What playbook best suits this character?
The Animated Woman
Basic backstory is that she was attending a convention and ran across some strange man in an unused room who told her about people with story magic that could bring stories to life in powerful ways either by bringing the characters themselves, affecting the world or else making their own body alter to fit the story told. At the end he asked her which magic she preferred and being a cosplayer she noted the ability to alter herself towards the story. The strange man later turned up murdered and she’s been able to partially shapeshift into something like the characters from her favorite anime and cartoons. Usually this is a character she has a heavy emotional connection too, the first such character was a seductive werewolf villain she finds despicable.
There are some limits, she doesn’t just completely become the character. It’s more like she’s herself seen through a filter of the character. So when she adopts the werewolf’s persona she gets a Scottish accent and becomes something of a lady-killer but stays female and (importantly) not-evil. She does gain some of their gear though, so when she becomes a martial-artist cop character, she acquires a police baton from somewhere as well as getting a bit like a loose cannon.
My initial thought is Bull.
being sincere, none so far. You should try narrow the focus and think about more about the character personality and which teenhood aspect it cover.
Example: Nova are the primadona who can’t control their emotions, so they are destructive because their out of control emotions. Legacy live with the family burden over their shoulders, etc etc etc
Well, it’s similar to another of my characters wherein there are 9 souls time-sharing one body with one being the original and the other eight being spawned via magic within him and are basically characters from different shows. That’s more severe since it is literally nine different people sharing one body. This character is more sedate since it is essentially the same core person with different filters on her personality.
I’d say it would be the search for identity.
Especially with the partial shift to a character she finds despicable…she sounds somewhat like the Janus (That being she pulls on her mask of powers to hide herself) or the Transformed (especially if these changes come somewhat compulsively).
It is true though..that with this setting some characters simply will not fit as well as others because of the narrative direction of the games design.
Given her story and background as a cosplayer, I think she migt be a Janus.
The first time she changed, she did so accidentally when getting into a rant about the character, so yeah, it’s a bit compulsive if she doesn’t pay attention. Ironically, the Joined coming down the pipe might fit the collective in one body later on and might be easier to do. I might have to come up with a playbook for this specific “who exactly am I?” type feel the way I came up with the Feral book though…hmmm….
Yeah, sounds like Transformed or Janus to me.
I mean, pretty much the whole game is about figuring out who you are and how you relate to others as you grow into an adult, and all the playbooks have various takes on those questions baked in. I think basing a new playbook around asking those questions in general terms, without narrowing the field like the other playbooks do, is a bit misguided. For similar reasons, I’d suggest narrowing down the question in your head before picking a playbook. What specific question of identity hangs over her, and how do her powers and heroic life feed into that question?
OT: I don’t know what the character looks like in your head, or how she sees herself. If it were me, I’d probably go with either Outsider (she’s caught between the real and fictional worlds, and trying to find herself in the middle), or Beacon (she was dressing up as a hero way before she even got her powers, and now she can be her heroes for real!).
Also, she reminds me of Cutie Honey, whom I would characterize as a Beacon in her earlier incarnations and a Bull in her later and more badass years. But again, that’s just me.
While the general search for identity is a main central theme, most of the playbooks are cases of the character initially identifying themselves as “X” and learning to expand that. There are people, especially kids, who get their identity for imitating other people and not a specific one. You get lots of them in drama clubs and gaming groups.