Dynamo Jones, Kid Shadow, and Prudence the Librarian

[niwandajones]

Dynamo Jones
The Restless Detective

Phase 1: Dynamo Jones was born to poor, working-class parents in South Philadelphia. His mother was a seamstress and his father worked in a factory. It soon became apparent that the child never needed to sleep. His unusual condition made him a peculiar child, and he had difficulty forming friendships with the neighborhood children, who were frightened of him.
Aspects:
Never sleeps
Endlessly curious

Phase 2: Given his nature, Dynamo was drafted into the intelligence/counterintelligence services, and was single-handedly responsible for putting the kibosh on Kaiser Wilhelm's secret plot to replace the leaders of free Europe with steam-powered automaton replicas.
Aspects:
“Let me consult the Encyclopedia Dynamica!”
Twitchy

Phase 3: Dynamo Jones against the Great Underground Empire. A subterranean race of bipedal worm-like protofascists living in a vast network of caverns below the continental United States begin their assault on America by kidnapping elected officials. Mysterious sinkholes are the only clue at the sites of the kidnappings… and only Dynamo Jones has the mind and determination to get to the bottom of it and restore democracy, above and below the earth!
Aspects:
Sic semper tyrannis!
Sees the connections

Peak Skill: Investigation

*******

Kid Shadow
A dark-clad, gun-toting crimefighter who’s actually a 12-year-old boy.

Phase 1: W. Robert Bruce was barely a toddler during the Great War; shielded from its horrors by his parents, little Bobby immersed himself in the worlds of dime-novel gunslingers and uncanny detectives. He noticed that his father was rarely home at night, and that his parents seemed to argue fiercely over it. He’d imagine his father was a grim crimefighter, spending the witching ours battling gangsters and fifth columnists. He just wasn’t old enough to make the kind of common assumptions that, in this case, were completely wrong.
Aspects:
Sheltered Rich Kid
Heroes never quit

Phase 2: It was on one of Bobby’s rare trips out with his parents that the muggers set upon them, never asking for valuables but attacking Dr. Bruce directly. He miraculously managed to fend them off, but was grievously wounded and soon fell into a coma. Mrs. Bruce spent every hour at his side in the hospital, and it was while Bobby sat crying in his father’s room alone that the boy saw, peeking out from under the bed, a strangely wrought case containing a fedora, a trench coat, and two rune-covered .45s. Bobby put them on, and felt strength surge through him, and when he looked in the mirror, it was his father’s face that looked back.
Aspects:
Magic .45s
My father's face

Phase 3: The Shadow of Lemuria. Looking for the secret behind his father’s attack, Kid Shadow wages war on the criminal underworld. But as he blasts his way through the layers of the criminal organization, he discovers its leader is a mystic evil from a land long lost to memory.
Aspects:
Urban legend
Score to settle

Peak Skill: Guns

*******

Prudence
The Librarian

Phase 1: As head librarian at one of the nations best universities, Prudence had access to phenomenal resources. She also had a knack for adding the most sought-after items to the libraries collections because she was relentless in her pursuit of acquisitions.
Aspects:
Tapped information
Relentless

Phase 2: Initially, Prudence helped the war effort as a cryptographer and translations expert. However, her true talents for intimidation emerged when her translations skilled were called into interrogating captured enemy soldiers
Aspects:
Cold Glare
Not to be trifled with

Phase 3: The Librarian versus Doctor Sting. A not-so-simple librarian’s smarts saves the city of New York from certain destruction when she thwarts the devious scheme of Doctor Sting to release a killer virus into the water supply.
Aspects:
Ravishing with her hair down
"You should really rethink that…"

Peak Skill: Intimidation


For the first four, click here.

Comments

[drivingblind.livejournal.com]

OMG an Intimidation-peaked character!

[niwandajones.livejournal.com]

What else would you expect from a librarian? ;-)

[drivingblind.livejournal.com]

Give her a high Stealth as well. And, well, Academics, but, duh. :)

[niwandajones.livejournal.com]

Oooo, good call. Now, Stunt-wise -- In Plain Sight or Hush?

Or maybe drop Heart's Secret and let her social dominance ride on Subtle Menace, Scary, and Steely Gaze? That might work out nicely.

[ironpoet.livejournal.com]

I've only read the preview PDF for "Spirit of the Century", so this may be covered in the full book. How would "item" Aspects like "Magic 45's" or "I've got just the thing!" work in game play?

[niwandajones.livejournal.com]

Well, there are three basic uses of Aspects:

1. Invoke an Aspect to increase the standard +1 bonus you get from spending a Fate Point to +2. This is the most straightforward: Kid Shadow can spend a FP to get a +2 when he's using the Magic .45s, and Dottie can do so when she's exhibiting the resourcefulness inherent in "I've got just the thing!" -- using her Universal Gadget Stunt, for example.

2. Invoke an Aspect to get a little more oomph out of the "dramatic editing" that you can do by spending a FP. For example, maybe someone's being attacked by a ghost, which would naturally be invulnerable to bullets. Random Joe Bulletpants wouldn't be able to spend a FP to say his off-the-shelf revolver affects the ghost; Kid Shadow's Magic .45s, though? Whole different story. Similarly, anyone can spend a FP to say they have a lighter on them; Dottie can spend a FP, invoke "I've got just the thing," and have a blowtorch. (I'd generally let it work for anything that operates on a lower level than a full-blown, 2-improvement Gadget. But that's just me.)

3. Have the Aspect compelled to gain a FP. This is the toughest one for these two, because they're pretty "positive" Aspects. I can see Magic .45s getting compelled in the big story-line in which Kid Shadow finally tries to figure out what happened to his father; "I've got just the thing!" could possibly be compelled if Dottie's captured, and the bad guys rifle through her purse to get some kind of fun gear.

[ironpoet.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks! I knew about uses #1 and #3, but it had seemed odd to have to spend a Fate Point on something you "already had". I hadn't thought about using Aspects for improved dramatic editing, though. Nice!

[niwandajones.livejournal.com]

Indeed! Check out the "Make a Declaration" portion of the section on Fate Points in the preview .pdf -- especially the last paragraph.