Okay, as promised in the Fuzion Character sheet thread, here's the Knightsabers' Fuzion Stats as redefined in Bubblegum Crisis EX. These are a slightly lower powered, more "normal" set of statistics, as opposed to the "superheroic" level of stats as presented in the first Bubblegum Crisis RPG book from R. Talsorian.
I'll cover some other characters such as Leon in a later post.
----------
PRISS ASAGIRI
INT......4
WILL....6.......RES 18
PRE......6
TECH....6
REF......8.....SPD 4
DEX......6
CON......8......SD 11.....ED 11.......END 80
STR......3......REC 24
BODY....8......STUN 20....HITS 60
MOVE....5......RUN 10.....SPRINT 15
...................SWIM 5.....LEAP 5
Cost....Complications
4........Bad Tempered
3........Stubborn
10......Secret Identity
Skills, Talents & Perks
*Perception: +3
*Concentration: +5
*Education: +2
*Social: +2
*Local Knowledge: +6
*Teaching: +2
*Athletics: +6
Stealth: +2
Hand-To-Hand: +6
Melee: +6
Firearms: +6
Gunnery: +5
Mechapilot: +5
Driving: +6
Detective: +1
Espionage: +2
Wardrobe/Style: +2
Performance: +5
Basic Tech: +2
High Tech: +1
Beautiful: 2
Renown: 2
Combat Sense: 2
Pain Threshold: 4
Wealth: 2
Martial Artist
Rapid Healing
CP: 60 / OP 73 /
----------
SYLIA STINGRAY
INT......8
WILL....6.......RES 18
PRE......6
TECH....6
REF......7.....SPD 4
DEX......7
CON......6......SD 8.......ED 8.......END 60
STR......2......REC 18
BODY....6......STUN 20...HITS 40
MOVE.....4.....RUN 8......SPRINT 12
...................SWIM 4....LEAP 4
Cost....Complications
30.......Duty
10.......Dependent
10.......Secret Identity
Skills, Talents & Perks
*Perception: +4
*Concentration: +6
*Education: +6
*Persuasion: +4
*Social: +5
*Local Knowledge: +5
*Teaching: +6
*Athletics: +6
Stealth: +2
Hand-To-Hand: +5
Melee: +6
Firearms: +6
Gunnery: +4
Mechapilot: +4
Driving: +5
Pilot VTOL: +3
Detective: +3
Espionage: +5
Wardrobe/Style: +5
Business: +5
High Tech: +5
Milspec Tech: +6
Supertech: +6
Superscience: +7
Research: +6
Leadership: +5
Beautiful: 2
Combat Sense: 3
Wealth: 7
Martial Artist
CP: 54 / OP: 126
----------
LINNA YAMAZAKI
INT......5
WILL....5.......RES 15
PRE.....4
TECH....4
REF......7.....SPD 4
DEX......8
CON......7......SD 9.....ED 9.......END 70
STR......2......REC 21
BODY....5......STUN 20....HITS 30
MOVE....7......RUN 14.....SPRINT 21
...................SWIM 7.....LEAP 7
Cost....Complications
10.......Secret Identity
Skills, Talents & Perks
*Perception: +5
*Concentration: +3
*Education: +2
*Persuasion: +2
*Social: +3
*Local Knowledge: +4
*Teaching: +5
*Athletics: +7
Stealth: +3
Hand-to-Hand: +6
Melee: +6
Firearms: +5
Gunnery: +3
Mechapilot: +3
Driving: +4
Dance: +5
Detective: +4
Espionage: +3
Wardrobe/Style: +3
Stock Market: +2
Beautiful: 2
Combat Sense: 4
Wealth: 2
Martial Artist
Rapid Healing
CP: 54 / OP: 69
----------
NENE ROMANOVA
INT......7
WILL....4.......RES 12
PRE......5
TECH....5
REF......5.....SPD 3
DEX......5
CON......6......SD 7.....ED 7.......END 60
STR......1......REC 18
BODY....3......STUN 10....HITS 20
MOVE....3......RUN 6.....SPRINT 12
...................SWIM 3.....LEAP 3
Cost....Complications
3........Airhead
10......Secret Identity
Skills, Talents & Perks
*Perception: +2
*Concentration: +2
*Education: +5
*Persuasion: +5
*Social: +2
*Local Knowledge: +3
*Teaching: +2
*Athletics: +3
Stealth: +2
Hand-to-Hand: +2
Melee: +2
Firearms: +3
Gunnery: +2
Mechapilot: +2
Driving: +3
Detective: +2
Espionage: +6
Wardrobe/Style: +2
Electronic Warfare: +6
Research: +5
Hacking: +8
Beautiful: 2
Combat Sense: 1
Wealth: 2
ADP Member: 3
CP: 44 / OP: 61

