So Potence doesn't require blood at all? That's really powerful.
It's also pretty limited in scope compared to many/most of the really impressive disciplines and will almost guarantee you a Masquerade violation if you use it where the herd can see you.
If you're looking to tear someone up hand to hand, though, it's really the best.
Equipment- 2003 Harley Davidson Dyna Super Glide Sport, Black Van, Biker Leathers (Bashing/Lethal Armor 1), Knifex2 (Str+1 dmg, Jacket concealment, one hidden in his bike saddlebags), Hvy. Pistol (5 dmg, 14 capacity, Jacket concealment), Lt. Pistol (4 dmg, 16 capacity, Pocket concealment, one hidden in his bike saddlebags), Fireman's Axe (Str+3, No Concealment, kept in the van)
Background
Bulldog’s father was a member of The Outlaws Motorcycle Club, they were always his family growing up. Bulldog was patched in in 1988 at the age of 18. Always more muscle than leader, Bulldog was still respected and feared as one of the clubs most effective enforcers.
After a successful drug run to New York City in 1997, Bulldog and few of his crew got a wasted and tore up a dive bar. It belonged to the Brujah that would eventually become his Sire, Nathaniel Vonner. Unfortunately for them, Vonner was the wrong fucker to mess with.
Bulldog was never one to run his mouth too much, but he had never given a shit about shutting his brothers up either. By the time he realized the shitstorm they had stepped into, it was too late. Bulldog was lucky to survive the onslaught. Still, Vonner was impressed that Bulldog had managed to keep his cool, even get a good hit or two in before he was gutted.
Vonner spared him, and took him under his wing. He tested and trained him, and decided he was interesting and useful enough to keep around.
But the distraction of raising a Childe has now worn thin, and Bulldog has been released to fend for himself.
Description
Going with Opie from Sons of Anarchy. Just imagine him with black hair, even bigger, and a trimmer beard. 6'6" tall, 300 lb frame.
So Potence doesn't require blood at all? That's really powerful.
It's also pretty limited in scope compared to many/most of the really impressive disciplines and will almost guarantee you a Masquerade violation if you use it where the herd can see you.
If you're looking to tear someone up hand to hand, though, it's really the best.
yes but it's unbalanced play-wise with the other disciplines that mostly require blood to do anything fun
a potence user can continuously use his disciplines without any real downside, whereas other players are constantly having to drain humans to use theirs
So Potence doesn't require blood at all? That's really powerful.
It's also pretty limited in scope compared to many/most of the really impressive disciplines and will almost guarantee you a Masquerade violation if you use it where the herd can see you.
If you're looking to tear someone up hand to hand, though, it's really the best.
yes but it's unbalanced play-wise with the other disciplines that mostly require blood to do anything fun
a potence user can continuously use his disciplines without any real downside, whereas other players are constantly having to drain humans to use theirs
Maybe, I guess. But those fun things are just being pretty strong, not mystical divination or blood magic or dominating minds.
If it cost blood it wouldn't be any better than the spending blood points to buff attributes thing that all kindred can do. This is just an always on version of that which applies to Strength only.
So Potence doesn't require blood at all? That's really powerful.
It's also pretty limited in scope compared to many/most of the really impressive disciplines and will almost guarantee you a Masquerade violation if you use it where the herd can see you.
If you're looking to tear someone up hand to hand, though, it's really the best.
yes but it's unbalanced play-wise with the other disciplines that mostly require blood to do anything fun
a potence user can continuously use his disciplines without any real downside, whereas other players are constantly having to drain humans to use theirs
Maybe, I guess. But those fun things are just being pretty strong, not mystical divination or blood magic or dominating minds.
If it cost blood it wouldn't be any better than the spending blood points to buff attributes thing that all kindred can do. This is just an always on version of that which applies to Strength only.
I'm ok with Potence costing 1bp to get the automatic Strength successes for a scene, but I think having to spend 1bp to get those auto-successes per turn (the V20 update) is pretty expensive. It seems pretty punishing, especially for a Brujah or Ghouls. Brujah already have Celerity, which is very expensive to use bp wise in the V20 update (though I think it's needed for Celerity since in the original version it's gamebreaking).
