Character: Der Shattenmann

[Zed-F]

Here's a character that might fit in a mid-to-high-end pulp game. Or, alternatively, as a Golden Age superhuman, Dark Champions character, or lower-end pulp character, with a little adjustment to his background and/or power level.

 

http://www.herocentral.net/herocentral/get/files/premium/DerShattemnann_v0.01.html

 

[b]Der Shattenmann - James Black[/b]

[b][u]VAL[/u]   [u]CHA[/u]   [u]Cost[/u]   [u]Total[/u]   [u]Roll[/u]      [u]Notes[/u][/b]
20    STR     10   20      13-       HTH Damage 4d6  END [4]
20    DEX     30   20      13-       OCV 7 DCV 7
18    CON     16   18      13-
11    BODY    2   11      11-
13    INT     3   13      12-       PER Roll 12-
13    EGO     6   13      12-       ECV: 4
18    PRE     8   18/33      13- / 16-       PRE Attack: 3 1/2d6 / 6 1/2d6
6    COM     -2   6      10-
7    PD      3   7/10             7/10 PD (0/3 rPD)
4    ED      0   4/7             4/7 ED (0/3 rED)
4    SPD     10   4                 Phases:  3, 6, 9, 12
8    REC     0   8
36    END     0   36
30    STUN    0   30
6    RUN      0   6"                END [1]
2    SWIM     0   2"                END [1]
3    LEAP     -1   3"                3" forward, 1 1/2" upward

[b]CHA Cost: 85[/b]

[b][u]Cost[/u]   [u]POWERS[/u][/b]
5     [b][i]Shadowsight[/i][/b]: Nightvision - END=0
25     [b][i]Shadow Powers[/i][/b]: Multipower, 50-point reserve,  (50 Active Points); all slots Concentration (0 DCV to Activate; -1/2), Not In Brightly Light Areas (-1/2) [Notes: Requires some sort of shadows to use.] - END=
2u     1)  [b][i]Shadow Consumption[/i][/b]: Drain BODY 5d6 (50 Active Points); Must Follow Grab (-1/2), Concentration (0 DCV to Activate; -1/2), Not In Brightly Light Areas (-1/2), Not vs. Inanimate Objects (-1/4) [Notes: Signature power. A host of shadow tendrils consume target's life force.] - END=5
2u     2)  [b][i]Shadow Form[/i][/b]: Desolidification  (affected by Light, Holy, Lifeforce SFX), Costs END Only To Activate (+1/4) (50 Active Points); Concentration (0 DCV to Activate; -1/2), Not In Brightly Light Areas (-1/2) - END=4
1u     3)  [b][i]Shadowy Stealth[/i][/b]: Invisibility to Hearing Group and Normal Sight  (15 Active Points); Concentration (0 DCV to Activate; -1/2), Not In Brightly Light Areas (-1/2) - END=1
1u     4)  [b][i]Call Shadows[/i][/b]: Change Environment 4" radius, -3 to Normal Sight PER Rolls (19 Active Points); Concentration (0 DCV to Activate; -1/2), Not In Brightly Light Areas (-1/2) - END=2
1u     5)  [b][i]Shadow Step[/i][/b]: Teleportation 6", Safe Blind Teleport (+1/4) (15 Active Points); Concentration (0 DCV to Activate; -1/2), Not In Brightly Light Areas (-1/2) [Notes: Must travel to a shadowed area.] - END=1
1u     6)  [b][i]Shadow Travel[/i][/b]: Teleportation 5", No Relative Velocity, x16 Noncombat (35 Active Points); Extra Time (Full Phase, -1/2), Concentration (0 DCV to Activate; -1/2), Not In Brightly Light Areas (-1/2) [Notes: Must travel to a shadowed area.] - END=3
1u     7)  [b][i]Shadowscrying[/i][/b]: Clairsentience (Sight Group), Mobile Perception Point (can move up to 6" per Phase), Targeting (35 Active Points); Only to See in Shadowed Areas (-1/2), Concentration (0 DCV to Activate; -1/2), Not In Brightly Light Areas (-1/2) - END=3
1u     8)  [b][i]Shadow of Fear[/i][/b]: +15 PRE (15 Active Points); Only for Fear-based Interactions (-1/2), Concentration (0 DCV to Activate; -1/2), Not In Brightly Light Areas (-1/2) - END=
      - END=

[b]POWERS Cost: 40[/b]

