Mind Shrike Part Deux

A couple months ago, I made a few versions of a random supervillain named Mind Shrike. My plan was to run Mind Shrike through the superhero games I have on hand to see how they differed from each other. The first report was, perhaps not surprisingly, that Marvel Super Heroes is fast and fun while DC Heroes is ponderous and lacking flavor. This is pretty much how I feel about their respective comic books; read into that what you will. We have a few more Mind Shrikes lined up, so let's take a look at the next one. He was created with Champions (technically the 4th edition of the Hero System), granddaddy of the point-based RPG non-craze.

Credit for Mind Shrike and his kin, by the by, goes to Lee's (Useless) Super-Hero Generator, which is actually very useful.

Typing up a Champions character takes forever and a day, so let's do the conclusions first. Given how often I've said I love Champions, it shouldn't surprise you to discover that I still love Champions. So many options. So much control. So what if it takes an hour to make a really good character? That's part of the game. Champions is the best high-detail generic system I've ever found -- a high priority for me, since I like switching genres and styles and power levels, without the fuss of having to learn a whole new set of rules every time.

Best low-detail generic system? Today I'd pick the simplified version of Over The Edge. You know, the one without any of that Al Amarja crap. Fun system, irritating setting. I don't want a game that tries to nail me down to a particular place and particular NPCs, especially if they sound more like William S. Burroughs than Edgar Rice Burroughs... anyhoo. Mind Shrike.

Making MSIII reinforced a few points for me. First, one of the great strengths of Champions is its Disadvantages system. You get a certain number of points to build a character for free, but you can get more points -- sometimes double your initial amounts, sometimes more -- by voluntarily taking on Disads that will come out in play. Vulnerable to sunlight? Hunted by the Illuminati? Stuck taking care of the illegitimate son you kidnapped from his highborn mother? Have some points to make your character stronger! And also have some complications that will provide grist for the GM's mill, and help you flesh out your character concept to boot! MSIII was built as a standard Champs 4e character, with 100 base points and 150 from Disads. When I'm running games these days, I usually reverse the ratio. It still works pretty well.

Second, it can be hard to spend all those points. I ended up giving MSIII several more abilities than his predecessors. We'll see this problem recur when we get to Mind Shrike V.

Third, I know Champions too well. This version of Mind Shrike has innate "psychic mind-numbing" powers that he used to steal a Mysterious Device that lets him fly. So I gave him two separate multipowers. Would I let a PC do that? Dunno. The fact that I spent the last 10 minutes thinking about it, though, tells me that I've got more invested in Champions than is perhaps necessary...

Anyway, on to Mind Shrike III.

MIND SHRIKE III
STR 15
DEX 20
CON 20
BODY 10
INT 13
EGO 18
PRE 13
COM 10
PD 15
ED 15
SPD 5
REC 7
END 50
STUN 28

Powers
Psychic Mind-Numbing: 60 point Multipower

• 4d6 EGO Attack; Normal Range (-1/2) w/Linked 1d6 INT Drain, Ranged
• 3d6 EGO Attack; AE Cone, No Range

Mysterious Device: 60 point Multipower; OIF Device

• 15" Flight, x8 NCM; O END
• 20 STR Telekinesis; O END

Skills/Talents
Conversation (12-)
Electronics (11-)
High Society (12-)
Basic French

Disadvantages
Secret ID
Hunted by PSIBAN (More Powerful, 8-)
Hunted by Device's creator (As Pow, 11-)
Greedy (Cmn, Str)
Thrillseeker (VC, Str)
Liar (VC, Mod)
Berserk if Device is taken away (Unc, 14-, 11-)
DNPC: Taxi driver brother (Normal , 8-)
Vuln: 1.5x STUN from Killing Attacks (VC)
2d6 Unluck

Mind Shrike mania

A few days ago I dug through my Blue Folder Of Miscellany and found a list of randomly-generated supervillains. I thought I'd take one and run it through a few different superhero RPGs to see what happened. Here's how the first couple turned out.

