Heroes Unlimited: Phenomenal Paragons: The Warlock (Hardware Hero: Analytical Genius)

Marcus Mould built a fusion reactor in his parent's shed when he was 12 and joined the army at 18 to serve queen and country. But his genius was recognised and instead of getting his hands dirty he was moved into Army Intelligence. Bored, he left the day his contract was up for renewal. On his 22nd birthday he formed Clocktower Analytics. Now he still serves queen and country, and anyone else who can afford his fees, as The Warlock.

This is the fifth character in my Phenomenal Paragons series. The introduction to which is here. It is inspired by Jacob Pisson's World's Strongest series, here.

The Hardware Hero is your MacGuyver type, although it includes your Knight Riders, your Airwolves, your Street Hawks, and, if you want to get into really obscure late 80's action shows, The Wizard.

The Wizard, for you not in the know, was a kids action show back in 1986, starring David Rappaport as little person inventor Simon McKay who, along with his FBI bodyguard, would go on adventures and fight crime. This show had a weird influence on me even though I never saw a single episode as while visiting family in the US I was given a tour of the set by one of the producers. I was 13. It was an experience.

All this becomes relevant in a moment.

Step One: The Usual.

11's across the board except with I.Q. which has a minimum of 9. The rules literally say to raise to raise an I.Q. of 8 or lower up to 9. However, while 11 is higher than 9, my rules for these characters say that if there's an attribute requirement then I raise the first required attribute up to 20. So 20 I.Q. it is.

Step Two: Education.

I go random and get Military Specialist. This has a tight list of programs to choose from and 5 secondary skills. The first program I don't get a choice in, being Basic Military at +20% skill. This gives me:
Hand-to-Hand Basic,
Running, +1 P.E., +10 Spd., +3 SDC.
Climbing,
Military Etiquette,
Basic Radio,
W.P. Rifle, +4 aimed shot, +2 wild shot.
I can then choose another military program or Espionage, and get +20%. I choose the latter.
Hand-to-Hand Martial Arts, This replaces Basic HtH. I consider tracking down the Commando HtH but I don't think its in any of the books I'm using.
Detect Ambush,
Intelligence,
Wilderness Survival,
Disguise,
Impersonation.
I then get given another go around on the Espionage program, this time only at +15%. I pick:
Detect Concealment,
Escape Artist,
Pick Locks,
Sniper, +2 aimed shot
Tracking.
Then I get the Modern Weapon Proficiencies program, which gives me 3 picks from a short list. I chose:
W.P. Pistol,
W.P. SMG,
W.P. Heavy Weapons.
Finally I get a pick of any skill program at +10% and I, sticking with the theme, select Demolitions.
Demolitions,
Demolitions Disposal,
Underwater Demolitions.

Then I spot the note at the bottom of the section saying that Analytical Geniuses (Genii?) don't get an education. They have a list of skills and a few secondary skills. Had I been following the rules to the letter I wouldn't even know what sort of Hardware Hero I was creating at this point. I'm literally discovering this now as I write this; character already designed. I'm not going to waste all my work up until this point. So rules... (freaking cargo cult game design, I swear...)

Step Three: Special Skills; Hardware Area of Expertise.

Hardware Heroes come in four broad categories: the Electrical Genius, as with The Gaunter; the Mechanical Genius, who builds Super vehicles; the Weapons Expert, who makes and uses weapons real well; and the Analytical Genius, who does all of the above, but not as well.

The Analytical Genius is MacGuyver and The Wizard rolled into one. Skills-wise they get:
Electrical Engineer (+15%),
Mechanical Engineer (+15%),
Weapons Engineer (+10%),
Robot Mechanics (+15%),
Robot Electronics (+10%),
Basic Radio (+20%),
Read Sensory Instruments (+20%),
Chemistry (+20%),
Analytical Chemistry (+20%),
Computer Operation (+20%),
Computer Programming (+10%),
Computer Repair (+10%),
Astrophysics (+15%),
Art (+10%),
Anthropology (+10%),
Biology (+10%),
Paramedic (+10%),
Intelligence (+10%),
Research (+20%),
Advanced Maths (+30%).

Kev' baby, get help.

At the top of the list it literally says "in addition to scholastic and secondary skills". I also get a skill program of choice and 6 secondary skills! I could just...

So I choose Business. I know I'm technically cheating at this point but if you're going to be bad at game design Kev', then I'm gonna milk it for every drop. This is an NPC after all.
Basic Mathematics,
Business & Finance,
Computer Operation,
Law (General),
Research.

I also get Special Skills. These are:
Analyse & Operate Devices,
Build/Modify Armour,
Communications: ECM.

Going all out I decide I have 11 secondary skills:
Athletics, +1 parry and dodge, +1 roll with impact, +1 P.S., +3 Spd., +5 SDC.
Body Building, +2 P.S., +10 SDC.
Swimming,
SCUBA,
W.P. Knife, +1 strike when thrown.
W.P. Targeting (Knife), +1 strike.
Language, x3; I pencil in Russian, Mandarin, and Arabic. Normally when it comes to languages while designing characters I ask the GM what languages will be featuring in their game and select at least one of those. In this case I'm going with languages that an army intelligence officer is likely to find useful in the twenty first century.
Pilot Motorcycle,
Pilot Race-car.

Step Four: Hardware.

I get a random valued workshop, which I decide to to treat as a budget; so an £80,000 workshop. I then get a budget for building something. It's expected to be a suit of power armour or a supervehicle. I choose £4 million.

No Tony, Business & Finance would have to be a secondary skill for you.

Given that Pilot Jet Pack and Pilot Armoured Vehicle are advanced piloting skills, playing strictly by the rules you'd have to pick the Advanced Piloting program to be able to use powered armour. That would be your one program and done. Not really a fully fledged character skill-wise.

I decide on a super vehicle. Just the one to start.

I settle on a motorcycle. Make it a heavy chassis for £2,000 and 100 SDC. Put in an engine capable of speed class 24, the maximum for a motorcycle, for £9,000. Heavy composite armour giving AR 18 and 1,400 SDC for £50,000. An autocannon that does 1d6x10+20 damage in a front facing fixed mount for £15,000. Engine readouts for £550 and a radio locator for £1,500. Modify the engine for super fuel efficiency for another £15,000. Ram prow for £1,100, searchlight for 300 and siren for £90. Armour the tires with AR 10 and 20 SDC to deflate, for £2,800 and make the self repairing and self inflating for £1,400.

The Warwolf.

Max speed or 480 mph, cruise speed of 150 mph.
Max load of 450 lbs.
10x range.
1 pilot and 1 passenger.
AR18, 1,500 SDC
£98,740 off the shelf.

The Guardian City Metropolitan Police Force pay £99,000 each, with livery for the P.R.A.T. Squad. It only costs The Warlock £39,496 in parts to make.

The Warwolf looks like the cross between a Dodge Tomahawk and the Batpod.

Other Stuff

Alignment: I roll 5 on my die and get Aberrant. This is when my military super spy turns into The Warlock. Like The Wizard, only evil. And not proper villainy either. No he's an anti-hero. A utilitarian pragmatist fighting the good fight in a bad way.
Hand-to-Hand: I'm tempted by the Assassin HtH style, which is only available to evil characters, but in the end I stick with martial arts.
There's an option to sacrifice a bunch of stuff, including attacks per round, to get an additional whole Hardware Hero class. I elect not to.
Weapons & Armour: I can use the budget to buy stuff, so that's alright.
When out and about The Warlock wears what look like motorcycle leathers but are actually the equivalent to riot armour (AR14, 180 SDC) when riding his Warwolf. The helmet has a multi-optic system built into it. Full cost is £39,600 and weighs 17 lbs.
Carries a ceramic combat knife and 3 ceramic throwing knives (1d6 damage). Has access to a number of different firearms locked away in an armoury in his home/workshop.
S.D.C.: The character starts with a base of 35 SDC.


Name: Marcus Mould.
Super Identity: The Warlock.
Level: 1, Analytical Genius.
Height: 5'10", Weight: 150 lbs.
Alignment: Aberrant.
Disposition: Snob. Arrogant. Acts superior to others.
Team: The Clock Tower.
IQ 20, ME 11, MA 11, PS 14, PP 11, PE 12, PB 11, Spd 24.
Hit Points 15, S.D.C. 43, P.P.E. 20.

Superpowers:
No Skill Cap: Usually skills are capped at 98% but the Analytical Genius has no upper cap to their skills meaning that they can rise above this. This is used to counter negative penalties. However a roll of 99 or 100 is still a fail no matter how high the skill.

Skills:
Scholastic Skills:
Basic Maths 76%, Business & Finance 56%, Law (General) 46%, Pilot Automobile 78%, Speak English, Read/Write English.
Military Skills:
Basic Radio 106%, Climbing 71% (Rappelling 61%), Demolitions 79%, Demolitions Disposal 79%, Detect Ambush 61%, Detect Concealment 51%, Disguise 56%, Escape Artist 56%, Impersonation 46%, Intelligence 82%, Martial Arts Hand-to-Hand, Military Etiquette 66%, Pick Locks 56%, Running, Sniper, Tracking 51%, Underwater Demolitions 76%, Wilderness Survival 61%, W.P. Heavy Weapon, W.P. Pistol, W.P. Rifle, W.P. S.M.G.
Analytical Skills:
Advanced Maths 86%, Analytical Chemistry 56%, Anthropology 41%, Art 56%, Astrophysics 51%, Biology 51%, Chemistry 61%, Computer Ops 81%, Computer Programming 51%, Computer Repair 46%, Electrical Engineer 66%, Mechanical Engineer 61%, Paramedic 61%, Read Sensors 61%, Research 81%, Robot Electronics 56%, Robot Mechanics 56%, Weapons Engineer 46%.
Special Skills:
Analyse & Operate Devices 88%, Build & Modify Armour 88%, Communications: ECM 78%.
Secondary Skills:
Athletics, Body Building, Language: Arabic 61%, Language: Mandarin 61%, Language: Russian 61%, Pilot Motorcycle 70%, Pilot Race-car 64%, SCUBA 61%, Swimming 61%, W.P. Knife, W.P. Targeting (Thrown Knife).

