Those really special characters -

[zornwil]

One of the guys in our group was saying he'll remember the character in the supers game we're in forever, and I was thinking how special characters can be sometimes. All of them are some way, I tend to think, even (perhaps especially) among NPCs. It's kind of weird to feel that way, but it's like any close fictional creation, I suppose.

So do you have a special favorite?

I'll always be fond, as far as PCs, of Bart Rogue, fast-talking, smooth-tongued habitual liar and charlatan. Somehow the dice were with me when it was the most critical, and moreover I could actually play the character really well on the fly. Something about him clicked. The GM was saying that as long as Bart was talking there was still a chance. The most dramatic example was a bad fight where 2 of the other PCs, the big guns, were out in the open, I believe really wounded or about to be, and somehow Bart starts spinning this yarn to the men confusing them about who's their devil leader, and it manages to confuse and stall them (combo of RPing and those wild Deadlands dice). The other time that was pretty neat was when Bart was about to taste the wrath of one (of many) of his ex-lovers, someone he'd, as usual, loved and cavalierly left, had just come across him and was armed and ready to let loose. But I as Bart immediately cry her name and declare how foolish I was and how I'd been thinking I'd never see her again and all this, but at least I do it immediately, with almost no thought, just naturally lying as him, and I go on to prop up the tale with something about how I had to leave town or be killed or she would have been killed or whatever.

See, the most interesting thing, I think, about Bart was that he grew to believe his own lies very quickly. He did fall in love with Lily again that day, although that was the furthest thing from his mind when he uttered his desperate "don't shoot me" version of love. He believed his lies so much he'd truly try to do things he couldn't. Tremendous fun and something I fell right into.

The Urban Druid is a favorite of old but not really as special, ultimately, as other characters. He was too small a part of me and under-developed, though a very cool character.

As far as NPCs, I've always felt really good about my Magneto version, as good frankly as any I read or saw (though I read very very few). J. Hell (different J.s, Jimmy Hell in an old campaign, Jonas Hell in this one, as a PC I played Jack Hell a couple times) is a great grizzled, mad detective with a big-*** gun; he's the NPCs many players love to hate, yet he does have an insinuating charm. Though he's usually played for laughts, got to play him out in a very dramatic moment where he clashed with the PCs after betraying them out of vengeance for having put his brain into a dog (to help him avoid jail...LONG story...during a couple of the PCs' dark periods). I actually started to feel a little personally defensive, even though intellectually I knew better.

It's silly to feel so attached to characters, but it certainly feels cool when you have those memories. :)

[zornwil]

Oh, and the Red Amazon. Lifted her from Bob Burden's "Red Dyke", she's the staunch Russian communist, a sort of Captain America of her ilk, the noble warrioress. In this version she's a flying brick, basically, but very powerful, almost Superman-like. I've gotten to play her last campaign and this, not too much, but she's a fun and interesting character. She started out as an intended one-note, but some chemistry came out of the fact that the PCs went out of their way (after all, they're heroes) to ensure that Nick Fury wasn't going to rape her (he would have, yeah, I know, it was an Iron Age moment, get over it), and she later learned about it. That and I had to give her a noble restraint in the first combat when I realized she so way outclassed them even as a group! Anyway, since that start, she's developed into an interesting 3-D character, orphaned from home and longing to go back, close studier, even admirer, of other supers, wedded to beliefs she's now seen tarnished and ruined, and always adhering to an honorable code.

[Blue]

How weird is it that all my favorites are female? No, really. What does that say about me?

Moira, my gangrel vampire from Vampire: Dark Ages is just a sweet Irish lass who is trying to find the reason God let her become like this and what her purpose is among this group of cutthroats.

Anthem was made as a sidekick for my main character in someone else's game and wound up being more fun than the main character. I think it had someting to do with me giving her a much tougher life and having more to overcome.

My 1st Edition D&D Barbarian had the classic Conan "Lost her tribe" type of background and as on a quest to defeat Iuz. She was totally obsessed and had to frequently be talked out of marching into his lands (at 3rd level) and going after him.

