Color-first Endeavor: back in action!

[Ron Edwards]

Hi everyone,

I had big plans for my Color-first Endeavor back in 2010, but life interfered exceptionally harshly and I had to call it off. Besides, so many people participated that the scope of my project was unmanageable. Not that I minded seeing so many awesome character ideas and games applications, but the whole thing turned into a mess when I got wrapped up in the preliminary step and never actually started the planned activity. I want to try it again with a better handle on my goals and on the process.

Anyway, check out this picture, which I got from 123rf.com, without paying for it, which is why it's marred by the logo shadow which you should ignore.



Make him up as a character for an RPG of your choice, stating the game's name, with the following limitations and guiding points. Post right here in this thread.

1. A beginning character, using exactly the rules as written. Keep in mind, this would be a character you actually want to play - someone you can respect and advocate for.
2. The game must permit enough user-choice to arrive at the character, rather than fudging a randomized system. You can use a highly-randomized game if it works for the character, just, no fudging please.
3. The game genre and setting material, if applicable, should be faithful to the picture. Please do not stretch this point. And related: do not make a parody character regarding  a given game, unless that game is explicitly about doing so.
4. If the game requires setting preparation as well as character creation, include that as well. You can do it yourself for present purposes even if it calls for group discussion.
5. Do the full, full process of making the character, all the way down to buying his tie if that's what it takes in that game to be play-ready.
6. Present absolutely all the steps of character creation in detail.
7. Please do not write fiction or back-story for the character beyond that required in the rules.
8. For purposes of posting, please use one game for one character per person. You can make up more or others, but keep them desk-side for now.
9. Don't use a game that someone else has already used in the thread.
10. Provide a link to an internet-readable scan or facsimile of the character sheet, or email it to me so I can upload and link to it. This is required!

We will stop at five characters. You're free to participate as well without submitting one of these, just keep your notes to yourself to start. There will be opportunities to bring in such "non-official" characters later.

So this time, I promise to keep my intended points much more clear, to open up discussion more, and generally to be more laid back - but also to get to the point right up front. Given that we'll have fewer characters, I think this whole thing will be more readable, more concise, and more fun.

Best, Ron

[Ron Edwards]

H'mmm, I had an idea. OK, for this thread only, you can post pictures. But only of the character sheet! That should make the whole thing easier.

Also, the previous post has a typo: the original project was in early 2009. The threads were Color-first character creation project and Color-first character, part 2: Getting this far if you want, but it is not supposed to be required background reading for what we're doing now. I'm only including it for the documentarians among us.

Best, Ron

[davide.losito]

Well, I am writing a game that deals exactly with what is depicted here: normal person that are learning to be superheroes.
The game is Dawn of a New Tomorrow and currently you can find a public version of the rule, colored for a vampire setting here.
The game is about a life that changes after a violent event, bringing you super-human qualities you have to deal with.

Game starts with a "played" character creation.
You go through 3 scenes in which you show the first reactions of the character to the event.
These scenes fix the character backstory, give the GM some solid hooks to build the adversity onto, and uses a simple version of the conflict to define the characters ability.
Characters sheet is divided in two halves, one is named You Control and shows all the abilities and powers that a character knows and uses willingly.
The other half is called Controls You and lists the abilities that the new super-human instinct is pushing to the surface.
A conflict is always made with one ability from each side, summing up the dice-pool. Blue d10 for You Control, red d10 for Controls You.
If there's some "success" in the conflict made with red dice, the other players not involved in the conflict narrate that bit of story, actively bringing the feeling of "loss of control" to the player.
Every character has two starting abilities: Self Control (You Control) and Rage (Controls You), both at score 2.

So, let's start.
[ the event ]
Chris is a broker.
He spends his life between home and job, just like any normal person, struggling to have that 30 minutes with his friends at the pub every night.
On a monday morning, just like any morning, he is going to work. Sadly, it's the very morning in which the terrorist release some untested, unsafe, unknown chemical weapon on the city.
For those that don't change to super-human: the event and the changed are scary.
Event has a local scale: city.
Event is public: there are filmed proof of changed people.
Government is involved: the changed are sought after by the NSA and there's a conspiracy.

