Toptomcat

Cool, a Thai boxer. I've got a Gracie Jujutsu fighter coming for my PL 6 character- maybe they could team up sometime.

Cool, a Thai boxer. I've got a Gracie Jujutsu fighter coming for my PL 6 character- maybe they could team up sometime.

Thanks for getting to me, first of all. The Shapeshift is for little things, not big things- stuff like communications and sense powers, minor enhancements, mobility boosts, and other widgety powers. I'm aware of its limitations. And what's wrong with stats being listed as augmented/unaugmented, like I've got here? As for the Minions and Headquarters, I will await ruling on that.

Thanks for getting to me, first of all. The Shapeshift is for little things, not big things- stuff like communications and sense powers, minor enhancements, mobility boosts, and other widgety powers. I'm aware of its limitations. And what's wrong with stats being listed as augmented/unaugmented, like I've got here? As for the Minions and Headquarters, I will await ruling on that.

Thanks for getting to me, first of all. The Shapeshift is for little things, not big things- stuff like communications and sense powers, minor enhancements, mobility boosts, and other widgety powers. I'm aware of its limitations. And what's wrong with stats being listed as augmented/unaugmented, like I've got here? As for the Minions and Headquarters, I will await ruling on that.

C'mon...is this so much of a monster that nobody will touch it? It's not that complex- no gargantuan arrays, no umpteen-characters-in-one Alternate Form nonsense...the only complex bit is the parts bought in the Gadget that aren't normally bought there, such as the attack and defense bonii, the feats, and the skills. And the minions, but as said before, unless Ragnarok comes or someone tries to attack his Headquarters, they won't really come into play.

C'mon...is this so much of a monster that nobody will touch it? It's not that complex- no gargantuan arrays, no umpteen-characters-in-one Alternate Form nonsense...the only complex bit is the parts bought in the Gadget that aren't normally bought there, such as the attack and defense bonii, the feats, and the skills. And the minions, but as said before, unless Ragnarok comes or someone tries to attack his Headquarters, they won't really come into play.

C'mon...is this so much of a monster that nobody will touch it? It's not that complex- no gargantuan arrays, no umpteen-characters-in-one Alternate Form nonsense...the only complex bit is the parts bought in the Gadget that aren't normally bought there, such as the attack and defense bonii, the feats, and the skills. And the minions, but as said before, unless Ragnarok comes or someone tries to attack his Headquarters, they won't really come into play.

Well, depending on how I answer that question, the answer could be 'years.' The original concept for the character is pre-M&M, being a concept I came up with for an old-school TSR Marvel Super Heroes game. The game never saw the light of day, so I filed it away on my hard drive, and at some point converted the character to first edition Mutants and Masterminds in a fit of boredom. When I saw this game, I thought this would be a perfect time to dust off the old character and try it again. The conversion only took me a few hours, because I have a good feel for the system and knew what I wanted.

Well, depending on how I answer that question, the answer could be 'years.' The original concept for the character is pre-M&M, being a concept I came up with for an old-school TSR Marvel Super Heroes game. The game never saw the light of day, so I filed it away on my hard drive, and at some point converted the character to first edition Mutants and Masterminds in a fit of boredom. When I saw this game, I thought this would be a perfect time to dust off the old character and try it again. The conversion only took me a few hours, because I have a good feel for the system and knew what I wanted.

Well, depending on how I answer that question, the answer could be 'years.' The original concept for the character is pre-M&M, being a concept I came up with for an old-school TSR Marvel Super Heroes game. The game never saw the light of day, so I filed it away on my hard drive, and at some point converted the character to first edition Mutants and Masterminds in a fit of boredom. When I saw this game, I thought this would be a perfect time to dust off the old character and try it again. The conversion only took me a few hours, because I have a good feel for the system and knew what I wanted.

You misunderstand. The minions are there primarily to be the Security Force from Hell for the headquarters, and maybe to deploy as emergency backup in apocalypse events or full-scale alien invasions and the like. The idea is not to have a hundred jackbooted soldiers dogging every step the character takes and providing support fire in massive quantinties against every supervillian. The idea is to provide support, in general terms, when deploying a small army would actually be an appropriate action.

You misunderstand. The minions are there primarily to be the Security Force from Hell for the headquarters, and maybe to deploy as emergency backup in apocalypse events or full-scale alien invasions and the like. The idea is not to have a hundred jackbooted soldiers dogging every step the character takes and providing support fire in massive quantinties against every supervillian. The idea is to provide support, in general terms, when deploying a small army would actually be an appropriate action.

You misunderstand. The minions are there primarily to be the Security Force from Hell for the headquarters, and maybe to deploy as emergency backup in apocalypse events or full-scale alien invasions and the like. The idea is not to have a hundred jackbooted soldiers dogging every step the character takes and providing support fire in massive quantinties against every supervillian. The idea is to provide support, in general terms, when deploying a small army would actually be an appropriate action.

