5th Edition 250 Points Original Characters

[Greywind]

Didn't that happen?

[Cassandra]

Didn't that happen?

 

I only remember that Miss Calender ended up dead because her gypsy family put a curse on Angel so he couldn't have sex without turning evil.

[Greywind]

Wasn't the sex. It was one moment of happiness.

[Cassandra]

Wasn't the sex. It was one moment of happiness.

 

Same thing.

[Anaximander]

What stuff do you like?

I'm not sure if you want to know what I like in general or what I like in your work; so, I will start with what I like in general and explain what I like in your work.

 

To start, I view myself myself first as a writer who writes in roleplaying games as medium and not a roleplayer first.  I also dabble in short story and poetry writing.  Among important traits for a writer are a diverse number of interests and being a reader.  I do both.  I am very eclectic in both reading and other interests, and as a writer, I want my writing to reflect my eccentric tastes.  In normal short story, writing in a diverse number of genre and sub-genre is easy.  As a gamer, I would also like my gaming to reflect my diversity in story writing, and there are two option in doing that.  One is jumping from campaign to another.  The other is to find an overarching genre that encompasses a multitude of other genre.  I decided that the second option was the better choice and decided that either science fiction or super heroes would do the trick.  If I got into a western kick and want to run an adventure, both genres have guns.  If I got into a Sherlock Holmes kick, either could be written as a whodunit, and so on.  I thought a super hero game would be the most flexible, but that was before I invested in Hero and was creating a heavily modified Star Trekesque game for the Last Unicorn Games' Star Trek game system.  Anyway, a few years ago, I took a Creative Writing class in college.  The first half of the semester was writing poetry and the second half was writing a short story, and because I thought that was what poets were supposed to do, I wrote in very dark and melancholy tones, and I was making myself depressed; so, for the short story part, I decided to rebel a bit and write something fun and witty.

 

I have a slightly absurd sense of humor, and my humor can be a little dry, and I loving mixing the spectacular with the mundane.  If you have ever read the Myth books by Aspirin.  In the first book, the main character is in the Bizarre Bazaar ordering food at a fastfood restaurant being served by a troll or something, and I wanted to capture the absurdity of that scene in my short story; so, I needed someone or something spectacular doing something mundane.  Super hero movies were just starting to show that they might have staying power, and I grew up reading comic books; so, for my spectacular, I went with super heroes.  For the mundane, one of the mundane tasks I most dislike is going to the laundromat; so, I decided to write a story about super heroes going to laundry at an all night laundromat and discovering each others' identities.  My goals with the story was a friendly ribbing towards comic books I grew up on while exploring the humanness of the character through a dry humor.  The title of the story was "A Night at the Laundry," and it was well-received.  I eventually wrote a couple of other short stories for the universe and a definite feel started to coalesce, and the Laundry Knight Universe was born.  I also started to think it would be fun running adventures in my universe and started looking for a system that was flexible enough for me to write my universe as close as possible to the way I visualize it.  Eventually, I discovered Hero and made the plunge to invest in a book or two and decided that Hero was the for what I want to do which brings me here.

 

In my world, I want to mix elements from the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages eras of comics with mixtures of the action/adventure and sci-fi I used to like in my younger days.  I am also going with a Kirbyesque ideal of magic as super science concept; so, magic and magical beings have super scientific explanations which leaves a question of what to do with the gods of myth.  Nordic, Greco-Roman, and Egyptian myths and legends play a strong part in both DC and Marvel universes.  I had considered that the gods of myth belonging to some kind of super race of aliens which works great for most pantheons.  The problem came when I was having to decide what to do with the Greek gods and their Roman counterparts.  I liked both the Greek versions and the Roman versions, and in the case of the Greek versions, Greek literature regarding them shifted throughout Greek history.  In the earliest Greek literature, they are portrayed they were viewed idealistically while in later Greek literature they were portrayed unidealistically.  Originally, I decided that best way to deal with the shift in Greek opinion of their gods was to say that all gods were really just the super heroes of their day who passed on their names and legacies to younger heroes.  In the case of the Greek gods, the younger heroes gradually began to degrade in quality and behavior.  As for their Roman counterparts, the Roman super heroes simply borrowed from Greek culture by copying the motifs of the Greek heroes but gave themselves Roman sounding names.