Belonging: Chris is of the upper middle-class and he likes it, so as a super-hero, he will defend the upper middle class.

[ Scene 1; saving Pamela. ] (Scene 1 is always about saving an innocent)
During the terrorist attack, Chris spots his colleague Pamela in a car near his; she is victim of a crash and flames are slowing crawling toward her.
Chris wants to save her, and attempting to do so, he discovers he has "super-speed" and that he "feels no fear".
These are his first pair of abilities. He see that he can Control "feels no fear", while his instinct Controls "super-speed".
He wants to get Pamela out of the car before it explodes.
Player rolls enough for saving Pamela, but in the action Chris uses his super-speed in public and the TV camera filming the scene spots him, sending him to the morning news. (one red die -> public is aware of super-powers in use).
Player rolled 3 blu dice and 1 red die for the conflict, so "feels no fear" has a score of 3, and "super-speed" has a score of 1.

Sacrifice for: as he discovered his powers in the attempt of saving a young woman, as a super-hero Chris is ready to sacrifice for young women

[ Scene 2; house fighting. ] (Scene 2 is always about confronting a relative / close friend, one day after the event)
The day after, Chris is at home, with Jenny, his wife.
She saw the news yesterday morning and saw Chris saving Pamela.
This was too much for her to stand, Chris should have gone back home without risking his life for that bitch.
Jenny wants Chris to promise he will quit is job and she is ready to call in for the NSA and get Chirs arrested to enforce this request.
In this scene, Chris discovers he can "Stop bullets" (You Control), if he moves fast enough. He also notices that his new speed helps him making a use of those "karate" lessons he had as a kid (Controls You).
He tries to escape the NSA special squad after he failed to convince Jenny he has no relation with Pam.
Player roll but loses the conflict, so Chris get arrested. Jenny ends up knocked out under a shelf that falls over her (used 2 red die -> an innocent get harmed)
Player rolled 2 blu die and 2 red dice for the conflict, so "Stop Bullets" has a score of 2, and "karate" has a score of 2.

Enrage with: as he has been betrayed by someone he loved, as a super-hero Chris get mad every time he is betrayed

[ Scene 3; killing in the name of. ] (Scene 3 is always about clashing with another super-being, one week after the event)
One week later, still in jail, Chris discovers from a guard there's more than what he has been told, and part of the government is involved in the event: someone is trying to destroy America and force a dictatorship; they are seizing all properties and they want to control every aspect of the new society with some social engineer project and normalize life to pre-defined standards.
He decides he has to stop this, and let everyone know what is happening.
He has to evade then, which is a simple task for someone who can phase through walls. Problem is... there's a super-police man guarding him, someone who is changed as well, but is working for the NSA and the government.
Chris attacks.
He discovers he can toss some kind of "pressure bolts" (You Control) toward a target by executing karate moves faster than sound.
He also notices that, in the end, he "likes bloodshed" (Controls You).
Chris successfully beat the super-guard... but with 3 red die. Which means someone is dying because Chris gets out of control. The super-guard.
Player rolled 1 blue and 3 red, so "pressure bolts" has a score of 1 and "likes bloodshed" has a score of 3.

Fights for: Chris fights for Freedom, for the Possibilities and for the Old American Dream; He is against the New Order and chooses his name and icon as super-hero to represent the old society he wants back. He will be The Dollar.

Will he succeed in his crusade against the New Order, or will he fall under the consequences of his powers?

[Ron Edwards]

So, this is the Dollar, at least as interpreted  in Dawn of a New Tomorrow.

Davide, help me a little: is the setting for the game in a more-or-less generic American big city (cough, New York), as in most of the comics, or are you thinking in terms of an Italian setting?

Also, please provide an image for the character sheet. Even if it is only a piece of paper with notes at this stage of the game's development, I want to see that piece of paper with its notes.

Best, Ron

[davide.losito]

The setting is part of the game preparation phase.
I suggest to take inspiration from the players own cities, but they are free to set the game in whichever place on Earth they want.

