The most famous sidekick went on to become the best example of why comic book characters should be allowed to age and mature. Dick Grayson’s journey from Robin to Nightwing took him from Batman’s sidekick and ward to buttkicking Titan and a pillar of the DC universe.
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Robin was my favourite super hero as a kid, the first sign that I loved a good underdog. When I started reading comics, finding out that Robin grew up to be an adult super hero named Nightwing blew my mind. The fact that Nightwing only shows up in a fraction of tie-in media compared to Robin since then shows that he works best when given years to organically grow out of his roots and into a character unlike anyone else in comics.
Since this week marks two years of Essential Builds, I revisited the blog’s origin by building a member of the Bat-Family.
Who Is Nightwing?
As a young circus acrobat, Dick Grayson watched his parents fall to their deaths after a criminal cut their high wire during a performance in Gotham City. The only good to come out of that night for the youngest Flying Grayson was that a billionaire and fellow orphan was in the audience. Bruce Wayne took the boy under his wing, first as his ward, and eventually as the sidekick to his alter ego Batman. Dick used his acrobatic skills to fight crime as Robin the Boy Wonder. As he aged, he became The Teen Wonder before moving on from his original alias and taking on a new mantle as an adult: Nightwing.
As Nightwing, Dick supports Batman’s war on crime in Gotham, leads a team of former sidekicks called The Titans, and protects the people of seedy city Blüdhaven.
Having been a crime fighter for most of his life, Nightwing sees the battle between good and evil with a perspective other superheroes lack. When Nightwing talks, Batman and even Superman listen.
Building Essence20 Nightwing
I’ve alluded to Nightwing growing up a lot up to this point. The recently released* Hawk’s Personnel Files includes an Advanced Role for veterans, The Old Hand. It’s the perfect way to distinguish a Nightwing build from a Robin build, which would focus on acrobatic crime fighting exclusively.
Otherwise, this is going to be pretty straight forward. My main concern is balancing everything Nightwing is good at with the limitations of RPG characters needing to be relatively balanced.
*or at least available to attendees of Gen Con and anyone who preordered a hard copy from the Renegade store
Role
Yellow Ranger (Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook), Old Hand (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Hawk’s Personnel Files)
We don’t qualify for Old Hand until we take the Done The Impossible General Perk, which in turn requires three successful missions to take. That means we need to take another Role for four levels, at which point we can take Done The Impossible and as our General Perk, and then take Old Hand the following level.
Since Old Hand represents Dick’s shift to Nightwing, his base Role would be his time as Robin. And since it’s been a running joke for years that Batman dresses Robin up in bright colours for the same reason he wears an eye-catching bulletproof shield on his chest, we’re going for the brightest Role in the game, the Yellow Ranger!
OK, we’re actually going with Yellow Ranger because the combination of Triple Strikes Attack (which lets us throw three Finesse attack as one Power Point assisted action) and Nimble Fighter (which lets us move a bit after every successful melee attack) perfectly captures a motion technique used in a lot of Nightwing art, what Comic Tropes refers to as the DeLuca Effect, polyptych motion, and reduplication. Basically, it’s when an artist illustrates Nightwing multiple times in a panel, sometimes desaturating all but one, to give the impression the subject is moving faster than other characters can react.
By 5th level, Nightwing’s an old hand at this whole crimefighting gig. The Old Hand Advanced Role is all about reliability. Moxie gives us a pool of points we can use to activate Role Perks and reactivate Perks with limits on its uses. Do Or Die lets us add a die to a Skill Test result. Various abilities let us reroll or skip rolling to instead accept a fixed result. All while Outstanding In Your Field lets us gain Role Perks from our Base Role, albeit at a reduced rate. It really sells a powerless super hero like Nightwing, who is occasionally great and consistently good.
Faction
“Bat Family” Freedom Fighters (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Intercontinental Adventures)
The most frequently used Generic Faction from Factions In Action vol 2 makes another appearance, this time as the Bat Family, Batman’s various sidekicks and associates. That means choosing four Skills, one for each Essence Score, that define how the Faction operates. This being a Faction formed by a terrifying vigilante detective, we’ll say Intimidation for Strength, Finesse for Speed, Alertness for Smarts, and Streetwise for Social. To qualify for the Faction, Nightwing needs a +d8 in two of those Skills. You have two sections and a subsection to see if you can guess which!
Here’s a happy accident: The Faction Perk makes us better at Lending Assistance. Because Nightwing is Dick’s independent era (slash leader of a super group, but we’ll ignore that right now for dramatic purposes), going solo costs him a lot of the benefits of this Perk. Trying to strike out on his own also teaches him how much he actually relied on other people.
Focus
Spy (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)
I debated what direction to go with Nightwing’s Focus, especially because he won’t advance in his Focus after switching to Old Hand. I considered Infiltrator to mirror my Batman build, especially because Wire Work is a great Perk for a former acrobat. Sadly, as a 6th level Focus Perk, it’s not a Perk we’ll ever get.
