Masika Character Application

[Masika]

User name: Masika

Have you read the rules? Yes

Character Name: Masika

Character Source: OC

Starting Location: Mesa Roja

Physical Tendencies:
Power: 15%
Toughness: 15%
Quickness: 35%
Skill: 35%

Masika makes an effort to be well-balanced with her physique, but naturally developed a tendency to take advantage of her thin frame and light weight to be quick on her feet and with her hands. She will always seek to redirect or completely avoid an attack rather than stop it head on, and relies on decisive blows that take advantage of an opponent’s weaknesses. However, when push comes to shove, she can take a hit if she needs to. Just not too many.

Personality Tendencies:
Aggression: 15%
Cunning: 35%
Diplomacy: 35%
Support: 15%

Masika does not like being the center of attention, but is always minding what’s going on around her. She will read every person she meets like a book, evaluating their posture, tone, energy, habits, clothing, weapons, she will analyze every weakness and strength an individual possesses. However, throughout her travels, she’s learned that being civil and light-hearted can get her much farther with a local populace than aggression and angst. She will seek to quickly learn how to best blend in with whatever town, city, or group she finds herself in. Taking the “when in Rome” philosophy as a means of survival. In short, she’s polite, courteous, professional, and always has a plan to kill everyone in the room.
Despite this, she can be incredibly subtly sarcastic, and if you read between the lines she’s likely mocking you or making discreet references. If she’s antagonized, she will slowly become more and more teasing and seek to infuriate her opponent through witty dialogue.

Physical Description:

Masika is a young Egyptian woman standing at just under six feet tall, with long dark-brown hair kept combed and cut to past her shoulders, underneath a brown wide-brimmed fedora. She possesses striking blue eyes, with an eye of Horus tattoo on the right. Her basic attire is a long, bone-white trench coat with six buttons and a waist belt, a dark-purple body suit, and dirty brown jeans and respective belt. The ankles of her jeans sit over her 1930s-esque leather boots and are rolled up at the ends. Her posture is generally lazy and aloof, often raising the heel of one foot and leaning into the other. She will close up her coat and pop the collar in cold or rainy weather, or remove it completely in incredibly hot or humid weather.
Her face has very angular features, with a sharp jawline, smaller nose and ears, and an intense gaze.

Hat: https://i.etsystatic.com/9169083/r/il/2c999a/1091808363/il_570xN.1091808363_jeap.jpg
Coat: https://www.zippileather.com/image/cache//2017/08/White-Leather-Long-Trench-Coat-for-Men-750x750.jpg
Bodysuit shape: https://dbyvw4eroffpi.cloudfront.ne...g-Chaos-Collection-20-Short-Sleeve-Jersey.jpg
Jeans: https://johnbaptistblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/dirty-brown-vintage-slim-jeans.jpg
Boots: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4e/d4/f4/4ed4f4ae563a32d50b6344729caceb34.jpg

She also possesses a pair of hide leather gloves for whenever she needs in her back pocket.
https: //images.homedepot-static.com/productImages/ccebb87d-d23f-4bac-9a0e-3ee5b4193855/svn/browns-tans-stanley-work-gloves-hds781142-64_1000.jpg\

Her Khopesh is kept on the right side of her belt, while her six revolvers are strapped along her body underneath her trench coat. A small utility knife is kept in her front right pocket.

Character History:

Masika is the Ambassador to the Third Faction, the scythe-wielders. Three sisters that protect the omniverse from the threats of chaos and control. Their interests are in the preservation of universal “cycles” and the continued existence of a universe or multiverse (such as the Crossroads). These threats come in the form of “agents” of chaos or control, which insert themselves into a universe at a point of interest and begin to quietly influence reality around them in order to benefit their agenda. Agents are not easily spotted by the denizens of a universe, and can even merge/fuse with a current inhabitant, granting them boosted power and the ability to defy the laws of reality. However, agents tend to influence reality to such a degree that everything goes right for them, they are either adored or fearfully respected by the denizens around them, and they never seem to fail at what they set out to do.
This is problematic due to the effect of universal stagnation. If this activity is allowed to continue for long enough, either the entire universe or multiverse will cease to exist as the laws of reality break down in a cataclysm, or it can be locked into a single moment of time and space for eternity. Some worlds have been lost, while others have denizens strong enough to defend themselves but are unaware of the Omniverse as a whole (think DC and Marvel).
It is Masika’s job then to seek out and destroy or otherwise apprehend these agents. This can force her to become a hero or villain depending on the situation. Her interests are in the preservation of the universe, by any means necessary, and she will just as readily side with the vilest denizens as well as the noblest in order to achieve that goal. She may even become a force of evil herself if it’s necessary. There’s nothing that’s “below the belt” or off-limits to Masika.
Of course, the job requires a certain level of covertness on her part. Masika also has the ability to rip through the fabric of reality and make herself invincible, faster than sound, or strong enough to lift an entire skyscraper, however the more this occurs the more she also contributes to the destruction of a universe, and the agent may simply flee if they find out she’s coming after them. As such, Masika has become incredibly adaptable and a fast learner in order to blend in with her environment and recon the world, track down the agent, and dispatch them as quickly, quietly, and easily as possible. Most of the time, she will never even unveil the wide array of abilities she has acquired over her centuries of hunting, preferring to slowly reveal more and more of what she’s capable of as each situation demands.
But, if she’s pushed to her limit, and can’t see any other way around it, she will bring forth a fury that is beyond what any god, monster, or man has ever witnessed.
Masika has earned the moniker of “the rat”, while her two older sisters are “the crow” and “the eel”, which ties to an old addage spread by word of mouth throughout the omniverse.
“The rat will come for you, the crow has seen what you’ve done. And then, only the eel remains.”

