2025 Character Creation Challenge, entry 22: Bibi Bee-B, for Lostronauts

source: DriveThruRPG.com

As long as I'm messing around with zine games, here's Lostronauts, a GM-less RPG in which the characters are lost in space (not unlike the crew of the Jupiter II, or Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect) and trying to find their way home (or achieve some other unattainable goal). 

The basic task resolution mechanic will be familiar to anyone who has played a game Powered by the Apocalypse; roll 2d6, add 1 for each relevant character trait that might help, subtract 1 for each relevant trait that might hinder, and if your archetype, job, or species (see below) is particularly applicable, you get to roll a third d6 and take the two highest. A result of 10+ is unequivocal success, 7-9 brings success with a cost, and 6 or less is a humiliating failure. (This is a comedy game, permanent harm is rare but embarrassment lurks around every corner.)

Character creation is simpler than in most PbtA games; characters don't have Moves but instead have an Archetype (which is more or less a story role), a Job (your career before you started gallivanting around space) and a Species (pretty much what you expect that to be). Each of these features has some sort of Trait or Traits associated with it.

The rules suggest that you fill out the character sheet in order, starting with your character's Name. You may recall from earlier installments that this is a step I usually save for last, but I'll go along with the designer and come up with something genre-appropriate. Bibi Bee-B sounds silly enough, let's go with that.

Next I am supposed to choose my Archetype, which is kind of like selecting a commedia dell'arte role; it rests on a personality type and provides a framework for how you react to the encounters of each adventure. The game provides seven of these: the Gold-Hearted (ingenue), the Stoic (strong but silent hero), the Major (team leader and troubleshooter), the Overworked (load-bearing technical/administrative expert), the Homebody (accidental traveler), the Wayward (experienced traveller), and the bonus Scoundrel (selfish schemer). I'm going to make Bibi Overworked, with a specialty in administrative duties. They're that secretary or admin assistant who knows all the forms and all the phone numbers and without whom nobody's schedule would ever be straight.

Each Archetype comes with a Special Ability; for the Overworked it's Safety Conscious, which permits Bibi to cure the Impaired condition once per session. (Impaired happens whe you suffer some type of physical or psychological damage and mechanically it requires you to take the lowest two dice out of 3d6 when you have to make a roll.)

In addition, each Archetype comes with a Positive Trait and a Negative Trait. The latter are not always personality flaws, but rather ongoing conditions (internally or externally rooted) that may hinder the character's attempts to solve problems. For a Positive Trait I select Bureacratically Inclined to represent Bibi's administrative ability, balanced with Chronically Busy off the Negative Trait chart to show just how load-bearing they are.

Next we've got to get Bibi a Job. No charts here, just make something appropriate up. I'm just going to go with Administrative Secretary, since that's the direction we're headed. Schedule-keeping, correspondence, reception, office supply procurement, that kind of thing. 

Only now do we determine Bibi's Species. The rules offer Human, Robot, and Define-Your-Own as options, and there's a good argument for making Bibi a robot, but I'd rather make them some sort of nonhuman organic species. I'm going to give them radial symmetry to they've got multiple grasping limbs, a head that rotates 360°, and a trunk with three short legs. Let's call them Tendrilli. Their mode of dress is a complicated arrangement of straps, from some of which hang various tools. The Tendrilli's multiple limbs will be Bibi's salient Species Trait.

I've already messed up here, because you're supposed to determine Archetype, Job and Species befire you work out any of the character's Traits, but as it makes more sens form a presentation perspective I'm going to stick with it. Anyhow, next on the list are Bibi's motivations. Each character needs an Unattainable Goal, some overarching, quest-level desire such as "find my way home" or "slay the Nebula Empress" that is structurally virtually impossible to achieve under the game's conditions. As if Bibi wasn't busy enough, i'm going to make their Unnatainable Goal win the Intergalactic Sweepstakes, so in between tasks they'll be managing their many. many entries and studying strategy guides.

In addition, each character has an Attainable Goal, a more mundane need or want that can be met with a reasonable amount of luck and effort, and which earns them a credit each time they do. (Credits are in-game currency, exchangeable for various goods and services. One also earns them for beating challenges in adventures and for finishing adventures.) These are still character-driven and should be at least nominally adventure-related, such as "protect an innocent from danger" or "defeat an alien menace." I'd like to reward Bibi for some sort of successful use of their job skills, but not something too specific. Overcome a bureaucratic obstacle is the sort of thing that might contribute to beating a challenge but not constitute the entire challenge, so let's put that down on the sheet. 