Normally I would't go for such a combat heavy char, or Brujah at all, but we have a lot of socially gifted submissions, so I thought I would try something different.
@Boozer Do you have a strong preference to playing a social character?
I'll admit I was experimenting a little bit building around a concept that I have in my head, but I also have a separate concept for a combat char that I could build around and spit out (I enjoy character building a lot, so I really have no issues at all with scrapping Alex and building something new).
So, I guess what I'm saying is, let me know if you'd rather build yourself a social character, and I'll be happy to switch out Alex for a different combat focused character
I'm just dropping it by 1. Lizzy was 6 in Mikey's game because of her don't care attitude. Here, it's because she's lost a lot of faith in the world with the Seattle stuff. If anything about her story is too much, let me know. Beyond the first task, we never got further in the story (the standing up to the Prince and not flinching thing did happen. I needed to roll a 9 or better with like 5 dice, ended up rolling 3 of them.) And I need to grab a Flaw being a Malk, because what's the point of being crazy if you don't have an illness?
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited September 2016
I notice that for some reason, 2E makes no mention of the clan benefits that are in Laws of the Night. Just their weaknesses. But Laws also has some pretty different breakdowns for abilities, so maybe it's best just to stick to the 2E rules.
The benefits are mostly stat increases, i.e. Ventrue getting free backgrounds and Tremere getting free occult points, so I'll leave this up to player preference for now.
I'm just dropping it by 1. Lizzy was 6 in Mikey's game because of her don't care attitude. Here, it's because she's lost a lot of faith in the world with the Seattle stuff. If anything about her story is too much, let me know. Beyond the first task, we never got further in the story (the standing up to the Prince and not flinching thing did happen. I needed to roll a 9 or better with like 5 dice, ended up rolling 3 of them.) And I need to grab a Flaw being a Malk, because what's the point of being crazy if you don't have an illness?
You also need to put her Derangement.
cj iwakura on
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
LotN adds Academics, Awareness, Crafts, Expression, Performance, and Scrounge, but removes Acting, Alertness, and Music. (Expression, Crafts, Performance can be used for most arts in LotN, and I figure Awareness is more or less an update to Alertness.)
It also has Influence breakdowns: Bureaucracy, Finance, Health, High Society, Industry, Legal, Media, Occult, Police, Political, Street, Transportation, Underworld, and University.
If anyone wants to incorporate any of the above, feel free to ask.
Yeah, it's a mild form of Schizophrenia since she talks in rhymes (which is awesome but last time had me speaking in rhymes in RL because I was doing it so much here). I'm just looking if there is a real mental disorder that covers it better but for game terms, it's Schizophrenia.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Works for me, I'm sure I can make a given check work out with 2E's rule set. I wonder how V20 did it.
The Influence breakdowns have been incorporated, OP updated.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Yeah, it's a mild form of Schizophrenia since she talks in rhymes (which is awesome but last time had me speaking in rhymes in RL because I was doing it so much here). I'm just looking if there is a real mental disorder that covers it better but for game terms, it's Schizophrenia.
Yeah, it's a mild form of Schizophrenia since she talks in rhymes (which is awesome but last time had me speaking in rhymes in RL because I was doing it so much here). I'm just looking if there is a real mental disorder that covers it better but for game terms, it's Schizophrenia.
Could be considered OCD.
There is this thing called Thought Disorder or Formal Thought Disorder that Eugen Bleuler, who named schizophrenia, had originally had it being a defining characteristic of Schizophrenia.
I wish I had seen this earlier. I'd love to give it a try but i'd have to reacquaint myself with basically everything about the setting and rules before even thinking of putting a character together, and since i'm leaving for the weekend tomorrow that's not really going to happen.
Looks like fun though, I hope you all have a good time with it.
A couple of things I noticed in the submissions:
- Attributes and Virtues start at 1, so no need to purchase the first level with starting dots or freebie xp.
- Cj changed how the freebie points worked to be freebie xp, not points. So the cost to raise an attribute from 1 to 2 would be 5x2=10 freebie xp. This is the minimum you can spend to raise an attribute.
