Author Topic: Character creation help - Mermaid  (Read 7695 times)

Offline Taran

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Re: Character creation help - Mermaid
« Reply #15 on: April 20, 2016, 01:56:37 PM »
Incite Lust to attract people to their doom
Incite Despair to cause people to lose all Hope and drown themselves.

Offline AgentSchneider

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Re: Character creation help - Mermaid
« Reply #16 on: April 20, 2016, 04:58:29 PM »
One question before I go on, for the Fae, as they would do something like that, why would Maeve do that? Like, do you think there's a compelling interest for her to do it outside of just because, even though Fae fit that bill?

As for the curse, I'm FAVORING kind of a mixture between a Loup Garou where she gets urges to be a mermaid, in addition to the normal situations where she would have to defend herself.  I was thinking for that drowning as a possible impulse, some inspiration from normal mermaids and Pirates 4.

In addition, me personally (as its my character haha) I'm favoring a male turned female all the time, with the addition of the curse turning her into a mermaid. I was thinking it would be amusing of a 'learning yourself again' and getting into those awkward situations as simple as wearing a dress as a distraction but acting all manly cause of no experience as a lady.  That's where Im a tad held up as I do want the Fae involved but I dont know how. I do like the idea of the Winter Court being involved however with Maeve or maybe even Mab, as shes the one who would seem powerful enough to permanent gender bend an individual and change their species at will.  But, I dont know how or what history.  That's also where I was thinking that the drama could be as its living with the consequences of being a mermaid as, well, I like the idea of being tempted but I also like it as well of no temptation and 'it is what it is and youre stuck with it period.'

To answer your first question, I'm guessing you haven't read the Dresden short story compilation Side Jobs? In the "Something Borrowed" story Maeve gets one of her underlings to try to kill Georgia and ensnare Billy as a permanent thrall...for something that happened years prior (in Summer Knight). I just chose her because she's vengeful and rude enough to do it - Mab certainly wouldn't be the only Fae powerful enough to gender swap somebody.

After thinking about it some more it actually seemed to make sense more to me though that a member of the Summer Court would be more readily able to curse somebody with mermaid-ness and gender-swap. Biomancy (shaping flesh and what not) is one of the specialties found under Sponsored Magic: Seelie (Your Story pg 290) so a Fae from that Court would be more practiced at it. Additionally I imagine there's a Lea equivalent (aka a Titiana-second-in-command) in the Summer Court that minimum would be able to do biomancy and curses with ease. As for why your character would be cursed, I think that's really up to you and figuring that out will help you determine the PC's personality and life experiences. The thing that would make sense to me the most would be that the character pissed off some lower-level mermaid servant and a higher-up Sidhe decided ironic punishment worked best, although I don't think the character would be considered a Fae at this point anyways - for the most part I think you have to be "born" into it (although you could include a Fae parentage as part of the backstory for it to make sense).

I'm not familiar with Pirates 4, but I feel like the drowning compulsion is a good idea. You could even really model it like Feeding Dependency: Drowning if you wanted to, but Feeding Dependency can be a pain in the butt for PCs from what I've gathered on here.

From a uniqueness perspective, the male-to-female swap seems to create more potential for interesting character behaviors, but I could see either working. Having to overcome suddenly be treated like a lady or being an office worker-turned-mermaid seem pretty unique to me.

If you have any further questions just continue posting here. Hope this helped somewhat!

Edit: Adding Incite Emotion seems like a smart idea to me, just depends of what kind of character idea/Power set you had in mind.

Offline Second Aristh

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Re: Character creation help - Mermaid
« Reply #17 on: April 20, 2016, 05:01:37 PM »
Any recommendations as well? Trying to get everyone whose answered input :)
Not really.  Just find something that fits with your group.
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Offline Shaft

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Re: Character creation help - Mermaid
« Reply #18 on: April 20, 2016, 07:08:16 PM »
It might be cool if the character is in some kind of witness protection.  Maybe as a merman, he saw something under the sea that he shouldn't have, like how to kill Dagon, and now the Fomor/Deep Ones are after him.  Perhaps Neptune or Poseidon used his power to swap his gender, buried the information down in the depth (ahem) of the character's unconsciousness and has called in a favor from some of his land based buddies to keep an eye on the character, and has even placed one of his trusted giant octopi in Lake Thunderbird to assist when needed.  The Fomor have limited reach in Oklahama, but they have contacts that they can use and favors of their own that they can use to track a foe that is further inland.

Offline Haru

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Re: Character creation help - Mermaid
« Reply #19 on: April 20, 2016, 09:59:30 PM »
It might be cool if the character is in some kind of witness protection.
If you go a changeling route, it could be that one of his parents struck a bargain with a more powerful Sidhe and had them erase the memory and send her on dry land to be safe. Since Sidhe rarely do what they are told, she got turned into a man with all the memories of a mortal life, but when he touches water turns back into the old mermaid self.

That might also give you lots of opportunities for plot hooks. Someone is looking for her, for example.

Generally, it's easier to finalize a character sheet the more you know about who the character is supposed to be. The powers aren't really the problem, most of the time, they just follow from a good description.
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Offline PirateJack

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Re: Character creation help - Mermaid
« Reply #20 on: April 20, 2016, 10:10:25 PM »
If you go a changeling route, it could be that one of his parents struck a bargain with a more powerful Sidhe and had them erase the memory and send her on dry land to be safe. Since Sidhe rarely do what they are told, she got turned into a man with all the memories of a mortal life, but when he touches water turns back into the old mermaid self.

