Aberrant: Dead Rising - Character Concepts

[Drew]

Post 'em here please. Not the stats, just the character description.

[Priest]

Hey there. You might know me as Ravenshire.

Priest is the leader of a roving band of scavangers. The head out for the major cities to swipe necessary parts and materials that the surviving communities need. His pack consists of one other nova (Leo), six humans (Willy, Colt, Bethany, Rhonda, Sarah, and Andy), and 2 german shepards. They roam about in a large touring bus, a Hummer, and an SUV. They carry two motorcyles as well.

The team can work out of any established hold, or just be traveling through. If someone has a permant base, they can be working with them, though they remain independant. They could also team up with other loners/small bands to create a more effective raiding force.

[SkyLion]

Still wrestling with my concept..not sure which way i want to take it. Powers have changed some..think I am going to combine parts of this idea with an older one I never got to play.

[SkyLion]

In the interest of Drew keeping his hair follicles intact, I have relinquished my superman on steroids concept for something a little more down to Earth (Now with less Taint!).

[SkyLion]

Does that make Drew-Happy Storyteller?

[Priest]

Come on! Let's see it.

The new concept that is.

[SkyLion]

soon. Soon I say.

in the meantime, I would like to bring up that we had talked about one of us having a base. I believe it was you Raven who suggested that just one of us ought to have one. Now I hear that since you submitted Priest and his roving band of scavengers, that we are not allowed to have a base. Fox really wanted to play the survivalist with the base, but Drew said no since Ravens characters were scavengers..well where are they going to take their booty???

I think its in poor form to dictate the scope or form of a game based on one character concept..there should be room for many different types...

[Priest]

Overload, you could have a base that the Scavangers operate out of, is all. I didn't think it would be a good idea to have two seperate enclaves is all. Plot away.

[Drew]

And I never said that...

[Mr Fox]

Sorry if I took your response wrong. I wasn't upset by it or anything though, it's your game to operate as you please.

If it is accepted though, the base I mentioned in the PM is what I had in mind. Would be very cool as a stronghold against the zombies, very much like the one the Umbrella corp had in the most recent Resident Evil movie, though not so elaborate as that. Just a simple Titan I missle base. Up to you if you want the missles to still be in their silos. Might be better for the plot if they aren't. Not like we have anyone to launch them at anyway.

[SkyLion]

Thats what you think....a dot of CyberK and those birds fly baby!!!

[Courier]

Along with a request to join I sent in a char sheet on John DeBeer, a super leaping former fireman.

As one would expect from a nova who has powers relevent to this situation, he's picked up a fair amount of resources and is presumably a voice in whatever community we have.

[Mr Fox]

Welcome aboard Courier, assuming Drew accepts ya of course.

My character since Drew approved it...

Morgan Fox was in the Air Force and assigned to guard a missle base 20 minutes outside Denver, CO. When the Zombie holocost began he didn't have any family to run off to find so he stayed put where he was. It seemed the safest thing to do. The Titan I missle base has three silos, plus a launch facility and underground tunnels connecting them all. It has 2 deep wells going all the down to the aquefer. Redudnant power generators, etc. 210 acres of land fenced in by a tall chain link fence.

After a week or so he headed into Denver and raided sporting goods stores, military surplus stores, walmarts and anything thing else he could find that looked to have useful supplies. On his first trip he got cornered by a handful of zombies and fled up to the roof of the building. When he ran out of ammo he threw himself off the roof to commit suicide rather than fall to the zombies, but he didn't fall, he erupted and flew. Since then his flying ability and the secret missle base have made him quite wealthy in terms of the post apocalypse economy.

One of the first things he did was contact the few friends he had and let them know to come to the base since it was a refuge against the undead.

[SkyLion]

Courier...I see you decided to revive JOhn from Cottus and Phoenix's stalled game! NIce!

[Justin OOC]

Daniel Hawkins was a Marine Captain before the outbreak started at Camp Lejune. He watched as his entire company was sent in to deal with the zombies but in the end they were all infected. The trauma of watching his men die like this caused him to errupt, and in the time since then he has wandered the country, making his way inland, due to lower popuation density. With less people the chances of infection lessen as well.

He drives a military issue Humvee, and carries the standard assortment of marine firepower. At this point his sole focus is on surviving the Zombie plague and finding whoever started this and shoving a grenade down their throat.

