Day 30: Strix the Shadow
#CharacterCreationChallenge
For my second-to-last character, I have chosen a metasapient - a sapient being that is not a human, specifically a Pixie. They are roughly human-shaped, but much smaller, and while their origin is shrouded in mystery, they appear to be from the (magical) metaplane of faerie. Many of them live in small, remote communities, but others like Strix have embraced city life.
Appearance and first impression
Just over half a metre tall, Strix is one of the least flashy Pixies ever seen - where most have scintillating wings and brightly coloured hair, his wings are a dull grey, and his neatly trimmed hair is black. Combined with his camouflage armor or business-style clothes (depending on the occasion), he gives off an air of “all business”... until he sees a chance to play a fun prank, that is.
Backstory
Originally from a small pixie community in the forests of Tir Tairngaire, Strix was always considered a little weird among his people - quiet and reclusive at times, full of enthusiasm for some artifact of the “bigfolk world” at another. When he decided to accompany a trader - a smuggler, really - to Seattle, nobody was overly surprised. He quickly found that between his natural talent for stealth and misdirection, and his magical abilities, he was great at getting where he was not meant to be, and acquiring information and items for those willing to pay.
Priorities
A bog-standard spread for an Adept - Attributes and Skills at the top, Resources at the bottom and Magic right above it:
A: Attributes (24)
B: Skills (24)
C: Metatype (Pixie, 9) -10
D: Magic (Adept, 1)
E: Resources (8,000)
The Pixie “Metatype” costs 10 Karma.
Attributes
Strix is meant to be an infiltrator, mostly through stealth but with a talent for talking himself out of tough spots, too - Sneak and Face, in other words. The two most important attributes are Agility and Charisma (both of which Pixies have an increased maximum in), with Reaction and Intuition slightly below, followed by the other mental attributes. Strength and Body remain at 1 because… he’s just over half a metre tall, there isn’t much muscle there:
Body 1
Agility 7
Reaction 5
Strength 1
Willpower 4
Logic 4
Intuition 5
Charisma 8
Edge 2
Magic 6
Skills
Stealth takes the top spot, followed by Con and Influence. Athletics is middling, but we need it for flying. We also take Exotic Weapons for a close-combat weapon that is truly independent of strength and therefore effective when wielded by someone Pixie-sized…
Stealth 6
Con 5
Influence 5
Athletics 3
Perception 2
Computer 1
Exotic Weapons 1 (Monofilament Whip +2)
Knowledge Skills
Aside from English as the Native language, and Sperethiel (an elven language spoken in the Tir Nations), Strix also knows a bit about Security Procedures and about Synth Pop (he is a huge fan, you see…)
Qualities
An Adept Way (specifically, the Invisible Way) is expensive, but potentially quite useful - it may reduce Edge Boost costs for any test that is affected by Adept powers (mainly Agility-related and social ones), changes the physical ability for resisting drain from adept powers from Body to Agility (but right now there are no drain-causing powers), and Strix gets to use a wild die on Stealth tests which increases both risk and potential benefit.
Altogether, Qualities cost 16 Karma.
The Mentor Spirit benefit means Strix follows Coyote, a trickster that gives a bonus to Con tests, the Vocal Control power for free, but also makes it difficult to avoid exploiting someone else's misfortune or pulling a clever trick.
Simsense Vertigo means using full VR is a bad idea, fortunately that’s avoidable.
All Business means no contacts above loyalty 3, but also a bonus for interacting with professional contacts like Mr. Johnson.
Adept Powers
Vocal Control allows changing once voices required and gives a bonus on social interactions.
Improved Mental Attribute (Charisma) and it’s physical/Agility equivalent just straight-up raise the effective values of those attributes.
Dash at Rating 4 allows Strix to be even faster (it potentially adds 4 metres to the distance a sprint action covers).
Improved Reflexes at rating 1 adds one to Reaction and an Initiative Die
Gear
Note: Rules-as-Written, there is no change in item costs for Pixies. However, given that Trolls, Dwarves and Gnomes all have adjustment costs and Pixies are even further outside normal human range, I have worked on the assumption that this is an oversight and added 10% to all directly used physical items (i.e. not remotely controlled, not digital). I have not changed the lifestyle cost, because I figured adjustments to items are made up for by the possibility to have a tiny living space (and possibly vertically arranged or otherwise inaccessible given the whole flying thing) - Strix could easily live in a converted closet or no-longer-in-use chimney or something.
Weapons
A Monofilament Whip is extremely dangerous to everyone including the user, but it needs zero strength to wield and is just as effective for a Pixie as it would be for a regular human.
Armor
The Chamaeleon Suit is not only armoured, it also actively changes colour to conceal its wearer.
Other stuff
Aside from some basic, standard equipment, Strix has one item that stands out a little: A Renraku Pelican 2 Delivery Drone - it has about half a cubic metre of cargo space (which, if required, can be heated or cooled) and flies. Normally it gets used for delivering food and similar items, and nobody bats an eye when they see one, but when you are as tiny as a Pixie, it can also be quite useful for transporting larger items like, from groceries to that secret prototype commlink Mr. Johnson wants you to acquire...
Adding it all up
The total cost of the gear is 23,971 Nuyen, which means 8 Karma need to be spent and only 29 Nuyen remain to start the game with.
Spending our Karma
After Metatype, Qualities and Gear, only 16 Karma remain. One of them goes into a point of Engineering, and 10 go into specialisations for Stealth (Sneaking) and Engineering (Lockpicking). One remains to start the game with.
Finishing it up
Contacts
A Fixer and Talismonger cover the two main requirements for getting jobs and gear. A Professor of Meta-Anthropology may be a useful source of information, An Information Broker and an Antiquities Dealer may be a good way to sell items that were “found”, and knowing a capable smuggler is just generally useful.
Calculations
Attack Rating:
Monofilament Whip: 20
Defense Rating
3
Initiative
11 + 2D6
Notable Dice Pools
Sneaking: 17
Other Stealth (eg Palming): 15
Social Rolls: 15
Flying and other Athletics: 12
Attacking with Monofilament Whip: 12
Lockpicking: 12
Condition Monitors
Physical: 9
Stun: 10
And there we are
The final version of the worksheet can be found here .That’s it for Day 30 of the #CharacterCreationChallenge
Published at NZDT