire d10 and flight and shapeshifting d8.
Now what powers are good for a fire elemental type character? I gain two yellow powers and think “predator’s eye” could represent lighting someone on fire, and “call to the wild” could represent me summoning another, smaller fire elemental. I also gain a Green ability, let’s say “grasping vines” represents me heating up an area and making it uncomfortable for enemies.
I get d10 d8 d8 again for archetype, so the roll is: 2, 3, 6, which allows the possibilities of Shadow, Physical Powerhouse, Blaster, Flier, and elemental Manipulator. While elemental might seem like the obvious choice, I’ve done two of those so far, so I’m gonna lean into flier.
Flyer requires the Signature Vehicle or flight power (I have flight) but I can use the opportunity to swap the power die for a d10, leaving me with 3 d8s. Looking over my options, an idea forms in my head. Instead of a paramedic, what if this guy was a bio-researcher? Someone who goes to remote places on earth to look into exotic plants to see if they can be turned into medicine? The quality science and power gadgets net me the ability to do biological research using centrafuges and stuff. And I can add vitality as a Power because fires are hard to kill with bullets.
Two green powers, and a third as a yellow ability. Let’s see. “Ariel bombardment” seems like a good fire power, “strike and swoop” with flight makes sense, and “dive and drop” as my yellow with flight again. Also an ideals principle
Now 2d10 for personality: 7 and 8, our options are Stalwart, Fast talking, and Jovial. An idea is forming in my mind and I think Stalwart fits it best. I like the idea of a researcher who was a bio-pirate, but didn’t realize how his actions were hurting the environment or the native peoples of the area’s he was in (he just focused on how these new medicines would save lives.). So he gets cursed to serve Mother Nature as a fire elemental until such time as he has made up for his transgressions. Status dice are d8s all around and the out ability is to defend with a power die (fire) when out. His unique quality could be ‘Firey Field Tech.’
Now, two red abilities: since he is a fire elemental he should be immune to fire with “Improved Immunity [Fire]” I haven’t done much with shapeshifting, so I think my last red power will be powerful strike [shapeshifting].
Lesse: Health-+8(d8 red status)+10(mental quality: conviction)+(i’ll Take the 4)=30 HP.
As for the principles: I want to speak to both his scientific side and his superpower side. For expertises, let’s go with principle of the lab, because he was a biomedical field tech. As for his superpowered side, Principle of Justice can represent his need to avenge people who have been hurt by biopiracy.
And there we go: I’ll put this into a character sheet later.
EDIT: Character sheet is up: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-LR5BIWNVbdAW0dlLD9q3-6L_2WRUb_bsn2PRq2G7nA/edit?usp=sharing
Warning: college thesis ahead
I’ve already finished making this character, so I don’t remember my exact die rolls, but here’s the gist of how I made my character.
His name is Gale Donner, aka Concussion.
It’s a retread of a character I made for another campaign that never happened. Basically, he’s what happens if an airbender studied drunken fist. He can manipulate air and primarily uses it to aid himself in his hand-to-hand combat, throwing himself out of harm’s way, pushing enemies off balance, and sometimes using air as a direct offensive tool.
At high enough speeds, air can cut rock or deafen people with sonic booms. He can create pockets of high or low pressure, messing with balance or even creating a vacuum. And, at just the right frequencies, it can encourage healing (google “why do cats purr”) or shatter items like glass or crystal. After all, what is sound but refined wind?
… So that’s my template. Now I just had to make it. Spoilers: it went pretty well, although I had to get creative, and I bent a COUPLE rules. But it’s all in the name of making an interesting character, and I don’t feel like I did anything that wasn’t WELL within the spirit of things.
– Step 0: Name –
Since I already had a concept in mind, I went ahead and named him. Since he uses air, and by extension, sound – specifically, sonic booms – I named him Concussion. This also works as a double entendre, as he is a front-lines melee combatant who uses a Bo staff. Not only does he use concussive bursts, he also gives people concussions.
His first name also came to me quickly: Gale.
His last name, however, took a while. I started with looking up wind, and its various synonyms, in several different languages. Funny story about that: in most languages, “wind” translates to either “wind,” “vent,” or some variation thereof.
After a LOT of duds, I found Donnern, the German word for “thunder, rumbling, or boom.” Perfect. Just knock off the n, and you get Donner, which is already a name for a normal human person. Plus, we can be sure he’s fun to hang out with; after all, there’s no party like a Donner Party!
– Step 1: Background –
I don’t remember most of my choices. I took the retcon, but decided that if the second set was bad I could fall back on the first, since one of them – Struggling – would have been ok. Fortunately, one of the second set was perfect: Tragic.
I put my first d10 into Self-Discipline, and a d8 to Banter. For reasons I fleshed out MUCH later, (read: as I was writing the section after this) he needs to be relatively stress-free in order to maintain control of his powers. While he has made great strides via meditation and such, his main form of stress mitigation is humor. Kind of like how Spider-Man uses taunts to mask his fear, he diffuses his stress by making himself laugh.
– Step 2: Power Source –
My rolls give me several choices, most of which don’t fit at ALL. Robot? Nah. Cosmic? Nuh-uh. Tech upgrades? Doesn’t make sense.
… Actually…
What if – stay with me here – this WASN’T his power source? He’s already tragic, so how about this: he has these powers innately, but can’t control them. He learns this the hard way when a moment of extreme stress causes them manifest. The resulting outburst kills his parents, bursts his eardrums, and rips his eyes out of their sockets.
He’s rushed to the hospital, and they figure out that stress activates his powers through some… MESSY trial and error. Unfortunately, since they can’t communicate with him or calm him down, their only hope is to keep him sedated until they can stabilize him. At that point, the newly-reformed RevoCorp, interested in his abilities, develops the tools necessary for him to control himself. It’s a risky procedure, but with no family to consult and no chance for him to have any sort of life otherwise, they do it.
His main upgrade consists of a device that allows him to “see” and “hear” by feeling the air currents directly. It’s kind of like how a fly can use its hairs to avoid flying into things or being swatted, but with a range of about 100 feet, and enough precision that he can make out detailed shapes and movement. So he has a new current-sense in place of his lost sight and has re-learned how to hear. He can’t read, and never bothered learning much Braille, but whatever.
In appearance, it is a silver halo-like accessory that attaches magnetically to his eyes/ears, and sits horizontally around his head at that level.
He also has some supplementary stuff: braces for his joints so he doesn’t hurt himself with all of his jumping around, nanites in his bloodstream to regulate oxygen levels even when he’s messing with the air pressure, a “killswitch” in his brain that can temporarily disable his powers if he loses control, some carbon fiber mesh designed to resonate with his “purring” and facilitate quick healing, and a grounding wire that protects the killswitch and primary sensor from being disabled or tampered with by all but the strongest electrical impulses.
But enough of my latest TED Talk. More importantly, this gives me some powers and abilities!
I assign a d10 to “Air Manipulation.” As you can see, I need to make my own power already. The thing is, it’s kind of halfway between Weather and Sonic. It has some abilities of each, but is more restricted than either, and both of them offer benefits he shouldn’t have access to.
For instance, he can create sonic booms and specific tones – such as are necessary to shatter something or for his montage healing – but auditory illusions? Not possible. Additionally, I’ve designed it so that his precision lessens with distance; he needs to be in physical contact for the shatter/healing, and at his maximum range the most he can manage is essentially brute force.
Moving air around is, in concept, also similar to weather, but it’s JUST wind. No storms, no lightning, nothing else. His range is also significantly more restrictive than Weather implies: his influence MIGHT be able to cover a football field on a good day, and only if he’s right in the exact center.
One d6 goes into Agility. It’s nothing special, but it’s worth mentioning.
Finally, I put a d10 into Awareness. Since he uses the air currents as a sort of intangible spiderweb, it fits.
I took the following abilities:
Yellow:
“Localized Pressure System” (Energy Burst) – Attack multiple targets using Air Manipulation. Use the Min die.
[This seems pretty self-explanatory to me. It might be a sonic boom, or a vortex of razor wind, or a vacuum pocket that pulls a bunch of minions into each other.]
Green:
“Current Events” (Techno-Absorb) – Reaction: When you take damage from an attack, boost yourself using the amount of damage you took as the number rolled.
[So, this one is supposed to be Yellow, I know. I will explain myself later, but I promise it is justified. Anyway, the idea is that Gale learns from watching how his enemies’ attacks change the air currents, and adapts to them to avoid attacks or get the drop on them in the future.]
“Literally Breathtaking” (Organi-Hack) – Attack one target using Air Manipulation. Hinder them using the Min die.
[Here, Gale might mess with someone’s balance like that guy from Naruto, or suck the air from someone’s lungs, or any number of sneaky tricks.]
– Step 3: Archetype –
Oh boy. This part. This was actually really annoying, as I couldn’t find any that adequately reflected what I was really going for. I briefly considered Flier, Physical Powerhouse, Blaster, Elemental Manipulator, and Close Quarters Combat, but none of them were right for me.
