Design Notes
I knew that I would do a pure striking character in this Team at some point and had originally planned to do a Boxer, but then Rickie or Richard Hughes got a bit stuck in my head. Using Kung Fu as a Style from the original book, I decided to show some of its flexibility as it can be used for both punch and kick based characters. Rickie “Bombastic” Hughes is going to be punch heavy and have a background that fits into this world easily.
Unsurprisingly, the Physical Attributes are the primary with Strength being my main focus but without sacrificing Dexterity like we did with Emanuel. For his secondary, we will go with the Social Attributes and double down on Appearance while his Mental Attributes will have the main focus on Wits. The starting attribute scores are therefore Strength 4; Dexterity 3; Stamina 3; Charisma 2; Manipulation 2; Appearance 4; Perception 2; Intelligence 1; and Wits 3. I don’t really like starting with a “1” in Intelligence, but we can fix that with Freebies of Experience Points later.
For his Abilities, we will go with Talents primary, Skills secondary, and Knowledges tertiary. Since we can’t start with more than a three in any ability, his initial Talents are Alertness 3; Intimidation 2, Insight 2, and Streetwise 2. In his skills, Blind Fighting 2, Drive 1, Survival 1, and Bookie 3 for making bets are a good distribution. Finally, his Knowledges are a single point each of Arena, Computer, Style Lore, and Finance. His free rank of Linguistics for the campaign is for learning Chinese along with his Kung Fu.
I know he will be a heavy punching character, but I start with the most ranks in his Block Technique of 3. His Punch and Athletics Techniques each get two ranks with the final rank being placed in Grab to get one of my favorite maneuvers – Monkey Grab Punch. That means the starting Techniques will be Punch 2; Kick 0; Block 3; Grab 1; Athletics 2; and Focus 0.
His starting maneuvers are straightforward – Monkey Grab Punch, Drunken Monkey Roll, Deflecting Punch, Punch Defense, and Power Uppercut. Finally, we will start with a combo from Block to Power Uppercut to take advantage of the extra speed boost that follows a block.
For backgrounds, we will start with Fame and Resources for sure. Whether or not people recognize Bombastic may depend on if they watched him play college football or not, but he isn’t a complete unknown to the media. While he didn’t last long in professional football, he had enough of a head to squirrel some of that signing bonus away for a steady income. Finally, his experience in sports meant he has lined up some Backing! Backing is formal sponsorship from a company, club, organization, or a government that provides support, funding, and assistance in your streetfighting endeavors in exchange for things like product placement or undertaking special assignments.
Name is going to be a pure Glory character, so 3 Glory to start from the get go!
I want Bombastic to end up one of the Strong characters in the Streetfighter world in the style of E. Honda, T. Bird, and Zangief, so we will buy his Strength up to a 5 and then go ahead and buy his Dexterity to a 4 with Freebie points. He will rely a lot on raw physical ability so that only leaves us with 5 more Freebie points which is enough to get an extra starting point of Health and a few more Willpower points.
Advancement Notes
For fun, though, we are advancing the entire Team a bit to show how to develop the characters with Experience. 50 Experience gives us plenty to work with. First things first, Bombastic is having his Intelligence brought up to a 2 for 4XP. After that, we can get his Punch Technique to a total of 4 (15XP) and he can learn the Rekka Ken Maneuver after a funny story involving getting lost on the way to the training hall (16XP). Adding a three maneuver combo around a Rekka Ken to Rekka Ken to Monkey Grab Punch for another 8XP brings us to 43 leaving 7 XP to spend. We can add another Health level for 4XP. There are not rules written for increasing backgrounds with XP, but for his current level, I’ll raise his Resources from 2 to 3 (2XP), and his Fame from 1 to 2 (1XP).
You can see where this is going. The Rekka Ken allows Bombastic to have increased speed for his normal punch maneuvers, so his existing Jab, Strong, and Fierce maneuvers go off more quickly and are coupled with his extraordinary Strength. His combo is meant to fool opponents into expecting the full three punch Rekka Ken advancement only to have their last minute block or Punch Defense let the Monkey Grab Punch through. Bombastic will keep working on Punch and Athletics as he moves towards maneuvers like the Hundred Hand Slap and beginning to work on his fame and PR.
Character Notes
Bombastic is large, loud, and braggadocious. He is without guile and straightforward, not unlike his fighting style. Bombastic came to Street Fighting as a second form of professional competition and has not looked back. Originally, an amazing college football lineman, Bombastic was drafted high in the second round for professional football. His future looked bright for this athletically gifted young man from Fresno, California. Unlike many other football players, he hadn’t taken up dance to improve his agility and quickness – Bombastic had been training in Kung Fu. His Sifu had settled in to the town and seemed content to take what college students came his way, though few have suspected his illustrious past that may yet return to bear.
He had a first season that solidified his worth and he managed to live modestly through this keeping his uncle’s admonition of the Squirrel and the Grasshopper in mind. It was a good thing too. Bombastic suffered a horrible injury to his knee in his second season. It looked like he may never make it back to the field … unless he listened to his trainer. His trainer provided a special blend to add to his daily smoothies to speed recovery – a special blend provided by Shadaloo. Bombastic was an experiment to see if Shadaloo had evaded the doping detection tests, which they hadn’t. It was only his first offense, but already injured and needing to focus on the skill positions, Bombastic was cut after his second year of professional football.
Adversity wasn’t a challenge for Bombastic. He delved deeper into his Kung Fu training and may have found what his sifu had so often called for him to seek – a purpose. While talented, he had not truly dedicated his effort and practice to learning. When he did, it came more easily than it should. He was a fortunate soul for whom things just seem to work out. His fault, though, comes in his pride and quest for Glory. The adulation of the crowd and the cheers are what Bombastic still seeks and this took him to the Street Fighting Circuit.
His Fame and pre-existing contacts in the corporate world from his short stint in professional football made it easy for him to find a way into the circuit. Mandy needed to round out Palladion after Emanuel and Gunther had come along, but Bombastic brought some extra pizzazz to the fights. It was an easy thing to add this glory hound to the roster. Sifu Bu has been interested in Gunther’s past when Rickie has come to visit since starting his Street Fighting career, but there seems no immediate reason.
Bombastic Sheet Here.
Palladion Overview Here.
Fillable Character Sheet from SFRPG.com
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