Players Name: Toptomcat Power Level: 10 (158/160 PPs) Unspent PPs: 2 Characters Name: Benjiro Fujisama Alternate Identity: Shinken Height: 5' 9" Weight: 152 lb Hair: Black Eyes: Brown Description: Out of his armor, Benjiro is a fairly typical Japanese young adult, with a somewhat emaciated body, an unusual trembling about the hands, and an awkward way of walking- all due to nerve damage. He is soft-spoken and subtle, strangely so for someone of his age. Inside it, he's another story. Confident, flamboyant and mobile, Benjiro takes joy in moving as easily and as smoothly as the armor lets him. The actual armor is, as powered armors go, extremely subtle: it's no more than an inch and a half thick in its largest dimension, easily capable of being concealed under heavy clothes if the helmet is removed. Its most outstanding features are the traditional-style somen (full face mask) with glowing green eyes, and the striking red-and-gold paint job it sports. History: Benjiro Fujisama is an unusual figure, a twenty-five-year-old Japanese billionare arms dealer with a Stateside secret identity as a superhero. Born to upper-middle class parents in Okinawa, Japan, he was a champion in his collegiate kendo team, leading it to national dominance while maintaining good grades in his chosen major of mechanical engineering. He lived the high life, riding on a crest of fame: kendo is one of the biggest collegiate sports played in Japan, and his success in it made him a fairly huge celebrity there. One day, it all came crashing down. In an attempt to avoid the super-groups that plagued him in the States, the American supercriminal Devil-Ray attempted to rob a bank in Naha. While he was stopped by the local hero Bushido, his suit was ruptured in the fight, and a set of nerve gas canisters Devil-Ray had recently added flooded the bank. Bushido rescued most of the bystanders, but it was too late for Benji's parents, and he himself suffered permanent nerve damage that left him barely able to walk, let alone win kendo championships. That night, Devil-Ray's armor vanished from the Naha precinct house. Over the next few months, Benjiro threw himself into his studies, studying traditional mechanical engineering by day and the subsystems of Devil-ray's stolen powered suit by night. While he was nowhere near as intelligent as he would've needed to be to create a battlesuit on his own, with Devil-Ray's excellent designs on hand he was able to reverse-engineer and improve on it, creating a much less bulky suit that complimented his swordsmanship talents and compensated for his nerve damage by designing a spinal chord jack that he got implanted, bypassing the nervous system entirely. Between the surgery and his battlesuit, however, he was reaching the limits of his inheritance money, and ran the risk of being stopped by poverty before he could finish the armor that would let him move again. So Benji took a path that few super-inventors have: he went commercial. Using the last of his parents' money as well as a substantial loan, he started Ares Macrotechnology, Inc., a company commercially selling battlesuits and powered walkers that, while not outperforming typical others like AEGIS' Ajax Units, were more readily available and customizable, as well as significantly cheaper. However, the company foundered. A lack of the necessary capital to advertise, combined with a widespread perception that the armored suits were gimmicky toys rather than effective battle armor, slowed sales to the point of being imperceptible. In the summer of 1998, his creditors were pounding at his door, his staff had been reduced to a skeleton, and the battlesuit that gave him his mobility was still prototypical and required more time and money to perfect. Things seemed bleak. Then, Benjiro saw an American news broadcast on the exploits of Daedalus, and suddenly there was hope. Painting the suit with