His family is gone, his friends are gone, and his men are all gone. Once The Camp was overrun he had been the last survivor. He had gone to the armory and rigged a charge to kill his former comrades as opposed to letting them infect others.

He's actively trying to find the person responsible for the plague, but he's also trying to ensure that the whole nation isn't infected.

[Mr Fox]

Just for the record, I mentioned in my earlier post that the missle base was outside Denver Co, but only because that is where it is located in real life. Drew can feel free to put it outside whatever major city is near where the game is starting or where he plans to have us focus.

Morgan will open his base as a trading post and gathering point. He allows anyone to camp on the grounds or in the tunnels so long as they agree to help defend the base in the event of zombie threats. He does not allow anyone into the launch facility itself or into the silos except those he trusts, which is a short list.

[Priest]

Mr. Fox, if you don't mind, Priest could have pawned off some survivors to you from an earlier run. He tries to locate survivors in cities through radio broadcasts and the like. He takes them out on his bus and offers them new lives in the enclaves that exist in the hinterlands away from the cities.

Justin, looks like we will get along famously! The only thing is, how does he feel about scavanging?

Courier, what does your fireman do now that the End Times are upon us? Would he wander the country side, raid the zombie-filled cities, or seek out an enclave for safety?

[Mr Fox]

Priest, That is just fine. Fox takes in survivors if they agree to live by his rules as long as they are in the base. He has 4 soldiers who consider him their commander and follow his orders aside from any settlers. They will organize anyone that settles on the base permanently and put them to work. Anyone that stays agrees to basic military training and will take their turns standing watch and guarding the base. The base also acts as a trading post for scavengers and travelers. Despite his military background, Fox doesn't recognize any surviving military remnants as having any authority over him since the government itself collapsed. His men and many of the settlers call him "Captain" since that was his rank before the zombies infection.

Fox is friendly and enjoys meeting any new survivors that get found. He does all he can for those who rely on him, however, he will turn away anyone that he believes is trouble. Nor does he believe in democracy under the circumstances, given his military background and survival mindset, he deals with wrongdoers quickly and harshly much in the way of a soldier facing court marshal. Murder's, rapists, or those who endanger the base are dealt with immediately and permanently. No matter how few survive, he has no patients for such people and believes the world is better off without them.

Overload's character is an old friend of Fox's from his days in the Special Ops and acts with the authority of his second in command.

[Priest]

Sounds like things are coming together.

[SkyLion]

Lots of ex-military here. Does make a certain kind of sense...

[Courier]

Powers make a *huge* difference, communities will tend to grow up around novas regardless of their background.

Just to toss out some character ideas that I don't think anyone is using.

1) Elemental Mastery or Anima Fire would be pretty huge, the storm technique would nail groups of zombies, and they probably aren't smart enough to not group.

2) The Healing power would also be pretty huge. I suspect that power could cure some one of the zombie virus if used before they actually died.

On a different note, John has a dot of backgrounds unspent. I already have Resources and comunity standing (easy for a nova). Basically he's a nova in an enclave. Presumably he should get Allies:The Mayor or Local Warlord, or perhaps increase his influence (presumably meaning that the enclave is bigger). I invite comments and/or suggestions.

[Mr Fox]

Well, if we use Fox's base as the gathering point, then that would be the community. It would have at least 20 or more permanent residents plus all the folks that use it as a gathering place between scavenging missions and those using it as a way station on their journeys. As we go along he will inviting more people to live there. He's just shifted gears from survival mode (gathering supplies) and is beginning to think of saving others. Priest has dropped a few survivors on his doorstep as well. John is welcome to be one of the survivors or he could have come to the base on his own. Either way anyone is welcome that won't compromise the safety of the base.

[SkyLion]

I like the EM ideas but they burn quantum...especially if you only take 1 dot...Im saving my EM PCs for a game where I can start at 5 and proceed to Mastery...

I was considering adapting my doctor PC from the same game as Courier's character but not sure if I want to redo that idea or play a doctor again.

As it is I feel like we are going to have *alot* of overlap in terms of skills...

[Priest]

Healing would be cool, especially if it stopped someone infected from dying and zombifying.

The Elemental Anima/Mastery is limited because it will only be at level one. That's not too much fire (yet). Mind you, you could amplify the effects of existing fires which could be pretty nasty.

As for backgrounds, you could get Contacts(People in the Community) to represent the relationship you have with people in the neighborhood.

