09 August

Essential Builds – Deadpool

Written by Ryan Costello

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Deadpool is everywhere these days. He’s destroying box office records like they’re fourth walls, is on one of the most aggressive, bizarre, and creative promotional tours ever, and on his typical boatload of merch. You can’t even order a Coke without getting Deadpool in your face.

Now Deadpool is taking over Essential Builds, the blog that wades into popular culture for 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.

Since I’m a big enough Deadpool fan to post a video about baking the saddest looking Deadpool cookies (not as in pathetic, as in on the verge of tears), I’m inspired to put maximum effort into this build. And as a former writer of Looking For Group, I am all the way on board with Deadpool & Wolverine using #LFG, even if their version of its meaning is far too rude for this all ages blog.

Who Is Deadpool?

Known as The Merc With The Mouth, Wade Wilson, the vigilante called Deadpool, is great at killing and even better at banter. Introduced in New Mutants as an assassin hired to eliminate Cable, the character reached unheard of levels of popularity and exposure three decades later.

Like the Joker, comic book Deadpool has a flexible backstory up to interpretation. Few key players in his formative years hold any significant role in the modern Marvel timeline, leaving only Deadpool, a self-professed unreliable narrator, to tell his tale.

However, his movie origin is the generally accepted Deadpool backstory. From Regina, Saskatchewan, Wade joined a Special Forces unit. After developing an aggressive cancer, Wade looked beyond Canada’s impressive healthcare system and to military experimentation for the cure. He signed up for a Department K experiment to infuse him with Wolverine’s genetics in the hope that they would unlock a similar healing factor and cure him.

The procedure was a success, but did not net the results he expected. Because cancer is a mutation rather than a wound, Deadpool found his body at war with itself on a cellular level. This took its toll on his physical appearance and mental health, but it did mean he could recover from otherwise fatal wounds.

Work opportunities being limited for a regenerating degenerate, Deadpool became a gun (and sword) for hire, before settling into the less lucrative but ethically more empowering life of an anti-hero.

Building Essence20 Deadpool

Comic book YouTube channel Comic Tropes recently polled subscribers about what defined Deadpool for an episode on which writer had the biggest impact on the modern perception of Deadpool. The majority felt that, more than his powers, his look, and his origin story, Deadpool was defined by his personality.

That will present an interesting challenge, but it will also add a lot of opportunities. If this was just a Deathstroke build, it would mostly be about his fighting skills. Deadpool’s personality being such an important element of the character means I need to look beyond combat effectiveness.

Another challenge is Deadpool’s healing factor. Since there’s no Death condition, every character in Essence20 is unkillable. However, for balance reasons, we can’t make them unDefeatable. Luckily, how Essence20 abstracts damage means that high Health can feel similar to shrugging off injuries. But I’ll be exploring other options that feel truer to the concept.

One last note: There are a lot of Deadpool-appropriate options in G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Intercontinental Adventures: Factions in Action Vol. 2, a book that technically won’t be out until October. However, because a selection of advanced copies sold at Gen Con last week, I feel comfortable drawing on a few foundational options for this build. Just don’t expect much more detail than you’ll find in the Table Of Contents that was shared by fan Jaredd Wilson from the copy he picked up in Indianapolis.

Role

Yellow Ranger (Power Rangers Core Rulebook)

Initially G.I. JOE’s Commando seemed like the obvious Role for this build, but as I read it over, it felt too grounded for Deadpool. Also, none of the Focus options gave the perfect combination of swords and guns combat that I would have liked. I thought about combining the G.I. JOE Infantry Role with the Transformers Warrior Role’s Shredder Focus from Transformers Roleplaying Game Decepticon Directive, but Shredder is such a perfect Focus for a Wolverine build, I decided to save it.

So I expanded my search and remembered that the Yellow Ranger was one of the best melee Roles in Essence20. Triple Strike Attacks right out of the gate captures Deadpool’s frenzied twin-katana assaults (especially as represented in Ultimate Alliance, where he had one of my favourite attacks in that game, a spinning sword attack called Blade Cyclone), made even more real when we unlock Whirlwind Strike at 9th level. Nimble Fighter at 2nd level and Lightning Fast at 9th work for Deadpool’s acrobatic attack style, or, if you’re a Joe Casey era purist, his teleporter.

As a reminder, when you change a Power Ranger Role’s Setting and Faction, it still gains Power Points. That’s another reason Yellow Ranger felt like a better fit than Commando. As a mutate (a human enhanced with mutant DNA in Marvel parlance), Deadpool can pull off super human feats. Even if they’re intended to be dramatized versions of peak human performances, Power Points help bolster what Deadpool can do. They represent the differences between Deadpool’s fighting style and Snake Eyes’.

Setting, Focus, and Faction

Setting: G.I. JOE (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)

Given Deadpool’s military training, G.I. JOE felt like the most thematic choice. Choosing the G.I. JOE setting also opened up the perfect Deadpool faction.

Focus: Armiger (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Cobra Codex)

Returning to Essential Builds after showing up with Mega Man, the Infantry Role’s Armiger Focus is great for both weapon specialists and mercs who pack a bag of weapons before every mission. Deadpool is somewhere in the middle, but with his sword skills covered by his Role, Armiger allows us to compliment them with a single firearm, like an SMG, or all of the accessories you’ve ever seen a Deadpool toy packed with.

