(2) - Dawn of the Metahumans

Game Master mdt

Okay, made the changes (same sheet). Defenses are a few points lower (and she's now a bit of a glass cannon vs energy attacks , especially fire), flying attack form now does slightly less damage but with slightly more accuracy, and I've kicked int to slightly superhuman levels (the whole "distributed intelligence" thing) while dropping a few skills. Resurrection now fits into the framework.

Background / personality thoughts so far:

The Rocket is going to be an 18 year old mutant who developed his powers gradually over the last two years. They came on during high school--just in time for him to start wowing scouts while playing varsity baseball. His childhood dream came true when he was offered a full baseball scholarship to UCLA. Then everything came crashing down when they gave him his physical. ”What’s going on? This can’t be right! Your pulse seems to be--Jesus Christ, it’s over a thousand beats per second--we’ve got to get you to the hospital, you’re having a cardiac arrest!!”

Realizing what was happening, Zach bolted...barely keeping the presence of mind to run at a reasonable speed. When he realized that he could no longer pass a physical he was utterly demoralized. Zach was shaken from his doldrums when he realized his speed and agility were continuing to grow to ridiculous proportions. It occurred to him that while pro athlete was something he could never attain without giving away his bizarre mutant physiology...he might be able to pursue an even crazier childhood dream: superhero! (mdt would he know of real superheroes to be inspired by? And if not, do the comic books we’re familiar with exist as something he would have read for inspiration?)

Since then he’s given up on college but realized that he can make a lucrative income doing a broad mix of piece-work. He answered every “Moms: earn money from home!” ad he could find and found that he can perform data entry and detailed handicrafts at a hundred times the speed of most people. It’s good that he has a steady source of cash too, because his appetite is gigantic: often eating 30 Big Macs in a day!

Living comfortably off of a few hours work per week, he’s spent his nights running out into the hills where he can work out and test his skills. He’s not sure if he’s ready to be a real superhero yet but he’s impatient to get a chance to try!

Personality
- Code vs Killing: Zach is inspired by the comic book characters he read as a child, and he knows from the comics that a real hero captures but doesn’t kill the villains he faces.
- Impatient: Everyone and everything around Zach feels like it moves at a snail’s pace. He tries his best not to have to wait for others and gets impatient quickly when things around him move slowly.
- Competitive: He’s lost his dream of being a pro baseball player, after coming so close to it--but his competitive nature is as fierce as ever. He loves the thrill of competition and can make rash decisions when there’s a chance to compete and win.

Thanks for the review!

>> You've got 3 power frameworks. I've been trying to limit it to 2 at most, otherwise powers get too cheap. And especially with enhanced senses spread out over multiple slots in an EC.

Makes total sense. I took away the EC.

>> Skills are sparse, and show no background or non-combat skills. Also, teamwork skill must be earned in game (notice nobody I worked up has it).

Yes, was holding off on background skills until I got a better sense of his background. I think I'm there now and so added them. I took away teamwork.

>> I'd like to keep the speedsters to 6 to start off.

Sure, done.

>> No disads yet (I'm assuming you need the background).

Ahh Disads are there on the second tab of the sheet (mostly done, though there're two placeholders: Hunted TBD and Dependent NPC TBD)

>> The tricks make me nervous, especially the 5d6 HA. HA's shouldn't exceed base strength. And, if you combine the 5d6 with a move through, you're doing 16d6 damage. With a move-by 13D6 damage, with the potential to hit the same person multiple times or multiple people.

Sure, I'll really look to you for guidance as to finding the right power level for your campaign.

I've dialed that multipower back, as follows:
- piston punch is only +1d6 but adds x2 knockback
- autofire punch is only +2d6 (and will exhaust my END very quickly)
- whirling 2 hex punch is only +1d6

I then bumped his STR from 15 to 20.

Now standing still piston punch = 5d6; full velocity piston punch move-by = 4d6/2+5d6=7.5d6; full velocity piston punch move-by = 5d6+8d6=13d6...but I'll take half that damage. Does that sound about right? Too weak? Still too high? (It's tough balancing with move-through.)

>> Beyond that, I see no issues with the running MP.

Cool.

>> I'd need the background to work up a speedster, but I have quite a few in the back of my head if you'd like an interesting one.

See background spoiler, above.

By the way, in addition to skills, I added two things inspired by the Speedster guidebook:
- Blown away: 11d6 dispel smoke/gas power (one at a time, 1/4), no range
- Hyper-cramming: VPP 3 base +2 control, only skills he can learn from reading (-1)

I'm ok with the falling prevention not activating if he accidentally falls. I wanted it to be a deliberate action to avoid damage. He would have practiced jumping off roof tops and water towers. Not that he would have practiced skydiving, but if he was dropped from high enough to get an action (free falling) he would ha time to slow himself (by concentrating). Cheers.

At 1000 beats per minute, he'd actually register as dead, not 'about to have a heart attack'. :) Hummingbird heart rates aren't recordable by standard heart rate monitors. More likely they wouldn't have been able to get a reading. Also, they probably would not get a blood pressure reading either (due to it being off the chart). So a physical would be problematic as a way to find out his powers.

What if he was late for something, and ended up running through a fence and ripping up his clothes, and it scaring him, and him being afraid to take the scholarship as they'd do physicals?

Adding in a VPP brings you back up to 3 power frameworks...

HA - HA's are automatically no-range, unless you have stretching. From the HA power. To buy an HA, a character spends 5 Active Points per 1d6, and applies any Advantages to derive an Active Point total. He then applies a mandatory -½ Limitation, Hand-To-Hand Attack (plus any other Limitations taken for the Power) to derive a Real Cost. Th is Limitation signifi es that the HA damage only works if it adds to a character’s damage dice based on STR (in essence, HA is just a Limited form of STR). It cannot function on its own, nor does it add to a character’s STR in any other way or provide any Figured Characteristics. A character must use a minimum of ½d6 of his STR damage to use an HA.

To get what you're wanting, you have to buy an energy blast with an advantage that you add str damage, or you have to buy ranged on your strength, or you buy stretching. To simulate the focus thing you're talking about, you'd buy OAFOO, Obvious Accessible Focus of Opportunity for a 1/2 limitation.

*sigh* Fine, 25 inches of glide. But if I catch you trying to do 20D6 of movethrough damage with it, I'll tear up your character sheet...

4. Change Jedi Mind Trick to +1 Persuasion to 14- (2 pts) and +5 Persuasion (-1/2 only to offset penalties due to suspicion) (7 pts) for net 0 points

Just reread this, can't do. Or rather, not for the point costs you have. You can't put limitations on a skill level unless it's a 5pt or higher. That would make the +5 a 25 pt AP, with a -1/2, making it way more expensive than 7 pts.

Jedi Jack

Still needs :

*Full Name
*Additional 5 pts of disads, if you want to spend more points, otherwise, can start as is with fewer disads

Suggestions :

Might want to expand out personality/background information.

