Character Creation: BASH Ultimate Edition

Home stretch, baby. I need four more characters to hit my goal (52 in a year), and I'm on break. I've got a stack of RPGs next to me (RunePunk, Dystopia Rising, Urban Shadows, and Noumenon, if you're interested), but today I wanted to do something quick and easy.

The Game: BASH Ultimate Edition
The Publisher: Basic Action Games
Degree of Familiarity: Not much. I made a character for an earlier edition here, but I don't think I've ever played BASH.
Books Required: Just the one.

 

So, BASH is designed as a supers game that kids can get into and play. It has some FASERIP in its DNA, which is cool. The first thing I'm invited to do in making a character is to consider scale - are we street level heroes, or teenagers with superpowers, or cosmic beings?

Well, when I do characters in a similar genre (and I have done a bunch of supers characters - 20, depending on how you count it) I like to try and change things up, but man, I have covered a lot of ground. I normally go for less powerful characters because it doesn't take as long, but fuckit, with Captain Marvel coming out in March, maybe it's time to swing for the fences. We'll take the cosmic scale. That gives me 60 points, and it recommends 24 for stats and 36 for powers.

I've got 3 stats to worry about - Brawn, Agility, and Mind (remember, simple system). If I actually spent 24 on stats, and spread it evenly, I'd wind up with 4 in each, because stats are 2 points each. At that point I'd be extremely fast, a super genius, and I'd be able to lift 10s of tons. Guess I should think a little about what kind of hero I'm making.

I think I want my character to be kind of like a Green Lantern in terms of mission, but I don't want him to belong to an army or anything. Instead, he's part of something call the Prism - a race of beings that splits itself into a myriad of separate, autonomous beings to handle cosmic crises in various universes. The Prism operate on a cycle, so there are always a few different sets around, but at the end of a cycle some of them snap back together and "realign," while the others that are finished with their realigning process refract. My hero has been refracted for a while now.

So: Maybe 4s across the board is OK, actually. I think I'll do that. That leaves me 36 points. I could take a Weakness for a few points back, but eh.

Powers, then! Well, right off the bat I want Flight at 5, so that eats 5 points. I also want teleportation across vast distances, but that's a shitload of points (like 9, I think). Hrm. I could just assume that shit like that is "plot device" territory, I suppose. Yeah, that's fine. If I have to travel interstellar distances we assume I have a ship or something. I want immunity to suffocation, poison, fire, cold, and pressure, so that's 5 points. 10 so far. I'll dump 2 into Omni-Linguist (I speak all languages). 3 points into Armor, just to represent that I'm tough. 21 points left. Woof, that's a lot. Um. I need some offense stuff, though. I want some light-based powers. Taking a light-zap is just a Special Attack, so I'll do that. It keys off Mind, and I want some pretty impressive Area, so I'll buy it as a Line (which means I don't also pay for Range; if I were making it a Burst I'd pay for both). If I put 3 into the damage and 3 into Area, that's 6 and that takes me to 15 points.

I'll take Damage Aura; my guy can activate a searing blaze of light that burns anyone that touches him. 3 points, down to 12. I'll go back and spend 2 to boost my Agility to 5, that takes me to 10. I'll put 3 into Deflect, making me even harder to hit and giving me a chance to deflect an attack back on an attacker. That gives me 7 left. I'll take Duplicate at 3 (seems appropriate), which lets me split into 10 duplicates, and that leaves me 4 points.

I'll buy Nullify, letting me turn off other people's powers, and dump my 4 points in.

OK, Skills, then! I get 5 Physical Skills (because I have 5 Agility) and 4 Mental (because 4 Mind), and then I get a Specialty for each one. Well, for Physical I'll take Athletics/Flying, Stealth/Hiding, Perform/Singing (that's a Physical Skill, huh?), Pilot/Evasion (may as well steer into the Captain Marvel thing), and Craftsmanship/Glasswork. For Mental, I'll take Military/Strategy, Humanities/Philosophy, Science/Astrophysics, and Social Science/History.

Advantages/Disadvantages. I have to take disadvantages if I want advantages, so let's see if I need anything. Well, I think the Duty Disadvantage works (to the Prism, obviously), so I need an advantage to balance it out. I'll take Jack-of-all-Trades (reduces the penalty for using Skills I don't have), playing on the idea that I'm the amalgam of a lot of previous incarnations.

Hero Points and Setbacks don't apply, because I spent all my points.

Only thing left, then, is "mental malfunction," which is really just "why I'm a hero," which is odd. Anyway, for my guy it's "shard of the allmighty Prism". Actually, "Shard" is a pretty good hero name.

Shard is pretty badass and would be good in a campaign involving really powerful, Silver Surfer-level heroes zipping around the galaxy preventing Galactus-like threats from happening. I also think there would wind up being a plotline involving other shards, maybe one that goes bad.

In any case, Shard looks human and his form is generally masculine. He wears a white and green outfit, but when he uses his powers any light around him refracts and splits into weird color combinations (like, if he deflects the blast goes violet for a minute, his light-zap is red, etc.). His eyes are pure white and never change, though.

Character Creation: BASH!

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.