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)