I posted the villainous version of this character a while back, but he started out as a player character hero in a group that's been running semi-regularly for almost two years now and I thought it would be interesting to publish writeups of both his original hero form and his player's retcon of him reflecting events in game. He's the only PC I've had that really had major rewrites of their character to date. Other players have adopted brand new characters pretty frequently but when they do take advantage of a retcon opportunity they've made pretty minor changes. Thought it would be good to show an example of how retcons can keep a character feeling fresh over time and let campaign events impact their mechanics.
"Villain Bullfrog" has made several appearances as well, once in a flashback, once during a time travel incident, and a couple of times as an "evil twin" from an alternate universe.
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Original Hero Writeup
Name: The Mighty Bullfrog - and don't forget the "Mighty" part, pal!
Origin: Created by a botched military project that was attempting use retroviral enhancement to create supersoldiers, Bullfrog had his memories and morals thoroughly scrambled in process, as well as being turned into a giant green man-frog superfreak. On the other hand, he also gained inhuman strength, the ability to breathe underwater and swim at incredible speeds, and a knack for leaping incredible distances at great speed and with surprising precision.
When the project was shut down and its backers attempted to make its failures disappear permanently, Bullfrog escaped and found sanctuary and a market for his new talents in the criminal underground. He spent two years as a super-powered thug doing piecework for various employers, but eventually he picked the wrong hero to tangle with and was defeated and arrested. His scrambled mental state and inability to explain his origins (or even his actual name - Frank Arnold? Arnold Frank?) led to a court-appointed super-telepath digging out most of the real facts and repairing some of the mental damage he'd suffered. After some debate it was decided to drop the charges against him in exchange for his agreeing to ongoing counseling and to join the ranks of a "heroes in training" super-school program to get a better handle on his new abilities and keep out of trouble.
Frank (or possibly Arnold - he's still not sure and his records were erased by whoever was behind the retroviral experiments) took to both counseling and super-training like a frog to water. Sincerely grateful for the aid he'd been given, he's done his best to embrace the idea of being an "ethical super" and last year he volunteered to join a graduating superteam, which was approved by the court after due consideration. His reputation is still a bit soiled by his brief career as a minor supervillain but his teammates and mentors have publicly vouched for him and he hopes he can live up to their expectations. So far he hasn't found himself in a life or death situation, and he quietly worries about whether he'll pass that test when it happens.
Description: A towering man/frog hybrid with massively oversized legs and muscular arms that only look small by comparison. His hands and feet have retractable webbing between their five digits. The head is hairless and lacks external ears. His face is human-like but with a very wide mouth, broad and flattened nose, and extremely wide-set bulging black-and-yellow eyes that resemble a bullfrog's. Generally wears custom-fitted black swim trunks and an elaborate harness loaded with watertight pouches (which usually just hold his wallet, cell phone, and keys). In cold weather or when he's attempting to go incognito he wears a tailored overcoat and fedora which do nothing to make him less conspicuous.
Gender: Male Age: 22 (Maybe) Height: 7'2" Eyes: Creepy
Hair: None Skin: Mottled Green Build: Hulking
Background: Former Villain Power Source: Experimentation Archetype: Wild Card
Personality: Sarcastic Health (G/Y/R): 30/22/11
Powers: Leaping d10, Agility d8, Strength d8, Swimming d8
Qualities: Conviction d10, Acrobatics d8, Fitness d8, Persuasion d8, Reformed Superthug d8
Status: Green (30-23) - d8 / Yellow (22-12) - d8 / Red (11-1) - d8
Abilities:
Green
Downright Slippery (I) At the start of your turn, you may remove a penalty on yourself.
Hippity Hoppity (A) Take any two different basic actions using Leaping, each using your Min die.
Lucky Break (R) After rolling your dice pool for the turn, you may take 1 irreducible damage to reroll your entire pool.
Principle of Self Preservation (A) Overcome to get yourself out of immediate danger. Use your Max die. You and your allies each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: Who suffers because of your actions? Major twist: Are you willing to lay down your life to save others? RP: You will never be caught wholly unaware of a danger to your life. ("Frog Senses tingling!")
Principle of Strength (A) Overcome using brute force. Use your Max die. You and your allies each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: What just broke? Major twist: Who just broke? RP: Perform casual feats of strength automatically.
Yellow
Good Swift Kick (R) When a nearby hero in the Yellow or Red zone would take damage, Defend against that damage by rolling your single Leaping die, then redirect any remaining damage to a nearby minion of your choice.
Grab and Throw (A) Attack a minion using Strength. Use the result of the minion's save as an Attack against another target of your choice.
Hopping Mad (A) Attack multiple targets using Leaping. If you roll doubles, one nearby ally is also hit with the Attack.
Red
Big Green Hero (A) Overcome using Conviction. Use your Max + Min die. Hinder all nearby opponents using your Mid die.
Bounding Beatdown (A) Attack using Leaping. Use your Max die. Then, Hinder that target with your Mid + Min dice.
Wearing Them Down (I) Whenever you Attack a target with an action, you may also Hinder that target using your Min die.
Out
Heroes Always Win In the End (A) Hinder an opponent by rolling your single Conviction die.
