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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: studer on November 30, 2012, 07:48:06 PM
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Costumed Vigilante
A costumed vigilante is a person with extraordinary powers that chooses to fight crime as a costumed secret identity. This covers character concepts like Black Panther, Luke Cage, Doc Savage, Daredevil, Moon Knight but not really folks like Superman or the Hulk. Characters like Batman, the Punisher, or the heroes of the pulps would be Pure Mortals, not Costumed Vigilantes. A Costumed Vigilante must have something that makes them above and beyond normal humanity. Perhaps the character is an alien, a being from some out of the way place in the Nevernever, or augmented by magic or super-science. This is a lot like the Emissary of Power template, but without a superior pulling the strings.
Musts: Costumed Vigilantes must have the Secret Identity trouble. The bad guys want revenge and the authorities probably want them for questioning at the very least. The character must also have at least -1 Refresh in Powers, selected from the ones available under Options.
Options: A Costumed Vigilante must take at least -1 Refresh and no more than -6 Refresh from the list below. No other Powers may be taken.
Aquatic [-1], Claws [-1], Cloak of Shadows [-1], Spider Walk [-1], Supernatural Sense [-1], Wings [-1], Wizard's Constitution [-1]*,
Breath Weapon [-2], Inhuman Recovery [-1], Inhuman Speed [-2], Inhuman Strength [-2], Inhuman Toughness [-2]
Gaseous Form [-3],
Supernatural Recovery [-4], Supernatural Speed [-4], Supernatural Strength [-4], Supernatural Toughness [-4]
Item of Power [-Varies]
*Cost changed to [-1] or everybody would take it. Useful for making certain long-lived Gaelic swordsmen...
Need not take a catch.
Don't neglect Stunts!
Important Skills: combat and/or investigative skills are usually appropriate.
Minimum Refresh Cost: -1
From the Casefiles: None yet, but plausible.
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I really wouldn't limit any power for a costumed vigilante and given batman has no powers I wouldn't make the -1 refresh of powers necessary either.
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He stated above that Batman and heroes of means dont count, nor do superpowered ones. Which seems odd to me. You are limiting the idea of the costumed vigilate to a small amount of heroes. Taking out the ones on either end of the spectrum. I would allow it to include all of these people
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Do note that it isn't possible to build Luke Cage with this template. First, the guy is tough enough to ignore most man-portable weaponry. That's Mythic Toughness with a further +2 armor to ignore grenades and antimateriel rifles even if the attacker gets a good hit. Secondly, the guy is superhumanly strong - he can lift and throw cars easily. That's supernatural strength (plus 4-5 ranks in Might, too). That's 10 refresh of powers, assuming a rare/unusual catch.
Similarly Spiderman can lift 10 tons and throw cars - Supernatural Strength. He is extremely agile and highly mobile - Supernatural Speed. He can take at least a couple of hits from the Rhino/Lizard/other superhumanly strong opponents thus Supernatural Toughness with a catch of Electricity. He has his spider-sense so Senses 1 and he can make prodigious leaps and climb up most surfaces unassisted thus a 1-refresh power called Spiderwalk that does that. That's 11 refresh of powers.
Superman and The Hulk are way below that. Mythic Strength and weapon 4 fists for attack, Mythic Toughness and Physical Immunity: 8 extra stress and 4 extra armor, Inhuman Speed. For superman, Senses 3, "breath weapon", Greater Flight (to fly as fast as airplanes) minimum. For the Hulk, Mythic Recovery, regeneration.
That's 28-30 refresh of powers for these powerful heroes. More, for the stunts they could have.
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Howdy! Thanks for the feedback.
Batman/Punisher type heroes are just Pure Mortals built for stealth, fighting, and investigation. More powerful heroes are out of the scope of most DFRPG games. I personally would allow Mythic <ability here> as a GM, but I haven't run the game yet, so I didn't want to open the floodgates too far. If the Costumed Vigilante can take *any* power and doesn't have a superior to answer to, why would anybody take Emissary of Power? Not having run the game, I don't really know why there needs to be templates beyond Pure Mortal (refresh +2, can't buy powers) and More Than Human (refresh -0, can buy Powers), but there seems to be a game balance mechanic at play, so I put some "reasonable" limits to try and sell it to the GM who runs a game up here. ;) The idea is to allow characters that have better than human abilities, but don't throw the power level of the game out-of-whack. If the campaign is of that power level, the GM can adjust what's allowed.
I'm not sure about the -6 limit on powers, that can easily be modified up or down based on the GM's preference and comfort level.
