Palladion – Emanuel

April 4, 2018

Design Notes

We will start with designing Emanuel, our Pankration practitioner in Palladion.  I want to design this character with a heavier focus on Grab or Grappling maneuvers than other characters but decided not to use Wrestling, Sanbo, or Native American Wrestling and wanted to use The Pankration from the Contenders supplement.  As with most Street Fighter characters, Physical Attributes are going to be the priority. Because I want Emanuel to be more of a Learned Warrior, I am going to choose his Mental Attributes as Secondary leaving his Social attributes as Tertiary.  This leads to a starting attribute scores of Strength 4; Dexterity 2; Stamina 4; Charisma 2; Manipulation 2; Appearance 2; Perception 3; Intelligence 3; and Wits 2.

For his Abilities, we will go with Talents primary, Knowledges secondary, and Skills tertiary.  When initially assigning abilities, you cannot start with more than 3, so I will choose Alertness 2; Interrogation 1 as he has learned ow to ask questions; Intimidation 2 from his large size; Insight 2; and Streetwise 1 to reflect his upbringing.  For skills, it’s Bling Fighting 3; and Drive 1 so somebody can actually drive a getaway car if needed. His knowledges are Arena 1 from studying the styles of the current World Warriors; Investigation 1; Medicine 1 from his background; Mysteries 1; and Style Lore 3.

When making a Street Fighter Character, sometimes you look at the Special Maneuvers you want to have and then work backwards to the Techniques needed.  I know that I want to start with Throw as a gateway maneuver to a lot of the ones that follow. Suplex is a better version of Throw and Bear Hug is a sustained hold that can be used to wear down opponents.  Each of these costs 1 Point and then I will round out the starting Maneuvers with the Ducking Fierce Punch from Secrets of Shadaloo that provides an upgrade from the normal punches. Between these four Maneuvers, I need to make sure I have Punch 2 and Grab 3 to meet the prerequisites.  That means the starting Techniques will be Punch 2; Kick 0; Block 2; Grab 3; Athletics 1; and Focus 0.

For his backgrounds, Emanuel has a Sensei of 3 who has been training him, a meager Resources of 1, and Allies of 1 in the form of an old friend of his Sensei.  For Pankration, he starts with 1 Chi and 6 Willpower and the common 10 Health levels. I’ll start his Renown as 2 Honor and 1 Glory.

Finally, we add the Freebie Points to customize Emanuel.  The first thing is if you want to make an expert, you do it here and now.  Freebie points let you buy an additional point or dot of an attribute for a flat rate while experience multiplies it.  For Emanuel, though, I’m going to start by improving his Intelligence to 4 for his concept of a Learned Warrior, add two levels of health, increase his Alertness to 3, and give him an Arena of 2 to represent the corner lot he is using in his old neighborhood.   I’m also providing a free level of Linguistics for all characters to cover Emanuel knowing Spanish and English. All in all, Emanuel is a pretty good starting Street Fighter, if a little one sided as the slow grappling type of fighter.

Advancement Notes

For fun, though, we are advancing the entire Team a bit to show how to develop the characters with Experience.  50 Experience gives us plenty to work with. One of the first things to notice is that Emanuel really needs to round out some of his combat abilities, so he has added two ranks in the Kick Technique (6XP) and improved his Grab Technique to 4(9XP) and Athletics Technique to 2(3XP). Coupled with increasing his Dexterity to 3(10XP), he has seen a drastic improvement in his in-ring ability! (28)

Adding the Pin Maneuver (8XP) gives him another sustained hold he can use to wear down his opponents and the Flying Knee Thrust (4XP) is a surprisingly quick maneuver for someone his size to use. Personally, I always found Flying Knee Thrust to be an excellent choice for an early signature maneuver with its bonuses to speed, damage, and move coupled with a low prerequisite cost. His travels have certainly opened his eyes a bit so we will increase his Arena Knowledge to 2(2XP), Investigation to 2 (2XP), Drive to 2 (2XP), and Repair up to 2 (4XP).  

