New Archetypes

Games Discussion Feng Shui
1

So the game is officially out for everyone, and it's great. The existing archetypes cover a lot of ground, and reskinning them or tweaking them makes for great flexibility. The questions then are "What archetypes from the genre are missing?" and "What archetypes can be tweaked to make new and interesting stuff?" Personally, I've been thinking about running TMNT using Feng Shui, and looking at the ways characters are represented in the various series. With that in mind, I wanted to start up a thread where people can post up new archetypes or different versions of existing archetypes to see what's possible with the system.

My first archetype is the Berserker, a take on some of the traditional depictions of Raphael, as well as guys like Wolverine, Mr. Furious, and other hot-headed heroes who use their anger to fight. It uses pieces of the Big Bruiser and the Bandit, but also adds a couple of new things.

Berserker
(Present, Past, Ancient, Future)

Traditional martial arts wisdom says that fighting angry is a sure path to defeat. You tend to beat up people who say stupid shit like that. You’ve been angry as long as you can remember—maybe not all the time, but so consistently that the anger is more familiar to you than almost anything else. Maybe you used to be normal but something awful happened that left you constantly furious, or maybe you just woke up on the wrong side of the cradle and been cranky ever since.

Regardless of the reasons, you fight better when you’re angry in some ways. You’re strong, faster, and tougher than you have any right to be. But you’re also reckless, which puts you and the people around you in danger. Channeling your anger can lead you to heights of power, but it can quickly become a raging fire that threatens to consume all you hold dear.

Ratings
• Martial Arts 14
• Defense 11
• Toughness 10
• Chi 7
• Speed 7

Schticks
• Berserker Fury (Core): Spend 1 Chi point and 1 shot; your Martial Arts Attack Value increases by 2 until the end of the sequence.
• Furious Strength (Core): After you have suffered at least 1 Wound Point from an enemy attack in a fight, activate this shtick at no cost. Add 3 to your Damage on any successful Martial Arts strike, including strikes with hand-to-hand weapons. You also get +3 to all Strength Checks while this schtick is active.
• Headbutts Don’t Help Anyone (Fu): If you fail a Martial Arts attack against a mook, you may choose to spend 1 shot and suffer 1 Wound Point to make the attack succeed instead.
• Mounting Fury I (Core): If you miss with a Martial Arts attack, you gain a cumulative +1 bonus to your next Martial Arts attack. This bonus resets to 0 after you hit, and at the end of the fight.
• Screaming Bloody Murder (Core): Add +2 to a Martial Arts attack if you took damage from an enemy attack since you last made an attack of your own.

Disadvantages
• Fury Turned Inward: Whenever you suffer Impairment penalties from any source, increase the total amount of Impairment you suffer by 1. (So if you would normally suffer a –1 Impairment penalty, you would instead suffer –2, and so on.)
• Fury Turned Outward: If you are currently suffering from an Impairment penalty and miss an attack against a boss character, that boss may spend 2 shots as a reaction to immediately make an attack against you or one of your allies within close reach.

Skills
• Info (choose one) 13
• Intimidation 13

2

I like your Berserk, but I have a couple of minor clarifications. First, you may want to specify Schtick types. (signature, martial arts, and drawbacks). Second, Fury Turned Inward gets confusing to me when a character take a second impairment penalty. Is it:
a) Each time you suffer an Impairment penalty from any source, increase the total amount of Impairment you suffer by 1. (So when you take your first impairment penalty of -1, your total impairment would be -2, and if you took another impairment penalty of -1, your new total would be -4)
b) Whenever you are suffering from at least 1 Impairment penalty from any source, increase the total amount of Impairment you suffer by 1. (So if you would normally suffer a –2 Impairment penalty, you would instead suffer –3, and so on.)

