Vondy Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 This character was inspired by Salvador Velazquez's cover art for Eco Comics' Dick Turbin #1. I have a hard-time coming up with "themed" characters -- but this worked for me. Dick Turban was a historical highwayman, and I've always enjoyed Alfred Noyes eponymous poem -- The Highwayman. I had a picture in my head of a 1700's highwayman blowing into "old town" on an old Indian-4 motorcycle while writing it. The design fits the Hudson City Knights genre-principles and Hudson City Powers power-levels. However, I've been considering doing Champions:TAS with trimmed down power-levels that would allow DC:TAS crossover. To that end, his flintlock blasters are 10DC, his CVs are at the DC:TAS high end, and he has Cinematic Safety from Dark Champions. That combination should allow him to deal with the occasional full on super while still being a suitable DC:TAS character. In a straight DC:TAS game I would remove Cinematic Safety and (maybe) drop his Flintlocks to 8DC. The character is written in my usual short-hand, but most Herophiles should be able to follow it -- the unstatted talents are in DC.. The "recoverable" on the blasters is intended to be an auto-recharge time -- which isn't specified. Maybe a turn w/out firing (?) I will flesh out the associated text: background, personality, powers-tactics, abilities, and quote a bit later. For now, I just know his town is Liberty City (in "New England") and that he owns a colonial era stone farmhouse / farm outside it. I'm thinking there is an undocumented bomb shelter under some fallow pasture from the cold war. His secret identity is that of John Doan, a scion of the city's founding fathers -- and a part of its "old money" crowd. Trivia: The Doan Gang were Revolutionary War Era highwaymen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 I got to quickly look over him and I do like him. I like the theme you gave him. Speaking of themes, you can go batty trying to find a theme that covers alot of gadgets. A few things that jump to mind. First if you evr need a bigger gun for him, it should be a blunderbuss for special effect. Second for the calling card left on the villians, it should have a picture of the stocks on it. And third, have you thought of giving him a rapier? Now fitting in the theme of the game, it would be a taser like blade for the rapier.i.e. eb (e) no range oaf? One thought about the pistols, if they recharge once per turn, that can be a long time if your dealing with alot of mooks. Perhaps the pistol recharges at full power in a turn but if fired earlier, it discharges at a pro rated amount? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted March 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 I got to quickly look over him and I do like him. I like the theme you gave him. Speaking of themes, you can go batty trying to find a theme that covers alot of gadgets. A few things that jump to mind. First if you evr need a bigger gun for him, it should be a blunderbuss for special effect. Second for the calling card left on the villians, it should have a picture of the stocks on it. And third, have you thought of giving him a rapier? Now fitting in the theme of the game, it would be a taser like blade for the rapier.i.e. eb (e) no range oaf? One thought about the pistols, if they recharge once per turn, that can be a long time if your dealing with alot of mooks. Perhaps the pistol recharges at full power in a turn but if fired earlier, it discharges at a pro rated amount? Lots of good thoughts there. The blunderbuss is a good special effect for a bigger gun. The stocks isn't a bad calling card. I'll think about that. I was thinking the liberty bell, but stocks might be more thematically appropriate. I did consider the rapier -- there's one mentioned in the poem -- but I wasn't sure how far I wanted to go with the killing attacks. On the other hand, disabling, minor cuts, and disarming with it are all good rapier tricks -- and an "electro-rapier" as a stunner is also a way to work it in. That could be covered by his "He Came Prepared" power. The recharge issue for his stunner-blasters is one I could go either way on. One answer would be increasing the number of charges (I wasn't counting points when I built him). But, the prorating idea you propose could also work -- maybe one charge recovers each phase the gun isn't fired. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 6e, unless I'm mistaken. What is his point total? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted March 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 6e, unless I'm mistaken. What is his point total? Yes, 6e. As for his point total... no clue. I just wrote him up without thinking about it. If I were thinking about it, I'd make a few design changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Or for the rapier, it would be little more complicated but he could have a multipower. One slot could be a HA se blunt of the blade and the second of course would be a KA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 As for his point total... no clue. I just wrote him up without thinking about it. Phew. You had me a bit worried. My low power Superman homages are well and truly underpowered compared to him, and they are deliberately cheesy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted March 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Are you basing your notion of power levels on point totals, or a holistic evaluation of attack-defense-combat-level-versatility? Point totals don't always equal reflect actual ability. I say that because, aside from my penchant for 14- skill rolls, he's top of the heap for Hudson City Knights, mid-heap