Name: Hotaru Hoshiko
Alias: Pulse
Eyes: Gold-Hazel
Hair: Black twintails.
Height: Short, 5'3"
Weight: Powderpuff, 120ish.

Looking into some side effects of EMFs, two things stand out as good disadvantages.

Distinctive Feature: Runs hot. Senses: Technological, touch. Hotaru is hot to the touch, and registers easily on infrared bands.

Susceptible: Heat Stroke. Hotaru is unable to maintain normal homeostasis as a result of the interactions of her own electromagnetic field. As a direct result, in higher temperature ranges, Hotaru's internal temperature quickly moves beyond normal ranges.

Hunted: Local Police. While no one has been hurt, a person who has access to technology capable of knocking people unconscious with no permanent damage to their systems has been moving through the streets, cleaning them up, and leaving people tied up on street corners.

Physical Limitation: Heavy Sleeper. Hotaru is constantly bombarded with signals that keep her senses busy at night. As a direct result, the sleep she does get is the sleep of the dead... perhaps literally.

I still like the idea of being intelligent, but uneducated for now. I also like the idea of paramedics, of course, and the expansion of my sensory powers a little more.

I also wanted to thank you for all the effort you've gone to to keep people feeling unique. I noticed that at a glance, I seem to have both the highest reserves and the highest recovery... but also the highest power costs of the group. You've invested a ton of points into my recovery and endurance to offset this, and it really does create the feel that my character is literally a dynamo, but is incredibly inefficient at what she does. It creates a really great dichotomy, and sets up a really good foundation for when Hotaru gains 'better control' and starts moving costs down, or starts diversifying. I seem to be one of the better 'nova' characters, with a ton of sustainability for the options I do have... with passive abilities that I really care about. Thanks!

Like Hotaru, other folks seem to be fairly unique in what they can do, with very carefully carved niches, and I really appreciate that, because it means that not only can no one do everything, no matter who you choose, it will feel like something is missing. :)

OK No, move-throughs, check. (limited to only reducing falling velocity)

His full name is Jack Straw. I revised his background here. It includes some look forward. I can add more, because the character is pretty clear in my head now.

I'll review for 5 pts of disads.

As for Jedi Mind Trick, what if he puts 10 points into only boosting Persuasion at 2 points per +1 (Not boosting Conversation). That would give him a Persuasion 18-. Are you OK with that high of a roll? I guessed that you would not so was trying to keep the base roll down to 14- for the "weak-minded" and saving some points for the limitation.

If we need 1 point for the Mind Trick (and don't add Disads), you could eliminate the 1 point for Weapon Element: Clubs.

I see you didn't add the Intuitional to the Danger Sense. Any reason?

I'm occupying your bandwidth again. We can tinker if I get selected.

cheers

Re physical: Registering as dead / unreadable / off the charts / "this BP monitor must be broken" works too. I'll change that when I revise his backstory. I'm not sure he'd have realized a physical would be trouble before he tried it.

Re hyper-cramming: doh, right. Does "4) speed reading x100 & cramming, costs END" in Speedster tricks work?

Re the ability to do high speed punching OR pitching, does this work?:
"1) piston punch (or pitch): +5 STR, 0 END & no fixed char on extra STR, 2x knockback on all STR
2) rapid-fire punch (or pitch): +10 STR, 0 END & no fixed char on extra STR, autofire x3 on all STR"

Then its cost stays the same, and it uses the general throwing rules (which means I'll need to know the DEF + BODY of a baseball) instead of the Energy Blast rules...which also limits its effectiveness, which I like since I want an option versus flying foes...but don't want to be great at anything ranged.

I'd rather not put skills/talents into MP's except in extra special circumstances.

For the punch/pitch yes, that is fine, as it's straight core book. :)

For a baseball, i'd say it's 1D/2B, they aren't much compared to a bullet.

Name: Hotaru Hoshiko
Alias: Pulse
Eyes: Gold-Hazel
Hair: Black twintails.
Height: Short, 5'3"
Weight: Powderpuff, 120ish.
***
They say you always remember your first time. And they're mostly right, though Hotaru's first time was something likely better to be forgotten. The first sign that there was anything special about her happened a decade ago, when she was just nine years old. That specific something was Hurricane Katrina. She'd lived in New Orleans since her birth, and suddenly being uprooted was terrifying. All of her friends, all of the places she loved, all of the people she knew, her school... everything was gone. And worse, they were gone in a literal sense. She didn't know that part, yet, though.
Instead, they had fled northwards and away from the oncoming storm, to stay with family until everything blew over. They'd taken those things they most cherished, thankfully, because everything they had worked for would be gone once they returned. But that's not what this is about. The first time Hotaru's powers kicked in was the night she'd left her home. Perhaps it was the immense stress of it all, but she was up all night listening to the radio steadily feed her information about the oncoming storm, the warnings and predictions of danger, the steady barrage of information that wouldn't quiet down. Worse... the radio wasn't even on.

She didn't sleep the following days, either. The steady arrival of information, landfall, of levees failing, of places being flooded, of destruction of the place she called her home, of blame and pain, sound bites, government officials on vacation, superstars spouting bigotry... and she was subjected to all of that. If it was bad for Hotaru, you could imagine how bad it must have been for the parents of a child who had no idea what was going on. She had always had headaches on occasion, frequently complained of her ears ringing, of staticky noises. The doctors diagnosed her with mild, nondangerous aural hallucinations; it wasn't really all that uncommon. Everyone heard the occasional voice, or fell victim to an ear worm or an altitude change.

After Katrina, Hotaru became a bit of a troubled child, though. She and her family moved to the suburbs of Memphis, where they decided to set up shop. Their old home had been completely destroyed along with everything in it. She had difficulty concentrating on the topic at hand, and frequently slipped into day dreams, fueled by the slow barrage of information that everyone blamed on an overactive imagination imprinted upon by other conversations. No one ever really tried to understand what was going on... so she retreated into fantasy. Video games, young adult fiction, and comic books became her pastimes as she mostly retreated.

She had other hobbies, as well, she was physically active, though not interested in sports, she helped with her parent's business, though not much more than being a gopher for tools. She enjoyed the idea of building things, and took several of the 'boy' classes in school, primarily shop and comp sci. By the time she had graduated from high school, her home life had stabilized considerably, though her family was still on the lower end of middle class; enough to pay down loans on her father's shop and their home, but not enough so that she could attend college without financial aid... which she didn't qualify for, due to being middle class. Luckily, her grades had been passable enough to get her a small scholarship at Tennessee Tech on the other side of the state, at least enough to pay for dorm and books.

To compensate, she took a heavy course load (to finish more quickly), took out student loans, and tacked on a job as a waitress. Steadily, her rapport with people improved... but so did her powers. As the stress of having a completely full semester, a late-night job, and absolutely no social life began to overwhelm her, the voices that she'd managed to mostly shut down with a cocktail of ADHD and Anti-Psychotic medication began to grow more boisterous. At its worst, there were many, many more voices. Concentration became harder and harder, and it was getting difficult to keep up with her job, which she compensated for with a notepad. She'd never really needed to take notes to remember things when she could be bothered to pay attention, but the voices were almost always worst at work.

