14 February

Essential Builds – Captain America

Written by Ryan Costello

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This build isn’t Steve Rogers!
You’re right. It’s not.

Welcome to Essential Builds, the blog that slaps wings on popular culture icons so they can soar into Essence20.

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.

Renegade Discord regular Major Disaster requested a Captain America build a long time ago. I suspect he was thinking of the traditional star spangled man, but with Captain America: Brave New World out today, I thought I’d go in a different direction and see what I could do with a Captain Samerica.

Who Is Captain America?

In the MCU, Steve Rogers became Captain America after proving he had the character to deserve the super soldier serum. Over the next half-century, repeated failed attempts to create a new Captain America by recreating the super soldier serum reinforced that the person behind the title mattered more than the power in their blood. That’s why, when Steve Rogers retired, he passed the mantle onto Sam Wilson.

As The Falcon, Sam may not have had super powers, but he helped veterans in his free time, stood by his conscience, and bravely faced extinction level threats with only a drone, a pair of pistols, and a jetpack. That’s Captain America material.

In addition to the new title and patriotic makeover, Sam got his hands on Captain America’s mighty shield. More than just a bulletproof barrier, it also serves as a versatile weapon. Through a mix of throwing techniques and technology, Cap’s shield ricochets and boomerangs back to his hand after shoving, knocking out, or destroying a target.

Building Essence20 Captain America

Sam may have earned his mantle by strength of character, but this build needs to get all the toys right. Sam needs wings, he needs a shield, and he needs to be able to do everything we see Cap do with that shield. Luckily, I know how to check the first two boxes at level 1. The rest we can worry about as Cap gets better at his job.

Origin

Griffin (My Little Pony: Story Of Seasons), Bipedal (Gen Con Worlds Collide: The Pony Puzzle Event – Character Preparations blog post)

Sam needs to fly at 1st level. Fortunately for us, there are a few ways to make that happen, most (if not all) of which involve wings or a jetpack. Since I’ve already used the Rocketeer Focus, and because Falcon’s silhouette depends on his wingspan, we’re going with a My Little Pony Origin.

Our two feathery Origin options are the Pegasus, from the MLP Core Rulebook, or the Griffin, from Story of Seasons. The former lets us customize our Movement Rate and gives us a bonus to Acrobatics. The latter is a straight 30ft Ground/30ft Aerial Movement Rate, and gives us bonuses to Culture and Persuasion. While we definitely see Sam perform incredible feats of aerial acrobatics, the bonuses to Culture and Persuasion connect deeper to why he’s Captain America. Add to that, the Griffin starts with a little more Health than the Pegasus. Finally, I’ve never used an option from Story of Seasons, so it’s fun to dip into another book.

Of course, Sam isn’t actually a griffin, but that’s where the Gen Con Worlds Collide: The Pony Puzzle Event – Character Preparations blog post comes in. Like a mini Field Guide to Ponification, this blog post helps players adapt MLP options to non-MLP campaigns, and vice versa. We’ll have to reskin the option a bit since Sam’s wings are equipment and he is very much human, but not so much so that it violates Essential Build’s rule against completely reflavouring an option.

One last benefit our Origin gives us is a Cutie Mark. Sort of. Griffins gain an Origin Perk called Noble Heritage that explicitly states it’s a Cutie Mark in all but name.

According to the Gen Con Worlds Collide: The Pony Puzzle Event – Character Preparations blog post, we have to use the tighter Cutie Mark rules, in which we pick a Skill Specialization to gain a bonus with. That’s for the sake of fairness for characters specifically created for The Pony Puzzle. If you’d rather go with the MLP CRB version of Cutie Marks, we can pick something abstract like Patriotism or Justice. Using the stricter version of the rule, I think Persuasion (Diplomacy) best reflects Sam’s white star.

Role

Vanguard (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)

This is my first Vanguard build, so I will take this opportunity to share a few thoughts.

I think the Vanguard missed the mark.

I came up with the concept for the Vanguard and Ben did the design. Unfortunately I think the Role, which was supposed to be the force of personality leader type, puts too much emphasis on defense, both thematically and mechanically. A lot of the Role builds on Personal Shield, a Perk that acts like a piece of equipment and isn’t representative of anything from G.I. JOE other than a fairly obscure use of one of Lady Jaye’s trick javelins in the Revenge of Cobra miniseries and Operation: Blackout video game.

