So today's post is an experiment in building a character for a new player in a play by post game that's starting up. They had a concept for a character but wanted some help translating it into game mechanics, which I volunteered to take a stab at. This is my initial attempt and will no doubt change some as I get feedback.
The initial brief I'm working off of went like this:
Elevator pitch: DOCTOR DEMIURGE, the SCIENTO-MYSTICAL MASTER of RAYS and EMANATIONS, a sort de-sadismified Stardust the Super-Wizard as written by 70's Jack Kirby and scripted by 90's Alan Moore. Some possible powers, if these things fit:
-Contacts scientific/occult luminaries throughout history for advice (or, you know, imagines them and has some kind of knowledge-gaining power)
-makes a doorway to an otherdimensional Secret Lab Space Trophy Room Hideout Thing, that maybe contains cool stuff or maybe is just safe and impressive
-Shoots rays to do comic booky things, probably less blast and more delude, create illusory duplicates, transmogrify, confuse, induce psychedelia, create Jack Kirby photocollage effects, et cetera
-Flies through space and has life support and all that stuff I assume everybody in this campaign can do
Then we got a little more fleshing out:
**
DOCTOR DEMIURGE! Strange visitor of the CONCEPTUAL PLANES, this SUPERSCIENCE BODHISATTVA emerges from his private micro-cosmos to fight crime with the power of RAYS and DIVINE EMANATIONS! His COMPLETE MASTERY of the fundamental forces of physics and the siddhis of spiritual perfection alike makes him a stern foe of injustice indeed, while his membership in the ultradimensional ASHRAM OF SCIENTO-THAUMATURGY gives him access to the advice of such luminaries as SAPPHO, ZHUANGZI, CORNELIUS AGRIPPA, and GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER! Disguised as mild-mannered wastrel DAX DEXTER, he gads about until DOCTOR DEMIURGE is needed once again!
**
In game terms, I think what I'm aiming at is mostly sort of a buffer and debuffer. I don't know how knowledge-gaining powers work in this game, but I'd rather he not personally be the universal jack of all trades; rather, I'd like him to aim at *telling other people how to do stuff*, because that's less boring, and because it plays into the comic-booky archetype of the gabby would-be guru hero (who is typically just the self-insert of some white dude who did too many drugs, let's be real). So I think the "Access to the knowledge of ancient luminaries on every possible subject" is mostly supposed to be about that.
Similarly, his reality-bending powers -- the "rays and emanations" -- are intended as debuffs, transformations, and alterations. I don't know if he has a direct attack; maybe he summons thoughtform duplicates of himself, who then punch things?
Okay, I can work with that. The campaign is a futuristic four-color cosmic setting with strong influences from Kirby and Starlin, and Doc here fits in nicely already. After some fiddling around, I settled on the following as a first draft. Blue text indicates something that could be changed or decisions to be made, which I'll deal with below.
EDIT: The player who'll be using Doctor Demiurge has decided to go with this largely unchanged, and I've gone through and modified the post to show the changes and final decisions, which are now in Red text. The ability names all went unaltered, so I'm leaving them as-is.
Background: Interstellar Power Source: Mystical Archetype: Reality Shaper
Personality: Inquisitive Health (G/Y/R): 30/22/11
Powers: Cosmic d10, Inventions d10, Postcognition d8, Transmutation d6
Qualities: Magical Lore d12, Science d10, Conviction ("Evil must be defeated; evil stems from ignorance; as above, so below. Therefore, I must pursue personal and universal understanding.") d8, SUPERSCIENCE BODHISATTVA d8, Otherworldly Mythos d8, Technology d6
Status: Green (30-23) d6 / Yellow (22-12) d8 / Red (11-1) d10
Abilities:
Green
Principle of the Cosmos (A) Overcome a challenge involving Cosmic energies. Use your Max die. You and your allies each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: What other energy/element is currently causing your powers to go on the fritz? Major twist: What source of energy/element is currently dampening all your powers? RP: You have an affinity for Cosmic energies and easily interact with them.