the Ares colors of red, yellow and gold, as well as boosting its combat capabilities in a fairly unique way, he set up a temporary residence in the States and proceeded to join the high-profile superhero scene there as the sword-wielding Shinken, using it as a publicity stunt to promote Ares' battlesuits. In a twist that amused him and endeared him to the papers, the first problem he had the opportunity to tackle was a samurai robot built by the Japanese genius Doc Otaku. In a spectacular twenty-minute duel in a Freedom City construction site, Shinken disarmed and defeated the agile android without ever once being touched by the robot's deadly energized sword. He masterfully took advantage of the ensuing media circus to promote Ares Macrotech's products, destroying the company's negative image overnight and establishing it as a force to be reckoned with. In the next nine months, the company went nova: they won a U.S. contract to refit aging AEGIS Ajax Units, contracts with the Australian and Dakanan militaries to supply a platoon's worth of the company's Chigatana-class armed walkers, and an order from the British SAS for ten Shinsengumi-class antiterrorist battlesuits. He issued an American stock IPO just as the stock market there went through the roof with the Internet boom, and Ares' futuristic-seeming products rode that wave into a market capitalization in the billions of dollars. Cannily using his company's inflated value to purchase real manufacturing assets, Benjiro transformed Ares into a titanic multi-faceted military contractor, selling its advanced products to elite military units all over the world. Ares has become a byword, not only for advanced battlesuits, but for super-premium military equipment of all types- from match-grade .50 BMG ammunition to daka-crystal silencers. Benjiro continues to adventure publicly as Shinken, both to gain publicity for Ares- and to prevent tragedies like his parents' from ever happening again. Stats: [-6pp] Str: 4 / 22 (-3 / +6 ) Dex: 6 / 26 (-2 / +8) Con: 4 / 18 (-3 / +4) Int: 18 (+4) Wis: 10 (+0) Cha: 12 (+1) Combat [0pp] Attack: +4, +6 Melee, +10 w/ Own Swords; +0 out of armor Grapple: +8; +0 out of armor Defense: +10 (+5 flat-footed); +0 out of armor Knockback: -5; +1 out of armor Initiative: +10; -3 out of armor Saves: [6pp] Toughness: +10; -3 out of suit Fortitude: +4; -3 out of suit (+4/-3 Con, +0) Reflex: +8; -2 out of suit (+8/-2 Dex, +0) Will: +6 (+0 Wis, +6) Skills: 80r = 20pp See Powers: also Computers 8 (+12) Craft (electronic) 12 (+16) Craft (mechanical) 12 (+16) Diplomacy 8 (+9) Gather Information 8 (+9) Knowledge (Business) 14 (+18) Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 4 (+8) Knowledge (technology) 8 (+12) Language 2 (English, Mandarin Chinese; Japanese is native) Sense Motive 4 (+4) Feats: [16pp] See Powers: also Benefit 8 (security clearance, wealth 6x, wide-ranging Headquarters Personnel in dire emergency) Connected (Wide-ranging and powerful connections; many in the governments and militaries of the Western world and a great deal of influence in the Japanese and American business worlds.) Contacts Equipment 4 (Headquarters) Inventor Well-Informed Also on-site for the use of the security force are two APCs and a military helicopter. (4 of the guards have 5 pp worth of specialist abilities, 1 has 4.) Powers: [118+10 = 128pp] Device 29 ("Shinken" Battlesuit, 145pp, Hard to Lose; PF: Restricted 2/Only Benjiro) [118pp] Device 3 (Daisho, 15 points, Easy to Lose) (PF: Benefit: Disarm Resistance) [10pp] Devices Shinken Battlesuit (145 points) Enhanced Attack 4 Enhanced Attack 2 (Flaw: apply only to katanas) Enhanced Constitution 14 Enhanced Defense 10 Enhanced Dexterity 20 Enhanced Feats 32 (Acrobatic Bluff, Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Ambidexterity, Attack Focus [melee] 2, Attack Specialization [shinken's Daisho] 1, Blind-Fight, Defensive