Overall, Emanuel is a balanced character who doesn’t stand out too much yet in the ring.  He doesn’t have a signature maneuver or combination, but is setting himself up well as the next steps on his advancement will probably be increasing his Block Technique to start getting specialized defensive maneuvers. He is at a crossroads where he needs to start taking better defensive care with his blocks buy also add some Health if he expects to really rise in the ranks.

Character Notes

Kids these days are not always the nicest.  When you are tall and gangly before your peers and smart enough to be the teacher’s pet, you are going to have a hard time of it.  Emanuel grew up in New York, the son of Puerto Ricans who were searching for the American dream on the mainland. As Emanuel grew up, he was always the but of the jokes and bullys, even though he was bigger than them.  He knew where his strengths were – in the library and in getting a ticket out of New York on an academic scholarship.

Even as his neighborhood fell a little behind, with gangs pushing deeper into the residential areas, Emanuel persisted.  Even when the gangs started sporting colors that said Shadaloo, he didn’t pay it any mind – get to school, get the grades, and get out of NYC.  That was the plan. Even the gangs shake downs for what little cash didn’t really shake him out of his awkward phase, until their apartment building burned down.  Nobody was killed, but the Landlord hadn’t paid up and these new gangs were not settling for half measures. Walking to their friend’s apartment after the fire, Emanuel saw something he hadn’t seen before – Pop’s Gym.  It was a generic name for a generic looking door, but the crotchety older man saw something in Emanuel’s eyes.

Pop saw yearning and potential.  He saw resiliency and determination.  Emanuel started coming to Pop’s Gym now that it was on the way home from school and he started training.  First it seemed pretty normal, but Pop’s accent got in the way of understanding sometimes so Emanuel didn’t really listen until Pop started talking about Ancient Greek Myth.  This wasn’t wrestling or boxing – this was Greek Pankration. Emanuel heard the story that this Style came from Theseus combining Boxing and Wrestling to defeat the Minotaur. He heard Pop’s talk, even as his own toughness was tested in the training, about how the other Style’s got it wrong.  And Emanuel listened.

His studious nature kicked in as Pops continued to train him, never asking for more than $5 at a time, and Emanuel read about the other Styles.  He went and watched the other styles. He knew Pops was right about Pankration. And he would prove it. It was about this time that Emanuel graduated from high school and Pop all but pushed him out the door.  The gangs had receded from their previous high point, and Emanuel was reclaiming the lot where his family’s old apartment burned. Pop finally told Emanuel his real name was Papadopolos and he had retired from Street Fighting a decade back as Talos.  He saw Emanuel as able to do better than he ever could and put in a call to his old friend Dumpling who showed Emanuel the Street Fighting ropes and even got him a management contract with Transmarco, Inc. Dumpling still gives Emanuel pointers, and laughed mightily when Gunter joined Palladion.

Emanuel has started to come into his own as a Street Fighter.  In his time with Palladion, he has been across the world to fight, to learn, and to do some odd jobs here and there.  The more he fights, and tests himself, the more he sees his own flaws. He knows it’s time to branch out from just throwing his opponents to the ground, and to take them seriously – as seriously as he takes his own studies.

In the ring, Emanuel wears long green trunks with a small white frog on the side as decoration. His boots are a matching white with a green stripe. He keeps his hair cut short on the sides and has a little bit of a boyish charm as his broad shoulders take people’s attention.

Emmanuel Sheet Here

Palladion Overview Here.

Fillable Character Sheet from SFRPG.com

Capcom, Street Fighter, Final Fight, Metro City, The World Warriors, and the names and likenesses of the World Warriors are trademarked, copywritten, or both to Capcom Co., Ltd. The Storytelling System or Storytelling Game system are copyright White Wolf, Inc. This is a noncommercial fan work and no use of these copyrights or trademarks is meant to be or intended as a challenge of ownership. 0

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