CHARACTER CREATION CHALLENGE 2023: Marvel Superheroes (2 of 6)

THE GAME: Marvel Superheroes Revised Basic (1991)

Last time we started a new group of college-aged superheroes known as the Hill Country Heroes, based out of Austin, Texas. Our first hero, The Brave Prince, has a powered armor suit capable of transforming into all sorts of objects and animals. Who else will join the team’s roster?

Marvel Superheroes Character Generation

1. Get an Origin

2. Generate Major Abilities

3. Generate Variable Abilities

4. Generate Powers & Talents

5. Fill in the Blanks

Step 1: Get an Origin

This character rolls a 76, also a High-Tech hero. Maybe The Brave Prince’s lab partner? Let’s find out.

Step 2: Generate Major Abilities

As with The Brave Prince, a High-Tech character, our hero will have to re-roll anything above 80 on Agility, Strength, and Endurance. They will get a one rank bump in Reason and Resources. If we get Body Armor in the Powers & Talents step, we can take advantage of a special rule where the suit can enhance the character’s physical abilities. But we’ll come back to that if it occurs.

• Fighting: 95, Incredible. Rank number 40.

• Agility: 94, Re-roll. 00! Damn. Re-roll. 50, Excellent. Rank number 20.

• Strength: 83, Re-roll. 10. Poor. Rank number 4.

• Endurance: 06, Poor. Rank number 4. Ouch.

• Reason: 81, Incredible. Bumped up one rank to Amazing. Rank number 50.

• Intuition: 27, Good. Rank number 10.

• Psyche: 04. Feeble. Rank number 2.

Ok, so this hero did pretty well on Fighting, but thanks to the rules for High-Tech re-rolling stuff above 80, wasted a 94, an 83, and a lucky 00. We end up with Poor Strength and Endurance. Our character has Incredible Reason, Good Intuition, but a Feeble Psyche. That certainly explains the need for mechanical augmentation. The low psyche is also troublesome, but it’s giving me a bit of a story idea.

Step 3: Generate Variable Abilities

• Health: Equals the rank numbers of F, A, S, and E totalled. In this case 68.

• Karma: Equals the rank numbers of R, I, and P totalled. In this case 62.

• Resources: Rolled a 49. Excellent, bumped up one level for being a High-Tech hero to Remarkable.

• Popularity: Since this character is not a mutant or robot, but does have a Secret Identity (why not?), initial Popularity is Typical.

Step 4: Powers and Talents

Powers

With this character’s stats, I am REALLY hoping we roll at least one defensive power so I can grab Body Armor. This character needs the boost even more than our last one did. But at the risk of making two body armor suit characters, these two might have worked together to build their suits, as they are scientifically-minded kindred spirits. Let’s see what we come up with. A 64 means four powers. That’s a good start.

• 07, Sensory Power. Enhanced Senses, Rank: Typical. This result makes no sense, as the power would have to be higher than the character’s Intuition of Good to be of any use. So I will allow a re-roll to see if we can get higher than Good. 80, Remarkable.

• 02, Resistance. Resistance to Emotion Attacks. Remarkable. This makes a lot of sense, the character’s Psyche is very low, one thing they would want to fix is their vulnerability to mental attacks.

• 99, Body Alterations, Defense. Score! We select Body Armor and go with the power suit option. 17, 34, 98. +0 Agility, +1 Strength, +3 Endurance. The Armor itself is… 75, Remarkable.

• 17, Matter Control. Water Control. Remarkable.

Talents

29, two talents. 01, Guns, and 84, Biology. OK. Well, it’s Texas, everyone has family that owns guns, and most of us were taught to shoot at a tender age. Biology tells us what this character’s major is.

Step 5: Fill in the Blanks

1. What is your hero’s heroic name? Consulting the FNG. “Unarmed Catman.” Un, re-roll. “The Marked Wizard.” OK, I can go with that.

2. How old are they? We’ll go with 21 again. College heroes and all. Wait, we’re adding a couple of years. See below.

3. Does the hero have a secret identity? How do they keep it secret? So, The Marked Wizard is the alter-ego of Biology Major and roleplaying game nerd Gary Greyhawk. Gary was a brilliant student, and doing well in college until he was unexpectedly stricken by a heart malady that required severe and invasive surgery. Surviving the surgery, Gary found that he was among the patients who suffered from post-traumatic stress as a result of the operation. As his recovery slowly proceeded, he met two important people. His therapist, and fellow student Kaylee King. The former helped him begin to deal with his trauma, and focus himself on his recovery. This led to his work on an emotional shielding device, which he co-invented with Kaylee King, inadvertently learning of her armored suit project. He lent his biological expertise to the suit’s animal transformation software, and in turn King helped him build his own suit to allow them to team up. Gary, an avid player of spellcasters, modeled his suit on something reminiscent of wizard, and used the molecular control system that allowed King’s suit to transform to allow his suit to control nearby volumes of water. As The Marked Wizard, Gary “conjures” objects made of water to do his bidding. He adventures during the off-hours with the rest of his team, making sure to keep up his appearances in classes and labs. He’s the oldest member of the Hill Country Heroes, due to his long recovery time and the fact that he’s a graduate student working on his Ph.D.
   Note: I am basing the post-surgery anxiety and depression on my own experiences. I had open heart surgery on 28JUN22, and I can tell you that at least for me, the emotional and mental recovery has been much more difficult than the physical recovery. This character is a bit of art imitating life for me.

4. How do they earn a living? Gary Greyhawk works as a research assistant in the Biology department at the college.

5. Where do they live? Gary’s family had a small house off-campus that’s been in the family since the 1920s. He lives in the tiny two-bedroom home.

6. What is their personality like? Gary is a warm and friendly young man, but has a low tolerance for crowds. Even teaching a classroom full of undergrad students can sometimes be overwhelming for him. He has a smaller version of his suit’s emotional stabilizer built into the body of a Casio calculator watch, and wears it to help him with his anxiety.

7. Do they have any hobbies or pastimes? Gary has an obscene amount of tabletop roleplaying games and wargames. The fact that he lives in the smaller of the two bedrooms of his family’s house while the larger contains a table for gaming and bookshelves tells you much of what you need to know about his hobbies. He was a LARP-er prior to his surgery, but has not returned to the hobby.

8. What does the hero’s costume look like? The Marked Wizard suit is designed to look like a fantasy wizard, with a flowing metallic cloak and stereotypical wide-brimmed conical “hat” which mounts an advanced sensor package.

9. Where did the hero get their powers? Gary’s Wizard suit is a joint design between himself and Kaylee King.