But it was due to work that she discovered what was going on. She wasn't hearing voices per se... she was hearing cell phones. All of the conversations people were having in the tiny diner on her cell phones, she was picking up. Pieces fell into place. She was hearing AM radio when she was little. She could perceive radio and cell phone signals. That was amazing! She had to tell someone! No... that was a terrible idea. She settled on keeping her secret to herself, and tried to tease and tweak her power to see what she could actually get from it.

She could triangulate with cell phone towers. She could intercept calls and radiowaves. She could likewise turn them off, or send information through them. With work, it became like another language that she spoke... several, very complicated languages, that only ever existed fully in her head. She discovered she could create deadzones for such devices, and likewise discovered that attempting to connect to wireless was well beyond her ability to interpret, just now. She also learned, the hard way, that she could wipe hard drives with her frustration, when she lost an entire term paper and everything else on her computer.

All of this she did while managing to go to school, bike to work, and sleep around four hours a day. Worse, though, was that knowing that she could do these things made her question whether or not she was doing the right thing with her life. Sure, becoming an engineer and making sure that there was one more person double checking the structural integrity would save countless lives... but there were also lives to be saved on a smaller level. Hearing panicked nine-one-one calls in the middle of the night made it quite difficult to push down her ingrained Good Samaritan, and worse, she couldn't ever get her favorite motto to die down in her head. with great power, comes great responsibility.

But what could she do against an armed gunman? Worse, her life was so very, very in the way of training to become a hero. All she could do was try to be moral support. But as she worked, she found more answers. Being in a college had its advantages; she took to the libraries to learn all that she could. She learned several different knacks she could use her newfound powers for. In theory, she could intentionally shut down technology, if she could harness her powers. Likewise, she could short circuit nervous systems. There were also all sorts of nasty things that an ability like hers could manage. None of which she was particularly willing to do.

As she studied, trained, worked, studied schoolwork, did schoolwork, worked some more, trained, and then studied a bit more, Hotaru's dwindling social life effectively disappeared - she rarely even saw her room mate anymore. Likewise, the more she worked, the more she noticed the... drawbacks. She was always hot, and needed to work to stay cool. She had a higher tendency to destroy technology when she missed out on sleep... and when she slept, she slept like the dead. But her studies paid off, one day, when she heard a scream on campus. She rushed in the direction of the scream, and happened upon a woman being mugged... unfortunately, as Hotaru arrived there was a gunshot. The woman crumpled, and the mugger, in a panic, turned on Hotaru, firing another shot. The bullet never reached her, instead simply hanging in the air. Hotaru felt more than saw the pulse of energy leave her body and strike the man in retaliation. After only a short amount of time, the man lay on the ground, temporarily blinded. Hotaru rushed to the woman, kneeling down. She was bleeding out... there was nothing Hotaru could do. Her cell phone didn't work... it had been fried at the worst possible moment. There was nothing she could do.
***

Looking into some side effects of EMFs, two things stand out as good disadvantages.

Distinctive Feature: Runs hot. Senses: Technological, touch. Hotaru is hot to the touch, and registers easily on infrared bands.

Susceptible: Heat Stroke. Hotaru is unable to maintain normal homeostasis as a result of the interactions of her own electromagnetic field. As a direct result, in higher temperature ranges, Hotaru's internal temperature quickly moves beyond normal ranges.

Hunted: Local Police. While no one has been hurt, a person who has access to technology capable of knocking people unconscious with no permanent damage to their systems has been moving through the streets, cleaning them up, and leaving people tied up on street corners.

Physical Limitation: Heavy Sleeper. Hotaru is constantly bombarded with signals that keep her senses busy at night. As a direct result, the sleep she does get is the sleep of the dead... perhaps literally.

I still like the idea of being intelligent, but uneducated for now. I also like the idea of paramedics, of course, and the expansion of my sensory powers a little more (Analyze/Rapid).

Hotaru-Face

Ok, so, was looking up some stuff, and the way to simulate you being able to transmit in specific ways (phone networks, etc), is you need to pick up a language skill with the communications protocol. So I gave you the Linguist Skill Adder, and then gave you the three main cell phone protocols (CMDA, etc), and Modulated Radio Waves (AM, FM, Shortwave, UHF, VHF).

I made some tweaks, added a few skills, modified the senses and clinging slightly, and I think we're done.

I didn't add Paramedic in mainly due to a lack of points. You have an 8 or less as a background, and can pick it up in game.

Sounds great! I'll look at the stuff when I'm able, and try to wrap my head fully around it! It fits well that she's only just starting to study the paramedic stuff as she really doesn't have time for real investments, while keeping up with her current responsibilities. I'm guessing if selected, 'college' will become less important... or maybe more! :)

Can't think of anything I would change, and if I could think of any thing I don't know what I would want to give up. I really like the way you built him very well balanced. I put his background and a few links in this post. The same information can be had by clicking on Goo's profile/alias. Good luck there are a lot of interesting concepts/ heroes.

“Life in a test tube isn’t very exciting,” the dark goo thinks to itself. Unfortunately, that has been its existence for the past couple of weeks, transferred from beaker or test tube to the next latest and greatest glass container. It has been heated, measured, weighed, and analyzed a dozen different ways and it knew of a dozen more ways that the scientists hadn’t tried yet. Its tedious and monotonous day is interrupted as it looks out of its current container, “How do you look when you have no eyes,”it wonders, as it sees a familiar figure approaching. “Oh, here comes Dr. Chen, probably running more tests,” it surmises. “Hello Doctor Chen”, the goo tries to say but can’t since it has no mouth.
The goo remembers a time before it lived in beakers, flasks, test tubes and graduated cylinders, a time before it was a puddle on the ground even, a time when it was a person.
It wonders, are these its memories, at times the memories are cloudy like watching something through a fog or at other times like watching it through long tunnel. Still, at other times things are clearer and it knows with a certainty it use to be this person in the memories. Today it seems like the memories are more like watching a movie then really remembering them. The movie currently playing is of the person he was and the life he lived. “I wish I had some popcorn,” the goo laments. The movie/memory shows the person he was growing up as an only child in an affluent family with a typical childhood. Then the movie fast forwards and shows the person graduating valedictorian of his high school and cuts to his awkward groping of the girl he lost his virginity to on his prom night. “It seemed so important at the time,” it remembers. The movie is like a highlight reel now jumping to and from the other accomplishments and accolades of the person’s life. The goo is impressed as it thinks, [i] “this guy had it all.” The highlight reel shows the person graduating Magna Cum Laude from MIT, with advanced degrees from other prestigious universities. And finally, the pay off, the dream research job, with the big house, and fancy car. It shows the woman and the two small ones. “STOP!” It screams to itself, “They were important, they had names, I had a name, I was a person!