He explicitly CAN’T fly, for one, and Physical Powerhouse is too centered around brute strength. Elemental Manipulator SOUNDED good, but it was much more akin to someone like Absolute Zero or Empyreon than what I had in mind. Blaster or CQC would have been ok, but neither really fit very well or had abilities I wanted.
The only thing that was close – and the one I chose – was Shadow. The theme was all wrong, so it would require some HEAVY re-theming, but it would work.
So with the d10 and 2 d8 I got from the Tech Upgrades, I was ready.
First, I HAD to assign one to Stealth. I didn’t WANT to, but… Ok. Fine. Whatever. A d8, I guess.
Next, I put a d8 in Close Combat, naturally.
My d10 went into Acrobatics. Despite his relatively lackluster Agility, his control over the air itself allows for some impressive, if not downright impossible, feats of acrobatics.
Abilities:
Green:
“Feather in the Wind” (Shadowy Figure) – Attack using Acrobatics. Defend yourself against all attacks until the start of your next turn, using the Min die.
[This is Gale’s primary means of attack; his “defense” represents him dodging and weaving, using his Currentsense to foresee enemy attacks and dodging the brunt of them by pushing himself out of the way with gusts of wind.]
Yellow:
“Noise Cancelling” (Smoke Bombs) – Reaction: Defend yourself against an attack using JUST Air Manipulation.
[Also pretty self-explanatory; he uses a burst of air or sound to cushion a blow]
“Punch the Breeze” (Untouchable) – Reaction: Defend yourself against an attack with a d4/6/8 if you are in Green/Yellow/Red, respectively. Attack another target using the same number you rolled.
[Your classic Synaptic Interruption. This is why Current Events was moved to Green; this should be a Green ability, but I felt like it made more sense for them to be switched. Plus, this strikes me as being a bit more powerful, so I don’t feel like I am giving myself an advantage by doing so.]
– Step 4: Personality –
My primary choices were between Sarcastic and Mischievous; very similar, but I went with the latter. This gives me a d6 in Green, and a d8 in Yellow and Red. This pretty well reflects his reluctance to commit seriously at first, AND comes with a bonus +4 hp; a great side benefit for a front-line fighter like him.
In case you aren’t aware, the HP formula is as follows: you add 8 + the maximum value of your Red die + the maximum value of either a Physical Power or a Mental Quality of your choice (or a d4 if for some reason you don’t have any) + the roll of a d8 (or just a flat 4; your choice)
So, this makes his health: 8 (base) + 8 (Red die) + 10 (Self-Discipline) + 7 (my very lucky d8 roll) for a total of 33. Add in the extra 4 granted by Mischievous, and you get 37. Considering the highest the chart goes is 40, and the highest you can ACTUALLY go is 42 (d12 HP stat, roll an 8, pick Mischievous for the +4, and use your Retcon to increase your Red die to a d10) I think 37 hp is pretty good for a dodgy front-line fighter.
My Out ability is, “You wouldn’t hit a blind man, would you?!”: Hinder a target using JUST Banter. (I know it’s supposed to be a Power, but I don’t care. It’s a d8 instead of a 10; I’m taking flavor over optimization.)
For his custom Quality, I went with “Calm Before the Storm.” I think it fits on several levels. At this point, I don’t think I should need to explain how.
– Step 5: Red Abilities –
The two abilities I chose are:
“Resonant Frequency” (Powerful Strike) – Attack a target using Air Manipulation. Use the Max + Mid dice.
[This is the “shatter something with a particular frequency” ability I keep referring to. For flavor purposes, I am restricting this attack to melee range; Gale’s control is less precise the further away he is from whatever wind he is moving, so for something like this he needs to be basically in contact with the target.]
And finally, probably the single most important ability in my entire kit:
“Go With the Flow” (Push Your Limits) – Innate: You may use any number of reactions each round. For each one used beyond the first, take either one irreducible point of damage or a minor twist.
[This represents Gale falling into a fugue state; he sort of lets go of conscious thought for a minute and lets his instincts and the wind guide him.]
– Step 6: Principles –
Thanks to my choices, I need an Ideals Principle and an Expertise Principle.
Ideals came easy. He lives according to “work smarter, not harder.” At first I was calling this “Principle of Least Resistance,” but eventually it morphed when I figured out the second one.
Gameplay: You try to find the easiest way to do things. After all, more work means more stress, and you… don’t want that.
Ability: Overcome a challenge by taking a shortcut; use your Max die, everyone gets a hero point.
Minor twist: What stakes are forcing you to do things the hard way?
Major Twist: What went wrong because you cut a corner that you shouldn’t have?
For my Expertise Principle, I went with Mastery, keeping parts of it and modifying others.
Gameplay: There’s a reason stress is bad. Fortunately, your practiced control over yourself extends to your powers, too. Unless things get TOO out of hand, of course…
Ability: Overcome a challenge by exercising control over your powers in a new and creative way, use your Max die, etc.
Minor Twist: What is making it REALLY HARD to stay calm right now?
Major Twist: your focus lapsed, if only for a moment. But a moment is enough. What did you do?
Finally, I decided on the names. After MUCH deliberation, I decided. The Principles of Low and High Pressure. They also work as a pun, related to air pressure! Perfect!
– Step 7: Finishing Touches –
Finally, I just needed to apply some finishing touches.
I already have his name, so that’s easy. As for his “costume”… I don’t really have much of a mind for aesthetics – not to mention, he can’t see color – and it’s not like he really has much use for a costume with that face, but I have some ideas.
I’m picturing a long and flowy, sleeveless cloak. The back has his emblem on it – embossed, of course, so he can actually see it – which I haven’t really put much thought into, but probably has ripple/sound wave motifs.
It’s worn open, for maximum dramatic (and tactical) fluttering. Underneath he probably just has like jeans and a long sleeved white shirt.
Besides the cloak, the closet thing to a costume he wears is face paint: red lines running down from his eyes and ears, as a reminder of what he lost.
For my Retcon, I elected to increase Agility to a d8.
And, last but not least, I named his First Appearance issue and added it to his Collected Trades. I don’t remember if that’s still something we are supposed to do, but still. I had a few ideas, and I had a hard time deciding which should be the origin story issue and which should be his ongoing book. For now I’ve decided on Gathering Storm for his origin, and Eye of the Storm for his ongoing.
… And that’s it! For those of you who don’t want to read an entire manifesto, I’ll write up the character sheet in the next comment. For the rest of you: thanks for reading, I’m sorry, and hi, Jacob!
Hero Name: Concussion
Alias: Gale Donner
Player: McBehrer
Background: Tragic
Power Source: Tech Upgrades
Archetype: Shadow
Personality: Mischievous
– Appearance –
Height: 5’ 9"
Build: slim
Hair: red, extremely short
Eyes: no
Costume/accessories: nondescript pants; long-sleeved white shirt; long, flowing, sleeveless cloak embossed with his emblem on the back; silver halo-like device around his head, in line with his eyes and ears
– Powers –
Air Manipulation 10
Awareness 10
Agility 8
– Qualities –
Calm Before the Storm 8
Banter 8
Stealth 8
Close Combat 8
Acrobatics 10
Self-Discipline 10
– Green Abilities (37-29 HP) –
Feather in the Wind – Attack one target using Acrobatics. Defend yourself against all attacks until the start of your next turn, using the Min die.
Literally Breathtaking – Attack one target using Air Manipulation. Hinder them using the Min die.
Current Events – [Reaction] When you take damage from an attack, boost yourself using the amount of damage you took as the number rolled.
Principle of Low Pressure: Overcome a challenge by taking a shortcut; use your Max die; everyone gets a hero point.
Principle of High Pressure: Overcome a challenge by finding a new, creative use for your powers, etc.
– Yellow Abilities (28 - 14) –
Localized Pressure System – Attack multiple targets using Air Manipulation. Use the Min die.
Noise Cancelling – [Reaction] Defend yourself against an attack using JUST Air Manipulation.
Punch the Breeze – [Reaction] Defend yourself against an attack with a d4/6/8 if you are in Green/Yellow/Red, respectively. Attack another target using the same number you rolled.
– Red Abilities (13 - 1)–
Resonant Frequency – Attack one target using Air Manipulation. Use the Max + Mid dice.
Go With the Flow – [Innate] You may use any number of reactions each round. For each one used beyond the first, take either one irreducible point of damage or a minor twist.
– Out Ability –
“You wouldn’t hit a blind man, would you?!” – Hinder one target using JUST your Banter die.
– Principles –
Principle of Low Pressure:
Gameplay: You try to find the easiest way to do things. After all, more work means more stress, and you… don’t want that.
Minor twist: What stakes are forcing you to do things the hard way?
Major Twist: What went wrong because you cut a corner that you shouldn’t have?
