Character Creation: Prowlers & Paragons Ultimate Edition

Look! Up in the...waitasec. 

The Game: Prowlers & Paragons Ultimate Edition
The Publisher: Evil Beagle Games? Lakeside Games? Who even knows anymore. Here's a link. 
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

It's a supers game, y'know. It's actually a new edition of an older game (I made a character for the previous edition a while back, and then got this edition in some bundle or other). This system looks pretty similar, what with the dice allocation as point-buy. I will say, though, that the writing is clean and pretty easy to follow and the artwork is dope. There are a couple of NPCs that share names with comic characters (I bet someone thought they were clever calling a Gorilla Grodd type character "Ape-X", but it was done in Squadron Supreme), but that's really hard to avoid. 

Anyway, I started keeping a list of all the supers characters I'd made so I could avoid doubling up on concepts as much as possible, and this'll be my 60th! What ground have I not tread in this genre? I've made a stretchy hero, more than a few jumpy-flippy heroes, cosmic heroes, elemental controllers, powerhouses...have I ever made a Green Arrow style character, someone with gadgets themed around gimmicks? I've a couple of tech-based heroes, I know that.

Actually, hell, let's crack open The Weird, since there's a table of Weird Themes, Schticks, or Gimmicks for superhero characters. A roll of 08 gives me...oh, I couple of intriguing possibilities. The first one is "shows up as if they had been present all along, just not noticed by others." I like that, though I don't think I want to go dark and spooky with it (I have definitely made characters like that).

Hmm. You know, I don't think I've ever done the Thor/Hercules thing of making a mythological character as a superhero. I've gotten kinda close to it by having characters empowered by divine beings (like Aquamarine) and I've done similar things in other genres (like supernatural romance). So what if my character is a cat-god? 

Interestingly, cat goddesses are much more common (guess that doesn't surprise). When it comes to gods it's pretty much either Kek or Nefertem, and Kek's connection to cats is pretty tenuous. Nefertem is often depicted as the son of Bastet, so sure, let's make the "Water-Lily of the Sun" as a superhero. I like the idea of playing up his cat connection, which leads to his power of just kinda being there, even if you didn't notice him. 

Pretty much got Step One done. My character's super-name is Nefertem. I think he probably does have an alias in the same way that Thor used to masquerade as Don Blake; when he first came to Earth he got involved with some younger superheroes (there is no way this guy isn't a teen hero) and they did the sitcom thing where they covered for him, but kind of badly, so his "civilian" name is Jeremy Gato. 

Step Two just jumps right into the numbers. I need to figure how many points I have to throw around. I feel like Nefertem could be just coming into his godlike power, so let's make him Low-Level. That gives me 100 Hero Points, and caps my Traits at 10d. 

Starting with Abilities: Agility, Intellect, Might, Perception, Toughness, Willpower. I feel like Nefertem needs Agility and Perception above all else. These cost 1-for-1, normal people have 2d in these Abilities. Let's put 6d each into Agility and Perception. Toughness doesn't have be huge but it shouldn't be nothing (he's a demigod, after all), so let's go 4d. Intellect and Might can be lower (3d), and Willpower can higher at 5d. That's 27 points spent.

Talents are skills-ish sorts of things, but they're intentionally very broad. Once again 1-for-1, and most people have 2d across the board. There are 12 of them, so I'd need 24 points to be average, so let's start there. 

I think Charm, Covert, and maybe Investigation should be higher. I also like the idea of Academics being really high - Nefertem is also usually depicted as the son of Ptah, the creator god, so it'd make sense if he kinda knows everything. Let's bump all three of those to 6d, which costs me 12 more points, for 36 on Talents, and 63 total. Only 37 left. 

But fortunately, next we have Powers! What do I envision Nefertem as being able to do? I want him to have a kind of cat-like teleport; like, he can't do Nightcrawler-like shit, but sometimes he's just there. Is that worthy of a Power? Maybe it's just a quirk, since it's probably more flavor than anything? 

No, I think I can make it work as a Power. Teleportation costs 1 point per rank, and rank determines my maximum distance. I don't see Nefertem as having a particularly long-range teleport, and it basically only works around people who know him (that is, if a friend of his has been captured by goons, he can teleport into the room, but if it's just the goons, he can't). A rank of 6d gives me a range of a mile, which I think is probably plenty and costs me six points. However, I want some extras here.

Let's say that "people I know" counts as a Medium, which knocks two points off the cost. I want Subtle as a 2-point Pro, so my teleport just kind of happens without any fanfare. And I'll take Uncontrollable - if people within the radius (1 mile) start talking about me, I'll teleport to them. That's 6 + 2 - 4, or 4 Hero Points. Neat!

What else do I want? I feel like I should have some super senses. I want:

Acute Sight
Acute Hearing
Acute Touch
Astral Sight
Enhanced Hearing
Lie Detection
Night Vision
Thermal Vision
Tracking Scent
True Sight 

Can I afford all that? Super Senses, no matter how many you have, acts like one power, but they're all purchased separately and they have different costs. So: Acute Whatever is 1 point per 2 ranks, and adds direction to my Perception. If I want to boost these to, say, 8d, I'd need to spend 1 Hero Point per sense (1 point buys 2d which adds to my Perception of 6d), so that's just 3 right there.