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-6 allows combinations like:
Inhuman Strength, Inhuman Speed, Inhuman Toughness (or lose one for Inhuman Recovery)
Supernautral <ability>, Inhuman <ability>
Claws, Supernatural Sense, Inhuman Toughness, Inhuman Recovery
Spider Walk, Supernatural Speed
Supernatural Strength with the Mighty Thews Stunt makes for a character that can lift and throw quite a bit. Don't forget applying Aspects like Good Leverage, High Adrenalin (saving your spouse/kid/parent), etc. With a Superb Might character, supernatural strength, mighty thews, and the right personal and situational aspects firing, a character could get ~+13-15 for lifting, taking a character beyond Legendary and allowing them to lift and throw a car. Like with most games, you can't get everything you want, but you can usually make a character that's really good at the one thing ya just gotta have.
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To further clarify why a Batman/Punisher/Casey Jones type would not want to take the Costumed Vigilante template, they would get 2 less refresh for noting. Pure Mortal definitely benefits them more.
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You could always make that a destinction. "vigilante's who dont take powers get +2 refresh"
Additionally I dont think that there should be a restriction on the amount of refresh they can spend. If you want to say that they can only have up to 6 refresh in power originally and that the rest have to be discoverd at certain plot points, that could be something that would work. Generally heroes of that type dont know all their powers innitially anyway.
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That depends on what you mean by 'initially'.
A game that starts with players having 10 refresh of powers might have a veteran 'low-powered' superhero who has discovered all 9 refresh of his potential power, or it might have a novice 'high-powered' superhero who has discovered only 9 of his potential, say, 30 refresh of potential power. Another game might start at 40 refresh just for the lulz and feature that same 'high-powered' superhero at his peak, with all of his supernatural powers and a handful of stunts to boot.
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Lavecki121:
But what would a character with no powers gain from taking the Costumed Vigilante template? A Pure Mortal could still take the Secret Identity trouble, wear a spandex bodysuit, mask, and cape. Good point about gaining new powers at milestones.
Tedronai:
That would be up to the GM to establish an appropriate power level. The -6 refresh in power can be adjusted up or down per GM preference, and should not limit purchase of future powers at milestones.
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Wizard's Constitution [-1]*,
...
*Cost changed to [-1] or everybody would take it.
Not a good idea. Wizard's Constitution doesn't do anything that's worth Refresh.
Anyone whose concept fits it ought to get it free. Anyone whose concept doesn't fit it has no real reason to take it.
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I get that it's not an over powered trait, but it's too easy to work into the backstory of any superhuman.
"When I was bathed in the radiation from the Eye of Plotdevice, my body's aging process slowed down and my healing process sped up."
"When I was injected with the Uberdood Solution..."
"As an alien from the planet Freeblezortz..."
"When I was trained in the mystic arts of Kheyso at a remote monastery in Nepal..."
It fits a lot of "more than human" backgrounds and at the price of 0 is a freebie a lot of people would be tempted to add it on. Since it's appropriate to a lot of superheroic backgrounds, I wanted it to be an option, but since there are plenty of superheroes who don't have it, there has to be some way of only having those who really need it to get it. It's completely up to any GM who allows this template, though. Keep it free, charge for it, or disallow it at your pleasure.
Look at it this way. Can you think of a non-Quixotic reason a Wizard wouldn't take Wizardly Constitution? Admittedly, it's a part of their Concept, but it is not essential to the concept of a character who's More Than Human but doesn't fall into one of the other Templates.
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Costumed Vigilante is a pretty broad template. A) They dress up in a shnazzy outfit. B) They fight crime without the sanction of the law.
In and of itself it could cover powered or non-powered individuals. I usually see it broken down by Superhero and Costumed Non-Super.
I wouldn't have Batman be a 'pure mortal' under the DFRPG rules, his gadgets are too powerful to NOT be based on some sort of power. Some sort of Craft/Resources variant of enchantment I'd imagine. I suppose IoP or Modular abilities could also work.
Is everybody going to be some sort of hero in this game, or just one of the players?
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Sancta's right about wizard's constitution. It does almost literally nothing in most games, so the question isn't really why wouldn't anyone take it, it's why would they?
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You seem to be under the impression that having Wizard's Constitution is better than not having it.
It's not. Wizard's Constitution costs nothing because it has no value.
I play without templates. I have Wizard's Constitution cost 0. People choose not to take it, and their characters are not made less powerful by the choice.
I mean, theoretically it could matter sometime if you actually couldn't come up with an excuse for physical consequence recovery. But I've never actually seen that happen, or heard of it happening. So that's strictly a theoretical possibility in my books.
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I'm running a medieval campaign and much of it will take place in the wilderness. I could see Wizards Constitution being very useful in it...but there aren't too many costumed vigilante's around...all this to say, that in a modern setting, I'm not sure it makes a big difference in balance.