Due to how the math works out, it's better to use your starting points to get your high dot stuff, and use freebie xp to round out your char with 1 or 2 dot stuff.
MaclayInsquequo Totus Es UnusHere and ThereRegistered Userregular
Playing around with character creation, don't know if I'll end up with anything viable...
I noticed that everyone who submitted so far prioritized their abilities as T11, S7, K4. Is that as instructed, just smart character building, or misinterpretation?
Also, I might be interested in pulling in Academics from the LotN if I do submit something.
Playing around with character creation, don't know if I'll end up with anything viable...
I noticed that everyone who submitted so far prioritized their abilities as T11, S7, K4. Is that as instructed, just smart character building, or misinterpretation?
Also, I might be interested in pulling in Academics from the LotN if I do submit something.
I know I did it on purpose, knowing I could put the 11 in S or K for example.
One thing I forgot to mention or ask about was that, in V20 at least, the starting dots actually go 13/9/5 , not 11/7/4.
Yeah to be clear, attributes all start with 1, then you can an extra five points in their strongest primary category, an extra 4 in the secondary, and and extra three in the tertiary.
Abilities work the same, except they don't start with one, and the number of points you get for each category are more. In this case 11/7/4.
A couple of things I noticed in the submissions:
- Attributes and Virtues start at 1, so no need to purchase the first level with starting dots or freebie xp.
- Cj changed how the freebie points worked to be freebie xp, not points. So the cost to raise an attribute from 1 to 2 would be 5x2=10 freebie xp. This is the minimum you can spend to raise an attribute.
Due to how the math works out, it's better to use your starting points to get your high dot stuff, and use freebie xp to round out your char with 1 or 2 dot stuff.
I believe that's how 2E handles it as well, though the wording is pretty confusing.
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
Okay, now I'm not sure my math checks out, and I am also inconsistent with whether I have the basic one point or not. I will check this weekend.
Danny Whelan could have gone to a good college if he hadn’t been so concerned about what the popular crowd thought of him. Instead he ended up graduating with mediocre grades and attending a mediocre school. While things started out okay in college they started spiraling quickly. Danny would swear to being followed, he would find his stuff rearranged with no explanation, and rumors seemed to be spreading about him. In early December it got to be too much and he severely assaulted a fellow student. Except nothing ever came of it. No consequences, no mention of the assault ever having occurred, and of course, no sign of the victim. So it didn’t take much to trigger the second incident the following February. But this one got people’s attention, got him kicked out, got him locked up. After being released on bail, source initially unknown, Danny found himself face to face with The Smiling Man and immediately thereafter deceased.
The Smiling Man mostly lost interest at that point, easily distracted as he was. Danny would still on occasion be called upon by his sire, by way of ghoul. But it generally involved sitting silently facing each other in an empty room and later being informed by a ghoul what it was he had actually wanted to communicate. The Smiling Man believed he could communicate with his offspring psychically. He was incorrect.
Meanwhile, Danny isolated himself, finding solace and stability in the founts of knowledge available to both humanity and the Camarilla. This drew the attention of a respected researcher within the ranks of the Camarilla: Ana. Ana took Danny under her wing. She seemed to always speak truth to him, her advice had positive results and she had even openly defended him once or twice. Didn’t mean he trusted her though. She was obviously plotting something.
Eventually, Danny was able to put together a few basic rules to hopefully not draw anyone’s attention, let alone piss them off:
1. Follow the rules - You may not trust the people in charge, but if you cross them they’ll probably just kill you outright.
2. Do what Ana says - She’s kept you clear and stable so far, hopefully it’ll be a long while before she betrays you.
3. Trust no one - Everyone wants something and even if they say otherwise, they are clearly willing to fuck you over to get it.
4. Be normal - If no one notices you exist they might not care enough to bother with you. Maybe. Best just to act like every other nobody.
Useful imagery:
The Smiling Man - Zach Galifianakis at his most disheveled and hairy, with trollface.
Ana - Victorian Governess
Notable Characteristics:
Stalks his Prey. Needs to make sure it’s safe to eat.