 

Coming to your use of gods as super race idea.  I like that you explained the similarities of the Greek and Roman gods are because they are family, because it sparked new ideas on how to employ the super race concept in my game.  One thing the similar breakdown in archetypes of not only the Greek and Roman mythologies but of most mythologies.  The lead god and/or goddess is associated with sky, sun, or weather.  There is usually a poet/storyteller/messenger, artificers, war/battle, representations of various ideals and natural phenomena.  I notice that when I create superteams from scratch.  I also have certain recurring themes.  Perhaps, the recurring of themes is just a metaphysic that is true of the universe in general.  As far as the change in popularity of the Greek gods, it could have been a result of an ancient smear tactic by some enemy.  Today, we would social media.  A couple of decades ago, it would have newspapers and network news.  In ancient Greece it was poets and playwrights.  Also, by accepting that the stories transmitted by ancient poets and playwrights might not be accurate, I can rewrite the backstories of various myths the way the best fit my universe ideal.  Kind of like the way you made Hera a strong example of balanced femininity instead of the vengeful shrew she was portrayed in Greek myth.

[Ninja-Bear]

Cassandra im going to modify your MA template as follows: combine the two hunted into one floating one then those 10 pts are exact for style disadvantage. Also im going to drop COM by 1 pt and then by perk: Black Belt.

[Cassandra]

I'm not sure if you want to know what I like in general or what I like in your work; so, I will start with what I like in general and explain what I like in your work.

 

To start, I view myself myself first as a writer who writes in roleplaying games as medium and not a roleplayer first.  I also dabble in short story and poetry writing.  Among important traits for a writer are a diverse number of interests and being a reader.  I do both.  I am very eclectic in both reading and other interests, and as a writer, I want my writing to reflect my eccentric tastes.  In normal short story, writing in a diverse number of genre and sub-genre is easy.  As a gamer, I would also like my gaming to reflect my diversity in story writing, and there are two option in doing that.  One is jumping from campaign to another.  The other is to find an overarching genre that encompasses a multitude of other genre.  I decided that the second option was the better choice and decided that either science fiction or super heroes would do the trick.  If I got into a western kick and want to run an adventure, both genres have guns.  If I got into a Sherlock Holmes kick, either could be written as a whodunit, and so on.  I thought a super hero game would be the most flexible, but that was before I invested in Hero and was creating a heavily modified Star Trekesque game for the Last Unicorn Games' Star Trek game system.  Anyway, a few years ago, I took a Creative Writing class in college.  The first half of the semester was writing poetry and the second half was writing a short story, and because I thought that was what poets were supposed to do, I wrote in very dark and melancholy tones, and I was making myself depressed; so, for the short story part, I decided to rebel a bit and write something fun and witty.

 

I have a slightly absurd sense of humor, and my humor can be a little dry, and I loving mixing the spectacular with the mundane.  If you have ever read the Myth books by Aspirin.  In the first book, the main character is in the Bizarre Bazaar ordering food at a fastfood restaurant being served by a troll or something, and I wanted to capture the absurdity of that scene in my short story; so, I needed someone or something spectacular doing something mundane.  Super hero movies were just starting to show that they might have staying power, and I grew up reading comic books; so, for my spectacular, I went with super heroes.  For the mundane, one of the mundane tasks I most dislike is going to the laundromat; so, I decided to write a story about super heroes going to laundry at an all night laundromat and discovering each others' identities.  My goals with the story was a friendly ribbing towards comic books I grew up on while exploring the humanness of the character through a dry humor.  The title of the story was "A Night at the Laundry," and it was well-received.  I eventually wrote a couple of other short stories for the universe and a definite feel started to coalesce, and the Laundry Knight Universe was born.  I also started to think it would be fun running adventures in my universe and started looking for a system that was flexible enough for me to write my universe as close as possible to the way I visualize it.  Eventually, I discovered Hero and made the plunge to invest in a book or two and decided that Hero was the for what I want to do which brings me here.

 

In my world, I want to mix elements from the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages eras of comics with mixtures of the action/adventure and sci-fi I used to like in my younger days.  I am also going with a Kirbyesque ideal of magic as super science concept; so, magic and magical beings have super scientific explanations which leaves a question of what to do with the gods of myth.  Nordic, Greco-Roman, and Egyptian myths and legends play a strong part in both DC and Marvel universes.  I had considered that the gods of myth belonging to some kind of super race of aliens which works great for most pantheons.  The problem came when I was having to decide what to do with the Greek gods and their Roman counterparts.  I liked both the Greek versions and the Roman versions, and in the case of the Greek versions, Greek literature regarding them shifted throughout Greek history.  In the earliest Greek literature, they are portrayed they were viewed idealistically while in later Greek literature they were portrayed unidealistically.  Originally, I decided that best way to deal with the shift in Greek opinion of their gods was to say that all gods were really just the super heroes of their day who passed on their names and legacies to younger heroes.  In the case of the Greek gods, the younger heroes gradually began to degrade in quality and behavior.  As for their Roman counterparts, the Roman super heroes simply borrowed from Greek culture by copying the motifs of the Greek heroes but gave themselves Roman sounding names.