Masika is currently entering the Crossroads in pursuit of an agent of chaos, whose identity and location are currently unknown.

Abilities/Skills:

Khopesh Saber, Offensive Stance
Effects: Damage Rank 2 (Cost 200)
Negative Modifier: Removeable Rank 1 (Cost -50)
Total Cost: 150
Masika attacks with her Khopesh, leaving her more open to damage.
Khopesh Saber, Defensive Stance
Effects: Protection Rank 1 (Cost 100)
Negative Modifier: Removeable Rank 1 (Cost -50) Concentration Rank 1 (Cost -50)
Total Cost: 0
Masika focuses on parrying attacks with her Khopesh, while being relatively unable to counter attack.
Martial Artist
Effects: Agility Rank 1 (Cost 200) Damage Rank 1 (Cost 100)
Total Cost: 300
Masika resorts to hand-to-hand combat, focusing on dodging attacks and delivering swift, decisive blows.
Iron Will
Effects: Adaptation Rank 1, Incredible Heat, Incredible Cold, Starvation and Thirst, Need for Sleep.
Total Cost: 300
Masika is capable of pushing her body past its limits in order to preserve her life, and is not easily discomforted or put off by extreme variations in her environment or lack of resources.
Revolvers
Effects: Damage Rank 3 (Cost 300)
Positive Modifier: Ranged Rank 1 (Cost 50)
Total Cost: 150
Masika uses her revolvers normally, both hands on one. She has a total of 36 rounds she can fire off from her six revolvers before being forced to reload or completely running out of ammunition.
Dual-Wielding
Effects: Damage Rank 3 (Cost 300)
Positive Modifier: Affects Multiple (Cost 50)
Negative Modifier: Side effect (Cost -50)
Total Cost: 300
Masika either dual-wields two revolvers or a revolver with her sword. This sacrifices a lot of accuracy for the sake of being able to either fire off up to 12 rounds in a very short amount of time or be able to dish out damage at close range and long range.

Master Skills: Survival (Urban) Rank 4 (Cost 200), Survival (Wild) Rank 4 (Cost 200), Subterfuge Rank 1 (Cost 50), Medical Rank 1 (Cost 50), Craft (Improvisation) Rank 4 (Cost 200), Social (Casual) Rank 2 (Cost 100).
Total Cost: 800

How much Essence did you spend? 2000

How much Essence do you have left? 0

Were you referred by an existing member? Jo'on Yorigami

 

[Ahana Varma]

Welcome to the site, Jo'on's friend!

First off, regarding your character history: upon entering the Crossroads, your character must lose all that power. It's not a case of being able to lift skyscrapers but just choosing not to, she actually isn't allowed to be capable of doing that.

Also, there is currently no way out of the Crossroads, so you may want to mention something about her thinking that this agent she's chasing is such a major threat that she's willing to imprison herself in this little solar system for the rest of her life to stop them.

Next, your Abilities:

Khopesh Saber, Offensive Stance
Effects: Damage Rank 2 (Cost 200)
Negative Modifier: Removeable Rank 1 (Cost -50)
Total Cost: 150
Masika attacks with her Khopesh, leaving her more open to damage.

Because your Damage is rank 2, your Removable Modifier should be as well, which means it would give you -100E, so this would cost only 100E in total.

EDIT: Following a discussion with one of the admins, the struck-through text (below) should now be ignored.

However, you can take only one rank of Removable by laying this out differently, and as I see that you have a 'Martial Arts' Ability as well, I think this would be what you'd probably like to do.

This does make things a little more complicated, but if you don't mind that then what you can do is rename this Ability something like "Khopesh & Unarmed Strikes" then update the description to say something about fighting unarmed, and the Effect list to look like this:
Damage 1 (100)
--Removable (-50)
Damage 1 (100)
Total: 150

This gives you a total of two Damage ranks while wielding the sword, since Effect ranks within the same Ability are allowed to stack, and also gives you Damage 1 when not wielding it, which means you can save Essence by removing the Damage Effect from your 'Martial Arts' Ability.

