View Single Post
Old 10-27-2019, 11:15 PM   #2
Madd Kossack 115
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Default Re: A Request For Help On Characters (Plus Lenin-2 Expansion Ideas)

Ok, I managed to get the first half of my post up without issues, so onto the second half of this whole exercise - my character concept. My tentative name for him is Dallin Graham, with the Patrol callsign of "Hangman".

Much like Xing La, this Dallin is a survivor from Lenin-2, but from a different section of the world - the remains of post-apocalyptic America, which, among multiple other post-apocalyptic settings, I'm actually mostly modeling on the first Rage, both in tone (somewhere between the relentlessly grimdark STALKER/Metro series, and the openly wacky Borderlands), and in setting (there are survivors buried in cryonic shelters, and given high-tech equipment that gives them an out-of-the-gate edge over the mostly feral raider packs scattering America's wasteland; the only catch being an authoritarian and even higher-tech government wants these vault-based survivors for nefarious purposes, and otherwise is taking over the wasteland under a dictatorship). Since Lenin-2's America had gone for a leftist theocracy ("Stalin meets Jack Chick" according to RvBOMally's observation), I'd have the Enclave/"Authority" stand-in hold a very weird hierarchy that bases itself on Christianity's hierarchy of angels (Current name for them is the "Three Spheres", supposedly analogous to America's previous three branches of government, but I'll need some more time to think those details through).

Anyways, back to my character; I'm basing Dallin on a LOT of things. Compared to Xing La (an ace mechanic who can fly or fix anything with an engine), this character is someone capable of combat, who's fought his way past danger rather than finding a means of driving away from it (I may or may not give him some driving skills regardless to use Rage's Vehicular Combat system, but that idea may end up being chopped by the end). The characters I'm drawing the most inspiration from:

* Joshua Graham: While not sharing Graham's entire history (there's no period where Dallin went evil with a wasteland warlord, got burned alive for a strategic failure, and went crawling back to his old home for forgiveness, only to be tempted back to violence when invaders threaten his old home), Dallin is similar in that he is religious (possibly even Mormon, like Joshua Graham), but rejects the theocratic insanity of the Three Spheres (in particular, he compares the Spheres to Jonah where - in the non-whale parts of the story you may have never even heard about - God calls out Jonah for crying over a dead plant, but was angry when God spared thousands of peoples lives because Jonah considered them irredeemable sinners). I'd also borrow most of Dallin's weapons from the Honest Hearts DLC, such as having a M1911 Pistol and Thompson SMG.

* Karl Fairburne: This is my model for Dallin's playstyle, in that he's primarily a long-distance sniper (haven't decided on a rifle yet, ironically enough - I'm torn between either a relatively high-tech rifle that he claimed from a plundered Three Spheres armory, or a classic bolt-action rifle to fit with the M1911 and Thompson SMG), with a pistol and SMG backup, along with melee takedowns (with a knife and/or hatchet, similar to Wolfenstein: The New Order/The New Colossus).

* XCOM 2's "Reapers": This is another example of a "post-Apocalypse sniper" build (with an emphasis on both stealth and mass-damage via explosions both fitting the Karl Fairburne playstyle I mentioned earlier), with special attention to the appearance (along with the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s) of a cloak and gasmask combination.

Now onto my problems with designing Dallin due to not getting a grasp on GURPS character creation - so far I've managed to borrow his height and age from Karl Fairburne (5'10" and 35, specifically), his native language (English, along with possibly some Native American languages to show he's made allies with some scattered tribes during his journey in America's wasteland), along with his Size Modifier of 0 (going off of how all of the model characters besides the giant robot are all 0). But beyond that (including weight - every time I look up "US Army Sniper Weight" for comparison, I keep getting results on Bradley Cooper's workout routine for American Sniper claiming he needed to bulk up to 230 pounds of muscle, and none of the human-ish sample characters are close to that), I'm stumped.

For starters, I'm having a hard time deciding on how many points Dallin should have in the first place (not helped by all the sample characters having WILDLY different point totals themselves) - I am looking for the higher end of the 200s (the "Heroic" to "Larger Than Life" range) to showcase Dallin having already cut his teeth in Lenin-2 for years, long before he was discovered and eventually recruited by Homeline (current explanation is that he stumbled upon a crude trans-dimensional experiment set up by a Three Spheres lab, and him blundering onto an Infinity Patrol operation after getting shifted out of his original dimension). The only advantages/disadvantages I have are Legal Enforcement Powers (15) and Duty (To ISWAT; 15 or less; Extremely Hazardous). I have a vague sense of quirks (his face under the gas mask is a bit scarred, and his harrowing experiences have left him in a dark place mentally, even with his faith), but I'd like help with the Basic Attributes, Skills, and Advantages/Disadvantages.

If anybody has tips on how to build a "post-apocalypse sniper, with a secondary stealth/melee skillset" character, and can give me some tips on which skills and advantages are absolutely vital for such a character build, I'd really appreciate it!
Madd Kossack 115 is offline   Reply With Quote