Statting Up Worm Characters

[narphoenix]

I'm talking stat wise. Not toe to toeing.

[Sanctaphrax]

She ran away from the fight, conceding it because she couldn't fight against Mantellum and win.

Well, maybe.

Concessions are a specific mechanical thing. Though running away often uses that mechanic, it doesn't necessarily have to.

I don't think Limitation would cover it, since this is essentially an offensive blocking action by another character.

Eh. It may have been an offensive block once, but Eden's dead. The blind spots have a become a part of Contessa now.

Given that she was basically the one running the show, since Cauldron was following her plan, I think I'd read that as her allowing Manton to escape rather than her being unable to subdue/kill him. After all, her power isn't something as concrete as projections; it's an I Win button that applies to all but a few beings in the multiverse.

Cauldron wanted to use Manton and Shatterbird against the Endbringers. If Contessa was capable, she almost certainly would have kidnapped those two.

And given that Cauldron's plans fall apart with depressing regularity even when there are no inhuman beings involved, it's clear that her winning-ness has limits.

Fantastic Fists/Athletics is Usain Bolt/Muhammed Ali level of skill, which isn't how Contessa wins. The one occasion we see her go up against someone she can't use her power against, she runs. That says to me that when she's bereft of her power she's just as human as the rest of us. Going further than that, Epic Conviction and Scholarship should really only apply when she has her power.

A power like Mantellum's should affect her skills as well as her Powers. Unfortunately that'd be a bugger to stat up, but that's normal, since Worm isn't a DFRPG game.

Personally, I'd just have her power give a static bonus instead of putting her base stats so high (+2 to mental skills, +2 to social, +1 to physical. If I was going to stat her, that is).

Powers like that are generally not a good idea. They're boring and very hard to balance right.

[Sanctaphrax]

Revised Taylor and the Siberian.

Pretty happy with the Siberian rewrite, it fixed a bunch of niggling issues.

My thanks to narphoenix and Hick Jr for the tips.

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Taylor Hebert (Scuba Diving)

High Concept: Insect-Controlling Superhero
Trouble Aspect: Issues With Authority
Other Aspects: Former Leader Of The Undersiders, Extra-Strength Passenger, Former Social Pariah, Doing The Wrong Things For The Right Reasons, Unhealthy Determination
Skills:
Fantastic: Discipline
Superb: Alertness, Endurance
Great: Scholarship, Athletics
Good: Conviction, Presence, Intimidation
Fair: Lore, Craftsmanship, Empathy
Average: Deceit, Weapons, Rapport, Fists, Investigation, Stealth
Stunts:
Tough As Nails (Endurance): Opponents who tag physical consequences on attacks against Taylor only get +1 or reroll 3 dice.
Keep Calm And Strategize (Discipline): Use Discipline +1 for Assessments and Declarations related to making clever plans when a normal person would be freaking the hell out.
Into The Eyes And Down The Throat (Discipline): Incite Effect attacks inflict 2 additional stress to people without Toughness or face-protecting armour.
Powers:
Supernatural Senses [-3] (See, hear, taste, and feel everything within a few hundred metres)
Incite Potent Physical Persistent Selective Mass Effect At Range [-7] (Insect Control)
Extra Appendages (Flurry Of Blows, Excellent Coordination x2) [-5]
Limitation [+3] (Needs to have bugs to use Powers)
Total Refresh Cost:
-15
Refresh Total:
2

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Siberian (In A Submarine)

High Concept: Most Powerful Member Of The Nine
Trouble Aspect: Secretly William Manton
Other Aspects: Weird Relationship With Cauldron, Trying To Replace His Daughter, Naked And Silent, We Are All Animals, I Will Hunt You Down And Eat You And There Is Nothing You Can Do To Stop Me
Skills:
Fantastic: Scholarship
Superb: Survival, Stealth
Great: Discipline, Alertness, Deceit
Good: Conviction, Investigation, Endurance
Fair: Intimidation, Empathy, Presence, Athletics
Average: Rapport, Burglary, Craftsmanship, Weapons, Might
Projection Skills:
Fantastic: Scholarship, Might
Superb: Survival, Intimidation
Great: Discipline, Alertness
Good: Conviction, Athletics, Stealth
Fair: Deceit, Investigation, Empathy
Average: Endurance, Presence, Rapport, Weapons, Burglary
Stunts:
Parahuman Researcher (Scholarship): +2 to Scholarship when Powers are involved.
Power Analysis (Scholarship): May use Scholarship, including Parahuman Researcher bonus, to analyse powers and determine their true nature.
Worked With Cauldron (Scholarship): Use Scholarship for knowledge of cosmic entities and Cauldron operations.
Hunt You Down (Survival): +1 to track, Investigation doesn't modify tracking.
Brute Force (Might): Attack unarmed with Might.
Throw Cars (Might): Use Might to attack with heavy objects at range.
Can't Block Me (Might): When attacking through Projection, unarmed attacks count as bullets for the purpose of selecting blocking skills.
Kill Rip Tear (Might): May make spray attacks with Might.
Horrifying Reputation (Intimidation): Use Intimidation instead of Presence for Reputation trapping.
Run! It's The Siberian! (Intimidation): +2 to perform The Brush-Off.
Big Secret (Deceit): +2 to hide the fact that the Siberian is a projection of William Manton.
It's Very Distracting (Stealth): +2 to use Stealth with real body while projection is out in the open.
Powers:
Skilled Projection [-3]
Limitation (Following Powers apply only to projection) [+27]
  Potent Natural Weaponry [-2]
  Mythic Strength [-6]
  Immunity (Total) [-30]
  Unstoppable Rapid Non-Teleportation [-4]
  Superhuman Acrobatics [-1]
  Limitation (Melee attacks only, doesn't affect Recovery or Toughness that's not based on toughness) [+3]
    All Creatures (And Objects) Are Equal Before Me [-9]
  Limitation (Can't protect own body) [+1]
    Tank [-5]
  Semi-Animate [-1]
Total Refresh Cost:
-42
Refresh Total:
-21

