Character Creaton: Desolation

I didn't do a character yesterday, and I almost didn't get to it today. But dammit, let's see if I can get a Desolation character done before going off to the movies. If I can't, I'll finish it after.

The Game: Desolation
The publisher: Greymalkin Designs
Degree of familiarity: Not a lot. I played it last night, and I've talked shop with Stephen about it. It's a fantasy game that I like, and that's saying something.
Books required: Just the Desolation book. 

 
Like I said, fantasy isn't usually my thing. But, I do like this one. It's post-apocalyptic. In brief, some time ago, magic exploded, and the world suffered. Now, it's all you can do to eke out a living.

The game we played last night was a little bit more tongue-in-cheek than that description would indicate, and so for my character, I want someone with some drama behind him. Skimming through the book, I note that there was a country called Kar'Danan, the Circle of Dust, in which necromancy was kinda the way things got done. When the Night of Fire hit, the citizens were free of their despotic necromantic overlords, but now they had to worry about the horrible state of the world.

My character, I think, was a necromancer. He was one of the folks who'd gleefully animate the bodies of the dead to serve him, and any complaints about the sanctity of life were just jokes to him. And then the Night of Fire hit, and he watched everything - everything - erupt into fire and death. He barely survived that night, as burning undead clutched at him and tore at his flesh. But after the worst of it passed, he realized that life was precious, and viewing the living as just "zombies to be" was horrible and demented.

He still practices necromancy (to the extent that he can, since magic might make his head explode now - that's another thing about the game, you can use magic and it's quite freeform, but if you fuck up it can kill you, both of which I like), but he's renounced his heritage as a Kar'Daner. As far as he's concerned, there's no need for nations anymore, because we should be treating each other with a degree of reverence. The dead still make fine servants, yes, but the living must be cherished. Life is short.

OK, I've basically covered the first few questions. My archetype is Spellcaster (specifically Necromancer), I'm human. My motive is Redemption, and history and personality are covered above.. So we'll start at step four:

Choose Primary Attributes: There are 6 of these, and I get 15 points to spread around. A rating of 2 is average, while 5 is excellent. Necromancy relies on Intelligence, so I'll be sure to buy that up. I see this guy as being physical average, maybe a little below due to injuries during the Night of Fire, so let's see how this shakes out...

Body 2
Dexterity 1
Strength 2
Charisma 3
Intelligence 4
Willpower 3

Just not as spry as he was before the burning zombies.

Calculate Secondary Attributes is next. My size is 0, because I'm human. My Move is 3. Perception is 7. Initiative is 5. Defense is 3 (yuck). Stun is 2. Health is 5.

Skills are up! I get 15 points, again, to buy them. A rating of 4-5 is average here. I know I want some points in Magic, which requires a Talent, but that's next step. OK, let's see...

Con 3
Craft (Apothecary) 2
Empathy 1
Magic (Necromancy) 4
Medicine 2
Melee 1
Scavenge 2

Choose Talent and Flaws. I only get one Talent, and since I want to be a Spellcaster, that kinda makes it easy: Magical Aptitude. I get Style points for playing Flaws, which is fun. I can take more than one, but let's see what's appropriate.

I'll take two Flaws. First, Disfigured. My character was chewed to bits by zombies, and it shows - his face has teeth marks melted into it. It's unpleasant to look at, and it's hard to explain because the wounds are so strange looking.

Second, Criminal. My character was a real bastard back before the Night of Fire, and there are people around who remember him. If the stories of "the Impatient Necromancer" (couldn't wait for people to die so he could raise them) and the stories of "the Bitten Man" (the wanderer with a face full of teeth marks) ever sync up, he's in real trouble.

Starting Experience Points. I get 15. If I want another Talent, that burns all of them, which is kind of suck, but actually as I look at them, there are lots that look cool but none that I need. Let's bump up Skills and stuff instead.

OK, buying up my Primary Attributes is new levels x 5. I think I'll burn 10 points to buy up my Dexterity to 2, just so I'm not totally slow. That leaves me 5. Buying Skills is new levels x 3, which means I'm limited to buying a new Skill at 1. But for that, I might as well buy a Specialization for an existing Skill. I'll buy a Specialization in my Scavenge Skill - Battlefields. Years of being a stormcrow taught him how to pick corpses.

I have two XP left, but they do me no good, so they'll just carry forward into play. My GM would have to assign me Style Points, and since I don't have a GM, I'll just skip that bit.

Let's see: I need a name. I hate fantasy naming; the names always sound silly. I decide that my character is usually known as "the Bitten Man." If people have to address him directly, they call him Olm - it's just a generic term in Ascondean for "old man." (For the record, he's not really that old, but the face makes it hard to tell.)