Cubist Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 Lots of other people have established threads for their own creations, so here's mine… Acinonyx: Jubatus' nemesis. Approved version in Character Bank, flawed original draft here. Jenny Everywhere: A true 'citizen of the multiverse', defined as having an avatar in every universe—and as having access to all the knowledge/awareness of all those avatars. Attempt at a FC character sheet for the character. My second character (maybe) Villain concept: Doctor X, man from a future that never was! Jubatus' first major expenditure of XP. Link to comment
Cubist Posted February 11, 2012 Author Share Posted February 11, 2012 Initial draft of Acinonyx; the actual, approved sheet can be found here. Player Name: Cubist / tier 1 NPC villain Character Name: Acinonyx Power Level: 11 (165/165PP) Trade-Offs: -3 Attack / +3 Damage, -3 Defense / +3 Toughness Unspent PP: 0 In Brief: The Eobard "Reverse-Flash" Thawne to Jubatus' Barry "Flash" Allen Alternate Identity: Susan Marie Donnermutter Identity: Secret Birthplace: Scranton, PA Occupation: Self-appointed 'hero' and 'crusader' Affiliations: None Family: Age: ??? (DoB: Month [Optionally, Day & Month], Year) Apparent Age: Young adult (who can tell how old a cheetah is, from their looks?) Gender: Female Ethnicity: Cheetah (formerly Caucasian) Height: 5'11" (standing bipedally) Weight: 127 lbs Eyes: Green Hair: Fur w/ typical cheetah markings -- sandy-yellow w/ black spots all over, with white on the torso's front side Description: Acinonyx is a female cheetah. As it happens, cheetahs have very little sexual dimorphism, so most humans are unlikely to realize that she is female. Compared to Jubatus, she's maybe an inch or two shorter than him, and has 10-20 pounds more body mass (most of it muscle). She is equally comfortable with bipedal or quadrupedal posture. Her forepaws are somewhat more clumsy than Jube's. Power Descriptions: Acinonyx is more-or-less a cheetah on steroids. In physical terms, Acinonyx is a lot tougher & more powerful than Jube. Her STR is higher than his; she's got a better Toughness save; her claws do more damage; and so on. She does not have Jube's Timeshift power. Acinonyx has enthusiastically embraced her inhuman nature, and as a result, she can be extremely terrifying when she wants to be—which is a rather large percentage of the time. History: Susan Marie Donnermutter started out as an ordinary woman and a somewhat overenthusiastic member of 'furry fandom'. When Jubatus revealed himself as a superhero, it's unsurprising that Susan thought he was really cool and spiffy and yada yada yada. One day, she happened to be present at the scene of a crime that Jubatus dealt with; she spoke with him, burbling and gushing about how wonderful Jube was and she wished she had fur like his and so on and so forth. Jubatus did not react the way she imagined he would. Rather than accepting her admiration & responding in kind, Jube was coolly polite at best… and he got downright abusive when he insisted oh hell no, you don't want to be furry like me. This experience was a severe shock. Right then and there, Susan's feelings towards Jubatus changed from 'hero worship' to 'contempt'. She decided that Jubatus didn't deserve the great boon of furriness that had been bestowed upon him, that Jube simply had to be replaced, and that she was the one who had to replace him. Obviously, she couldn't replace Jube unless she became a cheetah herself; in order to achieve this goal, Susan obsessively collected and researched every "I can change your species" rumor she could find. Eventually, she got in contact with the person who made Susan the feline she is today, a person who (unknown to Susan) was on the Labyrinth's payroll. Personality & Motivation: Acinonyx sees herself as "the hero Jubatus ought to have been". She doesn't miss her human form. She thinks humans are weak and ugly and smell bad, but even if humans are an inferior species, it's not right to abuse them. You don't kick puppies, right? Acinonyx is careful not to inflict collateral damage on animals, but at the same time, she's distinctly less concerned about humans. She doesn't actively seek to harm innocents; rather, she just doesn't really care if a hairless ape is 'caught in the blast radius', and is quite likely to apply the can't-make-an-omelette-without-breaking-eggs rationalization in such cases. Acinonyx' main goal in life is to make Jubatus revert back to the pitiful, worthless human being he originally was. She'll divide her time between tryna glom onto high-end biotech (the better to make Jube human), and doing stuff that fits her concept of heroism, such as it is. Plotlines this character is likely to be involved with: Stealing advanced biotechnology; testing the stolen biotech on innocent human victims; kidnapping life-sciences specialists. Robberies (jewel thefts, banks heists, etc etc) to pay for stuff she can't or won't steal. Hiring herself out as 'muscel' to anyone who can pay her high feed. 