CharGen: Brother Behemoth -- Horned Prince of Animals

Here's the last post on the creation of my ICONS character. I think I'll try a few more offline before I think about running an online play-by-post game of this. It's an interesting system. Here we go:

BROTHER BEHEMOTH

ABILITIES

Prowess - Ideal Maximum Human (6)
Coordination - Above Average Human (4)
Strength - Superhuman (8)
Intellect - Exceptional Human (5)
Awareness - Above Average Human (4)
Willpower - Ideal Maximum Human (6)

POWERS

Control - Telekinesis (2)
Mental - Animal Control (6)
Defensive - Invulnerability (6)
Offensive - Aura (1)

This is as far as I got in the prior posts; I had to come up with a character concept and background to fit what I rolled up, and here's a more refined, slightly modified version of my character background:

Adam Silangan had an obsession with occult matters. Unlike the other intensely driven members of the mytical community, he didn't seek riches or power or immortality -- he merely wanted to understand the true nature of the world. Thus, he became right-hand man to a powerful sorceror seeking the horn of the mythical Behemoth, the legendary beast mentioned in the Book of Enoch, rumored to be slumbering in the lands near Eden.

It was he who found the entrance to Behemoth's lair, it was he who discovered the horn for his master, but was accidentally cut by its razorsharp tip. Annointed by blood, the horn transformed Adam Silangan into one of the Brothers Behemoth, blessed by a fraction of the monstrous creature's power and charged with protecting the lair's secrets until the Seals have been broken.

As Champion of Behemoth, Adam Silangan is blessed with incredible power (Strength) and toughness (Invulnerability). His skin bristles with thorny spines (Aura), and he is granted dominion over animals (Animal Control). He is also granted dominion over two ghostly monkeys, who invisibly perform his will (Telekinesis).

And now, to finish off the the character creation with the last remaining steps:

SPECIALTIES


I rolled up three specialties, and I finally chose these:

• Occult --> his passion for the occult grants him substantial familarity with its subject matter
• Investigation --> his occult knowledge came from research, reading, and interrogating the knowledgable
• Stealth --> he became quite skilled at sneaking about in his line of work

STAMINA [14] --> based on the sum of his Strength and Willpower, Brother Behmoth's pretty tough.

DETERMINATION [1] --> but with his super-strength and multiple powers, his starting Determination is at the minimum. He'll need to continuously tap his Qualities and Challenges in-game to be able to spend more.

So that qualities shall we give him?

QUALITIES

• Champion of Behemoth --> allows him to tap into his rights and responsibilities as a chose of this mythical, apocalyptic creature
• Connections: the Mystical Underworld --> he's considered a denizen, if not a player, in the Mystical society of Earth
• Identity: Finder of Lost Knowledge --> before that, he was a well-known go-to guy for the masterminds and mystics after key items that would enhance their mystical knowledge, status, or power.
• Motivation: To safeguard the Seals of Creation --> as Champion of Behemoth, he was privvy to a vision of the terrible end that will befall the world if the Seals are broken; his mercenary heart was forever changed by that vision and he struggles with all his might to stop it from ever happening.

What difficulties can he expect?

CHALLENGES

• Enemy: Beloved of Leviathan --> he has a rival, his other number, a female champion of Leviathan, mystical beast of the sea. Occasionally, she is sent to bedevil his quests, and to thwart his intrusions into the many occult secrets hidden on islands or beneath the surface of the seas.
• Enemy: The Inheritors of Eden --> the sponsors of the expedition that granted him power are quite keen to regain the horn from him, but have learned the hard way that directly opposing the Champion of Behemoth is difficult; they plot and scheme to trap him, weaken him, and kill him for its power.
• Personal: The Call of the Wild --> An intellectually-inclined man, he struggles to rein in the powerful animal instincts that suddenly tug at his being.
• Personal: The Lure of Forbidden Knowledge --> Still inquisitive at heart, he is sometimes tempted to embark on personal expeditions into great occult dangers just to learn more.

That's it! Interesting character creation process; I'd forgotten how much fun rolling up a supers character was.