MARVEL SUPER HEROES
This is one of my very favorite RPGs, and the first one I played regularly. You can trace a lot of my preferences back to his game if you're the kind of person who enjoys doing that. So what happens when we create a character to match one of the names from that list?

First, we almost got Cyberbarbarian. Marvel has a random character generator with a surprising amount of flexibility, and the first guy I rolled up could easily have had magnetic powers and a throwing knife... but having spent years playing Marvel, I remember that one of their sample characters had that exact power set. Boring. Plus this character had an Endurance stat of Feeble -- he fought and jumped around like Spider-Man, but he moved like Aunt May. That's Marvel for you.

Attempt #2 was more successful. With very little work, I put together a passable Mind Shrike (with flight and psychic mind-numbing):

F - Good
A - Good
S - Good
E - Good
R - Remarkable
I - Remarkable
P - Typical

Flight - Remarkable (around 120 mph)
Lightning Speed - Excellent (applied to Flight; that's a rule I never used before)
Paralyzing Touch - Typical

Talents - Martial Arts B; Engineering; Law
Contacts - NeuroTech Incorporated (tech company); Daggerbeard (nu-metal band)

This version of Mind Shrike came together in around 5 minutes. He's a lightweight -- weak physical stats, no offensive power worth noting, but a decent flyer with some good skills. As a lawyer with nonlethal powers, I'd  probably use him as a comic relief character. He could probably skirt the edge of "crime," since all he does is use his gauntlets to momentarily shut down people's gross motor functions. The band contact was free-associated from Mind Shrike - Operation MindCrime - Queensryche. I think this Mind Shrike is a good illustration of MSH as a system. I made him fast, had to stretch logic to connect him together, and he's more interesting than he is useful. I could drop him into any Marvel game I've ever played and he'd fit. I can already see a comic subplot where he competes with the lethal-yet-generic Killer Shrike to see who gets to use the Shrike name.

DC HEROES
I think this is the second edition that Mayfair Games published. It got played for a while, back in the day, but it never lasted. Could be wrong, but I think it's the only notable RPG that was based on logarithms. Point-based where Marvel is random, detailed where Marvel is sketchy. DC is a game with a universal measurement system that tries to tie strength, duration, power level, distance, citrus flavor, and everything else into the same numeric scale. Not a bad game, and it has a few neat rules, but I'm not likely to dust it off for much. Here's how Mind Shrike turned out in DC.

Dex 7   Str 3   Bod 4
Int 8   Will 3   Mind 6
Infl 4   Aura 5   Sprit 4

Flight 8 (around 225 mph)
Sensory Block 6 (w/the Area Effect advantage)

Skills - Occultist 5
Wealth 5
Hero Pts 25

I built him on 450 Hero Points, the suggested starting total for a new PC hero. It took a long time, with a lot of page flipping and occasional consulting of other books, since this version of DC has character generation rules in a different book than rules on its unified measurement chart and a few other things I wanted to see. This Mind Shrike is... eh. Some kind of person with some kind of magic-derived powers that let him fly and black out all of your senses. I'm not nearly as interested in this one as in the first one. He doesn't have enough hooks to hang a character on. I suppose I could have given him some drawbacks or something, but after 45 minutes of chart consultation, I was done with him.

...so that's two Mind Shrikes down. A few more are waiting in the wings.

From the blue folder

Huh. Looks like a list of random supervillains from some long-forgotten online random character generator. Who do we have here?

Stone Apocalypse -- super strength, body duplication, carries an Air Axe
Cyberbarbarian -- magnetism, time travel, and an Adamantium Knife
Blood Flame, wielder of the sinister Mind Whip
Mind Shrike -- psychic mind-numbing, flight -- is this really random?
Future Devil, with his (her?) Seventh Sense and a bunch of Gadgets
General Sorcerer -- body transformation, immortality, and a sideline in Ancient Lore
Fly Inferno, a weapon master with a Trick Staff and the power of meditation
Princessmeister -- animal control, hypnosis, willpower. I bet she's 7 years old.
Killer Reaper -- another weapon master, but he wields the Psychohammer
Emerald Blitzkrieg doesn't do anything interesting, but I enjoy the name
Living Imp -- someone else with Gadgets, plus body duplication
Patchwork Pharaoh is another fun name
Nightblood has gotta be a mutant, probably from the mid-90s, covered in pouches and bandoliers.
Z-Gladiator -- psychic, superhuman hand-eye coordination, superhuman throwing
The grim Green Jackal -- intuition, technology powers, and Gas Armor