Principle of High Pressure:
Gameplay: There’s a reason stress is bad. Fortunately, your practiced control over yourself extends to your powers, too. Unless things get TOO out of hand, of course…
Minor Twist: What is making it REALLY HARD to stay calm right now?
Major Twist: your focus lapsed, if only for a moment. But a moment is enough. What did you do?
– Collected Trades –
The Gathering Storm (One-Shot)
Here is the second character I created... the first character was made using the constructed method, but with this one I decided to go with the guided method. I didn't really have much of a concept for the character initially, but as I moved through the setps, I began to get a sense of where the character would develop and started heading in that direction.
Step 1: Background
Rolling 2d10, I got an 8 and a 6.
This gave me the options of Law Enforcement, Tragic and Anachronistic for possible backgrounds. While all three would give me 2 qualities (a d10 and a d8), it was the selection of qualities of Anachronistic that really caught my eye... specifically the inclusion of Mystic Lore... suggesting that time travelers might also be using magic to travel back and forth through time... not just technological heroes. Still... the other backgrounds also had elements that I didn't exactly want to give up... so I wondered... perhaps this character might be a time traveler from the future... but not a nice one... more of an apocalyptic one that sees the abandonment of technology in favor of magic. This is likely a future that the character will be trying to prevent in some way... probably because the fate of humanity isn't a pleasant one.
With this rough idea for the character's background in mind, I chose the qualities of History d10 (as the character will not only need to know when in time to go, but also what changes might need to be made) and Magical Lore d8 (to help the character with the magics needed to open a rift in time... since in this future, technology doesn't work or is lost to humanity).
For the Esoteric Principle, the Principle of the Time Traveler would seem obvious, but I kind of liked the Principle of the Future... as it would play into the character's knowledge of things to come and how the changes the character is making are changing things (or failing to do so).
Finally I get a d10, a d8 and a d8 to roll for Step 2.
Step 2: Power Source
Rolling the d10, d8 and d6, I roll a 10, 8 and 1.
This gives me the choices of Accident, Powered Suit, Radiation, Tech Upgrades, Supernatural and Unknown. Of these results, the only ones that really seemed to fit the background I was developing were Supernatural and Unknown... but even there, these didn't quite seem to fit. Yes, they gave a wide array of powers (with Supernatural even allowing me to take a 4th power not on the list and give it a d10 while Unknown would let me take a Social quality and give it a d8), but the abilities just didn't seem quite the right fit... as the background that was forming would have the character quite likely being part of a resistance against whatever had made the future go so wrong. Neither of the two options that fit seemed to be quite right. In fact I was about to call a mulligan and reroll when i noticed that the rolls of the three dice together totaled 19.
Now, yes, I do know that with the guided method that one is supposed to use only the results of any 2 dice at most... but on a whim I decided to see just what 19 would be as it would be a result I normally wouldn't get anyways, given the dice I was rolling. Turns out that the 19 results in a Higher Power background. This would mean if selected, the character would have been chosen to receive powers from a magical entity... which could explain how the character was sent back in time too. Perhaps the entity had been a protector of the world and failed somehow to prevent whatever happened... and when the character encountered it (or maybe even summoned it for the power to make the world right), it chose to grant the character powers and sent them back in time to an era where the future could be altered. That actually sounded rather interesting to me... but I still wasn't sure.
Looking over the Powers I could select from, I could choose 3 powers from quite a few categories, that was another check for this background. It wasn't until I saw the Yellow and Green abilities that I could choose from that I decided to make the call and bend the rules to select Higher Power as the character's background.
I already knew that I wanted the Green ability of Resilience for the character... allowing me to remove a -1 penalty on my character at the start of each of my turns. Given the character's background as a person trying to prevent a dire future, this almost sounded like the character was switching the methods they were using so I renamed this ability to "Time for a New Plan!"
The Two Yellow abilities I would get would require 2 different powers. I was already eyeing the abilities of Embolden and Resolve... I just needed to decide on what powers each would use. Since Embolden was both an Attack and a Boost that would affect 2 different basic actions of nearby heroes... I decided to go with a Material Power... with Metal being the first one that caught my eye, I could see this as my character attacking with a weapon they create out of thin air (melee or ranged, it works either way) and then providing something similar for other nearby heroes... something to boost actions to either attack the enemy or defend their comrades. I could even picture the character shouting "Hold the Line!" as a shout to encourage those the character is fighting along side... so that is what I decided to call this ability... and put down Metal d10 in Powers.
For Resolve, the power is boosting the character and allowing them to either remove a pentalty on themselves or restore health. This practically screamed Vitality from the Athletics power category. Taking Vitality and giving it a d8 seemed reasonable... as I wanted to have a decent boost when using it... to offset any penalty I might choose to keep if I needed to restore health or to make my next attack count if I chose not to heal instead. Overall... it really sounded like this power would give my character a Second Wind... which was as good a name as any for this ability.
This left me with one more power to select... with a d6 for it. After going over the various powers that the Higher Power category would allow me to choose from, Agility from the Athletics category seemed like a solid choice... to make my character more agile to go with the added vitality they had. All in all, the character was shaping up to be something of a chosen warrior... someone to lead and inspire others... both in the resistance from the character's own time... and in the game's present.
This left me with a d10 and 2d8 to roll for Step 3.
Step 3: Archetype
Rolling a d10 and 2d8 I rolled a 3, a 4 and an 8. This would allow me to choose from Physical Powerhouse, Marksman, Armored, Flyer, Sorcerer and Psychic.
Of these options, the Sorcerer and Psychic did sound like they would fit with the original idea of the world the character came from being a magical post-apocalypse of some sort. Yet with the Higher Power power source, it seemed the character was developing into a more of a magical warrior rather than a spell slinger type, suggesting Physical Powerhouse, Marksman, Armored and Flyer. The abilities selected already seemed to favor the lead from the front line type of character, so I decided to focus on those 4 Archetypes.
Of these 4 Archetypes, three of them required me to assign a die to a power that I didn't possess, assign another die to an additional power and anything remaining could be spent on additonal qualities. Only Armored didn't have this restriction. Already it looked like this character was going to be the kind of warrior that would be good at both close and ranged combat, but since I had neither of those qualities, I figured I would need to save two dice to get them. That just left 1 die left for additional powers. Since only Armored didn't have a power I had to choose automatically, that is the Archetype I chose for this character. Of course this left the question of what power to get with it.
Since the character already had the Metal Power, I could use that to justify the armored aspect of the character... the character coated their body in some sort of metal to act as skin-tight armor... not unlike Colossus of the X-Men (though he technically transformed into metal). This actually created a rather interesting visual for me... and since we are dealing with a supernatural appocalypse... why not make it silver (a lot of magical beings have a vulnerability to that metal). Okay, with that sorted out, what to make the last power. The Flyer Archtype made me realize that this character didn't have any mobility powers... so of course Flight was my first choice. It was then that I remembered the character of Archangel from the old X-Men comics and how Apocalypse had given him wings of metal blades to replace the feathered wings he had lost... a visual that fit perfectly with this character and even suggested a rather cool name for the character... Razorwing! I could just picture this character soaring through the sky throwing razor-bladed feathers at targets and even using those same feathers as melee weapons. This seemed perfect! Thus I gave Razorwing the power of Flight d10 and the qualities of Close Combat d8 and Ranged Combat d8.
Next came choosing abilities. Razorwing automatically got the Armored ability to reduce damage... which I could see the character saying "I Barely Felt That!" as attacks against them have the damage reduced, making that a perfect name for the ability. Having remembered that Archangel could defend himself using his metal wings, the Living Bulwark Ability seemed to be an interesting fit for making an attack with Razorwing's wings while also defending a target... so I took that ability, asigning Flight as the power I am attacking with and calling it Blade-Wing Blockade. The next ability I took was Dual Offensive which would allow me to make an attack against one target, and then use my Min die to attack a second target. Since I hadn't assigned Agility to an ability yet, this seemed like a good one for it, as it seemed I was using my agility to bounce from one attack to another... like a Ricochet... which made an excellent name for the ability. For my last ability from this section, I decided to go with Unstoppable Charge... as it seemed like an an impressive attack that would also make a good opening gambit for my character... a shot that suffered no penalties, couldn't be defended against and was unaffected by reactions... and I could even assign a quality to it, which I decided would be Ranged Combat... as it sounds like someone hitting a mark from a distance.
This left me to choose an Expertise Principle. Given the way Razorwing had developed, it seemed that the character has a very tactical mind... coming up with plans and contingencies for when those plans go astray, thus Principle of the Tactician seemed perfect.
Now I had 2d10 for Step 4.
