Aberrant: Dead Rising - Character Concepts

[Mr Fox]

Well, for Fox, the answer to those military questions is that there is no more government, therefore there is no more military, or at least there is no more command structure for him to be loyal to. There are pockets of the military left out there, but with multiple groups claiming to be the 'rightful' government and none of them led by the last elected president of the US, he figures that his loyaly is to himself and to the human race as a whole. Anyone claiming to be in command over him had better have a very good claim that they can prove beyond a shadow of his doubt.

As for Overload, if you are military, then he and Fox would have been friends and he'd be Fox's second in command at the base. Not that he'd be subject to Fox's orders or anything, just that Fox would trust him to lead when he wasn't around.

[Priest]

That would tie in nicely.

[SkyLion]

well fine then, military it is...I just doubt I'll have the range of skills that Justin has...10 NPs spent on Skills? Thats 60 dots!

[SkyLion]

My main gripe is really that..Justin is going hard core on the skills...which means he has the market cornered...I would like to have useful skills as well, but there are certain prerequisites to being a soldier and I feel like those bases are going to be so well covered.

If everyone lists their main skill sets it would be easier to come up with a niche...

[Priest]

How many nova points have you set aside for skills?

[SkyLion]

3!

[Courier]

RE: It’s not

Thank you.

RE: Assumptions being close

Thank you again. And ouch, that’s grim for baselines.

RE: Tactics

Well, the good news is if someone were going to “spontaneously” convert they would have already. I mean the plague had to be air born or mystically driven or something to spread everywhere all over the world. But whatever it was, the susceptible are already zombies, so all we have to do is keep the baselines from getting bitten (etc). The bad news we already know.

RE: More Tactics

Fish in a barrel

Stand on the roof of a Wal-Mart with a Q-Bolt or a high powered rifle and just pick off the zombies. Q-Bolt has a more limited “clip” but juice comes back. Kill 10 in the morning, rest, then 10 in the afternoon, rest, then 10 before bed and that’s 30 per day, or 200 a week. Just watch out that you don’t leave a pile of bodies they can climb on.

Divide and conquer.

Park a van or truck or whatever in front of a store, go in and kill the zombies inside, then loot the place.

Lure and run.

Let a group of them follow you either away from what you want (say a store) or towards where you want (say off a cliff or onto a killing field). Presumably you have a movement power of some sort.

Originally Posted By: *Overload*

I was hoping for some more feedback...

We needed more information. Your theme is roughly the same as Pax’s, but your points are not.

Originally Posted By: *Overload*

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 it’s going to bounce back and hit you, or someone else (ripple shield). If you strike him physically it’s going to throw you back (bashing immolate). Both of these effects are increased with the Irresistible Force enhancement.

Both? Generic rules don’t have ripple shield enhanced with I.F. (and Immolate only offensively), but I’ll assume ST has OK’ed it.

My general though is this effect is both powerful and dangerous. A zombie hits you and goes flying. Immolate is *very* strong for this sort of thing, i.e. shutting down mass groups of minion level types. It’s impossible to do the math here without knowing your level of Q (and the effects of an enhancement on a power), but it’s possible you’ll be shattering zombies by throwing them all over the place. It’s also likely this isn’t the sort of thing you should use next to someone’s walls. Break them and the hoard comes in.

Originally Posted By: *Overload*

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.

It is at that. Their bite move might require a grab (fingers crossed) and if so it’d be even more effective.

As far as your build goes… while it’s useful IMHO you don’t actually need the Mega-Dex. If you need to cut somewhere I’d suggest there.

Quote:

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

Probably. We still have open spots for Medical type (requiring only 3 ability dots), Truck Driver (ditto), and Scientist (also ditto). You wouldn’t even need to give up most of your military skills if you make yourself a weekend warrior.

[Priest]

18 isn't bad. If you are alone, you might want to look at survival. Personally, I've been using Streetwise as my main social skill. You could pick up some Arts, or Perform to give yourself some other 'people' skills. Since you probably have a good Wits, picking up some Rapport and being a Poor Man's Lie Detector.

Hmmm ...

Investigate might be handy and not overly done.