You could also have Contacts representing people you know in other enclave(s), if you travel about.

Allies usually represent another nova.

An increase in Influence could also mean you are known and respected in several enclaves.

According to Fox, the majority of survivors have migrated to the Artic, leaving only small enclaves behind and the cities crawling with hordes of zombies.

Oh, if you play with fire and use a flamethrower, you might want Attunement, so you don't blow up.

Have you considered a Mentor?

If you chose to work out of Fox's enclave, you get the "works with the powers that be" for free because he's a PC.

Can't wait for us to meet up.

[Courier]

RE: Problem with the base idea.

I'm worried that it's too far away from any cities or the like. We're going to need resources and most of those are in cities. Granted, big ones will have large amounts of zombies, but there has to be a happy median between millions of zombies and needing to depend on one flying nova taking a long trip to go raiding for food.

How remote is this base? How far is the closest city? And for that matter does our flying nova have mega-strength to pick up more stuff?

RE: EM problems.

EM fire would short circut the problem of it not being around, and an unmastered storm techique only burns 6 quantum no matter how long it's up. During that time it's going to inflict 2 levels of lethal damage on all zombies inside the area, so they'll drop like flies.

RE: EA problems.

I figured out a cheap way around the lack of fire. Just buy Claw(fire) and now you always have a source. The only real drawback is you need to take a round to raise the claws and then another to toss it around.

RE: Influence expansion.

Now there's an interesting idea. Or I could just replace the whole influence thing with "contacts". Contacts 3 would be 3 major contacts and a "respectable" number of minors. So that'd be 3 enclaves I think (presumably other than the one he's living in so a total of 4).

That makes a bit of sense... in addition to being able to leap for miles his soak is high enough that he doesn't have a lot to fear from zombies.

EDIT: For the contacts idea.

[SkyLion]

I can't recall where exactly atm, but I seem to recall an errata or something stating that since the techniques of suite powers are really just like level 2 powers (only weaker) that it only costs 2 QP to activate.. In this case using an unmastered technique would cost 4 QP.

Also it doesn't take a full round to activate claws Courier. AFAIK, you can activate as many maintenance powers simul as your Node allows you to spend QP...

[Courier]

Storm isn't a maintenance effect. It's a concentration effect. Thus there's no duration q-cost, just a penality for keeping it up.

And that level 2 thing would only be if you *only* purchased the storm technique by itself as a stand alone power, so there's no such thing as a stand alone unmastered technique.

But yeah, you could do a split action to turn them both on, with a -3 dice penality for the storm effect. But having that on top of a +1 diff and probably only 6 dice to start with means you'd better pay willpower, so it's not really a standard move.

[SkyLion]

Where are you reading that its a split action to activate multiple powers? I believe activiating a maintenance power is an automatic action and takes no time.

And the thing I remember saying about q-cost for techniques was NOT IIRC saying only if bought seperately...why would you ever buy a l2 version of lethal blast seperately? Same points gets you a stronger q-bolt. The only reason EM suite techniques are valuable at all as weaker versions is becuase you can pay double for the ones you dont have...but with the "standard" alotment of Q points its still far too heft a price for me to want to play that kind of build...in other words..Wheres the Juice???

[Mr Fox]

It was Drew in chat that said the majority of survivors were in the arctic.

About the base... in real life it is 20 minutes outside Denver Co. That's a pretty major metropolis, but Drew can drop it where ever he wants to make it work with the game. Since he's based out of Oklahoma it could be outside Oklahoma City or even Dallas. It's only about a 3 hour drive from Dallas to Oklahoma City. Might be best to put it somewhere in between those two cities, that would give lots of possibilities.

[Courier]

RE: Multiple Actions

OK, that's a point. I was thinking that since EA would have to be after Claws then it'd have to be a multiple.

RE: Q-costs

Ah, well then the q cost is 3 or 6, and not 2-4. Adjustments to that would be a house rule.

Quote:

why would you ever buy a l2 version of lethal blast seperately?

Q-Bolt you wouldn't, but then again q-bolt lets you kill one zombie. Storm is pretty darn useful in this setting.

Quote:

in other words..Wheres the Juice?

One power gives you a movement (letting you move outside of reach and attack since zombies have no ranged attack). It also lets you fry any number of them for a grand total of 6q (or 3). It also gives a point attack that's going to kill pretty much any one person (2d[10] is nothing to laugh at in a 20 NP game). It also gives you enhance/diminish which might be useful in this setting.