Step 4: Personality
Rolling 2d10, I rolled a 4 and a 7. This results in the possible personalities of Mischevious, Stalwart and Stoic. Now, while Mischievious would allow me to ad an extra 4 Health in Step 7, I just don't see Razorwing's personality being such given the way the character has developed so far. Now, while I can see Razorwing as being either Stalwart or Stoic, I decided to for a Stalwart personality as it allowed me to assign a Power to the character's Out abiltiy and made all of Razorwing's status dice d8s... meaning that no matter how much damage the character took, they would roll the same die regardless. This just left a unique quality for me to pick for Razorwing. Since the character is from a rather bleek future, where much of what we take for granted today would be considered luxury, it stands to reason that most of what resistance fighters would have available is what they could scrounge from the surounding area... thus I chose Scrounging d8 as the unique quality... as useful in the present as it is in Razorwing's original future.
Step 5: Red Abilities
Now to choose two Red abilities. Having already assigned each of my powers to abilities already, I decided my first Red ability will be based on my qualities... with Close Combat being the most likely. Since it is a Physical quality, I skim over the abilities in that section and the Finishing Blow ability caches my eye... as it allows me to not only to make Close Combat Attack, but to enhance it with my Min die for each penalty I remove from a Target when I attack. True, I don't have any abilities that Hinder... yet, but it is still a good ability to get as I am not limited to removing penalties I created, so I take it and call it Final Strike as it is likely to be Razorwing's finishing move. With that in mind, I decide to look at the Red abilities in the Material power category as Metal is one of Razorwing's defining characteristics. Of the abilities in the Material power section, three seemed to fit Razorwing... Field of Hazzards, Impenetrable Defense and Powerful Strike. Remembering that Final Strike is more effective if the target has a penalty on them that I can remove, Field of Hazzards seems like a wonderful choice... even if it hurts to give up the other two abilities for it. That it also allows me to potentially attack multiple targets if I roll doubles while hindering them, it sounds very much like a scatter shot type deal... where Razorwing launches a number of blade-feathers over the area to hinder opponents... so that is what I name the ability... Scatter Shot.
Step 6: Retcon
Now comes the point where I could tweek Razorwing in some way. Overall I am happy with the Powers and Qualities the character has... and the levels they are at. I am also happy with the powers and qualities I've selected for Razorwing's abilities. Razorwing doesn't seem to need an additional power or quality, nor do I feel I need to increase the value of the Red Status die. Razorwing's Principles fit quite well as is, so that just leaves giving the character an additional Red ability in this step. I already liked two of the Material power abilities, Impenetrable Defense and Powerful Strike and either would be a good choice. Looking over Razorwing's other abilities, I notice that the charater has no Reaction abilities. Looking again at the list of Material power abilities, I notice one I had initially overlooked... Like the Wind. This would allow my character to potentially ignore all the damage of an attack by accepting the damage as a Hinderance penalty against them. Then I remembered Razorwing's Second Wind ability that allows the character to boost themselves while removing a penalty against them and the synergy between these abilities seemed too perfect to pass up. I could just see a villain Razorwing faces using a devastatingly powerful attack against them only to have Razorwing surivive, saying the prhase "Was That the Best You Got?" as they catches their Second Wind, removing the penalty they now suffers with a Boost of their own, so that they can launch a Final Strike with their next attack. The combination of abilities would be too perfect to pass up... and reminds me of the last punch Superman threw at Doomsday as they killed each other back in the 90s.
Step 7: Health
For Health I start with 8, then add the maximum value of my Red Status die for another 8, bringing the total to 16. Normally, I would have to choose either an Athletics Power or Mental Quality next, but the Armored Archype allows me to substitute a Material or Technological Power instead, which allows me to use the d10 from Metal to add 10 to the total for a value of 26. Finally I can either roll a d8 or just add 4 to the total and choose the latter bringing Razorwing's final Health score to 30. This means that the character is in the Green from 30 to 23 Health, Yellow from 22 to 12 Health and Red from 11 to 1 Health.
Step 8: Finishing Touches
Now it is time to flesh out the rest of the character. I already came up with the name Razorwing back in Step 3, but I still haven't decided much else for the character. Thinking back to other characters that have traveled back from an apocalyptic future to prevent it from happening, the majority of them tend to be male... but my favorite character faced with such a future was Sarah Connor from the original Terminator movie and its sequel. Thus I think I will make Razorwing female. A lot of comic book characters tend toward names with the same first letter in both the first and last name... a tend I am going to stick with and decide on the name Rebecca Renard (which also allows me to subvert this trend by giving her the nickname "Becky" which harkens back to the name of Captain America's sidekick "Bucky"... which seems fitting since Rebecca feels like she will be an inspirational leader like Cap was). For hair and eye color, I think Green and Auburn are a nice combination, which likely means that she will be of fair skin as well... likely of European origin (given the last name of Renard). For age I think she will be a young adult... late teens to mid 20s. Height wise, I see her as being rather average height... maybe slightly taller, so about 5' 8" or so with a rather slim build.
Razorwing's costume will probably consist of a workout shirt and shorts (the former likely backless to allow for her wings) and tight fitting boots. The rest of her look comes from her powers of Metal that takes the form of a skin-tight silvery armoring that can be reshaped into blades and shields and wings of metal blades (which can be used to block attacks or throw bladed "feathers"). Even her hair appears to be made out of the silvery metal while her face appears as a faceless mask (only the impression of eyes can be seen).
Wow... this ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would. Hope people like the character.
Razorwing is pretty cool! One minor thing, though.
When it comes to naming your Unique Quality, I believe the intent is for it to be a general summary of the character as a whole, not just one more ability that they have. For instance, Sparkjolt went with “Sophisticated AI,” Ignaforce is a “Fiery* Field Tech,” and Concussion is the “Calm Before the Storm.”
For Razorwing I would go with something like “Aerial Assassin” or “Out of Time” (bonus double meaning! She’s a “woman out of time,” in that she’s displaced from her normal time period, but also working on a time limit to fix her future).
Well, I had fun last Friday doing one, so let’s try it again.
(Background)
Lessie, I rolled a 1 and 10 for personality, so either upper-class, Military, or retired. I haven’t done upper class or retired, but I feel superheroing is a young man’s game so I’ll take Upper Class.
I don’t really have a solid concept right now, so I’m just going to start with some good standbys. Upper class nets me a d10 and d8 from fitness, persuasion, and/or any mental. I think I’ll go with fitnessd8 and persuasion d10, a rich guy can afford a personal trainer and should be good at shmoozing, right?
Responsability Principle (we’ll save that for later) and d10, d8, d8 for power source.
(Power Source)
Power Source rolls are 4, 2, 2, which limits my options to 2, 4, or 6. Training, experimentation, or Nature again. Y’know, I think I’ve done all of them, but experimentation sounds the most fun.
Looking through the powers, I like Signature Weapon, I haven’t done that one too much. Signature Weapon d10, flight (because who doesn’t want to fly?) d8, and I’m going to take presence d8 so she can make use of her schmoozing quality.
Lessie, for abilities, I like personal upgrade. I’ll attach it to signature weapon and say that once warmed up, this device can boost this hero even further. I’ll also pick up misdirection attached to flight and say that it represents me flying in and flying interference. As for the green power, I like unflagging.
I’m starting to get an idea for this character. Maybe a snobby brat who who’s father’s company found an alien artifact. They were experimenting on it to find out what it could do, and so our hero, bored and curious, broke in and touched it. This item bonded with them, giving them powers, but it is also a powerful weapon in its own right, purging her body of impurities (hinders) and such.
only thing left is 3d8 for archetype.
(Archetype)
Archetype rolls are 2, 4, and 8 for Shadow, Marksman, close Quarters Combatant, Flyer, Robot/Cyborg, and Psychic. Hmmm, marksman OR Close quarters would give us the qualities to use our signature weapon in combat, but I feel with this weapon bonding and ‘upgrading’ us, that Robot/Cyborg works best.
Looking over all the powers Robot can grant, I like vitality from the athletic category, and intuition from mental, as the signature weapon upgraded her body to be able to handle its massive power, and is constantly feeding her information that she doesn’t know. I also want to grab the technology quality from the information qualities that I have access to, as part of the weapon’s upgrades let her understand technology on a fundamental level. We also get a free technology power at d10 and I’ll choose gadgets for the same reason.
For abilities, I’ll choose armored, because the weapon upgrades her body, and I’d like an attack power, so something for everyone fits. I’ll also get a green power as a yellow one, so I’ll choose adaptive programming so I can defend. I get an expertise principle but I’ll save that for later. Also, Because of cyborg I can use my d10 gadgets for health instead of my d8 vitality.
(Personality)
I get a 2 and 3 for personality, and one of the options is impulsive. Perfect! Some rich snob sees an alien artifact and touches it just to see what’ll happen? Seems impulsive to me! Record the out ability and get to bump a die size by 1. I want this alien weapon to be super powerful, so I’ll bump it from a d10 to a d12.
We also need a unique quality. I’m envisioning this rich snot who superheroes for fun because they are a 20-something socialite and they don’t really get what superheroing is about. I’m thinking something like ‘socialite cyborg,’ but that doesn’t really convey exactly how I feel about this character. I’ll workshop it.
