Kenna Blake - Phoenix

[dunderklumpen]

Kenna Blake

Rift of the Phoenix

Personal Details

Age: twenty-something, 3 years

Occupation: City police junior detective

Hobby: Off-duty investigations, working out.

Likes: Getting into fights, going on benders, challenging authority

Dislikes: bullying, time-wasters, small-talk

Personality: Abrasive, impulsive, Obsessive, self-destructive

 

Backstory and awakening

Awakening: My first two memories are as clear and sharp as crystal. Dying and being born; in that order.

I can still feel the unbearable heat, flesh and bone searing away, my body blackening and turning to ash. 

As for my birth, I remember opening my eyes and staring out at the world, becoming aware of my new form —  pure and unblemished — amidst the blackened wreckage of the burned-out tenement.

At first, that was all I remembered, but I had a few clues to help me along: the melted detective's shield clutched in my hand and the newspaper reports of the death of Joe Reagan, one of the city's veteran detectives.

Joe Reagan died in the fire and I was born in its ashes

I had my five minutes as a cause celebre — the amnesiac found in the aftermath of a fatal fire was in all the papers. But this city has a very short-term memory, and soon everyone moved on to the next big thing.

Trying to work out who I was eventually led me to a locker with a sports bag full of cash — small unmarked bills. I put the cash to good use, getting all the necessary documents to complete my rebirth as Kenna Blake.

A few years on, and I'm a junior detective for the city police. I try my best to keep the city safe and solve my cases while I grapple with the bigger mystery of who I was before I died and was reborn.

 

Theme Books

Defining event (logos)

I was born in the ashes of a fire that killed a veteran city detective.

Identity: I am Joe Reagan reborn

Power tags

[A] A hunger for answers
(What kind of strong emotion did your defining event leave you with?)

[H] Risk-taker
(What approach to life did you adopt following your defining event?)

[F] Natural detective
(What skill or mundane ability did you  pick up during or due to your defining event?)

Weakness tag

[C] Nightmares and flashbacks from previous lives
(Who or what is haunting you because of your defining event?)

 

Routine (logos)

I am a newly-minted detective.

Identity: once a cop, always a cop.

Power Tags

[A] Junior city detective
(What do you do with your time?)

[B] Detective's shield
(What privileges come with the territory of what you do?)

[C] Standard issue sidearm
(What sort of tools do you use?)

Weakness Tag

[A] Images of the city's seedy underbelly
(At the end of your day, what are you left with?)

 

Personality (logos)

Dangerously reckless

Identity: I feel compelled to constantly put my body at risk

Power Tags

[A] Intimidating
(When you want, you can also come across as)

[E] Fight club brawler
(What special skill or status did you pursue because of your personality?)

[I] Fearless of physical harm
(What quality or item best expresses your personal style or enhances it?)

Weakness Tag

[A] Self-destructive behavior
(What happens when you let yourself go too far)

 

 

Mobility (mythos)

The Phoenix can manifest wings of flame.

Mystery: Who was I in previous lives?

Power tags

[A] Fiery-winged flight.
(What is your mythos’ most useful form of movement?)

[B] Melt through restraints
(What allows you to avoid restraints or confinement?)

[F] Fireproof (extra)
(What specific harmful effects does your mobility allow you to avoid?)

Weakness tags

[C] Water and rain
(what impedes you or slows you down?)

[B] Burnout
(What happens when you go too fast, too far, etc.?)

 

 

 

 

Edited January 12 by dunderklumpen (see edit history)

[dunderklumpen]

It's a little late here, but I wanted to put up the skeleton idea for the character. I'm still to fill out the logos, mythos, identities and mysteries, but happy to edit, answer questions or clarify if I've missed anything in the character creation rules.

[dunderklumpen]

2 Logos and 1 Mythos are complete. With one Logos to go. Still going back and forth on the last Logos between possessions, personality and training.

[dunderklumpen]

I feel like Kenna is ready for review and suggestions.

I think I've followed the theme books correctly, please let me know if I have missed anything important. Or if you think the character is a bad or awkward fit for the game you had in mind.

[yxanthymir]

Your character looks good and very close to what I already want, but some power labels will need some explanation about when and how you intend to use them. Maybe rewrite them to make the intend more clear.

They are: Images of the city's seedy underbelly, A cache of useful things left by past lives, Reveal a hidden secret of the past & Scattered in hidden locations.

 

[dunderklumpen]

11 hours ago, yxanthymir said:

Your character looks good and very close to what I already want, but some power labels will need some explanation about when and how you intend to use them. Maybe rewrite them to make the intend more clear.

They are: Images of the city's seedy underbelly, A cache of useful things left by past lives, Reveal a hidden secret of the past & Scattered in hidden locations.

 

 

Images of the city's seedy underbelly

The intent is to capture a sense of despair from knowing too much about the darker side of the city. 

That seems too wordy, so maybe "A sense of despair and frustration" is enough. Is that better?

 

A cache of useful things left by past lives

The idea here is to keep what is in the scattered possessions a little fluid. Kenna believes that the possessions have been collected by past lives and the intent was to keep the possessions surprising. I was basing this on examples in Possessions, such as "a warehouse full of junk" (page 127) where the description is not specific.

If you'd like me to be more specific, how about something like "A cache of money, information and weapons"?
 

Reveal a hidden secret of the past

This is meant to indicate that the sort of information in the possessions (the most important thing being Joe Reagan's old case files) had information about the past of the city. Things that might not be readily known (otherwise it wouldn't be worth mentioning it. Specifically about criminals and corruption in the city, but also about older buried secrets of the city, left by previous Pheonix incarnations older than Kenna Blake and Joe Reagan.

This is to answer the question "What kind of stunts or moves do you typically do with your possessions?",  and I feel like the current answer seems suitable, as the action/stunt is revealing a secret but I'd welcome any suggestions as to how to improve it.

 

Scattered in hidden locations.

The intent here is to indicate that the possessions are scattered all over the city in locations like train station lockers and safety depositor boxes. Kenna can only locate some of them through her fractured memory of her past lives, and she may need to find one location to get a hint of the next.

I'm not sure if there's a better way to word this, but I'd welcome any suggestions.
 

[dunderklumpen]

So I think it might be better to lean into Kenna's reckless disregard for her own physical safety and so I have swapped out the Possession logos for a Personality logos.

I think this better suits the sort of character and I think it might be easier to tweak.

I've left the old logos here as a reference.

Possessions (logos)

Past incarnations of the Phoenix have left caches of useful things for me.

Power Tags

[A] Joe Reagan's old case files
(What is the most important thing in your possession?)

[B] A cache of useful things left by past lives
(How would you describe your possessions in general?)

[C] Reveal a hidden secret of the past
(What kind of stunts or moves do you typically do with your possessions?)

Weakness Tag

[C] Scattered in hidden locations
(What conditions could render your possessions less effective?)

[yxanthymir]

Ok, accepted.