Character Creation: Houses of the Blooded

A two-day character, kinda.

The Game: Houses of the Blooded
The publisher: John Wick Presents
Degree of familiarity: Not much. I have a pdf copy, courtesy of John Wick, and I've skimmed through much it. I followed the development of the game on John's LJ, and I've read the chargen stuff more carefully.
Books required: Just the Houses of the Blooded book. 

NOTE: I had to leave to go to the movies when I was spending the last of my bonus points, and since it was a drive-in double feature, I didn't get home until late. As such, I'm still considering this my character post for Wednesday, meaning I'll try and do another one later today (Thursday).

Revenge, anyway.

You know, reading more of this game, if I could choose any five people I've gamed with over the 20-some years I've been roleplaying, I could make a hell of a group for it. Give me people like Jacob, Chris Horvath (when he can make time to play), Carrie...hell, I think my brother would really get into this.

That's not to say that the folks I'm gaming with now wouldn't get into it, but man, I can really see some of my old gamers digging Houses of the Blooded. It's a rich game, I think, and I'd really like to play.

With that in mind, let's make a ven.

OK, in between typing that sentence and starting this one, an hour and a half passed. I started reading the book, and got sucked in. That's a good thing. I like the writing style, and I like the emphases of this game. I definitely like that wankers get called out for what they are. Good form.

But I don't have all night, so let's kick this pig.

First step: Roll for parents' Houses. The book tells me that you don't get to choose your family, so we roll for it. I'm inclined to agree with that, and I like a little random in my chargen, so long as it doesn't fuck me in the long run (because I like to play awesome characters that win, but that's an essay for another time). Using my handy die-roller, I wind up with this:

Father's House: Fox
Mother's House: Fox (no shit)

Now, I choose which parent is dominant. Suppressing a giggle as I imagine their courtship and marriage (two Foxes?), I get a 2 for Dad and 5 for Mom - Mom's the dominant. Heh.

I now choose one of my parent's houses as my own. Gee, tough choice. My character is a one of the Blooded of the Fox.

Now, siblings. I roll one die: 5, meaning I was fifth born. I roll another die (4) and subtract one (3). This means that of the original five siblings, there are three still alive. I roll two dice and get 3 and 6, meaning I've got a brother and a sister remaining alive.

A roll on the standing table means my folks' rank is Baron. I consider shifting that using my three re-rolls, but eh. I'll let the chips fall where they may for now.

The next step is name, so I skip ahead a bit to the list of ven names. I find "Drial", which means "I am your friend," to be damned appealing. I like the idea of a character who has to say that, because otherwise his friends might not know. My family name is Yvarai, and my secret name isn't going to get set down here, I'll tell you that.

Next, age. The default is Spring, making me between 10 and 19. I'll say Drial is 18. That's young enough to be as unpredictable and beautiful as I want him to be.

Now, spouse and children. Ven marry young, so let's see if I've got a spouse. I roll: 4. I decide to use one of my three points to bump that to 5, meaning I'm still single. Call me crazy, but I don't see that as a wrinkle I want for my character. Not yet, anyway.

Title: Drial's a Baron, like all starting characters.

Virtues: Finally, some numbers. :)

Right, there are six Virtues, and I get to pick one that I just don't have. That's my weakness. The Virtues are: Strength, Cunning, Courage, Beauty, Wisdom and Prowess.

Thinking about Drial and how I'm picturing him, I choose Strength as my weakness. When Drial was a child, he and his siblings came down with a fever. It killed his older sister and brother and nearly killed him (the youngest), too, but he managed to pull through. He suspect that because he was the baby, he might have gotten the lion's share of the attention and medicine from his parents, while his oldest brother and sister never got too sick. He never shed the malady entirely, and it shows in his frail body.

For the other Virtues, I get one at 4, two at 3, and two at 2. I get to add a free Rank to Beauty, since that's my House Virtue. I think Drial's strong point is going to be Prowess - he might not be strong, but he can wield a blade like a virtuoso and he never lets anyone get away with calling him "weak." I put my 4 there.

For my Rank 3's, I put one in Wisdom (I love the idea of helping to define the world), and one into Beauty (Drial is a lovely young man, slender, willowy and fragile-looking). I get a free point in Beauty, so it goes up to 4. The other two, Courage and Cunning, get Rank 2.

Phase: Spring. That's easy. That means I get two Aspects and one Contact.

Aspects: Ooh, fun part. Here's where we really get to define Drial. I want one of Drial's Aspects to relate to his frail-seeming body. For his first Aspect, I choose "Stronger than you thought." Note, that doesn't say "stronger than he looks." Drial's every bit as weak as he appears. But people do tend to assume that he's helpless, and he's anything but.