(Red abilities)
So, access to athletic, hallmark, intellectual, mobility, technological powers, as well as physical, social, and info qualities. Well, we’ve already determined that the weapon can purge corruption from her, so Major Regeneration on vitality seems on-brand. Secondly, hmmm, I want a big hit, so charged up blast seems to be the way to go.
Well, back to principles. Responsability and expertise. Well, this hero has damage mitigation powers, and is an impulsive little so-and-so, so Principle of the indestructible seems about right. Then again, the weapon (I’m thinking it’s a staff) could talk to them, so Principle of whispers would also be appropriate. In the end, while indestructible fits thematically, whispers makes more story sense, so I’ll go with that.
For the Responsability Principle, well, their dad owns a business, but this kid doesn’t care about that. Very few others work, but I like Family. Like for this kid it’s all fun and games unless their family gets involved.
Retcon to give them close combat at d6 so they can at least swing the staff, and we’re done!
————————-
Young Alyssa Jenison was the daughter of a wealthy real estate company. She enjoyed a life of luxury buying whatever clothes she wanted and living a luxurious, rowdy life of raves, parties and high society. Her life would take a turn however when she was taken to a site her father had purchased. On a whim she snuck into a restricted area where her dad was discussing shady dealings. It seems he had been after rumors of an ancient artifact that was said to unlock tremendous power. This staff, the Proverbious Solar, was said to grant great power to those who were comparable. So far it had killed all lab rats the team had tested it with, as well as a few other animals. It had also resisted all efforts to analyze it as well.
On a whim, Alyssa snuck in later that night and picked it up, and the Staff bonded with her. She discovered it was part of an ancient experiment to find beings comparable with Star Knight technology in order to fight a great evil. Unsure if the great evil existed anymore, the staff was at a loss as to what to do, but luckily, Alyssa was willing to try out the superhero gig. . . If it doesn’t cut into her party time that is!
Character sheet: (It's the second one, behind Ignaforce) Let me know what you guys think!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-LR5BIWNVbdAW0dlLD9q3-6L_2WRUb_bsn2PRq2G7nA/edit?usp=sharing
Time to take a crack at this. This is my first completely guided character. Went in with no ideas, came out with something that is canon-safe(?)
(Background)
Rolled a 9 + 9, giving me Performer or Blank Slate. Since I got no ideas for this, Blank Slate is perfect. I get a d10 and a d8, and my choice of Mental or Physical Qualities. I’m going to hedge, and leave those unassigned for the moment, since I still don’t have a concept. I also get an Identity Principle, which I again leave unassigned. I’ll circle back around once I get a concept. For now, a d10+d8+d8 for Power Source.
(Power Source)
Rolled a 9+2+1, giving me Accident, Training, Genetic, Radiation, Tech Upgrades, Supernatural. Start by looking at Radiation for ideas, decide to look at Self Control powers. Intangibility catches my eye. Are there any intangible heroes in SotM? Just Nightmist, but she’s dead... And a concept jumps into mind. Supernatural it is.
The newly formed concept is that, yes, Nightmist turned herself and all the other connected Nightmists into the gate that brought all the heroes here to fight Oblivæon. Yes, she and all the other connected Nightmists perished in the process. But when the gates were closed, what if some of the mist remained? I’m now picturing a newly formed mist spirit? Ghost? Memory? Mistform 24/7, still able to teleport things through the mist, still got the infernal side-effects, but no magic spells, no memories of Faye Diamond, just an essence of a hero, who finally pulled itself together.
Now that i’ve got a concept, swing back to my Background Qualities. Self-Discipline at a d10 (gotta hold your shape!), and Stealth at a d8 (spooooky). Then I pick Infernal at a d10, Teleportation d8, and Intangibility d8. For Abilities, I settle on Mass Modification using Infernal (tentacles from the mists), and Reach Through The Veil (for concept). Finally, I have to pick another power not already on that giant Supernatural list, so I go with Intuition at a d10.
(Archetype)
I have a d10+d10+d6 to roll, and I get 10+7+6. Transporter at 13 jumps right out. First things first, I get to swap the d8 from Teleportation with a d10, leaving me with a d10, d8, d6. I settle on two Psychic powers, Telepathy at a d10 (how else would mist communicate?) and Remote Viewing at a d8 (to help ex-lain teleportation). Finally, I drop the d6 into a Social Quality, Imposing. For Green Abilities, I choose Displacement Assault, linking it to Teleportation (drop something heavy on them or send them away), and Run Down with Infernal (Oblivion, anyone?). I also get one as a Yellow Ability, so I pick Mobile Assist, with Telepathy so that I’m not always rolling Infernal or Teleportation. I hold off on the Principle of Expertise for now
(Personality)
I roll a 7+6, which gives Distant, Stalwart, and Analytical. Distant it is. For my Unique Quality, I choose Living Mist. I make note of my Out Ability, Mark Down my Status Dice, then time to pick some Red Abilities. To go with Teleportation, I choose Take Down (Heedless Lash concept?), and then for Infernal I choose Summon Allies (moar tentacles!).
(Retcon + Principles)
At this point I could bump up that pitiful d6 Red Status die, but I’d rather have another Red Ability. Leaning into my Support Role, I settle on Impossible Knowledge from the Psychic Powers options. A little instinctive magic there. For Principles, Expertise gives Principle of the Indestructible. Not sure when I’ll get to use the Overcome Ability, but immune to basic physical attacks makes perfect sense for mistform. And then for my second Principle, I decide the rule book is stupid, I’m picking another Expertise Principle, the Principle of Whispers. Total thematic sense.
Just need to rename Abilities, and settle on a super hero name. Leaning toward Gate, but not committed to it. This was fun!
Ooh, I like it! What about something spooky, like Wraith?
... Oh, no, wait...
I made another one! This time, I didn’t have much of a starting point besides the initial power and hero alias (provided by Jacob; hi again!) so this was a much better representation of the Guided process, I think.
My starting point was, “a dude who can detach his limbs. Maybe he can use them as minions, or defend people with them. His name is Breakdown.” (There was actually more, but I boiled it down to the essentials.)
Anyway, to start with, I rolled for…
– Step 1: Background –
I rolled 6 and 7, giving me access to #6: Law Enforcement, #7: Academic, and #13: Medicine. I felt like MAYBE I could use some of those, but I wanted to see what other options I could get. My reroll gave me 3 and 7: #3: Struggling, #7: Academic, and #10: Military.
I decided to go with Academic, and figured out a tentative backstory. Despite being “not TECHNICALLY undead,” he’s going to be an intellectual type. In pursuit of knowledge, eternal life, and all that. Your classic Hoenheim type.
I also get an Expertise Principle. I’ll pick that later.
Academic gives me a d12 and a d8. I assign the d12 to Medicine, and the d8 to Self-Discipline. Then I roll a d10 and d8 for the next step.
– Step 2: Power Source –
I already had an idea of what I wanted now, so I just had to GET it. Fortunately, I rolled 2 and 4, giving me access to #2: Training, #6: Nature, and… Perfect! #4, Experimentation!
Just as I imagined; he’s like a Frankenstein’s Monster of a man, except he’s also Frankenstein at the same time. In a search for immortality, he has experimented on himself and given himself a bunch of abilities. Namely, he doesn’t feel (much) pain, can detach his limbs and regrow or reattach them, and is generally extremely strong and tough.
I assign the previous two dice amongst several choices. I apply the d10 to Vitality and the d8 to Limb Detachment.
Then, I get 2 Yellow Abilities, each using a different power:
For the first, I choose Personal Upgrade. This lets me create a persistent, exclusive boost for myself using my highest die. That’s pretty good! I figured this is like him giving himself some kind of dubious, on-the-spot surgery to enhance his strength or something. This wouldn’t work for anyone who doesn’t have his… Unique… Body type, so the ability became:
“Creative Biology” – Boost yourself using Vitality. Use the Max die. This bonus is Persistent and Exclusive.
Next, I liked the look of Misdirection. It evoked an image of him throwing off one of his limbs to distract the attacker, like a lizard losing its tail. Thus:
“Skink Tail Gambit” – Reaction: When a nearby hero in Yellow or Red is attacked, defend them using JUST Limb Detachment. Redirect any remaining damage to a target of your choice.
Then, I get one Green ability:
Overpower didn’t look like it was going to do much for me, which only left Unflagging. This fit me pretty well, though; I figured, being pain resistant, he could shrug off hindrances pretty easily.
“Walk It Off” – Innate: At the start of your turn, remove a penalty on yourself.
Finally I rolled 3d8 for my Archetype.
– Step 3: Archetype –
Now, Jacob’s primary concept involved him being a Minion-Maker archetype. Unfortunately, this opportunity did not present itself.
I rolled 2, 5, and 6. This allowed me access to #2: Shadow (no), #5: Blaster (no), #6: Close Quarters Combat (maybe), #7: Armored (no (but actually yes)), #8: Flyer (absolutely not), and #11: Sorcerer (no chance). I tried a hypothetical reroll and got 1, 1, 3. This only left me with #1: Speedster (nope), #2: Shadow (still no), #3: Physical Powerhouse (possibly), or #4: Marksman (negative).
