My character from the Super Powered Folks PBEM Champions game, which I played in for a little while. In keeping with the tone of the game, she was designed to have essentially no useful combat abilities, and also to be incapable of surviving for long in a fight.
This page is divided up into a number of sections covering different aspects of the character. These include a description of Lal, a description of Lal's powers, her character sheet, her background, some information about her family, some character goals, and some ideas for stories involving Lal. Click on the section headings to return to the top of the page.
Aged 24. Tall and slim, with an athletic build. Long hair, usually tied back in a ponytail, plait or bun. This was originally black, but is now a shifting metallic iridescent 'colour'. At the same time as her hair changed colour, her eyes also changed, from dark brown to bright, almost metallic blue.
In dress, she usually wears normal casual clothing, or lycra cycling outfits. She did have a top-of-the-range mountain bike on which travelled about, but is currently relying on a somewhat older, not as good machine instead.
Personality-wise, Lalitha tends to be strong-willed and not inclined to change much without good cause. She can also be more than a little judgemental in areas she considers important (e.g. her work, and her work for Greenpeace). However, only extreme provocation or need would make her resort to violence.
Essentially, Lalitha can turn into a cloud of butterflies, and summon butterflies, apparently out of thin air, to do her bidding. Not terribly useful, you might think. However, not entirely useless either. When a cloud of butterflies she is very hard to hurt as damage passes straight through her, can fly (slowly), heals rapidly and can see in all directions at once through the butterflies. She also has a number of enhanced senses relating to gaining the sensory abilities of butterflies. She can control the butterflies she summons to a variety of effects, from just filling an area with butterflies (pretty, but not of much other use), to having them tightly fill an area, blinding people within it. Lastly, by seeing through the senses of the butterflies she summons, she can sense things at range by sending off butterflies under her control. Other than this she basically just an athletic normal human.
Str 13, Dex 18, Con 13, Body 12,
Int 18, Ego 14, Pre 13, Com 12,
PD 4, ED 4, Spd 4,
Rec 6, End 26, Stun 26
Points on Stats : 3 + 24 + 6 + 4 +
8 + 8 + 3 + 1 +
1 + 1 + 12 +
0 + 0 + 0 = 71
LS : Immune to Disease 3
+1 with All Perception 3
UV Vision 5
Discriminatory Smell 5
Ultrasonic Hearing 3
Desolidification, 0 End, 30
Not Through Solids (-1/2),
Not versus Area Effect Attacks (-1/2);
affected by Cold
- turning to a cloud of butterflies
(usually from the head down,
rebuilding from the feet up)
5" Flight, 0 End, 10
Linked to Desolidification
- butterfly flight
360 Degree Vision, 7
Linked to Desolidification
- seeing through butterflies
10 x Microscopic Vision, 2
Linked to Desolidification
- seeing through butterflies
1 Body per Turn Regeneration, 7
Linked to Desolidification
- butterflies just reappear to replace lost ones
MP : Butterfly Powers 62
u Change Environment in 16" Radius, 6 [62]
To Any Butterflies (+1), 0 End
u 2" Radius Darkness versus Normal Hearing, 6 [61]
Sonar, All Sight, 0 End, Personal Immunity*
- dense cloud of butterflies
u 1" Radius Darkness versus Normal Hearing, 6 [62]
Sonar, All Sight, Usable versus Others (+1),
1/2 End, Personal Immunity*
- dense cloud of butterflies which follows
target (harder to do so costs End)
u Clairsentience to Discriminatory Smell, 3 [34]
All Sight, All Hearing (600m range),
0 End, Only to Places Butterflies Can Go (-1/2),
Variable Time Delay (-1/4)
- seeing through eyes of butterflies at range;
it takes time for them to get to target
* Can see through the eyes of the butterflies in the cloud
Points on Powers = 3 + 3 + 5 + 5 +
3 + 30 + 10 + 7 +
2 + 7 + 62 + 6 +
6 + 6 + 3 = 158
Contact : High-up member of Greenpeace 8- 1 Combat Bicycling 13- 3 Bureaucracy 12- 3 AK : Bay Area 11- 2 PS : Bicycle Courier 11- 2 PS : Student 11- 2 SC : Biology 11- 2 SC : Ecology 13- 3 Sinhalese - completely fluent with accent 3 Points on Skills = 21 Total points = 71 + 158 + 21 = 250
1.5 x Stun from Chemicals (uncommon) 5
1.5 x Stun from Cold (uncommon) 5
1.5 x Stun from Sonics (uncommon) 5
1d6 per Turn from Insecticides (cmn) 15
Normal Stat Maxima 20
Rivalry with another Student (Richard Courtney) 5
Code versus Killing (cmn, str) 15
Dislike of Violence (unc, str) 10
Dislike of racism and discrimination (quirk) 1
Doesn't Drive (quirk) 1
Doesn't Drink (quirk) 1
Proud; doesn't take denigration of herself 1
or her abilities well (quirk)
Vegetarian (quirk) 1
Publicly Metahuman 5
Distinctive Features : 10
Iridescent metallic butterfly-wing-coloured
hair(concealable with major effort, noticed)
Points from Disadvantages = 100
OCV = 6, DCV = 6, ECV = 5 Int Roll 13-, Ego Roll 12-, Dex Roll 13-, Percep Roll 14-
Butterflies are created by her and seem to simply appear when needed, though never really out of thin air - usually from behind her, from behind buildings etc.
