IHA Character Creation Thread

Here we can discuss your PCs as you make them.

Well timed, just sat down to read Fate stuff! I'll see what ideas I can come up with once I've given it a once over.

So as I mentioned, I want to play a character who steals luck from enemies and gives it to allies. I like the idea of using power amplification as a model, but it would probably be unfair and unfun to apply an aspect that's simply "lucky" or "unlucky", since those aspects could be applied in nearly every situation. That would make my character a kind of one trick pony. So rather than that, I was thinking it would be better if I could apply luck or unluck to specific things (movement, the next punch X character does, the next coin flip), with some difficulty, with more specific situations being less difficult and less specific situations being more difficult (at the GM's discretion), with a general "luck" or "unluck" aspect being the most difficult (Nearly impossible) to apply (Maybe it can only be done as a collateral damage effect). That would make it a little more fun to play, I think - I can use the power most effectively by anticipating what others do, making my character kind of a chessmaster type. Plus it's like a subtle, optional form of mind control, where I can get people to do what I want by making it easier to do, and prevent people from doing things I don't want by making it harder.

Okay I have a concept but not sure how to relate this to game mechanics -- further I realize I might not be able to implement all of the following, which is fine, just outlining it in fullness to see how much is possible and what needs to be dropped completely and what can be delayed for later (grown to). Of course the following concept does take a twist when someone steps into the personna but does not have all the knowledge of the previous person or at least that is the way it sounded.

First he has a knack for solving puzzles due to having a photographic memory and a sense for minute details (sight, sound, smell, and touch) -- nothing superhuman per-sae but he can do things like replay a room that he walked through and re-experience it again and again examining things he sensed more closely. If he encounters a puzzle/mystery he has a very strong urge (almost OCD level) to solve it or at least understand it. He also does not do well if he does not have something to be mentally working on that he is trying to solve so the longer he goes without something the solve the more he needs something to solve -- even minor puzzles help.

As for his superpower the concept is mostly a superform power I am guessing but he also does not much like his superform. This superform is a Wraith (an intangible ghost-form that cannot go invisible) looks kind of like Bleak's avatar and it has a cold graveyard like presence making it hard to use his main ability without it being at least initially noticed -- his full main ability is to step inside creatures (humans or animals or aliens) and either possess them or just ride along -- while inside of some-creature he can take over the body overtly or subtly, scan their thoughts, modify their memories, put their mental processes into a dream state (aka shut down conscious awareness) while keeping the body awake, communicate with them overtly or subtly or in a sort of dream state. Note this presence thing is also internal in that when in this form he feels cold emotionless and well just kind of dead inside so its not necessarily a pleasant experience for him.

As a ghost he "sees" in shades of gray and while this seems like sight it is not vision its more tactile in nature and he can sense through solid objects as if they were a light fog as the world becomes translucent with the less dense the matter the clearer it is and the farther he can sense. His hearing in this state is distorted in that he can hear normally it just takes on an odd tone due to a sort of paradigm filter that it passes through before getting to him. He of course can move but he does not walk as he has no legs, he just floats/flies along of course moving quickly requires focused concentration -- aka focused mental willpower needed to move faster than a walk kind of thing. So perhaps he does not as much become a wraith as he moves into another realm of existence maybe.

So about how much of that is going to actually be possible?

Oh and if this does not sound good I can probably work something else up as well.

@naelick - Yes, this is a good idea. I was thinking about it. As written, Power Amplification & Nullification only applies to actions involving powers...so you can't Amplify a character's shooting skill if their power does not apply to that skill. I think requiring your character to steal and grant only specific kinds of luck at a time is a good idea to keep this style of limit and make it more fun for you. And needing to anticipate what kind of actions to affect has good drawback potential also. What kind of delivery system were you thinking? For example...and sorry my examples will come mostly from Marvel comics, it's what I know...Domino just sort of needs to be near people to...while Rogue needs to touch people to take their power (I know...not what you are doing just a close example). In the TV show Heroes, Ando had to shoot bolts of energy to Amplify powers. I think it should be tied to a skill somehow. Fight and Shoot being an obvious choice, but maybe you have other ideas? Maybe Provoke for bad luck and Rapport for good luck? I'm just spit-balling...make it your own.

@naelick seeing what has been said thus far -- let me share some brain storming thoughts that I had as I read it

One can give bad luck to someone in order to grant good luck to someone else and/or to ones self and vice-versa but the bad/good luck must be the same -- further if not given to someone else as the next action the good/bad luck gets applied to the hero's next action and/or maybe there is simply a chance that this happens anyway aka the transference does not always work 100% so then you have to decide do you give good or bad luck first as you may be eating the transference. Luck good/bad is a fickle mistress so-to-speak

Perhaps this concept extends to general life for the character being in the right place at the right time as well as being in the wrong place at the wrong time or right place wrong time or wrong place right time. Kind of a trouble magnet of a sort.

I could see this working sort of LoS but working better the closer you are to a target

@DeJoker - This sounds very possible. I'll break down my thoughts to parallel yours.

