Heroes Character: Ringmaster

After every few sessions of the Star Wars campaign, my players are nice enough to direct a session or two of gaming so that I can take a break and be a player. Our next adventure is set in a world a little like Watchmen, where vigilantism is outlawed. We're using the Palladium Heroes system, and here's a draft of my character, created completely through random generation--not just ability scores, but even class, education, country of origin, and super powers. It was a fun challenge to make the various facets of this character coherent. His background is a little cheesy, but I'm not sure whether the tone of the campaign will be relatively dark or lighter, so I wanted some flexibility.

For super powers, I rolled "Gem Powers" (which allows you to use various expensive gems to utilize different superpowers) and "Plant Control," which isn't that useful in urban settings but would be great in the wilderness. I've focused the character mostly on the gem powers, and envision him a little like the Marvel Comics' character Mandarin, who has a ring on each finger, each with a different power. In this game, the gems are actually pretty damn powerful and include the ability to fly, turn invisible, heal yourself, shoot energy blasts, and more. The downside is that each gem can only be used a certain amount of times before it crumbles into dust, which means the character needs to constantly be on the look out for money to buy more gems. My guy's not adverse to swiping a little pocket money or stuff to fence from the bad guys he catches.

Things aren't finalized yet, but it sounds like the other characters in the game will include an archaeologist/mystic (a bit like Dr. Fate), a character a bit like the Question/Rorschach, and a bionic superhero. Should be a lot of fun, and I'm curious to see the game in action.

I've never actually played a superhero in a role-playing game before. When I was a teenager we had a short-lived super hero campaign that was based on a point-based mechanic (everybody got a certain amount of points that they could put into super powers, physical abilities, equipment, etc.). Being a dorky teenager, I decided to play a non-super powered Private Investigator character and put pretty much every single point into building a massively powerful handgun. Incredibly silly in retrospect, but then again the campaign only lasted a couple of sessions before we moved on to something else.

ANTOINE MARRENNE, “RINGMASTER”

HEROIC CLASS: Experiment
EDUCATION: Trade School
LEVEL: 1 (Exp. Pts: 0)

ATTRIBUTES

Physical Strength: 10
Physical Endurance (12 + 1 Run): 13
I.Q.: 10
Mental Affinity: 13
Physical Beauty: 9
Physical Prowess: 23
Speed (13 + 7 Run): 20 (100 m/round, 25 m/action)
Mental Endurance: 7

HIT POINTS (12 Base + 6 Random) = 18

S.D.C. (40 Class + 6 Run + 30 Plant Control) = 76

A.R. 12 (Hard Armor Vest w/ 120 S.D.C.)

P.P.E. 29

COMBAT 4 attacks/round, +4 Dodge, +4 Parry, +4 Strike, + 2 Roll w/ Punch/Impact, + 2 Pull Punch

ALIGNMENT: Selfish (Unprincipled)

POWERS: Gem Powers (p. 274 & see below), Plant Control (p. 285)

SIDE EFFECT: Chemical Resistance (+5 saves, ½ effect on failure)

SKILL PROGRAMS: Mechanical, Criminal

SKILLS: Mechanical Engineer (45%), Basic Electronics (50%), Locksmith (45% or 40% hi-tech), Streetwise (39%), Pick Locks (50%), Find Contraband & Illegal Weapons (45%), Prowl (45%), Cardsharp (43%), First Aid (50%), General Repair/Maintenance (40%), Second Language: French (70%), Research (55%), Pilot: Motorcycle (64%), Swimming (55%), Running, Hand-to-Hand Basic (level 1, 2 extra attacks, +2 to roll w/punch/impact, + 2 pull punch), Pilot Automobile (62%), Basic Mathematics (50%), Recognize & Identify Plants (86%), Climb Trees or Vines (+10%)

BACKGROUND Antoine Marrenne was born in Tunisia on Africa’s northern coast. After his parents died in an auto accident, the 10-year-old Antoine moved with his grandfather (Lalande) to Cleveland in the United States. Antoine was a poor student, and barely graduated high school. After inquiring at the local recruiter for the National Guard, Antoine was instead sent to meet with a secret crime-fighting organization unaffiliated with the government. They offered to make Antoine into a full-fledged super hero if he was a suitable “candidate.” Antoine went through a wide variety of tests and experiments during the day, while being trained in basic crime-fighting and street-survival skills during the evening. However, when none of the experiments provided him with super abilities, Antoine washed out of the program. Months later, while working at a local pawn shop, Antoine realized the experiments worked after all—he had an amazing ability to manipulate gems into doing almost anything he wanted (to this day, he thinks his Plant Control ability is thanks to a green gem that is never “exhausted”). Antoine soon decided to put his abilities to good use, and he hooked up with a local super hero team called the “Justice Circus” and donned the name “Ringmaster” along with a flamboyant spandex costume. For a few years, everything was great until the government outlawed vigilantes. Antoine barely escaped a raid on the Justice Circus thanks to his invisibility gem, and decided it was time to leave Cleveland. With his elderly grandfather, Antoine took a new job as an apartment maintenance man in Bay City. The excitement of crime-fighting proved irresistible, however, so Antoine has begun sneaking out at night wearing a black combat vest under his trenchcoat, hoping to find some bad guys and maybe a little extra cash to pay for his expensive hobby.

EQUIPMENT CASH ON HAND: $_1550____ (Savings: $ 1000)
Two Pairs of Handcuffs (free*)
Pocket Tape Recorder (free*)
Utility Belt (free*)
Backpack (free*)
Polaroid Camera (free*)
Binoculars (free*)
Flashlight (free*)
Grappling Hook & 30.5 m Line ($ 150)
Automatic Lock Pick ($ 160)
Cell Phone & 1 Month Service ($ 200)
Hard Armor Vest (AR 12, SDC 120) ($ 1400)
Light Motorcycle ($ 500)

GEMS # OF USES LEFT POWERS
Amethyst (x2) ($230) 6 Detect Psionics (p.298)
Hypnotic Suggestion (p. 311)
Meditation (p. 297)
Garnet ($ 300) 3 Empathy (p. 306)
Agate, Large (x2) ($ 280) 12 Bio-Regeneration (p. 298)
Aquamarine ($ 110) 3 Underwater Abilities (p. 237)
Black Tourmaline, Large ($ 100) 6 Mind Block (p. 302)
Diamond ($ 1000) 3 Wingless Flight (p. 233)
Emerald ($ 900) 3 Invisibility (p. 277)
Clear Quartz, Large ($ 210) 6 Bend Light (p. 229)
Ruby Quartz (x2) ($ 210) 6 Energy Expulsion: Light (p. 231)
Smoky Quartz, Large ($ 300) 6 Energy Resistance (p. 231)
Sapphire ($ 600) 3 Empathy (p. 306)
Emphatic Transmission (p. 310)
Star Sapphire ($ 1000) 3 Bio-Manipulation (p. 309)
Zircon, Large ($ 1500) 3 Impervious to Fire/Heat (p. 235)

Cash Spent on Equipment & Gems: 9150

(*List of free equipment on p. 24)