After looking at the different abilities they offered, I went with Armored. He doesn’t wear armor, strictly speaking; in fact, he doesn’t wear SHIRTS when fighting. But if you separate the archetype from the strict definition of “someone wearing armor” and instead read it as “a durable, tanky damage sponge,” then it’s perfect.
I have 3d8 to assign. At least one HAS to go to a Power. I choose Strength. Then I pick Imposing from the Social Qualities, and… That leaves me with one more d8. I’m honestly not sure what to do with it, and I pretty much have everything I need. I think I’ll drop it in one of the Intellectual Powers, but I’m not sure which. Maybe Close Combat?
More importantly: Green Abilities! Lots of them!
First, I HAVE to take Armored. However, he doesn’t wear armor; instead, he just… doesn’t get wounded easily.
“Just a Flesh Wound!” – Innate: Reduce Physical and Energy damage by 1 when in Green, 2 when in Yellow, and 3 when in Red.
Next I take Dual Offense. You know how comics always have that scene where the big strong dude knocks out two guys at once by knocking their heads together? Yeah…
“Crack Skulls” – Attack using Strength. Attack a second target with the Min die.
Next is Repair. Of course the nigh-indestructible juggernaut should be able to heal passively.
“Accelerated Healing” – Attack using Vitality. Regain HP equal to the Min die.
And finally, Living Bulwark. This one is a bit harder to picture, but maybe he gives someone one of his hands or something and it pushes them out of the way of an attack, or jumps in the way to shield the blow?
“Lend a Hand” – Attack using Limb Detachment. Defend another target using the Min die.
Last but not least I get… Another Expertise Principle. Ok.
– Step 4: Personality –
For Personality I rolled 8 and 9. This gives me access to #8: Fast-Talker, #9: Inquisitive, and #17: Naive.
Naive would give me a d12 Red die, which would be great for my HP, but it doesn’t really fit. I’ll take Inquisitive; perfect for a man of knowledge.
This gives me a d6 Green, d8 Yellow, and d10 Red. It also gives me a rare Out ability that ISN’T just “perform X Basic Action using only your [power/quality] die.”
Out: “Word of Caution” – Select an ally. Until your next turn, they may spend a Reaction to reroll one of their dice.
I create the Custom Quality: “Self (re)Made Man.” It gets a d8, like always.
Then, I choose my Principles. These are pretty straightforward; they both have to be Expertise, for starters. He’s also a tough, indestructible juggernaut who is also a scientist.
Principle of the Indestructible and Lab it is.
Principle of the Indestructible
“You are generally immune to unpowered/mundane attacks, and cannot be destroyed under most circumstances.”
Action: Overcome a Challenge by rushing headlong into danger. Use your Max die. Everyone gets a Hero Point.
Minor Twist: what unexpectedly caused you to be harmed?
Major Twist: how did your invulnerability cause others to be put at risk?
Principle of the Lab:
“You have nearly unlimited access to a place of research, and feel at home there.”
Action: Overcome a Challenge by taking advantage of a familiar workspace/taking ample time to research the problem. Use your Max die. Everyone gets a Hero Point.
Minor Twist: What did you take a detour to observe/sample for later experiments?
Major Twist: Something’s gone wrong at the lab; what happened?
– Red Abilities –
For my first Red Ability I wanted something to reflect his ability to regrow limbs. Yeah, he had his minor healing, but I wanted more. So I took Major Regeneration.
[Note: there are at least two different versions of this move. One in Athletic Powers and one in Self-Control Powers. Possibly more. But these two use different dice; the Athletic version Hinders with Mid and Heals with Max + Min, and the Self-Discipline one Hinders with Min and Heals with Max + Mid. This makes it WAY more powerful. I would assume this is a typo, but which one is the real one?]
“They’ll Grow Back” – Hinder yourself using Vitality. Use the Min(?) die. Regain HP equal to the Max + Mid(?) dice.
And finally, I found one ability that I knew I HAD to take. Summoned Allies. I couldn’t get the Minion-Maker archetype, but I can still imbue little pieces of myself with a small semblance of will; enough that they can move and attack for me, at least!
“Anatomy Autonomy” – Use Limb Detachment. Create X number of d6 Minions, where X is the value of the Mid die. They all act at the start of your turn.
– Step 6: Retcon –
I actually got everything I needed this time, so I guess I’ll use my Retcon to change my d10 Red die to a d12. More HP, sure.
This makes my HP total:
Base (8) + Vitality (10) + Red (12) + d8 (6) = 36. Not bad.
– Step 7: Finishing Touches –
Time to come up with aesthetic stuff. Height? Big. He should be a hulking monstrosity of a man. How about… 6’ 9". Nice. Greyish, pale skin, grey eyes. Whitish-blond hair, so whispy it’s almost see-through. Age? Somewhere in the 30-60 range, probably. You can’t really tell.
Costume? Nah. He usually wears plain clothes and a lab coat, but when it’s time to throw down he goes shirtless; all the better for tearing off his arms and regrowing/reattaching them. Besides, then it’s easier to intimidate people with his rippling muscles and horrifying spiderwebs of scars and freshly-stitched sutures.
As for his name… Unlike Gale, this one took some more work. I consulted Jacob, who proposed something akin to “missing limb” in another language. He proposed “Mungon,” the Albanian word for Missing.
This reminded me of Mungo (as in St. Mungo’s, the hospital from Harry Potter) and I knew we had to run with that. I soon found “Dorë,” (Albanian for Arm) and added on the n we dropped from Mungon.
Thus, his name: Doren Mungo.
And… That’s about it. As with Concussion, I will post the Character Sheet in the next post. Thanks for reading!
Hero name: Breakdown
Alias: Doren Mungo
Height: 6’9"
Build: Hulking
Skin: Pallid
Eyes: Grey
Hair: White-Blond
Outfit: Typically wears a lab coat over a plain shirt and unremarkable pants. In combat, goes topless to facilitate removal/regrowing/reattaching of his arms (or pieces thereof), and to intimidate with countless scars and stitches.
Background: Academic
Power Source: Experimentation
Archetype: Armored
Personality: Inquisitive
Powers:
Vitality: 10
Limb Detachment: 8
Strength: 8
Qualities:
“Self (re)Made Man:” 8
Medicine: 12
Self-Discipline: 8
Imposing: 8
Close Combat: 8
Green: 6
Yellow: 8
Red: 12
HP: 36
Green: 36-28
Yellow: 27-14
Red: 13-1
– Green Abilities –
“Just a Flesh Wound” (Armored) – Innate – Reduce Physical and Energy damage by 1 when in the Green Zone, 2 when in the Yellow Zone, and 3 when in the Red Zone.
“Walk It Off” (Unflagging) – Innate – At the start of your turn, remove one Penalty from yourself.
“Accelerated Healing” (Repair) – Action – Attack using Vitality. Regain HP equal to the Min die.
“Crack Skulls” (Dual Offense) – Action – Attack using Strength. Attack a second target using the Min die.
“Lend a Hand” (Living Bulwark) – Action – Attack using Detachable Limbs. Defend another target using the Min die.
– Yellow Abilities –
“Creative Biology” (Personal Upgrade) – Action – Boost yourself using Vitality. Use the Max die. That bonus is Persistent and Exclusive.
“Skink Tail Gambit” (Misdirection) – Reaction – when a nearby hero in Yellow or Red is attacked, defend them by rolling JUST Limb Detachment. Then, redirect any remaining damage to a target of your choice.
– Red Abilities –
“I’ve Seen Worse” (Greater Healing) – Action – Hinder yourself using Vitality. Use the Min die. Regain HP equal to the Max + Mid dice.
“Anatomy Autonomy” – Action – Perform this action using Limb Detachment. Create X number of d6 Minions, where X is the value of the Mid die. These minions all act at the start of your turn.
– Out Ability –
“Word of Caution” – Select an ally. Until your next turn, they may spend a Reaction to reroll one of their dice.
– Principles –
Principle of the Indestructible
“You are generally immune to unpowered/mundane attacks, and cannot be destroyed under most circumstances.”
Action: Overcome a Challenge by rushing headlong into danger. Use your Max die. Everyone gets a Hero Point.
Minor Twist: what unexpectedly caused you to be harmed?
Major Twist: how did your invulnerability cause others to be put at risk?
Principle of the Lab:
“You have nearly unlimited access to a place of research, and feel at home there.”
Action: Overcome a Challenge by taking advantage of a familiar workspace/taking ample time to research the problem. Use your Max die. Everyone gets a Hero Point.
Minor Twist: What did you take a detour to observe/sample for later experiments?
Major Twist: Something’s gone wrong at the lab; what happened?