'Improving' the lives of animals by any means necessary, up to and including Animal Rights-focused acts of terrorism. Being mistaken for Jubatus while doing any of the above. Powers & Tactics: While Jubatus is about control and precision, Acinonyx is about raw, brute power. She does not use gadgets/tools if she can help it; she sees Jube's reliance on technology as a character flaw, and yet another indication that Jube is not worthy of his furry form. She isn't particularly persuasive, so in order to get other people to do as she wishes, she generally ends up relying on fear and intimidation. Complications: Dark secret: Acinonyx has abandoned her former, human, identity, but since she feels her radical change in species/appearance/etc is enough protection for her 'dark secret', she has not made any effort to obscure her history. If anyone actually went to the trouble of researching Acinonyx's human past, she would do anything necessary—up to and including murder—in order to keep that secret from being revealed. Waiting for the other shoe to drop: The Labyrinth is not noted for its charity. Acinonyx owes them, and may the good Lord protect her when the Labyrinth decides it's time to collect on this debt. Abilities: 8 + 12 + 4 + 2 + 2 + 8 = 36PP Strength: 18 (+4) Dexterity: 22 (+6) Constitution: 14 (+2) Intelligence: 12 (+1) Wisdom: 12 (+1) Charisma: 18 (+4) Combat: 16 + 16 = 32PP Initiative: +10 (+6 DEX, +4 Improved Initiative) Attack: +8 Grapple: +12 (+8 Melee, +4 STR) Defense: +8 (+8 Base, +0 Dodge Focus), +4 Flat-Footed Knockback: -3 Saving Throws: 7 + 3 + 8 = 18PP Toughness: +9 (+2 Con, +5 [Protection], +2 Defensive Roll) Fortitude: +9 (+2 Con, +7) Reflex: +9 (+6 Dex, +3) Will: +0 (+1 Wis, +8) Skills: 76R = 19PP Acrobatics 4 (+10) Climb 8 (+12) Handle Animal 5 (+6) Intimidate 16 (+20) Notice 12 (+13) Search 4 (+5) Sense Motive 11 (+12) Stealth 4 (+10) Survival 6 (+7) Swim 6 (+10) Feats: 28PP All-out Attack [1 pp] Ambidexterity [1 pp] Animal Empathy [1 pp] Critical Strike [1 pp] Diehard [1 pp] Distract/Intimidate [1 pp] Elusive Target [1 pp] Fast Overrun [1 pp] Fearless [1 pp] Fearsome Presence (5) [5 pp] Hide in Plain Sight [1 pp] Improved Critical (4) / Crit on 16-20 [4 pp] Improved Sunder [1 pp] Instant Up [1 pp] Move-by Action [1 pp] Power Attack [1 pp] Rage [1 pp] Startle [1 pp] Takedown Attack 2 [2 pp] Uncanny Dodge [1 pp] None Powers: 5 + 4 + 6 + 12 + 4 = 31PP Protection 5 [5PP] Speed 4 100 MPH/880 fps (Hunting sprint) [4PP] Strike 5 (Feats: Mighty) (Claws) [5+1 PP] Super-Movement 6 (Slow Fall, Sure-footed 4, Trackless) [12PP] Super-Senses 4 (Low-light vision, Scent, Tracking (scent), Ultra Hearing) [4PP] Drawbacks: (-0) + (-0) = -0PP DC Block: ATTACK   RANGE   SAVE            EFFECT Strike Touch DC23 Toughness Damage (physical) Abilities (36) + Combat (32) + Saving Throws (18) + Skills (19) + Feats (27) + Powers (31) - Drawbacks (0) = 165/165 Power Points Link to comment
Cubist Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 Jenny Everywhere exists in all dimensions at once. She has the accumulated wisdom of all her other selves, and she can potentially shape or change dimensional properties. … though her powers may be put to use in a fair number of ways, the concept behind Jenny is that she prefers to get out of dangerous situations without the use of these powers. She thrives on the thrill and always plays fair, even if it brings her close to death. The character Jenny Everywhere, aka "The Shifter", is an attempt to apply Open Source software-development techniques to a fictional character. Given the basic premise quoted above, it's clear that (an avatar of) Jenny must necessarily exist in Freedom City's universe, so I thought it might be interesting to work up her MnM character sheet. So… I'm thinking this character's FC-avatar could work best as a "guardian of the multiverse"-type NPC, somewhere in the general vicinity of Dr. Who. When a threat to cosmic/multiversal stability arises, Jenny knows it; she knows who can best deal with said threat; she can provide any and all required transportation, between any two locations anywhere in the multiverse. Whenever "who can best deal with it" means Jenny herself, she does deal with it herself; otherwise, she "calls for the cavalry", i.e. she recruits PC heroes to do what she herself cannot. That way, Jenny won't upstage any PCs "on camera". Transportation: Dimensional and Temporal Movement, of course. 