2025 Character Creation Challenge, Day 14: Flirtatia Conquest, for Disaster, Inc.

source: DriveThruRPG.com

Disaster, Inc. is a zine RPG that tries to capture the feel of spy movie parodies such as Get Smart and the Austin Powers films. Characters are agents of the Federal Union of Nabbing Criminals (F.U.N.C.) scrambling to protect the world from Forces of Evil (F.O.E.) The subject and tone give me the opportunity to use a character name that I've been sitting on for years because I never get the chance to play a silly spy game.

But let's walk through the character creation rules first (and you already know the name because presumably you've read the post title). Actually, since we're dealing with a new system here, let's start with the basic thing-doing mechanics. As a game about bumbling spies, the rules are geared toward generating amusing failures. Risky or dangerous tasks require rolling against your Danger Level, a rating that increases each time you avoid failure and which indicates how many d6 you'll be required to roll (barring modifiers, which we'll get to). Rolling a 1 on any die, no matter how large or small the Danger Level pool is, signals a failure and an opportunity for hilarity to ensue. Your Danger Level begins the session at 1 and resets each time you achieve failure.

Character creation starts with identifying information: name, codename, and agent number. The character's name is Flirtatia Conquest, which I've been sitting on long enough that I don't remember how I thought it up, but I knew from the moment it hit me would be top-level Bond Girl parody material. There's a table to determine your agent's codename randomly via 2d6 (read one at a time), but just choosing a codename is also permitted; I'll pick one word from each column for the result Velvet Angel. 3d6, read straight across, generates an identification number: 262*

Another 2d6 table determines Expertise categories; I'll get three and can roll or choose, but since there's only one I'm set on I think I'll do a little of both. Expertise allows me to reduce my effective Danger Level by one when the task involves one of my skills.  Seduction is a must when you're named Flirtatia, so we'll start there. I'm less invested in the other two, so let's see what the dice offer us and reseve the right to veto and reroll. This chart is a straight 2-12 roll, and I get a 7 (Deception) as the first result, which strikes me as entirely appropriate. The second roll is also a 7, and apparently there's no bonus for doubling up, so I roll again for a 3 (Marksmanship). Not wildly funny or anything, but I'll keep it.

The third and final step in character creation is to be issued some spy equipment. Equipment also allows you to reduce yout Danger Level for relevant rolls, but each item is exhausted after three uses. Like Expertise, it's three 2d6 results on a table, but the list is longer and for any given result you get to choose from two options. A 5 produces either rope or a sleep dart gun; I'll see how the other rolls go before I decide. The second roll is 10: explosives or armored clothing. An armored evening gown sounds pretty funny, but so is a well-timed explosion, so let's see what the final roll brings. 11 is either an extendable baton or a voice changer, and both of those have solid comedy as well as practical potential. I'll opt for the sleep dart gun, the explosives, and the voice changer.

The game doesn't go into backstory, and I hadn't really thought much about it either. The name kind of suggests a privileged background (pretentious vaguely latinate given name, Anglo surname), so I'll posit a finishing school-to-F.U.N.C. pipeline, and let's get on to the statblock, er, dossier:

Name: Conquest, Flirtatia
Codename: Velvet Angel

ID Number: 262

Training: Seduction, Deception, Marksmanship

Equipment: Sleep dart gun, explosives, voice changer

And there's a form-fillable character sheet, so I'll post an image of that as well (sans photo, apologies--as well as for the tiny fonts in the Equipment and Expertise fields, couldn't enlarge them).

*This procedure lets me off the hook of deciding whether I wanted to go with "36-24-36" or somesuch nonsense, which would be entirely appropriate to the genre but also kinda sexist.

2025 Character Creation Challenge, Day 13: Bolts, for Tiny Wastelands

source: RPGGeek.com

My first postapocalyptic RPG was TSR's Gamma World, and its goofy mix of human and animal mutants set expectations that later, less fanciful games were never able to satisfy. I'm pleased to say that for Tiny Wastelands such a setting is, if not the baseline, at least an included option. And it's an option I shall be exercising.

The default game revolves more or less exclusively around humans and mutated humans. Character generation is basic Tiny d6 stuff: you pick an archetype, three traits, a weapon group and mastered weapon, come up with a belief (called a Drive here), get some gear and cash and you're ready to start scavenging. 

Adding mutated animals to the mix is a little tricky; they form their own set of archetypes based more or less on size and/or ecological niche. Combining animal archetypes with human career-type archtypes is possible, and the rules recommend using the lower of the two hit point values to start.

So let's do some mixing. In Gamma World games I've played an octopus, a Galapagos tortoise, and even a ten-foot-long, twelve-inch-thick earthworm barbarian with arms to hold a sword and shield. I don't plan to get quite so wacky here; I'll start by taking a basically humanoid chassis and putting a different mammal's skin over it, in particular a rabbit. The animal Archetype is called Fast Mutated Animal: smallish, quick, and often sneaky. That gives me 4 hit points and the heritage Trait Quick, which grants an extra action each turn that i can use to move or evade in combat. (I cannot, however, select Tough or Diehard from the general trait list.)

To that I'll add the Fixer career Archetype: the character who tinkers with the stuff scavengers bring in until it functions again--though not necessarily in the way it originally did. The Fixer gets 7 Hit Points, but that'll be overridden by Fast Animal's lower 4. They get the Archetype Trait Mechanic, which lets them Test at Disadvantage to boost an item's Usage Rating by one point. (Usage Rating quantifies the wear and tear of regular use on an item that's probably already pretty old and beat up--the higher the rating, the longer the thing will hold out.)

The rules don't tell you whether the extra Trait you get from a second Archetype counts toward your three independent Traits; I'm going to assume it doesn't and the whole table will get five Traits altogether. There are two Traits that complement Fixer very nicely: Blacksmith, which (once per day) lets you restore a Usage point to an item with a Test rolled at Advantage; and MacGuyver, which lets you jury-rig inventions for one-time use. Add Nimble Fingers (Advantage to pick locks, pockets, etc.) and you're got a solid jackrabbit Fixer.

Okay, time for a Weapon Group. Light Ranged weapons are this rabbit's best bet, and an automatic pistol shouldn't be beyond her capacity to maintain as a mastered weapon. 

Other gear begins with ten Clix (the local currency) and a Survivor's Kit containing bedroll,  poncho, lighter, belt pouch, 50 feet of strong cord, a week's worth of rations, and a cracked electric lantern with 72 hours left on its charge. Add some basic hand tools for about 5 Clix, and we're almost ready to roll.

Our rabbit mechanic needs a Drive, and I have one that seems suitable for someone in her position: this community needs me, and I need them. And a name, which is Bolts. (Pun not orignally intended, but I'll take it.)

And that should put us in position for a statblock to wrap it up.

