One Shot Character Challenge (MH like setting)

[naloth]

I'm gearing up to run a (likely only 1 shot) adventure with 3-5 players that have no GURPS experience. The setting will be modern day where alien/supernatural stuff is unknown at this point, though players will obviously be encountering it during the adventure.

If anyone wants to suggest a character the build guideline will be to keep it fairly simple and short. 250 points, no attribute limit, around 50 in disads (including quirks), with
preferably no more than 4 in each of the advantages, disadvantages, and skills because I have to explain each. Wildcards skills are encouraged (and less to explain). Any personality write-ups or gear list are a nice bonus.

Currently, the plan for the mission is to handle a bio weapon theft from the company lab, discreetly. Recover the bio-weapon, take care of the thief, and deal with any complications (which naturally, there will be). A first attempt at retrieval was made by company security with horrible results and only a lone survivor.

The new team will need both brawn and brains. I've created a few outlines for an ex-soldier gone merc, bodyguard, professor of everything, and a PI.

[naloth]

Here's my first attempt using GCA5

Name: Hulking Bodyguard

Attributes [198]
----------------------------------------
ST 19 [81]
DX 13 [60]
IQ 10
HT 13 [30]

Hit Points 20 [2]
Will 10
Perception 13 [15]
Fatigue Points 13

Basic Lift 72
Damage 2d-1/3d+1

Basic Speed 7 [10]
Basic Move 8 (Includes: +1 from 'Gigantism')
TL: 8

Advantages [50]
----------------------------------------
Combat Reflexes [15]
Danger Sense [15]
High Pain Threshold [10]
Regeneration (Slow: 1HP/12Hr) [10]

Disadvantages [0]
----------------------------------------
Gigantism [0]

Skills [46]
----------------------------------------
Fast-Draw (Pistol) (E) DX+1 [1]-14
Includes: +1 from 'Combat Reflexes'
Guns/TL8 (Shotgun) (E) DX [1]-13
Karate (H) DX+1 [8]-14
Security (WC) Per+1 [36]-14

Points Summary
----------------------------------------
Attributes/Secondary Characteristics [198]
Advantages/Perks/TL/Languages/Cultural Familiarities [50]
Disadvantages/Quirks [0]
Skills/Techniques/Spells [46]
= Total [294]

Melee Attacks
----------------------------------------
Karate
Punch; Dam:2d+2 cr; Reach:C,1; Skill:"SK:Karate"; Level:14; Parry:11; LC:

Ranged Attacks
----------------------------------------
Compact Pump Shotgun, 12G
Shot; Dam:1d+1 pi; Acc:2; Range:40 / 800; RoF:2x9; Shots:4+1(2i); Level:13; ST:12†; Bulk:-3; Rcl:1; LC:; Notes:[2]
Slug; Dam:5d pi++; Acc:3; Range:100 / 1200; RoF:2; Shots:4+1(2i); Level:13; ST:12†; Bulk:-3; Rcl:6; LC:; Notes:[2]
Revolver, .44M; Dam:3d pi+; Acc:2; Range:200 / 2500; RoF:3; Shots:6(3i); Level:11; ST:11; Bulk:-3; Rcl:4; LC:3

Equipment [¤1,641.00]
----------------------------------------
Compact Pump Shotgun, 12G; Qty:1; Wgt:6.7; ¤400.00
Compact Shotgun, Reload; Qty:2; Wgt:0.8; ¤4.00
Early Concealable Vest; Qty:1; Wgt:2.5; ¤200.00
Holster, Concealed; Qty:1; Wgt:1; ¤125.00
Revolver, .44M; Qty:1; Wgt:3.25; ¤900.00
Revolver, .44M (Ammunition); Qty:2; Wgt:0.6; ¤12.00

Notes:
- Security will provide Wrestling (effectively at DX+1 for ST20 while grappling) as the unarmed skill and Guns (Pistol) as the armed skill.
- This guy starts with 20 HP and heals ~5HP/day.
- The pump shotgun has slugs as loaded and is kept nearby but not usually carried. The shotgun reloads are shot and slugs (1 each).

I've yet to really assign a personality to this guy, but physically I envision him looking a lot like Gregor Clegane in a suit.

[ericthered]

The forum is uncharacteristically hesitant about building sample characters.