Principle of the Lab (A) Overcome a challenge while while in a familiar workplace or when you have amble research time. Use your Max die. You and your allies gain each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: What did you make a detour to observe and sample for future experiments? Major twist: Something's gone very wrong in the lab, what was it? RP: You have nearly unlimited access to a dedicated research area and are at home working there.
Science Wizardry (A) Attack using Inventions. Move the target anywhere nearby in the scene. If the target goes next in the turn order, you decide who takes the next turn after them.
Strange Rays (A) Hinder using Cosmic. That penalty is persistent and exclusive.
Yellow
Access the Ashram of Sciento-Thaumaturgy (A) Overcome an environmental challenge using Postcognition. Use your Max die. Then, either remove any penalty from the scene or Boost using your Mid die.
Karmic Unwinding (R) When a nearby enemy would create a mod, you may remove it immediately.
Weird Emanations (A) Boost or Hinder using Cosmic. Apply that mod to multiple nearby targets.
Red
Pick any three. He wound up taking Eerie Beams, Micro-Cosmic Arsenal, and Techno-Magical Arsenal which should make for some nice Red zone options and also provide tempting possibilities for taking a twist to use one or more of them earl in the Yellow zone.
Atavistic Possession (A) Select a minion. That minion is now entirely under your control and acts at the start of your turn. If you are incapacitated you lose control of that minion. You may also choose to release control of that minion at any time. At the end of the scene, that minion is defeated.
Cosmic Justice (I) At the start of your turn, turn any penalty into a bonus.
Eerie Beams (A) Remove a bonus on a target. Then, Hinder that target using Magical Lore. Use your Max die. That penalty is persistent and exclusive.
Fearsome Conviction (A) Overcome using Conviction. Use your Max + Min dice. Hinder all nearby opponents using your Mid die.
Guidance From the Ashram (A) Boost another hero using Postcognition. If that hero has already acted this round, use your Max die and that hero loses Health equal to your Min die. That hero acts next in the turn order.
Micro-Cosmic Arsenal (A) Attack multiple targets using Inventions. Use your Max + Min dice. If you roll doubles, either take damage equal to your Mid die or take a minor twist.
Techno-Magical Supremacy (A) Boost yourself using Inventions. Use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive. Then, Attack using your Mid die plus that bonus.
Out
Assistance From Beyond (A) Choose an ally. Until your next turn, that ally may reroll one of their dice by using a Reaction.
So, why these choices? I started with the desired super-powers (which are pretty unusual in game terms), then looked for abilities to key them to that had mechanical effects to fit them narratively.
The "consult with sages of the past" thing seemed like a reasonable interpretation of what Postcognition can do. Rather than just using the more common "object reading" method, Doc instead reaches back in time in space to call upon expert advice. That's reflected in part by his slew of Information qualities (he's got lot of them by any standard, and they're conceptually amped up by getting advice from his peers across time and space), and more directly with his Karmic Unwinding and Access the Ashram of Sciento-Thaumaturgy ability, the latter of which (as it involves the scene environment directly) probably does include some more traditional object reading as well as the sages. If you take them, the Red abilities Atavistic Possession and Guidance From the Ashram (and possibly Cosmic Justice) also conceptually involve entities from the past getting involved in one way or another.
The micro-cosmos/pocket dimension/lab and trophy room sounds far out, but the nature of the character actually makes it pretty easy to just define as a nice big Inventions die. The space itself, its contents and access to it are all the product of Doc's blended science-wizardry, and he can carry around a few toys from his stash to do things like Science Wizardry and (if you take them) access it for Micro-Cosmic Arsenal or Techno-Magical Supremacy in a crisis. His Principle of the Lab is also hung off of the concept, of course. The one thing I'd do to reign it in a bit would be to make accessing the space a little to slow or complicated to just use it as a hidey-hole during an action scene, thereby avoiding the D&D Rope Trick/Exodus Knife nonsense. Might be a cool narrative touch to have Doc fade away into his micro-cosmos if he gets KOd though, resting his battered body and spirit while continuing to provide Assistance From Beyond.
