He’s a piece of tree that’s out to get you. He’s Analog!
Welcome to Essential Builds, the blog that usually turns popular culture icons into Essence20 Player Characters. Sometimes they’re made out of wood.
It’s rare, but not unheard of, for me to use this space to share an original character. Last time, I made a character based on a unicorn LEGO set someone used to build the Millennium Falcon. This time, I’m building a pun-based original character that I referenced in the most recent segment of Know Direction. Because I don’t get to build Transformers characters that often, and because I didn’t have any other pressing ideas for builds, like a waxed antique table, it’s Analog’s time to shine!
Who Is Analog?
I created Analog as the boss fight in an adventure I planned to run for the Renegade Discord mods. Unfortunately, the original plans for the game fell through and at this point I don’t even remember how Analog fit into the adventure I had planned. The idea probably started and ended with a tree pun. Hope you appreciate them, because I’m going to go out on a limb and say there’s a lot more where that came from.
That Analog would have been a Threat. Now, I’m building his as a PC.
Analog is a pretty blank slate, other than an image I gimped together that I am pretty proud of. I look forward to learning about this character as we build him.
Building Essence20 Analog
As I mentioned, I don’t build that many Transformers. Because I won’t build any characters that could show up in an official sourcebook, that rules out the majority of Transformers characters. I’ve gotten around that by building a Transformers crossover character that Renegade can’t publish for licensing reasons, but I can only dip into that well from time to time. I’m always looking for other excuses for using Transformers Origins.
Between that and having an idea that justifies using a book full of options I’ve rarely used—Technorganic Secrets—I went with this as the unusual subject of an Essential Build.
Based on our one image, we know that Analog converts from a robot of undetermined size into a nondescript log. In robot mode, he’s armed with a woodchipper and a chainsaw. His subtitle describes him as an Arboreal Infiltrator. Finally, he has Soundwave’s body type, suggesting he might share some of the Decepticon Communicator’s abilities.
Origin
Salvaged (Transformers Roleplaying Game Decepticon Directive)
I went into this build with the vaguest of plans. At step one, I’ve already thrown out the one option I was certain I was taking.
Technorganic Secrets introduced the Flora Origin, for Cybertronians who convert into plants. A log was a plant. Obviously this was the right tree to bark up.
Unfortunately, the Origin Perk didn’t speak to me. Plant Plasticity plays on the healing power of nature by giving characters two different rules that recover lost Health. On the whole, I think that’s clever and on theme. However, both options have weird limiting factors that bog the cool ideas down with bookkeeping. It left me pining for another option.
Fortunately, I came across a Form Influence in the same book with the organic theme I needed. That meant I could choose any Origin, confident the Influence rooted it to Analog’s plant form.
So obviously I should go with Lookout, right? It’s the Origin we recommend for Soundwave, and Analog is a Soundwave… what’s the word for being of, or relating to?
Honestly, I must be in a weird mood, because that’s so the obvious choice. And yet I wasn’t feeling Lookout either. But I had no other Origin ideas in mind. Frankly, I was stumped.
I started flipping through the Transformers sourcebooks I knew had Origin options and, for reasons I can’t rationalize, stopped on Salvaged in Decepticon Directive.
Salvaged obviously represents Junkions, a ramshackle offshoot of Cybertronians. While Junkions are usually fused together piles of scrap, there’s nothing that says they can’t be built from discarded organic material. I also liked the idea that, because the weapons I gave Analog are traditionally used to cut down trees, he rose up, smashed a chainsaw and woodchipper, and jacked the lumberjacks. It adds an environmentalist angle to the character, making him a treehugger. Bonus, Analog works as a name for using one thing as another.
Role
Modemaster (Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)
I didn’t take Soundwave’s Origin because I wanted my Analog build to branch out. However, I did take Soundwave’s Role because he and Analog are supposed to share some roots.
Also, the opportunities to use Modemaster in an Essential Build are extremely spruce. I mean sparse.
I designed the Modemaster Role and had a kick doing it. It’s so Transformers coded that the Field Guide to Action & Adventure calls it out as the only Role that can’t be divorced from its setting. I loaded it with every example of a character using their ability to convert for something other than going from one shape to another. My only regret is locking a lot of those options to a Role. In hindsight, I should have made a category of General Perks called Conversion Powers, and just given Modemaster a Conversion Power every level.
Those powers include Mass Shift, which represents partial conversion to gain one of a variety of bonuses. Hybridization gives similar but more developed options. And the majority of the rest of the Perks give more choices from or uses of the above. Like I said, this Role could have been a bunch of open-to-all options given at a faster rate. I guess when I designed Modemaster, I didn’t see the forest for the trees.
The one Role Perk that doesn’t tie to Mass Shift, Hybridization, or Quick Change is Helical Spring. This lets us move 10 feet when we convert, and lets us Ram without moving first when we convert. I’m only calling this out because of the visual of Analog either rolling over or swinging into enemies like a battering ram when he converts into a log.
