The idea of the Soul Blade, at least when generated by Brenna, was a stun-only attack that could go through most materials but could be blocked by someone with high will, with an alternate form that could kill but was also blocked normally. The blade's colour reflected the attack, silver-white for the stun, blood red for the lethal, reflecting Brenna's feelings about each form. In Champions, this was represented by a Multipower with two slots, one a No Normal Defense zero-range Energy Blast, the other a zero-range Ranged Killing Attack*. The Soul Blade wasn't Brenna's only ability, though. She also had psychometry, letting her read the past of an object by touch, and second sight, letting her see spirits and the auras of people, both detailed in The Ultimate Mentalist.
For the new game, I'll use the Valiant Universe the Roleplaying Game. I've highlighted it in the past a few times, once to work out Nasty, once to see how well it could handle being used for Reboot, and once to contrast it with an older RPG. Valiant has a simpler character generation system than Champions but still has the older game's flexibility. The system worked well wth Nasty, so lets see how it handles Brenna.
Step 1 - Create a Character Theme and Character Name
Most of the concept behind Brenna is above. To boil it down, Brenna is a psychic who inherited the Soul Blade after her mother died. The Soul Blade is a power passed from generation to generation along the matriarchal line, giving its wielders the ability to fight supernatural threats. When Brenna was in the superhero campaign, she received the code name "Hindsight".
Brenna HallidayStep 2 - Assign Stat Dice
Vital Factors
Name: Brenna Halliday
Title: --
Affiliation: None in /Tales of the Soul Blade/; the Militia and Minute-Men in the PBEM campaign.
Character Level: Super
Event Points:
Tags: psychic * Soul Blade * shy * ghosts * Bladekeeper
History: Inherited the Soul Blade after her mother, the previous weilder, died.
Personality: Shy.
I have four dice, a d6, two d8s, and a d10, to assign to the four stats, Might, Intellect, Charisma, and Action. Brenna isn't the strongest, but the Soul Blade doesn't require strength, just willpower, so Might gets the d6. Placing the d10 is difficult; Brenna is smart but not in the top 10%, and is able to fight but, again, not the best around, leaving Charisma, which makes some sense. Brenna can talk to spirits and convince them to move on without having to use the Blade on them. The d8s thus go to Intellect and Action. For her Luck, she gets the number 7, because why not.
Might: d6Step 3 - Create Powers
Intellect: d8
Charisma: d10
Action: d8
Luck: 7
Brenna's powers are defined above, the Soul Blade, her psychometry, and her aura reading. The Valiant system is flexible, allowing some give-and-take between player and GM. I should be able to define everything the Soul Blade does, from stunning normal humans, cutting through steel on the lethal version, and dismissing spirits, with just one description. Most of the points available will go to the Soul Blade; it's Brenna's major ability. The other two are useful, but of use in specialized situations. Psychometry may also cause some problems with mysteries, at least from the GM's view. I'll spend the fewest points on that, enough to have it be of use but not reliable. The GM can give vague information, success or fail. With Brenna set at the Super character level (see page 63 of the core rules), she has 45 points to spend and can have at most four powers after character creation.
Starting with the Soul Blade, I want it to have a d12, with Brenna able to roll both the power and stat die and keep both. That does make the Soul Blade powerful, but other characters in the rules have similar, including Faith's flight and Woody's snark**. There is a catch, as will be seen in Step 5; Brenna needs to be in melee to use the Blade against an opponent. The total point cost for the Blade is 18 points, leaving 27 to spend.
Next, Brenna's aura sight, which I'll rename Second Sight, to cover both aura reading and seeing spirits and ghosts. The ability is reliable for Brenna; in both Tales of the Soul Blade and the Militia PBEM game, she had no problems reading someone's emotions or seeing ghosts. Tales of the Soul Blade opens with Brenna talking to her late mother and even a second ghost early in the story. I'll place Second Sight at d8+4, costing 20 points, leaving 7 for Brenna's psychometry.
Speaking of, with those last seven points, that can get me either a d4, Keep Both, or d6, Discard Lowest. I'll take the latter; it should keep the power from disrupting too much of the mystery behind a session. That leaves one point left over, which can't even be turned into an Event Point. Oh, well.
PowersStep 4 - Assign Armour
Soul Blade: d12, Keep Both
Second Sight: d8+4
Psychometry: d6, Discard Lowest.