Bolts, Mutated Rabbit Fixer
HP: 4
Species Archetype (Trait): Fast Mutated Animal (Quick: extra action to move or evade)
Career Archetype (Trait): Fixer (Mechanic: 1x/day, Test at Disadvantage to boost Usage rating by 1)

Weapon Group: Light Ranged    Mastered Weapon: Automatic pistol

Other Gear: Survivor's kit, hand tool set

Drive: This community needs me, and I need them.

Traits:

Blacksmith (1x/day, Test with Advantage to restore an item's Usage Rating by 1)

MacGuyver (create single-use items to grant Advantage on a Test, Advantage on identifying unknown items)

Nimble Fingers (Advantage to pick locks, palm small items, etc)

2025 Character Creation Challenge, day 12: [name], for Tiny Taverns

source: RPGGeek.com

The "fantasy cozy" subgenre usually involves characters in a D&D-style world leaving dungeon-delving and questing behind for the daily travails of a small business such as a tavern or coffee shop. Tiny Taverns lets players take the roles of these brave entrepreneurs for a "slice-of-life" fantasy game whiere the biggest event of the day might be talking down a belligerent drunk or thwarting the mice who have broken into your pantry. This game pushes the TIny d6 mechanics in some directions we haven't seen yet, and it should be interesting to work through this process.

The first order of business, even before deciding anythong about the character, is to determine what sort of tavern the group will be operating. As with other joint projects, ordinarily the entire group would be involved in creating the tavern they'll operate, but it's just me doing this so here goes. The group has six tasks:

1. Determine what kind of establishment they're running.
2. Choose a location for it.
3. Come up with one feature that makes the establishment noteworthy.
4. Decide what your target market or demographic is.
5. Create at least two "regulars" who patronize your place.
6. Name your establishment.

"Type of establishment" can be anything within the parameters of the (broadly-construed) hospitality industry: ski lodge, artists' colony, traditional inn with dining room and bar, cruise ship, rehab facility, boarding school, etc. And as tempting as it is to create a Dungeon Fantasy version of the Love Boat or the Chautaqua Institution, I think I'm better off starting with your basic two-story inn with bedrooms upstairs and a common dining/tap room. 

Even with that question settled, choosing a location suggests more possibilities than you might think. A major trading city or political capital, with its diverse neighborhoods and quarters? A modest town with one or two inns and several hundred residents? A road house between two cities, with no local administration to support you? Again, playing it simple, I'll put our tavern in a mid-sized town, with perhaps one or two rival establishments to spice things up. There are some moderately interesting attractions in the area, perhaps some delvable ruins and/or a pilgrimage site and/or a natural feature that brings in visitors and adventurers.

Now we have to figure out what makes people come to our place rather than one of the other public houses in town--that is, apart from the quality of our fare and the warmth of our hospitality. Is this claim to fame a feature of the bulding, a quirk of the site (such as the dungeon entrance that Waterdeep's Yawning Portal is built around), a special good or service that only we provide? Adventurers will be a significant portion of our clientele, and it makes sense that some sort of adventuring location would be in the vicinity. Our spotlight feture will be a stone head, originally from a statue of a guardian spirit, that an earlier party brought out of the local dungeon in the hopes that it would fetch a handsome price. Unfortunately, they found no interested parties, and the tavern ownership ended up purchasing it for a modest sum. Now it stands just inside the door, and adventurers rub its head for luck as they leave to go delving.

Now what public does this establishment primarily serve? Is it distinguished by its income level, its particular interests, its regional or ethnic origin? I'd like to see an eclectic assortment of customers, perhaps focused on adventurers but including pilgrims and the occasional merchant or courier.

So our two regulars should be similarly eclectic. Not a lot of locals patronize the place; pilgrims are annoying and adventurers aren't respectable. So any locals who come regularly should find the primary clientele either relatable (e.g., retired adventurers seeking nostalgia and mentees) or interesting (a bard or artist looking for inspiration, a wannabe adventurer whose circumstances won't let them join a party, etc.) or at least potentially profitable (information brokers, Mister Johnsons looking for recruits, etc.) One should be a potential font of useful information for adventurers who provide the right incentives (a bard would fit this role perfectly); the other might represent a potential threat (say a sergeant of the city watch, keeping an eye out for troublemakers) or regularly want something that adventurers can provide (a recruiting agent for a local mage or abbott with a steady supply of quests that need doing). Nothing says I can't have three named regulars, so I'm going to use them all. The human bard came in with an adventuring party several years ago and found the place too congenial to leave. He plays songs about lost comrades and missing home more often than songs about mighty deeds or vanquishing monsters, but patrons find it appealing so there's always a chair avaiable to Valdic. The sergeant is a superficially amiable dwarven woman named Engrith whose mental list of People To Keep An Eye On has never steered her wrong. And the mage's agent with quests to give is a pixie who goes by the name of Glimmer.

It seems appropriate to name our inn after its distinguishing feature. A painting of the stone head graces the inn's signboard outside--replacing an earlier wine-guzzling dragon--and travelers and locals alike now call it the Lion Dog Inn.

So how does our player character fit into this operation? I'm going to take the character-generation sequence a little out of order and start with a Trade, the character's role in keeping the inn running. Then I'll figure out the Heritage, Traits, and so forth. What I think I would like this character to be is the cook. 

So, starting from there, let's start sketching our cook in. The Heritage options skew Celtic: firbolgs, selkies, pookas and pixies, but also dwarves, cat-people ("panguri") and dragon-people ("mandrakes") as well as humans. I like the image of a cook setting a flambé alight with his own breath, so let's go Mandrake. Mandrakes have two heritage Traits: Flight and either Daconic Strength or Draconic Breath. Breath is a foregone conclusion.

Now let's turn to Proficiencies. I've got three slots, one of which can be a specialized Mastery in either of the other two Proficiencies. Culinary Arts goes here, and I think I'll add a Mastery in Meats. My second Proficiency should speak to the character's former career in the armed salvage trade. I see him as a glaive guy, so I'll take Heavy Melee Weapons for that slot.

I've been putting Traits off until we established a little context, but now's a good time to slot that in. We get two (since one of our Proficiencies is effectively a Trait). I'll take Dungeoneer as effectively a background trait (doesn't get lost in underground mazes, always receive Focus (TN 4 instead of 5) on Tests to identify dungeon creatures or traps) and Foodie as a current professional one (Advantage on cooking Tests, and always make an extra serving).

For a motivating Belief I'll go with a common one among fictional (and real) chefs: The kitchen is my realm and here I am master. Well-worn but serviceable. Note that, unlike most implementations of Tiny d6, Beliefs have mechanical teeth: the game tracks characters' emotional wellness, and if their Belief is challenged (say, by a rival chef), a character may become Unwell and suffer Disadvantage on any Test that might be affected by their discomfort.