It wouldn't take much to clean up Cyberbarbarian, Blood Flame, Mind Shrike, Future Devil, Fly Inferno, Living Imp, or Z-Gladiator for company. And I'm having fun figuring out how the Psychohammer works, or what the Gas Armor does.

And now for something completely different

I wrote this... wow, more than 3 years ago. Posted it to EnWorld. Got a little feedback, even an offer to publish an expanded version as a PDF. But the feedback got too circular and the publishing offer vanished in a puff of smoke when I started asking questions. So here it is, absolutely free and middlin'-good:


***D&D 4.18***


I've been tinkering with ways to remove character classes from D&D - or at least to make them optional - without destroying the balance of the game. The mechanical precision of 4E makes it a more tempting target than previous editions. If anyone's interested, here's the character creation system I'm currently working on. You can use it to make characters very similar to the PHB classes, or characters that match your own concept.

Each class feature and mechanical detail is purchased with what, in a fit of genius, I'm calling "character points" or CP. Every character has 18 CP to spend at creation; unspent CP are lost. Every character also starts with the following:

• Proficiency with cloth armor and all simple melee weapons
• 2 points to add to Fort, Ref, and/or Will defenses as desired
• 10 starting HP and +4 per level
• 6 healing surges
• 3 trained skills of their choice

Your 18 character points can be spent on options from the following list. Any unspent points are lost. Note that some options have prerequisites, or exclude you from making other choices. A character may only pick one option each from the Damage, Marking, and Healing categories.

A character with a Healing feature gets +1 healing surge. A character with a Marking feature gets +3 healing surges. These bonus surges stack.



OPTION/COST

• +2.5 starting HP and +1 HP per level: 1 (may select twice; half-points round down)
• 1 additional trained skill: 2 (may select three times)
• Proficient w/all light armor: 1
• Proficient w/all heavy armor: 1 (must be proficient w/all light armor)
• Proficient w/all shields: 1
• Proficient w/military melee weapons: 1
• Proficient w/simple ranged weapons: 1
• Proficient w/military ranged weapons: 1 (must be proficient w/simple ranged weapons)
• Hunter's Quarry: 5 (Damage)
• Sneak Attack: 5 (Damage)
• Warlock's Curse: 5 (Damage)
• Combat Challenge: 5 (Marking)
• Divine Challenge: 5 (Marking)
• Healing Word: 5 (Healing)
• Lay On Hands: 2 (Healing)
• Inspiring Word: 5 (Healing)
• Arcane Implement Mastery: 3
• Cantrips: 5
• Channel Divinity: Divine Fortune: 1
• Channel Divinity: Divine Mettle: 1
• Channel Divinity: Divine Strength: 1
• Channel Divinity: Turn Undead: 2
• Combat Leader: 3
• Combat Superiority: 2
• First Strike: 1
• Healer's Lore: 2
• Prime Shot: 2
• Ritual Casting: 2 (grants the Ritual Casting feat, plus two 1st-level rituals of choice and a ritual book - see also Spellbook)
• Rogue Weapon Talent: 1
• Shadow Walk: 3
• Wizard Training: 1 (you must buy this option in order to use any wizard powers; it serves no other function)
• Spellbook: 5 (Grants bonus daily and utility powers of your choice as described. If character has the Ritual Casting feat, the spellbook also serves as a ritual book. It has one 1st-level ritual of your choice, plus any bonus rituals from the Ritual Casting feature, and gains new rituals as described.)
• Commanding Presence: 2 (only one option may be selected)
• Eldritch Pact: 3 (only one pact may be selected)
• Fighter Weapon Talent: 3 (only one bonus type may be selected)
• Rogue Tactics: 2 (only one option may be selected)
• Ranger Fighting Style: Archer: 1 (only one ranger fighting style may be selected)
• Ranger Fighting Style: Two-Blade: 2 (only one ranger fighting style may be selected)

*whew* After all that, powers are much easier. Choose your character's powers from any class list. Mike Mearls thinks it's okay.

