Help an aspiring Writer: should I include mentor

[JmOz]

I am working on a number of Hero projects.  The first one is a small ($2.50) pdf of a team of heroes for the city of San Corona

 

The team will later get reprinted (If things go well) in a campeign book.  The catch is that while they are intended as either example characters or pre gen characters there is one "member" of the team I am not sure if I should include as he is suppose to be an NPC and will give away some plot points.  His codename is Mentor, and he is the reason the team gets together as he is not really all that physicaly capable anymore.  If it helps think of him as Prof X in the original X-men (minus powers)...He would also be built on a lot more points than anyone else in the team (mostly KS, Contacts, some impressive fighting skills but not the Str/Con/Stun/End to use them for long)

[Tom]

Mentor sounds like the kind of character I deliberately don't write up.  That way he can do whatever I need him to do without having to figure out how to justify it in terms of a sheet.

 

On the downside, it means I have to remember everything I have him (or her) do for narrative consistency.

[Lord Liaden]

I think it depends on the mentor's potential use in a campaign. If all he ever does, or is capable of doing, is influence situations behind the scenes, and PCs are never supposed to meet him, a full character sheet isn't necessary. Maybe just include a few of his most relevant capabilities so GM's have some idea of how to use him. OTOH if they could potentially face the mentor directly, perhaps at the climax of a story arc, I personally prefer to have a character sheet handy. One can always change anything on a sheet to customize the character for one's own games; and that's easier than building a full character if he does have to be brought in. Just put the mentor at the back of the book in the "GM's Section" with any other information players shouldn't have, and suitable "spoiler" warnings.

 

As an example, I'm very fond of Scott Bennie's 5E VIPER source book; but Scott chose not to give game stats for VIPER's patron serpent-god, Nama, because he was always intended to be a hidden influence, and not even VIPER's leader for practical purposes. However, over some campaigns PCs eventually become able to take on godlike entities directly; so I wish I had had the option of breaking out a character sheet for Nama. (I ended up adapting the sheet for the Serpent Queen, from Blackwyrm Games's Algernon Files books, for Nama.)

[Nothere]

Part of the question is his role in the story. James Bond's M has a backstory that would probably make him close to a OO. But his role is to sit at a desk and tell Bond this happened here., go there and do this. So no one mentions it. And no one wrote it up. Prof/. X occasionally gets involved in field assignments but only to do one dramatic thing before letting the team deal with it. If that's what your thinking a general outline like he has martial arts and has a high demolition roll would be good enough to start with.

[csyphrett]

If he is going to be involved in an actual adventure, even a basic sheet would be okay. If he is going to be in the background, and not doing anything, then a simple description of who he is, what he can do, where is his area of operations, how he got where he is now, and when he comes into play should be okay

CES  

[JmOz]

For the adventure I will definatly do a full write up on him (to important not to), but for the "preview" project, which is really more of a "Drop these guys into your low point adventure or use them as a team" type thing I am debating...Maybe just a paragraph describing the team "getting together" which is the first scenario of the adventure...Maybe have that part of the preview book as well...

[bubba smith]

don't write him up that way he/she is the GM's default character