We haven't done a lot with gear for a while, but Tiny Taverns puts some emphasis on personal Belongings as a key to what the character values and what they've been through. The game asks four questions to help:

1. What specific thing does your character always carry? My chef's prized knives live in the tavern's kitchen, but he always carries a fork and spoon on his person for tasting purposes.
2. What memento does your character keep from their childhood, homeland, or a loved one? When our hero was a child he used to practice roasting with his fire-breath; he still keeps the toasting fork he used for the purpose.
3. What specific item does your character associate with a past mistake? He keeps a leather wristband that belonged to a dungeoneering comrade who died following the mandrake's advice in attempting to disarm a trap.
4. What clothing does your character prefer to wear? What clothes do they have to wear for professional or other reasons? He actually prefers to wear his apron and chef's whites, but when he must appear in more formal settings he will wear a blue tunic and grey trousers. 

Then we add one more item, in his case a glaive, and our cook is nearly ready. He still needs a name: Raichlen, after the author of the Barbecue Bible.*

OK, now the character is supposed to answer Three Last Questions in conjunction with the rest of the group:

1. Who is your closest friend at the tavern, and why? Raichlen's best friend is the pixie Glimmer, who not only has a fine appreciation for Raichlen's talents but also obtains hard-to-find seasonings from the fey lands or his employer's pantry upon occasion.
2. How did you end uo working here? What is your biggest responsibility? After his last delve ended in failure, Raichlen tried self-medication through alcohol at the then- Drunken Dragon. Soon after another band of adventurers bought the place as a retirement investment, the inn's (mediocre) cook quit in a sudden huff, and the mandrake stepped in as emergency help. Turned out cooking was the therapy he needed, and he stayed on as chef when the Lion Dog sign went up on the wall.  
3. What always puts you in a Good Mood? What always ruins your day? Seeing the common room sigh with satisfaction at Raichlen's creations gives him the highest high he has ever felt. Surprisingly, hearing his work disparaged is not as sure a way into his bad books as seeing a patron abuse the inn's staff.

OK, let's see if we can put this all together:

Raichlen, Mandrake chef at the Lion Dog Inn
Nicknames: Chef, Raich
Age: 40    Gender: M
Tavern Trade: Cook

Belief: The kitchen is my realm and here I am master.
Heritage: Mandrake (Flight, Fire Breath)
Proficiencies: Heavy Melee Weapons, Culinary Arts
Mastery: Meats
Traits: Dungeoneer, Foodie
Belongings: fork and spoon, toasting fork, leather wristband from deceased comrade, chef's whites, apron, blue tunic, grey trousers, glaive, chef's knives and kitchen tools

*not an endorsement, just the first barbecue guy I could think of whose name I thought would work

2025 Character Creation Challenge, day 11 (delayed): Longhand Bernard, for Tiny Pirates

source: RPGGeek.com

The next game in our Tiny d6 tour is Tiny Pirates, which adds mechanics for ships, ship combat, cargo and supplies, and weather to the character and personal combat rules from other games in the line. We'll see something of the ship rules, as well, because part of character generation involves deciding what kind of ship you belong to and what your role in the crew is.

Ship and Role determination is usually done as a group, but since I'm doing this on my own as an exercise I'll just trust my own judgement and any advice the designers provide. 

First, a ship. The designers recommend starting small, with a sloop, fluyt., or barque. The sloop is lighter (6 hull points as opposed to 10) but faster (6 sail points as opposed to 4) and carries less crew (max 2 points vs 3) than the fluyt, with the same base firepower (3). The barque is larger and slower (10 hull, 5 sail) than the sloop, but carries more crew (5) and guns (also 5). The sloop also has capacity for only 3 modifications (including a cargo hull), as opposed to 7 for the fluyt and 8 for the barque. But I like the speed of the sloop; it's a good smuggling boat and can get in and out of trouble quickly. The low hull and crew ratings are a bit worrisome--the first number represents the ship's structural hit points, the second its capacity to take personnel losses--but piracy is a dangerous game and 

For my two modifications I foresee some tough decisions. I can upgrade the Hull with Shallow Draft or Smuggler's Compartments, I can boost our Sail rating with cotton (+1) or silk (+2) sails, I can add chaser guns or carronades to build up its firepower, or I can add hammocks to raise the ship's Crew rating. Shallow Draft is the only one that can't be added later, so that's going on the list to help us evade customs frigates and other large predators by cutting through shoals. That leaves one more. I see this crew starting out as smugglers and then drifting into piracy, so starting out with extra guns is kind of unnecessary--as is extra crew. The secret compartments are very tempting, but so is the extra sail. We're going all-in on smuggling: Smuggler's Compartments it is, better sails can wait. 

Ship still needs a name; I'll get back to that after we've built our crew member and deal with both at once. The first thing we need to know about our character is their role in the ship's crew. All the options are positions of relative authority; ordinary Able Mariners are apparently all NPCs or abstracted as Crew points. Suggested Roles include Captain, Quartermaster, Pilot, Bosun (or Boatswain if you're inclined to be fancy about it), Master Gunner, and Ship's Doctor. I'm ready for another Big Bruiser, and the Bosun's qualifications include being loud, strong, and fighty, so sign me up. The associated Trait is Discipline, which provides advantage on Tests to get orders obeyed by the crew as well as Tests to gauge the crew's morale.

Now I choose two more Traits to customize our Bosun. There are lots of melee-related options as well as ones relating to size and strength; again it's going to be a tough pair of choices. Large grants a hit point bonus (+2) as well as an increased reach (Near with Light Melee weapons and Far with Heavy Melee Weapons, that's a one-zone boost), for the sake of variety I'll take that over Strong's advantage on Strength tests. And then there's Barfighter, which grants proficiency with improvised weapons and (in lieu of a Mastery option) adds an extra Action if you're wielding one. (Alas, belaying pins and boathooks do not seem to count as improvised weapons; I'll need some other heavy blunt instrument to serve my beatdown purposes.)

We've just covered Weapon Group and Mastered Weapon above, so let us proceed to Background. How did we become this large, loud, felonious person? I assume the largeness occurred naturally, with perhaps some help from a bountiful diet. A well-nurtured foundling, perhaps. Raised in a religious orphanage. Treated kindly until one fateful day, one bad decision, and then expelled from the Garden shortly before he was due to age out. Ran away to sea, fell in with a smuggling gang that put his size and strength to work, first for loading and unloading and eventually, as he earned respect, as the sailors' offcial foreman. 

Does that arc lend it self to a particular Belief? Our dude may have some trust issues or deep-seated guilt about the incident that got him kicked out of the orphanage (I imagine it as a romantic but not-overtly-sexual entanglement with one of the novices). Whatever you give of yourself, keep your heart close may suggest storylines I wouldn't really want to play out, but for our purposes here it will be fine.