[Stirge]

Contessa and the Siberian both look frightening, excellent job!

Small nitpicks, Contessa's Guide My Hand needs to have an upgrade as the book version doesn't allow it to be used for attacks or maneuevers.

As for the serial itself, holy %^$% a Glaistig Uaine chapter :-)

What would it take to stat her up?  People were discussing it earlier, before we had more information about her.  A version of Projection with Modular Abilities seems about right (at one time, it was probably Variable Abilities, but she has so many spirits collected she probably has one for any occasion.  If she doesn't, she prolly should get a compel with a Fate point).

Edit - My attempt at Grant Powers (it needs to be worded better, but this is the basic idea).

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Grant Powers [-2]: Touching a person allows you to grant them some or all of your powers for the scene.  If they are unwilling, you must succeed a Fists vs. their Athletics to affect them. Only one person can benefit from a particular one of your powers at a time (see below).
    [+2]: Power Genie: Only someone else can benefit from some of your powers, not yourself.  When you select this, you must declare which powers it effects.
    [-1]: Share Powers: An additional person can benefit from the same power.  This may be taken multiple times, using the progression table*.
    [-1]: Extended Duration: At the cost of a Fate Point, Grant Powers lasts for an entire session.  At anytime you can use an action to ‘rescind’ the powers you’ve granted.

*I don't think table quite exists, but it would look like the Time Progression people.  A minute = a person, a couple minutes = 5 people, 15 minutes = 15 people, etc...)

I hope this will help with characters like Othala and the mob boss who grants the electrical touch/invulnerability power sets, but also perhaps Null and Clockblocker (I'm working on statting him out, allowing him to grant Total Immunity to others with the limitations of requiring an action to activate and freezing whoever 'benefits' from it for a random amount of time).

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Othala's set might look like: Supernatural Toughness, Supernatural Recovery, and Supernatural Speed along with Grant Powers (Power Genie [+2], Limitation [+1]: Others may only benefit from one of her powers at a time).

The mob boss might have Incite Effect, Supernatural/Mythic Toughness with Grant Powers (Power Genie [+2], Share Powers [-2], and Extended Duration [-1]).

Null might have Mimic Abilities or Variable Abilities (Limit: Split Strength - All rolls dealing with mimicked powers are at -2) with Grant Powers (Power Genie [+2], Share Powers [-5] and Extended Duration [-1].

[dpara]

I finally caught up.  I don't remember jack and contessa going toe to toe.

You are right, though it is strongly implied that Jack's secondary power is to win against any parahuman.

So it is possible that Contessa saw no way to win against Jack, but that is kinda unsatisfying.
Maybe she just kept him alive to build his clone army o.O
..Or she kept him alive to trigger Scion early?

[Hick Jr]

Mimic Abilities works almost comically well for Glaistig Uaine. I probably wouldn't giver her Projection. I'd just let the "shadows" ("warriors" now) be an Aspect or something. Her Mimic Abilities pool would have to be bloody massive, though.

[Taran]

You are right, though it is strongly implied that Jack's secondary power is to win against any parahuman.

So it is possible that Contessa saw no way to win against Jack, but that is kinda unsatisfying.
Maybe she just kept him alive to build his clone army o.O
..Or she kept him alive to trigger Scion early?

I got the impression his power was to be able to influence any parahuman.  Maybe it's the same thing.

Harbringers power seems more in line to be able to win against any parahuman, although he admitted, he didn't likely have the odds to win if he and jack fought.