How about the world in Read or Die? I think he'd feel right at home in that universe!
-Logan

Okay. I recently took a look at the page with the Fuzion stats for Doug and was seriously bugged by them. This was actually several months back, but I looked at them again the other day and had the same reaction. Doug feels WAY overpowered for the BGC mileu according to these stats and the translation doesn't feel right somehow overall, outside of the power level issue. Something crucual was missing from the conversion.
I haven't ever had an opportunity to play Fuzion, but I have the Bubblegum Crisis books and the New Millenium stuff. Plus I am a Hero System player, and there's conversion statistics for Fuzion in the back of BGC: Before and After. So I can tell what's usually reasonable in Fuzion terms and how that would translate to Hero. So after looking at the character sheet again and going over the source materiel and the rational behind the conversion, I wrote up Doug's Fuzion character sheet myself, sticking to what Bob had done first and looking everything over with a critical eye. I looked at what the stat, skill or power was and what rationalizations were for each and the source of them. What was the intended effect, and how that might be better represented.
I came to some conclusions --
1) His actual powers; The Polykev, Improbability Field, and Song Powers are all okay. Nothing wrong there. That works.
2) His Intelligence, Reflexes, and Dexterity are way more than they should be for what he's supposed to be and the "ecological niche" of his powers(more on that below). All the rest of his stats are pretty reasonable for a superhero.
3) Many of the skills listed are 1-3 Points too high.
Okay - on the stats issue. I think the translation from V&V to Fuzion ran into a problem translating the paradigm. It doesn't help that Fuzion is a little unclear on it's own concepts. Plus the fact that the statistical curve is so uneven. It helps if you know the conversion from Hero and know THAT system to compare everything else to. I've converted V&V stats to Hero before myself as well as converted Hero to Fuzion and back again. So here's a few things to consider --
Hero stats start off with everyone having a "10" in each stat for free. That's baseline average human. You can sell off stats if you want to be a little challenged, or as in most cases, buy them up. 20 is usually considered as the _usual_ human maximum for "real world" campaigns. But it's not a hard and fast breakpoint. There's no rule that says "this and no further or you are superhuman." (One of the stated goals of the Hero system is that it's trying to simulate heroic fiction rather than hard realism!) One of the example characters in Champions is a guy called Seeker, a martial artist. He's supposed to be nothing more than a normal human who's trained himself to a level most normal people don't reach. A normal average human would have STR 10, DEX 10, and SPD (that's actions per turn) of 2. Seeker's got a STR of 25, a DEX of 29, and a SPD of 7(!). Admittedly, that's pretty high. But at that point in his career, he's pretty much at the experience level of Captain America.
On intelligence - If baseline average for Hero intelligence is 10, and the usual maximum is 20. Then you can reasonably say that it follows the regular IQ chart on a 1 to 10 progression. A 10 INT equalls 100 IQ. A 20 equals a 200 IQ - etc, etc...
Most Fuzion Stats can be converted to Hero by multiplying by 3. Doug's Fuzion INT to Hero is 15x3=45.
That's a 45 Intelligence in Hero. He's the Watcher from Marvel Universe at that scale. You starting to see why I boggled?
Similarly the DEX score: 16x3=48
So that's a 48 DEX.
Okay, now he's the Barry Allen Flash... More boggle...
(For reference, in the Fuzion Superhero supplement "Bay City", their resident experienced speedster -- called "Speedster" oddly enough -- has REF 13 and DEX 11)
Okay, it says in the concordance that
~"my intelligence is a 3.00 on the Berkeley-Binet scale"
On the more familiar Stanford-Binet test, that would be close to a 300 IQ. And the difference in the names and scales? A different university involved in the development of the test.~
Okay, so if he's supposed to be close to 300 IQ, then if we say that his INT is 30 in Hero, divide by 3 for Fuzion, we get 10. Which I think is much more reasonable and closer to original concept. Okay, I can buy that.
Okay, that's good to go. Now onward.
Similarly -
~"a Valmon reflex/speed rating of 470"
"Valmon" is from Andrew Valmon, an Olympic athlete with whom I went to high school. (Gold medalist, 4 X 400m relay, Seoul and Barcelona.) Human normal is 100 on this scale.~
At first glance, this appears straightforward to translate to the Hero system, and from there, to translate over to the Fuzion system (simply divide by 3 to get the Fuzion stat), and it is. If baseline on the Valmon scale is 100, then all we need to do is divide by 10 to get an idea of Doug's DEX score.