At this point, I choose an invoke, a tag, and a compel. Normally I'd just tell you the invoke, but Drial's your friend, and your friends trust you.

Isn't that nice?

I can invoke this Aspect when I'm fighting someone who underestimates me (I gain three bonus dice in that situation). My tag - which is an advantage the folks can use against me in contested rolls - is that I don't back down from fights (Drial's tired of being called weak and sickly), even when it's in my best interests. And the compel, which can be used to force Drial to act in a particular way, is that Drial not only despises being called weak, he wants everyone to know how not-weak he is. That means he can be compelled to take on challenges, tasks, quests, duels, etc., if it'll improve people's opinions of him.

OK, one more Aspect. Drial knows a bit about death. His parents take he and his surviving siblings to visit his non-surviving siblings' graves frequently, and Drial has overheard, more than once, that it's strange that he survived when his older and stronger brother and sister died. As his second Aspect, I choose "Graveside Poet" - Drial composes songs and poetry on the subject of unfair and untimely death, usually involving disease (or "death from a broken heart") rather than swordplay.

For the invoke, he can get 3 extra dice when writing death-related poetry or songs. The tag, though, is that he feels guilty about surviving, and his enemies can exploit that weakness by reminding him of that guilt. Finally, Drial can be compelled to withdraw and write poetry - the Dark Muse takes him sometimes.

My Contact requires another player, so I'll skip it, since it's just me.

Devotions: I decide to spread my three Devotion points out a bit. I'll take one in Ashalim Avendi, one in Falvren Dyr, and one in Talia Yvarai. I'll look up what that gets me later; right now, I just like the sound of their descriptions.

Domain: All ven get a Province, made up of ten Regions. But your Province isn't necessarily under your control.

I get five points to build Drial's Province. Let's go.

My Province already has a Castle and a Village. Drial's castle is set in the mountains, and it's hard to get to. It's always cold there, even though Drial keeps the fires burning. It never seems to get lighter inside, even though Drial keeps the torches bright. He wants the castle to be welcoming. He wants friends, courtiers, and supporters. But he just can't shake the gloom from the place or banish the cold wails from outside the walls. Someone called his castle "Maiden's Pining" a long time ago, and the name stuck.

His Village, though, is cheerier. It's in the foothills below the castle, and Drial rides through the town frequently, daring the villagers to call him "weak." The village is called "Adrialash" (loosely, "Drial's Home"). Drial is generous to his vassals. He is their friend.

I get five points to buy Regions. I've already established that there are Mountains, so that's one point. I'll say that these Mountains produce Stone.

To the south, more Mountains, but instead of hewing stone, Drial's vassals mine metals. Between the mountain ranges forming a crown around Drial's Province, we have two Forests (one produces Lumber, the other Food) and Plains (producing grapes for Wine).

That's Drial's Domain. Now I get five points to spend on Vassals.

I'll put one point into Staff; Drial likes his house to be lively. I'll put two into Spy Network, innocuously referred to as the Raven Song. Drial wants everyone to know that he's their friend. If they don't know that, obviously something's wrong. Raven Song tells him when people don't know it. One point into Apothecary - secretly, Drial's afraid that the malady will return to his lands. And the last point goes into Artisan. The Castle needs to look...friendly...after all.

Bonus points: I get five bonus points to play with. First off, I spend two of them to bump my Apothecary rating to 3. I want him to make sure I don't get sick, dammit.

I look over the Sorcery chapter, but as much as I love magic in RPGs, nothing jumps out at me as appropriate for Drial, so I'll skip that. The Blessings, though, intrigue me. I can only have a total of 5, ever, and I've got three already. The Narrator decides what Blessings I get when I visit a shrine (that could be stated a little more clearly, John). I think I'll use a bonus point to increase my Devotion to Talia Yvarai to rank 2.

I'd kind of like to buy an Artifact, but the rules on buying them bonus points aren't terribly clear - do I get Values, or just bonus dice, or what? I decide, instead, to spend my last two points on my Province. I improve my Mountains near the Castle (the ones that produce stone) to 2, and improve my Plains to 2. I eventually want Drial's lands to be famous for the drinks and medicines they provide.

And that's about it, really. Character creation's not a quick process, but it doesn't need to be. I like the set-up, and it'd be nice to play. The sheet below, BTW, is just the first one; I don't feel like scanning in the second as it's just the list of lands and ranks.

Oh, and something occurred to me while creating Drial.

If my friends and I had Houses of the Blooded in the early 90s, I don't know if we'd have played Vampire.