The character sheet also has spaces for "credits," failure points," and "inventory," but those are all accumulated over the course of play,* so I think it's time to put down a statblock.

Name: Bibi Bee-B
Archetype: Overworked (Special Ability: Safety Conscious; Positive Trait: Bureaucratically Inclined; Negative Trait: Constantly Busy)
Job: Administrative Secretary
Species: Tendrilli (Species Trait:  Multiple Limbs)
Unattainable Goal: Win the Intergalactic Sweepstakes
Attainable Goal: Overcome a Bureaucratic Obstacle
Credits: 0    Failure Points: 0    Inventory: Nothing yet

*Failure Points are accumulated as you fail task rolls with a 6 or less; when you rack up three of these, the party gets a consolation prize rolled from the Deus Ex Machina table. If by some miracle you achieve your Unattainable Goal, you receive an extra Failure Point per adventure, which I think means you get to roll on the Deus Ex table one failure earlier, but might mean one failure later, than the other players

2025 Character Creation Challenge, entry 21: Block Castlestone and Chonk, for MechTek

source: DriveThruRPG.com

Today's game is another light mech-themed 'zine game: Michael Putlack's MechTek. Its premise is that mech pilots, who heretofore have been gladiators entertaining the masses, have now been drafted into a war against an alien threat and now pit their giant fightin' robots against these invaders. Its mechanics are simpler than Mecholite's, and its basic mechanic is stat die roll + bonuses vs a baseline target number of 5, with stats expressed as dice ranging from d4 upward.

You begin with a factory-standard mech chassis that has 10 hit points and customize it. The three basic stats for task resoution are Battle (for combat and physical feats), Tactics (for perception and related abilities) and Science (for knowledge and engineering). Two of these abilities will start at d4, the third at d6. Two more stats are represented by numbers instead of die sizes: Speed (with a baseline of 30 feet/turn) and Armor Bonus (which apparently starts at 0). I feel like making a bruiser, so I'll assign my d6 to Battle and leave Tactics and Science at d4 each.

Pilots play a small role in MechTek's mechanics. There are six types of pilot available; five of these provide a bonus to a basic Stat, and the sixth reduces repair times. After your pilot reaches third level they'll gain a second specialty from this list. Continuing on the bruiser theme, I choose a Fighter, who will boost my Battle die by one level from d6 to d8.

The next step is to pick a Special ability, which is basically a power the mech can use once per day. The most brawly of these is Takedown, which knocks my opponent prone with a successful Battle roll.

Now it's time to pick out some upgraded Parts. MechTek provides five different types of Part for mechs: heads, torsos, legs, and right and left arm. Each arm will have a built-in weapon of some sort, either melee or ranged, in addition to the qualities of the partcular part you select. I'm going all-in on melee, so both arms will have melee attacks and I'd better hope I can hold out long enough to close the distance.

Custom parts provide bonuses to basic stats, either in the form of a +1 or +2 to a Stat roll, increased Speed, or an addition to Armor Defense. You get to choose five custom Parts, four of level 1 (which generally provides a single +1 bonus or its equivalent) and one of level 2 (which generally grants either a single +2 bonus or two +1 bonuses).

So for my head I'll take a level 1 model, which grants a +1 bonus to Science rolls (and I'll need that with my low baseline). Torso's level 1 model grants a +1 to Armor Bonus. Level 1 Legs come in two models, neither of which grant any kind of bonus. Which brings us to Arms. Level 1 Arms can grant a +1 bonus to either Battle, Tactics, or Armor; level 2 arms offer either +2 to Battle, +1 to Battle and +1 to Armor, or +1 to Battle and +1 to Tactics. I'm going to shoot for the One Punch Man thing and buy a level 2 right arm with a +2 to Battle, with a left arm that grants a +1 armor bonus.

I'll also start with 100 credits, which can be used to purchase further upgrades, but it looks like I'll have to earn more of them to afford anything better than what I'm starting with, so let's name this bad boy and move on to the statblock. 

I shall call him Chonk. Piloted by Block Castlestone.

