Statting Up Worm Characters

[Sanctaphrax]

Is anyone here familiar with the Worm Web Serial?

Because it is pretty great, and you should read it.

Reading it made me want to try writing some of its characters up, so I'm doing that. Anyone else who's read the story should feel free to contribute their own takes on its characters.

I'll also consider requests, if anyone has any.

If you haven't read Worm, this might not make too much sense to you. Feel free to ask for clarification.

I'm starting with Simurgh and Behemoth. Dunno who I'll do next...maybe Lung.

Incidentally, I had to make some assumptions when filling out the bottom of the skill pyramids for these guys. We don't actually know whether Behemoth has social skills, for instance. But I figure he probably does, he just can't be bothered to speak to humans.

(click to show/hide)

Simurgh (Deep One)

The Simurgh has one ability that's not found either in canon or on the list. It's the Super-Vast upgrade for her Dangerous Aura Power. It extends that Power to cover an entire city. I've priced it at -2, because while it's massively powerful it's not terribly practical. Using it will inevitably get the entire city to attack you.

Incidentally, those Taken Out by the Simurgh's Aura (which takes the form of a telepathic song) don't always show any immediate effects. They sometimes seem normal. But the Simurgh has altered their minds in such a way as to guarantee that they'll do terrible things to the world later on. She can see the future, so she can create ridiculously complex chains of events. The best policy when dealing with the Simurgh is generally to kill anyone who spent more than a short time in the same city as her.

High Concept: Endbringer Of Air
Other Aspects: Smartest Thing In The World, The Only Real Psychic, Sees And Manipulates The Future, Sleeps At The Edge Of Space
Skills:
Epic: Lore, Discipline
Fantastic: Conviction, Scholarship
Superb: Craftsmanship, Endurance
Great: Performance, Deceit
Good: Presence, Alertness, Intimidation
Fair: Rapport, Empathy, Survival, Investigation
Average: Might, Burglary, Stealth, Fists, Athletics
Stunts:
Nearly Omniscient (Lore): +2 to Lore when using it to know about current events.
World’s Most Powerful Precog (Lore): +2 to Lore for the Divination trapping granted by the Prophecy Power.
Memorized Portal Schematics (Craftsmanship): May build non-magical portals to alternate realities.
Precognitive Evasion (Discipline): Extra +2 to dodge physical attacks when invoking an Aspect created with a Precognition Assessment.
Mind Reader (Lore): Use Lore to read people.
Powers:
Potent Enhanced Defensive Self-Propelling Telekinesis [-6]
Prophecy [-1]
Precognition [-2]
Super-Vast Hyper-Dangerous Mental Aura [-10]
Superior Dangerous Searchable Mental Library [-5]
Magical Worksite [-2]
Numerical Prodigy [-3]
Incite Effect [-1] (Scramble Programs w/Discipline)
Supernatural Senses [-3] (Read minds, absorb stored information, see through walls and stuff)
Mythic Strength [-6]
Supernatural Toughness [-4]
Mythic Stoicism [-4]
Inhuman Recovery [-2]
Hulking Size [-2]
Undying [-0]
No Metabolism [-1]
Total Refresh Cost:
-57
Refresh Total:
-19

(click to show/hide)

Behemoth (Deep One)

Behemoth also has custom Powers not found on the list. One is called Internalized Foci, and it is what it sounds like. It's like Item of Power except backwards; Behemoth gets focus bonuses while naked.

The other is an upgrade for Dangerous Aura. It's called Persistent Aura, and it causes his aura to linger in a zone after he leaves the zone. Once the scene is over, the entire area in which Behemoth used his aura becomes more-or-less permanently dangerous.

Incidentally, I'm not totally happy with the mechanics of the Stonewalk custom Power. But I couldn't really make Behemoth without it.

