He's NOT a Coupon!

I jest but this is the first thing a player asked me when investigating the classes during a play test of Transylvanian Adventures.

"The Redeemable? What is he? A coupon?"

The Redeemable is the rogue with a heart of gold. These swashbuckling ne'er-do-wells fly through life on a chandelier, leaping from adventure to adventure inspiring admiration and envy among all those who cross their paths.

You've Met This Guy/Gal Before

The Redeemable is ubiquitous in almost every genre of fiction. From Han Solo to Flynn Ryder to the Dread Pirate Roberts. He (or she) is the rakish rapscallion out to clear his name, right a wrong or party hard and have his name writ large in the book of legends.

How Does One Buckle a Swash?

• The Redeemable is VERY lucky.
• The Redeemable climbs better than the DCC Thief. In fact, her Climbing Class Feature is called "Like a Spider Monkey". Yeah, I'm rocking that.
• Just when you think the Redeemable is down, she can pull victory out from the jaws of defeat. Unlike The Valiant, The Redeemable's ability comes into play a lot more often but is slightly less effective. This makes the Redeemable a little more annoying to a Judge. Whereas the Valiant just shows up big to save the day once in a while. The Redeemable's ability more often than not saves her bacon.
• The Redeemable also has Mighty Deeds. It's a fun mechanic. And Redeemables tend to have the most fun with it.
• The Redeemable is good at forcing opponents to miss her. In playtest, I had a Redeemable holding a Velociraptor at bay with a musket. I bet you're wondering how those Velociraptors got to Transylvania…
• The Redeemable also has tried-and-true abilities familiar to most role-players. Notably picking pockets, escaping from bonds and reducing the damage of a fall.

Where Do I Sign Up?

The Redeemable is a whole lot of fun. And most certainly NOT a coupon. The Redeemable seems pretty stacked but there's a lot going on here. I can't say the Redeemable steals the spotlight a whole lot. It's more like the Judge rolls this, this and that and says "Aha! I got you!" and then the Redeemable's player says "No, ya don't…" So the Redeemable is kind of like the Bugs Bunny of the party. Or the Jerry to the Judge's Tom.

If you've ever had a player who has enjoyed playing a character that really gets under your skin, then the Redeemable is for him or her. As a Judge, you'll have to exercise restraint not to throw dice at that player. I know I have.

Upgrading a Redeemable is fairly straight-forward. And how a player upgrades the character depends more on what the player likes to do with it. Redeemables could be very useful skill-monkeys. And while they aren't as good in combat as the Hunter, Charger or Survivor, upgrading the Redeemable's combat abilities put him on par with the Exotic and Half-Breed for sure. There aren't many other directions to take him, unless you're upgrading his good fortune in which case he could become sort of like a Jester or Gambler class.

Inspiration

The inspiration for the Redeemable is listed above. But there are examples of the Redeemable all over fiction of all genres. Almost everyone is familiar with the trope of the lovable rogue and the Redeemable does the best job of modeling that character that I've ever seen in a roleplaying game. Not to talk myself up or anything.

Other Uses

If using the Transylvanian Adventures rules and classes outside of the setting or genre, the Redeemable is immediately recognizable as a Thief. He's not a jack-of-all-trades like the traditional fantasy roleplaying Thief. And in some ways he could be a little under-powered compared to that class. But he hasn't seemed that way in play test. And the Redeemable really does model that Errol Flynn sort of character that swoops in, saves the girl (or guy) and makes the villain look completely foolish.

A traditional Thief can do all that stuff but isn't really modeled to do so. Of the two, I'd have to say I prefer the Redeemable. He's less backstabby and less inclined towards Chaotic Stoopid than the traditional Thief can be -- while at the same time modeling more closely the fictional representation of a twu wascally wogue.