Her clothes change with her when she changes to and from butterflies. She can talk when a cloud of butterflies by coordinating the beating of the wings of the butterflies within the cloud to give a strange whispering speech.
Lalitha's parents, Sisira ('Sis'), her father, and Anjana, her mother, are immigrants to the USA from Sri Lanka; they fled the country after her father, a lawyer, spoke out against the persecution of Tamils. She was a baby at the time; none of the family have been back to Sri Lanka since then. Both her parents are adherents of the Jain religion, adhering strictly to doctrines of non-violence and respect for other life forms. From them she has inherited many of her beliefs, though slightly toned down due to her experiences with American culture. She grew up in LA, where her family settled, as a fully naturalised American citizen. She has an older brother, Ravinath ('Ravi'), who is a lawyer in Los Angeles, and married, with a small son. However, she and he have never really seen eye-to-eye on most things and they do not often talk...
She did a biology degree at the University of California at Berkeley, moving away from her parents, then stayed in education in San Francisco to do a Ph.D. studying ecology, under Professor Bethany (Beth) Charles. Prof Charles is an intense black woman in her late 50's, quite short and wiry, with piercing eyes. Her Ph.D. is on the effects of a cities environment on the living things (other than humans) which inhabit it. During her studies she has developed a significant antipathy with Richard Courtney, Prof Charles' other Ph.D. student; he is a crew-cut muscular blonde upper-class 'jock', from a rich Texan family, is somewhat sexist and racist, and previously played American football on the Berkeley team (he now plays only because he enjoys it). Despite this, he is quite intelligent. As for why Richard Courtney is in the ecology Ph.D. program, Lal really doesn't know, and has never really talked to him enough to find out why. As for why they don't get along it's a combination of both a clash of personalities and a radical difference in philosophies. Lalitha works as a bicycle courier for the company Ballistic Couriers Inc. to pay for her studies. It was while doing this, at this very instant, that she was hit by a car, and turned into butterflies for the first time...
In addition to her not-particularly-useful powers, she considers many things to more important than becoming a superhero, primary amongst these is the saving of the worlds ecology, which has been a large factor behind her choice of studies. She is an active member of Greenpeace in her spare time. She actively believes that the planet is doomed unless major efforts are made to save it... This belief stems partly from her Jainist faith, her living in smog-ridden cities, and through the LA riots.
Lalitha shares an apartment with a friend, another Ph.D. student, a historian, Suchin ('Sue') Chiradet, a daughter of Thai refugees who settled in California. Like Lalitha, Suchin is a member of Greenpeace, and an environmental activist. Their apartment is in
Most of Lalitha's friends are members of Greenpeace, either the University group or the larger-scale organisation in California. Prominent among them are Justin Hamilton (an upper-middle-class lecturer in the university), leader of the university group, and Jesus Montoya (hispanic, an engineering student), Mary Carella (black, a computing student), and Carol Berisha (of eastern European descent, a geographer), all members of the University Greenpeace group. In the course of her work she has also made contact with Lucian Grey, an Englishman, and a member of Greenpeaces top-level worldwide organisation; they keep in touch occasionally, generally by E-mail.
She hasn't had many boyfriends, and currently has been without one for some time.
Her father is tall and thin, with short greying hair. He is currently about 45 years old. He is a severe man, and strict, but not unfair. A lawyer, he works for a charity in LA which defends, legally, those unable to defend themselves. He tends to dress fairly formally at all times.
Her mother is of average height, with a slightly plump build. She is attractive, with long hair, as yet ungreyed, usually pulled back in a plait. She seems quite happy to be a housewife. She usually dresses in saris.
Her brother inherits his mother physique and his fathers mind; however he has far less strict moral codes than any of the rest of the family, and in his job as a lawyer has been known to defend some extremely unsavoury types...
On a short-term basis, Lalitha's boals consist of gaining more data for her Ph.D., as well as putting all that data into some kind of coherent form; this will probably involve considerable library work etc. Also, she wants to keep doing volunteer work for Greenpeace and help wherever she can. Lastly, she would like to keep her couriering job in order to pay the bills!
On a long-term basis, she would like to finish her Ph.D. and go to work as a scientist for some environmental group (probably Greenpeace). Failing that, some kind of government environmental post might be considered.