3 ranks in Dimensional; 2 ranks in Temporal. Since she can carry other people along with her, slap Affects Others and some Area on it. The base cost of Super-Move is 2 pts/rank; Affects Others raises that to 3 pts/rank; Area boosts it to 4 pts/rank. So this is a (5 ranks, at 4 pts/rank) 20-pt power. Area comes in several flavors, distinguished by the shape of the area; since this is Jenny's transportation, let's make it Burst—"circular area with a 5-foot radius per rank", which works out to a 25-foot radius. Hmm… that seems big enough for most purposes, and if it's not Jenny can use a Power Stunt to throw some Progression on that Area. Detecting threats to multiversal stability: Multiverse Awareness, with Acute, Analytical, Accurate, Radius, Tracking, and enough Extended to cover everything. I think Jenny should have this awareness regardless of what her mundane senses happen to be doing, so let's assign this to the 'special' sense type. Extended works in an interesting way: Your range increment with the sense is increased by a factor of 10. Each additional time you apply this option, your range increment increases by an additional factor of 10, so one increase makes the range increment 100, two makes it 1,000, and so on. I want this sense to be operative over distances that are literally astronomical, so I need more than one or two ranks in Extended. 1 light year is 9.5*1015 meters; five ranks in Extended yields a range increment of 1015, which is fine for a range increment of 1 light year. But the observable universe has a radius of about 46 billion light years, and Metron only knows how much more universe there is outside our 'light cone'! So let's give her six ranks in Extended, for a range increment of 1021; that should be good enough to cover the entirety of the Milky Way Galaxy and then some. I'm unsure about whether or not to throw in some Dimensional. On the one hand, it would certainly make sense for Jenny to be able to detect multiversal-stability-threats in other dimensions; on the other hand, that's why Kenson invented power stunts, right? "accumulated wisdom of all her other selves": Since these "other selves" are all Jenny-avatars, in any and every universe whatsoever, I'm thinking Variable (All Skills) here, at the 6 pp/rank level. Yes, this is something that the rednames would rightly be very leery about allowing any PC to have, assuming they don't just disallow it outright—but Jenny is an NPC, so that's okay. 2 ranks yield 10 points' worth of skills, which, in turn, buys a total of +40 in whichever skills; that seems like it should be adequate for just about anything. Apart from skills, there are some feats which would be appropriate in this context. Inventor (because some Jenny-avatars live in super-science worlds), Artificer (Jenny-avatars in magic-dominated worlds), Ritualist (see above), Ambidexterity, Eidetic Memory, Fearless, Animal Empathy, Improvised Tools. It should be clear that Jenny knows every language in the multiverse. Comprehend/Language 3, that is. "shape or change dimensional properties": This gets weird, but I'm thinking Environmental Control (pg 48 in ULTIMATE POWER) is the keystone of this ability. And here's the (incomplete, work in progress) character sheet… Player Name: NPC—inapplicable Character Name: Jenny Everywhere, aka The Shifter Power Level: (7 or 10) (105/105PP or 150/150PP) Trade-Offs: +/-0 Attack / +/-0 Damage, +/-0 Defense / +/-0 Toughness (or "None") Unspent PP: 0 Progress To Bronze Status: 0/30 In Brief: Guardian of the multiverse whose mind has access to all the knowledge/memories of all her alternate-dimension avatars Alternate Identity: Identity: (Public or Secret) Birthplace: Occupation: Affiliations: (People and/or groups you work with) Family: Age: ??? (DoB: Month [Optionally, Day & Month], Year) Apparent Age: (if applicable) Gender: Ethnicity: Height: Weight: Eyes: Hair: Description: Power Descriptions: (if applicable) History: (Please remember we are a relatively family friendly site. Your story should be PG-13 at most. If your character wouldn't fit in an episode of Justice League Unlimited, The Dresden Files, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, please rethink it.) Personality & Motivation: Powers & Tactics: Complications: Name: [Description] Example: Secret: Identity. Abilities: 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 0PP Strength: 10 (+0) Dexterity: 10 (+0) Constitution: 10 (+0) Intelligence: 10 (+0) Wisdom: 10 (+0) Charisma: 10 (+0) Combat: 0 + 0 = 0PP Initiative: +0 Attack: +0 Grapple: +0 Defense: +0 (+0 Base, +0 Dodge Focus), +0 Flat-Footed Knockback: -0 Saving Throws: 0 + 0 + 0 = 0PP Toughness: +0 (+0 Con, +0 [Other]) Fortitude: +0 (+0 Con, +0) Reflex: +0 (+0 Dex, +0) Will: +0 (+0 Wis, +0) Skills: 0R = 0PP None (see her Variable (Any & All Skills) power) Feats: 0PP Ambidexterity Animal Empathy Artificer Eidetic Memory Fearless Improvised Tools Inventor Ritualist [Feat Name] [Feat Name] [Feat Name] Examples: Accurate Attack Dodge Focus 2 Luck 2 Name (power breakdown, if applicable) [XEP] Example: Gas Mask [1EP] Sword (Damage 3 [Feats]) [5EP] Undercover Vest (Protection 3 [Feats]) [4EP] Please note that the Equipment quoteblock is only applicable if your character has the Equipment feat. Powers: 0 + 0 + 0 = 0PP Power/Array Name (Extras: ???, ???, Flaws: ???, ???, Feats: ???, ???, Drawbacks: ???, ???) (Descriptive Name, Descriptors) [XPP] Base