Chonk (pilot: Block Castlestone)

Battle: d8+2
Tactics: d4+0
Science: d4+1
Speed: 30
Armor Bonus: 2
HP: 10
Special: Takedown (Battle)
Parts:
Head HE-10 (basic, L1, +1 Science)
Torso BO-10 (basic, L1, +1 armor)
Legs LL-10a (basic, L1)

Left Arm EA-12s (basic, L1, melee, +1 armor, d2 damage)

Right Arm EA-20x (basic, L2, melee, +2 Battle, d6 damage)

and a character sheet:

2025 Character Creation Challenge, entries 16-20: P&V Recovery Operations, LLC, for Original Dungeons and Dragons

source: RPGGeek.com

The next five characters will be a party of adventurers for Original Dungeons and Dragons, using the White Box edition of the rules without supplements.* I don't usually go for random character generation, but this promises to be quick and quick is what I need right now. For dice I'll be using the online roller from my D&D Beyond account, with the "Old School" dice skins applied for verisimilitude.

OD&D was originally published with three human character classes (fighting man, magic user, cleric), plus "racial" classes for dwarves (fighter), elves (fighter and magic user, switching off between adventures as desired), and halflings (fighter). (Thieves were introduced in the first supplement Greyhawk, and so will be out of consideration here.) In addition, there was a vague blessing pronounced upon getting creative with character ideas so long as it didn't upset the balance of the game.** But I'm going to stick with what the book provides for the purpose of the exercise. 

A strict application of the rules as written would have our Dungeon Master rolling the characters' ability scores, but I'm effectively my own DM here, so here I go. 3d6 straight up, six times, always in the order Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, Dexterity, Charisma. 

Our first set of scores is Strength 6, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 7, Constitution 7, Dexterity 13, Charisma 14. That doesn't promise very quick advancement in any of the main three classes; fighters depend on Strength, magic-users on Intelligence, and clerics on Wisdom. On the plus side, the high Dexterity makes this character a little better at ranged combat (+1 to hit), and the high Charisma promises more followers (up to 5) with a greater degree of loyalty (+1) to their employer. For prime requisites, Intelligence is the best of a bad set, so we set this character on the path to a mediocre career as a magic-user and possibly a position as party leader or at least face. Another 3d6 roll multiplied by 10 determines starting funds (110 gold pieces) for gear. Under these rules all hit dice are d6, with fighters getting a +1 bonus to their initial roll. Our magic-user will begin play with 5 hit points.

Wizards don't need a lot of equipment; they can't wear armor and their weapon choice is limited to daggers (from a list that is itself quite limited and does not include, for instance, the quarterstaff). In addition, spellbooks and wizards' supplies aren't on the list, so we don't have a lot of personal needs to spend money on. A few daggers cost 9 gp altogether, leaving 101 gold pieces for general adventuring supplies such as torches, rope, mirrors, etc. We'll put that into the party's general fund. Now our magic-user needs some identity apart from ability scores, so let's give them a gender (masculine) and a name (something a bit fancy to go with that Charisma score, such as Porfirio). Oh, and an alignment. OD&D alignment is single-axis, with characters siding with Law or Chaos or between them in Neutrality. This party is motivated primarily by gain, so I think I'll make evryone Neutral unless otherwise noted.

Before we leave Porfirio for the rest of the party, let's get him some spells. Well, a spell, anyhow. A first-level magic user can cast one spell, once per day; the rulebook isn't clear how that spell is determined, or whether they might know more than one spell and only be able to memorize and cast one of their spells each day (as AD&D later clarified). The spells on the table are numbered, however, which suggests that random determination is considered of not mandated. There are eight first-level spells; a roll of 8 indicates Sleep, which is pretty darned useful.

The next batch of rolls comes up Str 7, Int 14, Wis 9, Con 14, Dex 5, Cha 12. Another magic user, by the looks of it, but a very clumsy one. The 14 Intelligence score grants a 5% bonus on earned experience, the poor Dexterity imposes a -1 penalty on ranged attacks, and the 14 Constitution means no rolls to survive shocks to the system such as petrification. A starting gold roll of 130 gives this wizard plenty of spare cash to subsidize the party's purchases or help less fortunate adventurers buy their gear. With that 5 Dex I'm not going to bother with throwing daggers, so one should suit, leaving 127 gp for the party fund. A roll of 4 for starting hit points.

