More Spirit of the Century stuff!

[niwandajones]

So, contentedmoo and I have been working on statting up the pre-gens for Saturday's game. We've got phases and aspects done for four out of the seven, and I thought I'd post them here for some comments.



Brick Hauser, Man of Granite
A dockworker-turned-crimefighter gifted by SCIENCE! with nigh-impenetrable stone-like skin and inhuman strength!

Phase 1: Brick was the son of working class folks and went to work at the docks at a young age, where he grew up fast. Despite tough conditions, Brick never lost his innate sense of right and wrong or his love for his neighborhood.
Aspects:
Tough guy
Big Family, Big Heart

Phase 3: Brick enlisted early and was selected for a special program dedicated to using science to enhance soldiers' physical abilities. He was the subject of an experiment that left him 7 ft tall, with stone-like skin and the strength of ten men.
Aspects:
Man of Granite!
"What are you lookin' at?!"

Phase 3: The Man of Granite meets the Devil of Hell's Kitchen. Brick goes up against a gang of thugs who try to expand their criminal activities into his neighborhood. He discovers that their but one part of a much larger gang, and though he wins the battle, the dastardly mastermind escapes justice.
Aspects:
"Not in my town, pal!"
Down, but not out

Peak Skill: Might


Jane "Flygirl" Justice
The farmgirl turned flygirl.

Phase 1: Jane was always a better tomboy than she was a farmgirl, often skipping chores to climb trees, raft down rivers and occasionally foil bootleggers. It wasn't long before her spirit proved far too large for her childhood home, so she left to seek adventure and fortune
Aspects:
A nose for trouble
Tomboy

Phase 2: During the war she called on her previous crop dusting knowledge to become one of the first and only female pilots to fight for the allies. Her daring and reckless style soon pitted her against the famous enemy ace Baron von Blood.
Aspects:
"You've never seen flying like this!"
Jetpack

Phase 3: Fear at the Flygirl Family Farm. Jane had to save her family from the man-sized mechanical bats that Baron von Blood sent to destroy them.
Aspects:
Run, Jane, Run!
"Think again, von Blood!"

Peak Skill: Athletics


Argentina "Dottie" Daedalus
Your favorite aunt, if she were a world-famous inventor and gadgeteer.

Phase 1: Dottie loved teaching science to little children and the kids loved watching Dottie demonstrate scientific principles with the nifty gadgets she invented. Some of her inventions became so popular that she earned a fortune.
Aspects:
Teacher at heart
Self-made woman

Phase 2: During the war she turned her energy to creating non-lethal combat aids (glue, smoke screen, oil slick, etc.), focusing primarily on defense.
Aspects:
"Play nice with the other children!"
Robots are my friends

Phase 3: Aunt Dottie and the Clockwork Crisis. A giant robot rampages through the city and Dottie's discovery that the robot contains a ticking time bomb is less disturbing than the realization that the robot is based on her designs.
Aspects:
"I've got just the thing!"
Science should never be used for evil

Peak Skill: Engineering


The President of the United States of America
Countered Harding's "Return to Normalcy" campaign with his own "Science for Freedom and Liberty!", and won.

Phase 1: He grew up in the heartland of America, and learned to love this land from a young age. He excelled in school, married his high school sweetheart, and pursued a life of public service.
Aspects:
Land that I love
Do the right thing

Phase 2: When the USA became embroiled in the Great War, the future President naturally enlisted. On the front line, his gifts for leadership and strategy led to numerous Allied victories, often with little loss of life on either side.
Aspects:
Born leader
Horrors of war

Phase 3: Against the Vampire Lords. Returning home to his job as an inventor and teacher, he soon became dismayed at the unwillingness of the Powers That Be to embrace the future that he could see so clearly. He entered the race for President as an independent, and his war record, charisma, and vision made him a contender – but also brought him to the attention of the nosferatu who had infiltrated the government to cause its stagnation. Science, however, would not be undone, and America got a new President and freedom from undead machinations one fell swoop!
Aspects:
Hail to the Chief
Two-fisted diplomacy

Peak Skill: Leadership (though Fists is close behind)

Comments

[monstrousform.livejournal.com]

The President is possibly the greatest RPG character ever created.

[niwandajones.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Mad props to judd_sonofbert for that one. :)

[judd-sonofbert.livejournal.com]

Instead of Vampire Lords...Vampire Senators?

Thanks, I dig him.

[niwandajones.livejournal.com]

The only reason I wouldn't go with Vampire Senators right off the bat is that they'd be not just undead, but also the duly elected representatives of the great state of X. I worry that the Prez might be unwilling to mess with the democratic will of the people.

Of course, maybe being undead is enough to disqualify you from the Senate, and so that's how the President had them (legally!) removed from office.

Against the Vampire Senate does have a nice ring to it. :D

[drivingblind.livejournal.com]

You could steal the baseline sheets for Sally Slick and Jet Black for Dottie Daedalus and Flygirl, pretty easily, with just a handful of tweaks here and there. The President would also want at least a Good-rated Contacting skill, and might mix in some Contacting-based or Leadership-based organizational stunts along with the Weird or Mad Science stunt paths. Man o' Granite is liable to be all about his Endurance stunts, with one or two Fists or Might stunts to round it out.

I recommend, when writing up the sheets for people, to write a short one-sentence summary of each chosen stunt's effects, so as to avoid page-flipping. (I did this in character sheet writeups of the Iconic Four that I prepped in case I needed to run a SOTC demo.) Once you've got the stunt info on the character sheet as well, the amount of book-referencing necessary for the players drops to almost nil.

[niwandajones.livejournal.com]

Flygirl's jetpack will be identical to Jet's -- it was the perfect answer to both "Should her peak skill be Athletics or Pilot?" and "How often will she have access to a plane, really?" :)

I'll definitely take a look at Sally for Dottie's sheet -- that one hadn't occurred to me, and I'm really grateful that you mentioned it.

The Prez is snagging a Great Contacts skill, looks like, and there are some nice stunts in there. I'm debating giving him Minions to represent the Secret Service, even though Minions tend to go with villains. Whaddaya think?

Also agreed on Brick: I figure he's gonna grab Wrestler, but then I'll sink my teeth into the Endurance Stunts to finish him up.

As for the character sheets -- they're absolutely gonna have the Stunt descriptions on them. I did that for my Iron Heroes one-shot for all the PCs' feats and special abilities... and I couldn't even cut 'n' paste those. ;-)

Thanks for the feedback!

[jccohen.livejournal.com]

Minions representing secret service is perfect, just call it "private army" and say it works exactly like minions.

[drivingblind.livejournal.com]

Minions as Secret Service works. You might also want to look into the Resources stunts for 'Lair'... and stat up the White House.

[niwandajones.livejournal.com]

Ooooo... but can I make it fly? Or might Airship One be the better way to go for that?

Heck, he might reject the White House as an abode, on the grounds that it's too sedentary.

[niwandajones.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah... Stately Pleasure Dome, p. 189. Of course, that and the Minions would be, what, four out of his five Stunts? Hmm...