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Severino Valdez, repurposed psyker

Started by Koval, August 17, 2012, 04:31:48 PM

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Koval

More back-conversion from Dark Heresy, this time stemming from a discussion between myself, Marco and Van Helser over Skype last night. I tried to use this character in a RP but it stalled about two pages in, so I repurposed him.

If I'm making a reference to "opposed tests" or "degrees of success", these are just things I've lifted out of Dark Heresy.

As with the last set of characters, date-list first, then profile.

-973.M41: Born to Donato Valdez and Palmira Ferrara on board the Chartist vessel Spear of the Emperor.
-975.M41: The
Spear of the Emperor arrives at the war-ravaged planet of Nova Sagittar, in the southern reaches of Segmentum Pacificus. Severino and his parents leave the vessel.
-975.M41: Donato Valdez joins the reconstruction effort as a builder.
-979.M41: The young Severino is discovered to have a low level of psychic ability and is taken away by the Adeptus Astra Telepathica.
-984.M41: Severino arrives at Holy Terra and is deemed fit for training by the Scholastica Psykana.
-987.M41: Severino develops a sudden and passionate appreciation for the female form. His instructors are eternally grateful that he is woefully bad at both biomancy and telekinesis.
-988.M41: Severino is discovered in illicit liaisons with another sanctionite. His instructors attempt to "correct" Severino's demeanour through telepathic means but have only limited success. Severino is nonetheless lectured on what the term "age of consent" means.
-991.M41: Although only a low-level diviner, Severino discovers his niche in what his instructors term "hyper-awareness" and combines this with rather unsettling deductive skills. His instructors also remark that "one does not need to be a psyker to be the next Trulatch House".
-993.M41: Marksmanship tuition finally gives Severino the opportunity to combine his hyper-awareness with a rudimentary form of telekinetic matter-detection, and accordingly his instructors note a dramatic increase in Severino's accuracy with firearms when he exercises his psychic powers.
-(Unknown).M41: Severino becomes a full initiate of the Scholastica Psykana. Rumours that he is now sleeping with his instructors are dismissed as "greatly exaggerated".
-004.M42: Severino is recruited by Inquisitor Daniella Delgardo for detective work on Komi Decimus in the Carthax Sector.
-005.M42: Severino proves to have extremely sticky fingers during an operation on Valmard Prime, and manages to "acquire" a Neolith chronometer, an officer's dress sabre, a bag of dice commemorating King Alfonso III's silver jubilee, and a bronze medallion of Saint Kalten the Hardy, in separate raids on black market dens. The chronometer turns out to be counterfeit.
-007.M42: Two and a half years of chasing an "unknown heretic" across the length and breadth of the sector end when Severino is invited into Inquisitor Delgardo's bedchamber. Six hours later, Inquisitor Delgardo is found naked and dead in her bedchambers, her neck snapped, with her throat cut apparently for good measure. Hidden compartments in the furniture are open and there is enough incriminating evidence therein to expose Delgardo as the unknown heretic. To Severino's credit he attempts to neither escape nor make excuses when questioned.
-007.M42: Severino is transferred to Inquisitor Osmond Johm's service by the Carthaxian Conclave, largely at the insistence of Inquisitor Gelert Hesh.
-010.M42: Last sighting of Inquisitor Johm by his acolytes, who remain in Carthax while he journeys to Segmentum Tempestus.
-011.M42: Following a disagreement about the supposed murder of Inquisitor Johm in Segmentum Tempestus, Severino is transferred to Inquisitor Creed's service.
-012.M42: Severino leaves Inquisitor Creed's service following an investigation on Mellisan Secundus.
-012.M42: On New Gemini, Severino is found by a Rogue Trader calling herself Marjolein de Haven, and "disappears". All local records of his presence on New Gemini, starting with his recent arrival, are subsequently deleted by a powerful data-virus, and the tramp freighter that brought Severino to New Gemini becomes "lost in the Warp". Severino's own memories are purged and reconstructed by agents of the Inquisition.
-012.M42: Severino, now successfully mind-cleansed, is transferred to the Carthaxian Conclave, who pass him on to a somewhat bemused Inquisitor Ianthe Skarkon.
-012.M42: The present day.



NAME: Severino Valdez

RANK / AFFILIATION: Operative / Inquisition

PHYSICAL STATS:
Date of Birth: (4)394973.M41
Place Of Birth: Spear of the Emperor, Chartist vessel
Gender: Male
Height: 180cm
Weight: 60kg

WS BS S  T  I  Wp Sg Nv Ld
52 50 49 46 54 65 50 60 48


Handedness: Ambidextrous

Equipment: Erstenhemer DM-6 "Viper" compact laspistol with one reload, Sagittar-pattern service laspistol with two reloads, psykana mercy blade, sword, staff, manacles, miscellaneous no-effect equipment (counterfeit Neolith chronometer, bag of dice, self-retracting tape measure, medallion of Saint Kalten, data-copy of Canticles of Chill and Conflagration)