My 2nd Edition D&D Druid just always seemed to have the right spells. They'd look so innocuous (As in, "Why on Earth did you pick those spells?") then when combat came I'd manage to come up with somethign useful to do with them. It's a planar campaign; On her home plain, the environment is destroyed, and thus when offered magic she opted to be a druid, to make worlds green.

Of these, Moira is probably my current favorite because I'm dying to play her again, but Anthem is the all-time winner.

[Cancer]

Without a doubt the most memorable character I've had was also the most insane.

B-25, the Mad Bomber, son of B-24 and father of B-26. This was in a Fantasy Trip game where the only source of sulfur was dragon dung (and the dragons knew it and tended to be uncooperative). He perfected the means to preserve sulfur against the sulfur-consuming bacteria that tended to make gunpowder unworkable after a short time. He also went orgasmic when hearing an explosion.

B-25 carried large fused grenades into combat, which tended to be unreliable and damaging to his friends as well, since most of combat was hand-to-hand. Fights (from his point of view) consisted of him standing in the back calling, "Can I throw it now?" To which the rest of the patry would chorus, "NO!!" "Oh, all right." Wait a full round, then call out, "Can I throw it now?" etc. Once, when the party was getting whomped badly and a retreat was called for, he called out, "Can I throw it now?" "YES! You idiot, we're getting killed! Throw it now!!" And like a kid who never got to do what he want, he replied, "Really?" "THROW THE DAMN GRENADE!" So he throws it, it goes off where he wanted it to, and in the breathing space it made the party makes its escape. But they had to carry B-25 out as he was doing his ecstatic twitching and moaning....

Once he figured his process out, he went (more or less unarmed) through the desolation surrounding the region's Boss Dragon Overlord, walked openly into its lair, straight up to the dragon, looks it in the face (making his save against the dragon's domination), and says, "I've got an idea."

The dragon, now intrigued, tells him to keep talking.

"I know how to make bombs. Good ones that'll work. I want to make the biggest bomb there's ever been. But I need your help. You give me what I need, I'll make the bomb. I give it to you when it's done. You can do anything you want with it. But I get to watch."

After some consideration, the dragon accepted, dropping the thing onto a nearby local noble's castle, thereby cementing the dragon's power over the area. B-25 became an NPC after that, and shortly thereafter the campaign went into permanent hiatus.

[teh bunneh]

One of my favorite characters was from a d6 Star Wars campaign.

Vince Marou was once an idealistic young man. He grew up idolizing the Emperor -- the man who created order from chaos, who took an outdated and ineffective bureaucratic government and turned it into an efficient and benevolent body staffed by the best and the brightest. When he came of age, he immediately joined the Imperial Army, and soon became a Storm Trooper (this was long before that "all storm troopers are clones" nonsense). He did so well that he was tapped to join the Storm Commandos, and from there was promoted to the Imperial Guard -- the red-robed killing machines that guard the Emperor himself.

However, while he was still in training, the Emperor was murdered by that upstart Skywalker. The Imperial Guard was disbanded, and Vince went back to his homeworld. But what he found there horrified him -- his planet had been discovered to be the source of a rare element that the Empire needed, so the population was enslaved and forced into stripmines. His family dead and his world destroyed, Vince was forced to rethink his position.

It wasn't easy. Imperial conditioning goes deep. He spent years as a vagabond, roaming from world to world and seeing the horrors that his beloved Empire had wrought. He realized that he -- because of his unwavering support of the Empire -- was partly responsible for this mess. After years of soul-searching, he joined the Rebellion (which at this point had become the New Republic).

But he was sick of fighting and warcraft, so he signed on as a Mechanic's Apprentice. He figured that he was always good with machines and he liked to work with his hands. He would help build a new society, but he'd do it without having to kill anyone.

And that's where the campaign started. Vince kept his dark secret from the rest of the team for nearly a year. The party always wondered how a simple techie got so damned good in a fight, but he told them that he grew up on a very rough world where you had to learn to fight. Several of them suspected that he had once been a Storm Trooper, but no one ever guessed that he was once tapped to be one of the Emperor's personal bodyguards.