I feel as though these two magic-users have a relationship that predates the formation of the party, and perhaps they are the founding core who recruited the rest for expeditions to recover treasure from the deep places. I'll name this one Vivienne, and a roll on the spell table results in a 7: Charm Person, so she also gets a very useful spell. 

Our third character starts with Str 12, Int 13, Wis 7, Con 9, Dex 7, Cha 6. Three magic-users in one party seems kind of ridiculous, but fortunately this character has enough Strength to be a passable fighter. With that Int score, though, I think we've got a good candidate for an elf, albeit kind of a rude and clumsy one. 110 gold pieces for kit won't go nearly as far when we need weapons and armor; we'll invest in a suit of chainmail (30), a sword (10), a shield (10) and helmet (10), a short bow (despite that Dex penalty, 25 gp), and a quiver of 20 arrows (10). That leaves 5 gp for the party fund. Since we're starting out as a fighter for this first adventure, I'll roll d6+1 for hit points and forgo giving the character a spell. 3 on the die +1 for fighter means 4 hp, kind of low but what can you do, it's old school D&D. Apart from the dual-class thing, player-character elves don't get any particular special abilities, so we can wrap it upn here. I've decided it would be entertaining if our two Neutral employers had to deal with a Lawful staff of employees, so the other three characters will be Lawful.  Our fragile elf is male and named Melandil.

Tne next applicant for our salvage company enters with Str 13, Int 10, Wis 11, Con 8, Dex 12, and Cha 6. Could be a cleric, but we've got one more opening and another pair of hands in the front line will be welcome. We'll risk the dice and make this one a fighter as well. 13 Strength is good enough for that 5% experience bonus, the 8 Constitution score will prove troublesome when the character faces some kind of system shock (40-50% chance of surviving, as opposed to 60-90% for those in the 9-12 range), and the 6 Charisma means no more than 2 followers who will have a -1 penalty to loyalty checks. Since we've got an elf, we might as well add a dwarf to the party. The money roll nets 100 gold pieces, which we'll spend on a suit of chainmail (30), a shield (10), a helmet (10), a battle axe (7), a pair of hand axes (6), a light crossbow (15), and 30 quarrels in a case (10). The remaining 12 gp goes into the party fund. Hit point roll is 4, which bumps to 5 with the fighter bonus. Our dwarven warrior is a woman, and her name is Grimhild.

Dwarves get a few special abilities, offset by a level cap of 6th level: 

• some resistance to magic (roll saving throws as if four levels higher) ;
• a variety of advantages when operating in underground environments: 

1.     the ability to detect slanting passages, new construction, and moveable walls; 
2.     a 1/3 chance to detect secret doors or hard-to-hear sounds
3.     a 1/3 chance to force open stuck doors);

• and some ability to dodge the attacks of ogres, giants and other large, cumsy foes (half damage)

Our final applicant brings Str  8, Int 12, Wis 13, Con 13, Dex 13, and Cha 8 to the table, and justifies our risk in waiting for a better potential cleric. There'll be a 5% experience bonus for a 13 Wisdom, a +1 bonus to ranged attacks for 13 Dex (which we can't take advantage of because clerics can't use sharp weapons and slingstones don't exist in this rule set), automatic shock survival for Con 13, and a three-follower cap for the low-average 8 Charisma. Her hit point roll is an unmodified 1, so we'll need to keep her out of the line of fire as much as possible until she hits second level. First-level clerics don't get spells yet, but can turn lower-level undead (skeletons, zombies, and if lucky ghouls), so we'll want a holy symbol for use as well as for branding. Starting gold is only 80, which may necessitate some hard choices. Fortunately, she doesn't need that much personal gear, and weapons all do the same d6 damage at this point in the game's evolution. I buy chainmail for 30, a shield for 10, a mace for 5, and a wooden cross for 2***, leaving 33 gp for the party fund. I'll call our small, nimble party chaplain Sister Bertril.

Now we should start spending that general fund to get our expedition supplies. The company has 278 gold pieces for these purposes, mostly from money that Porfirio and Vivienne didn't spend. That'll cover a cart (100), a couple of mules (40) to pull it, and a whole lot of adventuring supplies: rations, torches, rope, iron spikes, ten-foot poles, flasks of oil, flint and steel, a mirror or two, sacks and satchels for carrying treasure. And since OD&D is in no small part a game about logistics, let's itemize this budget and see how much we're spending.