Power: Power Name (Extras: ???, ???, Flaws: ???, ???, Feats: ???, ???, Drawbacks: ???, ???) (Descriptive Name, Descriptors) [XPP]Alternate Power: Power Name (Extras: ???, ???, Flaws: ???, ???, Feats: ???, ???, Drawbacks: ???, ???) (Descriptive Name, Descriptors) [XPP] Device 1 (5PP, Extras: ???, Flaws: Easy/Hard-To-Lose, ???, Feats: ???, Drawbacks: ???) (Descriptive Name, Descriptors) [3/4PP] Power Name (Extras: ???, ???, Flaws: ???, ???, Feats: ???, ???, Drawbacks: ???, ???) (Descriptive Name, Descriptors) [XPP] Examples: Comprehend 3 (Understand all languages, speak all languages, literate in all languages) [6PP] Environmental Control 10 (Any effects appropriate to the ability to "shape or change dimensional properties") [20PP] Super-Movement 5 (Dimensional Movement 3, Temporal Movement 2 Extras: Affects Others (+1), Area/Burst (+1)) [20PP] Super-Senses 11 (Multiverse Awareness (sense type: Special), Acute (Multi. Aware.), Analytical (Multi. Aware.), Extended 6 (Multi. Aware.), Radius (Multi. Aware.), Tracking (Multi. Aware.)) [11PP] Variable 10 (Any and all skills, re-assignable at any time) [60PP] Base Power: Blast 10 (Extras: Autofire, Flaws: Action [Full], Feats: Accurate, Drawbacks: Full Power) (Chain Lightning) [20PP]Alternate Power: Blast 10 (Extras: Area [General, Burst], Flaws: Distracting) (Ball Lightning) [20PP]Alternate Power: Stun 6 (Extras: Range [Ranged]) [18PP] Device 2 (10PP, Flaws: Hard-To-Lose, Feats: Indestructible) (Mighty Shield) [9PP] Damage 3 (Feats: Improved Critical, Mighty, Thrown) [6PP] Force Field 2 [2PP] Shield 2 [2PP] NOTE: If your powers do not have any Extras, Flaws, Feats or Drawbacks, you do not need to include those categories. I.e., if you have a plain Blast 10 (a bolt of fire), all you need to write is "Blast 10 (Fire Bolt) [20PP]." Drawbacks: (-0) + (-0) = -0PP Drawback (Description, Frequency: [uncommon, Common, or Very Common], Intensity: [Minor, Moderate, or Major]) [-XPP] Example: Vulnerability (Fire, Frequency: Common, Intensity: Major [x2 DMG]) [-4PP] (Please note that you can only have a number of drawbacks equal to your PL, not including power drawbacks. Also, power drawbacks, such as Full Power or Power Loss, should be listed on the power, not here.) DC Block: ATTACK   RANGE   SAVE            EFFECT Unarmed   Touch   DC15 Toughness (Staged)   Damage (Physical) NOTE: The easiest way to get your DC Block to line up is to write it out in a word processor in a Courier font, then just copy/paste it into your post. Abilities (0) + Combat (0) + Saving Throws (0) + Skills (0) + Feats (0) + Powers (0) - Drawbacks (0) = 105/105 (or 150/150) Power Points Link to comment
Cubist Posted October 7, 2012 Author Share Posted October 7, 2012 I'm mostly happy with Jube's sheet as it stands, but there are some things I'd like to add and/or change. This is basically a wish list of all such things; while it'd be nice if I could do them all in one fell swoop, I won't kvetch if that isn't doable… Jube is PL12. With his trade-offs, his caps are +14 Attack; +10 Damage; +14 Defense; and +10 Toughness. I'll have to keep these figures in mind when I'm tweaking things. I think it's appropriate for Jubatus to have raised the top end on his Timeshifting. He started out with an upper limit of 40* normal speed; let's raise that to 80 or so. This means buying up Jube's Timeshift container from its current cost of 30 pp: Timeshift (35PP Container [Active]) [35pp] [[+5 pts spent!]] [*:14p1wdbc]Enhanced Feats 7 (Improved Initiative 7) [7pp] Raises Jube's Initiative bonus from +31 to +35 [*:14p1wdbc]Enhanced STR 14 [14pp] Raises Jube's STR from 18 to 20 [*:14p1wdbc]Quickness 7 (x250) [7pp] [*:14p1wdbc]Speed 7 (1,000 MPH/10,000 ft per Move Action) [6pp] And since his Timeshift effectively boosts his DEX, let's raise his DEX from 24 to 28. [[+4 pts spent!]] This gives Jube a DEX modifier of +9, which is under his caps, so that's fine. Since Jube can be literally quicker than the eye can follow, it would make sense for him to have Invisibility/Concealment with the flaw "Only when Speed 7 is active". Am inclined to think that this should really cover all senses, since the rationale behind the 'concealment' is that Jube isn't staying in one place long enough to register on an observer's senses. By the same token, this 'concealment' should be ineffective against anyone with Mental Quickness, because those people think fast enough to notice very short-duration events, which looks to me like another Limited flaw. So in theory, this is the maximum 10 ranks in Concealment, with a pair of +1 Flaws, which should add up to 5pp. 5 pts spent here Since cheetahs are pretty good with sound effects just because, I want Jube to have Feature (Mimicry) to cover his ability to imitate any sound. 1 pt spent here Points spent on Powers: 15 Feats: The house rules explicitly allow Online Research, from the Mecha & Manga rulebook, and that feat is very appropriate for Jube. 1 pt spent here Throw one pp into a 2nd rank of Benefit: Wealth. 