[b][u]Cost[/u]   [u]MARTIAL ARTS[/u][/b]
Dirty Infighting
3      1)  Cross:  1/2 Phase, +1 OCV, +0 DCV, 6d6 Strike
3      2)  Takedown:  1/2 Phase, +2 OCV, -1 DCV, 5d6 Strike, Target Falls
3      3)  Clinch / Bind:  1/2 Phase, -1 OCV, -1 DCV, Grab Two Limbs, 30 STR for holding on
4      4)  Dodge:  1/2 Phase, -- OCV, +5 DCV, Dodge, Affects All Attacks, Abort
2      Weapon Element:  Clubs, Fist-Loads, Unarmed [Notes: Includes using pistols with art (as a fist-load)]

[b]MARTIAL ARTS Cost: 15[/b]

[b][u]Cost[/u]   [u]SKILLS[/u][/b]
     Everyman
0      1)  Acting 8-
0      2)  Climbing 8-
0      3)  Concealment 8-
0      4)  Conversation 8-
0      5)  AK: Campaign City 8-
0      6)  Language:  English (idiomatic) (4 Active Points)
0      7)  Paramedics 8-
0      8)  Persuasion 8-
0      9)  PS: Intelligence Operative 11- [Notes: Mostly as an agent provocateur / commando.]
0      10) TF:  Equines
0      11) WF:  Clubs, Fist-Loads, Thrown Rocks, Unarmed Combat

3      Acrobatics 13-
3      Breakfall 13-
3      +1 with Small Arms
3      Deduction 12-
3      Interrogation 13- (16-)
2      Language:  French (fluent conversation)
1      Language:  German (basic conversation)
3      Shadowing 12-
10      +1 Overall
3      Stealth 13-
3      Streetwise 13- (16-)
1      TF:  Small Motorized Ground Vehicles
10      Two-Weapon Fighting (Ranged) 
2      WF:  Small Arms

[b]SKILLS Cost: 50[/b]

[b][u]Cost[/u]   [u]PERKS[/u][/b]
1      Money:  Well Off [Notes: The Crown supplies Der Shattenmann with a small retainer, for past services and to ensure his availability should they call on him again. He can live modestly without working for pay.]
1      Reputation:  British Extraordinary Operative (Intelligence Community - A medium-sized group) 11-, +1/+1d6

[b]PERKS Cost: 2[/b]

[b][u]Cost[/u]   [u]TALENTS[/u][/b]
6      Combat Luck (3 PD/3 ED)
2      Resistance (2 points)

[b]TALENTS Cost: 8[/b]
[b][u]Value[/u]  [u]DISADVANTAGES[/u][/b]
10     Dependent NPC:  Needy Person of the Week 8- (Normal)
10     Distinctive Features:  Heavily Scarred (Concealable; Noticed and Recognizable; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses)
15     Hunted:  Helmut von Schmidt 8- (As Pow, NCI, Harshly Punish)
0     Normal Characteristic Maxima
15     Psychological Limitation:  Code of Justice (Common, Strong)
15     Psychological Limitation:  Overconfident (Very Common, Moderate)
15     Social Limitation:  Subject to Orders (Occasionally, Severe) [Notes: The British Crown still has a hold over James. It is rarely exercised, and only for the most dangerous of missions.]
10     Vulnerability:  2 x Effect Light-based Flashes (Uncommon)
10     Vulnerability:  2 x STUN Light-based Attacks (Uncommon)

[b]DISADVANTAGES Points: 100[/b]

Base Pts: 100
Exp Required: 0
Total Exp Available: 0
Exp Unspent: 0
Total Character Cost: 200

 

Appearance: James bears heavy scarring across his face and most of his body on account of his rough treatment at the hands of the Germans during the war. Physically, he is quite large, on the verge of being truly massive, and his strength is obvious even under the dark longcoats and wide-brimmed hats he favours. Though he is by no means a gifted academic, James's thug-like appearance conceals a keen wit and world-wise common sense. Much of the time when his powers are active, he seems to blend into the shadows to the point of disappearing entirely, and when in Shadow Form, he appears as a living shadow, able to travel to any place where a shadow might be found.

 

Personality: James Black is an adventurer and righter of wrongs, motivated mainly by his wanderlust, his sense of justice, and occasionally his sense of loyalty to the British Crown. Despite his grim appearance, and his intolerance for those who would prey upon the common man, he is generally an optimistic and adventuresome sort, and tends to assume he can handle any given situation regardless of circumstance. This occasionally leads him to bite off a bit more than he can comfortably chew.

 

Quote: "If you think to hide your ill deeds under the cover of darkness... think again."