That might also give you lots of opportunities for plot hooks. Someone is looking for her, for example.

Generally, it's easier to finalize a character sheet the more you know about who the character is supposed to be. The powers aren't really the problem, most of the time, they just follow from a good description.

Expanding on this idea slightly, instead of being cursed to transform when in water, running water is gradually washing away the spell that keeps her transformed. By the time the game takes place the spell is nearing its end and he/she's transforming into a mermaid more and more often, often at completely random and inopportune times.
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Offline Razgrizi

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Re: Character creation help - Mermaid
« Reply #21 on: April 21, 2016, 04:06:44 AM »
Expanding on this idea slightly, instead of being cursed to transform when in water, running water is gradually washing away the spell that keeps her transformed. By the time the game takes place the spell is nearing its end and he/she's transforming into a mermaid more and more often, often at completely random and inopportune times.

Im liking maybe a combination of ideas, where they upset a Sidhe and was cursed and, by the time the game starts, and the curse becomes more prominent where its starting to wear off at inopportune times.  I really do like that cause it does give the character drama and interaction with the Fae, which is something I do want, and I like what someone said about the learning to be female moments with male mind as I can see some random comedy from that.

My questions to this though would be: what type of inopportune times? Like near water? Just randomly? Could I get some examples?

Also, what template should I use? Is changeling the best one or should I go for a different one? Thats kind of my hold up.

Offline Haru

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Re: Character creation help - Mermaid
« Reply #22 on: April 21, 2016, 05:56:44 AM »
My questions to this though would be: what type of inopportune times? Like near water? Just randomly? Could I get some examples?
You see a sailor in a bar, you feel the urge to seduce him to his doom. You see a body of water, you feel the need to go in just to feel the water for a moment. You are running from a group of thugs when you suddenly lose your legs and grow a tail.

This would be a compel on the aspect, which means anything that could remotely fit with the mermaid theme that gets your character in trouble could fit.

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Also, what template should I use? Is changeling the best one or should I go for a different one? Thats kind of my hold up.
None. You could use the changeling one, if your goal is to force the character's choice at one point, but you can also just create the character without a template. Especially for characters that don't exactly fit those molds, that works best, and it seems like your mermaid is best served like that.
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Offline Razgrizi

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Re: Character creation help - Mermaid
« Reply #23 on: April 21, 2016, 03:06:08 PM »
You see a sailor in a bar, you feel the urge to seduce him to his doom. You see a body of water, you feel the need to go in just to feel the water for a moment. You are running from a group of thugs when you suddenly lose your legs and grow a tail.

This would be a compel on the aspect, which means anything that could remotely fit with the mermaid theme that gets your character in trouble could fit.
None. You could use the changeling one, if your goal is to force the character's choice at one point, but you can also just create the character without a template. Especially for characters that don't exactly fit those molds, that works best, and it seems like your mermaid is best served like that.

So, as I am still a new player myself, how would i go about then templateless? Do I have notes and kind of create my own? I thought I had to use one of the templates provided.

Offline Haru

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Re: Character creation help - Mermaid
« Reply #24 on: April 21, 2016, 03:27:03 PM »
So, as I am still a new player myself, how would i go about then templateless? Do I have notes and kind of create my own? I thought I had to use one of the templates provided.


The templates can make it a bit easier to build a character, as you are given a lot of what you need already. The wizard, for example has 7 points of refresh plotted out before he can make any other choice. If you play a wizard, that's the way to go. If you look at the first paragraph in the Types and Templates chapter, it's right there.

If you go templateless, you just have to pick your powers yourself and tie them up with a neat bow, aka give them a reason why they make sense for your character. Then pick your aspects and skills accordingly and you're pretty much done.

With or without a template, all characters eventually look the same. They have aspects, powers/stunts and skills. Templates just do some of the work for you.
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Offline Keryth

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Re: Character creation help - Mermaid
« Reply #25 on: May 02, 2016, 07:25:08 PM »
Well, there are, as so often, a few ways to do this.

First, the Aquatic power seems like a must.

As a base concept, I think we could take something like this:


High concept: Cursed Mermaid
Trouble: Cursed to [insert effect of curse]

Powers:
Glamor [-2]
Human Form (Involuntary, touching water) [+2]
affecting:
 Aquatic [-1]
 Inhuman Speed (representing the fin) [-2]

Total cost: -3

This would be your mermaid who would get legs when she is on dry land and a fin when in the water. That would make it easier for her to be useful in a campaign. The involuntary part of the human form can underline the curse.

The curse itself would make most sense as your trouble aspect. It would be compelled when the curse acts up and bad things would happen to you. In return, you would get a Fate point.

If you want to have more powers (for example greater glamors instead of normal glamors), you'd just need to adjust for that. Or we could look into other powers. Commanding fish, for example. Or anything else you like her to have.

Oh, I'm not really using a template here. You could probably fit this into the changeling template, but I find they are good as guidelines but can get in the way with some characters. They are better created freely.

I am SO stealing this as a template for my DFRPG Campaign world. Of course, credit will be given where due :)
Shadows Over New York - A Dresden Files RPG Campaign with some added bonuses from Books, TV, and Movies.  http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shadows-over-new-york)