Instead, I decided to make Nightwing the Yin to Batman’s Yang. My Batman build was an Analyst with the Infiltrator Focus, so a detective with martial artist tendencies. The Spy Focus makes Dick a martial artist with detective tendencies.
I love the Spy Focus. It’s a great example of how a Focus can change a Role’s purpose and personality. We only get the first two Focus Perks, but one lets us ignore the penalty for being untrained and the other bumps up any Skill we’re minimally invested in. This helps us meet the steep +d8 in two Skills requirement of our Faction and remain versatile in other areas.
Origin
Tragic (Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)
Bruce Wayne adopted Dick Grayson because seeing the boy lose his parents to crime reminded him of how he started on the path to being Batman. As such, it felt appropriate to give Nightwing the same Origin I gave Batman.
The only drawback to this thematic choice is that the Origin Perk lets us reroll dice. I’m not saying it’s not helpful, but between Old Hand and Spy, we have a lot of options that flatten the probability curve. We need a little variety to our mechanics. Luckily, we still have our Influences!
Influences
1st Martial Artist (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)
2nd Legacy (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Hawk’s Personnel Files)
3rd Nimble (My Little Pony Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)
This was another build with a long shortlist (16!) that ended up with a predictable selection of Influences.
Thematically, our Role covers Nightwing’s martial arts background, but I appreciate the mechanics of Martial Artist, even if I think it’s not the best fit for an Influence with that name. The ability to determine the relative Threat Level of an opponent doesn’t come up in many mechanics and is a great combination of fighting and detectiving that fits our build perfectly.
Legacy is a new Influence that represents benefiting from your upbringing. It lets us qualify for level-based options earlier, since we were taught by Batman and hung out with other super heroes more than the average teenager.
Finally, Nimble lets us attempt an Acrobatics Skill Test to avoid damage, and is essential for any Acrobatics-heavy build to feel complete.
Also, shout out to the Welcome To Night Vale Roleplaying Game Citizens’ Guide. I considered the Athletic, Fearless, Kind, and Tragic Influences from that book, but the first three had reroll abilities, which I just said I had enough of for this build, and the last was thematically redundant with our Origin. Although now that there are Tragedy and Tragic Influences and a Tragic Origin, I’m tempted to build Calhoun from Wreck-It Ralph, who’s programmed with the most tragic backstory ever.
Essence Scores and Skills
Speed 8: Acrobatics +d6, Finesse +d8, Targeting +d2
Social 4: Streetwise +d8
Smarts 3: Alertness +d2, Culture +d2, Survival +d2
Strength 1: Conditioning x1
This is one of our Speediest builds, and it’s warranted. I love when I can justify picking Finesse over Might, and any less Acrobatics betrays his upbringing. Targeting covers when Nightwing tosses an escrima stick.
I went with Streetwise over Alertness for the other Skill to qualify Freedom Fighters because I feel that Dick just gets what’s going on. He’s not the smartest Robin (that’s Tim), but he’s picked a lot in his time fighting crime. The other reason I went this root is that Yellow Ranger gets a lot of Smarts Boosts, but virtually no Social. I couldn’t leave Dick with a low Social, he’s the most likeable member of the Bat Family.
Finally, Dick has the lowest Strength possible, a 1, without any ranks in the Skills. Thanks to Spy we don’t have to worry about untrained Skill Tests, and as we get Strength boosts we can add a variety of +d2s that we’ll treat as +d4s.
General Perks and Other Options
If you want to represent Nightwing as leader of The Titans instead of a member of the Bat Family, consider taking the Spectrum Shift General Perk at 8th level and switch from a Commando to a Guardian of Eltar from Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Through the Shattered Grid. Or split the difference and take Cross Training to gain Charge Into Battle (which gives benefits when fighting multiple enemies) or Zeal (which provides a bonus when defending with Willpower).
We also have a lot of fun options open up thanks to the Legacy Influence. Because we treat our level as higher, we can use Cross Training and Split Focus to pick higher than normal Role and Focus Perks. And although this goes against RAW, as a GM I’d let an Old Hand use Split Focus to gain a higher level Focus Perk from the Focus they aren’t advancing in anymore.
Conclusion
Like Nightwing in a roomful of goons, I hit all my targets hard and fast here. Thematically, a Nightwing build could be beat for beat identical to my Batman build, but thanks to Old Hand and other newer options, this build succeeds in similar ways for completely different reasons.
I’d say my biggest success here is building a Nightwing that doesn’t feel like a 20 level Robin build. This is a Robin who learned more from his experiences than his training and turned into a new hero that exceeds his potential.
…
Yes, I am aware of the Nigtwing’s butt memes.
No, I could not find an option that captured its majesty.
Resources
Field Guide to Action & Adventure
G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Intercontinental Adventures: Factions in Action Vol. 2
G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Hawk’s Personnel Files
My Little Pony Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
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.