Lighting: 6 torches (1 gp), 1 lantern (10 gp), 3 flasks of oil (6 gp): 17 gp

General supplies: 100' of rope (2), ten-foot pole (1), 10 iron spikes (1): 4 gp

Transport: cart (100), 2 mules (40), 3 large sacks (6), 6 small sacks (6), 5 waterskins (5), 2 backpacks (10): 167 gp

Provisions: one week's iron rations per person (75), 2 quarts wine (2): 77 gp

Total: 265 gp, leaving 13 gp for emergencies.

And finally it's time for a little branding. All the coolest adventuring bands have a name, though we don't really know enough about our heroes to give them something spot-on appropriate. They're still pretty generic. But we do have names, and we know the mages are the organizers, and that's something we can work with. P&V Recovery Operations, LLC is a bit fancy, but our heroes have high ambitions (jury's still out on the impulse control).

Porfirio, Magic-User 1
STR 6     INT 10     WIS 7     CON 7     DEX 13     CHA 14

Spells: L1 Sleep

Personal Gear: 3 daggers

AC: 9        HP: 5    AL: N

Vivienne, Magic-User 1
STR 7     INT 14      WIS 9    CON 14    DEX 5      CHA 12

Spells: L1 Charm Person

Personal Gear: 1 dagger

AC: 9        HP: 4    AL: N

Melandil, Elf (fighter for today) 1
STR 12, INT 13, WIS 7, CON 9, DEX 7, CHA 6

Personal Gear: chainmail, sword, shortbow, quiver of 20 arrows, shield, helmet

AC: 4        HP: 4    AL: L

Grimhild, Dwarf (fighter) 1
STR 13, INT 10, WIS 11, CON 8, DEX 12, CHA 6
Personal Gear: chainmail, helmet, shield, battle axe, 2 hand axes, light crossbow, case of 30 quarrels

AC: 4        HP: 5    AL: L

Sister Bertril, Cleric 1
STR  8, INT 12, WIS 13, CON 13, DEX 13, CHA 8
Personal Gear: chainmail, shield, mace, silver cross
AC: 4        HP: 1    AL: L

Party supplies: cart, two mules, six torches, lantern, three flasks oil, 100' of rope, ten-foot pole, ten iron spikes, three large sacks, six small sacks, five waterskins, two backpacks, five weeks' iron rations, two quarts wine, 13 gp.

*I have the supplements, I just won't be using them.

** or human supremacy, which EGG was kind of big on.

***the generic "holy symbol" dorsn't come into play until later in the game's history, OD&D clerics were apparenly assumed to be Christian.

2025 Character Creation Challenge, day 15: Tony Wonder, for Mecholite

source: DriveThrurRPG.com

Week goes by pretty quickly when you've got a lot going on. I've got a lot of catching up to do, so let's wrap up this entry and move on to some really simple games.

A couple of years ago I had the idea to make a game about uplifted hamsters piloting six-foot-tall mechs, and to that end purchased several light mech RPG games to see what sorts of mechanics might best suit the kind of vibe I was looking for. (The first try ended up using Mecha and Monsters Evolved, the Tiny d6 mech game seen on day 5 of this year's challenge.) Mecholite was one of the other games in this genre I found on DriveThruRPG; like a lot of games I ended up not using, it didn't include kaiju in its universe, but it's still worth taking out for a chargen spin.

One of Mecholite's distinguishing features is that it uses a standard deck of cards for a lot of its game play, in a manner somewhat reminiscent of Mike Pondsmith's classic Castle Falkenstein (which I may use on this blog later, time allowing). Each suit represents one subset of your mech's systems: hearts for Frame (structure), diamonds for Core (power systems), spades for Processor (ability to execute actions), and clubs for Instruments (data-collecting capacity such as sensors). Each of these subsystems is quantified as one of your mech's base Stats, and you have a mini-deck composed of ace through ten for each suit, with the face cards (called Court cards here) held aside for special use.