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San: How does a Pure Mortal recover from an Extreme Consequence like a maimed beyond recovery limb? How does a Pure Mortal explain away the aches, pains, and extended recovery that comes with now being 40 instead of late 20s? Seems to me like these are things worth having. Why *not* take Wizard's Recovery if it's free? What's the downside? I'm not suggesting that it should be a -1 Power for all templates, but I see it as a reasonable limitation on this particular one. I know we're all adults and should play like it, but then why do we need rules at all? Most of us get attached to our characters, even when they start off as Giovanni Condottiere, Mob Thug (Joe the Human Fighter) and try to wring every bit of good out of characters that we can. Since a lot of Costumed Vigilantes are going to be the party's muscle and meatshield, the ability to not get old and be able to recover from anything short of death or completely destroyed body parts is pretty useful.
(On an aside, am I misunderstanding Extreme Consequences? I know you can remove them at Major Milestones, but does this apply even if there's no logical reason? A character who's arm had been lopped off and not reattached in time, or paralyzed from the waist down could just remove that consequence by declaration or does there have to be a possible explanation? I understand that the Dresdenverse is not Twilight 2000, but we still need to follow the logic/rules of realty of the setting.)
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Llayne: if a version of Batman has a utility belt like Adam West's did, that would be an Item of Power and have the character Concept fall under the Costumed Vigilante Template. Otherwise, it's just a matter of having a character with a high Resources Skill. What do Casey Jones (TMNT) and the Punisher (Marvel) have that would make them not a Pure Mortal?
I used Costumed Vigilante for the Template name because it was the best name I could come up with at the time, it's not meant to be a straight jacket. Perhaps Pulp Hero or More Than Human would be better names. Casey Jones is just a tough guy with a golf bag full of baseball bats and hockey sticks. He fits right in under Pure Mortal. Nick Fury or the Black Panther aren't. They're faster, stronger and tougher than even an Olympic champion. They can't be made with a Pure Mortal Template, although Black Panther could be an Emissary of Power, but how do you make a character similar to Nick Fury or Captain America with the templates in the book? Characters like the Hulk or Superman are beyond the power levels of most games, but they would work under this template with a higher allowed Refresh penalty.
Mostly I made up this template to try and sell to the person who runs the DFRPG on letting me play this kind of character, so it's not for a Supers game.
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The main two objections I am seeing to the template are Wizard's Constitution shouldn't cost anything (per the rules) and the limit on the amount of Powers purchased, but those are easily tweaked. Otherwise, it is an OK template? Could these kinds of characters (Nick Fury, Captain America, ie better than human but not game unbalancingly so, and not in servitude to a supernatural superior. Nick Fury makes his boss mad, they can't pull his powers). Does it break the theme of the Dresdenverse? Would you allow something like this in your game as a GM?
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The Scion template, in a kitchen-sink setting such as the Dresdenverse, already allows for virtually free reign in designing the powers selection of a character if the player is willing to put a mild effort into planning and the creation of the 'parent' entity, so that's no issue. Moreover, Scions are not inherently beholden to any higher authority (though one may try to impose their rule upon them, as with many Changelings), so the lack of such a relationship is not itself an issue.
The only issues (aside from the Wizard's Constitution & refresh cap that you mentioned) I forsee are those of the tone of the game, which will already vary from one table to another sufficiently that I do not see any inherent problem with this template in that regard. I would advise caution in its use, of course,
On a larger scale, I, personally, do not see particular purpose in the use of Templates at all save as 'cheat sheets' for new players that have trouble when presented with too many options. For my own purposes, and those of other players I know to be sufficiently experienced, I suggest simply requiring that any and all powers (and even stunts) chosen are supported by the character's aspects, most importantly by their High Concept. With a good understanding reached between the player and the GM at the time such an aspect is created (ex. during character creation or at an appropriate milestone), the lists of 'musts' and 'options' presented by Templates become wholly obsolete.
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A template is supposed to be, on some levels, a framework for the source of a power set. This doesn't really feel like that, and doesn't really feel like it would fit into the setting. That said, you can end up with 'Costumed Vigilantes' with nearly any of the existing templates, especially Emissary of Power, Scion and Focused Practitioner.
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San: How does a Pure Mortal recover from an Extreme Consequence like a maimed beyond recovery limb? How does a Pure Mortal explain away the aches, pains, and extended recovery that comes with now being 40 instead of late 20s? Seems to me like these are things worth having.
They aren't things worth having.
Aches, pains, and missing limbs are not bad things. The problems they cause are expressed through Compels, which pay for themselves.
There's no particular reason not to take Wizard's Constitution, but there's also no particular reason to take it.
You have to remember that you are not your character. An Aspect like CLINICALLY DEPRESSED sucks for your character, but it doesn't have to suck for you. Same principle here, but it's the other way around.
