Zorus - Descendent of Hercules

[Ace Bronson]

 

Zorus

Novice Male Human, Descendent of Hercules

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4, Spirit d4, Strength d10, Vigor d8
Skills: Academics d4, Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d8, Intimidation d4, Language ( Koine) d8, Notice d4, Performance d4, Persuasion d4, Repair d4, Riding d4, Stealth d6, Survival d4, Boating d4
Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6 (3)
Hindrances: Overconfident, Stubborn, Vengeful (minor) (1 Edge, 1 Attribute)
Edges: Legendary Hide (custom), Brawny (custom) Rock Slayer
Weapons: Spiked Great Club, 6 javelins, wineskin, 5 days rations, sack
Language: Koine (native, d8) Lydian (d?)
Current Wealth: 43ah

Favor: 2

Special Abilities

• Languages Known: Koine (native, d8)

Advances: Vigor

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Current Load: 12 (81)

 

Background:

Zorus was born into a long line of heroes. Some stretched the definition of the word, temperamental, drunken brutes, unfit for society whose sporadic ‘good’ deeds did little to balance out the pain and damage they caused in their miserable lives. Others exemplified the virtues of the gods and legends, performing feats of strength and courage that found their place in poems and sagas. It was a tumultuous legacy that Zorus inherited. His mother, Eupheme, is a kind and gentle woman, not much more than a child when she bore him into the world. His father, Krios, unfortunately manifested the worst of his lineage. He was cruel, short tempered, drunk and brutish. Fortunately for Zorus and his mother, Krios was rarely around during his childhood. Eupheme raised Zorus with love and affection, shielding him the best she could from his father’s rages. She told him that he was of the line of Hercules, descended from mighty Zeus himself and destined to great things. Though she was kind, she ensured that his upbringing was befitting of a mighty hero and from a young age he was tried and tested. He towered over the other children his age, easily besting them in wrestling, running and fist fights. His mother admonished him not to be cruel. His strength was a gift from the gods and not to be used callously. She told him stories of his grandfather, Axios the Titan, a true hero of legend who used his gift of strength to vanquish mighty beasts and save villages from terrible fates. With his bare hands he choked the life from the famed and feared Bronze Bull of Arcadon, that had ravaged the countryside, spewing boiling steam from its nostrils and trampling all in it’s path. Axios took the auroch’s hide and horns, making an impenetrable cloak for himself. Eupheme implored Zorus to aspire to the example of Axios and reject the brutish cruelty of his father. Zorus loved his mother and did everything he could to please her and live up to her expectations, though he was not, and is not a perfect person. He has an angry and vengeful streak that lives under the surface, a legacy of his father’s. Zorus grew into a giant of a man, rivaling the size of even Axios the Titan. When he was full grown but still young and living with his mother, Krios came home, drunk and in the most foul of moods. He raged and rampaged through the house, bellowing and smashing all in sight. He accused his wife of being unfaithful to him and struck her a savage blow across the face, crumpling her to the floor. Though Zorus had always rightly feared his father's wrath this was too much for him. He rose up and faced his father, seething with anger. The battle was dreadful, it went on for hours and through the night. The house was completely destroyed as they pummeled, wrestled, and gouged. Finally Zorus gained the upperhand. It took every ounce of will and desperate pleas from his mother to restrain himself from killing his father, but good sense finally prevailed and instead he stripped his father of the hide of the Bronze Bull and took his mighty cudgel. He sent his father into exile, cautioning him to never return or his fate would be worse. Zorus then looked on his poor mother and the destruction they had wrought and felt a sadness well up in him. He took her in a long, wordless embrace, with an unspoken promise to strive towards his better self. He then rebuilt her house, better than it had been. He knew then it was time to strike out on his own and create his own legacy. He kissed his dear mother and bid her farewell. He donned the hide of the Bronze Bull of Arcadon, threw his mighty cudgel over his shoulder and strode out into the wide world. 

Edited April 9 by Ace Bronson (see edit history)

[desertfox]

Yay! Lovin it already.

[Ace Bronson]

I'm working through the stats. If you see something wrong just let me know and I'll fix it

[Ace Bronson]

Starting Money

[Ace Bronson]

Stats should be done. Struggling to find the right image that will tie the character together. Will come up with a suitable background and such shortly

Mainly trying to distinguish him enough from Hercules so that he has his own image and personality

 

Edited January 12 by Ace Bronson (see edit history)

[Ace Bronson]

Background complete

[desertfox]

Ok--just looking through the stats and it needs some balancing out.

attributes. You have spent 6/5 (+1, +0, +0, +3, +2). So you need to 'buy' the other 1 raise. Looks OK.

skills . You have spent 12 points, OK.