Only four skills? hmmm

John H Doe (H for "Hacker")

ST 11 [10]
DX 12 [40]
IQ 16 [120]
HT 12 [20]

HP 12 [4]
Per 16 [0]
Will 16 [0]
FP 12 [0]

Robots! -15 [12]
Armory! -15 [12]
Hacker! -16 [24]
Guns (pistol) -15 [4]

Combat Reflexes [15]
Filthy Rich [30]

Secret (Famous Hack of Big Company, imprisonment) [-20]
Compulsive Behavior (Tinkering) [-5]
Selfish* [-5]
Quirk (Prefers Linux) [-1]

*note that selfish is largely about personal slights.

I wish I had a little more in the way of skills, but I think I'll have to be happy with what I got. The robots should also let him do remote surveillance, which is what the guy is really built around.

A non-exotic build of the techy. A possible rebuild would find space point-wise for gadgeteer.

[naloth]

Originally Posted by ericthered

The forum is uncharacteristically hesitant about building sample characters.

Only four skills? hmmm

Yea, I thought it was a bit quiet as well. No biggie, just seeing with others might throw out. 4 is a guideline, just to keep what I have to explain down. I'm not going to split hairs over a concept that uses 5+ or has fewer abilities elsewhere to even it out a bit.

John H Doe (H for "Hacker")

<snip>
I wish I had a little more in the way of skills, but I think I'll have to be happy with what I got. The robots should also let him do remote surveillance, which is what the guy is really built around.

A non-exotic build of the techy. A possible rebuild would find space point-wise for gadgeteer.

Gadgeteer and a gizmo or two would be nice. Perhaps he mostly uses his own robots so that Inventor replaces Robots and Armory? (HP should also be either HP 13 or [2]. No biggie, just fixing totals.)

Edit: Very Wealthy gives him up to 40k of adventuring equipment. Did you have any plans for what he'd be using?

[naloth]

Name: Rowan Evans (Merc for hire)

Attributes [169]
----------------------------------------
ST 13 [30]
DX 14 [80]
IQ 11 [20]
HT 13 [30]

Hit Points 15 [4]
Will 11
Perception 11
Fatigue Points 13

Basic Lift 34
Damage 1d/2d-1

Basic Speed 7 [5]
Basic Move 7

TL: 8

Advantages [40]
----------------------------------------
Combat Reflexes [15]
Gunslinger [25]

Disadvantages [-45]
----------------------------------------
Flashbacks (Mild) [-5]
Low Pain Threshold [-10]
Manic-Depressive [-20]
Wealth (Struggling) [-10]

Quirks [-3]
----------------------------------------
Picks his shots, never uses full auto [-1]
_Unused Quirk 2 [-1]
_Unused Quirk 3 [-1]

Skills [89]
----------------------------------------
Gun! (WC) DX+2 [48]-16
Judo (H) DX [4]-14
Knife (E) DX [1]-14
Ten-Hut! (WC) IQ+1 [36]-12

Points Summary
----------------------------------------
Attributes/Secondary Characteristics [169]
Advantages/Perks/TL/Languages/Cultural Familiarities [40]
Disadvantages/Quirks [-48]
Skills/Techniques/Spells [89]
= Total [250]

Melee Attacks
----------------------------------------

Large Knife
Swing; Dam:2d-2 cut; Reach:C,1; Skill:"SK:Knife"; Level:14; Parry:10; ST:6; LC:4
Thrust; Dam:1d+1 imp; Reach:C; Skill:"SK:Knife"; Level:14; Parry:10; ST:6; LC:4
Punch; Dam:1d-1 cr; Reach:C; Skill:"ST:DX"; Level:14; Parry:11; LC:

Ranged Attacks
----------------------------------------
Assault Rifle, 7.62mmS, Civilian; Dam:5d+1 pi; Acc:4; Range:400 / 3000; RoF:3; Shots:30+1(3); Level:16; ST:10†; Bulk:-4; Rcl:2; LC:3
Auto Pistol, .40; Dam:2d+2 pi+; Acc:2; Range:160 / 1800; RoF:3; Shots:13+1(3); Level:16; ST:9; Bulk:-2; Rcl:2; LC:


Equipment [¤5,860.00]
----------------------------------------
Assault Rifle, 7.62mmS (Ammunition); Qty:2; Wgt:3.6; ¤72.00
Assault Rifle, 7.62mmS, Civilian; Qty:1; Wgt:10.5; ¤225.00
Auto Pistol, .40; Qty:1; Wgt:2.3; ¤770.00
Auto Pistol, .40 (Ammunition); Qty:2; Wgt:1.4; ¤28.00
Holster, Concealed; Qty:1; Wgt:1; ¤125.00
Large Knife; Qty:1; Wgt:1; ¤40.00
Vest, Advanced; Qty:1; Wgt:17; ¤4,600.00

Notes: Rowan is a talented, but troubled ex-soldier that is gets by doing what he's good at. He's temperamental (Manic-Depressive), haunted by past events (Flashbacks), and his old war wounds make him sensitive to new injuries (Low Pain Threshold).

