Yeah, I finished my book early

[james_davis_nicoll]

So I rolled up an Icons character.

Long story short: wanna be grifter signed up for eHarmony, went on a date, it didn't play out the way he expected and now he has glowing ectoplasmic tentacles that can do... things.

He joined the local group of masks because he's genre aware enough to know it's better to be the team monster than the town's designated scapegoat, plus it's useful to have respected associates who can make bail every time he's wrongfully arrested (which pretty frequently, thanks to the whole criminal past thing. No convictions, though).

They put up with him because the ... things he can do are useful and he only makes the Eldrich Abomination Detector go off intermittently.

The telepathy and power nullification requires him to make contact with his tentacles. The psychiatry isn't formal; he's just a keen observer of human nature.

open to suggestions for names.

origin: transformed

P7     I4  
C4     A6
S5     W5

5 stretching
8 tentacles
4 telepathy
5 power nullification


psychiatry 2
Acting

Qualities and Aspects
Probably a Monster
The Usual Suspect
Criminal Gone Straight
Angry Mob Magnet

Comments

Re: Icons character

[disassembly_rsn]

*raises eyebrows* The eHarmony backstory sounds interesting.

He's got that bad a reputation from being a wanna be grifter rather than violent crime? Sounds like he pulled off a scam involving public money, lost the money, then got caught...

Re: Icons character

[james_davis_nicoll]

Probably a Monster
Angry Mob Magnet

are related to his powers; even when he's not actively doing stuff, the eldrichosity is obvious to animals, small children, people with second sight, those on the border of life and death and so on.

The Likely Suspect
Criminal Gone Straight

are related to his criminal record, and since he was kind of required to give his real name when he glommed onto the local group of masks the cops know who he is. And who he used to be. Plus he might have played up the whole reformed criminal goes straight at some point; it's the best kind of con because it's true.

Re: Icons character

[doc_lemming]

I presume he was using eHarmony to look for people who would be amenable to fleecing, and that the con itself wasn't electronic but rather an updated version of the old Gypsy Sweetheart racket.

What might be interesting, if you had a long-term campaign with this guy, is to have another grifter join the group and expect him to be the inside man. That would throw his loyalties into sharp relief.

Rather than planning it all ahead, though, I'd run it like in "Night's Black Agents" -- when it comes to a head, you turn to the involved party and say, "So, what did you put in place to forestall this occurrence? Uh-huh. Roll Intellect+Deception to see if you were successful against their Awareness. Fail? They were suspicious of you, and set this up.... Sure, a Determination point means you prepared for failure...it's a kind of retcon."

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

Weakness:

Girls speaking Japanese

[kla10.livejournal.com]

Guessing he's not quite that genre-aware.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

Doesn't need to be. Goes with the tentacles automatically, like having a heavy tail=pricing bidets.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

it's better to be the team monster than the town's designated scapegoat, plus it's useful to have respected associates who can make bail every time he's wrongfully arrested

Plus when a lot of people incorrectly assume the eldrich glow means you have a force field and take appropriate steps to deal with it, it's good to have access to mask-level health care.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Big Reliable Attack + Decent Utilities Powers + No Defenses = Glass Cannon (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GlassCannon)

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I wonder if there's a support group for people like this guy. Although he might not qualify to join because he can always pass for normal as long as he opts not to manifest the ectoplasmic aura. If he's not actively doing stuff, the eldrichosity is only obvious to animals, small children, people with second sight, those on the border of life and death and so on.

Looking at the Thing in the Fantastic Four versus the X-Men, I am pretty sure Team Monster is better than one of a Band of Heroic Outcasts.

[doc-lemming.livejournal.com]

I rolled up a villain I named Glass Jaw, once. Good Chameleon score, so I gave him a translucent head. He actually had an Invulnerability score, albeit a low one, and a high Strength.

So I made him the kind of mob enforcer you don't notice until it's too late. Knives would bounce off him, but not swords or pistols.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

The Likely Suspect

See, for example, the town crook in the Father Brown series. He's never actually guilty of the crime of the week but the local cop generally makes a try at arresting him anyway because the local cop is astonishingly incompetent and lazy.

[erikagillian.livejournal.com]

Sounds more like the usual suspect.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

That is better.

[maruad.livejournal.com]

Squidzilla seems too obvious so I would go with P.T. Barnum because there is a sucker born every minute.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Peter Barnum? In the tradition of lame pun names?

[maruad.livejournal.com]

Precisely.

[nelc.livejournal.com]

Psychiatry and tentacles? Too bad "Dr Octopus" is already taken; maybe Dr Squid? Doc Cephalopod? Ectopod? Ectopus?

[doc-lemming.livejournal.com]

N. Cephalopod?

[keithmm.livejournal.com]

Psychopus. The Squidiatrist. Dr Cthulhu. Thera-pus. I'd suggest Thera-Pod, but that suggest another sort of superpower. The Amazing Archeteutherapist! The Psquid.

[doc-lemming.livejournal.com]

The Subtlefish?

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the Elder Sign episode of Tabletop? Tentacle tentacle tentacle...

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

Usually that series makes me want to buy the game, but that episode did the opposite. Their getting screwed by dice rolling so frequently suggested that the game was high-random, low-skill, which is not fun for a co-op game.

[jcfiala.livejournal.com]

Hm. The skill is kind of in using the different abilities of the investigators and the items/spells you pick up during the game to control the dice rolling. But yeah, there's a lot of luck there.

On the other hand, it's not a four hour, take over the dining room table, game like Arkham Horror is. :)

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

Oh indeed. I love Arkham Horror, but you really need to carve out an hour to set it up, let alone play it.

[joenotcharles.livejournal.com]

My kingdom for a computer-assisted version!

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

Strangely, Elder Sign is available on iOS and Android. I don't think Arkham Horror has been computerized.

[joenotcharles.livejournal.com]

A google search for "computer assisted arkham horror" turns up this: http://www2.cs.uidaho.edu/~jeffery/courses/383/lecture.html

So somebody out there has it. I assume they can't release it, though...

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

I gather that the iPad app is somewhat rebalanced. At any rate, I have played the iPad app a lot, and enjoyed it. It*is* brutally hard, and the humans usually lose, but that fits the theme of the game :)

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

I'm notoriously bad at superhero names, but:

Mr. Clutch.

Glass Cannon-type characters are fine if you have a book you want to finish.

[(Anonymous)]

Stretching + tentacles = Elastopus

Eight tentacles + psychiatry = Octofreud. Or Octojung.

-- Paul Clarke

[owlmirror36.livejournal.com]

I cannot believe I am the first to suggest "Doctor Calamari".

[owlmirror36.livejournal.com]

Or "Suicide Squid".

[jcfiala.livejournal.com]

I used to have a Suicide Squid tshirt, from back when the internet was made from hand-crafted pixels.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Suicide Squid in forever. Used to be we'd love talking about the latest issue.

[dbdatvic.livejournal.com]

Try Dr. Hentai?

Dave, he's in medium-rare form to-night