 

Coming to your use of gods as super race idea.  I like that you explained the similarities of the Greek and Roman gods are because they are family, because it sparked new ideas on how to employ the super race concept in my game.  One thing the similar breakdown in archetypes of not only the Greek and Roman mythologies but of most mythologies.  The lead god and/or goddess is associated with sky, sun, or weather.  There is usually a poet/storyteller/messenger, artificers, war/battle, representations of various ideals and natural phenomena.  I notice that when I create superteams from scratch.  I also have certain recurring themes.  Perhaps, the recurring of themes is just a metaphysic that is true of the universe in general.  As far as the change in popularity of the Greek gods, it could have been a result of an ancient smear tactic by some enemy.  Today, we would social media.  A couple of decades ago, it would have newspapers and network news.  In ancient Greece it was poets and playwrights.  Also, by accepting that the stories transmitted by ancient poets and playwrights might not be accurate, I can rewrite the backstories of various myths the way the best fit my universe ideal.  Kind of like the way you made Hera a strong example of balanced femininity instead of the vengeful shrew she was portrayed in Greek myth.

 

 

We have a lot in common.  I started with writing superhero stories and got the 1st Edition of Champions which helped me create the characters and their powers.  I started with about a half dozen  heroes and set the team in New York.  Most of them were homages to some mainstream superheroes.

 

Captain Avenger - Thomas Wyatt, District Attorney, a Brick who can fire energy blasts and flight.  Got the name from the John Ritter movie "Hero at Large"

 

Ms. Avenger - Tiffany Wyatt, Blonde FBI Agent and Captain Avengers twin sister, who has the same powers.  Inspired by Ms. Marvel.  My version has energy blasts before Ms. Marvel got hers.

 

Morningstar - Dr. Kimberly Drake, M.D., Redheaded expert on superhuman powers, fiery flying energy projector.  

 

Ares - Douglas Clark, Aerospace Company President and ex-USAF Fighter Pilot.  Powered Armored hero who invented the Advanced Reconnaissance Excursion Suit (ARES).  He is part of a love triangle with Morningstar and .  .  .

 

Morgan Le Fey - Jacqueline McKenna, Redheaded mystic mentalist brick who is a writer and investigator of occult events.  

 

Lioness 2 - Dr. Katherine Webster, ex-spy and scientist who is a Martial Artist and wears a pair of Wrist Mounted Energy Blasters called Compact Light Anti-personnel Weapons Systems (CLAWS).

 

Starlight - Stephanie Webster, Financier and Katherine's younger sister.  When enemy agents attacked Katherine's lab Stephanie put on a set of experimental powered armor  to defend her and because of the biomentric lock she's the only one who can use it now.

 

Patriot - James Whitney, USMC Colonel and Director of the Crisis Response Intelligence Security & Investigation Service (CRISIS), the U.S. Government's organization dealing with supervillains.

 

Fury - Kirstie Revelle, high school student and telekinetic energy projector, and adopted daughter of Morningstar.

 

Some of their enemies were  .  .  .

 

Dr. Deucalion - An evil magician which an army of walking skeletons who was an enemy of Morgan Le Fey.

 

T-2000 - Russian powered armor stolen when the Soviet Union fell, and an enemy of Ares.

 

Fifth Column - A subversive organization that has been around since World War Two.

 

UNLESS - The United Nations Law-Enforcement and Security Service, which seeks to shut down superheroes as well as supervillains.

 

These served as the bases for other heroes both in the future and past.

 

Nighthawk - Stephen Clark, Aviation Company President and ex-Naval Pilot, and a martial artists/weapons master.  He is the father of Ares, and was a hero during World War Two

 

Lioness - Lauren Murphy, Mystery Writer and amateur spy, martial artist and weapons master.  She is Ares mother.

 

Raven - Dr. Katherine Clark, Stephen's twin sister and a M.D. and criminologist.  Weapons Master and Martial Artist.

 

Captain Justice - William McKinley Wyatt, Los Angeles District Attorney and Flying Brick.  Father of Captain Avenger and Ms. Avengers.