Khopesh Saber, Defensive Stance
Effects: Protection Rank 1 (Cost 100)
Negative Modifier: Removeable Rank 1 (Cost -50) Concentration Rank 1 (Cost -50)
Total Cost: 0
Masika focuses on parrying attacks with her Khopesh, while being relatively unable to counter attack.

The cost of an Effect can never be reduced below 50E per rank so the cost of this cannot be reduced to less than 50E (though higher ranked Abilities will have higher minimum costs).

If you just want to protect yourself with your sword then you don't actually need a Protection Effect for that, though. You can still deflect blows if all you've got is Damage. Protection is meant more for things like shields and armour. So you don't need this Ability.

If you do want to be able to reliably block every single Damage 1 attack that comes your way, for however long she's focusing on this, you could write it as:
Protection 1 (100)
--Ongoing (100)
--Removable (-50)
--Concentration (-50)
Total: 100

Martial Artist
Effects: Agility Rank 1 (Cost 200) Damage Rank 1 (Cost 100)
Total Cost: 300
Masika resorts to hand-to-hand combat, focusing on dodging attacks and delivering swift, decisive blows.

EDIT: Following a discussion with one of the admins; this Ability is fine as it is. Please ignore the struck-though text (below).

As mentioned when discussing your first Ability, you can actually save Essence by removing the Damage Effect from this Ability and combining it with that one.

Iron Will
Effects: Adaptation Rank 1, Incredible Heat, Incredible Cold, Starvation and Thirst, Need for Sleep.
Total Cost: 300
Masika is capable of pushing her body past its limits in order to preserve her life, and is not easily discomforted or put off by extreme variations in her environment or lack of resources.

Just remember to list the costs after each Effect and this one will be good as is. Adaptation is odd in that its ranks all have different costs rather than the same one for each rank, so laying it out like that makes things easier for us.

Revolvers
Effects: Damage Rank 3 (Cost 300)
Positive Modifier: Ranged Rank 1 (Cost 50)
Total Cost: 150
Masika uses her revolvers normally, both hands on one. She has a total of 36 rounds she can fire off from her six revolvers before being forced to reload or completely running out of ammunition.

The Ranged Modifier in this case will cost you 150E. You can, however, take the Finite Modifier to reduce that a little more if you don't mind stating in your description that it takes her full concentration to reload and that that process takes a few moments to do. Normally I would also say that you could take Removable for this, but as she has six of them, I find it unlikely that an opponent could really expect to disarm her of them. So here's how I would write this Ability:
Damage 3 (300)
--Ranged (150)
--Finite (-150)
Total: 300

Dual-Wielding
Effects: Damage Rank 3 (Cost 300)
Positive Modifier: Affects Multiple (Cost 50)
Negative Modifier: Side effect (Cost -50)
Total Cost: 300
Masika either dual-wields two revolvers or a revolver with her sword. This sacrifices a lot of accuracy for the sake of being able to either fire off up to 12 rounds in a very short amount of time or be able to dish out damage at close range and long range.

You don't technically need a separate Ability just to dual wield, but I can see that you're wanting this to be a sort of special move, so that's cool.

You've got the total cost right for this one, but each Modifier should be priced at 150E rather than 50E (though with the Side-Effects being negatives, of course). Also, you'll need to state in the Effect list what the Side-Effect is. For example:
Damage 3 (300)
--Affects Multiple 1 (150)
--Side-Effect (Inaccuracy) (-150)
Total: 300

You may wonder why I've put a '1' after Affects Multiple. That's because this Modifier can be purchased multiple times to expand the area. To save space, we just write the name of the Modifier followed by the number of times it has been purchased, rather than listing it multiple times.

Master Skills: Survival (Urban) Rank 4 (Cost 200), Survival (Wild) Rank 4 (Cost 200), Subterfuge Rank 1 (Cost 50), Medical Rank 1 (Cost 50), Craft (Improvisation) Rank 4 (Cost 200), Social (Casual) Rank 2 (Cost 100).
Total Cost: 800

These are fine as they are.


Lastly, you will notice that I've laid out my examples differently from how you've written your Abilities.
This is not mandatory, however we recommend writing them the way I've done (with Modifiers indented by a couple hyphens, missing out 'rank' in the Effects, not writing ranks for the Modifiers at all, etc.) as it saves space and looks cleaner, thereby making it easier for people to understand at a glance.

 

[Ahana Varma]

After a discussion on the site Discord with our Ability expert, I have rescinded a suggestion I made previously. Please take note of this when updating your Abilities.

Apologies for the confusion.