BEAN BANDIT

Designers Notes:
Bean is the creation of Kenichi Sonoda, a gentleman who states that two of his favorite movies are 'The Blues Brothers' and 'Gone in 60 Seconds' (cool by me). As you might guess, this means that Mr. Sonoda is a serious gearhead and Bean's world is populated by big American muscle cars and hot European speed machines (He would also seem to be a serious gun geek, but we'll cover that in Rally Vincent's write-up).

Bean stars in the anime 'Riding Bean' and appears sporadically in the manga 'Gunsmith Cats'. In both cases, he is a courier-for-hire. For a mere $45K, he will drive anything or anyone, anywhere. This includes deliveries, preforming as a get-away driver, escort service etc. Thus he fits into Dark Champions games or low-powered Champions games with ease.

The write-up below is based on his anime appearence. I tried to keep most of his stats in the normal human range. As of yet, I have not found any sort of origin story for his abilites.

Bean's Car:
Since people have been grumbling about the vehicle rules, I decided to bail on writing up his car. Instead, I'll give a good description of what it does and let you go from there.

The car is a red Eurpoean import, either a Porsche 928 or (more likely) a Ferrari (GTO?). Besides being able to do 0-60 in nothing flat and having a top speed well over 160 MPH, the car is armored suffciently enough to withstand SMG fire (but not a 20mm anti-tank gun or a 10 gauge solid slug). Throw a switch and the tires rotate 90 degrees, allowing the car to drive sideways (although not very fast and only in a straight line). If one needs to brake real fast, another switch will cause a series of long blades to snap out from the wheels, digging into the ground. It also is equipped with a sunroof, door gunports and an external loudspeaker system.

Description:
Bean is tall and well muscled. Compared to Rally Vincent (his partner in the anime), he seems to stand between 6'3" to 6'6" and weigh 225-250 lbs. He has thick black hair and dark eyes. A large 'X' shaped scar is centered just above the bridge of his nose. He usually wears a red headband to cover the scar. The rest of his costume is boots, jeans, a black tank top, a leather jacket, black fingerless driving gloves and sunglasses.

Powers Notes:
Ahh yes, the STR stat. Well, he did the following things: threw a knife through a car door, punched his hand through a car door, ripped the same door clean off its mountings, caught and picked up the front end of a compact car (while it was moving), and tossed the same car over onto its side (flipping it several times).

The Armor came about after seeing him get shot several times and almost literally bounce the bullets. He was at ground zero of a grenade blast and simply suffered a cut cheek. His response to a 10 gauge slug coming through his car window was: 'That hurt,(deleted)!'. Having a hot frying pan set on his face woke him up (screaming, but otherwise unharmed). Note: the special effect of his Armor is that the bullets simply flatten on him (or his clothing). GMs might want to give his Armor "Invisible Power Effects".

The Damage Reduction was added to keep his Stun damage down. It seemed to make sense, after he gets shot between the eyes and is simply Stunned and later gets hit by a car and gets up almost immediately.

The knife was written as a Ranged HKA since he pitched it through a car door.

Skills were filled in based on screen actions and reasonable presumption. GMs that want to boost his power level could increase DEX, SPD, add some martial arts and so on.

Disadvantages Notes:
Disads are pretty standard. He has a large soft spot for children and will surrender (or put himself at a disadvantage) rather then see one harmed (now you know how he got shot between the eyes). The Chicago PD hunted includes Percy, a detective who will stop at nothing to capture the 'RoadBuster'. Part of his Rep includes the fact that he's wrecked 70+ police cars (thus the cops pull out all the stops when chasing him). GMs should assign other disads (esp Psych Lims) based on intended usage.

The Character:

                 
STAT            VAL             COST    
Str             35              25      
Dex             18              24      
Con             23              26      
Body            15              10      
Int             13              3       
Ego             11              2       
Pre             18              8       
Com             12              1       
PD              7               0       
ED              5               0       
Spd             4               12      
Rec             12              0       
End             40              -3      
Stun            44              0       
Char Total              108     
Power Total             94      
Total Cost              202 

COST            POWERS & SKILLS
15              HKA: 1D6, Useable at Range, 0 END, OAF - Knife                                          
21              Armor: 9 PD / 5 ED                                              
7               Damage Reduction : 1/4 Physical Resistant, Stun only (-1/2)                                             
6               Running: +3" (9" total/18" non-combat) END 2	
							
5               AK: Chicago 14-
13              Combat Driving 18-
2               KS: Chicago Underworld 11-
5               KS: Road Vehicles (cars, trucks etc.) 14-
9               Mechanic 14-
4               PS: Auto Mechanic 13-
3               Streetwise 13-
2               WF: Knife, Thrown Knife                                         
2               Contact: 'Fixer' 11-

Disadvantages   
100     Base
5               DF: Scar across face
20              Hunted: Chicago Police Dept. (mopow, NCI, lim geo) 11-
10              Hunted: Misc Enemies (as pow) 8-
15              Psych: Soft spot for children
10              Rep: Ace courier (aka "The Road Buster"), 11-
42              Experience
(Bean Bandit created by Kenichi Sonoda, character sheet written by Michael Surbrook)

Rally Vincent

Designers Notes:
Rally Vincent appears as Bean Bandit's partner in 'Riding Bean' and also has her own manga series 'Gunsmith Cats'. Although different visually (see description), the two characters are close enough to warrent a single write-up.

