New Character "Strong Guy"

[Guest Witch Doctor]

I'm creating a character for an up and coming face to face game. The game setting is more modern, though not really rust age.

The character, though, is more of the classic "bright smile, American flag waving behind him, "here I come to save the day" type of character". He used to be a comic book character in the game world and, through a cosmological accident, became real.

He's the classic flying brick named "Strong guy" complete with "Strong-vision" and, possibly a PRE attack that does knockback.

 

The theme I'm going with is a sort of "man out of time" idea where he yearns for the simple life where bad guys are bad and good guys are good and there's never any doubt where someone stands - no moral ambiguity. He's the kind of character who calls everyone "citizen" and escorts old ladies across the street, but lives in a world that is nothing like that and knows that he's in a world that is nothing like that. So, he represents something the world has lost.

 

He's more serious than "spoofy" (though there's plenty of humor to be found in the concept and in the character). He's over the top, but he's also the moral center of the group.

 

Has anybody else done a character like this? It might help me clarify in my own mind what I'm aiming for if I could hear of similar characters.

[ghost-angel]

Re: New Character "Strong Guy"

 

I had two concepts for this I never got to play..

 

Colonel Justice - he lived in a black/white world in his head, and falls short of real world reality ... he just doesn't get it. Often confused or frustrated that reality is not living up to his expectations he does good because he is Good. The problem is that this moral plain is as ascew from reality as a psychopathic killer, just to the other side. The idea was to take the concept to over the top serious maximum possible.

 

Son of a Gun - [ripped right out of the KMFDM song of the same name] he's probably what happens when the above guy finally caves into denial and pops out the other side. He really is holding up an ideal that doesn't exist, so much so he no longer has "Code vs Killing" and is utterly ruthless while under the guise of justice .. his other name could easily be Nationalist Man. Take the concepts of patriotism to such an extreme you end up buried in a bunker in Montana - or you put on tights and beat up everything anti-idealistic. You aren't just "fighting against crime" anymore you're "fighting for an ideal" which has inifinite more possiblity to run amok in the moral playground.

[Storm Shadow]

Re: New Character "Strong Guy"

 

How your character does a PRE attack that does knockback? That's a cool idea but how is it?

[Hawksmoor]

Re: New Character "Strong Guy"

 

How your character does a PRE attack that does knockback? That's a cool idea but how is it?

 

Storm Shadow it is a really simple idea, just add the does knockback advantage to your PRE. Now the problem is he has to use PRE to well impress people, and to do that he rolls his PRE attack dice. The Mayor just got knocked out the window.

 

Of course you could buy the PRE "Attack" as a separate power but where is the fun in that?

 

Hawkmoor

-Smile: 2d6 Sight Flash AE Cone (Aquafresh)

-Hair 50rPD 10rED ARMOR act 8- (Aquanet)

[ghost-angel]

Re: New Character "Strong Guy"

 

Storm Shadow it is a really simple idea, just add the does knockback advantage to your PRE. Now the problem is he has to use PRE to well impress people, and to do that he rolls his PRE attack dice. The Mayor just got knocked out the window.

 

Of course you could buy the PRE "Attack" as a separate power but where is the fun in that?

 

Hawkmoor

-Smile: 2d6 Sight Flash AE Cone (Aquafresh)

-Hair 50rPD 10rED ARMOR act 8- (Aquanet)

 

While the idea of knocking The Mayor out the window is rather funny ... you don't have to do a PRE Attack to impress people, a simple PRE roll will suffice or even by virtue of having a High PRE score it might be enough to make the average guy go "ooh.. shiny..."

 

I've always assumed PRE Attacks are combat uses of PRE and PRE rolls are non-combat uses of PRE.

[Trebuchet]

Re: New Character "Strong Guy"

 

A friend of mine, LordGhee, used to run a similar character called "Star Spangled Banner." I'm fairly sure you can guess his costume motif. He was a strong and very tough flying brick but with IIRC no resistant defenses at all. While he could have been played for laughs; his player always played him straight. He had something of a friendly rivalry going with my own powered-armor brick Ranger. Ranger had much higher defenses but wasn't nearly as strong as Banner.

[Lupus]

Re: New Character "Strong Guy"

 

I'm creating a character for an up and coming face to face game. The game setting is more modern, though not really rust age.