Dark Plain Clothing. Not always black, sometimes black stands out.
Clean and Tidy. People notice a mess.
Tries to be Polite. But isn’t very good at it.
Who is Ana?
I don’t know her true nature. It’s possible she is exactly what she seems, but who knows?
She has a strong preference for Victorian era garb. This may be reflective of her age.
While she certainly isn’t humorless, she finds juvenile humor to be pitiful.
She is strongly dedicated to the Camarilla and ensuring that things run smoothly.
A mediator, not one for powerplays, at least thus far.
She seems to like opera.
Many trust her, some distrust her BECAUSE many trust her.
This one time, I could have sworn I saw her at a blink-182 concert...
It really depends on what kind of game we are playing. To me, at least, Vampire is mostly about the cutthroat politics of the Camerilla. Combat happens but isn't totally important as being able to talk your way through the rank and file of those trying to climb up the ladder.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
I tend to skew more towards social-oriented campaigns.
Posts
Sewers or, uh, central park. It wouldn't be too hard to keep a low profile.
It's also pretty limited in scope compared to many/most of the really impressive disciplines and will almost guarantee you a Masquerade violation if you use it where the herd can see you.
If you're looking to tear someone up hand to hand, though, it's really the best.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Player: Boozer
Chronicle: The Restless City
Demeanor: Bravo
Nature: Soldier
Clan:Brujah
Generation: 10th
XP: 0
Haven: 5-6 safehouses around the rougher parts of the city.
Concept: Biker Enforcer
Attributes:
Physical - Strength(5), Dexterity(3), Stamina(2)
Social: Charisma(3), Manip.(1), Appearance(2)
Mental: Perception(2), Intelligence(2), Wits(3)
Abilities, 11/7/4 allocated to the following(specializations optional):
Talents: Acting, Alertness(1), Athletics, Brawl(2), Dodge(3), Empathy, Intimidation(2), Leadership, Streetwise(1), Subterfuge(3)
Skills: Animal Ken, Drive(2), Etiquette(1), Firearms(3), Melee(3), Music, Repair, Security, Stealth(1), Survival
Knowledge: Bureaucracy, Computer(1), Finance, Investigation(1), Law(1), Linguistics(1 - Spanish), Medicine, Occult, Politics, Science
Advantages:
Disciplines: Potence(2), Celerity(1), Presence(1)
Backgrounds, 5 points to allocate.
Allies, Contacts, Fame, Generation(3), Herd(3), Influence, Status (Camarilla 1 - Acknowledged; Scourge - Feared), Mentor: Sire, Nat Vonner(1), Resources(2 - Loan sharking, ‘Protection’), Retainers.
Virtues, 7 points to distribute among: Conscience(3), Self-Control(4), Courage(4).
Willpower: 4/4
Blood Pool: 13/13
Humanity: 6
Freebie points spend: 16p (Humanity lowered to 6) (Strength 5-5p, Dexterity 3-5p, Herd 3-3p, Mentor 1-1p, Conscience 3-2p)
XP spend: 7xp Presence 1, 2xp Stealth 1, 2xp Etiquette 1, 6xp Firearms 3, 6xp Subterfuge 3
Equipment- 2003 Harley Davidson Dyna Super Glide Sport, Black Van, Biker Leathers (Bashing/Lethal Armor 1), Knifex2 (Str+1 dmg, Jacket concealment, one hidden in his bike saddlebags), Hvy. Pistol (5 dmg, 14 capacity, Jacket concealment), Lt. Pistol (4 dmg, 16 capacity, Pocket concealment, one hidden in his bike saddlebags), Fireman's Axe (Str+3, No Concealment, kept in the van)
Background
After a successful drug run to New York City in 1997, Bulldog and few of his crew got a wasted and tore up a dive bar. It belonged to the Brujah that would eventually become his Sire, Nathaniel Vonner. Unfortunately for them, Vonner was the wrong fucker to mess with.
