A little while back, I talked a little about the new Great Power sourcebook for ICONS by Steve Kenson. Today I thought I'd share an example of what a "classic" ICONS character converted to the new
Great Power version looks like. Here's one of my first ICONS characters who appeared in
ICONS Hero Pack I from Ad Infinitum Adventures.
Desert Storm - Classic ICONS
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First Appearance: Desert Storm #1
Art by Joe Bardales and Hero Machine |
Origin: Transformed
Real Name: Dr. Richard "Rick" Rogers
Abilities
Prowess 6
Coordination 6
Strength 6
Intellect 5
Awareness 3
Willpower 4
Stamina 10
Determination 3
Specialties
Archaeology Expert
Military
Powers
Alternate Form (Liquid: Sand)
Elemental Control 6 (Earth: Sand)
- Attacking (Earth/Sand Blast)
- Defending (Earth/Sand Blast)
Burrowing 4
Qualities
Epithet: The Wall of Living Sand
Connections: General George Rand
Motivation: The Sands of Time Eventually Reclaim All
Challenges
Weakness: Water
Appearance: Weird-Looking Sand Man
Personal; Obsessed with Relocating Irem, the Lost City of Pillars
Desert Storm - Great Power version
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Desert Storm: The Animated Series
Art by Dan Houser |
Origin: Transformed
Real Name: Dr. Richard "Rick" Rogers
Abilities
Prowess 6
Coordination 6
Strength 6
Intellect 5
Awareness 3
Willpower 4
Stamina 10
Determination 2
Specialties
Archaeology Expert
Military
Powers
Blast (Blasting) 6
Burrowing 4
Earth (Sand) Control 6
Fluid Form (Sand) 7
- Damage Resistance 7
- Stretching 7
- Limit: Constant
Qualities
Epithet: The Wall of Living Sand
Connections: General George Rand
Motivation: The Sands of Time Eventually Reclaim All
Challenges
Weakness: Water
Appearance: Weird-Looking Sand Man
Personal; Obsessed with Relocating Irem, the Lost City of Pillars
ORIGIN STORY
Prior to his transformation, Desert Storm was a retired United States Army Captain with a Ph.D. in Archaeology named Richard “Rick”Rogers. Angered by the mistreatment and theft of antiquities from the Baghdad Museum during the Iraq War, Dr. Rogers contacted his old Army friend General George Rand, who arranged for the archaeologist to come to the war torn country and help protect their national treasures from looting and destruction. After several weeks of routine cataloging and preservation, General Rand contacted Rogers about a startling find in the desert along the Iraqi-Saudi border.
A week earlier, an army platoon on patrol in the region chanced upon the ruins of an ancient city apparently uncovered by the shifting desert sands. Dr. Rogers assembled a team of archaeologists and Army specialists to investigate the site. It wasn’t long before it became apparent that they had discovered none other than the fabled city of Irem, the Lost City of Pillars. For three months, the dig was going along slowly but surely, until one fateful day when Dr. Rogers accidentally broke the seal on an ancient burial crypt marked with strange hieroglyphs.
Instantly, Dr. Rogers was overcome by a powerful elemental force composed of sand escaping from the crypt. Within seconds, the entire camp was engulfed in a sand storm of epic proportions. Overcome with the ferocity of the storm, Rogers was knocked unconscious, and when he recovered, the entire dig site camp and its occupants, their equipment, and the city of Irem itself, had completely vanished in the desert sands. Even more shocking, Rick Rogers found himself transformed into a living being composed entirely of sand.
Horrified by his appearance, Dr. Rogers contacted his old friend General Rand in secret, and told him the tragic story. They agreed to keep what happened to Rogers a secret, and Rand sent recovery teams to investigate the scene, but not a single trace of the dig site or the team could be found. The City of Pillars was lost once again...
Notes on the Great Power Conversion
Obviously, some power names have changed in Great Power. Earth Control (part of the Element Control group) still gives us a Force Field (Desert Storm's protective Wall of Sand) but no longer a Blast. I had to purchase Force Field as an extra though. There are a lot of cool new stunts that come with Earth Control that Desert Storm now has access to by spending a Determination point such as Earthquake, Tremor and Earthwave.
Starting Determination has changed as well, dropping from 3 to 2. I calculated it like so: 6 minus 4 (number of powers he has) minus 1 (the Force Field extra) plus 1 (the Constant limit) equals 2, or:
6 - 4 - 1 + 1 = 2
I hope you enjoyed this side-by-side comparison. Thanks for reading!