Saves: 

Coma/Death: +0%

Harmful Drugs/Toxins (15+): +0

Horror Factor: +0

Magic (Spells 12+, Circles/Wards 13+, Ritual 16+): +0

Poison (Lethal 14+, Non-Lethal 16+): +0

Psionics (15+): +0

Possession: +0

Combat:

Initiative: +2
Attacks per Round: 2+2
Strike: +0, +2 (Thrown Knife)
Damage:
1d4 Punch
1d6 Knife
Dodge: +1
Parry: +1
Roll with Impact: +4
Pull Punch: +3

Benchmarks:

Carry Capacity: 120 lbs; Lifting: 240 lbs

Stamina: Carry Max 48 minutes, 24 minutes while running or fighting. Lifting for 12 rounds (180 seconds; 3 minutes)

Ground Speed: 16.8 mph for 12 minutes

Swimming Speed: 42 yrds (126 ft.) per round for 12 minutes.

Leaping Distance: 3.5 ft. high; 7 ft. broad. 14 ft drop.

Background:

Born to a working class family in Guardian City Marcus Mould was something of a child prodigy. The sort of child who would take something apart to see how it worked he differed only in that he could put them back together again. At the age of twelve he built a fusion reactor in a garden shed, just to see if he could. It wasn't powerful or useful but it worked. The world became his oyster. Prestigious universities beat a path to his door just to offer him scholarships.

Then there came the Sunday of the Psirens when a cabal of psychic, self styled, 'witches' invaded Ennor in an attempt to make it their personal kingdom. Marcus and his family were sheltering in Ennor Cathedral during the fighting. His mother crippled by a stray telekinetic bolt. Marcus witnessed Brigadier Garret defeat the leader of the Psirens before succumbing to his own wounds.

The event galvanized Marcus. He decided to join the army at 18 and sign up for the super-soldier program. However after basic training he learned that he didn't have the right genetic markers to participate in the program (and he failed the psych evaluation). Instead he was transferred to army intelligence. Much to his irritation his squad-mate, Victor Valiant, was accepted into Project Broomstick, the super soldier program, and is now the hero Captain Valiant.

Marcus didn't renew his contract at 22 and instead left the army to form his own freelance intelligence and technology company; Watchtower Analytics. Now he works as a consultant and fights crime under the codename of "The Warlock". Although his talents are better served in the workshop or at a computer than out on the streets cracking skulls.

Join us next time when we'll be creating... 70... oh. Another...

Immortal

...This one won't be a ghost, I swear.

Heroes Unlimited: Phenomenal Paragons: Ms. Fury (Magic: Bestowed)

Dahlia Drake grew up on a diet of her great grandmother Marla's tall tales of her adventures as the wartime adventuress Miss Fury. After her passing Dahlia found herself in possession of, or perhaps possessed by, Marla's panther skin catsuit. Now she patrols Guardian City, against the neo-Nazi threat, as Ms. Fury.

This is the fourth character in my Phenomenal Paragons series. The introduction to which is here. It is inspired by Jacob Pisson's World's Strongest series, here.

Miss Fury was the first female super hero, beating Wonder Woman to print by six months. She was the also the first created and written by a woman. June Tarpe Mills, came up with Miss Fury as a reaction to the usually tepid woman found in the early golden age comics. Mills was a fashion illustrator who turned to comics creating a character who was a mix of action and high fashion.

I first learned of Miss Fury when Google recommended a news article about her, all the way from Australia. You can read it here.

Miss Fury is now a public domain character. The last big comic company to hold her rights was Timely, ironically making her a Marvel character. Thankfully those rights have now lapsed. More recently Dynamite Comics published two, possibly three, distinctly different takes on the character. One is a viscous and violent cat burglar who fights Nazis across time and space and singularly misses every beat and is tone deaf to the source material. That Miss Fury is written and drawn for the male gaze. The other is closer to the original, although it is suggested that her powers come from a feline spirit that possesses her. That story can be found in the trade paperback Miss Fury: The Minor Key and I highly recommend it. The third was in the Masks comics, a collective re-imagining of the classic pulp heroes. I've yet to read any of them. Those characters belong to Dynamite and are distinctly different from the original.

This means that my take on the character can't take anything from either. So no time travel and no possession-by-panther. However the mystical angle is from the original so I take that as my root. Instead of transplanting the original character to the modern era I decide on making my Miss Fury a Legacy character.

The rulebook has a section on Legacies. Uncharacteristically for a Palladium game there are no mechanical effects; it's all roleplaying. It asks the right questions and suggests some answers. In this case it confirms my original intent; that the power and name of Miss Fury has been passed down the Drake line from mother to daughter since the end of the war.

Only Marla didn't have a daughter but a son. An adopted son at that (The offspring of an ex-beau, and her nemesis). Having the current Miss Fury be Marla's granddaughter, be my generation and thus my age, didn't feel right. So I went with great granddaughter instead.

The original Miss Fury was more like a Physical Training character than a mystically bestowed one, with Marla Drake depending more upon her 'natural' abilities and skills than the suggested magic of her catsuit. Indeed in her entire career she only wears the thing five times; apparently fearing the curse supposedly attached to it. But reading between the lines it appears to me that the suit could be considered to be the source of her abilities.

This gives me two options for her character class: Enchanted Object or Mystical Bestowal. Enchanted object felt right but I wanted to go with mystical bestowal instead. Perhaps it is only an enchanted catsuit, except to the heir of a true wielder. Perhaps there is no magic there at all and its every power comes from some outside source; Perhaps she is chosen by some spirit of vengeance to be their agent upon the world. All things that could be explored in a game.

The Usual

The book just launches into telling us what bonuses we get as a mystically bestowed character but we know the drill by now. 11 for every attribute.

Then there is the transformation. Every bestowed character gets their transformation sequence. Say a magic word, or something, and the hero is transformed into their heroic persona. Very magical girl. It doesn't say how long this takes beyond being "instant". So less than a single action. For this character I'd choose to handwave it. "You go to change and realise that you already have..."
What's more important for us right now is the effects of the transformation. +2d6 M.A. and P.S. as well as +1d6 P.P. These have a minimum of 18, 20 and 18 respectively. Spd is multipled by 5 and has a minimum of 24. Finally there's +3d6x10 SDC. This gives us +7 M.A., +7 P.S., +3 P.P., +100 SDC and a +4 to saves versus Anti-Magic (given our abilities are magical in nature then they can only be nullified by magic).

There's a bit more about the transformation and the duration of dispelling effects upon the character before move onto some, thankfully optional, rules for giving the character "Physical Limitations". This comes close to the territory of the Empowered class from the second Powers Unlimited volume, which I'll deal with in another post.

Type of Bestowed Ability

We have a chart of possible combinations of powers, combat abilities and magic spells. Having some idea of what I want I select the option of 1 major power and 2 minor powers combined with Expert hand-to-hand.

For my major power I go with Animal Abilities: Big Cat.
This increases muscle mass by 30 lbs, grants natural climbing and prowling skills, doubles normal eyesight and grants 100' nightvision. +30 SDC, +3 P.S. and +5 P.P..  She can jump 20' straight up, 40' across and fall or drop up to 80' without being harmed (and she lands on her feet). She has a roar that can be heard up to a mile and a half away and can control 4 of any type of cat and one time, plus an additional cat per level. So she starts with the ability to control 5 cats. Nice.
Up to the roar everything fits with the original character, sort of.
Both roaring and cat herding make sense within the rough powerset and theme of the character and it's believable that since Marla spent so little time wearing the suit she might not have been aware of its full capabilities.
For my first minor power I select Physical Perfection:
This power is something of a figurative double edged sword. The character appears to be at the peak of human perfection, which means that they look 1d4 levels higher than they are and thus draw all the aggro. Thankfully the character is actually slightly more capable gaining, in our case, +2 M.A., +2 P.S., +1 P.P., +1 P.E., +7 P.B. (with a minimum of 19), +4 Spd., +17 SDC, +7 HP, and +5% to save versus Coma.
The second minor power is Claws:
This an effective hand-to-hand attack and a canonical one for the character. Although I suspect that they're supposed to be more wolverine than kitteh but there's no "small claws" power.
Claws do 3d6 damage plus any bonuses from strength. They get +1 strike and disarm, +2 parry and pull punch.

We're given how much PPE (magic points) we get. In our case 30 points.

Special Bonuses and Abilities:

Again we're reminded about the transformation; "Creates a costume or "battle dress" out of thin air." We get a +1 save versus magic, a +1 save versus possession (with increases at later levels), +2 save versus horror (ditto), +2 initiative and +2 pull punch.

Other Stuff for the Mystically Bestowed:

Now for everything else.
Alignment is Scrupulous.
I decide that her education is at the level of a Bachelor's degree. Which is 4 scholastic programs with +20%, and 10 secondary skills. A degree in journalism seems suitable; a Lois Lane type of investigative journalism who hides her identity under a byline. I double down on the Journalism program, selecting the following skills:
Computer Ops,
Research,
Surveillance Systems,
Writing,
Photography,
Pick Locks,
Streetwise, and
Interrogation. I double again on the last skill to get a +10% to it.
Next I pick the Physical program as I see her as an active girl, always off on adventures somewhere, like her great grandmother, looking for the next big story. I select:
Acrobatics, Kick attack at 2d4 damage, +15% climb, +5% prowl, +2 roll with impact, +1 P.S., +1 P.P., +1 P.E., +3 SDC.
Gymnastics, +5% climb, +5% prowl, +2 roll with impact, +2 P.S., +1 P.P., +2 P.E., +7 SDC.
Martial Arts Hand-to-hand, I initially pictured the character having Basic hand-to-hand in her normal identity and the transformation granted Expert hand-to-hand in her super identity. However the rules are clear, that's not allowed. So I take my Basic hand-to-hand pick, add it to the two-pick equivalent Expert hand-to-hand to get the three-pick choice of Martial Arts hand-to-hand. This is available in either identity, bringing the character concept back towards the original, who was a scrapper whatever she wore. I feel less bad about it as I spent one of my scholastic picks when I could have used a secondary skill instead.
Running, +1 P.E., +10 Spd., +3 SDC.
For her final program I choose Piloting. She's adventurous so she knows several forms of transport. I choose:
Airplane,
Sailing,
Horsemanship,
Motorcycle.
For her secondary skills I select:
Athletics, +1 parry and dodge, +1 roll with impact, +1 P.S., +3 Spd., +5 SDC.
Art,
Body Building, +2 P.S., +10 SDC.
Radio:Basic, as she'll need to know how to use radio as a pilot and sailor.
Cooking,
Land Navigation,
Seduction,
Swimming,
W.P. Whip, +1 to strike, +0 entangle.
Wilderness Survival.
Hand-to-hand and attacks per melee are already sorted. As for armour and weapons, she has a bullwhip and Great-granny's Webley is oiled and in a box ready for use.
When it comes to SDC, in her normal form she has a base of 10 and gets +10 from being mystically empowered. in her super form she has a base of 60.
finances wise she had the £7,000 in savings nearly all these characters start with. She lives in the house she inherited and drives a 2017 VW Golf in charcoal grey. There's a beautifully maintained Vincent Black Shadow in the garage if she ever feels in the mood.