Bulldog was never one to run his mouth too much, but he had never given a shit about shutting his brothers up either. By the time he realized the shitstorm they had stepped into, it was too late. Bulldog was lucky to survive the onslaught. Still, Vonner was impressed that Bulldog had managed to keep his cool, even get a good hit or two in before he was gutted.
Vonner spared him, and took him under his wing. He tested and trained him, and decided he was interesting and useful enough to keep around.
But the distraction of raising a Childe has now worn thin, and Bulldog has been released to fend for himself.
Description
Going with Opie from Sons of Anarchy. Just imagine him with black hair, even bigger, and a trimmer beard. 6'6" tall, 300 lb frame.
PSN: Boozer_777
yes but it's unbalanced play-wise with the other disciplines that mostly require blood to do anything fun
a potence user can continuously use his disciplines without any real downside, whereas other players are constantly having to drain humans to use theirs
Maybe, I guess. But those fun things are just being pretty strong, not mystical divination or blood magic or dominating minds.
If it cost blood it wouldn't be any better than the spending blood points to buff attributes thing that all kindred can do. This is just an always on version of that which applies to Strength only.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I'm ok with Potence costing 1bp to get the automatic Strength successes for a scene, but I think having to spend 1bp to get those auto-successes per turn (the V20 update) is pretty expensive. It seems pretty punishing, especially for a Brujah or Ghouls. Brujah already have Celerity, which is very expensive to use bp wise in the V20 update (though I think it's needed for Celerity since in the original version it's gamebreaking).
Normally I would't go for such a combat heavy char, or Brujah at all, but we have a lot of socially gifted submissions, so I thought I would try something different.
PSN: Boozer_777
Starts at 1.
I'll admit I was experimenting a little bit building around a concept that I have in my head, but I also have a separate concept for a combat char that I could build around and spit out (I enjoy character building a lot, so I really have no issues at all with scrapping Alex and building something new).
So, I guess what I'm saying is, let me know if you'd rather build yourself a social character, and I'll be happy to switch out Alex for a different combat focused character
PSN: Boozer_777
Correct, but there's a limit without needing backstory to justify it.
The benefits are mostly stat increases, i.e. Ventrue getting free backgrounds and Tremere getting free occult points, so I'll leave this up to player preference for now.
You also need to put her Derangement.
Talents: Acting, Alertness, Athletics, Brawl, Dodge, Empathy, Intimidation, Leadership, Streetwise, Subterfuge
Skills: Animal Ken, Drive, Etiquette, Firearms, Melee, Music, Repair, Security, Stealth, Survival
Knowledge: Bureaucracy, Computer, Finance, Investigation, Law, Linguistics, Medicine, Occult, Politics, Science
LotN adds Academics, Awareness, Crafts, Expression, Performance, and Scrounge, but removes Acting, Alertness, and Music. (Expression, Crafts, Performance can be used for most arts in LotN, and I figure Awareness is more or less an update to Alertness.)
It also has Influence breakdowns: Bureaucracy, Finance, Health, High Society, Industry, Legal, Media, Occult, Police, Political, Street, Transportation, Underworld, and University.
If anyone wants to incorporate any of the above, feel free to ask.
The Influence breakdowns have been incorporated, OP updated.
Could be considered OCD.
There is this thing called Thought Disorder or Formal Thought Disorder that Eugen Bleuler, who named schizophrenia, had originally had it being a defining characteristic of Schizophrenia.
Geth roll 1d10+3 for starting blood pool
PSN: Boozer_777
Also, just to confirm, we're using the V20 Celerity right? Where as a passive it adds a die to Dex rolls?
Geth, roll 1d10+2 for Blood Pool
Works for me.
Looks like fun though, I hope you all have a good time with it.
- Attributes and Virtues start at 1, so no need to purchase the first level with starting dots or freebie xp.
- Cj changed how the freebie points worked to be freebie xp, not points. So the cost to raise an attribute from 1 to 2 would be 5x2=10 freebie xp. This is the minimum you can spend to raise an attribute.
Due to how the math works out, it's better to use your starting points to get your high dot stuff, and use freebie xp to round out your char with 1 or 2 dot stuff.
