Minori, Mistress of the Unseen Serpent – Steal this Background
Minori was originally an NPC who appeared in a short lived Anime-style martial arts game. Her chi-based powers were designed around concepts like deception and poison. I wanted to create a character who, under the right circumstances, could end a fight without her opponent even realizing what had been done to them.
That’s where the modifiers came in. I made her main attack both subtle – meaning, difficult to notice the attack itself – and insidious – making the EFFECTS of the attack equally hard to detect. Further, on inspiration from the old Monk ability, “Quivering Palm,” I added the triggered modifier.
I now had a character who could attack without being noticed, and who could delay that attack several times to activate at a later point. She was the perfect enforcer and assassin, and her enemies wouldn’t always realize that they’d been singled out until after she walked away.
Conceptually, Minori was always tied closely to the snake. In addition to her poisonous chi, her more mundane skills and martial arts training were patterned after the snake as well. She studied snakes to get more ideas, too. Some would have called her cold-blooded. Her friends, though, knew her better.
I now present to you, “Minori, Mistress of the Unseen Serpent,” as a proper Power Level 10 PC. All she needs is a pair of complications suited to your game, and she can drop right in.
Enjoy!
Download the Mutants & Masterminds PDF Character Sheet: Minori, Mistress of the Unseen Serpent
Image from Greywulf.
Jonathan Baldwin
Jonathan is a firm believer that the best way to make friends is to game with them, and that nearly any problem can be surmounted with a well rolled d20 and a sense of humor. Regrettably, his professors do not agree with him, which leaves him with the challenge of balancing his gaming habits with his studies. Profile Page / Article Portfolio
Mutants and Masterminds is a game that i’ve wanted to play for a long time. I just need to convince my group! As I don’t know anything about the rules, I can’t comment on the character, but she looks like she’d be fun to play.
Hey, Jeff! 🙂
“Fun to play,” has been my primary motivation for character design for quite some time – well, that, or accurately portraying something I’ve seen in fiction. But mostly the fun to play thing. So I’m glad you think so – that means I’ve done my job. ^_^
Regrettably I haven’t actually had much of a chance to play most of them (too few RPG players in my locale, and most of them are too invested in D&D to be interested in trying anything new. Pity) But Minori was one I always wanted to get out and try. Maybe this way someone else will get the chance.
She made a fun NPC, anyway.
I must agree, she is a fun NPC in our game. What game is she from originally though?
Originally I created her for use in a “martial arts high school,” anime style game very VERY loosely patterned after Tenjou Tenge. The system was Mutants and Masterminds 3e, same as here, and at the time her Power Level was around 8. She was an enigmatic femme-fatale sometimes-ally-sometimes-rival of the PC. About 80% of her concept was designed around keeping the PC’s guessing, and it worked reasonably well in that context. Very, very fun.
This of course represents a tougher, more experienced version of the character suitable for PL 10 hero teams – standard play for M&M, in other words.