Someone is wrong on the Internet! And a bonus chart!

Attributed to an ENWorld forum person:


"Finally, let it be noted that sandbox play is not for the cautious. It only works properly for players who are risk-takers, and don't mind a higher death rate... For risk-averse players, or those too attached to PCs, sandbox games are inappropriate, because they induce a sort of paralysis, where, by avoiding risk too successfully, the PCs effectively remove themselves from the ranks of adventurers."


That's crap. Pretentious crap, even. Where I come from, we play games to play characters - having an attachment to the PC is the most funnest part. Casual PC death isn't exciting; it's a punishment. So my sandbox is less lethal than the one described above. I betcha my players will still enjoy it.


On another note, complaining about a secondhand quote from a stranger's years-old blog post isn't the most productive use of my time. Would anyone like a random chart?


COMPLICATIONS TO YOUR STANDARD FANTASY DAY AND ALL LIKE THAT:
1. Character gets a nasty cold.
2. Character sleeps poorly; is exhausted all next day.
3. Fierce rain or snowstorm.
4. Random person falsely accuses character of attacking/mugging them.
5. Pocket gets picked.
6. Witness a wagon accident.
7. Trip and fall; sprain something.
8. Town guard/soldiers hassle you.
9. Stranger hands character a sealed pouch/scroll case (1000 cp, map, mystery key...)
10. Two men pull a struggling woman into a coach.
11. Juggler or troubador won't leave party alone.
12. Charcter acquires a mysterious blue glow.
13. A main weapon is stolen... or is it just mislaid?
14. Plague victim sneezes on you.
15. See some wizard eye, which winks out immediately.
16. Loyal but protective dog attaches to a character.
17. Ornately-clad warrior challenges character to single combat.
18. Accidentally eat hallucinogenic mushroom.
19. Character mistaken for town hero - or local outlaw.
20. Messenger accidentally gives character someone else's letter.
21. Mischevious sprite swaps characters' belongings over and over and over...
22. Find wooden totem that speaks if touched (strange language?).
23. Cross a stream running in wrong direction.
24. Keep hearing thunder on a sunny day; maybe find recent lightning strikes?
25. Path has unexpected fork.
26. Townspeople refuse to talk to or do business with party (curse? guild threat? bad rep?)
27. All gold turns to copper (illusion, maybe).
28. Falcon dives at character when they try to eat.
29. Big monster nearby spooks horses.
30. A boot dies during travel.
31. Assassin tries to buy poison from you.
32. Runaway horse, or wagon, or something bigger - gryphon, wyvern...
33. Accidentally disarm a companion.
34. Locals demand surrender of all edged weapons.
35. Irritated wizard curses you to laugh whenever you lie.
36. Campfire gets out of hand.
37. Find a piece of apparently unattended jewelry.
38. Bard wants to join party (incompetent?).
39. Noble treats character(s) as servant(s).
40. "Oracle" proclaims an incomprehensible destiny.
41. Stumble upon fresh corpse.
42. Bottom of backpack gives way.
43. Someone is knocked into a mud puddle, or watering trough, or manure cart...
44. Receive word that a close friend is gravely ill.
45. Keep seeing the same scarecrow...
46. Fall into undiscovered cavern or barrow.
47. Lose voice somehow (or can only speak in rhyme).
48. Rations have gone moldy - now what?
49. Rockslide, falling tree, shifting sand...
50. Painful swollen spider bite.


...it's a chance to finally use that d50 of yours. I found this list in an old folder - I have no idea how old it is. I'd still use most of these.