 

Masquerade - Meredith Kelly, Martial Artist and mistress of disguise.  Movie star mother of Captain Avenger and Ms. Avenger.

 

Nightingale - Eve Hastings Clark, Registered Nurse and Nightclub owner.  Ex-wife of Nighthawk.

 

From these more and more spun off, and I began to create a the backstory I shared with you.  I extended their lifespans, and created the fact that superhumans have always been around.  As i created characters I retconned a number of the characters backstories to fit the history.

 

For example I have a superheroine named Lady Liberty.  She eventually married a superhero named American Eagle, and they adopted a daughter who will become the modern (2010) heroine Liberty, who was the focus of my upcoming story "Liberty Stands Tall."

 

More to come  .  .  .

[Anaximander]

Looks nifty.  I particularly like the UNLESS idea.  In my campaign world, the United Nations was founded by an Illuminati type organization and has been ousted by the Federated Nations of Earth as the primary force for global governance, and adherents towards the UN are now my Viper/Hydra type organization, but I am still working on a name for them.

[Cassandra]

Looks nifty.  I particularly like the UNLESS idea.  In my campaign world, the United Nations was founded by an Illuminati type organization and has been ousted by the Federated Nations of Earth as the primary force for global governance, and adherents towards the UN are now my Viper/Hydra type organization, but I am still working on a name for them.

 

UNLESS was started in the 1960s by an idealistic JFK style President.  The selling point was that it would have countries combined to deal with international superhuman threats.  After the Fifth Column wounded the President his ambitious and corrupt Vice President won the next election and allowed UNLESS to fall under more international control, leading it to become anti-superhero.  

 

The leadership of the Fifth Column is called the CABAL.

[Cassandra]

Keeping this Current.

[Cassandra]

Aphrodite

 

Val Char Cost

40 STR 30

18 DEX 2

20 CON 20

10 BODY 0

13 INT 3

18 EGO 16

15 PRE 5

24 COM 7

15 PD 7

15 ED 11

4 SPD 12

12 REC 0

40 END 0

40 STUN 0

Total Characteristics Cost: 135 Points

 

Cost Skills

3 Conversation 12-

3 FB: Federal Police Powers

3 High Society 12-

4 Lang: Native English

0 Lang: Native Greek

5 Money: Well Off

2 Navigation [Air] 12-

2 Rep: Superhero 11-

3 Seduction 12-

Total Skills Cost: 25 Points

 

Cost Powers

10 Damage Resistance 10 rPD 10 rED

5 ES: Radio Perception/Transmit, OAF: Radio (-1)

5 LS: Longevity [immortal]

22 Flight 9", Variable Advantages (+1/2), [[invisible [Hearing], Megascale [1km], 1/2 END, or Use Underwater Only (-1/4)]]

40 Multipower (40 Points)

4 u) Mind Control 8d6

4 u) Telepathy 8d6

Total Powers Cost: 90 Points

 

Total Cost: 250 Points

 

150+ Disadvantages

5 DNPC: Helen Of Troy (Slightly Less Powerful) 8-

5 DF: Beautiful Tall Blonde Woman (Easily Concealable/Notice)

10 Hunted: Crisis Response Intelligence Security & Investigation Service (More Powerful/NCI/Watch) 8-

10 Hunted: Fifth Column (Less Powerful/NCI) 8-

10 Hunted: Forces Of Evil (As Powerful) 8-

10 Hunted: United Superheroes Of America (More Powerful/NCI/Watch) 8-

15 PsyL: In Love With Hephaestus (Common/Strong)

15 PsyL: Overconfidence (Very Common/Moderate) 

20 PsyL: Protective Of Innocents (Very Common/Strong)

Total Disadvantages Cost: 250 Points

 

 

Origin:  Aphrodite was born 3800 years ago in Ancient Greece and joined the super humans who became known as The Olympians.  Taking the mantle of the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite did good deeds and protected non-powered humans against the various threats that appeared.  Despite having suitors such as Poseidon and Apollo, she fell in love with Hephaestus, and they had a daughter Helen.  When Aphrodite spurned his advances, Paris attacked Hephaestus and kidnapped Helen, taking her to Troy, sparking the Trojan War.  Aphrodite, Poseidon, and Apollo aided the Greek Army in the attack on Troy, and rescued Helen.  After the war Aphrodite remained on Olympus with her family until Hera was exiled in 1915.  Aphrodite left Olympus and finding Hera robbed of her power and memories by the waters of the river Lethe she became Hera's mortal identity Jennifer O'Hare's guardian, even to the extent of arranging a romance with American Millionaire John Marshall Taylor.  When Hera regained her memory in 1938 Aphrodite revealed herself, and aided her in regaining her role as Queen of Olympus.  During the Second World War Aphrodite became a super heroine, while living in America as romance novelist Adrienne Valentine.  She remains a heroine to this day.