Name: Dahlia Alena Drake

Super Identity: Ms. Fury.
Level: 1, Mystically Bestowed Abilities

Height: 5'7", Weight: 140/170 lbs (nearly all of it muscle)

Alignment: Scrupulous.
Disposition: Tough loner. Tends to dive into trouble head first and fears taking others into danger with her.

Team: The Furies.

IQ 11, ME 11, MA 11/20, PS 17/29, PP 13/24, PE 15/16, PB 11/19, Spd 24/140

Hit Points 18/26, S.D.C. 38/235, P.P.E. 30

Superpowers:
Transformation: When wearing her costume her attributes become those after the slash and she gains +4 to all saves versus anti-magic effects. Changing into her costume is an instantaneous effect.
Animal Abilities, Big Cat:

• Natural Climb
• Natural Prowl
• Twice normal human vision and hearing 
• Nightvision out to 100'. 
• Leap 20' straight up, 40' across, and drop/fall 80' without harm. 
• Can utter a roar that can be heard a mile and a half away.
• Can control 5 cats of any kind. 

Claws.
Physical Perfection.

Skills:
Natural Skills.
Charm/Impress 45%, Climb 85% (Rappelling 75%), Prowl 73%, Trust/Intimidate 60%
Scholastic Skills.
Acrobatics (Balance 62%, Tightrope 63%, Rope Climb 72%, Back Flip 55%), Basic Maths, Computer Ops, Gymnastics (Balance 53%, Bars & Rings, Rope 63%, Climb 62%, Back Flip 72%), Horsemanship, Interrogation, Martial Arts HtH, Photography, Pick-locks, Pilot Airplane, Pilot Automobile, Pilot Motorcycle, Pilot Sailing, Read/Write English, Research, Running, Speak English, Streetwise, Surveillance Systems, Writing (Journalism).
Secondary Skills.
Athletics, Art, Basic Radio, Body Building, Cooking, Land Navigation, Seduction, Swimming, W.P. Whip, Wilderness Survival.

Saves: 

Coma/Death: +9%

Harmful Drugs/Toxins (15+): +1

Horror Factor: +2

Magic (Spells 12+, Circles/Wards 13+, Ritual 16+): +2

Poison (Lethal 14+, Non-Lethal 16+): +2

Psionics (15+): +0

Possession: +2

Combat:

Initiative: +5

Attacks per Round:  2+2

Strike: +5, +6 (Claws), +6 (whip)

Damage: +2/+14

1d4+2 Unpowered Punch
 1d4+14 Powered Punch
 2d4+2 Unpowered Kick/whip
 2d4+14 Powered Kick/whip
 3d6+14 Claws

Parry: +6, +8 (Claws)

Dodge: +6

Roll with Impact: +3

Pull Punch: +10, +12 (Claws).

Disarm: +1 (Claws)
Entangle: +0 (whip)

Benchmarks:

Carry Capacity: 340/580 lbs; Lifting: 680/1,160 lbs

Stamina: Carry Max 60/64 minutes, 30/32 minutes while running or fighting. Lifting for 15/16 rounds (225/240 seconds; 3.75/4 minutes)

Ground Speed: 16.8/98 mph for 15/16 minutes

Swimming Speed: 51/87 yrds (153/261ft.) per round for 15/16 minutes.

Leaping Distance: 4/24ft. high; 8.5/48.5ft. broad. 8/88ft drop.

Background:
Dahlia Drake never really believed her great grandmother Marla's tall tales of her war time exploits. But inspired by them Dahlia made her own pale adventures in the form of extreme sports and a nose for a good story. As a child it was climbing trees and finding lost cats but as an adult it became parkour, flying, base jumping, covering activism and uncovering corruption. Dahlia recorded everything anonymously on her blog, which she had named in honour of Marla's alter ego, giving it a modern twist at Marla's suggestion; "Ms. Fury".

When the old woman passed a few years north of a century Dahlia unexpectedly found herself the inheritor of the old holiday home on Ennor. Led through the Spanish Ward manse by a cryptic letter she uncovered a hidden room. Within were Marla Drake's secret journals, souvenirs of her escapades, and a slinky black leather catsuit. With an attached cat-like hood and a selection of lined capes.

In spite of its age the catsuit was as good as new, supple and strong. To say it spoke to Dahlia would be nonsense. No actual words passed between woman and garment. But yet she could not resist its siren call all the same. It was foolish of course. In her youth Marla had been lithe and sensual whereas Dahlia was broad and muscular. Homey, rather than beautiful. Yet still as she slipped naked into the suit she found it fit her perfectly. She felt strong, flexible, powerful and, regarding herself in a full length mirror, sexy.

Unexpectedly keen senses were alerted to a noise outside; a cry for help. Curiosity piqued, Dahlia pounced through a window and across the rooftops of the Spanish Ward. A clowder of cats led her to a ledge beneath which three men wrestled with an unwilling woman in a dirt strewn alleyway. As they tore at  the woman's dress Dahlia felt rage burn in her breast. Where once she would have hesitated in fear now she did not falter. In the spirit of the sorority of womankind she launched herself down three floors into the rubbish filled alley below. The first man fell beneath her, taking the full impact of her descent. She crouched above him and let loose a feline howl. The other two men suddenly forgot their victim as the found themselves beset upon by the black cowled she-cat. One. Two. They fell to Dahlia's fists as she fought with a ferocity and skill she had never felt before. The woman that they had assaulted fled the alley without thanking her rescuer, but it did not matter.

Back on the rooftop Dahlia exulted. She realised that the stories were all true. Marla had truly fought against fascism as Miss Fury. Now, in the twenty first century, with the evil of fascism on the rise again, misogyny still strong, and dozens if not a thousand other evils, Dahlia decided that it was long past time for the return of the night-garbed dynamo. Ms. Fury.


Join me next week as I create an...  85... Hardware Hero... 77...

Analytical Genius!

Heroes Unlimited; Phenomenal Paragons: Gaunter versus Haunter

In the utility tunnels beneath the Woodward Campus of Ennor University a figure pushed a wheeled trolley. The lettering on his boiler suit identified him as George Stewart, the head custodian of the campus. He whistled a merry tune as he went, light and shadow playing across his eternally youthful features. The lights above him flickered and he stopped. A whole swath of his awareness had gone dark, snuffed out like a candle. He probed around the blackened area. The archives. All the security systems around the archives had apparently turned themselves off. He released the trolley and took off at a run for the tunnel wall, vanishing through it without resistance.

Asa Butterfield as
George Stewart; The Haunter

Joanna van Kampen as
Gillian Gaunt; The Gaunter

I have no idea how long it has been since I ran something using the Megaverse system. Potentially 30 years. I know I played in a short lived Rifts game in the late noughties but I don't recall anything past character gen beyond having a good time. So for me this is something of a first. 
The set up is simple. The Gaunter wants her stuff back and will stop at nothing to get it. The Haunter wants to minimise property damage and drive off the 'invader'. Ironically, had they a chance to talk before hand there would be no conflict. George would probably just let her take her things. Super heroes; the purest form of soap opera.


For Gillian Gaunt disabling the security at the university's archive was child's play. She floated above the building in the chill pre-dawn air, held aloft by the forcefield generators on her gloved forearms. She still wore the prison uniform from her escape only a few hours before. She descended towards the nearest skylight a knife shaped blade of force appearing in her hand. She hurled the blade down (roll 10,+2 flying, +1 force construct, +2 thrown knives = 15) shattering the plexiglas skylight (2d6+29 damage =36 damage versus 35 S.D.C.) and clearing the route down into the archives.

Beneath the sky light there's an area with a few tables and chairs surrounded by lots and lots of shelves loaded with boxes. The Gaunter is already armoured and armed with a single force knife. She has the reference numbers for the boxes of her things but doesn't know where in the archives they are. As she looks around for a shelf number or something a ghostly form steps through a nearby shelf, looking in all the world like someone hiding under a bed sheet with two holes cut out to see through.

Gillian's situational awareness is slightly better than George's. Or rather she's slightly more on edge. She lets loose a bolt of force from her free hand as the Haunter materialises. George just evades and the bolt smashes into the end or some shelving, knocking boxes flying. Seeing that his foe isn't above property damage he closes with her, his sword Angelwing in hand. Gillian blasts him again. His 'cloak' billows around him as he is stung by the impact. A third force-bolt follows but this he parries; dissipating it against his blade. He strikes at her with the sword but she parries him with the forceknife she's already carrying. He tries again, avoiding her dagger. But the blade is deflected by her forcefield armour. Depleting the armour a small amount. A third sword strike follows but she's expecting it and parries again,

George gets 5 actions a round while Gillian gets only 3, using 1 of her 4 to maintain her armour. A round is 15 seconds. So in theory George should go once every 3 seconds while Gillisn should go once every 5, and on average that should work out. But in practice not so much. Whoever  gets initiative goes first. They act while their opponent reacts. At least until someone is out of actions. Gillain wins initiative by 2 points, then rolls a 9 to strike with her force-bolt. But George rolls a 9 for his dodge which means he wins, as defence always wins over attack. This costs him his first action this round. He uses his second action to close the distance to his foe, but that means he can't use it to dodge. He covers the distance but Gillian's next action is to fire another bolt, which hits on a 19 and does 13 damage. George tries to roll with the blow but fails with a 9. Since 19 beats the 13 of his armour rating he takes the full blast. It's barely over 10% of his SDC but 9 more hits like that and he's in trouble. Gillian's third action is another blast but George sees it coming and parries it with a 25 to Gillian's 19. A parry does not cost an action. This means that he can start to counter attack while is opponent is out of actions. He strikes with a 9 but Gillian parries with a 16. George strikes again with a 15. Gillian parries with a 9. Angelwing hits her for 11 damage, but since her armour has a rating of 19 it takes the damage. There is another sword strike for 14, but she parries with a 22.

There follows a quick flurry of blows, sword versus knife. While George has the reach Gillian has the strength and is apparently more skilled defending with her knife than he is with his sword.

George wins initiative (18 versus 12) but can't get through her defences. Twice he strikes high enough to penetrate her armour (23 and 21) but she matches him with her parry roll each time (23 and 22). Likewise Gillian just can't get around his defences. She has a +5 to parry compared to his +3. He has +4 to strike compared to her +0.