The movie/memory jumps to another scene: Two months earlier;

“Another late night,” Dr. Ty Bender thinks to himself as he enters the Organic Polymer Lab of the research installation he works at. He stops at a workstation and downloads the latest results from the international space station on the collaborative zero gee research in polymerase chain reactions. As he reviews the data he smiles as the results are encouraging. He continues to make his way around the lab taking stock of the various tests and experiments. He stops and makes a couple of entries into a ledger noting that the thermoplastics experiment hypothesis appears to have greater probability density then originally asserted.
Dr. Bender moves on and adjusts the settings on the particle accelerator for tomorrows run and checks the integrity of the vacuum chamber. His late evening in the labs continues in this fashion until he reaches the metal silylamides operant conditioning chamber. “Hmm, that’s odd,” he concludes as he examines the latest data. Trying to isolate the problem he monitors the spectrophotometry effecting the experiment and decreases the wavelength of the laser. A warning light starts blinking on the monitor, ”Why is it losing pressure, he wonders as he begins to flood the OC chamber with liquid nitrogen to slow down the reaction. He changes his monitors to the inferred spectrum and notices the crack in the glass of the OC chamber, “Crud,” he thinks right before the explosion.
He wakens and feels a tingling throughout his entire body. As he looks up he can tell that the explosion caused a lot of damage to the lab. From his vantage point on the floor he can see many of the staff standing around, “Why is no one helping me up.” he wonders. “Give me a hand here,” he tries to say but no words come out. As one of the technicians approach him he grows excited as he feels help is on the way. His excitement quickly grows to fear when he realizes that the technician has just sucked him up into a large pipette and moved him into a beaker. He watched the proceedings from his new vantage point and listened.
As it watched and listened from its beaker, it learned that the explosion had caused some kind of chemical reaction with his body, fusing together with it, and leaving behind this goo, well sentient living goo to be more precise. It wasn’t clear to the goo if the scientists realized the person was part of the goo. Eventually, the goo discovered that Dr. Bender was declared dead, and that scientist decided to study the compound that was left behind.
A sensation and a sound draws it out of its reminiscence. It hears Dr. Chen say to someone in the lab, ”Have you seen these readings.” [b] Chen leans over a workstation showing someone some papers, [b] “See here, this data stream shows that it definitely responding to stimuli.” Getting more excited he continues, “Further, see how it tries to maintain homeostasis in temperature, pH, and water concentration. Also look at the ATP production levels, they’re rising,” he concludes triumphantly.
Replying to something the goo cannot hear Chen says, [b] “Yes, of course. Lest hold everything constant except for temperature lets raise it 2 degrees Celsius and we’ll see what the data shows tomorrow.

Kiran Spinner always thought she had a great family. Early in life, her mother would take her to church every Sunday while her father, an atheist, stayed home. While he didn't care much for religion, Kiran's father found other ways to bond, encouraging her to take up sports. While she never stuck with one for very long, she always remained active in some way. As she entered middle school, she found her first crush. In an attempt to get closer to him, she joined the Drama Club, where she found a passion for creating costumes.

Always supportive, her parents happily nurtured her new found interest, providing fabric and thread, arranging lessons, even saving up for a loom to weave her own textiles for her sixteenth birthday. It was no surprise to anyone when Kiran decided she was going to work towards becoming a professional tailor. With hard work, and the support of her parents, she dived right in to college after high school.

Just after starting her Junior year, Kiran's body started to ache and her skin slowly turned sickly pale until her roommate had to take her to the ER after collapsing with countless large bruises all over her. Upon hearing the news, her parents rushed to see her. While the doctors were able to dull the aching pain, they had no idea what was wrong with her. Kiran lay in bed for two days, her parents staying with her every moment they could.

With no perceivable cause pinned down, her condition stable, and pain treatable, the doctors prescribed some pain killers and discharged her with instructions to return for further tests or for treatment if her symptoms got worse. Worried for their daughter, Kiran's parents insisted she stay with them until she was better. Settled into her old bedroom turned guest room, she took her medication and turned in for the night.

Early the next morning, Kiran woke up in a fit of agony as chitinous plates and spider-like legs sprouted from her body. Her parents rushed to see what was wrong to find the distraught arachnoid monster where their daughter once lay, whimpering in pain. Her father stepped forward to examine the new limbs only for the four sharp legs to lash out in panic, slashing and stabbing as Kiran struggled to reign them in.

Dizzy from shock after her transformation and sobbing after hurting her father, she quickly fled the room, stumbling away from the screams of pain and frightened sobs. She ran back to her apartment, hastily gathering as much as she could before fleeing.

Reducing Clinging's extra strength to boost Tailoring was the only change I mentioned earlier, but I just had the thought of reducing her need to sleep (one step to 8 hours per week) because of strong, toiling instincts that make her restless. For those I was thinking Susceptibility to Smoke Common, Every Phase would be 25 points for 2d6. A vulnerability to scent based attacks Uncommon, Double Stun/Effect would be 10 Points.

Faye Forester, at the age of 14, was getting too old for fairy tales. Until the day she fell into one herself. She followed the sound of children laughing deep into the woods behind her house, and came across a magical locket in a knothole in the oldest tree in the forest.

When she put it on, she found that it gave her the power to become the tiny, yet powerful form of Pixie! Less than a foot high, Pixie boasts a beautiful pair of wings, and the ability to blast foes with "pixie dust"!

Four years later, Faye and the locket have been inseparable. Rumors abound at her high school of fairies playing tricks on students, but no one has ever suspected Faye. Young, naive, and having never used her powers for anything more than juvenile pranks, does Pixie have what it takes to become... a hero?

The young woman known only as "Violet" was once part of a pair of twins. Her brother, Ulysses, was stolen from the high-security facility that had been their home when he was only ten years old. Her father was very badly injured in that attack, when the faceless men in the black suits had come. Ulysses was very strong - stronger than any one ever thought he could be. He fought back against the men, and Violet was so proud of him, the way he stood up to them. He was never very smart, but Uly had the heart of a giant.

Dad said he had the strength of one, too, and it shone so brightly that day. The bullets didn't hurt him. The knives bounced off of his skin. Uly saved a lot of people that day.

But they shot dad. They shot him really bad. They couldn't hurt Uly, so they tried to hurt Violet - and dad got in the way.

Violet screamed, and the men fell over. So many of them just fell over, and never got back up. That was the day she started hearing what everyone was thinking. That was the day they started being afraid of her.

Everyone except dad.

The men in the black suits used gas, and a lot of it. Everyone fell asleep, and when they woke up, dad's leg was beyond saving, and Uly was gone.

After that, Violet couldn't stop hearing what everyone was thinking. Most of them thought nice things. Some of them thought bad things. One of them, some of the things he thought were nice, but a lot of them were awful. One night he thought some very, very bad things about one of the other people in the facility. Things that made Violet very angry. He went to sleep and never woke up.

That was when they started giving Violet the shots. That was when they started giving her the pills. It got harder and harder to think, when she took the shots and the pills. But she learned how to think, anyway, and she could still hear them - just not as clearly. Sometimes, she heard them perfectly, and what they thought was awful. She tried to make them shut up, but she couldn't.