1 pt spent here Dude really ought to have Well-Informed. 1 pt spent here Jube should have Fearless, on the grounds that he spends so much time being frightened of himself, it's kind of hard for any external fear-source to make an impression. 1 pt spent here Takedown Attack is close to mandatory for a speedster. 1 pt spent here Improvised Tools seems right for Jube. 1 pt spent here Eidetic Memory, too, seems right for Jube. 1 pt spent here Total points spent here: 7 Since I've got 29 pts unspent, the 22 pts' worth of "wish list" here are okay on that criterion. Now to incorporate this stuff into the character sheet… Players Name: Cubist Characters Name: Jubatus Power Level: 12 (180PP/187PP) Trade-Offs: +2 Attack / -2 Damage, +2 Defense / -2 Toughness Unspent PP: 7 Progress to Silver Status: 37/60 In Brief: Speedster who is his own worst enemy -- his toughest challenge will be overcoming 'the demons within' Alternate Identities: Jay Nelson Xavier Identity: Public (it's kind of hard to maintain a Secret Identity when you're blatantly Not Human...) Birthplace: San Francisco Bay Area Occupation: Freelancer specializing in technological troubleshooting and tech writing Affiliations: Sometimes works with Martin Brandtford of ASTRO Labs for scientific purposes Family: Parents: Albert Xavier (father -- dead), Rebecca Xavier (mother -- Alzheimer's-stricken 105-year-old in nursing home). Siblings, in birth order: Corrie Xavier (sister, 86), Maxwell Xavier (brother, dead), Dan Xavier (brother, dead), Elaine Xavier (sister, 79), Nancy Xavier (sister, dead), Randolph Xavier (brother, 64). Jube is aware that he has several more-distant relatives (cousins, etc) in various parts of the US and Europe, but has never attempted to build relationships with any of these persons Age: 65 (DoB: September, 1946) Apparent Age: Young adult (how old does a cheetah look..?) Gender: Male Ethnicity: Cheetah (formerly Caucasian) Height: 6'1" Weight: 102 lbs Eyes: Green Hair: Fur w/ typical cheetah markings -- sandy-yellow w/ black spots all over, with white on the torso's front side Description: First impression: The guy's a cheetah, end of discussion. A closer look reveals that his braincase is rather larger than that of a 'real' cheetah, and the digits on his forepaws are a fair amount longer, slimmer, and more dexterous than those of a 'real' cheetah (which isn't saying much). He typically doesn't wear anything more than a khaki vest that's got ridiculously many (gadget-filled) pockets. Power Descriptions: Jubatus' only exotic ability is what he calls "Timeshifting", the power to control how quickly Time flows for himself. He calls it 'upshifting' when he's running faster than normal, and 'downshifting' when he's running slower than normal. This ability has some innate side-effects. One, gravity becomes weaker (when he upshifts) or stronger (when he downshifts). Two, it 'Doppler shifts' all wavelengths (of light or sound or whatever else); when he's running X* faster than normal, he percieves all wavelengths as 1/X of their 'normal' value. History: With an IQ around 140, Jay Nelson Xavier has been 'the smartest kid in the room' for most of his childhood (and a good fraction of his adult life). Thanks to an intermittent, continuing series of abusive incidents at the hands of his so-called 'peer group', incidents which were either ignored or dismissed as "kids playing around" by adults who were nominally in positions of responsibility, Jay learned early on that most people are stupid or crazy or both... a conclusion which was only reinforced during his adolescence and later years. For the past 30-40 years, Jay has been a technocrat, specializing in troubleshooting and technical writing; his life was a comfortable routine of accepting, and fulfulling, freelance contracts. That comfortable routine ended a few months ago. Unknown to Jay, he'd been chosen by a Grue sleeper agent as a suitable test-subject for biological experimentation... so one day, Jay went to sleep normal, and woke up with a five-o'clock shadow that just wouldn't quit. Overnight, his body had changed from 'normal human' to 'almost-normal cheetah'. As if the associated changes to his vision, hearing, and other senses weren't bad enough, he also found himself 'floating', as if gravity had somehow been reduced to 1/6 of its customary strength. Confused and disoriented by this radical transformation, Jay managed to dial 9-1-1... and that freaked him out even more: There was no person on the other end of the line, just a slow basso droning. Even worse, Jay discovered that he was no longer capable of speech -- all that came out of his mouth were animal noises! In desperation, Jay barked out the classic SOS code. Then he lost consciousness... Jay woke up in a hospital room, tied to a bed by loose restraints. During the week or so he spent in hospital, Jay learned about his new, highly cheetah-esque