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. Rules for high technology make reference to mixing it with magic or 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 before proceeding further.

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 discreet 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)

(text)

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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?

(Yes, we have no bananas, today)

Questions or comments? Contact the author at your convenience!