Interrogation is a hit or miss skill, but likely to not be too overdone either.

Heavy Weapons if you want to use some military grade-A bang bangs.

Instruction if you want to train people, or Animal Training and Ride if you ride a horse instead.

[SkyLion]

My bad Courier...the ripple shield doesnt get the benefit of the IF, just the immolate. The ripple shield and force field and immolate are all IC the same force field power..ir linked. The ripple shield is just there to simulate for ranged attacks what the immolate simulates for hand to hand.

Am considering other concepts for baseline-ness...I like the idea of being a scientist or medical type for OOC reasons but having a hard time combining it with my brawling type nova abilities, and my initial impulse to be an irish boxer... :oP

[Priest]

Courier, I have the Driver (3) and Medical/Scientist (Ally) (5/5). I don't have any mega-stats, but the Ally has M-Int with Engineering Prodigy. I also have five followers who are mostly combat back-up, but with a few other useful skills/abilities. Remember, the followers are only baselines, so they are better at supporting a nova than carrying the ball themselves.

Go for the Scientist type then. You could have been boxing for exercise purposes and its since gotten much much better.

[SkyLion]

I dunno how I feel about being upstaged by an NPC ally of another character with medical and science at 5 with Mega Int...in other words, with an NPC like that our party has that base covered...

[Priest]

Well, I figured most of the other players would make combat-heavy characters - Folks that are mostly zombie-immune in one way or another. I created a secondary combatant and a non-combat support ally.

With all the points you have based in your combat prowess, you are going to find yourself hard pressed to be masterful elsewhere. I've suggested areas I'm not good at. I'm not sure were Justin put his points.

[SkyLion]

I can pick 7 or 8 skills to have mastered at 5 dots...

[Courier]

RE: Superman

If it helps you can consider me a future ninja. I won’t be changing my build much though.

John’s Big skills?

I’d say his big ones are Might (used for leaping), & Melee (used for ax).

I’m seriously tempted to reduce his Athletics (not fully sure I need this), and Firearms (ditto) in favor of Navigation, Drive, Survive, and/or Stealth.

Question for the ST: What ability is needed to hot wire a car? Would “Drive” do it, or would it have to be Engineering?

[Priest]

Overload, then go for the Science type and get multiple Int-based skills mastered.

[SkyLion]

Right. For brawling I am using most likely martial arts. Melee for using cars, lamposts and trees. Might for general feats of strength

If I go spec forces, I will in addition master stealth, command, intrusions, firearms, survival and maybe pilot.

However it would seem that we already have those in spades, which is why I brought this issue up. Long probably has all that and more. Id also like levels in drive, medicine, and awareness.

To we have a pilot yet? That could be a good niche to fill and gunships and transport choppers are handy...

[Priest]

No pilot here.

[SkyLion]

I am seriously discouraged for going for any INT based skills when there is an NPC with Mega Int around to upstage anything I say.

I will however look into reprising my doctor from the same game as Couriers fireman. Maybe even a medical copter piolt.

Courier..I decided on Mega Dex because enhanced move gives me a movement poewer and leads into hypermove (which no one has claimed as a form of movement yet).

Sigh..its true, as Fox pointed out, between the setting and the dot limitations there are aonly so many deisrable concepts...

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: *Overload*

I am seriously discouraged for going for any INT based skills when there is an NPC with Mega Int around to upstage anything I say.

Serious point. Perhaps the NPC could/should be altered?

Quote:

Courier..I decided on Mega Dex because enhanced move gives me a movement poewer and leads into hypermove (which no one has claimed as a form of movement yet).

Just buy hypermovement, it costs the same and helps you right now.

Also worry hard about Attune if you don't have it.

[Mr Fox]

You know, that is an excellent point... there is alot of nice military hardware out there just sitting there for the taking... Helicopter gunships, armored personel carriers, tanks, etc. The downside is that there will be no new hardware being created, and the only replacement parts are the ones that already exist.

Overload, if you don't take Pilot, let me know and I will. We were Airforce after all. Just think about the zombie carnage from a helicopter gunship. We have the missle base, but with that kind of hardware we could eventually clear out an entire town and build walls to keep the zombies out.

