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Open Legend kobold character concept

Hey, guys, Professor Bill here, and I’m playing in the Nerdarchy “Open Legend” game on Friday’s at noon Eastern Standard Time. Actually, I’m the auxiliary player, so when someone else can’t make the game, then I show up last minute. Nonetheless, I want my character to be on point and I figured I’d share my concepts with you. And, of course, I made him with superheroes in mind.

So, I wanted to have a character who was different than the other players. I got to choose my character concept last, so certain ideas were already taken, leaving me with very few choices. Kind of like a good stew, “This is what’s leftover and we don’t want it to spoil, so throw it all in the pot and mix it together.”

So, we decided on a cold war society that plays a game between cities and that game is very important to the politics of the cities, both internally and externally; political and private. As soon as I heard “cold war,” I immediately thought of all the silly stuff the U.S. and U.S.S.R. did to try and one-up the other, like tests to see if we could develop psychic powers in certain people to use as weapons.

Yes, believe it or not, we actually did run these tests. It was known in the military that we did these tests and only a month or so ago the CIA revealed they ran those tests, too. So, there was a crappy comic book series that dealt with this issue that I’d remembered, plus a cool episode of “The Dead Zone” from way back in the day, and I wanted to do something in that vein.

I imagined a soldier who was tested for psychic powers and the tests were successful. I imagined this was a good thing for the soldier because it made him valuable and not just a disposable grunt anymore. I imagined who would want to become a soldier during this time period, and I imagined the lowest rung of society would see the military life as an outlet that could lead to more prestige for his family. I figured, who would want that more than a Kobold in this world?

Then I had some fun with it. What if he was a psychic like Professor X of the X-Men? Paraplegic and confined to a wheelchair? Some soldier, right? But I was thinking that Professor X would be amazing if he had telekinesis to go along with his telepathy, because then he could telekinetically make himself “walk.”

And then it came to me.

My character will be a Kobold soldier who tested positive for psychokinesis, he will have been shot in the spine and rendered paraplegic, but was still of use to the military and government so he was not discharged, just reassigned. He learned how to manipulate his own body with his telekinesis powers so it appears as if he can walk and run and, in fact, he can be stronger and faster than everyone else because of the telekinesis.

In fact, he could be even more powerful if he just confined himself to a chair and used his abilities, but with his low social class, it’s one thing to be a Kobold, it’s another thing entirely to be a crippled Kobold, so he won’t be able to use the full extent of his powers because of his own shortcomings.

I would like some feedback on this character concept and any ideas on where else to go with my character. Also, anyone who has a good understanding of the Open Legend rules, please comment on how I can build my character the way I want.

Okay, I’m also going to like one of my videos here just because Dave Friant told me Google will see this page and the Nerdarchy website as a whole as being more relevant in searches if there are pictures and videos attached. This video has little to do with this article, though.

Alright guys,
Professor Bill
Comic Book University
Class dismissed

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