PS: You can represent mildly superhuman characters through Stunts and Aspects and high Skills. I'm not too comic-savvy so I don't know for sure whether that'd work for Nick Fury, but it might.
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This looks like an interesting Template.
Somehow, when I picture costumed vigilantes in the DV I start thinking of a minor character from Simon R Green's Nightside series - Ms. Fate, the Nightside's own transvestite superhero.
Off the wall heroes like that one and flawed, Punisher types seem more appropriate for the DV than Captain America and other "justice always triumphs" type heroes.
Richard
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How does a Pure Mortal recover from an Extreme Consequence like a maimed beyond recovery limb?
Robotic arm. ;)
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Robotic arm. ;)
Or a one-time deal with a Fae.
My question is, why are you bothering with an upper limit on Refresh? What's the problem with letting the power level of the campaign dictate those terms? In any moderately high powered campaign, you're mandating that characters of this template must necessarily be weaker than the rest of the party, for seemingly no reason.
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Thanks for the input.
All: I fully agree that this Template is not for all games, but in a world where Faeries, wizards, shapechangers, etc are real...well, we have folks in this world who try to play superhero. Nobody'd try this in Harry's world? Not for all games, but certainly possible.
GryMor: Emissary of Power is beholden to someone else for their power. Focused Practitioner is limited to Channeling and/or Ritual. The Scion is not so much a template as a concept with some suggestions. It also doesn't exactly fit the why and wherefore of how this type of character gets their powers. A Scion is the offspring of a human and something else. The idea behind this new Template is to allow a character that has things like Inhuman or Supernatural <ability> or a person to whom literally blending in the shadows or climbing up walls is innate to themselves. These things can be done as a Stunt or high Skill, but are also available as a Power. The Stunts are cheaper, but the Powers are less fallible.
Nick & Ghsdkgb: good points, but they have their own drawbacks. :)
Ghsdkgb: The upper limit on Refresh spent on initial powers is the Template's drawback. An Emissary of Power has the drawback of being reliant on a superior's good will. The Costumed Vigilante (super powered individual) Template's drawback is a restriction on the amount of initial powers. I went with -6 as an arbitrary limit that allowed a lot of interesting combinations. The -6 limit applies to Powers only, the character can still spend up to their full Refresh limit on Stunts. That being said, the -6 Refresh limit on Powers can be adjusted up or down by the GM to fit the needs of their game. A Minor Talent Template character only allows a max of -2 Refresh spent on a smaller list of Powers, so I figured I had to give the new Template some kind of restriction.
San: PS: I like your idea of no Templates.
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If you want to exclude Pure Mortals, I'd recommend renaming it. Costumed Vigilante conjures up the image of Batman, Nite-Owl, Rorschach, The Question, etc. I'd go with something like "Superhero" to imply the superpowers are part of it.
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Ghsdkgb: The upper limit on Refresh spent on initial powers is the Template's drawback. An Emissary of Power has the drawback of being reliant on a superior's good will. The Costumed Vigilante (super powered individual) Template's drawback is a restriction on the amount of initial powers. I went with -6 as an arbitrary limit that allowed a lot of interesting combinations. The -6 limit applies to Powers only, the character can still spend up to their full Refresh limit on Stunts. That being said, the -6 Refresh limit on Powers can be adjusted up or down by the GM to fit the needs of their game. A Minor Talent Template character only allows a max of -2 Refresh spent on a smaller list of Powers, so I figured I had to give the new Template some kind of restriction.
Still the restriction is odd. No other template has restrictions like that. They have requirements (such as wizard) but none of them limit you.
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Mr. Death: noted :) Was thinking of "More than Human" and would need to change the "Secret Identity" Trouble Must to something else, or as a possibility. It's a good trouble for any kind of adventurer, really.
Lavecki121: as I pointed out above, Minor Talent gives you a whole lot less than this Template. Regardless, individual GMs can and should modify to suit their game, or reject it entirely if it doesn't make a good fit with their conception of the Dresdenverse.
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The character may then take a single, one refresh cost (or, with approval, two refresh cost) ability from Supernatural Powers (page 158). Specifically, the Minor Ability and Psychic Ability categories should be considered, but the GM may allow the player to look further afield.
It still has the qualification that you can take more
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Lavecki121: I would read that to mean the player may take other -1/-2 Refresh powers than just the Minor Ability and Psychic Ability lists allow. The rules are explicitly giving the GM the right to bend the Template in therms of power choices, not the 1 power at -1 or -2 limit.
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eh. Still the character chose to be a minor talent as opposed to anything else. Also (as has been stated) there is room to grow. I also believe I did misread this, yes.