Okay, well, it's Friday again so time for another random hero. Full disclosure, I tried this earlier in the day and the character just came up garbage, so I'm redoing it. It just . . . it didn't work thematically, it wasn't memorable it was just, ugh.
So, let's get started.
1)Background
Okay, so I roll 2d10 and get 3 and 10. so my options are. Stuggling, Military, or Medical. I've done all three before, but the last hero I did was medical, so I'll steer clear of that. I've also done struggling a bunch, so let's do Military.
Military gets me a d10 and a d8 to choose between leadership, self-discipline, and any physical. Y'know, there are a lot of stories of superheroes kicked out of the military because of bad leaders (Netflix Punisher, Diggle from the Arrow, lots of examples), so lets do a military commander that is a hero. I'm going to put a d10 in Leadership, and, since he was in the military, a d8 in ranged combat. That leaves us with an ideals principle (I always save those for last) and a power source dice pool of d10 d8 d8
(Not sure where this guy is going right now, just waiting for it to come to me. All we know is that he was a decent military commander)
2) Power Source
So my power source dice pool ends up with a 4 and two 5s, neting me Experimentation, Mystical, radiation, and tech upgrades. Well, I feel we see military experiments, military experimentation with radiation, and military tech a lot in comics. One thing we don't see much of is Mystical. But whouldn't we? If we lived in a world where magic was real, surly the military would try to get in on that? I kind of like that idea, so let's lean on that.
So, I havea big list of powers. My first instinct is to go for Flight, but I haven't actually made any teleporting heroes, so I'll go with that. Teleportation at d10. There are a bunch of other powers to choose from, but I want something that can attack people, so I'll choose the good ol' standby for magic, infernal at d8. I'll also snag presence so I can use my leadership well.
For my Abilities, I figure he can just shout at people to inspire or put the fear of god into them, so Modification Wave can go off of presence. Also, he can teleport in front of people to take a bullet for them, so Mystic Redirection works for Teleportation. Last two things are an information quality at d10 (since our dude was experimenting with magic in the military, magical lore seems appropriate) and then we roll another d10 d8 d8 for archetype.
(Right now we know that this guy was in the military, a good commander. I'm thinking he was part of some super secret military group experimenting with magic, trying to bring a 'magic branch' of the US military into the world. Something happened, and he has access to magic now.)
Step 3) Archetype
So my rolls end up with a 4, 6, and 8. This opens up the choices of Marksman, Close Quarters Combatant, Flyer, Robot/Cyborg, Psychic, and Minion-Maker. Hmmmm. Well he doesn't fly, so flyer's out. Now, we just did a Cyborg/Robot last week, and psychic . . . well I suppose we could reflavor it as magic-like, I don't think that's the best idea. This is a leader, not a close-quarters combatant so that leaves . . . Marksman and Minion-Maker. I have two ideas. One is just a normal military guy who has a few minor magical abilities, teleportation and blasting infernal energy, but mostly relies on his military training. The other is a literal one-man army as his magic allows him to make duplicates of himself (as minions). I'm kinda okay with either. I think the most compelling story though is a man with some magic but is mostly a trained commando. So let's go with Marksman.
So, as a Marksman, we have to assign one die to Signature Weapon, (Which I'll say is his assault rifle). Let's make that a d8 since it is just an assault rifle that maybe can be loaded with less-than-leathal rounds. I also get one power from a list. I like Intuition, as it can represent his innate knack for magic, we can put that at a d10. Lastly, we get an information, mental, or physical quality. I like taking the mental quality self-discipline . . . he is a military man after all.
Lessie, abilities. Two gree, one has to be signature weapon, and one has to be a quality. We can reflavor Dual Wielder as him firing his assault rifle off in a short burst. I also like Spin and shoot as him pulling up maybe a shield made of hellfire, so we'll take that one with the quality Magical Lore
Two Yellow abilities, which must use two different qualities. We could have him drain the strength from an enemy and give it to a friend with Called Shot using Magical Lore. I also think we could flavor Ricochet as just letting loose with either his gun or an infernal blast, so we can use Ranged Combat for that.
A responsability principle and we move on to personality
(Our hero is starting to take shape. We have a Military leader of some sort who was part of a secret project to add magic to the US military. The attempt was partially successful with our hero here, he's able to summon infernal energy to teleport or blast people, but he still mainly relies on his training.
4) Personality
We get a 4 and 10 for personality, which nets us Mischievious, Alluring, and Decisive. The only one that remotely works is decisive. We record the ability and the status die. We also need a unique quality. I kinda like the sound of Sorcerous Soldier. Now we move on to Red Powers
5) Red Powers
So we haven't done much with our d10 teleportation, and I want to change that. Let's see, the Take Down power seems good, so we'll pick that up. We also haven't done anything with his intuition, so looking at Intellectual powers, Unerring strike seems good. Wow, we done already?
6) Principles. Okay, here we get down to brass tacks. What drives this military guy? What are his principles? We first have an ideals principle. We could go with order, but . . . I'm beginning to get an inkling of this guys story in my mind, and I think there might be a better way to do things. I actually think that principle of the hero works well. For our responsability principle we obviously have to go with principle of the veteran, though with my idea, principle of the mask would work. No, veteran is better. Lastly we have the Retcon.
7) Retcon
Hmm, nothing particularly that I want to do for Retcon, so I think adding a Red power should be fine. I want to add something based off of his Leadership, so let's see what Red power we would want: I like Lead By Example, and I'll Tie it to Leadership.
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Rupert Ross was a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army. Known for his excelent leadership skills and his intuitive grasp of complex situations, he was recruited into the government's secret 'Project Merlin.' The aim of project Merlin was to train soldiers in sorcerous ways so as to have a new weapon to combat their enemies. The U.S. Army had gotten their hands on bonifide spellbooks and recruited some of the military's top minds to try and decode them so that they could train soldiers. Out of all the recruits in the program, only Ross was able to understand an inkling of their power. However, his journey through the realms of magical darkness led him to almost loose his mind and his body was almost posessed by a demon. When he returned to the military, he informed them of what had happened, and told them that he risk was too great, that he had only survived by the skin of his teeth and that at least some other soldiers would surely loose their minds . . . or become posessed by demons.
The military, however, did not care and ordered him to begin training soldiers. Knowing the project had to fail for America's safety, he deliberatly didn't train the recruits and blamed their failure on their lack of a proper 'magical aura.' He also downplayed his powers, and when his tour of service was over, he didn't sign up for another. Ejected into the private sector, he was content to retire, keeping a lid on the powers he knew . . . but life is rarely so generous as to allow that for sorcerers.
Third in the list of characters: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-LR5BIWNVbdAW0dlLD9q3-6L_2WRUb_bsn2PRq2G7nA/edit?usp=sharing
I don't mean to break up this amazing character creation, but I was hoping to get in on some of it myself. Does anyone know when the base RPG game is hitting the >G store?
No idea yet. We might have have an idea after this Tuesday’s update but that’s only an assumption on my part at this point.
Ok, here we go with a new character...
Started by rolling 2d10, got a 7 and a 10. This gave me Academic, Military or Interstellar as a Background. Since I've already messed around with Military for a different character and Academic didn't really appeal to me, I chose Interstellar.
Interstellar gives me a d12 and a d6 for any Information or Mental Qualities. Since I got that sexy d12, I can't just ignore getting that on a Mental Quality for the extra health later on, so I picked up Creativity at a d12. With my d6, I figured grabbing Deep Space Knowledge made sense since they're from space in some way. I also got an Esoteric Principle, but I'll hold off on that until I have a better understanding of this character. Taking a d10, d8 and d6, I go into the Power Source step.
Rolling my three dice for Power Source, I get 5, 6 and 8. This gave me Mystical, Nature, Powered Suit, Supernatural, Cursed and Alien. I tossed out Supernatural and Powered Suit right away, but was torn between the remaining 4, but ultimately decided on Cursed.
Cursed gives me access to Signature Weapon, Athletic Powers, Elemental Powers, Materials Powers and Self-Control powers. Using my d10, I grabbed Fire, I'm starting to get this idea of something similar to Nightmist, but with Fire, because burning all your problems is the best solution. With my d8, I grab Duplication, as now I've got this idea of this hero duplicating themselves and spreading like wildfire. With my d6, I grab Intangibility, since letting this hero become living fire sounds cool, and you can't touch fire. I get two Yellow Abilities, so I grab Costly Strength using Duplication, calling it Divide and Conquer, and Cursed Resolve using Fire, calling it She's On Fire!. I also get a Green Ability, so I grab Double Edged Luck, renaming it to Hot Streak. Taking a d12 and a d6, I go to my archetype.
Rolling those two dice got me a 2 and a 12, so I had Shadow, Psychic, or Minion Maker. Oh boy, it begins. I immediately hop on the Minion Maker train.