Skills and Talents: Jaded, Magpie, Quick Draw

Psychic Powers: Wyrd-Detection, Hyper-Awareness, Shot In The Dark

"Viper" compact laspistol: This is a smaller version of the Erstenhemer CN-5, issued to covert-ops units as a standard sidearm. It is remarkably light, and is easily concealed in a trouser pocket or other similar space without sacrificing stopping power, although it gets fewer shots per charge cell and is best used at close quarters. How Severino managed to acquire one is better left unknown.
The Viper is constructed using a military magazine, a standard muzzle, a short barrel, an 18MTh lasing chamber, a Thacian-pattern generator, a standard grip and a concealable frame. It has the following profile:
Type   Range   Mode   Acc    Dam    Shots  Reload  Wt
Pistol   E      Sg     -    2D6+1     20      2    8


Sagittar-pattern service laspistol: These weapons are produced in their thousands on Nova Sagittar to arm the local PDF and Imperial Guard regiments. It is noted for its relatively high rate of fire, but is otherwise unremarkable and appears indistinguishable from countless other patterns.
The Sagittar-pattern laspistol is constructed using a military magazine, a standard muzzle, a mid-length barrel, an 18MTh lasing chamber, a Necromunda-pattern generator, a standard grip and a standard frame. It has the following profile:
Type   Range   Mode    Acc    Dam    Shots  Reload  Wt
Pistol   J    Sg/Sm(4)  -    2D6+1     32      2    12


Psykana mercy blade: Blades like these are issued to sanctioned psykers to serve as a last line of defence should the unthinkable come to pass.
Should a psyker carrying a mercy blade ever be possessed by a daemon, he may test Willpower to draw the mercy blade and deliver an automatic Critical Hit to his own throat (treat as a Critical Hit to the head from a short sword,  but bypassing armour unless the character has a gorget) in an attempt to kill himself before the daemon can take over. If this kills the psyker then the daemon's possession attempt fails.

Manacles: Severino may use these to attempt to restrain a prone or stunned opponent, making an opposed Initiative test against the character whose arms he is trying to restrain. Should Severino have more degrees of success than the other character, he successfully handcuffs his opponent; otherwise, the other character breaks free. Should Severino fail by more than five degrees, the manacles break and become unusable.


Jaded: Severino no longer responds to fear as normal men do -- something in the back of his head tells him that he has stared down the worst the galaxy can throw at him. He may re-roll failed Fear and Terror tests, provided that the Fearsome or Terrifying character is not a Warp entity (including such otherworldly delights as Psycheneuein or Enslavers).

Magpie: One trait of Severino's that was not removed during the mind-cleansing was his tendency to steal anything not bolted down -- evidently his new master deemed his thieving habits useful. On a successful Initiative test, Severino may steal a random object within two yards and add it to his inventory (note that everyone around the table must exercise common sense; if Severino is in a cathedral, for example, he may not use this ability to simply steal a thirty-foot statue of the Emperor -- it wouldn't fit in his pocket).
For each non-friendly character aware of Severino, reduce Severino's Initiative by -10 for this test.


Hyper-Awareness: Difficulty 0. The psyker immediately becomes aware of all the tiny details and subtle nuances about his surroundings, no matter how insignificant, and can deduce information about anything and everything within 2D6 yards of his current position.
Alternatively, the psyker can use this power against any non-hostile character of which he is aware (treating it as a ranged power). In this case, he may derive information from the target character's stance, attire, facial expressions, or in fact anything usually revealed by the Mind Scan power (without actually reading the character's mind to do so).
In either case, the user must spend an entire turn using this power and can take no further action besides talking (which he may do as a Combined Action with no penalty).

Shot In The Dark: "One step away from you..."
Difficulty 10. The psyker allows his next shot to be guided by his mind alone. His next shot, provided that it is a single shot firing directly (and not semi-auto or full auto), may be tested against Willpower rather than against Ballistic Skill. Furthermore, each degree of success when manifesting Shot In The Dark grants a +10 bonus to the hit roll, and penalties to the hit roll due to environmental conditions (such as light levels) are waived, although the shot may not become a Placed Shot.
Shot In The Dark may not be used with flame weapons, nor with weapons that cannot fire direct single shots.

---

The wording for Hyper-Awareness took rather a long time to get into its present form, and I'm still not sure it makes any sense. Basically, Severino can do a psychic version of a Sherlock Scan.

The character is a formalised tabletop-version of someone I've already used on the In Character forum, most recently here. That link also led into the "repurposed" bit, so he's likely to have had Jaded and his ambidexterity downloaded into his head when he was being put back together.