Attack, Elusive Target, Evasion 2, Grappling Finesse, Improved Aim, Improved Block, Improved Critical [shinken's Daisho] 2, Improved Defense 2, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Improved Trip, Instant Up, Power Attack, Quick Draw, Move-By Action, Set-Up, Takedown Attack 2, Uncanny Dodge [sight], Weapon Bind) Enhanced Skills 12 (Acrobatics +8, Climb +4) Enhanced Strength 18 Immunity 9 (life support) Protection 6 Variable Power 3 (any combination of traits) (modular systems; Flaws: Action [takes full round to reconfigure]), Limited (cannot reconfigure without returning to Headquarters); Drawbacks: Action (5 hours to reconfigure) (5) The Shinken battlesuit is a work of genius. It has all of the features of a typical battlesuit, providing impressive protection and augmenting the wearer's strength to impressive levels: it is also a walking medical aid, constantly monitoring and stabilizing Benjiro's weakened body. However, its real 'killer app' is far more innovative. The suit is controlled by a direct neural interface, tapping into Benjiro's spinal chord to control it and entirely bypassing the clumsiness produced by his heavily damaged motor nerves. This basic technology is augmented by an extremely well-written and inspired program running on an onboard computer that extends the wearer's perception of 'self' to include the weapon they hold. This allows the user to wield their weapon exactly as if it were an extension of their own body, allowing perfect stance, balance and form without even having to think about it. While inherent limitations on onboard processing power make the program less and less effective the further the held weapon is from what the program is designed for- thirty-two inch shinshintÃ…Â-pattern katana- it remains an impressively innovative way to turn Benjiro's weakness into a strength. Daisho (15 points) Strike 4 (Extra: Penetrating 7; PFs: Mighty, Alternate Power 2, Variable Descriptor (Physical, Slashing descriptors if lethal, Physical, Bludgeoning if nonlethal) AP: Strike 4 ("lightsaber"; Extra: Penetrating 5; PFs: Mighty, Extended Reach 2, Incurable, Affects Insubstantial 1; Drawbacks: Lethal Only (Energy, Heat, Plasma descriptors) AP: Stun 6 (taser-baton; PF: Accurate) (Electricity descriptor) Carried in a pair of sheaths on Benjiro's left hip, these two swords provide Benjiro with a surprisingly versatile offense. The first is a conventionally sharp katana; the blade is a single, flawless iron crystal grown in a vat in Shanghai, and contained in the hilt is a plasma emitter for unusual situations in which an energy attack will be more advantageous than a physical one. The second is a blunt sword made of an advanced plastic, and studded with electrodes to offer a non-lethal option. The Disarm Resistance benefit means that the device has to be disarmed twice to be fully negated. Disarming the sharp blade gives the Nonlethal Only drawback to the main Strike and eliminates the Stun AP: disarming the blunt one gives the Lethal Only drawback to the main Strike and eliminates the Strike/"lightsaber" AP. Drawbacks: Vulnerable (neurotoxins: Common, Major, ad hoc ad +1 pt because gases and anything breaching the suit bypasses normal Immunity) - 5 pts. -Even a few molecules of neurotoxin will have a devastating impact on Benjiro's already weakened system. -Minor Vulnerability to Software-based attacks - 1 pt. Recent upgrades to the operating code of the battlesuit have introduced a number of security flaws. DC Block Unarmed, without Suit -- DC 12 Toughness -- Bruise Unarmed, w/ Suit -- DC 21 Toughness -- Bruise Daisho, Katana or Bokken -- DC 25 Toughness (Pen 7) -- Injury or Bruise Daisho, Lightsaber -- DC 25 Toughness (Pen 5) -- Injury; 15 ft. reach Daisho, Taser-Baton -- DC 16 Fort -- Stun Costs: Abilities (-6) + Combat (0) + Saves (6) + Skills (20) + Feats (16) + Powers (128) - Drawbacks (06) = 158 / 160 pp