for Hudson City Powers, and on the low end for a lot of mainstream Dark Champions games -- and he wouldn't last long in a Champions game using published adversaries as written. I intended him to be a reasonable, playable "batman-esque" protagonist in a TAS game. Aside from the flintlock stunners, one could use resource points for his gear, or -- depending on the GM -- all of his gear. Without the stunners he's really a guy with 14def, 6-8dc brawling, and a high-ish CV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted March 11, 2014 Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 My problem is that I tend to use budgets. Pushing them up a bit, or ignoring them, means that some of the compromises I make aren't necessary. Or, of course, I could build simpler characters, but I'm pretty keen on having fairly broad power sets. Powers like tunnelling, change environment and such like are what differentiate an Awesome character from a Meh one. For the record, my current Superman draft lives in abject fear of Metallo and the Parasite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted March 11, 2014 Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted March 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 I ran across the Loreena Mkennitt vid last night. Its more what I had in mind. Stevie Nicks... ugh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted March 11, 2014 Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 Nothing wrong with Stevie Loreena was the second vid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted March 11, 2014 Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 So Vondy which guidelines are you going to use for Champions: TAS ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted March 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 I think DC8-10, Def 14-20, CV-DX-SP ala Hudson City Powers, and skill rolls topping out around 14-15 would work nicely. That would go hand in hand with simpler builds and "toning down some concepts" -- witchcraft's VPP comes to mind. It wouldn't hurt to give her a list of spells / grimoire that she can cast with it ("known spells") for flavor and balance. One could pull from the witchcraft, voodoo, and sorcery write-ups in HS Grimoire 6E for the bulk of them -- plus a few. Incidentally, the Hudson City Knights / Powers power levels aren't too different from what is in the Urban Fantasy book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted March 11, 2014 Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 I meant to look but I think the hudson powers also cover most of the low-powered supers. (Which I think it might.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted March 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 I meant to look but I think the hudson powers also cover most of the low-powered supers. (Which I think it might.) Its pretty close for a lot of them. It wouldn't take much tweaking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted March 12, 2014 Report Share Posted March 12, 2014 Vondy here is idea I messed around with that deals with lowering characteristics. (It works with 5th ed so ymmv). Take a characters chatacteristics and apply characteristica maxima to it an just spend all the points that was previously spent with the new cost and see what you get. Then just buy that number without the disadvantage. When it comes to figureds just use the new numbers. For example DEX 26 costs 48 pts. Now apply NCM with 39 pts would give a 21 Dex. It ain't perfect but it does give interesting results. (Ok for SPD and maybe DEX round up) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted March 12, 2014 Report Share Posted March 12, 2014 Vondy here is idea I messed around with that deals with lowering characteristics. (It works with 5th ed so ymmv). Take a characters chatacteristics and apply characteristica maxima to it an just spend all the points that was previously spent with the new cost and see what you get. Then just buy that number without the disadvantage. When it comes to figureds just use the new numbers. For example DEX 26 costs 48 pts. Now apply NCM with 39 pts would give a 21 Dex. It ain't perfect but it does give interesting results. (Ok for SPD and maybe DEX round up) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted March 12, 2014 Report Share Posted March 12, 2014 Fwiw I don't have witchcraft but I do have Solitare. I could look at her and see how I would fit her in a Champions: TAS game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted March 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 Fwiw I don't have witchcraft but I do have Solitare. I could look at her and see how I would fit her in a Champions: TAS game. Witchcraft would be easy to cut down except... for the massive VPP with very few limitations and the special effect "spells." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 First thing off rhe top of my head would be spells. What if she had real spells but look like stage magic? Or a bunch of inobvious looking magic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted March 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 I was thinking about using spells from the grimoire -- a good list of them might send her point totals way up, but would probably make her more manageable (and more distinctly flavored) at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted March 14, 2014 Report Share Posted March 14, 2014 Vondy I think that would be great but alas I don't have the grimorie I have nothing to judge it with. I do hoeever like the idea of premade lists. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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