“Attack me if you dare, I will crush you!”
Ken Masters, Street Fighter II
Welcome to Essential Builds, the blog that takes popular culture icons to the streets and pounds them into Essence20 Player Characters.
I put Street Fighter’s poster boy, Ryu, on my to build list forever ago. I even announced in Monday’s Now You Know editorial that I was building Ryu this week because “last week’s Upshift reminded me that I never built Ryu, a rare character who officially crossed over with G.I. JOE, Power Rangers, and Transformers.”
Rare, but not only. In addition to Ryu, Chun-Li and Ken Masters also appeared in the G.I. JOE, Power Rangers, and Transformers crossovers. In fact, as a result of Hasbro never releasing a planned Street Fighter movie Ryu figure, there are actually more Chun-Li and Ken Masters crossover action figures.
Because of that, as well as a fun bit of G.I. JOE trivia that we’ll get into and because I felt he would make a more interesting build, I switched from Ryu to Ken Masters.
Who Is Ken Masters?
Street Fighter being a fighting game franchise, it both has more lore than a casual fan might expect, and less interest in its own canon than a brand with so much lore suggests. Ken’s various backstories fall into one of two categories:
- Rich American kid who became United States Martial Arts champion and then went to Japan to learn Ansatsuken under Gouken, where he meets Ryu;
- Rich quarter-Japanese American kid who grew up in Japan, was enrolled in Gouken’s school to learn discipline through martial arts, went on to become United States Martial Arts champion.
I’m going to cherrypick from both based on what I think makes the build more interesting.
Unlike his backstory, Ken’s trajectory over the history of the franchise is consistent. If you beat Street Fighter II with Ken on a hard enough difficulty, you get a cut scene in which Ken embraces a woman named Eliza, then carries her on a long path to a chapel while still wearing his (presumably sweaty and blood-stained) red gi.
Later Street Fighter media built on this relationship, giving Ken and Eliza a son named Mel, and an apprentice named Sean, both of whom he teaches, bringing his story full circle.
Building Essence20 Ken Masters
You know what? Let’s do it! Four builds in one!
Our main build will be Ken as a martial artist who can throw fireballs and defy gravity, with nods to being a student who became a teacher and growing up rich.
Along the way, any time one of Ken’s crossover action figures needs a different option to make possible, I’ll add a note in case that’s the Ken you want to make.
Origin
Silver Medal Syndrome (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Cobra Codex)
Ken’s Street Fighter wiki page taught me a new literary term: Deuteragonist. It basically means the protagonist’s faithful companion. Ken may be a lot of things, but he’s ultimately a Ryu palette swap with different hair. Even though he beats Ryu often in Street Fighter lore, even his wins are framed as part of Ryu’s story.
Thus, one of my favourite (but admittedly quite specific) Origins: Silver Medal Syndrome. Based on the adage that second place is the first loser, it explores the psychology of settling for being almost the best.
Mechanically, as is often the case with flavour-rich Origins, the stats are broad and flexible. You can increase any Essence Score, and any Skill tied to it, and your Starting Health and Movement are baseline. However, the Origin Perk sets Silver Medal Syndrome apart. When you score a critical success, you can instead treat it as a regular success and give yourself a bonus on your next Skill Test. It’s the middle ground between going big or going home.
Transformers Ken
Drone (Transformers Roleplaying Game Decepticon Directive) Champion (Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)
Following the same thread, instead of making sports car Ken a Champion, I dipped into Cobra Codex’s Transformers counterpart and went with the Drone Origin. It gives Ken all of the stats of another Origin (Champion, the sporty from the TF CRB) plus* a General Perk and an Imperfection. We’re taking Fiercely Independent to show that Ken can have a bad attitude and be too selfish for his own good.
*Ben and I discussed whether the Drone should get the copied Origin’s Origin Benefit/Perk and concluded that yes, it does. While it may seem unbalanced, some Origins require their Origin Perk to deliver on their purpose.
One quirk of emphasizing Ken as a Ryu clone for this build is that none of the Ken crossover toys are Ryu repaints. You figure this would be a He-Man/Faker situation where Ken made the cut in every line because Hasbro could get twice the figures out of one mould. Nope. Even in the 1993 G.I. JOE line, where almost the entire line used existing parts, they gave Ken Ninja Force Storm Shadow’s body and Ryu Ninja Force Slice’s body.