Jean-Marie "Longhand" Bernard, formerly of Martinique, scoots around the Caribbean with the officers and crew of the sloop Rossignol ("nightingale"), evading customs duties to deliver minor luxuries and contraband around the turn-of-the-18th-century Caribbean. He has a reputation as a hard and brooding man but a reliable comrade, a doughty fighter and a melancholy drunk.

Sloop Rossignol

Hull: 6    Sail: 6    Crew: 2    Guns: 3

Modifications: Shallow Draft, Smuggler's Compartments

Jean-Marie "Longhand" Bernard

Role (Trait): Boatswain (DIscipline)

Background: Convent-raised Orphan

Belief: Whatever you give of yourself, keep your heart close

Weapon Group: Improvised    Hit Points: 8

Gear: pirate's kit

Traits: Large (+2hp, +1 zone Reach), Bar-fighter (Improvised Weapon proficiency, extra Action when so armed)

2025 Character Creation Challenge, day 10: Dr Cornelius, for Tiny Frontiers

source: RPGGeek.com

Fell a little behind here, will try to catch up between today and Monday. Tiny Frontiers takes the Tiny d6 system into SPAAAACE! The basic rulebook tries to be setting-agnostic, and it contains a dozen setting ideas to build on; character options contain a lot of space-opera type ideas and nearly as many cyberpunk-type ideas, though the setting ideas nearly all revolve around FTL-level space travel. I'll be working from the 2018 revised edition for this character.

Heritage makes an appearance for the first time in our series since, what, Tiny Dungeon? The Tiny Frontiers universe is a big place with a lot of species, and the rules give us at least 15 to choose from. I'm not sure I like any of them that much, truth be told. I think I'm going to make this character a Hologram, basically an AI in a little hovering globe that can project a full-sized image in hard-light, capable of interacting with solid objects. That visual can be anything the AI wants it to be, but it is generally recognizable s a hologram. A Hologram character starts with 8 hit points and the Hardlight Heritage Trait: the character is not affected by healing or repair Tests and can only heal by recharging (sleep, only for AIs), but up to twice a session they can attempt to self-recharge while in action (at Disadvantage) to regain 1 hp.

Our holographic spacer will get three more individual Traits from the general list. As usual, this is where I get most of my professional skills, so now I have to consider what this little orb is going to do when it's on the clock. Some sort of engineer? A thief? A diplomat? We've already done two criminals in a row; let's pick a technical specialty and throw in some general-knowledge traits to round them out. I don't want to recreate Voyager's holographic doctor, but instead of medicine perhaps an expert in exotic technologies? Xenotech Expert will be the Trait that gets our AI hired for jobs; it offers Advantage on Tests to identify devices from unknown civilizations and allows me to activate them without further training. That starts to bring things into focus, I'm getting an Alex Benedict vibe now: our floating ball is the subject expert in a space-salvage crew that scours the spaceways for valuable ancient technologies and sells them for profit. We'll add Educated (Advantage on tests to know specific information) and Hacker (Test to shut down a digital/robotic/cyborg opponent until it makes a Save).

The hardlight thing means our AI can probably use melee weapons as well as ranged ones, but Light Ranged makes the most sense as a Weapon Group for a character who isn't combat-primary. We'll build a laser projector into its ball and call this mastered weapon a Laser Pistol.

Family Trade is a flexible concept for this kind of character (and probably should have been renamed, but no harm done). I can see this character having been designed as a sort of portable reference library; I've used Librarian before but it still fits here.

That brings us to Belief. What motivates this character? The crew is a profit-making operation, but it seems to me our AI is more interested in documenting their finds for posterity. "Expand the Frontiers of Knowledge" suits this motive.

I still need to give them a name and some kind of backstory--not to mention an appearance. Orignally designed as a scholars' interactive research reference, CN-3200 was scheduled for sale after budget cuts to their university library led the adminstation to liquidate mobile reference units as an unjustifiable luxury. While waiting to be auctioned off, the AI found itself

Source: Wikipedia

with a lot of time to ponder its identity and purpose. CN-3200 found inspiration in Planet of the Apes and renamed itself Dr. Cornelius, fashioning an avatar based on the makeup and costume of Roddy MacDowall's portrayal of the chimpanzee archaeologist.

Now to sum it up:

Dr. Cornelius (CN-3200), AI archaeologist and scholar
Heritage (Trait): Hologram (Hardlight)

Family Trade: Librarian

Belief: Expand the frontiers of knowledge

Weapon Group: Light Ranged

Mastered Weapon: Laser pistol (mounted in orb)

HP: 6

Traits:

Xenotech Expert (advantage to identify unknown tech, ability to use freely)

Educated (advantage to know specific information)

Hacker (able to freeze digital and partly digital opponents by infiltrating systems)

2025 Character Creation Challenge, day 9: Rosemary Ann Ferraro aka Zap!, for Tiny Supers

For a few years back in the '90s I ran a recurring convention scenario for Villains & Vigilantes called "The World Championships of Crime," featuring a team of super-criminals from each continent. By the time I'd stopped doing it, I had a nice little stable of super-powered characters, many of whom could be converted from villains to heroes with very little effort. So when I cracked open Tiny Supers for this project, I thought I'd dip into that reserve and convert one of those characters.

One of my favorites is a super-speedster who steals for thrills under the codename Zap!* Her signature powers are supersonic flight and photon blasts. Pretty simple, and should be easy to convert to another system.

The Tiny Supers character generation process is very similar to that of other Tiny d6 games: choose an Archtype to organize your powers around, select a number of Power Traits (or mundane Traits, which have the same in-game weight) to match the game's power level, adopt a Belief and select a proficient weapon group (which can include your attack powers), figure out your hit points (or Stress Capacity, in this game's terms). In addition, your Super will also have a Power Origin (which is kind of like a Background) and a Weakness.

Zap's V&V charaacter sheet

Some of the Archetypes are more reminiscent of the class roles in D&D 4e than they are of the analogous feature in other Tiny d6 systems; they actually include Striker, Defender, and Controller as well as the moral-example Paragon, techie Gadgeteer, mostly-mundane-yet-highly-skilled Expert, and minion-managing Mastermind. Zap!'s schtick is zooming around, well, zapping people--that's sounds like a Striker to me. The associated Trait is Powerful Blows! which exempts your attacks from damage reduction effects.

The number of Power and/or mundane Traits you can take depends on the power level of your game. Tne default is three, for what the designers call a "mid-level" supers feel. Reduce the number for a more street-level feel (and note that the Expert archetype can take extra mundane Traits if they take one or fewer Power traits), or raise it for something more high-powered (5 for Avengers- or Justice League-caliber save-the-world play, 8 if you want to go full Cosmic Power and save the universe). Furthermore, certain Power Traits can be purchased in installments (or Tiers) depending on how much oomph you want for them; both Flight and Light Control fall into this category. Fully supersonic Flight is a Tier 3 Power (and it imposes Disadvantage on attacks against you when you're moving at full speed), so it looks like we're going to want to ratchet the power level up to 5 if we want those energy beams. Light powers are a variety of Energy Control; at Tier 1 you can temporarily blind your target, but at Tier 2 you can actually deal hit point damage, as it gains the qualities of the Tier 1 Blast power. (Tier effects are cumulative for most powers, including this one). That's five slots right there, so we're done with Traits.