Granted, juice wise it's expensive but that's unlikely to be a concern when combat is either brutal and short or when your using your concentration storm to kill a zillian zombies.

So basically that one power creates a pretty functional character right by its lonesome. Q-min is a concern, but assuming flaws are allowed it's buyable with 10 nova points (or 6 with taint), leaving plenty for all the various extras that we like.

RE: Location of base

Hmm... 20 minutes is probably not 20 miles.

[Justin OOC]

heh I just thought I was doing good with quantum conversion (electricity)....

I didn't go all out on powers, almost a third of my points went directly into skills to reflect Dan's status as a Marine Corps Captain.

[SkyLion]

I think almost at least 4 of us are going to be Supermen with all three Mega Physicals. Two of those have flight, Courier's can leap, so I will be the "speedster" and run along the ground (hey, allways good to have a move power I say...). The other one I know of is some kind of precog.

Since its about time I said something I'll share what I have come up with...though I am not yet quite sure if its any good. Feedback appreciated.

The idea I've had was basically a brick with the twist of using knockback as a "power." I started with that as an idea of something I might like to have if I was in a zombie world and it turns out its useful for fighting with Novas as well. Plus, it's cinematic as hell! I am actually glad i decided against using the Ultradense dense character...M Str 5 is too much for this game, at least right now, and especially considering the character concepts you all chose. You all can have your chainsaws and shotguns..I plan to thouroughly enjoy using trees, lamposts and automobiles to smack zombies around.

Annyways, I started with a power concept and have had trouble finding the baseline person in there to flesh out the character. So far what i have was a retired bareknuckle fighter turned bar owner. Then decided to go full on spec force. Initial impulse was a colonel but i looked it up and thats way higher than a captain. And given how many NPs you spent on skills you probably have 5 dots in...everything. I think I am spending 3 NPs to cap off the important skills.

Yet I cant help thinking that I am being terribly unoriginal considering at least two other characters. Thinking maybe drop the spec force idea and fill out the fighter idea. Or maybe change it up for something totally different and go against type.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: *Overload*

I think almost at least 4 of us are going to be Supermen with all three Mega Physicals. Two of those have flight, Courier's can leap, so I will be the "speedster" and run along the ground (hey, allways good to have a move power I say...). The other one I know of is some kind of precog.

Assumes facts not in evidence. John doesn't have Mega-Dex or even Mega-Stam. Nor am I sure the flying types have M-Str (although if they do then the Superman comparison becomes more apt).

Originally Posted By: *Overload*

The idea I've had was basically a brick with the twist of using knockback as a "power."

I'm not sure what this means.

Originally Posted By: *Overload*

Then decided to go full on spec force. Initial impulse was a colonel but i looked it up and thats way higher than a captain. And given how many NPs you spent on skills you probably have 5 dots in...everything. I think I am spending 3 NPs to cap off the important skills.

Yet I cant help thinking that I am being terribly unoriginal considering at least two other characters. Thinking maybe drop the spec force idea and fill out the fighter idea. Or maybe change it up for something totally different and go against type.

If you are spending 3 NP on skills then you don't need to top them off, you can actually *create* the various skills without needing to be ex-mil.

[Priest]

Activating any power or techniques is an action, thus subject to multi-action penalties. If you activate Movement and Storm in the same round leaves Storm as a -3dice action.

Maintaining a maintanence power is a free action.

I get the feeling I'm going to be the odd man out, power-wise.

I'm also curious if you guys aren't selling the zombies and their soak a bit short. I am pretty sure they have a lethal soak. They also shrug off most gunfire (save aimed for the head), so what does that mean for normal nova attacks? Area attacks go against the body, not the brain.

Remember, if you crush zombies in hand to hand to bath well before going around normal humans. That's how infection spreads.

[Courier]

RE: Area

Obviously I'm not the ST, but it's very traditional in WW for fire to be Agg against the undead.

RE: Shrug off most gunfire

Making a bunch of assumptions that might not be warrented....

Assuming zombies are mindless mechine-ish things, they may not KO from Bashing damage. Machines normally don't take lethal or bashing damage, they just take damage, but zombies might get the best from both worlds. *That* makes everything a lot harder, especially if they have some body soak.