He was finally forced to reveal his past when he had to battle his own mentor from the Imperial Guard. The best part of the "big reveal" was that, after it happened, everyone on the team trusted him even more. He was the guy that everyone could tell their secrets to; they knew that he would take them to the grave with him if need be. They also knew to confide in him, because he would offer common-sense advice -- and he would always back their plays. Vince was never a leader. He didn't like to come up with plans or issue orders, but he was a great follower. The team leader would give him a task and he would make sure it got done, come hell or high water.

One of the things that I liked about Vince was how he changed and grew over the course of the campaign. At the beginning, he never wanted to take part in fights; he would hang by the rear and only get involved if someone threatened him or one of the non-combatants. However, when he did get into fights, he was brutal, ruthless, and deadly efficient. He took out an entire swoop-bike gang by himself in a single round, crippling or killing most of them. I called "The Machine" -- when danger threatened, his rational mind would shut down and his Imperial training would just take over. When he came back to himself, there would be a pile of bodies. Despite the fact that he wasn't Force-sensitive, he gained a couple of Dark Side points because he could be such a vicious killer.

But as the campaign moved on, he began to resolve some of the issues of his past. Confronting and defeating his old master helped. He faced down a Sith Lord in order to protect a friend. He grew closer and closer to his team -- eventually beginning to think of them as his family. He became like a Zen monk; he no longer needed to fight, because the outcome of the battle was already determined. When circumstances dictated that he had to fight, he would only fight to disarm and disable his opponent, never to kill.

He once even managed to convert a Sith back to the Light Side, by patiently working with her for months -- gently nudging her to question her beliefs and rethink her philosophy. At one point, we had taken the Sith prisoner, and while in our care she created a dagger out of pure Dark energy. Vince asked her to give it to him; if she did he offered to give her back her lightsaber. "You can have it if you can take it," she hissed, ramming it hilt-deep into the hull of our ship. Vince (a really big and strong guy) tried tugging it out, which of course failed. So he told her he'd be right back. He came back a moment later with a cutting torch. He cut the section of the hull away and took the knife. "The Dark Side is linear," he told her. "You set for me an impossible task. But the Light Side triumphs because it flows around obstacles."

One of his most triumphant moments came at a time when he wasn't even there. A team member -- the group's Jedi -- was facing a Sith Warrior and getting her *** handed to her. Her lightsaber was broken and the Sith was about to deliver the coup-de-grace. "You're alone now, Jedi," the Sith gloated. Then a voice came from behind him. "I've learned that when you are one with the Light Side, you are never alone." It was Vince's Sith friend at the moment of her conversion. :)

OK, I could type stories about Vince all day, so I'd better quit now. Great thread, Zorn. :hex:

[zornwil]

Thanks, and neat characters. I like Vince's development.

[ghost-angel]

One of my favorite characters, and one I would play again in an instant given the opportunity, was for a Fantasy Hero game. I had just had my mage killed off (at request, didn't like the character at all) ... and was trying to make a new character between sessions. I was driving around Denver at night with the GM (we were hunting for Dunkin' Donuts Donut Holes) when I said "A bard, I need to play a bard." We made the character that night, but didn't get a name. Driving home we passed by Holly street - voila I had a name.

Holly - Holly is not a hero, her survival instinct is much to strong for that kind of nonsense. But Holly is a Bard, and Bard's run around with Hero's (a good Bard can Make them Heroes if need be). Holly had almost no fighting capability - she occasionally made a good target, but was an amazingly fast runner. Holly's major drawback was she was a very small half elf (five foot nothing, and discriminated against continually), she never let this stop her - usually out talking her enemy. She wasn't always quick witted, but she did talk all the time.

Holly's gift lied with her ability to play the flute and her ability to outlive those around her. Both the sure sign of a legendary bard. The first group consisted of a Black Knight, a princess mage and a psychotic dwarf. the knight's horse kept trying to eat her (apparently black unicorns are carniverous), but she never let this disuade her. They started their career of Evil (well, you can't always pick the goodguys) by stealing the Heart Stone of the Dwarven Empire - and handing it over to a very powerful dragon - Holly's shining moment here was overcoming the Dragon's fear aura only to exclaim "Don't eat me! I taste bad!" and handing over the Stone in exchange for not being garnish for the night's meal. apparently the team, who were all scared stiff, thought this a bad move. (before they got to the dragon they had to outwit a fire mage which involved Holly getting tossed overboard on a lake - and catching a cold.