High Concept: Endbringer Of Earth
Other Aspects: Herokiller, Strongest Thing In Existence, Dynakinetic, Sleeps At The Centre Of The Earth
Skills:
Epic: Fists, Endurance
Fantastic: Might, Alertness
Superb: Conviction, Discipline
Great: Survival, Intimidation
Good: Investigation, Presence, Lore
Fair: Scholarship, Deceit, Stealth, Craftsmanship
Average: Empathy, Rapport, Performance, Athletics
Stunts:
Shrug It Off (Endurance): Instead of making a defence roll against an attack, may roll Endurance and use the result as stacking armour.
Disposable Flesh (Endurance): Extra mild physical consequence.
Inexhaustible Power (Conviction): 2 extra mild mental consequences, only for spellcasting.
Powers:
Evocation [-3]
Alternate Magical Paradigm [-1] (Endurance, Fists, Might)
Refinement [-15]
Mythic Strength [-6]
Mythic Toughness [-6]
Supernatural Recovery [-4]
Mythic Stoicism [-3]
Titanic Size [-4]
Extended Long Reach [-2]
Potent Selective Area Natural Weaponry [-4]
Persistent Vast Hyper-Dangerous Aura [-9]
No Metabolism [-1]
Stonewalk [-1]
Internalized Foci [-2]
Feel No Pain [-3]
Magic:
Evocation (Heat, Force, Sound, Electricity, Radiation): +1 Force control, +1 Force power, +1 Sound power, +2 Electricity power, +3 Sound control, +4 Electricity control, +5 Heat power, +6 Heat control
Foci: +3 offensive Heat power, +2 offensive Heat control
Total Refresh Cost:
-67
Refresh Total:
-29

[Sanctaphrax]

Lung and Cherish, now.

(click to show/hide)

Lung (Submerged)

High Concept: Parahuman Gang Leader
Trouble Aspect: Violent Thug
Other Aspects: Racially Mixed, Rule By Fear, The Longer I Fight The Stronger I Get
Skills:
Superb: Fists
Great: Intimidation, Presence
Good: Endurance, Might, Athletics
Fair: Contacts, Alertness, Resources, Discipline
Average: Conviction, Investigation, Deceit, Empathy, Rapport
Powers:
Ranged Natural Weaponry [-2] (Pyrokinesis)
Wizard's Constitution [-0]
Limitation (Gets these Powers on the first round of a fight) [+3]
   Inhuman Strength [-2]
   Immunity (Fire) [-2]
   Inhuman Toughness [-2]
   Potent Area Natural Weaponry (Claws and Pyrokinesis) [-2]
   Supernatural Sense (Enhanced Hearing) [-1]
   Limitation (Gets these powers on the fourth exchange of combat) [+5]
      Supernatural Strength [-2]
      Supernatural Toughness [-2]
      Hulking Size [-2]
      Inhuman Recovery [-2]
      Limitation (These Powers show up on the eighth exchange of combat.) [+4]
         Wings [-1]
         Mythic Strength [-2]
         Mythic Toughness [-2]
         Supernatural Recovery [-2]
Total Refresh Cost:
-14
Refresh Total:
-4

(click to show/hide)

Cherish (Up To Your Waist)

High Concept: Member Of The Slaughterhouse Nine
Trouble Aspect: Out Of Her League
Other Aspects: Hideous Tattoos, Daughter Of Heartbreaker, Sadistic And Childish
Skills:
Great: Deceit, Alertness
Good: Discipline, Conviction
Fair: Empathy, Burglary, Rapport
Average: Stealth, Athletics, Endurance, Presence, Investigation
Stunts:
Linguist (Scholarship): Speaks 4 extra languages.
Powers:
Supernatural Sense [-3] (Can sense the emotions of anyone within a very large area. This Power can be used to track people.)
Incite Protective Potent Selective Mass Mental Effect At Range [-9] (Emotions, 2x Additional Effect to cover all emotions)
Total Refresh Cost:
-13
Refresh Total:
-6

[Mrmdubois]

Worm is awesome, hands down.

Do you have a Catch for Lung?

Not even going to bother asking if the Endbringers have one other than Scion.

As for requests, how about Myrddin or Noelle?

[Sanctaphrax]

It is indeed.

I decided not to give Lung a Catch, partly because I couldn't think of one and partly because his Toughness Powers are already pretty limited.