The rest of the powers don't have ranks that I need to buy, they just have a flat cost. Astral Sight is 1, Enhanced Hearing is 1, Lie Detection is 3, Night Vision is 3, Thermal Vision is 2, Tracking Scent is 1, and True Sight is 6 (that's a pretty powerful one). If I want all that plus the Acute X, it's 20 points, but nothing gets by me. I think I'm good with that. And I still have 13 points, so I'm doing fine. What else do I want Nefertem to be able to do?

Lightning Reflexes makes sense, that's a flat 3 points? Doesn't have much bang for the buck, though. Luck is a versatile way to represent divine favor, though at 2 points per rank it's kind of expensive. I could spend the rest of my points and take it at 5d. I dunno, I think I'll keep looking.

Oh, well, shit, Languages, if I take the Hyper-Translator pro, makes me immediately fluent in any language I encounter, and going along with the "knows everything" theme, I think that makes sense. Evasion adds to my Agility for purposes of active defense, and that's in-theme (plus it's cheap), so I'll put 2 there for 4d. That's 5 spent, 8 more. 

Hrm. I feel like I probably ought to have some kind of offensive capability. Nefertem is usually depicted as having a water lily growing out of his head, maybe something plant-themed? Ooh, no, Preparation. Preparation is pretty clearly meant to emulate Batman-like characters who do their homework, but it works for Nefertem for different reasons. It is, however, expensive (6 points). Any Cons I might take to lower it? Nah, not really. Fine, 2 points left. Ooh, I'd like the Patron Perk, but that costs 3. Hmm. I'll lower my Technology Talent to 1d, that'll work. 

Flaws, too! Flaws don't give me Hero Points, sadly, they'd give me Resolve in play. But since Preparation costs Resolve, I need 'em. I'll take Absent-Minded, Broke ("I know the locations of all of the treasures of Egypt, though!" "Yeah, Nef, but you still can't kick in for pizza."), and Outsider, obviously. 

Step Three is Gear, which I am going to skip, because a) Nef is broke and b) I hate this step. 

Step Four: Derived Traits. Edge is Perception + Agility (in my case), or 12. Health is either the average of Toughness and Might or Toughness and Willpower, whichever is better; the latter, in my case, being 5 (we round up). 

Resolve...is a thing I have to figure out. Oh, it's not hard. The highest Trait compared to the Trait Cap (10d, in my case), only I don't think any of my powers count because it only counts powers that affect others. Oh, cool, so it's just based on my Agility, which is 4 below the Trait Cap. That gives me 8 Resolve! Nice!

Steps Five and Six are just wrap-up stuff. So: Nefertem is a young teen, maybe about 15. He's slim, dark skin, dark eyes, but his hair, while black, has this weird blue sheen around the edges, like highlights but in this odd flower pattern? He moves gracefully and fluidly, and while he knows almost everything as far as fact and history, he's pretty clueless about how society works now. 

Why's he doing hero stuff? I really think he kind of appeared from wherever (when asked, he says he's been here the whole thing) and fell in with a group of teen heroes. He claims his mom watches out for him, and he talks to every cat he sees. He's not the most offensively powered super in the world, but when it comes to knowledge, detection, and communication, there's no one better. MAO. 

Character Creation: Prowlers & Paragons

Look! Up in the sky!

The Game: Prowlers & Paragons
The Publisher: LakeSide Games (there is also a newer edition from Evil Beagle, but I don't have that one)
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Amongst the throngs of superhero RPGs, we have this one! And...yeah. Looks perfectly serviceable. Aims squarely at a four-color, over-the-top interpretation of comic book heroes, which is fine. The book's writing is a little wackier in places than I think necessary (I've never been a fan of the whole "lol why are we doing a 'what is roleplaying' section 'cause you totally know what it is' thing), but there's nothing objectionable. I do find it a little funny that it felt like it had to find a BLANK & BLANK title and wound up with Prowlers & Paragons, 'cause "prowlers" doesn't really seem like it sends the right message. But that's all very nitpicky.

Actually, I think the game would work fine at the table. P&P works on sliding power scale, measured by how many dice you get to build a character. "Standard" is 36 dice, with a maximum trait rank of 10d (this works on a dice pool system, roll a bunch of d6s, evens are successes, 6s explode, but success/failure is about who narrates the result, not whether or not the action happens). It's very narrative focused, but combat has more robust rules because, as the game points out, that's where a lot of the source material lives, which I suppose is true. I do wish the book had an example of chargen, though. 

Well, anyway, let's a make a "standard" hero. First off, I need a concept. I've been replaying Spider-Man on the PS5 lately, and I have to say that swinging through New York is pretty fun. Don't think I've ever made a stretchy hero (well, I made a hero with stretching powers here, but that wasn't really the focus), so how about we do that? 

