There was a contest on the Hero Games board recently (2008), asking for NPCs with a Japanese theme. The prize was two sourcebooks on "Asian" monsters that Hero has put out, signed by the author.
I won!
So, here's that winning entry.
Bimbo
Player: NPC, created by Scott K. Jamison
Val Char Cost
10 STR 0
12 DEX 6
14 CON 8
10 BODY 0
14 INT 4
20 EGO 20
14 PRE 4
10 COM 0
2 PD 0
3 ED 0
3 SPD 8
8 REC 6
40 END 6
25 STUN 3
6" RUN 0
2" SWIM 0
2" LEAP 0
Characteristics Cost: 65
Cost Power
11 Spirit Sight: Detect Spirits 18- (Sight Group)
5 Can touch spirits: Affects Desolidified Any form of Desolidification (+1/2) for up to 10 Active Points of STR (5 Active Points)
6 Spirit Punching: Hand-To-Hand Attack +2d6, Affects Desolidified Any form of Desolidification (+1/2) (15 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about half of its effectiveness (Only vs. Desolid beings; -1), Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2)
16 Exorcism Ritual: Extra-Dimensional Movement (Related Group of Dimensions, Single Location), x8 Increased Weight, Affects Desolidified Any form of Desolidification (+1/2), Usable As Attack (+1) (100 Active Points); Gestures, Requires Gestures throughout (Requires both hands; Complex; -1 1/2), Extra Time (10 Minutes, Only to Activate, -1 1/4), OAF Expendable (Easy to obtain new Focus; exorcist's supplies; -1), Incantations (Requires Incantations throughout; Complex; -1), Limited Power Power loses about a third of its effectiveness (Only to send spirits and extra-dimensional beings to the correct otherworld; -1/2)
7 Spirit Protection: Mental Defense (14 points total) (10 Active Points); Only Works Against Limited Type of Attack (Spirit Powers; -1/2)
40 Poverty-Inducing Powers: Elemental Control, 80-point powers
25 1) Poor Financial Judgement: Mind Control 12d6, Invisible Power Effects (Fully Invisible; +1/2) (90 Active Points); Set Effect ("Make bad financial decisions"; -1/2), Stops Working If Mentalist Is Stunned (-1/2)
27 2) Destroy Valuable Objects: Telekinesis (20 STR), Fine Manipulation, Invisible Power Effects (Fully Invisible; +1) (80 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about a third of its effectiveness (Only to damage/destroy valuable objects; -1/2)
64 3) Poverty's Curse: Major Transform 4d6 (Person to person with Unluck: Financial Matters or *more* Unluck: Financial Matters, normally, or successful exorcism), Invisible Power Effects (Fully Invisible; +1) (120 Active Points); Limited Target ([Slightly Limited]; Beings with souls only; -1/4)
Powers Cost: 201
Cost Skill
3 Bureaucratics 12-
6 +2 w/poverty-inducing powers
3 AK: Spirit World 12-
2 CK: Tokyo 11-
4 KS: Spirits 13-
3 KS: Japanese Folklore 12-
4 KS: Finance 13-
3 CuK: Financial World 12-
2 KS: Current Events in Business 11-
3 KS: Who's Who in the Financial World 12-
0 Language: Japanese (idiomatic) (4 Active Points)
3 Language: English (completely fluent)
1 Language: Mandarin Chinese (basic conversation)
1 Language: Korean (basic conversation)
1 Language: German (basic conversation)
3 Persuasion 12-
3 PS: Exorcist 12-
4 PS: Financial Saboteur 13-
3 Streetwise 12-
3 Systems Operation 12-
5 Trading 13-
Skills Cost: 60
Cost Perk
6 Contact: Agent (Contact has significant Contacts of his own, Contact has useful Skills or resources, Good relationship with Contact) 12-
20 Contact: Bimbo no Kami (Contact has extremely useful Skills or resources, Very Good relationship with Contact), Spirit Contact (x2) (20 Active Points) 14-
1 Fringe Benefit: License to practice a profession
1 Fringe Benefit: Passport
5 Money: Well Off
1 Reputation: Effective financial saboteur (Underhanded corporate executives) 8-, +1/+1d6
Perks Cost: 34
Cost Talent
10 Divine Favor
Talents Cost: 10
Total Character Cost: 370
Pts. Disadvantage
5 Hunted: International Securities and Exchange Commissions 11- (Less Pow, NCI, Watching)
5 Physical Limitation: Near-sighted, needs glasses to see properly (Infrequently, Slightly Impairing)
15 Psychological Limitation: Miser (Common, Strong)
20 Psychological Limitation: Hates those more fortunate than himself (Very Common, Strong)