I could play-test it in both a "standard american big city" setting and an italian one, with a big meteor crushing down the Coliseum in Rome.
The location is the first bit of the preparation the group does at the starting of the first session.

As far as I saw, usually setting the game in Italy means there is something to do with/against the Vatican.
Italy seems to be tied to Vatican, in many player's fantasies. Even those of us who are not living in Rome.

I have a PDF for the Vampire version of the game.
The only difference with the "super-heroe" version can be found in some terms on the sheet, in order to respect the color change.
Vamp Sheet

[Markus]

Character creation is always fun! After looking at the $-man for like five seconds I choose "Over the Edge" (I own the 2nd edition manual, published in the late 90s IIRC).
I took notes following the character creation steps described in the book, then filled up the char sheet and much to my surprise, I found that the official sheet doesn't have any specific field for most of the stuff I had to make up, but it has fields for additional stuff not mentioned in the manual. Anyway, here you can find links to (respectively) the notes and the sheet--

https://www.box.com/s/74f137c183d4ae23b4a5
https://www.box.com/s/d8b7793ec607cc595ba2

The book tells me to start with a general concept for the character, specifically saying to follow "my GM's lead". Funnily, I automatically assumed Ron was the GM and just imagined what "his lead" could be.

So, I look at that big $ symbol for a few seconds and the first thing that comes into my mind is that I don't really know its history and meaning. A quick search on Wikipedia corrects this, and I also learn that exactly the same symbol was used by alchemists for cinnabar, a reddish mineral that vaguely reminds me of some Kant stuff I read ages ago and never really understood. From this moment, the character practically wrote himself.

My character is an alchemist who found a way to transmute copper into gold by using a cinnabar-based potion of his invention. My fictional GM looks at me and goes "isn't that a bit bland?" --I remember he wrote Sorcerer and quickly add "cinnabar, sure, plus freshly spilled human blood". The blood needs to be ritually extracted but it doesn't matter whether the, ermm, donor is willing or not.

So we have this guy, say from Brazil (Brazil sounds good for some reason, maybe because it has a rich mystical heritage but it's a bit oblique to all the alchemic traditions I know of), who knows how to never run out of pure gold. This means that he's probably hunted by some illuminati-like organization who wants to use this process in large scales to [do something, can't decide right now] to global economy.

Good! So now I have to decide Ricardo Azevedo's (30 seconds of googling common Brazilian names resulted in this) four traits. You'll find the full descriptions on the char sheet. The central trait is obviously "alchemist", the side traits are "cool" and "personal manipulator", and the flaw is "enemies". I choose to boost the central trait (but it's still worth only 2 dices because it's a fringe skill), leaving average scores on everything else. I also add a short description and an external sign to every trait.

Then I have to write down hit points (which are the lowest possible amount, 14, since I didn't write any physical trait) and the experience pool (just 1 die for starting characters). No choices to be made here.

The next step is to decide on a motivation for the character to having moved to Al Amarja. I keep it simple and decide that he wanted to go to a safe place where his hunters couldn't follow him. You know, I'm sure he's wrong, but I look forward to playing him relaxed and all-confident at first. Maybe he also wants to do something a bit more proactive, like using his gold-creating power to throw a wrench in the works of the financial illuminati-like organization ruling the world, but I want to get to know him better before committing.

Now I have to choose "some secret, some hidden fact that few others, if any, know about you". I choose an option straight from the book because it sounds good: Ricardo is gay and feels the need to keep this a secret.

Then, I have to choose an "important person" that somehow critically changed his life. Reading the suggestions on the book I spot Attila the Hun and Edgar Allan Poe as examples, so they don't have to be people Ricardo met personally. I finally settle on Carl Jung for his pseudo-alchemic writings. It seems that Ricardo read them more literally than most academics ever imagined to do and somehow got from them his basic alchemy skills. Aargh, now I want to re-read Mysterium Coniunctionis again. But erm, on second though, I don't really.