They chased that dragon out to sea, only to cause it to active the Heart Stone and open a portal to another world to escape. Chasing the dragon through the portal they had a cross world adventure, where Holly learned the local language enought to strike it rich in the Spice Trade. the princess gained an artifact of unknown origin, the Black Knight (a noble man who wore black armour) lost his unicorn and blamed Holly. After Holly secured her knew riches in the largest port city they could find the party struck out to track the dragon down again - only to be chased by pirates.

The pirate ship was not using the same wind as them, and caught up quickly. A battle ensued, Holly incited the ill equipped sailors to fight back, ready for battle as the Princess Mage failed to either ignite the other boat with fireballs or stop the other boats mage from doing the same to theirs. As the ship started to burn around them Holly's Survival Instinct kicked in, she abandoned ship and displayed some amazing swimming skills. She caught a cold afterwards, the captain of the ship blamed his losses on Holly as well.

As they now traveled by land they signed on as guards to a caravan, wintering in a small town before moving on the next spring. Shortly after getting into the wilderness the caravan was attacked and almost everyone killed, a troll attempted to eat Holly so she fed it her pony and climbed a handy tree (displaying some amazing climbing skills as well) for the duration. After the battle she was taken prisoner by the Bandit Leader while everyone was arranging the dead. He stole a chest of gold as well. The party was less concerned with Holly than the gold, but she felt they were actually rescuing her when they made chase. Holly negotiated her return, mostly by talking to much that the Bandit Leader abandoned both her and the gold by nightfall - he learned that hitting Holly did not shut her up, it just made change subjects.

With the gold on hand and Holly back with them they forged onwards, finding out from a note the gold was to help a small town fend off an approaching army. Holly, for some unfathomable reason, was sent to scout ahead as the army was moving faster than predicted. She came across a river and fell in while crossing it, catching a cold in the process. On the other side she was found by a remote unit of the army who took her in. Two things were noted here, one they felt bards were good luck and two they believed all redheaded elves (and half elves, possibly it was just the red hair) women were witches. And treated her with some respect, or maybe fear. Either way she got some rest, a warm meal and a remedy for the cold that worked. She almost slept with the captain but he seemed leary of her witching powers.

She was escorted through the army, which had laid seige to the town by that time, only to find her former companions had been captured and were being held in one of the three main camps. Holly's survival instinct kicked in again and she disavowed all knowledge of them to the Army General. She was escorted out to the other side of the army and deposited there. She snuck back around and witnesses the Heroe's heroic death as the three of them attack the army itself, almost killing the General, were it not for his fanatic followers they surely would ahve suceeded. As it was they crippled a third of his force, thus preventing his campaign from advancing.

Holly, having a lot of money in another kingdom, wandered back that way looking for more interesting peopel to hang out with - because it's fun.

Holly was one of the most fun characters to play I've ever made - she had an undeniable practicle view of things, that being "The bard has to live, otherwise who gets to tell of their Heroic deaths in the face of certain danger to save the land?" which roughly means "I can outrun just about anything that might look like it will eat me."

Her inital build was 45points, I tihnk I retired her at around 80pts. She eventually gained a WF: short sword as the extent of her fighting ability. She also ended the campaign with an aversion to water, or at least falling into it.

[AliceTheOwl]

I think my favorite character to play would be Sakura.

We were playing 3rd edition D&D, in a world where elves were vaguely akin to our world's asians. Sakura was a priest of Kaeru, who was an invented god - the God of Change.

The idea behind this god was that she worked under chaos theory. In order for things like Fate to come about, Change had to happen, first. The purpose of a cleric of Change is to help people accept and embrace change when it happened in their lives, and see the positive aspects to it. Clerics of Change are forbidden from bringing about such things, themselves, though, without a clear sign from the god.