My inspirations for this character are Swamp Thing / Man-Thing, these monstrous creatures who are forever running into supernatural creatures that they have fight; Hellboy, the World's Greatest Paranormal Investigator (because he tends to survive every encounter, despite not being especially bright -- it's a matter of the sheer weight of experience); and the infamous Demon Entrigan / Jason Blood tandem.

CharGen: Same Hero in ICONS -- the concept!

Remember this?

Prowess - Ideal Maximum Human (6)
Coordination - Above Average Human (4)
Strength - Superhuman (8)
Intellect - Exceptional Human (5)
Awareness - Above Average Human (4)
Willpower - Ideal Maximum Human (6)

Number of Powers: 4

Control - Telekinesis (2)
Mental - Animal Control (6)
Defensive - Invulnerability (4)
Offensive - Aura (1)

Specialties: 3

Well, I have my concept here: I have a man, probably a hunter or a security guard to an evil or amoral archaeologist, who accidentally gains the favor of the mythical Behemoth mentioned in the Book of Enoch and found in the lands near Eden. Behemoth, lord of the creatures of the land, rival to Leviathan, lady of the creatures of the sea, both imprisoned until the end times!

Marked by Behemoth, Adam Silangan gains incredible power (Strength) and toughness (Invulnerability). His skin bristles with thorny spines (Aura), and he is granted dominion over land mammals (Animal Control). He is also granted dominion over two ghostly monkeys, who invisibly perform his will (Telekinesis).


Since I randomly rolled up his origin, I got the transformed origin which means I get to up the level of something by 2. I think I'll pick the Invulnerability to go up to 6, in order to match the mythical level of toughness associated with the Behemoth.


Next: Rounding Out the Character

CharGen: A Hero in ICONS

Pencils to Jim Lee's ICONS. No relation.

Decided to try out randomly rolling up a super-hero in the ICONS RPG. It's a rules light system with some infusion of FATE rules.

Here's what I came up with:

Prowess - Ideal Maximum Human (6)
Coordination - Above Average Human (4)
Strength - Superhuman (8)
Intellect - Exceptional Human (5)
Awareness - Above Average Human (4)
Willpower  - Ideal Maximum Human (6)


Number of Powers: 4


Control - Telekinesis (2)
Mental - Animal Control (6)
Defensive - Invulnerability (4)
Offensive - Aura (1)


Specialties: 3


He could be your classic tough guy with the Invulnerability and the Superhuman Strength, but then he has Animal Control really high up there, and some low-level Telekinesis, plus a really low level damage aura. Gotta think up a concept to match the powers before I go further.

On Character Generation and Character Creation

Some game systems have character generation mechanisms -- random elements are used over choice for certain aspects of the process of putting together a character. For the classic D&D systems, this includes random die rolls for stats (which, if done with a 3d6, in-sequence approach, ends up narrowing your choices for your character class as well). For classic Traveller, it determined whether or not you survived that extra tour of duty that would have given you another rank in a skill you were after.

Some game systems have character creation mechanisms -- usually point-buying attributes, skills, and special abilities. GURPS and HERO are the most well-known ones in this arena, given their 'universal' approach to different settings and genres. Less well known are other point-buy systems like EABA, and the incredibly fast choose a template and add 6 dice to skills approach of the West End Games D6 Star Wars RPG.

I like both of these, but now I'm also looking at systems like HeroQuest which I seem to approach character creation as a sort of 'broadstrokes' character definition approach, and then performing some character refinement during play. It is a more narrative-oriented approach, but it does allow for quick character creation in addition to being able to having some wiggle room to give a character something he should already have (but we forgot to buy it) and to allow a character to break the stereotypes and molds that they sometimes fall into.

The main reason I'm doing this: curiosity.

While character generation forced players to sort of adapt to whatever good or bad luck they experienced and character creation forced players to really think about all the capabilities of their character (and possibly be disappointed when they either run of points, or discover that the system doesn't quite reflect their character as effectively as it should) -- what will a character definition / character refinement approach do?