Role
Purple Ranger (Power Rangers Roleplaying Game A Jump Through Time)
I haven’t read the Purple Ranger Role in A Jump Through Time until now. Having recently watched Power Rangers Dino Charge and Dino Super Charge with my youngest, I assumed Purple was a Smarts-based support Role. Naturally I was shocked to discover it’s an emotion-based combat Role. And a really cool one!
Emotional Mastery is a swiss army knife power that lets us choose the bonus (and later bonuses) that the situation calls for. We’ll favour Anger, which gives us a bonus to Unarmed and One-Handed weapon attacks, but Ken’s a complex individual. Different situations call for different emotions. It costs a Personal Power point, but Emotional Strength at 2nd level helps us regain Personal Power in situations based on the Emotional Mastery we have active.
Also at 2nd level, we get to design our own melee attack thanks to Unique Strike. We’ll use this to represent Ken (and Ryu)’s tatsumaki (or Hurricane Kick), by giving it the Multiple Attacks alternate effect. Alternatively, we can create Ken and Ryu’s shoryuken uppercut by giving it the Maneuver alternate effect. At 5th level, we get Unique Attack again, this time ranged. Hello hadoken, Ken and Ryu’s energy ball.
And yes, there’s some irony in using Unique Strike to give Ken a move he shares with Ryu, but I don’t know the later Street Fighter games enough to know what moves he doesn’t share with Ryu.
I like this Role for Ken because he’s the more expressive of the two original gi fighters. A cursory comparison of Ryu and Ken art has Ryu with mostly the same stern look on his face, whereas Ken expressions run the gamut. That, plus needing to get his attitude in check is part of parts of Ken’s backstory.
Setting
G.I. JOE (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook) or take your pick
Ready for that fun fact I promised earlier?
G.I. JOE gave Ken Masters his last name.
Up until the 1993 Street Fighter G.I. JOE line (and yes, it was part of the G.I. JOE line. The G.I. JOE name was on the package and Duke was even in the commercials. This sets it apart from the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter: The Movie lines Hasbro did that used G.I. JOE moulds but were technically separate from the line), Ken went by a mononym. However, because Mattel had exclusive rights to the name Ken within the toy aisle (although this isn’t confirmed, according to the Street Fighter Wiki), the Street Fighter who shared a name with Barbie’s boyfriend was given the last name Masters.
Of course, the G.I. JOE setting might not have everything you need for your Ken build. If you’re making Power Rangers or Transformers Ken, you’ll want their settings.
Power Rangers Ken
If you want Ken to morph into the Soaring Falcon Ranger, just keep the Purple Ranger Role in the Power Rangers setting and ignore the Faction and Focus sections of this build. For a Zord, you can build something similar to the Pterodactyl Dinozord, but a falcon.
Faction
Red Ninja (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Factions In Action vol 2: Intercontinental Adventures)
I have to confess: I forgot there was a Red Ninja faction in Intercontinental Adventures. I stumbled across it after reading over my original pick, Ninja Force. However, like the Arashikage faction, Ninja Force incorporates a lot of culture into its options. Red Ninja, on the other hand, is the offensive martial arts faction. It’s the best stand in for a Street Fighter faction.
Focus
Slammer (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Sgt Slaughter Limited Edition Accessory Pack)
Slammer is not only the best unarmed combat Focus in the G.I. JOE setting, its 1st level Perk, Try Me, starts a 1-on-1 duel. That’s right, you can start a Street Fighter 2 fight as a Standard action.
This Is For Me adds a Maneuver effect to your unarmed attacks if your attack beats your target’s Defense by a significant margin. Knuckle Up lets you add weapon upgrades to your unarmed attacks. Wrestler lets you ignore penalties for using Maneuver alternate effects. Just a fun Focus that turns Unarmed Attacks from a last ditch option to a specialty.
