Ghost Rider Write-up

[mako]

Someone already did one, but I had to take a shot at it with the recent movie and all...

This is sort of a "mix" of versions, since Johnny Blaze is the one I'm familiar with, but my first "real" exposure to him was in media that blurred the line between him and Ketch, and had him using the Penance Stare well before recent comics okay'd that. Suggestions are welcome though. And I opted out of a durability that fits Green Hulk, for slightly lower, but a healing factor for the fact as a supernatural being, he has supernatural stamina.

Curious how my interpretations of the powers are critiqued.

Name: Jonathan "Johnny" Blaze
Alias: Ghost Rider
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 180 lbs.
Hair: Reddish Blond/None
Eyes: Blue/None
Skin: Caucasian/None
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Species: Human/Possessed by Demonic Force
Occupation: Stunt Rider - Motorcycles

Abilities

INT: 3
STR: 2/6
AGI: 2/5
SPD: 2/3
DUR: 3/6

Health: 3/6
Energy: 9/18

Actions

Close Combat: 2
[Strength Bonus or Weapon Modifier]
-Street Fighting
-Mystic Chain

Ranged Combat: 2
[Weapon Modifier or Mastery]
-Hellfire Shotgun
-Mystic Chain

>Ghost Rider<
Mastery of Fire/Hellfire: 4
-Combine with Close/Ranged Combat
-Create/Manipulate
-Exists composed of elements (Flaming Skeleton)
-Must use one element at a time (Either Fire or Hellfire)
-Hellfire only effective on souls (Non-Lethal/Cannot bring living beings below one white stone, though may cause severe spiritual/mental harm. Only affects the soul/ineffective on soulless targets.)
-Range: 3

Penance Stare: 8
(Mesmerism/Telepathy)
-Requires Eye-Contact
-Can't Read Minds
-Empathy (In sense of forcing empathy for those the victim has hurt)
-Can't work if victim is blind/high on drugs/has too many eyes for proper eye contact.
-May backfire if victim is insane.
-Range: 1

Vehicle Operation: 6
-Stunt Riding
-Motorcycles
-Supernatural feats >Ghost Rider<

Modifiers

>Ghost Rider<
Healing Factor

Transform Self

Toughness: 1/5 with no x2 from Firearms/projectiles. (He's a skeleton, what's to wound?)

Wealth: 0

Equipment

>Ghost Rider<
Hellfire Shotgun - 3 stones to Ranged Combat (x2 Damage, Collateral Damage beyond Range of 1.) Normal shotgun used as a focus for hellfire. Range: 2 3 stones to reconstitute while Ghost Rider.

>Ghost Rider<
Mystic Chain - Tendril Whip + Metamorphisis AN: 3 Weapon Modifier. Base Range: 1 Max Range: 3 1 Stone per stone of length when destroyed to reconstitute while Ghost Rider.

Blaze's Motorcycle - 2 people, max. Difficulty: 1 Resistance: 1 Defense: 0 Health: 2 Manevuer: 4 Speed: 5 Weight: 2 Transform Self in tandem with Blaze.

>Ghost Rider<
Ghost Rider's Hellfire Motorcycle - 2 people, max. Difficulty: 5 (1 for Ghost Rider) Resistance: 4 (1 for Ghost Rider) Defense: 3 Health: 5 Manevuer: 7 Speed: 7 Weight: 3 (250-400 range) Transform Self in tandem with Ghost Rider.

Challenges

Soul sold to Zaranthos

Demonic appearance >Ghost Rider<

[Dhark]

mako said:

Soul sold to Zaranthos

Demonic appearance >Ghost Rider<

Only big issue here is that his Soul wasn't SOLD to Zarathos. Mephisto bought his soul, then bound his essence to Zarathos, another demon who'd been captured by Mephisto long ago.

[thedragonmaster]

I'm having trouble seeing it here (still not very good at cost estimation), but how many stones does this character take?

[mako]

thedragonmaster said:

I'm having trouble seeing it here (still not very good at cost estimation), but how many stones does this character take?

All right, I think I have the cost worked out, but this isn't counting the equipment.

Blaze - 9w 0r Ghost Rider - 57w 1r Total: 66w 1r

[Kaimontfendo]

Hmm... Somehow not as expensive as I would have guessed. Although I'm not very familiar with Ghost Rider (like, at all) I would like to offer some comments.

First off, the Penance Stare as a modified Telepathy is Genius. However, I'm not sure about the range on it. I mean, requires eye contact is limiting enough already.

Secondly, I noticed Blaze's motorcycle has a weight of 2. However, according the D&R chart, a motorcycle has a weight of 3. Of course, I'd be willing to guess that a cycle designed for stunts would be lighter.

