Hey all!
I've been kinda out of it for a while, but in my away time, I've been working on a personal project of my own. A web serial to be exact, which is going to be released on a chapter by chapter basis starting in November. It is titled Muses, and it centers on magical humans called the Inspired, who each have a personal muse which grants them magic. Inspired grow in power primarily by killing other Inspired and claiming their Muses.
Needless to say, this makes situations complicated quite quickly, even with systems in place to keep it from getting ridiculous. This is exacerbated because the protagonist, just by existing, threatens to send the system that keeps all the magical murder from spiraling out of control into complete disarray, to the point that she is referred to as "The Cataclysm."
To get people hype, I'm actually going to be releasing rough stat blocks for select characters in the story, starting with the deuteragonist (I need to figure out how to display the protagonist without getting too many spoilers in the way).
So here is Aria Abidaoud:
Aria Abidaoud (Snorkeling)
High Concept: Up and Coming Inspired
Trouble Aspect: Best Friend of the Cataclysm
Other Aspects: Nearly Incapable of Taking Orders, Majoring in Movement Science, Motion is My Concept, Knack for Dealmaking, Always Rapidly Improvising Actions
Skills:
Superb: Discipline, Conviction
Great: Athletics, Lore, Alertness
Good: Presence, Endurance, Contacts
Fair: Scholarship, Fists, Weapons
Average: Intimidation, Rapport, Resources
Stunts
Negotiation Practice (Contacts): Use Contacts for social interaction when making deals
Scholar (Scholarship: Biology +1, Biomechanics +2)
Only I Decide What I Am Going To Do (Conviction): Conviction is at +2 to resist mental attack
Powers:
Inspired (Motion) [-5]
Constitution of the Inspired (Reskinned's Wizard's Constitution) [-0]
Supernatural Speed [-4]
Magic:
Focus slots: +2 Offensive Power and Control Motion
Total Refresh Cost:
-12
Refresh Total:
1
Notes:
The power "Inspired" is Channeling, Ritual, and Internalized Foci rolled into one: Muses tend to grant magic over a theme (called a Concept in Muses) that varies from person to person, and foci are not really a thing in Muses. Furthermore, the Inspired rarely take enchanted item slots, but this is more for story reasons than gameplay: magical items are difficult to impossible to make if they lie outside of your concept and if someone kills you with your own, it's just plain embarrassing.
Furthermore, Inspired tend to scale in power over time, and eventually modifying the world according to your concept is second nature. To reflect this, they tend to swap the Channeling+Ritual+IF version of their power for Miracles as they grow in power, representing that they have enough power and control that they don't wear out nearly as easily.
Aria's Supernatural Speed is a bit odd in terms of its power relative to her capabilities with magic, but it's not unusual for Inspired to take other abilities that fit with their magic concept: speed is actually somewhat common, it's just that Aria's promises to be especially powerful.
Currently, Aria's magical attacks primarily manifest as Flash Steps that allow her to rain punches and kicks and stuff hard and fast, while her defense is usually going to look like "dodge lots of things." This is her at the beginning of the story however, for obvious reasons.
Here's hoping this generates some hype!