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After about a year of on and off play Bullfrog's group earned their second Collection of stories and had chance to retcon their characters based on experiences in game. The Mighty Bullfrog got by far the biggest set of rewrites, inspired by some interaction with mutant rights activists and those who oppose them in the last story arc. While his origin story is unchanged (and he still hasn't recovered his memories, so he's still Frank-or-possibly-Arnold) he's discovered that the experiments that he underwent only activated his latent mutant genes, and he's become deeply involved with both the Mutant Rights movement while also re-forging some of the really dodgy connections he had during his days as a villain and making new ones tied to the terrorist JustX movement. So far Arnold (or possibly Frank) hasn't gone over the line into breaking the law, but his comrades and case workers are keeping a wary on on him after this turn of events.
Mechanically, the Mighty Bullfrog's had a nearly complete rewrite, changing his power source to Genetic to reflect his newly-discovered mutant heritage and his archetype to Close Quarters Combatant to reflect what he's pretty much been doing all along. He's a little tougher now and uses a much wider array of powers and qualities than his old Leaping focused version, and his qualities have shifted toward being more willing to leverage his scary looks and size as well as his changing social connections. He's still recognizable as the character he was, but plays a bit differently both in and out of an action scene.
Retconned Hero Writeup
Name: The Mighty Bullfrog - and don't forget the "Mighty" part, pal!
Description: A towering man/frog hybrid with massively oversized batrachian legs and muscular arms that only look small by comparison. His hands and feet have retractable webbing between their five digits. The head is hairless and lacks external ears. His face is human-like but with a very wide mouth, broad and flattened nose, and extremely wide-set bulging black-and-yellow eyes that resemble a bullfrog's. Generally wears custom-fitted black swim trunks and an elaborate harness loaded with watertight pouches (which usually just hold his wallet, cell phone, and keys). In cold weather or when he's attempting to go incognito he wears a tailored overcoat and fedora which do nothing to make him less conspicuous.
Gender: Male Age: 23 (Maybe) Height: 7'2" Eyes: Creepy
Hair: None Skin: Mottled Green Build: Hulking
Background: Former Criminal Power Source: Genetic Archetype: Close Quarters Combatant
Personality: Stalwart Health (G/Y/R): 30/22/11
Powers: Vitality d10, Agility d8, Leaping d8, Strength d8, Swimming d8
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Imposing d10, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Mutant Rights Activist d8
Status: Green (30-23) - d8 / Yellow (22-12) - d8 / Red (11-1) - d8
Abilities:
Green
Enough Tricks (A) Attack using Imposing, Ignore all penalties and Defend actions during this Attack, and it cannot be affected by Reactions.
Get Psyched Up (A) Boost yourself using Imposing. This bonus is persistent and exclusive.
Principle of Strength (A) Overcome using brute force. Use your Max die. You and your allies each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: What just broke? Major twist: Who just broke? RP: Perform casual feats of strength automatically.
Principle of the Underworld (A) Overcome using your knowledge of the criminal underworld or one of your contacts. Use your Max die. Minor twist: What shady detail makes others distrust you? Major twist: Are you guilty of what you're being arrested for? RP: You have a variety of contacts in criminal underworld and organized crime.
Take It And Dish It Out (A) Defend using Vitality. Attack using your Min die.
Versatile Fighter (A) Take any two basic actions using Close Combat. Use your Min die for each.
Yellow
Hit Harder (A) Attack using Strength. Use your Max die.
Hopping Mad (A) Attack multiple targets using Agility. Use your Min die.
Shrug It Off (A) Boost yourself using Vitality, then either remove a penalty on yourself or Recover using your Min die.
Red
Pushing Yourself (I) When you use an action ability, you may also perform any basic action using you Mid die on the same roll.
Never Say Die (A) Hinder yourself using Vitality. Use your Min die. Recover Health equal to your Max + Mid dice.
Take The Hit (R) When an opponent Attacks, you may become the target of that Attack and Defend yourself by rolling your single Close Combat die.
Out
Watch It (A) Defend an ally by rolling your single Vitality die.
Tactics
The Mighty Bullfrog usually opens a scene by using Get Psyched Up to establish a persistent personal bonus, and may repeat it if it's removed later. After that he favors Take It And Dish It Out to deal damage while taking less in return (usually applying his bonus to the Min die), switching to Enough Tricks if any enemy displays a lot of defensive or reactionary abilities. Versatile Fighter is for times when he needs to do multiple things at once, like Boosting an ally to reduce a penalty on them or Defending a vulnerable target while also Attacking or Hindering himself. In the Yellow zone his damage spikes higher with Hit Harder and he gains a decent multi-target attack with Hopping Mad, both of which benefit a lot from bonuses. In the Red zone Push Yourself helps his action efficiency enormously, Take The Hit gives him a very versatile reactive defense, and Never Say Die lets him regenerate a large amount of Health for a small self-hinder, which can be offset immediately by taking a free basic action to Boost himself. His actual Health total isn't enormous, but he can be tough to put down due to his Red combos. Even when he does drop Watch It lets him provide good protection to an ally who's still in the fight.
Outside of an action scene, he's best at dealing with the criminal and mutant activist communities and those who are opposed to both, and he's very good an intimidating people when he wants. His inhuman appearance, scrambled memories of what being "normal" was like and general lack of introspection do lead him to roll d4s in his non-combat pools rather often, though. The guy's great for generating twists on Overcomes, which fits both the "persecuted mutant" and "monstrous freak" tropes pretty well. Remember how frustrated the Thing used to get with everything from finding clothes that would fit him to people's reactions just to seeing him?
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