Finally, the book instructs me to sketch a drawing of my character! How ironic is this? Seems like I'm doing a bit of "color-last" even if I started "color-first". Anyway, I do a quick sketch and my pathetic effort looks absolutely nothing like the starting $-man. Oh well, I add some well-chosen alchemical symbols and that's it. Quoting the book: "This step is important because it carries the creation process beyond the verbal and establishes hyper-neural connections among centers of your brain that are not directly connected (specifically motor control and vision centers)".

I'd happily play Ricardo, I'm quite satisfied of him as a starting OTE character. I'm excited about this color-first thingy because I don't have a clue about where it might lead. But I really hope it won't bring us to something that contains "hyperneural" in its explanation.

[Ron Edwards]

Excellent! Davide, it would be really good if you said whether the setting is Italy or generic-U.S. for your character because it matters a lot. Forgive me if you did and I missed it.

Markus: Oh, he is so totally a gay Brazilian! I'm glad I made up my character (to be revealed after the other five are here) before reading that. Everyone else making up characters, ignore it! I know it's not going to be easy.

Editing this in: also, Markus, you didn't fill in the descriptions sections of that sheet. I bet that's hyper-neural too, so you should do it.

[Moreno R.]

Ron, you are asking to create "a character you actually want to play - someone you can respect and advocate for" from a picture of... Captain Dollar?

My first reaction was "impossible, this isn't something I can do", but I already could not participate in the first color-fist contest, and I can't resist a challenge...

(I am writing all this as a part of "Present absolutely all the steps of character creation in detail.", by the way)

So...

Looking at the picture, what I see is "fake" No way that is a "real" superhero. The pose, the expression... is obviously staged. So, that's a model or an actor.

An actor... in a shitty direct-to-video movie about a superhero called "Captain Free Market" or something like that.  Why should an actor de-humanize himself so much? de-humanize...   mmmm....

MY LIFE WITH MASTER

First, by the rules, I have to create the Master:

ED WHITE:  the agent of a lot of down-to-their-luck actors and would-be actors, that he exploit mercilessly for his own gains.
The Environment around him is FEAR: 4, REASON: 1 (well, it's Hollywood...)
Ed White is a BEAST (you should see his table manners) and COLLECTOR (he collects people to use as pawns and dirty secrets to use for blackmail)

The Outsiders are famous actresses and more in general high society women. He want to become so rich and famous to attract them as relationships (not as clients). He has no chance (I said he is a beast, right?)

Then, the Minion pictured in the photo:

JOHN VALENTINO (born Giacomo Vallini, but he legally changed his name), would-be actor that until now got only very small parts, but was recently selected to play "Captain Free Market" for a low-budget direct-to-video superhero movie. He thinks he "owe everything" to Ed.

Self-Loathing: 2
Weariness: 1
Love: 0

More than Human: He can seduce everybody, man or female, but not when he is really attracted by that person.

Less than human: he can't refuse the offer of any substance (from his mother's inedible cake to a shot of heroin) apart when he is his own home (I don't see him as an addict, but as someone with very weak force of will that try to please everybody)

Connections:
1) Jenny, the waiter at a local diner
2) Walt, a technician at the movie studio.

I will send the filled character sheet by e-mail later, Ron, I don't have a scanner.

[davide.losito]

Excellent! Davide, it would be really good if you said whether the setting is Italy or generic-U.S. for your character because it matters a lot. Forgive me if you did and I missed it.

Character is generic-U.S. or so I thought about him when I was "creating him".

There's a lot to say about this choice... I mean, even if I wanted to create a super-hero "close to home", it would be generic-U.S. for me, cause all the heroes I read of were american.
My experience about "heroes" is generic-U.S. only.
And an italian super-hero would make me laugh.

[Ron Edwards]

Here's Moreno's sheet for John Valentino:

[ndpaoletta]

Creating this character in--Aberrant!

