Playing with Toys: the Transformers RPG & Character Creation
Including character sheets for the Extraordinary Outliers, hitting conventions this fall
There are a lot of really nerdy things about me, but number one with a bullet is my love of Transformers. That love has survived my childhood and followed me into my 30s; as a grown-ass man, I still buy the toys sometimes, and I often revisit my Platonic ideal of Transformers fiction, James Roberts’ More Than Meets the Eye/Lost Light comics from IDW, which wrapped up in 2018 and is pretty much everything I ever wanted out of robots who change their shape.
So you might imagine I was pretty stoked when I saw that Renegade Game Studios was developing a Transformers tabletop RPG using their Essence20 system, which has also given birth to Power Rangers and G.I. Joe games. (Earlier this year I got a big kick out of the Power Rangers one; just search “Saved by the Zord” on YouTube). At first I wasn’t sure if I felt compelled to try to run Transformers, though; I didn’t know if the things I loved about the franchise and the things I loved about tabletop RPGs would play nicely.
(Sidebar: I had previously been so thirsty for Transformers gaming that in junior high school, during the days of newsgroups, I took my first dive into the tabletop world after I’d read on alt.toys.transformers that someone had come up with a Transformers hack for the GURPS RPG. Do y’all remember GURPS? Imagine me at 13 years old trying to make sense of that system. Bless West End Games’ d6 Star Wars system for being there to catch me when I fell.)
Anyway, despite my uncertainty, I came up with an idea that tickled me for Renegade’s game inspired by the aforementioned More Than Meets the Eye comic, so I submitted a pitch to Gamehole Con in my home city of Madison, and they accepted it. Here was that pitch:
The Transformers RPG PDF came out a week ago, and over the weekend I spent some time creating the characters for this session. I’m delighted to say that I had an absolute blast doing it. The folks over at Renegade put together a system that really, truly feels like playing with toys, but with rules for structure (which is, as it happens, exactly what H.G. Wells wrote about in 1913).
Nowhere was this more apparent to me than when assigning each character’s “integrated hardpoints” — the weapons built into their robot bodies. The TF RPG has set rules about the number and type of weapons characters can integrate at various levels, as well as a robust system of upgrades to customize those weapons. Trying to make my characters fit within the rules while approximating the accessories their toys originally came with or the gear I know them to have in the fiction was some of the most fun I’ve had designing RPG characters. Maybe it sounds a little reductive, but “rules for your imagination” is kind of the essence of tabletop roleplaying, right? And what are Transformers if not toys that captivate the imagination?
Anyway! Although I wish I could clean up the formatting on these auto-fill character sheets a bit, I wanted to share the fruits of my weekend labor. Attached are six level-one character sheets for The Extraordinary Outliers. Feel free to use these as you see fit! I can’t be the only person tickled by the idea of robot superheroes… right….?
The Extraordinary Outliers
Glitch was once called Damus; sadly, this strong, sensitive point-one-percenter was subject to the cruel and disfiguring Empurata procedure for daring to cross the Senate. Though he seems to have put it behind him, and Orion Pax trusts him to command the Outliers in the field, who knows what darkness stirs inside his heart?
“Power”: His touch disables nonsentient machinery
Role: Field Commander
Hubcap is liked by everybody, but truly trusted by nobody. Though a master at analyzing the words of others, he tends to play fast and loose with his own. That makes him easy to get along with, but deep down, his teammates worry that he may have ulterior motives.
Power: Mastery over electromagnetic signals
Role: Analyst
Mirage has largely blended in well with his fellow Autobots, although some strange questions persist about his past in security. Using special ability sometimes exposes his mind to hallucinations, but typically he's stable and in fact quite social.
Power: Invisibility
Role: Scout
Skids’ whole life has been academia -- quietly studying away at the Academy, hoping not to get noticed. That is, until Orion Pax came calling. Now he's adapting to being a war machine while trying to keep his studies top of mind.
Power: The ability to learn any skill he wants
Role: Scientist
Trailbreaker is good-natured and a big-time team player; everybody likes him... except himself. He's really down on his value to the Autobot cause, particularly because of his substantial fuel consumption. His teammates do their best to make him feel at home; sometimes it helps.
Power: Forcefield generation
Role: Warrior
Windercharger loves hanging out and showing off. He's addicted to speed and not so much a fan of patience. This tends to get him into situations where he burns himself out.
Power: Magnetism
Role: Scout
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