My "MRD" PCs

Should have included this in my last post after Sofinho kindly shared our interview, but reminder: MRD game jam is ongoing, and one entrant will have art and layout commissioned for their work. I've extended the deadline a bit further for the reason below:

I tested positive for covid. If you have not already been vaccinated and don't have a good excuse, fuck off. If you haven't gotten boosted yet, don't be lazy like I was, and go do it ASAP! Feeling mostly ok, pretty mild symptoms, mostly just feeling really tired. I was starting to schedule a bunch more interviews, apologies to those of you who were expecting to hear from me recently...

Anyway, on to our post of the week:

I'm usually a GM but I've been trying to be a player more in some drop-in games, and as part of that, I've had the opportunity to actually play MRD characters now, twice.

The first is from Mike's of (Sheep and Sorcery) Weirdways game, where I adapted the Crashing Rocket Nixie Poltergeist Form and took items from the MRD book, but applied to his game. We haven't quite finished that adventure yet but I'm really enjoying the character and the adventure as a whole.

Weirdways

Name: Mad(dison) Marceau

Questions

What are two locations you desperately want to go or things you need to do on the road?

Stand atop One World Trade Center.

Dive into the ocean from a lighthouse along the Oregon Coast.

What's different about you? Why don't you fit in?

Has numerous niche interests which they obsess over in bursts, and even within those niches, their sensibilities defy the norm still.

Are you a fantasy creature? If so, what kind?

A Nixie (sea fairy) who inexplicably also has wings.

Why do you have no money?

Has a tendency of finding great success... and then blowing it all up (sometimes literally).

Who is someone you know who you might meet on the road?

William Vita, the Eccentric Psientist.

Who, if anyone, owns the van? Who drives?

TBD

Why are your characters traveling together?

TBD

One of you has an aunt in the midwest who has told you that her house is haunted and she needs help. Which one of you is it? Why is she calling you?

TBD

One of you is dead set on going to Burning Man. Which one of you is it?

Seems like it could be Mad Marceau...

Aspect 1 (General Concept): Crashing Rocket Nixie

Aspect 2 (Something weird but cool): Their third eye expresses absolute terror

Aspect 3 (kind of like...): Harley Quin

Important Items

Nixie Sticks: Nobody's quite sure what's in them- what a rush! Just tear it open, pour on your tongue and come alive. Allegedly grants magic powers.

Rocket Kit: Your kit can make rockets, fireworks, and other sparkling and exploding things.

Weaponized Meme: Weaponized, Military-grade meme.

Gateway Chalk: Draw a door and it appears, leading to some previously visited location the user chooses. It must be redrawn after each use.

Bottle of Indigo Pills: Experience euphoria and third-eye awareness.

Soul Mate: One high calorie protein bar made by specially-trained Buddhist Monks. (this later got traded for an awesome magic unicorn horn using the top spinner below)

Top Spinner: Spin the top to train an ad-tech machine learning algorithm. Spins whatever you’re selling.

Discredit Card: Can wipe out any one debt—of any size including non-monetary debts.

The second was from a one shot with SageDaMage, where we actually were using MRD as the core system, but the adventure was a condensed version of Silent Titans beginning in a modern but mythical Wales. It was really cool to finally play Silent Titans, and I was glad how easily the two go together. Obviously I'm biased, but I think more people should try out using MRD with other weird modules like this ;).

Clerval Fritz
Former mergers and acquisitions specialist with a background in organizational psychology who became a senator. The acquisitions were scrapped for parts towards his esoteric ends, prematurely ending the dreams of many would-be entrepreneurs.
The last acquisition ended in an experiment gone wrong, a laser-light explosion, disturbing noises, and many, many dead. The fallout was contained and the story buried, but shortly afterwards Clerval, alongside his new Oracle Iolo, entered the world of politics.
Leveraging his corporate connections to secure non-competitive deals to acquire private resources, he intends to use technology, psychology, and metaphysics to birth a superorganism from the body of the government.
In a past life, he stored a PHYLACTERY in Wales, which he now intends to recover to use towards birthing the superorganism.  

Iolo (10 HP, the NS Pet Special Item): Pale blue furred ape-hominid with a missing eye, a notable scar at the back of its head suggestive of a projectile wound, and a skin graft over its mouth. It is bound in a restraining jacket and chains. It gnaws its mouth graft into bloody pulp to speak in profound gibberish (Wd6), after which the graft reseals in a process sounding like the mashing of raw skin and mid-coital fluids.

Pyramid Shining Brightly
NAT: 13
WIS: 14
PRO: 14
Karma: 3 

Career
12. Government, Politics, Public Administration 

Quirk
2. You are invisible when nobody is watching. 

Starting Karmic Attachments
1. You have a goal, and nothing will get between you and accomplishing it. Whatever it is, whatever must be done is always justified. At least one person suffered for being in your way and seek vengeance.
(In particular, the company sacrificed in the failed attempt at creating a superorganism, which also led to the creation of the SPECIAL SHINING LASER GUN and Iolo)
6. Your relationships are superficial and transactional. You have no real friends or loved ones, just people you want things from and want things from you in turn.
(The various aspirational entrepreneurs he's worked with, or Iolo) 

Reincarnation Ritual
1. Hold tightly to an item representing your value and rest.
(The SPECIAL SHINING LASER GUN) 

Poltergeist Features
0. POWER MOVE: You developed an intuition for manipulation through overt displays of power: a powerful handshake, biting apathetic humor or sarcasm. Pd8 but if attempted against somebody with higher PRO take Wd4.
4. PHYLACTERY: In a past life, an item of value to you was buried in a place of personal significance. So long as it remains undisturbed, PRO Damage against you is Impaired and cannot cause you to accrue Karma.
6. SPECIAL SHINING LASER GUN: An experimental gold and white limestone gun with a pyramidal shape at the muzzle’s end. It’s a fascinating story how you got it. Fires a Karmic force beam (Nd10) with a 1-in-6 chance of accruing 1 Karma. 

Special Items:
84. NS PET: Nature Spirit pet with animal intelligence, and usually one
Damage Die for one Ability at d6, 10 HP, and one utility special ability.
It has some behavioral quirk making it prone to trouble and frequently
imposes inopportune Karmic Attachments.
Usage Die: NA

The Profound Gibberish of Iolo
1. Drip drip walking down the blue lane one wonders why the sky hurts so and when the moon will just fall already GOD DAMNIT!
2. How am I supposed to LIVE LAUGH LOVE under these conditions!?
3. You fuck! How dare you bring such invisible joy to the souls of children not yet born into the indigo universe!
4. Clouds crying sunshine bring delirium to the prairie dogs who would otherwise kill themselves out of religious fervor. All hail the cloud emperor in his wondrous nudity!
5. In a moment of clarity, the man wonders what it all means. And then he poops.
6. I'm already spinning in corkscrew motions and rubbing my concave tummy and now you ask for the caviar of dragons?! Give me a week, ya rascal ;).
7. Turn on the telly I'm getting bored of this program and I can't find the mute button.
8. Are you bored? Afraid? In love? Insert other emotion here? Are you sick of these pesky emotions? Try life. Life! For those sick of being slaves to their own impulses. Life! It's like death, but not! Call 1-800-LIFE.