Power Origin is next on the checklist, and it's something I never bothered with for a character that was designed for a one-shot slugfest. The game offers seven types of Origin, and the character will get to take Advantage on any non-combat Tests related to the Origin you select. (Not just the type of Origin, I believe, but related to the actual circumstances that granted the Powers.) So if Zap! had found an alien device that changed her physical makeup to enable supersonic flight and light blasts, she would get Advantage on Tests related to that alien culture's technology (and perhaps other aspects of their society as well). That works for me as an Origin: found an extraterrestrial machine at a crash site, played with it, was bathed in weird energies, and came out able to zoom around and fling photons. Power Origin: Alien.

I may have to depart from the original concept for Zap's Weakness. V&V has multiple types of disadvantage, from fears abd phobias to powerful enemies to adverse substance reactions and so forth. Orignal Zap! was vulnerable to sonic attacks. In Tiny Supers the Weakness can take a wide variety of forms, but its effect is always the same when any character encouters theirs: Disadvantage on all rolls until the source of Weakness is removed. Works great to model kryptonite or a phobia, not so great in this case. Sample characters in the text have a variety of Weaknesses, the in-game effects of which are not always clear from the text. So let's just declare that Zap is vulnerable to sonic attacks, that characters using them gain Advantage on their attack rolls, and if she gets hit she suffers Disadvantage on rolls during her next turn.

Now the Weapon Group thing. Zap's weapon of choice is her light blasts, so we can call her proficiency group Ranged (or Ranged Powers) and her mastered weapon Light Blasts.

Finally we give our (anti?)heroine a credo or Belief. I think we can still lean on thrill-seeking as her primary motivation and phrase it as Adrenaline is my drug of choice.

As a teenager, Rosemary Ann Ferraro was a wild child straight out of a movie--drag racing, bridge jumping, recreational sex and drugs, petty vandalism and shoplifting, the whole package of risky behaviors. Then one of her similarly-inclined friends dared her to investigate what seemed like a plane crash nearby. It turned out to be some kind of spacecraft, and no one but Rosemary was willing to enter. A few button-pushes later, she found herself bathed in a blast of bluish-green light and fell unconsious. Her comrades fled from the glow, and she woke up a few hours later with a splitting headache and feeling like her whole skin was trying to vibrate off her body. Running away from the wreck, she tripped over a root and, instead of falling, took flight. 

Rosemary quickly learned to manage flying and in the process discoered that she could emit light beams from her hands. A brief career as a super-criminal ended when the local super-team lured the impetuous Zap! into a trap. In super-prison (with some guidance) she decided that she could get just as big a charge out of stopping crimes as she did when committing them, and upon her (supervised) release she became a probationary member of Excessive Force, protectors of San Cataclysmo, California.

And now for her statblock:

Codename: Zap!
Name: Rosemary Ann Ferraro
Archetype: Striker (Powerful Blows!)

Uniform: full-body catsuit in aqua with ZAP! at a diagonal in bright yellow, safety-style sunglasses

Belief: Adrenaline is my drug of choice

Power Origin: Alien

Weakness: Vulnerability to sonic attacks (Attackers get advantage, inflict Disadvantage in addition to damage on Zap's next turn)

Weapon Group: Ranged Powers

Mastered Weapon: Light attacks

Power Traits:

Flight (tier 3): supersonic top speed, full acceleration in 1 action, attackers get disadvantage if she's at full speed)

Energy Control (Light) (tier 2): blinding flash (save test or suffer Disadvantage next Action), blast (ranged attack, 2 damage)

*which may be influenced by Scott McCloud's Zot!, but to be honest I don't remember anymore.

2025 Character Creation Challenge, day 8: Jenny Turbo, for Tiny Spies

source: RPGGeek.com

Tiny Spies brings the Tiny d6 system into the world of James Bond and Jason Bourne. The game's departures from the core Tiny d6 model are going to be pretty familiar; they're mostly things we've already seen in other expressions of the game engine.

The character's core concept is expressed in an Archetype, such as we saw in Tiny Cthulhu. Each Archetype confers a relevant (and exclusive) Trait, to which the player adds three more Traits chosen from the general list. The character gets proficiency in a Weapon Group and selects a particular Mastered Weapon from that group.  They select a Background and its associated Trait, formulate a Belief that guides the character's decisions, then come up with a Name. Vehicles and Gadgets are options specific to Tiny Spies that we'll explore here as well.

The concept I had in mind was a wheelman, which indeed has its own Archetype, called the Driver. The associated Trait is called Wheelman, funnily enough, and gives you Advantage on Tests to keep control of a vehicle under stressful (i.e., car chase) conditions.

To build on that foundation I turn to the Traits list and look for entries that suggest quick reflexes. Agile Defense is second on the list and lets me Evade at Standard (2d6) instead of at Disadvantage. Follow-Up Attacks lets me attack a second target at Disadvantage right after I drop an enemy to 0 HP. And I had an idea for a Background that makes Nimble Fingers (Advantage on attempts to pick locks, hotwire cars, etc) a very appropriate choice.

As the concept came into focus, I saw an origin--a virtuoso car thief caught boosting an agent's heavily modified ride, offered a new career by an employer who valued such skills highly. Criminal is indeed one of the Backgrounds on the list (thank you Alexander Mundy!), and its perk is a network of underworld contacts who can provide at least one piece of information relevant to each mission (requesting a second tip requires a Test at Disadvantage, and failure can result in loss of access to that contact). Our agent's primary motivation is thrillseeking, so we can formulate their Belief as "I do it all for the kicks, man." (Which may raise questions about her loyalties in the course of play.)

But here I've skipped weapon proficiencies and masteries. Interpersonal (as opposed to vehicular) combat is not super interesting to this character, so I go for a typical Ranged Weapons group with an Automatic Pistol mastery. 

All right, let's meet our agent. Gina Vanucci loved the thrill of boosting cars as much as she loved the thrill of driving dangerously, but her career as a master car thief came to an abrupt end when she broke into Marcus Flint's McLaren, not knowing it had been heavily modified for the NSA agent's use. She almost got away with it, but just missed disabling the car's emergency route-guidance system and found herself carried to an office-building garage where a half-dozen suits wearing Ray-Bans and packing Glocks met the stray car and Gina. Instead of handing her over to local law enforcement, Flint and his handler Agent Silver realized her talents could be put to excellent use in national defense, given the proper incentives. So now Gina Vanucci, codenamed Jenny Turbo, does much the same work that she did as a freelancer--only with better gear and higher stakes. 