Third, placing the Maneuver Modifier and Speed for Ghost Rider's motorcycle at 7 seems a tad high. I mean, isn't speed 7 the sound barrier?! If you placed it that high so it can ride up walls, I seem to recall reading that it just has that ability (basically wall-crawling) without needing to travel that fast. (Although Wall-Crawling caps out at 75 mph. Doesn't it?)

Fourth, he has a lot of energy, but not much to spend it into. Even spending as much as possible, he'll still have 2 to spare. And that's assuming he'd want to spend that much into Close Combat and Penance Stare in the same panel, which seems unlikely.

[Dhark]

kaimontfendo said:

Fourth, he has a lot of energy, but not much to spend it into. Even spending as much as possible, he'll still have 2 to spare. And that's assuming he'd want to spend that much into Close Combat and Penance Stare in the same panel, which seems unlikely.

Thematically speaking, Ghost Riders got a lot of Juice (Agent of Mephisto / Bound in essence to Zarathos / Spiritual Connection to the Medallion of Power / etc.) ... but either won't, can't, or doesn't yet no how to tap it all.

[mako]

True, and Close Combat + Penance Stare makes sense if the Close Combat stones are used not for damage, but to grapple the victim into making the needed eye contact.

And I did the range for one reason. How easy is it for you to keep eye contact with someone further than 10 feet from you?

[tenguitarz]

Disclaimer: I haven't got ahold of any Ghost Rider comics yet... I've just seen the movie.. so maybe this one ought to be a little more obvious. But anyway...

What mechanical effect should there be for Penance Stare? Something like Fear or Energy Drain? Or perhaps a Situational Mod to any actions that the victim might try to do?

[Dionon]

My only complaint about this character is for close combat he should have (Strength Bonus and Weapon modifier) for Blaze, but have (Strength Bonus and Weapon Modifier) for Ghost Rider... He's used that chain to do some pretty sick shit.

Oh yeah... I don't think I've ever seen his penance stare fail unless the victim was Innocent....(not insane as you have up there) If they haven't done anything, he gets stunned with whatever stones he put into it (with no defense).... That I've seen happen... So let's modify that a bit

Penance Stare: 8
(Mesmerism/Telepathy)
-Requires Eye-Contact
-Can't Read Minds
-Effect = Improved Fear if target is guilty of a crime
-If victim is innocent of a crime, Ghost Rider is stunned with damage equal to the stones he spent to activate with the x3 modifier. He cannot defend against this backlash.
-Range: 1

And yes I've taken out the Blind thing... his stare isn't based on eyes... he's got none either lol. It's all mind control.

[mako]

He's failed against insane before. He used it on Madcap, only to learn Madcap LIKED it.

[beyonder]

dionon said:

And yes I've taken out the Blind thing... his stare isn't based on eyes... he's got none either lol. It's all mind control.

Actually, there is one example of his inability to use the Stare on the blind: a villain called Whiteout. There was at least one very cool scene in which Ghosty said something like, "Since I cannot cause pain to your soul, I will instead break your body". Which he proceeded to do. So, yeah, it does require eye contact. (Come to think of it, I think that Daredevil is another example. I seem to recall that he's proved to be unaffected by the Penance Stare, not just because his soul is "clean", but because he's blind.)

Also, I'm with Kai: Requires Eye Contact and Range 1 are overlapping Disadvantages. In other words, since the Stare requires eye contact, it's pretty well gonna be limited to contact range.

Now that I think about it, wouldn't the blind be automatically unaffected by ANY power which Requires Eye Contact ? The Ringmaster (a guy with a hypnotic hat) can't hypnotize Daredevil, right?

[polimorph]

since the eyes are the window to the soul, you would not be able to affect a blind man because his window is all cloudy or blocked.

[WildKnight]

Back in the Danny Ketch days (MY days as a Ghost Rider fan) the Penance Stare was definately bad against the insane. Ketch tried to hit a serial killer (possibly rapist or something, I dont remember) with it, who happened to be a sociopath... and it didnt turn out well.

My only issue with this is, I really think his Vehicle Ops AN should be higher.

[herugrim]

Wait a sec, if Ghost Rider's Penance Stare works by burning a persons soul based on the pain they've caused the innocent, how could it not be effective against the insane? I thought it was based on the pain caused, not the guilt for causing the pain?

Well, I could just have it wrong. Not much of an expert on Ghost Rider or anything. I just know in the video game it works on all the demons you fight except the main bosses (who, like Mephisto, have no soul to burn). They didn't seem like the kind of demons who sit around in the dark thinking 'Gee, I kinda feel bad about all those humans I ate'.

[therritn]

Yeah, I remember that in the movie, the penance stare doesn't work against creatures without souls either. Also, I'd bump up his close combat since he is deminically possessed.