Playbooks! [System]

General Roll20
1

So we each have to have a unique playbook. I had something in mind, but it occurs to me I have several somethings in mind and would be perfectly happy to go last in the selection if folk have ideas they want to pursue.

author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5386028

2

Bill has shared sketch outs for something like seven of the Play Books so far, so you definitely won’t be the only one with several somethings in mind. :slight_smile:

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5386150

3

So rather than worrying about power sets and stuff, I thought I’d refocus the discussion of playbooks a bit by doing a quick bullet list of “things your guy story sort of needs to be about” for each playbook.

No character needs to match ALL the things listed for a playbook, but if you don’t match at least one, it’s going to be a weird playbook for your character.

Beacon

  • “Am I really a superhero like these others?”
  • Really being gun-ho “into” being a superhero.

Bull

  • “Who made me what I am?”
  • Dealing with (or using) anger.
  • Really caring about a couple other people (the Love and the Rival), above and beyond ‘regular’ friends.

Delinquent

  • Being a disruptive rule-breaker.
  • Speaking truth to authority figures and/or questioning the status quo of the world all. the. time.

Doomed

  • Having a super-dangerous nemesis.
  • Knowing I’m going to die, in all likelihood, probably because of my powers, and pushing myself anyway.

Janus

  • Keeping my normal life separate from my heroic life, for whatever reason you have.
  • You can’t spell compartmentalize without “mental.”
  • Protecting the loved ones in my life from the dangers I attract (and feel guilty about).

Legacy

  • Living up to high expectations.
  • Adhering to (or pushing back) on established rules.
  • Being the face of an established… brand.

Nova

  • Writing Cosmic Checks your conscience has to pay.
  • Big power you can’t really control (yet? Hopefully yet…)
  • Balancing infinite power against finite wisdom.
  • (possibly) Caring a lot about what a couple people think (by advancing into Bull’s Heart).

Outsider

  • Shining a light on aspects of the ‘normal’ world.
  • The complexities of personal interaction.
  • Having strong opinions (positive OR negative) about the world.

Protege

  • Becoming (or not becoming) like your Mentor.
  • Training is a central element of your life.
  • Spending time with your Mentor.

Transformed

  • Being strange and inhuman, and remembering when you weren’t.
  • What do you do with your new life?
  • How do you react to how other’s treat you now? Will you prove them wrong, or prove them right.

--------------

The Reformed

  • Trying to understand the point of heroes/heroics/heroism.
  • Never being entirely trusted.
  • Being connected to the villainous side of the world.

The Newborn

  • Learning about your creator, and dealing with their influence over you.
  • Learning about the human condition/making sense of the world.

The Innocent

  • Optimism versus Cynicism (It’s just ‘realism’, kid…)
  • Contrasting the past to the present.
  • Averting or ensuring some event (or events) in your personal future.

The Star

  • Living as a super in a world of Social Media and being online famous.
  • Being especially aware of your fans/audience.

The Joined

  • Codependency is apparently a superpower?

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5386537

4

Some of the classic examples of the playbooks.

Beacon

  • Kate Bishop (Hawkeye)
  • Artemis
  • Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel)
  • Kid Flash (Young Justice)
  • Kitty Pryde (Wolverine and the X-men)

Bull

  • Conner Kent/Superboy (Season One, Young Justice)
  • X-23
  • Lagoon Boy
  • Molly Hayes (Runaways)

Delinquent

  • Striker, Avengers Academy
  • Arsenal, Young Justice
  • Ant-man (Scott Lang)

Doomed

  • Blue Beetle (YJ, Season Two - any ‘made a weapon’ person who’s going to focus on being hunted by their creators and turned back into a weapon)
  • Raven
  • Jean Grey
  • Monster Girl (Invincible)
  • Kid Flash? (Maybe)
  • Some versions of Tony Stark, with the heart damage, or anyone where “the power is killing them”

Janus

  • Most iterations of Spider-man
  • Kamala Khan
  • Blue Beetle III
  • Batgirl of Burnside (Brenden Fletcher and Cameron Stewart)
  • Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

Legacy

  • Kid Flash
  • Robin (Tim Drake, YJ) (really almost any of the Bat-family, outside Batman himself)
  • Any Green Lantern
  • Nova (Ultimate Spider-man)
  • Superboy (Season two, YJ)
  • Aqualad
  • Vic Alvarez/Power Man

Nova

  • Jean Grey
  • Ms. Martian (Season Two, YJ)
  • Scarlet Witch (MCU)

Outsider

  • Starfire (Teen Titans)
  • Ms. Martian, Season One (YJ)
  • Warlock (New Mutants)

Protege

  • Robin (Young Justice, Season One)
  • Aqualad
  • Terry McGinnis (Batman Beyond)
  • Wonder Girl (Young Justice)
  • White Tiger (Ultimate Spider-man)

Transformed

  • Cyborg
  • Mettle (Avengers Academy)
  • Beast (X-men)
  • Nightcrawler

The Reformed

  • Artemis
  • Plastic Man
  • Zuko (AtLA)
  • Superior Spider-man

The Newborn

  • Aya (Green Lantern Animated Series)
  • If Amazo (from JL:U) was a teen, somehow?

