View Single Post
Old 01-02-2018, 01:29 AM   #66
Skarg
 
Join Date: May 2015
Default Re: X-Files level characters

Scully's actress is a 5'3" woman and I don't remember her being shown doing anything particularly muscular. ST 12 seems too high. I'd say more like ST 8 or 9.

Mulder's actor is 6'0", and when they have his shirt off seems somewhat muscular. Muscles isn't Mulder's forte, either. I'd say ST 11.

I think the 90-point FBI template Kesendeja posted looks pretty good. My only quibbles would be:

* Having the FBI as a Patron seems like it would tend to be offering pretty major support (not Minimal Intervention), and in an FBI game I'd expect it to be doing so quite often... though the listed levels may be about right for X-Files as Mulder. (Though I think assigning an official Patrol and calculating points seems mainly a distracting thing to do, even just in the exercise of weighing a fictional character in this thread - "Does your estimate take into account his Patrons, Enemies, Allies, Contacts, etc...???" "Well, if it DOES, then that point total isn't much of a measure of his abilities, is it?")

* I think the skill levels are ok for levels an FBI agent might typically have in many of them, but I think they're a bit much to say all FBI agents have all of them at those levels.

* I also think the GURPS 4e "there are no 1/2-point skills" inflates the total, as I would expect many agents to have several of those skills at "I studied it enough to pass but it's not really what I do" level.

But, I have not done the research Kesendeja et al did, nor have I interviewed actual agents, so... I may be wrong.

I have watched The X-Files, though, and as a first stab, I'd probably start Mulder out in season 1 episode 1 with the listed template with maybe a few points moved around (more Writing and a gift in Psychology for his profiler specialty, less SMG, Shield, Savoire Fair (FBI), Administration). I'd assign him ST 11, DX 12, IQ 12, HT 11-12 (and with experience he'd develop his IQ to 13 after a season or two), and improved perception and some advantages.

Scully I'd start with ST 8-9, DX 10-11, IQ 13-14, HT 11-12 (some/all of those increasing from the first season to the later ones). She was picked for her severe "rational materialist skeptic" bias, so that's some sort of disadvantage or three. And of course she has a medical doctor template too, and some extra science/research skills. Probably added perception too. As shown in the show, I think the FBI let her slide on some of their usual agent requirements (Combat Driving, SMG, Tactics) because she's a doctor, and/or her IQ lets her not invest so many points in things like Administration, Criminology, Detect Lies, Diplomacy, Interrogation, Law, and Shadowing.
Skarg is offline   Reply With Quote