Dagger
(Tandy Bowen) (Profile #1)
Context
Dagger (Tandy Bowen) is a Marvel Comics character who appeared in 1982, along with her partner Cloak. They had their first series in 1983. Though they never were a big hit, the pair has doggedly stuck around and pops up every few month in one book or the other. The character concepts may be simple, but that also makes them robust.
This is a very old set of notes, without structured research to back it. The main purpose was to experiment with the Pet approach in DC Heroes RPG. We wanted to see how far we could go in making her light daggers independent, smart projectiles and whether that made technical sense.
Some minor tinkering was done to make it look more like a character profile, but it won’t be a writeups.org-grade character profile until we fully rework it.
These here notes are continued in our second character profile for Dagger.
Advertisement
Background
- Real Name: Tandy Bowen.
- Marital Status: Single.
- Known Relatives: Melissa Bowen (mother), unnamed father, Phillip Carlisle (step-father), father Michael Bowen (uncle, deceased).
- Group Affiliation: Partner of Cloak ; part of the group led by Spider-Man during Maximum Carnage.
- Base Of Operations: Holy Ghost Church, 42nd St., NYC.
- Height: 5’5” Weight: 115lbs.
- Eyes: Blue-grey. Hair: Blonde
Powers and Abilities
Tandy can form shimmering, flying knife-like projectiles from her own inner light. These projectiles can induce paralysis, death or, sometimes, a near-religious ecstasy.
Note that, as pets, the light knives can act independently of her. Dagger can let her daggers fly at up to four distinct targets, and the daggers may track their targets if needed, turning corners and the like. Meanwhile she takes actions such as Dodging.
Before becoming superpowered, Tandy trained to be a professional dancer. She’s not yet a very good streetfighter, however.
Tandy’s other powers are not used very often. In DC Heroes RPG terms the Flash represents her “nova of light”, while the Magic Blast represents the even more rarely used “sword of light”.
History
See Dagger (later version) writeup.
Description
When she wields her light, angelic metaphor are often present in the captions. Thus these should be present in the GM’s description.
Personality
At that point of her career, Dagger is certainly not as hard-edged as she will later be. In fact she was somewhat flighty, a bit immature and had enough uncertainty about what her life should be that she periodically wanted to go back to a normal life, be a normal human and forget the whole thing.
Cloak was the driving force of the duo, and her main role was to counterbalance him with her inner light.
DC Universe History
See Dagger (later version) writeup.
Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Dagger (early version)
| Dex: 06 | Str: 02 | Bod: 05 | Motivation: Upholding Good |
| Int: 05 | Wil: 05 | Min: 03 | Occupation: Vigilante |
| Inf: 04 | Aur: 03 | Spi: 04 | Resources {or Wealth}: 003 |
| Init: 015 | HP: 040 |
Powers:
Flash: 07, Magic blast: 08
Bonuses and Limitations:
- Both Flash and Magic blast have a Minor Power Burnout.
- Magic blast has No Range (-1).
Skills:
Acrobatics*: 06, Animal handling*: 04, Artist (Dance)*: 06, Medicine (First aid, medical treatment, surgery): 08, Thief (Stealth): 05, Weaponry (Thrown)*: 06
Bonuses and Limitations:
Medicine is a Powered Skill (-5 BC) with a Serious Power Burnout (-2).
Advantages:
Area Knowledge (New York City), Misc.: Dagger can feed Cloak’s hunger without any ill effects (5 pts).
Connections:
Spider-Man (Low), Street (Low).
Drawbacks:
Nothing special.
Pets:
Light daggers (x4) (see below).
Light daggers
[DEX 10, Detect (Cloak): 20, Flash: 10, Flight: 07, Magic blast: 06, Neutralize: 08, Teleportation: 10, Advantage : the light daggers are, at rest, contained within Dagger’s life force (5 pts) which also means they can invisibly hit a target that Dagger is touching (5pts), Bonuses & Limitations:
- Magic blast has No Range.
- Magic blast can only affect those with a Villainous motivation or that are otherwise corrupted (-1).
- Neutralize only works vs. drugs and other foreign substances in the body (-3) and has No Range (-1).
- Teleportation only to come back to Dagger (-4).
- Light daggers cannot be used if Dagger use her Magic blast during this Phase.
- Flash can be Combined with Magic blast, although the APs of Flash cannot be higher than the RAPs gained by Magic Blast prior to LDD. Flash can only be used when Combined with Magic blast.
- Flash can be its own AV if desired (+0 or +1 depending on house rules) and cannot be resisted by Shade since it’s a magical shock and not physical glare.
- In exceptional cases the impact of the daggers can also result in a moral epiphany and redemption, though this is more a Subplot than a formal game effect.
Source of Character: Spider-Man and Cloak and Dagger comics (Marvel Universe).
Helper(s): Sean MacDonald.