As for his multi-function but mostly non-damaging beams and rays and emanations, I've bundled all of those with Cosmic, which lets you play with the fundamental forces of the universe - very fitting for a Reality Shaper archetype. They tie in to a multiple abilities including Principle of the Cosmos and Strange Rays and Weird Emanations and the optional Red Eerie Beams ability. The various mods and overcomes associated with Cosmic should leave plenty of opportunities to describe wildly varied effects.
Being able to casually ignore the rigors of space most of the time (twists are always a possible complication) is part of the campaign theme, but he's got multiple ways to justify being able to survive anyway as well as do a little flying around. You could take actual Flight as his undecided d6 power, but Inventions could include something to emulate the it (an anti-grav harness, jet boots, belt thrusters, etc.), Cosmic can manipulate gravity, Magical Lore can help create a flying spell, and anyone enlightened enough to be a SUPERSCIENCE BODHISATTVA d8 can probably free themselves of Earthly shackles, right?
With that in mind I just had to figure out a suitable background and personality. An Interstellar background was a good fit, and in a cosmic setting probably implies you're well-travelled or at least not from local space originally rather than being a run-of-the-mill spacefarer, who are nothing special in this game. Personality came down to asking what level of stress Doc would perform best in, and since he's best under pressure something with a 6/8/10 status die array seemed best. Could have gone with something even more extreme with one of the 6/6/12, or you could ditch one of your Red abilities for a 6/8/12 array and 32 max Health, but I think it's fine as-is. Technically Doc is using the "Inquisitive" personality, but that's just a frame for a status array and Out ability (which is a really unusual one, there's nothing else in the game that lets you selectively choose and reroll just one die in a pool) and you can and should rename it you want. I rather like "Enlightened" as a substitute.
There are a few decisions that still need to made, but none of them will directly alter any other element of the character. There's an undecided d6 power still to be taken,which could be anything from te mystical power source. It's rather broad list of options (four whole power categories plus five single ones) but a d6 isn't going to be very impactful in general. The biggest exception to that would be to take a Self-Control power (maybe Intangibility or Invisibility, but there's weirder stuff like Shape-Changing or Part Detachment),which won't be very potent with just a d6 but would let you take the Red Major Regeneration ability off the category's list. It's common way to try to fix durability issues, but doesn't feel super-thematic. Myself, I'd probably go with Transmutation so you can (slowly, in small amounts) change one type of inorganic substance into another. Space alchemy seems like a better conceptual fit, and it would give you another menu of Red abilities to look at (Materials, in that case).
Speaking of which, there are three Red abilities (one of which is using the retcon "tweak" option) to choose from. Doc only has access to a fairly limited set of category choices (just five or six to consider, depending on where you put that floating d6 power, and there are a total of thirteen categories total) but that's still leaves plenty of options, far more than you can take.
I've listed seven of the more interesting and effective ones above, but if that still isn't enough there are at least twice as many more. Pick any three. Which you want is up to you (there are none that rely on combos), although I would recommend grabbing at least one of the two keyed to Inventions (conceptually, hastily yanking situationally useful weapons and gear out of your micro-cosmic HQ in a crisis), and taking both would not hurt any. Micro-Cosmic Arsenal is a godawful powerful mass attack, and even a support character benefits from access to some serious Red damage output, especially if you wind up last man standing. Techno-Magical Supremacy is your only good option for establishing a strong persistent bonus on yourself, and might be a reasonable choice to use early (ie in Yellow) by accepting a minor twist.
All the other blue text stuff are placeholder names that can be changed to anything you like. Tried to flavor them to fit the PC, but that sort of thing is really subjective and using your own names may make it easier to recall what abilities do in play. SUPERSCIENCE BODHISATTVA d8 is your custom roleplaying quality, and no matter what it winds up being called you'll need to work with the GM to decide what it actually does for you. Unlike some characters it's not going to need to serve as a crutch for combat abilities - yours are conceptually meant to be bundled with Magical Lore or Science (depending on what power they're keyed to) in most situations.
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