One day, dad stopped coming. They said it was because something bad had happened. In their minds, she saw the images of the accident. The horrible fire. The bent metal. The people taking pictures and the fire department showing up much, much too late. Uncle Bill came and took care of her, after that. She was only fifteen and both her father and her brother were gone.

Once, they stopped drugging her and gave her new clothes, cut her hair, let her pick out a color for her nails. They took her to a place with so many people, all of them thinking about finding a new toy for their daughter, or a new ring for their wife, or just... so many thoughts. So many people, unconcerned with anything but making themselves or someone else happy. The air outside was cold. There were reindeer in a parking lot. Someone was selling trees. They smelled amazing.

The men in business suits and ties asked her to think very hard about finding "the bad men." Violet did as she was asked, and she found the bad men. The men with the bombs and the gas and the guns, who wanted to hurt people just because they could. And she found someone else, too.

She found Uly.

It looked like him. It sounded like him. But it didn't think like him. It didn't think at all. Whatever, whoever, that was, it wasn't her brother. His eyes were blank, and there was a... thing... some kind of metal collar... at the back of his neck.

And worst of all: there were two of him. Empty inside. No thoughts, no mind, nothing but the cold tang of metal where his mind should be.

Violet and the men in business suits saved a lot of people that day. But it wasn't good enough. Shortly after that, the facility was shut down. Uncle Bill told her they were moving to somewhere else. Somewhere new. The doctors came in to her room, and gave her her shot. She fell asleep in a room full of her things - old memories and pictures and all of her paints and pictures - and woke up in a cell. Uncle Bill said it was only temporary, but it hasn't been.

She's spent ten years in this cell. The people on either side of her, just like her, cast-offs from failed or shelved projects. They take her out and clean her up when they need her to read the mind of some foreign dignitary, or when they need to find someone "very dangerous" right now. They never take her off the drugs all the way, though. They learned their lesson.

Uncle Bill comes and visits her, all the time. He never hides his mind from her, so she knows he hates this as much as she does. He's the only person who never lies to her. He's the reason she knows her father was murdered, probably by the same people who stole her brother.

Uncle Bill says there's potential for her to get out of here. Something about a "new opportunity." No more drugs. No more cell.

When she gets out of here - not if - some people will have an awful lot of explaining to do.

***

Violet is essentially one-half of a "happy accident" of genetic engineering. Originally intended to be a single-entity super-soldier type cloning experiment, the cells of the embryo divided and split into two nearly genetically identical (but gender dimorphic) copies.

One, the male, was named Ulysses and given the project code name: Ultra. Ulysses' strength and physical development were incredibly accelerated. By the time he was five, he could lift several hundred pounds free standing. By the time he was ten, when unknown forces broke into the facility to steal both himself and his sister, he was capable of resisting tremendous amounts of damage, as well as possessing literally inhuman strength and endurance. Though his mental development was far slower than expected, he was nonetheless capable of communicating clearly with his sister.

Violet, the female of the pair, developed fundamentally opposite to Ulysses. Seemingly normal in every way, save for her preternatural intelligence, she was outwardly a normal child. Her mental powers did not manifest themselves until the day after their tenth birthday, but when they did, it was a shock not only to her handlers, but to herself. Suddenly unable to differentiate between her own thoughts and those of the people around her, she was placed onto a series of psycho-active drugs in order to combat her seemingly inescapable descent into paranoid schizophrenia.

Violet has recently begun preparing for a re-release into the world - after having been used as a spy, a counter-terrorism agent, and a psychic mole in a world of shadow governments and conspiracies. Her "Uncle Bill," the former project coordinator of Ultra/Violet, maintains close ties with her. The both of them are dedicated to finding out the identity of the people who killed her father and stole her brother - and who have apparently cloned him and are now using those clones to their own ends.

Violet is not at all strong or hearty. She is of average strength and constitution for a mid-twenties woman who has had only enough physical activity to maintain her at a healthy weight and frame.

Subject: Whippoorwill
Real Name: Briana McClaine
C.A.D.R.E. Operations Level: Specialist
Former Affiliates: Coyote Solutions, Carlisle Estovion, Philadelphia Mixed Martial Arts Academy

Profile: Subject's childhood was spent bouncing between foster care and biological parents. History of physical abuse and/or neglect. Subject showed early aptitude for gymnastics and martial arts, and won northeastern U.S. regional MMA juvenile tournament at age 15 while in foster care. Returned to biological parents for the last time at 16. Subject hospitalized father and escaped Social Services custody three weeks later.

Subject resurfaced two years later in Algiers, in the employ of noted weapons dealer Carlisle Estovion. She was reported a year later working with the private security company Coyote Solutions in Belarus, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan.

Subject later became affiliated with the elite paramilitary C.A.D.R.E., conducting operations in REDACTED, and is believed responsible for REDACTED, and REDACTED. It was during the SECURITY CLEARANCE NOT VERIFIED that Subject REDACTED, which is believed to be the cause of Subject's recent mental state.

Subject was killed in an explosion at the Mnemodynamics Global Inc. research hub in Dubai. Due to Subject's familial estrangement, no need for contact with next-of-kin.
>End Report<

"That's it?" she asked, incredulous.
"What, you want them to have more on you?" Whetstone asked over the prepaid generic phone. She would have to get another one as soon as this conversation was over.
"Well, no. But four years with them, you'd think they'd show a little emotion about the death of one of their specialists."
Whet laughed on the other end. "What part of 'secret mercenary organization' did you not understand when you signed on?"
Briana snorted in response. There was a pause as she looked over the report again. "What's with the 'recent mental state' they're talking about?"
Whet sighed. "You're being blamed for how it went down. That you were more affected by the... well, you know. Made you sloppy."
Briana grimaced. She was to blame for Dubai, but it wasn't due to her being off her game. She meant for it to happen that way.
Well, almost. "That's not fair."
Whet's voice was stern. "Hey, don't go worrying about a dead girl's reputation. She's history."
"Dead woman," Briana mumbles, still thinking about how the Covert Armed Division: Reconnaissance and Enforcement will now always view the Whippoorwill as someone who couldn't handle a little traumatic stress and botched her final mission, and trying to pretend it didn't bother her.
"Yeah, right. So let the dead lie, and worry about the living. You got the package I left with you?"
"Right here," she confirmed. She rubbed her shoulders briefly as she sat up in the hospital bed. She looked at the passport, DL, birth certificate, credit cards and bank statements that poured out of the plain envelope. "Laney McBreigh." "You're serious?"
"Yep. Best get used to it."
"Ugh. I hate you sometimes." There was still a smile on her lips, and she knew he was smiling on his end. "But it never lasts. Thanks. For everything." She waves in the nurse who wavered in the doorway with the discharge papers. Outside of a persistent soreness in her back and shoulders, she had a clean bill of health. Surprising, considering that the explosion she engineered caught her in the blast when she miscalculated the volatility of the mysterious compound in those vials.
There's a small pause at the other end, then Whet answers her. "You're welcome. Be good, little songbird."
Briana closes the phone and looks out the window, ready to start her new life. "I will."

