Wildcards: Croyd aka The Sleeper

[Super Squirrel]

Anyone have even the faintest notion how to go about building him? I'm thinking of using some similar incarnation of him as a 'for hire' bad guy and 'for hire' good guy. I'm just lacking in a way to start.

I suspect that the best approach is a dedicated portion of the character is Multiform or maybe Accidental Change with huge bonuses.

Input is openly accepted.

[MacBean]

Ah, one of my favourite characters.

I've always thought the best way to handle croyd was with an assist from the GM. Write up his basics, maybe 100+50 disads, then work with the GM to just rewrite the remaining points as needed. I've always thought that Multiforms and VPP needlessly complicated things.

Of course, that takes a GM really willing to work with you.

[Armitage]

Originally posted by Super Squirrel
Anyone have even the faintest notion how to go about building him? I'm thinking of using some similar incarnation of him as a 'for hire' bad guy and 'for hire' good guy. I'm just lacking in a way to start.

I suspect that the best approach is a dedicated portion of the character is Multiform or maybe Accidental Change with huge bonuses.

Input is openly accepted.

I'd lean more toward a massive Variable Power Pool with a reduced form of Character Has No Choice Regarding When or How Powers Change (-3/4 instead of -1).
His Powers are totally random, but he can prevent them from changing as long as he can avoid falling asleep. And even that control is limited, as shown in one of the last books. He essentially became the Wild Cards Superman, a dozen or more powers, all at high levels, but was only awake for an hour or so.

[Tamashii2000]

Maybe a Multi-form with some realy strange version of NCC on it.

[Super Squirrel]

First of all, I'm the GM so there is no 'letting the GM do the rest'. But that helps. VPP should do a lot of it but that gets really expensive.

One thing I have noticed about Croyd. His next form always seems convenient. In the first book, he is 'caught' and locked up in jail. His next form is a ghost form that allows him to pass through walls.

[cubist]

Not swo sure that his Bat form was helpful at his sister's wedding! Remember, he alwas ahs some degree of superhuman strength and that stupid play it again Sam trick they introduced in the second series.

[Super Squirrel]

It was a gargoyle, not a bat if I recall correctly.

[Yogzilla]

Transform (into a new Wildcard)
-Self Only
-Uncontrollable
-Limited: Only when asleep

Maybe throw in Extra Time to handle the extended sleep cycles...

-Yogzilla

[Supreme]

Well, I don't think it should be a multi-form because each of Croyd's forms are different. Multiforms are essentially static. Transform self with no conscious control sounds about right.

[csyphrett]

I think Surfbrook has a version of this character in his Wild Card archive at his site.
CES

[keithcurtis]

In one of the final books it is revealed that his form is dictated by subconscious will. If something is heavy on his mind, he will tend toward that direction. A villain uses hypnosis to direct his form changing.

Keith "The Great and Powerful" Curtis

[Starcorp Man]

We never got the Sleeper to really work by the rules, in the older editions. It was pretty much, set disadvantages, base this for STR, INT and went with it.

[Hermit]

Perhaps activation rolls on some Characteristic points... rolled rarely only, when he awakens. That AND the VPP :)

Or maybe Multiforms with Variable SFX, and Variable Advantage advantages. (How's that for a mouthful)

[Chris Goodwin]

If you want to use Multiform with Variable Result (+1/2) from first edition Fantasy Hero, that would work, along with a NCC (-1 at least) to say that he can't control what he changes into. Add Accidental Change, When Asleep, and Life Support to only have to sleep about once every few weeks. He can extend his non-sleeping time with speed, but it will eventually catch up to him.

[Killer Shrike]

Heh. Croyd has always been one of my favorite character concepts. I kept reading the Wildcards series well past the point I actually liked it anymore, in the hopes that Croyd would show up at some point.

Some other Wildcard-derived favorite concepts are Golden Boy, Mackie Messer, Carnifex, Mr. Nobody, and of course the Turtle, off the top of my head.

Within the confines of normal character creation rules, a VPP would work best IMO. No Choice How or When (-1) and a bigger Between Adventures (-3/4, takes weeks or months). These days, I would prolly use the random generator in Champions to at least get a running start each go around if I were the GM, in the past I would have used Dave Mattingly's random generator.

Ive always thought of doing his Sleep bit as a END pool which drives all of his powers, with 2 Recoveries limited differently. The 1st Recovery would be his 'awake' Recovery; it would be small, would take Personal Recovery, and would be limited to Must Ingest Amphetamines (treat similar to the must plug into a wall socket disadvantage). The 2nd Recovery would be his 'asleep' Recovery, and of course would be limited to only work while he is comatose; further it would also be fairly small.

Then, to make it all work, his Disadvantages would pick up the slack. 1st off, he would have a Susceptibility to having his END Pool at 0, which would cause him to take STUN when his END pool ran out, eventually passing out; obviously the disadvantage needs to exceed his personal Recovery to be effective. Then he would have a PhysLim: Cannot wake up until VPP is changed.

So basically, the bigger the powers, the longer he'll stay asleep and the more END those powers will burn when he wakes up. The GM, of course, should limit powers bought down to 0 END in the VPP when he builds the power set, but on the other hand Croyd stayed awake for longer stretches on occasion so maybe some forms are just more efficient and dont tire him out as fast.

The GM needs to be a little bit lenient and allow maybe 25 -50 points of 'morphable' Physical and Distinctive Feature disadvantages relevant to each form, which of course the GM gets to set with each form.

Fortunately, Croyd certainly doesnt lack for other disadvantages, including a Dependency on amphetamines, Enraged while on amps, certainly a bad Reputation ("if its Croyd leave him alone"; Typhoid Croyd; etc), and prolly some Unluck (Croyd seems to get the short end of the stick often). I would rather treat his fear of drawing a Black Queen as a Psychological Limiation: Fear of going to sleep (VC, Strong or Common, Total depending on how you look at it) than as an actual possible outcome, as I dont see Croyd ever actually morphing into anything other than an ace or joker-ace.

Outside of his 'Sleeper' power suite, I would also give him Life Support: Longevity (he's been around along time, and doesnt seem to actually age -- or at least not at the same speed as everyone else), some Power Defense and Mental Defense (he seems pretty resistant to other folks powers regardless of form), and of course some extra strength, maybe around 30 (it seems like all of his forms have some degree of enhanced STR -- any further extra strength relevant to a form would come out of the VPP for that form).


Just some ideas......

[Talon]

I think Multiform in a VPP would cover it pretty well. Apply whatever NCC variant you feel is appropriate.

[The Mad GM]

I agree with the Multiform in a VPP. It's a dangerous combination, but if it's an NPC, then heck, go for it. Essentially, every 'form' has to have this one power, but beyond that, anything goes.

The tricky bit is actually that you have to write up every character. There is a random character generator at this address:

HERO GAMES Random Character Generator Page (http://www.trimira.com/hero_stuff/hero_stuff.html)