So, I'm grearing up to run Gatewalkers (don't try talking me outta it!) and I've considered some alternatives to how Sakuachi is presented in the adventure.
1) I was thinking of making Sakuachi a kid. The biggest reason being she loses main character energy and becomes "innocent kid we need to protect from bad stuff!"
1a) Her presences helps the PC Gatewalkers and they all experience the visions together, they are just as much 'chosen ones' as she is (of course any replacement PCs will grow into the same role too)
1b) She is very much the same as in the book, PCs help her, she becomes Snowy Owl (all grown up) but she's still a kid inside there (like Captain Marvel/Shazam)
2) Sakuachi acts as a temporary vessel that allows Ruun's visions to pass to the PCs (do away with taking any NPCs with them). Snowy Owl would manifest in a similar manner just without being a fusion of Ruun and Sakuachi.
2a) Snowy Owl would be a ghostly apparition to the PCs and entirely invisible to anyone else unless manifested by the PCs. Perhaps by all the PCs going Captain Planet and activating their Deviant Abilities to summon her power.
I feel like the first idea idea, my take on something a bunch of people suggest, has more narrative impact and increases the stakes (everyone wants to protect a kid, especially one that has a burden thrust on them like that).
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Another think I thought I'd pick some brains about - Deviant Abilities.
They kinda suck, considering the Backlash stuff and generally not being all that impressive even disregarding it. I'm definitely going to buff them up and make them powerful options for the PCs. The choice of giving up the powers is such a no-brainer with how bad they are, in most actual plays I've listened to the PCs rarely use them outside of flavour/RP stuff, and when they do they don't have much impact.
Has anyone tweaked/buffed them, or have suggestions on changes they think would be cool?