Players Name: Toptomcat Power Level: 10 (158/160 PPs) Unspent PPs: 2 Characters Name: Benjiro Fujisama Alternate Identity: Shinken Height: 5' 9" Weight: 152 lb Hair: Black Eyes: Brown Description: Out of his armor, Benjiro is a fairly typical Japanese young adult, with a somewhat emaciated body, an unusual trembling about the hands, and an awkward way of walking- all due to nerve damage. He is soft-spoken and subtle, strangely so for someone of his age. Inside it, he's another story. Confident, flamboyant and mobile, Benjiro takes joy in moving as easily and as smoothly as the armor lets him. The actual armor is, as powered armors go, extremely subtle: it's no more than an inch and a half thick in its largest dimension, easily capable of being concealed under heavy clothes if the helmet is removed. Its most outstanding features are the traditional-style somen (full face mask) with glowing green eyes, and the striking red-and-gold paint job it sports. History: Benjiro Fujisama is an unusual figure, a twenty-five-year-old Japanese billionare arms dealer with a Stateside secret identity as a superhero. Born to upper-middle class parents in Okinawa, Japan, he was a champion in his collegiate kendo team, leading it to national dominance while maintaining good grades in his chosen major of mechanical engineering. He lived the high life, riding on a crest of fame: kendo is one of the biggest collegiate sports played in Japan, and his success in it made him a fairly huge celebrity there. One day, it all came crashing down. In an attempt to avoid the super-groups that plagued him in the States, the American supercriminal Devil-Ray attempted to rob a bank in Naha. While he was stopped by the local hero Bushido, his suit was ruptured in the fight, and a set of nerve gas canisters Devil-Ray had recently added flooded the bank. Bushido rescued most of the bystanders, but it was too late for Benji's parents, and he himself suffered permanent nerve damage that left him barely able to walk, let alone win kendo championships. That night, Devil-Ray's armor vanished from the Naha precinct house. Over the next few months, Benjiro threw himself into his studies, studying traditional mechanical engineering by day and the subsystems of Devil-ray's stolen powered suit by night. While he was nowhere near as intelligent as he would've needed to be to create a battlesuit on his own, with Devil-Ray's excellent designs on hand he was able to reverse-engineer and improve on it, creating a much less bulky suit that complimented his swordsmanship talents and compensated for his nerve damage by designing a spinal chord jack that he got implanted, bypassing the nervous system entirely. Between the surgery and his battlesuit, however, he was reaching the limits of his inheritance money, and ran the risk of being stopped by poverty before he could finish the armor that would let him move again. So Benji took a path that few super-inventors have: he went commercial. Using the last of his parents' money as well as a substantial loan, he started Ares Macrotechnology, Inc., a company commercially selling battlesuits and powered walkers that, while not outperforming typical others like AEGIS' Ajax Units, were more readily available and customizable, as well as significantly cheaper. However, the company foundered. A lack of the necessary capital to advertise, combined with a widespread perception that the armored suits were gimmicky toys rather than effective battle armor, slowed sales to the point of being imperceptible. In the summer of 1998, his creditors were pounding at his door, his staff had been reduced to a skeleton, and the battlesuit that gave him his mobility was still prototypical and required more time and money to perfect. Things seemed bleak. Then, Benjiro saw an American news broadcast on the exploits of Daedalus, and suddenly there was hope. Painting the suit with the Ares colors of red, yellow and gold, as well as boosting its combat capabilities in a fairly unique way, he set up a temporary residence in the States and proceeded to join the high-profile superhero scene there as the sword-wielding Shinken, using it as a publicity stunt to promote Ares' battlesuits. In a twist that amused him and endeared him to the papers, the first problem he had the opportunity to tackle was a samurai robot built by the Japanese genius Doc Otaku. In a spectacular twenty-minute duel in a Freedom City construction site, Shinken disarmed and defeated the agile android without ever once being touched by the robot's deadly energized sword. He masterfully took advantage of the ensuing media circus to promote Ares Macrotech's products, destroying the company's negative image overnight and establishing it as a force to be reckoned with. In the next nine months, the company went nova: they won a U.S. contract to refit aging AEGIS Ajax Units, contracts with the Australian and Dakanan militaries to supply a platoon's worth of the company's Chigatana-class armed walkers, and an order from the British SAS for ten Shinsengumi-class antiterrorist battlesuits. He issued an American stock IPO just as the stock market there went through the roof with the Internet boom, and Ares' futuristic-seeming products rode that wave into a market capitalization in the billions of dollars. Cannily using his company's inflated value to purchase real manufacturing assets, Benjiro transformed Ares into a titanic multi-faceted military contractor, selling its advanced products to elite military units all over the world. Ares has become a byword, not only for advanced battlesuits, but for super-premium military equipment of all types- from match-grade .50 BMG ammunition to daka-crystal silencers. Benjiro continues to adventure publicly as Shinken, both to gain publicity for Ares- and to prevent tragedies like his parents' from ever