 

Background: James Black, a Canadian from Windsor, Ontario, served in the Great War for Britain as an intelligenge officer and agent provocateur. His missions mainly involved covert infiltration behind enemy lines in search of information and documents regarding German battle plans and military preparedness, or in order to commit acts of sabotage against German military targets. These missions did not always go exactly as planned, but James proved to be skilled at extricating himself from the sticky situations that would develop when they did not, by virtue of his quickness, strength, and fighting skill. However, after a number of successful missions, he was eventually captured by the Germans, interrogated, and ultimately tortured. Over the next week, his previous good looks were ruined as his captors methodically did their best to break his body, but they never broke his spirit, and he never spoke a word. When traditional torture techniques proved ineffective, the commander of his captors, a military aristocrat by the name of Helmut von Schmidt, ordered him put into an experimental isolation tank.

 

Spending over a full day in the tank should have broken him. Such a time spent in absolute darkness and silence had been calculated to drive men mad with anxiety. But James' strength of will was beyond that of most men. Rather than being driven mad, James reached another level of human consciousness. He meditated upon the darkness, attuned himself to it, became one with it. And thirty hours after James had been enclosed in the isolation tank, when the Germans went to open it, they found their prisoner had vanished. In fact, he had escaped five hours previously, without having opened the tank or having left any sign of his departure, taking with him sensitive operational maps that had Helmut had had in his posession.

 

James' new abilities soon came to the attention of his superiors, who sent him back to London for a special debriefing. He was quickly recruited as an Extraordinary Operative of the Crown, and continued his efforts during the war against the German threat. For their part, the Germans called him Der Shattenmann, and though James never adopted an official codename during his service with the Crown, the German moniker stuck with him.

 

After the war, James's service to the Crown had run its course, and, having been granted a small retainer for his service during the war, he returned to Canada. However, he found he had trouble re-adapting to peacetime life, and it wasn't long before he took up adventuring again. First it was a Detroit mob that was attempting to make inroads into his native Windsor. Next, it was a corrupt politician who was preventing the Detroit police from being effective in their own efforts against said mob. Since then, James's thirst for adventure, his wanderlust, and his intolerance of injustice have taken him many places, fighting all sorts of battles against the foes of justice in cities around the world, mostly in the British Empire but also elsewhere. Though the power of the German military aristocracy has been largely broken under the Weimar republic, James has occasionally crossed swords with his old nemesis Helmut von Schmidt, who thanks to his intelligence has managed to retain a measure of power and influence even in the post-war era.

 

Powers/Tactics: Der Shattenmann is a two fisted fighter and a two gunned avenger, whose shadow-oriented powers are more useful out of combat, or preparatory to combat, than they are in combat. He will use his shadow powers to set up a combat in the most favourable circumstances possible, but once the fur starts flying, he relies mostly on his brawn and fighting skill to see him through. If caught unawares, his shadow powers are generally not much help, other than Shadow Form, which may allow him to escape a trap if his attackers don't know of his weaknesses. Aside from being vulnerable to light-based powers, James can also be tracked by sight-based senses which don't operate in the usual visual spectrum, such as thermal imaging and his own nightvision.

 

Der Shattenmann's signature power, Shadowy Consumption, is something he prefers to reserve for the genuinely evil. Common thugs and the like will generally fold in the face of his Shadow of Fear, such that he usually doesn't need to resort to his life drain attack as a torture mechanism. That said, if circumstances seem to call for it, he will not hesitate to give a demonstration of the true power of darkness.

 

Campaign Use: High end pulp adventurer (a cross between Square Jawed Hero and Two Gunned Avenger) or low end Golden Age-era superhuman.

 

Design notes:

Use heroic template. NCM is required. Normal equipment does not cost points by default. Powers or fantastic equipment of up to 50 AP are allowed. No more than 50 real points of powers. Characters should be competent heroic-level adventurers (75+75) prior to acquiring their powers. Powers should not be overwhelmingly powerful, especially in combat.

 

Der Shattenmann's CV and DCs may be a little low for a 100+100 point game, but I wanted him to be a solid all around fighter, rather than to specialize in any one area of combat. Hence he relies more on DEX than on levels. To increase his power, remove the Concentration limitation on his Shadow powers and give him a couple more useful offensive and defensive tricks, or add martial arts DCs and skill levels. To decrease his power, reduce his stats or eliminate his powers.

[Basil]

Re: Character: Der Shattenmann

 

Schatten.

[OddHat]

Re: Character: Der Shattenmann

 

Very good character for one of my favorite time periods. Repped.

 

His Majesty's Extraordinary Operatives would make a hell of a convention game.

[Zed-F]

Re: Character: Der Shattenmann

 

Schatten.

Drat. Knew I ought to have looked that up rather than rely on someone else's translation. Ah well.