“Iron Man: Armored Adventures” character build question

[Gunstar]

Iron Man: Armored Adventures

 

I’m sure most of you have seen this show and if not, I would recommend it. They do take a lot of artistic license with the Iron Man story, but that’s not what I wanted to discuss.

 

In one episode Iron Man battles the Crimson Dynamo; however, this Dynamo is more "mech like" instead of "armor like". If I wanted to emulate this character in a superhero game how would I go about building this character?

 

Should I build the suit as a ‘large suit of armor’ (focus) or ‘vehicle/mech’? Should the character have wealth to simulate the access to such high tech? How would the character have access to the ‘mech’ before combat, perhaps an orbital drop, teleporter, or even drive it around like a car and pay for parking close by.

 

How have your characters handled having a powered armor character that needed to interact while not in the armor, but be ready at a moments notice?

 

Thanks for helping!

[assault]

Re: “Iron Man: Armored Adventures” character build question

 

In the source material, the Crimson Dynamo is the equivalent of an NPC - in the episodes I've seen at least.

 

Questions like wealth and so on are therefore moot.

 

On the general issue of PCs, however, I would say: look at Tony. He has wealth, and usually parks his suit in his base. He does have his backpack though, which is an option that a Crimson Dynamo type character doesn't have. Maybe he keeps it in a van, or maybe it transforms!

 

As long as every PC has an explanation for their access to their technology, things are fine. It could be as simple as one of them having wealth, and bankrolling the others.

 

PS: the Black Panther series is kind of interesting. The Wakandans are massive jerks, and there is more than a whiff of editorial agenda about it, but it's otherwise pretty neat.

[Gunstar]

Re: “Iron Man: Armored Adventures” character build question

 

I feel that my question was slightly muddled by the topic.

 

I guess what I was asking was how to build and role-play a PC with a 'large mech suit'. Can it be done without being a kludge?

 

For example:

Scenario 1: The supergroup is hanging out in the 100th floor penthouse of the Hilton when they are attacked by flying mechanical bats. How does the PC get to/use his mech suit quickly?

Scenario 2: The supergroup is having a 'za down at the corner pizzeria as their secret identities when they are molested by a local street gang and their super-villain leader. Again how to get to/into a mech suit quickly?

 

Granted for active missions this wouldn't be a problem, but for being sneak attacked or stealth missions that turn badly, how have you handled playing a 'armored man' PC?

 

This is also why I'm confused if it should be a focus power or vehicle power.

[assault]

Re: “Iron Man: Armored Adventures” character build question

 

Scenario 1: The supergroup is hanging out in the 100th floor penthouse of the Hilton when they are attacked by flying mechanical bats. How does the PC get to/use his mech suit quickly?

Scenario 2: The supergroup is having a 'za down at the corner pizzeria as their secret identities when they are molested by a local street gang and their super-villain leader. Again how to get to/into a mech suit quickly?

 

In both cases: the PC can't. That's the downside of the build.

 

Yes, there are workarounds. Building a remote control to summon the suit, for one. But the character has problems built into it. That's why it's so cheap/powerful.

 

And it is powerful.

[Kharis2000]

Re: “Iron Man: Armored Adventures” character build question

 

As was previously stated, this is the main drawback to the higher levels of power you can access with the Focus limitation and/or building the suit as a vehicle.

 

I've played power armor characters before, and short of having some way to carry the suit with you, there's (in my mind at least) an accepted metarule that the GM will, at some point, zap the power armor guy when his suit isn't handy. The archetypal version of the character in comics, Tony Stark, has been attacked and had to hide to change, been attacked and had to try and handle the fight without the armor, and, memorably, on one occasion was tossed/fell out of an aircraft in flight and had to try and get into the armor on the way down.

 

Granted, not everyone is going to want to try and go that far to avoid building a rapid deployment system, but a few that I've seen in game use and in comics include: the suit is a cluster of nanites that hide in the hollow spaces of the wearer's bones and 'foams' out when donned [comics]; the suit 'tags along' with the wearer in an 'out of phase' manner and phases in when donned [game]; the suit is literally 'beamed' to the character when summoned [both]; the suit changes shape to a vehicle of some sort [both]; the suit changes shape to that of the character's significant other and 'unfolds/transforms' into armor that literally wraps around the character [game - and the comments *started* with "Lends a new meaning to 'I want you inside me'" and went a far piece downhill from there.]

 

Ultimately you'd need to strike a balance between the armor and the wearer's capabilities outside of it.

[Gunstar]

Re: “Iron Man: Armored Adventures” character build question

 

Ultimately you'd need to strike a balance between the armor and the wearer's capabilities outside of it.

 

After thinking it over for a few days I came to this same conclusion; almost a character within a character.

 

The ideas you posted about the some quick change abilities also were very helpful and I should be able to come up with something.