Unfortunately...
That still leaves him with a 47 DEX.
That's just ludicrous.
I've never seen any playable character in Hero with a DEX over 36. And _those_ guys are the serious speedsters. In Wally West territory thereabouts.
There's not just a game balance issue here, there's an entire _concept_ issue here. Something is not translating right, as I posited at the beginning of this article. I'm wondering if it's on the V&V end of things. I know it's possible to get some really wild scores when you are rolling up characters in V&V, so I'm guessing that that's where the culprit lies.
This is why I prefer point-based systems over roll based systems. It's easier to check for balance issues and make sure everyone is in the same ballbark in terms of setting power level.
Ah well, so it looks like we're going to have to fudge things to get it right.
The questions I have to ask myself are these -
--Is Doug supposed to be more of a Martial Artist or a Speedster in terms of his physical prowess?
--How does he get presented in the story? How does that relate to the above? And similarly, how does he compare to the Knightsabers and Boomers in the story?
I don't think he comes off as a speedster in Drunkard's Walk II. Very fast martial artist, yes, but not so fast I can justify the straight translation of stats like the above. He just doesn't seem _that_ much faster than, say, Linna or Priss in their hardsuits. I'd say on average, he's only getting off a couple more actions than any of them per turn. Say - a SPD 6 or 7 to their 4 or 5.
So - to go back to the intent of the original _concept_ and fudge things to bring _that_ over, should be the goal.
Speaking of balance issues, there's one other thing to consider, when using the stats of the characters as presented in BGC as a guide. There's actually an alternate set of stats for everyone that's in a lower power scale that was introduced in the third supplement, Bubblegum Crisis EX. I happen to like those stats better overall for translation purposes.
I mean, in the original BGC book, Linna has a DEX of 10. Which translates to a HERO DEX of 30.
Granted, if you just use the characters as is and don't reference anything else, it generally works in it's own powerscale. But even internally, there are still some weird moments. Such as...
Leon has a STR of 7. He can pick up a motorcycle and _THROW_ it???
Ummm... no...
(Bean Bandit on the other hand...)
As an example, Priss' original Fuzion stats if translated straight to HERO system look like this:
STR.....20
DEX.....24
CON.....30
BODY...10
INT......15
EGO.....21
PRE.....24
COM....31
PD......10
ED......15
SPD......5
REC.....11
END.....60
STUN...35
And that's _without_ her Hardsuit!
Here's the BGC EX Revised Fuzion Stats translated to Hero
STR.....15
DEX.....18
CON.....24
BODY...10
INT......12
EGO.....18
PRE......18
COM.....24
PD.........8
ED.......12
SPD.......4
REC.......8
END.....48
STUN...30
Much more reasonable. Although I'd still ramp the CON down to at least 20 and the Comliness down to 18 (she's a looker, but she's not THAT hot.)
I'd use the EX Character sheets as a better baseline for comparison. They were made after the makers of Fuzion determined that normal baseline humans ranged from 1-8 rather than 1-10. Remeber, BGC was the very first Fuzion book produced. R' Talsorian tweaked many bugs out with later books.
With all of that in mind, here's my revision of Doug's character sheet. First the stat section.
----------
LOONEY TOONS / DOUGLAS SANGNOIR
INT......10
WILL....9.......RES 27
PRE......9
TECH....6
REF......10.....SPD 6
DEX......10
CON......8......SD 18.......ED 18.......END 80
STR......7.......REC 19
BODY....11.....STUN 45...HITS 65
MOVE.....9.....RUN 18.....SPRINT 27
...................SWIM 9.....LEAP 9
-----------
As you can see, I left most of his stats the way Bob had them. INT at 10 puts him in the superheroic category for Intelligence. For comparison, the EX version of Sylia's INT is 8 and Nene's is 7.
I decided on 10's for his REF and DEX. That puts him firmly in the Superheroic category for those stats without getting ridiculous. In Hero terms, he's got a DEX of 30. Which is about where your world-class paranormal martial artists are in most Hero references. I could easily be argued into raising that one pip higher to 11 (HERO DEX 33). But I thought this was a good round number.
Note that if you use the optional SPD stat that his is a 6, which means he'll be moving twice more per phase than the even the fastest Knight Saber Linna at a SPD 4. Note also that a BU-55C Combat Boomer would only have a SPD 3. So Doug would be moving twice as often, on average. Even the fastest Hyperboomer only gets up to a SPD 4.

