The Combination Character Cookbook

Humanity's inherent, intransigent ingenuity consistently prompts it to punch far, far above its weight. In other words, the strength of mankind is not in the physical expression of its being, however impressive our bodies may or may not seem to others. No, people persist because, as a species, we are incapable of being content with anything for all that long.

And no facet of mankind's existence is insulated from this tendency. Always fidgeting, always tinkering, humanity is endlessly developing new innovations in culture, religion, myth, science, technology, and more. And as people share these concepts with their fellows, the whole species veers off in new directions - physically, mentally, and spiritually.

This is ultimately why there are so many distinct means through which people can ascend beyond what came previously - or in other words, gain super human capabilities. Whether they come in the form of advanced technology, esoteric knowledge, posthuman modification, world-shaking introspection, or even divine providence, these capabilities invariably change the world.

But even this isn't enough for some people, though. Someone's always peeking under the hood of the multiverse, trying to find a 'better' way to do things. This often involves applying the knowledge inherent to one area of expertise to another, vastly different one. Sometimes this leads to no useful effect, and other times the results are catastrophic. But occasionally, gold is struck!

Evidence of this tendency can be seen throughout the Costumed Adventurer Simluation Engine. A large portion of the rules for high technology make references to replacing one's body with it, while one-third of psionic disciplines meddle with the technical, the mystical, or the divine. In other words, people mixing peanut butter and chocolate together isn't all that novel.

Finally approaching a tortured point, the Combination Character Cookbook is designed to let players build characters who utilize more than one means to access the ascendant. This can range from characters that supplement their primary source of power with a backup, to those who mash two (or more) different power sources together, forming a strange and possibly unique new origin.

A lot of the material presented in the Cookbook can be considered optional in nature, even more so than the rest of the CASE. This is because some of the sample and random combinations available draw from multiple components of the CASE to function, and not all of those components may be in use in every game. Long story short, ask your Judge about combination characters before proceeding further.

No Assembly Required

Though there are any number of ways a character can utilize multiple sources for their power(s), some combinations are more common than others. A capsule description of those which happen more frequently than others are presented again here, for your conceptual convenience. Capsule character generation instructions are also provided, in an attempt to minimize page flipping.

The Cleric

Divine magic is that which is inspired by faith in immortal beings. Either religious teachings reveal obscure secrets of the universe to its students, or the divine entities said students follow directly impart such knowledge into their supplicants' minds. Regardless of which is the case, such sorcery is intimately intertwined with the divine sources that propagate it.

For the purposes of the Combination Character Cookbook, any spellcaster with access to divine magic (aside from clericism, the entreatism, geomancy, and voodoo schools of magic all have specialties that wield it) is a cleric. Aside from the origin of their sorcery, though, clerics are otherwise generated and function the same as any other wizard.

(insert capsule generation rules here)

The Deionicist

As do all psis, a deionicist engages in a deep introspective study of the self, subsequently honing the knowledge gleaned to manifest power over both themselves and the world at large. What makes them different from others with access to psionics, though, is the focus of their abilities: the power of faith, and the bolstered life force it makes possible.

A deionicist may not exclusively have such abilities, those inherent to the theonic discipline of power, and might not actually have any when they first appear in the game. This is normal for psis, as there are multiple means through which they may activate their special abilities, but a deionicist is a psi who at least has access to the theonic discipline.

(insert capsule generation rules here)

The Jack of All Trades

The kind of character that plays fast and loose with the idea of special origins, a Jack of all trades can manifest abilities from any source of power they choose. Feel like a mutation or two to complement that suit of power armor? Go for it! Want one magic spell, one natural psionic, and one cyborg implant? Done. The sky is the limit where Jacks are concerned.

How this works with each individual Jack is up to the player behind them. Do they possess a knack for mastering all manner of odd skills? Are they the end result of a mad scientist attempting to divide the universe by zero? Perhaps they come from a home where the source of one's abilities is merely academic. Ultimately the why of a Jack doesn't matter, so much as how it shapes them.

(insert capsule generation rules here)

The Numenplyer

A numenplyer is a mortal being who gains access to godlike power through the use of one or more divine implements. Whether these are living items partnered with mortal wielders, empowering receptacles of divine will, or even prototypical divinventions built by tinkering with things Man Was Definitely Not Meant to Tinker With, these artifacts interface their wielders via the power of faith.

Numenplyers are the least divine-adjacent characters to demonstrate a form of actual immortality, aside perhaps through legendary tales of their deeds. They're hardly pushovers, however, for the powers marshalled by numenplyers are fueled by an energy that reshapes reality according to its whims, and with which they can work literal miracles should they feel the need or desire.

(insert capsule generation rules here)

The Psychoturge

Psis with the ability to wield and control magic, psychoturges gain their insight about all things mystic through a look inward that lays bare their very minds, bodies, and souls. The insight gleaned through this personal dredging awakens a power over probability fields, the extreme ends of which are what allows sorcery to function in the first place.