Phase One: Human
- Name: David Fletcher ("Fletch")
- Concept: A shill, a TV infomercial pitchman.
- Nature: Bravo ("there are winners and losers in life, and you are a winner--gain Willpower whenever you make someone else back down") (I'm thinking more on the bully end of this, Fletch is a big fish in a small pond)
- Allegiance: Corporate (the N! network - he shills products marketed towards wannabe Novas)

- Attributes (see sheet for point allocations!)
-- I prioritize Social as my primary group, Mental as secondary and Physical as tertiary.
-- Select Skills (nothing higher than 3)

- Backgrounds
-- Backing 2 (N! network)
-- Followers 2 (two production assistants, Steve and Darlene)
-- Resources 3 (affluent guy)

-- Initial Willpower 3, Quantum 1, Initiative 5, Movement 7/14/26

- Spend bonus points: 6 to add +3 Willpower, 2 to add +2 Resources (dude is filthy rich), 1 to add +1 Backing, 2 to add +1 Subterfuge skill, 2 to add +1 Style skill, 1 to add "investing" specialty to Biz, 1 to add "snake-oil salesman" specialty to Subterfuge

Phase Two: Nova
- Origin: A rival pitchman at the N! sales channel (N!shop) played a stupid prank on David during a live infomercial for what was supposed to be a special hyperfitness system that would give the user Nova-like stamina and strength. When David was to use the weight training equipment, the foam barbells had been replaced with real ones--as the rival, Joshua Lagos, watched from backstage, David strapped in and, without missing a beat in his patter, bench pressed 1000 lbs.

The legal and PR teams at N!sales have been busy around the clock keeping a Project: Utopia representative away from David while he figures out the extent of his new abilities. So far, he's demonstrated extraordinary strength, and those around him have done a 180 in their opinion of him as a person. As long as the phone lines keep lighting up for what he's selling, his superiors at N!sales have no reason to probe into what--other--abilities he may have gained.

- Nova Points (30 to spend)
-- 1 pt for 5 Background dots - 4 Influence, and 1 more dot of Backing
-- Mega-Strength 1 (3 pts)
-- Mega-Charisma 2 (6 pts)
-- Mega-Manipulation 2 (6 pts) with the Persuader and Trickster Enhancements (2 pts)
-- Quantum Power: 2 dots of Domination (6 pts) bought with the Telepathic extra (4 pts). I'm going to buy this as a Tainted power, so it only costs 6 instead of 10, and I have 2 points of permanent Taint
- Oh hey, I need Quantum 3 to have Dominate, so I spend my last 6 points on 2 Tainted dots of Quantum.

Because I have Taint 4, I need to decide on an Aberration for Fletch. I'm going to go with a classic - Aberrant Eyes. Fletch has no visible pupils, the entire center of his eyes are deep, dark, endless brown. Those who stand close enough sometimes have problems focusing on anything else--

Finally, the picture! That's a publicity photo shot AFTER Fletch Erupted, which N! uses to advertise his pitch show (now, of course, he has his own pitch show). The idea is that he knows so much about money, he makes the smartest buys and gets the best deals for his customers - who are only too willing to click "buy now" when he tells them too--

At this point, I see playing him as a guy who's just realizing that he got everything that he wanted in life. He has the money, he has the fame, and everyone around him does what he wants them to do. By Nova standards, however, he's actually pretty weak - no big combat powers, no survival abilities, and really only one good trick to get him out of trouble. He could be a great soft asset for any of the canonical factions, through, and his visible Taint puts him in play for the less savory ones.

link to bigger sheet

[Hans Chung-Otterson]

I made my character in Freemarket. Character sheet forthcoming.

Key ID (char name): Ickarus
Clade (char concept): Street Theater Actor

Generation: Second Gen


Geneline (2): Reeve
Tags: Dashing, Extrovert, Weird


Experiences:

Cultivation (1)
Recycling (1)
Ephemera (2)
Shaping (1)


Interface:

Needlefingers v1.5 (1)
Tags: Cultivation, Sewing Needles, Flexible

Stanislov Keysoft (1)
Tags: Shaping, Method Acting, Truthiness


Technology:

Show Flyer (1)
Tags: Ephemera, Glossy Poster, Shifting Graphics


MRCZ*

Name: Marketasmo!
Goal: Print up and distribute the tech performing artists need to do their work and promote it.

