Author Topic: Aspects for a Anubis oriented character  (Read 2240 times)

Offline Da_Gut

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Aspects for a Anubis oriented character
« on: July 03, 2010, 08:44:44 PM »
Greetings all,

I'm working up an Emissary of Power, Anubis character concept. What would some cool aspects, based around

Anubis is the protector, (and judge) of the dead.
Cemeteries are sacred.
Dead Bodies.

The character isn't even Egyptian. He is a very small man, and asian indian. But
has somehow ended up as an Emissary of Anubis after destroying a zombie at the
funeral home where he worked. (The corpse was Egyptian....) He is/was an
undertaker (everything is still nebulous, actually. The character is still
concept).



Thanks!

Offline Morgan

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Re: Aspects for a Anubis oriented character
« Reply #1 on: July 03, 2010, 09:33:13 PM »
A little more info on what type of powers your thinking of for this character would be helpful, as there are a bunch of different directions you could take this concept. What do you see this guy doing in the game?

For a High Concept how about "Anubis's Undertaker" or maybe "Anubis's Embalmer"

What are you envisioning for his Trouble?

Other Aspects could be stuff like:
"I Know The Dead", "This Is Hallowed Ground!", "I Go By the Book, Of The Dead", "The Dead Have Rights", "Heart Of A Feather"

Tbora

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Re: Aspects for a Anubis oriented character
« Reply #2 on: July 03, 2010, 09:40:44 PM »
First off, we need to know the refresh level your working with, for the purpose of this right here I'll say Submerged.

Quote
[-1] Marked by Power
 [-1] Ghost Speaker
 [-1] Cloak of Shadows
 [-2] Ritual - Ectomancy
 [-1] Holy Touch
 [-2] Rightousness
 [+2] Item of Power - Amulet of Anubis
    [-8] Physical Immunity - Not Magic
    [+5] Catch (Not Magic protects against only one thing so +2, Not Magic is easy to come by so again +2, and anyone who researches the item could learn of it so +1)


Total Refresh Remaining: 1   
   

Atleast this is how I'd do it.

Offline Da_Gut

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Re: Aspects for a Anubis oriented character
« Reply #3 on: July 03, 2010, 09:46:48 PM »
Thanks for the input!

But, I have my ideas for powers. I'm looking for some sample aspects that I can play up. (I like the one "I Know the dead" (and its subtitled "and they won't shut up").

Ooooh, as a nice flavor trivia, he hates the movie ghost. (Too realistic.)

Offline luminos

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Re: Aspects for a Anubis oriented character
« Reply #4 on: July 03, 2010, 09:51:43 PM »
you might want to reword the physical immunity power so that it is less confusing.  The immunity is to magic, the catch is non-magic.
Lawful Chaotic

Offline Morgan

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Re: Aspects for a Anubis oriented character
« Reply #5 on: July 03, 2010, 10:05:37 PM »
What I meant by asking about what powers you're thinking of for this character is that there are so many directions you could take it that it is a little hard to give you good input on aspects without knowing what the character will be doing.

For instance by taking "I Know the Dead", and adding the subtitle "and they won't shut up" I am getting a very strong Medium/Ghost/Sixth Sense type of vibe, so that is a guy who is being forced by Anubis to deal with ghosts and spirits of the dead and their problems.

That's very different character from say a Zombie Killing Undertaker charged by Anubis to make sure that the dead stay in the ground, battling Necromancers and putting down zombie uprisings with a Boomstick, a Sharpened Spade, and some ancient Egyptian funerary rites.

An idea for the character that popped into my head after a quick wikipedia search on Anubis would be to make a character who is an Spiritual Counselor, essentially a guy who is an attorney for the dead, gathering evidence, arguing their case, and lifting their earthly burdens so that their hearts can be light as Maat's ostrich feather and they can then get into the afterlife.

Offline Deadmanwalking

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Re: Aspects for a Anubis oriented character
« Reply #6 on: July 03, 2010, 10:50:49 PM »
Something about Judgement, like "Judge, Jury, And, When Need Be, Executioner", or "Kindly Judge Of The Dead", or "Your Judgement Has Come!", Anubis was big into judgement.

Beyond that, why don't you post the stats? Those'll give us a better idea of who you want this guy to be.

Offline Da_Gut

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Re: Aspects for a Anubis oriented character
« Reply #7 on: July 04, 2010, 12:19:02 AM »
What I meant by asking about what powers you're thinking of for this character is that there are so many directions you could take it that it is a little hard to give you good input on aspects without knowing what the character will be doing.

For instance by taking "I Know the Dead", and adding the subtitle "and they won't shut up" I am getting a very strong Medium/Ghost/Sixth Sense type of vibe, so that is a guy who is being forced by Anubis to deal with ghosts and spirits of the dead and their problems.

That's very different character from say a Zombie Killing Undertaker charged by Anubis to make sure that the dead stay in the ground, battling Necromancers and putting down zombie uprisings with a Boomstick, a Sharpened Spade, and some ancient Egyptian funerary rites.

An idea for the character that popped into my head after a quick wikipedia search on Anubis would be to make a character who is an Spiritual Counselor, essentially a guy who is an attorney for the dead, gathering evidence, arguing their case, and lifting their earthly burdens so that their hearts can be light as Maat's ostrich feather and they can then get into the afterlife.


This is a great example of why I didn't want to post my character ideas. He is still a concept, and the spinning off of ideas is golden.  Those concepts are quite good. And, he won't actually be fully statted up until the group meets for character generation.  Yet, here is the basic idea, so far.