I don't think Noelle should be too hard, as long as I don't try to assign a Refresh cost to her clone-generation. I'll give her a try.

But I don't really know where to start with Myrrdin. I was never really sure exactly what he could do or what kind of person he was. And his in-depth Cast entry is missing.

[Mrmdubois]

Thus the challenge!

Basically he creates pocket dimensions which seem to be able to absorb and redirect energy and matter, or trap people extra-dimensionally.  That was the impression I got anyways.  It's too bad he got killed off before he could get an Interlude.

How did you find the series Sancta?

[Sanctaphrax]

Yeah, he definitely did something with pocket dimensions. But exactly what he did is kind of hard to tell.

Maybe I'll just give him Incite Effect. That's usually a pretty good default for stuff that's hard to model.

On the other hand, he was pretty darn powerful. Incite Effect might not be "big" enough. Maybe I should go with Sponsored Magic instead. He did have that wizard theme.

And I really like the series. Wouldn't be talking about it here, otherwise.

[Mrmdubois]

Incite Effect is nice, glad you wrote it so I can use it for some of my characters, but yeah no clue how it could be worked out for something like that.

[Sanctaphrax]

And here's Noelle.

(click to show/hide)

Noelle (Scuba Diving)

High Concept: Parahuman Gone Wrong
Trouble Aspect: Being Taken Over By Her Passenger
Other Aspects: I Wish I Could Die, Monstrous Parody Of Anorexia, Former Leader Of The Travellers, Krouse And I Against The World, The Promise Of The Travellers
Skills:
Superb: Fists, Athletics, Might
Great: Alertness, Endurance, Discipline
Good: Deceit, Intimidation, Conviction
Fair: Scholarship, Investigation, Lore
Average: Rapport, Presence, Empathy
Stunts:
Suck You In (Might): +1 to grapple.
Filled With Deadly Bacteria (Might): No penalty for supplemental actions to inflict stress in a grapple.
Like A Wave Of Flesh (Might): May attempt spray grapples, using the rules for spray attacks.
Powers:
Hulking Size [-2]
Mythic Strength [-6]
Inhuman Speed [-2]
Mythic Toughness [-6]
Mythic Recovery [-6]
Feel No Pain [-3]
Natural Weaponry [-1]
Incite Effect At Range [-2] (Vomit)
Supernatural Sense [-1] ("Smell" parahumans)
Flesh Eater [-1] (Blood Drinker reflavour)
Swallow Whole [-1]
Sponsor [-0]
Spiritual Co-Pilot [-1]
Cloning [Special]
Total Refresh Cost:
-35 (Not including Cloning)
Refresh Total:
-18

Turns out the Swallow Whole custom Power fits her very well.

It's nice when an old custom Power becomes useful like that.

My basic idea for Cloning is

(click to show/hide)

If Noelle is grappling you or has Taken you Out without killing you, then she can make a clone of you every three exchanges. Clones created by Noelle stay inactive in her body until she vomits. Vomiting takes up Noelle's turn, but she can use her Incite Effect while she does it.

Sometimes involuntary clones show up when somebody touches Noelle. That's handled with Compels.

Clones are mostly identical to the original characters, except their High Concept starts with OMNICIDAL MUTANT CLONE OF A. Sometimes their Powers are a bit different, at the GM's discretion.

If somebody escapes from a grapple with Noelle, that means she accidentally spits them out. Rescuing someone from Noelle is usually a maneuver or an attempt to break a grapple.

I have no idea what this should cost. But I'm reasonably happy with these mechanics. They fit what we've see in the story pretty well, I think.

So, what do you think?

[Mrmdubois]

Looks good, pretty accurate.

You know, I had never considered before that her power ended up pantomiming her eating disorder.  All I had realized was the psychological damage led to her mutating horribly based on her negative opinion of herself.

I'll have to think of another toughie, but you haven't done Leviathan yet.

[Sanctaphrax]

Yeah, I didn't realize it either until someone in the comments mentioned it.

But it's kind of obvious once you see it, eh?

