Character Design Challenge - Stormbringer

[Thanatos]

This is something of a game but also an exercise in creating game content.  The idea is to create a character, either one from a fairly well-known source outside of the 'Dresdenverse', or new one that doesn't appear in the books, but has a High Concept and description that fits.  Include names, aspects, skills, powers, etc. - everything that would be needed for someone to play the character or for a GM to 'borrow' and use as an NPC.  If you have an idea for a new Character Design Challenge, copy this introductory text and paste it into a new thread.

This time, let's try Stormbringer, the demonic black blade wielded by Elric, from Michael Moorcock's series.  The sword itself is a character, similar to the way a Denarian's coin is.  It could be handled with the Demonic Co-Pilot power, but what about looking at things from the sword's perspective?  If you can drink in the lives of those you kill and dole that power out until your wielder becomes dependent upon it, they'll eventually become dominated compel-bait.  If one wielder dies, no matter, any fool capable of lifting the blade can make a suitable replacement, in time... the sword itself is the villain.

Happy Hacking!
Thanatos

[Sanctaphrax]

This seems relevant.

[Thanatos]

This seems relevant.

Didn't see that, since there's no way I'm reading every thread.  Oh well.

[Richard_Chilton]

Major spoiler for the Elric saga:

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Doing up the stats for Stormbringer would be up there with Statting out a god - because Stormbringer is the physical form of a Lord of Chaos.  I'm not entirely sure how it merged with the Black Blade (the chosen weapon of the Eternal Champion) but at the end of the series Stormbringer walks away.

Other than that, Stormbringer (and its brother, Mournblade) is an awesome weapon.  The sort of thing that can kill a god or be used to cut down an army.  In many battles, the slightly nick from that blade caused death as the victim's soul was devoured - some of it being eaten by the sword and some of it used to heal and empower the wielder.

In short, it puts the Swords of the Cross to shame and is probably beyond the scope of the FATE rules set.

Richard

[Thanatos]

I've only 'read' the first two because they're all I could find on audiobook (vision issues).  Guess I was thinking of a less OMGWTFBBQ-epic version.  It's okay, the CDC thread I tried last week didn't exactly take off either.  I thought it would make a fun and interesting series of discussions, but if it doesn't work, oh well.

[Sanctaphrax]

I think we can make this work. I still want to write a proper object Power, I just need someone else to bounce ideas off of. You up for that?

And nothing Richard describes sounds impossible in DFRPG to me. ACaEBG is the only Power you need to kill a god-tier being, as Michael demonstrated when he rescued Charity. And killing an army is not that hard when you have zone attacks and they're all bunched up.

[Thanatos]

Is there a guide for the acronym soup around here?  I'm not parsing "ACaEBG", and I'd been wondering about a few others like "ROI".

[Sanctaphrax]

ACaEBG = All Creatures Are Equal Before God, a Power found on the Sword of the Cross. Allows you to ignore defensive Powers and armour.

ROI usually means Return On Investment. Not sure if that's what you meant though.

[Richard_Chilton]

Here's why I think that the sword doesn't fit - and the spoiler is for the Elric novels.  This specifically refers to book 4 - the Vanishing Tower (a book where Elric teams up with himself and himself and himself - which makes sense in the series).

(click to show/hide)

In one short story, Stormbringer is used to kill a god.  If I recalled correctly killing it wasn't the hard part - the hard part was dealing with the rush of life force the hero gained from killing the god.

We are talking about a "I swing at Mab - if I hit I kill her" type weapon here.  A "I swing at Uriel - if I hit I kill him" thing.  If you can hit it with a sword you can slay it and devour its soul.

I just can't see that fitting in the FATE system.

Richard

[Thanatos]

Actually that sounds familiar, now.  Apparently Sailor on the Seas of Fate is not so much a second book as a second collection of short stories.  Anyway, forget making it Stormbringer specifically, then... Just reduce it to an intelligent item that can empower and possibly control its wielder.  I've done things like that in homebrew RPGs (from before the first DF novel was published) making an evil version that dominated its user and a good one that could cause fiery wings, halo, etc. to appear on it's wielder.  Then there were the warforged from Eberron, which I liked.  I thought the idea of making a character from the perspective of the item could be interesting, but as already mentioned, others were recently thinking the same thing and it seemed to be shot down, though I hadn't seen the thread before it was linked here.
The 'Character Design Challenge' idea doesn't seem to be interesting many.  Maybe I've picked poor examples, or maybe it's something else, but it doesn't seem worth continuing at this point.

[Sanctaphrax]

That's actually really easy to model in FATE, easier than in most other systems.

ACaEBG and an unlimited licence to take Sponsor Debt or a ridiculously high skill.

As for the challenge, I'm interested. But I'd need help to write an object Power, and such a Power is needed to stat Stormbringer.

[Thanatos]

Reading other things you've posted, you're far more conversant with the system than I am, so I'm not sure how much help I would be.

[Richard_Chilton]

Actually that sounds familiar, now.  Apparently Sailor on the Seas of Fate is not so much a second book as a second collection of short stories. 

With the exception of a few novels written decades after the first bunch, all of the Elric series is collections of short stories.

In Sailor on the Seas of Fate, someone tries to talk to Elric about the events in The Vanishing Tower and Elric is all "Huh?" because of different time streams.  The fun bit is tracking down the other series and reading the events from the other characters points of view.

Anyway, forget making it Stormbringer specifically, then... Just reduce it to an intelligent item that can empower and possibly control its wielder. 

A generic version of it - as a character:
High Concept: Stealer of Souls
Trouble: I Hunger for the Souls of Your Loved Ones
Other Aspects: Forged Before Time, Unbreakable, Deadly Weapon, Kills Them All, Insatiable Hunger for Souls.

Skills: Weapons at the highest level possible, then: Deceit, Presence, Convictions, Discipline.  I can't think of any other that would apply... except maybe Contacts (Other Versions of the Black Sword)

Powers: ACaEBG
- renamed as All Creatures are Equal Before Death.
- modified so that the Sword can spend its own FATE points to power it.

Hope this helps.

Richard

[Sanctaphrax]

Reading other things you've posted, you're far more conversant with the system than I am, so I'm not sure how much help I would be.

System mastery matters less than you might imagine. Really, I just need a sounding board.

[Thanatos]

System mastery matters less than you might imagine. Really, I just need a sounding board.

I can understand that.  Creativity probably works best that way for most people; we're a social animal, after all.

Where did you want to start?