Here is a screenshot of the time I tried to recreate Whippoorwill in the DC Universe Online. It's got the right color scheme and costume basics, but I couldn't get the wings any bigger. Also, envision white feathers hanging off her waist, wrists and the cuffs of her boots.

Well, for starters, thanks for putting Whippoorwill together. I do appreciate it and love the paramilitary skill set.

I'm still sort of torn about the organic pinfeathers versus my original quill idea. I get that growing them in the wings provides me with a steady supply that can't be interrupted, so that's nice, obviously. But it does take away from the original concept of the character. Plus, it feels more logical that things like explosives, smoke screens and acid bombs would be manufactured, not organic. So I'm curious what other reasons you might have to keep them organic.

As for my needed 30 points of disadvantages, I was thinking of some sort of insomnia/nightmares that gives her a decreased resistance to sleep attacks.

My little vignette above expanded a bit on the C.A.D.R.E. and other old affiliates, any of whom would be a good enemy at some point.

There's also the possibility of her former mercenary teammates that could have been exposed to the same mutagenic compound and are now all powered (possibly the original intent of the mission in the first place?). So I would suggest one or more Rivalries with her old teammates, Hunted by the C.A.D.R.E., and maybe a Physical Limitation or Susceptibility to sleep-type attacks or Nightmares.

One thing on the sheet I noticed: is there a sixth pinfeather ability name that got left off? My best guess is it's the flare quill.

A) Stance of Veils (out-of-combat) is a skills/morpher stance; it's the only one that lets Janice Li look like her normal human form without altered surface anatomy, and it should make for entertaining interactions via disguise. Pollen is modified to follow your version, which I like better, and mental defenses are boosted to stymy mind-readers.

B) Stance of Crawling Ivy (utility and non-lethal combat) is a martial artist stance with some morph tricks. By turning her hands into clinging vines, Snapdragon can pull herself and others up tall buildings; where she has surfaces to "vine-sling" from, she can travel fast and deliver some powerful judo slams. She can also swing her vines like a lasso, for a bonus to trip, disarm, or grab enemies, though she can't effectively throw, crush, or otherwise deal damage with them. The drawback, of course, is that she's relatively weak in this form, meaning that her vines can be easily grabbed or severed, leading to loss of a partial limb until she can regrow it.

Damage class: 10d6 grab/trip (via slam/grab by+clingy vines), 8d6 disarm (clingy vines), 7d6 inaccurate damage (via move through+vine-swinging), or 6d6 damage (via martial strike)

C) Leaf on the Wind (mobility and skirmishing) is a martial artist stance with some morph tricks. Sprouting leafy wing membranes and reconfiguring her body to be aerodynamic and streamlined, Snapdragon gains some flight ability, as well as the breath control to survive at high altitudes for a while without fainting (allowing her to, for instance, skydive without a parachute if necessary). She also gains the ability to run and jump faster, and strike with more agility, though her armor is lighter than in other forms.

Damage class: 9d6 inaccurate damage (via move through+running), 8d6 damage (via martial strike)

D) Stance of Thorns (full combat) is a martial artist stance with some brick capability. Without sacrificing any defense, Snapdragon hardens and reinforces her body as necessary, striking with great force. The thorns on her fists and feet break off to stick in whatever she punches, like a stinging nettle or a porcupine, slowing enemies down with pain every time they flex their muscles.

Damage class: 10d6+1d6 DEX (via martial strike)

E) Cloak of Leaves (out of combat) is a stealth stance. By shifting her patterning and breathing through her skin, like a plant, Snapdragon gains the ability to blend into shadows and stay completely silent when not moving. (She's not invisible, but does gain decent camouflage that may help stealth in some situations). Vine crawlers on her hands let her climb walls and ceilings as she sneaks around, while a slightly different pollen causes a drowsiness reaction in those who get too close.

F) Lotus Meditation (regeneration) is a healing stance that Snapdragon shifts into automatically when incapacitated, though it could be useful in combat if major recovery is necessary and time is allowed. Her regeneration increases substantially, restoring ability damage and limbs, though she is still decently able to dodge and resist attacks.

Janice Li was a promising graduate student in molecular botany, at a decent university; but as a natural social butterfly, she gradually grew to find her research and peers boring and grim. After reaching her Master’s, she spent a few months as a summer intern with the local county police, and found the experience refreshing enough to request a year of leave from her program while she accepted a temporary job with the local police as a crime scene technician.

While much of her expertise was lost in a practical setting, Janice could run a DNA comparison faster than any other junior tech in the county. With the encouragement of a few officers, she co-authored a federal law enforcement grant that bought her station a cutting-edge dissection scope for pollen analysis. Six months into the job, she even made it briefly onto the local news, after a sap comparison she ran proved the critical link in solving a cold case murder at a nearby national park. When Janice returned to school and finished her doctorate, Lieutenant Sams promised, he and a few of the other station boys would write her as many recommendations as it took to get her a job in experimental forensics with the FBI. In her spare time—and, no longer a graduate student, she found lots of it—she joined a local theater group, following up on her childhood passion for acting, costumes and makeup.

And then came the really interesting case. A dead body, dumped unceremoniously in a nearby river, bearing the ballistics and disposal of a mob hit or assassination. In his frozen hands, the corpse had held a fistful of strange moss, a strain whose DNA restriction map seemed to defy anything in Janice’s forensic database. The man’s left shoe, however, held a crushed petal from a flower exotic enough to require an importation license, and this led the forensics team straight to the abandoned greenhouse of a bankrupt former orchid show.

Intrigued by the strange moss strain, Janice Li had requested, enthusiastically, to be allowed in the field on this case, despite the sensitivity of the ongoing investigation, and the lieutenant had relented. Nervously, three officers and one forensic tech investigated the abandoned greenhouse, and found it humming with life; tall and colorful flowers grew on strange stalks behind sheets of heavy plastic, and multi-colored fluorescent algae flourished in bubbling pools of heated water. And then the gunfire came, out of nowhere; Janice was hit twice in the left arm and three times in the chest, and fell backwards into one of the algae ponds. When Lieutenant Sams awoke, in the hospital, he learned that two of his men had been killed by sudden and mysterious sniper fire; the greenhouse had been burned to the ground, now nothing but a patch of scorched earth; and his best tech was nowhere to be found.

Janice awoke in a field, under the evening sun, with vague and scattered memories of being shot, of watching the blood leave her body. But her arm had closed up, leaving pale green scars in place of bullet wounds; and there was a strange feeling on the edge of her perception, as though she could feel and move more of her body than she used to. And, of course, the sunlight tasted good.