[SkyLion]

So maybe either a 1.) former military evac pilot or 2.) civilian madeical chopper pilot with paramedic skills.

???

Also Courier, Re: Attunment...would be useful for hypermove (which I would not take without enhanced dex..no need to go splat) if I wanted to take someone with.

Also worth noting that without attunement I cant protect anyone within the linked force field/immolate effect...which is fine by me from a conceptual POV...the field repulses anything...wouldnt make as much sense to envelop others.

Also, I dont want to spend NP on backgrounds...

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: *Overload*

Also Courier, Re: Attunment...would be useful for hypermove (which I would not take without enhanced dex..no need to go splat) if I wanted to take someone with.

So don't go full speed.

Originally Posted By: *Overload*

Also worth noting that without attunement I cant protect anyone within the linked force field/immolate effect...which is fine by me from a conceptual POV...the field repulses anything...wouldnt make as much sense to envelop others.

Unless you want to end up naked and weaponless every time you turn on the immolate you're going to need Attune.

Originally Posted By: *Overload*

Also, I dont want to spend NP on backgrounds...

It's been a few months, most of us have been novas for most of that time. John has resources, followers, etc because he's a nova. Granted, they weren't quite part of his eruption, but they might as well have been considering the situation and how easy it was to get those things.

Similarly, if I erupt with Elemental Mastery: Gold or Diamonds back in 2008 I expect I'd have to drop a nova point on Resources 5 for the same reason.

[Priest]

Originally Posted By: Courier

Originally Posted By: *Overload*

Also worth noting that without attunement I cant protect anyone within the linked force field/immolate effect...which is fine by me from a conceptual POV...the field repulses anything...wouldnt make as much sense to envelop others.

Unless you want to end up naked and weaponless every time you turn on the immolate you're going to need Attune.

Okay. That's kind of funny. I imagine his first few days with the power (and not attunement) would have been rich Dark Comedy. As Courier pointed out, this is a good example of spending nova points on a background you wouldn't have had as a baseline and you really need.

[Courier]

In case anyone is interested Elemental Mastery: Fire isn't the only L3 option. Matter Cham would work pretty well too. Perhaps better, I suspect it'd bypass that "sense human flesh" thing.

[Robert J. Lambert]

I'm starting to form an idea, but like half the ideas I have don't make enough sense. >_< Iif you can give me until after new year, I will come back with an AWESOME Idea, or die trying.

[SkyLion]

This topic seems to be a bit Dead Rising lately...And remember kids! Zombies come inoculated with their own yeast! Self-Rising Dough!

Hey that gives me an idea...Anyone ever played Myth: The Fallen Lords? There were these units called Wights..bloated zombies filled with their own noxious gases who explode when you strike them...heh...

[Mr Fox]

Umm... don't give the ST ideas like that!

[Courier]

Character was approved.

[SkyLion]

I've been thinking good and hard about what I want to do with this game and I think I may have the solution. We already have two military types.

Fox, my character is designed to be in the thick of things and as cool as it would be to be the pilot it would also keep me in the cockpit quite a bit. I think your character should be the pilot since you have the base as well. I also think you should be connected to Long's Marine Captain...it just makes more sense. Unless there was some reason you specifically wanted me to be your contact.

On the other hand this group needs someone a little seedier to break up all the decorum. Im thinking of going towards a underworld type, streetwise, lots of contacts. To that end I was wondering if youre willing Priest, perhaps our characters should be connected..like after you salvage stuff I can be the guy who finds the buyers and a fair price...

[Priest]

Sure thing, Overload. I figure you can not only find markets for the goods, but find out what goods are needed in which communities and maybe what goods are stockpiled in the cities.

[SkyLion]

Plus I get to go scrounging through Guy Ritchie films for characterization ideas!

Guess I ought to submit a sheet now huh?

[Ravenshire]

Originally Posted By: *Overload*

Guess I ought to submit a sheet now huh?

I somehow think that "Just take my word for it!" won't cut it with Herr Drew. Submit the proper forms, in triplicate, with a libation for the Gods of the Electronic Medium.