[Sanctaphrax]

I don't think Harbinger's power affects parahumans in particular. I think he's just a very skilled fighter with math powers.

Glaistig Uaine is almost a textbook example of Mimic Abilities, except...

-she projects her abilities as ghosts, which may or may not be mechanically relevant
-her copying ability is limited by number of capes, not by total Refresh cost
-she can switch out her copied abilities without losing them.

So maybe give her Variable Abilities, with a really long list that consists entirely of Mimic Abilities over and over again. And slap a Limitation on each Mimic Abilities that she can only Mimic one cape at a time, and can't mimic things that don't come from passengers. Then give her a pool of points sufficient to use three iterations of Mimic Abilities at once.

But that's a bit convoluted and I have no idea how much that Variable Abilities list should cost. So maybe it'd be better to do some more homebrewing.

She'd also need a Supernatural Sense for passenger-vision and maybe a Power for killing people by ripping out their passengers.

Small nitpicks, Contessa's Guide My Hand needs to have an upgrade as the book version doesn't allow it to be used for attacks or maneuevers.

That so?

I thought it just couldn't be used for physical attacks. That's (part of) why her Fists is so high.

I'm away from my books right now, but I'll go over her again when I get home.

A version of Projection with Modular Abilities seems about right (at one time, it was probably Variable Abilities, but she has so many spirits collected she probably has one for any occasion.  If she doesn't, she prolly should get a compel with a Fate point).

Variable Abilities isn't a narrower version of Modular Abilities, you know.

Grant Powers [-2]: Touching a person allows you to grant them some or all of your powers for the scene.  If they are unwilling, you must succeed a Fists vs. their Athletics to affect them. Only one person can benefit from a particular one of your powers at a time (see below).
    [+2]: Power Genie: Only someone else can benefit from some of your powers, not yourself.  When you select this, you must declare which powers it effects.
    [-1]: Share Powers: An additional person can benefit from the same power.  This may be taken multiple times, using the progression table*.
    [-1]: Extended Duration: At the cost of a Fate Point, Grant Powers lasts for an entire session.  At anytime you can use an action to ‘rescind’ the powers you’ve granted.

*I don't think table quite exists, but it would look like the Time Progression people.  A minute = a person, a couple minutes = 5 people, 15 minutes = 15 people, etc...)

I don't want to be discouraging, but I think this needs work. The cost should scale with the number of Powers affected.

If two people each have 7 Refresh of Powers and this, they can touch each other at the start of each scene and then they'll each have 14 Refresh of Powers.

I suspect there are some Powers which benefit more from share-ability than others, too.

And I suspect the upgrades are abusable.

I hope this will help with characters like Othala and the mob boss who grants the electrical touch/invulnerability power sets, but also perhaps Null and Clockblocker (I'm working on statting him out, allowing him to grant Total Immunity to others with the limitations of requiring an action to activate and freezing whoever 'benefits' from it for a random amount of time).

(click to show/hide)

Othala's set might look like: Supernatural Toughness, Supernatural Recovery, and Supernatural Speed along with Grant Powers (Power Genie [+2], Limitation [+1]: Others may only benefit from one of her powers at a time).

The mob boss might have Incite Effect, Supernatural/Mythic Toughness with Grant Powers (Power Genie [+2], Share Powers [-2], and Extended Duration [-1]).

Null might have Mimic Abilities or Variable Abilities (Limit: Split Strength - All rolls dealing with mimicked powers are at -2) with Grant Powers (Power Genie [+2], Share Powers [-5] and Extended Duration [-1].

Not sure if that's the best approach for Clockblocker. He doesn't really give people the benefits of invincibility...it's more like he temporarily takes them out.

Split Strength is an iffy weakness, incidentally, since many powers don't involve rolls. Toughness and Recovery come to mind.

I might use Variable Abilities for Othala, instead of Limitation.

The plan for...Galvanic, I think it was...looks pretty good to me. At least going by what I remember.

[Hick Jr]

You know, Glaistig Uaine is actually just an ectomancer in the DV. I would really want to play that concept. It'd have to be a really high-Refresh game, though. Maybe that's what a lich is in the DV.

I'm with Sanctaphrax on the power sharing. It really needs to have a surcharge that depends on what kind of Powers you can grant.

EDIT: So i'm rereading Sting, and I think I have a lock on how to stat up Winter. My only problem is that she can attack the physical and mental stress tracks at the same time, and I'm not sure how to represent that. a -1 upgrade to Incite Effect would work. I think her powers would look something like

Incite Effect (Winter, with Discipline) (Range, Physical, Mental, Potent, Defensive, Mass, Selective, Persistent) [-9]
Aura of Influence (DAMPENED INERTIA) [-0]
Dangerous Aura (All upgrades, including Mental) [-9].

