So as part of prepping these one-shots for SCRPG, I needed to make the characters of the Menagerie using the system and, while I can’t say I did so perfectly, I feel like I made acceptable decisions. So let’s dig into a couple.
Charade
For the Halcyon Nights one-shot, Charade was a character built with the Former Villain Background, the Training Power Source, the Shadow Archetype, and the Sarcastic Personality.
Background
Former Villain fits Alycia so perfectly that I really didn’t consider anything else. Law Enforcement or Military are maybes, harkening to her time working with AEGIS, but those seem like round pegs in square holes.
Power Sources
Again Training is such a good fit that none of the others make any sense in comparison. Maybe you could lean on the Second Gen Super-Genius aspect and go with Genetic, but it’s a bit of an odd fit.
Archetype
Archetype is the first place we really get some options to play around with. While I went with Shadow, Marksman is also a great one for Charade. Sniper Aim, Dual Wielder, Load, Hair Trigger Reflexes, Ricochet, and Called Shot are all abilities that would fit in Charade’s wheelhouse. Close Combat, Wildcard, and Gadgeteer are also fitting Archetypes for her, focusing on different aspects of her character and that I might have gone with depending on which other heroes were in the mix.
Personality
While I went with Sarcastic (finger guns 
), Lone Wolf, Distant, Inquisitive, Analytical, Decisive, and Apathetic were also contenders. What locked in Sarcastic was its Statue Dice: d8s across the board. Of any of our characters, Alycia seems the most cool under fire and the least likely to let her mood and the situation she’s in affect her performance, which means consistency felt right for her.
Radiance
For Halcyon Nights, Radiance was built using the Created Background, the Artificial Being Power Source, the Elemental Manipulator Archetype, and the Nurturing Personality.
Now a lot of this I cribbed of Bill’s own build of Radiance here, except I pivoted away from the Robot/Cyborg Archetype that he used. Both are perfectly fine for Radiance and the only reason I pivoted away from using it was that both the Created Background and the Robot/Cyborg Archetype give Expertise Principles and I find that doubling up on Principles really narrows where a character can be effective outside of combat (that said, I then used the Retcon step to change her Esoteric Principle from Elemental Manipulator to the Ideal Principle of Principle of Compassion anyway, so a bit of a wash there. I could have used Principle of Radiant or Principle of Immortality instead, but Compassion called to me a bit more at time. C’est la vie.
Next time, Ghost Girl… twice!
Whoops!