While working Rowan usually wears his vest and carries a pistol. For actual missions, he will load up extra gear like like his rifle. I chose the civilian version because Rowan doesn't use full auto anyway. He fires without penalty on the move and gets a +1/+2 with his pistol and rifle respectively even without aiming. Rowan can also split fire at a -3 for 2 targets and a -6 for shooting at three targets in a turn.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by naloth

4 is a guideline, just to keep what I have to explain down. I'm not going to split hairs over a concept that uses 5+ or has fewer abilities elsewhere to even it out a bit.

Hmm... thought that might be the case... unleash the ambiguity!

Gadgeteer and a gizmo or two would be nice. Perhaps he mostly uses his own robots so that Inventor replaces Robots and Armory? (HP should also be either HP 13 or [2]. No biggie, just fixing totals.)

Edit: Very Wealthy gives him up to 40k of adventuring equipment. Did you have any plans for what he'd be using?

I mean, so much depends on how much detail you as a GM want to go into detail with gear. when I see minimal character sheets, I usually think minimal gear accounting, but now I'm not sure if you're running things that way or not.

The plan was to have a Computer for Hacking, a "Wire Rat" kit for surveillance, plenty of remote control drones (cars and copters), a shop for building/modifying robots and guns, and a budget to go shopping after the actual mission parameters are known. The idea is to have enough money around that if he doesn't need to be carrying it right now, he can duck out and get it.

Adding Gadgeteer and a single gizmo is probably just a matter of dropping ST and IQ by 1, which is what the original build had. Though I actually don't envision him doing much actual inventing, just cobbling together wiring on robots and modifying ammo. The Inventor! build is probably valid, but looks different. Actually, dropping the IQ and getting gizmo 3 might be the way to go.

Armory! and Robots! together are trying to cover custom ammo, explosives, computers, remote surveillance, and both building and piloting robots. With an extra skill slot, there may be room to buy the remote surveillance more explicitly.

[naloth]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I mean, so much depends on how much detail you as a GM want to go into detail with gear. when I see minimal character sheets, I usually think minimal gear accounting, but now I'm not sure if you're running things that way or not.

Broad strokes :)

I'll provide a "personal basics list" that includes what MH has for basic gear plus a cell phone, non-protective clothing, and shoes/boots (DR1 for feet) that everyone gets. Specific equipment (guns, armor, specialized tools) PC sheets should account for.

EDIT: IME, non weapon equipment usually doesn't require much explanation compared to abilities. It's just a matter of it not being so much that it's hard to keep track of.

The plan was to have a Computer for Hacking, a "Wire Rat" kit for surveillance, plenty of remote control drones, a shop for building/modifying robots and guns, and a budget to go shopping after the actual mission parameters are known. The idea is to have enough money around that if he doesn't need to be carrying it right now, he can duck out and get it.

During this scenario there will be time and distance factors that would make using a base type shop rather hard. That's also going to be an issue for ducking out for specialized parts. A van with robot and gun parts would work nicely, though. (The van doesn't need to count as adventuring equipment either.)

Adding Gadgeteer and a single gizmo is probably just a matter of dropping ST and IQ by 1, which is what the original build had. Though I actually don't envision him doing much actual inventing, just cobbling together wiring on robots and modifying ammo. The Inventor! build is probably valid, but looks different. Actually, dropping the IQ and getting gizmo 3 might be the way to go.

What the tech guy can come up with on short notice will likely be the only specialized monster hunting weaponry/tools that the team can use given the time/distance constraints. That being said, there wouldn't be time to invent Mr Fantastic style. At best it would more like A-Team prep for a showdown.

[bocephus]

Decide upfront what it is your trying to show off about the system and why new players should enjoy using it. MH has a broad range, you might want to focus it in a little so that people can make sure they have relevant skills/advantages. If it's Predator style aliens, you don't need a priest or Lore! or resistance to Magic. If it is a 'Supernatural' game a Priest type character might be quite a contributor even without a great deal of combat skills.