Also, it's implied that her power needs to be "concentrated" in a certain area, so i'm debating a Limitation saying that Dangerous Aura and Incite Effect can't be used simultaneously.

[PirateJack]

Could stat the dual physical/mental attacks as an environmental attack for physical and a regular attack for mental. So Winter would set up her blizzard beforehand as an aspect, which would cause a constant source of physical attacks on a zone (extra shifts would go into the severity of the blizzard/attacks), and use her action for the mental attacks on people/zones.

[Sanctaphrax]

I don't remember much about Winter, so I can't help much. But I recall her using guns, and I hope that whatever stats you come up with for her make it non-stupid for her to use guns.

I'd be interested in seeing an ectomancer who was like a mixture of Glaistig Uaine and a Pokemon trainer.

[Hick Jr]

I'd be interested in seeing an ectomancer who was like a mixture of Glaistig Uaine and a Pokemon trainer.

I also noticed that Glaistig Uaine is basically the Wormverse equivalent of a Pokemon trainer.

Hmm. Point about the guns. Maybe the Dangerous Aura is the physical one, and the Incite Effect is the mental one.

[Sanctaphrax]

If you go with your idea of making her choose between her aura and her Incite then it would make sense for her to use guns while her aura was up. And you might be able to justify having the Incite use Guns, if you're creative. (The justification would probably be at least partly BS, but honestly I can't think of a skill that really fits with no BS at all.)

That aside, here's a version of Shatterbird.

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Shatterbird (Submerged)

High Concept: Member Of The Nine
Trouble Aspect: Wants A Legacy
Other Aspects: Pretends To Be Civilized, Former Rich Girl, The Nine's Primary Recruiter
Skills:
Superb: Discipline
Great: Scholarship, Conviction, Intimidation
Good: Endurance, Presence, Alertness
Fair: Rapport, Empathy, Investigation
Average: Guns, Lore, Deceit
Stunts:
Recruiter (Intimidation): When using Intimidation on prospective members of the Nine, inflict +2 stress.
Powers:
Enhanced Self-Propelling Selective Area Telekinesis [-7]
Supernatural Strength [-4]
Limitation (Telekinesis and Strength only apply to glass and other forms of silicon.) [+3]
Supernatural Recovery [-4]
Limitation (Needs a supply of glass to repair self with.) [+1]
City-Wrecking Scream [-4]
Total Refresh Cost:
-16
Refresh Total:
-6

City-Wrecking Scream lets Shatterbird attack an entire city at once. Computers are wrecked, and people are subjected to ambush attacks with accuracies and weapon ratings that depend on the amount of silicon nearby.

You shouldn't expect to see it on anyone other than Shatterbird. It's like Leviathan's special Power: a kludge designed to model something that doesn't fit nicely into DFRPG. Not a well-written Power at all.

[narphoenix]

Creepiest Crowning Moment of Heartwarming ever. Suck it, Sophia.

[Sanctaphrax]

And here's Defiant.

The power armour stuff is mostly made up, I'm not really sure what his armour is supposed to do.

I write Implanted Items there to signify that some of his items have been incorporated into his body. Not sure exactly how Implanted Items should work as a Power, though.

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Defiant (In A Submarine)

High Concept: Cyborg Tinker
Trouble Aspect: Tunnel Vision
Other Aspects: Trying To Be A Better Person, Dragon's Boyfriend, Swiss Army Halberd, Friend Of Chevalier And Miss Militia, Armsmaster In A Really Thin Disguise
Skills:
Fantastic: Weapons, Discipline
Superb: Lore, Scholarship
Great: Athletics, Craftmanship
Good: Might, Conviction, Endurance
Fair: Fists, Driving, Alertness
Average: Presence, Investigation, Survival, Deceit, Resources
Stunts:
Signature Weapon (Weapons): +1 to attack with halberd.
Dragonship Pilot (Lore): Use Lore to pilot Tinker-made aircraft.
CSI (Scholarship): Use Scholarship instead of Investigation for crime scenes.
Powers:
No Metabolism [-1]
Inhuman Toughness [-2]
Tinker [-3]
Refinement [-5]
Implanted Items [-1]
Item Limitation (Needs to wear power armour) [+2]
  Inhuman Strength [-2]
  Inhuman Speed [-2]
  Supernatural Toughness [-2]
  Wings [-1]
Magic:
Thaumaturgy: +2 crafting strength, +1 crafting frequency
Foci: Laboratory Stuff (+2 crafting strength and frequency)
Enchanted Items: Nanothorn Generator (weapon 9, 4 uses/session), Reinforced Armour (9-shift block against attack, 4 uses/session), Combat Analyser (9-shift fighting style Assessment, 4 uses/session), Lie Detector (9-shift Empathy read, 4 uses/session), various other items built into armour, halberd, and body
Total Refresh Cost:
-20
Refresh Total:
1