Jenny needs a ride of her own, so let's consul the vehicle creation rules to provide one. The first step is to pick a chassis. Motorcycles are fun, but sometimes you need a little more carrying space, so let's start with a sports car, something stylish and Italian such as a classic Ferrari. A sports car has 8 hit points, can carry three passengers, and comes with one of two Upgrades: Detroit Steel (for your muscle cars) or Supercharged (for your European-style speedsters); we'll take the latter. We get three more Upgrades, which I'll choose primarily to enable escapes. Off-Road Capable (ignore Disadvantage in rough terrain) will surprise a lot of pursuers; Smoke Dispenser provides cover for sudden turns and other maneuvers (Advantage to lose a pursuer); and Nitro (+1 momentum at beginning of a chase) will provide a nice headstart when the chases begin.

The Gadget rules are more open; instead of a list the rules provide a simple guideline: usually a Gadget gives you Advantage on Tests relevant to its use (or imposes Disadvantage on something an emeny is trying to do), and ideally has a limited number of uses. There's an appropriate example already in the rules, so I'm going to give Jenny Turbo a pair of Gadget Glasses. They look like high-fashion sunglasses, but they grant the wearer the Traits Darkfighter (avoid Disadvantage when your sight is impaired) and Perceptive (Advantage on Tests to notice stuff). However, they run the risk of becoming inoperable after each use (Save test to avoid).

All right, now we'/ve got everything in order for her statblock:

Name: Gina Vanucci
Codename: Jenny Turbo
Archetype: Driver (Wheelman)

Background: Criminal (Connections)

Weapon Group: Ranged        Mastered Weapon: Automatic Pistol

Traits: 

Agile Defense

Follow-up Attacks

Nimble Fingers

Vehicle: modified Ferrari sports car (built-in Trait: Supercharged)

Modifications:

Nitro

Off-Road Capable

Smoke Dispenser

Gadgets:

Gadget Glasses (Darkfighter, Perceptive)

2025 Character Creation Challenge, day 7: Phuoc Nguyen, for Tiny Living Dead

Source: RPGGeek.com

I'm not a big fan of zombie survival horror (or indeed of horror in general), but Tiny Living Dead is part of the bundle and next in line on the file directory so here we go.

One of the upsides of the genre, however, is that it is a place where Regular Folks can shine, so that's the kind of character I plan to create for it. Several years ago Pinnacle released a zombie-attack adventure (and quickstart set) for Savage Worlds, and ithe first scene goal was for survivors to reach a gas station convenience store where they could barricade themselves in for a little while and stock up on supplies. It stuck with me (I ran the adventure at my FLGS that year) and I tend to associate the zombie-survival genre with convenience stores and similar establishments. All this being a long-winded way to saying that our character for today will be the proprietor of a convenience store. 

There's a gas station with a tiny store near my workplace; it's run by a taciturn, middle-aged Vietnamese guy who seems to spend most of his on-duty downtime scrolling Vietnamese-language news websites. I don't know him well enough to actually model this character on him, but I can imagine someone like him sticking it out with grim determination in the event of a zombie apocalypse, and if he can't be a model he can at least be an inspiration. (Though my keyboard regrettably can't seem to cover the full range of Vietnamese diacriticals, so I'm going to do what a lot of Westernized Vietnamese apparently do and drop them.)

Our shopkeeper is going to start with the usual Tiny d6 allotment of 6 hit points. We'll give him three Traits, a Weapon Proficiency group and a particular Mastered Weapon, and then add a Family Trade and a Belief to round him out.

Without a clear idea of our hero's backstory, I'm going to focus on Traits that you might expect to see in a convenience store operator. Insightful is good for the small businessperson who's often worried about being cheated or robbed. Vigilant, which gives advantage on initiative rolls, has a similar utility,l especially when dealing with the occasional holdup. Lucky comes in handy for just about anyone.

A gun behind the counter is a common trope for a shopkeeper in action fiction, so Ranged is a solid choice for Weapon Group. As far as Weapon Mastery goes, Shotgun is a popular choice for people who don't have a lot of time or ammo to practice marksmanship, such as a merchant who only packs to protect himself and his store.

Family Trade is kind of tricky; it's entirely possible our guy did something entirely different back in Vietnam (and in my headcanon he came to the States well after the war on a family-reunification visa and family members who preceded him here helped him get set up with the store); on the other hand, he would have been a small child or even a baby when the war ended, so he basically grew up in Communist Vietnam and his parents (assuming they survived) would very likely have had to give up whatever business they might have operated before 1975. It's a lot of factors to weigh, and it might be easiest to say he was some kind of low-level store clerk, using a similar skill set, back in Vietnam before his cousins contrived to have him join the part of the family that made it out of the country in 1975. So that puts us back where we started with Small Retail as his Family Trade.

Earlier in this process I suggested "grim determination" might be his mode of dealing with the horrors of this new era, so his Belief should embody that somehow: You can't know whether it gets better if you don't persevere. A heavily tempered optimism in that.

OK, let's put it together. Phuoc* Nguyen was running a convenience store in a Los Angeles suburb when the big outbreak happened. He was fortunate to get word of it on his laptop before the first waves of zombies reached San Dimas, and he had time to load up his car with canned goods, bottled water and other necessities from the shop's inventory, driving through a pack of shamblers as he reached the Foothill Freeway. But then the car broke down close to Pasadena, where Phuoc found a band of survivors delighted to see his supplies and eager to prove themselves worthy comrades in a quest for safety.

Phuoc Nguyen, Zombie Apocalypse Survivor
Family Trade: Small retail

Belief: You can't know whether it gets better if you don't persevere.

Weapon Group: Ranged

Mastered Weapon: Shotgun

Hit Points: 6

Traits:

Insightful: Advantage on Tests to determine if someone is lying

Vigilant: Advantage on Initiative Tests

Lucky: Reroll one Test per Session.

*the given name means "lucky" or "blessing," Phuoc isn't yet sure whether the cosmos has decided it should be ironic.

2025 Character Creation Challenge, day 6: Megaloteuthis Basileos, for Mecha + Monsters Evolved

source: RPGGeek.com

I promised y'all a kaiju built with Mecha + Monsters, and here it is. The first thing I knew I wanted was size; I passed on the ginormous Titan chassis yesterday and though I don't regret that I still want my monster to be one of the biggest critters on the razed block. 

Kaiju creation mirrors mech creation, without the pilot rules and with some changes in terminology. There are four basic types of monster, each termed a "bioform": the striker-analogous Mokin, the versatile Bakemono, the heavy-hitting Oni, and the gargantuan Daikaiju. As I mentioned above, I'm going large today and that means Daikaiju.