First, the non-super power, detective stuff is fine. Your character should have high Notice and Investigate skills. One of your Aspects should probably be worded to reflect what you want...for example "Obsessive Puzzle Solver" is a good Aspect because you can use it as a positive attribute, and I can compel it to make you hyperfocus when I think you should. You might also look at those two skills to see if you like any suggested stunts you might also want.

Second, starting the Quirk with Super-Form is a good idea. It should add Phasing and Influence powers I think. And a mechanism to "expel" your possession will be needed. It could be as simple as taking Stress or Consequences, but I'm open to other ideas as well. I do think it needs to be something fairly common though...like it can't be "only telepathic characters can push me out of people" as not every fight will have a telepathic enemy. Oh, and Flight...if you want to be able to do that once you transform. So the basic Quirk looks like it will cost at least 4 of the 6 stunts. A good drawback would be that you share any Stress or Consequences your 'victims' suffer while you are riding them, as well as the sensory stuff as noted below.

As for your senses...that is mostly flavor stuff that I can narrate into your story, but maybe include it as part of the Drawback

Oh...and in case it wasn't clear to the new-to-Fate players...

Normally in fate you get 3 Stunts and 3 Refresh. In Venture City they up the number to 6 Stunts. You may also spend up to 2 Refresh to create more stunts if you want, but doing so puts you at a disadvantage. Your Refresh value is how many Fate Points you have at the start of a new scene. So if you spend the Refresh, you only have 1 Fate Point at the start of a session and will have fewer resources to do cool stuff with. You can always ask for a Compel by taking detrimental actions in line with your character, but that is not always optimal.

This isn't fully explained in the Venture City SRD section the way it is in the actual book, so I just wanted to point out that rule still exists.

Okay, so I'm still thinking about my characters High Concept, but as far as powers go, I was considering something along the lines of being able to conjure an avatar capable of fighting on their behalf, perhaps with a few added benefits (Avatar might have enhanced strength or speed compared to a human, or just be able to operate more efficiently due to a lack of senses such as pain)

I think the power is closer to Domino's, in that they can affect things within their awareness, but in a way that's less wide reaching and more deliberate. Like, Domino could automatically dodge a falling rock, whereas my character would need to anticipate the possibility of falling rocks and use the power specifically to dodge them, making it nearly impossible to use reactively (I'm thinking they could make themselves lucky at dodging, which would be hard since it's broad, or lucky at dodging rocks which is easier since it's more specific but wouldn't help if they needed to dodge a beam or bullet)

For skills... I was thinking Will, to make it a telekinesis kind of power? Or investigate, maybe they need to actively find the possibilities present in a scene to enhance or suppress them. Or Notice, along the same lines.

Another option is to build it around the Influence power, but have it provide a bonus when the action is followed, in addition to stress if it's not. That'd make the roll stress opposed by will, but it's a bit of a different character than I was imagining

@Bleak - I like it. Creature Summoning is a basic power in the catalog that you can totally spend your stunts on building the Avatar up. As written it only allows it once per scene and they are kind of squishy so maybe adding a level of Mastery to give it more Stress and another stunt to make a custom "respawn" where you can spend a Fate point to either remove all stress on it or re-summon it if it is "killed" in action?

Sounds good to me, I'll take a look!

@naelick - All this is fine you settle on what you want. Your Domini comparison makes sense to me. I can also see going either telekinesis or influence powers instead of amplification/nullify. It puts a different spin on it though. If you went with TK, explaining it as you can only offer nudges, then a good Collateral effect would be an all-out TK storm where your Quirk goes berserk and smashes everything in the zone. The influence is cool to but might push into DeJoker's realm? I'm not saying no, because DeJoker hasn't posted as I type this up, but I'll just put out the thought that you might want to avoid stepping on each others gimmick. Up to you though. Input is always welcome.

I do not think as Influence naelicks power would step at all on my shtick because he influences "luck" while mine is more direct and much more invasive so-to-speak. It would be like having two elemental types one fire and one ice -- their powers would be similar but quite different.

So Dreamblade, I know you were mentioning the characters coming from a rather dystopian world, do you have any more details on that for the sake of making our character's backstories?

A brief image browse later, I think I'm getting the start of a concept. Probably a dead-end bartender of some kind, personality pending.

Bleak I look more like this but I think some overlap is cool because it make us more thematic ;)

Hey, I'm all for thematic looks if that's the case. Just didn't wanna hustle in on your ghostly shtick XD

I am not the kind of player to be bothered by such a small detail -- I think there is plenty of room for all types -- perhaps we will get along well due to your creepy side-kick and my just creepy presence ;)

I agree, that's the kind of detail that's fun to role play off of. There's lots of different ways a character could feel about someone else having a similar power

Same here, still worth checking. Alright.

I think I'm gonna make my char some kind of disillusioned bartender. Still on the fence about a Trouble for her because I don't want to make her constantly deadpan. Might look into her powers first and then come back to it.

Edit: Thinking along the lines of "Bartender Fence" for concept and "Anything for Money" as her trouble.