10 Social Limitation: Double life, causes scheduling problems, need to conceal activities (Frequently, Minor)
5 Vulnerability: Good luck-based powers (Uncommon)
5 Susceptibility: good luck charms, 1d6 damage per Minute (Uncommon)
5 Reputation: Jinx, 8-
Disadvantage Points: 70
Base Points: 200
Experience Required: 100
Total Experience Available: 100
Experience Unspent: 0
APPEARANCE
Hair Color: Black, buzz cut
Eye Color: Black
Height: 1.70 m
Weight: 55.00 kg
Description:
Ichiro is in his early 30s, with a pinched-looking face and hollow cheeks. His glasses are plastic-rimmed, and often held together with masking tape. When on the job as an exorcist, he wears Shinto priest robes and hat. Otherwise, he dresses like a salaryman, in the cheapest used suits he can scrounge up.
BACKGROUND
Shortly before Ichiro Yamakuro was born, his father was accused of embezzling from his company. There were no charges filed due to lack of conclusive evidence, but Mr. Yamakuro was fired anyway, and no respectable company would hire him. Ichiro's mother got a part-time job to help out, but between taking care of Ichiro and her migraines, she couldn't work decent hours. So Ichiro grew up poor. By the time he was able to understand just how messed up his family was, Ichiro's father had taken to drink. Mr. Yamakuro would often rave in his cups that the "bimbo no kami" (god of poverty) had come to live in their apartment. The elder Yamakuro died in a train accident when Ichiro was eight.
When Ichiro was sixteen, he went to a shrine on New Years' Day to pray for an escape from the crushing poverty he'd known all his life. He drew a fortune which read "catastrophe", fainted and struck his head. Ichiro awoke and immediately believed himself to be hallucinating. For the air was full of spirits capering about. Long-nosed goblins, sweet-faced angels, legless ghosts, and odd-looking animals danced in the air around the shrine. When the humans asked Ichiro how he was feeling, he mumbled vague excuses (it wasn't as though he could afford to go to the hospital, even with Japan’s public health system) and stumbled out to the street.
There were less spirits out here, which made sense; naturally a place of worship would be more attractive to them. Still, Ichiro could see beings who were clearly not human doing various chores around the neighborhood. A wind spirit blew cold air along the street, a shop's guardian cat beckoned to passersby, and a mischievous goblin was making cracks in the pavement. It was weird, but slowly Ichiro was getting used to it. It wasn't as if he hadn't always heard the tales of spirits before, even if he couldn't see them.
Ichiro rushed home, took off his shoes and quietly crept into the apartment in case his mother was having one of her migraines. Much to his surprise, there was someone in the living area he'd never seen before, though he'd heard descriptions for years. The Bimbo no Kami was sitting right there in the middle of the apartment, just as Ichiro's father had claimed!
The years of misery came back to Ichiro's mind, his heart filled with anger, and the boy leapt at the spirit of poverty, beating it with his fists. The spirit didn't fight back, too surprised that someone could see it, let alone assault it. Finally, it begged for mercy. Ichiro spewed invective against the spirit, and ordered it to leave. The Bimbo no Kami agreed on one condition--that Ichiro find the spirit a new place to live.
The spirit shrunk down, and Ichiro carried it in his pocket. It happened that the landlord of the crummy apartment building the Yamakuro family lived in had a son Ichiro's age who was a classmate of his. This boy had lorded his relative wealth and power over Ichiro since junior high, often forcing Ichiro to do humiliating chores on threat of being evicted. Ichiro went to the landlord's house, and made an excuse to see his classmate. By carrying the spirit in his pocket, he was able to sneak it past the good luck charms that otherwise would have protected the house. While Ichiro groveled to the landlord's son, pretending to need help with a homework assignment, he placed the Bimbo no Kami behind a stack of DVDs.