It hasn’t been long since the accident, but Janice has discovered that she is no longer the same person; her body, swimming with strange plant cells, was capable of new, exciting, and somewhat difficult things. Only Lieutenant Sams saw her die at the greenhouse, and survived, and so far, her boss has agreed to keep that secret, even helping her acquire the occasional UV lamp and bag of fertilizer. The incident itself was ruled a gas leak; orders from somewhere up high in the government ruled the whole thing classified, and closed the investigation out in a very definitive way.

But Janice has gotten restless; something very strange has been going on, and she’s begun to suspect she should be a part of something bigger. With newfound strength and reflexes, the stage combat and tai chi she learned as a child have become an effective martial art of their own, though she’s still clumsier than she would like to be. And she’s begun to read comic books and pulp novels, re-opening a few forensic cases of special interest, wondering just how hard it would be to start taking the law into her own hands.

Janice Li is a human woman who shares her body with a symbiotic alien plant; or, possibly, she’s an alien plant carefully preserving the memories and appearance of a woman already dead. She’s not really sure; every injury she’s suffered has repaired itself, microscopic green cells taking the place of damaged pink ones, but she might well have suffered real hypoxic brain damage in the accident that gave her powers, and she’s not about to cut open her brain and check whether half of it’s been replaced by leafy tendrils.

That said, her increasingly unusual cells seem to be solely beneficial, possessing an intuitive understanding of their acquired biology and constantly seeking new ways to improve it. Her skin, muscles, xylem and phloem seem to possess a sort of distributed, cellular intelligence, reacting blindingly fast to stimuli and danger and granting superhuman reflexes and awareness. A lack of solely-human anatomy has led to greatly improved stamina, strength, and pain tolerance. Overall, she’s been fascinated by the degree of control she’s been able to exert over nearly ever aspect of her body, from carefully-tailored facial expressions and breathing to reconfiguring parts of her arms into wings and climbing vines. With practice, she realizes, she may well learn new tricks entirely, but for now simply her amazing muscle memory and boosted self-control have been enough to quickly pick up a decent level of the fighting and stealth skills that will be useful should she continue her flirtation with vigilantism.

Snapdragon is only part human, her skin riddled with green scars where plant cells replaced damage to her original body. Her bones carry veins and fragments of hardened wood, giving her a distinct and irregular skeleton under the X-ray scanner she “borrowed” to investigate herself; she barely bleeds when injured, and her blood is sticky and golden, tinged with sap, though the healing process is distracting enough to shatter her carefully-focused disguises. At social meals, she feigns swallowing small quantities of food and drink, quietly storing what she consumes in vacuoles within her body, to be tossed in the trash when she is alone; her body no longer requires food, instead gaining its nourishment from the sun. It took a bit of wheedling, but she’s managed to get her lab at the station moved to a south-facing office with decent windows; at home, she sleeps in a high-powered tanning bed. Salt and salt water dehydrate her, while fire burns, and her cells seem to panic at the sight of an open flame; in water, she grows easily distracted, sprouting tiny roots and filaments that make swimming nearly impossible.

Janice, on the other hand, is quite ordinary. She is short, and thin, with heavy glasses and a great deal of joie de vivre; her ability to fit into social situations has only increased with her self-awareness, as she effortlessly shrugs her shoulders while quoting Shakespeare or Darwin. She’s cut back on her hours at the police station, often spending long lunch breaks outside in the sun, though the new high-strength forensic UV scanners her sergeant requisitioned have helped a bit at work. In her spare time, she volunteers with a local theater troupe, supplying stage makeup and diction coaching, while she has once again put off reapplying to grad school in favor of reading papers online. Recently, she has developed a bit of an interest in criminology, reading books on lie detection and the art of persuasion.

Snapdragon’s most visible power is an art she’s taken to calling Autotopiary—the ability to rapidly grow, direct, and reshape the plant cells in her body. While she might be less human than she once was, with the aid of pigment cells and sap veins, she’s been able to quickly and seamlessly alter the shape of her body, mimicking the appearances of others—or, in her everyday life, mimicking the appearance of a completely normal human woman. With her skill at acting and makeup, and recent practice in voice mimicry, this has given her a useful ability to impersonate nearly anyone she observes. Maintaining a specific form takes a great deal of effort; when threatened or frightened, she can drop the facade to focus on more useful self-modifications, condensing her skin and bones into hardwood armor or slowly stretching her fingertips into rugged climbing vines. In a fight, she moves unpredictably, as her limbs operate under distributed intelligence and her bones and organs relocate away from any obvious weak points. Recently, she has begun to learn how to incorporate elements of her environment, absorbing atmospheric water and soil nutrients to grow in size or rearranging her body mass to deliver powerful punches and blocks with oversized wooden fists. Finally, she’s developed a bit of an ability to glide on leafy wings, though she is still rather clumsy and slow at flight.

Snapdragon’s thoughts, slightly distributed among her greener cells, have also lent her mind a certain non-human genius; in addition to boosting her reflexes, this gives her thoughts a bit of an unusual and alien bent, making them hard to read (though she has yet to meet a mind-reader).

With focus, she can also release a fine cloud of pollen spores; the effect is subtle, and nearly undetectable without a microscope or superhuman sense of smell, but with focus and patience she can leave a whole room sneezing uncontrollably, a talent that’s helped her avoid questions and harassment from the wrong sort of passersby.

And, perhaps most usefully, her body possesses the ability to regenerate itself, as her de-centralized plant cells remember its previous shape and work to restore it after a bodily injury that leaves them unharmed. She still needs sunlight to grow—separated from it for too long, her cells go dormant and she takes damage that does not recover—but, aside from fire, acid, or chainsaws, she’s pretty hard to kill, a talent that’s saved her once and now led her to consider dabbling in something dangerous, like real and proper crime-fighting.

I’m not entirely sure what direction Snapdragon’s powers will develop into, though that might depend on party balance, etc. Potentially looking at the ability to communicate with plants, growing vines that can entangle enemies, or just learning how to hit harder with martial arts, which she’s currently only a little skilled in.

I went with the organic quills because (A) they would be there regardless of access to tech, and because (B) the tech level at the start of the game is going to be modern tech, which means you'd be carrying basically grenades with strange shapes (which given the lack of widespread super activity at start) would be an easy way to trace you. If you prefer to go with grenades, I'm fine with that, I'll need to rework the power some. Just remember it will add to your profile, making it easier to find you (supply purchases, transporting explosives, etc).

Drider

Whippoorwill

Ok, now that I have a 'final' version, I have feedback.

With an OCV of 9, I need to have the DC's lowered a bit. She's basically a speedster who'll hit 75% of the time. For that level of consistency, I'd rather see the DC's about 8 for standard attacks. 10DC is fine for grabs (since it ties up your character) or for inaccurate attacks (such as move-by/thru/etc). Leaf on the wind is good.

Nobody else who has 10DC's has 9 OCV, I don't want to make the speedsters feel like they're underpowered...

The Rearrangement is an interdimensional organization of time travelers that reorganize small events across the universe to guarantee balance and flow. The members of the organization – the Rearrangers – are powerful entities made of the pure essence of time and space. Their powers aren’t technological; they’re natural, for some cultures almost magical. Most dimensions don’t even know of their existence, and most of their work is so small and chirurgical that can almost go unnoticed. Almost.