The character, though, is more of the classic "bright smile, American flag waving behind him, "here I come to save the day" type of character". He used to be a comic book character in the game world and, through a cosmological accident, became real.

He's the classic flying brick named "Strong guy" complete with "Strong-vision" and, possibly a PRE attack that does knockback.

 

The theme I'm going with is a sort of "man out of time" idea where he yearns for the simple life where bad guys are bad and good guys are good and there's never any doubt where someone stands - no moral ambiguity. He's the kind of character who calls everyone "citizen" and escorts old ladies across the street, but lives in a world that is nothing like that and knows that he's in a world that is nothing like that. So, he represents something the world has lost.

 

He's more serious than "spoofy" (though there's plenty of humor to be found in the concept and in the character). He's over the top, but he's also the moral center of the group.

 

Has anybody else done a character like this? It might help me clarify in my own mind what I'm aiming for if I could hear of similar characters.

Aww, not the X-Factor character? Could do with a writeup of him.

[Dust Raven]

Re: New Character "Strong Guy"

 

I've run two characters like this. The first is Captain Freedom (a name I borrowed from an old friend). He's a typical flag wearing hero and acts much like you describe Strong Guy. Didn't have Freedom Vision, but did have a VPP for odd ball effects once in a while.

 

The thing about Cap Freedom is that he never became dissillusioned with reality. No matter what actually happened, he conviently blocked everything that didn't fit into his paradigm from his mind. Everything was black/white and he know who the bad guys were and who the good guys were (he also had a minor Telepathy Power that helped with its, but it was NCC and fully Invisible).

 

The other, which I'm playing now in Descant's New Amsterdam camaign, is Zetron (named after the type of rubber they use for super-balls). He's played like the Tick with a different power set (bouncing and martial arts). Unlike Cap, he's frequently dissillusioned with reality and occasionally has a hard time coping with double agents, defectors and crooked politicians.

 

The thing both of them have in common is their unswerving loyalty to the people around them, those they have sworn to protect. They will fearlessly march alone into a room of armed goons and demand they surrender. They will try to catch the speeding train to keep it from derailing. They will rush into a flaming building about to collapse to rescure Timmy's pet gerbel. And they will help Li'l Old Ladies across the street.

 

They always anounce their presence and their intentions (barges into the master villians control room and immediately bellows "Halt your diabolical scheme now Dr. Bad! I'm bringing you in..."). They will react with horror when the bad guys describe whatever their plans are (be it to destroy the planet or rid the world from shampoo) and immediately vow to stop them.

 

This will occasionally get on the other players nerves, but to keep everyone happy I'll also occasionally be responded with "Not!" and get Entangled by surprise and spend the first round breaking out of it.

[Doug McCrae]

Re: New Character "Strong Guy"

 

Strong Guy seems closer to a Mad magazine-style parody of Superman than Superman himself. Even the Fawcett Captain Marvel never had PRE that does knockback. And that was a humour comic.

[Doug McCrae]

Re: New Character "Strong Guy"

 

I had a somewhat similar character called Dog Girl. She wasn't a comic book character come to life but rather a teenager of below average intelligence, an avid comic book fan, who believed the world worked the same way as comic books. Very much a 90s pastiche character.

 

She was heroic and innocent and, like the classic comic book hero, preserved the status quo. OTOH she was familiar with the Bronze Age so could admit the possibility of government corruption, etc if confronted with it. Though she would've been far too dumb to grasp the complexities of Enron for example.

 

She believed the source of her power to have been the bite of a radioactive dog. Though she really was physically very powerful she also thought she had Dog-Ray Vision which enabled her to see thru any substance except lead. Sadly she seemed to constantly encounter lead-lined buildings and objects.

[BoneDaddy]

Re: New Character "Strong Guy"

 

Templar - a very moral brick. Priest by day, hero by night. Since I'm not a Catholic, not even a bad one, this is a challenge for me, but I wanted someone who adhered to a strict code of conduct. He's a brick, and a deeply conscientous hero. The trick, I think, is to play it straight. The challenge of course, for any hero or priest, is that we live and play in very morally ambiguous worlds. It's a fun challenge.

 

If you are doing the Lord's work, and you need to "borrow" a car for some reason, is it really stealing? Probably so. Is it worse to steal than to allow the bad guy to get away with the kidnpped girl?