Has: Printing, Social Connections, Advertisement
Needs: Negotiation, Reputation, More People


Memories:

Long Term: The day I first donned the Dollar Bill costume and wowed the audience waiting outside the Pie Shoppe with my exciting performance!

Long Term: In the capsule hotel, crying after 6.3 Jen broke up with my by sending back the Penny Girl uniform I sewed for her.

Short Term: Yesterday when I saw Maimed Dog perform in Adolf Tacoma's club I knew I had to go home and build my own guitar.


Starting Flow: 10


*this is a group process whereby you take your individual characters and make up why they're together. Obviously I did this on my own, imagining an artsy promotional group with a lot of people who are good at using matter printers.

[Hans Chung-Otterson]

So I realized that I didn't describe any of the character creation steps, I just did them. So let me expand. Sorry for the duplication.


Clade (char concept): Street Theater Actor

This comes first: Who do you want to be on Freemarket station? I looked at the picture and thought of some guy who dresses up like a Superhero and does improv street acting, possibly battling against Supervillain actors. This is completely a normal, doable concept in Freemarket.

Generation: Second Gen

Second-genners are the true natives of Freemarket. There's also First Gen (their parents and the kids of the Originals, those who built the station), Immigrants, and Blanks (humans printed in matter printers and flooded with memories). This guy, especially with my Clade, seemed like a true native. The choice of Second Gen also gave me the following points to spend: Geneline (2), Experience (5), Interface (2), Tech (1).


Geneline (2): Reeve
Tags: Dashing, Extrovert, Weird

The Geneline name is sort of your family name or bloodline or someone who you're trying to be like. Reeve was quick and cheeky, so I went with it. The tags show us which Challenges your Geneline applies to. The pic suggested Dashing and Extrovert, and I threw the Weird in 'cause he's totally an Underwear Pervert.

Experiences:

Cultivation (1)
Recycling (1)
Ephemera (2)
Shaping (1)

Experiences are FM's "skills". There's 14 of 'em, but I focused on these four. Cultivation is making stuff (sewing costumes), Recycling is fixing and merging tech (possibly to make Tech to help the performances. This one will be big in factoring into the MRCZ's purpos), Ephemera (creating art that instills memories in people--street performances), and Shaping (Kinesics--reading body cues and acting out your own to read people and get them to involuntarily act).


Interface:

Needlefingers v1.5 (1)
Tags: Cultivation, Sewing Needles, Flexible

Stanislov Keysoft (1)
Tags: Shaping, Method Acting, Truthiness

Interface is Cybernetics. My guy can sew stuff with just his hands, and has implanted software that helps him read people.


Technology:

Show Flyer (1)
Tags: Ephemera, Glossy Poster, Shifting Graphics

Tech is your stuff. I had one point to spend and made a "smart paper" flyer that he can use for his performances and for his MRCZ's needs.

MRCZ

Name: Marketasmo!
Goal: Print up and distribute the tech performing artists need to do their work and promote it.

Has: Printing, Social Connections, Advertisement
Needs: Negotiation, Reputation, More People

This is group process, but I made it up, thinking there would be characters different than me. What kind of a group would a Supers street performer join? This kind of group.


Memories:

Long Term: The day I first donned the Dollar Bill costume and wowed the audience waiting outside the Pie Shoppe with my exciting performance!

Long Term: In the capsule hotel, crying after 6.3 Jen broke up with my by sending back the Penny Girl uniform I sewed for her.

Short Term: Yesterday when I saw Maimed Dog perform in Adolf Tacoma's club I knew I had to go home and build my own guitar.


Memories are very important in Freemarket. What you do in the game becomes Memories which become Experiences: it's how you advance in the game. It also shows the other Users and Superuser what kind of things are important to you, what you want to see in the game.

Starting Flow: 10

2nd Genners start with 8 Flow, and you get a bump based on which Experiences you choose. Recycling and Cultivation each gave me a 1 Flow bump. Flow is the economy of FM station; you need it to change anything on the station. It shows us how much of a helper you are, and how much people respect you!