happening again. Stats: [-6pp] Str: 4 / 22 (-3 / +6 ) Dex: 6 / 26 (-2 / +8) Con: 4 / 18 (-3 / +4) Int: 18 (+4) Wis: 10 (+0) Cha: 12 (+1) Combat [0pp] Attack: +4, +6 Melee, +10 w/ Own Swords; +0 out of armor Grapple: +8; +0 out of armor Defense: +10 (+5 flat-footed); +0 out of armor Knockback: -5; +1 out of armor Initiative: +10; -3 out of armor Saves: [6pp] Toughness: +10; -3 out of suit Fortitude: +4; -3 out of suit (+4/-3 Con, +0) Reflex: +8; -2 out of suit (+8/-2 Dex, +0) Will: +6 (+0 Wis, +6) Skills: 80r = 20pp See Powers: also Computers 8 (+12) Craft (electronic) 12 (+16) Craft (mechanical) 12 (+16) Diplomacy 8 (+9) Gather Information 8 (+9) Knowledge (Business) 14 (+18) Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 4 (+8) Knowledge (technology) 8 (+12) Language 2 (English, Mandarin Chinese; Japanese is native) Sense Motive 4 (+4) Feats: [16pp] See Powers: also Benefit 8 (security clearance, wealth 6x, wide-ranging Headquarters Personnel in dire emergency) Connected (Wide-ranging and powerful connections; many in the governments and militaries of the Western world and a great deal of influence in the Japanese and American business worlds.) Contacts Equipment 4 (Headquarters) Inventor Well-Informed Also on-site for the use of the security force are two APCs and a military helicopter. (4 of the guards have 5 pp worth of specialist abilities, 1 has 4.) Powers: [118+10 = 128pp] Device 29 ("Shinken" Battlesuit, 145pp, Hard to Lose; PF: Restricted 2/Only Benjiro) [118pp] Device 3 (Daisho, 15 points, Easy to Lose) (PF: Benefit: Disarm Resistance) [10pp] Devices Shinken Battlesuit (145 points) Enhanced Attack 4 Enhanced Attack 2 (Flaw: apply only to katanas) Enhanced Constitution 14 Enhanced Defense 10 Enhanced Dexterity 20 Enhanced Feats 32 (Acrobatic Bluff, Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Ambidexterity, Attack Focus [melee] 2, Attack Specialization [shinken's Daisho] 1, Blind-Fight, Defensive Attack, Elusive Target, Evasion 2, Grappling Finesse, Improved Aim, Improved Block, Improved Critical [shinken's Daisho] 2, Improved Defense 2, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Improved Trip, Instant Up, Power Attack, Quick Draw, Move-By Action, Set-Up, Takedown Attack 2, Uncanny Dodge [sight], Weapon Bind) Enhanced Skills 12 (Acrobatics +8, Climb +4) Enhanced Strength 18 Immunity 9 (life support) Protection 6 Variable Power 3 (any combination of traits) (modular systems; Flaws: Action [takes full round to reconfigure]), Limited (cannot reconfigure without returning to Headquarters); Drawbacks: Action (5 hours to reconfigure) (5) The Shinken battlesuit is a work of genius. It has all of the features of a typical battlesuit, providing impressive protection and augmenting the wearer's strength to impressive levels: it is also a walking medical aid, constantly monitoring and stabilizing Benjiro's weakened body. However, its real 'killer app' is far more innovative. The suit is controlled by a direct neural interface, tapping into Benjiro's spinal chord to control it and entirely bypassing the clumsiness produced by his heavily damaged motor nerves. This basic technology is augmented by an extremely well-written and inspired program running on an onboard computer that extends the wearer's perception of 'self' to include the weapon they hold. This allows the user to wield their weapon exactly as if it were an extension of their own body, allowing perfect stance, balance and form without even having to think about it. While inherent limitations on onboard processing power make the program less and less effective the further the held weapon is from what the program is designed for- thirty-two inch shinshintÃ…Â-pattern katana- it remains an impressively innovative way to turn Benjiro's weakness into a strength. Daisho (15 points) Strike 4 (Extra: Penetrating 7; PFs: Mighty, Alternate Power 2, Variable Descriptor (Physical, Slashing descriptors if lethal, Physical, Bludgeoning if nonlethal) AP: Strike 4 ("lightsaber"; Extra: Penetrating 5; PFs: Mighty, Extended Reach 2, Incurable, Affects Insubstantial 1; Drawbacks: Lethal Only (Energy, Heat, Plasma descriptors) AP: Stun 6 (taser-baton; PF: Accurate) (Electricity descriptor) Carried in a pair of sheaths on Benjiro's left hip, these two swords provide Benjiro with a surprisingly versatile offense. The first is a conventionally sharp katana; the blade is a single, flawless iron crystal grown in a vat in Shanghai, and contained in the hilt is a plasma emitter for unusual situations in which an energy attack will be more advantageous than a physical one. The second is a blunt sword made of an advanced plastic, and studded with electrodes to offer a non-lethal option. The Disarm Resistance benefit means that the device has to be disarmed twice to be fully negated. Disarming the sharp blade gives the Nonlethal Only drawback to the main Strike and eliminates the Stun AP: disarming the blunt one gives the Lethal Only drawback to the main Strike and eliminates the Strike/"lightsaber" AP. Drawbacks: Vulnerable (neurotoxins: Common, Major, ad hoc ad +1 pt because gases and anything breaching the suit bypasses normal Immunity) - 5 pts. -Even a few molecules of neurotoxin will have a devastating impact on Benjiro's already weakened system. -Minor Vulnerability to Software-based attacks - 1 pt. Recent upgrades to the operating code of the battlesuit have introduced a number of security flaws. DC Block Unarmed, without Suit -- DC 12 Toughness -- Bruise Unarmed, w/ Suit -- DC 21 Toughness -- Bruise Daisho, Katana or Bokken -- DC 25 Toughness (Pen 7) -- Injury or Bruise Daisho, Lightsaber -- DC 25 Toughness (Pen 5) -- Injury; 15 ft. reach Daisho, Taser-Baton -- DC 16 Fort -- Stun Costs: Abilities (-6) + Combat (0) + Saves (6) + Skills (20) + Feats (16) + Powers (128) - Drawbacks (06) = 158 / 160 pp

