I want to make a superhero character who combines parkour with phasing
(a la Shadowcat). The notion of jumping across buildings, passing through
obstacles and then phasing back in to climb/cat leap/wall run, is
highly appealing. As is what he could do in combat; lots of phasing out
to dodge and throw opponents off-balance, and then phasing back in to
knock them into walls.
The Game: Basic Action Super Heroes, or BASH
The Publisher: Basic Action Games
Degree of Familiarity: None. I'm very familiar with supers games, but I've never played this one.
Books Required: Just BASH.
Anyway,
I got this game from the Haiti bundle, and since I actually have a
concept and this system looks to be pretty simple, I'll make up my
phasing parkour hero and see if this game can handle it. I could spend a
little more time knocking out the concept, but I think I'll just start
with the numbers and see where the chargen system takes me.
The idea here, according to the book, is to spend less time creating the hero and more time
playing
him. That's cool and all, but I like chargen, and I don't think it
needs to be skimpy just for the sake of it (not saying this is, just a
response). Let's see. First step is
Stats. We've got three: Body, Agility and Mind. I get 7 points to divvy up, though I can get more with weaknesses.
Body
is, basically, strength. Agility is speed and, well, agility. Mind is
smarts, will, and psycic stuff. I don't need this guy to be a lot
stronger than average, mentally or physically, but I do need him to be
fast. I'll boost Agility to 5...or, wait, do I start at 1 or 0? Hold on.
OK, Stew's
BASH character seems to reflect that we have 0 in the traits to start.
I'll pump 5 into Agility, sure, and leave Body and Mind at 1. I don't
see this guy being stronger or smarter than a normal human, honestly.
He's just
that fast.
Now,
Powers.Well,
like I said, the main power is going to be phasing. There's an energy
cost to these powers, and I want to be able to wall-climb; the idea is
that he phases out his finger tips, digs them in, jumps, phases in to
gain some traction, and keeps going. Oh, wait, Cling doesn't have an
energy cost. Rule. I pick that up for 1 point.
I'd like Super
Speed, just to reflect how awesome he is in a fight, but I don't know
how expensive phasing is going to be, so I'll wait on that for now.
Ooh,
I want Mind Shield. This guy isn't terribly smart, but he's focused on
the run, and that makes him hard to mind control. 2 points should do it.
OK, it's called Ghost Form around here, and it's 3 points.
That's easy. I want to use Ghost Form for some fun power stunt kinds of
things, and since I know it costs energy, I'll pay extra to avoid that.
Good
goddamn it. OK, this "book" is badly organized. I start with 10 energy,
and, as written, I have to spend 3 every "panel" (turn, in normal
RPG-ese) I want to be ghosty. Thing is, that's completely bass-ackwards
for this character, who should be popping in and out of phase every
couple of seconds. OK, fuckit. I'll pop 3 more points into Ghost Form,
meaning he doesn't pay anything to phase out. That fucks me for
Super-Speed, but eh. I'll live with that.
Oh, wait, actually, if
I take a negating weakness, I get 2 extra power points, which would let
me take Super Speed. OK, then. I like the idea that this guy's power
needs to be refueled every day. He needs to spend 1 hour a day in deep
meditation, harmonizing his body and soul with the world around him.
That way, he can force his body to ignore parts of the world, going out
of phase with them. If he doesn't get a chance to do his meditations, he
loses his powers until he does (but keeps his skills, including his
parkour and fighting prowess, though his Agility drops to 1). And that
gives me my Super Speed, which has an energy cost of 2.
Skills.
Oh, I see some problems with this section. First, "most physical skills
work from Agility?" Really? Get my brother to tell you the story about
the expert martial artist who asked a big strong guy (student of hers)
to throw a punch at her. He broke her nose. Brawn matters, y'all.
Anyway.
I get 1 Mind Skill and 5 Agility Skills. Oh, also, no combat skills on
the list, since all super heroes know how to fight. Actually, I kind of
like that. I get a specialty for every skill I know.
For Agility, I take:
Athletics (Parkour) x3
Stealth (Moving Silently) x2
(Those are the only skills I like, so I take them multiple times and get a +2 and +1 to their use, respectively)
For my lonely Mind skill, I take Humanities (Philosophy).
Advantages/Disadvantages. I have to balance these out against each other. Stand by.
For
Advantages, I like Appeal. This guy is personable, calm and soothing to
be around. The other Advantages don't really appeal (tee-hee). I'll
balance that with Enemy (and I'll figure that out momentarily).
Oh, and then we have "Mental Malfunction," because all heroes are crazy. Like Stew,
I'm not entirely enthused by this rule. But for this guy, I take
Adrenaline Junkie. He appears to be Zen and focused, flowing through the
world like water through a sieve. Truth is, using his powers makes it
hard for him to get revved up about anything, and jumping off buildings
(and
through buildings) is the only way he can stay interested, engaged, and happy.
Now,
a bit of concept. Michelangelo de Novo was born in New York's Little
Italy, but shuffled through a series of relatives all through the city
in the ongoing psychodrama that was his family life. When he turned 16,
he discovered free-running, mentored by a cousin's friend. That cousin,
Pietro, never quite got into the spiritual side of things the way Mikey
did, and eventually took a header off a roof because he lost focus at a
critical moment. Mikey blamed himself, and sank into a deep depression.
His
mentor, a mysterious fellow known only as Luc, counseled Michelangelo
to give up his grieving, and to learn to understand (and therefore
change) his place in the world. Over time, Mikey learned to move "out of
step" with any part of the world he wished, moving through solid
objects and climbing straight up sheer walls with even greater skill
than the greatest free-runner. One night he saw a group of thugs from
the neighborhood breaking into a local man's shop, and he jumped down
into their midst and incapacitated them all - without hurting the store.
The shopkeeper, seeing him mostly in his ethereal, phased-out form,
called him "
spettro cortese", "gracious ghost." Mikey donned a
black mask and took the name "Il Spettro," and prowls the rooftops of
New York, looking for crime to thwart...and some way to keep his mind
and soul in tune with the world.
Oh, the enemy! His cousin,
Pietro, didn't die. Broken and bloodied, Pietro called out to whatever
powers were listening and offered them his soul in exchange for his
life. When he returned to the world, as an unliving, bloodthirsty
creature called
Malocchio, he began hunting down his calm,
good-hearted cousin. He plans to force Spettro into the same impossible,
painful situation that he had to face, and see if Mikey can go quietly
into the Hereafter.
As for costume: Spettro wears black sweats
and a white, tight-fitting t-shirt. He wears black weightlifting
gloves, and a black mask over his eyes. He wears a bandanna over his
thick, black hair (color varies by the night; he's found he has to take
them off to bind wounds, set on fire as distractions, or look cool, so
he buys them in bulk). He usually runs barefoot when in hero mode,
because it's less strain on his powers (I figure it's some effort to
keep his clothes in phase with him) and because he doesn't want to mess
up his expensive sneakers in battle.