The bigger issue is how high the Vanguard’s Toughness gets quickly. Even at level 1, gaining a +2 bonus of Toughness and Evasion on top of being Qualified with all Battledress makes Vanguards incredibly hard to hit for two combats per mission.

Normally I suggest using the Meat Shield alternate Role Perk from the Sgt Slaughter Limited Edition Accessory Pack. Alternatively, I have a few house rules to fix the Vanguard’s unbeatable Defenses:

The Defense bonus is +2, regardless of level.
The Defense bonus lasts until the end of your next turn.
You’re no longer restricted to using it once per combat.
Drop “you gain 2 additional Toughness when wearing heavy or super heavy armor” from level 2’s The Heavy Role Perk.

So, if I have issues with the Vanguard Role, why am I using it for this build? Because Vanguard is a defense tank and Captain America tanks defensively.

We’re once again having to reskin the options to work with our build, thematically. Personal Shield explicitly states that the protection comes from “a hockey puck-sized device,” “encircling the Vanguard with obvious shimmering energy.” We’re going to ignore that and instead treat all the bonuses like they come from the metal discus Sam straps to his arm. Everything Personal Shield does can be justified by Cap’s training to keep his shield and wings between himself and enemy attacks. Even the vulnerability to Electromagnetic damage works if we give a lot of weight to that split second shot of a wrist-mounted remote control from Age Of Ultron.

As we level up, we also gain The Heavy, Quick Shield, Shield Modulation, and Impenetrable Shield to show Sam gradually improving how he uses his shield.

Fighting Style, Extra Attack, Empty The Mag, Concentrate Fire cover Cap’s fighting ability. We’ll take Akimbo as our Fighting Style, since Sam uses twin pistols (I think he still does, I haven’t seen the movie yet).

Finally, Inspiring Words, Battlefield Titan, Vigilance, and Heart of the Team represent Cap’s leadership skills. Officer may feel like a better fit for a Captain, but it’s just an honorary title. Sam was an Air Force pararescue airman. Which we’ll get into more in Influences.

Focus

Citystriker (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Cobra Codex)

Although this focus’ theme is technically urban warrior, mechanically it’s the shield warrior’s Focus. At 1st level, it gives us a shield as personal gear, and lets us use weapons while wielding our shield. By 3rd level, it also counts as a melee weapon and can be temporarily given an Element trait. Eventually we can raise and lower our shield as a Free action, before ultimately giving us the raised and lowered benefits of our shield at all times.

There’s nothing about throwing the shield, however, so we’re going to need to look at our General Perks to help us there.

Faction

Freedom Fighters (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Intercontinental Adventures)

Once again I get to flex the versatility of the generic factions from Factions In Action vol 2. Last time, we used Freedom Fighters to create Paw Patrol. Now we’re using it for The Avengers.

First, we need to define four Skills, one from each Essence score, that define how the Faction operates. We definitely want Persuasion in there, so that covers Social. I like Athletics as our Strength Skill, to give characters like Hawkeye and Black Widow their in. Initiative feels thematically on point for The Avengers. That leaves Smarts. An argument could be made for Culture, Science, or Technology, but I think Alertness covers the most ground.

Yes, that means the only Skill separating The Avengers from Paw Patrol is that the pups focus on driving.

The other benefits of the Faction include a flexible choice of equipment Qualification, easier access to Kits, and the ability to Lend Assistance more quickly.

Influences

1st Pony Protection Platoon (Gen Con Worlds Collide: The Pony Puzzle Event – Character Preparations blog post)

2nd Spring Into Action (My Little Pony Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)

3rd Caretaker (Power Rangers Core Rulebook)

Because we went with Griffin as our Origin, we didn’t take an option to represent Sam Wilson’s actual Origin, the US Air Force. Fortunately, the Pony Puzzle blog post gives us an Influence that gives us a G.I. JOE Origin’s Origin Perk. However, the Pilot Origin gives us a benefit for mounting vehicles, which our wings don’t count as (something that eliminates quite a few appropriate Perks, unfortunately).