body; what he could and couldn't eat safely, that he was permanently stuck at 6* faster than the rest of the world, etc etc. As well, he figured out how to talk with a vocal tract that can't produce speech (the secret is, make a series of carefully-selected sound effects that sound like human words), and how to 'downshift' (slow himself down) to the same speed as everybody else. At which point, he returned to his normal life, as best he could. A week after his release from hospital, Jay happened to be passing by the site of a five-on-one mugging. Ordinarily, Jay would have just dialed 9-1-1 on his cellphone and let the police handle it... but this time, he couldn't just let the victim suffer, because he was a by-God human being, not a friggin' animal! Jay thought his monstrous appearance would be enough to drive the thugs away. Wrong: Inhuman he might seem, but he was also obviously scared & underconfident, and he appeared to be a scrawny little bugger (6' tall and 100 lbs). So the thugs figured a weak, frightened animal (albeit one that was a little bit larger than the last animal they'd tortured) would be easy meat. The thugs were very wrong: In the ensuing scuffle, Jay 'upshifted' for the first time, and his 'beast side' took over for the first time... or at least he friggin' well hopes it was his 'beast side' taking over. Because when it was over, Jay was horrified to see all five thugs sprawled out on the asphalt, unmoving, in puddles of their own blood. Jay called for ambulances, and spent the next several minutes puking his guts out. All five of the thugs were alive when the ambulances arrived. Jay reported the incident to the police, who assured him that there would be no legal repercussions -- it was a clear case of self-defense on behalf of an innocent victim -- which made Jay feel a little better about his having ripped and torn and shredded and... anyway, Jay resolved that the next time he came across a crime-in-progress, he would let the police handle it. Then the parents of one of the thugs insisted on charging Jay with assault and battery! However the judge might have originally planned to handle this case, Jay derailed that plan by pleading guilty. So the judge was forced to come up with a 'plan B'. Well, it was pretty clear that Jay wanted to be a good citizen... but it was also clear that he was having problems dealing with his newly-transformed body, and that he could be a danger to the public, if those problems weren't dealt with. In the end, the judge ordered Jay to get the psychological help he so clearly needed. Now, some few months of treatment later, Jay still has bad days from time to time... but his mental condition is sufficiently improved that when his therapist suggested Jay put his special abilities to public-spirited use, Jay agreed. And now Jay battles injustice with the blazing speed of... Jubatus! Personality & Motivation: Jay Nelson Xavier has never been anyone's idea of a superhero. He's a cynical, hardshell pragmatist, and while he does have altruistic impulses, his life experiences have forcibly taught him that acting on said impulses usually has a bad outcome. However, he has recently come to understand that the results of ignoring altruistic impulses can be worse. Jay has few friends, and he likes it that way -- especially now that his brain has been rewired to add cheetah traits/instincts, such as their generally solitatry nature. Jay, a detail-oriented fussbudget, is aware that he's more competent than most people, but where some might think "damn, I'm great!", Jay wonders "why can't they do it, too?" Part of the reason Jay acts as a superhero is because he believes his cheetah-like body is doomed to die of old age within 2-3 years, and he's determined to make as much of a difference as he can, while he's still capable. In reality, Jay's accelerated metabolism heals the ravages of Time as quickly they occur, so he's effectively immune to aging -- he just doesn't know this yet. Powers & Tactics: Jube is about speed and precision, not brute force. He prefers the surgically exact strike to carpet-bombing, pre-planned activity to improvisation. Complications: Can't Touch Me: Jube's Danger Sense is permanently active -- he cannot shut it down -- and whenever the DS thinks there's trouble inbound, it actives his Timeshift for Jube... The Nature of the Beast: Jube's eyes and ears are cheetah-normal; thus, he has lousy color discrimination, and he cannot hear any sounds below 100 Hz or so. The digits on his forepaws are longer and slimmer than those of normal cheetahs, but nowhere near as good as human fingers; hence Jube's manual dexterity suffers at times. Obligate carnivore; chewing on one leaf won't hurt him, but a whole salad would give him horrible diarrhea. Human-style clothing is very uncomfortable -- it chafes against his fur and makes him overheat, not to mention his skeletal structure is all wrong for it -- so he wears as little of it as he