A heavy pistol does 5d lethal. So if they have one level of Armor that doesn't cover their head, then that drops bullet damage down to 2d lethal, which isn't a lot. Put a different way, ignoring head shots the typical zombie needs 10 bullets to the body to be put down with a hand gun.

Aiming (page 247) and targeting (p 243) would make a huge difference. Targetting the head is a +2 diff but also does +2 damage. Call that 7d, and now only 2-ish shots put one down.

A Rifle is 8d. Ideally you'd spend about 5 turns aiming (assuming a perception of 5) and get +7 dice to hit (2 from a scope). With 10 dice on the attack, it's now reasonable to get +5 damage dice from accurancy on a head shot, so that's 15 lethal. So in theory you could camp out on a tower or something and just shot them all day.

Nova powers are an order of mag worse. Q-Bolt mostly does enough damage to one shot a zombie... but if they're attacking in large numbers that's expensive. RDQ would help a lot, especially if you could make a half strength attack and still be effective (q cost zero in that case).

[Drew]

Originally Posted By: Courier

RE: Area
Obviously I'm not the ST, but it's very traditional in WW for fire to be Agg against the undead.

It's not.

Originally Posted By: Courier

RE: Shrug off most gunfire
Making a bunch of assumptions that might not be warrented....

Assuming zombies are mindless mechine-ish things, they may not KO from Bashing damage. Machines normally don't take lethal or bashing damage, they just take damage, but zombies might get the best from both worlds. *That* makes everything a lot harder, especially if they have some body soak.

A heavy pistol does 5d lethal. So if they have one level of Armor that doesn't cover their head, then that drops bullet damage down to 2d lethal, which isn't a lot. Put a different way, ignoring head shots the typical zombie needs 10 bullets to the body to be put down with a hand gun.

Aiming (page 247) and targeting (p 243) would make a huge difference. Targetting the head is a +2 diff but also does +2 damage. Call that 7d, and now only 2-ish shots put one down.

A Rifle is 8d. Ideally you'd spend about 5 turns aiming (assuming a perception of 5) and get +7 dice to hit (2 from a scope). With 10 dice on the attack, it's now reasonable to get +5 damage dice from accurancy on a head shot, so that's 15 lethal. So in theory you could camp out on a tower or something and just shot them all day.

Nova powers are an order of mag worse. Q-Bolt mostly does enough damage to one shot a zombie... but if they're attacking in large numbers that's expensive. RDQ would help a lot, especially if you could make a half strength attack and still be effective (q cost zero in that case).

You're pretty much correct in your assumptions.

[Priest]

All this is good to know. We don't want to be going out there and having attacks we assume will work - not work.

Our characters have all faced off with the walking dead at least a little bit, so we have an idea of just how bad it is. It would be interesting to hear what strategies various PC's have come up with so far.

[SkyLion]

I was hoping for some more feedback...

As for powers, I am actually going for bashing damage, since lethal attacks are halved for knockback. I have a dot of M Str, M Dex and M Stam. Powerwise, his theme is the creation of an invisible skintight force field. If you shoot him its going to bounce back and hit you, or someone else (ripple shield). If you strike him physically its going to throw you back (bashing immolate). Both of these effects are increased with the Irrisistable Force enhancment.

Thats the cinemtaic part..he may not have M Str 5, but he hits like it, and he can pretty much wade into a mass of zombies and clear a path...it wont put them down permanently but it knocks them down so they cant attack....without resorting to Storm techniques i figured that was probably one of the more cost effective ways of dealing with them.

Since we already have two soldiers should I go for a different baseline concept?

More Feedback!

[Priest]

Well, do you want a military concept, or something else?

If you look at a civilian, think about what he's been going through for the past six months. What did he lose when Z-Day happened? Who did he lose? How did he get his present amount of gear, rep, and get to his current location?

I'd like to think that people who weren't good fighters six months ago have gone through the harshest crucible imaginable. They've learned combat by necessity.

If you are in the military, why have you left? What is your opinion of the existing military structure? Why haven't you rejoined it?

Also think about what you are doing right before the game starts. Think about what will motivate him/her join with the others.

Hell, these are questions I ask myself when making a character. I hope they help.

Also, what power gives you a ripple shield? Deflect/Redirect?

[SkyLion]

Just the power: Ripple Shield, only not bought within the framework of Spatial Manipulation.