A kaiju has Health points where mecha have Structure points and Energy where a mecha has Fuel, and for balance reasons a Daikaiju has a lot of base Health (12) and not a lot of base Energy (4). Each bioform also comes with an inherent Trait; for Daikaiju this is Unstoppable Mountain, which for a cost of 2 energy lets the Daikaiju ignore Disadvantage when making a Test roll. (Given the form's low base Energy, that's pretty expensive.)

Kaiju have four categories of customizable Traits, here termed Evolutions (as well as an Origin trait to select, which we'll do next): Intelligence, Attack, Defense, and Movement. Daikaiju can select 1 Intelligence, 2 Attack, 3 Defense and one Movement Evolution.

There is one Intelligence Evolution that has Daikaiju written all over it: Alpha. An Alpha kaiju can scream or bellow out a challenge that forces all kaiju and mecha in range to suffer Disadvantage when attacking it, until the end of the alpha kaiju's next turn. Sold!

Shopping the Attack Evolutions I come across Grasping Tentacles, which confers three Light Melee attacks at Disadvantage, and inflicts Disadvantage on the target's next roll if all three hit. That sparks an idea, and I note that Extra Limbs is also an Attack evolution; it grants two extra Attack Evolutions at the cost of one Defense Evolution. Now I'm beginning to see a giant squid or octopus come into focus. For my two bonus Evolutions I take Vicious Chomp to represent a beaked mouth (Light Melee attack with an extra point of damage carried over to my next action) and, in order to add a ranged threat, Bio-electric Discharge (Light attack at melee or range, damage plus, if target has electronics, shot down one system for a turn). Lots of ways to hurt enemies here, is none of them seem quite worthy of the Daikaiju title.

I would ordinarily get three Defense Evolutions, but I swapped one for Extra Limbs so that leaves me two slots in this category. And a lot of these Evolutions cost two slots, which is kind of annoying. Massive Evolution costs only one slot and gives me 5 extra Health points, which seems quite on-brand. And there are stealth-based defensive Evolutions that would be very squid-appropriate, but they don't really say "titan of the depths." So I opt for Layered Plating, which gives me a point of damage reduction against multiattack powers, and call it a day.

The Movement Evolutions are relatively few in number and not super attractive for the kind of creature I'm building towards, either for thematic reasons or due to energy cost. I settle for Powerful Lunge, which costs 2 Energy but lets me make what is basically a charge attack combining a move action with an Attack action at disadvantage. 

None of the Origins directly reference the seas or oceans--a failure of imagination on the designers' part, it seems to me--but Born of Cold is not entirely unsuitable; the effect allows me to slap Disadvantage on the target of my attacks, and to force them to spend power points if that attack is already at Disadvantage. 

It seems to me that, in the name of game balance (which to be honest TIny d6 isn't that good at anyhow), the Daikaiju and its mech analog the Titan are kind of underwhelming. It might have been better to keep these concepts NPC-only in order to preserve their grandeur.

And now all that remains is to give our lord of the deep a name (I'm sorry to admit I don't really have a backstory for it) and present a statblock. I couldn't come up with a Japanese name I liked (and maybe that field is a little too heavily cultivated anyway), so I turned to Greek (and set aside the existing taxonomy, a little) to dub my creation Megaloteuthis Basileos, the giant king squid of the Mediterranean world's nightmares.

Megaloteuthis Basileos
Bioform: Daikaiju
Bioform Evolution: Unstoppable Mountain

Origin: Born of Cold
Intelligence Evolutions: Alpha
Attack Evolutions: Extra Arms, Grasping Tentacles, Vicious Chomp, Bio-Electric Discharge

Defense Evolutions: Massive Evolution, Layered Plating

Movement Evolutions: Powerful Lunge

Health: 17

Energy: 4

2025 Character Creation Challenge, day 5: Jun "Skip" Asano and Tubthumper, for Mecha and Monsters

source: RPGgeek.com

Mecha + Monsters adapts the Tiny d6 engine to the mecha and kaiju genres, which have been swimming in the same genre waters since at least the 1970s and are a natural fit for each other.* The rules allow for both piloted mechs and kaiju as PCs, so I'll be creating one of each, starting with a mech and its pilot, and using the second edition (titled Mecha + Monsters: Evolved).

There are two parts to creating a mech in M+M:E: the jockey and their rig. Jockeys don't bring a lot of mechanical weight to the game, but they do have a Trait and a Drive as well as a name and a backstory. The name "Skip Asano" popped into my head as I contemplated what I want to do, so I'm going to run with that and see where it takes me. The Japanese surname and Anglophone nickname suggests (if not with overwhelming force) a Japanese-American (or perhaps Japanese-Australian) background. If "Skip" is short for "Skipper," this character probably holds down some kind of leadership role in their organization. (Or is noted for boating in their spare time, but I'll stick to the leadership thing.) Something is starting to coalesce here. The nickname skews a bit masculine but not excessively so, so I'll go with Jun in a nod to Gatchaman and name our leader Jun "Skip" Asano. 

There's a Pilot Trait called Leader which lets the pilot give an ally a reroll once per session by providing advice and/or encouragement. Works for me, now let's come up with a Drive. It's tempting to come up with something along the lines of "leave no pilot behind" or "mechs are expensive but pilots are priceless," but I'm not sure I want to play into the mother-hen trope that female characters often get slotted into. At the risk of playing into another feminine stereotype, however, I'm going to make her Drive "Teamwork makes the dream work," because its head cheerleader/corporate morale consultant vibe is making me giggle. Pilots also all start with 6 HP (note however that if an out-of-mech pilot gets hit by a mech or kaiju they're instantly killed).

The first step to creating your mech is to select a Chassis, which roughly defines its combat role: highly mobile Striker, versatile Scout, heavy Knight, or ultra-heavy Titan. Though any of these might suit a team leader depending on their style of leadership, it seems to me that the Scout's flexibility has the most to offer.

The Scout has a base Structure (or HP) rating of 8 and an Fuel (power points) rating of 8. A Scout has slots for seven mech Systems: 1 sensor, 2 weapon, 2 defense, 1 movement, and one wild-card slot that can be used for any type of system.  

We haven't introduced Systems yet, so this is a good time to do so. There are five types of System for describing a mech's capabilities:

Basic Systems are common to all types of mech, so there's no need to select them when customizing. These include Basic Weapons such as limbs, improvised weapons (e.g., vehicles or chunks of buildings), and small guns (energy or projectile, doesn't matter for game-mechanical purposes), as well as the mech's Colossal size and heavy lifting capabilities.

Sensor Systems include not only scanners but also various options such as jammers, disguise hologram generators, predictive learning software, and direct hookups to the pilot's nervous system.

Weapons Systems include anything that can be used to directly damage opponents or other targets: particle beams, missiles, colossal melee weapons, etc. This is the longest of the System lists, unsurprisingly.

Defense Systems include armor, cloaking devices, repair drones, and anything else that the pilot can use to prevent or mitigate damage to their ride.

