Published write-up Background Sections

[pruttm]

Assuming a character has a decent Background narrative, and good Power and Complication descriptions, do you feel that the other Background sections: Personality, Quote, Power/tactics, Campaign Use and Appearance are very useful?

 

Often I feel they end up repeating aspects of the Background description especially Personality and Campaign use.  Also, if there is a picture then the Appearance is likely repetitive.  So that leaves Power/Tactics as potentially valuable and the Quote as fun if the creator puts some thought into it. 

 

Anyone have any comments on this? 

 

Pete

[Burrito Boy]

I feel the same way, especially about the Appearance section being repetitive if there's a picture. I guess the Appearance can be useful for mentioning costume colors when the art is black and white but that can always be covered under Background.

 

Powers/Tactics can be useful since a power with its advantages and limitations isn't always enough for me to figure out how the power actually works.

[Nothere]

Yes and no. I find them useful and I hope I make them useful. But like any other part of the game it depends on how you use it. If your girlfriend doesn't get mentioned unless she gets rolled on the disads, then background doesn't really matter. If you take up the whole game  for three weeks tracking down and fighting the badguys., no one could blame you for not paying attention to your multinational corperation.

 

Of course that happens to everyone. You need to remind yourself to bring up your background, and to use your catch phrase.

[Greywind]

Unless it's a battlecry, I personally find quotes stupid. "So, yeah, this guy totally said this. Once." "What's the context?" "Dunno."

[Nothere]

I'm pretty sure the idea of quotes is to give you an idea of how the villain talks, and ideally their manner. After all there is a different style for people who say

 

"I'll break every bone in your body." as opposed to

 

"Sorry old boy but I'm afraid there will be some violence now."

[jolt]

I like having the descriptions.  Art is nice but, unfortunately, the quality is all over the place.  For example, Lynx (Vol. 2) is described as being an attractive cat-lady beauty but her picture just makes me think, "hairy".

[TheQuestionMan]

Powers/Tactics is incredibly useful when GM'ing absent PC's.

 

Personality/Motivation: again for GM'ing absent PC's. Until the Player establishes the PC's P/M thos gives the GM a good handle on how a PC reacts to situations.

 

Many GM's resort to Character Creation Questions Lists.

 

Campaign Use/Sub-Plots are supposed to be themes that the PC want to pursue. IMOHO.

 

Quotes: Are meant to add flavour. Stan Lee's Excelsior in Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron is a great example.

 

Just my two cents

 

QM

[BoloOfEarth]

Keeping in mind that I typically run Champions games, so the characters I create are usually the NPC villains...

 

I often provide Background in story format, which often establishes a "voice" for the character.  So yes, it often covers Personality and Quote fairly well.  However, when the Background is less story-like, those sections are more necessary.

 

Powers/Tactics often covers a few favored specific powers and how the character uses them.  Also how the character might deal differently with ranged and HtH combatants.

 

Personality highlights things that didn't come up in the Background, or motivativations that have arisen since the origin.

 

When I write up Appearance, it frequently covers how the character looks outside his/her hero/villain ID.  It also may include accents, odors, or other things that won't show up in a picture.

 

Campaign Use covers the character's role in a team, as well as how to increase or decrease his/her power levels for different campaigns.

[BoloOfEarth]

Here's an example -- Factory Recall (from the Corporate Raiders group in the Villain Theme Teams thread):

 

Background: Ohshitohshitohshit, thought Paul Fraser as he darted between factory buildings, trying to get out of sight of the guards who had already roughed up most of Paul’s coworkers.  He didn’t know why he had let John and George talk him into picketing the Duchess Industries plant to protest unsafe work conditions.  I’m just some poor schmuck trying to work my way through community college, he thought as he tried one locked door after another.  Why couldn’t I get a full-ride scholarship like Tom? Then I wouldn’t even be here, I’d be off studying at MIT or CalTech.  Oh, that’s right; I don’t have a rich, connected daddy to pull strings for me.

 

He was nearly to the back of the factory grounds when he found an unlocked door; he was just pulling it open when one of the guards rounded the corner and spotted him.  Paul ignored the guard’s shouted order to stop and darted inside.

 

Never been in this building before, he thought as he ducked under a conveyor belt and moved quickly past several large automated assembly robots, all standing silent and unmoving.  Winded, he stopped behind a rather tall assembly line robot to catch his breath when he heard the outside door slam open, followed by distant conversation.

 

Gotta find someplace to hide and wait ‘em out.  He was just about to move deeper into the factory when he noticed the large hinged access panel on the back of the robot he was hiding behind. Paul cautiously opened it to reveal a padded space inside, large enough for a man. Ask, and ye shall receive.  Paul smiled and climbed inside.

 

As soon as the access panel clicked shut behind him, the robot around him automatically hummed to life.  A half dozen rectangular LED screens in front of Paul lit, showing views from all angles (including behind and above).  As he stared at the screens, a voice (sounding strangely like Arnold Schwarzenegger) began speaking.

 

“Cyberdyne Systems Series 500. Bootup Complete.  All Systems Nominal. Power At Optimum Levels.”

 

Paul tried to shush the voice in case it was audible outside the robot, but it continued after only a slight pause.

 

“Neural Link Failed.  Neural Parameters Not On File For Current Operator.  Diagnosis:  New Operator.  Scan Commencing.”

 

A high-pitched hum began, and Paul felt something similar to a low-voltage electrical current running through his body.  Outside the robot, he heard a shout and knew his pursuers had heard the hum and were on their way.