Only 30 seconds have passed but George is feeling like this is going on too long. But while his foe has resources in the form of her forcefields he has comparable resources of his own. He draws on his psychic powers, using telekinesis to amplify the force of his strike. This is further amplified by the ley line node that sits on the university grounds. This is painful for him as his ectoplasmic form struggles to channel the forces through it. But is successful. Twice he strikes out and Gillian's armour cracks under the force of his first blow. His second pierces through which really hurts his opponent. But this begins to deplete his reserves of psychic energy and he returns to regular sword blows. Gillian, rattled by the two powerful strikes is ineffectual in both defending herself and attacking back. George's next blow slips through a crack in her armour and it hurts. She deflects his next strike but the following one slips past her to further deplete her armour.

Again George wins initiative (19 versus 10). Telekinetic Punch uses 6 Inner Strength Points (ISP). Technically it's supposed to be used with a punch or kick but I can't think of any reason that it can't be used with a sword. The down side is George has to save versus Psi, with a target number of 14, or take 1d6 damage himself. He strikes with a 17 versus Gillian's parry of 11. The attack does (4d6x2)+3d6 for a total of 20. The x2 multiplier comes from being within a mile of a ley line node; the ring of standing stones where George died. Unfortunately his save is only 8 and he takes 1d6x2 damage, of 6 points. Gillian attempts to counter attack but rolls a 5. This is enough to hit since any attack roll of 5+ is a hit if it isn't defended against. George parries with a 21. George's next hit, also amplified with telekinetic energy hits with a 23. This bypasses Gillian's armour and reduces her SDC by two thirds. But it's only SDC; it's just a scratch. Gillian still gets a strike against George which is deflected; 7 strike versus 8 parry. George's next strike is a 19 versus a parry of 16. This is on the nose for Gillian's armour rating but since the defender wins it's her armour that loses SDC. Again Gillian's counter-strike is parried and the same is true for George's strike too. It's his last action for the round that does 7 more SDC damage to Gillian's armour.

Gillian lets off another force-bolt at the same time a box launches itself of shelf at her. Both combatants are struck for minimal discomfort but Gillian's bolt sneaks through a gap on Georgoe's armour. She takes the opportunity to lash out with her knife. She draws blood, well ectoplasm. George dodges her next knife swing and turns insubstantial. There's nothing Gillian can do to her phantom foe as boxes begin launching themselves off the shelves at her.

Gillian wins the initiative with a 17 versus a 10. Both go for an attack. The force-bolt hits with a 17 and does 7 damage to George's SDC. His telekinetically thrown box hits her armour with a 16 and does 2d4x2 to damage to her armour, which turns out to be 4 points. Then she hits him with an 18 to his parry of 11. When that knife hits it hits hard; 2d6+29 damage. George takes 33 points of damage and is suddenly at 0 SDC So he ghosts out but continues to use his telekinesis to hurl boxes at her in an attempt to drive her off. Each use of TK costs him 8 ISP but it's worth it as long as he leaves himself enough to use his regeneration later.

Boxes continue to fly at her as Gillian dances around, dodging as many as she can. This is three; two strike her armour but only because she recognises the codes scrawled on their sides. It's her stuff. They strike her armour, cracking it further, but her only concern is getting what belongs to her.

George wins initiative again but Gillian dodges every attack she can. The last two boxes strike her for a combined damage of 48 SDC.

Gillian wraps a forcefield bubble around her prizes and launches herself up and out through the shattered skylight and into the dawn sky, towing them behind her. George does nothing but hurl one last box after her.

It takes two actions for Gillian to gather the boxes up in a forcefield bubble. She takes another 14 points of damage to her armour from two boxes and then she's gone. George spends the next of his actions with regeneration.

Things went about as well as I expected. I wanted The Gaunter to find her things and leave with them and she did. (Once boxes started flying I gave each a 1 in 10 chance of being one of the two boxes she was looking for and rolled a 1 twice in a row) On paper they were about evenly matched. The level difference made barely a jot. But in play Gillian's super strength from the forcefield really pushed things in her favour. She struggled to land a hit with her knife but when she did she hit like a mule. Another blow like that and The Haunter would have been dead...err. Deader. The proximity to the ley line nexus was supposed to balance that put but Gillian's armour was barely down to half when the fight ended.

I made a few mistakes, like Telekinesis having a duration. I applied the -8 ISP for each action when it's only applied when the power is first activated. In George's case it last 6 minutes; 24 freaking combat rounds! The above combat only lasted 6 rounds; 1 minute 30 seconds. Oh well at least George will have the oomph to clean the mess up while he heals. He will heal although it could take him another 6 rounds and up to 36 ISP, which is less than I had him spend on TK.

Okay so next week it's back to characters again and this time I'm plunging into the murky world of Public Domain and legacy characters with... 73...

Mystically Bestowed Abilities!

Heroes Unlimited: Phenomenal Paragons: The Gaunter (Super Invention & Electrical Genius)

Doctor Gillian Waylon Gaunt was robbed of her life work, and her reputation destroyed. The fools didn’t even know what they had; technological binary forcefield generators. They thought imprisoning her would silence her; contain her. They were wrong. Recreating her discovery was child’s play. Even in the poorly equipped prison workshop. Now she is free to take back what was taken from her. Soon the world will tremble in the grasp of The Gaunter!

This is the third character in my Phenomenal Paragons series. The introduction to which is here. It is inspired by Jacob Pisson's World's Strongest series, here.

This one sort of got away from me. I didn’t mean it to, but as I worked on it things got larger and more complicated.

A note on the word “Gaunter”. I love nerding out over the origin of names and words. Most of you, like me, probably first encountered Gaunter as a name in the form of Witcher 3’s Gaunter O’Dimm. It’s a beautifully crafted name for a character and says so much about their, well, character. O’Dimm means “son of darkness” or just “of darkness”. Gaunter. Well Gaunter is the root of gauntlet. In medieval times gaunter was a job description for someone who makes gloves. Gaunter O’Dimm thus can be taken to mean “the gloved hand of darkness”. Given the form the super invention takes “The Gaunter” seemed like a suitably obscure name for the character. Although technically it should be Ganter.

Step One: The Eight Attributes.

As before everything is all 11’s for now. That will change. We will return.
There’s a note that the character with and without the super invention will have different attributes and that we should keep two running totals.

Step Two: Hit Points and S.D.C.

Hit points are the usual; P.E. score + 1d6 per level.
S.D.C. starts at 20 but some characters, those of a military or otherwise active background will get a bonus of +3d6.

Step Three: The Super-Gizmo and Powers.

Okay. Let’s do this.

Sponsoring Organisation: Independent. The inventor invented it out of their own pocket.
Character: Inventor.
Current Status: NA
Motive for Creation: To prove her theory.
Physical Appearance of Invention: Gauntlets: 130 S.D.C., 12 A.R. (small target) each.
Power Level: 7th level.

There’s a bit of rules about what sort of powers can and can’t be put in a super invention, how they can interact and all that sort of stuff. The general theme is that everything should make sense in regards as to what powers are installed in the device. There is something about duplicate devices so I decide that there’s a jury-rigged copy, called the “escape device”, that has a power level of only 5th level. She doesn’t have any other super devices, yet.

I give some thought to what sort powers I want and I’m reminded of the character of Golden Glove from the Astro City comics. I decide on a pair of gloves that, working in unison, can generate force fields.

Powers: 2 major and 2 minor.
Create Force Fields: (Major) Can generate force fields, shields, barriers and the like.
Range of self 280 (200) ft., duration of 24 (20) minutes, size of 110 (90) sq.ft.. Maximum S.D.C.pool =P.E.x100, which can be split over multiple different force fields. +2 to parry with forcefield. Creating a forcefield uses 2 attacks. Recovers 200 S.D.C. per hour; 3 per minute.
Can create an invisible armoured force field shell, Force Armour, around their body with a maximum of 200 S.D.C. Maintaining it costs 1 attack each round it is active and penalises initiative by -2. I decide that when it is active it behaves like an exo-skeleton, allowing the use of superhuman strength. See below.
Can fire force bolts of 2d6 damage from each hand with a range of 110 (90) ft. Can also create a double strength (4d6) bolt by using both hands. All attacks count as a single attack each. Each single bolt uses 5 S.D.C. from the pool. +2 to strike when aimed. Force bolts are -4 to be dodged
Create Force Constructs: (Major) Can create things out of force fields, such as weapons, tools, and the like. Can’t create complex devices, such as a computer, energy source or anything that requires fuel. Can create bullets and firearms for some reason. Also animals.
Range of touch or close proximity, duration of 45 (35) minutes, takes 2 attacks to make a simple construct while an entire round is required for complex constructs. +1 to strike, +2 to disarm and +2 to pull punch with force constructs.
Instead of a double sized pool of S.D.C. we get a bunch of bonuses instead. +2 P.E., +1d6 for all force based attacks which pushes our force bolts up to 3d6 and 6d6, the force armour S.D.C. rises to 300, 20 minutes is added to the duration of both powers, and the range of  our force based attacks are doubled*.
Maximum weight of a force construct is 550 (450) pounds. Bigger constructs can take multiple rounds to create.
Force construct sidearms have a *range of 340 (300)ft. Force construct longarms have a *range of 880 (800) ft. They all do 5d6 (4d6) damage, take one attack per shot and have 6 to 12 shots each. The firearm cost 100 S.D.C. and reloads of 6 rounds cost 30 S.D.C., or 5 each.
Giant disembodied force construct limbs have a *range of 130 (110)ft., do damage as by P.S. but on the Supernatural strength scale. They cost 300 S.D.C. each.
There are rules for force construct animals which amount to only what your GM has stats for. Only creatures your characters know currently exist? And only in their natural environment. So no flying carcharodon megalodons then. Boring. Giant floating hands but not floating fish? They cost their actual S.D.C.
Flight: Wingless: (Minor) 200mph+20mph per level. 340mph (300mph).+1 attack per round, +2 strike, +2 parry, +4 dodge at speeds less than 80mph, +6 dodge at speeds greater than 80mph, +4 damage per 20mph of speed; max of +68 (+60), +40 S.D.C. while flying.
Superhuman Strength: (Minor) +28 P.S. carrying capacity x200lbs, lifting capacity x300lbs, become fatigued at half normal rate. As I’ve said above the Force Armour forms an exoskeleton to support the extra weight which costs 1 attack per round and -2 to init to maintain.
Stats for the escape device are given in parenthesis.
Repairs: Our character is smart. So smart that they can build and repair their supertech with basic off-the-shelf components and the most basic of skills. Repairs cost 2d6x$100 and require only the basic electronics skill. Seriously these things could easily be mass-produced and completely change the world. But no.

