Yep, I'm behind, but I'll catch up :>


Released in the UK in 2002, Dog Soldiers lived up to the hype as a combination of all-out action and horror, giving a new face to werewolves. In many ways, Dog Soldiers mirrors Predator, including a complete Bad-ass in the form of Private Cooper, played by the excellent Kevin McKidd. While I am tempted to write-up all of the main characters, I decided that much like Sebastian Haff from last year, it was time to feature a horror hero.

So....Private Lawrence Cooper


Private Lawrence Cooper


F: Ex (20)
A: Ex (20)
S: Gd (10)
E: Rm (30)
R: Gd (10)
I: Ex (20)
P: Ex (20)

Health: 80
Karma 50
Popularity: 3
Resources: Typ (6)


Talents

Military*
Guns
Martial Arts A
Tactics and Planning
Leadership*
Sharp Weapons
First Aid/Medic


Powers:

None


Contacts:

Prior to the Cooper had them as a contact


Limitations:

Soft spot: Cooper has a soft spot for the underdog, innocents, and animals, as seen throughout the movie.

Loyalty: Cooper is incredibly loyal to his squad-mates, and will go to great lengths for them.

Bad Luck with Women: Cooper has an implied history of bad relationships with women prior to the movie, and it doesn't improve.

Note:

See the movie!

[www.youtube.com]

The Dog Soldiers is a true cult hit and one of the better Werewolf movies out there, I highly recommend seeing this movie! I thought your write-up on Private Cooper was right on the money Jacko, especially adding his Bad Luck Limitation with women! The only thing that I would change is his Endurance rank, I would make it Excellent (20) rank, and maybe add Dog Handler as a talent..

Now if you are using the Basic Set for your campaign a normal human can have a Remarkable (30) rank Endurance, but not in the Advanced Set of Rules. I thought I would point that out, I have been receiving a lot of Web Mail over that subject. I know someone is going to call me on this, why does the Kingpin, who is listed as a normal human, have an Incredible (40) Endurance? My answer is, if he is just a normal human he should not, but again this is for the Advanced Set of Rules!







The Cutter

Thanks Cutter, I was confused myself on how an average joe could have an Remarkable endurance, I never used the Basic Set of rules!


V

not to thread jack, but why wouldn't a normal human be able to have rm endurance when its benchmark is "engages in intensive excercise"?
I mean, yes, the "normal folks" table caps at ex, but the "hi-tech" table (which is not just armored heroes but any equipment based hero i.e. hawkeye, batman, casey jones, etc. [costumed athletes unite!]) has the same 4% chance of having a rm.

we now return you to your regularly scheduled thread, already in progress...

Brotherless_one Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> not to thread jack, but why wouldn't a normal
> human be able to have rm endurance when its
> benchmark is "engages in intensive excercise"?
> I mean, yes, the "normal folks" table caps at ex,
> but the "hi-tech" table (which is not just armored
> heroes but any equipment based hero i.e. hawkeye,
> batman, casey jones, etc. ) has the same 4% chance
> of having a rm.
__________________________________________________________

I did not want to hijack this thread from Jacko, but due to all the confusion I will explain this issue!

Not stating the difference between the Basic & Advanced books (which in the titles say it all), a lot of individuals use the chart for rolling up 'Normal Humans' in Dragon Magazine issue #197 page 81...absolute extreme for unaugmented humans is AM Ftg, IN Agil, EX Str, RM End, AM Rsn, AM Int, and technically as high as UN Psy. This is a combine table for creating street level heroes and technology laden heroes, not your normal human character.

Your non-super powered humans aren't likely to ever achieve, let alone top EX in stats, but costumed heroes and villains are a cut above, so extremely rare overachievers can hit closer to the maximums of human potential for example the Kingpin.

If more explanation is needed, I can move this discussion to its own topic...







The Cutter

Not to take anything away from Jackolantern's write up, I totally agree with you Skycutter, and the funny thing is I have been saying what you posted here for years! I had the same conversation in a post with the author of the Rambo write up, which had negative results!

Okay, I just thought I'd weigh in.

As mechanics go, the idea that RM (30) is the pinnacle of human achievement has always left me a little uncertain. Clearly, RM (30) means different things to different stats. It's hard to imagine a normal human who can go to Ex (20) let alone to Rm (30), but I was basing my decision on Cooper's Endurance on the facts of the movie:


1. He survived 22 hours 43 minutes in an elite evasion/elude capture scenario against British Special Forces. No sleep, constantly moving, and in the end was clear headed and capable of disabling three attackers. I didn't feel that Ex (20) was appropriate as I think that Endurance was probably Cooper's strongest suite.

2. He took a helluva lot of abuse in the last twenty minutes of the movie, including being slammed around by a much more powerful being, which didn't even stun him. Even with the melee with werewolves, he had been going for nearly 24 hours straight in hostile combat environments with no sleep, little food, and still very fresh and active. I didn't feel that giving him Rm (30) would have been overstepping what the source material had shown about the character.

3. Here is my big issue with the entire Human limits point: At what point is 'peak' human performance? I think that if you encourage the true definition of what is peak, it isn't a blanket statement, but rather how the actual stats work. I think that if you look at it, each stat would need to be broken down into a 'peak' human limit for it to truly reflect human's peak levels as well as prime examples. For instance, it is doubtful there will be a peak human strength of Rm (30), but it is possible for peak intuition to be higher, or peak fighting, or even peak agility.I think that instead of adapting the rules around the concept of the rank being the guidepost for peak human, it should reflect a more realistic idea that the rank within the stat is the guidepost:

F: Am
A: In
S: Ex
E: Rm
R: Rm
I: RM
P: Rm

I think that such a set of stats is probably more akin to what I look at in the rules.

Just saying

Not to threadjack entirely -

I hate werwolves in general, but Dog Soldiers was a hell of a movie, and I agree w/ the stats as listed. Using the Judge's Book benchmarks in the Advanced, normal humans seem capable of hitting Remarkable, although Incredible is somewhat super human.

In terms of folks like the Kingpin (and in my writeup of the Punisher) - yeah they're humans that haven't been 'empowered' but they have trained beyond the level of the typical human (Kingpin in Martial Arts, Punisher in relentlessly and successfully waging a one-man-war on crime) which is sufficient cause for 'altered human' type status by virtue of their above-the-rest training (altered human character creation rules, Advanced Set).

When the movie was playing on TV, I was just flipping through channels and stopped. It LOOKED like one of those low budget made for TV Sci Fi Channel movies. You know, generic names of dangers like, "Loch Ness: Be Afraid!" and "The Ice" or "Iguana!", shot on video that looks like video, etc. In fact, I still think parts of Dog Soldiers looks that way.

But something caught --- and held --- my attention. There was something more, I don't know, complex going on in this movie. The guys were tough, yet not superhuman, brave but scared, loyal but suspicious. In some ways, now that I write this, it reminds me of Arnold's elite team in the movie Predator, which to me, wasn't just another run-of-the-mill action movie.

Dog Soldiers wasn't, either. I wonder how many other "fans" of the film found it the way I did, just flipping through the channels one night.

Mark