 

“Neural Link Established.”  Paul was wondering exactly what that meant when he saw four guards moving along the assembly line, all with guns in hand.  Oh, crap, they‘re gonna kill me!  Panicking, Paul thought about running for it… and the robot stood, brushed aside the conveyor belt as if it was a collection of Tinkertoys, and began running away from the armed men.  They responded by opening fire, the bullets bouncing harmlessly off the outer shell.

 

What is this thing? With that thought, one of the screens began displaying schematics of the… no, Paul realized, it wasn’t a robot.  More like a mini-Mech, he thought as he checked out the various systems available.  Repulsion jets. Gripper arms.  Sensors galore.  Even an ion blaster.  Damn, Paul, you hit the jackpot. 

 

Wonder if the other ‘robots’ are like this thing.  He stopped and picked up one of the other factory robots – it felt light as a toy – and studied it.  Nope, just a normal assembly line robot.  He tossed it at the thugs, more to get them to scatter and stop firing than to hurt them, and then turned toward the exterior wall of the factory.

 

Moments later, as the mech-driving college student / factory worker smashed through the cinderblock wall and flew off, one of the guards grabbed his radio.  “This is Brubaker.  Get the Nest Leader out to the Duchess factory, pronto.  Someone took the Sea Snake prototype.”

 

Quote:  “Threat level high.  Initiate primary offense protocols.”

 

Personality:  Paul Fraser is a bit of an engineering nerd, and a gaming one at that.  As such, he tends to look at most situations from a tactical, problem-solving viewpoint.  Unlike the stereotype, however, he does just fine socially.

 

He was raised in a good family in a working-class home and has long felt that the rich behave as if the world is theirs to do with as they please.  Their sons and daughters can cheat on tests with impunity or even fail outright and still get into the best schools, while working-class schmoes like him have to scrape by on the scraps the wealthy discard.  Because of this attitude, he looks at the Recall armor as his tool to take the entitled snobs down a few pegs.  As he likes to say, “Finally, the poor and oppressed have someone on their side.”

 

As Factory Recall, Paul likes to talk and act like a robot.  His voice is run through a filter and comes out the external speakers sounding very robotic. This irritates some of his teammates (particularly Union), but Paul figures it disguises the fact that there actually is a person inside there.  He’s convinced that one day, acting like a robot will save his life or help him avoid capture.

 

Knowing that VIPER would love nothing better than to steal back the armor, Paul has made copies of Factory Recall’s schematics and other electronic files and has been stealing materials and parts during various team raids.  He’s already about 2/3 of the way through building a duplicate mech, just in case.

 

Powers/Tactics:  Even though he has a ranged attack (the ion blaster mounted on the right forearm), Factory Recall tends to stick to HtH combat if possible.  His signature move is to grab a foe with his Gripper Arms and then repeatedly punch or otherwise beat the individual into La-La-Land.

 

Against a particularly tough foe, he’ll grab and then try a Hydraulic Boosted Haymaker punch (doing 18d6).  However, he won’t do this unless he knows the foe has very high defenses.

 

If fighting in a location owned by a large corporation or somebody wealthy, Recall loves to cause as much collateral damage as possible.  So if, for instance, he grabs a superhero, he might use that hero as a club to smash walls, factory equipment, expensive cars, and so on.  Or he’ll smash through a wall even though there’s an open door a handful of meters away.

The mech’s computer monitors the operator’s vital signs and responds automatically with stimulants or painkillers to any signs of operator fatigue or minor injury.  (Hence the increased REC, END, and STUN.)  Note that it can operate nearly as well in or out of the water, and has both protection from and the ability to detect psionic activity.

 

Appearance:  Paul Fraser is tall (just over 6 feet) and skinny, with often-unruly medium-length blond hair and inquisitive blue eyes.  He almost always dresses casually, in blue jeans and t-shirts that often have amusing sci-fi-ish sayings or pictures on them (e.g. “Welcome to Washington DC – Where You’re Safe from the Zombie Apocalypse” with a drawing of a confused-looking zombie saying “Brains???”).

 

The Factory Recall armor looks much more like a somewhat large autonomous robot than a battlesuit – it doesn’t have a head, per se, and the operator’s arms and legs don’t even go into the corresponding limbs on the armor.  It is normally 3m tall but can extend arms and legs to stand up to 7m high.

 

It has four arms – two semi-normal-looking arms attached at the shoulders, and a pair of articulated gripper arms attached at the waist that fold up when not in use.  The pop-up blaster is usually kept concealed in its compartment in the right primary arm’s forearm until needed.

 

Campaign Use:  Factory Recall is a fairly decent brick with a pretty extensive group of enhanced senses and the potential do deal out a lot of damage if necessary.  With VIPER hot on his heels trying to steal the armor back, he can easily appear without the rest of the Raiders, being Hunted by the Goons in Green.

 

To make him more powerful, increase his defenses and STR, and maybe add a few dice to his Hydraulic Boost.  Some more Combat Skill Levels would come in handy, too, as would a Killing Attack (either a cutting laser or a bladed claw would fit well).

 

If too powerful for your game, drop the Hydraulic Boost and Gripper strength, as well as his base PD and ED.  Removing 360-degree on All Senses and dropping an Enhanced Sense or two would help make him a bit more vulnerable to sneak attacks.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah I think while sometimes the backgrounds might not be well done, they can be and usually are very useful if you pay attention to them.  If you don't care for it all, well nobody is forcing you to look.