Ok, here are some more characters I built. Some are built for fun, others built for actual play. Building interpretations of characters is a bit of "lonely fun" sometimes and a mental exercise on how "I would build them".
If more people shared their interpretations we could get a Plato's Cave Allegory of RPG builds going. I would love to see these characters expressed in different systems and with a different focus.
Here is my build of Leonardo of TMNT fame
John Henry the Steel Driving Man
2 responses to “Example Character Builds pt6”
Heroes, not “characters”
These two present a tough question: what sort of situations are built into these sheets? I use the word carefully, because I've noticed a completely bipolar profile in "build" habits and standards among people who claim to like the same systems. One group or type focuses on static portraiture; the other focuses on unstable or must-change situations, whether internal or external or both.
Is Leonardo supposed to change? I will go out on the (short) limb and suggest that he's not. He's supposed to be Leonardo, full stop. What about anything he faces or encounters; is it supposed to change? Again, I suggest not. The Foot Clan will forever stay the Foot Clan, with no particular tension or issue for Leonardo personally, showing up or being pulled in on cue for purposes of preserving the IP and having the audience nod in confirmation of something they already know.
The one interesting thing in there is "Honor above all," which may matter in the terms I'm talking about if it's contrasted with or contributes to any other emergent properties with the corresponding Disadvantages of the other turtles. However, if it's a schtick or hat to wear, basically "my guy is all about honor"as equivalent to wearing a differently-colored bandanna, then we're back to the empty portraiture … and no reason whatsoever to play.
Then you throw us John Henry. Oh crap … so much history and messaging that you and I have talked about publicly and privately for years. Can this one sheet bear it? Fortunately we're looking at the John Henry, a guy with a hammer, not a ramped-up superhero comic, and that makes things interesting too. Because this isn't Champions of any vintage (despite the obvious mechanical influence), it's Mythic, which is to say, actual myths, things that matter to us because they represent crises that society's customs cannot solve.
Sounds pretentious, after all, this is "just a game," … but I know better. Mythic is aiming high. Going for static portraiture for this hero would be grossly insulting to everyone involved. So, are we looking at a sheet which drives (steel-drives) directly into such crises? I suggest the broad strokes you've got on the sheet do it: I mean, "black man in America" isn't exactly fraught-free, et cetera.
But here's a big deal for me for all build systems: the connections across separately-chosen items. What emerges from those?
And since you're the artist (saying this for the benefit of readers who may not know), look at his eyes. Any doubt vanishes. This is no portrait subject. He's a verb, and the sentence he's in will only be completed in play.
Mythic Crawl
So I had a go at building Crawl – my hero from an early Champions Now playtest – in Mythic D6.
Crawl PDF
So what are the differences between the two? This version doesn't have to worry about endurance – so he can pummel bad guys all day, although the way the powers worked out he's a bit less armoured and vulnerable to energy attacks. He has more sciency skills but I'm not sure whether this would be noticably different in play.
This Crawl is the Outsider archetype – so he gets bonuses to some PER rolls, he's Savvy?! But he adds to the Aggrevation pool if he trusts people in authority – very Crawl!
And I had to pick some Disadvantages. Bearing in mind how these work in Mythic D6 I went with Amibiota as the personal relationship (enemy), rather than Jen Edwards. (Disadvantages give you extra hero points when they are brought into the fiction causing problems, and can apply a penalty to rolls, -2D when you're "distracted by your crush". Jen is far to cool to cause dice penalties!). Then Crawl has the dependency / vulnerability to the Amibiota bio-gunk and his irrational response to Corporate Supers.
This is a lot less Dis-ads than Champions produces although I'm sure a lot of the other stuff in Champions Now Crawl would inform theoretical play – Jen would surely still show up, as would the other various grudges, but I wonder if the character creation process in Mythic D6 alone would prompt this sort of rounding out? Also, potentially in play as a player you get more control over when these show up. Although the GM can bring them into play, if they do and you don't want it to happen you can buy it off with hero points (this is LAME), and otherwise the impression I get from the book is these are envisaged as more of a spice to the main story rather than driving the bulk of the action.