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Text, Layout and Design: Chris A. Field
Stock Art Courtesy: Anthony Cournoyer,
Shaman’s Studio Stock Art Packs
Free20: The Troublemaker Template is a
free Otherverse Games product, suitable for
inclusion in almost any D20 based campaign.
The concepts in this book are as applicable to
dungeon crawls as they are modern action
campaigns. Special attention is given to using
this template in Psi-Watch and Otherverse
America campaigns.
Using this product requires either the D20
Modern Core Rulebook, or the 3.5 Player’s
Handbook published by Wizards of the Coast.
If you like what you’ve seen in this Free20
product, stop by the Otherverse Games website
atwww.otherversegames.blogspot.com or visit
our sales site on www.rpgnow.com.
The Troublemaker Template
While working on the Otherverse America
core rulebook last month, I took advantage of
the after Christmas sales to purchase some new
DVDs. Among my purchases was the Star
Wars: Clone Wars animated DVD, which
introduced a new character to that venerable
universe: the sarcastic, enthusiastic young Jedi
Ashoka Tanu. While Ashoka was had a unique
name and a unique look, I realized how familiar
she was to me. Ashoka was Jubilee or Kitty
Pryde or Carrie Kelly (the Dark Knight’s
Robin) repackaged and redecorated, but stillinstantly recognizable, and still enjoyable as a
character.
All the fictional girls mentioned above share
certain traits: all petite, nimble females, all
sarcastic and quick-witted, all running on nerve
and bravado, all anxious to be taken seriously
by their larger, more experienced male partners,
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and none of ‘em exactly as tough or competent as
they think they are.
The Troublemaker Template helps gamers
build young heroines who fit the tropes of the
fictional girls who inspired the template. This easy-
to-attach template rewards players for fully embrac-
ing this character concept, keeps them alive in the
face of overwhelming opposition (at least hopefully),
and adds a handful of appropriate new weaknesses
right out of the comic books.
Acquiring the Template: The Trouble-
maker Template is an acquired template which can
be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid
of size Medium or smaller, who has an INT and
CHA score of at least 8. Only females (or at least
non-males, in species with really unusual genderdivisions) in the Adult age category or younger can
gain the Troublemaker Template.
Size and Type: The Troublemaker’s size
and type are unchanged from a game-rule stand-
point, but Troublemakers are usually, tiny, petite and
seemingly delicate. Troublemakers are at the lower
end of height and weight norms for their age, gender
and species.
Ability Score Modifiers: -2 STR, +2
DEX, +2 CHA. Troublemakers are cute, quick-
witted and sharp-tongued, but their petite size limits
their strength and durability.
Special Qualities: A Troublemaker gains
the following special qualities. These traits are
personality quirks, flaws and dramatic responses
rather than genetic or supernatural abilities.
Quick Reflexes (EX): Troublemakers areincredibly agile little bundles of danger. Troublemak-
ers receive a +1 bonus on REF Saves and Initiative
checks, in addition to any DEX bonus.
Totally Fearless…. Kinda (EX): Trouble-
makers are reckless and confident, and despite their
inexperience, relish overcoming new challenges and
fearsome foes. A Troublemaker receives a +4 bonus
on WILL Saves made to resist fear, including
magical and psionic fear effects.
However, inexperienced young Troublemak-
ers are prone to panicking in combat, and freezing
up for a few seconds while they get their bearings. A
Troublemaker must always choose the Total De-
fense action during their first round of melee combat.
If the Troublemaker wants to take other actions
during the first combat round, she must succeed at a
DC 22 WILL Save. Failure indicates she takes
Total Defense; success indicates she can act as she
chooses during the first round.
Girlish Envy (EX): Troublemakers have
difficulty relating to older, more confident (and more
curvy) women. They constantly measure themselves
and compete against the older women in the group,trading insults, undermining their authority and
generally causing trouble.
A Troublemaker suffers a -2 penalty on
CHA based skill checks made against humanoid and
monstrous humanoid females in the Adult age
category or older. If the woman is exceptionally
beautiful or confident, having a CHA score of 16+,
the Troublemaker is especially uncomfortable
around her, and this penalty increases to -3.
Combat Crush (EX): Troublemakers make
surprisingly good partners for frontline warriors.
Their antics in battle are a great distraction, and their
devotion to their more experienced partners is
unmatched.
Each day, the Troublemaker can declare her
crush on a single ally, of either gender, who must
have a STR score at least two points higher than her
own. When flanking in conjunction with this combat
crush, the bonus provided is +3, not +2 as is normal
for a flanking bonus. If the Troublemaker declaresher Combat Crush to a female character, she does
not suffer the interaction penalties described in the
Girlish Envy template trait in relation to that
character.
Challenge Rating: The Troublemaker’s
base CR is unchanged.