Players Name: Toptomcat Power Level: 10 (158/160 PPs) Unspent PPs: 2 Characters Name: Benjiro Fujisama Alternate Identity: Shinken Height: 5' 9" Weight: 152 lb Hair: Black Eyes: Brown Description: Out of his armor, Benjiro is a fairly typical Japanese young adult, with a somewhat emaciated body, an unusual trembling about the hands, and an awkward way of walking- all due to nerve damage. He is soft-spoken and subtle, strangely so for someone of his age. Inside it, he's another story. Confident, flamboyant and mobile, Benjiro takes joy in moving as easily and as smoothly as the armor lets him. The actual armor is, as powered armors go, extremely subtle: it's no more than an inch and a half thick in its largest dimension, easily capable of being concealed under heavy clothes if the helmet is removed. Its most outstanding features are the traditional-style somen (full face mask) with glowing green eyes, and the striking red-and-gold paint job it sports. History: Benjiro Fujisama is an unusual figure, a twenty-five-year-old Japanese billionare arms dealer with a Stateside secret identity as a superhero. Born to upper-middle class parents in Okinawa, Japan, he was a champion in his collegiate kendo team, leading it to national dominance while maintaining good grades in his chosen major of mechanical engineering. He lived the high life, riding on a crest of fame: kendo is one of the biggest collegiate sports played in Japan, and his success in it made him a fairly huge celebrity there. One day, it all came crashing down. In an attempt to avoid the super-groups that plagued him in the States, the American supercriminal Devil-Ray attempted to rob a bank in Naha. While he was stopped by the local hero Bushido, his suit was ruptured in the fight, and a set of nerve gas canisters Devil-Ray had recently added flooded the bank. Bushido rescued most of the bystanders, but it was too late for Benji's parents, and he himself suffered permanent nerve damage that left him barely able to walk, let alone win kendo championships. That night, Devil-Ray's armor vanished from the Naha precinct house. Over the next few months, Benjiro threw himself into his studies, studying traditional mechanical engineering by day and the subsystems of Devil-ray's stolen powered suit by night. While he was nowhere near as intelligent as he would've needed to be to create a battlesuit on his own, with Devil-Ray's excellent designs on hand he was able to reverse-engineer and improve on it, creating a much less bulky suit that complimented his swordsmanship talents and compensated for his nerve damage by designing a spinal chord jack that he got implanted, bypassing the nervous system entirely. Between the surgery and his battlesuit, however, he was reaching the limits of his inheritance money, and ran the risk of being stopped by poverty before he could finish the armor that would let him move again. So Benji took a path that few super-inventors have: he went commercial. Using the last of his parents' money as well as a substantial loan, he started Ares Macrotechnology, Inc., a company commercially selling battlesuits and powered walkers that, while not outperforming typical others like AEGIS' Ajax Units, were more readily available and customizable, as well as significantly cheaper. However, the company foundered. A lack of the necessary capital to advertise, combined with a widespread perception that the armored suits were gimmicky toys rather than effective battle armor, slowed sales to the point of being imperceptible. In the summer of 1998, his creditors were pounding at his door, his staff had been reduced to a skeleton, and the battlesuit that gave him his mobility was still prototypical and required more time and money to perfect. Things seemed bleak. Then, Benjiro saw an American news broadcast on the exploits of Daedalus, and suddenly there was hope. Painting the suit with the Ares colors of red, yellow and gold, as well as boosting its combat capabilities in a fairly unique way, he set up a temporary residence in the States and proceeded to join the high-profile superhero scene there as the sword-wielding Shinken, using it as a publicity stunt to promote Ares' battlesuits. In a twist that amused him and endeared him to the papers, the first problem he had the opportunity to tackle was a samurai robot built by the Japanese genius Doc Otaku. In a spectacular twenty-minute duel in a Freedom City construction site, Shinken disarmed and defeated the agile android without ever once being touched by the robot's deadly energized sword. He masterfully took advantage of the ensuing media circus to promote Ares Macrotech's products, destroying the company's negative image overnight and establishing it as a force to be reckoned with. In the next nine months, the company went nova: they won a U.S. contract to refit aging AEGIS Ajax Units, contracts with the Australian and Dakanan militaries to supply a platoon's worth of the company's Chigatana-class armed walkers, and an order from the British SAS for ten Shinsengumi-class antiterrorist battlesuits. He issued an American stock IPO just as the stock market there went through the roof with the Internet boom, and Ares' futuristic-seeming products rode that wave into a market capitalization in the billions of dollars. Cannily using his company's inflated value to purchase real manufacturing assets, Benjiro transformed Ares into a titanic multi-faceted military contractor, selling its advanced products to elite military units all over the world. Ares has become a byword, not only for advanced battlesuits, but for super-premium military equipment of all types- from match-grade .50 BMG ammunition to daka-crystal silencers. Benjiro continues to adventure publicly as Shinken, both to gain publicity for Ares- and to prevent tragedies like his parents' from