Key ID (char name): Ickarus

This comes last. What do people call you on the station? A friend and I were talking about someone naming their child "Icarus" today, and this suggested itself. It seemed like a 2nd Gen name to me, at least (based on examples in the book and my own play).

[Markus]

also, Markus, you didn't fill in the descriptions sections of that sheet. I bet that's hyper-neural too, so you should do it.

Done! I couldn't resist putting in a "brazilian dagger", but only the most devoted Monty Python fans will get the reference.

[Ron Edwards]

That's five! Here's mine.

The game is Heroic Do-Gooders & Dastardly Deed-Doers, self-published by two guys named Van Dinter in 1995.

I should explain a few things about this game, because it blends some truly excellent things with being totally procedurally insane. As an example of the latter, the roll to hit someone using percentage dice is your Stat divided by (your opponent's Stat times 2). And that's without modifiers, which are often stepwise and shift dramatically in common circumstances like powers use and damage. What's really crazy is that every number and equation and fiddly bit, out of hundreds, appears to have been thoroughly playtested - this game is for people who like this stuff.

But I'll focus on the excellent, which now that I think of it is also insane, or at least, gonzo.
It's superheroes, sure, but in a weird but perfect blend of surreal and gritty, more about people-with-powers than spandex-clad ultra-beings, as "black vs. grey morality" as you can get, in a deliberate step away from plain old four-color but not in the directions the comics took it in the mid-late 80s - just as violent, but more funny and more politically relevant. The whole text and every detail give off an aggressively late 80s vibe, especially the resentment and mockery of Reagan-era idealism, before it was canonized in the early 90s. Best of all, its setting/situation concept is exactly what we used to do with old-school Champions, which the Van Dinters call Earth Now - I'll probably explain that later to save time now. All of this is reinforced with good and definitely quirky art, by the authors as far as I can tell, which communicates among other things that grievous bodily harm is a frequent feature of play.

It's available off and on at Amazon and similar sites for less than $20, and I urge you to get it. The more people who own this game, the more chance I'll have actually to play it someday, because I could never imagine actually GMing it - or rather, as a Champions veteran GM, I unfortunately can.

On to the character creation instructions. They say, steal ideas from action/adventure, give the character a history, include some personality details, and "Under NO circumstances think of your character as a tutu/cape/mask-wearing pansy." I think I'm good with these, because one look at the picture, and I say, oh man! What a perfect Human Dastardly Deed-Doer. Roy is the single hedge-fund mortgage shark speculator in the United States to realize, in 2008,  that he was being evil, and now he's making up for it. He gets his personal satisfaction from locating precisely the people who are directly responsible for the most heinous exploitative bullshit regarding mortgages and foreclosures, and killing them. He is happy to explain that his logo symbolizes real labor-based money instead of speculative and promissory pseudo-money. See Naked Capitalism and Financial Armageddon). Look at that lovely smirk: he is the world's happiest supervillain. "Recover from this, bitch!"

In their example, this is where their character gets his name. I'll call him Milton Roy, also known as the Real Money. (A couple of jokes or details go with these. First, he passionately hates his own first name. Second, he's fed up with people talking about finance and its "instruments" as the real economy and what the rest of us do as the secondary one.)

Characters get 1200 points to start. He'll get 300 more points when we get to Flaws, so I'll figure on 1500.

Primary Abilities/Stats
Smarts 100, Agility 115, Popularity 120, Luck 200 (discounted 15%, 183), Brawn 115, Willpower 110
= 743
In the scale of this game, he's somewhat above average physically, mildly bright, rather charming, with disgusting although not ridiculous luck. (I'll explain the discounted cost for Luck in a minute.)

The Luck is a big deal; it's one of three sub-systems in the game which permit an immense amount of player manipulation of the circumstances and coincidences, the others being Acrobatics and Gizmos. So this is a very metagame-y character for this game.