PSN: Boozer_777
I noticed that everyone who submitted so far prioritized their abilities as T11, S7, K4. Is that as instructed, just smart character building, or misinterpretation?
Also, I might be interested in pulling in Academics from the LotN if I do submit something.
I know I did it on purpose, knowing I could put the 11 in S or K for example.
One thing I forgot to mention or ask about was that, in V20 at least, the starting dots actually go 13/9/5 , not 11/7/4.
PSN: Boozer_777
Abilities work the same, except they don't start with one, and the number of points you get for each category are more. In this case 11/7/4.
PSN: Boozer_777
I believe that's how 2E handles it as well, though the wording is pretty confusing.
You need to add one to every stat, doesn't look like you started at one.
Player: Maclay
Chronicle: The Restless City
Nature: Scientist
Demeanor: Loner
Clan: Malkavian
Generation: 11
Haven: Something slightly below average in Harlem.
Concept: Paranoid Nerd
Attributes
Physical- Strength (3), Dexterity (2), Stamina (2)
Social- Charisma (2), Manipulation (1), Appearance (3)
Mental- Perception (3), Intelligence (3), Wits (2)
Abilities
Talents 7 (4xp): Alertness |3|, Athletics [1], Brawl 3, Dodge 2, Subterfuge [1], Empathy |1|
Skills 4 (4xp): Melee 2, Etiquette [1], Stealth 2, Survival [1]
Knowledge 11 (6xp): Academics {3}, Investigation 3, Law 2, Linguistics [1], Medicine [1], Occult [1], Science 3
Advantages
Disciplines
Auspex (2), Obfuscate (2), Dementation (0)
Backgrounds
Mentor- Ana (2)
Generation (2)
Resources (1)
Domain (1)
Virtues
Conscience (3), Self-Control (4), Courage (3)
Willpower (3)
Humanity (7)
Bloodpool (7)
XP: 1
Flaw(s)?
Paranoia? Mild OCD?
Backstory:
The Smiling Man mostly lost interest at that point, easily distracted as he was. Danny would still on occasion be called upon by his sire, by way of ghoul. But it generally involved sitting silently facing each other in an empty room and later being informed by a ghoul what it was he had actually wanted to communicate. The Smiling Man believed he could communicate with his offspring psychically. He was incorrect.
Meanwhile, Danny isolated himself, finding solace and stability in the founts of knowledge available to both humanity and the Camarilla. This drew the attention of a respected researcher within the ranks of the Camarilla: Ana. Ana took Danny under her wing. She seemed to always speak truth to him, her advice had positive results and she had even openly defended him once or twice. Didn’t mean he trusted her though. She was obviously plotting something.
Eventually, Danny was able to put together a few basic rules to hopefully not draw anyone’s attention, let alone piss them off:
1. Follow the rules - You may not trust the people in charge, but if you cross them they’ll probably just kill you outright.
2. Do what Ana says - She’s kept you clear and stable so far, hopefully it’ll be a long while before she betrays you.
3. Trust no one - Everyone wants something and even if they say otherwise, they are clearly willing to fuck you over to get it.
4. Be normal - If no one notices you exist they might not care enough to bother with you. Maybe. Best just to act like every other nobody.
Useful imagery:
The Smiling Man - Zach Galifianakis at his most disheveled and hairy, with trollface.
Ana - Victorian Governess
Notable Characteristics:
Stalks his Prey. Needs to make sure it’s safe to eat.
Dark Plain Clothing. Not always black, sometimes black stands out.
Clean and Tidy. People notice a mess.
Tries to be Polite. But isn’t very good at it.
Who is Ana?
I don’t know her true nature. It’s possible she is exactly what she seems, but who knows?
She has a strong preference for Victorian era garb. This may be reflective of her age.
While she certainly isn’t humorless, she finds juvenile humor to be pitiful.
She is strongly dedicated to the Camarilla and ensuring that things run smoothly.
A mediator, not one for powerplays, at least thus far.
She seems to like opera.
Many trust her, some distrust her BECAUSE many trust her.
This one time, I could have sworn I saw her at a blink-182 concert...
Do we need another combat char to balance it out?