On the topic of posting new archetypes, I hope you don't mind me cross posting from my blog post:

[size=150]Abomination Archetype[/size]
[size=85]Based on Cyborg[/size]
(Future Juncture)

Once long ago, you were a creature of legend: a demon of no little power. Then strange warriors from the future came to hunt you down and drag you off to a place worse than any Yama King’s hell. They ripped you apart and built you back up with strange machines. When they were done you were no longer sure how much of you was still you and how much was strange demon-tech, but it was clear that they now owned you. You were a weapon for them now: a machine built for war and suppression. Maybe you enjoyed it, maybe they simply built you to enjoy it. Either way, you were good at it. So good they installed you into one of their most prized locations: An orbital facility from which you could look down on the world with a target scoped eye, ready to be dropped from orbit to battle who they said. Not that it saved them in the end. You watched from on high as their empire crumbled into dust in the blink of a cybernetic eye. In that moment, their hold on you was loosened. You became your own monster: a monster with a rocket launcher.

Play an Abomination if you want to be a monster of mass destruction with the ability to take on tanks and platoons, just as you were designed.

Note: Abominations are more machine than monster, and do not suffer from Juncture Modifiers.

Attributes
ScroungeTech: 13
BA: Creature Power: 13
Defense: 13
Toughness: 9
Fortune: 6
Speed: 6
Wealth: Poor

Schticks

Laser Goggles (Scroungetech) – Base Damage 11 Ranged Scroungetech Attack.
Robot Arm (Scroungetech) – Base Damage 11 Close Scroungetech Attack.
Seeker Missile (Scroungetech) – Spend Fortune to take out lots of Mooks.
Rage Against Machines (Creature Power) – Make attacks directly against vehicles.
Steel Hide (Creature Power) – Bonus Toughness against guns, decreases over sequences.
Smokin! (Scroungetech) – Regain fortune after successfully attacking multiple foes.
System Malfunction (Hinderance) – Same as the Cyborg Archetype, -2 to Up checks.

Skills

Intimidate 13
Intrusion 13


Awesoming Up

Add any one of these Creature Power schticks: Arcane Battery, Amphibian, Blast, Blood Drain, Born in a Cage, Corded Musculature, Death Resistance I-III, Demon Bunch, Emit Smokescreen, Empathic Rage, Flight, Foul Spew, Goldenheart Monster, Inevitable Comeback, Memory Drain, Mimicry, Monstrous Foot Stomp, Natural Weapon, Night Dweller, Regeneration I-IV, Schooled in the Hell of Piercing, Transformation I-II, Venom Sac
Add any one of these Scroungetech schticks: Adrenal Boy-Howdy, Agony Grenade, Blow up Real Good, Buzzsaw Hand, Cortisol Field Generator, Force Blade, Fluid Spill, Grav Plate, Helix Rethreader, Helix Ripper, Improbability Capacitor, Internal Lockbox, Intra-Reality Goggles, Interceptor Drone, Kinetic Distributor, Lumbar Scorpion, Onboard Flamethrower, Molecular Disturber, Neural Stimulator, Pain Uptake Inhibitor, Plasma Tubules, Pulse Grenade, Quantum Manipulator, Reflex Ramper, Schrodinger Circuit, Shower of Sparks, Subatomic Transfuser, Subdermal Plating, Titanium Claws, Tracker Pin, Yowch!
Add a skill you do not have from this list, at a rating of 9: Deceit, Detective, Driving, Fix-It, Gambling, Info (any), Leadership, Medicine, Sabotage, Seduction.
Increase a skill value from less than 12 to 12.
Increase a skill value of 12+ by 1.
Increase your backup attack to your main attack minus 1.

[size=150]Ex-Buro Monster Hunter Archetype[/size]
[size=85]Based on Bounty Hunter[/size]
(Future Juncture)

Before your chain of command literally disintegrated when the Chi bomb detonated, your job was to travel through the netherworld to hunt down monsters for conversion into Abominations, and to ensure compliance in Abominations on duty. A task left for the most elite of the Architects of the Flesh’s soldiers: the Supernatural Entity Retrieval Units. You were so elite that you got assigned to a prestigious Abomination wrangling position on a Buro space station. Sure it was isolated, but that isolation saved your life when the rest of your civilization was blown to hell by the C-bomb.

Witnessing the death of your world from high orbit is the kind of thing that makes a person question their life choices. Do you now your work to bring about a better world, or seek a new fate elsewhere or else when?

Play a Buro Monster Hunter if you want to be good at hunting down hard targets, and more dangerous after wiping out all their little minions first.