Focus
Microlinked (Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)
I confess, when I first read the Modemaster Focus options in Decepticon Directive, I was confused. They were just the Core Rulebook Focus options, but bigger. Instead of a Triple Changer, Mimic is the Aplenty Changer, and instead of having Microlinked’s Mini-Con or two, Minion Master starts with two and goes up quickly from there. I didn’t understand why the book didn’t branch out farther with the Modemaster concept.
Now that I’ve given genuine thought into whether to go with the similarly niched Microlinked and Minion Master Focus options, I can see the value in having both. I had to decide whether I wanted one tight bond with a sidekick, or a bunch of weaker (arguably more expendable) critters at my disposal.
I ultimately went with Microlinked, but not for mechanical reasons. I only had one idea for a Mini-Con: Chip, a slab of bark that converts into a squirrel for Infiltration missions. I know Chip is already the name of an important Transformers NPC, but I liked the woodchip/microchip wordplay (shocking, I know) too much to go another direction. Besides, it’s not like Hasbro ever hesitated to reuse the name of a Transformer character!
Faction
Decepticons (Transformers Roleplaying Game Decepticon Directive)
The Decepticon Faction is like Autobots meets Cobra, mechanically. A lot of the Hail Megatron Perk’s benefits are either the same as Autobots get (the Is A Robot rules that I reiterate I should have made a part of Origins, not the Faction) or an evil coded version. As for Cobra, like the Faction in Cobra Codex, Decepticons get to pick a weapon package. I think it thematically makes more sense with Cobra, since they have a million troop types mostly distinguished by their gear. Still, it saves a step if you aren’t a fan of requisitioning.
Switching to the Decepticon Faction also swaps our Cybertronian Perk. Instead of Fully Hybrid (which I confess is an underwhelming Cybertronian Perk) we get Cog Flexibility, which gives us a bonus Free action that can be used to either Convert or interact with Mini-Cons. Handy!
I expected this to be the Technorganic Secrets build, but this is my second dip into Decepticon Directive. Does that mean we’re not going to see any Technorganic Secrets? Birch, please.
Influences
1st BioGenetic (Transformers Roleplaying Game Technorganic Secrets)
2nd Animal Whisperer (My Little Pony Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)
3rd Machinist (Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook) with the Earthspoiled
Hang-Up (Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)
My first Influence pick feels like the center of a Venn diagram created by overlapping my second and third Influence picks. Unbeleafable.
As mentioned, BioGenetic turns any Alt Mode organic on a cellular level. The Influence Perk opens with the line “The Beast Mode of a BioGenetic is a genuine animal (or plant)”. That parenthetical aside is all the permission I needed to turn the Salvaged Origin from a Junkion to an old tree trunk! Mechanically, this gives us a bonus to blending into a tree-rich environment. I’d argue this stacks with our Faction bonus that does something similar.
Animal Whisperer was far from my planning phases, but the idea that Analog is like a Poison Ivy environmentalist villain really caught me. Turning into a log and using the Influence Perk to chat up a network of nearby critters (and maybe threaten any animal thinking of marking their territory) elevates that idea.
I picked Machinist for the mechanical synergy with the Salvaged Origin Perk, but it also gives us insight into Analog’s backstory. He was an engineer with a knack for spy gear when he deployed to Earth and, for some reason, took on a natural Alt Mode. Maybe it’s a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy situation where he misread the number of trees on the planet as the dominant species and took a form he thought would blend in. In any case, he absolutely loved it. Then, when he found out the dominant species was actually humanity, and that humans abuse their environment, he decided to abuse them back. The Earthspoiled Hang-Up technically applies to a love of art and human culture, but I’m sure I could talk my GM into letting the penalty count as being enraged by humans instead of distracted by them. It’s big feelings either way.
Essence Scores and Skills
Smarts 5: Alertness +d4, Technology +d6
Speed 5: Infiltration +d6, Targeting +d4
Strength 3: Might +d6
Social 3: Animal Handling +d6
Whoa.
That came together way too easily. And it’s such an odd selection of Skills, but it works perfectly for our chainsaw-wielding evil environmentalist wooden robot.
Conclusion
Maybe I’m just being chipper, but that was a breath of fresh air! Again, I’m not going to make a habit of creating original characters instead of adapting pop culture icons, but as a break from the norm, this was fun.
One oddity about this build is that I encourage new Essence20 players to think about the toy they wish they had when building their first character. However, if Hasbro sold a robot that turned into a piece of wood, I would expect it to get laughed out of the toy aisle. And yet, we’re still getting Soundwave action figures that turn into cassette players 30 years after the technology went obsolete. It just shows what a memorable character can overcome.
Overall, I’m very happy with Analog. I’d play him.
Wood you?
Resources
Field Guide to Action & Adventure
My Little Pony Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Transformers Roleplaying Game Decepticon Directive
Transformers Roleplaying Game: Technorganic Secrets
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.