So Sakura grew up immersed in the belief in this god and that humans were evil, violent, stinky beings, little better than beasts. And then she met one. He attacked her, only confirming her belief that humans were horrible. However, her fellow villagers didn't react well to the stigma this carried for Sakura, and, when she gave birth to a half-human girl, took the child away (saying they were going to kill it), and exiled Sakura.

She wandered for some time after that, and eventually made it out to civilization. She'd picked up a few survival skills in the process, and, despite her bitterness toward humans, remained rather naive and trusting. And when she got instructions from her god, via signs, that she should hook up with others to adventure with them, she did so without hesitation.

Initially, the others were an elven werewolf and a mage/thief. The mage/thief left the game a few sessions in, and we picked up an assassin and a fighter.

EVERYONE who adventured with Sakura, at some point, ended up clutching their head and going, "WHAT?" To say she had a unique world view was understating it a bit.

Sakura's only weapon was a carved staff, which she used as a walking stick. So she tended to look completely innocuous. She tended to try not to kill, until she got enough signs from her god that it was okay to kill in self-defense.

One of the odder settings within this game was a "shortcut" they discovered. There were doorways scattered around this world, where time ran wonky and space was folded. If you had the key, you could travel from one end of the world to another in only a few dozen steps. But if you died while you were traveling through, you were doomed to spend the rest of eternity inside these halls, wandering and fighting any who came through. There were roaming bands of undead, therefore.

By the time the game wrapped up, she'd met her daughter, who'd been raised by the god, after a fashion, inside a sanctuary within the hallways.

Oh, and she and her friends saved the world by destroying a sword capable of killing gods.

[teh bunneh]

...hitting Holly did not shut her up, it just made change subjects.


That is funny. :lol:

[Super Squirrel]

I can't say that I have one. I rarely get to be the player so my characters have been minimal at best. Mind you, I do have special character deaths that I will never forget, characters... not so much.

Yeah... that is actually sad. *sniff*

[Constantine]

I’m a little late to the party, but my too best characters, of whom I have the fondest memories are both for Vampire the Masquerade:

Ronald – A Malkavian touched by fire. An arsonist who was horribly burned in a fire, and then embraced in the hospital. Ronald became convinced that fire was alive, and that he would someday die in its embrace. Ronald was horribly insane, and broke the masquerade on a regular basis, surviving only because of the actions of his coterie. After being associated with the destruction of Prince Lodin of Chicago, the coterie was forced to flee to Los Angeles. Ronald had his final confrontation with fire not long after arriving, when his friend, Joan, commited suicide with incendiary grenades to kill an elder that had blood bound both of them. He was survived by his childe, Bob, and is credited with the creation of the Firebug bloodline of Malkavians, who substitute a fire control discipline for Dominate.

Sgt. Major Gregory Harland – Inspired by the picture on Necropolis: Atlanta, Harland was a civil war veteran whose ability to survive and sense of honor caught the attention of the prince of New Orleans. He was embraced, and helped to defend the city against all threats. While never a political leader, Harland was war leader of New Oleans, and helped to defend it against all comers. After the death of the Prince, Harland shared leadership of the city with his sister in blood, Rebeccah

[TheRavenIs]

OK this is a bit hard to do, I have quite a few of them. I'll do them in different posts.

