23 August

Essential Builds – Crossovers Wolverine

Written by Ryan Costello

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He’s the best there is at what he does, and what he does is combine the ruggedness of a jeep with the deployable blades of a knife block.

Welcome to Essential Builds, bub, the blog that turns popular culture icons into Essence20 Player Characters.

I’m Ryan Costello, one of the designers of the Essence20 system and an author on the G.I. JOE, Transformers, and My Little Pony Roleplaying Game Core Rulebooks. As of this writing, I’ve written over 300 000 words for Essence20, contributing to over a dozen products and counting.

Today, I’m building Wolverine as a rally truck.

This one takes some explaining.

Who Is Crossovers Wolverine?

In 2008, Hasbro’s line of licensed Star Wars Transformers mutated into Transformers Crossovers, a line that now included both Star Wars and Marvel (oddly, before Disney owned either property). Over the next couple of years, they release three versions of a Wolverine Transformer that converted into a rally truck: one in a brown and yellow deco that doesn’t really match the earthtones of his brown costume but is clearly meant to be that one, one in black and silver with red highlights to represent his time as the leader of the X-Force strike team, and one in his classic blue and yellow costume.

This is the Wolverine I’m building.

Why?

I mentioned a few times in my Deadpool build that I was saving some options for a Wolverine build. I didn’t intend to get to Wolverine so soon (I like diversifying the source material of the subjects I cover), but with so many ideas fresh in my mind, and Deadpool & Wolverine joining the Billion Dollar Club, it felt like the right time to get to the X-Men’s most mysterious member.

So that explains why Wolverine, but why the Transformers version?

One, even though there were a lot of options that I considered for Deadpool that work better for Wolverine, there are also a lot of options I used that work equally for both. I don’t want this build to cover the same ground as my last build.

Two, a lot of Transformers options are, for obvious reasons, tied to the idea of a robot that can change into things. That makes them unusable unless our subject meets that exact criteria. Well, Crossovers Wolverine fits that bill*, and since he won’t show up in a Renegade product**, this felt like a fun way to build Wolverine in an all new, all different direction.

*Technically the Transformers Crossovers are mechs ridden by the character they’re based off, but the Transformers Crossovers lore is tenuous and unexplored, and the Marvel ones didn’t even come with pilots, unlike the Star Wars Transformers.

**Barring some licensing gymnastics that would impress even Simone Biles.

Building Crossovers Wolverine

My three priorities are:

Integrated melee weapon master;
Healing/Repairing Factor;
Mysterious.

I have a half-dozen Influences in mind, so it’s going to take a lot of slashing to narrow them down. Speaking of slashing!

Role

Warrior (Transformers Core Rulebook)

As the designer of the Warrior Role, I hope you believe me when I say I did not have Wolverine in mind when I wrote it. I bring this up because the Role Perk covers so much of this build’s needs, even I’m questioning my intent.

Hardcore lets us ignore damage that would Defeat us, but it costs us a limb. There’s our healing factor (and one of my motivations to make Crossovers Wolverine instead of vanilla Wolverine—as a Cybertronian Perk, we would not gain this benefit if we swapped settings). Push Through The Pain is another good representation of Wolverine’s healing factor, Tough It Out is even better, and Soldier On caps it off nicely.

Manifest Melee Weapon means we can deploy our claws. It’s not a huge advantage, mechanically, over drawing a weapon or using an Internal Hardpoint for an Integrated Melee Weapon, but narratively it’s perfect. It also improves as we level up. Technically we can get chainsaw claws (chainclaws) at 16th level, which isn’t representative of Wolverine but it’s a cool visual for a Wolverine-looking transformer.

Wisdom Through Experience both has Wolverine tapping into his foggy memory and doubles as him using his animalistic traits when examining a location. Leatherhead on the Renegade Discord Server suggested that Wisdom Through Experience would have been a good way to represent Deadpool’s 4th wall breaking. I like that a lot, but it also works for Wolverine’s flashbacks.

Focus

Shredder (Decepticon Directive)

I did not design this Focus, so I can’t speak to whether Bryan had Wolverine in mind when he designed it, but I would not be surprised. He probably had Shredder in mind, come to think of it…

One issue with the Warrior Role for this build is that Manifest Melee Weapon only ever lets us manifest one melee weapon. I think we can count three claws as one close combat blade, but not two hands of claws. Luckily, Shredder lets us deal Sharp damage with our unarmed attacks. It even gives us a Multiple Targets alternate effect! This does mean our unarmed attacks are better than any Standard melee weapon, so until we get Expanded Arsenal at 7th level, there’s little reason to Manifest Melee Weapon. Unless we consider claws out Wolverine’s natural state, and we manifest a close combat bludgeon as an adamantium fist.

As we level up, we get better with our sharp unarmed attacks, able to Grapple targets and deal additional damage to them.

Melee builds can struggle in Essence20, but Warrior (Shredder) is as dangerous as it is resilient.

