Character Generation

Your backstory. Why are you a Superhero? How did you get to this point in time?

I assume you have an idea for a character and if he or she has powers.  That’s great. Remember — Powers and a costume is not just something that defines you, it’s how you make your money;  That, and your agent / publicist.

There are many ways you could have become a Superhero. Not all of them deal some dramatic event you were unwillingly thrust into.  Below, are a few seeds of potential backstories.  Pick one or make up something that makes sense and then talk to Tom about it before you chisel it in stone. If you write up and turn in to me your backstory before the pilot episode airs, then I’ll give you an extra xp.

  • You were born this way
  • Puberty hit with a vengeance
  • Lightning strike
  • Magical event/accident
  • Sudden unexplained appearance (post puberty)
  • Shit just happened (industrial accident, chemical spill, radiation exposure, scientific research blunder, something bit me, something in space happened, something underwater happened, family curse cropped up, etc.)
  • Self Inflicted (i.e. That looks cool. Hold my beer while I try…)
  • I don’t have powers. I’m here because…

What about different races?

  • Alien — You cannot be an alien.  There’s only one alien on Earth and he lives in Columbia.
  • Fae — No.  You cannot be a Fae.  They are not human. Their biology prevents them from being Metahumans and their Monarchs have commanded that they do not stray from their borders without special leave.
  • Some other type of fantasy creature. (Remember “Sagitterror” the Centaur Necromancer from the Breaking News TV announcement you saw when your Hunter characters got to Biloxi, MS)?
    • If you want to be some other type of fantastical race, it means that you started off as human and when your Metahuman stuff kicked in, it changed your genome well beyond what other Metahumans have experienced. Being a non-human race must be approved by Tom.
    • Just being a non-human race will definitely count as at least one Power and most likely two (See the section about having powers.).  Benefits will most likely be in the form of some minor upgrades in physical stats or something to do with sensory ability, etc., and will have a downside that makes sense based on the creature.
    • If you’re seriously considering this option, please be aware there is always a downside to any benefit you’re hoping to derive.  (To save you the effort of reading between the lines: I WILL NOT LET YOU BREAK MY GAME.) But… if you want to be a dragonling with Game of Thrones growth potential, then sure… flight is possible as well as nasty claws and maybe even a small breath weapon, but forget about being inconspicuous, forget about being able to speak (your mouth just doesn’t move like that) and say hello to numerous gigantic Flaws with no corresponding Freebie points.  And as you grow, the negative side-effects grow. There will be a balance.

Things to make note of (the important stuff)

  • Each Background represent a fundamental building block of who your character is and what you can bring to the table.
  • I should be OK with you wanting one of the Backgrounds that are not in the Sorcerer book as long as it makes sense for a human / Metahuman to have it and so long as it doesn’t unbalance the game. Fame is not in the Sorcerer book, but it’s plausible you gained some Fame before the start of the Campaign. If it makes sense, I’ll probably allow it. If not, I won’t.
  • Purchasing Backgrounds at character creation are as in the book, but with a few changes…
  • Backgrounds from the Sorcerer book that we will not be using:
    • Relic
  • You could be someone with a bunch of Fame and be able to use that to your advantage when trying to talk your way into places.  
  • You could have a bunch of Contacts that you could get information from when you run out of leads to follow.  
  • Bottom line is, though, if you don’t have any dots in a background, you don’t have any of that background. 
    • No dots in Fame? Basically, you’re the new Super we’ve never heard of.
    • No dots in Status (Hacker community)?  It doesn’t matter if you’re good at hacking… all of us Hackers are good at hacking, so no, we won’t just tell you about the new code we created, so fuck off.
    • That goes especially for Resources.  If you don’t have Resources, then you don’t have any money or property.  You just have the basic perks described earlier for being an employed Superhero.  Being broke-ass-broke is completely possible in this world, even for a Superhero. You could have been a penniless person that developed powers while squatting in an un-owned residence, then recruited by the World Metahuman Organization for this gig.  You could be a person who lost everything in a personal accident or catastrophe; maybe the one that caused you to gain your powers, etc. Or you could be like Caine from Kung Fu, who shed all wealth and possessions and walked the earth until shit happened and the Metahuman in you came out. 
  • The maximum Resources you can buy at Character Creation is 2 pips. For more detail, see the section called “Not having Powers”
  • Purchasing Backgrounds AT character creation is as in the book.
  • Purchasing a Background AFTER character creation is now current level x 10 points per pip.  I.E. raising Allies from 3 to 5 means you spend 30 xp to raise it to 4, then you spend an additional 40 to raise it to 5.  Holy shit that’s expensive! Why is that? Two reasons.
    • Backgrounds are things that you have as a foundation for your character that can really affect the game in big ways.  Normally, you can’t buy backgrounds after character creation. As a Home Rule, I allow it, but it shouldn’t be easy.
    • Generally speaking, nothing in the D-List world has ever been easy.  Especially not after the Bug Invasion.