Step Four: Education and Skills.

This is where things get complicated. Having decided that our supertech is wielded by its inventor we now have to create said inventor. We are sent to Hardware heroes to create an electronics genius.

Step Four One: The Usual.

Hardware has a minimum IQ requirement so we boost IQ to 20. This then becomes the smartest character in the setting so far. Possibly until the PCs show up.

Step Four Two: Skills and Education.

We get to choose anything from High School to Doctorate, so I go for the higher extreme. We deduct a skill program and so get to choose ‘only’ 3 and 10  secondary skills. In place of the sacrificed program we get a list of skills. Not to choose from, no, we just get a list:
Electrical Genius:
Electrical Engineer,
Read Sensory Instruments,
Surveillance Systems,
Optical Systems,
Computer Operations,
Radio: Basic,
Maths: Advanced,
Special Electrical Skills:
Hot Wiring, which isn’t just shorting the ignition of a car but also rewiring live systems on the fly.
Computer Hacking, which is just the hacking skill from the rules, only the genius starts better at it but progresses slower.
Electronics Construction, which is exactly what it sounds like; a skill for making electronic devices.
Evaluate and Diagnose Electrical Systems, which is pretty much self explanatory.

Let’s sidestep what I call the Basic Program and go pick our other three. I decide to go with robotics to round out her technical skills and, well I initially picked a bunch of physical and science skills for my science hero, but after I rolled alignment I came back and replaced science with Criminal; this character has done time. The character is a physicist and engineer; physics isn’t a skill here. The physical skills I pick are chosen to maximise endurance as we’re going to need it to run the force fields. Personally I’d have given super inventions their own endurance attribute, but that’s just me.
Robotics Program:
Computer Operations, (+1)
Computer Programming, (+1)
Robot Electronics,
Robot Mechanics,
Physical Program:
Gymnastics, autokick 2d4 damage, +2 roll with punch, +2 P.S. +1 P.P., +2 P.E., +7 S.DC.
Boxing, +1 attack per round, +2 parry and dodge, +1 roll with punch, +2 P.S., +10 S.D.C.
Athletics, +1 parry and dodge, +1 roll with punch, +1 P.S. +3 Spd, +5 S.D.C.
Running, +1 P.E., +10 Spd, +3 S.D.C.
Criminal Program:
Streetwise,
Pick Locks,
Prowl,
Find Contraband and Illegal Goods, I swear I’d just call this skill “Contraband” or something punchier.
Concealment.

For secondary skills let’s spend a couple on Expert Hand to Hand, +2 attacks per round, +2 roll with punch and +2 pull punch. For the rest we can have:
Business and Finance,
General Repair and Maintenance, with a 10% bonus because we’re a genius.
Automotive Mechanics, with another +10% bonus because we’re a genius.
Land Navigation,
W.P. Knife, strike +1
W.P. Throwing, strike +1
W.P. Pistol,
W.P. Shotgun.

Determining Equipment: Okay so this is where we cut back to Super Inventions, but I’ll first pencil in $70,000 worth of hidden workshop space.

Step Five: Alignment.

I roll up Miscreant; my first super villain for this setting. I’m suddenly reminded of another Astro City character; Demonica. Oh well. Too late now, but maybe I can direct The Gaunter in that sort of direction.

Step Six: Rounding Out & other stuff.

Okay time to cut to the character sheet.


Name: Gillian Weylon Gaunt
Super Identity: The Gaunter
Height: , Weight:
Alignment: Miscreant.
Disposition: Mean, suspicious and vengeful.
IQ 20, ME 11, MA 11, PS 16/44, PP 12, PE 14/16, PB 11, Spd 24
Hit Points 17/19, S.D.C. 55/95 when flying.

Superpowers:
Binary Force Field Gauntlets 130 S.D.C., A.R. 12 each.
1600 S.D.C. power pool. Recovers 200 S.D.C. per hour/ 3 S.D.C. per minute.
Force Armour: <300 S.D.C.; reduces Initiative by 2 points and costs 1 attack per round to maintain. Grants Super Strength.
Force Bolts: 220 (180) ft. range; 3d6 damage per bolt, 6d6 damage double handed bolt. Costs 5 S.D.C. per bolt. -4 to be dodged. 1 attack each.
Force Constructs: Proximity range, 65 (55) minutes duration, 550 lbs maximum construct weight. 2 attacks per small constructs or all attacks per round for larger constructs. Largest constructs can take multiple rounds.
Force Knives: 80 ft. range, 2d6+29 damage, 20 S.D.C. each.
Force Pistols: 340 (300) ft. range. 5d6 (4d6) damage. 6 shots. 100 S.D.C. and reloads of 6 rounds cost 30 S.D.C., or 5 each.
Force ‘Shotgun’: 880 (800) ft. range. 5d6 (4d6) damage. 12 shots. 100 S.D.C. and reloads of 6 rounds cost 30 S.D.C., or 5 each.
Giant Limbs: 130 (110) ft. range, 44 supernatural strength. Cost 300 S.D.C. each.
Force Fields: 560 (400) ft. range, 44 (40) minutes duration, maximum 110 sq.ft. area. 2 attacks generate.
Wingless Flight: 340 (300) mph for 32 minutes.

Skills:
Athletics, Automotive Mechanics, Basic Maths, Boxing, Business and Finance, Concealment, Expert Hand to Hand, Find Contraband 66%, General Repair, Gymnastics, Land Navigation, Pick Locks, Pilot Automobile, Prowl, Read/Write English, Robot Electronics, Robot Mechanics,  Running, Speak English, Streetwise, W.P. Knife, W.P. Pistol, W.P. Shotgun, W.P. Throwing.
Electrical Genius Skills:
Advanced Maths, Computer Ops, Computer Programming, Electrical Engineer, Optical Systems, Radio: Basic, Read Sensor Systems, Surveillance Systems.
Special Electrical Skills:
Hot Wiring 97%, Computer Hacking 89%, Electronics Construction 95%, Evaluate and Diagnose Electrical Systems 61%.

Saves: 
Coma/Death: +4%
Harmful Drugs/Toxins (15+): +1
Horror Factor: +0
Magic (Spells 12+, Circles/Wards 13+, Ritual 16+): +1
Poison (Lethal 14+, Non-Lethal 16+): +1
Psionics (15+): +0
Possession: +0

Combat:
Initiative: +0 (-2 while armoured)
Attacks per Round: 2+3/+4
Strike: +0; +2 while flying +2 force bolt, +1 force constructs, +3 thrown force knives, +3 aimed force pistol, +3 aimed force shotgun,
Damage: +1/+29 when force enhanced.
1d4+1 punch
2d4+1 kick
1d4+29 force enhanced punch
2d4+29 force enhanced kick
3d6 force bolt
6d6 double force bolts
2d6+29 force knives
5d6 force pistol
5d6 force shotgun
Parry: +3; +5 flying
Dodge: +3; +7 flying below 80 mph, +9 flying above 80 mph.
Roll with Punch: +6
Pull Punch: +2; +4 with force constructs
Disarm: +0; +2 with force constructs

Benchmarks:
Normal Carry Capacity: 160lbs; Lifting: 320lbs.
Armoured Carry Capacity: 8,800lbs; Lifting 13,200lbs.
Construct Carry capacity: 13,200lbs; Lifting 22,000lbs.
Normal Stamina: Carry Max 56 minutes, 28 minutes while running or fighting. Lifting for 14 rounds (210 seconds; 3.5 minutes).
Superpowered Stamina: Carry Max 128 minutes, 64 minutes while running or fighting. Lifting for 32 rounds (480 seconds; 8 minutes).
Ground Speed: 16.8 mph for 14 minutes
Swimming Speed: Can't Swim.
Leaping Distance: 4ft. high; 8.5ft. broad.

Background:
By rights Gillian Gaunt should be celebrating a Nobel prize while a forever changed world celebrated around her. But the greed of Ennor University has delivered unto the world a criminal genius unlike any other. Gaunt’s doctorate thesis was on Creating Freestanding Crystals from the EMF Spectrum Using Wave Interference. It was enough to get her a Ph.D and tenure but she wasn’t prepared to stop there. In her own time and with her own funds she developed a practical application in the form of a pair of generators that could turn any frequency of light into solid objects. What was more, said objects could be used to isolate or block any of the four physical forces, and many of the esoteric forces used by superhumans.

She had literally invented force fields.

The university was impressed. So impressed that they sought to take the discovery from her. Which was perhaps an overreaction. Gillian reacted by scalding to death the Chair of her department by overturning a soup tureen on him. She was wrestled to the ground and arrested. Her discovery confiscated.

To say that the university didn’t understand what  they had was an understatement. They didn’t even understand that the device was in two parts. When they couldn’t get the device to work they stuffed it, along with Gillian’s possessions, in storage. All the while weeping heavy tears at the lost billions they could have made before conveniently forgetting the matter.

Gillian did not.

She did not languish in prison. She did what any academic with a modicum of social skills does in a strange place; make new friends and learn new things. She learned how to fight, how to build strength and stamina in a gym, how to engage in any number of criminal activities. If she also learned that she had a certain predilection towards sapphic relationships with other muscular women that is of no concern of ours.

But what she did most of was plan her vengeance. She knew that they hadn’t understood or back engineered her invention because there weren’t force field generators on every door and window in the joint. So after a few years of good behaviour got her access to the prison’s workshop it didn’t take long for her to rebuild her invention from memory and bust her way out.

Now on the run she’s getting ready to finally enact her plan. Then they’ll pay. They will all pay!

Bwahahahahahaha!

Next we’ll take a break from characters and poke at the system some. It’s been something like a quarter century since I ran a combat using the Megaversal system and I’d like to have some practice. So next time I’ll take two of these characters and play them against each other. Tune in for:

The Gaunter versus The Haunter!

Alternative Alignments; Palladium/Megaverse

The implied settings of early D&D concern themselves only with the conflict between Order and Chaos. Thus alignments resolve to Law, Neutrality and Chaos.

Taken primarily from the works of Michael Moorcock. Order and Chaos are primal forces, personified into deities, and held in check only by the forces of Balance. Because if Law wins the cosmos will become unchanging; held in stasis for a meaningless eternity. If Chaos is victorious then the universe will be claimed by entropy and all will be undone.

The problem is that Law and Chaos are depicted as being “Right” and “Wrong” respectively by D&D. This is a highly simplistic; even Moorcock shows that Order is as capable of excesses of pure evil as Chaos, and Chaos can be as kind and as loving as Order. Smart characters avoid both sides and, if they get involved at all, it is on the side of balance. Furthermore two lawful societies can go to war against each other, justifying the other as chaotic over whatever pettiness they choose (vis-a-vis the Bigendians and Smallendians of Gulliver’s Travels).