The Erratics found about them. A high technological group of power hungry beings of the most diverse races, the Erratics first notice the anomalies thousands of years ago, and decided to harvest the Rearrangers powers and use it for their benefit in conquering galaxies and acquiring goods. Their dominion just grew throughout the years, and eventually the Rearrangement had to take an attitude against the Erratics.

The comeback was swift and painful. Quickly the Erratics bases started being dismantled as entire systems would find their “inner force” to fight against the oppressors or even develop the right technology at the right moment to push them away. A cold war was instituted between the two organizations, and the Erratics had to think about something to pull their plans back on track.

They captured one of the Rearrangers and, using their technology, managed to subvert his powers in such way to make him a mutant inside his own race. His powers became unpredictable, uncontrollable, and the Rearrangement had no alternative but to try to remove him from existence. The sacrifice of the Rearrangers brought the ultimate imbalance; at that moment, systems collapsed, and other Rearrangers got corrupted by the mutation. Uncontrollably jumping between dimensions, eventually a fragile balance was achieved.

It happened when one of the Rearrangers managed to pull inside himself all the mutation and corruption, and randomly teleport away of the others. This member – Aahq – ended up in Earth, and for a considerable amount of time the Rearranger was dormant and powerless. Another story was happening at the same time, and that’s what end up attracting the random teleports of the Rearranger.

Shun Tien was a young Chinese boy, barely starting his puberty, when his mutant powers manifested for the first time. His powers made of him an uncontrollable source of radiation, and in a matter of weeks people around him started getting sick and eventually dropping dead. In despair, he ran alone to the mountains – and by that point, he was already completely hairless, and his skin lost its tone until it became absolutely albino.

The strange and powerful source of energy from Shun Tien is what anchored Aahq’s teleport; it pulled the alien to the same mountains where the Chinese boy isolated himself to die. The two creatures first faced each other when both were at the brink of death: and they naturally merged into a single entity, dual minded. There was no more pain, no more suffering, and in the blink of eye, they both awoke completely changed. Tien and Aahq’s powers were no more, but the mission, however, still persisted; there was still peace and balance in need of their help, even in the scope of that strange planet that the alien ended up in.

During this while, the war between the Rearrangement and the Erratics persisted, millions of dimensions away from there, and he knew the Erratics would do anything to find Aahq and use him to destroy the Rearrangement once and for all. It seems Aahq and Tien would have to be prepared for this encounter as well.

The Rearrangers are powerful time and dimension travelers. Aahq isn’t anymore. His powers are very limited; basically, he can teleport himself and other allies around, and rearrange scenes by teleporting people and objects from one place to another. For the lack of a better definition, think about his powers as a wave he emits, that works as an area of effect precise Teleport, moving the targets he chooses from one point in the wave to another point.

He can teleport a car above an enemy, or teleport allies out of an enemy reach, or teleport people from inside a burning building to the street outside. This power is what gave him his nickname – “Chess”.The range of this “mass teleport” is limited, but his usual teleport can go much beyond. With the merging with Tien, he’s stuck in Earth, however.

His mutations – the ones which mess up with his powers completely – made him vulnerable to the Earth radioactive element Plutonium – which was the nature of Shun Tien’s powers – and it’s what anchors Aahq to Earth.

He is virtually ageless and immortal (an inherent slow regeneration), but he doesn’t have other damaging capabilities. Mind affecting effects don’t work well on him due to the duality of his Human and absolutely alien mind. He fluctuates the entire time (gravity doesn’t exactly apply to him), but he doesn’t fly very fast per se (most of the time, he’d teleport).

In terms of personality, “Chess” is upbeat and peaceful; he reminds a playful monk. He has a charitable and kind spirit, and truly accepts his mission of peace and balance, sacrificing himself if needed be. He isn’t dumb, but he’s naïve. Shun Tien was young when they merged, and the duality itself makes his combined knowledge strange to understand.

Physically he has the form of Shun Tien – a teenager Human male, albino and bald. Aahq lost his power of being completely invisible and unnoticeable, and can’t change forms anymore. He usually walks in white or light robes, with chess marks over it. When he’s using his powers of teleportation, his eyes and skin glow bright (it’s impossible for him to use them unnoticed).

The sheet is almost 100% perfect; it captured completely the essence of Aahq/Tien's powers, disadvantages, etc... The only thing missing is his weak flight/hovering.

Had a quick question about the whip. I notice it says "only to cause damage," but I was hoping it could be used for other things -- notably disarming and grabbing/grappling/tripping. She obviously doesn't need the whip to do Indiana Jones-style swinging over chasms, but I have always envisioned her using the whip for other classic tricks associated with it. Is there a way the rules allow for that, or does that require buying more abilities for it?

Back to the quills/pinfeathers. I get that there's a tradeoff. And also that in this day and age, forensics are very good, and specialized equipment can be easily traced. Partly, I set it up that Whetstone is similarly good at his job and knows his way around most of those issues. Furthermore, the organic quills eliminate so many possible complications down the line.

Now that I've reflected on it, I've hit on why I'm so reluctant. It's psychological. Whippoorwill views/will view her wings differently if they're "weaponized." In her original incarnation, she viewed them as redemptive -- bought and paid for with so much blood, but they're not inherently good or evil. They're beautiful, wondrous things that allow her to soar. They give her hope that she's more than a mercenary/assassin and can rise above her dark past.

Strap weapons to them and it changes that perception.

I grant you that her quills stray a bit into that comic-booky realm, but hopefully not so much that it doesn't fit in your campaign. If it truly doesn't then I'll go with the organic pinfeathers (since I really want to be picked).

I had assumed her powers kicked in after she left the mercenary group. Thus, the wings would be completely redemptive. Especially with the angel imagery that would go with them. Even angels have weapons (look at any older angel painting, they wear swords).

The weaponized pinfeathers could, if she looked at it this way, be her sins, that she uses to punish those who are like what she was. In which case, it makes the wings a bittersweet thing, they are redemptive, but her past has managed to taint them ever so slightly. She could work toward finding a 'cure' for the wings, to fully redeem herself (and then move the points into something else). Indeed, the pinfeathers, being part of her mutation, could indeed be influenced by her own self loathing. In which case, the wings could start out un-weaponized, and then during an especially bad episode, she loses her temper and the feathers become weaponized? She could even fear that if she doesn't redeem herself further, she could fall toward being something evil and twisted, like a demon or harpy, rather than an angel?

Yes, her wings will come in after having left the mercs. I was referring to her previous game, in which they were grafted to her by the same evil group she worked for and then left.

That's an interesting take on it -- hadn't thought about that way, and that would be interesting avenue to explore. Also it could be a way to explain future power developments (maybe tranq quills, for example).

Yes, plus, to be honest, if she's selected, it plays into some things going on behind the scenes that you'll learn about in game...