 

Appearance:  Aphrodite is a beautiful tall blonde blue eyed woman who appears to be in her late 20s.  Her costume consists of a long white gown with gold bracelets, necklace, belt, and sandals.

 

Powers:  Aphrodite possesses super strength and toughness along with immortality.  She can read and control minds, and fly.

[Cassandra]

Helen of Troy

 

Val Char Cost

15 STR 5

20 DEX 30

18 CON 16

11 BODY 2

13 INT 3

14 EGO 8

20 PRE 10

24 COM 9

7 PD 4

7 ED 3

4 SPD 10

7 REC 0

36 END 0

28 STUN 0

Total Characteristics Cost: 100 Points

 

Cost Skills

3 Acrobatics 13-

3 Acting 13-

3 Breakfall 13-

3 Contortionist 13-

3 Conversation 13-

3 High Society 13-

5 Lang: Imitate Dialect English

0 Lang: Native Greek

3 Lockpicking 13-

4 Martial Dodge

4 Martial Strike

5 Money: Well Off

5 Offensive Strike

3 Shadowing 12-

3 Stealth 13-

Total Skills Cost: 50 Points

 

Cost Powers

24 Armor +8 rPD +8 rED

5 ES: Radio Perception/Transmit, OAF: Radio (-1)

15 LS: Immunity [Disease], Longevity [immortal]

6 Running +3"

Total Powers Cost: 50 Points

 

Total Cost: 200 Points

 

100+ Disadvantages

5 DF: Beautiful Tall Blonde Woman (Easily Concealable/Noticed)

10 Hunted: Aphrodite (More Powerful/NCI/Watch) 8-

20 Hunted: The Curator (More Powerful/NCI) 8-

20 Normal Characteristics Maxima

20 PsyL: Protective Of Innocents (Very Common/Strong)

20 PsyL: Show Off (Very Common/Strong)

5 SocL: Famous (Occasionally/Major)

Total Disadvantages Cost: 250 Points

 

Origin:  Helen of Troy is the daughter of Aphrodite and Hephaestus.  Three thousand years ago she was kidnapped by Paris sparking the Trojan War.  Although she was rescued Helen felt guilty over the deaths of so many including her friends Achilles and Ajax.  She remained on Mount Olympus until she accompanied her mother in search of Hera in 1915.  After Hera was restored to the Throne of Mouth Olympus she remained and explored the new world living under the name Helena Troy.  She worked with the Office of Strategic Service during World War Two operating in Greece, and during a mission with a movie star was encouraged to become an actress.  Helen did so after the war and starred in a number of popular movies.  Her last role was the lead in Hera: The Warrior Queen, a syndicated TV Show based loosely on Ancient History.

Unknown to her she is being stalked by an obsessed fan known as The Curator.

 

Powers:  Helen of Troy is an Olympic Level athlete who as inherited superhuman toughness and the immunity to disease and aging.  She has learned self defense and has picked up a number of other skills over the centuries.

 

Appearance:  Helen of Troy is a very beautiful tall blue eyed blonde woman.  She usually wears sleveless dresses and high heels.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Emphasize VERY beautiful.   Launched 1000 ships.  Caused gargantuan history-altering war.

[Greywind]

Methos: So I'm a little weak on pop culture. Well, who the hell is Chubby Checker in the grand scheme of things, anyway? I mean I, I know how tall Nero was, Caesar's favorite food, I know Helen of Troy didn't have that great a face and it only launched a hundred ships not a thousand, and...

[Cassandra]

Keeping this Current

[Cassandra]

Agent Carter Cancelled.

[Amorkca]

Agent Carter Cancelled.

 

And a sad day for all...

[Cassandra]

And a sad day for all...

 

They didn't know what to do with the character and the background.  Madame Masque was particularly misused.

 

Interesting her boss in the first season was named Roger Dooley.  The character was originally a SHIELD Agent who arrested She Hulk and had her experimented on her in a Graphic Novel.  He met a very bad end.

[Cassandra]

Keeping this current

[Cassandra]

Keeping this current.