This is a sample character demonstrating the use of the Elator template.
Tybalt of Stonemarsh
When Tybalt came to his talent, it was a huge relief to him. They say we are each born to our powers for good reason, and Tybalt certainly agrees. He feels happy that he is exceptionally good at murder. Not that he wants to kill everyone, or that he takes particular pleasure in death, but rather that it’s just nice to be good at something. To have a calling. He’s not one of those sneaky elators. He believes in his calling, and his calling is decapitating the enemy army during battle with his skill at assassination.
In his first games he realized that if he practiced enough no one would be able to stand against him. Since he had always preferred to be alone anyhow, it was no trouble to sit in his room, day after day, rehearsing and perfecting his one favorite strike. For him, an elator’s blink is all about concentrating, thinking, practicing, turning inward. Maybe everything in life can be approached that way!
In battle you’ll find that Tybalt sits high on the castle walls with a pot of bright blue paint. He draws his two special knives, one in each hand. He dips the blades in the paint, then presses his eye to the fixed telescope that points out an embrasure. Tybalt peers at the advancing army for 30 seconds or more, knives ready… focusing… waiting… At just the right moment–pop–he appears inches behind the enemy king. Before anyone can react Tybalt channels his focused, concentrated mental energy into dual devastating thrusts. One blade just under each shoulder joint. “Feel The Elator’s Pinch!” Tybalt sometimes cries. The king is skewered at each armpit before he can even turn around. Then–pop–Tybalt is back on the wall at his paint pot, the blades now red with blood. His victim is now both red and blue. It’s always worked so far.
Willing yourself to intentionally appear in the middle of a raging battle is a challenge for most young elators, but not Tybalt. He always liked it. He wants the adrenaline.
The blue paint thing started because he wanted to get a little more credit for his successes. As he ratcheted up his kill count he sometimes felt that he didn’t get the respect that should be the skilled assassin’s due in Stonemarsh. Especially from the blasted Armigers–who are little more than useless flying insects if you ask Tybalt.
Tybalt doesn’t understand that other people aren’t as interested in his kills as he is. He’s not popular because people aren’t really his thing. He’s no beauty, he’s always bragging, and he doesn’t seem to know or care if his audience is really listening or not. But that’s fine, as he prefers to be alone anyhow. To practice.
He’s happy to be pledged to Stonemarsh. He deeply admires Queen Roanoke — even making a point of painstakingly copying the filigrees on her weapons as a design on his leathers. It’s not that he believes in the true game as such, or that he paid any attention in school to those stories about religion. It’s just that fighting is what people do, so why not be good at it?
Character Design Notes
The first character design decision that appears is advantages: I’m interested in optimizing this build to be extremely effective in combat, so I’ll take Weapon Master and Absolute Direction (for the bonus to Body Sense). Weapon Bond is a good deal for the +1 to hit. On to disadvantages. I was thinking of this character as more of a “good guy” so I’ll choose a Trademark that is relatively inoffensive. Then I’ll pile on Unattractive and Skinny. He’s no beauty. Then, to create the “nerd” effect: Oblivious and Loner. Since he’s good at his job, I’ll add Proud and On the Edge (he courts danger). Rounding things out, how about a Duty, a Vow that makes him sort of a good guy, and Intolerance to the vile Armigers. This leaves me short so I will add Hero Worship to make everything add up. I’ll choose the Dual-Wield skill package. I have to choose a weapon at this point and I am going to go for the Large Knife because it works at both close-range and at one yard, although it is -1 to parry.
Since I want combat effectiveness, I’m going to go for the Especially Lethal lens, then combine that with Precise. My big concern now is that if I teleport into battle, how do I get back reliably? I’m going to use the Skilled to increase my teleportation skill +5. Then I’ll take a second level of Skilled and eliminate the Body Sense roll by adding the Gyroscope enhancement. This now makes my Absolute Direction much less useful! I’ll drop it and instead add an Enhanced Parry (Knife). That’s useful because a knife is at -1 to parry, so this offsets that.
Now I need way more disadvantages to pay for all of this. Even if I add 5 quirks I’m still 37 points short! I’ll cut my Basic Speed to eliminate the fraction [-10], then borrow an Enemy [-25] from the Ruler template (elators are powerful enough pieces that they can acquire a reputation, and thus an enemy, methinks). Then I’ll adjust the Duty to make it more frequent (9 or less). I have 1 point left, so I’ll dump one quirk, as some of the disadvantages in the template I took were at quirk-level already. Perfect.
Character Sheet
(Image coda: “The Stabbing of Pompey” (1634) by Willem Basse. US National Gallery of Art. Public domain.)
Requires Concentrate 