You said "no GURPS experience" do they have any RP experience? My suggestions assume at least a couple do, just not with GURPS. If this is their first RPG at all you might need to make it even more obvious what their characters niche is and maybe drop disads all together just use quirks (nothing stops people from deciding to RP a disadvantage, you can choose to give them credit for it when/IF it happens to highlight that function in GURPS, and let the player choose an additional advantage for equal points to show the points mechanics). More experienced players should be requested to lean to the IQ based characters (Lore! would help a GM give obvious hints to new players in a MH game). They understand working with the GM to tell the story (the char can roll to get clues about whats going on) and it helps if your main combat character isn't the player in charge of how the game is played (unless that's the kind of game you/they want, then just skip to a team of Mercs so that you can overlap their skills but still have everyone with a specialty).

Id suggest limiting the disads to 10-15pts since they are new players, its going to be challenging enough figuring out all the other parts of the character sheet. Give them one obvious one and a pack of quirk level ones that fit together. Stick to stuff easy to figure out, and common to a 'trope', but ones that don't have the players irritating each other with them (Lecherousness comes to mind). Your Merc is Impulsive [-10] with a 'cant resist a bet' and 'bad luck at cards' with 'can't resist buying new tech' quirks among others. This is why he's "cash poor", but might have a lot of hand me down gear that another player could appreciate.
Its a oneshot stick to disads that you can use/play with ease. Honestly I would avoid Wealth Adv/Disad for a oneshot, and just give the character more starting cash for equipment 1CP=$20,000 TL8 (Gambling occasionally pays off). Unless it plays to a "Comes from high society/old money" sort of character, even then you can hand wave it a little cause it's a oneshot, say its not his money and treat it more as a Patron (which also give the GM a little help nudging things without railroading).

You control the difficulty of the challenges so scale accordingly, make sure they get to build up to harder skill checks and the idea of actual failure and how to deal with alternate paths.

Id also suggest going heavy in skills and "obvious advantages" rather than getting all tweaky and in the weeds for all the nuanced methods for min/maxing a characters potential. Limit IQ and DX to a combined 80pts, push people into a niche where they can succeed and let the others do their part to fill in the gaps. Try to avoid making the "I can do a little of everything" which ends up meaning at least one person in a 5 man group can probably do it better.

Limit their homework and maximize dice rolling and engagement, let those other skills mean something for the players (even if its letting a person roll for a no difficulty skill check that you might normally hand wave). Use "perception" and IQ rolls more than you normally might, they are pretty easy to deal with and unlike combat they don't usually require a great deal of explanation. Avoid passive group rolls as much as possible.

Streamline combat, you can spend hours explaining and finishing a fight that takes 20sec real time. Figure out what your simplest limits are and stick to them, resist the urge to show off all the crunchy stuff GURPS can do to more accurately simulate a combat encounter. <I, personally, find the Gunslinger advantage too involved for new players. While I totally get its purpose in this build you are going to have to gear combat encounters to show it off while making sure the other players that don't have it can still participate OR you have one guy wading through a bunch of mooks (that's his job), but then you have to explain why he cant do the whole scenario on his own. I would drop it for something more straight forward like Very Fit [15]>

Remember to consider everything through the lens of a person that has never dealt with GURPS. Wildcard skills are great, but you need to have some ideas of what skills are "in game". It would probably be helpful for each wildcard to have a list of skills or situations that fit under the umbrella on a separate piece of paper/card, it doesn't have to be all inclusive, just enough that they can get an idea of its function. Especially ones like Ten-Hut! , that covers a LOT that isn't going to be obvious to a newbie.

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

I like the Merc but like I said drop IQ or DX by 1, drop Gunslinger and all the disads. Add Very fit and Impulsive and 5 quirks (leave some for the player to fill in). Its still a really solid character but now he has more gear to play with and is just easier to play.

The Giant needs too many disads to work .... Drop the ST by 4 to ST15 and give him either lifting or striking +2. Give him a disad worth -10 and a few quirks and he could be interesting. Focus on either pistol or shotgun and add something like so he can use that brute strength more effectively baseball bats, clubs, batons, tire iron.... etc.

[naloth]

Lots to unpack, so I'm going to summarize where I an.

Originally Posted by bocephus

Decide upfront what it is your trying to show off about the system and why new players should enjoy using it.

The mission will be more Black Ops than Supernatural. The intent is a fun game that shows of GURPS mechanics more so than MH as a setting. I choose that setting because "gritty realism" is kind of a niche for GURPS, Supers tends to be more complicated (more to explain), and fantasy is done to death.

