“The darkness of space is my cover. I am a bounty hunter. My name is Samus Aran.”
Welcome to Essential Builds, the blog that takes everything we know about a popular culture icon and balls it up into an Essence20 Player Characters.
But can we faithfully translate her using only options designed for G.I. JOE, My Little Pony, Power Rangers, Transformers, and Welcome To Night Vale? Like the end credit easter egg for beating the original Metroid in under an hour, all will be revealed.
Who Is Samus Aran?
An intergalactic bounty hunter in a power suit protecting the galaxy from parasitic aliens, Samur Aran ranked as one of Nintendo’s most iconic protagonists since her debut in 1986’s Metroid.
Admittedly, I am several games behind on the Metroid series. By several, I mean every game after the first. But playing the original was a highlight of weekends spent at my aunt and uncle with a Nintendo’s. I never beat the game (par for the course with the original NES) or really even tried to. I treated Metroid more as an open world game that was fun to explore in hopes of finding new areas and weapons. I only knew the end boss because Mother Brain was the main villain on Captain N: The Game Master (not a GM in the Essence20 sense).
Luckily, I have some help with this build.
Building Essence20 Samus Aran
Full credit to Spy from the Renegade Discord Server for inspiring this build. Not only did they suggest some excellent options for a Samus build, but they also asked if, as RAW suggests, organic Origins can take Retrofit T-Cog to gain an Alt Mode. Against common decency, I said yes, and the Turbo-Teen-esc abominations have been rolling out since.
Similar to my Mega Man build, Samus requires a lot of weaponry and not a lot of intellectual options. I don’t plan on making her a dummy, but finding canonical examples of her Smarts and Social Skill uses will be challenging. Samus is as smart as the player controlling her, and she rarely tries to solve problems peacefully.
Bounty Hunter would be the easiest choice for this build, if it existed! It could be an Origin, a Role, a Focus, an Influence, and yet it’s none of the above. This build made me see this glaring omission and I’m adding it to my list of options I need to include somewhere at some point if I get the chance.
Origin
Warrior Born (Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Across The Stars)
The early Power Rangers sourcebooks picking campaign settings as themes really helps give me a jumping off point when a build fits the setting. Samus works in space so the first book I opened was Across The Stars.
Because Samus traces her roots to the 8-bit era of video games, her origins are pretty straight forward: wears armour, has gun. Warrior Born reflects her real world creation and lines up with what I’ve read of her fleshed out backstory. OK, she wasn’t born a warrior, she was infused with DNA that transformed her into one after her parents were killed. Thematically, Test Subject works better. However, on top of having used that Origin before, it’s mechanically more complicated than our build needs. Warrior Born gets us the Essence Score boosts we need and lets us treat our Initiative as Specialized.
Role
Pink Ranger (Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)
The Pink Spectrum focuses on ranged combat, which was originally the only type of attack Samus had. Later games gave her melee attacks, but they’re mostly kicks and gun smashes. She generally avoids getting too close to her targets.
Pink provides in that regard. At 1st level, Samus gets Volley Shot, which lets her deploy an increasingly large number of multishot attacks. Fifth level lets her unload the full array of a volley on a single target with Penetrating Shot, or fill an area with energy thanks to Group Strike. At 9th and 18th levels, her attacks get deadlier thanks to Precision Aim.
But like I said earlier, Samus is as much about wearing armour as she is about firepower, and the rest of the Pink Role Perks reflect that. Hard Target at 2nd level lets her use Acrobatics to evade damage. Sidestep reduces the effectiveness of an area attack by an amount equal to your Acrobatics Skill Die roll. I don’t normally divulge that much rules detail, but I appreciate the cleverness of the mechanic enough to highlight it.
Gunner from Transformers may have more ranged attack options, but Pink’s combination of offensive and defensive Perks, including It’s Morphin Time to reflect Samus’ power armour, makes it the right Role for her.
Focus
Blood Space War Veteran (Welcome To Night Vale Citizen’s Guide)
Since Samus doesn’t ride a Zord, we needed to swap her Faction. While the Field Guide To Action & Adventure doesn’t elaborate on which Role Perks are tied to the Faction and which are tied to the Setting, the Gen Con Worlds Collide: The Pony Puzzle Event – Character Preparations blog post does. By sticking with the Power Rangers Faction, we retain It’s Morphin Time and Armor Training and Grid Equipment. By switching Settings, we lose Zord Perks and the Ranger Prime Perk (but we’ll put a pin in that for now).
Instead, we gain a Focus tied to our setting. I struggled to find the perfect Focus for this build and so I went with TheZMage’s suggestion on the Renegade Discord Server and used a new Focus from Welcome To Night Vale.