The Innocent

  • Pretty much the plot of All-new X-men

The Star

  • Striker (Avengers Academy)
  • Dazzler, if you wrote her today.
  • Booster Gold

The Joined

  • I don’t know, and I don’t know if I want to know.

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5387096

5

Okay, before I’ve read any of that, I have a character in mind for which I’ve figured out a Legacy, a Doomed, a Nova, and a Star variation (and could probably do a Beacon from it, too). So I’m good. :slight_smile:

author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5387241

6

*** Dave H. said:

Okay, before I’ve read any of that, I have a character in mind for which I’ve figured out a Legacy, a Doomed, a Nova, and a Star variation (and could probably do a Beacon from it, too). So I’m good. :slight_smile:

Yes. :slight_smile:

author: Doyce T.
url: Community Forums: Playbooks! [System] | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

7

Additional Examples

The Newborn: Pretty much any android character ever. Teen Data.
The Delinquent: Kid Loki. Teen Loki.
Legacy: X-23 (another take on her)
Transformed: Nightcrawler
Doomed: Kid Flash (1978 or 2017: heart condition edition

We actually chatted through these tonight – you hit on a lot of the ones we added to the rules examples.

author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5387273

8

Ooh yeah. Nightcrawler as Transformed is good.

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5387295

9

Opines Margie (since she and Katherine can’t get into the Roll20 game yet)

Concept that works with
1 Outside
2 Doomed
3 Transformed
4 Nova

(in that order of fittingness)

author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5387455

10

Opines Katherine, a concept that works with (in order of fittingness):

1. Legacy
2. Janus

author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5387468

11

They just need to click on that link I sent to the google+ thread, I think.

Or you can forward it to them.

I think Bill had a Legacy, a high-tech Bull… tons of stuff, really.

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5387470

12

The fact I forgot to include the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl as a Janus fills me with shame.

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5387472

13

Huh. I wouldn’t say her secret identity is that important to her – she seems more of a Beacon.

author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5387493

14

I love that everyone’s sort of come up with concepts that can be expressed via multiple playbooks, depending on the angle you approach them. That will be super helpful.

I want to give Bill first dibs on a playbook, if he wants it, as he got a pile of concepts to me already, but I feel pretty confident we can play musical-playbooks until everyone has a comfy seat.

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5387494

15

*** Dave H. said:

Huh. I wouldn’t say her secret identity is that important to her – she seems more of a Beacon.

In the USG series, she’s doing the whole secret identity thing, and that plus Janus actually have rodent control seemed to work. With that said, her attitude is also totally Beaconish, so yeah that totally works as well.

author: Doyce T.
url: Community Forums: Playbooks! [System] | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

16

Here’s a rundown of what I’m happy with, by playbook. I don’t have any preference or ordering here - if I wasn’t happy with an idea, I wouldn’t bring it up. :slight_smile:

  • Bull: Link, hot-blooded power armor pilot who builds AI robot friends.
  • Delinquent: Nightblade, light-manipulating ninja type dedicated to truth.
  • Janus: Horus, an animal-controlling scion of a wealthy magnate who acts from noblesse oblige
  • Legacy: Armiger, a Knight of the Round Table who carries an echo of Excalibur
  • Outsider: Zero, a digital lifeform ambassador from cyberspace
  • Protege: Titanium, a gadgeteer girl in power armor learning the ropes from an AI soldier robot
  • Transformed: Rebuild, a crippled genius turned DIY cyborg
  • Reformed: Exodus, a happy-go-lucky not-so-ex-supervillain
  • Innocent: Retrorocket, one of several “mass-produced” WW2-era troops
  • Star: GIG, an alien bard traveling from system to system learning about planets and putting on rock concerts

If anyone thinks there’s strong RP potential with any of these, speak up and I’ll take that into consideration. Armiger, Link, Nightblade, Titanium, and Rebuild have completed sheets. I can do up the others pretty fast.

author: Bill G.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5387509

17

If Bill wants to do a Legacy I can definitely do a Janus. I have no problem either way and I have an idea for both. Also as I was looking at the playbook for outsider I was reminded of Dabbler from Grrl Power.

author: James H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5387512

18

Katherine H. said:

If Bill wants to do a Legacy I can definitely do a Janus. I have no problem either way and I have an idea for both. Also as I was looking at the playbook for outsider I was reminded of Dabbler from Grrl Power.

If you have a strong Legacy concept, do that then :slight_smile: I have plenty of other stuff, as you can see.

author: Bill G.
url: Community Forums: Playbooks! [System] | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

19

Dabbler might be a little much for a Masks game (actually her powers are probably fine). :slight_smile:

Halo/Sydney’s would be… challenging? maybe? but her character’s personality would be awesome fun - a great Outsider, in that she’s an outsider from supers-society and totally nerd-girling about that world all the time.

In fact… the general character concept of ‘total nerd-expert on supers history/tropes, who never considered they might actually BECOME one’ is a fun idea for Beacon, Janus, Outsider, Legacy (going the Green Lantern approach), Protege… and somewhat more tragically, the Transformed. That’s pretty cool.

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5387533

20

The Thing as Transformed is so obvious I kind of forgot it.

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5387550