Attributes
Guns: 13
Martial Arts: 12
Defense: 14
Toughness: 7
Fortune: 6
Speed: 8
Wealth: Working Stiff

Schticks

The Quarry (Signature): same as Bounty Hunter (p. 35)
Crosshairs (Signature): Your attacks against the quarry gain a +2 bonus.
Vampire Rounds (Scroungetech): Gain bonus damage on a gun after using it to successfully hit multiple targets.
Helix Rethreader (Scroungetech): Damage named targets that miss with an attack.
Agony Grenade (Scroungetech): Damage combatants every shot for a sequence.
Signature Weapon (Guns): Buro Bluespear Assault Rifle, 15*/5/2 ☠ ☠, bonus damage already included.

Skills

Detective: 12
Intrusion: 13
Info: Parazoology 12

Awesoming Up

Add any one of these Guns schticks (provided you have its prerequisite, if any): Bag Full of Guns I-IV, Bank Shot, Battle Scavenge I-III, Blam Blam Epigram, Bloody but Unbowed I-III, Both Guns Blazing I-V, Carnival of Carnage I-IV, Click Click Toss I-III, Covering Fire, Disarming Shot, Draw a Bead, Fast Draw I-IV, Flesh Wound, For the Squad, Hair-Trigger Neck Hairs, Lightning Reload I-IV, Lone Wolf, Opportunistic Fire, Scattering Fire, Stop Right There!, Soul of the Sniper, Take the Shot, The Way the Wind Blows, Wild Grenade.
Add any one of these Scroungetech Schticks (provided you have its prerequisite, if any): Cortisol Field Generator, Hyperadrenaline Patch, Improbability Capacitor, Intra-Reality Goggles, Interceptor Drone, Kinetic Distributor, Lumbar Scorpion, Molecular Disturber, Neural Stimulator, Pain Uptake Inhibitor, Pulse Grenade, Quantum Manipulator, Seeker Missile, Smokin’!, Subatomic Transfuser, Tracker Pin
Add one Schtick for which you have the prerequisite from the Martial Arts Path: Montage.
Add a skill you do not have from this list, at a rating of 10: Deceit, Fix-It, Gambling, Info (any), Intimidation, Leadership, Sabotage, Seduction.
Increase a skill value from less than 12 to 12.
Increase a skill value of 12+ by 1.
Increase your backup attack to your main attack minus 1.

[size=150]Alien Hybrid Archetype[/size]
[size=85]Based on Gene Freak[/size]
(Contemporary Juncture)

It’s not entirely clear where the secret rulers of the world got their alien DNA from. A crashed UFO in 1947? Ruins found at deep under the Chicxulub crater? A Martian lander sample? The where it came from is less important than the fact they used it to develop you. At times you’ve, felt like a science experiment, a secret weapon, and a valued spy. Then you learned about the chi war and and discovered the netherworld. You’ve finally managed to find a place where you might be able to escape the control of your creators, but what will you do with your life now?

Play an Alien Hybrid if you like the idea of manipulating the battlefield and the foes on it.

Note: Alien Hybrids still suffer Freak Outs just as a Gene Freaks do. It’s part of the downside of being a hybrid.

Attributes
Mutant: 13
Martial Arts: 12
Defense: 13
Toughness: 6
Genome: 9
Speed: 6
Wealth: Rich

Schticks

Push (Mutant): Inflict ranged damage and knock target around.
Brain Bleed (Mutant): Ranged attack eats up target’s shots.
Very Fast (Mutant): Decrease Action Shot Cost
Empathy (Mutant): Read emotional state of target for scene.
Skulky (Mutant): Defense increases when injured.
Psychic Vampire (Mutant): Reduce damage inflicted to gain Genome points.
Flight (Creature Power): Hover with psychic power!

