Post by dorkknight23 on Nov 2, 2005 22:09:22 GMT -5
Building Blue Lightning 1: Mission Statement
Introductory Statements
So, new to the system and trying to figure out how to build the character you of your dreams? Or just want to pick up a tip or trick or three on how to make the character archetype you’ve been craving? Well, fear not, True Believers, for Building Blue Lightning is here to present (and provoke) discussion on how to properly build a character.
Over the course of what I hope to be a series of articles, I plan on discussing theory related to building characters around four out of the five attributes (Intelligence, Strength, Agility, and Speed,) around the roles established by the team builder (Close Fighter, Ranged Fighter, Scout, Master, and Support,) with possible attention being spent towards building Masters of Magic, as well as filling all the prerequisite character archetypes (gadget-based characters [making the most out of equipment,] Powered Armor and Robotic characters, transformers [they’re more than meets the eye,] shapeshifters/size-changers, and getting the most out of modifiers.)
First off, we have to address what qualities exactly would make a superheroic character. Superheroes usually are, first off, better than the average person in at least one way. He might just be your Average Joe, except that when trouble strikes, he rushes into a phone booth and flies out in Technicolor long underwear displaying strength, toughness, and powers that the rest of us can only dream of. These powers may not have been asked for, hell, it could be pure accident that gave Average Joe the ability to wrap a steel pipe into a pretzel, but he has these gifts and he uses them for the right causes. A superhero does, more or less, the right thing. Sometimes (if it’s one of them gritty ammo-toting angst-generators from the 80s, especially,) the hero does this by playing by his own rules and throwing around bullets like they were Razzles, or, more traditionally, he does this just by defeating opponents the police are incapable of apprehending on their own (the supervillains that provide superheroes with adequate challenge.) To sum up: superheroes have superior abilities or powers and do (or at least attempt to do) the right thing to help what us Average Joes can only cower under our afghans about. Other than that, it's all touch and go and up to you.
That being said, the Marvel Universe RPG rules are great for playing a hero like this, and the reason is simple: its based on resource management rather than probability. You’re the greatest fighter in the world? Okay, Wolverine, but be careful if playing a probability-based game and you roll a 1, or else Sabertooth will get a free claw to your jugular. Probability can dampen a superhero being super: Superman could fail his fly check and plummet from the Metropolis skyline; Spiderman could roll a 1 and find himself getting schooled by the Grizzly and the Gibbon of all people (or, shudder, the Hypno-Hustler;) Iron Man’s armor could, well, just short out. That’s not super at all. Sure, things go wrong, but only when suspense needs to be heightened, and that shouldn't be left to the whims of chance (lest you end up with too much suspense.) Heroes need to pull off the impossible, and, more accurately, pull it off continually. If most of us donned red pajamas and jumped around the New York skyline we’d make it five minutes, tops. Spider-Man’s been Manhattan’s Friendly Neighborhood Superhero for longer than him and his clones can remember. And we’re going to try to figure out how. First we’ll figure out how to properly build the archetypal characters, how to make your character perform exactly the way you want him to, and then, each column, I plan on writing up a new and unique character fitting each weekly theme. By the end, hopefully everyone (myself included) will have learned a lot about how to make the character you want to play.
Next Week: Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel
I’ll be ripping up a streetlamp from the sidewalk, throwing it halfway across town, and cursing Puny Banner as I pummel the living daylights out of how to build a Strength-based character.
Introductory Statements
So, new to the system and trying to figure out how to build the character you of your dreams? Or just want to pick up a tip or trick or three on how to make the character archetype you’ve been craving? Well, fear not, True Believers, for Building Blue Lightning is here to present (and provoke) discussion on how to properly build a character.
Over the course of what I hope to be a series of articles, I plan on discussing theory related to building characters around four out of the five attributes (Intelligence, Strength, Agility, and Speed,) around the roles established by the team builder (Close Fighter, Ranged Fighter, Scout, Master, and Support,) with possible attention being spent towards building Masters of Magic, as well as filling all the prerequisite character archetypes (gadget-based characters [making the most out of equipment,] Powered Armor and Robotic characters, transformers [they’re more than meets the eye,] shapeshifters/size-changers, and getting the most out of modifiers.)
First off, we have to address what qualities exactly would make a superheroic character. Superheroes usually are, first off, better than the average person in at least one way. He might just be your Average Joe, except that when trouble strikes, he rushes into a phone booth and flies out in Technicolor long underwear displaying strength, toughness, and powers that the rest of us can only dream of. These powers may not have been asked for, hell, it could be pure accident that gave Average Joe the ability to wrap a steel pipe into a pretzel, but he has these gifts and he uses them for the right causes. A superhero does, more or less, the right thing. Sometimes (if it’s one of them gritty ammo-toting angst-generators from the 80s, especially,) the hero does this by playing by his own rules and throwing around bullets like they were Razzles, or, more traditionally, he does this just by defeating opponents the police are incapable of apprehending on their own (the supervillains that provide superheroes with adequate challenge.) To sum up: superheroes have superior abilities or powers and do (or at least attempt to do) the right thing to help what us Average Joes can only cower under our afghans about. Other than that, it's all touch and go and up to you.
That being said, the Marvel Universe RPG rules are great for playing a hero like this, and the reason is simple: its based on resource management rather than probability. You’re the greatest fighter in the world? Okay, Wolverine, but be careful if playing a probability-based game and you roll a 1, or else Sabertooth will get a free claw to your jugular. Probability can dampen a superhero being super: Superman could fail his fly check and plummet from the Metropolis skyline; Spiderman could roll a 1 and find himself getting schooled by the Grizzly and the Gibbon of all people (or, shudder, the Hypno-Hustler;) Iron Man’s armor could, well, just short out. That’s not super at all. Sure, things go wrong, but only when suspense needs to be heightened, and that shouldn't be left to the whims of chance (lest you end up with too much suspense.) Heroes need to pull off the impossible, and, more accurately, pull it off continually. If most of us donned red pajamas and jumped around the New York skyline we’d make it five minutes, tops. Spider-Man’s been Manhattan’s Friendly Neighborhood Superhero for longer than him and his clones can remember. And we’re going to try to figure out how. First we’ll figure out how to properly build the archetypal characters, how to make your character perform exactly the way you want him to, and then, each column, I plan on writing up a new and unique character fitting each weekly theme. By the end, hopefully everyone (myself included) will have learned a lot about how to make the character you want to play.
Next Week: Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel
I’ll be ripping up a streetlamp from the sidewalk, throwing it halfway across town, and cursing Puny Banner as I pummel the living daylights out of how to build a Strength-based character.