can get away with. Jube's voice sounds terrible; he can't actually speak, so he strings together carefully-selected sound effects to produce 'speech' which is easy to comprehend. Jube is naturally quadrupedal, but he insists on standing up on his hind legs anyway, no matter how much it hurts. Thou Shalt Not...: Jube is very very very opposed to killing anything, and takes a rather dim view of even inflicting injury; he's scared spitless that the scent of blood might allow his 'beast side' to take over. Time Will Let Me: Jube's Timeshift affects gravity (Timeshifting slower = stronger gravity; faster = weaker gravity). He can Timeshift to slower than normal, with the accompanying effect on personal gravity. As well, the Timeshift affects anything with a wavelength; when Jube is running N* faster than normal, he percieves the frequency of an X-Hertz sound as (X/N) Hz, and analogous color-shifts affect light. This quirk affects Jube's Infravision, Ultravision, and Ultrasonic Hearing, and he may eventually learn to exploit it for X-ray Vision. Too Darn Fast: Jube's bodily processes (metabolism, nerve impulses, etc) are permanently stuck at 6* normal speed; in order to interact with normal-speed characters, he must use his Timeshift power to slow down to their speed. As well, he needs to eat 6* more than anyone else; Jube going 1 day without food affects him much the same way a normal person would be affected by not eating for 6 days straight. Similarly, Jube's sleep cycle is 1/6 as long as that of any normal person. Abilities: -4 +18 +4 +8 +6 +2 = 34pp Str 18/06 (+4/-2) Dex 28 (+9) Con 14 (+2) Int 18 (+4) Wis 16 (+3) Cha 12 (+1) Combat: 12 + 20 = 32pp Initiative: +9/+37 Attack: +6 ranged, +12 melee Grapple: +16/+10 Defense: +10 (+10 Base), +5 Flat-Footed Knockback: -5, -1 Flat-Footed Saving Throws: 4 + 0 + 6 = 10 Toughness: +10 (+2 Con, +8 Defensive Roll) / +2 Flat-Footed Fortitude: +6 (+2 Con, +4) Reflex: +7 (+7 Dex, +0) Will: +9 (+3 Wis, +6) Skills: 32R = 8pp Knowledge: Business 4 (+8) Knowledge: Current Events 4 (+8) Knowledge: Technology 5 (+9) Knowledge: Theology and Philosophy 5 (+9) Language 2 (English [native], Spanish, French) Notice 6 (+9) Sense Motive 4 (+7) Stealth 2 (+9)9 Feats: 24PP Attack Focus (Melee) 6 Benefit: Wealth 2 Defensive Roll 4 (+8 Toughness) Eidetic Memory Environmental Adaptation (Low gravity) Evasion Fearless Improvised Tools Jack of All Trades Master Plan Online Research Stunning Attack Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (Motion Sense) Well-Informed None. The many tools and gadgets Jube carries with him, which were originally statted out as Equipment, are now covered by Jube's Gadgets power. Powers: 5 + 1 + 6 + 2 + 2 + 5 + 6 + 1 + 7 + 1 + 1 + 35 = 72PP Concealment 10: (vs all senses except tactile, Complications: Power Loss [Only active when Speed 7 is in play], Power Loss [Doesn't affect observers with Mental Quickness]) [5PP] Feature 1 (Mimicry: Jube's throat produces excellent sound effects) [1PP] Gadgets 1 (easy to lose; incomplete listing of Jube's toys is hidden under a Spoiler tag) [6pp] Stuff from the Core book Binoculars [1EP] Commlink [1EP] Cutting torch (Blast 1, Drain Toughness 1) [3EP] Digital A/V recorder [1EP] Ear protectors (+5 vs Dazzle (auditory)) [1EP] Fire extinguisher [1EP] Flash-defense goggles (+5 vs Dazzle (visual)) [1EP] Forensics kit [1EP] Gas mask [1EP] GPS unit [1EP] Handcuffs [1EP] Lock release gun [1EP] Mini-tracer [1EP] Palmtop (PDA) [1EP] Police scanner [1EP] Rebreather [1EP] Swiss army knife (i.e., multi-tool) [1EP] UV 'blacklight' [1EP] Stuff that isn't in the Core Book, but seemed reasonable for Jube to have Duct tape / Snare 5 (Flaw: Touch) [5PP] Small, throwable objects / Strike 2 (Feat: Rapidfire) [5PP] Fluff; these items probably won't ever have much effect on combat, but Jube carries them anyway Spare batteries (all kinds/sizes needed for his gadgets) Food-like substances (i.e., beef jerky, protein bars, etc) Vials of concentrated energy fluid (i.e., Rockstar/Monster/Red Bull) Immunity 2 (aging, cheetah-specific & human-specific diseases) [2pp] Regeneration 2 (Recovery Rate: Bruised 1 [1 round], Staggered 1 [20 minutes]) [2pp] Strike 4 (Feats: Mighty) (Claws, fangs) [5pp] Super-Movement 3 (Safe Fall, Sure-footed, Wall-Crawling) [6PP] Super-Movement 1 (Water Walking, Complications: Power Loss [Only active when Jube is Timeshifted faster than his default tempo of 6]) [1PP] Super-Senses 7: (Danger Sense (Motion Sense), Low-light Vision, Motion Sense [Tactile, Extras: Ranged], Normal Olfactory Sense [Extras: Acute, Tracking], Ultrasonic Hearing) [7PP] Super-Senses 1: (Infravision, Complications: Power Loss [Only active when Jube is Timeshifted slower than normal]) [1PP] Super-Senses 1: (Ultravision, Complications: Power Loss [Only active when Jube is Timeshifted faster than his default tempo of 6]) [1PP] Timeshift (35PP Container [Active]) [35pp] [*:14p1wdbc]Enhanced Feats 7 (Improved Initiative 7) [7pp] [*:14p1wdbc]Enhanced STR 14 [14pp] [*:14p1wdbc]Quickness 7 (250) [7pp] [*:14p1wdbc]Speed 7 (1,000 MPH/10,000 ft per Move Action) [7pp] DC Block: ATTACK   RANGE   SAVE vs.          EFFECT Unarmed   Touch   Toughness, DC19 (15+4)   Damage (Physical) Strike   Touch   Toughness, DC23 (15+8)   Damage (Physical) Blast    Range   Toughness, DC17 (15+2)   Damage (Physical) / from Gadgets Snare    Touch   Reflex, DC20 (15+5)     Entanglement / from Gadgets Abilities (34) + Combat (32) + Saving Throws (10) + Skills (8) + Feats (24) + Powers (72) = 180pp/187pp Link to comment