• notice, persuade, stealth, languages, free.
• athletics, 5 points, d4 free, * d6 **d8 ** d10
• fighting, 6 points!, *d4 *d6 **d8 **d10
• survival, 1 point, *d4

hindrances buy (2, 2.5?) raises, buying the non-free edge and the attribute raise.

So looks ok in terms of build points. But you are min-maxing a lot, spending 5 points (=2 and a half Advances!) on raising athletics and fighting above AGI. Something needs adjusting. Either bring your STR down a die type and raise your AGI to d8, so you 'only' lose 2 on overspend; or keep the skills at d8 and buy advances later. You are just a Novice rank character at this stage, give him somewhere to advance. Round out his skills so he can take part in other parts of the game action.

[Ace Bronson]

That's fair. I was torn on that. I had very nearly done either of your proposed ideas. My goal wasn't so much to min max but more to help him live up to being a descendent of a demigod. I didn't want him to feel completely mundane by averaging him out too much. I figured it would be a realistic RP penalty in and of itself that he had focused so much on being a big badass hero guy that he was lacking in more useful real world skills, providing some incentive for him to grow up a bit on his travels and learn some new things. I'll take a look and tweak things as you suggested though.

Stats aside, how is the background and concept?

Edited January 12 by Ace Bronson (see edit history)

[Ace Bronson]

Ok, decided to bump athletics and fighting down a die. that let me buy academics, performance, riding and intimidation. That should add some more diverse elements to the character. does that feel better to you?

[desertfox]

I think the background stuff is great. And I get your motivation for making him a 'streamlined' concept.

 

I think the d4s are a good way to go. With the wild die you can still have a decent chance of success at those rolls.

 

Are you sure you don't want to bring AGi up so you are not wasting skill points? How about bringing VIG down ( I understand why you want this guy to be really strong, so I sympathise with the STR choice). Maybe he had an illness or a wound that means he starts out as with ordinary stamina. You can easily buy an advance on it later, but you'd never get the lost skills points back.

 

In the end I'll let you choose--it's a good character and will scale well as he gets going.

[Ace Bronson]

That makes sense. I'll look at the numbers and see how I can tweak them. Appreciate the feedback

[Ace Bronson]

We could say that his vigor is "temporarily" lower because he's still healing from the fight with his father. It was a doozy. He's probably got some broken ribs and such at the very least so it would make sense that he's a bit tender for a while. So lets go that route. I'll adjust the numbers. Bringing his vigor back up can be his first advance

added repair and bumped stealth up to a d6

Edited January 13 by Ace Bronson (see edit history)

[desertfox]

looks good. Relieved to see no wasted skill point spends. But perhaps too ‘rounded’ now? You’ve been a sport buying more skills as per my suggestions, but how about buying an Edge instead?

 

To preserve your concept a bit, you could buy Brawny, N, St d6, V d6, which can only be chosen on character creation. It gives you +1 Toughness and a bigger carry load (we are not into counting load minutely , but it means you are human baggage mule). Cancelling the effect of the lower Stamina on your Toughness. Which would be 6(9) again. When you buy ‘back’ Stamina later, it would be 7(10)!

 

Or Attractive? Alertness? Luck? These are all background edges that you can’t buy later.

 

Hope my suggestions are are helpful and not hectoring!

 

 

 

Edited January 13 by desertfox (see edit history)

[KingGoblin]

I thought SWADE changed background edges to be something you could buy later? Just with an explanation that justifies it. Like, in movies, they suddenly get the Attractive edge when they untie their hair and take off their glasses.

 

Although it would probably take a lot more to explain suddenly getting Brawny. Bronze-Age Steroids. Oooh, the Brute edge also fits him pretty well, links Athletics to Strength instead of Agility, and gives him more range to thrown weapons. And Brawler, just because it also increases Toughness, although he would have to increase his Vigor again to get it.

 

Anyway, don't mind me, I just wanted to mention that they changed Background edges to be not really only level one, because I was bummed when I made a character one time that wanted Charismatic, Attractive and Very Attractive, and Famous, but that would be four Background edges and I obviously didn't have the points at creation. Then I reread the Background Edges text, and realized I could still make them Famous later!

[Ace Bronson]

I'm all for getting another edge instead of some of those skills. I'm trying to find how to get edges aside from spending my hindrance points, which I already have. can I give up some of the skill points in exchange for an edge?