I would have loved to use the Transformers Gunner Role’s Triggerbot Focus from Transformers Roleplaying Game Decepticon Directive, but for setting swapping reasons, I needed to pick a G.I. JOE Focus.

Faction: Mercenary (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Intercontinental Adventures: Factions in Action Vol. 2 )

G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Intercontinental Adventures: Factions in Action Vol. 2 introduces four new generic Factions, including Mercenaries. Each generic faction replaces the space normally dedicated to lore with sections on how to define the Faction, followed by the typical rules matter. Mercenaries are one of the easier generic Factions to define, but you do get to decide if you’re part of a group or an independent contractor.

Origin

Marine (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Sgt. Slaughter Limited Edition Accessory Pack)

Dare I confess something?

I’m not sure what the Special Forces are.

This is embarrassing as someone so heavily involved in the design of the G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game. I’m pretty sure they’re real. Like, it’s not just a catch-all term Hollywood created for better than average soldiers. But other than getting the gist of it, I can’t define it.

All that to say, hopefully I’m not getting on any military buff’s bad side by choosing the Marine Origin to represent Deadpool’s military training.

Truth be told, I thought about bringing Test Subject in for its third Essential Builds appearance. And unlike Leonardo and NFL Super Pro, who were accidents, Deadpool was actually the subject of tests!

The reason I chose Marine over Test Subject was the Origin Benefit. Hard Corps lets you ignore the effects of one enemy attack once per combat. This is one of the choices I made to represent Wade’s healing factor. Specifically, the often comedic moments in battle where Deadpool suffers a horrific injury. More than just having high Health represent his ability to recover, Hard Corps lets the GM describe how Deadpool’s body was brutally mangled and for the player to explain how they’ve picked up their pieces and are carrying on.

Influences

1st Intense (My Little Pony Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)

2nd Chatty (My Little Pony Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)

3rd Violent (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Cobra Codex)

Once again, I need to remind readers that the order of Influences is not a reflection of how much the theme applies to the character but how much the Hang-Up applies.

Is Deadpool chatty? Cable told him as much in their first encounter (contrary to the urban legend that Deadpool wasn’t as much of a talker at first). Is Deadpool violent? Just ask -oop, I had a long list of people you could ask but they all met grizzly ends.

Why neither is Deadpool’s first influence is that Chatty’s Hang-Up (suffering a Snag on Infiltration Skill Tests that involve being quiet) and Violent’s Hang-Up (suffering a Downshift on Skill Tests in combat that don’t deal damage) are spot on.

I could have taken or left Intense, which gives Deadpool a bonus to Willpower to resist being told what he can and can’t do, but I needed an Influence without a Hang-Up and it worked.

Essence Scores and Skills

Speed 7

I often lament Speed-focused builds, because it’s too easy during character creation to load up on Initiative and Targeting and before you know it you already have Speed 5. But Deadpool is definitely a Speed-based fighter. I gave him three Ranks each in Finesse and Targeting, and a pity point in Acrobatics. Even though I could use a Rank in Initiative, and our Role Perks already cover Deadpool’s cartwheeling combat style, it felt weird not giving him any Acrobatics.

Social 4

Deadpool may get on people’s nerves, but that’s all part of his charm. He’s also worldly in his understanding, but unfocused in how he got there. I gave him two Ranks each in Deception and Streetwise. You may want to pour it all into Streetwise, though, and let his weapons do the talking.

Strength 3

Deadpool communicates through jokes that are usually veiled threats, so I gave him two Ranks in Intimidation. I would have gone three, but I gave him a point of Conditioning, just in case.

Smarts 2

Not a dummy by any means, I couldn’t think of any Smarts Skill that suited Deadpool, other than Alertness, which got two Ranks.

General Perks and Other Options

In the Origin section, I talked about considering Test Subject from G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Cobra Codex. The thing is, unlike the Marine’s Origin Benefit, I can still get the benefits of Test Subject (an Alternation) without taking the Origin.

The Alteration in question is Skin Tempering. This gives us the benefits of a Battledress Upgrade, even when unarmored. As an Origin Benefit, we could have taken Limited Skin Tempering from 1st level. As a General Perk, we can take Standard Skin Tempering at 4th level, or Limited Skin Tempering at 8th level. Then, we’ll switch over to G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Quartermaster Guide To Gear for one of the Battledress Upgrades that gives the benefits of Body Armor.

Instead of increasing a Defense, Body Armor acts more like damage reduction. Your Body Armor has a certain amount of Health, and when you’re successfully affected by the damage or weapon it’s built to resist, you remove its Health instead of your own. Deadpool’s body acting as body armor is perfect. I honestly didn’t think I’d find a healing factor stand-in mechanic that I was this happy with.

I debated whether to take Ballistic Armor or Kinetic Armor upgrade. Ballistic applies against all ballistic weapons, but Kinetic only resists either Blunt or Sharp melee damage. I went for Ballistic because Deadpool gets shot more than he gets stabbed.

We’ll skip the rest of the General Perks, since they’d mostly be combat oriented and would largely be from a book I can’t go into details about.

Conclusion

Generally I have less fun with straight combat builds because there isn’t as much challenge and discovery. However, Deadpool had just enough elements off the beaten path that forced me to reexamine what was possible with Essence20. This build made me realize there are viable options to represent a healing factor. There are even some more extreme options I didn’t go into here. I need to save those for another Canadian with a healing factor absolutely tearing up the box office right now.