OR. how to keep track of those wonderful toys!
Given my love of RPGs and RPG books (and books in general, but that’s another topic altogether), I’ve been known to use various gaming systems to spark character designs. For the superheroic Augments of The Jagged Earth, I turned to the Mutants and Masterminds ruleset by Stephen Kenson and Green Ronin Publishing. The crew at Lone Wolf Development put together Hero Lab, a fine product IMHO, that incorporates version 2 or version 3 of the M&M and allows me to prototype, design, and refine character powers concepts. You’ll need to rustle up an Adobe PDF reader.
Up first is one of the characters from my first published story ORCHIDS ABLAZE:
FYREPLAY
NOTE FROM MANAGEMENT: This is NOT a paid endorsement, just appreciation of hard work and imagination. These fine people and companies have no idea that I exist. I just wanted to say “Thank You!” for their products.
The powers and weapons and special gear utilized by the heroes and villains are a huge part of the genre, but detailed (semi-technical) descriptions within the story detract from the flow of the story. RPG characters sheets make a handy way to keep track of various abilities. Some of my favorite reading material are compilations of characters with a generous helping of powers, biographies, and interesting tidbits.
BEWARE the 1st! I play fast and loose with the actual RPG rules. These character designs help me work through story characters, not min-max them for game night. I don’t recommend trying to pass one of these off on your friendly, neighborhood GM…
BEWARE the 2nd! I play fast and loose with these character sheets when the characters jump into my stories, so don’t be surprised when the details don’t align. These are for fun, folks, so have some fun with them. Just don’t expect to parse the characters in the stories down to match; they are hard-headed about getting their own way.