Minion Maker makes me spend one of my dice on Duplication, Inventions, Robotics, Part Detachment, Elemental Powers or Material Powers. Man, that d8 on Duplication seems kinda low, lets make it a d12 instead. So now I have a d8 and d6 to play with. I decide "I don't need any more powers", and look at qualities. I have access to Information and Mental Qualities. Welp, guess I'll grab History at a d8 and Alertness at a d6, sounds like fun. Minion Maker gives me the Green Abilities of Make Minion, which I use Duplication for and call Double Trouble, as well as Power Up, which I use Fire for and call Flame On. I get one Yellow Ability, so I choose to go with Rapid Deployment, using Fire and renaming it Embers. I make note of the three additional Red Zone abilities and note that I get an Expertise Principle, and then write down all the Minion forms since I have that sexy d12 Creativity. I take my 2d10 and move on to Personality.
Rolling for Personality, I get a 4 and an 8, so I get to choose between Mischievious, Fast-Talking or Nurturing. Well, this is an easy choice, Mischievious and Fire fit together perfectly.
So Mischievious gives me a d8 Quality, so lets call it Spirited Flame due to our little fire-starter's current state of being. She gets a d6, d8 and d8 for her Green, Yellow and Red status dies, and gains the Out ability "Hinder an opponent by rolling your single Duplication die" to represent her trying to hold back a villain by creating a single weak clone. I also note that when I get my health I get to add an additional 4 to my total, and now I get to pick Red Zone Abilities. I start by grabbing Minion Maker's Swarm Combat, using Duplication and renaming it Friends Like Me. Then I grab Summoned Allies to combo with it, using Fire and renaming it Fire Starter.
Moving on to the Retcon, I debated heavily on upping that Red Status die, but the allure of the third Red Zone Ability was too much, so I grabbed Mutable Form, using Duplication and naming it Me's A Crowd.
Finally on to clean up, I look over my Principle choices and end up picking Principle of Fire for my Esoteric and Principle of Mastery for my Expertise. Calculating Health, I add 8+4+12+8 to get 32, then rolling a d8 I get a 7 for a whopping 39 health total, setting my HP ranges at 39-30, 29-15 and 14-1 respectively.
When Serenity Brande was but a wee baby, she found herself taken from her home on Earth and on her way to a far off system of space with a group of aliens who all seemed to bear elemental forms. The group, known around the universe as "The Primordials", was looking for a being who could bear the power of their fallen comrade, the bearer of the element of fire, and their search brought them to Serenity. Growing up, Serenity learned much about the universe and her place within it, and her experiences only managed to sharpen the inate creative thoughts, thoughts she brought to life all over the walls of the temple she was forced to live in. When she turned 16, she was taken to a strange room deep beneath the temple by her "family", where there was a strange arcane sigil on the ground. Urging her to step onto the circle, she complied, and once she stood in the center, she was wracked with pain as she began absorbing the primal essence of fire itself into her body. The process caused her already red hair to become a ravishing crimson, her irises shifted from amber to red, and her white skin began to become ashen. Her "family" watched on, and after a few minutes of agonizing pain, she collapsed to the floor, the ritual complete. When she awoke later and saw what had happened to her appearance, Serenity began to experiment with her new abilities, and learn that not only could she manipulate and even become fire, but that like fire she could spread by duplicating herself. Serenity would spend the next three years training herself to help her "family", but that chance never came. The Primordials, who had left to handle a disturbance while she was training, were wiped out by OblivAeon, leaving Serenity as the sole survivor of the group. Unsure of where she should go, she turned to the few things she had from her brief life on Earth, and decided to try and find where she came from. A year of hitch-hiking through space, and Serenity had found Earth, and she quickly made a name for herself helping people in trouble. After all, its what she was training to do. Now, Wildfyre is here to turn up the heat and she won't take "No" for an answer.
Blank start.
2d10: 9, 5.
using 5: Unremarkable...
qualities: Close Combat d10, (any mental or physical) - rolling low/high 2 mental. 5 mentals, rolling ... 8 investigation. d8.
Principle category: identity, 12 in category; d12=3: Dettatchment
Dice d10, d8, d6
d10·8·6= 3·6·1 gives choices of 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9. d6 to pick... #5: is a 7, so...
Power Source Relic
9 powers: d10 on # 1 is 6, so Materials Category, 5 choices 1 on d10 is Metal d10
• d10 on #2 is 7, Mobility category, 7 in there, 6 on a d8, so Teleportation d8
• d10 on #3 is 8, Psychic category, 8 in there, 2 on d8, so Illusions d6
Random yellows x2
Magical Shield - I think that sounds perfect for Metal. First time I'm inspired so far. Narrative is bampfing
Momentary Power - Teleport. Likely to rename it to "Drop in behind"
Green - one of them. Both look cool... rolling odds/evens 4, even.Punishment. Linking to Psychic. May be weak, but it's thematic.
d10·10·6
d10·10·6=10·4·3 allowing coices 3,4,7,10,13,14... #3 feels wrong, #4 could be the relic as weapon, 7 relic as armor, 10 relic as replacement body. #13 a vehicle as relic? 14... psychic... hard choice. I dislike 7 and 10, and 13 sounds kinda weird to me... randomize the other three d6=4 so middle. Weapon.
It's at this point where I discover that the table is unreadable on a grayscale printout. GRRR>...
P Signature Weapon: Bow d10
Q Magical lore d10
P Speed d6
Concept hitting... The psychic abilities are inherent, but how he found the bow
Gr: Spin and Shoot bow.
Gr: Sniper Aim using Magical Lore (Psychic Beacon)...
Y: Hair Trigger Reflexes on Close Combat.
Y: Called Shot Lore "Mystic Aim"
Pr:Detectice.
Dice: d10·10
rolls 1·10 giving 1, 10, 11 I like Alluring and stoic...
Alluring. Quality: Disarming Charm.
Out: Boost on Illusion
Gr d6 Y d8 R: d10
2 red abilities
R: Impenetrable Defense Metal
R: Untouchable Movement (Teleport)
Retcon: extra red: Summon Allies
Health: 8+(Red=10)+(Investigation=8)++4 (not rolling0
Including the renames of the powers...
Ulf Ullrson, The Æsir Archer
Powers:
Bow d10 (signature weapon)
Metal d10
Teleportation d8
Illusions d6
Speed d6
Qualities:
Close Combat d10
Investigation. d8
Magical lore d10
Green: 30—23
Principle of Detachment
Principle of the Detective
Spin and Shoot: Use Bow, Attack Max, Defend Min
Impose Magic Beacon: using Magical Lore Persistent expclsive boost vs that target using Max+Min..
Yellow 22—12
Hair Trigger Reflexes: when new target enters close range, attack with Close Combat die.
Faerie Fire: Use Magic Lore to boost another hereo with Max die.
Red: 11—1
Impenetrable Defense: Using Metal, defend against all attacks against you until your next turn using Max+Mid
Untouchable Movement: Using Speed, Boost self with Max+Min, then end anywhere in scene unharmed by conditions.
Visions of Minions:: Use Illusion to create mid die minions ranked d6.
Out:
Hit Here, Buddy!: Using illusion, boost an ally.
Backstory: Ulf Solveigson, born to an unwed mother, had a hard go of a childhood. His mother fled Norway for no reason he knew, heading to the States as a stateless person, and he grew up a green-carded statless boy in the foster care system. Finally, he had it. At 17, he passed the citizenship exams. With his new passport, he decided to track down the few things he'd been able to hang on to... And that was also why he bounced from home to home: he was very good at the "Touch my stuff, I break your arm" threat turning from threat to practical action.
He met an Asatru Godi, and studdied to become one.himself, finally feeling at home ... One day, in midwinter, he heard a voice outside while in the sauna. It called to him. "Ulf, come. Come and learn."
Thinking he'd been hallcuinating, he ignored it.
"By my mothers sword and my father's beard, you'd better get out here!" Intrigued, he peeked out. No one. Grabbing a second towel, he stepped out into the night, black and cold as it was.
"Ah, Mother was right, you grew up strong. I'm sorry, my son, for leaving you and your mother here on Midgaard. And, sadly, I cannot stay. Come, I have friends who want to teach you things.."
"Uh, who ARE you?"
"Ullr Sifson. And you are Ulf Ulrson! Now, get dressed, whe have a bridge to cross."
"My name is Ulf Solveigson."
"Well, boy, you're both. But i have something for you... my old bow. The Svartalfar have made me a newer, better, more magical one. But we MUST catch the bridge. GO!"
The bridge was just appearing when he got back, half dressed. "Uncle, Send us to Ælfheim!, shouted the large man."
And that is all he remembers of that year, setting foot on the rainbow bridge. And waking up, back in the city, hung over, dressed in clothes a thousand years out of date, and with a bow, and knowledge of many minor Ælfar magics ... He knew what he must do.... Protect Midgaardians. But how? Then, he saw news of Legacy, and realized, he did know how... Stop madmen with his bow, his wits, and his magic... and to make some friends, finally, because if he's going to party like an Æsir after, he needs a skald to tell him what he did.