Author Topic: Scion of Vlad Drakul  (Read 1911 times)

Offline Kiero

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Scion of Vlad Drakul
« on: October 22, 2011, 10:59:19 AM »
We're starting a DFRPG game, City on the River, next week (hi mremann, who's our GM). It's set in our own Bristol (which mremann has posted about in the past) and is now our main game. We're Chest-Deep with Refresh of 8. For context, the rest of the group is looking roughly thus:
  • A White Court Vampire who feeds on greed and runs a gambling joint. Primarily a face/connections character and a deadly shot with a bow.
  • A sneaky Wizard focused on Veils, illusions and mind-trickery, specialising in air and water magic (with French mythological inspirations). Secondary is infiltration/stealth and relies on other people to do the wetwork.
  • A proto-Knight of the Cross sans Sword for the moment who's a genuine nice guy and doesn't use guns. Ever. Obviously going to be a skilled melee-ist, and is a professor of philosophy.
  • Possibly an ex-cop/royal bodyguard with some latent and uncontrolled magical talent.

I love the "building block" physical powers, and since this game was first mooted, I've wanted to play a character who uses them. I want all the supernatural physical boosts, they're just too cool and play right into the sort of character I want to play. One who acts as the group's primary muscle/beatstick. We agreed on a Scion (template is basically a spin on Changeling), and eventually arrived at Vlad Drakul as the sire.

Here's a quick bio (spoilered not because it contains spoilers, but so people can skip it if they like):
(click to show/hide)

Here's the mechanical bits, again spoilered to cut down clutter:

(click to show/hide)

Bonus points for anyone who gets the reference for his name.

His High Aspect is the keystone for his demonic nature, and thus why he was born in the 18th century yet still lives. Also where the powers come from.

His Trouble Aspect is a reference to the notorious episode when he did Very Bad Things, culminating in his appointment with the wielder of Esperacchius in the 1830s. Not sure that's exactly where the worst of it happened, but the name seems to fit for the moment.

Not determining the other Aspects is quite deliberate, that's for working out when we get together.

Skills features some deliberate redundancy in having both Fists and Weapons at Great (+4), I've been round on that and can't find any other satisfactory solution that doesn't leave the character seeming incomplete to my mind. As someone who once followed the code of Furusiyya, he should be capable of handling any melee weapon or fighting unarmed skilfully. Indeed there should even be archery in there, but frankly there's no room. Besides I can imagine he disdained bows (and guns) as the tools of weaklings when he was bad, and avoided them for the risk of collateral damage when he was good.

We've had some discussion about The Choice, which is likely to be a campaign-climactic type event. In that instance his powers would all jump to Mythic and he'd get Claws and Sponsored Magic if he chose his demon side. Obviously if he chose his human side, he'd become a Pure Mortal.

I must admit the notion of a "holy avenger" filled with genuine righteousness coming after him for the crimes of his past really appeals as a focus story. After all, he really is demonic and really did all the things of which he would be accused. There's that whole debate of whether the person you are now can in any way mitigate or atone for the things you did in the past.

Anyway, just wanted to share for debate, critique and whatever else.

Offline polkaneverdies

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Re: Scion of Vlad Drakul
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2011, 01:26:07 PM »
Interesting character history that seems like you should get a lot of good Rp out of it.

Unless your group is doing it differently languages should be determined by scholarship on a one for one basis.

Also I would suggest you drop the wall of death stunt. If memory serves correctly that is spray for melee weapons. The spray rules are quite brutal so probably not worth a refresh. I would suggest you look through the home brew stunts on the resource board here for something more tempting.
 Oh my reasoning being that on a perfect roll you would have an 8 to divide in between multiple targets. On an average roll you would have a 4. It would end up being largely useless unless you are fighting complete scrubs and if that is the case they aren't likely to hurt you anyways.

Offline Kiero

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Re: Scion of Vlad Drakul
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2011, 02:20:40 PM »
Interesting character history that seems like you should get a lot of good Rp out of it.

Unless your group is doing it differently languages should be determined by scholarship on a one for one basis.

Thanks, it's been an evolving backstory as time has gone on. I'm possibly in danger of shoe-horning too many contacts with different supernatural factions in, but he has been kicking around a few centuries.

We're doing languages differently; otherwise there are three characters who should be multilingual who's first language isn't English who would only have one language. Thus we're going with more of a "what makes sense" approach and cutting the direct tie to Scholarship.

Also I would suggest you drop the wall of death stunt. If memory serves correctly that is spray for melee weapons. The spray rules are quite brutal so probably not worth a refresh. I would suggest you look through the home brew stunts on the resource board here for something more tempting.
 Oh my reasoning being that on a perfect roll you would have an 8 to divide in between multiple targets. On an average roll you would have a 4. It would end up being largely useless unless you are fighting complete scrubs and if that is the case they aren't likely to hurt you anyways.

It's intended entirely for mook crowd-control (or as you put it, complete scrubs). Since they're rarely going to have anything higher than Fair (+2), that's at least two targets I can hit with at least +1 shift doing 5 Stress (or more likely, one solid hit of +2 to +4 and as many extra +1s as I can spare after that). It's less about the risk they pose to my character personally, and more the threat their continued belligerence poses to the other PCs. Especially our wizard.
« Last Edit: October 22, 2011, 02:22:45 PM by Kiero »

Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: Scion of Vlad Drakul
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2011, 08:07:57 PM »
The character looks pretty good to me, though the level of optimization is low.

A stunt or three could let you get Fists and Weapons and maybe even Guns for the price of one skill.

May I suggest that you post this to the Spare Character Concepts thread?

PS: Are you the same Kiero who posts on RPGnet? The "Ascetic Superman"?

Offline Kiero

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Re: Scion of Vlad Drakul
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2011, 09:18:56 PM »
The character looks pretty good to me, though the level of optimization is low.

A stunt or three could let you get Fists and Weapons and maybe even Guns for the price of one skill.

Perhaps, but it would feel like a dodge and besides which, no Refresh to spare. Taking Armed Arts/Extensive Training under Fists, for example, wouldn't give me the full range of weapons that he'd need to be able to use (sword, axe, mace, lance/spear, javelin, dagger).

May I suggest that you post this to the Spare Character Concepts thread?

I'll repost there.

PS: Are you the same Kiero who posts on RPGnet? The "Ascetic Superman"?

The one and the same.