[Guest Anonymous]

I have a theory about the rise of zombies and the spread of the disease. It seems like it'd be hard for it to spread everywhere world wide.

So something happened. Maybe the Earth entered a place where the laws of physics were slightly different, maybe the magic came back, maybe there's an airborn varient, something else.

The end result is everyone has to make a resistance roll against the zombie plague. Those that botch real bad convert. So maybe 5% of everyone gets it, and from there it spreads.

[Mr Fox]

The fact that it happened everywhere world wide would seem to indicate either it is from space and filtered though the atmosphere as the earth passed through the infection the way we get meteor showers every year when earth passes though the debris left behind by comets.

Or, it was a planned thing and was deliberately set off simultaneously around the world as part of some plot. Who set it off would be the big question. Could be aliens bent on the destruction of human life. Could be religious terrorists believing their deity would protect the faithful. Could be a corporate mishap like Resident Evil. Could be Government plot that didn't work out as planned (this one is unlikely since it struck everywhere).

[SkyLion]

Something Drew might consider:

In our PAZW Adventure! game (the one that dies in infancy), the STs (there were two) confided in us that the Zombie plague was only the beinning..as time went on there would be other forms of "telluric weirdness" that would start popping up...of course I imagined a steady transformation to Rifts..but that's just me!!

[Priest]

Btw, were there novas before the Crisis? Were there supers of any type, or was it like the world we have today and supers came into being with the Crisis?

[Drew]

Yep. There were, starting in the 1920s.

[Centimane]

Hey all, as I'm sure you'll notice, I'm new to these boards, though not new to Aberrant. Overload lured me over here, so blame him.

Anyway, I've just recieved approval from Drew for a character in Dead Rising, so here I am posting his info (makes sense, don't it?):

Soma (real name Thomas Soma, he just uses his last name as a means of not getting too personal) is a slightly mysterious young Japanese-American man who's made his way from California traveling on foot and living off the land (and dodging zombies as he goes). This despite the fact that he's also blind.

Soma doesn't talk much about his past or how he came to be wandering alone and blind through the wild lands between enclaves, but he's willing enough to engage in a little trading or help out around an enclave for a few weeks before moving on. However, not everyone is so eager for his help. Soma's warped limbs, transparent crystal eyes, and eerie presence leave many normal humans deeply uncomfortable around him (maxed taint of 5). Soma doesn't much care though, he's too busy trying to survive.

Possessing a great deal of Survival skill, Soma travels lightly, carrying only a single "Alice" style military pack (which is admittedly rather large itself) loaded down with only the bare essentials for survival, a survival knife, a short combat sword (for the odd zombie that needs killing), and (bizarrely, for a blind kid) a bow with a quiver of arrows for hunting.

Soma's chief skills are Survival and Stealth oriented, but he's good in a fight as well, despite his blindness. He's also highly mobile, though he can't fly and he doesn't have hyper-move, and he's actually better off against several zombies at once than against just one or two. Obviously, I've compensated for his blindness with mega-perception, so he's also got quite the Awareness pool. He has weakened Shapeshift, which avoids all of that game-busting stuff that would make a game like this no fun, but which still allows for a lot of versatility as far as what he's capable of.

I built him this way so he'd be a more "down and dirty" type of character, and avoid conflicting with all of the more skill- and background- based characters listed above. Hopefully he'll be useful as a scout/assassin/brick type (though I realize he can't exactly stealth his way past any zombies, what with their "sense flesh" ability, he should still be mobile enough to get in and out fast enough, regardless of terrain, that it won't matter too much <crosses fingers>).

Priest, I was wondering if Soma might not have encountered your player and his group once or twice, possibly even done some work with them? I don't want to presume or anything, but our characters both spend a lot of time out in the "wild" from the sound of it, so it makes some sense. What do you think?

[Priest]

Sure thing Soma. Also, since Priest and Leo (a woman) are both specials, they can give him a bit of a respite from the "you're way too weird" that normally happens. At the least, Preist and company could have given him a safe ride and hang out at night in the wilderness.

[Courier]

WELCOME TO THE BOARDS SOMA!!!!