In 'Riding Bean', Rally is Bean's 'gunner' carrying an assortment of firearms (including a 9mm pistol, pump shotgun, taser and .44 magnum). In Gunsmith Cats, Rally is a bounty hunter (who owns a gun shop on the side). As I stated before, Kenichi Sonoda gun geeks all through 'Cats, writting little notes in the margins describing every firearm that shows up (as well as giving close ups of spent shell casings, complete with caliber markings). Very convienent for GMs who want to know what everyone is carrying. Grab your copy of 'The Armory' or Dark Champions and you're all set!

Rally's Car:
The anime version of rally didn't have a car (or if she did, it wasn't anything special). The manga version drives a Mustang Shelby Cobra GT500 (cool!).

Quote: "...and that throbbing, five-hundred cubic-inch vibration right under your butt!" ahem...

Description:
Rally comes in two varities, anime or manga. Both are about the same height and weight (between 5'6" and 5'8", 120lbs). Both dress in the woman's business suit look (pants or skirt, shirt, tie, jacket). The anime version is fair skinned with blonde hair past her shoulders, the manga version has a deep tan and wavy black hair to just above her shoulders.

Powers Notes:
In the anime, Rally hear a couple of goons cock their SMGs across a busy Chicago street from inside an enclosed office. So far, the manga version hasn't done that.

Rally regularly shoots a target's thumb off, hence her skill levels. Both version seem to try and hit specific locations, instead of just plugging away at a target. If you don't use hit locations, you might want to allow her to use her levels to reduce a target's activation roll on their armor to reflect this. (ie, she fires at some one with 14- Activation armor, using four of her levels to counteract this, give target an 11- roll).

The sleight of hand comes from seeing her pull a variety of gun 'tricks', including holding a pistol by the barrel, spinning it around into her hand and getting a shot off. My favorite example comes from the anime, where she is supposed to toss her pistol to some one else. She has her right hand on top of her head and is holding her gun by the barrel. Rally tosses the weapon to this guy, except all he catches is the magazine. Dropping her left hand, she spins the gun around and fires the round left in the chamber, catching the guy right between the eyes (unlike Bean he doesn't get back up). Based on this, and a sequence where she gets a knife thrust through her right hand and uses her left hand normally I gave her Ambidexterity.

Rally normally carries a 9mm handgun in a shoulder holster (it's yet to be named, pick a good one), she also has a .25 cal pistol in a spring clip up her right sleeve (with the trigger guard cut away). The anime version had a stun gun (the kind that requires you to touch your target). Both carried extra clips for the pistol at the small of the back. If requiring heavy firepower, add a pump shotgun and kevlar body armor.

Disadvantages Notes:
As you might notice, Rally's disads are a litle skimpy. This is mainly because in the anime, she doesn't do anything that one can easily apply disads to, and I've only read five issues of the manga. I settled for taking notable character traits and exaggerating them a bit. (Anime Rally's eyes certainly lit-up at the prospect of 2 mill in cash, and manga Rally drove her car through a warehouse wall to try and suprise a target. Manga Rally also played Russian Roullette with a guy, betting that her ability to time the revolver's spin would allow her to point it him and pull the trigger 5 straight times and still leave him alive to answer questions. Hell of a Presence attack!).

I recommend filling out additional disads based on campaign and intended use.

Minne May is Rally's business partner and bomb expert. She is usually armed with an essortment of explosives (ie. grenades), including smoke, HE, frag and 'flash-bangs'. Although she is 18, the Minne May is rather short and looks about age 14.

The Character:

STAT                    VAL             COST
Str                     13              3
Dex                     21              36
Con                     15              10
Body                    11              2
Int                     15              5
Ego                     13              6
Pre                     15              5
Com                     18              4
PD                      6               3
ED                      4               1
Spd                     4               9
Rec                     6               0
End                     30              0
Stun                    25              0
Char Total              84

COST    POWERS & SKILLS                                 End     Roll
22      Danger Sense (Out of combat, General Area) 13-
2       Running: +1" (7" combat/14" non-combat) END 1	
3       Ambidexterity                                           
7       Fast Draw 15-
5       KS: Firearms 14-
5       Sleight of Hand 14-
3       Stealth 13-
9       Weaponsmith (Firearms) 14-
2       WF: Small Arms                                          
6       CSL: +2 Range Mod with Small Arms                                               
4       CSL: +2 Range Mod with Pistols                                          
10      CSL: +2 OCV with Small Arms                                             
18      CSL: +6 OCV with Pistols                                                
							
Gunsmith Cats (manga) Version adds:                                             
5       Combat Driving 14-
4       PS: Bounty Hunter 13-
4       PS: Gunsmith 13-
4       Contact: Becky the Nose 13- (information broker)
2       Contact: Detective Roy, Chicago Police Dept 11-

Disadvantages   
75      Base
(amime version)
10      Hunted: Assorted Enemies (as pow) 8-
10      Psych: Greedy

(manga version)
15      DNPC: May Hopkins (Minnie May) 14-
10      Hunted: Assorted Previous Captures (as pow) 8- 
15      Psych: Reckless
(Rally Vincent created by Kenichi Sonoda, character sheet written by Michael Surbrook)