How would YOU build them?!??

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

One thing that seems almost universal between Shonen protagonists is Will 16+ and HT 16+ or Unkillable 1. Once they set their mind to something they almost never give up, they can take beatings that would kill almost anyone else and still stand up and beat down the bad guy. This should probably be toned down if you want to challenge the players in combat.

It also leads to the question of whether it should be more of a campaign feature.

The following has some vague spoilers, including some references to even more series for comparison (and I apologize if this seems tedious but I have had so much spoiled for various series, I still get a bit paranoid about labeling such things).

Of the three series the characters currently being discussed were pulled from, One Piece seems to make everyone harder to kill than normal, possibly to help keep the series from getting bogged down in "action scenes", since as strong as the non-minor characters are, the body count from them fighting would become obscene otherwise. However this incredibly endurance has gotten to the point where tragic back story character deaths (let alone any seeming deaths on screen) are worth calling into question even apart from the series' fantastic elements, and unintentionally make the characters that do end up dying look unlucky or fragile. I definitely think something like the old 3e Stun rules are in effect here (and please forgive me for not knowing the equivalent 4e rules).

Fairy Tail isn't quite as bad, but that may just be because it isn't as old of a series, and magic is more prevalent so when someone is saved by such intervention, it just feels like a part of the campaign setting. It had one character who died as part of the typical "tragic back story" revived due to editorial fiat, plus again to keep the high collateral damage heroes from becoming monsters, everyone (even minor NPCs) seems to be quite lucky and/or durable. ^^

Hunter X Hunter, by comparison, then seems almost sadistic because of how many characters are killed (and usually for keeps). I was going to make a joke about Attack On Titan level body counts, but that isn't actually too far off. The series begins seeming like your typical shounen title, after a few episodes you realize that anyone that isn't one of the four main characters seems to have better odds of dying than living. Enough characters are introduced that it isn't as bad as it might seem (plus the general background population of the setting is more robust), but fans of HxH like me are learning that if you like a character other than the main four, you hope they are used sparingly or never seen again, for the character's own sake!

Sometimes I think that is why the main four characters of HxH regularly split up and do stuff off camera, sometimes be absent entire arcs. Many characters take leaves from the "main group", and sometimes the action follows only one while the others are doing their thing "off camera". Suspension of disbelief might be broken if we saw all four constantly hanging out together and surviving. XD

[simply Nathan]

Originally Posted by RadSprack

Zoro (One Piece)
Garp (One Piece)

Zolo[1]? He needs really good ST, Weapon Master(Katana), Broadsword at a cinematically high level, Ambidexterity, and Extra Arm(Short, Weapon Mount) to hold his third sword with. Probably some combination of the Extra Attack advantage or buying the Dual-Weapon Attack technique twice. Gobs of extra HP and DR with Tough Skin or Injury Tolerance: Damage Reduction in some combination over and above his crazy high ST in order to absorb as much punishment as he does. HT15+ for the purposes of death and unconsciousness checks, whether bought raw or from the Hard to Kill and Hard to Subdue advantages.

He doesn't have Alcohol Tolerance, but does have enough common sense not to get himself drunk when he comes to a strange island where people are showering the party with free booze.

Yeah, I prefer the 4Kids dub. So sue me.

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by RadSprack

I'm starting a game soon with my buddies in an sort of anime influenced world. With this in mind, I want to know how YOU would build some of these more popular/well known characters so I can kind of come to the table with a well rounded sense of abilities and powers in an anime-ish setting. I bring this to you in hopes of getting multiple points of view on well known characters because my players and I are all new to using powers. Plus, I'd kinda like to see how these characters stack up next to others.

Earlier versions (right around when they start their adventure (if applicable)) would be super helpful in getting my head wrapped around starting my players and NPCs.

Characters I am mainly interested in see ing as follows:

Luffy (One Piece)
Zoro (One Piece)
Garp (One Piece)
Gon (Hunter x Hunter)
Kurapika (HxH)
Natsu (Fairy Tail)
Erza (Fairy Tail)

As you can probably tell, I'm looking mainly at fantasy type characters, do feel free to add your own well known characters that are out there if you don't like any of those that are on my list.