The classic alignments of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons adds Good and Evil to the mix, permitting chaotic and lawful characters to work together as long as they could agree on being good or evil. However this only muddied the waters. Does a lawful-good Paladin overthrow a lawful-evil dictatorship or work with it? How do they remain a paladin in either case? Do chaotic neutral characters really do whatever the fuck they feel like without rhyme or reason? If not what actually motivates them?

While this confusion does lead roleplaying opportunities it also leads to, well, confusion and ironically, chaos.

Kevin Siembieda’s "Palladium" system did away with neutrality all together, reducing the AD&D alignments down from 9 to 7: Principled, Scrupulous, Unprincipled, Anarchist, Miscreant, Aberrant and Diabolic. These roughly map onto lawful-good, neutral-good, chaotic-good, chaotic-neutral, neutral-evil, lawful-evil and chaotic-evil respectively. Each was defined with 10 to 14 bullet points, giving a level of clarity unseen in any edition of D&D.

There's also an eighth alignment, Taoist, hidden in the Mystic China sourcebook. It's also roughly chaotic good.

Siembieda dislikes neutrality, citing that:

"An absolute, true neutral person could not make a decision, fight crime, go adventuring, kill, or take any action of any kind without leaning toward good, evil, or self-gratification." 

This is patently bullshit. People are motivated daily by the survival of themselves and those closest to them without thoughts of “...Good, evil or self-gratification.” People are motivated by stability, by basic empathy or apathy, by thousands of other things which are neither good, evil or selfish. It also denies balance. Perhaps rightfully, permitting an otherwise Principled character to take a stand against the excesses of Order by siding with Chaos. Or Diabolic characters to join the Crusade of Order so that they can participate in the slaughter.

Also I like neutrality and balance. So I came up with two neutral alignments of my own. The Conformist and the Nonconformist.

Conformist (Selfish)

The conformist respects and follows the rule of law, because without it there would be chaos. They closely follow the social mores of their homelands, irrespective of where they may be. They are distrustful of those from other societies, cultures and civilisations; believing their own ways to be far superior. They dislike change and disruption and will always seek the return to ‘normality’ as quickly as possible. Most people are conformists.

Conformists do not necessarily seek out adventure but often have it thrust upon them. Some adventure to preserve the status-quo. Some thrive under the pressures of adventure and some may return home as nonconformists, or some other alignment. Many return outwardly unchanged but wistful of their adventuring days.

• Keeps their word as much as possible.
• Doesn’t lie or cheat; they might get caught.
• Won’t kill an unarmed foe.
• Will never kill an innocent but may harm one if pushed.
• Will use torture to gain information. If it is lawful to do so.
• Won’t kill for pleasure, but will out of fear.
• Likely to help anyone who is like themselves. Reluctant to help people they see as too ‘different’.
• Works well with groups.
• Respects honor, authority and self-discipline.
• Will never break the law; they might get caught. Or turn themselves in out of guilt.
• Will never betray a friend.

Examples: Bilbo Baggins (before finding the One Ring) and Samwise Gamgee. (The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien.)

Nonconformist (Selfish)

The nonconformist rebels against elements of their native society; living on its fringes for whatever reason. They often feel as if their society has failed or mistreated them or they hold some belief or aspect of their lives that is either undervalued or actively repressed by society as a whole. All act the way that they do because it's how they want to behave. Their lifestyles bringing them some joy precisely because of the freedom it brings them. Many normal people are nonconformists.

Nonconformists are often pushed into adventure by their non-standard lifestyles. Indeed some societies see seeking adventure as non-conformity.

• Will try to keep their word. Has a code of ideals and tries to live up to them.
• Lies only when necessary.
• Will take advantage of an unarmed foe but will try to avoid killing them.
• Won’t harm innocents.
• Will reluctantly torture for information. Rarely enjoys it.
• Avoids killing for pleasure.
• Tries to help others less advantaged than themselves.
• Works as well with others as they do alone.
• Respects self-discipline and honor. Has little to no respect for authority.
• Won’t betray a friend.
• Only breaks the law when they feel it's necessary. 

Examples: Daredevil (Marvel Comics).

Heroes Unlimited: Phenomenal Paragons: Guardian Angel (Physical Training)

Alexander Angel wanted to be Guardian City’s top police officer, as his twin had done in London. But in a city of mutants and super humans being a police constable wasn’t enough. Only through pushing himself beyond all human limitations was he able to become Guardian’s Angel.

This is the second character in my Phenomenal Paragons series. The introduction to which is here. It is inspired by Jacob Pisson's World's Strongest series, here.

The Physical Training class is a relatively easy one to generate with only a few fairly simple steps. My immediate thought is to create a super cop. Looking for a gif of a “badass police officer” for inspiration brings me one Nicholas Angel; Simon Pegg in possibly his most magnificent role. Although the image of a Russian dude in uniform stopping a car by leaping feet first through its windscreen is a close second.

Alexander Angel doesn’t leap fully formed into my head, but it doesn’t take more than a little brainstorming to come up with a few options. He doesn’t really cement until I reach alignments.

Step One: The Usual.

All 11’s, with the exception of P.P. It doesn’t say it but an above average prowess is sort of important for this class. Otherwise, as one of the few classes that actually boosts P.P. you can still end up with a attribute too low to gain any bonuses. So P.P. is 20.

We are given a note not to calculate hit points and S.D.C. because later steps will change things. Yeah. We know.

Step Two: Education and Skill Modification.

We get the normal options regarding education, although with a minimum of High School, and then we deduct one scholastic program. We’re told not to select any physical skills as they come at the next step. I go for a bachelor’s in criminology; doubling down on the cop package and adding investigation to broaden things. Technically that's not by the rules. Cops are "trade school" only . That might be the case in the US but here in the UK we like our coppers with a bit more grey matter. Some of them have degrees!
So ignoring the basic package we get;

W.P. Pistol. I almost replace pistol with baton because not all British coppers have firearms training. But in the end I put baton in as a secondary skill as it doesn’t matter, system-wise.

Radio: Basic.

Criminal Science.

Law (General).

Intelligence.

W.P. Rifle.

Interrogation.

Prowl.

Detect Concealment.

From investigation we get:

Computer Ops.

Research.

Surveillance Systems. This is not just using cameras and the like but also stalking. Which is an interestingly broad skill.

Writing (Reports). Yes , reports not journalism.

Our secondary skills are:

Pick Locks.

W.P. Throwing.

Land Navigation.

Wilderness Survival.

First Aid.

Pilot Motorcycle.

Streetwise.

Swimming.

SCUBA.

W.P. Blunt.

Step Three: Determining Abilities - Physical Area of Expertise.

Here we get a lot of waffle about how the hero trains themselves to physical perfection, eschewing other routes to power, and developing their own style of fighting. Which is nice and all but the way I see it, in a world of super humans and mutants unless you’re born with it, or can buy it, you have to make your own powers. If you’re not a technological whizzkid then martial arts and pushing your body to, and beyond, its limits is probably the ‘easiest’ method out there.

Anyway we get to pick 6 physical skills (excluding Hand to Hand and Boxing) and 4 espionage skills (or Rogue if having a selfish or evil alignment; but not having decided on an alignment yet I go with espionage). This gets us:

Gymnastics. +2 roll with punch, +2 PS, +1 PP, +2 PE, +7 SDC.

Athletics. +1 parry & dodge, +1 roll with punch, +1 PS, +3 Spd, +7 SDC.

Acrobatics. +2 roll with punch, +1 PS, +1 PP, +1 PE, +3 SDC.

Running. +1 PE, +10 SDC, +3 SDC.

Climbing.

Wrestling. +1 roll with punch, +2 PS, +1PE, +14 SDC.

Escape Artist.

Sniper.

Tracking.

Detect Ambush.

Then we get to choose between focusing on Endurance and Strength or Agility and Speed. With my head full of images of an otherwise ordinary looking copper punching out a Hulk-like foe I decide to go for Endurance and Strength, giving me +7 P.E., +3 Spd, +2 P.B., +20 HP, +90 S.D.C, +20% save vs. coma, +2 save vs. disease, toxins and poisons, +1 attack per round, +1 pull punch, +1 initiative, and best of all the Superhuman Strength minor power.

There are four grades of strength in Heroes Unlimited. Ordinary strength, Extraordinary strength, Superhuman strength and Supernatural strength. Each type of strength works slightly differently, usually in how much a character can carry. Ordinary strength characters can carry 10 to 20 times their P.S. attribute in lbs, depending on how high the attribute score is. Extraordinary strength characters can carry 100 times their attribute in lbs. Superhuman strength characters can carry 200 times their attribute score. Supernatural strength characters can carry 300 times their attribute score. This is irrespective of said score.

So a hypothetical character with P.S. 20 would be able to carry 400 lbs with high ordinary strength, 2000 lbs with extraordinary strength, 4000 lbs with superhuman strength and 6000 lbs with supernatural strength. All of these characters would be doing +5 damage but while all except the supernatural strength character would be rolling 1d4+5 for a bare handed attack. The supernatural strength character would be rolling 2d6+5 damage. They would also be hurting characters who are immune to anything but supernatural damage and doing Mega Damage in a setting that uses it. This becomes relevant later.

Superhuman strength adds 25 (20+2d4) to our PS, means we can carry 200lbs times our P.S. and lift 300lbs times our PS. It also halves the rate that we fatigue.

Step Four: Special Hand To Hand Combat.

We get to ‘choose’ between Aggressive and Deadly or Defensive and Fast styles. It’s a false choice as if you went with endurance and strength before and you go with defensive and fast now you get penalised. And vice-versa. The penalties are listed in the prior section in way of a warning. So if you went for endurance and strength you’re best taking aggressive and deadly. Which is what I do.

Aggressive and deadly style at first level gives +2 attacks per round, paired weapons (all), entangle, body flip/throw, body block/tackle, a 2d4 damage karate punch, a 2d6 damage karate kick, and the three special abilities that the Physical Training class has access to.

Power Punch, which allows the character to hurt foes who are usually only vulnerable to supernatural strength, doing double damage, but at the cost of two actions per power punch.

Power Kick, which is the same as a power punch in every way, but a kick.

Force of Will, essentially allows the character to survive up to -60 hit points, for up to 24 hours. They will require professional medical attention to recover, but they can do it. They can’t do much else though.

Step Five: Everything Else.