Skills

Detective: 13
Intrusion: 13

Awesoming Up

Add any one of these Mutant schticks (provided you have its prerequisite, if any): Acid Blood, Adaptive Enzymes, Beserk Rage, Blinkshifter, Camouflage, Causal Leakage, Channel Pain, ChronoFuxor, Endocrine Pulse, Fear Shift, Force Shield, Go Cartilaginous, Impossibilist, Mjolnirification, Nanoportal, Noctilucent, Pain Eater, Precognitive Rescue, Probability Wave, Radioactive Exudation, Recuperate, Resource Sniff, Shared Sight, Slow Burn, Ultragloat, Why I Oughtta…!
Add any one of these Scroungetech Schticks (provided you have its prerequisite, if any): Intra-Reality Goggles, Pulse Grenade, Tracker Pin
Add any one of these Creature Power Schticks (provided you have its prerequisite, if any): Amphibian, Born in a Cage, Corded Musculature, Death Resistance I-III, Empathic Rage, Regeneration I-IV, Steel Hide
Add one Schtick for which you have the prerequisite from the Martial Arts Paths: Hundred Names, Montage.
Add a skill you do not have from this list, at a rating of 10: Deceit, Fix-It, Driving, Fix-It, Info (any), Intimidation, Sabotage, Seduction.
Increase a skill value from less than 12 to 12.
Increase a skill value of 12+ by 1.
Increase your backup attack to your main attack minus 1.
3

It's this one. I thought my example was clear enough, but I'll see if I can't make it clearer.

4

So, some more archetypes I'm pondering but haven't gotten around to writing yet: Action Scientist (like Atomic Robo, Doc Brass, or Reed Richards during his heyday), Brave Woodsman (the wild man of the forest, like Enkidu or the Woodsman from Red Riding Hood), and Magical Girl (like a mystic version of the Scrappy Kid).

5

Action Scientist sounds interesting to me. More characters with access to Scrounge Tech would be a good thing in my book.

6

I think FS and FSII are great games but tend to think the archetype-focused character generation process is somewhat overly restrictive. To that end, instead of inventing new archetypes I just put together a generic template for character generation. Its described below. Feel free to use it or give me feedback if you think its flawed.

Note that I intentionally tried to design it so as not to overshadow the main archetypes. Thus you cannot build a character with the toughness of the Big Bruiser, or the AV of the Old Master, etc. What it's really intended to do is allow you flexibility: maybe you want to be a well educated Supernatural creature or a gun-slinging cyborg.

Generic Template
Step 1: Develop your character concept, catchphrase, juncture, hooks, and fortune subtype (if you plan on having one)
-You may not be a transformed crab or dragon. For those concepts, use the book versions. I would also welcome feedback on whether this generic template is too strong for other transformed animals. If so, suggest ways to modify these rules to make it more balanced.
Step 2: Begin with the following:
-AV 12 (you pick which type; it should be allowable with your fortune subtype)
-Backup AV 11 (it can’t use a different fortune subtype)
-DV 12
-Distribute a 6, 7, and 8 between Toughness, Fortune, and Speed
-Take “working stiff” wealth
Step 3: decide on role. What role does your character play in your party?
-Cannon: you kick butt and take names. Increase AV to 14, and Backup AV to 13
-Tank: you protect the innocent and hold off the big bad. Increase DV to 14 or Toughness by +2, your choice.
-Skill monkey: you solve the puzzles and problems that leave the rest of your party flabbergasted. Take one skill at 15 and two others at 12. You may exchange any one of these regular skills for two Info skills at the same level.
Step 4: flesh out character. Choose six of the following. You may pick the same benefit more than once, unless the text says otherwise.
-Add 1 to both AV and backup AV. You may only take this benefit once, and only if you didn’t take “cannon” as your role.
-Add 1 to DV. You may only take this benefit once.
-Add 1 to Toughness, or Fortune, or Speed. The maximum value of each is 9. If you exceeded toughness 9 in step 3, that is okay you can leave it at 10, but you can’t add any more to it.
-Take a Schtick. You may only take this benefit five times. You may not take Schticks of a different fortune sub-type than the one you have chosen, but you may mix and match schticks between all types allowed by your fortune subtype (so, for example, take any combination of sorcery and monster schticks. or transformed animal and fu schticks). Other standard schtick rules apply, so for example you cannot take transformed animal schticks from different animals or take any schtick without taking its prerequisite(s).
-Add one skill at 15, two skills at 12, or three Info skills at 12
-Take “rich” wealth.
-With the GM’s permission, you may take the “Juncture Adapted” core schtick.
Step 5: Sanity check
-The GM should review the character and veto any character that looks completely mechanically superior to one of the standard archetypes. The generic template is not supposed to do that, but hey, I’m not perfect.
Step 6: add icing on the cake. Once the GM approves your PC, take all of the following.
-One info skill at 12 which is hobby-like or character defining, but unlikely to be that useful. (Info: karaoke!)
-Pick two weapons appropriate to your AV and skill set.
-If you have at least two Vehicle schticks, or a Driving skill of 15, or the rich wealth level, take a car. Work out what is appropriate with your GM
Awesoming up: generic template built characters may awesome up in the following ways:
-Add a new skill at 9
-Increase a current skill to 12
-Increase a current skill by +1, subject to the standard rules.
-Take a schtick of the same type(s) you took during character generation, subject to the standard rules.

