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Thursday, 13 August 2015

Jenny Everywhere

By AgentCoop
August 13th is Jenny Everywhere Day.

Who?

To quote the ever-reliable Wikipedia:

Jenny Everywhere aka "The Shifter" is an open-source, public domain character, originally created by Canadian comic book artist Steven Wintle.

Jenny Everywhere was specifically created when her creators could not find any other truly open source, public domain characters. She is described both as existing in every reality and being able to shift between realities. This gives the character the ability to be inserted into the continuity of any existing or new work, such as various comics or webcomics. The concept may be extended to other media as well.


She is described thus:

She has short, dark hair. She usually wears aviation goggles on top of her head and a scarf around her neck. Otherwise, she dresses in comfortable clothes. She is average size and has a good body image. She has loads of confidence and charisma. She appears to be Asian or Native American. She has a ready smile.

By Steven Wintle
The Original
She's been around since 2002, and has a small, but determined, web-presence. Whilst her lack of specific context is a strength, allowing her to appear in any media and setting, it is also a weakness, as there is not enough core material to really latch onto and give her a strong presence.

Still, I thought that for Jenny Everywhere Day 2015 I'd give her a set of Supercrew statistics, suitable for her inclusion in a world of superheroes.

On the Public Domain Super Heroes Wikia her abilities are described as follows:

Jenny Everywhere exists in all dimensions at once. She has the accumulated wisdom of all her other selves, and she can potentially shape or change dimensional properties. Since she exists everywhere at the same time, she may find herself in any situation, be it riding dinosaurs in the Wild West or arm wrestling Richard Nixon on the moon. For the Shifter, any adventure is possible.

Jenny prefers to get out of dangerous situations without the use of her (undefined) powers. She thrives on the thrill and always plays fair, even if it brings her close to death. The goggles and scarf were her mother's, who was a famous pilot before she disappeared.

So:

Jenny Everywhere aka 'The Shifter

1 - Collective Wisdom
2 - Quick-Witted Adventurer
3 - Shifting

Reroll (Quick-Witted Adventurer) - Outwit
Change Roll to '5' (Wisdom) - Infinite experience
Effect 2 (Quick-Witted Adventurer) - Always finds a way

Despite this Jenny Everywhere being designed for a superhero setting, I have still erred on the side of her being a talented 'normal' - her powers are secondary to her skills and experience. The Wisdom ability represents the fact that she is in touch, mostly subconsciously, with all other instances of Jenny Everywhere in time and space. Thus she can draw on a near infinite reserve of knowledge and experience. Her main ability - Quick-Witted Adventurer - can be run in any way that's suitable for  your setting. She can solve problems and defeat foes with fast-talking, quick-shooting or simple fisticuffs at whatever level of skill and ability you think suits her best. Finally her Shifting ability is the one she uses least and, you'll notice, has no tricks. If you want to run her as a full-on superhero then giver her teleportation, dimensional-shifting or even time-travel abilities. Otherwise restrict her to short-duration. limited effect actions relating to her strange relationship with time and space. That's the beauty of Supercrew; how you define a power is purely for the narrative, and has no mechanical effect on the game. Just define Jenny's capabilities in your game and world and keep them consistent, and away you go.

She has an arch-enemy: Jenny Nowhere. I'll leave you to look her up.

Here's a few more interpretations of Jenny from this thread.

By Valente

By ESCgoat

By Paul Sizer

The creators of the character insist that any work involving her must include the following text:

"The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition: This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, that others might use this property as they wish. All rights reversed."
By mthemordant

1 comment:

  1. Interesting idea, although the creator can't have been aware of Jerry Cornelius, who Michael Moorcock created in the 1960s and encouraged other writers and artists to use in their own works:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Cornelius

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