Powers

Categorization in a nutshell

This section is simply a way for me to categorize Powers.  It’s not perfect. I cooked this section up so I could help me to structure things in my head when dealing with things in the game.  You can use this section as an aid to think about the power(s) that you want to take or disregard it completely. Whatever suits you.

Top Level Categories

  • Accidental
    • (Note:  Being born with a power is always accidental, unless you were purposefully engineered in some way)
  • Intentional

Second Level Categories

  • Supernatural
  • Environmental
  • Magic
  • Scientific
  • Biological

Third Level categories

  • Sensation (one of the 5 senses) or psychic
  • Influence
  • Mental
  • Energy
  • Transformative

Fourth Level categories (These are the “Area of effect” that the powers are oriented on.  This is where you become specific about the Power.)

  • Task
  • Living creature
  • Dead creature (Spirits, other undead, etc)
  • Inanimate object
  • Aspect of nature/Environment

Examples (of popular non-D-List world Metahumans):

  • Daredevil 
    • Power:  Developed an uncanny level of sensory perception after being exposed to radioactive goo (counts as 2 powers due to multiple senses creating an overall awareness).
    • Classification of Power:  Accidental, Biological, Sensation, Living Creature  
  • Sue Storm (The Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four)
    • Power:  Invisible shield
    • Classification of Power: Accidental, Environmental, Energy, Task-oriented
  • Steve Rogers / Captain America 
    • Power:  He’s the original Super-Soldier who has amplified Strength, Dex and Endurance
    • Classification of Power:  Intentional, Scientific, Transformative, Living Creature
  • Darth Vader 
    • Power:  Choke the bitch out from across the room using The Force
    • Classification of Power:  Intentional, Supernatural, Energy, Living Creature
  • The kid from Agents Of Shield that can manipulate rocks and minerals 
    • Power:  Collect a bunch of sand and turn it into a Stonehenge pillar
    • Classification of Power:  Accidental, Biological, Transformative, Inanimate Object
  • The kid from The Sixth Sense 
    • Power:  Can see and to speak to dead people
    • Classification of Power:  Accidental, Supernatural, Sensation/Psychic, Dead Creature
  • Domino (from Deadpool II) 
    • Power:  Luck
    • Classification of Power:  Accidental, Supernatural, Influence, Living Creature
  • Aurora Monroe / Storm 
    • Power:  Weather control
    • Classification of Power:  Accidental, Environmental, Influence, Aspect of nature
  • Charles Xavier 
    • Power:  Mind control
    • Classification of Power:  Accidental, Biological, Mental, Living Creature
  • Luke Cage 
    • Power:  Near-Impervious skin
    • Classification of Power:  Intentional, Biological, Transformative, Living Creature

Having powers

At Character Creation, if you want superpowers, you can have a maximum of 2 (and you’ll never have any more than that).  Basically you’ll get two pips to spend on Power(s).  

“Regular” superpowers (non-Magic)

  • These are the Supernatural Powers (Professor X’s Telepathy, The Human Torch’s ability to cover himself with flame.)
  • Increasing a superpower when you have only one Power is expensive.  Why? Well, it’s like being born with Zach’s body and wanting to look like Arnold Schwartzennegar when he was in Conan.  You were either born with whatever you’ve got, or you gained it in some fashion, but the long story, short, is, you‘ve got what you got, and yes, you can exercise that muscle (i.e. Power) to improve upon it, but in the end, it takes a good long while to turn Zach into Arnold.
  • Increasing a superpower when you have two superpowers is even more expensive.  Why? Because you’re splitting your time, attention and energy. And also, this is called the D-List game for a reason.  You’re not supposed to be overpowered, nor will you.

Magic as a Power

  • We’re using the Sorcerer book. Refer to page 90+ for ideas on magical abilities.
  • Having Magic as a Power is narrowly defined, like any other Power. In the case of Magic, though, instead of having a supernatural ability to teleport things (called Conveyance in the book), you’ll basically cast a spell to do it, meaning your spell will have Verbal, Somatic and probably Material components to complete the casting as well as need some amount of time to do it in.

Not having powers

If you don’t want a superpower, then by definition, you have fewer choices as a character, but then again, it’s a different kind of Superhero we’re talking about, isn’t it?

  • Are you a Gadgeteer?  Do you have many small gadgets and a set of skills like Batman?  Do you wear a set of armor like Iron Man? In either case, you’ll need to have some good Mechanical Engineering / Maker skills, because you won’t have a lot of money.  
    • A reminder:  Repairs and replacement parts are expensive (in time, money or both); Superhero stuff is typically custom made.
    • Since you don’t have powers, you rely on tech to be a Superhero.  The only thing keeping you from being an A-List Superhero right out of the gate and unbalancing yourself compared to your fellow players (not the point of this game) is the quality of your tech.
    • The quality of your tech is determined by the amount of money that you have, so the maximum number of Resources you can buy at Character Creation is 2 pips.
  • Are you a Prodigy/Freak-of-Nature? (Like the folks from the TV show Scorpion — i.e.  A brilliant savant who’s way ahead of the curve in one specific field with a lack of basic understanding of social interaction and behavior.)  If so, you’re going to have to take some mandatory flaws.