Origin

Outrider (Transformers Core Rulebook)

Before we begin, now’s a good time to mention that Transformers Crossovers Wolverine was not my only option for a Wolverine with an alt mode. Years earlier, Toy Biz released a series of toys called Shape Shifters, including a Wolverine that could convert into a wolf. If I really wanted to avoid building a Transformer release, I could have gone that direction and given him the Monstrosity Origin from Decepticon Directive. But since Wolverine turning from a feral human with claws into a wolf is not a huge leap (and why not a wolverine?), Crossovers Wolverine just felt like a more interesting build.

I went with the off-road vehicle chassis, the Outrider from the Transformers CRB. Now, being about as far from a car guy as they come, I’m not really sure what a rally truck. I assume it’s a truck that races in the mud, but maybe it’s some kind of sports car support vehicle that doesn’t go anywhere near dirt roads. Even if that’s the case, Outrider’s Origin Benefit, which not only lets it ignore Rough Terrain but counts as being in Cover when in Rough Terrain, harkens back to Wolverine’s many forest fight scenes in comics, cartoon, and cinema.

Also, as I’ve apologized for before, yes, it’s my fault that there’s an Outrider Origin and Focus in the TF CRB.

Influences

1st Tragedy (Cobra Codex)

2nd Brutish (Ferocious Fighters: Factions in Action Vol. 1)

3rd Nemesis (Decepticon Directive)

Wolverine has suffered more than most comic characters, and not just because he’s as old as every love interest he’s ever had combined. Tragedy made a lot of sense for the build, giving him a bonus to a Defense. I went with Willpower, because of his resolve. Had this been an Influence with a Hang-Up, I would have dinged Cleverness, because Wolverine has a history of being manipulated.

For the next Influence, I debated between Brutish and Checkered Past. Both give a situational Edge at the cost of a situational Snag on Social Skill Tests. The difference is the theme. While Checkered Past invokes Wolverine’s military history and tendency to clash with Cyclops, I went with Brutish because a lot of my builds have Checkered Past. Brutish gets to the same place while reflecting Wolverine’s animalistic side.

Finally, I took a fun Influence from Decepticon Directive: Nemesis. This story-driven Influence lets us cast a figure from our past as an NPC of importance. While Wolverine has a lot of enemies, no one gets under his skin like Sabertooth. My favourite example of their utter intolerance for one another is in What If… the Marvel Super-Heroes Had Lost Atlantis Attacks? In one of the comics that gave What If..? it’s reputation for bodycounts, only a handful of super powered beings remain to save humanity from Set the serpent god. This includes both Wolverine and Sabertooth. Even though they are humanity and mutantkinds’ last hope, one prickly comment from Sabertooth has Wolverine ready to throwdown with his adversary.

The question is, what would a Cybertronian Sabertooth turn into?

Essence Scores and Skills

Strength 5

I’m always happy when I build a Strength-based combat character. Wolverine could have been Finesse-based, but he’s such a brutal fighter that Might felt like the way to go. I gave him +d6 with a Specialization in Melee weapons. I also gave him a Rank in Athletics.

Smarts 5

Wolverine is the X-Men’s tracker, so +d6 Survival and Alertness +d4 covered that skill set, and gave him a decent Smarts without giving Wolverine much in the way of intellectual Skills.

Speed 4

I stayed conservative with Crossover Wolverine’s speed, only giving him +d4 Infiltration, and +d2 Driving and Initiative. In retrospect, maybe I should have given him Driving instead of Athletics, since Athletics is more of a fleshy Wolverine choice. However, since he ignores Rough Terrain thanks to his Origin, we might be able to get away with a Transformer PC with a low Driving Skill.

Social 2

Finally, I gave Wolverine +d4 Streetwise. I thought about giving him Animal Handling, but most interactions I can think of between Wolverine and animals do not end well for the animals.

General Perks and Other Options

We’ll want to get Acute Sense (Smell) ASAP. I regret that I didn’t give it to Wolverine at 1st level.

Otherwise, this being a combat character, the usual suite of combat-focused General Perks apply, but I want to give a shout to Martial Weapon Master from Intercontinental Adventures. It gives us an Upshift on Martial Arts weapon attacks, which will help us mitigate the ↓1/↓2 of a six claw attack.

There was some debate on the Renegade Discord about how the Empty Hands General Perk from the same book applies if you have Integrated weapons. If your GM allows you to allow you to take this General Perk despite and Hardpoint Weapons you install, it pairs perfectly with the Shredder Focus.

Speaking of Hardpoints, that’s one area I struggled with for this build. We have our Integrated melee weapons covered multiple times over, and the toy doesn’t have any ranged weapons build into it. It does, however, have a winch for a chin, spare tires, and a bumper. Basically, we can load Wolverine up with support equipment to diversify his functions and bring to life the toy’s details.

If you decide Wolverine’s military training justifies mounting an assault rifle, you’ll need to invest in Targeting, a Skill I skipped specifically because I didn’t have any ranged weapons in mind.

Conclusion

Shoot. I didn’t give Wolverine any My Little Pony options…

Well, that aside, I think we have a near perfect Wolverine build, which is surprising since Hugh Jackman never turned into a truck.

Most of this build still applies to a traditional Wolverine build, of course. Just swap out Outrider with Test Subject from Cobra Codex, and Shredder with Silent Weapons Expert from Intercontinental Adventures.