Marco: Spot the thing from the List Of Things :P


EDIT: For ease of reference, the current iteration of my convert-from-40KRP-to-INQ algorithm is as follows:
WS, BS: +20
S, T: +15
I: Ag+20, or (Ag+Per+40)/2 if there's a substantial difference between Ag and Per
Wp: +20
Sg: Int+15
Nv: Wp+15
Ld: Fel+15



EDIT: formatting, typos, then some more formatting
EDIT: changed the mercy blade's suicide attack, so it can now do what it's supposed to do against a character with BIV 4 or higher
EDIT: changed the charge generator in the Viper so that when I do the CN-5, it'll make more sense

Quickdraw McGraw

I really like the timeline of events that lead him to the present!   8)  Plus, I love the Magpie ability!  It's a character flaw and I like to see a little
of that every now and again in folks characters.

Though I maybe wrong but when you say Magpie he more or less is a Kleptomaniac and a hoarder at the same time, right?

If you don't mind I'd like to steal this one?   ;) I played a Midget with a filching habit in a Serenity RPG a few years ago.  What fun and everyone loved that character!  I even talked with a heavy Irish accent.   ;)

Josh

Every time I see a math word problem in the warp it looks like this: 

If I have 10 ice cubes and you have 11 apples. How many pancakes will fit on the roof?

Answer:  Purple because Tyranids don't wear hats.   :P

Koval

Quote from: Quickdraw McGraw on August 17, 2012, 10:52:35 PM
I really like the timeline of events that lead him to the present!   8)
That's what I tend to do with characters rather than present a chunk of prose -- it means I can get all the important bits in, and a bit of humour, while taking up less screen-space. :P

QuotePlus, I love the Magpie ability!  It's a character flaw and I like to see a little
of that every now and again in folks characters.
Honestly, I threw Magpie in as a total joke. None of my characters are 100% serious all the time (unless their name happens to be Gelert Hesh), hence Magpie and all the joke items in his inventory. (Such as the fake watch.)

QuoteThough I maybe wrong but when you say Magpie he more or less is a Kleptomaniac and a hoarder at the same time, right?
Pretty much. He's got some very sticky fingers and his new master saw no reason to change that -- in fact, she probably made his habit worse. Taking him out to raid a heretic's lair is like playing an Elder Scrolls game.

QuoteIf you don't mind I'd like to steal this one?   ;)
Oh, by all means. I tried to make some of the rules generic (psykana mercy blade, the new psychic powers) but I couldn't think of how to do it with some of his abilities as they were tied in a bit too much with who he was (with the exception of the manacles, which I think he had to re-learn how to use properly).

I should probably make it clear (or indeed clearer) that none of Severino's rules are intended to be specific to himself.

Quickdraw McGraw

Quote from: Koval on August 18, 2012, 09:10:11 AM
Honestly, I threw Magpie in as a total joke. None of my characters are 100% serious all the time (unless their name happens to be Gelert Hesh), hence Magpie and all the joke items in his inventory.

It's a good thing, don't knock it.  Seriously, I can't make any character without a little humor involved.   ;D   I tend to focus more on the character's personallity before moving on the clothes, guns and gadgets.  And I like a lot of fun in my games.  I once painted up some of the dark eldar slaves( from like 3rd edition I think, it was the mid 90s) ultramarine colors and gave them pom-poms to cheer for my Space Marines. I even did up some nurglings( with green stuff) as the Teletubbies.   ;D  Everyone loved 'em!

Josh
Every time I see a math word problem in the warp it looks like this: 

If I have 10 ice cubes and you have 11 apples. How many pancakes will fit on the roof?

Answer:  Purple because Tyranids don't wear hats.   :P

MarcoSkoll

He'll be pretty fragile on the table given his T46 and no armour.

Maya Avens, who was, until after the 2011 Summer 'Clave, T48 and no armour - she went out of the game boringly fast to a few stubber shots.
She's since gained "Impact Braid clothing" (AV 2, in this case) to make putting her out of the game a bit less depressingly easy.

As for the rest, I've not really got anything to add. The rules all work pretty well, and the only thing I can really suggest is adding some rules for how a manacled character could escape (someone is going to want to break out, be it by brute bionic strength, cutting them with a power sword, etc at some point!)

And yes, I did spot the thing from the list of things.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Koval

Quote from: MarcoSkoll on August 18, 2012, 10:25:09 PM
He'll be pretty fragile on the table given his T46 and no armour.

Maya Avens, who was, until after the 2011 Summer 'Clave, T48 and no armour - she went out of the game boringly fast to a few stubber shots.
She's since gained "Impact Braid clothing" (AV 2, in this case) to make putting her out of the game a bit less depressingly easy.
Any armour he gets will likely be the end result of what the model itself looks like -- I remember having to add armour to (or take armour from) some of my other characters based on the bits I was using, so I didn't want to get too far ahead of myself there.

Quotethe only thing I can really suggest is adding some rules for how a manacled character could escape (someone is going to want to break out, be it by brute bionic strength, cutting them with a power sword, etc at some point!)
Good point. I was about to say "opposed vs Strength 70" but then I started thinking "Strength test at -20?" and now I don't even know what would work best.

The manacles themselves, however, can have something like AV 4 (they're made of metal but aren't super-sturdy, after all) but that's also open to change and/or debate.