So what selections for the Enemy trait have you seen (are are likely to see) for characters in your games?
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Judge an ego by the reputation of its enemies!
Sat, 2019-09-14 07:58
#1
ICU2
Judge an ego by the reputation of its enemies!
Sat, 2019-09-14 22:46
#2
syberwasp
LOL...
So in my last game I had a Player, that even knowing there was going to be large lack in his background choice to have an "enemy". So without him defining it I made an enmy that would work for the story...the "enemy" was himself, a split personality that would wake up when his stress should give him a disorder.
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Poe
Sat, 2019-09-14 22:58
#3
ICU2
So his "Enemy" trait is
So his "Enemy" trait is really the Mental Disorder (Disassociative Personality Disorder) trait. They're both the same CP. If your player is cool with it, then great, but I know a few players that would feel this was not what they had in mind (pun unintended) when they said they wanted an enemy.
Sat, 2019-09-14 23:30
#4
syberwasp
LMAO...good pun. didn't even
LMAO...good pun. didn't even get to the preterites.
He knew the game set up and agreed to letting me make the "enemy" so I was going to run with it. My job as the narrator isn't to give my player what they want, but to give them the drama they need.
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Poe
Sun, 2019-09-15 10:27
#5
AllTooHuman
I've used the following:
I've used the following:
Bounty hunter with a grudge from the player having inadvertently cost him a large bounty. Kind of a boring trope, but let's just say it fit that character.
Eminent investigative blogger (player also took stalker, so I combined them), basically the J.J. Jameson to his proverbial spiderman, wreaked havoc on his reputation.
Corporate merc, think Captain Hammer from Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog, and yes... he sang and was a corporate tool, also live streamed most of their fights (and usually won).
Psi enabled insane self proclaimed "vigilante" who perceived the character as his arch nemesis (player had taken all the anti-psi advantages).
And probably the one which I had the most fun with, the tiger-mom. The character's own mother who was wealthy, influential, powerful, and extremely disappointed in her daughter (female character) and would use her influence to disrupt any activity the character engaged in while pressuring her to finish her law degree. And still demanded the character attend family functions and holidays. Guilt trips, pressure, interference, manipulation... oh the fun!
There's more, but that's a fairly good cross section.
Sun, 2019-09-15 11:26
#6
ICU2
AllTooHuman wrote:I've used
I see that your examples are all of individuals. I was wondering if individuals are appropriate as the two example Enemies we have are "Cognite" and "Nine Lives," both of which are pretty big groups. I certainly like the idea of an influential individual that can make life hell for a character, and I like your examples (even the "boring trope" bounty hunter).
On a related note, I noticed that the Enemy trait does not indicate that an ego can select it multiple times. Apparently, once you get one Enemy, everyone else just gets in line until that one is no longer an issue (which, in EP, quite likely never happens).
Sun, 2019-09-15 13:08
#7
AllTooHuman
ICU2 wrote:
Well, in 1e EP, the enemy description doesn't really give examples, nor does it indicate that you can only take it once. I suppose taking multiple enemies may put too much plot focus on one player, so limiting it to one per player may just be a convenience. If it is appropriate to your campaign, just allow more than one. It isn't as if the EP police will raid your game sessions.
To be fair, most of these enemies I listed weren't alone, they had friends, networking skills, favors, and other resources at their disposal. The bounty hunter had a crew, the blogger had reporters and followers, the corporate merc had corporate resources including soldiers/guards, the psi guy... okay he was a loner but quite powerful, and the tiger-mom had the ability to hire or recruit as many people as she needed.
I suppose the thing they all had in common was that I took the inspiration for the enemy from the character, I'd look for an aspect which I thought may draw adversity in a way I'd have fun with. It helped reinforce the player's concept and made the character seem more real.
Certainly an organization or faction can be an enemy as well, but with the low frequency of the enemy showing up (because at least in 1e, only 10 CP) you get fairly generalized agents of that organization or faction showing up and the antagonism can be difficult to personalize.
An note of interest: in both Iron Crown Enterprise's Rolemaster, and Greg Porter's TimeLords/Warp Worlds games (which EP seems to draw heavily from) there were, I believe, three different levels of Enemy in each; Minor, Medium, and Major, for varying point costs and would determine the general power/influence and/or occurrence of an enemy. If appropriate to your campaign, you can always try experimenting with something along those lines.