You said "no GURPS experience" do they have any RP experience?

This is for a random sign-up group. Usually any that do have some experience, some have been very experienced.

Characters will have a list of bullet points to crib important details as well as a background to make feel more like a character. I'd rather avoid severe niche that feel like classes ("you're a fighter").

Lore won't be that useful in this game as it's more science than supernatural. Given the limited skills I have to keep track of, I'll have plenty of things for other supplemental (non-combat) skills to uncover when used.

I picked a limit on the # of disads, because value doesn't usually have very much to do with how hard they are to remember or roleplay. I'm not sure what limiting it to -15 points gets you that saying # or less doesn't. Tropes do work well to add character here.

As for quirks, I'll probably leave a few blank to be defined in play. It will be a minor way to help them put personal touches on their character right before or even during play.

Wealth will set initial starting gear (20% / 80% like normal) and may come up during play as a buying tool. I'd rather stick to the default way of handling that even though this is a one shot and I'll be setting basically most of the starting equipment.

Id also suggest going heavy in skills and "obvious advantages" rather than getting all tweaky and in the weeds for all the nuanced methods for min/maxing a characters potential. Limit IQ and DX to a combined 80pts, push people into a niche where they can succeed and let the others do their part to fill in the gaps.

Large blocks of fiddly skills are perhaps the biggest learning curve followed by "what do these advantages give me". Attributes are nearly universal, so other than the relative meaning (which again tends to be easy since GURPS #'s aren't too far off d20 values).

80 points for IQ/DX seems extremely low. Normally BlackOps / MH templates are built on almost twice the points I'm using. This is intended to be a group of 3-5 highly competent professionals sent to cover up the loss of a bio-weapon. It's not teens in a horror film or lvl1's out to learn what the world is like.

Streamline combat, you can spend hours explaining and finishing a fight that takes 20sec real time.

I plan to.

I'm not sure what you find challenging about Gunslinger? It actually eliminates detail for the most part, and I included it for anyone that wanted a more cinematic (what you might see in a movie) gun based soldier.

Wildcard skills are great, but you need to have some ideas of what skills are "in game".

This sort of detail will be in the crib notes, though, for non GURPS players it's generally better to have "this works, but this doesn't" rather than a block list of skills.

Ten-Hut, for example, will say something like:
- Covers any rolls for knowing or following military processes, any out of combat rolls involving military gear, combat tactics, battle strategy, leading troops, moving into position, and functioning as a soldier.

I like the Merc but like I said drop IQ or DX by 1, drop Gunslinger and all the disads. Add Very fit and Impulsive and 5 quirks (leave some for the player to fill in). Its still a really solid character but now he has more gear to play with and is just easier to play.

Aside from making him a bit worse at everything, what would that accomplish? I know your differing thoughts on Gunslinger. IQ/DX are straight nerfs. Very Fit doesn't do anything +HT wouldn't since I won't be getting into fatigue use/recovery. Dropping disads may be one less thing to explain, but it also removes any personality.

As for the hulking bodyguard, I have a few ideas on a personality/disads. I just put that up to offer an example.

[bocephus]

I did move some quotes around a little cause this post got really long I tried to group the stuff that is mostly just misunderstanding your setting and start point. I feel like we are probably closer together now that some details are better laid out.

I'm still really against 50pts in disads, I address that in a separate section.

Plus if you bump the points up you can keep Hulk without a pile of disads, and I like him the way you originally did him.

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

Originally Posted by naloth

The mission will be more Black Ops than Supernatural. The intent is a fun game that shows of GURPS mechanics more so than MH as a setting. I choose that setting because "gritty realism" is kind of a niche for GURPS, Supers tends to be more complicated (more to explain), and fantasy is done to death.

That does change my suggestions a lot, because I misread/misunderstood what you originally wrote. It appears you probably meant built as Action with an option to go a different way. Which does seem to cover all the new details you included much better than Monster Hunter.

To be completely honest, I can't help you to much with that :) I don't have a great deal of experience with the Action genre and Black ops games are well outside my normal play.

Originally Posted by naloth

Wealth will set initial starting gear (20% / 80% like normal) and may come up during play as a buying tool. I'd rather stick to the default way of handling that even though this is a one shot and I'll be setting basically most of the starting equipment.

This probably just comes down to knowing how you run games, which is a little different than I do, and that's fine :) For a one shot, and on top of that a "Black Ops team" I wouldn't piddle about the equipment at all. Id give them some kind of patron or ally group organization and let the PCs use their personal cash for something you deem is custom or too specialty, or just in game decisions.