As is the case with other 'special' psis, a psychoturge may not actually wield powers from the psimantic discipline of power when they are initially introduced. As they can acquire psionics in any number of different ways, a psychoturge may not pick up their trademark abilities until later in the game, but at the very least, they'll have access to psimantic powers.

(insert capsule generation rules here)

The Technomancer

Those rare wizards who excel in the use of both technology and thaumaturgy are often known as technomancers. Sure, you might be talking about a gun-toting sorcerer or an inventor who studied magic at some point in the past here, but true technomages combine their spells with things to create unique stuff greater than the sum of its parts. Assuming things go to plan, anyway.

Whether casting spells through extant objects, using sorcery to replace conventional components of a mechanism, or even mashing equpiment and sorceries together in unforseen ways, technomages are often mechanically similar to mad scientists. In fact, sometimes the two are indistinguishable, save for the penchant technomages have for the stereotypical trappings of wizards.

(insert capsule generation rules here)

The Technopsi

Possessing influence over the artificial, technopsis study the product of humanity's knowldge, and how they can impose their will upon it. This can involve manipulating an extant product of technology in some fashion, modifiying it such that it works differently, or even incorporating it into oneself. The most potent technopsis can manifest material implements from nothingness!

These abilities to build, wield, and alter technological implements with the mind invariably cause their wielders to identify with stuff more than folks - even when they aren't sentient by any measure of the term. This can come from items becoming an extension of one's self-image, to having incorporated so much of it that it's hard to tell where the artificial ends and the biological begins!

(insert capsule generation rules here)

The Thaumentalist

Studying a school of magic focused on the mind itself, thaumentalists strive to understand the power and potential of consciousness itself. This drive comes from a deep dissatisfaction with how conventional psionics are studied, feeling that while a lifetime of intense meditation and introspection can lead to unlocking one's ultimate psionic potential, who's got that kind of time?

Wielding magic, thaumentalists activate and deactivate psionics with ease, whether in themselves or others, sometimes temporarily and sometimes more permanently. This makes them an inverse of sorts to psychoturges, who also wield sorcery and psionics to various ends. But thaumentalism is a pursuit all its own, and despite using the same sources of power, its adherents wield them entirely differently.

(insert capsule generation rules here)

Some Assembly Required

Combinations are some of the most unpredictable characters one can make use of in the Costumed Adventurer Simulation Engine. There are countless ways in which different super human power sources can be smashed together within a single character, from a body with three discrete sources of power to one who blends two together into something barely resembling its components!

There are three ways to cook up a combination character. The first involves rolling amongst the many sample combination character types provided for convenience. The second requires randomly rolling until the sources of one's nascent character's powers have been determined. The third simply lets the player choose what sources of power their character will draw from.

Generally, the preference is for the latter, preventing players from getting stuck in the role of a character type they'd possibly rather not explore. This can involve either using the rules for one of the 'pregen' character combinations provided, or just stapling together a concept that sounds fun (such as a cyborg wizard, or a strange hero fighting crime with inherited divinventions).

The other methods are provided for two reasons, however. The first is to provide Judges a quick means with which to whip up a combination character that may feature as an off-the-cuff antagonist or the like. The second is for players who don't know precisely what they want to play, but are aiming for something unexpected. Hey, random character generation can be fun!

To that end, when attempting to randomly generate a combination character, begin by rolling twice on table 1. Each time 'combination character' is rolled, roll again twice. Continue this process until all origin rolls are expended. Note that redundant results aren't an error; one form combination characters take are those that draw from a single source of power in more than one manner.

Each result, upon being rolled, points towards the portion of the Cookbook that lets players narrow down that origin from a basic type (like 'transnormal') to something more specific (say, a 'mutant'). Do this for each basic origin type rolled, that way you can prepare to divvy up you many super human abilities between your differing power sources.

Alternately, if opting to randomly roll from the collection of sample combination origins provided by the Cookbook, do so by rolling once on table 2. Table 2 can also be utilized by players who rolled 'combination' on table 1, essentially making a further modification of those already combined power sources into something even stranger!

clericist (from teh book)
clone (copy of whatever else)
construct (original organic engineer)
deionicist (from teh manual)
jack of all trades (from here)
numenplyer (From teh deionomicon)
psychoturge (from teh manual)
technomancer (from teh book)
technopsi (from teh manual)
thaumaturge (from teh book)

Ability Scores

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Fahrvergnugen

Currently, the only 'new' combination is a Jack, being Jack of all Trades. These are people who can draw powers from any origin they wish. This is great when advancing. Need a new inherent power? No problem! Want to master a few more psionics? Great! Pick up a few implants to smooth out a fight? We've got you covered. The ones covered in other chapters will be referenced, to be sure, but I want to plug in some new things.

But I may have already covered most of that. So what I'll also be doing is resolving some of my rulesy issues relating around missing technologies and character types. Clones and biotech and all that jazz. I'll try to uh, expound on all this as time permits during the construction of our Skoolie. Which, if I am being honest, ought to be outside working on as we speak. So I'm 'a gonna do that now.

- Present Firebomb, who is sorry for referring to himself in the third person. Or... is he am I?

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