Theodore "Ted" Townes, by day, is a mild mannered clerk at a mild mannered bodega. By night (or, like, whenever the situation calls for it), he is ready to become...the Malleable Man! (If there's already a superhero with that name, I don't want to know.) I see Ted as very much the archetypal "don the costume and take off after the crisis" kind of hero, which means his bodega probably spends a lot of time closed or else he's got a long-suffering co-worker who isn't even supposed to be here today. Either works. (And this isn't Masks, so we probably wouldn't spend a lot of time dealing with that anyway.) 

OK, good enough concept for now. Let's put some dice into things! 

We start with mundane traits. I get an automatic 3d in each of these, unless I wish to bust any of them down to 1d and take some extra dice. I dunno. Offhand, I feel like Athletics, Charm, Might, Streetwise, and Toughness should probably get some beefing up. Raising these is one-for-one.

So let's bump Athletics up to 7d, Charm to 6d (and I'll pay one extra for the Disguise pro), 4d in Might (meaning I can lift about a ton), and then I'll put 3 each into Perception, Stealth, and Toughness, giving me 6d in each one. That means I've spent 18 points of my 36. 

Super traits! Obviously I need Plasticity and Swing Line. Plasticity actually costs double because, presumably, it lets me do a variety of things that aren't really enumerated, which makes me wonder if I need to take Swing Line. Let's assume I do. If I want 6d in Plasticity, I'd have to burn 12 of my remaining 18 points. Erm. Ok, well, let's put 3 into Swing Line, so I can swing through the city at a leisurely 8mph. I have 3d left for perks.

Well, I want Reach (allowing me to use my powers are distant targets as though they were up close), and I'll take Quick Change with my final die (I can change into my superhero form instantly; we'll assume that Ted can absorb his street clothes and "exude" his superhero costume). 

Flaws! I get three; they'd give me Resolve in play when they cause problems for poor 'ol Ted. I'll say he's Absent-Minded, Broke, and I'll take a Vulnerability to cold (I like the way it works; basically I get a Resolve point if I choose to just fail a defense roll against a cold-based attack).

And that's all the numbery stuff, now we just need the descriptive stuff. Ted is in his late teens, skinny, scruffy, been trying to grow a proper beard for a while and it's not happening. He favors jeans or cargo pants and t-shirts or hoodies (he's not above giving himself a six-pack when he wants to impress someone). 

As the Malleable Man, he's in constant flux - limbs are stretched and looped, neck like a silly straw, and his face isn't masked but it's unrecognizable because he's always changing it. He wears green spandex (which stretches, but not as much as he does), and goes barefoot. It's not like he leaves fingerprints or anything. 

Motivation! If you asked Ted why he does what he does, once he got done denying that he knows anything about this "Malleable Man" character, he'd probably say that doing the right thing is its own reward. That's maybe part of it, but mostly Ted feels that it's awesome and stretching feels good. (This to me speaks to a superhero who hasn't really faced a deadly challenge yet.)

Quote! Can be a catch-phrase or just something cool he said once. Hmm. I think that Ted has been in a couple of situations where he's saved people from a fall by turning himself into a slide or a net, and has yelled out "Enjoy the ride!" as folks plummet into the makeshift tarp or the safety slide he created. At the heart of it, he's having fun and wants other folks to do so, as well, but also there's a bit of "let's keep the mood light" in there.

Details! At this point I make up three details: one about me, one about one of the other PCs, and one about the game world. Well, obviously I don't have any other PCs, but that's fine. So we'll say that Ted works at Luis' Bodega. Luis himself is long gone; he retired and moved back to Colombia years ago. There's another superhero named The Reckoning in the same neighborhood, and he and Malleable Man inadvertently teamed up once, when a couple of local gangs decided to have a shootout in the middle of the damn street. He'd planned on talking to the dude, but he just vanished when the shooting stopped. And, finally, something about the game world. Well, let's say that the gangs that Ted and The Reckoning drove off have joined forces, and have a super-power patron now.

Connections! I need three NPCs. Well, I mentioned a coworker earlier, so let's say that's Tracy. Tracy, like Ted, is perpetually broke so she doesn't turn down the hours at the bodega, but she's a little annoyed at Ted for running out all the time. Bricks is a cab driver (unlicensed, yeah, what's it to ya) who frequents the area, and has on occasion given Malleable Man a ride. And finally, Detective Nunzio is a local who went to police academy and looks out for the neighborhood (or so he says, but it's not like the gangs ever seem to have trouble avoiding the cops...). 

Origin! Ah, yes, how did Ted get his powers? Was he bitten by some radioactive silly putty? Nah, I think Ted was cleaning out the back office of the bodega one day (penance for being late), and found a mason jar of brackish liquid. He set it on a table and then forgot about it, and knocked it over, and it fell, shattered, and splattered on him. He started getting stretchy the next day. He'd love to know what that stuff was, where it came from and why it was just...sitting the back office of a bodega, but he's got no idea where to start. 

I have 16 Edge (Athletics + Perception + Willpower), but that's the only thing left, so the Malleable Man is ready to hit the streets! And then bounce right off them!