Constantly hungry, gets bigger and uglier when she eats, cannot get smaller even if pieces are cut off, has a vomiting-based superpower...

I started Leviathan a while ago. I stopped because I couldn't think of a good way to model his macrohydrokinesis. Suggestions would be appreciated.

Here's what I had when I stopped:

(click to show/hide)

Leviathan (Deep One)

High Concept: Endbringer Of Water
Other Aspects: Sinker Of Islands, Watery Afterimage, Surprisingly Cunning, Sleeps At The Bottom Of The Sea
Skills:
Epic:
Fantastic:
Superb:
Great:
Good:
Fair:
Average:
Stunts:
Powers:
Undying [-0]
No Metabolism [-1]
Mythic Strength [-6]
Mythic Toughness [-6]
Supernatural Speed [-4]
Inhuman Recovery [-2]
Hulking Size [-2]
Aquatic [-1]
Potent Selective Ranged Area Natural Weaponry [-5]?
Incite Effect At Range (Hydrokinesis) [-2]?
Total Refresh Cost:

Refresh Total:

[Mrmdubois]

Well his macrohydrokinesis can basically assault an entire section of coast line, either doing surface damage or wear and tear underneath to slide land masses under water.

We're talking off the scale in terms of weapon rating and too many zones to bother counting.

For the massive waves I'd consider just putting them on a timer then just put every pertinent zone under an automatic zone wide attack with a high weapon rating and maybe place maneuvers on the zone too, Under Water, Crushing Pressure, etc, and have players either get into the air, far away somehow or put up massive blocks, make Declarations
like High Ground.  Wash, rinse repeat whenever the timer runs out.

For stuff like destroying the sewer system his Incite Effect probably works, maybe give it a power boost if he uses it at the same time his timer runs down on the massive wave ability.

I assume the natural weaponry is his water echo?  If not the dangerous aura ability might work?  You know it better than me.

Also he can hit Mythic Speed, when he was under water Taylor momentarily thought he was teleporting he moved so fast.  Limitation I guess.

[Mrmdubois]

For my next challenge to you, how about the Number Man?

[Sanctaphrax]

Hm.

The Number Man is tricky because DFRPG mostly lacks mental Powers. Precognition would fit him, but it only covers a small part of what he can do.

Maybe I'll write a Super Math power. Could be useful for other characters too, at some point in the future.

As for Leviathan:

The Natural Weaponry is indeed his afterimage. It's not a perfect fit, but since he mostly uses his afterimage to hit people from a distance I figured it was a good enough representation.

I forgot about how he gets faster underwater. I will indeed use Limitation for that.

An attack on a timer is probably a good way to handle the waves. For grander stuff like making lakes and sinking Japan, I'm thinking maybe Leviathan performs water-related Thaumaturgy just by existing. 4 shifts of power per exchange or something.

I guess that stuff could just be handwaved, but...I'd rather do something more rigorous.

[Mrmdubois]

Ooo, using Thaumaturgy for it, I like that.

And, yeah, the Number Man is tricky, which is why I picked him.  I get the feeling his precognition is limited to extrapolating from known data but with no limit on the number of variables he can consider simultaneously, rather than simply yanking futures out of thin air like Dinah.  Though that's really not very limiting when you think about it...

Super Math would be cool to see.

[Sanctaphrax]

I agree about his precognition. Fortunately the Precognition Power accommodates that pretty well. You need Prophecy to be Dinah.

As for Super Math, here's what I have in mind:

-You perform basic calculations as though you have a graphing calculator and a spreadsheet in your head. That is, instantly and perfectly.
-You can count instantly and without error. You can tell at a glance how many people are in a crowd, how many metres long a monster is, and how many metres per second a car is moving at.
-You are substantially better at everything that involves math. How much better depends on how math-y the activity in question is. So the boost would be huge for proving theorems related to the geometry of 8-dimensional space, big for analysing the latest information from the Large Hadron Collider, moderately large for managing money, and small for fixing a car.

Think I'm missing anything?

I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to implement this mechanically, but I have some ideas.