Mech creation begins by choosing a base model from six options, providing your mech's baseline stats. The four base stats vary from three to five in each model; the base numbers for derived stats Bulk and Vulnerability (measuring the difficulty of, respectively, scoring a physical hit on the mech and scoring a hit on its software systems) start at 3 and are modified by adding half the Frame and Instruments values, respectively. The two other derived stats, Energy and Processing Power, have baseline values equal to the unit's Core and Processing scores, respectively.

Allul looks like closest to what I want in a model: 3 Frame, 4 Core, 5 Processor, 4 Instrument. wizard stats, basically. Bulk and Vulnerability are round-up so each score is 5 at this point. Energy is 4 and Processing Power begins at 5.

The next step is to choose a design, which modifies the base model in two ways: a bonus to one (+2) or two )+1 each) base stats, and a bonus ability. I double down on the "wizard" concept by choosing precise, which adds 2 to Instrument and, when I play any court card, lets me resurrect one card of my choice from my Instrument discards and shuffle it back into my draw deck.

Then there is another round of customizing that lets me add 1 to any base stat (I boost Processor to 6), then add +2 to one skill and +1 to a second.

We haven't really talked about Skills yet. There are five skills: analyze, operate, manufacture, interface, and hack. Each of these can be leveraged by any of the four Stats to perform different types of task. Analyze covers attempts to gather and interpret information. Operate covers performing challenging maneuvers (e.g., feats of strength for Frame or operating machinery for Processing). Manufacture covers building and repairing things, and is the skill used for Recovery actions (which return a card of your choice from one of your discard piles to the corresponding draw deck). Interface covers interactions with other mechs: intimidation, negotiation, deception, etc. Finally, Hack covers attempts to break in or infiltrate. For the rest of my customization I take a +1 bonus to Analyze and a +2 bonus to Hack.

I can further customize my unit with Attachments and Gadgets. Attachments are major devices built into the unit, whereas Gadgets are smaller high-tech devices also built into the unit. Each unit can have one Attachment for each point of Frame and one Gadget for each point of Instruments. Attachments are also limited to particular parts or the mech frame (or Slots), and the unit has two Slots for each part (arm, torso, hip, leg, etc). My small Frame can only handle three Attachments, so as long as they don't all need the same Slot I'll be fine. Energy Shield reduces the cost of evasive maneuvers (by moving energy points to the Use pool instead of the Spent pool); it takes a torso slot. Cloak takes the second torso slot; it makes the unit harder to hit by reducing Bulk by 2 for every point of Energy I spend, up to 3. And I use a shoulder slot to install a drone launcher, which not only launches drones but recharges them between launches.

My Instruments score allows me six Gadgets. An advanced motherboard will unlock three new Processes. Nanobots allow me to repair myself or another unit as an auxiliary process (like a minor action in D&D 4e or a bonus action in 5e). Liquid cooling boosts my Hack skill by 1. A control circuit boosts my Operate skill by 1. A post-processor bumps Analyze by 1.Finally, a drone controller lets me control a drone after I launch it. 

That would seem to cover all the mechanical aspects of character generation. All I have to do now is give the unit a call sign and I'm ready to fill in the character sheet. Pushing the magician theme, I call the unit Tony Wonder (after the Arrested Development character) and fill out my character sheet. My drones will be styled "Doves" and given numbers once I have more than one (Dove 1, Dove 2, etc.)

Tony Wonder: Precise Allul

Frame: 3        Core: 4        Processor: 6        Instrument: 6

Bulk: 5            Vulnerability: 6        Energy: 4        Processing Power: 6

Design Ability: Precise (can Recalibrate when playing a court card)

Attachments: Cloak, Energy Shield, Drone Launcher

Gadgets: Advanced Motherboard, Nanobots, Liquid Cooling, Control Circuit, Post-Processor, Drone Controller

In addition to the main character sheet the game provides tracking sheets for motherboard processes and drones; I've provided photos below.

Main character sheet for Tony Wonder, with action decks in place

Character sheet at left, with drone sheets (top) and motherboard sheet (middle) at right above the court cards from Tony Wonder's action decks (bottom)

To catch up, the next few entries are going to be a party of adventurers for original Dungeons and Dragons--simple character generation without a lot of built-in creative demands. 

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: Raichlen, 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 as 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.

Source: Wikipedia 

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 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. The 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 and phobias to powerful enemies to adverse substance reactions and so forth. Original-recipe 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 discovered 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.