Nightblade - Chimera - Seize the GM

Normally, you look at the leaders first, but for this Card Catalog, as I am making one of each of the kinds of origins for the FASERIP system, I am just going to go down the order they are listed! Chimera is a character that ended being a really good connection to some of the larger metaplot of the world you have seen in the previous write up with Mutants & Masterminds and showed a classic Altered Human Origin. In working on my 1990s design and feel, I made sure to have a character like this lacking a costume, but with fatigues and bandoleers. Expect more pouches moving forward.

Design Notes

Origin: Altered Human. Altered Humans are one of the broader origin types in the FASERIP book. While the obvious origin includes things like human experiments it can also be anyone who was a normal human who came in contact with something larger – magical training or weapons, cyborgs, and more can all be Altered Humans. Each Origin has a different table for the range for their statistics which helps create some balance. Altered Humans can range from Feeble to Amazing to start with 60% of the potential results ranging from Good to Remarkable. As an Altered Human, Chimera will be able to raise any one primary ability by one Rank at character generation. The other origins have more complications.

Primary Statistics: As a reminder, this is the FASERIP of the FASERIP System – Fighting; Agility; Strength; Endurance; Reason; Intuition; and Psyche. The following shows the rolls, the Rank, and the Rank Number for Chimera

F – 80 – Remarkable (26)
A – 73 – Remarkable (26)
S – 72 – Remarkable (26)
E – 30 – Good (8) [Excellent (16)]
R – 94 – Incredible (36)
I – 25 – Good (8)
P – 67 – Remarkable (26)

Well, the dice rolls certainly clustered there around the 61-80 result for Remarkable. This makes all 4 of those, and then the Incredible, very much past the abilities of normal humans which works for the origin I have in mind. To make her into more of a Generasupe, I am going to raise her Endurance from Good to Excellent so that she excels around the board.

Secondary Statistics: These include Health and Karma that are generated by adding FASE and RIP respectively, Popularity that is built from a standard base with some optional changes from the character’s history, and Resources which starts at Typical and is modified by a random roll.

Health – 94
Karma – 70
Resources – a Roll of 77 means Increase 2 Ranks, so from Typical to Excellent(16) resources for Chimera.
Popularity – Popularity starts at 10 and as Chimera has no Secret Identity because she is without a history, I am going to give her the optional 10 point bump for that. If it ever comes out how much she is hanging out with mutants and aliens in Shadowblade, she could lose some of her popularity.

Special Abilities are rolled to create a range of powers, talents, and contacts. There is a minimum number available, but a character may sacrifice Resource ranks for additional powers, talents, or contacts up to the maximum shown.

Powers – A roll of 53 means a result of “3/4” so Chimera starts with 3 powers and may decide to sacrifice some Resources to get up to 4 maximum powers. Using the random tables, here is what results we get:

Resistances – Resist Disease Good (8)
Distance Attack – Stunning Missile Incredible (36)
Body Control – Shapeshifting Monstrous (63)

Now you see where the Chimera concept came from. Chimera’s Altered Human origin with shapeshifting and the generally superior primary abilities mark her as a good candidate for genetic splicing, unstable genetic splicing at that which is why the shapechanging is so strong. The Distance Attack could be out of place, and I don’t think I want wads of shapechanging flesh tossed at opponents, but instead of rerolling I am going to make that equipment based. Shape Shifting is also a great power to have to develop Power Stunts if we revisit how to advance characters with karma.

Talents – a Roll of 27 means a result of “2/5” so at least 2 Talents, which are trained abilities, and up to a maximum of 5 if Resource ranks are sacrificed. Using the random tables, the results are:

Fighting Talents – Martial Arts B
Professional Talents – Journalism

Martial Arts B is the catchall coverage of offensively minded styles like Boxing or other striking disciplines providing a Column Shift (CS) to her FIghting when making attacks. I like that for Chimera, but I am not sure about journalism. I think I am going to go with something else. I like the Artist talent because the idea of a lost shapechanger finding meaning in artistic expression is a good one.

~~Professional Talents – Journalism~~ Other Skills – Artist

Contacts – a Roll of 37 means a result of “1/4” so a single Contact up to a maximum of 4. For this, I am going to make a choice of a Criminal World contact for Chimera. This bridges the gap between her Origin and experimentation and where the story picks up to form the Nightblade.

Weakness – There is a provision for weaknesses and triggers in the Advanced Players Manuel because every good player needs something to help round out the character. I think there is a good psychological weakness here where if Chimera is being restrained or constrained, she could lose her cohesion – a kind of claustrophobia that triggers her powers in an unpredictable way.

Character Notes

Chimera doesn’t know any other name for herself. She can remember only flashes of childhood, only bits and pieces of something left behind. The closer she gets to today, the better she remembers, but there are times she wishes she didn’t. Experiments don’t usually let their subject remember them but she can.

She doesn’t know why they chose her. She doesn’t recall what set her apart, if anything. What she does know is that they changed her. She is stronger, faster, and sharper than most humans. She has the ability to do great things, but that wasn’t enough. Whatever they did to her helped her become a true chimera – stuck between different forms. Her ability to shift her shape wasn’t something they expected. That was what helped her escape – and what helped her start running.

She learned, as she ran and hid, that she was being chased by a group called the New Millenium Patriots. This shadowy group had, in one form or another, been trying to manipulate the world affairs for the last century. The Global Commonwealth Agency had stepped further into the light with the new Argonauts, but that didn’t cover the darker corners of the world, and that is where Chimera was hunted. She found a bit of protection from her hunters working as hired muscle in organized crime circles – it helped to cloak here in someone else’s power and to this day, she can call on Golden Eagle from when they spent time hired together – yeah he’s an amoral mercenary with a battlesuit but he is good to his friends.

Chimera’s luck did run out. The New Millenium Patriots rushing towards the new millenium had hastened their attempts to capture her and they nearly succeeded. Crashing through the docks and warehouses as hired super powered thugs came after her, the NMP’s Populist Majority Troopers, she managed to stumble onto Barracuda, Brique, and Gun Bunny. It was all dumb luck that a lost amnesiac shapeshifter would stumble into a secret government project that helped fight back and save her. Akasha heard to commotion and showed up to save lives … the hopeful fool her is.

Since then, Nightblade is being sent on missions that seem to run into NMP far too often for Chimera’s tastes. Barracuda receives the missions from his liaison though they have more latitude than it seems. Something about these missions is fishy as they are almost always overseas when the NMP had never seemed to focus that much around the globe before.

Chimera Character Sheet

Nightblade and FASERIP Overview Here

Character design done on Hero Machine