Secondary Stats
Mortality = 56, Guts = 105, Wile = 130, Perception = 125, Vigor = 113
Offense (ranged) = 9, Defense (ranged) = 6, Fisticuffs Offense & Defense = 22, Fisticuffs Damage = 4, Fisticuffs Damage Reduction = 2

Boy, he is sneaky and charismatic after all. But I'm not liking what I see, physically. His Vitality is between a retiree and a nurse!

Race & Class
OK, everything costs points  in this game, but specific things are discounted or incremented by specific amounts per Race and per Class. So for instance, a Mimic Ninja would have a unique profile of cheaper and more expensive Attributes, Skills, and Powers, compared to any other combination.

The exceptions are Humans and HGDs/DDDs, both of which provide a customizable 15% discount to be distributed how you want, in units of 5% if you want to break them up. If you take both, like I did, then you can create a profile of discounts totaling 30%  precisely the way you want. Which is clearly what I'm doing here, in making him a Human Dastardly Deed-Doer. I chose the Primary Stat Luck and the Power Mortality Attack to discount by 15% each.

The text tells me that Dastardly Deed-Doers "are -- (1) no-good dirty SOBs who want nothing more than to wreak havoc and ruin the world for the rest of us. (2) megalomaniacs with egos the size of garbage trucks and have no concern for anyone other than themselves. (3) addicted to mayhem and violence. They get off on ill-will and conflict. (4) the bad guys, so they have no qualms with taking an occasional life or two or twenty. They CANNOT have the character flaw Morality. (5) determined to rub out any Heroic Do-Gooders who get in their way."

I can live with that.

Also, HDGs/DDDs are the only class which is permitted to buy new powers after play begins. Anyone else has to buy a power as "latent" if they want to get something new later. But I can buy one at 5th, 10th, et cetera levels.

Flaws
Materialism 225 + Charity 75 = 300, for 1500 total points. This means he can be bribed with stuff but not money, and he gives away most of his money to the needy. This also puts him in a bit of a bind because as long as he spends money on stuff, he won't feel guilty about not giving it away, but if he doesn't do it quick enough, he's out of luck and has to donate it. Ah, the curse of the middle classl! Both of these Flaws are Hidden. As a Dastardly Deed-Doer, he is not permitted to take the Morality Flaw.

Aptitudes (free, derived from Smarts)
Current Events (specialty = mortgages) 50, Economics 25, Law 25.

I don't buy him any Skills; the Aptitudes cover all the stuff I'm interested in. Note the similarity to the original Champions: "skills" actually only cover very significant, nigh-supers abilities; using that old rules-set, Peter Parker would not have to buy "photographer" and Tony Stark would not have to buy "rich tycoon." All that stuff only entered Champions when GURPS came out and the two games started imitating each other through several editions.

Powers
Contact! Initial cost 75, 5 levels at 20 each, total = 175 - this means his hands do damage; also that his Fisticuffs Offense is raised to 32 and his Fisticuffs damage is raised to 9, 5 of which ignore his opponent's damage reduction.
Mortality Attack, Initial cost 150, 150 to apply to Contact!, total = 300 (discounted 15%) = 255 - converts Contact's Willpower damage to Mortality damage (which also does Willpower, so bonus!)
Armor, Semi-Losable Gizmo (5% discount), initial cost 150, 4 levels at 25 each, total = 250 (discounted 5%) = 237
Cheating Fate, Initial cost 30, 2 levels at 30 each, total = 90
= 757; 743 + 757 = 1500

This is a very deadly character. His offensive powers are bought to the maximum for a first level character. His Mortality Attack is defined as radiation, comic book style, so basically, when he punches you in the chest, all your guts will be cooked to a crisp as they're blown out your back. He's not really built to go toe-to-toe with true bruisers, but he has a good chance to avoid such things with his Luck and similar stuff.

Making him took three tries. The first time, I realized halfway through that I'd forgotten about Powers' initial costs and had to start over. The second time, I neglected defenses in favor of the power Ouch! and a little bit of fun movement, which ultimately resulted in a character who could have been one-punched by a geriatric patient. So I junked those powers in favor of slightly beefed-up physical Stats and the Armor, which also netted me a few more points to dump into Luck.

Best, Ron