The first C that became special to me was a 1st AD&D C. Started out as a Monk, LG and part of a group that wasn't all that lawfull but were all good. He, Aarondor Amador was the son of my very first C, who was a ranger.
Aaron was kind, and very forgiving. He and he's team became involved in a planet spanning quest, Old Greyhawk. They started it as 1st level and it got strange, but fun real soon.
The team had to find crystals that the ancient elemental gods had created to create the world. So they had to find the clues, then travel to the location to find more, then go to the site of the stones. Needless to say this took time. I played in this for over four years in rl, and 20+ in game years.
Aaron was a psionic as per the rules in 1st AD&D. Body Control, Energy Control, Psionic Healer, Psychromity. He had all the attack and defence modes as well. He also became a true shape-shifter.
During the game be became a Paladin, he was a 7th level Monk until then, it was required that one of the team had to be one and my C was the only one that was LG to begin with so he was the logical one to do it.
So after he became a Paladin he ended up with the 'earth' crystal. This gave him access to almost all spells that were earth based.
The team eventually found the four crystals and then they had to go into the forgotten desert and find a lost city. When they did they lost control of the crystals and had to fight to the place where the crystals could be returned to the elemental gods, vs Drow no less. Eventually we did fight our way to it, my C was betrayed by our only elf C. We found a pool that turned anything that went into it into gold. He pushed my C into it, but the DM had me roll a % and I rolled a 100, so my C didn't die.
Aaron swam out of the pool and looked at the others, he hadn't been changed into gold, but he did have this strange glow. Aaron had been given true sight and the DM had the voice of my C's goddess tell them that Aaron was so pure of heart that he was protected from the pool.
Aaron didn't attack or even raise he's voice to the betrayer, only smiled and said to him, justice comes to all.....eventually. Needless to say we sent the crystals to the elemental gods.
Aaron ended that game as a 17th lv Paladin and 7th lv Monk, and he was raised to the nobel rank of Baron and given land by the leader of he's homeland. Sundi, ruled by an elven mage. I'll finish this in another post.

I got to play him again, 20 yrs in the game future, along with he's four children. But as they say that is another story.

[Just Joe]

I've GM'd much more than played in the last couple of decades, and I've rarely played the same character for terribly long, so for a PC I have to go way back to Flexigorf. He was a stretching, shape-shifting alien who was allergic to alcohol and had a penchant for consuming petroleum products. His powers would have made him a superb infiltrator, but his ignorance of human culture had a way of giving him away before long.

[zornwil]

I've GM'd much more than played in the last couple of decades, and I've rarely played the same character for terribly long, so for a PC I have to go way back to Flexigorf. He was a stretching, shape-shifting alien who was allergic to alcohol and had a penchant for consuming petroleum products. His powers would have made him a superb infiltrator, but his ignorance of human culture had a way of giving him away before long.
Sometimes there are special PCs. I'll always have fond (sort of) memories of Jonas and Jimmy Hell, NPCs (of the same family of course) across 2 different campaign worlds and 3 different campaigns. Jimmy was in the prior two, Jonas is in the current X-Champions campaign. There are some differences between the two, but they're essentially the same, hard-boiled "gutter detectives" (barely getting by, not even working out of an office) combo of bad and good luck (often jobless, getting in trouble, even being turned into a dog, but miraculous survivability and often has good fortune in some way to reverse the tide), with a big-*** gun. They tend to be pulp noir sort of, but over the top in those instances. Hell is always wrapped up in conspiracies and schemes. Lots of his plot hooks start with a dead girlfriend (naturally). He's often drunk, or stinking of booze the next day. The current incarnation is a paranoid conspiracy theorist, which the prior wasn't so much (the former one was more accurately identifying conspiracies and was correct about who was after him!). He's also got a way with women, especially wealthy ones with great vintage cars - which they invariably loan him (driving up in a '64 sports car, saying "it's my girlfriend's") and invariably end up severly damaged or destroyed or lost. The former one had a way with women, but not these types, and he owned his own vintage car. Hell, in either case, usually serves as early plot hooks for the PCs. And with his drunken, sleazy, womanizing ways, he's rarely liked by the PCs, he becomes a favorite point of mockery and disdain (and occasional groaning when he shows up).

However, Hell has his dramatic moments! I've mentioned it elsewhere, but things between Jonas and the Justice Squad came to a head as, put in short, he had betrayed their confidence as vengeance for them putting his brain into a dog's for a time (long story...). When the JS found out, they were upset and there was quite a confrontation as they considered what to do with/to him. In the end they parted ways. They sort of get along again, but won't be the same level of friends they were.

[Matt Frisbee]

I could wax poetic about several characters I've played, but one stands heads and shoulders above them all. I played this character in a DC Heroes campaign, and may (after this post) see if I can cobble him back together for a Champions setting.

The Gray Ghost
Background: For years, "The Gray Ghost" was a hit television series which starred Simon Trent. Even though Simon fell on hard times after the series was over, it didn't stop him from marrying and having a couple of children along the way. The daughter's name was Laura, and the son's name was Gary. Both children grew up in the whirlwind of Hollywood, with Laura gravitating toward a business career, and Gary eventually becoming a respected stuntman for the business.

