New-Style Bionic Woman in DC

[Michael Hopcroft]

while writing up the actual implants for the new version of the Bionic Woman would be a snap for this group, I have a more important question: what role would such a character play in a Dark Champions campaign.

 

Let's assume she has a somewhat better thought-out motivation for doing something than "If I don't do what they say, I'm dead, and if I do do what they say I'm probably still dead." Perhaps the experimenters could simply say "All right, we've given you all this stuff but we're not exactly sure what all it does or how it will affect your daily life. Our bad. So you go on with your life, and we'll keep an eye on you to see what happens and step in if anything goes disastrously wrong". In other words, the character has accidentally become a guinea pig and is now part of an uncontrolled experiment with a promise that the researchers will repair any malfunctions due to mechanical defects. (But if she thrusts her arm inot a metal smelter she may be on her own).

 

Such a character would not be given 'secret state missions", which gives the player lots of freedom of action. But adventure will, of course, come to her, because everybody from the Mafiya to Al-Qaeda wants what she's got and there's only one way to take it away from her. she would probably be asked to do things not involved with self-preservation or her daily life with carrots rather than sticks -- "Oops, that's one parking garage that will never be the same again. How would you like to get out of the fine by doing a little job for the city?"

[Edsel]

Re: New-Style Bionic Woman in DC

 

The role of the character is going to vary widely based on the sort of DC campaign world you drop her into.

 

If I were to introduce such a character to my own campaign she would likely be a reluctant free agent. As you describe it she sounds like the sort of person who wants to avoid the world of vigilantes and dark ops but finds that impossible due to her unique talents and those who will seek her out because of them. I would use her as a plot hook and occational contact for the player group. I could see the player-characters having sympathy for such a character and they would see the benefit of being on her good side.

 

A character like this would be really good for introducing various cutting-edge tech story lines. If there is some sort of new technology out there that the good guys and the bad guys want this character would be a good way to get the characters involved.

[OddHat]

Re: New-Style Bionic Woman in DC

 

Spin her the same way you would any other character in a real world with powers setting, depending on the setting.

 

The classic approach is to start out with single origin point power opponents (she runs into a lot of other people with bionics) and a fair mix of thugs with guns, along with the odd martial artist. She also has regeneration (unlike the originals), so you can hit her with much darker and tougher foes than Steve or Jaime ever had to deal with. As the game/series goes on, decide if you want to stick to just cyborgs and well armed non-powered enemies or throw in robots, androids, aliens, psychics, and the odd sasquatch.

 

Kind of on the border between Dark Champions and a Supers game, without spandex and invisible ape cities but definitely with all sorts of weirdness just outside of the publics awareness.

[Hawknight]

Re: New-Style Bionic Woman in DC

 

Closest thing to a Bionic Woman in DC is Gunmetal Silk from fourth ed.