Playing a (non-Powered) Prodigy/Freak-of-Nature

This is the only character type that can have an Attribute higher than the maximum of 5.  Remember — during character creation, each attribute would have one pip by default, before you add any.  Playing a Prodigy/Freak-of-Nature has special rules.  

As an example:  Say you wanted to play a Prodigy — like one of the geniuses from the TV show Scorpion.  You want your character to have MENTAL as your primary trait group. You would do this:

  1. Place one Mental stat at 6 and leave the other two mental traits at the default value of one pip.  In this example, you choose Intelligence as your kick-ass skill and set it at 6 pips. You may never increase Intelligence ever again.
  2. You cannot use Freebie points to increase the other two Mental stats.  These other 2 Mental stats can only be improved by spending xp. See below.
  3. You must take six pips worth of Opposing Flaws (see below).  Each flaw must be at least level 2.  You will NEVER able to buy off these flaws.  Ever.
  4. You get 6 Freebie points for the 6 points of Flaws you just took.  See point 2, above.
  5. Increasing Attribute scores is usually done at current level x 4.  That’s fine for the other two groups of attributes, but remember, in this example, you’re a Mental Prodigy with Intelligence of 6.  You may never increase Intelligence ever again. For the remaining 2 Mental Attributes, increasing those is Current Rating x6.
  6. The nature of the type of character we’re talking about here, is inherently damaged goods.  It’s unlikely that the basket case you’re considering creating will ever fit in with what regular folks (or even Metahumans) consider normal.  Even so, you’ll have a leg up. Because your brain works differently than others (call it hyper-specialized if you want to), your primary (kick-ass) Attribute (of six) will have 4 specialties attached to it.  You can choose, stack and arrange your specialties as you like, but remember, any Attribute + Skill roll you manage to number crunch will NEVER have a re-roll number lower than an 8, so don’t be a munchkin and don’t waste your specialties.

Opposing Flaws

Going back to the TV show Scorpion, those folks were giants in their fields, but regularly screwed up in huge ways with normal people.  Going along with that theme, each Attribute column is now Opposing the other two columns. In the example above, you chose Intelligence (A Mental attribute) as your primary attribute.  You now have to take six points of Social and/or Physical Flaws. If you took Manipulation (Social attribute) as your primary attribute, you’d have to take 6 points of Physical and/or Mental Flaws.

Character Generation – The meat and potatoes

Which book are we using?

We’re using the White Wolf Sorcerer book  “World Of Darkness Sorcerer — The Hedge Wizard’s handbook. Not the Revised edition. We’re using this book for ideas on Powers. Character Creation mechanics are below.

In the book, there’s a mention of “Rituals”.  Since this is not a Sorcery game, we won’t be using them. Your character may have Magic as a Power, and you may have to do a ritual (with a lower-case r) to get the job done, but at this point, I don’t see how Rituals (with a capital r) fits into the game.

The “Baseline” of who you are

As you would expect, you need to choose Name, Nature, Demeanor, Concept, Motivations, Appearance, if you have a secret identity (pretty rare these days, since you’re a public figure and all), if you have a secret base, etc.

Initial point expenditure

  • Attributes — All Attributes start with one pip, then assign 6/4/3
  • Abilities — assign 11/7/4
  • Backgrounds 5 (Resources and Familiars only up to 2)
  • Powers 2
    • If you want one Power:
      • You can buy either one or two pips. If you buy only one pip, you have 7 extra Freebie points to use on skills, attributes, backgrounds, etc.  
    • If you want two Powers:
      • You must pick both powers at Character Creation.  
      • You must put one pip in each power.
    • The only way to improve Powers is by spending xp.
  • Record your base Willpower as 5.
  • Spend 21 Freebie points: Improve your character using the chart below, except where noted previously (for Resources, Powers, Abilities if you’re playing a Prodigy/Freak Of Nature)

Freebie Points

TraitCost per pip
Attributes5
Abilities2
Backgrounds1
Willpower2

Character Improvement (spending xp)

TraitImprovement cost per pip
New Ability3
WillpowerCurrent Rating
AbilitiesCurrent Rating x 2
AttributesCurrent Rating x 4
Buy off a Flaw (unless forbidden) Current rating x 4
Prodigy: Increase one of the other two Abilities in your Primary categoryCurrent Rating x 6
BackgroundCurrent Rating x 10
Increase a Power if you have 1Current Rating x 7
Increase a Power if you have 2Current Rating x 8