The Ballad of Phoenix Jones

Phoenix Jones Stops Assault from Ryan McNamee on Vimeo.


This is video of real-life Seattle super hero "Phoenix Jones" patrolling, getting involved in an altercation, and (allegedly) breaking up a fight. He was arrested soon after and taken to court--but he was released (he claims--and I think the video backs him up--that he wasn't just pepper-spraying people on the street).

This is interesting for a few reasons.
1. It's live footage of the guy in action. Clearly he's traveling with a camera man--this is savvy. I don't know if footage like this exists other places, but it's pretty compelling. There's no way he isn't at least kinda-sorta in this for the fame and this gets him fame.

2. He doesn't suck. Clearly he's in shape. He has a cool costume: According to Wikipedia he has a bullet-proof vest and stab plating. He carries pepper spray (and uses it liberally). When attacked by a girl wielding a purse he didn't hit her--he was kind of backed off--but I think it's safe to say he could've clocked her. He chose not to.

3. While it's chaotic and hard to tell what's going on, it's possible he made a difference. I have no idea if he's a stand-up guy or not--but I'd like to think he is. Even if he's a bit weird.

So what's the point?

What Are His Stats!?
Oh, come on--like you didn't see that coming?

Well, let's start: I recently benched more than 210lbs--if I can do it he can. That gives him an STR of 12. He's been kicked and stabbed (so he says) and he's not daunted. So that's a high CON. Let's give him an estimated PHY of 12. This puts his fighting weight at 170 lbs (an 11 BLD) but let's say he cuts so he walks around at ~185. Seems reasonable.

How about REF and INT? Well he's apparently An MMA bad-ass undefeated in minor circuits with 11 win and no losses (or ties)--so we'll spot him a 12 REF. Sure, it might be higher. It might be lower. I'm not sure. I'll also give him an 11 INT. I have no idea what his background is--but he's smart enough to carry pepper spray and have a friend video-tape him. I dunno. I'll assume he's no super genius but he didn't seem dumb either.

Total: 35 CP


What About Skills?
He trains at Alderwood MMA. It's hard to tell what they're like--but we'll assume it's the standard: Brazilian Jiujitsu and Thai Kick Boxing. Let's assume with 11 wins (many by submission) he's a competition level black-belt in Jiujitsu--but let's go for L2 in Kick-boxing (Tae Kwon Do in the JAGS rule-set) as most of his wins are by submission. That would be two 14- combat skills with one Level 3. We'll clock that in 12 at  CP.

What other skills might he possess? We don't know what he does for a living (probably not fight) and I couldn't find out with 10-seconds on google. We can assume he has maybe another 4 CP spent somewhere on professional skills or hobbies. Like that.

Traits
He might also have some advantageous traits. He could have Leader. He might have Presence. It's hard to know. One thing I want to give him is about 4-6 CP in Toughness and some other Combat Traits (like Natural Fighter). We don't know what exactly--but he's well above a normal guy with 11 wins in the ring. Let's say he clocks in at 24 CP in skills and Traits.

Total: 24 CP


Any Defects?
I'm going to give him -4 CP in defects. Might be Obnoxious. Might be Disturbed. Could be Enemies? We're not sure exactly why he's doing this--but he's hard-core about it and it's definitely not wise. So we'll assume something (even if it's minor) is going on. I'll hold with Watchmen: anyone dressing up and patrolling ... isn't right.

Total: 53 CP


Gear?
He has a bullet proof vest, an outfit that looks like leather, and, allegedly arm and leg trauma plates. It's the "real world" (man, we hope) so he's probably not paying AP for gear--but we'll total it up anyway.

• Vest: 4/16 Coverage 4
• Leather Outfit: 2/5 Full Coverage
• Trauma Plates: These? I'm not sure. Let's go with 3/8 Coverage 2

This is a little complex: if you hit the trauma plates you don't hit the vest. The basic rules don't cover this--but essentially if you want to hit around all his coverage you have to hit him by 7+ or you need to play with optional rules and aim for the head (-2 to hit, +1 to be blocked).

If you don't want to be so complex we can just generalize his armor to 2/5 full and 4/10 Cv 4 plate. 

Total: 3 AP

His Pepper spray is OC Spray. I did some quick checking (And you can see the video). It's no intant-knock-down police taser. He sprayed a dude who was running around with his shirt over his head. He sprayed one of the women who went ballistic on him. Apparently it also colors the target orange. We'll assume it imparts something like a -2 Initiative modifier and a -2 Vision modifier (so the target is at around -2 to hit). It's probably got a +2 Large Weapon Bonus since it's a spray attack.

We'll assume it's Power is the standard 12 and its Intensity is around a 14 or so. Enough to mess up a normal person but not really effective against a bruiser.

He carries a "stun baton." This is possibly an electric club/stun-gun. If so, it's pretty powerful. The Taser effect is an instant knockdown if it hits most people (treat as Daze -2 for a Minor Effect and Incapacitate for a Major one). combine with a 4 AP club.

I can do the math--but it's almost midnight. Estimate around 8 AP with an Intensity of maybe 20.

Total: 3 for the (weak) pepper spray. 8 for the stun baton: total 10.

Total: 16 AP

Conclusion: Phoenix Jones, decked out with gear, is a pretty effective street-level super hero. At 55 CP (with the -4 Trait factored in) and 16 in gear he's exactly the kind of character a somewhat experienced bad-ass low-level crime fighter would be like. In a fight he's going to be pretty effective--if he gets to pepper spray you and then baton you, he could possibly take on two or three guys at once. He's also well armored and tough: he can take abuse.