Doghead

[Ratwalk]

Hello, it's good to see a superhero TTRPG that hasn't immediately been snatched up. Although I will admit I've got a rudimentary understanding of the Ascendant system when compared to my knowledge of M&M, ICONS, and Legends, but I will try my best to put something together.

As for a character concept, I do have a few questions to ask:

-When you say Security company, are they Paramilitary, Private Militia, Private Military Contractor, or Disaster Relief? This will change the portfolio of the character batch.
-I understand there is a 640 Character Point total, how much lower is acceptable?
-What sort of 'Age' are we looking to emulate here?
-Would you prefer more serious, gritty characters, or characters with some comical aspects?

[Ratwalk]

Codename: Doghead

PRIMARY STATS                                        HP 16
            MIG 14 AGI 4 VAL 6 RES 10 INS 4 CHA 2
Value: 400 cp

SECONDARY STATS
Height   1                                   Initiative 4
Weight    6                                 Income 0
Running Speed 4                        Reputation 2
Jumping Speed  9                       Passive Spotting 8 (1,200 ft)
Flying Speed  /                          Passive Listening 1 (10 ft)

Health     1280       Recovery  256          Determination   320         Recovery 64

POWERS (213 cp)

Permanent Growth
VC: 10 pt
SP: 3
Value: 30 cp

Super Stamina
VC: 4 pt
SP: 12
Value: 45 cp

Dark Vision
BC: 5
VC: 2
SP: 9
Value: 23 cp

Telescopic Vision
BC: 5
VC: 2
SP: 7
Value: 19 cp

Heightened Smell
BC: 5
VC: 3
SP: 9
Value: 25 cp

Regeneration
VC: 8
SP: 4
Value: 32 cp

Physical Invulnerability
BC: 20
VC: 2
SP: 7
Value: 34 cp

Running
VC: 2
Base Score: 5
SP: 8
Value: 6 cp

SKILLS (30 cp)
Investigation +5 [16 pt]
Craft (Welding) +2 [2 pt]
Popular Culture +3 [3 pt]
Martial Art (Kenjutsu) +3 [9 pt]

PERKS (10 cp)

Tireless [5 pt]
Combat Maneuver (Superfast Melee) [5 pt]



DRAWBACKS (-25 cp)

Code of Honor (Bushido) [2 pt]
Duty (Security Operative) [2 pt)
Hesitant (World of Cardboard) [5 pt]
Compulsion (Never sits anywhere his back is exposed) [1 pt]
Hunted (Cryptid) [2 pt]
Monstrous Appearance [1 pt]
Vulnerable State: [12 pt]
(Obstructive Geometric shapes, like sharp needles near the eyes)
(Silver)
(Loud/hypersonic noises)

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by Ratwalk (see edit history)

[eltorin]

Welcome, it’s great to have you here! I will try to help you as much as I can (and maybe the others, as well, I saw they are quite willing 🙂 ), so don’t worry about it, we’ll figure something out. And I can offer my auto-calculating character sheet for you, as well, if you think it would be any help.

As to your questions:

• What the characters more or less know about Dreadnaught is the following: “Dreadnaught is a private police company that offers a 24/7 on-call team of ascendant security operatives to high value clients across the United States. Dreadnaught has received a $10M contract from Capital City’s government to protect its cruise ship terminal as well as to supplement the municipal police department’s SWAT team. At present there are 12 operatives in the city. Dreadnaught has been openly lobbying the Mayor to privatize the entire police, so it has assigned some of its best ascendants to Capital City. It’s also begun to work with “freelance” heroes across the city, deputizing them as needed to deal with crises that come up.” I hope it helps.
• To be effective enough, the characters should be in the 620-640 CP-range
• Modern Age through and through (with all it’s implications), the setting is also absolutely contemporary, August 2023
• Would something in between would be acceptable? I’m not asking for totally gritty characters, nor comic relief-ones, but aspects of both would work perfectly.

Edited April 13, 2023 by eltorin (see edit history)

[Ratwalk]

Alright, this will be great. I usually make character concepts in batches and give the GM the option of which will fit the setting the best. So far, I have the following 5:

-Idea #1: A former bail bonds agent who was entombed in concrete in the 1920s, but due to exotic particles survived inside of the concrete and emerged with powers of elasticity similar to that of polymer plastics. A little bit of a 'Mysterious Stranger' type with some Western tropes baked in.
-Idea #2: A former Guatemalan refugee who gained the ability to speak with animals after an encounter with a Great Old One that took the shape of an ancient mythological being.
-Idea #3: Thumbs, a sentient poltergeist operating a wheelchair that can fall apart and reform into pieces, and who was once owned by the daughter of one of the fallen officers, seeking solace for its creator.
Idea #4: A Psionically proficient nocturnal gambler who got contracted for protections against cheating allegations that landed him several hundreds of thousands in debt. Due to the steepness of the debt, he is effectively 'on call' forever.
Idea #5: A Dogman, an American Werewolf with a deep obsession of japanese culture that has a personal vendetta against a red herring in the case, and wants to get to bottom of the investigation.

And of course, I'd love to have the auto-calculating character sheet.

Edited April 13, 2023 by Ratwalk (see edit history)

[eltorin]

While these are all very good concepts, for the purposes of this adventure, I would recommend choosing one of numbers 1, 2 or 5. And there's no need to put too much emphasis on the background as this will be a one-shot, but you can work on it as you like, I just wanted to make sure. :)

Sure thing, you can download the character sheet from GitHub: Sheet - a word of caution: as I'm not a web designer, I practically have no relevant skills, and it shows (as it's not very pretty), the code, however is solid and does what it says. :)

 

Edited April 13, 2023 by eltorin (see edit history)

[Ratwalk]

I went ahead with #5 and made the starting outline for the character. I decided to make a Powerhouse type character with some better senses and isn't quite as immovable as they are agile. In this case, the gimmick being that he's stuck in his bestial form due to an injury. I have some more sidenotes regarding some of the calculations. Unfortunately, the sheet you sent was bugged and it didn't load out the numbers. It does however make the organization of the draft a bit easier.

[eltorin]

Great, I've added the WIP tag and will check when you feel it's ready for review. Looks good so far and I like the concept.

Thanks for the "bug-report", no one experienced anything like that before (I know many players who use it) but I'll look into it, when I have some time (it was tested on Linux, MacOS and Windows, under Firefox, Safari and Chrome-derivatives like Edge). 🙂

Edit: I think I know what you meant, but if I'm right, it works as designed - if you change a parameter for a Power, for example, you need to change the SP value because the function is linked to the change of that. The same is true for Skills and such.

Edited April 14, 2023 by eltorin (see edit history)

[Ratwalk]

I found a few powers I liked from some of the other archetypes, I've reached the point cap, so this is officially the first draft. Ready for review.

Edited April 14, 2023 by Ratwalk (see edit history)

[eltorin]

Roger that, thanks for letting me know, will do in the next few days! Luckily we have time, in the meantime, even a few more players might get interested.

[eltorin]

Approved, thank you!

[eltorin]

Now we have 3 players, so if all goes well, we can start the adventure next week. Until then, please find a suitable image for your character. 🙂

 

Edited May 3, 2023 by eltorin (see edit history)

[Ratwalk]

Something like this in terms of appearance. Though definitely wearing patented Dreadnought Underwear.

Edited May 10, 2023 by Ratwalk (see edit history)

[eltorin]

Looks great!