Originally Posted by naloth

Very Fit doesn't do anything +HT wouldn't since I won't be getting into fatigue use/recovery.

Very Fit was just throwing something out that does have a lot of advantages but the biggest one, you negate by saying you aren't using fatigue. That's fair, it makes total sense if your streamlining combat. It wasn't meant to be a "better" choice, just a cheaper one that still fit the feel of the character.

Originally Posted by naloth

Aside from making him a bit worse at everything, what would that accomplish? I know your differing thoughts on Gunslinger. IQ/DX are straight nerfs.

I was operating with a lot of assumptions about what you were trying to accomplish (and sticking to your 250pts but still getting rid of the bulk of the disads). Because of the way DX and IQ disproportionately effect skills and on top of that some really broad wildcard skills (I am 100% on board with the wildcards), it just made it a little too easy. At those attribute levels and skill levels that's probably in excess of 200ish points in skills if you tried to purchase them individually to those levels. Cutting IQ was just a way to keep the feel of the char but save the player from that amount of disads.

I was also thinking this might be a place for other people (especially civilians) to be able to add to the Monster Hunter group, but now I find there really won't be any of those that's also sorta pointless :)

Originally Posted by naloth

80 points for IQ/DX seems extremely low. Normally BlackOps / MH templates are built on almost twice the points I'm using. This is intended to be a group of 3-5 highly competent professionals sent to cover up the loss of a bio-weapon. It's not teens in a horror film or lvl1's out to learn what the world is like.

Again this was based on a broader spectrum of possibilities that you might come across in MH. Like you mentioned the teens. And yes MH does usually start with more than 250 which is why I thought you were trying to make "lvl 1's learning what the hidden world of monsters is all about".
Since you have added This is intended to be a group of 3-5 highly competent professionals sent to cover up the loss of a bio-weapon. I suggest that 250pts is actually to low, 300 might even be too low.

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

Originally Posted by naloth

I picked a limit on the # of disads, because value doesn't usually have very much to do with how hard they are to remember or roleplay. I'm not sure what limiting it to -15 points gets you that saying # or less doesn't. Tropes do work well to add character here.

I guess this one is based on how you let it work at your table. I enforce disads, otherwise they are just extra point pools that don't mean anything. If you don't "enforce" disads then yes the my suggestion would have no value to you. If you do, and inflict 50pts in disads on newbie players via pregen characters, that's just cruel.

I said 15ps because you get a single "solid" ~-10pt disad (or two 5pts) and 5 quirks for flavor. Its enough to demonstrate how it works in GURPS without making RP overly complicated. This is more than enough to give personality for a pregen oneshot. If they need more points, just give the characters more, independent of the disads.

Originally Posted by naloth

Dropping disads may be one less thing to explain, but it also removes any personality.

I didn't say drop them utterly, just don't overload newbies with them. Players can RP disads even if they don't pay for them, there isn't a rule against it. But putting it on paper for points makes it "plot protected" and pretty much mandatory.

I have some real issues with handing a Newbie a sheet with:

Disadvantages [-45]
----------------------------------------
Flashbacks (Mild) [-5]
Low Pain Threshold [-10]
Manic-Depressive [-20]
Wealth (Struggling) [-10]

I really felt like it was more critical to get rid of that laundry list of disads that would be too much for a Newbie and the GM to remember.
I know all about Manic Depressive, there is a good reason that it's a 20pt disad.
At my table that would be a long conversation with the player to understand how he wants to play this combination of disads in game without irritating all the other people at the table. For a oneshot its too much needy stuff for a group of people that don't know each other, for a New player too much to remember and for the GM a lot to enforce. And at the end its just not necessary.

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

Originally Posted by naloth

As for the hulking bodyguard, I have a few ideas on a personality/disads. I just put that up to offer an example.

I actually like this one, and again was just trying to make it work without needing many disads because (see above explanation). His size and ST give you a lot of places to go, but everyone will know who he is the moment they see him. There's a lot of fun to be had here.

I don't know Security! (WC) so maybe that covers the shotgun/pistol thing adequately. It could cover baton and by extension bats, pool cues, tire irons etc....

Make the Chars 300pts with 15ps of disads and put Hulk's other 20 points into something that might be unexpected like Detect Lies [20] - Per+4 (17) ... would Security! cover that one as well? .... just something that goes against a little against the grain but lets him step away from the "big dumb guy".