The Night Vale options get a lot of lip service in Essential Builds, but this is the first time I’ve picked one. It’s because they’re so specific to that very weird setting. However, Metroid isn’t exactly chock full of normal.
Speaking of weird, the Blood Space War Veteran gives Samus a benefit to Weird Skill Tests in combat (Weird being an Essence agnostic Skill introduced in that setting). Considering Samus grabs alien tech she finds on missions and turns it into weapons, that’s right up Samus’ alley.
The Focus’ other Perk, gained at 1st level, is Gravity Optional. It’s bonus to jumping is redundant to the bonus to jumping we get from It’s Morphin Time, but the ability to float 5 feet in the air for a few minutes nicely mimics Samus’ hang time.
You may have noticed I said “The Focus’ other Perk”. Night Vale Roles only go up to 5th level, so Focus options only include two Perks. The Advancement rules suggest gaining General Perks instead, which works for a video game character that gets more customizable the later you get in the game. I will suggest that, as a house rule, Samus gained Pink Ranger Prime at 20th level, even though that Perk is normally lost when you Setting swap. The benefits fit her, and are a more exciting end cap to the build than just another General Perk.
Influences
1st Isolated (Transformers Roleplaying Game: Transformers ONE)
2nd Experiment (Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)
3rd Explosive Engineer (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Hawk’s Personnel Files)
I had fun narrowing down Influences to round out this build.
I like Isolated since every Metroid (to my knowledge) is a single-player game with survival horror elements. The atmosphere is claustrophobic and unsettling, and the fact that Samus goes through it all alone will just affect her that much more. That kind of experience breeds independence, which is why she can give herself a bonus when attempting a Skill Test without the benefit of Lend Assistance.
Experiment wasn’t thematically necessary, but I love how gaining benefit when using alien technology fits a Samus build. It especially works when paired with Explosive Engineer, which lets her use Technology to attack with explosives.
I shortlisted a few other Influences, like Cybertronian Military and Transmetal, but both required an Alt Mode, which we don’t have… yet!
Essence Scores and Skills
Speed 8: Acrobatics +d6, Initiative +d4, Targeting +d6
Smarts 4: Alertness +d2, Technology +d6
Strength 3: Might +d6
Social 1: Weird +d2
Samus’ Skills ended up more similar to Mega Man’s than I wanted, but there are a few key differences. I gave Mega Man some but less Acrobatics and Initiative. Samus benefits far more from both, since she rolls Initiative as if Specialized and gets multiple benefits for a high Acrobatics from her Role.
It could be argued that I spent two Influences and three Skill Points on making Samus pretty good with explosives when I could have put it all into Targeting and made her a ranged weapon goddess. That treats Technology like its only purpose is attacking with explosives. Giving Samus the ability to tinker around while also being good with explosives broadens her usefulness, and it fits the flavour of Samus finding and quickly adapting to whatever technology is available to her.
Finally, I gave her a little Weird. This will definitely grow as she deals with more of Mother Brain’s creatures.
As for her lack of Social Skills, unless I’m mistaken, Metroid doesn’t have a lot of dialog options.
General Perks and Other Options
Retrofit T-Cog!
This whole build was born out of the idea that this Transformers ONE General Perk could be applied to organic characters. And since the first puzzle in Metroid involves Samus grabbing an artifact that grants her the ability to turn into a ball, this build was the perfect opportunity to show off the possibilities!
Gaining a T-Cog grants a character the Alt Mode and Origin Perk of an Origin with an Alt Mode. We’ll go with Outrider from the Transformers Core Rulebook. It gives us a 45ft Ground Movement, and the Origin Perk lets us ignore rough terrain.
The rest of our General Perks and all of our Grid Powers will represent Samus’ gradually expanding arsenal.
Conclusion
There’s a reason I stay in my pop culture lane. This build took me much longer than usual and netted me a build I’m less confident about. What’s worse, there were no real eureka moments. That might be because Spy, The ZMage, McFly, Sama, and Platinum came up with all of the clever options before I even started this build.
I do think this would be a fun and functional build at the table. I just hope any Metroid fan who reads this appreciates it.
Resources
Field Guide to Action & Adventure
G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Hawk’s Personnel Files
My Little Pony Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Across the Stars
Power Rangers Roleplaying Game: A Jump Through Time
Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Transformers Roleplaying Game: Transformers ONE
Welcome To Night Vale Citizen’s Guide
Gen Con Worlds Collide: The Pony Puzzle Event – Character Preparations
Ryan Costello is 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, he’s written over 300 000 words for Essence20, contributing to over a dozen products and counting.