I wanted to be a werewolf type, but not a "stock" werewolf. I ended up pondering Anubis. (After lots of twists and turns). Long story short - he is were, but turns into something resembling a giant jackal. Or to most modern americans, a funny looking Doberman Pinscher. His "job" from Anubis, is to find spirits, or defilers of corpses, and return them to true death, or stop them.

So  - tentative
echoes of the beast
Ghost Speaker  (or whatever that see ghost power is)
Alt form human, affecting
Claws
Shadow Walker
"Claws of the dead" - a 1 (?) point power which adds 2 points stress damage to attacks against incorporeal spirits. +1 stress against defilers of the dead, or corporeal undead (like ghouls, or grave robbers), and removes the "must acknowledge" clause. Maybe a two point power? (added, because it stacks with regular claws).
And, possibly the ability to step into the Never Never when in an area of interest to Anubis (Graveyards, Funeral homes, morgues, in the presence of a corpse, or to get to a ghost).
Marked by power

"Hound of Anubis"
And "Hounded by Ghosts" both spring to mind as concept tags.

He doesn't judge - thats the sphere of Anubis himself. He just returns the undead to where they can be judged. Which might pose interesting complications when dealing with a good undead.

(edit add:)
Also, he is a very small man - about five feet tall. Not physically impressive, but fairly stocky for his height. Asian Indian. Didn't know a darn thing about Anubis until he killed a zombie (Corpse was an Egyptian man) in his mortuary. He almost died - indeed, maybe he did die. He remembers talking to something while laying there in his large pool of blood. When he awoke, he had the full slate of powers. Though discovering the giant jackal form took a while.

He ended up in a sanitarium, for a couple of years. By "Coincidence" there was a very, very old man incarcerated there, who recognized him, and taught him a gazillion tons of lore. Mostly about dead things. Eventually he got out. Later of course, when he returns, no record of the old man exists.

He is a family man. First wife is Ingrid, a statuesque Norwegian (6 foot 2). They are still reasonably friendly. She is a Valkyrie, just to make things odd. They have a son. He is almost 16.

Present Wife is a stereotypical Irish Catholic woman. Freckled, pale, with fiery red hair and a temper to match. She too is tall (he has a weakness for tall women). She stands 5 ft 11. They have 4 children. Twin girls, who are 13, and are hellions. He worries about them. Another girl, who is 8, and finally, a 5 year old boy.

He has money problems, and is pretty constantly running short of time. Lots of events to attend (basketball games, etc).

Family man will be one of his aspects.
« Last Edit: July 04, 2010, 12:32:13 AM by Da_Gut »

Offline Da_Gut

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Re: Aspects for a Anubis oriented character
« Reply #8 on: July 04, 2010, 02:06:31 AM »
"Claws of the dead" - a 1 (?) point power which adds 2 points stress damage to attacks against incorporeal spirits. +1 stress against defilers of the dead, or corporeal undead (like ghouls, or grave robbers), and removes the "must acknowledge" clause. Maybe a two point power? (added, because it stacks with regular claws).


Hmm. Perhaps a better would be "Claws of the Dead - satisfies "the catch" (if any) for undead, or defilers of the dead."

Offline Morgan

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Re: Aspects for a Anubis oriented character
« Reply #9 on: July 04, 2010, 03:53:01 AM »
Quote
This is a great example of why I didn't want to post my character ideas. He is still a concept, and the spinning off of ideas is golden.  Those concepts are quite good. And, he won't actually be fully statted up until the group meets for character generation.

Fair enough, I understand not wanting to play before you play and one of the great things about DFRPG is that character and city creation are definitely part of play. But on the other hand knowing that you want the character to be a jackal shapechanging, ghost and undead hunter is a much clearer picture of your character concept, and therefore it makes it a lot easier to suggest ideas for aspects.

Hound of Anubis sounds like an awesome High Concept or Aspect.

Tying in his time in the sanitarium maybe something like I'm Not Crazy!

For the family relationships how about Harried But Loving Family Man, or The War At Home. (The second one works really well if he has a Trouble that is something along the lines of War Against The Dead or something similar.)

For other Aspects maybe It's Not My Place To Judge, or Get Back In The Ground, Gateway Guard Dog.

As for the Claws of The Dead making it an Undead Catch Breaker is a pretty cool idea, you might even think about letting it being able to injure incorporeal spirits as well. If that's the case though it should definitely be worth more points especially if it already grants the normal (Weapon 2) of the normal Claws power. Say make it a -2 Refresh power, though you could probably keep it at -1 Refresh if you lowered the Weapon damage.

Offline fabulator

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Re: Aspects for a Anubis oriented character
« Reply #10 on: July 04, 2010, 04:45:48 AM »
What about some things like "The dead don't bother me" or "The dead don't scare me", "Weighed in the balance", "That's Mr. Psychopomp to you!". Depending on how you see the whole judging thing you could go with "Fingers on the scales of justice" or "Those scales are rigged!" Hmmmm, maybe "the dead see all" or something similar which could go for either physical senses or truth detection.

Offline Da_Gut

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Re: Aspects for a Anubis oriented character
« Reply #11 on: July 05, 2010, 06:16:33 PM »
I got a suggestion that I love, but which doesn't fit the guys personality, for an aspect.

Since he spent time in a sanitarium, and can turn into a dog - "Barking Mad".

I'm tempted to tweak things just to take the aspect.

Thanks again for the suggestions.  :)