Vaylen FON: First Stab

Burning Empires Burning Empires Character Burner
1

Here’s my first shot at stating a Vaylen for my game. I decided to go with something odd- a Creepy Little Girl. She doesn’t have much in lifepaths, but I think she’ll be potent in her own way.

The Uncle mentioned in belief #2 is a player character. Need to ponder more for a good third belief and some instincts.

Abigail Heartly

Daughter of Barnes and Theresa Heartly. Barnes is a Psychologist and Thought Police. Theresa is a functionary in the Imperial Bureaucracy. When the family went on a vacation to a nearby pleasure world several years ago, a high-ranking, but inexperienced Vaylen had itself implanted into the young Abigail.

Beliefs:
Life is Beautiful. I will find more children, so I can share my gift.
My uncle is a dangerous man. Reveal his crimes to the world.

Instincts:

Lifepaths: Vibhuuten Naiven, (Human) Dilettante, Child (Vaylen) Sleeper

Stats:
Perception 3
Will 4
Agility 4
Forte 2
Power 2
Speed 3

Resources 6
Circles 2
Circles Reserve: 4

Steel: 2
Hesitation: 6
MW: 8 (S2, I3, M6)

Skills
Cryptography 1, Explosives 2, Extortion 2 Falsehood 5, Folklore 1, Inconspicuous 5, Infiltration 1, Mummery 1, Persuasion 2, Sleight of Hand 4, Smuggling 3, Soothing Platitudes 2, Ugly Truth 3, Body-Wise 1, Child-Wise 2, Conversation-Wise 1, Manipulation-Wise 2, Security-Wise 1,

Traits
Alien Control (dt, suppress injury penalties), Bizarre (char), Child (dt), Cosmopolitan (char), Encoder (dt, can switch bodies), Disturbing (char), Forked Toungue (c/o for Soothing Platitudes, Falsehood), Psycho-Endoparasitic (dt, take over others), Vibhutten Clan (dt), Worm (dt, normally just a worm)

Affilations, Reputations, and Relationships:
Reputation: 3D amongst Vaylen as Vibhuuten
Relationship: Father, Barnes Heartly, Thought Police
Relationship: Mother, Theresa Heartly, Imperial Clerk

2

When you say “potent in her own way,” can you explain what you mean?

I look at this character and I see a really excellent concept that absolutely needs a few more lifepaths to be any good. She doesn’t have any firefight skills at all (which is probably how you want it), her DoW skills other than Falsehood are very low (which probably isn’t), and she’s also very low on maneuver skills for infection (which could go either way). So mechanically she has very little going for her and can’t really expect to challenge or threaten the PCs.

Throw at least one or two more LPs on the worm end, keep the child’s body. You’ll have something that’ll be much more useful.

3

Hmmm, that’s a good point. But I think this character can cause a lot of havoc with building scenes, deflecting blame, and causing chaos. What are they going to do, shoot the kid? On the other hand, throwing in, say, the Princess lp would let me open persuasion with something other than general points.

I’m hoping to also net some downtime early, and bump up low stats.

4

From my own time running BE, you could do with a few more LPs to get the FON’s prowess up (I think Luke recommended a couple of LP above the PCs).

Double up on some of them, if you have to, but I’d suggest not only adding in Princess (once or twice), but also Syzygy and maybe Prince.

That way, you’ll have all the DoW skills you’ll need to stop the Uncle finding out who she is, and Rule of Three, which I think could really play into the “creepy girl” vibe, as she’ll keep hammering at similar stakes for her victim (chasing that sweet sweet Persona).

Prince could also give you some very useful skills: Command to order people around (hard to say no to a little girl), Conspicuous to call attention to yourself when in trouble and Close Combat* in case no one listens.

  • from my experience in B* games, the answer to “what are they going to do, shoot the kid?” can be “yes, that’s exactly what they might do.” At that stage, a little Close Combat and an improvised weapon and you might be able to save yourself.
5

That character can lie, hide, steal, and smuggle. Anything else is a failure or at best a FoRK or helping die. That gives you a VERY limited palette for your builders.

If you want a talker, you need a primary dueling skill (probably persuasion). If you want a character to be powerful without actually being competent in either conflict mechanic, you need stronger circles, some other building-scene plans (you currently have about two: lie about some stuff or steal some stuff), and the ability to make maneuver rolls for the non-conflict-scene maneuvers in the Infection (IIRC, that’s Conserve, Go To Ground, and Assess, but I’m not looking at a book right now).

As I said, the concept is strong. I particularly like that you have a specific backstory explaining how she got hulled without her parents knowing. That gives her a decent position, but without the skills to exploit that position she will be caught out, scanned, and shot.

Even if you have powerful NPCs who are opposed to killing children, all it’s going to take is a) a scan result showing the worm in her skull or b) a Duel of Wits (in which she will be unable to effectively defend herself) with the SoP “A worm in a child’s head is no innocent.”

If she has the skills to work from that position, she’ll be very strong indeed. But don’t pull your punches. She is vulnerable.

Another approach would be to take her as a second-in-command for a more experienced Vaylen, if you really are devoted to the low-LP side of the character. That way the FoN can use her to sow discord among the PCs, while not depriving you of a third of your firepower the way taking an underskilled FoN would.

6

“* from my experience in B* games, the answer to “what are they going to do, shoot the kid?” can be “yes, that’s exactly what they might do.” At that stage, a little Close Combat and an improvised weapon and you might be able to save yourself.”

One of the players at least, has a belief about protecting and redeeming the child. Heh, heh.

Anyway, I’ve thought about it, and added another lifepath- Princess. This opens both Soothing Platitudes and Persuasion as lp skills, and gives me enough trait points to have Aura of Innocence instead of Forked Tongue. That let me be at least decent in DoW.

I know the common wisdom is throw lots of LP at your FoN, (and for my other 2, I’m doing just that). Anyone can do a Vaylen mastermind in 7 or 8 LP, but I’m going to do it in 5.

7

I’ve found the easiest way to write GMFON BITs is just to riff off what the PCFON’s have.

8

Remember Vaylen can choose the apparent age of the body. So the worm can be experienced, but the body can be that of a child.

9

If after the first session or two you find the child is too weak, you could always ask the players if it’s okay if you rework her and add a couple LPs.

Honestly, as a BE player I’m always wanting the GM to have more powerful characters – it’s just more fun when you feel like you can go all out and not have to pull any punches.

Cheers