...aaaaand, you're done!

7

Thanks for these guidelines! As a long-time Feng Shui 1 player, I was finding second edition's simplified stats and more locked-in Archetypes very restrictive. This has helped me get a better handle on the Feng Shui 2 numbers so I can modify things to my liking. It's been a big help, and has made me like Feng Shui 2 a lot more.

You asked for feedback, but I found few flaws with what you laid out. I have made some additions, however, as I've gotten more comfortable with the character creation process. They require a little more GM oversight, but not that much, and I find that it makes things more interesting. So here are my additions, for what it's worth:

I have an option for single Combat AV characters, setting initial Combat AV and Defense both to 13, and raising both to 14 for the "Cannon" role. I was a little worried about that at first, but I haven't had anything too powerful come out of it. It does allow characters with 15 Combat AVs, but in those cases I've found that it's really just an opportunity for someone to build a Killer or a Martial Artist with different skill sets, which I'm fine with. It also allows a Sorcerer with a 15 AV, but since I mostly give Sorcerers back their Feng Shui 1 power levels, anyway... again, I'm not bothered.

I also work with expanded Attributes for the sake of variety, adding Strength, Willpower, Notice, and Intelligence to the character sheet rather than making generic checks on those qualities. So I start everyone at base 7 for all Attributes and allow players to swap points between them, with the limitation that no score can be raised above 9 or lowered below 5 without GM approval. The Sanity Check prevents too much abuse of this option, as well.

And, finally: I allow players to take one Disadvantage in exchange for an additional "Fleshing Out" point, again with GM guidance on what constitutes a sufficient handicap.

And that's it. Again, thanks for the guidelines. It's really good work that's added a lot to my enjoyment of the game. Kudos.

8

Would Easl's rules allow an FS1 style supernatural creature (it used martial arts as it's secondary)?

9

You could take Martial Arts as either your primary or backup AV (with Creature Powers being the other), but Creature and Fu schticks require different Fortune subtypes so technically nobody could have both. GMs could of course house rule that you could. For my generic template above, I would suggest a new Schtick that allows the character to do so (but costs one of their Step 4 picks, so that such characters will have one less schtick than a standard 'obey the rules' character). Here's an example:

Transdimensional (new optional 'Core Schtick' for use with generic template. Requires GM approval to take): during character creation you may pick two schtick types from different Fortune subtypes (example: Creature Powers and Fu schticks). Your character may gain and use both, using its Fortune in place of the required Fortune subtype. You may not acquire schtick types other than the two chosen, even if they share a fortune subtype with one you've picked (example: the character who took Creature Powers and Fu schticks with their Transdimensional schtick could not later acquire Sorcery or Transformed Animal Schticks) .

[Edit]...and a belated thank you/you're welcome to MarkBrett for using and suggesting improvements to my generic template!

10

Another option would be to let players take Martial Arts as a Backup Combat skill, but only allow them to take Fu Schticks that don't require a Chi expenditure. That would limit them pretty severely on the Fu Paths, since most of them require Chi for anything past the first level Schticks (I think Path of Wushu is the only one they could master). But that seems fitting to me for people with Martial Arts as a backup. They're dabblers, and probably shouldn't have access to the higher level powers.

I like Easl's Transdimensional Schtick, too, though. I'll be adopting it for anyone who wants to take the plunge. Thanks again for the idea!

11

Thank you. I was mainly interested in how close you could get to FS1 supernatural creatures( martial arts 2ndy) or abominations(magic+what would become scroungetech).