Wednesday, April 3, 2013

C is for Cinder Block!




The mighty Cinder Block! A man was repairing a gas line at a cement factory when disaster struck! From the flaming wreckage one man emerged ... changed.

Origin
Biff Kirby had been a simple man with a good job, a large extended family, good friends, and a comfortable routine that included regular stops at the neighborhood bar and a love of cigars. After the incident he was greatly changed on the physical level, and largely unchanged on the mental. After a few brushes with crime and accidents, he realized he could do more than just work for the gas company - he could be one of them super-guys - do good things, save some people, and have some fun too.

Despite massive physical changes Biff still comes across as a regular guy - he eats, drinks, laughs, talks to his buddies, smokes his cigars, and lives a fairly normal life. He also hangs out with superheroes and fights bad guys but that's about the only change as far as he's concerned. He treats it like a job and jokes about working certain shifts and taking days off, even though he knows he's never really off.

He was never a trained fighter but he wasn't afraid of a scrap either. That basically holds true now as well, though he has done some training with others. He was never a trash-talker either but he does get a little cocky at times now, knowing he's made of stone, and loses patience when someone like a bank robber with a 9mm starts making demands.

Personality
Think Archie Bunker and some of the guys from Cheers - he's a guy's guy. He's not really concerned with the larger questions of the universe. He's just there to help and live his life in between. He has an ex-wife (no kids) and feels a little wistful about how that all went and occasionally wonders what life would be like if he had a wife when the accident happened. He's pretty much accepted that he's not going to have much of a romantic life in his current form and has redirected his energies in this area to try and get his friends and allies matched up with the right girl.

RPG Notes: Biff is a large stony humanoid with fire powers. His defensive abilities come mainly from his stone body, while his offense is mostly fire-based.

Block takes on another rock monster


Cinder Block for ICONS: 

Attributes:
Prowess: 4 (Good) Not a lot of training but he's been in some fights. He doesn't care about all that fancy stuff, he's fine just hitting people.
Coordination: 4 (Good) He's better than the average human
Strength: 8 (Amazing) He is strong enough to fall back on punches when the fire isn't working
Intellect: 3 (Typical) He's a high school graduate and is otherwise an average guy
Awareness: 4 (Good) He notices things, more than one might expect, but he's not super-capable here
Willpower: 5 (Excellent) He's a fairly stubborn guy but he has no special mental defenses

Stamina: 13
Determination: 1

Origin: Transformed (one ability or power is at +2)

Specialties: Business, Mechanics

Powers:
Invulnerability - 5 - Stone hide
Force Field 3 - Lava armor
Life Support - 4 -  Cold, Heat, Pathogens, Toxins - he still needs to eat, sleep, and breathe
Elemental Control 8 - FIre: Attacking (Fiery Sword, limited to Personal and Close range), Creating (limited to Personal and Close ranger)



Qualities:
"Identity " - Biff Kirby. In Champions terms he would have a "Public ID". People know his real name and can find out where he hangs out if they do a little digging. He tries to keep it quiet, but it's not a secret.

"Just a regular guy" - He is convinced that too many super guys forget about all the things they could do to help out regular people besides beating up villains. He tries to volunteer some time every week to help out anything from a charity to a friend's construction company to putting out a gas fire.


Challenges:
"Body of Stone" - this is a physical challenge from weight to appearance to clothing to height.


Link to PDF here.

Notes: For ICONS he comes out to 50 points which is not too bad. I specifically chose to have him normally invulnerable to a lesser degree than some "bricks" but with the ability to add on his lava armor which may drop away if he's knocked out or stunned, making him more interesting defensively. While he can punch pretty hard the fire control is supposed to be his main active power. From attacking with a huge flaming sword to lighting his cigars with a flaming fingertip he should be fairly memorable when it comes to the visuals. He could stunt into some of the other control abilities for fun as well.

For another approach ...


Cinder Block for Savage Worlds: 
(using the Super Powers Companion)


Link to PDF sheet here

For the base character I bumped his stats up to d6's and gave him some basic skills with his best one being "Repair" at a d8. After looking through the Hindrances I realized that "All-Thumbs" (-2 to repair skills) would make for a possible explanation for his transformation - a kinda funny one, I think - and went with that plus "Heroic" to represent his standing up for the little guy. To contribute to his origin story I also added the "Luck" edge (extra Bennie each session), followed by the "Brawny" edge (he's bigger and stronger than average). My working theory is that his clumsiness with machines led to the accident, while his luck helped him to survive it - a nice little tie-in of mechanics to backstory. 

He is a monster in combat. Toughness 18 with Heavy Armor means hand weapons are just going to bounce and even heavy weapons need a pretty solid roll to hurt him. A Hellfire anti-tank missile will cause a wound on an average roll, anything smaller than that - PING! As if punching something for 1d12 +6 wasn't enough he can add in his firesword to add 2 more d6, flaming and armor-piercing (4) which is an attack that could hurt even himself. The he has the fire burst power for an area attack, kind of like "Burn" in City of Heroes. He can also lift around 16 tons, so his standard ranged attack is "Throw Toyota" while his heavy ranged attack is "Throw Greyhound".

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Sounds like a strong character from a humble beginning, trying to be an ordinary guy.

Novabug said...

Detailed stuff again, this dude seems to have nicked Optimus Prime's sword too. :)

Blacksteel said...

Not everyone needs to be from Asgard or Krypton. Sometimes greatness is thrust upon that guy down the street.

On the sword - yes! There was a smaller option in the game but it looked ... wrong ... for this guy. The giant extra-pointy sword fit him much better.