Author Topic: Monkeying around with a character concept: Dragon Scion  (Read 2442 times)

Offline mstorer3772

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Monkeying around with a character concept: Dragon Scion
« on: August 11, 2011, 07:39:32 PM »
This character was originally inspired by an adult comic book by the name of Ironwood.  In it, dragons are all asexual, only they still get horny from time to time.  They then take the shape of a male of some other species (often human), and get their nob polished.  They're also Extremely fertile.

Their children are all Very Strong and Very tough, live a long time, etc etc.  Once they hit around 100 years old, they become strong enough to transform into their True Shape (a dragon).

So based on that idea ("dragon scion" in DFRPG terms), I came up with (at a "submerged" power level character, the skills/powers could be retooled easily enough to dial it down to something else if need be).

High Concept: Who or what was my father?!

Her father (who she never met) built a Large Criminal Empire, and is now missing-presumed-dead.  She must take up his mantle.

WE know dad's a dragon, and set up the empire specifically to hand it off to her, but she sure doesn't.  >:D

Trouble: Do the Right Thing: Morality vs Duty

Can't just tear it all down and let the cops haul everyone off to jail. They're Her People now. Can't let the blackmail/murder/drugs/etc continue either. Rock, hard place.

Aspects:
Not just another pretty fist (was working hard to break out of the "girl who breaks stuff" roles when Dad's People showed up)
Martial Artist Movie Star turned Reluctant Triad Boss (was originally her High Concept, but that doesn't leave any room for being a Dragon Scion)
Rich and loving it (dragons tend to be greedy, this is the seed)

Powers: Supernatural Strength(-4),  Supernatural Toughness (-4), ??? Constitution (+0: treat as Wizard's Constitution)

2 refresh

All her skills are built around Movie Martial Artist Gal:
+5: Resources
+4: Fists, Athletics
+3: Contacts, Presence, Performance
+2: Stealth, Alertness, Might, Discipline
+1: Weapons, Guns, Rapport, Intimidation, Endurance

All those skills are only tangentially useful in her new life as a neo-feudal-criminal-kingpin.  Sure, she can handle challenges to her authority, but she's almost totally incapable of running the day to day operations, and DOESN'T WANT TO.

Guest star appearances from other characters could be members of her "posse", her Triad, "respected adversary" cops, and so forth.  Maybe the other character was tracking something that was tracking her, and they stomped its guts out together.

Back story:

Born to <random single mom>, she showed an immediate aptitude for Kung Fu, along with inexplicable strength and durability (which she has hidden her whole life, reasonably successfully).  She aimed her life at being a movie star, and hit the bulls eye.  Acting, martial arts, gymnastics, etc.

Well into a successfully movie career later, a Mysterious Figure arrives and reveals her father's (fabricated) history, along with various details that Prove He's Daddy.  She is now The Boss.  Duty-duty-guilt-guilt.  She walks off the set in the midst of shooting and vanishes from the public eye.

That was 6 months ago.

A couple weeks ago, she was spotted in <city> hanging with <criminal organization>.  She bears a striking resemblance to the recently missing <head of above criminal organization>.  News media paparazzi types put two and two together, and DESCEND EN MASS.



She's not currently clued in beyond what she might have learned while rubbing elbows with other PCs... though there's probably a few "in the know" people in her Triad.  Heck, daddy just might be there with a

She's even got a growth path all laid out before her... shape changing, evocation/thamaturgy, A breath weapon... all that draconic stuff. 


And I don't feel the need to have her eventually grow into a "Fero" at some point N thousand years in the future.  Given the way His Jimness dealt with vampires (red,black,white,jade, etc) & werewolves (hexenwolves, lycanthropes, loup garu, etc), I see no reason to expect dragons to get a different treatment (wyverns, drakes, Fero-&-co dragons, etc).  And given that her "maturity" would require a campaign several centuries long, I'm not worried about progressing down the wrong path.



The basic "what the heck was my parent that makes me like this" concept could be used in any number of characters, to justify any powers you might want to cobble together.

I'm also thinking it would be fun to leave her catch a mystery (to herself and the player running her).  Folks who need a Drake heart (or whatever) for some Dark Ritual would probably know it, and bring lots of... Jade Knives or whatever.
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Offline wyvern

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Re: Monkeying around with a character concept: Dragon Scion
« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2011, 09:14:35 PM »
Looks like a fun character concept to me.  Then again, I can't claim to be an entirely impartial observer when the subject is dragons.

The one thing I'd note is that Supernatural Strength is really, really impressive.  For example, I was statting out a full-grown dragon (lower-case-d dragon, though) for a game I'm running - and she ended up with only Supernatural Strength, because it was quite enough to (with her admittedly somewhat higher might skill) pick up and fly away with, say, a tour bus that's about as big as she is.  So - if that's actually what you want (a human strong enough to carry a car around), then Supernatural Strength is the right thing to have.  If that's actually overkill for your concept, though, you might want to consider downgrading to Inhuman Strength - and perhaps picking up something else instead.