Cubist Posted October 7, 2012 Author Share Posted October 7, 2012 Character concept: A seeming mega-ninja who is, in reality, a technogeek who's faking it with holographic illusions & other such light-based gadgets. Link to comment
Cubist Posted November 6, 2012 Author Share Posted November 6, 2012 Core concept: Last survivor/exile from a 1930s-space-opera timeline who wants to restore the universe to the way (he thinks) it ought to be. Doctor X uses 'technology' that would be right at home in any story from a Hugo Gernsback-edited magazine. His gadgets really shouldn't ought to work, but they do anyway -- go figure. For instance, an "invisibility ray" that's built around a pair of polarizing filters whose angles of polarization are 90° apart. No light can get through that pair of filters, but since the filters are transparent, and energy is conserved, the paired filters must obviously be Doing Something to the photons which pass thru them; thus, an Invisibility Ray. Every device in Doctor X's armory is like that; it's got a superficially-plausible 'scientific' rationale that doesn't quite manage to break the 1930s-vintage laws of physics. Doctor X himself is unfailingly courteous, for a certain value of 'courtesy'. His manners are very likely to come across as condescending to women and members of minority groups. He's definitely racist, but he's a "White Man's Burden"-style racist, not a KKK-style racist. How this guy works as a villain: Doctor X is basically a Well-Intentioned Extremist with a rather sucky concept of 'utopia'. Can the Doctor be saved? Perhaps not, but idealistic heroes really ought to try… Doctor X's "restore the timeline" goal would, if it were ever in danger of happening, play out pretty much like House of L with 'Silver Age' replaced by 'Golden Age'. Not sure this is a thing that we really need to do, so "editorial fiat" says Doctor X just won't ever get to a point where he can make it happen. Of course, this won't prevent Doctor X from trying to achieve his goal, so he can have lots of fun along the way regardless. He'll start out by trying to persuade people to help him voluntarily; this will not work, for reasons which should be fairly obvious. He will move up to blatantly criminal acts, because the end he seeks justifies whatever means he may find necessary. Doctor X's overarching goal is to restore the 'proper' timeline. Ordinarily, meddling with the space/time continuum just generates a new alternate timeline; Doctor X thinks that getting around this inconvenient fact is "just an engineering problem", and he has blueprints for a superscience gizmo which (he believes) will be able to genuinely change history, no 'alternate timelines' need apply. He does not have the parts to actually build his "Past Master machine"; stealing those parts, as and when said parts become available, will be a major thing for Doctor X. Doctor X thinks that racial and sexual equality are impossible, therefore anyone who believes in such things must be suffering from a severe cognitive distortion. So just in case his Past Master machine turns out to be unworkable, Doctor X might, as a Plan B 'running in parallel', try to 'free' people from the 'brainwashing' which has led them to regard these impossible things as good and valuable. This backup plan could unfold as a 'Stepford Wives'-ish scenario in which a small town's residents mysteriously revert to 1930s-style sociocultural mores, 'thanks' to Doctor X's mind-control ray projector. Doctor X could be a source of moral dilemmas for heroes. For instance, suppose Doctor X's irreproducible technology is a required component of a scheme to achieve some blatantly Good purpose (rebuilding a community after an extradimensional disaster?)—but he won't allow the heroes access to that technology unless they agree to assist him in achieving his goals. What will the heroes do? And what if Doctor X is doing something that's genuinely good, maybe distributing food to starving people, as a means of persuading people to agree with his goals? Link to comment
Ari Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 Your villain suggestion sounds a lot like someone from Micron's home. Could that work as another aspect? A colonist from a 'truly civilized' world come to rescue the benighted natives from their ignorance? Link to comment
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