I more or less like these characters, but there are a number of niggling issues that bug me about them.I picked the Chest Deep level deliberately; my current campaign PCs are at that level, I'm comfortable GMing with it, and I feel that it's accessible for someone who wants to just sit down and play at a convention without being too overwhelming.
The first is that it isn't immediately obvious that they are at Chest Deep level.
The second is that these characters are not at all optimized. My inner powergamer objects to the lack of Superb skills and to the suboptimal stunt selection. Now, this isn't necessarily a problem. But some convention players might prefer stronger characters.If you have stunts to suggest, I'm all ears! That's the entire purpose of this thread, afterall.
The third and most important is that they don't seem like a cohesive group. There aren't any obvious guest star aspects and the division of roles is imperfect. While I like each of these characters individually (optimized or not), I don't see them as a team.How this is going to work is that the convention game is going to have four slots for players, who will pick which character they want to play out of this pool of eight. As I don't know which characters are going to be picked at any given game, I needed to make sure that every PC combo was potentially viable--hence the division of roles. (The other four will become NPCs by default, but they'll be mostly off screen, so to speak)
I don't seem to have explained myself very well. I'm not bothered by the fact that they are Chest Deep, I just think a little note saying "Chest Deep" in the first or ninth post would be helpful.Sorry, my bad. I think I was trying to get them all posted and forgot in the rush.
As for the stunts:I considered it that when I was building the character, but the Human Spider stunt is there to indicate her skill at parkour in human form; if I were to do that, I'd have to do an almost complete rebuild of the character and concept. I'm playtesting this tomorrow, so we'll see how well she works if she's picked.
I suggest that you replace Tia's Human Spider stunt with the Spider Walk or Wings power. You'd have to change the animal form, so it would be significant change to the character, but those powers make the stunt look worthless.
Kristie Hoffman's Athletics stunts can be replaced with Supernatural Speed for the same cost and a vastly better effect.True, but I thought Changelings got the powers of their parents, and elves get Inhuman Speed, not Supernatural according to Our World. It's actually what I wanted to do, but the template description gave me pause.
Landon's Martial Artist stunt isn't all that useful with Average Fists. I recommend that you either ditch it or increase his Fists skill.Swap it with Alertness? I can see him have the "mostly dead to the world" type of situational awareness.
Fearless and Fireproof are highly situational, so either make sure they come up in the one-shot or get rid of them.
The four-of-eight aspect does make the spread of characters seem more reasonable. Nonetheless, there are a lot of character types not represented here, and some players might be disappointed by the absence of thaumaturgy and the lack of characters dedicated to either social or physical combat.I left out Thaumaturgy on purpose; with the average convention game having, realistically, four hours of game time at most, Thaumaturgy, especially to a newbie to the system, can be a massive time sink.
Meri Metzger, Firefighter Squad Leader
Meri is the daughter of a second-generation firefighter. After her older brother was killed in a routine fire, she took up the torch and joined the squad, and found a home. Moving her way up the ranks, she eventually became a squad leader for her unit, and one day, she and her team went to go put out a fire—and found a man in a grey cloak throwing fire at big… things. As a result, Meri is clued-in and somewhat unhappy about it.
High Concept
Firefighter Squad Leader
Trouble:
My Job Is To Run Into Burning Buildings
Other Aspects
The Family Tradition
The Voice Of Authority
The Building Was On Fire And It Was All His Fault
Whizzing On Forest Fires
Steeled And Fiery Temper
Skills:
Great (+4): Presence
Good (+3): Athletics, Discipline, Endurance
Fair (+2): Investigation, Rapport, Empathy, Alertness, Contacts
Average (+1): Resources, Scholarship, Conviction, Might, Fists, Intimidation
Stunts:
No Pain, No Gain: You can take a bunch of punishment before it starts to add up. You may take one additional mild physical consequence (page 203).
Leadership: When you talk, people listen. When using Presence to command a group (page 137), gain +1 on the effort. Further, your efforts to coordinate a group are efficient, moving one time increment (page 315) faster than normal.
Fireproof: You are incredibly resistant to fire and extreme heat in general. You have a natural armor score of 2 against fire.
Encouraging Leadership: People feel braver with your support. When leading a group in a social situation you may have your Presence skill complement that of your group.
Stress:
Physical ○○○○
Mental ○○○
Social ○○○○
Armor:2 vs fire/heat
Consequences: (P/M/S)
Mild:_________________
Mild (P):_________________
Moderate: _____________
Severe: ________________
Extreme: _______________
Total Refresh Cost: -4 (Pure Mortal)
Available Refresh: 6
I'n not sure how accurate you need or want your characters to be but I can offer a couple things.Lt. it is then.
There's not really a 'squad leader' in terms of fire depts. Generally each shift (usually 3 or four rotating shifts) has a Captain and Lt. and the rest of the firefighters are either just Privates (or maybe just Firefighter). If you want her to be involved in actual firefighting and be 'on the knob' then make her a Lt. is she is more command then make her a Captain.
Resources/contacts: I'd up the resources and/or contacts skill. Firefighting is a family, so she can call on the Family for just about anything, in any city. Just having a union sticker on your car will at least get you free parking at fire stations everywhere, for example. Not to mention on off days many FF work at another job or trade, so she can call on those resources as well. Its more of a options and support/networking resource than financial.Nice. I'll keep the skills where they are right now, but I'll keep that in mind.
Trouble aspect: I'm not exactly sure why her job is a trouble per se. If you intend for it to be that she is impulsive and occasionally arrogant about her job that might be a little more accurate ;) There is a lot of "I'm a firefighter so I am right and you are wrong" personalities out there, and that has a lot of potential to compel (or use as an aspect, either way.)I was going more for the interpretation that "I run into dangerous situations that others flee from for their good." I've had problems in games before, even at conventions, where one person basically went "I want to have the spotlight, so you're all going to have to convince my character why he should go risk his neck with the rest of you." So all of the characters have an Aspect that I can tag saying "this is why you care."
Fireproof: Fire gear will protect for a long time in average interior firefighting conditions. But you need to have it on-this includes SCBA. If you run her as pure mortal then there is no way she can go into fire without it. Otherwise she'd need some supernatural element. Maybe you can up the stunt to MAX of +2 if she has all her gear, otherwise its a +1 with just one part of the gear OR give her a time limit for the stunt for each scene.I figure she's just resistant to heat; a two shift stress is basically a mild consequence-level intensity. So she's the kind of person who doesn't have to bother with more than thin oven mitts.
The fearless thing... I don't think you need to change it. It can tie into her Trouble aspect.Indeed. Double compels for the win!
I'm assuming the scholarship skill refers to being an EMT. If it doesn't I'd consider it.Pretty much.
Other ideas: add mental toughness (female AND shift leader? Yeah, she has to be tough.)I'm not going to give the mental toughness powers, but her Presence is high. And at another's suggestion, I'm swapping the Fists for Weapons--she's handy with a fire axe. ;)
clarify fists?
Other than that she's remarkably similar to another character I have been working on... :)