----------
COST....COMPLICATIONS......(BASE: 50)
5..........Stubborn
15........Code of Honor
15........Protective of Innocents
15........In Love with Shadowwalker
----------
I thought a couple of extra complications fit in here. I could easily think of more, based on what I've read in the story.
Next, his skill list --
----------
COST....SKILLS, TALENTS & PERKS........AV/DV
3.......*Perception: 5..........................15
2.......*Concentration: 4.....................14
E.......*Persuasion: 2..........................11
4.......*Education: 6...........................16
E.......*Local Expert: 2.........................8
E.......*Teacher: 2.............................12
4.......*Hand-to-Hand: 6.....................16
4.......*Melee Evade: 6.......................16
4.......*Athletics: 6............................16
6.......Ranged Evade: 6.......................16
3.......Melee Weapons: 3.....................13
8.......Acrobatics: 8............................18
9.......Computers: 9............................19
4.......Detective: 4.............................14
2.......Disguise: 2...............................12
5.......Driving: (Motorcycles) 5..............15
6.......Expert: International Law &
................Enforcement: 6..................16
3.......Expert: UN: 3............................13
10......Expert: American/British Pop
................Music: 10..........................20
5.......Expert: Movies & TV: 5...............15
6.......Electronic Warfare: 6.................16
4.......Espionage: 4............................14
3.......Firearms: 3..............................13
5.......English: 5 (Mimic any Accent)......15
3.......French: 3................................13
4.......Gambling: 4..............................14
10.....Hacking: 10.............................20
5.......Japanese: 5.............................15
4.......Leadership: 4............................13
4.......Mechanics: 4............................14
3.......Pilot: 3....................................13
3.......Research: 3.............................13
5.......Stealth: 5................................15
6.......Electrical Engineering: 6.............16
1.......Handsome
9.......Membership: Warriors 9
9.......License Warrior: 9
3.......Martial Arts
15.....Combat Sense: 5
10.....Derived Stats: +1 SPD
----------
You'll notice that I actually added some things here. Everyman skills (Indicated with a "*") are skills that everyone gets at level 2 automatically for free. They are marked with an "E", above, when no points were spent to increase them. I toned down a few of his skills, as I generally felt like going over an AV of 20 was going too far. I also noticed when going over skills what I thought was a pattern. Many of Doug's skills seemed to follow a curve that matched Sylia's with a 1-2 point remove. Hmmmm... Okay, I may reading more into this than is really there, but it was a handy reference anyway, so I kept that curve, but matched it to the EX version of Sylia for the most part.
But I kept his Hacking and Music reference skills where they were arbitraily. He really does come off in the story as THAT damn good.
Notice that his 1 point of extra Speed is bought here. In Fuzion, you buy your skills with Option Points and you can also buy up one of your Derived Stats that way as well.
I'm curious though, as to why he has Gambling as a skill. Must be something in his background as a Warrior we haven't seen alluded to. Or it'll come up later.

Powers next --
----------
COST....POWERS
Improbability Field:
8.........Acts as +10 DEX, Activation 12-, for defensive rolls
..........only. Special Effect: Random strange things alter or
..........divert the attack.
Mage Sight:
6........Discriminatory sense: detect meta-human;
..........Discriminatory Detect Magic with Range
Song Power:
30.......Power Framework: 22 pt VPP w/11 pt control cost
..........(-1 pt Burnout (8- on 3d6), -2 pt attached focus,
..........-2 Requires simple skill roll (8 +1 pt per VPP), +1 pt
..........wide SFX))
Polykev armor:
7........1 kill each of ED and PD. Armor radiates damage away
..........as heat, 1 round per D6 intercepted, giving +(dice left
..........to radiate) to any heat- or IR-based perception used
..........against him.
----------
Nothing got changed here. Except I figured the costs for the powers. I ignored END costs for the powers, as that would complicate things too much.
Doug's Point Costs are:
Character Points (CP): 89
Option Points (OP): 194
Power Points (PP): 51

Well, I hope I've provided something to think about and haven't offended too much. I've been thinking about translating the Bubblegum Crisis Fuzion characters over to Hero system anyway, so that's at least parially what brought all this on. I also wanted to make Doug a little more consistant with his portrayal in the story in game terms.
Maybe, since I've spent this much effort thinking about it, I'll go ahead and do a full translation and make Doug a 5th Edition Hero System character sheet!
-Logan

Hi,
have you ever read one of the diskworld novels from Terry Pratchett? If not -- do. It's worth your while. And if you like it and Terry agrees -- perhaps let Doug go on some twisted vacation in the diskworld realm, perhaps forcing him to find a song there to get off to the next stop ... given the peculiarities of that world, that may be enough of a task ... :-)
Greetings,
Cal

I would LOVE to see what that does for Doug's metatalent. The "more than meets the eye" can be translated many ways. "Robots in disguise" also creates some interesting possible effects.

