Hey, guys, Professor Bill of Comic Book University and I guess I’m up next to talk about my character for the Open Legend RPG game on Fridays at noon Eastern on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel. I think that, by now, it’s pretty obvious that I have an affinity for comic books, so I took my inspiration from the comics to get in my character’s head. Open Legend RPG is an open source roleplaying game designed by Brian Feister, who sponsors our weekly live game. The core rules for the game are available for free online here.

In the Marvel comics, there are many teams. The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Defenders, the New Warriors, Alpha Flight, the Thunderbolts, and so on. Another group that you may have heard of are the X-Men.

What’s the difference between the X-Men and all the other teams? If you said mutants then you’re wrong because there have been mutants on the other teams. If you said, “Professor Bill! Every incarnation of the X-Men has always had a psychic on the team,” well then you’d be correct.

I was the last to choose a character concept. I like to see what everyone else is going to do so that I can be different than everyone else. Also, I like to find a way to compliment the team as well. When no one picked psychic, well…

Immediately I got to thinking about all the psychics on the X-Men teams: Jean Grey/Phoenix, both versions of Psylocke, Emma Frost, and of course Professor X. While making a psychic ninja, like Psylocke after her trip through the Siege Perilous, was a very promising idea, I decided to add a Professor X archetype instead.

Thus, Kryzikk, the soldier who was wounded in battle, leaving him in a paraplegic state. Later, Kryzikk was found to test positive for psychic abilities by a secret department of the military. His telepathic and psychokinesis abilities allow him to read surface thoughts and probe deeper for hidden or repressed thoughts. Move objects, sway emotions, and even see the future.

Recently, Kryzikk learned to fly and teleport. This is attributed to his time spent learning from Doctor Lucy.

Kryzikk has no formal school learning. Hailing from Kerfluffle, the Kobold main city. He never learned any trade skills and can barely read, having been recruited for the military early in his life. He became an infantry soldier, taking the front lines against various enemies in wars that the common city dweller would have never even heard of. He’s even taken several trips to the surface to fight the unnamed enemies of the Gloom.

Kryzikk’s superiors know how powerful he is, while Kryzikk shows no sign of really understanding his true potential. They sent him to work with this new team for two reasons.

The first, they have noticed that Kryzikk has taken a more pacifistic approach to life. They hope that, by teaming him with a more trained soldier, a powerful aethermancer, a seemingly racist zealot, and a childhood friend who could be hurt under his watch, that Kryzikk would break out of his peaceful ways and become the weapon of mass destruction they need him to be.

Second, they know that the Gloom houses great psychic entities that take over the minds of other psychics. While Kryzikk is valuable to the military war machine, he is still just a kobold, and thus, expendable. Whatever happens to Kryzikk, it will be recorded.

But Kryzikk really is becoming more of an individual. He hasn’t felt his legs for the past year now, and it has been suspected that the bullet was friendly fire. Told by “the noble races” that he was nothing his entire life. Called every name imaginable, there is little he hasn’t heard. Insults don’t bother him, just as many kobolds have developed this thick skin.

While he can’t be considered defiant, Kryzikk no longer follows orders to the letter. Rather, he decides how the orders will be carried out. Mainly, he will never kill for another human or elf again.

He no longer carries weapons, preferring nonlethal methods and depending on his new psychic abilities. Kryzikk will never be considered smart, but for all his capabilities and limitations, he is a deep thinker. He meditates often, typically mulling over the events of the previous day and thinking about better ways he could have handled those situations.

He sees his own faults and is introspective enough to recognize his mistake. Kryzikk cries when a life is taken unnecessarily. He knows there is a difference between killing and murder, though he is keenly aware that either will be the end to the spark of another creature’s life, taking away their chances for self-improvement and repentance.

More importantly, it hurts him mentally to see the spark escape from its body. He knows that it affects everyone involved in the death, but seeing the body give up the ghost changes a person. And Kryzikk has been undeniably changed.

As for game mechanics for my character, I’m more interested in specializing in a few things and essentially ignoring everything else. Kryzikk is not meant to be a one-man army, but rather, a very important member of a team.

Thus, Kryzikk’s agility (substituted by his movement) is maxed at 5. Movement is the same ability he taps for his telekinesis and it’s his telekinesis that allows him to move his paralyzed legs. He maintains higher scores in the attributes that allow him greater power, reflecting his tremendous potential. It has to be roleplayed that he’s not trained in those powers, so there will be no “Dark Phoenix” moments anytime soon.

I love the interactive aspect of game-play, thus, I had no problems posting for ideas from readers (people like you) for what to actually do with Kryzikk. However, it took me by surprise when the Open Legend admins and others got involved in not only assisting me with the character design but actually making my character. I changed a few things but the original design that was developed, mostly by Brycelor, who made the character sheet for Kryzikk.

And in general, I want to thank everyone at Open Legend, from the creators to the playtesters, to the moderators on the website, and everyone who posts on the Open Legend RPG Discord forums. There are a lot of people who answer questions right away and that can’t be overlooked.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the game.

Professor Bill,

Comic Book University

Class dismissed.

[amazon_link asins=’1533443475′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’nerdarchy-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’82e0a753-4f9d-11e7-b974-61bca0f5b8d9′]

[amazon_link asins=’B01LEJDGZ6′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’nerdarchy-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’88bc709c-4f9d-11e7-9be9-9be0b387954e’]

[amazon_link asins=’0785122133′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’nerdarchy-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’8eca465a-4f9d-11e7-b44e-57adc880819a’]