That still works, because Sam specifically worked as a pararescue airman. He was good enough at that job to qualify for the experimental EXO-7 wingsuit. The First Responder Origin counts as a military Origin (a prereq of Pony Protection Platoon) and lets us reroll 1s on the d20. Useful and thematic.

Dipping once more into MLP, we have Spring Into Action. This Initiative-boosting Influence shows up a lot in Essential Builds, but once again it feels appropriate. A lot of MCU heroes throw out a quip then throw punches, but it feels like Sam keeps up with his super powered teammates by leaping into the air first when a fight breaks out.

Finally, I wanted to represent the scene in which Sam counsels vets with PTSD from Winter Soldier. It can’t be understated how much Sam Wilson’s current popularity can be traced to that movie. Falcon was barely an Avenger in the comics, mostly serving as Steve Rogers’ sidekick. Within a few years of Winter Soldier making him this charming, caring hero in every sense of the word, he was leading the Avengers in the comics. Caretaker being tied to Medicine checks does not synergize well with our build, but it felt important enough to include. The Hang-Up, which forces us to ensure the safety of anyone in our charge, is something we would have been doing anyway.

Cap’s Shield

While our Role gives us a lot of defensive uses of our shield, and our Focus lets us use it as a melee weapon, we really want to be able to throw it. And that takes some rules juggling.

Once our Focus lets us treat our shield as a close combat weapon, we can give it Weapon Upgrades. We need two to make this happen.

First, we’re taking Balanced Grip. This lets us use Athletics to attack with Might and Finesse melee weapons. Next, we’re taking Modular Limited Weapon, which lets us integrate a second weapon into our weapon. By taking Small Thrown Weapon, we can squint and say it doesn’t add a throw weapon to our shield, it makes our shield a thrown weapon. As written, thrown weapons follow the “don’t count your ammo” rule, meaning you don’t have to go and pick up your weapon whenever you throw it. Normally that means you have an endless supply on you, but it also works to say your thrown weapon boomerangs back to you.

Finally, we’re taking Manipulative, which adds Maneuver as an alternate effect to the weapon. Now we can use our shield to control the battlefield.

Before you bemoan what a pain it is to calculate adding Weapon Upgrades to Personal Gear, there’s a workaround. Upgrade Training in Factions In Action vol 2 lets us pick three Limited Weapon Upgrades to be Qualified in. Qualified Upgrades + Personal Gear = No Requisition required. Just don’t tell the US government that we’re taking an Oktober Guard General Perk.

Essence Scores and Skills

Oh no.

The build falls apart here, unfortunately.

There’s no way to account for Cap’s fighting style and leadership while also qualifying for the Avengers Faction we built and getting him a Drone and twin pistols. I’m going to have to sacrifice Redwing and Sam’s guns. Just pretend we chose Close Combat Fighting for our Vanguard Fighting Style.

Speed 5

Vanguard’s slow Speed progression makes this build’s Essence Scores tricky. I would have liked to give Cap Finesse-based melee, but it would take forever to improve and would come at the expense of Acrobatics. I went with Acrobatics +d6 and Initiative +d4, and that will have to cover our flying until 4th level.

Strength 4

I packed all four Strength Skill Points into Athletics to maximize our Shield tricks (and qualify for our Faction). And here I never thought I’d make a build with both Athletics and Acrobatics!

Social 4

Another single Skill Essence Score. Persuasion, naturally.

Smarts 3

I feel bad that I couldn’t go higher in any one Smarts Skill, but the build asks for at least a little Culture and Science, and Sam needs at least +d2 Alertness to spot Ant Man that one time.

Conclusion

Sadly, I’m disappointed in this build. It really doesn’t work until level 4, when we get our first General Perk. Even if we took an Origin that gave us a General Perk at 1st level, we don’t treat our shield as a weapon until level 3. Between that, not getting a drone, and stretching the No Reskin rule thinner than Essential Builds has ever seen, it feels like I’m cheating.

There are some wins, however. Once we get to level 4, I think the build really works. Its versatility is its strength. And while the path to getting a shield was weird and winding, using the shield is actually pretty straight forward.