Gary's father eventually drifted away from Hollywood and settled in Gotham City for a time, then had a run-in with the Batman and re-vitalized his career after helping the caped crusader solve a high-profile terrorist case. Recharged by that success (and a fresh source of income), Simon Trent returned home to Hollywood, where he and Gary renewed their relationship and Simon moved in to live with his son.

Gary borrowed his father's old Gray Ghost costume for a Halloween party, surprised that it fit so well. As he returned home, he heard gunshots in the house. Simon had surprised the home invaders and had paid for it with his life. Gary made a snap decision -- still wearing his father's costume, he jumped on his motorcycle and chased the invaders through the streets, until he caught and subdued them all, even though they all were armed. The next day, the media was full of the amazing story of the "Real Gray Ghost," along with the death of the actor who had brought the character to life. Lost in the shuffle was Gary's part in it all, especially when his closest friends all claimed that he had been at the party all night.

It might have been a one time event, but Gary's extensive background in the making numerous action movie stunts, along with his irregular work schedule made him oddly suited for the role of crimefighter. And it is a role he's been warming to more and more of late...

Powers/Tactics: Gary is a normal human in near peak condition due to the demands of being a Hollywood stuntman. His job has taught him the ins and outs of ground and water vehicles, equestrian skills, archaic and modern weaponry, acrobatics, unarmed fighting techniques and the tricks of rolling with punches, taking falls and doing other sorts of stunts such as punching through walls, jumping through windows and swinging from a line.

The current incarnation of his Gray Ghost costume (his father was buried in the original television series costume) incorporates a modest layer of kevlar armor and a kevlar insert for the hat. Gary also carries a number of gadgets and weapons both on his person and on his custom-built motorcycle. His typical patrol outfit includes:
1) AMT Hardballer Longslide .45 (loaded with rubber bullets),
2) a specially designed swingline baton loaded with lengths of fishing line with lead weights on the end and a compressed air reserve to power the line launcher.
3) compact impact-resistant binoculars,
4) several flash/smoke capsules which tend to distract, blind and obscure those who are not prepared for them, and
5) a small bundle of stripwire ties which are very useful securing uncooperative subjects, and tying down loose objects in a pinch.

The Gray Ghost's Motorcycle is a classic Harley-Davidson softtail lowrider with a switchout exhaust system which can operate in either stealthy (muffled) or power (bypass) modes, has special frame reinforcement and shock absorption units to allow for unusually rough treatment, plus armored headlights and additional armor plates protecting the engine and wheels.

Gary isn't much of a detective, though he has been taking classes at a school for private investigators (future character development hook). His primary abilities revolve around being able to pull off incredible stunts and unusual fighting techniques, along with an absolute fearlessness in the most unusual of circumstances (such as fighting aboard and on top of moving vehicles, in high places, underwater and so forth) due to his experiences as a stuntman.

Gary also has a number of friends in the stuntperson community who know about his crimefighting "hobby" and lend him equipment and cover for him when he has to recover from injuries. His father was a legend, and Gary has always been a likeable guy, and they all believe that his efforts are making a difference which makes it easy for them to assist his efforts

Quote: "Relax, I've done this sort of thing before...sort of..."

Personality: Gary is living life with the throttle wide open. He lives in the moment most of the time, though lately, he has been planning for the future, including making sure his friends keep a very tight lip about his activities. As the Gray Ghost, he is quite unlike the television character who was methodical and meticulous. The "real" Gray Ghost is genuinely fearless and fun-loving, much more like a modern swashbuckler than a grim sentinel.

I always loved playing this character, just because everything about him made so much sense to me. The DC Heroes system of doing things also made it easier for him to take on the big baddies with its action points system. Since my character was very cheap to build, I had gobs of AP's left over to use in the game, and frequently did doing all of those "superheroic" things that the other characters could only wish they could do. :)

Anyway, that's fave...thanks for the space and sorry for gushing.

Matt "Still-wishing-that-campaign-was-still-around" Frisbee