Reference sources would be useful; besides the fact that the forum members most knowledgeable about building such characters may not have a clue what the series is about, some series are vague about abilities so it helps to know what you think applies versus what I may think applies. A generic "spoilers" warning may be warranted. Although some of these series date back to the late 90s, they aren't exactly "Star Wars" level of cultural penetration... especially outside of Japan. Also... I highly recommend Hunter X Hunter (2011 series). As it nearly caught up with the manga (and the manga unfortunately is back on hiatus again), the series ended with episode #148 just this last Tuesday. ;)

I've nearly started this same thread half a dozen times because my own attempts at building them usually end after about 20-30 minutes of "...where do I even start?" (so I've got no results to even post from past attempts). Where I can help is providing some trouble shooting because I've seen all of the 2011 Hunter X Hunter series (only available subbed) and read approximately the first half of the manga (official English release), have seen almost all 663 episodes of One Piece (all subbed, plus some also watched dubbed) as well as having read a good chunk of the manga (again, official English release). For Fairy Tail I've only read the last... one to three dozen chapters (Crunchyroll translations), but have seen the entire series subbed. So... I at least half know what I am talking about. ^^'

The reason I bring this up is because... Luffy most definitely bleeds in One Piece (other than the 4Kids dub - did anyone ever bleed in that?). He also still has his internal organs... however his entire body is rubbery all the way through (even apparently taking less damage from electrical attacks). So if you try to crush him to death, you fail. Even if a bullet strikes him and should hit his heart, his body just stretches with it and he seems to take no injury (bullets are almost always depicted as being round spheres in this setting, though I could be wrong). On the other hand we've seen darts pierce his skin, explosions damage him (though perhaps less than they should), blades cut him, etc.

[RadSprack]

Originally Posted by McAllister

Well, I'd start with piles of... um... I actually haven't seen any of these, I haven't got a clue. If the characters have nice, descriptive wiki articles, you should add links so people who are willing to expend limited effort being helpful can do so efficiently.

Originally Posted by Otaku

Reference sources would be useful; besides the fact that the forum members most knowledgeable about building such characters may not have a clue what the series is about, some series are vague about abilities so it helps to know what you think applies versus what I may think applies. A generic "spoilers" warning may be warranted. Although some of these series date back to the late 90s, they aren't exactly "Star Wars" level of cultural penetration... especially outside of Japan. Also... I highly recommend Hunter X Hunter (2011 series). As it nearly caught up with the manga (and the manga unfortunately is back on hiatus again), the series ended with episode #148 just this last Tuesday. ;)

I will certainly get on that as soon as I can. I posted this thread at work last night from my phone and I am in the same boat right now. As soon as I get home to my desktop or know that I would have the time to set aside for that here, I will make reference wikis happen.

[simply Nathan]

Originally Posted by Otaku

The reason I bring this up is because... Luffy most definitely bleeds in One Piece (other than the 4Kids dub - did anyone ever bleed in that?).

Nope. 4kids is well known for censoring everything it gets ahold of to take out anything American parents are likely to deem unsuitable, well, for kids. Many fans have taken umbrage at them removing blood, beer, and guns (though One Piece was allowed to have them changed into Super Soaker-looking things rather than having goons run around with invisible guns as in their earlier Yu-Gi-Oh dub); I personally find their changes more endearing.

Even I sometimes go a bit overboard on this, such as censoring text (Japanese or English) into blank signs, skipping episodes so they can add the cute mascot character to a show's roster sooner, and lightening the skin of characters that look ethnic.

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by Kenneth Latrans

Even I sometimes go a bit overboard on this, such as censoring text (Japanese or English) into blank signs, skipping episodes so they can add the cute mascot character to a show's roster sooner, and lightening the skin of characters that look ethnic.

Am I reading that wrong, or are you saying to alter materials for your own... game? Personal consumption? Job at localizing such shows?

[simply Nathan]

Originally Posted by Otaku

Am I reading that wrong, or are you saying to alter materials for your own... game? Personal consumption? Job at localizing such shows?

Nope, the words "think they" just slipped out from between "I" and "sometimes" before I posted. I had the same problem a few days ago with the word "Not" disappearing from one of my YouTube comments.

[Fred Brackin]

I thought of some stuff to add.