Alignment: I rolled up the alignment using the 10 options I have and get a 9, Conformist. Conformist is one of the alignments I came up with. I should do a post about that. But in essence a conformist doesn't seek out adventure but often finds it thrust upon them. A conformist also doesn't challenge society's expectations of them. So in many ways spending a life as an exact double of one's twin is the ultimate in conformity.

Base S.D.C. and P.P.E.: 30 SDC and 6d6, so 20, PPE.

Resources: $1,700 in cash, a 3 year old car, and $10,000 in savings.

Everything else is fairly standard.

So putting it all together:

Name: Alexander “Alex” Angel

Super Identity: Guardian Angel

Height: 5’10”, Weight: 150 lbs.

Alignment: Conformist.
Disposition: By-the-book police sergeant. Everything in order and order in everything. Brooks no nonsense on the job.

Team: The P.R.A.T.  Squad

IQ 11, ME 11, MA 11, PS 42, PP 22, PE 23, PB 13, Spd 27

Hit Points 46, S.D.C. 154, P.P.E. 20 

Superpowers:

Endurance and Strength:

Superhuman Strength:  Fatigue at half rate 

Power Punch:

Power Kick:

Force of Will:

Skills:

Scholastic Skills:

Basic Maths, Computer Ops, Criminal Science, Detect Concealment, Intelligence, Interrogation, Law (General), Pilot Automobile, Prowl, Radio: Basic, Read/Write English, Research, Speak English, W.P. Pistol, W.P. Rifle, Writing (Reports).

Physical Training:

Acrobatics, Aggressive & Deadly HTH, Athletics, Climbing, Detect Ambush, Escape Artist, Gymnastics, Paired Weapons (All), Running, Sniping, Tracking, Wrestling.

Secondary Skills:

First Aid, Land Navigation, Pick Locks, Pilot Motorcycle, S.C.U.B.A,, Streetwise, Swimming, Wilderness Survival, W.P Blunt, W.P. Throwing.

Saves: 

Coma/Death: +36%

Harmful Drugs/Toxins (15+): +6

Horror Factor: +0

Magic (Spells 12+, Circles/Wards 13+, Ritual 16+): +4

Poison (Lethal 14+, Non-Lethal 16+): +6

Psionics (15+): +0

Possession: +0

Combat:

Initiative: +1

Attacks per Round: 2+3

Strike: +6; +7 Blunt, +7 thrown.

Damage: +27

1d4+27 Punch

1d6+27 Body Flip/Throw

1d4+27 Body Block/Tackle

Entangle

2d4+27 Karate Punch

2d6+27 Karate Kick

Pin 18+

x2 Power Punch (x2 atk)

x2 Power Kick (x2 atk)

Parry: +5; +6 Blunt,

Dodge: +5; 

Roll with Punch: +6

Pull Punch: +1

Disarm: +#

Benchmarks:

Carry Capacity: 8,400lbs; Lifting: 12,600lbs

Stamina: Carry Max 184 minutes, 92 minutes while running or fighting. Lifting for 46 rounds (690 seconds; 11.5 minutes)

Ground Speed: 18.9 mph for 46 minutes

Swimming Speed: 84yrds (252ft.) per round for 23 minutes.

Leaping Distance: 42 ft. high; 84 ft. broad from a running start. 25.2 ft. high; 50.4 ft. broad from a standing start.

Background: 

Alex Angel was born 7 minutes after his brother, Nicholas and has been running to catch up ever since. Where Nick led Alex followed. So when Nick decided to be a police officer Alex did too.

It was a girl who inspired Alex to find his own path. Stung by the insinuation that he was just a poor copy of Nicholas, when they both graduated Alex didn’t follow him into the Met, but instead chose a more difficult route. Guardian City, on the island of Ennor. Ennor, a land populated since ancient times by “mutants and monsters”; super freaks and trouble magnets.

Things didn't go well for Alex, now Alexander. 72 hours after arriving he and his new partner, Jade Justice had been flattened by a rampaging monstrosity. Most people would have given up there. But not Alexander. While Nicholas swanned around London getting his 400% collar rate, Alexander was recuperating. Pushing his recovery harder than anyone else. He was walking within a month. He took up martial arts, turning the self defence he learned at the academy into something more powerful. Somehow he compressed a lifetime's worth of training into a single year. When Nicholas was getting transferred into a cushy sergeant’s position out in the country Alex found himself and the recently recuperated officer Justice facing down the same mutant on the same street. Only this time it was the law that won. 

The press dubbed him “Guardian’s Angel” and Jade “Swift Justice” the nicknames stuck. A promotion to sergeant swiftly followed.

Chief Constable Justice, Jade’s mother, then approached them to lead a new unit she was putting together; they’re calling it the Paranormal Resources And Tactics Squad. It’s like S.W.A.T. only for dealing with super humans. They just needed to work on improving the name.

Next time I’ll be creating a ...38...

Super Invention!

So meet me down at the lab where we’ll get our mad science on! Don’t forget your lab coats, safety goggles, and your gloves.

Heroes Unlimited: Phenomenal Paragons - The Haunter (The Immortal)

George Stewart is the senior custodian of the Woodward Campus of Ennor University. Which is impressive, not only because he looks like he could easily be a student. But more so because George Stuart Woodward has been dead for 359 years.

This is the first character in my Phenomenal Paragons series. The introduction to which is here. It is inspired by Jacob Pisson's World's Strongest series, here.

The Immortal class for Heroes Unlimited is a varied one. It’s filled with angels and demons; dragons, monsters, deities and demigods. And there down at the bottom is “Astral Being or Ghostly Spirit”. It’s the only class where you can roll up Mega Hero template character without the GM giving you the option.

Mega Heroes are an optional template for some of the other classes that boost a character from the normal power level up to something closer to, say, Superman. In settings such as Rifts a Mega Hero would be a Mega Damage creature (one point of Mega Damage being equal to 100 points of regular damage), as well as the bonuses from the Mega Hero template. Normally a GM would have decided to run a mega hero game but if you’re rolling up an immortal one can just appear.

Thankfully the ghostly spirit isn’t one of them.

Step One: The Usual.

All attributes at 11 as there is nothing about the immortal that requires any special attribute
scores.

Step Two: Hit Points and S.D.C.

I’m going to echo a sentiment made by others. Putting this step here makes no goddamn sense. Hit points are based on a character’s Physical Endurance attribute. All attributes can be changed by later steps. The same goes with S.D.C. Which is defined by later steps. You literally can’t define S.D.C. yet.

S.D.C. stands for “Structural Damage Capacity”. They’re like hit points but also armour. When a character runs out of S.D.C. they start taking real damage, represented by the loss of hit points. When an inanimate object runs out if S.D.C. it breaks.

Step Three: Super Abilities and Immortality.

First we learn that because we are immortal we don’t start at 1st level with everyone else. No we start at 1d4+1 levels. So in our case level 3.
There’s a note that villains can be level 1d6+4 so I roll for alignment and get Anarchist. I decide he's not a villain.

1: Nature of Immortal.

Overwhelmed by the options, I rolled on a chart and got “Astral Being or Ghostly Spirit” as I mentioned above. We get a mortal physical form that we can manifest for 1d6 hours a day with an additional hour per level. So 6 hours for us but I give into temptation and raise it to 8 so that the character can do an 8 hour work day.
We get IQ +1, ME +1d4 (+2), Spd +1d4 (+3).
We get 3d6+PE Hit Points (which is 10+PE) and an additional +1d6 per level (+11).
Our starting S.D.C. is 4d6 (+14)+16.
We get +10% to the Prowl skill (which I shall stat up at the end).
We have +1 to save versus magic, +3 versus Possession. We’re also immune to disease, cold, poisons and drugs. We also get +3 versus Horror.

There’s a note that ghostly spirits don’t get attribute bonuses from skills and apparently powers, but that’s no fun. It makes sense that a being that is entirely astral wouldn’t have any physical attributes, But we do. So I’m going to say that these skills were learnt when the character was alive and thus do count. So Nya!

When in spirit form we are intangible to physical damage, except from magic or psionics. We also leave no footprints nor fingerprints and move silently.
On the down side we can’t use any physical attacks or super powers while in spirit form. But can use our psionic abilities. We thus get to choose between 2 minor or 1 major super power and 1d6+6 psionic powers from any list but super psionics. This gives us 9 psi powers.
I pick the major power of Inhabitation from Powers Unlimited volume 3. This unusual power allows a character to essentially possess any building or structure they’re in. They get a mental map of the building’s layout, but not contents. They can control parts of the structure, doors, windows, security cameras and the like. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, they have an intuitive understanding of the structure’s condition. Making repairs easy.

For the 9 psionic powers I choose:
Bio-Regeneration (Self) from the Healing list
Ectoplasm, Telekinesis, Telekinetic Punch, Telekinetic Push, and Teleport Object from the
Physical list.
Clairvoyance, Sixth Sense, and Telepathy from the Sensitive list.
There’s no I.S.P. value listed to power those psionic abilities so I’m going to go with 1d6x10+50 base and an additional +10 per level. I didn’t pull this out of thin air; other immortals with psionic powers have this much I.S.P. too. This gives me 100 I.S.P.
The ghost doesn’t roll for any further their powers so let's skip 2 and go straight on to...

3. The Reason for Being On Earth.

This is easy; they’ve always been here. Likewise with their familiarity with Earth. Being local they can speak 5 additional languages with 90% skill.

This brings us to:

Step Four: Education & Skills.

For locals we use the regular education chart in the main rules and then modify the result depending upon the immortal’s age. This means that we need to get a feel for character’s background.
I’ll be honest with you. At this point I felt rather unhappy with the character. They felt a bit boring. So I rolled on the background tables to get a better feel for them.
They’re second born of their siblings. Their family were wealthy and based in the country. They gained their powers, which is to say that they died, in their late teens. Their weight is “husky” and their height is “tall”.
He’s a bit of a tough guy, reliant, cocky and a lone wolf.
I settled on 300 to 399 years. Rolling d100 I get 77. So he’s 377 years old.
So presuming that the campaign is set in 2019, then he was born in 1642, the start of the English Civil War. He died when he was, let’s say, 18. So 1660.
They’re an Anarchist so they didn’t exactly have a legitimate upbringing. I see his family as playing both sides of the civil war. Perhaps they were engaged in banditry, piracy, profiteering or other criminality.
I decide that after their death they had the opportunity to educate themselves and decide that they eventually had the opportunity to earn what would be the equivalent of a Ph.D. He doesn’t actually have a doctorate. But he does get the 4 scholastic skill programs with +30% and the 10 secondary skills. Being 377 years old he also gets +3 scholastic programs and +3 secondary skills.