I posted a few times already as an unregistered guest. Then I got an account and for some reason never got around to posting anything for a week or two!
Well, may as well start off right and introduce myself even though most regulars have seen me around.
Been around in anime fandom a _long_ time. Since 1983. Back before there was even a wide ranging anime hobby. Back when it was only "Starblazers" and a smattering of other stuff from Matsumoto. Later my interests in anime branched out into other offerings from Japan in the sci-fi/fantasy vein.
I've always maintained an interest in american SF/&F genre shows and movies as well as comics.
Gaming. Can't forget gaming. That interest actually pre-dates my entry into anime fandom by 1 year. I started not with D&D (although I did play that before anything else ONCE at a friends behest). No - the game that drug me into Role-Playing was Traveller, from the late, lamented GDW (Game Designers Workshop). That's where I get my "handle" BTW - Logan Darklighter was my very first character in Traveller. An Imperium Scout. Rolled him up in 1982. Retired him from play sometime around 1995 or so.
And art. I've drawn since I was a kid. In fact, I remember that some of my very first drawings were of the Mach 5 from Speed Racer! They weren't very _good_ drawings. And they are long gone now. But I do remember them.
I became a fan artist shortly after getting into anime fandom in 1983. And have slowly built up my own style over the years. I've even dabbled a bit with professional work. I did a couple of ship designs for Digest Group Publications "Solomani & Aslan" - an alien races sourcebook for the MegaTraveller line. And recently in 1999, I did some artwork for the "Kazei 5" E-Book for 4th Edition Champions. (Which you can order and download at the Hero Games website at www.herogames.com)
Recently I've been in a creative slump. I haven't drawn anything of significance in almost a year. But I hope to break out of this in time. In the meantime, if you're interested, you can see some of the stuff I've done - including some of the work in the two supplements I've mentioned above - here
Discovered Drunkard's walk a while back and have been with the story since around Chapter 5 or so. I really enjoy this series and look forward to seeing what Bob has in store next! I also enjoy the forums, particularly now that the new forum is up. A lot of creativity here. And I have been really enjoying the little peeks Bob has been giving us of some of the steps that never were or might yet be. I've never lost my love of the superhero genre and Bob's got a really unique character concept going here. Cross dimensional stories and crossovers in fan-fiction are also a favorite, so we're touching most bases here. ^_^
Anyway. Introductions over. Now go back to what you were doing. ^_^

Hello, I have just finished reading Drunkards Walk II, and eagerly await the next installment, and I have a question about some songs that I just have to ask.
As I have a rather odd outlook on things I was wondering what the effects of the following songs would be:
Cruel Angel's Thesis - NGE Theme Song
The Prize(Kurgans Theme) by Queen
The Battlehymn of the Republic
I don't know but after seeing that he actually invoked the Fates, the last song there gives my the chills. Thank you for providing such an entertaining hero and story. I'll just fade back into the woodwork again.
Maelore

It's John Lennon's birthday today, and my local radio station (WFUV 90.7, for New York area readers) is doing a tribute to him. So of course I started thinking about Doug.
Two songs that come to mind -- "Imagine" might be nasty against deities, nationalists, or the greedy. And "Back in the U.S.S.R." -- in a world where the U.S.S.R. still exists, it might just be a "teleport to location" song. But without it -- imposing Communism locally, for the duration of the song?

Okay, as noted in another topic, these were a couple of things that I wrote a while back. The first is my complete set of notes plus a few scenes for a BtVS
Step set early in the show's continuity, somewhere in the first or second season. (Despite the mention of Glory at one point.) The second bit is just a
one-off throwaway thing I wrote more as tension relief toward the end of the Glory plotline a season and a half ago. It is not to be taken seriously.

Enjoy.

------------------

-------------------

Okay, and the Glory scene:

-- Bob

(Edited to remove some spoilers for DW2 that I had forgotten were there.)

(Edited again in December 2008 to remove the blocks of malformed text, which were just freakin' old and out of date anyway. The Glory scene is so
long dead and no longer relevant to our plans.)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

I originally wrote this with the full intent of finding a place for it in the narrative, but unfortunately that didn't work out. Enjoy.
-------
"Sylia?""Yes, Nene?""His head is on fire.""Yes, Nene.""It's not bothering him, Sylia.""Yes, Nene.""It's bothering *me*, Sylia!"" Yes, Nene."

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.