ever happening again. Stats: [-6pp] Str: 4 / 22 (-3 / +6 ) Dex: 6 / 26 (-2 / +8) Con: 4 / 18 (-3 / +4) Int: 18 (+4) Wis: 10 (+0) Cha: 12 (+1) Combat [0pp] Attack: +4, +6 Melee, +10 w/ Own Swords; +0 out of armor Grapple: +8; +0 out of armor Defense: +10 (+5 flat-footed); +0 out of armor Knockback: -5; +1 out of armor Initiative: +10; -3 out of armor Saves: [6pp] Toughness: +10; -3 out of suit Fortitude: +4; -3 out of suit (+4/-3 Con, +0) Reflex: +8; -2 out of suit (+8/-2 Dex, +0) Will: +6 (+0 Wis, +6) Skills: 80r = 20pp See Powers: also Computers 8 (+12) Craft (electronic) 12 (+16) Craft (mechanical) 12 (+16) Diplomacy 8 (+9) Gather Information 8 (+9) Knowledge (Business) 14 (+18) Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 4 (+8) Knowledge (technology) 8 (+12) Language 2 (English, Mandarin Chinese; Japanese is native) Sense Motive 4 (+4) Feats: [16pp] See Powers: also Benefit 8 (security clearance, wealth 6x, wide-ranging Headquarters Personnel in dire emergency) Connected (Wide-ranging and powerful connections; many in the governments and militaries of the Western world and a great deal of influence in the Japanese and American business worlds.) Contacts Equipment 4 (Headquarters) Inventor Well-Informed Also on-site for the use of the security force are two APCs and a military helicopter. (4 of the guards have 5 pp worth of specialist abilities, 1 has 4.) Powers: [118+10 = 128pp] Device 29 ("Shinken" Battlesuit, 145pp, Hard to Lose; PF: Restricted 2/Only Benjiro) [118pp] Device 3 (Daisho, 15 points, Easy to Lose) (PF: Benefit: Disarm Resistance) [10pp] Devices Shinken Battlesuit (145 points) Enhanced Attack 4 Enhanced Attack 2 (Flaw: apply only to katanas) Enhanced Constitution 14 Enhanced Defense 10 Enhanced Dexterity 20 Enhanced Feats 32 (Acrobatic Bluff, Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Ambidexterity, Attack Focus [melee] 2, Attack Specialization [shinken's Daisho] 1, Blind-Fight, Defensive Attack, Elusive Target, Evasion 2, Grappling Finesse, Improved Aim, Improved Block, Improved Critical [shinken's Daisho] 2, Improved Defense 2, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Improved Trip, Instant Up, Power Attack, Quick Draw, Move-By Action, Set-Up, Takedown Attack 2, Uncanny Dodge [sight], Weapon Bind) Enhanced Skills 12 (Acrobatics +8, Climb +4) Enhanced Strength 18 Immunity 9 (life support) Protection 6 Variable Power 3 (any combination of traits) (modular systems; Flaws: Action [takes full round to reconfigure]), Limited (cannot reconfigure without returning to Headquarters); Drawbacks: Action (5 hours to reconfigure) (5) The Shinken battlesuit is a work of genius. It has all of the features of a typical battlesuit, providing impressive protection and augmenting the wearer's strength to impressive levels: it is also a walking medical aid, constantly monitoring and stabilizing Benjiro's weakened body. However, its real 'killer app' is far more innovative. The suit is controlled by a direct neural interface, tapping into Benjiro's spinal chord to control it and entirely bypassing the clumsiness produced by his heavily damaged motor nerves. This basic technology is augmented by an extremely well-written and inspired program running on an onboard computer that extends the wearer's perception of 'self' to include the weapon they hold. This allows the user to wield their weapon exactly as if it were an extension of their own body, allowing perfect stance, balance and form without even having to think about it. While inherent limitations on onboard processing power make the program less and less effective the further the held weapon is from what the program is designed for- thirty-two inch shinshintÃ…Â-pattern katana- it remains an impressively innovative way to turn Benjiro's weakness into a strength. Daisho (15 points) Strike 4 (Extra: Penetrating 7; PFs: Mighty, Alternate Power 2, Variable Descriptor (Physical, Slashing descriptors if lethal, Physical, Bludgeoning if nonlethal) AP: Strike 4 ("lightsaber"; Extra: Penetrating 5; PFs: Mighty, Extended Reach 2, Incurable, Affects Insubstantial 1; Drawbacks: Lethal Only (Energy, Heat, Plasma descriptors) AP: Stun 6 (taser-baton; PF: Accurate) (Electricity descriptor) Carried in a pair of sheaths on Benjiro's left hip, these two swords provide Benjiro with a surprisingly versatile offense. The first is a conventionally sharp katana; the blade is a single, flawless iron crystal grown in a vat in Shanghai, and contained in the hilt is a plasma emitter for unusual situations in which an energy attack will be more advantageous than a physical one. The second is a blunt sword made of an advanced plastic, and studded with electrodes to offer a non-lethal option. The Disarm Resistance benefit means that the device has to be disarmed twice to be fully negated. Disarming the sharp blade gives the Nonlethal Only drawback to the main Strike and eliminates the Stun AP: disarming the blunt one gives the Lethal Only drawback to the main Strike and eliminates the Strike/"lightsaber" AP. Drawbacks: Vulnerable (neurotoxins: Common, Major, ad hoc ad +1 pt because gases and anything breaching the suit bypasses normal Immunity) - 5 pts. -Even a few molecules of neurotoxin will have a devastating impact on Benjiro's already weakened system. -Minor Vulnerability to Software-based attacks - 1 pt. Recent upgrades to the operating code of the battlesuit have introduced a number of security flaws. DC Block Unarmed, without Suit -- DC 12 Toughness -- Bruise Unarmed, w/ Suit -- DC 21 Toughness -- Bruise Daisho, Katana or Bokken -- DC 25 Toughness (Pen 7) -- Injury or Bruise Daisho, Lightsaber -- DC 25 Toughness (Pen 5) -- Injury; 15 ft. reach Daisho, Taser-Baton -- DC 16 Fort -- Stun Costs: Abilities (-6) + Combat (0) + Saves (6) + Skills (20) + Feats (16) + Powers (128) - Drawbacks (06) = 158 / 160 pp