Over the next few days, the Yamakuro family's fortunes improved. The real embezzler was finally caught, and the company that had fired Mr. Yamakuro made a generous settlement in hush money. Ichiro won a year's supply of groceries in a local store's tombola giveaway. A childhood sweetheart of Ichiro's mother unexpectly turned up, recently widowed, prosperous and with a yen for Mrs. Yamakuro. Even her migraines eased up.
Meanwhile, the landlord was hit with a series of inspections by city officials that revealed many expensive violations of building codes and rental regulations. Ichiro's classmate broke his leg in multiple places, requiring a long and expensive hospital stay, and their fancy home caught on fire.
One day, Ichiro met the Bimbo no Kami on the street and they exchanged pleasantries. The spirit noticed that Ichiro seemed more than casually interested in the stories the spirit told of impoverishing victims. It suggested an alliance. It would lend Ichiro some of its power, in exchange for Ichiro sheltering the spirit whenever it needed a place to stay.
Thus it was that Ichiro became the financial saboteur known as "Bimbo." He has studied Shinto rituals, and his official income is from being a wandering exorcist. But his real job is hitting wealthy men with poverty for pay.
PERSONALITY
Ichiro was deeply scarred by his early poverty. Even though his activities have made him comfortably wealthy, he lives in abject fear of losing his money, and will go to great lengths to avoid spending it. He regularly steals hotel soap, fills up on free food samples and watches for rock-bottom sales of expired items. In addition, he resents anyone who appears to be luckier in life than he is, and sometimes cannot resist acting maliciously against them in secret, even if they're paying his way.
The only person Ichiro is close to is his mother, who he is glad is happy with her new husband. He endures her admonitions to find a nice wife and settle down with more patience than he gives to anyone else. Sadly, he cannot bring himself to court a woman, since he sees them as gold-diggers who are only after his money.
-
QUOTE
"How does your Bible put it? 'The want of money is the root of all evil'? I think I am agreeing." Ichiro's voice is soft, but he has a tendency to a sneering tone when he's got an advantage.
POWERS/TACTICS
Bimbo has two sets of powers. The first is his ability to see and interact with spirits. Nature spirits, ghosts, imaginary friends, astral projections--he can see and affect them all. He's learned to steel his mind against their uncanny abilities, and to exorcise spirits (and other interdimensional visitors) back to where they belong. The primary weakness of this last ritual is that it takes a long time, and so the spirit has to be kept present until it's complete. This is done either by satisfying the spirit (a job for Ichiro's bargaining skills, to find out what it wants and how to fulfill that need) or by beating it up.
The other set is the poverty-inflicting powers Ichiro has been granted by the Bimbo no Kami. He can cause a victim to make bad financial decisions, wreck their nice things (more dangerous than it sounds...suppose you're in your Rolls-Royce when Bimbo makes it steer off a cliff?) and make them unlucky with money. Note that the more he succeeds with that last power, the more dice of Unluck he can inflict. Ichiro's usual M.O. is to research a potential target to identify possible weak points, then slowly harass them with minor financial setbacks before moving in for the "kill."
Bimbo is not a particularly good physical combatant, and will flee if threatened with violence.
CAMPAIGN USE
You know those Hunteds that like messing with your credit rating? Bimbo works for those guys. He can also be used in his exorcist job as a hired expert in a case with supernatural overtones. Indeed, you could cut out his poverty-related powers and just use him as an exorcist in campaigns where such a character would be appropriate. Some quick plot seeds:
1. A poltergeist is infesting the HQ, and the Ghostbusters are out of town. Who do you call?
2. If the campaign is set in Japan, one of the PCs gets a favor called in by a Japanese tax inspector. She's been assigned to audit Ichiro Yamakuro, and noticed that the last three auditors who worked this case file all met with unfortunate accidents. Can the PC protect her?
3. Goodguyco, one of the PCs' sponsors, is suddenly having a rash of bad luck. As it turns out, one of the GGC employees has mild ESP, and is sure there's a malevolent force at work, though he can't pin it down.