Level Adjustment: +0
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Troublemakers in Psi-Watch
Since The Dark Knight Returns is one of the
seminal works of the “Iron Age” of comics, and the
Psi-Watch is inspired by those same comics, the
Troublemaker template is a natural fit for the cam-
paign. Jubilee of the X-Men andCyberforce’s
Velocity, two of the iconic female characters of the
1990s, are prototypical Troublemakers.
Troublemaker characters should focus on
enhancing their already impressive speed, agility and
defensive abilities. Cybernetics and psionic powers
that emphasize mobility and evasion are prime
choices for Troublemakers. Since a youthful, jailbait
sexiness is part and parcel of the template, most
players will select an attractive, mostly humanoidplayer race for use with the template. Gamemasters
can expect lots of Gravity Cat, Patriot Ivory,
Cityborn, Challengers, and Spetnazsi Troublemak-
ers, even a few Light Reconstruction Cyborgs but
somebody is going to show up at the table with a
flirty, teenaged Jupiter Tainted or Patriot Anvil
mutate. If that happens, just go with it… and try not
to picture a 500 lb lunk of living granite in a mini-
skirt. It’ll just hurt your brain.
Troublemakers are common to most of the
factions in Psi-Watch.
A player can build an iconoclast Final
Sword using this template- a promising young
swordswoman who is constantly butting heads with
the Order’s matrons, who spends as much time on
punishment details as she does in the sword dojo
because of her impudence. Likewise, a Trouble-
maker might be a new Psi-Watch agent, a talented
and cocky young para-human recruited right out of high school. Naturally, the Troublemaker will fight
almost as hard against her own organization’s drill
sergeants as she does enemy cyborgs.
Troublemakers are a basically heroic
archetype, likable and hopeful. As such, the
gamemaster should probably avoid using this
template with the setting’s villains, like the Huxley
Emergence or Mung Thoy Tan’s thuggish enforcers.
Nothing prevents the gamemaster from
building villainous Troublemakers, though. Even the
most blood-thirsty anti-heroes might hesitate at
taking down a little girl, even if she is a villain. If you
are comfortable making the campaign about moral
choices, rather than run n’ gun action, giving a minor
villain or three this template might be a good choice.
After all, the spiked chain-wielding GoGo Yubari
(from Kill Bill vol 1), is a damn good example of an
evil Troublemaker. Evil Troublemakers live up to
their name- they are sadistic, cruel and manipulative,
and use their barely legal beauty as another weapon
in their arsenal.
Troublemakers in the Otherverse
Like their counterparts in Psi-Watch,
Otherverse Troublemakers can hail from any faction,and can fight for any cause.
Troublemakers are naturally common to the
Choicer faction, since the Choicers are a gynarchy,
whose military places great emphasis on graceful
and dexterous melee experts. Many young Clinic
Defenders, and even a few of the normally more
serious-minded Neo-Witch Midwives acquire this
template along the way. Troublemakers are media-
friendly Choicer activists and combat volunteers;
Choicer porno-blogs and Mesh sites are dominated
by attractively packaged young Troublemakers. The
Choicer media enjoys and encourages the antics of
the pseudo-nation’s Troublemakers, holding them up
as one ideal of young, female heroism.
Lifer Troublemakers are in many ways, the
antithesis of their movement’s stereotypes. The
prototypical Lifer is hideously huge, male and brutal.
By contrast, a Lifer Troublemaker is nimble, attrac-
tive, female and more focused on defense and
evasion than killing. Tossing a Troublemaker Lifersoldier at the players is a good way to refute some
of the setting’s unspoken stereotypes and once again
humanize the group’s Lifer adversaries, especially if
your campaign focuses heavily on regular gun battles
against the A.O.G.
Many Lifer girls who choose the CFL Kid
or Block Mother starting occupation also acquire
this template. These young, purple-garbed women
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blend the playful innocence
and sexiness inherent in the
template with their own
responsibilities as teen
mothers.
Further Reading
The comic-booky,
stereotypically feminine
inspiration for the Trouble-
maker can also be felt in
many other Skortched Urf
products. The Troublemaker
template makes a good
thematic fit for the Neo-
Witch Guardian andInno-
cent advanced classes(Skortched Urf Studios
Advanced Class Update
line).
The template pro-
vides some much needed
levity and innocence for
Black Tokyo (Black Tokyo
campaign setting, Otherverse
Games) adventurers. Many
Harem Mages might create
Troublemaker playthings, and
if you want to play a cute and
cuddly cat-girl, picking
Nekomusumane as your
player race works just as well, if not better, than
picking Gravity Cat.
Living Toys (from D20 Decade:1980s,
Otherverse Games) are a good thematic fit to the
template. Siren and Swiftwing Pixies are great
character choices (and even better power-gaming
choices) for fantasy gamers making use of thistemplate. Both races can be found in The Thinking
Races: Inhuman Beauty (Otherverse Games).
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Free20: Troublemaker, Chris A. Field, Otherverse
Games, 2009
www.otherversegames.blogspot.com
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