The final of my three characters from Mike's game set in the 2037 Washington DC Metroplex, This was born of wanting to play a smarter, more detective oriented hero on the nights when no one else was showing up to game. Legerdemain was the noble hero type, Impact was a blunt instrument, and I wanted to play a front and center martial artist vigilante detective. I'm not sure why I decided to make the character at least nominally Jewish - most likely to to do something different from my others - but since the source books Mike was borrowing from had a lot of 1980's next generation Nazi villains in them the character morphed into a Nazi hunter shortly after his creation.
And there ain't nothing wrong with punching Nazis.
Today i have no recollection why I wanted to lean so hard into being a terror of the night that I had Heightened Charisma B and Prejudice to insure massive negative reactions from everyone, but I also know we weren't using the charisma rules as written (who did?!) this combo just had him be super scary and intimidating for everyone. I don't think I ever read Spider-Woman but the combination of his superhuman charisma and the prejudice ability are almost like here pheromonal power where everyone was either attracted or terrified by her. (hence the 'to know her is to fear her" tag line) - something about his darkness powers made him scary as hell.
Renegade (Isaac Pearlman)
Side: Good Experience level: 5
Affect/Gimmick: Two-fisted detective hero, terror of the night, hunted by the law and the cops both, who turned into a Nazi hunter. Very inspired by Batman Year One, I would even do the narration to my journal hard boiled hero voice over while playing. Since he's a shadow in the darkness there isn't really a visual image the manriki-gusari was inspire by the hero making one in the Guardians of the Flame series.
Status: Wanted by both local and federal law enforcement for several deaths (he didn't kill them, but people do tend to die around him) and hated by several criminal organizations and feared/despised by the remnants of Nazi power, Renegade is a purely solo hero.
Powers: 6
- Heightened Strength A +13 (this is a lot of training but also effects from the injection as his carry cap is superhuman)
- Heightened Agility A +10
- Heightened Expertise: +4 to hit with manriki-gusari (+3 to hit +1d4 damage; this has a blunt side to the chain and a curved edge side to the chain, and his current model is SR 22; he carries a spare that is SR 12)
- Heightened Charisma B: +22
- Prejudice: Some aspect of the injection that gave him his shadow powers has made him terrifying to both sides as Renegade, and slowly cost Isaac his secret identity.
- Darkness Control: can create or control shadows, range is 69", 19" radius. PR 2 to create/reshape and one action to create/maintain
- Invention: He can modulate the light level in the darkness, making deep shadows with darker shadowy shapes inside them. This counts as Illusions A, but only for black and white images and counts as reshaping
- Mutant Power - Shadowwalk: when inside shadow or darkness he can
- See as if it were daylight (note that he can't see through shadows he isn't in or isn't controlling. imagine a space of light acting as 'insulation' against this power).
- Cling to walls/ceilings
- Teleport 7,600" range, PR 5 per use.
Inventions: He has one invention with his darkness control, above, and the following permanent inventions. He's usually using an inventing point per level on one shot inventions to defeat individual foes.
- Microrecorder/speaker lets him both record conversations and plant them to replay where convenient. This is used both to capture damaging information and confessionals and to set up confusion inside the darkness.
- Safecracking Kit: This high tech kit gives him a +4/+20% bonus to open electronic or classic safes and locks without leaving marks.
Background/Origin: Isaac Pearlman (American, Research/Technology and Law Enforcement) was a forensic scientist who was assisting the clean up of a V.I.L.E. experimental location (as it happens, the one Impact escaped from) who discovered a vial of an experimental human enhancement drug. Unable to leave well enough alone he continued to research it, and finally injected himself with it. Already a highly skilled martial artist, his human potential was enhanced, letting him become faster and stronger. Something happened to his psyche and personal magnetism, giving him a terrifying intensity that started scaring off people he didn't already know well. And most importantly, it gave him an affinity for shadows and darkness that would make him the ultimate spy... or assassin.
Using these powers he started spying on, and disrupting, criminal activities across the greater DC metroplex. Originally targeting V.I.L.E., he was instrumental in bringing down B.A.D., and collecting information on FORCE (not from the module, a NPC vigilante in Mike's campaign) which he ultimately decided to not reveal. Finally stumbling across a new Nazi party in the US, Renegade found his true calling as a Nazi hunter, and has focused specifically on their activities ever since.
Renegade doesn't kill himself, but he has no issues with maneuvering his opponents into attacking and killing each other, either through fostering a sense of betrayal, shadow plays to mask his activities, pushing groups to attack each other Red Harvest style, or similar methods. This indirect body count plus the unsettling nature of his superhuman charisma means he'll never team up with anyone.
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