But before I get to picking skills there’s a skill program everyone gets:
Pilot Automobile ,
Basic Maths ,
Speak Native Language ,
Read and Write Native Language .
Except for this character I’ve replaced Automobile with Horsemanship .

For the first three programs I pick Physical/Athletic, Criminal and Ancient Weapons. These represent his original skills from before he died. The next four are from his later education.
Technical, Electrical, Science and Journalism/Investigation.

For the Physical/athletic program I pick:
Acrobatics, which has a bunch of sub skills I won’t bother with right now, and gives a 2d4 damage kick attack, +2 roll with punch, +1 PS, +1PP, +1PE, and +3 S.D.C.
Boxing, which gives +1 attack per round, +2 to parry and dodge, +1 roll with punch, +2 PS and +10 S.D.C.
Wrestling, which means he can pin or immobilise a foe with a d20 roll of 18+, a crush or squeeze attack which does 1d4 damage, +1 roll with punch, +2 PS, +1 PE and +14 S.D.C.
Prowl, which with all his abilities and bonuses gives in an 85% chance at success.

Next, for the Criminal program I get:
Streetwise,
Picklocks, and a pick of three from the Rogue skill list. I go with:
Concealment,
Find Contraband & Illegal Weapons, or better yet “Blackmarket”.
Computer Hacking, yes I know I said that his skills were hundreds of years old but I’m considering this a recent addition.

For the Ancient Weapons I start with:
Paired Weapons, which is specialised unless you’re 7th level with the Martial Arts hand-to-hand style. So I pencil in “Sword and Shield” and get to pick 4 weapon proficiencies (henceforth “W.P.”). I go with:
W.P. Knife, strike +2, parry +1
W.P. Shield, parry +2, strike (with shield) +1 (1d4 damage)
W.P. Sword, strike +2
W.P. Crossbow, +60’ range, +1 parry (with crossbow), strike +1, rate of fire +4.

As I said before all of these, with the single exception of computer hacking, are from his formal education when he was alive. I gave him computer hacking as he couldn't learn it from any other package available to him. I was planning it as a secondary skill but that’s apparently not possible.

Technical gives me a pick of four from a list and I go with:
Art,
Business & Finance,
General Repair/ Maintenance,
Computer Programming.

Same with Electrical:
Electrical Engineer,
Basic Mechanics,
Computer Operations,
Computer Repair,

Science gives us:
Computer Operations, It's the first repeat so +10%.
Advanced Maths,
Chemistry, and a pick of three more. So I go for:
Anthropology,
Archaeology,
Biology.

Journalism/Investigation gives us the following:
Computer Operations, second repeat so only +5%.
Research,
Surveillance Systems, which is useful for following people as well as using CCTV and illicit bugs.
Writing (Journalism).

Secondary Skills:
Martial Arts Hand-to-hand, (+2 attacks per round, +3 roll with punch, +2 initiative, +3 pull punch, +3 parry & dodge, +2 strike & disarm, Karate style kick for 2d6 damage, Roundhouse kick for 3d6 damage, leg hook/trip, axe kick for 2d6 damage, Cresent kick for 2d4+2 damage)
Running, +1 PE, +10 Spd, +3 S.D.C.
Athletics, +1 parry and dodge, +1 roll with punch, +1 PS, +3 Spd, +7 S.D.C.
Land Navigation,
W.P. Targeting/Throwing, strike +3
First Aid,
Dancing,
Sewing,
W.P. Revolver, (Aimed +4 to strike, Burst +2 to strike, Wild +1 to strike)
Pilot Automobile,
Pilot Motorcycle.

Step Two: Hit Points and S.D.C.

Oh hello again. Yes this is where you belong.
By my reckoning our Physical Endurance (PE) is around 14 which gives us 35 hit points Our S.D.C. is 53 and our P.P.E. is 61.

Step Five: Alignment.

Already done. Anarchist.

Step Six: Equipment and Rounding Out.

Firstly we use the Mega-Hero experience chart. Okay, cool. I give the character 15,000 xp,
putting them in the middle of 3rd level and move on.

As an Earth-born immortal they get $2d6x10,000 for every 50 years of life. For some reason my brain reads that as $1d6x10,000 for every 25 years and I calculate 15d6. So our immortal has $520,000 in funds.

They have a decent wardrobe of clothing, none of it particularly flashy. Usually they’re seen in boiler suits in various states of wear and tear. They’re rarely dirty as such, and when they are it is for good reason. They also apparently have 4 sets of modern/high tech body armour which they wear under their costume; a tattered loose fitting robe they covers them from head to foot. As their alter-ego as The Haunter they look like a traditional representation of a ghost.

They have an enchanted broadsword which is both a demons slayer (3d6 damage, 1d6x10 versus demons and other forms of supernatural evil) and grants flight, up to 1 hour three times out of every 24, at upto 50mph. As per the Fly as the Eagle spell.

That’s it for character creation. Let’s see what have.:

Name: George Stuart Westward
Super Identity: The Haunter
Level 3 Immortal
Height: 1.90m (6’2”), Weight: 90kg (200lbs) when solid.
Alignment: Anarchist.
Disposition: Although he and his family have been dead for centuries he sees the university as his home; the staff and students his guests. He is protective of both people and infrastructure.
IQ 12, ME 13, MA 11, PS 15, PP 12, PE 14, PB 11, Spd 27
Hit Points 35, S.D.C. 53, P.P.E. 61 I.S.P. 100
Superpowers:
Immaterial (Ghostly Body)
Immune to all physical damage except for magic and psionics. Leave no fingerprints nor footprints but can’t use their other superpower while immaterial. Psionic powers are unaffected.
They can assume a physical “mortal” body for up to 8 hours out of every 24.
There’s no rules about how much they can carry while ghostly so I’m going with their normal limits based on PS.
Inhabitation
Complete mental map of any building they’re in, including anything that would appear on a blueprint including alarms, cameras and wall safes, but not things such as furniture. Ranges up to 300,000 sq.ft. Lasts for as long as they’re in the building but ends a minute after they’ve left. Control building features. See through CCTV, hit people with doors (for 2d6), & etc. Range up to 500 ft.
Repair buildings with a +30% to any relevant skills to repair an inhabited structure

Psionic Powers:
Bio-Regeneration (Self) (6, Healing)
Ectoplasm (varies, Physical)
Telekinesis (varies, Physical)
Telekinetic Punch (6, Physical)
Telekinetic Push (4, Physical)
Teleport Object (10, Physical)

Skills:
Acrobatics, Advanced Maths, Athletics, Anthropology, Archaeology, Art, Automobile, Basic Maths, Basic Mechanics, Biology, Boxing, Business & Finance, Computer Hacking, Computer Operations, Computer Programming, Computer Repair, Concealment, Cooking, Electrical Engineer, Find Contraband and Illegal Weapons, First Aid, General Repairs & Maintenance, Horsemanship, Land Navigation, Martial Arts hand-to-hand, Motorcycle, Paired Weapons: Sword and Shield, Prowl, Read & Write English, Research, Running, Sewing, Speak English, Streetwise, Surveillance Systems, W.P. Crossbow, W.P. Knife, W.P. Revolver, W.P. Shield, W.P. Sword, W.P. Targeting - Throwing, Wrestling, Writing (Journalism)
Also those five languages I haven’t decided on yet.

Saves:
Coma/Death: +0
Harmful Drugs/Toxins (15+): Immune
Horror Factor: +2
Magic (Spells 12+, Circles/Wards 13+, Ritual 16+): +1
Poison (Lethal 14+, Non-Lethal 16+): Immune
Psionics (10+): +0
Possession: +3

Combat:
Initiative: +2
Attacks per Round: 5
Strike: +2; +4 knife, +3 shield, +4 sword, +4 crossbow, +5 thrown weapon
Damage: (+2 diving or swooping)
1d4 shield bash
2d4 kick
1d4 crush/squeeze
2d6 “karate” kick
2d6 axe kick
2d4+2 crescent kick
3d6 Sword
1d6x10 Sword versus "demons" and "evil gods".
Parry: +6; +7 knife, +8 shield, +7 crossbow; +8 flying
Dodge: +6; +8 flying
Roll with Punch: +8
Pull Punch: +3
Disarm: +2
Pin/Immobilise: 18+

Benchmarks:
Carry Capacity: 150lbs; Lifting 300lbs
Stamina: Carry Max 56 minutes, 28 minutes while running or fighting. Lifting for 14 rounds (210
seconds; 3.5 minutes)
Ground Speed: 19 mph for 14 minutes.
Leaping Distance: 10ft. high, 11ft. broad.

Background:
Born in a time of war George Woodward was raised to fight. But he was also raised to cheat and steal. His family played both sides of the conflict, switching loyalties with the wind. When the dust settled they had made a tidy nest egg to add to their already extant fortunes. Unfortunately George wouldn’t live to enjoy it. A few weeks after his 18th birthday he was thrown from his horse, struck his head against a standing stone on his family's estate and died.

He found himself upon the astral plane, with only the clothes on his back and the ancestral sword “Angel’s Wing” at his side. It took him over a century to find his way back. To fight his way back against the things that dwell in the astral. He found his sword to be most effective at this task.

When he finally returned home he found that his family’s estate had become a place of learning. So, his true identity lost to time, he learned.

Over the years he informally picked up the equivalent of several degrees although never actually gaining a useful qualification. He found true love in the acquisition of knowledge and decided to focus his afterlife on it. As time passed he found it easier to manifest physically. He decided to use his powers to help his home. At first he did so unofficially but recently he become the campus’s head caretaker. He gets an apartment onsite which is located near to his hidden base in forgotten and sealed off chambers within the campus.

He feels protective of the campus and anyone who inhabits it. There have been a number of instances where he has intervened to protect students and faculty alike from attackers or disaster.

Rumours of the ghost that haunts the campus have circulated essentially forever. Some have even attached the name of George Woodward to the spirit; his tombstone is displayed in the university’s chapel. George uses people’s expectations of what a ghost looks like when he patrols the campus and dresses in a costume that looks like a stereotypical man-under-a-sheet ghost costume over modern body armour that is covered with wisps of cloth to break up their form. Only George is actually immaterial while patrolling. Thus if any pictures are taken, and there have been a number over the years, it looks like someone in a cheap ghost costume or a cheap special effect. So the Haunter has become something of an urban legend.

Join us next time when we create a... 98... Gestalt? No, no. Urm... 64... Physical Training or Minor Super Hero... Well... Okay. Physical Training it is. I have ideas for gestalt and minor heroes. But that’ll take a while and so is best saved for later. Much later. Say the next time I roll up Gestalt.

Physical Training!