Movement Systems can enhance movement (e.g., flight engines) or Fuel-related functions (e.g., bigger tanks, reserve capacity, or even last-ditch reactor explosions)

Let's start Jun's mech off by filling prescribed slots first, then finish with the wild-card slot once its style has taken shape. 

Sensors: i'm thinking either long-range scanners (it's useful for team leader to know when baddies are coming, though in a starship this would be someone else's job) Probablility AI (makes sense to give the head of the squad the big-computer toy) or Interior Scanners (weakening an opponent to set up an ally for the kill). Let's go with the Long-Range Scanners.

Weapons: I'm assuming another squad member will handle brute duties, so let's forgo the big-damage options in favor of setup opportunities and reliability. EMP mines disable Systems, so that's a good choice. Should the second one be a melee option or another reliable ranged attack? Big Glowy Sword has kind of a leader vibe, you can point with it or thrust it into the air for emphasis; let's take that.

Defense: lot of damage reduction options here. I haven't taken any fuel-consuming systems yet, so let's start with repair drones (3 fuel for 2 structure healed) and add multi-phase shield (DR1 vs ranged weapons)

Movement: Bodyguard Protocol is tempting, but better suited to a tougher mech. Emergency Power (cost 3 fuel to end at 3 structure instead of 0) complements the repair drones (though that's a lot of fuel when you put them together).

Bonus System: those extra fuel tanks are tempting, but let's see if we can find something that enhances teamwork. Jamming Array has a fuel cost, and we've already loaded up on that kind of system, so Interior Scanners are looking really good right now. 

We're kitted up now, so we just need to come up with a codename or callsign for Skip's mech. I want to focus on its resilience, something like "Diehard" or "Comeback Kid." Oh, hold a moment. Big jock jam with the chorus "I get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down." Perfect! I dub thee Tubthumper.

Before we cut to statblock, however, I want to go back to our pilot and fill in her backstory a little. As long as she can remember, Jun Asano has been a leader. Organizing play in preschool. Picking teams at recess. Volleyball captain. Head cheerleader. Drum major. Organizing study groups. Managing group projects. And now commanding a squadron of battlemechs. Friends have called her "Skip" since high school. Always supportive, always positive, and always pushing to get a little bit more out of her team. Her Scout rig is customized to spot trouble, set up opponents for her team's finishing moves, and above all bounce back from adversity: she's named it Tubthumper, after an old song that she's always found inspirational.

Jun "Skip" Asano, Squad Leader

HP: 6

Pilot Trait: Leader (can give an ally a reroll 1x/session)

Drive: "Teamwork makes the dream work!"

Mech Name: Tubthumper

Chassis: Scout

Structure: 8        Fuel: 8

Systems:

Sensor: Long-range scanners (Advantage on search), Interior scanners (1d6 test to disable a target system for 1 round)
Offense: EMP mines (light attack, damage + diasble 1 system for a round), Big Glowy Sword (heavy melee attack, +1 damage)
Defense: Repair Drones (3 Fuel/restore 2 Structure), Multi-phase Shield (DR 1 vs ranged attacks)
Movement: Emergency Power (when reduced to 0 structure reset to 3 structure)

*Go Nagai's Mazinger Z (1972) is credited as the first instance of a piloted mecha in popular media. If you want to include non-robots, Ultraman premiered in 1966 and featured a robot-like hero fighting kaiju-stykle monsters on the regular, and the remote-controlled Jet Jaguar appears in 1973's Godzilla vs. Megalon.

2025 Character Creation Challenge, day 4: Samson Villiers, Blacksmith, for TIny Gunslingers

 

source: RPGgeek.com

Next in my tour of Tiny d6 games is Tiny Gunslingers. I posted a character from actual play some time ago--a Maverick-esque itinerant gambler named Ulysses Rockford, so I want to do something a little different this time, a big slugger in the lumberjack or blacksmith mold.

I like the blacksmith idea, it bundles a lot of skills useful in the pulp Wild West. The type is attractive: strong, silent, patient but fearsome when pushed to the wall. I can work with this.

Profession isn't officially a Trait but it plays a similar role in that it suggests things the character can do better than other folks (or that other folks can't do at all), and gamemasters are encouraged to take that into account. We've settled on Blacksmith already, let's move on to Traits.

Surprisingly, there aren't a lot of Traits on the Tiny Gunslingers list that scream "big strong blacksmith," possibly because in the source material they're usually secondary characters to the cowboys and lawmen who dominate the genre. Strong (Advantage on Tests that require brute strength) and Tough (+2 HP) immediately stand out, and for a third I decide to round our hero out a little with Engineer, which gives him advantage on Tests to repair or maintain machinery and suggests he's got more going on in his head than how many horseshoes he can hammer out in a day.

Now we turrn our attention to his weapons and other gear. Melee is going to be his strong suit, so I sign him up for that weapon group proficiency and select hammer as his implement of choice. He'll also purchase a revolver even though he's shooting at disavantage, because sometimes you need a ranged weapon. All Tiny Gunslingers receive a cowpoke's kit comprising basic needs for riding the trails: horse and saddle, a bedroll, gunbelt with holster, a lantern with 72 hours worth of oil, a full water vessel (canteen, waterskin, whatever suits), 50 feet of strong cord, trail rations to last a week, and a poncho. (Hats fall under clothing, I suppose and are apparently assumed.) I'll add a portable set of smithing tools (hammer, tongs, apron, poker, etc.) and the aforementioned revolver to complete the ensemble.

He still needs a backstory and a Drive, not to mention a Name. I had thought of making him a freedman, but decided instead on rooting him in Louisiana's free Black population. Pieces started falling in place: a blacksmith's shop in New Orleans owned by gens de couleur, a son inheriting his father's business just as the federal government stopped thing to contain white backlash to Reconstruction, emigration to the West ahead of the growing wave of Redempitonist violence. And, finally, itinerant blacksmith Samson Villiers, looking for a place to set down roots and trying to help the oppressed and exploited he meets along the way, a man who hates bullies and cheats as much as he loves a well-tuned machine.

Let's put that together into a stat block:

Samson Villiers, Itinerant Blacksmith
Traits: 
Strong (advantage of Tests involving brute force)
Tough (+2 HP), 
Engineer (advantage on Tests to repair or maintain equipment)
Weapon Group: Melee
Mastered Wepon: Hammer
Profession: Blacksmith
Backstory: Son of a New Orleans gens de coleur who ran a blackmith's shop, lit out westward about 1872 as the white backlash to reconstruction began to gather steam (and when it became clear the federal government wasn't going to put effort into stopping it), now traveling the trails of the West and helping people with their personal problems as he looks for a place to put down new roots.
Drive: I can't stand cheaters or bullies
Gear: Cowpoke's Kit, smith's apron and tools (including hammer), revolver
HP: 8
Grit: 3

Next up is Mecha and Monsters, which will give us two day's characters since I intend to create one of each.