Armour is determined by adding the die types of Might and Action. Brenna thus has 14 points of Armour, described as Mystic Will. Her Health is also based on her Might, leading to a three pip reduction to her total health as based on the chart on the character sheet, reflected below. Brenna needs to not be hit; good thing her Soul Blade can parry.
Armour HealthStep 5 - Select Weapons
O O O O O O O
O O O O X O O X: -1 to Might
O O O O X O O X: -1 to Might & Action
O O X X Staggered
X Knocked Out
(Mystic
Will)
All characters in the Valiant game get two weapons, weather it's a sword, pistol, flame blast, or mocking insults. Brenna's choices are easy; her Soul Blade has two settings, so each setting is chosen as a weapon. The Blade is a melee weapon, thus gets the melee range modifiers.
Weapons Damage RangeStep 6 - Select Equipment
Close Near Far
Soul Blade - Silver 3 OK -2 --
Soul Blade - Blood Red d4 OK -2 --
Every character created in Valiant Universe gets some gear. Again, there's no list of items, no rules for rebreathers and communicators. Equipment is reflective of the character and can be used as a prop for any action. It doesn't even need to be immediately useful; Faith's character sheet includes a comic book, reflecting her interests more than anything else.
EquipmentStep 7 - Create Cues and Action Cues
Sewing kit Red hair ribbon
Lace gloves Reading glasses
To make things easier, I'll just grab phrases Brenna uses in Tales of the Soul Blade. There is context, but that won't be provided here.
CuesStep 8 - Create Dispositions
We're going to leave you in peace.
It's my most important duty, whether I like it or not.
I guess that is far fetched.
I just want to help you find your way.
Action Cues
I'm sorry.
I don't want to hurt you.
Your time is over. Move on, or I will make you.
I can't let you attack anyone else.
Dispositions are more about what makes Brenna tick than something she'd say. The core of Brenna is that she's shy, peaceful, and willing to do what's right even if she'd prefer to be elsewhere. She is the Bladekeeper; she takes the duties seriously.
DispositionStep 9 - Final Tweaking
Prefers talking to fighting.
Tongue-tied around strangers
Clear sense of right and wrong
There's nothing I want to change here. For the most part, Brenna's sheet looks more or less what like I expected it to be.
The full sheet is below. It took a little longer to create her than I expected, but I also let myself get distracted as I worked.
Brenna Halliday
Vital Factors
Name: Brenna Halliday
Title: --
Affiliation: None in /Tales of the Soul Blade/; the Militia and Minute-Men in the PBEM campaign.
Character Level: Super
Event Points: 0
Tags: psychic * Soul Blade * shy * ghosts * Bladekeeper
History: Inherited the Soul Blade after her mother, the previous weilder, died.
Personality: Shy.
Might: d6
Intellect: d8
Charisma: d10
Action: d8
Luck: 7
Powers
Soul Blade: d12, Keep Both
Second Sight: d8+4
Psychometry: d6, Discard Lowest.
Cues
We're going to leave you in peace.
It's my most important duty, whether I like it or not.
I guess that is far fetched.
I just want to help you find your way.
Action Cues
I'm sorry.
I don't want to hurt you.
Your time is over. Move on, or I will make you.
I can't let you attack anyone else.
Disposition
Prefers talking to fighting.
Tongue-tied around strangers
Clear sense of right and wrong
Armour Health
O O O O O O O
O O O O X O O X: -1 to Might
O O O O X O O X: -1 to Might & Action
O O X X Staggered
X Knocked Out
(Mystic
Will)
Weapons Damage Range
Close Near Far
Soul Blade - Silver 3 OK -2 --
Soul Blade - Blood Red d4 OK -2 --
Equipment
Sewing kit Red hair ribbon
Lace gloves Reading glasses
Is Brenna balanced enough to survive in a game? No idea. I haven't tested her out in even an simulation of a game. For all I know, she may drop fast while dealing out large amounts of damage with her Soul Blade.
* It makes sense in context. The other option was to treat the attacks as Hand-toHand Attacks, one with No Normal Defense, the other being a Killing attack with no Strength damage added. Mathematically, the points work out about the same. Using the ranged versions meant I never had to worry about Strength at all.
** Snark as a superpower. Maybe I should go back to Nasty and respend the last three points she has on Mouth of a Sailor d6, Replace.
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