Steng5h: Luffy frequently stretches out one arm and grabs a distant object then it's off he goes. This would require a enough ST that his BL equaled or exceeded his body weight.

Now Luffy is skinny (but maybe not Skinny) so we could be down in the vicinity of 125 lbs but that will require at least ST25. So that's the bottom of the neighborh0od we'd be talking about for him an Zolo.

.....and yes, he sometimes does exercise enormous ST without stretching.

Then there's the question of how much Stretching? Let's try for 30 yards though I'm sure he's reached for farther. We look ay Stretching in Characters and it sends us off to p.402 of Campaigns and we do some math and come up with 6 levels of Stretching.

That would be base 36pts and not too bad but there's a clause where it takes 1 Turn (1 second) to stretch per level. I don't see an Enhancement for "Instant Stretch". That's a fairly serious oversight as instant stretching is generally more common than the slow type.

Guesstimating we're going to be in the area of +50% Cosmic and similar in effect to Instant Acceleration for Enhanced Move so we're up to 54 pts.

By good Powers practices you'd then apply a Power Modifier to reflect the way that these specific powers can be negated or counteracted. Magical (-10%) is an example and Powers with that Modifier don't work in No Mana Zones and are subject to other kinds of anti-magical effects.

Unfortunately for theory I can't remember seeing any general anti-Devil Fruit measures. so maybe no PM.

Exploiting the Curse on Devil Fruit users would be covered by the Divine Curse Disad which would be something like "Can't swim, float, move or escape immersion under your own power". This should be pretty serious in what's very nearly a water world but wouldn't count for as much in amore conventional setting.

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Unfortunately for theory I can't remember seeing any general anti-Devil Fruit measures. so maybe no PM.

Exploiting the Curse on Devil Fruit users would be covered by the Divine Curse Disad which would be something like "Can't swim, float, move or escape immersion under your own power". This should be pretty serious in what's very nearly a water world but wouldn't count for as much in amore conventional setting.

Devil fruits powers can be negated by Kairoseki (海楼石), which has been translated as "Sea Stone", "Sea-prism Stone" and even as Cherry Stone in one of the games. Their effect seems to be variable, but so has their application, which may account for that. We first see one in Logue Town, where Smoker ("Chaser" in the 4Kids dub) wields an extremely long jitte tipped with a Sea Stone. The length is estimated to be 2.12 meters, but I don't know if that includes the handle or not... and if it isn't clear I'm just relaying information from the One Piece Wiki because... can I link to that? Forgive me for being so "off" on the board rules, but I never leave enough time to both comment and to read said rules for this board. >_<

Being a fan run wiki it obviously could contain gross errors in addition to guess work; for example the Smoker's weapon is supposedly named nanashaku, and as a shaku is apparently a Japanese measurement, that is how they arrived at its length (besides that matching its visual in the show within reason). Speaking of time earlier, I am out of it for now, so I'll just cover the basics of Sea Stone use:

Weapon - The tip of nanushaku allows Smoker to hit Devil Fruit users with powers that would otherwise protect them, without affecting his own powers.

Restraint - Manacles are made using them, which seem to shut off powers.

Confinement - large quantities both nullify powers and drain the energy of power users.

[Otaku]

Also of note about negating Devil Fruit powers; immersion in standing water (regardless of the type) will negate a Devil Fruit Users powers and drain their strength if they are immersed past their knees (approximately). It doesn't have to be sea water, even though the "mineral" content of the sea is the justification for things like sea stones, and how zombies animated by the Kage Kage no Mi (...I don't have the English name handy) can be de-animated by putting salt into their mouth.

It just has to be the equivalent surface area of being immersed past one's knees; through something encountered far later on in the series, Luffy is underwater in a very durable bubble. He stretches his limbs through the bubble (it is resistant to bursting) to attack, but he can't hit as hard because the limb starts to weaken. Brook can run across water due to his relatively light nature and... it being an animé.

On the other hand, rain and waves don't affect power users.

Lastly (before I am out of time again), those using Armament Haki (which hardens the body) can hit and damage Devil Fruit eaters that normally won't be hurt by it, including crushing damage to Luffy, and different Devil Fruit powers can "counter" each other.