G.I. JOE Ken
Silent Weapons Expert (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Factions In Action vol 2: Intercontinental Adventures)
The Ken Masters G.I. JOE action figure included a bow and a variety of blade accessories. That means he’s more than just a bare fisted warrior. If you want to represent this Ken, the Silent Weapons Expert Commando Focus is the better pick.
Transformers Ken
Pugilist (Transformers Roleplaying Game Enigma Of Combination)
Although Slammer gets the job done for a Transformers Ken, if you want to add running people over to your list of martial arts moves, you might want the Pugilist Warrior Focus instead. One warning: The Pugilist’s Brutal Might Perk lets you use Brawn instead of Might for attacks, but there’s one problem: You only get it at 3rd level. That makes building your character tough for levels 1 and 2. To avoid a Skill Point tax, I suggest you pretend the Perk ends with the line “You can remove any Skill Points invested in Might and invest them in another Strength-based Skill.”
Influences
1st Teacher (Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)
2nd Beloved (Power Rangers Roleplaying Game A Jump Through Time)
3rd Spoiled (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Cobra Codex)
When I said I felt Ken would make a more interesting build than Ryu, I was thinking about Influences specifically. With Ryu, I’d double down on the martial arts theme here. Ken, on the other hand, gives me a variety of other aspects of his backstory to draw from.
I debated giving him both Teacher and Student, because it represents both ends of his character arc. However, the Student Influence from the Power Rangers Core Rulebook isn’t a great fit for Ken’s backstory, and doubling down on that one idea meant I only had one Influence left for the rest of his non-martial artist traits. Teacher gives Ken a bonus when lending assistance, which contrasts nicely with his Origin Imperfection preventing him from accepting Lend Assistance, and adds a teamwork element to what is otherwise a very single player build.
Beloved is a fun Influence, giving mechanical weight to Eliza, a character he’s been associated with since Street Fighter II. We gain a bonus when acting on our beloved’s behalf (with some nice wiggle room about when that comes into play). The Mandatory Hang-Up strips us of the opportunity to spend Story Points for rerolls if something bad happens to our beloved. It’s a different kind of penalty, and one that I think carries nice thematic weight.
Finally, Ken’s affluent family and the problematic behaviour it brought out in him gets represented by the Spoiled Influence, which gives him a bump to Wealth checks. Someone who flies around the world to fight people in a shady tournament definitely has a lot of wealth checks to make.
Essence Scores and Skills
Strength 5: Athletics +d2, Might +d6 (Martial Arts)
Speed 5: Infiltration +d6, Initiative +d2, Targeting +d2
Smarts 3: Alertness +d4, Culture +d4
Social 3: Streetwise +d4
Purple advances Strength more quickly than Speed, so I decided Ken needed to be a Might based Martial Artist. He may not be Zangief or Blanka, but I think Ken’s bulky enough to warrant either Might or Finesse for melee.
Infiltration is the only Skill Point investment I felt forced into, and it’s to qualify for the Red Ninja Faction. I don’t know exactly where I would have put those three Skill Points otherwise, but I didn’t see Ken needing any Infiltration.
Conclusion
This build is a knock out!
Not only do I think I’ve been sleeping on Purple Ranger, but when paired with Slammer, we get something magical.
Speaking of magic, I’m glad I didn’t need to resort to spellcasting to give Ken his trademark supernatural attacks. Between Unique Strike, Knuckle Up, and whatever Grid Powers I go with, I think we cover everything in Ken’s repertoire. There’s a Renegade Slammer in the game I’m in so I speak from experience when I say Knuckle Up alone makes him feel like a Street Fighter character.
What I appreciate most of all here is that I checked all of the Street Fighter boxes and still had room for personality and backstory-driven Influences.
I might pull a Vader/Luke and try to build Ryu in the next installment with the goal of not reusing any of this build’s options. I think that’ll be even harder than making a Sith and a Jedi because Ryu and Ken started out as similar as Mario and Luigi.
Resources
Field Guide to Action & Adventure
G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Sgt Slaughter Limited Edition Accessory Pack
G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Cobra Codex
G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Intercontinental Adventures: Factions in Action Vol. 2
Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Power Rangers Roleplaying Game: A Jump Through Time
Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Transformers Roleplaying Game Decepticon Directive
Transformers Roleplaying Game The Enigma of Combination
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.