Offline mstorer3772

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Re: Monkeying around with a character concept: Dragon Scion
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2011, 10:02:48 PM »
That's pretty much what I was aiming for, yeah.  "Super Hero" strong and tough.  Maybe not "bench press trains", but perhaps still able to get a locomotive off the ground.  Reps vs max capacity.

OTOH, I had also considered inhuman strength/speed/toughness/recovery.  Same refresh cost, wildly different feel.    Or drop toughness to inhuman and tack on inhuman speed.  That would go well with the "super martial artist chick" theme, though not so well with "dragon scion".

OTOOH, I'd considered Mythic Strength with inhuman toughness.  "Punch Out Godzilla" strong.

The point of this character is "combat powerhouse thrown into an entirely different arena".  She's Really Good at kick ass/taking names, but none of her problems can be solved by punching them.  Kinda spider-man-esque in that sense. 
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Offline wyvern

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Re: Monkeying around with a character concept: Dragon Scion
« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2011, 11:41:33 PM »
Fair enough; I commented mostly because I was really startled the first time I actually looked up how much you could lift with various strength powers, and had to downgrade the level of strength on a number of critters I'd been statting.

For some other views on dragon scions, if you're interested, there's a small set of 'em here, and one dragon-like scion I statted up a bit later in the same thread.

A lot of it really depends on what kind of dragon.  A traditional saint-george style fire dragon will be a whole different beasty from an eastern style water dragon, will be different from the poisonous serpentine dragons that show up in several european myths that I don't remember the names of right now, and so on and so forth.

Offline ways and means

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Re: Monkeying around with a character concept: Dragon Scion
« Reply #4 on: August 11, 2011, 11:52:18 PM »
Is the scion meant to be the scion of a high dragon such Ferrofax in dresden files (1000s of years old, owning vast fortunes of knowledge and power and incredibly magical.)  or is it meant to be the scion of a lesser dragon or even a Drake or a Wyrm, if you are going for a scion of a high dragon then the character should probably have marked by power and have access to some nameing related magic. 
« Last Edit: August 11, 2011, 11:54:51 PM by ways and means »
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Offline mstorer3772

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Re: Monkeying around with a character concept: Dragon Scion
« Reply #5 on: August 12, 2011, 05:36:28 PM »
if you are going for a scion of a high dragon then the character should probably have marked by power and have access to some nameing related magic.

Not yet... I was seriously considering "marked by power".  I just don't want the first Wizard PC she runs into to look at her and say "oh, you're the daughter of a Dragon".  Kinda kills the mystery.

Depending on whether or not the theoretical GM for this character is willing, I'd also like to give her a Really Strange aura/sight view:  Exactly the way she is normally.   Actually a Really Powerful spell her dragon parent designed to conceal her nature for the first century or so... when she's old enough to take care of herself.

And last night another interesting twist occurred to me.  Dad's not the dragon.  Mom is.

It also occurs to me that this character may have Too Much Stuff going on.  I could drop the whole reluctant crime boss thing, and stick with "Movie Star trying to hide in the shadows and fight monsters, and still be on time for filming the next morning".

Still plenty of laughs in the "trying to sneak into X while waving off ardent fans" bit... though that would wear thin rather quickly.  I suspect that particular trapping of fame wears thin in real life too.

Lots of different approaches depending on what direction the rest of the (equally theoretical) group wants to take.

Character creation is game play.
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Offline wyvern

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Re: Monkeying around with a character concept: Dragon Scion
« Reply #6 on: August 15, 2011, 03:32:33 PM »
I'd skip Marked By Power - that seems to have been designed for things like the Summer & Winter Knights, where everyone knows who you are.  Of course, you could also take it - and run with the notion that while you're clearly marked (to those in the know), it's not obvious who or what actually put that mark there.  But, personally, I'd skip it at least to start with.

For the Sight: I'd point out that the Sight shows you a metaphorical truth, not a literal truth.  So, even if someone looks at you with the Sight and sees a dragon (which they might not), it still leaves the question of "Ok, and what does that mean?"  I mean, you could look at someone like Marcone and see a shark.  Does that mean he's a wereshark?  No; just that that's the sort of person he is.
And whether someone might see you as a dragon is also going to depend a lot on what they associate with the concept of "dragon" - an old european wizard, who grew up in the era of St. George, might associate dragons with fire and destruction and see you as more of, oh, a badger or something.  While someone raised on modern fantasy novels where dragons are more representative of beauty and power, might see a dragon - and have no idea that what they saw was literally accurate.  And someone with, say, an oriental heritage, might see something entirely different; I don't actually know their culture well enough to make a good guess.  And so on and so forth.